Isabel got it. Of course she got-ed it. She was a good frind. A nice frind. A -hrk. Ghost was busy -very busy!- having the wall hold her. Until she wasn't. Simon caught her shirt and she was somehow going backwards, but really not from her own feet. She looked down at them. Huh. They were doing things all by themselves.

THey were outside. Outside was wet. "S'not my crying," she insisted, but nobody cared. Isabow was on a friendmission to get them all in the cab. Ghost helpfully supplied the address even as they stuffed Simon between them.

It might have been a short drive. It might have been a long one. For all Ghost noticed, they'd gone around in a circle that blearily ended in front of a very tallllll building. A very soSimon building.

"Someone paaaay!" Ghost legged out of the taxi first because she didn't have cash to pay for drinks, she sure didn't have cash for taxi. Oh. She pause-wobbled into a signpost. No. She looked up at the pole. It was a lamp posty. "Hehmph. Solamp." WHERE WAS SIMON!?

Ghost didn't hoist him up out of the taxi. Not that he was heavy, but... well, he was heavy. She did grab onto him and let Isafrined out so she could guide his other arm. "Welcome hoooome.~" It was funny. Zephyr with a girl on each arm. It would look like he was having a better night than the reality of two awesome ladies hijaking his pillows.

Cab getting was successful! Cab entering was less successful for all of them. There was a very distinct thump coming from Zephyr's skull when he failed to get into the cab properly. And he had the nerve to poke fun at her all the time when he couldn't even duck the right way. Isabel wriggled around in the seat and very helpfully grabbed a handful of the section of Zephyr's shirt near his neck so she could be helpful and help him duck into the cab like a not-idiot and not leave poor Ghosty standing around in the rain. Everyone would be so lost without her, Isabel was such a good helperfriend.

An address was shouted and they were off! And drunk car riding was a very interesting experience, like to being on a tame roller coaster. Thankfully it wasn't an exciting roller coaster because that might have upset her stomach and that would have been gross and they would have had to find another cab and that was so much effort.

And then there was an apartment building! And also there was a Zephyr getting stuck with the cab bill because Isabel was too busy clamoring over him and out of the vehicle after her sistyfriend to bother threatening the driver. And poor Zephyr was having trouble getting back out of the cab, too, so being the best friendhelper that she was, Isabel assisted Ghosty in helping him steady himself once he was out of the car. He would have to open the doors anyway, so there was no use leaving him behind as tempting as the idea was.

"This will be th'best fort everrr," Isabel stated matter-of-factly as they made their way to the apartment. It was the truth. No fort would ever be better. They might have to live in it forever it would be that good. "We gon' also need blankets also and movies an' cookie dough we need soooo much cookie dough, Zephyr, so much I hope you have cookdough b'cuz I neeeed it."

There was a faint humming in the background as something rocked back and forth and lights flashed by overhead, too bright even for closed eyes.
Light flashed by overhead, too bright even for closed eyes and he could

He was moving. He could feel the faint pulse of an engine and hear its perpetual murmur even as rain pounded the roof in a staccato rhythm that would have been soothing if not for the lights flashing by overhead and left him drifting in and out of consciousness. Unwilling to open his eyes the hessian tried to recall what he’d been doing to end up in a car but his thoughts just seemed to circle themselves without conclusion.

Eventually though things came to a halt and he felt himself being jarred to a strange sort of wakefulness as he cracked open a single azure eye and spotted a familiar head of snow white hair leaping out of the backseat in an almost playful manner. The motion drew his eye to the building outside and he found he recognized it, but before he could take the thought any further there was a movement on his left and the elementals vision was blocked as a warm body clambered atop his own. He had a just a moments view of pale skin vanishing into a shadowed valley before it passed and then there was a grip on both his arms and he wasn’t in the cab any more.

There was walking then waiting, followed by more walking. It took longer than he cared to admit but Zephyr eventually realized he was being led to his apartment, or more appropriately dragged, by the pair from the cab. A distant part of the hessian felt an odd unease with the situation but whenever he tried to focus on the sensation it slipped from his grasp and his thoughts latched onto something else, like the colour of the carpet, the humming of the elevator lights or the warm skin he occasionally felt from his guests.

