The little band was definitely quite the odd sight as they all squeezed together in the cramped hallway. Bunched tightly together stood two young women, a child, an incredibly unhappy young man, and two imaginary friends, one of whom looked visibly upset as he crossed his stubby arms and fumed darkly to himself.

"That was so lame." Bloo muttered, the picture of abject disappointment before giving Kathy a dirty look. "I'm pretty sure that you have the worst taste in tunes."

"Hey, you decide to bum a ride in my car, then we listen to my music. And if you can't stand alternative rock, then excuuuuse me, your royal whine-ness."

"Heeeey!" the offended little creature immediately reach for Frankie's sweater and started tugging furiously. "Frankieeeee, Kathy said that I was-"

"Bloo, shhh!" Mac hushed his creation. As most would have been able to tell with ease, Frankie wasn't exactly in the right state to do much of anything, much less break up an argument. Her heart was thudding away, and now it felt like it was doing it's best to to bust through her ribcage and clean out of her body. This was it; was time to see if her less than stellar dating luck had in store, and to say the very least, she wasn't at all eager to find out.

However, her boyfriend-for-now was definitely in no better shape, to say the least. No doubt he just had the drive home from hell, riding all alone with more guilt and panic than he knew what to do with. Whatever he was about to reveal, he wasn't ready at all in any way, shape or form. However, he had little in the way of alternate options, or at least not with the tiny crowd hind him that was still expecting some good, hard answers come hell or high water. Thus, as all the others watched and waited, he finally got enough control of his quivering hands to successfully unlock the door.

"Okay...here we go..." He said, almost sounding ashamed as he opened up and headed inside. The rest of the group followed behind into a small, but fairly tidy apartment. After they all gathered into the passable little living room, they all just stood about confusedly, not sure what to make of their rather average surroundings.

"...Sooo...are you going to show us whatever this secret is?" Frankie finally asked. Rudy just sighed miserably.

"Take a couple seconds. Trust me, you'll get it soon enough."

She did as bid, and looked around. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. As far as she could tell, it was just your normal apartment, complete with the usual set of furniture, and-

"Wait what..." Suddenly it began to set in. Her first impression had been wrong, for it wasn't a completely run-of-the-mill place. Yes it was normal enough, but now that she examined it all a little harder, there was definitely a surprising amount of items bearing the names and faces of some familiar felt-based pop culture stars.

"…Rudy?"

"Yeah?"

"You...you kinda have a lot of Muppets stuff." She observed, eyeing the no less than three framed movie posters hanging near his TV.

"Kinda?" Kathy said bemusedly. "What do you mean, 'kinda?' Okay, where are you looking at?"

"Sorry, but just let me...here…" Wilt gently grabbed Frankie's head, and steered her gaze until she was gazing at the massive bookshelf that she had somehow managed to completely miss. Every single level of it was almost packed to capacity with Muppets merchandise and collectibles of almost every conceivable kind and type.

"Yeesh!" Kathy exclaimed, shaking her head. "No wonder you have so much of the same junk covering your desk at the office. You don't have any space to hold it here."

"He has more where?" Frankie asked, as Rudy spoke up defensively.

"Hey, c'mon! The kids I work with really like them...well, and so do I." he quickly added, in no position to try and hide anything else.

To say the very least, this was not what Frankie was expecting at all. Well, she honestly wasn't expecting anything in particular to begin with, but neither did she imagine anything like this.

"This...this is it?" she asked, gazing over at all the various toys and collectibles. "This is what you didn't want to tell me about?"

"I'm a little bit of a fan." he admittedly sheepishly. However, it wasn't long until he sank onto his sofa with a groan, looking like he honestly wanted to find a hole to crawl into so he could perish of embarrassment in peace. "Aaand…that is sort of an understatement."

"Yo!" Bloo plucked a plastic toy out of the extensive collection and waved it about. "Is it okay if I take a look at the garbage monster here?"

"That's Oscar the Grouch." the morose young man corrected. "And sure, knock yourself out."

"Rudy...I...I don't know what to say..." Frankie said as she sat beside him on the couch. "I mean seriously...I have no idea what to make of any of this. I mean, really….I don't have any idea what to say about this."

"Maybe you start to get the picture now." He replied, shaking his head guiltily. "Frankie, this isn't the kind of thing that a guy should be flashing about to just anyone."

"Good call." Kathy chimed in. This promptly earned her a quick but nasty glare from Frankie before the redhead's strong caring instincts automatically kicked into gear, and before she knew it she found herself trying to comfort the dismal fellow.

