AN: GAH! I didn't intend to write anything else! But I couldn't just leave this as a sex only relationship! So this fixes that. Kinda. It kinda has plot, so it wasn't as easy to write. Plus, I'm actually writing out foreplay with this one. Why did I do this? I blame the twenty two people who read the first chapter within hours of it being put up on Saturday. Some of whom read it more than once. You made me want to give more, damn it!

And I thought about giving up a few times, but then at one point I looked at the views for the one chapter I had up at the time, and saw that some one from Korea and someone from Russia had read it. That... that pretty much sealed it. Even if they never came back to read the other chapters, I was suddenly determined to finish.

Happy Valentine's Day! Thanks to all you lovely people who thought this story was worth reading!

Chapter Summary: Weeks after Zed accidentally admits his feelings to Patricia and she winds up running, he decides to go after her and make her face it so he can learn where they even stand. He winds up learning a little more than he anticipated. Takes place just hours after Torgue hijacked Tannis' broadcast to announce the Campaign of Carnage.

Zed hasn't seen Patricia in two weeks.

God, does he wish it was because of something as simple as being busy. Yes, she left Sanctuary to go check something out that might be Vault related; that had been what she told people when she left.

Zed figures that was, at best, half the reason.

The other half was because he went and did something stupid. Really, really stupid. Something he had managed to avoid doing since they had started having sex.

He'd woken up before her after a night of sex, and she had looked so relaxed and he had felt so content that he couldn't help but think "I love you."

Only it had turned out she hadn't still been asleep. And that he had said it out loud.

She'd gotten out of his bed, dressed, and out the door, ignoring his attempts to try to get her attention or make her look at him.

She'd left that day, and was basically avoiding him with this little trip.

Zed was tired of his messages that she talk to him going ignored, tired of trying to figure out what he was supposed to do.

So when he sees the feed where she attempted to tell the Vault Hunters about the Vault she had found, which was hijacked by Mister Torgue, he packs some things and tells Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai he's going away for a while.

Mordecai helpfully gives him the coordinates for exactly where Tannis is camped near the, as Torgue had dubbed it against her wishes, "Badass Crater of Badassitude". He doesn't ask how he knew. Neither of the other two had looked surprised when he did. He doesn't asked about that either.

When Dr. Patricia Tannis finally gets back to her campsite after a very long "chat" with one Mister Torgue Flexington (which had consisted of her getting a headache from his constant yelling and essentially retaliated by using as many big words as she could), it was to discover a portable shower has been installed and connected to her tent.

Torgue had apparently been serious when he said that he was impressed when he had confronted her about deliberately using "words with way too many syllables" and she had truthfully admitted to it, and that it deserved a reward of some kind, judging by the logo pattern on the curtains. And had apparently paid attention when she listed the reasons she wasn't happy about him barging in like he had. (Which had included what all she'd been putting up with since getting there.)

So she had turn on the lamp beside her cot (night finally approaching), grabbed her robe and a towel and put it to good use.

Her resultant relaxed mood vanished when she exited into what she was now mentally referring to as the main tent and found Zed leaning against her desk.

They stare at each other for a moment before Zed slowly moves his gaze from her face all the way down her robe covered body to her feet clad in her rather durable slippers (because she refuses to walk on a bare surface anywhere after she bathes. It rather defeats the purpose), and then just as slowly back up. "Nice look."

She crosses her arms, though the effect is somewhat ruined by the fact she's holding her clothes from the day, her used towel, and the basket with her shower supplies and goggles, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?"

She turns away from him and sets about taking as long as possible to put everything away, "I think you should leave, doctor."

She can almost feel him roll his eyes, "Back to that? Gonna have to add that to the list of things I've learned about you, "uses nicknames to distance herself from others." Well, officially add it, at least."

She puts the basket on its makeshift shelf and folds her towel, "And yet you're still here, doctor."

"I'm not going anywhere."

She folds her clothes, not saying anything. She hears movement behind her, but not away from her.

"I've learned a lot about you, last few months. Was learning stuff before that, too. Most of it I've either liked, or come to accept as being part of you." He snorts, "And yeah, I know you distance yourself when you aren't comfortable. That's fine. But this whole "ignore and run away" thing?"

She puts her clothes in her bag and slowly closes it, not taking her hands off when she does.

