Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alright, so I know I'm a week late with this. But in my defense, I didn't plan on doing October prompts this year. I changed my mind though, as I realized I'm not confined to just October. I fully intend on having this run into November or December, which I see us a plus since I can polish the chapters more and also give you guys more spread out content!

Anyway, with that said, here are my prompts:

1. “Can I kiss you?” + Anniversary | Fluff
2. Prophecy | Whump 
3. Threesome | Kink 
4. Concussion | Whump 
5. Dacryphilia + Overstimulation| Kink 
6. Late Night Talks | Fluff 
7. Caught In a Net + Hunted For Sport | Whump 
8. Self Inflicted Injury/Pushed Beyond a Breaking Point | Whump 
9. Tentacles | Kink 
10. Soulmate AU | Fluff 
11. Hidden Injury + Poison | Whump 
12. Blizzard + Fireplace | Fluff 
13. Dom Bottom/Sub Top | Kink 
14. Omegaverse | Kink 
15. Assassin | Whump 
16. Pillows, Plushies, and Piles Of Blankets | Fluff 
17. Repressed Trauma | Whump 
18. Dom/Sub | Kink 
19. Dehumanization | Whump 
20. Fancy Event | Whump 
21. Fireman Carry + 5+1 | Fluff 
22. Brainwashed | Whump 
23. Biting + Temporary/Permanent Marks | Kink 
24. Overworked + Fainting | Whump 
25. Cold Hands | Fluff 
26. Lingerie | Kink 
27. Surgery Scars | Whump 
28. Multiple Orgasms | Kink 
29. Lost Together | Fluff 
30. “Even with the smallest cuts, you can lose so much blood" | Whump 
31. Aftercare | Kink 

Tags will be added as I go, and I will have Trigger/ Content Warnings in the beginning notes of each chapter, as well as ship lists for your convenience.

Enjoy! <3

Chapter Text

Pure Vanilla had always thought Shadow Milk was beautiful.

Even from the first time he saw him, which was under rather unfortunate circumstances, he was still stunned by the other’s beauty.

Everything about Shadow Milk entranced him. His blue skin was unlike anything he had seen before, and never had seen again. The way his hair flowed like spilled ink cascading down a page, ever in motion. The way the eyes scattered throughout said hair reflected his emotions, even when the Beast himself remained pokerfaced. 

His lithe body, like that of a dancer’s. The way his magic glimmered like the night sky as he cast it. Even the small imperfections like the various scars on dough were breathtaking to behold. 

Pure Vanilla’s lover was just so, so beautiful.

He wasn’t sure how he got so lucky as to find someone so emotionally beautiful, either.

Sure, Shadow Milk wasn’t kind to most, but he was at least amicable now. But when it was just the two of them, he was sweet and caring, while still keeping the same spark that drew the Avian to him to begin with!

He loved his husband so much…

Which is why he was waiting outside their door like a dog until he received the confirmation he could come in.

See, Shadow Milk had abruptly decided to set up a grand candlelit dinner out on their balcony, and refused to let Pure Vanilla into the bedroom until he was done.

Well, perhaps it wasn’t so abrupt. It was their 4th anniversary, afterall! 

Regardless, the Ancient hadn’t been allowed back in since this morning, and it was already sunset, so he was rather curious what exactly the other had planned…

As if reading his mind, the door suddenly swung open, making Pure Vanilla jump back and flare his wings in surprise. 

“Oh Nillyyyy! You can come in no-” Shadow Milk paused. “Why are you posed like a frightened cream cat?”

Blinking a few times, he let his wings drop and smiled. “My apologies, you simply startled me.”

His husband looked him up and down before shrugging. “C’mon. You better be absolutely dazzled by my hard work, or else I’ll make you sleep in the garden.”

It wouldn’t be the first time he slept amongst the flowers, although all of the previous instances happened by accident.

“I’m sure it will be a truly enchanting sight, Bluebird.”

“You charmer. I hope you know, flattery will get you everywhere with me.”

When he stepped through the doorway, the first thing that hit him was the scent of rose and jasmine. The second was the sight of rose petals in a trail leading to the balcony, along with bouquets of the flowers scattered around the room. 

Candles had been lit all around the room, some of which were floating midair from Shadow Milk’s levitation magic, giving the room a warm glow. Along with this, dimmed fairy lights had been strung along the balcony doors, windows, and every other accenting surface. 

All of this, combined with the setting sun, made for a mesmerizing sight.

“I know, I know, I’m so amazing and incredible.” Shadow Milk’s voice snapped him out of his revelry and he looked over.

“I… I don’t have the words, Shadow Milk. This is… amazing, beautiful, entrancing, I…” He trailed off.

None of the words he could think truly showed his love for all of the effort his husband put in.

A blue hand grabbed his own and the Beast kissed his knuckles gently. “You do realize all of those words could be used to describe you, right?”

Pure Vanilla could have burst into tears on the spot from that sentence alone.

“You…” He gathered his thoughts. “I could say the same for you, Bluebird. You are a truly marvelous person, both outside and inside.”

They stared at each other for a moment, before Shadow Milk broke the silence, coughing into his face and averting his gaze, blush faintly dusting his cheeks. “Well, this isn’t even all I have to show you. Believe it or not, I prepared even more. You better be thankful.” 

“I already am.”

His husband groaned, using their joined hands to drag Pure Vanilla towards the balcony. “Witches, you are so unbearably sweet, Nilla. You should try being less delightful.”

“Well who would balance you out if I did so, my love? There needs to be light to equipoise shadow, afterall.”

“Sap.”

The Avian giggled, but before he could retort, his breath was taken away by the scene in front of him.

A white stained glass table had been set up, along with matching, but cushioned, chairs sat next to each other. They were positioned so both cookies would have a perfect view of the landscape below.

 Tall candles surrounded by a circle of cut roses made up the centerpiece, and beside it, a bottle of sparkling berry juice.

A bowl of vanilla ice cream was set in between the two chairs, along with a bowl of waffle cones cut into chips. 

It was one of the few things Pure Vanilla could actually eat without feeling guilty, and Shadow Milk remembered that fact…

The corners of his eyes stung as he looked to his beloved hitting next to him. “You… You remembered…” He said shakily.

An uncharacteristically soft expression came over the Beast’s face. “Of course I did. It’s something about you, obviously I’d commit it to memory.”

Blue hands cupped either side of his face, and wiped away the tears that had started to fall. “Such a crybaby, Nilla. Always so emotional.”

“Didn’t you say that was one of the things you loved about me?” His own hand came up to rest over one of the ones on his cheek.

“I did say that, didn’t I?”

In the light of the setting sun, and still with the warm smile on his face, Shadow Milk looked positively radiant. Practically ethereal.

And with all of the work that he had done just to make Pure Vanilla happy, only one thought entirely consumed the Ancient’s mind.

“Can I kiss you?”

He got a blink, then two, before a grin broke out across Shadow Milk’s face. “Do you really even need to ask?”

With that, their lips collided in a love filled, yet gentle embrace. Passionate, yes, but also soft and cherishing.

Pulling away, only one thing remained to be said. “I love you, Shadow Milk.

“I love you too, Pure Vanilla.”

Chapter Text

Pain was the first thing he registered.

A steady, pressure filled headache behind his eyes was only the beginning of his misery.

Pure Vanilla’s whole body felt like an entire pack of cakehounds took turns using him as a chewtoy, leaving him sore and aching in places he didn’t even know were possible.

What was more concerning, however, was his position. The Avian’s arms were bound in front of him, and his wings were tied together, making some feathers bend unnaturally and others breaking off entirely. 

He couldn’t even use his staff to see behind him to assess the damage, either. As he couldn’t feel its presence anywhere in the vicinity. Nor could he reach behind himself to feel the damage. All he could feel was the long tangled locks of his hair that stuck uncomfortably to the feathers, which led him to believe that his wings had been bleeding at some point.

The only limbs that weren’t locked in place were his legs, though that didn’t mean they were in any less discomfort, as shackles were linked from his ankles to the wall. Bruises of various sizes and hues littered his dough all over, at least from what he could gather with his rather unfortunate eyesight. 

The… cell? Room? Holding area? The place where he was smelled rather damp, and was uncomfortably cold. And Pure Vanilla couldn’t even wrap his wings around his body to try to preserve some of the minimal body heat his dough produced.

How had he gotten here, anyways?

The last thing he recalled was stepping outside to tend to his garden, and being distracted by thoughts of Shadow Milk.

Oh Witches…

Shadow Milk! He couldn’t feel his soulbond at all! And a quick glance at his chest confirmed his worst fear.

The souljam… was gone.

Now, he knew this wasn’t his husband’s doing. Afterall, they’ve had this discussion many times, and this really was not Shadow Milk’s style of kidnapping and torture. 

So… who could this have been? 

This didn’t seem like a stunt Dark Enchantress would pull either. If it was, he would actively be put on display and she would be gloating about finally catching him right in front of his face. 

He didn’t think it could have been any of the other Beasts either, because they had all been rehabilitated. Even if they hadn’t been, pulling this stunt against him would have not only the other Ancients coming for the perpetrator, but also the Beasts he had befriended, not to mention Shadow Milk!

He wasn’t enemies with any nations or organizations as far as he was aware, either. Of course, not counting the Cookies of Darkness. But no one came to mind when he thought of who would ever do something like this.

There was no use dwelling on it right now though, he could ruminate on and process all of this later. For now, he should focus on escaping.

He wouldn’t be able to stand for long with the condition his body was in currently, so he would have to heal himself first.

…

His magic wasn’t responding.

He could feel the magic he naturally had without his souljam, but it felt sluggish and refused to answer his call beyond a slow pulse under his skin.

Pure Vanilla wouldn’t be able to heal himself at all at this rate.

He couldn’t feel any sort of magic dampening device attached to his person, as he’s had… unfortunate experiences with such objects in the past, so the feeling of one was something he was now very attuned to.

So this wasn’t an external block, so was it perhaps an internal one?

Seeing as he couldn’t recall how he got to this place, and he could still think relatively clearly though the pain, he was most likely sedated. Spells of that nature were far less effective on him than others, as his magic would counteract it as soon as it reached his vicinity.

However, non-magical sedation methods, such as tranquilizers, were unaffected by such measures.

The Avian hadn’t eaten or drank anything of substance since that morning, and it had been late afternoon when his memories suddenly cut off. So nothing he consumed could have been laced, seeing as all soporifics he knew of, and that had been used on him, kicked in relatively quickly after exposure.

So what happened?

He didn’t even recall feeling anything hit him like one would expect with a typical tranquilizer dart, but his neck did sting like something had pierced the dough there. 

…

Pure Vanilla deduced he had most likely been injected with something. When or how? He had no basis of knowledge.

But that left the question… Aside from the soporific, what exactly could he have been given to reduce his magic to little more than decoration in his jamstream?

In the Blueberry Yogurt Academy, he had learned many different things. One of which included the magical and medicinal properties of various flora and roots found in different regions of Earthbread.

Most of which had just been how to prepare specific medicine using them, like healing remedies, poison treatments, and burn creams. However, they did also discuss plants that could heighten or dampen magic if used a certain way. 

Along with this, they briefly discussed roots that act as sleeping agents.

And there was one amongst them that could do both of those things.

The Mandrake.

It was an innocent looking thing, broad green leaves that housed pale yellow flowers. It just looked like an average flower. However, the root could be made into a rather potent poisoning agent.

Said poison would induce rapid sedation, mana blockage, and many other adverse effects.

Luckily, it seemed his healing magic kicked in for just long enough to prevent the worst of said ailments, just leaving him with mild nausea and a headache. He was rather thankful that the hallucinogenic effects were nullified, as that would have made this experience much scarier.

Normally, the other effects would cause dizziness, confusion, tachycardia, vomiting, and even potential asphyxiation. 

He… assumed whoever kidnapped him didn’t want him dead, but using mandrake poison was rather dangerous, as a slight miscalculation and the victim could easily crumble.

Though perhaps they knew of his resistance to such afflictions due to his potent healing magic. Regardless, it was still a rather large risk to use on someone you sought to exploit.

But that just led him back to the same problem he faced before.  

Who sought to exploit him? Why would they choose him? What could they even hope to gain from doing this? Perhaps this was simply a case of mistaken identity?

“-will finally be complete! Our Avatar will love its new vessel.”

Pure Vanilla’s head shot up as he heard voices approaching the door to his room, and he tried to school his expression into something neutral.

The door swung open, flooding the room with blinding light, making the Ancient snap his head back down to avoid looking at it.

“Oh! He’s finally awake. I will go retrieve the High Forkbearer.”

High… Forkbearer? Why did that title sound so familiar?

“Who…-” His voice was more rough than he had anticipated. Pure Vanilla cleared his throat before speaking again. “Who are you? Where am I?”

He couldn’t see the cookie’s face, and could only make out the faint silhouette of ceremonial robes. “I have not been given permission to disclose that information, Your Radiance.”

‘Your Radiance?’ That was… an unsettling title from one of his captors.

Crumbs… What had he gotten himself into…?

The flap of wings from down the hallway caused his own to shift behind himself.

A rich, low voice came from the new, wingbearing, silhouette. “Oh Destined One, Holy Truthbearer, you are finally within Our sacred halls.”

Pure Vanilla blinked. He hadn’t been called ‘Holy Truthbearer’ in a millennium.

“Pardon me for asking but… Do I know you?” 

“Ah, it saddens Us deeply that you have forgotten Us. We are Doughael, the High Forkbearer of Our Order.”

That title again… Where did he know it from?

Unless-

“Molasses?”

Their wings lifted and flapped in excitement. “You do remember Us! We are thrilled to hear this, Holy Vessel.”

Now that his eyes had adjusted to the light, he could fully take in their appearance. They looked… entirely different from before.

What happened to them? When Pure Vanilla had last seen them, it was during his time as Healer. He had found them wounded before he met Black Raisin, and healed them without a second thought or even knowing how his abilities worked. 

They had given him their name, though he was unable to recall his own to return the favor, and he had then offered for them to join him. Molasses had declined, but gave him the same offer in return.

To join them, and the St. Pastry Order.

Something within him said that was a very bad idea. So with no basis as to why, he declined. 

They went their separate ways after that, but it seemed something had happened to them during their time apart.

“Doughael, I mean no offense by this but… What happened to you after I left?” They hadn’t even been winged before, what spontaneously causes a cookie to sprout wings after being fully developed?

Doughael took a few steps closer to him. “We awakened to Our true cause, and were given blessings from Our Avatar. This form is but one of many gifts We received on that sacred day.”

That didn’t make much sense. But to be fair, none of this situation made sense.

“I see. In any case, I must ask why I was brought here.” He elected to ignore the method of which he was brought to this place for the time being.

“All will be made clear in due time, Holy Truthbearer.” Their eyes roved over his body. “Let Us free you from your binds, Destined One.”

Pure Vanilla swallowed the chirp that bubbled up at the thought of his wings being free, and nodded.

His arms were freed first, the rope had chaffed his wrist and the dough around it stung when exposed to the open air. Then, the shackles around his ankles were removed next. Luckily, the dough there had been spared from too much irritation.

Finally, his wings were released, and he couldn’t help the thankful coo he gave when the ropes fell away. While using one hand to hold part of his hair in place, he used the other to detangle it from the dried blood that coated the feathers.

After a few moments, the hair and feathers were free of each other, and the Avian brought a wing around his front to assess the damage. The other curled over his shoulder as a partial blanket, as the cold had only seeped further into his being at this point.

His wing was in worse condition than he thought. The ropes hadn’t been secured properly, so they rubbed against more feathers than he had anticipated. Many of which were bent, damaged, or actually broken. It was centralized around his coverts, so at least his flight wouldn’t be heavily impeded. 

The situation was the same on his other wings, and a low trill of displeasure slipped past his lips while he was distracted looking at it.

Pure Vanilla flinched in surprise when a pale, white hand carded through his wings. The touch was gentle, almost reverent as the fingers slid from the base of the limb to the tip of his primaries, and he suppressed a shiver as it ended.

“Beautiful. Wings of an angel; perfect for Our Avatar.”

The Avian shoved down the fearful, instinctual fog that was creeping into his mind, and instead looked to Doughael. “You keep mentioning this… being. What exactly is the ‘Avatar?’”

Instead of answering him, they held a hand out to him. “Rise, Holy Truthbearer. Come with Us and all will be understood.” 

After a brief moment of hesitation, Pure Vanilla grasped the offered hand and was pulled to his feet. The dizziness, that had been minute at worst while he was seated, was suddenly no longer ignorable. The sudden loss of balance had his wings flaring for balance, sending sharp, tingling pains through the sore limbs. 

Cold hands grasped his shoulders, and for a moment, it felt like Shadow Milk. That was quickly disproven when a voice reached through the ringing in his ears. “-bearer? Are you alright?”

The dizziness brought back the previously settled nausea and headache, but he pushed through it with a smile. “I must have just been seated for too long. Worry not, I am fine, Doughael.”

“Excellent, Radiant One. Now, come with Us.”

When he shifted his gaze from the High Forkbearer, he noticed the other cookie had left the two of them at some point.

Odd, but not the strangest thing about this whole situation.

The walk through the cold, concrete hallways was quiet. Only the echoing sounds of footsteps could be heard as the two winged cookies walked through the halls, side by side. The Avian could feel Doughael’s gaze on himself, specifically on his wings. 

It wasn’t the first time the appendages had caught someone’s eye, but something about this felt… predatory. 

Perhaps he was just overthinking it. After all, mandrake poisoning did often cause paranoia and he was certainly still under the effects of said poison.

Soon, they reached a stairway. The thought of climbing the stairs made his already weak legs tremble in anticipation. However, a sliver of The Ancient’s magic had returned, and he used it to mildly soothe the weakness in his limbs.

After a brief pause from himself, both of them ascended the stairs. Large, ornate, wooden doors awaited at the peak. Once opened, he found himself in… a chapel?

Was their goal to forcefully convert him? He had refused once already, surely they wouldn’t kidnap him just to indoctrinate him into the Order.

“Come. Witness the majesty of Our Holy Avatar. Our Cherished Messenger, sent by Our Godly Creators.”

He remained silent.

Doughael walked towards the altar, and approached a large curtain that hung behind it. He trailed behind them, but stopped at the closest row of pews.

They parted the curtains in a swift levitation spell, and what lay behind them was… indescribable.

It vaguely resembled a cookie in shape, but had countless wings protruding from its body, and was covered by feathers. Its skin looked like that of stardust, and it had a gem of some sort attached to its chest.

But what was most horrifying, was the uncanny resemblance it had to himself.

Ignoring the wings and color they shared, along with the similar bodies, it had attributes that were parallels of himself. It had his previous birthmark in the exact place as his, and the gem had his new one! Its eye shape was identical to his own, and it even had his stole!

The creature’s eyes opened and landed directly on him, gaze piercing through his dough.

Pure Vanilla opened his mouth to ask the numerous questions he had gathered in the span of around ten seconds, but a wave of pain in his skull had him doubling over and bracing himself against a pew from the intensity as he squeezed his eyes shut. It felt like his head was about to burst from the agonizing pressure inside of it.

Along with the searing pain, he could sense magic pushing against his mind, and didn’t have the strength to resist it. 

Disjointed voices whispered to him, seeming to echo from within his being.

“...wanted the…but it… me.”

“Isn’t what I…no pain!”

“I only sought… truth… Whole Dough?”

“...can’t escape…. help us…”

They soon all melded together in his mind, and chanted one thing.

“Join us.”

Footsteps approached him, and he was grabbed from behind by the shoulders, he couldn’t even fight back, as he was still reeling from the fire burning in his mind.

He was forced to kneel, and when he opened his eyes, he was in front of the altar. Doughael stood behind it and seemed to be reading from a book.

“Thy Destined One shalt descend from above, carved from The Witches’ hand, spreading Truth and Light alike. Only once made whole by The Holy Truthbearer’s flesh, shall The Avatar of Destiny achieve perfection, and all shall join the Whole Dough.”

It was silent for a few moments before they spoke again. “Such is the Prophecy.”

His… flesh?

He was brought as a sacrifice…?

“A sacrifice? Such things are beneath Our Order. We are simply fulfilling your true destiny, Radiant One.” 

Oh, he had spoken aloud.

Pure Vanilla strained against the hands holding him down. “Surely there must be another way! My death has to be unnecessary for this.”

“This is not death, Holy Truthbearer. You will transcend before Us, and become one with Our Avatar. Truly, it is the highest honor of all.”

Was there truly no way to reach them?

Suddenly, he felt a tug on his very being from behind him.

Could that be…?

A voice spoke from behind him. “High Forkbearer. We have brought the souljam as requested.”

“Excellent, bring it to Us.”

This was his chance!

As the robed cookie walked by his right side, the Avian flung his wing out, knocking them off balance. As they fell, he lunged for his soul jam, still attached to his removed brooch, and grasped it.

The magic of the gem flowed through him, untouched by the poison flowing through Pure Vanilla’s own body. 

Pure Vanilla used the shock his actions caused as a distraction to break away from the cookies holding him.

While he did so, he focused the magic on healing his limbs first, soothing the aches and pains first. At least, the ones that weren’t caused by the poison. He healed the worst symptoms caused by said poison next, most of them that is; he could still function with a headache. 

He wanted to conserve as much mana as possible, as the blockage of his natural magic wasn’t something he had the capacity to reverse.

It was something he would have to wait out, potentially over the course of a few weeks to fully recover…

Before he could be grabbed by the robed cookies approaching him, Pure Vanilla flapped his wings in a powerful downstroke, sending himself into the air and the nearby cookies to the ground.

Pure Vanilla still felt the Avatar’s gaze on him, but used his magic to push back the force trying to invade his mind again.

“We had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, Destined One. Now you leave Us no choice but to use force.” Doughael joined him in the air, but hovered near the creature behind them.

As if summoned by their words, the Avatar of Destiny began to move, dozens of wings unfolding behind it as large black talons reached for him.

It wasn’t hard to dodge, as the Avian had experience weaving in between large structures in the air. But what made it more challenging, was when white tentacles suddenly erupted from its chest, giving him around eight times as many objects to dodge.

Now he couldn’t even fly backwards to escape its reach like he had planned, as these things seemed to defy all reasoning and simply extend however far they wanted!

“Doughael! Please, this isn’t necessary! We can find an alternate solution! Listen to reason, I beg you!”

“Altering the Prophecy is impossible, Destined One. It is Our sacred mission to enact the Godly Creator’s divine will! And nothing shall stand in Our way!”

There was truly no reasoning with them.

He sighed. “If that is truly your choice, then I must ask that you forgive me for mine.”

Pure Vanilla lacked his staff, but he didn’t need it to cast magic, it was simply a tool used to hone it better. Summoning a beam of light in his palm, he started disintegrating the tentacles reaching for him one by one.

He watched as Doughael started healing and empowering the Avatar with their own magic, and the tentacles regrew at a quicker pace than they had initially spawned.

The Ancient needed to switch tactics, as they possessed more magic than he did at the moment…

Using a spell Shadow Milk had taught him, he called upon golden strings to bind the tentacles in place. Which caused the creature to roar and summon lances at his sides, giving him only seconds to dive to the ground. 

That was bad, he was more vulnerable while grounded.

