Chapter Text
Its been about 2 months since Shadow Milk moved in with Pure Vanilla.
Since the Spire fell, Shadow Milk had pretended to be a snake in the wild. He kept Black Sapphire and Candy Apple in tarot cards so that they didn't have to be some wild animal as well. And the great part of that whole plan was that Shadow Milk was never going to see Pure Vanilla again! Until he did.
He didn't teleport to any specific place when he opened the portal, he just wanted to be anywhere but Beast-Yeast, so he accidentally got near the Vanilla Kingdom. And even though it was high up in the air, he could felt like causing trouble as payback to Pure Vanilla for lying to him and letting his guard down. The first thing he did was become a blue bird. Then, he flew up to the kingdom. And finally, he became his woman form that he named Blueberry Cream Cookie to cause mischief.
Unfortunately, though, Pure Vanilla found him and immediately recognized him. He took him in and made him stay.
He thought that maybe he'd sleep better now that he'd have an actual bed, but he was wrong.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Shadow Milk sighs and stares at the clock on the wall next to his bed.
2:00 a.m.? Still?
He groans, annoyed that not even a minute has passed since he last checked, even though it feels like it's been an hour. Do you know what else is annoying? The fact that his body needs sleep without needing it. He wanted to go months without even thinking about food or yawning, but he still needs to eat and rest. Or he doesn't need to eat and rest but he thinks that he needs to? It's confusing. Anyway, he hasn't slept in about four days. He's so tired that he starts to see hallucinations like him as the Fount of Knowledge standing in front of him or Pure Vanilla's hair being shorter, which is something that you wouldn't expect Shadow Milk to notice, but he does for some reason.
Once after what feels like an hour and the clock only just shows "2:01 a.m.", Shadow Milk groans again and sits up.
Maybe Nilla could help me sleep a bit... Shadow Milk thinks without remembering how he's supposed to hate Pure Vanilla and probably shouldn't interact with him at two in the morning because he's annoying and overly kind and stupid and ignorant and... annoying. There's other things too, it's just that... Shadow Milk can't remember them at night.
He gets out of bed and floats out of his room, slowly getting to Pure Vanilla's door. Or what he assumes is Pure Vanilla's door since he went in the direction of Pure Vanilla's door but everything is fuzzy and his brain isn't functioning correctly yet.
He knocks on the door softly enough not to startle himself or Pure Vanilla but loud enough to wake him up.
When the door opens, which is after a few sounds of most likely Pure Vanilla bumping into a few things (which makes sense because bad eyesight and vision after waking up in the middle of the night is not a good combo), Shadow Milk sees Pure Vanilla struggling to keep his eyes a little open as he says, "Shadow Milk? What are you doing up at this time of night?"
"I can't sleep," Shadow Milk starts. "I actually haven't been sleeping for a few days now, I lost track after the second... I think."
Pure Vanilla's eyes widen, seemingly worriedly. "Shadow Milk, you need rest. Is there anything I could do to help?"
Shadow Milk doesn't really think before responding with the sentence, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"
Now not only are Pure Vanilla's eyes even wider now, but his cheeks tint a little red. He stutters a bit before answering. "O-Of course! If it'll help."
Pure Vanilla opens the door wider with a smile, letting Shadow Milk drift into the room. Pure Vanilla gently grabs Shadow Milk by his hand and brings him to the bed. They lie down together as Pure Vanilla's hand retreats from Shadow Milk's to pull the blanket over them. "Good night, Bluebird," Pure Vanilla says.
"Night, Nills."
Again without thinking, Shadow Milk wraps his arms around Pure Vanilla and then he rests his eyes, feeling like he can sleep again.
Before he falls into what will probably be the deepest sleep on Earthbread, he feels Pure Vanilla's arms around him, copying his movement.
Pure Vanilla's arms feel warm and cozy and... safe, somewhat. Actually, he feels safer than ever in the Ancient's arms. He nuzzles his head against the warmth, earning himself a chuckle, before he finally sleeps for the first time in 4 nights.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Shadow Milk flutters his eyes open to see that its the morning. He can't believe that he actually slept through most of the night, and it was a good sleep too! Probably the best sleep in his life. And then he realizes that he's in Pure Vanilla's bed, sleeping next to him. And not only that but both are holding each other which turns his excitement into panic.
Of course, he doesn't act panicked, only on the inside. And on the inside, he's screaming at himself that he shouldn't have been sleeping with Pure Vanilla and that he needs to leave and pretend this never happened. That last part is a good idea, so Shadow Milk obeys his consciousness by quickly but gently, as not to wake up the sleeping Ancient, removing his limbs from the other and floating out of the room.
