Occurs shortly before the Prison Planet storyarc. Written JUST FOR MORGEIL =D

It was a pretty decent set-up, both Pyrus and Zera agreed; there was usually enough downtime for it to work, and if and when it did work, it would be subtle enough to last until the next incident down the line.

The actual conversation came up by chance, which led to the eventual plotting.

Zera was bored, and haunting the hallways of the Palace without really any thoughts. It was a slow day, one that was usually spent with everyone wandering around looking bored. Her father and Graveheart insisted that these times spent flying through space weren't aimless, and that they were making use of it and trying to locate a compatible sun, but as Zera walked through empty and silent hallways, she was starting to doubt that.

It was then that she bumped into Pyrus, whose expression could only be construed as suspicious.

"Pyrus," she said, her voice carefully blank. "Why are you here and not on one of the Battle Moons?"

He jumped, turned to her, and instantly looked both guilty and excited. "Uh, I was trying to…find out something."

"Find out what?" she demanded, hands on her hips. Pyrus puffed out his cheeks, about to retort that it really was none of her business, except that…well, she could prove to be useful…

In the end, they talked about it. Zera was, at first, mortified by it, but only for a split second when she realised that she had suspected it all along, especially when Femur let a choice comment drop during a meeting which resulted in a higher amount of violence than usual from Jade.

Besides, Zera was never one to say no to a great game.

The first time came up right after a council meeting. It had been a little tense, especially since it was clear that without a stationary sun, the planets were at risk of eventually dying. Zuma had stressed that despite both the integrity shields and gravity matrixes, without a proper sun, the lifecycles on each planet were doomed. To which Mantel had, from his situated screen, snorted that his planet was superior and exempt from such a fate.

To which Femur had said, echoing everyone else's thoughts, "It's hard to be superior if your planet has rotted into dust, don't you think?"

Which had ended the meeting rather awkwardly indeed.

From across the table, Zera's eyes slid to Pyrus's, and she saw that his gaze was on hers already. There was a faint ghost of a smile on his lips, and she had to respond to it; now would be a perfect time to set their little game into motion.

Jade was sitting stiffly in her seat, scowling at the now-dark screen, when Zera got up and walked over to her side. With a very casual tone of voice, she said, "That was kind of…intense, don't you think?"

The older woman snorted, her eyes rolling. "Sometimes I wonder if you have your father's gift of understatement," was her reply.

Pyrus's eyebrows went up, smirking. Zera pretended to ignore it.

"Well," Zera shifted a little, somewhat intimidated by what she was even attempting to do. "I'm sure we would all feel better if we relaxed a bit before continuing this conversation."

Jade looked up at her finally, her face a mix of annoyance and confusion. "Just what are you going on about?"

"I mean," Zera looked away, unable to stop her hands from clasping in front of her in some shyness. "A way to relax, you know…like you always do."

Jade cupped her chin in her hand, her eyes sliding away. "Hm…not a bad idea, actually."

Pyrus's mouth went open, close to jumping to his feet. Zera shot him a triumphant look.

Jade's eyes were back on hers. "You. Training grounds. One hour. Don't be late." And on that note she was up on her feet and out of the room in a flash.

Zera swore under her breath. Pyrus's laughter grated her nerves.

With Zera's failure, Pyrus was determined to prove that he would be able to do it better.

His chance came during a routine security checkup shortly after the doomed meeting. He made sure that Zera was able to attend – despite logic stating that it actually wasn't necessary for her to be there – before he started.

Zera was pretending to review some of the schematics for the AI security repairs when Pyrus said, as casually as can be, "Late nights can be lonely, don't you think?"

Her hands almost typed in a code that would blow the AI up, that was how out of the blue it was.

Graveheart's eyes were narrowed and fixed on the screens before him as row after row of text came up, explaining how many people had come and gone in the Palace and the times of day these visits occurred. "Mm, what?" he said, his voice distracted.

Pyrus looked at his nails, almost forcing Zera to groan. "I mean, if you're here too late, you could end up being lonely. It helps to have company."

Graveheart nodded, his fingers flying over the control pad, highlighting a specific date and reading the logs for it. "It can be. That's why most of us stay here – it acts as neutral ground, even though it technically isn't neutral."

Zera's eyes caught Pyrus's and she typed the words, Your subtlety fails onto the screen in front of her, earning her a scowl. "What I mean is," he tried again, "that when you come home from a long day, isn't it lonely to find the room empty?"

Graveheart shrugged, not pausing in his actions. "I'm usually too tired to notice."

Zera coughed, masking her laughs, and Pyrus had to sit down to keep from kicking something.

Zera tried again when both Jade and Graveheart had come to visit Cryos in order to plan for a possible lichen shortage (once again). Since it involved both Planets Fire and Bone as well, Pyrus and Femur both had to attend. Mantel failed to "show up", so Jade sat in as a sort of representative. It wasn't seen as formal, anyway.

During a brief break (Femur had tried to hit on Jade for some reason and Jade had, as a result, hit him), Zera shot a short look at Pyrus to get his attention before joining Jade at her side.

"So," she said calmly. "Kind of feeling frustrated, huh?"

Jade rubbed her forehead, her teeth gritted. "That damned toad and his lecherous spouting will be the death of me."

Zera pretended to think. "You know, you seem really bothered by it. Would it be different if someone else used those words towards you?"

Jade scowled. "Zera, there is no way that the phrase 'let's preserve lichen by finding other things to eat' accompanied by suggestive hand gestures and hip thrusting would be flattering from anyone."

Zera smirked. "Not even someone you've known forever? Someone you probably would spend time like that with?"

She heard Pyrus choking on something, but ignored it.

Jade's gaze slid up to hers, her eyes narrowed even more. "Zera," she said slowly, her voice calm, now. "Is this the season that you and your people start feel the…sort of intimate pinch?"

Zera's eyes widened, the blood rushing to her face in mortification. Clearly her words had backfired. "It most certainly is not!" she snapped, her bet with Pyrus forgotten. "We don't even have specific seasons, and this is certainly not something I am going to discuss with you!"

Jade rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. "You were the one that started the conversation!"

"And I'm finishing it!" Zera puffed out her cheeks and turned on her heel, going back to sit down as far away from Pyrus as possible, who was laughing so hard he was close to tears.

Pyrus ended up winning the bet, much to Zera's everlasting and bitter chagrin. But he cheated, and she made it clear that because he cheated, she owed him nothing.

It came up abruptly, calmly (she would give him that), and right to the point, and while it answered the question without anything being said, it was still cheating!

On the way out to the loading bay, when everyone was getting ready to head back to their homes, Pyrus sidled up between Jade and Graveheart and asked, "So, you two are totally doing it, right?"

Both Jade and Graveheart froze in mid-step, their eyes meeting over Pyrus's flame. Slowly, Jade said, "If by 'it', you mean 'going back to Rock', then yes."

Pyrus rolled his eyes. "No, don't be dense," he snapped, his tone flippant. Zera stood in the doorway, her mouth open in shock. "I mean you guys are shagging. Sexing. Doing the naked dance. You know, making babies without the babies."

The silence became so deafening that if it were a colour, it would be bright white. Zera stared, the speech taken from her own mouth.

Pyrus, however, didn't have this problem. He crossed his arms and, with a smirk, nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I thought so. I just wanted to make sure. See you in a few days."

He walked back over to Zera with an impish grin on his face. She scowled at him, both not noticing that the other couple hadn't moved an inch. "That doesn't count," she snarled.

"Probably not," he agreed, nudging her shoulder with his. "But it was damned hilarious."