Zoicyte woke up with a groan. He definitely didn't get enough sleep the night before. Then again, he almost never did when he was drinking with the guys. He stumbled to the bathroom before knocking into the closed door and cursing loudly.
That was the trouble with being friends with Kunzite. He always woke up first and hogged the bathroom. Zoicyte's private idea as to why this was concerned Kunz's hair. The only one that worried even near as much about his hair was Neph.
"Buncha sissy girly-men." Zoi snarled under his breath. It was too bright, too early, and his head hurt too damn much to keep quiet on the subject of his friends and their bathroom hogging. However, he wasn't grouchy, and suicidal, enough to say it where they could hear him. It was far too much of a hangover day to fight.
However, Zoi really needed that bathroom. There was only one reason for him to haul himself out of his bed this early, and it was behind that door. He winced in advance. This wasn't going to be fun.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Zoi winced again. He knew that the sound of his knuckles on the door bothered him more than it would the man on the other side. It would hopefully get his attention, though. Zoi fidgeted, acutely uncomfortable and standing not even five feet from salvation.
"Yeah?" Came Kunzite's voice from inside the small room.
"It's me, Zoi. Open up."
"What do you want?"
Zoi glared at the door. "It's bright and early on a wonderfully hung-over morning. A morning brought on by drinking vast quantities last night. All that liquid has to go somewhere! Why the hell do you think I want into the bathroom?"
"You know, being that sarcastic in the morning isn't going to get you anywhere." Came the still muffled reply. "Why don't you try asking nicely?" Zoi could almost hear the smirk in his friend's voice.
"Better yet," he ground out through clenched teeth, "if you don't get out of there right this minute I'm not going to lend you my original Star Wars movies like you asked last night. And I'm going to delete your saved game in Warcraft off of my computer!" Zoi was breathing hard and shifting from foot to foot. It was too early for this...
The door opened to reveal an impeccable and annoyed Kunzite. "Alright, alright. You don't have to be so... oof!"
Whatever he had been planning on saying was cut off as Zoi bodychecked him out of the doorway and into the hall. He winced a bit at the sound of the door slamming. It had only been a joke...
Though, to be fair, none of the guys liked Kunzite very much after a night of drinking. Kunzite knew it too. Because of the way his metabolism worked he never got a hangover. So while the rest of the guys were peeling themselves off of wherever they'd crashed, looking like death warmed over, he was usually cheerfully making more noise than necessary and eating heartily with no sign of queasiness.
Kunzite grinned. He always had so much fun those mornings. The guys would eventually get back at him for being so cheerful with them, but it was worth it.
He was also the lucky one in that he almost never blacked out. The reason that was so important was that he was the only one of the group who had never been slapped by an angry girl while hungover in the morning for forgetting all about her. Though he'd been slapped by girls, it was usually for the more mundane crime of being a 'cold bastard'. Or for being sarcastic. Or for not cuddling after. But at least he remembered the name.
He put the coffee on and started pulling eggs out of the fridge. Even if the smell made them nauseous, the other guys needed to eat something like this on mornings like these. Since he could look after his buddies and look like a smug bastard at the same time, he really didn't mind the chore. Though scrambled eggs and toast was about the limit of his culinary skills.
It's not like the guys minded, or even noticed, his usual lack of culinary skills. He was a young bachelor, and it was normal for him to be bad at cooking. Still, he mused, as he listened to the guys stirring in the other room and watched Zoi stumble in looking for coffee, it was a good thing he was around to take care of them now. They needed it.
Jad hunched away from the sunlight trying to light up his face. He attempted to roll over and bury his face in his pillow. He didn't realize until after he hit the floor that he'd been sleeping on Zoi's couch. It also wasn't until after the unhappy groan from next to him that he realized Neph was under the coffee table. He did have a couch pillow under his head though.
"Neph? Neph buddy, it's time to get up. Kunz must be cooking. I can smell eggs. I think I'm gonna be sick." Moving slowly, Jad got his body flipped and his arms and legs under him. In fact, he only took a header to the carpet once getting up. When he was finally crouched down, he decided to try and get Neph up again. He didn't want the taller man to wake up hurling again.
He shook his friend's shoulder, gently, then more vigorously. "Neph! Wake up Neph! Up! Neph!"
"Wha..." Bonk "Owwwww."
"Whups!" Thud "Ooof!"
"That was my head! Against... What is this thing, the coffee table? What the hell am I doing under the coffee table?"
"How should I know? I'm not your keeper. And even if I did know I wouldn't tell you. I'd only just managed to get to my feet. Now I have to start getting up all over again, and my head hurts even more, if possible!"
"You big baby. At least you got the couch." Neph started rolling out, managing to hopelessly entangle himself in the coffee table's legs.
Jad sighed. This happened every time someone slept under the coffee table, yet that's still what happened any time they got drunk at Zoi's. "Here, just let me get up and I'll give you a hand." He gently levered himself up, with more success than last time. Then he grabbed Neph's shoulders and gave him a tug into the open space in the living room.
He helped his buddy to his feet, and then the two of them stumbled their way to the bathroom. They passed Zoi in the hall.
"Morning. We're done, so it's just you two for the bathroom." He took a bleary look at the shade of their faces. "If anyone hurls in my sink or bathtub, they get to clean it."
Jad and Neph just grunted at him, before looking at the open bathroom door. Jad grimaced. "I really don't want to race this morning."
