Love Me Tender, Love Me Sweet (closed)

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Name: Artemis Parker
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 178#
Eye Color: Silver Grey
Hair Color: Platinum
Skin Color: Pale Beige
Race: Human
Personality: Shy and quiet, but very kind and affectionate when you get to know him. He adores small cute things, but is afraid of children after some of his worse experiences at the orphanage.
Other: His lover committed suicide for unknown reasons leaving him alone, scared and upset. He works at a small pet store that his lover owned and left to him in his suicide note. He is very withdrawn and hesitant to get close to anyone.
Origin: unknown, orphaned at birth and grew up in an orphanage

Name: Everett Moore
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Height: 6 '5"
Weight: 183
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair Color: Dark Smokey Brown
Skin Color: Tan
Race: Human
Birthday: 9 July 1982
Personality: He has a strange appearance, with his large height, five o'clock shadow, and shaggy hair that usually covers his eyes, he can sometimes be seen as scary to others. But this is a misconception, because he is actually a very good person. He loves talking with people and being social, but most people usually avoid him.
Those that are close to him describe him as a "cuddly teddy bear", but also someone who you can rely on to support you and look out for you. He has a very protective and caring side to him, as well as one that will stand up for you or himself in times of need.

Artemis sighed, he'd been doing that alot lately it seemed. He moved around the pet store, tidying and checking up on the animals. Today was the seven month anniversary of his lover's death, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get over him. He was shy by nature, and John had been the only one able to get him out of his shell.

One of the parrots barked and Artemis could only sigh again. John had taught it to do that. He had taught its mate tomeow- as if on cue, the other parrot mewed like a cat.

This had been John's place, His dream, practically his life. They had been happy together... Hadn't they?

That single thought made Artemis halt in his tracks. Hadn't they been happy together?

Everett felt like walking into the pet store was like walking into a Walmart for the animals of the Earth... and maybe just some strange humans as well, but hey he wasn't really one to judge. Close friends and such were always telling him that he resembled a bear, so maybe he'd fit in just right.

He was honestly overwhelmed by it all, which kind of put him off. He could see a small child scramble past him as she made her way towards the cats in the back. The only thing that made him feel the least bit sane was that he actually had a purpose for coming here. Running a hand through his hair he looked up and around, hoping magic isle signs would appear out of nowhere and guide him to the right place. Unfortunately, it wasn't Walmart and none of these signs appeared. He decided a search would just have to do. The thought of asking an employee didn't cross his mind, simply because anyone would stare up at him and wonder if he was going to pummel them to death. Which would be terrible, because Everett had no strong feelings of harming anyone in the store.

Anyway, deciding that he wouldn't let his thoughts hold him back, Everett began fishing his way through the lanes. He could hear a bark and a meow coming from down the one he was in and headed in that direction, wondering where it would take him.

Artemis moved over to the parrots and opened the cage door.

The brightly colored birds hopped out, one to the top of the cage and the other to Artemis's shoulder.

He fished some treats out of his pocket and fed it to them absently. They stopped making noise as soon as they got what they wanted and he put them back, locking the cage securely. He turned around to go back to the register, only to run into something large that hadn't been there a moment ago. He stumbled back and fell to the ground with a small noise of surprise.

When Everett saw the employee with the birds he kept himself quiet. One, he didn't want to scare the birds away and have the employee have to go after them. It would just make a big mess of things and that's not what he wanted to cause. Another reason is that he didn't want to scare the employee away. He looked like he was someone would be gentle, and a tall oaf like Everett would just start something else he didn't want to cause. If that made any sense at all. It wasn't that he was afraid of people, he just didn't want them to be afraid of him.

His plan was to sneak on by as quickly as possible, and as quietly as possible, and head on his way through the store to get what he was looking for. The plan that he'd sought first was to just turn around as soon as he'd seen the employee, but it'd failed when noticing a group of kids behind him, so he'd been forced to decide between the two. He picked the employee because it was less creepy looking for a guy like him to be around an adult, rather than a group of kids.

