Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The steeple’s bells rang out into the misty morning, signalling the dawn of a new day. The snow had come overnight, painting the cityscape in a blanket of white. It was a very peaceful winter in Parfaedia. The nearby schools had let go of their students for the winter break. Several families had come to the chapel of the Order to get their yearly blessings and such. It always was so very packed this time of year, especially now that their newest resident had come to stay. 

 Reverend Mother watched their newest guest entertain the young cookies of Parfaedia with a soft smile pinned up on her face. This guest had such a way with children, although she already knew she would be. That didn’t stop her from being pleasantly surprised with how she was able to keep them interested with her many stories. Many of the parents were also pleased with her, grateful that someone was keeping their children distracted during the intense holiday break. Reverend Mother placed a hand over her heart as she turned away from the doorway. This was a good year. Despite their many, many losses, there were still plenty of reasons to rejoice. 

Reverend Mother walked the halls of the cathedral briskly, passing several other sisters cleaning the cathedral and speaking with guests. Soon, however, she felt a presence creep up behind her. 

"Ah, there you are. Was wondering when you would arrive, Sister Pastry. Thank you for all your hard work, dear."

“Of course,” Pastry Cookie replied, fiddling with the pins on her black veil, holding it in place. “It is my duty. If anything, I should be thanking you for allowing me to become a Shadow Sister, despite my failures in the past. I assure you, by the holy fork I wield, I will not disappoint this sacred institution again.” She tried not to bow her head as she wore the shadow sister veil. She was given great power with the bestowment of this veil, and she couldn’t allow herself to sully this righteous opportunity handed to her by the Witches.

"Oh sweetheart, you have done such a wonderful job showing your dedication." Reverend Mother hummed softly. Looking down the vacant hall, she motioned for Pastry to follow her down a certain deserted hallway. "Actually, on the topic, we have a new quest for you to complete."

“A new quest, Mother? Just for me?”

Pastry raised an eyebrow, unsure. Ever since her incident at the oven, she wondered if she would ever be left to her own devices again. But Pastry followed the Reverend Mother nonetheless, recognizing the familiar twist of the halls. She had only been led to this place after her last failure. When Mother had asked her about what she had seen. 

Reverend Mother opened a door to a room filled with maps and chess pieces strewn methodically across large tables, almost like it were a war room in some kind of kingdom. The Order was not one to meddle in war, however, though certain quests were allowed for the good of the people. Most of the maps reached locations from the Cacao mountain range to the floating citadel of the Creme Republic, all placed in relative distance from one another. And the middle of the room held a map with all of Parfaedia on it. There was a large red circle on one of the outer neighbourhoods, and a small carving of a dragon sat in the middle of it. 

"Just for you." She replied sweetly, placing a hand on Pastry's shoulder. "I'm sure you've heard about what the darkness has done... Creating, no, changing someone's dough from their original path our creators had made for them."

“That I have. That sort of power is unnatural,” she hissed, looking over the map darkly. “It deceives in its bluntness and kindness and supposed ‘truth’. Those who are changed by the darkness are not to be trusted.” 

Even so, a piece of her still remembered the standoff. Her towering over the beast, who was so gentle with his cakepup, even in his final moments… No, she was remembering wrong. It was fake, it was a show. Hardly genuine. Disgusting.

"Then you should have heard about the cookie who's dough was tainted with the scales of that of dragons, correct?" Reverend Mother picked up the small carved dragon. 

Pastry gasped, looking down at the Reverend Mother. “A cookie with the power of a dragon? I thought the dragons were dead!” 

"No, the dragon of darkness has pushed its scales upon a poor cookie." Reverend Mother said, shaking her head softly, as if she felt bad for the poor thing. Roughly, she placed the piece back onto what seemed to her a giant chess board. "But, we can stop the poor cookie’s pain and secure ourself a soul jam in the process." Pastry nodded as she listened to the Mother’s words. It didn’t even take her that long to figure out what the mother was insinuating. 

“Put them out of their misery, so to speak?”

"Yes. Put them out of their misery and take their soul jam, as per our sacred duty to the Witches." Reverend Mother turned to Pastry as she finished fiddling with the map. If there was any interruption to Pastry’s missions, she surely would be willing to crumble all the stood in her way, Reverend thought, knocking over a small carving of a coffee bean with a flick.  "I'm sure you will be able to complete this, unlike your actions at the tower incident."

Pastry stood to attention in an instant, barely even taking a breath, face flushing with embarrassment and guilt, and she looked away from the Reverend Mother. “Like I said, I will not disappoint the Order again.”

"Good girl. Prove you are worthy of your title." Reverend Mother spoke so softly and sweetly. "Show us you are our greatest."

”I am. I am worthy.” She took a deep breath, drawing her fork. “Now, what is the cursed cookie’s name?”

"Ser Buttercream Madeleine cookie."

***

It was a bright sunny winter day- Well, it was winter in Parfaedia, at least. The Berry Kingdom hasn't had snowfall in years, but it had gotten cooler outside, though the humidity meant that they were under constant threat of thunderstorms. Today however, it was as if the Divines themselves had blessed today. The sky was clear, the wind was light and airy, and the air was cool enough that Princess could sit on this bench right here in her poofy dress and heavy sweater and feel just peachy! And sit she was certainly going to do (and do for a while too) since the train wasn’t scheduled to arrive for like another twenty minutes. Preposterous. Waiting for the train to pull in was certainly boring, but waiting for the moment that the people on the train would get off was not.

Princess wiggled on her bench and patted her lap. Honestly, it was a miracle she’d been let out of the house alone and without a guard, but she’d more than earned a little bit of escape with all the formal princess training she’d been getting and, y’know, actually sitting down and doing. Ohh, she just couldn’t wait for Buttercream to get off the train so she could tell them the good news. She would have written it in a letter, she really would have! But it was the kind of news that required an in person kind of touch, just in case. Princess couldn’t contain herself anymore, she started flapping her hands and squealing to herself, a bright smile painted across her face as certain members of the train station crowd looked on at her in confusion. She didn’t care, though. Ohhhh, she was so excited!

Then with a squeal of wheels against iron, the train rolled into the station, steam and such billowing into the air as it came to a full stop and a muffled Bear Jelly conductor made some kind of announcement about waiting for the train to pull to a complete stop and having a nice day and stuff like that. It felt like hours when in reality it was only a few minutes as she waited for the doors to open. Luckily each one opened after the last, allowing for the passengers easy exit.

And among the many returning Berry residents and schoolchildren coming home for the holidays, there he was. 

Knight Cookie, in all of his dragony glory, ducked his head as he stepped off the train, mindful of his horns. He glanced around the crowd, his ears drawn back from just how loud and crowded everything was, but he pressed forward, bright blue eyes scanning the crowd, looking for someone. Princess continued to silently stare, taking him all in for the first time all semester and savouring the sight of her favourite dragon knight in the whole wide world, when his eyes locked onto hers. Immediately, his ears jumped upwards and his face split into a goofy grin. It was hard to make out from all of the noise, but Princess was pretty sure he’d shouted her name. 

“Buttercream!” she cheered back, jumping to her feet. In her mad dash to get to him, she nearly tripped over her dress, barely recovering before she threw herself into his arms, squeezing him with all her might.

"Prince- Boysen, be careful!" Knight said, placing down his bag and Creampuff’s. "I'm happy seeing you as well." He squeezed her gently, mindful of how small she was now in comparison to him. "I missed you." 

“I missed you too!” Princess buried her face so deep in their chest that she was nothing but a poofy dress and bright pink curls.

Knight patted her back, ignoring the looks from shocked tourists at the dragon knight who had finally returned home. "I'm here all holiday break. You’re going to have to share me with my family, but I'm here."

“Yeah, I know.” She nuzzled him. “I can share.”

"Good job." He looked back to the train wondering what was taking the other two so long. "Well, what do you want to do once I get settled back into Berry for the holidays?"

“Oh, I have so many things to show you! There’s gonna be a new dragon festival in town this winter, and I think we should go together!” Princess explained, parting from him and grabbing him by the wrists. She had been excited to bring them to that one because it was going to be for him! Because it was winter and he was an ice dragon everyone thought it’d be a great idea to have it happen in the winter!

“I don’t know about that, Princess. I think Buttercream may have seen enough dragons for a lifetime,” a voice chuckled from behind.

The Princess's eyes lit up again. “Espresso!” She bolted forwards towards the professor, giggling as she nearly tackled him this time. “Oh, you let your hair grow out a little! It’s a great look for you!” 

He hugged her back with a smile on his face. It had really been too long. “Good to see you too, Princess.”

"Princess! Don't go tackling everyone!" Knight said with a giggle.

Creampuff chuckled at their antics as she stepped off the train next. "I'm gonna head home early, I want a nap in my bed." She said as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

"Be careful, don't follow anyone into dark alleys," Knight ordered, worrying about his sister's safety.

"Buttercream! I'm fourteen! And a wizard! Of course I’m following everyone I see into dark alleys!" Rolling her eyes at his worry.

“I’m being serious, Creampuff. If something happened to you because you ran off again looking for adventure, I’m getting chewed out for it.”

“You’ll be chewed out for it?” Espresso asked, tucking his hair back behind his ear. “Have you met your parents? If anything, I’ll be the one on the chopping block.”

“Nobody’s gonna be on the chopping block, dum dums.” Creampuff waved her wand around, sending a very controlled stream of confetti to pop out into the air as she continued defending herself. “I am the coolest and smartest wizard ever, so nothing bad’s gonna happen to me. I’ll disappearify the bad guys before anything goes wrong, trust me! And besides, I’ve been handling the trip home by myself for like six years now. I think I know what I’m doing by now.” 

"I know but I don't want you hurt or kidnappe-AAAAAA!'' 

Before Knight could even finish his words two large red claws descended out of the sky and yanked him off of the ground.

Princess released Espresso and screamed. “BUTTERCREAM!”

Espresso, recently freed from a suffocating hug, dropped his bags and summoned his magic, hurling a bean at the creature in an attempt to stop it, followed by Creampuff, who chanted a spell she knew by heart and sent a candy fireball of her own up as well. No sooner did they do that than they saw the attacker and realised all at once how futile their efforts to save Buttercream truly were. Pitaya's hulking dragon form take to the horizon, Espresso's beans and Creampuff’s fireball barely leaving a scorch mark against their completely fireproof scales. Pitaya had just kidnapped Knight.

All three cookies stared up at the sky, completely entranced by the once of a lifetime experience of watching a dragon kidnap another dragon before them. It was Espresso who broke the uneasy silence first. 

“Well? Shit.”

Chapter Text

Far above Earthbread, Knight slammed his fists into Pitaya's claws as he writhed in a vain attempt to escape their grasp. The legendary pain in the neck themself had said nothing the entire trip, no matter how much Knight fought and no matter how much they screamed. Speaking of, it was high time that they started screaming again, if only to annoy Pitaya into letting him go since they couldn’t do much physical damage to them. 

"Pitaya! Let me go! I don't want to fight you!" Knight roared out, continuing his onslaught onto their claws. 

That only earned him a hiss filled laugh from Pitaya as their wings shifted above them, and they curved into a slow descent towards an open cave mouth. Landing with a thud, Pitaya made sure not to step on Knight as they landed, which was something that they were uncomfortably good at doing, Knight noted from the ground. Clearly, whatever they needed him for, they needed him in one piece. Knight’s mind raced through hundreds of potential explanations for what the hell was happening right now, most of which involving a fight, getting eaten, or getting given up to Lychee . And when he finally looked up to scope out his surroundings, all of his preconceptions were neither confirmed nor denied. Naturally. When it came to dragons, answers never came easily. Why would they start now? 

The cave Knight found themself in was lit by a warm campfire in the centre, which was a very clear downgrade from Pitaya’s cave, which had lava fountains and braziers lining the walls and stunk like sulphur to high heaven. It was cool inside this cave, a comfortable coolness much unlike anywhere in Dragon’s Valley or Berry Kingdom, but it wasn’t quite the chill of Parfaedia either. Knight puzzled through the location, trying hard to figure out where they were from those clues alone, but they were coming up empty. Besides, their puzzling would have to wait, for there was movement coming from within. A much more pressing matter.

Knight could feel Pitaya shift into their cookie form, not only from the harmless but very hot flames that lapped at them but the fact that they were thrown over their shoulders like a sack of potatoes. 

"Pitaya! Are you listening to me?!” Knight blurted, finding his voice again. “Let me go!"

Rolling their eyes, Pitaya did not answer him and continued to walk into the cave. "Hello plebiansss," they spoke to the residents of the cave with a callous glee.

“Ugh, what is it now?” a low voice growled from the campfire. “You’ve kept us waiting forrr farrrr too long.”

"Ssshut it! I have sssomething that will make thisss meeting far more entertaining than the last thousand yearss of ssstuffy converssation!" They cackled and shrugged Knight of their shoulders, flopping him onto the ground like he was nothing but dead weight. "Look at thisss!"

Knight looked up at his surroundings and bit back the draconic urge to start hissing and growling at Pitaya for treating them like a rag-doll. They were raised better then that. But it would feel much better than looking up from his heap of limbs and wings, frowning disappointedly up at a council of what seemed to be… three of the five legendary dragons. On one side of him, there stood a golden dragon with jagged armour and leafy adornments, their hair tied back from their face, their chest puffed out with pride. That one had to be Ananas, the golden dragon, ruler over the tropical soda islands. On the other side of him, there rested an ethereal blue 

A golden dragon with jagged armour and leafy adornments glared at them. “What on Earrthbrrread is that?”

A teal dragon with a large flower like hat, or maybe it was a flower sat up from the malaise lean they were in as they stared at Knight.

"This is Knight Cookie! They're a dragon now! Ssssee!" Pitaya held Knight out like a kitten at a cat show.

“Knight Cookie?” the golden dragon laughed heartily. “You mean, the one who stole yourrr tail? And you brrrought it herre?”

"I thought I sssaid not to bring that up. But! Look at them, they're a full legendary dragon like usss!"

Knight dug their claws into Pitaya's hands as they struggled to pull themselves out of the dragon's hands. "Put me down already!" They snapped at Pitaya. Tail puffing up in anger.

“But how?” they snapped, ignoring the cookie dragon in the room. “What dark magic is this?”

"Lychee! They thought it would have been funny to curssse the knight into becoming a rare dragon! Get rid of a problem while keeping up their sssadism." Pitaya laughed at Knight's attempt to harm them.

"Hmm, so they managed to make a full legendary dragon out of cookie without any magic? They even have a soul jam unlike the faulty Snakefruit..." They mumbled softly.

“This isn’t prrroperr. What does Lychee think they’rre doing? Turrning cookies into drrragons,” they growled, crossing their arms and shaking their head. “Cookies arre incapable of being drrragons, soul jam orr not!”

"Well what do you sssay to thisss?" Pitaya held out Knight to Ananas to examine but was interrupted by Knight attempting to chew his way out of their hands. "Ssstop biting me! Ssstay ssstill!"

They stepped forward. “Whelp, cease yourr attacks. It will do no good. Instead, speak. Defend yourrrrself.”

"Why do I have to defend my existence to you? I was brought here against my will!"  Knight pushed against Pitaya's grasp on last time. "I am dragon, it's in my dough. I may have been a cookie once but now I'm not and you will just have to put up with it."

“Hmm, bravery, prrride in drragonhood.” The golden dragon nodded firmly. “You have much to learrn, but you will do good underrr ourrr carre.’

"What?" Knight said confused that Ananas had given them the thumbs up.

"The whelp is young, we will be able to teach them many things. I volunteer myself for the role." Lotus spoke again as if teaching Knight would be a great burden. And not that Lotus would attempt to use the boundless magic of a young dragon for their own profit.

