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If someone told you around this time last year that the kingdom's banished prince would become your unofficial roommate you would have laughed right in their face.
Dark Choco Cookie sat a few feet to your left, his massive gloved hands gripping a thin roasting stick between his broad fingers.
You wouldn't lie- you were terrified when you first ran into him, after having heard so many stories about how he had turned to bad company after attempting to strike down the king? Even in your own little village, apart from the main clusters around the kingdom, every cookie was well aware of what happened. It wasn't exactly… hard… for the word to get around. Not to mention the way the gossip was reignited when the former prince was spotted hanging around Dark Enchantress Cookie's forces- how they stormed the castle… though some of the versions you've heard made it sound as if they were casually let in.
But Dark Choco Cookie didn't seem all that bad, in fact… and maybe it was a bit offensive to relate him to a stray cake hound, but… befriending him was like quietly waiting for the animal to approach. You'd lost count how many times you've approached him after that first fearful encounter. The fact he didn't chase after was just enough to ignite your curiosity… survival instincts be damned, you were a sucker for the tragic and witches he had that look as you stumbled away the first time.
Before you had come along, when was the last time he got the chance to really talk to someone? Spend time with company?
Dark Choco Cookie never vocalized it, but he was lonely. It was written in the way he prowled around the snow covered ground surrounding your small home. The darting of his remaining eye- briefly catching yours before ripping itself away to look else where. He didn't let himself become soft, though. Given the cake hound comparison, he was no lap dog.
It took so long to get a proper conversation from him- something he actually engaged in rather than simply answering back to you when you asked for his time.
And right now you were trying your very best not to tease him for the face he made when you passed him a pillowy soft marshmallow.
…and you failed that battle.
"Don't tell me you've seriously never had a marshmallow before-" You snickered as you squished your own sugary cube. Sticky. That was the main thing you didn't like about marshmallows, especially the homemade kinds you'd buy from some cookie at the edge of the village who had a knack for making all sorts of confections.
"Sweets… are not common here." He still wasn't much of a talker but you practically pounced on his response. Dark Choco Cookie's marshmallow hung a few inches from the fire you'd started in your chimney. It'd have all been done outside if it weren't currently snowing- bordering on blizzard. You'd simply have to worry about any dripped chocolate and marshmallows later.
The metal poker twirled between the tips of your fingers. Cold and catching the golden licks of flame from the hearth. It looked pretty. A stolen glance to the former prince- his movements almost felt lazy. Bored. But his eye focused hard on the edges of the treat as the edges of it toasted and blackened.
Your roaster joins his near the fire.
"Well I know that, but you've seriously never like… wondered… what…" Your lips screwed together. It sure was hard to list desserts when you were never really introduced to them. "You know! You know like, uhm… candied jellies or or or-" golden marshmallow was lightly waved in front of his face, pieces of sweet fluff dripping out onto the warmed floor below. You hissed as you scrambled to get the thing onto a graham cracker you'd managed to get your hands on.
Seriously, that little baker cookie really knew how to get their hands on the good stuff. You'd have to interrogate them on their connections when you got the chance. As good as smores were you yearned for a soft glazed donut-
"…I never had the desire," Dark Choco Cookie pulled his marshmallow from the fire- charred black with rapidly fading flecks of gold. "I don't do sweets."
His red eye briefly flicked to the gooey mess of cracker, marshmallow, and chocolate that was currently wrecking havoc on your once clean hands. He copied your creation down to the fact that you laid the chocolate underneath the marshmallow. Your cheek caught on your teeth as the light crinkling from the burnt marshmallow's outer skin.
"Buuuuuuuuut you're trying it now," You teased.
By the first bite of your smore the marshmallow had already lost some of its toasty heat. Deserved for wasting time pestering the cookie at your side.
"And I didn't even have to get real annoying about trying to get you to eat,"
That was another thing about Dark Choco Cookie.
He didn't usually take anything from you- not food, not resources, nothing. It was a hassle just to get him to let you tend to his leg after he had some sort of run in with some of the wildlife roaming around the forests surrounding… well, everything. It was a fight just to get him into your home before the snow storm hit.
But that didn't stop him from giving to you.
Medicinal herbs left in a neat little pouch left for you to find, or on the rare occasion pressed right into your hand from the man himself. Fresh caught food to soothe your hungers when you were going through a rough patch and couldn't afford much of anything from the markets. And again, the way he stalked outside your home- you don't recall the last time you've seen a stray snow lion or cream wolf near your home. Not even a single paw print in the snow, but maybe they were simply erased with a new layer of flakes.
And he took the marshmallow without even trying to deny you.
The molars clicked and ground against one another to work down sticky marshmallow. Honestly the sound of you trying to unstick the mess from the top of your mouth like a mutt was probably the only thing keeping the tension from getting too heavy.
Crunching cracker and goopy sweets snapped your eyes to him- maybe it was a kindness that he chose not to verbally respond to you. Not until he finished his singular treat, by then you were already well onto eating your second.
"This will be the only one I'll eat," And despite that he grabbed another marshmallow and stuck it onto the sharp metal points. To the fire, toasted… no where near as long as he had the first one. A part of you wondered if he purposefully burnt the first; maybe an attempt to cut back the sugar through something bitter.
..Or maybe…
Dark Choco Cookie gently took the graham cracker from your fingers before you could set them to the side for your third smore. Clumsily in both of his hands he smeared the molten thing between the pieces- squishing them together with the marshmallow as his glue. Perfect golden crust tore and stretched as he reopened the treat as soon as he could put the roaster down, and slipped a piece of chocolate inside.
For someone who claimed he didn't do sweets he knew how to make something look good- seriously how have you never thought to put the chocolate inside the marshmallow?
As gently as he had taken it from you, he pressed it into your fingers. Slow. Mindful of the heat still radiating off of it.
The entire thing had you speechless.
"It's yours."
That finally got you rolling again as you mumbled a thanks and sank your teeth into the crispy goo… and yet, as the sweetness shot through your jaw and tensed the muscle- you still weren't quite used to the flavor after being denied it your entire life- you couldn't help but make a muffled remark.
"Y'know- fo' thomeone who dothn't do sweeths thith is pretty good-"
Dark Choco Cookie only glanced at you- but you caught it. The corner of his mouth quirking up for just half a second. You force the rest of the smore down your throat.
"Maybe next time around I could convince you to bake something with me, I've been eyeing a few recipes lately since I've got a sugar dealer now," You grinned.
"…We'll have to see."
He didn't say no. And you clung onto that with a smile as he rolled another marshmallow between his fingers- and when you nodded, he pushed it into the fire.