After an indeterminate amount of time though Zephyr found himself faced with his own door and after trying, and failing, to free his arm to find his keys, he shook his head and instead made a slight of flick of the wrist that sent the air in the lock spinning and tumblers turning until the door swung in-wards.

He was home.

She had to lead because she knew the best of where they were going. Simon should have knowned, but his head was slippery on his neck. Ghost knew that feel. "Shhh. S'okay, buddy. I'll get you home." Ghost clinked her head into Simon's to let him know she cared. Because her hands were full. Because he needed a head bonk to let him know she still lvoed him despite teh bad chouces he made.

"We are going to make good choices, Isafriend. Best sleepover TM." Like pillow forts. Best choise. Ghost smashed the elevator up button maybe 15 times in teh span of a second. It was soooooooooooooo sloooooow it was poinful, but stairs would have been worse. WAS SHE WEARING SHOES? Oh. Yeah. THere they were.

"Move, please." Ghost used her elemental power to get the people in teh elevator out of the elevator and then they cool people were in the elevator and the elavator was maybe a bad idea because Ghost left her stomach on teh first floor.

She hugged her Simopmn closer just in case she puked. It never came to that, but it was a good thing he was there for her. She woulldn't have wanted to puke on her newly friend Isabow.

And even after all that and they were at the door, they found it locked.

"I am not putting my hand in his pockets."

It was perhaps the most coherent sentence she'd said since her 5th drink. His door was swimming and big and solid and mean, but there just was no way she was going in his pockets. She would ghost before it came to that.

Simon was on the case! She felt him work his precise brand of windwork, but as usual didn't follow the details. She was was more intuitive about her power than he was. Good thing they were both here! Now the door was no obstacle.

Maya hit it open so hard the door bounced against the wall behind it and hit back. "Ack!" She dropped her Simon part and needed some serious preotection from the hazardous evil door.

Doors and elevators and hallways and strangers and more hallways and more doors. It was all sort of a fast but also slow blur while time tried to make up its mind how it wanted to move and Isabel was The Most Excited for their newest quest in the best night ever. She was no expert in sleepovers because most people did not want to slumber party with someone that could murder them in their sleep but Ghosty seemed to know what she was doing and Ghosty was so smart and pretty and knowledgeable nothing could possibly go wrong it would be the best night ever.

"I can tot'ly pick th'lock I am ver good at picklocking," she assured her stumped cloud friend because she was definitely not fishing around in Zephyr's pockets either because weird and also it would be a waste of her talents as a walking skeleton key. She giggled at her own joke. Skeleton key. She was so funny. But then the lock clicked and the door practically jumped off its hinges by itself and the super clever joke never made it into reality.

The sudden shout and shifting of all of Zephyr's weight onto Isabel's side was alarming to say the least. It took a second for her to realize that the door was bounding back and poor delicate Ghosty was right in its warpath and not making any move to get out of the way. Isabel let Zephyr's slumping momentum carry him the rest of the way to the floor, her grip on his sleeve doing very little to keep him upright while she maneuvered rather clumsily to kick the door back inward again and keep it from smooshing sistyghost's face. She'd let it collide with her shoulder if it bounced back a second time because she was big and tough and that was what bodysisters guarded to do.

"Pillowww fooort!" The hunt was totally on. No pillow would be safe. If she had to Isabel would totally trash the apartment to make sure they didn't miss any.

This wasn’t right.

He opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of one of the metal sconces set between rooms of his apartment building, the shaded light throwing odd shadows over the wooden beam ceiling above, the pattern broken by a second source of light streaming from an open doorway.

His door way.

Carefully picking himself up from the carpeted floor, (and when had he fallen down?) Zephyr pinched the bridge of his one with one hand while the other moved with a blind precision born of long practice to the slim bottle of pills in his jacket. Whatever this was it would warrant a double dose he could just feel it, or perhaps that was just the pounding in his skull.

Leveraging himself into a sitting position against the nearest wall Zephyr regarded his open door with a detached curiosity while chewing through a pair of pills in an effort to accelerate their effects. Under different circumstances he might have been more concerned, (he could hear people moving inside, or rather giggling) but even dazed as he was the hessian realized that if anyone meant to hurt him they could have easily managed it while he’d been comatose on the floor.

