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Shadow Milk flew into the bedroom and waved a hand, a pulse of magic came out of him causing the doors to close themselves. It wasn’t a slam, but it was rougher than usual. He hadn’t meant to close it that hard. He knew Pure Vanilla didn’t like doors slamming, but he couldn’t seem to help it.
Today was just the worst!
Every cookie in the kingdom must have gathered up behind his back and decided it was their goal to be the most annoying versions of themselves they could possibly be today.
First he woke up in the middle of the night to a wave of nausea that’d hit him out of nowhere. He tried to just roll over and ignore it but that didn’t really go anywhere. He had to trudge down the hall and take some pain killers he found in the bathroom’s medicine cabinet. About an hour of sitting up and trying to ignore his own discomfort later, the awful feeling finally subsided enough for him to go back to sleep.
Though he did get to sleep, it wasn’t for long. Pure Vanilla was snoring like an old man, as he usually did, but today it was particularly irksome. Shadow Milk had nudged the other cookie awake just to get him to stop.
Pure Vanilla had apologized, even through his confused and bleary daze, but Shadow Milk could only think about how it’d be nearly impossible to go back to sleep with the sun shining on his face at that point.
And he was right, it was impossible.
Then at breakfast, his food tasted like chemicals- and not the tasty kind. He got about three bites into his pancakes before he realized he was just going to puke if he kept going.
He tried to think of what else he could eat but right now nothing but chocolate actually sounded good to him.
Shadow Milk scooted his chair away from the table and levitated, his eyes squinted themselves a little as the nausea only seemed to worsen when he got up from the table. He wasn’t going to throw up right then and there, but it was in that stupid phase of nausea where it was clearly there but not enough to make you actually throw up just yet. He hated it.
Either make him miserable in a way that mattered or quit wasting his time.
Pure Vanilla had asked him if he was going to finish his food but Shadow Milk informed him that he was done, and Pure Vanilla could have it if he wanted it. He’d said it in a way that sounded a lot more curt than he’d meant to, but the message was still the same.
He felt guilty about it later…
He tried to distance himself from Pure Vanilla Cookie, go on a small adventure around the castle and see what the others were up to.
That was a mistake.
He ran into Strawberry Crepe Cookie and Espresso Cookie discussing something or other on the topic of wafflebots while he was busy with his very important task of defacing Pure Vanilla’s painted portrait.
Those two cookies managed to talk about waffle bots for 10 minutes.
- Whole. Minutes.
Which didn’t seem like very long, but it was super long when every word cut through the silence of the hall like knives and embedded themselves square into the back of his skull. Said blades didn’t necessarily hurt so much as they bothered him to no end.
He could hardly hear himself think over the absolute yapfest happening in the background. Oh and that stupid little magic pointy hat cookie liked to say that Shadow Milk talks too much.
All the noise wasn’t really doing anything for the headache he was getting. His doodling barely distracted him from the pressure building in his lower belly area, much less the nausea that clung to him rather annoyingly.
So he stopped his mustache drawing on Pure Vanilla’s face short and flew off with a disgruntled huff.
“Yeesh, what’s his problem?”
He heard Strawberry Crepe remark as he flew off. He shot the kid a glare over his shoulder as he rounded a corner and retreated to a room that wasn’t his.
Okay so maybe that was only three cookies, but it might as well have been the whole kingdom as far as Shadow Milk was concerned.
The day from there didn’t get any better.
But at least now he was in Pure Vanilla’s room. There was no Pure Vanilla Cookie in it right now, but that was just fine with Shadow Milk.
He didn’t recall exactly how Pure Vanilla had ended up choosing where his bedroom would be but he was glad it was in arguably the most peaceful spot in the castle.
There were no annoying cookies hanging about. Just the occasional sound of bird song and the distant caw of one of Black Raisin Cookie’s crow friends.
He watched the bright window out of the corner of his sharp eye.
He kind of wanted to tell the birds they could shut up, but his nicer side kicked in and told him it’d be better to just deal with it.
So he did.
Stupid Pure Vanilla, teaching him manners and tolerance.
Shadow Milk’s sharp slits darted away from the window with the annoying birds with a dissatisfied tensing of his lips.
Shadow Milk took a breath and tried to think.
He guessed he could be making a better use of his time than mean mugging birds. So instead the blue cookie floated on his back with his hands behind his head, trying to relax. He let out a small sigh as he crossed his legs and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the sunshine that poured into the room a little too brightly for his liking.
It was nice. But it seemed that today just wasn’t the day for nice things.
Shadow Milk opened his eyes again when he felt the nausea escalating.
