Licorice cookie and Vampire cookie stood before the kingdom. Vampire looked back at Licorice who stared at the castle among rows and rows of buildings. His gaze fell back down to Vampire, who lent out a hand. Licorice quickly took it and once he did Vampire lead him into the streets.
The streets were busy. Cookies walking from place to place, none paying any mind to the other cookies walking by. Licorice quickly realized that in a busy afternoon most cookies won't think to acknowledge a new cookie in the kingdom, if they even notice he's new at all. This put Licorice at ease and for the rest of the walk he gazed at Vampire cookie, quickly swerving through the crowds of cookies.
Since waking up, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about Vampire. Admiring his long red hair, his deep purple eyes, and his tidy, formal wear. He lingered on the cookie's features and would forget the world around him, until inevitably snapping out of it by something. It was strange, he hadn't felt like this before— well, he had, but not to this extent. Maybe Licorice's feelings for Vampire were only getting stronger by staying at his home? How troublesome, it would only get in the way. He didn't want to keep being a burden to Vampire, but how could he resist the urge to stay by his side as long as he could?
Vampire stopped and looked around for a moment. He still held onto Licorice, who was stood by his side, blankly gazing at him. After a while Licorice realized Vampire was lost.
"What's wrong?" Licorice asked.
"I don't know... I know the way to the bar pretty well... hm... Oh! We made a wrong turn. C'mon."
Vampire led the cookie back down the block and turned the corner. The corner revealed the bar, tucked between buildings and full of cookies looking to get a drink. The heavily populated bar worried Licorice, but he continued to follow Vampire, almost instantly dismissing his fears. He followed along as Vampire walked towards the bar, before stopping a building away. Licorice once again asked what the matter was.
"You should let me do all the talking when we go in there. If the cookies in there hear your voice too much they may recognize you."
Licorice nodded along with Vampire's directions.
Vampire strutted into the bar with ease, clearing a path for Licorice between all the other patrons. Licorice, a few feet behind, held his hood low and avoided all eye contact, locking his sights on Vampire cookie. They soon reached the stools that lined the bar, there was two seats conveniently available. However, Licorice still stood a ways away from the bar for a moment, as Vampire got himself settled in one of the free seats. He sat beside Herb cookie, who quickly greeted Vampire.
"Hey Herb, where's Minty?"
"He won't be here today. He's rehearsing for another show this weekend."
"Huh, so... does that mean his seat is free for the day?"
"Mhmm."
"Alright thanks, Hey Li- Uh- Hey, come sit down!" He called to Licorice.
Licorice slowly made his way to take the seat. Along sitting down he caught Herb analyzing him carefully. He stiffened his posture and looked away, trying to further hide his face. Herb realized he'd been staring and quickly apologized.
"Oh no, Sorry! Uhm, Vampire, who's your friend?"
Vampire looked back at Licorice who still looked away from the two. Vampire turned back to Herb, leaned over, and whispered something to him.
"WH-" Just as Herb began to yell in shock, Vampire covered his mouth. The two stayed like that for a moment, making sure no one noticed, before letting go.
"Oh- sorry." Herb whispered to Vampire. He then turned his attention back to Licorice, who had turned to see what the duo where whispering about.
"Hello, I'm Herb! It's good to meet you for the first time! I've heard a lot about you... Guava cookie." he said with a slight wink. He then put his hand out to Licorice.
Licorice stared at the cookie. He turned to Vampire who smiled his usual wide, toothy smile. Licorice partially smiled back and awkwardly shook Herb cookie's hand.
"Ah, Hello Vampire! The usual?" a voice interrupted. Licorice lifted his eyes to the bubbling blonde cookie behind the bar. Sparking cookie's gaze lead down to Licorice, who he did not recognize.
"Hm? Vampire, who's this?" he asked.
Before Vampire could think of something, Herb spoke.
"Oh this is Guava Cookie. Vampire just met them at the bar today, right?"
Vampire blankly stared at Herb before catching on.
"Oh? OH!- Yeahhhh! Thought I'd start making some more friends haha!"
Sparkling lifted an eye brow and set down a glass of wine between him and Vampire.
"Alright, well- Guava, what would you like?"
Licorice felt a bead of sweat fall from his temple down to his chin. He had quite literally never ordered from a bar so he improvised.
"I- I'll have what- He's having" he pointed to Vampire.
"Okay, a glass of wine coming up." He swiftly poured a glass and went on to making more drinks.
The trio let out a sigh of relief. As decently that things had gone with Herb, it wasn't going to be the same with Sparkling.
•———•
The night from then on went as it would any other. With how busy the bar was, Sparkling hardly passed by the trio, only stepping in to refill glasses and make quick small talk. His initial suspicion of Licorice gradually fell and he hardly acknowledged him the rest of the night.
As far as Vampire could tell, Licorice had been enjoying himself. He took his earlier advice to avoid talking as much as possible, but still actively listened into Vampire and Herb. Little did Vampire know, Licorice wouldn't have said anything even if he hadn't told him too. The entire night Licorice continued to find himself lost at the mere thought of Vampire. He longingly stared at the cookie and daydreamed of the two. At times, he'd catch himself and would quickly turn to drink his glass of wine. He wasn't much of a drinker, but without much else to do he went through a good three glasses. Or was it four? He'd hardly kept count. He could hardly think of anything else. He could feel his head spinning. He couldn't tell if he was drunk or simply flustered by the vampire beside him.
Vampire felt a cookie leaning on his shoulder, he turned around to see Licorice cookie, clung to his shirt and smothering his face on the cookie's shoulder.
He leaned toward Licorice and whispered, "hm, Something wrong?"
Upon hearing Vampire's voice, Licorice pulled himself to face him. Licorice looked into Vampire's eyes and smiled to himself. However, before he could get a word out, Vampire noticed a loc of hair fall from Licorice's hood. The hair was no longer pink, it had gone back to the indigo shade it once was. Vampire immediately panicked and pulled the loc back into his hood. "Shit, shit, shit, we have to go," Vampire thought. He quickly turned to Herb, who silently drank his tea.
"Herb, I gotta go. Tell Sparkle the wine was great for me, yeah?" Vampire rushed, standing up and motioning Licorice to do the same. Herb gave Vampire a thumbs up as the cookie took Licorice out of the bar.