(So this is also more of a filler chapter but I wanted to shed some light on certain un-explored relationships in this book! Next chapter will probably have a slightly darker tone because of certain flashbacks and topics discussed)

Warning I guess?? This chapter contains mildly sexual content but it's not graphic.

"Hey, what can I get y-ay bloody hell......" Dacre stared at plain brown eyes with his own dull ones.

"Afternoon." Carmino's charming smile made Dacre narrow his eyes, knowing he wouldn't be able to fight the urge to try and kiss them if he stared.

"What do you want? Last time I checked there's a no cunt policy in here." Dacre ran a hand through his greasy blonde hair, quirking an irritated brow at the other man.

Carmino remained unfazed by the insult, remembering Dacre had once told him that in Australia they often called each other 'cunt' in a fond manner. This didn't sound too fond, though, Carmino could tell.

"Just havin' some ice-cream......." Carmino absently hummed, looking at the tubes of ice-cream behind the glass with fake interest.

Dacre worked part-time at Western City's local ice-cream shop "Sundaes & Cones" on days that Budget Foods wasn't open. He hated the fucking place, so goddamn cheerful to a plain ridicilous point. He also hated the neon pink and lemon yellow uniform he was forced to wear. Dacre was unfortunately gonna have another shift tomorrow, which was unusual because Budget Foods was open that day. But those little fuckers from The Nightmares bailed on him last minute, saying they had business to take care of on Tuesday night.

He just hoped the squirts weren't getting into the money concert or drug business again. He'd seen the lasting impact of what such jobs did to teens like them.

"Order then." Dacre replied impatiently. He hadn't forgotten about their argument from yesterday yet.

Yesterday seemed like it had happened a decade ago. Like Carmino rejecting Dacre's hand and the two of them yelling at each other happened 10 years ago and they'd just bumped into each other again, still aggravated. In reality however, that had all taken place on the 11th July.

Dacre glanced down at his unlocked phone.

It was the 12th of July, 14:30 PM. Dacre was annoyed, and Carmino looked apologetic.

"That any way to talk to a customer?" Carmino playfully asked.

Stupidly hot bastard..... God, did Dacre hate the fucker.

The blonde cocked his head to the side, an overly wide customer-reserved smile playing at his lips.

"Hiya, sailor! What would you like to order on this fine day?" Dacre chirped cheerfully.

Carmino snorted out a laugh, making the dimples in his cheeks appear. Of course the motherfucker had dimples.......

"Uh.....think I'll go for plain vanilla." Carmino decided with a nod, obviously not being there for ice-cream.

Stupid asshole. Obviously he'd be licking that white shit to purposely create sexual tension.

"How many scoops?" Dacre resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the dark-skinned young adult.

"2, please." Carmino politely answered.

"The hell are you so polite for?" Dacre suspiciously eyed his fuck-buddy as he scooped up the vanilla-flavored ice-cream onto a cone.

"I have this vague, almost......idea, dare I say, that you might be mad at me."

"Wow, congrats, you have eyes." Dacre sarcastically smiled, handing over the cone with an attitude.

"Can we talk?" Carmino looked at the blonde with puppy dog eyes, putting the requested money on the table.

"Why?" Dacre asked, already knowing he was gonna give in.

"I gotta clear some stuff up, y'know? I've had some time to think since yesterday and I feel like we need to set some things straight. Or not straight, in our case." Camino smirked at his own joke, grin only widening when he saw Dacre fighting a smile of his own.

"Fine." Dacre gave in. "I'm on my break anyways. Meet me in the alley behind the shop."

"Hey, so like, do you....taste food when I eat it?" Fred suddenly chirped up, walking down the side-walk with a small purple bag containing the stars in his palm.

"W-what?" Freddy was distracted, and a little confused. He frowned down at Fred from where he was basically floating beside him.

It was a weird fucking feeling. Being able to see yourself walking down the street, talking while you just hung around next to yourself. This new development of Fred and Freddy suddenly being able to see each other and not just existing as a voice inside the other's head, would definitely interest Freddy's therapist.

