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Today has been a pretty smooth day, Sprout was in the toon's kitchen looking through the recipe book to make his friend Astro something. He’s not sure what to make, maybe heart cookies? No, too romantic, especially for someone trying to be subtle about his love. Sugar cookies alone are too basic, so he settles with star-cut sugar cookies. They’re reminiscent of Astro’s other eye but shaped like cartoon stars. Astro had also brought up being into astrology, which has to do with stars, so it fits perfectly!
He grabbed a tray and some foil, proceeding to take out the cookie dough. He really hoped it would turn out well, he wasn’t too worried since Astro had said he liked his baking prior to now.
While he was getting set up, the kitchen door creaked open. He wasn’t sure who needed to be in the kitchen at this time, lunch had already been made. He turned his head to get a glance at who it was, Cosmo! Perfect timing, maybe he could help him with making these turn out amazing.
“Sprout? What are you doing—are you making something without me?” Cosmo said, not upset but rather more surprised.
“Um, yeah! It’s a gift, I didn’t know if you’d be interested in helping.” Sprout subtly offers, putting on his apron as he speaks. He looks at Cosmo with a soft smile while taking the cookie dough out of the fridge.
Cosmo comes over, “I’d never say no, Sprout. You know that,” He replies with a soft chuckle, putting on his apron and walking behind the counter. “And what’s the occasion? You don’t normally do this.” He questions, still seeming to be caught off-guard finding Sprout baking alone.
The words catch in his throat, how is he supposed to tell Cosmo he’s making these for Astro without it turning into a cornered and rather awkward conversation? He blushes when he thinks about Astro, definitely not friendly but even for the short second he’s silent, he hears that teasing and faint “Oooohhhh…” from Cosmo. He knows now.
“You like someone, and you didn’t tell me?” Cosmo speaks up, Sprout is definitely cornered now. Cosmo’s a bit gullible about things but he’s not full-on dumb, he knows what's up when enough hints are given.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” He tries to play it off, but to his failure, Cosmo sees right through him and his bad lies.
“I’m not judging, in fact, I’m glad for you. Thought you were gonna be old with just me as a friend.” Cosmo giggles, playfully nudging Sprout’s shoulder.
Sprout simply sighs, going over to the pantry to take out some flour. If he just cut the cookies simply on the counter, he knew the residue would just be annoying to clean up. “I am NOT gonna be alone and old. It just takes me time, you know.” He corrects with a joking tone back, sprinkling the flour on the counter. He grabbed a handful of cookie dough with a rolling pin and rolled it flat on the counter. He takes the star cookie cutters, there are two. One for him and one for Cosmo.
Cosmo takes his cutter, “Yeah right, I’ve seen your fumbles with girls AND boys, but it’s okay! I still wish the best for you.” Cosmo teases, helping Sprout cut out the cookies into stars. “Anyway, who’s the lucky person?” He asks, his curiosity is at an all-time high now that this was the current topic while cutting the last cookie.
“Don’t laugh okay, it’s like.. really embarrassing.” Sprout’s face heats up, is he really going to confess who he likes to Cosmo? It’s not that he didn’t trust him, he definitely did seeing as he’s been there for almost every single crush fail. It’s just more embarrassing that he thinks he’s in love, found the one even, no ignoring his feelings this time. If he fails, he’s out for the count.
“Let me guess, is it Looey?” Cosmo goes over to the oven and turns on the preheating. “You forgot about this by the way,”
“No way! I don’t see Looey like that. He’s just a clowny balloon-bunny-looking thing...” He shakes his head with a no gesture, he can’t see himself seeing Looey in that way at all.
“Hmm, I can’t really think of anyone. Surprise me then.” He shrugs, putting his hand on his hip while leaning on the counter. He isn’t expecting anybody specific.
“It’s Astro.”
Cosmo’s eyes widen in surprise before he starts to think logically. It weirdly makes sense. They’ve been awfully close since day one, someone was bound to catch feelings and it just had to be Sprout.
"I'm not surprised, you and him were always cool. I just hopped along." He says with a now unfazed expression.
The kitchen door creaks open again, and now both of them turn their heads, trying to see who entered.
There goes Astro, it’s really bad timing for the topic at hand but there he goes, sitting down at a chair right by the counter.
“Hi Sprout and Cosmo, what are you two making?” He asks, smiling at them both.
Sprout’s heart skips a beat because God his smile was beautiful, if only it could last forever. He wanted to reach out and caress his cheek but there he was, awkwardly staring like a freak. He must have been zoned out because Cosmo’s hand was waving right in front of his face.
“Hello? Earth to blushing Sprout!” Cosmo says, hand on his hip while trying to get Sprout out of his zone.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. We’re making star cookies.” He replies, flustered and stumbling over his words. That was embarrassing to say the least, right in front of his crush too.
