#ANYWAYS i reazlized too little too late that i took the picture in babycorns apartment in uldah but its fine im tired.

[hqmillioncorn]

Lalapril Day 6: Sweet

‘Dreaming Chu Chu★ Choco la ta ta ta ta This sweetness made just for you~”

babycorn and things that require precision and also fire dont go well together. but never fear here come a catgirl and a catboy to the rescuuuuuuuuuueeeee!!!!! 

“Are you all done?” Babycorn turned her head back as far as she could to look at the Brina doll behind her. The doll looked up at her and back to the bow she’d tied behind Babycorn’s back, giving her a thumbs-up back as an answer. 

Babycorn stepped away from Brina (who was standing on a chair to reach Babycorn’s back) and did a twirl. “Great! Thank you!” She gave the doll a bow and the doll in turn bowed back. 

Her cooking uniform was finally ready, after spending hours trying to tie the ribbon by herself. Not only was she ready to bake she also looked adorable. Which was the plan.

“Cherry is so right. Pink is a good color, don’t you think?” She looked at the other dolls that were running all around the kitchen to see if they agreed with her. To no one’s surprise they all nodded. 

“Yay!” she cheered, “Okay I think we’re almost all ready to get started���” At that moment Babycorn heard a knock on the door. “I’m coming!” While Tilika had told her to be careful who she opens the door for, Babycorn desperately tried to reason with her that she was an adult and could more than take care of herself.

‘I know you are and I know you can! But remember you’re the Warrior of Light. You don’t know who could come after you. And I just-worry, okay?’

Reluctantly, Babycorn had promised Tilika she wouldn’t answer any strange knocks on the door or missives from people she didn’t know if she wasn’t home. 

However, in a rare clever idea from Babycorn she figured out that she could ask Cherry’s dolls to knock on the door in a certain way so she knew it was them and not Zenos or something. 

Today she asked some of them to go and pick up some ingredients from several different shops. Since the Calca and Brina dolls liked her as much as they liked Cherrypit, maybe even more so now, they were happy to help. 

Babycorn turned the corner of the living room and heard the same familiar knock again. Opening the door she saw a Brina doll standing on the shoulders of a Calca. The one on the bottom looked particularly annoyed.

Several other dolls were now coming into the home with bags full of ingredients that Babycorn asked them to get. She hoped that by now the merchants of the stores the dolls frequented didn’t freak out over a Calca or a Brina going to pick up Babycorn’s orders.

“Sorry for the wait. Did anyone give you trouble this time?” Babycorn hoped the answer would be no.

The dolls shook their heads and held up the bags of ingredients they brought.

Babycorn sighed and smiled. Cherrypit would have been happy that people were being nice to the dolls. “That’s good. I guess people are getting used to you guys!” 

With all the ingredients now in place, Babycorn pushed a stool closer to the table in the kitchen. 

A group of dolls climbed up onto the table alongside her. Some of them were wearing large chef’s hats. For fun

“Okay! Everything looks like it’s supposed to…Let’s make some tasty snacks!” Babycorn cheered. The dolls cheered alongside her. Or at least some of them did. There were still a few among them that were still a little shy around Babycorn.

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Today was a big day for Centella Springs.

The day before Babycorn had asked her if she could deliver something to her. This delivery in particular was extra extra important! (according to babycorn) It was the first time since starting her employee as Babycorn’s retainer that she had been actually tasked and paid to grab and deliver something! 

While it was nice to be technically employed and paid to do pretty much nothing while working under Babycorn. It was another type of nice to be trusted by Babycorn enough to deliver something to her. 

Especially after Centella had heard rumors of how headstrong and stubborn Babycorn was in asking others for help.

Though, now that she was thinking it over, maybe the weight of the box in her hands meant she’d gotten too many Chocobo feathers.

With a tired sigh Centella adjusted the crate in her arms, finally having given up trying to open the front door to Babycorn’s temporary home with Tilika. 

Truthfully the box wasn’t nearly heavy enough to make her tired but the herculean task of having to deal with making the trip to Labyrinthos while accompanied by her step-brother was absolutely EXHAUSTING.

Especially when he was little, to no help at all.

Finally enough was enough. “K’achow! Would you stop gawking at singles you have no chance with and actually help me?!” Centella’s voice tore through the crowd of people walking past them. Enough so that a few stopped walking to wonder what was going on. 

Meanwhile, standing (that's right standing) on a bench, a Miqo'te with an eerily similar fashion sense to Centella paused his looking around to shoot his sister an annoyed stare. “For your information I’m not gawking at anyone. Since when is it a crime to look around? Especially somewhere I’ve never been to.” he said lying through his teeth.

