{I drew Killing Kate (Kate) and Ticci Toby (Toby) above! ^^ Don't ask me why they look scared lol}

Toby, Kate, and I all sit on Kate's bed in her room, piled under blankets and pillows. Well, more like Kate is curled up under hundreds of blankets, and Toby has probably 40 pillows surrounding him. I sit between them, being squished by both. I'm not complaining, though. It's comfortable.

Kate's room is pretty cute. It has a black, grey, and red theme to it, but is much smaller than Ben's room; maybe half its size. Her bed sits pressed up against the left wall with a TV and gaming console on a television stand against the right wall. At the foot of her bed is a closet, and on the other side of the room is a desk that's littered with game cards and smaller video game consoles. On the wall opposite of the door is a window. Aside from those basics, she has it decorated with littered Dr. Pepper cans and a few stuffed animals. Oh, I should also mention that a machete sits in the corner of her room by the window. Weird.

We already shut the lights off, put the movie in, and started it, so now we're just waiting through the previews for the actual film to start.

"So (y/n), tell me about yourself." Kate says, her voice muffled by the pounds and pounds of blankets on top of her.

"Well, what do you want to know?" I ask.

She pokes her head out from underneath the blankets. "I want to know why Ben didn't kill you, and even more why he made you his proxy." She says bluntly.

I tense up, looking for an answer, but realizing that I don't have one. "I'd like to know that as well." I say, making eye contact with her.

She lets out a short laugh, then continues. "So, tell me about your past instead then."

"Hm," I begin. "Well, I was a single child—"

"Was?" Toby asks.

"Yeah, my parents abandoned me," I say, getting both of their attention. They both stare at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell more. "They left on a so-called 'business trip' and never came back. I was just about to give up hope and let myself die when Ben showed up. He—"

"That sounds just like the beginning of a fan-fiction. I SENSE A ROMANCE BLOSSOMING!" Kate shouts, her face lighting up with excitement. Oh dear. I turn to Toby for some sense of help but he looks just as eager.

"I can see it-it now!" Toby begins, waving his hand in the air as if painting a picture. "Ben and (y/n) feeding e-each other at meals, holding hands, *tic* sn-snuggling on the couch in the living room, tick-tickling each other—!"

"sTAHP!" I yell, giggling at their silliness while hiding my face in my hands to cover up my burning cheeks. These two are a handful, but I like it.

"Ooooh! She's blushing!" Kate teases, poking my shoulder. "Do you like him? I think she does!"

"Me too! Me too!" Toby cheers.

"No! No, no, no, no. I don't like him. I just met him! And he tried to kill me..." I mutter, hugging myself.

"Sooooo~? Ev-ever heard of 'love a-at first sight'?" Toby asks.

I scoff. "I've heard of it, alright. I just don't believe in it. But I do believe in lust at first sight, 'cause that's exactly what it is." I reply with a snicker.

"Oh hush." Toby waves his hand at my face dramatically, dismissing what I just said.

"Ooooookaayyyyyy just finish telling us the story!" Kate whines. "And don't leave out any details! I want to know every single thing about your first meeting with Ben."

I give her a look that says 'seriously?' then let out a sigh."okay, well I was trying to watch a video on my computer and then it started acting up, and then Ben crawled through but I slammed the laptop onto his fingers before he could. I think that upset him, ha-ha," Kate covers her mouth to muffle the giggle that escapes her lips while Toby just laughs openly. "After that, he chased me around a little bit, nearly catching me a couple of times, but then I escaped through my back door and ran into the woods. He caught up to me and pinned me to the ground—"

"Oh my gosh, that's so hot. Did he kiss you?" Kate asks, her eyes glimmering.

I feel my face heat up. "No! I begged to live and he offered for me to become his proxy, so i said yes. Then he took me to this mansion after letting me pack a few things." I huff, crossing my arms.

Kate and Toby look at each other mischievously, letting out a few giggles. I look between the two, searching for some clue as to what's so funny, but I find nothing. "What? Did I say something?" I ask, genuinely curious.

Toby looks back at me, patting my shoulder, which causes me to flinch and tense up since I still am not fully comfortable around them yet. "Has Ben fl-flirted with you or tr-tried to make a move on *tic* you yet?" He asks with excitement and seriousness in his eyes.

