Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football or any of the characters.
Hangover
Keira sat with her head in her hands and sipped the green tea Adium had brewed her.
"Better?" the red head asked as she dried her hair with a towel.
"A bit, yeah," Keira grumbled in response, "Thank you."
"Oh, it's nothing. That will help settle your stomach, then we can go and cook something for you."
"I'm never drinking again."
Adium laughed: "If I had a dime for every time I heard that…"
Keira smiled at her and then she blinked: "Have we been introduced? I'm Keira."
Adium laughed even harder: "We have. Last night. But it's no wonder you don't remember. We tried to stop you from doing vodka shots but you seemed so sure of yourself."
"Ugh… Sorry. I don't know what came over me, I'm usually a very smart drinker."
"Well, you were a bit hyper," Adium grinned, "But I knew who you were even before that."
"Really?" Keira watched as the football player went to her wardrobe and bent to take out shorts. Regular football gave a woman a lovely ass, it seemed: "How?"
Adium caught her eye from her mirror as she stood and she was gleeful; "We like your band."
"Ah," Keira smiled, though she felt like Adium was acting way too happy to have an entire stranger crash in her room and was definitely hiding something, "Thanks."
"What about you? Do you like football?"
"Well… as much as the next guy," Keira answered sheepishly, "But I'm not a very devoted fan I must admit."
She wondered whether she had offended the woman, this was her life's work after all and she knew footballers to be very passionate about their sport.
"You're more just a fan of some football players then?" Adium asked as she took off her towel and gave her hair a ruffle.
"What?"
There was a grin in the mirror, and then the redhead turned towards her: "Let's get you breakfast."
Keira had not ever thought of how the living arrangements of the Akillian football team might have been so she had no idea what to expect. And as she had more pressing matters in the form of answering the messages from her friends, informing them that she was fine, and trying to suppress the voices of her stomach and controlling the urge to actually throw up whatever was in it she didn't give it much thought until they reached a spacious kitchen area. Adium sat her a tall glass of water and ordered her to drink it up as she went about preparing for her. Keira offered to help but the woman declined cheerfully, telling her help would be arriving shortly anyway.
As the smell started to rise the doors of the kitchen banged open to allow the team captain through:
"I smell Adium's special sausage egg!"
"Of course you do," Adium rolled her eyes and winked at Keira, "And you can have some of it if you help me prepare it."
"Yes, ma'am," Aarch wandered towards his teammate and his eyes landed on Keira the moment her eyes landed on his naked chest, "Nice to see you up and around," the man laughed as Adium thrust and apron to him, "How are you?"
"Good, thank you," Keira tore her eyes away from his pectorals and looked at his joyful face, "I take it, I met all of you, then?"
Aarch blinked at her. And then a terrifying grin formed over his face as he turned towards Adium: "She doesn't remember?"
Adium looked ready to burst into laughter herself but she pursed her lips and scolded him: "She doesn't, and you will not be an asshole about it."
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," Aarch gasped as he took over the frying pan, "We are practically family, after all."
"We are what?" Keira questioned. It was obvious now, there was something major she was missing and if the utter delight on the captain's face was any indication, it was at her expense.
"Aarch."
Keira took in a breath. She knew who that was. She didn't even need to turn around.
"Ah, the man himself," Aarch grinned, as the newcomer rounded the table and marched towards him. "Why don't you –hmpf"
Norata stood firmly pushing the bread into his big brother's mouth for a second more and only took a step back when the man started munching on it with a shake of his head.
And then he turned to look at Keira.
She was very sure she looked like a deer caught in headlights.
He gave her a sheepish grin and sat across from her.
No, now she looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, setting his forearms on the table and leaning towards her. Which made her eyes rake over his biceps and appreciate a healthy lifestyle even more.
"Terrific," Keira smiled because he was looking at her like she was the most interesting thing in the galaxy and her heart was pounding in her ears.
"That's good to hear," he smiled as he leaned back, for some reason he looked awkward, too, all of a sudden. "I take it you don't remember much of last night? I'm Norata."
"She knows who you are!" Aarch bellowed.
"I'm being polite," Norata growled towards his brother.
"Oh, really? Is that what you are being?"
"Yes."
"I think you are being a wuss."
"Have you introduced yourself to her?"
Aarch stood dumbfounded in his apron and with his spatula for a moment and Norata used that moment to throw a "Thought so," at him. And then the large man scoffed in her direction: "She knows who I am. Everybody knows who I am."
"Oh, Aarch is being self-absorbed?" Artegor Nexus strutted in and made his way straight to the coffee maker, "Is it another Sunday?"
