Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The car pulled into the driveway of the decently large house, both it and the house itself seeming unfitting for the neighborhood in different ways. A middle-aged woman stepped out of the driver's seat, and Cosmos stepped out of the front shortly after. “This Habit fellow certainly has a way with landscaping,” Ms. Stargazer said, clearly impressed at the vast array of plantlife surrounding the property. “I guess he’s also the type of florist who takes his work home with him, isn’t he?”

Cosmos nodded, taking care to make sure their mask was covering the important parts. They loved Boris like a big goofy uncle (and by extension, Kamal and Putunia as a slightly more sensible uncle and an exuberant cousin), but his resurgent passion for horticulture did little to help their allergies, and their eyes were already watering something fierce. It was bad enough to have to deal with it at home. At least here they could get likely some proper medication for the symptoms.

The two of them made their way to the door and Ms. Stargazer rang the doorbell a couple times. Rapid footfalls approached from within, their simultaneous small yet heavy echoes signaling they belonged to an energetic child, and soon enough the door burst open. “Flower power!” Putunia shouted upon seeing Cosmos, nearly punching them in the knees with her new punching gloves as a greeting. Thankfully their senses hadn’t been dulled by hay fever quite yet and they were able to catch her punch in their hand fairly easily. “Wow, sidekick, you’re really good at deflecting attacks!” Putunia exclaimed. "You’ll have to teach me that!”

Cosmos smiled behind their mask. Figuring there hadn’t been enough time for her to learn enough sign for them to communicate properly yet (even if she was more patient with that sort of thing than they gave her credit for), they simply decided to ruffle her hair in a friendly manner until they could get out the magnet drawing pad they brought for this very reason.

“Putuniaaaa!” a voice called out from further in the house. Putunia turned back just as Kamal walked up behind her. “C’mon, Tunes, what’d we tell you about answering the door without one of us around?”

“I looked out the window!” Putunia protested. “I saw their hair!”

“Okay, at least you made sure to check.”

“Oh, so you’re one of Putunia’s fathers?” Ms. Stargazer asked. “Cosmos has a lot of good things to say about the both of you. So, are you Dr. Habit or Dr. Bora?”

Kamal let out a nervous laugh. Guess that little detail never quite reached the flower kid’s mom, huh, even with the whole new technically-business-rivals thing. “The latter,” he said, “but I usually leave the ‘doctor’ title at the office so you can just call me Kamal.” He held out a hand, which Ms. Stargazer shook with a friendly smile. “Boris is probably still around back tending to the bigger plants.”

As if on cue, Boris made his way around the house, dressed in his gardening attire and covered in soil. He was already in a fairly good mood, and when he saw Cosmos he beamed. “Hel-lo, flower child!” he exclaimed. "Your here earlie, I don't think any-one else has arrived yet.” He then noticed the woman at their doorstep. “Amd you must be Cosmos’s mother, am I correct? Its nice to ‘meet’ you!”

“It’s a real pleasure to finally meet you too!” Ms. Stargazer looked Boris up and down in kind of a state of awe, and while he was used to it due to The Obvious it still always felt weird. “Good gravy, Dr. Habit, when he told me you were tall he wasn’t kidding in the slightest!”

“He”? Did she mean Kamal? “Actulaly, Ime just Boris,” he said. “I would rather ‘not’ be called doctor any-more, miss...um...”

“Rosalyn, dear, since we’re all getting onto a first-name basis.” They shook hands as well, and as Cosmos made to start entering the house, Ms. Stargazer gently stopped them. “Wait, honey, don’t you want a hug at least?” Cosmos rolled their eyes, but hugged their mother anyway, taking a small bottle that she handed them in the meantime with an only barely visible grimace that reached their eyes. “Oh, I should say something before I go and Putunia’s other friends arrive,” Ms. Stargazer said. “I want to make sure you won’t allow any harassment, all right?”

Kamal and Boris shared a confused look. “I don't think there’s any worry about that, ma’am,” Kamal said. “The kids all seem to respect each other decently well for the most part.”

“I’m just covering the bases here,” Ms. Stargazer said, placing her hand on Cosmos’s shoulder in a protective manner. “I know how cruel kids can be sometimes to those different from them, I’ve had two of ‘em so I’ve seen plenty. If I find out anyone’s been teasing my boy because he likes to wear feminine clothes, I’m going to have some words with their parents. Cosmos may not be an adult yet, but he’s old enough to know how he wants to dress and I’m not going to curb his self-expression.” Every time the woman said “he” or “boy”, Cosmos tensed up in discomfort. It was subtle enough that their mom didn’t notice, but Boris absolutely did. How could he not? It was such a familiar reaction he himself had had several times in the past, and sometimes even now...

“We literally have a kid coming over who is obsessed with conspiracy theories and claims he’s a werewolf,” Kamal said. “I don’t think Cosmos wearing skirts even registers on the scale of strange with anyone here.”

“Be-sides, Cosmos is the oldest one of Putunia’s freinds,” Boris said. “They all look upp two...him. It will be some-what like...he’s helping us keep the younger ones in ‘check’ for the weak-end.” Referring to the flower child like that felt awful and wrong, and he could see the hurt in their eyes, but he had no way of knowing whether or not they’d told their mother yet so he didn’t want to risk outing them if they weren’t already. He could apologize later.

“Well then, if you’re absolutely sure he’ll be treated right, that’s at least somewhat reassuring.” Ms. Stargazer sighed in relief, then kissed Cosmos on their forehead and returned to her car. “See you Sunday night, sweetheart!” she called as she got into her vehicle. “Be good for Boris and Kamal, all right? Love you!” She waved, and Cosmos waved back, then she started her car and drove off.

With their mother gone, Cosmos seemed to relax a bit as they trudged inside. The first thing they did was toss that small bottle into the first trash can they came across. There was a clink sound that suggested that it might’ve sustained a crack or outright break, but they weren’t paying it any mind. The house’s occupants entered soon after them, and once they’d gotten their mask partially removed Cosmos waved fervently to get the attention of the adults. “Do you have allergy medicine?”

“Oh, of-coarse, I think we do,” Boris said. He nudged Kamal gently. “Could you go ‘check’, calla lily?” he asked. “Ime still messie from gardening.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Kamal said with a nod. He made his way to the upstairs bathroom, despite the downstairs one being closer. There was something about that earlier interaction with the mom that felt weird, and he got the feeling Boris wanted to have a moment to talk about it with Cosmos between just the two of them.

Which was exactly the case. Boris put a gentle hand on Cosmos’s shoulder (soil-covered garden gloves be damned) and gave them a smile of reassurance. “Ime sorry I used the wrong words four you,” Boris said. “Can I ask you some-thing?” Cosmos nodded. “Are you...‘out’ to your mother? Ab-out being non-binarey?”

Cosmos nodded again. “Told her at least three times. She doesn’t get it, or won’t get it. Is that why you called me ‘he’ too?”

Boris sighed. “Yes, I was worreyed I mite make things un-pleasant,” he said. “I know all two well about this sort of thing myself...”

“You’re good. Mom’s just kinda stupid.”

Cosmos offered a friendly hug, but Boris shook his head. “No, Cos-mos, I was’nt joke-ing about haveing garden mess on me,” he chuckled. “You can ‘see’ all this dirtt and the plant bits, yes? Oh, I got some on yuor jacket, I’m sorrey...”

They shrugged, brushing off the slight soil residue without much concern. They then held out their hand for a high-five instead, and since they were also wearing gloves (fingerless, but gloves nonetheless), Boris figured that was okay in terms of mess-making and obliged. Kamal soon returned with a small bottle of antihistamines, which Cosmos accepted gratefully, grabbing a drink and popping a couple of the little pink pills into their mouth. “Tend to get sleepy with these, fair warning. Better than sneezing my brains out and super watery eyes at least.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely preferable.”

-----

The other kids had arrived soon enough, and after some shenanigans (and Trevor getting lots of much-needed loveys from his old friend Webster), they had all agreed to get started on the game of this weekend. It had become a kind of tradition at this point for all the Habitat kids to gather and play through an entire video game together, passing off the controller to one another after a certain amount of time if it was a single player experience. This time had been Nat’s turn to pick, and she’d brought her copy of Final Fantasy 3 for them to try to finish from the last time she’d picked. Though at the rate they were going, this game might still end up taking the entire weekend to finish instead of just the evening.

“Aw, NO, come on!” Trevor shouted as the violet tentacled beast they were fighting used abilities called Haste and Protect. “Ultros you piece of garbage, he did this last time we tried this fight too!”

“That might just be a thing he does after a certain amount of damage," Nat said. “At least in this fight, anyway. I haven’t gotten this far in my personal file yet.”

Cosmos, who was currently the one holding the controller, nodded in a bit of a daze. Just as they’d figured, the antihistamines were really taking a toll on their ability to concentrate. It was a good thing they’d all decided to set the battle system to “wait” for the benefit of the younger ones in their group, otherwise they probably wouldn't be getting anywhere.

“Just burn him,” Tim Tam said as they reached for the bag of chips that was closest to them. “Weakness.”

