Chapter 58
Later
Floria grumbled to herself as she stood over the overflowing dumpster, her hands outstretched as she pushed all the garbage out of her Vacuole and onto the growing pile.
Once finished she walked back to her apartment, giving the Creampuff a nod as she stepped over him and back into her now bare apartment. They’d somehow managed to clean out the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, leaving just the bedroom left.
As she stepped in she saw Vanilla using her Alchemy Thorn to clean most of the stains that lined the carpets, trying to remove the smells that permeated from them.
“Now that you’re back, prepare the food for everyone, if you will,” Vanilla said as she wiped sweat off of her face, clearly straining herself.
Floria started to complain, but saw how hard Vanilla was working to clean everything, so she bit her tongue, “yes, ma’am, gonna get right on that.”
She pulled all the ingredients out, only to realize one small problem.
“Um, I can’t cook,” she said dumbly as she stared at Vanilla, who sat up on her knees looking absolutely spent.
“What? How can you not-“ she stopped herself as she remembered all the take out boxes they’d just thrown out. “Never mind, the question answers itself.”
With a groan she stood up and waved for her to move, “very well, I’ll make dinner if you’ll wake the others.”
Now that the apartment was cleaner, Creampuff skittered in and up Vanilla’s leg. He quickly took up a position on her shoulder, watching her work as he purred.
She gave a little salute and hopped to the task, flinging open the door and walking in, “wakey wakey, fuckers!” She grabbed the side of the bed and dumped them right into the floor, causing them both to panic and fight each other to stand up.
“What’s happening?!” Shayla yelped as her wooden sword appeared in her hands.
“Have fun?” Floria asked with a smirk
“I did actually, thank you very much!” Shayla declared as she dusted herself and Domitor off.
“Wait, no, don’t bang on my bed!” Floria groaned, getting wide eyed stares from the other two.
“We didn’t,” Domitor said simply, causing Floria to roll her eyes.
“Sure, just use the couch next time,” she said, giving them a smirk and finger guns.
They both just sighed, deciding not to fight it.
“Food is ready!” Came Vanilla’s voice, causing both of them to look at Floria in confusion.
“Did you fix her?” Shayla asked.
“Fuck yeah I did!” Floria laughed, moving to the living room.
As they all walked into the living room they did a double take, taking in the now completely clean room.
“What the fuck…” Shayla muttered, rubbing her face. “I take a nap and everything changes.”
“Vanilla made me clean so her new Reng would come inside,” the short Kejtdra mumbled as she sat down at her now clean coffee table.
“The fuck is a Reng?” The buff mare asked, followed by Creampuff popping up behind her and hissing right in her ear.
“Shit!” Shayla yelped as she jumped away, bringing her fist up as if ready to fight.
“That is a Reng,” Vanilla said as she put some food down on the table, eyeing Shayla as she squared up with the Reng, “his name is Creampuff and you will not harm him.”
“As long as he’s cool, then I’m cool,” she said as she gave the Reng a nod.
Creampuff quickly ran along the wall and jumped onto Vanilla’s shoulder as she made her way back to the kitchen.
“Okay seriously, what’s with her?” Shayla asked as she and Domitor sat on the floor around the coffee table, no one wanting to go near the couch.
Floria looked towards the kitchen to make sure she wasn’t coming back before leaning forward, “so I think that whole episode of her being an emotionless robot was because of some shit her sister put her through.”
“What kind of stuff?” Domitor asked quietly.
“I dunno, but apparently her sister has killed every one of her Reng’s, saying she wasn’t allowed to have one. Then her sister somehow convinced her it was because of her that the Reng’s died.”
“I hate this bitch already,” Shayla grumbled, mirroring the reaction of Domitor who looked just as upset by what he’d just heard.
“It goes deeper,” she said as she leaned closer, “her mind is so fucked she’s convinced that her bad mouthing her sister is the reason you two got together.”
“Well that’s just batshit insane,” Shayla stated, shaking her head.
“So you think her sister is the route of all the problems we’ve seen?” Domitor asked, getting a nod in response.
“I hope you all enjoy, Creampuff and I put a lot of thought and effort into this meal,” Vanilla said as she put down the last of the plates, taking up her position by Floria.
They went silent once Vanilla sat down, not wanting to upset her after all the progress she’d made.
Shayla was the first to take a bite, letting out an excited squeal, “you put the spices in!”
“I knew you enjoyed them, so I put them in for you,” she said with a little smile, eating a bite and then feeding the next bite to Creampuff.
“Fucking score,” Shayla muttered as she began to messily devour her food.
Domitor ate his slower, flicking any specks of food that landed on him from Shayla’s messy eating.
