She had been in a bit of a rush trying to tell Zaid what had happened over the phone, jumbled and still blushing like mad. All she had really managed to get out were a few rambling descriptions, some nervous laughter, and a general idea that they were going to meet up at the coffee place he worked at so she could fill him in on her latest date.

To steal a word right out of his book, Stars! What a date it had been, too.

The Greek showed up straight out of work and still in her black, flower embroidered scrubs. She seemed fidgety and giddy, and kept switching from green tones to browns like she was an octopus trying to blend in.

She had arrived a tad bit early, so she waited around for a bit while he worked.

Gosh, she just had so much to tell him! Should she try and tone it down a little? Leave out all the juicy bits?

Never!

She would bare it all and accept whatever scoldings he provided.

Zaid could tell something was up by the sound of the phone call. In fact, he could practically hear Andrea's blushing through the receiver. How was that even possible? He wondered if he sounded this way when he described his own love life. In all fairness, they had been in person though, so his blushing was very real, and very visible.

His work shift ended without much fuss, and Zaid found the table where she was sitting. It was quiet and out of the way. He could see the nervous energy coming away from her skin. Or, he felt like he did. That might actually be the scent he was catching. He made a note to NEVER mention he could smell when his friend was anxious. That would probably embarrass the hell out of both of them.

"You weren't making a lot of sense over the phone. What happened?" Zaid said, ears half-down with concern. He offered a hug if she would take it, careful not to entangle himself with any of the snakes in the process. He was still certain Sloth wanted him as a midnight snake.

A hug was initiated. She accepted it with enthusiasm. She was practically buzzing!

"It is a very, very long story... but I will start at the beginning."

She settled herself in and launched fully into the tale of the date she had been set up on, and how utterly terribly it had gone. She spared no details, telling the poor bunny boy about each cringe worthy greek custom that had been brought up, each fable and story, and especially about how she had been asked if she wore a toga around the house.

"-and then I sit back down after texting for someone to come pick me up and he starts trying to regale me with stories about Medusa, and how much she and I had in common."

Out of breath, she sat back in her chair a little with a hand over her heart and let out a much needed peal of laughter.

"To top it all off I had apparently been ordering an alcoholic beverage the whole time without noticing!"

Her expression shifted into one that was a mix of wonder and embarrassment a second later. "And then Erik showed up..."

Zaid listened with rapt attention as Andrea wove her tail. He had seen some truly terrible dates at the coffee house, but this sounded like a whole new level of awkward! ”Really? A toga around the house? Stars, I’m sorry Andrea! That sounds like you were on a sitcom I swear!” he pushed a hand through his hair and it stuck up on all directions. There was a little smudge of coffee on his forehead he would need to clean later.

”And then you were drinking? I mean, I’m not 21 yet so I can’t exactly relate to the experience, but did that at least make the horrible stories easier to endure?” he chuckled at how embarrassing that must have been.

Then, a familiar name. Zaid’s eyes swiveled like two satellites and his eyes widened, ”Wait wait wait. Erik? Like, big guy, fast healer? He came to rescue you? Aces, that guy gets around...” he commented. He helped Zaid, he worked for Jude. At this rate Zaid wondered if he was just running around the city waiting for the chance to become part of their adventure.

"Ohmygosh, it was exactly like a sitcom! It was so uncomfortable in the moment, but it is quite funny now in retrospect!"

She found a clean napkin in one pocket and reached over to try and get the coffee smudge off his forehead. "I swear, I didn't know what a long island iced tea was, I just thought it was regular tea!" She could laugh at herself now since she was past the stage of being completely mortified. "I had three of them and oh, boy... they sure came into play later in the night."

Her curiosity seemed to perk when Zaid described Erik correctly in only a few words. She nodded along for a moment before what he had said really sank in.

"Get's around?!" She slapped a hand to her mouth after a rather loud outburst and hunkered down over the table so she could whisper furiously. "How does he get around?!" She was mortified all over again!

