Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shadow Milk glares down at Pure Vanilla from where he floats in the air, the other looking up at him with a small smile on his face.
“I don’t want to.” He declares, turning away from the ancient now. His long blue, almost liquid like hair following the motion. He hears Pure Vanilla sigh behind him.
“You sure bluebird? Like I said, your knowledge could be of good use.” Pure Vanilla beacons, the sound of his staff hitting the ground sounding out. He moves to a different place in the room so that their eyes meet once again.

Pure Vanilla had for the last 15 minutes been trying to convince Shadow Milk to help him find a spell that could help in the war against Dark Enchantress Cookie. The reason Shadow Milk refused? White Lily Cookie.
She was involved, because of course she was. She and Pure Vanilla Cookie had been searching through old scrolls and books from the Faerie Kingdom for weeks now, to no avail. And Pure Vanilla had suggested they could perhaps get help from Shadow Milk, and White Lily had agreed? Didn’t sound right to Shadow Milk Cookie.

Pure Vanilla speaks up after a long moment of no answer from Shadow Milk, “I know you two don’t like each other, and I’m not asking you to fix that. Not at all.” He pauses, considering how to carefully talk the other down. “We just thought your combined hatred and will to bring Dark Enchantress down could will you to help us. There's also some texts that are in languages we can't decipher, and I heard you mention..” Pure Vanilla trails off, losing his thought process a little.

Shadow Milk's ears perk up from the mention of different languages, as that’s something he’s always been quite fond of. “Language deciphering you say~?” he floats down so that he’s at Pure Vanillas eye level, a big smile on his face like he never was unhappy 5 minutes ago. Pure Vanilla doesn’t flinch at the sudden proximity, instead he smiles kindly and simply nods.
“Yes, we thought that perhaps you could help us in that department.” His voice gentle, and Shadow Milk ignores the strange feeling his stomach always gets whenever Pure Vanilla is so gentle with him. Because it's stupid.

He quickly distances himself, floating a foot or so backwards before pointing a finger in the air like you would when you yell “EUREKA!” , “Well! What are we waiting for you old slug? Of course, I’ll help you two knuckleheads with that.” He announces loudly, his usual show-face back on.
He gains a small chuckle from Pure Vanilla who starts heading towards the door, “Well, lets not keep White Lily waiting then.” Shadow Milk follows like he always does, closely behind.

When the two arrive to the room where Pure Vanilla and White Lily had made their camp for studying old stuff, a sudden tension fills the room. Shadow Milk avoids eye contact with her at all costs, while she seems to stare him down. Assessing his every move.

“WOW, no wonder you guys need my help!” Shadow Milk ignores it, he’s good at that. He floats over to the table in the middle of the room, there are mountains of books stacked on top of it. Before he can pick anything up, White Lily opens her mouth to say something, but Pure Vanilla beats her to it.

“Shadow Milk Cookie, there was a specific book we need your help with.” His voice firm, causing Shadow Milk to stop in his tracks. His hand floating over a book, which he reclines quickly from the stare he receives from White Lily. Pure Vanilla looks to White Lily and gives her a reassuring nod.

She clears her throat, “Its this one.” She picks up a book as big as some of the books Shadow Milk used to read for fun, ew. The outside is a beautiful dark blue, with golden accents covering the edges with nice detail. White Lily holds it out for him, the front-page face up towards him. His eyes scan the author, and he feels his heart drops to his stomach.
He tries to cover the feeling with a snarky remark, “This author? Smarty pants who only wrote weird stuff?” he rolls his eyes but still picks the book up from White Lilys pale hands. He holds it at a distance like the book would attack him.

“You know who wrote it?” White Lily asks, as curious as ever it seems. Shadow Milk tsch’s in response, opening the book to turn a bunch of pages scanning the spells inside. “Yeah duh, knew him personally I guess you could say..” his voice sounding more dismissive than usual.

Pure Vanilla of course picked it up, “Do you not like him?” concern filling his voice, which makes Shadow Milk straighten his back again. Covering his distaste with yet another smile, “Right on the money! Though boy, did he know his way around a good spell, like this one!”
Shadow milk points to the page he’s on in the book, he starts reading in the language on the page. Pure Vanilla and White Lily give each other a small, concerned look.

“W-wait maybe don’t read it, what does it do?” White Lily tries to protest, reaching a hand out to try and grab the book out of Shadow Milks hands. But her hand only hits a barrier which had built itself around Shadow Milk.
The room shakes, blue magic twinkling around its edges. Pure Vanilla doesn’t recognize this magic, its new, or well old. And that’s what makes it even more scary.
Theres a sudden blast of light, and Pure Vanilla quickly turns his staff off to not get blinded. He feels like he floats for a second, his entire body feeling like it’ll burn to a crisp.
But just as quickly as it came, it goes away. And he falls over, his hands landing on a patch of..
Grass?
“Shadow Milk, what was that spell?” he turns his staff back on, only to see there is no Shadow Milk. Only a very recognizable garden, and White Lily.
He runs over to White Lily, who’s hunched over on the ground. “Are you alright?” he asks, his voice filled with worry as she places a hand on her forehead.

“Yeah…Just very dizzy.” She stands up, putting a hand on Pure Vanilla to regain her balance. “Where are we?”
Pure Vanilla looks around, his eyes immediately landing on a building that looms over the garden they’re standing in. The moon giving it a beautiful blue color.

“The Yoghurt Academy?” he asks out loud, thought its more of a question to himself than anything else. White Lily looks in the same direction. Her red eyes widen is surprised, “Why does it look so….new?” she walks away from Pure Vanilla to look around at the garden that surrounds them.

“This doesn’t make sense…It shut down over 100 years ago.” Pure Vanilla massages the bridge on his nose, feeling a head ache forming. This doesn’t make sense at all, did Shadow Milks spell fix the Academy? That can’t be, it doesn’t have anything to do with wars or Dark Enchantress Cookie.

“Pure Vanilla.” White Lily speaks up, standing up from her spot of looking at a flowerbed. Pure Vanilla turns his staff her way, concern thick on his brow. “What is it White Lily Cookie?” he walks over to her, his steps careful to not step on anything.

She looks at him, big red eyes filled with a mix of dread but excitement?
“I think Shadow Milk threw us back in time.”

Chapter Text

Pure Vanilla felt frozen in place, “What do you mean?” his voice is quiet, almost like if he speaks any louder he’d fall apart.

“The flowers..” White Lily points to the flowers she just looked at, Pure Vanilla walks closer. He leans his staff down a bit to get a better look at them, “What about them?”

“They went extinct hundreds of years ago. I read about it in a book, they were around before the Beasts got corrupted..” White Lily explains, her voice a steady volume that keeps Pure Vanilla from panicking.

“Then, that would explain why the Academy looks so…new?” Pure Vanilla tilts his staff back in the Academy’s direction, there are a few windows with light still glowing in them. Even though the moon is high up in the sky.

White Lily nods, “Yes, it would.” She thinks for a second, “but how do we get back to our time? We cant stay here.” She frowns slightly, worry immediately visible on her shoulders.

“If only Shadow Milk Cookie hadn’t read the spell out loud… why would he do that? Did he do this on purpose?” she looks towards Pure Vanilla, her gaze pinning him on the spot.
He doesn’t look away, “I doubt he did it on purpose.. he wanted to help after all.” White Lily looks him over, suspicion clear in her face as she asses him.

“How can you be so sure? What if he lied?” White Lily steps closer by one step, Pure Vanilla doesn’t move.
Though he feels his stomach turning slightly, he shakes his head, “He wouldn’t, he has nothing to gain from it. He’s changed..”

It had only been a year since Shadow Milk decided to come around regularly to visit Pure Vanilla in his castle, at first it started as a “I’ve come to take your Soul Jam” thing. But slowly it seemed he forgot about it over time, coming over regularly to just chat with Pure Vanilla. In Pure Vanillas mind, he truly had changed. He would even call themselves friends.

“Discussing Shadow Milk wont help us right now, we’ll have to see when we get back.” Pure Vanilla turns fully towards White Lily, finality in his voice clear. She sighs, and after a short moment she nods.

“You’re right, my apologies.” She lowers her head, her white bangs covering her red eyes for a short second. Before she looks back up again, determination clear on her face. “I have an idea.”
Pure Vanilla hums lowly before motioning for her to continue.

“The headmasters of the Academy always have a huge collection and knowledge of magic. Perhaps we could get help from whoever it is in this timeline?”
Pure Vanilla thinks for a second, its not a bad idea, in fact it’s a pretty smart one. Nothing less from White Lily Cookie.

There was only one flaw.

“How do we get to them? Only students and faculty is allowed to enter the building.” Pure Vanilla frowns slightly, trying to wrap his head around how to get to the Headmaster.
White Lily smiles slyly, it reminds Pure Vanilla of how she’d look whenever she got an idea of how to bend rules during their own Academy days. He smiles to himself at the reminder, glad to see she’s feeling better already.

“We just sneak in as students, we can use the excuse that we’re from abroad. With fake student IDs it will be easy.” she turns to her staff, the Soul Jam attached to it glowing slightly. Out of thin air two small cards appear out of thin air, landing in the palm of her hand.

She hands one of them over to Pure Vanilla, “Daffodil Cookie?” he questions out loud, reading the name on the fake student ID. White Lily on giggles in answer.

“What about our clothes?” he asks, this time directly turning to White Lily. Who had suddenly changed her entire outfit to match the uniforms of the Academy.

“Lets just hope they haven’t changed the uniforms too much.” She answers simply, before patting Pure Vanilla gently on the head with her staff. His outfit changes in an instant. The familiar blues and whites dressing him like they used to do all the way back then.

It was surprisingly easy to enter the Academy, the guards not even questioning them when they entered the building.
It was fairly quiet in the halls, seeming as it was the middle of the night. Most students found themselves in bed at this hour, besides the few that passed the two while they walked around a bit.
The building looked almost identical to when they used to study here, besides the overwhelming amount of milk crown flowers and forget-me-nots that covered every surface. Same with all the eye décor, eyes on every pillar and every corner in the shadows. Pure Vanilla could’ve sworn they blinked at him, sending a small shiver down his spine. They reminded him of Shadow Milks eyes which he had hidden all over The Spire, and the ones that hid in that pretty hair of his.

Pure Vanilla quickly pushed those thoughts down, this was no time to get distracted. He returns his attention to White Lily in front of him, who’s looking for the headmasters office. Which is easier said than done it seems, as everything in the building, rooms included had changed rotation.

“Maybe we could ask someone?” Pure Vanilla asks, watching White Lily try to decide which hallway to go down. She pauses, obviously thinking so Pure Vanilla waits.

“True, but what kind of students are we if we don’t even know where the headmasters office is?” White Lily thinks out loud, gaining a small nod of agreement from Pure Vanilla.

He mumbles a small “true”, before White Lily quickly and efficiently pushes over a vase of flowers. Pure Vanilla gasps in surprise for a second, slightly upset at the loss of such a pretty flower arrangement. He immediately understands why she did it, so he plays along the best he can as two guards in dark blue armor runs over to them.

The two guards aren’t organic, that much is clear with how they don’t even say anything when they grab the two by the arms. Magic radiating from their moonstone detailed armor, if Pure Vanilla wasn’t currently being dragged like a puppet he would’ve stopped to study them a bit.

They get thrown out of their grips at the start of a long hallway, windows covering one side while the other is covered with paintings of historic events. There are barley any lights in it, besides the bright moonlight shining through the windows. The eye motifs seemed to mass here, covering the entirety of the roof with a black space with stars behind them.
Milk crowns, forget-me-nots, and lavender arrangements line up the hallway, light colors that stand out against the cold stone walls.

The two cookies give each other a small nervous look before they start walking down the long hallway, and Pure Vanilla cant help but feel a little nervous. Headmasters of the Yoghurt Academy had always been known for being a little strange, while also being super well educated in various magics. The first headmaster was the founder of Dark Moon magic for Witches sakes, if that wasn’t enough to make someone nervous then Pure Vanilla didn’t know what else to say.

White Lily smiles beside him, clearly excited to see a magic expert which might be able to help them get back home. She had always been like that, always admired those with knowledge that took lifetimes to gain. Especially when it came to magic. He admired that about her.

They finally reach the doors, which loom heavy over them.
White Lily gives Pure Vanilla a reassuring smile before pushing them open.

They don’t get any big greeting, in fact they barley get anything at all.
The two step inside, the doors close with a quiet bang.
The room they find themselves in is dark, only a big window covering the entire wall at the opposite end giving light. And a small lantern on the desk which stands in front of it, bookshelves loom on both sides of them.
Theres someone sitting by the desk, their back turned as they hum a low tune which is the only sound in the room. Pure Vanilla feels himself freezing on the spot as he recognizes the song which is being hum.

White Lily clears her throat, “Excuse me, are you the headmaster?” she asks, her voice loud and stern. The humming stops.

“Well, well, well~” the headmaster drawls, finally turning around in his chair. They both immediately recognize the voice, and when they see his face. Its set in stone.

“So you two are the trespassers? Been looking for me?” Shadow Milk(?) smiles, thought the smile carries no grimace. His eyes matching blue and yellow with Pure Vanillas.

“You knew?” White Lily asks, raising an eyebrow at the sudden knowledge of who they are. Shadow Milk chuckles, his usual poison in it no longer there.

“Well duh, wouldn’t be much of a headmaster if I didn’t keep track now would I.” He stands up, moving himself around the desk with grace. Long black robes with golden accents dressed around him, quite the opposite of the usual bodysuit Shadow Milk wears.

He stops in front of the desk, he leans his back against it.
Pure Vanilla cant help himself, the words fall out before he can stop them, “Shadow Milk Cookie..?”

Shadow Milk looks at Pure Vanilla, his gaze oddly calm. “Who is Shadow Milk? I’m Blueberry Milk Cookie, the Sage of Knowledge and bearer of the Soul Jam of Knowledge.” Blueberry Milk smiles, eager to explain his titles.

Pure Vanilla needs to sit down.

Chapter Text

Shadow Milk would be lying hard if he said he wasn’t currently panicking.

Sure, he was the Beast of Deceit.
But even he couldn’t lie his way through this one.

Sending Pure Vanilla and White Lily to another timeline? How ridiculous it was, he wrote the spell for heaven’s sake.

He had just…forgotten what the words meant.

It had been years, eons, since he last had read that language. He just needed to warm up again, it wouldn’t take long to relearn he hoped.

He used to be the Fount of Knowledge after all, learning was nothing new to him. He used to soak new stuff like a sponge, he could do this.
Only problem was he had to figure out where they had been sent, as it depended entirely on the reader of the spell. Which was him. So they had most likely been sent somewhere that had to do with him.
What if they had been sent to the Fount? That would at least make his job easier, as that version of him would at least know how to send them back. But a small part of him can’t help but wonder..
What if they like that version of him better?

The old him.

The one who hadn’t fallen into the pit of corruption from too much of the truth, the untouched, truthful, open armed version of him. What if Pure Vanilla wanted to turn him back to that when he gets back? Put aside that whole “friend” business, and just try to change him entirely?

Whatever, Shadow Milk needs to focus on getting them back.

He can always run away if that turns out to be the path Pure Vanilla takes.

He just hopes that isn’t the case.

Pure Vanilla sinks into a chair that stands by one of the bookshelves, a heavy tired sigh escaping his lips.

“Yeesh are you guys okay? You look dead on your feet.” The Fount gives the pair a concerned look, his eyes scanning them.

“We uh…have travelled far.” White Lily replies quietly, she looks towards Pure Vanilla who seems to be spacing out slightly.

Blueberry Milk hums happily as he walks over to a tray with a tea set, “Travelers? We get those a lot. Where are you from?” he pours tea into two cups. He picks the two cups up and hands one over to White Lily, who looks over at Pure Vanilla. Pure Vanilla finally looks up at the two, his eyes open now.

Different colored eyes look Blueberry Milk up and down, before he looks at White Lily. He nods slightly, not finding his words it seems.

“We’re..from the future. There is no other way to put it.” White Lily puts it plainly, when the Fount doesn’t react she continues. “A spell brought us here, we came to you hoping you could help us.”

Blueberry Milk blinks, taking in the information. Suddenly he walks over to Pure Vanilla and hands him the other cup of tea.
“From the future? How far are we talking?” he walks back to his desk, though he doesn’t sit down.

“Thousands of years or so.” Pure Vanillas voice rings out, gaining both the attention of White Lily and Blueberry Milk. He stands up from his chair, teacup in one hand and staff in the other. “We got sent here by a spell you read, or the futuristic version of you.” He looks towards Blueberry Milk, their eyes lock.

The Founts eyes squint as he smiles, his eyes have a softer look to them than Shadow Milks. Pure Vanilla ignores the feeling he gets in his chest when he thinks of the difference between the two.

“Is that why you called me Shadow Milk? Changed my name have I?” The Fount asks, his question coming from an obvious inner curiosity.

Pure Vanilla nods, “Yes, you and I are friends where we come from.” He ignores White Lilys small huff beside him. The Fount is quiet for a while, he puts his hand up to hold his chin, the cogs in his head turning.

“Why would I send you here? There is nothing for you here.” The Fount says simply, shrugging slightly. He looks between the two other cookies, hoping for an answer.

