Week 6 - 5/11/09 - UDC 4 - Cray Mingla and Dolph of Almania

26. Gallant

She woke on an unfamiliar couch with a splitting headache, her mouth feeling like it was full of sand, and wondered what she'd done the night before. Pulling the blanket closer, Cray sat up slowly and looked blearily around the small apartment's living room in confusion.

Then she noticed a note beside a glass of water, a small white pill, and a tube of crackers. The note read: "Cray, when you wake, drink the water, take the aspirin, and have some crackers. I had to attend to something and will return shortly. -Dolph"

She stared at the note for a long moment. What kind of a name was Dolph?

27. Filial

Heeding the advice, she reached for the glass of water and took the aspirin. Then she stared at the tube of crackers as her headache began to subside to a dull and almost-ignorable throb. She didn't want to eat anything, not yet.

Pulling the blanket closer again, Cray relaxed into the couch cushions and just let herself be in the moment. Sooner or later, there would be a need for eating, and talking, and all the things that went with living day to day, but just then, as memories crashed over her of her failure... it hurt just to breathe.

28. Vexation

The owner of the odd name turned out to be a nice-looking young man whom she sort of recognized but couldn't place. Cray was chalking the faint familiarity with having met him the night before, but having been so smashed as to not remember it. "Was I awful?"

Standing at the stove cooking their lunch, Dolph chuckled. "No. Upset and inebriated, but not awful."

"Good."

"You can call me Doll any time you feel like it, too."

"Huh?"

He chuckled again and they feel into a comfortable silence, her wondering why he'd just given her permission to call him a Doll.

29. Sublime

"How did I end up here, instead of my own apartment?"

He glanced up at her, fork halfway to his mouth. "You sort of passed out before you could tell me where it was."

She frowned at him as he ate some more. Somehow, that made perfect sense, even if she was disappointed that it wasn't something more exotic. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Not making fun of me."

He shook his head slowly, met her eyes. "I never make light of other people's pain. Been there myself."

She was left to wonder what had happened to him.

30. Superficial

It was getting towards evening when she finally remembered at least some of the night before, of meeting him, but nothing more than that. It wasn't so much what was on the surface, but what she felt underneath. There was something there, like every other person she'd met since starting her Jedi training, but he was different. Anger... grief... sorrow... It echoed her own turmoil.

As he walked her to the door of her apartment that night, she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Dolph. We should do this again sometime."

"Without the Ale next time," he told her seriously.

"I usually don't drink like that."

"Then yes, we should do it again."