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"Ugh..." Boxten woke up, his hands covering his ears from the chatter outside.. Did they have to argue right outside of his room? Or was Shrimpo yelling at someone again? He brought his knees to his chin, closing his eyes once more. He had this day off, so he didn't have to be up early like usual but he was, because someone was talking their butt off outside.
Boxten rolled to his side, glancing at his bedside table. A photo frame laid there, with him and Finn posing together behind Finn's floor. Recalling the memory, Finn was telling him about the fishes in the sea and how interesting they were. But if Boxten were to be honest, he was half-paying attention. I mean, this was a good excuse for him to be staring at Finn's eyes and ...
Actually, it would be better if he didn't finish...that.
Stretching in his bed as he stifled a yawn, he got up to get ready because he just couldn't go back to sleep. Oh well, not like anything big was happening today.
Pulling his sleeves over his wrists as he looked at his reflection through his computer monitor he looked decent, not worrying about running into a certain someone and looking like you lost a fight with your pillow. Waving the thought away, he turned his doorknob and finally got out of his room. Walking into the hallway the sound of chattering got more loud as he got closer to the tables.
"Shelly, calm down! I'm sure she just needs a little rest and she'll be back on her feet!" A reassuring, cheerful voice said.
"Nonono! W-what if she has a fever? Ohhh...she's probably in so much pain right now...Tisha..." Shelly whined, her face buried in her hands as she rambled.
"Um...guys?" Both of their faces turned to Boxten unexpectedly "I found this on the ground" He held up a spare feather duster, it looked familiar.
"Is Tisha okay? I overheard-"
"No! Of course she's not okay, she's sick!" Shelly sniffed, looking more miserable than she sounded like. "W-why won't she let me in?... I just wanna make sure she's alright..."
"If she's sick, she probably doesn't want you to get sick either...is there any spare medicine?" Boxten said thoughtfully.
"Boxten, your gonna make shelly worry more. Listen-" Poppy pulled him to the side of the room.
"Shelly has been like this since 5 in the morning! She's worried sick , like literally." Poppy leaned, whispering "And we've got kids coming in tomorrow morning, The others split up in pairs to clean up the floors that are messy since Tisha isn't here ,aaand...Finn didn't get a partner, neither did you so..~"
"Poppy!" Boxten turned away from her gaze, embarrassed. Not this again!
"Come on~ Just go clean up the floors together today, It'll be fine! Unless... you wanna stay in your room and think about hi-"
"I wasn't gonna say no!" Boxten answered, his voice pitch higher than usual as his face was flushed red. He picked up the spare duster and practically sprinted to the side toons floor.
"Aah, look at him go." Poppy sighed to herself.
"Tiisshaaa!!!" Shelly cried out.
"Shelly!"
////
After getting away from whatever Poppy was on about, Boxten found himself at the place themed after Finn, clutching the feather duster as if it was the truth of Ichor, he was startled by someone nearby.
"Someone's in a hurry, what for?" It was Finn, grinning with a tooth gap showing.
Boxten yelped at the sight of him "N-nothing!"
"Oh sorry Boxten, did I frighten you? Finn smiled again, apologetically.
Jeez he was so close...did he do this with everyone else? He better have not...
"U-um...I-I'm okay, no worries!" Boxten told him, embarrassed at that.
"Oh yeah! We gotta clean up this floor for tomorrow! Lets get to work, shall we?" Finn reminded him joyfully, Boxten was glad to spend time with him even if it was just this..
They started by dusting off some dirt on the ground, wiping the fish tanks and cleaning the signs from dust. They moved over to Brusha's side of the floor as they carefully wiped the signs. Boxten's gaze falling on the painting in the middle, a green field.
"Its beautiful, Isn't it? The 'outside' " Finn commented, noticing that Boxten was staring at that. "I'd Reel-ly love to sea the ocean with my own eyes!" Your beautiful eyes, Boxten thought.
"Um, yeah...You'd get to ... sea all types of fishes won't you?" He said to Finn, feeling a bit shy after seeing him so excited.
Finn's eyes practically sparkled as he heard Boxten make a sea joke! "Yeah! And I'd get to see the clownfish and the angelfish! Up front!" He continued on about fishes and types of lakes and oceans they live in. Boxten stared into Finn's eyes again, gosh he was so...
"You know, you look so cute listening like that"
"H-huh?!" Boxten was caught off guard by the comment, did he look that focused? His purple color could be literally red now.
"Heheh, come on lets get back to work" Finn stretched his arm, as if he hadn't said anything.
"Y-yeah...okay.."
They got back to cleaning what's rest of it, Boxten kept stealing glances at Finn...did he reel-ly mean what he said..?