Unexpected

[Zephel]

Zephel is unconsciously leaning forward, his arms crossed on the table, his now finished coffee mug at his right so any available servers who were rounding the cafe with a coffee pot could refill his mug.

Maki's next question surprised him yet again as Zephel tries to recall what exactly did happened at the beach that time. "Uhh, I think you turn into half a fish... You have this..fishtail, and you look like a beautiful mermaid." He spoke before he could even repair his words. "...Did I just said beautiful?"

Mildly distrubed by what came out of his mouth, and the increasing mental images in his mind, Zephel quickly turned his head sideways to avoid looking directly at Maki and opted to distract himself by calling a waiter from the other side of the room to refill his coffee.

As the waiter approached their table, Maki admitted that she doesn't remember. The arm that Zephel used to call the waiter immediately weakens down and slumped on his side with an exhale from his mouth. With his coffee now refilled, Zeph pulled his mug closer to him as he turns back to look at Maki.

"That means... Your mind might not remember it, but your heart does. Feelings can make you remember things, you know? Especially strong ones." His eyes are fixed towards her, until something clicked in his mind and Zephel suddenly brings a palm to cover his face. 'What the hell, I'm turning into Hikaru.. That was exactly what he said to me when I can't remember him...'

[Maki]

Maki looked back up at Zephel and listened to him trying to explain what she had turned into to be able to save him in the ocean. That invisible hint of pink flowed to her cheeks again as he said that she looked like a beautiful mermaid. That was probably the first time, that she could remember, ever being called beautiful by someone. She figured if that word was ever used to describe her before, she might have remembered it, despite her usually having little interest in such things.

Maki's eyes stared in surprise at Zephel a bit longer after he questioned about him saying beautiful in his description. Paying attention to his mannerisms now, she noticed him looking away and making some sort of gesture that she didn't connect to calling over a waiter as she had completely forgotten the setting they were in by now.

Maki looked down again when she had admitted she did not actually remember, her eyes glancing back up at him as he began to speak again. Your mind might not remember it, but your heart does. That line coming from Zephel brought the faint hint of pink back in her cheeks again as the shell came back into memory. Whenever she had brought that shell to her ear, it was always asking why she forgot him and admitting feelings to her that she didn't understand in her own voice.

With that faint hint of pink still in her cheeks, Maki stared at Zephel, almost dumbfounded, as she searched her mind for any hint of memory or feeling relating to the person in front of her. Strong feelings? She thought to herself as her mental search came to an end and she sat there, perfectly still, sitting straight and staring directly at Zephel with a suddenly serious look in her eyes and that faint hint of colour in her pale face.

"I... understand now..." She said after a moment's pause, waiting a bit longer to regain her sense of composure and say what she had figured out. "I fully understand it now.... Not why I forgot you.... but... why it hurts so much that I did..."

Maki's eyes never wavered from Zephel as she took another slow breath and exhaled to calm her heart that felt like it was beating just a little faster than normal, another weird experience to her.

"Zephel.... I love you."

[Zephel]

'This is unbelievable...' Zephel held his head with his hand on his temples, now facing downwards in utter embarrassment and awkwardness. His other hand is pulling his mug of coffee closer to him in an attempt to make it look natural, and he could only stare at his reflection on the blackness of the drink under him.

He was just as confused as Maki on what the heck is going on, and as he was busy collecting his courage to even look at her, he heard her voice saying that she understands. Eyebrows creasing inwards, Zephel slowly releases his temples to peek his eyes towards her, now hearing her saying that she figured out why she's hurting that she forgot about him.

Now feeling quite curious, Zephel pulled his head to properly gaze at Maki now. He's been wondering why himself and failed to figure it out, so he just sat there, patiently waiting for the answer of this mystery.

Said answer, however, is the least of what he expected.

His first reaction is how his face turned into; a semi-shocked expression. His eyes are only slightly widened as he stared expectantly at Maki, almost as if waiting for her to elaborate more on it...until it dawned on him that what she said is exactly what she meant.

"Ha?" Only that one single syllable escaped his hanging jaw. His eyes are wide, his entire facial feature looses its strain on his face, and even all his muscles seemed like it had stopped working. Zephel just sat there enthralled, astonished by that simple answer that holds such vastness of a meaning.

He was so surprised by what's transpiring right now, he had forgotten he's still holding his coffee mug by the handle. And as that arm is slipping off of the table by his lack of muscle command, the mug fell with a clank on the table, and the still hot coffee flows out generously out of the mug and down towards Zeph's end of the table.

"OWW, OWW!!! SHIT! HOT! HOT, HOT!"

