Young cookies run around as the moon shines brightly above the Vanilla Kingdom. Laughter and talking can be heard throughout the whole area, as candy was shared, and traded. The sweet smell of candy apples and all type of sweet treats wandered around the whole place, filling the kingdom with a sweet aroma. Jack-O-Lanterns lit up all around the kingdom as well, making it seem like there was a parade of pumpkins. It was officially Halloween, a holiday not only known for its costumes and candy, but for the time you spend with friends and enjoy your time with others, sometimes with little scares here and there.

The Ancients were enjoying themselves as they looked around, chatting together and sharing candy, it has been quite a while since they've had a moment together like this.

Pure Vanilla Cookie was dressed up as a nice witch. His hat was a dark blue, that had some beautiful golden yellow lace surrounding the edges of the hat, including a small candy pin. The other half of the costume was a long dark blue robe that went down to his ankles covering his legs, with a blue ice cream waffle cone scarf, and two blue triangular flags on the bottom, which also had small blue jelly stars at the bottom. His staff was dressed up as a taffy candy, which was Cream Unicorn Cookie's idea.

Dark Cacao Cookie was dressed up as a vampire. The outfit wasn't much different from a casual vampire costume, but it was a bit more magenta and purple around the edges. The cape he wore had a collar surrounding the back of his head and it went down to his ankles. His shoes were fancy black dressing shoes, that you would normally wear to a fancy party. He also had slick black pants and a nice collared long sleeve which were rolled up at the ends, almost looking like he was wearing a tuxedo.

Holly Berry Cookie dressed as a dragon. She thought it would be funny since she also brought Pitaya Dragon Cookie along with her. She had a pink and green dress on, sort of resembling a Dragon fruit, a headband with small dark pink dragon horns, and a tail, sort of like Pitaya's, just less... spiky. She also had her hair up in a high bun in the back, which looked really good on her even though she never usually put her hair up in one bun.

Golden Cheese Cookie dressed up as a ghost. She didn't really seem to care on making her costume, so she just went as a ghost, just a simple white cloth with eye cutouts only to scare other cookies... since she could fly. She did scare a few cookies on her way to the Vanilla Kingdom, which she found hilarious. Pure Vanilla did try to stop her since she kept scaring little cookies. (Golden Cheese is kind of silly)

"Golden Cheese Cookie, stop scaring the children! They'll keep running away!" Pure Vanilla said as he frowned slightly, he was just trying to give some candy away to the smaller cookies. "Aw, you're no fun." Golden Cheese pouted as she crossed her arms, soon sitting next to Hollyberry who was laughing at Golden Cheese being all angry. "It's alright Golden Cheese, you've scared a lot of cookies already... you don't need to scare anymore cookies..." Holly Berry said as she patted Golden Cheese on the back. Golden Cheese would huff back as she continued to have her arms crossed, slouching on the bench.

(Pitaya snickered in the background as they thought it was funny seeing Golden Cheese scare away the smaller cookies.)

The two girls soon break out into a small talk, talking about something they would usually talk about, (probably about a bet) while Pure Vanilla would hand out candy to little cookies that passed by.

"Pure Vanilla Cookie!" Someone yelled off in the distance as they ran over to Pure Vanilla. "Custard!" Pure Vanilla said as he put the basket of candy down, spreading out his arms to give Custard Cookie III a hug. Custard ran up quickly, giving Pure Vanilla a hug as he smiled looking up at Pure Vanilla. "Look at how much candy I got!" Custard said as he showed Pure Vanilla a whole stash, with his bag filled almost to the rim. "Oh my, that's a lot! You've been busy haven't you?" Pure Vanilla said with a small chuckle. Custard nodded, beaming with excitement, also jumping up and down slightly. Pure Vanilla paused for a moment as he peered over Custard, seeing Dark Cacao not far behind as he got closer. Dark Cacao eventually caught up, with Pure Vanilla giving a small wave to Dark Cacao, and Dark Cacao giving a small smile back.

Custard would wave goodbye to the two as he would soon run off with Gingerbrave and the others to continue trick or treating.

Dark Cacao sat next to Pure Vanilla as he was quite exhausted from just walking around house to house already. Pure Vanilla chuckled, leaving Dark Cacao to sigh with a small smile appearing on his face just looking at Pure Vanilla. "Ah... I remember so many memories, just watching all the cookies walk around trick or treating..." Pure Vanilla would pause as he slowly leaned over to put his head on Dark Cacao's shoulder. "You know... just looking at everything... seeing all the cookies getting along... reminds me of us... and our adventures." Pure Vanilla says in a sweet voice, with a small sigh as he fully relaxed onto Dark Cacao. Dark Cacao face would turn a bit red as he put his arm around Pure Vanilla slowly. "Mh... yes it does... doesn't it?" Pure Vanilla chuckled softly, laying his staff down onto his lap, with his breathing calming down, feeling calm in Dark Cacao's presence.

After a bit of relaxing together, Pure Vanilla would sigh as he sat up, dusting himself off. "Pure Vanilla...?" Dark Cacao sat up as well as he looked at Pure Vanilla now with a slight concerned expression on his face. "I'll be back... I'm just going to go somewhere a bit more peaceful... ok?" Pure Vanilla said in a calm tone as he got up to stand, for he didn't want to worry Dark Cacao whatsoever. Dark Cacao paused for a moment, soon nodding. "Yes that's alright... but be back please..." Dark Cacao said in a soft tone. Pure Vanilla nodded as he turned to walk away on his own... into the night. Dark Cacao would just watch as he sighed... something felt off about Pure Vanilla.

