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Percy thankfully took his tea, grateful for the distraction that the return of the waitress had produced. He then, in an attempt to put off having to respond to Susan's astute (if not slightly obvious) observation took a large gulp of his beverage. This was a horrible move on his part, as the tea was still scalding hot, and he ended up finding that he could not swallow. So he sat there a moment, trying very hard not to spew a rather decently sized mouthful of burning hot tea towards Susan, waiting for it to cool down just enough to be uncomfortably ingested.

"Ahem." He coughed, wiping moisture from his eyes as soon as he had managed to swallow. "Nervous? Don't be... ah... well... Yeah, I guess a little." He looked down at his tea cup, wincing slightly as the stinging in his mouth resolved into a stubborn throb. "I'm... I-I don't know why though. I just sort of feel... weird. My stomach's all wibbly and I can't breathe right. Maybe I'm coming down with something."

Well, that was partially true. He wasn't about to tell her that he had starting feeling strange as soon as she had sat down. He needed to move the conversation away from him somehow without making it super obvious that he wanted to change the subject.

Of course, he was horrible at that.

"Enough about ah, enough about me though." He smiled, looking towards Susan, but not looking at her. "What have er, what have you been up to? This summer I mean. Well, after we all went on that trip. Anything good?"

Percy would have blushed again at Susan's concern, but he was already pretty red in the face as it was. It was nice to know he was missed, though it was obvious she wasn't just talking about him. Still, it was nice to be included in the whole "friends" thing. "I'm sure... I ah, well. I'm sure it's... nothing, you went home and visited? Brilliant! Well, maybe not brilliant, if you didn't enjoy it, but... I was ah, I was thinking about doing that. Going home and visiting I mean, but my sister went, and I don't know if my Mum's heart could ah... well, if it could take the chaos that would be the two of us in the same house... again. I mean, she took it before, didn't complain or anything, but it ah... couldn'ta been... relaxing to say the ah... the least..."

He trailed off, attempting another swig of tea to give himself time to collect his scattered thoughts, but honestly it didn't work very well. For one, he had forgotten that the tea was still quite hot, and ended up with a near repeat of his earlier gulp of pain. Then there was the fact that Susan was blushing now too, her face and the parts of the insides of her ear where her skin was visible...

Quite frankly it was one of the cutest things he had ever seen.

He nearly dropped his teacup as that thought entered his head. Okay, there was absolutely no way he could convince himself of the innocence of that little sentence. He still tried to ignore it though. Susan was a friend. A friend! they were friends in the way that two girls were friends with each other, right? He had spent so much time hanging out with her as Penelope... if she really didn't care about his different forms, then she must still see him like that, right?

"A-ha. Er... so... you're back now though!" He said, trying to sound... anything but as nervous as his thoughts. "No need to worry about... stuff. Nice that you missed your friends though...." He shot a look at his teacup and raised it to his lips, attempting to appear nonchalant. "A... Any, ah, anyone... in, in particular?"

Well now things were just awkward as hell. How strange it must have looked to the outside observer, two teenagers sitting across from each other,
Glancing up only when they were sure the other wasn't looking, blushing profusely...

Actually, that didn't seen all that strange now that he thought about it.

Susan's reaction to his question had made him giddy as hell. He tried to brush off his uncomfortable feelings of euphoria and respond to her... response, like a normal person. "Oh yeah, Tshila." He said, waving a hand through the air as if to catch Susan's comment. She's a... keeper right? I mean she's a good friend. I mean I don't like her like her, just as a friend..." He blinked in surprise. "Ah... not sure... why I said that." He muttered. "She's the first friend I made here I mean. You think I'm a nervous wreck now? Well..." he laughed nervously, and forgot to finish his sentence for a good twenty seconds.

"... ohuh, I was worse, back then I mean. A lot more... nervous."

He couldn't exactly say he wanted to change forms. He never wanted to change forms, no matter which form he was. It certainly would have made it a lot easier for him to talk though, not to mention think. He looked around. No way was he going to change by choice in such a crowded place... he'd have to just deal with it.

"U-m, seems like a lot of the kids here... or, at rosentale I mean, have problems with their siblings. "He fidgeted with his teacup. Me and my sister don't really get on, and my friend Angela claims that her sister tried to kill her once or twice... that's a little bit worse than my sibling mind you, but still."

"I-.... what?" Percy momentarily forgot to be nervous as he tried to figure out what Susan was talking about. What was so cute? Who was so cute? He heard a commotion from another table and turned to see several young children eating what appeared to be some sort of tea flavored ice cream with their parents. Well this was great. He was getting to that point where he was so flustered that he couldn't form coherent sentences. She had, he believed, misinterpreted one of his previous statements about how there were a lot of kids at rosentale to be about there being a lot of children in the teahouse, which now that he looked, was sort of true. There weren't really a lot, mostly just an average amount, and-

Susan's abrupt question nearly made him jump. He snapped his head around to stare at her, completely forgetting to avoid eye contact. Thankfully, she was looking at her tea. Tea... he had completely forgotten his.

