UPDATE: Reviews are in for this little waff bunny. I just made name changes. See bottom for more details.

A.N. Another little plot bunny that hit me while I was working over the holiday break. I actually worked at this little candy company and I did several of the things Usagi does in this fanfic. I hope that I explained things adequately, but since I've worked there for three seasons now and I pretty much know my way around the candy factory, I'm not sure if I've explained things so that the mere untrained chocolate mortal can understand them.

Also the point of view on this story is pretty messed up in my opinion. I just sort of switch sometimes and while you don't always hear the thoughts of the characters, you do kind of get what they are thinking and feeling regardless. You'll have to let me know if this works out or not. Especially since I just sat down and it came out like that.

The characters aren't mine. But many of their actions, feelings, and smells are. I came home smelling like chocolate every day for a month… It was ingrained into my clothes…

Chocolate Scented

By Magawa

She slammed her head on the table once more as she groaned aloud, "I'll never be able to make enough money to buy anyone Christmas presents at this rate!"

The table booth at the Crowne Arcade shook slightly under the impact of the blonde's head to the surface, but otherwise held firm under the onslaught.

"Well Usagi, if you'd have thought ahead a little and saved your allowance and not bought the latest Fruits Basket manga maybe -just maybe- you'd have enough saved to be able to spend a little on those who deserve it. Like me," Rei said, punctuating her words with a sharp jab to Usagi's shoulder.

The dark-haired man sitting on a stool nearer the front of the arcade hunched his shoulders slightly hiding a laugh in a cough. He'd been warming his hands around his coffee mug for longer than his coffee had been warm.

"Rei's right you know," Ami piped. "You're far too free with your money. And not just on manga either; you spend too much on us everyday of the year."

"Hey, I don't see anything wrong with spending what I have on those that I care about, okay? I don't regret doing that at all. I just… I just wish I had more to give. Especially this time of the year, you know? I want to make people happy, and if I could do that by giving more than what I have, well then that's okay, I guess."

The man at the counter stool let his shoulders ease and his hands gently fingered the handle of his mug of coffee before gazing into its cold depths. His eyes remained trained on the dark black brown liquid. His ears however, were trained on the conversation behind him.

"I suppose you could always get a job," Minako put in, swishing her blonde hair expertly to the side. "I mean, it's not like there's not seasonal work this time of year, right? I bet dozens of stores and shops need extra help to deal with all the shoppers and extended hours and stuff like that…"

"Mmm and I know the perfect job for our little bunny," Makoto smiled broadly before continuing. "It's at this great little candy factory…"

"You think Usagi would be perfect working in a candy factory?" Rei interrupted. "Have you lost your senses completely? Odango Atama would eat all the candy they made and nothing would get sold and 'our little bunny' would be fatter than all of us put together!"

"Hey! I wouldn't eat all of it…!" Usagi said pouting.

The man at the counter seemed to have a mini-coughing fit that involved a lot of smiling.

"And if that wasn't bad enough, what about her disastrous cooking skills. Let's face it, she's almost as bad at cooking as Minako!"

"Hey! I resent that! What about that soup I made you when you were sick? That was pretty fantastic."

"Mina-honey, that's why I was sick."

The man at the counter's coughing fit seemed to increase exponentially until it brought the waiter over (who was asking worriedly if he might need a glass of water). The dark-haired man just waved away the waiter with a sort of wry grin.

"Oh come on!" Makoto defended. "I know the owners of the shoppe. She wouldn't actually be cooking anything or even making the candy. They'd likely put her to work either out front with customers or upstairs packing the chocolates into storage containers or something like. I'll give you a reference if you like Usagi, I know they need the help."

"Oh that'd be perfect! Mamo- uh, I love chocolate!"

The man at the counter frowned a little at the girl's blatant vocal stumble, but passed it off as excitement towards a new high-calorie job. After all, who wouldn't be thrilled about working in a chocolate factory. He himself was almost passionate about chocolate.

Rei sighed in exasperation. "Of course you love chocolate, Odango Atama! But are you going to eat everything they plan to sell?"

"Of course not!" Usagi replied sternly. "And don't call me Odango Atama!"