“We don’t know. You tend to be kind of impulsive.” Pure Vanilla answers, his voice turning slightly fond at the last bit. He prays neither of the others picked up on it.

The Fount laughs again, “Hahaha, we get along then? No wonder I feel a pull towards you if we’re destined to meet in the future.” Suddenly his face drops, he covers his mouth with a small “oh” noise.

“Dear me, how rude I am. Sorry, what are your names? I should know that much if I shall help you two get back home.” He chuckles a bit, a slight flush to his cheeks.

Pure Vanilla smiles with a small chuckle of his own. “Pure Vanilla Cookie.” He presses a hand to his chest, before motioning towards White Lily, who nods with a “White Lily Cookie.” From her lips.

“Fantastic to meet you both!” Blueberry Milk smiles brightly, his face almost a perfect mirror of how Shadow Milk smiles whenever he wins at chess. Pure Vanilla pushes down the melancholy he suddenly feels.

“Now then…do you remember how the book you found the spell in looks?” Blueberry Milk tilts his head, his cloudlike hair falling over his shoulders at the sudden shift. He walks over to one of the bookshelves with grace.

“It was blue with a golden trim.. It was in a language we couldn’t read, that’s why handed it to you. So we don’t know the author.” White Lily explains, following him in suit to the shelf. Her voice is cold, if Blueberry Milk has noticed he does not comment. Pure Vanilla can’t exactly blame her, they don’t exactly get along in his timeline. He killed her friend and attacked her kingdom, and now he hasn’t even done it yet? He can’t imagine how strange she must feel.

He himself feels kind of strange about this entire situation. Blueberry Milk and Shadow Milk are the same cookie, but also not. They are the exact opposite, but also so insanely similar at the same time. Pure Vanilla cant wrap his head around it. He knows Shadow Milk, the fantastic Beast of Deceit who puts on a show whenever he can, who floats cause he hates walking, and who hates the flavors of any tea Pure Vanilla brews. Blueberry Milk, The Fount, is none of the above. He doesn’t float, his hair is wavy with magic, not straight like Shadow Milks, and his eyes are softer, same with his smile.
He can’t help but miss Shadow Milk already, homesick one could say.

Chapter Text

After a while of searching, they find nothing.

Blueberry Milk doesn’t seem very surprised by it, as he quietly hums a song to himself as he leads them down a hallway. He had mentioned a library of sorts, with knowledge of all kinds. And that they had a better chance there instead of his office.

White Lily is quiet beside Pure Vanilla, her head tilted slightly downwards. She hadn’t said anything when the Fount had apologized for not having the book in his office, and Pure Vanilla can't help but be kind of worried for her.
She had duties to tend to back home, a whole kingdom which is a main target for the war that rages heavily on both their shoulders.

Her’s especially.

He returns his gaze to the Founts back, he’s still hung up on how different he is to the current Shadow Milk and how different they are. He knows it has something to do with his corruption, his loneliness and thousands of years in the Silver Tree. And he can’t help but feel himself getting sad on Shadow Milk's behalf, how much he had gone through. He tries his best not to frown, he can't let either of the other two see that he’s upset by this. White Lily doesn’t need anything more to weigh her down, and the Fount wouldn’t even know why yet.

Pure Vanilla can’t tell him about the corruption, messing up a timeline to that degree will get him burnt to a crisp by the Witches or something.

His thoughts get abruptly stopped when the Fount stops in front of a pair of huge blue doors. The silver doorframe showing off some importance that Pure Vanilla can't grasp the full concept of.
Blueberry Milk turns around to face them, putting his arms out like one would when addressing an audience.

“HERE, is the library of all knowledge!~” he announces loudly, and for a second Pure Vanilla spots a small hint of Shadow Milk shining through the other. He smiles in return, which Blueberry Milk returns with a big grin.

He turns around and pushes the doors open with ease.

Inside stands layers and layers of bookshelves, multiple stories tall. It might be the biggest library Pure Vanilla has ever seen.

He looks towards White Lily, and her reaction doesn’t let him down.

Her eyes have a light in them, and her mouth slightly opened in surprise at the amount of books there are. He knew this was something she’d like.
The Fount watches them with giddiness clear in how he bounces on his feet for a second, before he claps his hands together in excitement.

“Gosh, it's been so long since I’ve had someone here! Do you like it?” he smiles brightly at the two, looking between them to capture their attention. Pure Vanilla is the first to look at him back, White Lily instantly walks over to a bookshelf to look at the selection.

“It's wonderful! What do you mean it's been long since you’ve had someone here if I may ask?” Pure Vanilla can't help but ask, his grip tightening on his staff slightly as he notices how Blueberry Milk's shoulders fall slightly, though he quickly corrects himself with another smile. A habit he seems to have kept even as Shadow Milk.

“Ah, you know how it is.” The Fount waves a small dismissive hand in the air, “folks just don’t want this type of knowledge. Guess it got boring or too real for them.” He chuckles slightly, his eyes gaining a small sad look in them.

“Too real for them?” White Lily repeats, she turns away from the bookshelf. Her gaze directly looking at the Fount now, she studies him a bit, and he does the same to her.

“The truths of this world isn’t something a lot of cookies can handle. Too much for their little brains I’m afraid.” The Fount shrugs, a smile still permanent on his lips. White Lily's eyebrows tighten, she thinks for a second.

“So you know..about the Witches and-“ she cuts herself off, the reminder still obviously a painful one. Blueberry Milk picks up on it easily, he sighs slightly as he nods.

“Yup.” He pops the P, his eyes saddening slightly though he still smiles, “Doesn’t hurt me though, I’ll live. But everyone else would rather not with that same knowledge.”
It's quiet for a second before Blueberry Milk speaks up again.

“How do you know? About the Witches.”

“I researched on my own.” White Lily answers simply, obviously not wanting to get into it right now. The Fount notices and shrugs, his smile widens.

“Smart cookie! I like you.” He says simply, not noticing how White Lily tenses up as he turns his back to her. He looks up at the mountains of books before he turns back to the other two.

“Well~ let’s get searching!”

Shadow Milk has read every single book that he has written from the collection Pure Vanilla and White Lily had kindly built up.

The memories flowing back, slowly regaining knowledge on how the hell to read this stupid language.
Every spell has a counter spell after all, he knows this much.

So, after 7 hours of straight reading. He’s figured it out. He knows, sort of, how to get them back.

He summons a marker out of one of his dark moon portals, biting the lid off before spitting it across the room. It hits the door, which immediately flies open with harshness that makes Shadow Milk roll his eyes. He doesn’t look towards the door, probably some maid who got lost. He starts drawing a circle on the floor.

“Get out before I throw more than just a marker lid-“
He’s met with a sword to his throat.

He looks up to meet the eyes of the owner of said sword, dark purple eyes meet his.
Dark Cacao Cookie, and beside him stands a rather angry-looking Holly Berry Cookie.

Great.

“Beast of Deceit. What have you done with our comrades?” Dark Cacao's voice is dark and low, imposingly threatening as always it seems. Shadow Milk rolls his eyes again.

“None of your business.” He pushes the sword away from his throat, floating a few inches away before resuming drawing the circle on the floor.

“What do you mean, none of your business? We were supposed to meet them today!” Holly Berry calls out, her voice less threatening than Dark Cacao but still booming with anger. Right, Shadow Milk had forgotten about that.
He thinks back to a quote Pure Vanilla told him once, “If you want people off your back, perhaps try telling the truth. It makes conversations go quicker, which is fitting for someone with your attention span.” If Shadow Milk ignores that last part, perhaps it could get him out of the situation. And maybe a little help.

He throws the marker into the air, a small portal appearing to catch it before disappearing again. He flies as far away from the two as he can, before his back hits the ceiling.

“Hey so what would you two say, if I perhaps sent the two back in time by..let’s say thousands of years?” He says quickly, but slow enough for them to catch it. He ends the question with a big grin.
It’s quiet for a second, the two Ancients stare at him with widened eyes. Before they shout in unison

“YOU WHAT.”

Chapter Text

The magic and rage that radiates off the two Ancients don’t really help with Shadow Milk's nerves. But he can't let it show, it’ll make them more worried even if he’s worried!

“BUT! I am, of course, working to get them back! They’re also as safe as can be, so don’t worry your big heads about it!” Shadow Milk tries, not budging from his spot on the ceiling.
Dark Cacao growls slightly, his eyes not leaving Shadow Milk for a second. He raises his sword towards him once again, “How do you know they are safe? And why did you do it in the first place, Beast of Deceit?” his voice heavy, Shadow Milk doesn’t flinch, however.

“They have been sent to the good ol’ me, y’know~ Fount of Knowledge, that guy?” Shadow Milk motions with his hands as he talks, the two cookies on the floor watching him intently. “Second, I read the spell by accident, that’s what happens when you read a spell out loud in a language you don’t understand. Don’t do it at home.” Finally he stops talking, letting the information sink in on the two others.

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Hollyberry asks, though her voice lacks the suspicion that Dark Cacao has. Shadow Milk can't help the small laugh that escapes him, what a stupid question.

“HAH, see them anywhere Berry? I was drawing their landing circle before you two RUDLEY interrupted me, might I add.” He can't help but yell a little, he is quite agitated. And he’s also not a big fan of being pointed at by a sword.
Dark Cacao finally lowers his sword, he looks at the half-drawn circle on the floor for a second. He doesn’t look back towards Shadow Milk as he demands, “Explain the spell.” In that booming voice of his.

“With pleasure!~” Shadow Milk floats a bit closer, just so he can reach the spell book with his magic. “AHEM.” He loudly coughs, causing the two others to look back up at him.
“See this book? I wrote it, and therefore the spells inside.” He holds the book out by a page, causing it to hang sadly in the air. “For some reason, I was a moron and wrote it in the ancient sugaring language. The spell works like this; I read, they get sent to something that has to do with me. Therefore, The Fount of Knowledge.” He pauses, the Ancients are looking at him with their full attention, so he continues.

“I believe they'll get help from past-me to half-ly teleport back. But, to make their journey easier and to make sure they get to the right point, I’m drawing that circle as a landing point. It’ll work as a lighthouse of sorts.” He points towards the circle, he looks between the two.
Holly Berry speaks up first, “Okay, just one question. Why did you make such a spell?”

The Fount throws another pile of books onto the table in the middle of the library, where Pure Vanilla and White Lily sit.

“There!” The Fount brushes dust off his hands and robes. He looks at the piles of books he’s built up for the last 3 hours.
“That should be all the books about time travel! See anything that looks familiar?” he smiles at the two seated cookies.
White Lily uncomfortably shifts in her seat as she looks at the different layers of books.
Pure Vanilla sits still for a second, the Fount looks towards him and notices how he’s slightly spaced out.

“Jellies for your thoughts, friend?” Blueberry Milk leans slightly forward to capture Pure Vanilla attention, Pure Vanilla blinks slightly. He grasps his staff again, pointing it towards Blueberry Milk.

“I have a question, if I may.” Pure Vanilla nervously fidgets with the edges on the staff, Blueberry Milk gives a small nod in return to show that he may ask a question.
“Do you have any of your books? I know you’ve written books, perhaps in different languages?”
The Fount is quiet for a second, his usual smile dropping slightly. Pure Vanilla feels slightly put on the spot by his eyes for a second. But as fast as it came, it was gone and his smile returns as brightly as always.

“I have only one I can think of, I doubt there is anything in it though. Are you sure you need it?” if Pure Vanilla didn’t know any better, he’d say the Fount seemed quite nervous. And as much as he wants to ask and help, he needs to get home. They can’t leave anything out.
Pure Vanilla nods, letting out a gentle “if it's alright.” He gives the Fount a reassuring smile, which the other returns.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a jiffy! I need to grab it from my office.” Blueberry Milk excuses himself, gently walking out the way they came. Leaving Pure Vanilla and White Lily alone.

“He’s not your Shadow Milk, remember that.” White Lily says after a moment, her eyes not leaving the book she’s picked out of the hundreds of stacks on the table. Pure Vanilla's mouth opens to say something, but nothing comes out, so he closes it.
He reluctantly sighs, he knows she’s right. What’s done is done, and as he has concluded himself; Blueberry Milk and Shadow Milk might as well be different people. But still, Pure Vanilla can't help but see bits of them in each other. It gives him an odd sense of melancholy.

“I know.” He says after a moment, White Lily looks up at him now.

“Do you miss him?” Her voice is quiet, as if the library is filled with others. Like she doesn’t want anyone to listen in on their conversation.
Pure Vanilla nods, “I do.. I wonder if he misses me.” He smiles to himself a bit, undoubtedly Shadow Milk would only be slightly panicked. But he’d get over it, but a small selfish part of Pure Vanilla hopes he misses him back. At least a little.

“I bet he does. In his own messed up way.” White Lily gives him a small smile before ducking back into her book.
Pure Vanilla sits with that for a few seconds. Perhaps Shadow Milk would miss him.
He smiles a bit to himself as he looks over the books on the table, he randomly picks one up to read it.
Reading in a library late at night for hours, just like the old days.

Chapter Text

Though the room was very quiet, Shadow Milk had to admit it was rather intense doing the whole “working in front of an audience” thing. The two Ancients had decided to watch him every step of the process of drawing the magical lighthouse circle.

He will admit though, they did it in very different styles, one rather more intense than the other cough definitely not Dark Cacao. They both showed very strong interest in how this whole thing worked and seemed to like watching Shadow Milk draw the different runes with little to no effort. He couldn't blame them, he was very fun to watch as much as he was handsome! The real reason was most likely that both of them aren't magic or arcane users, and find it fun to watch others do it. typical.

Even if he was being admired for his arcanal drawing skills, there was still the threat of them killing him if he did not return their friends any time soon. As if he could do anything about that now? It was entirely up to Pure Vanilla and White Lily to finish the other half of the spell, or well the majority of it. And that stupid past him, The Fount. Depending on the time of his pre-tree time they got sent to, his former selfs reaction to the two would vary a lot. He just hoped it wasn't the one where he was at his worst, that’d just be embarrassing.

Shadow Milk looks over his shoulder, the two Ancients have fallen asleep in their own individual chairs. He floats close by the circle, watching it with a very intense gaze. They could show up any time soon, and he doesn't want to be here when that happens. Still, he needs to make sure the circle can handle such an intense spell like a time related one. So he needs to be here for their landing, but no sooner.

He leans his chin on the palm of his hand, he wonders for a second.
I wonder how Pure Vanilla is doing.

Pure Vanilla blinks, and immediately sits straight up in his chair. He must’ve fallen asleep at some point during their reading. The most obvious hint is the crink in his neck and the small piece of paper that lays right next to his hand. It has White Lily's hand writing on it;

“ You fell asleep, I went for a walk and some fresh air. Would have woken you up but you seemed exhausted.

The Fount has not returned.”

The note obviously does not need her signature, they both know each other's hand writings like the back of their hand. Still even at that nice thought, Pure Vanilla still furrows his brows in concern.

The Fount hasn't returned from his office yet? Pure Vanilla looks around where their base of study is, big windows all around. It's a clear blue day outside, no longer night from when he must've fallen asleep.

Worry immediately fills his chest, for both of his friends. Why has Blueberry Milk been gone for so long? And is White Lily alright, this isn't the Academy they went to after all.

He stands up, leaning on his staff for support as he finds his feet again. Sitting for that long can't be good for you. He looks around and takes in the sounds of voices, rather young voices. Right, the students here must be awake and all over the Academy.

He sighs, he might as well look for them. The Fount might have what they need after all, perhaps he should look for him first? White Lily is quite capable, he trusts her enough to find him if she needs anything now.

As he walks around the Academy, scarily familiar hallways develop in front of him. He feels his Soul Jam tug slightly, a slight wince leaving his lips as he gently clutches it where it sits by his neck. It must’ve taken notice of his missing other half at this point, they should really hurry back home.

The students in the halls gaze upon him with slight curiosity, some even greeting him as he walks. He, of course, says hello back, earning some giggles in return. The youth never changes no matter the time period it seems.

When he finally finds his way to the Headmasters office, it immediately turns quiet. All sounds of students and ambiance of the Academy turning silent as if scared it’ll disturb whoever is within the doors that loom over Pure Vanilla. He however, does not frighten from something like silence, and gently knocks on the door.

knock knock knock

No response.

“Hello? Blueberry Milk, are you in there?” He tries, only to add on a “Its Pure Vanilla.” in case that was needed. He leans his head onto the wood of the door, trying his best to listen in to whether there are noises in the office. There are none.

So, Pure Vanilla takes a chance. And he opens the door.

Within it’s just like how it was when he and White Lily first came there last night. But no Fount lounging in his chair. Inside it was nicer than when they were there last, the light of the sun making it rather cozy.

But still no Fount.

He thinks for a second, he might as well ask around a bit he concludes. Immediately leaving the office again, that's when he spots one of those moonstone armours that seemed to work as staff around the Academy.

He walks over to it with slight caution, the memory of being dragged around still fresh in his mind. He looks it up and down with his staff, before he shortly scans the hallway. He doesn't want anyone to see him talk to a random statue of armour if it ends up being for naught.

When he sees no one, he clears his throat, and gently speaks. “H-hello? Do you know where The Fount might be?” he tilts his head, seeing if he gets any reaction from his question.

