There was a breeze tonight and now that everyone had moved to the deck the enchantment of the evening could be felt in all its rapture. Serah and Snow had switched from wine to the rum mixture that Snow had made for Hope. The only difference was Snow and Serah's drinks were much stronger than Hope's. Lightning was busy finishing off the wine bottle.
"Vanille!? What the hell are you laughing at?" Fang asked her. It was true Vanille was laughing but no one knew why. "See, this is what Vanille does every time. She drinks that fruit shit too fast and then gets all giggly." Fang explained pouring more scotch over her ice cubes.
"Hope, how are you feeling? Are you ready for something else?" Snow asked him. The only problem with that question was that Snow had completely forgotten to enforce that strict three drink limit on Hope.
"I am more than ready for something else!" Hope told him. A giggly Vanille got up from her chair and grabbed Hope by the hand.
"Come with me I'll make you something!" Vanille said. Fang shook her head.
"She's such a stupid drunk and the truth is she's not all that drunk yet. Wait…Snow! First, your hands are so far up her skirt I can't see them anymore and secondly, what happened to Hope's three drink limit?" Fang asked.
"Crap…I completely forgot about that. Should I go stop Vanille?" Snow asked.
"Like you could even make it to the kitchen in time with Serah on your lap like that! Just let him go." Fang said.
"You know Fang, you or me could go stop them." Lightning said. Fang laughed.
"I'm too lazy." Fang admitted.
"And I'm too interested to see what happens to him later to go stop him from drinking something else." Lightning said finishing her glass of wine and reaching for Fang's unattended drink.
"Did you just drink part of my scotch?" Fang asked pretending to be angry with her.
"I did." Lightning said raising her eyebrows.
"You want one? I'll tell Vanille." Fang said.
"Sure, why not. I'll take one." Lightning said.
"VANILLE! MAKE TWO SCOTCH ON THE ROCKS! VANILLE! Oh my god, what the hell is she doing. VANILLE!" Vanille's lack of response forced her to try and turn around in her chair. In the kitchen Vanille was laughing at something Hope had said and couldn't pour anything at the moment.
"Hope! You're too funny." Vanille said putting the glasses down and throwing her arms around him. She smelled nice, like a combination of the peach drink she had and her shampoo. Hope tentatively hugged her back…tentatively at first that is; until he tightened his arms around her. Hope felt funny but he wasn't sure what it was. He just felt different and it was actually hard for him to let go of Vanille so she could make the drinks.
"Vanille?" Hope asked her squeezing her body against his and feeling his hear beat faster.
"Yes?" Vanille answered.
"I like the way you laugh." Hope said. That comment within itself made Vanille laugh even more. She let go of him and continued her work in the kitchen.
"So, are you going to have a crazy, insane bachelor party? Are you going to have strippers there and lots of questionable activities?" Fang asked Snow.
"No, it will extremely low key." Snow answered her.
"Oh my god! You are the biggest bullshitter ever! There has not been a bachelor party on the planet that hasn't gone without at least one stripper!" Fang said obviously disgusted with Snow's answer.
"I am so not bullshitting you. There won't be any strippers at my bachelor party." Snow said finishing the drink in his hand.
"Why, dumbass!? You're just saying that because Serah is right there on your lap! You just don't have the guts to tell her!" Fang said. Snow laughed at her.
"Fang, no one is taking their clothes off at my bachelor party and I'm completely serious. Why the hell would I want some strange woman taking her clothes off when Serah is 100 times hotter and 100 times better?" Snow asked of her.
"Because, stupid…it's cool." Fang said still unconvinced. "There is not a man in this world so dedicated to the woman he's with that he wouldn't have a stripper at his bachelor party you idiot! I do not understand why your woman is laughing!" Fang said.
"Fang, I will sit here and witness that he is telling you the truth." Lightning said trying her hardest not to laugh at this whole conversation.
"Seriously?" Fang asked looking at Lightning.
"Seriously." Lightning answered her. Fang just shook her head.