“You? Don’t make me laugh,” Ananas scoffed. They couldn’t possibly roll their eyes louder. “Yourrr lazy ass just wants him forrr his magic.  You have nothing to teach him except lounging arrround and strrrumming that drrreadful instrrrument.”

"And you? And earth dragon? Do you not feel the cold from him? I am connected to water and what is ice but frozen water? I would be the best option for him. I would teach him things like diplomacy, life magic, and how to be a proper dragon. You would teach him to be a brute." They hissed at Ananas.

Knight looked up at Pitaya as he watched the two begin to argue over who would be his guardian.

"Ha! And you would teach him that? You're ssso lazy! You would probably make him do all your paperwork for you!" Pitaya cackled.

“I am offended!” Ananas gasped, hand over their gem. “I am no brrrute, I am perfectly diplomatic. I have an island to take carrre of, mind you.”

"I rule an entire island!" Lotus rolled their eyes.

"I have already started training them. They're mine!" Pitaya wrapped an arm around Knight's neck and squeezed them into a hip hug.

“You what? You’rrre hotheaded! You will only teach him to burrrn things to the grrround!”

"Technically I can't burn things, and... Ananas? Is correct I don't want to destroy things." Knight rolled his eyes at Pitaya. Unaware he accidentally made it sound like he would go to Ananas for training.

Ananas beamed. “Exactly. Smarrt whelp. They will be coming with me, then.”

"Just because they agreed with you does not mean they will be going with you! Whelp you'd like to come with me to the Lotus paradise?"

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm going back to Berry Kingdom and spending my week free from school with my family." Knight pinched his nose brow.

“… Berrrrry kingdom? That pathetic clusterrrr of jungle? You’rrre joking.”

"No I'm not!"

"Really? Even after what they've done to you?" Pitaya gave Knight a look.

"Yes even after that, I fought hard to go back." Knight rubbed at his wrists softly.

"They're going to treat you like a commodity you know. A circusss act? They've done ssso to me, they'll do ssso to you. Sssurely you'd want to be ssssomewhere where you are respected?" Pitaya was confused by Knight's instance to got back to that place.

“You arre a legendarrry drrragon! Not some simple cookie!” Ananas’ wings flared with rage. “Why arrre you turrrning yourrr back on who you arrre?”

"I don't care, I'm happy being simple!" Knight stomped his foot. "I'm fine I don't care what people think about me, I'm very happy with myself. I want to go home, now!"

Pitaya shrugged at Ananas. "I don't think we'll get through to him." They shook their head.

“Well… you arrre right, but I do think therrre is an elephant in the rrroom that we must speak of. And he should be herrre forrr it.” They sighed heavily, taking a seat in their spot around the campfire, pointing for Pitaya and Knight to take a seat.

"Well you heard them you can't leave now, you're so gun-ho about being a dragon the least you can do is stay for the meetings." Lotus said as they lounged on their side. 

"Fine but afterwards you'll take me back?"

"Yeah yeah I will. Don't worry." Pitaya said sitting in their seat. "Find a chair, we're missing two dragons I'm ssssure you'll find an empty ssspot." 

“I’m assuming none of us have seen Longan rrrecently, or Lychee forrr that matterrr.” They looked to Knight and tilted their head. “Except forrr you.”

"I haven't seen them in about two months actually, and the last time I saw them was in the Frosting Mountains. So why are you expecting me to know everything about their location?"

“That’s not what I’m saying. Do not make the mistake of putting worrrds in my mouth, whelp,” they snapped. “But you may know theirrr intentions.”

"Their intentions with me was trying to make a proper dragon and that was forcing me... to isolate myself and only listen to them." Knight sunk in lower in the comfy pile he had sat himself in. Only then realizing it was Lychee's seat. But he wasn't exactly happy to remember the time spent with Lychee.

"... Ugh, Lychee." Lotus mumbled under their breath as they listened to Knight.

“We should have put them down when we had the chance,” they grumbled, shaking their head.

"No! We are not putting Lychee down." Lotus hissed at Ananas. "They are just misguided. We can easily undo what they've done." Lotus sighed. "... Perhaps we should have this conversation with out the whelp?"

“Why not? The whelp knows what they’ve done morrre than anyone herre. You saw how obsessed they werrre with Longan. That won’t go away just because we beat them. They’rre a thrrreat to all of us and the cookies we… the cookies that serrrve us.” They slammed their fist on the table, clearly pissed. For a dragon that seemed so proper, so objective and just, it was a shocking change. “We could have lost everrrything that day. You cannot be passive at a time like this, Lotus. I will not let you.”

"Who's Longan?" Knight asked in a quiet voice?

“A monster. A drrragon that hid forrr hundrrreds of yearrrs only to rrresurface just in time to attempt a genocide on the entire cookie race,” they spat. “They turned my island to stone. Everrryone on it to stone.”

Knight blinked slowly. "Okay? If there really was such a large threat why didn't the rest of Earthbread hear about it? I honestly doubt that story. Because if this Longan is so terrifying, why didn't they work with Dark Enchantress then when their genocide worked kill her off?"

“Really? Gosh, you rrreally arre a whelp. Dark Enchantress wanted the soul jam, Longan wanted only dragons to survive. Theirrr goals didn’t match at all. They would have soonerrr killed each otherr. And Longan would have won!”

"Then where in Longan? I don't see them here." He wanted to go home already.

"Well they're most likely with Lychee, perhaps we could use the Whelp to lure them out?"

“The whelp? Well… that could work.” Ananas scratched their chin.

"Are you two insane? The whelp can not be left alone with Lychee!"

"I agree with Pitaya there is no way you are using me for bait!" Knight stood up trying to be on level playing field to the centuries old dragons around him.

"But if we find Lychee we find out what they're doing, surely you're willing to sit for just a moment with them?" Lotus asked ever so sweetly.

"No, a hundred times no!"

“You’rrre not still worrking with them, arrre you?” They tilted their head again, clasping their hands on their lap in front of them.

"No I hate them! I don't want to be any where near them!" Knight growled at Ananas.

"Thiss isss enough. I'm taking the whelp, you're upset them." They grumbled and hoisted Knight over their shoulder.

“Don’t you darre walk away from this!” Ananas shouted back at them.

"I can't hear you." They snorted and walked out of the cave. Pitaya and Knight were gone in a blast of green fire.

“Dammit,” Ananas grumbled, shoving their face in their hands. After a while, they looked back up at Lotus. “Now why did you have to do that? Do drragon lives mean nothing to you now too?”

"What do you mean? I was just being proactive, you always say I'm lazy. Dragons still matter to me." Lotus shrugged and returned to strumming their mandolin.

“Oh really?” a voice cooed from the shadows. “Dragons still matter to you? That is amusing, since in the war between cookies and dragons, you did not choose that side.” An glowing eye opened, shining light on the dark corners.

They whipped around, eyes widening in fear. “No… it can’t be…”

“Hello, bretheren.” The eye pulsed with the sound of the voice. “We are due for a little chat.”

Chapter Text

"So. What do we tell Mama? Buttercream got kidnapped by Pitaya?" Creampuff hummed as she kicked her legs back and forth from her spot on the bench outside of Madeleine manor. It had been about an hour and a half since Pitaya had stolen Knight, and the group was no closer in figuring out a plan to rescue him now than when they had watched him get whisked away.

“Well, we can’t just sit here!” Princess huffed, ready to jump into action to save her knight in frozen armour just like the many times he had for her. Who knew what Pitaya would have wanted with him? The last time the two were even in the same place was during the whole farm destruction thing, and after that Pitaya just poofed out of Knight’s life, leaving him to die. Not that she was one to talk, but hey, at least she didn’t go around abducting people. Cutting her internal monologue short, Princess turned to the professor who was seemingly the only roadblock in the path to saving Knight, Princess snapped a question at him. 

“Espresso, why are you stalling?!”

“I’m stalling because we can’t just rush into a dragon den, Princess, we need help,” Espresso snapped back, pacing, tapping his chin as he walked back and forth. And he would rush into House Madeleine and rally the troops, he would, but he promised Grand Madeleine that he would keep their boys safe, and right now, he had failed 1/2 of that order. He liked his life. He liked it a lot. And an angry mama cookie with a spear and the blessing of the Divines was not something he needed on his tail.

"Well, if we aren't going to Mama, we could go to Madeleine? I know where his house is! It's on the other side of the kingdom but I know where it is." Creampuff threw out another option. “Didn’t you guys work together to save Butters before? Surely you could work together again to save him again.”
    Espresso stopped to ponder the thought of bringing Madeleine along. It could work. Use his light magic to act as a laser toy for a cat, or in this case a glittery object obsessed dragon and distract Pitaya. Then after thoroughly distracting them, the group could rush in and rescue Knight. 

“Madeleine, well, we could-“

“Ugh! There’s no time! We need to go now!”

Princess stood up, stomping her feet. Pink curls bouncing around she got the two’s attention. She wasn’t in the mood to rush across the kingdom to Madeleine’s home, she was in the camp of needing to rush in and save Knight before something horrible happened to them. And if they waited too long, something absolutely horrible would happen. Maybe it had already happened while they weren’t looking!

And then, before she could drag Espresso down the street, a loud screech echoed through the kingdom as a blast of green fire touched down behind the group. The tiles around them became scorched, but when the fire cleared, standing before them was none other than the great Pitaya themself. They had returned, hopefully with Knight in tow. If they hadn't, well… Princess was going to do something her Grandmother could never do and kill them herself. 

 "Asss you can sssee, thatsss why I never visit them." Pitaya mumbled as they tossed Knight off their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Luckily for Pitaya, their life was not going to be cut short by the princess in pink. Not today at least.

"Could you not roar in my ears?" Knight hissed as they picked themselves off of the ground. Dusting themselves off, they shot Pitaya a nasty glare. They felt like never leaving the house again if that was what the other dragons were like. Knight could swear they already had a headache starting. 

“Butters!” Princess exclaimed, neatly tackling him back down into it.

“Buttercream, Pitaya… I don’t understand,” Espresso grumbled, crossing his arms and approaching the legendary dragon as if he wasn’t an unranked and easy to crumble cookie. 

Pitaya simply rolled their eyes at Espresso. Still seeing him below them and well he was in the height department. 

"I’m okay, Princess. Pitaya decided that today would be the perfect time to introduce me to the other legendary dragons." Knight brushed his hair back into place, his free hand patting Princess’ back as he tried not to be thrown to the ground from how hard she was clinging to him. 

"They were annoying like usual." Pitaya spread their wings and stretched, ready to take off again. "Goodbye whelp."

“Next time, can you warn us all?” Espresso asked, properly peeved. He wondered how much he could pay Creampuff to not say anything to Grand Madeleine. That got Pitaya to pause their lift off. Turning their head to the side as they stared him down. How dare Espresso speak to them like that. 

"Eh? Why ssshould I? I returned him? Be grateful for that!" Pitaya rolled their eyes at Espresso. "You might not have even been able to get him back!" Arms crossed harshly over their chest as they began to growl at Espresso.

“You took him in the first place!” Espresso did not back down at Pitaya attempting to threaten him. He had Knight as a roommate now and was used to hearing about dragon tricks. If Pitaya really did mean to hurt him, they would have already. Which was probably an unsafe thought to have towards a Legendary that would surely bite him in the long run, but for now… He could be a little snippy as a treat.

"Well, the others liked him so much they were going to keep him!" Pitaya hissed at Espresso, fangs bared and definitely weirded out that their usual shtick wasn’t working on Espresso. Seems they had to bring more ferocity to this, especially when Espresso smiled smugly at them. Now that was pissing them off.

“I hardly see how that would-“ Espresso started before he got cut off.

“Hey! Everyone just shut up already. As much as I love a good fight every now and again, I do only have a few weeks with Buttercream, and I’d like to spend it peacefully, as I know they would too,” Princess protested, lacing her fingers with Buttercream’s. Even though she wasn’t opposed to kicking the dragon’s ass right there and then, they had better things to be doing. 

"I agree with Boysen, I made it back home safe, I didn't get kidnapped and kept. I'm okay." Knight patted Espresso's shoulder gently. "Come on, you're getting to see how the Madeleine's celebrate the holidays. You're going to have a lot more things to worry about than this morning's... excitement. Like Madeleine’s cooking." Knight said with a gentle smile, trying to pull the Professor's attention away from the dragon. 

"Yeah! If you thought the party from a while ago was crazy, wait till you see what's going to happen!" Creampuff said, bouncing off of the bench. "We did warn you to leave room in your bags for gifts!"

"Well it ssseemss you're all fine, I will go now, unlessss... I'm allowed to come in for the feast and juice." Pitaya said, rubbing their hands together. They were never repulsed by some feasting and drinking. 

“Uh, well…” Princess hummed and looked to her partner. “What do you think?” Knight’s expression could say a thousand words but the exhausted sigh before they began to speak was the cherry on the top of the cake.

"No. Go bother Hollyberry if you want something to eat," Knight said, pinching their brow.

"Oh I'll eat something of Hollyberry'sss alright- ... I'll just go now." Pitaya said as they stepped away from the group realizing midway through their innuendo it might not have been the best time. Wings flaring they took to the sky in the same blast of fire magic they had landed with. Leaving the air stilted and quiet for a moment before Princess broke the silence. 

“… What was that about?” she asked innocently.

For a second, Espresso stared at her, waiting for her to either get the joke or explain herself. When she continued glancing between the group, confused, they shook their head. 

“No. You know what? No. I’ll see you guys back at the house.” Espresso said and grabbed his suitcase, rolling it up the tiled pathway to the manor. 

Knight thought about it long and hard about what he should say.

 "How about you ask Hollyberry?" Knight said as he motioned for her and Creampuff to head inside. Creampuff nodded at her brother's command knocking on the door like nothing had happened. Which opened to Grand Madeleine's confused face. 

"What took you all so long? You said your train arrived nearly two hours ago?" Hands on her hips as she tried to puzzle out what took them so long. They didn’t have any gifts or anything, did they decide to run around the kingdom or something? With how frazzled they all looked, that could have been a possibility. 

“Nothing. Where’s Madeleine?” Espresso interjected before anyone could get a word in. Grand Madeleine looked around behind them. As if she expected Madeleine to have been standing behind them. It was expected of him to have been bouncing off the walls as he waited for the train to arrive but… He had seemingly gone missing. 

"No clue where that son of mine is. I think he might be at home finishing up his gifts for you all." She hummed, amused by her son having decided to stay home the day his partner and brother returned home. “I will speak to the birds if you would like?”

“Oh no need if he’s at home, then I’ll fetch him. Good day everyone.” With that, Espresso turned and went towards Madeleine’s home.

"Alright, be safe, don't get kidnapped by a dragon." Knight said waving goodbye to Espresso.

"Kidnapped by a dragon?" Grand Madeleine asked. “Whatever does that mean?” 

“NOTHING!” 

Chapter Text

Espresso stuck their hands in their pockets and whistled to themself as they walked away. It had been far too long since they’d seen Madeleine. It had been almost just as long since they’d talked. Life got busy, people got busy, so Espresso didn’t really worry about it. That being said… complete radio silence, especially from Madeleine… that was odd. But it was fine, right? It was Madeleine. He was always fine. 

Soon, Espresso arrived at the door to Madeleine’s place. He kicked over a fake rock and picked up the spare key. Madeleine always kept his extra key under that rock. Sometimes he got bold enough to hide it under a different rock but Madeleine was a creature of habit. 

Espresso knocked on the door to be polite, waited at least a minute, and then he opened it, stepping inside and looking around. The home was… Strangely dark. Usually Madeleine had all the lamps lit up with light magic. But the house was quiet and seemed to lack that light. It was still clean but Madeleine seemingly had left the house hours ago. Grand Madeleine must have been right about him going to get late gifts for the holidays. But Espresso couldn’t help but call out to Madeleine even if he wasn’t there 

“Madeleine? Hello?”

