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"COSMO!"
"Cosmo stop it!"
"HE'S DEAD. IT'S OVER COSMO!!"
"IT'S OVER!"
"Don't worry Cosmo, once we get all of his research, I will be able to recreate him! Memories and all! How dandy isn't it? We just need more tapes!"
"Cosmo... please eat something... I know it's not as good as his cooking but..."
"I know how it feels to lose someone.... want a hug...? I swear it'll make you feel better! — O-Owie! No need to push me, Cos'!...Ow!"
"Oh come on! We need a healer! Cosmo you can't continue to lock yourself up in that kitchen."
"What are you doing with that. Cosmo."
Click.. click... tap tap...
It's almost done, Sprout. We will bake the biggest cake in the world when everything is done. I promise.
Cosmo charged the machine quietly, promises and prayers echoed and suffocated every part of his mind. His mismatched colored goggles perfectly protects his eyes from the electric flashes the gigantic screen make, the levels were right. No sign of overheating came on and he was relieved to finally have found the solution to his final problem.
"It's alright Sprout, I know you must be cold... but I swear you will be warm soon... You know how hard it was to keep your body from rotting?..." he brushed a leaf behind his ear and smiled warmly. "But I'm not mad, no worry! Healers like us are used to things like this. Remember the time you had to reattach Looey's head? I had to make sure that Toodles didn't look! That little goof ball is always so curious! Haha..!"
Cosmo tighten the leather straps on Sprout's shoulders and checked the chains. Cold water vapors escaped from his mouth, He had to keep his whole lab cold and ventilated for his best friend but also the computers. Those fragile little things.
Before this, the pastry absolutely had no idea how warm a computer or machine could run. Vee was actually the one to have given him the answer, sarcastically, of course, this was Vee we were talking about. But still extremely helpful! "How did she say it...? Meh, not interesting... She doesn't deserve our attention anymore."
He walked to his desk and wrote for a while in his notebook before speaking up again, continuing his train of thoughts.
He nervously tapped the tip of his pencil on the page, narrowing his eyes. "Vee will never understand me- understand us. She who NEVER had a meaningful friendship like us! She doesn't know what it likes to have a true friend, someone as strong and brave like you, Sprout... I pity her though... poor her will never have a special someone." Cosmo chewed on his lips as he resumed his writing, just a few moments before he could talk to his best friend again.
Eyeing the sleeping body of his best friend from the side, his heart skipped a beat. "And Dandy had the nerve to call me cynical..."
Sliding down his chair, he typed commands on the keyboard and pushed three small buttons on the left. He returned multiple times to his notebook. "I do this for everyone! You know, Sprout, even if they don't admit it. I know that all the other mains miss you!"
"But at the point of making another you? Tsk, Dandy's the weird one! Not me, I'm just... nursing you back to health! It's our job as healers!" He giggled, sliding the table Sprout was on down to lay him completely flat on his back.
"I made sure to keep all of your limbs somewhat intact but you did lost some muscles since.... Sorry Sprout, I know you've trained so hard to have them." Cosmo pouted apologetically, scratching his cheek. He stayed silent for a second before exclaiming, "Ah! I know! You'll just have to eat more protein!"
Suddenly, his expression fell as if he was never happy."...While you were sleeping, I had to learn how to cook all different kinds of meat and prepare all of the meals alone!..."
Tears came to his eyes but he shakily continued to check if the straps were tight enough. Drops came crashing down the rigid strawberry skin coloring him a slightly deeper red. "It's so hard to cook alone in the kitchen Sprout... I can't handle criticism like you and oh boy, they're so hard on me.... I had to find your cookbook in your room.. and- and try my best...! Like you say...! — sorry- I know, I know you don't want me to cry... you hate it. Heh."
