Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shrimpo laid on his bed in his room, staring at the ceiling. Crumpled papers laid around him, scribbled on and then promptly crushed when they weren’t up to his standards. Why was thinking of things Connie liked so hard?

It had been a couple weeks since Connie had given him a chance at being a couple. Things had been going decently, at the very least. They had been hanging out more, getting to know more about each other (as hard as it was to get Shrimpo to open up), and having some fun together. Their favorite activity turned out to be pranking others, naturally. It annoyed the others of Gardenview to no end, knowing Connie now had a willing accomplice. At least Shrimpo was no longer malicious and had turned to mostly harmless jokes. The toons were grateful for that part.

Still, he had the feeling he should be doing more than just talking to her and being nice. Couples got each other gifts, right? They did things for each other. He wanted to do something like that.

He had already tried to get her something, and that ended horribly, so he figured that was out of the question. Maybe he could make her something? But he was horrible with crafts. He ended up ripping and breaking most things before they were done.

He growled to himself and shifted to his side, before deciding to just get up entirely. Maybe a walk around Gardenview would give him some ideas.

He slipped on the spiked cuffs sitting on his dresser and stepped out the door, hands in his hoodie pockets.

Not many toons were out and about. Most were in their own rooms or the commons. But there was one toon who was out, and suddenly, Shrimpo got an idea when he saw who it was. He ran off to grab something, having a feeling he was going to need it.

Cosmo stood in the kitchen, mixing the dough for the pastries. Some flour was on his face, and he had given up trying to wipe it off a few minutes ago. Baking was always so nice. Therapeutic even. He could get lost in his own world for hours if no one stopped him. The kitchen was his safe haven, away from his anxieties.

That all came crashing down when an orange toon in a maroon hoodie entered his sight, stomping towards him.

“COSMO!” Shrimpo boomed, causing him to recoil. Despite chilling out and apparently now even dating Connie (he had no clue how the shrimp pulled that off), he was still as boisterous as ever.

“W-what is it Shrimpo?” he stammered. Was he here to complain about the food? Maybe he had burnt something that was served to him. Ma-

“Can you teach me how to bake?” he growled, not making eye contact.

Oh.

Huh.

“I- you want me to teach you?” Cosmo asked, utterly bewildered.

“I didn’t stutter, did I?” he huffed.

“I- w-why do you want me to?” The cake roll stuttered.

“I- none of your business.”

Hmm. He had a hunch… “It’s not… Connie… is it-“

“Just shut up and teach me- please,” Shrimpo added. Before Cosmo could say anything else, an object was thrust at him. “Use this the next time you’re on a run or something.” It was a medkit.

Cosmo tentatively took it, checking and inspecting it. Yeah, it was a medkit alright. “Where did you…”

“Don’t tell Dandy,” the shrimp ordered.

“Did… did you steal-“

“Not like he was gonna sell us them anyways, the dirty hoarder. Selling us candies when we’re all clearly about to die,” he spat. Cosmo couldn’t really argue with him there.

“So… is this… a bribe or something?” he asked.

“Call it that if you want, whatever will get you to show me how to bake something,” Shrimpo huffed

“You’re really determined… a-alrighty then, I’ll teach you. Just… please, don’t make a mess.”

“No promises.”

Shrimpo was surprisingly compliant. Cosmo would have expected him to argue constantly, but he did exactly what was asked of the best he could. He seemed to genuinely want to learn, which was completely foreign to the swiss roll.

“One cup of flour?” he asked. Cosmo nodded, and he poured it in the bowl. “Ok, what next?”

“Uhhh… can you get the milk and eggs from the fridge?” Cosmo asked. Shrimpo complied, trotting over and grabbing the items.

Cosmo still wasn’t used to this side of the shrimp, and he wasn’t sure if he ever would be. Just his presence still made the swiss roll uneasy, like he was standing next to a detonator, about to explode. Yet he hadn’t. It was still so weird.

A crunch sounded from his right, and he whipped his head around to see what had caused it. Shrimpo had dropped the eggs, and was starting to shake furiously. “I- GH- GHRHAAA,” he growled, slamming his fists and then his head down on the counter.

“H-hey, calm down!” Cosmo said, rushing over to him. “We have more eggs, i-it’s not a big deal. Really.” Shrimpo just huffed in response. The roll opened the fridge and got out two more eggs”. “S-see? Not an issue.”

“If you say so,” the shrimp growled in response. At least he was somewhat calm now.

The rest of the baking went much better. Well mixed and shaped, all they had to do was bake. Cosmo slid the tray into the oven before sitting down. Shrimpo joined him, having “nothing better to do” in his own words.

He had to admit, he had been curious just how Shrimpo and Connie had gotten together, and now seemed like the perfect time to ask.

“So… Shrimpo,” he started. “You and Connie… how’d that happen?”

“Personal,” was the only reply he got back. Ah. Well, so much for that.

“O-oh, ok. Sorry,” he stammered. They sat there in silence for a while before Shrimpo let out a sigh.

“She’s really cool. And kind of funny. I like her. And she’s giving me a chance to prove I’m not the jerk I was and I can be a decent person to her. Does that answer your question, pastry boy?”

He supposed it did. “Y-Yeah, that makes sense,” Cosmo answered, nodding along.

“Good, ‘cuz that’s all you’re getting,” he grumbled, turning away. For all his development, he supposed Shrimpo was still Shrimpo.

After what seemed like an eternity, the oven dinged, and Cosmo jumped out to take the pastries out.

“These look like they turned out great Shrimpo!” he said with pride.

“Whatever,” the shrimp huffed in return. “… thanks… I guess.”

“No problem,” Cosmo waved him off. He slid some of the pastries off onto a plate and handed them to Shrimpo. “I’m sure Connie will love them.”

“…I hope so.”

Connie, meanwhile, was in her room, writing down plans for her next haunt. Perhaps she could sneak into one of Teagan’s parties and spin the kettle around again… that was always funny. But it was getting predictable, and she didn’t want that.

She would usually go after Boxten, but after her recent Shrimpo assisted prank, she didn’t want to put him through another scare so soon. He might actually get mad one of these times.

Maybe she could rearrange all the stuff in the kitchen and make it float around whenever Cosmo or Sprout tried to bake something! But then she might have to make her own food… not ideal.

Her thoughts were cut short at a knocking on the door. “Door’s open,” she shouted. The knob turned and Shrimpo walked in, holding a plate of pastries.

“Oh! Hey man, what’s up?” she asked.

He shifted his feet as he looked down with a scowl. “I… here,” he said, suddenly thrusting the plate at her.

“Crepes?” she questioned. Shrimpo nodded. “Thanks,” she said as she took one, taking a bite. “Oh hey, pretty good. Did Cosmo make these?”

“Partly. I… I helped,” he muttered.

“…I didn’t take you as one to bake.”

“I don’t. I got Cosmo to teach me. Somewhat.”

Connie looked at Shrimpo. She couldn’t imagine his old self doing something like this. There was that touched and honored feeling again, like when he tried to get her the tapes. “Aw, someone trying to be all kind and stuff? But seriously, you didn’t have to do that,” she added.

“I… I wanted to. Do you want the crepes or not.”

“No, I do,” she hurriedly said. They were pretty good. “I appreciate it man.”

Shrimpo sat the plate down next to her and started to walk out.

“Wait, where are you going?”

He stopped and shrugged.

“Why not stay a minute? You could help me come up with details for my next haunt. Also, have a crepe. You baked them, have one.”

“I- fine,” he grumbled, snatching one and sitting next to her. He took a bite. Didn’t taste like poison, so he had done something right at least. “So who are you haunting this time?”

“No clue. Got any ideas?”

He thought for a moment before an evil grin spread across his face. “Doesn’t Shelly have a collection of fossils?”

Connie’s face began to share the same grin. “Dino skeleton ghost?”

“Dino skeleton ghost.”

Chapter Text

Ichor dripped down Shrimpo’s trembling hands, his breath ragged, sweat dripping down his forehead. Floor 40. One of the longest runs on record. This one had a lot of the all-stars. Vee, Shelly, and Yatta, all on extraction duty. Goob and Looey tag teaming distraction, or splitting the workload when it got to be too much for either of them. Astro and Sprout providing support. And Shrimpo (who could still barely believe he was now considered a valuable toon for runs) beating the twisteds that escaped from the distractors senseless.

Or at least, that’s how it had been going.

As the group went deeper, the amount of injuries increased to the point Sprout could no longer keep up. Goob was waiting in the elevator in pretty bad shape, leaving Looey to distract by himself. And since Looey couldn’t distract all those twisteds alone, it was up to Shrimpo to lighten the load. He couldn’t take on mains without getting hurt himself, so the balloon still had to handle that, but the rest were all up to him.

His arms burned from the effort of trying to keep all the monsters down. At one point, his punches had started to lose effectiveness from his exhaustion, so he had taken his spikes cuffs off to use as makeshift brass knuckles. While it helped, the spikes also cut into his own skin, drawing ichor with each attack. It hurt so bad by this point, but he couldn’t give up now.

Shrimpo buried his fist into a Twisted Yatta, feeling the crunch of its paper skin under the force. His hand jolted with pain, his body begging for rest. But he could keep going. He swore he could.

