Chapter Text
Looey was a funny toon who made everyone smile. The children love him, and so do the other toons. Not only that, but he was also just a friendly guy to hang around. His bright, cheery, and goofy personality was what made him most charming.
But there was one thing that Sprout couldn't understand about him.
He couldn't understand how Looey could be so insecure and have such low self esteem. Often times while they're on runs, he noticed how paranoid Looey seemed-- As if he was constantly being watched.
Today he was on a run again with the balloon toon, along with some others. Secretly, the strawberry has been keeping a close eye on him. He observed and took note on how often Looey would fidget anxiously and look around himself.
"Looey, EAE!" Bassie shouted, alerting Looey.
Shortly after, Looey arrived at the elevator. He smiled nervously, his head seemingly more smaller than usual. It has been deflated.
"Ahah.. Sorry guys! I got hit again!"
Sprout sighed as he approached him. "Don't worry. I'll fix you up."
Looey's ears perked up, his eyes going wide as he shook his head profusely. "Sprout! No need to heal me! I'll be fine! You should think about yourself and the others first!” The last thing he wanted to be was a burden.
"Oh, come on Looey," Sprout groaned. This wasn’t the first time Looey had refused a heal, and it’s starting to annoy him. "Everyone else is at full. It's better to be safe than sorry. And besides, we will be fine as long as we have you.”
"But Sprout!-"
Sprout shoved a cupcake into the balloon's mouth, causing him to shut up immediately. Looey looked defeated as he chewed the cupcake. ‘What a persistent guy he is..’
Once he finished digesting it, he began fidgeting around with his fingers as they waited for the next floor to arrive. It was completely silent between the two as they stood next each other, the other toons in the elevator’s chatting starting to diminish into silence as Looey couldn’t help but zone out and be bothered about his bad thoughts.
He got hit again.. It’s floor 29, almost floor 30. And he allowed himself to get hit again. He shouldn’t be taking so many hits, especially since the only healer here was Sprout and he heavily needed to rely on tapes. There are other toons here who are working harder than him. They extract machines, boost others, and have abilities far more useful than his. And for him? All he does is just walk in circles repeatedly with the twisteds following behind.
“Hey, you okay Looey? You’ve been staring off into space for a while.”
Looey’s thoughts were interrupted by the healer. He quickly stood straight up and put on his biggest grin. “OH! Yeah, I’m good! Just thinking about things.. Heh!”
Sprout patted his back, concern clear on his face. Looey felt his cheeks flush. Sprout was far too kind. Not only to him, but to everyone. There has been countless times where Sprout risked his life to save others. He would throw himself in to attract the twisteds away from Rodger, nearly getting hurt, and Rodger would thank him with relief. Everyone seemed to like Sprout and he could understand why, but sometimes he needs to think about himself too. He cares too much about the others..
"Hey, Sprout? Are you sure you have to take care of everyone's health?" he asked suddenly.
Sprout looked down at Looey, his expression seemingly unreadable, but then he gave a small smile. "Looey, if I think you need some extra care, that's my call, we're a team!"
Sprout's words were intended to be words of reassurance, but it only seemed to make Looey frown. "... I know but.. I'd hate to waste your-"
"Looey, you're never a waste of anything."
Upon hearing that, the balloon blushed harder and quickly looked away, trying to avoid eye contact with the strawberry. "Sorry!! Nevermind!! Pretend I didn't say anything!! HAHAHAha AHem-"
Sprout placed a hand on his shoulder, his grip a tad bit tight, which made Looey tense up harder. "I’m not sure what has been up with you lately Looey, but if you need to talk to someone then I’m here. Okay?”
Looey just stared at him, his flustered expression softening. “You’re so nice..” he mumbled quietly.
“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
“U-Uh! I said sure! I’ll gladly take you up on that offer in fact! AHAHAhaha!!” Looey nervously sputtered.
Sprout just raised an eyebrow at him before turning away. Looey’s face flushed with heat of embarrassment. He must totally think he’s weird now. Or maybe he thought he was already weird.
The elevator dinged, alerting the toons that they have ascended onto a new floor. Once the door opened, all the toons went out to look for machines. It was a calm floor, the twisteds not as dangerous as the “main” ones. Looey stretched and sighed, preparing himself to get this floor over with.
“Just 6 more floors until this is all over..”
