Metem really had to hand it to himself–he really knew how to pick ‘em!

Who could have ever seen it coming? That the brand-new challenger he so totally randomly picked off the street would go and fight his way through the Arcadion’s Light-Heavyweight tier with such ease. 

Why Metem would go so far as to say it looked like Butter hadn’t even broken a sweat during any of his matches. If the upstart kept going like this then the Cruiserweight tier wouldn’t even be a challenge. Then all that would be left after that would be the Heavyweight and then…

…he was getting ahead of himself.

“Right! The reason I’ve asked you here today-!” Metem put his hands on his hips and proudly smiled at the other two Milalla in the room.

That being Lunya and a very bored looking Butter. Both were sitting down on the benches of the Greenroom, facing away from the giant display screen that recently served as a means for Butter to get familiar with his future opponents. 

“I’m sure you’re more aware than anyone Butter–that you will soon be making your grand debut into the Cruiserweight tier.”

“Yeah? So?” That was all set to be in a couple of months or so, he remembered that much.

“Y-Yes well, for that very reason we have to prepare a whole new line of merchandise to sell that corresponds with your scheduled matches!” Metem hoped neither would realize this decision totally wasn't made at the latest of last minutes. 

At the time Metem was so elated he finally found the perfect competitor to breathe new life into the Arcadion he never even considered the possibility of all the new merch they would have as a result.  

Just yesterday Metem extended Butter an invitation back to the Greenroom to show him what new items he and the geniuses at the Arcadion marketing division came up with. 

Past exchanges about this were usually the same ol’ ‘Can we please sell things with your face on them?’ sort of questions. 

Maybe it was a bad habit, and maybe Cinnamon was right that Butter should ask more questions about it but Metem always had the worst timing.

He would always (always!) call him while he was right in the middle of hanging out with Babycorn!

It wasn’t until today when Lunya, his self-proclaimed agent and manager, finally put her foot down. “No son of mine is going to let a company copyright his face and not have a say in it!” Lunya was going to make his contract with the Arcadion benefit him whether he wanted to or not. 

So Lunya went ahead and walked right in the middle of his not-a-date with Babycorn. One where Bebe was hand feeding him fruit from a perfectly normal sized parfait they were sharing. 

Without mercy she dragged the poor guy away from a very confused and bewildered Babycorn. 

“NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Butter wailed. 

Before they made their exit Lunya made sure to remind Babycorn of something really important. “Do NOT eat that whole thing you are going to give yourself a tummy ache!” She waggled her finger at her to make sure her little sister knew she meant business. 

“Oh, and don’t worry I’ll bring him back!” Lunya smiled. “I’ll even give you both a little treat for being so patieeeeent~!” 

And now they were here. 

Metem paused, for a few tense seconds taking a look around the room. 

“Actually. I will be. Right back.”

Turns out he may have forgotten the reason they were all gathered there. Opps. It could have happened to anyone really.

With that, Metem zoomed out of the room faster than either Lunya or Butter could ask him about it. 

None of this helped in making Butter feel any better. “You could have let me finish my parfait…” Butter grumbled. It was just a little unlike him but he did have his moments, especially when it came to Babycorn. 

Before Butter could say anything else he felt someone grab his shirt collar, lifting him off the floor.

Lunya’s eyes were very much closed but he could still feel her intimidating stare looking right through him. “I will stop interrupting your quote, hang-outs, unquote. If you call them what they really are.” 

“A?”

It just wasn’t sinking in. 

The air around Lunya grew more tense and very scary. “OooOOoh you hate Lunya…Even though she’s so niceys and patient…” She cried, a single tear falling from her sparkly eye.

Hadn’t she already gone through so much? Wasn’t having to live through the ordeal of Coco and Melmeltan’s slowest of slowburns romance ENOUGH?! 

“You want Wunya to Suffer?!” She wailed.

Lunya held Butter up in the air by his shirt collar, swishing him all over the place as she posed dramatically. “N-No I d-d-d-don’t?!” He was starting to get dizzy.

Just then Metem walked back in, box in hand. It was a shimmery golden color and all wrapped up with a matching bow on top. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long!” 

Lunya gently set Butter back down into his seat. His eyes were still spinning but he was otherwise okay. For now. 

“It’s no problem! Your president is paying us by the minute after all!” Lunya reminded him.

“He’s not paying you????”

An issue that could be settled right after Metem could present the whole reason they were gathered here. “Let’s see here…” He mumbled to himself as he looked for somewhere to safely put the box he was carrying. 

For some reason Metem was presenting his surprise almost like it was a priceless work of art that needed to be treated with the utmost care. Which was funny in hindsight because whatever was under that box couldn’t have been worth any more than seven-thousand gil. 

Unless of course, you had a certain audience in mind.

In that case the price was closer to absolutely priceless. 

Eventually he settled on just placing it on one of the small triangular tables that connected the benches together.

“Ahem.” Metem cleared his throat and the show began “Feast your eyes–on the newest additions to the Upstart’s merchandise collection!” 

An almost blinding sliver of light shined through the slight opening of the box–until Metem enthusiastically ripped off the box’s cover.  

Butter struggled to shield his eyes from the dazzling light.  “W-What’s…?” he tried to ask, but found himself at a loss for words once the light cleared and he saw with his own two eyes what amazing, wondrous thing almost blinded him.

(and only him because Metem and Lunya had no idea what he was seeing)

There they were.

A pair of stuffed toys, with the appearance of not just Butter but Babycorn too. Both were dressed up in the outfits they'd worn during their match with Honey B. Lovely.

That is to say, they were just in their regular Arcadion outfits. 

The expressions were cute and simple and had pale pink oval blush markings. Both also had their arms outstretched in front of them, almost looking like they were asking for someone to hug them. 

The material they were made looked fluffy, really fluffy. And also soft. Soft enough one wouldn’t be able to resist cuddling one. That’s how cozy they looked. 

Butter leapt at the chance, taking out his wallet in record speed. “I’ll take forty!!” 

“Down boy.” Lunya pulled him back into his seat. “They probably don’t even have forty made yet.”

Metem grabbed the stuffed Butter in one hand and Babycorn in the other, wiggling them in place. While just a tad bit concerned at how much Butter was vibrating in place, he nevertheless continued. “They come as a set  As the tagline says–You can try to separate them but they’ll always find each other no matter how far!” 

Then Metem brought the stuffed Butter and Babycorn closer together, closer and closer and closer…

A recent memory in Butter’s head was making him blush, his face turning a deep red. “W-W-W-What are you-??” Fueled by pure instinct alone Butter closed his eyes. 

Then–it clicked. 

Morbidly curious, Butter opened his eyes and then he gasped, his eyes widening to what might have been twice their size. “BbbBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.” Was about all he could say. 

Because in Metem’s hands the stuffed facsimiles of him and Babycorn were hugging, embracing the other in their outstretched arms. It was very cute. Their heads were close enough that it even looked like they were kissing if someone looked close enough.

“They come with little magnets inside!” Metem explained, “So, when they’re held close enough they will–pop together!” He separated them and then brought them back into each other's embrace, again and again. 

“Just like that!”

Lunya thought it was really cute how Butter kept frowning every time Metem would separate them and then go right back to smiling when he made them hug. It was like clockwork. 

While she was sure Butter was ecstatic to see this, Lunya had some worries she needed to make known. “It’s alright but…What about Butter’s fans? Will Babycorn be okay?” She asked.

Maybe Metem just wasn’t aware of the quickly growing Butter fan club that was probably doubling in members as they spoke. Though Yaana warned all of them about something along the lines of it happening it pretty much snuck up on all of them. 

By the time Butter exited his third match he already had a crowd of fans waiting outside for him–all of them chanting his name and holding signs congratulating him on his sweeping victory.  

Not only that, there were several that threw caution to the wind and asked for either one singular date with him or his hand in marriage.

Something about it felt a little bit familiar. 

It’s not like Butter wasn’t flattered or anything but it was all just a little overwhelming. 

Metem chuckled, normally yes this would be a problem but in keeping up with just how strange the upstart’s debut was–it only made sense his fan reception would be just as surprising. “Oh I wouldn’t worry about that.” 

From out of his pocket he pulled out one of those fancy phones with a screen you could touch. Lunya could still see the teeth marks from when Babycorn tried to eat it. 

“We had a handful of our investigators infiltrate some online spaces and what we uncovered may surprise you…” 

Metem turned the phone towards Lunya and Butter so they could take a peek. Both leaned in closer, reading the words on the screen as Metem slowly scrolled through the evidence. 

‘Did you see how the upstart started getting serious once Honey started going after his teammate?!’ 

‘lmao isn’t she the same girl that the king said he was dating? i guess she is kinda single now’

‘would i lose souls if i said i think she and butter look cuter together than she did with the queen OR kign?’

‘Waiiiiiiiiiiit they’re so cute together?? they’re even wearing each other colooorsssss!!!!!’

‘#babybutter I edited all the clips i could find during the match where they helped each other out and looked at each other! Let me know if I missed any!

‘babybutter? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨 don’t you mean buttercorn?’

‘um no??? lol Everyone knows that its the tops name that goes f-

“OoHHHkaYYYY!” Lunya pushed Metem’s phone out of view, “Hahaha! I think we get it!” She already got enough of that from Babycorn after all her lessons with Laith.

And she was being generous in calling them that. 

She didn’t need to be given reminders of what awaited her on what would happen after said lessons inevitably started again.

Also she needed to protect her son, her twenty-eight year old minor. 

Butter gave it some thought. “I mean…I would be good with s-selling these.” He looked over to a corner of the room, thinking once again about that fateful encounter when he and Babycorn rode the ferris wheel among the fireworks. 

“T-They’re c-cute…” Butter giggled out, he took hold of his beloved locket and held it close.  

“Right? In a completely platonic way?” Lunya raised an eyebrow.

“Mmmhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm...” 

That probably meant something along the lines of, yeah sure. 

“Wonderful!” Metem was happy it worked out. Especially after all that effort they put into making sure the hug was perfect. They used the hug Babycorn and Butter performed at the end of the second round as a reference but the most difficult part was incorporating her tail. 

With that out of the way Metem went ahead and finally gave Butter what he wanted. “Since we have more than these two–Butter would you like to give these a home? Just keep them a secret until the official reveal. That’s all I ask…” 

Memories of Hector’s enthusiasm in showing off to all of Solution 9 that he was about to be an action figure began to run through his head. Now that was a hectic weekend.

Metem handed the stuffed toys to a very happy Butter, “Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu…” he squealed. He placed the stuffed Butter right next to him and proceeded to give the stuffed Babycorn a big hug, holding her close to him. 

Oddly his expression soon turned into a confident smirk. “Hehehehe! Take that little Butts…” Now he had his own Babycorn that his kiss stealing counterpart could get jealous at. Ha! 

“...Little Butts?” Lunya suddenly had some questions. 

Butter was already far too gone, his eyes closed as he daydreamed about locking hands with Babycorn and spinning happily in a field of flowers as a dragon flew over the sky and threatened to kidnap Butter to take him up high in a tower to keep him prisoner. 

Then Babycorn would go and collect all the jewels she needed to defeat the dragon and then save him and then she would pick him up in her arms and then-

“Okay, yeah he’s gone. Right.” There was a little something that Lunya wasn’t forgetting. “Did you ask Babycorn about all this?” If they were going to be selling these in pairs then Butter wasn’t the only person Metem had to ask about it. 

Even if most of what they were going to say to her about intellectual property would fly over her head, pom, and horns. 

About that. “Well…” Metem looked awfully suspicious for someone with nothing to hide, “That’s already taken care of!” He smiled.

