Daybreak

The phone hit the receiver with a small click, and once it was free of gripping the object, his hoof made a straight beeline to Shadow's temple. Brushing it a few times before trailing down his face, Shadow's eyes had shut tight as he placed his hoof against the bridge of his nose, a faint feeling of a headache forming coming soon after.

Stress was never something Shadow had dealt with well. With others, he would brush it off with a few quips or a stupid joke, acting as though it were nothing while he was with others and immediately return home to do anything that could relax him. What it was that relaxed him usually varied between times, but it was normally just flying. No location set, no time needed, no altitude or sound speed needed to be broken. Just relaxation as he soared with the puffy clouds above.

Unfortunately, he was still in no mood or condition to even think about flying.

"Shadow...?" Said a soft voice from behind him, making his ear twitch, "Who was that on the other line? Is everything alright?" Asked the mare's voice an causing Shadow's hoof to instinctively shoot behind his neck, giving it a few rubs as he made his way down the hall and back into the bedroom. Beginning with a sigh, Shadow's eyes shut and his head went limp as it faced the ground. "Just something I've gotta take care of later... you don't need to worry about it, though. With all due respect, it isn't your problem, it's mine..."

As she heard this, Aryanne's movement of brushing her dampened mane down ceased, stopping at the middle of her mane when it met with her shoulder. She couldn't help but feel slightly hurt by Shadow's statement, as though he were asking her to stay out of his business right out. Choosing to say nothing about it, she set the name down and took a look at herself in the mirror. Though her mane was still damp, it wouldn't be long before it dried and, as it stood, she was satisfied with the way it was styled. Perhaps if she had a tad bit more to work with beyond Shadow's stallion products, she could get more accomplished... but it didn't matter in the long run. Just as long as it looked nice enough to be seen in front of him.

"Anyways..." Shadow said, breaking the silence that had enveloped them in the room, going towards the top of his dresser and retrieving a small bag of bits. "Here..." Shadow began as he trotted back to the bathroom, stopping soon after as he saw Aryanne leaning against the wooden frame of the bathroom door. Wow... Shadow thought to himself, swearing that if she were to have wings, Aryanne could easily be mistaken for an angel. Such a shame that such a beautiful mare would be working in the business she is now. Even more so a shame that she is so beautiful, as off the top of Shadow's memory, the more beautiful a mare is, the more expensive she is. Hopefully this one accepts the payment given...

"What is it?" Aryanna asked as she moved away from the doorframe and towards Shadow, looking at the bag with a confused expression. "It's a bag of bits. Not much, but I hope it's enough..." Shadow said as he rubbed against his neck once more, now becoming faintly raw. "Well I know what it is... I'm just asking for what purpose are you giving this to me." Aryanne said as she took the bag in her hooves, feeling it's heft for a small time before giving it back to Shadow, who now had the same confused look on his own face.

"Wait... you don't know why I'm giving this to you?" He asked, Aryanne pondering his question for a short amount of time before shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head. "You sure...?" Shadow asked once more, the faintest part of his being telling him that she was telling the truth. "I can't say that I do. Am I supposed to understand why you're giving it to me?" She asked as her left eyebrow raised up and her right went down. Of course there is, Shadow thought in his head and debated on saying before scraping the idea and shaking his head. "Uh, well..." he began, thinking on the spot for an excuse that would not insinuate anything about what he was really giving the mare the money for. "I noticed you don't exactly have anything to put on yourself!" Shadow proclaimed, amazed by his quick thinking and Aryanne's seemingly genuine belief in his answer. "Put on myself?"

"Yeah, like perfume or make up. Oh, wait-! Crap!" Shadow said as his right foreleg went limp as it was weighed down by the coins and his left hoof ran through his mane. Way to screw this up, idiot! The voice in his head screamed at him as he attempted to salvage whatever he could. "I mean, you don't smell bad you smell awesome... err... that sounds weird. I mean make up in case that's your thing. You don't need it, in my opinion but if you feel as though you do, but I don't... err... damn!" He shouted as he rotated his body to face towards the wall, both embarrassed and angered at himself for being such a helpless idiot in front of Aryanne.

"Shadow... it's okay, I understand..." she calmly said, taking note of his conflict and grabbing his hoof in an attempt at calming him as she turned him to face her and placed a warm smile on her face. "I understand why you would give me your earnings, and I very much appreciate you're generosity. But I am not a mare who prides herself in caking herself in layers of make up and perfume..." she began as she cupped his cheek in her hooves, turning his head to face her as he wore a somber expression on his face. "It's alright. You needn't be so upset..." Aryanne continued smoothly as she brushed a bit of Shadow's mane out of his and placed a small kiss on his forehead. "Thanks..." he replied as he gave her a hopeful smile, mentally celebrating his ability of recovering from his screw up with relative ease while returning her kiss with one of his own. "I'm sorry about that it's just a whole bunch of stuff getting to me... first you, now my manager, and shows... it wears on you, you know?"