“No, wait—”

They just followed the suggestion without thinking, having one of the magic-using characters use a fire spell on the beast. As soon as it hit, Ultros countered with a higher level fire spell of his own. After that, the battle basically went downhill. Try as they might, they couldn’t keep up with the onslaught via either healing the party or just trying to deal damage to their opponent as fast as possible, and soon enough the group experienced their second game over in a row. “Maaan, we’re never gonna kick that clown’s ass,” Millie groaned.

“I heard that, Millie!” Kamal called from the other room.

“Yeah, and I'll say it again!” Millie shouted back. “Kick! That! Clown’s! ASS!!!”

“We can try again though, right?” Putunia asked. “We can’t give up!”

“Eh, I’m gettin’ hungry,” Gerry said. “Didn’t Mister Habit says they waz orderin’ pizza?”

“Yeah, maybe we should put the game on hold for now,” Nat said. “We can come back to it after we’ve had some time to cool off from this.” She put a hand on Cosmos’s shoulder. “You doin’ okay, Cosmos?” she asked. “You’ve seemed a bit out of it since I got here, and it looks like it’s gotten worse...”

Cosmos nodded, grabbing the doodle pad they had set on the coffee table in front of them. “i’ll be fine its the benedryl – cant remember spelling”

“All right, guess as long as you know how it works on you—” Her statement was interrupted by a very large and very lovey floofmonster making his presence known by jumping up onto the couch and onto her. “Get off, you dumb dog!” Nat shouted. “If you want pets, you sit on the floor and wait for ‘em!”

“Webster, sit!” Trevor exclaimed. Webster turned his head to face his former honorary owner and, rather than sitting as he was instructed, crawled over both Nat and Cosmos for some lovin’. “Noooo, I said ‘sit’, not ‘here’! Aaaaaa!! I love you but you’re killing meeee!!” He couldn’t help but laugh as over 200 pounds of dog snuggled onto him and repeatedly licked his face.

The other kids weren’t doing anything to help with this goofballery, mainly because they likely wouldn’t be able to, and the ones who could were also trapped under Webster’s back half. With an amused sigh as the two of them observed from the kitchen, Boris passed off the pizza-ordering duty to Kamal and made his way in to try and free them. “Websteeeer!” he called in a melodic tone. “Whose a goode boooy? Who wamts a chewiiiieeee??” Webster perked up upon hearing the name of one of his favorite not-food-or-people things and also seeing the toy bone in question in his larger dad’s hand. He leapt off the couch and bounded toward the kitchen in eager excitement.

Just before he got to the kitchen, however, he stopped dead in his tracks. He let out a low whimper and danced about in place, but something was stopping him from going any further. “Whats ‘wrong’ buddie?” Boris asked. “Don’t yuo want your chewie?” Webster borked, but still refused come any closer. Boris shrugged and decided to meet him half-way. He made his way to the entrance of the kitchen and Webster took it enthusiastically and walked away to enjoy it on his bed. “Hmm, wonder what that was ab-out.”

“Did you smell something weird, boy?” Putunia asked the giant dog, who obviously didn’t answer due to both enjoying his toy and just generally not having that capability.

“Some-thing wierb, huh...” Boris looked around, but the only thing that was in that spot that could have any weird smells was the garbage can, and he’d emptied it about an hour before the kids started arriving because they knew there would likely be a lot of trash given that there would be six more people in the house over the weekend. Still, it couldn’t hurt to check. He leaned over the practically empty can, containing little more than a few snack wrappers at this point, and took a whiff. Immediately he was hit by a rather strong floral smell, not something that he would find unpleasant, but its unexpected potency was still surprising. “Hey, Kamal?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Kamal asked, putting a hand over the phone receiver so the pizza place didn’t have to hear whatever was going on.

“Did you spray the garbidge can with some-thing when we changed it?”

“Uh...no? Because Cosmos is here?”

“Verie strange...” Well, all that was in there were the snack wrappers, so Boris wasn’t too put off by the thought of reaching in to find out what the source of that smell was. He carefully dug through the wrappers and underneath was a small bottle, reminding him of the bottle that Cosmos had thrown away earlier. It probably was the same bottle, now that he was thinking about it. He picked it up and tentatively sniffed it, getting a faceful of concentrated floral smell in the process through the slightly loosened seal. “Hoo boy!” he exclaimed. “Yup, found-it!” He squinted and did his best to read the tiny label. “Lavendar essenshal oil, huh?” Boris mused, more to himself than anyone in particular. “Wonder why this is heere...”

Upon hearing those words, Cosmos cringed a bit, then hesitantly got off the couch and approached him with a sheepish look on their face. “Mom gave that to me. She’s wrapped up in some phony ‘business’ and replaced nearly all our medicine with that junk and I hate it.”

Boris raised an eyebrow, the pieces of what they were telling her fitting together in his head to create an unpleasant picture. “Wait a minute,” he said. “So your saying that you’re Mother, who should ‘know’ about your con-dition, makes you use things that you are Allergic To?” Cosmos nodded, and Boris’s eyes narrowed. He’d already had to deal with abusive parents twice, both his own and the ones who’d initially made Putunia before he and Kamal were able to get her away from them. He couldn’t bear the thought that Cosmos had been a victim of abuse themself, of Ms. Stargazer’s willful neglect. Or...was it willful neglect? Did she really know what she was doing?

“Don’t worry about it too much.” Cosmos gave him a weak smile. “I said earlier Mom’s just stupid. Holly gets me real medicine whenever she can so I don’t have to use that stuff when she isn’t watching.” They saw Boris give them a weird look and quickly added, “My older sister, she’s in college.”

“O-kay, if youre sure it’s ‘fine’...” Boris eyed the little oil bottle in his hand with concern. “I should get rid of thise for your sake, and al-so to keep it out of reach of Webster,” he said. “I’ll put it in the out-side trash instead, would that work?” Cosmos nodded, albeit with a shrug. Boris smiled and, taking no chances, put the bottle into three layered plastic bags before taking it outside.

-----

It was later in the evening, pizza and soda and cheesy breadsticks had been thoroughly enjoyed, and the younger kids had already been sent to bed. “Sent to bed” being used in the loosest sense of the term possible because a) no one was actually sleeping in beds proper tonight except for the adults, and b) it was kind of hard to encourage children to go to sleep in a party atmosphere even without the three teenagers present being allowed to stay up later than them. Not too much later, of course. Boris’s “strict beddy-time” from the days of the Habitat may not have been as heavily enforced here, and he definitely wasn’t making anyone sit through creepy videos as punishment for breaking curfew, but he still encouraged them to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

A reasonable hour, of course, was next to impossible for teenagers to define. Doubly so when one of them was half-vampire and the other believed himself to be a werewolf (if he wasn’t actually one, no one had any proof to concretely deny that possibility) even without having legitimate sleeping issues. And as the drowsiness brought on by the antihistamines they’d taken earlier had already started to wear off, the one confirmed normal human of the three teens was having trouble bringing themself to commit to bedtime as well.

Cosmos looked up at the clock on the wall. It was somewhere between 11:25 and 11:30 at this point (they never could pinpoint anything smaller on analog clocks besides every five minutes, having gotten much too used to digital clocks). The memory of a video featuring a darkened street and a deep, heavily-accented voice narrating ominously over the scene flickered into their mind. They shook their head, trying to get the imagery out of their thoughts. He had changed. He didn’t pull that crap anymore.

“You going to bed soon?” Cosmos turned to see Trevor, clearly exhausted and rubbing his tired eyes. They nodded, though even he could tell something was up. “You have trouble sleeping too, huh?” he asked, receiving another nod as a response. “It’s not evil vampires, is it? Or are you worried about Sabastian coming out when we’re all asleep?! Because I can personally guarantee that he sleeps when I sleep.”

They couldn’t help but smile as they silently laughed, but regardless they shook their head. “I just had those bedtime PSAs stuck in my—” Cosmos facepalmed, remembering that Trevor probably still didn’t know very much sign, then chose instead to mimic writing on their hand with their finger.

“Oh yeah, you need the thing, hang on a sec.” Trevor made his way carefully to the coffee table, trying not to step on the children in sleeping bags who were either sleeping or merely pretending so they wouldn’t get in trouble, then grabbed Cosmos’s doodle pad and did his best to return with the same level of care. He stepped on something soft at some point and nearly yelled out himself out of shock, but no one seemed to react so he guessed he hadn’t actually stepped on anyone’s arm or leg or face or whatever. “Here you go,” he said as he handed the pad to its owner. “So what’s the problem?”

“you ever get shown one of those weird bedtime psas back at the habitat?”

Trevor nodded. “Almost every night,” he said. “I’ve always had problems sleeping, so I just never bothered trying to get to bed on time.”

“my brains bringin em back and i cant make them go away :C”

“Oh.” Trevor thought for a bit, then led Cosmos over to where Webster was sleeping. “Webster would always be there when I used to take night walks, at least until he disappeared,” he said. “Maybe he can help you too?” Cosmos motioned to the large sleeping dog in an “are you serious” manner, but Trevor just smiled. “I know, I know, you’ve seen him in rowdy mode. But he’s really chill a lot of the time. He’ll totally let you sleep on him.”

