A/N: Hello all, glad to be back. Don't have much to say this week, probably forgetting something I really want to mention, ah well. Once again, thanks so much for all the reading and reviewing! This story's actually, kinda popular! And I'm sure everyone knows how freakishly near impossible it is to make that happen (and suddenly I'm thinking of Greed's catchphrase) It's all thanks to you guys, so once again, thank you!
Also, a special thanks to MissiB who helped me sort chapter stuff out. Sheesh, I'm just gonna be putting you in every chapter, aren't I?

Recap: Last chapter, in an attempt to make Mary get more sleep, Martel and Greed spiked one of Mary's drinks. The results were not what they'd been wishing for. Eventually though, Mary did indeed pass out and it's now many, many hours later.


It had been a rare, quiet day at the Devil's Nest, thought that chiefly on account of the fact that anyone who dared make any noise was liable to be threatened at some weapon point.
Mary had finally passed out from alcoholic stupor around six that morning. The girl had ended up left on the couch where she'd passed out for a over an hour afterward though since there had been several times where she'd fallen asleep only to be re-woken accidentally. The gang had seriously considered just cornering off the area for fear of bringing the hyper drunk back to consciousness. After no activity from the teen and learning that they lacked the ability to keep the main room quiet enough though, they risked having Roa move her to her room. Mary, mercifully, remained in a near corpse like state the entire time and had been so since.

After that, the day turned into a very dull one, at least, for Dolcetto. No matter how much he joked about never getting any peace, the dog chimera really couldn't take going for more than a few hours without some kind of activity. But even with the task of taking care Mary being assumed by Martel, because the whole situation was her fault in the first place (If the others had had their way, Greed would be doing so as well but they couldn't really make their boss do anything) Dolcetto couldn't feel safe going anywhere more lively and leaving the teenager alone with only the person that had been stupid enough to put her in such a state, looking after her.

The small man had just come back to the basement from relieving some of his pent up energy by self training in the backyard, both his usual sparring partners busy with watching over an inebriate or going out to buy dinner, and found Martel in the kitchen.

"She awake?" Dolcetto asked automatically, though not in quite as sharp a way as he'd been talking before. The dog chimera was still angry to quite a degree but the sight of the dark rings around Martel's eyes and the coffee she was making gave evidence that the woman had been awake and watching over the problem she'd caused the entire time, which saited him slightly. Not to mention that he was getting tired of snapping at people and getting the same short treatment back.
Martel flinched to look over at him, and she didn't seem entirely over the arguments of earlier either, if the fatigued glower she gave was intended for him. Fortunately, either by being too tired to want to start a fight or guilt over the whole situation, she eventually just closed her bloodshot eyes and sighed.

"No." The thin woman responded while turning back to the battered kettle on the stove and pulled it off the heat before it could start giving out its strangled whistles.

Dolcetto didn't bother saying anything back and just took a seat on one of the couches, then about polishing his currently slightly battered katana.
That was how post conflicts in the Devil's Nest went. Most of the members of the gang were far too proud to apologize for anything less than something they felt crushingly guilty over (only stooping to those of a smaller scale to Greed, and only after being ordered to do so.) Knowing all this about one another, however, everyone knew it was absolutely pointless to hold a grudge till official amends were said. Dropped arguments were just left as they were till the parties silently forgave each other for whatever they'd been angry over. With some time and maybe a few genuinely kind actions on both sides as a peace offering, Martel and Dolcetto would be back on normal terms.

What didn't seem to be going correctly, though, was how long Mary had been unconscious. Dolcetto knew it was the teen's first run in with hard liquor and a lot of it all at once, added to that; he knew she wouldn't take it well but she'd past twelve hours of unbroken sleep by his count and the dog chimera was seriously wondering how much longer it could go on before they needed start getting worried. That was when the sound of a worn out door creaking open and uneven, shuffling footsteps fell on his ears. The man didn't have time to decide whether or not he hoped he was wrong, besides, he already knew there was only one person it could be. Sure enough, Mary sauntered around the corner a few seconds later, leaning so heavily on the wall next to her that she was essentially using it as a third leg.

"Mary!" Martel gasped, rushing over to the teenager before Dolcetto even had a chance to move. "M-Mary, you shouldn't be wandering around, you'll-Geh!" The woman's attempt at directing got interrupted when she reached the teenager and tried to straighten the girl at her shoulders. Mary moved arms she previously had thrown over her eyes and latched onto the snake chimera the moment she was close enough, nearly in a hug but more like a grab for survival, and started to sink to her knees. Dolcetto quickly joined the pair while Martel did her best to support the teenager, who's grip on her actually looked to be quite weak, even though she was trying to make the chimera support all of her weight.

"...Mmph...Guys…!" Mary suddenly croaked in a raspy, pleading voice as she lifted her face some, revealing her eyes were actually scrunched shut. "G-guy…hurts-hurts everywhere-mu-my head, so loud..." she muttered again, trembling. "Guys I think...I think I migh' be dying…" She finally finished, sounding close to tears.
If he hadn't as sympathetic to the sound sensitivity the girl was experiencing, Dolcetto definitely would have laughed.

