X yawned, then winced. His head was pounding, ruining what would otherwise have been a very wonderful morning. He felt very tired, and oddly satisfied. There was a slight pain in his hips, but nothing compared to the throbbing in his head.

X yawned again, and slowly dragged himself out of bed. "Ugh, parties… I have to watch that punch." He winced, rubbing his head. "I wish Zero wouldn't spike it like that." He always found it very hard to judge the alcohol content under the sweet taste of the punch. Like wine coolers, but with more kick. X shuffled to the bathroom, entirely naked, to get a large glass of water and a couple aspirin. That accomplished, he shuffled back out, intending to go back to bed-

Holy CRAP! X stopped, stunned, as he finally took a real look at his bed. And realized that someone else was in it. What the… I am going to KILL Zero… wait, who is that? X's thoughts ground to an incoherent stop as he took in the painted face, looking very pretty asleep, and the flat chest… for one wild moment, he thought he had slept with a transvestite or perhaps a hermaphrodite. Then he saw the long, golden hair and remembered. Oh… Zest! X's breath left him in a relieved whoosh as he remembered Zest's costume from yesterday. It was still a hell of a thing, but at least it wasn't outright frightening.

"Zest," X said softly, blushing lightly as Zest refused to stir. He seemed to be so deeply asleep it would take an avalanche to wake him. "Zest?" X hesitated, then reached out to gently touch his shoulder-

A hand shot up, gripping his wrist almost painfully as Zest's eyes snapped open. Zest blinked, his grip on X's wrist relaxing almost immediately as he realized who was there.

"Good morning, X," Zest said with a smile. "How are you?" X blinked. This was almost surreal.

"Erm, I'm fine, except for a headache." X's gaze traveled down to where the blanket had slipped from Zest's shoulders, revealing his chest… X blushed, dragging his gaze up to Zest's face. It was still painted, so that didn't really help too much. "Zest… what happened last night?" Zest smiled, his eyes twinkling.

"Well, I should think that's obvious X," Zest said, sitting up with an impish grin. "We came to your room and made mad, torrid love. Don't you remember?" X blushed brightly, because he DID remember. Bits and pieces, anyway. And some of those bits… X tried to tear his mind away from them. They were very interesting, and he was all too sure that Zest would be willing to start something again. And his head was hurting way too much for that, no matter how interesting it was.

"Zest…" X hesitated, then sat down on the bed beside him. "What do you want from me?" He wanted to be sure. Zest had been flirting with him, asking him out, for weeks. Zest looked at him seriously.

"I want to be your lover, X," he said simply. "I really like you… you're great." X blushed as Zest put an arm around his shoulders, smiling. X hesitated, then relaxed against him. This was really very pleasant… and he liked Zest, too. Although…

"Zest, this can't affect our working relationship," X said seriously. "I'm still your commander." He wasn't going to allow any rumors of favoritism to circulate. Zest shrugged with a smile.

"That's fine by me. I'm not expecting you to go easy on me!" Zest grinned. "So, are you feeling a bit better?" X blinked. His headache was pretty much gone… and he could guess what Zest had in mind. X smiled shyly. He couldn't remember all of what had happened last night, but he could recall enough that he wanted to do it again.

"Yes… but could you wipe off that makeup before we do anything?" X flushed. "Sorry, but… it's disturbing." Zest laughed, and slipped out of bed.

"No problem!" He could see how it would be very strange, now that they were both sober. And he'd need to take it off soon… he wasn't going to wear it for his patrols and classes. X watched him go with a small sigh. Zest was really incredibly attractive, but X wasn't quite sure how this would work out. He'd never dated someone in his own unit before, let alone taken a lover. How would it work out?

He'd just have to see.

Two weeks later…

Zest wiped off his face with one hand, a gesture of pure exhaustion. He slowly reached down to the front of his hovercycle, pulling a water bottle out of a custom holder he'd had installed. He took a long drink from it, and passed it over to Kikana. The younger Hunter was wilting in the heat, and accepted it with a weary smile through the grime on his face.

The two of them were all that was left of a patrol of four. Zest closed his eyes in pain, dropping his head. Their patrol had encountered some random Mavericks destroying a small farmhouse. They had immediately spread into attack formation… and hit a mine. Zest had managed to leap free, and Kikana had been in the back, but the other two Hunters were gone. Zest hadn't known them well, but he still mourned. They had killed all the Mavericks, but Zest was in a fine fury over it. How had the Mavericks mined that particular direction? Sheer, dumb luck? It must have been…

And he wasn't looking forward to explaining the whole thing to X. X was quite firm about not playing favorites, but to him, that meant taking a very… firm attitude with Zest. Too firm. No one was asking why X was playing favorites, but Chip had asked why X was picking on him. Zest had winced, but hadn't answered. Not too many people seemed to realize that he and X were lovers, and that suited X fine.

