Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 46th cycle. Now cycle 47!

This is a shift day. There was another upload this morning: Troika, chapter 6.

"Fill In The Black Holes"
Artie/Lucy (OC)
Artie/Lucy series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

She woke up feeling the unfamiliar sensation of carpet under her face, followed by a headache that ran splitting her from nose to spine it felt. She had thrown her hand over her eyes, not wanting their opening to be met with blinding light, as she surmised it was now morning. When her sight began to adjust, so did the revelation she'd been sleeping not on her bed but on the ground next to it, with her rolled up sweater for a pillow, which had then been abandoned.

She'd turned on to her back, staring up at the ceiling until the stark white began to hurt her eyes and again she attempted to cover them.

She was still in the middle of asking herself those all important questions: How did I get here? Do my parents know I slept here? Where can I throw up? If I look, will I still have underwear?

But then she'd seen her hand, or actually her palm, and she saw the badly shaped but still readable words scribbled there:

'I owe Artie Abrams one song.'

And then it all came back to her. The party, the drinks, the laundry room, the kissing, the singing…

She squeezed her eyes shut in a panic. She'd known the drinks were going to be a bad idea, but she'd gone ahead and had them, now here they were, and the hangover wasn't the only thing giving her a headache. Of all the things she'd have to go and do, it had to be that.

It wasn't so much about regret, not in the most clear cut of ways. Her being drunk might get her to do certain things she wouldn't do if she were sober, but it wouldn't mean she didn't want to do them. If anything, it pulled away inhibition, and it left her at the mercy of her desires.

She missed Artie, she cared… loved him. But then that was where the problems came from. She didn't think she'd loved Grant, but still he had deceived her, so with someone like Artie to follow that up… She had so much further to fall, and she needed to reinforce the ground under her feet if she was going to keep following him.

Was it her subconscious trying to tell her something? It wasn't like she made a habit of pulling stuff like this, so it wasn't a 'liquid courage' kind of deal, not really. But somewhere deep down maybe it had, or she just wanted to forget for a while? She didn't remember that part as well, to be honest.

But she remembered the rest. She remembered sitting there with him on the laundry room floor, his head in her lap… She remembered kissing him, how it had just happened because they both wanted it so much. Thinking about it now, it was a wonder she hadn't been crying the whole time.

It ached, being away from him, and she'd go on and keep telling herself that when the time was right for them to reunite, she'd know, but… she had no idea what that would look like. Until then, she was stuck like a kid who can't go outdoors because it's raining.

She'd spend the entire weekend just waiting for Artie to call, or text, or anything, to ask what it had meant. It wasn't like she had anywhere to go. After her parents had found out what she'd been up to, she'd been more or less put on lockdown until she'd have to head to school on Monday.

But he didn't call, or text, none of it, and now… now she didn't know what it meant. Did he not want to talk about it either? Had it upset him? She didn't want to ask too much, so she waited. Then Monday rolled around and it was time for school. She'd gone in, business as usual, went to her locker, started sorting through her things… Had she left her history book at home, she couldn't find…

"Hey…" She startled and spun around, then breathed at the sight of him.

"H-hey… hi…" she managed to pull together with a smile. "How was your weekend?"

"Well you'll be happy to know the floor has stopped spinning," he bowed his head and she chuckled.

"Tell me about it."

"Must have been one hell of a party," he nodded, and then she knew: he didn't remember. That was why he hadn't called. She must have looked shocked, by the way he stared, so she blinked and looked back in her locker.

"Yeah, what I remember of it," she told him, then sighed. "Okay, I definitely left my history book at home," she declared.

"Well that's okay, you can share mine," he offered. Part of her wanted to graciously decline, but she would have looked like she was evading, and she didn't want that.

"Thanks," she slowly told him, and then they were off to history class. They sat side by side, and he put the book in between them.

She didn't know why she didn't tell him, or maybe she did… He would try and be respectful of her wishes if he knew… that was how he'd been from the day she'd broken up with him. But as supportive as he'd be, as had been, she would always see in his face how he was just really holding his tongue, wanting to say what his heart felt. It was always right there on his face, whether he realized it or not, and she didn't want to put him through that again. She'd made them go through this breakup, if anyone had to support more hardship, it shouldn't be him.

So he didn't know, and she remembered… and someone else wouldn't forget. Lying on her bedroom floor that Saturday morning, she'd heard the sound of the wheels coming around, but as much as she'd tried scrambling away, in had come Stella. Lucy had tried to play it cool, but knowing she probably looked like hell, it wasn't much to go on.

And when Stella had seen the words etched on her hand, she had refused to let go until Lucy told her what it meant. Maybe she was still delusional enough to think their parents wouldn't find out a thing at that point, but she'd told her little sister so she wouldn't go and pitch a fit.

Stella wanted her to tell Artie… Why wouldn't she, she was about their biggest supporter… She said she wouldn't tell anyone, but now when she'd look at her, Lucy would remember… she couldn't not. If there was one person who knew as well how she wanted to fix things with him, it was her. She was her impulse side. She couldn't just go with impulse though. She had to be sure. No matter what.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!