Chapter Text
Cocoa grinned as she clasped a bowl of eggs in her paws, a paintbrush balanced precariously on top. Easter was close, so close! Soon the doors would be thrown open to them, and for one glorious month, they would be free!
“Cocoa! Over here!” Bassie waved at her from a long table draped in a heavy, plain cloth.
Cocoa nearly dropped her bowl as she raced over and plopped herself down in the seat next to Bassie. Her paintbrush rolled, toppled-
“OOPS- !”
-but Bassie’s hand snapped out and caught it before it could fall to the ground.
“Phew! Thanks! Nice save there!”
A little smile curled Bassie’s lips as she dropped the brush into Cocoa’s palm. “No problem.”
Painting the eggs was always one of her favorite parts of prepping for the Easter season- it felt so calming, yet it hyped her up like nothing else. Her taking a paintbrush was more a habit than anything else- she preferred using her hands to apply the paint.
As she stamped her paw onto her eggs in different colors and watched Bassie carefully paint tiny little orchids and colorful sunsets on hers, a thought slowly crept into the back of her head.
She’d have to be quick about this- Bassie was fast when she wanted to be…
Cocoa tried to suppress the Gigi-esque grin trying to spread across her face as she planted her paw back onto her plate of paint, holding an egg like she was about to stamp it, waited for Bassie to turn to clean her brush-
And then her paw stamped right onto Bassie’s cheek.
Before Cocoa could make the great escape she envisioned, Bassie's now paint-covered hand came up and pressed right over her eye.
“Ooooooh- I’ll get you back for that!” Cocoa swiped at Bassie with a paint-covered paw.
Bassie was cackling as she leaned back, getting only a smear from Cocoa’s paw-tip under her jaw. “Bring it on!”
By the time the Toon Handlers were able to wrestle them apart, they’d already slapped paint all over each other.
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Bassie bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, chest swelling with deep breaths. Cocoa gave her a dual thumbs-up. “You can do it! I believe in you!”
“If she actually gets 25 pirouettes this time, I’ll eat my yarn,” Ribecca muttered to Ginger.
Bassie tilted her head back, inhaling. “Alright, here goes…”
She extended both arms, one out in front and one to the side, before pulling both in and starting to spin. Cocoa’s eyes were fixed on her face, silently counting off the number of times her head snapped to the side once her body turned far enough.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine-
Bassie’s lifted foot slowly descended with each turn, closer, closer, closer-
-ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen-
Bobette’s jaw dropped. “No way…”
-seventeen, eighteen, nineteen-
Flyte was bouncing, eyes wide. “She’s doing it! She’s doing it!”
-twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two-
Rudie was almost screeching. “GO GIRL GO!”
-twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five-
Bassie’s lifted foot thumped against the ground. “That’s all.”
A pterodactyl screech that would have made Shelly proud made everyone’s ears ring as Cocoa tackled Bassie, almost knocking her over. Bassie burst out laughing, hugging Cocoa back, bouncing like Rudie on a sugar rush as the pair almost cried with joy.
Cocoa swallowed thickly as she stared up at the ceiling, hugging a pillow to her chest. Her eyes fell shut.
There were times - a lot of times, actually - where she wished she could forget it all. That she could give up and wash her hands clean of a friendship that showed no signs of fixing itself. But that thought always dredged up with it-
She shook her head with a sigh, forcing herself to sit up and get her chocolatey rabbit butt off her bed. It wouldn’t do her any good to just lie down all day and spiral.
The Bassie she once knew and the Bassie that she tried so hard to reach out to now were worlds apart. And it seemed like every day that one could find something new that was off about her.
The way the flowers in her head seemed oddly crumpled, even though Bassie was adamant she was still taking care of them.
The way she tugged at her basket handles a little harder than she used to.
The weird, peppy falsetto she would sometimes talk in.
The strained, almost manic laughter that forced its way out of her throat every so often.
Everything felt off-kilter. Cocoa had laid awake for more nights than she could count, running through her head every single possible thing that she could’ve said or done that might’ve brought Bassie to act this way, but surely Bassie wouldn’t hold onto it for this long, right? She wasn’t the kind to hold grudges, and for all her introversion, she was more than willing to tell people straight when it came to-
Cocoa’s foot stepped on something and slipped, almost sending her careening face-first into the floor before she caught herself. A little huff escaped her and she grabbed the offending something.
“Darn it, this is what I get for not cleaning my- my…”
It was an old turn board. On the concave surface, in somewhat-faded black marker, were the initials B.B.
Cocoa’s eyes went wide as she stared at the turn board in Bassie’s hands. “Y-You want to give it to me?”
A gentle smile crossed Bassie’s face. “Of course. I-It kind of is yours already, at least in my mind- you use it more often than I do.”
