Chapter Text
Out of the many toons in Gardenview, Dandy was one of the very few who undoubtedly knew pain. He'd been Delilah’s little “guinea pig” for years before the museum’s shutdown without his consent, unknowingly assisting in the creation of the twisteds that had tortured him and those he cared about for years before he'd found a way to defeat them. He'd twisted involuntarily more times than he could count, a process that, before he learned how to twist safely, caused his skin to rip, his limbs to twist, and his mind to deteriorate into that of a brainless beast. He’d seen and undergone more of the horrors of the educational center than all of the other toons combined… yet the pain that he felt then was nothing like anything he’d ever experienced.
Dandy sobbed and clutched his stomach as his insides felt as if they were being torn apart and squeezed to death all at the same time. His skin was on fire. The once-full bottle of painkillers he’d found in his medicine cabinet laid where it had been chucked hours before, empty and long-forgotten… not that it had collectively given the flower even a moment’s worth of relief, anyway. It’ll all be over soon, Dandy tried to tell himself but knew he couldn’t be more than a few hours into his misery. Am I even going to be able to survive this…?
It wasn’t that Dandy hadn’t been expecting it—it was when the flower toon was still young that Delilah disgustedly and begrudgingly explained to him that one day he’d begin to have “heats” during the spring due to it being the season of pollination and his genetic likeness to a flower—but he’d expected his suffering to be cramps, at most, not this. The human, after lecturing him excessively on what would happen if he told anyone about his “condition,” assured him vaguely that he “wouldn’t have to worry about it for a while.” Dandy had hoped that would mean he wouldn’t have to deal with it until he was much, much older, yet here his was at twenty-two, violently writhing and shaking on his bedroom floor.
There had to be a way for him to relieve himself from this on his own—there had to be—but, even if just the thought of doing anything of the sort didn’t make him feel terribly disgusting and perverted, his usually much smaller paws now sported far too sharp, dangerous claws for him to even think about using them for anything, his room was completely empty of anything helpful, and everything was spinning…
Dandy’s quiet cries and whimpers of pain were interrupted sharply by the sound of Dandy’s door being opened and concerned voice coming from the other side of the room.
“…Dandy?”
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Astro hadn’t ever been much of a clingy toon. Sure, he could be sociable and enjoy the company of others on occasion, but, more often than not, the moon would rather be by himself than with anyone else… but Dandy… Dandy was an exception.
Dandy and Astro had been best friends practically since their creations, but, to the moon toon, Dandy meant so much more than that. The flower knew him better than anybody else did and always put a noticeable effort into ensuring Astro was comfortable and heard, an action that had always made the main more flustered and endeared that he’d like to admit. Dandy was easily the least judgmental toon the moon knew… Hell, Astro could stumble over a sentence for an entire minute, and the shopkeeper would do nothing more than wait for him patiently or laugh it off as if nothing had happened.
Although things had been tense between them during the Ichor Operation, mostly due to Dandy closing himself off in fear of accidentally bringing Astro and the others into the mess, their relationship recovered surprisingly quickly once Astro finally got the flower to talk about it all, and the two’s closeness had only grown ever since. They’d gotten to the point where they were only rarely seen apart and, when they away from one another, it was usually easy for Astro to guess exactly where his best friend was…
That was largely why the start of that morning was so alarming for Astro. He and Dandy had been having a sleepover in Astro’s room the night before, yet the moon toon was alone in his bed when he woke up. It wasn’t uncommon for the flower to wake up before Astro did and leave to get them both breakfast, so the astral toon thought nothing of it until he arrived the kitchen. The diner floor was large but nearly entirely visible from where Astro stood, making it easy for him to deduce that Dandy wasn’t there, either. Astro frowned and approached the counter.
“Hey, Sprout? Cosmo?”
The two boys in question turned towards him with a start, pausing their pancake flipping and giggly conversation to realize that Astro was standing there for the first time. Astro had half a mind to laugh at their shocked expressions. Despite all living together in Gardenview for all their lives, no toon but Dandy ever seemed to get used to Astro’s way of accidentally sneaking up on people due to his unusually high stealth.
“Oh, Astro, hey!” Cosmo greeted him brightly. “You want some pancakes? We have some chocolate chip ones somewhere around here, too…”
The moon politely declined before Sprout could go frantically wrestling all his many plates of pancakes into a sensible order.
“Ah, no thank you! I was actually just looking for Dandy; I haven’t seen him this morning. Have either of you two seen him come down here?”