But it doesn't suit me fine, Zest thought sadly. And why am I thinking about my love life when two Hunters are dead? Life stinks… Zest turned a little to look at Kikana. He had revived a bit, with the cool water in his system. In addition to the battle they had just fought and the wounds they had taken, it was high summer in Louisiana. The temperature was sky high and the humidity was almost a hundred percent. It was maddening.

"I hate this place." Zero swatted at a fly that was idly circling his head. "Who would live in this wet hell?" More than anything, he longed for his family and the dry, arid plains they based their operations on… it wasn't perfect, tornados were a danger, but at least it wasn't so damned wet.

"I don't know," Kikana said, longing in his voice. "I want to go home to Canada…" Zest blinked at him.

"You're Canadian? What part?" He asked curiously. He didn't really know a lot about Kikana.

"Quebec." Kikana smiled wearily. "And yes, I speak French."

"I wasn't going to ask, really," Zest protested mildly, grinning. Then the communicator clicked on, and he winced.

Zest, what's going on out there? You've stopped moving. Alia's voice came over the circuit. Zest sighed, and quickly outlined the situation. Not good. I'll tell X.

"I wish you wouldn't," Zest said wearily, startling a laugh from Kikana. But the communicator was already off, and Alia didn't hear. Which was probably just as well, as X's voice came on a moment later.

Zest, what's happening out there? Zest steeled himself for a mini-ordeal, and X didn't disappoint, grilling him for the next ten minutes on every detail of the fiasco. Come back to HQ for repairs. X finally ordered, and the communicator clicked off. Zero ignored Kikana's sympathetic expression, gunning his hovercycle's engine and taking off.

He really could use repairs, but he wasn't looking forward to having a 'chat' with X. It hadn't been his fault, but it still wouldn't be pleasant. It never was.

"Jesus Christ, what's X got against you?" Gilgamesh asked Zest. They had both been assigned to clean the hoverbikes, as punishments. Zest wasn't sure what Gilgamesh had done, but Zest was there for 'letting' his patrol go into disaster. He'd been in charge of it, after all, even if there had been no sign of the mine…

Gilgamesh wasn't as difficult to be around as he had been before. Not being in direct competition with Zest had lowered his distaste for the other rookie… and Gilgamesh was still too junior to lock horns with Zero. But he'd obviously managed to piss someone off, to end up cleaning hoverbikes. That was the Maverick Hunter equivalent of KP duty. The work was too delicate to be left to drones, but dirty, difficult and not at all glamorous.

Zest slammed a cover down, harder than strictly necessary. He considered the question for a moment, scowling… then decided he didn't care. If the truth bothered X, that was X's problem. "We're lovers." There was a brief, shocked silence.

"So he's giving you shit jobs because your lovers? Gee, that would make me feel all sexy." Gilgamesh said, amazed and slightly derisive. Zest scowled at him.

"He doesn't want rumors of favoritism, okay?" Zest started on the next bike, scrubbing industriously. He wanted to get done and get out of there. Gilgamesh might be more tolerable, but he still wasn't one of Zests favorite people.

"So this is anti-favoritism, then?"

"Yeah," Zest said softly, still scrubbing. "I think it is." Zest was starting to feel severely picked on, and if Gilgamesh was noticing, it couldn't just be his imagination. "I think I need to talk to him about it." He was dreading that conversation, but he couldn't tolerate this treatment for much longer. If he had to transfer to the 15'th or the 0'th, so be it, but this was getting out of hand.

"Good luck on that," Gilgamesh said with a kind of rough sympathy. "I remember when I had to talk to a girl…" Zest let the story roll over him, making appropriate grunts at the right spots. If the other Hunter was putting some effort into being sociable, he could be a good listener. But in his mind, Zest was considering how he would talk to X about this issue.

He really wasn't looking forward to it.

Later that day…

Zest picked at his food. He and X were eating together in X's room, and it was very private. X smiled warmly at him, giving Zest a rather surreal feeling. X seemed to expect that what was happening in the unit wouldn't change Zest's feelings off the field.

And maybe it wouldn't have, if it had been fair. But Zest didn't feel it was, especially the problem with the mine… that was something for the Navigators to pick up, and if they couldn't, what was he to do? Besides possibly get killed. He didn't think attacking had been reckless. It was the usual action…

"X, I was wondering," he said, looking down at his plate. "Could I transfer to another unit?" He really hated the thought of doing that. He would have to leave Chip and Axl… they got partnered together a fair bit, on missions. Zest glanced up, catching X's expression… surprise and dismay.

"What? Why?" X sounded honestly bewildered, which only annoyed Zest. Was he honestly that clueless?

"X, when I get several people trying to reassure me that it's not my fault, you don't hate me and you'll like me someday, I start getting a clue that something's wrong," Zest said sardonically, making X flush. "And then when my best enemy from my rookie time asks what you've got against me, I know it. This has got to stop, or I've got to go."