Just as he brought his wings up to launch himself back up, he noticed a figure to his side. It was only as he jumped away did he realize what they were trying to do.

The robed cookie held a half full syringe in their hand.

Wait… Half full?

The world tilted around him as his vision swam. Pure Vanilla’s limbs felt like they had lead attached to them, and he hit the ground with a hard thunk.

Oh Witches.

He fought to remain conscious as the poison tried to drag him under. He assumed it was only adrenaline that was keeping him awake, which also explained why he wasn’t in pain.

Pure Vanilla looked up in time to see the Avatar giving him a malicious grin, and it then raised its hand and cast a sigil above him.

He knew those runes. They called upon the Void.

Crumbs! He needed to move, now!

Healing himself would take too much magic, but he could use some to temporarily keep himself stable.

Using around two thirds of the remaining magic in his souljam, the Avian did just that and darted away from the attack, having only missed his disintegration by milliseconds.

Distantly, he heard Doughael give a cry of rage, matching the Avatar’s own deafening roar.

Fighting wasn’t sustainable. He needed to escape.

But how could he make sure they wouldn’t just immediately follow him?

…

Illusions!

Shadow Milk had taught him many Deceit spells, one of which being illusion magic. He could make a clone of himself and sneak out while they tried to catch his illusion!

His husband would be so proud of him.

Putting his plan into action, he swooped behind a pillar and cast two spells. One of which was the illusion, the other was an invisibility spell.

He could hear the two beings behind him try to catch the fake cookie, and Pure Vanilla glided through the corridor and landed beside the front entrance. As quietly as he could, he opened the doors and slipped out.

Without skipping a beat, he shot into the sky and used his souljam as a beacon to guide himself home. He was… weirdly far away.

How long had it taken them to get him there? Furthermore, how did he not wake up during the travel time?

Could he really have been asleep for that long? Did they just keep redosing him with the poison to keep him sedated?

Questions for another time, he just needed to get home.

And after what felt like eons of flying, his kingdom was finally within sight!

But just as he started climbing higher in the sky, the magic he had been using to keep his body stable faded, and the world whipped around him in a myriad of colors and sounds as his wings finally gave out.

Crumbs…

Despite the pain and terror driven mania that occupied most of his mind due to getting partially redosed with mandrake extract, the Avian managed to angle his wings in a way where he could glide into the forested woods below him.

The limbs screamed in protest but it was either this or shattering on the ground.

Pure Vanilla pulled his arms over his face and braced for a very, very rough landing.

Tree branches smacked him in the face, sharp thorns pierced his arms, and the rocks scraped his dough as he collided with the ground.

He laid there panting for a moment, just processing the pain and trying not to throw up due to the poison and pain induced nausea.

The Avian really should get up. It wasn’t safe to rest in the middle of the woods during nightfall.

But Witches… 

He was so tired.

The cuffs around his arms dug into his dough from the angle they were at, but he couldn’t muster the strength to move them to a more comfortable position.

All of his limbs scarcely responded at this point, energy sapped entirely from his whole body in an effort to combat the poison running through his veins.

“-URE VANILLA?!” 

Shadow Milk?

With newfound strength, he lifted his wing off of his body.

And there he was. 

“Bluebird…?” Pure Vanilla’s voice was shaky and weak, but it was enough for Shadow Milk to practically teleport to his side.

“By the Witches! Nilly, what happened to you? You were missing for days!” It felt heavenly to have his beloved’s chilled hands cupping his cheeks, and he leaned into it with a barely audible trill, eyes fluttering shut.

It was silent for a moment before Shadow Milk spoke up again. “You're hurt. Why haven’t you healed yourself, Nilla?”

“I… can’t. Th’ poison blocked my magic. Souljam was how I ‘scaped, but that’s drained too.” Thumbs swiped at his cheeks, wiping away tears he hadn’t realized were falling.

“Poison? Escape? You were kidnapped?” Barely restrained anger was clear in Shadow Milk’s voice, and the grip on his face tightened when he nodded.

“Who?”

The claws pierced his cheek and he couldn’t hold back the whimper that came with the new pain.

Shadow Milk physically relaxed and sighed. “Questions for later, I guess. We need to get you back to the castle. Can you stand?”

He absolutely couldn’t stand.

“Mhm.” 

Pure Vanilla pushed himself into a sitting position with his arms trembling violently beneath himself. The moment his legs started supporting any of his weight, however, they gave out like a playing card trying to support a cement brick.

As he braced to faceplant into the ground, strong arms wrapped around his torso. “Lying is my thing, Nills. You clearly can’t stand.”

Before he could come up with a retort, the Avian was tucked against Shadow Milk’s chest. The smell of blueberry cream engulfed his senses, and all the built up tension left his body in an instant as his body registered one thing

He was safe.

His husband was saying something, but it was muffled in his ears. Closing his heavy eyelids, Pure Vanilla welcomed the warm embrace of sleep. 

He was finally back where he belonged.

Chapter Text

“Nillaaaa…. C’mon! We’re gonna be late!”

Pure Vanilla looked up from his desk, pushing his glasses back up from where they had slid to the bridge of his nose. “Bluebird, how can we be late to a picnic for just you and I?”

His husband groaned. “You know what I mean. Your stupid papers can wait.”

He huffed fondly, looking back at the papers before him. “We both know that isn’t true. I have to finish these by the end of this week, or else the reconvention of each of Crispia’s kingdoms could be disastrous.”

“That isn’t until next week, you workaholic.”

“I… yes, and that is my exact problem. If I miss even a single detail, I risk making enemies with the other nations.”

Everything needed to go perfect for this, he couldn’t make a fool of himself in front of everyone. And while his friends would be there, many diplomats and politicians from nations all over Crispia would be as well.

He had been selected as host, much to his confusion, and was tasked with organizing every detail of this event. Housing, refreshments, seating charts, guides, even potential allergens to the soaps must be considered! 

Was he being ridiculous by refusing help as much as possible for planning this? 

Absolutely.

Did that mitigate his fears that someone could mess something up?

No.

If he was the one who controlled every aspect of it, nothing about this could get messed up! Even if it meant triple checking every line of deliveries, requests, and staff hirings! As long as Pure Vanilla could ensure everything went to plan, it would be fine.

“-time off, Nilly. Hey, are you even listening to me?!”

The Ancient blinked. “Apologies, I was simply lost in thought.”

Shadow Milk looked him up and down. “That’s it, you’re taking a break, now.”

“No, Bluebird, I really need to-” He was cut off by the papers on his desks hovering out of his reach and his annoyingly stubborn husband picking him up bridal style and walking through a portal.

All within the span of around five seconds.

The air where they landed smelled… sweet.

Really sweet.

There was an undertone of fruit and syrups, but it was dominated by sugar.

Shadow Milk unceremoniously dropped him in a bed of flowers he was hovering over, knocking him out of his revelry.

“Ow.” Pure Vanilla glared up at his husband, who had a smug grin on his face.

“Oh c’monnnn, relax! It’s not every day you get to visit the Garden of Delights, y’know.”

The Garden of Delights? “We’re in Eternal Sugar’s domain?”

“Who better to force your toiler self to rest than the Queen of Sloth herself?”

The Avian made an indignant noise. “Wha- toiler? I just-”

His husband raised an eyebrow. “Need I remind you how many times I’ve carried your ass to bed the past few months because you refused to leave your desk until you got ‘one more document’ finished?”

He… couldn’t come up with a good retort to that.

Witches, the air here felt like it was making his head spin, thinking was hard.

“I… suppose you’re right. Perhaps I’ve been neglecting you in favor of my duties. For that, I’m sorry.” The Ancient relaxed his wings into the flowers below him.

“Neglecting me? I’ll accept your apology once you stop neglecting yourself, Nilla.”

A smile came over his face. “Well, would you mind helping me enjoy my time here?”

“Now we’re getting somewhere! I, in all of my humble glory, shall be your guide.” Shadow Milk bowed theatrically, before offering Pure Vanilla his hand.

“You? Humble? I feel as though those two words should be antonyms.” He grasped the hand and stood up, when he was abruptly made aware of something.

He was wet.

Not just minor arousal either. The Ancient actively felt slick coating his thighs, and was now painfully aware of his erect clit trapped between his folds.

What in the Witches name caused this?

“Well, you coming?”

Whatever it was, he was absolutely not telling Shadow Milk, lest he get teased for the next five centuries.

Resisting the ever growing urge to fan out and present his wings as an amorous gesture, Pure Vanilla nodded. “Of course. Lead the way, my love.”

The hand in his own felt like lightning striking his dough. Every touch felt like it was dialed to one hundred, and he had to actively stop himself from purposefully rubbing his thighs together as they walked.

Pure Vanilla tried to listen to what Shadow Milk was saying, he really did! But it all felt muted as he gazed at his husband. The sharp yet supple features of his jawline, the way his nose was slightly upturned, the light reflecting in his eyes as he rambled about whatever scenery was around them

It shouldn’t have made him this painfully turned on.

But it did.

Shadow Milk seemed oblivious to his plight, and immune to whatever was plaguing Pure Vanilla’s body, as his own jumpsuit showed no signs of hardness at all. It would have been easier if he was just as aroused as the Avian…

That jumpsuit really showed off his body, though. The Beast’s body was made for elegant danger. So alluring and lithe yet deadly all at once. And the way he could manhandle Pure Vanilla without batting an eye… His arms were either deceptively strong, or the Ancient was really just that light.

Perhaps it was a mix of both?

Either way, the thought of Shadow Milk using that strength to pin him to one of the nearby willow trees and fucking him against it until he saw stars made a shameful droplet of slick down his legs, which thankfully soaked into his stockings and wasn’t visible.

His husband could probably hold him in the air, too. Pulling Pure Vanilla close and hugging him to his chest as he ruthlessly pounded into him, showing off the Avian for everyone to see and hear. Maybe he would even-

“Hey, you alright? You’ve been pretty quiet, Nilla.”

Crumbs…

“Mmm, I just like hearing you speak, Bluebird. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

Shadow Milk gazed at him for a long moment. “Why are you so flushed? Are we walking too fast?”

His lips were so kissable, and they were right there. He should kiss him, he really should. He could already feel them on his own, on his neck, on his cunt-

Hands cupped his face, and he couldn’t help but lean into the contact with a shaking whimper. The Avian’s wings fanned out behind him, spreading and presenting the glossy feathers to his lover.

Recognition seemed to flash on Shadow Milk’s face, and a dark blue hue dusted his cheeks. “Oh, when I get my hands on that walking cavity, it is on.”

“Whatever do you mean, Milky? Did you not like my little gift?”

Pure Vanilla opened his eyes to gaze up at the floating pink figure above them.

Wait, when had he closed his eyes to begin with?

“Not when you do this to him!”

“Is this not the best way to distract your other half and get him to relax?”

Shadow Milk groaned. “I knew something was wrong when I got here.”

Pure Vanilla trilled to get his lover’s attention, which snapped back to him immediately. “What are you talking about, Bluebird? What’s wrong?”

He pressed closer to his husband, the physical contact felt electric, and sent sparks of heat straight to his core.

“Sugar put aphrodisiacs in the air.”

What?

The Avian tilted his head. “Then why aren’t you…?”

“She wanted us to be able to think clearly in her domain when she does this, so as not to debase ourselves, so it doesn’t affect us Beasts. Just a weird addition to the spell.”

A hand brushed his wings from behind, and he couldn’t hold back the soft moan that tumbled from his lips, and the shiver that came with it. His wings were already an erogenous zone, but this just multiplied that pleasure tenfold.

A saccharine laugh came from behind him. “I can see why you married him, Milky, he’s so reactive!”

“Shut it, Sugar. He’s only like this, because of your weird voyeurism fetish.”

Eternal Sugar sighed, running her hands through his feathers again. 

Without thinking, Pure Vanilla pushed the feathered limbs into the contact, gripping Shadow Milk’s frilled collar like a lifeline. A jumbled sequence of chirps and whimpers sounded from him, and he could feel Shadow Milk’s restraint through the soulbond. 

Was he restraining himself from touching Pure Vanilla?

Well, if that was the case…

Their lips met in a rather desperate kiss on both parts. Sure, the Avian initiated it, but he could physically feel the tension drop from his husbands muscles.

He didn’t realize just how badly he needed Shadow Milk’s mouth on his own until now. Just the feeling of their tongues on each other was enough to make Pure Vanilla clamp his thighs together for some sort of friction.

The Avian would never get tired of his husband’s taste. It was an incredible mix of sour blueberries and artificial blue raspberry, along with a slight hint of sweet cream underneath. It was borderline intoxicating, and he would happily drown in the flavor if he could.

Witches, he needed Shadow Milk inside of him as soon as physically possible.

A teasing touch on his clothed cunt sent sparks flying inside of his brain, and he let out a breathy moan into the kiss. 

Eternal Sugar giggled from behind him, having slipped under his raised wings and was kneeling beneath them. “My my! You’re absolutely soaked down here. You poor thing! Why don’t I help you, hmm?”

He almost short circuited when two fingers came up and rubbed more instantly at his folds.

Yes! 

This was exactly what he needed. 

The Dove hybrid gave a very positive, yet muffled, trill. The other Avian simply giggled again and slipped her hand beneath his rather damp leotard.

The sensation intensified with none of the fabric absorbing her heavenly touches, and his hips moved without his control, grinding the slim fingers further into himself and against his clit.

He could feel Shadow Milk’s annoyance with Eternal Sugar, but his husband seemed to let it go once he realized Pure Vanilla was enjoying this.

The coil in his gut wound tighter and tighter, and his moans and whimpers grew louder. Eternal Sugar only increased her touches, adding three fingers and using her thumb to further rub his clit.

His husband wrapped his hands around Pure Vanilla’s back, using his hands to push the other further into the kiss. The lack of oxygen from said kiss only heightened the sensations, and just pushed him closer to the edge.

Apparently, his own arms had already wrapped around and tangled themselves in Shadow Milk’s hair. When that happened, he didn’t know. But his grip grew stronger as his orgasm drew nearer and nearer.

The Beast pulled back, just enough to speak against Pure Vanilla’s lips.

“Cum for me, Nilla.”

And he did. 

Hard.

The Avian wasn’t even sure if he made any sound during it, as he couldn’t hear anything aside from the ringing in his ears. Just overwhelming ecstasy.

Eternal Sugar’s fingers only pulled out once he was writhing and whining from overstimulation, and Shadow Milk kissed his forehead.

“You did so good Nilla. Such a pretty bird.”

That sure got his birdbrain acting up, and he responded with a soft coo before he even registered his mouth opening.

Now that he didn’t feel like he was in the throes of a heat cycle, albeit temporarily due to his refractory period, he wanted to ask Eternal Sugar something.

“So… Why did you seek to join us? Not that I mind, of course.” He was rather curious, as he had heard numerous drunken ramblings from Hollyberry about her love life, even if he didn’t go out of his way to seek such information out.

“My dear Hollyberry has told me many tales of your younger affairs together, and how prettily you sang for her and your other companions. I simply was too curious to pass up such a wondrous opportunity!” 

His face flushed. “You two spoke about this?”

“Oh but of course, my dear! Afterall, such crucial information simply must be given to your other half!”

Pure Vanilla wasn’t sure he would classify erotic escapades under ‘crucial information’ in any way, but who was he to judge?

Shadow Milk growled, and the Avian could feel it reverberate through his own chest. “You absolute sparkly shitcake. Of course you would use my date plans to benefit yourself!” 

Date plans? So he always planned to send them here to begin with?

He sighed fondly. 

Shadow Milk really did have the strangest ways of showing how much he cared for Pure Vanilla. 

The Avian could feel the creeping fog of the aphrodisiac induced arousal slinking back into his mind. And instead of fighting it, like he should have, Pure Vanilla decided that he could give into his own whims for once.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one affected by this whole situation, despite being the only cookie around affected by the spell, as he could see a sizable bulge pressed against the fabric of Shadow Milk’s jumpsuit. 

To add to this, he could also see the Swan hybrid’s wings fluffed and angled in amorous presentation.

Both of them would get their turn, but his husband was closer.

As the two were still arguing about Witches knows what, Pure Vanilla reached a hand down and grabbed his lover’s clothed erection. Shadow Milk, mid sentence, cut himself off with a stifled groan while bringing a hand up to his own mouth. 

“N-Nills, you… I-” 

He loved being able to completely break his husband’s normally smooth speech. There was just something incredibly satisfying about just wrecking his train of thought with pleasure.

A smug smile slipped onto his lips as he looked up at the other. “Oh, do go on, my love. I would hate to interrupt you, Bluebird.”

Shadow Milk huffed, opened his mouth, and promptly closed it with a moan as Pure Vanilla stroked over the head of his cock.

“My dear, would you be so kind as to remove your clothes?”

Shadow Milk grinned sharply. “Oh, I’ll do you one better, Nilly!” 

With a snap, all three of their outfits were suddenly removed and folded nearby. Now that he could see it, this whole thing was clearly affecting Eternal Sugar more than he had initially anticipated, as her folds were dripping with arousal.

Pure Vanilla wanted to get a taste of it soon.

For now, however, he was focused on his husband.

Bending over and getting on his knees, the Dove took Shadow Milk’s whole cock in his mouth in one go. A small aborted thrust made it hit the back of his throat, and he suppressed his gag reflex on instinct. 

The blueberry taste was much thicker here, especially at the flushed magenta tip. The droplets of precum on his dick were sweet, and had a rich creamy flavor.

Shadow Milk was truly made for him.

The Avian began at a slow pace, just enough to tease his husband enough to fuck his face. 

The other knew how much he liked it; how much Pure Vanilla loved being used like that. It was something they both enjoyed.

Shadow Milk liked control and Pure Vanilla enjoyed giving control to those he trusted.

Sure enough, after around fifteen seconds, he felt cold hands grip his face. He couldn’t stop his wings raising and fluffing with excitement, nor could he stop his hips from lifting.

“You whore. Look at you getting all giddy over being used like a damn doll.”

A hand cupped his hips and Eternal Sugar’s voice sounded from behind him. “Hmm, I think you would make a great slut, Pure Vanilla. Such a pretty thing for us to use, yes?”

…

Oh.

That was really hot.

Pure Vanilla may have just discovered something about himself…

Slim fingers parted his legs and before he could question it, the Swan pressed her tongue against his slit. He could feel her head between his thighs, as he was just high enough off the ground that she could squeeze her petite body through the gap.

His surprised moan at the action vibrated around the cock in his mouth, and Shadow Milk groaned above him, grip tightening on Pure Vanilla’s blond locks.

Seeing as Eternal Sugar also had a cunt, it seemed she knew how to hit the exact spots inside of him to make the Avian see stars. 

His husband growled and sped his pace up, shadowy tendrils of hair wrapped around Pure Vanilla’s hands, which were positioned to grip Shadow Milk’s hips as extra support. The thick cock in his mouth spurted a bit of blueberry cream on his tongue, and throbbed against his tongue.

“Fffffuck, Nilla. You feel so damn good. You were made for me, Dollface. Made for this.” 

The words sent heat straight to his core, and he ground down against the absolutely incredible tongue inside of him.

He wasn’t sure how Eternal Sugar managed to perfectly toe the line in between overwhelming, borderline painful pleasure and dissatisfying, minute stimulation. And it was also sending him closer towards his second orgasm of the evening.  

She let out a breathy whimper against his folds, and judging by the intensifying sugary scent coming from her, and the wet noises he could just barely hear from behind himself, she was likely chasing her own release as well.

The feedback loop from all of them was incredible. Eternal Sugar would moan against him, sending extra pleasure to himself, which caused him to let out his own noises, which vibrated around Shadow Milk’s cock. 

Unsurprisingly, Pure Vanilla was the first to break.

His orgasm hit him like a tidal wave, knocking him under as he ground his clit against the Swan’s tongue with a muffled cry. Shadow Milk soon followed, shooting ropes of hot cum into his mouth with a wrecked sounding groan.

Finally, Eternal Sugar hit her peak too, and the vibrations from her squeal only prolonged his own orgasm.

They all stayed in that position for a minute, just catching their breaths and letting the afterglow fade, both Avians lowering their wings.

Pure Vanilla’s legs were shaking both from being in that position for so long, and also due to weakness from remaining standing for two orgasms now.

He was impressed with his body’s tenacity, though.

Once Eternal Sugar had moved from beneath him, the Dove finally let his legs relax and sat down.. Some of Shadow Milk’s cum had trickled past his lips, so he wiped it off of himself with his fingers and popped it back in his mouth.

He saw said cookie watching him rather intensely as he did so, and raised his wings as a silent invitation. A curious trill from the Swan behind him had him sending an affirming coo right back.

“My, you’re an insatiable little thing, aren’t you! Very well, I’ll indulge you.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

She grabbed his shoulders and gently guided him to lay on his back, and his wings spread in the soft grass beneath him.

Eternal Sugar looked at Shadow Milk and the two seemed to have a silent, but brief, conversation.

His husband came and spread his legs apart, and now Pure Vanilla could see where this was going, especially once he realized that the other was hard again.

A soft chirp grabbed his attention. “Alright now, beautiful, open wide for me!” She sang in a singsong lilt to her voice, bracing his face between her plush thighs.

He didn’t need to be told twice! Especially not with the aphrodisiacs taking hold of him again.

Just as her folds touched his tongue, a mischievous giggle from Shadow Milk was heard. And that was all the warning he got before his beloved rammed into his cunt, fully sheathing himself in one go.

The moan that left his lips was downright pornographic. 

After that, neither of the cookies fucking him held back. His husband set a brutal pace, and held Pure Vanilla’s hips with a grip that was sure to bruise, not to mention the puncture wounds from his claws! 

He never minded a little pain, though. If anything, he enjoyed it far more than was probably healthy!

Eternal Sugar was a little more gentle, but no less passionate. She was riding his tongue like a Witches damned dildo, all while locking his face firmly in place with her legs.

And while he didn’t enjoy her taste as much as Shadow Milk’s, he wasn’t sure if anything would ever top his husband’s.

It wasn’t bad, however. It was extremely sweet, tasting entirely of sugar. There was also a floral undertone, similar to a raw sugarcane stalk. Because of the pure sugar in her slick, it gave it the consistency of syrup.

All in all, he could see why Hollyberry mentioned eating her out so often.

Shadow Milk suddenly brought a hand down and rubbed at his clit, making Pure Vanilla yelp in surprise. This, in turn, caused Eternal Sugar to grind harder against his face with a cross between a groan and a whimper.

“Wow, you must really like having your face ridden, Nilla. You tightened up a bunch when she did that!”

He whined in embarrassment.

The cookie above him giggled breathlessly. “Milky, do you want to know another way to make him do that?”

At Shadow Milk’s questioning hum, she, very unfortunately, stopped riding his face. As he was questioning where this was going, her fingers slid underneath him and her nails scratched along the highly sensitive downfeathers where his wings met his skin.

And just like that, he was cumming again with a scream.

His husband, blissfully, didn’t stop fucking him through it. If anything, he went faster, likely nearing his own release too. Eternal Sugar also began her motions again, and her juices continued to trail down his cheeks and into his hair.

“W-Witches, Nilla…” Shadow Milk sounded completely breathless. “Oven’s Above…You’re so gorgeous, Nills.”

