A BIIIIG shoutout to @cutegalaxyqueen for the fanart of Milk Bread cookie and Sopapilla cookie!! Check out the art book!!

"I don't know what I was doing, I just got so caught up and I-"

"No, don't worry, (Y/N), please it's fi-"

"I shouldn't have done this with you! I feel horrible for this! All of this!" (Y/N) clutched her gown to her chest, desperately trying to cover herself up out of guilt. "I was mad at you in one moment and then the next I just.. I don't know!"

Dark Cacao gave her a confused but sad stare, trying to understand why she had suddenly had an outburst when they first woke up. He had opened his eyes, placing his hand in her hair and stroking it gently out of the way to rouse her from her nap on his chest. At first when she finally awoke, she had looked up to him with a small smile which caused him to violently blush when he remembered what had happened that morning. But quickly it seemed as though she realized too, and recoiled off of him, disgusted with herself.

"I mean, your father hates me, your advisor hates me- hell, the whole kingdom hates me right now! And what am I doing? I'm screwing the lost prince right behind their backs when we're hiding right next to them!" she exclaimed, ruffling down her gown and putting her undergarment back on. "I should have never come here with you. I would be better off dead."

The prince quickly slid his undergarment on as he stood from the couch, trying to calm her down. "(Y/N), don't say that, did you not hear the words that came from me? I wanted that moment with you. Frankly, I don't give a damn about what my father nor the kingdom says anymore!"

"But that's what I was trying to get you to realize," her eyes darted awkwardly away as she tried to look for an escape. "You got so caught up into me that you forgot everything else."

She stopped in her tracks whenever a thought popped into her head. Dark Cacao noticed and furrowed his brows out of hurt.

"(Y/N)... I don't think we actually-"

"I have enough to deal with right now. I can't be bearing your child, it'll be an outcast and I'll have this Scarlet Letter blazing on my chest."

"I'd be the happiest cookie alive to know we'll have a child! Imagine! We already made a promise! You showed me how I could keep my promise and you can too! This just means we're moving forward, away from everything else," Dark Cacao swiftly grabbed onto her hand, holding it there while he begged.

But all he saw in her eyes was the clouded vision of pent up emotions threatening to overflow. No joy, no love, just pain. He'd hurt her more than he could ever imagine just by pursuing his love for the cookie who needed anything but that.

"We're being foolish, Dark Cacao."

"I'm sorry.."

"Let me go," she whispered, and her hand softly slid out between his.

She silently walked out of the cottage while he stared, seeing nothing but her back facing him.

In his mind, the sensation of their dough pressed against each other felt more distant. So blurred, unnatural, distorted from how he once thought it felt before. Every touch left burn marks scaling across their surface, an aching reminder of what they both regretted doing. Permanently etched onto their bodies.

They had just returned to where they had started before.

Alone.

Both of us.

———

"Are you sure you have no more room left for tonight?"

"You doubt that I know? It's packed!" the innkeeper huffed, shooing away her cat which had rubbed itself against her ankle. "Maybe tonight I'll have some room for ya, bud, but not right now."

Tiramisu rolled their eyes impatiently. "I know you have at least some place else you can send me to. There's gotta be more than one inn in this kingdom, right?"

"We'll you see— cut that out!" the cookie's cat had nipped onto her pants with its thornlike teeth firmly. The innkeeper shook it off, sending the cat to yowl in displeasure before it stalked back into the inn. "As I was saying..."

"Take your time."

"This kingdom here hasn't got many visitors in the past couple of years. Nothing too enticing about this place anyways, unless if you'd want to be tormented by blizzards three times in a week for a vacation. Tourists sort of stick to the Tropical Soda Islands despite all those pirates. But I digress; pretty much every inn has gone out of business after trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel to rub two nickels together but to no avail. To put it plainly, everybody that stays in stays in, and everybody that's out stays out!"

Tiramisu sighed. "So then why are you guys so full for tonight if every other place has gone out of business?"

"Ah, now that's a truly well thought out question," she said sarcastically, leaning against the doorframe while flipping her thick black hair to the side. "Nobody has anywhere else to go! How else do you think I'm wearing these nice clothes? There's no competition in the market for inns."

Flipping their hood back up, Tiramisu shifted their feet away from the doorway, attempting to break away from the conversation. "Well, I guess I'll have to go sleep somewhere I can find for the night."

"Stay warm, don't catch a cold now, you hear?"

Tiramisu kindly smiled back, turning their head only to scowl as they stalked away. And to think (Y/N) would ever stay at this place... I'm confused as to why she found favor here.

They traveled through the dim streets, the flickering of the purple lamps casting looming shadows over the roads with a haunting glare. Nothing about this place was romantic nor welcoming in the slightest.

Up ahead, the candles at the mouths of the castle's windows blended with the starry sky, merging to become one with the atmosphere. Up ahead there was the kingdom's entrance, a grand wall with a hand-carved cacao gate, to protect the architecture from intruders. The clanging of soldiers patrolling on top of the walls resonated like distant bells.

A lightbulb appearing in Tiramisu's mind, they concealed their face more, hustling over to one of the farther corners of the kingdom on the eastern side. From there, another smaller cacao gate was still open, allowing soldiers to come in and out of the walls as they please from their village patrolling duties. Pressing their back against a sheltered corner, Tiramisu waited from the next soldier to pass into the kingdom, swiftly following behind noiselessly next to the haunches of the horse to conceal their presence.

They made their way closer to the soldier's quarters, separating from the steed as soon as a large opening enveloped Tiramisu, and they snuck off between several pillars. They would stop every few moments whenever a small group of soldiers drunkenly patrolling the kingdom grounds passed near, hiccuping and chuckling loudly as they joked like bumbling idiots.

The cookie felt around the wall, noticing a sudden change in the warmth of the surface growing stronger. Their hand grazed upon an indent, about the size to fit a cookie through the trapdoor that was there, and they pushed in on it, peering inside.

Down below was a bathing room, the lights dim and the room entirely quiet. But just below, Tiramisu could just see the ripples of a disturbance, looking further until their eyes rested upon a familiar cookie lounging alone in the bath, appearing to be completely submerged in deep thought with his eyes lingering over the blank pool.

Narrowing their eyes, Tiramisu quietly began to place the window back into it's original angle to leave for a clear place to drop into. But as soon as it was halfway closed, Tiramisu heard a disturbance from beneath.

"Your presence is commanded at the advisor's scroll room at once. You are not to speak of this command to anybody."

Tiramisu peeked beneath the sill once more, only seeing the boots of a soldier approaching the edge of a pool after bursting through the doors. The bathing cookie snapped out of his trance and looked back, his face growing stern.

"I will be there as soon as I can."

Tiramisu closed the window before he saw the cookie emerge from the bath, questioning what they just saw.

A secret mission? But for what? They thought, huddling next to the warm wall. There's something big going on here. I need to know what this is all about.

Suddenly, Tiramisu pondered over the deja vú from the cookie, remembering where they had seen him before.

The shop... that carpenter cookie... his son. He's going to have to tell me about all of this. After all, he's in debt to me now.

Word count: 1486