DISCLAIMER: I do not own Animorphs.
We don't have to put a disclaimer on every chapter do we? Somebody please tell me in a review or something!
Okay, sorry if this party scene has been extremely long, but it's sort of vital and important to the general story, and also especially the love/romance bit of it.
Sorry if it's been lame. Hopefully, you've enjoyed it.
And now, worn out ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the Morning After...
Tobias POV
Man, I was dancing...
With L'Aini. And this weird song was playing.
You take your car to work.
I'll take my board.
And when you're out of fuel.
I'm still afloat.
Everything swirling.
A voice, singing faster now.
You take your car to work.
I'll take my board.
And when you're out of fuel.
I'm still afloat.
Weezer?
On the Andalite home world?
No. I told myself. The sound system.
Oh. Yeah.
Man, what was this stuff?! Look at the bottle. Man. Can't read it!
It was going faster. We were in Andalite morph and dancing faster and faster and faster.
The music getting faster and now four voices singing.
You take your car to work.
I'll take my board.
And when you're out of fuel.
I'm still afloat.
You take your car.
I'll take my board.
You're out of fuel.
I'm still afloat.
All along the undertow.
Strengthening it's hold.
I never thought it'd come to this.
NOW I CAN NEVER GO HOME.
We fell onto the ground, laughing.
We were out of the ship now...moving to the woods...
running, laughing, and I was chasing her...
so much fun... and now...what?
We were...
dancing slowly in the woods...
Slowly...
You take your car to work...
I'll take my board...
And when you're out of fuel...
I'm still afloat...
That song playing and playing and playing...
And I awoke, draped over the sound system.
Who was singing?
Oh, the sound system was still on.
I reached over and turned it off. With an Andalite hand.
Oh crap...how long had I been in MORPH?!
I tried to demorph. Couldn't.
No! I yelled.
I tried to calm down.
I was just blitzed. I told myself. I tried again...
and felt myself sliding back into feathers...
Phew...oh man, that was close...
I was hawk again.
It was night.
I flew. Where was L'Aini?
I couldn't see her anywhere. I went back to the Rachel.
I found her lying in one of the quarters. What was she doing there?
I landed next to her.
Her eyes opened sleepily. She was on her side. Andalites never do that.
She smiled, still drunk.
"Funny bird." She said softly, and stroked my crest. "So funny..." Her eyes closed.
I felt so exhausted, I didn't even have the strength to fly up and perch on the wall above her.
So I just snuggled in her arms.
She held me close to her chest.
"My little bird friend." She murmured softly. Sleepily.
I felt so safe in her arms. She was so strong.
Like...kind of like...Rachel...
The early dawn Andalite suns shined through a small window, and the room was filled with golden light.
I lie in the warmth of her embrace for the rest of the early morning.
The next morning.
Everybody was passed out. Or just exhausted.
Bottles were everywhere. Food was strewn all over the inside of the ship and outside on the lawn. The burned out bonfire. The box chairs scattered around. A pair of Marco's boxers.
Hopefully not the ones he'd been wearing...
I sat with her amongst all of this, silently. We were just staring at the rising suns. I was in human morph again, sitting on the ground with my arms on my knees. She sat next to me, fully andalite. The fresh air chased away my massive migraine.
I breathed in the fresh sweet air and exhaled. I held a half empty bottle of I-don't-even-know-what in one hand. I took another swig of it.
I slowly turned my head to her. She was watching me worriedly with her main eyes now.
"How long have you been in morph?"
"Uh...maybe...thirty minutes so far...I don't know...maybe an hour..."
"Demorph."
"I just did like, uh...thirty...forty five minutes ago!" I insisted, slurring a little. The sun was so beautiful rising.
She was swaying a bit too. She was pretty sober compared to me though she had a hangover.
Her daughter was lying snuggled close to her. The funny little pea had come looking for her mother.
She looked down at the small Andalite girl and began to stroke her ears. "I'm a bad mother." She said, softly.
"What?" I said, a little too loud.
She winced. "I said, I'm a bad mother."
"Why'sat?" I slurred. I took another swig. Damn. This was fun. Getting wasted with the good ol' doc.