Pure Vanilla’s feathers flared underneath him at the praise, and his husband brought his hand to the Avian’s clit again.

Eternal Sugar spoke up. “You really are. Y-You are stunning to behold, I had thought my o-other half was-” She moaned before speaking again. “-was exaggerating, but you are simply magnificent, my dear.”

Her thighs shook around his head, and his husband’s thrusts grew sloppy as both of their pants of pleasure increased in intensity. Pure Vanilla wasn’t exactly quiet either, and his own orgasm was quickly building yet again.

Just as Shadow Milk started filling him, he latched onto the Dove’s shoulder with a sharp bite. 

And Pure Vanilla was gone.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

Awareness came back to him slowly.

The sounds in his ears were still muffled, but his head was laying on something smooth and soft. Hands were carding through his hair and braiding small sections of it, seemingly mindlessly, while a different set of hands were working through his feathers.

His head still felt fuzzy, and it was rather difficult to think. However, it was a different kind than before. This just felt warm and comforting.

The hands on his head stalled, and he leaned into them with a petulant coo, trying to get them back in motion.

Shadow Milk’s laugh came from above him. “Are you back with us, Nilly?”

After a moment, he settled on an unsure trill.

“Ah, words are hard at the moment, got it.”

He loved his mate so much…

Eternal Sugar’s voice sounded from behind him, and he realized it was her preening his feathers.

She spoke in Avis to him.

“How was everything? I didn’t push you too far, did I? We were both quite concerned when you fainted.”

Shadow Milk started braiding his hair again, making a smile slip onto Pure Vanilla’s face.

His native language was much easier to speak when he was like this.

“While I would have liked proper notice before getting laced, I rather enjoyed our time together. I apologize for worrying you both.”

She ran a hand through his coverts, seemingly as an apology.

“And I apologize for not asking permission, my dear. But I am thrilled to hear it didn’t affect your enjoyment.”

“If anything, it heightened my enjoyment!”

He paused before continuing.

“...we may have to do this again, soon.”

Chapter Text

This battle wasn’t quite going according to plan.

It started as a simple confrontation with the local monsters, just some cakehounds, cakewolves, and jelly worms. A few chocohogs had joined the fray too.

Hollyberry and Dark Cacao were taking care of the cakewolves and cakehounds, while White Lily was using her ranged magic to support them. Golden Cheese was using her wings to her advantage, and taking out the jellyworms while being too quick to actually catch. 

Pure Vanilla had a different role. He stayed in the air and kept watch on his partners, warning them of approaching danger and commanding them. And, of course, he was in charge of healing his companions. 

At first, it was a normal fight. Dark Cacao and Hollyberry were leading the charge and holding their own. However, Dark Cacao had gotten jumped from the side and received a rather nasty bite wound on his hip. It was nothing Pure Vanilla’s magic couldn’t fix, however.

Then, White Lily had received a rather nasty sprain when running from a cakehound that had slipped past the two warriors in the front while he was busy. That also required his aid. Both in subduing the monster and repairing the torn ligaments.

The moment he had shot back in the air, Golden Cheese screamed. When he pivoted and rushed over to her, she was clutching her arm, which was hanging loosely at her side. Luckily, she had managed to kill the chocohog that had broken the bone, but he still needed to heal the wound.

After doing so, a few more chocohogs appeared. Two of them targeted Golden Cheese, however, the third leapt after himself. 

Now, Pure Vanilla wasn’t a fighter. Sure, if absolutely necessary he could hold his own, but he primarily specialized in healing rather than attacking. But when he needed to fight, his combat style revolved around staying out of range in the air and using long distance spells. 

Unfortunately for him, however, the treeline here was low, and if he tried to break through, he would most likely just get stuck in the trees, which would do none of them any favors.

Yes, he could weave around the various obstacles in his way, but the chocohog was huge, and could easily reach him under the canopy and keep pace by just plowing through said obstacles to keep pace.

Pure Vanilla would have to just attack while engaged in a high speed chase, wouldn’t he?

Sure, it wasn’t the safest, as he would need to look away from where he was flying to aim the magic, but it should be fine…

Flipping around to face the chocohog, he sent out a heated blast of pure light magic. This stunned the beast for a few moments before it gave chase again.

A few more hits should do it.

The Avian looped around a tree and sent another one behind him again. Then, finally, on his third hit, it went down.

He grinned at the success and curled his wings around his body in a celebratory barrel roll.

His happiness was only rather short-lived, however, as when he looked in front of himself again, he was moments away from crashing into a large cherry oak.

Pure Vanilla had a few seconds to try and slow down or turn before…

BAM!

The side of his head slammed into the thick bark and he crumpled to the ground.

He could now understand why cookies use the phrase ‘seeing stars’ after a head injury, as multicolored spots blinked in and out of his vision like he had been staring at the sun.

Witches, his head hurt…

When he tried to look around to assess his surroundings, the light shining through the canopy nearly blinded him from the intensity, making him squeeze his eyes closed and pull a wing over his face. 

He wasn’t sure how long he laid there like that, just trying to muster the strength to get up and rejoin the fight or at least heal himself. But he must have taken too long, as a voice filtered in through the ringing in his ears.

“-illa? Hey are…guys… found him!”

The voice faded in and out of his ears, sounding distant but also overwhelmingly loud all at once.

A hand touched his wing. “Nilla? Are…alright?” It sounded like… White Lily.

Pure Vanilla gave a low coo, curling further into himself.

Witches, his everything hurt.

If he was able to, he would have healed himself long ago, but it felt like his mind was disconnected from his magic. It responded, yes, but was clumsy and uncoordinated, so it didn’t exactly fix anything.

Besides, casting spells while being disoriented was more risky than helpful from his experience.

While he was distracted, White Lily had grabbed his wing. He only noticed this fact when he felt her try to pull it away from his body.

No! If it was gone then the sun would eviscerate his retinas. 

The Avian held it in place. “D… Don’t, pl’se…” His tongue felt far too heavy in his mouth.

“Vanilla, I’m getting a little concerned.” Her hand stilled but didn’t leave his feathers.

Why was it so hard to put his thoughts into words? Normally this came easily… “Ssun hurs’… ‘s too bright” His words slurred together, but hopefully it got the message across.

Hollyberry’s voice sounded next to him. “Oh my! What happened over here, my Orchid?”

His ears felt like they were about to burst from the deafening loudness, and he pulled his wing further around himself with a whimper.

“Oh dear, what’s wrong, my Treasure?” It seems Golden Cheese arrived too.

Why did the side of his head feel damp?

“‘S too loud…”

There was silence for a moment before Hollyberry spoke again, mercifully, it was much quieter. “Would you mind removing your wing so we can assess your injuries, my Orchid?”

At Pure Vanilla’s silence, White Lily answered. “He said the sun hurt his eyes earlier, and he wouldn’t let me pull his wing back.”

“Ah! Well that’s no issue, he’s not the only Avian here, you know.” He heard footsteps approach his front, and the shuffle of feathers.

White Lily spoke up again. “Nilla, Golden Cheese is blocking the sun. Could you please let me see you now?”

Hesitantly, he drew the limb back and fluttered open his eyes. 

His vision was normally bad, but this was substantially worse than he was used to. Everything seemed to swim in front of his eyes, and looked…doubled.

That was probably a bad sign.

All six… no, three. All three of the women in front of him gasped and White Lily reached a hand to the side of his head.

It was fine for a moment, and then she pressed down.

Without thinking, he flinched back and brought his arms up to shield his face with a partially stifled cry of pain.

Voices erupted around him but he tuned them out in favor of sating his own curiosity about what exactly was on his head.

The area where she touched felt… sticky, and he removed one of his arms from his face to feel it. His hair there was wet and had some sort of substance stuck to it. 

Perhaps it was tree sap? He did hit a tree before, didn’t he? At least… he thinks he did. Was it a tree? He couldn't quite recall now.

Setting that thought aside, Pure Vanilla pulled his hand back to his eyesight, and found it covered in jam.

Ah.

That was bad.

Head wounds tended to bleed a lot, but this seemed rather excessive. But he felt fine, as long as he disregarded all of the things wrong with him, that is. Surely it was alright.

One glance at the top of his wing showed the top of it, which he had held over his head before, had the inside covered in jam too.

Huh.

Could that be why he felt so dizzy?

Pure Vanilla’s thoughts were broken when a hand waved in front of his face, and he blinked at the figure in front of him. 

Oh, when did Dark Cacao get here?

“My friend, are you able to stand?”

Most likely, no. But it was probably ill advised to lay on the ground when monsters could still be lurking. He could walk, a little dizziness wouldn’t stop him, right?

The Avian’s limbs felt like lead and were rather unresponsive, but that didn’t stop him from pulling his legs underneath himself. 

Using the oddly sticky tree to brace himself against, he managed to stand. That was a mistake, as both vertigo and nausea reared their head as he did so.

Ignoring this, he took a step forward, or at least tried to. Pure Vanilla wasn’t sure if he missed the ground or tilted sideways, but either way he was standing one moment and being held up by Dark Cacao the next.

When the ringing in his ears subsided again, he heard Golden Cheese. “-alking is a no-go. Can you carry him?”

He felt the deep rumble of his friend’s hum more than he heard it, and was soon scooped up bridal style into strong, warm arms. 

Normally, he would have protested being carried, but he honestly couldn’t find the energy to. Especially with how heavy his eyes felt all of a sudden.

He blinked and was suddenly no longer being fully held, but was instead being gently laid onto a bedroll.

Pure Vanilla could feel the warmth leaving his body already and whined. “Noooo, c’me back… ‘m cold…” 

A low chuckle was heard. “Go back to sleep, my Sunrise. You will feel better once you wake.”

As much as he would’ve liked to protest, unconsciousness was clawing him back to its depths with vigor, and his eyes closed without permission. 

The Avian was still cold when he awoke, despite having a blanket tucked over him at some point. His head was pounding, and his whole body hurt, especially his neck. Exhaustion still clung to him like a veil, but he couldn’t drift off.

This sucked, he decided, and curled his wings around himself with a miserable coo.

A soft, comforting trill came from across the room, and he heard footsteps approach him.

Oh, his flock was here. His flock would make this better.

Pure Vanilla chirped a greeting and leaned into the hand that started running through his hair. Or at least… part of it. One section of his head was covered by… something. It felt constricting and slightly uncomfortable.

He got a gentle greeting call back, and he opened his eyes to see who it was.

“...Ima?”

It must have been his Ima. Did he get injured with the cream sheep again? Oh, if he did then his Ipa would scold him later… 

He heard her take a stiff breath. 

Did he do something wrong? The last thing he wanted to do was to upset Ima. He loved her.

Once he gave a questioning trill, she sighed and cupped his face. The Avian leaned into the contact with a loving coo, reserved only for family. 

“Sleep, my Treasure.”

That was a new nickname. Ima always called him her ‘Sunshine’ and Ipa always called him his ‘Glowfly.’

Why did that name sound so familiar though?

Before he got a chance to ponder the new name, the tendrils of sleep wrapped around his mind and pulled him back to the comforting void.

…

The next time he awoke, it was to utter confusion on his part.

His memories were mostly clear, up until the end of the battle. After that, it was just random sensory inputs like scents, sounds, and blobs of color.

And pain. Lots of pain.

Speaking of, he had an absolutely brutal headache, 

Where was he anyway? The thought of opening his eyes to check made him want to throw up, as that would definitely make his headache more agonizing than it already was.

What Pure Vanilla did know was that he was laying on something soft, with a blanket covering his body. For some reason, that fact didn’t surprise him, despite not being able to recall when or how this happened. 

He couldn’t feel any wind or sun on his body, meaning he was likely underneath some sort of shelter. At the distant sound of his friends’ voices, the Avian inferred it was probably one of their tents. 

Why was he here though? He didn’t remember setting up camp with them, nor even leaving the battlefield.

Pure Vanilla heard voices approaching him.

“...is really out of it. He called me ‘Ima’ earlier.” Oh, Golden Cheese.

What.

“‘Ima?’ What does that mean?” White Lily was with her too.

Golden Cheese was silent for a moment. “Ah, I forgot non-avians don’t use that… I think it’s equivalent to ‘mother’ in your language.”

“That’s… concerning.”

“Mhm.”

That is rather embarrassing. 

He had assumed that was a dream with how blurry the memory was. 

Witches, his head was still fuzzy. Trying to sort through his thoughts was akin to sorting pebbles on a cobblestone road.

A sharp pang of pain ripped through his head, and Pure Vanilla curled in on himself with a groan.

The two women were silent before White Lily spoke up. “Are you awake, Nilla?”

He huffed out a laugh. “I rather wish I wasn’t, to be honest.”

Relieved giggles came from the two others in the room and he heard both of them approach him.

“How are you feeling?” She asked.

“My head is… in quite a bit of pain.” 

“For you to admit something hurts, it must be quite extreme, my Treasure.”

She wasn’t exactly wrong. He did have a tendency to play down his own injuries, if not hiding them entirely while focusing on other patients.

White Lily hummed. “Well, you did receive a rather serious head injury.”

Huh, that explains a lot.

“Did I? How did this occur?” 

Golden Cheese sounded confused. “Do you not recall, dear?”

“No, my last clear memory is… trying to ward off a chocohog.”

At their silence, he opens his eyes at last. Luckily, the room was dim enough to not aggravate his headache further.

White Lily and Golden Cheese were looking concernedly at each other.

“Is something the matter?” He asked.

White Lily looked back at him. “I found you lying next to a tree, with jam staining both it and your head. You refused to let us see your face until Golden Cheese blocked out the sun, as it hurt your eyes.”

The other Avian continued where she left off. “You were very out of it, my Treasure. Cao had to physically wave a hand in front of your face before you noticed him, despite him trying to get your attention previously.”

“You didn’t even protest when he picked you up, and passed out right after…” White Lily finished with a frown.

He couldn’t recall any of this.

Though judging by the symptoms… “I was most likely concussed. I… apologize.”

Hollyberry’s voice sounded from the entranceway. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Orchid!”

A deep baritone joined her. “Indeed. One should never apologize for injuries incurred in battle.”

“Still, I should have been more careful.” His argument sounded weak, even to his own ears.

“Bah! As long as you are alright now, there is nothing to be worried over.” Hollyberry placed her hands on her hips with a grin.

White Lily took his hand. “Let us take care of you for once, my love.”

Pure Vanilla sighed. “I suppose I can allow that. Just this one time, however.” A smile slipped onto his lips.

Gazing at the grinning faces around him, his love for his partners only grew.

As long as they were all together, there was nothing they couldn’t do!

Chapter Text

Blueberry Milk had always told Truthless Recluse how beautiful he was.

The Sage just kept relentlessly berating him with this ‘fact’ he was so insistent to prove to the Recluse.

Today was no different.

“But it’s true, my love!”

Midnight Vanilla panted. “Sage, must we have this discussion right now?”

His husband stopped thrusting momentarily. “When else would we have it?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps not in the middle of sex? Just a suggestion.” He glared up at Blueberry Milk, who just grinned.

He resumed his motions, and Truthless grasped the sheets underneath him. “I disagree. I think this is the perfect time for this!”

“Hhaah- And why exactly is that?” 

Hands came up and lightly cupped his cheek as Blueberry Milk leaned over him, their faces inches apart. “Because this way, I can show you just how much I worship you, my Recluse.”

Their lips met in an impassioned kiss and after a not so gentle nip from Sage’s fangs, Midnight Vanilla opened his mouth.

Even if he knew it was a losing battle, Truthless still fought for control over the kiss. He wasn’t about to just hand it over to the other. He also knew Blueberry Milk loved seeing his resolve for such things crumble.

His husband wasn’t exactly subtle  about what turned him on.

He keened at a particularly rough thrust, and could feel his pleasure cresting. And while he would have liked to warn Sage, his mouth was currently quite occupied. 

Blueberry Milk was also getting close, judging by the way his rhythm was far less coordinated now and how his dick twitched inside of the Recluse.

All it took was a few more thrusts before both of them climaxed, moaning in tandem into the kiss.

But instead of pulling out once both had ended, Sage simply halted his motions and reached a hand down to Midnight Vanilla’s clit, making him flinch with overstimulation. 

A horrifically embarrassing whimper escaped him before he could stifle it. “S-Sage! What are you-” 

He tried to pull away from Blueberry Milk, but found his wrists restrained by glowing blue strings. 

When had those gotten there?

Truthless didn’t exactly have the time nor mental capacity to ponder this, however, as he was actively being tortured via pleasure induced pain.

His eyes stung with overstimulated tears as he writhed from the intensity of it all. “F-Fuck- Sage, I..” His brain felt entirely scrambled, unable to form a single coherent sentence.

“Witches, you are so pretty when you cry, darling.”

Oh that was how he wanted to play this.

Getting the Recluse so worked up and scatterbrained that he couldn’t fight back against these… these frivolous accusations!

When he tried to scold the Sage for his abhorrently devious plot, all that came out was a strangled half–sob half-moan. 

He decided to get his point across with a glare instead.

“Still trying to deny the truth, are you? Well, I suppose seeing is believing. Why don’t I tell you what I see, hmm?” His husband had that stupidly attractive smirk back on his face.

Midnight Vanilla decided that next time they did this, he was going to put on a strap and edge Sage for hours as revenge for this.

“Let’s see… Well, you have luscious blonde hair with gorgeous sunkissed skin. A perfect lean body, and those beautiful glossy wings you tried oh so desperately to keep a secret.”

That last part was the only truth Sage spoke. 

When they met originally, the Recluse had been hiding in his tower for hundreds of years. Before he sealed himself away, hybrids were looked down upon at best…

…and hunted at worst.

“Ah ah, nope! Stop getting in your own head, my dear!” A hand raked through Truthless’s wings, adding to the already potent overstimulation wracking through his body.

Despite the pain from all of the overwhelming signals his body was sending him, he could feel his second orgasm creeping up.

Damn his masochism…

“S-Sa- ah- Sage! Pl-pleeaseee-” He wasn’t even sure what he was begging for.

More? Less? He didn’t know.

Midnight Vanilla could feel tears consistently rolling down his cheeks, and that only seemed to spur Blueberry Milk on.

Said cookie continued to trail his claws through the Recluse’s feathers, with just enough force to teeter on the edge of too much.

“You are so pretty when you cry, my love. Your eyes sparkle like crystalline stars, hung perfectly in the sky just for me. Witches, I love you so much.”

Warm lips kissed each of his cheeks before his blue tongue liked away the salty tears falling from the Recluses eyes.

Truthless struggled against the binds holding his arms in place as the pleasure crested, and Sage’s finger on his clit got impossibly faster.

Then, with a singular, sharp thrust from Blueberry Milk, he was sent tumbling off the edge.

He could feel himself scream, but couldn’t hear anything over the blood rushing in his ears.

However, yet again, his husband didn’t stop the relentless onslaught of pleasure on his body, and started thrusting in tandem with everything else.

“Sage- it-” A sob. “ ‘S too much, please-” Truthless writhed against the bed as the Sage licked away his tears again. The touch felt scalding when combined with everything else.

“Witches, it’s like looking at citrine and aquamarine when I look at your eyes, my Recluse. Your eyes’ shimmer outmatches every gemstone I’ve ever seen.”

A kiss was pressed to his forehead as Blueberry Milk sped up his pace. “Your beauty rivals every known organism on Earthbread. I don’t care how long it takes for you to believe me, I will make you see how gorgeous you are, my love.”

Midnight Vanilla’s head was spinning from everything.

The pleasure. The pain, The compliments.

It all made his mind melt until his world narrowed down to Sage.

He felt his husband’s dick twitch inside of him, and despite the raging overstimulation assaulting his body, the Recluse ground his hip against the other’s.

His lips twitched into a smile at the surprised groan he got.

Serves him right.

Blueberry Milk abruptly lurched forward and bit his shoulder. That, combined with the sensation of being filled, sent Truthless crashing into another orgasm that somehow snuck up on him.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

When he could finally register anything around him again, the first thing he felt was a cloth dabbing in between his legs.

Midnight Vanilla whined and tried to pull away from it, despite having almost no strength in his legs.

Too much, too much, too much-

“Hey, shhh, you’re alright, my love.”

Blearily blinking his eyes open, he saw the fuzzy shape of Sage sitting between his legs, wiping him down with what looked to be a white washcloth.

“...Sage?” His voice was barely a hoarse whisper. Now that he thought about it, his throat did kind of hurt.

He got a tired chuckle from his husband. “How are you feeling, Nilla? Anything hurt too badly?”

It would probably be easier to count what didn’t at least mildly ache at this point.

He cleared his throat before speaking. “Throat hurts, same with my head.”

“Mmm, probably dehydration. Here.” With a snap, he was offered a glass of water.

The cool liquid did wonders for his aching throat, and Truthless hummed appreciatively.

Blueberry Milk went back to wiping away the unholy mixture of cum, slick, and whatever else was between his legs. Recluse couldn’t stop the flinch nor the hiss that left him at the overstimulating pain.

“I know, I know… Almost done, my dear.”

Finally that damned cloth was lifted away from his folds and another one was brought to dab gently at his cheeks.

“I meant what I said, you know. You are unfairly pretty when you cry.”

The Recluse rolled his eyes. “Dacryphiliac.”

“Perhaps, but I’m right regardless.”

“You cannot be right, that is entirely your opinion.”

“Technicalities, my Recluse. Besides, it isn’t my opinion; it is an objective truth. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and you are the prettiest cookie to ever grace Earthbread.”

The towel was pulled away, and he was scooped into a warm embrace. 

He was too tired to argue at this point, and just opted to lightly smack Blueberry Milk with his wing in lieu of answering.

“You know I’m right, my darling.”

Midnight Vanilla huffed but left it at that.

Soon enough, he was laid in their bed and rested his head on Sage’s chest once the scholar crawled in beside him.

“One of these days, you’ll believe me.”

…

“I’ll make sure of it.”

Chapter Text

“We should really be in bed.”

Shadow Milk glanced over at Pure Vanilla before responding. “You say that like we both didn’t already try to sleep.”

“Yes, but perhaps we should have stayed longer?”

“We sat there for an hour, Nilly. Besides, wasn’t it your idea to come out here?”

It was, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel guilty for not trying harder.

The Avian pulled his wing tighter around his husband, shifting so he was touching sides with Shadow Milk.

They were sitting on a cushioned sofa that the Beast had summoned in the middle of the garden, underneath both a blanket of stars and an actual star patterned blanket.

“You’re warm.”

Shadow Milk scoffed. “You’re always cold, Nilly. I’m not sure how you can look so deceptively warm and still produce no heat. I’m almost impressed.”

“And yet you still manually adjust your body to warm me up when we touch.”

It was true. Being a shapeshifter, his husband could shift his body temperature to whatever he so desired without any real consequences. After they started dating, and he heard all about Pure Vanilla’s plights with the cold, he started making his body warmer to help the Avian out.

And while Shadow Milk claimed it had absolutely nothing to do with his own desires for cuddles, Pure Vanilla still heard the Beast’s purrs when the other thought he was asleep. 

They sat in silence for a few moments before Pure Vanilla spoke again. “I never hated you, you know.”

He felt Shadow Milk tense slightly beside him, and at the Beast’s hum to continue, he did.