"Mnhm, don't worry, middle class, you're gonna be fine." The young man stifled a chuckle and slipped his arm under one of the teenager's to help Martel drag her to one of the couches.
Regardless of what the hungover party would argue, there would have been realcause for worry if she hadn't been feeling terrible. The fact that she was in enough pain to exaggerate like that was a good thing, it meant that she was coming back to her senses.

"Then-then wha's happenin' to me…?" The girl moaned as she let herself be shuffled over, sinking heavily into the sofa as soon as her supports started pulling her down, covering her eyes with her hands again once seated.
Not wasting a second, Martel started going about the things to make the teenager's post drunkenness more comfortable, like dimming the lights and getting cold water. As attentive as that was, Dolcetto wasn't entirely sure if it was out of genuine good will or if the snake chimera was just trying to avoid being the one to tell Mary what had happened. Either way, the awkward task of explaining what was going on to the girl, fell on him.

"Well, uh...ya see…" Dolcetto meandered, really wishing he could wait till his teenage friend was a little more stable to remind her, but she'd already come to too much after sleeping so long, to be kept in the dark. "Uh, do you...do you remember anything from this morning?" He asked, dodging having to say what happened himself.

"Huh? It's not morning?" The teen coughed, moving her fingers from her face. "What time is it th-" Remembrance suddenly lit up in the small slits of eye Mary had opened and her expression immediately dropped.
"Oh- oh sh-...I can't-Oh shit, now I remem- I-I was acting drunk. Oh shit, Dolcetto, I was drunk. I was, wasn't I? And this's a hangover, isn't it?" The teenager stumbled through a sentence, looking more confused and agitated with each word.
Dolcetto felt quite guilty when he had to nod yes, the feeling just got worse at Mary's expression and the way she sank her head onto her palms.

"H-how? I don't-I don't even like the stuff. When the hell d-did it even happen?" She muttered, clutching her face as Martel slid onto the couch next to her with the water she'd gone to get, more remorse in her face than Dolcetto had ever seen and was sure he'd ever see again.
Showing all the regret she had was probably the smartest decision the woman had made in a while, since Mary snapped a look at her a bit over a minute later. The dog chimera couldn't see what face the teen was making but it had to be something very dark, when Martel's expression and the way she'd flinched were taken into account.

"...It was in the coffee..." The girl hissed, voice remarkably clear and harsh for someone so hungover.

"...It-...I-" Martel stammered, looking genuinely worried and apprehensive, traits the headstrong woman hardly ever demonstrated.

"That's where everything starts blurring. I thought that stuff tasted weird, you spiked it." Mary continued, leaning closer, though whether that was due to anger or just compromised balance, Dolcetto wasn't sure.

"Guh-wh-! We-...it-...Gre...Greed was in on it too!" Another common behavior in the Devil's Nest, was passing blame.

Mary half groaned, half snarled something while dropping her head onto her fists in infuriation, as well as from the pain of Martel talking too loudly.

"It was just to make you get some sleep! You'd-you'd barely had any all week, I had to do something!" Martel protested, evidently unwilling to go directly to an apology.

"Martel…" The teenager broke in by mumbling under her breath and holding up a hand, leaving the other one massaging her forehead.
"I swear, the second I can see straigh-Uhn!" Mary made the mistake of trying to sit up and snap a glare with whatever threat she was about to give Martel, which only succeeded in making her head throb horribly.

"Yeah, it's better to wait till this is over for revenge, trust me." Dolcetto advised from past experiences while helping the teenager ease back into the couch.

"Well, when's that gonna be?" Mary moaned as she leaned back and threw an arm across her eyes. "And how long was I out anyway? What time is it?"
Both chimera's tensed at the muttered inquiry, though more so Martel. The teenager was upset enough over being intoxicated, they had no idea what her reaction would be to learning that she'd also missed an entire day of classes, and an entire day altogether. Before they noticed, the two had been mulling over what to say so long that Mary had straightened up a little and was looking at them questioningly.

"It's-! Uh…" Dolcetto started evasively, deciding the teen would be more likely to really freak out if Martel broke the news. "A...round seven…"

"Which one?" Mary asked, apparently not back in possession of enough of a sense of time to realize there was no way they were still in the before noon hours but, unfortunately, still clear headed enough to remember how the measurements of a day worked.

"Eh-...evening…" The man eventually conceded, with no small amount of considering the benefit of lying beforehand.

"What?!" The girl shouted, bolting upright, sensations of her physical condition forgotten in the moment of panic. "What about my school?! I had stuff -gulk-due today-geh-guys! I can't kee-ulgh- keep -eech-" Mary wasn't able to fully express (or, scream) her point before she started making deep, guttural sounds that quickly turned into retches, probably due to a stomach twisting feeling to what she'd just been told.

Dolcetto and Martel weren't sure what to do. Taking her to a sink was what they wanted but they couldn't decided if it was a good idea to move her. And she'd already thrown up once that day, right before she fell asleep entirely, so there wasn't anything for her to make a mess with. Still, they were both very relieved when she stopped hacking without anything coming up.

