"You."

Cherish hadn't expected herself to say it, or that seriously, and by Seven's reaction, he definitely hadn't either.

"Ha! You should see your face right now!" Cherish cackled in amusement at both herself and him.

Seven chuckled along with her, but it was empty and forced and he was clearly not as amused as she was. Cherish suddenly wished she had said something generic instead of what she'd said. And then she'd gone and made it worse by panic-blurting that joke making it seem like was playing with him. She had to elaborate soon, or he would think she was.

"I mean, I think maybe I should stop running from things this year. Including you."

"So?"

Cherish took in the slight irritation on his face and could easily read the words he wanted to say but didn't; What the hell is that supposed to mean?

She offered him a tiny smile, afraid that a bigger one would make her look either insincere or just plain crazy. "So... you maybe want to go out sometime?"

He blinked at her. Just stared and blinked for some time, "Did you just ask me out?"

"Yeah."

He didn't say anything else, but continued to look at her like she'd just told him she'd eaten a baby for breakfast.

"So?"

"So I think maybe I drank to much tonight," he muttered.

"Are you implying that you're drunk dreaming this?"

"Yes."

"If you were, you'd be telling that fern over there what a good girl it is."

Seven smirked, remembering what he'd told Jeb months ago. The weight of what she'd done suddenly dropped down on Cherish. She'd asked him out. Perhaps a change of scenery would be better, especially since Seven's answer still hung in the realm of unvoiced. If it was not what she hoped for- if she had somehow, with her behaviour, forced him to move on and get over her- her friends who were everywhere would know something was amiss instantly.

That was a situation she wasn't entirely ready to face. Rejection was fine and she'd find a way to deal with it- herself. In front of a large group was a completely different story. Besides, if Seven's answer wasn't rejection, then she'd like to digest it in peace before if became everyone else's business.

"I'm thirsty," she proclaimed randomly.

"I'll get you a drink," Seven sounded almost relieved for a distraction.

"Nope, there's a case of Jones' Soda with my name on it in the kitchen," she glanced at him nonchalantly. "You coming?"

"Jones?" he asked as he followed, as if were the last thing he'd have expected from her.

"Yeah, it's all the rage in holiday party drinks, didn't you know?" she joked knowing everyone else would be drinking champagne. Cherish slid a bottle across the island to him and Seven waited until she wasn't fluttering around the kitchen anymore to open his mouth again.

"So, the uh, Happy New Year thing just now, was that, uh..."

Wandering into the small lounge room beside the kitchen, she paused just outside the tiny
alcoved bar and plunked her case of sodas on the bar top. She smiled back at Seven, a laugh in her voice, "That was bad aim on my part."

"So it wasn't one of your friendly kisses."

"I didn't know we were that kind of friends, but now what you did makes more sense."

"Yeah, well that was just a-"

"Friendly kiss?" Cherish cut him off, yanking open the door to the closet sized bar and shutting herself in. She hoped the little bit of hurt and apprehension she felt wasn't obvious. Seven nodded, looking a little disconcerted as he leaned onto the counter. "Glad that's cleared up. Cheers!" She tipped her bottle at him and then gulped half her drink down.

With another nod, Seven copied her and grinned, "Okay, so Jones should replace champagne from now on! This is definitely better."

"Whatever you say, Bunny; I'm all for starting a new tradition!" she grabbed the case off the bar top and ducked down. "I am going to have such a sugar rush from this!" She lamented happily from under the counter.

Launching himself up over the counter, he settled beside her, "Don' worry, Pumpkin, I'll be here when you crash."

"Thanks, Bunny."

Seven took another sip from his bottle, made a face, and then disappeared over the counter, taking Cherish's open bottle with him. He was gone for a while, before Cherish heard the spattering of footsteps coming down from the party.

"Hey, Mel, have you seen Cherish?" It was Delia, clearly followed by Ian. The elbow that popped into her line of vision above the counter was Seven's.

"Oh," Melanie said offhandedly. "Cherish hates New Years. She always takes off at midnight. She'll show up again in a while- don't even bother looking for her."

"How come?" Ian asked.

"Come on, E," Seven was sardonic.

"You know, the whole kissy kissy thing," Melanie said. "D'accord! You have the cold ones? Allons."

"You coming, Sev?"

"Wait, isn't that Rish's?"

"Uh," Seven stalled, "I dunno, I found it in the fridge."

"And you just took it?" Delia squealed.

"Uh....no," Cherish could hear him slide the bottles back into the fridge. "I didn't just take it."