“I was angry at you for killing Elder Faerie, and I disliked what you did to my friends, but I never hated you for it. I didn’t even dislike you. Not even as Truthless Recluse.”

The Avian looked up at the stars as he spoke again. “Maybe it makes me dumb or naive, but I truly believe everyone can be good if given the chance and the right support. I mean, it worked out for us, didn’t it?”

His husband snaked an arm around his waist, pulling Pure Vanilla further into his warm embrace. “You are naive. Horrifically so. But that doesn’t make you stupid. No one other than you could have seen me under the… front I put up.”

‘Front’ was putting it lightly, Shadow Milk donned his act like a second skin. The Avian was barely able to see his true nature under all of the hatred fueled jabs and cruel acts at first.

He felt the Beast lay his head atop his own as Shadow Milk spoke next. “I still don’t understand how you could have possibly wanted to help me after everything I put you through.”

“It wasn’t that bad, truly.”

A scoff. “You still look at bodies of water like they’re going to come alive and flay you, Nilly.” 

He… had a point there.

Pure Vanilla sighed. “Regardless, even at my lowest, I still wanted to help you.”

“And I wanted to drag you down to my level so you couldn’t leave.”

“Well…” The Avian lifted his left hand to gaze at the ring adorning the finger. “We raised each other up, and still are together in the end. I feel as though it worked out in the end, don’t you?”

The grip on his side turned possessive. “Mine.”

“Yes, my love. All yours.”

“I was obsessed with you from the moment I laid eyes on you, Nilla.”

Well, that much he knew. It was both flattering and disturbing when he first saw the extent of that manic fixation in the Faerie Kingdom.

Shadow Milk ran a hand idly along Pure Vanilla’s arm as he spoke. “I became aware of your existence after the Dark Flour War when you managed to also seal yourself in the Dark Side of the Moon with me. I couldn’t reach you in any way that mattered though. Trust me, I tried.”

“Do you know why you were unable?”

He felt the other nod against the top of his head. “The damn traitorous Light of Truth cast an impenetrable barrier around your body. That was how I initially figured out we had been replaced by the Witches.”

Despite Shadow Milk’s claims that he harbored no real resentment over losing half of his souljam anymore, Pure Vanilla could still hear the bitter undertone as he spoke. He supposed it was only fair, as he surmised that the entire situation had been unfair from the beginning. 

At least from what little his husband had shared about his past.

Said cookie continued speaking. “I confirmed my suspicions when I peered inside your mind and found exactly what I was both hoping and dreading to find. But, it did provide some much needed entertainment to skim through your memories. Though I couldn’t access some of them, almost like you were preventing me from doing so yourself.”

The Avian had a feeling he knew what those were and shuddered. “I’m thankful you didn’t see them. I would much prefer to have those situations haunt me as little as possible.”

Concerned curiosity trickled in through the soulbond but Shadow Milk dropped the matter in favor continuing his story. “Well. After watching your memories, I was hooked. I needed to know what made you so special in the eyes of the Witches and once the seal trapping your body was broken, I planted an Eye on the fragment of your soul still stuck with me.”

“So that was how you were watching me…”

“Yup!” His husband popped the ‘p’ on the end of the word. “Like I said before, you never escaped my sight! Not even once.”

Pure Vanilla smiled. “Was I entertaining at least?”

“In the sense that you were pathetically nice and naive, yes.”

“Didn’t you say both of those things are still true, Bluebird?”

A scoff. “Yeah. You should try to be less approachable, too. Just flip your head upside down when someone tries to talk to you. Works every time for me.”

“My love, my whole job is to be approachable. That would be quite counterintuitive.”

“Spoilsport.”

The conversation stalled for a moment as a sweet smell caught Pure Vanilla’s attention, and he noticed that some of the moon flowers and evening primroses had bloomed around them. 

Apparently, Shadow Milk noticed too. “Why do you have so many flowers, Nilla?”

What an odd question.

“I just simply enjoy botany. The weather in my kingdom allows for many species from across Earthbread to comfortably grow here, so I collect them. In containment, however, as I would dislike introducing invasive species into my home.”

“You could count me as an invasive species.”

He lifted his wing slightly, only to bring it back down and lightly smack his husband with it. “Hush.”

“Gosh, silencing me? And here I thought I married the benevolent ruler of the Vanilla kingdom, who listens and respects all! How wrong I was.”

“Firstly, I abdicated the throne years ago. Secondly, I do respect all, you just happen to be my exception to the listening aspect of my policy.” 

A faux affronted gasp was heard from Shadow Milk. “How dare you! I’ll have you know, I speak nothing but facts! People used to gather daily to hear my words of wisdom!”

Pure Vanilla smiled. “Really now? The Beast of Deceit speaking the truth? Is it a blue moon, dearest?”

“You’re insufferable. I hate you. Truly, I do.”

“Ah, I see you are back to your deceitful ways. It was fun while it lasted, I suppose.”

It was quiet for a few moments. 

“What did you used to teach, Bluebird?”

“Tch. It would be easier to answer what I didn’t teach.”

He hummed. “Well, what was your favorite subject?”

Without hesitation, Shadow Milk answered. “Astronomy.” 

“Tell me about it, would you?”

“Well, if you so insist. For starters, the universe is mostly just empty space. There is just nothingness upon nothingness sporadically interrupted by galaxies or solo planets that don’t orbit anything. On that topic, did you know that-”

The words slowly lost meaning to Pure Vanilla, as he was more focused on the sound of his husband’s voice rather than the actual things being spoken. 

He could see why so many people gathered just to hear him speak. Shadow Milk had a natural affinity for explaining and communicating a variety of different topics. It helped that he just had a lovely voice in Pure Vanilla’s very biased opinion.

The Avian closed his eyes to focus on the rumbling cadence of the other’s voice as he continued talking. 

It was strange, with how relaxed he was, it almost felt like he could…

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

When he opened his eyes again, it was suddenly quite bright out. At some point, the two of them had laid down on the sofa.

“Well, lookie here! Are you finally awake, Nilly?”

Against his will, maybe.

Instead of vocalizing his immense displeasure at not still being asleep, Pure Vanilla just nuzzled his head into Shadow Milk’s chest with a grumble.

“Had to scare away a few unruly servants who decided to disturb us. You should thank me, really. I let you get your beauty sleep.”

“You want a medal or something, Bluebird?” He pulled his wings around the two’s heads to block out the sun’s rays that were incinerating Pure Vanilla’s retinas.

The responding chuckle shook the other’s chest. “Witches, I always forget how feisty you are in the mornings! Who knew the radiant, sunshiny, esteemed hero had such a bite to him?” Shadow Milk said, like he wasn’t also the complete opposite of a morning person.

“It’s too early for this…”

“Nills, it’s ten o’clock.”

“...My point still stands.”

He got a dramatic, drawn out sigh from Shadow Milk. “I suppose I have no choice but to stay confined here.”

“We’ll get up soon. Just… give me a minute.”

They, in fact, didn’t end up leaving the gardens for another thirty minutes.

Chapter Text

In hindsight, they really should have realized something was wrong long before it became an issue.

The town the two stopped to rest in was quaint on the surface. Just a small little village with nice residents who greeted them kindly.

Sure, there were some lingering gazes on the Avian, but that wasn’t exactly a rare occurrence. Especially in less heavily populated areas where hybrids were a less common sight by foot traffic alone.

Besides, Pure Vanilla was used to being gawked at, with his unnaturally pure white wings catching the attention of humans and hybrids alike.

Of course, when the stares became too much, he usually just drew the feathered limbs closer to his back to make them a little less noticeable. 

Just as he was doing now.

“Have you spotted the inn yet, Shadow Milk?” He asked, taking the other’s blue hand into his own.

“Witches, leveraging your poor eyesight over me once again, are you? You’re cruel, Nilla. Truly, you are.”

Pure Vanilla rolled his eyes. “You say that like I chose to be legally blind, Bluebird.”

“Just wear glasses.”

He raised an eyebrow with an incredulous smile. “I do wear glasses! However, I feel as though reading glasses wouldn’t exactly help our current situation.” 

“Could help you read the signs.”

“That’s not how that works, Shadow Milk.”

“Yes it is.”

“It’s not, though.”

“Mmm, no it is.”

“You can just admit you’re wrong, Bluebird.”

“What do you mean? I’m never wrong.”

Laughing in exasperated fondness, Pure Vanilla simply squeezed Shadow Milk’s hand, extending his left wing to curl loosely around the other’s side.

The other one was still drawn tight to his back out of habit.

His boyfriend grinned. “Found it!”

“The inn?”

Shadow Milk hummed affirmingly “All without your help too. Just admit I’m the best, Nilla.”

“I think your ego is large enough without my intervention, my dear.” The Avian pulled out his coin pouch as they approached the large wooden doors.

“You wound me, Nills.” The other said, but pulled open the door for Pure Vanilla regardless.

His wing regrettably slipped off of Shadow Milk’s shoulders, but as soon as he approached again, it was back where it was supposed to be.

There were a few people in line before the two of them, and that gave Pure Vanilla enough time to scope out their surroundings.

The inn smelled pleasantly of cedar, and was comfortably warm compared to the chill that had started to set in outside now that the sun had set. The indistinct chatter of other guests gave the main room a low hum, which was almost enough to distract him from the gazes of strangers nearby that had settled on himself.

Almost.

Shadow Milk must have also noticed this, as a possessive hand wrapped around his waist and pulled Pure Vanilla closer into his side.

This should have been enough to comfort him. But he still felt very uneasy, having to consciously prevent his feathers from puffing up out of fear.

He could feel the gaze of a specific man lingering on his wings. This wasn’t unusual on his own, but it felt… hungry. Predatory, even. Like he was sizing up the Avian and just waiting to pounce.

It made his skin crawl.

“I can help the next two in line!” A feminine voice called out.

Perking up at the much welcome distraction, Pure Vanilla walked up to the counter, his boyfriend staying glued to his side.

“Good evening, miss! How much for one room?”

“That depends. Do you want one bed or two?”

That wasn’t even a question.

“One is just fine. Do you have a king available?”

“Mhm! How many nights do you plan on staying?”

“Oh, just tonight. We’re only passing through.”

She nodded. “That will be… one hundred and fifty gold.”

Pure Vanilla swiftly retrieved the coins and set them on the counter with a satisfying click.

“You two are in room one hundred and twenty.” She said, pulling out a key and handing it over to the Avian.

He took it and bowed his head politely. “Thank you, miss. Have a good evening!” 

The two of them quickly headed off to their assigned room. As soon as they were out of sight, Pure Vanilla let out a sigh of relief.

“You okay, Nills?”

He nodded, scanning the plaques displaying the room number .”I am now. I’m not sure what that was about…”

Pure Vanilla was probably just being paranoid. That’s all this was, surely.

He probably just needed a good night's rest to clear his head.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

The feeling didn’t go away in the morning.

To be fair, his dreams were plagued by uncomfortably familiar hands in his feathers, a leash bound to his neck, and the cold metal bars of his cage.

He was awoken several times to Shadow Milk shaking him and wiping tears out of his eyes with comforting reassurances that he was safe. That he wasn't there anymore, and they wouldn’t hurt him again.

Pure Vanilla really didn’t deserve to have this man as his lover…

Eventually, he gave up on sleeping and just laid still enough that he hoped his boyfriend would be able to fall back asleep. That way at least one of them would be at least partially well rested.

He spent the rest of the night in a haze, simultaneously trying not to think about… that place again and also replaying the events that took place there over and over in his head.

Not the healthiest coping mechanism, sure, but his thoughts always seemed to circle back to it no matter what he did.

Finally, morning came. And after fixing up their appearances, getting breakfast, and gathering some food and water for the rest of their trek, the two were back on the road again.

“Remind me of how you’ve managed this again.”

Shadow Milk sighed. “Dunno. I’ve just always been able to open rifts like that.”

It was a sight to behold, honestly. At any point in time, Shadow Milk was able to rip a hole in the fabric of reality to access what he called ‘The Dark Side of the Moon.’

Both of them had been inside of it before, and while it was unbelievably eerie in there, it was fascinating regardless. Shadow Milk believed he might eventually be able to use it for traveling between places, but hadn’t been able to open more than one entryway yet.

The subdimension was highly convenient for their current whims, though, as they could store various things in there without having to carry them along.

The Avian’s face shifted into a pout. “I wish I had magic like that…” 

“You know healing spells though, right?”

“Only minor ones. It’s nothing crazy.”

Shadow Milk shrugged. “Eh, most people can’t use magic at all. We’ve got something up on all of ‘em.”

His boyfriend had a point. Pure Vanilla’s family was absolutely flabbergasted when he first used magic. It wasn’t even on himself, either. 

He could still remember it like it was yesterday. His twin sister had knocked over a vase and cut her foot on the shattered glass while they were playing. Their parents had rushed over after hearing her screams and his own scared cries. 

As they started trying to console the two six year olds, Pure Vanilla carefully walked over to her and placed his hand on her injury. He still recalled desperately wanting to help her, and wishing he could do anything to make her feel better.

Then, he heard her gasp, along with his parents. When he looked down, his hand was glowing with warm yellow light, and her cut was knitting itself back together. Radiant Vanilla had surged up from where she had been curled up on the ground and wrapped him in a hug, little white wings fluttering behind her.

“What’s got you smiling like a fool over there, Nilla?”

He hummed, shaking away his thoughts. “Just thinking about my sister, that’s all.”

“Gonna have to ask her to make that one cheesecake recipe again when we get back. She’s an incredible chef.”

Pure Vanilla smiled softly. “She is. I’m still so happy you two get along.”

“I still need to challenge her to another swordfight. I can’t have my legacy remain tarnished like that.”

“She’ll kick your ass again, Shadow Milk.”

“You have such little faith in me, Nills. At least I know how to properly wield a sword and didn’t get beaten within seconds. How did you even manage to lose that fast anyways? ”

Something faintly rustled in the bushes behind them.

The Avian snapped his head toward it, wings raising as that sickening dread from the inn crawled back up his spine.

“...What’s wrong, Nilla?”

He couldn’t see anything there, but that wasn’t saying much considering everything looked blurry. “Did you hear that?”

“No?”

Maybe he was just being paranoid.

Forcing himself to relax, Pure Vanilla looked back towards Shadow Milk. “Perhaps I’m just hearing things.”

His dread was replaced with surprise as a fragrance caught his attention. It was calendula flowers!

The Avian had been making salves out of them in his spare time for his family, as using them for minor scrapes was a fine alternative to his magic when he wasn’t around.

He bent down to examine the little flower and then noticed there were a rather large amount of them along the path they were taking. 

“Bluebird, do you mind if I grab some of these to store in your rift? They take a few days to dry out and Holly should have the materials I need to make oil out of them once we get there.”

Sure, the Dark Side of the Moon was a little cold for drying out the calendulas, but he could always just set them on a windowsill once they got to Hollyberry’s place.

Shadow Milk shrugged and pulled out a small wicker basket from the subdimension and handed it to him.. “Sure, wouldn’t be the weirdest thing you’ve stuffed in there.”

He rolled his eyes and started plucking them. Pure Vanilla saw his boyfriend walk away and also start wordlessly gathering some of the flowers.

His lover was so sweet…

The Avian didn’t notice how far they had strayed away from each other until he felt the shade from the treetops hit his wings.

Ah, he should probably head back. His basket was sufficiently filled, anyway.

As soon as he pivoted to head back towards the road, a rough force knocked him over, taking the breath out of his lungs. The basket fell to the ground, flowers and petals scattering around him as he tried to figure out what had knocked him over.

It was bulky and expansive, almost like a ridiculously heavy blanket had been thrown overtop of him. 

When he looked up he realized it was… a net?

Oh stars…

Pure Vanilla could feel the color drain from his face as realized exactly what this meant and flailed his wings to try and free them, a distressed trill threatening to spill from his lips. Some of his feathers had gotten caught in the metal wiring, and sent minor shocks of pain through the feathered limbs.

He didn’t have time to deal with that right now, though. All that mattered was escaping.

“You weren’t kidding. It does look like an angel.” An unfamiliar voice said from behind him, getting a few rumbling laughs from various men behind him.

He grasped the net and tried to lift it off of himself. It had been thrown on him crooked, like the aim was miscalculated, so he was closer to one edge of it rather than directly in the middle.

Pure Vanilla pushed the frenzied prey instincts that were forming a whirlwind inside of his mind back, as they wouldn’t do him much good at this moment. He needed to be logical. 

“Ah-ah, you just sit there and be nice and quiet, pretty bird. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, mm?”

Gross.

The Avian doubled his struggles and tried to claw himself closer to the edge of the net. And he had almost managed to get a hand underneath it when a hand grabbed his hair, lifted his head up, and then…

WHAM.

His head was slammed into the ground, making lights flicker in his vision as he heard himself cry out in pain.

But… he could work with this.

He feigned submission and forced his body to relax as he took in the men around him through lowered lashes. Two were rather bulky, one looked rather young, and the last one…

The last one was the man from the hotel.

They had been followed, hadn’t they?

The man from the hotel was the largest out of all of them, definitely over six feet tall. He had a scarred body and a large bushy beard. 

Now that they thought he was either unconscious or subdued, they weren’t looking at him anymore. This was his chance.

Pure Vanilla slipped his fingers under the metal wiring. And, after preparing his body to launch itself up, threw the net off of himself.

A few droplets of blood from the feathers that were ripped from his wings in the process coated both the ground and the white plumage they came from.

Ignoring the shocked outbursts of the men behind him, the Avian jumped up, using his wings to push himself forward and push his would-be captors back.

He needed to get away, and he needed to do so now.

Pure Vanilla wanted to run back to where he had come from, but they had already blocked that path off. His only option was to run into the woods.

And unfortunately, away from where Shadow Milk was. 

The one person nearby that could help him…

But he could alert him, still.

Opening his mouth as he sprinted away, he briefly turned and let out a shrill alarm call, one that he knew Shadow Milk was aware of and what the connotations of such meant.

The hunters only seemed confused, but that just worked in his favor.

Though perhaps he should have been paying more attention to where he was running, and less thought to the men's imminent ass kicking, as one second he was running, and the next he was face first in the dirt with his foot caught in between two tree roots. 

No no no no!

He tried to wiggle it free, but his shoe was really stuck. And just as he had freed himself, Pure Vanilla was tackled back into the dirt and pinned underneath the bearded man on his stomach.

Said man grabbed his face and turned it so he was facing him. “I’m starting to think you’re more trouble than you’re worth, birdy. Maybe we should just cut your pretty wings off instead. I’m sure they’ll still fetch a nice price and sit pretty above the mantle.”

…He was bluffing, right?

There was no way.

The glint of a serrated knife catching the sun made Pure Vanilla think otherwise, and he felt his blood run cold.

Stars above please no!

The Avian couldn’t hold back the scared chirps and warbles anymore and this only seemed to spur his captor on more. 

“Should we start with the left one or the right one, little angel?”

That… hauntingly familiar nickname only increased his panic, but his flailing struggles did nothing to dislodge the hunter from straddling his waist and running his coarse, callus ridden hands over Pure Vanilla’s feathers. 

“Frozen Starfruit, mind giving me a hand over here?” The man asked, gripping his left wing roughly.

Tears pricked his lashes as a second set of hands grabbed the feathered limb and forcefully extended it, and his cries took on a pleading tone, however wordless they were.

“Ugh, Melted Matcha can you come hold it down? Stupid bird won’t stop struggling.” After a few moments, more hands gripped his body and shoved him further into the ground.

He was trapped, pinned, and entirely panicking.

Tears dripped consistently from his eyes as choked sobs intermingled with the distressed and utterly terrified vocalizations coming nonstop from his throat.

But just as he felt the blade brush the hypersensitive skin where feathers met skin on his back, a pained shout and a wet thump rang out from behind him.

The hunters around him froze, and a joyously familiar voice grabbed his attention and momentarily quieted the raging panic inside Pure Vanilla’s mind. “Get the fuck away from my Nilla.”

Three things happened at once.

First, the sets of hands not belonging to the man on top of him vanished as their owner’s footsteps faded towards Shadow Milk.

Second, he was let go briefly by the man on top of him.

Third, during the window he was set free, he hit the man in the face as hard as he could with his now freed wing and rolled the stunned man off of himself. 

Jumping up, he glanced at Shadow Milk and saw that while he was sporting a few bruises, the men that were trying to attack him were doing far worse. His first victim was laying motionless in a pool of blood, the second was hunched over with a slit throat, and the third was fighting for his life against his bloodthirsty boyfriend.

Said boyfriend had a manic grin on his face and seemed to be immensely enjoying using his rapier again, dancing and weaving around blows with elegant precision while seemingly analyzing his opponent for weaknesses.

He was truly a sight to behold in battle, and Pure Vanilla had honestly missed seeing him in action.

The Avian must have lingered on the sight for a second too long, as before he could shoot up into the treeline to get away from the remaining hunter, a rough force grabbed his wing and twisted. 

His wing held steady momentarily but succumbed to the force with an agonizing pop soon enough, and Pure Vanilla couldn’t help the scream that tore free from his throat.

A strong hand that was decidedly not Shadow Milk’s clutched him to a broad chest, the force of the push shoved the most likely dislocated limb into the man behind him, sending a white hot wave of pain through the entire left side of his body.

Another wet thump hit the ground, and his boyfriend was standing over yet another deceased man. The grin had been wiped clean from his face, teeth instead bared in a snarl. “Get away from him. I won’t ask you again you scruffly fuck.”

“I’m sure I can cut you a deal. Keep me alive and I’ll give you half of what I get off of him, and I’ll even get you in contact with another seller to replace your pet bird, here.”

Shadow Milk looked downright murderous. “Pet? You think he’s a pet?!” A look of realization crossed his face and his lips twisted into a malicious smile. “Ohoho, I know exactly what type of sicko you are.”

As his boyfriend made a step closer, that damn serrated blade was pressed against Pure Vanilla’s throat, and he chirped in pain as it pressed into his skin slightly. “One more step and it dies.”

“Stop.” The smile was gone.

“Either pay me what it’s worth or scram.”

Pure Vanilla knew that they didn’t have that kind of money. Unfortunately, hybrid trading and hunting was a rather lucrative business. Perhaps if they hadn’t been on the road it would have been more plausible, but as of right now, they only had enough for hotel fares on their way to visit Hollyberry on their person.

And judging by Shadow Milk’s face, he knew that fact too.

“Guessing that’s a no on the payment front?” The man behind him said, and the blade dug further in, and he could feel beads of warm blood start trickling down his neck.

His boyfriend was now showing a rare emotion: unfiltered fear. “Wait! Stop!”

The next few moments passed by very quickly. 

One second Shadow Milk was in front of him, the next a rift opened, and then his captor’s arm was wrenched from his throat.

Unfortunately, the steel blade then cleanly sliced a deep gash running from the center of his chest to his lower left abdomen, and Pure Vanilla hunched over while pressing his arms to the wound.

The Avian heard the sounds of a struggle behind him, before a sickening snap and large thump was heard. Then, familiar cool, blue hands cupped his cheeks.

He lifted his gaze from the disturbingly large cut in favor of locking eyes with his beloved savior.

Shadow Milk didn’t say anything for a few moments, but the raw love and concern in his eyes spoke volumes more than words ever could.

