First Encounter - Ticci-Toby

You hummed softly to yourself as you flipped another pancake onto the steadily growing pile on the plate sitting on the counter beside you. You were in a really good mood today, so you decided to make pancakes, because who doesn't love pancakes? As usual, you'd ended up making too much batter and now you were going to end up with too many pancakes for you to be able to eat yourself, but that didn't bring your mood down in the slightest!

You see, whenever you made too many pancakes and couldn't eat anymore, the extras would always disappear from the counter where you'd left them to go refill your glass of milk, so someone must be eating them. At first, you'd been surprised and upset that someone was coming into your house and taking your food, but you'd gotten used to it, even playing a little game with the mysterious stranger (you had a guess on his identity, but you wanted to be sure). You'd always hear odd noises before the pancakes disappeared, little pops and tics, and you'd started tracking the sounds and trying to catch him in the act, but he was always gone by the time you got there, no matter how quickly you moved.

This time, however, you actually heard the familiar sounds before even going out to eat your share of the pancakes. Turning off the stove (you'd finished cooking, anyway), you picked up the plate and walked around the corner into the dining room. There, you found your suspicions confirmed, and the source of the noise and disappearances of food. Sitting at your table was a thin boy with messy brown hair, wearing yellow/orange goggles over his eyes, mouth guard pulled down to rest around his neck. His pale, grey-ish skin was tinged slightly pink in the cheeks, apparently embarrassed as he ticked and twitched in the seat, squirming under your [colour] gaze.

"So," You started, smiling and sitting down across from him as you set the plate of pancakes in the middle of the table, taking a few for yourself and putting them on another, smaller plate you'd set out earlier. "You finally decided to actually sit and eat with me while the food's still hot, eh?" You let out a soft laugh and waited for some kind of response as you began drowning your pancakes in maple syrup. Receiving none, you looked up to be met with the sight of the boy across from you frowning and scrunching his face a little in confusion, tics becoming more violent as he tried to figure out whether or not you were being sincere.

You shook your head, smiling fondly as you stood up so you could reach over and get some of the pancakes onto his plate as well, sitting back down as you slid the bottle of syrup across the table to him. "Or do you really just like them cold?" You quipped lightly as you brought the first bite up to your mouth, humming a little in satisfaction as the sweet flavour hit your tongue.

Without answering your question, Toby slowly reached a twitching hand for the syrup, watching you cautiously the whole time as he poured it over his own breakfast treats. You didn't let it bother you, happily munching on your food and occasionally glancing up at him and offering a friendly smile which he never returned.

The two of you ate in relative silence for a while until the pancakes had all been eaten, the last of which by Toby. You'd been a total creeper and watched him as he finished off the last one. He became rather nervous and twitched more violently and more often under your stare. Finally, you just blurted out, "You can't possibly be scared of me, can you? I mean, you're the one with the f***ing hatchets here, right?"

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With a completely blank expression, and as Toby watched you with a similar look adorning his features, you silently moved your plate to the side and let your head fall to the table with a hard thump. What in the world had possessed you to say that?

"Smooth, [Name]..." You mumbled into the polished wood. "No wonder you can't make any friends, every time you open your mouth, your foot goes right in and f***s sh** up..."

You were so busy mumbling to yourself, you barely noticed when the ticking sounds faded away and you were left alone in your dining room. You sighed as you forced your head to separate from its shameful little patch of the table and started to gather the dishes when you noticed something was off. You stared blankly at the little piece of paper, just sitting there, all innocent-like. You swallowed thickly as you put the plate back down on the table and picked the paper up instead, staring for a long moment at the messy writing.



You smiled brightly as you read through it three more times. You could hardly wait!