"I want to die!" I heard Teddy's low moan before I'd even fully registered I was awake. A muffled grunt was about as much as I could manage in the way of a response, given that my mouth felt like it had been scrubbed out with sandpaper and filled with fluff.
Nevertheless, I somehow forced one eyelid to open just a fraction, precautionary against the morning sunlight.
"Gnnnnhh…" I let out my own noise of discontent, "Whdiwdolsnt?" I slurred, swallowed thickly, tried again, "What did we do last night?"
"Drank a bar?" Teddy suggested.
"I feel like I ate a sandcastle, and then got hit by a car," I whined.
"I'm feel ya, babe, and I'm not surprised. Do you have any idea how much we drank last night?"
I cast my mind back, which felt unfortunately like trying to walk against the current, under water.
"I remember us being downstairs. There was pool, there was definitely alcohol and oh-" It suddenly hit me, "They were there. Callie and her- Mark? Was that his name?" Teddy murmured her assent.
Concentrating hard, my eyes slammed open as, "Ohmygod I kissed her!" I whipped my head over the edge of the bed to stare at Teddy and immediately regretted it as pain flared in my head. "Owwww!" I groaned, cluthing at my temple.
"Kissed? Arizona, I think that's putting it a bit lightly," she grinned, "Devoured is probably closer to the mark. You were practically mounting her, right there on the bar!" The grin turned into a bit of a lecherous smirk, "Was pretty hot, actually."
"Ew! Teddy! You're like a sister to me. It's weird for me to listen to you tell me that you think that me making out with some chick was hot," at her glance of puzzlement, "Yeah, I heard it. So sue me if I'm not up to my usual level of wordsmithery." I shot her a glare, flopped back onto my own bunk, arm over my eyes. "It was kind of insanely unbelievably hot. Like, probably the actual best kiss I've ever had. She was just—wow." I breathed out, sucking my bottom lip in between my teeth and knowing that a dreamy smile was on my face.
"Yeah, you were definitely putting on a show for the rest of the bar, and let me tell you, they enjoyed it in a big way!" I knew Teddy wasn't judging, it was just our way to give each other shit for stuff we did when we were drunk.
"The rest of the bar could've not existed for all I knew," turning more carefully this time, I leant over to speak to her, "Seriously, it was amazing!"
"Look at you, you're all happy and glow-y!"
"I can't help it, you have no idea," I responded happily, hangovers banished to the backs of our minds for the moment.
"Ok, come on, you can be happy and glow-y downstairs – I want a bacon sandwich. Or a hashbrown. Or plain toast." Ok, maybe it was just me that had forgotten my hangover.
After showering and dressing, we'd headed downstairs both truly feeling the effects of what we'd drunk; tequila for me and cider for Teddy.
"Remind me not to drink like that again," I turned to Teddy as we pushed open the doors to the bar, "I never, ever want to feel like this again." I lamented as we grabbed plates and started getting food.
When we both had our chosen meals (Bacon, toast and a hashbrown for Teddy, coffee and fruit for me) we took a seat on one of the empty long benches. I was half way through my coffee and 3 bites into an apple when I heard some guy, "Hi ladies, mind if we join you?"
"Yeah of cour-" I'd looked up and my voice caught in my throat as I realized that the voice belonged to Mark, and standing right next to and above me was Callie. I felt the smile cross my face again, completely unbidden. "Hi," I said, only a little annoyed at how breathily it came out.
"Hey," came the response, and she tucked her hair behind her ear in the most adorable move I've ever seen, in such juxtaposition to the seductive hustler I'd played pool against the previous night.
"So, I'm gonna just sit down here, you guys can keep staring at each other for as long as you like," Apparently we'd been staring at each other for longer than strictly socially acceptable and with Mark's words, we broke our gaze to find him and Teddy smirking at us.
"So…" I lead, hoping someone would take over for me as Callie took her seat on the bench next to me, her left leg scant inches from my right.
"How did you guys pull up this morning?" I shot Teddy a grateful look, knowing she'd picked up on my sudden incoherency.
"You mean apart from never wanting to see another pear cider again? Just great," Mark answered with a smile.
"Yeah, I don't know about you, Arizona," Oh, god I love it when she says my name, "But I never want to see another tequila shot again," she let out a short laugh and damn if it didn't pour fuel on the fire that had flared last night.
OK Arizona, time to pick your slack jaw up off the ground and start flirting again, "Oh, I don't know, Callie," Yeah, take that, I thought off her heated glance, turning to face her, "the tequila wasn't that bad," I punctuated my statement by sliding a grape in between my lips, wrapping my tongue around it for the briefest second. I watched in delight as her eyes flicked to my lips and then back up to my eyes. Success!
"Well—I- I mean—Yeah. I guess it could have been worse," chewing slowly on my grape, I nodded along with her stuttering, tamping down my smile.
"Mmm…" I swallowed my grape, "Last night definitely could have been worse," I licked my top lip, just to get that drop of grape juice, of course. If that action had the side effect of drawing her eyes to my mouth again, well, that was just a happy coincidence.
It seemed that she'd decided to starting fighting fire with fire, I could see the light in her eyes spark as she leant a fraction closer, "Last night also could have been so. Much. Better." She paused on each word, each one like an extra log on the fire low in my stomach, her eyes already a shade darker.
"As I recall, I believe I still owe you for last night. The bet, I mean. You did win the game, after all." I leant in closer to her ear, close enough that I knew she'd be able to feel my breath, "And I never, ever let my debts go uncollected," I drew back, staring at her through my lashes.
'Well, we—"
"Uh, guys?" came a voice to my left.
"Mmm?" I turned to see Teddy grinning at us and Mark with his spoon hovering near his open mouth, milk dripping.
"You were, uh"
"So hot." Came the blank statement from Mark.
"Shut up Mark. Eat your cereal," Callie turned back to face opposite the table again, and I was left to recover, Teddy smirking knowingly at me.
I snuck a glance up to my right to see Callie look over at the same time. I shot her a small smile, before gently biting my bottom lip. She returned the grin, her eyes darting to my lips and then meeting my own before speaking.
"So," she started, facing the rest of the table once again, "What are we doing today?"
So. Hi. :waves: I'm back. It's been more than a year since I've written for the Grey's fandom and I sincerely apologize for just dropping off the radar completely. Honestly, I'd never intended to stop, it just kind of happened that life got way busy and I got way more into other fandoms and I wrote less and less. Lately though I've been receiving messages from people asking me to continue, and it made me realize that I owe it to you guys to at least take this story and these characters to a place where I feel comfortable ending it. Life is still busy, so I can't guarantee super regular updates, but I'll do my best to be better.
This is quite short, as I'm definitely a little rusty at the writing Callie/Arizona thing because it's been a long time, so even more than usual, I'd really appreciate any thoughts you have on ways to improve. Similarly, I'd love to know that people still want this to continue, so let me know either way.