(Continued from Thinking Things Through and There Will Be Drinks )

”Thanks! I really owe you one!” Kealey shouted as she and the bribed student parted ways, him to park his car and her to get to Shin’s room as fast as humanly possible. From the garage she ran, not wasting any time on slowing down when she entered the mansion. Just let anyone say something to her about running. This was important business and no it couldn’t wait. It had waited long enough.

It was afternoon now, and Kealey honestly wondered if her driver thought she was utterly insane. It hadn’t been her fault…the drive back really had seemed twice as long as the ride out. The blond knew her way through the mansion, but that too seemed like it was taking twice as long as it should. What if Shin had changed his mind?

No use worrying now. It was too late to go back and change what had happened in the cab. Things had been said, and now the air needed to be cleared.

Around the corner, down the hall, turn here, turn there, up the stairs, another corner, one more turn…

Kealey skidded to a stop in front of Shin’s door, slightly gulping air from the way she’d ran. In hindsight that might have been a little excessive…but still.

BANG BANG BANG

Oh…she’d banged on the door. That was fine, so were all the other auxiliary emotions butting in on her from the people in the Mansion…best to do this quickly so she didn’t forget what she had been going to say.

…what had she been going to say?

Kealey panicked slightly, the carefully chosen words flying from her head like so many birds off of a shaken power line. She knew what message she needed to get across, though, and she’d already knocked.

”Here goes nothing…” she whispered, then rose her fist to knock again.

In his dreams, there was knocking.

The room was black, blank, save for the glassy sheen on the floor and walls. Shin looked around, standing dead center. Why was there so much knocking? And where, oh where, was it coming from?

Below him, there was dead space. Darkness. Above him, equal parts 'nothing' and 'void'. To all sides, 'naught'. Goose eggs. Two zeroes on their sides, touching. Empty space far out into infinity.

The walls of the glass room around him locked him away in a cube. He was alone in the midst of nothing, in a glass cube... but there was knocking. The knocking changed to a pounding in his ears.

Shin groggily rolled out of bed.

Thor looked up, still resting on his dog bed. His owner was at it again, kissing the floor good morning. What was that? The first time? Third?

Dogs had no memory for such trivialities.

Shin rubbed his nose. He had no memories for last night.

"... Wha?" He blinked. Shin sat back on his haunches, looking around.

He was in his room. Somehow, he'd managed that feat. For some reason, he had the feeling it had been a tricky one, to end up in his own room, rather than that of another... but he had no memories to lead to that.

No memories at all, nope, save for the knocking... what was knocking? He blinked at the door. In his dream, he hadn't even gotten the chance the bust through the cube's wall and examine it.

Shin rose. Perhaps now he could do some research. He walked over and opened his door. A familiar face greeted him, frantic. Shin rubbed his eyes again, and yawned. He smacked his lips.

"G'morning."

>>”G’morning”

Kealey had almost been ready to give up on the door and resort to either scouring the mansion to find Shin, or sitting down to wait at his room until he showed up. What else was there to do? She had to wait, had to tell him. Then the door had opened…and there was Shin. Saying good…morning?

Kealey stood for a moment and stared. Shin looked…tired…and felt….a little disoriented? Kealey blinked for a moment, trying to regain her bearings. Why was she out of breath again? Oh yeah, she’d ran here. Oh…yeah…she’d ran here to tell Shin…

”I went to a lake. Really really early this morning. A lake that was really far away from everything, so I could think. I didn‘t want to wait.”

Wow, that was definitely not how she’d planned this conversation to start.

She stopped for a moment, ”Shin…are you okay?”

Didn't want to wait? On what?

Was he okay?

"Uhhh... yeah?" Shin laughed nervously. "Why? Well. Okay. I can't remember much of last night," He confessed. "And..." There it was. A hangover. Lovely. Well, now he knew what he was doing last night. "I have a little headache... you?"

He smiled at her, despite the pounding. Headaches weren't nice. Kealey was.

He couldn’t….remember the night before? He had a…headache. Kealey’s eyes widened slightly at the nervous laughter.

”You didn’t get hit in the head, did you? Did I miss something? Why didn’t you come and get me? Is everything alright?” she said in a rush, half reaching out towards Shin.

Something was off. His room was dark, he was sleepy, he asked how she was.

”I’m…more sure of things than I was yesterday.” She said by way of explanation, hoping that he’d be able to puzzle out what that meant. Why had this suddenly gotten so difficult?

Shin was smiling, Kealey smiled back, hoping two and two would equal four. Shin was good at math.

>>”You didn’t get hit in the head, did you? Did I miss something? Why didn’t you come and get me? Is everything alright?”

Shin replied slowly. "I think I was... drinking." Yes. His headache was one piece of evidence towards that conclusion. The hazy memory, another. Judging from that last fact... "I must've had a lot."

He didn't quite follow her next statement. "More sure?" He smiled an uncertain smile. "Of what?"

Thor buried his head in his doggy bed, and put a paw over his face in shame.

Drinking? He thought he’d been drinking. Shin was uncertain, Kealey could feel it…but if he’d been drinking he was pretty sure he’d had a lot. Despite that fact, Kealey let out a slight sigh of relief. At least he was okay. Kealey, on the other hand, was feeling pretty bad. She’d driven the poor man to drink with her silly uncertainties and requests for time to think. Who did that?

Apparently she did, and apparently Shin then drank, and now he didn’t remember what she had to be sure about.

Kealey just stared at him for a moment. She blinked.

Well. This had to be the concept of Karma asking to be paid out. Kealey had made Shin own everything the day before in the cab. Pushing gently until he’d ultimately confessed. This was simply karma requiring her to do the same.

Kealey took a deep breath.