Cosmo quickly wipes his eyes and nose with his coat's sleeves and cleaned off his tears from his goggles before taking glass bottles of colorful mixtures, all different from one another to the texture to the liquidity. He neatly lined them in a specific order on the metallic desk next to his best friend. He swirls it a while before it changed color and mixed it with two others in another, bigger conical flask. He added another smaller boiling tube of black liquid, ichor to the mix.
"That should do. Don't worry, I learned enough from Dandy's own 'cookbook'. I knew how to filter it."
He gently elevates Sprout's head with his forearm and bring the potion to his lips. With no effort, he swallowed it. Cosmo layed his head back down on the flat pillow.
"Good job!" He clapped his now free hands lightly. "I knew you could do it!"
He cleaned his desk before retrieving his notebook, with a green colored pencil, he circles and writes in the margin cheerfully.
"So far, so good! Right Sprout?"
...
"Yes, yes! I swear I'm done soon! I just need to make sure that everything is in order!"
He ran back to the computer keyboard and quickly wrote lines of code. "When I found you, those twisteds were trying to rip you apart! That day, I swore to Delilah to wear lab coats because my hoodie became black that day.... well- now it's grey but still- not my color palette! But it does smell like you...."
Cosmo's cheeks tinted a cheerful red before he realized that his best friend was near. "Ack! You didn't hear that! F-Forget it...!!!"
All flustered, he took off his gloves and shoot them away on his desk, his chest contracted in excitement. He flexed his fingers a few times, trying to calmly breath in and out. He needs to get serious now! Get serious Cosmo! He scolded himself although his heart still made too much of noises inside him.
I will show them what I can do.
I will save him.
I will save my best friend.
And we will be finally together again.
Thus begin a dance of juggling between his keyboard and machinery.
BEEPS and BOOPS filled in the silence in the laboratory. (Along with the air conditioner).
This was the last step and he checked it at least twenty-five times before being sure it won't fail.
His feets bought him to the last lever, icing sweating down from his forehead despite the cold temperature.
This is the moment of truth and he doesn't have the luxury to fail.
He needs to success.
Or else he'll fall apart.
He doesn't want to lose hope...
Not again.
"Sprout... Please come back!"
Swipe!
Electrical screeching pierced his ears, euphoria ate him up like a hungry snake and he slowly giggled at the shaking body of his best friend. Vibrating frenetically under the electrical power of the machinery, sparks of light and life shook Sprout's head and fingers.
His mouth opened on reflex and ichor dripped out of his mouth, sticky goo pooled on his neck and the sheets turned dark and moist. Petals mixed with ichor, Cosmo could see them burn and turn into ash.
Sprout's legs jerked, yelling for freedom under the tight leather and metal straps.
"....Yes! Yes!!"
The metal clanking and shaking loudly is almost as deafening as the electrical screeching, but Cosmo doesn't care. He only wants his best friend back.
The dessertful scientist feels the hysterical power going through him before it all crashes down.
"...huh?"
The computers and machines gives out their last sparks as the cold room obscured. The vents stopped working and the lifeless body of his best friend became a corpse once more.
"What? No! NO...!"
Cosmo ran through the room, shoving and hurting himself to the multitude of chairs and desks. Flasks and glass bottles exploded on the floor, the mixtures turned cold and smelled of rot under his boots. Under the moonlight he could see the weak shapes of the liquids but he didn't want to think about the vapors possibility hurting his lungs as the smell took his throat in hostage. The rain didn't helped the humidity levels of the nurse office-turned-laboratory either.
"You cannOt!"
He scrambled to the hospital bed, out of breath, muttering to himself. He fell knees-first on the floor, his hands directly touching the ichor that dripped on the floor, glued on his pants and fingertips, he sobbed harshly.
"....You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"You promised."
"YOU PROMI—"
A monstrous scream scared the life out of him, hurting violently the floor on his butt, his whole body shook as a tall and dark skinny shape snapped off the straps off its body, chains broke and crashed. His roar animalistic and beast-like, the shape vomited on the sheets covering his knees the same black substance, coughing and choking out small leaves with it. It smelled of rotting strawberries but it was so beautiful under the moonlight.
