Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was just another morning, the same boring runs, the same annoying toons. Could they even make it a little different? At least throw some pins at Looey, Shrimpo thought while rolling his eyes. He casually picked at his food while staring at Finn and Looey throwing puns at each other again. He oddly didn’t mind it as much with Finn there, his chipped tooth showing as he smiled. He would never admit it but the fishbowl was the only tolerable one out of them all.
“?!”, he was snapped out of his thoughts as Finn tapped him on his shoulder causing him to accidentally fall back. “Oh cod, didn’t mean to scare you there! Are you good?”, he said and held out his hand to help him get up. Embarrassed by not noticing him standing there, Shrimpo got up on his own. “I’m fine…” he said, his face slightly flushed in embarrassment. “Well, I was shrimply wondering if you wanted to come with me for an early run!”, he said smiling yet again. T̶h̶a̶t̶ s̶m̶i̶l̶e̶ w̶a̶s̶ m̶o̶r̶e̶ t̶h̶a̶n̶ e̶n̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ t̶o̶ g̶e̶t̶ S̶h̶r̶i̶m̶p̶o̶ t̶o̶ c̶o̶m̶e̶.
“Fine, you’re lucky I’m too tired to argue today.”, he said and started walking towards the elevators. Finn followed him, his upbeat energy contrasting Shrimpo’s. “Glisten, ready to go?”, Finn said while walking over to him. Oh the others are going, Shrimpo thought with slight annoyance. He had thought it would just be the two of them. “Of course, what kind of star wouldn’t be ready on time~.”, Glisten said, cocky as usual. Shrimpo had to bite his tongue while Glisten gave him a teasing look.
“Come on, the elevator is going to close soon!”, Poppy shouted at them. Finn and the others picked up their pace heading inside. Soon the elevator was full with Rodger trying to reason with Toodles over wanting to distract. Like usual there was no way to convince her once she made up her mind. Glisten just laughed while Rodger sighed in defeat. Shrimpo rolled his eyes again and look up at the timer impatiently.
-Floor One-
Doors opening…

Chapter Text

After the door opened Toodles took off with Rodger running behind her. Glisten was still snickering as he followed the two. Teagan and Tisha also paired together trying to decide the details of the next tea party (literally being the only sane ones). Shrimpo and Finn left last, deciding to extract together.
Finn was doing the first one while Shrimpo was watching him from behind. He couldn’t help to show a small smile while Finn was humming a little sea shanty. He always did it whenever he was working or fishing w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ h̶e̶ h̶a̶d̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ o̶u̶t̶ t̶o̶ w̶a̶t̶c̶h̶ h̶i̶m̶ d̶o̶. Their peaceful moment was interrupted yet again by another toon, this time it was by the sound of screaming right after the power cut out. Both of them were slightly startled in the pitch black darkness.
Finn spoke up first, breaking the silence, “What was that…?”.
“I don’t know but it doesn’t sound good.” he said quietly, almost seeming worried for the toon. Shrimpo led the way to where it came from while holding Finn’s hand so he wouldn’t get lost in the dark, causing Finn to accidently blush. He said a silent prayer of thanks that it was too dark for Shrimpo to notice.
When they finally got to the main room it was an absolute mess. Toodles was panic running from Twisted Brightney, Tisha was rushing to finish the last machine with Teagan, and Glisten was hiding with a med kit behind a box.
“Stay here, I’ll deal with this…” Shrimpo said after letting go of his hand, like a tired mom having to deal with their idiot kids. Finn wanted to protest but decided to just keep his mouth shut. Shrimpo immediately got to work, grabbing Toodles and chucking a box at Brightney while snatching the med kit from Glisten to use on Toodles, ignoring his protests. After getting everyone into the elevator he ran in himself, tightly holding Toodles with his tail forgetting to return her to Rodger. Finn just stared at him awkwardly, while Rodger had just given up on asking for his kid back. Finn kind of thought it was adorable, but he couldn’t say that out loud without his glass getting shattered. He quickly took his eyes off of Shrimpo and looked up.
-Intermission-
Starting…

