Smoke billowed up from a the remains of one of the villa's leather chairs.
The water poured out of the jacuzzi, bubbles foaming over the top of the still running water.
A woman slipped out of the room, seemingly leaving it deserted, save for a clucking chicken that was strutting around the room.
Levy McGarden struggled to open her eyes. Her world was shaking, her head pounding, and her vision blurry. Her glasses lay a few feet from her and she quickly put them on. Then, she collapsed onto one of the not destroyed couches.
On the other side of the room, bottles and cans started falling from everywhere as Cana tried to stand, and searched for something to help her balance, and failed. Levy sat up to watch her come crashing down amongst her beloved bottles. Once again she grabbed onto the counter top, and managed to haul herself up this time. She stumbled over the chicken on her way to the bathroom as she passed a still knocked out Gray in the middle of the room.
She stepped into the bathroom and walked over to the toilet, then sat down. As she began to relieve herself, a low growl cam from the other side of the room. Slowly, Cana turned to face a full grown tiger. With a giggle, she turned back to face the door.
"Stupid tiger," she mumbled in response to another growl. Once again, she slowly turned to face the beast.
It got up, and began to prowl towards her. She screamed, and raced out of the bathroom, slamming the door as she tripped over the naked Gray. A moan of pain came from the curled up ice sculptor as he pulled the blanket up over his head.
"GRAY!" Cana screamed, "DO NOT GO INTO THE BATHROOM!"
"Control yourself, Cana, c'mon," Gray said rubbing his side as he emerged from his makeshift bed on the tile floor, "Goddamn it Cana pull up your pants."
"Gray, there is a tiger in the bathroom!" Cana said, hysterical, "Do not go in the bathroom! Tiger! Bathroom!"
"What's going on?" Levy asked, still in a daze from the events of the night before.
Gray got to his feet, waving his hands at Cana, who was now jumping around, "Ok, ok, I'll go check it out, just calm down, jeez,"
He stumbled to the bathroom door. Cana still shouting at him to be careful because of the tiger, Gray swung the door wide open. The tiger roared. As Gray slowly closed the door, three things happened. Cana shrieked. Gray laughed. And Levy looked toward them with a blank gaze.
"Holy fuck, shes not kidding!" Gray turned to Levy, pointing to the bathroom door, "There's really a tiger in there!"
"No there isn't," Levy said in a distant, uninterested voice, ignoring Cana's panic.
Cana silently panicked over by the door as Gray walked over to Levy, "You ok?"
"Could you please get dressed? And no, I am not. I am in so much pain right now," She replied, running her hands through her hair in an attempt to collect herself.
"God Damn. Look at this place," Gray said, gesturing to the destroyed TV hanging from te wall, the chandelier just barely still attatched to the ceiling, the various helmets and bras strewn around the room.
"I know, Gray. They have my credit card downstairs. Gray, I'm so screwed," she leaned forward, hands behind her head.
"I mean how does a fucking tiger get in the bathroom it almost killed me!" Cana exclaimed.
"Hey, Cana, fix your pants. I find it a little weird I have to ask twice," Gray called out from the only other not wrecked piece of furniture in the room.
"But I have to ask you twice?"
"Shit!" Gray shot up, then fell back onto the chair. "Too fast. Too fast," he proceeded to roll off it, then go find his clothes, "What the fuck happened last night?"
"Hey, Gray?" Levy turned to him as soon as he had some pants, "Am I missing a tooth?"
"Turn a little mo- Holy SHIT!" Gray tried suppressing his laughs. A panicked Levy frantically began searching for any reflective surface she could find. It wasn't hard among the amount of broken glass on the floor.
A quick glance confirmed her fears. "OH MY GOD! My lateral incisor! IT'S GONE!" She began to hyperventilate.
"It's fine, Levy, right now we just need to calm down. Everything is fine, Levy, Everything is gonna be alright," Gray quickly said, trying to calm down the girl. Her breathing barely slowed. "Cana, go wake up Flamebreath, and let's get the fuck outta Nevada before housekeeping shows up."
"What am I going to tell Droy I lost a tooth and I have no idea how it happened he's gonna be so mand what can I say oh no what should I do," Levy began spewing out words as her panic grew, the gravity of the situation beginning to sink in.
"Levy, you're beginning to freak me out to. I have a massive headache, let's just calm down," Gray said, rubbing his temples. Elsewhere, Cana walked through the rooms, looking for Natsu.
