Bacon, Ibuprofen, and Coffee [Luke]

[Lilly Love]

Frogs. Frogs everywhere.
Live stood in an empty room. Except it wasn't empty. There were frogs everywhere. On the walls and ceiling. But none on the floor. Live wanted to scream but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. It felt like someone had snipped out her vocal chords. She tried again but nothing happened. She looked for a door but she couldn't tell if there was on through all of the frogs. Live hated frogs. Ever since she was little. One had hopped in her lap out of the blue when she was about three and ever since then she had hated the creatures. Live could feel the room getting smaller and the frogs getting bigger. She curled into a ball and...

With a sudden jolt Live shot up. Her body was in a cold sweat and her breathing was fast. As soon as she opened her eyes, the light from her window temporarily blinded her and made her painfully aware of a headache. She groaned and brought her hands to her face, covering her eyes and burying her head into her knees.

What happened? She remembered the party. She was talking to someone there. Lucas? Was that it? She hadn't thought she had really drank that much to mess with her memory so much but right now she couldn't recall how she had even gotten home. She groaned again. Why did hangovers have to be a thing?

[Lucas Blacke]

The saddest thing about that morning was the realization that the brain was not a muscle and thus not controllable by Lucas in the sense of doing what he wanted to do. He still dreamed like normal and had headaches like normal, and as such, due to his habit of negative thinking he was prone to bad nightmares, although they were never bad enough to actually wake him. That was, until he had a dream where he was blown in the air by an air horn constantly, the Texan was used to loud sounds, but not one like that. And while he knew it was a dream (or a nightmare) he still frantically found himself looking around for the hand that held the horn. Problem was that the air horn was not attached to anything, it just floated there and made noise.

Which in a sense was easy because he could easily swat the thing away, step on it, make sure the sound died. But it didn't, the sound went on even without horn.

And that was when he woke up in a place he didn't quite remembered. His eyes didn't open just yet though, he was used to not letting in light after waking so soon and he would just prop his body straight up on whatever surface he was lying on and allow himself to wake up mentally before slowly starting to open his eyes, though this time there was none of that as what he heard next was a groan next to him which pushed him to be somewhere where the sound was not.

It hurt. It physically hurt to have sounds near him. And keeping his eyes closed was a bad move also since his body now took in all the tiny surrounding sounds like the breathing that he did himself or the way he smacked on the ground.

Wait, he smacked on the ground. What ground? Where? He would finally open his eyes to see a floor he didn't recognize and as he raised his head to see what was going on he scratched at his side with a yawn, which was too much sound once again.

''Where th' fu-'' He began but abruptly stopped as it once again was too much sound. It suddenly dawned on him though, which allowed him to focus on how much his head hurt, sadly. He was at Live's place, the girl he had been with at the party. Wait, had he 'been' with Live? He barely even remembered how she looked. Hold on, was he hungover? Cool, first ever hangover! The best he managed to do in terms of celebrating was close his eyes again and lay on the floor.

He raised one hand to signal to the one in bed that he was okay and let it then fall to the ground. ''That hurt.'' He said dryly, and the sound of him speaking hurt too, but he didn't realize quite what the source of the pain was. ''An' that too.''

''An' that.''

[Lilly Love]

Live was not expecting to hear another voice and it made her jump, her head snapping up and her eyes locking on the boy who lay on her floor. Her eyes narrowed as he began to mumble about something hurting. Was he really that hungover? Live had downed almost a six pack of beer on top of a few mixed drinks. That she remembered. Usually the amount was doubled during the time she didn't remember.

"What the hell are you doing on my floor." It wasn't a question really, it was more just a statement, as if Live was talking to herself. All the bubbly friendliness from last night was gone and now there was just bitchy, hungover Live.

She glanced down at her clothes. She was still wearing the same thing she had been at the party. That was a good sign. Meant that the two definitely hadn't slept together. Not that it would have been the end of the world if they had. Or that she would really care that much. She glanced Luke up and down again. Okay, at least he was still attractive. Really attractive.

[Lucas Blacke]

He could at least try to ignore the pain and get up, he figured. And so he did, he got up and tried to ignore the pain which he definitely failed to do. The moment he got to his feet he was forced to find a surface to sit on, which finally meant he got to look at himself without any.. clothes? Where were his clothes? Or rather, where was his shirt? He knew about his habit of sleeping without one, but where did it go if he did shed it the night before? ..maybe it was still in his car or something though, from what he remembered when he got to Live's place he was wearing a shirt, or at least he assumed as much.