Chapter Text

Finn let out a small sigh of relief as the others started to pick up their conversations again. The only one who wasn’t talking was Shrimpo, still trying to count the others, after a minute of doing this he paused…
Six?
There shouldn’t be six- POPPY!, he mentally screamed to himself.
Damn it, she was definitely dead, he thought with annoyance and sighed. He was probably too focused to hear her lose her last heart. At least Toodles and the others were safe… Suddenly reminded that he had still been holding, a now sleeping, Toodles. He tried to gently set her down, but of course she refused to let go, still napping comfortably. He decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and glared at Finn as he stifled a laugh.
Finn just whispered “Sorry…”, and tried to pretend like he hadn’t noticed. At last Dandy’s shop finally popped up, causing everyone to put a stop on their conversations for a moment. Teagan was the first one to step up to the shop placing 55 tapes on the counter.
“One bandage please”, she said in her calm voice, almost as relaxing as a cup of tea itself. Dandy let out his usually “jolly” laugh in response, and grabbed it from the front table.
“One bandage coming right up!”, he said and handed her it after taking his pay. Teagan must have found them while Tisha was extracting, Rodger thought, analyzing everyone like usual. After the divorce he was always a bit bitter to Teagan, but overall they were fine being able to get along. Shrimpo paid no attention to them and marched up to the counter. Even just being near Dandy was enough to set him off, especially that stupid smile he always had. He finally set down the 55 tapes on the counter, trying to make the transaction as quick as he could. Dandy on the other hand wasn’t in a hurry at all. He casually stared at Toodle’s with a smirk, and started to get out the extra bandages in the back. Of course he could have just said that he only gave out what was on the table, but where’s the fun in that?
“So did Rodger need a new babysitter or…?”, he said with a teasing tone, trying to provoke him.
“I had to save her from getting killed, now get your sociopathic ass out of my business.” he said bluntly.
“Oh, I’m soo hurt, Miss I hate everyone.”, Dandy said sarcastically while tossing him the bandage. Shrimpo caught it and walked back over to Finn, making sure to not drop Toodles on accident. Finn just stared at them deadpanned. What was their problem?, he thought, still a bit in shock. The other toons seemed unbothered, having witnessed this a million times. He guessed this must happen on most of the runs when he isn’t there. He drifted his attention to Shrimpo yet again, he seemed to be a bit annoyed but not that angry to be honest. It was a bit baffling, especially with Dandy’s comment. Apparently the “miss” part didn’t get to him too much, even though he almost ripped his petals off. Toodles seemed to be waking up again, and just in time too…
-Floor 2-
Doors opening…

Chapter Text

The run started off normal, the same toons paired together and Shrimpo dropped off Toodle with Rodger so he could start extracting again. As he was looking for a machine he couldn’t help but feel like something was watching them.
It’s only floor 2, stop being so damn nervous, it’s not like Pebble is going to jump out at you., he thought to himself and continued through the halls. Finn was tailing behind him, seeming to also be on edge a bit. They finally reached a machine after a bit, with Shrimpo starting to extract this time. Finn was watching him with a sense of similar unease, causing him to accidentally hover over him anxiously. “Is something wrong…?”, Shrimpo said in his usual blunt tone, but it came off a bit more caring than usual. “I don’t need any kelp, just a bit on edge is all.”, Finn said in his usually cheerful tone, seeming to try and lighten the mood with a fish pun.
“This floor is a bit odd.”, Shrimpo said with a small smile, Finn looked a bit baffled but still lit up a bit at seeing it again.
“Tell me about it.”, he said with a laugh and casually looked around as if checking to make sure there was no one else there. He could hear a faint melody causing his smile to immediately drop. Dandy…? Wait no that doesn’t sound like him, he thought to himself. Shrimpo also seemed to pick up on it and quickly finished extracting,
“That doesn’t sound good…”, he said with a hint of fear in his voice. There’s no way in hell it could be Dandy, but still we should probably be careful-, he realized Finn was heading towards the sound interrupting his thoughts.
“FINN!”, he whisper shouted but it sounded less like a whisper than it should have. When Finn didn’t respond and instead started talking to someone else he bolted to him a bit panicked. “Umm, I think I found someone?” Finn said, his voice having a hint of curiosity in it. Shrimpo looked down at the toon who Finn was holding, they had purple petals (though a few had been ripped clean off) and a tired look. They seemed to be a bit younger than them, “Who are you guys…?”, she managed to say, seeming a bit dazed.
“My name’s Finn and that’s Shrimpo!”, he said, trying to calm her down, while Shrimpo just awkwardly waved.
“You can call me Lilac…” she said, seeming to drift off a bit while trying to make out Shrimpo’s face. The elevator alarm quickly went off before Finn could even ask her if “she was eeling ok?”. Finn decided that the joke was probably going to come off as annoying anyway and headed toward the elevator holding her. Lilac looked a bit alarmed, while they managed to get to the elevator in time, both of them were too relieved to notice that every toon was staring at them.
“Who’s that?”
Intermission
Starting…

