Savior (Red Velvet x Pastry Cookie)

Chapter Five

Red Velvet groaned as he woke up. Opening his eyes, he had a good view of the beautiful stone ceiling of his cell. His arm throbbed worse than ever and his supposedly uninjured arm felt as stiff as a rock. He had adjusted the shackles on himself to be as comfortable as possible, but the stone was already cutting into his glove, stomach, and boots. He couldn't do anything about the contraption on his cake arm so he tried to treat it like a violent cast.

He was starving, but he knew that eating Genoise was a no-no. Glancing at the cakehound bits still lying against the far wall, he shuddered. Should he clean it up? But there was nowhere to bury her.

He smelled a nun coming down the stairs. Good god, they were obsessed with him. Couldn't they leave him alone for a second?

"Hey," Pastry's voice called out from around the corner.

Red Velvet pretended to be asleep, closing his eyes.

"Red Velvet?"

Red Velvet let out a snore, trying to get Pastry to leave.

Then he smelled something that was not Pastry's usual scent. It smelled like... food? Not cakehound (thank goodness), with no trace of potions that Red Velvet could detect.

"Uh?" Red Velvet pretended to just be waking up, yawning leisurely. If only he actually woke up like this; Red Velvet thought of a few minutes ago, when he woke up with a groan. "Oh, hey, nun," he said.

"Hey, cake monster. I got you something," Pastry said. Red Velvet raised his eyebrows in surprise; Pastry did not sound angry or disgusted at all when she called him a "cake monster." In fact, was she teasing?

Red Velvet told himself to stay on guard as Pastry took something out from behind her back. It was a tray of stamina jellies. Good, high-quality stamina jellies.

She walked over to him, posture stiff. She was probably expecting Red Velvet to attack her, which was certainly a possibility. Red Velvet kept his eyes on the tray as she approached. The jellies smelled so good, and Red Velvet was so hungry.

Pastry set the tray down on the ground, then proceeded to back away from him like he was a wild animal. Red Velvet leaned forward towards the jellies, inspecting them. They did not seem to be tainted or anything of that sort. Maybe Pastry was trying to get him to trust her. Surely she wouldn't poison him, he knew that Pastry's precious Reverend Mother had plans for him.

Red Velvet snatched a handful of stamina jellies and started eating. They tasted so good, just like the ones he found in the forests. This made him think of his cakehounds. Were they still being created? How were they faring?

Hunger overtook his thoughts and Red Velvet snarfed down the jellies. He didn't stop until he polished the plate clean. It was a bit messy since he couldn't use his cake arm, but he didn't really care. By the time he was finished eating, his glove was covered in jelly bits and he knew the stuff was probably all over his face.

"Thanks for not poisoning me," Red Velvet said as he wiped his face with the back of his glove.

"You're welcome," Pastry said, with a slight edge in her voice, "anyway, I need to talk to you."

"Oh, really?" Red Velvet asked, raising an eyebrow, "What for? My undying allegiance to your cause? 'Oh, Pastry Cookie, I vow that I am going to help you kill every single one of my family members!'" Red Velvet put his hand on his heart, speaking in falsetto as he mockingly swore the oath.

Pastry frowned at him. "Listen, it's not that, alright? I would never ask you to kill your cakehounds."

"Really? Legit? Not capping?" Red Velvet asked, raising his eyebrows in feigned surprise.