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“Remind me why I spent my precious time taking you all the way out here again.”
The blue haired man only received a smile in return for his statement, to which he scowled at.
“Well, I could have went by myself if you truly didn’t want to go, or I could have taken White Li-”
Pure Vanilla’s voice was promptly interrupted by a hand covering his mouth, followed by an expression of pure dismay at the idea.. Ah. He must have triggered some sort of jealousy in the other.
“SILENCE.”
He lifted up his arm to gently grasp onto the blue hand over his mouth, lowering it to the grass; however, he didn’t take his hand off of Shadow Milk’s. With his other arm, he cupped the other’s cheek – and caught the slightest hint of his scowl faltering at the touch.
“I only came here because you’re blind as a bat, and I don’t need the oh, so great former king of the Vanilla Kingdom getting lost.” Shadow Milk scoffed, rolling his eyes.
Pure Vanilla responded by intertwining his hand with the other’s, and laughing a little. “Shadow Milk, dear, I can tell you’re lying. Plus, you know very well that my staff allows me to see just fine.. Are you sure you’re telling the truth when you said that you didn’t want to come to the fields with me?”
With his free hand, the blue cookie attempted to swat at the other; though, the blonde man just moved back so he wouldn’t actually get hit. He quickly diverted his attention back to the fact that Shadow Milk Cookie had, in fact, refrained from moving the hand which was intertwined with Pure Vanilla’s own.
He didn’t comment on it, lest he scare him away.
“You didn’t answer my question, Nilly. Why are we here, anyway? I didn’t take you as the type to withhold information from me, but I guess I was wrong about you!”
Pure Vanilla chuckled ever so slightly, looking at the blue haired man with a sickeningly sweet smile. “I suppose I haven’t told you why I wanted to come here with you yet. This, dear, is one of the many flower fields in the Vanilla Kingdom.”
Shadow Milk shot him a deadpan expression. “Uh, yeah, that’s very evident. Thank you SO much, Captain Obvious.”
“Now, now, I haven’t gotten to my point. I want to make flower crowns with you. After all, the blooms in these fields are very abundant.”
He was met with a genuine expression of surprise, before it changed to a mocking one. “And you’re sure ALL of the little flowers have stems that long?”
“I’m sure you could find some, Bluebird.”
Shadow Milk’s face flushed a cobalt blue, before he quickly turned his head away. “Don’t call me that.”
Soon enough, Pure Vanilla was running his hand through the other cookie’s blue locks. “You’re cute when you’re flustered. Has anyone told you that?”
He was promptly met with a flick to his hand.
“You mentioned flower crowns, right Vanilly?” Shadow Milk quickly said, attempting to ignore the tan hand squeezing his own. “How about I go gather some flowers for us to use..”
Before Pure Vanilla could respond, the blue haired man was already disappearing into his portal, and reappearing near some of the blue primroses on the field. He only gave a startled laugh, before getting up.
Picking up his staff, he started walking in the opposite direction, using the staff to guide himself through the field.
It was rather warm, despite the fact that evening was steadily approaching. The tall blades of grass gently swayed in the light breeze, and the sun was just starting to set in the sky, threads of pink and orange beginning to paint the cerulean background with every few minutes that passed. Pure Vanilla’s eyes (or rather, his staff’s eye) were so fixated on the beautiful scenery above him, that he had barely felt the brush of a flower against his leg.
It took him a few seconds to process it, but he eventually tilted his staff down towards the ground; Only to be greeted by the sight of many, many sleeping vanilla orchids.
Pleasantly surprised, he bent down and observed the orchids, scanning to see which ones had the longest stems. Although he felt a little bad for the flowers he’d pick, he did plan on keeping them alive for as long as possible.
Pure Vanilla Cookie reached out in front of him, picking one of the orchids straight from the ground. He continued this process multiple times, until he had.. Maybe fifteen? Twenty? Orchids in his hand.
He was about to search for yet another vanilla orchid when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. Startled, he jumped; although he could tell who it was from the way it was much colder than any other cookie he’d met, and the fact that there were only two people around here.
“Shadow Milk? You’re done already?” Pure Vanilla asked, turning his head around to face the blue haired man.
“HAH! I’ve been done for a while! You’re just slow~” Shadow Milk exclaimed. “Maybe your age is messing with you!”
He lightly chuckled in response. “But you’re older than me, aren’t you?”
