Stalkers, 1,000,000 of them. All wanting brownies. That’s what Aurum saw. “Haha,” he shook his head. “You sure you want me to bake less?” One would think she’d want him to bake more. He had no problems with baking for her. He wondered why she always made out her stalking him for food to be a bad thing.

Aurum sleepily cut himself a section, and lifted it onto Shin’s plate. Shin wasn’t using it. Someone might as well. Aurum tugged a chair into place, and sat down. He used a fork to slice through the brownie, and speared his first bite. Success tasted good.

“So, what next?” He wondered aloud. A quick glance at the clock would tell them it was nearly 4AM. Did he have work in the morning…? Maybe. It didn’t seem like he’d get the chance to head home for a fresh set of clothes. Aurum’s eyes dipped to the mess Shin was making on the floor. It didn’t look like Shin would get the chance, either. And he’d need a new set, if he kept eating them like that.

Aurum dug into his next brownie. He grinned up at Kealey’s comment. It was fun. And he was the only person not standing… hmm…

Bake less? Shin waved his hands at Kealey, and mouthed the words ‘no no no’. “More!” He stretched his arms out wide, towards the ceiling, as if trying to encompass the whole room. He stole another brownie to emphasize his point.

After he was done with it, he followed Aurum’s line of sight to the clock. What to do next…

“Uh. Sleep?” He offered. After the sugar buzz wore off, he just might be tired. “We could watch something on the cooking network, and force you to, er, inspire you to make it…” Shin thoughtfully pondered as he stole another helping of good.

Aurum pointed out how he thought she’d want him to cook more rather than less, and Shin pantomimed his hopes that this would be the case. Kealey tilted her head at Aurum as he sat at her table and ate his brownie with a fork, then shrugged, she’d only been trying to warn him.

”Aurum…if I thought you’d do it, I’d want you to cook me every meal.” Kealey said, nodding her head seriously, ”I was just warning you that it was more and more likely to happen the more you cooked for me.” That mad a shocking amount of sense coming from Kealey’s mouth, and that was something considering the amount of alcohol she’d ingested. She took another bite of brownie and nearly hugged Aurum again…they were so good and her alcohol filled belly appreciated the weight of food settling in there.

Shin suggested sleep, and Kealey had to agree. Her eyes were getting droopy even as she thought about it. He suggested that they watch Food Network too, and Kealey nodded enthusiastically. She ate more brownie, ”All of these ideas are fantastic.” she said, the fact that she had guests as they suggested this completely slipping from her mind. ”We should go and do that.” she announced, grabbing another brownie and making her way back out to the floor in front of her couch. Aurum had made the brownies, he got the good seat.

>> ”Aurum…if I thought you’d do it, I’d want you to cook me every meal.”

Heh. Aurum said nothing, savoring the brownie instead. He knew what he’d been getting himself into, when he made dessert tonight. Delicious Oreo cheesecake brownies. Also, stalkers. The corners of his mouth turned upwards as he chewed. It really was a good night for food.

And maybe, the food network? Aurum quirked an eyebrow. “Sure.” Brownie-munching and television was alright. He picked up his plate, and moved to the living room after Kealey, plopping on the couch. He kicked off his shoes, and lifted a leg across his knee. The plate of brownies balanced in his lap.

“So, what’s on?” Aurum asked with a yawn. “Anything with Guy Fieri?”

Brownie party! Shin opened cupboards, closed cupboards, opened more cupboards, and found a plate for his brownies. He threw three more brownies onto the plate, and stole a fork from Kealey’s drawers. It only took a minute of searching. After he was done, he danced/wobbled his way to the living room, and sat down by Kealey’s side. He nudged her, and looked to Aurum, who’d just asked a good question.

>>“So, what’s on?” “Anything with Guy Fieri?”

Shin stared at the television screen, with eyes wide. He opened his mouth. “Right now, nothing bro. Where’s the remote?”

Guy who? Food Network what? Kealey stared blankly at the television when Shin nudged her and asked for the remote. Remote? Where was the remote? Kealey looked around the living room, frowning slightly, then made a slight dive for the end of the couch opposite where Aurum had planted himself, digging down the side of the cushion, and coming out triumphant with the remote in her hand.

“Here ya go.” she said, tossing it into Shin’s lap and narrowly missing the plate of brownies as she settled back against the couch. She leaned her head back against the cushions then and let her mind drift. The intense drunkenness was starting to wear off, leaving absolute exhaustion in its wake. At the ceiling she stared, thinking about everything that had happened over the course of the evening.

Overall everything had been great, right up to the brownies…which had been amazing. Kealey smiled, pulling her head forward and blearily focusing on the TV, ”Who is Guy Fieri?”