Zaid stayed perfectly still as she reached to clean his forehead. His mom used to do that, and she hated when he wiggled. If he was a handful now, he could only imagine what a toddler bunny would have been like.

When she was done, he resumed his normal fidgety movement. ”It’s always good to laugh after something stressful, I think. It makes it feel less traumatic too. Like, once, a girl here at the shop legit thought she had fox ears, but they were just cosplay wars attached to a headband. And she kept talking to me and trying to relate to how hard it was to be a mutant, while having FAKE ears. I was pretty annoyed and embarrassed at the time because she just kept bothering me. But I can laugh now.”

Then, she looked embarrassed. Oh gee, it really WAS the same Erik! ”Oh, not like that! I mean, he rescued me once, and he kind of invited himself into my house and quite frankly, looked through parts of my manga collection I’m not comfortable with... but I guess he knows Jude so it’s a small world. Wait, why do you look embarrassed? Don’t tell me...” Long Island tea, embarrasses, Erik.... ”Andrea, did you make a MOVE on ERIK?!” he whispered.

She gasped and physically repelled herself from the table dramatically. "It wasn't like that!!"

Again, her voice had probably been just a bit too loud. A few people turned to stare and she shrank into her coat.

"You must swear you will never utter a word of this to anyone!" She attempted to look stern, but the fact that her face was entirely brown kind of ruined it. She dropped her voice a little and leaned on the table toward him excitedly.

"I know him from the charity work I do. We would occasionally hire security for events and sometimes he would be there." Sometimes she even specifically asked for him, but that was neither here nor there. "So I texted him mid date, sorry, since I was so familiar with him being a zone of safety anyway."

Her face got a little darker thinking about him showing up, paying, and stealing her away.

Okay, maybe he hadn't stolen her. She'd practically run from the table on her own.

"Anyway, he gets there and gives me a good excuse to leave, and then drives me home. Only, he was on a bike so I had to basically cuddle him the whole way." She paused to actually breath for a moment. "Lord, I don't know how I remember all of this I was rightly drunk! Anyway, we get to my apartment and Sloth has wrapped around him in a way that had got me stuck, so he had to piggy back carry me inside."

Her face disappeared in her palms. Some of what happened she wished she couldn't remember. "Oh, it was so embaressing!"

Zaid listened to her tail like the wise and sage bunny he was. He was the prestige example of a good friend allowing his gal pal to vent her mortification. At the appropriate moments he gave a “there there” sort of pat to her hand. Maybe he should have brought her something to drink. But not, drink. How could alcohol sound like both the problem and the solution at the same time?

”So, sloth made the move on him. Why am I not surprised?” he short a look to the snake, as if blaming the wriggler for all things mortifying. Drinking was bad enough without your snakes taking advantage of your rescuer.

”I’m sure Erik handled it well. I mean, not to be rude, but he seemed a little dense when it came to things like, that. He wandered around my house without a shirt and could not understand why it embarrassed me. Stars, why wouldn’t shirtless strangers embarrass me?” Oh, that memory was painful.

”Uh, so, you made it home then?”

"I can see him doing that." Andrea giggled, imagining the poor bunny having to deal with Erik like she had been there herself. "He seemed fine really, a perfect gentleman! He made sure I didn't fall off his bike, or trip, and he was so kind the whole time."

WHat was next in the story? Oh!... Oh no. The dreaded elevator. She continued on.

"So he has me on his back and we go to get on the elevator and runs smack into the door frame. I'm not really sure why, I had just been telling him something a moment prior and he seemed fine." She wasn't quite aware that she had any effect on him that early on.

"So now i'm worried because I think he cracked his head open, but I cannot see him well enough from behind to check and... well.. I may have made a very silly, drunken decision."

Ashamedly she whispered the rest to him questly, sure he would be able to hear because of his ears. She spilled the beans on her drunken hand stand that ended up turning into a full on flashing of underwear, and then the lamest back flop in the world.

"-soon as I was on my feet again I still just had to check and make sure that he was fine, and while standing there I realized that I really wanted to k-kiss him."