Chapter Text

Glisten stared at both of them suspiciously while waiting on an answer. The others also stared at them, Toodles being held back by Rodger so she didn’t bother them.
“This is Lilac, we found her while we were extracting, she seemed to have been a bit lost.”, Finn said with a nervous smile, as if trying to reassure them she wasn’t a threat. He also seemed to realize he was still holding her and embarrassedly set her down.
“And why should we trust some random toon we’ve never seen before? She could be twisted for all we know.”, Glisten said unusually calm about the situation, even seeming a little bored.
“I have to agree with Glisten on that one..”, Tisha said with a bit of caution.
“Twisted can’t talk so obviously I’m not one.”, Lilac said a bit annoyed, seeming to interrupt the conversation.
“She does have a point…”, Rodger said while still holding an excited Toodles. Finn simply gave Glisten a look as if to prove he’s right, while Shrimpo reluctantly nodded.
“Fine, we’ll keep her for now, as long as we leave for Gardenview early…”, Glisten said shooting her an annoyed look h̶e̶’s̶ r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ t̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ h̶e̶r̶ l̶i̶k̶e̶ a̶ s̶t̶a̶y̶ d̶o̶g̶ r̶n̶ X̶D̶. Lilac didn’t look at him (due to her partial blindness), solidifying his annoyance. Soon the voting for the next card took place with the options being, each toon gets one heart, the floor gets brightened by 10% during a blackout, and each toon gets 30 tapes. Of course everyone chose the heart option, including Lilac who also got a vote surprisingly. Finn and Shrimpo, who were now happily chatting in the corner, both didn’t get much out of it since they still had 3 hearts. Lilac, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief as her heart count went from one to two. Finn still was holding her hand to make sure she didn’t fall down or run into anybody, just in case.
Later this led to Glisten (it’s always him isn’t it), making a joke about them being the “dads of the group”. Teagan and the others laughed a bit, lightening the mood. Shrimpo just blushed and told him to shut up, meanwhile Finn was too embarrassed to say anything. Toodles decided to ask how someone could have two dads, leading to another one hour explanation. Lilac rolled her eyes with a smirk, she couldn’t help but think that the two were a bit cute together…
-Ground Floor- [Gardenview]
Doors Opening…

