It was just another day in your dreary home and you were sitting on your bed in the quietness of your room. The only sounds that could be heard were the muffled and incomprehensible shouts from downstairs.
You were 7 years old and for most if not all of your life you lived without smiling, you never really had a reason to. Of course, you would love a reason to be happy for once, but it didn't seem like that would happen anytime soon.
Your parents would spend day in and day out arguing over absolutely everything, it was all they ever did. Whether it was about who would be paying for things or who would drive the car, or sometimes even the small things like when one of them forgets to clean something right away or they don't do what they were specifically asked to do by the other.
Despite all of their meaningless bickering they did however take care of you like parents should. They would feed you, make sure you had clothing, teach you lessons since you were homeschooled, and they would even buy you an occasional toy from time to time.
But, you never once smiled, no matter what they did. Every day you always wore the same gloomy and unchangeable frown.
At the moment you were just sitting on the foot of your bed silently, your hands resting on your knees. You were wearing (F/c) pajamas with small stars decorating them, you would often trace the outlines of the stars with your fingers every moment or two just to distract yourself from the noise from below.
But suddenly, you started to hear what sounded like small bells ringing from somewhere in the distance, their gentle jingle somehow drowning out your parents' voices. It felt nice, not having to listen to their senseless arguments and hear something actually pleasant for once.
You began to feel a bit curious, wondering where the bells were coming from, but as soon as the question popped into your mind it was answered.
A bright blue swirl of light formed right in front of you, illuminating your room. Feeling a bit scared you put your arms in front of your face to shield yourself from whatever was happening.
The light continued to shine brightly for a few moments, but after a bit it started to fade out. You dared to peak out from your arms and saw what was in front of you.
Standing before you, was a tall jester.
His appearance from head to toe was fascinating to say the least; He had neon blue hair with at least three ponytails, the ends of each one having small, silver bells, and his ears were pointed like an elf's. His face was white with purple makeup, his cheeks had circles while his eyes had triangular patterns, his eyes themselves were a vibrant mixture of pink and purple, and his lips -which were curled into a smile-were a dark violet color. His outfit was just as intriguing to the eye as the rest of him, he wore clothing much like any other court jester would wear. Bells hung on the ends of the triangular, teal colored cloth necklace (I'm not sure what it's actually called o*o;) he had around his neck, and he had a similar ring of the triangular cloth around his waist. His outfit was grey and skin tight with pink and magenta diamonds on the sides of his torso, and his pants were puffed on his thighs. His shoes were pointed up at the front with a small bell on the end, plus his ankles had the same triangle cloth wrapped around them with tinier bells hanging on the ends of them as well.
No matter how hard you tried you just couldn't look away from his flamboyantly vibrant and enchanting appearance, although, the only thing that changed on your face was your eyes widening in surprise when you saw him.
The jester stood still in silence for a moment, seemingly taking in your presence while you did the same with his, until finally he bent down so that you were at equal level and his smile widened. He gave a wave as a way of greeting you, and since you didn't want to be rude, you waved back a bit.
"H-Hello...W-Who are you, sir?" You asked hesitantly after a couple moments, tilting your head.
The jester didn't reply, but he did return to his full height. With a flick of his hand a card appeared, making you gasp slightly in surprise, the jester grinned a bit in amusement.
He presented the card to you and you noticed it had a single letter on it.
"'C'." You read aloud.
With another flick a second card appeared.
"'A'."
He continued to present card after card, letting you read each letter one at a time.
"'N'."
"'D'."
"'Y'."
He switched to his other hand.
"'P'."
"'O'."
"'P'."
At the last 'P', he held all the cards together.
It took you a minute, but you put all the letters together.
"'Candy Pop'?" You looked up at the jester.
The jester smiled and nodded, making the bells that hung from his hair lightly shake around and give soft rings. With a swift motion of both his hands the cards vanished all at once.
"Well... I'm (Y/n)." You said, not wanting be rude by not introducing yourself.
The jester you now knew to be Candy Pop just smiled and clapped a little in response.
You wondered why he was so silent, but you thought maybe it would be offensive to ask, so you just brushed the thought aside.
Out of nowhere he started doing tricks that would make any child your age be awestruck, he surely was a magical fellow.
