Neil Watts, on any regular day, was a witty, obnoxious jerk who Eva wanted to punch in the face on multiple various occasions. However, today was no ordinary day. Today, or, more specifically, tonight, Neil was drunk. And drunken Neil was even worse than regular Neil. He was noisy, complained to no end and was somehow always getting himself injured. To ensure that didn't happen, Eva was stuck taking him to her place to crash in order to make sure he didn't accidentally trip on a pillow or something and hurt himself. Which, for Neil, wasn't very hard to achieve. Eva had an arm wrapped around him, letting him lean onto her as support while he stumbled down the hall to her apartment.
"Geez, Neil. You need to take better care of yourself! You can't just down fifteen shots without a care in the world!" Eva scolded him for probably the twelfth time since they stepped out of her car. Neil groaned in what Eva presumed to be understanding, sighing.
"... Sorry," Neil mumbled quietly, which was very uncharacteristic for him. That was the one thing Eva ever so slightly enjoyed about drunk Neil; he balanced out amplified bad personality traits with showing her, alongside others, some of his true nature and morals. Eva had actually been surprised to find Neil, at least drunk, scared of the dark and of hypothetical monsters lurking under his bed. Eva muttered under her breath, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. She hated it when Neil did something stupid and she was left with cleanup duty.
"At least I won't be up all night imagining you slipping on a bar of soap or accidentally burning your eyebrows off..." Eva mused, recalling past incidents where Neil had gone home drunk. She didn't know why he had a bar of soap in his living room, or how a toaster had somehow burnt his eyebrows clean off, but for Neil, nothing was impossible when it came to crazy, outlandish antics.
"Aww, you do care after all!" Neil chimed in a child-like, singsong tone. Eva raised a tentative eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" She asked, confused. Sure, she didn't care too much for Neil's over the top attitude most of the time, but she usually didn't make too big of a fuss about it.
"Well, you know," Neil shrugged, his body wobbling a bit from the sudden motion.
"No? I don't?" Eva pressed. Okay, she was lost. What did he mean by, 'You know'?
"You know, how you're always pushing me off of things and calling me a moron n' stuff," Neil explained. Eva had to practically translate his words, they were so slurred.
"Okay, that happened once, plus, you can't really blame me, you sure act like a moron most of the time," Eva ranted. She paused momentarily, searching her coat pocket for her keys. She found them, fishing them out with ease. Letting go of Neil, she unlocked the door and turned the knob to allow them entrance. She grabbed Neil once again, leading him through the narrow doorway. He hung on her, almost pushing her off balance until he stepped into the wider room inside. There was a small kitchen in the right corner from the doorway, a couch along with some matching chairs and a few coasters sprinkled around here and there to the left. There was a hallway straight back, two or three doors lining the walls.
"Wait," Neil paused, squinting his eyes. "You don't have a TV?! The hell! How do you live!?" Eva rolled her eyes. He could be such a drama queen.
"TV's in my room, moron," Eva huffed, annoyed.
"Oh," Neil beamed, "Then I guess that's where I'm sleeping tonight." Eva nodded along with him. Wait!
"Wait a second! What do you mean? How does a television influence where you sleep?!" Eva protested, putting her knuckles on her hips in a 'You've got some explaining to do' kind of pose. Neil chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck.
"Well, I can't fall asleep without a movie playing," He admitted, shrugging.
"That is one of the most ridiculous things you've ever said. And you've already explained to me in great detail why you hoard unicorn plushies," Eva droned, face painfully deadpan.
"Hey, I-" Neil was cut off as he almost fell to the ground, balancing himself at the last second to save himself the trip down.
"Geez..." Eva sighed. "Well, no point in prolonging this any more than needed. Come on, let's get you to bed." Neil nodded, following suit as Eva led him down the hallway. They stopped right in front of the last door on the right, Eva opening it with her free hand. Her bedroom was neatly organized, a small bookshelf with some of her more favored books organized by author, then alphabetically on the shelves. A TV hung on the wall opposite her bed, a small, old DVD/VHS player hooked up to it.
"Wow... Neat freak much?" Neil scorned, a sly, playful grin on his face as he broke from Eva. He stumbled to her bed, sitting down with a sigh of relief.
"Well, excuse me for not leaving a disorganized, chaotic mess all over, unlike some people," Eva shot back with an angry bark. "By the way, I-"
"Hey, have I ever told you?" Neil chimed, cutting Eva off mid sentence.
"Yes?" Eva tried to sound as rational as possible, but she couldn't keep the passive aggressiveness out of her tone.
