Depth Charge and Tarantella were walking through a mall.

"See? You can have fun with me," Tarantella said with a smile at the ray-bot. "It’s not that bad." They reached the top of a flight of stairs and paused.

Depth Charge was about to reply when a ‘bot somehow similar to a weasel popped out of the crowd and stalked up to Tarantella.

He sneered up at her. "You’re going to pay for what you did to me yesterday!" Tarantella started to snarl something back, but he turned to look at Depth Charge. "Are you this freak’s boyfriend or something? Poor you!"

The weasel-like robot didn’t have a chance to continue his tirade before Tarantella’s hand caught him by the back of the neck. Her eyes were narrow as she hoisted him up to eye-level, shivering in terror. "If I EVER see you again, I will personally twist you up into a Rubric’s Cube," she said in a very dangerous tone of voice. "Clear?"

He nodded, and she dropped him. He scuttled off into the crowd again.

Tarantella watched him go and turned back to Depth Charge.

He stared at her in amazement. "What did he ever do to you?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. But I found that little slime bag literally stealing candy from a baby yesterday." She grinned nastily. "We had some...fun."

A scream of, "Freak!" came from somewhere among the mall shoppers.

Tarantella snarled over her shoulder, but was surprised to see the very edges of Depth Charge’s fins turning bright pink as she turned back to him. "Depth Charge? Are you...blushing?" His fins’ color deepened to red, and she stared at him. "Don’t tell me you care about what that little sleaze ball thinks!"

Depth Charge shifted uncomfortably. "Um, well," he stammered under her incredulous look, "I’m just not used to having someone yelling insults at me in a mall." He shrugged. "Maybe you overreacted to him. You do that sometime--oops." Depth Charge clamped a hand over his mouth as his last sentence slipped out. Oh, no. He was in trouble...

Tarantella gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists. "OVERREACTED?!"

"Uh..." Depth Charge searched desperately for words to cover his slip as Tarantella turned away from him, obviously restraining herself from just strangling him outright. He held a hand to his head, trying to think, and half-turned away.

The tap on his shoulder took him completely by surprise, and he whirled around. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to drop his hand, so his elbow struck Tarantella hard in the temple. That caused her to stumble back, lose her balance, and fall down the stairs.

Depth Charge stared down in horror as Tarantella arrived at the bottom of the stairs. She didn’t move. He should move. He should go help her. He should do SOMETHING!

But he was frozen in terror as a single thought dominated his mind; <Oh, slag. She’s going to KILL me...>

As it turned out, Depth Charge didn’t have to do anything. A nice, weasel-like ‘bot ran up and gave her some First Aid while the ray-bot was still frozen in terror.

"Ugh. What happened?" Tarantella groggily sat up with the robot’s help. He had his arm around her shoulders to help her, and he gave her a natural-seeming pat on the back of her neck that planted a not-so-natural camouflaged device on her. Tarantella immediately felt a little better, but she couldn’t remembered why she was sitting at the bottom of a staircase with people gathered all around her. The people were dispersing now that the action was done with.

"You had an accident," the weasely bot said. "You should probably go home."

Tarantella got up and rubbed her aching head. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Um, thanks!" She smiled slightly at him. "Gee, it was nice of you to help me." She waved as she walked off, weaving a little unsteadily.

The bot snickered nastily to himself as he left the area. His revenge was complete. The device was nothing big, but the femme would be acting a little strange until it was found. And meeting with her ‘boyfriend’ had given him the final idea for the programming...

Depth Charge ran after the tall blue form of Tarantella. He had finally thawed enough to realize that she was leaving the mall, apparently not caring that he wasn’t with her. He braced himself and tapped her shoulder tentatively. He cringed inside at the thought of what she was probably going to do to him for first insulting her, then knocking her down a flight of stairs, and then not even helping her!

She turned around and gave him a blank look. "What do you want?"

"Tarantella, I’m," he gulped and tried again, "I’m really, really sorry."

"Um." She continued to stared at him strangely, and his stomach clenched.

He reached for her hand and held it tightly. "Look, I’ll take you out for dinner or something, okay?" <Please?> he added in his mind, and squeezed her hand.

"Ow!" Tarantella yanked her hand away. "You’re hurting me!" She backed away from him. "Go away!" She turned and walked quickly for an exit.

<Great going, you stupid fish!> Depth Charge berated himself. He walked after her, but lost her in the crowd. <Now you hurt her AGAIN!>

He looked around outside, but didn’t see her. He did, however, see the hover van as it pulled out of the parking lot, and he cursed. There went his ride back to the Rebel Base. Apparently Tarantella was even more ticked off than he thought if she had passed up and opportunity to trap him in close quarters with her...which didn’t bode well for when he got back to the base...

