Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was happening again.

Dandy should have known from the moment he opened his shop on the elevator ride to floor two that he should have never come at all, but he supposed that he was simply too naïve to accept it.

Dandy had always been too much of an optimist. He still collected tapes in hopes of finding what they needed to reverse the Ichor Operation. He still believed there was a way to fix all of what he had been forced to do. He still trusted that the toons around him, the ones he’d once considered friends, wouldn’t use him, ignore him, and force him to undergo the worst experience of his life every other run for “research.”

By God, he was an idiot.

On floor four, he held onto his usual forced smile, hoping his instincts hadn’t been right.

On floor six, he began to panic, fidgeting and desperately wishing a toon would look his way long enough for him to convince them the buy something, anything. What did they need the tapes for, anyway? Why couldn’t they understand he was just trying to help?

It was when Dandy’s shop clicked closed on the ride to floor eight that the flower couldn’t take it anymore. His patience wore thin, his limbs stretched, and, before Dandy could stop himself, all hell finally broke loose.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Astro wasn’t often one for solo runs. He was at most decent at extracting and not many of his few unique abilities were helpful to him alone, but the moon was somehow both overwhelmed and bored out of his mind that day… a run by himself was hopefully just what he needed.

The first half-dozen floors went by slowly but were easy enough. The twisteds weren’t too much of an issue, only ever managing to even spot him once or twice, leaving Astro with plenty of bandages and medkits he’d had the luck of finding throughout the run and no need to use them. Despite starting the solo run in the first place just to get a peaceful moment alone, Astro couldn’t help but be disappointed when Dandy wasn’t in his shop as usual. Dandy hadn’t truly opened up to Astro in a long while, and the moon knew there was more to everything—the way the flower’s face scrunched up whenever someone mentioned Delilah, how he forced his cheery tone, how Dandy was said to become twisted after repeatedly being ignored—than he let on, but Astro loved his company regardless. There was something about Dandy that was just different from the other toons. The pressure to be a certain way that he usually felt around people wasn’t ever there when he was with the flower toon, and somehow Astro just knew that the open, non-secretive Dandy he’d known as a child was still in there, somewhere.

He’s probably just off on a different run, Astro told himself, Though I can’t say I’ve seen any new runs start since that big one this morning…

Astro shook himself off and sighed, finishing the machine he’d primed on floor seven and slipping back into the elevator.

Floor eight began oddly quiet. Most twisteds usually made at least a little noise as they roamed around, so Astro immediately assumed that the only other beings there along with him were silent twisteds like Rodger and Connie. The moon shrugged it off, more glad to have a free floor at last than anything.

…And that’s when he heard the sniffling.

Astro stopped dead in his tracks, terrified, to listen. Sure enough, small sniffles and sobs could be heard from somewhere on the floor, echoing just enough for the moon to hear the pain and sorrow within them.

What the…? Astro had met plenty of twisteds, but not one that he knew of or had been told about ever made noises even similar to a crying human or toon. So, why…?

With concern and empathetic pity welling in his chest and without anything better to do, Astro began to follow the muffled sound of cries, assuring himself that if the source was something dangerous that he could always simply run or back away. The floor he was on was quite large, meaning the careful search took him a bit longer than he’d expected, but soon enough the tiny sounds became clearer, and Astro crept forward until he was peeking around the corner to see the origin of the noises at last.

Dandy was slumped against the floor’s “fake” elevator, curled up loosely into a small ball. The flower was crying quietly into his knees, which he hugged shakily to his chest, and Astro quickly realized why. Long, awful cuts littered his shivering body, covering his chest, arms, legs and even petals in gashes that weren’t quite deep enough to put his life in danger, but only barely. Dandy’s tattered shirt and usually brightly colored fur were both covered in still-wet ichor, and several of the cuts that the moon could see were still visibly bleeding.

Astro’s heart plummeted in horror. He stepped out from behind the boxes in front of him, trying not to cry or panic upon seeing him best friend in such a state.

“Dandy… O-oh my God, Dandy.” Astro didn’t know what else to say.

