FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

So, I finally came to a conclusion that what kind of scenarios I'm gonna make about the stories of my oneshots series. I will be going to eventually add new chapters that may actually seem canon. I realize that most of my stories that doesn't seem to stray much from the lore and personalities of happy tree friends seem to get the most positive reviews. So, I'll try my best to add those eventually. And I apologize if this chapter is not what you're going to expect but I view Lumpy and Cuddles more like brothers or a father and son at most.

Lumpy x Cuddles (Fluff, sorry no sex)

Lumpy never knew how it had come to this. How he had lost the friendship of everyone he knew. In the past he had always been the big brother of the local happy tree friends, but now he was just a stranger to them.

Lumpy stood beside one of the rides he had built reminiscing on the days he had spent with the other tree friends. While he was remembering the past, he had not noticed that someone had already been talking to him. "Hey! Are the rides closed or what?" said a voice in front of him. He looked down to see that Nutty was waving a few dollars in his face, impatiently waiting to get in the roller coaster. He never expected the tree friends to ride this early. He immediately apologized and gave Toothy the okay to ride the coasters along with Flaky, Cuddles, Flippy, Mime and Petunia. He pretended to be disinterested as the group of friends got in the ride, especially from Cuddles who looked at him with concern. Cuddles was one of his best friends once but that was long ago. he kept on making a poker face while avoiding eye contact. Eventually, he got annoyed and said "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to get in the coaster. As in right now." to Cuddles. "Lumpy, can we ju-" Cuddles was interrupted by the others groaning impatiently and understood that Lumpy was right, and got in the ride. As Cuddles sat, Lumpy started the ride as fast as he can, not wanting to confront them.

Lumpy leaned into the desk of the kiosk. His memories still continued to haunt him, he had promised that he will be an engineer by the time he had come back. A few tree friends had come to , the train station was crowded with most of the tree friends, everyone said their farewells and then at last it came to Cuddles, "Don't forget us okay, remember when you graduate you should come back here." said Cuddles smiling at Lumpy. "Of course, what would any of you do without my help. Besides, when I officially become an engineer, I'll build all sorts of buildings and new people will be coming to this town and you'll all be the first to know from me." said Lumpy with his goofy smile and optimism. As he entered the train he thought of what infrastructures and facilities he would make and the people he would hire. As he took his seat, he looked out the window and saw all his friends waving him goodbye. He thought to himself how hard it would be to finally go to college and how his classroom would look like. He immediately berated himself for doubting himself, all of them had pitched in to give him money for his enrollment.

As the coaster stopped, he immediately grabbed a book placed his feet on the desk being careful not to touch the controls with his feet and pretended to read. As the tree friends got off the coaster, they had not taken a notice for him except for Cuddles. "So, where do you guys want to go to next?" said Petunia, "Ooohh *giggling uncontrollably* I want to go get some cotton candy Cro-Marmot is giving away!" said Nutty while salivating. Cuddles looked at Lumpy again and decided that he would talk to him, "Guys, I'll be right back, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom." said Cuddles to his friends. "All right, we'll be by the cotton candy stand with Nutty, come back soon." said Flaky as Cuddles headed back to the roller coaster kiosk.

Lumpy saw Cuddles approaching his kiosk a mile away and panicked. He was going to confront his best friend, if Cuddles even still considered him that. "So, uh, Lumpy, how's it hanging?" said Cuddles not knowing what say since the last time they actually had a conversation was years ago. Lumpy stayed silent, not knowing what to say. "What? Was college so hard that you forgot all about me?" said Cuddles starting to wonder why he didn't respond. "Nothing. Just manning the ride." said Lumpy, with butterflies starting forming in his stomach and a lump forming in his throat. It stayed silent like that for a few seconds before Cuddles responded with "Is that all you're going to say after all this time? Can't you at least say how college went?" said Cuddles becoming skeptical about Lumpy. Lumpy not wanting to explain how college went, coldheartedly said "Look Cuddles, I have a ride to run, if you want to talk to someone, talk to your other friends."

"Am I not your friend?" said Cuddles, a bit hurt about how he said that. It was evident in Cuddles' voice how it had hurt his feelings, he just wanted him to leave him alone, not drift them further apart than they are now. "Look, I have a job to attend to and you're not helping with it. Go have fun and be on your way now, I have to make sure everyone gets to ride." said Lumpy trying to act busy. "Like the line now?" said Cuddles looking behind him with nobody else in the line. "You do know that almost everybody else besides me and the others were hired by you right?" said Cuddles confusingly. Cuddles had a point, he tried to come up with an excuse but each thought would probably be debunked by Cuddles, finally he had come up with one and said "I posted some online advertisements about our town, you never know when someone new will come." said Lumpy trying to sound convincing. Cuddles did not believe that one bit, in the few years that Lumpy returned, not once did he mention it nor did new residents come to their town. And even if this was the first time he advertised online, why now? Why not back then with the other carnivals he did? He decided that he would talk to him to straighten things out later.