"I'm sure Usagi will be just fine," Ami said, effectively ending the argument. "After all, how hard could making chocolate candies be anyway?"

And Usagi was fine. Or she was at first. Walking into the store was like smelling heaven and the sight of the place was almost as wonderful. The building itself was pink and smooshed between a children's toy store and a children's bookshop and just a little ways down from a coffee shop. Stepping just inside she was met with more pink, high ceilings and marble topped counters and little café style tables and chairs. To the right of the entrance was the ice cream and soda counter and to the left a glass casing showing off a wide variety of the most mouth-watering chocolates imaginable. And of course, the scent of chocolate permeated the entire place. One whiff made you instantly relax, two whiffs made you salivate and by the third whiff you were plastered up against the glass casing that held the taste of heaven.

Oh yes, she was going to like working here. And the pay was pretty decent too.

And she did like it at first, before she remembered that work was work, even in a place that smelled of the divine chocolate. Makoto was right, they had her working at packing away chocolates that had just been made and dried. And even though she wasn't directly involved in making the candies, they still had her wearing an apron, a hairnet and gloves.

The gloves she could understand. That just made sense. But trying to tie back her long golden locks so that they'd all go under an awful hairnet was just frustrating. It was so unattractive… She'd have to hope no one, including him, ever saw her this way.

The whole candy-making process seemed at first to be complicated, but was really very simple. Fruits or nuts or creams were placed on the chocolate machine belt that carried those things into the chocolate. First they got "bottoms" to make sure that that part of the fruit or nut or cream was covered. Then they traveled a little further down another belt to the "chocolate enrober" as her boss called it when he was explaining things. In that thing they got the chocolate top that covered everything.

Then while the chocolate was still liquid-warm and wet it was either marked and set to dry or just set to dry away from the sun and heat on large baker's carts. Usagi was fascinated with the process, even if all that she would be doing was placing the dried chocolates in storage boxes for later use.

Even that was fun at first – trying to see how many boxes of candies she could fill up in five minutes, fifteen minutes, half an hour, an hour. She soon became bored with that though. And she couldn't even really relish the smell of the place anymore. She was not able to sit and work, and standing and doing the same thing was boring. And although many of her new coworkers were amusing and she like to laugh and tease them, she found herself having far too much time to think about why she'd taken this job and for whom.

But those were dangerous thoughts, and ought not be thought about. Ha… that's fun to think and say…

But really he was becoming quite a dangerous subject. Not only had she thought about him far more than was really necessary for anyone to think about anybody, but she'd had fantasies about him too.

No, not the perverted things you're thinking! Get your mind out of the gutter! But just sweet little things, like what could happen if they both got caught under the mistletoe. Or what he might do or say in certain situations… How their first kiss might happen or how he'd defend or protect her… things like that.

At this moment she was fantasizing about how he'd react to a box of chocolates given to him by her. He'd be surprised, because he didn't know that she knew that he loved chocolate and maybe his eyes would light up in pleasure and he'd share some with her and they could talk without him thinking she was just a little girl with a crush, and he'd really see her.

All she did was pack away chocolates that day. They'd made orange cream (which didn't taste very good in her professional opinion), Brazil nuts, cashews, almonds (which were a pain to pack away), pineapple, pretzels, molasses chips, peanut butter sticks, regular caramel and opera creams all in dark chocolate.

She was exhausted and yet it felt like she'd done no work of value. Just packing away that candy to be used in various assortments later… Where was the glory in that? And all the candy she packed was more than she'd ever seen in her entire life and she was told that it had been a light day; that they'd do the same and more in milk chocolate the next day.

With an aching back and a heavy heart she headed to where she was most likely to forget about her exciting boring interesting first day of work and see the one for whom she had dangerous thoughts.

A.N. That's it. Also, do you prefer the English names, e.g. Darien and Serena, or the Japanese names, e.g. Usagi and Mamoru? Let me know, I was having a hard time deciding which I wanted to use for this fic.

UPDATE: I asked and you replied: Most of you prefer the Japanese versions of their names. So I've switched it up just for you. Thanks to those of you who reviewed. You really do make a difference. 12/28/05