"Well...so you have a big collection of your favorite thing. I mean, when I met Kathy, she really loved My Little Pony-"

Kathy immediately went silent, wishing she hadn't let her earlier comment slip. Unfortunately, things didn't get any better fast when Mac asked curiously, "Didn't you two first meet in middle school?"

"...I'm going to plead the fifth on that, kiddo." she replied, stepping into the background to pretend to be interested in what Bloo was up to. Meanwhile, Frankie and her boyfriend continued on with what was definitely one of the most awkward heart-to-heart discussions either one of them had ever had.

"Look, I appreciate it, but…Frankie, it's no use. This is still definitely kinda weird for someone my age." He dejectedly pointed out. "I'm just a nerd about this stuff, I...well for Pete's sake, do you know why I like to pop by Foster's so much?"

"...I thought it was usually to see me." She replied, making a face.

"Ackpth!" he sputtered nervously. "I mean, yeah of course! Yes, yes, of course that but...just think about it. Going to a house of imaginary friends? It an absolutely huge place, filled almost entirely with of silly, happy, wacky creatures! To me it's...it's..."

He could have sworn that he felt a little part of him swiftly die of embarrassment as he forced out the painful confession, "I like going to Foster's because it feels like the closest thing that there is to The Muppet Show in real life...and sometimes more than others. Remember when you had that one friend who looked almost exactly like Kermit the frog?"

"Yeah... you were really, really sad when he got adopted." Frankie recalled, eyes widening as the pieces started to quickly fall into place. However, despite all this, she was admittedly still feeling a bit baffled. "Of all possible things...why couldn't you tell me about this?"

"Frankie...I think everyone knows that I'm already not much of a man's man here. What was I supposed to do? Come out and say, 'Hey, you know how you're kind of dating a wimp right now? Well, guess what! I'm still a total geek for the same TV characters that I was when I first started watching Sesame Street! How about that?'"

She felt a light pull on her wrist, and looked down to where Mac stood nearby. The boy didn't utter a word, but the noticeable grin he now wore definitely seemed to say, Sound familiar at all?

"Don't even think about saying it." She warned as she picked up the boy and hefted him next to her on the sofa. She then looked back to Rudy, who was of course still looking none too proud of himself or his fandom shenanigans. "Okay, so let me see if I've got things straight here...so are you trying to say that you didn't want me knowing about your little Muppets thing because ...did you really think I would break up with you over this?"

"Well..." he sighed, seeming very resigned to his fate as he answered. "Unless you actually have a things for full-on geeks like me."

The room went quiet again, save for Bloo who was busy making the most of several plastic figures who seemed to be in the midst of a fierce battle, if the laser sound effects he was making his mouth were any indicator.

Rudy kept his head bowed low, feeling fully exposed and not at all liking what he had to show. Kathy and Wilt kept passing each other anxious glances, not sure what to add to this definitely peculiar change of events. All the while, Frankie just stared unblinkingly in dead silence, still utterly stunned by it all.

"…..So? What do you think of that?" Rudy sighed, not even daring to look in her direction, so convinced that he had just sighed the death-warrant of his current relationship. A few moments later, Frankie finally began to show signs of life again as the corners of her lips began to gradually curl upwards.

"You're right. I...I don't have a thing for geeks." she said with a bit of a sniffle as she wiped at one of her eyes. Immediately her despondent boyfriend threw his arms up in the air with an expectant groan of despair.

"I knew it! Well of course you don't. Of all the guys you can have, why would you-"

"Not finished!" she interrupted, the joy welling up so quickly it felt like she was going to burst with glee. "I have a thing for guys who are just the sweetest, the nicest, the most genuine, and not even close to normal...just like me."

If the blank stare that the massively thunderstruck fellow gave her was any indication whatsoever, he honestly hadn't been expecting her to say answer in any way like that. "...Wait...wait, what?

"Oh, just c'mere!" Frankie burst out laughing, feeling so relieved she barely knew what to do with herself.

"Uh-oh! Bear-trap hug, look out!" Kathy yelped once she read all the obvious signs. "Hold on-"

"What-whoa!" Rudy gasped as Frankie leaned in and promptly wrapped him tight in one of her infamous loving arm-wraps. Promptly the air was stolen clean from his lungs, as he was squeezed so hard he felt like his contacts were going to pop clean from his eyes and embed themselves in the opposite wall. All the while, the almost deliriously happy redhead started giggling uncontrollably like a schoolgirl in delight that knew absolutely no bounds at that moment.