So instead of being angry at the invasion to his privacy the azure eyed mercenary merely took a breath and, after a moment or two, hauled himself upright and forced his feet into a calm, but more importantly, balance stride as he entered his apartment. He could always be angry later, after he’d seen how bad things were, it would just be too much effort to get worked up again and again, or worse getting angry for no reason.

Closing the door behind him Zephyr slowly took in the bizarre chaos before him. The painting on the wall were still in place, as was the wide screen TV. What little alcohol he kept around still seemed to be in the cabinet across from the lounge and his tablet hadn’t moved from the kitchen counter. With the most immediately expensive items accounted for the hessian turned his attention… lump, which looked to have grown from his living room couch. Covered in blankets, towels and what looked to be practically every pillow in the apartment the bizarre amalgamation of cloth wriggled, jumped and even floated slightly.


‘…huh’

Turning away from his sisters antics (because who the hell else made the air move like that?) Zephyr turned and made his way to the back of the apartment and the source of the creaking and oddly familiar giggling coming from his bedroom.

He wasn’t prepared for what he saw.

The bed had been stripped, comforter, sheets and pillows all gone, no doubt now part of the mess in the living room. The contents of the wardrobe had been emptied onto the floor and the closet looked as though it had gotten halfway to a similar fate. These were only background detail thought because in the middle of the mattress, testing the bedsprings for all they were worth was Isabel; bouncing back and forth across the king sized bed, deceptively girlish shrieks of joy leaving her lips as she used her knees to jump back and forth only to lose her balance and land on her back,kicking her legs with delight before clambering back to her knees and starting again.


It was a side of the soubrette he hadn’t expected to see, he couldn’t recall her ever truly enjoying herself like this without some form of violence. Apparently his expression was a a riot because when the buxom brunette finally noticed him she stuck her tongue out at him with all the immaturity she could muster before descending into a giggling fit which left her panting on bed and a single question going through Zephyr head.

How had she lost her trousers?

"Thibs is the liffing room." A rescuer deserved a proper tour. Ghost guided Isabel around Simon's silly apartment. He would get up when he was ready to get up. She couldn't lift him or ask IsaBest to do it. She wasn't a maid.

"This kitchen has eggs in it sometimes." That was teh extent of her knowledge of what Simon could cook, actually. Did Isabow say cookie dough at one point? The fridge was raided and quickly abandoned. Beside the boring essentials there wasn't anything that was anything. "I mean, there's ketchup..." but ketchup wassn't cookie dough! "How canthe man not have cookie dough? I's just s'wrong."

With a Herculean yawn, Ghost let the refrigerator door close and continued the tour with quickly waning enthusiasm. "Hall, table, bedroom, ooh pillows!" Ghost got those. The sheets came too and she didn't have enough cares left to seperate them.

Time to build fort Ghostycakes.

She dropped the pillows in a heap in the vicinity of the television, pulled the couch cushions off the couch, and went to find every other scrap of pillow or cloth in the apartment. Unfortunately it took all her cares to manage it so by the time she'd completed her pile, Ghost found she just didn't care enough to actually construct anything.

Fwump! Was the sound she made belly flopping onto teh stack. With a little wriggling and a little poof and puff of her power she found her way to mostly beneath the pillows. The world kept spinning. She felt it going on without her.

There was no way to strip a bed and then not jump on it. It was practically a crime and while Isabel was a criminal there were some lines that just didn't get crossed.

The tour had been disappointingly anticlimactic and even more disappointingly lacking in cookie dough. Zephyr was a very boring person with a very boring house and it was super lame. It had been much more interesting raiding every room for anything that could be used to pile into a fort, probably because trashing Zephyr's boring apartment was the best thing ever and he deserved it for having a face that was such a jerk.

Pillows, blankets, and towels (Ghosty was so so smart Isabel would never thought of using towels her new friend was a genius) all wound up in the living room and the evil shower was successfully avoided before she proceeded to tear apart the dressers and closets she came across just in case there was anything good and useful in there but mostly because making a mess was just so much fun.