The armour suddenly budges where it stands, Pure Vanilla flinches back slightly from the sudden movement. It immediately starts marching down the hallway, back towards the main part of the Academy. Pure Vanilla immediately follows, trying his best to keep up with the armour who is surprisingly quick on its feet.

After what feels like forever of walking around in circles, it stops dead in its tracks by an open balcony door. It does a small bow before walking back the way it came, leaving Pure Vanilla on his own. Or well almost, as two very familiar voices sound out from the balcony. He peaks from behind the doors, careful to not let them see him immediately. He doesn't intend on any eavesdropping, he's just very curious about their thoughts on each other. Seeing as they aren't exactly on the best terms in the present.

They stand next to each other by the balcony railings, looking out over the Academy grounds below.
“-so you’re knowledgeable about the Faeries and their way of life I assume?” Blueberry Milk asks, he looks at White Lily. She doesn't return it.

“Yes, I have been their guardian for a short while now.” She asks, slight grief in her voice. It has been over a year now since Elder Faeries death, but it still clings to both her and Pure Vanilla's consciousness like sticky sugar. White Lily’s especially, seeming as they were so close.

“Really?” Blueberry Milk's voice is filled with surprise, “Has my dear old friend Elder Faerie finally decided to retire the old coat?” He smiles, though there is a small nervousness to his posture and the way he lets out a small nervous chuckle. White Lily finally turns to look at him, and for a slight second her eyes are wide with something Pure Vanilla can't place his finger on. Is it rage? Surprise? He doesn't know, perhaps both. Her eyes droop back to their usual look, as she considers The Fount for a second.

“Yes, he spent a lot of his magic due to something I did. He fixed it, and in return I am simply returning the favour..”

A lie, a white one. Pure Vanilla knows White Lily must be fighting with herself internally for it, for not telling Blueberry Milk that it was in fact not lack of magic or White Lily's fault that Elder Faerie let his status go. It was his. But both White Lily and Pure Vanilla know that information like that could break the timeline, way too risky for them both.

“Well that's awfully kind of you both.” The Fount looks back over the railings, his voice filled with thoughtfulness. It turns quiet, perhaps they have run out of subjects to talk about.

Pure Vanilla clears his throat as he steps out onto the balcony. The two of them turn with the same amount of small but pleasant surprise when they spot him.

And now, as Blueberry Milk leads them back towards the library again. Pure Vanilla can't help but think that he hasn't been more keen to go back home than right now.

Chapter Text

Blueberry stopped them halfway to the way towards the library.
“I can go grab the notebook right now, you guys go ahead.” His voice is smooth, Pure Vanilla recognizes it in a second. He’s hiding something. It's the same tone Shadow Milk uses when he’s obviously trying to get away from something in a calm manner. Well with that in mind, he can't let him wander off alone.
It seems White Lily had a similar thought as they both burst out,

“We’re coming with you.”

The Founts usual smile drops for a second, before quickly seeming to scold himself as it quickly gets refreshed into an unsure smile.
“Alright.” He answers simply, well that was easy.

—

The office is the same as when they left last time, but Pure Vanilla can't help but pick up on a slight tension in the air. He glances around, both White Lily and Blueberry Milk are looking around for the notebook in all the places he said it could be.

“I don't get it.” White Lily says after a few moments have passed in silence, Pure Vanilla notices that her shoulders are tense. He tries to reach out for her, to put a hopefully calming touch on her shoulder to help. But he doesn't make it that far before The Fount speaks out.

“What do you not get?”
Simple curiosity, that's all it was. Both Pure Vanilla and White Lily look over towards where the Fount is on the opposite end of the room. The duo wearing completely opposite facial expressions. Pure Vanilla's brows are creased in slight worry and anxiety, his hand still hovering closely over White Lily's shoulder. White Lily however.

“How in all of Earthbread, can this notebook be so hard to find?” she bursts out, clear irritation in her voice. The Fount flinches slightly at the sudden change in tone, but he doesn't say anything back. Patiently waiting for White Lily to continue.

“If it's so important as you’ve stated it is, with important spells and information in it. Then you should in theory have put it somewhere you’d remember it, right?” She speaks slowly, the slight anger in her tone still shining through.

“Well, I have been rather busy of late. It's been a while since..” Blueberry Milk looks over at Pure Vanilla now, his voice seems to die in his throat.

“Don’t lie to us Blueberry Milk.” Pure Vanilla finally speaks up, Blueberries two toned eyes widen slightly, from what Pure Vanilla can't tell. He continues when he receives no answer, “We are truly sorry to put all this pressure on you, but we need to get home. We are in need of information you possess, please help us. Is there a reason you hesitate?”

The last question seems to catch The Founts attention, he opens his mouth before he closes it again. Instead of answering he quietly walks over to a bookshelf and drags it away from the wall, behind it is a small gap in the wall. He reaches in, dark robes flowing with the movement. When he drags his hand out again, in hand is the notebook.

Pure Vanilla hears White Lily sigh behind him, but his eyes do not leave the blue skinned Fount in front of him.

“I really didn't mean to cause you distress.” The Founts voice is quiet, it reminds Pure Vanilla of how quiet Shadow Milks gets when he lets himself be vulnerable for a second. Before the mask snaps back on.

“I simply wanted to know as much as I could about you. You come from a time where there is knowledge I can't hold on to yet. I let my selfish desires keep you grounded, my apologies my dear friends.” He lowers his head in apology. His long starlit hair flowing with the nod of his head, white bangs covering the mark on his forehead.

“We are not friends. I’m going back to the library.” White Lily retorts coldly. Pure Vanilla can't blame her, as he watches her slim figure leave the office, leaving him and the other version of his half alone. White Lily has every right to be mad or upset, he himself can't say he’s completely alright with this. But he can't bring himself to be as outwardly upset as her, a quality he wishes he possessed sometimes.

He looks back at the Fount, who still has his head held low. Pure Vanilla notices that he’s biting his lip, another thing Shadow Milk does. Mostly when he’s upset, or whenever Pure Vanilla says something that hits a bit harder than intended.

“I will answer any questions you have, we should let her cool off for a minute.” He says as gently as he can, watching how Blueberry Milk immediately seems to calm down. His shoulders untense as he looks up to look Pure Vanilla in the face.

“Are we friends in the future?” Blueberry Milk says bluntly, the sentence seeming to slip out of him. Blueberry Milk seems caught off guard by his own question for a second, Pure Vanilla doesn't comment on it.

“It's complicated…” Pure Vanilla says after a solid second or two, Blueberry Milk pouts in confusion and conflict. So, Pure Vanilla explains further.
“Our relationship in the future is a complicated one, but entirely worth it.” Pure Vanilla gives him a reassuring smile, Blueberry Milk does not smile back. Instead he seems to be deep in thought.

“What about her? White Lily, that is.” he asks, his voice cracking slightly.

“White Lily is confused and incredibly stressed over this whole situation. It's far from ideal for the both of us. It is dire for us to get back home you see.” Pure Vanilla explains as well as he can, he hopes it's enough, he really doesn't know how much he can tell the Fount without breaking every timeline in existence.

He watches as the Fount thinks for a second, before he smiles slightly with a nod. “Thank you for your answers Pure Vanilla. Come on then, lets get you home.”

—
They don't hesitate for a second once they arrive back at the library. Blueberry Milk immediately finds the page with the spell, translating and explaining along the way as he draws out a circle on the floor. Luckily there was no one in there right now, Blueberry Milk having closed it down so they could do the spell in peace.

White Lily, though still mad, asked questions along the way and even helped draw certain runes out. Pure Vanilla couldn't help the slight feeling of butterflies in his stomach, he couldn't tell if he was nervous or excited to go back home. Back to Shadow Milk.

Once the circle was completely filled with runes and script, Blueberry Milk directs the two to stand in the middle of the circle. Their feet find a place on top of two runes that look like foot marks.

“Kay, I’ll start reading the spell now. I guess I’ll see you in the future then.” The Fount gives a weak smile before he takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes for a second, he holds one of his hands out, a long golden staff appearing in it. On top sits the Soul Jam, it looks almost identical to Pure Vanilla besides the pupil split in the middle.

“O Domine, horologium promove”
The Fount starts, the circle around the duo immediately lights up. Bright golden lights with slight sparkles of blue covering them.

“Mitte hos duos donum tempore opportuno”
The outside of the circle lights up brighter, a barrier shining like glass to protect the outside world from the spell. Pure Vanilla swears he can hear slight ticking sounds ring out in his ears.

“Quaeso, veneficae, estote benignae, has animas perditas donum dirigate.”
The Founts voice can barely be heard over the sound of the ticking now, a grandfather clock screaming somewhere no one can see it. Pure Vanilla is glad White Lily is there with him. He hears the last sentence of the spell leave Blueberry Milk's lips. The sudden quiet threatening to ruin his ear drums.

“Tempus exspectandum, eos ritte.”
it all turns white

That is until Pure Vanilla finds himself being hugged and shaked awake on the floor in a very familiar room.

“Pure Vanilla!” Gingerbrave's voice hits him and he’s immediately awake. He sits up to find three very small bodies piled on top of him. He recognizes them immediately as Gingerbrave, Strawberry and Wizard. Gingerbrave quickly leaves his side to accompany White Lily who's on the floor beside him.

He stands up, Strawberry and Wizard gently help him up. He can't help the small tinge of dizziness in his head.

“Thank goddess you’re alright.” Hollyberry's very familiar voice rings out, she walks over to give him a sturdy hand on the shoulder. Pure Vanilla looks up to find both Dark Cacao and Hollyberry smiling at him, Dark Cacao quickly moves to help White Lily up.

Okay, so everyone is alright. Pure Vanilla takes a mental note as he looks over the room to find…
No Shadow Milk.

“Where’s Shadow Milk?” He asks, he grips his vanilla beholder staff nervously, he looks back towards Hollyberry and Dark Cacao. The two exchange a glance.

“He left right when you two appeared on the floor, doing that shadow thing he always does.” Hollyberry explains, crossing her arms as she looks at the spot where there is a drawn out circle on the floor.

“Not before he organized all the books of yours, said something about"payment "." Dark Cacao adds on, gesturing to the mountains of organized books on top of the table in the middle of the room.

Pure Vanilla gives a small noise of acknowledgement, the others in the room continue conversing. None concerned about Shadow Milks Irish goodbye. as they should, of course.

But Pure Vanilla can't help but feel a slight pit of anxiety fill up his stomach.

Chapter Text

The light of the spell activating was unmistakable. Shadow Milk couldn't help but feel his stomach turning in knots from the golden light emanating from the outline and runes on the floor.

“Theyre coming.” Is all he says before flying into the back of the room, watching the two Ancients and the three kids who came at some point run over to watch as the two time travelers appeared like ghosts in the middle of the circle.

He quickly jumped into the shadows and watched the scene in front of him develop from the shadows. It was safer that way, no one can scream directly at him when he's technically not in the room.

Happy and relieved exchanges happen below him from his spot on the ceiling. He rolls his eyes, yeesh what a boring script. No questions about the past or the magic or whatever? Boring.

“Wheres Shadow Milk?”

Pure Vanilla's voice cuts through his boredom like a knife through butter, all his attention directed at the blinding figure in the middle of the room.

The others answer the question, but Shadow Milk ignores it. He focuses on Pure Vanilla as the other keeps a constant anxious look on his face.
Shadow Milk can't believe this, he’s not worried about him is he? Whether that is Shadow Milk or his past self is not something Shadow Milk wants to think about, but he does find something to do about it!

A small game of hide and seek has never hurt anyone, he and Pure Vanilla have played it multiple times before! So, therefore he stays in the shadows, slinking around through cracks and shadows in corners of the room that no one would think about.

No one but Pure Vanilla.

This lasts for about a week, Pure Vanilla makes no moves to drag or mention the shadows that look unnatural or move in the corner of his non-seeing eyes. But Shadow Milk can tell he knows, of course he does. It's Pure Vanilla after all, the man who can recognize Shadow Milk from a small glance in the mirror, who can see through his mask with a stupid smile on his face. He can tell from the way Pure Vanilla's shoulders tense or untense depending on where he is in the shadows of the room, of how he non- subtly looks around the room idly. Plus, with Pure Vanilla being so busy with war preparations and meetings, there is basically no time for either of them to bask in the good feeling of “I know it's you” with no words exchanged.

It got boring real quick.

So! Shadow Milk decides to spice it up, with a good ol’ “hiding in plain sight.”

He used his usual disguises, a small shepherd boy wandering the halls, a rather beautiful maiden who has taken a new place as a maid in the castle, or a muscular man talking with the guards about the frights of war.

Pure Vanilla recognizes them all, somehow always finding his way to them. The familiar tug of Shadow Milks Soul Jam warning him to leave just in time before the blonde rounds the corner with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

He almost seemed to go out of his way to look for Shadow Milk, putting aside meetings for five more minutes. But as time went on, two weeks or so passed. He saw less and less of Nilla.

With war laying heavily on everyone in the kingdom, Dark Cacao, Hollyberry and White Lily left long ago to prepare their own troops for war. Pure Vanilla seemed to be in a constant state of exhaustion, barely ever even visiting his own bedroom anymore. And if he were there, he’d sit up for hours writing letters, before laying in bed for 4 hours or so and getting dragged back out for more work.

Shadow Milk watched from afar, untouched by the stress of an upcoming war. He had other matters to think about, like why Pure Vanilla was so willing to give up? Was Blueberry Milk really that likable, that he remembered how much work it is to be with Shadow Milk and gave up?

But that didn't sound like Pure Vanilla at all. He needed to investigate, he knew Pure Vanilla would write down his thoughts sometimes, perhaps he had written something about him. Or he could always wait till he slept and sneak into his dreams from there.

No, that wouldn't work, he never stayed asleep long enough to enter deep sleep. Which was what Shadow Milk needed to enter a dream in the first place, woe is me.
So searching his room it was!
Getting in was easy, the old man never seems to lock his doors. weirdo.
The searching however, is hard. There were stacks and stacks of paper on his desk, all of them notes from the Hollyberry Kingdom or The Creme Republic, non important stuff like that.

He searched on top of shelves, behind all the pictures in the shelves. In every single drawer he could find, nothing! Either Pure Vanilla was a master at hiding notes or he had thrown them all away like a pest. He would turn this entire room upside down just to-

The door knob turns.

Pure Vanilla looks up, his room is lit up by a small candle on his desk and nightstand. He didn't leave any lights on, as far as he can remember.
“Hello?” He calls out, his tone neutral as ever.

Shadow Milk quickly responds, “ah your majesty, my apologies!” He quickly steps out of the corner of the room so Pure Vanilla can see him. He’s taken the form of a woman, a maid to be exact. Unlike his usual disguises, this one doesn't have any visible hints at it actually being him. So he just has to cross his fingers and pray to nothing that Pure Vanilla is too exhausted to notice.

“You’re alright, were you cleaning my room?” Pure Vanilla gives him a gentle smile, and god it's been so long since that smile was so directly pointed at him. Even though it isn't really at him right now. He nods, trying to appear as nervous as he can.

“Yes, I am one of the new ones. I didn't know you’d be back so soon, I can leave!” He quickly finds an excuse to leave, hoping the fool lets him go.

“No it's quite alright, I won't disturb your cleaning. What is your name?” Pure Vanilla moves to sit by his desk, though his vanilla beholder's staff light doesn't leave its focus on Shadow Milk. He feels stuck, too in focus.

“Blueberry Swirl Cookie.” Shadow Milk nods in courtesy, he looks up to see Pure Vanilla's brows crease slightly, though he is smiling as kindly as ever.

“Strange, I don't think I’ve heard your name before.” Pure Vanilla tilts his head slightly, turning back to the letters on his desk. Shadow Milk picks up on the teasing at once.

“Yeah, I came in last week. You’ve been busy with all that war stuff, it's not your fault.” Shadow Milk makes an excuse for the other, noticing how Pure Vanillas pen stills for a second before he continues his writing.

“I apologize for that, war stuff is quite filling my schedule as of late.” Pure Vanilla sighs, his smile doesn't leave his lips. He really thinks this is a game, well two can do that.

“I can imagine, why don't you rest? You seem exhausted, if I may be allowed to comment on that, your majesty.” Shadow Milk leans back on his heels, the skirt of his dress flowing with the motion.

“It's nothing. Just the constant war preparations, meetings and..” Pure Vanilla's words stop suddenly, though he doesn't need to continue for Shadow Milk to know what he was going to say.

“I heard a rumour that you’ve been searching for that Beast as well, is he still residing here?” he dares to mention it directly, taking slight pleasure in how Pure Vanilla immediately reacts with a hunch in his shoulders. The part of a new, young and all too curious maid fitting him like a glove.

“I do not know. Shadow Milk is someone who lives and does what he wants. If he wants to go back to his Spire, I won't stop him.” Pure Vanilla answers strictly, almost like he has answered this question before. He directly turns to look at Shadow Milk now, and he can't help but feel slightly caught. Though he doesn't drop his facade right away, perhaps he’s simply imagining it.

“I don't see why you put up with him frankly. Messy creature that he is, heard someone complain about how much of a mess he’d create just for fun.” Shadow Milk's tone is colder and sharper than what he intended, playful banter turned into self-loathing. He needs to get out, away from Pure Vanilla.