There was a short gasp as what seemed to be Madeleine was spooked by Espresso. Then out of the dark of the living room came a response.

 "Espresso! What are you doing here?" Madeleine's voice was hoarse as he tried to push it into his usual bravado.

“I came to pick you up, for the party. It’s winter break.” Espresso dropped the key on the door side table, snapping his fingers to light all the lamps in the room. Filling the home with a coffee smell instead of Madeleine’s typical lemon smell. “I’m home for a few weeks. So is Buttercream. I messaged you about this a week ago.” Espresso’s eyes soon adjusted to the sight before him, a quiet gasp escaped his mouth. Even though he tried not to.

Madeleine looked at him bleary, very obviously out of it. A large scruffy beard on his face, hair slick and oily from him not washing it for some time. Scars and blemishes that were usually hidden by makeup revealed for the world to see. His shirt was stained with red juice on the front. "Oh! It seems to have slipped my mind!" He chuckled awkwardly.

Espresso just stared blankly at him, shocked. “What happened to you?”

"What do you ever mean?" Madeleine asked with a practiced nonchalance.

“You know exactly what I mean! You look… I’m sorry, but you look terrible,” Espresso muttered back, shaking his head. Tentatively, he took a few steps forward to meet his lover.

"I'm trying a new look? A new style." Madeleine leaned against the couch between him and Espresso.

“Lying to me? Really?” Espresso brushed some discarded milk and berry juice bottles off the coffee table and took a seat across from Madeleine. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

"What do you want me to say then?" Madeleine said with a sudden bitter attitude. Madeleine had the patience that could outlast the dark flour war but apparently he had run out of patience.

“The truth would be a start. I haven’t heard from you in weeks and I assumed that you just needed space. Did something happen?” Espresso snapped, gripping their knees. “I’m not your enemy, Madeleine.”

Madeleine rolled his eyes. "How do I even start? There's just so much, I doubt you'd want to hear it all." Madeleine did not meet Espresso's eyes.

“I’m your partner. That means we’re there for each other. Why wouldn’t I want to hear it all? I came all this way for you, why wouldn’t I want to hear you?”

"It's stupid Espresso! My feelings are stupid and unimportant." Madeleine ran a hand through his oily hair.

“It’s not stupid, not to me.” The gripping turned to bunching up the fabric on their pant legs. Though that would be the only giveaway that Espresso was stressed, as they kept their face and voice as calm and even as always. “Come on, Madeleine, we’ve been through hell together and back. You trust me, don’t you?”

"I do but- it feels like-" Madeleine began to choke up. "It feels like I'm dying Espresso. I try relaxing I try being in the moment but I can't stop thinking back to all of the stupid mistakes I made."

Espresso let go of his pant legs and reached his hands out to hold Madeleine’s. “Okay… okay, thank you. But what mistakes?”

"I- I wasn't there for Buttercream, I didn't protect my family well enough, I scared people! I didn't protect you! I was doing such a bad job at being the protector of the downtrodden I couldn't even spare my brother the pain of putting down- Argh see! My issues are way less important than yours or Buttercream! You nearly died and I just sat there and watched."

Espresso listened intently, blinking as Madeleine started rattling off all the things that were weighing on him. Well, Madeleine wasn’t kidding about one thing: it sure was a lot. Sure, mistakes were made, but everyone made them. Not just Madeleine. The hard part was getting him to realise that. Espresso loved the man, but he could be as stubborn as themself some days. 

“… You didn’t, though. You didn’t sit there and watch. You were fighting too,” Espresso explained softly, rubbing the backs of Madeleine’s soft hands with his own calloused ones. “I don’t remember much from that day — clearly, you don’t either — but I do remember you. You kept trying to make it so you went in alone, you wanted to go back to Bumbleberry empty handed. We both underestimated how far she would go. And then, when things went wrong, you never abandoned me. You kept fighting for me, even when it was hopeless.” He looked up at him with a sad smile. “If I recall correctly, I was the coward that couldn’t even say I love you.”

Madeleine tensed at Espresso's gentle touch. Biting on his bottom lip, Madeleine tried to not look him in the eyes. 

"See. My issues are silly. I've- I've peaked. The Divine have turned their eyes away from me." It looked like Madeleine was having a trauma induced midlife crisis, he was worried that three bad months marked the end of his career. Marked the end of every great thing Madeleine could ever do. Madeleine just wanted to stay in his home and never leave again. Disappear, and let the overwhelming dread drown him into never feeling anything again.

Espresso, on the other hand, simply looked over Madeleine with pity, trying to come up with what to do next. There had to be something. Espresso never put that much faith in the Divines, but Madeleine did. And if Madeleine believed in their power, forgiveness, and grace, that was enough for Espresso to believe that this could not be the end.

“Alright, that’s enough of that.” He stood up, dragging Madeleine up with him. “Let’s get you cleaned up and fed. Most problems feel a little less big when you’re cleaned up and fed.”

"No!" Madeleine suddenly jumped up on his feet. "No... I've already been eating fairly well. You don't need to worry about that."

That certainly startled poor Espresso. He wasn’t expecting Madeleine to suddenly become so animated. “Well, don’t you at least want to look good for Buttercream’s party? He’s been very excited to see you again. He misses you almost as much as I do.”

"No! I can't, I'd need to work out! And restart my diet! I couldn't possibly go out like this!" Diet? The always active Madeleine was on a diet? Surely he would be eating constantly to make sure he kept his strength up, but something about how Madeleine said it made it seem like Madeleine wasn't bulking with this "diet".

“You were dieting this whole time? Like… restricting your eating?” Espresso asked, their calm expression turning to one of intense concern. “For how long?”

Madeleine's eyes widened. "Oh. Since... Since I graduated? A little bit before? But it's fine! Don't you like me looking like that?" He waved away Espresso’s concerns.

“Not if you’re hurting yourself to get there! Madeleine-“ Espresso pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated. “By the Divines, how come I didn’t see this?”

"I'm very good at lying?"

“ Madeleine! ”

"What!?" He shrank away from Espresso, frightened of Espresso’s opinion, he cared so much about their opinion.

Espresso folded their hands in front of them and took a moment to collect themself before they wound up saying something that would force Madeleine to run even further away from help. 

“Listen, Madeleine, I’m sorry for shouting,” they explained very calmly, in complete control of themself. “But I need you to understand that I don’t care what you look like, I don’t. I don’t care whether you’re thin or muscled or putting on weight. I don’t care whether your hair is long or short, whether you’re clean shaven or with a beard… Well, I don’t truly appreciate the beard but that’s because kissing whiskers is a strange texture that I don’t wholly appreciate, but that’s beside the point.” They cleared their throat and pointed their clasped hands at Madeleine. “The point is, the only thing I care about is you and whether or not you’re safe and whether or not you’re happy. If you’re not eating properly or if you’re staying inside all day… you’re not safe or happy. And that’s where I take offense, because you’re hurting the person I love most: yourself.”

Madeleine listened to Espresso speak, but he didn't feel like it was true. People only loved him for his looks. "I can't stand staying in the kingdom. Just the whole thing has made everything so bitter." Madeleine doesn't want to talk about his health so he'll talk about something else that Espresso had brought up.

“Okay.. You could take a break from knight commanding. Stay with me and Buttercream when we go back. Would that be good for you?” No, Madeleine thought. He couldn’t burden Espresso and Knight any longer. He had to go out and make himself better by himself.

"I could do that but- I, I think... Remember after the whole Creme Republic fiasco? With me going on that trip? I think I'd like to go on another. I know I'd be missing the holidays but-" Madeleine twiddled with his fingers. He just wanted to run away and never return.

Espresso sighed, crossing his arms. He came all this way to see Madeleine… but no, Madeleine’s mental health came first, and if a break was what he wanted, a break he should get. “I suppose that would be fine. The holidays sort of are a random event with no real meaning anyways. We can always celebrate at a later event.”

"Thank you for understanding. I promise I'll bring back so many wonderful gifts." Madeleine hesitantly reached a hand out to caress Espresso's cheek.

Espresso leaned into the touch with a sad smile. “I know, you don’t have to win me over with gifts, but I know you’ll try to no matter what I say.”

"I'll go get myself cleaned up, make an appearance then go on my quest. It's the least I can do before my family thinks I've fallen off the edge of the world." He said with a hearty laugh .

“Okay. I’m… gonna assume you don’t want my help with that.” Espresso picked at the blue sweater he was wearing, loaned from Madeleine back when they shared a room together for a week or so, never returned.

"If you'd like to help you can." Pulling the collar of his blouse up and sniffing it. Hiding the gagging from its smell poorly, Madeleine yanked off the stained blouse. He was embarrassed by his appearance but Espresso wouldn't bother him about it. Espresso made it clear he wouldn’t make him feel bad. 

Espresso stared at Madeleine’s chest. Huh… Madeleine had a bit of a tummy now. Not in an unhealthy way, necessarily, but a soft tummy nonetheless. The once rock hard abs that now in retrospect were a little concerning due to the fact of Madeleine constantly dieting to keep them in that state. Though in a brilliant moment of both action association and “helping”, Espresso reached out and gently touched Madeleine’s tummy.

That was not what Madeleine was wanting or expecting. "Espresso... Why are you touching my stomach?"

“Huh? Oh. Sorry, just… you looked soft,” Espresso murmured, hesitantly pulling his hand away. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, that’s all.” That was not all, obviously, but he’d rather die than tell Madeleine to his face that he liked Madeleine looking like this. Healthy. Not forcing himself to uphold some standard he had in his head. 

"Don't worry I'll be back to my radiant self in no time!" Madeleine laughed, proving that Espresso's little pep talk didn't stick in his head at all. Espresso sighed. There wasn’t exactly any arguing with him. 

“If you say so.”

"I love you Espresso." Madeleine squeezed Espresso into a tight hug. It was comforting but also proved that Madeleine needed a shower and some TLC.

Espresso ignored the smell and the grease as best they could and just held Madeleine back. 

“I love you too,” they murmured, staring off into space. How did they not see this sooner? They should have. Yet here they were. This really wasn’t the welcome party Espresso was expecting. 

"I'll go shower up." Madeleine pulled himself away from Espresso. Madeleine did enjoy his warm showers. Somehow right back to his usual self as if it was just a mask he slipped on and off easily. 

“Have fun.” Espresso smiled at him, picking at his sweater again.

Chapter Text

Okay, maybe leaving the Berry Kingdom in the middle of the rainy season (otherwise known as winter) was a bad decision. But Madeleine could handle his clean and warm boots getting stuck in mud piles over and over again, or being soaked from the constant rain. He was fine with it! Perfectly fine… Madeleine had a plan: he'd find a village, shower, and then see if there had to be a monster defeated or something else, then his quest would be over. As he walked he came across a fork in the road with a very old sign post. This path hadn't been used for years it seemed but that didn't stop the strange fellow on the other side of the path from looking just as out of place as Madeleine did.

The fellow in question was cloaked in red, hiding his face with a hood and carrying a tremendous load on his back. It seemed as if he were hiking? Camping perhaps? Either way, he was standing at the fork and reading the signpost, grumbling to himself inaudibly.

"Hello friend!" Madeleine waved towards the hooded figure. "Are you alright?" He asked jogging towards his side. If this figure was hostile, Madeleine's shields would protect him in an instant. 

The figure whirled around, making eye contact with the paladin for barely a second before pulling his hood down with a black gloved hand and looking away. However, a glance was just long enough for Madeleine to see his mismatched eyes -- one a regular blue and one black and animalistic -- and his dark red skin. This was not a normal cookie. There was something very familiar about this cookie to Madeleine.

Madeleine made a soft sound. "Oh! Sorry for startling you! I am Madeleine, the grand paladin of the Divines! I am currently looking for work, you seem to be in need of some help." He bowed his head a little bit before flipping his hair over his shoulder.

"I don't know what you mean. I'm perfectly fine. Leave me be," the cookie grumbled, tightening his shoulders. If Madeleine didn’t know any better he would say the figure bared his fangs at him. Threatening to begin growling like an angry cakehound. And Madeleine certainly knew better. 

"Are you sure? I can tell when a cookie needs help! Are you lost, I am quite proficient in finding my way." Madeleine needed to find a quest to do and quick. The sooner he found one the sooner he could go home. And helping this cookie would be the easiest quest he could do. … But he also felt a pit in his stomach when he thought about returning home. 

"My quest is one I must undertake alone..." A long and awkward pause followed. "But I suppose it shouldn't be much trouble to ask for directions. Um. Which path takes me to the Tower of Sweet Chaos?"

"The Tower of Sweet Chaos?! My friend, I can lead you there, but you must allow me to accompany you! You'd be in danger if I left you alone in that neck of the woods!" Madeleine said with a gasp. The cookie looked at him like he was stupid. Maybe Madeleine was a bit clueless when it came to social interactions but he was definitely not stupid.

 "You're kidding me, right? You're a light magic user, Ser Madeleine 'of the Divines'. If anyone would be in danger on this mission, it would be you, the beacon of hope and truth and sunshine. Not me." Madeleine could see the figure roll his eyes in disbelief. Madeleine found their offstandish behaviour oddly comforting. There were always people like this and he enjoyed people who were willing to say the truth instead of fawn and kiss his boots.

Madeleine laughed and smacked the cookies back. "You doubt me friend! That's why you'll need me! My magic would be the perfect counter to the tower along with myself knowing several healing spells. I would be a boon!" Madeleine had gone on an excursion to the tower a good time back before the war had ended. He had only managed to make it to the 38th floor

The cookie frowned deeper. "You're insane. But, I kind of like it. So I will allow you to come with me, if only for my personal amusement."

“Ha! I get that a lot!" Madeleine paused, realizing what he actually meant. "Well do you have a name stranger?"

"Oh, right. My name is Red Velvet Cookie. Surely you've heard of me."

Madeleine blinked dumbfounded and Red Velvet gawked at the Knight. How was this knight a commander when he couldn’t remember one of the major enemies from the Dark Flour war? They had met several times, well not truly but they were in the same place and time too many times for comfort. 

"No... Apologies I haven't!" How?! How has he not? Red Velvet was there for the attack on the Creme republic the same time Madeleine was! Their eyes met on the battlefield. 

Red squinted at Madeleine, trying to deduce whether he was joking about that. But nope, Madeleine was being as serious as a crack in your dough. "I... honestly, I'm not sure whether I should be offended or grateful anymore."

"Well, you should be glad you have a companion with you for this journey!" Madeleine glanced up to the sign post with a quizzical stare. Humming softly, deciphering their location. 

"Right... So, where's our heading?" Red Velvet asked, clearing his throat. Still baffled by the Commander’s strange memory.

"That direction! It's quite a trek but it's an easy walk." Madeleine pointed the opposite way Red Velvet had been looking. "If you walked that way you would have gone towards Parfaedia!"

"Oh, I definitely don't want to be anywhere near Pardaedia," Red Velvet snorted. "That place is cold this time of year." He shook his head thinking about the last time he was supposed to go to someplace freezing. He stepped into the snow from the Dark Cacao kingdom and walked back onto the hot air balloon. 

"Agreed! I heard they received at least three feet of snow this year!" Madeleine laughed and motioned for Red Velvet to follow him.

Red Velvet quirked a smile and followed after. Huh, was this small talk? Nobody had ever done this for him before. Nobody had ever spoken to him about dumb meaningless stuff. It was nice, in a weird stupid way.

"But my brother loves that apparently, I don't know why but I guess it has to do with the ice magic and such." Madeleine was unsure if he should bring up the dragon fact. But mentioning the ice magic was a good choice, he rationalized. Ice magic is mostly harmless. Sure you could get frostbite but there was no way ice magic could kill someone. 

"You have a brother? I didn't know this," Red muttered, looking over at Madeleine as he hurried up to trot alongside him.

