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Anne doesn't remember falling asleep. Hop Pop had been going on about various theories and ideas- 'fanfics', she had told him, but he said that didn't sound as important- for Suspicion Island, Polly curled up on his old head like Domino used to do, and the smell of mildew was starting to become more and more comforting to her. Even the cool skin of the Plantar family was nice- a brief reprieve from Wartwood's endless swamp heat.
She woke with a crick in her neck and a sore butt from the couch, which was really so firm it might as well have been a couple of those huge beets they'd picked yesterday shoved under a cloth. It was dark out- darker than it got back home, what with electricity and street lamps. Her phone's glow lit up the living room as the ending song played on repeat. Anne honestly didn't know if it was a short nap or if her phone had started from the beginning of the playlist, and she didn't care. She had plenty of charge.
The whole family was snoring, but Hop Pop was unequivocally the loudest. Even in the dim glow, Anne just knew his eyes were open and squinty. It had creeped her out at first- still did, really. But it was sort of sweet? Like, he was trying to watch over them all, even in his sleep, even if he was as basically clueless as ever, and that was pretty cool. Polly had fallen across Anne's lap at some point, letting out the odd squeak as she lashed out at dreamt foes. Anne hoped they'd be smart enough to leave the tadpole alone, before she got too pissed. Sprig, curled up on the edge like a pet, looked the most content out of all of them.
It was nice.
It was home.
The word made Anne's heart do a newfangled jig. She hated it, sometimes. Hated how easily it could be attached to things. Wartwood was nothing like where she was from, the roar of a city, but sometimes she found herself forgetting and blurring things together. It was easy to see, in her mind's eye, picking dinner out of the dirt before giving up and taking a train to takeout, or going to the game store before coming to the mud hut to entertain Sprig and Polly.
Of all the things in this world bound to ruin her emotionally, Anne never thought a tiny little farmer family would do it.
Squirming out from under them was surprisingly easy- Polly was light as a feather in spite of her ferocity, and didn't stir as she returned to Hop Pop's head. Hop Pop hadn't been leaning on her in any way, so losing her didn't alter the balance. Sprig shivered a bit, so Anne draped a mossy tea cozy over his back. That was that.
"Whelp," said Anne, quietly. "You done did it now, Anne."
She turned and walked away, originally intending to head for the basement, before ultimately deciding she wasn't quite ready to sleep again. The door opened, and the moon was so bright it lit the place up even more.
The stars in Wartwood were nothing like the ones Anne knew. She chalked that up mostly to light pollution.
The grass roof of the house sank in a little further as she laid back on the very tip of the house. Climbing and jumping had become fairly natural to Anne over time, but this had been a bit of a doozy, carefully edging around Sprig's telescope and almost tumbling off when she hit a slippery stone. Anne squinted up at the night sky and tried to see if, by some strange coincidence, there were any Earth constellations she could find.
Maybe she could've, if Anne didn't absolutely suck with constellations. Big dipper, little dipper, and the big W were all she knew. The W flipped upside down at some point in the year. It might've been a queen or something? Man, this was a stupid idea.
"Whatcha doin'?"
Anne, startled, almost rolled right off; which, of the ways to die in this world, would probably be the lamest. How'd that beast bite the dust? Big bug? Big frog? Big bug fighting a big frog? Nah, she fell off a roof.
The slippery feeling of a tongue around her wrist saved her, and the part of Anne not grossed out and wishing she'd fallen was grateful as Sprig heaved her back from the edge. "Almost dying, apperantly."
"I didn't think humans could climb so high," said Sprig, once he'd reeled in his tongue. "Lacking springy feet and whatnot."
"You'd be surprised what humans can do," said Anne, thinking specifically of the people she'd seen on YouTube, climbing up buildings without gear. "We got tall buildings where I'm from, too. I didn't wake you, did I?"
Sprig shrugged. "You left the cuddle pile. You're the warmest part of the cuddle pile."
"Sorry, dude. I wanted to go looking for constellations."
He blinked at her patiently and waited.
"Pictures in the stars," she rephrased.
"Oooh, star stories!" He laughed a little, relieved, and leaned on her side. "We got a lot of star stories. Y'see those three over there? That's the eyes and mouth of a big ol' slug. That weird squiggle over to the left is the portal to the bubbling abyss- it's said, if you stare at it long enough, it'll tell you the exact time and date of your death. That tiny one is Ted. I dunno why. It's just Ted."
"You... got any Ws?"
"I 'unno. Hop Pop knows all the older ones- you should ask him. Is there a giant W in your sky, back home?"
"Kind of," she admitted, biting her lip. "Sometimes it flips into an M."
"Talented letter!"
Anne curled her knees in. The roof sank and settled. "This is so dumb."
Sprig's face contorted in confusion. He slowly tilted his head. "What is?"
"This!" She threw her hands out, gesturing vaguely over Wartwood. "Allll of this! I shouldn't like being here! It's uber hot, there's huge bugs, and I almost die, like, every day!"
"I know, right? It's pretty great."
"Not great! What if I..." Anne paused, stomach strangling itself. Giving up shouldn't be so easy. Shouldn't be this hard, either. "When I get out of here, I probably won't be able to come back. All I'm doing is setting myself up for more misery."
Sprig shuffled away a bit. He looked hurt. "This is misery?"
"Kind of, yeah." It was her turn to shrug. "Everything goes away eventually. And when this goes, it'll just be gone. I'll be gone. And it's going to hurt."
"Oh." He let out a humming noise as the words sunk in, twiddling his thumbs. "I mean... is that really so bad?"
"Yes, dude! It sucks. It's going to suck."
"Well, yeah, but that means it meant something." Sprig let out a little grunt and ended up against Anne's knees, staring up at Ted the star. "I'm glad we got to meet and room together. You got to eat a lot of tasty mushrooms! I got sold to the local baker's daughter! We made inside jokes and handshakes! I think that's all really cool and special, you know?"
Anne felt a smile flit across her features, unbidden. "Yeah. It is."
"So, I think it's okay that it'll hurt. Because it means I met you. It means we got to be buddies. It means we got to meet Ted and the big W that rules the skies. That's pretty dang neat."
It's not enough to make all this okay. Nothing ever really will. But Anne finds it in her to chuckle, and lean back, and appreciate the moment, and that was enough. "Hey, Ted."