Pure Vanilla looks at him, his eyes open now. Beautiful blue and yellow looking at him with something close to fondness, something Shadow Milk doesn't want to name. It makes him want to throw up.

“Im afraid that's just how it is. I care too much about him, I’ll put up with anything he throws my way cause I… I’m afraid I love him too much to not care.” Pure Vanilla smiles gently, though his tone sounds too sad for it to seem genuine. The candlelight makes his blonde hair shine like gold, he looks like an angel where he sits. Too good, too pure.

“No you don't." Shadow Milk sharply answers back. Pure Vanilla blinks as a slight reaction, but no more than that. “You don't love him. You can't."
Pure Vanilla stands up, Shadow Milk takes a step back from the motion. “Shadow-” he tries but Shadow Milk interrupts.

“You just care about the Blueberry Milk part of him, the good one. Your perfect match!” Shadow Milk barks out a laugh, pure heartbreak clear in how his voice cracks. His disguise starts unravelling, he doesn't notice, doesn't care.

“No, I care about Shadow Milk, I don't know Blueberry Milk.” Pure Vanilla is close now, too close. Shadow Milk steps back again.

“HAH But you do! And now you’ve got that foolish delusion that I’ll change, thats why you’ve been chasing me like a fucking idiot.” Shadow Milk pushes Pure Vanilla his hands meeting his shoulders, Pure Vanilla doesn't flinch.

“No. I simply wanted to make sure that you were alright. You’re my friend Shadow Milk, please let me explain.” Pure Vanilla grabs Shadow Milk’s hands by the wrists. Gentle but firm, making sure he doesn't get away again.

Shadow Milk freezes, his blue and cyan eyes look up at Pure Vanilla with slit pupils. “No, we're not friends. And you certainly don't love me, you silly old fool.” Shadow Milks form melts, shadows twist around the edges of his body. And with a blink of an eye, he’s gone.

Chapter Text

Shadow Milk felt like shit. Not because of the whole, leaving Pure Vanilla thing, no he could live with that. It's just that he felt betrayed. How dare the other think he loved him? He didn't, Shadow Milk knew this.

Well, he might be lying to himself there. Pure Vanilla loved Blueberry Milk, which technically was Shadow Milk, but it wasn't him. Blueberry Milk was long gone. Pure Vanilla of all people should understand that, so why didn't he?

Not to mention, Shadow Milk hasn't slept in days now. As much fun as it was being back home in the Spire, he couldn't sleep. Didn't want to.

Beasts didn't need to eat or sleep, it wasn't a necessity like for most cookies in the modern world. That didn't mean they didn’t like sleeping and all the like, Eternal Sugar with her constant naps or Mystic Flour with her apathetic love for making food. Shadow Milk had overused his non-need for sleep as long as he could remember, always staying up, never seeing the need in sleep. Or the want. His minions, Candy Apple and Black Sapphire however, were mortals so they needed their sleep for example.

Same goes with Pure Vanilla, who, even if he wasn't mortal, insisted on sleeping. Perhaps it was due to him being a mortal before he stole the Soul Jam, Shadow Milk was unsure. But Pure Vanilla had insisted that Shadow Milk tried it.

“Even if you don't need it, sleep can help with resetting the mind and body. It's still good for you.” The fool had told him, and sure he had listened eventually, and sure he had slept for 14 hours and continued to sleep every night afterwards. Sue him! It was stupidly comfortable, especially when he slept next to Pure Vanilla for whatever reason.

But he didn't want to think of him right now, he needed something else. The Spire was getting boring, the Vanilla kingdom was a no-go.

So, of course he goes to Eternal Sugar, who currently resides in the Hollyberry Kingdom.

They stand on a way too pink balcony, overlooking the gardens. Hollyberry and some other cookies Shadow Milk hasn't bothered to remember the names of are talking and laughing away. He rolls his eyes, half laying on the railing, resting his head on top of his crossed arms. Eternal Sugar stands gracefully beside him, looking at the Ancient on the ground with a gross amount of fondness. It oddly reminds Shadow Milk off-

“Why are you even here? Don't you miss your garden?” Shadow Milk quickly shuts that thought down by asking Sugar a question. She doesn't look his way, but by the way the wings that replace her ears twitch, she heard him perfectly fine.

“I’m here because of my dear other half of course. I thought you out of all cookies would see where I’m coming from.” She doesn't look away from Hollyberry, Shadow Milk sits up a bit more.
“Tch, yeah right. I think Salt is more with you on that than me.”

Finally she turns to look at him, her brows creased in slight frustration.
“Honestly Blue, why are you here? Running away from your issues with your other half again?” She gives him a small smile before she turns back to look over the balcony.

“I have too many issues with Pure Vanilla. Still no reason to run away.” He lies, ignoring how he looks anywhere but Eternal Sugar and the cookies on the ground.

Eternal Sugar hums, “Then pray tell, why did Hollyberry tell me that Pure Vanilla is doing so horribly these last few days? Even with all the war nonsense, he sounds like he’s miserable." Her tone sounds sad for a second, no doubt her need for everyone to be happy creeping in.

“Tch, good.” Shadow Milk answers sharply, he crosses his arms as he smiles slightly. Though he feels no joy in it.

“I'm serious Shadow Milk. Hollyberry said he looked like he hadn't slept in days, he must be worried sick about you.” She turns back towards him, her wings fluttering in frustration as she looks over the other. Her stern tone kind of catches Shadow Milk off guard, he looks at her for a second before looking away.

“You’re saying that like it's my problem. So what if he sleeps horribly? I’m not exactly his pill of melatonin or whatever.” Shadow Milk starts floating, his feet swiftly leaving the ground as he looks down on Eternal Sugar. A cheshire cat like smile on his face, the usual facade of his coming back on like it the easiest thing ever,

“Just don't ruin anything, Shadow Milk. It's important that our other halves are okay, happiness helps-”

“-everyone if everyone is happy.” Shadow Milk finishes her sentence for her, before he quickly flies away. Eternal Sugar doesn't call after him, which he is very grateful for.

Pure Vanilla hasn't been sleeping? What a fool, throwing a tantrum just cause Shadow Milk leaves for a few days. He can't be that heartbroken that Shadow Milk turned him down, he managed just fine last time.

In his confusion and anger, Shadow Milk finds himself back in the Vanilla Kingdom around midnight. The moon making the usually yellow castle look like it's bathed in silver, he flies by the tall walls carefully. The last thing he needs is to be caught by a guard.

Pure Vanillas balcony is unlocked, Shadow Milk quietly scolds the other in his head as he fades into the shadows for a quieter entrance. He stays in the shadows for a few seconds, not immediately turning back into his cookie form as he scouts the room.

Pure Vanilla is surprisingly tucked into bed, sleeping in his way too big bed. Shadow Milk turns into his cookie form again, floating quietly over to the other cookies side of the bed. He looks down on the old king, who looks oddly peaceful.

“hasn’t been sleeping” yeah right, either Pure Vanilla just looks horrible naturally or Hollyberry has turned into a pretty decent liar.

Shadow Milks thought process is cut short by Pure Vanilla letting out a small grunt of discomfort. Shadow Milk is quick to look back at him, looking for any signs of hurt or damage that could cause it. But instead he hears Pure Vanilla mumble words of hopelessness, rambles about losing and obvious words that Shadow Milk has heard once before. In the Spire

He’s having a nightmare, a nightmare about Shadow Milk.

What's he doing here? Shadow Milk quickly backs off, stumbling slightly as his feet accidentally hit the floor. He really should just leave right now. He looks to his left, he’s standing right by a window. He thanks the Witches for once, for just blessing him with such an easy escape- it's locked.

Shadow Milk tugs on it, it doesn't budge. Great.

“Shadow Milk?”
He stills, and looks back towards the bed. Pure Vanilla is fully sat up, rubbing the small amount of sleep he got out of his eyes.

“Please don't leave.” Pure Vanilla's voice is soft, full of sleep. But he doesn't move from his spot on the bed. Instead he looks up at Shadow Milk with hazy, half-seeing eyes.

Shadow Milk doesn't graze him with an answer, instead he turns back towards the window.

“Where have you been?” Pure Vanilla asks, the sound of his robes moving cut the small quiet of the room. A small step sounds out, Shadow Milk doesn't look.

“What are you, my mother?” Shadow Milk rolls his eyes, he doesn't look Pure Vanilla’s way. He’ll falter, he’ll stay, he just knows it. He can't, he has to leave.

“I’ve been worried about you.” Pure Vanilla pauses, his steps no longer sounding out. “You look exhausted, please come to bed. We can forget I ever said anything if it will make you stay. Just come to bed, Shadow.” His voice is so gentle, like one would talk to a hurt or cornered animal. It makes Shadow Milk want to cry, he clears his throat.

“No. I’m leaving.” Shadow Milk answers sternly, his voice lacking its usual dramatic flare. He doesn't care, he fickles with the lock on the window again.

“Can I just ask why?” Pure Vanilla takes another step. Shadow Milk closes his eyes, hands freezing slightly.

“Why what.”

“Why are you avoiding me to this degree? I want to hear why, even if I myself am pretty sure why. You owe me that much.” Pure Vanilla's gentleness holds a certain strain to it, like he’s restraining himself from lashing out. Shadow Milk almost wishes he would.

Finally, Shadow Milk turns to look at the other. Pure Vanilla almost seems relieved at the eye contact, stress leaving his shoulders in an instant reaction.

“For your own good Nilly, even someone as foolish as you should see that you deserve better. I am simply reminding you of who I am, instead of whatever messed up interpretation the Fount of Knowledge put in that thick head of yours. Blueberry Milk fell into a well, I am the only one left.” Shadow Milk explains coldly, the half truths making his throat sting. Pure Vanilla's eyes widen in small heartbreak, or something like it.

Shadow Milk taps the lock on the window, a simple spell opening the lock. He opens the windows, the cold midnight air flowing in.

“Sleep well Nilla.” He gives a small bow before he becomes one with the shadows again. He flies out into the night, and this time
Pure Vanilla calls out after him, and he feels his own heart break.
He really is a fool.

Chapter Text

It was strange, how much Pure Vanilla truly worried about Shadow Milk. He knew fully well that the other could take care of himself, the question was simply if he would.

He was used to Shadow Milk leaving on him once feelings got a bit too much, or Pure Vanilla offered something Shadow Milk felt he couldn't return without letting at least one wall down. And due to getting used to it, he patiently waited for his return, which would always happen eventually. He had noticed that the jester seemed to like it whenever Pure Vanilla asked questions about his disappearance, even if he made fun of him for asking too much. It was a nice routine.

But now, after his late night disappearance into the silver light of the moon. Pure Vanilla couldn't help but feel a small sense of dread, like his heart felt heavier just thinking about it.

Now, one would think this would make his horrible lack of sleep worse. It did the opposite actually, he now tended to oversleep. Having to get waved out by the two Swiss Roll sisters. They got him out of bed by force, dressed him quickly and swiftly and within 15 minutes he was in a meeting room or speaking with some or other politician.

He would always return back to his room by 11, when it was coldly dark in his room. When he finally felt the intense weight of loneliness way down on him from being distracted all day. He swore he could see Shadow Milk in the corner of his eye sometimes, his faint silhouette looking at Pure Vanilla from across the room. Knowing eyes reading him like a book, freezing him on the spot.

Of course, it was all his imagination. Running amok from the exhaustion. So he goes to bed, and pretends that the other is there. He always slept a little better when Shadow Milk insisted on sleeping in the same bed. Something about “How dare you keep this big, soft bed all to yourself? That's incredibly rude hosting Nilly.” He smiles a bit as he thinks back to the scolding he got with no fire in it, and he once again drifts off.

The next day was nothing special, except for the fact he finally got some time to do something for himself. He, of course, tended the flowers. He felt bad for leaving them alone for days now. He always had time in his schedule to see and tend to his sheep, but almost rarely the flowers which he did his utmost to nurture.
He was overlooking the lilies which surrounded his gazebo, when something caught his eye. Before he could properly turn his staff to get a better look, he gets shoved to the ground. Dropping his staff and losing his ability to see whoever just tackled him to the ground.
The lilies all move out of the way in almost a sentient way, as the two crash into the ground. Pure Vanilla landing straight onto the dirt below with a small "oof" sound escaping him.

“YOU.”

Candy Apples voice was as recognizable as ever, her voice as high pitched, sieged with small fury.
Pure Vanilla furrows his brows in confusion as he carefully sits up, the other still on top of him falling into his lap.

“Candy Apple.” He greets with a small huff as he feels his hand on the ground around them, his staff somewhere nearby hopefully. He suddenly feels someone hand him the staff, gently tapping his palm with it. He happily takes it to see who the two meeting him are with faces to look at. Though he can easily guess who the second may be.

“And me, of course.” Black Sapphire gives him his usual smile, nodding slightly in greeting as he moves to get Candy Apple off the healer on the ground.
Somehow, she lets herself be lifted off. Just to angrily tap her blacktipped shoe on the sugar stones below.

“UGH, he looks JUST as clueless as we do!” She complains, crossing her arms in anger as she turns to look around the garden instead of looking at Pure Vanilla.

“Can I help you two with anything?” Pure Vanilla stands up as steadily as he can, looking between the two decitlings. He looks over himself and dusts off his robes, having gotten a bit of dirt on it. It was rare for Shadow Milks helpers to go to Pure Vanilla without the jester himself being present, they sometimes joined whenever Shadow Milk visited. So, their appearance wasn't uncommon in the Kingdom, not to mention to him.

“We are here to ask about our master.” Black Sapphire says easily, looking around himself. He stands straight, looking as collected as always. But Pure Vanilla can spot a hint of anxiousness by the way his wings twitch slightly. He himself can’t exactly say he felt in top condition by the topic, pushing down the thousands of worries he got by the simple mention.

“Shadow Milk? What about him?” Pure Vanillas staff looks directly at Black Sapphire now, he notices how Candy Apple wanders over to the lilies behind him. Hopefully she leaves them alone while he’s not looking. He tries to play his question off as a casual question, a clueless one at that.

Black Sapphire rolls his eyes slightly, before sighing. Seeming to have convinced himself of what he’s going to tell Pure Vanilla. Or how much.

“He uh, there is something going on with him. We were wondering if you knew anything about it? He tends to tell you things so..” Black Sapphire’s sentence wanders off, caught off by Candy Apple yelling out. Pure Vanilla turns to look at her as she sits herself down on one of the stairs on the gazebo.

“He’s acting super weird!!! Like weirder than you.” She gives Pure Vanilla a pointed look, which he ignores. Used to it by now.

He looks back towards Black Sapphire, “Weird how? I haven't seen him in over a week by now.” Pure Vanilla thinks outloud, looking between the two younger ones to see if any of them have anything more to add.

“Oh y’know.” Black Sapphire starts, “shutting himself in his room, or not being home for hours at a time. We got reports from some of the other Beast helpers that he was spotted in their areas.”

“Yeah! And he keeps us out! He just told us that it’s a very important play he’s setting up, and when we asked if we should help with the props..” Candy Apple butts in, but she gets sadder the more she talks and stops herself as she looks down on the ground below. A big pout clear on her face.

Black Sapphire sighs, “he told us we couldn't help. He would tell us if we could, but it's been days. Which is very unusual, by now we would at least have a hint.”

Candy Apple peaks up again, “And! The fact he goes to other cookies besides us!!! He must have lost his mind, poor Master! He hasn't gone to you?” She shoots Pure Vanilla a suspicious glance, he ignores it as he thinks for a second.

“I’m sorry, I haven't seen him since..” Pure Vanilla trails off for a second before shaking himself. “Im sure whatever it is he’s doing, it's going to work out. If you two see anything more of him, please tell me.”

Black Sapphire gives an acknowledging nod, while Candy Apple simply rolls her eyes.

“There is a council meeting tomorrow, I’d like it if you two would join me.” Pure Vanilla asks, the two younger ones share a small glance. “You can think about it, you know where to find me.” He gives them both a smile before taking his leave.

Thousands of thoughts swirl around in his head, and all of them are about Shadow Milk.

Witches, he feels like he’s going insane.

Chapter Text

The early spring sun shined peacefully upon the Blueberry Yoghurt Academy. Beautiful orange and yellows contrasting its deep toned blues.

Barely any of the students inside, if any at all, had yet woken up for the new day filled with magic and heavy books in libraries yet. All still tucked away neatly in their dorm rooms, hoping the sun will stay low for another few hours.

Blueberry Milk however, could not wait for it to rise faster. Anxiety ridden hands tucked nervously at his black robes as he paced almost indents into the rocks outside in the private garden.

He had called his friends over, for a visit, nothing more!

But recently it has been more and more difficult to get a hold of them, to have them all at the same place at the same time. Which happens, they’re all busy Virtues with their own kingdoms after all! Blueberry Milk understood. But still, he had sent a personal letter to each one of them to hope that they’d come to discuss something with him. He could make up what when they arrived.

The cool morning air wasn't enough to cool down his nerves, he felt like he could overheat inside of his long and way too long robes any second now.

The flapping of wings immediately calms his nerves, as he lets go of his fidgeting fingers to look towards the source of the all too nostalgic sound.