The red lights flashed on, and the shrimp bolted to the exit elevator. Well, bolted was an overstatement. More like “haggardly speed-walked” to it. His legs weren’t cooperating, making him even more sluggish than he already was. Come on… move, you useless crustacean-

A sharp slash of pain flared against Shrimpo’s back, causing him to scream out. Twisted Gigi was right behind him, rearing up her ichor hand for another swipe.

Before it could connect, Shrimpo felt something wrap around his torso. He hissed in pain as Goob’s hands touched his back, completing the hug, and he was hoisted inside the elevator.

“You looked like you needed a hug!” the fluffy craft explained with a sad face. Shrimpo had gotten more and more used to Goob’s grapples, no longer yelling or even being annoyed.

“Th-thank you,” he muttered as he slumped against the lift wall, making sure to be on his side rather than his injured back.

“Should we keep going?” Sprout asked. “Shrimpo and Goob are pretty hurt, and Looey can’t take the workload by himself.”

“Oh, I can keep going, it’s not a prob-” the balloon started before silenced by a sharp look from both Yatta and Sprout. “I-I mean, yeah, I probably can’t do it,” he sighed in resignation.

“Hmm. We’ve made a lot of progress today anyways. All in favor of going back up, raise your hand.” Not a single hand stayed down. “Alright then, back up we go.”

The elevator jolted and the sensation of rising began. Shrimpo delicately slipped the spiked cuffs down his wrist where they belonged before surveying the damage. A lot of little puncture holes in his hands, slowly leaking ichor. It hurt to make any shape with them, so he ended up just letting them hang at his sides.

“Everyone did great today!” Shelly cheered. No one really paid attention, but it was less out of ignorance this time; everyone was too physically sore or tired to muster a single word.

“Hehe, thank you Shelly!” Goob replied. Well, almost everyone was too tired. Leave it to Goob to find an extra energy well just to give someone a nice word.

Aside from that, the ride back up was dead silent. No one talked, no one celebrated. All they wanted was to get patched up and sleep the soreness off.

After what felt like forever, the doors owned once more. They all hobbled out, some collapsing onto the nearby benches while others managed to make it farther to the medical kits (namely Astro and Sprout). Those who did brought them back, and they began patching each other up.

Shrimpo, however, refused to let anyone near him. He messily tried to do his own bandages, which only resulted in loose strips of cloth hanging off his torso and uncooperating hands, stained of ichor. It wasn’t going well, but he didn’t let anyone help him.

Before long, the other toons made their way to greet the ones coming back from the run. Scraps admonishing Goob for getting hurt so badly, Tisha fussing over the mess they had all made, Cosmo making sure everyone was ok.

Shrimpo had paid them no mind. None of them were there to check up on him anywa-

“Geez dude, you look terrible.”

Ah.

He looked up from his bleeding hands to see a certain ghost floating in front of him.

“I’m pretty sure Twisted Finn is in better shape than you. What even got ya, dude?” Connie looked at him with some mixture of concern, amusement and more concern.

“I- Twisted Gigi,” he mumbled.

“Dang. As much as I think that girl is cool, I hate her twisted with a passion. Gotten a medkit stolen from me more times than I care to remember,” she huffed with a smile. Her face slowly turned into a frown once she started to really take in the damage that had been done to him.

“Did no one patch you up or something?” Connie asked as she grabbed a strip of gauze. “Or did they just do a really bad job and call it a day?”

“The former,” Shrimpo grumbled.

“Well, we should probably fix that before you bleed out,” she chuckled. She approached him, causing him to back away in turn.

The ghost sighed. “Do you want to pass out from ichor loss?” she asked, fully knowing the answer. All she got back was a grumble. “Thought so, loser,” she rolled her eyes.

Connie wrapped the gauze around his torso first. The slash was pretty bad, but should heal up decently quickly. The medkits were fast acting, despite being not much more than ointment and the aforementioned strips of gauze. He stiffened and hissed but didn’t back away, which was progress.

Soon, that was finished. Now his hands.

“What even happened to your hands?” she asked as she started wrapping them.

“Had to use the cuffs as weapons,” he huffed. It was then she noticed the ichor staining the steel spikes of his bracelets.

“Yeesh, you sure that was a good idea?” she questioned as she recoiled a little.

“Had nothing else,” he growled.

The hands took a little less time than the torso. Connie ripped the final strip off, put the rest back, and wrapped it around his hand. “You’re probably not going to want to punch anything else for a while,” she dryly remarked.

“Would've guessed,” Shrimpo retorted as he rolled his eyes.

“Seriously,” she repeated, more sternly. “You’re gonna bust your hand open or something at this rate.”

“And that’s your problem, how?”

She leaned in close, a smug smirk on her face. “If your hand is broken, how are you supposed to hold mine?”

That practically shorted out the shrimp’s brain. He fumbled over his words for a good minute, trying to spit out any retort, feeling his face grow increasingly hot. Finally, he settled for just a growl and turned away from the giggling ghost.

“I should do this more often,” she remarked to herself.

“PLEASE DON’T,” he hissed back.

“Yeah yeah,” she waved him off. “Just go and rest or something, dork.”

He sat there for a moment before finally getting up and storming off. Connie snickered to herself before realizing they had been in a very public lobby this whole time. She turned and saw just about every other room staring at her. She was feeling very thankful she was a ghost as she went invisible and slunk off.

“I told you they were dating,” Sprout hissed to Vee, who narrowed her eyes and handed him a few tapes.

Chapter Text

Connie opened her eyes, blinking the blurriness out of them, and immediately wished she had managed to stay asleep. The clock in her room read 5 AM. Much too early to be up. But at this point, she might as well. She had been waking up at random points through the night, and she guessed she had only slept a handful of hours total. The ghost couldn’t say she was a fan.

Maybe Astro would help her. It had to be worth a shot. But then again, he was probably still sleeping, and it probably wouldn’t be worth it to bother him for just a couple extra hours before she would have to get up again… she’ll ask him later, as insurance for the upcoming nights. For now, she was on her own.

She would have killed the time planning haunts, but her brain was too tired to really be able to think of anything decent. Still, she really needed something to do… maybe she could just wander around till something interesting happened.

Connie floated off her bed, slowly making her way to the door. She didn’t even bother opening it, just passing right through it. Being a ghost had perks, as always.

No one was up. Not that she expected anyone to be, but still, that complicated things a bit. Hmm. What to do…

Her attention turned to the TV. That was always an option, but it would have to be pretty quiet so she didn’t end up waking anyone up. A horror movie was probably out of the question, so she may as well just watch reruns of their show. It was always fun to look back at how things used to be… if a little sad at the same time.

The ghost took a tape and plopped it in. She paid no mind to which one she grabbed, not having the energy to care, really. She floated over to the couch and took a seat as the title card played. “Argumentative Woes,” it read.

Huh. Shrimpo’s debut episode. Funny. She propped her head up, her arm sitting on the armrest of the couch. She couldn’t deny this would be an interesting watch.

The episode started out like any other; simple and happy. Dandy was walking through a field of some kind with a few trees, Astro accompanying him. They were chatting about some random stuff, she was pretty sure it was ad-libbed, when the shrimp appeared before them. He started to go off about the smallest things, like Astro being too loud or Dandy being stupid, petty things like that. It was honestly pretty funny to watch how his insults deteriorated over time, as the other two got more fed up than anything.

Though, it made her think. It was still strange to know Shrimpo wasn’t like this anymore, after so many years of being the same jerkish bully. He was still rough and snappy, but the side that genuinely cared was starting to show itself more and more. If she was honest, it was pretty flattering to be the biggest target of said softer side. Him doing things for her like getting gifts and baking for her made her feel kind of special if anything, especially coming from him. It was so rare he showed anyone any niceness.

Besides, she had to admit, she had been sort of drawn to the rougher, devious side as well as of late, now that he had mellowed out and wasn’t a complete jerk anymore. It was a lot of fun to join up and mess with the other toons.

Connie couldn’t belive she was thinking this, but she honestly didn’t regret giving him that chance. It was nice to be so special to someone that they would break out of years of bad behavior just for you.

Turning him into a mess by the most basic of flirts was also absolutely hilarious. She would never get tired of that.

The ghost had been so lost in thought she didn’t notice that the tape had ended. She looked up and saw the end credits rolling. Oh well, there’s plenty more reruns to burn time with.

She had taken the tape out and was starting to put in another one when she heard footsteps. Turning around, she saw none other than the shrimp himself.

“Whadya doing up?” he grumbled.

“I can ask the same to you,” she replied. “It’s 5:15 in the morning. You hate getting up early.”

“Couldn’t sleep much,” he muttered. “Just not tired I guess. What about you?”

“Same,” she sighed. “Kept waking up. Was gonna ask Astro but figured it wasn’t worth it. He's probably sleep anyways.”

“I can go wake him up if you want,” Shrimpo huffed. There he went again, going out of his way for her of all toons.

“Nah, really, it’s fine,” she said. “Wanna watch reruns with me? Got nothing else to do this early.”

He seemed to consider the options before marching over and plopping down on the other end of the couch. Connie rolled her eyes.