Not even Luke would be a big enough ass to enter the house of a girl half naked, was he? Though he was sure she would like it he knew it wasn't the most sane option, unless he was really out there. Then again, it was his first time being drunk so he could have very well been a bigger ass than he normally was.

He then glanced over to Live, who was still pretty clothed and indicated mentally that they did not sleep together, so he was no ass, not bigger than normal anyway. His head hurt like fuck though. If this was what drinking entailed he would rather go for something else, but then again he would just shrug (with pain) and tell himself the same thing he always would; no pain, no gain.

Sadly there was little to no gain to be seen though and plenty of pain to go around. Now it wasn't like he felt like he was going to explode or anything, it was more of a constant 'knife-in-the-temple' kind of pain. What a way to end his time at Hammel though. Getting drunk for the first time ever and coming to with a gorgeous girl next to him he didn't even sleep with!

He was sure of his reasoning though as his brain under the influence of alcohol.. well.. he'd never sleep with anyone who didn't say yes in some way, and while he would like to give Live the night (or day) of her life he wouldn't make a move unless she said so. That and he would never ask. He did that once and it lead him to-

To-

There his mind went again, spiraling into nothing as certain memories came swirling back. Would he ever get over Zo? He wanted to cry then but the headache was preventing him from doing that.

Goddamn pain.

[Lilly Love]

As Luke sat down on the bed next to her, Live imminently stood up. Her head definitely hurt more than his but she was also much more use to this whole hangover business. She looked at him sitting there, shirtless, with this expression of pain. She let out a heavy sigh and then walked over to her dresser.

Without even a second thought she pulled off her shirt and threw it on the floor. The room was fairly clean but there were some random articles of clothes scattered around.

"You don't normally get drunk, do you?" She said as she opened the top drawer and began rummaging through. She found a pair of black leggings and pulled them out and threw them onto the bed. She then went over to the closet and grabbed two hoodies out. She pulled a dark red one on over her head and then walked over to Luke and handed him the gray one.

"It was my dads so it should fit. Staying warm helps with hangovers." She then pulled off her jeans and pulled on the leggings she had put on the bed. Live wasn't one to care that much about changing in front of other people. Nor was she going to let waking up to a random guy on her floor stop her from being comfortable and dealing with her own hangover.

[Lucas Blacke]

Yup, he revolted her. Well, didn't she kind of warn him about this the day before? Now, if he remembered anything about that night he could have known. But then again, he did remember stuff from that night, and he even remembered himself saying he wanted to get to know her and she merely replied to those statements that there was nothing to know. Piece by piece, combined with thought he slowly figured out what happened the night before, his headache now slowly numbing down to something he could handle and not every sound making him jump anymore.

What exactly did he tell her though? He knew about the wanting to get to know her part, but the rest was still a bit blurred, and that was something he wasn't used to happening. Actually, to be honest it freaked him the fuck out but he decided to remain calm only for Live's sake, she was worth at least one normal day which was now already being jeopardized by hangovers. Assuming she had one. Because when she got up from her bed he could've sworn she moved like she didn't feel a thing.

A front? Like- like Zoelle? He broke her in the end, but only by breaking himself in the process. He didn't want that again, didn't want to break anyone and just wanted to get to know people without a care for how negative they were. ''I believe I told ya it was me first time.'' He managed with a pretty normal tone, though he instantly went back to his thought, not even slightly noticing that Live had shed her shirt, something he would no doubt comment on were he with someone else. Not this time, this time he just commented without turning his head.

He wanted Live to talk to him. Something he did remember from the night before was their small talk about how miserable life was, and to Luke that was worth getting out there. He didn't want anyone to live like he did, with everything bundled up inside and constantly making people talk to a mask.

He was pulled from thought and raised his head when Live stood in front of him dangling a gray hoodie in front of him as she told him it was anti-hangover to stay warm or something. Well, Lucas took her word for it and accepted the hoodie before pulling it over his chest. Using his ability to use the vibrating function of his muscles seemed like a bad idea right now. ''Thanks.'' He offered as he noticed Live changing out of her jeans in front of him.

He tried to widen his eyes as a joke but instantly felt the strain return on his head and closed his eyes briefly.

