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“They’re back! Congratulations, everyone!”
Espresso Cookie has, more often than not, found himself on the frontline of most of the kingdom’s battles. His experience as the pioneer of coffee magic, meticulousness in planning strategies, and consistent levels of efficiency have only boosted his popularity as the kingdom’s go-to mage. While he is honoured that most, if not all of the cookies in the kingdom are comfortable putting him in charge of important quests and dangerous battles, there are times where he feels… unworthy of their praise and trust. In their latest battle against a most formidable opponent—a particularly powerful Labyrinth Tactician—the team suffered a heavy blow. If not for Madeleine Cookie’s light magic, they would have lost the battle in a matter of seconds. Espresso was lucky enough to cast his magic and defeat the Tactician before it could muster another attack. The fanfare and overly dramatic celebration that the cookies in the kingdom have so painstakingly prepared for them feels almost undeserved. Nevertheless, Gingerbrave, Custard Cookie, and Chili Pepper Cookie are cheerily shaking hands and accepting gifts and snacks from the other cookies in the kingdom. These young cookies are growing up so quickly, Espresso thinks to himself fondly as he watches them stuff their scratched-up faces with hot jelly stew and strawberry cakes.
But he cannot stay to mingle for long. Unbeknownst to the rest of the team, Espresso is cradling, as inconspicuously as he can, a gaping, fresh wound in his side from the Tactician’s attack earlier. He was planning to ask Custard to heal him on the hot air balloon, but the poor child was so tired from battle that he slept like a log the entire way back. No matter, Espresso has some recipes stocked away in his cookie house for healing potions. Feeling the pain in his side growing, Espresso discreetly steps away from the crowd.
“Thank you, thank you!” he hears in the distance as he walks, and a vein pops in his temple. Madeleine’s booming voice is hard to miss, as always. “Our victory was long assured, of course! With the Divine’s blessing, no battle shall be lost!” Espresso allows himself a quick glance behind, and sure enough, the knight has a proud grin plastered on his face, chest puffed as he exaggerates the details of the battle to his doe-eyed audience. To his dismay, Madeleine meets his gaze, and he beams happily. Espresso quickly walks away, but Madeleine is quicker.
“Espresso Cookie was a valiant fighter today! With my powers and his magic, we defeated the Tactician without a hitch!” Madeleine barks, grandly gesturing in Espresso’s direction. Every single cookie listening to his story turns to look at him expectantly. Espresso sighs and walks over.
“It was nothing, everyone. All of us worked hard to win the battle,” he says calmly, offering a gentle smile to the children listening. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Espresso says awkwardly, stepping away from Madeleine, but he is gripped strongly around the wrist by the knight himself.
“Espresso, come on! You’re leaving already?”
Strangely, Madeleine seems upset. Espresso wonders why this is so. He has never been one to stick around at gatherings. Regardless, that sudden show of strength makes Espresso scowl. It is no secret that he is not a fan of physical contact, and he has made it abundantly clear to Madeleine that no, he does not enjoy the occasional arm over the shoulder or full-armour bear hug. With the sharp pain in his side spreading, Madeleine’s clinginess has only become exponentially more annoying. Espresso pulls away from the knight’s grip.
“Unlike you, Madeleine, I have better things to do than have my ego stroked by these innocent children. Goodbye.”
With that, Espresso makes his way home, as quickly as he can manage.
He barely makes it to his kitchen before collapsing on a stool. It is a less than ideal place to brew potions, but heading straight to his laboratory would have practically been an open invitation for Madeleine to follow along. Espresso washes down a couple of jelly painkillers to dull the pain, and quickly looks for a healing potion recipe in one of his kitchen drawers. He finds one that is fairly easy to make with the ingredients available in his house. He carefully reads the directions and side effects listed on the recipe:
DIRECTIONS:
Take 3 to 5 doses in at least 8-hour intervals until wound or affliction is fully healed. Do not take more than the recommended dosage.
COMMON SIDE EFFECTS:
- Drowsiness/Sluggishness
- Slow or poor judgement
- Lack of coordination
- Headache
Sleep is recommended after consumption.
Espresso quickly deduces that the side effects are merely drunkenness from one of the ingredients, a rather potent wine. Nothing that Espresso is unfamiliar with. He quickly whips up a batch of the healing potion and swallows the bitter liquid. He washes up the pots and pans used to prepare the potion, making full use of the time he has before the side effects kick in to tidy up his abode. Just as he is wiping down the kitchen counter, he hears a booming voice behind him.
“Espresso Cookie!”
Espresso jumps in fright, completely startled by the loud voice. He turns around to stare the intruder in his face.
“Madeleine,” he greets, curtly. “Have you never heard of knocking?”