"Fine Lumpy, I'll believe you for now but you do know I'm your best friend right? Don't forget that you can talk to me about anything." said Cuddles. "Yes, heh, you and me..." said Lumpy with an obvious disheartened face. Cuddles knowing that something was wrong from Lumpy's weak willed expression, knew he had to talk to him later. Cuddles left Lumpy and eventually came back with his other friends. "Well someone took their sweet time" said Petunia. "Sorry, I kinda got lost finding the bathroom" lied Cuddles. "You could have asked where it is before going there you know" said Flippy skeptically. "Yeah, sorry guys" said Cuddles embarrassed. Mime pointed at the ferris wheel and excitedly started walking toward it while Nutty sped past him. "Well there they both go, lets catch up before they go without us." said Petunia who followed the two boys. "Who knew that both Mime and Nutty would get along so well, I guess opposites attract I guess." said Flippy jokingly at Cuddles. "Yeah, lets go before Petunia nags at us." said Cuddles finding that an opportunity to ride a rather calming ride would serve as a downtime to his thoughts on Lumpy.

As they approached the ride manned by none other than Toothy, they were suddenly stopped by him. "Only two people per pod guys, that's the maximum weight that each pod can carry, last time four people got in almost killed them." said Toothy cautiously not wanting to scare the potential customers not to mention one of the only residents of the town. "Its fine, not like dying is permanent in this place anyway" said Flippy before turning towards the others and saying "So, me and Flaky will go together, what about you guys?" Flaky immediately blushed and quickly tried to hide it. "Me and Mime will stick together" said Nutty while placing his arm over Mime's shoulder. "Which leaves Cuddles and Petunia with each other, you guys ok with that gesturing towards Petunia." asked Flippy towards the two friends. "Yes its fine, its not like we're getting married or anything" said Petunia wanting to just get the ride over with. "Alright, Toothy open the pods, we're ready." said Flippy as Toothy operated the machine as each tree friend got in and paid for the ride. Cuddles and Petunia never spoke throughout the ride, they weren't that close as friends but that didn't mean they had nothing in common to talk about.

Cuddles contemplated on Lumpy's behavior throughout their conversation, how he evaded most of his questions, specially the part about his time in college. "Hey Petunia" said Cuddles trying to get her attention. Petunia was looking out the window of the ferris wheel pod seeming to be in deep thought as well before being caught in Cuddles' attention. "Yes? What is it?" asked Petunia since it was rare for them to have a conversation. "What do you think of Lumpy?" said Cuddles. "What do you mean?" asked Petunia. "Ever since he returned, he became... different. He never seems to spend much time on us anymore, like he's hiding something." said Cuddles. "I usually try to ask him how he did when he returned but each time I asked, he changes the story." said Petunia. "What kind of stories?" asked Cuddles. "He said that his employers are having trouble getting other available workers to help with the construction of the carnival, another time he said that he wanted to build the carnival himself so nothing goes wrong." said Petunia. "Now that you remind me, that was months ago and no workers are still coming to help or other people manning the other rides. Or maybe he's just too busy, he was always the hardest worker out of all of us you know."

"I suppose, but still that's still not a reason to avoid questions about his time in college." said Cuddles worriedly. "Maybe he's just stressed out? He is the only one managing the whole carnival in this town. But you have a point, none of us had gotten a straight answer from him other than the excuses he gave us." said Petunia. Cuddles had been contemplating on another question to ask her but was afraid of asking it for fear of the response he might get from Petunia, after a few seconds of silence he finally got the courage to ask her "Do you think he doesn't like us anymore?" asked Cuddles which caught Petunia by surprise. "W-what do you mean?" Petunia said worriedly. "You know, he might have met people better than us, who are smarter or cooler to have fun with and maybe even thought how lame we are c-compared to them." said Cuddles with a shaky voice. "Cuddles, listen to me, Lumpy came to college for us, he came back to town for us, and he is certainly not going to replace us with people who he only spent a few years with, remember that he went to college to save this place from staying like a ghost town in the first place" told Petunia in the first place. To tell the truth it is still a ghost town except a bit livelier now that the carnival was here. "You're right Petunia, I shouldn't have doubted Lumpy like that, its just that there's still a possibility that he might have found a greater calling in life than staying here. The reason he might still even be here is that we could be dragging him down." said Cuddles. Petunia never thought of that, its true that this town had only a few people living in it and while the environment is pleasant to look at, you actually get bored of the place eventually. "Well, even if half of what you're saying is true, I doubt that Lumpy would leave before he fulfills his promise back then to bring back lots of people to live here, not that I want him to leave in the first place but if he wants to go, I guess we owe it to him for at least making this place more bearable." said Petunia.

