Work Text:
Cold was seeping in through Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie’s coat as the wind had decided to not take a break during the whole day, and now that it started to get dark it felt even colder.
Luckily the Spire of All Knowledge wasn’t far.
Stairs to climb everywhere, all surrounded by that blue and purple-ish glow even under the setting sun, and Forbidden Rice hastily climbed them all.
They had been missing from there for so long by now, a whole week. Such a loooong amount of time, if one were to ask the owner of the place, but it would be difficult to tell if he was saying the truth or just another lie.
The entrance of the castle was silent and completely empty sans for a bunch of plushies shaped like black rabbits dressed in soldiers’ outfits laying pretty much everywhere, on stairs, on portraits’ borders, on vases, on doorframes…
The grey cookie let out a sigh and draped their coat on one of the marble columns, as usual. Their heels clicked and echoed in the ample and empty corridors and staircases as they made their way inside, following a path all too familiar. There was no way the house owner didn’t know about their presence anymore; more likely, he had known even since they stepped foot into the courtyard, and yet he didn’t bother to show up yet.
Slowly, the music of an accordion started to play. A slow, almost irritating tune, like a song played at one tenth of its normal speed. The little wooden theatre finally came into frame, a small piece in brown wood and blue with a cardboard blue sheep mechanically moving back and forth to the rhythm of the handle slowly turning by himself, when a voice echoed.
“Eheh”
The cookie turned around, to find absolutely nothing.
“Eheh” the voice echoed again.
Again, nobody was there.
“Shadow Milk Cookie” Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie said “It’s good manners to greet your guest instead of playing tricks”
“Oh but where would the fun be?” protested the Master of Deceit, appearing on the right.
“Yeah, where would it be?” asked another Shadow Milk Cookie on the left, grinning just like the first one.
“Come on, it’s not funny” protested the guest, not very convincingly though.
“You are a liar~” chimed in a third Shadow Milk Cookie appearing from nowhere and joining the other two in circling around their guest, from several meters above him.
Forbidden Rice shrugged, defeated “Do you really have to show me a new trick every time I come here? What is it, this time?”
“Absolutely~” and with that a fourth copy of the cookie joined the trio “and it’s very, very simple indeed! You just need…”
“To guess..”
“Which of us..”
“Is the real…”
“Shadow Milk Cookie!” they all echoed together, the same voice repeated four times.
Forbidden Rice looked at the four Shadow Milk Cookies circling around them, all identical in every single detail, the look, the clothes, even the expressions of the eyes on the underside of their hair was the same.
Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie grinned.
“The real Shadow Milk Cookie… is right there!” they exclaimed, pointing their finger at the cardboard blue sheep lazily moving back and forth in the accordion.
The four Master of Deceit froze for a moment, only to disappear in a puff of light blue and black smoke, as the cardboard sheep shapeshifted into the house owner floating in the air, his face mere centimetres from Forbidden Rice’s face.
“Aww, you are the only one who always sees through my tricks and illusions~” he said in a mockingly sad tone. Forbidden Rice’s grin only widened.
“This is because I know you dear” they affirmed and grabbed Shadow Milk Cookie’s face. The blue cookie let himself be kissed, using his floating ability to make the kiss quirky and strange.
Kissing Shadow Milk Cookie was like kissing the cold, and the darkness, and the chaos. And milk straight from the fridge.
Shadow Milk Cookie had just started to poke his tongue out when his companion halted them “Let me change from my travel clothes, would you? We can continue later”
And with that Forbidden Rice just left, heading for their room, which wasn’t far away at that point.
Relentless, Shadow Milk Cookie kept following him, still floating horizontally at their head level.
“Dou reeeeally have to travel for so long? It’s been booooring up here~”
“Don’t you have a lot of toys to play with?”
Shadow Milk shifted around, floating on his back, his arms behind his head “But who iiis a Master Puppeteer without his public~?” he complained in a jokingly petulant voice.
“There still is Candy Apple Cookie, the girl is crazy for you. Or you could show Black Sapphire Cookie some new tricks”
Shadow Milk Cookie shifted again on his stomach, hands crossed under his chin.
“But they’re not you~”
Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie blushed slightly, but refused to give their partner the satisfaction of a reaction. Knowing that they would see through all his lies and illusions, the Master of Deceit resorted to use the Truth as his weapon, a weapon aimed at being annoying, mostly, because he always had to have the upper hand, even in playful banter.
“A-anyway, I still have to wash myself and change clothes first” Forbidden Rice said, entering their room.
White with blue details, just like the rest of the castle, but with clear personal touches here and there in the form of personal possessions, mostly trinkets and souvenirs of their travels.
“You can forget about the clothes~” Shadow Milk Cookie’s voice was now low and sultry, clear indication of his intention towards his guest, who giggled at the suggestion, not really opposed at the idea, but still retorted “Milky, dear, I still stink from my travel, all I want to do right now is to take a nice bath”
Shadow Milk Cookie snapped his fingers and the blue curtain in the room opened, revealing the bathtub filled with perfectly warm water.
