Archive of Our Own

“So, like, I know we’re going back to your place, but… Like, where is your house, Windy?” Fire Spirit says, gently treading along the path that Wind Archer was leading him, being careful to never set a bare foot down on the forest floor, barely floating just above it. He had been almost-walking like this all day, ever since Wind Archer had first tutted at him that floating so highly above the cookies of his tribe was rude. Wind Archer was surprised that he had listened so well, even if the ‘walking’ was clearly tiring him out.

“Again, I thought I had already brought you here,” Wind Archer says, tilting his head to the side in order to look at Fire Spirit on his right. His eyes were tired, but they were filled with that same feeling that had been present all throughout the day’s festivities, the feeling that had only seemed to grow and grow until it got what Wind Archer had to assume was its biggest, earlier when they had been sitting alone by the enchanted lake. Wind Archer had been assessing this look all day, and after their (enthralling) moment at the lake, he had deemed that the feeling Fire Spirit seemed to be so full of was fondness. The thought of Fire Spirit being so fond of him was giddying, and it made him feel as though he could feel the flaps of his wings on the inside of his stomach. “I don’t have a house.”

“Uhh, cool. So, where are we going, then?” Fire Spirit says, nervously smiling. “Like, no offense, Windy, I’d be totally down to keep following you through the forest, but I’m really tired. I know you don’t sleep and alla’ that, but I’m used to sleeping after an exhausting day, y’know?”

“I know,” Wind Archer smiles. “Honestly, I am a bit tired, too. Not to worry. I’m taking you back to my nest. That is my personal place of rest.”

“Nest,” Fire Spirit muses. “Like a bird.”

“Yes,” Wind Archer chuckles. “Exactly like a bird.”

Fire Spirit hums. His eyes drop down to Wind Archer’s wings, which had been exposed all day in order to satisfy the traditions of the Tenalach tribe. Wind Archer turns his head away shyly, so he doesn’t have to watch Fire Spirit ogle them– he was bashful when it came to his wings, despite how many times the cookies of the tribe assured him he shouldn’t be. He kept them hidden because they felt like a private part of him; it wasn’t shame, exactly, but not many cookies had wings like he did, and so he kept them hidden around those who wouldn’t be accustomed to such a thing. He had been nervous, when Flowering Dogwood asked him to so graciously spread his wings for her and the tribe.. but Fire Spirit hadn’t found them odd. In fact, he seemed to be marvelled by them, staring at them as if they were something beautiful to be stared at. It made Wind Archer blush just to recall it, and made him blush further to realize Fire Spirit was doing it again. 

“Y’know, dragons nest, too.” Fire Spirit says, and Wind Archer turns their head to watch him pull his gaze off of their wings and onto their gaze. “I don’t, though. Guess I’m not dragon enough.” He shrugs his shoulder, which jostles the bag holding his staff that had been strapped to him since Poison Ivy and Flowering Dogwood had redressed him into traditional Tenalach formal wear (which, even many hours later, Wind Archer could still not quite wrap their head around how crazy it was driving him to see Fire Spirit in such clothing). “Ya sure it’s cool that I rest in your personal space, princess? I can still go back to the village.” He asks the question nervously, a bit forcefully, as if he really didn’t want to but made himself do it anyway. Wind Archer can only smile.

“You are not an intrusion.” Wind Archer says, reaching over to brush his hand gently against Fire Spirit’s arm, fingers gracing the sturdy fabric. “I …” He feels himself start to flush further, and turns his eyes back toward the ground. “I would quite like it if you.. accompanied me tonight.”

He listens as Fire Spirit lets out an unsteady breath. He waits in baited anticipation for Fire Spirit’s response, though he knows he has nothing to worry about– Fire Spirit had already very willingly agreed to come sleep at his nest for the night instead of the village, and after… Well, after their moment at the lake, he had begun to feel confident. Was that silly? Was it silly to feel confident that, just perhaps, his feelings for Fire Spirit might be returned? He knew it was, and yet he couldn’t shake that ray of hope that had begun to shine in him all day. It had grown in luminescence in the past hour, as Wind Archer continued to reel from what truly felt like a romantic moment with Fire Spirit until they had been interrupted. He could still feel his hand, resting on Fire Spirit’s thigh; he could still see the fond shine in Fire Spirit’s eyes; he could still feel Fire Spirit’s breath on his dough, could still hear the quiet words they said to each other, the ones that floated above the gentle noise of the lake, the ones that only the two of them would ever hear. It had been a crazy experience, unlike any he had ever had. He had felt strangely confident in that moment that, perhaps, one day the notion of Fire Spirit and Wind Archer, joined together, could one day be a reality. He was so confident that he had even momentarily thought that today could be that day.

The entire day had been surreal in general. Surreal, yes, that was the word– bringing Fire Spirit back to the sacred tribe of his people, spending a day with him as the tribe celebrated their presence, getting to exist with him and show him the traditional celebrations of his people. Getting to exist with him. That was the most important part, at least to Wind– he had gotten to exist solely in Fire Spirit’s orbit for a day, barely having to worry about the outside world. Yes, away from the outside world– his reason comes back to nag him that they were currently living inside their own little bubble, and that as soon as it popped he would be once again faced with the reality that he had been faced with for over 500 years; that Fire Spirit did not love him, and that if he did, it could never work, for Wind Archer’s duties would forever be more important than his wants and wishes. But he was so elated and high off of the wonderful day he had spent with Fire Spirit that he found he could not be bothered to listen to reason right now. For the first time in perhaps what may have been his entire immortal life, today he had allowed his head to shut off, and let his heart lead him throughout the day’s bringings. It was an incredibly riveting feeling. Addicting, almost.

“Well,” Fire Spirit says, drawing Wind Archer softly from his thoughts. “I guess I can’t say no to that.”

“I would hope not,” Wind Archer teases, gently bumping their shoulders against one another. Fire Spirit giggles quietly, and combined with the fleeting touch, it sends a ray of sparks down his spine.

