|˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞʰⁱ can I request a headcanons for Arthur x Bernadine from s4? I noticed that they are underrated couples and didn't talk much about it, so if you answer this thank you very much!
Of course! I love Arthur/Bernadine, they're in my top three favorite Mysteries of the Past couples (along with Archie/Elisa and Seamus/Giulietta), and within my top five favorite CC couples overall. They're super underrated, but I'm glad that, despite the heartbreak they, especially Bernadine, went through, they had a happy ending.
They both like snow...sort of. They like to bundle up and sit in gentle snow when they visit somewhere for the winter (since it doesn't seem to snow in Concordia), admiring the beauty around them as their kids play in the snow.
Because I think that they'd have three kids after they got married. I can imagine their oldest being a daughter they named Charlotte after Charlie, having a son they named Leopold, and another daughter named Patricia, all to honor the people in their lives that gave their life fighting evil and injustice.
Arthur mentions visiting Europe with Bernadine after the events of the game, and, while in Europe, they began discussing the possibility of marriage.
When Horatio was on his deathbed in prison (probably from lung cancer, TB, or something like that a few years after the game), Bernadine visited him in prison to get closure with him before he died and see if he had changed (I actually wrote a little one-shot about that here ). Spoiler: he hadn't, and Bernadine masked her disappointment and sadness well enough when she was visiting Horatio, but did express her negative emotions to Arthur, who assured her that Horatio was an evil man, nothing that happened was Bernadine's fault, and she deserved far better than his abuse.
Bernadine often asked Arthur if she could tell him stories about Leopold and how much of a wonderful uncle/father figure he was. Arthur only passingly knew Leopold, and was always open and willing to listen to her stories, knowing recalling them helped bring some relief to her grief, and Arthur in turn told her stories about Charlie, making sure their children knew how heroic their namesakes had been.
Arthur didn't...care for Archie very much, but he knew Bernadine did. He refrained from speaking about his frustrations with Archie when she was around and played nice if he and Archie were in the same room with her. (Archie, in a rare moment of decency, did the same to Arthur, not wanting to upset Bernadine.) Bernadine knew Arthur didn't like Archie, though, and was initially hesitant share heartwarming stories regarding Archie when Arthur was around, but Arthur gently told her that he knew Bernadine loved Archie, he was her nephew, and he wasn't going to stop her from expressing her love for him and the good times they shared together, especially since she was grieving his very brutal murder.
Speaking of which, Arthur had a luncheon with Bernadine the day Archie's corpse was discovered in the courthouse. Arthur said he would've understood if Bernadine hadn't wanted to attend the luncheon, to which she, confused, asked what he was talking about. Arthur realized that Bernadine had yet to be informed about her nephew's violent death, and the extremely unpleasant, horrifying task of informing Bernadine what had happened to Archie.
Bernadine can play the piano and Arthur can sing quite well, making them a very adept duo in regards to entertaining high-profile house guests and the like.
Thank you so much for requesting! Bernadine's moral alignment/fate hadn't been spoiled for me before I started playing MotP, so I went in completely blind regarding her character. I'll admit I totally suspected her when I first met her, then, by A Family Affair, felt awful for doing so and felt so bad for her (seriously, people never talk about how much she suffered; four of her family members were murdered and three imprisoned)! I'm glad that this couple wasn't spoiled for me, and I hope Bernadine was able to find some comfort despite the immense anguish she experienced in the game; she's within my top five favorite CC characters.
