Chapter Text
Dandy had always looked up to Astro, it was a bit ironic since he was the main lead of the cast. Astro’s kindness, understanding, and the way he never judged anyone was something that always made Dandy think of Astro with a smile. He always thought his admiration towards Astro was normal; even when he started admiring other aspects, such as his eyes, the stars he used to replace his hands, the way he talked, and how cute he looked whenever he dozed off. This was until he was eavesdropping on a conversation between two of the toon handlers. They were talking about their lives outside of Gardenview, this opened Dandy’s eyes. One of them was talking about their personal life (outside of Gardenview of course), she had mentioned meeting someone and how much she had admired him and her attraction towards him. She had mentioned the word “love” and it stuck with Dandy. He had heard of love before but it was always obscure to him, and taboo to talk about. After that he saw Astro differently, he had realized that some of his admiration towards Astro was actually just attraction; he had feared that he had fallen in love with the moon. Although love was a taboo topic, almost all the toons knew that loving the same gender was… let’s just say bad in the public's eye. Loving Astro would’ve meant that the show probably would be canceled. How could people support something they saw with disgust? Dandy was still close with Astro, until they had a conversation about something; something that hit too close to home.
Dandy and Astro had been talking under their hangout spot, under the tree in the Garden view lobby. A certain topic came up.
“So, I was reading this book and it was about romance... I think somebody left it in the Gardenview library by mistake.” Astro shared with Dandy.
“Is that so?” The flower exclaimed, the topic of romance made his palms a bit sweaty.
“Yeah, I never realized someone could love somebody else like that.” Astro said.
Toons had loved things, just not other toons before. But knowing the topic of this he knew what he meant; he just pretended not to.
“Like what?” Dandy asked.
“Like… How a husband would love his wife.”
“Oh…” Dandy’s face got a bit red.
“Is everything okay?” The moon asked with concern
“Yeah! Out of curiosity do you think toons could love other toons like that?” Dandy asked, looking down to the grass.
“Maybe? Do you love anybody like that?” Astro asked innocently.
“Oh! Um.. No, I don’t think so. What about you?” Dandy’s face was bright red.
“Hmm… No, I don’t.”
“Ah!” The flower sounded a bit disappointed.
A familiar voice could be heard from a distance, then.
“Hey Astro! Can you come check out these cookies me and Cosmo made!” Sprout shouted from across the room.
Astro sighed. “Guess I better go… See you soon Dandy!” Astro waved goodbye.
Dandy waved back.
Dandy could feel his heart racing, Astro filled his mind. Dandy couldn’t really think about anything else other than him, and he really tried to. This stomach suddenly started feeling weird, as if butterflies were fluttering their wings. Being like this in the lobby where other toons could see him felt embarrassing, so he walked off to his room. Once he got to his room he fell into bed, turned around, “AH!” He had seen the plushie of Astro he had sitting on the side of his bed, staring at him… Ugh this is so annoying! Why am I feeling this way… An idea struck him, a dumb one at that. He had thought that maybe the amount of time he was spending with Asrto had affected the way he felt for him, so maybe if he stopped hanging out with the moon these feelings would go away! He thought it was a smart idea, but was it really?
After a couple days he had put his plan into action. Astro had come up to him and asked if the flower would be interested in watching a cool action movie; “No thanks, I'm a little busy tonight.”
This continued for a week or two, well that was until Astro had overheard Dandy talking to Poppy.
“So are you and Astro still buddy-buddy? I haven’t seen you guys hanging out in a while.” Poppy asked on behalf of almost all the toons. Everyone had noticed this change and they found it a bit strange. They just didn’t bring it up, they figured it would make things awkward.
“Heh… I guess.” Dandy said, averting his eyes.
“You guess? What does that mean?” Poppy asked.
“I mean sure we are…” The flower said unsure.
“You sure?”
“I think.” Dandy muttered.
Astro’s heart dropped, to say the least. He had thought they were best friends, was he wrong? Astro started to think what could have that answer possibly meant. Only one thought came, a thought that made Astro sad; could Dandy be avoiding me? Astro wanted to settle this, so he went up to Dandy later that day. He asked the flower if he wanted to have a sleep over.
“Heh, I wish I could! I’m busy, sorry bud”
“Busy with?“ Astro interrogated
“Lines for an episode.”
“Can I help you practice then?”
“I don’t think I would be able to focus with company around.” Dandy bit his tongue.
“Ah, I see.” Astro said, saddened.
“Don’t be sad, I’ll be able to hang out soon! I just… I need to straighten some things out.” Dandy said to try and reassure the celestial toon.
“No, don’t worry about it, I just miss hanging out with you.”
“Mhm, i have to go now buddy. Bye!” Dandy started waking away waving goodbye.
“Oh, bye.” Astro waved back, but it wasn’t the same wave he usually did.
Dandy had felt awful, honestly. However he still couldn’t get his feelings straightened out. If anything it was making him yearn more for Astro. Once he got to his room he thought about whether or not he should continue with his plan. All this thinking made Dandy tired, he started to close his eyes and drift into a deep sleep.