On an impulsive thought, Pure Vanilla leaned in and kissed him, and judging by the other’s squeak of surprise, he wasn’t expecting that.

But to be fair, the Avian himself also wasn’t expecting his impulsive thoughts to win out, either.

His boyfriend pulled back and placed a hand next to the wound carefully.

“Stars, Nilla, that looks bad.”

Instead of looking back down at his body and now very stained clothing, Pure Vanilla looked at the desecrated forest around them.

There were torn bits of clothing from the fights, not to mention the bodies scattered around them. The most obvious signs of a fight, aside from the bodies, was the dark red blood stained the flora and the scent of iron was strong enough to most likely linger for days. 

Luckily, at least three quarters of the spilled blood wasn’t Pure Vanilla’s own.

He tried reassuring Shadow Milk that he was fine but all that came out was a choked warble. The prey instincts were still running rampant in his mind, not helped by the amount of pain he was in, either.

Pure Vanilla pressed his hand to the gash, which was still leaking blood at a concerning rate, steadily adding to the ever growing puddle beneath himself. As he started healing, he immediately knew his magic wasn’t strong enough to close it completely. He still needed to do as much as he could though 

It was still mesmerizing watching the flesh knit itself back together, though. Even if his vision was starting to darken at the edges.

Wait, his vision was darkening?

That wasn’t good.

A warm body cradled his own from the right side, and he leaned into the contact with a weak coo, magic flickering at his fingertips before fading completely.

“Why didn’t you finish healing it? Nills, you’re still bleeding.”

He opened his eyes to stare up at Shadow MIlk, not knowing when he had closed them. He gave the other a mournful croon, eyebrows knitting together at the sight of the other’s face flickering in and out of focus in his vision.

His boyfriend’s face pinched in a mixture of concern and frustration. “I don’t speak that language birdy, work with me here.”

Trying to gather his thoughts, Pure Vanilla again attempted to cobble together any sort of Common he could speak but the words kept slipping through his fingers like sand.

A sigh came from above him and Shadow Milk now wore a forced looking smile. “Okay. We can’t stay here, so up we go.”

Arms came up between his armpits and lifted him to his feet. 

Instantly, his vision tunneled and Pure Vanilla’s limbs suddenly felt like fifty pound barbels had been attached. He tipped forward with a distressed trill, unable to hold himself up.

Steady hands grasped him from behind. “Alright, carrying it is, got it.”

The Avian’s head was swimming, and all opening his eyes did was cause intense vertigo. Hell, even when his eyes were closed the dizziness was still present, just less intense. Catching his breath also felt much harder, as if his lungs could only hold a tiny amount of oxygen.

Shadow Milk scooped him up into his arms, careful to avoid his dislocated wing, and started rambling as he did so. “I think I can use the Other Realm to get us to Hollyberry’s. Maybe. We’ll see. I mean it worked once before so how hard could it be?”

A nervous laugh. “Not sure what I’ll do if I can’t, though. So that just means it needs to work, right? Sure, I’ve only done this once and only two minutes ago but it should be fine! I mean really, it-”

The words all seemed to jumble together as his head lolled against his boyfriend’s chest.

Time seemed to flash by after that in a jumble of sounds, scents, and blurry visions.

He could recall seeing various shades of pink along with the scent of berries and sugar. The burning smell of antiseptic and unfamiliar voices, along with someone running their hand along the cut on his abdomen. 

Then… nothing.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

Prying his eyes open felt like a ice cream mammoth of a task.

His whole body ached and exhaustion coated every breath like a sludge. Pure Vanilla’s thoughts were all scattered and disorganized, and the ones he could parse through only consisted of his Avian flock instinct and crying that he was seemingly alone while hurt and vulnerable.

He could feel a hand holding his own, though, and would rather like to know who it belonged to.

The world was blurry, which wasn’t exactly unusual for him but it seemed worse than normal. Despite this, he could tell exactly whose hand his own was intertwined with when he looked over.

Shadow Milk was sitting in a chair next to the bed Pure Vanilla was laying in, his head laying on top of partially folded arms and breathing quietly with a mostly peaceful expression on his face.

Mostly, because the Avian could see the obvious signs of exhaustion and stress on the other’s face.

What had happened? One moment they were picking flowers and the next…

That was when it came flooding back to him like a tsunami. Though, now he could move his left wing without searing agony shooting up his spine. Sure, it still caused him to hiss in pain but he wasn’t actively screaming anymore, so that was a plus.

“Nilla…?” A rough, sleepy voice came from his side.

He turned to look at Shadow Milk and greeted him with a soft coo.

Realization seemed to hit the other and he shot up, both hands clutching Pure Vanilla’s own like a lifeline. “You’re awake! Stars, I’m never letting you out of my sight again, Songbird. You gave me a damn heart attack.”

He smiled. “I’m-” Wow, his voice was rougher than he anticipated.

The Avian cleared his throat a few times before speaking. “I’m sorry for worrying you.”

Shadow Milk gripped his cheeks and aggressively kissed him several times before pulling back. “Never apologize for something stupid like that again.”

“Well. If I get that treatment each time, I might just have to.”

“You absolute fiend. A feathered, kiss hungry menace, that’s what you are.”

Pure Vanilla giggled. “Yes. But I’m your feathered, kiss hungry menace.”

“Ugh. Well I’ll gladly pay that tax if I never have to see you covered in your own blood like that again. Shit’s gonna haunt my nightmares for the rest of my days.”

He placed both of his hands overtop of Shadow Milk’s with a frown. “Where are we, anyways? I certainly hope I didn’t make you carry me to the next town over…”

“It wouldn’t have been much of a challenge even if you did. You way as much as a toothpick, Nilla.” Shadow Milk shot him a grin before continuing.

“But no. You know how I theorized that interdimensional travel was possible using the Other Realm? Well, I managed to pull it off.”

At his shocked expression, his boyfriend continued. “It was how I saved you back there. Dunno how I did it originally but I managed to open a rift behind that grizzly-bear-wannabe and wrenched the knife out of his hand.”

The other took one of his hands and traced it lightly over Pure Vanilla’s abdomen, which he now realized was heavily bandaged. “But I didn’t manage to stop the force behind his arm before he cut you. He didn’t deserve a quick death for hurting you as much as he did, but I was more concerned about your health so I just snapped his neck. He got let off easy.”

Only Shadow Milk could make literal murder sound like a light punishment.

“Anyway, after you passed out I managed to panic enough to open a rift to Hollyberry’s place. Her and Sugar called an in-house medic and now we’re in one of her spare rooms.”

At the mention of a doctor, Pure Vanilla finally noticed the IV he had in his arm.

“How… long was I asleep for?”

“Around fourteen hours or so.”

From what he was aware of, blood loss wouldn’t have done that entirely. Was it due to the stress of the incident taking a toll on his body? Or was it perhaps due to his poor night’s rest the day prior? Regardless, he knew the course of treatment would go agonizingly slow, even if they had most likely already done a blood transfusion.

Shadow Milk flicked his forehead, dragging the Avian away from his thoughts with a surprised chirp. “Stop working on vacation. I can see your doctor-brain already theorizing and planning.”

At Pure Vanilla’s guilty smile, his boyfriend continued. “Nilla, you literally almost bled out, give yourself a break and let us take care of you for once. Stop being so stubbornly self-sufficient.”

“Pot meet kettle.”

“I… Fair point.” Shadow Milk pouted for a moment before Pure Vanilla lifted the blanket, grabbed his shirt and dragged him into the bed.

Wasting no time, lest his boyfriend get away, he quickly cocooned the other in his wings and the various blankets on the bed within the span of five seconds.

After taking a few moments, likely to process what just happened, Shadow Milk sighed. “You’re a kiss and cuddle fiend, huh?”

He giggled.

“You’re laughing. I’m trapped under the covers with an aggressively affectionate Avian and you’re laughing? Cruel.”

“I’m aggressively affectionate? Have you looked in the mirror recently, Bluebird?”

Whatever Shadow Milk said was lost on Pure Vanilla’s ears as a yawn snuck up on him and he nuzzled his head into the other’s chest.

“I love you, Shadow Milk.”

“Tch. Love you two, Songbird.

Chapter Text

“Have you lost your mind, Pure Vanilla?!”

Said cookie flinched at the harsh tone Dark Cacao used.

Everything had been fine five minutes ago, the Ancients had been making headway into locating where Dark Enchantress may be residing when he mentioned possibly asking Shadow Milk for information.

At the puzzled looks he got, he went on to explain that they were friends. Such good friends, in fact, that said cookie swapped between the Vanilla Kingdom and the Spire of Deceit as his primary residence.

That was when everything boiled over, and he hadn’t even discussed their relationship status yet…

“Shadow Milk cannot be trusted. Don’t you see he is just using you?” Dark Cacao’s angry glare made Pure Vanilla avert his gaze to the table.

“My friend, please. Allow me to-”

Golden Cheese cut him off, her wings raised in clear agitation. “No amount of excuses or justifications could possibly justify this, Vanilla! What were you thinking? Inviting a Beast into your home?”

Dark Cacao spoke again. “He is a danger to us all! Including yourself, even if you’ve convinced yourself otherwise.”

“He’s not! Shadow Milk isn’t-”

White Lily cut him off. “He murdered Elder Faerie right in front of us!”

“I… Yes. And there is no excuse for that. However-”

The Cacaoian interrupted him. “There is no ‘however’ in this, Pure Vanilla. Nothing you can say could come close to justifying his hand in taking another’s life.”

Golden Cheese interjected again. “How do you know he isn’t just playing you for a fool again? Didn’t you say he toyed with your heart before attempting to take your souljam? How is this any different?”

“He’s not after my souljam this time! I know he isn’t.”

White Lily crossed her arms. “How?”

Pure Vanilla’s hand rested on his souljam. “We share a soulbond. If he truly harbored ill intent towards me, I would be able to feel it.”

They were all silent for a moment, and he glanced at Hollyberry’s empty seat. She had been called back to her kingdom on urgent business the day prior.

The one person who might have defended him was gone, and there was no way he was dragging Shadow Milk into this. He had requested his boyfriend to stay hidden until nightfall while the others resided in the castle.

As if they saw him, especially after this, it might go from verbal fighting to physical…

She spoke again. “He’s the master of Deceit. Couldn’t he just be masking his true feelings and transferring false ones through the bond?”

“That… I don’t believe that is possible, Lily.”

“Regardless, even if he harbors no ill intent towards you, that Beast still poses a sizable threat to the rest of us and our kingdoms.” Dark Cacao said.

Pure Vanilla shook his head. “He has no interest in harming you or your kingdoms anymore. We have discussed such matters at length.”

Golden Cheese’s wings fluttered. “So that means he did want to at some point? What if that desire resurfaces? The risk is far too great for you to go through with this!”

Before he could correct his phrasing, Dark Cacao spoke. “Even knowing he once harbored intent to harm us, you accepted him into your home?! You dare jeopardize our kingdoms’ safety for your own selfish desires?” 

Selfish…?

Is that really how they saw this…?

He felt the threads of his composure snapping one by one, and was desperately trying to repair it.

White Lily spoke again. “You never even told us of the risks of coming here before inviting us for this meeting. When did you become so untrustworthy?”

The mask cracked.

Pure Vanilla couldn’t conceal the raw hurt that shot through him, and  a brief flash of guilt flickered in White Lily’s eyes before it was smothered underneath the clear frustration and grief from the reminder of Elder Faerie’s passing.

His wings folded themselves uncomfortably tight to his back in a mixture of fear and shame.

Shutting his eyes for a moment, Pure Vanilla schooled his expression back into a hopefully convincing mask of neutrality, trying and failing to stop his staff’s light from flickering wildly from sheer panic at his calm facade breaking. “I see we are at an impasse.” His hands were shaking where they were clenched tightly in his lap.

He needed to get out of here right now. 

Opening his eyes back up, he continued. “We are clearly getting nowhere arguing amongst ourselves like this. I am ending this discussion early, and we may resume, with clear minds, tomorrow at the scheduled time.” At least he was able to keep the shakiness out of his voice, years of regulating and leading political discussions in his kingdom had really paid off.

As he stood, Pure Vanilla softly tapped his staff against the ground to open the large doors that lead into the room. At the same time, he opened a portal to the other realm and pivoted to walk through without another word.

He heard several protests come from the others but, in a… selfish moment, he closed the rift before they could finish.

With a flick of his wrist, an exit leading to he and his boyfriend’s room opened, and Pure Vanilla all but collapsed through it as the tidal wave of panic and stress he had been suppressing for months at this point finally hit him.

Luckily, it seemed Shadow Milk was at the Spire, meaning their connection should be weakened enough for his other half not to notice.

He didn’t need to be dragged into the Avian’s emotionally wrecked state.

A dull pain brought Pure Vanilla back to himself, as he had fallen to his knees beside his bed, and his vision was already blurring with tears as his body shook with restrained sobs.

Now that he wasn’t distracted, his mind started swirling with what had been hurled at him during the meeting.

Selish. Untrustworthy.

Did they truly see him as such?

Was he those things?

A few choked chirps escaped him before Pure Vanilla bit down on his lip to stifle the noises.

The pain brought a bit of clarity to his mind, and he registered how foolish this all was.

Two words.

All it took were two words to get him to break.

He smiled bitterly to himself at the thought. It was pathetic really.

Pure Vanilla was pathetic.

Fresh tears bubbled in his eyes at the notion, and he gripped his arms as a whirlwind of anguish and self hatred struck through him.

Other cookies always saw him as this saintly, untouchable figure. He didn’t mind the depiction as long as it brought them hope. Sure, he wasn’t entirely comfortable with being idolized as such, but as long as others were happy, he could be too.

His happiness didn’t matter as long as they were happy.

He didn’t matter as long as they were happy.

Pure Vanilla’s purpose was to serve. 

Selfish.

He wasn’t! Right…?

…

Maybe he should be giving more.

But what more could he give?

He wasn’t sure, and that thought only amplified the panic running through his veins.

Another jolt of pain knocked some sense back into him, and the smell of jam caught his attention.

Looking down, he realized that he had been gripping his arms so tightly that he had cut himself.

…

His eyes drifted up towards the nightstand, and he reached for the bottom drawer almost on instinct.

Inside sat an old knife, jam flakes coated the edge of the blade.

He grabbed the knife and picked himself up off the floor, and then sat on the bed.

His sleeve was pulled back on reflex, and a bit of guilt stabbed at his heart at the realization of what he was about to do.

Pure Vanilla had promised his friends that he would stop, that he would find other outlets to vent his emotions. They had said that he could always talk to them, that they loved and cared for him…

Was he really about to go back on his word like this?

Untrustworthy.

…

He made the first cut.

The pain felt good. It numbed his emotions and quieted the storm in his mind, and he picked another spot at random. 

Jam beaded at the slices on his forearm, sluggishly rolling towards his elbow.

Just as his thoughts started creeping back in, he made a third divot in his dough. 

It was fascinating watching the jam trickle out of the wounds. Despite how many times he had done this, it never got boring.

Was it a little concerning?

Absolutely.

Was he going to tell anyone?

Over his crumbled body.

No one should be dragged into his mess. He was only hurting himself with this, and he deserved the pain.

Why did he deserve it…?

He silenced that thought with another slice, followed by two more after that.

The jam was dripping off of his arm at this point and the droplets formed a small, misshapen puddle on the floor. 

Instead of addressing that, he switched arms.

After a few more cuts, the sting of a tear hitting one of the incisions caught his attention. 

He stared blankly for a moment before going back to looking at the jam running down his arm with a sick fascination and satisfaction.

What was wrong with him? He really shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as he is. It was bad, it was wrong, he was wrong-

Slice.

Blissful numbness coated his brain once again, and his focus was directed back to making that feeling stay as long as possible with more lacerations.

A quick glance at the floor underneath him showed that the puddle had grown significantly. Large enough to be concerning normally, but all it did was bring a small smile to his face.

Some of the other divots had closed and he opened one again with another slice. A larger amount of jam than normal streamed from the cut and he watched it add to the pool beneath him.

Did he accidentally cut too deep?

Interesting…

He supposes he should make it even.

With another slash to his dough, it was. Both arms now had a sizable cut, followed by dozens of smaller ones.

Pure Vanilla started feeling lightheaded. He should really heal them.

But…

It couldn’t hurt to watch for a bit longer.

“Oh Nillllyyy! I’m hoomeee!” 

Crumbs…

“I’m rather curious about what happened earlier, you seemed rather perturbed about something. Don’t tell me you missed my amazing presence that much! I’m flattered, really, but I’m saving myself for my boyfri- OVENS BELOW!!”

Shadow Milk froze where he had been floating in the air, hand still frozen from where it had been resting dramatically on his chest.

Pure Vanilla was frozen. He couldn’t even open his mouth to defend himself or make excuses. 

All he could do was stare at the other like a jelly deer in headlights.

“Nilla… What did… Why did you…?” The normally composed and quick witted tongue that his boyfriend possessed had seemingly all but vanished.

And honestly? He didn’t blame him.

Shadow Milk’s shocked expression shifted into one of concern, which felt much worse in Pure Vanilla’s opinion.

With uncharacteristic gentleness, the Beast took the knife out of his shaking hands, setting it on the nightstand and cupping his face. Blue thumbs wiped away tears that the Ancient hadn’t even realized he was still shedding.

“What happened?”

Those two words, albeit different ones, were enough to make him shatter again.

Pure Vanilla lowered his head and curled his shoulders forward, but he couldn’t quite choke down the quiet sobs that were so desperate to escape him.

Instead of getting up and leaving the mess of an Ancient to his breakdown, or getting mad and demanding answers to his question, Shadow Milk just wrapped his arms around Pure Vanilla wordlessly.

It was awkward and stiff, like he didn’t know how to hug someone properly, but it was everything the Avian needed at that moment.

He threw his, still jam covered, arms around Shadow Milk and held onto him like the other might disappear in that moment.

Tucking his head against the Beast’s chest, he unleashed all of the sorrow and stress that had been plaguing him for the past five months now.

Witches, he was so tired of being strong for everyone else.

At some point, Shadow Milk brought his hand up to card through his blonde locks, and that just made Pure Vanilla hold onto him tighter and cry harder.

Eventually, his tears faded, and he just sat there with his head resting against the other.

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes, until Shadow Milk let go of him.

At first, he thought that was the end of it. His boyfriend had done his part and now they were just going to forget about this whole thing.

Averting his gaze to look literally anywhere other than at the cookie in front of him, Pure Vanilla curled his wings closer to his shoulders as an absentminded self soothing mechanism.

As he opened his mouth to… speak? Apologize? Defend himself? He didn’t know, but whatever the case, he was interrupted by Shadow Milk grabbing one of his arms, which were still weeping jam at this point. Aside from both of the larger cuts, which had yet to clot and scab over.

Neither of them said anything, just sat in semi awkward silence as his boyfriend examined his arm with an unreadable expression.

Warmth enveloped the wounds soon enough, and it took his brain a few seconds longer than normal to realize that Shadow Milk was healing him.

“You… know white magic?” Witches, his voice was rougher than he thought it would be. 

Serves him right for having a breakdown, he supposes.

This was so embarrassing… How did he even let himself get to this point? What was he doing? He shouldn’t have dragged Shadow Milk into this. He shouldn’t have even had a panic attack to begin with! Much less need someone else to step in and help him. 

Witches, he was so pathetic-

“Nilla, breathe. It’s fine, whatever you’re stressing yourself out over is fine.” A cold hand gripped his own.

Pure Vanilla blinked and looked up at Shadow Milk. “I’m sorry.”

He got an eyebrow raise from the other and continued. “I… I shouldn’t have done it. I know it’s bad, and that I’m horrible for hurting myself. You shouldn’t have needed to help me. Nor should you have needed to witness my…”

The Avian sighed. “I’m so sorry.

“Nills, shut up.”

Well, that wasn’t what he expected to hear.

“You’re not the only one in the room who’s done it.” Shadow Milk pulled back his jester sleeve to reveal faded marks on his forearm. “These are part of the reason I know white magic. You’re not the only one who took advantage of erasing the scars.”

Shadow Milk… self harmed as well?

The Beast dropped his sleeve and took Pure Vanilla’s hand again. “Now, tell me what happened and whose ass I have to kick.”

A startled laugh escaped him, which made the other’s stern face crack into a small grin as well. 

Pure Vanilla then sighed, his own smile dimming into a soft frown. “I had a fight with the other Ancients. They were… quite unreceptive to your status in the castle.”

Another unreadable expression crossed Shadow Milk’s face. “Does this mean I’m being kicked out?”

“Witches no! Absolutely not. The only ones who can decide whether you stay or leave are yourself and I.” 

A relieved but still concerned smile fell over the Beast’s face again. “What did they say to get you so worked up, Nilly?”

He grimaced. “They… called me selfish and untrustworthy for letting you stay.”

“What?”

The rage in that single word made him shiver. “Bluebird, please don’t go after them! I’m sure it was just a heat of the moment exclamation!” He grabbed the other’s arm to prevent him from hunting down the other Ancients.

Shadow Milk gave him a low growl but his hair stopped lashing out like angry tentacles.

“Let me make one thing clear, Nills. You are the most unapologetically selfless cookie I have ever met. You give and give and give some more even when you have nothing left. I’ve seen your memories, and I’ve watched you work yourself into the ground on several occasions just for the sake of others. You are foolishly self sacrificial and disgustingly empathetic. So no, you aren’t selfish.”

As he opened his mouth, the other pressed a finger to his lips. “Ah-ah, I’m not done. Calling you untrustworthy is a lie I just cannot get behind. And that’s coming from the Master of Deceit himself, alright? You embody truth for a reason, dummy. Trusting you, for most cookies, comes as simple as breathing. I’m sure they would cartwheel off a cliff if you told them they would be fine.”

Pure Vanilla closed his eyes with a tired smile, tipping his head forward to land against Shadow Milk’s shoulder. 

“...Thank you…” He whispered.

And surprisingly, the Beast didn’t say anything else, just loosely wrapped his arms around the Ancient and ran his claws through the surprisingly untangled blond locks that ran down his back.

His wings relaxed, half folding themselves at his sides and splaying the rest of his feathers across the mattress.

They stayed there like that for a while, and it was… nice.

Peaceful.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Pure Vanilla had gone limp against him a while ago, but Shadow Milk couldn’t bring himself to move. 

Not until the dumb bird’s breathing had evened out a little more, he told himself. Surely REM hadn’t kicked in yet, so he might still be prone to waking up!

They couldn’t have that, right?

He used his scattered Eyes around the room to scan the area and see if anything else, besides the obvious, was amiss.

Luckily, aside from a bit of improperly dispelled Dark Moon magic from when Pure Vanilla had likely come in earlier, nothing was awry.

Good.

Using said Eyes to look at his partner, Shadow Milk grimaced. 

Witches, he had never seen Pure Vanilla in such a state before.

Well… almost never.

When Truthless Recluse had taken over, he had that same hollowed and haunted look. And sure, his darling marionette had been emotionally unstable, but he had never violently erupted into tears like this before.

Truthless had been more… subtle about expressing his pain, if at all. Aside from the withering glares and occasional shouting he did, his gothic little doll had a pretty good grip on when and where he chose to shatter.

