Chapter Text
Between late night and early morning, but a single light filtered through closed window shutters. The work of a bakery has always started early, yet this was no normal bakery nor a normal early. Running back and forth from shelves of expensive imported spices and ingredients towards a table sized terrarium, a white rat Critter wears exhaustion like a thick robe. Despite this, he carefully goes about his work.
"Steady Nilla, steady for you medicine"
Handy Sugar used a dropper to delicately apply pure rich vanilla to the crack in his dearest friend's little leg. He and Nilla have been together for years, since he was a little pup first baking in a kitchen; Sugar's first special creation was baking his very own magic pendant, but shortly after learning about its powers, he made his best friend. Nilla, a vanilla cracker horse about the size of his hand came to life right out of the table oven his daddy gave him to not feel so alone. Since that day, he hasn't, not with Nilla or any of his other buddies.
Nilla lumbered from the dropper, walking off to lie back down next to her cracker barn. Sugar's ear twitched hard, fingers flicked; Magic treats and goodies can live as long as there's love and whimsy in the air, but Nilla... Nilla was his first try. He didn't know all the rules, the ways of magic to make them live to their fullest potential. It took him years of practice, learning how to do his buddies right, make sure they won't...
Crumble.
He broke down when it first happened. When Peachy Nibble fell too hard, he couldn't put her pieces back together, and the magic crumbled away as dust in the breeze in his own little paws, and he was just a stupid friendless rat crying over a broken cookie. He couldn't bake for half a year, not until his mama showed him her lost collection, old paintings burnt beyond recognition whose loss hurt her like Peachy's loss hurt him. Then she told him how she put back and tied up her mane and made her art again, because she loved making more than she feared losing.
Sugar shook himself out of it.
"Love ya, my sugar cookie," he whispered to Nilla with a smile that wasn't in his tired eyes.
Standing back up, Sugar knew he had to get ready to open up. Well, more like get ready to get ready, owning a Not A Bakery and all. There's snackimals to care for and dress up to their best in hopes they find their best buddies, his other buddies to take care of, floors to sweep and ovens to clean and ingredients to sort, and and and...
With a sigh and a huff, Sugar collapsed into the chair he keeps in Nilla's room. He's got time; After all, he's up so early it's late, making sure the tiny crack in Nilla was healing up right. It's completely reasonable to sit back for a few minutes, nod off until it's a normal time for a not bakery to start the day. He works so hard.
In a blink, Sugar's table clock goes from telling him he's up hours far too early to saying he's five minutes late to firing up the ovens.
"Mmm.. huh? Ah!"
He shakes himself out of his sleep. Running out of the room, but not without giving Nilla a little delicate chin rub, Handy Sugar gets ready to start the day. Hours of chores get done in double time to make up for the lost minutes he beats himself up over. He wipes his forehead, he redoes the bow tying up his hair while picking out the sugars and spices he feeds his creations with.
By the time he's all done, opening is just a minute away, probably because all his scrambling to make up time made more messes to clean up.
Best Buddies of the Batch was officially open for the day once that little sign was turned on. His pride and joy, his dream and home. He scribbled little floorplans with his mama as she chuckled at her son's big dreams; Make friends for critters like him, who just didn't know how to make their own.
"Alright little buddies," he shouted to the magical goodies in the shoppe "It's Opening Time! Do your best today!"
He was met with little cheers. He had long put on his happy work face, all his troubles put in the back of his mind as the day began. The Cupcake Ballet hurriedly shuffled to the tiny stage in one of the front window displays, doing their morning showing to the screams of glee of little critters gathered outside. Bone Voyage, a customer from a week ago, returned with a heartfelt sign to buy another crab croissant to keep his other company, and ended up taking home two Hermit Conchas as well. Little old Knit-Knack finally came in after months of browsing and learning all she needed to know of caring for a pastry pal to at last adopt Frank the Apple Fritter Froggy; His little dance and croaks of joy made the birdie tweet and laugh harder than she had in years, plus she tipped with an entire blanket. A bouncy little donkey and his dad bought a dozen cookie-pillars that in a few weeks would be beautiful butterscotch-flies. A young bobcat girl came to order a whole box of sugar cookie play soldiers to play with her clubhouse friends. Mr. Medved came to ask advice on how to treat his sugarplum fairies' boredom and was pleased to learn he should just have to change the music boxes they danced to so they'd not get tired of the same songs.
In the quiet after the lunch rush, which as always Sugar kept having to inform at least one passerby that this is not a bakery, Sugar was just about done touching up the buddies on display and ready to rush to the back and drop his mask to check up on Nilla. The chiming of the bells on the door wasn't the only announcement that another guest had entered; There was also the faint hints of smoked meat, and the trilling of an ecstatic Harpy.
