Zim was mostly keeping to himself as the party progressed, other than the Princess seemed to have latched on to him in her cold way while she waited for the chance to meet with the cute girl in the red dress. Then, the moment Zim was waiting for happened, Katya made her appearance. Was it just him, or was she actually glowing? He saw how she was dressed and once again regretted his decision to have come in the parade uniform. He liked what he saw, he had always had a thing for exposed necks and shoulders and the leggings only seemed to extend her legs further, however he worried that perhaps she would get cold. Maybe the parade uniform would come in handy, he could offer her his coat if it came to that. Though, in the back of his head he worried about what the regulations would say about such an action, and both of them not being in proper uniform. He would take the chance, should the opportunity arise. Zim thumbed the hairband tied around his wrist once more and resolved himself, this stupid, and immature, dance he had been doing with himself around his feelings for her was going to come to a close, one way or another, very soon. He had taken the first step with confirming things with Ariin. Now he was going to take the second step in getting closer to the object of his affections. He turned to Elizabeth, setting down the drink he had been sipping and excused himself. She was in the middle of dribbling on about something in her snide tone, Zim stopped listening a long time ago. He was already stepping away from her when she gave a flick of her hair and let of one of her trademark, "Hmph!" Zim paid it no mind as he continued on the way across the room.

Zim took deep breaths to control his heart rate as he took his strides across the room to the wall that Katya had landed at. All the same, he was acutely aware of the fact that he was more nervous about this moment than he had been about going into combat for the first time in Black Star. Zim reached up and scratched the spot on his shoulder where his tattoo was at the thought of his Werk, '[i]Wish me luck, partner,[/i]' Zim thought to himself, '[i]This is a battle I have to fight alone.[/i]' He immediately hated that he even thought that, hoping that he would get the cliche's out of his system before he made it over to Katya. Just a few more steps before he was within greeting range, one more long slow breath. This was it, he clenched his jaw tight like he was about to get punched in the gut, he released the tension as he exhaled. 

"Hey there, Katya!" Zim said in an uncharacteristically happy voice. '[i]Tone it back, fool,[/i]' Zim reprimanded himself.

"Listen, I've wanted to talk to you for a while now," Zim said as he settled on the wall next to Katya. He untied the hair tie around his wrist and held it out for her to take, "I think we can call it even now, but I don't really want to give this back to you. I've grown attached to it, or rather, the thought-"

Zim was cut off by the commotion happening on the dance floor. Was that Irina dancing? She was better than he thought she would be... but who in the world would be dumb enough to ask her to dance, then again, who in the world had enough clout to actually get her to dance? Oh, the new girl that Elizabeth seemed pretty eager to be introduced to.

"Anyway, I've grown attached to the thought of having you near me," Zim said, but as he spoke the crowd erupted into a cheer as the girls dancing intensified their frenzies. Zim had no idea if Katya had heard him. When the crowd quieted down again he tried again. "I like having you near by," Zim said again, "You give me a reason to fight beyond revenge." '[i]Damn, another cliche'[/i]' Zim swore at himself as he was once again interrupted by noise on the dance floor. It wasn't the crowd this time, but Irina being... well, herself. '[i]Poor girl, didn't know what she was getting herself into with that one,[/i]' Zim thought to himself. But then it went on too far when the girl went running from the room crying.

"I'm sorry, excuse me," Zim said to Katya as he made his way over to dance floor where Irena was now moving to the wall. "I don't know who that girl is, or what might have happened to cause that kind of outburst, but I think you should leave," Zim said firmly to the woman as she punched the wall. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the flash of Elizabeth's red hair as she ran out into the hallway after the girl.

Elizabeth didn't see which way she had gone, and had already lost track of her, so she wandered for a while trying to find her but eventually was forced to concede. She decided that it wasn't worth going back to the party now that the cute girl was gone, so she went back to her quarters for the rest of the night.