“Y'know, we are together now,” she reminded him. “You can sit closer.”

The shrimp looked away, and Connie was almost certain he was blushing again. Without a word, he scooted over until they were next to each other.

“There you go,” she snickered. It was comical how reluctant he was to show affection, yet a simple prodding often made him completely change his tune.

“Shuddup,” he muttered, still facing away.

The two sat in silence for a while, just watching old reruns of the show. Occasionally they would point out mistakes or out of character moments, but aside from that they just killed time.

“I can’t believe they almost made Glisten Vee’s co-host,” Connie said. “I’d honestly have wanted to see that.”

“Would’ve probably been annoying,” Shrimpo replied with an eye roll. “…but yeah. Would have made her segments more enjoyable. They needed something interesting. Badly.”

“Definitely,” the ghost agreed. “They should have let me haunt her screen. I practically begged to do it.”

That got a snicker out of him. “I would have liked to see that.”

“Maybe I should just do it sometime then, maybe my next haunt.

Before long, the lack of sleep began to catch up to Connie. Gosh, she was tired. A yawn escaped her as she leaned back.

“Why didn’t you just go back to sleep, dork?” Shrimpo asked.

“I thought I’d just stay awake” she mumbled. She didn’t know why sleep was claiming her now and not at 2AM when she wanted it to, but she supposed she couldn’t really complain. She shifted her position to get comfortable and started to close her eyes. Before she could drift off, she felt Shrimpo tense. The ghost opened her eyes and saw she was leaning against him, her head on his shoulder. He was blushing furiously, his brain looking like it had completely turned off.

“Oh- I- Sorry,” Connie mumbled. She had no idea why she had done that. Maybe it had something to do with how warm he was… it was kind of nice. Comforting even, which was shocking considering who it was she was thinking this about.

She shifted herself away, leaning to the other side. It wasn’t as warm or comfortable, but it would do. She was about to close her eyes once more when she saw Shrimpo moving again.

He was taking off the cuff on his left hand, the side Connie was on. He looked away and reached his arm up, resting it on the top of the couch, poised to curl around her if she wanted. Ah. He had taken the cuff off so he wouldn’t poke her shoulder. The ghost toon stared at the motion, a silent invitation to come back.

“Do you want it or not,” he huffed, still looking away from embarrassment. Connie was snapped out of her thoughts by the comment, starting to blush a little herself.

“Y-yeah… thanks man,” she whispered as she slotted herself back against him, her head lying in the crook of his neck. She could already feel herself slipping off to sleep as soon as she got back in position.

“N-no problem,” he growled, his voice wavering. Was he ever not flustered around her? It was kind of cute, to be honest…

Her thoughts ceased as sleep finally took her.

Eventually, Connie woke back up, jostled awake by Shrimpo.

“They’re serving breakfast,” he huffed, somehow still blushing.

“O-oh, thanks for telling me,” the ghost yawned, stretching. A glance at the clock told her it was
7:30. Two hours. “…did you just sit here doing nothing for two hours while I was asleep?”

Shrimpo said nothing, which Connie took as a yes. “There were still the reruns to watch,” he eventually mumbled.

“True, I guess. …thanks for letting me… y’know…” she said, unable to say exactly what, still being a little flustered herself. “Letting me borrow your shoulder,” she finally spat out.

“N-no problem,” the shrimp stammered back. Gosh they were so awkward… “So uh breakfast?” he quickly repeated.

“Oh, right. Yeah, let’s get some of that,” she agreed. The two made their way to the kitchen, both secretly wishing they were still on the couch together.

Chapter Text

A batch of toons crowded in the lobby, awaiting the day’s run. Cosmo, Sprout, Glisten, Looey, Scraps and Yatta all stood near the elevator on the left, waiting for the two final members to arrive.

“Where are they?” Scraps groaned. Her foot tapped, quickening as the minutes ticked by. Her tail flicked back and forth in annoyance. Patience was not her strong suit.

“How should we know?” Sprout replied. “For all we know they could be on the other side of the complex.”

“Maybe they are,” Glisten suggested. His smile turned into a smirk. “Maybe they wanted to find someplace where they could be all sappy and sickeningly sweet in peace.”

“Ew. Do not put the thought of a sappy Shrimpo in my head,” retorted Scraps. “Just. Don’t.”

”Well, it’s been in my head hun, so go ahead and live with it like I’ve had to,” the mirror said.

“It’s still so weird,” Looey admitted. “Connie and SHRIMPO? It’s been weeks and I still can’t believe it’s real.”

“I wonder if Shrimpo buys her candy…” Yatta interjected. She turned to Looey. “LOOEY! Will you be my CANDY GIV- I MEAN BOYFRIEND!”

The balloon just sighed. “I’ll buy you candy when we’re done with the run, Yatta,” he promised to the now cheering piñata.

The toons stood around for a few more minutes before the latecomers finally arrived. Connie and Shrimpo, moving as fast as they could (not very). They slid to a stop in front of the group and started to catch their breath, well, Shrimpo did. The ghost didn’t really need to catch her breath thanks to floating everywhere.

“I… TOLD YOU… it was earlier,” Shrimpo huffed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Connie mumbled. She turned her attention to the irate group of toons. “Sorry for being late guys,” she apologized.

“Well, you’re here now,” Cosmo said, trying to ease the tension.

“Yeah,” Looey agreed. “Let’s just go before it gets too late.”

The group shuffled into the elevator, the doors closing behind them. Looey almost got his tail snagged, but Yatta shoved him out of the way last minute.

“…so,” Glisten started, attempting small talk. “Why were you two late?”

Connie and Shrimpo immediately looked down, a slight blush creeping across both of their faces, moreso on Shrimpo’s. There was absolutely no way they were going to admit the real reason they were late. “Just got the time wrong,” Connie eventually muttered. Absolutely no one seemed to buy it.

“Heheheh… you was smooching wasn’t ya-“ Yatta giggled.

“WH- NO- SHUT UP!” Shrimpo belted, attempting to charge at Yatta and getting held back by Connie.

“No, we were not,” the ghost grumbled. A sly smile appeared on her face as she got an idea. “…maybe a little snuggling,” she added under her breath, looking at Shrimpo, who promptly turned beet red.

“SH-SH-SH-SHUT IT,” he hissed, turning away, leading the ghost to snicker.

“Bleh, do this on your own time,” Scraps complained. “We got work to do.”

“Whatever,” Connie rolled her eyes.

“…oooo-kay, anyhow, we have a secondary objective today,” Sprout began. “We’ve been using up a lot of medkits lately, on top of the odd one apparently being outright stolen,” he explained, eyeing Shrimpo at the last part. Cosmo had been mostly silent about his little “gift” he got from the shrimp, but he had told Sprout of course. “We’ve gotta stock up on those. Bandages as well. Grab as many as you can.”

The doors opened, and the toons poured out, all ready to fulfill their role. The first few floors were rather simple. Nothing but the most basic of twisteds, one Shrimpo could take out in a single hit. Looey would dash about, getting all the twisteds’ attention before handing them off to the crustacean, who would knock them out easily. It was a simple scheme but it worked wonders.

As they went, the twisteds became more and more dangerous. Shrimpo still took out all the small ones, but the dangerous ones, Looey had to distract the entire time. The good news, however, was that their secondary mission was proving very fruitful. Medkit after Medkit was found, collected, and stored in the elevator. Dandy was quite pleased to see the pile grow each time he popped out of his spot in the lift.

“My my,” he started. “You’ve all been working hard! Floor eight, and you already have 4 medkits? Unheard of,” he applauded.

“Thank you and all, but since we’re doing such a good job, could you sell us something better than gumballs and stopwatches?” Sprout pleaded. Dandy said nothing.

“Right. Of course,” the berry huffed, turning away. Shrimpo had half a mind to chew the flower out right then and there, but he had since learned his lesson. Challenging him now would threaten the entire point of being down here. Ew. Look at him, thinking of the others before his anger. He huffed and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall.

“You’re doing great,” Connie said, floating over to him. “Keep it up, man.”

Shrimpo nodded in appreciation, his cheeks tinted red. The ghost noticed and held back the urge to giggle. He was never going to get used to this, was he?

The doors opened once more, and Looey bolted off to find the twisteds. After a minute of searching, he ran back and told them the floor was basically free. Twisted Rodger, Razzle and Dazzle, and Connie.

Shimpo’s expression shifted to one of discomfort. Oh. Twisted Connie…

Sprout looked over and saw his expression. He sighed and walked over.

“Hey, the good news is that Twisted Connie is always transparent. You’re not gonna have to look at her much.”

“I- I’m fine,” Shrimpo insisted. ”I can handle a basic twisted. You’ve seen me in action! I’m the best at what I do!”

“None of those twisteds look like your girlfriend,” the berry pointed out, leaving Shrimpo sputtering in protest. ”Just relax. It’s a free floor. You can go hang out with the real version of Connie for all I care.”

“…whatever,” he mumbled, stomping off. Secretly, he was relieved he wasn’t going to have to deal with the mockery of Connie on this floor. The idea of seeing her mangled and just wrong made him feel almost sick.

