your sorrows, or maybe just beat them up
The central building of Biotope 1 was depressing at night. The guest room Sunny had been given was poorly lit and plain, and between his dreary surroundings and the lonely quiet of the building around him, he was really feeling quite low.
Fortunately, Mansam hadn't become any more imaginative about hiding his alcohol stashes in the intervening years since Sunny had been living here for training, and after only two tries he moved a ceiling panel in the hallway outside a storeroom and found a few bottles of...wow, pretty decent stuff.
Back in his room, steadily becoming cosily drunk, he realised his error when he heard the thump on the door.
Zebra was here. Living here, if Sunny remembered correctly, so Mansam could keep an eye on him.
Zebra had heard the clinking bottles.
Damn him.
Sunny reached out a tendril of hair and pulled the door open before Zebra could bash it off its hinges and the big jerk stooped to squeeze through the normal-people sized door.
"Why are the lights off?" he asked, as his head bumped against the light fitting.
"I'm feelin' maudlin," Sunny answered, leaning back against the wall behind the bed.
"Fuckin' drama queen," Zebra muttered. He pointed at the empty bottle that lay on the bed clothes next to Sunny's leg. "You got more of that?"
"Nope."
"Yeah you do, I heard the clinking. Gimme."
"Get your own!"
"I want yours. Gimme."
"Fuck off!"
Zebra gave Sunny a narrow glare, then leant down to look under the bed, fished out a bottle, and dropped into the armchair in the corner, a triumphant look on his face. Sunny scowled but was pretty sure he couldn't get the bottle away from him without getting injured. And Zebra always aimed for his face.
They drank in silence for a few minutes, until Sunny decided he wasn't happy.
"Why do you have to sit in here?" he snapped. "You've got your own room."
"Yeah, well..." Zebra said, then he smirked again and took another drink.
"You're just in here 'cause you know you annoy me!" Sunny yelled.
"Think a lot of yourself, don't you," Zebra sneered. "Not everything's about you."
"Bastard!" Sunny receded and slumped back onto the bed. "Aren't you even gonna ask me why I'm upset?"
"Nope."
"It's 'cause of Matsu."
"...What?"
Sunny sighed. "He and Rin got drunk together at my house the other night. I heard them talkin' about Toriko."
"You eavesdropped on your little sister?"
"Like you can talk. But no, I overheard something that worried me."
"What, is she fucking Komatsu?"
"No! Where the fuck did that idea come from? Sicko! Nah, I think somethin's maybe started with Matsu and Toriko."
"Something?"
"Somethin' involving Matsu sleeping the night at Toriko's and Toriko's hands gettin' busy. I didn't hear all of it though."
"Shit," Zebra replied, and even if Sunny didn't want him around, he could at least understand.
"Oh Matsu, let me count the ways," he sighed.
"What ways?" Zebra asked.
"The ways in which he'd be better off with me!"
"Right. You. That'd work."
"...jerk."
Silence reigned for a few more minutes. Sunny was pretty sure he was drunk, very drunk. The bed, which he knew to be badly sprung and covered in low quality sheets, suddenly felt incredibly comfortable.
"I think we gotta give him up," he said quietly, his misery welling. "Toriko's never gonna let him go."
"Fuck that," Zebra replied. He dropped his empty bottle on the floor and rose to reach another out from under the bed. This time he had to hold onto the box spring to stand back up again.
"He's so fuckin' cute," Sunny sighed. "Those big eyes..."
"Hrm."
"The things I could do to that guy..."
"You're a cocky fucker, you know that?" Zebra snarled, still holding on to the foot of the bed.
Sunny grinned, some part of his brain deciding he was ready to be cheered up. "Cocky fucker? How d'you know what kind of fucker I am? You been peekin'?"
Zebra snarled at him.
"You're provocative, you know? You ought to watch that or people are gonna get the wrong idea."
"Shut up."
"Unless you want me to get the wrong idea," he added, and ended up breathless with laughter at the horrified look Zebra gave him. "Aw, don't be like that Zebra, come and sit down next to me," Sunny choked out past the laughter, and he patted the bed.
"Fuckin' disgustin'" Zebra growled, and Sunny gave him an annoyed flick with the ends of his hair.
That had been a bad idea. Drunk Zebra was even more volatile than regular Zebra and before Sunny knew what was happening, they were on the floor next to the bed, grappling and yelling. Neither of them really landed a punch of any merit, not after the amount of near-pure alcohol they'd just drunk, but still.
It took eleven Biotope 1 security guards to separate them.
The next day the head of security had words with Director Mansam about dismantling his alcohol stashes.