Dandy’s head shot up instantly. Unexpectedly, the shorter toon began to cower, trying to move away from Astro but whimpering and collapsing back down to the ground due to his injuries before he could manage to stand.

The moon winced sympathetically but knelt down so that Dandy could see his face.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright, Dandy. It’s just me.  I-I’m going to try and help you, okay?”

The flower looked up into Astro’s mismatched eyes for only a moment before his own eyes began to widen. The floral toon relaxed almost instantaneously, ceasing his attempts to push himself father away from Astro and instead moving a bit closer.

“Moonie…?” Dandy’s voice was small and a bit hoarse from crying.

As much as Astro was relieved to see Dandy recognize him and calm down, he couldn’t help but be a bit taken aback by the nickname. “Moonie…” He hasn’t called me that since…

The moon quickly nodded his head. “Y-Yeah…” he responded distractedly, heart aching from seeing the poor toon’s wounds from even closer, “Oh, Dandy, what happened to you?”

Astro expected the flower to deflect the question as he usually did whenever the moon toon asked something too personal but instead found tears welling in in the other toon’s big eyes when he looked back up at him. Suddenly, Dandy began to sob again.

“T-they all hate me,” the smaller toon choked out, already crying uncontrollably, “They a-always ignore me until I get upset; I-I can’t help it. It makes me turn all twisted and it hurts so bad. All my skin stretches s-so much and it gives me all these cuts… a-and then I always accidentally hurt myself, too. I p-promise I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I always—I-I always—” Dandy’s last words dissolved into a fit of wet sniffles and cries. The toon used a paw to uselessly wipe his face before shoving his head back into his knees, body trembling with sobs.

“Flower…” Astro reached out to put his hand on his friend’s shoulder but stopped himself, not wanting to accidentally touch anywhere he was injured. The moon sighed. “It’s not your fault, Dandy, none of this is. All of them are just going to reappear in the lobby, so don’t worry about it, okay?”

Dandy didn’t look up at him. He shook his head into his knees and hugged himself tighter.

“All-a them will still blame me,” the petaled toon responded dismally, words slightly slurring together, “A-and then they’ll be all mean to me again because I don’t have any heals for sale… n-never do b’cuz I always gotta use them on myself…” Dandy lifted his head just enough to stare tearily at one of the several gashes on his arms for context. His bottom lip shook.

Astro’s heart broke as the words sank in fully, wishing he’d known about all of this sooner. He wanted to fix this—all of it—but tried to focus on what he could do right then to help, in the moment.

“I’ve got you now, ’Dands, alright? You don’t have to worry anymore… I’ll patch you up now and later when we go back up I’ll make sure that none of the other toons will ever hurt you like that again, okay? You’re safe now, pup.”

The flower toon finally tilted his head back up at him. He looked wary to trust that Astro was telling the truth but eventually spoke up again.

“You’ll do that? You promise, Moonie?” Dandy’s voice was a whisper.

Astro smiled at him comfortingly and nodded.

“I promise.”

The moon’s heart warmed at seeing Dandy’s look of gratitude and relief but came suddenly to a realization. The nicknames, the flower’s almost childlike words and tone of voice, the way Dandy cried so openly… Is he…?

“Hey, Dandy-lion?” Astro took one of Dandy’s paws with his magic and the other toon looked up at him. “Are you… are you little?”

Dandy being regressed would make a lot of sense, now that Astro thought about it. The defense mechanism could have easily been activated by the stress of becoming twisted, and, judging by the flower’s demeanor and the way he held himself, it was likely that the floral toon’s mental age was just around seven, at the moment.

Dandy, however, didn’t seem to understand. His face scrunched up, and he looked suddenly tense again.

“What?” He studied Astro’s face in confusion, petals drooping.

Ah. Dandy obviously hadn’t regressed voluntarily—Astro didn’t think anyone would ever do so in such an unsafe place—but the moon hadn’t even considered the possibility that this was the flower’s first time having it happen to him. I can explain it all to him later; for now, getting the poor toon bandaged up is my priority.

“It’s nothing,” Astro assured him. “Would you let me help you with your injuries? I have plenty of health kits and bandages in the elevator… I promise I’ll make sure to be gentle.”

