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Knight Cookie was stunned when GingerBrave himself, busy as he is, came personally to deliver him yellow tulips and a note from “a friend”. Huh. It’s been a while since someone gifted him flowers, let alone his favorite ones. He can’t even remember who knew his favorite flowers, except… But why would he? Last time they talked, he left it quite clear that he didn’t want to hear from him ever again.
“‘... My wish is to close this chapter, to be able to move on, for both of us.’ What does he even mean? Is he finally going to start dating that- That Wind Archer cookie?” Princess Cookie stared back flatly. The whole time he’s been ranting and pacing back and forth, she’s been silent. “Come on, Princess, say something! What am I even supposed to do here?”
“I think you should go. You’ve been agonizing over this guy for about two years already. Look, tomorrow is Valentine's day. If you close this chapter, maybe you’ll finally find someone that treats you right!” She offered, clearly with good intentions at heart. “I know a few people who’d love to have a date with you…”
Knight grimaced. “But he did treat me right… We didn’t stay together so long just because, and you know that, Princess,” said Knight, finally sitting down next to Princess. “Besides, I… I don’t hate him, even though I should. I don't think he meant to hurt me like this.”
“Right. That’s why you have such a huge scar, huh?” she paused, “I never liked him, y’know. Go and do whatever you want, but don’t run away.” Princess leaned on Knight’s shoulder. “Plus, it’s in the kingdom fountain, so I doubt he’ll turn to violence again.”
“I hope so.”
— — —
Knight sat on the edge of the fountain, playing with his hands. He waited for a few minutes, checking the tiny candy watch Gingerbrave gifted him for christmas, which led him to conclude one of two things: Either he chickened out or he’s late, which wouldn’t be rare, but… To be late to a meeting with your ex?
“Waiting for me?” Fire Spirit whispered, way too close to Knight Cookie's face. He jumped, almost falling into the fountain, before being caught by Fire Spirit and, again, ending up way too close to his face. “Why’d you back away?” asked the fiery cookie, to which Knight Cookie answered with a glare. A glare that stayed until he finally let him go and Knight got his personal space back.
“Why do you think I backed away? What, you thought a few flowers could fix what you’ve done?” Knight whispered, standing up, “Look, Fire Spirit, if you think that to get me back you can just give me flowers and it’s fixed, you’re very wrong. I-”
Knight was interrupted by Fire Spirit Cookie shoving an old horseshoe into his hand.
“You told me you’d lost it right before the last time we saw each other. I know it means a lot to you, so I… I brought it to you,” his voice got quieter with every word, his usual smug grin gone and his eyes looking at anything but him. “I know I was terrible, but I hope this… Uh… Yeah.”
“Is this your way of apologizing? After all this, you can't even say ‘I’m sorry’?” Knight snapped, looking at the horseshoe in his hands. “You really haven’t changed at all, Fire Spirit. Why’d you even bother doing this? Did you want to ‘close the chapter’ to start a relationship with Wind Archer Cookie?” Knight started to get teary eyed. He didn’t like to argue with people, especially with ones he still cared about, especially with him.
Good to know he’s still just as pathetic for this man after all this time.
“What? No! You’re misreading the situation, Knight!” Fire Spirit looked… Surprised? “I wouldn’t- I could never! Wind Archer is… I would never. I’m not like that, okay? I don’t do relationships with colleagues. Besides, I could never truly…” He carried off, looking to the side.
Knight scoffed. “So you’d work for a witch, right alongside Dark Enchantress cookie,” the other’s expression shifted into an offended one immediately, “Who, in case you’ve forgotten, has repeatedly tried to kill me and my friends, but you’ll stop at a potential conflict of interest. Amazing. Says wonders about you.”
“I did not work alongside her. Among the many idiots I’ve had the displeasure of meeting, she’s one of the worst, so do not assume that,” Fire Spirit paused, taking a breath to prepare himself, “My work with the witches ended when you left, Knight.”