They walk the rest of the way in a comfortable silence, accompanied only by the sound of Wind Archer’s feet along the floor of the forest, the comforting crackling of Fire Spirit’s hair, and the breathing shared between the two. It’s a nice silence, especially after the busyness of the day that had preceded the moment. Despite the physical silence between them, though, there was a tension that felt like it thickened with every step. Wind Archer couldn’t count on his hands the amount of times he had felt such tension with Fire Spirit over the past several centuries, there were simply too many occasions; but it had become different, had metamorphosed throughout the events of the day. It was entirely distracting.. and for every word they didn’t say out loud, twenty raced across Wind Archer’s mind, running with a tender display of warmth and want and yearning. He could only helplessly hope that Fire Spirit was maybe feeling even a fraction of such a feeling, too.

The thoughts are so occupying that it doesn’t occur to Wind Archer until they’re standing right in front of his nest to start feeling nervous about showing the space to Fire Spirit. But once it hits him, it hits him very hard. His nest was a private space, a very private space– never had another cookie been here, and especially had they not been about to sleep there alongside Wind himself! The only people who had been here were the cookiemals, the birds and the bugs, the fauna of the Dessert forest. And now, looking at it, in all of its straggly humbleness, it was definitely not something worthy of showing Fire Spirit.

“It’s not much,” Wind Archer says awkwardly, gently nudging a stick back into place with his bare foot. It wasn’t much more than sticks and mud and fabric shaped to make somewhere to rest. There were a few personal items, like an extra bow and set of arrows, and various things like flowers that had grown around and through the nest, but truly that was it. It wasn’t personalized much beyond that, nor was it decorative. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, the thought of what the nest would look like if he shared it with Fire Spirit starts to appear.

He turns to look at Fire and gauge his reaction, but is met with Fire Spirit staring at the nest with a glazed-over expression. They nervously shift on their feet, sure that Fire Spirit must be judging them right now and regretting following them back to their nest. In a voice that comes off as timid as someone like Wind Archer could get, they say, “Something on your mind..? What are you thinking about?”

Fire Spirit’s head whips up, his eyes wide and his cheeks flushed crimson. He laughs awkwardly, eyes skirting away before flicking back to Wind Archer. “Uhhhh….” He starts, before waving a dismissive hand. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it,” He says, embarrassment heavy in his tone. “This is.. this is great. This is very nice.”

“It’s okay if you’d like to go back to the village,” Wind Archer says. “I understand. This nest was not meant for anyone but me to see.”

“No, no.” Fire Spirit shakes his head. “I mean it. This is …” And there it is again– that fondness in his eyes and the softness in his tone, the softness that curves the edges of his usually-sharp voice. “This is perfect. It feels like you.”

“Oh,” Wind Archer says, and it again is his turn to be bashful. “Well … it is mine, so..”

“Right,” Fire Spirit laughs, and it’s such a beautiful sound that it makes Wind Archer chuckle, too. “Right. Well, after you.” He extends a hand to gesture at the nest. It’s not shaking anymore, Wind Archer notes. Fire’s hands had been shaking earlier, when they had been alone by the lake.

“After me.” Wind Archer steps into the nest, and then he stands there, waiting for Fire to follow. He was unsure why he was making such a big deal out of this; it was just a nest, all they had to do was step inside and go to sleep. There was nothing special about the ordeal at all, and yet it felt mountainous. Fire Spirit hovers a foot over the nest, hesitating. “It’s okay,” Wind Archer reassures. “I don’t mind.” This doesn’t seem to convince Fire Spirit, so in a voice that comes out more tender than he had intended, he adds, “I trust you.”

“Yeah,” Fire nods, and then he gently sets his foot down on the nest. It doesn’t burn the material, nor does it even singe. If Wind Archer had to guess, he probably had just warmed the nest up. Fire Spirit sets his other foot down, and again it does not burn, and then he looks up, triumphant. “Ha! Look at me go! Yeah, I knew I wasn’t gonna burn it. No biggie. Eternal flame and all.”

“Silly.” Wind Archer says, and then they stand and stare at each other, both of them not quite knowing what to say. Wind Archer has never been particularly stellar with words, but Fire Spirit typically had a lot of them– whenever he didn’t know what to say, Fire Spirit made up for it and more– but it seemed he was at a loss, too. 

“So..” Fire Spirit says. “You have, like, the rest of our clothes, right? No offense to you and the tribe, but this seems really uncomfortable to sleep in. And I can’t imagine you sleeping in all of that.” He gestures at the massive headdress Wind had been wearing all day, as well as the rest of the ceremonial, worship attire he was wearing.

“I do, actually.” Wind nods. He grabs the bag off of his back and holds it between the two of them. “Flowering Dogwood helped pack it earlier when she was dressing us. Your personal clothes are in here, but there’s also something else to sleep in if you would like.”

“Lingerie?” Fire Spirit says with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“No.” Wind Archer says shortly. “Sleepwear. Pajamas.”

“I know,” He laughs. “I was kidding with you. Thanks. Or, I guess I should say thanks to Dogwood. Like, no offense, I did not want to sleep in this.” He takes the bag and starts to dig through it, a bit more carelessly than Wind Archer would have preferred. “Which set is yours?”

“Does not matter,” Wind Archer shrugs. “I assume both sets are the same.”

“Hmmm… Nope, you’d assume wrong.” He sets the bag down on the nest, and then messily lays out the two sets. “They’re different. See?”

Wind Archer leans over to examine the two sets of sleepwear. One was a pair of what he was used to, the traditional Tenalach greens and browns, made of a full-coverage material warm enough for the fall but not heavy enough in case of any lingering heat. The second was much lighter, and was a pair that someone of the tribe would wear during the hottest heats of the summer; light, translucent fabrics for the top, and soft, silky bottoms. Wind Archer smiles– so Flowering Dogwood and Poison Ivy had paid attention to Fire Spirit’s silly pleas for ‘less clothing’.

“This one is for you. Clearly.” Wind Archer says, reaching over and feeling the fabric of the second pair. “It seems that Flowering Dogwood was trying to give you something that felt more like what you would wear in the Dragon's Valley.” It was incredibly thoughtful, and it almost made him sour that he didn’t think of the gesture first.