Springing out of his seat till his chair toppled over behind him, every head in that cafe turned to his direction, only to see Zephel hopping out of his table, still with an apron on, and having a nasty blotch of coffee right on the area where it's just painful to see. All the men in the cafe held the same dreadful expression on their faces.

"Dammit! I'll be right back.." Though still clearly in a lot of pain, Zephel still amazingly manages to turn back his head to Maki just to notify her that. He headed straight to the men's comfort room at the back, after ordering one of his colleagues to bring him extra pants.

Thankfully, a pair of extra pants is always available in this cafe, so after a few minutes of washing himself up and switching pants, Zephel is now standing at the sink, splashing his face with cold water. After twisting the tap water to close, he wipes a hand over his face slowly. Releasing out a deep sigh, he looked up to the mirror in front of him, staring at his reflection.

"What the hell just happened, Zephel." He said to himself, pausing for short moment before cotinuing, "...Shit, I even rhymed." Now massaging his temples at that untimely realization, Zeph reached out for the tissue paper dispenser and pulled out a few to wipe his wet face with.

There is no way he's walking back out there, with how he's wobbling to even walk right now with his injured groin. But thinking back how he had promised Maki that he'll be back, Zephel inhaled quite a bit of air and then breathed out through his mouth with a grunt. If he even managed to wobble back out there to Maki, what is he going to say? What is he going to answer? What is he even going to reply?

"Love..?" He raised his head back up to face the mirror in confusion, he notices his face beginning to color a slight bit. "She loves me...? How is that-- how can that even happen.. I don't even know how to reply to that." Trapped in a spiral of confusion and finding more questions and answers, Zephel stayed with his hands against the sink as he figures out what he's going to do.

'Th.. The only reason I mentioned what I said about her heart remembering was meant to make it sound like I matter a little bit..! I never expected...... THIS much! ..C-crap, what now..'

[Maki]

Maki sat still as she watched Zephel for his reaction to what she had concluded. She was a bit surprised when he spilled his coffee, but didn't reveal her surprise on her face. Her eyes noticed the coffee spill on his clothes, knowing that it must have burned underneath that. Before having the chance to offer Zephel a potion to help heal burn wounds, he had excused himself to the back.

She stared after him for a moment then turned to her pack and pulled out a small potion vial with a potion that would heal the burn his coffee spill had given him. She set the little vial on the table, just away from the coffee spill then looked at her food again finally.

She picked up her fork that held the piece of the grain berry loaf she was trying to eat earlier and placed the small piece of loaf in her mouth with the fork. She chewed, savouring the flavour, then took another small bite. After she finished with this bite, she pulled the herbal mix tea up to her lips and slowly sipped from it, graciously accepting the flavour of it.

This act of slow and savoury eating made her feel very relaxed and at ease to a point where the events that just occurred moments prior seemed far away as she continued, slowly, her loaf and tea.

[Zephel]

"Enough of this, Zephel."

At the sudden familiar echoing voice in his mind, Zeph looked up from the sink. He stayed deathly silent for a moment before exhaling in relief, 'Orphion! I'm freaking out, I don't know what to do, I'm in such a mess right now, I can't--'

"Zephel!"

'What?!'

"Be quiet and listen to yourself! You sound like a female human going through a hormonal breakdown. Get a hold of yourself!"[/i]

With Orphion's final thundering words that felt like a smack across his face, Zephel stood straight without relying on the sink now. In all truthfulness, Orphion is thoroughly right. He kept going in circles with being this imbalanced, so Zeph just calmly tries to regain his balance, with Orphion's help of course, to keep him sane.

Once he feels centered, he had a mental chat with Orphion regarding Maki and the incidents that occured. This is one of the greatest perk in sharing his thoughts with a dragon; he never feels alone in anything.

Minutes has passed, and Zephel is finally back to his usual stoic self. So there he strutted, out the toilet door, through the cafe, and right towards his table with Maki. He didn't even wobble his way there, despite the pain.

Since his half of the table is completely soaked with coffee, Zephel refused to sit anywhere near there until it's cleaned up. So he moved his way and sat beside Maki without a word. He realized his slice of cake was never finished, so he reached the plate, picked it up and puts it on his side of the table.

Eager to get this over with, Zephel just ate the whole piece whole and in a matter of seconds, ahd completely swallowed it. Once that's done, he decided to initiate a conversation with Maki, since it's always like that when Maki is involved.

"Why did you say you love me?" He refuses to acknowledge that she does, simply because Maki's trail of thoughts are different, and she must have got something wrong somewhere before concluding her thoughts.