“What!?” Lunya sighed, “Please. Don’t tell me she signed anything.”  

The worst ran through Lunya’s mind. Gods forbid Babycorn had gone and signed another contract without ‘adult’ supervision. Last time she did that she almost sold herself to a traveling circus and at the same time also gave most of her possessions to a scam artist. 

“Oh no, nothing like that.” Metem went back to fiddling on his phone.

There was a certain something he was looking for. Something from just a few days ago. “Ah, here we are.” Metem turned the phone around to show Lunya, and only Lunya since a certain other Lalafell with Viera ears was busy making two stuffed toys hug while giggling to himself. 

As the image on the screen began to move it showed Babycorn in the Greenroom just as they were. Cherrypit was sitting next to her and playing with some chalk he found on the ground.

And by playing I mean he was eating it.

Metem’s voice came through the phone. ‘I wanted to get your opinion on these–since it involves you and I know were the reason our first batch of stuffed Butter’s sold out.’

Lunya wanted to ground the small Babycorn in the phone for nodding and confirming everything Metem was telling her. “So everyone knows she did that then?” She asked, of course referring to the robbery of tens of thousands of stuffed Butter plushies she robbed last month.

“The warehouse does have security cameras for a reason Mrs. Lunya.” 

As the video continued Metem explained pretty much the same thing he had told them to Babycorn instead and when the reveal happened–her reaction was also about the same as a certain someone else’s. 

In a way. 

Babycorn wasted literally no time as she leapt towards the stuff Butter, hugging it tightly and spinning in place. “KIiIIIiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….” That was the approximate kind of noise that she made. 

“I want more! Make more of THESE!” She outright demanded. 

Then when Metem explained that they were a set of her and Butter her tone didn’t change in the slightest.

It got so much more louder and excited.

‘You mean me and Butt’s get to hug together! As toys and in real life?! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! I WANNA DO THAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!’

That’s where the recording ended, because a certain pom wearing little lady ran rammed right into Metem demanding he hand over more of these stuffed toys. 

Needless to say, it was about as good of a blessing from Babycorn as one could ask. Metem had the bump on his head to prove it. “Don’t you worry, we can discuss Babycorn’s compensation at a later date.” Metem figured he wouldn’t get anywhere discussing that with her face to face. 

Having known Babycorn for almost a year now he doubted she even knew what money was for. 

Just like that Lunya had now been cast as Babycorn’s agent. What did that make–three of her friends under her belt? Honestly, most of her worries fell upon just two of them.

She knew full well that Butter at the least would read through his contract before just blindly signing it. Which was more than she could say about Coco and Babycorn. 

Lunya thought about it for a second. “Then that’s a seventy percent cut for us!” She beamed. 

“HUH?!” 

The shock alone almost sent Metem to the floor. Last time Lunya asked for sixty why was the number getting higher all of a sudden. He wasn’t about to just stand here and let himself get finessed. 

“Now wait a-!” 

“You gotta pay the Babycorn tax~!” Lunya giggled. It’s a real thing. Look it up.

“No, no. That is not a real thing. You are not fooling me.” Metem grumbled to himself, using his phone to open up the best search engine electrope could power. 

It took less than a minute for him to face the facts.

Rorichaux watched another couple make their way towards the Amphitheater.

Then he also watched as they both turned their heads to stare confusingly at the lalafell lounging right behind him on a stack of crates, kicking her feet in the air and sipping on a cup of pink lemonade. 

Babycorn lifted up her pink-tinted sunglasses. “Do you think they were wondering where I got my drink, Mister Rori?” The answer was simple, Mister Rori got it for her! Duh!

“I think they were wondering where you got the tail. And the horns.”  Actually, he wondered the same thing. But he knew if he were to ask Babycorn about them he would be in for at least a four hour yap session from her if he did.

So it was probably for the best that he stayed silent. 

“Oh! Then that’s a problem cause I was born with them!” 

And just let the answer come to him. Even if it didn’t really explain much. 

Babycorn took another long sip from her pink lemonade and reached her hand into the glass to grab one of the ice cubes. “Mister munch Rori, cwan I ask you munch a question?” She asked, her mouth crunching on pieces of melting ice. 

Babycorn already asked Rorichaux forty-five questions today alone. “Yeah, okay.” So what was the harm in just one more? It wasn’t like he was going anywhere anyway. Not when he was still on the clock. 

“Mister Rori? How do you make sure someone doesn’t ask you to marry them?”

What a strange question, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. 

Having to unwillingly spend so much time at Babycorn’s side (especially during Valentione's day) came with the unintended side effect of having Rorichaux bear witness to countless of people coming up to Babycorn to ask her to marry them. 

It about knocked the wind right out of him the first time it happened. 

After Rorichaux was able to gather his bearings, Babycorn nonchalantly explained that this was a regular occurrence. In her words, ‘Lotsa people come to me with yummy rings and ask me to marry them! I didn’t know what that was before so I kept saying yes but now I have to say no cause I don’t really know any of 'em...’ 

It was hard for Rorichaux to believe at first that Babycorn was so casual about the whole thing but after having her almost glued to his side for so long (completely against his will by the way) even he was starting to get used to the sudden proposals. 

Sometimes Babycorn would even gossip with him about the various love letters and potential suitors that came her way. 

That being said, her experiences were definitely not universal

Back to Babycorn’s question. “Well you could just tell them you’re not interested in marriage.” Rorichaux suggested. Then again, given everything he knew about Babycorn’s fan club that probably wouldn’t really do much to deter them. 

At several points Babycorn mentioned still being proposed to by returning customers all while she was away on business in a completely different country.

Most of them by letter of course. She wasn’t that desirable. 

Babycorn took a bite of the glass cup that was once filled with pink lemonade. Rorichaux watched her do this without even batting an eye. “But that’s the big problem! I do wanna get married!” She whined, “I just don’t wanna get married with any of them!” 

“Have you told Hildibrand how you feel yet?” 

There were certain things that Rorichaux picked up here and there after having to listen to Babycorn talk for what felt like the length of half his lifespan. 

Babycorn choked on a piece of glass, spitting it out onto the grass. “H-H-Hildi?! I-I mean-! I d-d-didn’t-!? B-But I…! Um! Um! Ummmm!!” She sat straight up, looking around nervously for any sign of the aforementioned gentlemanly detective. 

Rorichaux knew Babycorn tended to act just plain weird whenever Hildibrand was mentioned but something about this time was different. “Okay. What’s up? He didn’t turn you down, did he?” Then again, if that was what happened Rorichaux probably would have learned about it a long time ago. 

“N-No! He didn’t turn me into down!” Babycorn confidently said getting everything wrong again. “I-It’s just…It’s just…!” 

“Just?” 

Babycorn let out a growl and tugged on her braids, shaking her head in all sorts of different directions. Rori took a step back but before he could ask if something was wrong Babycorn went ahead and answered his pressing question. 

“I’m sorry but-!  It’s just I wanna marry someone else!!” Babycorn shrieked loudly for all in the vicinity to hear. 

“Oh…” Was that it? Rorichaux should have guessed it was something like this. “I mean, yeah. You can do that.” 

Babycorn knew she could do that, right? 

After her outburst Babycorn laid herself down on the crates, hugging her knees close to her. “I don’t want people to be sad I can’t marry them…So I wanna do something to tell em’ I know who I wanna marry!” And if it wasn’t this one specific person in Babycorn’s mind then she didn’t wanna hear it! 

Rorichaux tried to think up a solution to Babycorn’s conundrum. Though Babycorn was always so casual about the marriage proposals even she must have had her limits. It was probably a problem that didn’t have a simple solution. 

Or maybe, it was just a case of Occam's razor.

“You could just tell them that you have someone else you want to marry.”

“I can do that?!” This was news to her!

Rorichaux nodded, “That’s all I can think of. If they don’t leave you alone you can just get Cherrypit growl at them or something.” He’d been on the receiving end of that bite once. Courtesy of making the mistake of taking a rye chip from the chip bowl Cherrypit had his eyes on. 

“Then I’ll do that!” Babycorn sat up, with a cheer. “Thank you Mister Rori!” 

Now this could have ended here and Babycorn would have just continued hanging out with her pal Rorichaux for the next five hours, but her tail excitedly wagged a little when she heard Mister Rori whisper something under his breath. 

It was strange, what reason would he have to be so secretive around her?

He couldn’t help it. “Or you could just say something like–Grrr You’re mine to the person you want to marry so everyone knows…Hehe.” But that would just be ridiculous. I mean, who would ever go and do something like that? It just felt like too much. 

The next second Rorichaux turned around to look at Babycorn to make sure she wasn’t eating the Valentione's merchandise she was now nowhere to be seen. 

“Uh, Babycorn?” A stark realization began to wash over Rorichaux.

No way. There was no way 

It was a joke, it was clearly a joke.

And yet, Babycorn was gone. Rori had been expecting to see her laughing over the absurdity of what he had just said, but this was far from it.

“Oh. Uh…” He looked around to see if she had decided on a whim to change spots. Sometimes she did that and it tended to scare the living hells out of him.

Rorichaux looked behind him, to his sides, and even under his shoe but there was no sign of her anywhere. 

This surely only meant one thing.

“...Oh no.”

All of a sudden, and to thunderous applause, B’ig Nunh walked into the story. “Yo.” He raised up his hand to greet his good Rorichaux. Before B’ig could even get another word in, Rori grabbed his shirt collar and lifted him up from the ground. 

“Woah. Dang already Rori? Aren’t you still on the clock?” 

Rorichaux didn’t have time for this. “No you idiot. I need your help.” He released his grip on B’ig’s shirt and let him drop to the ground, narrowly avoiding hitting the ground on his ass. 

Thankfully he was able to successfully land on his side. “Ouch!” Not that it didn’t hurt any less. “Help you with what? Do you really need someone to help make cakes again?” Hopefully that wasn’t it.

B’ig just recovered from the frostbite induced on his tail the last time he was sent to the kitchen. 

Rorichaux got the explanation out of the way as fast as he could.

Which included all the prior questions she asked that day. Questions such as Do you think bedbugs can juggle? and How does one milk an Almond? and also How many creampuffs are too many before you get a tummy ache? 

Just regular run of the mill Babycorn questions. 

Eventually Rorichaux reached the actual question that set off the whole chain of events. For a brief second he worried that having to listen to Babycorn talk his ears off for so long was rubbing off on him.

Surely not. It was just his imagination. It had to be. Yeah, that was it. 

Once Rorichaux was finished explaining what had happened B’ig let out an unintentional snort of laughter. “...You’ve known Babycorn for how long-? And you said a joke in front of her?” Literally such an amateur mistake.  

Rorichaux flicked the heart on B’ig’s stupid moogle hat. “I don’t need to hear this from you.” Especially not after Rori had learned that it was B’ig Nunh himself that had given Babycorn the idea for a literal kissing booth.

“I had nothing to do with that!” 

At least with this misunderstanding Babycorn’s life wasn’t in danger or anything, just her social standing. As if she even cared about that at all. If she did, then she didn’t really give off that impression.

“I’ve heard her growl before…” Now that Rorichaux thought about it, maybe he should have been more scared for the people Babycorn would growl at. 

Surely she wouldn’t actually go and do exactly as he suggested, would she?

Either way, it was up to B'ig to make sure that she didn't go through with it. Rorichaux asked him so nicely to do it so its not like he could say no or anything.

"...Wait, what." B'ig Nunh pointed at himself. "Me??"

Butter exited the Carpenter’s guild while waving everyone a goodbye for the moment. 