“Since it’s stopping you from helping me! Which is what I brought you here to do, you jerk!” 

“Geez, quite whining. Can’t you just put the box down and open the door yourself?”

“I could. The key Babycorn gave me is in my pocket. Oooor maybe someone could actually do something to help!? And don’t think I don’t know you’re lying. I know what you look like when you’re looking for some poor soul to flirt with.” 

“Oh yeah? Enlighten me, what do I look like?”

“Desperate!”

K’achow let out a groan. “I guess you would know-you make the same look all the time too.”

Seconds later K’achow was on the ground writhing in pain from being knocked over the head with a crate full of Chocobo feathers.

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“You know if I’d known how heavy a box full of stupid feathers was I would have kept my mouth shut.” K’achow closed the front door and stumbled into the house behind Centella.

Centella instantly turned around and gave him an ice cold look and for a few fearful seconds K'achow was afraid he was about to be knocked to the ground again.

Luckily for him that wasn't the case.

“Little kerneeel~! I’m here!” Centella called out to Babycorn hoping she would come out of wherever she was hiding. Meanwhile K’achow took a seat on the empty couch in the room, where he happily helped himself to a bowl of free peanuts someone left lying there. 

When there was no response Centella frowned, she moved the box in her arms nervously. There was no way someone wasn’t home. Otherwise the front door wouldn’t have been mysteriously left opened. Turns out she never even needed the key.

Centella couldn’t help but wonder, however, if the small doll she saw running away from the door had been her imagination or not. “Maybe she’s sleeping?” Centella whispered to herself. She hoped to herself that she and K’achow hadn’t accidently woken Babycorn up if that was the case. 

From the couch K’achow tia’s ear twitched. “If she is then I say we let her sleep. Remember the whole story Tilika told us before we came here?” 

“About the whole trip to save the star? Yeah, I don’t think I could forget.”

“Exactly. She’s probably still tired from it, I know I would be.” That and K’achow tia didn’t feel like dealing with Babycorn’s insistent questions about Chocobo racing today. Or any day for that matter.

“If it’d been you up there instead of her I’m pretty sure we would all be eating nothing but carrots on an oversized spaceship by now.”

“...I happen to like carrots.”

A large noise, some would liken to an explosion of some sort, rang out from the direction of the kitchen. “What was that?!” K’achow was almost thrown off the couch entirely, only barely able to hang on. 

As he was trying to find some sort of footing Centella had already taken off to the kitchen. Which as it turned out was about four steps away from the living room.

“Little kernel?! Are y-OH SWEET BABY CORN!”

The scene that Centella entered into was nothing short of a nightmare to anyone that cooked. Which unfortunately included her. “What happened in here?!” she was in utter disbelief everywhere she looked worse than the last place she looked.

There were broken shards of dishes and glass thrown about, stains on almost every surface, not to mention a prominent burning smell all throughout the kitchen. 

There must have been something burning somewhere because Centella found herself moving out of the way for several dolls frantically carrying buckets of water. 

“What on…” Suddenly she felt a tug on her tail. Looking down in shock she noticed an out of place wind-up Chimera trying to get her attention. If being friends with Babycorn taught her anything it was that if a doll was trying to tell you something, it was probably in your best interest to listen.

That didn’t mean it still wasn’t weird or creepy. “Uuuh…Hi? W-What’s up little g-guy…?” Centella knelt down to try and talk to it. Even if she was certain the Chimera didn’t have a mouth. The Chimera doll swayed back and forth until it looked up and pointed to the ceiling. 

Hanging from the ceiling was a large gooey marshmallow mess and stuck right in the middle of it was Babycorn, hanging upside down, stuck to the marshmallow by one foot. “Ooh!! Hiiii Centella!” she didn’t look any worse for wear, happily waving at Centella as the blood continued to rush to her head. 

“Babycorn?! How did you get up there?!” The question of what she was doing up there would have to wait until she got her down. Centella grabbed a chair handed to her by another doll and carried it closer to Babycorn. 

“I tried to heat up some marshmallows!” Babycorn wiggled from side to side. As much as she moved she wouldn't budge. 

Centella grabbed Babycorn’s hands and pulled as hard as she could. Turns out she didn’t have to try that hard, because as soon as she tugged her-Babycorn popped right out. If it wasn’t for the brave efforts of a few more dolls keeping Centella and the chair in balance both of them would have fallen to the floor. 

“Phew…” Centella loosened her grip around Babycorn and lowered her down enough until she was barely hovering above the ground. “You can put me down now Centella!” Babycorn reassured her. 

Centella listened and let her go. Babycorn landed on the ground with a plop!