Aurum squinted. "Oh." Shin was right. The screen was still black. Well, damn. He picked up one of his brownies, and took a tentative bite, eyes sliding to Kealey, then Shin. Was someone gonna... turn it on, then? He was busy, sitting here. They were closer, so... he lifted up his legs as Kealey dove for the other side of the couch. There they went.

He watched the remote sail over to Shin. The TV snapped on.

Aurum blinked at what Shin turned it to.

>>”Who is Guy Fieri?”

"Not... that." Aurum stated, as an anthropomorphic yellow sponge danced with a squirrel on-screen. "Definitely not..." That. What the hell kind of special brownies were they feeding the animators these days?

A tiny ‘eep’ escaped Shin as the remote crash-landed near the brownie site. He picked it up, and shifted his plate of brownies to the floor for a moment. Uncertain fingers prodded at buttons on the confusing (for a drunk) device. The television sprang on. On-screen, a lion roared. Shin jumped slightly, in shock, and quickly fumbled with the channels. He skipped over a news channel, an infomercial, and a cooking show, and settled on something that looked interesting: Bubbles.

Was the show filmed under the sea? Then… why was there fruit there? Shin tilted his head. He aimed a cautious glance back and Kealey and Aurum as stuff happened on-screen. Did they like this show…? He’d only accidentally found it. Aurum seemed… disinterested.

Shin turned back towards the television, and patted his mouth, stifling a yawn. “Wonder if there’s anything better on…” More channel-flipping, all to no success. It seemed there wasn’t much good on for insomniacs at 4AM. Wait…? What? Shin focused on the little clock in the bottom right corner of the screen. It was 4AM?

Shin scooped up his brownie plate, and walked past Aurum, towards the kitchen. He pressed the remote into Aurum’s chest on the way. Shin set down his plate on the table, and announced to the living room, “There’s nothing on. I’m going to bed.” With that announcement out of the way, Shin swayed his way into an adjoining hallway, and searched for some form of bed. After a minute of fruitless searching in a towel closet, he found it. Shin untied his shoes, and rolled onto the bed, letting his arms spread away from him on either side. Triangular pupils flicked over the surface of the ceiling sluggishly. Shin let out a yawn.

Lions and cooking and…sponges? Oh my. Kealey giggled at the silly little quip as it ran through her head. Aurum apparently disapproved of that show, and well he should have…squirrels didn’t wear bows in their hair! It was simply ridiculous. The channels flicked past and Kealey tilted her head, trying to figure out what show was what as it flicked past. Not that she was any expert, the set was rarely ever on. It stopped on a random infomercial, and Kealey turned her head to look at Shin, who stared at the TV for a moment before standing up and announcing that he was going to bed.

Kealey sat where she was for a moment, fuzzy brain trying to figure out what seemed strange about that comment. It was 4am, she thought as a door in her apartment opened and closed. They were all pretty drunk, the brownies had been well demolished, there was nothing on TV. A few more moments passed before it dawned on Kealey. Shin was in her room, that meant one thing.”Hey! I need my blanket!” she exclaimed, gaining her feet with no small difficulty and making her way to her room with purposeful strides to find the triangle manipulator already crashed out. The blond plunked her hands on her hips for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the blanket with every intention of dragging it from beneath her friend. Alcohol and poor
balance had other plans.

Over Kealey toppled, finding herself face-down on the very blanket she’d been trying to pilfer. That wasn’t going to work, but it was so much more comfortable here…she thought, and the room was starting to spin again. Maybe she’d just stay where she was for a few minutes until that righted itself. Her face stayed where it was, the pillow serving as a buffer between the spinning room and Kealey’s eyes and slowly she drifted off to a cheesecake-brownie colored dream land, completely failing to notice that she’d fallen on Shin’s outstretched arm.

Shin left… and Kealey left… and Aurum was left to his own devices in front of the TV… he stared at the screen for twenty seconds, the yawned and flipped it off. There really was nothing on. Aurum rolled to his feet, and gathered up everyone’s brownie plates, then walked them to the kitchen.

Such a mess…

He cleaned up the brownie spill, washed the mixing bowls, and cleaned Kealey’s kitchen spotless. Twenty minutes later, he hobbled back to the couch. Aurum stretched an arm over his head, and smacked his lips. His eyelids dropped. A minute later, he was asleep.

After that first yawn, things had gone downhill fast. Another yawn had quickly followed, and then his eyelids had grown heavy. The blanket was no longer doing any good simply being underneath him. Shin had tugged it around him like a cocoon. A tiny portion had been left out. He didn’t need it all. That portion was exactly the bit of blanket Kealey had tugged before her tumble. Of course, Shin was already dozing by then. He didn’t notice the blond falling near him, didn’t notice her on top of his arm. All Shin noticed, as he rolled over to wrap the other thing around her, was that something was heavy and warm… and it needed hugging. Because hugging was good.