Dandy hesitated for a second, shifting nervously and wiping the last tears from his eyes, before nodding decidedly and lifting both of his hands up in the air as if requesting for Astro to help him up.

Astro smiled and giggled quietly at the adorable action before shifting his blanket to be held only by his lower arms and using his top two hands to grab onto Dandy’s and pull him easily up to his feet. The flower stumbled at first, yelping at the sudden pain from moving, but was quickly stabilized once he leaned against Astro, who slowly guided them both back to the elevator. Rather than finish the machines to open the elevator as he usually would, the moon used his magic to lift the door up until both he and Dandy could slip under it without having to duck.

Once he’d set Dandy down with his back against one of the elevator walls and had closed the elevator door as quietly as possible, Astro began to rifle through the pile of materials he’d collected. Though a medkit was hopefully all he needed, the moon fished out a bandage, too, for just in case.

Astro turned back to Dandy, who was clearly trying to look brave and not as scared as he was. The moon frowned, wishing he had something to comfort the little flower, until he remembered the one thing that always used to calm Dandy down as a kid.

The astral toon sat down in front of Dandy again, but this time took the blanket from around himself and held it out to him as it to offer it to the other toon.

“Here, how about you hang onto this for me while I patch you up, flower.”

Dandy’s entire face lit up. The toon eagerly scooped the soft blanket up into his arms and held it warmly to his chest, nuzzling the soft fabric with his cheek while clearly trying to make sure he didn’t get any blood on it.

Though Astro felt a bit awkward without his blanket to cover his extra pair of arms, he was far too happy to see Dandy smiling to care. He picked his heals back up and showed them to the flower.

“Ready?”

Dandy still looked a bit anxious, but the blanket seemed to have its desired effect, for the flower let his shoulders drop and nodded quickly.

Astro disinfected and bandaged Dandy as carefully as he could, showing the other toon each item before he used it and warning him beforehand when something would sting. Given the age he was mentally at the moment, the flower toon was unbelievably brave, not making more than a squeak whenever something hurt.

In just a few minutes, the moon toon managed to successfully wrap up all of Dandy’s injuries in cloth bandages but for the one on his chest, which was smaller than the other wounds and able to be covered by just a Dand-Aid, which Astro let Dandy put on himself. When he was done, the moon found a Gardenveiw shirt in the pile of supplies he’d collected on that run and gave it to the floral toon for him to change into. After he made sure Dandy felt comfortable, turning his back to the petaled toon and putting his hands over his eyes, Astro waited until the regressed toon delicately tapped on his shoulder to signify that he could turn back around.

The moon had to hold himself back from laughing or beaming at how absolutely adorable Dandy looked. Despite not being physically smaller than usual, the flower was significantly shorter than Astro was, meaning that the shirt the moon had originally found for himself was long and slightly baggy on him. The goofy outfit combined with the big-eyed look Dandy was giving him… Astro had to keep himself from squeezing the other toon in cuteness aggression.

“Better?” Astro asked, smiling at the flower.

Dandy rubbed his eyes and huffed but smiled at the star-eyed toon and responded with a small “mhm!”

The astral toon sighed in relief and stood to click the button to send the elevator back up to the lobby, ruffling Dandy’s top petals as he did. The shorter toon yelped and clung onto the bottom of Astro’s shirt as the elevator began to move but relaxed at the soothing look Astro gave him.

Knowing the old elevator would be slow, the moon stretched and sat down with his back against its back wall to rest, patting the spot beside him until Dandy sat, too. The flower sat as close to Astro as he could, relying on him for comfort, and, unexpectedly, took Astro’s blanket from around himself to drape it over both of their laps, instead. The moon’s eye widened in surprise, but he laughed, touched by the kind action. Dandy beamed, looking quite proud of himself, before yawning squeakily and resting his head exhaustedly on Astro’s shoulder. The taller toon made no move to remove him, knowing he most definitely deserved a rest after all he’d been through that day alone, and spoke quietly to him after a few minutes of content silence.

