ultimate cookie following behind gingerbrave like a lost puppy with a heart full of hollow, or like a not very subtle or clever shadow, but hiding behind rocks and trees just in time because gingerbrave seems quite oblivious... (but unbeknownst to them, gingerbrave watches out of the very corner of his eye with a knowing smirk, his cheeks turning cherry pink, despite the slight unease he feels.)
ultimate cookie sneaking up to a sleeping gingerbrave in the shadows, reaching out with one very thin tendril of darkness to slip silently into the littler cookie's dreams, immediately overwhelmed with bright colors, happy laughter, the smiling faces of friends, the warm feeling of hope and belonging. a convulsion in their heart when they feel burned through with a love and joy they have never known the taste of before, but a shudder in their mind as they realize that they will never be the same, that all they will be is the bitter flavor of crumbs and regret, left achingly and hauntingly only with its myriad self. jealousy igniting bright as they watch gingerbrave hugging and laughing with other cookies, friends they will never be as good as, enemies to the world they were made to bring forth. but as they ready themselves to pull out of the vision, they are suddenly struck still when the dream version of gingerbrave looks their way, to the shadow sulking in the dark. bright pretty eyes seem to gaze right into them, with a shy smile to match, making them tremble slightly with nervous dread... or maybe that's excitement... then all of a sudden they feel the brush of air and the sing-song laughter of that shy pink cookie and that robed cookie with a wizard's hat right behind them. they lunge out of the dream in a panic, confusion and adrenaline still rushing through their veins, with the fluttering stutter of disappointment and shame underneath. how could they be so stupid to think for even a moment they could inspire any feeling but hate and terror in the cookie with such a shining heart? they run, senseless, back into the night, gone before the sun comes up... (failing to see the immediate frown their disappearance has left behind on gingerbrave's sleeping face, the quiet disappointment the small cookie now feels so strangely and keenly at the loss of the very obvious, very familiar presence in his dreams).
ultimate cookie alone once more, clinging to bitterness and denial to help them combat the searing shame and jealousy. but still their heart chews on itself, still their thoughts waver like dark flowers without the sun. what a cruel twist of fate, the bite of the most sour candy, to be looking with longing at the face of the one who is meant to complete them, shining bright like a star but just as far away. to be made in the image of, but to have been flavored so unlike the soft warm innocence it is painfully without. to have been born with nothing, but to be full to the brim of a countless number of others, the souls of cookies wronged and left unfinished. to be kept from completion, a hollow candy without the sweet to make it worth its weight in sugar. and yet, overflowing with desire to be whole, to have or be something more. to be one with the heart it is missing. if only for a moment to feel anything other than darkness and fear. they turn away from the now-risen sun, eager to sleep the hated day away until evening when they can stalk once more... (and yet in the same light they curse, gingerbrave is now awake and infused with a new energy. the strange encounter still fresh in his mind, giving him pause as he runs to catch up with the others. that moment in the dream, when his eyes met those black ones, where his body temporarily felt so... alone, so singular. a dangerous and forbidden what if starts to nuzzle its way into his racing thoughts. what if they had fused with him, what if gingerbrave had given in? might he have been pulled down and drowned in darkness like black honey, never again to be individual and himself? or might they have ascended. might they have been remade special, might they have been born again with the power to not only protect all that he loves... but to also make them both once and finally whole, to bring light into the dark, and sweetness to the emptiness...)
