Day Shift

After a few needed hours of sleep at home, Beth's anger had subsided. And as she lay in bed, her thoughts had wandered back to her encounter earlier. And, at this point, she asked herself over and over again: 'How does a perfect guy like that just pop out of nowhere?' Was she that oblivious? And then came the other undeniable question: 'Why'd he have to be such a prick?'

Beth had never imagined herself in this kind of situation, conflicted over a guy, especially one that made such a 'good' first impression.

-Later, at work; a few days later-

"Phew, done." Beth wiped sweat from her brow, surveying all the tables she'd cleaned. The parties that went on today ended a little bit earlier than expected. Now, this would've seemed like it would've been a piece of cake to clean up after. Well, actually, no. The kids had managed to have an all-out 'pizza war' before the last party's birthday boy threw up all over the bottom of the show stage. It was only about five 'o clock, which opened up an opportunity for her some 'quiet time'.

She plopped down in nearby booth. "Hey loser." She looked up to see Liz sitting opposite of her. "Hey, shorty." Beth was probably the only person who Liz wouldn't hit for calling her that.

"Have you noticed the stiff stalking you for the last hour?"

Beth looked at the black haired girl sideways, "What?" She pointed over to the wall behind her. The blonde turned around. What, or who, she saw nearly drained her of color.

The Marionette was leaning up against the wall. He saw her turn around and quickly averted his gaze to the side. What the hell? She turned back to Liz, "Has he been watching me work this whole time?"

She shook her head yes. Oh my god, she would never bend down at the waist without looking behind her again. Her face went beet red, legs felt weak. He'd been 'watching' her. That was creepy and yet… it made her feel warm inside.

Liz flicked her forehead. "Well don't just sit her like an asshole", she said. "Go talk to him."

Beth straightened up. 'She's right', she thought. 'How many times was I going to get to talk to this guy, when he wasn't actin' like a complete dick at night?'

She rose from her seat, a new fire in her belly, and walked over to him. This would be easy; she can talk to anyone, right? Just go over and say…

-Earlier-

Mangle watched Marion pace back and forth in thought. He'd been doing this for about fifteen minutes, and the robot fox knew exactly what, or who, was on his mind.

He had avoided her for a few days now, but the blonde guard had been on the doll's mind ever since this that night. It was bad enough that his music box had begun to malfunction, that made him angry enough, now he had her smart mouth to deal with… and that cute little country accent of hers…

"Marion, why don't you just talk to her?"

He stopped, and remembered this morning. Mangle had mentioned she worked during the day here too, right? If so, he had to get brave. "Is she here?"

He nodded, "yeah, actually she's out front cleaning up."

The puppet, for once in a long time, found himself smiling about something. He would get to see Beth again, right now; get to silently fawn over how beautiful she was. He stopped at that thought, and then frowned, 'if she doesn't already completely hate my guts from how I treated her earlier.' That was going to be a problem. Marionette was so use to talking to the others so hatefully and now he had to try to change his set tone and, for that matter, overall attitude. He wasn't use to anyone standing up to him as she had.

He walked to the door and peeked around the corner. There she was, gloriously bent over, sweeping something up from under a nearby table. He could've drooled…

Mangle came up behind him. "Are you going to stand here, staring at her butt, or are you gonna do as I asked?"

"Excuse me", Marion looked over his shoulder at the shorter fox boy, "since when did you decide to talk to me like that?"

Mangle's eyes lit up, full of meaning, and pointed outside, "since right there might be the answer to your constant foul mood toward the world."

Marion's head drooped, he sighed, "fine." But he didn't want to interrupt her work, so what could he do? He didn't want to just stay in here the whole time. He looked around for a good place to hide, and spotted a patch of wall darkened from having a broken light just above. Perfect.

-Now-

"What?"

Marion looked down at the blonde, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean what?"

She put hands on her hips, eyes narrowed. She didn't exactly know how to ask someone nicely 'why have you been watching/stalking me?'

"What do you want?" Beth motioned over to Liz, "she said you've been watching me for the last hour, so what is it?"

They both stood there for about a minute, just staring at each other. Either he was too shy to answer, or she was trying to find the proper words. Eventually, Marionette said, "I just wanted to talk." He started toward a back room, motioning for her to follow. Solitude, that would make him feel much better. And with her, that made it all the better.

Beth stared after him for a few seconds, eyes drifting down to his… um… anyway, then reluctantly followed the puppet. 'What's he gonna say?' She walked through the door, him shutting it behind her. She fully expected another scolding for the deal with his music box-

"I'm sorry."

'Hah?'

A/N: Thank you guys so much for all the views! I didn't think anyone would be willing enough to read the crap I spew out onto paper, but I was very wrong. Thank you again, seriously. I'm really happy right now. But, anyhow, let me know what you guys think of this. Give me your honest opinion on my style of writing, I really want to improve, and I'm hoping that college is going to help me improve as well, since I'll be starting it soon. I'll update it as soon as I can. Stay beautiful. J