Touch; Ticci Toby X Reader

C. 15

He turns to her. "I'm going to go down first so I can catch you at the bottom if I need to, alright?"

She breathes out shakily and nods her head.

Toby breaks the glass with the butt of his hatchet and even more ear-splitting alarms are resounding about. She hears footsteps rumbling up the stairs and she knows they will be here any minute.

He throws the rope through the window and quickly hooks it to the window sill to secure it. He shuffles his arms back through his duffle bag, his hatchet back in his belt."I'll be at the bottom, follow after me."With that, he slips out the window and she quickly goes over to join him.

She glances back down the hallway, her heart racing a mile a minute. The sound of police and security guards yelling and running up the stairs gets louder. Clearer and clearer with every second that passes. Dread fills her and her motions become more sloppily in nervousness.

"Y/N, hurry!"Toby calls for her and she quickly swings both her legs out through the window and grabs hold of the rope with both hands and her arms instantly start to burn as she is now hanging on the rope, making her way gradually down.

The rope is burning her bare legs and her hands, rubbing and peeling up her skin. The pain is searing, but she has no choice but to continue downwards. Toby is shouting from below saying to jump, that he promises to catch her. She is ashamed to admit she is scared of the long fall that waits below her.

She can hear police above her so she prepares herself as she looks down, closes her eyes tightly and lets go of the rope.

Y/N feels the nauseating feeling of descending just for a few seconds before she falls into Toby's opened arms.

He catches her almost painstakingly, taking a second to set her on her feet. With no time wasted, he grabs her hand and then starts running across the field to the forest.

Her sides are already cramping halfway there, her throat dry as rapid gasps escape her. She sees the willow tree that was rotting away, sees the window she has always looked out of.

She was outside. After 3 years of isolation, she was free.

A harsh, audible intake of breath. The air hits against her skin and she wants to cry tears of joy. The fresh air is crisp and she was sure she would never get enough of it.

She fills her lungs with the feeling and she wants to clutch handfuls of wind as it weaves through her hair and fingertips.

This is bliss, unlike anything she has ever known.

The sun is high, blinding as it reflects the small patches of snow keeping the earth frozen. The sun rays are hugging her tightly and she wants to stay in this moment forever.

Toby's touch brings her back to reality and she realizes they have stopped running for now. They were in the forest, tall lean shadows holding the white snow from the sky.

"Are you okay?" His eyes surprise her. His mouth guard and goggles were hanging around his neck.

Y/N nods her head, "I haven't been outside in years, it's so nice."She breathes out, her eyes almost close in the moment of her drinking in everything around her. The trees, the skyline, the brown grass covered by frost.

Toby nods in understanding, his brows furrowed back down, "Let's go. It won't take long for them to catch up."

And so they start to run again, letting the sun lead their way.

***

Her lungs are burning with the effort to inhale oxygen, she is wheezing with every attempt to exhale carbon dioxide. She is gasping so desperately Toby pulls them between large trees for a short break. He doesn't even seem to be bothered by the amount of running, barely breaking a sweat at all.

The temperature has dropped and the cold has started to get to her, her hospital like gown wasn't nearly enough to keep her warm so Toby offered his hoodie, which she gladly accepted.

Y/N was sitting down while studying her blistering and scratched up feet, blood smeared all over that didn't belong to her. She didn't realize they were hurting until now, the cold didn't make it any better and since she was barefoot the snow crunched painfully under her feet.

Toby looks down at her feet and starts to say something before they hear shouts in the distance.

Y/N quickly stands up only to be flipped up into Toby's arms and he takes off deeper into the forest, snow crunching under his feet.

She slips her arms around his neck afraid she would be dropped. Toby readjusted her against his body so she is higher, closer to his chest. He carries Y/N like she weighs less than nothing.

Her eyes are shut to take a moment to relax and savor the comfort of him, her face pressed to his chest. The voices of police are fading the longer he runs to the point they are no longer heard.

Only then does he stop running when it is dark outside, the moon was slowly becoming visible along with the stars and even though they are beautiful, she finds herself staring up at Toby instead.

When he stopped running, he had set her down on her feet and they start to walk, Y/N's eyes moving from Toby to the sky. She wishes she could be a star, that way she could always be out of reach from harm's way but still gaze down at all above.

She would be unreachable if she were a star, that thought sounds nice yet even her imagination can't calm her quickly running mind.

Note: You may have noticed, but Toby doesn't have a stutter in this book. (His twitching is mentioned but he doesn't tic when talking) Blame the author for being lazy. Maybe I will eventually come back and edit it lol