Bonbon Bonanza [Shibani x Dan]

For once, Dan couldn't find Shibani in the back of the shop. The mountain of pillows that the sloth bun had accumulated was still piled high, but Shibani himself wasn't napping there - or even burrowed into the pillow mound itself. (Dan wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, but he had dug into the pile himself to check.)

It was unusual for Shibani to be out and about without being at the mochi maker's side, but not unheard of. Still, he couldn't help but find himself just a little peeved. Of all the days to not be in the shop… He took a look around his workshop. Matentines wasn't his holiday - mochi moon was, for obvious reasons. It was almost a blessing, one following hot on the other's tail; it gave him time to clean up the shop and catch up on chores that had needed to be put off for later during the busy season. Even so, it was hard for Dan to swallow his pride and admit that his sweets were not the sweets for this Matentines. With no one in the shop, and no orders for later, he grabbed the wrapped box he'd left on the counter for Shibani, stuffed it into a satchel, flipped the sign on the shop door to "closed", and set out to find the Sloth bun.

He wasn't in any of his usual haunts; not the Rabbit Hole, not at Cottontail Toys, not even visiting Hutch's imps. He made stop after stop all through Burrowgatory looking for the bun, but couldn't seem to track him down. Finally, he found himself at Paradise Cafe, grumbling his predicament to Beanny over an americano.

Beanny was a good listener; it was part of her job, certainly, but it didn't cheapen her skill for it. After Dan recounted the morning spent looking for Shibani everywhere in the shop, then venturing out to try and track him down, Beanny hummed thoughtfully.

"What's the rush to find him?" they asked. "It's not like he ever goes missing for long, right?"

"Well, yes, I mean no, I mean…" Dan pinched the bridge of his nose. "I just have something for him. That's all."

Beanny perked up at this, expression turning mischievous. "Oho? And this 'something' might be…?"

"A Matentines gift. A private Matentines gift," he added, seeing the gleam in the barista's eyes.

"You never struck me as the Matentines type, Dan," she admitted easily, leaning on the counter.

"Gossiping is a sin, you know," he said into his coffee. Beanny was a good listener, this was true. But Dan also knew that being a good listener meant hearing a lot of juicy things to slide into casual conversations. Beanny's smile only grew wider.

"Don't I know it! It's one of the things that makes this place so great." The bell above the door rang to announce a new customer coming in. Beanny pushed back from the counter with a warm"welcome!" to the newcomer and a quick "check with Quince" to Dan before strolling over to the cash register.

With a sigh, Dan downed the rest of his coffee, and left the cafe.

Dan hadn't thought to check to see if Quince had seen Shibani, though it did make sense. Shibani loved spending time with imps, and Quince always had the most interesting ones. And Quince herself was… nice. She'd always been extra nice to Dan, and praised his mochi so fervently that it couldn't help but puff up his ego. Still, even if she was more recently known for her pedigree imps, she was once known for her own sweets. He couldn't help but feel a slight pang of jealousy as he thought about it.

Plus, seeing her twice in such a short amount of time felt… awkward, for reasons he couldn't place and didn't care to dwell on.

Still, he followed the paths through Burrowgatory until he found himself at the door to her shop. The usual doll-height sign above the doorknob greeted him. "Two door system! Please let this door close behind you fully before opening the next door so that the imps can't run out. Thanks!" Unlike Hutch's imps, who were a little more predictable in their behavior, Quince's had very unique personalities. She didn't like putting them in enclosures when she could help it, but she also didn't know which imps would be door-runners and which wouldn't. The two-door system was Quince's compromise - the imps could free roam the shop floor, but were a lot less likely to accidentally escape.

Once properly inside the shop, Quince looked up from a pair of Pairrots snuggling on the counter. "Oh, Dan! Good to see you again!" Then, she yelled over her shoulder into the back. "'Bani! Dan's here!"

There was a muffled clatter from the back and, if Dan strained his ears, he was sure he could hear a faint "fuck!" follow it.

Quince paid the noise no mind and turned back to the dango maker. "He's been back there for a couple hours now, he should just about be done."

"Be done what?" Dan asked, hoping his curiosity masked his trepidation. If Matentines belonged to chocolates, fine. He could live with that. But if Shibani was starting to belong to chocolates too…

"This!" Shibani said as he came through the door from the back. In his hands he carried a messily wrapped circular box. Quince grinned wide upon seeing it.

Dan looked from Shibani, to the box, to Quince, to the box, to Shibani again. "Did you make this?"

"I'm full of surprises," Shibani replied, then amended playfully, "Maybe not full of them. But there's a couple surprises up my sleeves. Sometimes."

Shibani - sleepy, lazy, loafing Shibani - had gone out of his way to work hard (or hard enough) to make him something. Gingerly, he took the box from Shibani as though it was made of rice paper. He unwrapped it, then lifted the lid.

Inside, cradled in little paper wrappers, were a collection of mini rolled mochi. Messy and squashed, sure, but unmistakably mochi.

"I asked Quince to show me how to make them," Shibani said blissfully, aparently delighted by whatever expression Dan was making. "I know Matentines chocolates were probably out of the question, so she suggested hand-rolled mochi. They won't be as good as yours, but…"

Dan couldnt help but laugh, slowly and low, a rumble of thunder in his broad chest. He set the box down on the shop counter and pulled the box he'd been carrying around all day out of his bag. Quince's smile threatened to split her face clean in half as he handed the box to Shibani. He gave it a quizzical look before opening it. A dozen or so chocolate bonbons greeted him.

"I asked Quince to make 'em for you," Dan mumbled. "For Matentines."

"You bribed me," she countered joyfully, "with Wagashi."

"I brought her Wagashi as a thank-you gift," Dan ammended, which seemed to be a good enough compromise for Quince. It was hard to tell if Shibani was even listening; he was staring at the chocolates as though they were made of solid gold, or maybe solid cashmere.

"You did this for me?" Shibani squeaked, raising his shining gaze up to Dan. Dan only held his eyes for a moment before glancing away in embarrassment.

"I didn't have time to make anything myself after the rush of Mochi Moon," he lied, so unconvincingly that he knew no one in the shop, not even the imps, believed him for a second. Shibani popped a chocolate into his mouth, placed the box on the counter next to Dan's, and lept at the mochi maker to share the sweet between his teeth with a kiss.