After wandering, he spotted the specter herself. She was lazily floating her way to a machine that still needed to be completed. “Oh, hey Shrimps,” she waved. He gave a small wave back. “Sorry ’bout earlier, the teasing and all.”

“You’re not sorry,” he bluntly remarked.

A smirk formed on her face. “Yeahhh… I’m not, hehe.” Shrimpo just rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, you should probably get back to the elevator. This is one of the last machines,” she said. He crossed his arms, clearly not wanting to go anywhere. “Ooor… you can stay. You goof,” she chuckled.

She put her hand on the valve, and as she did, Shrimpo noticed something off. The valve was in a different position, meaning it would have had to have been turned. But turning the valve at all would mean ichor in the tube, which was empty.

And then the light flashed blue.

Before he could stop her, Connie gave the wheel a spin. It grated loudly, making her back away and grimace. When she looked up, she was face to face with her twisted counterpart, poised to strike for daring to disturb it.

Shrimpo immediately put his fists up, ready to protect Connie, but he faltered. Even twisted and corrupted, the thing attacking her looked too much like her for him to go through with it. He wanted to hit it. To keep the ghost safe. But his fists wouldn’t let themselves be thrown.

So he did the next best thing.

He quickly jumped in the way, shoving Connie out of the way and taking the hit himself. He hissed as the twisted’s claws made contact with him. The monster growled and vanished, satisfied with the retribution it had revived.

Connie was quickly on him, checking the wound and making sure he was ok. “Are you good man?! What were you even thinking?” she scolded.

“Didn’t want you to get hurt,” he grumbled.

“There had to be a better way, dimwit,” she huffed in return. “You’re gonna worry me to death at this rate.”

The noise had attracted the rest of the toons, mainly Sprout, who had just arrived at the scene, trailed by a couple others. “What happened?” he demanded.

“Nothing, Berry Boy,” he growled. “I’m fine.”

The strawberry rolled his eyes and looked at Connie for an explanation.

“He pushed me out of the way and took a hit for himself,” she explained. “I… I wasn’t paying attention… my twisted haunted the machine I was going to work on, and I triggered it. It’s my fault.”

“You’re lucky I brought some cupcakes , stirfry,” Sprout directed at Shrimpo. “And be careful next time Connie, alright?” She just silently nodded, looking away. The baker handed the shrimp one of said cupcakes, who, after a minute of denying he needed help and much urging from Connie, finally caved and took it.

“FINE! Only because you won’t SHUT UP,” he growled at Seedly, grabbing the cupcake and chomping on it. The ichor stopped flowing, the wounds healing a tiny bit. The Strawberry just rolled his eyes at the complaining and got back to tape scrounging.

“…hey,” Connie approached as the others left. “I’m really sorry, it is kinda my fault.”

“No it’s not,” he huffed. “Stop saying stupid things.”

“Well if I had seen the machine was haunted, I wouldn’t have tried to activate it and you wouldn’t have gotten hurt…” her face scrunched as she thought a bit more. “Hey, why didn’t you just, y’know, punch it out of the way instead of taking the hit for me?”

The two stood in silence as Shrimpo gave no answer, his mind seemingly racing. Finally, he turned away. “It looked too much like you,” he finally mumbled.

Connie gave him a look. His response made her smile a little. “There you go, making me feel things, you dork,” she teased. “Sure you’re still Shrimpo?”

“Shut up,” was all she got back.

“There we go,” she chuckled. “They should be finishing up the last machine right about now. Let’s head back before we get stuck down here.”

Shrimpo nodded. As he walked off, Connie had an idea. It was stupid but… oh what the heck.

She quickly darted over to the shrimp who stopped to see what she wanted.

“I just… wanted to say sorry again… and maybe make it up to you,” she said, blushing. Before Shrimpo could ask what was going on, she darted in close, giving him a peck on the cheek.

“Ok, well uh back to the elevator-“ the ghost spat out as she flew off, the smirk on her face a bit softer this time. The shrimp just stood there, unmoving till the elevator alarm stunned him back into remembering he was indeed on a run.

Chapter Text

Gardenview was bustling with early activity. The toons were waking up and starting their day. Vee was barking out orders and times for the next ichor runs. Cosmo and Sprout were preparing pastries for everyone. Astro was writing down the dreams he had seen the previous night and which ones were concerning, if any. Looey and Yatta were practicing a few stand-up routines to add to their acts.

And Connie was still nowhere to be seen.

That wasn’t really uncommon by itself. She was usually snooping around, ready to play a prank, but she would have at least been seen at breakfast grabbing a bite. The absence of her didn’t go unnoticed by some, but they chalked it up to her needing extra sleep. She was often a late sleeper anyways.

Connie wished she was still asleep.

The ghost blinked her eyes as she groggily awoke, and the first thing she felt was a splitting pain in her head. The second was how hot she felt all over. Her throat felt scratchy too. Ugh… was she sick? A fever? She rarely got sick. But what else could it be?

She rolled over in bed, wrapping the covers around her. If today was going to be this bad, she just wanted to go back to sleep. But the headache and burning made that feel just about impossible. She could barely even think straight for more than a couple seconds. All she could do was wait for it to pass.

Shrimpo, on the other hand, was getting fed up with waiting. His fingers tapped the table at an increasing rate, his impatience growing. Where in the world was she? She never really missed breakfast. Even if she didn’t eat with everyone else all the time, she still showed up to grab something. Yet he hadn’t seen one glimpse of her, not even a plate of breakfast food floating away.

Gosh, was he really this clingy and desperate to see her? Shrimpo shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He was a grown toon. He could survive on his own. …he still had hoped to see her by now, like every other morning. Okay, compromise. She was probably still just asleep. He’d give it another hour or so.

Well, an hour turned into two, and the shrimp was starting to get worried. Was she alright? Did she ever sleep in this late? He couldn’t remember. Maybe he should ask her friends.

He managed to find Gigi in record time. “GIGI!” he called, marching up to her.

“Whatever you lost I didn’t take i- I mean, hi Shrimpo!” she stammered. He didn’t have time to wonder why she was so on edge, but it undoubtedly had to do with her “borrowing”.

“Gigi, where’s Connie?” he asked.

“I dunno. Probably asleep. Why?”

“Does she usually sleep this late?”

“Now that you mention it, not really…” a smirk formed on her face. “Does someone miss his sweetiepie?” she asked in the most sickeningly sweet taunting voice she could muster.

“I will knock off your head and use it as a trash can, you gambling addict,” he threatened.

“Woah, woah, hey, calm down man,” Gigi grumbled, putting her hands on her hips. “I’ll be honest, I’m a tad concerned too, with her not showing up to breakfast. But I’m sure she’s fine. Maybe she’s planning some elaborate scare.”

“She hasn’t said anything to me about some big plan,” he rebutted.

“I guess she hasn’t to me either,” the gachapon admitted. “Look, I doubt anything bad happened, and if she wants to sleep in, who are we to wake her up?”

Shrimpo didn’t answer. He just looked away and crossed his arms.

Gigi rolled her eyes. “Look. If you’re that desperate to see your darling angel, just check up on her. If she’s sleeping in she can probably just fall back asleep. Whatever to make you less on edge and less hostile.”

The shrimp huffed and stomped off, just hoping that this newfound teasing the gachapon had started would stop, and fast.

Shrimpo’s fist raised to bang on the door before he stopped himself, instead lightly knocking. If he had been awoken by such a loud noise, whoever was knocking was sure to find themselves missing a limb. He didn’t want to anger Connie like that.

He didn’t hear anything the first time, so he knocked again, this time a little louder. This time he got a response.

“Go away…” Connie’s voice called out. It sounded hoarse and sickly. Now he was really worried.

“It’s me,” he said. “Let me in.” He thought for a moment, and added a “please” at the end.

“Oh… hey man… come in, I guess,” she muttered. Shrimpo opened the door, both eager to see his girlfriend and worried for how she was doing.

Opening the door, he saw her half wrapped in a blanket, sprawled out on the bed with a vacant stare in her half-lidded eyes. She gave a half-hearted wave as he stepped through the doorway.

“… well you look awful,” he observed.

“Feel awful,” she agreed. “Sick.”

“Ghosts can get sick?”

“I mean… I guess? I don’t know… I’ve gotten sick before… but it’s rare…” she rolled over, trying to get comfortable to no avail.

“…do you need anything?” Shrimpo found himself offering. He had no clue why, he had no experience treating others. He would have gotten Sprout, but his treats healed wounds, not illnesses. And a part of him didn’t want really berry boy to tend to her over himself.

“…water would be nice,” she mumbled. “Maybe a rag… got a headache worse than… the time twisted goob snagged my forehead,” she weakly chuckled.

He nodded and stormed off. Minutes later, he was back with a glass of water and a cold rag.

“Thanks,” the ghost mumbled as he placed the rag on her forehead. It brought some relief to the
pain she had been feeling all morning, and the coldness was bliss against her hot skin.

He handed her the glass next. She got into a sitting position and took little sips. It was so refreshing.

“Thank you so much,” she said again.

“It’s nothing,” Shrimpo waved off.

The two sat in silence for a while as Connie continued to drink the water. “…did Tisha send you or something?” she eventually asked.

“Why do you ask that?”

