[Disclaimer: I don't own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody or anything affiliated with the show, but the following piece of writing is by me

I'm here to say that this is my very first fanfiction I've ever written and submitted. I hope it's up to par with everything else posted in this section, and that everyone enjoys this piece :

By the way, there may be more light pairings later on, but for now it's pure Maddie x Esteban. Have fun reading this short intro.

The hotel lobby was packed with several guests, each of them yelling for a piece of decent serving. Naturally, Moseby was flipping out beyond repair for some help from the staff—to his dismay, only Arwin arrived readily, his tweezers snapped in his fists.

"Yeah boss?" he chimed casually, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"What do you mean 'yeah boss'?" Moseby mocked loudly, "Where are all my staff? Everybody here is freaking out!" He spat, emphasizing the last two words louder than he should have.

Arwin took a step back.

"Well, yeah, um, let's see," Arwin muttered quietly, "Muriel's sleeping in that couch over there, uh, Lance is away at the recreation center, Carey's in her room watching TV with a bag of chips and she's in that red dress she always wears when she's doing shows on Saturday… nights…" Arwin's voice trailed off as Mosley's eyelids lowered themselves to a glare, "Not that I stalk her or anything, or… hey look! Someone's calling for me aaaand—I better go!"

The way Arwin articulated every word in an unconfident tone led Moseby to lose all hope in his staff. He watched Arwin flee to a direction where his imaginary person had called for him. Luckily, Maddie suddenly burst from the doors, pushing through the crowd of angry people. Her face twisted together in a frustrated look as she approached Moseby, a sigh escaping her lips quietly.

"What's going on here? I left for one second and the place turns into this?" she asked, her hands waving around dramatically. After a second, she continued, "Not that you're doing a bad job or anything… sir." She smiled innocently and retreated to the candy counter, brushing aside the desire for an answer.

Suddenly, the set of front doors opened again.

A bumbling man flew into the air, crashing onto the stairs and forming a hole in the crowd. Giving a short 'ow', he immediately popped back up like no damage was done, speeding like crazy towards Mr. Moseby.

"Oh Mr. Moseby, I am so sorry," he flustered apologetically, "I was out getting the injured man in Room 152 a new pillow." He gestured at the boxed object in his hand after he spoke. He was incredibly close to cursing about said crippled guest, but contained himself humbly.

"Well Esteban, package or no package the state of the lobby is insane, and I need you to hurry up now!" Moseby whined. He paused, staring down at the pillow, which wasn't actually too far from his own height here Esteban held it, "Give me that, he can wait."

Truly believing he deserved the nap, Moseby snatched the pillow hastily and threw himself onto the couch, ignoring the lady reading the newspaper near his feet. Esteban raised a brow, shrugging. The boss always got so worked up every time something like this happened, and honestly, the guy deserved a break. On that thought, Esteban took a second to step to the candy counter, and Maddie's face flushed. Although he didn't notice, she looked down in embarrassment; she knew her face would usually never blush red out in the open like this unless she was really nervous...

"Oh Maddie, I think Mr. Moseby is tired," he commented blankly.

"You think?" She laughed at his obvious statement.

"Well, yes. Maybe, you think he should take a break from work?"

"That seems fair I guess—I mean, I just got back from mine." She smiled as she remembered her trip. Any vacation away from this kind of atmosphere was heavenly, and visiting her aunt was like meeting the complete opposite of nutty Moseby, "Yeah, I think he might take you up on that. By the way, have you seen London? She's been asking me, like, forever with this huge favour thing."

Esteban's gaze suddenly turned to Maddie and for some reason the insides of her stomach tensed into knots. She probably would have repeatedly hit her head again and again to clear her mind, but anymore abnormal behavior today would probably send Moseby to a bed in a mental home.

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Last I heard she was away on trip." On that note, Maddie pounded her fist on the table. "Oh no, it was one of those 'Please can I take you with me to Paris' favours!" she complained, "Like the time we had to go through all that trouble getting 'Employee of the Month' for the trip when she would've taken any of us anyway! Maybe she's still around or her limousine's late!" She hoped selfishly, plotting to grab any chance she could get to have a chat with London. As she rushed on her high-heeled shoes, the corner of the counter stubbed the front of her right shoe and she started to plummet to the ground. Naturally, she tried to grab onto the side of the counter to stop the fall, but she already felt a pair of firm hands pull her up from under her arms.

