Chapter Text
It had been about two weeks since Dandy’s heat had ended, and everything was going smoothly.
The spring heat had lasted approximately a week before everything began to calm down, Dandy’s twisted traits began to shrink away, and the drive that had kept both him and Astro awake for days melted away enough for them to realize just how exhausted they were. The two wasted over half a day just sleeping off their fatigue and aching muscles before finally becoming motivated and cleaning themselves up enough to leave Dandy’s room and face the others.
Surprisingly, the “Dandy got sick so Astro quarantined and took care of him” excuse worked almost flawlessly. A few toons seemed concerned and Sprout got slightly huffy over Dandy not just asking him for a heal, but nobody got too suspicious or held their week-long absence against them. Pebble was the only one who acted upset over being “abandoned,” refusing to even look his owner or the moon toon in the eye, but was over it and happily asleep in Dandy’s lap just a minute later.
Even more surprisingly, Dandy and Astro did a remarkable job at hiding their relationship during those weeks as well. There wasn’t any real reason to be so secretive about it—not a soul in Gardenview would ever protest the two being together—but the flower and moon agreed that keeping it a secret was sort of fun until they were sure they were ready for everyone to know. The fact that Astro and Dandy had already been extremely close before they started dating made things easier, given that they were only a bit more openly touchy and attached than they’d been before, but, regardless, one toon noticed instantly.
Dandy and Astro were relaxing beneath the Gardenview lobby’s tree one afternoon, the moon resting his tired head against Dandy’s shoulder as the man excitedly updated Astro on the status of his greenhouse, when Brightney stepped out into the lobby. The lamp toon took one look at the couple before squealing and throwing her hands up into the air. “I KNEW IT!” she practically screamed, voice echoing around the empty floor. The woman didn’t give either toon a chance to recover or speak a word before she was assuring them she wouldn’t tell anyone, tightly hugging them both, and enthusiastically waving them goodbye as she skipped away.
“Oh,” Dandy said faintly before both toons snorted and began to laugh, embarassed and shy but admittedly happy to have a friend like her.
As Dandy said, life in Gardenview was weirdly perfect… except for one little thing.
He knew he was likely just imagining things, but Dandy felt as if the cramps that came with his heat never fully went away. Astro tried to reassure Dandy one day (as the flower was miserably laying on top of him to use him as a heating pad) that his body likely just needed time to recover after such an intense heat, but Dandy couldn’t help but think, after weeks without any improvement, that there had to be something wrong.
…Still, the pain was mild enough to be easily bearable, and Dandy subconsciously began to dismiss the annoying cramps as just something to do with his period as the days went on. …Well, not that the flower had yet gotten his period that month, but that was probably just a side effect of his heat, too.
There simply wasn’t any other explanation that made sense. There wasn’t.
Dandy shook his head to rid his thoughts of all that silly negativity. Today wasn’t the day to be negative, after all; any second now, Astro was to arrive to sleep over in Dandy’s room. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary—the two had sleepovers together nearly every night—but Dandy still got excited every time regardless. He changed into his favorite pajama pants and shirt and was arranging the pillows and blankets on his bed into a “nest” (they had begun making nests on Dandy’s bed jokingly as kids before realizing they were actually quite comfortable) when a knock at the door caught his attention.
Dandy beamed, giddy and hopelessly in love. “Come in!”
Even in his pajamas, Astro looked annoyingly graceful and attractive. His blue and purple pajama pants were baggy and soft like Dandy’s, but the design of his shirt, curved in at the sides to hug a bit more around the middle of his torso, effortlessly showed off his distracting figure.
Astro laughed amusedly when he caught the other man staring. “My eyes are up here, silly,” the moon teased, bending down to smirk jokingly in Dandy’s face.
The flower took the opportunity to whack him in the face with the pillow in his hand, flustered by Astro’s words but cackling anyway. “Shut up and help me, idiot.”
He and Astro completed the nest together with the absurd number of blankets the moon brought and Dandy closed the curtains to his bed canopy once they were both comfy, enclosing them both in the space like a fort. Astro wasted no time once they were done, immediately rolling over and wrapping his arms and part of his favorite blanket around his boyfriend.
“I love you,” Astro said simply, stating it as if it were some obvious, indisputable fact. He began leaving small, delicate kisses on Dandy’s face until the petaled toon couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“I love you, too,” Dandy said back between giggles. He took Astro’s face in his hands, smooshing his differently colored cheeks, and kissed him gently on the lips, smiling when the moon didn’t hesitate to kiss back.
Astro didn’t push him, but tilted his head to give Dandy permission to deepen the kiss, which the flower did instantly with enthusiasm. Dandy huffed when the moon’s longer tongue swiped against his own and sneakily scooted himself into Astro’s lap, adjusting himself until he was sitting with his crotch high on the main toon’s leg. Dandy thought he was being subtle, carefully grinding up against just Astro’s thigh, but the moon pulled away and gave Dandy a knowing, entertained look after only a moment.
“You know you should be taking it easy for a while, baby,” Astro reminded him, raising his brows and keeping the flower’s waist still.
Dandy groaned, blushing dark with embarrassment and frustration. “But, Astroooo...” Knowing there wasn’t any real use complaining, Dandy dramatically flopped down on the bed beside the moon, grumbling grumpily about being teased while Astro just chuckled at him.
“I know; you’re so deprived, my poor flower,” Astro cooed, but Dandy already knew from the tone of his voice that he was being made fun of.
Dandy pouted for a minute more, just to emphasize his point, before remembering something and perking up again, just as energetic as he’d been before.
