Chapter Text
As the last box was set down on the ground of the diner area, Dyle breathed a sigh of relief, there had been a slight increse of supplies ordered by Dandy. Fragile ones were always a pain to carry around but thankfully there weren't more to deliver. He wiped a bit of sweat off his face and adusted his shirt sleeves, observing as the cooks came up to the stack of boxes.
"Thanks Dyle! Hope it wasn't much of a hassle." Sprout thanked him and opened up one of the crates, inside there were a lot of party decorations: balloons, confetti, and a few other things they couldn't see well from the large stack of plastic cups blocking the view. "Oh, these will look nice tonight." Cosmo commented as he held up the colorful deflated balloons. The train conductor looked confused, he didn't remember any important dates for the need for so many celebration decorations. His clock hands twitched as he watched them conversing.
"I don't remember there being any birthdays this month, what's the special ocasion?" It was a bit awkward to ask that, in Dyle's opinion. Sure, he may not have interacted with the other toons in the past, but he wouldn't do something so rude as forget anyone's birthday. "Dandy's hosting a party tonight thats all, he said it was to 'Help everyone relax' or something...." the cakeroll went to open the next crate, it had a pack of alcohol bottles.
"And the liquor? Seems a bit excessive for a simple party." He was handed one of the bottles, wiskey, but he could see there were packs of beer, vodka, and red wine. He greatefully accepted the drink as it was his favorite. Toons weren't allowed any of that when Gardenview was open, but since he wasn't in the show he could do it when it closed for the day but a few of them managed to sneak a lot of things that were on the not-allowed list made by Arthur. He suspected it was the teenagers that came in once in a while.
"Boxten and i found a few recipes that contained it on that new book you brought in last month, thanks for that by the way." He smiled sweetly and hauled up one of the closed packges to the kitchen. The clock turned to the strawberry rumagging the party decorations, pulling out the red plastic cups "I thought Dandy told you about it? I mean you're like his....uhm....nevermind." Dyle knew what he was implying.
"It's fine, i'll be going now. See you later." Dyle waved and turned to enter the elevator, he could see poppy and boxten talking in his peripheral vision but paid no mind to it. The elevator doors closed with a rusty wrr and he noted that he needed to oil them in a few days, the lights flickered peridiodically but no matter how many times he fixed it they would keep on flicking and buzzing obnoxiously. After a few minutes the door opened and he was greeted by the one and only Dandicus 'Dandy' Keen Dancifer, grinning ear to ear, hands behind himself.
"Dyle! Just who i wanted to see!"
"Dandy."
As the train conductor stepped out of the elevator, he was suddently pulled by the flower and led to further away "I need you to do something for me, Time-ly!" he spoke enthusiastically, "Theres a few things i need you to check on tonight, nothing too hard im sure of it!". He couldn't help but notice how Dandy's fingers twitched and how he was way to giggly, they knew eachother well enough that Dyle immediately relized he was blantly lying to his face.
"Is the so called 'thing' the party you planned, Dandicus?" the shopkeeper's expression changed in a second, like flipping a page in a comic book. He was not expecting Dyle to catch on so quickly, "Wh- what? Nooooo, what party? I dont know any party, hehehe...eh" it was hilariously ironic how the man that kept so many secrets about the inchor operation couldn't even lie to his right-hand man about a party. He couldn't help but chuckle internally at the predictabilly of the flower.
"And you planned on dragging me to it, correct? If that's so i'd had to refuse." He bluntly refused. Before he turned to leave Dandy managed to grab his arm, making him stop in his tracks. "Oh c'mon! You need to relax once in a while, take a chill pill! it'll be fun! I promise!" The rainbow flower brought his hans together in a praying motion. Dyle noticed the gardening gloves Dandy was wearing were stained with dirt and a chill went down his spine. He needed to clean his clothes as soon as possible.
"No."
"Pleaseee! I'll even add a day off for your week!" His eyes shined, pleading. He wondered how someone older than him and with the amount of knowlage he had could be so childish and immature, he had the same barganing tatic as Toodles (and Gourdy when he was her age).
"If you stop making that face i'll think about it." The train conductor knew that once he said that there was no going back, and he'd had no choice anymore, he woud be dragged to that celebration no matter what.
"TURBULAR! See you at 10 then, bye Time-ly!!" The flower left light dirt shoeprints on the floor as he ran back to his little shop, and in the back he could he someone audibly groan in annoyance, possibly Ms. Tisha.
Guess he should go to his room, he didn't want to stay in these dirt-stained clothes for a minute longer.
His room was bigger than most, he had to admit, he even had his own bathroom. 'Special toons', in Delilah's eyes, had more special treatment than any of the others, even the main characters didn't have the amount of things they did.
The clock plopped down on his desk, having changed into a white dress shirt and the usual rainbow wide leg pants along with his tie. On the desk laid many pieces of metal, plastic, and many more. He gathered those to biuld a new train track based of the gardenview train models and paths. This new hobby would certainly help him pass the time. Trains models were hard to biuld if you didn't have a tutorial in hand, luckly, he had a manual that was found hidden in the deeper parts of brightney's library. It had a lot of dust but nothing that could actually prevent him from going forward with his hobby.
He'd look out his window every two hours to prevent straining his eyes and worsening his eyesight, he didn't have his reading glasses at the moment so he had to be careful. After he finished painting and drying the scraps he went on to the building part. It was a difficult section beacuse the tracks needed energy to work and some of the train parts looked too similar from afar but thankfully the texture was different sometimes. He was halfway done with the first one the 'door' (which was the one connected to the large gate) was thrown open by a very excited Dancifer.
