𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁

ℂ𝕙𝕚𝕥 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕥 || 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 25

"What's up with Clockwork?"

A sharp inhale almost caused your nose to bleed. One thing you hated, but sometimes loved, was Masky's clever mind. This sucker was sharp and knew what was going on around him. The real question was: how much did he know?

"I'm not too sure, she seemed mad about something," You scoffed, dusting off some moss from the log. Masky only clicked his tongue, letting the smack echo off the branches.

"Like she would just take out her anger on you," He uttered, remembering how close you two were. His eyes followed your movements as you sat down, taking your silence as a gift to keep talking.
"It seems like you've been secretive the past few days," he started placing down his belongings, yet peered back ever-so-often to get a glance at your expression. He knew there was something deeper, but Toby was always a touchy subject. The man who tried to kill you was now alarmingly obsessed with you, it didn't take a genius to notice the change in atmosphere.

"We haven't had time to talk, what do you mean?"

"Well, we're talking now," he started, tilting his head towards you and leaning in closer.
"So what did she mean by 'smacking lips'?" you could hear the curiosity in his voice, one a fox would have if it could speak. A cunny curiosity.

"You're a sharp one, Masky," you nodded, staring back at him with confident eyes. You knew there was a pleasure Masky took from this, either to expose you or to aid you. It was a choice Masky would have to make.

"Ignorance is not bliss,"

"I wish it was,"

"Tell me, it's not like the boss doesn't already know," he bathed in your silence, shuffling to grab a cigarette from his packet.
"Toby's an odd one, but odd doesn't even begin to describe his recent behaviour," he uttered, fishing out a pack of matches from his other pocket.
"I knew something was up, I just didn't think it was with you," the blaring of the flame suddenly entered your ears, making you shake your head. Focus, you couldn't mess up your words.

"Yeah... Well, Toby seems to be crazier than usual. It's almost like he's getting lost in his... fantasies," you agreed, watching as the flame was brought to Maksy's cancer stick.
"He... He did something unforgivable to Clocky," you shook your head, glancing around into the darkness that surrounded you. There was a moment you had forgotten about the mission, placing it on the backburner once the conversation ate you.

"Kissing you?"

His words caused you to snap your head back towards him, your eyes already had the truth written within them. He already knew so much, throwing in a lie would be useless and deem you as a deceiver to your own friend. If only there was a way out of this hole, crawling out seemed next to impossible.

"It was an accident,"

"No, it wasn't. I know it wasn't," He glanced around, finding this conversation as the only way the night would pass any faster. Even then, it piqued his interest. Toby showed emotion, yet feelings as complicated and delicate as these never even made it to his lips. Not even for Clockwork.
"After you fell out that window Toby was different, scared, maybe?"

"Of?" you tilted your head slightly, wanting more information to be spilled. You were in the middle of all of this, yet you had no idea what was going on.

"Losing you,"

He took a drag of his cigarette, blowing out smoke the next second. None of this made sense, nothing about this settled in your stomach properly, almost causing you to throw up. Toby worried about you? The thought made you sick yet your heart danced joyously.

"Or, he was scared that he didn't get to kill you. Either way, his staying in the infirmary with you was already a red flag,"

Your lip twitched lightly, almost smiling at the thought; yet it didn't show on your features. That sounded more like your Toby, staying in the infirmary just to know he still had a chance of killing you. The thought of killing him was so familiar that you wanted to take a chance at it.

"I find it hard to believe that he saved me," you spat, playing the same game you always did. Yet Toby always did as well.

"Indeed,"

This game being played was dangerous, one that could lead to many outcomes. There was a point in time where Toby wanted you dead, nothing more than a corpse he could dissect. But now, that was an alternate timeline that wasn't going to be true. His emotions were a mystery, but so we're yours.

"You're lucky it's quiet, last night Hoodie and I had a blood bath," he uttered, leaning back onto his hands as he stared up into the stars.

"Lucky me," you laughed, almost craving for a blood bath. It had been a while since you had killed someone and the last time you did it almost killed you.

"By the way, if you ever want to play make believe, just know I hate Toby as much as you do," you could hear the smirk in his voice, he sounded sadistic while he said it.

You were confused for a moment, only to realize that Masky must have known about Toby's feelings all this time.

Now that you thought back to it, he was always provoking Toby.

He was playing a game, just as EJ was, all this time.

Masky had just realized it sooner.
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