[Jaykobell]

She seemed to be denying what he had said. About her being beautiful, he meant. Sure, she was splotched with blood here and there and she had lost her glasses (because of his own stupidity and recklessness) and her tails were now damaged because of the stone pillar. But, still. He could still look back at this image of her that he had seen, back into his daydream from earlier. Besides; it's not the exterior that counts, now, does it? What's inside counts, too. It counts a lot, actually.

Getting a lick from Ferimia on his cheek was something he never would have dared to expect. Through his thick black fur, his cheeks started warming up, so much even, that the color would pierce through his dark pelt. His mouth opened up some in an absurd manner, as if the Doom Kitty had fallen into a vegetative state. Finally, he snapped back to reality and closed his mouth. He was unable to stop his cheek from blushing, though. "I-it's... no-nothing?" he stammered, seemingly unable to speak at the moment. Should he return the lick? Should he not? Would she think of him as a perverted and aggressive old dude from someplace? ... Maybe she would, but maybe she wouldn't...?

After a few heartbeats, Anthony stretched his muzzle forward and licked Ferimia on the cheek lightly, drinking in her sweet scent at the same time. He then pulled away quickly, hoping he hadn't made her uncomfortable... But then again, weren't they already awkward towards each other? It seems so easy. You go forward, lick her cheek, and that's it. And yet, when the time comes, it's as if the world was going to stop spinning on itself. "I... I have to thank you too," he meowed, this time managing to keep his words together. "I don't know anyone that would have wanted to cope with my bad temper." Well, he hated it when he had to admit such things about himself. But what purpose would lying about this do? Ferimia was already aware of his short temper, and she knew quite well it was easy to make him snap a nerve. So... speaking of it hadn't been so difficult this time around.

[54]

[[ They're so cute, awkward and uncomfortable like this. X3 ]]

[ToxicShadow]

Despite what she would or wouldn't believe, it didn't change anything about her, or the situation. If Anthony honestly believed that the outside wasn't that important, then fair enough, there was no argument about it anyway. It simply was unimportant.

Ferimia honestly wanted to giggle when Anthony's cheeks lit up and he froze up on her. She wouldn't say it out loud, but it was sooo adorable! Yes, it was entirely possible that a killer could be cute, because that's exactly what the Doom Kitty was, cute, and he claimed himself a killer. And there you have it folks! Turn of the century news, wasn't it? Not really, but it was the subtle step for the Common Kuhna in realizing that she actually found him attractive too, those thoughts were reciprocated.

With a few rapid blinks, a smile came her to maw when he licked her cheek to, and her body naturally reacted to heat up her cheeks, turning a gentle shade of pink. She remained perfectly calm though, instead of freezing up. That was expected, since she was the one who licked him first, and was absolutely delighted to find that he returned it. Jeez, she was acting like such a...kitten, right now. She found herself to be a little silly at the moment.
"You're welcome, but it's not that big of a deal." She who was naturally fascinated by all sorts of people, why would she walk away just because he had a bit of a nasty temper? More then likely, she'd seen worse. Anthony wasn't always like that either, he had his good points, which she liked. He was strangely nice.  

Again, she did something else he probably didn't expect, having gotten more daring now. She crept a little closer, sitting down with just a few inches between them, and brushed a paw under his chin before lowering it back into place, seeming amused. "What's with all the stuttering, huh? And do I finally see it? You blushing too?" There was a playful purr to her voice while literally pointing out things about him, when he surely didn't want her too. Yanno, he probably would have tried to play it off like nothing happened, but that wasn't an option now, oh no.

[Jaykobell]

Blush? What? Where? How? Yeah well, he knew he was blushing, but he didn't know it was getting through his pitch-black pelt. Well. Great. Just... great. What was there to say about this situation now? The guy, blushing in front of the girl? How embarrassing. But wasn't Ferimia blushing too? ... Ooh, this was so complicated! First they were involving words and now they were involving feelings. That wasn't like him. That shouldn't be happening. But it was already going on, so... well, he couldn't quite deny things now.

"Y-yeah well..." He paused there, his mouth opening again due to the paw that had just rubbed his chin. Ferimia was trying to turn him into.... something..... cute.... or something... Brain freeze. "Y... You're blushing too!" was the only thing he could reply before putting his paws over his red cheeks. Luckily, his black gloves didn't let out the blush. "An-and... ..." Sure, he could hide it from view, but it's not like the Kuhna in front of him didn't know he was blushing. Wasn't he just acting silly right now? Come on, get yourself together, you're a man. ... Or, rather, supposed to be. Biologically, anyway. ... What was the point of this stray string of thoughts again?

Finally he brought his paws back down again, his tail twitching nervously as he tried to explain himself. "Yeah, well... I'm... shy," he meowed as he drew a circle on the ground with a claw unconsciously. "I mean, it's not like I'm used to feelings," he added as he turned to look at her directly. "I've never really been with anyone. And everyone in general gets on my nerves. What with their annoying optimism." Ugh. Happiness. He didn't like that. Hyper pets drove him insane, making him screech as he would run for dear life, away from the overflow of energy. "And, well... You can't really socialize well when you're irritated. You know?" Although, girls are usually better at dealing with feelings so... Maybe Ferimia would eventually make him a bit more friendly?

