Flowers For All

[Beth]

Beth hummed softly to herself as she wiped down the counter. The shop was still open, but there were no customers and it was getting close to closing time. That, however, did not mean that she would actually be leaving. She still had to do the books, set up a new display, rearrange a few things and check to see if she needed to order anything else other than flowers. Owning and operating the store by herself meant that Beth rarely had any actual time to relax, but that was okay. She loved her little florist shop and was perfectly willing to give up the majority of her social life to keep it going.

Smiling in satisfaction at the freshly cleaned counter top, Beth checked her watch and, leaving the rag beside the cash register, went to the door and locked it, flipping the door's sign to 'Closed'. "And now for the after work work."

[Beth]

After a few moments of setting up a new display of vases in silence, Beth stopped and frowned. "Why don't I have music on?" She kept a little stereo behind the counter and moved over, pulling it out, plugging it in and switching it in. With a smile, she turned it up- though not too loudly- and started singing along with the song and she moved over to go back to work. Much better.

[Beth]

An hour later

Glancing around the shop once more, she gave a nod in satisfaction. She had done the display, rearranged everything that had needed it and had checked to see if she needed to order anything. The books, however, could wait. She really didn't feel like dealing with them tonight, so she'd procrastinate with those until the next day. She'd do those instead of having lunch if that was what she had to do. Pulling out her keys, she decided that it was definitely time to head home and relax for a while.

Continued at: Bethany's Apartment

[Beth]

Continued from: Bethany’s Apartment

Beth arrived at the shop just in time to unlock the door for the flower delivery and, like always, she had everything taken into the store room, where she would sort it all before putting it out into the shop. Once the delivery men left, she checked the clock on the wall, flipped the sign so that the ‘Open’ side was facing the sidewalk and stuck the keys into her bag, which she put behind the counter before moving through the store, removing wilted flowers from their displays to be replaced with the fresh ones.

She moved calmly and slowly, knowing that things were never busy in the store so early in the morning. It was hardly ever truly busy in the shop, but it saw its rush hours. She knew from experience that she would have everything settled by then.

[Beth]

It took a fair few minutes, but as soon as she had gotten all of the wilted flowers together and disposed of them, she glanced towards the large front windows and studied them thoughtfully. They were looking as if they needed a good cleaning and she knew for a fact that the problem wasn’t on the inside. She kept the inside spotless and she tried to do the same with the outside, but that was a good deal harder to do.

Deciding that putting the flowers out could wait a few more minutes- it wasn’t as if there weren’t more than enough already on display- she went behind the counter and got a rag and window cleaner. She hated cleaning windows, but it was a necessary annoyance.

Moving outside, she glanced up and down the street briefly. She wasn’t exactly sure as to why she had done that other than she had simply felt the need to. Shrugging it off, she faced the first of the windows and got to work on cleaning it, wanting to be finished before any customers came.

[Tobin]

Continued from: Back Alleys

Inside was warm and the filled with softer scents than those outside. He shifted slightly, heading timidly further inside. The room seemed empty of life and after a few seconds he dipped his head, taking a deep sniff and enjoying the scents that came to him. Again the image of the blank faced woman came to his mind and he wished he could see her face instead of the skin coloured veil that covered her features from his view.

She was safety though, her warm arms around him after he fell. Kissing the cut better and smiling sweetly at him. Laughing as he reached up, his tiny hands mudded from the fall. Letting him clamber over her and snuggle close, her scent filling him. The knowledge that nothing was stronger than her love for him.

Gone now.

All gone and what he wouldn’t give to be with her once again. To be ignorant of the pain the world inflicted on its inhabitants.

Tobin limped towards some of the stronger scented ones, pressing his body close against the flowers and the wall. Finally he allowed himself to stop, resting and closing his eyes slightly. He just needed to stop running for a little while. Let the cuts close. Maybe even set his leg if he was feeling particularly brave.

[Beth]

It took a bit of work, but soon, the windows were completely clear again and she gave a satisfied little nod. She had heard an odd noise coming from around the side of the building, but she had written it off. There were always odd noises coming from the area. Since she could currently see the cash register, she wasn’t worried about someone having gotten in to rob her blind. The back door was firmly locked and the window next to it was far too small for someone to be able to climb in.

Pulling the front door open, she moved back into the shop, putting the glass cleaner and rag on the little table next to the large cooler as a reminder to her to clean the glass doors. First though, she needed to get the flowers in the store room set out, so she started in that direction.

[Tobin]

He had managed to get into a semi comfortable position on the floor, taking the pressure and weight off his broken limb as best he could. It was not the most ideal healing position, but it was much better than his usual options and Tobin was grateful for that. Perhaps he would be able to heal a little before moving on again.

The sound of footsteps caught his attention, his ears flattening against his head as he realised someone was in the room next to this one and was coming towards him.

Tobin clambered back to his feet, eyes fixed on the door furthest away from him. The outer door he had come though had swung shut behind him and the werewolf didn’t think he could paw it open in time to escape. The smell of human was getting closer and closer and his hackles rose along with his fear. He shifted forward slightly, moving so that half his body was partly hidden by a stack of flowers. The human wouldn’t see him immediately and those extra seconds might give him enough time to somehow make a break for it.