“Do you really think I wasn’t prepared~? I know your every step my little toy, especially when you’re into my domain~”
Forbidden Rice looked at their partner, at that shit-eating grin always plastered on his face. He had been more lonely than I thought was their reasoning. The encounter with his other half, Pure Vanilla Cookie, had left the Master of Deceit more fragile than he ever wanted to admit and not just in terms of sheer power of the Soul Jam, but in his own mind. In that moment, indulging him in those little things felt like the right thing to do to help.
“Well, the tub is big enough for the both of us…”
They barely had time to finish the sentence as Shadow Milk exclaimed “Good!” and snapped his fingers, at which his outfit fell onto the ground, empty, and its owner was already inside the bathtub, enjoying the warm water alone.
Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie shook their head, a smile curving their lips.
“I could do the same to you if you wanted~”
“And instead you’ll wait for me to get undressed the old fashioned way”
Having left their coat by the entrance, they still have a shirt, a vest, trousers and boots to remove, and decided to do it in the slowest, most tantalizing way they could manage.
Shadow Milk enjoyed the show, hands crossed on the border and his head laying on them, as his partner’s slowly revealed their pale dough, marred with faded scars, whose origin was a mystery even for the Master of Deceit.
A mystery.
That’s why this cookie is so interesting.
They removed the vest, slowly, then one button at the time for the shirt, letting it fall slowly down the shoulders, revealing chest and stomach. Magenta symbols were emblazoned on that flat chest, another mystery Shadow Milk Cookie hadn’t solved yet.
Boots kicked off, Forbidden Rice turned around to remove his trousers, their long hair over a shoulder to let the Master of Deceit peek at their back. Their tail waggled free of the fabric sliding down their pale skin, alongside their underwear.
As they turned around, Shadow Milk Cookie was pleased to know he wasn’t the only one… involved.
“The temperature is perfect” they commented, sliding behind Shadow Milk Cookie.
The Master of Deceit rested his head on the soft planes of his partner’s chest, relishing in the sensation of being held by the ever so slightly bigger cookie. Their tail gently wrapped around his calf and he giggled, pleased.
They stayed in silence for a while basking in each other’s presence and the warm water.
“So where did you travel to this time?”
Forbidden Rice scoffed “As if you didn’t know already”
“But what if I want to hear it from you~?”
The grey cookie giggles and indulges him, starting to trace his travel path from the beginning one week earlier.
At some point during the tale Shadow Milk Cookie shifted and turned around to face his partner.
Not interrupting the tale, Forbidden Rice gently placed a hand on Shadow Milk’s face, caressing his left cheek, thumb mischievously tracing his lower lips, swiftly pushing back strands of white hair and delicately moving over the left eye, that Forbidden Rice knew has always been blind to the world.
It might be blind but it can see the Truth had revealed them Shadow Milk Cookie one day, but this was the only time they couldn’t tell if the Master of Deceit was sincere or not. The eye was blind, that was a fact they had multiple chances to prove over time. If it had some magical abilities, that they didn’t know.
Milky water splashed around as Shadow Milk Cookie adjusted himself so their bodies would be the closest possible. Despite Forbidden Rice had been away only a week, the Master of Deceit was unusually clingy this time. Given Black Sapphire Cookie hadn’t greeted them at their arrival, he likely was away for some mission, while Candy Apple… was Candy Apple.
So he WAS lonely.
With a sudden movement, Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie grabbed Shadow Milk Cookie’s face and pulled, smashing their lips together in a heated kiss.
This managed to surprise the blue cookie, but just for a moment, as he immediately answered and melted into the kiss, leaving his hands to explore his partner’s body.
The cat cookie grinned into the kiss and grabbed Shadow Milk’s ass “Alright mister jester, if you so insist, let me show you that I, indeed have returned to you”
Shadow Milk Cookie playfully bit their lips in return.
Some time and three rounds later, both cookies laid naked on the bed, panting from all their activities.
Shadow Milk Cookie’s hair was a mess, all spread around him, the eyes on the underside all twisting in weird shapes following the unruly, messy strands.
“You still haven’t finished your tale~” he said, turning to lay on his partner’s chest.
Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie scoffed but resumed their tale from where they stopped nonetheless. It didn’t take long though before they noticed that their spectator had fallen asleep.
Gently, to not wake him up, they moved him under the covers. It was a marvel how gentle Shadow Milk Cookie’s face was when asleep, a sharp contrast to his usual over the top self, and pranks and grins and maniacal laughs, only to sleep like a baby in their arms, vulnerable.
Forbidden Rice didn’t know if it was a conscious choice for the Master of Deceit, or he simply let his guard down on instinct around them.
It was… flattering to be able to receive this kind of trust, especially from him who didn’t completely trust even his direct underlings.
They smiled gently, placed a kiss on Shadow Milk’s tattooed eye, one on his blind eye, and then one on his lips, a gentle and subtle touch, a wish for sweet dreams, before turning the lights off and curling together under the covers, their bodies entwined as Forbidden Rice Cat Cookie too slipped into dream’s sweet embrace.