Archive of Our Own ^beta

Wind blew through the dark, moonlit meadow, swaying the grass and causing a whistle to blow through the singular tree. Shadow Milk Cookie saw another cookie, standing a few meters away, with their back to him.

He sighed. Dreams like this were soooooooo annoying. Earthbread forbid he get restful sleep.

“Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooo? Who’re you? Come to see the great Shadow Milk Cookie for yourself? Well, I’m sorry, but I’m quite busy right now! You’ll have to wait~” Shadow Milk said, not caring. Dreams were stupid. At least, he thought this was a dream…

“Why…”

The figure rasped, barely a whisper, as Shadow Milk was about to shift the dream himself. He recognized that voice. But from where…?

“What?” he asked, almost to himself.

“Why did you hurt me…”

The voice distorted and became low and multiplied. Shadow Milk definitely recognized that voice- those voices- now. He tried to back away, but some invisible force dragged him almost right up to the figure while he struggled. “HEY! Get- OFF ME!” he yelled, trying to use his powers, but they weren’t there. He felt his breathing start to pick up. No powers… he had never had his powers stripped, not even in dreams, not since…

The figure turned around slowly.

Its face- an amalgam of screaming cookie faces. Every cookie he’d ever hurt. It shifted and bubbled and grew a thousand weeping eyes and hissing mouths, staring at him, yelling at him, as the force held him there, unable to move.

Angry students. Enraged souls he couldn’t remember that had been the victims of his rumor-weavers.

Elder Fairie Cookie.

Candy Apple Cookie and Black Sapphire Cookie.

Pure Vani-

His eyes burst open, but only in the dream. He stood on a barren gray plane. He didn’t know why, but he started running. Something in his brain screaming at him to run, to get away, to hide, to never be perceived again-

He made the mistake of looking behind him to see a massive disembodied forearm and hand rocketing towards him with the palm open. He sprinted faster- but he tripped. He faceplanted into the flat ground, before being scooped up by the twisted hand and clutched far too tight to even breathe.

The world around him changed. It was pitch-black now. The hand dropped him down, and he fell for a solid three seconds before landing hard on the ground again.

He shakily got up, but before he could keep running-

Bars. Slamming down on all sides. Trapping him, containing him, just like during-

Shadow Milk bolted awake and let out a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream as his hands frantically clutched the bedsheets around him. He couldn’t get the images out of his mind- the screaming faces- the tree-


In his blind fear, he didn’t notice the cookie next to him- until she started screaming too.


“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! MASTER SHADOW MILK! A-ARE YOU-”


He flinched violently before getting a proper look at the cookie at his bedside. It was Candy Apple Cookie- not wearing her apple pigtails, and with her usually perfect hair disheveled. Tear tracks ran down her face.

Shadow Milk shook for a moment, before clearing his throat and nervously resetting his face. Showtime.

“ Ahem- C-Candy Apple! What are you doing here? You know how I feel about other cookies interrupting my beauty sleep, ” Shadow Milk said, spitting out the other cookies, trying to give his voice the unhinged edge that it usually had. Instead, he just sounded wobbly. Fuck.

“I-I know- I-I’m sorry, Master Ssshadow Milk, it’s just…” she stuttered, before breaking into tears. “...I HAD A NIIIGHTMAAAAAARE!!!” she yelled, making Shadow Milk flinch again with its suddenness.

“Alright, alright, kid, calm down. Why do you need me for tha-” he started. 

Candy Apple, however, was too deep in her nightmare-scare state to stop crying.

“YOU WERE- YOU WERE- WE WERE BACK IN THE SPIRE- AND IT COLLAPSED ON YOU- A-AND BLACK SAPPHIRE- I COULDN’T FIND HIM- AND- AND-”


“Cheesus, calm down, kid. It’s- it’s fine,” Shadow Milk said. He was still thoroughly shaken up from his own nightmare. He didn’t need a kid to cry to him about hers.


“MASTER SHADOW MILK!” yelled a voice from the hallway. Great. This show apparently requires an audience.


“Master! Are you alright?” asked Black Sapphire Cookie, bursting in the doors. Shadow Milk flinched- again- before taking a deep internal breath. Alright, he could squeeze in a performance. Just get his game face on.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be? Candy Apple Cookie is just-”


“Master Shadow Milk, you look… terrible,” Black Sapphire interrupted, making an expression that was a mix between a heavy grimace, like he was looking at a pile of stinking dog shit, and deep concern.


“...What?” Shadow Milk said. Shit. If he looked bad enough for Black Sapphire to bring it up, then it was also obvious what had caused it.  He summoned a mirror with his small power reserves. 

Unholy fuck, he’s right.

