Chapter Text
“I’m coming, I'm coming, settle down.” Blueberry Milk gently reprimanded the impatient beast. Feathers that reached for his side did not stop. It barely gave the cookie time to get into any form of sleep gown before wrapping around Blueberry’s waist and pulling Him back to bed.
Blueberry Milk couldn’t help but laugh. Big scary Avatar of Destiny was acting like a clingy kitten. A small trill came from the Beast. Blueberry decided to interpret it as a question.
“Nothing, I just think it's funny that you’re soo desperate for me to get into bed with you. Oh big scary Avatar of destiny.” He let himself be curled up in giant wings that held him close to the Beast, a soft purr coming just as Blueberry got comfortable.
The Beast huffed though, through the purr. A light smack to the back of Blueberry’s head was the only sign of annoyance at the answer given.
Bratty little cuddle hungry kitten. He just smiled. No offense was taken. He knew that. If there was offense, Blueberry would’ve been kicked out of his own bedroom by now.
(He learned that the hard way when he came home with gifts from a student from the academia and tried to enter their supposed shared bedroom with them. He couldn’t even enter the room until the smell of the other cookie had left.)
Sleep came fast, exhaustion in his dough taking over as the comfort of soft wings and warmth finally settled in. So many words he wanted to say yet none of them would come.
He could say them in the morning, both of them immortal. They had the time in the world. The Beast could withstand not being questioned for one night.
“Faiaum.”
Fire.
Fire surrounded him. The forest animals scattered in panic, fleeing without a word or screaming in terror. Yet he couldn’t move. His legs were burning. He could barely feel them.
But he couldn’t abandon her. Not again.
The Cookie in his arms reached up, gently wiping away a tear he hadn’t even realized was falling. He couldn’t remember her eyes anymore. But he knew, they were looking at him kindly through the pain.
“Don’t cry.” She said, Ignoring the way the petals of the flower crown she wore fell off, the fire claiming them. He knew She ignored how painful it was to move or speak.
“If you cry, No one else will be here to wipe your tears.” She spoke. Barely audible above the flames. There were cookie’s yelling somewhere in the distance. He didn’t know what they said. Didn’t care.
“Don’t leave me.”
“.. I’m sorry.”
“You promised. You promised you would stay. That you wouldn’t leave me like the others.”
The cookie laughed before being racked with a coughing spell. She was crumbling. He tried to heal her, a singular white feather coming to her dough but it was useless.
She could not be healed.
“There will be others. I know there will be.”
“What if there aren’t? What if I'm alone, doomed to watch everything pass me by again?!”
Silence. She looked away. She had no answer. No real one that could soothe his anxieties. He sobbed harder, pulling her closer in to try and keep her warm. Something to stall her crumbling. Anything.
It was futile. He already knew this. It wasn’t the first time he lost someone. Nor would it be the last.
She looked back at him, gently brushing his hair down through fingers. Cold comfort. The last time she would ever do this for him.
For It.
“You’ll find someone.” She said gently. “While our fate isn’t one we wanted.. You can live on. I promise you can. Destiny waits for no one, Not even the witches.”
“But what if i don’t..”
“Then you must make yourself. Imagine yourself to be an uncaring Beast, something that cares not for connection if you must. But you must survive.”
She burst into coughing. Her face was starting to crumble apart. Her beautiful white hair had already nearly burnt away in the flames.
“You carry our Hopes and Wishes now, $%&# !@(*%#&. You can see the world where we could not. If you cannot live for yourself, Live for us.”
“Promise me.”
“I.. I can’t, Please.. Please don’t make me-”
“Promise. Me.”
Silence. The cookie’s in the distance were getting closer. The crackling of fire did not slow. It got closer to him. It wants to devour him whole as well. Just like it was devouring Her.
“I…”
“I promise. I’ll live for you and the others. I’ll ignore the world and be the monster they wanted us to be. I’ll see the new world and make sure you are never forgotten even if it is just within my memory.”
She smiled. A beautiful, wide smile of relief. He could almost see her eyes now. Ruby and tired. Relieved and exhausted. Like he had just lifted the world's greatest burden off of her shoulders.
“Thank you. I’m sorry, maybe one day you can forgive me for my selfishness.”
He wanted to say something. But it was lost in his throat when her hand dropped from his head. She was limp.
“... Wh@%# &*Ly..?”
She didn’t move. Did not breathe unevenly. Cold.
“#@*(& &*($%!” It Screamed.
Blueberry Milk shot awake with a scream. Barely getting out of the wings of his Beast in his adrenaline fueled mind. He barely even noticed that it woke up with a yelp of surprise.
Tears ran down Blueberry Milk’s cheeks. Emotions that were not his own plagued his mind. Fire burned just behind his eyelids whenever he blinked, the noise of that gut wrenching scream of a name he couldn’t understand rang in his ears.
The image of a cookie that was just too off proportionate to be a cookie. Ears too long and too animalistic, arms that were too long for a cookie of that height.
Dying in the arms of whoever the cookie he dreamt he was.
“Ieum?” The Beast had changed shape. The size of a normal cookie to try and get through to Blueberry Milk. The Beast looked so concerned even through its unseeing gaze.
