SEVEN
Out of the blue, Character A stumbles onto Character B's doorstep drunk out of their mind and clearly not thinking straight. They are babbling nonsense and Character B feels bad enough to let them in to sit down and relax for awhile. Everything is fine and dandy until Character A starts professing a hidden love for Character B, still drunk beyond belief. Is Character A accidentally speaking of a secret, or just blathering on about something untrue?
After hearing the sloppy and uneven knocks, Serena grabbed her Pokeball belt off her nightstand and bolted to the front door of her apartment. The first thing she did was look through the door's peephole, and she didn't see anybody; just a few flyaway locks of wavy black hair in the lower part of her vision.
She unlocked the door and slowly opened it, acting just in time to catch Augustine as he slid forward towards her.
"Bahn-zhooer, Serena," said Augustine as he attempted to straighten himself. He stood partially upright, but then stumbled a little. Serena grabbed one of his arms and pulled it over her shoulders, allowing her to guide him inside.
"Are you all right, Augustine?" Serena asked him, noticing how he had trouble standing upright and how flushed his cheeks looked.
"Uh huh, I'm fine. I-I- went out … avec les connards de l'université … great wine … lovely waitresses …." Augustine sounded like he was struggling to string words together. He stumbled again, harder this time, and Serena jumped forward slightly to catch him before he hit the ground.
"Let's set you down really quick," she suggested, practically dragging him to the couch and all the while wondering what he was doing here.
"Got lost on my way home … how, Serena? Toute ma vie … j'ai vécu ici. But I remember that you live off Estival Avenue – and I was on Estival Avenue! So I come here, because you help me," said Augustine as he plopped down on the couch and laid back. "Sit down next to me, belle," he added, patting the space on the couch next to him.
Feeling mildly uncomfortable, Serena glanced from him to the couch. "How about I get you some water first?"
Augustine smiled and giggled briefly. "If you say so."
When Serena came back with a glass of water, she passed it over to Augustine, who took a small sip of it before setting it on the couch cushion. He then reached towards Serena, grabbed her around the wrist, and pulled her down to sit on the couch next to him.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, wrestling free from his grip and keeping her hand raised slightly in case she needed to slap him.
"Sit with me?" he asked, almost sounding like a child.
"Drink your water," she ordered, pointing to the glass of water. Augustine stretched out a hand to pick it up, but carelessly knocked it over instead.
"Ever see patterns in spilled liquids?" asked Augustine. He watched as the water pouring out of the overturned glass seeped into the couch cushion and ran off the side. Serena only groaned.
"No more water," he continued. "Oh well. Do you have anything more exciting?"
"Haven't you had enough to drink tonight?" Serena inquired.
"Only to deal with self-asborsed professors who think they're better than me!" replied Augustine defensively. "Porquoi, parce qu'ils ont un meilleure équipment? Et plus d'argent? Conneries!"
"Um, in a language we can all understand, please?" Serena asked calmly, mildly annoyed that he was sliding between their share language and Kalosian, but realizing that not much could be done about it if he wasn't thinking straight.
"I'm sorry, belle," murmured Augustine, giving her a gentle pat on her knee. "None of them are experts in their fields, though! Why do they think they're so great? I'm a scientific pioneer, dammit! The first and only doctorate studying Meg-o-lution …. I started my own lab at twenty-nine, what were they doing at twenty-nine? Just finishing their degrees? If anyone's better than erryone else, it's moi!"
"Uh-huh, you show them," replied Serena flatly. She started to wonder if he was just spouting this nonsense in his drunkenness, or if he honestly thought himself superior to other Kalosian scientists.
"I will. Didja know that Dedenne can shoot fire from its whiskers? Yet we classify it as part Fairy-type and not part Fire-type … what's up with that?"
Serena shrugged, although she knew that what he said wasn't true at all.
"You're studying Pokemon biology at university, Serena. Why not become a researcher in type classifierication and fix this travesty?" Augustine's speech was becoming increasingly slurred, and as he leaned in towards Serena, his head almost fell into her lap, but he snapped back upright – or as upright as he could be – just in time. He then jabbed a finger into her shoulder.
"I'll think about it, but maybe right now you should get some sleep." Serena grabbed the wrist of his outstretched hand and pushed it back into his lap. "I'll go get you a blanket," she continued while standing up. After she took two steps past him, Augustine latched onto her hand.
"Luhwyeu," he said. Serena, now a little irritated, turned her head to look at him. She did not expect to see that mix of emotions on his face: needy, sincere … and loving.
"Sorry?"
"I said … I … love … you. Like, in love love."
