My Fair Lady (Dark Cacao Cookie x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 33

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The garden birds chipped random tunes in the trees, some stopping to take a glance at the moping cookie traveling below. Her face was shadowed by her own hair, messy and unkempt. An aura made of embarrassment seemed to glide over her figure as she stomped closer towards the widest portion of the river. Her hand clutched angrily to her chest.

"I want to go back, I don't know why on Earthbread I decided to come here! I'm so STUPID!" she screeched, kicking at a bush with all of her strength. The berries flung out, rolling onto the grass while she crouched down, her hand sliding to her stomach as she whimpered pathetically.

"Stupid... stupid..."

One bird cocked its head sideways, their eyes focusing on the cookie with a keen interest. The same bird that had landed on her shoulder when she had first walked in as a newcomer.

A shrill note echoed in its throat before it fluttered down to her, landing quietly on the grass beside her. Closer it hopped, once bounce at a time, towards her side where she had crouched.

"Leave me ALONE!" she screamed, throwing a fistful of grass at the bird. All it did was chitter out of surprise, but held its ground.

She sniffled for a moment, wiping her face. The bird waited patiently as she tried to recollect herself from her sudden outburst at the innocent creature. With a sigh, she shifted her gaze to the colorful bird.

"I'm so sorry, I'm just-" her hands rubbed her eyes for a moment, "My whole world is spiraling and I've made a huge mistake... I can't even try to fix it."

The bird silently stared. It's neck reached underneath its wing to clean its armpit, completely ignorant to what she was saying.

"Now look at me, talking to you, a dumb bird. You don't even know what I'm talking about nor care one bit," she grumbled. "Nobody else can talk to me other than you and Dark Cacao."

The bird chirped softly.

(Y/N) shrugged her shoulders, getting back up from the ground. She approached the edge of the creek, the fish who were traveling downstream stopping before her feet in the gravel out of curiosity. Their bright colors flashed in the evening sun before they continued on their roundabout expeditions, an aimless journey that always turned back to where they had started. What confused (Y/N) was how content they seemed to be about that life, seeing the same sights, tasting the same water, swimming with the same fish. It was so monotonous in her eyes to be living in a replay.

"If I was one of those fish," she thought out loud, "I'd be so seasick from that kind of life."

A weight sudden landed on her shoulder, and the bird stopped next to her cheek, viewing the fish with equal intrigue. (Y/N) turned her head.

"Do you ever feel trapped? Like you have to conform to everything everybody else is doing because you'll be seen as strange if you do what you actually want to do?"

Another quiet chirp came in response.

"Me too," she sighed. "I was trapped in my own way back in my old kingdom."

She now has her ankles completely submerged in the stream. Fluffed feathers brushed up against her face when a splash of water suddenly hit the delicate creature.

"There was so much pressure on me. Well, not until after my brother decided to pursue education to become a professor," she said, "That's whenever my mother really started focusing on making me the new image of the Espresso kingdom."

A fish suddenly splashed out of the water, startled whenever she took another step forward deeper into the water. The hem of her gown just barely hovered over the water, the edges becoming lightly soaked from the mini burst of water. (Y/N) flinched and took a step back out of fear of frightening another fish trying to mind their own business.

"Well, it didn't go very well for me. My parents never had much hope for me since I was the second child, and not to mention a girl. They expected to marry me off to a prince in another kingdom when the time came and my brother was ready to rule. They were so prepared that they even renamed the entire kingdom after him, already attached to their precious little prince in a heartbeat," (Y/N) scrunched her nose out of guilt and embarrassment, "I wish they looked at me that way."

Appearing to be concerned, the bird flittered to the top of her head, cozily nesting on top. (Y/N) kept her posture straight to keep the bird comfortable where it had landed so graciously on her.

"My father wasn't with me long enough before my brother started showing some real interest in college studies; my mother was the one who gave him whatever he wanted, so she made a compromise with him. He would be a professor, but would be forbidden to leave the kingdom at any point in his life in order to take power in case I failed being throned as queen," she said, the river lapping at her shins. "As you can probably tell, she really thought I wasn't cut out to be a ruler in any way."

Nobody was listening to her now. The creature on top of her head had turned its neck to muzzle its shoulder, drifting away from conscience. (Y/N) continued anyway, feeling better while exposing her memories to someone who wouldn't tell anyone.

"Tension between me and my mother started to build and I just... I couldn't live like that. She was pressuring me into a corner while shoving big dresses and bejeweled crowns on my head so I'd play the physical part of being a princess. But I just felt it in me I wasn't going to be one... no matter what she demanded of me.

"I'm so scared. So, so, so scared. I can't even tell you how scared I am about this. He can't know about who I actually am. There's no way we can be together like this or I'll be sucked back into that pit of hell by pretending to be a symbol of leadership," her emotions broiled in her stomach, giving heat to multiple feelings all at once that convoluted her brain, a flock of torment stabbing at her with great strength.

"I can't! I just CAN'T!" she raged, "I'M NOT WHO YOU SAY I AM!"

A shrill squeak erupted from the bird, and it quickly took off, leaving behind a small feather on her head where it had sat. (Y/N) tried to regain her breath.

"...I can't," her voice quivered.

Word count: 1129