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Inwardly, Zach breathed a sigh of relief. He figured that everything probably wasn't okay again, but she was smiling again and she wasn't crying and she was...kissing him?

He did a double-take, then realized exactly what that meant and deepened the kiss. Something in the back of his mind hoped that maybe with the skin-to-skin contact he could pour whatever happiness he had into her, and for the second time he beat down the scientific portion of his brain as it told him that this was impossible.

I'm an assassin that walks in stories. I don't think much of anything's impossible at this point.

and nodded gratefully. It did help... at least, it was difficult to keep crying when drinking. "Thanks," she murmured, leaning against him and letting him hug her.

"I'd worry if you never cried," he said, and she looked up at him with a slightly surprised expression. Her father had expressed the same sentiment on occasion, but her mother had always told her that big girls didn't cry.

For a moment she considered this, examining him to see if he meant it, before finally giving him a small smile and reaching up to try to smooth his hair down a bit. "Ya really are somethin' else, Zach."

Running her hand down from his hair to his cheek, she paused speculatively for a moment before giving him a tentative kiss.

Zach slipped into the crowd and returned a few seconds later with a steaming mug, which he gently wrapped Nat's hands around.

"Hot cocoa," he explained earnestly. "Always makes Sara feel better, so...um...yeah..." He ran his hand through his hair anxiously, making it stand every which way.

"Look, don't be sorry, okay? Don't be sorry for being a human being. I'd worry if you never cried," he told her and hugged her, being careful not to upset the mug.

Was he just trying to be polite, or did he really mean it? Taking a deep breath, she wiped her eyes with her hand and looked at him again, though she couldn't make herself smile, even for him.

"Zach... I'm s-sorry. I just..." She looked around the room, wondering if it would be a good idea to explain why she'd started bawling her head off, but this just didn't feel like the time or place. Instead, she tentatively reached out and took his hand, giving it a little squeeze. Every so often a little sob escaped her and she had to look away, feeling ashamed. She wasn't supposed to cry.

Zach smiled down at her, wiping the tears away from her cheeks with his thumb.

"I thought I was the only one who was completely incoherent. C'mon, can I see that smile again? Makes the room brighter."

She broke down and just cried, holding onto him as though she'd never let go. Incoherent attempts at sentences were choked out every so often as she tried to explain herself, but in the end she just allowed herself to cry it all out.

When she'd managed to calm down to the point where every word wasn't broken up by sobs, she tried the explanation again. "S-sorry, this... none o' this is your fault, I swear. It's me... I just... I 'ave... oh, bloody 'ell, I'm just talkin' rubbish, I c-can't even talk properly." She stared down at the floor, knowing he must think of her as a complete idiot and not wanting to see that expression on his face.

Any minute now he'd decide she was a weak litle girl who couldn't control herself, make some excuse and walk off.

Zach winced, but gently led Nat to a secluded corner of the room and just held her.

"I know, I'm so, so sorry. It's okay, it'll be okay, don't worry."

He had never been good at comforting people, but he did his best.

"It's okay, it's okay to cry. I won't let anything happen if you don't want it to."

She hadn't felt like this for a long, long time, and she didn't ever want to move. "Zach..." she murmured, blinking back tears of sheer happiness.

When was the last time she'd felt this way? Despite herself, the memory rose up... and in her mind's eye her deceased boyfriend smiled at her with that cheeky smile of his. Suddenly her breath caught in a sob, and she leaned away from Zach so that she could look him in the face, unable to fight back the tears suddenly making an appearance.

"I'm... sorry..." she managed, biting her lip and fighting desperately to keep calm. "I swear, this is nothin' ta do with you, I just... I c-can't 'elp it..." Unable to look at him any longer, she buried her face in his shoulder and clung to him, still trying to fight back the urge to break down.

Zach rested his chin on her shoulder, taking in her scent, enjoying the moment. He expected at any minute for her to come to her senses, wrench herself out of his arms, inflict severe pain upon him, and then make sure the rest of his life was living hell. He knew that moment would come to pass, and even as he basked in her presence something in the back of his head mourned the impending loss.