“Oh! Ah…” Madeleine says, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. As if it hadn’t occurred to him to knock before entering. “Sorry! But that was indeed the reason for my intrusion. You left your front door open, Espresso.”
Espresso grits his teeth. He must have forgotten to lock his door in his haste to get to the kitchen. “Well,” he replies, folding his arms and assessing Madeleine’s appearance. He has showered and is no longer in his over-dramatic armour, but in a simple set of pyjamas instead. There is a small cut across his cheekbone and some bruises along his forearms from today’s battle, but nothing too serious. His long, blond hair falls around his face and shoulders like silk. Espresso is annoyed at the uninvited company, but he appreciates the fact that Madeleine made the effort to not enter his clean home in filthy armour.
“At least you are aware that you have rudely intruded my privacy.”
Espresso is not sure if the throbbing in his head is a side effect from the potion, or from the terribly loud laughter coming from Madeleine’s mouth.
“I am glad that you are back to your usual self! I must admit, I was worried that something was amiss when you left the celebrations so quickly today.”
Espresso blinks.
Madeleine was… worried about him?
“No need to concern yourself with my comings and goings,” Espresso waves a hand dismissively. He feels a wave of dizziness in his head and grips hard onto the kitchen counter to steady himself. “After all, I’m not of endless energy like you. It has been a long day and I’d like to turn in for the night now, so please be on your way.”
He pushes himself off the counter and takes a few steps to his bedroom before his vision blurs. He stumbles blindly into a chair in the dining area.
“Espresso?!”
Madeleine gently catches Espresso in his arms before he slumps to the floor. Espresso groans. He was not expecting the side effects to kick in so suddenly, and at such a bad time, too.
“Just go, I can manage,” he mumbles, pushing Madeleine’s arms away and laboriously getting to his feet.
“No! At least let me help you to your bed,” Madeleine insists, and Espresso is too weak to refuse. He allows Madeleine to sling his arm around his shoulder and support him as he walks. They take a few slow steps together, but Espresso feels another wave of pain in the side of his head. He stops and brings a hand up to his head, eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the pain to ebb away. Madeleine quickly catches him and leans him against his chest.
“Espresso? Are you alright?” Madeleine asks, worry clear in his voice.
“Ngh… just a headache…” Espresso grumbles, trying once again to walk on his own. Madeleine presses his lips into a thin line.
“You’ll have to forgive me for this, Espresso,” he says, and then without a second warning, Espresso is swept off his feet like he weighs nothing. Madeleine easily carries him into his bedroom and lays him gently on the bed. Espresso instantly feels better, but he makes an effort to tell Madeleine off anyway.
“You…” he starts, waving a finger in the air, “…how dare you manhandle me… without my consent…”
Madeleine is unperturbed.
“Is there anything I can get for you? Water? Some food? Have you eaten? I can’t cook but I can run down to the diner to get you some jelly stew, I think they’re still open—"
“Please, Madeleine, do you ever stop talking?” Espresso cries. Madeleine frowns.
“Well, excuse me for trying to help,” he says, but makes no move to leave. Espresso sighs and slowly shifts himself to remove his coat. Madeleine immediately gets up to help Espresso shrug it off. Espresso watches as he hangs the coat neatly on the headboard.
“Thank you,” Espresso says in a small voice. Madeleine sighs and sits on the floor next to him.
“How did this happen?” he asks. Even in this drowsy state, Espresso finds himself quite liking Madeleine’s voice when it isn’t loud and commanding.
“I was compromised,” Espresso says, lifting his shirt to reveal the wound on his side. He hears a soft gasp from Madeleine. “Custard Cookie was very tired on the way back, and I did not want to disturb his slumber. So I quickly came back home to make a healing potion, but the side effects are... strong, to say the least.”
Madeleine takes a while to process this information. Then, he says, resolutely, “you must not go to sleep like this. A dirty wound will only lead to infection. I will tend to your injuries while you rest.”
Espresso finds himself smiling when Madeleine returns to his room with a first-aid kit, presumably from his own cookie house. Espresso isn’t one to think twice about his own well-being, much less purchase a first-aid kit. Now that his head is rested on a soft pillow, the headache has subsided. All that remain are the drowsiness from the potion and a dull ache in his side. He lifts his shirt to allow Madeleine to clean his wound. The herbal jelly stings, and Espresso hisses through his teeth.
“Bear with it for just a moment, Espresso,” Madeleine says, “you’ll feel much better tomorrow.”
When Espresso does not reply, Madeleine takes it as a cue to continue talking.
“You know, it’s alright to ask for help sometimes.”
Espresso stares at him. “What could you possibly help me with?” he slurs back rudely. Madeleine blinks in surprise at the unexpected insult. Even Espresso himself feels mildly scandalised by his own reply. He hadn’t meant to come across so crassly. It would appear that the drunkenness was starting to affect his judgement.