Both toons scrunched up their faces in thought, glanced at each other, and shook their heads “no.” Astro’s frown deepened.
“Ah, well, thank you, anyway. He’s probably just off tending to his plants in the greenhouse…”
Dandy wasn’t in the greenhouse. Or his lobby shop. Or where Shelly was throwing a ball for Pebble to fetch under the lobby’s tree. Astro knew checking Dandy’s room for him was the most obvious next step, but the possibility of the flower being there confused him. Why would Dandy wake up first thing in the morning and go back to his own room instead of staying to hang out with Astro? Even if he was just grabbing something, he wouldn’t have to be gone for this long, would he? Nevertheless, Astro pushed his doubts down and made his way over to his best friend’s door.
The toons’ rooms had been soundproofed long before the museum’s opening to keep the crowded, toon-filled halls quiet, which meant Astro only noticed the muffled sounds of sobbing once he entered the flower’s room. The small sounds stopped abruptly, and Astro froze in the doorway, horrified.
“…Dandy?”
Nothing happened for a moment. The room was warm and smelled oddly nice, like flowers and something addictively sweet. Something about the scent made Astro’s head spin.
“A-Astro?” Dandy’s voice was uncharacteristically nervous and trembling. There was a sort of “whine” to each of his words, and the main toon realized his breathing was suddenly heavy enough to be heard.
Astro sighed in relief upon hearing his closest friend’s voice but knew something was wrong. The moon couldn’t see him from where he was—Dandy was somewhere on the floor on the other side of his bed, opposite of the side Astro could see, he guessed—but he took only one step forward before stopping again.
“Y-yeah, I’m here,” Astro responded quietly, silently praying that he was stressing over nothing. “I just couldn’t find you and, uh…”
And you sound like you’ve just been crying, Astro wanted to add, but he held himself back, not wanting Dandy to feel embarrassed over it if that really was the case.
“Ah.” The flower audibly swallowed in discomfort. “S-sorry about that, I just, uh, w-wasn’t feeling too good and didn’t want to get you sick, is all. I’ll just, um, tell you when I feel better and we can hang out then, alright?”
Astro trusted Dandy more than anyone but still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. He took another step.
“Are you sure that’s it…? You can talk to me if… if anything happened, Dandy.”
The flower’s response came a bit too sudden.
“Yup, all good! Fine and dandy! J-just, uh, trying to stay away in case I’m c-contagious and all; you should probably go so I don’t get you—”
Dandy broke off mid-sentence with a sharp hiss and yelp of pain that was most definitely not caused by being “sick.” Completely abandoning his attempt to respect the other toon’s privacy, Astro bolted across the room, heart beating wildly at the thought of his best friend being injured, and looked around frantically until he found the flower.
Dandy was exactly where Astro had guessed he was based on the direction of his voice, crumpled on the floor in agony with his back supported awkwardly between the side of his bed and his nightstand. His legs were up against his chest as if he were cowering but, despite their position, Astro could still clearly see where the flower’s arm pressed against his stomach as if he’d been stabbed. Dandy’s face was screwed up in a flinch, and his tear-filled eyes were wide with fear and something much deeper when they met Astro’s. His cheeks were flushed dark and his breaths were heaving. Worst of all, some of the man’s usually most gentle features now resembled those of his ichor-corrupted form; his paws were slightly larger and ended in massive, multicolored claws, his petals were pointed, and the middle of his pupils glinted scarlet red…
Just the sight of Dandy so clearly terrified and in pain made Astro want to cry in horror. What happened to him? Is he twisting? Is he hurt? Is he twisting because he’s hurt?
Astro couldn’t help but instantly begin to freak out. He’d lost enough to the effects of the Ichor Operation already; he wasn’t about to lose Dandy, too.
“Dandy!? H-holy shit, Dandy, you—your arms…”
Astro rushed towards him, not caring about the potential danger of the flower’s claws to him for even a second, but Dandy shrank back.
“No, Astro, I-I’m fine, really. You shouldn’t— I’m not—”
The moon didn’t listen. He reached a hand out from his blanket to gently touch the man’s forearm—a split-second attempt to keep him still—and jerked back just as quickly, horrified. Dandy’s skin wasn’t just warm to the touch, but so unnaturally hot that it was almost painful. Astro’s concern and confusion instantly increased by tenfold.
