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((This post back-dated to Christmas, immediately following The Fight for Amityville))

Mitzi finally found her way back to the Reaper dorms. By the time she was making her way down the relatively warm hallways, she was moving in a fog, not really aware of what was going on. Somehow she ended up making her way down the same hall she and the others had fought in earlier, and although most of the mess had been cleaned up, Alex's sock was still sitting there, forlorn and filthy. Mitzi really didn't even think about it as she picked it up, carrying it back with her to her room. Once there, she stripped off everything and dumped it all - sock included - into the laundry bin. It didn't even occur to her that most of her clothing should probably just be thrown out, or maybe burned. (She might have thought fire would be nice after today, if she wasn't so brain-dead.) She didn't even have the energy for a hot bath, instead throwing on pajamas and curling up on her bed. She was a little surprised to find herself crying, too fried to be sure where it was coming from, and eventually she fell asleep. When she woke the next morning, she didn't remember anything from the night before, and certainly not picking up a disgusting sock.

A week later her laundry reappeared clean in the other hamper, just like it always did. She didn't think too much of it. She just left it there, not really feeling like dealing with it, although she did pull out the glittery shirt (remarkably mostly fixed, with only slight damage and a lot of extra glitter) and dispose of it. And then the other things from that night, and then most of the rest of her glitter-covered clothing. No more glitter for her, thanks. But she didn't get any further into the bin, and so it was several more weeks before she finally emptied the overflowing laundry basket and found a certain ragged - but now clean - sock at the bottom.

It took her a while to recognize it, since it certainly wasn't one of hers. But where could it have come from? When she finally placed it - that zomboil who'd made it ever-so-clear what he thought of her, after she'd ruined her day helping him and his friend out - she shoved it in her pocket and stomped off to find him. Unsuccessfully. BUT THAT WASN'T GOING TO STOP HER. She spent her spare time looking for him, determined to return it. And maybe tell him off. Mostly just return it, probably.

It took about a week to finally track him down.

((Continued...))

Alex sat with a book open in front of him, his head in his hands as he stared blankly at the words. Who knew how long he'd been sitting like this, un moving, not even to reach out and flip the page of the book. It was like he was sleeping with his eyes open, which was ridiculous since Zombies didn't sleep, or at least, they didn't need to sleep.

He was unblinking, almost in a daze, but that daze was suddenly broken, not by the voice that was speaking to him, the one that seemed to be coming from very very far away, but by a sock. A very familiar sock. It had landed on the open book and his red rimmed eyes slowly seemed to come into focus as he blinked. His brows furrowed in confusion, as though he didn't know what was happening, but slowly some form of intelligence seemed to dawn in those very pale eyes, and his hands slipped down to each side of the book as he turned his head to stare at whoever had been speaking to him.

Oh..she looked familiar. What was her name again?

"Mitzi?" Alex said quietly, his voice sounding hoarse as he reached up to rub at his very dry eyes. Apparently they got that way if you didn't blink for a long enough period of time.

"I..Uh..thank you...." He mumbled, glancing towards the sock again and reaching out with the hand that had just been rubbing at his eyes to pluck off of the book. It was a familiar sock, though somewhat less holey then it used to be, and much more clean. If Mitzi had any 'frosty' tone in her voice, it was completely lost upon the zomboil. The events of the Christmas invasion seemed liked it had happened ages ago, and not just two short months. He barely even remembered why he had been feeling a little cautious around her by the end, anyways. Too many other things were clouding his mind now, but he glanced up at the Reaper ghoul with a forced and shaky smile, deciding he aught to at least be polite.

"How have you been? I haven't seen you around the school at all. Thought you might have decided to leave..." So many students had been packing up and heading back home. What with the hunters, and all of the strange events....

Alex nodded slowly, reaching up run his hand through his hair repeatedly, effectively mussing it up more so then it already was. He really looked quite horrible. His clothes were rumpled and dirty, his eyes red as though from sleep deprivation.

"I know exactly what you mean." His said in his rough and gravely voice, though it seemed to be sounding a little more normal the more he used his vocal chords. "My mom was calling and harassing me to come back home as well. I haven't been here very long yet, and I didn't want to go home looking like a complete failure." He confessed, frowning up at the ghoul. She looked slightly different then she had the last time he'd seen her. More mature, perhaps? Maybe it was the lack of glitter that was giving him pause.

"So what have you been doing these last couple of months then, Mitzi?" He asked, genuinely curious. He pushed out a chair with his foot as though to indicate she aught to sit down. He had decided that while he wasn't really in the mood for company, any type of distraction would be better then sitting here thinking about certain things all evening, waiting to be kicked out of the library for the night. He took the sock still in his hand and shoved it into his pocket, not really thinking too much about how Mitzi had come across it.

"Ah, see, I have been home to visit my family at least to appease them." a faint ghost of a smile crossed his lips as he recalled that particular weekend. It had been a lot of fun, for the most part, and he had got to spend it with his best friend.

His best friend who might not even be his best friend anymore. Ok, time to stop thinking about that.