And there it was again; that feeling of her insides tying up. Esteban's smiling look made her feel kind of quirky and twitchy, as if she had reason to be nervous around him. His hands drove her up to a proper position, and their eyes met for a second or two. She felt herself melt in the gaze; she didn't know why but she would've had the instinct to grab him and kiss him thanks.

'I really don't think that'd be a good idea,' she pondered to herself, turning her gaze elsewhere, 'Ew. I must be nuts. That's totally a bad idea.'

Sadly, her own personal assurance had only enough effect to stop her from doing it, but her thoughts still ran through her head.

"Are you okay?" he asked automatically, the way he always did.

"Oh, yeah, thanks Esteban," she said, curling a strand of loose hair behind her ear and straightening out her Tipton shirt, "I better get going though. Oh yeah—if Moseby wakes up and asks, tell him I'm sick or something." She gave a short wave and waddled off, feeling a small after-shock of stubbing her toe. She knew Esteban was terrible at keeping secrets or telling lies— the guy was way too nice to keep his mouth shut for his own good. However, he shouted after her with assurance in his voice, and a smile crept up on her features.

Almost immediately, she tried to wipe it off.

If anyone caught her looking goofy-faced for Esteban, they'd get the totally wrong idea. Or the right one? Before Maddie's conscience could argue that she was just being loopy, she caught sight of London in the crowd, standing like a clueless idiot. Her fingers were slowly going over the buttons on her cell-phone; it was difficult to tell if she was having trouble texting, or if she didn't know how to call.

"London!" Maddie cried out angrily as a bulgy man that smelt like goats pushed her away, "London!" The girl in question spun her head 'round to Maddie.

"Oh, Maddie! I was looking for you!" she answered, snapping her cell-phone shut without finishing her previous engagement.

"Really? You were just standing there calling someone!"

"I was texting someone, of course!" London said in her usual 'duh, no way' voice, "And you call me slow. Anyway. I guess it's a bit late, but—"

"You want to take me to Paris?" the response came quickly that it completely interrupted the heiress in mid-sentence, "Yes!"

"Uh, no."

"Rio?"

"No.

"…Rome?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Well if it was so important, what is it?" Maddie tried to hide the disappointment

in her voice, but just couldn't. London would have to learn to cope with that, for bringing Maddie's hopes up anyway.

"Well, Esteban had these dancing classes while you were gone, but they're still going on even after he said he'd stop them," she explained quickly. Maddie wished the girl could fit in some gaps for air between the words, "But anyways, he told us there was a Nationals competitiony-thingy and he'd need us to go as his school group. Like last time."

"Last time?" Maddie cut in. She knew London wasn't done, but something snapped and she needed an answer, "You mean, he won while I was away?"

"Yeah, with some partner. A nurse or something, you know, people who work at the hospitable."

"You mean hospital? Never mind… so, what do you want?" she asked. It bugged her that Esteban was off dancing with some floozy girl while she was away… almost as much as it bugged her that London couldn't even say 'hospital'. She didn't know why, but the whole 'other partner' thing definitely got her anger acting up. Maybe she'd always been this way about close friends making other close friends… she was sort of like that kind of kid.

"What else? He wanted you to join to."

The answer came completely unexpected, and Maddie let herself be pushed around like a mop in the crowd, feeling completely out of it. Her? Dance? In front of Esteban? She'd totally embarrass herself in front of everyone, and especially him…

"Oh, well, why couldn't he tell me himself?"

"Iunno," London said pushing two words together in a dumb slur, "Busy?"

"But I just saw him seconds before you…" her voice trailed as her head tried to piece together the puzzle. Esteban never kept things from her—heck, he never kept anything from everyone. She'd even caught him babbling life secrets to his pet chicken, Dudley, once, "Okay, well I'll tell him something. Expect me there, and have fun texting… whoever it is in this crowd." She would've added 'Although I have no idea why you'd like to do it here, even considering you have the IQ of a toaster,' but held it in.

"Toodles!" London answered, and opened the phone again, pressing the numbers as slowly as she did before.

Maddie walked away by that time, having headed to the counter and noticing that Moseby was still drop-dead tired and Esteban was out of sight.

"I can't believe it," she muttered to herself, slamming her head on the countertop hard as she could; an action, which of course, would be regretted later when she'd need to take the Tylenol for the headache.

"I just can't believe," she thought silently, "that I'm actually crushing on Esteban."