“Are you calling me old?!” The blue cookie scoffed in mock offense. “How incredibly RUDE. And here I thought you were compassionate!” He made a dramatic pose to further exaggerate the display of faux displeasure.
Pure Vanilla smiled in response, grasping onto his hand once again and pulling Shadow Milk down beside him. The blue cookie grumbled when he felt the other cookie’s touch, however made no move to fight whatever he was doing.
“Shall we go back to where we were sitting?” Pure Vanilla asked. “The orchids here are certainly pretty, but I’d feel guilty if I walked on them.”
Shadow Milk rolled his eyes playfully, allowing a small huff to escape his mouth. “Bah! You’re too kind – the sweetness in your personality is going to give me a toothache. And you wouldn’t even know if you stepped on an orchid or two!”
Yet still, the blonde cookie felt the other tugging at his arm to go back to where they previously were.
The corners of Pure Vanilla’s lips curled further, into a wider smile as he picked up his staff. To his slight disappointment, his hands were full, meaning he wasn’t able to hold Shadow Milk’s hand as they walked; however, the blue cookie just squeezed his arm and floated alongside him.
Looking back upwards, it seemed that the warm hues had gradually overtaken the sky; the previous bright blue nowhere to be found as the sun slowly but surely dipped below the horizon. At this rate, they might not make it back to the castle before dark – but neither of the two seemed to mind.
After a few minutes, they sat back down in the grass. Shadow Milk let go of the other cookie’s arm and briefly glanced at him, before turning his eyes back to the primroses in his hand.
Pure Vanilla Cookie simply smiled at him, placing his staff on the ground facing upwards. It was a little hard to see through the eye of the staff since blades of grass partly obstructed it from view, but it was better than only being able to see blurry shapes and colours.
He started intertwining the flowers by their stems, carefully wrapping them together and making sure none would fall. Slowly, he started to add to the two that were first connected to each other, continuously going until he was finished around three-fourths of the flower crown.
While Pure Vanilla was reaching for the next flower to intertwine with the rest, he felt a presence peer over his shoulder from behind him, careful not to touch it and alert him that he was there. He almost couldn’t hold back his chuckle, continuing to tie the vanilla orchids together and pretending he didn’t notice. Shadow Milk had finished and decided to watch him, he guessed.
The blue cookie glanced at him with the intent to not be caught staring at his face, but instead spotted the little creases in his slightly curled up lips as he further continued tying the stems together. Shadow Milk tensed up, his eyes narrowing at Pure Vanilla, and turned away; the eyes in his hair kept peering at him though.
“Finished?” Pure Vanilla asked, finally starting to weave the last orchid into the flower crown. “I’m almost done too.. just give me another second.. there. How does it look?”
He was about to turn around before Shadow Milk hovered back in front of him, startling him ever so slightly. The blue-haired man barked a laugh at his jump before staring at the crown of vanilla orchids.
It was a rather simple flower crown, the light yellow petals draped over one another delicately as the many eyes sleepily blinked. The stems of the orchids had been tightly but carefully woven together, no signs of breakage anywhere to be seen. Leaves from the stems peeked out from beneath the orchids, and the entire crown had the distinct scent of vanilla. It looked.. perfect, to say the least.
“It’s alright.” He stated with a shrug of his shoulders, before quickly adding, “I guess.”
The blonde man smiled at him, having had expected no more from him.
“Can I have a look at yours?” Pure Vanilla asked, beginning to search for it in Shadow Milk’s hands before he turned away.
“Tch-tch-tch! Patience, Nilly!” Shadow Milk exclaimed in an exaggerated scolding tone, clicking his tongue and doing.. something? With his flower crown. “Jeez-louise, let me add the finishing touches first!”
Pure Vanilla immediately snatched his hand away, wondering if he should back up and give him space. “Ah.. sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt—”
“You apologize excessively, has anybody told you yet? I’m surprised you haven’t won a ‘Biggest people pleaser’ contest.” The blue cookie continued fiddling with his flower crown, casting a few spells here and there, before finally turning around again.
“Since you wanted to see it SO badly, I thought I’d make it look, y’know, actually good.” Shadow Milk huffed, handing it to Pure Vanilla, who promptly took it into his hands and inspected it.
