Syrise managed to catch herself against the wall, nearly tripping at the base of the stairs. She perked a blonde eyebrow and looked down to Jazax, noting he made a pretty nice obstruction for such a little guy.

"What's up? Why'd you stop?" Syrise asked, crouching over beside him.

Jazax just shushed her and pointed ahead wordlessly. Syrise perked an eyebrow again, her gaze moving to follow where he was directing. Her eyes widened upon seeing what was oh-so-shocking. And, well, it actually was pretty shocking.

Mythene and Zami were sitting next to the counter, their lips locked. Definitely locked. Like, you couldn't slip a piece of parchment between them.

"Whoa," Syrise mumbled quietly after a minute, "Z finally did it."

"Uhh... let's give 'em a minute, eh?" Jazax shrugged, quickly taking a step up to the stair behind him.

And backing him right into Syrise's legs. Pretty hard, honestly. Did he have to always move around like he was on fire or whatever? Syrise rose her eyebrows, falling backwards to sit down a few steps above. To an outside observer, it probably looked like she intended it. Jazax seemed pretty convinced, anyway, as he came around and sat on the step beside her.

The two of them sat awkwardly side by side for a minute, hearing nothing but the sound of Jazax's potion bubbling somewhere else in the Inn. Jazax tapped his hands quietly on the step, looking around at the decor like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Syrise meanwhile leaned back further, onto her elbows, and stared up at the ceiling.

"I always thought it'd be super weird," She spoke up quietly, voice barely above a whisper.

Jazax paused, shooting a quizzical look over at her.

"Kissing a troll," She elaborated, "The tusks and everything, y'know?"

Jazax perked an eyebrow, glancing aside again, clearly having lost interest already. Syrise tapped her gloved fingers on the wooden step a moment, still looking up at the ceiling.

"Can't be weirder than kissing an orc, though," She shrugged.

"Or a tauren?" Jazax glanced up at her.

"That again?" Syrise looked right back down.

"What?" He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Enough about Khail," She sighed, "If I was interested in him, it'd be obvious. I'm not exactly good at hiding it."

"Says the woman who lies about her feelings for a living."

"Hey," Syrise held up a hand, "There are no feelings involved with stealing."

"See, that's where you're wrong," Jazax grinned, "There are plenty of feelings involved around anything that relates to stealing."

"Maybe for a goblin," Syrise chuckled, "Not so much for a sin'dorei."

"Oh, come on," Jazax scoffed, "Like you'd keep doing it so long if you didn't feel that little something special about it."

"Well, yeah," Syrise shrugged, "I guess you could say I've got my 'little something special' as you put it. But it isn't the money. I've got more money than I know what to do with, honestly."

"Wait, really?" Jazax looked over at her quickly, "Then why not just retire to a life of luxury?"

Syrise sighed in exasperation.

"...You."

"Eh?"

"You," Syrise repeated, looking over at him.

"Me?" Jazax furrowed his brow.

"Yup," Syrise smacked her lips, nodding, "You."

"Uhh…" Jazax glanced aside, "Am I… missing something?"

"Look," Syrise sat up, "What was I supposed to do? When the group first split, you were half-dead and drinking yourself into an early grave."

Jazax frowned, clearly recalling that rather unfortunate period. Surprising, given how much of it he spent passed out in the tavern.

"After Tezz left, you were a wreck," Syrise continued, "I didn't know what to do with you. It took Z's arrival to even get you to come back to work."

"Yeah, yeah," Jazax waved a hand, "We don't need to go over all the, uh… sordid details, eh?"

"Then you and Zami had that fight, where you stabbed him, and he broke your arm-"

"It still pops," Jazax quipped, bending his arm with a clicking sound.

"-and that's when the group split for good," Syrise paused, "Of course, I didn't leave you then either. Since you had a broken arm-"

"Look, I remember! I remember! Sheesh, woman," Jazax interrupted, "Can you stop with the narration already?"

"I'm just saying," Syrise shrugged, sitting back, "I mostly just stuck with the Cartel so that I could keep an eye on you, Jazzy. You worry me sometimes."

Jazax was quiet for a moment, before glancing aside.

"Well, stop worrying," He mumbled, "I'm fine now. You don't gotta keep babysitting me."

"For how long?" Syrise perked a long blonde eyebrow, "Am I just supposed to go away and expect you'll be fine? Not blowing yourself up or getting into some trouble that I'm not there to get you out of?"

"Hey, I can blow myself up if I want," Jazax huffed, "In case you didn't notice, Syrise, I was doin' just fine without a mom all my life. I don't need you bein' one now."

"Maybe if you'd actually had a mom, you would've grown up a little and stopped acting so childish," Syrise murmured, quickly earning her a glare.

"Watch it, lady," Jazax warned.

"Or what?" Syrise scoffed.

"Or I'll… I dunno, do something stupid and unexpected," Jazax grumbled.

"Go ahead," Syrise said as she put her hands on her hips, "I'm not going anywhere, Jazzy. Not for all the stupid, unexpected things in the world."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we'll see about that, won't we?" Jazax muttered, leaning over to squint at her as threateningly as he could muster.

Syrise looked back at him with a determined stare, confident it didn't give away the hammering of her heart in the slightest. She hadn't really noticed before how they were speaking at eye level. He must've sat one step above hers, she realized retroactively. It made their height difference almost non-consequential. It certainly wasn't the first thing on her mind right now, anyway. She was a bit more preoccupied with trying not to purse her lips.

Call it an instinct or something. Maybe it was the close quarters eye contact. But something about the vibe made her feel like he was going to kiss her. And it took a great deal of effort not to just pucker up and go along with it.

Weirdly.

It wasn't like she'd ever really thought about kissing Jazax before. Especially considering most of the time when she looked at him, she was staring at his hair rather than his face. It was just easier than looking all the way down. He did have nice hair, though. Very shiny. Or oily. Hopefully shiny. But then again, knowing goblins, probably oily. But then again, Jazax did like those bubble baths-

"Uhh, S-Syrise? Kinda close there," Jazax chuckled uncomfortably.

"Huh?"

Syrise blinked, slowly realizing she had leaned forward towards him while her mind was preoccupied. Accursed instincts! She'd essentially pushed him into the corner up against the wall, and he was staring at her with a furrowed brow.

Syrise quickly pulled away, regaining control over her dumb body. She felt a blush rush over her cheeks, a rather rare occurrence for her. Usually, she could control it. But it seemed her body was just being all over difficult for her today. For whatever reason. She could probably just blame it on Jazax. Yeah, that would work. It always did.

"...Ugh, those two have gotta be done by now," Syrise mumbled aloud, more to herself than Jazax, and stood up, "I mean, how long can anybody kiss for anyway?"

"I really wouldn't know, Syrise," Jazax muttered under his breath as she peeked around the edge of the stairwell.

Slowly, she rose a single blonde eyebrow and stepped out from behind the wall. Mythene was still seated by the bubbling pot, monitoring it.

But Zami? He was nowhere to be seen.