Cosmos gave him a look, but shrugged, figuring it was worth a shot. They sat down beside Webster, then laid down and put their head on his fluffy midsection. His fur was incredibly soft. Boris and Kamal must’ve been using the really good shampoo with him. They thanked their lucky stars in that moment that their allergies didn’t include animal dander. Webster let out a little grunt, and for a moment they were afraid they’d woken him up, but all that happened was that he shifted a little bit before falling back asleep.

And soon enough, their anxiety over old mental images having begun to melt away, Cosmos followed suit.

Chapter Text

Cosmos woke up to a large sloppy tongue lapping at their face and the smell of dog breath. Their silent laughter and best efforts to push Webster away weren’t doing much to save them from the onslaught of loveys, so after a point they just gave up and decided to roll away. As they sat up, they could see that most everyone else seemed to be awake as well. In fact, the only one who seemed to still be asleep at this point was...

“Come on, dog boy, wake up!” Putunia shouted, trying to push Trevor off the couch. “Pops is making waffles! Get uuuup!” The other younger kids gathered around and also tried to shove him awake, but he was still completely out.

“Maybe if we all get on once side and shove him off the couch at once, he’ll wake up,” Millie said with a mischievous grin.

“No one’s pushing him off the couch that hard on my watch,” Nat said. “You wanna be responsible for busting his head open on the coffee table?”

Millie shrugged. “Thought it was a good idea for being like six.”

“Hang on, I gotz an idea.” Gerry pulled off one of his oven mitts (he must really like them to wear them to bed, either that or he’d already put them back on after waking up) and held up a finger. “This alwayz wakes up anyone unlezz they’re dead and junk,” he explained. “I’m gonna pick his noze.” He reached out to do just that, but Cosmos grabbed his hand to stop him, shaking their head with a look of disgust.

“God, why are little kids always so gross?” Nat asked, cringing as Gerry put his mitt back on. She looked over at Cosmos. “You got any ideas?”

Cosmos thought for a bit, then remembered something. They’d brought back something they’d gotten back at the Habitat, something they were pretty sure belonged to Boris in the first place. They quickly made their way over to where they’d put their bag and fished through it, bringing out that air horn they’d won from the carnival’s weird teeth-punching game. While they’d initially brought it back with the intention of returning it to Boris (they didn’t really need it, if they needed to get someone’s attention audibly they usually had a whistle on hand...not counting the time they spent at the Habitat, of course, everyone forgets things), it might work as a last resort if nothing else they did could wake Trevor. Now that they were thinking about it, though, maybe sounding it off in an enclosed space wasn’t the best idea. These things were built to make a loud sound across a sports arena, after all—

Two little purple hands snatched the air horn out of their own. Cosmos could barely blink in surprise before Tim Tam had it aimed right at Trevor’s ear, and if there had ever been an occasion where they wished they could speak audibly it would be right that moment. They could’ve at least shouted for Tim Tam to stop, even if they wouldn’t necessarily listen.

BWAAAAAHH!

For such a small device, the air horn could get extremely loud, and of course the noise was only added to by Trevor’s panicked (and more than likely pained) yelling as he flailed about and fell off the couch. Luckily the only damage he suffered appeared to be to his ears and his pride as he sat up and looked around. “What the hell was that?!” he shouted. He then locked eyes with the culprit, who was staring at him with their typical unblinking gaze. The slightest of grins crossed their face. “You little gremlin!”

“Awake,” Tim Tam said softly.

“That’s it, get over here!” Trevor shouted as he tried to grab the air horn from them. Unfortunately for him, Tim Tam was quicker and much more alert. They dodged his attempts at grabbing them with ease, and when they ran off and Trevor gave chase, they managed to get him to trip over an errant dog toy and nearly fall over again before catching himself with the stair rail. “You’re sooo lucky Sabastian decided to take the weekend off,” he moaned as he grabbed his pained leg.

“All-right, thatse enough of that.” Boris sighed and abandoned his post of waffle-making to step in. “Let's ‘not’ run around inn the house rite now, okay?” he asked Tim Tam, though his tone suggested more of polite direction than just a request. “And the air-horn is for out-side. I’ll will have to coffin-skate that four now.” He held out his hand and, surprisingly enough, Tim Tam gave him the air horn with no complaint. With that taken care of, he turned his attention to Trevor. “Are you O.K., dog boy?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Trevor said. “Just a little out of it.”

Boris smiled. “May-be you’ll be more ‘inn it’ with some breakfast.” Trevor nodded with a yawn, and he made his way into the kitchen with slightly wobbly steps.

Even with the morning’s chaos up to that point, the waffles turned out really great. Everyone had fun throwing on whatever tasty toppings they could find (though the adults and other two teens made sure to keep all the chocolate things away from a certain dog boy), and Tim Tam had to be stopped from climbing on the shelves in the refrigerator door because for some reason they were tempted to cover theirs with hot sauce. “So you feelin’ better from yesterday, Cosmos?” Kamal asked as he gave them a second waffle.

Cosmos nodded. They were honestly surprised that they were feeling so good, all things considering. And just as soon as they had that on their mind, their nose started getting itchy again. They put their plate down to try and deal with that real quick. “Might need some more medicine in a bit. Not sure yet.”

“All right,” Kamal said. “If you need any more, they’re in the medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom. I’d just give you the bottle but y’know, with younger kids around it’s probably not the best idea to have that out in the open.” Another nod and a thumbs-up let Kamal know that Cosmos understood.

“Sho wha’ we doh-in todeh?” Putunia asked through a mouthful of waffle (more accurately whipped cream with waffle, given how much of it she’d piled on).

“Daisy, what did we ‘say’ about talk-ing with your mouth full?”

“Showwy.” Putunia swallowed her food and repeated, “What are we gonna do today?”

“Well, there’s gonna be a thing at the planetarium, we were thinking about taking you kids there cuz it sounded interesting,” Kamal said. “You guys like space, right? I know our budding astronomer does.” Cosmos’s eyes had lit up, and they lightly clapped in excitement.

“Planetariuuuuuum!!!” Putunia shouted excitedly. “Aaaaaa, we’re gonna see the staaars!!!”

“That actually does sound pretty cool,” Trevor said, still a bit tired but sounding as excited as he could.

“I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing," Nat said. “Then again, I don’t know if I’m into that sort of thing or not, so maybe it could be fun.”

Mille rolled her eyes. “Sounds lame and boring to me.”

“Never thought I’d hear anyone say space was boring, let alone a kid,” Kamal said. “You sure it doesn’t sound even a little bit cool?”

“Space is only cool when there’s aliens!” Millie insisted. “Big ugly aliens that we can beat up!”

“Their might be ay-lee-ins at the planetarium, you never ‘know’,” Boris said with a wink. Millie gasped in excitement, and her excitement wasn’t diminished even a little bit after Boris quickly added, “You shuoldn’t beat them uppe un-less they try two hurt us, though!”

“What about you guys?” Kamal asked Gerry and Tim Tam.

Gerry said nothing as he was eating his waffle, but he gave a thumbs-up instead. Tim Tam just stared at him for a few seconds before responding with a simple utterance of “Gift shop.” He figured that was as good as a positive answer as he was going to get from them.

As they finished up their waffle and began to clean up after themself, Cosmos couldn’t help but ponder a strange thought. It was probably a long shot, this idea they were having, and it wasn’t exactly the most pleasant thing to consider asking about. Still...what if they could get him to do something? And why hadn’t they thought about it sooner? Well, only one way to find out. After putting their plate in the sink, they gently tapped Boris’s shoulder to get his attention. “What is it, Cos-mos?” he asked once he noticed them.

“Can I ask you something real quick? Privately?” They really hoped he wouldn’t pick up on their nervousness with the request too much, but then again considering all their communication was nonverbal...

“Oh, shure thing,” Boris said, standing up to put away his own empty plate. Once he’d taken care of that, he and Cosmos made their way to the fiances’ bedroom where they wouldn't be bothered. “So, whamt did you need?” he asked.

Cosmos grimaced a bit. “Can we discuss this sign-only please? You can’t whisper very well and I really don’t want Kamal to hear and get worried.”

“I can so wisp-pur,” Boris said in as quiet a voice he could manage, though after hearing himself and seeing Cosmos’s raised eyebrow he guessed he didn’t do that good of a job. “Okey, fair point,” he sighed. He stretched his fingers a little bit to loosen them up before continuing their conversation. “So what is it that you want to keep so private?”

“You know how my mom’s stupid right? About gender stuff and medical stuff?”

Boris nodded. “I’m guessing this isn’t just a vent, or you would be okay with K-lily hearing.”

Cosmos couldn't help but grin upon seeing what they assumed was Boris’s sign name for Kamal. Of course he’d pick that for him. “I was thinking that... you’re an adult, and a fellow florist now too, maybe you could talk to her about that stuff and she’d actually listen?”

“Maybe. When would you like me to come over?”

“I was thinking...” Cosmos braced themself. As much as they didn’t want to make Kamal worry, they certainly didn’t want to worry Boris either. But you never get anything done without asking, right? “I was kind of hoping you could go over to my house and have a talk with her today, while we were at the planetarium. Would that be too much?”

It was Boris’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Don’t you think that’s a bit fast? I probably can’t make her understand in a single afternoon.”

“You can try, though, right? And if you really need to, you’ve still got all those extra teeth, right?”