Floria was just happy Vanilla was back as she ate her own food, smiling as she side eyed the now happy Cakehurst.
As everyone started to finish, Domitor leaned back, staring at Vanilla as she held Creampuff in her arms, feeding him her left overs.
“Vanilla,” he said, getting her attention, “you remember what I told you of my home life?”
She blinked at him then gave a nod, “of course. It was horrific and beyond words.”
“Yeah,” he said as he leaned back towards her. “So tell me about your childhood.”
Everyone stopped moving, just staring at him and then at Vanilla. She had a conflicted look on her face.
“It was great,” she said in a quivering voice.
“What about your sister?” He pushed.
“She’s… the best,” she said, sounding a bit terrified. Creampuff meowed and pressed his head into her chin.
“That’s not true,” he said a bit sternly. “What has she done to you to make you act like this?”
She was trembling as she tried to remain calm, “n-nothing.”
“Vanilla,” Floria said calmly as she put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You can tell us.”
“C-Cocoa has only done what is best for me, because I am incapable of making good decisions for myself,” she said in a rehearsed tone, still looking terrified.
“Are you saying that we’re a bad decision?” Floria asked. Then she squeezed her shoulder and asked in a smaller voice, “that I’m a bad decision?”
Vanilla didn’t know how to answer that. Her heart said one thing, but her brain said another.
“Can we… please change the subject?” She practically begged.
“Nah, we need to work through-“ Shayla began but Floria held up her hand, interrupting her.
“We can,” Floria said as she removed her hand, letting Creampuff take over as he rubbed against Vanilla, trying to cheer her up.
A wave of relief washed over her as she began to pet the Reng, “thank you, Floria.”
“Don’t mention it, Vandyke,” Floria chuckled as she waved for the other two to drop it as well.
Shayla clearly didn’t want to just drop it, but Domitor placed a hoof on her hand, shaking his head at her.
She let out an annoyed sigh but didn’t push the subject further.
“Now,” Floria said as she stood up, “let’s focus on cleaning the bedroom, would you like that?”
“I would very much,” Vanilla replied as she stood up and marched into the bedroom.
“Just, let me look at what you’re throwing out, since all of my valuables are in here,” Floria said as she began to shift through the trash, picking up a few items that were important to her.
Out in the living room she could hear Shayla and Domitor talking, but she focused more on helping Vanilla clean the room.
Creampuff stayed in the living room, clearly not wanting to be among this mess.
The pair worked slowly, removing trash and sorting through Floria’s personal things. It took a few trips to the dumpster, but they were finally down to the stuff that Floria hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Oh shit, I remember this,” she said as she held up a weird item with signatures all over it. “This is from that one band I went to see, good fucking times.”
She put that away in her Vacuole, moving on to the next item.
Vanilla was just piling things up for her to go through as she shifted through the junk, shaking her head at all the weird and out of place items that the other woman had hoarded.
Reaching under the bed she pulled out a massive amount of trash, bringing a frown to her face. Who could live like this?
On one of her fishing trips under the bed she pulled out a old shoe box that had seen better days. She almost tossed it, but heard some items rolling around in it so she sat it down and opened it.
As expected it was mostly just junk items that seemed to hold no value to anyone but Floria. She seemed to keep just random ite-
Vanilla came to a grinding halt as her eyes landed on a single item within the box, an item that should not be there. With a shaky hand she reached in and grabbed the item, raising it up for Floria to see.
“W-where’d you get this?” she asked, her voice shaking as well.
Floria looked over, a small smile appearing on her face as she saw the little item she held, “that? Long depressing story, ending in my father doing this,” she said, pointing to her broken faceplate. “The kid who gave that to me was the first person to try and help me, and I fell for them. Then they turned around and...”
She looked pained for a moment, but then sighed, "forget it. Why are you asking about that item in particular?"
Vanilla looked at the item, reading the inside where a name lay, “Because, Watari Cakehurst is my late fathers name. This is his ring…”
The two looked at each other, shocked slowly over taking their faces.
“D-Dahlia?” Vanilla asked in a whisper.
This caused Floria’s eyes to go wide as she stumbled back a bit and leaned into the corner of the couch, “... Orchid?!”
They now looked completely dumbfounded and shocked as they stared at each other.
“Yo, you fuckers almost done?” Shayla asked as she stepped into the room, coming to a stop as she saw the two looking at each other like they’d just received the shocks of their lives. “Erm, guys?”
They ignored her as Vanilla looked back to the ring, “But I don’t understand… Cocoa said you sold this? To buy drugs for yourself… how do you still have this?”
Floria herself was still too shocked to respond as her hand reached up and began to fidget with her broken faceplate.