[ToxicShadow]

It was all the Kuhna could do not to escalate in her fit of giggle at Anthony's silly reactions. Sure, she considered them to be silly, but could also understand why they were as they were. It was no secret that Anthony was far from the most social creature in the world. None the less, his reactions were a little shocking, because she held such knowledge. He was so antisocial, the keep to yourself and let no one see anything but the tough outer shell he locked himself in type, that it came off as something new and unexpected, because he wasn't hiding so much. He denied things, and fussed because he was being more obvious, but she was now seeing more of his secretive self then she ever had before. Was it wrong to be happy because of that?

"That I am." Ferimia agreed fully to his accusation of blushing. "But I can't really help that, now can I? It just happened. Not with my own personal consent." Since it had happened, you couldn't really control that natural reaction from your body. Time would be wasted if you tried to force it away. As try as one might, a blush had to go away on it's own, which it eventually would. Unless you kept having reasons to blush. Lord forbid that!

Ferimia had a thoughtful expression, listening to him further. He admitted he was shy. 'How cute.' So it was an unwritten rule not to call males cute, but it was just the word that tended to come to the female mind to describe something. Like 'Hey, that kitty is cute.' 'That's a cute shirt.' 'That face is just so cute!', and the examples were never ending. What's more is that when one was attracted to someone, they were able to see that person in different, if not unusual, lights. Then came the whole debate on males being the tough protector, but also having to be more kind and...cuddly-like. Good grief, now she was considering too many things. Talk, girl, talk!

With the tilt of her head, she asked him to elaborate on something, "Everyone generally gets on your nerves?" Well, not so much as asking, but it was obvious by her tone. So far, it looked like she was the exception to that grouping. "I suppose I do. Understand. Everyone is very different, indeed. But...I really do hope that I don't irritate you." Kind of surprising that she really hadn't, all too much. They made disagreements, but he hadn't actually gotten angry at her, had he? "I think it'd make me rather unhappy..." Even though he said he didn't like happy anyway?

[Jaykobell]

When Ferimia repeated his question, his statement, he felt the need to doodle a small circle into the ground by using one of his forepaws. Had he said something wrong? Saying people would generally get on his nerves was true, but when he had mentioned optimism, he hadn't meant general happiness. Just that whole hyper character of, "Let's jump on the walls and run around loudly to drive everyone crazy!" would make him go insane; while the other 'type' of happy wouldn't bother him much, even though he wasn't a generally cheerful pet. The casual, "It's a sunny day, let us go outside and relax under the trees," is fine by him; as long as he's not unwillingly involved. Takes every kind to make a world.

After a long string of thoughts, he tried to explain himself clearly. ... Tried being the keyword in the case at hand. "Well... What I meant is that people usually don't get on my good side," he started with, moving his forepaws unconsciously as he explained his point of view. "Energetic pets that run on walls and screech like headless chickens make me run for dear life." Just thinking about such pets made him twitch. "Normal happiness doesn't really... sets me off. As long as you don't force me to be happy." Was it in a Doom Kitty's nature to be gloomy and under the weather all the time? Was it normal in the coding of his DNA? .... Yeah. And then what, he was going to wonder if it was normal for Common Kuhnas to make sense?

When she mentioned how she hoped she wasn't in the, "I feel like ripping your guts out of your pitiful body because you're driving me to the end of my rope," category, he opened his mouth wide in denial. No no no no no! He hadn't said that! No no no no no. .... No. He hadn't said that. "N-no, I never said that." But then he realized she wasn't implying that he had said anything. Silly, silly and stressed little Anthony. "I-I mean... you're not one to just bounce at people. Or you're not someone who would run around like a chicken without its head. Smart people interest me... Attract... me..." Um. Would this sound odd to a girl? Like... what he had meant was that calm, watchful and intelligent people was the kind of people that he liked in general. That little sentence didn't mean anything in particular.

... But maybe it had meant something. It's not like he'd be happy to see a displeased Ferimia. For the simple fact that... .... that... yeah. It wouldn't be... pleasant? It would be sad?

[ToxicShadow]

Once again, the Kuhna let out a soft laugh. Chickens with their heads cut off. Somehow, she found that to be amusing. Perhaps it was simply because she hadn't often looked at overly hyper people in such a sense. They were...just an annoyance. She didn't spend much time sitting around trying to compare them to things. She was a writer and wrote about many beings, indeed, she did, but those were more along the lines of...reports. Sort of. She'd never really made up a hyper, thus annoying, character. She wouldn't have been able to take it. Like Anthony enjoyed being around intelligent peoples, she enjoyed...unusual people. People outside of the box. That was very well one of the reasons she was so willing to stick around him.

"Well, that's quite some good news, then." The words came out pleasantly, with a grin. Ferimia didn't particularly read into anything. Female senses almost told her to do so, but that would have been completely silly. If they really did like one another, both of them were being...difficult and nearly blind to that fact. "It would have been a shame if I annoyed you." Her tails wavered back and forth in thought. "I mean, you know. If I annoyed you, you would have killed me or ran off. I don't particularly intend to die any time soon. Nor would my time here be as interesting without you."

For a time, there wasn't much else to say... At least, she couldn't really...decide on what was best to say right now. She looked around, running options through her head of what they could do. They could continue on their walk, but she wasn't so much up for that any longer. How about a subject change? That seemed like a decent idea. "You never told me what you were going to do." Her gaze shifted back him. "I'm not...staying here forever." Did that mean they would part and not meet again? "But you are quite fascinating."