“I, uh, ‘yes’???” Without thinking Boris verbally blurted out his response, as his hand instinctively went up to his mouth as though to hide the mistakes he’d made in there. He glanced toward the door. Kamal wasn’t there, thank god. Probably trying to wrangle the younger kids. “I keep putting off getting them removed. What do they have to do with your mother?”

“Maybe you could use them to scare her into being decent.” Cosmos smiled as wide as they could and pointed at it to emphasize their suggestion. “You’re good at being spooky!”

Boris groaned. Being spooky was the last thing he wanted to do, at least outside of Halloween or other appropriate moments. “I can go talk to her. I can try to help her understand without using the teeth.”

“Thanks a ton. You have no idea how much even trying means to me.”

“Trying what?”

Both of them flinched a bit at hearing a voice interrupt their nonverbal conversation so suddenly. They turned to see Kamal in the doorway, looking at both of them with a bit of concern. “Oh, lily!” Boris exclaimed. “Ummm...how ‘much’ of that did yuo catch?”

“Just that last bit about trying something,” Kamal said. “You guys okay? I’m gonna assume that whatever you were talking about, you didn’t want anyone to overhear half of it.”

“Cos-mos asked me two visit they’re house for a ‘bit’,” Boris said. “It needs too happen soon because...bee-coze...” He always had a hard time trying to come up with believable lies, but if Cosmos didn’t want Kamal to know the real reason he probably shouldn’t say...

Luckily Cosmos had no such problem. “I left something really important at home. I asked H-flower to go and get it for me while we were at the planetarium, and it’s something I don’t really want the others to hear about.”

“Yes, what they sayed!” Boris said with a nod.

“Oh, okay,” Kamal said. “Well, that’s gonna make handling the younger kids a bit more difficult...” Cosmos gave him a pleading look, though judging by his soft smile they needn’t bothered. “I’d rather not ask this of you cuz you deserve to enjoy this too, but if you and Nat and Trevor can pick up the slack with kid-watching, then I don’t see why Boris couldn’t help with your thing." He turned to Boris and asked, “What do you think, sound good to you?”

“I do’nt know," Boris said as he turned back to Cosmos, “dose that soumd like a fair agree-ment?” They nodded and gave a thumbs-up. “Well I ‘guess’ that settels that!” he chuckled, albeit a bit nervously. “I’ll take care of your ‘thing’ reeal quick, you and the rest of the kiddohs have ex-tra fun fore me!”

They all left the room to start getting ready to go before Kamal realized something very important. “Wait, Boris, neither of our cars have enough room for everyone,” he said. “How are we gonna make this work?”

Boris realized this too, and he could already tell coordinating this was going to be more of a pain than they’d expected. He groaned and swore under his breath, thanking his past foresight that no one in the house but him knew either any or enough Russian to pick up on that. This was going to be even rougher than he’d thought.

-----

After some time and effort trying to get four young kids to cooperate, they had finally gotten almost ready to head out. “So Pops really isn’t coming with us?” Putunia asked, a bit disappointed. “I thought he’d wanna see the stars too...”

“Sorry, Tunes, sometimes adults just have things they have to do come out of nowhere,” Kamal said as he, Boris, and the teens made sure all the younger ones were buckled in. “Maybe it won’t take that long and he can catch some of the later stuff, but I wouldn’t ask him to promise that.”

“Secret mission,” Tim Tam said simply from the back seat of Boris's car.

“Thatse right, it is like a sea-cret mishon!” Boris said with a laugh. Once Cosmos, Trevor, Tim Tam, and Gerry were all settled in his car, Boris made his way over to the window of Kamal’s car that Putunia’s seat was closest to. “You be goode fore your dad, okay daisy?” he told her. “I’ll try to be ‘back’ as soon as I can.”

“Okay, Pops,” Putunia said, a determined look on her face. “I’ll be good! And have all the fun for you!!”

“Aaaaallll the fun?” Boris chuckled. “Save some for the others, at-least!”

“Good luck with your secret mission!” The two of them high-fived before Putunia rolled the window back up.

“Yeah,” Boris said to himself, “I’ll need all the ‘luck’ I can get.” He got into to his car and gave Cosmos a thumbs-up, which they returned with a grin. He smiled as well, then backed out of the driveway and onto the road, Kamal’s car following close behind as they headed out.

Chapter Text

“Planetariuuuuuummm!!!”

As soon as the two cars had arrived at their destination and Kamal had started opening the doors of his, Putunia leapt out and ran excitedly towards the entrance. “Hey, slow down there, Tunes!” Kamal called out to her. "You can’t just run around in the parking lot, it’s dangerous!”

“Oh, right!” Putunia scampered back to Kamal and instead began to run around in small circles near his car. “We gotta practice! Car safety!!”

“Good job, kiddo.”

Soon enough everyone else had gotten out of the two cars, and as Kamal was doing a headcount to make sure none of the younger kids had run off already like Putunia had initially done, Boris scooped their little hero up in a hug. “I’ll try too be back as soon as eye can, I prom-iss,” he said with a smile. “In two-and-a-half hours at the verie most.” He glanced over at Kamal and asked, “That wood be ab-out how long the plantatarium thing takes, right?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Kamal said. "It said in the brochure that there’s the shows and some smaller interactive exhibits. Seems like this place is more like a space museum with a planetarium as a feature than just a regular old planetarium.”

“Awww, now Ime wishing I could joinb evben moooore...” Boris put Putunia down with a sad sigh, then returned to his car and waved goodbye to everyone before getting in. “You all havbe ‘fun’, ev-er-y-bodie!” he called out through the open window. “I’ll try two be bacck b-four too long!”

Before Boris could drive off, Cosmos approached the car and tapped on the outside to make sure they had his attention. They lowered their mask to show him a confident grin. “Good luck with my mom, and thanks again for doing this for me.”

“Its no trobble at all, flower friend,” Boris said with a smile of his own. “Sea-you later.” Cosmos nodded and waved at him, taking a few steps backwards to allow him to pull the car out safely.

As Boris’s car left the parking lot and drove out of view, Kamal sighed and stretched a bit. “Okay then,” he said, “who’s ready to go see the stars?”

“I AM!!” Putunia shouted as loudly as possible. She took off running once more (though thankfully with at least a little more caution in her sprint than before, she was at least looking for moving cars before making dashes) and Kamal had to give an anxiety-fueled chase after her. This prompted everyone else to start running toward the entrance as well, whether it be out of sheer excitement or trying to make sure the more excited ones didn’t get into a dangerous situation. Cosmos felt a bit of both, honestly. Sure, the event they’d be sitting through was probably geared more toward the younger crowd, but it was still space stuff! They loved it!

This was gonna be great!

-----

This might not turn out so great.

If there was one thing Boris Habit hated, it was confrontation. Okay, so there were several things he hated. Dentistry, violence, cruelty to children and pets, sometimes even himself. But in that moment, confrontation was the thing he hated that he had to deal with. It didn’t help matters that he had the growing worry that if this meeting went wrong, it could permanently damage his friendship with the flower kid. As he pulled into the driveway of a house that, like his own, was surrounded by a great number of flowers, he had to reassure himself that his worries were more than likely nothing more than an absolutely worst case scenario. If he had even a slight chance of making Cosmos’s life better just as they had helped him, he had to at least try to return the favor.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm his nerves, he opened the door of his car and stepped out. The scent of all the flowers growing on the premises did little to ease his worry like it normally might, as it just served to remind him that Cosmos couldn’t enjoy the soothing aroma properly with their condition. And to think, every time they stepped out of their home they were bombarded by it with little to defend themself but that mask they wore. Maybe he could change that.

Well, it was now or never. He knocked on the door and waited. After a short wait, the door opened and Rosalyn’s face poked out. It took a bit for her to register the seven foot four man standing at her doorstep, but when she did she was quite surprised. “Oh! Doc—er, Mister Habit!” she exclaimed. “What brings you here all of a sudden? Is everything okay with Cosmos?”

“Yes, evry-thing’s just peachey,” Boris said with a nervous smile. “Cos-mos just wamted me to come over to grabbe something they forgot. Dew you...mind if I come inn?” He didn’t bother playing along with the wrong pronouns this time. Cosmos was apparently out to this woman already, after all, and if she wasn’t paying attention then that was her own fault.

Rosalyn raised an eyebrow, but her expression remained one of concern rather than suspicion. “No, I don’t guess so,” she said. “He seems to trust you from what I’ve been told, so sure, you can come in.” She opened the door further to allow him passage, even though he still had to duck under the doorframe to fit in. “Can I get you anything, then?” she asked. “Tea, coffee, some water?”

“Tea sounds loveley,” Boris said. A strong floral scent permeated the entryway, perhaps even the whole house, and it was way too concentrated to just be another random potted plant. His eyes landed on the source almost immediately: a small plastic device sitting on the table, putting out a furious stream of some kind of mist from the top. There’s the little miscreant. “Is that lavander?” he asked, trying to sound as cordial as possible.

“Oh, you noticed!” Rosalyn exclaimed. “Of course you did, how could you not, hahaha. Yes, that’s the Happy Living lavender oils blend with their brand-new diffuser. I can grab you a sample if you’re interested!”