“Just asking why you checked up on me.”

“You weren’t awake yet. I got worried.”

“It’s… like 11,” she pointed out. “I’ve seen toons sleep in that long.”

“…whatever. Be glad I did check up on you,” he huffed.

“I am,” she reassured him. “Thank you.”

He got up to leave. He would check back up on her every now and then of course, but there wasn’t really much that he could do at the moment.

To his surprise, Connie stopped him.

“Can you stay?” she asked.

“I- why? Is there something else you need?”

“No… not right now… I just… feel a little safer with you here. Like you’re my bodyguard,” she snickered. His cheeks tinted red at that, both from her want of him to stay and the admission that he of all people made her feel safe.

She set the glass down on her nightstand and laid back down, closing her eyes. She really wasn’t looking that great. Shrimpo found himself wishing he could punch a sickness. He felt useless not being able to solve the problem.

The least he could do was make her comfortable.

He got up and moved to the edge of her bed, sitting down. The shrimp reached out a hand to her hair, lightly stroking it. He looked away, blushing furiously and scowling. The great Shrimpo, doing this of all things.

Connie blushed as well at the gesture before smiling. “Mm… thanks,” she mumbled. “That’s nice.”

The crustacean’s expression softened at that. “Whatever,” he huffed.

He wasn’t sure how long he had sat there before a knock sounded from the door, followed by it opening.

“Connie!” Tisha called out. “Vee sent me to check on you. I’d have said no out of spite, but I’m worried about you myself.” She stepped into the room to see the sight of Shrimpo running his hand through her hair as she laid in bed looking like the plague.

“Oh, ar-“ the tissue box started before being interrupted.

“She’s sick,” Shrimpo answered bluntly, anticipating the question. “I’m taking care of her for now.”

“Are you sure? I’d be able to-“

“What, do a better job?” he asked, practically bristling in defense.

“I never said that- ok you know what, looks like you’ve got it covered. I’ll just go tell the stupid robot that Connie is sick,” she conceded. She left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Connie snickered. “Bodyguard,” she repeated, a smirk tugging at her face.

“Sh-shut it,” he growled, turning away and crossing his arms.

“Aw, cmon. It’s cute,” she said. That only made his face heat up again..

“Do you need anything?” he asked, trying to turn the conversation away.

“Some more water would be nice,” she said.

He nodded, took the glass and sped off, trying to desperately control his blushing. That ghost was a handful sometimes.

Chapter Text

The lobby was abuzz with festivity. Colors burst from every wall, decorations for Easter hanging from the ceiling. The tree had even changed I to something resembling a cherry tree. Shrimpo wasn’t sure how that worked, and really didn’t care. The loud noise hurt his ears and the bright colors hurt his eyes. Nevertheless, he was here, at the request of Connie who didn’t want him to spend all of Easter hiding from the eye melting colors.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” she insisted, noticing his grumpy expression. The ghost had changed into a black hat with frills and a black blouse with a white bow. The crustacean thought it was cute, but he would rather die before saying it out loud.

“Yes it is,” he huffed. “My eyes are bleeding.” Shrimpo, on the other hand, had refused to change into anything that wasn’t his maroon hoodie and spiked cuffs.

“Stop being dramatic,” she said, lightly shoving him on the shoulder. He just grumbled something she couldn’t quite make out about eggs and rabbits.

Serval toon stood in the lobby hall, chatting with each other, and more notably, the Easter toons. They had reappeared for the holiday, and everyone was making the most of their time. They had already gotten caught up, as they had already been around for a few day. Now, they were just chatting. Yatta kept trying to take a bite out of Cocoa, Glisten was asking (a rather bewildered) Flyte what his norning routine was to look so good, and Eggson had a (somewhat) captive audience listening to his stories. Bassie was off somewhere else, most likely talking with the other mains.

Cocoa noticed Connie, and desperate for a reprieve from the constant threat of Yatta, hopped over to her.

“Hey! How are ya today?” she asked. She held out her hands, a chocolate in them. “Bonbon?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Connie declined. “Shrimpo might want it though.”

The rabbit looked over to the cresutacean, seemingly noticing him for the first time. Her ears drooped slightly. None of her interactions with Shrimpo in the past years had ever been pleasant.

“O-oh, of course!” She held the bonbon out. To her surprise, he actually took it after a bit of nudging from Connie, taking a bite out of it.

“Not terrible,” he mumbled, looking away. Cocoa stared, dumbfounded. What had happened in the year she and the others had been away?

“What you lookin’ at, hairball?” the shrimp gruffly asked. She quickly looked away.

“Oh- uh- nothing, sorry,” she mumbled. Well, some things were still the same at least. She turned to Connie. “Where was he this whole time?”

“In his room sulking,” she answered. “He didn’t want to join in. I finally got him to come out.”

“Huh… he actually listens to you?” the rabbit asked, bewildered. “I didn’t know he listened to anyone.”

“Yeah well, when your girlfriend wants you to do something, you do it for her, right?” Connie asked, looking at Shrimpo with a sly smile. The shrimp just looked away, rolling his eyes.

Cocoa didn’t speak for a hot minute, her brain trying to understand what she had just heard. “I- you- SHRIMPO??” she finally sputtered out.

“Yeah, that’s about the reaction I’d expect,” Connie chuckled. Shrimpo gave her a look that screamed “what was that for?” but seemed to realize he didn’t really have any room to talk. The ghost just smirked. “But yeah, turns out he’s not all that terrible. Kinda sweet under the surface.”

Shrimpo just groaned and turned his back to them, mumbling incoherently.

“Huh. Who’da thunk…” Cocoa murmured. “Well uh, congratulations then!”

“Heh, thanks,” Connie said. Shrimpo still said nothing.

Connie and Cocoa chatted for a minute before the ghost left to go check out a growing dispute over eggs. Shrimpo went to join her, but was stopped by a hand in his shoulder. He whipped around, an angry expression on his face.

“What?” he snapped at the rabbit, who shrunk away.

“S-sorry… is it true about you and Connie then?” she asked timidly.

“You don’t beleive her or something?” he asked, rather defensively.

“No no I do, I just wanted to make sure… there was something I’ve always wanted to know about Connie, but I figured it was always personal…”

Shrimpo raised an eyebrow. “Spit it out then.”

“Well… uh… how exactly did she die?”

The crustacean was a little surprised at the question. “She’s always been a ghost. I thought everyone knew that. You stupid or something?”

“O-oh… heh, I just thought that… we’re not always around, so we obviously don’t know every detail you guys do,” she sheepishly admitted, rubbing the back of her head.

“Whatever. She ain’t dead, so that answers your question,” he mumbled as he walked off to join Connie in the growing argument.

“You aren’t dead, right?“

Connie looked over at Shrimpo in confusion. They were sitting on a bench together after most toons had retreated to the commons or their rooms. “Born a ghost, so no. Thought you knew that.”

“I do, stupid,” he said.

“Then why’d you ask?”

She had him there, admittedly. “Cocoa asked and I wanted to make sure I guess. Stop asking questions.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” she nodded. They sat for a minute. “Ynow, fun fact, I’m not dead, but my character is. In the old show, I mean. I’m supposed to be a real, dead ghost.”

“Huh. I…didn’t know that,” he admitted under his breath.

“Yeah, it’s not something a lot of people really payed attention to or remember anymore,” she shrugged her shoulders.

“…so how did your character die then? Something stupid, I bet.” Though he would never admit it, he was curious now.

“Hm… I’m not actually sure,” she said. “It was always supposed to be a mystery. But…”

“But what?” he asked impatiently, tapping his fingers against his leg.

“I think one of the last few scripts produced was gonna answer that. Though it got scrapped, and I have no clue where it would be.”

They both thought for a minute. Shrimpo snapped his fingers. “Maybe the same floor where you got my hoodie from, since they were both near the end of the show.”

Connie nodded. “That might just be it. Wanna go see if it’s there?”

The cresutacean jumped up off the bench. “We don’t got all day,” he said, motioning for her to follow.

“That’s a yes then,” she snickered. She floated up out of her sitting position, trailing after the shrimp.

“Alright, they shouldn’t bother us for a while,” Shrimpo said, wiping the ichor off his knuckles. Twisted Boxten and Twisted Yatta laid in a pile, doubled over thanks to the violent creustacean.

“Nice,” Connie smiled. “I’ll get the top, you get the bottom.” Shrimpo nodded, looking for any and all scripts relating to the ghost. They were three floors down, a pretty short trip from the surface floors. Nothing too dangerous, so they decided to just go themselves. This floor was dedicated to storing things from the end of the show’s life, unused scripts and props, potential redesigns, etc. It had never really interested Shrimpo beyond his hoodie and cuffs until now.

“Yeesh, some of these script ideas really went off the rails in the later seasons,” Connie said, reading off the page of one she had found.

“Gimme,” Shrimpo demanded, catching the script as it was tossed at him. “Yeah, this is garbage. I could write better than this. And I HATE writing.” He threw it back up to her and continued the search.

“Heh, apparently they wanted Astro to be revealed to have narcolepsy,” the ghost read. After a moment, she clarified “a condition where you fall asleep a lot.”

