Work Text:
Word of advice: never try to fight an army of cake hounds by yourself, or else you’re gonna get your ass kicked.
Devil Cookie learned that the hard way. They were limping around aimlessly, with no idea where they were heading; maybe they’d find angel cookie so they could be healed. They could have used their wings but flying around was exhausting after a while, especially as injured as they were, it didn’t help that their legs were usually in pain anyways. There were scratches and various fresh wounds on their arm, dripping with jam . They were almost about to topple over when a pair of arms caught them. they didn’t bother to look up at the person who caught them, but they were thankful nonetheless.
“ DEVIL?! How did you get so hurt???”
Oh. It was Strawberry cookie, no wonder why the grip was so firm. She had that upper body strength from all that training. She was the last person they were expecting to see, but yet it was comforting knowing it was a family member.
“ What the hell happened??”
“ uhhhh, I fell?” Devil lied, they didn’t want to tell her what had happened, depite knowing they’d have to tell her anyway.
“ As clever as you may think you are, you’re not a great liar. You’re quiet terrible at it really, so tell me what happened.”
“ can you get me back home first? I feel like death is upon me”
Strawberry sighed “ fine, let’s get back home”
——-
No one happened to be home at the moment, which was a relief for devil. They knew everyone would be panicking at the sight of a beat up child. They weakly sat on the couch as Strawberry went and grabbed some bandages. She was grumbling about something but devil couldn’t make out the words. She came back and sat in front of them, brown eyes glaring into their soul, or at least that what it felt like.
“ Now care to tell me what happened?”
“ Do I have to?”
“ do you want me to tell on our dads…. that’s what I thought”
“ Fine, I was in the forest messing around, collecting souls and what not, and I saw a cake hound. I thought ‘ this would be easy, it’s just one cake hound right?’ It was not one cake hound, but a whole army of them. I tried to fight them off, but there were just too many. It’s just a case of thinking I was able to do more than i actually was able to do. But yea, I’m in a lot of pain and I’m bleeding because of it.”
“ Are you out of your goddamn mind?! You don’t just go into the forest by yourself, nonetheless take on an army of monsters!” Devil stayed quiet for once, not sure what to say, as strawberry started wrapping the bandages around their arms.
“ I don’t get it, why are you so reckless all the time? This is the third time this month me or angel have found you like this. One day, we’re not gonna be here to tend to your wounds. Also, I’ve only noticed that you have wounds are on your upper body. What’s wrong with your legs? They looked like they were giving up on you when I found you.”
Devil finally spoke up, “ I mean besides a bit of a limp, I’m just tired. I mean have your legs ever let like they were gonna fall off when they’re tired?”
“ Yes, but like, you rarely ever use them, and I doubt you used them when you were fighting all, those cake hounds, I mean for fucks sake you have wings. Is there something wrong that you’re not telling me?”
Devil mumbled a little too quietly for the other to hear. Thier head hanged lower than usual and the whole mood shifted. What was someone who was annoyed seemed more… embarrassed? strawberry couldn’t pinpoint thier emotion but it seemed like they were ashamed of something.
“ can you speak louder?”
“ corruption…”
“ what the hell does that mean”
“ I don’t like talking about this, to anyone, be lucky you’re even alive to hear this but. The corruption, my corruption, fucked up my body. I’m not sure what the hell was exactly in that mix but it made me this half goat being. I figured you knew that part, everyone knows I’m part goat hehe. Anyways it like changed my entire bone structure and i haven’t been the same since. My legs always seem to hurt no matter what I do. I’ve tried everything, medication included, and the pain just never seemed to go away. That’s why I’m constantly floating and using my wings. “
“ why haven’t you told anyone?”
“ oh I have to fire dad and angel cookie. I just don’t tell anyone else really because look at me. I’m supposed to be like this demon who is strong and powerful and scary… I’m not any of those things to be honest. It’s embarrassing to be as weak as I am , I don’t want to be seen as weak…. so I don’t tell anyone that I am weak, and no one will ever notice anyways with the way I hold myself. I’m a lot less confident than I make myself appear…. Ugh… I’m sorry for just like dumping all of this on you. You probably just wanted to take care of my wounds and move on, but now you have to deal with this too.”
Strawberry put a hand on devils shoulder, eyes glittering in the sunlight that happened to hit them, “ First off, don’t say you’re weak ever again. Just because you have chronic pain of some sort, doesn’t mean you’re weak, in fact, putting up with it makes you very strong. Secondly, don't apologize for opening up. Third, it’s weird knowing that you’re not as confident as you seem, but that’s okay, you don’t always have to be confident in yourself.”
Strawberry was met with a tight hug, almost toppling her over.
“ Thanks, you’re a good sister.” It made strawberry’s heart warm. It was good knowing that she was a good sister. She thought for a bit and came up with an idea.
“ Hey bats for brains”
“ what’s up?”
“ I’m thinking, that maybe from all that wing usage that you use, that your shoulders must be killing you. Do you maybe… want a massage to ease up the tension?”
“ you know what sure, I’ll take anything to be in less pain right now” the two took a seocnd to reposition themselves onto the floor, so that devil was facing away from strawberry. She took her hands and started massaging the others shoulders. She couldn’t see their face, but she noticed how they immediately melted into her touch, lightly purring as she made circular motions with her fingers.
“ enjoying yourself?” Strawberry chuckled
“ mhm… god I haven’t felt this relieved in a while, it’s like a million weights are being lifted off my shoulders, figuratively and literally”
“ I’m glad I could help ya sib” the two continued for a while, and eventually devil must’ve fallen asleep from the tiredness and whatnot. She could hear them lightly snore, and figured they needed to rest someplace else. Strawberry picked them up and started heading to their room. She placed them on their bed, put a light blanket over them, and gave them a kiss on the forehead. She saw them smile in their sleep, it was kinda cute in a sopping wet cat kind of sense.
“ sweet dreams devil” she closed the door to devils room and went on with the rest of her day.