Boris laughed a little and shook his head. “No thank-you, we have a Dog,” he said. “I do’nt think that would be verey goode for him.” Before Rosalyn could continue into what he gathered would undeniably turn into a sales pitch, he asked, “So, where is Cosmos’s ‘room’? They sayed it was in-there...”

“Up the stairs, it’ll be the first door on your left,” Rosalyn said, pointing him to where the stairs were. “It’s got a poster with constellations on the outside, pretty easy to spot.”

“Thamk you very much.” Boris followed her direction and sure enough, Cosmos’s room was immediately obvious. That flower kid really loved the stars, after all. He pushed his way in and took a look around. It was basically just an average teenager’s room, decorated with stars and planets and other celestial objects. Surprisingly there was a bundle of stargazer lilies in a vase on the desk, though upon closer inspection it was obvious that they were artificial. He felt weird being in here. Sure, they’d agreed on the excuse of coming to get something of Cosmos’s while he was here, but he didn’t actually want to snoop through their things if he could avoid it. Even so, if he left empty-handed it would look suspicious...

His eyes landed on the little book on their desk a pen sitting right beside it. If Boris were to hazard a guess, it could be a diary of sorts. That’d be important enough to them to justify coming over to grab, right? He’d remembered that his had been very important to him, at least before he tore it to pieces in an emotional breakdown. Maybe he should make sure that’s what this was, though. Just in case, after all.

With a bit of concern, he picked up the book and opened it to a random page. Sure enough, he caught a flash of the word “diary” and immediately closed it back. He just needed confirmation that this was what it was, peeping any further would be incredibly rude. ...Then again, Cosmos had seen all his deepest, darkest secrets... “May-be...just ‘one’ page...” Boris murmured to himself. He opened the book again, hoping that the page he'd opened to wouldn’t contain anything too terribly invasive...

September 26, 1994

Mom’s back on her bs again. Just got a new shipment ~yaaaay~ I literally couldn't care less. I’ve TOLD her how bad that stuff is for everything she’s trying to use it for especially for me but noooo I’m just a kid what do I know :-T I think (hope?) she’s realizing that stuff doesn’t work but she’s just too wrapped up in the lies of that “company” to get herself out. No one buys any from her anyway, so you’d think she stop otherwise. If dad was still around he’d be better at convincing her than me, then again his death is the reason she got involved with this in the first place. Maybe he’d get her to understand even though I’m still her kid I’m not her “little boy”. I wish I’d gotten the chance to tell him about that. Uncle Steve is kinda the same way so he’d know about people transing their gender at least. (sidenote—mom gets uncle Steve being trans but not me? what gives??? it’s prolly cuz he’s just a dude, she already knows what men are)

Holly came over earlier today, at least. Brought me some proper medicine, antihistamines and ibuprofen and the like. I wish she still lived here, she’s always been more firm with her opinions and could probably do something. Meanwhile here I am, going off to a mental health retreat to help get over losing my dad and watching my mom go into debt over nasty products that do more harm than good, and I end up fixing everyone else’s problems. At least the extra teeth are all gone though, didn’t expect that. Habit’s a good guy deep down. Hope he gets the help he needs. I need to see when he’d be willing to meet up in person again, our coffee hangout is still rain checked.

Just his luck that the “quick peek” turned out to be so full of information. He closed the diary before he allowed himself to pry any further and placed it in his pocket. Making his way out of the room and back down the stairs, he saw that Rosalyn had finished making their tea. “Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked as she poured some out for the both of them.

“Yes, it was ‘out’ in the open and easie to find.” Boris lifted the diary out of his pocket slightly and showed it to her with a smile before letting it drop back inside. “Ack-shually, Cosmos asked if I could also talk ab-out something with you. Some-things that they think I mite be more ‘help’ with.”

Rosalyn let out a little laugh. “Oh, Mr. Habit—or wait, you told me to call you Boris, didn’t you?” she asked, remembering the previous day’s drop-off. “Anyway, Boris, you don’t have to be so vague about Cosmos, really! You already know he’s a boy.”

I know their gender better than you do, you oil-peddling cow. That thought crossed Boris’s mind but he obviously didn’t say it, both because it was much meaner than he wanted to be and also could result in escalating the situation to full-on bad far too fast. “Thatse...part-of what they wamted me to talk ab-out, Rosallin,” Boris said, the discomfort obvious in his tone. He took a seat at the table and sipped his tea. “How do I put this delicateley... Cos-mos says they’ve told yuo ab-out them...not...being a ‘boy’, yes?”

“You mean like how he dresses in feminine clothes, right?” Rosalyn asked. “He told me that he didn’t feel like a boy, sure, but I figured it was because he liked wearing his sister’s old clothes. He doesn’t want to be a girl, though, and it’s perfectly fine for a boy to look a little feminine if he wants. I mean, you understand that completely, right? Long hair and makeup, a fancy coat with a fluffy floral collar, and you still seem confident in yourself as a man!”

“Yes, tha’ts be-cause I am,” Boris said. "But I am ‘not’ Cosmos, and Cosmos is ‘not’ a boy. They’re are non-binarey. Not a boy, and not a girl ei-ther. And thatse o-kay!”

“I just don’t get it, though,” Rosalyn said. “It’s not that I don’t want Cosmos to be whatever he wants to be if he’s not hurting anyone, but how can someone not be male or female?” She sipped her own tea and sighed. “Neil might’ve been able to get it. His brother had to figure that sort of thing out a few years ago, and he was there with him the whole time to help. He might’ve known something about this too, if only he hadn’t...”

“Neil is...yuor hus-band?” Boris asked tentatively, to which Rosalyn responded with a nod. “Ime...sorry for your ‘loss’,” he said. “Cos-mos menshoned him with the same speck-ulation on this matter.” Mentioned him in the diary, of course, but she didn’t need to hear that.

“He and Neil were really close, so I’m not surprised,” Rosalyn said. “Shared a love for the stars, went out together on clear nights every so often to look through that old telescope. Well, before the wreck that took him from us, anyway. The loss of income certainly didn’t help while we were all grieving, but of course it was nothing compared to losing him as a husband and father...” She then perked up suddenly, as though she were forcing herself, something Boris could recognize all too well. “But a woman’s gotta push through that sort of thing sometimes in this day and age, you know! That’s why I joined up with Happy Living alongside the flower shop!”

“Ack-shully that’s an-other thimg they wamted me tot alk two you about, this ‘Happie Live-ing’ thing," Boris said. “Though ‘one’ topic at a time is probally best for both-of us, yes?”

“Oh, yes, that’s a good point.” Rosalyn’s forced smile faded, and she rested her head in her hand. “So, about Cosmos saying he’s not a boy...do you really know how that works? Because I’ve honestly never heard of anything like this before. Then again, I didn't know someone could be born without a voice until it happened to my second kid, of course.”

Boris thought for a bit on how best to word this, trying to figure out a way to explain that would click with her. “Ime no eggs-purt on ‘all’ the genders but, well, lets just ‘say’ I am like Cos-mos’s uncle and I have some personnel exper-ience on this matter.” Rosalyn perked up at this. He had her attention now, maybe with the right wording he could get things on a better path. “Letse say that...peoples genders are like roses,” he said. “And may-be red roses are ‘men’ and wite-roses are ‘wommen’. Their are waaaay more-than two colors of roses, right?”

“Of course there are,” Rosalyn chuckled. “Red and white, yes, and there’s orange, pink, yellow, peach, burgundy, purple, sometimes green, blue or black if you’re willing to dye them or fudge what you consider a true blue or true black...”

“Eggs-act-ly!” Boris exclaimed. “And Cosmos is one-of those other color roses! They coulbe pink, or purble, or yell-ow, all that reallie matters is that they are-not red or white. Dose that make more cents?”

“Huh. I...never thought of it like that, honestly.” Rosalyn pondered the idea for a moment. “My little purple rose, huh...and you’re supposed to call people like that ‘they’, yes? That's why you keep calling hi—er, them that, right?”

“Some, yes,” Boris said. “Some use he or she, or other pro-nouns, and some use mult-i-pul. But as far as I kno w, Cos-mos just uses ‘they’.”

“I think I’m starting to get it, somewhat,” Rosalyn said. “I should probably start practicing using ‘they’ for them so I can do it properly when I bring them home, huh?”

Boris nodded. “Ime sure they’ll appreciate that.”

“So what was that about wanting to talk about the oils as well?”

Boris sighed. This would probably be easier than the gender thing, probably. “Rosallin, I’m sorrey to say, but your oils are make-ing Cosmos sick,” he explained. “Your aware of they’re allergies?”

“Well...yes...” Rosalyn gave him a confused look. “But they’re all natural, at least I’m pretty sure they are. All natural is good! Isn't it...?”

“Not al-ways,” Boris said. “Would yew eat a much-room you found growing in the forrest if you did’nt ‘know’ what tipe it was?”

“Oh, I can’t eat mushrooms at all,” Rosalyn replied. “The taste and texture are just too unpleasant.”

“May-be that was a bad egg-sample then." Boris thought a bit, then added, "But you not likeing mashrooms is kind-of like allergees, just less Serious. Other people can ‘eat’ them just fine, but they make ‘you’ feel discuss-ted. All the flowers we both love are sadly making Cosmos sicck, and I did-not study this very much but I thiiiiink essenshal oils are just...super concentrated plants? Which is Not Good for them.”

