#anyway idont know babycorns resturant family doesnt have a name but i love them dearly

[hqmillioncorn]

Lalapril 4/20: Conflict

Babycorn had no intentions of returning to Limsa Lominsa so soon.

Especially by terrifying airship travel. But a job was a job and for some reason no one had really listened to her when she said she didn’t want to go, so here she was.

As she settled Cherrypit back into his hiding place she took note of the faded posters on the wall. Each with a face that she was still in the process of making herself forget about.

She was a fool. A huge fool.

“Ah, yes. Just excuse me for a bit!”

Stelala gave a small bow and made her way down the ship ramp at a brisk speed. The evening air blew her hair in front of her eyes and made her squint. She hastily looked down both ends of the dock, hoping to spot any sign of a moody blond haired lalafell.

Instead Stelala was greeted by just the sound of the ocean beneath her.

“No, no, no…”

It was a particularly dark night out, with storm clouds obscuring the light of the moon. So, despite still being ‘on the clock’ Stelala took off from the docked boat towards one of the many walkways in Limsa Lominsa, trying to spot any sign of where Babycorn could have run off to.

Tonight was an especially dangerous night to be out.

It had only been a few days since Allie had disappeared.

With Annie helping the rest of her family with the search efforts, that left Floral in charge of the restaurant for the time being. 

It was her decision that the restaurant stay open despite the circumstances. Something that Stelala was vocally opposed to.

As Stelala looked down a dark path, she shook her head.

She should have been old enough to know that people deal with stress differently. While Stelala would have rather gone to rest and focus on something other than work, Floral was keeping herself busy, probably hoping that work would keep her thoughts on something other than worrying about Allie.

“I suppose you do learn something new every day…” Stelala muttered to herself.

The sound of her own voice managed to catch her off guard. She felt her heart racing faster and faster in her chest.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this afraid.

While it was a dangerous thing to wander around a city so late at night by yourself, Stelala’s worry came from the rumors that Allie’s disappearance had been orchestrated by someone that targeted her specifically.

Stelala had heard whispers of people going missing all the time around Limsa but it had never really happened to someone so close to her.

So this was a hell of a wake up call for her.

“Babycorn! Babycorn, where are you?!”

Stelala threw her own safety aside for a minute.

If anyone dared to come after her while she was looking for Babycorn they would very soon be breathing in sea water, and the same threat applied to anyone that would dare hurt Babycorn or any of the others.

As Stelala climbed up a ramp she wondered if she had somehow missed Babycorn somewhere back along the way. Not only were her anxieties telling her this but so were her legs, who protested loudly at being made to climb a steep ramp.

“Babycorn!!”

There was a flicker of hope when Stelala spotted a small shadow scurrying away from her.

Following her instincts, and that shadow, Stelala chased it as it ran up the ramp. It was more of a sprint, which was good because sudden spiriting was Stelala’s forte.

Her search came to an end when Stelala reached the top of the ramp and finally spotted the angry Babycorn sitting by herself on a lonely bench.

Stelala let out a sigh of relief and let herself lean on a nearby wall. All the running that she had done that night finally decided to catch up to her. Deciding that Babycorn wasn't really going anywhere for the time being, she decided to give herself a couple of seconds to catch her breath.

She felt a rise of panic when Babycorn turned her head to see her standing behind her.

Then a sense of confusion when she felt something run into her.

Stelala was fairly short for her age, even among the shortest of lalafell. She didn't mind however. It added to her charm. 

Unfortunately, this meant that It wasn’t that hard for someone to grab her.

Or say, hug them very tightly.

But that was much nicer than being grabbed.

Stelala instantly knew who was hugging and crying into their hair. “Babycorn!” She hugged her as tight as she could and let the teenager cry out their sorrows onto her custom-made expensive housemaid hat.

“I was so worried about you! Please don’t run out like that again!”

“I-I wasn’t crying!” Babycorn sniffled.

Stelala chuckled to herself, she hadn’t even mentioned anything about Babycorn crying. “I know you weren’t. I was just worried about you.”