“When ‘I’ left? I left? I may have done things I’m not proud of that day, but I did not leave.” Knight Cookie clenched his fists, “I never did. Princess cookie found me bleeding out. You left. You hurt me instead of talking it out like you promised you would, you left me to die. Willingly.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” The elemental looked to the side, trying but failing miserably to hide his ashamed expression, “I meant-”
“I don’t get it. What didn’t you mean? The part where you permanently scarred me? The fight that led to it? I don’t understand, Fire Spirit,” The blonde’s tone grew more hurtful as he continued, “Tell me, what was it? What didn’t you mean ‘that way’?”
Fire Spirit sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a second, seemingly preparing himself for something and turned around, “I knew this wouldn’t work. Goodbye, Knight.”
“What…? You’re leaving? Again?” Knight let out a bitter laugh, wiping his tears with his arm, “You truly never changed, huh?” He felt foolish for believing that something good could come from seeing his ex again, a thing that he swore to himself that he wouldn’t do when they broke it off. Why did he even bother with Fire Spirit, at this point? Knight didn’t understand why he kept allowing him to be like this to him.
Fire Spirit turned his head to see him one last time before he left and… And Knight could see tears in his eyes.
He left shortly after that—the late afternoon had turned into night—and started his path to Princess’ house, all the while thinking about what happened, about what Fire Spirit had truly meant, about what could’ve been. He kept sniffling all the way to her house, hoping no one saw him as he entered the pink candy building. He didn’t cry often. In fact, he hadn’t cried since…
Since he’d last seen Fire Spirit.
As soon as she saw him, Princess Cookie hugged him tight. After a few minutes of him crying, she whispered “How bad was it?” as she drew back and guided him to the couch, where he sat down and tried to collect himself. He looked at her, drawing his eyebrows into a frown.
“I didn’t know what I expected, Princess,” he lowered his gaze, closing his eyes in resignation, “I guess… I think it could’ve been worse. He could have harmed me or something, but he left first. Said ‘I knew this wouldn’t work’, then turned around and left.”
Princess looked at him sadly, reaching out to take his hand in hers. “Knight… If he’d asked you to, would you have gone back with him? Or given him a chance?”
“... Yeah.” The worst part is that, if Fire Spirit had asked him, he wouldn’t have even doubted it–He would’ve instantly accepted. “I know it’s bad, Princess, but I don’t think I could ever let him go, I-” He started crying again, continuing, “I don’t think I could ever fall in love with anyone else.”
Oh dear, it sounded so depressing like that.
And then the alarm sounded. The alarm had been installed because, a few weeks back, Gingerbrave had tried to befriend a dragon. Unsuccessfully. Only a few knew that he had not only failed to befriend the dragon, but he had also pissed him off. A pissed off dragon was not a good thing for them, especially now that the most powerful cookies were away in the tropical soda islands, but they’d have to make do for now.
“Princess, we have to go!” Knight sniffled between words. “I have to help with evacuation, but you must go to the castle fountain! That’s where Gingerbrave told me to rendezvous with everyone that's going to fight against the dragon!”
Princess looked at him, a bit baffled. “... What? What do you mean ‘against the dragon’? Wasn’t Pitaya Dragon Gingerbrave’s friend now?”
“It’s another one! Just go, Princess!”
They separated, Princess running straight to the fountain and Knight going throughout the whole kingdom to evacuate everyone. He went house by house, checking every store and monument while he wondered if he was going to see him again now. He’d have to be at the fountain already since he hadn’t seen him yet… Knight wondered if he was going to help or if he was just going to say it’s none of his business like every other time.
He chuckled as he approached the start of the forest. Ah, that’d be so much like him. Would Knight be able to convince him to fight for the kingdom now? Or maybe Gingerbrave had made him cooperate. That scenario seemed more plausible. Maybe they’d be able to fight together like before. Maybe they’d-
A huge roar shook the entire kingdom, making him lose his balance. He turned around and saw the biggest dragon he’s ever seen, taller than the entire castle and almost as wide as the trains. He started running to the fountain, watching how everyone started to fight the dragon almost desperately while it destroyed more and more of the kingdom, starting with the docks on the shoreline. He hoped he’d make it in time to help, even if he didn’t help much, every bit of strength was appreciated.
When he got there, he stopped to catch his breath. Immediately, Fig cookie asked for his help with bringing him some arrows, which he did. Then someone else asked for his help, and so on. After a while, he started getting tired of running around, but then Princess cookie threw herself onto the dragon to try to poke his eye with her baton. Instead, the dragon grabbed her with his claws and-
Oh, no. No. Not on his watch.