"Two siblings actually! A younger brother and sister! They're back home in the Berry Kingdom for the holidays actually." Madeleine said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"That's... nice. I never had siblings of my own, though I had... adopted siblings of sorts. They got on my nerves and in my way, but I did enjoy their company sometimes."

 It was easy to remember them fondly when he hadn't seen most of them in so long. Poison mushroom had a family take them in. Licorice found a job somewhere. Dark Chocolate disappeared, never to be seen again. Same with Affogato. And Pomegranate was a wily one, but she always lurked from the shadows nearby.

"Aw thats so sweet!" Madeleine grinned widely. This Red Velvet fellow seemed like such a nice person. "I understand that completely. My siblings and I fought with each other, but in the end we still love each other."

“Love is a strong word, but I suppose you understand better than anyone.”

Madeleine chuckled as he turned back to Red Velvet. Big goofy grin on his face as he looked back at his companion. "So may I ask what are you doing going into the tower?"

“Ah it’s… my own personal business,” Red Velvet huffed, pulling his cape closer. He did not want to talk about his quest to return to the tower. It was for a very personal reason. 

"Well I'll be helping you. I'd like to have an idea of what I'd be getting into!" Madeleine said gently, knocking his fist into Red Velvet's shoulder. Teasing him very softly. Madeleine was going to be making sure Red Velvet was safe as they traveled.

Red huffed. "So naggy. Let's just say I'm looking for something, and your purpose is only as a guide."

Madeleine snorted at Red Velvet. "Well, friend, I'm glad to be a useful guide!"

"I don't know if we can be considered friends; we barely know one another. But sure. You are a useful guide. For now." He wasn't too keen on letting a light magic user guide him after his past with this fellow's kind. But on the other hand, he was rather cute. Like a cookie version of a cakepup. Just so full of life and joy.

"I'm sure after this wondrous quest we could be called friends!" Madeleine said with cheer as he led Red Velvet on. The land became more craggy and stained with red the further they walked. White cream cheese frosting littered the land as well.

This was the landscape Red Velvet was used to. The barren ground, the red wasteland, the unforgiving rocks and... yeah, this place was a dump. In hindsight, it was rather odd that he once called it home. In a stupid, nostalgic way it was still his home, though, which somehow made being back again after all this time so much worse. And this time, he was alone, a guardian of himself. Well, alone with this puppy man by his side.

"Here we are!" Madeleine said, placing his hands on his hips. "Oh! Would you like a shield for when we go in? It can be quite dangerous."

"A shield?" He scoffed with a sharp toothed smirk. "I don't need a shield." 

With that, he reached behind him and unsheathed a massive knife with a jagged edge, showing it off to his new "acquaintance" and letting the setting sun's light glint off the polished blade. Red Velvet never went anywhere without his knife. Back in the day, M- Dark Enchantress used to say that it came straight from the witches' table, and therefore was imbued with all kinds of dark magic. She also said that she knew that it would come in handy the day she rescued him, and that she stole it, knowing that he and he alone would be the one to wield it.

"That's a very strong looking weapon. Almost like a saw! I'd bet its good for cutting through tough things." Madeleine poked at the sword. "But are you certain? Usually a team of five go in and it's just us two. The shield might save your life." He teased.

"I'm certain. I don't go into battles I am not certain I will win. I've learned not to be a martyr," he stated plainly, stopping in his tracks and looking up.

"Alright." Madeleine said, patting his shoulder. "Come on then friend."

The Tower of Sweet Chaos loomed before them, a staggered structure that looked as broken and sloppy and moist as the cake within. But despite its ragged exterior, it clearly stood the test of time. And that was without mentioning what lay in the belly of the beast, so to speak: an oven, one that could create life out of simple dough. One to give mere cookies the powers of gods.

"Alright. Let's go."

Chapter Text

Madeleine cheered and tugged Red Velvet along, right through the foreboding front doors of the Tower. This man truly had no fear. Or sense of safety, for that matter.

"Do you think anything will be inside or will it be shut down?" Madeleine had already known that the baker of the tower had left a long time ago, leaving it to crumbles into dust and ruin. So it should be safe, probably. Pushing the door open he held it for Red Velvet to go in first like the gentlemen he was.

"It should be shut down by now," Red Velvet mused to himself. He was the one to shut it off to begin with. 

"Well then wonderful, no need to worry,'' he laughed.

Red Velvet frowned, sniffing at the air. "Hmm... something's wrong though... something's burning."

Madeleine attempted to sniff the air like Red Velvet before realizing he couldn't. "Oh? I can't smell anything burning."

"It's coming from this way." And then he pressed on, leaving Madeleine behind.

"Hey! Wait up!" Madeleine jogged after Red Velvet, utterly confused.

The further the two of them went into the tower, the darker things got. Torches hadn't been lit in years, by the look of things. And the forks and knives scattered about were all covered in a thin layer of dust. Madeleine's natural light glinted against something, which upon closer inspection turned out to be what looked like a giant, gruesomely painted eyeball. At least, he hoped it was some kind of twisted painted statue of sorts. He didn't know what to think if it was anything else.

Madeleine quickly walked past the giant eyeball staring at him. Well he tried to at least, the thing blinked at him. What was supposed to be a mural on a wall blinked at him. Madeleine couldn't help but squeak out in fear and bolt to Red Velvet's side. His cry echoed around the vast empty space. Luckily it should be empty.

"What are you doing?" Red Velvet whispered, pissed. "Can't you see I'm tracking something?"

"That painting blinked at me!" Madeleine hissed at him, gripping tightly onto his shoulders. For a paladin, he wasn't exactly brave. Madeleine was not a fan of horror movies, and he was expecting the fire and cake hounds running around. Not the dread of something being dead and rotting around the corner. That was the worst part about being a knight; he’d come across so many crumbled bodies that it truly stayed with him. 

"You're being ridiculous. Paintings don't blink." 

And then, something in the shadows scurried away.

"Did you see that?!" Madeleine pointed towards the darkness.

"See it?" Red glanced around, drawing his knife. "I didn't see it, but I sure as hell heard it... Something's alive in here. Stay sharp."

"Of course... Do you need a light?" Madeleine asked as he held his hand out ready to summon a sphere of light into existence.

"We're safer in the dark. Here, up these stairs. We ascend."

"Understood. I'll try to limit my glow somewhat," murmured Madeleine as he brought up the rear, sphere fizzling out of existence as he made sure to limit the amount of light.

And so they ascended, creeping up the stairs carefully as they tried to keep an eye out for any monsters or unsafe architecture. And then, the stairs levelled out into a dark hallway of sorts.

"Easy peasy! Let's go." Madeleine now had a firm grip on Red Velvet's cake hand and dragged him along the hall with a good speed. He couldn't grab his other hand since that was the one holding his weapon. Madeleine was happy to rush through the hall. He didn’t want to linger in this place anymore.

"Wait, Madeleine, let's not go-"

Before he could finish, a bolt of lightning shot through the dark, blinding both of them instantaneously before the room settled into darkness again, now with a much more noticeable burning aroma from behind them. A few sets of glowing red eyes illuminated in the darkness, though neither could quite make out what they belonged to. Madeleine was right about one thing. There was something rummaging around in the dark.

"Get behind me!" Madeleine shouted, several bright golden shields flared into life as Madeleine took up a fighting stance. "I thought you said it would have been empty!" He shouted, focusing on making sure his shields were in a protective formation.

"It was supposed to be!" He cautiously peeked over the shields. "Ugh! I hate these things!" Red Velvet growled as he recognized the shape but paused. He never baked these like this. They usually had better frosting work. And it was blue… Blue Velvet?

Another bolt of lightning struck, this time against Madeleine's shields, resulting in a shower of sparks. Red Velvet didn’t have time to puzzle this mystery out as their lives flashed before them.

"You're their commander! Shouldn't you be able to tell them to stand down?" ... Didn't Madeleine say he didn't know who Red Velvet was? How did he know that Red Velvet was their commander?

"I... what did you say?" Red Velvet whipped around, staring into Madeleine's eyes with his own widened ones. Another bolt struck, shattering the first and foremost shield. Madeleine yelped as his magic was scattered. Big blue eyes staring at the remnants before flicking back towards Red Velvet.

"I lied!" He said with as much joy he had when he was talking about how much he loved his family. "I know who you are, but you seemed like you needed a friend." He shifted the shields so they could protect them better. More of those eyes came alive, shooting lightning bolt after lightning bolt into Madeleine's shields.

Meanwhile, Red Velvet was at a loss for words. Friend? Him? He knew? "You... I can't... We need to get out of here. Now," he insisted. He had to abandon the mission now. It wasn't worth the destruction of someone who was giving him a chance. It was never worth the destruction of anyone, period! The tirade was only getting stronger, and Madeleine's defences were getting weaker.

"I agree, see why I kept offering you a shield?" Madeleine said with a laugh, grabbing one of the shields from mid air he quickly turned back to Red Velvet. Placing his hands onto Red Velvet's chest as he pushed the shield into his hands. "Take it! I have plenty left." He motioned towards the last two protecting him. "Go! I'll hold the rear!"

He grabbed the shield and stowed away his knife, sprinting back towards the stairs in a mad dash, which was better than staying and watching over him, risking getting either of them seriously injured. All the while, he wondered why exactly Madeleine had chosen to give him a chance.

Madeleine made mad dash after him, shield gripped tightly in his right hand as he jumped over fallen debris from the assault of lightning. He launched himself into the air and he was going to make it to the exit right after Red Velvet. Using a little bit of float magic to propel himself forward even more.

And then, one lucky bolt of lightning snaked past his defences, striking his shield and crumbling it, continuing its assault onto Madeleine.

Madeleine shrieked as the lightning ripped up his arm, causing it to begin cracking apart. And due to being mid-flight there was nowhere for the electricity to go so it circled his body, causing many more cracks to rip him apart. Before the worst happened. There was too much electricity coursing through his body, his poor heart couldn't take it. His chest burst open as the electricity attempted to find a place to wiggle into. He landed in front of Red Velvet with a thump.

"MADELEINE!" he roared, rushing back to pick him up, only to find that his entire body was in pieces, crumbling right before his eyes. "No, no, no," he muttered to himself, crouching down to avoid the lightning, barely noticing that the shield that Madeleine had given him had fizzled out of existence in an almost electrical burst of energy. "No, get up. Get up soldier, get UP!" He put down his monster hand to prop himself up as he tried to shake Madeleine awake, but it squished against the ground. When Red lifted it back up, it was slick with dark red jam. "No..."

But the lightning did not let him stop. The eyes did not care to let him grieve. They kept shooting, kept approaching, wanting nothing more than to snuff out another life.

Madeleine's glowing had dimmed completely. He was gone, Madeleine had died protecting Red Velvet. There was no Licorice to bring him back, so how would Red Velvet save him? How could he pay him back? Or more importantly, what would people think about him leading the great Madeleine Cookie to his death!

He scooped up as much of Madeleine in his cape as he could and disappeared down the staircase, dodging more of those lightning bolts. He didn't remember making these eye creatures! What were these?!

There were strange half baked dripping things now staring at Red Velvet. Sloppily made and nothing like he had ever done. The dough was still runny and the frosting horribly applied. No, these weren't his. But these ones didn't attack; they just watched him run his way towards the oven.

The oven. The oven. He knew how to make things in the oven. The oven brings things to life. And Madeleine needed to be alive. He spread Madeleine's remains on a baking sheet, arranging the limbs next to the pieces they were supposed to be next to, shuddering as he did so. Admittedly, he... never tried this on a cookie before. Running down the stairs turned to walking. Nothing was chasing him down to the oven. So he could relax and think about ways to save his… Friend.

He needed something that would make the new dough and the old dough stick together. Something malleable.... Something flexible that wouldn't ruin the dough's integrity. Reaching the kitchen’s door he shoved it open with his shoulder. First thing he had noticed  was how different everything was. Sure it had been years but he was certain he didn’t leave his workspace like this.

Gently Red Velvet placed all that he could save of Madeleine into a cookie cutter, ignoring the red stains on both of their white clothing. Red Velvet finally gave himself a second and took stock of his surroundings. There were a strange amount of supplies he had never had in his kitchen before, but maybe he could find something of use from them?

Red Velvet looked around at the materials. Some were familiar, yet gross looking, and some were newer, in shiny containers with labels in a script he couldn't read. He took the first one off of the shelf and uncorked the lid, only to be met with something he recognized instantly. Something he had never had this much of in his possession. 

"Oh. This will do."

Chapter Text

Espresso had been curled up on Madeleine's couch for the past two hours, halfheartedly leafing through a journal about magicology. Latte had finally gotten an article in a journal, despite being a kiddie cookie teacher, and it was quite good, actually. That being said, his heart really wasn't into reading it. 

He would be in Madeleine's bed, but it wasn't quite the same without Madeleine. Without him it felt invasive, or like an omen. And he really didn't need either feeling in his life.

And like a shoe dropping the silence was shattered, by a splat of something wet and hard hitting Madeleine's door. A prank by some random child who thought it'd be funny to bother the knight commander maybe?

Espresso flinched as the sound hit the door. Huh, was he really that spooked by sounds? He'd only spent a few nights alone and already he was coming undone. It was probably because of the shaky terms that the two of them left on, Madeleine and him, but that was no excuse to stop being a self sufficient mage all of a sudden. He sighed and stood up, looking through the peephole of Madeleine's door. Looking through the peephole Espresso gasped with horror. 

What was behind the door froze him to the bone. It was something straight out of the Licorice sea. A half melted thing, wailing and dragging its claws into the door. It wanted in and it probably wanted Espresso dead.

Espresso gasped, recoiling from the door. The door would stand. Whatever that thing was, the door would stand. If it didn't, he'd blast it to high heaven, but there was no point in destroying Madeleine's house for something that shouldn't be able to break in.

After some more feeble attempts to break in the thing stopped moving its forehead, or what looked to be its forehead was laid against the door. Quiet sobbing through pained gasps and wheezes. Most leftovers from the Licorice sea cried, it was the trapped souls begging for freedom, but this thing didn't look like any of those monsters Espresso had seen before.

Strange… Despite what seemed to be obvious danger, Espresso crept towards the door again, listening to it weep. “… Hello? Hello?” he called out to it.

It looked up towards him, following his voice. But how strange it seemed to have two beautiful pale blue eyes. They were familiar as well. Espresso opened the door to get a closer look, deciding that this creature was no threat to him. Even with all the fear in the pit of his stomach he still had some hope that the familiar creature was perfectly safe.

The creature seemed to start glowing as it saw Espresso, only causing it to melt further. "Es-so." It croaked out, oh by the Divines…

“M-Madeleine?” Espresso’s face was awash with horror as the familiar voice and glow finally struck him.

How the thing was positioned made more sense now. Madeleine was laying on his stomach having dragged himself to his house from who knows where, melting and falling apart. Shaky arms raised out towards Espresso, all he wanted was it to stop burning. "Es-o!" He said somehow still keeping his chipper tune even though it looked like he was dying.

“Madeleine, madeleine, what happened, what-“ He scooped his arms under Madeleine’s, trying to lift him up, but he recoiled from that too. “Ow!” Espresso cried, having been burnt by Madeleine’s lava-like skin. “Madeleine, what happened to you?!”

His two big blue eyes stared at them, trying to open his mouth to speak only caused a coughing fit. Gently Madeleine's head bobbed lower like his last bit of strength had given out. Did he just die? Again.

“Madeleine?! Madeleine, can you hear me?!” Espresso frantically shook Maddie’s shoulders, pleading to him. “Please, please, no, don’t go, don’t go, please, just… you’re not supposed to. I love you, you’re not supposed to go. Madeleine, say something! Anything!” Espresso started choking up, watching the love of his life practically melt before his eyes.

