Ami did her best to burrow her head back into the pillow. She hadn't drunk enough to be hungover, but she still wasn't feeling the greatest, and her mouth tasted like something fuzzy had crawled into it and died. It definitely wasn't her first time drinking, but she still wanted to delay actually getting up for a little longer. Though the sun streaming through the window wasn't helping. It was lying right across her face...
Wait a minute, her window faced south, and her bed was on the east side. Morning sunlight filled her room, sure enough, but it never lay across her bed. She poked her head out curiously. It was definitely a girl's room, so scratch passing out at Zoi's. She looked in bemusement at the almost childish decor for a minute before recognition hit her.
"I'm in Minako's room. How did I get here?" She mused aloud, sitting up in the bed.
"You walked, according to you." Came the unexpected and rather wry response from the blonde sitting at the vanity.
"Minako! Did I steal your bed? I walked over? I did! Why the heck did I do that? What else did I do while drunk?" The volley of questions came to a dazed halt as confusion took over Ami's thoughts. Minako decided to answer her anyways.
"Yes it's me. No, we shared. You did walk over, but I don't know why." She levelled a brief glare at the dazed girl. "I'm not very happy with you about that. And I don't know what else you got up to last night. You never mentioned. Any other questions?"
Ami sat quietly for a minute before looking up in embarrassment. "Umm, yeah, do you know where my keys are?"
Minako dropped a cup of coffee off in front of her friend at the kitchen counter before leaning in and slinging an arm around her conspiratorially. "You know, if you start doing crazy things when you're drunk, we won't have a responsible person to keep us in check any more. Who knows what we'll get up to fuelled by Usagi and me?" Ami shuddered in mock horror, prompting a laugh from her cheerful friend.
Minako headed over to the stove to begin making bacon and eggs for breakfast. She debated on cooking pancakes as well, but decided against it as memories of her own hangovers flooded her mind. Too much food wouldn't go over well.
Ami sipped at the coffee, a grateful smile gracing her lips. "Oh right, you're one of those people that need their java juice in the morning to make it a good day. Good thing making coffee happens automatically here." A teasing grin invited Ami to share in the joke.
She smiled back with a teasing light in her eyes. "You're one to talk. If you don't get your sugar laden caffeine injection in the early hours, you don't even stay up to see what kind of day it'll be."
The blonde laughed ruefully."True enough. Though, if I'm going to have something to be addicted to, Starbucks' Java Chip Frappachino is one of the better ones for me."
"True enough. Though no addiction is actually healthy for you. The dependence factor alone makes it trouble, not to mention whatever it's doing to your body at the same time it's lifting your mood. Add that to the fact that most addictions are to things that are bad for the heart, brain, or liver, and you get a recipe for disaster."
Minako laughed again. "Yeesh, not even back for a day yet and already in lecture mode. You're just bent on catching me up on all those things I was supposed to learn in the past few weeks. I was actually able to go days without learning anything new! You're gonna ruin my record!"
"Hah. As if being information resistant was something to be proud of. You could do with a little more knowledge in that empty head of yours. Maybe it'll fill in the part where all the plots come from."
Minako snorted her opinion of that. "As if. If it were that easy to get me to stop hatching plots, someone would've figured it out by now. No, you're gonna have to do better than that to stop me from scheming. Though ice cream tends to work. At least until I'm done eating it works. Even I'm not so much of a bottomless pit as to allow that to be a permanent solution. Anyway, breakfast is done." She set a plate down in front of Ami. "Eat up. You'll need this. "
Ami laughed. "True. Actually, you're easy to distract. I'm talking about stopping the plots completely though. Anyone can distract you. Just point you at the nearest pink or orange thing. Or frilly. Frilly things work too."
"Humph!" Minako responded mock seriously. "You say that like it's the only thing. Hot guys are even better than frilly for me. Or cute animals." She leered at her friend. "Better watch your boytoy, luv. If he's that cute and has a puppy, I just may be tempted..."
Ami just continued to laugh. She knew better than to take that comment seriously. "Yeah right. His friends would never allow that. Neither would I. There'd be no way we could raise the bail if you two were running around unsupervised."
"Oh? Everything you say just makes me want to meet him. How did you end up with a bad boy anyways? And quit playing with your food and eat it. It'll help."
Ami blushed. "Sorry, it's just that I can't decide if I'm hungry or nauseated. Your coffee didn't help as much as I'd thought it would either. What did you percolate, turpentine?"
"Hey! I happen to like strong coffee. How does that saying go? 'Coffee, umm, something, and Men. Some things are just better rich.' Though I forget what the thing in the middle was. I was sure there were three..." She trailed off thoughtfully. Ami sighed fondly. Same old Minako.
"Chocolate."
"What?"
"The middle thing was chocolate. The phrase is "Coffee, chocolate, and men. Some things are just better rich.'"
Comprehension came to Minako's face. "Oh yeah! There's a similar one too. Umm... 'I like my men like I like my chocolate. Strong, dark, and rich.' That's it, right?"
Ami looked at her in surprise. "That's exactly right. Well done Minako!"
