Jaynehkins and Polokins again. :)

"Ha!" Shaun exclaimed mockingly, then he sat down opposite Amia, and flicked a set of bunny-ears at her. "You're covered in dust." He informed her innocently, as though he had nothing at all to do with it.

((Sorry for not posting on other RP - got a project that I have to finish very quickly - so not time to think, and this one requires less thinking for me. XD LMAO! ))

Amia swatted Shaun on the back of his head before smirking. "You are too." She teased him back. Reaching over hesitantly she laced her fingers with his and leaned back against the wall. The paint was peeling, and the floor was cracking. This place certainly needed work, in order to call it home. Well a home of any kind.

Shaun smiled when he felt Amia's fingers slip between his. Sensing her hesitance, he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze - finding the warmth of her bare skin thrillingly comforting against his own. He simply sat there in silence a while, but then he reverted back to his usual goofy personality.
Picking up the bunny ears from the floor beside him, Shaun shoved them onto Amia's head, and grinned playfully at her from behind his mask.
"Now you're a dust bunny." He pointed out - clearly proud of his pun.

Amia smiled when she felt his hand tighten around hers. When she felt the bunny ears being shoved onto her head she grunted before glaring at him. "Good one." She smirked. Grabbing a cape from behind them she tied it around his neck. "Now you're Batman."

Shaun laughed, flicking the cape about to amuse himself. "All I need now is to trade this thing in for a gay bat mask." He joked, rapping on his gas mask with his knuckles. Ah, how he longed to just cast the thing aside... But who was he kidding? Amia would be freaked out from seeing his face - just like all the others. He looked like a monster, after all.

Amia chuckled. "You could always take it off..." She trailed off thoughtfully. She wanted him to, whatever was underneath there couldn't change what she felt towards him. Love. It was real and she knew it. Biting her lip she waited for a reply. Though she knew he would never take the mask off... or at least she thought he wouldn't.

Shaun sighed and glanced away, his cheerfulness vanishing instantly. "I can't..." He murmured softly. "I just can't." He bit his lip to keep from saying any more, and closed his eyes momentarily. Half of him hoped that Amia would just drop the topic and leave it alone - but the other half almost wished that she would convince him to remove the mask... And that she would love him just the same even after seeing his face.

"I will love you all the same." Amia whispered before tilting her head and smiling at him. "Trust me, I will." And that she would. She would never stop loving him, no mattter what was behind that mask. It was his heart that mattered and that was all. Raising an eyebrow she waited for his reaction. Hoping maybe, just maybe he would tke off his mask.

"If you knew how many times I'd heard that before, you'd understand my hesitance..." Shaun murmured with a sigh.
He raised his hands to his mask - heart thudding violently - and slowly began pulling it away from his face. But then, at the last moment, he lost his courage. "No." He muttered, replacing the mask and shaking his head. "No, I can't do it. It isn't worth the risk..." He got to his feet abruptly, and turned away - trying to calm his racing heart.
He didn't even know what he was so scared of... But it was terrifying.

Amia bit her lip and let out a soft sigh. When Shaun got up she suddenly felt alone again. "If you take off your mask I'll tell you my secret." She said almost in a whisper. No one knew her secret. She hadn't told anyone, her own parents were the only ones that had known. But they died in the explosion so they weren't around for her anymore.. It was hard being on her own in a world like this. Alone with a deadly secret.

"What secret?" Shaun asked curiously, turning back to Amia and tilting his head slightly to one side. "I didn't know you had a secret... Wait, that's stupid, everybody has secrets." He rolled his eyes at his own silliness, then trotted back over to Amia and sat down beside her.
"Well?"

Amia held her breath for a moment before biting her lip. "You have to promise not to run away and not to do experiments on me." She demanded him in her soft melodious voice before staring Shaun straight in the eye. "Promise."

((Almost 2AM, so this will probably be my last post for tonight... ))

"I'm too tired to run, and I accidentally blew my science kit up when I was 10 years old." Shaun responded seriously, "So you don't have to worry about me doing that." He paused a moment, then added, "Actually, that's a lie... It wasn't an accident - I totally meant to blow that science kit up." He laughed and shrugged, then met Amia's gaze with a soft, hidden smile. "Promise."