"I-m too- H-t." Madeleine pushed his head upwards as he tried to look Espresso in the eye but he was just too weak and ended up splatting against the ground like a dropped egg. Though the way his head fell this time allowed Espresso to see that his eyes were still open and straining to stare at him.

“Hot? Too hot?” Espresso muttered, sniffling and trying to keep himself still. “I’ll get ice. I’ll get water, and… and the air conditioner.” Espresso stood up. “Stay there. Stay alive.”

"Can-t mov-" Madeleine joked as a rack of coughs flooded his body.

“Great. First task down. Work on the second one. And add breathing to your list!” Espresso shouted nonsensically, rushing to the kitchen and retrieving some ice from the freezer, bundling it in some rags before rushing over and passing it off to Madeleine, holding it against his skin.

There was a sizzling sound as if Espresso had just put hot metal into water. But... When he removed the rag Madeleine's face had come slightly back together to the point he could see the pained expression on it properly. The glowing white liquid leaking from him, that one could mistake as frosting, had cooled into a beautiful golden colour. As if it was really gold.

And the ice was all but melted. Great. Espresso cursed under his breath but kept going. “How does that feel?”

"Better." Madeleine said without choking on something. A gentle smile on his otherwise exhausted face.

Espresso brushed back Madeleine's hair, breathing a sigh of relief. Now that Madeleine wasn't currently dying, he took a good long moment to inspect his lover, trying to figure out what the hell happened to him.

The most obvious fact was the two sharp horns growing out of his head. Golden cracks framing his once flawless face as Madeleine looked so exhausted. But the bright fever induced red on his cheeks told Espresso he still needed to be cooled like some sort of baked good out of the oven.

Espresso had to act and fast, to prevent any more damage. "I'm lifting you now," they muttered, scooping Madeleine up in their arms and half-dragging, half-carrying him over to the couch, mindful of any crumbling.

Madeleine hissed softly as a golden hand gripped onto Espresso, nearly burning through the fabric of his clothes. At least his limbs were coming back together into a proper cookie shape... It was a little worrying that so much of him wasn't dough but gold.

"Almost there..." Espresso muttered through gritted teeth, biting back the pain as the two of them hobbled over to the couch. Espresso leaned over and laid Madeleine down, crossing the Paladin's arms over his chest. "I'm going to get you more ice. Stay alive."

"So do-tting." Madeleine coughed out. As he tried to push himself up into a sitting position not quite getting the idea of rest and let your body heal.

Espresso snapped his fingers at him. " Lay down. "

Madeleine whined softly. "But- Essy." He tried very hard to puppy dog his way into being allowed to sit up.

"Down!"

Madeleine flopped himself against the couch in a show of spite, only to elicit a yelp of pain. No he was not going to mention that, don't say anything.

Espresso took a deep breath and went over to the kitchen, gathering ice and... They spotted their phone, resting on the countertop. Right, help, they should get help. They scooped it up and returned to Madeleine's side, depositing the ice on his chest and dialing for Buttercream as the towel full of ice sizzled and steamed. Knight should be awake this late; he always had the worst time getting to sleep when he wasn't working himself to the bone, and he was currently on a vacation.

Madeleine winced at the cold pressing against his burning hot skin. At least he was mostly pieced back together.

 After a few rings the phone picked up. Knight did always have trouble figuring out how the new phone worked. "Hello?" They asked quietly confused on why Espresso would call so late. There were sounds of a party going on through Knight’s end of the receiver. Espresso could hear Bavarian tell Knight to put down the phone and not to take work calls when with family.

"Madeleine came back from his mission and he was melting and burning and his dough's been replaced with gold, can you get over here and help?" Espresso rambled off, trying so very very hard not to panic and spook Madeleine. But he was panicking so hard, and his voice wavered as he spitballed all the information out to Knight. For the first time ever, the mage was barely holding himself together. "Bring whoever you can, I just need help."

"Okay?!" Knight squawked out. Confused but worried for his brother's safety. "I'll grab my mother, is he stable?" there was the sound of tripping from his side of the receiver.

"He's fine, he's laying on my couch now, he's fine. Just hurry."

"We'll get there as fast as we can. Hold tight." And with that Knight was gone.

Espresso turned off their phone and stuffed it in their pocket, turning to look at Madeleine. "Your family's coming over. They're going to help you."

"I'm fine. I don't know why you're so worried." Madeleine's words were slurred.

"I know you're fine." Best not to let him see how bad it really is. "You scared me, that's all. Banging on the door, and being all... I don't know. Why can't you ever just rest, Madeleine?"

"I can rest!" Madeleine garbled out. "I can rest very well, I just find it a waste. I should be able to- to keep going no matter what. But my head hurts so much. There's this ringing that doesn't seem to stop and it's so heavy..."

Espresso sighed. Some days there was just no getting through to him. To an extent, the bickering back and forth was endearing. To an extent, they wished that he would just listen to them for once and stop insisting he was infallible. Even when he was dying, he was infallible. It was infuriating when it didn't terrify him so much he shook in his skin. "Your mother will be here soon, and she'll help with that, I'm sure."
The two men stayed silent for longer than they had ever been in each other's presence. Usually by now Madeleine would have started rambling about something that had caught his attention. Or Espresso about his work, but they were silent. Until Madeleine swallowed back the bile rising in his throat and finally croaked out.

"... I died Espresso."

"... I figured," Espresso finally muttered after a moment of silence. Did Espresso really figure Madeleine died? Or was he just saying that to make it seem like he had some semblance of control over this situation. "What do you remember?"

"I... remember the oven. And trying so hard to get back to you. There was someone telling me to stay still and rest but- I couldn't rest, I need to get to you."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't rest then, I think, but you need to rest now. We don't know how you got back or why or what the consequences will be, and right now more than ever we need to play it safe." Espresso shook his head. "I want you to stay alive this time, Madeleine. So just lay there and look pretty for now and we'll figure out the rest when we have help."

"But Espresso! I left my friend behind, I'm worried about him..." Madeleine whined. His friend, Red Velvet. Madeleine couldn't remember what happened to him after he came out of the oven. The Tower was dangerous!

"I'm sure your friend is fine," Espresso quickly interjected. Not knowing of the danger.  "Right now, focus on yourself. You're so good at that any other day of the week," he half joked.

"But... Espresso are you upset-" Before he could finish asking his question in a barely audible tone Madeleine jolted from a loud crashing sound. Turns out it was the door swinging open, as a scrambled Knight nearly tumbled in.

Espresso's eyes lit up at the sight of him. "Buttercream, thank goodness, is Bavari-"

No sooner had he said that than Madeleine's mother pushed through the door, shoving past Espresso in her mama bear charge to get to her wounded son. "Madeleine! Whatever happened to you?!" She looked down at the cracks in his dough, the burnt crumbs, the entire limbs replaced in gold and nearly fainted at the sight. She'd seen her way around broken dough and jam puddles and respectable cookies blown to bits, but this... she'd never seen this before.

"... I-" Madeleine's face twisted before that charming little smile he usually hid behind came back. Who would fight that smile? "The Divine brought me back from being crumbled."

"Well, the Divine did a shoddy job!" Bavarian cried, kneeling beside him. "You poor thing, can you feel when I touch here?" She placed her hand on his golden wrist.

Madeleine winced softly. "Sort of? It's very hard to tell if I can."

"Okay, well, at least it doesn't hurt. We'll work on that. For now, I'll give you a small spell to ease the pain..."

Off to the side, Espresso stood against the wall, watching with baited breath. He'd even begun to bite on his fingernails as he observed Bavarian take care of Madeleine. Everything was fine now, Madeleine was in good hands. So why couldn't he shake off the shaky nervous guilty feeling?

"Espresso." Knight's voice cut through the tension. "Espresso breath he's here, he's alive. Barely but he's okay..." Knight was also in the nervous boat as he stared at the mangled body of his brother.

"I... I know. I know," he echoed himself, taking a deep shuddering breath. "I know."

Madeleine struggled to sit up once more. Head weighing strangely on his shoulders. "Mother, my head hurts." Of course it does, two large metal horns tend to do that.

Bavarian gently but firmly pushed Madeleine back into the couch. "Lemon Madeleine Cookie of House Madeleine, you lay down this instant or so help me Divine! Let me try a pain easing spell at the very least before you go running off again. In fact, don't run off at all!"

"Oh... she used his full name." Knight mumbled, giving Espresso a look. Trying to lighten the mood somewhat but Espresso’s grim expression made his joke teeter out.

"Mother! I'm just trying to see my appearance in case there was any scarring!" Madeleine would surely be heartbroken once he learned that his face had a very nasty crack running straight through it.

Before any of the others could say anything on the matter, Bava snapped at him, a smooth operator as always. Madeleine was just another soldier on the field, and the worst thing for the soldiers was to lose morale when their life was on the line. "No. You will do no such thing until you are fully rested. You will not be moving from this spot and those two," she pointed to Buttercream and Espresso, "will not help you do otherwise. Are we all clear?"

"Yes Mother." Knight snapped to attention. His body became rigid as he fell into his trained position. Standing at attention he waited for the next command.

"Yes, ma'am," Espresso muttered, shocked about how quickly everyone was falling into line. He looked at Madeleine.

There was a frown on Madeleine's face as he tried to run a hand through his knotted hair. Only to wince and look shocked when he reached his horns. "What... Was that?"

"And that's enough of that." Bavarian snapped her fingers, and Madeleine promptly fell asleep.

Knight stared at their unconscious brother then his mother. "The sleep spell? You haven't used that in years! What the-" They stopped themselves from cussing out their own mother but the emotion was still there.

Bavarian stood up. "He was going to send himself into shock or a panic attack, and either way he would have hurt himself in the process. I don't take the sleep spell lightly, you know this, Buttercream. And this isn't my first time dealing with a patient who would much rather not be."

"Well... You aren't wrong but it's a little horrifying seeing him like this. You have to admit." Knight looked around the room.

"I know." Bava rubbed at her eyes. "He had to go and get himself injured, didn't he?"

"Dead," Espresso interjected, staring at Madeleine's unconscious gilded body. Ruined and beautified all at once. "He got himself dead."

"That's what he says, but that's just not possible. Cookies cannot be brought back from the dead, even by the Divine. If the Divine could raise the dead... well, there's a lot of people it could have raised."

"I mean you've seen crumbled body's mom. Surely you believe the fact that Madeleine might have been on death's doorstep before whatever turned him into this." Knight paused. "He's not going to like what happened at all. I'm pretty sure he's going to have phantom pain all over not to mention the worry of the gold not properly setting." Bavarian had taught Knight wonderfully, he could have become a great doctor if he had a little bit more magic in him, before the dragon situation of course.

"I don't know what to believe, but you're right. It's... not going to be pretty for a while, or ever. We have to be prepared for the fact that Madeleine might not ever be the same."

"So what do we do?" Espresso piped up.

Bava shook her head. "I haven't gotten that far yet. I'll watch over him tonight, assess him better tomorrow. I hate to admit it, but this may be beyond my skill set. I believe that Parfaedia has doctors that might know more than I do."

"There's a hospital near my apartment; he could stay with me and get treatment there."

Bavarian shot Espresso a look, clearly unpleased with him. "Perhaps."

"I'll be there too mom." Knight stepped obviously feeling the tension between his mother and Espresso.

"I know. I just... oh, nevermind. Watch over him for me, I'm going to get more supplies," Bavarian muttered, brushing past the two of them. "Call if something changes."

Espresso just stood and took it. Of course Bavarian didn't trust him. Honestly, he wouldn't trust himself after this, and he didn't. He kept staring at Madeleine, quiet.

"Are you alright Espresso?"

"Hm?" Seems he wasn't really listening.

"How are you taking this?"

“Oh, me? I’m…” They reached up to fiddle with their tie, but their tie had been off for a while now. “I’m taking this well. As well as you can, I suppose. I’m taking this seriously, I… Tell me the truth, Buttercream. This is my fault, isn’t it?”

"Why on Earthbread is this your fault? Madeleine would have ran off no matter what in the first place!" Knight shook their head at them.

“I encouraged him to do this. I told him that this would fix him and it broke him! He was so happy when he ran off because he wanted to prove himself and I just… I wanted him to be happy.” Espresso’s shoulders sank, and he dropped his hands. “Even if it isn’t my fault, it still happened. And your mother thinks it’s my fault, I’m sure. And everyone else will think it’s my fault once the story gets out.”

"The story won't get out if we move him quietly. And I don't blame you. Mother has a problem of putting her hurt feelings on the wrong outlets. I'm sure in the morning she'll feel better and will trust you again."

Espresso was quiet for several moments, expression unreadable. "... I hope so."

"It happened Espresso. We can't change that but we can look after him." Knight patted Espresso's shoulder softly.

"That we can. We just have to... make like Madeleine and press on, no matter the strife." Espresso looked over at Knight, forcing a small smile. "We've done it before, and we'll do it again. We will, because we have to."

"We can make it through this. He'll come out of this stronger I'm sure of it." Knight 's eyes were fixed on the sleeping paladin. Madeleine had to get better. He had to.

Chapter Text

Bavarian stood at the doorway to her son's room for longer than she wanted to admit to herself, or anyone else for that matter. It all happened so fast. One minute, everything was quiet and normal at House Madeleine.They were celebrating Knight's return and Creampuff's success in school along with the winter holidays, and then Knight took a call that she herself had admonished him at the time for taking, saying he needed to spend time with his family instead. Oh, Bava was never going to forget the pale look on his face when he'd ended the call and the broken speech he'd used in trying to explain that his older brother had been wounded. And then, seeing Madeleine on the couch covered in gold…

Bavarian swallowed down the sinking feeling that was rising through her. It was easy to be commanding and militant in front of her boys, but it was much harder to deal with any of this on her own. Grand Madeleine had done much to help her work through this, but it was taking a toll on her as well. Some things you just had to push through on your own. Bavarian knew that well. 

She knocked on the door as a warning before pushing it open. "Madeleine?"

Madeleine groaned as he stirred awake. Her sleep spell was wearing off just as she had planned for it to. 

"Mother?" He croaked out, trying to push his strained body upwards. Wincing with each attempt before giving up and laying back on his bed. "Mother- Why am I still so sore? Surely your magic would have been able to heal my injuries..."

"Some things magic can't fix. And some things must heal on their own." She stepped inside, setting down the change of clothes, towel, and water basin that she'd prepared for him. Once that was settled, she moved towards the window to open the shades. "You lost a lot of dough, Madeleine. What were you even doing?" 

Raising his golden hand, Madeleine stared at it. Did he dare tell the truth? Did he dare tell her he wandered into the Tower of Chaos with the Commander of the Cookies of Darkness? Would she start a hunt for Red Velvet's head? Did Madeleine even dare to lie to her? He couldn't figure what to say to her, so he just looked away ashamed.

Bavarian looked back at him and sighed. "For what it's worth, I know you well enough to know that whatever it was, you were doing the right thing. And to that end, I'm proud of you. I just wish it didn't have to come at a cost."

"I lived didn't I?" Madeleine croaked out with a smile. But still, was it just the Madeleine's family curse to become a horned monster? A being no longer a full cookie? Why did the Divines choose her sons? What made her baby boys so special that they were chosen to be hurt over and over again? 

“Yes, you did.” Bavarian walked over to his side, tossing him a new shirt. “Here, it’s freshly laundered.”

"Oh, thank you mother." Madeleine's movements were slow and pained as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "How long do you think it will take before I am able to return to service?"

“Oh! Uh…” She crossed her arms. “About that. Ahem… I’ve spoken to your superiors, and currently the idea is that you don’t. Return to service. At least, not for a while.”

"But I'm the Knight Commander. I have a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders I have to take care of." Even with all of those responsibilities he wasn't able to take care of himself. This was how he got into this terrible mess. Madeleine just couldn’t take a break. 