This makes no sense. How did he end up in Pure Vanilla's room? All he remembers from last night is being up and leaving his room and... and asking Pure Vanilla if he could sleep with him.
Oh witches, this is bad Shadow Milk thinks. If any of the other Beasts find out or even worse, Dark Enchantress Cookie, I'm crumbled!
Shadow Milk calms down a bit and goes to his bed. Maybe if he pretends to be asleep, Pure Vanilla will think that everything that happened last night was a dream and he never slept with Shadow Milk. Is that a good lie? Wait, why does Shadow Milk Cookie, Beast and Master of Deceit, need to ask if one of his lies are good or not? It's like he's Michael in the real world with both of them not being good at lying at some point! Oh, wait. That's a different thing that doesn't even exist in this world. Scratch that.
Anyway, Shadow Milk lies down on his bed, pulls the covers over himself, and closes his eyes. He hopes that Pure Vanilla will buy it.
When he hears a knock on the door followed by a, "Shadow Milk?" in Pure Vanilla's voice, he ignores it.
The door creaks open a bit, making a small opening where Shadow Milk sees Pure Vanilla's eyes peek into the room.
Shadow Milk lifts his chest up and down calmly and subtly as he turns his head to the other side, facing the wall, slowly.
"Shadow Milk, I know you're awake."
The words don't affect Shadow Milk's performance, he keeps up the act.
Then he hears the door opening wider and footsteps coming from it before the sound of it closing. Then more footsteps growing nearer. Again, he doesn't react. Well, not until he feels a finger brush a strand of hair from his bangs away from his face.
"Please look at me."
Shadow Milk keeps pretending to be asleep, even as the other's finger caresses his cheek slowly. Then, the finger glides down to his chin and moves it towards what's probably Pure Vanilla's direction.
"Please, Bluebird."
Shadow Milk's eyes snap open. "Fine! I'm looking at you, happy?" he hissed, shoving the finger back to its owner.
Pure Vanilla sits down on the bed and places his hands in his lap. "I would like to talk about what happened last night."
Shadow Milk pushes off the covers from his body and sits a good distance away from Pure Vanilla before sighing and answering. "Okey dokey! Well, last night, I laid on my bed, pulled the blanket over myself, and fell asleep. There, you have the whole story."
A frown appears on Pure Vanilla's face. "You're lying. You went to my room, told me that you hadn't slept at all and asked to sleep with me. Then I said that you could and we slept together. And in the morning, I woke up alone."
"Oh, Nilly, you said that you wanted to talk about last night, not last night and this morning. That's against the rules!" Shadow Milk replies with a playful tone.
Pure Vanilla moves a little closer to Shadow Milk. "Please don't change the subject. I just want to know why you left and are pretending that nothing happened."
Shadow Milk opens his mouth, expecting a lie to come out of it, but nothing comes. He doesn't say anything, just closes his mouth and looks away.
"Please tell me, Bluebird," Pure Vanilla says, placing his hand on Shadow Milk's gently.
Shadow Milk flinches at the touch, mainly because no one's touched him thousands of years. He hesitates before giving an answer. "I can't be sleeping with you. The other Beasts would look down upon me, other than Eternal Sugar since I'm pretty sure she bangs that Hollyberry Cookie at least once a week,"
"What-"
"and Dark Enchantress Cookie would literally crumble me. And lying to get out of things is kinda my thing."
"I apologize, can we go back to the Eternal Sugar Cookie and Hollyberry Cookie topic-"
"So I guess I just wanted to avoid consequences, given by you or anyone else."
Pure Vanilla stays silent for a second, probably because of mentioning Eternal Sugar and Hollyberry, even though Eternal Sugar told him to not tell a soul.
That makes it fun both ways.
"Well, I didn't mind sleeping with you, and it should be harmless to continue as long as no one knows."
Shadow Milk just nods, wanting this conversation to end. After a second or two, he stands up and walks out of his room and hides in the shadows to get to the kitchen just in case Pure Vanilla is heading there.
Next time he has trouble sleeping, he'll just try to knock himself out or something, it'll be easier to handle than asking to sleep with Pure Vanilla and laying with him in that soft bed and in his warmth and comfort and safeness and gentleness and- Wait, why is he complimenting Pure Vanilla? It's not like he's in love with him or something sappy like that, right? Heh...
R-Right?
...Uh oh.