Chapter Text
Shrimpo opened his eyes slowly and stared at the ceiling, brows furrowed already as he found himself awake. He could hear light snoring in the room next to his, and he rolled his eyes dramatically. He threw his legs over the edge of his beat-up bed, kicking an empty soda can off of it and leaving it unmade as always as he got up to get dressed.
He made his way over to the door, pulling on his second sock and stepping over crumpled papers and candy wrappers. He really needed to clean that all up, but he hated cleaning. He told himself he'd do it later. Right now, the goal was breakfast.
Shrimpo held his hands balled up at his sides, chest puffed as he strutted past a sleepy Astro and a somehow already very perky Brightney.
It was hardly a full minute before Shrimpo felt the dreaded tap on his shoulder as a shiny eyed fishbowl tripped into his line of sight. He let himself groan in dismay.
"Good morning, Shrimpo! Are you fishing around for breakfast?" Finn chirped excitedly, throwing an arm around Shrimpo's shoulder. Shrimpo stiffened, but made no move to push off the other Toon.
Shrimpo simply twitched the corner of his lip in reply as him and Finn stepped into the kitchen. Cosmo and Sprout were hard at work, serving Vee, Shelly, and Gigi. It looked like they had made pancakes this morning, and Finn nodded to Shrimpo to sit at the table he always did while he went to bring them food.
Shrimpo wasn't entirely sure why Finn had even started this little morning ritual, but no matter how hard he pushed back, Finn never quit, so Shrimpo had just learned to deal with it without causing too much of a scene.
Shrimpo slumped into the cafeteria seat, tapping his foot rapidly on the floor and staring at the big doors they usually went through after eating to go do ichor runs. He thought briefly about how much he hated those runs before Finn returned, his stupid tooth gap on full display with that grin. The fishbowl pushed some of the pancakes to Shrimpo before starting on his own.
"I hate pancakes." Shrimpo stated bluntly before stuffing his face.
"Did you know," Finn replied as he poured a stupid amount of syrup over his food, "that fish don't typically eat pancakes? They usually eat other fish or sea plants like kelp!"
Finn paused a moment, giving Shrimpo room to respond, but he did not.
"I guess that makes you special, doesn't it?"
Shrimpo huffed angrily to stifle a smirk as Finn started giggling at his own joke.
"Obviously Shrimpo is special, I'm the best! Do you ever pollute your own head with all those stupid jokes you make?" Shrimpo's voice had an edge, but Finn had gotten used to that. "You're gonna drown Barnaby."
"What's it to you? I thought you hated Barnaby!" Finn giggled again, wiping syrup off of his glass.
Shrimpo sat silently for a moment, trying to come up with a snarky comeback. He got increasingly frustrated as he realized he had none, so he shot up out of his seat instead and yelled, "I do! I do hate Barnaby, and I hate your jokes!"
He pulled his face into a wicked snarl before whipping around back to his room, fists balled up as Finn stared after him with a slight frown.