[Lilly Love]

It wasn't that Luke revolted Live. It was just that people revolted Live. And unfortunatley for Luke, he was a person therefore he was already three levels below fish on Live's "I hate you" list. Not that all hope was lost. He was cute. That bumped him up above about 75% of the population.

Live never really bothered trying to remember what had happened after a night of drinking. She didn't really see a point in it anymore. Unless someone texted her (which really wasn't a thing) and asked her about something that happened, she normally just let the night slip away in her mind. Alcohol was good for forgetting and Live had plenty she wanted to forget.

"Oh. Well, I was drunk. Don't expect me to remember anything that happens when I'm drunk." She didn't even notice Luke staring at her for a moment while she changed her pants. She didn't care anyways. She was honestly surprised that he hadn't taken her pants off himself last night.

With that she turned and started walking out of the room. She opened the door and then turned back to look at Luke. "Well, since you don't know how to fix a hangover I'll get you some coffee and bacon before you leave." It might have seemed a bit out of character for Live to offer her food to someone who was still basically a stranger but this was one of the few times the girl actually was kind of nice. Besides, she sort of enjoyed getting to baby and take care of people. Made her feel a bit better out herself.

[Lucas Blacke]

When his eyes opened again and his headache had ebbed away a bit he attempted a bit of a smile at her words and succeeded to do so as he actually remembered to turn his head in her direction so she could see him smile. It still ached a bit to do anything right then, but his ability was starting to kick in and made him move fluently again, ignoring the pain he felt. ''Somehow I think ya weren't th' only one drunk..'' He replied as his palm found the bridge of his nose, trying to exert pressure to counter-act that what he was already feeling.

If that was what being drunk did to him he would have to be careful not to get too drunk again, or drunk at all. Maybe with a helpful person by his side he could manage as he would get help- in a way that was what he was getting now if for the most part just the idea he wasn't alone, that someone talked to him and forced him to reply and ignore the way his everything was aching.

Suddenly he thought about how alcohol could very well be a bit harsher on his body, because who knew who broke it down, or what.

As Live left the room telling him she'd get him some bacon and coffee before he left (Leaving? What?) he attempted to get up from the bed, feeling slightly wobbly still and pretty much relying on his ability to keep balanced. But the major question that ran through his mind at that point was simple; did he throw up that night? He hoped he didn't. Image and all that. Also school, it would be bad having to go back to school with a bit of a hangover, let alone the monstrosity that Luke had right now.

Propping his hand down on the bed he managed to keep standing as his ability kicked in slowly and took over his legs. No matter what he felt now he was sure he would keep standing. His eyes scanned the room for a door despite Live just moving through it and noted that he would need to train on his post-hangover routines a bit. Now, this didn't mean he wouldn't do alcohol ever again as it didn't make him lose control in the same way caffeine did, but he would surely cut back. There were other ways to look cool.

Finally he found the door and followed Live, his nose telling him where to go due to all the sounds filling his brain, and still he found them a bit too loud. And he suddenly got why hungover people in movies wore sunglasses. The sun was being particularly bright today.

''Wait..'' He began as he moved over to Live. If he was anything but hungover he would have clamped onto her despite the fact he didn't really know her and they did nothing but actually sleep, but this time he just plain forgot to do what he usually would.

''Did ya just say coffee?'' He asked instead of instantly telling her not to make coffee for him.

[Lilly Love]

As Luke made it to the door, Live moved out into the living area.

Her appartment was small. There was a living room with a three person couch, a coffee table, an old box TV, and a couple bookshelves with movies, books, drawings, and a couple pictures on them. Her kitchen was less than half the size of the living room and had a fridge, a skin, and once little section of counter space. It opened into a little eating area with a small circular table. It had three chairs around it and was covered in papers and pencils. There was a drawing on top of what looked like a dark pink fire in a black hole. It was done in sharpie but looked like paint.

Live moved into the kitchen and began to grab stuff out to make coffee. She glanced back as she heard Luke question her. "Yeah. I did." She sounded almost annoyed. Had he not heard her? Was she really that hard to understand. "Caffeine and ibuprofen help with hangovers." Live should know. She had done this routine many times.

"So does greasy food. That's why bacon." Plus bacon was sort of like the perfect food. She opened the fridge and pulled out a ziplock bag with enough bacon to feed a high school football team.