"Whatever…I totally disagree with your decision but, hey it's your party and if you want it to completely suck that's your choice." Fang said realizing this was a fast losing battle. She gave up and shifted her focus to Vanille. "Oh my god, what took you so long!?" Fang barked at Vanille. Vanille handed the second scotch drink over to Lightning. Vanille didn't really have an answer, but it didn't matter.
"Serah, why didn't we tell Vanille to make us something while she was in there?" Snow asked looking at his empty glass and Serah's empty glass.
"Hmmm…we didn't say anything did we?" Serah realized.
"You save our seat and I'll go make us something." Snow said kissing Serah's forehead.
"Alright!" Serah said happily holding on to Snow's hand until she finally had to release him as he walked away and into the house.
"Here's to you and me and one hell of a good drink." Fang said winking at Lightning and clanging her glass into Lightning's. Lightning looked at her with curious eyes. Snow returned soon with what smelled like vodka, orange juice and grapefruit juice.
"Thank you, baby this smells good." Serah said sniffing the mixture. She got up out of the high chair to let Snow sit down behind her before crawling onto his lap again.
"Okay, it's time to call Sazhh and here's how we're going to determine who calls him." Snow said tasting what he had created. "Alright, Vanille do you want to call Sazh?" Snow asked.
"Have I ever told you about the time me and Fang played strip poker here?" Vanille asked laughing.
"Okay…she is a possibility. Hope, do you want to call Sazh?" Snow asked again as he used this careful screening process in order to determine who was calling Sazh. Hope nearly choked on what he was drinking.
"If I call him he'll know I'm here!" Hope answered throwing an arm over Vanille. Lightning and Serah laughed at Hope's answer.
"Shit…I really should have monitored them closer." Snow said disappointed that it was this early in the night and they were already drunk. "Lightning, do you want to call Sazh?" Snow continued his questioning.
"No Snow, it's going to take a lot more before I can even think about calling Sazh." Lightning said coherently.
"Hey, Fang do you want to call Sazh?" Snow asked taking another drink of his concoction.
"Hey Snow…go to hell." It was hard to tell if that was tipsy Fang or just…Fang.
"Okay, so Serah that leaves you and me and since we're just fine it's between Hope and Vanille." Snow said.
"Make Hope do it. I'll take pictures of it. This will be hysterical." Serah said.
"Hey Hope, come here." Snow said pulling his phone out of a pocket. "Have you ever seen Hope put his arms on Vanille like that?" Snow asked Serah softly.
"No, I haven't." she answered him just as softly. Hope did as he was instructed.
"Here, call Sazh and tell him hi." Snow said handing the phone over to Hope.
"You want me to call Sazh?" Hope asked.
"Yes, yes! Call Sazh." Snow instructed him.
"Snow, I need to ask you something! Have you ever been kissed?" Hope asked him trying to keep his voice down. Hope clearly had his guard down. Serah and Snow laughed hysterically.
"No, no Hope. I've NEVER been kissed." Snow said still laughing as he said it. He said that as sarcastically as he could. Serah practically choked on her own breath. If Lightning or Fang had overheard this all hell would have broken lose for sure. Sbow's answer didn't exactly sink in because Hope didn't say anything else. Instead he dialed the phone.
"SAZH!" Hope said loudly. Serah grabbed the phone from Hope and switched it to speaker.
"Hope? Is that you? What are you doing?" a sleepy sounding Sazh asked from the other end of the phone. Lightning and Fang flipped around in their chairs to listen to this conversation. Vanille came up behind Hope and slipped her arms around his waist, purring her chin on his shoulder. Serah turned around and looked at Snow. Neother of them had ever seen her do something like that before. She probably shouldn't have been either, but logic wasn't the point right now.
"Sazh, what are you doing right now? Are you doing something cool?" Hope asked.
"Are you all at that place you were going to?" Sazh asked.
"You know Sazh, I've never told you how I think you are a very interesting and dedicated person. Congratulations Sazh, congratulations!" Hope said. That made no sense.