“...If you were really worried then you wouldn’t have gotten mad.”

Stelala sighed. She knew it would come to this. It always came to this.

“You really shouldn’t eat other people’s food when it's right in front of them.”

To be fair, she hadn’t expected Babycorn’s reaction to being scolded to be so extreme. Babycorn had definitely been told to stop eating other customers' food before tonight. 

All she would do in retaliation was give a pout and stomp away.

Babycorn immediately recoiled back with a stomp and pouted. “Well if they’re not eating it then someones gotta!” It really wasn’t fair that they were letting the soup get cold right there in front of them! Blooming had worked so hard to make it and now it was getting cold! Not only that, M’yusa had worked hard to deliver it to them too!

It made Babycorn mad! And also hungry! Mostly hungry!

Stelala gave Babycorn a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“It's not fun to watch other people eat while you can’t huh?” Stelala knew what she was talking about. She had spent years working serving food to other people and one of her deepest desires was to be able to eat all of the dishes she took to every ungrateful customer.

“I just wanna try a little biiite! Is that so bad?” Babycorn slumped down to the ground and sat down. Had the circumstances been different Stelala would have reminded Babycorn she needed to keep her uniform clean but who needed to worry about that kind of stuff right now?

Stelala took a seat next to her.

“Well. If we’re talking about a Babycorn bite then it is that bad.”

Lest they forget about the incident where Babycorn took a bite out of a customer alongside their ice cream sundae.

“Hmph!! That was one time!”

“One time too many!”

“I already promised that I won’t eat any person anymore!” Babycorn had meant it, she doubled, tripled and swore on her life that she wouldn’t!

And everyone believed her.

Stelala nodded and laughed. It was getting late. Everyone would probably be wondering where they were by now. She hoped that she wasn’t making anyone worry about them as Babycorn worried her.

Who was she kidding? Floral was probably halfway to making missing posters by now.

“Alright Babycorn, let’s get going.” Stelala pushed herself up and extended a hand to help Babycorn up, “They’re going to be worried about us if we don’t get back soon.”

Babycorn took her hand without a second thought. But there was obviously still something bothering her.

“Babycorn?”

“Hmm…?”

“Can I ask you something?”

Babycorn looked at her in silence, waiting for Stelala to continue.

Stelala smiled and moved to adjust Babycorn’s apron. “How would you like to come live with me? Hmm?”

Stelala knew that Babycorn lived in the restaurant, in a small room inside of a tower that no one used anymore. 

Od course, this wasn’t the story that Babycorn had actually told them. Babycorn had told them all that she lived by herself in another part of town but by now Stelala had clued in to the truth. They all had.

“W-With you…?!”

Babycorn was almost floored by the very thought. And the shadow in the darkness grinned from ear to ear.

“Yes!” Stelala clapped her hands together, “I’ve been working on getting somewhere bigger to live and since it would just be me living by myself I wouldn’t mind having a munchkin or two running around!

“I….I-I…”

“You don’t have to answer right away! Just think about it. Okay?”

Babycorn looked away, unsure of what to think.

Until she nodded.

“Thank you…”

Stelala let out a loud laugh and gestured for Babycorn to follow her. Babycorn shyly grabbed onto her apron and followed right behind of Stelala. She wasn’t doing a good job of hiding her smile.

“Don’t worry about it sweetie. We’ll be here.”

As the two lalafells walked into the night, Stelala made sure to give a reassuring smile to the shadow following behind them.

#lalapril 2023 #ooooohhh there are so many i missed and wanna do but sadly im out of it....... #anyway idont know babycorns resturant family doesnt have a name but i love them dearly #their names are refrences to something and in color its kinda a little easier to tell what kinda but not like super obvious #if you know you know #*some of their names #anywho i babycorn is 15 in this and is starting to open up before certain events cause her to slam closed shut again #cherrypit is the shadow btw babycorn told him to keep hidden cause of prior events #she doesnt want him to get hurt #m'yusa looks small here i made her too small sobs