As the ride slowed down, each pair of tree friends got out of their pods. As Petunia stood up to get out, she was pulled back in by Cuddles, "Petunia, please, do not say a single word of this to anyone." whispered Cuddles. Petunia after recovering from the shock of pulled back, smiled and said "My lips are sealed" as Cuddles let go and thanked her as they got off the ride.

The rest of the day went on with the tree friends trying on the various rides manned by the very residents of happy tree town, with the sun starting to set and the carnival attendants going home one by one, the tree friends bid farewell. All except Cuddles who waited for Lumpy

Lumpy as usual made sure to lock up the gates to the establishment before going home. What he didn't expect was that Cuddles was close by waiting for him to go home. As Lumpy made sure the padlocks were secured, he turned around to go home but was greeted by Cuddles. "Hey Lumpy!" exclaimed giggles which startled Lumpy and falling on his hunches. "Oh, uh, sorry Lumpy, didn't mean to scare you" said Cuddles apologetically. "I-its fine" said Lumpy as he stood up. "Weren't you supposed to go home already?" said Lumpy not wanting to linger in Cuddles' presence. "Yes but I decided to wait for you, you know, catch up with each other for old times sake, is that alright with you?" asked Cuddles. This made Lumpy nervous and he didn't want him to see any evidence of what happened back then in his house. "I kind of want to but I have to clean the house first" said Lumpy. "Don't worry, I can help you clean up, we used to do that the whole time with the others" said Cuddles which immediately gave warning signs to Lumpy's thoughts. "No! I mean, I insist, its something I have to do myself today" said Lumpy panicking obviously. Cuddles not wanting to scare off his own friend and ruin his chance of finding anything out decided to back off for the moment and played it safe for now. "Ok, then can I come by your house tomorrow?" asked Cuddles. Lumpy thought of this for a moment, if he could just hide any proof of what happened then maybe there would be no harm in letting him come to his house and maybe even reconnecting with him.

"Fine, but only at 12 noon." said Lumpy before being tackled by Cuddles, thankfully his height gave him the advantage and he balanced himself before he can fall over. "Great, I'll come over and it'll be just like when we always hung out." said Cuddles before walking back home. Lumpy didn't know if this was a good idea but he figured that if he could shake off Cuddles' suspicions if he tried to act less distant.

Lumpy drove to his house and went inside. The first thing he had thought of doing was to get rid of all traces of his bad experiences during college. The first thing he had thought of hiding were the evaluation reports which were the strongest proof of how bad it really went. He had come and gone to hide everything, even the performance-based projects he had done had to be hidden inside the storage room. When all of this was done, he immediately tried to think of any excuse he might say to Cuddles to avoid any suspicions. To be frank, his excuses and seemed to contradict each other most of the time. As long as nobody talked about his lies, he has nothing to worry about except how he acts around Cuddles. He never really loved the idea of avoiding the other tree friends but its better than being hated by them, not that Cuddles would seem to be the type to vent any hatred on anybody but to disappoint him would be just as bad. The money spent on his college funds would have been better off being used for Handy's hand operation or buying Russel's prosthetic legs, or maybe even just hiring famous people to earn the town some level of publicity.

(The next day)

Cuddles began walking to Lumpy's house, ready to mend his childhood friend's relationship with him. His thoughts lingered back to his and Petunia's conversation, seeking solace in Petunia's words. One particular part of the topic still concerned him though, how they owe him and letting him leave if he wanted to, do the other tree friends believe that too? He'd rather leave the town the way it is than let him leave, he's one of the only people that gives the town a reason to stay in, at least for Cuddles.

