Quickie: I'm not sure if this is your username, or just something you put down so I can tell who you are, but seeing as you comment as a guest, I cannot reply to you. I have gotten your request for a DoC story, but I'm sorry to say that I will not write it. It's not because I just don't want to, it's because I have no ideas to further that story and I've only played DoC once and haven't retained any information from that game. I'm sure there's someone out there who will write that story for you, or you can have a go at it yourself since you seem to have a pretty good idea of what you want. ^_^ Again, I'm sorry that I will not be writing it, and I wish you luck in finding someone who will.

Chapter 4: The Day After

Usually the front door to the apartment would creek as you opened it. Tonight, though, I opened it extra slowly so as not to make a peep. Quiet as a mouse, as some old nursery rhyme would go. That was me, moving so slowly that even I could barely register my movements. I was like a snake, slithering into the apartment like I was hunting something. Only I wasn't hunting, I was just making sure to not wake Zack. Time was a mystery to me at this point, so I had no clue how late I was coming in. After slipping off my boots and setting them, ever so carefully, on the mat we had to the right of the door, I twisted the doorknob and slowly put the door back into place. At least… that's what I tried to do. Something got lost in translation between my brain and my body as I tripped forward and ended up slamming the door shut.

"Whoopsie." I giggled.

There was a grunt and a shuffle from the couch. Zack sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and focused on me slouched on the door, holding the knob for dear life so I wouldn't fall over.

"Senna?" He lazily asked while stretching awake, "What time is it?"

"Uhhh… dunno. My phone died at some point? Is it even in my pocket… hold on." I patted down every pocket on my cargo shorts, looking for the lump that was my phone. After a thorough search, I pulled it out of my back pocket and held it up to Zack with a cackling laugh, "There's the bitch!"

He looked at me with confusion, fully waking up from his nap on the couch.

"Are you… drunk?" He asked.

"Drunk? Me? Noooo!" I stumbled away from the door, and caught my balance by holding my arms out like a bird, "Ok… maaaaybe I had something to drunk… drink. But I'm pff-fine! I have the late shift tomorrow and Se-Seph… oh fudge, why does he have such a long ass name… Se-fir-oth cancelled my training in the morning. He going on a seeecret mission to Wuthai. But you didn't hear that from me."

My tongue felt like a giant lump of jello as I slurred my words. Zack crossed his arms and gave me a stern look. I took baby steps towards him and slapped his shoulder like an excited toddler.

"You're not even old enough to drink, how are you sloshed?"

"Ah! It's a funny story really. See, I was helping a friend who made a bet with another friend to get to the… food… place fastest, and we won. Me and the friend I was helping. So he owed the both of us some yummy BBQ dinners. You'd like them! The tall one… well, they're both kinda tall actually. The asshole one with the smart mouth, you'd like him. He's witty and funny. Kinda like you on a good hair day." Zack held a hand to his head to check his black spikes. "And the other one, blonde spike, he's kiiiinda quiet. But a good quiet! Like you could have a whole conversation with him quiet, and he listens."

He squinted his eyes and looked around the room like he was trying to make sense of what I was saying. Blurry spots popped up in my line of sight, making me furiously blink my eyes to make them go away.

"None of that explains how you got to this situation though." Zack lightly massaged his temples.

"Oh yeah. I didn't get to that part did I?" I laughed, "Do we have food? I'm starving."

I hobbled my way into the kitchen, nearly tripping over the one rug we had in there as I fell onto the fridge. The cool air smacked me in the face as I stuck my head inside to search for snacks. Considering the fact that we didn't grocery shop much, our snack supplies were limited to a carton of milk (which might have expired by now), two apples (not sure when we bought those, but who cares), and an unopened pack of single sliced cheese.

"Hmm.. none of this looks good." I said as I slammed the fridge shut and searched the cupboards, "Ah HA!"

Like an angel sitting before me, a heavenly glow surrounding it, the mother of all snacks. A temptress of cupboard foods made by Lucifer himself. The perfect midnight, or anytime, snack. My mouth salivated as I picked up the container and cradled it like a newborn. There was whispering, which might have been me if I'm gonna be honest, of sweet nothings to the container. I fished around the drawers in the kitchen for what I would need to devour the golden chalice of foods.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zack asked from the doorway as he shook his head.

I clumsily sat myself on the counter and popped open the lid. With my weapon of choice, I dug into the container, putting a giant glob of the nectar of the gods into my mouth.

"Mmmmmm." I smiled in ecstasy, "Peanut butter."

Zack took the container out of my hands as I downed another spoonful. I pouted like a toddler, falling to the floor in a heap of drunken stupor as I tried to grab it back from him. He set the peanut butter back on the counter and squatted down to my level as I tried to sit up.

"You can have it back when you tell me what happened tonight." He said slowly.

My head suddenly felt too heavy for my neck to support. The cupboard would have to do to support the heavy thing while I explained my night to Zack.

"The smarth mouth ass bought me the drinks." I slurred, barely keeping my eyes open, "He owned us food. Us being me and spike blonde. Then food turned into drinks and I won."