“Already feeling better, I see,” Madeleine chuckles. “I mean, you’re always cooped up in your lab, and I so often overhear Latte complaining at Sparkling’s bar about how you don’t sleep for days! Surely that is not good for your body, Espresso!”
“Ugh,” Espresso grunts, the potion stripping him of any sort of verbal filter. “I suppose I am not self-absorbed as you are, Madeleine. I have no time to be pampering myself with bubble baths and long naps.”
Espresso tries to sit himself up to prove his point. Madeleine good-naturedly helps him up.
“Coffee magic still has a long way to go. There are countless discoveries to be made, millions of spells to be tested! Every moment not spent in the lab is a moment wasted. Coffee magic is sophisticated and complex, a highly advanced power that few are worthy of!”
As Espresso speaks rather passionately about his craft, speech slurred and loud, Madeleine quietly wraps a bandage snug around his waist.
“So thin…” Madeleine mutters to himself.
“Excuse me?” Espresso asks, slightly miffed that Madeleine had not been paying attention to his little spiel.
“You are thin as a twig, Espresso,” Madeleine repeats. “It is clear as the Divine’s Light that you have been exerting yourself far too much. A break is well overdue.”
Espresso scoffs. “Well, I’m sorry I’m not as strong and sculpted as you are. Not every cookie is perfect out of the oven. I suppose the Divine has blessed you in that aspect…”
Madeleine sputters. Espresso looks at him curiously. He cannot tell if the potion is causing him to see things or not, but he has never seen Madeleine with such a red face before.
“W-well, no need to be envious! I have always been fond of your face, Espresso!”
Espresso giggles. Madeleine turns crimson.
“You flatter,” Espresso says, “I am no match for that chiselled jaw of yours.”
He slides a playful finger under Madeleine’s chin. The knight jumps at the touch.
“I doubt you would be half as tolerable without that handsome face. When you smile, I almost want to forgive your endless ramblings,” Espresso blabbers on, his face inching closer and closer to Madeleine’s. He has not had this much fun in a long time. “And don’t even get me started on that silky hair of yours,” he says, twirling a wisp of it suggestively with his finger.
Madeleine’s eyes are wide, pupils blown to the size of planets. “T-that is because I was created in the image of the Divine! Of course I am aware of my good looks, but that does not mean that you should feel bad about yours! Every cookie is beautiful in their own way, it is what I have learned from the teachings of the Divine! You should let the Divine into your heart, Espresso, perhaps then you would—”
Espresso grabs Madeleine by the chin, startling him.
“Shut up, Madeleine.”
And then, Espresso kisses Madeleine hard on the lips.
Madeleine is stunned, but quickly recovers and shifts himself into a more comfortable position. He has always been fond of Espresso, but he has never considered his fondness to be romantic. Now, he is not so sure. For the time being, he indulges, kissing Espresso back, leaning over the bed to accommodate for the awkward angle, and he feels Espresso’s lips stop moving against his. Madeleine breaks away and looks down at Espresso. Steady breathing, closed eyelids, beautiful as the first time he laid eyes on him.
Espresso has fallen asleep.
The next morning, Espresso wakes up feeling considerably better. The wound hurts significantly less than the night before, and his headache is completely gone. He must have been asleep for quite some time now, because the sun hangs high in the sky through his bedroom window.
Espresso sits up in his bed and immediately feels a tightness around his waist. He lifts his shirt to see… a bandage. Right, Madeleine was here last night. Mind still murky from the potion, Espresso cannot exactly remember what went down. He makes his way into the living room to see Madeleine sitting on the couch, stiff as a rod, as if nervously waiting for something.
“Madeleine?” Espresso croaks, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Madeleine jumps to his feet. Espresso raises an eyebrow. “You slept here?”
“Ah, yes! I hope it’s alright with you,” Madeleine says awkwardly.
“No worries. Would you like some coffee?” Espresso says, walking over to the kitchen to brew a cup for himself.
Madeleine shakes his head. He walks over to the dining table and gestures to a paper bag that Espresso missed. “I bought breakfast for you,” he says, and then looks out the window. “I think that’s lunch now, haha.”
Espresso takes a sip of his coffee and places his mug gently on the kitchen counter. “Thank you, Madeleine, but… is something the matter? You seem… unsure of yourself.”
Madeleine blinks. “You don’t remember? Last night...?” he asks.
Espresso shakes his head.
“I’m afraid not,” he admits. “My mind is a blur. I cannot recall much from after I took the potion. Did something happen?”
“No!” Madeleine yells a little too quickly. “Um. Come and eat your food, Espresso! If you don’t dig in soon, the jelly is going to turn to mush!”
Espresso sighs and heads over to the dining table to eat the food that Madeleine bought for him. A tart jampie from the bakery. How delightful. It is in times he least expects that Espresso discovers tastes he shares in common with Madeleine.
