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Golden Cheeses grip tightened on the match in her hand as she scraped the tip against the side of the matchbox, over and over and over again, all to no avail.
Hollyberry had invited her to go camping with her, just like they always would when they were both much younger cookies, and she had accepted immediately. What was she to do? Golden Cheese had spent years without seeing any of her friends from outside her kingdom, and now Hollyberry, who she hadn’t spent any alone time with since before the “final” showdown with Dark Enchantress Cookie, was inviting her to go camping. Together. Just them. Admittedly, when Golden Cheese thought of the other ancients, the one in which she had most anticipated seeing had always been Hollyberry. The two had been friends since long before either of them knew any of the other ancients, and Golden Cheese always felt that that made them closer to each other than the others. At least, Golden Cheese liked to think that Hollyberry felt the same way. A part of her despised the idea of Hollyberry favoring any of the other ancients over her.
The queens hands stilled as her companion emerged from out of the smaller of the two tents, carrying a six-pack of hollyberry juice and a bottle opener.
“Your favorite~” Hollyberry sung, a large smile painting her face. Golden Cheese had to force her gaze away from the familiar sight.
“Again. Your favorite,” the queen spoke with a scoff, earning a loud laugh from the other.
“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to,” Hollyberry teased, dropping the juice beside Golden Cheese and sitting with her legs crossed on the other side of it. Golden Cheese refocused on trying to light the match in order to draw her mind from thinking about how much she wished that the juice wasn’t placed between them. “Do you need any help there?” Hollyberrys words drew her attention away from the matches once more.
“No!” she snapped back. “I think that there’s something wrong with this match.” The queen flicked the wretched thing in the direction of the forest and pulled another one from the box, trying to light it, but, once again, she only received sparks in return. From the corner of her eye, Golden Cheese saw Hollyberry pull one of the berry juice bottles from the box. “Hand me one too,” she said, dropping the matches to her side.
“Of course, your majesty,” the other spoke, giving the bottle she had already held to Golden Cheese, along with the bottle opener.
Golden Cheese stared at the bottle opener for a few moments. It was old, the same one that the two used back when they travelled together in the old days, long before the two of them had received their souls jams. “Why do you still have this?” She snorted, popping the cap off of her berry juice before handing the bottle opener back to her friend. “You seriously need a new one if this is the one you’ve been using all these years.”
“Oh whatever!” Hollyberry said with a smile, snatching the bottle opener from Golden Cheeses hand. “I have plenty of these that I use far more often! I just thought I’d bring this one for old times sake!”
“How sentimental.” Hollyberry didn’t respond, only taking a swig of her juice and letting out a long, satisfied sigh.
Golden Cheese took a sip of her own juice, then grabbed the match again, it was getting far too dark for them not to have a fire set yet. Luckily, this time Golden Cheese was able to light the match in only two swipes before using it to set fire to the bundle of wood she and Hollyberry had set up earlier that night. The fire lit up the campsite, illuminating it in a harsh orange lighting.
“Haha! Would you look at that!” Hollyberry laughed. “All it took for you to light a match in the end was just a single sip of hollyberry juice. And you say it’s not your favorite!”
“It really isn’t,” Golden Cheese lied, but she let herself laugh along with her companion, taking another, bigger, sip of her juice.
“Whatever you say, your majesty,” the hollyberrians queen mother turned to Golden Cheese as she continued, “what exactly is your favorite, then.”
Golden Cheese paused. If she was honest, then she would just admit that hollyberry juice was her favorite, but she had spent far too much time denying such a fact for her not to double down. She nearly chugged the rest of her berry juice before shooting her friend a grin. “ That’s a secret.” Her words earned a huff from her companion.
“You’ll tell me one day!” Hollyberry declared, placing the mouth of the bottle against her lips and leaning her head back. Golden Cheese couldn’t help but stare as she finished her own drink. Once Hollyberrys bottle was empty, she placed it beside her and met Golden Cheeses eyes as she grabbed two more bottles from the pack. “Haha! Looks like we finished at the same time! Care for another?”