“How about we talk about all of this soon; all of… everything. When you’re big again we can talk about doing this again, too. I can help you learn how to regress on purpose next time so that it doesn’t happen outside of your control any more… and after that, if you’ll let me, I can become your caregiver—I think that’s what they’re called—so you never have to be all alone like that again… How does that sound, Dandy-lion?”

After a moment without any response, Astro turned his head to look down at the little toon. In the few minutes of silence, Dandy had fallen completely asleep, curled up against his best friend in the world and purring softly in his sleep.

The moon giggled lightly and rolled his eyes without any real annoyance.

“Pfft— I suppose I’ll just have to talk to you in the morning, hm?”

Astro scooped Dandy up with two arms when the elevator stopped, wrapping his blanket carefully around the flower as he did, and carried the snoozing toon off to his room to finally tuck the boy into bed.

Chapter Text

Dandy woke up to the faint singing of songbirds and instantly knew something was wrong.

First of all, there hadn’t been a day in the flower toon’s life that he’d twisted and not felt like he’d been torn limb from limb in the morning, yet, in that moment, he didn’t think he’d ever felt better.

Second, he was in his room. Not only in his room, but in his bed, tucked under the sheets… with an oddly familiar lilac blanket wrapped comfortably around him and his favorite plushie (a well-loved Astro plush that he most totally didn’t sleep with more often than not) cradled between his arms.

Dandy felt comfortable and safe… Both feelings were so foreign to him that the flower felt dangerously close to panicking as he hurriedly looked around in search of answers.

The petaled toon’s room looked just as it normally did to Dandy, somewhat messy and colorfully eclectic, until he spotted the figure in the corner of the room.

Astro was curled up on Dandy’s sage rocking chair, rocking himself slowly as he read from a thick, heavy-looking book. He isn’t wearing his blanket, Dandy noticed, and realized with a start that said blanket was the one currently wrapped around him and, despite already knowing Astro had four arms, this was his first time seeing the other toon without his usual covering. Though there were circles under his eyes, the moon seemed content with his book and presence within the flower toon’s room and only looked up to notice that Dandy was awake when the shorter toon spoke up.

“…Astro?”

The moon jumped a bit, startled, but his eyes softened warmly as his gaze found its way to Dandy’s. That look most definitely didn’t make the flower blush ten times darker. Definitely.

“Morning, flower. How are you feeling?”

Dandy was too distracted to answer. He tensed and instead began to pelt the other man with questions. “What happened, Astro? Why are you here? Why am I here? How…?”

“Relax, hun,” the moon said softly, making Dandy shut up just long enough to listen. “Yesterday I… I found you on the floor you twisted on and brought you back here after I bandaged you up. You were awake for most of it, but you… you were little, so I’m not sure how much you remember.”

The flower’s shoulders tensed. He gave Astro a wary look of confusion. “What…? What’s that supposed to mean?” He didn’t mean to sound rude, truly, but he couldn’t help but freak out a little.

Astro paused in for a second as if thinking of a way to explain before answering softly. “You had, um, regressed, ’Dands. I-it’s a defense mechanism where you mentally revert back to a younger age, essentially. That’s why I’m here; I didn’t want to leave you all alone while you were in that state. …I-I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable at all, really, but I promise it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Would you… Do you want to talk about it?”

Dandy went blind with panic. His ichor pumped loudly in his head. No… Oh God, no. Dandy had known it was possible for toons to regress, despite not knowing what it was called before then, but for it to happen to him? He couldn’t be like that. He was better than that. What right did he have to be panicking and acting like a child when he’d been the one to fuck everything up and cause the whole damn Ichor Operation in the first place? Not to mention, Astro. The moon deserved better than to have to deal with the burden of what was hidden beyond Dandy’s cheerful façade. Astro meant everything to the flower, despite the fact that Dandy had had to push him away for the safety of them both… It was just typical, the petaled toon supposed, that Dandy would somehow manage to ruin everything with the other toon even further by forcing him to care for and pity that other side of him.

“Fuck,” the flower toon said aloud, trying not to hyperventilate. He felt suddenly nauseous at the thought of Astro seeing him like that. He’s going to hate me now, he’s…

“…Dandy?”

