The Coffee Shop.

The girl watched her mates head move all around. His whole body seemed awkward, from his warm hand (which she squeezed gently), to his eyes which kept darting around. Acting like he was afraid to look at her. It gave her a slight sense of wrongdoing, yet knowing she had done nothing wrong couldn't ease the pain she felt at this invisible distance between them. Not knowing what else to do, she bashfully planted a light kiss on his lips, before agreeing. Marigold led her mate into the shop, pausing once inside to take in the flavors which had somehow just attacked every sense. It had been a while since she had been here, and she was suddenly faced with the fact that she didn't know what to get. 'Whatever he gets' she decided, looking at the handsome face of her love. His black hair was messed up from the events of the day, which made him look all the sexier. When would it be her that was messing up his hair, along with messing with his whole bod- Since when had the female been that been?! She blushed at the thought, he was probably too tired to do much but drink coffee...



(( So Joey and I have leaked into other forums. >> Gomain, I sware we'll rp for real eventually once this is all out of the way... And I hope you guys don't mind the town info, we can change it any way you guys want >.<' ))

Joseph smiled shyly and closed his eyes when she kissed him. He looked on as his mate frozen in place. He gave her a funny look... Until the smell hit him, making his stomache practically roar in protest to the abnormally delicious aromas and sights of pastries and the wonderful, wonderful works of the rotissieurs. None of which were not going down his esophagus. That was a problem. He muttered quietly, "When was the last time that I ate... Lets see... I've been traveling for ten days... I ran out of rations eight days ago... The last time I fed the raccoons was nine days ago... So ten days." His stomache roared in agreement, to which he promptly responded with a heavy-handed punch, to which he responded by doubling over in pain. "Punches hurt when you don't pull them..." He looked up at his mate and stood up straight. She glanced up at his hair and he got self-conscious, so he started fixing it with his off-hand. "I need a haircut... I'm getting shaggy." He scratched his head and smiled awkwardly.

He sighed and let go of her hand. That was always hard for him, and even worse after such a long time and how terribly bad he wanted her... He swallowed, part from the anxiety of the memory of leaving her, and part from the saliva that was attacking his mouth, eager to entrap whatever sustenance he might decide to throw down his gullet. "We should get food." He turned and looked at her, smiling with a cool animalistic look that can only be achieved in hunger that surpasses normal human hunger. He looked up and noticed the sign on the wall titled "MENU", then he felt the cool gunmetal chain of his wallet brush against his hand. He had money... He walked up to the nearest register. "I'll have three of everything..." He looked back at his mate "And what did you want, love?" he said with the same animalistic grin. "Food first, ravage her body later."

Joseph smiled as he felt Marigold come up behind him. He liked having her so near, and he felt like it showed that he was enjoying her touch. He turned his head and saw her looking at him. He kissed her gently and smiled. "Make that five of everything. Get it out in under ten and you'll see how well a guy with that kind of money can tip." He looked back at the beautiful girl resting on his shoulder and kissed her again. "Go pick a spot. I'll follow in a sec, I need time to recover from coming in such contact with perfection." He rested his elbow on the counter and looked back at the crowd behind him, mostly tourists in mismatched outfits completely out of season and climate. "What is with these guys? There is nothing to see here except... Well... A bunch of trippy anthros and the landscape. Although they're both pretty..." He looked at his mate and then felt his razor ears turn red, "Well... Some of them just pure beautiful. And I have the best..." He smiled and looked at the line again. "It's gonna be awhile. I ordered five of everything on the menu, and that thing is taller than me." He pointed to a small piece of teal hair sticking up on his head. "Antenna included." He could not recall his voice being so resonating or commanding. He decided it meant nothing and pushed the thought. He smiled as the brightly colored flock scattered slowly and dejectedly. He liked upsetting the tourists. It was like running through the pigeons in Roma. Something that had to be done, and had to be done right. The only thing better was making them feel bad about themselves.

He smiled cooly at this thought. His eyes moved through the crowd quickly, watching their movements and their faces, he got caught on Marigold and had to close his eyes and take a breath. The sight of her always did that to him, but it was just so powerful this time... "My god... What is she doing to me? I need her... It is not even an emotional need. It is physical now. She is like a drug... How did I get so lucky as to get her? I will deal with her after food and coffee. Even if the needs are not in that particular order..." As he opened his eyes he spotted a cluster of them, the pathetic ones, the ones with complexes and phobias. His face lit up as he found this little group of neurotic, fruity-colored freaks. One in particular was cowering away. "Claustro. Perfect." He walked up smiling, standing as tall as possible. He got reeeeeally close to the small, disheveled-looking portly man, and greeted him. "Hi there, how are you?" He did not give him time to respond, he edged into his fright zone and edged him towards a corner. "Feeling dizzy? Need me to get you some water? Hey, you're shrinking. You need water? Are you claustrophobic? Oh, you are? So you don't like it when I do this?" With every one of those statements, he got closer until he was practically looming over the guy, but that didn't really matter, the guy fainted, Joseph put his hands in his pockets and walked away, laughing quietly. "I love my life."