"You are an amazing woman," he whispered into her neck, just so she would know before she rejected him.

"In fact, his name is Cuauhtemoc. No, Krisprolls didn't nickname him this time. Guayas did. Guayas is his brother, by the way. Well, Banzai's one of the fastest ships in the fleet, and one of the most outgoing guys I know. Only Krisprolls and Guayas are worse. Banzai is also very nice with people. Thing is, Krisprolls always has bad ideas to test on him. When I don't have the bad ideas..."
"This guy is too nice. He's so high on playing nice and 'I would die before you could harmed oh so slightly in any way' and stuff like that. He just deserves a smack on the head."
"Krisp!!!"

"Probably fortunate." Leas arced an eyebrow. "Banzai? A friend of yours?"

and then laughed. "Right now, ta be honest-"

Zach's kiss cut her off, and she decided not to argue. She was obviously insane, but apparently Zach thought he was too, so she was in good company. Closing her eyes, she just leaned against him and let him hold her, letting herself feel happy for the first time in years.

"That's good... honestly, I keep overestimating my alcohol tolerance," she added, stumbling slightly, but with Troy's supporting arm she righted herself quickly.

Maybe it was just the booze, but it felt kind of nice having him so close. She leaned on him happily and let him gude her to wherever he'd thought to take her.

"Either I'm dead or I'm rolling on the floor in severe pain and having a really realistic hallucination, in which case would someone please take me to Medical?" Zach rambled, flushed. Then he blinked. And kissed her again, holding her to him as if he'd never let her go.

"If I'm hallucinating, I want to hallucinate for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, we should probably get you off your feet," he replied, grinning again. "Good to see you're alright though, if you're getting too worked up we should find that RC I was talking about." Making sure to keep his hold to ensure she wouldn't fall over, he started heading towards the entrance, moving quickly enough to make a good pace but slowly enough to support Cassie. "It's not too far from the Store, so it shouldn't take long to get there."

This was Nat. She just didn't do this kind of thing. And as for Zach... well, he wasn't going to speculate, but the bespectacled young man hadn't seemed particularly impressed last time he'd been kissed. In the end the Elf just looked away, trying to give the couple a bit of privacy.

Nat wasn't really thinking all that clearly, but she was dimly aware of the fact that Zach was holding her close and seemingly in no hurry to end the kiss. She felt her body beginning to respond to being pressed against him, but eventually realised she needed to breathe, and so reluctantly pulled away.

"S-sorry..." she offered weakly once she'd managed to replenish her oxygen levels, biting her lip a little in embarassment in case she'd upset him, but looking directly at him. Wow, his eyes were blue...

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, giving him a small smile. "Just got a bit caught up in it all, you know? It gets... a bit emotional." Then a wry smile crossed her face. "And of course you're right, the drink doesn't help."

A small part of her brain was trying to get her attention, but she ignored it in favour of finishing up her drink. She didn't bother to let go of Troy, though, and smiled up at him again. "Speaking of which, maybe you should show me to that seat you were talking about earlier."

Bree turned to see what Kelvin was staring at, only to find her foster brother snogging a woman she didn't know.

"...I thought he didn't have a social life..."


Zach was in heaven. That was the only explanation. As soon as he had kissed her Nat must've killed him, and that was the only reasonable explanation for what was going on. Because the alternative, that she was actually voluntarily returning the kiss...that was ludicrous and scientifically impossible.

Then he decided that the scientific part of his brain could go to hell and wrapped an arm around Nat's waist, cradling her head with the other and finding that her hair was pleasantly soft.

Even as the silence ended, and the party was hesitantly picked up, it took him a short time before he continued to speak, looking at the young lady. He hadn't seen her during the Invasion, but it seemed like the event had no small amount of an effect on her, judging by her body language and the sniffle he had heard. He'd been thinking of making a move, but at the moment it didn't seem right.

