Chapter Text
The Ancients and the Beasts were reunited. After fighting, they had managed to bring the Beasts to Light Flour's temple for a meeting. They asked the Beasts to redeem themselves or at least stop harming the poor Cookies. Some agreed, but others were harder to convince, like Black Lily.
"I think everything is fine..." Light Flour said calmly.
"What do we do after this meeting?" asked Sweet Spice, the Ancient of Passion.
"Is that right? The Beasts have nowhere else to go." Milkcrown interjected, turning to his friend, Light Flour, the Ancient of Truth.
"I think we're obliged to live with our other halves..." Light Flour replied calmly.
"Very well. I agree! But on one condition... If I'm not with that old blue Cookie," Black Lily declared.
"Really?" Pale Vanilla, Milkcrown's half, the Ancient of Freedom, said dryly.
"If she's allowed, I want to be with another cookie. I don't think I can get along with my other half~" Sugar Crystal exclaimed.
"Sugar!" Flour shouted. "Seriously?!" She sighed. "Do what you want, as long as the beast is with an Ancient and no one gets hurt..."
"Very well! In that case, I'll take the Beast of Destruction! Toxic Berry!" Sugar Crystal continued.
"Uh-oh~ and why me?" the Beast laughed.
"Because... you intrigue me greatly, and your armor shines so brightly!"
"Thank you for the sweet compliment!" She lowered her head as if in agreement and continued to laugh.
"I'll take White Salt, you seem calm," Black Lily exclaimed.
"Do I really have to..." He sighed but accepted.
"I'll continue, I'll take Sweet Spice. It seems fun. It's a shame my great temple was destroyed; it could have benefited from it~" Bitter Cheese said.
"I'll take the Beast of Silence, Cacao Powder." Flour turned his head toward his friend. "I hope this is alright with you, Milkcrown... You didn't really get to choose..."
"It's fine with me! As long as it's not Black Lily, we don't get along very well after all..." Milkcrown explained.
"Good... We can finally take our leave!"
The ancient and their partners departed. When Milkcrown stood up, Light Flour called out to him.
"Milky, I just want to tell you that... If Pale Vanilla does anything to you, or just anything at all, you tell me and I'll beat the crap out of him."
"Ah... Thanks a lot, Flour, but I can manage..."
"I figured, but I thought I'd warn you. Pale Vanilla really wasn't... a very nice person, except he was always... insensitive..."
"Ah! Okay, I see... I'll go now. Pale Vanilla is probably waiting for me..."
"Of course, goodbye, my friend! Good luck!"
"Goodbye and good luck to you too, my friend!"
Milkcrown went to the door and looked around for the beast.
"Where are you, Pale Vanilla?!" Milkcrown shouted.
"I'm here," the beast said very softly.
The ancient turned around quickly and saw that Pale Vanilla was close, almost too close, and he shouted.
"You scared me!" A small tear trickled down his cheek.
"...Shall we go?"
"Yes... I think we should go."
The cookies left the temple and headed towards the fairy realm.
___
Upon arriving in the kingdom, the fairies greeted their king, Milkcrown, but were a little frightened by the sight of the beast. But what were the fairies afraid of? He simply looked like a cookie with dark circles under his eyes and long, dark blue clothes, grayish perhaps from dust. He also had blond hair that might have been golden... If he took care of it, his hair was full of knots; in short, he was the complete opposite of Milkcrown, who was adorned with touches of blue, white, and silver.
Milkcrown accompanied Pale Vanilla to a tower, his home, and led her to a bedroom.
"This will be your room..."
"Okay."
"Do you need anything?"
"No."
"Okay... Tell me if there's anything you want or... anything else."
Milkcrown left the room, closing the door behind him, and went to his study to work.
He sat down and began to take out a sheet of paper and write.
The clock ticked.
He signed.
The clock ticked.
He corrected.
The clock ticked.
He felt like dozing off, but he sat up. After writing a few more papers, he noticed it was getting dark and looked at the time on the large clock.
1:30.
