Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Arcana walks in on his usually stoic, serious, and calculated partner stuffing her face with sweets, his first instinct is to burst out laughing. His second instinct is to duck down to avoid an arrow piercing his hat. 

After saving his precious top hat and composing himself, Arcana allows him to take a second glimpse at Mona. He realizes that the only thing saving him from her screeching is the fact that her cheeks are inflated like a chipmunk’s with how many gummy bears she had stuffed in them. Her flushed face and tiny hands struggling to cover her mouth only add to the resemblance. How adorable! He thinks to himself.

Once again, he bursts out laughing, but this time, he is close enough to grab her hand before she fires an arrow at him. She scrunches her nose and furrows her brows in defiance as she chews, and Arcana can’t help but take out his phone to try to capture the precious moment on photo. Unfortunately for him, she had finally finished chewing her gummy bears in the time it took for him to grab his phone, so he finds his ears under assault as soon as she sees it.

“H-hey! No!” She yells, grabbing for his phone as he holds it out of her reach. 

“Mmm, yes!” He responds gleefully, taking a barrage of random photos as the two grapple. 

Mona stomps on his foot, and down he goes, taking her down with him. And, one of her precious lollipops that was sitting in her pocket. The moment seems to happen in slow motion from Arcana’s perspective. Mona’s scuffed up platform boot coming down on his big toe, causing him to lose balance. His arm reaching around her to grab onto the desk, only to find it just out of his reach, and grabbing on to her instead. A singular jasmine green tea lollipop falling out of her pocket, and falling onto the floor. And the grand finale! Him landing flat on his ass with Mona tumbling down on top of him. 

The wind gets knocked out of him so hard that he doesn’t even register the fact that Mona is laying on top of him, groaning, until a shout brings him back to reality.

“Damnit!” She curses, cradling a small object in her hands.

Arcana rubs his head and sits up slowly, trying to get a glimpse of whatever she was holding without throwing her from his lap. “Hm?” He questions, giving up on trying to find a good angle to see. 

“My last lollipop! Your fat ass crushed it!” She cries out, holding the lollipop to her chest in sorrow. 

If Arcana woke up that moment and discovered that it had all been a dream, he wouldn’t have questioned it, because this was quite possibly the strangest behavior he’d ever seen from the silver haired girl. “First off, my ass is not fat, just shaped well! And secondly, what?” He asks, clearly confused by her sentiment towards a literal piece of food. A sweet, at that, something he had never even previously seen her eat. 

“It was a limited edition flavor! I woke up at 4am to line up outside of the candy store on Bertran’s street to buy a box, and this was my last one!” 

He scratches his head, and looks around her room, where he spots a box labeled with the store’s name, the lollipop flavor, and in giant, bold letters, the words “Limited edition, buy it while you can!” And, below it, the release date, which was only two days previous.

“You ate these all in two days!” He shouts, shocked by her speedy consumption. 

Mona flushes and looks away while crossing her arms and mumbling something. 

“Hm?” He prompts.

Finally, she turns to look at him and glares daggers. “I said, I have a bit of a sweet tooth!” She grits out, teeth clenched.

“No shit, sherlock! I’ve never even seen you eat candy before either, who would’ve thunk!” 

At that, she turns even redder and grabs him by the shirt. “And no one will think! You open your trap and you’re a dead man!” Realizing that she is, in fact, still on top of him, she scrambles to get up and grabs a knife off her desk to point at him. 

“Jesus Christ! I get it, I get it, the ice queen can’t let it get out that she has a soul. My lips are sealed! Promise!.” He yelps, holding his hands up to make a dramatic lock and key gesture by his lips to try to get her to put the knife down. 

After some consideration on her part, she stabs the knife into the top of her desk and glares at him before sitting down on her bed and sulking.

“What?” He questions, feeling both immensely guilty and uncomfortable by the usually emotionless girl’s pouting. 

Mona is silent for a moment before answering, “...was my favorite flavor.” She says quietly while staring at the floor. 

He sighs, curses himself, and then stands up to leave. Time to play hero, God help me and Hermes guide me. “Where’d you get those from again?” 

“Penny and Dime. Why?” She questions, not even bothering to look up at him. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, I’ll be back in an hour or so, make sure to have your ringer on.” And with that, he rushes out the door.

Chapter Text

“Please tell me you’re joking.” Arcana pleads, smile a bit too wide, posture a bit too stiff. 