“Holy shit, Dandy, you’re burning up,” the main toon exclaimed uneasily. “We—We need to get you to Sprout and Cosmo; they’ll know how to fix thi—”
“Please, just listen to me moon; it’s not something any of you should worry about, okay? It’s not what you think it is.”
“Then what is it?!” Astro practically yelled, meaning to sound angry but coming off hysterical due to the teariness in his eyes and voice. “If you’re not twisting, or hurt, or sick from some sort of ichor shit, then what the hell’s going on with you? I need answers, Dandy, I can’t— I won’t lose you again.”
There were hot, panicked tears pouring down Astro’s cheeks by that point, but the moon couldn’t care enough to wipe them away. Dandy looked up at him with big eyes and, despite the confusing mix of pain, need, and shame in them, Astro realized quickly that the flower was still just as scared as he was. Dandy took a moment to respond.
“It’s… it’s not something you’ll want to know about, moon,” the petaled toon tried weakly, but already seemed to know that Astro wouldn’t give in so easily. The lunar toon doubled down without hesitation.
“I’m not going to leave you like this, Dancifer,” Astro said resolutely, but quickly added on in a gentler tone, “You know I won’t judge you, no matter what it is, hun… I really only want to help.”
Astro absentmindedly set his uncovered hand on the knee of Dandy’s that was closer to him, hoping the flower could sense his sincerity. Strangely, the petaled toon shivered at the touch, squeezing his waist a bit harder and whining quietly under his breath as if experiencing another intense wave of pain. Astro tensed and lifted his hand, scared that he had hurt the other man, but was met quickly with Dandy subtly leaning back into the contact, warming the moon’s entire hand again in an instant. The main looked back up at his best friend’s face, perplexed, but Dandy had adverted his eyes again.
“Will… will you leave if I tell you?” The flower murmured questioningly, swallowing hard. Astro would have likely felt hurt at the hope in his voice if he wasn’t so sure that the situation was deeper than Dandy simply wanting to be alone.
Astro sighed. “You know I can’t promise that, flower...”
Dandy’s shoulder’s sagged and his sharp, quivering petals drooped down further. He stared down at the floor for a moment and chewed at his lip, looking as if he was just then realizing he wasn’t getting out of this conversation.
After nearly a minute of nervous fidgeting, Dandy stayed sitting but turned so that his back was now entirely against the side of his bed. He bashfully glanced over at Astro, who took a second to realize what the flower wanted, as the moon carefully sat down beside him and gave his best friend a hopeful, reassuring smile. Dandy let out a tense breath and moved his legs so that they were up against his chest and pressed together.
“Listen…” the flower toon started off quietly, voice a bit more noticeably breathy, “I-I know you said you aren’t going to judge me and all that, but… but if you’re grossed out or don’t want to talk to me anymore after what I tell you, then I don’t blame you, okay?”
Astro practically pouted at that. He wanted to protest—to tell Dandy there was nothing about him to feel so ashamed of—but the other man went on before he could say anything.
“D-do you, uh, remember all those botany books of mine that I used to be obsessed when we were kids? The ones I always asked you to read to me?”
The moon toon brightened and nodded his head. Astro had never gotten even close to reading Dandy’s full collection but had been persuaded into reading enough of the books as a child to know more about plants than any average person would ever need to.
“Right. Good. Great,” Dandy blabbered awkwardly. He took a calming breath in and buried the lower half of his face shyly in his knees before finding the words to go on. “…You know what some of them said about ‘pollination season,’ then? At least the gist of it?”
Astro nodded again, now even more confused. “Yeah… that starts around now, right? But what does that have to do with anything?”
Dandy’s blush darkened. “Well, um… since I’m a flower—or at least have some of the DNA of one—the season has started to sort of… affect me.”
The clawed toon glanced over at the moon anxiously, as if preparing for some sort of extreme negative reaction. Astro, still clueless, simply scrunched up his face in thought.
“How so?” he asked obliviously, feeling more lost by the second.
Dandy looked up at him pitifully as if Astro were trying to embarrass him on purpose. When the realization that the blue toon truly had no idea what he was trying to insinuate hit him, however, he somehow managed to look even more sheepish than before.
“It’s… Well, it’s… fuck.” Dandy took a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and finally spilled the one secret he’d ever kept from Astro. “I-It’s basically like I’m in heat,” he blurted out quickly, spitting the words like they were the most painful, disgusting things he’d ever had to say.