And then the bed had happened and she was having the best day ever and everything in the word was perfect. Taking off her boots had proved to be more difficult than she remembered it ever being but she only fell over once before she managed top get them both off and tossed into some corner of the room before she climbed up onto the bed and started to bounce.

But tearing apart other peoples' homes and jumping on beds while full of alcohol was a really easy way to get overheated and being hot and sweaty was gross and Isabel didn't want to be gross but she couldn't figure out how to untie the stupid knot she'd twisted her shirt into. The next logical course of action was obviously to wiggle out of her pants and allow them to join the mess on the floor and ohmigosh that was so much better and it made bouncing even easier and the best day ever was even bester.

Then Zephyr was there and the expression on his super dumb face looked super silly and it was super funny so she had to make a funny face back to make sure he knew how stupid he looked but she couldn't keep it up for long because she had to laugh at him because he was so dumb and she was having so much fun. But laughing and bouncing was hard to do at the same time and it was really tiring and she wound up just rolling around on the mattress instead while she giggled herself into lightheadedness.

Zephyyyyyr! Zephyr Zephy Zephyfer! This is the best bed! Have you been on this bed because it is the best bed!" Her head lolled over the side of the mattress and the young man looked even sillier upside down and she dissolved into another giggle fit, the blood rush making her head swim even more. "Your house is boooring but this room is good and this bed is good I like this room I'm gonna live here now." Ghosty could live there too and they would buy so much cookie dough and it was the best idea.

The normal procedure in this sort of situation was generally to pinch yourself wasn’t it? The thought didn’t seem quite right but as the dull pounding in his head finally began to fade away he was having trouble finding a reason not to.

After all what could it hurt?

Several experimental attempts and a small amount of blood later Zephyr was staring at his arm with a frown before he was abruptly broken from his thoughts.

Zephyyyyyr! Zephyr Zephy Zephyfer! This is the best bed! Have you been on this bed because it is the best bed!"


Blinking for a moment as he tried to process both the soubrettes words and the fact that she was still here even after he’d pinched himself the hessian puzzled frown persisted even as he marshaled his thoughts to reply.

“It’s… m’bed.”

His response didn’t have quite the effect he’s been hoping for as Isabel collapsed into another fit of hysterics which left squirming on the bed in a way that was really quite …distracting.

"Your house is boooring but this room is good and this bed is good I like this room I'm gonna live here now." These final words of intent were delivered just as the buxom brunette landed at the foot of the bed with arms spread eagle and her head hanging off the edge so she could look up at him a giggle happy grin.

Whatever retort Zephyr might have had in mind as he opened his mouth, and the closed it again. There was …something about the soubrettes statement that was deeply unsettling to a distant part of his mind, yet when he tried to focus on it he found his concentrating slipping.

Oddly it seemed to happen whenever Duskmoor took a deep breath.

Shaking his head he forced his gaze back the Isabel’s face for the second (or was it the fourth?) time the hessian tilted his head as he tried to think things through.

“You’ave to share.”

That wasn’t what he wanted to say, no wait, it was. Keeping an eye on Isabel would be so much easier if she lived with him. It would keep her from terrorizing the Sanctuary neighbourhood and he’d be able to keep her from stalking the rest of the city at night, it made perfect sense.

Having come to his conclusion Zephyr nodded his head once before he crouched down to Isabel’s level. “If you ‘ive you need to b’have and have to be clean.” He wouldn’t have her looking like a murder hobo if she stayed with him, no sir.

Then he pinched her nose, because that’s what you did in this sort of situation.

There was... giggling.

Ghost wriggled down into teh pillows and piled a blanket on her face.

MOAR. GIGIGLLING. How was she supposed to rest in peace if the world was so spinning and the Isafriend was so happy?

Wait. She didn't hear giggling any more and that propelled her mommy instincts into overdrive. Funny, one minute it was madness. The next it was an indication that something was wrong.

"NO!" IF HE WAS BREAKING HER SHE WAS GOING TO BREAK HIM! Ghost grabbed a pillow and was on her feet. No wait. She was on the couch. WHO PUT THAT COUCH THERE? She clambored over the back of it, over the table behind it, and then she was back into the floor again. WHO PUT THAT FLOOR THERE!?