This plan failed also, because right as soon as he was about to make the clear and clean get away, the employee did some amazing spin and slammed right into him. Not that it hurt much, but Everett felt himself panic as he heard a small noise from the guy and watched him go to the ground.

"Sorry!" he panicked, crouching down next to the guy. His hair kept getting in his eyes making it harder for him to see. He really did need to get a haircut and get it shortened once more. "Are you alright?" he asked, concern in his voice. He was tying to sound as nice as possible, really.

Artemis blinked in surprise as he looked up at the tall customer. He nodded slowly, his face flushing ever so slightly.

"I'm fine" He mumbled, easily climbing back up to his feet. He dusted himself off, keeping his face down while he composed himself. Once composed, he put on his best fake smile for the customer and looked up at him. "How can I help you today, sir?" He asked quietly.

Everett stood up along with him, feeling about the whole ordeal. He was surprised to see a smile on the employee's face, though it felt a little sad to him. He wondered if something was wrong, but didn't question it.

"Um... yeah... that would be a lot of help, actually," he said, chuckling a bit. He was just planning on searching through the pet store, but since the employee was offering it was making this all easier. "Do you happen to know where the hamster food is?" he asked, scratching the back of his head and glancing around to make sure they weren't standing in the isle it was in. Of course, there were only birds there as he looked, but he checked anyway.

"That would be in the back, by the small mammal cages" Artemis replied softly. "If you would follow me" He turned and led the tall customer to the back of the store where the hamsters, mice, rats, and guinea pigs were at. "The food is along that shelf, organized by animal then age and breed. Treats and toys are down at the end and cages are on the top shelf." He explained. He sighed before giving the customer another fake smile. "Come find me at the register when you're done and I'll check you out."

Everett nodded, following the employee as he listened to what he said, trying to catch everything and remember it so he wouldn't have to go ask again. He didn't want to bother the man more than he already had. Plus, the guy looked kind of like he didn't want to be there at the moment.
Once they were in the isle Everett apologized once more. He then turned to scan the shelves, getting momentarily lost as to what hamster food to get. He luckily had a note, though, with the brand name and size. Picking out the right one, he turned to head the cash register. He was glad to make it there and when he saw the employee he headed in his direction.
"I'm really sorry- I mean, are you alright? You look like a little off... I didn't mean weird, but ah, yeah. Everything okay?" he asked, partially concerned, but he didn't know why. He slowly and awkwardly set the bag of hamster food down on the counter.

Artemis's lips trembled and tears sprung to his eyes. He hurriedly wiped them away on his jacket sleeve. "No... Every thing's not okay" He whispered with a whimper. "Nothing will ever be okay for me again." He didn't know why, but he felt like he could tell this man anything, anything at all, and he wouldn't think less of him, even though they didn't even know each other.

(Hahaha. [I'm not laughing at your post.] I feel stupid, lol. I haven't been here in a while... and I went to reply to your RP... and I couldn't find it. Well, more so, I couldn't remember the title. I looked at all the titles and got so lost... I couldn't think of which one it was. It just slipped out of my mind. But I foundz it now!!! As... you can probably tell... see... yeah... :D)

((And just now I almost pressed the Send button without even replying... silly, forgetful me!!!))

(((God I'm so out of it... Just ignore me...)))

Everett's eyes widened a bit, because he wasn't expecting him to burst out into to tears. For a moment his brain jumped too quickly and he wondered if it was because he himself had done something wrong. His eyes immediately glanced down to himself and then back up to the employee. "Uh... I'm sorry," he said. "Is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all?" He probably couldn't do much, but the man was crying and he would feel bad if he didn't offer some assistance.
He patted the employee on the shoulder. "I don't know your circumstances, but I'm sure you have people to help you, right? I could help you."
He'd never imagined this happening, because he'd never really consoled anyone before. His close friends, yeah, the people who didn't run away from him at the sight of him.

