Chapter Text
It had all started like any other day, with Cosmo and Sprout baking in the kitchen. They had been attempting to create macarons all week, and had failed spectacularly everytime. Sprout was crouched down in front of the oven, watching the steady rise of his sweets, hoping they would come out successful. He was so fixated on the inside of the oven, he didn’t notice the figure leaning towards him.
“Huh…?” Sprout exclaimed in surprise as he felt a soft press against his cheek, lightly tickling his seed freckles. He turned his head to see Cosmo’s soft, smiling face leaning away from him.
Sprout felt his face burn a deep red. Cosmo’s smile vanished in an instant as he came to the realization of what he’d done. He watched as his best friend’s face quickly turned a bright shade of brown-ish red. Cosmo’s eyes widened and he quickly scrambled to explain himself.
“It’s… it’s a french good luck ritual! For the macarons!” he quickly gushed out, desperate to quickly explain his jump over the line that they had been toeing for months.
Sprout had never heard of this so-called ‘french good luck ritual’, but he trusted his friend’s words. After all, Cosmo had no good reason to lie to him, right?
“Oh! Thanks, I really hope this batch succeeds. Who knew making macarons was this hard…” Sprout diverted the subject back to their baking.
“The recipe book said it was hard! It was you who went, ‘How hard can baking really be’?” Cosmo imitated Sprout’s tone.
“Well maybe, we should stop listening to me,” Sprout chuckled as the timer went off, indicating the macarons were ready.
And just like that, the occurrence had been momentarily forgotten, a blip in the overall tapestry of Sprout and Cosmo’s friendship. But something always lingered at the back of Sprout’s mind. In his moments most late at night, he’d think of that kiss. The faint press of Cosmo’s lips on his cheek.
The roll cake was his best friend, and a weird little peck wasn’t going to change that. Sprout had always been so glad he had a friend like Cosmo. Practically no boundaries existed between them. Sometimes, he wasn’t sure where Sprout started and Cosmo ended.
This interaction went unmentioned, until a few weeks later. Once again, the strawberry and roll cake were engaging in their favorite hobby. This time, Cosmo had been icing a few cookies made to resemble other toons. Icing was largely the shorter one’s job, as he was much better at getting in the precise details. During this step of the process, Sprout would mostly just watch his best friend’s hands form the intricate patterns on their delicacies.
As he watched Cosmo stick his tongue out in concentration, he couldn’t help but let his eyes wander across the vast plain of Cosmo’s face. His best friend truly held the most interesting expressions. His freckles were like a galaxy that Sprout could find himself lost in forever.
As Cosmo sagged in relief after correctly pasting a line, Sprout couldn’t help but remember the good luck ritual from a few weeks ago. Without thinking about it too hard, he leaned in and pressed his lips to those little freckles he so adored.
Cosmo looked at him in surprise, eyes widening.
“What… what was that?” he asked, his voice holding a hopeful tinge.
“Good luck! Remember?” Sprout replied, alluding to a few weeks ago. Sprout swears he saw Cosmo’s grin slightly falter for a second.
“Oh yeah! I could definitely use it here…” he said, playing off his previous turmoil. “Icing all of Yatta’s patterns is a real pain.”
Without thinking, Sprout leaned forwards again, this time placing a peck on the top of the roll cakes head. “More good luck, right?”
Cosmo quickly turned his head downwards, and focused his gaze intently on the cookie. If Sprout could see the roll cake’s face, he would see it was almost glowing red.
He continued to watch as his friend iced the patterns with precision, once again lost in his thoughts. He was really glad to have a best friend as great as Cosmo. He felt bad for the other toons not having their own Cosmo. Sure, they all had friends, but nobody was as joint at the hip as them.
Over the course of the next few months, the frequency of the little kisses increased. It started as little rewards for trying new, more difficult things. Sprout found himself seeking out more difficult recipes in order to get the feeling of the roll cake against his cheek. But naturally, it stopped being just a reward, and became more expected. Every time they met in the kitchen, every time they’d leave the kitchen. It had become almost like a greeting. Even on other occasions, he’d just get a little peck from Cosmo because he ‘felt like it’.