Clearly walking was hard.

"Are you in trumble, ISafriend?" Because everything was really difficult. She throewd the pillow in her hand through the doorway and into the Simon butt she could see.

"'m always be'n have an' clean!" Isabel protested before falling into another fit of laughter as pressure was applied to her nose. Zephyr was totally insulting her and she knew she should maybe be upset about that but it was very had to be upset when her head felt so pleasantly dizzy and her stomach was so full of giggles. There was no way she'd be able to get upset until all the laughs were out and her belly felt so full of them who knew how long it would take.

"Ghosty!" It was very hard to see her sisterfriend through the boy body that was crouched down in front of her, but she could hear the lovely shout voice that had followed a series of unsteady sounding footsteps pounding down the hallway. It was so silly of sistyghost to be worried about her. Isabel was the bodyguard and so she was the one that should be worrying for all the time not the other way around but maybe that was the sister part being concerned and not the guard part. Sister having was weird and complicated but it wasn't so unpleasant.

Clumsily Isabel fought to flip back over onto her stomach so the she could catch sight of her friend, her swimming head making the feat much more difficult than it should have been. But Zephyr had been so nice to plop down in front of her and make his shoulders available for grabbing and balancing on he was being so helpful even if he was also being a snarky snark jerk. "I'm live here now! This bed, 'sgood bed and I need it so I live 'ere now you should live here too we can be bess rummates ever Zephyr will live on th'couch and buy is cookiedough f'rever!"

"'m always be'n have an' clean!""'m always be'n have an' clean!"

Even with his thoughts fighting through the warm haze that had settled in his skull Zephyr retained enough presence of mind to arch an eyebrow at the upside down girl in front of him before glancing left and right meaningfully at the mess which surrounded the bed.

She wasn’t going to pull one over on him that easy.

Before he could get as far as saying so though there was shouting and falling and more shouting as he heard and, to a degree felt, Ghost struggle to emerge from the cocoon she’d made on the couch. The note of panic in her voice made the hessian pause, what was she scared of? He couldn’t feel anyone else in the apartment, she should be safe, especially with with him and Isabel here.

Just as he was starting to turn his head to check what was worrying his sister he felt a pair of hands land on his shoulders. Looking at the one on his right, his eyes traced the small fingers up the wrist and back to the bare forearm and the over the rolled shirtsleeve at the shoulder before he found himself face to face with a now right side up Isabel who was staring past him.

Huh, she was probably worried about Maya too. That was a good thing wasn’t it? He thought so, even though he wasn’t sure when soubrette managed to turn herself upright Come to that, when had let go of her nose? He glanced down at his own hand to briefly confirm that, yes, it was empty before lifting his gaze just as Duskmoor decided to do a push up on his shoulders and the elemental found himself staring straight into the buxom brunettes cleavage.

Then a pillow hit his head, and he gained an entirely new perspective. It was soft, warm and honestly quite comfortable, which was all to the better really because with Isabel leaning on him as she was moving wasn’t much of an option.


"I'm live here now! This bed, 'sgood bed and I need it so I live 'ere now you should live here too we can be bess rummates ever Zephyr will live on th'couch and buy is cookiedough f'rever!"

Distracted as he was Zephyr only managed to catch the final part of Isabel’s declaration but it was enough. That wasn’t what they agreed on!. Turning his head from side to side as he tried to speak around the soft skin he was pressed into Zephyr’s words came out far more muffled and intelligible than normal.

“No! Isab- Isab- Issie, yu ‘ave to share! S’my bed too, I tol’ you.”

It was hard to see. It wasn't hard to hear because loud Isafriend was helpuflly getting her voice to Ghosty's ears. But... Simom... He was... She hadn't heard his voice be like that before. Kinda whiny. Kinda allup in Isafriend's business.

Pursed lips preceeded Ghost making her way back around the couch. She grapped up the blanketheap and swayed for a moment under the weight of them. No. She stubbornly made sure not to drop them or herself. Very stubborn. She was on a mission!