Amia nodded before biting her lip again. Well here it goes.
Slowly she reached up and pressed her thumb to her little heart-shaped locket. It began to glow and she flinched. Transforming always hurt for some reason. Fangs grew from her teeth and claws out of her dainty hands. A small hiss escaped her mouth and her eyes turned an eerie red color.

Shaun stared blankly as Amia transformed. His mind told him that it was not true, but his eyes disagreed - and a furious mental war began waging within him.
Part of him wanted to turn and run, but part wanted to move closer... To find out what this strange thing was.
This was unnatural, and shocking, yet somehow, what surprised Shaun most was that he was not as surprised as he had expected to be.
With a rush of thrilling adrenaline, he stepped cautiously toward the monster that had replaced Amia. He reached out hesitantly for its hand, and felt the razor sharp claws protruding where Amia's nails had once been.
"This is... You?" He asked quietly, his awestruck voice sounding hollow in the silence.

((Okay, I lied, but this is really the last one! XD ))

Amia swallowed thickly and stared up at Shaun with somewhat sorrowful eyes. His words made her feel even worse. Yes this was her. She was trapped inside this monster. Trapped. Pulling her hand behind her back when Shaun reached for it she then turned her gaze to the ground. This wasn't what she wanted to be. She wasn't ugly as a monster, just unappealing. The way her fangs jutted from her mouth and her eyes were narrrowed and red, looking much like a cats. It wasn't something someone wanted to run into everyday.
"Yes this is me." She replied in a mere whisper.

As Amia snatched her hand away, one of her talons nicked Shaun's finger - leaving a tiny cut. The gentle stinging sent a thrill spreading through him, and he raised it slowly to his mouth, before remembering that his mask would get in the way. He dropped his hand back to his side, and stared at Amia. After a long moment of silence, he took another step toward her - and reached determinedly for her other hand - closing his fingers around it and holding it in a grip that was somehow firm and gentle all at once.
"You're beautiful." He whispered. And with that, he slowly lifted the mask away from his face, brought her hand to his lips, and kissed it softly.

His face was ruined. Thick, ugly scars criss-crossed every inch of it. The right side was worst than the left, and at one point his cheekbone was nearly visible. Some of the skin had healed to stretch into ugly scarring, but in places it was still raw and broken. His right eye was gone completely - the lid held closed by a long, ugly scar that stretched from above his eyebrow to his cheekbone.
And, nearly everywhere, he was badly burned. All souvenir of the explosion that should have killed him.

Without the mask, he felt naked and vulnerable - and as he gently held Amia's hand to his cracked lips, he waited with closed eyes and bated breath for the sound of screaming and running footsteps.

Amia felt Shaun reach for her hand and she let him. Not pulling it away this time. Red eyes scanning Shaun’s through his mask before she saw him reach a hesitant hand to lift the mask off. His words made her breath catch. Had he truly meant that? He thought she looked beautiful even when she was transformed…
When Shaun lifted off his mask Amia felt her knees grow weak but was thankful it didn’t show. She then reached up and held onto her necklace for a moment. She turned back into her human form. Her eyes slowly fading into the light green color. Reaching out with a hesitant hand she stroked his scarred cheek gently. Eyes soft as she watched Shaun with a loving expression on her face. Her fair skinned hand traced one of his scars before leaning forward and pressing her forehead against his. “You are too.” She whispered, hoping they were the right words.
No matter how cheesy they sounded, the words were absolutely true. She didn’t see the scars on his face, or the way it was burned and wrinkled up. Instead she saw his pure, heart. And that was all she saw.