"Hope… man. Are you okay?" Sazh asked.
"He's fuckin' drunk!" Fang yelled to Sazh.
"Ooooh my god…who gave that kid alcohol? Was that Fang yelling?" Sazh's questionable voice asked.
"It was Snow! Don't blame me!" Fang yelled at the phone.
"Hope, am I on speaker phone?" Sazh asked. Hope started laughing and Vanille took the phone from him.
"Hi Sazh! I love you! But don't worry Sazh I don't mean that in a creepy way!" Vanille said excitedly. "Okay! Here's Hope!" Vanille said handing the phone back to Hope and squeezing her arms around him.
"Sazh, were you asleep or anything? I'm not asleep at all!" Hope said.
"Hope. I'm going to ask you this again…am I on speaker phone?" Sazh asked.
"Yes, you are! Who do you want to say hi to?" Hope asked as Vanille still held on to him.
"Do you think she likes him?" Serah asked Snow softly.
"We'll know for sure if one of them takes their clothes off." Snow said loud enough for both Hope and Vanille to hear but they were both too distracted.
"Who's taking whose clothes off? Should I undress now?" Fang asked
"No one is getting undressed Fang!" Snow said.
"Well, not now anyway." Fang winked at Snow.
"Hope, Hope…listen man. I'm really tired. You aren't making a lot of sense. I think I'm going to hang up and I'll talk to you in the morning." Sazh said.
"Okay! Bye, Sazh!" Hope said hanging up the phone.
"Serah, can I look at the pictures on your camera?" Fang asked.
"Yeah, here." Serah said sliding off Snow's lap again to give her camera to Fang. Hope handed the phone back to Snow.
"So, when should we cut Hope off?" Lightning asked sipping her scotch slowly.
"The way I see it sis', we aren't going to actually follow through with any cut off limit we set for him. We'll let him learn his limit the hard way." Serah told Lightning. Lightning laughed.
"Shit Serah, tough love on his first time. Alright, we'll let him drink what he wants." Fang laughed.
"Hey Serah, can I tell you something?" Fang said smiling all over.
"Of course you can, Fang." Serah said.
"Your body is smoking hot." Fang said.
"Huh?" Serah asked. Fang laughed again.
"Snow, when did you take these?" Fang asked.
"Fang what the fuck are you…oooooh shit. Serah, we didn't delete the chip on your camera." Snow just remembered.
"Why did we need to dele….oooooooh shit. I'm going to need that back…" Serah said awkwardly throwing herself toward Fang.
"No, no, no…hold on I'm not done. Lightning have you ever seen your sister wearing only her engagement necklace?" Fang asked licking her lips.
"Fang, you don't want to know what I've seen." Lightning said as dryly as she could but she failed at keeping a straight face. Snow had his hands over his face.
"Fang, give that camera back to Serah, now!" he begged her.
"Relax; I'm almost through the chip. You act like I've never seen a naked woman before. Does it look like I'm freaking out? Speaking of never seen a naked woman before…" Fang laughed. "Hey Hope, Hope, come here. I want to show you something that will blow your fuckin' mind!" Fang said as she finished the scotch in front of her.
"Oh my god! Fang, you are not showing him my naked almost-wife!" Snow said finishing Serah's drink.
"I don't see you getting out of that chair and stopping me." Fang said.
"Yeah, I'm not moving too quickly." Snow said. Serah snapped her camera away from Fang before Fang could show anything to Hope. Serah laughed.
"What did you want Fang?" Hope asked.
"Nothing now! I was going to educate you but because SNOW is a dumbass there will be no learning."
"See, what did I say? I knew Serah's camera would get one of us in trouble before the end of the night but I didn't think it would result from pictures that had been taken three days ago." Snow said.
"What do you want to drink?" Serah asked as she stepped up behind Snow and put her arms around him. He leaned his head over against hers.
"Surprise me." He told her. Serah kissed his neck and took off toward the kitchen. The next phase of the night would determine who had the most togetherness while under the influence of alcohol.