"I let my daughter around this." She gestured with her hand in a sweeping motion to all the bottles, food, strewn objects around the lawn. The gesture reminded me of some little fairy looking over a burned forest land. Then her stalk eyes and my eyes both came to rest almost jealously on Jake and Jeanne, lying together on a hammock, snuggled close. Both were still holding bottles.
Marco was lying underneath them, on the grass, a line of drool coming out of his mouth.
"Oh. So?" I began to feel a little sick. Just a little nauseated. Maybe I shouldn't drink anymore...
"I let my daughter be around intoxicating substances. She's very young. I...Oh no...Kascherm is going to be soo angry..."
"Wha?"
"My husband! He's going to be soo soo angry. He's very very protective of me. Well. No. He'll probably just laugh and say 'Well well Ainisha! You said I was the easily distracted one!' Then she blinked. She stared, serious suddenly at the ground. Her eyes narrowed as if she didn't quite get something..." Then they widened.
Then they filled with sorrow and looked blank.
"I forgot."
"What? What'd you forget?" I actually began to look around for a purse or a cell phone, wasted as I was.
"I can't believe I forgot." She murmured. The...the alcohol. It must have been that. Oh I feel like such a fool. What did I do?" She wondered aloud, to no one.
"What do you mean?"
"I...what did I do last night? Oh, please tell me I didn't act like an absolute fool! She began to blink rapidly, embarrassed. Oh goodness! Please tell me I didn't!"
I grinned. "Yep, babe. You sure did." I scooched closer to her. What was I doing? Live it Up Tobias was in control, it seemed. And Paranoia Tobias was probably mad and just ignoring me right now. I wrapped one arm around her torso.
She looked at me with her main eyes. Those big, green, quizzical eyes. I stared at them.
She was so pretty. So pretty...
No mouth. Can't kiss her. Dammit.
Well...I can just kiss her anyway. Right?
I leaned in. I kissed her like I had last night. Right where her mouth should be. She blinked slowly. Her mind was still foggy from the drinks. She shifted a little, nervously.
Yani began to stir. She slowly sat up and breathed in deeply through her little nose. Her stalk eyes slowly swiveled to me, and widened. When I fully opened my eyes, her main eyes were staring, shocked, up at me. I had one hand now on her mother's face, my fingers spread wide in an Andalite kiss.
L'Aini was now staring at me, shocked. She blushed and looked away. I gently took my hand away from her face. She looked back at me, curious.
I heard the clop of hooves. I turned around.
Hanike stood there. Her fiance. In Andalite form. Looking bright. Sober. Almost refreshed. He looked at me, almost amused. Tobias. He said, cordially acknowledging me, bobbing one of his eyestalks. His main eyes then looked to L'Aini and Yani.
"Dears!" He said, emphatically. "Come on. I'll walk you home!"
I scooched away from L'Aini and tried to pick myself up. I fell over.
Hanike burst into laughter.
"These humans!" He laughed. He began to walk on, still chuckling. He stopped and looked back with his eyestalks. "L'Aini dear? Aren't you coming, love?"
She was looking embarrassed. She had just been kissing the intoxicated human, and her fiance may have just seen.
Suddenly I was pissed. At her. I looked down at the ground and said nothing.
She slowly pulled herself up. Mr Wonderful took her hand. She followed him, gently taking her daughter's hand and leading her up.
"Bye L'Aini." I called softly, still sounding like drunk New York hobo.
Only her eyestalks looked back at me.
"Ah, goodbye, Tobias." She called quietly, looking genuinely confused.
"Bye kiddo." I called to Yani. She actually turned her head around and looked with her main eyes at me. She stared, her eyes narrowed as if trying to read me.
What had I been doing kissing her mother?! She was probably thinking.
I stared after them. Watching them go. When they finally disappeared from sight, I began to think of how she had looked while dancing. Those blue eyes sparkling up at me.
Suddenly I wasn't pissed at her anymore. I was just pissed at myself.
For getting drunk and acting like a jackass. Like my uncle! I felt disgust and revulsion and I flung the bottle as far from me as I could. It smashed on the ground, and the drink soaked into the ground.
I sighed and turned around, deciding to look for the others.