“He doesn’t have that?” Shrimpo asked.

“Honestly I think he might. Would explain a few things.”

The search took longer than any of them were hoping for, but they weren’t ready to back down yet. Box after box was emptied, scripts dumped everywhere. It took so long that Shrimpo had to return to the twisted pile to punch them again to keep them from getting back up.

Finally, after what felt like ages, Connie finally floated down with good news.

“I GOT IT!” she called, rifling through the script. Shrimpo bolted over, peering over her shoulder. “Where is it… where is it… AHA! The cause of death for Connie was…” she went silent, her eyes narrowing. “Are you kidding me?”

“What, what is it?” the crustacean demanded.

“I-it’s nothing,” she insisted, trying to keep the papers out of reach. Shrimpo managed to jump up and snag them before she could get far away.

“It can’t be that bad,” he huffed, scanning the page. “Cause of death…” His eyes widened. A sound came from him, almost like a snort. Without any warning, he burst into hysterics, his sharp teeth flashing with every huge laugh that escaped him.

“It’s not that funny!” Connie said, blushing a little.

“I- HAHA- YOU- SHE- CHOKING ON A PEANUT???!? AAAAHAHAHHAA!” He was practically rolling on the ground at this point. “THATS SO EMBARRASING- AAHAHAHA- SUCKS TO BE YOU!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever buddy,” she said, lifting him upright. His laughter started to calm down.

Connie looked at him. “Ynow, I don’t think I’ve heard you laugh like that. Ever.”

Now it was Shrimpo’s turn to blush. “I- shut up,” he grumbled. “Let’s just go back up.” Despite his attempts to remain stoic, a few more snickers managed to get out. “A peanut,” he mumbled, giggling to himself.

Connie just rolled her eyes. “You suck, Shrimpo,” she said, smiling nonetheless as she followed him back to the elevator.

Chapter Text

A group of toons emerged from the elevator, battered and bruised, just like everyone else who had ventured down into the deeper floors that day. They stumbled out of the lift, making it to the benches before collapsing.

Connie had the luxury of being able to float, and therefore not needing to sit to recuperate, but she still felt the pain of the hits she had endured. It was a particularly nasty run, encountering the twisted mockeries of the mains more often than usual. Pebble had managed to get them through it, but they all ended up getting slashed and bit by various twisteds in the process.

She had suffered a nasty scrape on her arm and a bruise on her shoulder, holding it with her other arm. She wanted nothing more than to sink into her bed, but more than that, she kind of wanted to see Shrimpo. His protectiveness of her made her feel oddly safe with him.

To no one’s surprise, she got the second wish immediately. Shrimpo could be seen running down the hallway, looking around for Connie. As soon as he saw the ghost, he made his way over, grimacing as he saw the damage.

“You look awful,” he sneered, inspecting the wounds. Despite his flippant attitude, Connie couldn’t help but notice a certain waver to his voice.

“I’m fine, it’ll heal,” she waved him off. He was still staring at the injuries.

“Whatever,” he finally said, the waver still present.

“Really, seafood, I’ll be alright,” she reassured him. He just grumbled.

Sprout began making the rounds with healing treats he had prepared in advance, making sure each person got one. Shrimpo tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for Connie to get hers, which she soon did.

After just a couple bites and a rotation of her sore shoulder, she hummed in content. “That’s better,” she sighed, the pain gone. Yet Shrimpo was still staring.

“Hey, you good?” she asked. She was starting to get concerned.

“I- yeah,” he mumbled. “Shut up.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Whatever, dork,” she sighed. “C’mon, we have movie night tonight, right? I bet you can’t wait for that. Bet you missssed meeee…”

“I hate it when you do that,” the shrimp mumbled, a slight brush creeping along his face at the truth of her words.

Connie had only barely woken up when a knocking sounded at her door. Yawning, she lazily floated over and poked her head through the door.

“Shrimpo?” she asked, bewildered to see him up and already asking for her attention.

“My room,” he demanded, before marching off with no explanation. Huh. Strange. May as well see what’s up.

After straightening her terribly messy hair and grabbing her visor, she arrived at Shrimpo’s room like he asked. Not bothering with the door, she just floated in.

Shrimpo was wrapping his fists with boxing tape, and he seemed to have more than he needed. His punching bag was front and center in the room, as opposed to stored in the corner as it usually was. Admittedly, Connie was a bit confused.

“What’s goin’ on?” she questioned.

The shrimp looked at her while he finished wrapping up his fists, still not saying anything. He grabbed the other tape and held out his hand to her, gesturing for her to hold out hers. She tentatively did, and he started to wrap her hand with the tape as well.

“Ok, seriously, what’s up man?” she asked again, a little annoyed.

“You’re gonna learn how to fight twisteds,” he responded plainly.

She rolled her eyes. “Shrimpo, I don’t need to, I can go invisible, remember?”

“Not enough,” he muttered. “You could still get hurt.”

“That’s a given. Shrimpo, I’ll be fine. You don’t gotta try and teach me how to throw a punch.”

“Just try,” he said, finishing up the wrapping and moving to the other hand.

Connie sighed. “If it’ll get you to shut up and drop this, I’ll humor you.”

The shrimp finished up the second hand, and Connie floated over to the punching bag. “I know how to throw a punch, ynow,” she stated. She wound up her fist and hit the bag as proof of her claim.

“Your form is all wrong,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t just throw punches recklessly.”

“Why not, that’s what you do,” she teased, getting a “shut up” glare in return.

“Here, throw a punch again and hold the pose,” he told her. The ghost did as he said, not moving after the punch landed.

“Ok, now what?” she asked, a little confused.

“Just-“ he huffed, grabbing her arm and moving it to what he thought the correct form would be. He guided her movements until he was satisfied. Connie resisted a smirk at the blush that dotted his face once he was done.

“There,” he said, crossing his arms. “Punch like that.” She did, and he looked satisfied. “Now move forward when you punch.” She tried that too, and the punching bag definitely swung a little more than her previous tries.

“Alright, there, can I go now?” Connie asked. ”It’s still early and I wanted to go back to sleep.”

“You’re still not hitting hard enough,” Shrimpo stated.

“Shrimpo, I don’t think I can psychically hit hard enough to stun a twisted,” she started, pinching the area between her eyes. “No one can really, except for you. Even Vee can’t, and a good amount of her is METAL.”

“But-“

“What even caused this? Why are you so determined on this?” She stared at him, expecting an answer.

He was quiet for a moment. She was about to ask again when the shrimp finally said something. “I’m scared,” he whispered. “Scared you’re gonna get hurt.”

A sympathetic look took over Connie’s face. “Shrimpo,” she sighed, “I’ve been fine all this time. Again, I can dissapear. I don’t have to punch things to survive.”

His eyes narrowed. “Disappearing won’t always be enough,” he protested. “You can’t do it all the time down there. You could get caught off guard.”

“Yeah, and if I try to punch whatever’s chasing me, I’m gonna get hurt more. Listen, I’ll be fine.” She looked shrimpo in the eyes, lifting a hand to his cheek. “Trust me?”

He blushed at the touch, as per usual for him. “…fine,” he said. “You better not die on me.”

“Heh. I won’t.” Connie pulled him into a hug. He didn’t even try to resist this time. “So you were really doing all this because you were worried about me?”

“Shut up.”

She snickered. “It’s sweet,” she said, giving him a peck on the forehead. Her snickers grew louder as she observed his increasingly flustered expression. “I’m going back to bed now, ok? It’s like, 6AM dude.”

Shrimpo nodded. As she disappeared, the gnawing in his stomach remained, but a little less so. He would have to trust her.

Chapter Text

Connie floated around her room, picking up notes and reading the scribbles she had jotted down on them. Times, habits, routines, all written down. Shrimpo was sitting on her bed, tossing up and catching a ball to kill time.

“So… if he’s here then… and then… if we do this…” the ghost muttered to herself.

“Your haunts can’t have this much planning, can they?” the shrimp asked, his impatience becoming clear.

“Usually, no,” she admitted. “But this is a Grand Haunt. It’s gotta be good.”

Connie usually haunted people every now and then, it was a fun pastime of hers. Nothing elaborate, usually just a simple floating object or messy room. Sometimes she got a little creative, keeping the other toons on their toes. And then there were what she called Grand Haunts. These were planned weeks in preparation, schedules memorized, fears learned, and her creativity turned up to eleven. This would be her first Grand Haunt since she got with Shrimpo, and she had wanted to include him. The ghost thought it would be fun to do this together, and while he certainly didn’t hate the idea, he wasn’t fond of all the planning that went into them.

“I hate planning, the shrimp growled. “And I’m starting to hate Grand Haunts by extension.”

“Oh, stop whining,” Connie told him. “You’ll enjoy the second part at least.”

“Whatever,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Which poor sap are we even gonna scare? Is it Finn? PLEASE tell me it’s Finn or Glisten… stupid puns and stupid face…”

“Neither of those,” the ghost replied. “I was thinking… Boxten.”

An evil smile crept along Shrimpo’s face, his sharp teeth on full display. He didn’t have anything personally against the box, but man, was he easy and fun to mess with.

“I don’t hate that idea…” he remarked, setting the ball down. He had to admit, he was interested now.

