Dean was fresh off a trip to the States, part of a multinational delegation for policies above Dean's pay grade, but he spoke the majority of the languages they needed and so he'd been pulled along for the ride. It had been a wild one too. Lots of long days, lots of document work, figuring out how to structure the language in the documents so it translated correctly to the multiple languages. Dean had been thoroughly exhausted, but felt a sense of pride at being involved.

He'd made it home in time for Christmas, spending it mostly with Mae and her growing family. It was odd to think of his baby sister as a wife and now mother, but he was happy for her. Seeing Mae with her husband dug up some long-buried feelings, but he had finally put those to rest. He had picked up with Winnie here and there, she was a good distraction, no strings, just scratching a mutual itch. Throwing himself into work and a new language was doing the trick. Mermish was a stupidly hard language to learn, far more difficult than Gobbledegook and that had been a nightmare itself. The magical languages always seemed to be, but it was a good challenge for this point in his life. Romance languages came too easy. He'd contemplated Spanish, but that seemed like rubbing salt in the wound he just wanted to be done healing from.

The event at the zoo wasn't normally something he'd attend, but he'd been intrigued and he needed something different these days. His socializing had slowed as he tried to occupy himself in other ways. If he was attending events, they were mostly foreign, no chance of running into anyone who was going to leave him wanting there. Dean was nursing his one glass of whiskey near the edge. He'd almost fallen off the wagon in that respect, but had managed to right himself from ruin once more. The floating dance floor was another thing entirely. He'd taken a turn or two with a couple young ladies, but was otherwise still looking for some good conversation to pass some time. He would have preferred to explore the zoo at large and he would have to remember to come back another day during regular hours.

With half a mind to head toward the stairs leading down, he caught a familiar face out of the corner of his eye, about to stumble right off the edge. For fuck's sake. Dean lunged forward, grabbing Dempsey by the arm. He knew the dance floor was enchanted to keep everyone on, but he wasn't about to take any chances. "Careful," he cautioned, keeping Don Juan upright for a moment longer before letting go.