"Hey, hey, ya got every right to be pissed as hell," Dolcetto said while his hand uncertainly hovered over Mary's back, ignoring the glare Martel was sending at him. "But there's nothing anyone can do now so try'n calm-"

"Hey, 's half-pint awake?" The chimera groaned and smacked his forehead when the last person that could make the teenager calm came striding down the stairs.

"Greed, ya might want-"

"I will murder you in your bed."
There was so much intent to follow through in Mary's voice that Dolcetto and Martel jumped, and the homunculus that had just entered the room stopped in his tracks to stare wide eyed for a moment.

"...As long as you can b.s. something to the ladies when I come back." Greed replied in a completely serious voice as he went over to sit on the couch opposite the group, though a little smirk could be seen creeping onto his face. "What, you think I'd be alone in there?" He added, quirking his eyebrows over a wolfish grin when Mary just glowered at him from her still hunched position.
"How ya feeling, kid?" The smug man asked, switching to a slightly more sympathetic demeanor.

"Like I ate a car tire." The teenager answered bluntly, furious expression matched by the tone in her weak voice.

"Well...we couldn't keep an eye on you every second…" Greed mumbled, putting a hand on his chin contemplatively. Though when he realized attempting humor was a lost cause with the girl, who continued to look at him like she was about to declare all out war, he let out a tsk and just went to being straightforward.
"You can stop freaking out, Martel called your school and told 'em you were sick."

"But my pap-"

"You mean the homework thing you were killing yourself over? Martel convinced 'em to let you off. Your whole asthma thing finally came in handy, the story's you had an attack, by the way."

Mary just stared after Greed finished cutting her off. She opened and closed her dry mouth several times, even choking a few words like she was going to snarl again. The gang boss looked very self satisfied when the teenager couldn't come up with anything and switched her look to Martel.

Once again, Dolcetto couldn't see Mary's expression from his angle but Martel's was fairly blank, like she didn't really know how to react. The snake chimera had expressive eyes though, the apology and worry in them were most likely what got the younger woman to just exhale sharply and take the glass of water the other was still carrying.

"How long does this last?" The teen grumbled after being instructed to drink slowly and not gulp like she would doubtlessly want to.

"For you?" Greed asked, tilting an eyebrow again. "Who the hell knows, you've got the tolerance of a twelve year old from what I've seen, half-pint, could be days" He continued, again totally ignoring the glare Mary sent him, though the amount of fear that the idea that the hangover would last that long put into her made ignoring the look even easier than usual. "Though, I hear drinking a shot the morning after helps-!"
It was unfortunate Mary hadn't been able to see the expression change on Greed's face when his comment made her start retching again. The incredibly startled and shocked look would definitely have satisfied some of her revenge desires.

"Ulk-! Never! ee-huh!" She spat once mostly over the fit just the mention of drinking brought. "Never -glak- drinking, ever. -kah-!" The girl finished, casting them all a very dirty and adamant look before doubling over and clutching her stomach.

"That-...that's probably a good thing, actually…" Martel tentatively offered after a minute.

"Huh?" The teen grunted, twisting to glance at her, then sat up the rest of the way when she saw all three of her companions bore similar, slightly unreadable, looks. "What're you talking about…?"

"You uh...don't make the best drunk…" Dolcetto responded, that being the only delicate answer he could think of for the way Mary had reacted to the liquor. "You kinda, well...lose any sort of censor…" He added when the teen just gave him a questioning look.

"Cen...sor? I don't-Wait, I kinda...kinda remember... Oh gods, What-what'd I say?" The girl asked, quickly looking around at all of them, suddenly sounding extremely worried.

"Pfft! What didn't you say?" Greed interjected, leaning back into the couch from the position of slightly pitched forward he'd taken when Mary started choking before. He'd opened his mouth to say something more but he stopped sharply when the teenager caught his eye by staring again. She wasn't glowering at him like earlier though, the look almost seemed...pleading, of all things.
"...To start, never took you for being so self conscious. All that bratty confidence is just song and dance, huh?" The homunculus continued after a beat, pretending that the pause had never happened, something that appeared to relieve Mary slightly.
"But, for the record, your shoulders aren't that big."
Whatever strange reassurance the silent exchange had brought the girl, disappeared when Greed said that.

"Wha-huh?"

"And...I think you could make a great mom someday…" Martel added, but the oddly tender consolation to the drunken admission just freaked Mary out more.

"Wha-What the hell was I talking about?!"


A/N: Ta-da! A hangover chapter! Hope it was entertaining and that everyone was in character :) This chapter was kind of hard to write but, reading back over it, I found it really fun, hope you did too.
Also, I really don't know much about hangovers, so I just had to make it up as I went along, forgive me for any gross inaccuracies.

Again, can't think of much more to say, so onto my usual messages then!
If there's ever anything you'd like to see a chapter about, or just in a chapter please let me know! These last two chapters sprang from a suggestion, so don't hesitate to leave them.

As always, reviews are not required but they're like suddenly receiving multiple bundles of flowers and candy.