And while Pure Vanilla had gotten away from the others, he knows that his Recluse would have rather stabbed himself than accept comfort from Shadow Milk.

My my, how things have changed!

Shaking off the thought, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to his partner’s forehead, and the Ancient leaned into the contact with a barely audible trill.

With a wave of his hand, the jam on the floor was cleaned, and the knife was chucked into the other realm for the time being.

That was future Shadow Milk’s problem.

Current Shadow Milk laid Pure Vanilla back gently on the mattress, and the other didn’t so much as stir beyond nosing into the pillow beside him with a gentle sigh. 

The Beast smiled bittersweetly at just how exhausted the other looked. His boyfriend’s breakdown, and subsequent jamloss, had really taken it out of him, hadn’t it?

Normally, his little bird was quite the light sleeper, much like himself. Shooting awake at any noise, no matter how quiet.

Which was quite unfortunate considering how hard it was for either of them to sleep to begin with!

Eternal Sugar had once experimented on him during his time as… Blueberry Milk. Ugh, the mere thought of that name made nausea rise from within him.

Anyway, his dental nightmare of a friend had experimented on him with her ‘Sleeping Sugar’ as she called it, as both were very familiar with his bouts of insomnia and nightmares.

He was never trusting her with any such things again.

Apparently, he was asleep for a day and a half when he was only supposed to be out for a night!

And, oh boy, do not get him started about the Witches-damned hangover he had after prying himself out of the bone-chilling, insanity coated fever dreams!

Shadow Milk had been incapacitated for another day by those stupid kaleidoscope-esc swirls in his vision.

Never again.

Oh, he got sidetracked.

Like he was saying, both he and Pure Vanilla struggled with sleeping and the plagues of night-terrors. Perhaps it was just a curse of their combined souljam of Knowledge?

He didn’t know.

What he did know was that being around each other solved that problem almost completely.

Both of them had managed to pass out next to each other at one point in this oversized wafflecone of a castle And when Shadow Milk awoke the next morning, it wasn’t to crippling terror of his haunted conscience, it was to castle staff standing over the two of them and gently shaking Pure Vanilla awake.

And while he thought it was a one-off coincidence, it happened again a few, uncomfortably sleepless, nights later. Neither of them had slept, and the Ancient looked about as terrible as Shadow Milk felt.

After that, it became a routine to sleep next to each other. Either in their shared bedroom in his Spire, or in this stupidly pleasant smelling kingdom. 

A wing twitching underneath him broke Shadow Milk out of his thoughts, and just as he tried to get up, he was locked in place by something.

Pure Vanilla had grabbed his hand at some point, and despite being entirely unconscious, had a weirdly strong grip.

Not wanting to wake his boyfriend, and totally not because he wanted more cuddles, the Beast laid down beside him. 

As if on instinct, the Avian curled into Shadow Milk’s chest and splayed his wing across both of them.

This sight was disgustingly adorable.

Just like Pure Vanilla.

Nothing would hurt his doll if he had any say in it.

Pure Vanilla completely, and utterly… Shadow Milk’s.

Chapter Text

Midnight Vanilla hadn’t had sex with Blueberry Milk in over a month and was about to lose his Witches-damned mind.

See, his husband had been away on a Divine’s only trip to Crispia for around two weeks. Annoying, yes, but none of his fellow Mythics were invited either, so he wasn’t the only souljam holder stuck in Beast Yeast without their respective counterpart.

Problems arose, however, when his Sage was then immediately leaving on an Academy trip to the Mangosteen islands with his students to study a rare eclipse sighting that only happened once every few decades and how it affected the local wildlife.

Blueberry Milk’s students were to write full reports on it while there as a substitute for a traditional exam, which he would normally give around this time.

This trip would take another two weeks.

Four weeks in total for the two trips combined.

Four weeks without his husband.

What was more frustrating than anything was how distraught the whole thing made him. Midnight Vanilla had been almost entirely alone for several centuries before this, so why was just one month of Sage’s absence destroying him so much?

And now, that led him here. Standing in the doorway of Blueberry Milk’s office staring him down like a hawk.

“My dear, trying to burn a hole in my skull with your gaze will not make me grade any faster.”

He huffed. “Am I not more important than simple pieces of paper?”

“You are far more important. However, I fell behind during my stay in the tropics and must get these finished by tomorrow.”

“Then grade them after. I need you right now, Sage.”

An amused smile overtook the other’s face as his wrist flicked with the quick motions of his quill. “We both know that I will be unable to return to my office, darling. You get awfully clingy after sex.”

The Avian’s face flushed as he turned his gaze away.

At his lack of response, his husband simply set a stapled essay packet on a neatly organized stack next to him before grabbing another one and setting it in front of himself.

He bit the inside of his cheek out of frustration at the simple motion. 

The absolute gall Sage had to make out with Midnight Vanilla when he arrived home, and then promptly leave him empty and longing for more right afterwards in favor of grading!

The bastard was even using one of his shed secondary feathers to write with! 

His eyes narrowed and he stalked over to the desk, hopping on the edge of it and crossing his legs over each other.

And still, all Blueberry Milk did was give him a small smile while, yet again, not looking up from those Witch-forsaken papers.

So he sat there, still watching Sage and glaring at him, wings raised in clear agitation.

But nothing.

Midnight Vanilla felt like he was going to crawl outside of his own dough at this point. All of the restless energy that had been quietly building for the past month had hit him like a tidal wave the moment he saw his husband arrive home.

Now he was here, stewing in it while wishing he could simply incinerate the horrid essays in front of Blueberry Milk and become his sole focus instead.

Another paper was set aside, and he noticed Sage had even drawn a smiley face next to the grade.

With an unhappy warble, he plucked the feather out of the other’s hand and huffed. 

That finally got Blueberry Milk to turn and face him. Granted, he was met with an exasperated eyebrow raise, but it was still eye contact regardless.

A coy smile slipped onto his face as he raised an eyebrow of his own, twirling the feather in his hand and smudging ink between his fingers.

They had a staring contest for a few moments before Sage broke with a sigh. “Fine, I suppose I can entertain you for a bit.”

Before Midnight Vanilla could celebrate his success, however, he was abruptly yanked away by… something. It was thick, wriggly, and somewhat slimy.

A quick glance at his torso revealed what on Earthbread had grabbed him.

Tentacles.

Several of them, in fact. A shimmering blue summoning circle was positioned under his feet and more of the azure tendrils were actively wiggling their way out, slithering up his body and wrapping around him.

He glanced up to find Blueberry Milk grinning at him with a far too pleased expression.

“Sage, what is the meaning of this?”

“Whaaaat? I never said how I had to entertain you! This should keep you nice and preoccupied.”

And with that, his horrible, cruel husband pulled out another feather from Witches knows where and turned back to his desk.

Midnight Vanilla only had a few seconds to fear for his life before he felt his clothing getting shifted around by the tentacles, the silky fabric now having trails of slimy ooze strewn across them.

He tried to pry them off, but then he noticed something. At some point in time, all of his limbs, minus his wings, had already been restrained by the damn things. 

Crumbs…

Several had already managed to slip under his robes by now, and he could feel them straining against it. All it took was two of them pulling in opposite directions before…

Riiiiip!

He no longer had robes.

The tattered fabric fell to the ground, and he flicked his feathers to get the shredded remains off of them too. Now having more exposed dough to explore, the tendrils made quick work of roving all over his body, leaving no section untouched.

Midnight Vanilla let out a shaky breath, goosebumps popping up along his dough at the sensation.

One wiggled between his embarrassingly wet thighs, having already soaked through the thin fabric of his leotard, and rubbed against his folds.

He bit his lip to stifle a moan that threatened to leave the confines of his mouth, but that plan was foiled when a smaller one slipped underneath his bodysuit and prodded curiously at the wet heat between his legs.

His breathy whimper only seemed to spur them on, as the smaller one dipped past the lips of his cunt and delved into the velvety caverns of it instead, and the larger one started rubbing more insistently at the soaked fabric separating it from his slit.

Midnight Vanilla gasped, followed by a few quiet moans escaping him as the thick appendage rubbed back and forth across his clit, eyes fluttering closed. It suddenly slipped inside of his leotard too and tore the fabric off of him at his midsection, and a few smaller tentacles pulled it off of him.

Now he was, more or less, completely exposed, not counting his stockings and gloves, which the tendrils seemed to leave alone for the most part.

The small tentacle retracted, but was quickly replaced by the larger one, which got to work rubbing and writhing against his walls. And as if they switched places, the smaller one got to work fondling his clit, drawing a pleasured warble out of him.

He heard the rustle of paper and opened his eyes to see that, despite having the Recluse actively getting speared open by tentacles next to him, Sage was casually working away.

Blueberry Milk’s sheer audacity never failed to surprise him.

Truthless had to bite back a yelp as the tip of the tendril inside of him brushed against his cervix. As if sensing the blinding pleasure that sent through him, it prodded the spot more intently, sending him careening into an embarrassingly fast orgasm.

The Avian threw his head back with a wail, thighs shaking as his walls pulsated around the tentacle, which halted its motions.

“My my, you must have been quite pent up, weren’t you dear?”

This little-

Still trembling from the force of the orgasm, he tried to scold Sage, only for it to come out as a whiny chitter as the tentacles started moving again. 

The fucker hadn’t even looked up from his Witches-damned papers. 

“Hmm, I do still need to work over here, and you’re being awfully loud. Why don’t I help you… fix that problem.” 

Before he could question what he meant by that, one of the slimy appendages managed to squirm its way into his partially opened mouth.

It tasted… irritatingly good. A familiar tang of blueberry mixed with a rich sweet undertone greeted him as it explored his mouth.

Of course Blueberry Milk made them taste like himself, the self absorbed fool.

His resulting moan at the realization was muffled by the tendril in his mouth, but was still loud enough to make Sage snicker from across the room.

Truthless was going to shave this impudent bastard bald for his insolence, mark his words.

Suddenly, another one pressed against his cunt, tip slipping inside him easily from how slicked up his entrance was now. 

Midnight Vanilla groaned as it pushed its way in, joining the other one of its kind still thrusting inside of him. The stretch burned, but the pain only pushed him closer to the edge again.

They started alternating their thrusts, one always being inside of him and never leaving him empty.

The tendril that had been massaging his clit then wrapped itself around the sensitive nub, coiling around it and moving up and down.

That threw him into his second climax of the night, his scream muffled by the appendage still wiggling around in his mouth.

This time, however, the tentacles didn’t stop moving. They just kept going, making Truthless writhe in overstimulation, tears springing to his eyes.

All the while, Sage just continued to grade. 

This infuriating, heartless, sadistic, Witch-forsaken-

Something was prodding at his ass.

His wings flapped as it started pushing at the rim of muscle surrounding that hole, several pained chirps escaping him as it managed to successfully worm its way inside.

And damn his masochism, the burning stretch of having something that big in his woefully underprepared hole felt amazing.

It, mercifully, started slow. Just languid motions of pulling in and out. The gentleness of it confused him, seeing as the others were still enthusiastically destroying his cunt, but he opted not to question it.

Just as he was starting to enjoy the gentle motions, it suddenly rammed to the hilt, and he screamed straight into his next climax.

His head was spinning from the intensity of it all, eyes falling shut as he whimpered around the appendage in his mouth, tongue roving over it mindlessly as he tried to clutch onto any sense of composure he might still have.

He couldn’t let Blueberry Milk win like this. Midnight Vanilla could just tell that his husband wanted him to fall apart, and it would be so easy to. He could, but he shouldn’t, it-

His vision went white at the edges when one of them poked his urethra.

…They were really trying to fill all of his holes, weren’t they.

Midnight Vanilla squirmed against his slimy captors, not sure whether he was trying to push his body towards or away from the curious little thing.

The tentacle in his mouth pushed further in, and at the same time, the little one slipped inside the tiny cavern it was so hellbent on exploring.

A downright whorish moan left him as his hips involuntarily jerked towards the intrusion. 

It all just felt… so good.

The tendril started fucking his throat, and he started moving with it, relishing in the lightheadedness that the lack of oxygen brought him from his airways being blocked constantly.

His wings flared behind him as the appendage in his urethra went impossibly deeper, and his voice cracked on a scream when he tumbled off the edge again, legs shaking from the strength of it.

Another tentacle slipped into his abused cunt.

And like that, the last tenuous strings of his composure snapped, and Truthless ground down against all of the entities fucking him.

Continuous moans, whimpers, warbles, and trills spilled from his mouth unashamedly. And time seemed to simultaneously speed up and slow down all at once, and further warped his perception of time.

He couldn’t be mad, however, not with sheer bliss absorbing all of his thoughts

This was so amazing, he was going to die from sheer pleasure at this rate.

Why had he been so against this, again? He felt so good.

Yet another orgasm was ripped out of him as he sobbed.

Witches, he could just stay like this forever, right?

He never wanted to leave this, it was so amazing, so good, so wonderful-

“My! You’re certainly in a state, aren’t you?”

Midnight Vanilla’s eyes fluttered open at the voice, tears clinging to his ivory lashes and obscuring his vision slightly.

The coo he tried to give his mate was impeded by the tendril still fucking his throat, but he didn’t mind. How could he be mad when he felt so good and his love was right here? Sage needed to feel good too, but the Avian couldn’t get to him.

Regretfully, the tentacle in his mouth retreated, and despite his attempts to follow it, the creature disappeared from sight.

“I should do this more often, my dear. Just look at you! So beautifully shattered, just for me.” Blueberry Milk floated closer, cupping the Recluse’s cheek with one hand.

Without thinking about it, he took the thumb that had been hovering near his lips into his mouth, tongue swirling around the limb as he mindlessly continued grinding down on the tentacles below him. 

Sage looked surprised momentarily before smirking. “Alright, I think it’s my turn now.”

And within moments, the tendrils that had been fucking him were removed from his cunt, instead made to hold him up further as Blueberry Milk lined up his cock with the puffy red slit.

When he had gotten undressed, Truthless didn’t know, but he was more focused on the throbbing blue dick that was pushing inside of him.

His mate groaned. “Fuckkk- I could barely grade while listening to you back here. Witches, you have no idea what you do to me, Nills.”

The pace Sage set was brutal, full of sheer desperation. “I- ah- have been hard for the past two hours listening to you sing back here, Songbird.”

Blueberry Milk bit his shoulder, getting a choked warble in return, before continuing. “Barely managed to get through all the papers- hnng- before getting to you myself. You-” A breathy moan. “You’re my reward, love.”

He could barely focus on what the other was saying, words all sounding jumbled through the ecstasy coated fog in his head. 

Sage sped up. “Witches, I love you so much. You’re so perfect for me, my Recluse. So pretty.”

That sentence he registered and nodded enthusiastically.

“My pretty bird. My beautiful Dove. My gorgeous Nilly.”

A whimpered trill.

“Ah- I’m-”

Once warmth flooded his insides, Truthless Recluse’s vision blacked out.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

It was of no surprise to Blueberry Milk that his precious little Songbird had passed out. Afterall, his Recluse had been going at it back here for around two hours before Sage ended his fun.

What was surprising was just how deep Midnight Vanilla had fallen into that blissfully unaware headspace. 

Normally, his feisty husband would push back against Blueberry Milk calling him pretty, but this time he actively agreed!

How… intriguing.

Ah, tests for a later date, he supposes.

For now, he needed to clean up his beautiful little bird.

Said Avian was resting his head limply against Sage’s shoulder as he held him, a small smile still adorning his lips.

A rarity in and of itself for his typically gloomy partner.

Truthless gave him a heavily slurred trill as his thighs were shifted by Blueberry Milk, but fully relaxed once again with a few soft words and a hand carding through his hair.

With that, he stood up and floated towards their bedroom, the soft breaths of his partner puffed against his collarbone.

And after cleaning up the Avian, the other was carefully laid into their bed. 

He looked so… peaceful like this. Nothing like how he normally did with that almost permanent frown and heavy gaze that foretold tales of the horrors he had experienced.

No, like this, his Recluse resembled the portraits he had seen of Pure Vanilla. The benevolent ruler of the Vanilla Kingdom before its destruction. A soft and gentle cookie that seemed to glow with kindness and positivity.

Midnight Vanilla had told him a few tales of his past, but would shut down when probed about certain topics.

Sage brushed a stray blond lock of hair behind Truthless’s ear, getting a murmured churr in response.

Gaze softening at the sound, Blueberry Milk slipped under the covers beside him, pulling the other flush against his chest.

His Songbird nuzzled against his neck, arms wrapping around the blue waist in front of him with a hummed coo.

Sage’s own arms curled possessively around the Avian.

Nothing would hurt Truthless Recluse again.

Not if Blueberry Milk had a say in the matter.

Chapter Text

“Y’know, I didn’t have a red string when I was created.”

Pure Vanilla looked up from where he had been reading, dispelling the magic from his eyes that enhanced his eyesight.

Even without the spell, he could see, and feel, Shadow Milk twirling the string around his finger with a thoughtful look on his face.

His husband continued. “None of the Virtues had one; we never questioned it, either. All of us just assumed that having a soulmate would get in the way of our duties, and for that reason, the Witches never gave us one.”

He closed his book, standing up and wandering over to where the Beast had been floating beside their bed, the evening sun illuminating his blue skin quite nicely in Pure Vanilla’s very unbiased opinion.

The Avian sat down on the mattress. “Did it not bother you? To not have anyone to truly connect to in that way?”

Mismatched blue eyes flitted over to him. “Did it not bother you? We didn’t meet until you were what… a thousand and a half?”

He hummed thoughtfully…

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

When he was young, Pure Vanilla had always been taught about the magical age when you learn who your soulmate is. That wonderful sixteenth year of life when your red string unveils itself.

For a long time, he had thought he would discover that White Lily was his soulmate.

They just had so much in common!

But… no. 

Both of their birthdays rolled around, one after the other and they weren’t a match.

In fact, even though White Lily had two strings, neither led to the Avian!

However, the three of their combined strings did all lead the same way. Across the continent toward where the Licorice Sea lay. 

They made a pact on his birthday. Even if they weren’t each other’s destined lover, they would help each other find whoever their respective soulmate may be.

As the years rolled by, they met the other Ancients, and learned that their fated ropes also led the same direction.

It was quite an odd coincidence.

When their group began wandering across the continent, their first goal was to find where their strings were taking them.

But all six of them just led past the horizon of the Licorice Sea…

They couldn’t even cross the ocean to find their soulmates, as no sane person ever dared to tread upon those waters. 

No one ever came back from the Licorice Sea alive.

Would Pure Vanilla ever meet his soulmate? 

Was he destined to live his life alone…?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“You didn’t even consider crossing the ocean to find me? I’m hurt, truly, I am.”

The Avian rolled his eyes. “We would have met in the afterlife if I did that, Bluebird.”

Shadow Milk huffed. “Could’ve used your pretty little wings to go across.”

He blinked. “Are we thinking of the same sea, Shadow Milk? How on Earthbread would I have managed to cross that without collapsing halfway through?”

“By using your undying love and desire to see me? Duh.”

Pure Vanilla sighed and continued his story.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

When he found his souljam, a bit of hope sparked in his chest.

Followed by dread.

Yes, he now had the immortality to take as long as he wanted to find a way across the forbidden waters.

However, there was absolutely no way his soulmate had the same perk. They would crumble from old age before technology could possibly advance enough for him to meet them!

It felt like he was being taunted by the Witches.

Instead of dwelling on that fact, however, he instead turned his attention to building his kingdom. 

His home in the skies.

The Vanilla Kingdom.

Sure, it was slightly painful being fated to rule without another cookie by his side, but he wasn’t alone in this predicament.

None of the other Ancients had their partners, either.

It dampened the loneliness a bit, knowing that the others could understand his pain like no one else.

To his surprise, his string never snapped, and it stayed with him day after day. Maybe his soulmate was immortal afterall…

The fact it remained tethered to him gave Pure Vanilla a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, he could finally meet his destined lover one day.

And everything was fine for a while.

Until it wasn’t.

Dark Enchantress emerged, bringing a slew of chaos and despair over the world. 

During his final fight, in that key moment where he made the most important decision of his life, Pure Vanilla briefly mourned the fact he was going to leave his soulmate behind and subject them to witnessing their string snap.

But this was necessary. 

He just hopes that they forgive him.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“And little did you know that you sent yourself directly to your soulmate!”

“What was it like seeing me appear, Shadow Milk?”

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Shadow Milk had been in this damn pocket dimension only seeing blacks, blues, and white for so long that he had forgotten what the color red looked like.

And boy did he get the reminder of a lifetime when that peculiar little string appeared on his ring finger. 

Was he officially crazy?

Had he finally lost all his marbles?

Yes, cookies had called him insane but he had never had physical hallucinations like this before!

He could even feel this one. It moved with him, and it was tangible!

It felt real.

And if it was…

No, surely not.

Why on Earthbread would the Witches give him a soulmate when he was imprisoned for what seemed like the rest of his immortal life?!

Actually wait…

How did said soulmate even get in here?

Whipping around and following where the absolutely flabbergasting red string led him, he saw… a cookie.

An actual cookie.

Shadow Milk hadn’t seen another living being in… well he wasn’t sure how long but it was more than at least two days. Shadow Milk was sure of that much.

What in the Ovens was going on?!

Well, at least he remembered what the color yellow looked like now, too.

They seemed to be unconscious and in some sort of barrier, and their hair and clothes floated around them much like his own.

Floating closer, he noticed several things about the other cookie, one of which being the large white wings protruding from their back. He hadn’t ever seen pure white wings before, the closest was Sparkling- no… Eternal Sugar’s wings, but even they had a pink hue to them.

Snowy owl hybrids were a thing as well, but they had black spots, too.

How… peculiar.

Setting aside his fascination about that fact, he also noted that this cookie’s clothes were… burnt. Seriously burnt, as if they had been at the epicenter of an explosion. But, they would have crumbled if that were the case…

He reached out his hand, almost on instinct and...

As soon as he touched the barrier, a blinding force knocked Shadow Milk back. 

That was… Truth magic.

What in the Witches name could possibly cause his own power to rebel on him like this?!

Knowledge was his domain! And that encompassed both Deceit and Truth!

He approached the barrier again, willing it to dispel. 

But no, the stupid thing just sat there.

Fine, if he couldn’t dispel it, then he would break it instead.

Gathering Dark Moon magic in his palm, Shadow Milk chucked it at the shield.

And it bounced off?!

What the Ovens.

And after thirty long minutes of trying every spell he knew, Shadow Milk concluded this thing was impenetrable. 

Great.

Simply lovely.

Well… he didn’t need to touch cookies directly to access their mind.

This was his soulmate after all! He needed to know everything about them, right?

Besides, it was so boring in here. One could only come up with so many evil schemes to murder their captors before it started getting too unrealistic.

So, why doesn’t he take a little looksie…

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“Did my memories entertain you, Shadow Milk?”

A grin broke out across the other’s face. “Oh, definitely. Made the time fly by as I sifted through them all.”

The Beast paused. “Did things just… go back to normal once you got out? I can’t access your emotions, only sights and sounds.”

“Mmm, not quite…”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Having learned about airships, going to Beast Yeast seemed surprisingly possible, now.

Still, he had other things to worry about, but the thought never quite left his head. It was just… set aside while he managed the Vanilla Kingdom. 