Cocoa never had the heart to write her own name on it. A part of her still saw it as Bassie’s turn board. She couldn’t count the hours she’d spent both on and off this little piece of wood, spinning until she couldn’t keep spotting and her brain felt like it had been swirled into mush, unable to hold onto anything but the image of Bassie pirouetting like she never quite touched the ground.
Bassie…
She was someone who put her all into everything did. Sure, she took a nasty stumble in a bout of anxiety once when doing ballet, stabbed herself with a needle quite a few times when trying to study how Ribecca sewed clothing so masterfully, and one time completely forgot her lines out of stage fright when they were acting out Hamlet for fun and had to make up an entire soliloquy on the spot. But each and every time she got back up and tried again, fixing her technique, drilling her lines into her brain, threading the needle and sewing until she mastered it, no matter how long it took or how hard it was. Failure didn’t bother her- in fact, it only bolstered her resolve. And when she rose, it felt like she pulled others up with her, pushing them to be their best selves without ever feeling forceful or overbearing. Especially Cocoa.
She was.
Now, when Bassie danced, or sang, or acted, Cocoa could feel how constrained it was. Her movements were tight, too tight, like she was afraid to commit. Her voice trembled like it was balancing on a razor’s edge, like the notes were trying to soar but cutting themselves off at the last moment, too afraid to take the leap.
She was sure Gourdy could count on one hand the number of times Bassie had willingly spoken to her without being spoken to first. Even when Cocoa gathered the courage to ask Bassie to help brush out her neck ruff (and she always said yes), trying to get her to make small talk was like pulling teeth. A part of her was always tempted to tell Bassie that if she didn’t want to be around her, then she could just say no, but she quashed it - the last thing she wanted to do was push Bassie even farther away.
Cocoa shook her head. Get it together, me.
She trudged her way to the bathroom shared by all the Easter Toons. It was empty by now- probably because she’d spent too long spiraling again.
Like she always did.
Usually she’d be more meticulous with brushing out her fur, but today she was just not feeling it. She pulled on the brush a little harder than normal, wincing as it caught on a small mat in her neck fluff.
As embarrassing as it was to admit given that she was the only Easter Toon with both fur and actual hands, Bassie was always better at this than her-
Oh darn it, there she went again! Could her stupid brain just stop railroading itself to Bassie for five minutes?!
Cocoa almost hurled her brush back into its drawer and slammed it shut before walking out to the cafeteria-slash-common area they tended to hang out in. Rudie, Ginger, Ribecca, Flyte, and Eclipse were all sprawled out on the floor, studying a massive, half-finished puzzle. Bobette, Soulvester, and Eggson were sitting at a table doing a bit of brush calligraphy with two of the New Year Toons, Gong Xi the red dragon and Fa Cai the blue phoenix, with Coal sleeping soundly at their feet. And off near a wall, Bassie was standing with Nian the golden lion-monster and Gourdy, all three of them wearing tap shoes on their feet.
Bassie had one hand set on Gourdy’s shoulder and the other on Nian’s. “So watch my feet carefully, and just copy what I do, got it?”
Gourdy bounced up and down, grinning, while Nian gave a small nod.
Bassie raised her left foot and stomped it down. “One.”
She raised that foot and tapped the toe of her shoe against the tile floor… “Two.”
… then tapped her toe again, but left it lingering on the floor this time. “Three.”
Then she set her whole heel down on the ground. “Four.”
Then she repeated it with her right foot. “One. Two. Three. Four.” Step. Toe. Toe. Heel.
Gourdy and Nian followed, steps slow and deliberate. Step. Toe. Toe. Heel.
“One. Two. Three. Four.” Step. Toe. Toe. Heel.
Step. Toe. Toe. Heel.
“And that’s it! Just keep practicing until it feels comfortable, and then speed it up little by little.”
“Thank you, Miss Bloomington!” Gourdy chirped, his feet already tapping out the beat of one-two-three-four.
Nian gave a small bow. “I must thank you too- you are an excellent teacher.”
A soft chuckle bubbled out of Bassie’s throat. “Aw, you guys are too sweet.” Her lips curved up in a small, warm smile. The sort Cocoa hadn’t seen on Bassie’s face in ages.
“Cocoa?”
She could’ve sworn she almost hit the ceiling with how high she jumped before whirling around to see Flyte standing a mere few feet away, one wing extended towards her.
“Cocoa, are you okay? I tried to wake you up a few hours ago, but you didn’t-”
She waved her hands in front of her, shaking her head. “O-Oh no no no, don’t worry about me, I’m doing great!”
Flyte’s antenna drooped slightly - There’s no way he’s buying that - but he seemed willing to let it rest and inclined his head towards the puzzle. “Wanna help us put this together? We’re a little stuck right now.”
“Of course, of course! I’d love to!” Hallelujah, saved by the puzzle.
The little group working on the puzzle were giving her slightly concerned looks as she came over, but they all quickly turned back to their puzzle once she sat down on the floor. Eclipse scooted over until she was next to Cocoa.
