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All was quiet among the sleeping toons. Everyone was in their rooms and sleeping soundly, well.. Everyone except for a certain moon boy. Nothing could be heard in his small room but the faint ticking of a pristine wall clock that hung above his bed. The minute hand gradually moving up past the 9 on the left side of the clock.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The barely audible noise was disrupted as a flash of pale blue appeared into the room. It was the moon boy, of course. He stood there for a moment as the blue smoke disappeared into thin air and his nightcap fell back to its resting position along with his long blanket.
Astro let slip a disgruntled and overly exhausted whine as he slid his feet lazily to walk to his soft bed. He yawned as he let himself fall forward onto the plush mattress and exhaled deeply through his nose as he shut his tired eye to get himself some shut eye. ….Or so he thought, as he was startled awake by the agonizingly loud blaring of an airhorn right outside of his room.
He sat up straight and grumbled under his breath as he looked to his door and noticed a bright light out in the hall, which also had two long shadow’s signaling someone standing right outside his door.
“I HATE WAKING UP EARLY!!!” Followed by another airhorn and the rapid footsteps of the person yelling as he sprinted down the hallway and continued causing a ruckus.
“Guess I'm not getting any sleep today….” Astro rubbed his tired eye and reluctantly crawled out of bed and gripped onto his blanket as he–of course–brought it with him. He gently creaked his door open just enough for him to squeeze into the halls and joined the other toons who had just gotten up for the day.
Though his mind was extremely groggy and fuzzy, he could hear faint chatter of Brightney complaining about being woken up by Shrimpo–which Astro would wholeheartedly agree with–along with the others coming out of their rooms one by one. Poppy walked along with Glisten and listened to his agitated ramblings about how he was “gonna kill that shrimp one day” It was all a blur soon enough though as he got started for his day.
Every yawn and slow blink made him feel like he was skipping time. Was he dozing off each time without him realizing? Probably, yet nobody seemed to comment on it. Usually Sprout would be ready to give him a gentle shake to help him stay awake, but it seemed the Strawberry was busy doing something else at the moment.
He couldn’t help himself as he nearly flopped his head onto the small table he was sitting at as he was falling asleep. With a little shake of his head however, he was able to snap himself out of it. How long exactly could he keep doing this? He was unsure of.
Astro seemed to be on autopilot for the rest of the day because he barely even noticed the toon he just walked past was calling his name. He jumped a little when a green hand came in front of him and blocked his path from his mindless, zombie-like trudge down the hall.
“Relax, it’s just me!” Chirped Dandy.
Dandy was only given a faint mumble in response, which he definitely could not make out what he was even told. The short flower raised an eyebrow and looked incredulously at the taller toon.
“You alright, Astro?? You look tired- and I mean REALLY tired! More than usual.. Is something the matter?” Dandy questioned him with his hands behind his back along with a subtle head tilt and lean forward.
“Sorry it’s..-” Another yawn stopped his sentence, the moon boy raising one of his blanketed hands to his mouth to try and stifle it. “..I just.. Didn’t get any sleep at all last night. Y’know.. Making sure everyone has nice dreams and all. Gosh, Toodles was awake for so long it took forever for me to help Rodger put her to bed..” He tiredly ranted.
Dandy gave him a blank stare and simply blinked at him as he took in what he was just told. Without giving a verbal answer, he gripped onto the side of Astro’s blanket and started walking to his own room with him. Astro quietly attempted to protest along the way, but eventually gave in as he was brought to the flower’s colorful room.
“Dandy.. Wha-” He was shushed immediately as the flower closed and locked the door behind them both, and motioned with a smile to his bed. It was so much different than Astro’s. The bedsheets had rainbows going all the way down, with a white flower pattern in the center of it. It also was smaller than Astro’s–which wasn’t much of a surprise seeing how Dandy is the shortest toon.
Astro didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t for Dandy to switch the lights off and pull the covers of the bed back. With yet another wide grin, he motioned for Astro to come lay down.
“I… Dandy I.. appreciate it, but I don’t think I should. I mean- I have to be ready for tonight later too.”
“Pshh! Cmon, that’s HOURS from now. You have plenty of time to catch some Z’s before then.”
Astro stiffened his shoulders as he glanced off to the side to weigh his two options. While he did need the sleep, He also didn’t want to oversleep and not be able to check on every toon’s dreams for the next upcoming night. Even then, why should he need to? It’s his job pretty much to take care of dreams. Should he really be-
The flower grumbled and pouted as he paced over to Astro and practically shoved the taller toon towards the bed.
“C’mon, bud! Naptime!” Dandy persistently answered.
Astro kept protesting however was again stopped when Dandy made him sit on the bed. What he didn’t expect however, once he gave in and tucked himself in, was for Dandy to crawl under the covers along with him. A light blush spread to Astro’s cheeks at the thought of Dandy actually doing this. Sure, they were friends, best friends even if he wanted to say it. However, cuddling in bed together? That made his brain scramble at the idea of it. Did Dandy have any idea of what he was even doing? Oh gosh, he wrapped his arm around Astro and nestled against the other’s chest. Could he hear how fast Astro’s heart was beating? Dandy giggled as he peered up into Astro’s eyes and pulled the covers up even more.
“Gotta make sure you actually sleep, sooo guess I’m your extra pillow!” He snuggled even closer to the moon boy.
Astro was tense when this first all started, but.. As his mind wandered.. Dandy was actually pretty warm. The pillow and mattress was especially soft too…. With a deep sigh, Astro brought one of his arms out of his blanket and tucked it around Dandy’s back. He sank his head against the pillow, which put his chin right on top of Dandy’s head and his red petal.
Maybe Dandy was right, a little shut eye wouldn’t hurt right now.
Z z z