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With just how deeply he adored skating, it was surprisingly easy to let the thought of his new relationship with Toby completely exit his mind.

A simple new title wasn’t enough to make him change his attitude, and the things he loved! And he did his best to teach his friend well! Around and around they went, up and down and sideways and then right out of the bowl.

And... Well, quite frankly, he was exhausted by the end as well. It was one thing to skate and be on his own doing things, but supporting and keeping an eye on someone else was a lot more stress than what he was used to.

He wanted a shower now, and bad.

“Yeah... Me too. I’d say it was okay to go to sleep, but there’s no smelly boys allowed on the bed. Or girls for that matter. We’ll have you wash up first, then we’ll eat some dinner, then you can touch the bed, okay?”

With his own skates off, Izzy stood and stretched, just knowing his body was gonna ache a little later.

“Nah, my mom and dad have their own bathroom, so I just share with my big sis, and the babies. I call them babies, but they’re like, five.” He leaned down, offering his hand to Toby to get up and attem. He was taking a long time to get up, but Izzy reasoned to himself that it was because he wasn’t used to skating.

“No one’s gonna walk in on you, if you’re worried about that. We ARE allowed to use the toilets in their room though.”

"Then what were you asking about?" Of course there was nothing to worry about! Despite being brats, the kids in the house were... Decent, to say the least. They wouldn't do something so mean, especially given the fact that this was the very first time Izzy had a friend over.

That hand was taken, and he led Toby inside, up a staircase that avoided the front cafe, and unlocked the door with his key.

Inside was a pretty decent apartment, Small, but cozy, enough for the six people who lived there to be close and comfortable. Were they the kinda family who fought all the time, this place would have been hell.

"My room is in the back corner, and the bathroom is like, straight opposite of it."

If anything stood out in the house, it would be the vast number of pictures of the family on any surface that wasn’t the kitchen. There were some of the twins, some of Anxo and his lover, a family portrait and more than a few of Izzy and his wide, cheesy smile beaming at the camera.

It was clear there was love in this house, a soothing warmth that added to the lingering smell of coffee and sweets that wafted up from downstairs.

“Yeah, you know it! When we moved, I claimed it immediately, that way I could run into it when no one else could beat me!” Going right along, he ended up at his room, pushing the door open.

It was tiny, a given that the fact that that it was an apartment over top of a cafe. There was a bed that seemed to take up most of the room, and the walls seemed to be blank. No real posters or pictures decorating them. But instead, he had a few plants dangling down from the roof, a rack of skates against the wall, and a Whiteboard that hovered above the bed.

And printed out in a small frame was the picture he took of Toby on the other boy’s birthday, the one where he kissed his cheek, right next to his laptop.

“Here we are! Welcome!”

Izzy was far too busy scuttling about his room to at least make it seem somewhat neat. His mother had an iron fist about the cleanliness of his room, so there wasn't anything gross anywhere, but he was still a lazy teenage boy who liked to leave things all over the place.

It wasn't until Toby spoke that he paused, blinking and then looking over at the aforementioned picture.

"What about it? I can't have a picture of my friend on my desk?" After putting down a few squishy toys on the bed, he came over and took a look at the picture.

"It's a good memory, you know? One that makes me happy. I didn't... you know, think much about the connotations of it all. And it was the first one I took together with you, so it was in commemoration. Ma didn't say much about it, but she did giggle a bit so, I guess I can see what you're saying."

“... Huh, I guess it is. Maybe that means deep down, I already knew I really liked you, even if my dumb brain didn’t catch up fast enough.” Not once did that picture come across as weird, or out of place. Every time he saw it, he smiled, and thought back on that day with more fondness than he thought he could ever imagine possible for another person that wasn’t his family.

Toby had always been special. Even from the day they met and Izzy was a huge a*****e to him, the other boy always handled himself well. In the beginning it bugged the hell out of him, but the more they spent time together, the more he wanted to be close to him.

Protect him.

The world was way too scary for someone as nice as Toby to be alone in it.

“Since you say you love it, does that mean you want a copy too?”

“I got a guy who does fancy photos for me, so I’ll wrap one up nice for you.” He’d have to go downstairs and see if his sis would make him one of her fancy smancy frames, since it’s a special gift, but that was a task for another day.

“Alright, enough of the blushin and grinnin and all that. You smell, mister. Go take a shower.” Somewhere between the smoozing and the teasing, he had managed to grab a shirt and some shorts from a dresser, and pressed them into Toby’s arms.

“I’ll go get us some dinner in the mean time.”