Chapter Text
It must of been at least six in the morning when Roll heard the loud, repetitive sounds of pitter-patter on the floors. "Roll!" a loud, excited little voice cried, followed by clinking and clanking of the squirrels moving around in the shop downstairs. The elder brother groaned, throwing his pillow at the door before shoving his face into the sheets, it was too early to deal with little brothers and fixing the streets, and it had to be at the very least a sleepy saturday morning. Not to mention, sleepy, sunny, saturday mornings in the middle of october were rare. Normally around this time of year cookies were getting ready to migrate from the jungle to the nearby city, and business was booming.
"Roll!! Wake up!" Pancake hollered, jumping up and down on his brother's bed, squealing and giggling with delight. "Come on! You said we could go out today! I wanna see the jelly dinos 'an all of the animal cookies 'an the... the..." the younger paused, bringing his hand to his mouth. There was already so much he wanted to see that he wasn't sure what he wanted to see first! "Roll! Come on! Come on!" the little one insisted, finally shoving his feet directly in his brother's stomach and knocking poor Roll onto the floor.
There was ten more hours of this kinda thing. Roll grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Pancake.." he grumbled. "What time is it?" he asked, reaching to his bedside table for his goggles, and of course they weren't there. There was a pile of acorns, a wrench and a couple of nuts and bolts from the day earlier. "Pancake. Time." he repeated, getting onto his knees and brushing the wood chips that normally covered his bedroom floor. "Pan-"
"It's..... six... three... nine!" Pancake announced, handing his big brother his goggles with a big goofy grin. Once he got them on, he was surprised Pancake was sitting on the stool at his desk, looking over stuff for the shop. "Roll! Roll!! Can I have an acorn jelly for breakfast?" he begged, eyes the size of saucers and his mouth shaped just like a kitten's some how. "Pweeeeeeeaaaase? I'll never, ever, ever ask you for another jelly as long as I live!" the younger brother insisted.
Roll thought to himself. He could probably have enough time to get dressed around the same time Pancake could get a mouthful of acorn jellies, run around the shop and tend to the early-risers, and then run back upstairs. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead and don't disturb the squirrels if they're asleep little bro." he warned, tossing a bolt at his squeaking, squealing little brother as the pitter-patter of little feet went down the stairs.
Pancake could definitely take care of the shop by himself, he normally had one of the squirrels or another person downstairs near him so nothing could go too wrong. When Roll was Pancake's age he was taking care of the bigger things, like how to drive his big machines or fix the Stoplight Brothers. As Roll grabbed his normal outfit, Pancake swooped down the stairs, taking large jumps so he felt flying like a real flying squirrel before landing behind the register with a grin, and shoving what felt like a million of acorn jellies in his mouth.
The sweet, peanutty taste of the jellies were his only thought until Cinnamon Cookie entered the store, a gentle smile on their face as their held the door open for the young Cream Choux Cookie, who held her magic wand in her hands nervously. Cinnamon gave her a kind pat on the back as they took her hand gently, explaining that for the next spell they were doing, that she needed to be cool and calm and collected. Cream Choux only could nod, her little body trembling.
Pancake found himself bored with watching the few squirrels scurry around the ground floor, putting jellies and coins into wheelbarrows and wheeling them in and out, work was so boring for kids! Before he could consider leaving, Cream wandered over, with a half-smile on her face. "Hello Pancake. How do you do?" she asked, rocking on her heels as she held herself up on the high counter.
"Hiya! I'm good!" the shopkeeper exclaimed, pushing his drooping hood from his eyes. "Whattya need today? Do you want jellies? Or the potions? Or..." he dug around under the desks. "Or... Normally Mister Caterpillar sells items but I think Roll wouldn't care if I did!!" He bounced from up and down on his little stool, he never got to work with the real-life customers before! Roll must be getting ready for the big day ahead of them.
Cream Choux nervously looked at Pancake, who had to pull a jelly from his round little cheeks. "Wanna explore?" he asked, his voice soft but still bubbling with excitement.