If she had been burning up before, she was a blazing pyre now. She covered her face with her hands and peeked guiltily at Zaid through her fingers.

Despite the whispering, the message she was telling cane through loud and clear. One hand went to his mouth, and with the most precious expression on his face he whispered, ”Oh, honey! Not a backflip!”

Zaid has made a lot of poor choices in his life, but he was pleased to say he had never drinker flashed anyone in an elevator. Was this what happened when you grew up? Or was it just a problem snake ladies had? He felt inclined to blame the snakes again. Surely rabbits would have no issues with elevators and flashing people in such a way.

Stars, but he did end up with his tail in Jude’s face. Never mind, he made that mistake completely sober!

He coughed at the image and rubbed the back of his neck. ”If it helps you feel better, I met Jude falling out of a tree and in the scramble to escape his dogs there may have been a bunny tail in the face uh, situation. We all have things that we wish we didn’t remember.” he comforted. ”Is that...the worst of it? Well, other than wanting to kiss your friend. That generally is a can of worms you never want to open.” he sighed, trying hard not to smile at the same time.

"That does actually make me feel a tiny bit better." She wasn't the only one parading her butt around in places it shouldn't be!

"And it was most certainly not the worst of it." She groaned, "It only goes downhill for me from here."

Yup, wanting to kiss someone she had considered a friend for at least a year before realizing she had feelings for him wasn't the worst.

"He carried me the rest of the way to my door, and after I had unlocked it he helped me inside and to bed. Really.. he's so very sweet. Or, at least he is when not rummaging around your bookshelf."

She cracked a smile through her cloud of shame. "Anyway, he helped me to bed and I was more than happy to go to sleep and hope that it was all an awfully embarrassing dream... But apparently Erik had decided to stay for a bit to make sure I was okay, even got me a glass of water and aspirin, and Sloth snagged the poor man again and wouldn't let go! He was forced to sit with me all night while I was having very lucid dreams about him."

She looked, and still felt, like she wanted to die. Like if the earth decided to swallow her whole right then she would still be sort of okay with it.

"It was mortifying. Why do these things happen to me?!"

Only goes downhill... Stars! How could it go downhill? He was pretty sure upside down in an elevator was at the top of ‘places I don’t want to be’ list. Also, he did not wear dresses but he was pretty sure having ones tush exposed while wearing one was poor form.

Zaid listened, ears twitching at the appropriate moments. She was carried into bed (twitch), he took care of her (twitch), and the snake wouldn’t let him leave while she dreamt about him ”Stars and aces... we need to keep you away from alcohol!” he squeaked into his hand. He was glad he hadn’t been there to see this. It sounded like a bad romcom that needed to end!

”Oh you poor thing. Just, realize, some of us have this kind of, magnetism, for disaster. I swear, it’s real. When you step outside the door, the universe says ‘there is someone minding their own business. You know what would be fun? Chaos!’ It’s how we met, after all. Actually, face-planting on the sidewalk has become an unusually common occurrence for me...” he rubbed his cheek slightly as he considered it. For a bunny, he spent an awful lot of time in horrifying situations.

Pushing that thought aside, he coughed and continued, ”You know what you need? Ice cream. There is a shop a few blocks away, they have ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt, and all these little toppings to put on top! Life feels so much better when you have a container of cookies and cream smothered with gummy worms!” he got up from the table and impatiently shuffled her toward the door.

”Just don’t think about it anymore! And after ice cream, I can even show you a few of my favorite manga and those will make uourbsituarion even more bearable!” he insisted.

She groaned again, very unlady like. "I don't drink normally, because drunk me has a habit of making sure that sober me regrets everything the next morning."

Zaid was good at talking, she had decided that probably the first time she met him. He had a knack for calming her down out of panic attacks that were solely her fault. "UNfortunately, that has been my whole life. I most certainly do seem to attract all the trouble. Perhaps your own habit lately of running into chaos means we were destined to meet." She laughed a little nervously, because there was much more truth in that than she wanted to reflect on.