"To an extent. Although I do hope I'm not causing you as much trouble as these other predicaments you appear to be dealing with currently..."

"Wait, what? No... if anything you're the least troubling thing in my life right now." Shadow defensively responded. "Care to elaborate on them a bit? Perhaps speaking to somepony may relief a bit of your worries?" Aryanne asked, trying once more to get to the bottom of what was troubling Shadow. "I already told you, I don't want you worrying about it. We barely know each other and the last thing I want is to push my troubles on to some mare I met yesterday..." Shadow replied with a shaking of his head, his mental celebration cut short and his little mental image of himself dancing like a moron stopping dead in its tracks. As he argued his point, Aryanne's mind was already made up on how to respond to Shadow's statement on their lack of knowledge of one another. Smiling, she placed her hooves against Shadow's sides, sighing as she pushed him against the bed and the sound of the metallic springs supporting their weight resonated throughout the room. "Well, why not try to fix that then?" She asked, Shadow chuckling slightly when he hit the bed and amazed at how she had caught him off guard. "Fix it? I don't think another round is going to give us anymore knowledge about the other..." he began before wrapping his wings around the mare, bringing her closer to his body as he placed his hooves against her similar to how she had him. "That said, I'd still like to..."

"Shadow..." Aryanne began with a small giggle, playfully pushing him away, "That isn't what I meant... I was implying we move our date to today..."

"I thought we agreed we'd go at the end of the week."

"We had but... I would really enjoy it if we could do it today. I have no other plans for today and spending more time with you would be incredibly exciting..." she began as she stared deeply into his ruby red eyes, "You're a very interesting Stallion, Mister Rift..."

"Not exactly. I'm not as interesting as you're making me out to be..." he said with a smile, thinking of just what he has done that could constitute him as anything near interesting, all of which went to a few dark memories he'd rather chose to suppress than remember. "Besides..." he said as he attempted to pull himself further away from the unwanted memories, "You're only buttering me up so that you can find out what's bugging me..."

"Is it working?" The mare asked, Shadow responding with a kiss on her lips and a smile. "Know what? Alright, I'll tell you. Just... promise not to worry too much about it, alright?" Shadow requested, Aryanne nodding her head softly as she gave him a toothy smile, her persuasion in turning the tides in her favor proving effective as she listened eagerly and ready to help Shadow in anyway she could. "My agent called me to let me know that my next show got moved by two weeks... meaning that the amount of bits I currently have is what I have to work with for the next two weeks."

"Okay...?" Aryanne said, her eyes darting to the side and her left hoof going under her chin as she debated Shadow's predicament. "Is the amount of bits you currently have enough?" She asked, Shadow nodding and shrugging his shoulders. "It's enough, I suppose. I've got enough here to keep me going, anyways..." he replied while choosing to hold the portions of date expenses to himself. She shouldn't have to pay for herself, right? Was his mentality when holding back the information. "If you need financial help, don't be afraid to say so-"

"Don't. Okay? Just please don't..." Shadow said as he cut off Aryanne, knowing fully well where she was going. "Look, I appreciate it but, I really don't want financial help. I'm sorry but I can't accept it, especially from somepony I've only known for about a day..."

"It's alright, I understand, Shadow. But if you do need it, don't be afraid to ask..."

"Believe me, the last thing I want is to take money from you." Shadow said as he felt his pride being kicked in the chest by the thought of having to take money from a mare. Especially a mare like her. It's not a problem if he can't do it, it's a question of if he should. And as far as he was concerned, Shadow's pride wouldn't allow him to take so much as half a bit from her. "Regardless, I'm keeping my offer on the table, should you require my services..." Aryanna said as she replaced her soft smile with a much more serious expression, obviously getting annoyed by Shadow's constant declining of her offer for assistance. If she wasn't going to have her way with him on the subject of financial support, knowing she offered it was enough.

In her heart of hearts, Aryanne meant well. Shadow could tell after the tone of her voice and her attitude changed drastically, and her clear unwillingness to back down. He could appreciate her offer, but he wasn't going to take it. Telling her that in her face was probably not going to be the better option either. Because of that, Shadow immediately set about thinking of a new topic of discussion, finally settling on one subject that would, with any luck, brighten the mood.

"Fine..." Shadow lied yet did his best to make it sounds as genuine as possible. Mission accomplished, he thought as a smile graced Aryanne's face. "Let's just try changing the subject here. What were you thinking for lunch?" As she heard the words, a sigh of relief came from deep within Aryanne and past through her lips, thankful that Shadow was the one to lighten the mood and get away from the topic of finances. "Well... I was thinking perhaps..." she began before rifling off a list of every restaurant imaginable near their current location.

And though highly dissuaded by the thought of all the various places to go on this date, Shadow gladly took it over the stressful nature of the call he had received that morning. I'll worry about it later, he thought through the various descriptions of restaurants that Aryanne would, on occasion, laugh and smile at.