Blood meets Stone on a Sunny Day (Maron)

[cartertcat]

Looking down into the water again, Art moved his head so that they were mere inches apart. Should he kiss her again? Should he let her kiss him? Or should he just leaved it at that? He hoped that it was definitely not the last one. Because either way he wanted to be kissing Maron. He didn't want to seem pushy or anything. There could be a chance she didn't want to or to be kissed again.

"Then I guess we'll just have to live stranded and insane on this beach, huh?" Phoenix spoke, softly now. Smiling a sweet, small smile at her blush. That was what he adored the most about Maron, her blush.

[maron]

Now, if Maron had known he was being so reluctant to kiss her again because he was far to worried about her possibly rejecting him, she probably would have whacked him in the back of the head to 'knock some sense into him', or 'knock the nonsense out'. Either way, she would have laughed. Who knew Phoenix could be so shy about something like that. He ran around with all sorts of odd hair colors after all! To think he was being shy...

"Oh, I see. Don't a bad idea." Away from the world, and those mighty annoying people in it, it was almost tempting to just stay here like this. Never having to worry about most of reality. Such a sweet, sweet escape this was. Their own little sanctuary.

[cartertcat2]

Reality was about to set in for Maron and Art. Marie was wandering through the woods, dressed entirely in black. Most of her hair was pinned up in a loose, oriental looking way. Her bangs were edgy and curved around her face. She had an angry walk, as always. Crushing anything in her path as she set foot onto the sandy beach. It had been years since shed been to a beach.

In the distance, two figures were seen. Identifying him almost instantly. He emotionless expression changed quickly. Marie's lips twitched into a smug sneer. What were the odds that she would find him here? She walked closer toward the both of them. Both, of them? So Phoenix had gotten himself a little friend. Judging by the closeness of the two, it was more then a friendship.

"Oh, big bro got himself a girlfriend?" she taunted, speaking as if their was acid on her tongue. The girl looked about Marie's age. She looked easy to break. The look in Art's eyes said it all. "What's your name sweety?" she asked, starting to play her wicked games. She didn't plan on hurting them, yet.

Games were Marie's specialty. She was like a cat, playing with her meal. A fake smile covered up her disgust. She wanted to make the two's lives a living hell. The fun part was that they seemed so happy with each other. Like nothing could tear them apart. To bad for them.

[maron]

If he could have, Maron would have turned her gaze to assess this unexpected visitor. Like always though, she turned her head only enough that her slightly opened eyes could catch sight of the others feet. Who was that? She didn't know the girl, but... from the way she spoke, she knew Phoenix. Whether that 'big bro' comment was true or not... Maron couldn't be sure.

If it had been someone Maron knew, she might have blushed from being called his girlfriend. Is that what they were now? Ugh, she didn't have time to worry about that now! This girl... Whoever she was, gave Maron a bad feeling. Sadly though, Maron wasn't that easy to scare little girl she had been.
"Isn't it more polite to introduce yourself before asking for someone else' name?" That bad feeling in the pit of her stomach was starting to grow, Maron's nerves and defenses instantly sky rocketed. What in the world was this girl playing at?

[cartertcat]

What? Art would know that voice. Even if it had been four years. It was some twisted, evil, warped version of his sister. His entire body went rigid. Now he had his arms around Maron protectively. That was definitely not the same sweet little sister that he had known.

"Maire... what happened to.." he spoke as a way of distracting her. As painful as it was to talk about her. Even though now he had no choice. He had to tell Maron now. One of his hands moved from Maron's back and into his pocket. Slowly he pulled out the box cutter. Looking out of his peripheral vision, he could tell this wasn't a happy reunion.

Marie hated black, or, she did. And that angry, murderous, was something alien to Art. What had happened to her? It was as if someone, or something had taken all of the innocence out of her. Art put his lips close to Maron's ear, speaking as softly and carefully as possible.
"Don't, provoke her,"

[cartertcat2]

"What happened to what? To me?!" Marie said, trembling with anger. She took a deep breath, calming herself as best she could. What, did he not remember? How could he forget? No, he didn't forget. She saw his pale hand reaching into his pocket. The scars on his arms stood out. She doubted that that he was a cutter. Even if he was, he wouldn't cut himself at a time like this.

"This. This is what happens when your big brother abandons you! Well, I'm coming after your girlfriend. I'll kill her first. Slowly too, watch her suffer." Marie told the both of them. Chuckling at the thought. That redhead would be fun to kill. Just watching her fall to the ground. And just as she was about to die, Marie would start again. The illness' went as quickly as they came. She'd continue the pattern until this fragile girl was pleading to be killed.

"We'll be in touch, Red," Marie sneered, referring to Maron as 'red'. She talked off into the woods, being swallowed up by the trees. Marie was confident that she wouldn't be followed. No way would PHoenix leave the redhead.

[maron]

Maron fell silent only when Phoenix told her not to provoke this girl. Whoever she was... Marie, as Phoenix had called her.
What on Earth was happening...? This Marie obviously had a mighty big grudge towards Art. But what did her words mean? She didn't have time to dwell on it as soon as Marie finished her 'announcement'. Great. More people trying to kill her. Just great.

She'd have to make sure not to tell any of the Runaways about this new declaration of murder, otherwise they'd really lock her away. Wicked would probably even get rid of any means of escaping, just to make sure there was no chance of this Marie getting to Maron. They'd done it before, after all.

Red? Seriously, that was the best Marie could come up with? Not all that original. Besides! Maron was naturally blond...

Only when Marie was gone, out of ear and eye shot did Maron make a sound, a groan. "Great. More people trying to kill me." She paused, taking a deep breath, banishing the dark thoughts from her mind. "What... just happened exactly?"