“I can always count on you to drink far too much juice,” Golden Cheese chided as she grabbed one of the bottles from Hollyberrys hand and took off the cap. “So, how’d you get rid of your bodyguard?”
Hollyberry cringed. “Well it certainly wasn’t easy.” She took a long sip of her juice, then grinned. “I tried lying about where I was going, but that boy somehow managed to find out what I was doing! That’s why we had to change areas last minute! I’m sure that he won’t be able to find me here!” After a short pause, Hollyberry changed the subject. “Heh. This feels just like old times! Just you, me, the fire and some good old berry juice! Though, I do think that this juice beats the cheap stuff we used to drink in the old days, eh?”
“Oh please! Hollyberry juice isn’t any less cheap than the juice I bought for us back then!”
“You’re just embarrassed to admit you used to enjoy the cheap stuff,” Hollyberry gasped. “Wait! Is that it? Is that your favorite juice? Is that why it’s a secret?”
“Not even close.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure.”
“Positive?”
“ Hollyberry .” Golden Cheese shot her friend a stern look.
“If you’re sure,” the queen mother said with a chuckle. Her lips twitched downward ever so slightly before she continued. “Back then… we had all the time in the world, didn’t we? We could have stayed out here as long as we wanted to.” Golden Cheese raised an eyebrow at her friend. There was nothing the queen valued more than her kingdom and her treasures. But she could still remember the disappointment when she first reunited with Hollyberry after they each had received their respective souls jams and the golden queens previous hopes of Hollyberry being a part of her beloved kingdom had been crushed. It was useless to still think about, of course. The two would always be a part of different kingdoms. Perhaps that was always how it was supposed to be.
Golden Cheese gulped down some more berry juice before speaking, barely loud enough for her friend beside her to hear, “I have everything I could ever want in my kingdom.” And it should have been true.
Swiftly, she lifted the bottle to her mouth and chugged down the rest of the juice that remained inside of it and pulled it away, feeling her head finally start to feel noticeably fuzzy. With a grin, she chucked the empty bottle away from her, barely noticing the sound of glass shattering against the bark of a tree, that was for her to care about in the morning. “Now, hand me another berry juice!”
“Hahaha! And you say I drink too much!” Hollyberrys loud voice felt like music to the drunken ears of the winged sovereign.
“I can enjoy myself every now and then!” Golden Cheese argued. “I don’t drink as often as you do.” Hollyberry laughed and, chugging down her own drink, rushed to grab the last two juices they had, tossing the now empty piece of cardboard away from them.
After handing one of the bottles to Golden Cheese, Hollyberry raised the one she held in the sovereigns direction. “Cheers!” Golden Cheese raised her own bottle to meet her friends, their drinks making a clink sound as they touched. “To our friendship!” Golden Cheese forced her smile not to falter.
“To our friendship !” She wanted more. She always wanted more.
As the two drank the last of the juice in silence, Golden Cheeses drunken mind grew more and more aware of the emptiness of the space between the two friends. How much she craved just to close that distance, just to-
Oh.
When Golden Cheese looked beside her, the empty space was near entirely gone, Hollyberry had scooted closer. When had she done that? Golden Cheese didn’t entirely care. She didn’t bother thinking before scooting even closer to the other, until their sides touched.
“Oh- uh,” Hollyberry stiffened.
“It’s- uhm- it’s cold,” Golden Cheese stammered.
“Oh, we can go back into our tents if-“
“No! No! It’s okay!” Golden Cheeses wings sprung out in desperation, accidentally slapping Hollyberry in the back. “Uh- sorry!”
“It’s okay,” Hollyberry laughed, though it didn’t sound quite like any of the times she laughed previously during the night.
Golden Cheese forced out a chuckle, wracking her brain for something - anything - to say, when her eyes fell onto the two tents nearby.