The candy store attendant laughs awkwardly and clasps her hands together in apology, “I am so sorry, sir! Unfortunately, we are out of stock of the jasmine green tea lollipops, and will not be getting another shipment as they were limited edition. However, we have a variety of other flavors! Are you interested in lemon lime or passionfruit punch?” 

He sighs, rubs his nose, and tries once again, “Not even a single one? Please miss, I only need one lollipop. It’s a dire situation, I swear!”

Once again, the woman smiles politely before giving the same text book response, “Due to the fact that we only sell our limited edition candies in bushels or boxes, I can assure you that there is unfortunately, not a single lollipop left. We have other, similar, tea flavors and even other jasmine green tea flavored candies, just no lollipops! I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.”

“Miss, I am so sorry for bothering you, but once again, I’m going to have to ask, are you completely sure? Because Mona, my dear, dear partner, loves those lollipops. And I broke her last one. And if I don’t bring any replacements home, she is going to beat me to death.” He pauses, gauges her reaction, and continues, “Can you please check the back for me? I’ll get out of your hair after, but I just want to make sure I’m not going to become a victim of domestic abuse for nothing.”

The saleswoman visibly pales, but keeps her plastic smile plastered on her face, “Of course, sir. I’ll be right back.”

She turns to leave, but an elderly man gently grabs her elbow to stop her. “I’ll take care of this, Vivian. You can clock out early for the day.” The woman visibly brightens and smiles at both Arcana and the elderly man.

“Well then, I’ll leave you two to it! Good luck with your girlfriend and her sweet tooth!”

Arcana starts to correct the attendant, but she scurries away before he can even open his mouth. Sighing once more, he turns to the elderly man, and pastes on a smile. 

“Hello, sir! I am so sorry to bother you, but I’m going to have to ask if you have any jasmine green tea lollipops, because my lovely-”

The man holds up a hand to stop him before smiling warmly at Arcana, “So I heard! I’m the co-owner of Penny and Dime, Mr. Bartham, and I just might be able to get you out of the dog house with your lady.”

Once more, Arcana opens his mouth to explain his relationship with Mona, but thinks better of it when Mr. Bartham beams at him. “Oh well, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” 

“I presume she has quite the sweet tooth for you to be so fearful, yes?” He questions with a raised brow.

Arcana thinks back to her dramatic cradling of the shattered candy and gulps, “Yes, to say the least.”

“Lucky for you, young man, my wife also has quite the soft spot for sweets. After all, this candy shop is the reason we’re together! I always say it’s the real reason she loves me. A few odd 20 years back or so, I brought in these limited edition Americano push pops, and by God, she adored them! But, so did everyone else, and we ended up selling out quite quickly. So quickly, in fact, that there wasn’t even a handful left in the storage room! My God! That woman pouted, she took it so personally! I felt awful! So ever since then, I keep an extra bushel of every limited edition product in my office upstairs. You should be thankful that my wife doesn’t like this flavor, otherwise she’d tear it from your dead body!” He says with a chuckle before continuing, “I’ll grab you the bushel. I might recommend some chocolate roses too, just to be safe.”

The tall esper ponders it, then shakes his head. “Nah, she likes gummies and suckers more, anything else?” He questions, before asking himself why he was buying candied roses for the hypothetical dog house his fake girlfriend had put him in. Roll with it, man. Might keep her off your case for a bit…and give you an opportunity to get that squirrel girl photo…

“Ahh, I see, not to worry! How about a caramel apple shaped like a deer head?” Mr. Bartham asks.

One of Artemis’ sacred animals, perfect! “That’s fantastic, I’ll take two. Thank you so much sir! I’m so sorry to cause this much of a stir.” He says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Of course! One moment please.” And with that, the elderly man is off. Flitting about his store and rushing up the stairs, a man on a mission. 

The vessel of Hermes laughs, watching the crowd part like the red sea for Mr. Bartham. Maybe I should do something like this when I retire, wouldn’t be too hard to steal-er, procure some candy recipes. Plus, it’d keep Mona around.

In a blink of an eye, Mr. Bartham is back, holding a wrapped bushel of lollipops and a box of caramel apples. “Here you go! Come on over to register 2, I’ll ring you up over there.”

“I can’t thank you enough! You literally just saved my life, you have no idea!” He says jovially, handing over his card and grabbing the bag. 