Now that his afternoon was free he went over his checklist for the day. One thing he could do in Gridania was find a snack to bring back to the mansion. Maybe some cookies or candies? 

Honestly he kind of just wanted to eat something sweet. Which he would have no trouble finding since the Valentione's season was in full swing. “A strawberry cake would really hit the spot right now…” With some pistachio frosting and sun lemons…

Then Butter stopped. “Huh?” For some reason it felt like someone had called his name. Maybe he'd forgotten something at the Carpenters’s guild and they were trying to make sure he didn’t go anywhere? 

When he turned around to look he was suddenly face to face (give or take a few ilms) with his bestest friend Babycorn Corn. 

“BUTTS!!” Babycorn yelled right at him. She waved her hand excitedly in front of Butter’s face. “IT’S ME BABYCORN! CORN!” As she jumped up and down the sunglasses on her face were in very real danger of going flying off. 

Butter smiled, he moved his head up and down as he watched Babycorn jump and jump and jump and wag her tail behind her. “Hi Bebe~!” Seeing Babycorn here was a pleasant surprise. T

Then again, seeing as Cherrypit was getting his pilot’s license today he figured she would be with him but a certain someone else probably had gone with him considering her fear of heights.  

“Butts! I’m happy to see Butts~!” Babycorn sang to herself. 

Noticing her glasses were slipping from her face, Butter went ahead and adjusted them back on. “I’m happy to see you too!” 

He noticed that Babycorn was in her usual Valentione's disguise she started wearing a few years ago. With the fluffy half jacket and the oversized pink glasses, it might have fooled everyone else but Butter was proud to say he could recognize Babycorn no matter what form she took. 

That’s when Babycorn, an expert at reading the room, went ahead and asked her bestest friend a question.

“Butts! Has anyone asked you to marry them yet?!”

Even if Butter was used to Babycorn’s Babycorn-isms by now, this still managed to catch him off guard. Just a tad. “No, no one’s asked me yet!” He gave a small laugh.

Honestly it wasn’t surprising, most of Butter’s popularity was centered around Solution 9. 

Here in Gridania his status as the Eternal Champion of the Arcadion meant very little. Not that he really minded. Having to outrun literal fan mobs back in Solution 9 got tiring after a certain point. 

Though the possibility of anyone from the ninth traveling all the way here did cross his mind once or twice. It wasn’t entirely out of the question.

After all, if Susu could do it, who's to say anyone else couldn’t? 

“Lucky!!” Babycorn sighed, letting her arms drop. “I’ve had like a billion people ask me today!” Translated into actual numbers that amounted to around twelve. Still, it was by no means a small number, considering what they were asking of her. 

“Oh really…”

There was that funny look on Butter’s face again! Babycorn recognized it, he tended to look the same way whenever they were helping Inspector Hildi. She thought it made him look really cute.

Usually she would let Butter know this directly but there was something she needed to do first. Without any sort of warning Babycorn spread her arms wide open and leapt towards Butter. 

As a show of just how well Butter knew her, he didn’t so much as flinch when Babycorn made her move. Just like always he caught her in his arms and spun her around in mid-air. Hearing her laugh while he did this was the very reason he'd gotten so good at doing it. 

At the end of the spin Babycorn’s feet were back on the ground and to Butter’s delight, she went ahead and gave him another big hug. 

That delight however, soon turned into a mix of bewilderment and infatuation. 

In a rare show of strength Babycorn picked Butter up from the ground and carried him herself. “No one can marry me! Or marry Butts!” Babycorn yelled out, very loudly. Her horns began to glow a bright pink to match her tail. 

“Cause GRRRRRR!!! HE’S MINE!!!” 

Babycorn giggled, jumping up and down all while managing to carry Butter without dropping him.

Said Butter was taking it well. For the most part.

“Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? HUUUUUH?!?!?!?!” Butter certainly wasn’t going to argue against what Babycorn was saying since he agreed with every part of it but it very much short circuited something in his head.  “HUH?!?! HUUUUUUUUUH?!?!? HUH?!?!?!?!?” 

He was quite literally at a loss for words. Except for the one.

Among the crowd a lone heart shaped moogle pom stuck out. Extremely worried that he might have been too late. "I knew I should have taken the Archer's guild aetheryte..." He mumbled.

Maybe Vertical's sense of direction was rubbing off on him.

At around the same time, but not too far away, Rorichaux felt a change in the wind. “Ah. Okay.” Looks like Babycorn went ahead and did it.

Back in the present he came to the realization that there wasn't much else he could have done. “Maybe I should change the locks to my apartment…”

Out from the ether a frosting and ice covered B’ig came crawling out. There was a malfunctioning mammet hanging off of his moogle chef hat. “Roriiii can you take over yet?” he wailed, loudly.

Doing all of this for a slice of cake with a side of a cute cardigan was NOT worth it.

Enough was enough!!

Babycorn hopped onto her own two feet, her tail adjusting itself into a comfortable position after spending around an hour getting squished underneath her weight.

“Arrrgggghhh!!” Babycorn let out a frustrated scream, grabbing a nearby pillow and throwing it against the wall. 

Or at least, she tried to.

Given her pathetic strength the pillow flew less than an ilm in front of her before dropping straight to the ground.

Babycorn, now more frustrated than ever, grit her teeth and stomped the ground under her foot, repeatedly. “This! Isn’t! Fair!!” She wailed, very loudly. 

Loud enough for anyone nearby to hear her through the walls. 

Nearby, Cherrypit curiously watched as his sister growled through her sharp teeth, her tail swaying from side to side, clearly agitated about something. “Bebe okay?” This must have been the–what? Twentieth time this week she laid down on the floor to stare up at the ceiling. 

Sometimes she would say things but Cherrypit noticed that most of the time his sister would just start giggling and holding her hands up to her face while talking about how much she wants to see Butter.

He didn’t really get it. 

In another unexpected move Babycorn then began pacing back and forth, being careful to not step on any of Cherrypit’s stray toys. 

“There has to be something I can do…” She whispered to herself, “...something to get rid of all this-!!” All the sudden feelings towards one specific person that just came rushing virtually out of nowhere.

All Babycorn could do about them was lie down on the ground and try to deny them as much as she could. 

Then maybe her face would stop getting warm every time she thought of him. 

‘You could just tell me how you feel dummy.’ The voice inside her head told her. ‘You never had any trouble saying how much you loved Hildi–why is this any different?’ 

It just was!!! That was the answer but it wasn’t good enough because the feeling still wasn’t going away. “Sniffle…” Babycorn said out loud, wrapping her arms around herself as she closed her eyes. 

And every time she did, she would see the same thing. 

She was back on the Ferris wheel with Butter sitting right next to her. 

Fireworks going off in the background, a certain backing track blasting into her ears. 

And then–Butter would put his hand over hers and…

Babycorn’s eyes snapped open. Her heart was racing, hands shaking and was the room actually spinning?! “Awwauauwaaahhh…” A few weeks ago she had run over to Viggo in the dead of night, worried that she might actually be dying.

As it turned out she was in fact, not dying. 

Not only that Viggo had said pretty much the same thing Lunya had! 

Had they collaborated or something?! Or talked beforehand?! Why would Viggo say she was in love too?! 

Love sickness…

Airy had warned her about it so many times before. Oooooh why hadn’t she listened to her?! 

Instead now here she was-! 

Heart racing, palms sweating, and her head filled with only thoughts of…of…of…

“I CAN’T SAY IIIIIIIT!!!!!!” 

Babycorn pulled on her braids, falling to her knees. “I’m so pathetiiiiic!!” What would Butter even think about her acting like this just because she wanted to be with him?!

Babycorn’s absolute worst fear was that Butter would hate her and never wanna talk with her again! “And that would be fair…Sniffle…” What right did she have to like him this much? 

With the sound of Cherrypit falling over to chew on the foot of his bed, some gears in Babycorn’s head started inexplicably turning.

Suddenly the fog in her head began to clear. “Wait…”  The reason Butter would hate her was because he probably didn’t feel the same way about her.

Then maybe…? If Babycorn could somehow get him to…really like her then…

Without even wasting a second Babycorn pushed herself up and towards a specific corner of her and Cherry’s room. Cherrypit took a quick break from his usual teething exercise to curiously see what his sister was up to.

“Bebe?” he asked with a piece of his bed lodged on one of his serrated teeth. 

A highlight of the Starsinger’s room certainly had to be the giant pile of books Babycorn kept in the corner of the room.

They had been given a bookcase for this very reason but Babycorn, for whatever reason, found it easier to keep the books in a cozy pile rather than waste time putting them away when she knew she was going to look through them sooner than later. 

Babycorn jumped into the pile of books and began throwing them around the room, looking for something in specific. “Not it, not it, not it…” Book after book was thrown into the air and caught by Cherrypit before they even hit the ground. Giving them a good shake before throwing it aside to catch another. 

“Baaaah!!! Yaaay!” Cherrypit cheered, this was the part where if he had a tail just like his sister he would be wagging it in happiness. 

“Where is it…? Where…” 

Suddenly Babycorn saw it, her target, a dark blue color buried underneath a sea of other books. 

(most of them with b’ig nunh on the cover)

“There you are!!” 

Not wasting any time, Babycorn dove for the book, grabbing it in her bandaged hand before triumphantly holding it up in the air. “Found it!!” She proudly yelled out to the world. 

With a book still in his mouth Cherrypit clapped for his sister. “Yay! Bebe!!! Bebe foun' it!” He was still pretty unsure what was going on but he was having a lot of fun so it didn’t really matter all too much. 

In her hands was a book that had seen better days. Its spine was worn and the cover was scratched up to the point it was hard to read the title.

Not that Babycorn needed the words to know what book she was holding, this was one of the first books she had gone and bought with her own gil so many years ago. 

A collection of fairy tales that more than likely played a large part in creating the very special kind of worldview Babycorn had about romance. 

Babycorn took the time to wait for her baby brother to crawl towards her. He went ahead and took a seat next to her, plopping his head on her leg and waiting patiently for her next move. “Bebebebebebe!” he happily babbled.

Seeing his sister act so excited about something was getting him really excited too! Even if he had absolutely no idea what his sister was thinking about. 

Over the years she had asked a handful of people to read from this specific book but right now a certain memory was what she was hinging on. “I remember Mister Laith reading one of the stories to us a bit ago… ”Babycorn mumbled to herself as she flipped through the pages.

Most of the words still didn’t make much sense to her, but the illustrations were the one thing helping her pinpoint which exact story she was looking for. 

Just as she was about to reach the end and give up hope, a flash of orange and white caught her attention. “Right there!” The pages came to a stop, showing a complete spread of a couple getting married with white flower petals raining down on them. 

This was the end of the story, the happy ending they had earned after so much struggle. 

“Flawer!” Cherrypit clapped, pointing at every petal on the page. At first Babycorn’s plan was to turn the page backwards to look at the rest of the story but that plan was quickly put to rest when her brother started to count every individual flower petal on the pages. 

Babycorn giggled, her baby brother was literally so good at counting. “Okaaayy! I’ll let you have your fun.” Not like she could really stop him at this point. 

Her memory wasn’t that bad so she could still remember points of the story even without having to look at the rest of the pictures. 

The short story that had gotten her so excited told the tale of a village girl in love with the prince of the kingdom. “Then she tries to enter a contest for princesses to marry the prince…” Everything that could go wrong does go wrong and in the chaos the prince ends up being kidnapped! 

Babycorn could still remember how she and Cherry reacted to the sudden twist–by grabbing onto Mister Laith and shaking him while crying how this couldn’t be happening. 