Joseph sighed and stared half dead and half longing in the direction his mate was walking. He finally sighed and ran his hand down his face. He winced as it passed over the throbbing red mark. There were people surrounding him staring at his, exacerbating his own phobias of people. Anthrophobia is what the doctor called it. But who cares what doctors say anyway? "Alright... One of three things has happened here," he said to himself as he ran his hand down his cheek and continued until it rested on his neck. "Either one, I have become weaker, making her slaps sting more. Two, she has become stronger, making her slaps sting more. Or three, I am just pathetic and whipped. Making these slaps sting more emotionally than physically... I wish it were just physical..." He sighed and looked around, seeing the growing pile of food, coming from eager workers hands, expecting that tip that he would more than likely not give them, or perhaps he would, but make them split it or squabble over it. Either way would provide a laugh for him, and maybe Marigold if she were not hating him by that point...

He took a bagel from the top if the pile, it was still warm. He stuck a small bit in his mouth and held it like that, put both of his hands in his jacket pocket, and practically phased through the crowd, not losing speed as he walked out the door, the same dead look on his face as he looked back to where his mate was sitting as he passed, using his peripherals. "Wow... I screwed up... Again... Ten months and it only takes me like half an hour to get her angry at me again... That is not something to be proud of." He sighed and took a bite of his bagel. He was starving, but when she slapped him, his stomache kind of sank to his feet. By sank, I mean it felt like a 903lb. weight fell from the ceiling and slammed right into it as dead weight. By this time he was around back, looking in through the back window, behind the cashiers. He could see that they were still hard at work. He also saw Marigold... What was she doing...? He did not give himself time to figure it out. He started walking again straight away, looping around. He stopped in front of the door, sighed, and turned around, looking out at the street, hugging himself in the chilly autumn air. But was it the cold of the nibbling breeze that froze him to the bone... Or was it the ice that ran through his veins at the thought of her anger...? He sighed again and sat on the sidewalk.

Marigold watched forlornly, out of the corner of her eyes, as her mate sauntered out into the streets. Was she being abandoned just like that? She felt an all too familiar pain in the back of her throat and deep in her heart. It made her eyes sting and made her just want to scream... In all simplicity it merely hurt. It was all her fault too, wasn't it? Her own fault for showing anger against her mate... For taking pity on a stranger... The female's head hit the table, hard. Causing an apathetic 'ow' to leak out from behind the curtain of blonde hair. She really didn't slap that hard, did she?

'You need to train him better...' Haruka stated, from Marigold's mind.

In all honesty, she was the one woman who was in a steady relationship in Marigold's head. Sometimes it was useful to be schizophrenic,yet this was not one of those times. Her voices didn't give any useful information, or ideas that hadn't already flitted, and then been shot down, in her mind. The she-wolf's all argued totally different reasons on why Marigold should do what they wanted, it just accomplished a migraine. Each of the girls spoke from experience and personal reactions, yet she didn't think that really applied to her situation. Marigold couldn't be as violent as Hrim, as optimistic as Anubis, or as succubus-like as Haruka. Yet what bothered her was the fact she couldn't think like a male... She wondered vaguely if she could try talking to one of the males in her head, maybe Unifish... The female wished she didn't have to rely on voices to merely come to conclusions... She should know her mate better by now, she should know herself better by now! What had she really done that was so wrong?! The wolf whimpered outwardly. It was possible that a human had noticed the dying Anthro, but with thirteen arguing voices, a headache, and an abnormally thick personal bubble (some humans seemed to bounce right off it), it was nearly impossible to notice.

'We should just beat him. Show him his place and teach him to act like a proper human, though what he did was kind of funny... Hrim argued, her eyes flashing at the thought of beating someone into their place.
'You don't get to keep many mates by beating them, maybe slaves, but not lovers.' Haruka sighed. 'They're both young and just need time to adjust to a relationship.'
Anubis watched Haruka with wide eyes, she seemed to be someone the she-wolf admired. 'But why can't they just all get along and be friends?' whined Anubis childishly, she always got nervous when Marigold and Joseph fought. As an overly-happy optimist, she didn't often show it, but she hated fighting. No one ever seemed to listen to her, and everyone got so touchy. With a great degree of child-like innocence, Anubis thought people should all just smile at each other and love one another, they had no reason not to....