Now that Babycorn was back on solid ground Centella turned her attention to more pressing matters. “How did all this happen!?” She didn’t just mean the marshmallow on the ceiling, rather, she gestured to the entire kitchen. 

Babycorn looked around, her expression read like she was just registering the mess around her for the first time. It should be noted that a handful of dolls were already hard at work cleaning things up. “I tried to bake something.” she looked down, sheepishly kicking her feet. 

“What were you trying to make?” Obviously it must have been something with marshmallows. Centella hoped her question wouldn’t make Babycorn feel bad about her attempt.

A doll scuttled over, they held up a large book towards Centella. “Thanks…?” taking it she noticed a bookmark placed in between the pages. She opened it to see a recipe on a chocolate marshmallow cookie. Along the page were numerous little drawings seemingly drawn by Babycorn herself. 

Centella noticed there were a lot of drawings of Cherrypit.

She stopped herself before she brought up something she would regret. “Don’t tell me you were trying to bake these?” Centella turned the book around so Babycorn could see what she was talking about. Babycorn nodded with a smile, “Totally! I was going to make them as a present for my friends! But…” she trailed off, looking around the kitchen. “I think I might have gotten something wrong.”

Centella sighed, handing the book back to the same doll who quickly scuttled away. “Babycorn, I hope you don’t mind me saying this but shouldn’t you still be resting and not trying to burn down your kitchen?” It was only a few days ago that Babycorn got her cast removed.

“What? Why would I be resting? I feel fine, see?” To prove her point she moved around the arm that had been previously wrapped up in a cast. “Besides, Tilika has had me cooped up in here for weeks now! And I wanted something to do! I figured if I can’t go out I can stay in and make a present for her and my friends. You know, as a thank you for…everything.” 

“Everything, huh?” The sincerity in Babycorn’s voice was clear, and by the ingredients strewn about it was evident she was trying her absolute best. 

The problem probably lied in the fact that Babycorn was as clumsy as a person could get, and very enthusiastic. Not that kind of attitude was a bad thing, just bad in the context of baking.

“I got an idea! Centella could you help me with baking?”    

“Huh?!” Babycorn’s request caught Centella completely off guard. “You’re…asking for my help?”

Babycorn nodded, “Mhmm! When we visited you guys the first time Tilika said you and K’achow were the ones who made lunch, so you probably know a lot more about cooking than I do!” She ran off into the corner of a kitchen and retrieved an extra apron that had been left hanging on a stray chair. 

“I know I already asked you to bring the Chocobo feathers for the present wrapping but I hope it’s not too much trouble to ask. You can even borrow Tilika’s apron!”

Centella looked at the apron and Babycorn in amazement. “Yeah…Yes! Of course I’ll help!” her eyes were shining with newfound determination. Before she took the apron to descend into the monumental task of helping Babycorn bake however, she asked for Babycorn to wait a second.

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“K’achow get off your ass and get in here!!!!” 

K’achow tia nearly fell off the couch for the second time that day. Only this time it would be much worse because falling alongside him would be dozens of empty peanut shells. “What? What?! What is it now?” He figured that whatever had exploded in the kitchen was already being taken care of without his help.

He poked his head above the couch only to have an apron thrown at him.

“Mhmmpp??!” he asked.

“We got an emergency on our hands! A baking emergency! So get up and get over here so we can help Kernel make some cookies!” Centella said, tying her own apron around her waist. Thankfully Babycorn had figured out where Tilika kept her extra. 

“Why do I have to help?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, out of the two of us you’re the one that knows more about baking. And besides-” Centella ran behind a wall and despite Babycorn’s protest, picked her up and held her in the air with ease. “-you wouldn’t want to go and break the heart of the savior of the star. Would you???? Just wook at hwer…!” 

Babycorn didn’t have to try very hard to look sad. Enough time had passed that she didn’t feel incredibly guilty being near K’achow tia but there was still the lingering feeling of remorse for eating his counterpart on the First.

(Long Story.)

K’achow tia looked at Babycorn, taking careful note of the large piece of marshmallow stuck on her hair. “Alright. I’ll help. Who knows it might be fun!” He tied the apron around his own waist and jumped over the couch to head towards the kitchen, “Just leave everything to your favorite six-time Chocobo racing champ Miqo'te!” 

“Coolio! When are they getting here?” Babycorn sneered.

Centella let out a snort of laughter, causing her to nearly dropping Babycorn before setting her down. 

K’achow was less than amused, “Watch it. Or else I’m going to tell that hot cousin of yours that she’s going to need to cut your hair to get that marshmallow out.”

Babycorn had no idea who this hot cousin of her’s was but she preferred to keep the hair she had.