The blonde just shrugged. "Hey, leave a monkey in front of calculator forever, and he could write all of Shakespeare's movies."
Ami just blinked. "Uh, you mean typewriter and plays, don't you?"
Minako just stared back at her. "Hunh?"
Ami sighed. "Never mind." She finished her bacon and stared unenthusiastically at her half-finished eggs.
Minako just looked over her with a fond smile. "If you don't want to eat it, don't force it. Go have a shower or something. I can finish these off, and you can have toast or something when you get out."
"You sure that's fine? It's not that I don't like your cooking..."
"Psh, the world's greatest gourmet, I am not. Besides, I've been plastered way more often than you have. I know what I'm talking about. A shower will make you feel better."
"I was not plastered! Just a little tipsy."
"You were calling yourself drunk last night."
"What?"
Sigh. "Just go get in that shower. You can borrow some of my clothes. I'll put them beside the bathroom door when I get up there."
"Fine, fine, I'm going. Yeesh, you can be so bossy at times."
Ami smiled as she left the room. The morning after a night of drinking was so much more fun when she wasn't the one doing the looking after.
Minako watched her friend leave and shook her head. Really, Ami was the easiest drunk to look after that she knew of. Though she was going to have to keep an eye on her if her impulse control really gets that low...
She dug into Ami's leftover eggs with relish. Just like Usagi, there was rarely a time when Minako didn't want to eat. It just took so much energy to always be so cheerful...
Her musing was cut off by the sound of a phone. She dropped her fork and sprinted for the staircase. Of course all the phones were in her room, on the second floor. Neither of the girls had thought to bring any of them down...
About halfway to her room she realized that she didn't recognize the ringtone. She could guess who it was, though. That was Ami's favourite song playing, after all.
She ran into her room and started frantically throwing things around looking for the jeans Ami had been wearing last night. Unfortunately, there were a lot of jeans on the floor. Minako wasn't the neatest person by any stretch of the imagination.
Finally she found the ones she was looking for and managed to get the phone out of the pocket. "Hi, you've reached Ami's cell phone." She paused for a breath. She'd just been running.
*Uh, Hi. Who is this?*
Minako plopped herself down on her bed. She'd wanted to chew these guys out since last night, and now she finally had the opportunity. "I think a more important question is who is this? After all, if I'm here and you're there, I'm the one she wants to talk to."
*Oh-kaaaay... This is Zoicyte. May I speak to Ami?*
"Zoicyte, eh? You wouldn't happen to be the one Ami was drinking with last night, now would you?" Minako asked in an icy tone of voice. Of course, she knew well that he had been there, and so had his friends. She just wanted to draw this out.
*Um, yes I am. Was. Whatever. Why are you at Ami's?* She could hear his confusion.
"Well, it just so happens that I'm not at Ami's." She didn't say anything more for the moment. She wanted to make him think a little, and she hoped it hurt.
*So she's already up and about? This early? That's odd. If she's that put together, may I please speak with her?* She could almost hear his wince at the thought of going outside already. He was definitely in a worse state than Ami.
"No you may not. It's not advisable to take phones into showers. And I'm not calling her out for you. She needs this shower to shake some of the cobwebs from her brain. Cobwebs you helped put in her head. I'm not letting her leave here until she's thinking straight again." Her voice hadn't warmed up any. In fact, it was probably even colder. Hey, all those acting lessons had to be good for something...
*She's taking a shower at your place? Why? Why didn't she have one at her place? And if she was capable of walking over, why can't she walk back?* his questions were taking longer to ask. He obviously wasn't processing this all that well. Though he did seem a little concerned to go with the confused...
*Dude, she's not at her place? Then where is she?* Ami smirked at the sound of a worried voice in the background. Good, maybe she'd get to roast more than one of them. *I don't know Jad. I don't know anything yet.*
She let her smirk grow. This was going to get interesting really soon. "You can tell your friend Ami's in one of the houses overlooking the river by the park where the outdoor concerts are held." Her street was rather small, and not many people knew of it. Everyone knew of the bandshell, though.
The line was silent for a moment. *What do you mean she's by the bandshell? How'd she get there?*
She smiled as she heard the voices of others chime in in the background. *The bandshell? That's halfway across the city. Why would she be there? If she needed a shower, why didn't she come here? It's closer. Is she alright?* She thought it sounded like three voices. Good, she had all of them. At least, assuming only the ones from last night's stories were involved.
"What I mean is simply this." Minako's voice began warming up with every word. "After you idiots dropped her off like spare baggage last evening, she decided she was lonely. So, being drunk and left without sober supervision, she decided to come visit me! WITHOUT letting me know she was coming! So she just up and wandered out into the night to take a nice little hike across town so she could show up at my widow as a surprise at ONE IN THE MORNING!" She took some deep breaths. She'd been up to full volume shouting for about half of that rant, and that took lungpower. Luckily, she had that to spare.
