Melody guided them to an indoor market that was absolutely huge. The women stood gawking at the sheer size of the market, Melody already making a list of different things that they were going to need for dinner that night. A huge grin was spread across the woman's face as she led them through the maze that was the market, grabbing items from the shelf with blinding speed. The others walked behind her, pointing out things that they wanted to know about, adding random items to the cart just to try, including a large selection of cheeses.

Melody grinned at the cheeses. "We can't have cheese without wine, n'esc-ce pas?" She asked the other women who just looked at each other as she slipped some into the cart.

"Melody, none of us are 21." Elsa said, looking at her fellow meister.

"You are in France! Most of us have been drinking since we were 9 or 10, and while the drinking age is 18, that's only to buy it! You are allowed to drink it in private!"

Grins flitted across the faces of the women there; Sylvia and Elsa were left staring at each other. Elsa finally started laughing.

"Then let's do it. And NOT tell the men!" Laughter rang through the group as Melody slipped a bottle of vodka into the cart.

"The taste won't come through as much as will most others. We just need to be careful, and have some reason for a punch bowl." She thought for a second and added another bottle of the vodka. "A big punch bowl." Another round of laughing spread through the crowd, the women quickly finishing up their shopping.

"Now then… how do we get it into the hotel room without them knowing it?" Melody asked. The others sat around for a moment in silence before Sylvia grinned.

"I can do it. You all distract the men and I'll go in through the window. Elsa can block James' soul perception again, and the others don't have it enough for it to matter."

"Then it's settled!" Melody crowed out, everyone sliding back into the cars, bags of groceries filling the two trunks along with a large punch bowl.


The men stood outside the hotel, looking bored, when the women finally arrived. Sylvia waited til they were all unloading the vehicle in front of them before slipping out of the car, a bag clutched tightly in her hands. With a simple thought she slipped into her chibi form, flying up and landing at the window. A moment later she managed to open it, and slipped into the hotel, the vodka already stashed under the sink before anyone else got up to the room, the young dragon already on the way back down, the window firmly closed again.

A giggle went through the women as Sylvia slipped from behind one of the cars to grab a bag, pretending that she'd been there the whole time, and the men looked amongst themselves. Something was up, they could all tell it; they just didn't know what.

Obediently they took the bags up though, helping the women get everything into the kitchen and loitering around.

"Out! Everyone, out!" Melody's voice rose over the crowd. Elsa remained sitting on the counter after giving James a shove towards the door. Avalon was the only one that didn't leave and Melody made a little shooing motion with her hands towards the man, who only smirked.

"Elsa, would you mind giving me a moment with Melody, please?" Avalon said smiling. Elsa shrugged, hopping down and stretching.

"Call me when it's time to cook, Melody." Elsa said offhandedly, leaving the kitchen.

A shriek tore through the apartment a few minutes later and the teens flung the door open, weapons already transformed and in their meister's capable hands. There was no enemy in sight. There was however, an Englishman kneeling in front of a sobbing Frenchwoman who was wearing a very expensive ring on her finger.

A Frenchwoman that was currently spouting French so fast that even Avalon couldn't translate what she was saying.

"Did he-"

"He couldn't have-"

"No way!"

"About time!'

"Way to go, Avalon!"

"Say something, Melody!'

"Say yes!"

Laughter poured around the room as weapons transformed back and people leaned up against their respective partners or stood looking into the room as Melody slowly stopped crying.

"Melody?" Avalon asked.

"Oui, oui, oui." Melody blubbered out, a grin on her face as she bent down and Avalon stood, wrapping his arms around the smaller woman and kissing her.

"Looks like we need that wine now!" Artemis shouted to a chorus of laughs as Melody blushed.


An hour later the food was cooking and Melody and Nicole were in the kitchen, preparing the last of the food and drinks.

"Do you think that it's a good idea to spike the punch still? We've gone through a bottle of wine already." Nicole asked, looking at the two bottles of vodka.

"You mean that Avalon and James have drunk most of that bottle of wine, Nicole. I never imagined that James would be such a natural drinker, considering that he has never drank he said." Melody said as she washed orange juice off her hands from the fresh fruit, her engagement ring threaded through the necklace Avalon had given her that previous Valentine's Day.

"You do know who his father is, don't you?" Nicole asked.

"James? Actually, I don't."

"His father is the Death Scythe. Lord Death's personal weapon. Death Scythe-san is known for holding his alcohol."