Neph passed a hand over his face before nodding slightly and wincing. "You go ahead. Just be quick. And leave the door open a crack. I may need to steal something with plumbing in a little bit."
"Kay. I'll do my best to be fast."
Zoi watched the exchange with amusement. Really, the only time they were all this nice to each other (excepting Kunzite, who was being a jerk making food in the kitchen) was when they were hungover. No one really wanted to fight while their heads felt like exploding.
He wandered into the kitchen with a slight weave to his step. The floor kept moving on him. Finally he managed to plop himself down in one of the chairs. "Thanks." He mumbled as Kunzite placed a coffee down in front of him. He took a sip. It was still nice and hot, and Kunzite had remembered to add sugar this time.
Zoi didn't take a lot of sugar in his coffee, like Jad did, but he still didn't like it black. Black coffee was only for the direst of straights, and this hangover didn't quite qualify.
Quite.
"What did we get up to last night?" His brow furrowed, Zoi asked the question any hungover person really wanted an answer too.
"Other than you three getting completely plastered?" Came the sarcastic reply as a plate of bacon and eggs was placed alongside the coffee. Zoi blanched, and Kunz bristled. "What, you'd rather cook for yourself this morning?"
"No, no, it's just that I can't decide if I'm hungry or nauseous yet. Give me a minute. And you were pretty drunk last night too. I remember you belting the 'laa la la la la la laa' with the rest of us in our Whiskey Lullaby rendition last night. And laughing while we were chased off the streets due to the same singing. Hey, why were we on the streets? We don't normally leave the apartment anymore while drinking."
"We walked your girlfriend home." Came the sleepy reply from the doorway. Jad was apparently ready for coffee too. "Though I don't remember singing while outside. The chase explains the grass stains on my knees, though."
"You shotgunned a beer while we were waiting for Ami to get to her apartment last night. That's probably why it's blurry after that, Jad." Kunz replied. "And I do recall that now that you mentioned it. Do you remember what you said to those young ladies to make them laugh like that Zoi?"
"Young ladies? What young... Ooooh, right. Them. Uh, I think it had to do with Neph. I told them that after a few he thinks he's a movie star, and offering an autograph was a compliment. They weren't actually supposed to know him."
"Psh, he was acting like he was a movie star long before we left the apartment. He kept referring to me as his agent."
"Well, if that's true, it would explain why we've never seen him in anything, Jad. Right Kunz?"
"Of course. Jad couldn't manage snacks at a hunger strike. How did we get back in here without the keys?"
"We didn't have keys?"
"Nope. And we nixed going to my place to grab the spares when we realized I didn't have my keys."
"So how did we get in?" Confused green eyes looked up from where Jad was busy making a mess of his eggs. "We didn't break in, did we?"
"Not that it would be the first time, but no. At least not into the building, I think. I remember another person. And really Jad, you don't have to drown your eggs in the ketchup! They look like they bled to death on that plate!"
"Hey, I like ketchup! Leave me alone!"
"My neighbour let us in. He was coming back from a midnight drug store run. His daughter had the flu, and he'd run to go get medicine."
"Oh. Is she alright?"
"From what he said last night, feverish and restless enough that we didn't really bother her. Apparently he liked knowing we were there and awake in case he needed help getting her to emerge if she got worse."
"Well is she alright now? That sounds pretty serious."
"I dunno. I'd have to call and see."
"Kunz, can you get Zoi the phone? I wanna know how his neighbour's kid is doing."
"Sure, just a sec."
The other two resumed eating thoughtfully. This was one topic they weren't getting off of till it was resolved.
"Hey Zoi, you've got two messages on this thing."
"Really? Pass it over and I'll see what it's about."
The other two sat quietly while Zoi messed with his phone. Finally he looked back at his friends and their worried faces and flashed them a grin.
"He called last night. Apparently her fever broke at about four and she's sleeping soundly. He figured the phone wouldn't wake us at that time, since we'd already been passed out for a couple hours. He knew we'd be worried."
"That's good news." Responded Jad, relieved to hear the child was fine.
"Who was the other one, Zoi?" Kunz asked, his innate nosiness showing itself.
"It was Ami. Apparently she didn't really feel like settling down after we dropped her off. She stayed on till the machine cut her off saying 'pick up' in various accents and giggling, after explaining she was bored. It was while we were still outside, I guess."
"I see. You should call her and see how she's doing. I dislike the thought of her alone with a hangover, and you three kept giving her drinks last night."
"Jeeze, Kunz, I'd almost think you were trying to steal my girlfriend." Zoi ducked under the playful blow. "I'll give her a call after breakfast, okay?"
"Good enough. Now, back to the original question. How did we get back in the apartment?"
"Uuh, I think that was me."
"Jad?"
"Yeah, I vaguely remember jimmying a lock. I really hope it was yours. Else we broke in somewhere last night."
"Oh. That's not good."
"I think it was my place. Now that you mention it, I recall you working the lock as well. I sure hope it was only my place that you broke into last night."
"I don't remember any other buildings. It was probably just this one."
"Yeah, it was. We only came here after the park chase." Everyone turned to look at Neph, who had just collided with the doorframe trying to enter. In face of their questioning gaze, he blushed. "Hey, do any of you know what I did with my pants?"
Drunks love that song. I think it's the la las. This was supposed to be just a quick prequel for chapter ten, but it was just so much fun. So instead it is chapter ten. Hope you liked!