Oh, right. I forgot to mention. I learned on our walk to Kate's room that Toby has Tourette's Syndrome and C.I.P.A., which basically means he can't feel pain. He also has PTSD and Schizophrenia, wrapping him up to be a giant stuttering mess, but still a lovable one at that.

"No—" I start, then recall the moment during the walk to the mansion, and then the moment in Ben's bedroom a few minutes ago. "—uh, actually, yeah, he has..." I mutter, embarrassed.

"Oooooh! I ship it!" Kate squeals.

"Me too!" Toby exclaims.

I shake my head. I can't believe these two are the same people that tried to kill me a few minutes ago. "Guys, let's just watch the movie." I whine. They laugh, but agree and stay quiet, letting the movie play.

We sit through the movie, Toby and Kate commenting on different parts and making jokes which all end up with me laughing. They seem to have warmed up to me, so I let myself warm up to them a bit too. At one point I even make a joke, at which they both crack up laughing at and of course make a big deal about. It's silly, but I like it. They're good company.

The movie ends, and it's not until Kate turns the TV off that I notice the yelling outside in the hallway.

"Ben! Get offa me!" A slurred, angry voice exclaims.

"Noooo.... Jeffy, come baaaack~" another slurred voice calls back. Ben?

"Getchurr filthy elf-hands offa my sweatshirt! Go jack off to your frickin' proxy or somethin'..." the first voice slurs. I cringe at his words before walking to the door and opening to see if my suspicions are correct.

I open the door and, surely enough, see Ben stumbling around the hallway grabbing onto the hem of someone else's dirty-white sweatshirt. After further inspection, I realise that the other person is Jeff; the guy with the cut smile.

Ben pulls on the sweatshirt, bringing Jeff closer to him, and what I see next twists my stomach. Ben pulls Jeff's body against his own, then leans forward and nibbles on his neck, wrapping his arms around Jeff's back.

"O-M-G, it's real-life yaoi. This is so hot." Kate says, peeking her head out the door from behind me. How could she think this is good? Why does this whole scene upset me?

"B—" I start to call his name, but am cut off by Jeff grabbing Ben's collar and throwing him off of himself, then launching a punch into Ben's face.

"I said get off me!" He yells, then storms into one of the rooms that I can only assume is his own. Worried, I quickly look back at Ben and see him holding his hand up to where he got punched.

How dare that jerk hit Ben? Maybe Ben deserved a push, but throwing him onto the ground and punching him was uncalled for! Wait a minute... why am I getting so defensive of Ben? Well, it doesn't matter. All that matters right now is if he's okay.

"Ben!" I call out, running down the hall and falling to my knees in front of him. He still covers his eye with one hand, a pained grimace formed onto his face, but his other eye looks up at me. I place my hands on his shoulders to draw his full attention to me.

"(Y/n)..." he mumbles.

I gently pull his hand away from his eye so I can see how bad the damage is, but to my dismay, it's an instant black eye. How horrible. I then notice the strong smell of alcohol on him. Right, he's probably drunk. No, most definitely drunk.

"Are you okay?" I ask, trying to make my voice as soothing as possible.

He just stares at me, then let's his head fall onto my shoulder, making me blush. I feel two pairs of eyes sending burning stares my way, and I don't need to look to know it's Toby and Kate, but I try to ignore it.

"Mrrncrrft." He says, his voice muffled.

"What?" I ask.

He lifts his head. "Minecraft!" He yells.

I remain silent. What the heck is going on? And why did he just yell Minecraft? "You... wanna go play Minecraft?" I guess.

He shakes his head no. "No, no, no, no. I... I want...*hic*..." I tilt my head, listening for an answer. It's almost... cute to see him so vulnerable and drunk. "I want you, (y/n)." He says, his voice coming out soft as cotton. My heart stops, then starts pounding rapidly. I know my face is red: how could it not be after what he just said, drunk or not?

"W-w-w-what?" I stutter, embarrassed.

I hear Toby and Kate whisper-chanting the word kiss over and over, but I ignore it.

"I... want... youuu." He whines.

This is absurd. I just met him today. He can't possible like me, right? "No... don't say that." I say, a hazy feeling washing over me.

Suddenly, he looks up at me with determined eyes, then grabs the sides of my face roughly. What? What's he doing? Why's he doing this? What's going on? He slowly leans down, his eyes drooping lazily as they gaze at my lips, leaning in for what I can only assume is a kiss. At this point, I can hear my heartbeat in my ears from it racing so much, and the feeling of butterflies has completely taken over my body, but I am frozen. I can't pull away from Ben.

