Candy had never been her thing. The dentist was too much of a threat, Marceline couldn't risk getting a filling and endure the torture of going there. It was too sweet anyway, too sickly. She'd never been a huge fan of chocolate as a kid, either. Halloween was just the exception because it was Halloween.
Keila finished off her fifth lollipop and kept the stick dangling from her mouth. "Pass me another?" She waved her hand around beside her, the other too preoccupied with the pinball machine in front of her.
Marceline frowned. "You've had five, Kei, how old are you again?"
The dark skinned woman rolled her eyes a little, finally diverting her attention away from the game. Her hand was still there, though. "We won them, Marshmallow, come on," She wiggled her fingers as if that would convince her.
Marceline sighed and pulled out the bag of sweeties. "Do you understand how unhealthy these are?" She tried to ignore the nickname as best she could, hating the fact that she genuinely liked marshmallows even though they were mostly sugar and corn starch. The bag in her hands was reopened, another was taken, the stick in her friends mouth was thrown into the bin besides them. A shrug was offered. "Dude, there's so much sugar in these. They're practically made of the stuff,"
"Explains why they're so good," Keila mumbled around the sweet, brows furrowing in concentration. "Score!" Marceline's attention went straight to the little slot that dispensed their tickets. They were supposed to be saving up for the big prize at 10k tickets, the little ukulele with two sets of strings, but Keila had splurged on three bags of candy and had wasted their savings of three hundred tickets. "Okay, see? We're back up to two fifty. Simple as winning pinball."
"I didn't even know you could win pinball. Too difficult." Marceline's face crumpled into a look of disgust, watching as Keila took the tickets from the machine. "Wanna go get actual food?"
Keila looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. "Uh, duh. I'm starved, let's go to the food court."
They exited the arcade with their tickets, Marceline glaring at the bag still in her hands while Keila complained that the mall was far too crowded for a Friday evening. Marceline blamed the gremlin highschool kids.
"I don't know why they don't just make a mall for the socially awkward, it'd make our lives so much- Oh my god, Marceline, we have to go in there like right now or I'll die." Keila's face lit up in a way that made Marceline nauseous. She followed her friends intense stare to a pastel looking store, cakes and sweets lining the windows. Yes, if there was a store that Keila wanted to go to that would be it.
"We'll swing by on our way out," Marceline muttered, tugging at her friends arm to pull her towards the food court. "I need a burrito."
"But- Marceline, that's The Candy Kingdom," Keila spluttered as if Marceline was supposed to know what that meant.
"I'm sorry? Will you kill me if I tell you that it doesn't ring a bell?" At Keila's glare, Marceline supposed that was a yes. "Look, we'll go afterwards I promise. You know I've never broken a promise."
"Marceline Elizabeth Abadeer I swear to god if you don't let me go inside right now I will cry." Middle names and a threat? Marceline couldn't decide whether Keila was her mother or just an actual child.
She gave a big sigh anyway, reluctantly letting the other woman tug her towards The Candy Kingdom and regretting every single life choice she had ever made.
"Who are they anyway? Sound like a bunch of pricks," Marceline was shushed almost immediately as they stepped inside. Immediately, her sense of smell was attacked by every artificial smell she could think of. It was almost as bad as the bath bomb place Keila liked so much. "This place looks like Willy Wonka's wet dream," She mused as she prodded one of the signs saying that all their products were safe and blah, blah, blah.
Keila's elbow found her ribcage almost instantly. "Shut up," She hissed, laughing despite herself. "And I'm the child?"
"You're supposed to be the mature one," Marceline shot back with a wide grin, pretending the liquorice besides her didn't exist. She remembered when Keila made her try some, blech. "Then you go and pull a stunt like this, with all the dramatics,"
Keila scoffed. "What dramatics?"
"Oh, Marceline, I'll die if I don't go in." She teased, putting her hand to her forehead as she gave a feigned faint. Keila shoved her away gently.
"Can I help you?" Neither Keila or Marceline had noticed the third presence in the store, resulting in both of them spinning on their heels to stare in bewilderment at a woman in the corner of the store, clad in an apron and holding a crate full of candy. At their surprise, the woman grinned. "Didn't mean to scare you, I thought you had noticed me already." She placed the crate down in the window of the store, beside one of the huge cakes that surely wasn't actually real. "What can we do for you today?"
"Dentist appointment?" Marceline chanced, giving the stranger a half grin and stepping away from Keila's damned elbow.
The woman's smile grew. "Sorry, wrong place. We have jawbreakers, though."
"She doesn't like candy," Keila mumbled. "It's disgusting. I'm only here to peruse but I've been promised desert and if she's good at one thing it's sticking to promises."
At the mention of Marceline's disdain for sweet stuff, the woman's eyes narrowed in an almost playful manner. "She better be good at it; if I don't see you soon I'll have to hunt you two down and give you discounts." She said it with a gasp, too, and Marceline would've rolled her eyes if it were Keila or someone she was actually on good terms with. "Seriously though, tell your family that there's finally a Candy Kingdom store here. I heard you've been wanting one for a while."
"Yeah," Marceline nodded, watching closely as Keila mouthed the word 'discount' to her and waggled her eyebrows. "We'll be back in twenty minutes, depends if she eats her kids meal without problem."
Keila protested. "Hey, I'm not the one who spilt milkshake on themselves and then cleaned it up with a burger. Ya nasty."
Marceline's face flushed and she pushed Keila out of the store with a glare and a farewell to the woman who worked there.