“Hmm. I would have expected a brute like you to go for a hefty bear jelly burger instead, but I suppose you are often full of surprises.”
Madeleine seems to relax a little at the comment. “Hah! A tart jampie is the best way to start the day, Espresso! Surely a cookie of taste such as yourself would agree!”
Espresso nods reluctantly, finishing the last of his tart. He is about to get up and clear his plate when a sharp pain attacks his side again. He crumples onto the floor in a heap, plate clattering noisily against the cold marble.
“Espresso!”
Madeleine rushes forward to help Espresso into a sitting position.
“It must be time to take another dose of the potion…” Espresso mumbles. Madeleine helps him up onto a kitchen stool and starts looking into random kitchen drawers.
“Where is the potion, Espresso? Quickly!”
“Madeleine, stop moving around so much, you’re making me nauseous,” Espresso snaps. “I only had time to make a single dose last night. We will have to brew more of it. The recipe is on the refrigerator.”
“Got it!” Madeleine rips the recipe off the refrigerator door. He reads the ingredients carefully and clumsily grabs flasks and measuring scales with his large hands, knocking over bottles of reagents and ingredients as he does.
“You are far too anxious to perform this task, Madeleine. Perhaps it is best if I brew the potion myself,” Espresso offers, worried that the oaf might get the measurements a millimetre off and create an entirely different potion instead. With a great deal of effort, Espresso walks towards Madeleine and starts measuring the ingredients himself. Another wave of pain shoots him in the hip, and Espresso leans forward, spilling some of the reagents on the countertop. Madeleine firmly sits Espresso on a stool.
“I will do the measuring. Have some faith in me, Espresso! This potion will be blessed by the Divine!”
Espresso rolls his eyes, but watches curiously as Madeleine measures the ingredients as accurately as he can, squinting at lines on a beaker and adding a couple more grains of flour to a bowl to get the exact amount required. Espresso finds himself smiling fondly at the show of effort. Madeleine may be annoying most of the time, but he does work hard when he isn’t gushing over himself in a mirror. Espresso’s mind wanders to what happened last night. He vaguely remembers being carried to bed in a pair of strong arms, getting bandaged, and then… kissing someone.
Someone with soft, blond hair and a chiselled jaw.
Someone who never shuts up.
Someone named Madeleine.
His cheeks flush at the revelation. No wonder Madeleine was so awkward moments ago. Why did Espresso even kiss him? He would like to believe that it was simply a lapse in judgement caused by the potion, but deep down, he knows that it was merely the catalyst for feelings that have been brewing in his heart, feelings that he has been forcefully trying to repress and ignore since Madeleine’s arrival at the kingdom. It has been a long time coming, but the feelings are finally bubbling over, and Espresso needs to address them soon.
“Done!” Madeleine barks, snapping Espresso out of his thoughts. “The directions read 3 to 5 doses until your wound is fully healed, so I made 20 doses, just in case! You can save the remainder for a rainy day.”
He begins carefully pouring the potion into small, dose-sized containers, his big hands moving slowly, trying not to spill a single drop onto the counter. He continues speaking as he finishes pouring the last of the potion into the final container.
“I also highly recommend investing in a first-aid kit of your own, Espresso. We go out on the battlefield quite frequently, and it is extremely useful in situations like this. If you’d like, I can head out to the store to purchase one for you while you sleep. The directions here do say that sleep is encouraged after each dose, which is excellent considering your terrible sleeping habits when you are working in the lab. With enough sleep, you will be more productive not only in the lab, but also in combat! With the Divine’s blessing, we will be unstoppable—"
“—Madeleine,” Espresso interrupts, not unkindly, drawing him closer by his pyjama collar. “As always, you talk too much.”
Espresso kisses him again. Fully sober this time, and every move and slide of his lips against Madeleine’s is calculated and intentional. Threading his fingers in Madeleine’s soft hair, his other hand on his cheek, Espresso realises, for certain this time, that this is what he wants, what he has been looking for, what has been missing from his life all this time. He feels large hands wrap tenderly around his waist, carefully avoiding the wound on his side, and he knows that Madeleine feels the same.
They break apart for air, and Madeleine leans his forehead against Espresso’s, their breaths mingling, bitter coffee and sweet sponge cakes.
“But… you haven’t taken the potion…” Madeleine says, and Espresso fondly brushes strands of hair out of his face. “Does that mean…?”
Espresso chuckles, light and airy. “It seems I have not made myself clear enough. Do I have to ask the Divine to give you the answer in a dream?”
Madeleine blushes furiously at his taunt.
“I think the Divine has already answered my prayers,” he whispers.
And between rays of the afternoon sun, the mage and the knight share yet another kiss, the third of many.