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This was stupid. This was really stupid, especially when you took into account that nearly all the cookies around you hated one another- and yet, you all stood congregated with annoying festive music coming from some cheap radio Licorice Cookie got his hands on.
Speaking of hands, you currently pressed your own against the black cloak Dark Choco Cookie wore. You can't believe you actually convinced him to let you go through with this- but it likely helped that despite the earlier statement that everyone in the room detected one another… wasn't exactly true.
Dark Choco Cookie tolerated you.
And he continued to do so as you readjusted the string lights wrapped loosely around his shoulders. The strong taste of peppermint took over your mouth as the end of a candy cane rolled between your teeth and smeared red dye across your lips and tongue. You might have looked like a clown with the smudging, but no one has said a word if they've noticed. If they cared to bring it up.
Your tongue swirled around the end of the candy, and with a string of rolling clacks the cane made itself home by the corner of your mouth. A final click of the sides of your teeth against hard sugar- and through some extra spit in your mouth:
"It's nice seeing some color on you- I don't think I've ever seen you wear anything but black… Like, ever," You smiled as your coworkers bickered and interacted with one another. You started to tune them out when Licorice Cookie started making a fuss over Chiffon tried to tug on his raggedy robes… as entertaining it would have been to see Red Velvet Cookie tear into the necromancer, you were far more interested in the banished prince.
Dark Choco Cookie only hummed softly as your fingers continued to work the lights. One of those battery powered one, the pack tucked somewhere neatly out of sight: a great find, you'd almost feel bad if you bound the prince to an outlet for the night. The cookie's jaw flexed and tensed with each brush your hands and twitch of your fingers. He could have stepped away, could have pushed you off or simply told you to back off.
His red eye followed each movement of your fingers.
"Colored clothing is not… common…" Dark Choco Cookie started before trailing off. You didn't pry. He never spoke much about the Dark Cacao Kingdom. But you were sure- he thought about it often. You've seen that look in his eye countless times before.
Yearning. Sick.
"I'm not saying you look bad in all black," Your fingers tugged the front of his robe to re-flatten it under the string lights.
"I never said you did-"
"Actually, I think you look quite nice in the black," You smiled, the candy cane slumping against your teeth with a click. Excess spit slicked across your tongue as strong peppermint continued to blossom through your jaw. "I mean I'm sure you can rock anything…" A step is taken back, and your fingers frame the view of him in front of you. A purse of your lips.
Silence- at least between the two of you. The chatter of everyone else blurred into the music. Earthy mushroom tainted warm cocoa, and lacing that with the cane it wasn't… the most pleasant. It actually kind of made your head hurt as you kept your eyes glued on the cookie in front of you.
"Your hats crooked, you know," You snickered, and before the prince could even think to lift his large hand to readjust the tiny red hat on his head- you stepped forward. "Here, let me get that,"
His icing was soft as it brushed against your knuckles. And as tempting as it was to press your fingers into his scalp, the closeness of his stare kept you in line- his breath contained itself, you didn't even need to be pressed against his chest to tell he was trying to remain as still as possible.
So you made quick work of the entire thing- as soon as the hat was tugged back into place you backed up. "There!" You grinned. The candy cane rolled between your teeth. "I probably should have gotten a regular sized hat, huh?"
Dark Choco Cookie merely hummed in response, his eye flitting down to the rolling cane in your teeth before setting on your hands as they made themselves comfortable on your hips. "You look proud of yourself,"
"I am! I mean sure the mini hats a bit inconvenient, but I think you look cute,"
That was certainly a word to use.
"…Cute?"
"Yeah, I think you look cute- I mean… I'm sure a tiny hat can make anyone look a little cute," Your fingers curled around the hook of the candy cane and tugged it out of your mouth, the red dye blurred and smudged into the white stripes. Point slightly deformed- not sharpened. Just a little flat on one side. "Though… I can't help but feel like there's something missing…" Your teeth clicked.
Dark Choco Cookie's eyes briefly fixed themselves on your face before looking somewhere over your shoulder to whatever the others were up to.
"I mean you've already got a hat, and some lights… I don't think I can one up the lights,"
Actually you were surprised he actually agreed to them- again, sure, he tolerates you. One might say he even enjoys your presence. Whether or not you agreed changed on the day: Dark Choco Cookie wasn't the easiest to read, and more often than not he shut you- and just about everyone else- out to do his own thing. Usually brooding when he wasn't sent off on some task by Pomegranate Cookie.
But sitting and chatting away by his side was nothing like getting up close and personal and physically stringing him along.
Your mind came to a blank. Stare lost in the way the colored lights bled across his black clothing. Reds and blues and greens flickered and painted him, his jaw highlighted to reveal the vague hollowness of his cheek: he was far from frail and thin, but he was bonier than when he had first joined Dark Enchantress Cookie's forces.
He'd lost weight.
The brief flash of green did little to make him look healthier in that moment- and the red was only marginally better.
You twirl the candy cane between your fingers, the smeared tip already beginning to dry.
…
The candy cane.
Dark Choco Cookie's eye followed your own as you stared at the piece of candy-
"You wouldn't still happen to not eat sweets, right?" You twirl the cane, worn end pointed to his face just a few inches away from his lips. "If it helps, I'd say peppermint is more spicy than sweet,"
"I…" Dark Choco Cookie's eye stared at the warped end. "Do not do sweets…"
You pursed your lips. "Not even the spicy ones?" The stripes shift as you twirl the hooked candy in your fingers. "Or are you just saying that because it has my spit on it?"
Another twirl, and the prince remained silent.
To be fair, the two of you had shared a kiss before- moments of light experimentation in shared times of brief tension.
The brushing of lips- his worn down by wandering the frozen terrain of the Dark Cacao Kingdom until he was picked up by the Cookies of Darkness; not unlike you, far from home and shunned. Dark Choco Cookie was worse in his body's demand for care regarding the smaller things.
His lips were still chapped as they maintained their straight line.
"Maybe I can see if there's still some canes left- I don't… Think there was many to begin with—"
The warped end of the candy cane clasped between Dark Choco Cookie's teeth- his lips still bared and pulled away from the stickied pole.
"Oh-!" Your fingers loosened around the hook as Dark Choco Cookie's jaw rolled to bring the candy closer- until finally it nestled neatly within his molars… and then falling slack along the corner of his mouth. The dough of his jaw twitched once. Twice. Before relaxing.
So he's never hard peppermint before; that shouldn't surprise you.
"How is it?" You took another step back to take in his full get up, now completed. The cane really pulled everything together… it's a shame the candy wouldn't last forever.
It took a moment for Dark Choco Cookie to respond. "It's… warm…?" The hook rotated. "…and cold…"
"You'll get used to the spit- Witches know it took me off guard the first time,"
Dark Choco Cookie hummed. Lights still blinking across his shoulders-
"That's disgusting-" Licorice Cookie sneered from the table across the room… only to immediately get shut down by Red Velvet Cookie who apparently still wasn't done verbally tearing into the walking pile of rags.
Either way; you were too wrapped up in admiring the prince in front of you.
Because only the Witches knew when the last time he was revered- even if just in fashion.