What's this? Another update? So soon? Gasp! I'm doing well. So far. Ehehe.

Enjoy guys!

"'Nd so den Ah jus' picked up mah stuff and skiddled outta Min'rel Town," Karen said, slurring her speech. She was grinning lopsidedly, embracing the warm feeling that was spreading trough her body. Her face was slowly becoming darker and darker shades of red, each shade corresponding to a new level of giddiness.

And Gwen certainly wasn't doing any better.

Gwen then sputtered some of her wine, in a drunken laugh. "Pffffhahaha! Heehee, so you hadda marry a chickenboy? Heehee! Ch-chick-hic-ken b-boy!...Pfffffahahahaha!" she laughed, slowly sagging to the floor, her body feeling numb and heavy under the influence of the liquor. A few moments later her hand shot up and grabbed at a nearby chair, and she struggled to try and lift herself back up. The task proved to be too difficult however so she fell right back down on the floor.

"But…But Ah thought dat peoples didn't do arranged marriages anymore," Gwen said afterwards, rubbing her aching head.

Karen crawled on all fours to where Gwen was lying down and unceremoniously lay her head on the blonde's stomach, ignoring the small oof. She played with the empty bottle in her hand, catching it from one hand to the other as she answered, "Lotsa cultures do that!"

"Does yer culture do that?"

Karen dropped the bottle. "Well. Okay. Not my culture…But still! It gets done and I was awful bad before. Parents wanted me ter marry 'im. They tried to fix me, see?"

"Like a puppy?" Gwen asked with wide eyes.

"Noooo," Karen growled, hiccupping in the process. "Like…Like a broken chair. Or something. An' chicken boy was supposed ta be the carpenter guy. The carpenter to my chair!" Karen rolled herself off of Gwen's stomach and scooted herself even closer to her. She slowly brought her face to Gwen's and whispered in her ear, "Wanna know a secret?"

Gwen nodded.

"Today's my wedding day!" Karen exclaimed, jumping to her feet with both fists in the air. "'Nd they dunno I even left! Rick's gonna be awful mad when he realizes what happened," she laughed. She laughed until she had tears in her eyes and when the tears streamed down her cheeks she realized she had trouble stopping. She slowly sat back down on the ground with a thud and wiped her cheeks, her laughter subsiding, her tears still coming.

Gwen sat up sluggishly and grinned lopsidedly, keeping an unusually fierce gaze at Karen. "Yanno, yer awfurly pretty…" she began, outstretching her hand towards Karen's head, brushing aside a few blonde streaked strands of brown hair behind her ear. She squinted. "All three of you." She wiped Karen's tears.

Karen instinctively gulped and scooted a few inches away. "Yer bein' silly is all. I didn' wanna marry chicken boy 'nd have him fix me. So I came here. I came here. I wanna fix m'self." She got up and hobbled to the kitchen sink with an empty glass in hand. Her heart was pounding, loudly enough that she could feel it in her ears and after all the alcohol she drank it didn't feel pleasant.

Yes yes yes this is a new start come on you should do it you should go for it come on Karen no one will know this is a huge city and it's probably not a big deal here go for it go for it remember remember remember how good it feels?

No no no this isn't right for so many reasons I mean come on she's drunk you're not about to and and and you're not even supposed to want to and what if she has someone already you don't even know that it's wrong wrong wrong it's so wrong stop it Karen don't you remember last time that really can't happen again it can't it can't.

She filled the glass with water and gulped the contents down as her mind warred with itself. She filled it up again and hobbled over to Gwen who was swaying where she sat, the same goofy grin still on her face. "Yer so quiet," she noticed. "Did Ah say somethin' wrong?"

"Jus' drink this," Karen mumbled, giving the glass of water to her friend. "'Nd don't get any funny idea missus, Ah'm keeping my eye on you!"

Gwen dutiful did as she was told, drinking the water to the very last drop. With a satisfied ahhh she set the glass down on the wooden floor and rolled herself (much to Karen's shocked surprise. Really? Rolling?) to the room's queen sized bed. She crawled atop of it, lying on the plain beige and white diamond patterned duvet and groaned. "Ah don' feel so good…" she finally said, rolling over so her back faced Karen, scrunching herself up into a ball.

Karen guiltily looked at the three bottles bottle of wine on the floor. The three empty bottles of wine. Granted, she had demolished the brunt of it but Gwen managed to drink about a bottle or so on her own.

She went to refill the glass of water and sat on her bed, gently putting a hand to Gwen's shoulder. "Here. Drink some more. You'll thank me later," she said slowly, concentrating on not slurring her speech.

This earned her a groan from Gwen. "But I don't wanna."

"Drink," Karen ordered.

Grumbling, Gwen sat up and drank the rest of the water. She handed the glass back to Karen and then rolled on to her side once more.

It was at this point that Karen brought a garbage pail close to the bed. Just in case.

In the meanwhile she went back to her suitcase to begin unpacking the rest of the treasured items she had brought with her from Mineral Town. She swayed as she walked and her balance was only just starting to become more stable. The first thing she grabbed from her suitcase was yet another bottle of wine, one she had nicked from her parents' stash due to the fine vintage. She contemplated opening it, but decided instead to put it away in the mini fridge and save it for another day—either for celebration or to calm the nerves.

She pulled out another bottle of wine. And another. And another. And a small bottle of vodka.

Finally she found the shirts and pants and socks and unmentionables. She knew she had remembered to pack those. She walked to the dresser, everything bundled in her arms, and brusquely dumped the clothes in a single drawer. Maybe she'd sort through it later.

"C'mere," she heard Gwen mumble softly after she had finished unpacking the rest of her suitcase. Karen obeyed. Gwen sat up and groaned, clutching her head. "Oh man that was some wine you gave me. This doesn't usually happen."

"S'all good. There's no shame in being a lightweight," Karen smiled. "It's cheaper that way!"

"What time is it anyhow?"

Karen glanced at the clock on the far side of the room. "It's almost 5 in the morning."

"Why are you still awake?"

"Enh…couldn't sleep. I figure this way I can at least unpack. Besides, you stole my bed! I didn't want to kick you out, you didn't look so good a while back."

"You could have shared…" Gwen muttered.

This earned her a dubious look from Karen. "You were sprawled all across my bed! Where was I supposed to sleep?"

"Ah…oh. Oops. Um. Well. Maybe you should get some shut eye now."

Karen's stomach did a flip at this, as a general sense of unease and desire crept through her. She stood there, transfixed.

"C'mon," Gwen yawned. "It's almost dawn. You may as well."

Her feet moved without her consent. "Alright," said resignedly. She slid into bed next to Gwen but before her head even touched the pillow, Gwen had propped herself up and cupped her chin, and then kissed her.

She lay there, milliseconds feeling like hours. Her lips were so soft and she smelled so good and Karen fought the instinct to wrap her arms around her with everything she had. She quickly pushed Gwen off after a second or so, before she could give herself a chance to respond. Even if she wanted to. Even if she really wanted to.

"Goodnight," Karen said a bit more icily than she intended to.

She would not let this happen again.