"Woman, I tried giving you space. I figured you would send me some kind of message telling me something. I made sure I didn't go overboard when I started sending you messages asking that you talk to me, hell, after a while I was sending them because you weren't answering and I wanted to make sure you were goddamn alive! You haven't been talking to anyone! I saw yer little broadcast and decided I was done with putting up with this. I'm not letting you ignore this anymore, Patricia."

Her fingers clench around the bag, and she knows he can hear her nails scrape against the material.

"No matter how much you aggravate me sometimes, fact is, I do love you. I've loved you since before that first time we slept together. Lotta reasons why I do, before you ask, top three being surviving by yourself on Pandora for the longest time without going nuts beyond the point of no return, being funny without even realizing it, and being smart as hell. I didn't plan on it coming out the way it did, but I'm not taking it back.

"If we were done, you would say so. You are always very clear about when you're done dealing with someone or something. You haven't even told me you want me to leave, just that you think I should. So you know what I think? I think you don't know what to do."

She takes a deep breath, tries hard not to let it shake.

She hears him stop moving. "Patricia, please talk to me," he says softly.

The wall she put up to ignore this whole situation since he said those three words comes tumbling down and she spins around to face him. She doesn't care that she's naked under her robe, she's frustrated and scared and confused and she can't hold it in anymore.

"What do you want me to say? Do you want me to say it's over, to actually tell you to leave? Well, you're right, I can't! When this was just about sex it was easy! When we started flirting it was okay because it was just about the sex and I could deal with that! Then you had to go and tell me you love me and now it's not easy! I. Don't. Know. How. To. Deal. With. That!"

Zed just stands there as she starts to pace and gesture wildly, "I can only deal with complicated when it involves science! I'm horrible at it when it comes to people! You know that! Consequently, I'm just as horrible when it comes to emotions! My brain isn't wired the same as most people's, so I can't deal with it as well! You're right, things come up that I can't deal with I do what I can to make them leave without dealing with them!"

She stops and turns to face him again, "You want me to talk to you? Fine! I don't know if I've ever loved someone in a romantic sense before!" She brings her hands up and clutches her hair, "I don't know how to deal with you loving me because I think I might! I have a list of reasons why I do and a list of why it wouldn't work and I keep seeing it and getting scared that you'll leave and I'll be alone so I just ignored thinking about my feelings and I know I've screwed up everything because going off on my own and ignoring people means I am alone and I don't want to be but this way it's my choice! But now you're here I can't tell you to leave because I think about telling you that and my chest aches which probably means that I love you, Zed and- and-"

She closes her eyes against stinging tears. About a second after that she hears him move again.

"Aw, hell, woman. I came for answers, not make you cry." She feels his hands gently grab her wrists and pull her hands down. She doesn't open them, even as he wraps an arm around her shoulders.

"C'mon," he says as he gently leads her to what turns out to be her cot when he helps her sit down. His arm stays where is it, and his other hand is still holding a wrist.

"I'm sorry, Zed," she sobs, not caring how pathetic she must look or sound.

"'M sorry too," he says and she doesn't protest when he pulls her into his lap and he wraps his arms around her. "You were scared, I get that."

For a while, they just sit there and he lets her cry, occasionally murmuring that "it's okay".

"Zed?" she asks when her breathing calms down and she's out of tears.

"Yeah?"

She wraps her arms around him, "Please don't go. I want you to stay."

"If I leave this tent tonight, Patricia, it's because you're with me," he replies, kissing the side of her head.

Patricia buries her face in his neck and just sits there, breathing him in. Eventually, she lifts her head up, "Zed?"

"Yeah?"

She leans closer, "Please kiss me." It comes out a little breathier than she intends.

He moves a hand to cradle the back of her head as he complies. It's a different kiss than the ones they've shared before, fueled more by emotion rather than passion.

Still, it's been a while since she's been in his arms. Now she's there, in his lap, practically naked, kissing him, and she's admitted she loves him. Zed can't stop his body from responding to that.

He pulls back from the kiss to apologize and tell her to ignore it, because he's not gonna push his luck. However, one of her hands moves to place fingers against his lips before he can speak.

She looks at him through half lidded eyes. "Please make love to me," she murmurs before she moves her hand and replaces it with her lips. More than anything, right now, she wants to be as close to him as she can.