“And right now, you need to take care of yourself. You’re injured, Madeleine, you have the equivalent of prosthetics. You can’t be going around and fighting like you used to. You’ve served the crown, Madeleine, it’s time to rest and enjoy yourself.”

"It's just one hand Mother! And it's the one I use for my shield." Oh poor Madeleine, he's clued in about the horns but not all of the damage done. Madeleine had lost so much in one afternoon. 

“… it’s more than that. Why don’t you take a look?” Bavarian wrung her hands together as she kept her eyes towards the opened window. Watching the birds chirp gently. Grand Madeleine cried the moment she saw Madeleine get wheeled into their home. She had been out in the garden for most of the day already, staring off into nothing. Most likely praying to the Divines for guidance. 

"... Do you have a mirror?" Madeleine’s voice was quiet as he asked his mother for a mirror. Knowing thanks to the pit in his stomach something was dreadfully wrong.

“I do.” Bava dug around in the bedside drawer and held up a handheld mirror for Madeleine to use, trying to stop herself from cringing ahead of time. He wasn’t going to like this.

As he gripped the mirror with his non gold hand Madeleine realized that fact was incorrect. Both hands were covered in gold, but where as one was pure gold the other was cracked and pieced back together with it. His hand shook as it held the mirror not because he was worried but because the muscles in his hands were shot from being torn apart and re-glued together. Taking a deep breath he moved the mirror to his face.

His face looked just like his shattered hand, with a wide crack just across the center pieced together with gold, as if it were some type of glue rather than a metal of adornment and wealth. And on the top of his head, two black and gold horns jutted out, like he was some kind of beast and not the kingdom’s finest warrior.

"By the Divine. What am I?" He couldn't even hold the mirror steady.

“You’re Madeleine. Dear? You’re Madeleine.” Bava reached forward to cup his face in her hands. “No matter what you look like, you’re still my son.”

"I- I look like Dark Enchantress! Don't tell me you don't see the connection mother!" Madeleine wailed. 

“Why? Because you have horns? Your brother has horns. Does that make him like her?”

"No but his horns are dragon horns. These look like hers. They're black and stripped and what if I become evil like her?!"

“Madeleine, no offence, but that is the most preposterous thing I’ve heard in my entire life,” she huffed, stepping back. “You, become like Dark Enchantress? You don’t even believe that dark cookies are evil, so why wouldn’t you believe the same about yourself?”

"I..." He couldn't refute that, he was willing to die for Red Velvet. But willingness and being ready to come back as a monster were two different things. But surely this didn't herald his downfall? This was just a bump in the road, nothing to be worried over. "... I'm just shocked mother."

“I know. This is hard.” She took a deep breath before taking a seat on the bed next to him. “Why don’t you go to Parfaedia with Espresso, Creampuff, and Buttercream next semester? You’ll be able to hang out with people outside of this kingdom and rest. The mage misses you very much, I can tell, and you’ve been such a big part of Buttercream’s life recently, so I’m sure he wants you around more too.” As she spoke, she reached out to tuck a strand of loose hair behind his ear.

"... But how will I heal there if I can't have your magic heal me? How will I be useful to the divine then?" Madeleine looked at her eyes watering. He was done for. He wasted his life chasing fame and now he's nothing.

“You’re doing enough. You’re doing more than enough. The Divine will understand.” She smiled at him, placing a gentle hand on his leg. “And there’s doctors there. There’s all sorts of friends there. You will be well cared for.”

"But what- What if I don't get better?" Madeleine's voice was quiet.

"You will." Her voice was stern. "There's no other choice."

"But what if I can't ever be a knight again? What then!? What do I do with my life?" That was a valid worry Madeleine didn’t have many practical skills outside of being able to take care of himself. What would he do then if he couldn’t do his dream job? 

"... in that case, I guess you'll just have to find something else to do. I don't have all of the answers, Madeleine," Bavarian explained softly. "But I do know that life goes on. Even if your original purpose isn't your forever purpose, life will go on."

"..." Madeleine sighed. This was the worst outcome. An adventure to return him to his joyous self has done nothing but damage him beyond repair. He can't be a knight, he isn't handsome, there is nothing Madeleine is now.

"I love you. Okay? I think you should go with the others, but ultimately that decision rests in your hands."

"I'll go, it'd be nice spending more time with Espresso." Madeleine looks heartbroken but he will heal. He has too.

"Yeah. He'll take care of you."

Madeleine wants to take care of Espresso. He wants to prove he's strong for Espresso, he doesn't want to be the weight that drags him away from his career.

"Alright, I'll let you clean yourself and rest up. Your mother's making breakfast and wrangling the others in order to keep them from all jumping on you at once," she chuckled. "So you should have plenty of hugs and a good meal in you soon."

"Understood." Swinging his legs over the side. The cold metal leg against the hardwood ground made him jolt but he played it off. Until he nearly stumbled over due to being weak in that leg. "Oh dear..." Is all Madeleine could say as he clung to his dresser.

"Woah, woah..." Bavarian was by his side in an instant. "Don't... why don't you get back in bed for now?"

"No! Mother it is fine I'm just a little unused to walking with this leg." He limped to the other side of the dresser with a hiss, following the top of the dresser with relative ease. But when it came to opening the drawers with one hand that was the challenge. Madeleine attempted to fiddle with the drawers until he got one open but still that caused him to wobble. He might have needed a cane if he was so unbalanced from the weak leg.

"Sure, sure, don't pay attention to the battlefield healer who's seen hundreds of prosthetics in her lifetime. And is also your mother." Bavarian threw her hands in the air in defeat. Why were both her boys too stubborn for their own good.

Madeleine frowned at his mother. "I don't want to stay in bed all day. So what do you suggest."

"Hmm... I'll figure something out. I might have a cane lying around somewhere."

"Oh great. Thank you mother." Sarcasm dripped from his words. How weak! Using a cane! He wasn’t an old man, he was Madeleine. Big point being the word was. He wasn’t sure who he was now that he had lost everything. 

"Of course. Anything for you." Even with the venom coming from her son Bavarian still worked like nothing had changed. She understood he was upset. They didn’t need a fight, she learnt that from Knight. Sometimes it's best to let someone fume for some time. 

Madeleine sighed and laid his head against the dresser. He couldn't lay it on the side, the horns were in the way. So he rested his forehead against the wood. Waiting for his Mother to return with the cane.

When she came back, she held up the cane for him. It was a fancy wooden cane with a handle that screamed house Madeleine with the delicate metal feathers on the other end of the grip.  "Here we are. Now, you know how to use one of these, yes?"

"Not exactly." He said with a laugh.

"Hold the cane on the side of your good leg, and use it opposite of your bad leg." Bavarian  demonstrated what she was speaking about. "See?" Something told her that he really wasn’t paying attention but she handed him the cane nonetheless. 

Madeleine nodded, he got it but he was still reeling from everything that had happened. "Thank you, I'll be down soon enough."

"I will see you soon, then. Be careful, and yell if you need anything." Bavarian waved to him and left the room, closing the door on her way out. As soon as she had left the warm air in the room became stilted. Watching the door silently click before Madeleine’s eyes returned to the cane. He stared at the cane in his hand with contempt. There was no excuse he could make up for this, no clever lie to make himself grander. Nothing. He was the only one to blame for this. If only he was better, faster, stronger, smarter, anything! Then he wouldn’t have lost it all.

Chapter Text

Madeleine stood idly by Espresso’s front door. His hand gripped his cane tightly. Knight had already carried in his own luggage and Madeleine's, stating that Madeleine didn't need to strain his already sore body. What was meant to be a kind gesture out of brotherly love had twisted into some sort of obscene caricature in Madeleine’s mind. Everything was an attack on his pride to him right now, and he knew how ridiculous that notion was but he couldn’t get the dread that hovered in the back of his mind out.

He was Madeleine the great paladin of the Divines, and now he couldn't build up the courage to walk into a condo. Even one he was expertly familiar with.

"Something wrong?" Espresso's smooth voice piped up from behind him. "I've never seen you look so uneasy to enter my house."

"Oh no! Nothing is wrong, Espresso!" Madeleine laughed hard as his hand gripping the cane shook.

Espresso cocked an eyebrow. "Sure it isn't. We should head inside. I can make you coffee, if you'd like, with enough milk and sugar it can hardly be considered coffee anymore, just how you like it," Espresso teased.

"... Thank you Espresso,” Madeleine mumbled. Still it took a bit of effort for him to start moving again.

"I have to go in for work this week, but I think we should find some activities to keep ourselves busy to," Espresso suggested. "Just so it's not too boring until the weekend."

Madeleine shambled into Espresso's home, not exactly listening. "Oh yes, that sounds brilliant,” he crooned on autopilot.

"We could go to the park or I could give you a tour of the institute, or we could stay here and find something to do." Espresso was trying. He didn't know how to help Madeleine, but he wanted to.

"I'm alright going to the park." Madeleine's face twisted as he thought for a moment. Then, he looked up at Espresso. "Am I still attractive to you?"

"What? Of course you are attractive to me. What kind of question is that?"

"But I'm all wrong now. I don't know how anyone could love me like this!"

"Madeleine," Espresso started, half exasperated. "I love you for so much more than your looks. I love you for the way you stand up for what's right and the way you laugh with your whole chest. I love you for the way you protect your family and the way you keep me from staying up too late. Whatever happened to your face or your arms or anything else, it didn't change what I love about you."

"But I can't protect you anymore. I'm broken, I can barely stand properly!" Running a hand through his hair, he hissed at the knots that tangled around his knuckles.

"And we'll figure it out. But I don't love you any less. And you shouldn't love yourself any less for it either." Espresso took a deep breath. "All we can do is move forward."

"I'm- I'm so stupid! I should have stayed home. I should have done something else but now I don't know where to go! How to go forward! I don't know Espresso and that scares me!"

"I know. But you have to believe that we'll figure it out! And if you can't believe in yourself or in me, then... the Divine. You always said that the Divine has a plan for you, right?"

"... Their plan was for me to die, Espresso." 

"What? That... can't be right."

"I was reborn like Dark Enchantress. Do you think the Divine would want that for me?"

Espresso looked away, trying to come up with a response for that and falling short. No, he didn't know what the Divine would want. He didn't even believe in the Divine. But he knew the religion well enough, and he knew how twisted it became before their family migrated to Berry. But he couldn’t help but feel like Madeleine was keeping something from him, and he was going to find out.

"I don't know what to do, Esso."

"Like I said, I think you should keep going," Espresso said softly, pushing his own plans of cracking Madeleine open and finding out what exactly happened that day aside. "I think that's all you can do."

Madeleine gazed at Espresso, his tired eyes giving away more than he wanted to. Madeleine looked so small, so… Mortal. Not a grand paladin, not even a supermodel. He was flesh and bone, he was breathing, living, and scared. He was just a cookie and he had so much piled onto his shoulders. Espresso just had to lighten the load somehow.

“How about we stop talking about what ifs and bad endings. I’m sure we can find a hundred different ways the world could end, but that is tomorrow's problem. Let's go to bed.” Espresso wrapped his hand around Madeleine’s. Brushing his thumb over Madeleine’s cracks and flaws, which were still just as stunning as he was.

“Are you telling me to go to bed? What world is this?” Madeleine joked, a faint smile creeping onto his face. But they both knew it was just flattery. The smile wasn’t real.

“The one where if you keep this up I’ll get your brother to carry you to bed,” Espresso rolled his eyes. He might have had strong levitation magic but that wouldn't be enough to drag Madeleine to bed. The gold had made the already quite heavy paladian weight nearly double.

“Your bed?” Madeleine asked softly.

“Of course I’m not letting you sleep on the couch and neither will I.” Espresso gave the slightest of tugs to lead Madeleine up the stairs.

“I suppose that is acceptable,” Madeleine followed with his cane hanging on his arm. He kept forgetting to use it, but with Espresso holding his hand and acting as a weight he felt he didn’t need it.

Madeleine went to bed that night heart fuzzy and warm, besides his favourite person in all of Earthbread. He didn’t even mind Espresso’s sleep talking or how he clung to a pillow in his sleep. Madeleine felt safe besides Espresso safe enough to have allowed his eyes to flutter shut.

Espresso woke with a stir as his alarm began to blare. He rolled over lazily, flailing his hand about, smacking the clock until the sound stopped. As the world came back into focus Espresso could vaguely through the walls hear Buttercream's alarm also going off in the distance. Its own sound went a few seconds longer than his own, neither of them were morning cookies but there were things to be done. 

Espresso rose, blankets bunching around his stomach as he cracked the sleep out of his back. Lazily he rolled his head, glancing at the sleeping cookie. The perfect mess of blonde hair laying that even with the bedhead looked deliberate "Mmm, Madeleine? Are you awake?" Espresso whispered.

Madeleine who was usually awake before Espresso groaned. Smacking the gumminess out of his mouth, Madeleine blinked up at Espresso. His powder blue eyes lit up as he watched Espresso. Both of them were safe and alive, which was the best anyone could ask for. 

It would probably be best to get started for the day. Get up and dressed, unpack his luggage while Espresso was out for the day. Madeleine attempted to sit up, the attempt was quickly halted as a pained expression flashed across Madeleine’s face. Madeleine knew this feeling well from many years of overexertion. Muscle fatigue and pain racked his body, but it was like someone had turned it up to eleven when he wasn't looking. He felt great yesterday! But he was also still under his mother’s healing spell at that time.

“I don’t think I’ll be moving for a while,” Madeleine said with a whisper. Just a small comment as he laid his head back onto the pillow. Nothing more to Madeleine, but to Espresso; who seemingly never stopped being near a panic attack in recent days, it was much more.

"What do you mean you can't move? What's going on?" Espresso’s once soft expression and shoulders jolt into panic. Scanning over Madeleine quickly, worried that the cooled gold might have broken something, or snapped, or worse. Espresso was afraid to touch him, in case he made it worse. "Maddie?"

“No- No Espresso it’s nothing bad, I’m just fatigued! Too much to sit up, that is, nothing truly worrying! I just have to tough it out and push through!” Madeleine said quickly, trying to calm Espresso down. He hadn’t meant for his comment to be taken so harshly. 

"Okay, okay..." Espresso wasn't really sure what to do in this situation; he wasn’t a doctor or healer. He only knew enough healing magic to stitch his paper cuts back together. "We could try getting you to stretch, it might hurt but it might make things better. We could get you... I have some painkillers in the bathroom. I could call your mother?"

"Oh there’s no need to! Pain medication is fine!” Madeleine laughed. He sucked a breath of air tensely through his teeth, as he prepared to sit up. “I’ll be up and moving in no time! Perhaps we could even go for a jog later!” 

Espresso watched Madeleine pull himself up to a sitting position with the help of the headboard. Even with him being so hurt he was still trying to get back out there. 

"Maddie, you don’t have to push yourself for me. What I really want from you is you to heal properly and rest," Espresso warned, reaching out to try and help him, not knowing how. "Let's... start with the painkillers, then we can figure the rest out.” 

Kicking his legs over the side of the bed, Espresso didn’t even mourn the lack of warmth from leaving the bed. He had a job to do, help Madeleine. Espresso glanced at the clock on his way to the bathroom. Doing some mental calculations as he walked by. He should have enough time to figure this out.

"Okay..." Madeleine stared up at the ceiling, every part of him aching loudly. He needed to get better, to be a paladin again. Madeleine can’t keep sitting idly on the sidelines anymore while the ones he cared about were hurt beyond recognition.

Espresso returned quickly having splashed himself with the water meant for Madeleine. But he placed down the glass on the nightstand beside him. Chewing on his lip as he stared at the child proof cap. Clicking it open with ease as he counted the pills.

