#anyway cherrypits fineeeeee

[hqmillioncorn]

Playing with Fire

Ishgard was unbearably cold.  It made the sting of having no other choice than to hide out here until things mellowed out all the more aggravating. Babycorn had decided she didn’t want to stay in one place for too long, that place being the inn and had decided that a walk around the city would be fine.  At least, until she remembered that one of her worst fears was being seen by people she didn’t know. What were they staring at? Were they going to chase after her? Were they going to burn her hair again?  It was all a little too much. She needed a break. Both her and Cherrypit escaped the eyes of strangers, huddled in a strange place. A corpse sat next to them. It didn’t scare Babycorn too much. Corpses didn’t ever think she was a monster. They didn’t think much at all.  “Huh?” Something caught her eye. A strange shiny rock. Calling out to her.  Without even a second thought she picked it up. “What do you think, Cherry?” She held it down so her brother could get a good look at it too.” Cherrypit’s expert opinion was that it looked like it tasted like apples.  “Yeah. You’re probably right.” 

ffxiv write day 10: stable

trapped in not his own body again cherrypit goes and tries to find something in his and babycorns rooms thats making a weird noise and then he goes on a fun adventure yaaaaaay!!!

Cherrypit rummaged through more of Babycorn’s things. Hoping there was something in there that would quiet the weird ringing in his ears. Or be the cause of it.

The strange ringing had been going on for quite a few days now and even though Cherrypit assured everyone he was fine, that was far from the truth. Not only was the ringing bothering him, he just really missed Babycorn. 

Once again she had made the decision to sacrifice her own aether to help save the day. Which had the unfortunate consequence of sending her to sleep inside her own body and putting Cherrypit in her’s. This time was a little different than last time though, at least this time Cherrypit had the chance to agree to it.

“I’ll be brave! I promise!” 

That’s what Cherrypit hoped Babycorn heard when he nodded at her. Things weren’t going to be like last time when he was too scared to even sleep by himself. Cherrypit had to be brave, for her. 

Just as Cherrypit was about to give up and go play with Linnet and Pancake instead, he felt something sharp poke his finger. “Ow!!” He moved his hand out of the pile of things as fast as he could. “Ow…” Cherrypit really didn’t want to cry, even if there was no one around to see him. 

Cherrypit put his injured finger in his mouth, hoping that would make the pain go away. There was a weird metal taste in his mouth. It smelled familiar. 

Then something came tumbling out of Babycorn’s things. “...Huh?” Cherrypit noticed something glowing right under him. It was glowing almost bright red, the ringing in his ears was getting a little louder than before. Almost like he was in a trance, Cherrypit reached towards the glowing object, grabbing it in his small hands. 

He held it up to get a closer look at it. When he did, he saw it for what it really was. 

A job stone, a particularly pointy one. At least when compared to their white mage stone. That one was so smooth that Cherrypit still mistook it for candy sometimes. 

Cherrypit moved the job stone around his hands. No way he could ever mistake this one for a candy. This stone looked more like a piece of meat. The ringing had finally stopped but Cherrypit still hadn’t noticed. There was just something about this strange thing in his hands that was making him feel strange…Like…Like…

“Like someone was standing right behind you?”

Cherrypit let out a loud gasp and without missing a beat he turned around, pointing his staff in the direction of the scary voice he had just heard. Though he had acted fast, the appearance of such a strange encounter in his and Babycorn’s room still took Cherrypit by surprise. Enough for Cherrypit to stumble and for the staff to fall out of his shaking hands. 

“No-!” Almost as if time was moving at a snail’s pace, Cherrypit watched in horror as his weapon hit the ground. He’d failed again. This was it. This was the reason why Babycorn had left again. Why that had to be the only choice that they could have made. 

He just wasn’t strong enough

Cherrypit closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. 

There was no bother even asking for them to not hurt him. Cherrypit had seen first hand how those kinds of pleas would make the other person even angrier. The sounds of his own sister begging for her life were ingrained into his memories. Nothing of what she had said worked, the end still came.

If only Cherrypit had been…

“Stand up.” 

