It was 4:30 in the morning on what was technically New Year's Day. The streets of Nevassa hadn't calmed down even a half a percent. This city would be a wreck when the dawn broke over the horizon. Leonardo opened the door to Edward's house.

"Oh my god…Sothe! Sothe! Leonardo is finally back!" Nolan was so excited.

"Where's my list!? Where the hell is my list!? Oh my god where is my list!? Oh, I put it in my pocket….Nolan! Get him on the couch now!" Sothe yelled. Leonardo had barely gotten his coat off as Nolan directed Leonardo toward the couch. Leonardo didn't fight this.

"Oh my god! Sothe! He's not wearing his sweater! Go straight for number 11! Go for 11!" Nolan insisted.

"It's like….35 degrees outside! Where is your sweater!?" Sothe asked.

"That was your first question!?" Nolan scolded Sothe.

"Ooooh, I totally forgot to put that back on…why are you two sitting so close to me on this couch? We have never sat this close together before." Leonardo noticed.

"Leonardo…Leonardo…Leonardo….we just want to talk!" Sothe said wrapping an arm around Leonardo's shoulders.

"So…why didn't you come back here with Noelle?" Nolan wanted to know.

"She's working on a wedding gown. She has to dress a bride in six hours and she has three hours of work to do on the gown. Where's Edward?" Leonardo asked.

"We don't know for sure. We think he might be in bed with Mia…not…in bed with her THAT way but more along the lines of we think she fell asleep in there with him." Sothe explained. "But more importantly Leonardo, where have YOU been for four and a half hours and what have YOU been doing?" Sothe asked scooting in even closer to Leonardo. Leonardo smiled, it was an almost sentimental smile.

"I've had a half a bottle of wine…" he sighed. "Sothe, do you remember the first time you…" Sothe cut him off before Leonardo could finish that sentence.

"The first time I what!? The first time I what!? THE FIRST TIME I WHAAAAAT!?!?" Sothe was ready to explode and Nolan was on the edge of the couch now.

"Do you remember the first time you held Micaiah…and how having to let her out of your arms…was like…torture?" Leonardo asked both seriously and smitten at the same time. Sothe was so disappointed.

"Oh…I guess so, yeah sure…why not! I love Micaiah…ooooh man I can't play hardball about that. Yes, yes I remember that. God how I remember that feeling…" Sothe paused as he reminisced on that. Finally! Something he was sincere about tonight. "So, how drunk would you say you are? Drunk enough to tell me what happened with your sweater or drunk enough to tell me what happened AFTER your sweater disappeared?" Sothe asked.

"Do you maybe need something else to drink?" Nolan offered.

"I'm only fifty percent drunk…that red wine was three hours ago." Leonardo was still caught in his own daze.

"Damn it! That's not enough! Nolan go make him something?" Sothe said.

"I'm on it!" Nolan said quickly getting up from the couch. Leonardo was staring blankly at the floor. Nolan soon returned and shoved something strong into Leonardo's hand and of course Leonardo started drinking it. He rested his head on Nolan's shoulder.

"He's about to crack, Sothe get the list ready!" Nolan said.

"I can't believe…she's alone working…on New Year's Day. I wish I could have held her forever…but I know that she had to get to work. Why couldn't I have held her just a little longer…why….why didn't I kiss her just one more time before I left tonight…" Leonardo took another drink.

"Right, yes that's nice….now what did you do BEFORE you had her in your arms?" Sothe wanted to know.

"We could have talked until the sun came up." Leonardo said finishing the drink in his hand. Nolan sighed.

"Did you two make out or what? You may as well answer me because Sothe's questions are a lot worse.

"Yeah…" it was all Leonardo said as he stared blankly at the ceiling this time. If Sothe and Nolan had been little school girls they would have squealed right now…fortunately that was the least of our worries.

"You still haven't told us why you don't have your sweater." Sothe said.

"Oh yeah…Noelle took it off of me …and when I left I put my coat on without thinking…so it's at her house." Leonardo said still staring at the ceiling. Well, that was kind of the answer Sothe and Nolan were looking for but not quite. "Should I go check on Edward or anything?" Leonardo asked.

"No, no…he's fine I'm sure. We still have to ask you some things." Nolan said.

"I feel like I should check on him and Mia both. They were a mess when I left here. Noelle and I were a little concerned when Mia never came to her house…now I know why…she's in Edward's bed." Leonardo said.

"Now, about that Leonardo…were you…in Noelle's bed? Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes…" Sothe whispered to himself over and over.

"No….no….why would I be in her bed?" Leonardo asked now laying across Nolan.

"No! Don't lay on me! You'll go to sleep if you do that!" Nolan said shoving Leonardo back up toward Sothe.