"Sw-eet Suuugarrrr!!!" Cried the Harpy as the rat set his hand on his hips shaking his head at his half brother, "I have the most AMAZING news to share with you and your little snacks!"
"Chirp," Handy Sugar sighed with a tiny smirk "One; Just a hello is fine," which was met with a smirk of the Harpy's beak.
"Two; Get off of the display counters," he said as he lightly swatted at the lounging Harpy.
"And Three, You know you make the buddies nervous when you just bust in like this; They recognize you and neither them nor I want you to go 'KABAM!' in my shop"
Chirp Kabam dramatically gasped, clutching his chest feathers; At the sudden noise from the Harpy, snackimals jumped for cover. Chirp's dusty gray feathers shifted in a flash to violent, and then indigo.
"CHIRP!"
" Frankly, brother, I am shocked- No, wounded and slandered! That you, my own family, who I always gave the batter whisk to for you to lick," he shifted from indigo to blue...
"CHIRP!!!"
The Harpy went on, seemingly unaware, "would ever imply that after all these years, I am so out of control that I still might accidentally use my pendant and go..."
"CHIRP KABAM!" Roared the rat.
The Harpy gave him a side eye smirk and stopped his speech.
"Ah, I'm just messing with you. Serves you right though".
The two laughed and hugged, sitting down at a table to chat for lunch. The Harpy brought salad and baked potatoes for the both of them, along with gossip about every other shop on the street. Slowly the feathers on the Harpy shift back to indigo, then violet, then finally black and grey again; Despite still being as likely to go Kabam should he get too excited, and the Harpy was always excited, as when he was a hatchling, he still could show great control over his reverse rainbow color countdown. After all the chitter chatter about nothing in particular, Chirp clearly got to the topic he really wanted to discuss.
"So, the BIG NEWS!" Chirp spoke with his talons as much as his voice, "Tugboat Tabby, the river merchant, just brought on his nephew from the town upstream as an apprentice," the Harpy eyes went wide and reflected little fireworks "and HE. IS. SO. CUTE!!"
The Harpy kicked and squealed, turning violet again. Sugar rolled his eyes and got ready for another crush story.
"AND he LIKES GUYS TOO! I mean, sailorboy, so he found his calling. BUT!"
Feathers flashed to indigo yet again as the rat held onto the table like driftwood in a stormy sea. Chirp swore he'd never explode in his shop, but still.
"I chatted with him and worked up the courage and we had breakfast together!" He squealed again, "Omph! Almost went green feathers, of course he asked questions, but he was cool with it! His sister would randomly turn things into butterflies and she's just now getting a handle on it WHILE she's becoming a mom!"
Sugar stopped the squeeing with a paw.
"Brother," the rat sighed, "How many times have you fallen head over talons for a guy you just met?"
Chirp's color sunk back to black. He crossed his arms and turned a brow up to his brother.
"How often am I the first one you tell?"
"Always", crossed arms and head nodded solemnly.
"And how often do I have to clean up, both figuratively and literally, when it inevitably blows up by, what's the record; The fourth date?"
With a huff, Chirp turned his head. Sugar sighed again at his dramatic brother; He'd always flown after boys he thought he was destined to be with even as a little school yard hatchling, and Sugar was always trailing after to fight for his brother if he had to, his only friend before his precious Nilla. A glance at the clock told him he'd have to wrap up his break soon; He needed to check up on her, and still he expected a delivery soon.
"At least I'm trying," cawed the Harpy.
"Unlike some of us," a sharp look shot at Sugar, "Who do nothing but work 24/7 then bemoan not having a boyfriend since Talent Tiger in middle school!"
"H-hey! We still talk!"
"Mmm hmm."
"I mean, he's married now, and has twin girls,"
"Mmm hmm."
"And I also talk to some nice guys... here, while working..."
"Mmm hmm," A feathered eyebrow stayed up.
"L-like, this one guy recently... He came in… with his kids..."
"Mmm hmm!" A big beak smirk kept growing.
"They were nice. H-he flirted with me!" The rat practically jumped while saying, before slinking back, "Probably just for the discount I gave him."
The Harpy sighed like a soap opera star, shaking and ruffling. He laid his clawed hand on the rat's shoulder.
"Brother, you are so, so, so sad. You've struck out since you first started realizing you like guys when you chased some away from me; And even chased me away from them!" An accusing talon shot out, "Only reason I'm not still mad about you trying to steal Griffin Guitar from me is how funny it was to watch you fumble so hard; I mean, did you really think you could just pretend to know how to play Thunder Volley?"