————————
It was finally floor 35, the floor that the toons agreed to stop their expedition at. They arrived back to the lobby, the toons coming out seemingly tired. Vee, despite being a robot, seemed pretty wiped out herself as she trudged her way to her own room. Though, Looey was probably the most tired out of all of them. Since Pebble, Goob, Flutter, or any other toon great for distracting wasn’t available to backup distract today, he had to do all of it himself. Yatta would try to help but got herself hurt. Multiple times. All of that running around had him pretty exhausted.
“WOOOO! GLAD THAT RUN IS OVER!! I could REALLY use some CANDY right now, HAHAHAHA!”
Yatta chirped energetically as she playfully poked her elbow into Looey’s shoulder. Looey chuckled in return and weakly poked her back. “Wow Yatta! I don’t know how you could feel so much energy despite that long run we just had. Heheh!”
“It’s probably because of all the CANDY I’VE EATEN! BUT I WANT MORE!!”
The piñata was always a bundle of energy, regardless if she has gone through a long and gruesome run or not. But even if she insists she’s fine, Looey can’t help but feel concern for her. Yatta was one of his best friends, they’ve been together through thick and thin, and her risking her life just to help him earlier caused him distress.
In the corner of his eye, he sees Sprout walk by with the most worn out expression. He remembers the conversation they had earlier in the elevator and he felt himself blush again. Maybe he should really talk to him after all, but today probably wasn’t the best time for it after seeing how tired he looked.
“WELL I’m going to GO TO MY ROOM NOW!! SEE YOU TOMORROW BUDDY!”
Looey and Yatta exchanged hugs before going separate ways. The balloon toon went to his room and once he arrived he immediately flopped down onto his bed. His eyes closed and he instantly fell asleep.
“Looey, you’re never a waste of anything.”
Sprout lifted a hand to caress Looey’s cheek, his smile wide but soft. The clown’s tail wagged uncontrollably as he looked up at Sprout, a wide smile on his face in return.
The strawberry rubbed his other hand over Looey’s head, continuously petting him. He then brought Looey closer and wrapped his arms around his waist.
“Looey..”
“Y-Yes Sprout?”
“I hope you know how important you matter to me and to everyone else here at Gardenview. You’re not a burden and everyone loves you. When will you come to the conclusion to see that? You’re silly, kind, and put a smile on everyone’s faces.. And that includes me as well.”
“You’re saying too much. Not all of that could be true..”
Sprout inched his face closer to Looey’s and closed his eyes. Looey blushed but he didn’t move back, closing his eyes as well. Their lips eventually meet and they share a loving kiss. They weren’t even dating, so this was all so sudden, but he wasn’t opposed to it. His heart skipped a beat, he could taste the sweet flavor of Sprout’s lips.
After a few more seconds they pulled away, a loving gaze from Sprout as he looked at him.
“Why did you kiss me?”
Sprout simply chuckled and pulled Looey’s cheek playfully, causing the aforementioned to whine a bit. “Well, to be quite honest, it’s because I love you Looey. Why else would I have kissed you?”
“Oh Sprout, I don’t know what to say..”
“I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have kissed you without asking first..”
“N-No! Don’t apologize! I liked it!!”
The swirling pit of heat in the balloon toon’s stomach deepened as he said that. He looked away from the taller toon, beginning to feel even more shy after admitting that out loud.
*RING RING RING RING*
Looey yelped and fell out of his bed, landing face first into the floor. He groaned as he slammed his hand against the alarm clock, his other hand rubbing against his eyes.
The blur in his vision disappeared shortly, and he shook his head to get his mind out of the clouds. Once he regained consciousness, he could recall the events from his dream, and he put his face into his hands in embarrassment.
What kind of dream was that!? It was odd to have such dreams about your friends, especially if you kissed them! Looey felt ashamed for dreaming about his good friend Sprout like that. His hand clenched his chest, there is no way that Sprout would ever see him that way. Get yourself together!
In an attempt to forget about the strange dream, he got up and stretched. It’s time to start another day at the “lovely organization” of Gardenview. As he does every morning, he puts on the same polka-dotted shirt that he usually wears, brushes his teeth, and goes to his vanity mirror to apply his clown makeup. It’s not much, but he just puts on the same green and purple blush on his cheeks, and then ta-da he’s done with getting ready. He bet that if anyone saw him without the usual makeup on his cheeks they would react as if he were naked, causing him to laugh to himself a bit.
He walked out of his room to meet with Yatta, as they would usually do. Yatta was already there waiting for him in front of the cafeteria and waved her hand to him. “OVER HERE!!”