"N-no. Th-there isn't anything you can d-do." Artemis sobbed quietly. "I-its already been so long, but just the th-thought still makes me cry" He rubbed at his eyes.

"I j-just can't ge-get over him!"

Everett's eyes widened a bit.
"O-oh... Um, I'm sorry."
He mentally panicked for a moment, having no idea what the hell he was supposed to do in a situation like this. Everything he thought of would probably just be awkward. Which is probably why he did the most unusual thing of them all, and stepped behind the counter to envelop the employee in a hug.
He didn't know who it was the employee was talking about and wasn't going to ask, but the most he could do was hug him, and pat his back soothingly.

Artemis clung to the front of his shirt and just cried. It had been so long since anyone had held him while he cried.

Everett really expected him to step back, or ask him what the hell he was doing, but was surprised to find the employee to be clinging to his clothing, sobbing his eyes out. He thought about making the shush-ing noises while he was rubbing the employee's back, like one does when a child cries. Yet, the employee was crying so much he didn't feel it right to stop him, or tell him not to cry.
"It's alright," he reassured the employee, to the best of his ability. "It's okay: just go ahead and cry..."

Artemis couldn't help himself. That's all he could do was stand there and cry. It was barely in his power to stay on his feet. His knees were shaking as he leaned against the customer, sobbing, unable to control himself.

(I'm so sorry...that I forgot about this. I mean, I remembered, somewhat... I was super busy through December and January, so I hadn't been on in forever.)

Everett let him cry, let him let it all out. It wasn't such a bad thing, to cry. Really people would try and calm you down, tell you to dry your eyes, but he felt that crying was a way to get everything out of your system.
He continued patting his back soothingly, glancing down at the employee who was clinging to his shirt. When he woke up this morning, he would have never expected something like this to happen.

After a while, Artemis had calmed down enough to breath normally. He remained standing close to the costumer, however, still trying to calm his raging mind. "I-I'm sorry" He mumbled. "I'm sorry for putting you in a place like this." He straightened and wiped his eyes on the back of his hand. "I-I didn't mean to break down like that. I-I've just been having a really rough time recently."

"It's alright, really," he reassured the working.
He'd had the stresses of life come crashing down on him more than once and knew that it was really rough to get through. He didn't know what this man was going through, but if it was enough to make him break down in public then it must be bad.
Everett nervously ran his hand through his hair. "Hey... listen... I'm not trying to pry, but if you ever, er, need to talk about anything, I'd be willing to listen." He smiled slightly, wondering if he sounded like some creeper. He hoped he didn't.

"That would be so nice of you" Artemis smiled, very sincerely. "Um, My name's Artemis" He held out his dry hand to shake. It was a little late to introduce himself, having just sobbed all over the man's shirt, but it was the right thing to do.

Everett was so glad that he didn't give him the weird look others did when he offered to help. Or the scared look children often gave him, gazing up at his extreme height. Well, compared to them.
"Artemis, nice," Everett complemented. He returned the handshake with a smile. "I'm Everett," he introduced himself.

Artemis gave a small sniffle as his smile widened slightly. "That's a nice name." He looked up at him with a small chuckle. "Suits you though, if I may say. Just like mount Everest, though I suppose you would be mount Everett. Is that all for you today?" he asked, pointing to the hamster food.

Everett laughed for a second, a big smile coming to his face at Artemis's comment. "Yeah, it's really fitting, isn't it?" He chuckled for a moment, wondering why his parents had decided to name him that.
When Artemis pointed at the food, Everett stared at it for a second. It took him a minute to remember that it was what he'd come to the store for in the first place. "Ah! Yeah," he said, glancing at it. "Right... hamster food fooor... the hamster."

"What kind of Hamster?" Artemis asked with a big smile. Animals and talk of animals always cheered him right up. That was how he had met his boyfriend and come to work in the store in the first place. "I prefer larger pets my self, but I've been told hamsters are nice and pretty low maintenance"