Santorelli was in the Rachel. No telling where Menderash was. Ax and Estrid had probably gone to their scoop off to enjoy their honeymoon.
Suddenly I remembered.
"OH - " I cursed aloud. I began to run, falling down on my knees and feeling even more sick. I puked on the ground.
"Oooh man." I groaned. " I am never getting wasted again..."
Ah, well. No time for self-pity now.
I slowly picked myself up of the ground. My shirt and shorts had barf on them now. Ugh. I quickly tore them off, down to my morphing suit, and demorphed to hawk. Never again. Never again. Never again! I threw them in the dying embers of the bonfire, along with every remaining, empty bottle I found. I found Menderash lying near the food table, under it, as a matter of fact. He had icing and cake all over his face and shirt, and was clutching a bottle to his chest like it was his life line.
"Oh hell no." I said. "Not you too." I grabbed the bottle and bopped him on the head with it. He groaned and sat up quickly, hitting his head on the table and yelling.
"AAH!" He said, and rubbed his head. I hit him with the bottle again. "Ow! Stop it!"
"We have to find Ax. Now."
"WHAAA?" He slurred.
"PRINCE AXIMILEEE?" I said, talking 'Andalite'. YOU KNOW? THE GUY WE RESCUED FROM THE MEAN AND NASTY ONE?
I had remembered Prince Stompy's threat.
If he leaves this ship-!
I groaned. I dragged Menderash over the Andalite home world to Estrid's scoop.
Little Ax was back on the blade ship giving his mother and new father some 'private time'. I hoped the little bugger hadn't gotten into anything...
I would kill Jake if he had...
And what about Estrid? Talk about lousy parenting!
Of course that party had gotten rather out of control...
The fun had just sort of gotten addictive. The last thing I could really remember about last night was Marco and Jake without shirts yelling at eachother while playing some bizarre version of 'Gladiator', by standing on top of two tall metal boxes ( I groaned when I thought of how much they looked like control panels from the Blade!) and trying to knock eachother off of them with sticks, while Jeanne yelled for them to cut it out and Santorelli cheered them on (also blind drunk).
Menderash journeyed for what seemed like many many suns and many many moons, passing many many many staring Andalites.
Yep, two formerly wasted humans crawling across the Andalite landscape. Not too conspicous.
We got to Estrid's little place by the sea.
The scoop was rocking very, very, conspicously.
I stared. Menderash stared. We both stood there staring.
It was silent. But then, Andalites aren't a very talkative bunch normally. Apparently honeymoons don't change that either.
"Ahem!" I said out loud. The rocking stopped.
Menderash glared at me.
"You ARE A VERY RUDE NEPHEW!" He screamed in my ear.
"Shut UP!" I replied.
Ax's head showed up through the opening of the scoop, kind of struggling to keep his head up, almost as if he was being restrained...
"Tobias?!"
"Uh. Yeah. Hi Ax-man." I said and fake smiled. "Hey. Uh. Just came to...visit..."
"Well. Ax looked very annoyed. "Ah, can't you, come by later?"
"Well, I kind of need to talk to you about something important..."
He sighed. "Alright Tobias. Just a minute."
He went back in the scoop.
After a few moments, I was surprised to hear the clink of chains.
Being...unlocked?!
I tried not to smile as I thought of what that might mean...
Then Ax man came out, looking very, very irritated.
"Ah, Tobias. Hello."
"Umm...hi..."
Silence.
Just tell him you idiot! I told myself. Just get it out of the way!
"Ah, Tobias, you see, I was...right in the middle of something. He blushed and laughed incredulously at my visiting. You see, when people get married, they normally like to have a special time where they-"
"Ax, I know about honeymoons okay?!"
" I KNOW ABOUT HONEYMOONS!" Menderash bellowed drunkenly. He staggered toward Ax.
Ax wrinkled his nose in disgust and flicked out his tail.
It struck Menderash in the stomach and knocked him over a few feet where he landed on the ground and rolled. He lay there, quite surprised.
I looked back at Ax in shock.
He looked pained.
"The One, he-"
"Is exactly the reason you need to come back to the Blade!" I said, breaking in desperately.
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