When he felt Amia's hand against his cheek, Shaun was so shocked that he almost jumped. It was such a strange and foreign feeling... Nobody has touched his face in so long, he had almost forgotten what it felt like. Then her finger traced along one of his many scars, and Shaun felt a shudder run through him, leaving goosebumps on his flesh. It was something so deeply personal... To feel this vulnerable, to trust this much, Amia might as well have been touching his very soul rather than his scars.
A sharp intake of breath as her forehead met his, a catch in his throat as she spoke, and then a welling of emotion in his heart, as his quivering lips struggled to form a single word.
"Amia..." He managed finally, his voice escaping in a hoarse whisper.
His lips inched hesitantly toward hers. Slowly... Slowly... His hands crept up to her face, fingers slowly stroking her cheek. He could feel her warm breath on his face, but he dared not move an inch closer...
Who would want to kiss something like him...?
Why should Beauty kiss the Beast if no prince appears thereafter...?

Amia felt Shaun shudder and she bit her lip. Hopefully she wasn't making him nervous. Then again she probably was. As she felt Shaun's hand creeping up her face and caressing it gently she let out a soft breath. "Yes?" She whispered in reply to Shaun's single word.
Closing her eyes she leaned forward a little more and her lips brushed Shaun's. As her breaths grew shaky she waited for him to respond.

Amia's lips brushed lightly against his, and for a moment Shaun felt weak. It seemed absurd, even to him, but he had never truly kissed anybody before... His entire adult life had been spent behind a mask, and as a teenager he had been clumsy and awkward - and far too shy to talk to a girl, let alone kiss one.
Now, as Amia waited with her lips just bumping his as lightly as a butterly lands on a flower, Shaun felt foolish and infantile. He didn't know what he ought to do... What he ought to say. He had not taken the time to consider this, since it had been such an impulsive decision. He had wanted to kiss Amia, therefore he had tried, but he had not thought this far... Probably, he had been so certain that he would be rejected that the possibility of Amia actually meeting him half way had not come to mind.
Now what?
Well, there was nothing for it but to act on instinct, and hope for the best.
Hesitant, and more than just a little nervous, Shaun summoned what courage he had, threw caution to the winds, and kissed Rosa.
It was a polite sort of kiss - delicate and sweet - and deeply intimate, yet by no means passionate or lustful. As Shaun had said not long ago, he was not that type of guy.
Even now, he felt uncertain, and after just a few moments he lost confidence and pulled away. It astounded him how fragile he felt... It was like he was a roach under Amia's shoe, just waiting to be stepped on - all he could do was to trust that she would not crush him. And he believed it... But even that didn't take away the fear.
Everybody is scared of getting hurt... But better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

Amia felt Shaun resist for a moment but he then closed his lips around hers. Amia's hand still rested on his face and she kissed him back lovingly. So this was what it felt like? To be loved? To feel loved?

Ooc- Will post more later if you haven't replied already. Mom's calling.

((Gah, just realised I mixed up Amia and Rosa again. XD Haha!))

When Rosa returned his kiss - Shaun felt himself relax slightly, and he responded more easily now. By the time they broke apart, he had a smile on his face. Well, as much as a smile as his ruined face could muster, anyhow. The thought of his scars jolted his confidence yet again, and Shaun found himself trapped in silence. He had no idea what to say...
Well, 'thank you' came to mind, but that just sounded a little pathetic - even to him.

((You do that a lot. ))

Amia opened her eyes when their lips parted. Looking up at Shaun she ran her hand down his face again and over his scarred eyelid. Now what to say? She was struggling for words. None came to mind as she stood there in absolute silence. But this silence wasn't deafening, rather it played a joyous melody. One she loved and didn't want to break. Tiling her head to the side a small smile tugged at her lips and her eyes sparkled. He wasn't ugly, nor was he scary. He was absolutely beautiful to her. As she was beautiful to him when she was transformed into a monster.

((Rub it in... -.- Haha!

OH MY WORD!! I did NOT just make the same mistake after actually pointing it out!! Oh my goodness. I suck. I suck epically. XD ))

Shaun returned AMIA's smile, and he felt himself gradually relax again. Soon enough, he felt like himself - and after that, he quickly became bored of the silence.
He thought a moment, and when no prizewinning speech came to him, he simply said the first thing that came to mind.
"Hi."
He said simply, a goofy, lopsided smirk lifting one corner of his lips.