“Thought you wouldn’t. There’s just the question on what we’re gonna do to prank him…” She pressed a hand to her temple, ruminating on possible ideas.

Shrimpo was deep in thought as well. He snapped his fingers, an idea forming. “He always hides near the elevator like a wimp during runs, right? Scared of the twisteds and all.”

Connie nodded. “Yeah. What are you getting at…”

His smile grew even wider. “What if a twisted made its way to the lobby…?”

“You’re not suggesting we bring a twisted up from the lower floors, are you?” the ghost asked with a hint of worry.

“No, but thats tempting…”

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Fiiine, you suck. I was gonna make myself look like a twisted and we could scare Boxten,” he said with a huff, crossing his arms.

“Hmm,” Connie ruminated. “That could work, but how would we do that? We could probably smear mascara over your mouth, but as for the red eyes, what are we gonna do for that?”

Oh, he hadn’t thought of that. “I hate this plan actually, it sucks.”

“No, we could make it work, we just have to figure out that detail,” the ghost insisted. “Maybe Glisten has some colored contacts?”

“He’s a mirror, dork. How’s he gonna wear contact lenses on a piece of glass, huh?” he shot back.

“Whatever,” she huffed.

“Maybe you could ask your gambling kleptomaniac galpal if she’s stolen any over the years. She’d probably have something,” he snidely remarked.

“Rude, but you have a point,” the ghost conceded. She always did like stealing from the guests, back when they were still visiting, of course.

“Of course I do. SHRIMPO NUMBER ONE!” he shouted, more in jest than anything really.

“Sure, honey,” Connie replied in a sickeningly sweet voice. The shrimp promptly shut up and began to blush.

“D-don’t do that,” he mumbled, turning away. “I hate it when you do that.”

“I’m sure,” she said, starting to chuckle to herself. “So, beyond just you posing as a twisted, what else are we gonna add to this haunt to make it really spooky for poor Boxten?”

“What, you don’t think I can do a good enough job?” Shrimpo asked indignantly, puffing out his chest. “OF COURSE I CAN!”

“I never said that, but this is a GRAND Haunt after all, it’s gotta go above and beyond,” she explained.

“Fine. Maybe you could toss stuff around to make “twisted” me seem even stronger!”

“That works,” the ghost said, writing the idea down. “We could probably do this in one of the storage rooms on the surface floors. Make it dark and scary and all,” she smirked. ”Throw in some random falling objects, too.”

“We’re gonna give him nightmares for weeks,” he snickered.

“That’s the goal!” Connie giggled back.

Shrimpo jumped up on the bed, cackling maniacly. “THIS IS GONNA BE SO FUN! AAAAHHAHA!!” he belted, laughing like a supervillain. Connie was about to join in the laughter when the shrimp jumped over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders and planting a kiss on her lips. Her eyes widened, and so did his when he realized what he did. He quickly retreated, looking away. His face was practically glowing with blush.

“I- you- shut up- I-“ he sputtered.

Connie’s face began to develop its own blush, completely caught off guard by the sudden affection. “Wh- you-“ she stammered. Both of them just stared at each other for a few moments, before the awkwardness was finally too much to bear. Shrimpo mumbled something unintelligible and opened the door, letting himself out and leaving the poor ghost to process what had just happened.

Connie held the jar of mascara she had “borrowed” from Teagan, applying a healthy amount to Shrimpo’s face to make him resemble his twisted. They hadn’t talked much, still feeling akward over the surprise kiss. Sure, the ghost had given him an occasional peck on the cheek or forehead, but it was mostly to fluster him, and they hadn’t quite kissed mouth to mouth before.

Shrimpo’s eyes couldn’t reach her face, feeling embarrassed about the whole thing. He was glad the mascara would cover his reddening face.

“Alright, done,” she said, setting the jar down and picking up the contacts. Gigi had, in fact, stolen a pair of red contacts from some random guy a couple years back, and of course she still had them.

Connie handed him the contacts, and he put them in his eyes. It was uncomfortable at first, but he got used to it, blinking a few times and getting used to the sensation.

“Yep, that works,” the ghost nodded, the shrimp’s eyes looking an appropriate shade of red. “I’ll go get Boxten, wait here.” She smiled. “This is gonna be good.”

Shrimpo was left alone with his thoughts as she learnt to find their poor victim. Why had he kissed her like that? He had never initiated a kiss until now, and he didn’t even know he was doing it until it had already been done. He felt so embarrased, he couldn’t even look at her.

He shook his head. Come on, suck it up Shrimpo. You’ve got a haunt to do. You’re better than this.

Boxten was in the lobby by himself, just as Connie predicted. Learning the other toon’s habits and schedules really came in handy. The music box usually didn’t have much to do, so he was often hanging around here waiting for something to happen.

He was enjoying the peace and quiet at the moment. He let his mind wander, daydreaming and letting the music that emanated from his head softly play.

He was not prepared at all for the panicked face of Connie to suddenly appear.

“BOXTEN! I need your help!” she cried, snapping him out of his daze. She looked scared and hurt, and that worried him.

“C-Connie? What’s wrong?” he questioned, sitting up straight.

“A twisted made it’s way up to the top floors,” she explained hurriedly. “A Shrimpo.”

“I- why are you asking me for help?” he asked, a little suspicious.

“You were the first person I found,” Connie said, hoping that would be explanation enough. “It’s just Shrimpo, we can probably take care of it ourselves. Help me?” she pleaded, giving him puppy dog eyes.

He sighed and gave in. “Fine,” he mumbled. “Take me there.”

The storage rooms on the surface floors were better kept than the ones down below, but they were still rather dark and cold. The lights were barely enough to see a few feet in front of you, and that didn’t do much for Boxten’s nerves.

“It’s somewhere in here,” Connie said. “You looked over there. I’ll check this area. Let me know if you find him, I’ll do the same.”

Before the box could protest, she had vanished off to go search. He gulped. It’s ok Boxten, you can do this.

He stepped forward, a hand running along the shelves of supplies. He stuck close to the walls of items, trying to stay stealthy. He could swear he saw his breath in front of him, it was so cold. The box tried to be as light on his feet as he could. The last thing he wanted was to alert the twisted.

A clatter broke out behind Boxten and he jumped, screaming before seeing what it was. It was just a few boxes of chocolates. Not a twisted. He tried to keep his breath even, not panicking. It’s gonna be alright Boxten, you’re ok…

He turned around to see a twisted staring him in the face.

He screamed and ran, almost tripping over his feet. The twisted Shrimpo followed him, albeit a bit slower than Boxten was. He was thankful for that. Maybe he could lose him.

His hopes were dashed when the twisted Shrimpo picked up a box serval times bigger than him and tossed it at him. It didn’t hit, sailing past him and slamming into the wall with a huge thud. It cut off his only escape route with how big it was. That box had to have weighed a number in the triple digits, and it was just tossed like it was nothing. Boxten’s breathing quickened even more. He was in trouble.

“CONNIE? WHERE ARE YOU?!” he screamed, begging in his mind that someone would save him. The twisted slowly stepped towards him, eyes burning red. It lunged forward and grabbed him by the bandana, other hand poised to strike. He screamed, trying to get away but to no avail.

“You’re really easy to scare, man.”

Boxten opened his eyes at hearing Shrimpo’s voice. The twisted(?) dropped him, chuckling to himself and wiping the ichor(?) off his mouth. Connie appeared next to him, laughing as well.

“I- YOU- CONNIE!” he yelled, still processing what was even happening.

“YOUR LOOK WAS PRICELESS,” Connie laughed, tears leaking from her eyes.

“You suck,” he whined, picking himself back up and walking out the door.

“Aha, I’d call that a successful Grand Haunt,” she said to herself, satisfied.

“Yeah,” Shrimpo agreed. Now that it was just the two of them, the akwardness started to return. It was gone when they could both focus on Boxten, but now it seeped in like the chill of a freezing day.

Connie seemed to pick up on it. “You don’t have to be so embarrased about kissing me on the mouth,” she said.

“I- I’m not embarrased about that,” he poorly lied.

She rolled her eyes. “I was planning on it sometime myself, you just beat me to it, dork. Wanted to wait for sometime all nice and romantic,” she teased. “I wouldn’t be opposed to you doing it again sometime, honestly…”

“Shut up,” he mumbled.

“Make me,” she replied, getting in his face. Almost like a dare.

He picked up on what she was doing and looked away. “I hate you,” he mumbled.

“Love you too, Shrimpy,” she giggled.

Her face was still right next to his. Should he…? Maybe… maybe he should… he kind of wanted to. he started to lean in for a kiss just like the one earlier that day when he was suddenly stopped.

“Wash your mouth off first, stupid.”

Oh. Right.

Embarrased and blushing, he hurried off to wipe his face clean of the makeup. He hated how stupid he was around her sometimes. He’d heard of it being a side effect of love.

Oh well. He’d just have to deal with it. It was worth it, anyways.

Chapter Text

A simple supply run. That was all this was, to Connie’s relief. Only a few floors down, scrounging for spare items, and then they would go. The ghost didn’t really want to be down here today, she had haunts to plan and people to mess with.

