Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dark Cacao Cookie wanders through a fuzzy labyrinth. He must be in the woods, because he feels pine needles brush against his skin and cold snow sting his feet. Why is he barefoot? Questions swirl in his mind, but no answers come to him. He hasn’t the foggiest idea what he came here to do. It was…he was…every possible explanation flies from his grasp. He sighs, continuing to plod on through the bitter snow. He tries to pull his cloak tighter around his shoulders, but grabs at nothing instead. Where is his cloak? Why isn’t he dressed for the only weather he’s ever known? He keeps walking, unsure of his destination.

He hears, or he thinks he hears, little footsteps behind him. They might be a hare or a Cream Wolf pup, but they remind him of a much younger Dark Choco Cookie. He can hear that tiny voice fighting to be heard above the bellowing wind. “Can you please play with me?”

He knows what he would have said. In this precious moment, with the gift of hindsight, he says the opposite. “Of course, my son.”

The boy leaps in front of him and lands on all fours. He smiles, revealing a missing toothcing. “Look, Appa, I’m a Snow Lion! Try and catch me!” He bounds forward with the speed only an energetic child can muster.

Nevertheless, Dark Cacao Cookie tries to keep up. Ignoring the freezing burn in his feet, he runs after the boy. He reaches his arms out. He almost catches Dark Choco Cookie several times, but the wriggly little creature always seems to slip from his grasp.

“You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”

Dark Cacao Cookie feels the wind nip at his face as he runs. His son’s laughter echoes through the woods, bouncing off of tree trunks and ringing like a bell in his ears. He rams his shoulder into something he cannot see. It must be a tree, but when he turns his head, there is only blank space. He silences the questions in his head and keeps running. All that matters is the freshly baked Cookie just a few paces ahead of him.

He steps on something. He thinks it’s a twig until sharp teeth pierce the dough of his calf. His eyecings snap open.

Dark Cacao Cookie wakes up in the woods with his leg in a Snow Lion trap.

Dark Choco Cookie holds his lantern in front of him, squinting at the silhouettes of trees. Somewhere close by, he heard the sound of a trap snapping. Some sorry creature is probably gnawing at its ankle right now, unsure of what else to do. That creature is lucky he’s here.

He’s pried those traps open many times. On the fringes of the Dark Cacao Kingdom, animals and Cookies alike end up in all sorts of dangerous situations. He simply darts from place to place and helps whatever—or whomever—he finds.

He walks in the direction of the sound, feeling the snow crunch against his boots. He must be getting close…

He stops in his tracks when he spots a trail of strawberry jam.

His heart aches a little. Some Snow Lion is probably limping through the forest right now—

No. There’s a footprint.

A Cookie footprint.

He notices more of them up ahead, one completely bare and the other ostensibly caught in the trap. This poor Cookie must have tried to seek help. Where were their shoes?

He shakes his head in wonder at how a Cookie could even step in that trap to begin with. No one would be stupid enough to travel without shoes or a light source. Somebody would have to have been stumbling around in the dark, barefoot and completely unaware of their surroundings. Maybe a sleepwalker.

He stops in his tracks. Could it be…

No. Surely there are other sleepwalkers in the Dark Cacao Kingdom. He pulls his cloak tighter and keeps walking, following the trail of strawberry jam through the woods.

When the crimson stops, he sees exactly what he feared. Sprawled out on the ground is a pajama-clad Dark Cacao Cookie, his leg bright red inside the trap. His chest rises and falls unsteadily. A pool of jam forms beneath his body.

Dark Choco Cookie hesitates for a fraction of a moment. Is this real life…? No more questions. His brain screams at him to jump into action. He squeezes the springs of the trap with his hands, channeling whatever strength he may have inherited from the other Cookie. After a few seconds, the trap pops open.

Dark Cacao Cookie takes a ragged breath. He struggles to prop himself up on his elbows, but once he does, he stares at his son for quite some time. When he finally musters the strength to speak, his voice sounds weaker than it ever has before. “…It’s you.”