Live liked animals, but she definitely wasn't above consuming large quantities of them. Especially pork. Oh, especially pork!

[Lucas Blacke]

As Luke tried to move up to where Live was he found himself halting momentarily when she replied to him that she was indeed going to make coffee. ''Well okay, guess I'll just play dead fer a few hours then.'' He thought as he remembered the things caffeine would make him do, and his fear right then was that it would make him do everything the alcohol failed to make him do. Except Live wasn't in such a drunk state anymore and would likely (hopefully) use force to keep him at bay as he felt no real urge to stop her from making him coffee. What he could do though was give her some time and fill her in on what caffeine did to him.

He nodded internally and inhaled, opening his mouth as his eyes then fell upon the drawing on the table. It looked nice, and upon examining it after picking it up he realized that she wasn't just painting (it looked like a painting anyway. Luke knew nothing of art), she was putting her emotions on a piece of paper.

If anything, that was there in the hopes someone would notice. Either that or the other thing. ''Did ya do this?'' He asked as he picked up the paper and squinted a bit, forcing his eyes to focus on what he assumed was some kind of flame in.. whatever that round thing was.. nothing? A source of light in the nothing? Or destruction in nothing? He couldn't help but think the flame was Live though, and the black hole comment from the night before suddenly came back to him too- oh! The round black thing was a black hole! -oh, the round thing was a black hole.

''Ya know Live,'' He started as he put the paper down and turned to her as she took out a bag of bacon. ''if ya ever need ta talk I'm 'ere fer ya. I know I personally enjoy havin' someone ta talk to fer moments in which I feel down..'' His words hit him, and he instantly knew what to do and slightly wondered why he hated seeing other people be negative (which in this case.. was a huge assumption to be making) ''Not sayin' ya feel down or anythin', just lettin' ya know I'm here if ya.. ya know, wanna talk or somethin'.'' Now he wasn't the best at being there for people, but he meant what he said. It was better than nothing, anyway.

''B'cause I said I wanted ta get ta know ya.'' Or at least he thought he did.. yeah, he definitely did say that. ''An' I meant it.''

[Lilly Love]

As Live moved about the kitchen making coffee, she felt her hangover slowly hitting her harder and harder. When she first woke up all she had felt was a bit of a headache but now it was seeping into her bones and organs. Everything was starting to hurt now. This coffee really needed to hurry up and be ready.

She opened a cabinet, pulled out the coffee grounds, put them in the machine thingy, added water and then poured two glasses of water. She grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen and got four tablets out.

"Yeah I did that." Her tone sounded almost upset. She wasn't one who liked to show off her work. The only reason it was laying on the table was because she had only just finished it a few nights ago so she had yet to put it away. She had a portfolio thing in her closet.

She turned on the stove to start making the bacon as Luke put down the drawing. She chuckled a bit and shook her head. "Oh Luke..." She turned her back to him as she went back to working on the coffee while the stove heated up. "Many people have said that to me," She could see all the preppy nice bitches who had tried to comfort the angry, emo, 16 year old Live, She turned back around to see how the stove was doing, "But the problem is, I don't talk about things." Live knew she had problems. She knew her life had been fucked up. She knew she was pretty fucked up too, but she didn't talk about it. talking about it made it too real. But drinking about it. Drinking about it made it all go away.

[Lucas Blacke]

She must have been a big drinker to be able to move around like she did. The small pieces of the night before, as they slowly came back to him, told him that her power was close to the one of Zo (whose name still hurt to even think about) so she couldn't have powers that made her able to ignore the pain, and that told him she had been experiencing this enough to be able to ignore it like she was. Or so he thought anyway. Maybe it was simply that her tolerance lay a good bit higher than his own. In fact he kinda knew that was the case, Lucas had never drunk any alcohol so anyone else would have had a higher tolerance to the stuff.

Still having come out of a relationship quite recently he knew he shouldn't look at Live that way, but his eyes seemed to have a mind of their own as they scanned over her. They had probably done so earlier or the night before, he couldn't remember even though he would have likely been flirting with her. Oh wait, he did mention wanting to get to know her which was Luke for 'I want to fuck you.'

''Well, fer what it's worth it looks good.'' He told her as one of the last things about her drawing. Still, it held some sort of attractive vibe to him, like she had somehow drawn something he could relate to. Which was odd as he couldn't even figure out what it was that she drew in the first place.