He stops half a centimeter away from my lips, then pulls away and looks down, vomiting all over me. Next thing I know, he's fallen over and passed out against my shoulder.

What... in the world... just happened?

My stomach churns at the sight and scent of the puke, but I fight the urge to puke as well. My eyes still remain wide open from the shock, but I turn over and look at Toby and Kate.

"Hey, could you guys help me out real quick?" I squeak. They both instantly nod, then come running over to us.

Toby picks up Ben. "I-I'll get him ba-ack to his room." He says, then walks away, dragging Ben along with him.

"Well, I guess that leaves me to clean you up." Kate says, then starts walking toward her room. I follow her, of course, eager to get out of my newly ruined clothes.

Kate goes to her closet and digs through it a little bit, then pulls out a black nightgown. "This is the best I've got. Are you okay with wearing this?" She asks.

"Oh, I have clothes back in my room. I can just change into mine." I say.

"No. Girl, you smell terrible. I need you to change a-sap." She says, handing me the nightgown.

Well, I guess I have no choice. I ask her to turn around, then I begin to change into the nightgown.

"As soon as you're finished, we'll take you to the bathrooms to clean up. After that I'll show you where the laundry room is and we'll throw your dirty clothes in there. Then off we go to Ben's room, 'kay?" She says.

I nod, then remember she can't see me. "Yeah, that's fine." I say.

I finish pulling on the nightgown, then wad up my shorts and sweater into a ball. "Okay, let's go." I say. She turns around and looks me down, then gives a smile of approval, leading me out the door and to the restrooms.

She lets out a sigh.

"What's wrong?" I ask worriedly.

"Man, that was so disappointing." She sighs.

"What was?" I question curiously.

"That moment with you and Ben! He almost kissed you! But then he had to go and ruin it by puking everywhere... what a loser." She shakes her head and I laugh.

"He's not a loser." I giggle.

"Oh, ho," she begins. "You don't know him yet. All he does is play video games, steal our food, and hibernate in his room. How he's so fit is a mystery to us all." She laughs.

I burst out in giggles before answering her. "Yeah, that's my type of man, right there." I joke, sarcasm lacing my voice.

"Man... still. Gotta love that guy. He's a hecking legend." She says.

"Did... you just say... 'hecking'?" I ask.

She chuckles. "Yeah. Sally and Toby don't like me swearing, so I've made replacement words."

I hum in acknowledgement, though I have no idea who Sally is.

"I guess it's caught on a little bit, 'cause now Toby says it all the time." She shrugs.

"Well I'll just have to start saying it now, too." I smile. She grins back at me, and then stops walking.

"Well, we're here. Let's get you cleaned up."

_.:*'*:._.:*'*:._.:*'*:._

After cleaning the vomit off my legs, Kate leads me back to Ben's room, where we find Toby wiping off Ben's face as the elf boy lays on his bed fast asleep.

"Th-there you guys are. Finally." Toby says with a huff, crossing his arms with an exasperated grin.

"How's Ben?" I ask.

"Fine. He's sound asleep." Toby answers with a shrug.

"Well, now that that's over with, wanna go join the party with me and (y/n)?" Kate says with a smirk.

Wait, what? I never agreed to this! And I'm in a nightgown, which isn't fit for partying. is she really going to make me go party with her?

Toby gives us a silent blank stare, then finally speaks up. "Screw you guys, I'm tired. Peace." Toby says, then trudges out through the door, leaving Kate and me a giggling mess.

"He's adorable, isn't he?" Kate sighs happily.

"Toby? Yeah, I guess so." I reply.

She gives me a wary look, then starts walking to the door. "Okay, but you stick to Ben, okay? I'm not letting you get with anyone else, including Toby," she says with a laugh, though I can tell that it's a threat. I nod, pretending that I didn't notice the threat and keeping the atmosphere friendly. "Alright. Well you should probably get some sleep. I know I'm exhausted."

As if right on cue, a yawn escapes my lips.

"Goodnight, pal. See you tomorrow." She says with a wave.

"Yeah, night." I reply with a smile as she leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

I sigh.

I drag myself into my new bed, pulling the covers up to my chin and almost instantly falling asleep.

(Word count: 2673)