Sweets for Silence

“It's always such a pleasure when you come in for confession, Reverie. I always feel like we both leave the booth feeling spiritually lighter.” 

Ari chuckled, leaning in closer to the priest. “I don't think it has anything to do with confession, Oleander. I mean, my tongue is involved, but it's not doing much talking ~” 

“And what a tongue it is,” Oleander purred back. He met Ari halfway for a kiss, groaning softly as Ari pressed said tongue against his lips and gently pushed it into his mouth once given permission. 

It wasn't long before Ari pulled back, however. “I work in the morning, I need to head home.” 

Oleander nodded, ever a vision of acceptance. “Of course, of course. Don't leave so much time before your next confession, hmm?” 

“Yes, Father.” 

Ari did a quick once-over of his clothing and, after deciding he looked decent enough to be seen leaving the Church at such a late hour, nodded his goodbye to Oleander and exited the confession booth they had been… ‘Talking’ in. 

He was going to blame the brain fog left over from his very recent orgasm, but Ari didn’t notice that there was another bun in the Church this late. And they looked to be stealing from the tithe box? 

A spot of caution reared up in the back of Ari’s mind, but he spoke anyways, keeping his tone light. “I’m pretty sure that doesn’t belong to you, actually.” 

The other bun whirled around, clearly only noticing Ari after he spoke. And it was a familiar face. 

“Mercy??” 

The head nun of the Church of Sulfur stared at him, eyes wide and hands full of carats. “I… Didn’t think anybody else would be here…”

“I was giving confession,” Ari explained, raising an eyebrow as his tail gestured in the direction of the confession booth that Oleander was definitely still inside of.

Mercy’s eyes glanced in the direction he’d pointed, then focused back on him, emptying their handful back into the tithe box. One of their hands grabbed onto their skirt and started to pull it up. “Maybe you let me take some weight off too, hmm?” 

Ari blinked at the sudden shift in mood as well as the unexpected proposition. “I - sorry, you’re not really my type.” 

Dropping both their skirt and the pretense of seduction, Mercy took a step closer. “What, then? What can I give you so you don’t tell?” Their eyes flicked back towards the confession booth as the sounds of movement came from inside. 

“Oh?” Ari tipped his head, tail curling in amusement at Mercy’s predicament. “Hmm… I don’t know, you really shouldn’t have been -” 

“Carats? You can have some, there’s a lot today.” 

“I’m not taking - “ 

“A favour? An errand you don’t have time for?” 

“I don’t - wait.” Ari remembered something he’d been wanting to go buy for weeks that just hadn’t worked out with his schedule. “There’s a little chocolatier about a twenty minute walk from here that I keep getting suggested to me. Since it’s so far out of my way, I’ve never gotten a chance to visit. Every Friday they have special boxes of chocolate covered strawberries that I’ve been wanting forever but my work schedule always overlaps.” Ari mentioned the address and the name of the shop. 

“So you want me to… Go buy you some strawberries? Tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’ll keep this,” Mercy gestured at the tithe box, and the open purse beside it that must belong to them, “Between us?” 

“Look, Mercy, do we have a deal or not?” 

Mercy repeated the address and nodded. “Oleander takes Fridays to visit other churches around Burrowgatory, and won’t be back here until later in the evening.” Mercy turned back towards the tithe box, grabbing another handful and jamming it inside their purse before tucking the latter into some unseen pocket. “What time should I expect you?” 

“Hmm… Four or so?” 

“Done.” 

“Pleasure doing business with you ~” Ari teased as he walked towards the front door of the Church. “Also, you might actually want to put the lid back on the tithe box before you leave.” 

There was a sound of frantic rustling behind him, followed by the creak of the confession booth door opening. 

Ari escaped before he could be dragged into any potential aftermath. 

~ 

Let’s see if they kept their word… 

It had been a fairly busy shift; Ari really didn’t want to still be upright right now, but a voice in the back of his head reminded him that there should be a sweet treat waiting for him at the Church, if Mercy had upheld their part of the bargain. 

It was a nice day out, so the Church doors had been left slightly open to let in the warm late afternoon air. Ari stepped past them, and went up to a priest that seemed to be in charge in Oleander’s absence. He got directions to Mercy’s personal office and headed that way. 

He knocked twice, and waited for the head nun’s gentle call of ‘Come in!’ before doing so. 

They looked up from some paperwork they were working on, and gestured at Ari to close the door behind him. Mercy stood up and went over to a small table where a brightly coloured box was sitting beside some sort of decorative statuette. They picked it up, bringing it back over to Ari. 

“I called this morning to make sure they would save a box for me; I just got back from picking them up a few minutes ago.” Mercy held the box out to Ari. 

The top of the box was made of a clear plasticy material, so he was able to look inside as he took it from the other bun. That tail of his, ever expressive, began to wag slightly as his mouth watered. “They’re perfect.” 

Mercy nodded, then gave him a meaningful look. “So… You won’t tell anybody about what happened last night?” 

Ari’s tail curved into a question mark and he tipped his head, putting on an overly-dramatized confused look. “What do you mean? I was with Oleander last night; I’m sure he’d be happy to confirm.” He shrugged, tucking the box of chocolate covered strawberries gently into his bag. “I just came in to talk about… Church stuff.” His facade cracked as he hesitated, but he laughed it off. “You’re fine, nothing to worry about from me.”

Mercy let out a gentle sigh of relief, nodding again. “Okay, thank you.” They went back to their desk and sat down, silently dismissing Ari.

The Lust bun turned to leave, then looked over his shoulder at the nun. “Oh, and Mercy? If you want to treat me again sometime - “ he patted his bag, “I’m sure I could find a way to distract Oleander ~”