"Could I get another beer, please?"

Mazikeen turned towards the guy who had been sitting at the end of the bar for most of the night, ordering one beer after the other, without any obvious effect.

"Already? You're a fast drinker. And a handsome one, you should really lose that sweater though..."

She smiled at him and leaned forward across the bar as she pushed the cold bottle towards him.

"I'm sure you'd look much better without it."

The man gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged.

"Nah, I'm not much to look at, compared to all the other eye-candy you have milling around here. I am surprised the bouncer even let me in. Might have just been because it was so early...not so many people in here then."

He looked around the club again and seemed slightly taken aback to find it nearly bursting at the seams with LA's youth and beauty.

"Huh, when did they all get here? Seems I wasn't really paying attention."

Maze thought he seemed more disturbed by that fact than any young human man she had met so far would be. They all seemed pretty self-absorbed and unaware of anyone else to her.

She debated whether to ask him what had him drowning himself in beer and not even sparing a glance at all the hot girls and guys around him or whether to just go back to serving the other patrons. Dr. Linda said she needed to become part of these humans more, make friends...

"So, why are you here?" To his blank look she added: "I mean, you're not here for the reasons guys usually are here: Sex and to be admired. So why are you here?"

He sighed and took a sip from his beer.

"Because it was the first place serving alcohol I happened across, I guess? And I was in desperate need of a beer...or several."

He sent another sheepish grin her way.

Maze poured a vodka for the male Russian model a few bar stools over then returned to the English sweater guy.

"So, why were you in desperate need of a beer? Usually I hear stories of a broken heart, especially if I tell people to shut up about their stupid troubles. But I don't think you've quite got that look in your eyes. They usually look much more pathetic and dim-witted."

That earned her a surprisingly genuine and charming laugh that even reached his eyes.

"Oh, I like you, my dear. You're not one to mince your words, are you?"

She shrugged and poured herself a Bourbon.

"No, I'm not. Why should I? I don't care what any of them think of me. And you are trying to avoid answering my question."

He started playing with the bottle in front of him then, clearly wondering if he should tell her or not. Finally he sighed again and raised his eyes back up to meet hers.

"Why the hell not? I have a friend, a very stubborn, very young and stupidly heroic friend, who happens to again and again get himself into dangerous and completely avoidable situations because of his boy scout morals. And instead of sitting around at home worrying about him I decided to take a vacation, see if I can't get some distance and kick this annoying habit of coming to his rescue at great risk to my own head."

Maze found herself nodding along to his story. This sounded terribly familiar, apart from the boy scout morals, of course.

"I see you're familiar with that kind of friends", he asked.

"Oh yes, I am very familiar. My boss, he's not the boy scout kind obviously, but he has ...changed lately. He's suddenly protecting people and helping them and doing good."

She sounded so disgusted at that last word that it made the man lift an eyebrow at her.

"He never used to do good, quite the opposite. He enjoyed punishing people, hurting them, it was what he lived for. But then he met this woman and suddenly he's not the man I know. And he's suddenly much more vulnerable. But does that stop him from putting himself in danger? No, of course not, he just jumps in front of loaded guns and hopes I'll be there to save his ass."

She downed her glass and immediately refilled it. This time, she saw, it was her new friend's turn to nod knowingly.

"Yes, that's just it! They expect us to be there to catch them when they fall down from that stupid tight rope they're running around on to rescue some damsel in distress! They never listen to any advice and then if everything goes pear-shaped it's suddenly my fault!"

Maze pointed at him approvingly with the bottle of Bourbon before refilling her glass again.
"Oh yes, we're only their friends if they need us for something and as soon as we tell them they are wrong we're suddenly their enemies until they find that they need us to get them out of a tough spot at which point it's all 'I always know that I can rely on you, Maze' and 'I know you'd never let anything happen to me, Maze'. Well, I say we should let them fall next time so they won't take us for granted again."

The smile on her new friend's face grew positively impish.

"Oh, you have such a very good point there. But should we really stop at doing nothing? I think we deserve some payback. I think we should have a good long talk, my dear. What's your name again? I'm Ben, by the way."