He did look terrible. His hair, usually magicked into two perfect tails reminiscent of his jester hat, was as messed up as Candy Apple’s. He had tear tracks twice as bad as hers, even worse eye bags than usual, and to top it all off, he had evidently forgotten to take off his makeup, as his face was covered in running, smeared mascara.


He stared at himself for a good few seconds, flabbergasted, before releasing the mirror and looking at Black Sapphire. He stared blankly for a few seconds before clearing his throat and putting his voice back on.


“So what if I do? We’re in the middle of a forest, it’s not like anybody’s gonna see me,” he joked, but there was a twinge of fear under his voice. Black Sapphire seemed to pick it up- curse his observancy- before slowly asking, “F-Forgive me for asking, Master, but… are you alright?”


Black Sapphire knew very well how bad Shadow Milk’s nightmares were. He’d had to clean the vomit on the sheets and the strawberry jam in the sink that they would cause, every now and then, when Shadow Milk had already been having a bit of a week, or when the nightmare had on its own been all too much. He’d listened to Shadow Milk cry- cry!- as he bandaged his wrists and comforted the beast.


And all Shadow Milk did in return was hurt him

“Master?”

Shadow Milk realized then that he’d been staring for probably a full minute now. He snapped back to reality, putting on his show once more. No matter what Black Sapphire had already seen, he needed to convince him this wasn’t one of those times. He couldn’t afford to be any more vulnerable.

“Oh- pssh, yes, of course! I’m fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, silly Sa-”

He stopped himself before he could finish the nickname, realizing how familiar it sounded, how the cookie it belonged to was a world away, never to come back, and for good reason.

Black Sapphire’s look of concern deepened. Candy Apple, now having crawled up on the bed, looked a bit curious, but mostly just as worried as her brother. The care in their faces filled Shadow Milk with something, something horrible, something that made him want to squirm and jump out the window and kill everyone and then himself, and hide forever deep in the forest, where nobody could love him ever again. Maybe then everything would hurt less 

He growled. Anger- a rarely unmasked emotion for him, despite what it may seem- showed on his face.


“Don’t. Give me. That. Look.”


The two other cookies flinched and hid their faces, hitting Shadow Milk with an instant wave of guilt- a peculiar emotion that he seemed to be feeling more often lately. He dropped the look, going for a more bored expression, but he looked irritated now instead. Great.


“I mean- ugh. It’s, what, two in the morning? None of us should be up. Aaaaaaalrighty, everyone to bed.”


“B-but, Master Shadow Milk-”


“WHat?” he said, his voice cracking as he almost yelled, but tried to fix it at the last second.


Candy Apple looked down, uncharacteristically sheepishly- probably caused by upsetting Shadow Milk- and asked, “Could I… sleep in your bed?”


Shadow Milk blanked. “Huh?”


“It’s just- I- I’m really scared, and- I- I want someone with me, and-”


“You can sleep with me, then, Candy Apple. We don’t want to disturb our Master,” Black Sapphire interjected. He gave a look to Shadow Milk, something like I’m sorry, I swear I’ll make this up to you.

“Actually-”

Shadow Milk started. The other two looked at him, and he balked realizing he didn’t have anything he wanted to say. He opened his mouth to correct himself, but now… he also realized that maybe… sleeping next to someone else wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. At least, it would give him someone to help him after another nightmare, if not ward them off completely.


“...it’s alright. You can stay with me, Candy Apple.”


She looked at Shadow Milk in awe, before yelling “YAAY! Ooh, thank you thank you thank you thank you! You won’t regret it!” in his face while she hugged him. He flinched, before hesitantly hugging her back.


“Yeah, yeah, don’t expect it to ever happen again. Be quiet, don’t move too much, don’t sleep-talk or snore or anything like that…”


“I promise!” she squeaked, then zipped into the spot in the large bed next to him and went still immediately, pretending to have fallen asleep already.


Shadow Milk sighed. He was probably going to regret this, but hey, no going back now.


Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Black Sapphire tap his foot, a telltale sign that he was anxious about something. Shadow Milk sighed. Yep, I’m definitely gonna regret this.


“You can get in too, if you like…” he groaned, rolling his eyes. Black Sapphire fiddled with his sleeves. “A-are you sure, I can leave, if you-”


“Yes, I’m sure. Now get in here before I change my mind.”


Black Sapphire marched over to the bed and got in, settling into the space between the pillows and sides, before closing his eyes and promptly falling asleep.


Shadow Milk settled back into the sheets, curling into them himself and resting his head on the pillow once more. He felt the terror from the nightmare slowly melting away while he drifted off…

“Shadow Milk?” came a hushed whisper from the other side of the bed.

“ What?” he asked, now a little tired of this.

“Goodnight, dad…”


Dad. 

It feels weird to be called that.


Not bad though.

“Goodnight, kid.”

Sleep came to Shadow Milk easily after that, drifting into the same moonlit meadow, this time with no terrors in sight.