Shopping.
Murphy grumbled to himself again. Why on earth women took so long shopping was beyond him, all they had to do was go somewhere, know what they wanted, buy it and then get out and go home. He had been dragged out of bed, shoved in a shower, hastily dressed, and dragged all over town, just because the bloody panthress had nobody else to go shopping with. Why couldn't they go on their own? He certainly managed well enough, and preferred it at that.
He crossed his arms and sighed grumpily, leaning against the doorway to yet another clothes store. If he had been wearing a watch, he would have been flicking his wrist around to look at it every so many minutes, before grumbling again. Sighing irritably, he eventually decided to wander into the shop himself to look for her, and after glancing quickly over the tops of the aisles (A benefit of being 6'5.) soon spotted her trademark flash of red hair. Striding over, he poked the panthress in the shoulder and took a step back as she whirled around, arms draped with various shirts and trousers.
"How long, exactly, do you think you'll be? I would like to go home sometime this millennia." He growled, glaring out through messy strands of black hair at her constantly cheerful expression.
"Oh, hiya Murph'!" chirped Morti, almost dropping her clothes as she tried to wave, forgetting that she was carrying them. "Yeah, I'm almost done! I just need to decide which shirt to get, and which jeans go best with them." She glanced down, trying to pick out several shirts by their hangers, and failing due to clothing-overload. Murphy rolled his eyes and attempted to help her, quickly turning into a walking clothes-rack as she hung everything off of him like a pack-mule.
Eventually, after much sighing and berating from the black hare, Morti settled upon a suitable clothing combination, made her purchase, and exited the store, giggling, with the grumpy rabbit in tow.
"Cheer up ya miserable git, I'll buy you some carrot cake to make it all better." She laughed, turning around to stick her tongue out at him, the silver labret-stud on her lower lip glittering lightly.
"For the last time, I don't *like* carrot cake, and that is species stereotyping. I won't stand for it." He snapped, crossing his arms again and frowning in her general direction as she had spun around once more. It wasn't so much what she said or did that annoyed him, it was the sheer energy that she burned up doing everything. The girl never stood still. Take now for example, her walk was a ditzy little dance down the street, spinning to look at everything, whacking passing shoppers in the knees with her bags and giggling apologies as she went. He didn't know where she got it all from. Not to mention he didn't understand how someone could be so... so, perky, all the time. It just wasn't right.
"I'd go for a cuppa tea though... if you're buyin'." He said, eyeing up a potential café across the street, little tables and chairs set outside the shop front in the sunshine. He didn't like the sunshine, hurt his eyes, so he made for one with a wide umbrella at its centre. Morti, after padding down the road a little more, eventually realised that he had gone, and followed him, dodging traffic as she did so. She pouted slightly as he sat in the shade, as he always did, but didn't complain, plonking herself down beside him and grabbing a menu to look at.
"See? They do carrot cake here..." She snickered, giving the hare a sideways glance, receiving a smirk in return.
"What is it with you and the carrot cake?" he said, raising an eyebrow and pushing his menu aside, already having chosen a nice pot of rich, Earl Grey tea in his head before even having sat down. "You wouldn't like it if I kept bringing up fish and catnip all the time..." He paused, noting her daft grin. "No, wait. Yes you would. I forgot." He rolled his eyes as she giggled, resting his head wearily on one paw, elbow resting on the tabletop.
They both placed their orders, both opting for the tea, as they so often did. "So when can I go home?" muttered Murphy, tapping his blunt claws on the tabletop and staring at the people in the street with lazy, red-irised eyes. Morti was busy pulling all of her purchases from their respective bags and admiring them once again, and turned to look at him.
"You're not seriously wanting to go home now, are you?" she said, looking at her watch. "Its only half past three."
