Work Text:
Discarded.
Deci, a former waiter who became a mad scientist, was taking a walk to…clear his mind of things. Then.. a child appeared in his view. Alone. Cold. Afraid. Two bodies next to him were barely breathing, as the child looked up at him. Something tightened in his chest at the sight. He picked up the child, and walked along. The child however, still quite fearful…let himself get picked up and carried. “W-who are y-you,sir?..” the child says nervously.
“Real question, child. Who may you be?..” he asks.
“T-Toasty…” the child responds
“Hm…well your parents, dear child..what happened?..” he said
“I’m n-not sure…” Toatsy responds with a sob. The child tries to look back at his now deceased parents but Deci turns the child’s head quickly yet gently.
“No. Don’t.. Spare your eyes..”
They walk along, Deci shielding the child’s head. The child however, still oblivious, thought nothing of it. Years pass…Deci takes care of Toasty as his own son. Discy, Deci’s wife, was thrilled at the sight of a child in Deci’s arms again. She took care of him for so long that Toasty started calling her mom. He called Deci father instead of dad since Deci seemed too professional for dad. Deci didn’t mind at all, it reminded him of the sons he had to bury.
Time skip to present day, Toasty and Deci are in the lab. Sorting bottles and such. Since it was quiet, too quiet for comfort. Toasty, being the curious toon he is, asked Deci how he met his wife. Deci lights up, for the first time in a while.
“Really? You’d like to hear about my wife and me?” He asks, quite thrilled to answer.
Toasty looks up at him, shocked seeing him this happy. Deci usually would be quite stern and serious. So this was very uncommon.
“Uh huh! I’d love to!” He responds.
Toasty what’s thrilled to see his dad be so happy as he began to explain.
Deci’s POV:
Back when I was younger I worked for a man named Dandicus Dancifer, or Dandy for short. A simple restaurant, for the toons to eat at and It wasn’t the “best” but it worked out. I was serving drinks to customers as they ate their food, then she walked in.. Discy. She came to the counter with her friend Teagan, a sweet lady. I sat them down as Teagan left to go use the restroom. With my stuttering self, me and Discy started to talk as I took her order. We talked for about 20 minutes as I left to go attend to other customers sadly. We ended up exchanging numbers after they finished eating.
”Seems like you're in love~” Glisten says teasingly.
I almost dropped the cup I was holding as he states that so bluntly.
“I- M-maybe? I don’t know..” I say, visibly flushed.
“She’s nice, I know my cousin like the back of my hand, Deci.”
“o-oh tha- SHE’S YOUR COUSIN?!” I was shocked.
“Yeah, that’s the toon I was talking about.” Says Glisten. Since I was so visibly flustered, I fled the room. I spent the rest of the night thinking of how I might have just embarrassed myself in the middle of the restaurant.
The next day however, she did return to the restaurant. But really only to me again but she’d never tell. Even though I always saw it on her pretty face of course. She was back, alone this time and I was on the night shift again. So it was just me and her. No Glisten. No Teagan. Just us and the world behind us. After some drinks, apple juice of course, she doesn’t drink, she pecked me on the cheek and ran off. One of my most memorable days. The girl of my dreams kissed me. ME, of all people. Gosh, I loved that woman, but back then I was so dang oblivious. I wish I had the guts to tell her how I feel, even though I might have clearly shown it on that expression on my face. Though I still thought she didn’t like me, stupid I’d say. The next day I tried to approach her but I was slammed back onto a wall by my...well. boss. He seemed quite agitated at the time. Not that it wasn’t usual, I always found it weird that he always was so mad at me. But at the time I was so terrified at this gesture and or moment in time.
“DECI CŒURS SPADE.” Dandy yells, as he grabs me by the collar “WHY WERE YOU FLIRTING WITH THE NEW MAIN?!”
You may be confused. The “mains” are particularly the main characters of the group. Gardenview, which is our home’s name. They get better dorms/rooms. Their rooms are bigger, sorta like mansions,They are the higher ranked toons for a reason. Although that is true, I myself are a common toon they say. And yet Arthor, the head boss of all of Gardenview, states that I am an equal to Dandy. Which he is one rank above “main”. Anyways, I backed into a wall, away from another toon's sight and was back handed by Dandy.
“DO YOU EVEN CARE FOR MY REPUTATION?!” He states bluntly. “YOU NEED TO WORK…and all you were made for.”
He was right of course though. Even though he said it so harshly. I was made for the sole purpose of helping create more toons like me. Then…I was cast aside. Discarded, even. Us common toons are used as servants, well some are. Some have connections to have better lives, some toons have to work in order to keep afloat. Not many though, not that I’d call us toons like that “lucky”.