The flower suddenly choked out a quiet sob that made the entirety of his body heave and shake. Dandy looked like he wanted to say something more—to validate Astro’s nonexistent disgust with him or apologize without reason, knowing him—but everything seemed to overwhelm him at once before he could. Instead, the man made a humiliated sound, shoved his face into his knees, and tensed as if bracing for impact.
Astro, rather than reacting in whatever terrible way Dandy had expected, immediately felt his heart sink in pity. Dandy had thought of himself as revolting and had believed Astro would shun or even hurt him over something like that? Something natural that he couldn’t control? Sure, the toons had been taught by the handlers that anything even remotely sexual was repulsive and shameful since their creations, but the star-eyed toon, for one, had stopped believing in nearly all of the infantilizing, kid-friendly values they’d forced upon him years ago. Astro wished he could find whoever made his beautiful flower see himself as anything less than perfect and give them a piece of his mind but settled for turning towards Dandy and holding him with all the support and love he hadn’t known the toon had been missing. Dandy’s petals were in the main’s face and one of Astro’s arms was wedged awkwardly between the floral toon’s knees and chest, but Astro didn’t even consider pulling away.
“Dandy… Dandy, hey. Relax, honey, I’m not upset with you. Not even a little bit.” Astro worried distantly whether hugging the flower while he was in such a sensitive period was a good idea—he didn’t want to risk making anything worse for him, after all—but relaxed a bit when he remembered how heavily Dandy had leaned into his touch just minutes before.
Everything seemed to click after the flower’s explanation—why he was acting so strange and avoidant, why he wasn’t in Astro’s room that morning, why he was suddenly so warm beneath his soft fur—until Astro remembered the claws, the tears, the pain in his voice… Could all of those really be caused by just some heat season…?
Dandy’s breathtaking, bottomless eyes were back on Astro when the main shifted his focus back onto him. The floral toon looked confused and slightly mistrusting.
“You… really don’t think I’m gross? Even though it makes me all…” Dandy made some bashful hand gestures that were vague and likely meaningless, but Astro got what he meant. The moon laughed a quietly at his awkward, clawed gesturing, but shook his head to calm the man.
“No, silly, there’s nothing wrong with being that way, no matter what Delilah or the handlers wanted you to think. I’m honestly just relieved to know you aren’t hurt,” Astro said sincerely, but sighed after a moment. “But, still, I’m worried… you look like you’re twisting, you’re acting like you’re in awful pain, and it sounded like you were crying when I first walked in. I don’t want to overstay my welcome more than I already have, especially not while you’re like this, but please talk to me… Is that really all that’s going on? …Are you sure you don’t need anything?”
Astro usually wasn’t one to pry so much, especially about something so personal, but wasn’t about to leave his best friend on his own before he was positive that Dandy wasn’t suffering more than was necessary. He didn’t know much about how heat worked, if he was honest, but knew enough to know that it was likely quite uncomfortable and that Dandy deserved any special treatment or care that he wanted while in it.
In response to Astro’s words, the flower grimaced and looked down at his clawed paws, glaring at them. His pointed petals flopped forward so that barely any of his face was visible.
“Right…” Just Dandy’s expression made it seem as if his claws were the sole cause of all of his frustration. “I’m not twisting, exactly, but I’ve noticed that my ichor has been responding to my emotions a lot more recently, and every time I experience any type of strong emotion now, it tends to begin to make me look more twisted. It doesn’t hurt me at all, but…”
Dandy paused, presumably re-evaluating how much he was willing to share, before huffing and setting his jaw as if to say, “fuck it.” “Now that my ichor’s made me partially twist due to my heat starting, I can’t get my claws to go away for the life of me. It wouldn’t usually be a problem, but now that the pollination season has started and they’re too sharp for me to use, I don’t have any way to safely help myself and relieve the pain, so it’s all just started to… build up for me. I know it’s only been a few hours since it started, but it’s already starting to get overwhelming. …Still, Astro, there’s no use worrying about me. I really don’t think there’s much you can do… not unless you can find some sort of suppressants, or somethin’…” Dandy wrapped his arms back around his lower middle again and bit his cheek, clearly already knowing that no sort of “suppressants” existed.
Astro’s heart sank even lower. So, his plan is just to sit in here and suffer for weeks? Without any way to get himself off during a season when it must hurt like hell to not be able to?
“Flower…” If Astro wasn’t already way past appropriate ways to think about his best friend, he most certainly was after the delivery of his next words. He let out a breath, took Dandy by his shoulders, and spoke confidently without a second of hesitation.
“Let me stay here and help you.”