“We’ve got the outside frame all together, we’re just trying to fill in the middle without looking at the box cover.”
Cocoa winced as her eyes scanned the mess of tiny puzzle pieces scattered all over the floor. “Are we sure we didn’t lose any pieces?”
“Not one! I counted!” chirped Rudie.
“Good, good…” Cocoa could feel her eyes and her brain protesting as she tried to mentally fit together what puzzle pieces went where. She’d done this before, but only with the box cover- and a long time ago at that. Puzzles weren’t much her thing, they were more of B-
Oh stop it!
Cocoa scratched her head. “I’m sorry, I’m stumped too.”
Flyte picked up a piece and squinted at it. “Maybe this one goes here… ?”
He tried to press it into a spot near where the outside frame was finished, but the edges didn’t quite line up.
“Oh, come on! I swear that one goes there!”
Ginger rubbed her forehead. “It might be connected to another piece that we haven’t put there yet…”
Ribecca sighed. “At this rate, I’m considering calling it quits and looking at the-”
“Nonsense!” Rudie flapped a hand-hoof at her. “We’re not letting a lil’ old puzzle defeat us, are we?”
“Rudie, this puzzle has one thousand pieces in it. Not one hundred. One thousand.”
“Still! The challenge is what makes it fun!”
“There’s a line between ‘challenge’ and ‘self-torture’ and we’ve crossed it two hours ago.”
“Maybe we could get Bassie over to help? I’ve heard she’s pretty good at these. Bassie!”
It felt like someone had poured a cooler full of ice onto Cocoa’s head. Normally she’d welcome any opportunity to be around Bassie that she didn’t initiate, given how coldly the latter reacted whenever Cocoa tried to reach out directly, but she was just not in the right headspace to be around Bassie right now.
Before she could think of a proper excuse to get away, the voice that made her heart twist more than anything in the world hit her ears.
“O-Oh. Hi, guys.”
Cocoa plastered a smile on her face, hoping it didn’t look too fake as Rudie went right on, seemingly oblivious to how both she and Bassie took care to never look straight at each other.
“Thanks for coming over! We were thinking we’d take out this old puzzle, dust it off, and take it on!” Rudie gestured towards the partly-completed puzzle on the floor.
Bassie’s wince was almost painfully audible. “Oooh… this puzzle…”
Ribecca rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “And us poor little naive folk thought it’d be easy, what with it being five Toons versus one puzzle and all. Thought we’d all gang up on it and punch it right out the ring. But how it’s actually going is that half of us are out of the ring, another’s knocked out cold, another’s currently being choked to death, and the last one is seriously considering tapping out.”
“Um… sure.” Bassie’s skirt rustled like leaves as she sat down and leaned over the puzzle, eyes scanning both the completed frame and all the scattered pieces.
Cocoa stared down at her hands. Should I try talking to her? Helping her? She always seems to hate it when I do that… and I don’t think I’d be much help for something like this anyw-
“I think this piece goes… here.” Bassie picked up what looked like a random piece to Cocoa and pressed it into the corner where Flyte had been trying to put a piece earlier. “And that piece should connect to this one.” She picked up Flyte’s piece and, sure enough, it fit perfectly with the one she’d just put down.
Rudie grinned at Ribecca. “See? Told you this was doable.”
“Only because you got the queen of puzzles over here.”
“Still doable!”
Ribecca raised her hands. "Just sayin’ you took the easy way out.”
“Come on, we won’t make her do all of it.” Rudie glanced at the puzzle again, before picking up a piece and holding it next to Bassie’s piece. “And I think this one goes here!”
Bassie’s eyes darted between the piece and Rudie, looking almost… guilty?
“Rudie-” Bassie coughed. “I… um…” She shrank into herself a little. “I think the piece goes there, actually…” She gestured to a spot that was on the opposite side of the puzzle.
“Ohhhhh. Got it!” Rudie closed one eye and held it up to the place Bassie had pointed to. “Huh. You were right!” He pressed the piece down into place.
As much as Cocoa hated to bail on her friends like this, she couldn’t stand how it felt like the temperature had dropped ten degrees when Bassie came over, and she wasn’t interested in sitting around and twiddling her thumbs for the next however many hours it would take to finish this puzzle.
She quickly stood up. “Oh, I-I just forgot- I have to water my snapdragons! Sorry to leave you guys- I promise I’ll be back!”
A murmur rippled through the Toons still working on the puzzle.
“Mm-hm~”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“It’s all good!”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Bassie glanced up. “Oh. Uh… bye.”
Cocoa hoped her smile looked genuine as she gave them all a thumbs-up and powerwalked out of the room.
Flyte couldn’t help letting his gaze trail after Cocoa as she hustled away, seemingly teetering on the narrow edge between walking and running.
Ginger leaned in close to him. “Hey, Flyte?”
“Yeah?”
“I thought Cocoa had geraniums, not snapdragons.”