"Dyleeeeee, time to party! I see you got a new outfit, it looks great!" He needs to remember to lock his door everytime he enters and leaves. Hesitantly, he gets up and follows his boss to the elevator on their way to the party floor, which was in the Diner of Sprout's floor. While they waited for the elevator to land to the shop, the shopkeeper kept on making chit chat, which frankly was one sided, but he didn't seem to mind.
"This is your first party right? Oh boy, thats awesome! Maybe you meet someone boudacious!"
"...Excuse me?"
"You know, you gotta love a little, Time-ly!" the flower giggled, "Like Finn says, lot's of fish in the sea." ding! the doors open and the sound of a radio playing could be heard at a distance, both of them walked out and went to the restaurant area. It was well decoraded, they had done a good job on it. When they arrived, Dandy walked over to his moon shaped friend while Dyle was left to wander off into the snack table. He was hungry after all.
Mini sandwiches, a cake, some chips and candy filled a table and the other one was filled with drinks and the plastic cups from before. He grabbed a beer and a sandwich that he realized was a egg sandwich after he took a bite, not his favorite but it would do. He saw Finn coming up to him, wearing his easter costume without the pink water in his tank. "Whale hello Dyle! Guess Dandy was waiting for the kids to go to bed and drinks being here to call you." He grabbed a slice of cake, "How's that horse dressage tape going?".
They talked, and talked, and talked. With every new topic he drank more and more, not caring about his alcohol limit. When he was tipsy enough and 'thirsty' he went back to the table for his 5th beer can, he bumped into that foul shrimp, Shrimpo, who looked just as drunk as he was. "I HHHHATE THAT UGLYHG SHIRT YOU GOT." the smaller toon snarled, slurring his words. "Don't you have a corner to mope in?" He tried hard to not appear in the same state as him, but fortunately all Shrimpo did was leave and so did he.
He almost tripped going back to the bench Finn was, now with Brightney and Poppy. Their conversations were interesting but he wasn't paying as much attention as he wanted to, nor interacting enough. Maybe it was the beer, but who cares. BriBri, as Poppy called her, was discribing the new book she's been reading. Poppy was starting to get too drunk and she spoke loudly and giggled a lot. Finn was drinking too, but he didn't seem as excited to get drunk as the others, making a joke here and there.
Looking around there were other interesting things happening: Squirm seemed to be having a nice conversation with boxten in the picnic mat, Cosmo and Shelly were trying to teach Sprout how to dance while Vee recorded. The circus trio was absolutely wasted, asleep on the grass huddled up together. Everyone seemed to be having fun and....Shrimpo was in the corner, looking at him.
They made eye contact for a few minutes that felt like forever. Weirdly enough, it felt...natural, good even, seconds later the shrimp looked away, his cheeks slightly more rosy.
Soon it was midnight, he thinks, and he was absolutely drunk and needed to leave if he wanted to wake up in his bed tomorrow. Brightney said something but he didnt hear it. Walking was hard and his vision spun with each step, oh my inchor the hangover was going to be hell
In the elevator he was alone but then someone stepped in and basically fell over. He tried pulling them up but he fell over too, they both laughed, it felt nice, just them two laughing. They sat up and tried starting a conversation but his speech was slurred and their speech was barely coherent. They made eye contact and laughed again
He didn't know what happened but then he was in his room again, his mouth warm and touching something soft. Warmth crept through his body like a snake in a tree, he stumbled to his bed with the new weight following him, plopping down onhis bed. His hands traveled up soft textures and he felt the need to savor it with all his body. Sweet noises traveled through his ears as a part of him was enveloped by warm and conforting walls. He felt like he was in heaven, a warm, soft heaven. He didn't want the sensations in his mouth to end just yet
Then, with a low groan he experienced an amazing feeling for the first time, similar to taking a warm shower in winter or drinking a shot of wiskey
He was drunk in the literal sense and drunk in sensation
His vision faded to black as he pulled the blanket closer and fell asleep.
........
The next morning he awoke to a massive headache, which he expected but that didn't mean it didn't hurt any less. He groaned in exhaustion even if he just woke up, he wanted to reach over to his phone but he was too tried for that. Thankfully Dandy was a man of his word and would definately let him stay in his room for the day without having to run any shop. The flip phone he owned lit up with a notification and the lamp was still turned on, which helped him see more clearly.
Now that he was more alert of his surrounding, he noticed he was naked and cuddling something- or someone, they were very soft to the touch and very warm, it felt nice. He felt ashamed he had sex with someone while drunk, Dyle had to stay calm even as he felt blood flowing to his cheeks and his clock hands twitching. He could feel their breath and calm heartbeat. The air was filled with a new smell, Vanilla and......Tempura?!
He looked down to see who was laying on his chest cuddling him. It being none other than Shrimpo the Shrimp, the guy he dispised with all his soul, sleeping soundly on his exposed chest. He was probably too drunk, just like Dyle, due to how he was acting during his hazy memories of last night. With a closer look he noticed there were hickeys in his neck and the rest of both of their bodies, indicating a very passionate night.
He wasn't even calm anymore, he was totally astounded as he slowly set the sleeping shrimp to be a few inches away from him and sat up. The blanket was moved too and showed of the shrimp's chest, Dyle immediately looked away and adjusted it. He needed to wake him up, and so he poked his shoulder for a bit before giving up.
Gosh, what was he going to do now?