"Maddie, I... I'm sorry this happened,” Espresso’s hands were shaking, they felt frozen from the cold water and his own guilt for giving Madeleine that stupid idea. He just hoped he could help him at least. Maybe… That could work. Espresso placed three of the painkillers into Madeleine's hand as he thought. Piecing together information Madeleine had let slip, he might have been a good actor, but he was a terrible liar when put on the spot. 

Madeleine gripped the pills like they’d fly out of his hands at a moment's notice. He grimaced at every slow deliberate movement he made to limit the pain.

 "... It’s not your fault, Espresso. It never was. I went on that trip of my own volition!" Madeleine said as he knocked the glass of water back.  

“I just- If it wasn’t the divines who did this to you. Then who did? I just want someone to blame as absurd as that sounds.” Espresso ran a hand through their knotted hair. And they knew the perfect person to pull the information from Madeleine, they just hoped he wouldn’t be too mad with them. 

Madeleine swallowed a growing lump in his throat. The lie kept growing, maybe it would be easier if he told someone what happened, making Red Velvet the enemy like Lychee. But he knew that Red Velvet was just trying to help. He couldn’t do it.

“Don’t you have work?” Madeleine pointed towards the clock. Espresso seemed shocked that all his mental calculations had been off and he was running slightly late.

"Are you going to be okay here if I go? I can call someone to run some food over while I’m gone, and I'll come straight home at four. It won't be long." Espresso rushed to his dresser. Moving as quickly as he could to get dressed in his uniform. Glancing nervously back at Madeleine everyonce and a while.

"... I can handle it," Madeleine smiled, "I can, I promise I won't run off and you won't have to worry about me." Madeleine felt the pain medicine slowly kick in as the roaring rapids turned into a dull rumbling. Experimentally he waved at Espresso. "I'll see you at four."

"Good. I know I can count on you,” Espresso’s smile was tense, hovering in the doorway. "I love you, Maddie. I promise we'll figure this out."

"We will… Tell Buttercream not to do anything stupid!" Madeleine chuckled trying to lift the mood. But Espresso had already left. His voice quieted as he spoke to someone over the phone. 

Sleep was always the best healer, Madeleine did feel a little guilt about not being able to do much besides sleep. But Espresso would be ecstatic to know he rested, so that's what he did. Closing his eyes gently, Madeleine shuffled back under the sheets. 

********

Almond found the spare key exactly where Espresso said it would be. He’d have to have a talk with the professor about hiding it better than just under the doormat. But right now he was here to do a favour for Espresso. Almond had too many favours up in the air right now. Especially to this household which seemed to have a crisis every other week. 

Almond was informed of some things, like Madeleine having taken a grievous injury out in the field but that was about it. And some other things about that story that weren't adding up to Espresso. Shifting the convenience store bag onto his hip as he pushed the door open. He figured the paladin would be taking the injury worse due to his perfect golden boy image being damaged. Maybe he’d offer the chiropractor he used. Almond wasn’t as young as he used to be.

"Ser. Madeleine? You in here?" Almond shouted up through the house. "It's Detective Almond. With lunch." Almond sighed, straining his ears to listen for sounds of movement. Which had been a bad choice when Madeleine began shouting down the stairs.

"Ah! Hello detective!” Madeleine shouted with a chipper tone. Having been in Espresso’s home before from his search warrant Almond placed the creaks and groans onto his mental map of the condo. Madeleine was making his way down the stairs, albeit slowly. Must have torn a muscle or something.

Then all at once it was as if he was back on a crime scene examining a poor crumbled cookie. There’s a look cookies get when they crumble, besides their bodies breaking apart. The skin gets dry and flaky, and the eyes lose their light. Almond didn’t mean to stare at him, but for a moment he didn’t see a living breathing cookie but his next assignment. Madeleine was if a corpse had glued itself back together and was wandering around. This was bad, bad enough Almond’s breath grew shaky.

"Huh, so Espresso wasn't kidding." Almond spoke, forcing his breathing to calm as he steeled himself. Madeleine seemed to catch onto the detective's shock. Espresso was definitely right, there was something more to the story, and they had called in the right cookie.

"Haha... well yes my appearance isn't the best currently..." Madeleine continued to creep his way towards Almond, every movement slow and calculated to be the least painful. It took painfully long for Almond to act, but he was already moving before his brain had even caught up.

"Do you need some help, son?" Almond was moving to grab Madeleine a chair from the kitchen table so he wouldn’t have to keep walking. The way Madeleine had been teetering toward it was nerve wracking. Poor guy looked like he would fall over with a gentle breeze.  

"I'll be alright, I just had some trouble getting out of bed this morning." Madeleine kept a gentle smile on his face as Almond pulled out a chair for him. "Thank you for bringing these over.” Motioning towards the bag hooked on Almond’s arm.

"Of course. Mind if I ask what happened to you?" Almond placed the bag down on the table. Pulling out a fruit for Madeleine as he pulled his own chair around. Notebook in his hand by force of habit.

Madeleine’s eyes widened, acting as natural as he could he glanced down to the large apple in his hand. 

“Oh I doubt you’ll get much from me Detective, I’ve been having some memory issues!” Madeleine laughed, squeezing the apple tighter, like it was a stress toy.

“Anything is good to know. Madeleine you have to excuse my crassness, but you look awful. You’ve been injured to the point of near crumbling. I’m shocked that you managed to get to a doctor before you actually crumbled.” Almond tapped his pen against his notebook. 

“I… Didn’t actually make it to a doctor, I did crumble,” Madeleine realised how bad that had sounded and rushed to correct it. “I got better! I didn’t stay dead for very long so it’s like it never happened!”

“That would explain the webbing pattern from your chest. That’s where the most damage came from it seems, either by a large weapon, or magic spell.” Almond wrote down his observations. “Only cookie I know who knows revival magic is Pure Vanilla, but he can only do so much and you would have mentioned him if he was the one who revived you. So Madeleine, be honest with me about what happened.” 

“Almond I am an injured cookie you surely can’t be interrogating me.” Madeleine chuckled, subtly pushing Almond to drop it.

“I’ve done worse.”

That wasn’t what Madeleine expected to hear from him. But he did try to arrest both of his siblings so it did make sense for Almond.

“Finding out what happened is for your own good, Madeleine, so that the person who did this can be found. Do you remember where you were?”

Madeleine chewed on his lip, he didn’t want to lie to Almond! Lying to Espresso and his family was already killing him! But Almond the man who was paid to find and break open lies? Madeleine would have to put his entire heart and soul into this performance.

“I was out camping on one of my grand adventures! You remember those? But I was out there and it was storming? Perhaps it could have been a rockslide but when I came to I had already been fixed and revived. It must have been the Divine's protection and blessing that I was brought back from the brink. Which of course is perfect for a paladin like myself!” He laughed pushing as much air his sore lungs could move out. “I couldn’t remember what had even happened! After I awoke! I just knew I had to make it home and show my family the blessing of the Divines!” 

Madeleine threw in as many flourishes and Madeleine-isms he could think. Hopefully Almond would grow tiring in his questioning and leave it be. But as Madeleine cracked a peak at him, frustration bubbled as Almond had been dutifully noting down what he had said.

Almond had been told by Espresso in the little information packet that Madeleine had already confirmed that the Divine’s didn’t do this. He was scrutinising him even harder now, the stories weren’t adding up. From what Espresso had told him and what Madeleine had said were two completely different things.

“Not that I’m not a believer and I’m denying you yours, but are you sure the Divine could even do this? I’d doubt they’d give you horns and fangs to resemble your brother. “ 

Fangs? Last Madeleine had checked his teeth were perfectly fine, but that was something for him to investigate while alone. And that was another part of his perfect visage that had been ruined if Almond was correct. Madeleine didn’t even bother putting in that much effort as he gasped at Almond's words. 

“Do you remember where you were and what time it was?” 

“Somewhere around the Frosting Gulch” Madeleine mumbled, pressing his hand against his mouth as he thought. Speaking on autopilot, head still clouded with his worries about his appearance. 

“Frosting Gulch… Isn’t that the last known sighting of the Dark Enchantress’ tower?” 

Madeleine’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t hide his shocked expression from Almond. Which seemed to be what Almond was looking for. 

“Madeleine you can’t deny the possibility that you might have been used in an experiment by the Dark Enchantress’ forces. Thinking about it, it makes sense, you’re a tough cookie exactly what their forces would be looking for in a vessel.” Almond huffed as he tapped his pen against his chin.

Oh by the Divine everyone would think Madeleine was killed by Red Velvet for some cruel experiment. But he couldn’t get his mouth to make the words to prove Red Velvet innocent. He was too ashamed of himself being an idiot, and the fact he couldn’t say anything made it much worse. This whole thing kept getting bigger. Maybe he could find something to distract the detective?

But as Madeleine seemed to come back to reality, the detective was already on his phone chatting with someone. 

“I have to get back to the office to get this written up and in contact with my contacts back in Cookie Kingdom. Espresso made a good choice in getting me involved, this is a case of complete magic malpractice and dough slaughter.” 

Almond paused his speech to hand Madeleine a slip of paper. It had his number on it. 

“If you remember anything else or need help, give me a ring.” 

“Oh. I will definitely.” Madeleine had continued to shove his boot into his mouth and further. He didn’t even know where his friend was, so he couldn’t even warn Red Velvet! “Thank you for lunch.” 

“Of course, you take care of yourself,” Madeleine was shocked that Espresso had asked Almond to interrogate him! Making sure Madeleine had been fed was a ploy. Espresso didn’t trust him! Well yes he was lying to them but- He wouldn’t lie to Espresso on purpose. Madeleine was just trying to protect his friend… Or was he just protecting his ego? He truly was the worst. 

“Almond. Wait.” Madeline spoke at the last minute. “I …” His chest tightened. Come on Madeleine. Come on! Be honest. 

“I was in the tower, but I was alone, there wasn’t another cookie there besides myself.” Close enough. 

“Thank you for being honest Madeleine, I hope this hasn't stressed you out but you know I have a job to do.” Almond nodded and wrote that down quickly. Almond figured it must have been tough for the prideful cookie to admit to doing something so stupid; like going into the tower alone.

“I know Detective. I know.”

Madeleine watched the windows become blotched with raindrops as Almond ran out into the storm. Pulling his coat over his head as he ran. Madeleine wasn’t even sure he wanted to speak with Espresso about this. He knew that they had a reason to be distrustful. Madeleine was in terrible shape, and when he first came home after that situation. He did mention the oven. So Espresso had the right to be worried.

But he couldn’t help feeling… gross. Guilty, he could have thrown Red Velvet under the bus to save himself the looks and shame. But he didn’t and he still wasn’t sure if he was hiding why he was so ashamed of himself. Why did it feel like if he told the truth the Divines would cast him out.

Chapter Text

The streets were wet, the season's snow melting away with the spring showers. Though the days were still short and cold, the sun began to hang in the sky a little longer. Seemingly marking the change in the air and in Madeleine. The doctor appointments dragged on as he was declared a medical mystery. With minimal physical therapy or magical therapy, Madeleine had begun to ramp back up to his standard, and further. 

Almost like it really was a gift from the divine, it baffled many physicians. Madeleine had gone through several examinations. Having to sit through screaming matches between the Parfaedian doctors and his mother. Whenever he had his dough consistency tested it always came back the exact same. Forty five percent Madeleine dough, seventeen percent Buttercream dough, thirty six percent gold, and two percent unknown. It was sickening to have actual data on how much of himself Madeleine had lost. X-Rays showed that Madeleine really did have a heart of gold now. How ironic.

Madeleine had abandoned the cane he was supposed to use within the first week. Having not really cared to continue using it once the pain had subsided. He still had a slight limp in his golden leg but Madeleine could stand on his feet for at least four hours without getting winded now. Long enough Madeleine was practically begging his doctors to let him go back to the gym and start cardio again. He was denied several times.

Madeleine may have made a splendid physical recovery; the road to recovery in his head seemed to get longer everyday. Madeleine just wouldn’t work with any therapist or counsellor he was given to. Spending the entire meeting time chattering about adventures of the past. Madeleine had several reasons not to speak to someone. He didn’t feel like he had any problems; that he needed to speak with someone about. Not to mention if he slipped up, his lie could come crumbling down. Those who were a part of the war effort against the Dark Enchantress knew that anything that came out of her oven wasn’t to be trusted.

 The lie just kept getting bigger, Almond hadn’t found anything about his ‘murder’, Espresso was becoming agitated, and Madeleine just couldn’t bring up his hurt from Espresso’s blatant act of going around him to find their answers. A lot of things hurt nowadays for Madeleine. He found that if he spent too long thinking his chest would tighten, a squeezing aching pain. But today the thoughts were quiet as he strolled behind his companions. Watching the store fronts for something he’d want.

Espresso and Knight were currently discussing what should be served for dinner today. They had decided on having soup and dumplings. Something hardy, Madeleine had particularly liked that idea. 

“Next week is my last class, what should we do for it before I move back?” Knight asked nonchalantly, just a thought that popped into their head. 

“Right, I had honestly forgotten about that. It’ll be sad to see you move out, you’ve been a splendid roommate,” Espresso said, chuckling softly at the whirlwind that had been his life for the past year and a half. “Oh I just realised we haven’t celebrated your birthday and you’ve been here for nearly a year.” 

“Well that’s because it’s next month after I move.” Knight scratched at loose scale.

“Hmm, well we’d just have to celebrate, right Madeleine?” Espresso looked back at Madeleine, stopping in his tracks as he looked for Madeleine in the busy crowd. Madeleine had stopped walking nearly ten paces back. He was staring at a random shop's blinding display. Espresso held his hand up for Knight to wait for him as he went to collect his brother. 

Jogging to the side of Madeleine Espresso looked at the display. It had those obnoxious bright star stickers you’d write prices and discounts on plastered everywhere. But in the centre rested several different makes and models of phones, nestled softly in cotton as if it were a winter wonderland. 

“Maybe a good gift would be getting Knight a phone?” Madeleine pointed to the window. “Something sturdy and waterproof? It would make communication much easier between us all. Even the Princess has a small flip phone.”

Espresso smiled at Madeleine softly. “I think that would be a great idea, Maddie. But we should probably get him his gift when it's just the two of us.” They wrapped their arm around Madeleine’s waist and tugged him away from the display. 

“Well true but I was just casting the idea out there. We still need to coordinate with Creampuff if we’ll be celebrating his birthday early.” 

Madeleine had spent the day before working through a book of tongue twisters with Creampuff as she got increasingly more frustrated that none of them worked on him. She was so desperate to trick him she tried getting him with a deez nuts joke before backpedalling and begging him not to tell their parents.

Madeleine had made a huge show of calling their parents in front of her before putting his phone down before the call had gone through. It had been all fun and games until Bavarian began to ring back madly within the minute. Madeleine had to spend the next half hour assuring her that he was okay and that nothing was wrong. Much to Creampuff’s delight. By the 38 minute mark and the third round of mad giggling from Creampuff, Madeleine told his mother what Creampuff had done. 

Only to be met with Bavarian snorting and asking if that was all before telling them both she loved them dearly, and hung up. It had been an embarrassing day for both of them.

“Right,” Espresso chuckled softly brushing his hair back into place. The wind had picked up, making his cloak billow around him as they walked. 

“What’s that look for?” Madeleine asked with a smirk of his own. This was nice, he wasn’t being coddled or asked for a millionth time what happened. It was peaceful and by now he should have realised what would have happened after commenting on the peace. 

A loud shriek rang through the air as a woman was knocked to the ground in the rushing panic that had taken over the crowd ahead of them. The one with Knight in it. But as Madeleine scanned the crowd for Knight or any sort of foe, he saw a cookie burst through the crowd. 

