A/N: I am so~ sorry for making you guys wait! Do I still have readers out there? Anyway, here's the next chapter.
Zelman was irritated. For a solid week Azmaria had managed to – rather impressively – not say more than two sentences in a row to him. What was it with women and giving a man the 'cold shoulder' when they were mad? It resolved nothing and most of the time it had no affect... So why was it affecting him? He wanted to drag her out of the coffee shop that they were sitting in, being friendly with the Christophers (who were reminiscing about some of Rosette's more interesting misadventures) and demand that an explanation from her. The only thing that stopped him was that, despite his bad mood, some of those stories being regaled had actually succeeded in making him genuinely laugh... But he was still annoyed. The way that Azmaria was hiding her appearance was nothing more than her conforming and trapping herself within the confines of other people's perceptions and expectations. Freedom was the one thing that Zelman valued above all else and he refused to let her trap herself.
As irritated as Zelman was, Rosette was equally pissed. She had been watching all afternoon as Azmaria ignored Zelman as much as she possibly could, while Zelman tried to get her attention (and more than two sentences in a row). Joshua just quietly sipped at his tea; he had an idea of what was going on based on Azmaria's lack of colored contacts. He also knew that his sister would figure it out and chew Zelman out for it, so he didn't need to say a thing. Chrono, for his part, knew the details of the situation because both Zelman and Azmaria were thinking very loudly. He couldn't decide if he should interfere, or just leave them to sort it out, but the latter seemed the wiser course for both them and everyone else's safety.
Chrono, however, found that he couldn't disagree with Zelman, even if he was the one who had given her the contacts after he dug her up from her grave. He picked his coffee mug up off of the table and took a sip. He and Joshua kept their cups in their hands, sensing what was about to happen.
"Alright!" Rosette finally snapped, slamming her hands down onto the table (her belly to big for her to stand up abruptly) with enough force to rattle the dishes, "That's enough, both of you! Azmaria what is going on?"
The other people in the cafe were now staring at them. No one at their table noticed.
Azmaria stared at Rosette in surprise for a moment. The others waited. Finally, she explained what had happened. Rosette sighed exasperatedly, pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "Oh, for crying out loud... Look, he's not wrong Azzy; you don't need them to protect yourself from other people's idiocy anymore." Then snapped her attention over to Zelman, "HOWEVER, THAT WAS NOT THE WAY TO HANDLE IT!"
Zelman was taken aback by the volume (everyone else in the cafe that wasn't used to it was shocked and had a near heart attack).
"Look mister, you don't just go and destroy her stuff because you don't agree with what she's doing! You talk to her about it! LIKE A FREAKING ADULT!"