”The conversation from yesterday. In the cab…think Shin.” she reached out and put her hands on his shoulders, ”I told you I needed to be sure of something. You said it was worth the wait…”

She looked at him for a moment, ”You waited…and drank…and I went and made sure.”

Paying out Karma was one thing, slapping someone in the face with a memory that might come as a bit of a shock was something else all together.

>>”The conversation from yesterday. In the cab…think Shin.”

He bowed his head, and put his fist to his chin.

Think, think, think... What had he said? What had they talked about...? She'd told him... Shin looked up at her when she elaborated.

Worth the wait...?

He'd waited... and she'd...?

His eyes widened slightly as it quickly snapped back at him, like a branch releasing its tension after being hauled back.

"O-oh," He flushed. Oh... That. That...

That...

"That..." That. "What about that?"

He needed to stop saying that.

This was a test. This had to be a test. She’d felt the moment of realization when it hit Shin and she’d thought they were home free.

Her hands were still on Shin’s shoulders and she resisted the urge to shake him. Shaking plus hangover would not equal happiness. This was supposed to be a happy occasion, wasn’t it?

Suddenly, the whole thing seemed so funny. Kealey dropped her head and laughed for a moment before looking up at Shin’s question. At least he knew what she was talking about now.

” About that...” she said, cheeks darkening as she spoke.

”I wasn’t sure…now….well, now I’m sure.”

That probably wasn’t going to be enough. Not the way things had been going so far.

Kealey took a deep breath.

”I like you too.” she said, blush intensifying even more.

”I went someplace where people were far enough away that it was just me, only me and I could really think about it.” she stopped and nodded.

”I’m sure…” she dropped her eyes, ”Unless you changed your mind…”

>>”I’m sure…” she dropped her eyes, ”Unless you changed your mind…”

Her hands were on his shoulders... and she was sure.

She was sure.

Absolutely certain? Sure.

For a moment, the headache slipped his mind. She was sure. Her head was bowed, and she was certain. She liked him... but she wasn't certain if he still felt the same.

Shin bowed his head and let it slip closer to hers, let their two bowed foreheads kiss. "I'm certain, Kealey." He said softly. "I'm certain."

Certainty was one of those things that Kealey was rarely disappointed to feel. It was an integral part of her little built in lie detector. If a person felt certain about the things they were saying and doing, they were almost always telling the truth.

Certainty was definitely what she’d hoped to feel from Shin, now that they were on the same page. Certainty meant that he hadn’t changed his mind during a night of what appeared to be copious drinking.

She was so focused on the certainty, so relieved that was what she was feeling from Shin, that she was almost shocked when his head dropped and his forehead rested against hers.

Shin verbalized what Kealey had felt a few moments before, and she let out breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding.

”Good.” she said, not inclined to move a centimeter from where they were standing, even if any passersby might find the exchange happening in the doorway odd. ”That’s what I hoped you would say.”

Shin was glad. Happy. He stood there for a minute neither of them wanted to interrupt. Finally, he had to break it. He pulled back from her, still smiling. He'd been smiling the entire time, it seemed.

"Come in," He jerked his head towards the interior of the room as he took a few steps inside. His back was to her. Shin spoke quietly, with a hint of amusement in his voice. "I'll be right back. Aspirin. Headache."

He sure hoped Kealey didn't feel those, too. It was a doozy. Shin vanished into his side-bathroom, leaving Kealey in his room.

There was the happy. Shin grinned, Kealey grinned, they grinned. Something was still off about Shin, though. Kealey knew what it was like to wake up after a night of over imbibing and did not envy him the way he’d been feeling in a little while. Not that Kealey had great experience in the matter, but still….hangovers were not fun.

Shin stepped back after a few moments and Kealey watched as he retreated into his room, trailing behind at the invitation and shaking her head wryly as he commented that he was going after aspirin. Yup, hungover.

”You’ll want some water too.” she called, moving further inside and dropping to sit on the edge of the bed.

”Who did you go drinking with anyway?” she followed up, curiosity overwhelming sympathy for the moment.

In the bathroom, Shin opened the medicine cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of aspirin, unscrewed the cap, and smacked out a few pills. He glanced back to Kealey as she called out a reminder.

Water. Right. He set the bottle back, and filled a little paper cup, knocked back the pills. Swallowed. Down the hatch... Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long for him to overcome the wear and tear of last night.

>>”Who did you go drinking with anyway?”

She asked him.

Shin eyed himself in the mirror for a moment, trying to remember. Hrm... who had it been...? "Some pirate," he decided, leaning forward into the sink to splash water on his face. He dried himself off, looking back towards the Kealey on his bed. "It's slowly coming back to me, but... I still don't remember much about it. Why I was with a pirate, I'll never know." Maybe he'd been shanghaied, and narrowly escaped.

Ah well. It wasn't important. Shin hung up the towel, and slipped back into his room, sliding into place beside her on his bed. He grinned at her as his hand pressed down on hers. He gave it a small squeeze. "Feeling better already."

A pirate? Kealey tilted her head as she tried to figure out what that could have meant. ”So you went out, found a pirate, drank with him until you forgot half the day, and still managed to get back here in one piece?” she said, trying to work everything out in her head. It sounded ridiculous…

”Sounds like you had a great night.” she said, unable to hold back the laughter in her voice.

He said that the details were coming back to him, and Kealey was more than a little bit amused when he made his way back into the main part of the room and sat down beside her. Kealey grinned when he said he was feeling better, but raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief. ”That must be the best aspirin in the world.” she commented, turning her hand over lacing her fingers with his.

”Really? A pirate? I didn‘t know pirates even existed anymore.”

Kealey shook her head slightly and looked over to Shin apologetically, ”I’m sorry I made you wait like that…I’m still not as good at figuring myself out as I am everyone else.”