[i]"Ah, so you're the cute guy who butchers up my friends. Nice to finally meet the man who I see every day chopping up my friends into little pieces."[/i]

Toby was startled by Artemis' words.  Apparently, at the same time he'd been watching her, she'd been watching [I]him[/I]!  His ears turned bright red, an indicator of his embarrassment.  Of course he knew what she meant by "her friends", most people knew that she raised the animals that were used for food.

But what did she mean by cute?  Did she mean cute as in, 'Hey, you're kinda cute.  Wanna date?' or, 'You're so cute when you beg for your life...?'

But just like that, she started talking shop with him, instructing him about what cuts of meat would be ideal for eating.  Fact was, he was taken aback by this, and he wondered if she was trying to trap him.  Maybe she was finding more reasons to hate him.  But...it didn't seem that way.  The smile that she'd had on her face when they met was still there.  Was she playing him?  He couldn't know for sure (little to no social contact will do that to a person).  He decided to choose his words carefully.  He kept his voice quiet, tried not to sound too into what he was going to say.

"I just do, uh, what the head butcher tells me."  He suddenly flashed a smile.  He just thought of something that he could say that she couldn't use against him!  "I don't eat the animals, myself.  Nuts, seeds, and dry fruits give me the highest caloric intake...  And the..." he shuddered, "The whey protein shakes they give me."

The truth was, he hadn't eaten an animal since he gave into his Hunger a few years ago.  Part of him was afraid that what happened last time would happen to him this time.  After he'd eaten a stray cat, he had felt a connection to it, like he's absorbed its memories, or something...

He quickly snapped out of his reverie, fearing that Artemis would think he was some kind of space case.  He'd almost forgotten why he'd wanted to talk to her in the first place:

"Would you...like to hang out sometime?"  He glanced around, and added, "I mean...not here.  Like somewhere else.  This afternoon?"