Vaati lost count of how many Jäger bombs Zelda consumed that night. Which, admittedly, wasn't nearly as impressive as the fact that she could spout the entire periodic table without pause while chewing on a cocktail stirrer. Or that she was somehow stillconscious when he semi-dragged her to her dorm. Yep, acing dem MCATs was serious business.

Vaati scratched his head as he made his way to the kitchenette in Zelda's dorm. He fetched a huge glass, poured water into it and dug the aspirin bottle out of one of the cabinets, then took his findings to the living room.

Zelda was bunched up in a heap of blankets and cushions on her couch. Her left arm hung off the edge and her mussed hair covered her face, still covered in smeared mascara and eyeliner. Vaati placed the glass and the aspirin on the coffee table and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her, staring at her face with his head propped up on his right hand.

She let out a rather loud and discordant snore, to which he did his best to stifle a laugh. She wiggled in her blanket cocoon and opened her eyes slowly to find him looking at her with what she thought was some form of sick amusement.

"'Morning, sleepyhead," he said, raising his eyebrows.

Zelda rubbed her eyes then almost immediately grabbed the sides of her head. "'mornin'…" she muttered. "Oh, fuck, my head's killing me." She stretched, then looked around the room, spotted her jacket in a heap on the floor, next to one of her heels and paused for a second, quickly looked under her blanket and back at the heap.

"..are those…?"

"Yeah," Vaati nodded matter-of-factly. "For the record, though, that wasn't me. You started undressing and pretty much just passed out on the couch."

Zelda blinked a few times, looking Vaati over. He was wearing one of the numerous band t-shirts he never seemed to get rid of and some dark jeans, though he was barefoot. She gulped.

"Did we..?"

Vaati snorted. "Nah," he turned to the coffee table and grabbed the glass and aspirin bottle. "Though you did say my jeans made my ass look good." He handed her the glass and popped two pills out of the bottle. Zelda's face flushed red. "Oh, God." She took the pills from his open palm and downed the contents of the glass. "I am so sorry."

Vaati raised an eyebrow. "Wait, are you saying you don't think my ass looks good?" he teased, his grin broadening. "Darn."

Zelda scowled, then whacked him over the head with on of her pillows. "Asshole." She giggled as Vaati flinched when she grabbed another one. "Ey, you're hung over, missy. You're in no shape for roughhousing—ow!" Pillow #3 made contact. "Shit, if this is how you thank your caretakers, you're gonna be a pain when you're eighty," he said, laughing.

Zelda sat up on the couch to get a better shot at slugging him with a fourth pillow. Bad idea. "Owwwwww…fuck! What the hell did they put in those Jäger bombs?" She stumbled over to the window and shut the blinds. "What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty."

Zelda's eyes went wide. "Oh, shit, I've missed two classes already—"

Vaati laughed even louder. "It's Saturday, moron."

Zelda deflated. "Oh." Then she realized she'd stood up to shut the blinds and wasn't wearing any pants. "Oh." She looked at Vaati again, who shook his head, snickering. "They're under your jacket. I'll get 'em." He turned, bent down and extricated them from the pile.

Good gravy, his ass did look good in those jeans.

Zelda's other shoe tumbled out of the tangles of clothing. "Oh, there it is. I woke up this morning and I didn't see it." Vaati said, staring at it.

He shook the pants a few times to stretch them out, then tossed them at her.

"You might wanna shower, though. You drooled a bit." he said, heading to the kitchenette again. "Want me to make some coffee?"

Zelda snapped out of her lull. "U-uh, yeah, thanks." She scratched her head and headed to the bathroom. "Sorry I made you stay over…"

"Eh, no biggie. I was the designated driver anyway."

Where the fuck are the towels? Zelda, this is your dorm. You know where this stuff is. What is wrong with you?

"What about Link?" she asked. Shut up, brain.

"That guy's got a cast-iron liver. He actually drove Malon home."

"Ah. Well, uh.. I'll be in the shower.."