Parkouring around the lamp posts, as the cookie launched into the air scaling the side of a building as if it were nothing. The cookie paused just on the edge of the roof. Where Espresso and Madeleine got a good look at them. A cookie with long pale blonde hair that had several blue streaks in it, tied into a low ponytail. The cookie held their yellow top hat so that it obscured their face before bolting across the rooftops and disappearing. 

“Wait!” Knight screamed as he bolted after, looking heavily winded. Clutching his chest as he huffed and puffed. Ever the dutiful knight and rushing after a criminal. Surely he remembered this was Parfaedia and not Berry, Madeleine thought to himself with a chuckle.

“Buttercream I didn’t think the sedentary life would have affected you this badly!” Madeleine joked as he strode over to Knight’s side. “... Buttercream? Are you okay? You look terribly pale.” Madeleine placed his hand against his brother’s forehead. Expecting the biting chill he’d come to be used to. Yet, Knight felt like a half melted popsicle, still chilled but clammy and not as cold as they should have been. 

“No you dolt- “ Knight hissed out in pain. Moving the hand clutching at his chest revealed that his shirt had been cut open and the gem that had been embedded in his chest was missing. Knight’s legs wobbled as he leaned into Madeleine. 

“Your soul jam!” Espresso gasped, placing his hand against his mouth as he put two and two together. “That was Phantom Bleu!”

Madeleine and Knight stared at Espresso not really clicking with the connection Espresso had made. 

“Parfaedia’s renowned jewel thief? Madeleine I sent you a link to a podcast about their crimes!” Espresso growled at Madeleine, frowning. 

“I… Don’t really like podcasts.” Madeleine had said he listened to the whole thing. Espresso stopped himself from going on a tirade about Madeleine’s habit of lying about things to save face. But the tirade had quickly fizzled when he watched one of Knight’s horns crack harshly out of nowhere. 

“Madeleine set him down somewhere! I’m going to call Almond, he’s the main cookie on their case.” Espresso fumbled in his pockets for his phone. This day was suddenly getting very hectic. 

Madeleine watched Knight with worry, why didn’t he learn any good healing spells from his mother? Hesitantly he placed his hand on Knight’s shoulder, reciting to the best of his ability the diagnostic spell Bavarian had tried to drill into his head. 

It didn’t really matter as he opened his magic, forming the connection between himself and Knight. It was in that moment Madeleine felt it, the hunger, like an oasis having suddenly dried up and was trying to pull in magic to fill the drain. Madeleine ripped his hands away from Knight, it was only a half second but nearly half of his magic reserves had been drunk up. Knight did look better though. Less pale and sickly and the crack running through their horn had sealed back up. 

“Espresso, something terribly wrong with Butters! He- There's a magic drain! He’s losing magic at a rapid rate.” Madeleine shouted to Espresso, whipping his head around to watch the professor stop pacing. Pushing their phone between the crook of their neck and shoulder. 

“We’re at Watt and Valour, Almond. In front of the Greenvale bakery.” Espresso shoved his hand into Knight’s, while Madeleine had large magic stores, it mostly came from the Divine’s and giving away the Divine's magic was surely a terrible idea. 

Espresso was a professor of coffee magic and had trained himself to hold as much as he possibly could, so he’d never grow tired. Espresso had a good night's rest that day, which meant if he spared a good amount to Knight, Espresso wouldn’t be any worse off. 

But Madeleine wasn’t lying when he had said there was a drain. Espresso seemed to be pouring more and more out, but Knight was a cup without a bottom at the moment. As Almond hung up on the other end, Espresso handed Madeleine his phone. 

“Call Eclair,” Espresso gritted through their teeth. 

“Huh do you even have him saved in your phone?” 

“Yes! It’s under Noisy! But it’s his, he’s the only one besides Buttercream who has a large amount of Dragon and knowledge and I’m pretty sure this is a dragon issue!” Espresso snapped, not having meant to but what he thought would be an easy and simple transfer was starting to get painful. 

Knight had sat up from the spot he had been slumped against. Pulling his hand away quickly once he realised what Espresso had been doing. “Espresso! Stop! I’m okay, see!” He motioned to himself, he seemed better but Espresso having felt his magic slipping away like sand was thoroughly doubtful.

“For how long?! You still have the hole in your magic and-” Something in Knight’s pocket shattered with a pop. Reaching his hand in, Knight pulled out the remains of the storage crystal. What was originally a shiny orange crystal had dulled to a grey and burnt colour. Sizzling loudly in Knight’s hand as the warmth fought with Knight’s cold. It hadn’t popped from overfilling but from being drained so quickly. 

“See!” Espresso waved his hand at the shattered remains. “Do you have any idea what's going on?” 

“No. I told you a year ago, most of my knowledge base is on common fire dragons! This is new to me too!” Knight shook as they spoke. Wobbling before placing his back against the tiled wall. “I only had my gem removed once before and that was just for a couple seconds.” 

Espresso ran a hand through his hair absolutely flustered in what he was supposed to do now. That’s when Madeleine spoke up. 

“Eclair says we have to get to his lab, because he says we might have a very large problem on our hands.” Madeleine spoke softly into Espresso’s ear trying not to worry Knight. There was a tremor with every word. 

“How large?” Espresso hissed back rubbing at his freezing hand. “Almond’s on his way right now, we can't just run away from the scene of the crime!” Madeleine gripped Espresso’s shoulder, trying to get them to focus on him, not the proper procedures. Surely everyone here knew by now that some side stepping of the law is sometimes required.

“Eclair has an idea on what's happening, he doesn’t truly know unless we get Buttercream to him. But he thinks Butters might have lost his heart.” Madeleine glanced at the worsening Knight. His shiny teal scales dulled slowly as his body began to cannibalise its own magic to counteract whatever was happening to him.
The world seemed to freeze as just how bad this situation was really set in. Knight had lost his heart and was possibly dying in their arms. His heart was stolen by Phantom Bleu of all cookies, which meant there was zero possible way he’d get it back. The sound of a police car wailed on the horizon as Espresso’s mind searched for a solution. Something that would plug the hole while they searched something that was almost as strong as a soul jam… And he had the supply to make five.

Chapter Text

Almond hadn’t even gotten a sound out of his mouth as Madeleine and Espresso launched towards his car. Madeleine craddingly his brother in his arms, it must have been a trick of the eye but Almond swore that Knight looked smaller.

“Woah! Hold it!” Almond whipped his head around as Madeleine shoved Knight into the back of the car.

“Almond we need to get to the museum! We’ll explain what we know on the way but we need to go now.” Espresso paused at the passenger side door before pulling it open and taking a seat. Looking a bit sheepish as he grinned at Almond. 

“... You know I’m not a taxi service right.” Almond grumbled looking at his new passengers. “But because of the seriousness of this situation I’ll let this go just this once.” Wagging his finger at Espresso, it was half hearted. Almond swung his leg around the lip of the car. Pressing himself against the back of his seat as his door slammed shut behind him. 

“Hold on tight.” Almond’s hands wrapped around the wheel and swung, dust kicking up with his spinning wheels. Hand over hand in a blur, Almond had turned himself around and was now speeding down the road towards the lone museum overlooking the mountain range. Espresso gripped the hand bar tighter with every twisting turn Almond took. 

“What happened?” Almond snapped, eyes focused on the road as he drove. 

“It happened so fast I was waiting for those two and-” Knight hissed as he gripped his chest. “Some guy bumped into me, trying to pickpocket me. They grabbed my wallet and when I wrangled it back from them, they attacked!” Knight motioned to their ripped shirt. A faint splattering of blue on the edges of the fabric. 

“This is too out of character for Phantom Bleu.” Almond brought one of his hands off of the steering wheel. Much to Espresso’s loud squawking to put it back on. “They’d never do this out in public and during the day. It makes sense why they’d target you, but something must have forced them to attack out of desperation.”  Almond tapped his chin. Fiddling with his radios dials as he strained his ears to hear the comms over the sound of his siren.

“Something like Knight leaving the city next week?” Madeleine spoke up. Pulling his arm free from being trapped under Knight’s wings. “We were discussing that pretty loudly. We could have spooked this perp into action.”

Almond hummed as he thought.  “For as good as Phantom Bleu is, they’re still just a cookie and prone to making rash actions. Have any of you noticed anyone hanging around out of place? They must have been casing you three for a good while to know where Knight’s… Uh Jam,” Almond looked to Espresso for confirmation, Espresso mouthed the correct term to him “Gem? Gem was.”

“No not at all, and I’ve been in the house for the past month.” Madeleine racked his head as he tried to recall if he saw anything. Which wasn’t much, he drifted from room to room bored when Espresso and Knight were out for the day.

“I have to say I haven’t seen a single thing at all,” Espresso could count on his hand the weird occurrences for the past month. Which was from Knight and Madeleine getting into a bit of a feud. Leading to them trying to hide each other's items around the house. They may have gotten along better than they ever have. But they were still brothers who found glee in bothering the other. 

Almond huffed as he pulled into the parking lot with a screech. “One last question, why didn’t you have me take him to the hospital?” Almond pointed with his head at Knight, who in the barely ten minute drive had managed to turn several wonderful shades of blue, green, and red.

“Because it’s dragon stuff.” Espresso said with a huff, hoping that would be enough of an explanation for Almond. They didn’t get to continue their conversation as Espresso’s door was pulled open. Leading to them shrieking loudly at the sudden cold air and figure standing above them.

Latte sputtered as she stumbled back from the door. Slowly her shocked expression softened as she burst into loud laughter. Espresso was so flustered he missed the part where Madeleine and Knight had already left. Creampuff helped the two out as Eclair held the back door open. 

“Eclair called me when he said you had gotten yourself into trouble again,” Latte smirked at Almond. Stepping back as Espresso pulled himself from the car, face flushed bright red. 

“Thank you Latte…”

“Hello, Professor Latte Cookie.” Almond nodded his head to Latte as he chose to cut through them towards the open door. 

“Oh, Detective.” Latte replied just as curtly, hooking her arm around Espresso’s as she dragged him into the museum. “What happened? Another threat? This time I’d like to be included instead of finding you had been kidnapped and nearly executed during a meeting with the rest of the faculty.” 

“Listen Latte, I wasn’t trying to avoid your help but it happened so quickly.” Espresso tried to defend himself. 

“And went on to start dating your kidnapper?” She teased before looking at Madeleine, really looking at him. “You weren’t lying when you said he got hurt.” 

Espresso looked away ashamedly, not for his own good but for Madeleine’s pride. If he found out Espresso was talking about his condition behind his back Madeleine might just give up with the professor and walk off. It wasn’t like that thought hadn’t crossed his mind with how little they really talked now.

“Enough about me and Madeleine, we’re here for Knight.” Espresso broke from Latte’s hold and pushed himself into Eclair’s fancy, and very expensive office doors. Making a note where everyone was. 

The siblings were hovering around each other. Creampuff was looking at Knight like she was a little doctor and they were perfectly happy to let her do that. Madeleine was fussing with his hair, sitting on the stool across from the two. 

Almond had been scribbling down as many notes as his beat up notebook could handle. Standing close enough to watch Eclair frantically searching through old scrolls and books. except instead of a mad dash for information, Eclair was still taking great care not to rip a single page or scroll. 

“Well?” Espresso stormed towards the scholar’s desk. “You said you knew what was going on, not that you had to research it.”crossing their arms with a huff.

“... Well I did say that and I do know what's going on, I’m just trying to find out how to… stall it.” Eclair glanced at the siblings grimacing hardly.

“Stall what?” Almond asked, putting his notebook down. 

“The eternal slumber.” Eclair said breathlessly, looking between Almond and Espresso.

The somewhat hopeful chatter of the room snapped closed in a moment. Everyone’s eyes had snapped to Eclair. Madeleine had stopped breathing, clenching his jaw as tightly as he could.

“Eternal slumber?! I thought it was just a magic drain!” Espresso grabbed one of the books off of Eclair’s desk. 

“Everything I’ve read talks about the oldest of the dragon’s removing their gem and falling into a deep slumber. Only awakening once to threaten earthbread before being put back into eternal slumber! I don’t have first hand experience with a legendary dragon to know what is a myth and what's a fact!” 

Espresso chewed him as he read. Seriously thinking about slamming his head into the heavy tome. “I had an idea that was supposed to plug the magic drain, would it be enough to stop this… slumber you’re talking about?” 

Creampuff had tried to creep towards Eclair's desk to grab a book to check the information for herself. Only to be stopped by Madeleine, placing his hand on her shoulder and gently dragging her back towards their little group. Knight was feeling far too exhausted to offer any ideas on what he wanted to try. You know that eternal slumber was starting to sound pretty real with how tired he was feeling. 

“Well it would depend on what you’re planning.” Eclair began to yank his chalkboard free from the alcove it had been tucked into. Quickly writing onto the top, ‘solutions for Knight’s gem’.

“I was thinking of hooking Knight up to a new catalyst,” they paced slowly. “If his power source is missing then maybe we could replace it with a new one?”
“... That could work but it wouldn’t work for the long term, have you ever dissected a dragon Espresso?” Eclair began to shuffle through his cupboard. Looking for something, each drawer was stuffed to the brim with magical artifacts. Eclair didn’t pay attention to Knight raising his hand to the question.
“Eclair, we don't have time for your teaching routine. Explain it now.” Espresso growled, pressing himself against Eclair as he watched the taller professor fumble about. Eclair ripped out a jar from his medicinal section, inside were several small gems. They were all different colours and sizes. 

“Dragon hearts!” He shook it.
“Right- Since dragons don’t naturally die, their hearts are like pearls and keep growing.” Knight sat up, understanding what Eclair was trying to allude to. 

“Correct! With Legendary dragons having two hearts, a physical and then magical heart making them stronger than most other dragons they can survive missing a heart!” 

Almond glanced at Knight, putting the pieces together in his head. “So he’s had his heart stolen?” 

Knight chuckled softly at the connotation, Eclair nodded his head quickly as he began fishing around the jar with a pair of tongs. Grabbing an ice blue stone. An ice dragon heart from Ceylon’s recent hunt.

“Espresso’s idea would work in a sense of grafting tissue on a wound. It would keep him awake but as you can tell this is… A lot smaller and has a lot more imperfections in its faces.” Eclair placed the gem in Knight’s hand. 

Knight’s fading draconic features paused, his melting horns resolidified smaller than before but they were stable. Blood rushed back to Knight’s face as it gained a healthy rosey  colour again. They sighed in relief as the draining exhaustion was pushed into the back of his mind. 

“That’ll give us time to start looking for the gem.” Almond nodded. “I’ll get my team to start looking right away.” Hands folded behind his back with a grunt.

“Surely since it is a magic issue Almond you should get a magic user on your team to follow the signature.” Latte glared at him, knowing that mister I have been trying to catch this thief for the past eight years and failed would ignore the ease of magic. She crossed her arms and waited for Almond’s excuse of not liking magic. 

“Magic is an easy way out-”

“No it isn’t! We could very easily lose Knight if you are so hell bent on your pride of being the magicless detective!” Latte snapped at him. “I’m pretty sure you could have caught them already if you just let someone use a tracking spell.” 

“Do you know how easy it is to fake a tracking spell?” Almond snapped back. There were two arguments going on in the office, Latte’s and Almond’s, and then Espresso’s and Eclair’s.

“I could help?” Creampuff asked. “I know how to do a magic-”
“Creampuff, honey you should stay with your brothers and focus on helping them. Let the adults figure this out.” Latte ruffled Creampuff’s hair, knocking her hat below her eyes. Turning back to Almond, grabbing his arm and dragging him back in before he could wander off. Asking him where on Earthbread he thought he was going.

“...Creampuff.” Creampuff whipped her head around trying to find the voice. She glanced at her big brother Madeliene. A strange serious expression on his face.
Brushing his hair out of his face, Madeleine summoned his paladin’s crest, pining his hair back. For house Madeleine. He would save his brother. 

“Let’s go find a thief.”