That is, if Freddy had a therapist. He hadn't gone to one since he was twelve, which was when he and Fred had truly started to connect. Freddy used to hate him, kind of. When he was just a toddler and his mom thought Fred was just an imaginary friend or persona, they were close, like best friends. But Freddy's mom had slowly begun to suspect that something was off about the whole thing.

She noticed how Fred was described in a way too detailed and realistic way, how he had the characteristics and interests any other child had. It didn't help that when Fred took over the body, Martha suddenly noticed how Freddy could draw better than he usually did. 

Or how Fred threw a tantrum over having to eat his vegetables and Freddy didn't. How Freddy never hesitated on calling Martha mom whereas Fred always sounded a little shy, unsure. It was at seven years old that Martha finally consulted a psychiatrist, who thought it was Multiple Personality Disorder. It turned out to be DID, after all, but Freddy preferred to deny that.

That was also when the pill-taking started happening, and Freddy would start to get a little scared of Fred, especially with how everyone around him was telling him that he had a disease, that something was wrong with him.

The pills brought out the worst in Freddy sometimes. Every time Fred got a little too mean or took control of the body longer than what was agreed to Freddy would threaten to take the pills, to hurt him. So they hated each other through most of elementary school.

It was only at twelve, however, that Freddy really put himself in Fred's shoes, tried looking at things from his perspective. It wasn't easy having someone in your head at all times, never having any privacy no matter how much he craved it sometimes....... But it also wasn't easy being the supposed 'illness'. Being the bad one, being the one that couldn't have control. Freddy realized that both of them were simply stuck in a shitty situation, but they both had to make the best out of it.

So he asked for his mom to let him quit therapy. It was really tight on her salary anyways, and Fred felt uncomfortable around the therapist. Martha did agree to all that, albeit incredibly reluctantly and it took a lot of convincing and whining, but she truly didn't know what to do when Freddy didn't want to take the pills anymore. 

The pills were supposed to make Fred disappear, slowly but surely with each pill he took. But Freddy remembered learning in a class that an actual mental illness simply couldn't go away, even with medication. A mental illness stuck with you, until the bitter end. A mental illness wasn't good at drawing, or liked spaghetti, or always poured milk before cereal.

Fred, wasn't a mental illness, not really.

Freddy had spend a lot of nights crying about it. About the lack of privacy, about the complexity of it all, the confusion........ Truly, he was convinced that he was genuinely insane for a long period in his life.

Even now at 16, Freddy still thought that sometimes. That he was actually ill, or dreaming or just really fucking high. But at the end of the day he knew he wasn't crazy. His friends knew Fred, saw him as a complete separate person from Freddy because truly, he was. 

"When I'm controlling the body and I'm eating food or some shit, do you taste what I taste or is your mouth like completely empty?" Fred elaborated, not noticing how Freddy was zoning out.

"Uh....no, I don't. I don't taste or feel anything, I just feel....transparent, sorta." Freddy did his best to describe the feeling he had when he wasn't in control.

"Cool, me too."

"Still can't believe Eak called Felix.....that." Freddy trailed off, not wanting to repeat the slur.

"Yeah, kinda shocked me too. He's a fucking asshole for yelling that shit. Don't think he meant it, though. If he truly meant what he said he wouldn't have beat Jack up that night for messing with Felix....." Fred thoughtfully replied.

"That's true. Just hope it'll be alright by tomorrow......" Freddy hummed.

"The hell are you so anxious for?" Fred glanced up at Freddy with a questioning look in his eyes.

"We're on our way to Owynn?? Of course I'm anxious! Does he even know we're coming over?" Freddy warily eyed the other teen.

"Of course. I send him a text via Instagram cuz we don't have his number.....yet." Fred waggled his eyebrows suggestively, but ended up looking ridiculous.

"You're gonna ask for his number?" Freddy grinned down at his best friend.

"Of course not! That would be gay." Fred huffed and stared up at Freddy as if he'd just cracked a hilarious joke.

"We're on our way to give Owynn stars that glow in the dark."

"So what?"

"The only reason we talked to him in the first place is because we thought he was hot and intriguing."

"Still doesn't mean anything."

Freddy snorted with laughter, shaking his head in amusement. He excitedly gasped when he saw the brand new vending machine next to the local supermarket.