“Are you sure you didn’t study oils, though?” Rosalyn asked. “I would’ve figured a botanist would’ve at least covered that in passing...”

“...a waht?”

“Oh, were you...not a botanist?”

Boris let out a hollow laugh. “Oh, how I wish,” he said, more to himself than Rosalyn. “No, unfortunatlee I was a, um, a dent-est. The job was...not a goode ‘fit’ four me, or maybe the other way around. Did Cos-mos never say aniething about that?”

“I don’t think that specifically came up, no,” Rosalyn said, thinking for a bit. “I guess I just assumed since you were called a doctor in all that Habitat promotion stuff and went into floristry right after everyone left, you must’ve done something in botany at some point for such an easy transition into the new job...” She chuckled a bit. “Now that you mention it, the other dental clinic was owned by someone named Habit until it changed hands, wasn’t it? What would the chances be of two doctors by that name around here? And Cosmos used to say h—they, sorry, they had extra teeth and I always assumed that was some weird joke, but they stopped bringing that up once they came back so I guess it was real...”

“Yes, I...ree-moved the extras,” Boris said. "My last ‘act’ of dent’stry." He felt it best not to mention to her that he had done that while their child was strapped to a chair and pumped full of nitrous oxide against their will. As foolish as Rosalyn had been in regards to certain aspects of her youngest’s life and health, she wasn’t malicious, and he doubted she would take hearing about someone restraining them and forcibly ripping out their teeth very well even before he’d started making headway with changing her mind.

“That explains why they like you so much.” Rosalyn smiled, then sighed sadly. “And if what you’re saying is true, that means you’ve been acting more like a parent to them than I have. Actually...I think I’ve realized that for a while. Had hoped that the essential oils would also help alleviate their allergies, but I think it’s just making things worse, and if there’s anything the kids got from me it’s that we're all kind of stubborn. Probably the only reason I haven’t quit that side business by now, I’m too hard-headed for my own good sometimes.”

“Some-thing we have in common, belief it or not,” Boris said. “But...your already prove-ing you aren’t too stubborn to adjust how you reffer to your Child in terms of ‘who’ they are, right? So you probaly aren’t too stubborn to fix the promblem with ‘how’ you care for them.”

“You make a very good point...” Rosalyn gave a slight nod. “Cosmos’s health and well-being is more important than trying to secure a second income. Especially if the source of that income is actively hurting them, not to mention I haven't been able to get anyone in my downline...”

Boris just nodded. He wasn’t going to ask what in the world a “downline” was, it probably wouldn’t be important anyway if she really was going to quit. “Ime sure Cosmos will appreshiate you making these changes,” he said. “Your intent and willingness to change makes you much better than Some people who would call them-selves parents, at least.”

Rosalyn frowned. “That sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” she said, though when Boris look away in discomfort she realized she was dangerously close to overstepping some boundaries. “I’m not going to pry. I’m sure you have someone more qualified to talk to about whatever happened than another florist who you only met yesterday.”

“I do, and I’m very luckie for that.” Boris sighed, and downed the last of his tea. “I just don't want my ‘friend’ to end-up in a situation like Mine, or any-wear close to it. Can you try to make thigns better for themn? Be-four something happens that can't be ‘fixed’?”

“Are you talking about destroying our relationship or...?” Rosalyn couldn't bring herself to say what that alternate possibility might be, and before Boris could answer she shook her head. “What am I saying... I’m their mother, for crying out loud. I’m supposed to protect and support them, and if that means making changes for their sake then I need to do that.” She looked up at Boris with a smile. “Thank you for helping me realize that, Boris. I don’t know how much damage I may have already done to them, but now I’m going to do my best do undo it.”

“Ime just trying to help Cos-mos like they helped me,” Boris said with a smile of his own. “After all they’ve done for Everyone, it’s the least I can—” His eyes briefly landed on the clock. He’d barely noticed how long they’d been talking, and if he was going to get back to the planetarium without making everyone else wait too long, it would probably be best to leave soon. “Sorrey, I have-to get going,” he told her. “Have to help Kamal bring evryone back from the plantatarium.” He stood up from the table rather quickly, though not without making sure he pushed his chair back in after doing so. “Thank-you for letting me have this talk.”

“No, thank you.”

Boris waved as he turned to leave. Unfortunately he must have started his departure a bit too quickly, as without noticing he rammed his toe right into the kitchen door frame. He shouted in pain, following that up with a litany of swears, and grabbed his foot to try and ease the pain as best he could. “Oh my goodness!” Rosalyn cried out, standing up as well and making her way over to Boris. “Are you okay? That sounded like it hurt a lot, do you need some ice for that or something?”

“Ile be ‘fine’,” Boris said through gritted teeth. “This happins more of-ten than youd ‘think’ with me.”

“Given how tall you are, I would’ve imagined that’d be more likely with your head against the...” Rosalyn’s words trailed off. Her eyes widened as she saw the full scope of his pained grimace. Every. Single. Excess. Tooth. The sheer number crammed into his mouth, it honestly startled her, and before she could stop herself she let out a small yelp of shock that she quickly cut short when her manners caught up to her reaction.

“What’s wrong?” Boris asked, the pain still present but slowly easing.

“You...your...” Rosalyn was at a loss for words, so instead of spelling it out she motioned to her mouth. Boris’s heart sank. Sure, Cosmos had suggested showing her as a last resort, but he hadn’t wanted to do that and they had made so much progress with just talking like adults... “Are...are they...okay?” she asked timidly. “Do they hurt? Are you able to eat properly?”

Boris stood back up, covering his mouth with his hand. It wouldn’t remove the image from Rosalyn’s mind, but he was in mental defense mode and logic wasn’t working at that point. “I have two ‘go’,” he said simply. “Itse bin nice talkling but I half to Go.” Before Rosalyn could say anything further, Boris ran out the door and jumped into his car. He wasn’t going to drive off right away because he needed to cool off before letting himself on the road, but he felt safer being alone in the car at the moment regardless.

He’d blown it, he just knew it. He’d made so much progress with getting the flower kid’s mother to be better with them, and one little accident with his stupid clumsy foot had scared her. She’d probably disregard all of their previous talk and go right back to misgendering and poisoning them and never let them visit anymore even when the other kids were over...

“Get a-hold of yourslelf, Boris,” he muttered to himself. “She was scared ‘for’ me, naught ‘of’ me. Those were questions of Concern.” He let out a deep, heavy sigh. Things were going to be all right. He just had to hope that Rosalyn was serious about trying to make changes. Though his reassurance didn't stop that crack in his self-image from spreading. He didn’t want to potentially scare random passers-by with the mistakes he’d made in his own mouth...again...

He popped open the glove box and found his own cloth face mask that he kept for this kind of situation. It didn’t have a cute smile on it like the one Cosmos wore, but it was flower-patterned so it at least made Boris happy when he wasn’t feeling all that good about his looks. Sure, the therapist had said he should probably try to not use it, though she hadn’t said anything about when people actually reacted to his face in the way he’d expected. So he could hide the mess just for today, just long enough for him to feel relatively normal again.

Boris put the mask on and even though he wasn’t too happy with his warm breath being pushed back onto his face, hiding behind it did make him start to feel better already. It calmed him enough to let him feel comfortable to start driving, at least. Well, in that case, he’d better get going now that he could. Wouldn’t want to keep Kamal and the kids waiting, after all.

His emotions at a more stable state, he started the car and backed out of the driveway, heading onto the road and driving away.

Chapter Text

With the smaller exhibits explored and the show concluded, Kamal and the kids were free to browse the gift shop. Kamal figured that most if not all of them had little or no money on hand, so he had offered to get each of them one thing that was within a reasonable price range, two if they were small and inexpensive. Though even with the teens helping, keeping track of four small-ish children was a bit...complicated. Especially when the most hyper of them was right in his face and jumping up and down with her find. “Dad! Dad! Dad!” Putunia exclaimed, holding something that looked like it could be some sort of treat. “Astronaut ice cream! Can I get it, please please??”

Kamal looked over the treat, which upon further examination appeared to be a dehydrated ice cream sandwich. “Eh, I dunno Tunes, that’s probably not the best idea,” he said with a look of concern.

“But why not?” Putunia asked, pouting. “Is it because it’s seven bucks?”

“No, it’s because if I’m gonna buy one snack, I’m gonna buy snacks for everyone,” Kamal said. “And that’s got chocolate in it, you know there’s someone with us who can’t have that, remember?” He motioned over to Trevor, who was admiring a light-up moon with Cosmos. Putunia pouted some more, but she seemed to understand and put the ice cream back on the shelf without further complaint. “Oh, hey, do you wanna get a new book?” he asked with a smile. “We can read it together, how does that sound?”

“Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah!” Putunia began bouncing a bit in excitement, pausing only when Cosmos came over and playfully placed a costume astronaut helmet on her head. “Aaaa, sidekick!” she exclaimed. “Good work on finding this, go grab one for yourself so we can blast off into space!”

Cosmos smiled and shook their head. “Too small for me.” Of course Putunia didn’t understand, so instead of waiting for Kamal to turn back around to interpret, they showed her what they meant by putting their hands on the sides of the helmet and bringing them up to their face at the same distance apart. Even Putunia could see that the child-sized helmet would definitely get caught on their ears, and whether or not it would fit over their hair would be an entirely different matter.