Now it was to the point where it roiled uncomfortably in his belly. He tried and failed to will it into not escalating from there- even the eyes in his hair either shut themselves tightly or turned away to distract themselves -but in the end he just decided to try laying in the bed itself instead of in the air.
He lowered himself to the ground and wrinkled his nose at the somewhat unfamiliar feeling of the ground meeting his feet. Oh well, at least it felt like he had to throw up less.
He ambled his way to the plush bed and flopped down on it. His mismatched eyes fluttered shut once more as he cocooned himself in the sheets. They were indescribably and pleasantly warm, soft, and cozy, a welcome comfort on a day like this. Shadow Milk ended up melting into the bed, quite literally as far as his hair was concerned, it became less of a collection of flowing partially sentient strands and more of a pile of black goop over the pillows.
It was hardly noon, the day had barely started, but maybe if he took a nap he’d wake up tomorrow and it would be a better day. He’d already decided he’d seen enough of this one and wanted to be done with it anyways.
He was a bit tired to begin with so falling asleep didn’t take much effort.
Shadow Milk only woke up briefly when Pure Vanilla nudged him into a bleary half-wakefulness, for a moment his half awake mind sparked with frustration. Was this some sort of revenge from earlier?
How dare he challenge the beast to such a petty game.
Shadow Milk was about to hiss a retort but before he could he was given a polite request for him to hand over some of the covers.
Oh yeah, he forgot this wasn’t actually his bed.
It was a fair request, so wordlessly he somewhat unraveled himself and gave Pure Vanilla some of the covers. Once the other cookie was satisfied he just grunted a reply and tried his best to pass out again.
The task was made a little harder due to the cramp that was building in his stomach- or at least he thought it was his stomach -but in the end he was able to suffer through until he fell into a barely restful sleep.
. . .
It was much later when Shadow Milk woke up again. Not by his stomach ache, but by an annoying itch right between his legs.
Usually he could ignore such things and force himself back to sleep but this itch was particularly nagging.
Properness be damned, he ungracefully reached for his groin and scratched at the itch. He’d made sure to keep his eyes pointedly closed until they opened at a new strange sensation; Wetness and stickiness. On his finger tips.
Oh no.
He carefully withdrew his hand to peer at it through the dark. He had exceptional night vision so he didn’t need to touch the lamp. Once his pupils went from slits to giant circles he was able to make out the stuff on his hands.
Night vision didn’t provide much in the way of color, but there was no mistaking the characteristic darkness, texture, and smell of it all.
No.
A part of him half hoped that he’d been stabbed in his sleep and that was all this was.
That would be a more desirable source of his suffering believe it or not.
But the more cynical side of him reminded himself that his hope was nothing more than a cheap trick of his own mind when he realized the wetness had gathered all throughout his inner thighs and completely soaked through his leotard
No..!
This couldn’t be. It couldn’t be what he thought it was. Sure this used to be a thing, but one nice thing about the tree was you didn’t leak jam once a month.
That was the only good thing actually.
Carefully. He lifted up the white sheets and peered underneath. He had to see the damage.
He lifted his rear just enough to see under it and saw that the jam had done exactly what he’d feared; Oozed into the sheets.
NO!!
They just had these cleaned- they were perfect! And now this!- UGHH!
The moon was high in the sky, so it might not have even been the same day it was when he first went to sleep, but no matter the time he still told himself that he definitely hated this day too. First he had his day ruined before it even really started and now his only real comfort had been soaked in jam.
Cold, irritating, revolting jam.
Shadow Milk groaned and flopped dramatically back into the sheets. Hair lashing with his irritation as the smudging eyes within it sharpened with their fury, the eyes on his face welled with tears as he wallowed in his own misfortune.
And his own jam apparently.
He sniffled and then growled to himself in frustration. He didn’t even know why he was so upset. Well- he did know, now that the proof was all over his hand which he still needed to wash.
But at the same time; No he didn’t.
It really wasn’t that big of a deal. He wasn’t even the one who needed to wash the sheets in the morning. It was one of Pure Vanilla’s servants that would have the misfortune of dealing with the bloody sheets.
But he would have to clean himself up. He didn’t feel like it, the thought of looking at the bathroom made him tired. Or maybe that was just the jam loss.
“Mm..?”
He heard a groan beside him.
Shoot- he forgot Pure Vanilla was next to him.
It was one of those rare nights the former king didn’t sound like he was doing his best impression of a middle aged man who’d crashed on the couch to watch a football game he didn’t make it a good five minutes into.
