"Come on, buddy, what's taking you so long?"

The halls were quiet; too quiet. Definitely far too quiet for Lord Hater's ship, even if it was the dead of night. The place was usually full of some sort of noise- whether it was the sound of marching of soldiers down the halls, or the soft whirling and spinning of gears and gizmos working away and keeping the place functionable. Yet, to the zbornak's chagrin, she couldn't hear a single thing.

And hearing nothing usually meant trouble.

Sylvia sighed, trying to get herself to relax. Though, could one blame her for her unease? The last time she had been on the skull shaped space vehicle wasn't exactly a picnic or a walk in the park for her. In fact, it had been the opposite of pleasurable as she and her fuzzy buddy had been ambushed and captured. Sylvia felt a shiver through her body, as the sudden image of Wander's limb dead carcass on the floor of Lord Hater's throne room entered her mind. Yeah, no, that was NOT something she wanted to relive- and the place was making it really hard not to forget and suppress it! So why the heck were they even here again?!

The zbornak threw a look over her shoulder as she looked at the skeletal overlord's bedroom door- the doors blocking her view of her best pal. Why were they there? Why else would they be there? Because Wander had begged and pleaded for them to come and see the stupid bag of bones. He had looked at her with those sad puppy dog eyes, and her heart had melted and instantly gave in. She would sacrifice anything for him, and her hurt pride knew it.

Sylvia sighed again as she continued to recall the conversation that had brought them to the ship in the first place…

"What's gotten into you, Wander? You've been even more anxious than usual the past two days."

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, Syl. Guess I have been a little worked up over waitin' for Mister Peepers. You'd think he woulda' found us by now!"

"Peepers? Since when do you worry about them finding us? Why would Peepers be looking for us, anyway? Besides the obvious, of course."

"So he can give us our invitations, silly!"

"Invitations? To what, Hater's torture room?"

"Nooo; His birthday party! I mean, it's tomorrow, an' Peepers still hasn't tracked us down to give us our invites. Startin' t'think we should slow down a little, give 'im a chance to catch up."

" ... Wander, the guy went out of his way to kill you not too long ago."

"Oh... do ya think maybe that would make him not want me at his birthday party this year?"

"Oh Wander, don't look at me like that! Alright, listen... answer me one thing. Are you absolutely sure you're reading this right? Are you absolutely, one hundred percent, without a doubt sure, that this thing is real?"

"As sure as I've been about much in a long time, Sylvia."

"... I was afraid of that. Okay then, buddy, let's go find Lord Hater, and you can give him that birthday present."

The zbornak flinched and quickly turned around as she suddenly heard the door behind her creak open. She put up her dukes, ready to rumble if it was called for- it could have been her buddy… but it was Lord Hater's room, after all. So it could have been ol' Bonehead, himself! Sylvia composed herself, however, when a friendlier face popped out from behind the frame. She sighed as Wander finished making his way out, gingerly closing the door behind him. He had a huge smile on his face, and he opened his mouth ready to spill the beans about everything that happened.

Sylvia quickly held up a hand to stop him, as she whispered.

"Shhh, not now. Wait 'til we get out of this place, alright? Last thing we want is to get captured again."

The taller friend noted a certain expression cross her buddy's face, and she could already hear the sort of retorts he would come up about not minding being captured at all. However, Wander merely nodded his head as he hopped on her back.

It didn't take too long to navigate through the halls and finally get to the torpedo room. Climbing through one of the empty tubes, they made their way outside- instantly forming an orbble once they hit space. They made some distance from the ship, silent all the while, before it was Sylvia that broke the silence first.

"So...how'd it go?"

There was a sharp intake of air, as Wander took a breath so deep his chest expanded to twice its natural size, and when he spoke, he did so enthusiastically and without pause.

"It was great! I waited until midnight b'fore I said anything, and boy was he surprised! Then we had a lil' chat, an' I played him his song, an' at first he was all grumpy about it, but then he said he liked it and I was so excited!" His voice had risen so high by the end it was nearly a squeak, and he paused briefly to breathe.

"An' then he told me about how he'd been thinkin' about me a whole lot, an' that he didn't hate me anymore, an' then we kissed, and it. Was. Amazing! So then he invited us to his birthday party, which isn't actually a party, but there'll be cake, and balloons, and I can't wait!"

Wander's mouth had been going so fast, it took everything in Sylvia to keep up. Thankfully she had enough skills from being around the nomad for song long, that she was only one step behind him. By the time he was finished talking, Sylvia's eyes had opened wide in surprise.

"Wait, woah, hold on- did you say you guys KISSED?"

"Yup!"

"Huh...I'll be honest, did NOT see that one coming."

It was one thing for Wander to have a thing for Hater...he was Wander, after all. He was practically the embodiment of love. But HATER- the overlord skeleton with a stick shoved so far up his backside you could turn him into a puppet- HE not only liked him back...but had went as far as kissing him?

"Uh, you sure he wasn't being sarcastic about all of the whole 'liking' thing? And...did he actually...you know, kiss you BACK?"

Because, being honest here, Sylvia could easily see her pal looking too far into something that wasn't there. Or misinterpreting the signs. Heck, wouldn't be the first time.

She heard him sigh dreamily. "Boy, did he ever."

The tone of his voice made her shudder.

"Oh, kay buddy, wow, ew, I'm sorry I asked. Fine, so this is a thing, okay, I got this, I'm cool with this." She was talking more to herself than to Wander, she realized.

"Are you sure going to this party-"

"Not a party." Wander sang.

"- this not-party, is such a great idea? Remember LAST year?"

"I sure do! ... Why, what was wrong with last year's party? We did finally get him t'smile, didn't we?"

Sylvia thought back to the smile, remembering it herself. The look on the overlord's face had been one of the skeleton having a mental breakdown, as Wander and her had continued singing his birthday song. The zbornak laughed to herself as she had to admit, it was hilarious seeing the nomad go through all the trouble to make the party better-only to make Hater feel worse.

And of course, she had went along with it. Hater's pain would forever be her pleasure.

"Riiight, we sure did. Best smile I've even seen, heh. Alright, on second thought- sure. Let's go."

Sylvia would, at the very least, get to see Hater squirm around and feel all uncomfortable. And that was better than anything in the whole wide universe. (Except for jellyfish pie, but that was a given.)

"Great! And this year, I'll bet we get an even bigger smile out of him!"

"Heh heh. Can't wait, buddy. Can't wait."

Ten minutes later, the orbble touched down on a nearby planet, and the two did their best to get in a few hours of sleep before the big day ahead.