Thankfully he was pretty used to reading to the Starsingers by now so this didn’t stop him from continuing the rest of the story. 

Underneath the sound of Cherrypit counting the twelfth flower petal, Babycorn continued her explanation to herself. “Then no one can find the prince. So the girl goes on an adventure to rescue him herself! And then she does!” There were some parts missing mostly in the middle but Babycorn pretty much remembered the most important parts for her. 

Then at the very end the girl rescues the prince and then they fall in looooove! 

And they both live happily ever after forever and ever!! 

The thought of having that happen to her filled Babycorn with so much delight she couldn’t help but kick her feet and wag her tail behind her. It was right on time too as Cherrypit had just finished his counting. “Wah?” What was his sister thinking about now? He could probably answer that with a simple peek into her thoughts, but lately even that wasn’t giving him answers.

All that Cherrypit would see when he did that was Butter and not much else. 

Suddenly he found himself being carried under his sister’s arm, as she held the book full of fairy tales high up in the air. “I got it!” She proudly declared, “I know exactly what I have to do!” 

The story she had recalled proved to be the final push she needed to find the courage to follow the path the ba-bumps of her heart were leading her towards. 

Cherrypit happily wiggled in the air, imitating the sound of his sister’s heartbeat. “Babuuts! Babuuts!” It was beating really fast! So she must have been really happy about something! 

If that wasn’t proof enough, Babycorn kicking down the door to her room for the umpteenth time before skipping down the hall with a smile on her face was definitive evidence that something in her fluffy head was filling her with an infinite amount of delight. 

‘I gotta tell her!'

There was a knock on Lunya’s door. 

“Right on time.” 

This was usually around the time of day that Babycorn would burst into her room with either a ridiculous request or some outlandish idea, usually both would involve food in one way or another.

That’s just the way it tended to be, come hell or high water. 

Because of this Lunya had already gone and warned Babycorn ahead of time that if she wanted to keep doing this she had to be a little quieter now, on account of her newly hatched children. 

(as much as it killed lunya to refer to them as such, it was the only way babycorn understood) (was this some sort of divine punishment for teaching her babies came from eggs?)

(yeah probably) 

Presently only one of her twins was napping in the room, Luneth. With Nynya out on a walk with her father.

Though if Lunya had to guess the chances of both of them having fallen asleep on the picnic blanket outside was more than likely. She would just have to go check herself right after dealing with whatever nonsense Babycorn was going to bring her way today. 

“I wonder which one it's going to be today…?” Lunya wondered aloud. 

Right on cue, a knock came from behind her door. 

Lunya could tell it was Cherrypit knocking, it sounded small and much quieter than his sister’s. 

“Coming~!” Lunya went ahead and slipped on her shoes in anticipation that this conversation wouldn’t take too long. She planned to ask Babycorn if she could watch Luneth while she went outside for a few minutes. 

As odd as it sounded Lunya definitely trusted Babycorn to watch over a baby more than she trusted Babycorn to watch over herself.

Once Lunya opened the door she was met with the familiar sight of Babycorn waving right in front of her with Cherrypit at her feet. “Luluuuu…! Heelloooo.” Babycorn greeted her in a hushed voice, her eyes sparkled almost like she hadn’t seen her in years, when they had just seen each other that morning. 

“Hi Bebe!” Lunya looked down, Cherrypit was excitedly waiting for someone to say his name. It kind of looked like he was vibrating. “Hellooo Cherry!” She happily greeted him. 

Now Cherrypit was the first to run inside, “Hi Lulu! Hi Luluuu!” He ran up the walls and onto the ceiling to look over Luneth’s crib. His giggling quickly grew quiet as he realized Luneth was fast asleep. “Oooh…!” He looked down at Lunya as he placed one of his fingers over his mouth. “Shhh…” Perfectly copying what Babycorn did when she explained to him that they needed to be quiet around sleeping babies. 

Lunya gave him a happy nod, bringing up her own finger to her mouth. 

With her hands behind her back Babycorn waltzed inside, “Lunyaaa! I have a really good idea that I have to tell you aaaaaall about!” She carefully closed the door behind, making sure to mind her tail. 

“Can I tell you? Can I? Can I? I really wanna tell youuuuu!” She swayed from side to side as an outlet for all her pent-up energy. 

So it was an outlandish idea kind of day. Lunya couldn’t help but smile, sometimes her friend was silly but sometimes she was a little too silly. So it was a very good thing she was here to reign her in every once in a while. That being said, “Go ahead Bebe.” Lunya gave her the go-ahead. 

“I’m gonna marry Butter!!” 

Lunya let out a sigh, she expected this so she couldn’t be too surprised. After so many years of knowing her friend there was nothing she could do to surprise her at this point. “Babycorn…” She placed her hands on her hips and just shook her head. “I’ve told you already you can’t fill the oven with bags ofHUUUH??????????.” 

Seemingly not noticing anything too shocking with what she had just said, Babycorn continued to explain her awesome plan to her bestie Lunya. “Yeah! I decided I’m gonna marry him!” 

“JUST LIKE THAT?!” 

“What do you mean!!” 

“What do you MEAN, what do I MEAN?!” 

Lunya shook her head, reminding herself to lower her voice even if her baby sister in name only was saying absolutely insane things right in front of her face.

“What I mean is–What made you decide thiiiiis?” Sure Babycorn said things like this all the time when it came to Hildibrand, but for some reason Lunya felt like fifty Dalamuds hit her at once when Babycorn switched her target of affection to Butter. 

“Well, you said I must really love Butts right?” 

“I. Did say that. Yes.” 

Honestly, it was still very weird to hear Babycorn use that word in this context. 

As much as Lunya would have preferred for things like this to run their natural course if she hadn’t said that directly to Babycorn’s face then it probably would have been another three-hundred years before the air-headed Babycorn realized exactly what was going on. 

Lunya watched as Babycorn’s horns shifted to a brighter pink, briefly wondering if Babycorn knew they did that.

Or would it be up to her to break the news to her? Back when they first appeared they were mostly a dull blue color, so most of them hadn’t noticed anything. 

“So-! So! So if I marry Butts then I can love him lots and be with him all the time!” There was a small little kiyaaaaaa attached to the end of that sentence, as Babycorn covered her rosy cheeks with her hands and tip-tapped her feet on the floor of Lunya’s room in sheer excitement. 

Never in a million years would she have imagined it coming to this, even if she was actively cheering for her son’s happiness in his century of yearning and suffering. 

Right now Lunya was still sort of stunned into silence to properly react. 

Oh, Babycorn was still going. 

…It would probably be a second before Lunya could get a word in actually. 

“And when we get married Butter can make yummy food for me every day and I can make him my food too cause he loves eating it sooooo much! He told me so! And-! And-! And we can hold hands for a really long time and be together and we can-! We can-!” 

It was comforting to know that Babycorn was still as delusional as ever about her aspirations in love with Butter as she had been with Hildibrand.

‘...I hope she forgets about wanting a B’iggy themed wedding though.’ Leaving that behind with the Manderville longing days would be just fine with her and several other people. 

“-we’ll also have a B’iggy themed wedding and cake and house!!”

‘Damn it.’

Lunya could only imagine the future conversation that awaited her in trying to convince Butter not to agree with everything Babycorn said when it came to their wedding plans.

...Like hell she was going to wear a B’ig Nunh themed dress to Babycorn’s wedding. 

“I’m going to show Butts that I can be strong and pretty and smart!!” 

By now Lunya had regained enough of her composure to join Babycorn’s currently very one-sided conversation. “Bebe you-” 

“I’m gonna WOO him!!” 

Just like the girl in her story did!

Instead of finishing her thought from earlier–Lunya simply just blinked her big Lunya eyes at Babycorn. Over and over, as Babycorn stood there waiting for Lunya to say something like ‘Wow Bebe! What a great idea! You’re so smart you should eat a million cookies and worms now!’ 

Which is very strange because Lunya had never said anything like that. Not even remotely.

Instead of Babycorn’s simply untrue delusions, Lunya simply closed her eyes and smiled. “Can you excuse me for just a second?” With that surprisingly simple explanation Lunya made her way around Babycorn, out the door to her room, and into the hallway.

“Okay bye Lunya!” Babycorn waved goodbye as she turned the corner further down the hallway.

From the ceiling Cherrypit made sure to say goodbye alongside his sister. “Baibai Luluuu!” Right before crawling his way over to the fireplace to stare at it.

Neither sibling really put much thought as to where or why Lunya had suddenly left. But to be fair one of them was a baby and the other was just really stupid.

Babycorn giggled to herself, awash with satisfaction at how brilliant her plan was. Lunya must have thought so too! There really wasn't much proof as to what Lunya really thought about it but she had to think it was smart because it was just that smart!

Airy looked up at the clock again, its constant ticking was near close to driving her mad enough to rip the whole thing off the wall and send it flying out the window. “Tch…” The only thing stopping her from acting on her threat was that she was too lazy to put the actual effort in. “You got lucky again this time punk…!” She sharply hissed between her teeth as she sank deeper into the comfort of her pillow. 

“Where the hells are they…?” Surely whatever Lunya had Babycorn and Cherrypit doing wouldn’t take that long. It’s not like Airy was worried or lonely or anything! She was doing just fine by herself! So quit asking about it! Seriously!! 

Once again Airy found herself with nothing to do but stare up at the Official Hildibrand Helidor Maximilian Manderville Time Ticker on the wall. His frozen grin almost felt like it was taunting her. One of his hands was pointing at a number and his other hand was pointing between another two numbers. 

A waste of space is what it is! Why did Babycorn have to buy this stupid thing?! What was it even good for except for being annoying?! 

…Though it would probably also help if she knew how to tell time. 

At that very moment the door to the room opened. This was it. Airy let out a gasp, her wings spread out and took flight in a matter of seconds. Babycorn didn’t even have time to say hello before Airy flew up to her face. “WaahaEek!??!?!?!” The surprise of having a fairy almost crash into her face was just enough for Babycorn to lose her balance, sending her falling onto her back. 

“There you two are!! What took you so LONG!?” 

Babycorn winced as Cherrypit helped her sit up. “H-Hey Airy…” Luckily she hadn’t been so much of a klutz that she fell on the cupcakes Lunya had gifted them. Thank god. “Hi! Hi Airy!” Cherrypit greeted her as he ran right past both of them and into the room and straight towards his toys. 

By now Babycorn was back up on her own two feet. She tried to follow Cherrypit into the room, only to be stopped right in her tracks by Airy blocking her way. “Well?” Airy’s arms were crossed and there was a familiar pout on her face.

“Well…?” 

“Aren’t you gonna apologize for making me wait so long?!”

Airy was so agitated her wings were flapping around like mad. Her wing sparkles gave the air around her a slight minty taste. “Bleh…” Babycorn thought it tasted kind of gross. “Sorry, Sorry! Me and Cherry got really busy decorating everything with flowers! So that everything could look really pretty!” It was actually kind of fun and this time neither Babycorn or Cherrypit had been tempted to eat any of them!

“Hmph!” The nerve of it all. Just because Lunya was getting married or whatever, it didn’t mean she could have Babycorn and Cherrypit all to herself. 

“But I brought you a cupcakes!” 

Babycorn held out the box she was carrying towards Airy. She had stuffed it so full of cupcakes that they had essentially just morphed together to become a whole cake. Something they would all find out once dinnertime hit. While Airy appreciated it there was no way she was actually going to offer any sort of thanks. It was unbefitting of a future ruler of the world to do. 

“And at the wedding Lunya says there’s gonna be a lots more food so I’ll bring you some from there too!” Just the idea of there being so much yummy food at the wedding was getting Babycorn more excited about the day. 