"You're kidding!"

Nicole handed Melody some more fruit to cut as Elsa answered. "It's true, Spirit is James' father, and Sylvia's adopted father. I grew up knowing him." The silver haired girl cut another citrus fruit into quarters as Nicole cleaned a pineapple.

"Wait, James and Sylvia are siblings?" Elsa just nodded, cleaning seeds. "Syl-chan is my onee-chan, because she's James' imouto. But, James isn't my onii-chan now."

"Much to Ren's dismay!" Nicole laughed out.

"Ren will just have to get over it." Elsa said coldly and the other two girls looked at her and the meister just shrugged. "I hate to disappoint her, but James is mine."

"I don't think anyone doubts that, Elsa." Nicole said quickly. "Just like no one doubts that Melody and Avy-kun belong together!"

The Frenchwoman blushed as she dug the seeds out of an orange before dumping the fruit into the punch bowl. "Nicole, once you finish with your pineapple we'll be done with fruit and just need to add the juice and," her voice lowered to a whisper, "the vodka."

Quiet giggling spread through the kitchen as the weapon dropped the pineapple into the punch and Melody added the vodka. Grabbing cups they all left with the hor d'oeurves and the punch.


It didn't take long. Elsa sipped on her glass of punch, as did most of the women, watching the men guzzle it as they ate the salty hor d'oeurves that they had prepared, a smirk on her face.

"Elsa, why aren't you drinking your punch or eating anything?" James was suddenly in front of her and Elsa recoiled a bit from the man's breath as he leaned against the wall with one hand, the other moving to sit on her hip.

"I'm not hungry or thirsty right now, James." Elsa laughed. "Dinner will be done soon anyway."

"But it's really, really good punch. And so are the little onion things. Good I mean." James said, his hand moving from her hip to tip her glass towards her mouth. Elsa laughed again and took a good swig of the punch, wincing a little at the taste. James slid against the wall beside her, his hand sliding behind her in an attempt to be sly as he wrapped it around her waist with a yawn.

Kiru on the other hand was sitting on the couch, smiling. Not a smirk, but a true smile, his face lit up. Sylvia sat beside him, having drunk some of the punch; she kept glancing at Kiru out of the corner of her eye as his arm got closer and closer to her shoulders before finally alighting on them. Sylvia blushed beet red and took another drink of her punch.

Avalon and Melody were… gone. For those with Soul Perception they would find two souls very, very close to being one behind closed doors.

Ren hadn't drunk any, but Val had, not knowing the contents. The meister now stood in the middle of the room, glaring at James openly before stalking over to him. "Alright, Albarn, I challenge you."

"Huh?" James blinked, more than a little tipsy.

"You think you're all high and mighty and perfect because you can beat me in the physicals and on our tests. Well, I'll beat you here and now." Val's voice slurred a bit at the end and laughter erupted around the room.

"With what?" James asked as he pushed himself away from the wall. "Your fist?" The weapon stared at the meister's fist for a moment before laughing. "Not that you could."

Val's fist crossed in front of James' face and James staggered back, laughing as the wind from it ruffled his hair.

Elsa downed her punch and stepped between them. "Come on, you're both drunk- don't do something stupid like fighting where something could happen."

"Drunk?" Val eyed the other meister warily. "I… I don't drink."

"Well you did. We all have, and we're all going to keep enjoying it. Without fighting." James just chuckled from beside her.

"Then how do we know who wins?" James asked.

A smirk pulled across Elsa's face. "Easy. You drink."

In short order Elsa had the other vodka bottle that they had left half full open and was pouring shots into the clear glasses they had. James and Val looked at each other while the others crowded around (minus Avalon and Melody). Artemis and Trevor had already left to go and grab more alcohol for this.

"Rules are simple," Elsa said. "Whoever pukes or passes out first loses. For every five shots you all do, the crowd does one."

The two men nodded and downed the first shot. A few long moments passed before Elsa called for the second shot. Two heads were thrown back, two shots downed. Artemis and Trevor arrived back then, sitting another couple bottles on the table, these flavored.

"Again!" Elsa crowed out, raising a glass of her own and taking a shot. She shook her head as it burned on the way down and the others laughed, taking a shot as well. James and Val stared each other in the eye and took a deep breath before knocking back the shot.

"Shot, shot, shot!" Laughter erupted as the two men threw back another shot. And so on. After the seventh shot, Val and James' eyesight was both blurring; Val passed out on the eighth, James on the ninth.