Astro giggles, “It’s okay. That sounds really good, do you mind if I hang around until they’re done? It’s just.. really loud out there.” He asks, resting his face in his stars.
Sprout doesn’t pry any further and nods his head, putting on his oven mitts, taking the sheet of cookies, and placing them in the oven. “Stay as long as you like, do you want something to drink?” He offers, getting Astro a glass of water.
Cosmo could feel the romantic tension, feeling like an out-of-place third wheel in this OBVIOUS crush dilemma. He did support his best friend but oh, the tension is thick and albeit, annoying.
The three chat for a while, waiting for the cookies to finish. They hope it won’t take long, well, more so Cosmo, the subtle flirts they throw at each other are driving him off the wall. Why can’t they just come out and say it?
Finally, that awaited ding of the oven plays and Cosmo opens it, the cookies turn out pretty good. Cosmo grabs a light blue icing alongside a yellow icing.
“Oh, these colors are really pretty. It reminds me of space.” Astro comments, smiling at the reminder. He watches as Cosmo delicately covers the top of the cookies with the colors. They were mismatched; every other cookie was covered in yellow. Astro started to put the pieces together, the colors were similar to him. He blushed at the possibility that these cookies were made for him, they did look really good too.
“I hoped they would, I wanted to.. give you a gift,” Sprout finally confesses, averting his gaze nervously. “You said you liked my baking, so, I thought why not make you something.” He adds, holding out a cookie for Astro.
He was taken aback by the confession, he was expecting it but hearing it out of his mouth makes his cheeks heat up. “Ah, really? Thank you,” He uses his stars to take the cookie, taking a bite out of it. It was sweet and savory, like his love. Astro enjoys the gesture a lot more than he’d like to admit, honestly falling in love more. It’s nice to know Sprout thinks about him too. “This is really good by the way,”
Cosmo likes seeing his best friend happy, feeling glad that he was a part of his happiness. It’s beautiful even, love blooming like a rose right in front of him.
“Oh, thank you! Me and Cosmo made the batter together so, some credit to him too.” Sprout replies, blushing even more at the compliment. God, he was so bad at being the one flirted with.
“Well, I’m going to hang out with Boxten. He said he wanted to listen to this new song he found with me, I’ll see myself out. See you two later!” The rollcake interrupts, smiling as he takes off his apron, he wasn’t going to leave without taking a cookie though. “Oh he’s right, these are really good.” He mutters to himself as he leaves.
Somehow, the air got even more romantically tense as they ate the cookies in silence. A sliver of icing is on Astro’s cheek, Sprout notices and takes his chance to work up another flirt. He takes a deep breath, hoping he doesn’t look like an idiot in a romcom, and wipes the icing off with his thumb.
Astro’s breath gets caught in his throat as he choked on the cookie. Sprout was BOLD for a move like that. He for sure wasn’t expecting that one.
Sprout panics, hearing Astro choke on the cookie right in front of him, he goes behind Astro and tries to pat his back to get it up. Once that didn’t work, he had to get even MORE awkward, wrapping his arms around his waist to make him huff up air. He finally swallows, calming down and wiping the tears from his eyes.
“Holy—I am so sorry, are you okay?” Sprout moves aside, putting a hand on his shoulder with an embarrassed expression.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s not your fault,” He replies, shaking his head.
Right back to awkwardness, they’ve been beating around the bush for so long. Astro speaks up before Sprout can say something,
“Do you like me?”
Sprout’s eyes widen, fuck, how was he found out? Was it the extremely obvious romantic cookies? Or that weird thumb gesture he did? Either way, Astro was for sure onto him. No way out of this one.
“Yeah. I think so.” He replies, unsure of himself. Is this really how real romance works?
Now it’s Astro’s turn to be caught off-guard. He wasn’t expecting such a blunt and straightforward answer. 10 points for being honest, he guesses.
“That’s good to know, I honestly just wanted to spend time originally. Wasn’t in here for the food or anything.” He admits, taking another bite of his cookie. They had been talking so much, that the delicacies were cold now. Not that he cared, his body was warm from all of these little love gestures.
Sprout leaves over the counter, probably a few inches away from Astro’s face. He looks away though, taking short glances at Astro’s lips, almost internally screaming what he wants.
Astro says to himself, "fuck it." He leans over, going in for the kill with a soft kiss to Sprout’s lips, he could taste the icing on the boy, sweet as him.
Sprout gasps, his eyes blow open. He didn’t actually think Astro would do it, but he’s happy with the results. He kisses back softly, soon pulling back with an almost goofy grin on his lips.
“I hope that pays back for the cookies.” Astro teases, smiling back like a dork in love, which is exactly what he was.
It was almost comedic how both of them were oblivious to the blatantly obvious lovefest going on between them.
But here they are, maybe not officially dating but for the most part, close enough.