Chapter Text
Cosmo crouched down, looking into the oven. The pastries didn’t look burnt, giving him high hopes of how this batch was going to turn out. Well, they may look good in the end, but they could always end up coming out tasting horrible. Cosmo was still pretty new to this whole baking thing, but at least he had his best friend by his side. This was only the second time that they were left alone by Sam while baking. Peering over his shoulder, he spotted Sprout already starting to clean up the counter they had been working on.
Sprout. Where could Cosmo even begin to describe him? Sprout was protective and brave and even a main character, and yet he still stayed with Cosmo as his best friend. It could always just be wired into the two of them, but Cosmo was going to forever hold that first memory of Shelly introducing them to each other close.
“Hey, Sprout, do you need any help cleaning up?” Cosmo called to Sprout, getting his attention.
“I don’t need help, but it’d be appreciated.” The strawberry said teasingly. Taking off his oven mitts and putting them to the side, Cosmo scurried over to his side, scanning the mess that remained. He sighed, going over to the sink to get some cleaning supplies out from under the sink.
Cosmo returned with everything that he assumed that they would need. He handed a wet rag to Sprout before starting to scoop flour off the table and into his hand. More got on the floor instead of his hand though, making a bigger mess in the end. He heard Sprout chuckle a bit next to him. In playful retaliation, Cosmo took the flour that he did manage to get in his hand and tossed it at Sprout. He gasped before repeating the action back. They didn’t notice how big of a mess they were making until Sam came back in to check on them and saw them playing in flour.
“Are you two kidding me? Stop it!” Sam rushed over to them, pulling Sprout away from the counter. They scanned the mess with a look of complete horror on their face. They turned back to the Toons, Cosmo quickly averting his gaze in embarrassment.
“We’re sorry, Mclaughlin.” He muttered, eyes fixed on the floor. Sam sighed, running a hand through their hair, before beginning to usher them out of the kitchen.
“I’ll clean this up,” They said, their voice more annoyed and irritable than it normally was, “Both of you go do something else, like work on drawing out the signs for the diner or something. Just stay out of the kitchen and don’t do anything else equally as stupid as this.”
Once they were out, Sam closed the door on them, banishing them to stand just outside of the kitchen until Sam had finished cleaning up. Cosmo stood, somewhat dumbfounded by the string of events that had just occurred. He shook his head, glancing to his side just as Sprout began to walk off, grabbing the nearest sign and taking the paper out of it. It had the basic layout of how it was supposed to, with a sketch of the two Toons. It just lacked any writing, which probably meant that task was going to be left up to Cosmo and Sprout.
“Hm… Hang on Sprout, we need some markers!” The cake roll called out to his friend as he placed the paper onto the nearest table. Sprout looked past Cosmo and at the kitchen, clearly thinking about something.
“Yeah, good point. So do you wanna be the one to ask Sam to give us markers? Or maybe you can ask your own handler?” Sprout asked, his tone teasing as he scooted into a chair at the table he had placed the paper at. Cosmo rolled his eyes with a smirk, sitting down across from him.
“C’mon, you know that Colten isn’t here today. I’ve spent all day with you because he isn’t here.” He said, resting his arms on the table and putting his head on top of them. Sprout nodded along.
“Mhm… got it. My bad. I guess I’ll go ask.” Sprout said with a sigh, standing up and walking off towards the kitchen.
Cosmo was left alone at the table while awaiting his return. He turned the piece of paper so that it was facing him, getting a better look at the designs on it. Actually, that wasn’t the case. He was looking at the art of Sprout and him. It was just a sketch currently, but it looked pretty good. Thinking about it now, Cosmo had never really been in any promotional material without the strawberry Toon by his side. It was a bit odd, especially considering that there were plenty of other Toons who weren’t mains and still got their own cards and games and clothes and whatnot. Even when it came to the show, Cosmo only really showed up in episodes that Sprout was in. It only applied to him though, Sprout had plenty of his own stuff. Maybe that was just because he was a main character, one of Gardenview’s golden boys.