"Hey, Cass," he said, looking to her. "You alright? I mean, aside from the drink getting to your head."

Kelvin was less than fond of the idea of what sounded like indiscriminate pyromania, but he figured that if the PPC allowed it, it couldn't be all that dangerous.

"Well, Bree..." He cast a glance over towards Nat and Zach, and whatever he had been going to say faded from his mind as he stared at the scene.

What the-? Nat's eyes opened wide as Zach told her she was beautiful, and then kissed her. Her brain tried to scream something at her, but she'd already decided it wasn't working properly, and with the sheer giddiness from her recent emotional extremes running through her, she reacted in the only way she could come up with.

She slid her arms around him and kissed back.

"They're misspelled Davey Crocketts! There's Danny Krocket, Danny Krotket, and Danny Krochet! We all kinda work as a group. I burn stuff, and they're supposed to keep me out of trouble," she explained, wrinkling her nose.


Zach's nerves were on edge. It felt like his face was on fire...hell, it felt like his entire body was on fire. She moved closer to him, and it felt like the temperature of the room had gone up ten degrees. He could see every detail of her face in sharp relief.

"I...I said you're beautiful," he said, and just because he could, because he figured that he'd already screwed up epically and he had nothing left to lose, he brushed her cheek with his burning hand and kissed her.

"Jeez, and I thought I'd been here a long time," he replied, rubbing at his eyepatch in an effort to regain his cool. He hadn't expected a simple two minutes' silence to affect him like that.

"I've been here since '98, but I guess I just never thought about how long the PPC's been around. Forty years... that's some going, man. How'd you manage it? Though I guess it's not a case of facing the Sues any more, just teaching the new kid to do it." He let out a little chuckle and drained the last of his beer, setting the empty bottle down on the bar.

The heavily intoxicated Agent resisted at first, meaning Osbert's efforts almost knocked him over, but eventually he seemed to give in, taking his seat and gripping the bar to keep his balance. Langston mumbled something, staring at his hands, but Osbert didn't make it out entirely. The lad was probably still finding excuses to kick himself, he figured.

"Anyway, Celinus," Osbert said, bringing his attention to the larger Agent. "On the subject of your questions, after forty years as an Agent they all kind of blend together. I still remember when there were only four of us, as far as non-Flowers went. Makes-Things, Elizabeth, Anya, and myself," he paused for a moment, shaking his head. "Damn, I'm the only one of those four still alive, far as I can tell. After a while stopped hearing from those two girls, so I dunno. There've been a good number though, just been so long that I don't remember them all."

and nodded. "That must be interesting. Oh, er... I'm in the Department of Mary Sues, so yes, I kill Sues. Well, when my partners aren't arguing over which of them gets to do it..." He sighed and looked upwards for a moment. "But, er, who's Krotket? Your partner?"

Nat wondered for a while why Zach wasn't singing - this song was made to be sung along with - but as she looked directly at him, he said something that she wasn't sure she'd heard properly over the music. It made her stop jumping around so madly, though, as she tried to puzzle it out.

His red face, however, informed her that she had heard him properly. Stopping dancing altogether, she looked at him again, for some reason wanting to make absolutely sure she'd heard correctly. "Wh-what did ya say?" She moved a little closer, trying to make sure she'd catch it this time.

After the two minutes of silence, Krisp said: "Good thing Banzai wasn't there. He would have died in this. He wouldn't have given up before that. If we ever see him again, we're not telling him about this, or he's going to whine like waaaaaaaaaaaah he wasn't there waaaaaaaaaaaaaah. This idiot just deserves a smack on the head."
"Krisp, you're being too harsh with him. He would have saved may lives, I'm sure. I hope he's happy with the other ships, even as we're not there."
"I hope so, too. Otherwise he's really being an idiot. Who would be unhappy that we don't test our bad jokes on them anymore?"
"Stop that, you dwarf. I prefer Banzai's whinin'."
"Your brother's right, Krisp. Well, I wouldn't mind if both of you stopped calling Banzai whiny. He's not."