Chapter Text
Shrimpo hated doing runs. He hated being seen by the twisteds even if he was the farthest from Goob or pebble when they were distracting. He hated everyone, especially a specific flower that ran a shitty shop.
“Do you ever put anything good?” Shrimpo spat, His arms crossed as he looked over the items. Gumballs, enigma candy, and another set of gumballs. They were on their way to floor 6 and still had no heals given to them. Shrimpo doubted he could survive much longer at this rate.
“Do you have any requests?” Smiled dandy, his gaze on Shrimpo a little unsettling, but the crustacean refused to admit that.
“Some fucking heals would be nice! We’re on life support over here!” He snapped, gesturing towards the team. Cosmo couldn’t heal anybody due to being at one heart, sprout was standing next to him with barely any tapes (thanks to toodles of course, but she refused to admit it.) Pebble and Goob were stressed out in some corners, having been unable to distract for a floor or 2 now due to sprout saying not to until they had heals. Shelly was talking to Astro, both of their bodies covered in bruises, although Astro has less.
“Guess we’ll see what I can get!” Dandy said cheerfully before pulling the lever and closing his shop, disappearing to wherever he went.
“You know he won’t fulfill your request, right?” Sprout said, Having been listening in on their conversation, not that it took too much, Shrimpo was loud.
“Fuck off, berryboy.” Shrimpo scoffed, watching as the elevator opened and everyone walked out.
Later on the floor, Shrimpo heard Cosmo call out. “I found a bandage! Pebble, come here!” and then the sound of healing. He rolled his eyes after hearing pebble go straight back to distracting. That damn dog.
“Hey Shrimpo! Can I have that Machine?” he heard Shelly ask, he looked back at the machine he was working on and the numb sting of his head from hitting it so much before getting off of it and pushing past shelly. Watching as she rubbed her arm before getting on the machine.
“You should apologize to Shelly, you know she’s already in a lot of pain.” Astro said, having watched the entire interaction.
“I’m not apologizing for nothing. Mind your business and go to the elevator.” Shrimpo said before stomping off.
In some magical way, They had managed to make it past floor 7 even with twisted Vee and Sprout being on the floor. Once the elevator door closed behind them, Shrimpo silently prayed for heals, although knowing there’s not a huge chance Dandy would be so kind to them.
When hearing the Shop doors open, the whole group (except Goob and Toodles, who died.) crowded around it. Their jaws dropped when they saw the items laid across the table. Medkit, Pop, and a bandage. Shrimpo immediately bought the medkit, working quickly to use it. He wasn’t Sprout nor Cosmo’s priority for healing, so he had to hope and pray that he got heals each run.
“What! I don’t have enough, how did YOU have enough!” Sprout pointed at Shrimpo, ignoring the way Dandy’s smile disappeared the second he started yelling.
“You’ve been forgetting to use items to get tapes. I haven’t been stealing shit if that’s what you’re thinking.” Shrimpo said, looking surprisingly taken aback by the silent accusation. Shrimpo reaches to buy the pop, Dandy’s smile coming right back.
Sprout and Astro give each other a look, agreeing to mention the favoritism to the rainbow flower later, for now they stay quiet, deciding to not mention it to everyone else if they hadn’t noticed it yet.
Later, after the run, Shrimpo was hitting the punching bags in his room as Dandy walked past the door, knocking after hearing that the shrimp was in.
Shrimpo opened the door and raised his eyebrow, not expecting Dandy to be there. “You need something?” He asked, surprisingly calm considering his usual demeanor.
“Everything alright? I know you must be exhausted after that run earlier! So much running, huh?” Dandy asked, a false concern in his eyes.
“Is that all?” Shrimpo’s voice sounded bored, not wanting to deal with Dandy’s joyfulness at the moment.
“For now.” He responded, making Shrimpo raise his eyebrow at the weird sound of a promise in his tone. But all the crustacean did was close the door and go back to his punching bags.
When dandy made his way back to his room, he was slightly startled at the sight of Astro and Sprout sitting in the middle of his room, arms crossed and knowing looks in their eyes. It looked like an intervention in a way.
“You know favoritism when we’re doing runs is the cause of half our deaths, right?” Sprout says, starting off strong, not without a glare from Astro.
“I have zero idea what you mean!” Dandy smiled cheerfully, tidying up his desk slightly.
“Dandy, do you like Shrimpo?” Astro asked softly, watching as his jaw tensed at the question.
“What makes you think that?”
“Everyone knows how you’ve been acting around Shrimpo, you can’t hide it.” Sprout said, his voice going from stern to teasing.
“Wait everyone ?” The flower’s voice croaked, picking slightly at his skin.
“Shrimpo is too busy hating everyone to notice anything. Maybe a slight change in attitude but I think that just pisses him off more that you’re treating him differently.” The berry replied, already coming up with plans to get the two together.
“Okay, I'll stop treating him differently in runs, just, leave!” Dandy said with faint tiredness in his voice.
Once the two left, Dandy collapsed on his bed, screaming into his pillow. There was no way he was that obvious! No way!