It made him a bit upset, but it was alright. There was always the chance that he’d get his own stuff in the future. Even if that wasn’t the case, it was alright! Cosmo didn’t mind being featured with his best friend most of the time.
The cake roll was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of markers rolling across the table. Looking up, he saw Sprout taking his seat again, now with one marker in his hand. Cosmo reached out to take the one that had been rolled towards him.
“You actually convinced them to give us this? Are they still cleaning up?” Cosmo questioned, tilting his head a bit.
“Yep. Their reaction to me asking for these was just ‘You better not make a new mess’.” Sprout said with a smile, leaning forward a bit so that he could also get a good look at the paper. Pulling the paper away from Cosmo, Sprout flipped it around and started to write something at the top of it.
GARDENVIEW DINING SECTION
“That looks good.” Cosmo praised, reaching out and taking the paper back. He put the lid to the side before beginning to hesitantly write on the bottom of the paper, sounding out each syllable of the word he was trying to spell out.
IT’S DELICTABLE!
Cosmo stared blankly at the poorly written word in his neat handwriting. He couldn’t tell if that was the correct spelling, but he didn’t want to ask Sam or Sprout to check it. He looked up at Sprout, giving him a sweet smile before pushing it back. The strawberry read over it before he gave him a thumbs up. Cosmo sighed in relief, taking his approval as a sign that he had spelt it correctly.
“Um… Anything else?” Cosmo asked, looking up to Sprout and clicking the lid on and off of the marker. In response, Sprout shrugged and glanced back towards the kitchen, a worried look on his face.
“Nope, I don’t think we have to add anything else. It gets the point across.” Sprout’s tone was colder and more distant than usual, starting to make Cosmo worry about him. He reached out, gently tapping Sprout’s shoulder. The action startled Sprout out of his thoughts, and he quickly gave Cosmo a reassuring smile.
“Are you okay, Sprout?” He tilted his head a bit.
“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” He laughed it off, waving his hand and glancing back towards the kitchen, “I’m just worried that our pastries are actively burning in the oven as we speak.”
“Our pastries! I hope that Sam takes them out..” Cosmo frowned, looking down at his hands in horror at the situation that may or may not be rapidly approaching them.
“I’m sure they will. Heh, remember when you first started to bake on your own? Everyone likes to say that you set the world record for the amount of fire alarms set off in one week!” The strawberry’s smile slowly grew, starting to snicker to himself.
Seeing his friend starting to laugh at the memory, Cosmo began to laugh as well. Sure, it had been terrifying in the moment, but tragedy plus time made comedy, did it not? Looking back now, it was pretty funny singlehandedly lighting the kitchen on fire several times. Sam had won employee of the month for constantly putting out the accidental fires. Eventually, Cosmo heard Sprout’s laughter dying down, though he was still snickering a bit.
“So…” Sprout started, taking a moment to calm himself down, though the smile was still plastered on his face.
“Are you gonna apologize?”
Cosmo’s laughter quieted into awkward and confused chuckles. He tried to scan Sprout’s face to understand what had prompted such a weird question, but he couldn’t see the slightest shift on his friend’s face.
“Um… Apologize for what?” He glanced away nervously, fidgeting with the marker in his hands, “There’s nothing coming to mind…”
“Apologize for killing me, obviously.”
Cosmo’s gaze shot back to Sprout in horror, staring at his empty smile and dead eyes. He scootched back in his seat a bit, his eyes never leaving Sprout. He didn’t move, trying to calm down. What was Sprout talking about, he was right here. Alive. Cosmo shook his head slowly, trying to muster up anything to refute Sprout’s words.
“...Huh?” That was the only thing that came out of his mouth.
“I died because of your mistake, remember? Don’t you feel anything about that?” The strawberry Toon leaned forward a bit and cocked his head to the side. In response, Cosmo pressed himself against the chair, trying to put more distance between the two of them.
“I don’t… I didn’t-” Cosmo’s voice cracked trying to defend himself. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to say though. That he didn’t know how to help? That he was in no position to help? That he didn’t know what Sprout was talking about? As if sensing his unease, Sprout stood up so that he was towering over Cosmo.