"How am I supposed to calm down look around you look at my mouth look at -" Levy's panic filled voice was cut off as Cana came from the fourth bedroom.
"Hey, guys, Natsu's not in there," Cana was running a comb through her hair, significantly calmer than she was a minute ago.
"Did you check all the rooms?"
"Yeah, I looked everywhere. Plus, his mattress is gone," Cana gave a small laugh.
"Whatever, Firehead probably just went to get something to eat. I'll just call his cell," Gray pulled out his phone.
Levy began to inspect her missing tooth again. "I look like a nerdy hillbilly!" she moaned.
Gray laughed, bringing the phone to his ear. Suddenly, a ringing went off throughout the villa. Cana found the offending phone, then answered it. "Hello?"
"Cana."
"Hey!"
"It's Gray."
"Oh, hey Gray! What's up?"
Levy turned to look at Cana, then whispered to Gray, "Is she serious?"
Gray held up his finger to silence her. Both of them watched Cana. "Oh, nothing much. Just woke up. Did you know there's a tiger in my bathroom?"
"Really? That's so funny, there's a tiger in my bathroom too! Sorry, I have to go, Natsu is missing and I gotta help Gray and Levy find him before we are all fucked. See ya!" she hung up the phone, then turned to the two of them, "Hey, guys, that was Gray. I thought he was calling Natsu, but - Oh wait a second, guys, I think this might be Natsu's phone!"
"No shit," Gray said, sliding his own phone back into his pocket.
Levy and Cana began arguing about how stupid she is, and Gray's headache just got worse. But the next sound to echo through the villa quieted all three of them immediately. They all looked fearfully at one another.
Levy was the first to break their silence. "What the fuck is that."
In one of the closets they found the source of the noise. All three of them stared at it. This time, Gray was the first to speak up. "Whose fucking baby is that?"
"Cana, are you sure you didn't see anyone else in the villa?" Levy asked skeptically.
"Yeah, I definitely checked all the rooms, no one is here except us," Cana replied.
"Except the fucking baby in the closet," Gray said, his shirt undone once again.
Cana smacked him on his exposed stomach, "Check it's collar or something."
Gray look at Levy, who leaned down to pick the baby up. Gray sighed, "Levy, we don't have time for this. Look, let's go find Pinky and deal with this shit later."
"Gray! We're not gonna leave a baby in the room! There's a fucking TIGER in the bathroom!" Levy objected, outraged.
"It's not our baby," Gray reasoned.
"Yeah, I gotta side with Gray on this one."
Levy glared at Gray. He backed down, "Yeah, alright fine. We'll take it with us."
"Thank you," Levy's look of triumph as she picked up the baby was only momentary, as she turned back to Gray who was about to open the door, "And would you please find some pants!"
Levy pulled the ice away from her mouth, "Why can't we remember a single thing from last night?"
Gray pounded his head against the elevator wall. "Because we obviously had a great fucking time. Why don't you just stop worrying for just one minute? Be proud of yourself for once."
"I don't know, Gray, maybe it's because I'm missing a tooth. Or, maybe, it's because there is a tiger in our hotel room. Our hotel room, which, happens to be completely destroyed. Oh, nonono, I know, maybe, it's because we found a baby. A human baby. That's it. It's because we found a fucking baby!"
Cana, who happened to be carrying the baby in a front-pack carrier, quickly covered it's ears. "Hey, watch it! I don't think you should curse around the child."
"Really? I don't think you should be around a child." Levy snarked back.
The elevator doors slid open, and an old woman stepped into the elevator. She smiled at the baby, and began twirling her finger in it's face. "Oh how cute," she said, "What's her name?"
The three of them looked in different directions, completely ignoring the elderly woman's question. "Hey, answer me! Don't make me spin you three! I'll spin you like you've never been spun before!"
Gray leaned forward to get a good look at the baby. "Asuka." He replied.
"Zharia." Cana quickly corrected.
"Zharia?" Gray mumbled, "Seriously?"
"Hey Gray, look," Cana said, pulling one of the french fries out of the basket on their table. She laughed as she began putting the fry in and out of the child's mouth, "She's sucking her first dick."
"Pull yourself together, Cana," Gray said, a grin spreading across his face.
"Not at the table, Zharia. At least hide under it," Cana and Gray gave a little laugh.
They stopped as Levy strode back with the ice still held up to her face. "I looked everywhere," she began counting off, "Gym, Casino, front desk, that little convenience store, no one's seen Natsu. He's not here."
