Ralsei put on his green oven cloths and pulled the door of the old oven in his kitchen down, intensifying the smell of baked cookies that was already dominant inside of the room. Grabbing the baking tray, he swiftly pulled the delicious treats out of the heat and set them down onto the counter of the nearby window in order to let them cool off a bit. He wished that it hadn´t taken him so long to make the cookies, given that his friends were already waiting inside of the small room they had declared the “Room of Friendship and Fun”, though it was just a former bedroom which now contained a table for them to sit and have fun together at; together with things for all of them to enjoy: everyone had brought things they liked and cherished to make the room a place for them to be comfortable within, and with a collection of games that even Susie enjoyed it never grew boring in Ralsei´s castle.

The sound of the kettle on the stove announcing that the water was boiling alerted Ralsei, and he quickly took it off the flame and poured the hot water into a teapot which already contained some loose tea. He knew that the tea would be ready for drinking once he was going to arrive at the room his friends waited in, though he remembered to have to put the can of sugar onto the tray on the window´s counter as well. Lancer did drink tea as well, sure, but only if it contained more sugar than actual tea, but he wasn´t going to deny his friends such a treat. Susie didn´t even bother with tea at all, though Ralsei wasn´t surprised by that. What he was surprised by was the fact that Kris enjoyed tea just like he did, but he had to admit that he didn´t know a lot about Kris, as he never talked much about himself.

“Everything okay in here?” a sudden voice ripped him out of his thoughts, causing him to quickly turn around with the kettle still in hand, and he was lucky to miss his feet when a bit of water dripped out. Quickly putting the kettle aside as the teapot was now filled, he looked over to Kris who was standing inside the doorframe, seemingly worried about where he had been all the time.

“Oh, Kris…everything is fine here, I´m sorry for taking so long. I had a bit of trouble with the batter, admittedly,” Ralsei answered with the best smile he could muster, though he was also able to feel heat rise to his face. He was always embarrassed when things didn´t work out the way he wanted them to, leading to disappointing his friends and making them sadder in the process…

“May I try one? They smell good,” his friend interrupted his train of thoughts, startling Ralsei as he hadn´t expected this for an answer. Now that he concentrated on it though, he found the cookies to smell better than ever…perhaps the struggle with the batter had been for the better? He took the oven cloths off and hung them onto a small nail in the wall next to the oven and held his hand slightly above the cookies to check their temperature.

“Uh…s-sure, go ahead,” Ralsei replied as he realised that he still hadn´t answered Kris´ question, as well as that he found the cookies to have cooled down enough to be edible. His friend stepped into the kitchen and walked up next to him, taking one of the cookies off the baking tray and biting off a chunk. His facial expression didn´t change a bit as he chewed on the cookie, worrying Ralsei that they had turned out poorly. He was ready to cry at his failure, as he had disappointed his friends and wasted their time…

“Delicious,” he heard next to him, though almost inaudible. Ralsei lifted his head and looked over to Kris, unsure if he had just heard the Lightner right. “H-huh?” he managed to bring out in his insecurity, secretly hoping that what he had understood was what Kris had meant. Could the cookies have turned out good after all? “They are really delicious, Ralsei. I´d say that these are the best you´ve made so far,” Kris answered, a smile now visible on their face, bringing up joy inside of the dark prince.

“T-thank you, Kris!” Ralsei exclaimed with glee, taking one of the cookies and taking a bite out of it himself. He found Kris to have spoken the truth, these cookies were better than all the prior ones he had ever made. He made sure to keep in mind how he had made the batter this time while he savoured the flavour of his culinary creation. Satisfied, he shoved the remaining cookies on one side of the tray for him to transport them to the room Susie and Lancer were waiting in, also placing the teapot and three cups as well as a cup of sugar onto it.

“To be honest, those aren´t my favourite cookies…there is one kind of cookie I like beyond anything else,” Kris said as Ralsei took the tray into his hands. He began to walk out of the kitchen with the tray in hand, Kris closely following behind as the two of them crept through the hallways of Ralsei´s home…he was curious about the last thing Kris had just said to him. “Say, Kris…what happens to be your favourite kind of cookie? Maybe I can arrange something for the next time you will be here,” he asked his friends after they had walked in silence at first.

“Hm…maybe something can be done about that, you are right. I will tell you later when I am about to leave again, so that it will stay in your memory better,” Kris answered after a few seconds of silence, a smile becoming visible on the face of the Lightner. Ralsei tilted his head in confusion, as every member of the Fun Gang knew that he had quite a good memory, especially when it came to likes and dislikes of his friends.