"You're afraid of losing me! You're afraid of losing...me!" she babbled gleefully. "You like me! You really, really like me for...and I was freaking out so much because I thought that you-"

"Hey! HELP!" a third, panic-saturated voice suddenly erupted in the midst of the couple.

Quickly, the tender moment was brought to a hasty end. In her joy, Frankie had forgotten that she had not only earlier brought Mac up onto the small sofa, but had placed him right between her and Rudy in a gap that had abruptly ceased to exist. "Frankie, Frankie no! No! Still here! I'm still-ow! Aaaacck! Frankie...still right...here!"

The redhead yelped once she realized that there was a trapped, thrashing life wedged firmly between them. No sooner had she lightened her grip a bit when Wilt reached in and fished the slightly squished little boy out, who emerged from the middle of the embrace with a hoarse gasp.

As a cherry-red blush quickly began to take root in her cheeks, the mortified adoptive parent instinctively took Mac back into her arms, albeit in a much gentler embrace. Whilst both her charge and her boyfriend began to nurse aching sides, she nervously rubbed her knees together and whimpered, "Sorry...I-I'm sorry, I just...you know..."

"It's...it's okay..." the winded young man winced, feeling like he had just been temporarily trapped in a trash compacter. "I think...ow..."

Kathy shook her head at the indescribably absurd sight before remarking to her best friend, "Okay, you may be a threat when angry, but you are just lethal when you're overjoyed."

Frankie shrugged, unable to do much to counter the painfully truthful observation. Meanwhile, Rudy continued to try and both recover from the bruising hug and overcome his massive stupefaction. The plain fact that he had not been dumped as he expected simply had left him quite thunderstruck.

"So...so..." The helplessly baffled young man could do little more than just stammer at first, all the while furiously trying to make some sense of everything. "So now what?"

"We're still on for the movies on Sunday...right?" Frankie reminded softly as she flashed a bright smile.

"…Uh...yeah, sure..." Rudy murmured, a smile of indescribable relief slowly now taking root as it began to dawn on him ever so gradually. "I mean...um...of course we are...unless…uh…"

"Then seeing as don't have anything to worry about except a little hobby of sorts," Frankie announced with a wink, "I'm pretty sure we're done here for today."

"Hallelujah!" Kathy cried as she hurled her arms high in the air, quite ecstatic that the day's shenanigans were coming to an end. "And not a minute too soon. There was a whole lot of fuss for a whole lot of nothing, if you ask me. I mean, you two are just...sheesh! Next time they give out the award for 'Most Aggravating Couple' I am so nominating you."

"Then how about you swing by the house first and join us all for dinner?" the caretaker, now feeling far more at ease, offered her friend as she herded the others together. "I'm making chili tonight, and I'm we can spare a seat at the table."

"With an offer like that, how can a mooch say no?" Kathy laughed as her mood brightened considerably. "Vaminos amigos! I am hungry, and far too lazy to cook for myself tonight."

"See you all later, then." Rudy just waved weakly as the curious procession trooped out. Kathy hered Bloo from the massive array of Muppets collectibles, and the azure figment was looking none-too pleased that his playtime had been brought to a halt.

"Aw man, just when I actually started having some fun here…and everything else got so gross, so fast."

"Is that so?" Kathy replied as she steered him towards the exit. "I'm sorry, maybe we should go stop at the supermarket on the way back so you can have some cheese to go with your whine."

"But I don't even drink-HEY!" Bloo squealed, while Wilt meanwhile found it difficult not to crack a smile at the young woman's well-aimed remarks.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry, I know it's mean to laugh, but..." he attempted to apologize before an unavoidable chuckle cut him off. As Bloo erupted into a minor tirade, the odd little band made their way together out the door.

But right before she made her own exit, Frankie stopped and turned, locking eyes with Rudy as the young man stood in the middle of his living room. "So...I'll see you Sunday, right?"

Still not one hundred percent recovered from his shock, he shrugged and replied with a nervous laugh, "Well...I'd like to, but...I still don't think I really know why you do."

"Well…yoyal nutjobs deserve one another...right?" she attempted to joke. "I mean...as long as you really are okay with the crazy-paranoid twenty-three year old parent who works at the local madhouse."

"Only if you're okay with the Muppet-obsessed scaredy-wimp who you could probably beat in an arm-wrestling contest." He managed to shoot right back playful before letting out a nervous laugh.

Without warning Frankie leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek. This promptly caused his cheeks to light aglow with a deep crimson, as his lips began to curl into a relieved smile. Having given her wordless answer. she drew back, and giggled uncontrollably st the sight he cut. " You know, something tells me that we can make this work."