[Maki]

Maki was so absorbed in the process of eating and drinking that she didn't even realize Zephel had returned. It wasn't until he spoke to her that she became aware of that fact. Her eyes opened wide a moment then returned to normal as she swallowed her tea and placed the mug back on the table. She looked over at him then and replayed in her mind the question he just asked her. She then looked back down to the table as she thought of how to reply.

"First of all, the fact that I remembered you for so long before means that you must have made an impact on me. So much so that I even wrote your name in my notes under the recipe for an energy potion and neatly wrote that recipe out for you. Those are things that do not occur very often."

"Secondly..." A faint hint of pink began to grow on her face as she thought of how to talk about this. "The shell that you had given me... Has asked me a number of times why I forgot 'him'. It has also said that I like 'him'." She turned her face away from Zephel as she felt increasingly awkward, which was also foreign for her. "Every time I had heard those messages, I felt a strange sensation like something heavy weighing down my stomach. That feeling also occurred whenever I saw your name in my notes." She explained, her brows furrowed ever so slightly due to the discomfort she was beginning to feel now again. "Even now..."

"Then, with you telling me that my heart may remember things that my mind does not due to strong feelings... It became the only logical conclusion I could find." Feeling the weight lift after finishing that, her face returned to her normal expressionless state and she looked back over at Zephel again. "That is why I said I love you."

[Zephel]

Zephel cannot believe it. Her reasons are so painfully logical, he even winced slightly at her explanation. It was too much for him that he decided to interrupt her when she had finished her first reason, "O-okay! Maki, just because I somehow made an impact on you, or the fact that you wrote my name in your notes...or giving your recipe to me.. D-doesn't mean that you love me. Friends does that too." He tried to reason, this is actually easy to counter.

Her second explanation is more difficult though. Actually, he was completely shot down by that sort of proof involving the shell and her feelings, albeit Maki herself looks rather confused of probably how alien it is for her. He rested an elbow on the table as he massaged his temples at this revelation.

"Okay. Okay.. So you really do love me." He concluded in the end after a long pause and inhaled in a sharp breath of air. "Thank you, for explaining so thoroughly." He added at the end, finally releasing his head and decided to just slump himself and lean on his seat. He was staring at the table for a long while, until he finally turned his head to look at Maki beside him. Zephel is still leaning on his chair, so his head is tilting a bit as he turns.

"I'm flattered...I suppose. ...Though you do realize I haven't encountered any special feelings for you in return, right?"

[Maki]

Maki looked back down at the food in front of her for a moment then straight forward. "I don't usually make friends seeing as I do not remember those I come in contact with... So... the very fact that I was able to remember you, especially when I was not around you, in order to have written your name down and prepare the recipe... That is something very unusual. That is why I considered that a point." She said as she looked over at Zephel again with the final part of her statement.

Maki kept her eyes on Zephel as he agreed to her logic in figuring out that she loves him. She watched him as he was staring at the table before facing her again. Her expression remained blank even through to the end of Zephel's question, not really feeling any hint of emotion towards what he was saying.

"That is fine." She said after a moment and faced forward again. "I only wished to realize the reason behind those things. Now that I have met 'Zephel' again and have begun to understand a little bit, I feel satisfied." She looked back over at him again after that. "Besides, I am not entirely certain what to do with such feelings or what would occur if you did feel the same."She admitted honestly, being someone with no real interest in romance or hardly anything involving other beings.

[Zephel]

Pushing off the plat as he had finished his slice of cake, Zephel leaned forward to place his elbow on the table, just for the sake of wiping his palm down across his face as he heard Maki's explanation. He has no idea how he can even spark such feelings from her. What did he even do?

As the thoughts came buzzing, his hand paused from wiping his face, right under his eyes, as he stares forward at the empty seat across him. Maki's even fine with him not returning her feelings, rather to make herself realize of the fact. He turned to face her as she said that she's satisfied to understand this, and then suddenly met her eyes.

Zephel doesn't really find it surprising or even beneficial should he return her feelings. "Oh. ...Okay. Good." He said finally with a slow nod. "That means... I can continue doing whatever I do to you, like before. Like how we're friends." He paused after he said 'friends', wondering if only he and he alone who sees their awkward relationship like that, but then continued anyway.

"Only this time, I guess I shouldn't leave you again."

[Maki]

Maki watched Zephel with a blank expression as he spoke. Even though she now realized the reason she had this inner wish to remember him, she still didn't remember him or know what it was about him that struck up that desire. This was, to her knowledge, the first time that she was actually very curious of finding out more about someone else; she wanted to know why she had such feelings towards him.