Despite everything in his mind telling him not to–Cherrypit opened his eyes and looked up. A very opposing figure stood above him, covered in dark armor and a sword at their back. A pair of almost glowing yellow eyes stared down at him. Normally one would be surprised to see a dark knight suddenly manifest into their home. 

But to Cherrypit, this was the best news he could have received. 

Other than his sister coming back of course.

Cherrypit leapt into the air, “Fray!!” He ran and hugged Fray’s leg as tight as he could. It had been so long since he had last seen them! Not since the first time they had visited Ishgard. That felt like so long ago. “Fray! Fray! Where did you go?” They must have been somewhere else that he and Babycorn hadn’t been.

Fray said nothing and simply bent down, petting Cherrypit on the head, ruffling his hair around. 

Butter opened the door with a smile, a plate full of freshly sliced fruit in his hands. “Cherry! I brought you a snack and I got a chocolate cake baking in the oven!” There was no way that Butter would ever dare leave Cherrypit to be sad all by himself. Especially after Babycorn had told him that she trusted him to help take care of him if anything ever happened to her. 

But that’s another story. 

Once the Butter entered the room he almost dropped his plate in shock. The room was an absolute mess. Papers thrown everywhere, huge claw marks scratched up every corner of the walls and broken shards of glass were littered all over the floor. 

To make matters worse, Cherrypit was nowhere to be seen.

This time Butter did drop his plate. There were far more important things to worry about right now than keeping things clean. Butter turned back to run out of the room as quickly as he could. 

‘Lunya! Lunya somethings wrong!"

Out in the middle of the Thanalan desert a rosy-cheeked youth stood alone, a large sword in his two little hands. 

Cherrypit looked up at Fray, excited about what they were going to do next. 

Fray had said something about helping Cherrypit get strong, even stronger than he was now. That way he could protect everyone and make sure that Babycorn would never have to leave ever again! After this training Cherrypit’s days of being all alone were going to be over!

Not that he was alone right now, cause Fray was here with him! 

It had proven almost impossible to separate Cherrypit from Fray, even when the latter had told him he needed to make the journey to Thanalan alone. Cherrypit had been a little afraid of going by himself but in the end he made it! 

“What next Fray?!” Cherrypit was jumping up and down in excitement. He swung the great sword in his hand from side to side with such ease it would make most people do a double take. 

Fray looked around, trying not to audibly squeal at how cute Cherrypit was being. “There!” they pointed somewhere in the distance. “I want you to show me how you defeat a monster.” Not that there was any question about how much collateral damage Cherrypit could do. “There should be something for you to kill over there.” 

Cherrypit nodded and ran ahead. Making sure to look back every few minutes or so to make sure Fray was still there, watching him. 

True to Fray’s words there had been a bunch of monsters here! What kind? Who knows! They were kinda lizard-like but Cherrypit never could learn the names of anything. 

He was only two-years-old! He could barely remember the letters of the alphabet sometimes! 

It was really easy to go and get rid of all the monsters Fray told him to get. Especially with the really big sword he found. All he had to do was swing it really hard and everything would slam down onto the ground. And stop moving. Forever. 

With his work all done, Cherrypit skipped to where Fray was waiting for him. 

It was a little strange. He couldn’t remember Fray telling him he was over there. It was just a feeling. 

True to Cherrypit’s feeling, Fray was standing there, arms crossed and waiting for him to get back. “Fray! I’m here!” Cherrypit waved over to them as if there were ever a chance for someone to miss him. “I did it! I did it! I gots rid of em’!” Cherrypit was still so small, too small to fully explain what he had done. 

Fray knelt down on one knee and wiped something off of Cherrypit’s cheek. 

“Good job! You’re covered in blood though so let’s get you cleaned up and we can go back home! Okay Cherry?” They pat Cherrypit on the head again. Underneath all their armor Cherrypit could feel Fray smiling at him. The same kind of smile his sister would give him when they finished a job. 

Cherrypit looked down at his clothes. The nice clothes that his sister had bought for him were drenched in red. 

Oh, is that what that was?