"Yes. Exactly. We've been here since ten. *Ten.* O'clock. In the *morning*. By all rights I should have clawed your eyes out for even thinking of waking me up so early." The hare suffered from regular bouts of insomnia, and therefore anyone who woke him before noon suffered a great deal. Morti pouted and her emerald eyes sparkled in the sunlight as they switched to "kitten" mode. Murphy twitched. He hated those eyes, it was that look exactly that dredged him from his comfy, if messy bed this morning, and pulled him through store after store. He wondered to himself why he even put up with her, but then usually remembered after the occasional, sporadic moments that they spent together in the aforementioned messy bed... He smirked again at this. Yes, he was a bit of a bastard, but he knew that, and she knew that, and neither of them had a problem with it, so why change?
The tea arrived, and both of them set about drinking it with much vigour. Never let it be said that they didn't enjoy their tea. Murphy yawned into his mug, the semi-visible dark circles under his eyes brought out by the sun against his fur, while Morti seemed to have energy to spare, and was nattering on about random and pointless things, as usual. She had her feet up on his lap, since there wasn't another empty chair nearby, but he didn't particularly mind, so long as she didn't start fidgeting. He tapped a claw against the mug idly with a little pinging noise, before stopping her in mid-sentence with a question.
"Why exactly *did* you call me this morning?" He said, raising an eyebrow as she stopped speaking and looked at him.
"What do you mean? I already said, everyone else was busy... Faust wasn't picking up his phone. Fergie was with Lucky. Kara doesn't even *have* a phone and isn't the most social guy anyway. Vim is too young, that'd just be weird..."
"No, I mean. Why go shopping now. So early. Today. With me." He was reduced to mumbling in mono-syllabic words, speaking through yawns. "Seriously Mort, I haven't been sleepin' so well recently..."
"Pfft, yeah, I know all about that, mister." She sniggered, smirking cheekily at the bemused hare.
"Er... what?"
"I heard all about your weekend from Pyro the other night. Seriously, the things you two get up to are just... nasty." She giggled like a child while he rolled his eyes and smirked at her. "I'm surprised you get any sleep anymore."
"You're one to talk, cat." He sniggered, not having to say any more. She stuck her tongue out at him again and they both fell silent, sipping at mugs of tea and thinking to themselves. Murphy finished first and set his empty mug down with a clink. Looking over at Morti's watch, he yawned again, loudly, and muttered that he should really get home and try to sleep again.
"Awwh... Well can you give me a lift then? I hate getting the bus." Morti tried to gather all of her shopping bags together and failed miserably. Murphy came to her rescue and took a few for her, as they both headed toward the car-park where his car was, the rabbit trailing a little behind the bouncy panthress, yawning occasionally.
They reached the car, and Murphy pulled his keys from a pocket, the little green shamrock key fob dangling from the car key as he unlocked the doors. All of Morti's bags were slung in the boot, and, after a little gentle persuasion, the car eventually started up and they set off for their respective homes.
Morti peered out of the window at the passing buildings and scenery, as she so often did, poking Murphy from time to time, "Just to see if he was still awake". Each time he swatted her paw away and cursed, causing her to giggle and look away again.
"You gonna ring me again sometime? When you're feeling a little better or somethin'?" she said, after a brief silence passed. Murphy glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean? You're the one always ringin' me..."
"Yes, I know." She giggled and poked him again, receiving another "Feck off" for her troubles. "What I meant was, are *you* going to ring *me* again, sometime." For all her energy and confidence, the panthress was more insecure than she seemed, but didn't like to show it. Murphy smirked and shrugged.
"Maybe. Depends if I'm allowed to get some bloody *sleep* sometime soon..." he gave her a meaningful glare and she giggled again.
"Alright fine," she said as the car pulled up to her house. "I wont pester you to come shopping with me, if you'll get your lazy ass up and ring me once or twice. Deal?" She held out a paw, the claws on it painted a garish acid green. Murphy rolled his eyes, as he so often did around her, and shook it.
"Fine. Deal. Now git yer arse home and let me go back to bed. Pesky pantheress..." he smirked, poking her tongue as she stuck it out and then watching her walk to the door, wave enthusiastically, and go inside.
"Women." He said, sniggering as he drove off. "Sleep with 'em, and they'll never let you sleep again..."