"What." It wasn't a question, more of a declaration. "...Ah... Aha, well...." Any chance of his face returning to a normal shade from bright red was long gone now. "It ah... that..." He took a deep breath, telling himself that switching forms now would be cheating. "It's... complicated. Because of how my mind works, I mean. I don't have... a lot of experience with it, but, but when I switch, my mind changes too right? It... I'm ah... pretty stra-... heterosexual, so as a girl... I er... like guys, and as a guy..." He trailed off. "Y-you get it. But for a while after the switch, not ah, not too long after, but for a while, I'm a little... screwy. My mind doesn't think right, or um, actually, it just is more used to thinking one way, but now it thinks the other. Like, there's a lag. My body changes, and it takes a little for my mind to completely get with the program? I mean mostly it does... Sorry... I don't know it that helps... Why... Why do you ask?"

Understandable? Percy couldn't help but smirk a little. That was definitely just one of those things that people say when there really wasn't anything else to say. He didn't even fully understand how his mind changed with his body. It almost seemed to change every time, depending on his mood, or whether he was surprised into changing, or was doing it intentionally, or several million other factors. Not that that currently mattered. He certainly wasn't stupid. He knew where this was going now... most likely. At least, it seemed fairly obvious as to what was happening. Susan... l... well, Susan seemed to... That is... He...

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Now, he couldn't even think straight. Was this what it was like for other people when they... talked about... things like this? Probably not, thought it would certainly make a funny story in the future... like, five or ten years in the future. "Okay... you know what? I can't take this." He said matter of factly. "Susan, I... I... We... You..." He dropped his head. It felt like there was a baseball lodged in his throat... not literally of course, that would be physically impossible and- No! Focus!

"...look at me." He said, raising his head and frowning determinedly. Forget the crowd. It was busy, so no one would probably even notice. He was never going to be able to say what he wanted... possibly needed to say like this, so he was going to take the easy way out.

As soon as Susan looked to his face, Percy made eye contact. Sure, it was a public, place, sure he wasn't exactly a fan of doing such things voluntarily, but he was freaking out. It was either this or run out of the building full tilt, and he didn't think that Susan would appreciate that too much.

She hunched over slightly, waiting for the pain to subside as her body "switched." It happened quickly enough, and as she didn't flail around or bring attention to herself, no one seemed to notice in particular.

After the pain subsided, Penelope looked at Susan, biting her lip uncomfortably. "Okay... Look Susan." She began. "Like... Like I said before. I'm... er... straight. I mean, when I'm a girl I'm straight, and when I'm a guy, I'm straight so... so it's easier for me to... to talk to you... like this. Because I don't like you. I mean, I like you! But I don't LIKE you, you know?"

She frowned. "I... what I'm trying to say is that I... well, Percy... or me when I'm Percy... I think I like you. I mean, I always like you, but when I'm Percy... Oh..." She leaned back in her chair and sighed. "You get the idea. "he" like likes you, but I... just like you... and actually now that I think about it, "me" as in, this version... o-r whatever, finds the whole prospect of..." She swallowed, turning slightly pink. "Of getting into... some... some sort of... Of going OUT, fairly... sort of really weird."

She looked down at her teacup. "Do you... do you see what I'm saying? If you wanted... to get into... I don't know, something with me... It would only be when I was him... A-and you'd... never be able to look him in the eyes, or... or..."

Penelope felt awful. Straight awful. It really hadn't been fair of her,changing into a girl so that she could talk without being flustered. Now Susan was the only one left with her feelings while Penelope was just uncomfortable. She could tell she had upset her friend... It was surprising how much easier it was to tell a person's mood when their ears reacted accordingly, not to mention the wobbly way she was speaking. She sounded close to tears... or at least in the nearby vicinity, and Penelope certainly couldn't have that.

"Susan-" She began, but stopped upon hearing her soft declaration. Was Susan... gay? No. No that didn't make any sense. She like Percy, so she couldn't be gay. Bisexual then? Yeah, that was the one. Penelope blinked. She had never thought about the fact that being in a relationship with someone who was bisexual would... actually sort of work. For them, all the time, and for her... well, still half of the time. It was still the closest thing she would ever have to a normal boyfriend or... girlfriend...

She flushed pink and shook her head. She had no idea what to do, but the last thing she wanted was to lose Susan. She was a good friend, and Penelope would be sad if she did anything to make the girl want to avoid her.

"Aww. Susan..." Penelope said gently. "I... I didn't say it wouldn't work. I just wanted to make sure you knew HOW it worked. I mean, I think it's... really cool that you... feel that way about... about me no matter which or, ah, who I am I guess. I mean, I know I make it sound like I'm two different people when I switch, but I'm still... I'm still me I just... think differently." She leaned in, supporting her weight with her elbows. "No... no matter what I still think you're smart, and awesome and a great friend and... and really cool and all that, it's just... I mean, could you take that? Most people seem to like staring into they're "dearly beloved's" eyes..."

She blushed. "Er... sorry, forget that last part. What I mean is: could you take... take... could you take being in a relationship where you were only "loved" half the time? I mean, I still love you. You know I love you, but not... oh you get it."