Red Velvet x Licorice PG Connected One-Shots

Are you coming back okay?

Tw// Blood, sh? (he bites his fist), self depreciation, trouble eating, etc

Time blurs, slow and syrupy. Licorice has been laying in his bed for hours, his cheeks damp and the taste of salt in his mouth. Hunger gnaws at his stomach, but the kitchen seems miles away. His hand is starting to grow numb.

Licorice has nothing to be upset about. His life's been pretty good recently, save for the whole Dark Enchantress and Pomegranate thing. There's no reason to mope in his room, no reason to slip in and out of consciousness , but it happens anyways.

Lethargy has slipped over him like a thick blanket. It itches at him, how he's wasting perfectly good time to work on his spells, or time he could be spending with Red Velvet or Poison Mushroom. He wants to at least sit up, but inexplicable exhaustion keeps him rooted on his bed.

He'll have to wait for the fatigue to fade away. Licorice fixes his eyes on a small dent, tiny and unnoticeable unless someone was looking for it, and begins to try and motivate himself. Five minute crafts inspires him, maybe he can do one of those?

He manages to reach over his bed to unplug his charging phone. His wallpaper, Red Velvet staring dead-pan at him, looks far too bright. He swipes his brightness down and taps on Youtube.

Most of the videos are far to complicated, with supplies he can't justify buying. Licorice is not going to waste his hard earned money on a gold-plated flamethrower, no matter how much he wants to make a giant s'more. The simple task leaves him drained. He shuts his eyes and lets sleep pull him under.

—

He wakes up with Bat-Cat curled under his chest and Choco Werehound taking up almost all of the room on his bed. The extra warmth, which in other circumstances could have been welcome, adds to the sweltering heat of the castle. Licorice feels the thin film of sweat coat his body, but still cannot bring himself out of bed.

The hunger, which previously could have been ignored, comes back with a bite. His stomach growls, but again, lethargy keeps him laying on his bed. Bat-cat and Choco Werehound eventually leave. He's feeling a little better, thankfully, so he scrolls on his phone. Licorice could always ask Red Velvet to bring him a plate of food, but he doesn't want to seem needy.

He switches to his secret twitter account, NOTlicoricecookie123. Licorice likes to spam fairy hate comments under the new kingdom's twitter page, it's entertaining and fulfilling. It doesn't matter that fairy comments are a little old. He starts typing his comments, but Pomegranate barges into his room, an unimpressed look on her face.

"Lazing around, again, Licorice?" Pomegranate muses, her mouth set into a slight smirk. Her lilting voice grates his ears. "Isn't it rich that you complain, in that little diary of yours," she pauses. "About how 'under appreciated' you are when you hardly even do anything of importance?"

He would love to jab at her with an insult, or seethe about her reading his diary, but Licorice merely clenches his jaw and sighs. Pomegranate scoffs as she leaves, slamming the door behind him. Licorice brings his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around himself in a pitiful attempt at a hug, before silently starting to sob.

He cries and cries and cries, shoving a fist into his mouth to keep himself quiet. He bites down on it, teeth sinking into flesh, until skin breaks and the metallic taste of blood is on his tongue.

Licorice has no right to act as if he's in the right. Pomegranate is right, he needs to go do something, needs to be of use. Magic is the only thing he's good for, it's the only thing he can do. He needs to work, or everyone will leave him, won't they? They've done it before, they could do it again!

He fervently stumbles to his desk, shakily grabbing a pen and paper. The tears catch on his eyelashes, making his vision unfocused. He can't read his handwriting, he hates it like he hates Pomegranate, like he hates those who never gave him the recognition he deserved, he thinks hates himself but he can't be sure.

Licorice slams the pen down, ignoring the throbbing pain in his hand as he slumps downward, knees knocking against the hard floor. The door in his room creaks open soon after.

"Will you just leave me alone!" He snarls, voice cracking and hoarse. He quickly turns to see the intruder, going silent when Red Velvet quickly enters and shuts the doors. His eyes look distraught as he kneels next to him.

Licorice is quick throw himself into Red Velvet's out stretched arms. He doesn't shake as much anymore. "Do you want to tell me about it or would you rather not. Do that." He says stiffly. It seems like Wikihow was not helping him very much. Licorice still appreciates the effort.

"I couldn't get out of bed." Licorice starts, his voice a little bit steadier. "Then Pomegranate said some stuff and-" He cuts himself off. He didn't fully process it at the time, but Pomegranate read his diary! He has personal things there! "She read my diary!" Licorice gasps in absolute loathing.

"What!" Red Velvet's voice is very high-pitched, his face is blanched. It's strange, considering how Red is more worried about the diary problem then Licorice, who writes pretty much every thought into the book.

Licorice raises a brow as Red Velvet sighs. "I may or may not have written a few pages about.." He trails of hesitantly.

"About what?" Licorice nudges him with an arm. There couldn't be anything worse than the seven pages he wrote describing Red Velvet's very handsome face.

Red Velvet continues sheepishly. "I wrote about how much I like to look at you. Also about how you can't cook."

Licorice is both very flattered and insulted that Red Velvet had the absolute gall to insult him in his own diary! He did give permission for Red Velvet to write something in the back of it a while ago so Licorice could read it when he finished writing, but he was not expecting to be slandered!

"What? Let me see." Licorice quickly reaches up to grab his diary, flipping through it to find Red Velvet's writing. "— eyelashes are so long? Do you use magic or something to get them like that? Moving on, I apologize, but your cooking is atrocious. Why did you think that mixing every type of egg, including frog eggs, was a good idea?"

Licorice quickly skims over the paragraph detailing how cake batter and cookie dough were completely different. "Licorice, I completely stand by with all of what I wrote." Red Velvet says solemnly. "Those eggs gave me food poisoning for a week."

"It's not my fault Poison Mushroom brought me those." Licorice grumbles before almost immediately feeling his mood brighten. He starts chuckling manually, a revenge plan quickly forming.

"Can you hand me a pen?" Licorice says quickly. "Lets write down a fake recipe here so that Pomegranate can get food poisoning!"

Red Velvet smiles with a grin just as mischievous as his own. "With the frog eggs, right?"

Licorice continues writing with Red Velvet, who provides invaluable advice. The recipe is completed quickly, becoming the pair's Magnum Opus. Red Velvet sheds a single, shining tear at the sight:

Recipe for the best pancakes ever (Dark Choco gave me this so I can finally cook well but I'm not allowed to give it to Pomegranates cus she sucks.)

One chicken egg

Half a pound of frog eggs

A cup of grass flour

Half a cup of goat milk

1 tbs of salt

no sugar because the frog eggs add sweetness

Mix the dry things and the wet things separately then put the dry into the wet. mix until it's an even consistency. Cook it on the stove until it's done.
——-
A few days later, Poison Mushroom kindly informs them that Pomegranate was on bed rest and that the wedding was postponed. If they noticed the knowing glance that Licorice gives Red Velvet, they don't mention it.

A/N
Sorry that this chapter is all over the place. I tried to write something a little bit more like the first few chapters but then got carried away and bored of that until I ended up with this. Thanks for reading!