Chapter Text
This wasn't supposed to go this poorly.
Alchemist wouldn't stop pacing, squirming, anything to get this anxious energy out. Tapping her foot on the boat ride back, pacing circles in rented rooms, tossing with what little sleep she could get. The length of the journey back, as hurried as it was, still left too much time for her mind to wander. On constant replay with everything that had happened, that had lead up to this.
It had only been a minute.
The moment kept playing over and over and over in her mind. She'd buried her head in a bush, on the hunt for an ingredient she’d only read about, something exclusive to Beast-Yeast and when she'd turned around-
Where could he have even gone?
Vampire was far from the type to run off, let alone so quickly and without a warning. Especially not when he'd specifically insisted on tagging along to keep an eye on her. But he had. She hadn't even heard his steps, just looked back up and she was alone. Couldn't track him down, she'd tried, wandering around Beast-Yeast for three days in a desperate attempt to gather even a trace of where he'd gone.
But she hadn't found anything, only a sharp, sugary smell that was almost nauseating in its sweetness.
Now finally back on Crispia, she rushed to the first place she could think of.
-
“We have a really big problem!”
Sparkling nearly threw the glass in his hand when Alchemist slammed open the door to the near empty bar with a frantic shout. He looked over and gave a worried “What? You weren't supposed to be back for another few days, what's happening? Are you okay?”
Alchemist looked pale with panic. “Vampire's missing.”
“Vam- What?!” The glass dropped, clattering against the ground but thankfully not shattering, not that his mind was worried about it anymore. “What do you mean he's missing??”
“I mean I turned around and he was gone! I looked for three days!” she was pacing again, running hands through frazzled hair, glasses askew on her face. “I couldn't track him, didn't hear him leave, he never moves that fast and never without warning me and-”
“Alchemist.” Sparkling put his hands on her shoulders, startling her out of her rant. He'd be a liar if he said he wasn't worried, or spooked, or a little panicked himself, but nonetheless. “Breath, please. I can barely get a word.”
With a very forced deep breath, Alchemist was guided to a seat at the counter as she began to explain properly what had happened. The expedition for ingredients, when she'd lost him, the sugary smell. Sparkling leaned on the counter, nodding and stashing away every detail in his mind. He was drumming his fingers nervously on the wood, his worries swimming. What if something had happened? Would they be too late? He tried to shake it off.
“When can we go back?” Sparkling kept his voice as steady as he could make it, though not for a lack of certainty. He wanted to know. No matter what they found, he had to know what had happened.
He just hoped that could be told to him by Vampire himself.
Alchemist forced a breath “Two days. The trip to the licorice sea and then across it, two days,” she replied, leg tapping against the stool.
“Right. I’ll warn Herb, you need to try and rest before we go,” Sparkling said, a gentle sort of sterness to it as he stood back up properly.
“...Can I crash there?” Alchemist sounded meek with her stress. “I think being back at ours will make it worse,” she’d be around every corner expecting him to be lounging there, laughing about being too tired and leaving early. Or the weight of the emptiness would crush her. She didn’t know which would come first.
Sparkling looked at her with a warm but weary smile “Of course.” He doubted Herb would mind her crashing in his spare room for the night. Actually he was quite certain that if he was here, he wouldn’t have let Alchemist even sit with the idea of returning to her place.
Leaving her at the counter, Sparkling worked through the motions of closing up the bar, a bit early, but this was more important, and it was slow anyway. Then he was locking up, walking with Alchemist the short distance to Herb’s place, greeted by the extensive garden in the yard as they trailed through. Alchemist didn’t even look up from the ground, as it seemed the exhaustion had finally set in. He helped her get set up in the spare room, before leaving her to head for the main bedroom.
He wouldn’t tell Herb tonight. He deserved to sleep, not be woken up in a panic. He just braced himself to wake up much earlier the next day to make sure they got to Beast-Yeast as soon as they could. He worked through his nightly routine, trying to quell the fear that sat like a stone in his stomach. Wrote a note for Herb in the morning to wake him up, a short note that Alchemist was there, that they needed to talk.
How long did they have? He knew Vampire, though his lazy and laid back demeanor didn’t show much to imply it, he could be resourceful, powerful in a downright scary way when it came to it. But Beast-Yeast, all you heard of that place was how dangerous it was. Would they ever be able to find him? If they did, what would they even come across? A body?
He gave a silent plea to the Witches that wouldn’t be what they found. To find him alive, no matter what.
He tucked himself close to Herb that night. Held him tight, found comfort in the warmth of his body, the sound of his breathing, every small shift. In his fear for his other partner, to at least be absolutely sure of his safety… Well, it was a lifeline to keep his stress at bay.
His dreams were still haunted by possibilities and desperate screams.
-
Herb blinked awake to Sparkling still holding tight to him, which he found odd. The bartender wasn't one to sleep that close, usually. Vampire was the one to be wrapped like a koala. It was enough to make his thoughts pause, mumble silent questions of ‘was he back already?’ before he could fully register that it was Sparkling.
He carefully untangled himself from the blonde, sitting up. He heard him mumble and start to stir, and Herb was quick to murmur that it was alright, to head back to sleep. But Sparkling just moved a hand over to gesture sleepily towards the bedside table, and Herb shifted his attention over.
He sat there after reading it, on the bed, waiting for Sparkling to wake up properly. He wrung his hands together, as he worked through the words on the page. Something was wrong. That much was obvious. Alchemist here but no sign of Vampire, Sparkling asking to be woken up early. Something was very, very wrong.
“What's going on?” Herb asked quietly once Sparkling had risen to sit, watching him run fingers through blonde hair to move it out of his face.
“Alchemist came back early, last night. Rushed into the bar,” Sparkling started, still a bit bleary eyed with sleep. “Vampire went missing. She couldn't find him, doesn't know where he went.”
“In Beast-Yeast?” Herb's expression was tight as he went through what he was sure was exactly what Sparkling already had last night. The worry, the fear, the when and how of getting there.
“Alchemist said we could get there in two days if we left early. I know it's sudden but-”
“I'll close the shop,” Herb was already getting up, crossing the room. “Get Carrot or Clover to come by and make sure everything's watered. Do you think I should bring Cookiesnap-”
Sparkling watched him fly about the room, packing away items, pulling open a closet with a pack ready for camping. Huh. He should've figured that worry would be silly in the face of what was happening. “If it wouldn't be a pain to bring it all the way across the Licorice sea, I would've agreed,” he replied.
“Ah, right,” Herb hummed with thought as he checked the bag. “This tent is big enough to share, but we should get you a bag and stock up on food before we leave.”
“Noted,” Sparkling replied, getting up “I'll make us some breakfast if you get everything ready,”
“Will do,” Herb replied as the blond pulled on a shirt before heading out of the room. Sparkling could hear the pacing steps in the spare room as he passed, and idly he wondered if she'd slept at all. He just gave a quiet sigh and started the pot, the smell of coffee soon enough filling the kitchen.
Today was going to be a long day.