Shadow Milk wished he'd cherished the silence more while he’d had it. But messing up good things was one of his many amazing talents.
“Shadow Milk..?” The tired voice asked him softly “are you okay..?”
“Uhhh-“ Shadow Milk thought about his answer.
He hadn’t ever actually gone through the effort of telling Pure Vanilla anything about this stupid cycle-thing.
He kinda forgot about it honestly. But when was a good time to go up to your roommate- who’s totally your sworn enemy and nothing more -and say “hey did you know I turn into a huge bitch and bleed from my crotch once a month?? It’s kinda sick! Literally, cause I get nauseous-“
He couldn’t come up with a good time for himself. So he just never said anything.
Maybe now would be that good time?
It’d have to be. He didn’t know how else to explain the stains.
“Uhm.” He started “I’m bleeding..?” He said carefully. All his usual showmanship and confidence was gone. He hated how his voice sounded without it.
Immediately Pure Vanilla snapped awake and shot up.
“What?!” He yelped “How’d that happen? Where are you hurt??” He fretted.
Shadow Milk felt hands cup his cheeks before his head was gently but urgently twisted from side to side as Pure Vanilla scanned him for wounds.
“Nilly, calm down, I’m fine!” He declared before he hissed through his teeth and hunched over. His arm wrapped around his torso as he felt what he now assumed was actually the uterus (or whatever the heck cookies have-) cramping harshly.
He gritted his pointy teeth and Pure Vanilla’s worried look only deepened.
Pure Vanilla wouldn’t let him get another word out. He just scooped him up, ready to race him down to the med bay, and then froze when he noticed wetness over one arm. He looked down, remembered he was basically blind and that the room was dark, and then reached over Shadow Milk.
One flick of the lamp and orchid staff retrieval later, Pure Vanilla was able to see what smeared on his arm and where it was coming from.
Pure Vanilla relaxed his shoulders as this proved to not actually be an emergency. Not because Shadow Milk finally got to say something. But because once Pure Vanilla found out where the bleeding came from, he couldn’t find any evidence of any wounds, and the healer was able to take Shadow Milk’s earlier behavior into consideration.
He came to the conclusion that Shadow Milk was in fact, not dying.
Shadow Milk was however given a new change of clothes, a pad, and allowed to clean himself up as the bedsheets in Pure Vanilla’s room were switched out for new ones.
. . .
Soon after the cleaning staff was gone, the pair was back in bed together. The moon was going down and the room itself had an air of awkward silence to it.
“So…” Pure Vanilla started “do you feel better now that the sheets are clean..?” He asked, he couldn’t sound more stiff if he tried
“Kinda.” Shadow Milk replied “But there is one teeny-tiny issue.”
“Oh? Whatever is it?” Pure Vanilla sounded ready to try to rush him to the Medbay all over again.
Shadow Milk held his hands up in surrender “No no no!- it’s fine!” He affirmed “But- I am still cramping.”
“I see.” Pure Vanilla seemed to calm down but he did trail off in thought for a moment. “Here.” He rolled to his side and reached his hands out to the other cookie.
“What?” Shadow Milk leaned away a little
“It’s okay,” Pure Vanilla smiled reassuringly. “Just turn your back to me- trust me!”
Those words made him trust the other man less, but he complied regardless.
He felt the mattress shift as Pure Vanilla scooted closer. A moment later he flinched when he felt one of the other cookie’s arms slip underneath him as the other reached around on top of him while remaining under the covers.
Shadow Milk’s first instinct was to think Pure Vanilla was going to try to grapple and hurt him or something.
But he was pleasantly surprised to feel the hand that went under him make its way to his lower belly and heat up considerably with healing magic.
Shadow Milk tensed for a moment and wanted to protest. It was almost too hot, almost enough to make him kick free. But instead he melted into the hand and relaxed again, Pure Vanilla behind him, as the glowing warmth chased away the nagging pain gnawing at him.
Shadow Milk closed his eyes in bliss as he melted into Pure Vanilla, who was still hugging him from behind- his chest to Shadow Milk’s shoulders.
The eyes in his hair, that had sharpened their pupils to slits and went jagged with agony when the pain first came, now became a lot softer in appearance and gradually fluttered shut one by one as Shadow Milk continued to relax.
The pain was still there. But it was much more manageable so long as Pure Vanilla’s hand stayed on him.
Pure Vanilla gently massaged the muscles beneath his hand. Attempting to loosen them farther. “Better?” He asked
Shadow Milk had to take a moment to respond, but when he did, he just whispered back
“Better…”
Before he went back to sleep