"I am not being unfair," X said defensively. "You could have-" Zest scowled, and set his fork down with a loud clatter.

"I'm not going to argue about the particulars, X. The problem is that it's a pattern." Zest had considered the arguments he would use for a long time, and he knew that if X pulled him into discussing specific instances, things would degenerate into a useless shouting match. Because any one of the individual instances could be interpreted either way… it was the cumulative negative effect that was the problem. "And if I have to keep taking this, it's going to kill the romance." X looked troubled, but shook his head.

"You're imagining things… Zest, I'm just trying to be fair to everyone." Zest resisted the urge to snap at him, and stood up.

"Just think about it, alright?" Zest pulled on his black leather jacket, to X's distress.

"Where are you going?" Zest zipped it up, then looked back.

"Out. I want to be alone for a while." X looked deeply trouble, but only watched as Zest left the room.

As Zest walked out the door to Hunter HQ, his communicator crackled on.

Zest, where are you going? It's late. Zest smiled fondly. He rather liked Nana, even if she acted like an overprotective mother most of the time, especially to the younger Hunters.

"I think I'll head over to the Spaghetti Factory." He hadn't eaten much of his meal with X, and was still hungry. "They should still be open, it's only 8, and I love their casserole. Ya know?" His family had introduced him to a wide variety of cuisine, but Italian was one of Zest's favorites. Right up there with East Indian, followed closely by Cajun and Chinese… oh, heck, he liked everything. Except sushi. Some of his cousins swore by it, but after the wasabi incident, Zest hadn't been able to touch it.

Oh, that's a great place. Going down by MacInty Ave Can you check to see if there's a mailbox for me? I'm going to the shoe shop down there tomorrow.

"Sure thing," Zest said agreeably. He understood why she wanted to know… it was always nice to combine errands. So he kept his eyes open as he walked down the streets. "There's a mailbox on the corner, Nana."

Ah, thank you. Have fun! The communicator switched off, and Zest smiled fondly again… then stopped as a familiar voice hailed him.

"Zest?" Zest turned around, startled, spotting the speaker.

"X?" Zest stared. X was smiling at him, standing in an alley right beside him… but how had X gotten ahead of him? Well, Zest hadn't been going very fast… but why?

"I wanted to talk to you," X said with a sweet smile, his blue eyes twinkling. "Please, come here?" Zest hesitated. Something was… off. But it was X… he slowly stepped closer, walking into the alleyway.

"X, why did you follow me?" He said, baffled, then stiffened in surprise as X took a step towards him, and hugged him, pulling his head down into a kiss. "Mrrff?" Zest started to return the kiss, confused and hesitant but willing-

Then jerked away with a violent cough, his hands going to his throat as he felt something COLD there. X was still smiling at him, but it had turned from gently sweet to sweetly poisonous.

"What… the… hell…?" Zest choked out, trying to regain his breath. His knees buckled as the horrible cold, choking feeling got worse. X smirked, and stepped close.

"Don't worry. You'll find out soon." X said kindly, then gripped Zest's shoulders and slammed him into one of the brick walls. Blinding pain flashed through Zest, and then he knew nothing more…

"Commander X?" Chip peeked into X's office cautiously. Axl was right behind him, looking just as worried and nervous as Chip felt.

Neither of them wanted to bring this to X's attention. They were well aware of the relationship Zest was trying to cultivate with the blue Hunter, and all the difficulties he was having with it. They would have had to have been blind not to notice the latter. So they didn't want to bring something to X that would get Zest in trouble. On the other hand… something was wrong…

"What is it?" X looked up at them, looking ragged and worn, as if he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. Chip hesitated, until Axl poked him in the back.

"Erm, sir… we're both kind of worried. Zest hasn't reported for duty and we were supposed to be going out together. We were wondering if you knew where he went?" Chip asked hesitantly, and X put down his pen with a frown.

"He hasn't come in?" X hesitated, then switched on his communicator. "Alia, do you know where Zest is?" There was a brief pause, then Alia came back.

No, sorry X, we don't have a fix on him. But there's a note someone left here about him going to see his family? X winced, surprised and hurt. Had their conversation bothered Zest that much? It hadn't seemed like it, but maybe Zest had just been hiding it well.

"Thank you, Alia," X turned off the communicator, and looked at Chip and Axl gravely. "The Navigators say that he left a note about going home… but this will have to be reported." When a Hunter went AWOL, it wasn't a laughing matter. Chip looked very unhappy, but accepted it with a nod. X was right… Zest had gone over the line in this. Way over. "Try to find a third for your patrol, but if not, go out as a pair."

"Yes, sir," Chip said, stepping back out of the room as Axl tried to flash X a grin. It was weak, though. Despite the note, he was worried about Zest. Missing patrol for anything wasn't at all like him. X watched them go, then sighed and logged in the missing report with a note about the visit to his parents. Then he did his best to forget about it.

That would come back to haunt him, in days to come.