The group of teens was in an uproar, most of them having had at least two shots of vodka now on top of the punch. The sole exception being Ren who stood against the wall, her full cup in her hand, watching the other interact with each other.

She smiled as she watched the Kiru and Zane pick James and Val up, moving them off the floor and into their bedrooms, and everyone laughed as they made a hasty retreat with James from his and Elsa's room, Avalon slamming the door shut and locking it this time with nothing but a sheet wrapped around his waist, Melody's lilting voice cursing from behind him in French. They ended up leaving James in Val's room, the man already starting to groggily wake up.

"Miaou." All heads turned towards the noise, and the laughter rose in volume. Sylvia was back on the couch with Kiru, but she was meowing like a cat, rubbing her head against the dhampir's hand that was alternating between laughing while he scratched her ears and chuckling as she purred while he rubbed her stomach and/or throat.

Nicole was bent double laughing at that and Elsa walked up behind her, placing her arm over the laughing weapon's back. "Hey, you're sober enough to help me, right?" Elsa asked.

Nicole nodded, ignoring the stink of vodka that was coming off of Elsa at that point in time, and followed her into the kitchen. Elsa drew a blade from the set that Melody had brought and popped open the oven, pulling out the ham and setting it down on the table to cool as she toyed with the knife. Wide eyes looked up at the weapon that was lounging on the counter top.

"I was going to make you my weapon, you know." Elsa's words stopped the kicking of Nicole's feet and took the smile from her face even as Elsa's contorted into what might have been a smile. "When Syl-chan ran off. I was going to make you my weapon after I dissected Kiru-kun."

"Elsa-chan, what are you talking about?" Elsa twirled the knife as Nicole slipped off the counter, the point of the knife against the countertop.

"It's a secret that no one, not even me, knows. I almost killed James. I was going to kill Kiru. Then I was going to make you my weapon." Before Nicole could move, Elsa darted at her, the knife in her hand, laughter leaking from the teen's throat.

Nicole was entirely unprepared to find Elsa's lips on her own, the knife buried in the countertop next to where Nicole had been sitting, before Elsa collapsed, giggling hysterically on the floor, her head cradled in her hands. Nicole stepped around the taller girl, gingerly pulling the knife out of the countertop, and noting that it had been buried nearly an inch into it.

Fear had knocked sobriety back into the weapon. Mechanically Nicole carved the ham, ignoring the meister that was alternating between sobbing and laughing hysterically on the floor. It took a long minute for Elsa to come back to herself, and when she did she just looked up at Nicole.

"I need to say I'm sorry, don't I?"

"Just forget it, Elsa-chan, but promise me that you won't drink again." Nicole said unsteadily.

The meister laughed and stood to her feet, stumbling a bit. "I bet daddy would say the same thing. He won't let mother drink either." Elsa stumbled out of the room then, and a few moments later Nicole was certain that she heard the door to the bathroom shut and the sound of heaving.


The food went cold; none of the teens that were currently sprawled out in various positions were really in the mood for anything to eat other than Ren. Melody and Avalon emerged a while later from Elsa and James' room; the telltale sign of their dalliances visible in the flush their faces had and the mussed up way their hair was.

"They had all the fun without us, Avy." Melody said and Avalon slipped his arm around her waist.

"I believe that we may have had more fun, mon amour." Melody blushed deeper and turned her head away from Avalon. He planted a kiss on the side of her neck and just chuckled at the sound she made. "I am allowed to now, Melody. You said yes."

"A thousand times, Avy." She smiled up and he just chuckled.

"I'd tell you to get a room, but you've already been there, done… that." Nicole's voice came from behind them and the two turned to look at her. "I think everyone else is just about done tonight. Want to take some food to your family?"

"Thank you, but no. We're going to try to wake the ones that were staying with us before we go."

Nicole laughed. "Don't bother. Just go on, you need to tell your parents anyway." Melody blushed again, and Avalon pulled her tighter, a smile on his face. "Congratulations, took you long enough though."

"Merci, Nicole." The pair turned to leave, and Nicole looked over at Ren.

"We're the only ones not drunk and my room has two beds. Let's go crash." Ren nodded, and they picked their way through the field of passed out teens.


A/N: Ah, teenage curiosity. Just an FYI- I don't drink, I can't stand the taste, but vodka in fruit juice is one of the more palatable things I've had. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I don't own anyone but James and Elsa. I don't own Soul Eater either.