Chapter Text
It was a peaceful day in the Vanilla kingdom. The villagers seemed to be enjoying life in the kingdom. They were able to fix most of the infrastructure and some even started small shops. Pure Vanilla was currently in his nice cozy home. Ever since he abdicated from the throne, the former king began to distance himself from his tall proud castle. Now he lives in a cozy little cottage tending to all the blueberry birds that pass by his window.
He was thinking of what to write on Golden Cheese’s letter when—
“Pure Vanilla, come quick! I sense an intruder in the palace.” Black Raisin burst through the door.
Pure vanilla stood up from his desk, setting his quill down, “Huh?”
“Yes! An indistinguishable scent has been noticed in the castle gardens. We must hurry and find the perpetrator, now!”
His heart skipped a beat for a second.
It, it couldn’t be. It couldn’t be her right?
He immediately started following the one armed cookie towards the kingdom palace.
“I was patrolling the perimeter of the kingdom when I noticed an odd scent coming from the castle. I sent one of my crows to investigate and they saw the brief figure of a cookie entering the castle.”
“Did your crow get a profile of them?”
“No, because they apparently whacked them away with a staff.”
Oh.
Oh my.
The two cookies made it to the castle gardens following the scent as they went. Pure vanilla analyzed the smell. It smelled… sweet. Almost caramel-like. The two made it to the garden and saw…
A small pink hooded child. She seemed to be sitting down, picking flowers. She also seemed to be acquainted with a small black blobby thing. They were giggling, happily playing with the butterflies that fluttered around.
Oh, he knew the first one, but the second one…
“STOP RIGHT THERE, INTRUDER.” Black Raisin Cookie stepped out of the shadows, revealing herself.
The cookie yelled and immediately grabbed the black blob, holding them close.
Pure Vanilla put a calming hand on Black Raisin’s shoulder. “Easy now, Raisin. Surely you recognize Strawberry Cookie, right?” Pure Vanilla turned to Strawberry who was now standing up, still a bit tense from the scare she had, “Good afternoon Strawberry Cookie. What brings you here to the Vanilla kingdom? And who’s this little guy?” He said, kneeling down to the little smiling blob’s level.
“Oh uh, this is my little sibling Squid Ink Cookie. Say hi Squibby.”
The little black blob waved one of their tentacles, saying, “Hello!” To the cookies in front of them.
“As for why we’re here, well… Squid Ink thought the floating kingdom was a shiny thing and begged me to take them here.”
“Aww… how adorable.”
“Though if they are to be welcomed here, they must prove it.” Black Raisin stepped forward and faced the squid. All while Pure Vanilla was telling her to calm down. She held out a raisin bun, “First you must eat this raisin bu—“
She was interrupted by Squid ink extending their tongue like a frog and reeled the raisin bun into their mouth. The squid chewed a bit, then swallowed. They proceeded to happily wriggle in Strawberry’s arms and made little grabby motions at Raisin while saying ‘shiny…’. By the looks of it, they seemed to be motioning to their eye.
The other three simply stared at them as this all happened.
“...So what will you do now, Raisin?” Pure Vanilla said.
“Honestly I don’t know.” She scratched the back of her head, “Normally I don’t get this far. But I do want to know why the little guy is doing… that.” She motioned to Squibby, who was still doing little grabby motions.
“Oh, they must be looking at your eye and thinking it’s a shiny.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well… it basically means they like your eye for how shiny it is. Oh, I also apologize for trying to whack your crow. It scared me…”
Pure vanilla waved his hand dismissively, “Oh no worries child, I'm sure the crow will forgive you, right Raisin?” When he was met with no response, he called out her name again. He then saw little Squid ink happily chasing her crow around, who was also being chased by Black Raisin herself.
“Hey! Uh, little guy! Could you please stop chasing my crow?” She called out.
The squid ignored her calls, instead reaching out to the crow while chanting, “Birb. Birb!”
Strawberry looked on in horror. Pure Vanilla looked confused as to how they got into this situation. Without hesitation Strawberry bolted towards them, her voice wavering as she yelled, “My Squibby!”
Pure Vanilla sighed. He stood up and followed the three cookies, his orchid staff rolling its eye.
This was gonna be a long day…
It was now evening, the situation had calmed. Strawberry cookie was now chatting with Black Raisin. Squid Ink was cheerily playing with the other villagers. Pure Vanilla was off in the background sitting by a table. He took a sip of his tea, enjoying the scene transpiring. The former rule took a look back on how this all started. All because of a very peculiar scent.
It kinda reminded him of…
Of…
“Hello! My name is Pure Vanilla Cookie. It’s a pleasure meeting all of you.” The boy bowed his head in respect. He had just moved to the Blueberry Yogurt Academy. After realizing he had a natural aptitude for magic, he enrolled in the school made for gifted magical children so they could perfect their craft and reach their full potential.
Everyone in class said the same, “Hello Pure Vanilla Cookie.” In that same bland unison classes do.
The teacher clapped their hands together, “Alright, Pure Vanilla, please take a seat.”
Pure Vanilla did as told and walked forward to find an empty desk. As he walked, he noticed that most of the front seats were taken, leaving the back half of the desk empty. All the while he noticed a powerful yet alluring aroma. He must’ve been taking a while because the teacher repeated what they said in a more exasperated tone. So he decided to not waste anymore time and flopped down to the nearest desk. After that was settled the teacher began their lesson.
He was starting to zone out during the lecture. It wasn’t that it was boring, it's just that he knew all of this. They were talking about the different types of magic in detail for thirty minutes now. Wouldn’t a prestigious school be able to skip the basics as they are already required to even enroll in this school? He began kicking his legs from under the desk. The mini wizard sniffed the air. Again that strange scent still lingered in the classroom. He was wondering where that scent was coming from.