Astro stood and was about to set his hand on the other toon’s shoulder when Dandy snapped back into character, something he suddenly realized he should have done much sooner.

“Sorry, buddy, but I think you’re mistaken!” Dandy said abruptly, smiling at Astro widely.

The moon blinked and tilted his head. “But—”

“Gosh, you look tired, Astro! Why don’t you go lay down for a bit? I’d hate to keep you up!” The flower grabbed one of Astro’s lower wrists and began walking him to the door, throwing his blanket back over the taller toon’s shoulders as he did.

“What? Dandy, I’m fine; we should really talk about—”

Dandy practically shoved Astro out of his room as he opened the door, blabbering something sickeningly cheery as he did. Just when he was about to close him out, however, the moon caught the door with a single hand, stopping the smaller toon’s attempt at shutting it.

“Wait, Dancifer,” Astro said pleadingly, looking hurt as he frowned and studied the flower’s face.

Dandy’s forced smile faltered and he almost flinched. The lunar toon saw it.

“Please, Dandy… I know you’re scared to confide in me about everything and stop pretending to be fine all the time, but please… If you ever feel like you’re going to ‘go down’ again or just need somebody to talk to, don’t hesitate to come to me, okay? I’m always here for you…”

Dandy hesitated for one last strained moment before clenching his jaw again to grin even wider and gripping the doorknob more tightly.

“Sweet dreams, Astro!”

The flower toon only barely managed to close the door in time to cut off the sounds of his own panicked sobs from the rest of the world.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Astro didn’t know what to think.

Part of him wanted to hate himself for pushing too far… for making Dandy feel like he’d just revealed something terrible about himself or that the happy mask he wore to protect himself from the weight of the truth wasn’t as convincing as he wished it to be.

Another part of him, however, knew that Dandy needed more than what he allowed himself. He needed to talk to someone—to get the discussion of what had truly happened with Delilah and the Ichor Operation fully off his chest. Besides, Astro knew that he could never have decided to leave Dandy where he’d found him the day before. The moon didn’t know why, but something about seeing Dandy so small and vulnerable that day made him feel much more protective over the other toon.

I don’t want to make him feel like he has to push away from me any more than he already has, as much as I’d like to help him, Astro told himself, For now all I can do is wait for him to come to me… and hope he doesn’t hurt himself in trying to avoid it.

Despite worrying almost nonstop for his best friend, especially after seeing what twisting did to the flower, Astro tried to go about the next week as he usually would. Participating in runs, fixing other toons’ dreams, helping wherever he could—it was all incredibly boring, but it kept his mind off of worrying about Dandy… at least a little, anyway.

Although Astro assumed Dandy didn’t remember him saying it, the moon kept his promise. On every run he attended, Astro made sure to buy from the flower at least once every few floors, no matter if the other toon had any heals for sale or how keen the group seemed to be on ignoring the shopkeeper. Not many toons noticed, at first, until the moon began purposely shutting down “Dandy runs,” as they called them, and choosing to stand his ground whenever anyone protested it.

“Whatever it is you’re trying to do isn’t worth forcing him to twist,” Astro would say to them quietly, “He’s trying to help just like the rest of you… Do you have any idea how awful it must be? Turning into something like that?” The lunar toon never raised his voice towards anyone, but the gentle words seemed to be enough to make a difference, for he didn’t hear so much as a mention of a Dandy run during the next few days.

As for the floral toon himself, Astro was starting to lose hope in him coming to the moon for help. Maybe I should have left before he woke up that day, Astro thought to himself at least five times a day, At least that way he might still be talking to me… Astro was close to accepting that Dandy would never take him up on his offer when, a week and a half after Astro found the other man while out on a run, Dandy burst into his room.

Astro jumped at the sudden entrance and accidentally dropped his book but didn’t yet stand up from his bed. The moon toon saw a flash of something small and vulnerable in Dandy’s eyes the moment they met his, but the flower looked away and spoke before Astro could say anything.

