Walter was studying Kenzie intently.  It was as if he could see the internal tension, the conflicting desires running through her.   She wanted to be coaxed, to be<em>persuaded</em>into joining them.   Again.<br/><br/>"Mmmm, probably use it to spruce up the ol' girl," he responded to her question.  With his plate in one hand, he picked up a rice ball in the other, and dropped it into his mouth.  He chewed on it, mouth closed, while he continued to study Kenzie.<br/><br/>He had no objections as the blond seized the bottle and drained the rest of it.  If she needed it to ratchet her inhibitions and internal hang-ups down a bit, then so be it.  Obviously, he wasn't going to pressure her into doing something she didn't want to do, but if the last time they all bunked together was any indication, she certainly had had no complaints.<br/><br/>Swallowing his mouthful, he started in on the bread.   It wasn't the most fulfilling meal, but he wasn't complaining.  Juliette was a better cook in the field than he'd ever be, and he loved seeing her with her boots off and her suspenders hanging loose around her thighs.<br/><br/>What Kenzie needed, he thought, was a story.  Something to break the ice, to make her less self-conscious.   "Hey, Jules, do you remember the time we crash-landed in Snowy Gulch?" he began, his mouth still half-full of the bread.  "This was on Centauri IX, the furthest habitable planet in the system," he explained to Kenzie, after a swallow.  "Winters can easily last thousands of days.   We didn't have the necessary equipment to make repairs, and so we did the only thing we could do--sent out a distress call and bunkered down to wait.   Took 'em damn near six solar-months to show up.   We survived by subsisting entirely on Growler meat and fat during all that time," he said.   "To this day, I can't stand to look at one of those big hairy bastards.  And we passed the time the only way we knew how."  He chuckled, and gave Jules' legs a squeeze.  "I'm pretty sure there were times we got real sick of each other, but it was either that or stare at the snow."