"Wow, you really are drunk," she brushed it off, trying to break free from his grasp, but he only held on tighter.
"Don't go away. Stay with me? Serena, you're my whole world and I don't want to lose sight of you."
"Okay, you're talking nonsense now." Just like the factoid about Dedenne, she told herself. He was spouting nonsense, just like the bit about Dedenne shooting fire from its whiskers. But – what if he meant it? The two of them had been together for a few months, it was entirely possible for him to have fallen in love that fast, but he had never said or even hinted at this – feeling herself freak out a little, she took a deep breath.
"Augustine … if you really do love me, you need to listen to me. Right now, I think what's best for you is just to get some rest and sleep the drunk off. I'm going to get you a blanket and sit with you until you fall asleep, and I promise I'll be here in the morning."
"Anything you say, belle," he agreed, his voice having an airy quality to it. He slid his hand down her wrist, lightly grazing over the back of her hand and her fingers, and then letting his own hand drop.
Serena took that opportunity to scurry away to her linen closet, where she found a soft and warm-looking blanket that her grandmother sent her from Kanto. Back in the living room, she heard Augustine singing mildly loud but surprisingly on-key.
"Quand elle me prend dans ses bras, elle me parle tout bas, je vois la vie en rose … elle me dit des mots d'amour, des la la la la laaaaa, et ça m' fait quelque chose …."
She went back into the living room, seeing that Augustine had laid himself down on the couch. He was laying on his side, staring off into space as he sang.
"Elle est entré dans mon coeur, une la de da de la, dont je connais la cause …" Augustine's eyes followed Serena as she threw the blanket over his body and tucked the edges and corners in around him.
"Go to sleep, sillyhead," she said softly, stroking his hair.
"I didn't finish the song," whined Augustine.
"Finish it in the morning when you're sober and you know all the words," Serena told him.
"I'll tell you what the words mean too. Good night mon amour." Augustine's eyes fluttered shut, and a few seconds later he started snoring.
Serena got to her feet and tiptoed to her bedroom. Instead of easily falling asleep as she usually did, she lay awake for a while, wondering if the following morning was going to be at all awkward.
At nine o'clock the following morning, Serena woke up and moved quickly and quietly into the kitchen. She poured cereal and milk into a bowl and stood in the corner of the kitchen farthest away from the living room, watching the blanketed mass still laying on her couch. That mass, which was Augustine, rolled over, and she heard him grumble something. Part of her wanted to talk to him about what he said to her the previous night, but she knew it would be best to let him sleep as long as he needed.
It was then that she noticed the morning sun shining through the living room windows at full force, unintentionally directing its rays towards her couch. After she finished eating, she crept to each window and drew the curtains closed to block out the sun.
"Wutimezit?" she heard Augustine groan.
"A little past nine," she answered, looking towards the couch to see that he was slowly sitting up.
"At night?" Augustine sounded surprised.
"No, it's the morning," she reassured him.
Augustine moaned and lay back down. "I'm going back to sleep," he declared hazily.
"Uh – Augustine … before you do that, I need to ask you something." Serena said as she walked over and knelt next to him.
"Hm?"
"Is it true? What you said last night?"
"My apologies, chérie, but I need a little more information to go off of."
"You said that … that … that Dedenne could shoot fire from its whiskers. Is that true?"
Augustine chortled. "The nonsense I spout when I'm wasted … no, Serena. Dedenne only shoots electricity."
"Oh. Okay …" Serena guessed that Augustine just qualified anything he said while drunk as "nonsense." Nonetheless, she couldn't help but feel disappointed that his drunken confession of love would fall in that category.
"I'll leave you some water and some crackers and a bucket here next to the couch. In the meantime, I need to go run some errands." She stood up and walked back into the kitchen.
When she came back with the promised items, she set them out on the coffee table and at the foot of the couch. Augustine had rolled over to face the back of the couch, but he rolled back over to face her.
"Did I tell you that I love you last night?" he asked.
"Uh … yeah, you did." Serena said, feeling her cheeks grow warm.
"Hm, I was going to wait until the right sober moment … but I meant that. I do love you."
Serena smiled faintly, although she wondered what the appropriate response would be. "I … I figured as much. Well, I'm gonna go now, and I'll be back later."
"See you then, chérie," said Augustine before he closed his eyes again.
She got dressed and ready, grabbed her Pokeball belt and her bag, and headed for the door. Before opening it, she looked over to the sleeping Augustine again, relieved and delighted to know how he felt about her, and asking herself when it would be right to express to him just how she felt.
Did she love him back? As she ran her errands and mulled over it, she decided that the answer was yes.