Chapter Text

The elevator quickly filtered out, with Shrimpo, Finn, and Lilac being the last ones to leave. Lilac quickly left to the med bay after hearing someone mention one, accidentally running into Astro. Finn slightly grimaced at the sight, but decided it was better to just go to his room for the time being. They both walked into the elevator and hit their floor number.
You could cut the tension with a knife. Shrimpo was awkwardly fidgeting, seeming to accidently stare at Finn. In return he blushed a small shade of blue and tried to stare to the floor, not wanting to speak up first. “You did a good job back there.”, Shrimpo said bluntly, he was clearly trying to ease some of the growing tension.
“Oh- um, thank you…?”, Finn stammered out, blushing a bit more.
“Don’t mention it.”, he muttered, his face turning a bit red himself.
A few minutes pass by…
“Would you want to-”, Finn said, quickly cut off by the sound of the elevator opening. “Got to go, seal you later!”, Finn blurted out as he quickly left for his room.
“Sure…”, Shrimpo said, looking at him a bit suspiciously. What had that been about?, Shrimpo thought to himself as the doors closed.
-Later-
A knock was heard on Shrimpo’s door. He glanced at the clock, apparently it was 3:00 am. After a moment he sluggishly got up and went to the door, slightly cracking it open.
“Finn?! Why are you here?”, he accidentally yelled, staring at him like his glass was broken.
“I…had a nightmare.” Finn said in a hushed tone, feeling a bit like an idiot. He was hoping Shrimpo would believe his lie, and not figure out he just missed him.
“You can come in…” Shrimpo said a bit quieter than before. He looked at him caringly, seeming to relax now that the other toons couldn’t see them.“Really?” Finn said with relief and a bit of shock.
“Really.” Shrimpo reassured him, leading him inside his room. He casually kicked a punching bag out of the way as he walked in. Finn shuffled in behind him and sat on the edge of his bed, trying to not overstep any boundaries.
“You know you can actually use the bed right..?” Shrimpo said, already half asleep under the torn up blankets he had as “sheets”.
“Are you sure?” Finn said as he slided under the blankets. He was only a few inches from Shrimpo, which diffidently didn’t help his anxiety.
Instead of answering Shrimpo just hugged him close and gently tried to get him to stop his slight shaking. Finn’s face flushed with an even darker shade of blue as he leaned into his touch.
As he drifted off to sleep he couldn’t help but wonder how the others could hate him…

Chapter Text

BANG BANG BANG 

Shrimpo let out a small groan. People really didn’t want to leave him alone lately.

“What was-”, Finn muttered right before Tisha cut him off. “Shrimpo, you’re late for breakfast! If I want to clean the tables on schedule, I need you to finish soon.”, she said in a matter of fact type of way. She quickly left before Shrimpo could answer.  

“I guess we should get up…”, he said, quickly getting up only to realize he forgot to bring clothes to Shrimpo’s room. Fuck, he thought while trying to think of what he could wear besides his shark pajamas. Shrimpo just stared at him for a minute before saying anything. 

“Do you need clothes?”, Shrimpo said relatively unfazed. “Y-yes…”, he said, as his face turned a darker blue yet again. “Take mine, I’ll just change in the bathroom.”, he muttered as he tossed him a shirt and pants. Finn stood there and blushed even more as he caught the clothes and quickly changed before Shrimpo came back out. 

He’s so pearl-ty like that, Finn thought while a half asleep Shrimpo groggily left the bathroom and dragged them both to the cafeteria. At this point he was just fine with the fact that he held his hand the entire way there e̶v̶e̶n̶ t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ F̶i̶n̶n̶ w̶a̶s̶ p̶r̶a̶c̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ o̶u̶t̶ o̶f̶ b̶r̶e̶a̶t̶h̶ x̶p̶. Soon they both took their minds off of each other and grabbed some food. 

Breakfast doesn’t look half bad today, Finn thought while digging into the pancakes. He was still a bit worried about the few toons who happened to notice him wearing Shrimpo’s clothes c̶o̶u̶g̶h̶-t̶o̶t̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ n̶o̶t̶ G̶o̶o̶b̶. Meanwhile, Shrimpo was praying there wouldn’t be a run today. Halfway through breakfast he dozed off again and passed out on Finn’s shoulder. “You dumbbass..”, Finn whispered with a small laugh. 

-After Breakfast- 

Finn had just checked up on Lilac in the med bay and was heading back out with Shrimpo in tow when they were suddenly bombarded to help bake by a certain berry…

“Come on, please Finn! You guys are the only ones that aren’t on a run and we’re so far behind.”, Sprout pleaded as he tried to make him cave in. “We’re busy too and last time I checked Rodger was still at his desk with nothing better to do. Now let's go Finn-”, Shrimpo said a bit agitated before Finn interrupted his little rant. “Fine, if you reelly want us to, we would love to kelp out!”, Finn said with too much energy for 8am in the morning. “Great, we’ll start now so we can finish early!”, Sprout beamed and started dragging Finn to the kitchen despite the requests for him to slow down. Shrimpo just sighed and slowly tailed behind the two. 