"Yes..." She answered after Zephel stated how they're friends. "Like friends..." She said, not entirely sure of what meaning that would have as she agreed with him. She could not remember really having any friends before, although considering the fact that she was apparently friends with Zephel before forgetting him, she figured that there was a chance she did have friends in the past that she no longer remembered.

Maki kept her eyes on Zephel as he finished his statement, taking a moment to process it into the context of what they talked about. "Okay." She responded to it after a moment in an expressionless and emotionless manner.

[Zephel]

'If she were like any normal girl...' Zephel thought with a sigh, '..I would be much more careful in expressing my honesty.' He found it to be so hard to look at Maki now, even as she spoke with that obvious uncertain tone.

"Even..." Zephel found himself speaking his thought out, and now that he did, better just go through with it, "Even if my telepathy is currently not working, and I can't read your mind now to genuinely understand you..."

He arranged his words carefully now, "..I still apologize, for reasons I'm unsure of, because you're..." Now he lifts his eyes to look at her properly. "..You're clearly not thoroughly okay with this." He can't really see it in her facial expression, but its somewhat there for him to see somehow. Perhaps it's just a feeling.

"I'm...not even sure if you're aware that you're not okay." Really, even if his telepathy is switched on and he can read her mind, he wouldn't be able to understand her all that well either.

Seeing this as a battle with something that he wasn't even sure existed, Zephel dropped his head a bit, looking down on the table as he sighed. "What do you plan to do now that you understand you...somehow harbor some sort of feelings for me?" He still could not believe anyone, Maki especially, finds his dull self interesting.

[Maki]

As Zephel continued talking to her, Maki watched him. Her curiosity was piqued slightly at the mention of Zephel being telepathic, even though it was not working at the current time. As she was about to question this, Zephel had continued already, coming towards saying another thing that piqued her curiosity but also made her feel a bit confused.

"I don't understand... What do you mean I am not okay? I feel fine." Maki stated in her usual blank tone with her usual blank expression on her face.

She watched Zephel still as he lowered his head and spoke again. "What am I supposed to do other than what I already do? Should I be requesting that you join with me in carnal relations to produce offspring as my parents wish of me? I'm not particularly interested in following my parents' desires, though I would be willing to try I suppose." As she spoke, Maki looked down at the small remaining bit of the loaf in front of her.

[Zephel]

Zephel released a hoarse sigh, his voice somehow mixed in with that exhale that it almost sounded like a groan. "Of course you don't understand.." he muttered to himself quietly before turning his head to look at her properly.

"Alright, perhaps you're right, maybe you're completely fine. Because you came to the conclusion of something you were confused about. Okay." He raised one of his hand weakly to signal that he's going to stop badgering her about this.

"Still, I--" Zeph stopped himself when he noticed Maki about to speak up, and what came out of her mouth was like an unsuspecting train crashing right onto him and ran him over.

Very slowly, the hand that he used to emphasize his points earlier dropped, as well as his eyes widening in utter shock of her choice of words. Only single pieces of syllable kept escaping his throat in his attempt of trying to speak through his surprise.

"Wh--! How-- I'd-- C-- De-- ..... ..HAH?"

That last bit was fortunately the only one that managed to bring back his full voice, albeit the shock still clear lingering all over his tone. "M-Maki! I didn't... How did it get to that..?!"

Despite himself, his cheeks are slowly beginning to colour. "No! You should not request such a thing! And what do you mean you're willing to try, this is not something you should take light of!" It's in this moment apparently that Zephel felt heat going through his face. Still, that did not stop him from ranting in a flustered manner.

"There is no 'trying' in that matter! If you plan on doing it, then you do it and there is no turning back!" He was so caught up in his rare panic that he moved without thinking. His hands are suddenly at the sides of her shoulders, holding her smaller frame securely while his head hangs low, chin touching his collar bone.

"Don't--" Zephel mumbled, before pulling his head back up so their eyes met. "Don't go off asking such things to other men!" His grip on her arms tightened slightly, synchronizing with his final point.

What he meant to say was in the good intention of trying of not allowing Maki to get herself caught as an unsuspecting victim, and by how blank she seemed, she's an easy target for a lot of men.

It took Zephel a moment to realize that what came out of his mouth was 'other men', which implies that he sort of unconsciously and accidentally claimed Maki as his. Sort of. This realization had widespread the colour on his cheeks all the way to his ears.

He stayed frozen like that, his hands still holding onto the sides of her upper arms, and his reddening face is staring straight towards Maki. Almost like his brain just shut down in the middle of this all and paused all of the muscles and chemicals inside his body.

[Maki]

Maki looked at Zephel in confusion, unsure why he seemed to be so surprised. When he took hold of her shoulders, that faint flush appeared on her pale skin again. Her eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise of how flustered Zephel was.