“Sick!” Fire Spirit says with a grin. “These clothes are so heavy. I need to breathe. That’s sick as fuck.”

“Mhm.” Wind Archer hums, reaching over to grab the set intended for him. As he lifted the set up, he realized there were holes in the back for his wings to stretch through. He flexed his wings just at the thought. “Though, you must admit that wearing these clothes was not as bad as you thought, yes?”

“Sure,” Fire shrugs. “I’ll admit, I got used to it.”

“I thought you would.” Wind Archer says. “You are very good at adapting.”

Fire smiles, glancing off to the side once more. “Yeah, well, I better be. Born from adaptation, ya’know. Heh. Thanks.” He looks back to Wind Archer, and they share a soft gaze before he bends down and picks up the set of sleepwear. “‘Kay, so, you gonna strip me now?”

“What!” Wind Archer yells in surprise. His face flushes and he almost drops the set in his hands in surprise. “No, I’m not going to do that!” He protests immediately, but in reality, the thought seemed incredibly appealing. His eyes fall to Fire Spirit’s body, and for a moment he can’t help but imagine it– but then he quickly rips his eyes away and puts them back on Fire Spirit’s (now laughing) face.

“Geez, geez, relax! I was just kidding. You’re so easy.” Fire Spirit laughs, but Wind Archer notices that his smile weirdly doesn’t reach his eyes, despite the genuine bark of laughter. “No, but really, I need to change, so..”

“We’ll just both turn around.” Wind Archer says, face still as hot as Fire Spirit’s hair felt. “I think we can trust each other enough in order to do that, yes?”

“Duh,” Fire Spirit says. “Well, you can trust me. Dunno if you have a wandering eye. Maybe you’re the type, huh, princess?”

“I am absolutely not.” Wind Archer says straightly. “Don’t even joke about such a thing.”

“Alright, alright,” Fire chuckles. He pauses for a moment, then lifts a finger to point at Wind’s head. “Do you … uh, do you want some help taking all that off? Not your clothes! Just the decoration.”

Wind Archer takes a second to think about it. It would probably be hard to get all of the ‘decoration’ off of him without destroying any of it, and it would be good to accept Fire Spirit’s help. If Fire Spirit wasn’t here, he would have asked for Millennial Tree’s or Sugar Swan’s help, anyway. But the thought of Fire Spirit doing it made his dough tingle and the wing-flapping return to his stomach. He gulps.

“That would be nice,” They say, in spite of themself. “Thank you.”

“No prob.” Fire says, before taking a step forward. He looks at Wind Archer, chewing his cheek, before taking another step, standing just about a couple inches from Wind Archer’s face. Wind Archer’s breath hitches, and his eyes move to glance upward as Fire Spirit reaches over to gently take the headdress in his hands. Wind Archer notices his fingers have begun to shake once more. “Cool. I’ll just …”

“Yeah,” Wind Archer says, slightly bowing his head so Fire Spirit can take the headdress off. The beads click against one another, and he feels the curving of Fire’s fingers as he settles them underneath the headdress, clearly trying to be careful not to mess anything up or tug on Wind Archer’s hair. Wind Archer’s breath remains at a standstill inside his throat– he wondered if Fire Spirit could tell that he wasn’t breathing. He watches as Fire delicately sets it on the ground just outside the nest, and then he freezes as he starts to take off many of the ceremonial sashes, beads, and jewelry that littered his body.

“Musta’ been so heavy,” Fire Spirit mumbles, and the sound of the gentle words grace Wind Archer’s ear, and the hot breath tickles the dough of their neck, making their hair stand on edge. They try to let out a breath through their nose as quietly as possible, shutting their eyes as if that would save them from the intensity of their want for the other man, threatening to break through his ribcage and spill his insides out all over the nest. Fire Spirit’s touch, as he removed layers of beads and sashes and flowers from Wind Archer’s body, was surprisingly delicate– delicate in a way he’d only ever received from Millennial Tree and Sugar Swan; tender and caring, loving and sweet, cautious and slow. And yet, it was so different from that… Each touch was like a caress of a feather on his dough, and it was clear that Fire was intending it to be. Fire Spirit, who was rough around the edges and proudly loud and boisterous, was going out of his way to handle Wind Archer with care. Wind Archer felt as if he was losing his mind.

“There,” Fire Spirit says quietly, once all of the accessories must have been removed and set on the ground of the nest along with the headdress. Wind Archer opens his eyes slowly, settling his gaze on Fire Spirit’s eyes, which were looking at him intensely from just a couple inches away. He watches as Fire Spirit swallows, before saying, “That’s all of ‘em.”

“Thank you,” Wind Archer breathes, the words choking themselves out of him. 

“Yup.” Fire Spirit says, and Wind Archer has the odd feeling that he couldn’t break this eye-contact even if he wanted to– it was.. magnetic, for lack of a better way to describe it. It was pulling him into the point he couldn’t break away. All he saw was Fire Spirit standing in front of him, lips parted and vermillion eyes locked on his. He feels himself shiver, and it feels like the magnetic force is pulling him forward– but before he can give into the lull of the pull, Fire Spirit clears his throat and turns away. “So now that that’s taken care of, I’m gonna change. Wanna get these clothes offa’ me, heh!” He tugs at the cuff of fabric around his neck. “It’s – getting kinda .. Stuffy.” 

“Of course,” Wind Archer says, forcibly jolting himself out of his thoughts, as if it was possible to tangibly remove himself from the hypnotic trance he’d just found himself lulled into. He picks up the pajamas designated for him off the floor of his nest, trying his best not to appear as nervous as he feels. “I’ll turn around, then, and you can just…”

“Also turn around,” Fire Spirit nods, and they look at each other expectantly for a moment, neither of them moving, before Fire Spirit clears his throat and says, “After me, then,” before he turns around.