“Of course! I’m always happy to help a guy out.” The elderly man responds as he hands him his receipt and card back.

Arcana thanks him again, and turns to leave, making it almost all the way out the door, before he hears Mr. Bartham again. “Oh! And tell Mona hi for me, it was nice to meet the man she always speaks so highly of!”

He feels his heart rate spike, his cheeks blush, and begins to turn around to ask for clarification, before a 6 year old hellbent on getting his sweets barrels into him, pushing him out the door. I knew she didn’t hate me!

Chapter Text

For the second time that day, Arcana burst into Mona’s room, not even bothering to knock or text her that he was on her way. He simply picked the lock and kicked open the door, hoping that she wasn’t standing near it. 

Luckily for him, and her, she was in the exact same place she was when he left, except this time she was curled up and fast asleep. Somehow, his dramatic entrance hadn’t woken her up, so Arcana was forced to do it the boring way. Creeping over to the bed, he pulled her hair gently to wake her. She grumbled sleepily, but sat straight up once she realized that someone was in her room.

“What-hey! I told you to stop picking the lock! I gave you a key, damnit, use it!” She shouted angrily while poking him in the chest.

Sensing that the lecture would go on for far too long, Arcana put a finger up to shush her. “I come in peace. I offer these humble sacrifices to the Goddess Artemis, whose greatness knows no bounds.” 

Mona opened her mouth to retaliate, and raised her hand to possibly hit him, but stopped once he held out the Penny and Dime Candy Co. bag. Her eyes widened and her hand went to her mouth as she gasped. Reaching into the bag, he pulled out the bushel of limited edition lollipops and set them into her lap while also pulling out the caramel apples. 

“I was thinking we could share these?” Arcana asked awkwardly, gesturing to the box of deer shaped apples.

Ignoring him completely, Mona picked up the bundle of lollipops and held them like precious gold. “How did you get these? They were completely sold out!”

Giving a nonchalant shrug, the esper tried to look the picture of uncaring. “Oh, you know, I have my ways.” He said with a wink.

The girl blushed and averted her eyes. “Thank you.” She whispered, so quiet that he could barely hear her. 

“Oh, what was that? I don’t think I heard ya. Can you repeat it again so I can make it my ringtone?” He teased, backing up at just the right moment when she reached to punch him.

“I was trying to be polite, but you ruined it! I thought we were having a moment.”

Arcana laughed, “Well if you want a moment, I can give you much more than that.”

She blushed even darker and swatted at him. As per usual, he evaded her attempts, and she eventually got bored of the game of cat and mouse they were playing. The silver haired girl carefully unwrapped a lollipop and popped it into her mouth, humming in satisfaction as soon as the candy made contact with her tongue. 

The sight of her being so relaxed was unusual and bearing witness to it felt strangely intimate. Curious at how a piece of food could calm her so much, Arcana decided to find out. 

“How’s it taste?” He questioned, tilting his head to take in her expression better.

Looking completely blissed out, her eyes were closed, her muscles were relaxed, and she leaned comfortably on the bed. She looked as if she didn’t have a care in the world, when in reality, it was the exact opposite. But for now, all was well, and she did not have to be the blessed vessel of Artemis, she could just be Mona. A 19 year old with a gaming addiction and authority issue.

Taking her sweet time, she finally graced him with an answer. “Find out for yourself,” She said around the lollipop. “You’re the one who paid for ‘em.”

Deciding now was as good of a time as ever to push his luck. Arcana said a silent prayer before responding. “Don’t mind if I do.”

And with that, he quickly leaned in towards the girl, only stopping when their lips met. Mona inhaled, but didn’t move back or push him away, so he took it as a sign to continue. He opened his mouth slightly and gently licked her lips, smiling when she followed suit. His tongue plunged into her mouth, on and around the lollipop. She was still for a moment, before copying his actions ten fold, battling for dominance within her mouth. As per usual, she won. But, what she did not expect was that Arcana had planned on that. Being the thief that he was, he used his tongue to pull the lollipop into his mouth before pulling away from Mona. 

Sitting back and enjoying his prize, Arcana took in his handy work. His partner was flushed, breathless, and, best of all, happy looking. Oh yes, there would be much more of that in the future. Much more of him buying her candy, much more of them kissing, and much, much more of her smiling. But for now, it was one foot in front of the other, so Arcana decided to take advantage of her momentary silence. 

“I see why you like this flavor so much, it really is some sweet stuff.”