Faster barfly! Drink! Drink!

[Anonymous]

Next Aznimal went for his jacket. Out of order, yes, but he didn't care at the moment. As long as his clothes got on the proper parts of his body, dressing was a success. Once he zipped it up he would answer Æana's question.

It isn't lying if you 'forget' to mention some things... Aznimal groaned and let his brother's 'advice' slide across his consciousness. Tempting as it was, he couldn't let the situation snowball.

"I'm surprised I can still think, it feels like my brains about to start pouring out of my ears." Ha-ha very funny, now answer her question. "Truth is, my masters aren't going to be happy once they hear about this. I'm thinking about what I'm going to do now."

[Anonymous]

Æana: I'm not even sure if I have a brain anymore. Can't see that there's room for it in my head with the angry rodent.

Æana stretched until her back popped, relieving a bit of pain from areas other than her head and pelvis. She grabbed a sock from the floor and pulled it on.

Æana: What, are you not supposed to get drunk?

[Anonymous]

Irk.

Explaining the real reason for his superiors displeasure wasn't going to be pleasant in the least. Well... if anything the moments after it was explained would be a bit awkward. Regardless of how it turned out he wanted his pants on before he began talking.

As he was reaching for his pants his head throbbed sharply, Aznimal winced and put a hand on his temple leaning back to rest his head on the pillow. God, if he could resist alcohol in any way he'd make a vow at this point not to drink enough to make his body start filing complaints. Those vows never made anything better anyway, they made you feel accomplished for awhile and then worse after you eventually broke them.

Dammit, well that put his once vow of chastity in a box with a bow. Aznimal groaned and sat up, determined to get his pants on even if his head exploded.

It didn't explode, but it threatened to and had its little spirtual finger hovering over the button for a few seconds before it realized that doing so wouldn't allow it to torture Aznimal anymore. Thus Aznimal got his pants back on and plopped back on the pillow.

"Not technically. They don't prefer their agents to make a habit of drinking to excess, but I won't be punished. What they're going to get in a tiff about is this," he said rather cryptically, pointing down at the bed in a rather obvious manner.

[Anonymous]

Æana blushed when Aznimal said that. Or rather, when he motioned that, but whatever. She felt embarrassed about it all because, well, she was a teenager, and that kind of thing was embarrassing.

Æana: Oh. Heh heh... That.

She went quiet for a second after that, wondering what to say. She got Aznimal in trouble. Great. She felt that this was all her fault, after all, he didn't make her drink anything alcoholic. He was content to buy her sodas. She had to try and be cool by getting smashed.

Æana: I'm really sorry about all this Aznimal. I shouldn'ta got drunk, you were being nice and buying me drinks, but I ordered them, 'n now I got you in trouble. I'm sorry.

Æana's expression as she said that were similar to the look on a puppy's face after he mauled his owners's favorite pair of shoes.

[Anonymous]

And now the awkward silence. Aznimal used that time to rest his eyes a bit and tried not to think about the war going on between his body and the alcohol within it.

Then Æana began speaking. As much as his body appreciated the rest he didn't want to snub her, so he glanced at her.

The puppy face, sympathy. Sympathy was to be expected after what he just said.

Apologies weren't...

Holy jumping Jesus in Hell...

Try as he might, Aznimal just couldn't remember when he met Æana in the bar. After he got to a certain point his memory faded out and faded back in about... Aznimal squinted his eyes a little. He faintly remembered his head landing on a pillow just seconds before it blanked out again and he woke up. That didn't help...

Aznimal's imagination didn't help either, it immediately began trying to figure out how those drinks were bought. It's little scenario went something like this:

Aznimal, sitting in the bar with a literal mountain of empty glasses seperating his stool from the one on his right was downing drinks in manner that would remind one of an assembly line. Glass was set down, glass was filled, Aznimal drank, Aznimal tossed glass onto mountain, Aznimal paid barkeep, rinse, repeat.

Then Æana came into the bar, shining and happy and innocent and took the seat next to his. She looked a bit lost, confused, out of place one might say.

Aznimal turned to look at her when she sat down, clouds of alcohol vapor drifting out of his nose as he breathed, and his eyes glowed red for no particular reason.

Aznimal: Can I buy you a drink little girl?

Æana: I dunno, I guess you can, if you want to, I dunno...

Aznimal: *big evil feral grin* Excellent.

Æana: I think I'll get a soda, I like Iffybell's Cream-Yum...

Aznimal: Iffybell's Cream Yum? I don't know if you've noticed sweetheart, but you're in a bar.

Æana: That's right... darn... I think I'll get a... gee I dunno anything about drinks I'll get something with alcohol!

Aznimal: *big evil feral grin 2.0 ultimized* Ex-cel-lenté.