[cartertcat]

"I'm pretty sure my sister just threatened to kill you," Art said, trying to laugh. So much for a relationship. Usually when someones evil sister comes back to kill that someones girlfriend it is a deal breaker.

"...I can, understand if you don't want me to kiss you, or me to see you again," Phoenix told her, looking downwards. He hated himself for saying it, but it seemed like the right thing to do. It's not like he could let Maron be killed though. Even if she did have experiences with death threats.

[maron]

“Huh…. Well actually hearing the threat is new. Usually they just try without any warning….” So, so true. Especially for Maron. She’d never had any warning to the previous death attempts. Maybe she’d be a little more prepared this time.

Maron just about chocked in surprise when she heard those words of his. Wait, what? How could he say something like that?! If she could have, she would have fixed him with the sternest look she could muster. She turned her head towards him again though, her arms around his neck once more. “It’ll take more than that sister of yours to scare me off.” She smiled faintly. “Whoever said I didn’t want you to kiss me…?” Her smile grew a little more mischievous.

[cartertcat]

"What if I don't want to kiss you?" Art said, turning his head away from her. That didn't last long before he was kissing Maron again. Again, he'd never been very good at acting. He kissed her for a longer amount of time then before, which he liked. Regretfully, he pulled away. Too bad that air was a necessity. Or else he would have gladly continued kissing her.

"Well as long as my sister wants you dead, there is no way that your getting rid of me," Phoenix laughed softly. "Maybe we should just wait here for a little while longer? Until we're.. sure the coast is clear," he told her. Using that as an excuse to stay on this beach a little bit longer.

"So we still have the entire day ahead of us. What would you like to do?" he asked, flashing another one of those crooked smiles that you didn't see to often.

[maron]

Maron had to think about that for a moment. He had been the one to kiss her the first time, but did that mean he’d want to kiss her again? Ugh, she had no clue whatsoever. She didn’t have to think about it to much, because his lips had soon returned to her own. The kiss was longer this time, and there was no shock to stop her from kissing him back.

Again, she was disappointed when her pulled away, but she was starting to feel the effects of lack of oxygen. “What about after she gives up?” She smirked a little, knowing he wouldn’t go running off after his sister lost interest in hunting Maron.

Maron pulled her arms back to herself, crossing them neatly across her chest, a look of pondering upon her face. “Hm… That’s not a bad idea. Wouldn’t want to run into any more possibly life threatening situations.” Why was it that they’d had two ‘dates’ so far, and two near death experiences? Only one thing could answer. They were both jinxed.

What did she want do now? And it seemed like they’d be at this beach for a time…. So what should they do? She’d let him decide everything up until now… “Build a Sand castle.” How they’d do that, she had no idea. But that’s the first thing that came to mind.

[cartertcat]

"She's not one to give up very easily. When she dose though, we'll just have to find someone else who wants to kill you." Art said, smiling. "Even though we really should stop meeting under these circumstances, together, were like bad luck magnets," He said, thinking ahead to what their next near death experience would be.

Maybe they'd run into some of the brotherhood? Or worse, Marie was part of the brotherhood. If there is a god, Art assumed that he, or she, was on their side. Who knew what Marie was capable of? When Maron mentioned sand castle, Phoenix flat out grinned.

The waves had calmed down, now they were more then a few feet behind the two of them. Art changed position so that there was a foots worth of space between the two of them. In his opinion, that was a foot to much. e took a giant clump of wet sand and placed it between the two of them. He cupped dry sand into his hands and placed it onto the wet.

"Hope you know, I am an expert at the art of sand castles." Phoenix said as his hair changed to an auburn. He hardly noticed though. Art was to busy acting like he had a go tee, and pretending to be deep in thought. His expression looked like that of a professor. It didn't last long though, because he was already laughing. Trying to make the sand into a cylinder and failing.

"Well, maybe not an expert," Art smiled, caught in his bluff.

[maron]

Maron laugh, she couldn’t help it. “How about you be the one with people after you next time? It’d be so unfair it I was the one always being targeted.” Hopefully though, there wouldn’t be any more after Marie gave up. Hopefully being the key word. “Yeah. We are both jinxed. I don’t think we’ll ever have a normal ‘date’.” Again, hopefully they would. But in a sense, a normal date might actually be a little boring. They weren’t normal, so their dates wouldn’t be either.

“Well, I’m not. It’d been year since I made a sand castle.” So why did she want to make one so bad? Maybe because they wouldn’t have to go anywhere to do it? A few moments in though, she was laughing. So much for being an expert. “I think you left your expert skills somewhere.” Maron was scooping up more moist sand into the pile that would supposedly be their Sand castle. With their skills though? It might just be a giant lump of… something.

[cartertcat]

"Well then I guess we'll just have to reacquire our skills, Huh?" Art asked, succeeding into making it into a cylinder. Maybe this would be a little bit easier with a bucket of some kind. Next time they went on a mutant date to the beach, they would bring the proper supplies.

He took a Long stick, circling around the cylinder with it.
"There, it is a mote and the first part of out castle," Phoenix said happily. "Maybe we'll do better on the second part?" he asked, hoping. He took a tiny twig, impaled a leaf with it, and stuck it on top of the castle. "every castle needs a flag!"

[maron]

Hah, reacquire skills? She didn't have artistic skills to begin with! Well, this would probably be good practice then! Smiling, she started her own attempt in shaping the sand into the shape they would need.

"Isn't a mote supposed to be deeper then that? And isn't it supposed to be filled with water? We can't have a mote without water! That's like..." Maron stopped, trying to think of a good metaphor. None came to mind. "Well, a mote with out water!" She sighed, half scowling. "I'm no good with metaphors." The part of the castle she had been attempting to make collapsed. Oops! With another sigh, that soon turned to a soft chuckle, she was forced to start all over again.