“Tsk. Why would I waste my breath on something like you anyway.” Dandy says harshly.
Dandy then throws me forcefully on the ground. Drowned with no mercy. ‘Great… now my nose is bleeding’ I thought as I walked towards my room. To hide from the world itself. Like always. I slam the door. Childish, I know but at the same time I was only classified as an item, a tool to be used, there was no hope for me at this point. Though, there at least was some light in the dark. Tisha, my dearest friend, cared for my bruises and cuts from Dandy. She did this discreetly though, afraid that Dandy would catch on and hurt me more in spite, or he may do the same to her. So there was no good option. Only suffering was bestowed upon me.
“Wait, wait, wait.. did he really do all those terrible things to you?!” Toasty says, cutting off the flashback.
“I- yes.. I suppose so..” Deci says brokenly. “It gets better I promise, son”
“Yeah… with your soon-to-be-wife~” he says smugly and snickering.
Deci chuckles, “Yeah, yeah laugh it up. Now back to the story…”
After the blunt “punishment” I finally got to make a move on Discy. God, she was so kind. A beam of light in my dark forsaken world. “H-hey Discy..!” I call to her, “s-so uhm..are you free this weekend..?” I say hopefully.
“Oh! Deci, yeah I'm free, what for?” She states, tilting her head slightly for a response.
I then say, while visibly flustered and nervous. “I-I was thinking..c-can we go out som-“
I was then cut off by Dandy forcibly gripping my shoulder. And yet with a kind, yet very forced smile..
“Oh Discy! I see you have met my employee already! What a surprise..”
He then looks over at me yet still smiling but visibly angry.
“I just need to see him just for a moment, is that okay?”
“I mean…he was going to tell me—“ Discy then gets cut off.
“THANKS!!” He said dragging me away as I tried to reach out for her hand but missed.
“Come on Deci. You know what i told you, not to interfere with the new main toon! That also means no FLIRTING!” He said “I thought I made my point back there..guess NOT” he said grabbing my wrist hard enough to bruise. I tried not to yelp as he kept hardening his grip until he let go.
“This is your second warning… and if I catch you again. You’ll be sorry..” he said letting go I suppose he’s right… I am just a servant after all. I thought as I left. Discy, even though Dandy was very discrete about it. Rushed over to me asking if I were okay. But how could I just straight up tell her how he treats me? He was watching and I could feel it. So I told her he was just a rough person is all. I felt terrible to the gut. How could I just lie to her like that? Tsk, pathetic. Then she looked me dead straight in the dang eyes.
“Look, Deci…I care about you. So much more than you can imagine.” She said looking at my wrist.
“W-well uhh… i-i got to go to my shift!!” I said running off WHY DID I LEAVE HER?! I thought as I got straight to work serving customers one by one until everyone left.
She just stood there.
Alone in utter disbelief.
and it was my fault.
If I had at least looked back. Just once. I would have seen her crying..for me. God, what have I done..?
Later, I went to check on Discy. I gently open her door, which is always unlocked. Then I saw her.. crying. It broke my heart to see her like this..and it was my fault.
“D-Discy? Are you ok-kay in here?…” he says gently.
Discy jolts up at my voice, instantly she wipes her face and forces a smile. Making it as if nothing even happened.
“O-oh! Hey Deci, did you need anything?..”she said trying not to sniffle
“…Discy, I came to check on you and…I saw you crying..” he says with concern.
“I-I’m fine. No need to worry about me!..”
“Hm..” Deci hums as he goes over and sits by her back to back. “Look..Discy..i-im sorry I just left you stranded like that..”
she looks behind her to see him staring at the floor, “its okay..” she said grabbing him into a hug
“No it’s not..” he says, pulling out of the hug. “And I know it’s hurting you Discy..”
Discy sniffles as she starts to sob quietly, covering her face.
“I-I just don’t want to see you treated like that…”
I hugged her so tight I thought she would break. I nudged my face into the crook of her neck and sobbed.
“I-Im sorry Discy..I promise it gets better…I promise”
Discy slowly hugs back. They soon fall asleep together. Knowing some peace, about their situation. Let's let them have some quiet time for now..for once.
I woke up, still hugging Discy as she slept soundly. ‘She still has tear streaks on her face’ I muttered as I rubbed her face thinking if I rubbed gently enough they would disappear. ‘I have to make sure Dandy doesn’t see me here, but I can’t just leave her..’ I thought,. As I got up to leave, Discy grabbed my sleeve “Please don’t go, I don’t want to be alone…” she said, hugging my arm, dragging me back into the bed “A-alright.” Dandy’s going to kill me if he sees me like this… I thought as we cuddled for a bit more before she went back to sleep, later, I left a note saying that I didn’t want to get in trouble with Dandy again, and I love her. I kissed her on her forehead and quickly left, not knowing she was awake the whole time. A slight smile showed on her face. I pretended not to notice but something in me still tells me that she saw me spot that genuine smile of hers. For, I swear. That darn beautiful smile lit up like a firework.