Sugar rubbed a bruise that faded long ago, leaving only a bruised ego and the chiseled in stone memory of mama's lecture afterwards. It's not fair; Chirp knew way longer, basically hatched out the egg out and proud. Meanwhile, he cried when one of Chirp's bullies slash admirers ended up being his first kiss and the first domino that led to his embarrassing coming out to his family; Sugar still remembered dangling upside-down by the streamers, and has never gone back to that pizza place.
He just has a lot on his plate, making his dreams work.
The rat scoffed to play it off. "Yeah, well, at least I didn't spend an entire family dinner not knowing which of the dozen gophers I was dating and it turned out to be none of them because you forgot they broke up with you!"
The Harpy huffed, before smirking to his brother again. "That's one dinner I DON'T regret going Kabam at."
The two laughed at their dating woes. They had to have some luck; Come on, their shared daddy had charm enough to end up with them and their siblings.
A Harpy hand clutched a rat's paw on the table. "Seriously, you work a little too hard. It's great what you're doing, but don't end up regretting not looking for Mr. Right while you were young; And can I just say, pulling off that look. I mean come on, somebody wants a piece of this snack!"
Sugar gagged at that comment and swatted away the hand Chirp gestured at him with.
"Gross!"
"Just trying to hype you up and make you realize you got more going for you than you think," the Harpy said with his hands raised like he was under arrest. "What's your plan right now, to-"
"Bake himself someone who won't leave him!" Both critters swung their heads and glared as the door boomed open by the new guest.
"Hiya Squak," Sugar said flatly to the special delivery bird. "Don't be gross, jerk, I already reported you to your boss. Twice."
The pigeon waved that off, "And miss out on these rare imported spices?" He shook the tiny box unprofessionally. Sugar sighed and went to sign for it.
"No tip?"
"What do you think, Squak? Why would I tip you? Especially after saying... that".
It wasn't the first time a jerk implied Sugar was more than just friends with his buddies. They are pets for goodness sake! Jerks just like getting a shy gay guy to react to their insults. Well, he won't be Squak's entertainment; He's dealt with worse from scarier than the pigeon.
"Well, excuse me for trying to make conversation," the pigeon did a haughty bow and went to leave "It's not like everyone knows how to talk to you freaks".
Chirp flicked a bit of leftover salad at the closing door.
"I don't know how you put up with him. Or the company he works for! Zero stars; no, negative!"
Sugar sighed.
"They're the only ones that will ship the rare spices I'm looking for and not charge a Dragon's hoard in shipping costs. It's already expensive, I couldn't deal with it if it cost triple like the next cheapest option".
Chirp came in for a hug, which Sugar accepted.
"Hey. You always looked out for me; Tell me if my strongest brother needs my help with a bully like old times."
"Always, Chirp."
"Oh!" The Harpy shot up, "Before I leave, I gotta say hello and goodbye to Lil Nilla!"
Something in Sugar sunk, but he didn't show it. "Of course," he said. He escorted Chirp back to Nilla's room, moving like a puppet on someone else's strings, though he couldn't tell why. The visit flew by, but Sugar felt he saw concern flash for a moment in Chirp's eyes.
"What a sweet girl," Chirp said with airs of certainty. "Love you, Nilla, keep Sugar safe for me".
After goodbyes, the day went on and on and on. Sugar felt this unexplainable dread he recognized. It crept in often now. He locked up when dark fell, cleaning up, feeding snackimals and buddies. He went to Nilla's room to check on her.
Nilla was moving about more at night, like she's started to lately. Sugar retreated her cracks, gave her food to eat, just caressed her. She hadn't been up to play like she used to, but she always leaned into his loving touch. She looked at him, and Sugar smiled; He always worried himself, but she'll be fine.
"Night Nilla," he yawned, "Love you, Sugar cookie".
She gave a faint creaking neigh in response.
The rat paused.
It wouldn't hurt to sit at the table and watch her for a bit. He's got time before he needs to sleep to wake up early. Leaning back in the chair, his eyelids became heavy. He was out before he realized it.
It wasn't early-early like his usual routine when he woke up. It was normal early, with some sunshine starting to show through the window. Sugar had the day off, in that the shop was closed, but still had work to do.
"Morning, Nilla"
He stopped as he started to stretch out of the uncomfortable sleeping position he was in. She didn't answer.
She always answered.
"N-Nilla?"
He walked, sore muscles slowing him down as he went to her tank.
She was lying down. Still.
He touched her, feeling no guilt in trying to wake her early.
She didn't move.
He was wide awake now. He bent down into her tank, pushed away the toys she didn't play with anymore and the barn she wasn't sleeping in. He put his ear to her, his breath starting to catch. Listening for anything.
Nothing.
She wasn't there.
She was gone.