"Won? Won what?"

My eyelids getting heavier and heavier, I managed to blurt out one last sentence.

"Y'know… the thing that you win at."

Whatever time it was when I woke up, I didn't know, nor did I care. All I know is that my morning did not start off in the ideal way. My head was pounding, and everything was still spinning. The only good thing to happen when I rolled out of bed was finding a bucket laying there with a bottle of water next to it and a note. After hurling my guts, which tasted oddly like peanut butter, I sipped the water and picked up the note.

You tied on a good one last night, sis. Unlike you, I have the early shift so I won't be here to make fun of you with your first hangover. Drink lots of water today!

~your loving older brother

PS: PLEASE don't puke on the floor, that's what the bucket is for!

"Mmmm…" I groaned as I crumpled up the note and tossed it to the other side of my room. It felt like my brain was trying to break out of my skull, I lightly massaged my temples to try and relieve the pressure. "This is gonna be a long day."

Everything was too bright in the recreation area. I could hear the lights above me buzzing as the electrical current surged through them. Even hiding my face in my arms did nothing to calm the pounding headache that I still had. A bottle of water and a large cup of coffee sat in front of me, I had only been taking sips out of each of them to calm the churning of my stomach. The table shook slightly as someone sat down next to me.

"There she is!" A deep voice bellowed in my ears, "The princess herself. How are you feeling this morning, your highness?"

"Do you have to talk so loudly?" I groaned, not taking my face out of my arms.

Noctis laughed loudly and slapped his hand on my shoulder. The sudden jerk of my body had my stomach threaten to hurl everything up again, and I sat up straight in case I had to run to the bathroom. A knife like stab pained the back of my eyes as the light flowed into my retinas. I squeezed my eyes shut and put a wary hand to my forehead to rest.

"Damn," Noctis chuckled, "You look like shit."

I glared at him through my fingers, "What even happened last night?"

"You don't remember? Oh-ho-ho allow me to paint you a picture of the night's events!"

"Quietly, please…"

He slid his chair closer to me, the legs squealing against the floor as he did so. Without a care in the world, he draped his arm over my shoulders, and leaned in close. Thankfully, he talked in a low voice.

"Picture this, it's eleven o'clock at night. After a nice dinner that I humbly paid for, the three of us wandered across the street to the best bar in town. It was brought to my attention that you and Cloud weren't of age to be drinking there legally, so I took solo trips to the bar while you two sat in a corner surrounded by people. Cloud, being the gentleman that he is, only had one drink with me. Said something about being the sober help home or whatever. But you my friend, you fell in love with those drinks, the fruity ones mostly. You and I threw 'em back like we were old pals that hadn't seen each other in a decade. Oh man, I've never seen someone drink like that before, and I know a lot of people.

I think around one in the morning, you started to feel sick and disappeared for a few minutes. We found you out back in the alley puking your guts up. Now, I thought that was gonna be the end of the night right? Nooo, no no no, you wiped your chin and demanded another round! I obviously couldn't say no to that, so we hauled you back inside where you challenged me to a shot game. Fifteen shots in five minutes. Of the hard stuff."

My stomach flipped in protest as I vaguely remembered taking shot after shot of that burning liquid.

"You beat me by half a shot! Then you stood on the table, deemed yourself royalty of whiskey, and fell backwards onto poor Cloud. You're lucky he was still willing to help you get home!"

Fuzzy images flashed through my mind like a series of bright lights. There was no rhyme or order to them, just blurry faces, lights, and the sound of glasses clapping together. Trying to force myself to remember just made me feel dizzy and more nauseous. With a groan, I slumped to the table and hid my face in my arms. Noctis chuckled at my hungover self. I picked my head up and glared at him through narrowed eyes.

"How are you not sick and hung over?" I blurted with annoyance.

"Years of practice, young one. Many years." He replied with a wink.

"Ugh…" I hid my face in my arms again, enjoying the darkness. Then my phone went off.

I thought long and hard about whether I really wanted to pull it out of my pocket and stare at the bright LED screen. There was always the chance it wasn't anything important, but then again… it was during work hours, and a call during work hours usually meant it was something important. I clumsily shuffled my phone out of my pocket and stared one eyed at the screen. Not a number I had saved.

"Hello?" I answered, putting extra effort into not sounding like I was about to fall over and die.

"This is Director Lazard." The voice on the other end said dully, "Your presence is needed in the Briefing Room."

The other line ended with a click. I shoved my phone back in my pocket and stood from the table.

"Duty calls." I said to Noctis, "Tell Cloud that I'm sorry about whatever happened last night. I'll make it up to him."

"You got it. Don't chug your water. It'll make the nausea worse."

I held my bottle of water up to him like I was praising him, "Good to know."

With a lazy wave, I made my way to the elevators. The doors opening with a loud ding, my head pounding worse thanks to the interior lighting, I shuffled my feet across the floor and entered the Briefing Room.

Bet you thought I forgot about you all huh? I assure you I did not! I've been making outlines for this fic so I don't get lost again. It's all coming together according to plan.