The pile of couch cushions, blankets, towels, linens, and a couple bits of clothes wobbled on skinny Ghost legs toward the bedroom. She blomped into the doorframe and lost a sock and a bed pillow. And then she blomped into something else that was verymuch in the way. She pushed again, but it didn't seem to be doing anygood and she was close enough. Soclose enough.

"I broght th' fort." She let it all go and fwumped on top of the fort. And maybe her brother.

"Is rude t' talk with yer mouth full." One of Isabel's hands found its way into Zephyr's hair so she could not exactly gently pull his head back and get his face out of her chest. Rude. So rude. "Those're mine an' 'mnot sharin anno touchin' those." It was hard to tell if the heat in her face was new or if her cheeks were just booze warm or flushed from the jumping and the hanging upside down or maybe a combination of all of them. Angry was probably the thing to be but there was such a pleasant hum in her brain and his face was still so stupid looking that it was hard to be anything but amused.

"You brought th'fort!" She let go of the handful of hair so she could raise her arm in celebration while the fort supplies were piled on top of Zephyr. Ghosty was the best and now the bed would be even better and they would never want to leave ever they would need so much cookie dough to live off of and maybe also a TV. Maybe she would bring the TV into the room too. It was a good TV.

"We don' hafta share with Zephy if we don' wanna," Isabel assured her fwumpy friend with a nod of her head. He could sleep on the floor or the couch but the floor might be more comfortable with all the laundry all over it since the couch didn't have cushions anymore. "He's be'n rude an' rude peoples don' get t'share nothin'."

As it turns out, when you cover someones nose and mouth breathing starts to become something of an issue. It also doesn’t help matters if you use what little air you do have trying to argue while being partially suffocated.

"Is rude t' talk with yer mouth full."

Releasing a slight growl of frustration Zephyr again tried to pull his head back while Isabel’s hands kept him in place. He should be madder about that shouldn’t he? For some reason though he couldn’t seem to work his thoughts past the warm brea brume that covered him.

It was probably the light headedness. He’d show her talkin with a mouthful.

Given that he flat out couldn’t physically lift the soubrette though, Zephyr was in the middle of deciding between levitating the pair of them or simply ghosting When he felt a tug on his hair as Duskmoor stopped leaning on him completely and tilted his neck backwards, leaving him to stare at her neck until she leaned back further and could look him in the eye

"Those're mine an' 'mnot sharin anno touchin' those."

Huh, when had she gotten so red? It seemed to go from her face all the way down- No! Focus. He didn’t want her pillows, or did he? No, no, this was about the bed. Bed first pillows later. Placing his hands on Isabel’s shoulders the hessian pulled himself up (or did he pull her down?) until they were eye to eye.

Before he could get a word in edge wise though he hard something about a fort and then Duskmoor was shooting her hand into the air in excitement and talking about him sleeping on the floor just as blankets fell over them and things became muffled again.

"We don' hafta share with Zephy if we don' wanna,"

That wasn’t right. He needed to explain again, this was important. So he pulled himself closer to make sure she could hear him

“No s’mine.”

Before he could continue though someone ran into him from behind -and when had Isabel’s eyes gotten so big? And did she always taste like cinnamon? He tried to pull back and he thought she did too as she tried to say something, or maybe she liked how he tasted? but whoever had run into him was now laying on top of him and being on the floor wasn’t comfortable anymore.

Hmm, maybe that was problem. He was crouching on the floor and so she thought he liked it there. Well he could fix that easy enough.

Lifting things with air only sounded difficult. Really it was very simple, just tell a spot of air to stop moving so it became a new floor then leverage it under what you wanted to lift, which right now was everything.

It wasn’t slow and it wasn’t fast but in what seemed like only a few seconds everything that had been on top of him was hovering over the middle bed while he floated over just over the foot of unsure of what to next, because as he’d gone up Isabel hadn’t let go of him so she was hanging off him and he couldn’t tell her to let go because …well, it was really hard to talk when someone had their tongue in your mouth.

Maybe she didn’t know that?

Deciding to just drop the blankets on top of the bed he drifted closer to the center so Isabel wouldn’t herself if she fell. Then he moved a hand to her hair and copied her early gesture as he tugged her head away so he could talk again.

“S’rude to talk wi’ your mouthful” He told her sagely.