While the female inhabitants of Marigold's voice tried to come to a conclusion (minus Pari, Rune, and Addie), the males were having their own thoughts. In a much more leisurely and unworried way.

'Joey's not at fault!' declared Night right off the bat. His red eyes flashed with emotion.
'You're right, they're both too damn touchy...' Storm sighed, his purple eyes rolling in exasperation. Were those two really that slow? They were in love and needed to stop getting so emo. Yet staring at the flamboyant male next to him, Storm had to wonder if there was any hope in the world.
'I suppose they need to just understand each other, they both try too hard I think...'Murky the angel murmered.
'Well maybe Joseph needs to understand Marigold's sensitivity.' a dark voice hissed from the shadows. Unifish wasn't fully accepted in Marigold's little mind-world yet, but he had swam into the upper shadows to get his point across. He'd never hurt the girl... As long as rape didn't count... [Just kidding, I love you Unifish!].
'Well maybe she needs to understand Joey!' Night retorted with the vigor of a determined five year old. 'He really does try, and he has feelings too, ya know!'
'No one is at fault.' mediated Murky. 'Honestly things just happe-'
'Sexual tension~~~'
'n. . . Aaand they can act like adults instead of sulking in separate corners.' Murky finished with a very un-angelic glare towards the feminine male.
So they both need to dry their pathetic tears and screw. As long as Marigold pulls her whiny self together] Storm concluded, daring the younger males to challenge him.

All in all, Marigold still wasn't ready to pull her self together. Anxiety colored her thoughts as she wondered how she could ever apologize to Joseph. Her heart gave a panicked rhythm at the thought of going up and confronting him. All the fights in her head merely got another long whine as Marigold inwardly beat herself up, and banged her head on the table. Wishing that at least one of her voice's ideas had an actual plan attached. The female hated making decisions, and it was obvious she was too overwhelmed by Joseph to even think straight. After the short time she had emotions she still found them frustrating and being separated from Joseph for months on end had very negative side-effects on her psyche.

((I'm sorry, I don't know what happened there x.x. Good luck trying to make sense of it. >>
I LOVE YOU SO FKN MUCH JOEY. -Marigold and Night))

((Right... That gives me... Nothing to work with. '>>))

The boy sighed and stared out at the cityscape spread out in front of him. The world was so quiet here. He could not remember much about his trip away, but he knew that where he was, things were louder. A lot louder. He was getting tired, but at the same time wanted to stay awake to know what was going on with the world. It was not the fact that he was in public on a sidewalk that turned him away from the idea of sleeping as that he wanted to be here and ready when the food was done for him and maybe he could work things out with Marigold. He was always miserable when they fought. He would do things that he thought were cute or that she would find funny as well, and end up insulting her. He considered this a fatal character flaw, because every time he would get back into her good graces, he would find a way to get himself kicked out once again. Whether it be arguing with her over something as serious as where they were to move to (She won that one, he had to commute to work in New York every six months for three days.), or something as trivial as whether hunting could be considered an honorable sport (Again, totally not fair. She played the "I'm a wolf, you're a douche" card.). It did not matter, at least he hoped so. His hopes were that this would blow over quickly and there would be no more issues at least for a little while, that was all he could hope for. He understood that sometimes the arguements were kind of mandatory. "Women are so complex..." He sighed again and took another bite of his half-stolen bagel. "I should have asked for it toasted." He thought, annoyed with the lack of melty-ness in the cream cheese.

He got up and looked around. He declared in his mind that he would go back in and talk to her, maybe they could sort this out before it got to the point of no return where he would get nervous and keep on screwing up, one after the other, prolonging her anger and amplifying it. She had explained to him dozens of times before that her anger was just misplaced depression and that she would just bury her face in his chest after long enough of struggling, but she bit, so that did not seem like a feasible option a lot of the time... But regardless of her tendencies to break his skin, he squared his shoulders, bit his tongue until he drew blood, and walked back in and straight for the table. He stopped dead and bit his tongue dead in the middle of doing this. Suddenly his confidence drained out of his body and he walked numbly to the bathroom. He pushed through the line without losing the little speed he had, knocking someone over in the process. He stopped, turned his head, muttered a dead apology and went on. Once he got there he found it locked. So he knocked. 122 times. He counted. The mand finally walked out, giving him an odd look, Joseph just walked in without acknowledging him in the least. He splashed water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror. He was an absolute mess, his hair was a wreck, his clothes were wrinkled, his skin looked pale and clammy, and his eyes were bloodshot from worry. "God... I look like my father..." He ran his fingers through his hair, adjusted his shirt, and walked back out and towards the table, this time not stopping. He sat down and looked at her. "I love her... Why do I do thos to myself...?"