"Fuck off, Artegor," Aarch pouted, "At least I don't take ages in the shower making myself sparkly –"
"Going after good hygiene, Aarch? Really?"
"–and then several more ages getting my hair to look pristine perfect. Talk about self-absorbed."
"I'm Artegor Nexus," the man of the said pristine hair told Keira, as Aarch grumbled in the background about being ignored and how Artegor smelled "more like flowers than Norata does, ugh", "Pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Keira," she said with a nod of her head. "Likewise." From the corner of her eye, she was aware that Norata was watching her with a soft expression but when her eyes turned towards him, his features reshaped into a more neutral state. "So," she started to the brown haired man, when she was certain Artegor was not interested in talking to her more, "Sorry for causing trouble."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all," Norata shook his head, "At least not for us. You are the one who suffered; are you okay?"
"Yes, thank you. I don't know what came over me, I usually don't drink that carelessly."
"Ah, that…" he sat up straighter, "Well, we were drinking and you were trying to keep up, I guess, and we didn't realize you were not fine until a bit too late, so… that is on us."
"How could you have known?" she smiled, "Thank you for taking care of me."
Aarch gave a snort and Adium's shoulders shook in silence. Norata managed to give them death glares even though they were back to back.
"It's nothing," he told her.
"I suppose we hung out before I got drunk, though, right? Otherwise, I'll have to have a serious word with my friends for leaving me."
"You were fine when they were leaving," Norata cleared his throat, "And uh… you insisted you wanted to stay… and… well… you can be very persuasive, I think…"
"Oh, will you cut the crap and just tell her –"
"Aarch."
"Yes, yes," the man went back to dividing the eggs into plates but not before rolling his eyes. Adium swatted his hand with a spatula and he made grand gestures, no doubt trying to indicate something about his brother. Artegor gave him a remarkable side eye as he sauntered towards the refrigerator and Norata looked like he couldn't look her in the eye.
Keira took a deep breath: "I take it, I did something last night," she said and they all turned to her, "It is not nice to laugh to my face and not tell me."
There was a beat.
"We are not laughing," Artegor pointed out, taking a sip from his coffee.
"I am," Aarch corrected him, "But not at you. At my loser of a brother."
"Aarch."
"Fine!"
Adium suddenly put down a plate in front of Keira and started ushering Aarch and Artegor out of the room. They both protested in much different ways; Aarch by wallowing that he wanted "to see!", and Artegor by stating that it was their kitchen and she needed to take her hands off of him, now, they had been too close to oil and he was very freshly clean. Adium swatted their asses and gave the remaining man a curt "Norata," as she followed after them.
Keira turned to him.
"You should eat, Adium's cooking is great."
"You're stalling," Keira observed.
"No," Norata shook his head, "I just want you to have something in you before I…"
"So that I can hurl it out?" Keira was getting more nervous by the minute.
"Oh, no," he also seemed nervous now, "Well, I hope not. I don't think you would… You didn't seem like, last night but of course…"
"You are stalling."
"No, no, no. I just want to make sure you fight off your hangover first," he said genuinely looking like he meant it, "And I am a bit worried you may up and leave and don't eat anything once I tell you."
Keira took the fork in her hand and started nibbling; "Why don't you tell me as I eat then? The nerves are not helping either."
"Okay…" he cleared his throat again. And then shook his head and drew his shoulders, seemingly having come to a decision, "We are regulars at your bar."
"I know."
"Of course. And last night we somehow managed to get introduced to your band."
"Managed?" she smiled, "You mean you guys were trying?"
"Yeah."
"You should have come straight at us," she laughed, "We had been debating whether it would be uncool to just introduce ourselves to you."
"Yeah, you said so last night as well," he smiled.
"Right," she smiled back and went back to eating, "So?"
"So… we got along pretty well and we sat to have some drinks and you and I started making out."
Her fork froze halfway to her mouth and she somehow managed to put it back down calmly rather than drop it. She looked up at him:
"We. What?"
"Kissed. There was a lot of kissing."
"Huh." She reached for her glass of water and downed the rest of it. She wished it was something stronger and suddenly she understood why she may have been reckless the night before. She had had a crush on this guy for months now (even going so far as to actually watch football games for him) and somehow she had managed to not only meet him but also kiss him in one night?! No wonder she had been off her rocker. She wished she could remember it. Her stomach was in churns and that gave her a horrifying thought:
"I did not throw up on you, did I?"
"What? No!" he looked confused, "You did not seem to think of me so disgusting, anyway."
"No! No, no. I didn't mean…"
A smile verging on smug spread across his face: "You seemed very satisfied actually."