"Oh Sev, it's your funeral," Delia giggled as she disappeared up the stairs.

"I didn't see a thing!" Ian laughed, "Catch you later."

Seven waited a few more minutes before Cherish saw his fingers grip the edge of the counter and he jumped over quickly. He squirmed until he was comfortable, leaning against the wall under the counter beside her.

"Here. Since I'm going to die for taking these, you better enjoy it."

"That was... amusing," Cherish smirked. "Why didn't you tell them I was here?"

Seven shrugged, "I figured you wouldn't be hiding in a closet if you wanted them to know where you were."

"True. You're so smart, Sev."

"I've been told that a few times," he said proudly, playing along with her teasing assessment.

"Really??"

Seven elbowed her, "Shutup and drink."

With a snicker, Cherish tipped her bottle back, "Oooh! What'd you put in that?"

"It's a secret."

-.-

Cherish didn't know how long they'd been sitting there under the counter, but they hadn't spoken at all since Seven had returned from alcoholizing their sodas. It was a comfortable silence, in which Cherish pulled out her phone and they wasted the time by chuckling at stupid pictures.

Cherish was fine ignoring the fact that she'd put herself out there hadn't even been acknowledged. Maybe they could just pretend it hadn't happened? At some point, Seven had ducked out bringing with him the bottle of vanilla liqueur to spike two more sodas. After so many dumb signs and dancing babies and amusing sayings about stupid people, Seven took her phone and flicked it off. He turned it over in his hand, but didn't say anything.

"What's up?" Cherish asked after taking a long sip of her drink.

"Yes."

Turning her head toward him, Cherish laughed, "Sev, you okay? That was not even remotely the right kind of answer to the question I asked."

He shifted his body, so he was facing her, his head still leaning against the wall, looking tired and, something she couldn't quite read.  "Yes, Cherish."

His hand came up to her face, and Cherish felt panic grip her for a moment. But she gulped down the awful feeling and blinked as if to clear it out of her eyes. His fingers gently traced her jaw line before his thumb brushed over her lips. With her chin in his hand, he tipped her face up to his and held her gaze intensely, waiting for her to understand.

He had answered the question she'd been waiting so patiently for an answer to. Cherish willed herself not to squirm or shrink away, waiting for him to lean in and close the gap between them. But he didn't move, choosing to stay instead where he was with her chin softly resting on his hand. Cherish let her gaze slip from his eyes to his mouth for a split second and the corner of Seven's lip quirked upwards the tiniest bit. "Huh."

Cherish felt a small bit of annoyance at the self satisfied noise he'd uttered, like he'd known all along she was into him. Despite feeling happy that he'd said yes, she wasn't going to let him win this little standstill. She turned away from him, breaking their eye contact and stretched, slowly and deliberately rearranging herself and the hem of her dress. She nudged off her shoes and feeling that she'd left him hanging long enough, she leaned into Seven's shoulder.

She smiled when he tensed and she turned her body toward his, stretching her legs across his lap. "So, uh, what now?"

Seven shrugged, and placed his arm around her, "I don't know, Pumpkin. You tell me."

She would have loved for him to know, to have repeated how sure he was at the after party at her house when he'd first kissed her. Just thinking about it made her feel uncomfortably warm. But she knew his careful eggshell walking was her fault; she'd pushed him away. She'd made him suffer, really, and now he was waiting for her to make the move. For her to know 'what now?'

"Sev?"

"Uh huh?"

"How does this work," she mused. "Do we just go out somewhere and that's a date? Or, do I have to plan something because I asked?"

"I think... you asked, so it's all you, Pumpkin."

"Well then..." she fiddled with the dog tags he wore, he wasn't letting her off easy. "We should ditch everyone tomorrow and just do our own thing."

She hadn't expected him to do it again, but his fingers came up under her chin tilting her face up so she had no choice but to look up at him, "You sure?" 

She felt herself flush and she nodded, pulling him down to her by his chain. His mouth hovered just a hairsbreadth above hers. "I'm sure, Bunny," she murmured against his lips.

Closing her eyes, she pressed her mouth up against his softly, letting it linger much longer than her errant peck had. But the tension was too overwhelming and she chickened out of deepening the kiss and instead left two more feather light kisses on his jaw and the side of his neck.

Seven tightened his arm around her, and buried his face into her hair, placing a firm kiss to the top of her head, "Good."

*Title song by Elvis

TRANSLATIONS:

D'accord- OK

Allons!- Let's go!