Minim saw her because she wore white. It wasn't really the girl's color. Also, the fannish hivemind had seemingly settled on green as the color for this year's Connexions banquet. She looked like a snowdrop in June.

Minim turned to the woman beside her, a stunning brunette in green leather whose fannish name Minim had forgotten and whose name tag read "Sarah". "You see the woman overe there in the strappy white top and flowy pants?"

"Do you know who she is?"

"Yes." The woman took a drink and closed her eyes. "She was a big deal on TWOP at one point. Er, Fox and a string of numbers?" She shrugged and opened her eyes. "She got banned. I don't know why. She was a BNF, but a nice one."

"You know anything else about her?" asked Minim wistfully.

The brunette shook her head. "No, I was never a big lurker on TWOP, and I cut out before she became a big thing. I was always more of a Buffista."

The woman next to her, brunette in a minty batik, burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" asked Minim.

"You're practically drooling over a baby!" The woman cackled. "And you're about to 'heatedly deny' any cradlerobbing. Oh, man, I love slash in real life!" The woman clapped her hands, then held one out. "I'm Joyce, by the way. Mostly Firefly femmeslash of late, although I started out a Scullyslasher and then spent a lot of time in Voyager doing Janeway/7, which was practically fucking canonical."

Minim shook Joyce's hand and smiled weakly. "I think I talked to her last night about something important, but I was drunk off my gourd. That's all."

"Sure," said Joyce, "sure."

Sometime between dessert and the beginning of the play, Minim started drifting from fannish conversation to fannish conversation. She didn't admit what she was doing until she caught herself waving at a Buffista she couldn't stand, rather than introducing herself to someone she recognized from when she did sci fi cons, because FoxRandomNumbers was talking to the bitch.

Rather than deal with the situation, Minim stood in line for a small, additional piece of chocolate cake. The line was moving much faster than it had at the beginning of the meal, but still dragged. Martha was on stage, announcing the play, just as Minim grabbed her slice.

On her way to her chair, Minim walked by FoxRandomNumbers. No one sat on the girl's left side. "Hey, do you mind if I—?" she pointed with her chin.

FoxRandomNumbers blinked slowly at Minim, cocked her head to one side. The houselights went down; she said, "Sit, sit."

Minim's stomach hurt from laughter. Her lower left leg hurt from all of FoxRandomNumber's fidgeting during the play. The girl had kicked, drummed, tapped, and performed any number of other maneuvers with her feet the entire half-hour. "Are you on something?" Minim hissed, once the lights were up.

"I didn't get any sleep last night, and I'm such a caffeine whore! They had free Mountain Dew and coffee in the consuite. It's probably not legal to have as much as I had." FoxRandomNumbers grinned broadly and waggled her eyebrows.

Minim wanted to chide the girl for taking enough caffeine that she was bouncing at 9 p.m. the night after an all-nighter. It seemed too ungrateful, since Minim was pretty sure the girl had done it on Minim's behalf. Also, if Minim had fucked this girl, she didn't want to be all mother-y at her. She sighed and rubbed her leg.

FoxRandomNumbers looked down and wrinkled her nose. "I'm so sorry. I just can't sit still. Bounce-y, bounce-y, bounce-y. Three pieces of chocolate cake? Probably a mistake. Caffeine and refined sugars are dangerous. Dan. Ger. Ous." She crossed her eyes and bounced hard enough to make her breasts jiggle eyecatchingly. "Are you okay? You seemed pretty miserable this morning?"

Minim waved her hands dismissively. "No, no, I'm fine. I was fine. Little headache, but water and aspirin cleared me right up. I was just, uh, startled. To find someone—you—in my bed."

The girl snorted, chuckled, then actually bent over with laughter. "Duh! I'm not a beauty queen, but even first thing in the morning, people don't usually recoil in horror from my face." She stood and stretched up, then bent over and stretched down.

Minim watched the girl move, or more accurately, the girl's ass flex, and thought that maybe she wouldn't have to spend any nights at Connexions alone. "Are you doing anything after the vid show? I kind of wanted to talk to you, get to know you better."

The girl stretched from side to side, then stared at Minim again, with the same searching look from before the play. "Do you want to get to know me better or get to know me biblically? We didn't, last night, if that's what you're wondering."

Minim felt herself flush but refused to look away. "Both. You're a very pretty girl." She smiled with as much warmth as she could muster.

The girl's lips twisted upwards, but it didn't really look like a smile to Minim. "Heh. Tell me one reason you wanted me last night. It doesn't have to be great, but it's gotta be better than nice tits."

Minim did look away this time. She didn't remember anything between leaving a Smallville party during Redux and waking up the next morning. She didn't remember FoxRandomNumbers, so how could she remember why she'd wanted her. "I don't—I was so drunk last night. It's blank."

"You don't even know my name, and you're trying to chat me up." The laughter was more real than the smile had been, but it was mean.

Minim shrugged. "I asked around, and all anyone knew was Fox. And some numbers."

The girl rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand.

Minim shook it gingerly.

The girl pressed her left hand to her bosom. "Hi. I'm Amy. Have a nice life." She walked away. Her laughter pealed out behind her like cracked bells.