“You— …You were right,” Dandy said sharply, ending up sounding much more nervous than he’d likely intended, “I… Fuck. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, but I keep feeling like I did when I was… when you bandaged me up. I-I keep feeling weak and sensitive a-and like I need to be cared for, or something, and I just… I don’t know what to do, Nova. I d-don’t want to be alone anymore, I—hic!”

Dandy broke off with a hiccup and furiously wiped his eyes, trying to stop the sudden flow of tears. Astro didn’t hesitate; the moment he understood what the flower had said, he jumped up to close the door behind him and scoop the shorter toon lovingly into his arms. The petaled toon didn’t try to stop it, simply falling into Astro’s chest and allowing himself to sob.

“Oh, darling.” The moon held him a little closer. “It’s okay, Dandy, it’s okay. I’ve got you now.”

Astro continued to whisper small consolations to the man as he clung to him and wept, finally letting down his guard. He’s dropping, the taller man realized gradually, He probably hasn’t let himself drop since I found him when he was little… It’s been far too long for him given how much he must be dealing with.

Astro wrapped his blanket around his best friend’s shoulders and smiled down at him. “I’ll take care of you, okay, flower?”

Dandy looked up at him with big, innocent eyes that instantly gave away how much he wanted that, but the toon continued to cry, lips shaking.

“Are you alright with that, pup?” the moon asked gently, trying to understand what was upsetting him, “I promise I’m okay with it, if that’s what you’re worried about, baby.”

The shorter toon let out particularly loud sob and shoved his head into Astro’s chest. The words he managed were nearly unintelligible.

“D-don’ deserve it,” the flower whined pitifully into Astro’s shirt, voice wracked with guilt, “I-I pushed you away n’ ignored you ’cuz I was scared an’—and I thought you wouldn’ wan’ me anymore…  ’ve already caused you enough trouble…”

Dandy’s top petals drooped as he mumbled a tearful apology squeezed his eyes shut tightly. Astro, only half meaning to, let out a sympathetic noise and let his shoulders drop.

“You aren’t a burden, sweetheart,” Astro practically cooed, “You aren’t to blame for any of this that’s happened, Dandy; you deserve to be loved and cared for as much as you need, and it would be an honor to be the one to make that happen for you. …D’you want me to stay with you?”

The flower looked up at him with teary eyes, little eyebrows knit with worry. After a moment of hesitating and realizing Astro had no intention of taking any of his words back, Dandy took a deep breath and, finally, nodded.

Astro smiled genuinely, unable to contain his happiness, and lifted the boy up into his arms without thinking. The realization that he should probably ask or warn the flower before he did that while the other toon was little came to him a second too late, but Dandy didn’t seem to mind at all. He was slightly crying, still, but, through his tears, the petaled toon let out a little laugh. Astro brightened instantly. Impulsively, the moon began to spin around with the little toon in his arms, listening as he hiccuped and squealed with laughter.

“Haha—! Stop, Moonie, stop!” Dandy yelled but he was laughing, the fear in his eyes just a moment before now long gone.

When Astro set him down on his feet at last, he was laughing, too. He set a hand on Dandy’s shoulder to keep him from falling in case he got dizzy.

“Pfft— You feeling better, silly?”

The flower was still swaying but nodded and covered his mouth with his hands, giggling. As Astro had hoped, Dandy seemed much more relaxed, now. If he hadn’t fully dropped before he started crying, he definitely has now, the lunar toon thought, too, I hate knowing that both times he’s become little so far have been so traumatic for him, but I’m happy that he came to me… hopefully from now on he’ll never have to worry so much about regressing when he needs to again.

The star-eyed toon refocused on the boy in front of him, ready to ask him what he wanted to do, but found that the flower had already been distracted by the contents of Astro’s room. He hadn’t left the moon’s side but was focused somewhere halfway across the room: Astro’s desk.

The moon knelt down next to him. “Do you wanna draw something, hun?”

Dandy looked over his shoulder and up to look at him. “…’m allowed to?”

Astro nodded and took his hand. “Of course you are, Dandy-lion. Here.”

The taller man led him to the desk and rifled through its drawers until he came up with a bin of markers, a box of crayons, and a few white sheets of paper. He took them all out and showed them to the flower.

