Chapter Text
It’s a Tuesday afternoon. The toons, who now all live in a community home - provided by the government - are going about their day as usual. Shrimpo is sitting at the pond in the garden, watching the water intently, thinking about how his life has changed so much in the past months.
They left Gardenview after it was abandoned. They were running out of resources, power outages became the norm, and twisteds had begun to travel up floors, endangering them further. The toons grouped together and left the only place they had ever been. Many were scared, upset, angry. Toodles had cried the whole way, Rodger carrying her most of the time - and this time, no complaints about his legs or back. Goob looked very uncharacteristically sad, Glisten didn’t talk most of the way, Astro was surprisingly alert and awake. No one was feeling themselves that day.
They eventually stopped at a big building on the edge of a settlement - a hotel. They weren’t necessarily planning on staying there, mostly due to the fact that the entire group didn’t have a penny to their name, but also there were so many of them. They needed to stop though, everyone was anxious and tired from walking. Vee decided to go talk to the receptionist, who saw the group and looked confused and a little scared. It’d been a while since Gardenview was a thing, so people have forgotten, or don’t know about the toons in the first place.
Long story short, after help from the government and long waits, they are finally getting their lives back together.
Shrimpo doesn’t like it here with the adult humans, well, he didn’t like it with the child humans either. The children were at least his height at most, now all these people tower over him. He doesn’t like feeling so weak and insignificant. They used to have everything given to them. They didn’t need to pay for things, or work boring jobs. Yes, they had to entertain the children, but most of them didn’t mind that much. Shrimpo barely had to entertain any kids anyway, because his reputation as the bully made them stay away from him.
He sighs, slipping himself into the pond. It’s quite a large pond, and nice too. The house they’re living in used to be a retirement home, apparently. This means some decent outdoor spaces, good.
Despite the fact that he was created, he was never given much space to swim, or be in water in general. The best he could get was a bath, but the bathtub is way too small, and he would always get scolded by someone for using too much water. This pond was a nice surprise though, and he’s been spending a lot of time in it. He likes the water, it blocks out outside sounds and muffles them, making him feel like he’s in a protective bubble. He dips his head underwater, looking around at the foliage. It’s getting a bit murky with algae, but similarly to his bedroom, it won't get cleaned - at least not until Tisha gets her hands on it.
Shrimpo is brought out of his thoughts by a familiar cold hand reaching for his tail. The crustacean pokes his head out of the water, pulling a weed off his forehead.
“WHAT.” He says, looking at the blue fishbowl that just disturbed him. Finn chuckles, sitting at the pond’s edge.
“ Water you doing?” He asks, smiling to himself at his own pun. “You seem very lost.”
“I AM NOT LOST!” Shrimpo retorts, flicking a water weed onto Finn, who recoils slightly and flicks it back at him, “WHY WOULD I BE LOST? I AM NEVER LOST.” Finn just smiles for a moment, before speaking again.
“Do you wanna come with me to the aquarium tomorrow?” Finn asks, an excited shimmer in his eyes. Shrimpo’s face falls, “NO, no I do not.” He says internally. He, when wandering around the city, had walked past an aquarium. He hates those things, with a passion. And it’s not a petty hatred out of boredom or disinterest, it’s a genuine horror of them. They’re cruel, taking sea life from their natural habitat and forcing them to live in small cramped spaces, with the sole purpose of being gawked at and stared at. He also dislikes the looks he gets whenever he steps near those things, it’s like people are out to get him and trap him in there with all the other unfortunate souls.
“FINE. ONLY BECAUSE YOU ASKED NICELY.” He says, too embarrassed to admit that he is quite terrified of them. Finn, not noticing Shrimpo’s fear within his anger, smiles and claps his hands together.
“Oh, great! We’ll go at 12.” He confirms, before making himself comfortable by the pond. “Do you like it there?” Finn asks, pointing to the pond that Shrimpo seems to spend the majority of his life in. Shrimpo looks around, making sure nobody is looking or in earshot, before replying,
“Mhm.” He nods, sinking further underwater so just his eyes poke above the water’s surface.
“Maybe we should go to a swimming pool sometime?” Finn suggests.
“I GUESS…” Shrimpo says, his tail twitching slightly in excitement.
“Well, dinner’s just about ready, so you gotta come out now. Make shore to dry yourself off before you come inside though, Tisha’s been freaking out about “cleanliness” recently - I think she’s worried about human diseases reaching us easier now, since we’ll be in contact with many more people.” Finn explains, standing up and brushing off his knees. Shrimpo grumbles something unintelligible, bubbles coming up from under the water as he speaks.
“Did you fart?” Finn asks, trying to playfully get under his skin. He has a mischievous grin plastered across his face, his missing tooth on full display.
“I WAS SPEAKING. IT WAS AIR FROM MY MOUTH, STUPID!!! WHAT ARE YOU, FIVE???” Shrimpo yells, getting out of the water and splashing Finn, soaking him from head to toe.
The two quickly dry off, before heading to go eat with the other toons.
Shrimpo tries his best not to linger on the thought of the aquarium trip tomorrow. He really doesn’t want to go, but he also doesn’t want to disappoint his boyfriend - as much as that is a weird way for Shrimpo to be thinking. He was always a bully, and lacked sympathy towards others, and he was also partially encouraged to be that way, to protect his character as the bully among the toons. But, after getting closer to Finn, he's started to loosen up a bit.
Finn and Shrimpo sit next to each other, Finn shuffled up to Shrimpo so close he may as well just sit on his lap. They look down at their plates, ready to see what Sprout and Cosmo have made today. Lasagne. Finn turns to Shrimpo.
“Remember when we made lasagne?” He asks while putting a forkful of food into his mouth.
“Uh yeah, and you burned it.” Shrimpo scoffs, also putting a, much larger, forkful of food into his mouth, struggling to get the wide sheet of pasta into his mouth without making a mess.
“I did not! That was you!” Finn laughs, nearly choking for a moment, before going back to laughing.
“YOU DIDN’T SET A TIMER!!!”
“You were the one who was supposed to!” Fin giggles.
Shrimpo managed to momentarily forget about his anxiety, but alas, that was not permanent. He lies in his bed, thinking. Thinking too much. Everything right now is too much for him. The ticking of the clock in the corridor, the mumble of someone watching something a few rooms away, the tap of someone’s slippers on the floor. Everything.
It’s decided, he’s not sleeping tonight. Shrimpo puts on his headphones, turning them up as high as his ears will let him. He turns on a loud song, but one where he doesn’t understand the lyrics, as to not overwhelm him with thoughts further.
He finally falls asleep at 3am.