Happy Day-Before-The-Superbowl! Did anyone besides me notice that Link's and Marth's favorite teams are playing? XD I swear I didn't plan that. Wonder who'll win...

Once again; lots of thanks to give out (You guys really are awesome!).

Thanks to RawkHawk2.0; I'm glad I could make you laugh. I also really liked your suggestion. :)

Thanks to Mariko Midori; Yes, the guys are idiots. XD I'm glad you enjoyed.

Thanks to Upsilon Four; The car ride's more 'groggy' than 'interesting,' but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. XD The Red Bull thing WILL be coming back eventually. :)

Thanks to Foxpilot; Ike's actually going to hit his sugar crash about halfway through the car ride. XD I had fun writing this, and I hope you have fun reading it. XD I only knew about the New Year because I take Chinese, otherwise I'd have no idea. XD I'm glad you enjoy.

Thanks to TriforceOfAwesome; Thank you so much for the compliments. :) I was a little worried when I started reading your review, but I'm glad you enjoy it! I hope I can keep it up!

Thanks to PKLOVEOMEGA; I love the word awesometasticful! XD Thank you so much!

And thanks to Diagon the Uber Lord of Lawlz; In retrospect, the can of Monster in someone's face would have been great…Maybe in a later chapter. XD (something tells me it's going to be Marth who gets hit). I'm glad you enjoyed, and there will be some good/better fight scenes coming up (in the next chapter or so, I think). :)

Disclaimer(s): I do not own SSBB, Honda, or The Weepies (Which, contrary to their name, isn't an emo band or anything) and their song "World Spins Madly On." Now we can proceed with our lives knowing that I own none of these things. Yay.

Please read, enjoy, and then review!

Chapter 10: The Brink: Part 5

"Would you please stop humming?" Sheik snapped in Link's direction. Link made a rude hand gesture back at her when she turned around, causing Marth to smack his shoulder.

"Ow," Link complained mildly, rubbing his arm.

"Look, we all have that song stuck in our heads," the Altean sighed. "And you humming the tune isn't exactly helping."

A few tinges of pink were starting to peek over the mostly dark horizon, silhouetting a tiny floating dot in the distance that was the Brawl stadium. Ike squinted in the dim light to see the Honda's keyhole, slotting a key in and giving it a sharp turn. The lights beeped, and Ike yanked open the driver's door. "Come on. I'd like to get home before seven."

"Are you good for driving?" Samus asked, dodging Marth as he somehow mustered enough energy to make a leap for the passenger seat. In all honestly, she didn't mind losing shotgun. Odds were she was going to sleep most of the way back anyway.

"I'll be fine," Ike said. "If we get home before I crash."

"I hope you mean before you have your sugar crash," Pit muttered hazily as he scrambled into the far backseat. Once there, he shrugged off his leather jacket and stretched his wings a little, sighing in relief as he did so. "Not, you know, an actual crash."

"Can I just ride back in the trunk?" Link asked, eyeing the back of the car. "So I can stretch out my legs?"

"The thing's about four feet wide, Link," Sheik pointed out sleepily as she settled into the middle row with Samus and Zelda. "I don't think you'd be able to stretch anything."

"I can think of a few things I could stretch," Link grumbled, pulling the back door down over himself.

"Isn't that ille—" Marth started, then cut himself off, rolling his eyes and muttering "never mind."

Ike turned the key in the ignition and made a point of removing the parking brake, grinning hugely at Marth as he did so, daring him to say something. Marth didn't rise to the bait; he was looking out of the window. After a minute he scowled and flipped the sun visor down to shield his eyes from the sliver of sun peeking over the horizon.

"I want breakfast," Quincy whined weakly from the backseat.

"Kid, it's not even six yet," Samus pointed out.

"I'm sure they'll have breakfast ready for us when we get back," Zelda said soothingly. "Maybe you can get some sleep between now and then, so you aren't so tired."

Quincy was already curled up against the window, his brown eyes blinking more and more regularly. Pit's head had lolled against his headrest, his chest rising and falling steadily, his leather jacket thrown backwards over his shoulders like a blanket. Zelda smiled at both of them before turning back around to face the front of the car.