“Blueberry Milk! My dear Fount, it’s been too long!” P**e S*g*rs voice rings out, her long pink hair flowing behind her as she lands gracefully on the newly washed sugar plates on the ground. Grass with dew from the night rain sticking through the cracks behind pushed to the side by the sudden gush of wind. The impact of her landing blowing the leaves on the trees softly off their branches. A clear sign of the trees not being fully ready to hold onto the leaves just yet.

Blueberry Milk walks over to give her a hug in greeting, she happily returns it. “It really has, have you heard news from the others?” He asks, as he gently ushers her towards the gazebo.

The gazebos roof is made out of painted sugar glass, all too familiar faces and colors decorate it. The early spring light shines brightly through it, coloring the white sugar marble under it in soft but yet bright colors.

“I’m afraid not. Only Sc**ch*ng Sp*ce, who said he couldn't make it due to issues with a kingdom of his. Sad to miss your jokes, he told me.” P**e S*g*r sadly recalls, The Founts ears droop from the news of his friend not being able to make it. He notices how she quickly corrects her expression upon noticing his own face drop to match hers.

“But do not fret dear! The others may come.” She smiles sadly at him, the wings that replace her ears twitching slightly. A half-truth, Blueberry Milk knows them too well. He smiles back, as fake as hers. “Just give them time dear.” She gently pats his hand, the motion cold on his skin. Like touching a statue.

“Of course I won't fret! Things like that happen, anyway-” He sits down at one of the chairs that surround a table that stands in the middle of the gazebo. His black robes following gracefully, he feels the material clumsily stuff itself behind him. the feeling claustrophobic.

“I’ll start telling you what I wanted to discuss, the others can catch up once they arrive.”

Pure Vanilla jolted awake.

He heaves in a heavy breath, the dream feeling like it had a chokehold onto him.

Another memory of Shadow Milks being projected into his dreams, the glimpses he got when they linked their Soul Jams sticking to him like old honey.

This one gave him a particularly bad taste in his mouth, he swallows. It doesn't go away. Shadow Milk has been lonely for ages it seems, how does one fix that? No matter how much he may love Shadow Milk, he has too many barriers up, all worth breaking down just to get a glimpse of whoever hides behind it all.

He sighs, dragging a hand over his face as he forces himself to sit upright. The bed shifts underneath him as he moves to reach for his staff. The familiar noise of birdsong being his first sign that the sun is well and up.

He activates his Vanilla Beholder staff, the sight of sunlight making him wince slightly. It's still early enough that the Swiss Roll sisters haven't come and pushed him out of his room yet.

His friends and the Council will arrive today. The help from the Beasts and what actions to do next will be the big themes they are going to talk about, Pure Vanilla paces his room as he remembers his points of arguments. White Lily also wanted to cover some of the spells Shadow Milk helped translate after that whole time debacle..

That's when it hits him, Shadow Milk isn't here.

How could he have forgotten, this is the first council meeting almost over a year where Shadow Milk isn't present. He curses internally as he thinks of excuses.

This can go so wrong, he thinks as he walks over to his closet. Finding an outfit for the day is a decent distraction.

Shadow Milk was the last of the Beasts to be “redeemed”, all the Beasts still being on thin ice and all that. The obvious betrayal from Dark Enchantress was what really pushed them, and mainly Shadow Milk to finally join their side of the war. The rest of the Ancients are distrustful of Shadow Milk, him being the literal embodiment of Deceit and all that. They always used Pure Vanilla as a type of lie detector, which would no longer work since the lies being told are no longer present.

He sighs as he picks his hat up from a side table, he dusts it off slightly. An idle movement, a slight distraction. Shadow Milk would most likely have a field day from Pure Vanilla stressing this much. The last few Council meetings have gone smoothly, but one can never be sure.

Pure Vanilla puts his hat on, the robes he gained from awakening sitting nicely on his body. He checks himself over one last time before going to sort through his paper work.
That's when a knock sounds out from his door.

“Come in!” He calls as he moves over to his desk to sort through the papers laying loose on it, for some reason they lay more scattered than he remembers from when he sat there last 8 hours ago. Strange, he shrugs the thought away as the doors open with a carefulness that causes him to glance towards it.

Two very familiar figures walk through it, one significantly shorter than the other, if not by the gigantic candy apples hanging on her head.

“Good morning you two. Not left for the Spire yet?” Pure Vanilla greets the pair with a smile, putting the papers down to turn his full attention towards the two younger cookies.

“We would like to join you for the Council meeting.” Black Sapphire bluntly says, his face a neutral expression. Right, Pure Vanilla had completely forgotten about that. He lifts his eyebrows in small surprise along with a bright smile, Black Sapphire takes this as a sign to continue talking.

“We shall replace Master Shadow Milk's place in the council, many of the other Beast's minions have sat in on meetings we say we can do the same.” He explains, Pure Vanilla nods along. He looks down towards Candy Apple who huffs in response.

“AAND so that no one thinks anything mean about Master Shadow Milk! They’ll all think he ditched, I know it.” She grumbles. Pure Vanilla smiles at that, a small relieved sigh leaving his lips.

“Thank the Witches, that's very kind of you two.” He gives them both a warm smile. He sighs out loud in clear relief, a slight weight having been lifted off his shoulders.

That's when two more figures appear in the door, their footsteps almost silent. All three look towards the twins in maid dresses, they don't give any reaction, just a polite bow with a monotone expression as they walks into the room to do their usual tasks.

“Well, that's our queue to get a move on. You guys want to join me while I greet our guests?” Pure Vanilla pauses on his way out of the room, the two smaller ones giving each other a small glance before nodding to themselves.

“Sounds boringgg!!” Candy Apple exclaims as she struts past him, Black Sapphire follows in suit. “I don't see why not.” he says smugly. Both heading straight for the docks it seems.

Pure Vanilla looks towards the windows in his bedroom, even from here he can see the airships readying to land. He’s excited to see his friends again, even with all the stress of war, they still manage to give him a smile on his face by the simple thought of seeing them again.

Chapter Text

The council room was filled with murmuring between the different parties present when Pure Vanilla finally managed to get there in the nick of time. Everyone had settled nicely and quickly as always, council meetings seemed to happen more often than they used to a few years back. The looming threat of Dark Enchantress Cookie terrorizing Earthbread again causes them to meet up more often. The Council meetings have begun being a every other month occurrence, dragging the different leaders away from their duties to focus on how to protect themselves.

The vibe in the room isn't as tense as Pure Vanilla had thought it would be, as it is always a strong 50/50 on what sort of energy his friends bring to the table (pun intended). The Beasts present don't make that concern of his any better, but as of now, all the ones present sit quietly beside each of their counterparts.

Pure Vanilla walks over to his chair at the table, the young Consul greets Pure Vanilla with a nod which he returns with a small smile. Behind the blonde Ancient walks two younger cookies, their clothing almost the exact opposite of Pure Vanillas. They suspiciously but also curiously glance around the room, the little girl seeming awestruck by the dragon who sits beside Hollyberry.

“Greetings everyone, apologies for being the last one to arrive. I got caught up in something.” Pure Vanilla greets everyone, looking across the room to give everyone their share of the given greeting.

“No need to apologize! We were just catching up.” Hollyberry casts a big grin his way, he softly smiles back. Beside the pink Ancient sits the dragon and her own Beast. He mentally thanks the Witches that those two can tolerate each other during the Council meeting for once it seems.

Pure Vanilla looks towards Golden Cheese who’s playing with a small golden coin in between her clawed fingers. A beastly presence missing beside her today, he takes notice of.

“Golden Cheese, is Burning Spice not accompanying us today?” he asks, the other promptly putting the coin down with a small huff.

“That lunatic has been preparing for war since our last meeting, during that whole.. time travelling business of yours.” She rolls her brightly colored eyes, Pure Vanilla notices how White Lily shifts uncomfortably in her seat from the mention of their little misadventure. “And by preparing I mean, training like a madman with his army, or what's left of it.” Her wings puff out in frustration.

“What is the meaning of preparing for war when the only thing you’re doing is raising armies, most of it is the thing we are doing right now. Armies are important, but so is the planning.” Dark Cacao huffs with the same small frustration in his voice, though it comes out in a more hidden manner than the previous.

“While we’re on the subject of missing Beasts.” Clotted Cream clears his throat, gaining the attention of everyone in the room, he glances sharply at Pure Vanilla. “Where is your Beast, Pure Vanilla?” The subject of raising armies not being something the young Consul has any interest in it seems.

It gets suddenly very quiet, everyone quickly turning to join Clotted Creams stare his way. It was usual for Burning Spice to sit out of the meetings, tended to bore him if Pure Vanilla remembered right. Shadow Milk however..

“He is uh.” Pure Vanilla stammers out, he glances behind him towards Shadow Milk's helpers who are standing up against the wall like two old fashioned soldiers.

“I’m afraid Shadow Milk is sitting out today, therefore his helpers Black Sapphire and Candy Apple are here in his stead.” He motions towards the two younger cookies.

“Sitting out today? Perhaps he finally has seen how pointless these meetings are.” Mystic Flour quietly murmurs, but still loudly enough for everyone to hear.

“Do you know his whereabouts?” Golden Cheese asks, she raises a suspicious eyebrow. “Out of every Beast, he’s the one we should have the most suspicion over these days.”

“Hey you-” Black Sapphire and Candy Apple try to argue back, Pure Vanilla cuts them off. “I do not know his whereabouts, but I have heard that he’s been seen around each of your own Beasts. Why this is, we can ask them now.” He glances towards Eternal Sugar who looks like she might fall asleep any minute now.

“Eternal Sugar, when did you see Shadow Milk last?” His voice seems to rouse her a little as one of her wings twitches slightly. She looks back at him, bright pink, snake-like eyes glaring at him with calmness that reminds him of the dream he had last night.

“Hmmm I think I saw Blue at least a week ago, he comes to me rather often nowadays.” She yawns, her feathered wings spreading out behind her in her seat in a half-stretch.

“He came to me exactly a week ago.” Mystic Flour speaks up, though her voice somehow stays relatively quiet.

A quiet murmur raises in the room, and Pure Vanilla can't help the deep frown that's present on his face.

“What did he talk to you about?” Dark Cacao looks down at Mystic Flour who doesn't look back to meet his eyes, keeping them closed.

“Armies, and so on. Mostly curious on how my mist works, he also mentioned how Burning Spice and his armies have gotten stronger. And..” She trails off, Eternal Sugar continues for her. “And that plan of his.” her lips twist in a slight snarl, the plan seemingly something she doesn't rightly agree with.

“What plan?” Golden Cheese prompts, her wings yet again huffing out in frustration. Pure Vanilla can’t help but feel the same question lingering in his throat, he can think that everyone else in the room holds the same thoughts as him. Perhaps even worse ones.

“He didn't say anything exact, you know how he is.” Eternal Sugar leans back in her chair, closing her eyes. Seemingly done talking for the time being. She seems to subconsciously lean towards Hollyberry, landing her head on the other's shoulder. And Hollyberry lets her. Pitaya lets out a small growl, but adds no further comment. The sight of such affection causes Pure Vanilla chest to ache, the loss of his other half clearer now than before.

“How can we be sure he isn't fooling us all? Working for Dark Enchantress once again?” Clotted Cream speaks out, he raises an eyebrow in suspicion. Even with his sharp tone, he keeps his face controlled. Ever the politician.

“He wouldnt.” Pure Vanilla sharply shuts the idea down, “I scared him away two or so weeks ago, he still wants to help without being near us.” The room goes quiet again, obviously thinking Pure Vanilla's words over. “I assume whatever this plan of his is, it is in our best interest.” he adds on, the quiet turning into small murmurs.

“I have some additional info.” White Lily speaks out, her voice not cracking under the weight of silence in the room. Pure Vanilla looks up at her, her dark pink eyes filled with concern for her friend. He simply gives her a reassuring smile before she continues.

“He came to me directly, as Silent Salt was out when he came to most likely talk to him.” She casts a short glance towards Silent Salt, who sits like a statue in the chair next to her. He only gives a nod as affirmation.

“Me and Shadow Milk aren't on the best of terms, so he only gave me two sharp and short messages. One for Silent Salt and..” She stops abruptly, she looks back at Pure Vanilla. “And one for Pure Vanilla.”

Pure Vanilla feels his breath leave him for a second, before he motions for White Lily to continue.

“The one for Silent Salt was how much his salt soldiers can withstand, what makes them break. And the one for Pure Vanilla was simply, to tell you to keep at least one window unlocked for when you sleep.” Her voice cracks at the end, all the attention on her finally seeming to have taken its toll as she quickly averts her eyes to look anywhere else but the people in the room.

“Is he threatening you, Pure Vanilla?” Hollyberry asks, alarm of her friend's predicament in her voice. He quickly shakes his head, long blonde hair moving softly with the motion.

“No it is no cause for concern, I know what he means. As for the information, thank you White Lily.” He pauses for a second, noticing how she sits up a bit more from the reassurement.

“With this new information, I believe we should wrap up this meeting. Tomorrow we can plan what to do with the information we gained today, this is a lot to digest. Please have a good rest of your evening.” He sighs as he finishes his sentence, everyone pooling out of the room in quiet whispers.

Suddenly he feels a hand on his arm, he flinches slightly to look up to see White Lily give him a small smile. A small distance behind her is Silent Salt, though his back is turned to give them their privacy.

“You okay?” She whispers, her hands nervously twitching against her staff.

“Yeah I just.. trying to wrap my head around what's going on with Shadow Milk.” He answers quietly, a small frown forming on his lips as he looks down at his hands.

“I understand that. He was always the one that was the most difficult to comprehend out of them all..” She pauses for a second, her hand petting his arm in a soothing motion.
“Do you think it has something to do with the time spell? Do you think it has had any effect on him?” She asks quietly, almost seeming nervous to ask such a thing. Pure Vanilla sighs, besides the whole hatred for his past self, no not really, he wants to say.

“Not as far as I’ve noticed. He acts the same as always, just a bit more distant with the whole-planning-stuff-behind-our-backs.” He carefully answers back. White Lily lets out a small chuckle, a quiet yet comforting sound to Pure Vanilla's ears.

“Did you still want to discuss the spells he helped with?” Pure Vanilla asks after a beat, White Lily simply nods.

“Yes, I just thought today wouldn't be the time. With Shadow Milk missing and the new info that we all have to sleep on.” She smiles towards him, which he returns.

She rubs his arm in reassurance. “I have to go now, I’ll see you later.” Pure Vanilla nods, but looks towards her face as she doesn't immediately pull away. She leans in slightly, whispering in a lowered tone to make double sure the next words are for the two of them only.

“As difficult as it may seem right now, you two have something that a few of us don't. Hang in there Pure Vanilla.” She backs away, and Pure Vanilla assumes with the sound of heavy armour leaving the room, she and Silent Salt have left.

He presses a hand towards his Soul Jam, a feeling of relief filling his chest as he does his best to breathe.

“keep at least one window unlocked for when you sleep”
Pure Vanilla prays he doesn't get his hopes up for nothing as he heads towards his room, the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Chapter Text

-months ago-

It was a hot day out, if not one of the hottest of the year. The looming war further away, still not as present as it would be in just a few months.

And Pure Vanilla is tending to his garden despite it all.

The familiar touch of dirt, and the smell of water and newly fed flowers being something that brings him an eager sense of calm. He sighs as he gently pets the dirt under a petunia.

His unnaturally long blonde hair has been carefully put up in a ponytail, after a lot of nagging from his closest friends who are awfully insistent that he needs to take care of something so beautiful. His robes however? They can handle a little dirt on them.

That's when the sound of the milk crowns on the other end of the garden rings quietly and gently, as a signal of the calm being over for now.

“I know you’re there Shadow Milk.” He calls out, not even bothering to turn around to look. “Please don't jump me while I’m placing dirt.” He hears a loud groan behind him, the shadow of Shadow Milk covering him from the heating sun now.

“How?! You didn't even see me, or hear me this time.” Shadow Milk floats to look over Pure Vanilla's shoulder. Their cheeks almost touching, the coolness of Shadow Milk being a nice touch in the warmth of the sun Pure Vanilla finds himself in.

“The milk crowns always ring whenever you get close.” Pure Vanilla smiles softly, noticing how the other immediately retracts to give the flowers a look. And he can swear he hears a quiet yet sharp “snitches” from behind him.

“Why is that, if I may ask?” Pure Vanilla finally stands up, turning to look at the other who’s still having a staring contest with said flowers.

“Well, I am kind of the reason they exist.” Shadow Milk answers back sharply, resting back in the air. Throwing his hands behind his head. “Stupid, tacky flowers.” He snarls, sharp teeth showing as he gives one last look at them.

“Makes sense, guess I never really thought about it.” Pure Vanilla starts walking towards a fountain a bit further away in the garden. Shadow Milk follows quietly. He doesn't even bother questioning why the other has such a hatred for the flowers.

“I have a request to ask you.” Pure Vanilla stops in front of the fountain, noticing how Shadow Milk's eyes widen in interest before quickly fixing it into a big grin.

“Awwww is it to leave you alone forever so I never have to see that ugly mug of yours ever again?” He asks, floating closer to Pure Vanilla's face. His smile is as wide as a Cheshire cat's.