“I just don’t understand,” Vanilla muttered, “Cocoa was very clear about the fact you sold this… but it's right here…”
“You fucking monster,” Floria muttered, causing Vanilla to look at her in surprise. “You… it was you that… YOU?! FUCK!” she roared, clenching her fist as she stared straight up at the ceiling.
“Floria?” a very confused Vanilla asked, watching as the other woman raised her fist, still looking straight up.
“Why… what benefit was it to you to do this to me?!” she yelled, looking right at Vanilla as large tears flowed out of her eyes and down her face. “Why would you do that to me?! I TRUSTED you!”
“W-what do you mean?!” Vanilla yelped, the sudden change in mood just adding to her confusion.
“Don’t play dumb!” she screamed, causing Domitor to rush into the room, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything as Floria continued yelling, “you told me to follow you! That you found a place for me to stay! But you took me to my FATHER! Then you LAUGHED as he grabbed me and forced me to go home with him! He fucking BEAT AND RAPED ME! YOU SADISTIC MONSTER!”
The look on Vanilla’s face spoke a thousand words, yet her mouth spoke none as she stared at the seething Kejtdra, tears running down her own face.
“Say something!” Floria screamed, taking an aggressive step towards her.
“I-I… I-I…” Vanilla stuttered, her mind working overtime as she tried her hardest to recall what Floria was saying, but she was drawing blanks. What she was saying made zero sense to her. “... I don’t remember doing anything like that…” she muttered weakly, but then her sister's words came back to her.
“B-but I guess if you say I d-did it, I-I guess I must’ve…” Vanilla said quietly, hanging her head as she began to hate herself in even more ways.
Shayla and Domitor were even more lost, not understanding a thing that had just been said.
“I should ki-” Floria began, but stopped herself as the words spoken by Vanilla finally registered. “The fuck you mean ‘if you say I did it, then I guess I must’ve’?! Just fucking own it, bitch!”
“Then I did it! Happy?” Vanilla cried out, falling in on herself and curling up.
Creampuff sprinted into the room and jumped onto her, licking her face and nudging her as she shook violently, eyes wide.
Floria growled as she fell onto her ass, putting her hands in her face, “FUCK!”
Domitor gulped as he took a step between them, “... what the hell is going on?”
“Uh…” Shayla said from behind him, her own mind working hard as she tried to process what she’d just seen. “So apparently those two know each other from when they were kids, and Vanilla thought Floria sold her dad's ring because her bitch sister told her he did. Then Floria got mad and said Vanilla tricked her back into her dad's arms. But Vanilla acted like she didn’t even know of that, and then after being yelled at changed her answer to ‘yes, she did do it’.”
Domitor looked at her as she stood there breathing hard, mildly impressed she’d actually been paying attention for once. “Okay, so this still makes no sense,” he said, looking between the two crying women, “you both say different things of the same event. So you know what that means?”
No one answered him.
“It means,” he continued, “that it’s possible you’re both wrong. Third party interference.”
This caused them both to look at him.
“What?” Floria asked in a rough voice, clearly still enraged.
“Hear me out, but is it possible her sister did something? Vanilla herself said her sister lied about you selling the ring,” he said, trying to make this all make sense.
“No, because it was HER there. She herself led me to my father, not someone else,” Floria growled, glaring daggers at the curled up woman.
“Isn’t Cocoa her TWIN sister though?” Shayla asked, causing everyone to have the same reaction.
“Vanilla, did you actually do this? Or are you just saying what you think you have to say?” Domitor asked as he knelt down next to the whimpering Vanilla.
“I-I don’t know, my memories can’t be trusted… so I probably did it…”
“I don’t buy it,” Domitor said as he stood up, shaking his head. “Floria, do you actually think she did this?”
“I know she did,” she muttered, “and it hurts. I fell for her back then, and she betrayed me. And now I fall for her again, and then I find this out.”
This admission caused Vanilla to start crying again.
“Okay, then we’re going to need to confirm this,” Domitor declared as he turned to his partner. “Shayla.”
“Uh, yeah?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“You can use your port thingies to enter memories right?”
She blinked dumbly at him, but then nodded.
“Can you take others with you?”
Again, she looked like a deer in the headlights, seeming to be letting Rosemary explain things to her.
“... I can actually.”
“Perfection,” Domitor said as he turned back to the others, “so here’s what we will do. Floria, you will hold back on anger till this is confirmed. Vanilla, you’re going to let us into your memories. Are we agreed?”
“Fine,” Floria grunted, hoping against hope that what she knows to be true is actually not.
“If you think I should, then yes,” Vanilla answered in a trembling voice, holding onto Creampuff as she buried her face in his chest fluff.
He sighed as he turned to Shayla, waving for her to come forward, “well, your time to shine, Shay.”