'Why Him?' || Madeleine x Espresso

chapter 12, lost

by the way, this is gonna be a loooong chapter-

Madeleine's pov:

It has been hours, where is he at? I hope he didn't get hurt that much. I have awoken hours ago, but I was just curious of where Espresso was. All I was doing was thinking. My mind was always elsewhere thinking of him nowadays.

What if he's hurt?
What if he's lost?
What if he's crumbled?
I can't think like that. He must have just gotten done with battling that thing...I hope. I really wanna go look for him, but it might be pointless. That forest is large, and once you get lost, there's no turning back. I'm just hoping he's okay. Should I go looking for him? I can't go alone though. I should bring someone with me.

After a couple minutes of me thinking of who to bring, I finally decided. Latte Cookie! She's smart, capable of a lot of things, and she at least knows Espresso. That's who I'll pick. I walked out of my house to find no cookies outside. How odd, only Latte is outside. She's at her latte maker...thingy. I walked over to her.

"Professor Latte Cookie," I said. "I have a request."

"Ah, Sir Madeleine Cookie. How many I help you?" She turned around to face me.

"Well. Espresso went to do a mission for me since I was too weak to do it on my own. And he hasn't came back in a couple of hours, so I was wondering if you'd like to come with me to search for him?" I explained. Latte frowned.

"Oh no, I'd love to help you search for him! Though we don't usually get along, I'd still do anything to protect him. And...other cookies here obviously." Latte responded. I smiled.

"Thank you very much, professor. I owe a lot of thanks to you! Now, we should head out. We have no time to lose." I helped her down from her stand thingy. She smiled.

"Yes, we shall head out in search of Espresso. Let's get going!" Latte responded.

...

We've been in the forest for over 30 minutes, no luck...no luck... We've called out his name so many times our throats started to hurt, we were both panicking at this point. Thou Latte and Espresso never really got along, she still cared about him, and im glad she does.

"Any luck..?" I turned to Latte.

"Not yet, I don't hear anything." She looked back at me.

I sighed and continued to call out his name. Many, many times. Now Espresso does have a phone, he just never brings it with him. I don't see why, but that isn't the point. Oh where could he be, my heart is racing just thinking about the stuff that could have happened to him... He could be dead and we wouldn't even know. I continued to call out his name until Latte stopped me, by grabbing my arm.

"Madeleine, look." She pointed in front of us. I looked ahead and saw a torn up piece of Espresso's cape. We both looked at each other, than back at the small piece of fabric.

"Do you think he's hurt?" Latte asked, picking up the small piece. I went wide eyed.

"God gosh, hopefully not. He must be close then." I looked around my area only to find trees and bushes. Everywhere. Are we lost? That's the least of my concern. We continued to walk ahead, finding more pieces of his cape until...we found him.

Latte stepped back in a panic. I was froze. He looked completely lifeless, I saw so signs of movement. Nowhere. I quickly ran up to him in a panic and held him close.

"I hear a heartbeat, it's just very slow. We gotta get him out of here!" Almost tearing up, I picked him up and turned to Latte.

"Madeleine, there's no sign of land anywhere! How do you expect us to get back in one piece?" Latte walked over to me.

"Look, I'm overwhelmed enough already. I don't want to lose him! We just gotta follow our guts, and find a way back home." We both turned to our path. Latte nodded.
"Your right, let's get going before nightfall comes." Latte smiled confidentially before grabbing Madeleine's hand and sprinting off.

...

Minutes for what had seemed like decades went by so slowly. Luckily, espresso was still in one piece, but very weak. I could tell. He hadn't even woken up yet. That's my concern. We've been walking on this path for so long now, I could barely even stand. We finally saw a bit of land, but not our kingdom. We knew that we were close, because we saw the pilgrim village. Once we went past there, we finally, after minutes of walking, saw our kingdom. I sighed of relief.

"I thought we'd never get back home." I said under my breath.

Walking through vines, shrubs, thorns, and bushes, we finally exited the forest, and stepped into the kingdom. Well, that went by quickly.

"Latte," I started. Latte turned to me with a 'hm'?

"Thank you again, I couldn't have done this without you." I smiled. Latte also smiled. "Happy to help! It's good to know that he's somewhat okay, I'd take him into your house just for health care." Latte suggested. I nodded.
"Well, I'll be seeing you two tomorrow then!" Latte waved to me. I waved back, completely silent. Well, might as well just take him in. I hope he remembers what happened when he wakes up so he could at least tell me. I walked to my house, espresso still in my arms, and walked inside. Now considering I didn't have any armor on during that entire thing, with it on, I would have been passed out by now. I carefully set Espresso on one of my couches inside and sat down at the end of the couch.

"Good grief," I said. "That could have ended up worse." I continued. I looked over at Espresso. He had so many cuts on his face, but no cracks.

Thankfully.

I sighed. It's good to know that he's finally resting. Good option for when you almost died, obviously. I layed down next to espresso and held him close to me. Well, I hope he doesn't freak out once he wakes up. That would be bonkers. I sighed once again and started to drift off, not even caring if I still had some stuff to take off and change into, I just want him to feel safe.

With me.