“No, one could dream though.” Pure Vanilla smiles smugly back, turning away from Shadow Milk towards the fountain instead. He hears Shadow Milk make a noise that sounds like a startled laugh as he turns.

It's a rather big fountain, white sugar marble glistening with the pure blue soda water in it. And on the very top of it rests a very colorful ball. Pure Vanilla motions towards it with his staff, Shadow Milk's eyes following the motion.

“Could you grab that ball for me please? You who can fly and all that.” He asks, a kind smile on his face. He sees Shadow Milk bite the inside of his cheeks for a second, contemplating it. The other floats carefully up to grab it, even more careful to not get wet. He floats back down and throws it around a little before throwing it at Pure Vanilla.

“You’re lucky I’m here to ask something of you or else I wouldn't have gotten it.” He says quickly, lounging back in the air again. Pure Vanilla giggles slightly, holding the ball carefully in his hands.

“Ah yes, of course.”

It turns quiet for a second, before Shadow Milk breaks it. “Sooooo where ya off to after this your royal Foolishness?” he mimics a bow, Pure Vanilla rolls his closed eyes as he turns to walk back towards the castle again.

“A few meetings, four today if I remember right.”
His walk is abruptly stopped as Shadow Milk hastily floats in front of him, holding a hand out. “WAIIIIIIIIIIIIT, what else?” he puts a hand behind his ear, a sneaky grin on his face.

Pure Vanilla thinks for a minute, Shadow Milk waits patiently. Suddenly Pure Vanilla lights up, his mouth forming a small o.

“Today is game night isn't it?” he asks, and receives thousands of nods from the jester.

“Coooooorrect! And, since you forgot like a doofus, I get to choose what game we play.” Shadow Milk grins, floating to the side to finally let Pure Vanilla continue on his walk.

“Mmmm… Just as long as it isn't any dolltime or strings involved, I’ll gladly play any game with you Bluebird.” Pure Vanilla smiles, not noticing how Shadow Milk abruptly stops in his tracks.

“I told you to stop calling me that.” Shadow Milk's voice sounds like it's said through gritted teeth. Pure Vanilla stops and turns to look at the blue clothed jester. He tilts his head, a genuinely confused look on his face. “Why not?”

“It irritates me.”

“But it suits you.”

“How.”

Pure Vanilla thinks for a second, before smiling warmly. Shadow Milk flinches at it. “You’re blue, and pretty like a bluebird. And you also scream and peck at me like one if you don't get your way.” He ends his sentence with a smug smile. Shadow Milk turns a slightly darker shade of blue, his pointed ears lowering in frustration.

“UGH, and now you’re being gross.” He floats a bit higher off the ground. “I’ll see ya later Nilly, remember to keep at least one window open. Doors are for idiots.” He floats off with such speed that he doesn't hear Pure Vanilla mumble after him.

“Sure thing Bluebird..”

Pure Vanilla opens his bedroom door, the door unusually heavy. The darkness inside it greeted him like a cozy blanket for once. The exhaustion from the council meeting is still hanging over him.

He taps his staff lightly on the ground twice, each tap causing the brightness of the star on top of it to brighten slightly. He carefully takes his hat off, placing it on the table in the middle of the room. He then takes his cape off, heavy weight on his back finally removed.

He smiles slightly, nervous to turn around as he does eventually.

“Good evening Bluebird.” He greets quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

He locks eyes with Shadow Milk, whose eyes glow slightly in the dark corner of the room. He lounges like a cat on top of a plush chair.

“Hey Nilly.”

Chapter Text

Insanity is cold.

This is a fact that Shadow Milk is way too familiar with, from personal experience one could say. Directly faced with the force of nature that is insanity itself.

There is a funny thing about insanity, there's so many versions of it, the way it happens, the fall itself. It's sort of interesting when you really think about it. Shadow Milk was the first to fall out of all the Virtues, what happened afterwards was nothing more than a suicide misson, a blur to say the least. Corruption sinking into the deepest depths of his dough and jam.

The fall itself though, he remembers fully. Almost like it just happened, in a way he sort of never stops living with it. He wanted to fall, unlike how the rest did. A desperation to get away from it all, a relief he thought would help it all. That perhaps, in some strange backwards world it would help solve all his problems. It started with how he lied small lies, so he wouldn't have to see their disappointed faces due to knowledge that didn't live up to it all anymore. But then he couldn't stop, the lying became routine, knowledge forgotten along with the books on the shelves.

It became some sort of addiction, something he wanted to hold onto so dearly.

Finally, he had thought, some freedom.

The choice to fall, the best choice he’d ever made! Why did that old part of him instantly regret it? The smallest part left of the Fount in him screamed and begged for him to go back, to not go down the deceitful route. Shadow Milk strangled that thought shut.

What a fool, so stupid the Fount was. The fool that regretted giving in, the one who wasn't Shadow Milk.

And Shadow Milk? He was currently sitting in his Other-Realm, cold as it was. An isolation from the noise of the real world, Black Sapphire and Candy Apple were starting to get suspicious. He had noticed of course, they even went to Pure Vanilla.

He shrugged his shoulders, the cold itching against his dough. Weird, for some reason the cold didn't appease anything, he rather longed for warmth. What kind? He didn't want to think about it.

Suddenly he senses something, his pointed ears twitching at the realization. Someone else is in here, another soul. Pure Vanilla? Has he really gotten that desperate?

Shadow Milk rises from where he sits, slightly tense from the disturbance. He looks around in a frantic, searching way. Like a rabid animal trying to look for a source of safety. Though this felt unsafe in every way possible.

“Looking for me?” A way too familiar voice calls out from behind him, Shadow Milk spins around in a fast pace that would make anyone else dizzy. His own eyes look back, though these eyes hold an innocence that his own lack.

“Ugh, another hallucination or whatever.” Shadow Milk immediately drops his guard, the appearance of The Fount way too familiar to him in the Other-Realm.

“Hallucination?” The Fount questions, pointing a finger to his chin. “I haven't had problems with hallucinations in my own Other-Realm, at least not unwanted ones. Is this a problem you often have?”

Shadow Milk freezes, his eyes and his pupils shrinking. He stares at the Fount, who simply smiles in a way too sly way. Suddenly he launches himself forward, pushing the Fount into the non-visible floor underneath them with a hard BANG. The Fount whines though his smile does not falter, instead he grips Shadow Milk's wrists where they hold his shoulders.

“Who are you? How did you get in here.” Shadow Milk's eyes glow with intensity as he doesn't blink, he looks over the other like one would look at a puzzle. Though this puzzle looks like he’d rip its throat out. The questions come out harsh, more demands than questions.

“I am you, but also not.” The Fount answers quickly, “The version of you that met White Lily Cookie and the other one uhh Pure Vanilla Cookie!” He sums up, and immediately Shadow Milk loosens his hold a little. Though he doesn't let go.

“Answer the last question.” Shadow Milk growls, pushing his weight down further on his counterpart below him.

“Alright! Yeesh.” Blueberry Milk rolls his eyes, looking off somewhere to the side as he decides how to explain. Shadow Milk waits patiently but still rather intense.

“So, I wanted to visit mostly due to a strong desire to help! Pure Vanilla and White Lily explained to me the danger of war in your time, so I conducted a spell that might help! I got here with help from Timekeeper Cookie, so I only have a tiiiiny amount of time left before she zips me back. You were the easiest to reach due to you being me.” He explains, Shadow Milk listens intently. After thinking for a second, he lets go of Blueberry Milk's shoulders and gets off him. He sits a bit back, Blueberry Milk sits up as well. The two sit in silence for a minute or so.

“A spell?” Shadow Milk asks after some time.

Blueberry Milk nods, “Yeah! Combine it with one of the ones that White Lily has, from one of the books that we wrote.” The young Fount reaches into his robes, Shadow Milk tries to see what it is but doesn't see it until the other holds it up directly for him to see.

It's a very small note, only fitting in the palm of the Fount. Shadow Milk grabs it and unfolds it in a rather aggressive way, and he reads it with his brows knitted.

“Why does it say to sacrifice someone. With Pure Vanilla as an example.” Shadow Milk spits, his tone cold but still striking. He doesn't look at the other.

“Uhh I dunno, he seemed kinda dull and I guessed since we are the same person that since I don't care then you-”

“We are not the same person, and shut your mouth before I break it off.” Shadow Milk snarls, the quiet that follows is imminent.

“I know who we can use, we’ll use this since it seems to work but I’ll tweak it as you’re dumb as a rock.” Shadow Milk pockets the tiny note, still refusing to look the Founts way.

“Oh? May I ask who?” The Fount perks up, that annoying innocence of death and not a care in the world. Makes Shadow Milk want to puke.

“No.” Shadow Milk answers in a very monotone way, looking off somewhere in the distance. “Can I ask you a question?” He asks dryly, noticing in his side glance how the younger him perks up a bit.

“Of course!” The other says, because of course he does. His entire being is answering questions.

“I get the feeling you don't care for Pure Vanilla, I have a reason. Whats yours?” Finally he looks towards Blueberry Milk. The other deems a look of innocence, an almost gracefulness that Shadow Milk despites. Blueberry Milk thinks once again, looking out into the space above them as he does.

“Hm, guess it's because I found him boring, he was very kind though.” The other smiles, but Shadow Milk knows it's one of those people-pleasing ones. He cringes at the thought.

He didn't even know Pure Vanilla that well, and that's all he got from their interactions? They had been together for what, a day or two? Plain idiocy, judging someone from something as small an interaction as that. Shadow Milk remembers very well how he really did not care for the average mortal, but Pure Vanilla.. He's not mortal for one.

What the hell does Pure Vanilla see in this version of him?

“Can you leave now, you piss me off.” Shadow Milk deadpans, his face dropping into a dead stare towards the other.

“Sure! Thanks for taking the spell and giving me the chance to see what I’ll do my best to not become in the future. You need to smile more.” And with that the Fount rings a small bell, and with a flash of very yellow light and the sound of a clock tolling, he's gone.
Yeah right, good luck. Shadow Milk thinks to himself as he contemplates the spell, the plan.

He had already conversed with the Beasts, all except Silent Salt. That man sends weird shivers down his spine. And then somehow, Pure Vanilla. He’ll figure that part out.

But for once, Shadow Milk desperately needs to talk to him. He has an important message to share.

Chapter Text

Pure Vanilla stands completely still in the middle of the room. The light from his staff is the only thing helping him see the jester who lounges at the edge of it in the darkness.

“Hope I didn't keep you waiting long.” He finally says after a disturbingly long silence. His voice is quiet, steady, trying its best to not crack whatever fragility lies between the two of them. Shadow Milk simply shrugs, a way too casual motion which makes Pure Vanilla swallow.

“Nah, nothing you need to worry your pretty little blonde head over Nilly. Sit down.” Shadow Milk gestures to a chair which stands opposite of his own, Pure Vanillas chair. The one he always sits in during their game nights, the nights that felt easy and light. Pure Vanilla moves towards it without much further comment, his movements feel like he's moving through oil. He feels ridiculously anxious, though he can't pinpoint quite the reason why just yet.

It's quiet again, Pure Vanilla sits silently in his chair with his hands folded in his lap. Shadow Milk lays lazily over his own chair, his gaze distant and not on Pure Vanilla.

“Well? I doubt you wanted to see me for no reason other than to sit here in silence.” Pure Vanilla finally speaks up again, his tone flat, patience cutting thin. Shadow Milk makes a small noise of consideration before taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, I need you for something. I've got a plan.” Shadow Milk grins, he finally looks back towards Pure Vanilla, his eyes shining with something Pure Vanilla can't name. But it's not pride, like Shadow Milk pretends it is. The string of fragility snaps, and so does Pure Vanilla as he grips his robe with restraint.

“You can't be serious.” He mumbles through his teeth, Shadow Milk tilts his head. His demeanor dropping for a second before letting out a “pardon?”

Pure Vanilla looks up, his eyes open now, looking straight at Shadow Milk. His brows tightly knit together in an expression of disappointment and sheer exhaustion. But more visibly, confusion.

“I haven't seen or heard from you in a little over two weeks.” Pure Vanilla starts, his voice breaking with vulnerability as he continues. “and then suddenly I hear that you’ve been distancing yourself from Candy Apple and Black Sapphire as well, to the point where they get so worried they have to ask me about it.” Shadow Milk blinks in a slight reaction to that comment, opening his mouth with no words exiting before closing it again. Pure Vanilla continues.

“And on top of all of it all, you’ve been visiting the other Beasts talking about the plan you’re probably coming to talk to me about! Is that all you need me for?” Pure Vanilla finally takes a breather, both of them sitting in tense silence which feels so heavy one could drown in it. Pure Vanilla eventually sighs, sinking deeper into his chair.

“You need to realize people miss and worry about you Shadow Milk. I’m so tired of you pretending to not know that.” Pure Vanilla sighs, closing his eyes again as he looks down towards his hands. The grip on his robes still tight, clutching the fabric like a lifeline. He doesn't dare look up, doesn't want to see whatever mask Shadow Milk has put on to pretend like what he just said doesn't matter, his heart won't be able to handle it.

“Well, first of all, Black Sapphire and Candy Apple are dramatic. I just don't want them involved in this plan. Can't exactly tell them that, clingy and stubborn as they are.” Shadow Milk's voice speaks out, the lack of show in it causing Pure Vanilla to glance up slightly.

Shadow Milk still sits with one leg over the arm of the chair, his gaze looking over to somewhere else in the room. But now his gaze has a somberness to it, vulnerability that doesn't often show in clear sight.

“And I’m sorry, I guess that your old man's heart couldn't handle my absence. Honestly Nilly, it's a shocker you survived without me for so long before.” Shadow Milk looks towards Pure Vanilla slightly, a small smile tugs on his lips. But it's not to poke fun, it has an endearment to it. Fondness that one can only hope for at the worst of times.

“You’re good company to keep.” Pure Vanilla mutters, looking down towards his hands again. His voice is quiet, vulnerable.

Pure Vanilla doesn't see it, but he hears the shuffle of fabrics. And suddenly he sees Shadow Milk crouch down slightly in front of him. But still hovering above the ground. Shadow Milk reaches out slightly, gently placing his hand on top of Pure Vanillas.
“You’re not too bad yourself I guess. I’ve had worse company.” Shadow Milk shrugs, a half managed compliment. But it still warms Pure Vanilla's cheeks as he smiles in return.

“Are you still upset about the thing I said?” Pure Vanilla suddenly feels brave from the intimacy, the closeness of Shadow Milk. He has him close, he has to take the shot while he's still got it. Shadow Milk on his part doesn't look too surprised at the question. He blinks slightly, before glancing off to the side. If Pure Vanilla didn't know any better, he’d say Shadow Milk gained some color on his face. But it might just be a trick of the light.

“Meh, haven't thought about it to be honest. I love me too after all.” Shadow Milk grins, Pure Vanilla giggles in turn. He knows what Shadow Milk means, even if it stings slightly that he doesn't say anything out right. He places his free hand above Shadow Milks, clutching it gently as he gives it a slight squeeze.

“But I want you to know that I love no matter what, you’re my friend Shadow Milk. Even if you yourself deny it.” He gains a bit of seriousness back in his tone, and Shadow Milk matches it by knitting his brows together in thought.

“Yeah well.. Thanks Nilly.” Shadow Milk grumbles, he shrugs slightly. Still looking off somewhere in the distance. Pure Vanilla takes a second to admire him, in the warm light of his staff and the silver shine from the moon that's peeking through his windows. Two sides of Shadow Milk, shown in the light. He looks rather pretty.

“Stay the night?” He asks suddenly, Shadow Milk immediately glancing at him as if caught slightly off guard.

“Yeesh Pure Vanilla, take me to dinner first.” Shadow Milk immediately jokes. But then he stops to think for a second before humming slightly.

“It would kind of be useful actually, I need to join the council meeting tomorrow. I need to talk to The Guardian as well.” Shadow Milk explains, Pure Vanilla listens intently.

“Oh? Does this have something to do with that plan of yours?” Pure Vanilla asks, slight concern in his voice. Shadow Milk ignores it.

“It does. I might as well tell it to them all, you included.” Shadow Milk waves off a hand, too nonchalant for Pure Vanillas tastes.

“I’ll be honest with you Bluebird, I have a bad feeling about this plan of yours and I haven't even heard it.” Pure Vanilla smiles nervously, not liking how Shadow Milk doesn't immediately reassure him or smile back.

“Trust me, it’ll work. Fool proof!” Shadow Milk nods, his gaze on Pure Vanilla as if assessing and memorizing him to memory. It gives Pure Vanilla a sour taste in his mouth.

At least he’ll have Shadow Milk by his side again, even if for a short while. And for Shadow Milk's part, he finally feels some proper warmth. The cold of his Other-Realm, nowhere to be found.

As they get into bed, Shadow Milk can't help but stare at Pure Vanilla. He found himself doing that a lot today, a feeling of dread and loss already filling his lungs, making it hard to breathe.

So, when they finally lay comfortably under the covers, he hugs Pure Vanilla tight. Taking a sniff of the way too heavy scent of vanilla that stains everything in the room, the warm and safe arms that hold him as if he’s the most fragile thing in the world. As if Pure Vanilla also feels that sense of dread. But neither of them speak of it.