But, even then, the expression on your face remained the same, only your eyes ever changed their look when they widened in response to a mindboggling trick.
After a little while, he sat down with you on your bed near the front where the pillows were, while you were on the other end facing him. His current trick was making the small wooden figures on your nightstand walk around on your bed all by themselves. You were laying on your belly with your head resting on your arms watching quietly as the wooden people and animals marched around, you picked one of them up after a moment and it walked along your arm going back and forth, then you let it go back on the bed.
More time went by and after another few tricks and little surprises here and there, you looked up at Candy Pop and noticed he was no longer smiling, instead, he had a look of absolute confusion upon his face.
"What's wrong?" You asked curiously, wondering what had happened.
Candy Pop moved a little closer to you then started doing motions as if you were playing charades.
He pointed at you, then put his fingers to his lips slowly moving them upwards into a smile, his lips doing the same. But then he frowned with a questioning look as he shook his head and shrugged.
It took a minute or two to decipher what he was saying, then finally you put together that he was asking why you weren't smiling.
"Oh, well... I've never really smiled." You shrugged back, not sure how else to answer.
Candy Pop looked even more confused and a bit shocked. He crossed his arms and put a hand to his chin as he started to think about something, then he snapped his fingers and pointed his pointer finger up with a smile like a lightbulb had gone off in his head. He hopped off of your bed and started to wave his hands around, you weren't exactly sure what he was doing until the world around you slowly began to fade into darkness.
It wasn't long before you and the jester were the only things that remained visible, you were just surrounded by black nothingness. You got up from what you were pretty sure was the floor, watching the jester nervously, this darkness that surrounded you had you on edge.
Where were you and how had you gotten here?
Candy Pop seemed to notice your fear because he gave you a sweet, reassuring look, somewhat calming you.
He continued to wave his hands around, then slowly brought them closer together with his motions. After another minute passed by, an orb of blue light appeared with a magnificent, sparkling glow, floating and shining brightly in-between the jester's hands.
Candy Pop motioned for you to come closer with one hand, giving you a wink.
You gulped slightly and walked closer, wondering what exactly he was up to.
Once you were only a few inches away, Candy Pop got on one knee so that you were at equal level and started to whimsically wiggle his fingers around the orb of light, and as he did so the orb began to take a shape.
You watched in awe as the light turned into a tiny bunny, it had the features of any regular bunny, only it looked as if it had no eyes. The bunny began hopping around on Candy Pop's hands as if it were really there, it was the size of Candy Pop's thumb. but suddenly the miniature animal paused after a moment and looked at you. Candy Pop took your hand in his and stretched your arm out by pulling your hand towards him, and the bunny used your arm as a bridge so it could cross over to you.
You kept your hands together after that as the bunny continued to hop around, somewhat thinking that if the bunny fell off it would disappear. As you watched the bunny, you could feel the faintest feeling of a small tugging on your lips, but after a second it went away, and your face remained the same.
Candy Pop seemed to notice this, and he crossed his arms in thought again. He then did the same thing as before with his hand motions, and suddenly a multi-colored orb of light appeared. It was blue, purple, magenta, teal, and pink all together.
Within seconds the orb split apart and all of the colors were separated. Candy Pop grinned a little wider as he waved his hand, and one by one the colors began to fly up into the air above you. You both looked up and watched as the orbs suddenly burst, and became flurries of color and light that danced around in the air. It was like fireworks, but without the dangers of possibly being burned or hit by one if they weren't set up properly, and they never seemed to fade away.
"Wow..." You quietly said, your eyes locked on the stunningly beautiful light show above you.
The small tugging returned only it was a big stronger, but it still didn't affect you.
The colors remained as bright as ever for minutes on, but you looked back at Candy Pop after a little while when you heard the bells on his hair ring briefly. Then you noticed he looked... sad?
He had his head tilted with a look of disbelief in his eyes and a frown on his face. He must have really been shocked you hadn't smiled yet, even after all this. You couldn't help but feel guilty.
"Please don't be sad because of me, Candy Pop. Smiling just doesn't seem to be something I can do. I'm sorry." You told him, looking down at the bunny as a distraction.
Candy Pop gaped slightly, and he looked even sadder at that.
Suddenly, he did something that left you even more surprised than all of the things he had done since you met.