Blueberry Milk vaguely realized he was shaking. The room was spinning. He never had nightmares, much less dreams unless prophetic.
So who was the cookie with white hair? Ruby eyes that he barely could see?
Who was the cookie he dreamt he was?
“Ieum.” So many answers needed and yet Blueberry Milk could barely keep his mind straight. So many things ran across it like it was an uncontrollable wind. Nothing stayed and nothing that calmed him.
“Blu..eberry!”
One word. One word is all it took to snap Blueberry out of whatever funk he woke up to. His name was spoken by the Beast. Finally, he looked at it. Finally, whatever raged in his mind calmed down. Just enough to realize how tightly he was holding his arms.
That jam was running down his arms.
Blueberry Milk cringed. Letting go of himself and watching the Beast that was in front of him relax. In its hand was a singular white feather.
Blueberry Milk recognized it as one of the white feathers from his dream.
White Magic went over him from the feather, sealing the wounds he accidentally inflicted on himself.
The feather turned grey and crumbled. The image of that Cookie in the dream flashed as the feather crumbled.
That wasn’t his memory he knew. But he did not know who it belonged to.
The possibility of it being the Avatar’s was near impossible. The stature of the cookie in the dream holding the other was too small. Too gentle.
Too little wings.
The Beast pushed itself into Blueberry’s arms, purring even in that smaller form. Wings from nowhere coming to wrap around the virtue silently.
“Blu..e..berry.” It spoke again. Staggered and uneven. It must be really concerned if it's pushing itself enough to speak, and muchless not its native tongue.
“I’m sorry.” He wrapped his arms around the Beast, holding it back for once. “I just had a nightmare. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m okay, I promise.”
The Beast whined in concern but melted into Blueberry’s hold. The two sat there in bed silently. The Beast purring to comfort, Blueberry accepting the comfort as he tried to process what that nightmare was.
It didn’t make sense no matter how many times he rolled it over in his own head. He doubted it’d make sense if he wrote it down too. Maybe he just.. Needed to go back to sleep.
Sleep sounded good. He felt so exhausted. He leaned back with the Beast still laid atop him. Not bothering to give it time to manhandle him back into the cuddle they were in before.
The Squeal it made was incredibly amusing. Clearly not used to being the one manhandled. It landed face first into Blueberry’s chest and he snickered at it.
It looked up at him unamused and rolled off his chest. Going back to its usual indoors size once It knew that He was okay. Wrapping Blueberry backup in Its wings.
Sleep came easily yet again within the embrace of the Beast. It always did.
This time, he did dream. But it was his own dream this time. A greyscale dream of the Kingdom was laid out before him. This dream wasn’t unfamiliar to Blueberry. It usually came to him when He needed a moment to think.
Or, perhaps, because he had a visitor. But the only visitor he’d ever had were odd cookies that claimed to be envoys for a cookie of moonlight.
Did that rule it out as a possibility? No. But he had no desire to humor those cookie’s tonight. Not in a dream where he was lucid and able to think. Able to conjure whatever he wished for.
Not when that dream still plagued his mind just out of reach. He could almost imagine the burning forest again. He tried too, anyway.
But it did not come to him for once. His dreams not bending to his will was an odd beginning. What was stranger was that he swore he saw green from the corner of his eye.
Yet when he turned to try and see the origin, Blueberry Milk only saw a singular white lily flower on the ground. Innocent and inconspicuous. It would’ve been right in place if not for the fact it had color.
The only things that had color in this place were visitors not of this dream, and Blueberry Milk himself.
Whatever this white lily was, it wasn’t native to the dream. Blueberry Milk picked it up anyway, holding it.
The flower was scorching hot. As if it were burning alive in an oven. Yet it did not melt. Blueberry Milk looked up from it, looking around. For some form of answer. Anything to lead towards who this new flower based visitor was.
But the only thing of color was the White Lily he held in his hand. There were no visitors from the Moonlighted Dreams, He was alone with this flower.
It made him uneasy.
It made him unbearably curious. A puzzle he’s never gotten to solve before.
“You’re the one he’s chosen…” A woman's voice shocked Blueberry out of whatever mindset he was in. He knew no one else was around. The only thing the voice could come from was…
“He’s kept his promise. I’m glad.” The little white lily spoke. “I wonder what you will do, However. You were meant to be our replacements. Maybe you’ll fall into the same pitfalls we did. Maybe you won’t.”
The white lily began to crumble.
“I suppose you’ll have to surprise me. Maybe if the Witches wish for it, I’ll even see you in person. Perhaps not, Perhaps so. I look forward to it, Virtue of Knowledge.”
He was rudely awoken to the sound of shattering sugar glass. Blearily blinking awake from the lucid dream he could barely remember. Sitting up to see the Beast likewise lifting Its head to see what the noise was.
A vase from Blueberry Milk’s desk had fallen to the ground as if pushed. The Golden Rose inside of it had melted completely. Blueberry groaned at the realization he’d need to clean it up. Of course he would.
The Beast gently chirped in what felt like an apology, despite both of them knowing It hadn’t done it.
A faint smell of Lily flowers surrounded the room. A faint sound of laughter that was easily missed.
“Well then, What shall you do now?”