“What’dya mean?! I can just get the food myself!” She didn’t need Babycorn to pity her like this! “Just because I’m banned from the wedding doesn’t mean I can’t go!” 

“I…I think that’s exactly what it means???” 

“Oh come on!” Airy was now more agitated than ever. The air tasted like mint chocolate chip ice cream. “What reason could she possibly have to ban me?! I didn’t do a single bad thing!” 

“I mean…you did chase people around while holding a ruler and swinging it around telling people you were going to kill them!” 

Babycorn was right. That had indeed happened and Thancred had a bump on his head to prove it. In Airy’s opinion that was his own fault for underestimating just how hard she could swing a ruler. “Yeah! Cause I was boreeeed!!” All that was happening that day was discussing what kind of flowers and outfits were going to be at the wedding. 

Babycorn sighed, “I’m sorry Airy…But unless you say you’re sorry Lunya says you can’t go.” The problem was out of her hands. 

“As if I’m gonna listen to what one lalafell tells me to do!” Airy taunted. 

The Lalafell known as Lunya Lanya was just about the only person and thing Airy feared. Alongside grasshoppers, sudden rainstorms, hammers, dodos, and orchestra pits. So needless to say, Airy was going to listen and she was going to keep her distance. Not that Babycorn was ever going to know that. 

“Besides-! Weddings are stupid! Who would want to go to one anyway?!” 

Babycorn raised her hand with a grin. “Me! Me! I want to go to one and…!” She gave a dreamy sigh and held her hands together. “And I wanna get married too! Just like Lunya and Mister G’raha…” Not just for the really yummy food and pretty decorations, but in the name of love too! “They look really happy. Hehehehe!” 

Her daydream of her and Hildibrand handing her a pretty flower was rudely interrupted by the sudden pain of Airy hitting her over the head with a folded up newspaper. “Owwy?!?!” On instinct Babycorn shuffled closer to the ground and used her hands to block any oncoming hits. 

The box of cupcakes fell out of Babycorn’s hands and onto the ground, some drops of frosting fell into the already stained carpet floor. “What was that for?!” She cried out. 

“Are you CRAZY?!” 

“N-No?” Babycorn was legitimately confused. “I’m Babycorn!” 

Airy’s frustration had reached its boiling point. “Arrrghhhhh!!” She scratched her head and tousled her hair all around. “Everyone knows love is only for weak and stupid people!” Hadn’t she told Babycorn this a million times already?! 

This came to a surprise to the easily forgetful Babycorn. “What?! No! Love is super nice!” Every person she had known to be in love looked super happy. It made Babycorn excited for the day when she had someone to love and marry too! “I love Hildi a lot and I like it! It feels nice!” She grinned. 

Airy obviously thought otherwise. She frowned and flew closer to Babycorn, “Love is NOT nice! It’s a complete and utter waste of time!!”

Babycorn’s voice was much softer and quieter compared to Airy’s brash yelling. “No it’s not?” she tapped the ends of her fingers together. Really she didn’t stand a chance. 

“If you ask me, love makes you weak!! Why would you choose to be held down by feelings for another person?! You can’t let your heart tell you what to do because that’s when you start getting weak!” Airy hissed. In her opinion, owing something to someone just because of love~ was the worst kind of feeling. “You can’t let yourself get tied down!!” 

“Where’d you hear that…?” This was the first time Babycorn had ever heard anyone ever describe love like this. Usually people were so positive about it. All those people and Lunya couldn’t have been wrong…Could they?

Airy scoffed, “Obviously I heard about it from the world’s most reliable source. Myself!” 

“Yourself…?” 

Without even being prompted to, Airy continued. “You always gotta look out for number one! There’s no time to fall in love with other people!” There’s especially no time for weddings or dates or anything frivolous like that. “Love is only for the weakest links. They don’t know any better!” How sad, how tragic that those poor people didn’t have a genius and evil fairy with them to steer them in the right direction. 

“Hmm…” Babycorn chewed on her finger in thought. 

There was just a little something or other that didn’t make sense to her. “But Lunya is super strong! And she’s in love with Mister G’raha!” There were lots of people that were strong and in love that she knew! Like Coco Cocoda too! (as much as she hated to admit it) It was glaringly obvious to her that he really loved Melmeltan! 

What Airy was saying didn’t really add up!

Airy flinched, a nervous smile plastered all over her face. How could she ever forget the sight of Lunya lifting up an entire couch right after scolding her. “S-She doesn’t count!” That made sense didn’t it!? “People like you, me, and Cherry don’t need love! We’re different! We’re way stronger! Too strong to need love!” 

“I love you and Cherry a lot though!” Babycorn sparkled. 

“What did I just say?! We don’t count!!” 

Airy hated repeating herself. 

It would be remiss of Babycorn to mention just how stronger Lunya was than her. Poor Babycorn could barely lift up a fairly large branch without straining herself. Could the real reason she was so weak be because she was in love with Hildi? “So if I don’t fall in love I’ll be stronger…?” 

Babycorn tugged at the ribbon on her shirt. It was an odd thing to consider. 

Not to mention it also contradicted with Lunya’s very important rule that she was never ever supposed to listen to what Airy said to her. 

“Ex-Act-Ly!” Airy smiled, she was glad she was finally getting through to Babycorn. “Just look out for yourself! There’s no need for pesky emotions to get in the way! They’re just useless little things that exist to hold us back from our true potential!” 

There was kind of the sense that Airy was just repeating words that she had either heard or read before.  Cherrypit looked up from biting on his steel ingot to give Airy a puzzled look. 

“So you have to promise me you won’t ever fall in love!” Airy suddenly demanded. “We don’t need that here!” 

“But I-!”

“Promise me!!”

“I promiiiiiiise!” 

Babycorn wailed as loud as she could and fell to the ground. Somehow Airy hadn’t really clocked in that she currently had a big ol’ crush on Inspector Hildibrand. As if half the room being covered in his merchandise wasn’t enough of a clue. 

“Please forgive me Hildiiiii-! I promise I still love youuuu!” She begged for forgiveness to a guy she wasn’t sure at this point was still alive, but she still held out hope. 

Airy either didn’t hear Babycorn or just didn’t care. Instead she simply flew closer to where Cherrypit was playing to watch him brush his doll’s hair. “Hey kid, how about we play war or something?” That was way funner than whatever hair styling game he was playing. 

Cherrypit blinked his big blank eyes at her. “Be nice. To Bebe.” His smile was as wide as ever.

It sounded more like a threat than a suggestion. 

“Whaaaat? I’m always nice to her!” So nice that Airy had just given her life saving advice completely for free! 

Airy had no idea why she had thought back to that particular conversation. 

…Well there was a reason why, but she didn’t want to dwell on it. Airy looked up at the sky. It had recently just stopped raining but the clouds were still hanging around. It was kind of unnerving but given that Airy was safely hiding underneath some tarp she figured she would be safe for now. 

The sound of laughing underneath her caught her attention again. 

Airy caught sight of Pancake, Linnet, and Cherrypit running all over, stomping on puddles as hard as they could. Sometimes one would splash the other with water and let out a squeal followed by a storm of giggles. It was nice to see them have fun, even Airy had to admit.  

Her wings twitched slightly, as her gaze was drawn towards where Babycorn was. 

There she was, being carried in Butter’s arms, a wide smile on her face as she laughed alongside the kids. Babycorn kicked her legs back and forth excitedly pointing towards a puddle on the ground, waving her hand in all sorts of directions and of course Butter wasted no time and jumped in. 

They burst out laughing together, as Babycorn wrapped her arms around Butter’s neck, bringing them even closer together. 

Airy hadn’t personally visited Babycorn’s bedside. She already knew what happened, so there was really no point for her to. Was she worried for her? Of course, but only because if something happened to Babycorn her plans for world domination would be over. 

That was it. That was the only reason of course. 

It was just a few days ago that she heard word that Babycorn had woken up. Airy figured she would have been out for longer, considering that her life had been almost all spent up trying to make a madwoman’s desires come true. It all came as a welcome surprise. 

Airy continued to silently watch along as Butter jumped from puddle to puddle while still managing to carry Babycorn in his arms. With every jump she let out a loud laugh, clutching onto Butter even tighter. Butter was laughing alongside her, smiling even wider as both of them rested their heads on the other. 

Usually the mere sight of something like this would make Airy feel sick to her stomach but…Her only thought was whether or not Babycorn was still too weak to walk on her own for now? 

It was nice of Butter to carry her out of that stuffy room. 

It was no secret to Airy that this Butter kid was fond of Babycorn. Love was supposed to make you weak. It was supposed to hold you down and keep you from getting stronger, but Airy had seen the complete opposite from him. 

While Airy hadn't joined in the fight against Cremia and Scotch she had spied on it from afar. 

The way he was able to draw his weapon and fight against his own parents sort of shocked her. Airy had known Butter for years now but the way he was attacking his own mother so viciously all for Babycorn’s sake…

For a moment Airy might have considered everything she knew about love to be wrong.

Not only that, everyone there, everyone fighting against Cremia were doing it to save Babycorn. All because they wanted to save her, all because they loved her as much as Airy did. 

Airy continued to watch as Butter did a twirl, all with Babycorn in his arms. Maybe she had asked her to do that. It sounded like she had. After a spin or two Babycorn gently placed her face against Butter’s cheek. 

A bright red blush immediately took over Butter’s face much to the delight of his sister and her friend. Cherrypit wasn’t sure what was happening but he was glad to clap along. 

From here Airy couldn’t tell if it was a kiss or not but surprisingly, she wasn’t feeling any of the usual annoyance. Even with the circumstances of Babycorn’s situation this might have been the happiest Airy had ever seen her. 

Now that Erenville thought about it, it just made sense for their journey to have reached a hiccup so soon. It really felt like this particular group of adventurers either had some sort of curse placed on them from birth or the lot of them secretly loved doing things the hardest way they could. 

Having spent so much time around them already-could it be rubbing off on him? 

Considering the present company, it did fall upon him to figure out the game plan for getting to his hometown. This would have happened either way. This was his home but now for some reason he was actually feeling responsible for making sure that Babycorn specifically made it back home in one piece. 

There was honestly just so much wrong with Babycorn he couldn’t begin to explain. 

One of the first things she did upon getting to Shaaloani was run to hug a cactus. 

Also now she also had a tail and horns. 

At first Erenville figured this was a normal Babycorn thing but after seeing the actual shock her close friends had upon seeing her it quickly dawned on him that it was anything but. 

…That wasn’t even the thing that bothered him most. The worst part was that she was apparently older than him?? Older than Wuk Lamat he could believe, but him?!?!  

Literally not true. Literally false. 

After being told there was no way to ride the Rroneeks for now their first unexpected stop ended up being the town of Hhusatahwi. It was a close enough town for them to visit while waiting. 

None of them could have ever expected to be caught up in the middle of some sort of confrontation almost the very second they arrived. As shocking as it was, it was nice to see Estinien again even if it was just for a brief moment. 

Babycorn seemed the happiest to see him. Which made sense. Crying and wailing her eyes out as she ran over to give him the biggest hug she could muster. (which wasn’t very big given her tiny arms) If Erenville and Butter hadn't known any better it would have seemed like the two of them hadn’t seen each other in years. 

When really they saw each other a few weeks ago. 

“Stiiinniiiii!!! I was so worried about you!!”

“Babycorn! I am in the middle of something?!” Estinien bounced on his one free leg that Babycorn wasn’t grabbing onto. 

It took far too long to get her to stop clinging onto him like a leech. 

