[ Cookie Run Oneshots ]

[ Remembering and Reminiscing; Wizardbrave ]

The Brave cookie tilted backwards, taking in the noise. The wind blew over his face as he closed his eyes. He smiled, hands in his pockets, thinking about their past here.
Their past with each other.

"Pointy hat, I swear, if you don't shut up right now." Chili Pepper glared. Wizard didn't stop, pointing out each of the stars and listing off their names.
He listed off the constellations as well as their guardian groaned.
"Hey, what was the best one called?" Gingerbrave tilted his head, encouraging the other to go on. Wizards uncovered eye lit up, launching into an explanation of the beat- which, apparently, was called Ursa Major, or the smaller one, Ursa Minor.
His old friend would have been able to go on all day if they hadn't been stopped in their tracks by cake hounds.
That part of them he decided he liked. He enjoyed how excited he got when talking of whatever interested him at the moment.

Gingerbrave smiled at the memory.
His only hope was that the feelings of maybe, just a little, a bit more than just a friend, towards his best friend, wasn't so obvious.
"Hey, kid?" Chili Pepper swung around the tree behind him. He turned to face her as she frowned. "You comin'?"
Gingerbrave nodded, smiling. He turned all the way around and walked with her.

His thoughts still, as always, remaining on his old friend.

"Wizard." Cream Puff his her sibling over the head, who groaned in protest, but lifted their head up.
"..what?" He glared. Cream Puff folded her arms, frowning.
"When did you go to bed?"
Wizard thought about it for a second.
"...a decent enough time so you won't yell at me?" Wizard peeked through his hair sheepishly. Cream Puff groaned.
"Stupid. What's in that notebook you got there, anyways?"
Wizard flushed and slammed it shut.
"Nothing, as I've said before, dumbass." She hissed. She rolled their eyes and glared once more. Cream Puff only sighed.
"Whatever. Let's go, we've got work to do." Cream Puff looked behind her through the door. "Get dressed."
She stepped out to let him do his thing, and of course, he didn't immediately. He sighed, glancing up at the wall covered in photos. His gaze reached a specific one, a photo of which each of them had a copy of; the photo of a grinning Gingerbrave, holding the camera up with the rest of them sitting at a table. Wizard himself was frowning at him, while Strawberry had pulled her hood shut. Custard was reaching across the table for whatever was there, and Chili Pepper had swung into frame from the left.
They looked happy, no matter how chaotic the photo was. They were happy. Unalone and Unafraid.

Unafraid. How naïve.

His smile grew at the image of Gingerbrave.

"Hey, Wizard Cookie!" A colleague yelled across the road. "Can I get your help with this?"
Wizard cursed under his breath, as he realized he'd forgotten his keys to his apartment.
"I'll go get 'em. I have the spare key and we're parting ways after work, go help." Cream Puff spun her pair of keys on her hand as her sibling nodded.

She shoved the door open, trying to remember where he usually kept them. Probably in a drawer or something.

But first..

She snatched the sketchbook off of her siblings desk. She didn't really feel bad; it couldn't be that bad.
She flipped through the first few pages, which were just random drawings of strangers- he tended to do that. She turned one more page and gasped quietly.
Roughly sketched all over the page, was the two's old friend Gingerbrave; someone they hadn't seen in almost- what was it now? Twelve years?
No, Cream Puff hasn't seen him in twelve. Wizard hadn't seen him in nine.
There was a surprising attention to detail for drawings of someone they hadn't seen in a while- though he was quite literally all over her brothers wall, in most of the group photos taken with everyone else.
Her attention flickered back to the keys, and she set the book down, but not before noticing the small hearts doodles around the sketch of the brave cookie laughing.
She gave a small smile, finally closing it and opening a drawer. The keys glinted in the lamp light as she snatched them up and, eventually, found her way back to her sibling.
She sighed, turning and asking;

"Do you miss him?"