Sorry this is so short, but I don't quite know when the next update will be since I have no idea in which direction to take this next, and I wanted to get everything posted up to date. I know how the story will end now, I just need to get there properly.
Just a note - this does not mean I'm heading for Lara/Kurtis-ness. Simply observing my take on the cutscenes from AOD, that's all. I like to keep y'all guessing. evil grin
================================================================

"Well, they seem to be getting on well," Hillary remarked, folding his paper and getting up to rinse his dishes. I swallowed my mouthful of toast and looked over toward Hilly.
"They were drunk, weren't they? That wasn't just my imagination?"
Hillary laughed. I finished my orange juice and then held the glass out to Hillary who reached behind him and took it blindly, a practised ritual.
"I wonder what that was all about," I said, reaching for the paper, meaning Kurtis' strange reaction to my question more than anything else. Far be it from men in each other's company to need a reason to get completely and utterly slaughtered.
"Male bonding," Hillary supplied, placing a clean dish on the drainer.
"Hmmm," I said, thoughtfully, getting up to drop my plate in the suds.
I left wordlessly to go and get dressed, and decided on a whim to take the long route to the stairs, past the lounge where hopefully my two hung over acquaintances would be recovering. They were.
At first I couldn't make out their words, but as I drew closer and hid just outside the doorway to glean what information I could, I caught the middle of what seemed to be a pointless conversation, driven by the after effects of inebriation.
"Wasted."
"Smashed."
"Totalled."
"Plastered."
There was a pause, and then, a thought suddenly hitting one of them, "Tipsy!"
"I think we passed that point somewhere around 2am."
I peeked around the corner. Bryce was slouched back into a corner of the sofa, one leg on the floor and the other dropped across the seats. Kurtis, at the other end, was sitting on the floor in a mass of cushions, his head buried in his arms folded across the seat of the sofa.
"So, what we were talking about?" Bryce asked, sipping more coffee.
"How drunk we were last night."
"Right," and then, "No! I meant, last night."
"Er..." Kurtis looked up at his newfound friend, bleary eyed, "Lara?"
"Lara..." Bryce considered this for a moment. "Yeah, that must have been it."
There was silence a few moments longer.
"Why were we talking about Lara?" Kurtis asked, the look on his face showing he was desperately trying to recall the information that he knew was buried somewhere in his mind.
Bryce snorted and waved his hand dismissively. "I dunno, figured you fancied her."
"Do I?" Kurtis blinked, genuinely unsure of the answer. I took in a breath, excited.
"Yes?" Bryce offered, also completely clueless at that current point in time. The two men looked at each other for a few seconds.
"Wasted," Kurtis commented.
I bit back a laugh and tip toed off, squeaking quietly to myself in a mixture of comedy and excitement. It was always nice to have someone like you, even if you didn't find them attractive. Because I wasn't attracted to Kurtis, really. No, of course I wasn't. At all. Not in the slightest. No.