"Oh, well, uh..." Neil paused, suddenly awkward. Then, he broke out into a huge grin. "Well, have I ever told you you're cute when you get all riled up? 'Cuz you are." Eva immediately blushed. She couldn't help it! Someone she knew, one of her closest friends, although she would never admit it aloud, just called her cute! Right in front of her face! And Neil, of all people.
"W-wait, what?" Eva sputtered, caught off guard by the sly comment. Neil laughed wholeheartedly, a laugh that wasn't held back and knew no pain. Eva didn't think she'd ever, in all her time knowing Neil, heard him laugh so fully, not once. She shook her head, a little more forcefully than usual. "N-nevermind. I'll just pretend that didn't happen," Eva decided, averting her eyes from Neil, his childish grin and the blue eyes she could just barely see through his insanely reflective lenses which had miraculously not fallen off on their way here.
"Haha! Your reactions are priceless!" Neil chortled, his grin becoming a contented smile. Eva pretended not to hear him.
"So, what movie do you want to watch?" Eva pressed on, "I don't have many that you would probably like, though."
"Do 'ya have Jamanji? Or maybe The Matrix?" Neil requested in an... oddly polite manner.
"Sorry, no. Do you like The Lion King?" Eva appealed with a shrug. Neil raised an eyebrow.
"Disney, huh? Never took you for the family friendly type," Neil teased, falling back to lay, spread eagle, on Eva's bed.
"Yeah, well, what can I say? I think the stories are sweet, albeit historically and fictionally incorrect, based off their originals..." Eva trailed off, embarrassed. She never planned to let her work partner see this far into her home life. Neil just laughed again. She'd never gotten to see him for very long after he got this drunk, so Eva had no idea that he devolved into a goofy idiot after a while.
"Yeah, sure, The Lion King 'll work," Neil decided, interrupting Eva's train of thought. Eva nodded. She turned around, shifting onto her hands and knees to see the bottom shelf of the bookshelf, which was close to the floor and contained a small collection of predominantly Disney movies. She located The Lion King after a moment, taking it from the shelf. It was an old 20th anniversary DVD case that exclaimed, 'Now in high resolution'. Eva removed the disc from it's case, popping it into the DVD player half of the machine under her TV. She walked back to the bed, taking the TV remote off of a bedside table to Neil's left, from where he was laying, and turned the television on. A DVD loading screen appeared after a moment or two and Eva set the remote down.
"Well, I'm going to go get my pajamas on. Be right back," Eva informed Neil walking to a dresser and opening a drawer of pajama pants. She grabbed a fuzzy pair, and closed the drawer. As she walked out of the room, she called back, "Don't go killing yourself while I'm gone, alright?"
"'Kay!" Neil piped in response. Eva closed the door almost all the way, walking up the hall to the next closest door on her right; the bathroom. She wore the tiniest, most minuscule smile on her face as she stepped inside. She quickly undressed, putting the shirt she wore that day back on along with her fuzzy pajama pants. After a brisk, cold face wash, she wiped her face dry and headed back to her bedroom, where Neil was intensely watching the movie, now laying on his stomach, propping his head up with his hands. His mouth was slightly parted, his eyes obscured by the TV's glare against the glass lenses sitting in their frame. "Hey," Neil greeted, his tone hushed.
"Hey. Enjoying the movie?" Eva inquired, lowering her voice to match Neil's after a stern 'Shhh!' from him.
"Yeah, Simba's dad just died," Neil explained, pointing to the screen. Simba, the lion prince, was running in terror from the trio of comic relief hyenas, into the desert. Eva sat next to Neil on the bed, watching him.
"Geez, was I gone for that long?" She didn't think she'd been gone that long. Neil shook his head.
"Nah, I fast forwarded it," He stated, not tearing his face from the general direction of the screen.
"Oh, okay. Did you hurt yourself?" Eva asked, only a little bit worried... yeah, only a bit. Neil suddenly turned to face her and smiled. Then, out of nowhere, his face began to approach her's at a growing speed. All at once, their lips met in a kiss. Neil's aim was a bit off, but that hardly mattered to him. Eva just froze, eyes wide with surprise and a blush creeping onto her cheeks. After what felt like forever, but must've been only a few moments, they broke apart. Neil immediately focused his attention back to the screen, where Simba was lying in the desert for Timon and Pumbaa to rescue him. Eva's mind was in complete panic mode. What the hell was that?! Why did Neil kiss her!?
"Dammit, Neil..." Eva muttered softly. She gathered all her courage and leaned forward, planting a peck on Neil's cheek. She expected some kind of reaction, but got none. Instead, Neil's body slumped forward and he began to snore. "W-what the heck, Neil!" Eva exclaimed angrily. This was going to be a long night.