Cosmo's oneshots / drabbles

Garden Gnome Bonding

Every year that passed, it always just seemed to get harder. Harder to think about the things that dragged him down, harder to cope with what happened, and so much more difficult to pretend like everything was fine.

Maybe it was just him getting older, more jaded, and saddened as time went by, but he just couldn't help it.

Sitting alone in the hotel room he had been allowed to stay in, MePhone couldn't help but feel empty. He had tried so hard. So hard to pretend, and play the snarky, usual part he always played, but of course he wasn't good enough. Of course the people who actually thought about things would start noticing the cracks.

Noticing how hard he was trying, and failing.

When TestTube had first pulled him aside before dinner one night, just a few months ago, asking if he was alright, it was easy to shrug it off, an excuse about not having eaten yet-- even if he didn't have to, she didn't need to know.

But it kept happening. The occasional 'wellness' check from her, or Fan, or for whatever reason, OJ. It almost bothered him. Really, all of these check-ins bothered him, but it wasn't like he could say anything, other than reassuring he was okay, that he was just having an off day, or he was tired, or something. The days where his cracks were ever so apparent. He really hated it when the others made it clear they thought he was weak, or bad at keeping things in. He really hated feeling vulnerable every time he was asked about his feelings, and he'd never admit it, but he hated how he was never able to be honest about any of it.

Whatever, that didn't really matter at the moment. It was certainly what had been on his mind, but as he rolled over in the bed he currently laid in, his thoughts shifted to something else. Mostly just vague things, and well, honestly, MePhone preferred this over his thoughts singling out certain things to obsessively ridicule himself over.

So just sitting here staring at the wall was turning out much better than him staring at the ceiling... Or, at least it was, until there was a knock at the door to his hotel room. He couldn't stifle a drawn out sigh, already not wanting to risk dealing with whoever it was, though now that he had made noise, and probably signaled that he wasn't asleep, he'd have to deal with them anyways.

"MePhone?"

He let out a groan now, of course it was OJ. He had been particularly nosey when asking about his feelings, and it was starting to drive the robot crazy. Probably something about the manager taking up some sort of 'managing mentality' to people's issues too, but MePhone had managed to thankfully remain completely closed off to the often formally dressed ginger. That still, for some reason never deterred him.

"If you're awake, which I'm pretty sure you are, can we talk?" His voice was very clearly lined with worry, even if his tone was mostly just questioning.

"No. I'm asleep. Go away." Very convincing, MePhone. He could hear the disappointed sigh from the other side of the door.

"I'm coming in." OJ said, not giving much of a choice, as the door opened, bringing light into the dimly lit room. OJ blinked a few times, before flipping the light switch on. MePhone scowled, still laying on his side, now very purposefully facing away from the person who was now in his room, and especially the now incredibly bright lighting in his room that had been dark for so long.

"How long have you just been sitting here in the dark?"

"Dunno. Don't care."

"Can you at least try to be civil? It's the least you can do."

"Whatever." MePhone mumbled, trying to shove off the fact he felt guilty about acting like this. Really, he knew how selfish this was. OJ, after everything MePhone had put him, and his hotel, and everyone else through, extended a hand, an offer to MePhone, for him to stay here as long as he actually TRIED to improve his personality, but after all this time, his progress on doing that felt like it hadn't been going by at all.