"Don't speed this time," Marth mumbled, sounding like he was already half-asleep. "I'd rather not wake up in a hospital, thanks."

"It's not fair that you all get to sleep and I have to drive," Ike complained. "I'm just as tired as you are, and I can't pass out."

"Well, isn't your life just sucky?" Marth whispered, his voice barely audible over the purr of the engine. Ike shot him a look that didn't work because Marth's eyes were closed. Keeping an eye on the road, he reached over to cuff Marth's head, rolling his eyes when some of the prince's hair dye smeared onto his palm. Marth chuckled darkly and then turned towards the window, a smug grin still on his face as he settled down for a nap.

Pit and Quincy were already passed out, the pokemon trainer curled up against the window and Pit sprawled in an uncomfortable-looking position across the rest of the seat, his seat belt the only thing keeping him from falling off. Zelda was leaning on Sheik's shoulder, dozing. Sheik didn't look pleased, but hadn't shoved Zelda off yet. Samus was looking out of the window, her eyes glazed over.

A thick silence enveloped the car for almost forty-five minutes. Ike worked hard to suppress his yawns and keep his attention on the road. To his credit, the needle on the speed dial never went above fifty; seeing that it was a forty mph road.

Pit suddenly sleep-mumbled something in the back that sounded like 'pizza,' shifting so that his jacket flopped onto the car's floor with a soft 'whap' noise. The sound was enough to rouse Link, and Ike heard him let out a low, miserable moan from the trunk.

"Please tell me you're not carsick," Ike pleaded. "We're almost back." Marth blinked sleepily and sat up straight, peering into the rearview mirror to see what was going on.

Link's tussled head poked up from the trunk. He gestured angrily at his right wrist, which was encircled with a black band that hadn't been there at the beginning of the night. "This isn't mine!" he snapped, pointing at the bracelet.

Ike rolled his eyes, trying not to laugh. "Of course it is. Why would you be wearing someone else's bracelet?"

Link shrugged, then flung out his arms to keep his balance as Ike turned onto a different road. Once he regained his balance, he threw his wrist forward to display the black bangle there. "I don't know, but I'm wearing it now, and I don't own anything like this!"

"A fangirl probably slipped it on as a token of her love," Sheik said wisely. "Can I see it?"

"It's a guy's bracelet!" Link cried.

"Ooh," Marth crooned sarcastically. "Link, I never knew you were into that sort of stuff."

"Shut up!" Link blurted, his face going bright red. "I had no idea how this got here!"

Quincy peeled his face off of the window, blinking his brown eyes dazedly. "Wa's goin' on?"

"Link's having issues," Ike explained. "He's wearing a bracelet that's not his."

Sheik had taken off her seatbelt and was looking at Link's arm that was hanging over the seat. "Yeah, you're right, that's a guy's bracelet." She turned back around to face the front of the car. "Hey Marth, weren't you wearing something like this earlier?"

Marth shot a glance at the black band. "Yeah, but I've got mine right…" His hand pulled up the left sleeve of his shirt to find nothing. His blue eyes flew up to Link's. "What's on the bangle?" he demanded.

"Oh," Link scoffed. "Suddenly it's a 'bangle' not a 'bracelet.' Much more manly that way."

"What's on it?" Marth repeated, his eyes flashing in the sunrise.

Ike pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a sleep-deprived/sugar/lots-of-other-things headache coming on.

Link squinted at the bracelet, holding it up to the window to reveal a silver piece set in the center. "It's a crest, I think."

Marth made an animalistic noise and sagged in his seat. "Dang. That's mine."

"I had no idea you were into that sort of stuff," Ike said coolly.

Marth smacked his shoulder hard enough to sting. "I didn't put it there!"

"Then how'd it end up on my wrist?" Link shouted.

"How am I supposed to know?" Marth shouted back. Zelda woke up with a jerk, her eyes wide and questioning. Sheik started whispering what had happened in her ear. Pit remained asleep.

Samus, who had been staring out the window trying to preserve those memories of an hour ago when they had all been getting along, looked over at Marth. "Hey, what about that girl you were dancing with?"