She allowed him to corral her toward the exit, intent on finishing off her story on the way. "That all sounds very well and good, and yes I am totally up for it, but on the way let me tell you-"

Talking was like therapy, many therapists would recommend it. After a day of having everything bottled with inside with no one really to talk to about it all, even embarrassing herself in front of her new best friend was a welcome change.

She quickly laid out all of the best and worst details, trying to be a little vague about certain details such as what his underwear looked like, or how much that hand towel had actually covered. By the time she had finished they were well on their way toward the ice cream shop, and she was hardly paying attention to where she was going. Very irresponsible, but lord help her she had a lot on her mind!

"And then he say, well.. I can't quite it verbatim because part of it was in a different language, but he say 'You are my dream'.." She sighed happily, one hand planted against the cheek he had so liked to cuddle. "I think I died. My soul departed then and there."

She peeked at Zaid through her lashes to see how all of her intimate confessions had affected him. "How bad am I? Terrible, yes?"

Zaid was a decent listener. He spent time in customer service, and even though he preferred to work back of house, he was forced to man the counter from time to time. When he did, if it was slow, someone would take the opportunity to strike up a conversation. Baristas has to become bartenders sometimes, listening to the customers woes and sometimes getting far too much information about why they needed coffee. Honestly, people without their morning caffeine had a way of revealing all their dirty secrets. ’I need coffee because I slept with someone last night and now I’m running late to work and I don’t even think these are my pants.’ No, those most certainly were NOT your pants. Here is an extra shot, you may need that later.

While listening to Andrea’s intimate confessions did make the tips of his ears a little pink, he was polite and did not stop her. Sometimes, you needed someone to feel your pain. Whether it was an awkward elevator ride, or lucid dreams, admitting the things bottled up inside you helped make he rest of your day easier. After all, she listened to his endless ramblings about Jude and his crush. She deserved to vent too.

Zane giggled when she mentioned the you are my dream line. Stars, he needed to learn to laugh like a normal guy instead of that awkward and adorable sound he just made. ”If I heard someone say that to me, I would probably die a little too. When I get to a really good line in a manga I’m reading I still swoon and burry my face in a pillow.” he admitted. ”You aren’t bad. I like being someone you can talk to. It makes us feel closer as friends.” he comforted.

They were nearing the ice cream store when his ear swiveled, a sound causing him to pause. Normally, his paranoid bunny instincts could be brushed off but this sounded, odd. He turned, trying to pinpoint what he was sensing. Was it the smell? Or the sound? Or the combination. There was a van that had been behind them for a bit now, and had pulled over a little ways back. Zaid could have sword he heard a door open, but did not see who had exited.

”Andrea...” he could not explain what was making his pulse speed up, but he never doubted this type of instinct. Not when it came to his mutation. ”How...how fast are you at running?”

His support was literally everything in that moment. She was eternally grateful for it. She sidled up and bumped shoulders with him, smiling through the awkward. She moved to loop her arm through his, when he seemed to get a little distracted. "I think I need to start reading some of these books of yours. Maybe I can build up a tougher skin so that the next time it doesn't take my legs out from under me when I hear it." Oh gosh, the fact that there might be a next time caused her face to reheat. The whole situation at led her to believe that, at least.

Running?

She cued in on his nervousness in a second and instantly the heat was gone. Like someone had dumped cold, icy water on her. She stopped and turned to look behind, automatically assuming that it must have been the ones who had attacked her friend earlier. Anger sprang to a boil in her gut. "Zaid, step behind me."

There five men, from what she could see, of varying heights. They were heading towards them down the sidewalk. How long as they been followed for? Had they been staking out his work? Had the presence of a safety watch not scared them off? Oh, she was so angry! How dare they come after him again?! Her temper overrode the touch of fear settles beneath that any confrontation usually brought with it.

Sloth, who was wound around her shoulder, started hissing loudly. His usually sleek self bulked up as every muscle tensed. He bared an open mouth at the men, rows of large needle, back angled needle teeth exposed for all to see. Her other snakes awoke as well, flaring out all around her head angrily as a warning.

She reached up to start removing her contacts.