Knight’s vision blurred. He ran, jumped, got his sword out and reached the dragon’s clawed hand to try to free Princess cookie. “I’m going to free you now, my lady! As soon as you’re free, run as fast as you can! I’ve fought dragons before, so please stay in a safe zone!” He stabbed his sword into the dragon's finger, just beneath the start of the claw, making it scream in pain and drop the princess into the ground to then catch Knight in his grip. The dragon squeezed him and breathed fire in his general area, enough to burn his hair to a crisp and burn his face slightly–It hurt, especially in his scar, where he’d been burnt before.
Knight forced himself to breathe, the circumstances making it hard to do so, between the panic he was feeling and the overall force of the dragon’s grip. He’d been taught how to do this. He could break out. Yeah, he could break out. He tried to take his sword but the dragon gripped him tighter and Knight could swear he felt something break–maybe his leg?–but he kept going. He wriggled his arm and finally was able to grab his sword, but he couldn’t move it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move it.
He started feeling dizzy after that, his efforts growing weaker by the second and–
He fell to the ground. He didn’t know what was happening, confused and hurt as he was, but he felt the dragon fall. They must’ve defeated the dragon, then. He could barely open his eyes, but he saw the familiar silhouette of a cookie through the haze. He heard murmurs and shouts, but he was unable to respond, his head too fuzzy to think. He was sleepy. Surely, no one would mind if he took a little nap, right? After all, the dragon had been defeated.
No one would mind, right?
— — —
“... He’ll be fine. He’ll wake up soon, so stop asking and let me work.”
He felt the sun on his face as he woke up. He didn’t want to open his eyes yet, too comfortable to face reality. His face felt… It felt similar to when Fire Spirit burnt him, but less severe. He remembered when the dragon burnt him, how it felt to be trapped, and how his scar stung. It still did, but it didn’t hurt as much now. He took a deep breath; he hoped there was no one there to see him this way.
“See? He’s awake already, Fire Spirit. Stop bothering me and let me work.” The voice sounded profoundly annoyed, letting out a huff after talking. Fire Spirit was here. Why was he here? Didn’t he say that this would never work? Didn’t he? “And look, I don’t mind visitors, but I’d appreciate it if you left. You’ve bothered me enough already.”
Knight decided to speak, voicing his suspicions, “Eclair? Are you… Healing me?” His voice sounded strained and tired. He grimaced to himself, “Since when do you heal cookies?” In response, he spread something cold on his face. Magic, he guessed. “What are you doing? How long was I out?”
“I heal cookies since Pure Vanilla cookie is gone and since Gingerbrave asked me to,” Knight opened his eyes to see Eclair scrutinizing his face, squinting and doing vague hand motions every so often, “I’m neutralizing the burns the dragon left you with ancient magic, which I’m using to not leave you with any more scars.”
“You were out for two days, idiot,” said Fire Spirit. Knight would never admit it, but he was happy he was here. That he came to see him while he was hurt. “Why’d you even get so close to the dragon in the first place? That goes against the protocol we were taught before Dragon’s Valley… or maybe you forgot the protocol? Did being a ‘royal servant’ make you soft?” He finished the sentence with a smug grin.
Oh, he’s completely infuriating. Knight loves him for it. “I did not forget. I did it for my lady’s safety,” he paused, starting to worry, “Wait, where is she? Is she okay?” He looked between the two other cookies in the room with a look of horror, waiting for an answer.
“She, unlike this cookie right here, is respectful and lets me work in peace,” answered Eclair with clear disdain towards Fire Spirit, “Thanks to you, she’s completely fine. She fell into some bushes on the way down, so there were no meaningful injuries.”
Knight sighed in relief. At least she’s safe.
“I am respectful, history nerd. Don’t badmouth me like that," answered the fiery cookie, walking closer to them to gawk at Knight’s face “Just because I think you’re a nerd doesn’t mean I don’t respect you.”
“If you respected me, you would've left the first time I asked you to,” grumbled Eclair, continuing while he left, “I’ll leave you lovebirds alone now, see if I can finally get some rest.”