I soon arrived at work when I spotted my co-worker, Tisha, standing with a smile and looking at me.
“What?” I state, quite confused.
Tisha then chuckles and says, “I saw you and Discy cuddling last night!~”
”W-what d-do you mean?!” I said flustered “Please don’t tell Dandy”
“Don't worry! I won't say a thing, but the REAL— question is, why were you in there anyway? You know how dandy would react if he saw you two together” Tisha says, confused.
“I-i know. But please Tisha! I’ve never felt love like this before! And also no one has ever really cared about me besides you.” I said trying to sound reasonable
“fine. But if you get caught just try to make sure Discy isn’t in trouble too, she gets it a lot worse knowing she’s a main, even though you're the one who gets it physically..” she said sympathetically. I nodded and got ready to serve tables [man does this guy do anything but serve tables? We got to work on that]
After a while I went on break to see if we were having any special customers coming, ‘nope..! Only Astro Novalite and— WAIT! Does that say Dandicus Dancifer?!’ I almost said that out loud when I heard the door swing open. They were here.
”Oi! Deci! Get us a table, and make it snappy!” Dandy said, already annoyed with me as I sat them down, “W-what can I get y-y’all?” I said, trying not to stutter. After they finished ordering I quickly speed-walked back to the kitchen and told Glisten about the situation. “Don’t worry darling, I got this!” He said, full confidence in his voice. “Okay… just be careful, y-you know how h-he gets.” “Don’t worry, just help me make the food and I’ll bring it to them.”
Once they left, relief flooded over me. I hope I don’t have to do that again! I thought to myself as I took off my uniform and changed back into my clothes and went to go check and see if Discy was in her room. Please be there!Please be there!Please be there! I thought as I knocked on her door, making sure there wasn’t any sight of Dandy nearby. She opened the door and I quickly hugged her as we went inside. “What’s wrong?” She asked worriedly. “Nothing. I-i just missed you.” I whispered, still holding onto her. We laid down on the couch as she rubbed my back slowly, I slowly fell asleep in her arms as she hummed one of her songs that she made while I was away working, that’s what she told me when she started humming. I was probably out for a couple of hours cause when i woke up she was asleep and it was already dark outside. Her phone buzzed, breaking the peaceful silence we were in. I picked up her phone to see it was Glisten calling her, “Hey.. Discy..” I yawned as I tried to wake her up, “Someone’s c-calling you.” “I’ll get it, you keep sleeping” she said picking up the phone as I tried to go back to sleep, “Hey Discy! I was wondering if you wanted to come shopping tomorrow! Shelly said that y’all have a photo shoot and wanted to take you shopping to pick out something, I forgot what it was” he said enthusiastically. “I’m not sure, when is the photo shoot?” She asked “its Friday so you can come over on Wednesday if you want since you can’t come on Tuesday” “alright then, I’m going to sleep and you should to, goodnight” she hung up as she picked me up and took me to her room to sleep, ‘man she’s a strong women’ I thought to myself as she laid me down to sleep, cuddling next to me as we slept together. That’s when I finally knew what to do with my life for once.
After a few months, I worked up the courage to finally get on one knee and propose to my Discy on the spot. I didn’t care what Dandy thought. All I cared about was her. And no one else in this godforsaken world.
“Then how did you end up as a scientist?”
“Oh! Uhm..I wanted to leave that place and stay with Discy, so I quit my job..and became what I wanted..”
“Did he hurt you when you quit?” Toasty says, concerned.
“Yes..but it worked out in the end, kiddo..”
Deci gets up off the ground and pats Toasty’s head and ruffles his hair.
“Cmon..I think your mother is calling us..”
“Hey…father? Who are those kids in your picture frame in your room?”
A long pause. Deci takes a deep breath.
“They’re my kids..” he says with a gentle smile looking at the picture in his coat pocket.
“They’re in a better place now, Toast..”
Deci walks back to Toasty and hugs him.
“They would have loved you..” he says chuckling and a slight tear runs down his cheek.
As Deci opens his eyes he sees Discy standing in the doorframe covering her mouth and crying happy tears.
“He is right yknow..they were a good bunch..” she says, rubbing her eyes to rid her tears.
Deci smiles.
That genuine smile that hasn’t been shown in years. Discy notices it. She always does.
“I love you, Toasty..” Deci says, slightly pulling away from the hug.
“Tsk, I love you too…dad.”