Chapter Text
He couldn’t find himself able to look at him for longer than 5 seconds at first.
Just another Toon, he thought.
Five. Ten. Thirty. A minute. Three minutes. Now, he just couldn’t stop looking.
Why must he feel this way towards someone like him? Looey wasn’t his person. Cosmo was.
Sprout laid his head on his table in exhaustion. After baking all night with Cosmo as a special gift for the other Toons, he hadn’t gotten any sort of sleep. Nights weren’t always like this, though. To him, however, it felt like that’s what they’ve been like from the beginning. But hey, Cosmo thought it’d be a great idea, so why wouldn’t he do it for his best buddy?
“Sprout? You doin’ alright,” said a soft voice that gently grazed him. He lifted his head slowly, blinking a couple of times to address the lighting of the area. He couldn’t quite pinpoint the Toon that the voice belonged to.
“Huh? What?”
“You’ve been sitting there knocked out for..what, 30 minutes now? I got worried, so I wanted to check on you.”
Sprout sat up a bit more. Shelly.
“Oh, I’m fine. Just real sleepy. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Shelly leaned closer to Sprout, a concerned look on her face. “Aw, poor Toon..” She placed a small glass of something in front of Sprout. He turned his head to look at it. It was a cup of cold water.
“Thank you Shelly.”
“Of course Sprout! Please, let me know if anything’s wrong! I know you’ve got my back, so I’ll be sure that I’ve got yours!”
“..Yes. I will, Shelly.”
Shelly smiled toothily, before turning away and skipping towards a group of Toons. Sprout couldn’t help but spare a glance over. It happened to be the circus trio.
Blot, Yatta, and Looey. Looey..
Sprout shook his head, trying to rid of the weird fog he’d get whenever he stared at Looey. But once he looked, it was hard to stop. He tried to keep himself from being too obvious. He’d continue staring. Watching.
The trio were performing tricks for Shelly, earning a gentle applause from her. Looey seemed to be a bit shy while doing them, as if he didn’t know if he was doing them right. It was out of the ordinary for Looey. Sprout was a bit astonished that Shelly hadn’t noticed, considering the fact that she was always a caring person who knew whenever someone was feeling off.
Or maybe it was because he’d watched him enough to pinpoint differences in his behavior. While Sprout didn’t want to come to that conclusion, it was plausible.
After Shelly went to go chatter with other Toons, the trio split to do other things, leaving Looey standing alone. Sprout could tell his smile faltered a bit now that he was left alone. He started to walk somewhere. Sprout had a growing urge to follow him. He held back, hesitating for as long as he could, but as Looey passed a corner, he couldn’t wait any longer.
Sprout sat up, grabbing his cup of water and beginning to hastily make his way towards Looey. As the space between them grew smaller, Looey suddenly paused and quickly turned around, flinching. Sprout was caught off guard too, stopping dead in his tracks. The sudden pause made a bit of the cold water splash onto his scarf.
Looey’s ears flattened against his head. He quickly began to stammer and attempt to apologize.
“Sprout! I’m.. I'm so sorry! I didn’t know you were behind me and I got startled but- I didn’t know you had the water in your hand and all and-..”
Sprout put a hand up, shaking his head slightly in reassurance. “Hey, Looey, it’s okay. It’s my fault for walking so close behind you. You didn’t know I was there.” Sprout looked down at the darkened spot on his scarf where the water had splashed. I mean, it was just water. It’d dry up eventually.
Looey fiddled with his hands for a moment, before subtly putting his outgoing and bubbly attitude on. He looked up at Sprout.
“So, did you need me for anything? Want me to perform an act for ya?”
“Well, no, I..” Sprout trailed off. The way Looey’s demeanor swapped so easily almost unsettled him. He seemed obviously bothered by something from afar, but now that he’s right in front of him, it’s like he hallucinated it all.
“..I forgot, actually.” Sprout’s tone blanked. He lowered his hand, sighing and outstretching his other, offering Looey his water.
“You looked thirsty though. I have water, if you’d like some. It’s cold.”
Looey, chuckled awkwardly, hesitantly taking the water. “Ah, thank you..Sprout. I was actually getting a bit hot in here.”
“Of course Looey.”
The two stood there in awkward silence. They both waited for the other to speak for a moment. Sprout eventually realized Looey’d never speak up first, speaking in a quieter tone.