"Fred...... Fred. Freeeeeed!!"

"What?"

"I want a Fanta."

"Can't you pick one up after we talked to the wannabe scene kid?" Fred whined a bit irritated.

"It's too hot to wait until then." Was the brunette's argument.

"We'll get some tap water from Owynn, desert mouth." Fred huffed, sub-consciously heading towards the vending machine.

"Buy me a Fanta or it's your turn to do the dishes tonight." Freddy settled for.

"You're blackmailing me now??" Fred cried out in disbelief, already taking out their wallet.

"Give me the drink!!"

"Okay, God! You're such a dictator!" Fred put in the coins and impatiently waited until the bottle dropped down with a clunk.

"Happy now?" Fred asked as he let Freddy take over.

"Very!" Freddy happily sipped on his soda.

Freddy suddenly stopped his obnoxious sipping, quieting down abruptly. Fred confusedly followed Freddy's narrowed eyes. On the other side of the street were a couple of guys and two girls. They were wearing dark purple jackets, with red T's on them. Freddy hadn't seen this gang before, but tried his best to sneak past them unnoticed.

Even if he was on the other side of the street, it wasn't safe to be spotted by a group like that, especially with a wallet in his pocket. The group consisting of teens and young adults were hijacking a car, with one of the girls smashing open the window with a rock.

One of the guys (a gruff-looking man with dark blue dyed hair) suddenly whipped his head around, immediately catching sight of the blue-eyed teenager.

"Hey! The fuck are you looking at?!" The guy screeched, already beginning to cross the street.

"Fuck!" Freddy cursed under his breath.

"RUN!!" Fred hollered, hearing police sirens nearing from a distance.

"You guys make a run for it! I'll get the witness!" Freddy heard the guy growl at his gang mates.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" Freddy bolted into an alley, praying there wouldn't be any wired fences blocking his way.

There weren't any, but Fred was glancing over his shoulder and squeaked rather surprised when he saw that the guy in purple following them was quickly nearing them. Freddy could hear his heart beating in his fucking face, the adrenaline kicking in. He didn't know what that guy would do to him if he caught up him, but Freddy sure as hell didn't want to stick around for it.

Oddly enough, Freddy wasn't crying out of fear yet, which is something he would normally do in a situation like this. Not that he often got into scenarios that required him to run away from a stranger in a leather jacket. Freddy kind of regretted wearing his own gang jacket now. It wasn't because of the heath anymore, but because of the fact that if the guy remembered the gang sign, he might come after the rest of The Animatronics too if he ever saw them.

Most of them would be able to stand up for themselves, but Freddy didn't have his roller skates with him right now and he definitely wasn't strong enough to take this guy on by himself.

"HELP!" He screeched when he saw two figures standing in the distance. 

Freddy recognized one of the men from the ice-cream shop he and his band often went to during the summer. Next to him was a guy with curly black hair and dark skin, holding an ice-cream cone. 

"Get back here, motherfucker!" The gang member snarled from very fucking close behind Freddy, practically on his heels.

Carmino perked up at the sound of some kid's voice calling out for help. He'd been outside with Dacre for less than a minute before some brown-haired kid with a Fanta bottle in his hand was rushing towards them, a dark blue-haired man right behind him.

He squinted his eyes, thinking the kid looked familiar. Oh, he'd seen that one before. Carmino was pretty sure he'd spotted that dude late at night in the skating park, along with his group of friends. He was also one of the little nerds Carmino saw Eak hang out with from time to time. The running boy was sporting a leather jacket with red T's printed onto it, the same one the guy behind him wore except that his was purple. Son of a bitch..... Carmino knew that Eak would get himself and others in trouble by buying a jacket like that. 

Wearing that shit was like asking for problems, even from the police.

"Let me go!" The little twerp cried out when the guy grabbed a hold of his collar and slammed him against the brick wall, opposite of where Carmino and Dacre stood.

"Listen, if you tell anyone about-"

"Hey. The hell's going on here?" Carmino handed Dacre his ice-cream cone and walked up to the two.

He wasn't about to let a whole-ass adult beat the shit out of a teenager, nonetheless one that was part of Eak's stupid squad. Carmino couldn't help it, his protective instinct was starting to take over.

