Life was good. It seemed impossible for it to be so good, in fact, during such a terrible war. But since Quark wasn't involved in fighting said war, he could do a much better job of ignoring it than most of his friends could. He knew he was a horrible person for pretending everything was fine when it obviously wasn't, but sometimes ignoring it was the only way Quark knew how to cope. Were it not for Odo, Quark probably would have had a nervous breakdown.

One day, when all anybody could talk about was the war, Quark finally snapped from the stress. He got up and left the bar, leaving Broik in charge until he got back, and made his way down to Odo's office. He needed to see his boyfriend, to get some reassurance that everything was going to be okay.

Odo looked surprised to see Quark come into his office uninvited, and Quark didn't blame him. Not giving the constable time to tell him off, Quark climbed onto Odo's lap and started kissing him. It felt good- a nice distraction from the fact that everything was terrible. Quark closed his eyes and let himself melt into his gelatinous lover, savouring the slightly salty taste of Odo's mouth. He could almost forget about the Dominion entirely.

Then Odo shoved him away and Quark was jerked back to reality. Quark sat on the floor and blinked up at Odo, distraught at how genuinely furious Odo looked.

"Quark!" Odo snapped, standing up and glaring down at Quark. "Get out of my office immediately!"

"Wha...?" Quark began, dumbfounded. Why was Odo so angry?

A couple months ago, sure, this would have been expected, but... Odo liked kissing Quark now— he'd admitted so himself not too long ago! Plus, when Odo, day after day, would barge into Quark's bar and start interrogating him, did Quark complain? No, because he loved any and all time he spent with his boyfriend! Sure, chief of security was objectively a more important job than bartender, but earning profit was just as important to Quark as keeping DS9 crime-free was to Odo.

"Do you want to know why I'm angry at you, Quark?!" Odo demanded. Before Quark had time to answer yes, he did, Odo barked, "I am in the middle of figuring out who is responsible for the murder of an ensign two days ago! If the killer isn't apprehended, they could strike again at any time, and any one of our friends could be next! Is that worth a few seconds of pleasure to you, Quark? Is it?!"

It most certainly was not, but Quark wasn't sure how to make Odo believe that when Quark had just come into Odo's office and started kissing him without consent. Quark had assumed Odo wouldn't mind, since they kissed all the time on dates— plus, people kissed each other all the time on holoprograms without asking if they could first.

Obviously, he'd been very wrong.

"Get out of my office, Quark," Odo said again, this time less loudly but with even more seething anger beneath his stern words. "We will discuss this on a later date."

Quark scampered out of the office with a whimper and ran back to his bar, ashamed. What had he been thinking?! Odo must have absolutely hated him now, and Quark couldn't even slightly blame him.

Obviously, they wouldn't be meeting at the replimat that day, so Quark didn't bother dropping in to check... is what would have been the case if Quark had any self-respect whatsoever. Instead, he spent the better part of an hour hanging around the replimat alone just in case Odo did decide to show up. He didn't, of course, and Quark was left even more humiliated and miserable. He really hated himself sometimes. He was just so starved for affection and he couldn't get it from anywhere else but Odo! Of course Quark understood that Odo's work was more important than romance, but still... For a shape-shifter, Odo wasn't half as flexible as one would think.

"We'll discuss this at a later date". That's what Odo had said, and yet they never did discuss it. The constable stopped dropping by Quark's bar, and after two weeks of showing up at the replimat every day just in case, Quark finally accepted that he and Odo weren't going to be having any more dates. Quark supposed that meant they'd broken up. It was a strange thing to think about— that after so many years of pining after Odo, Quark had finally got what he wanted out of the constable only to screw it all up.

It was probably what he deserved.