Aznimal's eyes were quite wide after that little scenario played through his head. Æana's behavior seemed a bit exagerrated, but it was possible that he'd gotten her to buy something that would get her drunk. Or something equally terrible. "Oh shit, I'm fucked," he squeaked.

[Anonymous]

Æana heard Aznimal swear, and then she started to get more worried. She bit her lip and her eyes got glassy. She had always hoped her first time would be on a beach, or a big king-size bed with silk sheets and rose petals. Instead, it was at a fairly cheap inn, while drunk, and got her partner in trouble. And it was her fault. This really sucked.

Æana: I'm really really... *sniff*... really really... *sniff*... really sorry! I never should've *sniff* ordered that first beer. I should have*sniff*  just stuck with *sniff* sodas like I started off with, and not *sniff* tried to be c-c-c-cool and *sniff* get something alcoholic! And now you're in trouble for *sniff* it...

Æana wiped her eyes off on her shirt and grabbed a tissue from the bedside table to blow her nose on. Once she was sure she wouldn't be a sniffling mess, she continued to speak.

Æana: You're probably tired of hearing this, but I am sorry. You were just trying to be nice, and I messed it up. If you think it will help, I could talk to your boss or whoever and tell them that it was my fault. There's no reason for you to be punished for it.

[Anonymous]

Smooth move Aznimal... smooth move. She probably thinks you're upset with her now. He groaned softly, partly because of the communication hurdles between them and equally because his head started throbbing.

Couldn't just lay here. He could only blame his hangover for so much supposedly-detached lounging in pain. Aznimal had to say something, some more substantial than a frew select curses.

Especially now, now that she sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

He could barely hear the first bit of what she said, with the speed and the breaks were she would sniff. When she went for the tissue Aznimal considered putting a hand on her shoulder, or something. No, touching probably wasn't the best thing he could do for her at this very moment. Once she blew her nose she began to talk comprehensively. Aside from shaking his head after she said he was tired of hearing her apologize he stayed more or less still while she was talking.

After she was through he sat up, ignoring the implosion-threats from his temples. "I couldn't let you do that for me," he grinned a little. "That makes it seem like you're all to blame. Trust me on this one - in a situation like this, no one is ever wholly at fault or wholly innocent."

[Anonymous]

Æana listened to what Aznimal had to say and it was a bit comforting. She knew that no one was wholly innocent or wholly at fault, but try as she might, she couldn't think of anything he had done wrong that wasn't the fault of alcohol. Obviously alcohol had happened before, but this hadn't so the alcohol must not have had anything to do with it. She didn't have any conscience issues, so she didn't want to blame herself, she just thought it was her fault. Any tears that might have been trying to resurface dried up, and Æana crossed her legs and pulled them up to her chest.

Æana: But what did you do?

[Anonymous]

Couldn't his head take a five minute smoke break from this hangover?

He had every right to groan and rub his temple. But, conventional body language painted that as a gesture of annoyance. Annoyance with the alcohol induced meltdown of his body, yes. He didn't want to risk the gesture being interpreted as a gesture of annoyance toward the current conversation. No groaning, no temple rubbing. He had a few hours more of hangover to bitch.

At least this was a simple question.

In theory.

"Attempting to drown my problems in booze. I know by now that drinking helps about as much as running headfirst into a wall for a couple hours. I say that now, when I'm relatively sober, but as soon as I hit rock bottom the first thing I do is pour a drink or light up a cigarette. It's like a reflex, some kind of strange reflex that spits on logic, but that's how its always been for me since I was pretty young."

[Anonymous]

Æana nodded at Aznimal's explanation, absently rubbing a temple in an attempt to quell a headache. Okay, he had a point. Maybe he did do something wrong.

"Oh, okay. I guess when you put it that way I can see how it's partially your fault. But still, it takes two to... well, you know," Æana said, blushing a little at the last part. Once she realized she was blushing, she tried to stop, because she had always thought that she looked weird when she blushed. "You smoke, too? Hmm, now that you're sober I never would've guess. Of course, now that we're sober I wouldn't peg you for an alcoholic either."

She went quiet for a second then, fearing that what she just said might have come off as mean. She had to make up for it. "Hey, uhm, I know this is gonna seem kinda weird, all things considered, but I just wanted to thank you for being so nice to me. after all this."

[Anonymous]

Aznimal really wasn't sure how he should take her declarations that he didn't seem like an alcoholic or a smoker, but he had a feeling that if his head were pouding less he wouldn't have been pondering how to feel about it.

In the end he just decided that his head hurt and he would save the so-dubbed non-pondering question for when it could answer it simply.

Silence again. Maybe he should have said something. Then again, it seemed better to go with silence than saying something stupid. Silence could be misinterpreted as a lot of things, there was only one way stupidity was interpreted...