“Right. My apologies.” Wind Archer says, before quickly turning around and facing away from Fire Spirit. His brain was growing increasingly foggy– it had been so clear throughout the day’s festivities, so alert and awake as he maneuvered through Tenalach’s celebrations, so bright as he spoke his plans to Millennial Tree. He was always good at staying focused on what he needed to do, on what he had to do for the betterment of other cookies– now, though, and truthfully ever since their sitting at the lake, there was no task left to be done; the only motivation to act on right now was his own, which was really an odd thing for him to experience when he lived his life guided by the pursuit of the greater good. There was no greater good to fight right now, there were no cookies to please, there were no plans to be made. No– there was only Wind Archer, and there was only Fire Spirit. There was nothing to do but to stay here, alone with Fire Spirit, and bask in his presence and his company. He found it made it extremely hard to focus.

They hear the rustling of Fire Spirit undressing, which makes it even harder to focus. They try to bring themself to stop thinking about it and just change, but they found they were incredibly unable to do so. How were they meant to focus, when Fire Spirit was just behind them, perhaps bare and uncovered? How were they meant to do anything, how were they meant to exist with the knowledge that they could just turn around and see what they had been craving for centuries right in front of them? Of course, they would never do such an awful thing– Fire Spirit had established that he didn’t want them to look, and so Wind Archer honestly wouldn’t even genuinely dream of doing such a thing without his consent, but it was still a thought that gently and sweetly drove them mad, as many thoughts about Fire Spirit had the tendency to do.

Wind Archer lets out a sigh through his nose and starts to take his own clothes off. He found that, as he undressed, he was doing it slowly, as if in the exhibitionary hope that Fire Spirit had turned around to watch him. That was, admittedly, a very odd thing to do– for why would he hope for him to do such a thing? The truth was plainly that he desired him so much that odd thoughts like that would frequently litter his brain. And now, here he was, for the first time uncovered in front of the other guardian, and all he could do was hope that Fire Spirit would turn around and look. Hope that Fire Spirit ached for him in all of the many ways that Wind Archer, in turn, ached for Fire Spirit. 

That train of thought also allowed insecurity to quietly enter the space of his thoughts. If Fire Spirit did look, in the odd layout of his strange fantasies, would he even like what he saw? Wind Archer had never looked at himself and thought there was particularly anything special– in fact, he truly didn’t lay his eyes on his own reflection very often. He felt he was quite plain. There were even things about himself that, when he thought too deeply about them, he felt were not up to par with what other cookies looked like. He had not known any other cookies with markings like he, nor with long, sharp faces like he had. These were traits of his heritage and his culture, though, and so he couldn’t be disrespectful and shun them off, but he couldn’t imagine them being attractive. He couldn’t picture Fire Spirit (or anyone, for that matter) gazing at his gapped teeth and finding them pretty, couldn’t imagine anyone looking at his weathered skin and straight, sturdy figure as anything to desire over. 

Fire Spirit, though, was the most attractive cookie Wind Archer had ever seen, and such a fact was common knowledge. He doubted there was anyone who could deny that Fire Spirit was attractive– wild, untamed, and undeniably sexy like an open flame, he had a charisma that couldn’t be denied. His skin was a brilliant vermillion, glowing slightly with the promise of warmth; his eyes were sharply intelligent but also large, round, and full of raging emotion; his shoulders were broad and defined, a direct contrast to the small proportion of his waist; the flames of his hair resembled the shape of curls that, somehow, perfectly fell into place and always appeared mussed simultaneously. He was a cookie worth looking at, and Wind Archer felt he was not, despite how badly he wanted Fire Spirit to see him as one who was, as no one ever had.

Even with his longings, he still did not make any sort of move. Perhaps he could have said something, like ‘may I turn around?’ or ‘I want you to look at me’, a simple voicing of his thoughts, and even have had it received kindly, based on his confidence about the day– but he was not that brave. Truely, he was cowardly. He may have been courageous in the face of darkness, willing to put his own health on the line for the benefit of Earthbread and cookiekind, but he had never a day in his life been brave enough to say what he meant to the one he cared for the most.

When he has the pajamas on nearly-fully, and the celebratory attire was neatly folded next to him on the floor of his nest, he holds down on the hem of the garment that covered his torso and let his wings stretch through. He loved the feeling of having his wings free, and did relish the times he felt comfortable extending them. He shakes out his limbs in the pajamas, sinking into the comforting feeling of the clothing that was meant to relax, and then he starts to twiddle his thumbs, waiting for Fire Spirit to proclaim he was done. He perks one of his ears, listening for the sound of rustling clothes. It appears, though, that Fire Spirit is done dressing, because he doesn’t hear anything but the sounds of the magical forest, and so he says, “Are you finished?”

“Yep,” Fire Spirit says. “All dressed, nothing more to look at.”

“There is always something about you to look at,” Wind Archer says without thinking.

Fire Spirit pauses, and Wind Archer winces at his words. “Huh?”

“Nevermind,” Wind Archer says, cringing. “May I turn around, then?”

“Yep,” Fire Spirit repeats, popping the ‘p’. “I’m turning as we speak… turning, turning, there.”

Wind Archer snickers to themself before they turn around, eyes settling back on Fire Spirit. Their eyes immediately soften upon seeing him awkwardly standing there, hands on his hips and clad in traditional Tenalach wear. He really did look so dashing in emerald green, and especially so in such light, flowy, unrestricting clothes. His torso was visible through the translucent fabric of the pajamas, showcasing the curve of his waist and the definition of his muscle. He was beautiful in every way, and Wind Archer couldn’t help but stare, couldn’t help but shamefully ogle the object of their affections– and when they realize, they quickly rip their eyes away and back to Fire Spirit’s face, only to find that Fire Spirit, too, was lost in thought and once again staring at their wings. They flush, and close their extended wings behind their back. Fire Spirit jolts and looks up at Wind Archer’s face, cheeks flushing, too, at being caught.

“Sorry.” Fire Spirit says. His mouth opens and closes a few times, and Wind Archer swallows. “Just– Sorry. Shit, I don’t mean to keep staring at you. I’m probably making you feel like some sort of freak..” He says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away. Wind Archer opens his mouth to speak, but Fire Spirit cuts him off before he can. “I‘m not starin’ cause I think your wings are weird, Windy. I think they’re cool as hell and I.. well, I guess I can’t keep my eyes off’a them, ha! Sorry.”

