Can't Clean When Exhausted! (Chapter 1) Tisha
Tisha slowly made her way down to Shelly’s room, they had arranged to go find fossils and clean them weeks ago, well it'll be more Shelly doing the finding and Tisha the cleaning, she swears Shelly has a built in fossil finder in her brain… But enough of that! The only problem Tisha faces is, well, exhaustion, this day has been hectic, so many kids decided to spill their drinks and snacks everywhere, Shrimpo got into shredding pillows to bits with his teeth, cleaning fluff isn't fun, but that isn't the worst of them all! Tisha had to clean up the entire lobby because a group of older kids thought it would be a good idea to do some landscaping and put dirt, leaves, sticks and everything else everywhere.
So yeah, Tisha was exhausted because she is practically the only toon that actually cleans and she doesn't even know if Gardenview has a janitor, but she doesn't want to disappoint Shelly… She always is patient and kind to everybody even if she is often overlooked by the others, Tisha also knows she had been looking forward to this so Tisha forced down her exhaustion and made it to meet with Shelly. When she got there, she was greeted with a bright smiling Shelly who waved excitedly at her
“Tisha! I'm so excited to hang out! I can't wait to tell you all about the new dinosaur book my handler gave me as we work!” Shelly's eyes were pretty much gleaming with joy and excitement, and Shelly’s enthusiasm was definitely infectious as Tisha found herself smiling a little, but as Shelly took a longer look at her, Shelly stopped and tilted her head as she questioned her “you alright Tisha? You seem exhausted, we can always cancel if you want, I totally get it if you do!” Like always Shelly was quick to justify why cancelling on her was alright even though to Tisha, it wasn't, not when Shelly is already so overlooked by a lot of others “no… no, it's fine, I'm fine, let's just do what we planned to…” her words were slow as the weariness became more intense.
Shelly looked conflicted, but nodded slowly “well.. if you say so, come on Tisha, there fossils begging to be dug up!” Shelly’s hand quickly made its way to Tisha’s, Shelly’s hand was surprisingly soft yet the top of her palms and fingertips (if you can call them that, they were more like claws or talons) were slightly more roughed up, Tisha quite liked Shelly’s hands at this moment. Soon enough they got to the station where Shelly set up everything needed to find and clean fossils “time to dig!” The loud voice filled with joy that belonged to Shelly was a little bit hurtful to Tisha's (non-existent) ears, but that was alright, she can deal with it. Letting go of Shelly’s hand and trying to walk to part of the station, Tisha's knees buckled and she almost collapsed onto the floor, she almost did if it wasn't for Shelly being close and able to react fast enough to catch her.
“Tisha! Are you alright? Oh I knew you were exhausted, you know you didn't need to force yourself to hangout with me you know?” Shelly worried over her, but Tisha only shook her head and mumbled out “it's nothing, just a bit tired… didn't want to disappoint you…” but Shelly decided to be stubborn as she quickly spoke “nope! Not happening, you can't do anything without almost falling over from exhaustion!” Tisha was going to keep arguing with Shelly about letting her continue on, but she couldn't let out a word before Shelly’s acted much more quickly then Tisha’s already weakened body and quickly grabbed her and lifted her up in her own arms with surprisingly immense strength, Shelly smile seemed so much brighter as she giggled as she spoke “sorry! But i don’t want you collapsing so you are going to go rest up, we can schedule this another time” Shelly seemed unbothered that she had to reschedule their hang out another time, but Tisha sweared she saw Shelly slightly deflate then pop right up with her usual happy attitude.
Is Shelly happy that she gets to care for Tisha?... Tisha got a little bit riled up by her own thought and it didn’t help she was in Shelly’s arms at the moment, noticing Tisha staying too quiet Shelly looked down at Tisha who was in her arms seemingly trying to make herself look small as she noticed her face slightly darkening “oh no! You aren’t sick are you Tisha? Don’t worry, I'll help!” hearing that snapped Tisha out of her thoughts as she spoke much too quickly for her liking “no! no! i’m not sick… just tired” she looked away, not wanting to meet Shelly’s eyes “See! you are tired!” Shelly smiled triumphantly, proud in making Tisha admit her fatigue, that made Tisha sigh, but the small smile at the corner of her lips made it known she wasn’t annoyed, Shelly readjusted her grip on Tisha and started to walk in a direction that puzzled Tisha for a second before she asked “Shelly, where are you taking me?” Shelly only glanced back at her and smiled toothly, showing off her sharper teeth “To my room! you know, my bedroom, not my floor!” Tisha blinked as she tilted her head “why?” was her response, but that caused Shelly to let out a tiny breath of air out of her nose as she spoke “So you can rest, duh!” Tisha may or may not of blushed a bit more at the thought, but she buried it down.