So for now, they lay in a comfortable bed with dread of the known and the unknown filling the air.

Chapter Text

The moon was about to breach its lowest on the skyline as Shadow Milk stirs from his slumber. His first proper sleep in weeks.
Pure Vanilla's arms were bound like a bow around him, meeting on the middle of his back. Holding Shadow Milk like a lifeline, even in his sleep. Though the healer didn't seem that stressed out otherwise in the deep slumber he seemed to be in, Shadow Milk noted as he could feel Pure Vanilla's chest rise and fall at a steady pace.

Shadow Milk glances up from where he lays, trying to get a small proper glance at the others face. Completely asleep, he decides as he looks upon him. Deep sleep, Pure Vanilla breathes softly as he lightly snores like he doesn't have any worries on his back at the moment. Shadow Milk huffs at that thought, he knows otherwise very well. He resists the urge to move a stray hair out of Pure Vanilla's face, and decides he’d rather sneak away right now.

As much as he loves the warm bed that feels like the best place to snooze in, he has matters to attend to. And he’d rather get them done before the golden boy wakes up.

He quietly shifts out of the arms, noticing how Pure Vanilla grumbles and shifts in his sleep from the loss of contact. Shadow Milk pretends like he doesn't smile fondly at that. Instead he flies above the bed, pulling the covers tighter over the healer's body.

And then, he casts one last long look at Pure Vanilla. His expression somber, just like how his heart feels like the heaviest thing in the world. Then, as quiet as a soft breeze, he leaves.

To Shadow Milk gracious credit, White Lily isn't hard to find. An early bird or just a night owl? Who knows, all that counts is that she's awake at this hour. And Shadow Milk can find her if he just follows the smell of graciousness and the stink of lilies out to the gardens.

She sits in the greenhouse, Silent Salt standing on the outside like a loyal knight as he himself looks upon the flowers that sit pretty on the outside of it. Shadow Milk almost sighs in relief as he sees the door to the greenhouse is closed, meaning this conversation can go by smoothly.

He smoothly hides away in the countless shadows that cover the castle walls as he slithers his way into the greenhouse through a broken sugarglass window on the roof.

“Sitting here all by your lonesome?” He slithers easily out of them with a grin, causing the Guardian to jump slightly where she sits prettily on a bench. She immediately looks at him in surprise before she scolds her expression into one of the usual stern ones.

“Shadow Milk, what are you doing here?” She immediately rises, but doesn't move any further. She looks towards the door of the greenhouse, the shadow of Silent Salt, a supporting figure. Shadow Milk simply tuts in response;

“Just doing a simple social call, don't get your braid in a twist Lily.” He rolls his eyes as he circles her from afar like a cat. White Lily makes a sound of confusion as she rolls her eyes in return.

“Social call? Why me and not Pure Vanilla? You know Pure Vanilla has been worried sick about you.” Her tone turns into one of scolding, crossing her arms as looks upon the jester.

“UGH I’ve already talked to him yeesh, you think Im dumb or something?” He raises an eyebrow at her, his tone bordering on childish.

“You talked? How’d it go, and about what?” White Lily inquires, she gives him a one over. Genuine suspicion in her tone. Shadow Milk deadpans, he looks back at her before crossing his arms. He turns away as he looks at the sky instead, refusing to look at her.

“None of your business Guardian. He can tell you that, I’m here for something else.” His tone turning serious as it drops at the end, this seems to catch White Lily's attention as she thinks for a second.

“Okay.” She nods, her voice quiet and short. Shadow Milk takes this as his queue to step up on stage.

“I have a plan on how to destroy the false cookie version of you. I have a spell on how to do it, but I need your help for half of it.” Shadow Milk almost grits his teeth as he says that last sentence. He curses his past self for putting White Lily in such a high regard like an idiot. Sure she knows a lot of magic and is really good at it, so what?!?! He can do that too, if he could do both parts of the plan he’d do it.
White Lily listens intently, nodding along. Shadow Milk takes a deep breath before he continues.

“It needs a spell from one of the books I wrote in my time as the headmaster of the Blueberry Yoghurt Academy. It's currently in your possession and you have the magical buildup to do it properly with no problems. As the spell is complicated and supposed to hold strong enemies in place.”
Shadow Milk summons said book from one of his portals, having stolen it at some point while waiting for Pure Vanilla the previous day. White Lily twitches slightly in response to seeing the book but adds no further comment.

Shadow Milk skims over the pages quickly before finding the page with the spell. He flips it over in his hand so that White Lily can see.
She leans forward as she reads it, her white bangs covering her eyes slightly as she quints to read the complicated text.

“Thats a binding spell.” She says simply, some form of finality in her voice. Shadow Milk simply hums in response, oddly out of character quietness from him.

“Yes, I'm working on the other spell that is my part of the plan.” Shadow Milk explains as he looks upon the lilies on the ground. They both stand silently for a second before he quietly says. “You need to tell them all of this during the council meeting, I will not be there.”

White Lily stutters at this, frustration finding its way into her brows as she knits them together.
“What? You’re leaving again? I'm assuming you haven't told Pure Vanilla?” As much as she points fingers, her accuracy is impressive. Shadow Milk smiles sadly.

“He will just try to keep me here, I need to workshop the rest of the spell. Tell him I send him the best, and that I’ll figure this out for him.” Shadow Milk looks upon White Lily, his blue colored eyes holding a sense of sincerity that catches the Guardian off guard.

“-White Lily? Are you okay in there?” Silent Salt's voice cuts through their conversation, causing White Lily to turn around to look towards the door. It hasn't opened.

“Yes! Coming now, apologies Salt..” She calls back. She doesn't get a response, but she knows Silent Salt heard her. She turns around to give a scolding, anything of a comment or a goodbye to Shadow Milk. Just to find there is nothing there but her own reflection in the sugarglass pains.

Chapter Text

White Lily was pacing, practically walking a hole into her floor as she reads the spell Shadow Milk showed her just a few hours ago. The words on the page stick to her like honey, making her skin feel like she could peel it off.

Silent Salt stands like a knight on guard duty at the edge of her room, watching her pace. His words little to no comfort to the Guardian, who only deflects. White Lily had told him the entire thing the second she felt she could, his silent nod in return the only answer she got for a moment before he calmly told her to figure the spell out. And that's what she’s been doing since.

In her state of pacing, she hardly noticed that the sky had shifted from a grey shade of blue to a beautiful light one instead. The very early morning sun shining snuggly through the windows is the only notice she gets that time has moved with her before a knock on the door sounds out through the room.
The knock sounded rather, anxious? She freezes at the sound and immediately looks towards the window before she then looks towards Silent Salt who looks back at her. They both turn to look at the door, standing in silence before a very familiar voice breaks through it again.

“White Lily? Are you awake?” Pure Vanilla's voice is quiet, but loud enough to break through the hard chocolate doors. His voice is fast paced, as if he has a tight schedule to hold onto. Some form of stress sitting in the question that White Lily picks up instantly.

She immediately strides towards the door, opening them quickly before stopping shortly as she gets eye contact with Pure Vanilla. She does her best to not react to his..state if you could call it that.

His hair is unbrushed, with strands sticking out here and there. Bedhead in the best sense. And his outfit looks as though he’s been moving a lot and has had way too little time to fix it. Pure Vanillas handmaids would have a heart attack if they could see him now.

He gives a quick smile before ducking past her into the room, White Lily automatically moves out of the way and just as quickly shuts the door.

Pure Vanilla sends a quiet “good morning” to Silent Salt who simply grunts in response. Pure Vanilla stops by the window, looking out of it for a minute as the other two in the room wait for his word. White Lily takes notice of how his shoulders rise and fall at an almost mechanical pace, she recognizes it in an instant. Pure Vanilla does breathing exercises when he’s stressed, like very stressed. She can immediately guess why he’s here.

Suddenly Pure Vanilla turns around, a knot between his brows as he looks at the Guardian and the Beast of Silence. His hands knotted together as he fiddles with them anxiously.

“Have either of you seen Shadow Milk? He uh..” Pure Vanilla's voice drifts off, a slight crack in it. Silent Salt and White Lily exchange a look.

“I saw him a few hours ago. While the moon was still in the sky.” White Lily says abruptly, causing Pure Vanilla to open his eyes to look at her. His eyes pleading without him having to say another word.

“Right, he said he would talk to you but.. I thought that would be at this hour. He said he would join the council meeting, did he mention anything about it?” Pure Vanilla asks. Both of the Ancients seem to have a decent understanding of the other's situation without much need to discuss it, Shadow Milk laid out a lot just from the short talk he and White Lilly had.

“I’m sorry Pure Vanilla, he took his leave right after our talk.” White Lily bows her head slightly in apology before looking back up at Pure Vanilla and her heart sinks. He looks heartbroken, his shoulders sinking as her words settle. He shifts slightly where he stands before giving a sad smile.

“Ah well, that's the way it is at least. I just hoped he would say goodbye properly this time.” He smiles as brightly as he can at White Lily, who opens her mouth to say something but finds nothing so she closes it again. Pure Vanilla moves over to a couch which sits prettily in the corner by the window.

“Pure Vanilla- "

“-Now then.” He starts, his voice doing its best to regain its usual composure. He fixes how his robes fit, before he sits himself down on the couch. “What did he talk to you about?”

White Lily bites her lip slightly, trying to find the best words to explain it.
“He talked about this plan of his that was mentioned yesterday during the council.” She starts, Pure Vanilla nods along. “He gave me a spellbook, asking me to cast it during one of the phases of his plan. He has written down different phases it would seem.” She grips the book which she had forgotten was in her hand tightly. A source of comfort during this very uncomfortable situation.

“A spell?” Pure Vanilla asks, and White Lily gets a heavy sense of deja vu.

“Y-Yes, a binding spell that locks the opponent to the ground. It's a very powerful spell, he said he wrote it during his time as The Fount of Knowledge.” White Lily explains, Pure Vanilla stares at a spot on the floor. Thinking her words over as she can see the cogs turning in his head.

“Well if he wrote it..” Pure Vanilla rises, shrugging his shoulders as he walks calmly over to the door. The clicking of his staff on the floor is the only sound before White Lily stops him by the door. Her hand gently holding him by his shoulder.

“Pure Vanilla, are you okay?” White Lily can't help but ask, she knows her friend well enough to see the signs of the fact that he’s upset. He turns towards her for a second, his lip in a straight pulled line. Before he quickly fixes it into the usual graceful smile, but White Lily picks up on the tiny wrinkles under his eyes.

“Of course, I’ll go inform his helpers of his visit. They would probably like to know before the news break at the council meeting later today.” He grabs White Lily's hand before giving it a small squeeze.

And just like that, he leaves. And White Lily can't help but feel that something very heavy is left unsaid.

White Lily is the one to break the news of Shadow Milk's short visit to the council. Pure Vanilla pretends like has never heard these news before, and White Lily allows him.

“What, he didn't go to see you?” Golden Cheese questions, raising a suspicious eyebrow. Pure Vanilla gives a sad smile and a headshake as an answer, “he seems to have his hands full. I understand.”

Golden Cheese scoffs in return, returning her attention back towards White Lily.
“So, what are the steps of his plan anyway? To lock Dark Enchantress Cookie to the ground and then what?”

White Lily stutters as she hastily looks through the mountains of notes Shadow Milk left her. “It-uh He seems to plan to make a completely new spell to kill her. He said the best place for such a spell is a field, for as little collateral damage as possible.”

She finishes reading and looks up to see if her fellow council members have anything to say about it. She’s read that paragraph a hundred times it feels like, she knows very well that it's a good plan. Everyone else in the room must agree as well, seeming as they all have war experience under their belt. Well all except the young consul who huffs quietly, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

“What kind of spell would that be? Does it say?” He asks, his voice not showing any signs of disagreement. Only simple questions. White Lily shakes her head, “No, sorry.”

“Well, it's not a bad plan!” Hollyberry butts in, her voice giving White Lily lighter shoulders. “Shadow Milk seems to know his magic, and if he’s counting the rest of the Beasts plus all of our forces it could work out!” She shrugs, a big smile on her face as she gives White Lily a reassuring nod.

“Has he mentioned us in there?” Eternal Sugar speaks out, her wings fluffing as she gives a slightly anxious look at the Guardian. White Lily immediately jumps to skim the notes again.

“Yes he does. He has counted on each of you to appear in the battle, draw her out.” White Lily looks at the three present Beasts, the three of them sighing in different variations of exhaustion.

“Ah, so that is why he was so persistent on how many cherubs I have.” Eternal Sugar thinks out loud blissfully, looking over at Mystic Flour. “That dust of yours could be useful!”

Mystic Flour doesn't budge an inch at the comment her way besides a small sigh, “It's useless to fight at all.” Is all she says before quietly resigning in her chair.

“Shadow Milk has a plan, we should follow it. Dark Enchantress Cookie wants all of our Soul Jams, yours included.” Silent Salt's calm voice speaks back, the helmet he wears giving it a slight muffle. “I myself am still reluctant when it comes to him, but this war includes all of us, Flour.”

It's quiet for a second, everyone in the room seeming to not know what exactly to say. That is before Dark Cacao clears his throat, he leans forward a bit looking towards the healer at the end of the table.
“Pure Vanilla, your thoughts?”

Suddenly everyone's attention is pinned at Pure Vanilla, who immediately takes notice. He snaps upright, after slouching slightly where he sits.
“Ah, I think it all sounds like a good plan. The only thing that's off about it is..” He trails off, drumming his fingers on his staff in thought.

“It's too good to be true. Something has to be a flaw, something has to be given.” Dark Cacao finishes for him. And yet again the room gains a strained silence.

“Well if it's Shadow Milk it should be all planned out. Beasts, if you guys ever come in contact with him, ask him about it please.” Pure Vanilla stands up, the chair screeching across the floor. “You guys may continue the meeting, I'm feeling off so I’ll take my leave. You all have my apologies for this, find me if you need anything.”

“You okay?” Hollyberry stands slightly in her chair, a concerned look covering her face as she looks upon her friend. He simply holds up a hand causing her to stop her rushing over to him. “Yes, thank you for your concern. I just need to lie down.”

The doors shut heavily behind him, leaving the room in an even tenser silence than before.

Dark Cacao graciously breaks it once again, “We should start talking battle tactics. I can take it up with Pure Vanilla once he’s better.”

“I agree.” Clotted Cream adds on, and so the room starts discussing battle tactics and formations. White Lily spaces out through the entire thing, the entire rest of the meeting becoming background noise.

Suddenly she feels a heavy and cold hand on her shoulder, she looks to her side to find Silent Salt signaling her that it's time to go.
On their way back, she makes up an excuse to leave their separate ways. She walks through the oddly quiet halls towards Pure Vanilla's room. The door usually seems so inviting but now White Lily hesitates to knock for some reason.

But she does, three gentle knocks.

knock, knock, knock.

no response.

“Pure Vanilla?” One more knock. “I came to check up on you and how you’re doing.” She clears her throat as she yet again receives no answer, this time deciding to open the door. She gently takes hold of the doorknob and as quietly as she can opens the door.

It's completely dark in the room, is he asleep? No he’d keep some light on in case he- his staff isn't here. White Lily freezes as she looks towards the bed to find no one. She looks in the bathroom and on the balcony.

No Pure Vanilla, only the smell of..
Magic?

She sighs, what is up with those two and leaving without telling anyone?

Chapter Text

Shadow Milks stomach was doing loops as he floated around in his Other-Realms "library".
By "library" he means what was left of whatever survived when the Spire collapsed. Shadow Milk and his minions had thoroughly collected what survived of personal items and he had then stored it in his Other-Realm.

With his magic he had practically recreated a mini version of the Spire, a very small tower that is to say. It didnt have much, a library (or Shadow Milks work space), a room for both Candy Apple and Black Sapphire Cookie and of course himself. It wasnt much, but it had gotten them through tough times over the last year.

He floated up and down the various shelves upon shelves that stacked all the way to the ceiling, ravaging whatever was in there in hope it'd of use.

If he remembered correctly it should be just a few hours after his talk with White Lily Cookie by now, which means the council meeting should be any second now, if it wasnt happening already. Good, hopefully White Lily sticks to her word, she'd better, Shadow Milk thought as he placed another scroll for Dark Moon Magic on his desk.

He only had two months to finish his side of the spell, which was way easier said than done at this point.

He sighed, feeling a slight pressure filling up his lungs. It had been like that all day. He must be sick or something, which he had no time for. He puts his hand up to his chest, rubbing circles inbetween his ribcage, trying to soothe the pressure. It was difficult to breathe.

A door slams, hard. Cutting him out of his thoughts as he immediatley fixes his hand away from his chest.

"Master Shadow Milk Cookie?" Black Sapphires voice is instantly recognizable, a pair of footsteps on the marble staircases sound out in an echo. Shadow Milk doesnt grace the two minions with an answer, he knows they know.

The pair appear almost silently at the edge of the room, rising uncharactaristically quiet as they stop just at the end of the stairs. They both stand there for a second, watching Shadow Milk browse the scrolls and books on his desk with knitted brows.