Knight sputtered as he saw the historian leave. “Lovebirds? Really?” It’d been a while since anyone called him a lovebird or anything of the sort–not in relation to Fire Spirit, at least–but… My goodness, he missed it. He missed Fire Spirit. He missed his voice, his smile, his charm… He missed everything about him, actually.
“Look, Knight, about last time…” Knight shushed him loudly. He wanted to deal with this–with him–later, but he paid him no mind. “... I’m sorry,” said the elemental cookie. Knight looked at him, bewildered. Did he… Hear right? Fire Spirit, apologizing? Oh, the burns must’ve messed with his head because this was… This was impossible. Plain impossible.
Knight slowly moved his head to face him, to look him in the eye. “Huh?” He couldn’t think. His mind was empty, all thanks to the cookie in front of him doing the most outlandish, out of character thing he could ever do. He started to stand up, but fell back because it hurt. Oh my, this was going to hurt for a while, wasn’t it?
“Careful! Eclair said you couldn’t move until you were fully healed.” Knight squinted at him as he talked. “I didn’t save your ass for you to hurt yourself all over again, did I?”
“You what?” The idea seemed… Mind breaking. “You intervened? You saved me? What…? Did you… fall down and hit yourself in the head or something?” To say Knight was shocked was an understatement. That Fire Spirit, after 2 years of not talking to him, saved him from a dragon seemed not only unlikely, but highly impossible.
Abruptly, his face started hurting, the coolness of the magic vanishing as Eclair cookie had left. “Are you okay, Knight? What happened?” Asked Fire Spirit, seemingly confused at his expression. Knight made an effort to talk through the pain, “I don’t think I was supposed to talk. Even talking hurts.” He winced. Which also hurt. Moving his face hurt really bad.
After a few days of Eclair cookie applying ancient magic to his burns, he was officially allowed visits. For some reason, through those few days, Fire Spirit did not once leave his side. Fire Spirit didn’t offer much conversation, but he helped him eat and called Eclair when the pain was too much to bear. The burns didn’t hurt much anymore, but it did when he moved too fast. As long as he was careful, it wouldn’t be that terrible. What was terrible, though, was his situation with Fire Spirit. His apology hadn’t stopped going through his mind. He knew Fire Spirit wanted to talk about it but he didn’t so every time the other tried to talk about it, Knight interrupted him. His expression grew more frustrated every time he did, but he didn’t press it after he changed the topic.
Even so, his expression every time Knight interrupted him was quite funny. Almost comical, at times.
The first visit he had was Princess cookie. He asked Fire Spirit to leave them alone and, after thorough convincing, he agreed. He did say he’d come back as soon as Princess left, which was… Nice of him. Knight didn’t really like to be alone, especially now that he can’t move, so he appreciated Fire Spirit’s company more than he’d thought.
“So… Almost a week with him, huh?” Knight hung his head. Princess’ interrogation had begun. “What did he do? Did he say something important? Are you back together yet?” Knight looked back at her–so fast it hurt a bit–at the last question. Since when did she support them getting back together? Is that even what the question meant? “Come on, Knight! You’re killing me!”
“He, uh, he’s been nice, I guess. Why’d you ask if we were back together? We’re just… He refuses to leave my side, that's all.” Now that he said it, it does seem like a thing a couple would do. But they weren’t, and he didn’t think Fire Spirit wanted them to go back to being one. “And he did say something. It was really weird. I’m pretty sure I stayed quiet for half an hour after that. That’s how surprised I was.”
Princess stayed quiet for a bit, as if waiting for him to continue. “And? What did he say? Did he say he loves you?” She seemed excited, waiting for his answer. “Why don’t you answer? Come on! I bet on this with Wizard!”
Knight was confused. Why would she do that? “You bet on this? What did you bet?”
“That doesn't matter right now! Answer me!” She was growing louder as she spoke. She was determined to win this bet, it seemed.
“He apologized.” As soon as he said it, Princess’ face fell. She was really disappointed. “Why are you disappointed? This is the event of the century! Fire Spirit never apologizes to anyone, so you should be surprised! Come on!”
“Did he say anything else? Like, for example, that he loves you?” She asked, never one to give up so easily.
Knight was exasperated with her. “No. He didn’t say that,” though I would’ve appreciated it “but he’s tried to talk about it more than once. I never let him though–do you think I should?”