They either never break the kiss or share several, it's hard to tell.

Somehow, shoes are taken off, and Zed's clothing is removed until he's down to his boxers and her hands move to his back, lingering briefly before they travel to his front. Somehow, and he isn't sure when exactly it happened, he's moved so that he's sitting on the cot with her legs on either side of his hips and once her hands are on his chest he leans back without thinking about anything beyond giving her more access, and it might have gone badly had she not bought what was probably the only cot in existence with a headboard.

Elegant fingers trace muscles most don't know he has, lingering over scars he's gotten for one reason or another, because this is Pandora and there isn't much on the planet that won't try to attack and/or kill you; every native has at least one scar and he's just as proud of being native to the planet and living there his whole life as anyone.

An idea occurs to Patricia, one that makes her cheeks go just a little pink, but she's already been brave enough (albeit by way of a slight breakdown) to admit to Zed how she feels, so why not? The mechanics of her idea seem sound, anyway.

Carefully, she leans forward, sliding one hand down his chest while the other moves behind his neck to pull him closer. Their lips meet just as her hand slides down into his boxers and wraps around him.

Patricia then proceeds to stroke her tongue against his at the same time her hand strokes his cock.

He groans into her mouth and grows stiffer in her hand and it's a heady thing.

She does this again and again, her movements slightly awkward as she tries to keep them at the same pace and, judging from the way Zed is gripping her hips and moving his own beneath her, this trial run is going rather well.

Eventually, she stops and pulls back for air. Zed stares at her, somehow both dazed and intently at once.

Before she can ask what he thought of it, he surprises her by grabbing her hand and pulling it away from him.

"Not fair for you to do all the work, is it?" he asks. His free hand moves to the belt of her robe, "And nice as the idea of just leaving this on is, right now it feels like you're overdressed."

"I… have a rose pink silk one that might be more appropriate for that." She says as he begins to undo the knot with one hand, unable to keep that mental image of wearing that robe she'd bought on a whim on top of him with his hands on her hips to herself.

She isn't even sure if he's picturing the same position, but the way he looks at her as he brings the hand he's still holding to his face and kisses her wrist makes it pretty clear he's keeping the information in mind.

As he does away with the knot at the belt and lets go of her hand to slowly slide her robe down her shoulders and off her arms, it occurs to Patricia that, logically, there is no reason for her to be blushing right now; he's certainly undressed her before.

But he had never looked at her like this as he did before, had he? Like he was unwrapping some sort of precious gift; and it occurs to her when she registers the love in his eyes as he tosses the robe aside that he's been keeping himself from looking at her like that until now. The knowledge that he won't stop himself from looking at her like that anymore makes her feel so warm that she can't help smiling a little as she leans forward to kiss him.

He wraps an arm around her waist and turns them so that their positions are reversed and he's on top of her and she's the one leaning against the headboard. All the while he kisses her like they have nothing but time.

Patricia is so caught up in the kiss that she doesn't realize the arm around her waist has moved until she feels his fingers are her opening.

"Just thought I'd return the favor," Zed murmurs in a low voice that promises she's about to feel very, very good.

Pretty soon, Patricia is writhing against him as his fingers slowly thrust inside of her and the tongue in her mouth mimics the movement at the exact same speed. And it does feel good, just like it always does, but he refuses to change his pace, so it isn't enough to push her over the edge.

She doesn't even have a chance to say anything when he removes those fingers before he has his hands touching her everywhere and his lips on her neck, right over her pulse. And she can feel him, hard against her but in no way positioned to go in.

"Zed," Patricia moans as a hand covers one of her breasts, "I know what I said, but we have all night to make love and I need you right now!"

He chuckles a little as he lifts his head and lowers his hands to align their hips, placing himself at her entrance, "Not sure you could make that sound any better."

Patricia smiles slightly, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips, pushing him so that he's just touching her where she needs him most right now, "Please make love to me."

And judging by the look on his face that suggests his brain shut down for a moment before he looks at her with love and desire, she thinks she managed to make it sound better. "I intend to do nothing else the rest of the night," he says before he slides inside, into that part of her that only he has ever known.

He kisses her as if to steal her very breath, and she promptly takes his in return when she squeezes her legs to get him completely inside her.