“Don’t remember? How about a little refresher?”
Cosmo is back on one of the other diner floors, hidden out of sight and listening to the wails and screeches of agony from his friend that echoed across the floor. Watching as Dandy himself ripped and tore into Sprout while Cosmo stood by and watched in horror. It was a gory scene that he couldn’t take his eyes off of. He was frozen in the spot, wanting to scream or vomit or do anything that indicated how disgusted he was with the situation at hand.
He felt two hands grip his side and forcefully turn him around, he was back to being face to face with Sprout, though now his face was brutally mauled and distorted. He couldn’t push away, no matter how much he tried to. He opted to look away from the nauseating sight in front of him.
“What’s wrong? Can’t look your best friend in the eyes anymore?” He mocked innocently before suddenly yanking Cosmo’s body towards him.
“Look at me, Cosmo!”
By some miracle, Cosmo shoved the other Toon away from him, stumbling away in horror and gasping for air. He watched as he fell to the ground, followed by the sound of something clattering apart and a hiss in pain. It took a moment for Cosmo to realize that that voice sounded nothing like Sprout. He blinked a few times, the scenery around him shifting to a room with dark magenta walls and bookcases almost everywhere. Looking at where Sprout would’ve been, Cosmo didn’t see him, but instead a different Toon.
“Ow… Dude, what the heck was that for?” It was Ribecca. It took Cosmo a moment to figure out what she was doing here before the memories of the day before hit him. He had asked someone to go get her yesterday to help with the whole Brightney situation that had happened yesterday, where she came back one arm short. Glancing over to the nearby bed, he could see that the lamp Toon was still laid in the bed. He looked back to Ribecca before eventually going to help her up.
“Oh my God… Ribecca, I am so sorry.” He muttered frantically, guilty and shame evident in his tone. The other shook her head while fixing her arm back in place. She didn’t seem too upset.
“I heard some noise from here earlier, so I came to check on you.” She started explaining, taking a seat on one of the nearby beanbags, “I come in here, you’re talking to no one and freaking out, completely scared shitless man. Honestly, I don’t doubt that you would’ve hurt yourself or Brightney if I hadn’t come in here and snapped you outta it.”
Cosmo didn’t respond, sitting in the bean bag next to her and fidgeting with his sleeve. He didn’t exactly want to explain that it was just a nightmare he was freaking out about, no matter how real it had felt.
“…I’m sorry, I was just… having a bad… dream? ” He began before trailing off.
“Dude, don’t apologize. Must’ve been a hell of a nightmare if it has you reacting like that-” Ribecca said, leaning back a bit. She was startled when Cosmo suddenly interrupted her mid sentence.
“No! No it didn’t feel like a nightmare… It was so real. If it was a nightmare, I wouldn’t have shoved you away thinking that you were… him.” Cosmo explained frantically, waving his hands while trying to explain what it was like.
“...Oh. That’s…” Ribecca was left at a loss for words, clearly just as confused as he was now, “...I think that was a hallucination or something. Geez, you must be going through some really tough shit if you’re at that point.”
“Well then what do I do…? What am I supposed to do?” He questioned desperately, knowing that he probably wasn’t going to get a good answer from her.
“I don’t know. I never met someone els- someone having this happen to them.” She said with a sigh, crossing her arms. She looked away from Cosmo and to where Brightney was sleeping. She stood up and went over to the bedside, checking on her.
“What’re you doing…?” Cosmo asked quietly.
“I’m gonna take care of her for you. You need to get some fucking sleep, you look exhausted and I can’t tell whether that’s from hallucinations or just not sleeping because you need to make sure she doesn’t die on us in the middle of the night. Head back to your room for me, kay?” The skeleton explained, looking over her again.
“...okay. I’ll try.” Cosmo said with uncertainty in his voice, knowing that he probably wouldn’t be falling asleep tonight. Just as he was about to leave, he heard Ribecca say something else.
“You know that the real Sprout would never say that stupid shit to you. You need to try to ignore the hallucinations, at least until you’re ready to move on from him.”