<I wonder how much flowers cost?> Depth Charge idly wondered as he pulled out his cell phone to call for a ride.

Tarantella walked down the halls of the Rebel base, rubbing her head. She should probably go get repaired...nah. She wasn’t THAT hurt.

She still puzzled over the guy who had stopped her in the mall. Why would a total stranger hold her hand and apologize to her? Then again, the whole night seemed to be a little weird. For one thing, she couldn’t quite remember clearly why she had gone to the mall in the first place.

Tarantella shrugged and forgot about it. It wasn’t that important, and she wanted to have fun tonight, not sit around worrying about something she couldn’t remember.

Jerro was coming down the hall towards her, and she smiled at him. He was kind of fun, in a sick and strange way. Normally she wouldn’t consider even being near him, but she was bored. Try something new everyday...

"Hi, Jerro!" she said brightly to him.

He seemed startled and wary by her friendliness. "Um, hi, Tarantella," he said slowly. "You seem to be in a...happy...mood."

Tarantella laughed. It was true. All of a sudden, she just seemed to be in a very happy mood! "You betcha!" she said with a wink as she passed him. "See ya later!" she giggled over her shoulder as she headed for the Game Room.

Jerro stared after her in shock. Had Tarantella just..? Whoa...

He grinned and walked back after her.

Depth Charge sighed and knocked on Tarantella’s door. Time for some major groveling...

He frowned and knocked again. Either Tarantella wasn’t answering her door, or she wasn’t in her room. Just great. And he even had a bouquet of flowers for her in his subspace compartment.

Where was she?

Ivy was frantic. She burst into the Game Room. "Will someone please babysit Togepi?!" she asked the Room in general without much hope. Blackarachnia and Silverbolt’s tale had spread quickly, and even the lemmings and ants didn’t volunteer.

Ivy looked around again, hoping for SOMEONE to take the Pokémon egg. She and Tarantulas had to go to one of her friend’s (Tarry didn’t have many friends for some reason) parties, and her friend didn’t want Togepi’s crying to interrupt the party like it had last time. So she had to get a babysitter!

"Hey, I’ll take care of it," a voice said from behind her, and Ivy turned around to see Tarantella coming into the Room.

Ivy didn’t question her good fortune. "Okay, here’s a list of things you can do if it starts crying, here’s some food, and here’s Togepi." She handed the blue tarantula the egg. "Thanks! Bye!" Ivy ran out to leave for the party.

Tarantella walked over to a seat in a corner and sat down. She and Togepi looked at each other for a minute, and she smiled. "You know, you’re kind of cute for an egg."

Togepi relaxed slightly. "Toge."

"Are you hungry?"

"Toge!"

Rampage hesitantly walked into the Game Room. Tsunami had gone to do something tonight, so she had suggested he ‘socialize.’ Whatever that meant.

Most of the people in the Room were staring at one corner, and he turned to look, only to freeze in shock.

"Gitchy-gitchy goo! Aw, you’re such a cutie!" Tarantella was giggling as she tickled Togepi. The egg was happily burbling. It was a touching, and very disturbing, scene.

"Tarantella?!" Rampage gasped. What had gotten into the femme?!

"Hmm?" Tarantella looked up and smiled. "Oh! Hey, come sit over here, Rampage." She beckoned for him to come over.

He glanced over at the others, but the most guidance he got was from Artico, who just shrugged. Rampage slowly walked over and sat down when Tarantella patted a seat beside her with her hand. "Um, you’re acting a little different tonight, aren’t you?" he scraped up the courage to ask.

She grinned at him. "So?" She tossed her head and pouted at him. "Do you have a problem with me acting different?"

"Er..."

"Nope," Jerro said smoothly, sliding into the chair on the other side of her. He slid an arm around her in the same motion. "Different is good."

Most of the people in the Game Room gasped at Jerro’s move, figuring that Tarantella would dismember him for it. Then they gasped again when Tarantella actually leaned into him.

"So," she purred, "you like different, hmm?"

Jerro shook off his shock that his move had worked (on TARANTELLA, of all people!), and smirked at her. "Yep!"

Artico frowned. "Did I miss something, here? Is Tarantella drugged?" he whispered to Arcana.

She shrugged. "I thought she was going out with Depth Charge!" she whispered back.

Eagalor blinked. "Is it just me, or is Tarantella FLIRTING?!"

Jaws threatened to hit the floor as the other bots heard that, and they gaped at the corner. Tarantella was talking and giggling with Jerro and Rampage, while at the same time continuing to play with Togepi. But it was clear that was exactly what the blue femme was doing.