“Good morning, Yatta!” Looey waved back as he approached her. As he got closer to the cafeteria he could smell the sweet scent of pancakes cooking in the kitchen, his mouth drooling automatically. “Wow, the pancakes smell so yummy!”
Yatta squealed excitedly. “I KNOW RIGHT!!? Oooh I can’t wait to pour so much SYRUP ALL OVER IT!”
Looey and Yatta entered the cafeteria with drool practically dripping from both of their mouths. They sat down at the seat assigned to them by the toon handlers. Fortunately for them, they placed them together, probably because they were the circus troupe toons. Shortly after, the toons known best for their baking abilities came out of the kitchen with a big cart of pancakes on the tray. Cosmo, his smile warm and welcoming as always, places a bunch of plates and utensils on a side counter.
“Eat up, everyone! Sprout and I prepared these pancakes just for you all!”
Many toons sat up eagerly and began getting in line to get their breakfast. Sprout and Cosmo stood there with wide smiles on their faces, pleased to see everyone eager to eat their hard work. The mention of Sprout and seeing him stand up there struck Looey with the odd dream he had last night, causing his cheeks to heat up with red.
Yatta got up with no hesitation and immediately got in line, not noticing she had left Looey behind at the table. He can’t get up and face Sprout after that dream he had. He’s too embarrassed, he definitely can’t go talk to him today now. So like the idiot toon he is, he just sits there at the table.
‘It’s fine. I could just skip breakfast. It’s not the first time I’ve skipped anyway!’
Eventually, all the other toons got their share of breakfast, all except for him. There was one plate left and pancake, and that one was obviously for him. Cosmo and Sprout looked around, seemingly trying to look for the last one who has yet to get their breakfast.
“COME ON BUDDY!! Why haven’t you gotten your breakfast!?” Yatta exclaimed as she dumped a whole bottle of syrup on her pancakes.
“O-Oh, uhh.. Not hungry? Haha..”
Yatta didn’t fall for the obvious lie he had made. “I’ll just get it for you!!”
He watched as Yatta made her way back to the cart and grabbed the last plate of pancakes. She talked to Cosmo and Sprout and pointed towards him, Sprout and Cosmo shifting their gazes to look at Looey. He smiled nervously at the two and waved awkwardly, sweat starting to roll down his face. Sprout just looked at him with the same look of concern he gave him the day before, which made Looey sink down in his chair.
Yatta came back and placed the pancakes in front of him. “There!! CMON! Let’s EAT!!”
The girl stuffed her face with the hot cakes in front of her, while Looey just poked at the pancakes with his fork. He still couldn’t get that dream out of his head, and now that he saw Sprout he can’t look at him without that dream coming to haunt his mind.
And what’s worse is that he is pretty sure Astro saw his dream, knowing how the celestial toon has the ability to peer into other’s sleep. He hopes he doesn’t have to run into him either, otherwise it would be very awkward between the two.
He looks to Yatta, the piñata still happily scarfing down her breakfast. She is his best friend and he knows he could trust her, but not even he thinks he should talk to her about the dream. He’s not sure how Yatta would react or even think. He sighs, he feels as if he needs to get this whole situation off his chest, yet he feels as if he has no one to tell it to.
“You’re not going to eat?”
Looey jumped up to see Sprout standing at their table, the strawberry toon’s arms crossed as he looked down at him.
“Hi Sprout!” He quickly masked his nervousness with that goofy smile he usually does. “I am going to eat!…. Eventually! HahahHA!”
Sprout pulled out a chair and sat down with the circus duo. “Looey, about yesterday… You said you’d take up my offer on talking to me, right?”
“Um, yes.”
“Alright, then how about you come meet up with me at my room after you’re done? I’m really concerned for you, you know..”
The healer put his hand on Looey’s shoulder, the same shoulder that he had put his hand on in the run from yesterday. The clown blushed and shivered from the touch. “Okay, if you insist..”
Sprout then smiled and got up, walking away back into the kitchen. Yatta looked at her best friend with confusion. “What was THAT about?” She asked with syrup dripping down her chin.
Looey got a napkin and wiped the syrup off her face. “Well, I agreed to talk to Sprout yesterday about.. Something! Haha!”
Yatta tilted her head at him, but decided to not question any further. She was too focused on the sweet breakfast in front of her.
Looey sighed of relief when she didn’t press any further. Hopefully the conversation they’ll have won’t reveal too much, or be too awkward.