D
"Do I have to go in again?" Marceline whined, pouting as her friend tried to pull her towards the door. It was a surprise that both of their limbs hadn't been stretched out like taffy. "Come on, Kei, I'll wait for you."
"But you really like their marshmallows, Marshmallow," A fact. "I don't have enough money to get you some and I'd feel bad if I went inside and didn't get you any." Marceline assumed that, to people that didn't know them personally, it would appear that she was whipped. She did give in far too much to Keila's constant mischief and childish behaviour. Mostly because she had no energy to resist and it was the easiest option out of all of them.
When they walked in for the second time, Marceline saw that there were a few more customers than when they first entered. Keila pulled her in through the door and made a beeline towards the marshmallows, excitedly pointing at the new flavour of strawberry and cream.
"These sound disgusting, Kei." Marceline muttered. "Strawberry marshmallows are good, why ruin them with 'cream'." She added air quotes to emphasise her doubt on the taste.
"They actually taste really nice," The woman was back, and now that Marceline was actually paying attention and not just staring curiously, she noticed that her hair that had been tied into a bun before, was now down and pink. Marceline blinked. "The cream ones taste realistic as we could get them, and the strawberry ones have a surprise gooey centre. They're pretty expensive though," Marceline thumbed the label on the front of the crate they were in, frowning at the price. £10.99.
"Why so much money for marshmallows?" Marceline asked, a little crestfallen that she couldn't afford the new gooey centred strawberry and cream ones and instead taking a large packet of the regular soft pink marshmallows.
"They're new, there's only five hundred in stores around the world as of current. We need to know if people will actually buy them before lowering the price and mass producing." The woman smiled. "Thought you didn't like sweeties,"
"I like some… marshmallows are my favourite, though." And then, noticing that Keila was far too interested in the different types of chocolates and nougat, "What about you? Surely someone who works here has a favourite."
The pink haired woman smiled some more before gently taking Marceline's wrist to pull her to a different section of the store. Marceline wanted to politely tell her that only Keila could lead her around like a dog, but decided against it and closed her mouth.
"I love candy floss," Pink woman sighed. "The Candy Kingdom has really intense flavours and it's hard to compare to any other company."
Marceline frowned, looking down at the machine in front of her. "This isn't candy floss."
"Oh?" She had the audacity to arch her brow and produce a cone from somewhere beside the odd looking machine. "I'll make a candy lover out of you yet, grab the sugar from down the side. The flavourings should be down there too."
"It says it's for staff," Marceline protested, glancing at the laminated sign.
"I am staff, grab the things."
Marceline did as she was told, adding the sugar and a drop of flavouring to the machine. The woman flicked the machine on and told her to wait for a good two minutes. In that amount of time, they managed to create a little crowd of interested customers.
"Okay, so what you're gonna do is use the cone to make a figure eight in the machine while spinning it. You think you can manage that?"
"Wait, why am I doing this?" Marceline protested once more, looking wide eyed down at the cone in her hands. "I have no clue what I'm doing."
"I've just told you," So Marceline began to move the cone in a figure eight, spluttering when out of seemingly thin air candy floss caught onto the end. "See? Magical. Continue doing that until you've got a full cone."
It took no longer than three minutes for Marceline to finish the pure sugar on a stick and insist that the woman take it. From behind her, Keila clapped a hand over her shoulder and grinned.
"I can't decide if I want chocolate or the different flavoured popcorn." She told Marceline, marvelling at the candy floss and the machine in front of them.
"I like popcorn," Marceline pointed out. "So we can share that."
"What do you think?" Keila asked the woman before them. "Popcorn to share or a huge ass chocolate bar to myself?"
"Definitely the popcorn, we do refills if you keep the bucket." She gave Marceline a wink then, and Keila's mouth fell open just the teeniest amount.
"This place is my second home," Keila decided. "I love this place."
"Grab the popcorn then," Marceline smirked, rolling her eyes at her far too dramatic friend. "We've gotta jet if we wanna see my dads reaction to the hole in my wall."
The pink haired woman ate her candy floss in peace, but circled around to behind the counter when Marceline and Keila needed to pay.
"Can we have a discount?" Keila whined, rifling through her wallet as she looked at the price.
She arched a brow at Keila, smirking playing around the corners of her mouth before she looked over to Marceline. "Of course, you've been nice enough today. Make sure to tell people about this store, though, or no more discounts."
Marceline just nodded and paid without question, elbowing Keila the moment they walked outside. "Really, a discount? I thought you had manners."
"Oh come on, Abadeer," Keila complained, staring down at the two packs of sweet things in her bag with wonder. "She was flirting with you the entire time, I only claimed what was already ours." A pause, for Marceline's brain to combust and for Keila to frown at the marshmallows. "Well, what was yours. Can't believe you didn't buy the cool expensive ones."
"What do you mean she was flirting with me?" Marceline asked instead of getting into an argument over the fact that she had next to no money in her wallet after that purchase.
"The whole time she was hinting at a discount and getting all friendly with you, the weird candy floss tutorial? Just an excuse to see how good you are with your hands, if you ask me."
Marceline shoved her. "Shut up, she just wanted to sell some products."
"She winked at you and said we could get refills. There is no sign near the popcorn saying we can get refills, I think it was just an excuse to see you again." Marceline bit her lip in thought, would it work though? "Also, can I stay at your place tonight? My dad is being a jerk and won't let me sleep in my room."
"You're getting it refurnished, aren't you?"
Keila paused. "Is that a no?"
Marceline groaned and continued to walk away. "It's a maybe, get your ass moving before I change my mind to a definite no."