Deciding to let the topic be, as he still wanted to know about Kris´ preferences and also didn´t want to upset him by objecting to his suggestion, he kept going with the tray in his hand closely followed by Kris, and it wasn´t long before the two of them entered a relatively small room, stuffed with decorations and belongings of each individual member of the Fun Gang. Susie had brought things like axes and other weapons, armour and chalk; Lancer had brought anything to do with spades, like cards…cards and even more cards. Kris and Ralsei had even begun to assemble a parking space for his bike out of them, and they had made good progress so far. As they had done before Susie collapsed it with a powerful sneeze, but it hadn´t discouraged them, instead beginning to rebuild it again as if nothing had happened

Kris hadn´t brought much to add to the room´s decoration, most of the things he had brought were old games, though he hadn´t talked about why he chose to bring them yet. Ralsei on the other hand had deposited a few of his favourite books in the room, as well as old scrolls telling about the past, and flowers as well…for some reason did he really like flowers, he had ones representing each colour there was, searched and found by him over long and tiring days.

“Finally, the toothpaste boy brings cookies,” Lancer shouted and threw his arms into the air at the sight of him and Kris entering the room. The spade boy and Susie were seated at the square table in the middle of the room on adjacent sides; it had become a sort of fixed order they sat in without anyone ever saying anything. Kris and Ralsei took the remaining two sides adjacent to each other, with the dark prince sitting opposed to Susie and Kris opposed to Lancer.

The tray Ralsei held was put into the middle of the table for everyone to reach it, though a bit closer to Lancer because of how short he was compared to the others. The fluffy prince calmly took the cups and placed them in front of everyone and poured in the still hot tea for everyone to enjoy, placing the teapot on the tray afterwards. He then positioned the cup filled with sugar next to Lancer´s cup of tea for the young monster to put in as much sugar as he wanted, which he immediately began with.

“Man Ralsei, they are good,” he heard Susie say with her mouth still full, and looking over to her made evident that she had already devoured at least three of them. Ralsei let out a quiet sigh before he took a cookie himself, slowly biting off small bits for him to chew on. Susie had turned out to be a hero after all, but her manners were more often than not a bit of a nuisance to him, though he chose not to say such a thing, especially when she was a guest and a friend.

Kris and Susie took more cookies while Ralsei was content with slowly eating the one he had, as he wanted to make sure that all of his guests would get enough to eat…though that was always a challenge when it came to Susie, as her appetite seemed to be as endless as her manners rude at times. A look over to his right showed him that Lancer had finally finished pouring sugar into his tea, reminding him to take a sip of his own as he swallowed another small bite of his cookie.

Drinking tea and eating cookies like this…Ralsei wouldn´t have imagined for things to turn out this great after the rough start he had with the others…well, everyone except Kris of course. Kris had been with him from the very beginning, and with each day did he like his best friend more and more. A smile formed on his face as he thought about the good times he had with the Lightner, his happy mood making him quickly eat the rest of his cookie, just to grab a new one from the tray.

“Hey guys, you want to see me doing stunts with my bike anytime soon?” Lancer asked with excitement, causing Susie to start laughing with delight. Kris didn´t show much of a change in expression, as he rarely did, and Ralsei had to admit that he was a bit worried about Lancer´s safety regarding his idea. “Sure, I would like to see what you have learned by now! Maybe you can draw circles around Ralsei once you´re good enough,” she replied with a grin, and Ralsei quickly pushed the imagination of how he was going to be hit by the bike aside.

“I would preferably not be a part of such things,” Ralsei calmly said with a smile, and drank another sip of his tea. Kris had been quiet like always, just sitting at his place and looking at the rest of the gang with a slight smile on his face, eating a cookie every now and then and drinking his own cup of tea while doing so. The gang kept the fun up, eating cookies and poking fun at each other, though Ralsei ended up being the target most of the time because of Susie and Lancer. He didn´t mind it however, because he knew that they never meant things seriously, and so he could laugh and sometimes even play along.

As the supply of cookies faded, board games were brought up and played, and it was a moment like this where Ralsei truly felt at peace. He still wondered about Kris´ statement about the cookies, but he knew that he was going to find out about that sooner than later. Laughs and shouts, frustration and joy, they all were present as the four friends played through the various games, both board games and card games. Time went by faster than any of them wanted it to, and it soon came the time for everyone to go home.

The four of them slowly left the small room they had made their own, chatting and laughing all the way to the front entrance of Ralsei´s castle, the place where their paths were going to split until the next time his friends would pay a visit. Ralsei opened the door for them to let his friends out again, and Susie and Lancer stepped out of his castle into Castle Town again. Kris however stayed behind and showed no intention of leaving, confusing the dark prince.

“Hey guys, you go on ahead, I´ll help Ralsei clean up what has been left behind. Don´t wait for me,” the human eventually said to his waiting friends, who looked at each other first and then shared a grin before nodding and turning away, walking towards the fields. The fluffy prince was even more confused now, but decided that things were now happening like this due to Kris being really helpful and friendly, even though not very talkative.