This was going to be a long day… 

Chapter Text

Sprout pulled out his cookbook, quickly flipping through the pages. “Found it!”, he chirped, breaking the stiff silence. Shrimpo and Finn both snuck a quick glance at the recipe. Oh, we’re making cookies, Shrimpo thought, still a bit baffled as to how the three of them were going to pull this off.
“Whale let’s get to work then!”, Finn said as he looked at Sprout expectantly. “Ok, now Shrimpo you’ll get the flour, Finn you’ll get the sugar and salt, and I’ll get the wet ingredients.”, Sprout said knowingly, he had probably done this a million times by now. Shrimpo did a small nod of acknowledgement meanwhile Finn was already grabbing the salt and sugar. After they set the ingredients on the counter, Sprout quickly got them both to work making the batter, each doing a half.
It wasn’t that bad of a task in Shrimpo’s opinion, even with Finn’s a̶d̶o̶r̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ annoying rambles about ocean life.
Soon, Finn had molded the last ball of batter and set it on baking sheets for Sprout to set into the oven. Sprout happily put on his oven mitts upon noticing and picked up the sheets, setting them gently down on the oven racks before pressing the “start” button. “Thanks for the help.”, he said tiredly as he started to clean up some of the counters. “No problem, let minnow if you need anything else.”, Finn yelled as he and Shrimpo left the kitchen.
A few minutes go by in silence, with both of them peacefully walking around Gardenview. They had accidently ended up in the flower section, a small green house of sorts Dandy was in charge of. It was truly a sight with well kept flowers of a vast variety. Finn, who had accidently been holding Shrimpo’s hand, let go of his hand and bolted over to a flower. Shrimpo just raised an eyebrow at his sudden reaction, wondering what demanded his attention so much. “Hey this one looks just, like you!”, Finn said as he showed him the tiger lily. Shrimpo walked closer and stared at it curiously, then let out a small laugh.
“I guess it really does…”

Chapter Text

-The Next Day-
Waiting.
That’s what Shrimpo had been doing for the past hour. He knew it was a little creepy to be the only one up, but that wasn’t important right now. All that mattered was Finn. He couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious as he hit the button to floor 2, the same floor Finn lived on. He sighed as he quietly waited yet again, though this time the quiet only worsened his thoughts.
What if he doesn’t like it?
What if it’s not enough?
What if he just sees me as a bully?
He took a deep breath to quiet his thoughts and tightened his grip on the small bouquet of tiger lilies and blue roses. He had convinced Dandy, although they still weren’t on good terms, to give him some of his flowers in return for tapes. It wasn’t cheap with Dandy’s rates but at least he got Finn something to make the confession go a little bit better.
The elevator opened just a minute later and he quickly stepped out heading for Finn’s room before any of the other toons could see him. Once he got to Finn’s door he held up his hand to knock and…
He hesitated.
Was this really a good idea?
Finn was sweet, sure, but he never showed any interest in him in that way. B̶r̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ n̶e̶w̶s̶ t̶h̶e̶ g̶a̶y̶ b̶o̶y̶ i̶s̶ o̶v̶e̶r̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ h̶i̶s̶ e̶n̶t̶i̶r̶e̶ r̶e̶l̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶h̶i̶p̶. Maybe I should just go back…, he thought to himself. He was about to leave before a familiar face opened the door. “Oh, hey Shrimpo! I was just finn-ing to leave- oh u-um…”, he said as his face turned dark blue.
There was a moment of silence.
“Are those for me…?”, he managed to stamper out as he started at Shrimpo, still awestruck.
“Uh yeah, I get it if you don’t like it. You don’t have to take them if you don’t want to-?!”, Shrimpo’s anxious rant was quickly cut off my Finn’s kiss. After a minute he pulled away. Shrimpo didn’t say anything leading to an awkward silence
“Was that too much or-”, Finn muttered a bit concerned before Shrimpo pulled him into another kiss before they pulled away again. He let out a small giggle.
“I guess not~”