Chapter Text

Dark Choco Cookie’s breath hitches. Maybe he can affect urgency and pretend he didn’t hear that. He pulls a strip of fabric from his bag and fashions a makeshift tourniquet to tie around his father’s leg. “This should stop you from losing too much jam.”

Dark Cacao Cookie continues to press him. “I know it’s you, Dark Choco Cookie. Please look at me.”

Dark Choco Cookie finishes tying the tourniquet and looks up at his father. He wonders if the other Cookie can even see his face under his billowing cloak.

Dark Cacao Cookie smiles, his lip quivering. Every bit of him is shaking with the effort of holding himself up.

Dark Choco Cookie feels his brows knit together. “Father, you should lie back down. Save your strength for the walk home.”

Dark Cacao Cookie does as he’s told, staring up at the sky instead of at his son. “You know…”

Dark Choco Cookie repacks his bag, preparing to drag his father home. “Hm?”

“You were only little.”

Dark Choco Cookie feels a pair of hands wringing his heart. What can he say to that? He splutters, his tongue clumsy and heavy. “I– I still should’ve known better.”

Dark Cacao Cookie coughs. “I…could say the same. About myself.”

Dark Choco Cookie bites his lip. He struggles to reconcile the helpless Cookie before him with his towering, unshakable father. He’s heard from locals that the king has been different since returning from Beast-Yeast. Stronger in some respects, but more contemplative and distracted. Dark Choco Cookie never asked anyone about his father’s encounter with the Beast, but he wonders if it left him shaken. No one of sound mind sleepwalks this far. He ties another tourniquet over the first one, now soaked through with jam. “What did you dream about? While you were walking?”

“You.”

“What?”

Dark Cacao Cookie takes a labored breath. “You. I was playing with you.”

Dark Choco Cookie feels his eyecings heat up. He tries to blink back tears, but squeezes one down his face instead. He wipes it hurriedly and sniffles. “I missed you, Father.”

Dark Cacao Cookie sighs, his breath visible in the cold night air. “I missed you too, my dear boy.”

Dark Choco Cookie feels the term of endearment deep in his dough, casual as it may sound to anyone else. He swallows the lump in his throat. “I need to try and get you home. It’s going to hurt, but I can’t leave you out here to crumble.”

Dark Cacao Cookie nods. His eyecings lock on his son’s bag. “Do you…carry around…medical supplies?”

Dark Choco Cookie shrugs. “I carry around whatever I think I might need.”

Dark Cacao Cookie smiles weakly. “I…am proud. Of the Cookie you are becoming.”

Dark Choco Cookie can’t stop the tears from rolling down his face, so he doesn’t try. “Really?”

Dark Cacao Cookie nods. His gaze is glassy and not-quite-there, but it never leaves his son’s face.

Dark Choco Cookie stands up. “This will be painful. I’m sorry.” He hooks his hands under his father’s arms and pulls him up, shouldering most of the other Cookie’s body weight.

Dark Cacao Cookie’s face grows taut and pale, but he remains completely silent.

Dark Choco Cookie looks at the ground for a moment. His father always told him that pain was best handled in silence, but who told him that? Who made him believe that he couldn’t share his burden with others, even for a moment? Instead of asking these questions out loud, he wordlessly carries Dark Cacao Cookie through the forest.

When the two Cookies reach the palace gates, the younger one freezes like a buck staring at a flaming arrow. He looks at his father as if to ask permission, which should not be his first priority right now but somehow still is.

Dark Cacao Cookie…laughs? The sound is weak and barely audible, but nobody could mistake it for anything else. “Just go in.”

Dark Choco Cookie pushes open the gate and takes a deep breath. “I know you told me never to come back, but I can’t just leave you here without knowing what happens. Is it alright if I stay? Just until you get better?”

His father doesn’t hesitate for even a moment. “Of course, my son.”