And then, just to make it complete, Depth Charge walked in.

He stopped dead in his tracks, stunned.

Tarantella was holding the little egg Pokemon and sitting by Rampage and Jerro. That was something Depth Charge could have sworn she would never voluntarily do. But she was, and not only that, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

A lot.

"Tarantella?" Depth Charge slowly edged closer to her. "Can I talk to you?" He gave Jerro and Rampage a glare. "Alone?"

Rampage shrugged and left, but Jerro stubbornly stayed.

Tarantella’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. "You again." Depth Charge nodded, and she snarled. Jerro sensed the rising tension and left hurriedly while she watched in disappointment.

Depth Charge sat down beside her uncertainly, not knowing what to expect. On one hand, she hadn’t killed him yet. On the other, she was probably thinking up things to do to him instead of killing him.

"What do you want?" Tarantella snapped. She continued to focus her attention on Togepi, trying to ignore the ray-bot.

"Tarantella..." Depth Charge shrugged helplessly. "It was an accident, and I really didn’t mean too, but I’m really sorry!" he burst out. "Just let me take you to a movie or something, and I’ll make it up to you! Honest!"

She gave him a look of disgust and then stood up. "I don’t know what’s gotten into you," she said as she picked up Togepi’s stuff and turned to leave, "but leave me out of it!" She strode out of the Game Room.

Depth Charge stared after her. She must be madder than he had thought! Normally she wouldn’t leave HIM alone, and now she didn’t even want him around! Ooh, she was going to KILL him when she calmed down enough...

Tarantella walked toward her room, cuddling the cute little egg. "I don’t know who that guy is," she told it, "but he’s really getting on my nerves."

"Toge? Briiii."

She sighed and turned the corner that lead to her room. And went rigid with instant rage.

She had taken the long way to calm herself down, and that had apparently given that nut from the mall time to get to her room before her. He was knocking on her door.

"Get outta my way!" she shouted at him.

He hadn’t been expecting a shout from behind him, and he stumbled away from the door in startlement. That gave Tarantella enough room to slip through the door and lock it behind herself.

"That’s better," she said with a sigh. The guy immediately started knocking on her door. "Go AWAY, you loony!" It was beyond her why a total stranger would suddenly take such an interest in following her around and apologizing to her...

"Tarantella? Tarantella, c’mon, please!" Depth Charge pleaded at Tarantella’s door. "At least let me TRY to make it up to you!"

"Leave me alone!" Tarantella’s voice came from inside the room. "Stupid male!"

Depth Charge was getting more and more panicked. If Tarantella was mad NOW, he didn’t want to think about what’d she do if he didn’t apologize. Slag, she probably wasn’t even thinking right because of the bump to her head and the fall down the stairs. That would explain the scene in the Game Room...

He flinched at the thought that HE was the cause of Tarantella’s problems. When she came to her senses, she was going to be even LESS happy with him than she was now!

All the more reason to take steps to try and blunt her rage...

Tarantella cautiously opened her door. The knocking had stopped a few minutes ago, and she was hoping he was gone. She looked both ways, but he seemed to have given up.

Until she looked down.

"That’s a lot of flowers," she muttered.

"Toge! Toge, toge, briiii!" Togepi toddled into the mound of flowers and disappeared.

"Hey, you’re supposed to be sleeping!" She rummaged around in the flowers until she caught it. "Go back to bed," she ordered it. It waved it’s arms around happily as she brought it back into her room and tucked it into bed again.

Then she returned to staring at the flowers. What was she supposed to do with them?! She didn’t like flowers THAT much!

Eventually she settled for stuffing most of them into a waste disposal unit down the hall. She took some, but she didn’t have room for the rest. Besides, she didn’t want to encourage that creep...

She had to make six more trips to the disposal unit that night, carrying progressively larger loads of flowers. She kept the candy.

Depth Charge was about ready to scream. Tarantella hadn’t forgiven him yet! He had gotten her as many flowers as he could afford, and she kept throwing them away! What did she expect him to do, beg her to forgive him?!

Apparently.

He was about ready to give it a try, too. He was that desperate!

He gritted his teeth and started back to her room, then froze as an echo of Tarantella’s earlier words came back to him. ‘Stupid male!’ An idea struck him, and he gulped. It wasn’t much better than begging, but...

Tarantella was snoozing in a chair when the knock woke her. She got up sleepily and went to the door. "Go away, you freak!" she shouted.

"I’m here to get Togepi!"

"Oh. Sorry, Tarantulas." She opened the door. "I’ve been up all night because of this loser who keeps dumping flowers on my doorstep." She walked over to the bed, where Togepi was sound asleep.