" 'Kaaaaaaay.."

Zelda turned the tap all the way to the end and let the stream of cold water blast her in the face. What the hell had gotten into her? The towel closet was right by the bathroom door, exactly where it had been for the last four years. Jesus. She didn't know why, but she had the sudden urge to bang her head against the tiling.

Finally cleaned off and changed, she walked to the kitchenette. It was small, but somehow whoever designed the complex had managed to squeeze a tiny island with two stools in it. Vaati sat on one of the stools sipping his coffee, while another mug sat across from him. He looked up from the magazine he was reading. "Better?"

"Much," Zelda said. "The aspirin's doing its job. My head doesn't feel like a drum set anymore." She sat down on the other stool and grabbed the mug, then paused.

Vaati stared. "Milk and three sugars, right? At least that's how I hear you order it at the campus café."

Zelda let a small smile creep up on her face. "Yeah." She sipped a bit. Ah, sweet, sweet sobering caffeine. The one other occupational hazard about being a biology major besides smoking was developing the traditional coffee vice and she had absolutely no problem with it.

It was nice that he remembered how she liked it, too.

"When did we leave the bar?" She ventured to ask. One of these days she's going to track the jackass who made those Jäger bombs and slug the shit out of him.

Vaati had resumed reading the magazine. "Eh, around three or something."

Zelda looked around the dorm. "Where'd you sleep?"

Vaati pointed to the window seat; a sofa cushion and a blanket were propped up on it.

Zelda let out an involuntary squeak. "I'm kind of scared to ask what the hell happened at the bar last night." She looked at Vaati nervously. "On a scale of one to completely batshit?"

"Batshit," Vaati said, his tone threatening to break into another fit of the giggles. "I find it kind of fascinating that med students party harder than the Business Management majors. Though the biggest highlight of the night was that six of Link's frat buddies got up on the counter and started wailing 'Sweet Victory'." He looked at his mug, frowned, then downed the remaining contents. "Aaaaaaaaaanyway. It was fun, though. I haven't been out for drinks since the start of the semester."

Zelda took an especially big gulp of coffee. "Egh, I can't remember the last time I went out." She scratched the back of her head. "Guess I was due."

"Apparently," Vaati said, snickering. This time, Zelda joined in the giggles herself. After a while of more small-talk discussing the previous night's events, Vaati looked at his wristwatch. "Aw, fuck. I gotta go. Boss'll kill me if I'm late again." He got up from the stool and made his way to the living room. "Where the hell did I leave my jacke—oh." He went to the window seat and lifted the cushion to find it bunched up under the blanket he used to sleep. He sat down to put his sneakers back on.

Zelda had gotten up from her stool and was leaning against the wall now. "You have to work on the weekends now?" she asked, noticing the mild grimace that had crept on Vaati's face when he noticed what time it was.

"Ehgh, the boss is just being a tool because rumor has it the company CEO is gonna file for Chapter 11 soon," he responded, tightening the knot on his shoelaces. "But eh, we all just take the Shruggot Express to I Don't Give a Fuck, because if that's true, we're all fired, so whatever."

He got up, patted his jeans down to beat the wrinkles out and put on his jacket. Zelda followed him to the door. "Welp, I'm off. You might wanna call Nayru later, though; she was flipping out last night about you having so many Jäger bombs."

Zelda thought for a second. "Yeah, noted."

He was practically out the door now. "See you around," he said, turning.

Zelda smiled. " 'kay."

He was about to make his way down the hallway to the nearest elevator, when she impulsively put her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, wait."

Vaati turned to look back at her. "Hmm?"

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him, albeit lightly and quickly. "Thanks."

Vaati smiled. "Anytime."

He made his way to the elevators. As soon as one of them opened, he stepped through, but stuck out his head quickly and looked back at Zelda. "I get off at seven. Just sayin'." He winked, then went back in the elevator.

Zelda rolled her eyes while stifling a giggle.

"Asshole."