Temeprance gave a slight laugh at his first comments, glaring at him over her shoulder. "It seemed accurate with the whole moody, blind, reclusive thing you have going on." She teased. "Oh, shut up, dingbat." She joked, shifting lightly to get more comfortable, sliding back slightly into Zephyr so she wasn't riding on withers. She rolled her eyes at his dramatics, giving him an exasperated look over her shoulder. "Am I that repulsive to you? You would rather risk falling hundreds of feet to your death than hang onto me for your life for about an hour or two?" She huffed, flushing slightly at his determination about not touching her, like she had the plague. "Quit being a wimp, it's not like I have cooties." She muttered, tempted to hide somewhere deep in the ground for the rest of her life. She couldn't seem that awful, could she?

"Moody, blind, and reclusive. I can concur that I am every one of those things once in a while, but not all the time!" Zephyr sniffed, rolling his eyes. "I've heard of a dingo but not a dingbat. New species?" He asked with a small snort before wincing slightly. Heeeere we go. It wasn't like he HAD to explain himself but if she was so irritated she shoved him off of Lucia he would wish he would've explained. As she went on he winced again. Then cringed. Definitely a cringe this time. "Okay sheesh I'm SORRY for being a WIMP it's not you don't look so defeafedly sad. Quick add in- why cooties? You couldn't have thought up ANYTHING better with that brain of yours? Moving on. Do you really think a *moody blind reclusive dingbat and child of the god of literally death* would be super cuddly? I don't exactly joy physical contact, don't get your hair in a twist." He snorted a little, though he felt bad and weird at the same time. He was sort of lying. He didn't want to be near her because he wanted to be near her! Some weird part of him pretty much just wanted to wrap her in an eternal hug so the rest of him was trying to avoid that at all costs. He did ending up holding on a little tighter as Lucia swooped up again. He didn't exactly want to fall hundreds of feet to his death just because he MIGHT have sort of liked a girl and didn't want to be near her.

Zephyr is the definition of a middle school boy xD))

"Still, accurate enough." T grinned, rolling her eyes at him for the dingbat comment. "Yeah. Look in the mirror if you ever want to see one." She said sarcastically.

"Ohhh, I see. So, you're just afraid of women in general. Got it." She mocked. Better than seeming like weirdo for being upset that he wouldn't, essentially, hug her even if his life depended on it. She gasped at his comment, turning red and glaring at him over her shoulder. "I- wh- I am not defeatedly sad!" She quipped back, somewhat flustered. "Cooties because you're acting like a little boy who's afraid of hirls." She muttered, shifting anxiously. She huffed at him. "I didn't ask you to cuddle me! You make it seem like I asked you to make out or something- I told you to hold on so you didn't literally fall to your death." She said, her voice rising slightly in pitch because of her own little embarrassment. Did she want him to cuddle her? Yes, but no, but- it wasn't- that wasn't the point.

"Well, boohoo for you. I like it. Get over yourself." She huffed.

(He's also doing an AMAZING job at flustering her xD)

-

Zephyr snorted, deciding not to respond to that comment as he had bigger matters on his hands. "Ouch. When you put it that way it sounds much worse." He huffed, then smirked as she twisted around, her face as red as fire. Hehe. He hadn't expected it, but it was still funny. Making people blush was a weird hobby of his. He just never thought he'd get the Triumph with Tempe. "Did I push a button?" He asked sweetly, flashing a smile only to direct his own brain away from her hurried insults. And the fact she cared about what he said. Yikes. At her next words he jerked back slightly, his definite want to let go and Freefall rising with the look of surprise on his face. "Okay okay, don't kill your own brain cells because you're thinking too hard. There's these things called JOKES and it's when people say stuff they DONT really mean." He pointed out with a slight huff of his own. Eughlch. That had not helped his sanity. "You can calm down any time now." He said slowly at her last words, though at this point he seemed to be gravitating away from her because all he could flipping think about was kissing her and that was a thought that he wanted purged from his brain immediately before he puked and wished he could die more than he already wanted to. "Wait - you LIKE physical contact? Isn't that what you just said? Doesn't that mean you like my physical contact?" He couldn't help saying that. Just to see how she would react, although he felt he was probably gonna be shoved off soon.