There's no need for words as they move, slowly picking up speed; every kiss, every sound they make, every movement made says it all for them.

Orgasms aren't always mutual when they have sex, but in a strange way, that just makes them more special.

So Patricia thinks it's more than appropriate that, after everything that's happened and they've said they loved each other, they fall off the edge of perfect pleasure together. That he releases his essence (didn't she once say she would never call it that? oh, who cares?) into her at the same time her body starts milking him for it, mixing it with her own, and her heart feels so full.

He is on top of her, lying against her, once they are finished. She can feel his heart against her chest, and her pleasure addled mind thinks that, if time were to somehow stop right now and freeze them like this, she'd be fine with that.

Her hand strokes the place on his back where his heart is and he moans a little.

"Patricia, I know I'm not as old as I look, but gimme a couple minutes. Said yerself we had all night."

"We're in a relationship now, correct?" She asks. She doesn't know why, but she wants to hear him actually say it.

Zed props himself up so they're face to face. "Yeah, we are." He gently pressed his lips against hers, "I love you, and I'll say it as many times as you need."

Maybe it's the blissful post-coital afterglow, but she can't bring herself to even think about the worries that had driven her out here in the first place.

"I love you, too," Patricia says before softly kissing him in return.

AN: No, I don't know if cots with headboards exist. Nor do I know where Tannis would have gotten one. I assume it was the only cot left when she bought it, or bought so she could sit up and read at night. I mean, apparently you can fit large babies into storage decks, is the thought of a cot with a headboard that weird?

Some of you might be wondering about the emotional freak out/breakdown and the fact she decided avoiding Zed by leaving Sanctuary was better than facing the possibility of him leaving her on his own. Here's the thing, people with Asperger's will often do things that seem logical or without really thinking about them. People with Asperger's also frequently have problems with anxiety. The two make for a bad combination. Her anxiety is hinted at in her reactions to people being near her, and a few fanfic writers have even depicted such reactions. They probably don't make sense to anyone else. Trust me, I know, I happen to have Asperger's and anxiety problems myself. I essentially ended up channeling my mindset into hers during the freak out paragraphs.

She's actually more like a girl I know who also has Asperger's. They both have the same problems with touch, and they both tend to say what they mean.

And perhaps I should have pointed this out sooner, but I have this headcanon that Tannis isn't as crazy as she seems in the games. Yeah, she went through a… thing with attraction to inanimate objects for a little while, but she's gotten over that. In a kind of weird, backwards logic, she wants to keep from feeling the pain of losing people by making sure people can't get too close. To the point that the stress of actual contact with people she's not comfortable with causes her body to react badly. At the same time, she doesn't really want to be alone. Hence why she stays in Sanctuary at all, or even lives in the same building as other people. She'll try to deny to herself that she cares about people to the point she's practically unaware of how she feels. I'm probably babbling, but there you go.

Also, I'm not sure how old Zed is, but I personally think he's younger than he looks. Older than Patricia, yes. I'd put him late 30s early 40s, but looks older. But I'm horrible at guessing ages. I think Tannis is in her late twenties, though. She doesn't look much older than Lilith and Maya.

And one last thing. There will be no more chapters added to this fic. This last one with actual plot was hard, because I kept getting worried it sounded stupid. Trying to do an over-arcing one? Not gonna happen.

HOWEVER!

I've been toying with the idea of creating another story consisting of one shots related to this. I know I could just put more chapters on to this, but I don't want to feel like I'm obligated to make more. This way, it's more like whenever I think of an idea that I like enough to put down. Again, it's all related. I just want to avoid feeling like I need add to it.

But, yeah.

They'd probably range from K to M, rating wise.

As always, feel free to review and critique this.

And for anyone interested:

Daughtry: Battleships [like, a lot, especially at the beginning of writing this]

Journey: Girl Can't Help It

Josh Groban: Billy Joel's She's Always a Woman [I just love this version]

Jason Derulo: The Other Side

Elton John: The Panic In Me

Jorge e Mateus: Calma [I looked up the lyrics once and translated them, it seemed like a romantic song]

Savage Garden: I Knew I Loved You

John Michael Montgomery: I Can Love You Like That

Meatloaf: I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) [Pretty much their theme song for this last chapter]