“Oh, right!” The flower climbed out of bed quickly without explanation and began to drag his little boxy TV (and the rolling table it was sat upon) to the foot of his bed, re-parting the canopy curtains there so that they could see its screen from within the nest. He showed Astro, who’d been watching him curiously, a small stack of tapes when he returned.
“Here, I found some old human movies in the handlers’ leftover stuff the other day… Do ya wanna try and watch a few?” Dandy grinned excitedly and Astro’s normal eye widened in interest. Once the moon nodded, the flower allowed Astro to take the tapes and choose one at random to slip into the VCR.
The movie was an admittedly unoriginal comedy-romance that neither toon could fully understand, but was still a nice background noise as Astro and Dandy cuddled up and enjoyed the peace together. It had taken them both a while to become comfortable watching movies with humans in them, after all the trauma Delilah Keen had given the toons, and, even now, they only ever watched them out of interest in the settings and the world outside of Gardenview. Dandy didn’t think this movie’s scenes were anything out of the ordinary, but Astro suddenly perked up during a section involving the characters on a date at a restaurant.
Astro smiled sheepishly at the slight surprise on Dandy’s face when he glanced over. “Sorry, just thinking,” the moon explained happily, nuzzling into the flower’s chest. “I should take you on a date sometime, hmm?”
Dandy giggled at the thought, trying to hide how much it alone made him blush. He tried to play it off like it wasn’t something he wanted more than anything, but already knew he wasn’t anywhere close to convincing. “Pfft, you don’t have to do all that,” Dandy reassured him. “Besides, I doubt something like that is even possible here, goof.”
“Hey, don’t underestimate me,” Astro joked. “You’ll answer your door one day and I’ll be waiting for you in a suit with a horse-drawn chariot, just you wait.”
“Oh my god.”Dandy cringed at the mental image but laughed at it just the same. He playfully shoved at Astro’s shoulder, which earned him an obnoxious kiss in return, which then resulted in a full-blown tickle fight, one that Dandy, lacking an extra pair of arms, was sorely losing at.
The two played like kids until the movie tape popped out of the VCR and they were both too exhausted to move a muscle. At one point, Dandy rolled over to lay tangled up with his boyfriend and Astro flicked off the lights and TV with his magic, leaving the room illuminated by only Astro’s star eye and body. The moon and flower drifted from there, cuddling close to sleep comfortably until morning.
Something was extremely, terribly wrong. Dandy jolted awake to waves upon waves of dizzying nausea and the feeling of his stomach churning almost violently. He shot up out of bed, prying himself out of Astro’s arms and nearly tripping over the bed’s canopy as he stumbled urgently towards the bathroom. The moment he got there, the flower was hunched over the toilet, painfully vomiting out his insides and slumping down to his knees. Dandy gagged and choked until he had nothing left in him to throw up, and the man was still trembling and coughing on the bathroom floor when his partner finally burst in.
Astro took one look at the shivering flower before he dropped down to his knees and swept Dandy into a comforting hug. Dandy didn’t know why, but he felt suddenly too emotional to speak or do anything but whimper as his eyes filled with tears. The petaled toon sobbed inconsolably in the moon’s arms as Astro soothingly stroked Dandy’s back and whispered little reassurances until the crying toon began to calm down. Dandy sniffled and wiped his eyes once his terrified cries finally subsided, feeling a little embarrassed.
“S-sorry,” the flower mumbled, “dunno why I… D-didn’t mean to wake you up…”
“It’s alright… You’re alright, baby, don’t apologize.” Astro tilted his head to kiss Dandy’s temple. “Did something happen, darling? You just woke up feeling sick?”
Dandy nodded sheepishly, still feeling ashamed, for some reason.
The moon toon just frowned, studying his face and drooping petals. “Mm, you haven’t eaten anything weird, have you? You’re probably getting sick… Actually, this time.”
Dandy laughed a little, grateful for the small attempt to lighten the mood. Astro had always been good at easily making him feel better. When he finally felt ready, the flower toon detangled himself from Astro’s arms and shakily stood up, somehow managing to keep his balance.
“Thank you,” Dandy whispered, grateful for both Astro’s help in calming him down and in steadying him when he stood up, too. The flower realized only then how filthy he felt and how disgusting he must have smelled.
Astro nodded. “Do you need anything? Water, medicine…?”
Dandy quickly shook his head. “I’ll be alright, I was just going to clean myself up… You can go back to bed, Moonie.”
The main didn’t protest him wanting to wash up, but refused to let Dandy pretend he wouldn’t need something to drink. “I’m going to try and find you a seltzer water; it’s supposed to help if you’re feeling sick, I think. …Just call for me if you need me?”
Astro looked worried, still, but left the bathroom to give Dandy some privacy when the flower agreed. Dandy flushed the toilet and shoved his toothbrush, which Astro had already thoughtfully put toothpaste on, into his mouth before he allowed himself to think.
“You’re probably getting sick,” Dandy quoted Astro in his head, but couldn’t accept the likely possibility no matter how hard he tried. He had gotten nauseous while sick before, but never so badly that he had been woken up like that. Not to mention, it couldn’t be normal to get cramps like his while ill, could it? Dandy couldn’t understand what was happening to him, but realized abruptly that he might have a way to find out. The many books and belongings the humans had left behind weren’t looked through often, but Dandy hoped that if he found the right thing—a medical book, maybe—he’d be able to figure out what sort of weird sickness he had or whatever else could be making him feel like this.
Dandy spit out the toothpaste in his mouth and rinsed out his toothbrush, sighing. That’ll have to be an adventure for tomorrow… The flower yawned and left his bathroom to curl back up in bed with his love.