“Remember when you always used to forget to bring a tent when we would go on our adventures?” Golden Cheese spoke. “And you always had to sleep in mine?” A part of Golden Cheese had hoped that Hollyberry would have forgotten her tent this time too, but it would have been ridiculous if she had, Hollyberry mostly travelled alone nowadays, of course she wouldn’t forget.
The queen mother laughed a little louder then, “haha! And you hated it so much! You acted like you wanted to crumble me just for making you share your space! Which was stupidly huge, mind you!” Hollyberry pointed at Golden Cheeses tent. “And it seems you’ve only went bigger! Is that even a tent anymore? It’s more like a portable house!”
“Oh shut up!” Golden Cheese said, giving Hollyberry a light shove. “I don’t understand how you can stand to sleep in such a tiny thing! Surely you can afford something better now that your royal !”
“Well, I could but I would have no need for it!” Hollyberry defended. “I don’t feel any need to be so flashy all the time!”
“I always liked that about you,” the words slipped out of Golden Cheeses mouth before she could stop them and she whipped her head away immediately after, not bothering to wait to see Hollyberry’s reaction.
The two sat in silence once more, Golden Cheese sipping the rest of her berry juice. She stared intently at the nearly entirely dwindled fire, too afraid to look at Hollyberry, but not quite remembering why.
Golden Cheese suddenly felt her drinking buddy shift beside her, and barely managed to stifle her gasp as she turned her head to see Hollyberry was facing her now, a dazed expression on her gorgeous face. Where once Golden Cheese couldn’t bring herself to look at the other, now she couldn’t look away. Two hot pink eyes kept her gaze in place, that is, until she noticed them inching closer. Golden Cheese leaned back slightly, her eyes widening, but then, she glanced to the others parted lips and her hazy mind somehow managed to connect the dots.
Hollyberry was leaning in… for a kiss .
And Golden Cheese wanted it. She wanted it more than anything.
With lighting speed, Golden Cheese dove forward, connecting her lips to Hollyberrys. Their foreheads collided painfully but Golden Cheese couldn’t bring herself to care, tilting her head for comfortability. The two moved their mouths together as they pressed into each other, Golden Cheese hugged Hollyberrys neck and wrapped her wings around her back, holding the queen mother in place. Hollyberry returned the gesture by grasping her shoulders with gloved hands.
The way their mouths pressed against each other was everything to Golden Cheese but it wasn’t enough . She wanted more . She needed more.
One of her hands moved to the back of Hollyberrys head, pushing it into hers even harder, to the point that it hurt . But Golden Cheese could handle the pain, so long as she had Hollyberry .
Because Hollyberry was everything .
She wanted Hollyberry.
She needed Hollyberry.
She loved Hollyberry.
She loved Hollyberry.
She loved Hollyberry.
She loved Hollyberry .
But she couldn’t have Hollyberry
The large hands that were previously holding Golden Cheeses shoulders in place were now shoving them away and Golden Cheese loosened her grip on the other, pulling away and crawling backwards to give the other some space.
Hollyberry sat across from her now, panting and looking anywhere but at the winged sovereign, before she clumsily stood up.
“Good- goodnight, Golden Cheese,” her words were slurred yet quick, and she turned away immediately after, disappearing into her rundown tent. Golden Cheese glanced towards the fire, there was hardly anything left of it other than ashes, so Golden Cheese reached for the water bucket nearby and dumped it over the pathetic bundle. With a sigh, she made her way over into her own tent.
Inside the tent, Golden Cheese wondered if Hollyberry was right. It really was too big. Too empty , a smaller tent would have sufficed. She really didn’t need to be so flashy.
As Golden Cheese crawled into her makeshift bed, her mind drifted to Hollyberry. She shouldn’t have kissed her. It was too much. The two would never be able to be together. They both had far better things to be worrying about other than love.
They didn’t need each other.
They couldn’t need each other.
Golden Cheese didn’t need Hollyberry. She had everything she ever needed. She was happy.