Literally. Babycorn switched up her tactics and bit down on his leg instead.

As hard as both Erenville and Butter pulled, Babycorn wasn’t budging. It wasn’t until Butter simply asked her to let go that she finally did. Quite suddenly, but not so suddenly because it turns out he was the only one still pulling on her leg. “Eh? What?” 

Erenville had put his hands up, letting go just in time for him to dodge the oncoming assault. 

Instead Babycorn flew right into Butter’s arms. Which was something that she totally planned on happening. 

“Weeeeeeeeee!!” Babycorn giggled, kicking her feet back and forth while Butter lay on his back on the hot desert ground. 

Though this was far from the worst tumble he had seen both Babycorn and Butter take, Erenville still figured he should ask. “Are the both of you alright?” Hopefully the answer was a resounding yes. 

Butter gave a thumbs-up in response and Babycorn waved both of her hands and tail at him. “I’m okay cause Butts saved meee!” She continued to giggle and be adorable as Butter raised his hand up to give her a pat on the head. 

With that out of the way Erenville turned back to see how Estinien was doing. Other than a boot covered in drool he seemed genuinely unphased. “I would advise you to get tested for every disease you can think of.” Erenville suggested. 

Up until now he had personally seen the sort of things Babycorn put into her mouth. 

Estinien chuckled, smirking. “Bold of you to assume I haven’t already invested in Lunya’s Babycorn proof clothing line.”  This was not his first, or his last, encounter with the force of nature known as Babycorn Corn. 

(Guaranteed to make sure that Babycorn can’t bite her way through your clothing! Family and friends of Babycorn’s get a discount! *Results with Cherrypit may vary.) 

“Now the tail and horns. That’s new.”

Before anything else could happen Erenville made the innocent suggestion to visit a grocery store to stock up on supplies. After all, there was really no telling how long they would have to wait for their Rroneeks to be ready. They could end up waiting for quite a while.

And also he kind of wanted a snack to eat while on the train. 

His first mistake ended up telling Babycorn which way the grocery store was because as soon as the words left his mouth she was already running right towards the aforementioned store. 

Or at least, she tried to. 

“Snack! Snack! Snackies!!” Babycorn chanted while she ran in place, suspended in the air by Erenville carrying her. Butter had given him a warning in advance and he had understood it immediately. There was almost something scary about slowly getting used to Babycorn’s antics. Nothing about anything about her was anywhere close to being normal. 

With Babycorn in tow the three of them made their way into the store.

Babycorn ran across the store pointing at almost everything with a smile. 

“Can we get that!? Oh! How about this!? This looks yummy! Butts! Let's get this! I want this one! Erenville, can we eat this one?!” 

Butter’s answer to every one of her requests was a resounding, “Of course!” Even when she wasn’t asking him. Babycorn deserved everything she ever wanted in the world. And then some. 

“Do you…? Ever say no to her?” 

Erenville didn’t know why he was bothering asking, he already knew the answer to this. 

Butter smiled, a tear in his eye. “I don’t think I’m strong enough…” 

Erenville decided to go and pay for the snacks himself, splitting the bill between him and Butter. The only two people here who hadn’t eaten their gil as a quick snack. That gave Butter the task of making sure Babycorn didn’t hurt herself while wandering around the store. 

One of these tasks was just slightly easier than the other. 

Butter walked closely behind Babycorn as she continued to “Ooh…” and “Ahh…” all over the store. From the sounds of it someone passing by might have mistaken this as Babycorn’s first time being inside of a store, and they would have been half right. 

“Butts can we get this?!”

“We already have! Erenville is paying for it!”

“Ooh!! Yay!”

There were about five other instances of this exact conversation happening in the span of a few seconds. 

Eventually Babycorn wandered enough that she found herself noticing things she hadn’t before.

Just like in so many stores of this kind there also happened to be a corner specific for clothes and accessories. As small as it was, there was still something that instantly caught Babycorn’s attention. “Hats!” Babycorn ran up to a spinning hat rack and started pointing at it as if Butter couldn’t also see what was right in front of him. “Butts look! They have hats!!!!!!!” 

On the rack were all sorts of cowboy hats, in different colors and different styles. “I like this one!” Babycorn picked one out from the lower section, the hat was brown and had a simple tan string tied around the crown. “I’m gonna put it on! Do you think I’ll look cute?!” 

Maybe Babycorn was fishing for compliments but could it really be called that when the compliment was a one-hundered percent true fact? “You will! You’ll look like the cutest Bebe in the world!” Butter didn’t hesitate to answer with his factual opinion.  

“Ehehehehe~!” Babycorn giggled, “Lemme put it on then!” 

Butter was content to watch her put on the cowboy hat until something caught his eye. A little two somethings. As much as he hated to do this, he had to. 

“Wait Babycorn stop-!”

At that very moment, Babycorn did stop. “H-Huh?” She turned to look at Butter with wide eyes. “Is something wrong?” Had she done something wrong? Her eyes were blinking fast, trying to fight back the tears threatening to come through any moment now. 

There was no way she was going to start crying here. 

“Y-Your…” Butter wasn’t sure how to approach this. Directly, was probably the best option. That was how Babycorn tended to work. He looked up above her head, almost as if he were looking at her pom. “Your horns…If you put on the hat they’re going to rip through it.” Butter explained. 

Babycorn stared blankly at him for a few seconds, as if she couldn’t believe the words Butter was saying to her. She moved to hold the hat with only one hand and the other traveled up to her head. She let out a gasp once she was able to touch one of her horns. 

“Oh…Right…” How could she have forgotten about that? 

Butter wasn’t happy about this either. “I’m sorry…! I didn’t want you to get in trouble…” Not that he was the one to just sit idly by while watching Babycorn get yelled at. It was probably better however, to avoid that situation entirely. 

“It’s okay…” Babycorn found it harder to keep it together.  “I understand…” She really did. Butter was trying to keep her out of trouble, he was just trying to help, but he wouldn’t have had to do anything if she hadn’t gone ahead and given herself these stupid horns on her head and tail. 

Babycorn sniffled, holding the hat closer to her. 

There must be something else he could do. Butter couldn’t stand seeing her so sad, her eyes so watery and huge, staring down at the ground with her tail standing still and laid on the ground. 

There had to be something else. Something he was…

Ah! That was it! “Hold on a second!” Butter practically ran towards the hat rack, spinning it in all sorts of different directions, scanning the entire thing at almost terrifying speeds. 

Babycorn stood idly by. Just a little confused by what Butter was doing. 

Butter had seen plenty of other Viera (Or Shetona) around here so it stood to reason that he would find exactly what he was looking for. It took a second but he did finally find it. “Aha!” Here they were! Right next to the miqo'te ones! After a short little hop he was able to reach a hat that had two ear holes directly above the head. 

Or in Babycorn’s case, horn holes. 

“Here this one will fit!” 

He proudly held up the cowboy hat towards her, it looked exactly like the one Babycorn grabbed before only this one had the convenience of having two holes right where her horns were. 

Give or take a few ilms. 

Without a word Babycorn dropped the old hat to the ground and grabbed the one Butter had picked out. There was something a little different about it but it was still pretty much the same as before. “Hmm…” If Butter went through all that trouble to find it she had to put it on. 

As scared as she was, Babycorn went ahead and placed the hat right on her head. She hadn’t even realized her eyes were closed until she opened them. Oh…! She could feel the hat right on her head! No sounds of ripping or tearing and it was almost a perfect fit! 

With the last tears from her eyes all gone she looked at Butter. He was looking right at her with a warm grin on his face. “See? I told you! You look cute!” He meant every word of it. He gave Babycorn a small laugh as he tilted the brim of the hat up. 

Everything about Butter was suddenly sparkling. His smile, his eyes, and the way his little laugh made Babycorn’s ears feel warm. “U-Um…” Was anyone else seeing this? Her face started to quickly get warm too. Was this because she was wearing the hat? Was it too hot?

ba -bump…ba-bump…ba-bump...  

Babycorn’s heart was racing, there was a strange lump in her throat, but the strangest part was that none of it felt bad. She couldn’t stop looking at her bestest friend in front of her. 

All of this suddenly gave Babycorn an idea. 

Without even so much as a warning she took her hat off, turned it around, and placed it right on top of Butter’s head. “Wah-?!” His ears, just like her horns, were a perfect fit and the hat fell smoothly right on top of his head. Somehow. Even with his spiky gravity defying  hair. 

Babycorn stepped back and silently looked at him. 

Butter meanwhile, slightly adjusted the hat on his head. Turns out Babycorn’s aim was just a little off. “Oh uh…” Of course the entire situation caught him off guard but he decided to just let Babycorn do what she wanted in this case. “Well how do I look?” He asked. 

A scene began to play inside Babycorn’s little head. 

‘How awful! How Scary!

The lovely lady Babycorn Corn, was surrounded by scary bandit Alpacas armed with swords trying to rob her!! “Won’t somebody please help me?!” she desperately cried out. Tears in her eyes and bag of delicious gold in her hands. 

The alpacas laughed evilly. “No one’s coming to save you!!” They apparently said with their alpaca mouths. 

“NooooOoooooOOoOo!!” Babycorn cried out in despair, putting her arm over her head. 

“Not so fast!!” 

A heroic cry sounded over the horizon! 

Babycorn gasped, holding her hands together. “It’s you!!” Her heart began to race and flower petals began to dance in the air as the sun illuminated the hero of the story. 

It was the brave hero Butter Moontide! He had rode in on a bright white unicorn! It also had wings! Wearing his super awesome cowboy hat and matching cowboy attire, his long hair flowed in the wind and the air all around him was filled with sparkles. His eyes were shining and his freckles were almost glowing.

Butter grabbed the sword off of his back and drew it. “Get away from her!” He commanded.

The alpaca bandits gasped in horror. “No it can’t be!” The legends couldn’t have been true!?  

“It’s too late to run!” Butter threatened, his winged unicorn let out a neigh as they both charged towards the evil bandit alpacas. Of course the evil bandit alpacas wouldn’t go down without a fight, they all charged Butter at once, swords drawn.

The battle was over before it could begin. At the end of it all Butter stood victorious, carrying Babycorn in his arms while also still sitting on top of his horse 

“I knew you would come and rescue me Butts!” Babycorn swooned, with a sigh. 

“There’s nowhere in the world I wouldn’t go to save you.” Butter pulled out a rose from his pocket I guess, “And there’s no bad guy out there I won’t defeat if it means saving you.”

“Ohh~! Butts! You’re so cool! And awesome!” 

Babycorn took a bite out of the rose. Of course Butter would know her favorite flower to snack on!

After it all ended, Butter and Babycorn rode out into the sunset…Together…’

“Ehehehehe….” 

Babycorn…? Babycorn? Babycorn!!

“Huh. What.” 

Babycorn’s daydream was over, interrupted by the version of Butter who did not reside in her head and instead was right in front of her. “Are you okay? You weren’t saying anything and you were just staring at me and-?” 

“Butts I think you should get it!” Babycorn suddenly blurted out. "It suits you!!"

“H-Huh?”

Babycorn leapt forward and grabbed Butter’s hands. Staring right at him she was determined to make her point crystal clear. 

“I REALLYYYY think you should get the hat! And wear it!”  

By now Erenville had finished his task and had been walking all over the store trying to find two lalafells who at first seemed impossible to miss. How wrong he had been. “Ah. There you two are.” Once he caught up he was met with the sight of Butter laughing to himself with Babycorn smiling and swaying from side to side, her horns were now a bright pink color??? 

“Okay what did I miss?”