Wind Archer blinks, eyebrows pursing upwards. “Oh.” 

“I probably overthought all of that.” Fire Spirit says, continuing his words and carrying into a ramble. “Whoops, yeah. There I go. Now I am making you feel weird about it. Or, like, shit– are your wings like a private part of you? And I keep staring where I’m not supposed to stare like I’m seeing tits for the first time? Sorry, I–”

“Did you just compare my wings to… breasts?” Wind Archer cuts him off, raising an eyebrow in amused bewilderment. 

“No!” Fire Spirit says, raising his hands up and showing Wind Archer his palms. “Oh, shit, I just fuckin’ did that, didn’t I? Okay, I’m just gonna– stop talking. Yeah.”

If Wind Archer still had the confidence that he had when the two of them were sitting at the lake earlier, he would have touched Fire Spirit’s arm and said, ‘I like when you talk’, in that voice that always made Fire Spirit stop and stutter over his words. It was funny– he had the move, he knew what to do, and yet he still couldn’t bring himself to do it now that his steam had run out. Here they were, alone in the intimacy of his nest, and he found that even as excited and hopeful as he felt, he was just as scared. Fire Spirit was the only person on Earthbread who could ever possibly make Wind Archer feel scared. So, instead, he smiles and says, “I am not used to having my wings out. You’ll have to forgive the way I act about them.” Fire Spirit nods and rocks back and forth on his heels, and so Wind Archer gestures his head towards the floor of the nest. “Can we sit now?”

“Oh, yeah! Yeah, of course!” He stalls for a moment before he harshly drops to sit criss-cross on the floor of the nest, rigidly sitting with his hands folded in his lap, a pose very unlike him, since he was usually incredibly laid-back. Wind Archer could sense how nervous he was, feel it, too– it echoed Wind Archer’s own feelings.

Wind Archer sits, too, across from Fire Spirit. They pull their knees toward their chest, sitting their chin on top and staring straight at Fire Spirit. Fire Spirit stares back, and Wind Archer watches every nervous tic play out across his body– the twisting of his lips, the fidgeting of his fingers, the slight way he rocks back and forth. 

“So,” Wind Archer says, trying to break the tense silence. “I spoke to Millennial Tree earlier. I didn’t get a chance to discuss that with you. We grew rather.. distracted.” They had gotten pretty distracted, yes– between their dancing, their celebrating, and their time at the lake, they had completely forgotten the actual reason why they had come to Tenalach in the first place: to alert Millennial Tree of what had happened with the ultimate cookie, as well as tell him what had happened with Agar Agar in the Dragon’s Valley, and then seek further action. Wind Archer found, though, that he didn’t want to have an extensive conversation about their mission. For the first time, he just wanted to sit and enjoy Fire Spirit’s company, and exist in the romantic bubble of the Tenalach while they could.

“Right, right.” Fire Spirit nods. He takes a deep breath before he leans back onto his palms, posture relaxing significantly. “So you told him about all this Enchantress shit and whatever. That blue jester freak and that gooey girl, ick. Thinking about her gives me the creeps. Yeah, so what’d the ol’ Tree say?”

Wind Archer thinks back to his conversation with Millennial Tree. He had expressed to the elder guardian his innate desire to follow the darkness and save Earthbread from what he knew was surely going to come , and Millennial Tree had ultimately encouraged him to follow his pursuits of purification, despite Wind Archer’s own foolish hesitance. 

“I have not been able to shake it from my thoughts since it happened,” They had said, staring at their hands as they spoke. “Something… has changed. There has been a big shift. Evil and darkness are upon us as they have not been before.” He shut his eyes, lifting his chin and letting the air that filters through the open space of the plankhouse to settle on his dough. “I can feel it in the wind. This is… a danger much bigger than Earthbread has ever seen.”

“It seems as if you know what you must do,” Millennial Tree had said. 

Wind Archer lifted his head, opening his eyes and looking at the guardian across from him. He sighed through his nose, glancing off to look out at the forest that surrounded them. “I know what I must do, what I should do.” Wind Archer said. “But..” He trailed off, not sure how to finish.

“But?” Millennial Tree had questioned. “What holds you back?”

Wind Archer furrowed their brows. “To pursue this.. I would have to travel to lands I have never seen. To the continent of Beast Yeast.” Beast Yeast, which was so far from everything Wind Archer had ever known, had ever loved and cared for. “If I was to pursue this, I would be giving up the duty of protecting my fellow cookies, for the sake of land under skies that I have never once gazed upon myself. I would have to leave the forest, albeit temporarily.”

Growing restless, they stood from their place where they sat on the floor across from Millennial Tree. They moved to hold their hand against a lone wood pillar along the edge of the plankhouse, staring out at the forest. “I can feel it. I can feel the winds of those lands calling me. I can feel the way that destiny and fate is calling upon me, urging me to do what I was baked to do. And I must do it, I know it, I must do all that I can to save Earthbread, but–” They stop themself again, looking down at the wood guardrail that they stood against. “Is it selfish of me to say that I cannot bare the thought of leaving the forest? How am I meant to leave the sacred forest unprotected while I leave them all behind to fight the Ultimate Cookie? To fight Shadow Milk?” Guiltily, they turned to look back up at the Tenalach forest, the beautiful forest that had been their home for all the centuries Wind Archer had been alive. “If I were to leave them, would they understand? Would Crispia understand?” They hesitate, before quietly adding, “Would.. he understand?”

They feel a hand come to lay on their shoulder, grounding and reassuring. They turn and look up at Millennial Tree, who gives them his wise smile that always did wonders to calm them. “They will understand that what you do will always be to protect them, that what you do will always be in the pursuit of the greater good.” His thumb rubs a reassuring circle into Wind Archer’s shoulder, over the heavy ceremony fabrics. “And if Crispia does not understand, Tenalach always will. I always will,” He adds, nodding. “There are cookies who will forever know your intentions and stand behind you.” He paused, before he tilted his head and smiled. “I can only assume that Fire Spirit will do the same. There is a devotion within him that runs as deeply as the water along the creeks.”