“You don’t have to, Shelly! It’s fine, really, I can go to my own room to rest” But Shelly didn’t listen, getting to her room was much faster then Tisha expected, she thought that Shelly would put her down so she can open the door, but no, Shelly readjusted her arms so only one was holding her while she used the now free one to open the door to her room and close it as they got in, that made Tisha wonder, if she had this kind of strength, maybe she can recruit Shelly to cleaning around the more difficult areas? It’s not like Tisha lacked strength, far from it, but Shelly was clearly stronger and maybe the things she couldn’t fit, Shelly could. Her train of thoughts were disrupted as Shelly set her down on her bed “there you go! You rest up while I clean up the station for next time!” was Shelly’s quick response, but Tisha shook her head “let me do it” but Shelly argued back “nope! You almost fully collapsed onto the floor when you got here, besides i know how kids can get difficult, especially for the more popular toons” then Tisha remembered how unnoticed Shelly was for a lot of other toons and the kids lack of interest weren’t any better, made Tisha wonder, How does Shelly feel when her plushies are the most stocked, not because they sell out a lot, but because anybody rarely buys them. Tisha wondered how Shelly feels when the kids flock around the others and ignore her rambles of dinosaurs, how lonely Shelly must be and How many toons actually consider Shelly as their friend? Tisha definitely did, but how many more actually do? Those thoughts strangely made a dark feeling bloom in the bottom of her stomach, a hideous thing, though strangely it only appeared when thinking about how the others ignored or hurt Shelly in any way, Tisha can’t name it exactly…
Shelly only huffed as she shuffled over to the door “well, i'm not letting you go off easy! You better rest” Shelly playfully scolded her as she left the room, great, now Tisha laid in bed as she wondered endlessly in her own thoughts, by some point, she got under the covers, dark brown bed sheets with cream pillows, her room had a large bookcase and a bean bag near it, the bookshelf was filled with books, even some rested on top of it and on the bottom under it, a ladder nearby was perched, no doubt to reach the more higher up books, Tisha had no doubt as well that most of those books, if not all of them, were some sort of dinosaur related, getting a new interest in the bookshelf, Tisha carefully shuffled out of bed, hugging the wall nearby, not entirely trusting her own legs due to the previous almost collapsing, she approached the bookshelf and had her eyes skip through the books as she read the titles of each one she eyes managed to capture.
Most of them were like she thought about dinosaurs, but she stopped short when her eyes stopped on a book titled ‘How To Begin Sewing More Confidently!’ huh, so Shelly likes to sew? Tisha was only now getting to know and made her wonder how much more she doesn’t know of Shelly, what else does she take interest in? Does she have a favorite place? Does Shelly have any favorite meals? Is Shelly a night owl or a morning toon? This made Tisha raddle her brain as she thought, but for now, she put her attention back to the bookshelf. Skinning it for any other books, she came across another one that wasn’t dinosaur related ‘Tips For Baking’, was Shelly getting into baking as well? If she wants to bake, why isn’t she going to ask Sprout or even Cosmo for help? The little voice telling her that maybe they rejected her want to bake or ignored her drove her a bit crazy, but Tisha didn’t listen because she knew that the two toons were nice, Cosmo much more than Sprout, Sprout can get a bit sarcastic at times, but who wouldn’t having to deal with Vee and running a Diner with one other toon?
Just then did the door of the room open and Tisha startled, let go of the bookshelf she was holding onto for stability and almost fell backwards if it wasn’t for Shelly catching her again, letting out a welp as she did so and worriedly rambled “oh my gods Tisha! Why weren’t you resting? You know you don’t need to clean, even less that it’s my bookshelf! I told you your body was tired! You almost collapsed painfully onto the floor! Oh gods! You should get to bed immediately! More of you staying awake may lead to you passing out entirely!-” Shelly babbled on more as she was fretting over Tisha, but Tisha couldn’t pay attention to Shelly anxious scolding of her, she was much more focus of Shelly herself, the slight cracks on her shell, barely noticeable unless you actually took a long look at her, the way her one fang poke through and was visible when Shelly wasn’t smiling widely, the way Shelly eyes seemed to glow like diamonds, the more Tisha stared on, the more she realized more things about Shelly and a feeling bloomed in her chest, it was a warmth feeling, foreign but not unwelcoming.
Only when Shelly moved towards the bed Tisha snapped out of her daydream “see! you are so unwell that your entire face is reddening!” oh, was Tisha blushing? “no, it’s, um, fine Shelly” But Shelly shook her head vigorously “Nope! not happening! you are not downplaying this!” With that Tisha was once again put on the bed, but this time Shelly tucked her in snuggly “and I'm not letting you leave till you all rested up, you hear?” Shelly looked serious, but had huffed slightly as she crossed her arms across her chest.
Then Shelly turned around and was about to walk out of the room, but Tisha softly grabbed her hand and stated “I would feel much more rested if you cuddled me to sleep…” That was slightly embarrassing for Tisha to say, but exactly why Tisha did not know, Shelly blinked one, two before smiling widely “okay then! This will at least stop you from going anywhere before you rest up!” with that Shelly crawled into bed with Tisha and comfortably settled near, casually flinging her arms around Tisha and hugging her closer as she closed her eyes, Tisha felt herself heat up, but she relaxed into Shelly’s arms, enjoying them a bit more than anybody would, after a while, Shelly’s breath even out and Tisha watched in admiration on how Shelly’s face seemed so calm as she slept, Oh no! Tisha hoped that that wasn’t something weird or creepy to think about or even do, nevertheless Tisha relaxed as she slowly was becoming sleepy.
But then she became wide awake as she realized, shit, “i’m in love with Shelly” well wasn’t that a revelation when you were taking a nap in your now crushes arms as she slept, but that was something for future Tisha to work out more, Tisha can enjoy this moment a bit longer and as she buried her face in the crook of Shelly’s neck, she smiled softly as she just enjoyed that from all the toons, Shelly was her crush…