Cuddles rang the doorbell to Lumpy's house and waited for Lumpy. Meanwhile, Lumpy looked at the peephole and saw that indeed it was Cuddles. He took a few seconds to take some deep breaths to calm himself before grabbing the knob and opening the door. "Hey Lumpy, mind if I come?" said Cuddles. "Yeah, its fine, everything's fine" said Lumpy. As they got inside, Lumpy made sure that no traces of stray papers were present for Cuddles to spot and led him to the living room. "Let me just get some snacks for us" Lumpy told Cuddles as he went to the kitchen. An enthusiastic sure was all he got from Cuddles, while Lumpy reheated some spaghetti and some juice he had in the fridge, Cuddles sat on the sofa and observed the house and noticed nothing had changed from back then, the furniture, the décor, nothing was even moved. "I guess some things never change" Cuddles whispered to himself.

When Lumpy came back with the food and handed a plate and juice box to Cuddles, he sat on the opposite side of the room on the other sofa and turned on the tv with the remote and sat. There was an awkward silence for the two friends occasionally eating their food to break the silence a bit. After a few moments Cuddles thought that maybe he should break the ice, he was after all the one who insisted on coming here. "Remember when our other friends used to come here?" asked Cuddles. "Yes, Nutty almost visited everyday to drain my fridge of the juice back then, of course until he had to get braces one day." chuckled Lumpy. "And the time that you were the only to acknowledge my birthday and made me a cake?" giggled Cuddles. "Yeah, I thought that I had the worst birthday gift on that day" told Lumpy "Well it can't be the worst if you were the only one who remembered it, besides, the cake was good" said Cuddles reassuringly. "Heh, I guess" said Lumpy with a bit of reluctance. "And the time we went to the park to play?" said Cuddles "The slide was a bit bent, you even got injured back there." stated Lumpy. "Oh, uh, yeah right, forgot about that." said Cuddles rubbing the back of his head.

Cuddles waited a few more moments, maybe he could let Lumpy tell whatever he's feeling if he gave him more time but each hour was spent watching tv, eating food and the occasional small talk. This went on until finally Cuddles couldn't take the lingering thoughts in his head anymore. "Flippy, can I ask you a question?" said Cuddles, the tone in his voice changing a bit but maintaining the same smile he always had. "Of course, you can ask me anything you like." said Lumpy hoping this is not going where he thought it was going. "Do you hate us?" asked Cuddles avoiding his gaze.

This actually caught Lumpy by surprise and wondered why on earth he would ask such a thing from him. "What?! No! Why would I hate any of you?" said Lumpy "What else could it have been? You've been avoiding us, even me, ever since you came back. Did you find some new friends? Better than all of us? Did college open your eyes to a much better world? Is happy tree town too boring? You can be honest you know, just say it." said Cuddles with teary eyes. Lumpy could no believe that Cuddles would believe these things about him, "Cuddles, I don't know where you get these ideas but I do not hate you, our friends or this town, I will never replace any of you with new people." said Lumpy trying to calm down the blonde rabbit. "Then why? Why aren't you interested in hanging out with us anymore?" retaliated Cuddles. "What do you mean? We're hanging out right now." said Lumpy. "Because I asked you to. You never approach us anymore, and no, manning rides is not hanging out with us. You came back but it feels like you're a whole different person, it's like you never came back, the old you before you left." said Cuddles.

Silence was all that Lumpy could give to him. "Lumpy please just tell me the truth." pleaded Cuddles. More silence. After a few minutes of deafening silence Cuddles stood up and said "I'm leaving" to which Lumpy finally spoke "I think you should" before Cuddles went to the front door and left. Lumpy never left his spot and began walking towards the mirror. He stood in front, looking at and hating himself for what happened. "Well Lumpy, you finally ruined everything just like how you ruined your career, even though you hid everything well." He looked at the passing train in his window by the distance. "Looks like there's no reason for me to stay anymore. Cuddles will eventually tell everyone and hate me." his heart ached even more. He really is just the latest failure that was born in his family. Tomorrow, he will be leaving, it was better this way. If he was gone, it might be in better hands of people like Handy, maybe he'd have a better chance of bringing people to the town. With that thought he started packing his things before going to sleep.

Cuddles immediately sprinted back to his house, not wanting anybody seeing him crying, he knew he shouldn't have asked all that. Maybe Lumpy would never be the same friend they had ever again, maybe he'll leave them one day and never look back on the mundane life of happy tree town. He looked back to the memories he had of Lumpy, maybe he just wasn't trying hard enough. Maybe he could reawaken the lost friendship he had with him back then. No, maybe he just wasn't trying hard enough. The aftermath of the argument left a bitter taste in his mouth, it was more of him shouting at Lumpy. He had decided he would come back the next day to apologize.

