It was very, very hard to think of anything except kissing ZEX's neck, though Zelnick did manage to hope that ZEX was finding it equally distracting, keep his mind off today and on less depressing things.

It seemed an awful lot like it was working. Which was good, because Zelnick was only doing this to comfort his ally and raise morale-- "this" being kissing and nibbling ZEX's neck, and petting his back, and gently stroking his face-- and certainly not because he might kinda like it, too.

Maybe, if he told himself that often and insistently enough, it would become true. Someday.