“Well then, Ralsei, should we tidy everything here?” Kris asked as Susie and Lancer were getting out of sight, smiling at him while doing so. The dark prince didn´t quite know what to make out of the sudden enthusiasm Kris showed, but he was happy to see things go the way they did, and so he closed the door to his castle again and went back towards the room of the Fun Gang, with his friend closely following behind.

“Uhm…so, about that favourite cookie of yours, Kris…” Ralsei wanted to know, but Kris interrupted him before he was able to fully speak the question out. He had quickly picked up his pace and walked right next to the fluffy prince all of a sudden, putting a finger on his snout. “Everything at a certain time, don´t worry. I´ll tell you soon enough,” his friend said with a slight grin before taking the finger away again, continuing to walk in silence.

Ralsei was taken aback at the sudden actions of Kris, and he felt his face heat up at what had just happened. It seemed to be quite unlike Kris to suddenly take such actions, but at the same time it didn´t worry Ralsei much, for he was happy to see his otherwise relatively quiet friend to suddenly engage in such an activity, even if it was just cleaning. The two of them entered the Fun Gang´s room again, beginning to clean the room for the next occasion everyone would be here again.

Putting figures and boards of games back into their respective boxes, placing cards back into their decks and cleaning the table of crumbs and the occasional spilled drop of tea were all things that had to be done, and Ralsei also remembered that the kitchen was yet to be cleaned as well. He was glad about the help he received, and with their combined efforts was the entire room back to its state before the Fun Gang´s visit in a matter of only a few minutes.

“Thank you so much, that really took a lot less time than I would have expected! Now all that is left is to clean the kitchen, and then we can call it a day,” Ralsei happily said as they left the room again, beginning to walk towards the kitchen so that they could clean it as well. “I´m happy to be able to help you out, Ralsei,” his friend next to him replied with a smile directed at him, and Ralsei´s heart jumped in joy at the sudden emotions Kris showed now, happy to see his friend not being as reclusive as he used to be otherwise.

The kitchen proved not to be of much trouble to get cleaned again as well, a bit of dough here and there and a few drops of spilled ingredients were the worst parts to deal with, the rest consisted of putting everything back in place and cleaning the tools Ralsei had used for the cookies. The dark prince took things like the baking tray and the ingredients he had used and put them back where they belonged, while Kris stood at the sink and washed the things that were now dirty because of being used for making the cookies or for the tea they had.

“Whew, we did it, Kris!” Ralsei said with glee as he looked around the kitchen in the end, spotless as it had been at the beginning of the day. He had to admit that he felt a bit tired due to being a host for the gang and also cleaning afterwards, but he felt happy to have done it, even more so because Kris had been with him today. He also remembered how Kris had assured him of the cookies being good after he had thought that they had turned out to be bad…Kris really made his day better today, and he realized that pretty much every day he had spent with Kris was a good one, just by his presence alone.

“Well then, I think it is about time that I went on my way myself, it is quite late by now after all. Come, Ralsei,” Kris said after a while with a smile, and Ralsei nodded at what he said. He was sad to see Kris go now, but he knew that his friend had places to be, and he certainly wouldn´t want to stop him from returning to where he belonged. The two of them left the kitchen and made their way towards the entrance of Ralsei´s castle once more, no word spoken along the way.

Eventually the large door stood before them, and Ralsei politely opened it so that Kris was able to go outside. His friend began to walk out of the castle, though he stopped in the doorway again and looked back at Ralsei. “Hey Ralsei…I think I should tell you what sort of cookie my favourite is,” he eventually said with a smile, and Ralsei leaned in closer towards Kris in curiosity. What he never expected was for Kris to lean forward himself, taking his hat off and suddenly pressing his lips on Ralsei´s own.

Ralsei didn´t know what was happening to him, he only felt two things: Kris´ lips on his own and the heat that gathered on his face. Before long did Kris pull back again and put Ralsei´s hat into the hand of the perplexed fluffy prince, smiling with a slight blush on his own face as well. “My favourite cookie is a white and soft one, my dear. See you tomorrow,” Kris said with a genuine and warming smile before turning around and quickly running away, with Ralsei only able to look after his friend.

Then he felt it. A feeling in his heart, blooming strong and filling him with energy. It seemed as if he had an explanation for Kris´ behaviour now, and he also understood why Kris presence had made his days a lot better. He smiled himself and closed the door, his heart racing and the heat on his cheeks burning. “W-well, Kris…I hope I can be a good cookie…” he whispered as he leaned with his back against the door, sliding down on it to sit on the ground and collect himself.