The next day (Again)

Cuddles woke up early in the morning and walked towards Lumpy's house only to find that nobody would answer the door. "Lumpy? Lumpy I'm sorry I yelled at you, I shouldn't have yelled at you yesterday. Please just talk to me, I'm sorry." but nobody answered. He waited some more until he finally noticed a note pinned by a nail on the door. It read:

"By the time you're all reading this I've already left. I never wanted this to happen but maybe this is for the best. I've failed all of you and this town, maybe you even hate me, so I'm leaving the carnival as your property. Its all up to you to volunteer to decide who will be in charge of the carnival. I know you're all capable of running it, because the truth is no people will ever come to the town, I lied. I lied that I graduated college, I lied that I will save this town, and I kept this from all of you for a long time. My professors never found me to be incapable of maintaining a career, remember what you all said all those years ago? How you all said that my clumsiness can be overlooked if I worked hard enough? It can't. That was the entire reason that I failed college in the first place, while my performance was good, it was dragged down by my clumsy hands always deducting my scores. By then my instructors have had enough and labeled me as incapable and recommended me for other courses. I tried to apply for different courses but all of them resulted in the same outcome, I didn't know how to say this to you guys, applying all my knowledge of constructing things, I created the carnival to... lie to you all. The money spent on college should have been spent on Handy's hands, Russel's legs or even Sniffles' inventions. And on top of all that the town is now in debt, but don't worry, I'll find a way to pay for them. You all have all the more right to hate me for lying to you all for this.

Anyway, this note has gone on long enough, and I'm sorry guys, especially to you Cuddles. I'm ashamed to have to tell the truth to you all in a note, I hope you forgive me, maybe I don't even deserve to be forgiven.

-Lumpy

Cuddles stared at the letter, not believing what he was reading. This was a joke right? This was just a sick practical joke by Lumpy. He could just be hiding in his house and laughing his ass off. Cuddles started pounding on the door yelling "Lumpy! This isn't funny, open up please!" and kept on pounding the door. Cuddles thought that if what the note said was true, then he was wasting his time on an abandoned house.

Cuddles sprinted to the direction of the train station, not caring how much his legs burned and yearned for him to stop and how much fatigue he had accumulated, until he saw the distant view of the train station. The train has already stopped and a single person is seen preparing to stand up and carrying their luggage to board the train. "Lumpy wait!" as he tried harder to run faster, even when he sprained his foot, that did not stop him from trying to go faster. Lumpy turned his head only to see a yellow blur before being tackled to the ground. "Ow, wh-" Lumpy started but was surprised to see Cuddles, gasping for breath, tired and sweaty from his marathon towards the train station. "Cuddles?!" Lumpy gasped "What are you doing here?". Cuddles recovered from his need for air and said "What am I doing here? What am I doing here?! What are you doing here?!" shouted Cuddles. "You think leaving all of us will solve all our problems? Staying here was all we wanted from you!" exclaimed Cuddles. "Wait, you read my note already?" replied Lumpy. "Of course, I went to apologize to you and all I'm greeted with was an empty house and a note." cried Cuddles as he and Lumpy sat on one of the waiting benches.

"Yes, Lumpy, I read it. And I finally understand. I'm sorry Lumpy, the pressure must have gotten to you, I mean, we put the fate of the whole town on your shoulders and we never even thought about it. The town won't be the same without you, please don't leave." Cuddles said with remorse. "Cuddles, the reason I'm leaving is not because of any of you or what happened between us yesterday but because of me. Because of my incapability to graduate and save this town. from complete isolation." said Lumpy. "Lumpy, you're the heart of this town, without you, this town would be even more boring. And I can tell that even though you didn't graduate, it doesn't mean that your efforts were in vain. Besides making the town more fun with a carnival, you even gave the people here a chance to have their own business. Even Shifty and Lifty reduced their thieving habits, you made this town even better, not worse. So please... stay" sobbed Cuddles.

"... Ok Cuddles, I'll stay" replied Lumpy which got a hug from him in return. Cuddles was glad, he had gotten his friend back. He was finally home again for real this time. "Now that you ruined my departure, mind helping me with my luggage?" smiled Lumpy. "No problem, as long as you're here, this town will survive. "Cuddles chipped in. The two friends each carried Lumpy's luggage and walked back towards his house, a new beginning to rekindle their lost friendship.

I wanted to save a sex scene in the future. Giving a sex scene after the last paragraph would seem wrong because it doesn't sound realistic because this chapter seemed to be more focused on regaining their friendship rather than developing their relationship. Also, this chapter took longer to make because I'm moving to a new house with my family and had less time to work on this so I apologize. Next chapter will probably a continuation between Truffles and Toothy as a Christmas special because I can't get enough of these two characters.