Chapter Text
It was around midnight when Amber Sugar was flying around the labyrinth looking at memories. He looked at a few memories and one of them got him thinking about himself. It was a bright green memory and it was cold, but changed to a warm temperature as the memory goes on. The memory shows a young archer crying seemingly because he was hurt. Then another cookie walked to treat the young cookie's injury and gave him a hug.
Amber Sugar held the memory in his hands unsure what to feel. On one hand, he was happy to see the young cookie feeling better, but on the other hand, he can't help but feel a sense of envy. He looked up at the dark stained glass to see his reflection and wondered why? Slowly, he realized why… Amber Sugar never had the best childhood, he had to deal with a lot of negativity at the hive. The biggest problem was expression. He was always told what to be and how to act and when he wasn't what he was meant to be, he would be shamed for it. Sometimes in worse case he would have been hurt for it. He never expressed himself to anyone because of the pressure he felt from his parents, friends, and peers to live up to the toxic standards that the system had. He never was given any comfort in his life.
Looking at this memory gave Amber Sugar a desire to express himself emotionally. He has expressed himself through building hives, but his friends would always complain about how Amber Sugar is a huge perfectionist. He felt very limited on what he should do. Sugar Glass was the first cookie who allowed him to do whatever he wanted with his artistic ability, but he never expressed his emotions to her. He felt ashamed for having them.
Thinking of all of this made a memory appear. Amber set the one he had on his hands and looked at the yellowish white glass. He picked it up to see the very night Amber Sugar left the hive. He had an argument with his friends because of his recklessness with building hives. They complain he can't expect every home to be perfect and yell at him for destroying perfectly normal homes. Amber Sugar started to ache and his eyes became watery. He couldn't stand to see it anymore. Without thinking, he smashed the memory on the ground. He hated how this memory made him feel "weak" as he put it.
"Amber Sugar, is everything okay?" A gentle voice spoke. Amber Sugar turns around to see Sugar Glass standing behind him. He was expecting her to be here and thought she was tending to the garden.
"Ah! Sugar Glass… What are you doing here?" Amber Sugar sputtered, "I thought you were in the garden."
"I was… I came down here to see if you are alright," Sugar Glass answered, "it was getting late and you haven't come back yet. I thought you might have been lost or something."
"I rest assured you that I'm fine and won't get lost in these tunnels." Amber Sugar avoided eye contact with her. He didn't know how she would react to all of this. This would have been hard to explain. Even then, he doesn't wanna show how vulnerable he is. Despite wanting to express himself emotionally, he is still too scared to share his emotions with anyone.
"Amber, why did you shatter that memory?" Sugar Glass looked at the glass on the ground. Amber Sugar stared at her unsure what to say. She flew up to the pieces then picked it up. It was cold and had a pretty shade of yellow, Sugar Glass thought. Why would he destroy this memory?
"Umm, it's nothing. Let's get out of here." Amber Sugar avoided her question. He walked past her and went for the exit before Sugar Glass grabbed his arm tightly.
"You don't break a memory for nothing." Sugar Glass uttered in a more serious tone. Amber Sugar turned around to see how she was being dead serious about this. It was underwhelming to see the butterfly from her usual sweet gentle nature to a more stone and serious tone.
"It's none of your business." Amber Sugar augured. He wasn't going to explain anything to her. He doesn't want to look at the past.
"Amber Sugar, I am not naive… You had a reason to break it. Just by the way you are acting, I'm assuming you didn't like it and you want to forget about it." Sugar Glass mumbled, "I'm not sure what is going on in your head, but I know it isn't pleasant… Holding back your emotions is only going to-"
"It's going to do what!?" Amber Sugar yelled in a harsh tone catching Sugar Glass off guard. Sugar Glass was a bit uneasy by his sudden change in tone. She knew he was a bit stubborn, but she never thought he could be hostile.
"It's only to make you worse…" Sugar Glass stuttered, "Listen, I wanna help you, but you need to tell me what's going on."
"Look, I don't need help! I am perfectly fine!" Amber Sugar shouted. He felt his body tense up in anger as Sugar Glass kept nagging him. He attempted to pull his arm out of her grasp, but Sugar Glass wasn't letting go.
"Admit it, you are not fine." Sugar Glass mumbled, "why won't you talk to me?"
"I AM! LISTEN, SUGAR GLASS. I NEED YOU TO LEARN TO MIND YOUR OWN GODDAMN BUSINESS!" Amber Sugar snapped at her, "YOU KNOW I HAVE A REASON ON WHY I SHATTERED IT, BUT I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT SO STOP ASKING ME!!"
There was silence. It took Amber Sugar a moment for him to realize what he did. Sugar Glass was shaking from his immteadating tone; She was scared of him. Amber Sugar started feeling guilty for yelling at her. He never meant to scare her like that. He didn't want to talk about what he's going through, but he shouldn't have let his anger hurt her, "Sugar Glass- wait I didn't mean to-"
"It's alright…" Sugar Glass sobbed, "I will leave you alone… I'm sorry…" Sugar Glass let go of him and flew off out of the labyrinth. She looked down on the ground and didn't dare to look at him.
"What have I done?" Amber Sugar has never felt this amount of guilt in his life. He was blinded by his anger and stubbornness that it cost him his friendship. He felt so bad for making his only friend scared. Amber Sugar sat on the ground before bursting into tears. He couldn't hold it in anymore. Years of pain have all been bottled up and now it's finally cracked. He couldn't handle it and hated how painful these emotions were. Sugar Glass was right, him.hold back his emotions made him worse. He now realizes how toxic his mindset was and needed to make things right.