Wind Archer flushed, turning his gaze slightly away from Millennial Tree out of embarrassment. “I worry that … that they will consider my leaving to be abandonment. That they will misunderstand my battles. That this darkness will overtake, and they will not know that everything I do is to protect them from what seeks to ruin their world. I worry that this path will lead not only to my demise.. but theirs.”

Millennial Tree frowned wistfully, shutting his eyes and nodding in understanding. He lifts his hand and brings it to cup Wind Archer’s cheek gently. “I cannot tell you where this path will take you, Wind Archer. But if this is what you know is right, if you know that this is what you must do, then you must follow your heart, and the story it beats for inside of you.” He brought his face forward, rubbing their noses together, a traditional form of Tenalach affection. Then, he smiled. “Only you can decide who you are, Wind Archer, and who you will be. But know that I will stand with you every step of the way, and protect the forest for however long your absence requires.”

Wind Archer stares at him, taking in his words, before he nods and turns back to stare out at the forest. “Then I must go.” He says, voice turning from hesitant to determined. “It is what I was born to do. Who I was born to be.” He turns back to Millennial Tree, lifting his palm to hold over Millennial’s on his face. “Thank you. I do not know, either, where this road will lead… but I know one day it will lead me back here.”

“I trust that it will.” He nodded. “Now, do not let this worry you any further. There is a celebration just for you that you must go enjoy before you depart.” He lifts his hand to gesture out at the forest, to the path that led back to the main area of Tenalach. “And..” He continues with a knowing smile. “There is someone who desperately would like a moment of your time.”

“He agreed with me that this darkness must be vanquished, and I must go pursue it,” Wind Archer says. “Tomorrow, I will leave to alert the other guardians, and then I will travel to Beast Yeast.”

Fire Spirit frowns. “So you’re really going to Beast Yeast, then?”

“Yes,” Wind Archer says. “Of course I am. I have to.”

“Right,” Fire Spirit nods, turning to stare at his lap. Wind Archer’s eyebrows press together with worry.

“What is it?” He asks. “I told you earlier this was the plan.”

“Yeah, I know.” Fire Spirit says, and his lips twist together as he continues to stare at his lap. Wind Archer was wholly confused by the sudden change in his demeanor. 

“I thought you were in support of this,” Wind Archer says. “That is why we’re here in the first place. To tell Millennial Tree of my plans and to move forward.”

“Of course I am,” Fire Spirit says, looking back up at Wind Archer through his lashes, like a guilty dog. “And I’m just here to talk about that slime creature. I know.”

It takes Wind Archer a second, but he eventually catches on. “You’re upset that I am leaving.”

“I–” Fire Spirit starts, lifting his head up fully. “Well– I–” He can’t seem to find another excuse, so he just deflates, surrendering. “I … don’t know what to do without you.”

The sentence stuns Wind Archer. He gulps. “You say this like I am going to crumble.”

“You might,” Fire Spirit says weakly. “You don’t know what’s in Beast Yeast.”

“You think that highly of me, I see?” Wind Archer says, trying to joke and make light of Fire Spirit’s sadness. But the Fire Spirit looks back up at him, with more sadness than Wind Archer thought he had ever seen before in one single cookie, and Wind Archer feels his heart shudder in his chest. Fire Spirit meant what he was saying– he wasn’t joking or being silly. He genuinely didn’t want Wind Archer to leave and was worried for his safety. “Oh, my sweet,” Wind Archer whispers, before he can hold himself back from saying a name that implied such intimacy and longing. He reaches forward and gently takes Fire Spirit’s hands in his. “Please do not let any worrying about me pain you. I will fight and I will return, as I always do.” He said, even though he didn’t know for sure that it was true. 

“Do you promise?” Fire Spirit whispers, too, large and misty eyes imploring deep into Wind Archer’s soul.

He had never felt so strongly the urge to say ‘yes’. He had never so strongly wanted to ensure his own safety alongside the safety of Earthbread’s. Fire Spirit, beautiful and so seemingly devoted to Wind Archer, was begging him to promise his own safety– and if that was what Fire Spirit desired, Wind Archer would give anything to ensure it came true, to ensure that no matter how valiantly he fought to purify darkness, he would always return with at least enough breath to speak the name of the one he so deeply loved. 

“Yes,” Wind Archer says, knowing that he would fight destiny itself in order for the meaning to come true. “I promise, Fire Spirit.”

“Okay,” Fire Spirit breathes, and the sound stutters and halts as his voice shakes. “Okay.”

Wind Archer gently pulls his hands up to his lips, pressing his lips against the inner knuckles of his fingers. He wasn’t brave enough to speak upon his own devotion, to tell Fire Spirit of how he would do anything for him, to tell him that beyond everything else, he loved him– and so he communicated his devotion, his love, his desire, his faith, his tenderness through the small action of placing the kiss upon his dough, like the placing of knees against the floor of an altar, like an act of worship. He then brings his fingers up to press against his forehead, bowing his head against his warm hands like he was kneeling to pray. Fire Spirit’s skin was warm to the touch, but did not burn him; like a sunburn on mortal dough, there was a heavy heat that rested just beyond any layer of his being that Wind Archer would ever be able to reach. It warmed him inside and out. 

“You will be in my heart,” Wind Archer says, shutting his eyes, fearful of what he was saying and how honest it truly was. He had never said anything of the sort out loud, and it took everything within him not to tremble, even though he wasn’t even explicitly stating any of the love he felt for Fire Spirit beyond implications that sat just under the weight of his words, just between the lines of them. “Even should a day come where we crumble, you will crumble having been my dearest. You are my best friend, Fire Spirit, and we are in this world together.” He lifts his head, looking at Fire Spirit over his hands. “You must hold out, my sweet. Hold out, and I will fight, and I will return; shall I not return, you can come and find me yourself, and serve me whatever punishment you see fit.”