The crown was much more recklessly put together, but it was secure enough that it wouldn’t fall apart. A mix of blue primroses and milkcrown flowers were woven together, the ocean blue and milky white contrasting beautifully. In the middle of the blue primroses, the typical organs of a flower were nowhere to be found, replaced by what looked like a sharp rip in the fabric of reality in the shape of an eight-pointed star, with a blinking azure eye sprouting from it. The milkcrown flowers laid alongside them innocently, seemingly intact. The entire crown had the distinct residue of a spell.
It was.. Beautiful. Dangerously so. Pure Vanilla couldn’t find the words to describe it.
“I.. I love it, Shadow Milk.” He muttered, turning the flower crown side to side and admiring it. Shadow Milk raised an eyebrow. “Eh? What are you going on about now?”
The blonde cookie turned his head up in the other’s direction and gave him a grin as sweet as honey. “It’s so pretty.. no, wait, pretty is an understatement.. I can’t even think of a word that would accurately describe it. You made it so beautiful.”
Shadow Milk froze as his eyes widened at the praise, the familiar shade of cobalt lightly dusting over his cheeks, before he forced his usual mocking expression back on his face. “Hah! Spare me the half-hearted compliments. What else did you expect from moi, Earthbread’s finest playwright, poet, actor, director, and clown?! That requires at least some knowledge of prop making!”
“I’m not lying to you, Bluebird.” Pure Vanilla simply stated. “This flower crown.. It’s amazing.”
The blue-haired man simply blinked at the other, fighting to keep his face neutral. After a few seconds, he turned his back to Pure Vanilla, concluding it’d be better to just hide his expression entirely. “I don’t need your.. pitiful praise. I know it’s amazing. You don’t have to tell me.”
Pure Vanilla’s smile only grew. “You deserve the praise, dear.” He stood up, putting the crown of primroses and milkcrown flowers on his head. “Did you get the milkcrown flowers from the spire? I’ve never seen any in my kingdom before. The only other place I know they grow in is at the markets in GingerBrave’s kingdom.”
“Nilly,” Shadow Milk started with an unamused huff. “Take a wild guess on where I got them. A wild, out of this world, nobody’s-ever-thought-of-before guess.”
“..Right, I answered my own question..” Pure Vanilla muttered. “Apologies, dear. I didn’t mean to aggravate you.”
The blue haired cookie rolled his eyes and turned around yet again. “Dumb questions require dumb answers, y’know!”
Pure Vanilla was about to respond before he noticed the light; or rather, the lack thereof. The sun had fully disappeared, leaving only a faint streak of dark red just above the horizon. The rest of the sky had become pitch black, only illuminated by little stars that were beginning to happily twinkle accompanied a bright quarter moon, the light and dark sides of the moon like two halves who completed each other. It reminded him of something, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Speaking of that, he suddenly became aware of a certain someone's hand repeatedly tapping on his shoulder.
"Ah, sorry about that.. I got distracted-"
"I figured that out 5 minutes ago." Shadow Milk said, crossing his arms.
"It's just... look at the sky, Bluebird. The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?"
"What?.. I guess."
Pure Vanilla looked at Shadow Milk, eyeing the crown of orchids in his blue hands. "Can I..?" He trailed off.
"Can you what?" The blue-haired man cocked a brow, but handed the crown back to him anyway.
"You'll see in a minute.." The blonde cookie gently handled the flower crown, then lifted it up and placed it on Shadow Milk's head.
"Seriously? That's what you wanted to do? Now I'm gonna reek of vanilla for the rest of the night." Shadow Milk scoffed, however made no move to remove the flower crown from his head.
Pure Vanilla chuckled in response. "That doesn't seem too bad."
"Of course you'd think that, vanilla is literally your main ingredient." The blue cookie huffed, sprawling himself out on the grass. Pure Vanilla decided to follow suit, turning his face in the other's direction in the process.
"You're not wrong. I do bring a vanilla scent everywhere I go because of it.."
"I think just about everyone who's ever met you has made that observation." Shadow Milk turned his head to face the other's as well, giving a deadpan look.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, laying under the stars, staring at each other.
"Question.. is it bad that I don't want this moment to end?" Pure Vanilla whispered, opening his eyes a tad to admire Shadow Milk as well as he could.
"Yes, that's an offence punishable by death.. seriously, are you even hearing yourself? Why would that be bad?"
"..Apologies. That was my fault.." The blonde cookie muttered. "What I meant to say is, could you please stay a while longer with me?"