There was a minute of quiet. When voices finally came, they were obviously the background characters. *Wow. That noise made my head hurt, and I'm sitting across the room.* *Thank you for that, Neph, it was quite loud where I am too. I'm the one next to Zoi.* *Guys, we have bigger issues. Ami was wandering around by herself drunk last night. Is she alright?* *Zoi? Zoi, you're scaring me. Take a breath man, before you pass out!*
There was the sound of a shakily indrawn breath from right next to the phone. *She's at your place now?*
"Yes."
*Is she alright?*
"Yes."
*May I have the address?*
"No."
*What?*
"I'm not letting her out of my house till she's feeling better, and then there are some people we need to see. I'm far too angry with you men," she let the word drip of her tongue with scorn, "to want to be near you. So no, I'm not telling you where I am. I will tell Ami you called, though."
She hung up and scowled. She wanted an old fashioned house phone at the moment, so that she could slam it into the cradle. Pressing a button just didn't have the same effect. Though she was feeling a little better now that she'd gotten to yell at them. And apparently she'd gotten through to all of them.
"So I'm assuming that was my boyfriend? You know, if you'd been a little louder, you may not have needed the phone." Minako turned to look at Ami lounging against the doorframe in a towel. "I heard you, and decided to investigate."
"Oh. I was going to say, you don't look like you're finished. You just got started."
"Nah. If it's okay with you, I'll hop back in after. I just want to give him a call first. If nothing else I can reassure him that I'm alright and that I do actually know you. It would suit your sense of the dramatic to have not told him your name. He might think I crashed some random's place last night."
The blonde smiled at her friend, who had a definite twinkle in her eye. "Alright, have it your way. I need a chocolate shake after that excitement, so I'll head downstairs and make one. I'll make one for you too, for after your shower." With a wink and a wave, she bounded down the stairs.
Ami smiled. Minako could be quite scary when she wanted to be. It took a lot to tick her off, but when it happened it was a Big Deal. It was sweet to have her friend that worried about her.
However, at the moment she needed to reassure some other friends before they came up with some hair-brained scheme to 'rescue' her from the situation she was in. Which was quite unnecessary. And foolish. They were going to have to tread carefully around the girls for a bit. They were all going to be up in arms over this.
She pressed a number and waited while speed-dial connected her, plopping herself down on the bed and adjusting her towel. The phone was answered on the first ring.
*Hello?* Ami couldn't help but giggle at the voice of her boyfriend. It was so full of hope and trepidation that it was amazing he got anything out at all.
"Hey, it's me."
*Ami?* Now it was just joy. *Are you alright? Where are you? What's going on?*
She could also hear the other fellows in the background. *It's her? Is she alright? Why didn't she stay at her place? Are you sure we aren't going to get yelled at again?*
She laughed. "I'm not going to yell. I'm fine, just a little fuzzy. That's normal for the day after a binge, though. I know you thought I'd be more comfortable with waking up in my own bed, but after you left I was lonely. I called you, but didn't get anyone. Then I wanted to call one of my girlfriends. I miss them. But then I didn't want to drunk dial, so I thought I'd go pay them a visit. So I left my apartment and decided to head to Minako's. She forced me to sleep here after learning I had been drinking. I think after I get myself sorted out I'll be going to see the other girls. I'm dripping all over her bed, though, so I'll have to let you go now. I'll call you later, since I don't know where my keys are and will need help getting back into my apartment. Set up a plan for that if you want to be helpful, 'kay?"
*Okay. And I'm really glad you're safe, sweetheart. See you later then."
"Later. Bye."
*Bye.*
She hung up with a grin, before heading back to the shower. Not that she'd tell her boyfriend soon, but she found Minako's little guilt game incredibly funny. Now she had a shower to take and friends to reconnect with. Today was looking to be a good day.
"Well, where is she?" Neph asked curiously. Likely it was the home of one of those other four, but he still wanted to know.
"She's at Minako's. She'll need help later getting into her apartment. And she's fine."
"Minako..." Jad mused. "That's the blonde one with the bow, right? The giddy one?"
"That's what I think. She's sure scary. I think I liked it better when that brown-haired one... Makoto? Anyway, I think I preferred getting beat up by the other one to that lecture. What's so funny, Kunz?"
The platinum blonde man was bent over at the waist, holding his stomach and laughing till tears formed in his eyes. "I've had both. And to think you called me a wuss after my last run in with her." He continued to laugh, enjoying that his friends now knew what he'd been put through.
Jad's eyes widened in surprised, and then he winced in sympathy. "Wow, sorry man. Seems like all these girls pack quite a punch."
Zoi just grinned. "Yeah, the fire's the best part. But I guess I'm the only one who really would understand here at the moment."
"What do you mean?" Neph asked, tilting his head in confusion. "We all just got chewed out."
"Yeah." A self-satisfied smirk crossed his lips. "But I'm the only one who's kissed one of them. That yelling's nothing."
I thought the yelling part was the absolute funnest to write. I can just imagine her getting all righteously angry on them. To be fair, I'd do the same with my friends. Let me know what you thought about it, okay? Hee hee, Kunz gets some payback for the others laughing at his run in with Minako.