As she continued on making coffee Lucas took some time to appreciate her form, and as she turned around to check on it he took his time to check her out by stepping a bit closer as silent as possible. And while he stepped closer he began to enjoy what he saw a bit more, and that was after just getting out of bed! She definitely looked hot, and whether it was because of trying to push Zoelle away from him or something else he did think she blew her out of the water by looks alone. Now the personality he didn't really know, but they'd get there soon enough.

''Oh Live.'' He repeated with her name instead of his own which might well be a way of giving her statements less power. ''People 'ave said that ta me too.'' Truth was that almost no one had done that and he was fine with that, after all, people who got to know him always ended up hurt in some way or other. ''I don't talk 'bout it either.'' He might have shaken his head as he said that but he was being honest, he never did talk about it, not in full anyway.

But as of late he had started talking about some things, and it felt quite good to be extremely honest. ''Or didn't..'' He added as he smiled a bit. ''But do what ya will, I ain't forcin' ya.'' Except he kinda was in his mind.

[Lilly Love]

She noticed Luke getting closer but she was too hungover to take much mental note of it or really care. Some flirty hungover boy really was the least of her concerns.

It was kind of funny. Most girls in this situation would probably be scared or something. I mean, waking up in your house alone with a strange guy. But Live was wrong. She knew this boy posed no real threat to her. Even if things go bad, she could just change her form and then he'd be fucked. It didn't matter how strong you were when fighting a shadow.

Live chuckled at the boy as she grabbed the glass of water and handed it to him along with two of the tablets. She put both of hers in her mouth and swallowed, rising them back with water. "Oh believe me. I will do what I will." She said then finished the water and put it in the sink.

"You should probably drink more water too. Drinking makes you dehydrated. Part of what's causing your headache right now." If there was one thing Live was good at it was taking care of herself. She had been doing so since she was a child.

It was probably a good thing she didn't notice Luke checking her out. While last night she handled the flirting quite well, in fact she had actually quite enjoyed it, now she was sober and the situation would not play out so well.

[Lucas Blacke]

Tablets? But she didn't do drugs right? It wasn't until a few moments later that he had realized it were tablets against the pain instead of other, more weirder pills. So he took them out of her hands as she held them out and he even let his index finger linger in the palm of her hand a bit longer than normal before taking it back with the two tablets brought to his mouth. As he opened his jaw he also flashed his tongue and shot Live a wink (because why not) as the glass of water was put down on the counter. He'd known enough about swallowing to be able to take the things without the use of water.

And if what she said about the dehydration thing (which honestly made an ungodly amount of sense) was to be battle he would need not only more than one glass, but also he would need to not spend it getting some tablets down to where they belonged. ''I know of more things that cause me headache,'' he offered as he took both tablets bare and swallowed them, though the aftertaste made him quickly drink the water in the glass. ''private things. Fun things gone wrong. Personal things. Things I.. actually.. uh..''

He stammered, and this time it was a sign of him bringing the glass to his lips and suddenly, for the first time in quite a while staring into one of the side effects of his ability again.

Lucas paused and put the glass back down as he looked at Live, who had already finished her water. It wasn't until you weren't able to drink that you realized how thirsty you were. ''Err... Live..?'' He asked as he furrowed a brow. ''I have ba-'' he went over the possibilities in his head and smiled suddenly. ''I 'ave news!'' He would casually and with a smile mention that he had forgotten how to drink just then. The only good part about it, and the part he focused on being the fact he wouldn't be able to drink coffee.

''I fergot how ta drink.'' He said with a smile as he eyed the glass in his hand.

[Lilly Love]

Live had turned her attention back to the stove, grabbing out a pan for the bacon, when Luke started stammering. She turned to hime when he said her name.

"What?" She said drearily. She was really not in the mood for dumb shit right now. She was holding her composure fairly well but she was substantially hungover. More so than Luke but she was just use to it.

When he said he had forgotten how to drink, Live stared at him in disbelief. How was that even possible? Was he retarded? Maybe he actually was, in which case she would feel a little bit bad but only so much so. Was he just complaining about his hangover? Was he trying to seem like he was still drunk? She couldn't even fathom.

"What the hell does that even mean?" She said crossing her arms. She just wanted to cook the bacon, drink her coffee, and get this boy out of her house. But instead now he all the sudden forgot how to freakin' drink!