The strawberry could clearly tell this had far surpassed the original gimmick of the good luck kiss, but found himself too addicted to stop. He would daydream what it would be like to press his mouth to Cosmo’s own frequently.
He was glad he and his best friend could share these intimate moments. With any other friend, he’s sure it’d be weird. But with Cosmo, the domestic-like kisses had become a part of their routine.
It all came to a head one day, where he was called to hang out with the other mains. Before he left, he expectantly leaned towards Cosmo, who pressed his lips to the side of Sprout’s face. Feeling invigorated, he quickly made his way to his friends, only to be met with stunned silence.
“How come you NEVER told me you and Cosmo finally got together?!” Vee demanded. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was secretly a huge gossip.
“Sprout! Buddy! I didn’t know you had it in you,” Dandy patted his back.
Recovering from his momentary confusion, Sprout quickly replied, “Me and Cosmo aren’t dating though? We’re just friends.”
Another silence enveloped the group, as all the main toons gave him a bewildered stare. Even Pebble, who was normally a loud dog, was staring straight at him.
“...Didn’t you guys just kiss?” Astro chimed in, confused.
“On the cheek, but like, as friends, y’know?” Sprout explained to the group. Their stares became even more bemused, and now held a twinge of exasperation.
“What,” Shelly replied, in a state of shock.
“It’s totally platonic! Cosmo doesn’t see me like that, guys. And he’s just my best friend! So what if I like when he kisses me?” Sprout quickly defended himself.
The other mains continued to stare at him with baffled expressions painted across their faces. He was pretty sure he had just watched Vee’s robot brain reboot itself.
“You might be the stupidest toon in all of Gardenview, Berry-boy.”
Dandy lightly smacked her arm, scolding her. “We just need to help him out!”
“Yeah! Sprout, do you want to kiss any of us?” Shelly asked, prodding the strawberry to think.
“Uh no? You guys aren’t Cosmo. No offense.”
“So… is it a little unusual that you only want to kiss Cosmo?” Astro asked, attempting to lead him to the logical conclusion.
“Well he’s my best friend! Obviously,” Sprout smirked, proud of his conclusion. His obliviousness would put a genius into a coma.
Vee fixed him with an exasperated stare, and gave up. “You win. You don’t have a crush on Cosmo. It’s totally platonic.”
The rest of the mains could only stare silently, not wanting to agree with Vee but unsure how to help Sprout realize his blindingly obvious feelings. They knew that Sprout could be slightly blind to his own emotions at times, but this was reaching a new level. In that moment, the rest of the toons present reached a silent agreement to let this situation play out, no matter the consequences.
“I believe we had some business to attend to, gentletoons?” Dandy said, veering the conversation away from Sprout’s affections.
The conversation with his fellow mains lingered on Sprout’s mind more than he cared to admit. He wondered what was truly the line between platonic and romantic, and if he was toeing it with Cosmo. The other toons would describe his contact with the line as jumping from side-to-side, as if playing with a skipping rope, not being able to decide which half to land on. He considered every interaction they had, and then considered them again.
How he anticipated every kiss. How he looked forward to every interaction they had. How he constantly thought of Cosmo, his eyes, his face, his everything. How he even fantasized about perhaps kissing the toon. How he viewed him compared to his other friends, the mains. All this accumulated in his head for weeks, keeping Sprout occupied with his thoughts.
By the time he and his mains had their next big meetup scheduled, there was only one question present in Sprout’s mind. The one he had grappled for days on end, tossing and turning every night with it’s conundrum
He looked at his fellow mains, cheek still tingling from his goodbye kiss from Cosmo. The normal habit had sent goosebumps down his skin, his face flushed with awareness. He walked up to his friends, and posed the question that had been tormenting him for the last few days :
“Am I… in love with Cosmo?”