"So have you been looking for me for very long?" He asked, since obviously the entire point of her approaching him was to give him his sock back, which he still didn't quite know how she had gotten to begin with. "If you need to find me in future, I have an eyephone...we could exchange numbers if you want." Still oblivious to any hint of frostiness in the Reaper ghouls tone.

Alex was definitely acting a lot differently then he had on Christmas. For one, he wasn't sick with JOY poisoning, and for another, he was more settled in, had met more students, joined classes, attended events. Sure at one point he had turned into a ghoul for 24 hours, and sure last week he was more in love with Yin then usual, but other then that things had been going well for the zomboil.

Up until last night.

Nope, not thinking about it.

So yes, he was less suspicious of other students, especially those who were still at the school after two months. If she had been a hunter, surely she would have been found out by now, or at the very least, disappeared completely. It would be foolish for a hunter to take on the same form twice. At least, that's how he reasoned things out in his head.

"What made you decide to come looking for me here, anyways?" He asked, suddenly curious. Most people would never think to find a zombie in a library. Ignorance led to many thinking zombies couldn't even read.

"They live...reasonably close. Only a few hours train ride and a long walk away. Close enough that I could go home and visit anytime I want, really, but...I need to learn to not rely on them so much...." It was true, he missed his horde fiercely on a good day, and today was not a good day. But he had to learn to be able to function without them, to be an individual, and not just blend in with the crowd anymore.

At the mention of swapping phone numbers, Alex began digging in his pocket for his phone, the pocket not holding the sock that he had just been given. He pulled it out and tapped on the screen a few times, bringing up his contact list and holding it out to her so she could take it and enter in her info. "A whole week?" He asked, faintly amused, the smile on his face broadening.

That was, until she mentioned how she had found him.

The smile quickly faded and his eyes widened. "You..you saw Yin? Did he look alright?" Alexanders leading concern was that what he had told Yin the night before might have upset the other boil quite a bit and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt him.

Who...who actually used the library? Well, just about anyone who needed to do any type of research for a class or was interested in actually learning things. Wait, did she just...yep, she totally just brought the zombie thing into it. Was he surprised? Not really. The sad fact of the matter was, most of the more sheltered beings of Halloween knew very little about how intelligent a lot of zombies actually were. Alex himself hadn't even met a single zombie at the school so far that wasn't intelligent. She would learn that in time, he supposed, and was really not in the mood to begin an argument right now.

"Pizza?" He made a face. Bread, tomato sauce, cheese...he knew what pizza was and it held far too little meat to be desirable to the zomboil. "Oh, Taryn was there?" He knew her only a little bit, "She's a nice ghoul..." He mumbled, still more focused on the fact that Mitzi had actually seen Yin, and wanting to know how the other boil was doing.

So he was alright, but he was acting weird at the mention of Alex's name. That could mean so many things it made Alex's head hurt as each tiny reason for being a little weird unfolded itself in the zomboils head.

She was now asking if things between the two of them were alright, and Alex's gaze dropped to the table. If she was asking it meant that Yin hadn't said anything. That could also be good or bad, he supposed, but...if Yin hadn't said anything about it, Alex probably shouldn't either, right? "Weellll, things aren't exactly great, no." He finally admitted. He could at least say that much and not go into a whole lot of detail.

"You're sure he looked ok, though?" He had to ask again, just to be sure.

"Unless it's an all meat pizza on a bread made of meat I'm not sure I'll ever consider trying it." Alex mused out loud, not trying to be condescending but probably sounding that way anyways. The topic was switching from pizza's back towards Yin, however, and Alex's stomach was tying itself in knots again.

Was Alex ok? Truthfully, no, not in the slightest. But could he truly confide in what was almost a complete stranger? He suddenly wished it was another ghoul sitting here with him, one that he knew better, like Michi or Xiu. He could have talked to them about this. But Mitzi? He barely knew her, and hadn't even seen her in two months.

"Well...no, not really." He gave her a shaky smile, bringing up a hand to rub at his face again and to push the hair that was mercilessly falling into his eyes again back from his face with a sigh. "I'm afraid I've done something incredibly stupid, and as a result, I may have lost my best friend." He confessed, deciding that he could at least tell her that much. If she pushed the subject he might decide to tell her a little bit more.

What exactly happened? He didn't think he could tell her that. It was far too personal, too private. It had taken everything he had in him not to chicken out and tell Yin how he felt. How could he just open up and tell this ghoul that he barely knew?

"Ah, it was nothing really. I just told him something that he probably didn't want to hear." He was going to leave it at that, now. That seemed like enough. A new topic would be a welcome change, so he sat up a little straighter in his chair, trying to think of something new to talk about. Something that had nothing to do with best friends or weremantis's. But as much as he tried to think about anything else, his mind kept wandering back to Yin.

Well, s**t.

"Have you ever gotten into a...a fight, I guess...with a close friend? This is a first for me. I'm afraid I'm not dealing with it very well." He smiled a little, as that was an extreme understatement.