He hugged you.
He was now on both knees and he had his arms wrapped around you gently, holding you close to him. The blue bunny hopped onto Candy Pop's shoulder and down his back, maybe it was letting you have your hands back so you could return the hug?
You decided to believe that was the reason and put your arms around Candy Pop as best as you could. Being small didn't really help in your attempt of returning his hug since he was a lot bigger than you, but you still tried.
Candy Pop yet again took you by surprise as he lifted you up and set you in his lap when he sat down with his legs crossed, holding you to his chest.
Without really thinking about it, you snuggled into Candy Pop's chest. Surprisingly, he smelled like blue raspberry.
You both just sat there, hugging each-other in silence for minutes on, but then you noticed something else. Your lips were now curled upwards on both corners. How had you not noticed? You put a finger to your lips in slight disbelief, unsure if it was real, but as you slowly traced them, you knew it was.
You were actually smiling.
You looked up at Candy Pop seeing he was lost in thought, so you decided to get his attention.
"I guess I wrong, I can smile!" For the first time, a small laugh escaped your mouth.
Candy Pop jolted in shock, and once he noticed the expression on your face, his grin returned and was wider than ever. He jumped up with you in his arms and squeezed you as he spun around, making you laugh again. Candy Pop just got even more excited at that if it was even possible. He began dancing around, and the bright lights from before danced with him, even the bunny.
It felt like hours until Candy Pop finally settled down from his excitement, not that you minded it, it was actually fun. Candy Pop still had you in his hands, but he seemed to be done dancing. He moved you closer to him and pressed his forehead to yours, and with a little wink he rubbed his nose against yours for a few moments, making you giggle.
After that he set you back down on your feet, his grin never leaving.
But, Candy Pop's eyes for some reason slowly looked behind you, and only then his grin faded.
You tilted your head, wondering what he was looking at, and turned around to see a floating purple balloon, it had two ovals for eyes and a big smile with two circles on both sides of it.
You went to touch the string of the balloon, but Candy Pop suddenly got on his knees once more and pulled you back to him, keeping his arms around you with your back against his chest. You looked at his face which was next to yours and noticed that for the first time, he looked scared.
He looked at you and shook his head as a way of saying 'no'. Did he not like the balloon? What was wrong with it? It was smiling wasn't it? Why would that make Candy Pop scared?
Many questions filled your head, but you didn't ask a single one. You just nodded and didn't reach out to the balloon again.
Candy Pop looked a little relieved. He turned you around to face him and he looked as if he were thinking again briefly, then for some odd reason, he reached up to his triangular cloth necklace and tore off a bell from it. He took your hand and gently placed the bell in it, using his other hand to move your fingers over it so that you had it in your fist.
He patted your hand and released it, giving you a sad smile.
Before you could ask any questions, Candy Pop suddenly leaned closer and placed a kiss on your nose. He then pulled you to him in another embrace and you somehow began to drift off, your eyes locking shut.
A quiet, entrancing voice spoke to you before you completely lost consciousness.
"It's time to go beddy-byes now, little (Y/n). But don't worry, we'll play together again very soon, I promise!"
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
When you awoke, you were in your bed in your room, and there was no sign of the jester anywhere. At first, you were convinced he was just some wonderful dream that you wished you hadn't woken up from, but when you laid eyes on your homeschooling desk beside your bed, you spotted a small, blue envelope.
You crawled over and picked it up, carefully opening it.
What was inside shocked you, but at the same time, you felt a familiar tugging on your lips.
It was the same bell that Candy Pop had given you, and a note.
It read:
To sweet little (Y/n),
I had so much fun playing with you! I'll admit I've never once met someone quite like you, you're very different, but in a good way! At the end of our playdate I thought I'd never make you smile, but when I looked down at you when you were in my arms and saw that I had, you better believe me when I tell you I was ecstatic! I've never felt so happy to make someone else happy! And that's saying a lot! By the way, don't worry your pretty little head about that balloon, it's nothing important, trust me. Also, I want you to keep that bell I gave you as a token from me, if you ever miss me, just ring that little bell and I'll come back to visit you again! Well, I'll see you soon! Can't wait to play some more!
Sincerely, your favorite jester, Candy Pop.
P.S. You should smile more often, it really suits you~💙