“Are these alright?” Astro debated on giving him a pencil, too, but had a feeling that he was younger than he was last time he regressed and didn’t want to risk him getting hurt.

Dandy didn’t seem to mind. “Mhm!” he approved happily, rocking from his toes to his heels.

Astro almost giggled. The flower toon hadn’t ever been able to sit still when he was actually a child, either.

“Do you want to sit up here?” Astro patted the seat of the desk chair, wishing he had something more comfortable.

Dandy squinted his eyes at the wooden chair with an adorably judgmental look before glancing down at Astro’s fluffy rug.

“…Floor?” he requested quietly after a moment, looking up at the taller toon for approval.

Astro nodded and ruffled his petals before he could get anxious again. “Sure, kiddo.”

The moon attached a piece of paper to a clipboard and Dandy plopped down on the circular rug on his stomach. The petaled toon began to draw the moment Astro supplied him with the paper, drawing quickly but choosing each of his colors carefully and kicking his feet behind him. Curious, Astro sat down beside him.

“Whatcha making?” he asked after a moment, bringing his knees to his chest.

Dandy looked back at him, smiling, and playfully hid the drawing with both of his hands. "You don't get to see yet!" the flower exclaimed as if Astro was being silly for even suggesting the possibility of him seeing it before it was done.

"Right, right, of course," Astro responded, nodding wisely, "Would you rather me sit over there?" He pointed vaguely in the direction of his desk and made a small movement to stand.

Dandy caught the end of Astro's blanket. His wagging leaf tail drooped. "Nuh-uh," he said disapprovingly, tugging the moon back down so he'd stay, "You draw, too?" The little toon picked up and held out to him two sheets of paper from his small stack and a pastel green crayon the same color as his arms.

Astro’s heart melted. He took the art supplies from Dandy’s paw and lied with his stomach down, too, silently agreeing to stay for as long as the floral toon would like. Not knowing what else to draw, the main began to doodle a little picture of Dandy, coloring him in to the best of his abilities with the few crayons he had but making sure he used the green color Dandy had given him wherever he could.

It wasn’t long before the flower toon himself sat up on his elbows and proudly handed Astro his masterpiece. Astro sat up on his knees and took it.

The drawing was noticeably childlike and half scribbled, but easily recognizable all the same. It was of him and Dandy sitting together, but with all of Astro’s arms visible and Dandy wearing the moon toon’s blanket. It took Astro a moment to realize what they were, but eventually he recognized the brown stripes drawn on the shorter toon’s arms as the bandages Astro had dressed his wounds with not long ago.

“That’s us!” Astro said happily, surprised that the flower had remembered that day, “That’s when we were in the elevator, isn’t it?”

Dandy, clearly overjoyed that Astro had understood the drawing, responded affirmatively with enthusiasm and leaned against Astro’s side to see what the main had drawn.

“Woah!” Dandy picked up the moon’s drawing of him, staring at it with stars in his eyes. “How’d you do that?”

Astro laughed at the little toon’s awe. He really hadn’t thought his own drawing was all that great.

Dandy flipped Astro’s paper over and gave it back to him, looking up at him expectantly. “Show me?”

“Hm?”

“Show me how!” The flower placed a crayon in the moon’s hand and brought it to the paper before getting a new sheet for himself to draw on.

Finally understanding what Dandy wanted, Astro began to show the boy how to draw himself slowly, pausing every few seconds so he could shakily follow along. The entire process was sort of calming, and Astro didn’t mind a bit when Dandy requested he teach him to draw the lunar toon himself and Pebble, too, when he finished. By the time they had finished drawing and the flower had insisted on helping Astro clean up, Dandy’s bright eyes were visibly heavy, and the moon caught him yawning several times too many to be a coincidence. Astro knelt down beside the boy.

“Are you getting tired, little flower?” he asked softly, watching the other toon rub his eyes.

Dandy opened his mouth to respond, stopped himself to think, and then shook his head “no” quickly.

Astro snorted at him. Leave it to Dandy, no matter the age or mindspace, to always find a way to be stubborn.