That small part of the boy that was always laughing maniacally suddenly stopped as Marigold wrapped around him and buried her face in his shoulder, mutter-shouting apologies he did not deserve. It never started back up the same way again, he was glad for this, but not for the sudden tremor of guilt that resonated through his bones and matched his own resonance. Was she really doing this when he was obviously the one at fault? This did not add up in his head and his body practically shook with the confusion that it was experiencing. The electric rush of her touch, the aroma coming off of her that alone attacked all sixx of his senses, the warmth of her body against his, and above all, the sudden second heartbeat that was even more powerful throughout his body than his was. It had been so long since he had experienced this that he almost broke down. "I'm in public, and its been far too long. I'll be damned if I am going to look like a pathetic loser at this point." So he just held her close to him and enjoyed the electric sensations that came off of her body and into his. She was like a drug, and it was driving him mad... Why did she have to be so close and yet so far away at the same time. He held his breath, but held her even tighter. She was there. That was a concept he had to re-adjust to. Had he kept any of his old habits at all? He could not remember the last time that he had had a proper shower, and now he was trying to get adjusted to his own girlfriend's touch... What an odd concept...

"It's fine... I love you too..." He muttered numbly. "It is all my fault anyway. You do not have any vindication in apologizing for yourself." He idly stroked her back as he took in the scents and tactile sensations that were his... This existed... This was real... Really real... He kissed the back of her head as it was the nearest thing to him and looked up at the counter. They had finished his order and were staring at him like wild dogs. "Money grubbing pigs..." He thought to himself with more venom than he had intended. "I should probably go figure out how I am going to carry our order." He said in a tone that was more droning than numb now. This was going to take some getting used to...


<Callparameter as boolean("epiphany") if value(realization)=1

//I write as if I were writing a novel, not in a forum. I should work on that...

endif end private subclass/>

"She's so amazing... I can't believe she's mi--" This was as far as he got in the thought before all of his senses were reloaded with a fresh dose of Marigold. "Damn, that caught me off guard... A pleasant surprise." A split-second ago she had been holding his face and looking into his eyes. Her eyes were beautiful... The mixture of colors completely contrasted the monochromatic scheme of his. He felt her lips press against his and the reactions, forming to each other in the reaction that had not gone away after all of this time. This was what he had spent his nights dreaming about while he was away. He had forgotten how good it was, the electricity of her touch and the heat of her body against his. Where was he and why was it so important that he had left this? He forgot for the moment as he let himself be pulled into the near-forgotten sensations of passion that had developed between him and this girl that it felt like he had known for years longer than he actually had. When she pulled away he had to bite his tongue to stop himself from pulling her into another kiss or bringing them both to the ground underneath the table. "This is too much..." He smiled as she looked away, blushing. She was so adorable, looking back at him peripherally. Was she afraid of his reactions? Did she feel ashamed of having done that for some reason? Was she ashamed of him? These thoughts scared him, so he expelled them from his mind right away and brought himself back to reality. She had offered to help him carry out the food. "Why did I order so much? I am hungry, but not that hungry, this will count as groceries for this month..."

He kissed her again, this time a light peck on the lips, just to bring back the feeling for a moment. He then got up and looked to the counter. "Shall we?" He held out his hand to her. He walked to the counter and looked the cashier in his eager eyes.

"How much?"
The cashier looked at him with a cool even gaze; he was used to dealing with nutcases "Depends, how many espresso shots you want?"
"I thought I said five of everything. Get on the ball." Joseph said coldly.
"Of course, do you want five in each of your drinks and five separate, or what?"
"Can you not read minds? What kind of cashier are you?"
"Is this conversation going to affect my tip?"
"Severely." He was beginning to look annoyed, his ears angled backwards
The cashier plastered a dead smile on his face and said though his teeth. "Can I get you anything else?"
"You already got me everything, Goddess, get on the ball you fool."
They stared each other down for a moment, and then broke out in laughter.
"Not like it matters, just pull it out and a 20% tip."

He handed the cashier his platinum card and looked to his girlfriend with a mischievous grin and the same dead look in his eyes. "So how do we get this out of here?"