The guy looked back at him, his snarl stood unimpressed and dismissive.

"The fuck you want?" 

"You're not gonna hit a kid, are ya?" Carmino narrowed his eyes at the man, readying himself to step in any time now.

"I ain't gonna do shit if this little fucker here keep 'is mouth shut." Shaved Head shrugged.

"Let go!" Freddy repeated, bravery washing over him as he kicked the guy in the shin as hard as he could.

Carmino reacted too late, and the guy had punched Freddy right on the eye, literally making him see stars for a moment.

"Motherfucker!" Carmino hissed, calm demeanor gone as he swiftly kicked the guy under his feet to send him stumbling to the ground. 

He landed with a yelp, screaming profanities as Carmino started throwing his punches.

Dacre stood aside for a few more seconds. In favor of watching Carmino's sexy, sexy arms beat the shit out of some gang member. He quickly headed towards the kid he remembered seeing at both the ice-cream shop and Budget Foods before. 

'C'mon, mate, better scram before the cops get 'ere." Dacre pulled the brunette to his feet with his one free hand.

He ushered the poor teenager he suddenly remembered as Freddy through the back-door of Sundaes & Cones before peering over his shoulder.

"Here. Take this and I'll be right back." Dacre handed the shocked Freddy Carmino's cone before shutting the door.

"Fuck, enough! Enough!" The guy on the ground pleaded, standing no chance against Carmino whatsoever.

"That'll teach ya not to punch little kids." Dacre puffed out, giving the gang member a lazy kick to the head.

It accidentally ended up knocking the man unconscious.

"Oops." Dacre half-heartedly said, scratching at his stubble in a rather uncaring way.

"Dacre, holy shit!" Carmino laughed that slightly surprised, giddy laugh of his as he looked at his fuck-buddy with a mixture between amused and impressed present on his face.

"Oh, come on. You were beating the fucker half to death, anyways." Dacre grinned, enjoying the thrill of the situation.

"Wasn't gonna kill 'im! You knockin' him out was kinda hot though....." Carmino trailed off. He had that look in his eyes again, the one that had Dacre wagging his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah? That gets you goin'? Me kicking some douchebag in the head?" Dacre put on a purposely stupid-sounding seductive voice, making Carmino snort.

"Fuck you, man, don't butcher it!" Carmino didn't flinch away when Dacre took a step closer towards him, which made the blonde in return feel confident enough to wrap loose arms around his waist.

"Ay, you're the one that gets horny from beatin' people up." Dacre playfully shrugged.

Carmino ran his fingers through Dacre's greasy hair, still making no amends to pull away. Dacre's breath stammered for a moment, realizing how close their faces were getting. There was still something mildly nervous flickering in Carmino's eyes, but he seemed to have pushed it down, with him being the one to finally close the distance. 

Dacre put his hands in Carmino's back pockets and squeezed, making the other grin against his lips and tug at a strand of Dacre's hair.

Wow, holy shit, wow, oh my God

Carmino pulled away after only a few seconds, and Dacre was left both satisfied and wanting more. This was their first public kiss, or well, their first outside kiss. And yeah, it wasn't ideal or anything, with a hurt Freddy in the storage room and a knocked out guy lying by their feet. But Dacre didn't care because even the whole context of what happened before the kiss felt like them.

But then Dacre started to wonder when he'd begun associating certain things with him and Carmino. Their relationship (which wasn't even a relationship) was supposed to be casual, just banging. Dacre had no business being so excited about their first public kiss.

"We'd better head inside to take care of the squirt. Gonna text my cousin to let him know about this motherfucker over here." Carmino suddenly spoke up, breaking the stunned silence.

"Your cousin works with the police?"

"Yeah, man. He's a trainee at the department, he'll probably be allowed to arrest some obnoxious gang member that was beating on a kid."

"I'll tell my manager I saved a customer from getting robbed or somethin' so he thinks we'll get a sweet Yelp review. Afterwards we can drive Freddy home, seeing as it's probably not safe for him to walk the streets alone right now." Dacre nodded at Carmino before heading into the storage room while his fuck-buddy texted his cousin.