Fire Spirit stares at him, lips parted and eyebrows pressed together in shock. There was a look in his eyes that Wind Archer could not quite understand, one he had never seen before and didn’t have a way to decipher. But he hoped what it was was a shared sentiment, a shared love between them that perhaps they couldn’t voice but was there nonetheless. 

“And don’t forget that you have your own fighting to do,” Wind Archer continues. “You will be here in Crispia, fighting with the other elementals. Time will pass quickly as it does, and it will only feel as if I was gone for a moment.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” Fire Spirit quietly says. “Don’t think for a second that I won’t.”

“I know you will,” Wind Archer says. “It is your way.”

They share a tender smile, silently gazing into each other’s eyes and still holding their hands together. Wind Archer can’t help the way his gaze keeps falling to Fire Spirit’s lips, unable to pull away from the magnetic force that was attracting him to the sight. Fire Spirit eventually pulls his hands away, chuckling under his breath. “Wooo, that was– intense. Okay. We should probably sleep now.”

“Right,” Wind Archer says. As he had told Fire Spirit earlier, he didn’t typically sleep– but he felt so wound down from the day that he was tired, and did actually want to close his eyes and rest.. especially alongside Fire Spirit. “That would be smart, considering what tomorrow holds.”

Fire Spirit hums, and he looks at Wind Archer for several beats before he starts to make a makeshift pillow with his clothes and a few things Wind Archer had lining his nest. He grabs his cape from the bag and drapes it over himself before he settles down to sleep. Wind Archer awkwardly crawls over next to him and lays down on the flat ground, a little less than a foot away. They lay there in a tense silence, Wind Archer’s mind quickly going back to racing with thoughts about Fire Spirit. Here they were, lying next to each other, so close that Fire Spirit’s warmth was spreading back across Wind Archer’s dough. He was so close and yet so far, and the thought of their skin touching while they slept made a shiver run down Wind Archer’s spine.

“Are you cold?” Fire Spirit says, immediately looking over. Wind Archer goes to tell him ‘no’, but before he can, Fire Spirit continues, talking so fast he stumbles over his words. “You can– you can, uh, well I’m really warm, ya’know, so I mean, if you wanted to, uh–” He lifts his make-shift blanket off himself, holding it above him. “We could like– I mean, if you wanted to, um, use me for warmth and stuff, like, you could totally do that. I don’t want you to be cold. Or.. anything.”

Wind Archer blinks. Fire Spirit was– inviting him to cuddle with him. He wasn’t cold, he didn’t need the extra warmth, and yet… the thought was so enticing he couldn’t even imagine a universe where he declined it. To be so close to Fire Spirit, to hold him, to spend the night nestled into his side.. It was the kind of thing he dreamed about. Eagerly, he trills, the sound releasing itself from his throat before he could stop it. He flushes immediately before clapping a hand over his mouth.

Fire Spirit’s eyes widen. “Did you just…like… tweet?”

“That’s not what it’s called,” Wind Archer mumbles in embarrassment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. Witches, this is really embarrassing.”

“You really are like a bird,” Fire Spirit says, and he sounds mystified and in awe. “Holy shit. That’s so… you’re so..”

“Enough,” Wind Archer waves his hands, shutting down the conversation before Fire Spirit can go further. “I meant– oh, my– I meant yes, I would.. I would like that, yes.”

“Cool,” Fire Spirit nods. “Cool, cool. Yeah. Cool. So, um, you can just..”

“I’ll just..” Wind Archer repeats, and he awkwardly scoots over to come and nestle into Fire Spirit’s side. He wraps his arms around his torso and lays his head on the top of his chest, where his head just slightly dips into the crook of his neck. He brings one of his legs forward, and in a move he considered very bold, intertwines it between Fire Spirit’s. He was warm, so incredibly warm, and Wind Archer realized that maybe he did need this warmth all along. It was so soothing that it made him shut his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“Better?” Fire Spirit says, his arms coming up to wrap around Wind Archer, making him even cozier.

“Yes,” Wind Archer breathes. “Much.”

“Hmmm,” Fire Spirit hums again, and he rubs circles into Wind Archer’s back with one hand. His other hand comes up to trace his fingers lightly across the exterior feathers of his wings, and Wind Archer bites his lip hard to hold back the embarrassing reaction that would have elicited had he let it go free. His hand then moves up to start running through the strands of Wind Archer’s hair that had fallen free of his braid. “Do you ever take this down?”

“Not really,” Wind Archer says. “It usually stays and I have no need to redo it.”

Fire Spirit doesn’t answer for a moment, fingers still tracing along his back and through his hair. “Can I take it down for you? While you sleep? I’ll redo it in the morning.”

Wind Archer doesn’t really have a reason to say no, especially because he assumed Fire Spirit was asking so he could have freer access to sift his hands throughout his hair, and so he says, “As long as you redo it when we wake.”

Fire Spirit then starts to undo Wind Archer’s braid, and it, too, is a soothing gesture, and so Wind Archer shuts his eyes once more while he does it. Once the braid has come undone, Fire Spirit cards his finger through Wind Archer’s waves tenderly.

“Your hair is so long,” Fire Spirit says. “Why do you keep it so long if you’re only going to braid it? You should let it down more.”

“It’s traditional,” Wind Archer responds. “We believe that our hair is sacred, that it tethers us to the spiritual world. So we do not usually cut our hair unless there has been a significant death.”

“Oh,” Fire Spirit says, and he finds a steady rhythm in the way he brushes his fingers through Wind Archer’s hair. “That’s really cool. All of this is so cool. I wish you had told me about this sooner, or brought me here sooner.”

“Me, too.” Wind Archer says. 

They sit like that for a while, and Wind Archer assumes that they’re both going to go to sleep now, until Fire Spirit again speaks. “Do you, uh–” He says, chuckling. “Do you remember when we met and you hated me?”

“I didn’t hate you,” Wind Archer snickers.

“Oh, you so did.” Fire Spirit laughs. “You hated my guts.”