Producing offspring was something her parents wanted and Zephel seemed to know about her parents wanting her to socialize, so she was certain he would have known this much as well. She couldn't understand why her comment caused him to become so flustered, but she listened anyway in attempt to understand.

Despite the pain in her arms when Zephel gripped them a bit tighter on his final point, Maki stared in blank surprise at him when their eyes met again. She heard his order loud and clear, the moment causing the faint flush of peach to show up on her ever pale skin.

With a long moment of pause, Maki finally broke the silence despite her voice coming out quieter than usual. "I... I won't... then..." Her eyes remained fixed on Zephel's, feeling that heavy feeling in her stomach again. She now took these oddities to mean she felt love for Zephel but she wasn't sure what to do with them.

[Rika]

"Zephel.... I love you."

Rika had just finished serving a table near where Zephel was sitting with his friend when she heard said friend say that to him. Rika stopped in place for a moment, a look of shock on her face. Eager to not be seen by the customers outside of her usual cheerful state, she quickly rushed into the back of the room.

When she was out of sight of the customers in the store and with her back facing the temporary baker who worked in the back at the busier times. She leaned forward against the wall, using her hands as support. Her eyes were wide and in shock.

Zephel was a great guy, she reasoned, of course other people have noticed that as well despite his cold exterior. Rika questioned why her thoughts went to such things. She came to the realization that she was feeling jealousy quite quickly, actually, which, of course, meant that she had feelings for Zephel too.

She had met Zephel before when she found out he had a deep physical wound in his chest and got the chance to help him. She remembered there that they'd talked quite a bit and now they'd been working together for almost a month. She was excited when she saw him again and she'd put so much effort into trying to impress him at work, even to the point where she managed to make coffee the way he likes it. Was that why she did all that, she wondered.

The other baker had noticed Rika seeming ill against the wall and expressed concern. Rika quickly threw on an unconvincing smile to flash towards him and say that she was fine and that he shouldn't worry. However unconvincing, he took her answer anyway and turned back to his work.

Rika's expression changed into a sad yet curious expression as she faced the wall again, staring at her hand that was keeping herself from falling face first against the wall. That's right, she thought, she'd already started liking him a while ago.

He knew this other girl back before he'd met Rika, she thought. They were good friends, it seemed, she reasoned. They have more personal history, whereas Rika only helped him with a wound. She does things like that every week in Fijion. She works with more people than just Zephel, so there's no reason for her to consider him more special than anyone else.

As her thoughts continued in that manner, Rika felt herself getting even more sad. Then, when she realized how she was almost getting depressed from her thought pattern, she suddenly found herself getting annoyed. She pulled her hands in away from the wall, creating two fists in front of her chest. I'm not the type who gets depressed over silly things like this!! She shouted to herself in her head in order to wake herself up.

Immediately after, her head popped up with a bright, energetic, and refreshed smile. She spun around, smiling at her confused coworkers with a smile that made it seem like she wasn't just falling into a sea of sadness just a moment ago.

It was then that one of the other waiters came into the back to find Rika, saying that the coffee spill at Zephel's table still wasn't cleaned. It's her table, according to the other waiters who've noticed how she seems so familiar with him all the time, so she's usually considered fully responsible for it.

Rika looked at the other waiter in surprise, completely forgetting that she'd heard Zephel shout as she wandered into the back. She blushed slightly in embarrassment at the fact that she left such a mess there instead of cleaning it up immediately. She then smiled brightly right after. "Ah! Sorry! I'll go clean it up right away!"

Rika quickly grabbed the cleaning materials she needed and headed out to the front with a refreshed smile on her face. As she headed over to Zephel's table with a light skip in her step, however, she was frozen in place again upon hearing and seeing Zephel's declaration to the girl. It wasn't so much a declaration as it was an order.

Not having seen or heard anything between the girl confessing to Zephel and Zephel telling her not ask such things of other men, she assumed that Zephel had accepted her confession and that the two were now a couple.

Rika's energetic disposition melted away slowly. When she noticed that she was staring sadly down at the ground, however, she quickly pulled herself back out of her slump. After all, she couldn't ignore that mess any longer and definitely couldn't ignore her other customers.

When she arrived at Zephel's table, Rika flashed a cheerful smile at him despite the frozen state the two of them were in. "I'm sorry to interrupt and I'm sorry I took so long, but I'm here to clean up the spill." She announced in her usual cheerful manner, perfectly hiding everything she had thought about just before.

She then quickly proceeded to clean up the table and chair first with a smile, not willing to allow her smile to falter even the tiniest bit.