"Firebreath is fine. He's a grown man," Gray picked up a fry, then looked at Cana and changed his mind, opting for some iced coffee instead, "Seriously, Levy, you gotta calm down."
"Have some juice, it helps with the hangover," Cana said, passing her a glass of orange juice.
She turned to the side, and began to throw up the little she had forced down before her search, "I can't have any juice right now," she groaned.
"Ok," Gray said, "We gotta try to figure out what happened. Let's just track this thing." He took a pen from the waiter walking by and a napkin from the center. "Alright, what's the last thing we remember doing last night?"
"Well the first thing is we were on the roof, taking those shots," Cana said over Levy's coughs and splutters.
"Then we had dinner at the Palm, right?" Gray said, turning to Levy.
"I have no-" she spit up some more food, " I have no fucking clue what happened after our first shots." She turned back over the arm of her chair.
"Lightweight." Cana muttered, then confirmed Gray's fact, "Yeah, then we played Craps at the Hard Rock. And, I think Doug was there then too."
"Ok, He definitely was, a little is coming back now," Gray was scribbling down what little they knew.
"You know what guys?" Levy said, wiping her mouth, "I don't even remember going to dinner."
"I know. Fuck. I don't think I've ever been this hungover." Gray leaned back in his chair, trying to think back to last night.
"After the Hard Rock, I like totally blacked out, theres nothing," Cana laughed, taking another sip of sake.
"How the fuck are you still drinking?" Levy asked through her makeshift ice pack that Gray had put together for her.
"Ok, we have up until 10 pm, so that gives us about a 12 hour window in which we could have lost that retard," Gray started intently at his napkin.
"Hey guys, what do you think this is?" Cana asked, inspecting a small white object she had just pulled out of her pocket."
"Thats my tooth! Give it to me! Why do you have that?" Levy snatched the tooth away from Cana.
"No no no, this is a good thing, guys, check your pockets. See what else you can find there," Gray reached into his pocket and dumped a bunch of coins onto his plate.
"I have a receipt from the Belaggio... at 11:05 PM... for 800 DOLLARS! I AM SO FUCKED" Levy threw the paper down on the table.
"I have a valet ticket from Ceasar's. Looks like we got in at 5:17 AM," Cana added it to their pile of evidence.
"Oh shit. We drove last night?"Gray asked rubbing his hands over his face.
Cana laughed, "Yeah, Driving Drunk. Classic."
"You could have killed us all!" Levy threw one of Gray's quarters at Cana.
"Hey! Gray and I are great at driving drunk! Right, Gray?" Cana said in her defense, turning to Gray for support. "Hey, what's that on your arm?" she flicked a yellow band around his wrist.
"Jesus Christ Gray. You were in the hospital last night!" Levy inspected the band.
"Huh. I guess so."
"Wow. Are you alright?" Cana asked.
"Yeah, Cana, I'm fine. Do I look injured?" Gray began to get irritated.
"What the hell happened?" Levy asked once more.
"Levy, this is a good thing. We have a lead now. We can go to this hospital, find this doctor, and try to figure out where exactly Doug is," Gray slid back in his chair with a sigh, sipping his iced coffee.
"Hey, Levy, watch this," Cana picked up a fry and began to pump it in and out of the baby's mouth.
"Cana, not cool."
Wow, it's been like a month! I feel so bad for taking so long, and then putting out this short chapter. But alot's been going on! so please forgive me! there were 4 graduation parties (all of them i had to help plan and set up, they were all my cousins), I'm volunteering at my school as a peer tutor for summer school, I have physical therapy, I finished brotherhood, started college applications, and beat muramasa rebirth (alot), while keeping up with New Leaf. I did promise myself I would get this chapter out before SMTIV too, (which i did! if you count uploading at 4:30 AM the day it comes out before)
I'm So Sorry! but i did have this chapter written earlier, it's just that my laptop fell into the pool at one of those graduation parties and while they were able to save most of the data, it took a while for them to get it back to me. Now I've gotta go find money to pay back my mom while i try to buy a ps3 :( BUT NEVER FEAR! I PROMISE I WILL DO MY BEST TO UPLOAD AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK! (update?) but yeah, boys state was alot of work, but also alot of fun. If anyone ever gives you the chance to go (to boys or girls state) GO!
and again sorry for the shorter chapter this time :(