“I was mildly annoyed by you,” Wind Archer corrects, though in truth it was a bit more than mildly. “But, to be fair, the first thing you ever said to me was very crude.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Fire Spirit says, and Wind Archer looks up at him to see him grinning. “I said ‘hey sexy’, that very first meeting we had, and since you had no idea who I was, you tried to shoot me with an arrow.”

“So there is no blame that can be placed on me.” Wind Archer smiles.

“I guess not.” Fire Spirit shrugs. “Like– I still remember it all. Isn’t that crazy? It’s been like 500 years, and I still remember how desperately I tried to get you to like me.”

“You did?” Wind Archer questions.

“I really did. I worked so hard to get you to not hate me!” Fire Spirit recalls. “Man, I–” He laughs again, a musical sound to Wind Archer’s ears. “I still remember when you finally, like, opened up and received me for the first time. I remember it like it was yesterday.”

“Will you remind me?” Wind Archer asks, because he didn’t recall exactly what Fire Spirit meant, but he, too, wanted to be able to remember their past like it had only happened moments ago. 

“I dunno, like, we were having some meeting, and Frost Queen was saying somethin’, and so I turned to you and made a joke, man, I don’t even remember what it was.” He takes his eyes off of Wind Archer and looks up at the starry sky above him, and Wind Archer watches as the memory passes over his mind and he receives it, fondly smiling. That same fondness overtakes his voice, too, as he says in a gentler, more tender tone, “I said something stupid, and you did this thing where you were trying not to laugh, so you snorted, and then you– and then you laughed. You laughed, and it was– I was so fucking happy to see you laugh, and that was the first time I had ever seen you smile, or seen the gap in your teeth, and I was just… You were so fucking beautiful, and I was so happy. I rode that high for about a hundred years.”

Wind Archer’s eyes widen, and his mouth falls open, and he feels a million fireflies dance across his dough. His stomach turns over with butterflies, and his face flushes, and he feels like someone has just lit a fire within him, but also filled his veins with liquid gold. There it was again, that giddiness, and that love, and that– everything. So nervous it comes out a whisper, he says, “...You think I’m beautiful?”

Fire Spirit jumps, his head whipping down to look back at Wind Archer, eyes wide like a deer in headlights. Wind Archer, from his place on Fire Spirit’s chest, feels his heart thump, thump, thump inside him. His own heart rate quickens to match it. “Uh,” He starts. “Well– yeah. Yeah, I do. I’ve thought you–” He chokes on his words for a second and starts over. “I’ve thought you were the most, uh, beautiful cookie I’d ever seen since we first met.”

He doesn't know how to respond to that, so genuinely taken aback by the compliment. Fire Spirit really, truly thought he was beautiful. He thought he was someone worth looking at. In his own words, Wind Archer was the most beautiful cookie he had ever seen. Wind Archer hadn’t ever thought of himself as beautiful, but if Fire Spirit had thought so, then maybe it might have been true.

“Well,” Wind Archer starts, trying to hide his blushing face. “I— I think you look very pretty in green.”

“Thanks,” Fire Spirit blushes, smiling in a lopsided and wobbly way. “I like how I look in green, too.”

Too flustered to hold his stare, Wind Archer drops his head back to Fire Spirit’s chest, holding himself against it and listening to the beating of his heart. It was so intimate in a way that he only wished to ever feel with Fire Spirit. Here they were, alone in the world, and holding each other in the darkness of the night, heartbeats shared between them. 

There’s a long period of silence before any noise enters the atmosphere again. Again, it’s Fire Spirit who speaks, as if he couldn’t stop finding things to say. Wind Archer didn’t mind it at all. In fact, he loved it. He loved hearing everything he had to say.

“I wish it could be like this forever,” He says, barely above a whisper. There was an earnestness to it that Wind Archer had never heard from him before.

“What do you mean?” Wind Archer questions back, keeping their voice the same volume.

“I just wish this could be our lives,” Fire Spirit says, and the earnestness mixes with a sadness and longing so sure that even Wind Archer could pick up on it. “I wish we could spend every single day like this. I wish I could go to sleep in your nest every night and wake up to you in the morning. And then spend the day doing whatever you wanted.” 

His words were so raw and honest that it felt almost like Wind Archer shouldn’t have listened to them, like they were meant to be private, meant to be only for Fire Spirit’s own ears to hear. And yet, he heard them, and they entered into his body and sat in between his bones, never to be removed or forgotten. He heard them, and he took them in, and he thought about it— and he didn’t think about how their lives could never be this way, about how their duties would always interfere, about how it would never be possible. Instead, he tapped into the part of him hidden deep down, the part of him that yearned so desperately for a world where he could have a life with the one he loved. He ignored his responsibility, his duty, the reason for his making, and just for that night, tossed them completely aside. Being more honest than he had ever been about the way he truly felt, he simply responded with a shuddering breath, “Me, too.”

Fire Spirit doesn’t say anything to that, but for a moment Wind Archer feels his chest start to rise and fall in a halting, irregular pattern, and subconsciously to put him at ease he holds onto him tighter, presses his face into his chest and inhales his smoky scent. He feels Fire Spirit wrap his arms tighter around him, too, and Wind Archer extends his wings so that they covered the both of them like a blanket.

“Goodnight, Windy.” Fire Spirit says. “I think this was the best day of my life.”

“Goodnight, Fire Spirit.” Wind Archer sighs, letting the embrace of sleep overcome him, more at peace than he had ever felt in any of his eternal years.

In the morning, they woke side by side, in the space that felt so sacred. The sun rose as it always did, and yet that morning it had felt more special, more beautiful, more holy than the sun could ever have been capable of. They held each other as they woke, silent without need to speak, before they dressed and Fire Spirit fulfilled his promise of braiding Wind Archer’s hair again. And so they carried on, continued their morning and early afternoon with the tribe before they both went their separate ways and departed. Wind Archer would think about that night, about that day, incredibly frequently, unable to shake the memory of when he had momentarily held in his hands everything he had ever wanted. He would find solace in the memory, but also a pain unlike he could have ever imagined. Forever would that night live on, for as long as he could bare to keep remembering it.