"So I see you've met Jennifer," Body observed.

"Yes," Vanya said shortly, sitting down hard on a chair, "Is she for real?"

"You know, I really couldn't say," the monkey shrugged, an interesting event since he had so much to boast about in the shoulder area, "I never saw her until she started going out with Diego."

"Same here," replied Vanya, drinking some more.

"You're drinking more than normal," observed Body, "Generally you just go and have enough so you didn't waste your money on the bottle. Never thought you were into this sort of thing."

"Mostly it was Diego's thing," shrugged Vanya, "I never really wanted to become an underage drinker."

She stared at the bottle.

"Times change apparently."

"Are you referring to Diego's apparent change in taste or something else?" he asked.

Vanya smiled half-heartedly.

"Tell me," she said, "Was I really in college for one hundred years without knowing it or have things suddenly gotten a lot weirder?"

"Define weirder," Body said, taking a sip of his own beer.

"You know what I mean."

"Well," said Body thoughtfully, "Jennifer, I refuse to call her Jen in anything other than her presence-"

Here Vanya nodded understandably.

"-really doesn't appear to be the type of person we'd hang out with," he said, "But like you said, times do change. And, to be perfectly frank, things have started to get rather odd since the day I met you and your brother."

Outwardly she nodded but inwardly she felt another glob of depression ladled onto her self-pitying stew. Brother and sister. Was that really all that it was? Really it didn't matter if everyone saw them that way, just as long as he didn't. Still, it wasn't encouraging to hear it from the lips of one of their closest friends.

Fingering her beer Vanya looked over at the crowd. That night it consisted of the usual type, albeit with the addition of a few people who had come with the friends. Inadvertantly her eyes drifted back to the bar area. Kraken had rejoined Jen, who was pointing cheerfully in Vanya's direction. Kraken gave a quick smile and Vanya nodded her head in return.
"Go ahead and nod you disgusting bastard with your little slut princess, that's right, go ahead and turn around," mumbled Vanya quietly to herself, "Go back to being a total man-whore with the poser girl, don't mind me."

Turning around she saw that Body was looking at her curiously.

"Do tell me you didn't hear that," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Perhaps you shouldn't talk to yourself if you don't want other people to hear," he said, "But, be comforted that if I were a human then I wouldn't have heard. However, jungle hearing and all that."

There was a rather uncomfortable pause.

"I'm not happy about it either," he said bluntly, "She's a moron and Diego needs to wake up and smell the fresh air."

"Yeah, she's all wrong for him," Vanya said.

"Well, that too," he said, "But I'm talking about the real fresh air here."

"Which is?" she asked, taking another sip of alcohol.

"That you've had the hots for him for several years."

As soon as his words registered in her mind Vanya choked and sprayed the beer all over the table.

"Funny," said Body, "I thought that sort of thing only happened in the comics."

"How-! I mean-! I never told you-!" she sputtered.

"I think sometimes members of the simian family notice this sort of things faster than the sapien one," Body mused, "You complicate these things so much with your what ifs when really it's the simplest thing on the planet."

"Not for me," Vanya said bitterly.

"Well, I'll agree with you on that," said Body, "I understand that the two of you are adopted which makes things more difficult-"

"It means that if I don't know for sure how he feels and I tell him than I permanently make things weird between us," she interrupted.

"Come now, it can't be that bad-"

"You think?" she snapped, "Don't forget that I've had a lot of time to think this out. Every damn day he'll look at me and remember what I did and what he said back. I'm not going to be the one who trashes what we have because while Ben's nice, you've met him so you know, Diego's the only one I can actually talk to."

She chugged down the last of her beer and wondered why they didn't make the damn bottles bigger.

"Now though, he's going out with someone," she said, "I've lost my chance, at least for now, and there's not a damned thing I can do about it."

"Well…" started Body.

"I'm right and you know it," she snapped.

"Well, in his defense and to your discredit you did wait far too long."

"Geez," she said, "Ever heard the term 'cold comfort'?"
"I'm not going to molly-coddle you-" he started.

"Generally I dislike molly-coddling," she said coldly, "But, just for tonight I'd give my right arm for some."

"And what would that achieve oh wise sapien?"

"You know what?" she said, getting up suddenly, "I'm getting some more alcohol because right now it seems like the only thing that's taking my mind off of it. Thanks for all the help."

Turning her back on him she stalked through the crowds and towards the bar.