"When Bad Things Happen to Drunk People"

Summary: Drinking is the only thing that keeps Adia sane, the only thing that keeps her from seeing the things that she'd rather not see. Unfortunately, when a young man named Kouji enters into her life and Houjun Ri moves into the "haunted" apartment across from her…it just might not be enough.


For Houjun Ri, Friday night consisted of a microwavable dinner and sitting curled up with a book on the windowsill, the only place to sit that wasn't the floor in the living room of his new apartment. The walls were thin and he could hear dull thumping of someone's subwoofer, a party was taking place somewhere in the complex, no doubt.

"Daaa..." he sighed, putting his book down for the nth time that evening and warily looking around the room. For some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. That was ridiculous, though. He was the only person in his apartment. He turned to the window and looked at the street below him. It was empty as well, except for the couple underneath one of the street lamps. He was fairly certain they weren't interested in what he was doing.

Houjun returned to his book.

Elsewhere in the complex, a young woman took a swig from her rum-and-coke filled water bottle and glared at the party-goers through her alcoholic haze. She had only been at the party for fifteen minutes and already she wanted to go home. Adia was only eighteen, but getting trashed every night had-surprise, surprise-- ceased to be entertaining. At least with these people.

"I'm going to go get some air or something." she muttered to her friend and walked out, away from the pulsating music and the undesirable company. The night seemed heavy for some reason. The same kind of heavy she felt right now, the kind that was associated with the word "drunk". Her vision was starting to blur, too, she noticed with a smug sort of satisfaction as she stumbled out the door and down the hall, towards her own apartment. Tonight, at least, she wouldn't have to see anything she didn't like.

Adia woke up with a pretty bad headache to begin with. It must have been solar powered, however, because when she opened her eyes the sunlight filtering through the blinds made it about a thousand times worse.

Something had died in her mouth the night before, and the t-shirt she had slept in was completely soaked in something she hoped was sweat. She knew it wasn't as soon as the smell of dried vomit attacked her a few seconds later.

"Ugh. I really have to stop drinking." she said, quickly pulling off the shirt and tossing it into a wastebasket on the other side of the room. After dragging herself off of the bed her sheets met the same fate.

A shower was definitely in order.

Unfortunately, this was how Adia usually started the weekend.

The dark-skinned girl walked into the living room as she toweled off her light brown hair. Multi-tasking was one of her specialties.

"Kouji?" she called, surprised when her "guest" wasn't sprawled out over the couch like he had been every morning on the month since she "found" him. Closer inspection revealed that he hadn't been back at all that night, the blanket he used still haphazardly piled on the edge of the couch like it was the moment before.

Which could only mean one thing…

"Oh shit. The party."

Her hair still damp, Adia grabbed her keys and rushed out of the door.

"Daaa!" she heard a man cry out as she exited her apartment. She turned towards the stairs just in time so see a young man stumble over the top step and drop a very large box in front of him.

"Uh...need some help?" Adia asked, deciding to play good Samaritan. He was kind of cute.

"Yes, thank you no da!" His gravity-defying bangs bobbed up and down. Okay, kind of crazy. But still cute.

"Adia, actually." she knelt in front of him, gathering the books that had tumbled out when the box fell.

"I guess we're going to be neighbors." he said, smiling. "I'm Houjun."

"How unfortunate." she smiled briefly, before dropping the last book into his box. "I wouldn't want to live in that apartment." She glanced backwards at the formerly vacant apartment across the hall from hers.

"What's wrong with my apartment no da?" he called after her, but she was already heading down the stairs.

Houjun frowned as he stared after her, "That was kind of mean..."

As soon as he entered Apartment 206 a very strange, very uncomfortable feeling washed over him. He carefully set the box down when a chill ran down his spine. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat he looked around warily. Something else was definitely in here, he could feel it. Closing his eyes and murmuring a quick prayer, the feeling passed. Houjun ran a hand through his short brown hair and looked around, satisfied that the apartment was empty--for now, at least.

"How'd you get in?" Adia groaned, trudging into her apartment later that day. Her "guest", Kouji, had once again entered the apartment without a key of any sort. It was mind-boggling, and kind of scary. The blue-haired man was leaning against the stove frying an egg, clad only in a pair of low-riding leather pants. The same thing he wore to the party the night before, if she wasn't mistaken.

"That's all? No 'Hello, Kouji my love'?" he grinned, cracking an egg over the skillet.

"So…what happened last night?" she asked instead of answering her question.

He shrugged, "Just kind of passed out at that girl's house. You didn't open the door when I got here, so I just let myself in."

She sighed as she tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear and regarded the man sitting in front of her, devouring his afternoon-breakfast with such gusto. He had only been in this world a month, or so he said, and already he seemed to have such an amazing grasp of how everything worked.

It was actually a month ago today, since she found him prowling around the park outside, dressed in strange clothes and searching for someone named "Genrou". At first she thought he was crazy…until she saw the intensity of the light that surrounded him.

That was crazy in and of itself, she realized, to be seeing "auras" and a host of other things that most people couldn't-and probably didn't want to- see. Sometimes she saw things that really frightened her…and she hated it. Which is where the heavy drinking came in. For some reason, when she was inebriated, she could turn off that sort of "receptor" she had, and block it all out. No auras. No spirits. No visions. And that's the way she liked it.

A brief flicker of light behind Kouji, like a match being lit, distracted Adia for a moment and she looked away. "It's called breaking and entering." she mumbled, trying to look everywhere but Kouji.

"Adia..." he trailed off, noticing her strange behavior. "Oh...you want a beer?" She nodded, and couldn't help but sneak a peek at his retreating figure. A fuzzy halo of light seemed to surround him, the more she stared the more it intensified until it seemed like he was being engulfed by flames. Beautiful flames of red and gold.

"Thanks." she said, squeezing her eyes shut and chugging half of the frosty brew immediately. When she opened them the bright light was gone...and she had a good buzz going.


Author's Note: I'm going to try not to make this a typical OC gets sucked into the UOTFG and falls in love blah blah blah. I don't really foresee there being much romance in this story at all...but who knows. Okay, please review