Jess slowly starts to wake up, but not yet opening her eyes. Her body feels like it's been hit by a truck, and her head like a hammer it's hitting it constantly and with strength. Her senses are still coming to life and she's not yet able to think straight or understand what's happening around her or even inside her body, it's all very confusing, and it gets even more confusing when she feels a slow breath really close behind her, and little by little she starts to become more aware of things.

Like, one: She's not recognizing this breath and, two: There's a hand slightly resting on her knee and another one holding her own more firmly, but neither this hands seems to belong to the person breathing behind her.

Well, she's not sure if she wants to open her eyes… Until she finally does, looking at the ceiling, and she becomes aware of other things, like, three: She's not in her room. Four: The breathing behind her is coming from freaking Winston! (She's freaking out, what the hell happened here?) And then, five: They're on Nick's bed. Six: Cece is in the bed too, next to Winston, on the other side, while Schmidt is sleeping at her feet and Coach lying on the floor. Then, finally, seven: The hands holding her belong to Nick.

"Oh thank God". She thinks to herself, relived, although this morning is still seems very weird and confusing. But then Nick starts to mumble something she doesn't quite understands, and she wonders if she said that out loud or only on her head, but it doesn't matter, because now Nick is waking up too.

He's seated on the floor, turned to her, head resting on the bed, right besides her, and she thinks he must have had a really uncomfortable night. I mean, he's on the floor, his head resting next to her belly on the bed, there are 4 other people in it, the entire room smells like alcohol, and damn, that was some crazy True American game last night.

As he starts opening his eyes slowly, his hand tightens on hers and he mumbles her name.

"Jessssica?"

She loves when he calls her by her full name. Even though he sounds very drunk right now, stretching out the ssss' in it, it's still lovely.

He opens his eyes fully and seems as confused as her.

"True American got a little out of hand last night, didn't it?" Nick says.

"You think?" She replies sleepy, and giggles a bit.

His hand is still on hers, and he bends his head forward to press a kiss on it, while his other hand is now rubbing her leg as he wakens himself a little more, and this simple act is sending shivers all over her body.

He looks hot, she thinks. The messy hair, the scruff and the hangover face are really doing it for her.

She smiles at his gesture and also because he looks kinda funny, to be honest. Her smile doesn't last long, though. Soon her happy state is substituted by a horrible need to throw up all the alcohol on the nearest bucket she can find. Nick seems to notice the slight change on her face, since he asks her "Are you okay?"

She doesn't even answer, just gets up in a hurry and runs to the toilet. Moments after, comes Nick, walking almost in slow motion, 'cause he's going through a hell of a hangover right now, but he's there anyway, and doesn't seems to care. He sits down behind her and pulls her hair back carefully, like he always does, because she's such a lightweight. The sickness starts to cease after expelling all the alcohol away from her system and Jess cleans her mouth with the sleeve of the flannel she's wearing, which only now she notices is one of Nick's flannels.

She can't remember changing her clothes, and that's now confusing observation number eight (isn't it?). She's better start making a list before she loses track of it.

Nick's eyes are closed, and Jess is not sure if he's fighting a strong headache or if he's just almost sleeping again. Maybe both.

"Feeling better?" He asks.

Eyes still closed, his hand caressing her hair and slowly letting it go, his voice quiet, almost a whisper, in a very caring tone.

"Yeah. Thanks" She replies weakly, looking back at him and smiling warmly. "Are you feeling good?"

"Never been better." He says and laughs in a lazy kinda way.

They both get up helping each other and go to the sink to brush their teeth.

After that, while she tries to fix her messy hair into a bun, Nick steps into her personal space, out of the blue, starts to unbutton her (his) shirt and presses a kiss on her forehead.

Hangover Nick is a quite interesting Nick, she must say. He becomes this really calm person, maybe to compensate his drunken state from before, when he's usually very agitated. Also, he seems to do stuff on auto pilot and becomes very, very touchy in a very sweet way, like she's the most precious thing in the world (when he's drunk he's mostly likes to grab her ass and sometimes her hair along with the back of her neck, but that's another story). Right now he's caressing her shoulders softly and stopping only to slide her (his!) shirt off of it (she didn't even notice when he finished with the buttons).

She reaches for his back and starts pulling at the hem of his shirt, then he stops what he's doing and throws his arms up so she can take it off of him.

After they both undress, kinda drunkenly and in a messy way, he puts his hand on the small of her back and guides her to the shower.

They both step under it and he turns on the water that starts running warmly through their bodies. At first she feels like everything is spinning and she thinks she may fall, since her knees are starting to weaken, also, she wants to cry at his sweetness (she gets emotional easily when she's hangover okay?). Nick holds her tightly, just like he read her mind and knew she needed, and they both start to relax, bracing themselves into each other arms, pressed all naked against each other, from their toes to their chests and foreheads, while she caress his back and he massages her temple slowly and deliciously.

This whole scenario feels so… intimate. Even though they sleep together every night, even though they had sex in this very shower a lot of times, and even though she's been through a lot with him, this still feels incredibly intimate. Which is maybe why she ways what she says next:

"I love you", whispering against his chest.

Jess knows that's maybe that's not the moment for it: They're both hangover, their roommates are going to wake up feeling as bad as them at any moment wanting to throw up and they have a huge mess to clean up on the whole loft. Definitely not the moment for it. But she felt like saying, and she still does. So she says it again:

"I love you so much… I'm so glad that I have you."

He smiles, his shin resting at the top of her head. He bends down and kisses her forehead again, making her face feels hot. He keeps tracing a path of kisses that go down from her forehead, through her closed eyes, her cheeks, her jaw, her neck… She feels incredibly safe in his arms and under his kisses.

"I love you too." He whispers right at her year.

It's short, quick and simple, but she can feel it's very honest, and her heart races a little.

He seems calm and keeps leaving feather kisses on her face, until he stops to kiss her deeply and wetly, the shower still running down on them, hitting straight on his back and falling like a cascade.

They stay like that for what feels like an eternity. Just feeling each other. Turning off the world around them, and she almost wishes this moment could last forever, if it wasn't for her killing headache and Schmidt now screaming on the door:

"How long until you two love birds finish this beautiful shower so that us, poor lonely roommates, can take care of our own hangover?"

Nick and Jess sigh and decide to ignore. They just laugh and go back to enjoy the bubble they're in.

"My hair smells like alcohol and it's so dirty that I can feel the dirtiness running down my face!"

Ew.

She wonders how someone can be that loud even when hangover?

Soon she doesn't care anymore, because now Nick's mouth is kissing her neck, and his hand sliding between them, going south, and when she does the same with her hands the world goes mute except for the sound of the water running down their bodies and their breaths, very low, hitting each other's skin, close to her ears.

Yeah, she couldn't care less about Schmidt yelling right now.