[Beth]

Beth moved into the store room and made straight for the carnations near the back door. There were quite a few of those to be set out, so she decided that she would start with them first. Plus, they were closest to the back door and she liked to work her way from the back of the room to the front. She wasn’t exactly sure why that was other than it made sense to her. Therefore, that was how she handled things and she thought that it was good enough.

Singing softly to herself, the white gold Claddagh ring on her right hand glittered in the light, the sapphire and diamonds sparkling brightly. She gathered up the carnations of various colors, nodding her head slightly in time to the melody in her mind as she sang. Once she had gathered up a good armful of the flowers she turned and stopped.

There was something there that she had failed to notice when she had entered the room. Something was hiding behind some of the flowers and there was only one thing that went through her mind. Oh, great. A stray got in…

[Tobin]

He had watched as the human entered, his golden amber eyes narrowed in suspicion. Tobin had never really seen someone like this, oblivious to danger and… happy. His tag twitched as he watched her sing softly, almost wagging although he didn’t realise it. It was so strange to see someone like this and he almost relaxed, forgetting that he was supposed to be running and settling for undisguised curiosity.

She turned and in a flash, Tobin knew she had seen him and he was out of time. He reacted on instinct, rearing up on his hind legs as best he could to create as large a height as possible – blocking out the agony that putting pressure on his leg produced – and let out as loud and as menacing snarl that he could produce, hoping to scare her off long enough for him to make a break for it.

[Beth]

Beth gave a scream and dropped her armful of flowers, scrambling back and pressing herself against the back door. That definitely wasn’t a stray dog, something that she could see very clearly now. A dog couldn’t stand up on its hind legs like that and, now that she got a good look at it, it looked more wolf-like than dog like.

She had absolutely no idea as to how it had gotten in- it most certainly hadn’t been there when she had come in here with the delivery guys earlier- but right now, that didn’t matter. She was looking a creature unlike anything she had ever seen before and it had some very wicked looking teeth and claws. If it got it in its head to, she knew that it wouldn’t have any problem whatsoever in tearing her into shreds.

[Tobin]

Part of him had been excepting the scream, anticipating it as the means of his escape. It was just common sense for something as puny looking as a human to scream at the sight of him. Werewolves were gods among insects, so he had been told over and over again, and humans were the insects. You crushed insects under foot and moved on without really thinking about it. That was how the world worked, the stronger hurt the weaker.

At the sound of the actual scream however, all thoughts of strength, insects and escaping fled his mind and he dropped back down onto four feet with a whimper, cowering from the noise and the owner of said noise. He scrambled at the ground with his feet, apparently trying to push himself backwards through a solid wall in a bid to get away from her.

[Beth]

At the… creature’s (she didn’t know what else to call it, though she knew what it looked like due to movies) reaction, Beth stopped and simply watched it. It seemed more scared of her than she was of it, which was really strange considering it could make short work of her should it decide that she looked like a nice breakfast. The big beast seemed absolutely terrified of her after the scream and, in all honesty, she felt rather guilty about it.

Beth had absolutely no idea as to what she was going to do about this situation. She could probably turn and bolt through the back door, but what if someone was to enter the shop while the big creature was still in there? She couldn’t run the risk of someone ending up hurt. Of course, she didn’t want to run the risk of her getting hurt, either, and a scared animal would fight if it couldn’t run. Watching the big beast, she tried to come up with a plan. Part of her thought that maybe she should call the local pound and see what they could do about it, but something told her that they wouldn’t be any help.

Taking a deep breath, she attempted to calm herself down a little. The creature wasn’t attacking- at least, not yet- so that was a good sign. She could work with that. Maybe, if she was really, really lucky, calm it down, though she didn’t know just how likely that was. “Easy…” she said softly, though she kept her back pressed against the door. “Easy. It’s okay…”

[Tobin]

His ears remained flattened against his head, plastered down on his skull as Tobin watched the human, his confusion and unease growing. Even after his less than superior reaction to her – they would be so furious with him if they had seen his reaction, if they found out. They would hurt him and punish him – he had expected her to take advantage of his weakness and make a run for it. Certainly not to start speaking to him, although she could be frozen in fear.

Slowly, Tobin peeked his head around the display of flowers, keeping his body low to the ground as he went. The werewolf wanted to get a better look at the human and he shook his head as he moved, trying to flick away some of the shaggy and blood stained fur that had fallen into his eyes and obscured his vision.

[Beth]

Beth gave a soft, concerned frown upon seeing the bloody fur falling into the creature’s eyes. It was hurt, which made the situation even more dangerous than it would have been if there was just fear to be dealt with. Still, it was in her nature to help anyone who needed it, even if it was a… whatever this was. She couldn’t quite seem to bring herself to think the actual word because it was so absurd.

“It’s okay,” she said, still speaking softly as she slowly lowered herself into a crouching position, extending one hand towards the large beast while using the other to balance herself. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She had learned that sometimes speaking softly could calm an animal down and she very sincerely hoped that this was one of those times in which it worked. If not, she was going to be in some very serious trouble. “You don’t have to be afraid of me. I promise I’m not going to hurt you…”