“We’re buying a hat!” Babycorn proudly proclaimed. “It’s not a snack but I think we should buy it anyway!” 

“Hehe…” Butter twirled a solid piece of his spiky hair between his fingers, his face blushing a light pink. “Babycorn said it suits me…Hehehe…” 

‘Keep an eye on Babycorn.’ 

That’s what Butter kept repeating to himself as the group stepped into Yesterland. In a way it was similar to Canal Town but instead of a town this whole place looked and felt more like a theme park than anything else. 

But somehow it still had that same sort of hazy feel to it. 

As if they were inside a dream. 

Butter watched as a group of children ran past him chasing down a costumed mascot, laughing out loud with smiles on their faces. Unfortunately he wasn’t the only one watching them having what was arguably the time of their afterlives. 

Just a little ways away Babycorn was also watching. Taking everything in before it was too late.

She and Cherrypit had been the only two to oppose shutting off the power to this part of Living Memory. It should be noted however, that Cherrypit was only agreeing with his sister because he knew she was always right. 

‘If all these people are happy here…Why do we have to get rid of it?!’

In the end Canal Town was shut off. Turning the once golden town to an empty grey husk and its residents also began to disappear, Butter expected Babycorn to start crying, start yelling, to do anything. 

Instead she just stayed quiet and stared at all of them. 

Since then she hadn’t spoken a word to anyone. Not even Cherrypit. 

It’s not like Butter didn’t understand where she was coming from. Having been Babycorn’s friend this whole time, a place like this was pretty much all she ever dreamed of. Somewhere where you could be nothing but happy with the people you love. Where tragedy would never find you. 

Where life never really ended, not even after death.  

But…the bad heavily outweighed the good in this case. 

If they let Living Memory exist forever then they would put their own world in jeopardy. Countless would die, including their loved ones. All for the sake of keeping those who had already left the world ‘alive.’ 

Butter just couldn’t understand what Sphene’s goal was. Surely she was smart enough to realize that eventually she would run out of aether, no matter how many worlds she targeted. 

Butter already knew where he stood. Anything that threatened to hurt his family and Babycorn had to be stopped. No matter what. And if that included Sphene then he would stop her too.

It didn’t matter how much she pleaded with them, if her plan remained unchanged then Butter was going to stand in her way till the end. 

“Hey Butter?” Butter felt someone grab his hand. He turned his head to see Babycorn standing next to him. She was looking right at him, with the same empty expression she’d been wearing since leaving Canal Town. 

“Do you want to ride the big wheel together?” Her voice was monotone with almost no emotion to it. 

As concerning as this was, this was still Babycorn. “...Wheel?” He wasn’t sure what she was talking about. 

Babycorn pointed up. When he followed where she was pointing he noticed a huge ferris wheel right in front of them. How had he missed that? Maybe in all his thinking he’d just completely overlooked it? Honestly it was completely fair. 

Butter did his best to smile, “I’d love to go with you.” 

Babycorn simply nodded and held his hand tighter. 

He hated doing this but there was something he needed to take care of first. “Let me tell Lunya really quick..”  “Don’t go anywhere. Okay?” 

“I won’t. Don’t worry.” 

Behind Babycorn, Cherrypit gave Butter a serious nod. It was his way of letting Butter know that he was going to keep an eye on his sister. Which usually meant Babycorn was going nowhere. Since Cherrypit could stretch out his claws as far as he needed to in order to grab her.

Now a bit more reassured Butter gave her a little wave as he turned and ran back. “I’ll be back. I won't take long, promise. 

Everything went off without a hitch. 

Though she was concerned Lunya had a feeling that maybe spending some time with Butter would help Babycorn with the clear heartache she was facing.

Alread having already known Babycorn for even longer than most sort of did let Lunya see this coming. But like a runaway train, there was nothing she could do to change its course. 

Once Butter got the all-clear he ran as fast as he could back to Babycorn and Cherrypit. 

Thankfully they were still there waiting for him right where he left them. 

After explaining that he and Babycorn were free to ride the ferris wheel, Cherrypit conveniently excused himself by sinking straight down into a puddle of black tar. “...There he goes again.” Butter hoped that whoever ended up having Cherrypit suddenly appear in front of them wasn’t doing anything too important. 

Together Butter and Babycorn made their way to the ferris wheel. 

There wasn’t much of a line,  thankfully. “Looks like we lucked out!” Butter joked.

There was hardly a response from Babycorn. “Hmmm..” She was keeping her hands together in front of her, looking straight down. To say that standing in line was awkward would be an understatement. 

After what felt like forever it was their turn to board the ferris wheel. Butter let Babycorn enter the basket ahead of him. It was only polite to let her do so. Despite that Babycorn just stood there, seemingly waiting for Butter to take a seat first. 

Butter decided to see what would happen if he sat down and on cue Babycorn sat down right across from him. To be honest he was a little sad she didn’t want to sit next to him but he probably would have cheered up if he knew the reason why Babycorn decided to sit there. 

(which was because this way Babycorn could look right at him) 

As the basket doors closed the ferris wheel started moving with a jolt. It was strong enough to surprise them both and throw them a little off balance. They fell forward and ended up staring at each other’s eyes.

“Urp-!” Babycorn quickly sat up, her back straight and her hands resting on her knees. Her head was strategically turned away so Butter couldn’t see her blushing. 

As the basket climbed higher into the air the view became much more enticing. Babycorn turned around in her seat and climbed onto her knees to try and get a better view.  “Woah…Awesome…” Without any warning she went ahead and pressed her nose against the glass for a quick second before moving back. “Hehe…” she giggled to herself.

She was acting a little bit more like usual self now. That was a good sign. 

The ferris wheel came to a stop. Their basket stopped just a little before reaching the very top. Though this didn’t stop the view from being spectacular. “Woah…” Babycorn gently pressed her hands against the window. Just a little itsy teeny bit afraid that she would push it out. 

Normally she would be a little nervous being so high up from the ground but Babycorn knew she was safe as long as she was with Butter. 

Babycorn looked down at the view, everything was practically glowing. “Isn't it so pretty?” There was something to look at almost everywhere you looked. Balloons, stuffed animals, and yummy food? Just being here was making Babycorn feel excited. This place practically had it all. 

Even better was that all of the people walking below looked to be having so much fun. There was so much to do here Babycorn doubted that they would ever run out of things to do. “Everyone looks so happy…” All the permanent residents here had all met with a tragic end but despite all odds they lived on. 

As if nothing had ever happened. 

They were all content and right where they should be. 

Babycorn made it no secret that she thought everything about Living Memory was a dream come true. She was one of the first ones to take off running once they crossed the golden portal, running ahead of everyone and happily taking a free balloon from one of the sentry robots. 

While their basket swayed in the wind Babycorn rested her head against the window, her own reflection looking back at her. “Nobody ever has to die…They can all be happy forever and ever…” The carousel in the distance caught her attention. The way it seemed to go on spinning endlessly.

“No one has to be sad anymore…” 

Butter couldn’t think of anything to say. He looked away, clenching his fists. 

He actually had so much he wanted to say but he just couldn’t. He knew in his heart that Babycorn meant well. This wasn’t her fault at all, but he still needed to tell her that this was their only choice.

Butter knew he was strong enough to tell her, no matter how much it hurt, but at the same time he just wasn’t. 

There was one thing that was clear to him however. 

Sphene was using Babycorn’s own kindness against her. 

In hindsight it was clear that Sphene tried her very best to worm herself into their group. Possibly to gain their trust or because she really wanted to be friends? It was still hard to say. Sometimes things just don’t work out.  

Whatever the case, it was pretty easy to guess that Babycorn herself had probably told Sphene what her dreams were. Of course Babycorn would. If there was anyone she trusted it was anyone that called themselves her friend. It didn’t matter how long they knew each other, it was all the same to Babycorn. 

And if Babycorn trusted Sphene enough to tell her about her dreams of a perfect world then…

Butter quickly realized what she would do when she finally ran out of aether.

This couldn’t wait. “Babycorn…” Panic began to rise in Butter’s voice. “I think...I think Sphene is trying to trick you.”

“I know.”

That wasn’t the answer Butter had been expecting at all. 

The basket became eerily still. The sound of the wind around them completely stopped. “Just how stupid does she think I am?” Babycorn laughed, it sounded empty, hopeless. “As if I would ever help her…I would never hurt my friends…” The very idea of that made her laugh even more. 

Enough was enough. Butter took a chance and stood up, rocking the basket. He took a step across and sat down next to her. “I know you wouldn’t.” He placed his hand on top of hers and sighed.

Babycorn took her head off the window and turned to look at Butter. She still couldn’t find it in herself to look him in the eyes. It was just like before. “All I want is for people to be happy forever…” For everyone she loved to have a chance to be happy, to have their dreams come true, to never have to suffer. “I don’t understand…How is that bad?” 

“It’s not…It’s not bad.” Butter took her hands in his. “Sometimes I even wish for a world like that…I think everyone wants the people they love to be happy but sometimes some people just lose sight of it and end up hurting other people on the way…”

“...And nobody should have to suffer to have a perfect world.” Not even her. Babycorn knew this. She knew. 

Babycorn looked up at him and smiled, with the same toothy grin that Butter fell in love with. “I don’t need a perfect world to be happy! Cause if Butts and everyone is happy then I’m happy too! And if anything ever happens…I’ll have my happy memories!” 

Butter smiled, “That’s my girl.” 

At this point it was inevitable. They were there to save their world, all worlds, from falling into Sphene’s grasp. It was probably never going to be easy. “I know it’s going to keep happening.” It didn’t mean that watching this dream fade away hurt any less. 

“That’s why I’m just going to close my eyes and wait till it's over!” Just like whenever she watched scary movies!

“That’s smart!” Hopefully Babycorn would also remember to open her eyes afterwards. “I’ll let you know when it’s over. If that helps.”

“Thanks Butts…” 

All of a sudden there was a flash of light in the sky. Babycorn let out a little yelp of surprise, thinking the worst at first. It didn’t take very long for both of them to realize what they were watching was a fireworks show.

“Woah…!” All sorts of colorful shapes and explosions soon began to overfill the fake sky all around them.

For the briefest of moments Babycorn snuck in a glace to look at Butter sitting besides her. There was something about the way he was sparkling, almost glowing even, that Babycorn couldn’t take her eyes off of. 

“Your eyes are really pretty…! Did you know that?” 

Butter laughed, blushing lightly. “So I’ve been told.” Of course all those times have been by Babycorn herself but it still counted. It more than counted. 

Would it be strange for her to want a closer look? 

Babycorn found herself moving closer to Butter, she was happy to see him start to move closer to her too. There had been countless times when he told her how beautiful her eyes were too. 

And so, they looked at each other closer. Moving in closer and closer.

And closer…

“Cinnamon!!!”

Cinnamon turned onto her side, ignoring the very loud yell calling for her. It was her afternoon nap and she didn’t want to be disturbed just yet. Especially not after such a hectic morning. Having spent a large majority of it flying away from Cherrypit who decided he wanted to chase her around for fun.

It really was a curse to be so irresistibly shiny sometimes….

“Cinnamooooon! Wake up!!” 

Cinnamon knew that was Pancake’s voice calling her name. If she was lucky then maybe she would decide to pester her some other time.

“Cinnamooooon! I know you’re awake!!” 

Cinnamon felt Pancake poking her hammock, it rocked her from side to side, sort of having the opposite effect that Pancake intended for it to have. After hearing Cinnamon let out a loud snore Pancake quickly realized her mistake and instead just decided to skip a couple of steps, grabbing Cinnamon by her wings. 