It was weird. Despite not being the ruler of it anymore, he still functioned as such in his duties, as well as in the eyes of other nations.

He had the responsibilities but not the status.

Pure Vanilla felt as though this should bother him, but it really didn’t.

Being king was never about having the title, it was about providing safety and care for his people. And he could still do such things even without being officially known as the ruler!

And… well… He didn’t feel as though he even deserved to be called a king after what happened during the Dark Flour War, so it was better this way.

He was getting off track.

When the time came for him to venture from Crispia to Beast Yeast, the children insisted they come.

Well, he calls them children. They were technically adults, but they were baked into adult bodies. From what he could gather, they had been created rather recently. 

Besides, they were basically his kids at this point!

They came with him to the foreign continent and seemed surprised by his eagerness to go.

He… didn’t really want to explain what his reasoning, beside gathering information, was.

Pure Vanilla played it off as his love of adventuring and regaled them with stories of his travels with the other Ancients, and they seemed to accept his partial truth. 

When they got there, he opted to follow his string, taking the lead in front of the others.

And when they got confirmation on the Faerie Kingdom’s existence, well…

He was quick to make assumptions on where his soulmate might reside.

Of course!

Why hadn’t he thought of it sooner?

According to the legends, Faeries were borderline immortal with how long their lifespans were, so it would make sense why he never had his string severed!

And when they entered the Faerie kingdom, his gaze followed the red rope, expecting to see a Faerie attached to it.

But no…

His string led to… a tree?

Surely there was someone behind it, right?

As much as he tried to pay attention to what Silverbell was saying, his eyes kept drifting back over to that enormous silver plant in the center of the kingdom.

Pure Vanilla managed to pull himself together enough to explain their situation to Elder Faerie, however, and tried not to look too excited as they were escorted over to the very place where his string led.

While the Faerie king was talking, the Avian paced around, stepping over the large roots and following his string.

But no matter which angle he moved to, the red string just led him back to the center of the bark.

It was fine! There was probably just someone behind the tree, perfectly hidden from view. He just needed to be patient and wait for a good time to check!

Willing his heart to stop beating like that of a strawberry hummingbird’s, Pure Vanilla spoke with Elder Faerie. 

And while he was shocked to learn about the Virtue turned Beasts predecessors he and his comrades had, somehow it didn’t outweigh the antsy-ness in his dough.

This didn’t surprise him, however.

He had quite literally waited his entire life to find out who this mystery cookie was.

Then finally, he was free. 

Scurrying behind the tree, he saw…

No one…?

The string just led straight into the bark. 

He walked around the front again.

And like a broken compass, his fated string just pointed him back to the tree.

Surely not…

This was a joke, right?

The Witches were just messing with him, right?

There was absolutely no way his fated soulmate was a simple hunk of wood.

Pure Vanilla stared at his hand, desperately grasping for any way this could possibly make sense.

Sure, trees were technically living beings but he had never once heard of someone’s soulmate being anything other than another cookie.

Yes, others were born without soulmates and had no string of fate. But in every case of someone actually having one, it always led them to someone else.

Not something else.

…

He might have preferred to have just been born without one rather than dealing with the logistics of this nightmare…

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Shadow Milk started cackling. “You- You really thought you were attached to a tree?!”

Pure Vanilla’s face flushed and he looked away. “What else was I meant to believe? I do love plantlife afterall. And I had heard platonic soulmates were a thing, so...”

“You take the term ‘treehugger’ to a whole new level, Nills.”

He hid his face in his hands. “You’re the worst…”

The Beast giggled. “Didn’t that silly little Faerie’s also lead to our prison? How’d that discussion go?”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“Yours… also leads to the tree?”

White Lily nodded. “Yes. While one of mine leads to Elder Faerie, the other is tied to the Silver tree.”

Did… they both have the same bark covered soulmate? 

Witches, this was going to get weird…

“And, does it not bother you that you are tied to a… tree of all things?”

She sighed, hand interlocking with his own where they rested on the metallic bench. “I’m not sure if that’s the case, Pure Vanilla.”

The Avian tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“The Beasts are sealed within the Silver Tree. And if both of our strings point to it…”

No…

“You think… we are both tied to a Beast?”

White Lily nodded again. “Yes.”

He felt stupid for not thinking of that sooner.

Elder Faerie had said the Beasts were sealed in the tree but he hadn’t even considered… this as a possibility!

It was silent before he spoke up again.

“I’m not sure which is worse. Being eternally fated to an inanimate log of wood or being bound to a tyrannical war criminal…” Pure Vanilla said, wings shifting behind him.

She laughed. It was a chiming, melodic sound that stirred a warm spark within his soul.

He had missed hearing her laugh…

But things went wrong after that.

The tree broke and his string led straight to…

Shadow Milk…

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“'War criminal!?' Gosh, it’s ‘deranged lunatic,’ Nilly! Get it right!”

Pure Vanilla giggled. “Oh, silly me! My apologies, love.”

Shadow Milk floated behind the Avian, wordlessly separating his hair into sections and intertwining them.

Apparently his husband decided to just… spontaneously braid his hair?

Eh, the Beast had done weirder things in the past, he supposed.

Speaking of...

“You mentioned wanting to ‘perfect’ me during our time in the Spire. Did that have anything to do with our link?”

The hands in his hair stopped for a moment before continuing their motions. “Partially. But I’m curious, now. You never want to discuss… that situation. What sparked the change, Nilly?”

“We were on the topic; I simply want to hear your reasoning behind what happened there.”

Shadow Milk still seemed hesitant but conceded. “Alright, if you’re sure…”

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

It was a pain trying to trick the one person who had a surefire way to know where he was.

Shadow Milk had spent hours, days even, to try and find a way to make his plan work.

He needed Pure Vanilla to doubt himself, to throw him off his game. To distract his mind and weaken his resolve.

But how to do that from afar…?

Haunting his dreams was a good start, but he needed to do more.

And that’s when he thought of illusions.

Forming the image of a small shepherd boy was easy, and using his Eyes to watch the scene and modify what his little puppet would say was even easier!

Pure Vanilla never suspected a thing from him, seeming to chalk it up to some weird Deceit magic spread throughout his domain.

Oh, little did he know…

While the cursed little string was inconvenient for a multitude of reasons, one benefit it had was being able to tell where his darling little marionette was at all times.

Guiding him to the water to drag the poor, unsuspecting fool under was a simple task. Once he had his doll snared, it was already over for the Avian.

The transformation was magnificent!

He would never forget the sight of Pure Vanilla’s hopes and beliefs crumbling before his eyes, he could taste the pain of the other’s shattered worldview and…

It. Was. Divine.

His beautiful Recluse was born, and he couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous visage to be glaring him down.

Of course, those annoying gnats his soulmate had brought along were whining in his ear about Pure Vanilla, and were naively certain they could get his toy to ‘see reason.’

At first, he wasn’t sure if this was a trick. Sure, the Avian wasn’t known to be a cunning trickster like himself, but they were two halves of the same coin.

But as time went on, it became more and more clear it wasn’t an act.

Shadow Milk had perfected his little doll; he had broken his irreparably flawed soulmate and sculpted the remains into something… beautiful.

He had won.

Or so he thought.

Perhaps his Deceit training went a little too well, as Pure Vanilla betrayed him for… what? Those stupid cookies?!

All he needed was right here.

They were meant to be together! That traitor had said so himself!

And after all that…

“Please. Let me help you…”

“...help me…?”

The audacity of this Witch-foresaken, traitorous, lying ‘soulmate’ of his was simply astounding.

Soulmates? Tch, what a joke…

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“My, things have changed a lot since then. Haven’t they, Bluebird?”

“You’re gloating. I can hear it in your voice.”

Pure Vanilla smiled. “I’m just happy at how much we’ve grown since then. We have changed for the better, wouldn’t you agree?”

Shadow Milk pulled a ribbon out of Witches knows where and tied off his braid. “Unfortunately. I just miss being able to go around and turn people into balloon animals if they slighted me.”

“You did that to Clotted Cream last year…”

“Yeah? It was funny and he deserved it!”

Shaking his head, the Avian turned around. “You are a menace to society, my love.”

He got a smug smirk from his husband. “Your menace. You’re stuck with me forever, Nilly!” 

The Beast lifted his hand to show off the red string, a grin spreading across his face.

Wordlessly, he leaned in and kissed Shadow Milk.

He truly loved this man…

Even if he was such a troublemaker.

Chapter Text

All Pure Vanilla could smell at the moment was jam and ash.

The Beasts and Ancients had been fighting against Dark Enchantress’s forces for a while now. She herself had yet to make an appearance, but he didn’t think that was the goal of her attack.

She had sent her minions to Hollyberry’s kingdom, or at least she tried to.

Shadow Milk, using his lengthy gossip train, had received word of her intent the day before, and quickly spread the news to Pure Vanilla. And together, the two of them had used the Other Realm to track down the other Beasts and Ancients to inform them of the situation instead.

His husband decided to make a game out of it, and see who could get to more cookies first.

Unfortunately, due to the fact Shadow Milk had centuries more experience using the Dark Side of the Moon to travel, he was able to get to five of the eight before Pure Vanilla could.

All of them agreed to meet in Hollyberry’s kingdom to push back Dark Enchantress’s forces on the following day.

So that led him here.

Repairing a fractured leg of a Hollyberrian soldier who had been caught in the jaws of a cakewolf.

“You will be alright, this shouldn’t even scar once I’m finished. Just try to relax.” He kept his voice soft, both hands on either side of the injured limb where it sat in his lap.

He was trying very hard to not think about the jam he was kneeling in. It had been there when he had flown over, hearing the cookie’s screams and quite literally flying into action.

Was it this cookie’s? Was it someone else’s? Was it from the various monsters they were fighting?

Some horrid mix of all three?

Pure Vanilla wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question, if he’s honest.

“There. Can you try standing on it, now?”

The Avian stood, helping the soldier do so as well. And with a few, albeit shaky steps, the man turned back to him with a grin.

“Thank you so much, Pure Vanilla! You’re a miracle worker.”

He flushed, looking away. “Anyone could do it, really. I’m just glad I was able to help.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the soldier open his mouth, most likely to retort his claims. However, he closed it when a scream rang throughout the battle field, capturing Pure Vanilla’s attention.

His wings opened before he consciously registered doing so, and in a flash, he was up in the air again.

Using his magic to enhance his eyesight, he spotted a cookie, laying on her side with a hand clutching her abdomen.

He dove down to her, only slowing down at the last second to pull up and slow his descent, so as not to shatter on the ground.

Pure Vanilla landed next to the woman and knelt down. “I’m a healer, miss. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

She curled her arm tighter around her abdomen, hand hiding completely under her body. “It- It hurts! Got stabbed and…”

He didn’t see any jam that would indicate a stab wound underneath her, but perhaps it was just hidden perfectly under her torso if the wound wasn’t actively gushing jam.

It was still odd though.

“Here, let me take a look.” he said, folding his wings in.

The moment his hand touched her, she jerked back with a wicked smile.

Pure Vanilla caught the glint of metal just a second too late. 

Before he knew it, pain spread across his hip and lower abdomen. Reflexively, a jolt of magic shot from his hand, blasting her away and knocking the dagger out of her hand.

It landed with a dull thunk, and both of their gazes fell to it.

Just as she lunged for it, he encased her in a barrier and her head banged against it, sending her straight back to the ground.

Shadow Milk would have laughed at the sight were he around.

“Your Majesty! Are you alright over here?” A hollyberrian knight ran over to him, eying the woman trapped in his barrier.

He let his wings relax from their painfully tense position behind him, along with the rest of his high strung body.

“I’m… unharmed.” The lie tasted bitter on his tongue, but he would rather not have others worry over something as minor as a small laceration

Pure Vanilla continued. “However, she seems to be working with Dark Enchantress, seeing as she just tried to attack me. Would you mind taking her back to Hollyberry’s castle for questioning?” 

The knight nodded. “Of course, Your Majesty.”

“Please, Pure Vanilla is fine. There’s no need for formalities.”

Hmm, he should probably heal that cut before he forgets.

A green flare spell crackled behind him, capturing the Ancient’s attention instantly. That was a commonly taught spell for soldiers; it was a signal that medical attention was needed.

“I must go. Thank you for your assistance!” Without another word, Pure Vanilla shot into the sky, heading towards the emergency site. 

But, as he scanned the ground, he saw that Mystic Flour was already there.

Ah.

Well, he has the advantage of finding patients faster, seeing as he could get a proper aerial view.

However, instead of finding someone in need of healing, the Avian found a situation that was rapidly approaching that point.

There were two civilians at the edge of the field, and a cakewolf was actively stalking them.

They didn’t even know they were in danger…

But he was too far away! It was getting closer and he couldn’t reach them in time.

Unless he used the Other Realm.

And that was exactly what he did, flying through the two rifts back to back, conjuring his staff, and using it to block the bite it almost landed on the two teens.

He heard them scream behind him, and turned around to glance at them.

They were unharmed, he must have just surprised them.

Setting aside the guilt for frightening those he was trying to protect, Pure Vanilla focused on the threat in front of him.

The Avian wrenched his staff out of the cakewolf’s mouth and twirled it in the air, summoning a ball of light above the creature before slamming it down.

When the light dissipated, the cakewolf was gone. All that remained in its place was ash. 

He sighed quietly, turning to face the cookies behind him, who were watching him with a mixture of fear and awe.

“Are you two alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”

One of them spoke up. “That was so cool, sir! Where did you learn to do that?”

Pure Vanilla chuckled. “Living for a millennium and a half tends to give you a lot of time to practice spells.”

They both gaped at him wordlessly and he looked to the side. “Why don’t I get you both out of here. It’s unsafe. Would dropping you off in the Hollyberry Kingdom be alright?”

The two looked at each other and nodded.

And, with one quick trip there and back through the Dark Side of the Moon, Pure Vanilla was back on the battlefield.

It was odd though, his magic felt… dimmer.

Was something draining it that he wasn’t aware of?

And… wasn’t he forgetting to do something?

An explosion of Dark Moon magic from the other side of the battlefield caught his attention, almost immediately followed by sadistic glee radiating from the soulbond.

He shook his head with a fond smile at his husband’s antics. 

At least Shadow Milk was having fun with this.

Witches knows that man needs an outlet for his surplus of magic and his frankly concerning thirst for chaos.

Another flare was sent up.

Well, it was time to get back to work he supposed.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

Multiple explosions came from their side of the battlefield shaking both the ground and sky, nearly knocking Pure Vanilla out of the air.

At some point, Dark Enchantress’s forces got their hands on explosives, and were catapulting them over towards their own warriors.

Gritting his teeth, he summoned another ball of light magic. But this one instead fired a steady laser across the backline, incinerating the catapults and blowing up the remaining explosives before they could harm more of his cookies.

Now that his patients weren’t in danger of being blown up again, Pure Vanilla landed at one of the damaged areas, summoning his staff and casting a mass healing spell to the cookies in his vicinity.

He didn’t need his staff to cast, but it helped control the flow of his magic so as not to waste any or leave it lingering in the air.

The Ancient couldn’t have it with him at all times though, especially when he needed to fly quickly from area to area, as having a large, heavy object when zipping through the air wasn’t exactly practical nor very feasible. 

Perhaps a larger built Avian, like a falcon hybrid, would be able to pull it off. But as he was now, it wasn’t a great idea.

Golden Cheese was a special case, as her spear was built to be lightweight and the handle was hollow, and the blade was thin but razor sharp. 

Dissipating the object once more, he launched himself into the sky again, heading to the next explosion site. He could see Mystic Flour at the site next to the one he was heading for and smiled.

It was refreshing to have another healer on the team.

Touching down, he noticed his vision was abruptly blurry again.

Huh, he thought the spell he used to enhance his eyesight for this wasn’t a temporary thing. Most of the time he had to dispel it himself before it went away.

Odd.

Brushing that abnormality aside he conjured his staff again..

But as he was about to cast the second mass healing spell, Pure Vanilla noticed something.

His magic wasn’t responding.

The Avian tried to summon a simple light spell.

Nothing.

Had… Had he really managed to go through it all that fast?

Sure, he had been healing the wounded for almost four hours now, basically nonstop, but still! Normally he at least had another hour before it started getting dire.

Perhaps something had been draining his magic afterall.

But what?

Then he noticed the earlier wound on his hip burning. 

Ah, he’d forgotten about that.

Though the stinging feeling was mildly concerning, as that wasn’t a normal side effect of such shallow lacerations.

Reflexively, he went to heal it, but his magic just weakly sputtered at his fingertips.

Well, maybe it will resolve itself?

Guilt briefly flashed through him as he felt the telltale chill of Mystic Flour’s magic coat the air around him.

Having to rely on someone else to heal his own patients felt…bad.

“Oh Nilllyyyy!” 

And like that, the guilt was gone, replaced entirely with love.

A smile found its way onto his lips as arms wrapped loosely around his neck and a head rested atop his own. “Hello, Bluebird. Are you doing okay?”

He could just barely see the eyes in Shadow Milk’s hair staring at him from where the Beast floated behind him. “Well, I could always use a kiss to heal my wounds. Spicy elbowed me in the head as he was shaking his axe at the cakehounds.”

Pure Vanilla hummed, turning around. “Well, I’m not sure I’ll be able to heal you with a kiss, but I can give you two as consolation.”

His husband’s playful smile turned concerned in an instant. “What do you mean you can’t? What happened?”

He sighed. “I… ran out of magic. I’m unable to cast any spells at the moment.”

Before Shadow Milk could say anything, the Avian hurriedly continued. “I’ll be fine! Don’t worry. I just have to wait for my reserves to build again.”

The other’s eyebrows furrowed as they stared at each other, but eventually the Beast sighed. “When we get back, you are going straight to bed. Magic deficiency of this level isn’t something you should aspire for, Nills.” 

“It wasn’t exactly my goal for this battle, Bluebird.”

“Uh huh. Sureeee, Nilla.”

Pure Vanilla cupped his hand behind Shadow Milk’s head. “Well, I suppose you’ll just have to keep me in check then, huh?”

“Flirting to get out of a scolding? Gosh, and you say I’m the devious one.”

He giggled and pressed his lips into his husbands, and he was quickly pulled closer as the kiss was passionately reciprocated.

“No sex on the battlefield, you two lovebirds!” Hollyberry called out, and he could feel Shadow Milk’s hair wiggle in annoyance.

The Beast broke the kiss to turn his face and sneer at her. “As if I’d even consider letting you freaks watch! That show is never getting aired.”

Pure Vanilla just facepalmed with a sigh.

This was making his head hurt.

He pulled back from the other. “Shall we go join them?”

“Ugh, if we must, I guess.”

Taking a chilled blue hand into his own, the Avian started their trek over. “It will be fine, you need the socialization, anyway.”

“You say that like I’m a feral creamwolf.”

“In some ways, you are quite like one.”

“Heyyyy! What’s that supposed to mean?”

He simply giggled and joined the two women. Hollyberry and Eternal Sugar to be exact.

Hollyberry patted him roughly on the back, almost knocking him over with the force. “Ahh, great work today, Orchid. How’d everything go on your end?”

“It was fine for the most part. Though, I had to disarm a would-be assailant at one point. I asked one of your men to take her to your palace for questioning.”

“Mmm, in that case I’ll need your truth strings, my friend.”

Shadow Milk had taught him how to summon binds, just like he could. However, instead of leeching magic from the being snared in the strings like Shadow Milk’s, they had learned that his own had a power that forced whoever was in contact with them to always speak the unfiltered truth.

Both of these respective effects could be switched on and off as the wielder pleased, but seeing as he didn’t know that when casting, he didn’t think to dampen the power of the spell. 

The method they found out the nature of his own strings in… Well, he left that part out of the explanation about his newfound abilities to his friends.

“-and boom! Absolutely obliterated!” 

Ah, he had gotten distracted.

“Was that the magic surge I saw earlier, Bluebird?”

“Yup!” Shadow Milk popped the ‘p’ on the word. “I’d been wanting to try that method of casting for ages. It’s a good thing I’m so resistant to Dark Moon magic, otherwise I’d have blown myself off the face of Earthbread!”

He frowned. “You are unharmed though, yes?”

“You’re such a worrywart, Nilly! I’m finneeee. Flour already healed the minor burns I got out of the ordeal, anyway.”

Pure Vanilla sighed. “Please don’t hurt yourself trying out new techniques, my dear…”

“Spoilsport.”

“Only because I love you.”

Shadow Milk looked to Eternal Sugar. “Anyway, didn’t you charm a whole bunch of the wolves to attack the others?”

She nodded, shifting one of her wings a drape loosely over Hollyberry’s shoulder. “Yes, too many of them were getting a little too close to my other half, so I simply… readjusted their priorities.”

The swan then turned to him. “Though, a few were killed when you fired that laser.”

His husband perked up. “Oh! I meant to ask you about that, Nilla! Where on Earthbread did that attack come from?”

“I only use it when necessary, as it does drain quite a large amount of mana. However, it was the quickest way to ensure I could get to my patients without the risk of them getting harmed more than they already were.”

Shadow Milk started talking with Eternal Sugar again, the voices faded into the background as his omnipresent headache suddenly made itself very known again as the sun peeked out from behind a cloud, and Pure Vanilla let his eyes fall closed to block out the brightness.

This didn’t help, however. In fact, all that did was cause vertigo to crash into his sense of balance. 

A small voice inside of him said to tell the others, but that thought was quickly pushed aside.

He was probably just tired. Nothing to worry everyone else over.

Instead, Pure Vanilla subtly opened his wings to aid his balance and shifted his weight to lean more on his staff.

It was fine-

“Hey, Dollface, are you alright? You look… red.”

Well, now that Shadow Milk mentioned it, his face did feel rather warm.

And now that he thought of it, his heart was racing as well.

But still, it was nothing serious, he was sure.

He opened his mouth to respond, but all that came out was a confused coo as his body abruptly tipped to the side.

The gasps of shock from the others were muffled, lost on him over the thunderous beating of his heart in his ears. 

Familiarly cool arms caught him, lowering him onto the ground and onto someone’s lap.

Pure Vanilla could hear bits and pieces of the conversation above him as it came in and out of focus.

“-burning up!”

“-was fine earlier, I don’t-”

“-injured?”

A cold hand tapped the side of his face. “-illa? Can you hear me?”

He blinked open his eyes, thankful that the sun had gone behind a cloud so he wouldn’t be blinded. 

“Sha’o Milk?” He mumbled, eyes struggling to focus on the unusually blurry blue figure above him.

“Hi, Songbird. Care to fill me in on what’s going on?”

Thinking felt harder than usual, and he must have hesitated for too long because Shadow Milk tapped his forehead a few times.

“You still with me, Nills?”

“I… Wha’s happening..?” His words slurred together, as though there was a disconnect between his head and his mouth.

For some reason, his husband’s face pinched at that. Or at least, he thinks it did. Pure Vanilla could only really see blobs of color above him, which was odd considering how close the two were in proximity.

Normally his vision was somewhat okay when things were around a foot from his face, after that it got blurrier and blurrier.

Now? Nothing came into focus, as though his eyes were like that of an uncooperative camera’s.

“-know what’s going on. Doll? Please, you gotta work with me here.”

Shadow Milk sounded awfully worried.