(Kinda sounded emo reading that last part to be honest, "He turned to walk away on his own... into the night." 😭)

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Pure Vanilla sat down in the small vanilla gazebo, surrounded by all the white lilies... it reminded him of White Lily... he really missed her... he couldn't even bring himself to think about it as he held back some tears. He wiped one of his eyes as he sighed, keeping a warm smile on his face. He gently caressed a white lily that was beside him as he sighed again, this time a bit more relaxed. He tried to keep the topic of his beloved friend off of his mind... but he just couldn't seem to. Pure Vanilla would pause... he could hear heavy footsteps coming towards him.

He would turn his head to see Dark Cacao Cookie, making him wipe his eyes as he smiled warmly at Dark Cacao. "There you are... I've been looking everywhere for you..." Dark Cacao said in a calm voice as he walked up to Pure Vanilla, sitting next to him in the small gazebo. "I thought you said you would be back..." Dark Cacao said, but Pure Vanilla stayed silent as he turned his head down to look at the white lily he was caressing softly, now frowning. Dark Cacao leaned over a bit to see Pure Vanilla frowning... it made him frown somewhat as well as he grasped Pure Vanilla's hand gently. "Pure Vanilla you know you can talk to me..." Dark Cacao said in his usual tone, but it sounded a bit more reassuring... even a bit caring towards Pure Vanilla.

Pure Vanilla stayed quiet for a while... he soon calmed down, and opened his mouth to speak... he also seemed to be shaking a bit as he did. "Dark Cacao... I messed up badly... I-I want to go back... this is all my f-fault, I'm the reason why she isn't h-here anymore..." Pure Vanilla said as his voice cracked slightly in between his sentence, with his eyes starting to water. Dark Cacao looked even more concerned now, slowly pulling Pure Vanilla into his embrace, wrapping both of his arms around Pure Vanilla gently. "None of it is your fault... it never was your fault Pure Vanilla... you're the sweetest, most loving cookie I know. You would never do something to hurt any of your friends... not even White Lily..." Dark Cacao said as he gave Pure Vanilla a small smile. Pure Vanilla sniffled as Dark Cacao would wipe away his tears making Pure Vanilla smile once more. "Thank you Dark Cacao... what would I do without you...?" Pure Vanilla said in a soft voice, smiling a bit more than before as Dark Cacao gave him a small kiss of the forehead, also making Pure Vanilla chuckle softly under his breath.

"I love you so much..." Pure Vanilla said with a sigh, resting the side his head on Dark Cacao's chest. Dark Cacao blushed slightly with Pure Vanilla leaning onto him more, making his heart feel heavy. "I love you more..." Dark Cacao said as he brushed Pure Vanilla's hair gently with his fingers, soothing Pure Vanilla down, and even soothing his breathing. Pure Vanilla chuckled to Dark Cacao's response. He booped Dark Cacao in between his eyes as he chuckled more. "I love you lots." Dark Cacao smiled as he looked down at Pure Vanilla, booping him back. "Not as much as I love you." Dark Cacao said with a small chuckle. Pure Vanilla chuckled a bit more as he laid himself onto Dark Cacao completely. "How much exactly?" Pure Vanilla asked with a small innocent smile on his face as he looked up at Dark Cacao. Dark Cacao thought for a moment... he soon had a smile plastered over his face as he looked down upon Pure Vanilla. "I love you More than how many stars fill up the entire galaxy, since all I have to look at is your eyes, for I can see all the stars already." Dark Cacao said as he smiled warmly. Pure Vanilla blushed, with his face turning into a light shade of pink keeping a small smile on his face. "I..." Dark Cacao chuckled once more as he leaned into Pure Vanilla, kissing him gently on the lips.

Pure Vanilla would kiss back softly, grabbing Dark Cacao's face gently as he kept a small smile on his face, with his cheeks still in a pink hue. Dark Cacao pulled away, just to look at Pure Vanilla in awe, nuzzling his face into Pure Vanilla's soft hair, making Pure Vanilla giggle as a result. "You're so sweet and warm Pure Vanilla, I never will let you go." Dark Cacao said as if he was teasing Pure Vanilla now, having a smirk across his face. Dark Cacao kept his arms around Pure Vanilla, eventually with Pure Vanilla soon breaking free from his grasp."Come here you...!" Pure Vanilla grabbed Dark Cacao by his face, pulling Dark Cacao down under him as he kissed him somewhat passionately but gently, with them both chuckling together. "Oh, so this is a game now?" Dark Cacao said with a smirk as he rolled on top of Pure Vanilla in an instant, now softly kissing Pure Vanilla's neck, and all around his face. "Ah! Dark Cacao that's not fair!" "Mh... what are you talking about?" "You heard me... ahahahah, stop it, that tickles!"

End of chapter 16

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Author note - Thanks so much for 1k reads! (I didn't think people would actually read and like my story haha) I was planning on posting this chapter on the 31st but I finished it early! (Yippee!)