“Hmmmm, are you lying to me, Dandy-lion?” Astro made sure his tone was light and teasing and not actually accusatory. “You must be exhausted, darling, it’s nearly half an hour after you usually go to bed now, isn’t it?”

Dandy sighed and pouted but looked much more gloomy than angry that he had to sleep.

“But I… I still wanna spen’ time with you,” the flower mumbled sadly, fiddling with his sleeves.

Astro jumped to correct himself; he hadn’t realized Dandy wouldn’t automatically assume that he was staying there with him. “You can stay and sleep in here, hun,” he assured him, “That way I can take care of you, and you don’t have to be away from me, alright?”

Dandy relaxed a little but still seemed upset. He hugged his own chest and shuffled his feet. “But what about in the morning?” he asked dejectedly, eyes a little watery.

Astro was clueless as to what Dandy meant for nearly a minute but frowned and felt his heart ache when he realized what the flower was so worried about.

“You… you mean when you’re big again?”

Astro felt a pang of guilt when Dandy apprehensively nodded his head.

“Dandy…” The moon outstretched his many arms to bring him into a hug. “I love being around you whether you’re little or not, you goof. I know I’ve already said it, but I don’t blame you for any of the bad stuff that’s been going on, and I’ve missed you so much more than I can say. I love you, every adorable little version of you, more than anything, and that’s never going to change, okay?”

Dandy peered up at him, awestruck. “For reals?

Astro laughed and nodded truthfully. “For reals.”

Seeming content with that answer, Dandy beamed at him and stifled an oncoming yawn. The moon stood up and rolled his eyes bemusedly at the floral toon’s attempt to seem awake.

“How about we brush our teeth and get some water and then you can pick out a book for me to read to you before we go to bed, alright?”

Dandy seemed to like that plan. He perked up and grabbed the side of Astro’s blanket to skip towards the moon’s bathroom, where Astro found him an extra unopened toothbrush to use and helped him reach the cabinet with the toothpaste. Once their teeth were clean and the main had found pajamas for Dandy to borrow, Astro allowed the flower to change in the bathroom, retrieved a change of clothes for himself, and slipped out of the room while Dandy was looking though what children’s books that remained on his shelf from his childhood to get him some water.

Though the kitchen the toons shared didn’t seem to have any sippy cups, which Astro had assumed would be the safest option, the moon managed to find a short, lightweight cup with a lid that he hoped would do just fine. When Astro returned with the water, Dandy was sat up in the middle of Astro’s bed with a happy but tired look on his face and a closed book on his lap.

Astro handed over the cup and reached for the book Dandy had chosen instead. “Whatcha got there?”

The star-eyed toon should have already know what book the flower would pick but was surprised and touched by his choice either way. It was an old book filled with nothing but colorful, stunning pictures of space and stars and planets that Astro had adored as a kid and had looked through with Dandy more times than he could count. Just seeing the picture book was nostalgic in the best way possible, and Astro couldn’t help but smile as he slipped under the covers himself and settled next to Dandy. The moon took his blanket off to lay it over his best friend’s chest before flipping through the astronomy book, reading the few words on each page and whispering little comments about each image until he sensed Dandy beginning to drift.

“Wait,” the little toon whispered as Astro began to properly tuck him in, forcing his eyes to stay open, “I wan’— I wan’ my lil’ moon.”

Astro frowned at him, confused, until the flower made a few vague hand motions he understood.

“Oh!” Astro took just a bit of his lilac blanket from Dandy to fish into its concealed inside pocket and bring out his plush likeness—the same plushie that the moon toon had found in the flower’s bed last time he was in his room. “This, lovey? I got it for ya from you room earlier when I went to get water; I figured you might want it.”

Dandy gasped happily and took the stuffed toy from Astro’s hands to hug it to his chest and nuzzle it with his cheek. The flower toon closed his eyes again and leaned closer to Astro’s warmth when he laid down next to him and clicked off the light.

“G’night, Moonie,” Dandy whispered sleepily, bringing Astro’s blanket closer.

Astro put his night cap on his side table and gave Dandy’s forehead a small, affectionate peck. He smiled softly and closed his eyes.

“Goodnight, my Dandy-lion.”