“Aw, dang, they need to get bigger helmets,” Putunia said. She ran over to Gerry and tried to put the helmet on him, but his mass of broccoli-looking hair was even less agreeable with the helmet than Cosmos’s head would be. “Maaaan! Gerry, why’s your floof so crazy!!”

“Broccoli alien,” Tim Tam murmured as they searched through keychains.

“Hey, I ain’t one of thoze alien guys!” Gerry retorted. “I’m an all-Earth-boy! ...Least I think I am.”

“Yeah, you’re from this planet, all right,” Millie said with a laugh. “You’re Earth broccoli.”

“I can’t help what my hair doez!”

Meanwhile Nat watched the kids arguing and just shook her head in amusement. “These kids are something else,” she said with a laugh. “Seriously though, that part of the show was weird. Why’d they think an alien story would be a good thing for an educational place...?” She turned her attention to Trevor, who had somehow started to fall asleep while standing. “Hey, wake up,” she said as she gently nudged him awake. “That moon lamp make you sleepy too?”

“Huh?” Trevor shook his head, trying to give himself some more clarity. “Sorry, what were you saying about aliens?”

“Just thinking it was weird to have a clearly fictional alien story in the presentation that’s supposed to be meant to teach about space, that’s all,” Nat said.

Trevor shrugged. “Maybe they wanted to have some fun with it, I dunno,” he said. “Aliens are totally real, though. That part might not’ve been real, but mark my words, aliens are real and they’re probably already here.”

“Keep telling yourself that, dog boy.”

The group continued to browse through the gift shop’s selection, though Kamal had to stop Tim Tam and Millie from licking a salt lamp that was available and on display for...some reason. Cosmos had found a reprinting of a newspaper where the headline article was the original moon landing, and their eyes lit up upon looking at it. “Oh yeah, I remember my parents wanted to save the newspaper from that day,” Kamal said with a sense of nostalgia.

“Do you think they still have it?”

“I have no idea, honestly,” Kamal replied. “Probably. They still have a bunch of our old kid art, but that sort of thing’s more personal.” He could tell their attention was still on the item, and he smiled. “So is that what you want?” he asked. Cosmos nodded enthusiastically, taking one of the reprints off the stack and smiling so much that it could be seen over their mask.

Soon enough everyone else had found something they wanted, or in some cases something they wanted to give to someone else. Trevor had gotten the light-up moon and a little thing of silly putty, Nat found a cool puzzle that she thought her dad would enjoy, Tim Tam had a keychain, Millie and Gerry had both grabbed a shirt each, and Putunia had gotten the astronaut helmet. Kamal had indeed found a book to share with Putunia, but at her suggestion had also gotten a nice little mug for Boris. “Love you to the moon and back.” It was certainly an accurate statement.

After Kamal had paid for all the trinkets and they were heading out, he did a quick look-around to see if Boris had returned yet. Surely he wouldn’t be too hard to spot oh there he was. Boris waved at them as soon as he noticed they were out and made his way over to meet the group half-way. Kamal noticed something pretty quickly, something that had definitely changed about Boris’s appearance. The lower half of his face was covered with a floral-print face mask, a bad sign if previous experience was anything to go by. He really hoped everything was okay...

“Hel-lo evryone!” Boris greeted them. “Did you all have ‘fun’?”

“We sure did, Pops!” Putunia exclaimed. “There were broccoli aliens! They were scary but they ended up being really nice!” She grinned and lifted the visor of the helmet she had insisted on wearing even through checkout. “How’d your secret mission go?”

“It went prettie good, actulaly,” Boris said. He pulled the diary out of his pocket and handed it to Cosmos, who gave him a confused look. “The importnant thing, remember?” He gave them a wink, which Cosmos responded to with an understanding nod.

As they all made their way back to the cars, Kamal couldn’t help but grow a bit more concerned. “So, uh... what’s with the, um, the thing?” he asked. Boris gave him a confused look of his own. “Y’know, the thing!” He waved his hand in front of his mouth to illustrate what he meant. “The mask thing, there’s the word.”

“Oh, uhhh...” What was still visible of Boris’s face seemed to scrunch up in discomfort. “I, um, thought I hadd a ‘zit’? And I dident wamt to picke at it with-out thinking??”

Kamal’s eyebrow raised. “A zit,” he repeated. “Really. Is that the only reason or...?”

Boris sighed. “I talked with Rosallin,” he said, “and she ‘saw’ my teeth and was scared... Ime pretty sure she was just con-cerned for my well being, but still...”

Kamal nodded. He understood how Boris was feeling, and he knew how to help with this. “Hey, c’mon, you’re gonna be fine,” he said reassuringly. “You’re not scary. Rosalyn was probably just worried about you because Cosmos had something similar, right? And since it must’ve been causing them a lot of trouble, she might’ve been concerned that you were dealing with problems too.” He took Boris’s hand in his and squeezed it gently. “You good to take that off for a kiss, at least?”

“May-be when we get ‘home’,” Boris said. “Ime still a little bit in that face-dis-like state of mind, but you reallie did help. And also I think I mighte actulaly have a zit formeing for real and that’s not kissy-friendly, that’s Gross.”

"Yeah, that’s fair, I guess,” Kamal said. “Forehead a good spot for now, then?” Boris nodded, the hint of a soft smile reaching his eyes, and he leaned down so that Kamal could reach the kiss spot without trying to jump for it. The kiss always helped a lot for this sort of thing. “Well, we’d better get going, then. Gotta transport all these kids, after all.”

-----

The rest of the day ended up being taken up by the kids further diving into Final Fantasy. They’d ended up making a lot more progress since the previous night, and after taking a short break for dinner (Chinese takeout!), they’d gone right back to gaming and were so close to finishing. It was getting pretty close to Putunia’s usual bedtime as well, but given that they seemed to be almost done with the game Boris and Kamal had decided not to pester the kids about bedtime just yet to give them the chance to see things through to the end. “Okey, I have...NO ideya what’s going on,” Boris admitted as he watched the escalating boss battle. He’d ditched the mask shortly after they’d arrived home as he said he likely would, though keeping it on probably would’ve helped prevent him from scratching around the Spider-Man bandaid now stuck on his cheek.

"You and me both, hon," Kamal said. “Looks climactic enough, at least.”

And climactic it definitely was. They had been at this fight for the past twenty-five minutes, and things were starting to get down to the wire for both them and the boss himself. When it seemed like either side could go down at any minute, Cosmos stopped putting in any commands. The battle setting kept things from progressing out of control like when they had been slowing the night before, but the other kids were still getting impatient.

“What’s the hold-up?!” Millie shouted. “Kick the clown’s a—er, butt already!” Cosmos turned to her with a grin, and then even though it was still their turn, they handed her the controller. She gasped and looked up at them in disbelief, and they responded by motioning toward the TV as if to tell her to go on. Millie excitedly gripped the controller and proceeded to go absolutely ham. As she continued to pound away at the boss’s health, the others started to chant her name in encouragement (except for Cosmos, obviously, they just clapped in time with the chanting), and the chanting turned into an excited uproar as the final blow was struck. “YEEAAAHHH!!!” Millie shouted, jumping up into a standing position on the couch cushion she’d been previously sitting on. “EAT IT, KEFKA!! EAT IT, YOU STUPID CLOWN, EAT IIIIIITTTT!!!”

They were cheering and celebrating so exuberantly that they almost missed the post-boss resolution, though thankfully the general mood of the group managed to calm down enough for them to catch the gist of it. It was a satisfying conclusion to all the progress they’d made over the past two days. Maybe the younger ones didn’t totally get all the heavy themes throughout the game as a whole, but it didn’t go too far over their heads at least. “Dad! Pops! Didja see that???” Putunia exclaimed. “We saved the world!”

“We did see!” Boris said as he clapped for the group. “You all did such a goode Job! Now then, I think heroes such as your-selves deserve some restfull sleepy-time after all that hard work.” He turned to Kamal with a smile. “Whamt do you ‘think’, lily?”

“Honestly, I think the younger ones at least should've been in bed at least an hour ago,” Kamal chuckled. “But this is a sleepover and it’s not a school night, so now’s as good a time as any, hehe.”

“Awww, come onnn!” Putunia whined, doing her best not to let out the yawn she was trying to suppress. “It’s not that late, I’m still... I’m stiiiilllll... I’m! Still awake!!” Despite her best efforts, it was pretty clear to everyone that Putunia was just as tired as they were. Admittedly all the kids were both tired and wired from their video game victory, but they were a lot less determined to stay awake, not to mention the soothing music playing now that the end screen had been reached was making them start to feel less of the wired.

As everyone was finally getting ready for bed, no one went to turn off the SNES so the end screen music continued to play. While they couldn’t speak for anyone else, literally or figuratively, it was certainly easing Cosmos’s anxieties from the previous night. They had a feeling they’d be able to sleep well even without needing to surround themself in dog floof. Not that they would necessarily say no to dog floof, of course. Dog floof is good, but sleeping without being woken up by morning dog breath was generally preferable. Besides, Trevor was probably still having some difficulties and Webster had been his buddy first, so he could probably use the dog floof more.