Shin woke up the next morning, hugging Kealey. His eyes peeked open, and settled on blond hair. It didn’t register at first. Something was warm. He snuggled up to it, corners of his mouth tugging up in a sleepy smile. And, it smelled good. This was nice. He decided it wasn’t time to wake up yet.

Another five minutes, mom…

One of the many things that Kealey Quinn had learned since arriving in New York city was that it was never a good idea to wake up after drinking earlier than your body desired. That was the best way to get slammed with a relentless hangover that wanted to pull your brain out through your nose and fill your head with dizziness and nausea. So, whenever she drank, she tried to make it fall on nights before days off…or late-shift days. This had to be one of those days, because the alarm definitely was not going off.

Kealey was sleeping deeply enough that when she was snuggled, the blond simply snuggled back. Warm was warm, and warm was good. Besides, this dream was far too good to wake up from at the moment. There were all manner of cute and adorable things floating around, and they were all full of calm and content sleepy emotions. Those were the things dreams were made of…at least in Kealey’s world at the moment. With nothing to encourage further movement, motion, or waking, Kealey slept on, waiting for the time when her body and her hangover would stop fighting and decide it was time for her to be awake and functional.

In his dream, he was running. Gone were the pie tins, the music, and the girls. In their place, the farmer charged, with his pitchfork and his fearsome words. He was terrifying, wild-eyed, with thinning hair. It wasn’t Aurum’s fault! He hadn’t known those were the farmer’s carrots! And the group, they didn’t mean anything by it. Aurum-bunny, and Shin-bunny, and Kealey-bunny, they’d all been innocent. If the farmer could just stall his anger, and stop chasing them, Aurum knew he could explain. The situation wasn’t insurmountable. He’d use the Bunny Defense. ‘We’re all just rabbits here, sir. Don’t mean nothin’ by it. Just eat carrots, is all’. Yeah! That’d show him!

But it wouldn’t, and Aurum knew it, and old farmer McGregor was just not slowing down. He kicked out a leg, and hopped into a rabbit hole. Maybe he’d be safe there? Down in the earthen hollow, where it was moist and dark.

Aurum rolled off the couch, and hit the floor for the second time in 24 hours. He jostled awake.

Then, came the hangover. Aurum held his head. He cast a look around. The room was free of other people, the television was off… this wasn’t his home. Where was he? And there were brownies… a memory lit up in his short-term section. He remembered Kealey and Shin.

… But where were Kealey and Shin, huh? Where were Kealey and… “Shin.”

If they weren’t here, there was only one other place they could be… but, together? That was… Shin, you sly dog… a hint of jealousy flared up in Aurum’s mind.

Sly dogs usually didn't get their arms trapped in bear traps... or the Kealey-heavy version, thereof. Shin rolled away from the warm body, and put his hand over his eyes. His head kind of hurt. What had he been doing again? And... why was his arm kind of numb? He tugged it. Nothing. Another tug, not looking towards the weight. Finally, Shin gave one good hard yank, and--

"Kealey?" His eyes widened, as Kealey rolled to the floor.

All of a sudden, things weren’t cute and cuddly anymore. All of a sudden, the decision that Kealey’s body and mind had made to stay asleep until the hangover went away wasn’t hers to make anymore. All of a sudden, the warmth that had been so warm and cuddly wasn’t there anymore and Kealey let out a sleepy protest. All of a sudden, Kealey was on the floor.

The blonde’s eyes flew open as she hit the floor and she groaned at the light the flooded in. Why was she awake? She heard her name and Kealey looked up the fairly small distance to her platform bed. There was somebody there. Shin was there. Memories from the night before flooded into her mind and Kealey simply stared for a few moments, propped up on her elbows and looking through the curtain of curls that had obstructed her view. She pushed it aside. ”Shin.” she said, trying to remember exactly how the night had ended.

There had been drinking…lots of drinking and talking….then singing on the way back to her apartment. They’d had brownies that Aurum had ma- Aurum was there somewhere, Kealey pushed up on her elbows a bit more to see if he was also in her bed. He was not. She concentrated on the apartment, past Shin’s confusion and found…jealousy….disappointment? Kealey groaned and raised a hand to her forehead. Kealey concentrated on herself….and Shin…who was still in her bed.

...they'd been watching TV...Shin had gone to sleep...Kealey had come to find her blanket and....Oh.

”Good morning?” she said, kind of at a loss for anything else. "Does your head hurt as much as mine does?"