Pride and too many ounces of eternal love came crashing down Cosmo's chubby body. "You're alive.. ...YOU'RE ALIVE!!!! HAHAHAHAhaAHAAAaaahahhah...."
The monster turned his head to the hysterical broken giggles, his blurry eyes gifted of a piercing gaze of overprotectiveness he saw the sobbing toon underneath him, on the floor. Cosmo's held his breath shakily, locking his eyes with the beast that is now his best friend.
"Rrrr...rccrr...coossss...mo..." Sprout weakly tried bend down closer to Cosmo but the scientist quickly stopped him and got up instead. "W-wait! Sprout! Beware!! You're still weak...! AH!"
Sprout narrowed his eyes and grumbled, he moved his fingers and hands as if testing their strength before taking Cosmo by his waist and putting him on the bed, taking care to not place him on the vomit as he scrambled the sheet away with a paw, making it fall on the floor with a gross splat.
Cosmo stayed dumbfounded on the bed for a few seconds. — And Sprout looked back at him, concern clear on his face, he nudged Cosmo. "Krr...cr'os?"
"Ah! Wait wait wait! Haha...Hahahahaha! You're alive...! Holy shit Sprout, YOU'RE ALIVE...!" He smiled wildly, checking Sprout over, he took his forearms and lifted them. "Your mobility might be reduced for a while but it doesn't seem to bother you... does your head hurt? Are you thirsty? Hungry? You must be- I can bake you something sweet! GASP! is your head bleeding? Oh no, hehe....nevermind that the scars healed for a while now... your voice might need a little patience, it's been a moment since you've spoke...you might feel light-headed if you get up too quickly but by your strength and capacity to lift me up easily-" The toon rambled quickly, too quickly for the newly awakened toon.
Another growl came out of Sprout's throat. His best friend now had terribly deep eyebags and puffy eyes under his goggles, a skinnier body and imperfect icing. "...Shukrrshhh." he said, tapping a nail on the glass of his goggles before lifting them away somewhere on the bed. His figure slouched toward the patisserie as he nuzzles his snout under Cosmo's soft chin, smelling like a chocolate cupcake, he bathed in familiarity. Cosmo, too weak to the affection (and the tickles it created) giggles and lay his guard down for a second too long-
"What the-!"
The beast shoved Cosmo's body against his own too overprotectively, wrapping his limbs like a candy wrapper on Cosmo and his tail wagged on the other's leg, the scientist had no time to think of an escape before he got completely caught in his arms and legs.
Like a animal.
The old Sprout would never-
"CCcrrro-ohsmmo.... ttiire-dd. Ddiiff-f-ferent. Too..." Sprout confessed, bowing his head down. He didn't really remember how he got here and why he's taller and has so many scars and a headache. But he knows now that Cosmo, his best friend, is safe and sound. Even if he strangely doesn't remember why he's so anxious about it.
But...
With just a look, Sprout saw something had broke inside Cosmo, his vibrant colors and eyes gloomed like ash, watered down and overtaken by grief, the baker became some sort of scientist and isolated himself away from the other toons. It was clear as day that something bad happened to him and Cosmo didn't accepted the outcome.
Like in their baking sessions, he always tries to save the batter with more flour or eggs. — Even if, in the end, the result might not be what they asked for, it was still the same batter with different characteristics.
The beast bought Cosmo even closer, almost suffocating the scientist with his paws and claws. Scratchy bandages touched Cosmo's face and a electric heartbeat could be heard if he took enough attention. He cocoons both of them from the outside world.
A monstrous urge overtook Sprout to never leave Cosmo ever and Cosmo's overflowing craving of Sprout's overprotectiveness to cling to him again made him glue even harder to the berry's ribcage. Squeezing tight.
The two toons looked at each other, both broken in different ways but both swore on their life to always protect the other.
Even if other toons couldn't understand.
They'll always be together forever,
Because that's what friends do.