“Connie, can you look in those officices real quick?” Sprout called out. She rolled her eyes and did as he asked, if only to get this over with sooner.

There were a few cubicles lined up along the wall, the scattered remains of office supplies littering the desks. Assorted pencils, leftover papers, and character reference sheets were everywhere. Nothing of value could be seen, but then again, the desks had drawers, so there could still be something hiding inside.

The ghost opened some of the drawers, scouting for anything that could be useful. All she saw was expired candies and more pencils. “Great,” she sighed. At this rate, they wouldn’t be back up to the top floors for an hour.

“Nothing here, Sprout,” she called.

“Did you check ALL of the desks?” he asked.

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she mumbled, opening the rest of the desk drawers. She didn’t see what the point was, desks never had anything useful in them. True to nature, it was just more candy, more pencils, and…

Oh, hello. What was this?

Connie reached in the desk and pulled out a bag of green leaves. Huh. Someone must have been into nature or something.

She was about to toss it back in when she noticed a strip of tape with writing on it. “Calvin’s Stash, Hands Off (that means you Kelly),” she read. Stash… odd wording for a lead collection. And cone to think of it, the leaf shapes looked a little familiar…

As if a switch went off in her brain, she could remember where she had seen this specific plant before. She had occasionally seen some employees secretly pass it around when they were still around, rolling it up and smoking it. The ghost had been rather curious at the time, so she hung around to eavesdrop, invisible of course. It was apparently something that made people relaxed, even a little loopy sometimes. Smoked, eaten, put into brownies, they had a lot of ways to ingest it.

A grin plastered itself on Connie’s face. This could be fun if she played her cards right. She tucked the baggie into her shirt pocket, not wanting to be seen with it and having the plan be spoiled.

“Heyyyyy, Cosmo, can I ask you a favor?”

The swiss roll turned around, not expecting Connie. He had been working in the kitchen, and was covered in spots of flour and sugar. “Oh! What is it?”

“You know how to make brownies, right?” she asked with an innocent smile.

“Yeah, why? Do you want some?” he asked with a quizzical tilt of his head. “I’m kinda busy right bow, but I can make them later if you want!”

“Oh,” the ghost remarked, “I was expecting to have to bribe you or something.”

“Nah, I’m spending all day baking today, if someone wants to request something then I usually go ahead and make it for ‘em if it’s simple enough!” he explained.

“Well, I sure am lucky then,” she smiled.

“Yep! So, brownies?”

“Yes, uh, but…” she took the pouch of greens from her pocket. “I want you to add this. It’s something I found down below during the supply run,” she said with a smirk.

“Uh… what exactly is that? I don’t want to add something I don’t know to the batter,” Cosmo bashfully said.

“Oh, uh, right, it’s some sort of… spice! that I recognized. I remember some workers talking about how it goes well in brownies when they were still here, so I thought I could ask you to use it!”

“Hmm…” he eyed her with a suspicious look. “Connie, you’re not lying to me, are you?”

“No,” she bluntly denied. Technically she wasn’t, it did go well in brownies.

Cosmo’s eyes narrowed, observing her with scruinuty. Finally, he relented. “I’ll trust you, but you’d better not poison us. Are you sure it’s even safe to eat?”

“They mentioned it lasts a long time,” she said. She wasn’t actually sure if that was true or not, but she was leaning towards the side of it being true.

“If anyone gets sick from this, you’re taking the fall,” he said, sighing and holding his hand out to accept the bag.

“That’s fair,” she conceded, handing over the bag. “Lemme know when they’re done. Oh! And label them, I don’t want anyone touching them till we can hand them out to everyone.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Cosmo said with a shrug. “Sure, I can do that.”

“Thanks, Cos,” Connie said, starting to float off. “I owe you for this!”

“I’m sure you will,” he muttered under his breath, still feeling a sense of suspicion.

Shrimpo was hungry.

It was only two, but he wanted something to eat, and now. While the others had been on a supply run, they had been on an ichor run, and it had taken a lot of energy out of him since they didn’t have any distractors. It was all him. At least they returned before anyone got too injured. All he had was sore shoulders from bashing twisteds.

There was sure to be something in the kitchen. Cosmo had been baking all day, surely he wouldn’t mind if he took something?

Ok, he probably would mind, but he didn’t really care either way. He was still taking something.

Surprisingly, no one was in the kitchen when he made it there. Good. The contents of the fridge were his for the taking. But before he could grab the handle and yank the door open, he instead spotted something in the counter. A tray of brownies, fresh from the oven.

Shrimpo’s mouth watered. He had to have one. Or two.

As quietly as he could, he sliced off a chunk for himself. He’d apologize later. Right now, he needed something with substance.

Just as he was about to take a big bite, he felt a pair of eyes watching him. He whipped around to see Cosmo staring at him with indignance.

“Shrimpo!” he shouted, walking to him.

Panicking, the shrimp did the only thing that made sense; shoving the entire chunk of brownie into his mouth and running off.

“HEY- ugghhh,” Cosmo groaned. Even with all his development, Shrimpo was still Shrimpo.

Connie roamed the halls, trying to find the shrimp she loved. Where was he? He had gotten back from his run, and he hadn’t been in his room when she checked. He had practically vanished, nowhere to be seen.

Her search took her by the kitchen, noticing a now-grumpy Cosmo.

“Geez Cos, what’s got you upset,” she asked.

“Shrimpo stole a wedge of the brownies and ran off, probably to his room” he mumbled, gesturing to the sizable piece that was now missing.

Connie’s eyes widened a bit. That big a piece couldn’t be good for a toon…

The swiss roll noticed her concern. “Don’t worry, he just won’t get any later.”

“Oh- uh, yeah, totally,” she nervously chuckled. Cosmo didn’t seem to pick up on it, as he was still too annoyed with the shrimp.

Her mind raced on what to do. It was supposed to be a funny joke to watch everyone go loopy, not turn into this…

But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.

Her frown of worry was replaced with a smile as she got an idea.

“Cosmo, can I have my share of brownie too?” she asked innocently.

The swiss roll gave her an annoyed glare. “I thought you were saving these for everyone.”

“I am! I just want my brownie now.”

“Connie-“

“I’ll tell everyone the fire was your fault.”

Suddenly, Connie found herself with a large brownie and a grilling Cosmo.

“Thanks!” she chirped, flying off to Shrimpo’s room, scarfing down the brownie as she went. This was going to be either very stupid or very fun.

She found the shrimp sitting on his bed, holding a hand to his head and looking a little off.

“Oh, hey Connie,” he mumbled, his eyes unfocused.

“Hey Shrimpson,” she replied. “Hey so uh… that brownie you stole… I may have had Cosmo add something to it.”

He groaned. “Is that why I feel funny?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “I uh… found… weed… on the supply run and thought it would be funny if I pranked everyone with brownies with the stuff in it.”

His eyes widened a tiny bit. “Oh,” he mumbled. He flopped down on his bed. “So… I’m high.”

“Yeahhh…” she sheepishly said, before a smirk spread on her face. “But hey, why not make the most of it?”

He looked at her in confusion, and she continued talking. “I may have eaten one too.”

“Why?” he asked, bewildered.

“Like I said, why not make the most of it? It could be fun.” She sat down next to him, making herself comfortable. “Besides, you need to unwind.”

He huffed, but didn’t fight back. She was right, and they both knew it.

Over the course of the next hour, the effects started to take hold. Their postures relaxed, their minds clouded a tad, and they talked about whatever topics came to mind. It was pretty random, going from which twisteds could beat other twisteds in a fight to wether or not Glisten had ever thrown up from teleporting. The threads between conversations were there, but practically nonexistent all the same. They didn’t care. They were happy.

“And so, well, what if Cosmo baked a swiss cake… is that like… him giving birth or something?” the ghost questioned.

“No, it’s like… what’s the thing… when the cell splits?”

“Mi… mito… mitosis?”

“Yeah that.”

They both chuckled. Connie sighed and leaned into Shrimpo, melting into his side. For once, he didn’t flinch or move away, instead leaning back into her.

“You’re soft,” she noted.

“You’re cold,” he chuckled.

“Maybe you can make me warmer, hehe,” she shot back, resting her head on his chest.

“Idiot,” he mumbled, nevertheless running a hand through her hair, eliciting a content sigh from the ghost.

They sat there together, blissfully dazed. Shrimpo couldn’t remember the last time he had let himself relax like this, and to be honest, he didn’t hate it that much. Connie certainly didn’t have any quarrels with it, and definitely not with the conversations that came with it.

“Ok but, if Sprout eats a strawberry… is that cannibalism?”

“I thought we already decided this-“

“Yeah and you’re wrong. It’s cannibalism.”

Shrimpo rolled his eyes. “He just looks like a strawberry… he isn’t one… right?”

“Maybe we should bite him or something…” she grinned stupidly at the idea.

“…I don’t hate the idea,” he admitted, grinning at the thought of sinking his sharp teeth into the berry’s head. It sounded funny.

They were about to discuss how it would taste when the door opened, startling them both. Tisha was here.

“The others had the brownies. Connie, you are in TROUBLE.”

The ghost looked to Shrimpo, then back to Tisha.

“Ahaha… surprise?”