𝐀𝐦𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐚 (Ticci Toby x FEM reader)

ᥲᥣᥣ 𝗍һᥲ𝗍 ᥲᥒძ ᥲ sᥣіᥴᥱ ᥆𝖿 ᑲᥲᥴ᥆ᥒ

Y/N stared at the mark on Toby's neck. It was an "O" with an "X" through it. It almost seemed tattooed on his neck. Some of Toby's overgrown hair hid the mark from Y/N view. She looked away.

The waitress, Kathie, walked over, and they both told her their orders. Toby gathered their menus and handed them to the kind old lady. Y/N cupped her chin in her right hand with her elbow on the table.

Her eyes traveled down to her hand, where Brad's engagement ring was missing. There was an odd emptiness that lingered there, but also a sense of freedom. She knew Brad wasn't a great guy and that he was a bit of an abusive alcoholic, but she never really knew why she felt so compelled to stay.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Toby clearing his throat.

"So, how have you been?" Toby said with a more-than-awkward smile. Y/N rolled her eyes at his sad attempt to start a conversation.

"Fine. What about you?" Y/N asked in return, crossing her arms on the table.

"I-I've been good." Toby nodded, his eyes slowly trailing away from Y/N's. Y/N pondered something before tilting her head.

"How are you still alive?" Y/N questioned, sounding carelessly blunt. Toby took on an expression of shock, and he scratched the back of his head.

"W-What do you mean?" Toby looked back at her.

"What I mean is, I thought you died a long time ago. You went missing, and then you just pop back into my life." Y/N leaned back against her seat.

Toby shrugged, thinking about how to word his response. "I've just been by myself at that cabin in the woods," Toby said, as if it were the most normal thing to do. "It's gotten pretty repetitive."

"All you did was sit around at that cabin for the last ten years? What about the night you disappeared? Where were you then? Did you run off or were you taken?" Y/N rapid fired questions at Toby, just to get an "uhh..." in response.

Thank goodness the plates of food came out right before he could respond. Toby gleefully took the plate; though it was piping hot, he couldn't feel a thing.

"Be careful; the plates are hot," Kathie said as she set down their drinks. There was the missed aroma of bacon and maple syrup that made Y/N's stomach growl with an anticipating hunger.

"Thank you," Y/N murmured, getting her fork. She was rather surprised at how quickly the food came out. It seemed like they only talked for five minutes. This town is weirder than she thought.

Detective Jardine looked at the cork board, which had multiple pictures and newspaper articles all regarding the house fires in Denver. With crossed arms, he took a few steps back.

He had no hard evidence that would prove Tobias guilty of these "disappearances,"  but he felt like he was close. Officer McKenney walked and stood next to Jardine as he scanned the board.

"You're really all out of whack over these cases, huh?" She smirked, her voice filled with authority but also a tinge of playfulness.

"If I can find evidence for one case, I can solve all of them." Jardine stated that he looked at the addresses of all the houses that were pinned up before an idea struck him. "Hold on"

McKenny rolled her eyes as Detective Jardine scurried over to his laptop and loaded up a map. He printed out a small map of the region of house fires and pulled out a red marker. Uncapping it with his teeth, he started to scribble a dot over every house that'd been burned down.

Officer McKenney looked over Jardine's shoulder at the paper with red dots. His eyes darted from the addresses and back to the map as he quickly marked each one. McKenney was sure that this could be driving him mad.

Jardine connected the dots on the page. It was rough, but there was a connection between each and every one of the houses. The dots connected into a symbol that looked like an "O" with an "X" crossed through the center. Every dot was connected, except for one.

"I'll be damned," McKenney muttered as she looked at the paper. She pointed to the outlying dot. "What about this one?"

"That was the most recent fire," Detective Jardine said as he went to pin up the map. "I have a feeling that the fire was a mistake. No one would take this much time to make such a perfect symbol just to throw it off just by one."

McKenney raised her eyebrows with a skeptical look. Jardine dismissed her look.

"There's more going on here than a pattern of house fires," Jardine said, pointing to the board with his marker.
"I have a feeling that there is more to this than we think it is."

Toby crunched down on the bacon without any hesitation.

"I forgot how good this place is," Toby said in a dreamy voice as he quickly finished a piece of bacon. Y/N started to eat her waffles, and they were delicious, of course, but she eyed Toby's plate, which had three more pieces of bacon.

"Yoink," she smirked, snatching a piece of bacon with her fork. She took a greedy bite of the scrumptious bacon. Toby looked at her as he was snapped out of his food-tilled trance.

"Hey! You have your own food," he pouted, trying to make himself sound hurt by her actions.

"You can have a bite of mine," she smiled, gesturing to her waffles that were topped with fruit and whipped cream. Toby's lips curled in disgust at the waffles, but he did stab his fork into one of the strawberries.

"I don't think that's a very fair trade, but fine," he grumbled, chewing the bittersweet strawberry. "If you were someone else, I would have thrown hands," he said, the corners of his lips curling into a small smirk.

"I'm sure you would have," Y/N sighed, taking another bite of her meal. With a little more small talk and finishing up their food, they were done. A small smile lingered on her face as she stacked her trash and dishes into a convenient stack. Toby felt his pockets and pulled out his wallet, then twenty dollars to pay for the meal.

Kathie came by and dropped off the bill, picking up the plates.

"You can just leave the money with the check; I'll come back for it in a few minutes," she said in a sweet manner as she walked back to the kitchen to drop off the dishes.

Toby thanked her and slipped the money into the checkbook. Toby fished in his wallet again; this time he pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. He put it under the check so no one could steal it. Y/N looked at Toby in surprise at the amount of money.

"You tipped a hundred dollars?" Y/n said, his eyes filled with surprise. Toby shrugged it off casually.

"Yeah, I rarely come here anymore, and she's the only waitress here." Toby scooted out of the booth, and Y/N did the same. The gesture Toby showed towards a waitress was sweet but very expensive. How the hell does he have that kind of money anyway?

They made their way back to the car, and Y/N looked at Toby, studying him. Toby caught on to Y/N's stare, and he raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What?" He asked, confused as to why she would be looking at him so intently.

"Where do you work?" Y/N questioned. Toby blanked again.

"I work from home, but I go out to do my job. I'm kind of self-employed, but at the same time, I'm not. I don't know how to explain it." Toby shook the idea off, looking toward the pavement under their feet as they walked to the car.

"Then try"