A flick of a switch and the music came to an end. A few more switches and the TV and lights were off as well, save for a soft night light likely kept on to avoid injury in the dark. As Cosmos got into their sleeping bag, their mind drifted to what might’ve happened between Boris and their mom. He had told them that their conversation had went well, but even he seemed nervous about things...

They’d just have to wait until tomorrow to find out for certain.

-----

Sunday morning came soon, and not too long after breakfast people were arriving to pick up the kids. Trencil had arrived first, wearing a large sun hat as he tended to do on sunnier days, and as he left with Nat and Trevor it seemed that the boy looked a little better rested than he had been. Not much, unfortunately, but a little bit. He also seemed anxious, if his extra time spent giving Webster more hugs before leaving was anything to go by, but he was going through some rough things so it was understandable. Shortly after Millie’s mother had arrived, and while they were getting ready to leave Dallas pulled up to the house. “Hey, Tim Tam,” he said once he had gotten out and approached them. “Your dad’s busy with a surprise shift, so he sent me to come getcha. No worries, right?”

“Art dad,” Tim Tam said with the tiniest of smiles.

“Whoa, little grape, hold on!” Dallas laughed, sounding slightly nervous. “Your daddio and I may be an item, but I’m not officially your dad yet! Don’t get me wrong, I care about you like you’re already my kid, but...”

Tim Tam just took his hand. “Art dad,” they repeated, before handing him the keychain they had gotten.

“Whooaa, out of this world!” Dallas exclaimed, taking his key ring and immediately putting the keychain onto it alongside a few others of varying eccentric design. “Thanks, little duder!”

“One for you.” They pulled a similar-looking keychain out of their pocket. “One for regular dad.”

As Dallas helped Tim Tam into his car and soon got in himself, Cosmos realized that something seemed a bit off about that interaction. They lightly nudged Kamal to get his attention before making their concerns known. “Didn’t you only buy them one of those keychains?” they asked.

“Yeah, just the one,” Kamal said. “Where’d they get the other...” He groaned, realizing he had answered his own question before even starting to ask it. “Of course they did,” he muttered. “Dammit, Tim Tam...”

“Lang-uage, lily,” Boris reminded him. “Their are still small children in ear-shot.”

“Good point,” Kamal said with a sigh. “Guess I can go back and pay for the spare, pretty I still have the receipt for everyone’s things.”

Soon enough, another car pulled up to the house. Cosmos heard it pulling up before they saw it, and as they had overheard a phone call from Wallus saying he’d be a little late to pick up Gerry, they could already guess that the car in question was their mother’s. They took a peek and sure enough, Rosalyn was already getting out of the car. They grabbed their bag and made to meet her halfway, making sure their mask was on properly to keep out most of the irritants. They’d gotten some medicine already, but it never hurt to be safe.

As soon as they were close enough, Rosalyn pulled Cosmos into a big hug. “Oh, how’s my baby doiiing!” she said while patting them on the back. “Wait, hang on, let me get you to where you can answer that.” She loosened on her hug, letting them get their hands free and within sight. “So, how was your weekend?”

“It was good. We went to the planetarium and beat a big video game.” Cosmos hoped that whatever part of their smile could be seen around their mask didn't come off as nervous.

“Oh, that sounds like fun!” Rosalyn gave them a small kiss on their forehead, then her expression turned slightly serious. “Do you still have the lavender I gave you Friday?” she asked.

“I threw it away once you left.”

Rosalyn nodded. “Good,” she said. “We’ve got to have a discussion about some things, dear. Things are going to be changing, mainly from me.” She pulled them into another hug before approaching Boris and Kamal. “Thank you again for having my...child over this weekend,” she said with a small laugh. “Almost said something else there, woops. Anyway, I hope they weren’t too much trouble.”

Cosmos’s ears perked up. “Child”? “They”? Not “son” or “he”? From her? Sure, Boris had told them that the talk itself had gone relatively well, but it was still so weird their mom...actually refer to them the way they wanted for once!

“Oh, they are nevler any trouble at all!” Boris exclaimed. “Cos-mos is defiantly one of the most well-behaved of this ‘kid’ grouping, especially compaired to our daughter and the other younger ones.” He couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Their all so rowdie! Probaly because they’re so tiney.”

“I remember when mine were that small,” Rosalyn laughed as well. “My oldest got into so many fights when she was ten.” She shook hands with both Boris and Kamal to thank them again, and then she handed Boris a small card. “Here, it’s my dentist,” she said at a volume only the two men could hear, “in case you need someone to help with the whole too-many-teeth thing.”

Boris gave her a weird look. “Beg yuor par-don?” he asked nervously.

“I mean, it must be uncomfortable to have all those grown in there,” she said with concern. “Probably painful and hard to eat, too. So if you need someone to help remove them, I'm sure Dr. James can do the job if you’re interested.”

Boris took the card and let out an uncomfortable laugh. “I appreciate the ‘thought’, but Ime covered on that front,” he said. “I alreadie have the best dent-est for me.” He put his hand on Kamal’s shoulder to emphasize the point he was making. “Wouldn’t want anie-one else working in my mouth.”

“He’s not exaggerating about that, hehe.” Kamal gently patted Boris's hand. “Hey, speaking of that, you want me to make you an appointment anytime soon?”

“Lily, I would rather naught spend our wedding-day with mouth panes,” Boris said. “May-be in a few...months? If I’m feeling...you know...”

“Gotcha.”

“Oh!” Rosalyn was briefly surprised, but that feeling passed her over and replaced itself with humor. “I guess that would make sense, wouldn’t it? You're already familiar with each other enough for that to be more comfortable, I’d imagine, and there’s always the possible family discount for appointments on top of that!”

“I...have never asked for a ‘dis-count’ on Kamal’s services...”

“Aaaany-way, Ros, you and Cosmos should probably get going!” Kamal interjected. “Wouldn’t wanna keep you guys with chit-chat for too long, hehehehe...”

“Yes, that’s a good point.” Rosalyn turned to Cosmos with a smile. “You ready to go, dear?” she asked, to which Cosmos responded with a nod. “All right, then, let’s get going!” Cosmos readjusted their bag and the two of them made their way to the car.

As they got to the car and opened the back door to throw their bag in, Cosmos noticed something that hadn’t been there the last time they had seen this car. A large cardboard box with that obnoxious Happy Living logo on the front, filled with unopened sets of oils. They put their bag in the floorboard, then tapped on the roof of the car to get their mother’s attention. “What’s with the box?”

“That’s what’s left of my last shipment,” Rosalyn said. “Boris and I had a talk when you sent him over, and after thinking it over I’ve decided it’d be a good idea to give all that up. It’s been affecting you badly, after all, and it’s my job as your mom to keep you safe and healthy to the best of my ability.”

Cosmos was sure that even with their mask on, there was some visual sign that their jaw had dropped in surprise. They felt it slide down their nose a little, at least. “You’re really doing that?” they asked, pausing to pull their mask back up. “No joking?”

"Honey, your well-being isn't a joke." Rosalyn smiled, then walked around the car to where Cosmos was standing to give them a big hug. “I’ve been doing you wrong, honey,” she said. “I realize that now. I've been making you sick, I’ve been disrespecting your identity because I didn’t understand, and you deserve so much better than that.”

Their eyes were starting to fill with tears. Unsure if it was the emotion of their mother making changes like this for them or if the antihistamines just hadn’t properly kicked in yet, Cosmos decided to just lean further into the hug and pat her on the back. Once they could get their hands back in Rosalyn’s view they asked, “So this means we can get real medicine again, right?”

“Of course, honey,” Rosalyn said. “I was actually going to ask if you wanted to do that before we head home. After getting rid of all this, of course.”

Cosmos smiled, the smile reaching their eyes, and not wanting to keep the two of them there for too much longer they went ahead and climbed into the car’s passenger seat. There was still a lingering floral scent, though they guessed that it would take some time for the oils’ smells to fade out completely, or at least to a point where it didn’t bother them as much. They were just glad this car wasn’t used for deliveries at their mom’s shop, otherwise there’d be pollen in there all the time.

After Rosalyn had gotten in as well and started the car, she leaned over and kissed Cosmos on the head. They playfully brushed her away in a joking “mom stop you’re embarrassing me” manner, and she couldn’t help but laugh a little bit. “I’m just glad that I know how to get back on the right track to being the mother you deserve,” she said with a soft smile. “You just let me know if I slip up again, all right?” They nodded, and Rosalyn gave them a small hug before putting the car into reverse. “Things are gonna get better again, I promise. It’s what my little purple rose deserves.” Cosmos raised an eyebrow at this statement, and with a laugh she added, “Oh, don’t worry too much about that, it’s just the metaphor that helped me understand.”

As the car pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, Cosmos couldn’t help but feel their spirits lifting. There was never much back-and-forth conversation in the car when it was just the two of them; while Rosalyn would of course talk at length because she was just the talkative type in general, she made sure to never ask questions that couldn’t be answered with just yes or no while driving so they didn’t have to worry about sign causing distractions. Even so, the ride was pleasant. Their mom was going to do her best to respect them and keep them safe, even if she could be clumsy about it she was going to give her strongest effort to fix her mistakes and keep new ones to a minimum.

That would be enough for them. It was all they could ask for.