Tarantulas followed her. "You mean Depth Charge?" he asked as he carefully picked up the sleeping egg.

She gave him a puzzled look. "Who?"

He stared at her for a second, then chuckled. "Oh, I get it. This must be why everyone told me he’s been so frantic all night." He laughed again. "You are really driving him up the wall!" He walked back to the door. "Hey, thanks again for taking care of Togepi on such short notice!"

Tarantella absentmindedly waved as Tarantulas left, but her mind was on other things. Who was Depth Charge? Something about him was nagging at the edge of her mind...

The weasly bot’s device ran out of power and disintegrated right then.

...oh.

The night’s events played themselves back to her, her memory restored. Arguing with Depth Charge, falling down the stairs, flirting with Jerro and Rampage (UGH!), babysitting that disgustingly cute and whiny egg, and not remembering who Depth Charge was...all of the apologies and gifts...

Tarantella sat down hard. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry at the ray-bot for the incident at the mall or appeased by all the flowers and apologies. She should probably forgive him, but...it just wasn’t something she did. She was more used to holding grudges until they died of old age, and then she had them stuffed and mounted. It was usually more fun that way, really.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts as she was trying to decide if she wanted to forgive the ray-bot or not. Irritated, she stomped to the door and flung it open. "WHAT?!"

Depth Charge flinched back.

"Oh. It’s you again." Tarantella didn’t sound that friendly, but she hadn’t shut the door the door in his face. Yet.

He decided to take that as encouragement. "Um, can I talk to you?" he asked hesitantly.

"You already are."

"Er..."

Tarantella sighed and stood to the side. "You might as well come in."

<Geez, don’t sound so nice!> Tarantella thought to herself sarcastically. Seeing Depth Charge at the door had startled her, and she had reacted in her normal way: hostility. Unfortunately, she still wasn’t sure if she WANTED to be hostile towards the ray-bot after the events of the night.

Hmm, she might as well see what he wanted before deciding...

He sat down when she gestured towards on of her chairs, and she took the other one. They sat and looked at each other until Tarantella broke the silence. "So what did you want?"

Depth Charge fidgeted. "Tarantella," he said in a meek voice, "I’m really, really sorry about--"

"So you’ve told me." She couldn’t help sounding so impatient. She really couldn’t. <But if he’s bothered to repeat it this many times, he probably means it.> she thought, and opened her mouth to accept his apology.

He didn’t notice as he drew something blue from subspace. "Um, well, I wanted to make it up to you," he said, "so I, um, got you this." He handed her the blue thing, but didn’t look at her. Instead, he humbly stared down at his hands as he spoke. "You said you were thinking about getting one for me..."

<He means it.> she thought distantly, gaping down at the blue leash in her hands. <He definitely means it.>

A smile slowly spread across her face. "Well, I suppose I can forgive you," she said coyly. Depth Charge looked up at her hopefully, and her smile turned into a nasty grin. "Of course, we’ll have to get you a collar...maybe something with big, shiny sparkles..."

Depth Charge stared at her in horrified disbelief. A collar?! With SPARKLES?! What had he gotten himself into?!

She laughed at his expression, and his horror took on an edge of relief. She had forgiven him! Sure, he was probably going to be totally humiliated, but at least he was still alive! <And at least she’s happy,> he admitted to himself. <That makes me happy, if nothing else.>

Tarantella’s eyes glittered with mischief. "So, what kind of collar do you want?"

Depth Charge sighed. "Whatever you want, Tarantella."

Her grin widened. "Good."

They were in the mall again, but things were a little different. Depth Charge was carrying several bags of stuff Tarantella had bought at his expense, and Tarantella was carrying the end of a blue leash. The other end was attached to the flashy collar around the ray-bot’s neck. Every once and a while she would give the leash a slight tug just so she could giggle when Depth Charge stumbled forward.

He didn’t complain.

They were both looking at something when a weasly bot tried to run between them, not noticing the leash stretched out between them. He and Depth Charge made an identical ‘Urk!’ sound and fell down. Tarantella stared at them in surprise.

A couple Security guards ran up and grabbed the dazed bot. "Got him!" One of them hauled the weasly bot off while the other one stayed to talk to Tarantella and Depth Charge.

"What was that all about?" Tarantella demanded to know. Depth Charge just gasped for air as he recovered from the sudden jerk on his neck.

The Security guard smiled at her. "You just helped Mall Security catch a thief, ma’am. You have our thanks."

"You’re welcome," Depth Charge rasped.

The guard gave him a puzzled look. "Um, are you alright?" he asked, looking at the leash and collar.

Tarantella grinned and Depth Charge sighed. "I’m fine." He picked up all the bags he had dropped. "Just fine."

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