"He smells like her." Nolan whispered to Sothe.

"Alright, so you weren't in her bed…so um…would you say that you were maybe in her floor…you know…undressing her?" Sothe added that last part quickly.

"Huh?" Leonardo asked completely not understanding that question.

"Oh my god, this is worse than listening to Edward give directions to a stranger!" Sothe said letting his head hit his hands.

"Obviously, Sothe we need a different tactic; let's try this…Leonardo, please give us a play by play of what the hell you've been doing for the past four hours!" Nolan said bluntly.

"Oooh….yeah, yeah okay. We went to her house and opened a bottle of wine and we drank part of it on the second floor balcony of her house. It was cold out there but the blanket we were under was warm and her body was warm. So, it started to rain a little bit and we went inside…where one kiss led to another…which is how we ended up on her couch. That…was really hot….oh shit…did I say that out loud?" Leonardo asked not realizing he had told all this.

"God, I love drunk Leonardo so much!" Nolan said.

"I can't take it anymore! Did you have sex with her!? Please tell me what I want to hear!" Sothe pleaded.

"What!? No!?" Leonardo was a bit mortified by this.

"Damn it! That's okay…I'll ask you again in a few months." Sothe said.

"Sothe…we still have Edward to consider." Nolan said.

"Nolan! It's Edward! Come on man, you know as well as I do Leonardo will be first." Sothe said.

"Yeah, you're right." Nolan said. It was now 5:30 in the morning.

"You know it's completely pointless to go to bed right now. I'm going to start making breakfast in an hour anyway." Leonardo said.

"You're going to make breakfast?" Nolan asked.

"I always make breakfast here on New Year's Day. I need to see what he has. Otherwise I actually have to go to that damn market that opens up at 6:00." Leonardo explained.

"So, if you could have…if Noelle hadn't been working on a gown tonight…would you have stayed with her tonight? Would even be here right now?" Nolan wondered.

"God, yes….yes I would have stayed with her. I'd still have my arms around her right now." Leonardo told him.

"Do you ever wonder why Aran never does stuff with us? He's so close to Laura yet he never does anything with us." Sothe asked.

"Oh you know Aran, he has his own agenda, he has his own group of friends." Nolan said.

"I guess so; it just surprises me that he never does anything with us especially with Laura doing things with us." Sothe said.

"What are you doing tomorrow…er….later today." Nolan asked Leonardo.

"Noelle will be done with the wedding at around 11:00 so I'm going to go see her when she gets home." Leonardo said getting up to see what Edward has in his kitchen for him to cook this morning.

"Me and Micaiah really need to head home in the morning but I know that won't happen. I'll be hung over and she will probably sleep until 10:00 so I figure we'll get on the road at like 2:00. Do you think Edward would be pissed if I took a shower?" Sothe wondered.

"If you do, you'll wake him up because his shower is right beside his bedroom." Nolan said. "So what did you find? What are you going to cook?"

"Oh wow…I'm going to fix this bacon…and this sausage. Oh yes…maple syrup, that means I have to fix pancakes. Oh god….eggs….and cheese….I will so scramble those. Biscuits…yes, yes…because there is buttermilk in here…why the hell does Edward have buttermilk? Oooooh strawberries…potatoes!? I'm going to make fried potatoes! Now, I wonder if there is anything in here to make gravy…..oh sweet there is! Orange juice! I found orange juice!" Leonardo started lining up an array of breakfast items in Edward's kitchen.

"Hey, we'll help you cook." Nolan said.

"Thanks, I appreciate the offer. I'm sure Laura will be up soon. She always helps me cook our New Year's breakfasts when Edward is too hung over….when he will be. Hey where is that pineapple? I want to slice that up too." Leonardo wondered.

"Man, don't get freaked out by this…but I think Edward and Mia took it to bed with them. Hey, I know your wine has got to be wearing off a little by now. But um…how's that working out…Edward and Mia?" Nolan asked.

"It's working out really, really well. He really likes her and she's crazy about him." Leonardo said cutting up potatoes first.

"I'm going to rebuild the fire, it's starting to get really low. Hey Leonardo…I want you to know that…what you told me Sothe tonight…I think it was a beautiful New Year's story. You deserve a girl like that." Nolan was so sincere when he said that.

"Yeah, I have to say…when I learned she was a seamstress I was like what the hell? But now I know…" Sothe said. It was 6:15 on New Year's Day, there a lot of work to do for this breakfast tradition ahead and Leonardo was running on no sleep. Across town, Noelle was also going on no sleep at all and though she worked tirelessly on the one thing that would pay two months' salary, the only thing she could think about was seeing Leonardo again.