Little did he know he was actually sitting next to someone.
He jumped at the sight. Someone else was sitting at the back? How come he didn’t notice her? It was probably because of all the paper stacked high on her desk. She was bent down, intensely focusing on her work. She was wearing the standard school uniform, all except for a white flower hair clip and equally white braided hair. It seemed like she didn’t acknowledge his existence until…
“Hi! My name is Pure Vanilla Cookie.”
“...Mhm.” She didn’t even bother looking.
Okay… “What’s with all the papers?”
“These are this month’s assignments. I’m getting them done early so they don’t waste my time.”
His heterochromatic eyes widened at the statement. He looked at the papers. They were taller than her face. Was all of that just this month? Pure Vanilla grimaced, so much homework… What could be so important that it is worth doing so much?
When he sniffed the air again, he realized that the aroma was coming from the braided girl.
“This part of the room has a nice scent to it.” He tried to bring it up casually. He didn’t want to offend her after all.
She said nothing.
“Is it coming from you if I may ask?”
“Yes.”
“My my, that must be some powerful perfume you have ther—“
“Thanks but it’s not perfume.” She interrupted him, hesitantly, “It comes naturally from me.”
Pure Vanilla tilted his head and his eyes widened. Oh. He regained his composure, “Well, it’s certainly a lovely aroma—“
“You can stop pretending you know.” She said, a bit of venom in her words, “I know you hate it.” She grumbled under her breath ‘everybody does’ as she scribbled harder onto the sheet of paper.
He shook his head in disagreement, “Oh no. I don’t hate it. I just find it interesting, that's all. In fact, I actually quite like it.”
She stopped scribbling and for the first time looked at him, her pure magenta eyes staring at his soul, “Do you really mean it?” She raised a brow, “I know the teachers have been telling students to tolerate it so I would make friends. How can I tell if your not one of those student who are simply lying to me just to fill a quota?”
“Huh?” He had heard of rumors about a student that was so bookstudious that teacher were willing to give them extra credit if they could get them to stop studying. They were few and in between though… he also didn’t know that they were talking about her. “No… I have no idea what your talking about.”
“Well, you probably heard of them. Cookies don’t want to be near me. The scent’s too overwhelming.”
“Well, I don’t mind being near you.”
The white haired girl scoffed, “Really? Prove it.”
“I am. I’m still sitting right here.” He smiled warmly.
She looked him up and down. Giving a little ‘hm’ she said, “You really are something else aren’t you?”
Pure Vanilla nodded, “I’ve said this before but I don’t think you noticed me back then. My name’s Pure Vanilla Cookie.” He then held out a hand, asking, “What’s yours?”
For the first in a while, a small smile crept up her lips as she took his hand and shook it, “Well… My name is…”
“White Lily!”
A small voice woke them from their day dream. They turned and standing on top of the table was a black blob. It was Squid Ink. The little happy bean themself. They were holding the signature white flower and said again, “White Lily!”
Pure vanilla couldn’t help but chuckle, “Why yes little one. That is indeed a white lily.”
The squid happily stared at the flower.
That was until they opened their mouth and tried to eat it. To which they were promptly stopped by Pure Vanilla, followed by Strawberry.
“Squibby, no! Those things are poisonous. You shouldn’t eat them.”
“Oh. Okay! But… wanted to keep one…”
The pink cookie thought for a bit, “Here, how about this?” She then took the lily and tucked it into the little one’s collar. “There, now you can keep it with you when we go home, okay?”
The squid squeaked happily and began jiggling up and down. Both cookies chuckled at the sight.
“Thanks again for letting me and Squibby stay for the night Mr. Pure Vanilla Cookie.” She said, sitting across from him.
“You’re welcome. And please, ‘Pure Vanilla’ is just fine.” The little girl had a bit of a problem when it came to formalities. She used one on every adult cookie she met. While it is charming to some extent, it does become slightly awkward when you’re friends with her and she’s still using your full name along with a prefix to your name.
“By the way, I wanted to ask you something. But I think it might be too insensitive…” she muttered, tugging at her hoodie strings.
“Well, if you’re ready, you can ask me anything—“
“How did you and White Lily meet?”
He froze for a hot minute. Strawberry must have noticed, as she immediately reeled Squid ink to her and hid her face behind them. It’s what she did when she was nervous. “It’s just I saw in fragmented memories in the Blueberry Academy of how close you two were and I was just wondering if it's okay you don’t have to answer…” she hastily said, trying to give an explanation.
His staff looked worriedly at Pure Vanilla before he shook his head and smiled, “It’s quite alright young one. I just wasn’t expecting such a… blunt way of asking a question.”
She peaked behind Squid ink nervously before calming down. “O-okay…” She shifted in her seats trying to get comfortable.
“As for your question… well…” He thought about this afternoon. How so many things happened just because of one girl with a unique aroma to her.
It reminded him of… her.
“Me and White Lily go way back.” He chuckled a bit, “Did you know that White Lily wasn’t always so… compassionate?”
“So she was a jerk.” Strawberry said. It wasn’t a question, more so a blunt statement.
“I uh- yeah she kinda was…” he said thinking back on it. “But deep inside I knew there was a desire to help for the greater good. She just needed to melt the shell of ice covering her heart.”
Strawberry shifted in her seat, getting in a comfortable position. Little Squid Ink was sitting on their big sister’s lap. Peaking above the table to get a view of the man’s face.
“You see, it all started on my first day in the Blueberry Yogurt Academy…”