Temperance gave a slight whine and buried her head in her hands, trying to act less like a little girl. And maybe keep her blush from making her look like a tomato. "Ah, gods, you're insufferable." She muttered, lifting her head and wincing at his reaction to her girlish outburst. "That's called sarcasm, dirt for brains." She corrected mockingly, trying to recover- even though there was no recovery possible except to fall off the flying horse and zap herself out of existence. "I'm calm. Why wouldn't I be calm? I'm very calm. And relaxed." Meanwhile, her entire body was tense with embarrassment and a little bit of shame. "I- w- n- I mean, w- y- th- if-" She stuttered out the beginning of something incoherent and then sagged in her seat, shrinking down a little and letting her head fall back against his chest so she could stare up at him. "Don't ask questions you don't want answers to." She said, bringing her hands up to hide her face again.

(He cracked the code lol.....)

-

Zephyr smiled a little at that. "I know. I've been told that before." He answered, his brain flashing to the thousands of times he had been told that. Apparently he was VERY insufferable. "And that's called covering up the worst fail at a comeback in history." He pointed out drily, a bit pleased with just that- honestly he was doing pretty good in terms of not just screaming and belly flopping off away into the ground. "Calm and relaxed..." He repeated slowly, easily being able to feel she was NOT. At her stuttering his eyebrows raised slightly. He really got her there. He'd better stop before she begged Zeus to kill him. Because she seemed more than flustered now. He tensed a little as she sagged back against him, but didn't move, his eyebrows scrunching up slightly. "Ooookay, to save you mostly and a little bit myself, let's forget we ever had this conversation and oo look, our destination."

"Mm, yeah, great idea, except embarrassment like this stays forever. So, thanks for that." Temperance growled, sitting up and keeping her head in her hands. She peeked through her fingers at the building ahead, letting out a small breath. "Wow. Didn't realize we'd been arguing that long." She huffed, watching Lucia angle her wings down and settle on the sidewalk in front of the Empire State Building. She was off before Zephyr, practically launching herself off the horse. If he didn't want to or enjoy touching her, she didn't want to force him to for a moment more than strictly nescessary. She stroked her mare quietly, pressing a few kisses to her muzzle and waiting for Zephyr to dismount before letting her fly off

"I didn't try to embarrass you. I'm sorry. Ding bat cloud brained me." Zephyr mumbled quietly, ducking his head and letting go quickly as Tempe launched herself off the horse. He dismounted swiftly and gave Lucia a thankful pat before looking up at the tall building. That hadn't been the most helpful flight ever, and his sanity would be bruised forever. He had found out how to make her blush though. 1 point to Zeph. But he could probably never use it because she would do.. this. Whatever she was doing now. A thought popped into his mind that made his shoulders sag. He pushed her too far and now she'd probably never even think about saying she was actually his friend again. Gosh. Why was he so boneheaded sometimes.

"It's fine." Temeprance shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. She felt strangely like she had just gotten rejected; it was familiar, but not in this sense. She squeezed her arms lightly and then dropped them to her sides, resettling her bag on her shoulder as she made her way inside. She ignored the look she got from the man behind the desk and led the way into an elevator without asking. She took in a breath and waited for Zephyr to enter before she jammed the 600th floor button. She clasped her hands together over and over again, trying to get over the utter shame washing over her and the nerves of meeting her father.

As the ultimate worrier, it quickly started to take over his brain. He liked Tempe as a friend, and maybe a little more but that didn't matter right now. He didn't want to lose her to some silly conversation that didn't mean anything. He didn't know why he couldn't just stop being a wimp and shut his mouth, not needing to defend himself. He wanted to be normal. So badly. Or normal-ish. He wanted to be the son of a normal god, or even just a human. He wanted to not he bullied. He wanted to find a girlfriend that actually cared about him instead of just laughing in his face and telling him it wa all a prank. Bitterness washed over his brain like fire as he walked into the elevator, his head down so his hair fell across his forehead and partially covered his pained blue eyes.