Cinnamon yelped out loud and her eyes flew open. “Hey! Come on now-! That's not fair!” She flapped her wings and Pancake quickly let her go. Cinnamon flew back down onto her designated drawer and crossed her arms, she tapped her foot impatiently. 

“I know that stuff was okay when you were little but now…” 

Who was she kidding? Even with all the complaining Cinnamon did, she really didn't mind, deep down. It was a good thing she was used to it by now. Except for the dress-up games. Cinnamon would trade all the nap times in the world for that to stop. 

Pancake was rhythmically tapping the top of the drawer in anticipation, “Cinnaaamoooon~! My favorite fairy ever in the woooorld! Can I ask you a favooor?” She blinked her eyes repeatedly and brought her hands together, making sure to emphasize just how cute and squishy her face was.

Lunya, whether she meant to or not, had taught her well. 

Cinnamon knew exactly what was happening. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion but Pancake’s eyes just kept glittering at her. She was playing right into her hands and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. 

“Fine! Fine! Fricking fine!” Cinnamon shrugged, “What the hells do you want?” 

Once Pancake recognized Cinnamon’s bell jingles of resignation she jumped back with a loud squeeee!!!!!! “Yippee!! Really?! Hooray!!” Pancake hopped around in place and cheered to herself. “It’s gonna be really quick Cinnamon! I just need your thoughts on something!” As quickly as she could, Pancake twirled on her heel and ran out of their room, “I’ll be right back! Right right back!!” 

Cinnamon sat down and pouted. “Sure. Take your tiiiime!” She waved her sleeve covered arm at the door that Pancake had danced out of.

As luck would have it Butter was out today on an ‘Important Errand.’  

Which considering that by complete coincidence that Babycorn was also out meant that Butter wouldn’t be back anything soon. So there was a zero chance of him saving her from whatever Cinnamon wanted her to do. 

Hopefully it wasn’t another mission of stealing something from Lunya. 

If there was anyone that Cinnamon didn’t want to get on the bad side of, it was Lunya Lanya. 

Pancake came running back holding a large stack of papers in her hands and a red pen in her mouth. “Mpphmhphpmhhpp!!” She excitedly explained. Pancake dropped the stack of papers on the desk. The force of the impact was enough to make Cinnamon air-bound for a few seconds.

Cinnamon looked up at Pancake. “Um, Pancake? Sweetie…you sorta…” She gestured her large sleeves to her mouth to try and at least signal to Pancake that she couldn’t understand her. 

“Mpphmh?” Pancake had run across the room to grab a desk chair and carried over to where Cinnamon was. She sat down and grabbed the pen from her mouth. “Okay! Okay! Okay!” Pancake was practically bouncing from her seat as she grabbed a piece of paper from the stack. “I’m gonna read you something and you need to tell me if you like it Cinnamon!”

“Oh…kay?” Was that it?

Pancake cleared her throat and began reading. 

“Once upon a time there was a small village that was in the middle of the forest. The forest was big and dangerous and very very filled with monsters. Monsters that really liked to attack the people living in the village and the people that even got near the village. Because the kingdom of the village belonged to was taken over by an evil empire they were getting no help!”

Cinnamon flew up and took a seat on her custom sized hammock. It sounded like this was going to take a while. 

“So then the village put together its own people to fight the monsters instead! The super cool and very cute Pancake was going to be apart of it! The leader of the monster hunters was Lunya too! There were a bunch of strong and cool people that were apart of it! This was the way they could fight and keep themselves safe!”

So far Cinnamon didn’t know why she was here. Pancake had asked her for her ‘thoughts’ as she put it but what thoughts could she even offer if they couldn’t really communicate with each other. 

Was she just supposed to wave her arms at Pancake if she didn’t like something?

“Butter lived with Pancake (that’s me!!!! :D) in a house in the village. They had parents and they had their own restaurant and Butter loved his sister and cheered her on as she protected the village. One day a lot of monsters suddenly attacked the village! The brave and very cool Pancake defeated as many as she could but even she could not defeat them all! While Cinnamon was fighting outside her brother Butter stayed to defend their home.”

Cinnamon didn’t know whether to wiggle her arms in the air or not. She knew in her little fairy cookie heart that Butter would go out and fight alongside Pancake if this whole thing was real and not just an imaginary scenario in Pancake’s head. 

Oh well, Pancake wasn’t going for realism anyway. Probably.

“Everything was going good but then Butter heard a loud noise outside his home! Butter grabbed a big spoon and went outside to investigate.”

Cinnamon furrowed her brow, “Why did he grab a big spoon?” I mean, sure Pancake said that they lived in a restaurant but surely a knife would have been a smarter decision then? 

Then again, Butter was the type of person to grab the wrong thing under stress. But it wasn’t something like this had happened before, so how could she really tell.

...Why was she overthinking this?

“When Butter stepped outside he saw a monster right in front of him! It was really scary! Butter tried to attack it but he saw that she was hurt! There was a cut on her tail that looked like it really hurt! Butter couldn’t just leave her like that so he went inside and got some stuff to help her. The monster was really confused at why Butter was helping her but she was glad that he was helping her.”

Cinnamon sighed, that did sound like something Butter would definitely do. No matter how much she would be yelling into his ear that it was a bad idea. 

“But then Butter remembered that the monster hunters were still outside and protecting the village. He decided to bring the monster inside she was just almost too big to hide but Butter decided to hide her in a shed that his family almost never used. He ran inside to grab a big blanket too. That was enough to protect her from the monster hunters.”

Cinnamon took the time that Pancake normally used to switch sheets of paper to stretch for a second. Her relaxing stretch was rudely interrupted when Pancake placed her elbows on the drawer, it made Cinnamon jump a little.

“That’s all I got written for now but let me tell you what my plan is for the rest!” Pancake very excitedly explained. 

Cinnamon waved her large sleeve to try and gesture for Pancake to continue. Having already accepted that she probably wouldn’t be going anymore anything soon. 

“Sooooo! I bet you already guessed who the monster that Butter saved iiiis~?”

Cinnamon looked confused. She actually never thought to ask about that. “Uh…Is it a really spiky cactuar?” she chimed. Cinnamon waited to see if Pancake would tell her if she was right or wrong but when that didn’t happen she tried her best to draw out a shape of a cactuar in the air using her sleeves.

Now Pancake was the one looking confused. Instead of trying to guess what Cinnamon was saying she decided to just go ahead and tell her. “Hehe…! You guessed right! It’s Babycoooorn! Of course its Babycorn! Duhduh!!” Pancake tapped the top of the drawer now more excited than ever. 

“Ah. Of course.” Cinnamon really should have seen this coming.

It made far too much sense, seeing as Pancake seemed to be the number one self-proclaimed fan of Butter marrying Babycorn one day. Everyday Pancake would start the morning by asking Butter if today was going to be the day he was going to ask Babycorn to be his girlfriend and then Butter would respond by simply saying’ maybe.’ 

Then when it was bedtime Pancake would ask if Butter was going to ask Babycorn out the next day and so on and so on…

Hell, Pancake had even begun periodically styling her hair to look almost exactly like Babycorn’s.  

“Babycorn is the coolest! She’s gonna be the coolest sister-in-law ever!!” Pancake cheered, “That’s why I’m writing this story for them!” 

“Sure Pancake.” Personally Cinnamon couldn’t see it happening if things kept going as they did. Either Butter would decide to grow a backbone or that Hildibrand guy would finally clue in that Babycorn desperately desired him. It could go either way. 

Of course her full support was in Butter’s corner, but there was only so much she and Pancake could do to have Butter confess his feelings. Then again, it looked like Pancake had been very hard at work on it. From cursing Hildibrand to arranging special dinners between the two, and now she was writing stories about them? Cinnamon had her work cut out for her. 

Pancake picked up another piece of paper and turned it to show Cinnamon. There was a drawing on it, a picture of Butter, Pancake, and something that resembled Babycorn. The pom on the head was a dead giveaway. “So then I think that Butter and Babycorn get to talking and know each other and they get less scared of the other! Cause you know Babycorn’s a monster in this so she’s scared of Butter too!” Pancake giggled to herself and stretched the paper in her hands.

“Oh that’s nice.” Dare Cinnamon even call it…cute???? 

“But then I find out that Butter has been hiding a monster in our house!!”

“Oh shit!” 

Pancake nodded solemnly. “Of course since I’m super nice and cool and cute I understand and I promise to protect Babycorn too! And Cherrypit! He’s here too and he’s really small and totally alive!” 

Cinnamon smiled, Babycorn would probably have liked to have heard that last part. 

At this point Pancake was now pacing from one side of the room to the other. “And then-! Then-! Me and Butter find out that Babycorn is actually the long lost princess of the kingdom that got taken over because the prince had managed to escape! And he fell in love with a monster!”

“Woah! No way!” Cinnamon fluttered into the air. “Then what happens?!”

Pancake had no idea what Cinnamon had asked but she looked surprised and that was to make her happy. “So then me and Butter and Babycorn and Cherrypit are gonna team up with everyone to defeat the evil kingdom and the scary monsters too! Everyones gonna help and also Butter and Babycorn fall in love and get married and I get to be a princess too and-! And-! And they have a lot of babies too!” 

“That’s…pretty fast!” 

Pancake bounced herself off of a wall, and just kept pacing around. “I haven’t worked out a lot of the stuff that happens yet but I do know that Babycorn and Butter get married and also I’m the flower girl cause Butter promised it to me when I was little. Remember?”

“Oh I remember.” There’s no way Cinnamon could ever forget the time that Pancake had asked the question right in front of Babycorn herself. She could have sworn that Butter would have died on the spot had Babycorn not been so….Babycorn. 

The energy inside Pancake had run its course and she had decided to just sit on the side of her bed. “So what do you think Cinnamon? I’ve been working really hard on it! I’ve mostly been writing it in my head but I started writing it down yesterday and I think it's really good so far but what do you think?” Pancake decided not to mention that the times she was writing it down in her head had mostly been during times when Sirius had been lecturing her about things.

Cinnamon struggled to find a way to answer. Simply saying ‘I love it!’ wouldn’t be enough since Pancake couldn’t understand a word of it. There had to be something else she could do. That’s when Cinnamon had a great idea. 

She flew almost right up to Pancake and gave her the biggest thumbs-up she could, even with her large sleeves it was crystal clear to Pancake what Cinnamon was saying.

“YAAAAAAAY!” Pancake cheered, jumping up and down. “I knew I did a good job!” She grabbed Cinnamon in both her hands and gave her a tight hug. “Thanks for the help Cinnamon! I knew I could count on you!” As Cinnamon tried to break out of the suffocating hug, at some point she decided it would be better just to go with it.

“You’re welcome!” Cinnamon jingled.

Pancake gently set the very dizzy fairy back down on her hammock. “You can go back to napping now!” She grabbed the stack of papers from the drawer and walked over to the door, forgetting the red pen that she hadn’t even used. “I’ll see you later! Don’t tell Butter about this cause it's gonna be a surprise!” 

Cinnamon gave Pancake another thumbs-up and Pancake giggled. 

As Pancake struggled to get the door open Cinnamon wondered if she should fly over to help. Thankfully Pancake managed to open the door with the power of balancing a stack of papers on her knee. Something she looked very proud of doing. 

“Aww. They grow up so fast…” Cinnamon said to herself. It felt like just yesterday she was helping Butter change Pancake’s diapers and now here she was writing fanfiction about her brother and this weird girl that lived with them. It almost brought a tear to her eye. 

That’s when Cinnamon realized one crucial thing. 

“Hey! Wait a minute! Where was I in that story?!”