"What is it, I'm busy so be quick." Shadow Milk says bluntly, not even bothering to look up to acknowledge the two younger cookies. He does however, notice the short glance they give each other. The eyes in his eyes glaring at them with piqed attention.

"Pure Vanilla Cookie told us you were in the Vanilla Kingdom." Black Sapphire starts, his voice low. Keeping his emotions rather low, more of a statement than anything. Shadow Milk glances up quickly before looking away again.

"What of it." He shortly answers back, picking up a book to give it a closer look. Scanning chapters half-heartedly.

"He told us you have a plan of some sorts, we want to help." Black Sapphire rolls back on his heels, his hands behind his back. His voice sounded rather annoyed, which Shadow Milk ignores.

"Yeah! Why let those boring bland cookies do everything when you have us Master Shadow Milk?" Candy Apple squeaks out, her wings flapping in slight anger. Finally Shadow Milk looks at them, placing the book down, page noted down in his head.

"You have no roles on this stage I'm afraid." He says simply, a slight grin on his face before he flies back towards the bookshelves.

Candy Apple and Black Sapphire give each other another glance.

"B-But, we really do want to help! Anything at all! Please?" Candy Apple beckons, her whiny voice causing Shadow Milk to raise his shoulders in reply. He grits his teeth, why must these two specifically be so hard to keep away from a fricking war?!?! idiots.

He pauses, covering his face with his hands as he sighs heavily. His ribs feeling like they're gritting against his skin, a painful reminder of the pressure in his ribs. He drags his hands across his face in a dramatic fashion as he turns to look at the two helpers. He looks between them both, a considering expression on his face as he bites the inside of his cheeks. The two carry different versions of determination on their face, which he could easily crush if he wanted to. But right now its too much of a headache.

"Ugh, fine I guess I do have a task for you guys." He says calmly, noting how they immediatley gain a smile on their faces from something so simple. "Go to the Fearie Kingdom and search for scrolls about silver chains and Dark-Moon magic, anything and everything counts."

He gives them further intructions, to go in disguise, dont steal anything and dont hurt anyone. Once they have any info at all, report back to him. One of the easiest tasks he's given them in a while, but they seem happy as can be to get a task at all. It has been a while after all.

Just as they bow to take their leave, the door to the tower creaks.

They all freeze, Shadow Milk especially.

Black Sapphire and Candy Apple look up at Shadow Milk who hangs in the air, as they all know who it is. The familiar noise of a staff tapping on marble sounding closer, and to make it really stick that all too warm voice calls out. "Hello? Shadow Milk?"

The golden haired figure rises from behind the two minions, a slight glow to him as they move out of the way calmly. He gives them a warm smile before his eyes land directly on Shadow Milk. And they stare. Neither breaking eye contact for a short while before Candy Apple mutters;

"Uh, Master?"

Shadow Milk immediatley waves them off and theyre gone like the wind, silent anf fast. Obviously wanting to get away from whatever is about to take place.

And once again, they stare. Until Shadow Milk's broken giggle escapes him, though his smile does not reach his eyes.

"Really Pure Vanilla? Following me into the Other-Realm?" He starts, floating just slightly closer to the ground. "If I didnt know any better I'd call this stalking, or worse obsession." He stops just shy of the ground, looking at Pure Vanilla with false happiness. Ignoring how his heart is beating out of his chest just by looking at the other. A grin on his face which flashes sharp teeth, meant to spook. Yet, Pure Vanilla stands steadfast across from him. His expression hard to read, which causes Shadow Milk to continue. If he won't talk, he'll gladly take the floor.

"Really, people will talk y'know. They could spread rumours!" Shadow Milk dramatically places a hand on his chest, as if scandalized. "They're going to say you're obsessed with a Beast. That you hold love for it. They'll ridicule you, as if they don't already." He spits the word "beast" out as if it physically hurts him, he watches Pure Vanilla intenstly. Feeling his chest grow tighter as he continues.

"So say you don't." Shadow Milk shrugs, noticing how Pure Vanillas expression saddenss for a split second. Bingo.

"Say that you love the Virtue, the blessed by the gods kind of man. Your spitting image. A perfect match-"

His words get cut short by Pure Vanilla basically launching himself at Shadow Milk. His arms wrapping around him, one under his arm and one over his shoulder. Holding him still as he presses himself togheter with the Beast who immediatley scowls at the contact.

"Let go-" He tries, sharpened teeth gnashing as he tries to push the healer off him, but Pure Vanilla doesnt budge. If anything, his grips tightens.

"No-" Pure Vanilla protests.

And Shadow Milk hisses back, "Let go of me!- this is disgusting behaviour. Even for you Nilly. Old fool."

Shadow Milk places his hand onto Pure Vanillas shoulder to try and push him back, and Pure Vanilla lets him, backing up with his grip just as tight just to look at the Beast. His eyes glassy and filled with softness that causes Shadow Milk to freeze, his eyes burn.

"Is all that really what you think?" Pure Vanilla asks, quietly. As if there is anyone else in the room.

"What? Of course it is, don't ask for lies just because you dont like the truth." Shadow Milk glares back, still trying to wringle his way out of the others hold.

"No." Pure Vanilla answers simply back. Shadow Milk pauses, looking at the other with his brows knitted. His pushing cease for a minute.

"What do you mean no? Its the truth." Shadow Milk half laughs after a short minute, Pure Vanilla smiles sadly back.

"I do hold love for you, and even if I do, its no one else's business. Why cant you believe that?" Pure Vanilla tightens his grip slightly, hold bordering on desperate. "I keep hoping you'll stay, even if not out of the same love, at least for our friendship." The healers gaze turns distant, a sad expression on his face. Shadow Milk looks at him for a second, the eyes in his hair paying full attention to the other.

"Do you really think that if you keep leaving I'll leave you alone? That I'll stop loving you if you stay away?" Pure Vanilla leans forward, leaning his head into Shadow Milks chest. And Shadow Milk lets him, though his face is a bright blue. His hands awkwardly placed in the air, not knowing where to put them. He prays to every power in the world that the other doesn’t noice or care for how hard his heart is beating. And if Shadow Milk was honest, which he rarely is, he wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was beating out of fear or…something else.

"You may just be as much as a fool as I am bluebird.." Pure Vanilla quietly chuckles, the rumble of it bounching of off Shadow Milks chest. The pressure in it stopping for a second.

"No one will ridicule me for loving a Beast, they would however if I fell in love with someone from the past." Pure Vanilla stands up straight again, his smile returned to its fullest and a warm flush to his cheeks to match Shadow Milk. Shadow Milk averts his eyes quickly.

"And did you? I wouldnt blame you, I used to be rather beautiful." Shadow Milk tuts, shrugging. His poision of his past self having died somewhat in that face of a flushed Pure Vanilla.

Pure Vanilla moves his arm from around Shadow Milks shoulder, placing it on Shadow Milks cheek. The jester unconsciously leans into it, still looking away. He cant believe this idiot managed to calm him down this fast, he feels stupid. And uet he welcomes the other like one would welcome the warmth of one’s home after a long day out in the snow.

"No, I find the jester from the present rather handsome instead." Pure Vanilla smiles fondly as he looks at the other, and finally Shadow Milk looks back. His eyes big as he searches the other for any signs of lies. Just to find none.

"Thats mean Nilly, I was really pretty." Shadow Milk smiles smugly in return, causing the other to quietly laugh. Shadow Milk revels in the sound. "Yes, he was. I just like my Shadow Milks in the present. Just how he is."

Shadow Milk finally places his hands to lean them on Pure Vanillas, finding it way more comfortable than holding them in the air.

"Good, cause you're sorta stuck with him until further notice." Shadow Milk boops Pure Vanillas nose, causing Pure Vanilla to blink in suprise. His arms loosen just a smidge which gives Shadow Milk a chance to sneak out of his grasp.

"Now toots, what are you all the way in here for?" Shadow Milk asks with a smile as he straightens out his vest and pants. Pure Vanilla smiles up at him, he straightens out his robes in turn.

"I'm here to fully discuss these plans of yours. Every detail Shadow Milk, please."

"Well, since you asked so nicely."

Chapter Text

"It wasn't difficult to get the full gist of Dark Enchantress' plans." Shadow Milk summons a piece of paper, it gently floats towards Pure Vanilla as it unfolds to show the text within. Pure Vanilla grabs it with open curiosity on his face as Shadow Milk continues;

"Knowing her, she wants us to know where and when the battle will happen. Which means she has calculated herself victorious." Shadow Milk's tone is cold as he talks of the Enchantress, annoyance clear as he states the facts and information for the other. "She needs her Dark Moon magic to keep herself going, therefore she will have to act in exactly two months time."

Pure Vanilla reads over the paper he got handed, a short silence filling the room. Finally he folds it again and hands it back.

"And how may I ask, have you gotten all this information? How can you be certain she plans to set up a full army in the Rock Candy Valley?" Pure Vanilla asks as Shadow Milk almost automatically retrieves the paper from his hands. Shadow Milk smirks slightly, his liquid like hair curling in slight joy at the thought of whatever it is he remembers.

"It isn't that difficult to get an old soldier to spill the beans when you threaten him over a cliff, pathetic lot she's got under her thumb." Shadow Milk shrugs nonchalantly, the smirk on his face flashing his teeth. Pure Vanilla shakes his head, though he does not frown.

"Well if you're sure they were truthful." Pure Vanilla says with a note of resignation, Shadow Milk watches him intently as the other walks over to an arm chair in the corner of the room. Once he sits down he's quiet for a second before his two toned eyes shift over to Shadow Milk, who looks directly back.

"Tell me the rest." Pure Vanilla prompts, determination in his voice. Shadow Milk rolls his eyes, his lip twitching into a snarl.

"There is nothing else, you read the spells, you read the plans. That's it Nilly." Shadow Milk floats over to Pure Vanilla to look down on him, Pure Vanillas look of determination (and honestly stubbornness) does not yield.

"I feel like you're keeping something from me, like the spell you're working on. What is it?" Pure Vanilla reaches out towards Shadow Milks hand, which Shadow Milk lets him do. The blonde giving it a tight squeeze as he looks up at the jester. The jester however, does not move when it comes to telling him anymore, his face uncharacteristically still.

"Telling you will take all the fun out of it, just trust me when I say it'll kill her and end this stupid back and forth you two have been going on for millennia." Shadow Milk gives their hands a little shake to show his instance to not tell the other about the spell. He knows it would just hurt him, or worse. And Shadow Milk doesn't feel like dealing with that right now, he's running out of time.

"Then at least let me help." Pure Vanilla insists and Shadow Milk fights the urge to roll his eyes or groan in annoyance.

"No." He says promptly and they stay in silence for a minute as they both refuse to break their steadfast eye contact. Shadow Milks gaze slides over to Pure Vanillas staff, which sits prettily against the chair, its light momentarily turned off. Pure Vanilla not in need of its assistance to look at him for the moment.

He blinks as an idea fills his head, he looks back towards the blonde who looks up at him with a slight smile on his face.

"Give me your hands." Shadow Milk commands suddenly, the abrupt demand makes Pure Vanilla blink in surprise for a second before brightly smiling at the other. The beast fights down the heat on his neck as Pure Vanilla quickly puts both his hands in Shadow Milks. His hands fold prettily on top of each other, and Shadow Milk places his on top of them both. A hand sandwich of sorts, as he presses down gently from both sides. A bright light blue shinning through the cracks of Pure Vanillas fingers fill the room between them, the blonde gasping as a reaction.

As quickly as it came, it passes and the light disappears. Shadow Milk moves his hand away from the top as he rather puts it at his side.

"Kay, now open your hands." He says, the harsh command from before now a bit softer from something he doesn't want to say. Pure Vanilla almost immediately opens his palms, his eyes shinning as they land on the tiny item now summoned where there once was nothing.

For in his palms now rests a silver locket, formed like a very small version of his old vanilla beholder staff with its eye closed.

"Goodness." Pure Vanilla whispers as he carefully lifts it up by the hanger to look at it closer. "What is it?"

"Its a very good replica of your old staff, but with my own twist to it. Touch activated and mostly to signal me if anything happens to you while I'm busy." Shadow Milk explains as he along with the other looks upon the locket with piqued interest.

"I can handle myself just fine Shadow Milk." Pure Vanilla smiles at the other but a slight sternness in his voice makes Shadow Milk avert his gaze for a second.

"Trust me, I know. Its mostly for my own state of mind more than yours."

-----------------------------------------

Pure Vanilla stirs his tea, the sugar in it following the motion as the steam from it just about rises to warm his face. He muzzles further into his scarf, the autumn chill having arrived in the Vanilla Kingdom overnight it seemed. The castle gardens around him having turned away from their usual colorful flowers to a rather cold and lonesome sight. The leaves on the trees having turned crunchy where they lay on the ground.

The conversation he had with Shadow Milk, and most likely his last conversation with him in a while still rings in his head hours later. He had barley been able to sleep, going over all the information and everything else. So, he decided to call upon one who he knows he could console in, along with another one.

As if called upon just by his thoughts alone, boots stomping on leaves signals the arrival of his planned guests.

"Ah, there you are! White Lily said we could find you out here." Hollyberry's booming voice is a warm welcome in the rather cold weather. Pure Vanilla rises to go greet her, to find just as he hoped, Eternal Sugar besides her. Both dressed up in slightly warmer clothes just like himself.

"Sorry I couldn't come and greet you myself this morning, and for pulling you away the one day of freedom we have during the Council week." Pure Vanilla apologizes as he moves to pull out two chairs for the pink pair.

"Ah, its nothing to worry about Pure Vanilla! In fact I was going to check up on you anyway, especially after yesterday." Hollyberry claps him on his shoulder before she finally sits down, Eternal Sugar silently follows.

"I wanted to speak to you both about that actually, its about Shadow Milk." Pure Vanilla awkwardly chuckles. Catching how Eternal Sugar mumbles a slight "called it" into Hollyberry's ear.

"I conversed with him last night, he told me about his plans for the battle with Dark Enchantress." He starts, Hollyberrys attention now fully on him at the mention of their enemies name. "It seems he wants you guys to be a big part of it." He motions towards Eternal Sugar who, looks at him with half lidded tired eyes.

"Did he now?" She asks, leaning forward slightly onto the table in between them.

"Yes, he gave me the plans he had written down. I shall explain it all in further detail tomorrow at the meeting but I wanted your opinions first as I don't like to keep stuff like this locket away for too long." He squirms a bit in his seat, looking out over the garden around them instead of the two women sitting ahead of him. Its quiet for a minute, each second feeling like its biting on his lungs.

"Did he tell you about the spell?" Eternal Sugars voice breaks it, her chirps turning curious as she looks Pure Vanilla up and down. He's not fully able to comprehend her expression so he closes his eyes to shake his head.

"No, he outright refused"

To that he gets a thoughtful hum from the winged beast across from him, she leans back in her chair. Her big curly hair puffing out behind her.

"Classic Blue." She notes casually, tripping her fingers at the edge of the metal table. Her eyes lock onto Pure Vanilla, siren snake eyes locking him in place. Before they gracefully float over to his staff, as to the small sliver metal flower hanging from it.

"I presume he gave you that locket?" She asks, a slight smile on her face. A chuckle is to be heard as she leans her head in her palm. Pure Vanilla flushes slightly, looking at the locket as well. He hung it from one of the leaves on his new staff, seemed like a good place as any.

"Well, he does seem to like keeping you at arms length, if only he could hold your hand as well.." She reaches forward to fill herself up a cup of tea. Now its Hollyberrys time to talk it seems.

"Do you have a bad feeling about his plan Nilly?" She asks, her voice filled with slight concern as she looks upon her friend. He swallows, thinking for a second as Hollyberry lets him. Pure Vanilla looks back towards Eternal Sugar who's trying to not burn her tongue on her cup of newly poured tea.

"Eternal Sugar Cookie, have Shadow Milks plans always worked out? What hopes do you have?" he redirects the questions, he might as well ask someone who has known Shadow Milk longer. No harm in asking he hopes as he watches as Eternal Sugar gracefully places her cup back onto the table. She hums in thought for a second.

"He has always been a bit extreme regarding everything he does, as in all or nothing. But all his plans work, usually."

"Usually?" Hollyberry asks, shifting in her chair to look at the winged one better, Eternal Sugar smiles brightly as she nods.

"Well, it depends on the situation, the one where he first broke out of the Silver Tree is a good example. It goes well until it doesn't, but he always has a back up of sorts, he just needs to figure it out." She shrugs, trying again to take a sip of her tea. She continues after her sip;

"He's an actor before anything else, he needs the perfect stage and Dark Enchantress has given him that." She finishes, and silence regains its roots for a second as everyone thinks her words over.

"My guess is he'll go all out regarding our current predicament. He wants to be left alone just as the rest of us Beasts, and he wishes just like the rest of us to put that old burned gnat in the ground." She smiles, almost to herself as if recalling something.

"Well then we shall all see to it that we play our parts perfectly, right Pure Vanilla?" Hollyberry smiles, trying to lighten the mood once again. Pure Vanilla smiles back, his hands clutching the tea cup for comfort.

Two months, that's all they have. They've made it out from worse. He tries to composure himself again, the banter from Hollyberry being enough to help. The locket sings like a bell as a gust of wind gently tucks at it where it hangs.