“Yeah. You really should. Even though I don’t approve of you getting back together, you both seem equally lovesick.” Knight got a bit offended at that, but he let it pass. He was a bit lovesick. “I don’t think you should stay apart anymore. If he actually apologized, well, I think that if you talk about it you’ll be able to start anew.” Knight really didn’t, though. If he could, he’d avoid talking about it his entire life. Though… Getting back together sounded really good. “Make him say that he loves you. Please. I don’t want to owe Wizard an entire week’s worth of bear jelly burgers.”
Knight just looked at her, unblinking. “You bet a week’s worth of bear jelly burgers,” he started laughing in disbelief as he spoke, “on Fire Spirit saying he loved me? Fire Spirit. The guy who refused to say ‘I love you’ for six years after I said it to him.” He started laughing at her while he covered his face with his hands, continuing with a “Weren't you going to work on your decision making?”
“Stop laughing, Knight! This is a matter of life and death to me! I simply cannot spend the entire week making bear jelly burgers for Wizard cookie of all people!” She exclaimed, flustered and blushing. “Besides, you’re not exactly the paragon of good decisions, okay? You should’ve had the conversation with Fire Spirit as soon as he apologized so he could say he loves you.”
“Princess…” Knight sighed. He’d do it, then. It was settled. “Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll do it right now, actually. Off you go.”
Princess gasped and put her hand on her chest in mock offense. “Are you… Kicking me out? You break my frail and lonely heart, Knight!” She stood up and saluted him, finally leaving the room with a whispered “Good luck.”
When he was finally alone, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He really hoped this would work. He opened his eyes and saw Fire Spirit already there, sitting at the chair that Princess had been occupying mere moments ago. “What’d you talk about?”
“Uh…” Knight didn’t know how to start this conversation, so he improvised. He’s terrible at it. “Would you believe me if I said that we were talking about you?” Fire Spirit raised an eyebrow. Why did he have to be that… That pretty when he looked at him? Couldn’t he just be a normal cookie? “Well, we did. Uh… So, how about we talk about your apology?”
“You are terrible at starting hard conversations, you know that?” A chuckle. “What about my apology? Do you want me to be more specific as to why I apologized or for what I was apologizing for?” Knight didn’t know how to answer that. He almost never knew what to do when Fire Spirit was around, as if his mere presence made him unable to think right.
“I…” He chose the question which he’d been thinking about the most. “Why’d you apologize? Or, rather, why now? Why not before?”
Fire Spirit looked away, almost as if embarrassed. “Because you got hurt–I couldn’t not apologize because maybe you’d get hurt again and maybe it’d be fatal and then I wouldn't have been able to do it and-”
“Fire Spirit. I’m fine. Stop worrying.” It felt like before. Like when they were still together and Fire Spirit took care of him when he got hurt. Oh, how he missed those times. “I get it.”
“I was apologizing for being an idiot. I… I shouldn’t have hurt you, Knight.” He looked him in the eyes now. Almost as if he was forcing himself to. “I’m sorry.”
Knight was about to cry now. This… Only Fire Spirit could make him feel like this. No one else could bring him to tears with only a few words. Knight covered his face with his hands, trying to hide his tears. He heard Fire Spirit moving the chair closer and how he sat down right next to him. He took his hands off his face and saw that Fire Spirit was much closer than he thought he’d be. They stared at each other for a bit until Knight decided to finally break the silence.
“I forgive you. Even though I probably shouldn’t.”
Fire Spirit smiled. He smiled the type of smile which could burn down a house with its pure intensity and… Knight was so very in love with him. Every time they talked, he remembered this fact. “I missed you, Knight. I really did.”
Knight sat up. He wanted to kiss him. He really wanted to kiss him. He got closer to him and almost threw himself at him, placing a hand on Fire Spirit’s chest to avoid falling. He took his hand in his and put his other arm around his back, resting his hand on his shoulder.
“Can I?” He asked Knight. In response, Knight dove in to kiss him. Two years. It had taken them two years to finally reunite and… Knight thought it was worth it if he could have Fire Spirit next to him the rest of his life.
Fire Spirit separated to catch his breath and, with a smile, kissed him until his lips hurt.