Internal Monologue. Kinda.

Jade hurried off stage, her face flushed with hot embarassment and worry.

'He doesn't even want friends let alone anything else. Oh... After that he'll never talk to me again. He'll run a mile. I've subconsciously ruined everyting.'

She rushed off and to the ladies bathroom, all good women and girls do when in distress at a party. A small albino gerbil was there, an attendant with a stack of perfumes, straighteners and other things needed to primp up again. Jade barrelled past and locked herself in one of the stalls.

'I would settle for friends if he said... I just... stupid subconscious letting me down. Why did it have to admit to that. I didn't even realise myself...'

She let out a small choked sob. Not so much upset, just overwhelmed.

"Are you ok miss?" The gerbil type rodent asked.

"Yeah... Yeah I will be." Jade said with resignation.

"My friend said to me the other day, she said: 'Snowy, it's not a proper party unless someone crys over a boy in the toilets.'" The white furred attendant said casually. Obviously trying to help.

"It's not that straight forward..." Jade admitted. Still hiding behind the stall door.

"When is it?" A surprisingly human answer. Jade wondered how similar the rodents were to the humans onboard. Or maybe love and angst just never changed?

'What makes him so special anyway? He's a drunk. A no good grumpy sod.'

Her mind filtered out all the good she saw in him, leaving a husk that was rotten to the core. Well, she tried to, she didn't do very well. There was that little spark that refused to go, stubbornly refusing. The spark that she saw when he was pushing Seymour on Fernando's in his boxers. The one that saved her from the Haruk. The one that went after Cass when Jay inserted his foot into his mouth so hard he broke his own teeth. She saw him sat around the camp on Fernando's frowny face and silly pants, looking miserable and no one else seeming to care.

'Is that it? You want to fix him? What if he doesn't want fixing? You can't change people Jade. Life doesn't work like that, they have to want to change.'

His childish glee at the dinosaurs. His overwhelming need to find his friend Bedge and bring him back home. The fact that no matter what, he would always do the right thing. That insect induced kiss... Everyone was so hard on him becuse of his flaws, couldn't they see that it's just baggage? Everyone has some of their own.

'No, you want to help him see that there is light to the world. That darknes doesn't have to consume you. In that process you began to see the man underneath. Who he was under all the layers.'

"You know the trick is to pick someone who has less baggage than yourself." She said out loud, thinking it over.

"And does he?" Snowy asked.

"Does he what?" Jade asked, not realising that she had spoken out loud for a moment.

"Have less baggage than you?" It was a soft query, nothing more.

"You don't know how broken I am inside." Jade said honestly, thinking of her own demons and their luggage.

"Sounds like a good answer to me." The gerbil was quite good at the whole talking about feelings thing. Jade thought that on a day like today maybe this is why she was here.

"Would he still be interested if he knew what I'd been through? Does he realise that he's not alone? Even after that stupid song gave away how I feel, and most likely scared him off." She grit her teeth, annoyed with herself.

'Should have spent the time in the ball.' She said, knowing full well that she never could have done.

"It's Whiskermas, this is what it's about. Admitting something deep down that you might not even have known yourself." Snowy said. Jade unlocked the stall door.

"Well either way I guess the damage is done now." She walked over to the mirror, removed the mask and began to check her make-up, fixing the smudges.

"I'd get out there, he'll be singing soon." Snowy said, again, super casual. Jade fixed her mask back in place.

"What's the worst that can happen right?" Jade fixed a weak smile to her face and left. "Thanks." She added before closing the door.

"No problem. It's why I'm here." The albino smiled.