The ancient hadn't realized how late it was. He quickly began tidying up some things and hurried to his room. He had a meeting tomorrow.
...
He didn't know it, but he felt as if he were suffocating. He knew someone was there, but who? Everyone was asleep at this hour.
A hand landed on his shoulder. He jumped and let out a small cry.
"It's just me." The voice whispered, sounding like Pale Vanilla's.
Milkcrown turned around and saw the beast.
"Stop scaring me!" the elder shouted.
"Shh," Pale Vanilla put a finger to his lips, then to Milkcrown's. "You'll wake up the whole kingdom."
Milkcrown frowned, then slapped Vanilla's hand and spoke.
"So what's the problem?!"
"..."
"Huh? Yeah! We don't talk-"
"Why are you awake?"
"What?"
"Nothing..." He closed his eyes and left, disappearing deeper and deeper into the dark corridors.
Milkcrown watched him, a little stunned, and teleported to his bed to fall asleep.
___
Milkcrown had planned to hold his meeting outside; the forecast was for good weather, but the weather had other ideas. It was dreary, the clouds a deep gray, and the rain was pouring down.
The Cookies and the Ancient then settled into the basic meeting room.
Talk.
Talk.
Talk.
While the Cookies were talking, Milkcrown watched the rain. He'd never liked it, getting soaked from head to toe, but watching it from a distance and listening to it was rather pleasant.
The meeting ended later than expected; an argument had broken out. The Cookies left, leaving Milkcrown alone. He was tired, so he put his homework aside for tomorrow and went to rest. He started to get up when he heard...
Thunder.
Milkcrown jumped. Oh no, he really wasn't a fan of thunder. He didn't know why thunder frightened him like a poor cat. How could a cookie who had managed to fight a beast be so affected by a thunderstorm?
Milkcrown started to leave the room, heading for his bedroom as quickly as possible to hide and wrap himself in his blanket.
In his haste, Milkcrown went to the wrong room and ended up in Pale Vanilla's room.
Pale Vanilla was reading a book, and hearing the noise, he looked up.
"What are you doing?" He frowned and took on a dark expression.
"I... I..." He jumped at the sound of thunder.
He was too scared and took refuge under Pale Vanilla's blanket... It was warm and smelled like vanilla.
"Oh~ apparently the Great Elder of Freedom is afraid of thunder~" he chuckled. "Interesting~"
Milkcrown clutched the blanket tighter. He no longer wanted to hide from the thunder, but from Pale Vanilla. He blushed with shame. His face turned blue like a blueberry.
The cookie in front tried to lift the blanket, but the cookie held him tighter.
"Stop hiding."
No response.
"You dirty coward!"
A clap of thunder appeared, and the blanket moved. Pale Vanilla approached the blanket, perhaps to see or hear something. He waited and heard a... sob. A sniffle and faint breathing.
"Are you crying?"
"...No..." He stammered.
"Liar."
Pale Vanilla managed to lift the blanket and saw the cookie curled up in a ball, tears, almost white as milk, streaming down and soaking the bed.
"Leave me alone!" He tried to pull the blanket back over him and continued to cry.
"As long as you don't take responsibility."
"What?"
"Tell me. You're afraid of thunder."
"That's... That's not true!" He tried again to pull the blanket, but it was stuck.
"Tell me. Own up to it."
"Yes! There, are you happy now?! It's true, so what?" Pale Vanilla dropped the blanket and fell on top of Milkcrown, and the blue cookie put it back on.
"And now how am I supposed to sleep?"
"You figure it out! Just sleep on the floor!"
"Good..."
Milkcrown felt a weight on his side; Pale Vanilla was lying down on the other side.
"Huh?! What are you-"
"Good night."
"What?"
"..."
"What are you doing?"
Milkcrown pulled back the blanket to see Pale Vanilla, but was grabbed by him.
"I got you," whispered the blond cookie.
"Let go of me!"
"No."
The blond cookie hugged the other tighter and fell asleep.
"Hey! Wake up!"
But the cookie didn't answer; he was already asleep, and Milkcrown was forced to sleep like that.