Now she was thanking him, that silence must have been a pause for thought. This was easier to reply to though. "No problem," he gave his temple a brief rub.

[Anonymous]

Æana smiled at Aznimal. Things were still weird between them, but she was glad she didn't wake up next to an asshole. And at the back of her mind, she was also glad he was good-looking, even if that was one of the least of her concerns. She considered the hangover to be the biggest concern at the moment, at least until there came a knock at the door to their room. Æana walked over to the door at peeked out through the peephole. Her eyes widened and she leaned against the door, facing into the room, and Aznimal.

Æana: Fuck. It's Jamie. Should I open the door?

[Anonymous]

Now seemed like a good time to lie back down, soothe his poor aching brain. Poor, suffering, pained, agonized - Aznimal lay back down on the pillow. Ah, sweet horizontality. He smiled back at Æana.

And the door thumped.

In Aznimal's years of experience with doors, they usually didn't thump on their own. Someone or, rarely, something had to do something to the door so it would make a sucession of taps. This particular set sounding like it was a someone making the noise. Someone was at the door. God, didn't they have any decency?

When Æana got up to answer the door Aznimal felt a mix of relief and annoyance. Relief because he didn't have to get up and ruin the blissful horizontality, and annoyance because he was laying around like a lazy tramp while she got the door, she had a hangover too. Only... as she said herself, she hadn't been drinking as much as he had. Aznimal dropped the feelings, they were starting to make his head spin.

Jamie? His mind drew a blank on that one, all the clues he had towards her identity was the choice expletive Æana mentioned before telling him who it was. At first he considered shaking his head. That person could think they were gone, if she - apparently he met this person because he kept using she like he was sure of it - heard Æana curse she'd know they were there. In the long run, it'd be best if they just opened the door now...

Aznimal nodded.

[Anonymous]

Æana checked her appearance over as best she could. She didn't want Jamie to assume anything and get upset with Aznimal or her. She thought she looked okay, so she opened the door.

As soon as the door opened, Jamie's eyes narrowed into a glare. She saw Æana at the door and immediately stopped glaring and started to smile, until her eyes came to rest upon Æana's neck, which hapened to be covered in dark purple and red bruises. She gasped and pushed the door open, searching for Aznimal. She glared at him when her eyes found him.

Jamie: You vile, horrible man! You took advantage of her!

Æana's eyes went wide as Jamie immediately began throwing accusations.

Æana: It was not like that! You were there! I drank of my own accord! Don't blame him, or at least not him alone!

Jamie looked sympathetically at her.

Jamie: Oh, you poor thing, it's not your fault. He's an adult and should have known better.

Æana opened her mouth to speak again, but Jamie put a finger to her mouth in a 'shh' motion and shut her up. She quickly grabbed Æana's shoes and then Æana's arm and pulled her from the room and back down to the bar to talk to her.

[Anonymous]

It all happened so fast.

Æana opening the door. Jamie pushing the door aside. Jamie giving him a glare that all but promised she would kill him on the spot had she the means to do so while she slung the blame for the previous evening at his feet. Æana trying to talk some sense, some something into the woman's head. Jamie not hearing it. Jamie comforting Æana. Jamie telling her it wasn't her fault. Æana trying to speak. Jamie shushing her and dragging her from the room.

The door shutting.

And after that, his head almost split in half due to a sudden, bastard-throb. Aznimal flopped back down on the bed, groaning, putting a hand to his head.

That was not good. Not good at all.

Why in Hell couldn't he have said something? It was an excuse to say that it happened too quickly. Saying something might have made it worse though. He couldn't imagine the kind of retorts she'd have if he tried to tell her what Æana told her.

God, for all he knew she could be right.

Aznimal tried to shake his head. He couldn't think like that. Æana remembered more than he did, and didn't say anything about being conned into this.

Of course, it would have been a mighty sloppy seduction attempt if she realized it the next morning. He didn't want to suspect it being any different, since there was so much alcohol involved. Acohol and grace didn't go well together. Hell, alcohol and cunning thought were practically strangers to each other.

Now what was he going to do? God, if his head felt any better he'd get up and chase after them. At least find some way to keep in contact with her. Just in case...

Another pulsing throb shot through his head. He wasn't sure whether it was from the alcohol or thinking too far about his last thought. What he knew was that he should probably try to find her and establish some kind of contact. It seemed like the right thing to do. He couldn't have taken advantage of her if he was concerned about her, right?

A morbid thought ran through his head just then, almost seeming like an apology for the earthquake rocking its foundation. If he had a few cigarettes he might not have drunken so much. He could almost see the look on Tazianne's face if he told her that cigarettes kept him from binge drinking and having one night stands.

Aznimal groaned again, tilting his head back into the pillow. Damned alcohol.