She stared: "What exactly did we do?"
"We made out," he said, matter-of-factly, "You climbed on my lap and there was some grinding," Keira hid her face with her hands, "But nothing more. I swear you weren't even as drunk as I was at that point."
"…"
"… you also tried to take my shirt off and I groped your ass a lot."
"All that happened at the bar?"
"Yeah," he seemed sheepish again, "I don't usually do that either…"
"I work there."
"Oh, the boss told you to stop…" Keira looked up, horrified, "–jokingly! I'm sure he was joking!" Norata added hastily, "I'm sure because you told him to 'fuck off' and gave him a middle finger and he just laughed and shook his head like 'kids'. He seems like a reasonable guy."
Keira stared. Norata scratched his neck, looking every bit as uncomfortable as she felt.
"You are not eating. Did you not like it? Would you like something else?"
She blinked, shook her head and went back to her food silently. She had spotted a newly forming hickey on his neck when the scratching had shifted the neckline of his sleeveless hoodie and feeling both super fucking smug that she had put it there and so very embarrassed that she had put it there was really exhausting.
She cleared the food, drank the new cup of tea he brought her diligently and after she was finished she pushed her plate away and looked at him with a shaky breath. He seemed to be debating something, but she didn't want to wait for him to explain to her how this had been an overall embarrassing experience (she was way more embarrassed and she didn't even remember anything!) and how they could maybe become friends. Acquaintances, in reality. She was sure he wouldn't stop himself from listening to her band just because of a night of stupidity –if her band could keep playing that is- but certainly there would be no other interactions and maybe she needed to be happy with that. She could get over a crush, maybe not remembering would even help. She pushed her chair back and stood up.
"There is one more thing you should know," he said hesitantly.
She looked back at him quizzically and with a sigh he stood up as well, rounding the table to stand on her side. The hickey was in her line of vision now and she forced herself to look up at his face instead.
"It's why the others were laughing…" he started and she sighed, "It's not that bad. I mean, I didn't think it was… and you were very drunk at that point, so you can't be held accountable."
"Just say it," Keira said, resigning herself to her fate, "Quickly, like ripping off a bandage."
"It's not…"
"Do it!"
"You said you wanted to have my babies."
Since he was about a head taller, she had to lean her head a bit back to look directly into his eyes: "That's a lie."
"No, it's not."
"I'm not even a maternal person," Keira shook her head.
"I'm not saying you are, I'm telling you what you said."
"Uh-huh? Said to who?" She put her hands on her hips and stared him down. He didn't seem intimidated:
"To the entire bar."
"How could I have even –"
"You used a microphone."
She halted.
"You sang it."
Keira closed her eyes and willed to make herself believe he was lying. That would help in getting over him. That would have made him someone she would not even want to think of again. She did not like liars. She would not appreciate a guy tricking her and making fun of her in this way; and so she would throw him off of her head and go about her life scoffing at every mention of football from then on.
"So…"
But he was still there, of course. No, she couldn't even have been a slightly embarrassing one night thing, she had had to go and make it all sorts of weird so that he would have no choice but to laugh over her whenever she was mentioned again. He was at least actually being quite nice about it to her face, and so it meant she would have even more trouble forgetting him. Still she was not a coward so she looked back up at him. He was smiling, no doubt holding down his laughter.
"What are you doing tomorrow night?"
"Uh?" she blinked.
"I'm asking you out," he stated, "Just so we're clear."
"You… what?"
"What?"
"Why are you even…?"
He laughed; "Oh, you sadly don't remember," he reached over to her sides and took her hands in his and pulled her towards himself, "But as I already told you; we were getting along very satisfyingly last night…" he bent his head and caught her lower lip between his before giving her an idea of how good they had been getting along and she became certain her level of drunkenness most definitely must've had something to do with his kisses.
She was breathless and dumbfounded when he pulled back. He looked at her in all seriousness:
"And we should at least go out once and know each other better before we get started on baby-making."
Keira laughed after a moment and threw her arms around his shoulders, pulling his face to hers for more.
I had the idea for this for quite some time (the old generation is always drunk in my head, why?) but you can thank FemaleSpock and her amazing Negative Space (GO READ IT!) for giving me NorataxKeira feelings and making me feel the need to write them happy and fluffy.
Since there is some Aarch and some Artegor in there, I think I will also shamelessly try to pass this as a belated birthday present to you, FS! XD Happy birthday you wonderful person! :) I was aiming to finish you-know-what for you but alas... it didn't happen :( If you have a prompt, I would love a go at it :)