He wondered why…

Oh, right. He had collapsed.

Pure Vanilla had forgotten about that.

Ah, that was most likely cause for concern.

He should give them a list of symptoms while he could still think somewhat clearly.

“...Heart’s beating r’lly fast, Headache’s worse th’n normal, balance ‘s… weird, and…” 

What was he going to say?

Witches, he forgot.

…

Oh, he remembered!

“You’re… r’lly blurry…”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Your pupils are huge, Nilla.” Shadow Milk shifted their position, and pain bloomed where he had been stabbed.

The Avian sucked in a gasp, body weakly curling around the irritated wound.

“What- Nilly, let me see that.” 

His arms were pried away from his abdomen and Pure Vanilla was turned slightly to the side.

“When did this happen? Why didn’t you…”

He heard part of his clothes tearing and looked down.

That’s when he saw it.

The veins around where he had been stabbed were black, and the color was actively spreading through more.

Huh.

Shadow Milk started trembling beneath him, hand hovering over the wound.

“Milky? What’s wrong? Why are you…” The pink figure that had approached again gasped. “Is that…?”

“Get Mystic Flour. Now.” Why did his husband sound so eerily calm?

A wave of sudden drowsiness hit him, and his eyes fluttered closed.

“Hey- Nonono- Nilla, don’t you dare fall asleep!”

He really wanted to listen to Shadow Milk.

Truly, he did.

But he was just so tired.

Surely a little rest couldn’t hurt.

⚬──────────✧──────────⚬  

Waking up was a mistake.

Full stop.

He felt like he had been run over by a jellybear train, backed over, and then hit again.

Pure Vanilla was sore in places he didn’t even know he had.

The Avian wanted to just go back to sleep, but… something caught his attention.

His soul felt oddly… full.

Just like it had when Shadow Milk and he had combined their souls into a singular entity briefly.

But that’s impossible.

Unless…

He blinked open his eyes, gazing around the room.

He wasn’t exactly sure where he was, the bed was made of some type of dark wood, and the sheets were made of fine silk. The quality of the bedding was impeccable.

The walls were white but the floor was some sort of black tiling. Pure Vanilla could just barely see yellow shingles above the window outside, and there were cherry blossoms lining the view of the mountain ridge.

Was this… the Ivory Pagoda?

Why on Earthbread was he here?

“Witches, are your thoughts always this loud or is today a special occasion…?” Shadow Milk?

There was a bed across from his, and on it lay his husband, who looked about as good as Pure Vanilla felt.

“What… happened?”

“You got poisoned, dumbass.”

He blinked slowly in response, and the Beast sighed. “Why don't I just… show you?”

Then, memories flashed before his eyes.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

This couldn’t be happening.

This really couldn’t have been happening.

Somehow, someway, his beautifully idiodic husband had been poisoned with Godsblood. 

Which was, y’know, just a small little thing known as the most potent poison on all of Earthbread.

How did this even happen?

Who managed to get their hands on this stuff! It was supposed to die with the Fount of Knowledge!

He had specifically incinerated every living instance of that plant to make sure it never got used again.

Afterall, he was the one who created it in an experiment. Therefore, he is the one who got to decide whether it lives or dies.

And now Pure Vanilla was at stage two of the process, which is when the patient falls comatose.

Ovens below, he was going to lose the one person who truly understood him to a fucked up plant he had created out of boredom several millenia ago.

A pale hand touched the wound and on pure instinct, Shadow Milk yanked Pure Vanilla back, pulling the other tightly against his chest while his hair lashed violently behind him. The snarl he let out faded into a growl as he curled around his bird.

“Milky, you have to let him go if you want Flour to help.”

He looked up, seeing Eternal Sugar and Mystic Flour above him.

Wordlessly, he relaxed his hold on the Avian, laying him down across his lap again.

When the healer’s hand came close to the wound, the growl, which had been quieting, became louder again.

“Calm yourself, Blue.”

A shudder ran through him at the old nickname and the noise tapered off completely.

Her hand started glowing, dark magic from the poison cutting into the pale white of her own.

Then, Pure Vanilla writhed, breathing turning shaky and small whimpers coming from him.

He knew this was part of the diagnostic process, but that didn’t stop the instinctual urge to gut whoever was hurting his doll from flaring up.

A hand rested on his shoulder. “It’s fine, Milky.”

The pained noises and movements stopped as her magic faded, and he could feel his own body relax.

“It has yet to reach his heart, however, the only thing stopping it from spreading there is his souljam. But, that magic seems to be dwindling too.” 

Mystic Flour turned to look fully at Shadow Milk. “I can treat him properly in the Ivory Pagoda, if that is what you wish.”

“Did you even need to ask permission?”

Why the Ovens wouldn’t he want to save Pure Vanilla?

With a snap, a portal to the Other Realm opened, and beyond it, the Ivory Pagoda.

Mystic Flour stood, watching as Shadow Milk lifted his husband up and cradled the other against himself.

He walked into the rift almost automatically, it was just habit by this point. The two other Beasts, albeit with slight hesitation, followed after him.

“This place gets creepier every time I come in here, Milky.”

Shadow MIlk scoffed, stepping through the portal that led into the Mystic Flour’s domain. “I could say the same about your Garden, Sugar. Those jars of cookies you kept for a while were weird, even by my standards.”

He wasn’t really even thinking about what he was saying, it was more of an automatic quip than anything.

The majority of his focus was on the cookie in his arms.

As if sensing his distracted mind, Eternal Sugar huffed but didn’t say anything more as she fluttered out of the Dark Side of the Moon.

“Lay him down here.” Mystic Flour gestured to a bed in the room.

Wordlessly, he complied, floating over to hover above his husband once he did so.

She went to touch Pure Vanilla but stopped. “...I need to get a better look at his body, could you undress him, Shadow Milk?”

With the snap of his fingers, the Avian was left in nothing but his underwear, the souljam sitting beside him so the effects weren’t dampened at all due to proximity.

Mystic Flour paused momentarily before going back to work, tracing the darkening lines that were stretching below his chest with a small frown.

“The power of his souljam alone isn’t enough anymore. He would need something more to give him time while the treatment works.”

“Use mine.” The words left his mouth before he even came up with the idea.

Both gazes of the women turned to him.

Shadow Milk continued. “We’ve combined our souljams before; we can do it again”

The healer’s eyebrows furrowed. “That would transfer the symptoms to you also.”

“I don’t care. Either we both live this way or we both die if I do nothing.”

Eternal Sugar’s eyes went wide at the unspoken threat he made to his own life.

As soon as Mystic Flour nodded, Shadow Milk grabbed Pure Vanilla’s souljam and took his own off his ruffled collar.

He sighed with a smile. “See you on the other side, Nilla.”

The gems clicked together, and the world went dark.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Pure Vanilla blinked rapidly, processing the memories he had just witnessed.

“So we’re still…”

“Combined into one? Yup.”

Huh, so that’s how Shadow Milk could read his thoughts.

Shut up. I’m trying to sleep over here.

The Avian rolled his eyes. “You’re so grumpy when you’re sick.”

Wow, what a way to talk to your savior. And here I thought you would fall to your knees while crying and thanking me.

“...Can you…?” He didn’t finish that sentence, Shadow Milk already knew what he wanted.

This time, his husband spoke aloud. “So needy. Witches, you’re gonna be in debt for the next century with how many favors you owe me by the end of this.”

“I’m perfectly fine with that, my love. So long as we are together.”

The Beast then materialized in front of him, now under the covers alongside Pure Vanilla.

With a happy coo, he pulled Shadow Milk closer with his wing and tucked his head into the other’s neck.

And despite his earlier complaining, a purr started to fill the air around them.

Together, contentment and love rang throughout the soulbond.

Knowledge was finally whole, at last.

Chapter Text

Pure Vanilla had always liked winter.

The crisp chill in the air as snow drifts by, getting tangled in his hair and making the strands curl as it dried.

Going inside a building and sighing in relief as the warmth of the interior settled across his dough.

Making hot cocoa and sharing it with his beloved friends, then watching their faces twist as he added far too much whipped cream and a concerning amount of marshmallows to his cup.

Looking out from his balcony and gazing upon a field of white, freshly fallen snow.

Midnight Vanilla often reflected back on such memories on the first snowfall of every cycle.

He still did quite enjoy winter, even if the chill of it seemed to seep into every available inch of his dough.

That wasn’t a problem though, as he had the Sage to help with that problem.

“My gosh! I always forget how clingy you get in the winter, my Recluse!”

Truthless huffed, pressing a little harder into Blueberry Milk’s shoulder as they walked. “Would you rather I follow from a distance, then?”

“Oh, I would be worried I would lose you if the snow piles too high! Some of the snow drifts are as tall as you, my love.”

He turned his head toward the Sage with a sharp glare. “Excuse me?”

Blueberry Milk snickered, looking down at him with that omnipresent, moronic smirk. “It’s fine, my dear! It’s not your fault you’re fun sized.”

…

‘Fun sized?’

Midnight Vanilla pulled back from his husband, stood in front of him and cupped the other’s cheeks in his hands.

“I’m going to conjure as many crabs as I conceivably can and stuff each and every one of them in your pillowcase, drawers, and bedsheets. And when you access the Other Realm to escape them, there will be nothing but crabs awaiting you.” Truthless Recluse said, deadpan and straight faced as he looked into Blueberry Milk’s eyes.

It took everything he had not to crack his blank facade at the horrified look on the Sage’s face.

“...You win.”

He smirked and let go, grabbing the other’s hand and continued their walk around the town they were visiting like nothing was amiss.

Blueberry Milk pouted as they continued walking. “I didn’t tell you about my phobias just so you could weaponize them against me!”

“No? Then why exactly did you bring them up?”

“I was really drunk!”

Truthless rolled his eyes. “Well then perhaps you shouldn’t have challenged Mulberry to a drinking contest.”

“She started it! Besides, you encouraged me!”

“I don’t think raising an eyebrow at your antics counts as encouragement.”

The Sage groaned. “Whatever, Smoldering Spice would have teased me for eons if I didn’t take her up on the offer.”

“Yes. However, Ethereal Flour and I wouldn’t have needed to care for all of you for the next day and a half if you hadn’t then challenged everyone to your little game.”

“I didn’t know that Mulberry’s kingdom specialized in wines! Those were really strong, too.”

He side-eyed Blueberry Milk. “Who would have thought that magically enchanted wines that were aged for a millennium would be strong?” He said sarcastically.

His husband huffed. “I didn’t know they had aged that long!”

“She bragged about it the moment she brought them out.”

“I-I… I forgot!”

Truthless raised an eyebrow. “Did you now?”

The Sage looked to the side, the flushing of his cheeks having nothing to do with the cold air blowing snowflakes past them. “I was distracted by… other things.”

Midnight Vanilla stopped walking momentarily, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose as he fell step in step with the other once again. “You’re hopeless, Sage.” 

“You just looked really good that night, my dear! I couldn’t help but appreciate the stunning sight before me.”

Truthless felt his own cheeks burning as his hand once again traveled down to hold Blueberry Milk’s. “Checking me out in front of our colleagues is…”

His mind blanked on what he was going to say, a weird fatigue settling over it.

Was he…?

Ugh, no.

Not now…

There was one little thing that he despised about winter.

Due to his Avian nature, when his external temperature dropped below a certain threshold, his body automatically activates torpor.

Torpor was something that certain hybrids experienced, causing the cookie to enter a hibernative state until the issue that initially caused it was eradicated. 

And currently, his body was already trying to send him into a non-consensual nap.

“My dear?”

He took a breath and shook his head, trying to dispel the claws of unconsciousness trying to drag him under. “Did… you say something?”

The Sage’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. “I had asked if you were alright, you stopped walking and wouldn’t respond to anything I said.”

Oh, Witches…

“I… It’s fine, let’s just keep going.” Huh, the snow had gotten heavier while he was in his own head.

Truthless maneuvered himself underneath Blueberry Milk’s arm, and the other wordlessly wrapped it around his torso from behind.

This was just to try and warm himself up, the wind was cold, afterall.

That’s all.

Suddenly, two giggling children ran by, snowballs in both of their hands as they jumped around snow drifts, trying to hit each other without getting it themselves.

It reminded him of…

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Mischievous giggles approached him from the side, a pink and tan cookie darting between himself and the cookie he had been talking to.

“Strawberry Crepe! Get back here!” A familiarly gruff voice said, stopping next to him.

“Oh, My Saint. Did you see which way Crepe went?” Black Raisin asked, hand on her hip.

The child in question was hiding behind his robes, and looking up at him with big, playful eyes.

Pure Vanilla smiled and turned back to his second-in-command. “I did not. My apologies.”

She sighed, walking past him and looking around the area, back turned to him.

He turned his head down to look at Strawberry Crepe, who shot him a grateful, impish smile before darting towards Black Raisin. “Hehe! Catch me if you can!”

A shocked sound came from his friend and the telltale sounds of snow crunching under boots faded into the distance as the game of chase began again.

“Saint of Knowledge?”

Oh! Right, he had been assisting this cookie. “Yes, my apologies. What was your question, again?”

“Well, you see-”

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

“Man, you really are spacey today, huh?”

He blinked. His head felt rather fuzzy. “What…?”

As he met the Sage’s eyes, a look of understanding came over him.

“My dear, are you perhaps going into tor-”

“No.” He cut Blueberry Milk off.

Truthless sighed. “I’m… fine.”

“Alright, then why don’t we sit down for a moment, mm?”

“Just for a minute.”

An amused expression overtook his husband’s face. “Yes, just for a minute.”

The bench the Sage had led them to was cold, and a shiver crawled its way from the tips of his wings all the way to his neck.

Blueberry Milk sat down, pulling the Recluse over to lean against him.

The Sage was so warm…

“Are you sure you’re not-”

Midnight Vanilla gave a low churr. “I’m not… I just…”

Within the span of a blink his surroundings had completely changed.

They were now in Blueberry Milk’s home, sitting in an armchair in front of a lit fireplace. 

From what he could gather, the Sage was also underneath him, having laid the Avian atop himself at some point and covering both of them in several blankets.

Despite this, however, his body was still shivering as he groggily took in his surroundings.

That was the worst part about coming out of torpor.

His body temperature would plummet to accommodate for the lack of warmth around him, slowing down every system to conserve as much energy as possible until it was ‘safe’ enough to wake him up again.

Due to this, his temperature would only rise once he met the minimum threshold to release him from the confines of forced unconsciousness, meaning he would still be freezing upon waking up.

Not to mention how slow his body was to react to his commands, as well.

This sucked, he decided.

“...Did I…?”

The Sage shifted underneath him. “Go into torpor? Yes.”

He groaned. “...Stupid…”

A clawed hand came up to card through his hair, and he wordlessly leaned into the contact, eyes falling shut again.

“It’s not, my dear. The fault doesn’t lie with you nor I. It’s simply a part of yourself that we must account for.”

Blueberry Milk paused for a moment before continuing. “It is not a bad thing either, before you start down that tirade. Can it be inconvenient? Yes. However, it is as much a part of you as anything, and I will love all of you the same.”

Truthless sighed. “Sap.”

“You love me for it.”

“Unfortunately.”

It was quiet before he spoke up again. “How long was I out for?”

“Mm, around thirty minutes or so; I whisked you away pretty fast once you went limp.”

He scoffed. “Better than the first time it happened.”

The Sage sucked in a sharp breath and tensed momentarily. “Ugh… don’t remind me. Worst early Christmas present ever, my Recluse.”

That had been an… interesting day.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

The Recluse was starting to regret coming out here.

Normally he would refrain from ever leaving his tower in the first place, much less while it was snowing. However, he had needed some extra fleece for a project he was working on, and he didn’t exactly want to wait until next week to go looking for some in the markets.

Afterall, the damn shop restocked today, and he wasn’t going to risk the color he wanted getting stolen before he could buy some.

So flying in the snow it was.

Truthless didn’t exactly enjoy doing so, however. The flakes would manage to slide in between his spread feathers and then melt from the heat, weighing down his wings and making it harder to fly.

Not to mention how cold it was to have his wings get wet in these frigid temperatures!

He could hardly stay warm to begin with!

But he managed all the same, and came out of the shop a few coins poorer but much wealthier in terms of fabrics.

Looking up, however, he noted that it was snowing a little harder now. The flakes having gained both speed and size in comparison to earlier.

It… should be fine though.

Tucking the fabrics into the large pouch he had brought in preparation, Truthless started marching his way toward the town’s exit.

He was lucky he already wore so many layers, the cold had yet to reach all the way through to his skin. It shouldn’t be able to either, not with just the ambient temperatures.

And as if reading his mind, the winds suddenly started blowing much harder.

Oh, Witches…

Midnight Vanilla… should be far enough away from the town that no one would see him take off, right?

Well, even if they did, the snow should blur his outline enough.

Having made up his mind, Truthless unclipped his cloak, tucking it into his bag with a shiver.

His wings were still partially wet from before, and sluggish to respond, much like his mind.

Wait, what?

No.

He needed to get home RIGHT NOW.

The Recluse shot up into the sky, a powerful downstroke sending him well into the air.

Okay, all he needed to do was-

His worldview suddenly tilted as he was spun around, the winds catching in his feathers and sending him hurtling through the open air.

Ah. Right. The winds get stronger the higher one goes.

Great.

He only had a few seconds to contemplate his mistake before he was sent careening through the sky with a yelp, wings flaring instinctively to stabilize his movement but only assisting in the gale’s twisted game of flinging him about like a ragdoll.

No no no!

Truthless was getting further away from the peak! He couldn’t even see the tower anymore!

With how numb his body had gotten, Midnight Vanilla assumed the only thing keeping him from being sent straight into torpor was the adrenaline coursing through his veins from trying to not die via an unfortunate fall.

If he could just-

An air current shoved him downwards, and Truthless only had a few seconds to flare out his wings before he hit the ground. 

Or, he thought he hit the ground.

Why was the snow sliding beneath him?

Gravity suddenly pulled on his body yet again and he hit the ground yet again.

Oh, he had landed on a roof the first time.

He… should get out of here. It was dangerous for his weakness to be exposed like this near strangers.

The Recluse’s arms shook as he propped himself up, mind already slowing down as adrenaline started to wear off.

Not here… not now.

Please.

“My Recluse?”

…Sage?!

The door to the house he had crashed into was open, revealing Blueberry Milk, looking very confused.

“What are you doing here? Are you alright?” The other floated out, offering his hand to Midnight Vanilla.

And after a moment, he took it.

“Witches! Your hands are freezing, my friend!” The Sage exclaimed as he pulled him up. 

Truthless just wordlessly shook his head, blinking slowly.

“Are… you okay, friend? You’re swaying quite a-”

Why was the ground getting closer?

Oh, he’s…

…

His senses came back slowly, one by one.

The crackling of a fireplace was the first thing he noticed, sounding only a few feet from where he was laying.

And that was the second thing he registered: he was laying on something.

Something that was… soft. Whatever it was, he would rather like to have it in his nest, especially because of how it smelled.

When did blueberries and cream become his favorite scent?

… Why had it become his favorite, again?

Witches, his mind was moving slower than a licorice snail.

Huh. He hadn’t noticed he was shivering until now.

Truthless curled his wings around himself with a soft, hummed trill and clutched the cushiony object he was resting his head on a little tighter, nuzzling his face into it.

He could just… go back to sleep, right?

“My Recluse? Are you awake, my dear?” A voice came from across the room.

What…?

A hand touched his shoulder, and Midnight Vanilla blinked open his eyes slowly and lifted his gaze upwards.

The… Sage was here?

Why on Earthbread was Blueberry Milk in his…?

Then the memories came back and he shot up.

Or at least… tried to.

Truthless only got as far as getting his upper body a few inches off the ground before his muscles decided to just… stop working.

“Woah woah- It’s alright, my friend. Just relax.” Annoyingly gentle hands lifted him up and he was leaned back against the Sage, who looped his blue arms around the Recluse’s torso.

Blueberry Milk rested his head atop his own. “So, what happened, my Recluse? I’m excited you decided to stop over, of course, but… Perhaps you should try ringing the doorbell first next time? And maybe not faint within seconds of my touching you?” 

There was obvious humor in the other’s tone, but it was soured by a strong undertone of concern.

Midnight Vanilla closed his eyes and sighed. “...I didn’t do so intentionally.”

“What, faint? I don’t think anyone does.”

“No, you… fool. The winds forced me upon your roof. It… was not my goal to bother you unannounced.”

A pause.

“Ignoring the obvious falsity of your status as a ‘bother,’ what do you mean the winds shoved you into my roof? What happened?”

He really didn’t want to relay this whole story… 

But such was his punishment for burdening the Sage with caring for him due to his own recklessness…

“I was trying to fly back to my own abode. However, I failed to consider how different the wind speeds would be at a higher altitude. Fate just so happened to send me to your doorstep instead of a far… less appealing alternative.”

“Huh. I never thought about how wind would affect you… I’ll have to make a note about that.”

Blueberry Milk cleared his throat. “Uh, anyway-” What on Earthbread was his man embarrassed about now? “You didn’t explain why you fainted.”

Ah, right.

That.

“Have you heard of torpor, Sage?”

It was quiet for a moment, then two, then three.

…

Well, time to use his long dormant skills as the Saint of Knowledge, he supposed-

“Ohhhh, I didn’t realize you experienced that, my friend!”

Huh.

“Apologies, it took me a moment to recall what that meant, ehe. Wait, why were you out in a blizzard if that can happen to you? That’s so risky, my Recluse!”

“...I needed something from the village.”

A sigh.

“My dear-”

“I don’t wish for a lecture right now, Sage.”

“Fine. We’re having a chat later though, my Recluse.”

Truthless paused. “How… long was I asleep for?”

“Oh, around four hours or so. You were quite cold when I first brought you in, I’ll have you know. I’m surprised you didn’t get frostbite!

…Four hours?

“I apologize for imposing my… condition onto you.”

“... My dear, we’ve had this conversation before. I don’t mind taking care of you; I didn’t mind during your molt and I don’t mind now. I’m just thankful you see me as someone to rely on, even if you don’t want to.”

There… wasn’t much he could say to that.

Instead, he just wordlessly shifted closer to Blueberry Milk, small tremors still wracking through his body occasionally.

And if the Sage noticed the proximity change? He didn’t say a word.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

“Still as stubborn as back then about accepting help, aren’t you, my darling?”

His expression shifted in sleepy annoyance. “Shut it.”

Blueberry Milk simply laughed, pressing a small kiss to the star shaped birthmark on his forehead.

He adjusted his wings, now curling around both of them underneath the blankets instead of lying limply near the floor.

Truthless then tucked himself closer to the Sage, body relaxing as his husband’s other hand, the one not carding through his hair, started gently rubbing his lower back.

Warm. Safe. Flock. Mate. Warm.

He didn’t fight back against the quiet chanting his instincts recited, instead letting a contented coo spill past his lips as he melted further into Blueberry Milk.

The whispering tendrils of rest called out to him, beckoning him to let them take him once more.

“Sleep, my dear, I’m not going anywhere.”

So he did, letting the warmth and comfort of his mate carry him off into unconsciousness.

And when he awoke?

Midnight Vanilla felt more rested than he had in years.

…

Maybe giving into his Avian side every once in a while wasn’t so bad afterall…