“I’m going to get going. Cosmo’s probably wondering where I am.”
“Ah, yes yes! I’ll talk to you later, Sprout!”
Sprout slowly turned, walking off without looking back. Cosmo..
He found himself thinking of Cosmo before himself. It scared him sometimes, especially when he’d do it without realizing. He figured that they were close friends, but not this close.
As he walked down the hall, maneuvering his way around toons, he made it to the kitchen, where he figured Cosmo would be. And there he was, reading a couple of papers calmly in a chair. Sprout approached him, his mood brightening slightly.
“Hey Cos!”
Cosmo turned around, the corners of his mouth going from ear to ear at the sight of his best friend. “Sprout! What’s up?”
“Oh nothing. I was just talking to the other Toons out there! I wanted to see how you were holding up too!”
Cosmo turned in his chair, holding some slightly crumpled papers in front of Sprout. “Well, I’ve been reading up on special desserts to make for tomorrow night! I’m not sure whether I want to make chocolate stuffed croissants or macarons..”
Sprout tilted his head. Tomorrow night? What was tomorrow night? He grabbed a chair, dragging it underneath him and sitting next to Cosmo.
“Is there anything planned for tomorrow night?”
“Yup! The circus trio are planning a wonderful performance for both the Gardenview children and Toons! I wanted to bake some lovely sweet treats for them to eat up as they watched! Maybe even a specially made dish for the circus trio?”
Sprout’s eyes widened slightly. A performance? How come he wasn’t told sooner? “Huh.. well I had no idea about their performance! I’m glad you told me, now we can plan some nice sweets together!”
Cosmo giggled, passing him a paper filled with recipes on it. “Of course Sprout! You usually always come up with amazing ideas when it comes to baking! Now lets browse through these, shall we?”
Sprout nodded, holding the paper to his face. As he scanned through the recipes, his mind wandered off about..Looey, again. It was brief, though a question did flash across his mind. Why didn’t Looey tell him while he was there with him?
Hours pass, and sunset is dawning the skies in orangey-yellow hues. The Toons are at bay, relaxing in their rooms and talking amongst themselves. Sprout had been carrying baking sheets back to the kitchen when he noticed Looey, who was sitting outside his door. He was holding his knees, his head halfway obscured by them. He looked distressed, zoned out in whatever he was thinking about at the time.
Sprout stared at him blankly for a couple of moments. He put down the baking paper, beginning to walk towards him. Looey didn’t bat an eye. He was barely aware of his surroundings, too lost in thought to consider anyone around him.
Sprout stood over him, beginning to lean down and tap Looey on the shoulder lightly. Immediately after, Looey yelped and flinched, once again spooking Sprout as well. Looey’s ears fell flat as he tried to apologize, only to be cut off by Sprout.
“Hey, I want to know if you’ve been doing alright. Seriously.”
Looey took a shaky breath. He shrugged slowly, shaking his head and feigning confusion. “What do you mean? I’m..I’m completely alright!”
“Well, when you’re sitting outside of your room and cradling yourself while barely being attentive to your surroundings, it’s hard to see it being that way.”
Looey looked off to the side. His tail tapped the ground softly. “..It’s nothing much, Sprout. Just anxiety..I’ll be over it soon though. Sitting outside my room and living in my thoughts usually helps me out.”
Sprout had a hard time believing what Looey was saying, but who was to doubt him. He knew he got anxious about things sometimes, and he also knew that he had his own way of coping with it. Prodding at Looey for a reason would only make him feel worse, so Sprout eventually stood up, patting him on the head for a moment.
“Alright..Just tell me if you want to talk about anything. You can open up to me.”
Looey nodded, beginning to wave as Sprout started off back where he came from. He sighed, resting his head in his knees once more. Sprout looked back at him. He still felt concerned. It was an odd level of concern though.
While yes, he always pays attention to the moods of other Toons, he’s only ever felt this concerned about a Toon when it was Cosmo, which was something he felt was out of his own control. It wasn’t something he was used to.
He couldn’t fall out of being by Cosmo’s side. That’s what he’s supposed to be for. He felt it’d be fine though. As long as he could keep it balanced between the two, he wanted to be there for Looey. And for the rest of the Toons, yes, but.. particularly for him. He needed it.