"I danced with a lot of girls," Marth said nonchalantly. "Which one?"

"The one with glasses. I thought I saw her do something to your hand."

Marth thought back, working hard to remember the girl's face, much less what she had done with his hand. Vague impressions were all he had of her; jeans, brown hair, green eyes under her fake glasses…And the moment he left her, he remembered her hand trailing across his wrist; removing a weight from it.

"You're right!" he said, snapping his fingers as he remembered. "I bet she took it!" He whirled on Link. "Did you ever dance with a girl with glasses? Brown hair, no dress…"

Link shook his head. "I didn't really dance with anyone." Marth scowled. "Oh! But…" Link looked at Zelda for support. "There was this one girl when we went out to the car. She asked if I was Link, remember?"

"She had glasses," Zelda nodded, absently braiding a strand of her hair. "And I think she was wearing jeans."

Everyone lapsed into thoughtful silence. Finally, Link managed to say, "She sure got around."

Marth laughed weakly, and then twisted around so that he could look Link in the eye. "Sorry about that. I'm tired and I wasn't thinking about what I said."

"Yeah, me too." Link nodded as he tugged Marth's bangle off of his wrist and threw it towards the prince, making sure to throw it high enough that it wouldn't clip any of the girls. Marth snatched it out of the air and traced the design on the silver piece absently, his eyes losing their focus for a moment. Link settled back down in the trunk, pillowing his head with his hands. If he drew his knees up to his chest, he could almost lie comfortably on his side.

Ike, fighting to stay coherent, reached for the radio dial on the dashboard, finding an fm station and not caring that he didn't know the song on it.

"You listen to this?" Samus couldn't help asking.

"No," Ike sighed, forcing himself to focus on the last stretch of road underneath the Brawl stadium. He would never hear the end of it if he crashed the car at this stage. Music floated dimly into his muddled consciousness as he slowed the car down and started to park it.

'Woke up, and wished that I was dead

With an aching in my head'

Ike grimaced as he winched the gear shift into park and started to turn the car off.

'And the world spins madly on.'

"Yes it does," Ike said to himself, yanking the keys out of the ignition and starting to open his door. Marth stepped out onto the grass as well, rolling his neck to relieve any cricks in it. When he caught Ike looking at him, he grinned serenely—or he could have just been exhausted and smiling like an idiot. One of the two.

Sheik helped a sluggish Zelda out of the car, supporting her by her elbow. She shot Ike a hopeful smile when he met her eyes. Samus was looking across the car at Marth and looked very out of things. They all looked very out of things. Quincy—as he climbed out of the backseat after Pit—looked like he was about to fall asleep on his feet. Link tumbled out of the trunk, rising drunkenly to his feet to glare at the sun that had painted the sky a magnificent mural of pinks and oranges.

Marth stretched his arms out, and then started out towards the entrance that was basically a little patch of grass that would beam one up into the complex. "Wake me up when it's dinnertime," he said sleepily.

Pit and Quincy staggered after him, Pit's jacket slung over his shoulders like a black cape. Ike and Link followed the girls in, Ike taking a last admiring look at Sheik's blonde hair even as she started to wind it up into her usual braid.

"Doesn't part of you wish that you could just stay like…this?" Link asked, gesturing to everything around himself.

"Sure, a bit," Ike shrugged. "But you can't."

"No," Link muttered through a yawn. "You can't."

The world spins madly on.

My first arc is done! WOOT! HALLELUJIAH!

This is kind of irrelevant, but I had an experience similar to this on a youth trip I went on this summer; we had one more person then we had seats in the van, so one of the guys had to squeeze in the trunk. XD It was insane; we were all crazy on sugar and he kept freaking out cars behind us by sticking his head up and shouting 'Peek-a-boo' as loudly as he could. I could've had Link do that, but they were on a pretty quiet road anyway, and I wanted to do the bracelet mix up thing. Forgive me. ;_;

FYRI (for your random information): The next chapter is going to be River Seas request chapter. :) (Should I start doing previews like this for every chapter?)

Please review to tell me what you thought!