Archive of Our Own ^beta

White Lily’s thoughts were all over the place. The beasts, the faeries, what she had to do to protect everyone—it was all a blur in her mind, mixing together and stressing her out more than she already was.

She sat alone by a small river in the forest, running past silently. Her reflection stared back, revealing just how sickly and pale she looked. She looked down at her hands, bandaged up to cover up the disastrous state they were in: flakey like dying leaves, but clawed like a monster’s. Despite that, she found ever since Elder Faerie sacrificed himself and gave her his guardian’s power, her physical strength had increased. She often forgot, stumbling back at how easily she could pick up stacks of books and open up once heavy doors. She bit her cheek, hugging her hands close to her chest.

“Lily?”

White Lily whirred around to see Pure Vanilla, walking in the darkness of the trees before emerging into the soft light of the morning.

“There you are,” he said, relief in his voice. “You weren’t anywhere, I got worried.”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” she sincerely apologized, stepping closer to him, “I was just…lost in thought.”

Pure Vanilla’s brows creased but he kept his kind smile. “I understand. I, too, have found myself dozing off in my own thoughts lately. There’s so much we must do, it’s worrying, nerve wracking even.”

She hoped he wasn’t as anxious as she, she felt sickness bubbling in the pit of her stomach and a headache from how clenched her jaw was and the amount of thoughts that came to her mind.

Seeing her expression of worry, he added, “But I know we will win. Together, we are stronger.”

She smiled a little and thanked him, watching as he took a step towards the river and peering in. He smiled slightly, tilting his head to the side.

“What a beautiful river.” He said, “it’s so clear, I can see all the rocks at the bottom.”

White Lily peered beside him, finally seeing the colorful rocks. Fish swam by, flying past in the current that lightly ripped the surface of the water, almost unnoticeable.

She hadn’t noticed before, she was staring at herself and how disgusting she felt.

Pure Vanilla always found the beauty in things. White Lily often times thought so logically, she didn’t notice when the flowers bloomed fuller or when there were more animals than usual, or even just the normal beauty of the world. Pure Vanilla always did—he always found a way to pull her out of her mind.

“Let us get going back,” Pure Vanilla said, “the others are just as worried.”

White Lily nodded, taking one last glance at her reflection before looking past it and into the colorful river.

The two were only walking for a moment before Pure Vanilla’s foot got caught on a root. He toppled over before White Lily could react, but she was immediately at his side before he could get up himself.

“Pure Vanilla!” White Lily gasped, holding his arm and helping him up.

“I’m fine,” he said, wincing when he put pressure on his foot. He grounded himself with his staff, examining his bruised ankle.

White Lily’s heartbeat was up, but before he could insist he was fine more, she scooped him up in her arms. She felt her leafy arms brush against his robes, and watched as his face burned a deep scarlet.

“Lily-!”

“You don’t want your ankle to get worse,” White Lily said, “I’ll look at it when we get back, but don’t move it until then.”

“White Lily, I can just-“

“No, I’m not letting you overexert yourself. I’ll carry you back.”

Pure Vanilla slowly nodded, holding onto her shoulders softly as she padded her way through the forest. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, his warm breath mixing with the soft breeze that blew through the forest. The sun rays illuminated White Lily’s path, her destination getting closer until she saw the clearing where they had set up camp.

Before Pure Vanilla could open his mouth to say anything else, White Lily already had him sat on a sleeping mat and had gathered bandages and began unraveling them.

“There’s no need!” Pure Vanilla said.

“But your ankle, it needs something.” White Lily said, giving him a confused look.

“Have you forgotten? I’m a healer, silly.”

She stared at him, her face turning red as an apple. He laughed and took her hands in his, a goofy grin crossing his lips.

“I’m sorry,” White Lily mumbled, “I’ve just been lost in thought lately, and when you got hurt, I could only think about getting you back here and fixing you up…”

“It’s ok,” Pure Vanilla said softly. He brushed the hair out of her face and placed a hand on her cheek, his own face becoming red. “I also, uh, enjoyed being carried like that.”

She stared in even more embarrassment as he sat back and healed his ankle, the soft glow illuminating the tent before it faded out and the bruising and swelling was gone.

“Are you sure it’s ok?” White Lily asked, “I mean, it’s ok if I made you uncomfortable, and I mean it’s totally ok if you’re even mad, I get it, I didn’t even listen to you, I didn’t think at all, and I-“

Pure Vanilla couldn’t help but chuckle, pushing himself up and pulling her into a hug.

“I trust you enough to not get mad at you,” he informed her, “I know you’ve been stressed and have a lot on your mind, it’s easy to forget the little details when you’re in a rush.“

He planted a soft kiss on her forehead. She smiled up at him, returning the kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you, so much.”

“Oh, it’s really not a big deal. Perhaps you could carry me around more often.”

White Lily’s face turned tomato red once more, turning away in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. He wasn’t going to let that go, was he?