Barely 20 minutes later, all three of them were in Dacre's car, Freddy pressing a sack of frozen carrots against his injured eye that Dacre found in the storage somewhere.

"You alright, killer? Took quite the punch." Carmino winced in sympathy at the huge bruise forming around Freddy's left eye.

"Fine." Freddy gruffly replied, sounding a bit different than usual.

"That motherfucker's probably gonna pay a fine or somethin'......." Dacre muttered, squinting his eyes to look out the window of the car.

"We're almost there." Freddy informed them.

"You shouldn't wear that jacket outside, man. It's not only hot as balls, it's also askin' for trouble if you're not in a real gang." Carmino advised, trying not to sound like an overly concerned mom but feeling like one nonetheless.

"I am in a real gang!" Freddy protested with a pout.

"Sneakin' into the skating park after closin' time isn't exactly considered to be a gang-activity." Carmino huffed out a laugh.

"It's illegal."

"It's not that bad. I'm sure the police wouldn't give much of a crap about that."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that......" Freddy hummed besides Fred.

He briefly remembered the one time some under-cover rookie cops had landed him and his band in a cell at the local police station for at least 3 hours until their irritated parents came to pick them up. Fred bit his tongue to refrain from telling Carmino and Dacre about that time the gang vandalized an entire neighborhood in an attempt to get The Nightmares' boss exposed. That was pretty illegal.

"Just be careful, bud. Wouldn't wanna have a criminal record at your age." Dacre shrugged with a playful smile.

"Why are you guys talkin' to me like I'm a toddler? You two are like 3 years older than me or something......" Fred childishly crossed his arms, feeling even younger than he actually felt because of these two.

"Actually, this kiwi over here's 21." Carmino lively announced.

"Yeah, I'm super old so you have to take every bit of advice I give seriously." Dacre nodded insistently, pulling over to the address Freddy gave him.

"Thanks for the ice-cream and, uhm, beating the shit outta that guy......." Fred offered the two young adults a slight smile, wanting to mask his gratefulness but not wanting to come across as completely ungrateful either.

"Ya welcome. Don't show your face around 'ere ever again!" Carmino grinned at the brunette, fist-bumping him.

"Later, loser." Dacre added, taking out his sunglasses and putting them on in an overly dramatic way.

"Sorry 'bout being weird yesterday, man."

It was in the back of the storage room that Carmino finally decided to talk, as if he wasn't on his knees in front of Dacre right now.

Whatever, Dacre decided. Usually he was the overly talkative one during and outside of sex, so he might as well let Carmino talk before he went completely silent and grunting again.

"S'fine." Dacre messed around with Carmino's curls as the other unbuckled his pants.

"Nah, I shouldn't have been such a douchebag to you. Holding hands is fine, even if we're just casual. I was actin' like one of those frat boys that's secretly gay but covers it up by bein' homophobic or some shit." Carmino sighed, hands pausing on Dacre's boxers.

Dacre still couldn't believe he was about to get blown in his ridicilous uniform. At least the Budget Foods uniform was color-coordinated and looked good on him. He wouldn't mind being fucked or doing the fucking in that uniform, but he never hooked up with Carmino at the store. He wasn't gonna do that with those stupid Nightmare kids lurking around all the time.

"You have to be in college to be a frat boy." Dacre snickered at the raised middle finger he got from Carmino in response.

"Whatever. I'm not the one who gets all pissy when someone mentions anything about college to me." Carmino smugly replied, finally pulling down the offending article around Dacre's junk.

"At least I went to college, fuckhead!" Dacre huffed. Both of them were practically re-enacting the argument of yesterday, but in a more chill way. Like it was supposed to be between them. Just chill.

"I'm just sayin', if you wanna hold fucking hands in public, I won't throw a fit 'bout it again. I guess it's not half bad......" Carmino lazily smirked up at him.

"Is that an invitation?" Dacre raised an eyebrow at the other, ignoring how giddy he was feeling.

"Only if you take it as one." Carmino shrugged, dropping his head down.

"I'll think about it!" Dacre let out a relaxed sigh and leaned backwards, crossing his arms behind his head.

"Gonna suck yo dick, man."

"That's romanti-ohhhh fookin' hell, mate, that's nice!"