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I looked it up...

Dreaming is supposed to be the way our active minds perform a conginitive process that organizes thought, but that gets mixed up in the lower functions of our brains that are still functioning during the later sleeping stages.

:::She pauses to re-interpurt what that means::: I must think of it a lot. And all of you. You're all in my dreams now, all the time. Sometimes... I dream that I'm sitting in the Brink with you, and then you disappear...and I go back to Omegatropolis. And I just become so afraid that I'll be alone again... that's normally where the Seraphim comes in and tells me-

:::Cora doesn't even bother to continue. She stops the sentence short and just sighs into Luke's shirt:::

It's not real though...

:::Cora realizes just how little he wants to say about all this, but how can he? When her mind is going a mile a minute and all she seems to want to do is tell him how she feels...:::

Because... I'm not going back there. I'm never going back to Omegatropolis. And the Seraphim isn't going to take any of you away from me... not on my shift.

:::One of her hands finds Luke's, and she threads her fingers through his:::

:::When he pulls away, Cora is further perplexed... he didn't outwardly seem to be fighting her... but he was definately fighting something. Luke just wasn't putting it into words. He seemed determine to just stare up at the ceiling, and ignore any words or gestures of comfrot she had...

so she shrank away, back against the wall. She kept an eye trained on him though, ready to come back if he showed any signs of wanting her there... and Cora found herself desperately wishing he needed her:::

:::Cora smiles sheepishly, hoping it was too dark to see it... was she that transparent? But if swallowing her pride then and there meant that Luke wanted her near him again, she'd carve it out in stone for him.

Not a moment later, she was back at his side, her arm across his chest, sighing into his shoulder. Cora was alright not talking about it...

:::I guess... as long as I can just be here...:::

:::But Cora, despite herself yet again, falls quickly back to sleep in the comfort of Luke's acceptance. Her eyes fall closed and her breathing becomes slow and steady before long, there on his shoulder:::

:::She'd appreciate it later though, when she'd be back in the Brink and thinking back. Cora could have just faded out as soon as she fell asleep the first time, but she got to be there for Luke during his nightmare, and he got to be there for her when she wanted to be alone the very least:::

:::It was then though, that it was time to go home. Sleeping soundly, the Brink took her. She faded out of Luke's arms and would appear back at the bar, sleeping on a table stll wearing her flannel pajamas and tank top, her belt and suit faded in as well, somewhere nearby... she'd stay asleep until she woke up naturally a few hours later:::

*At around noon, Luke wakes up. After a few moments, he groggily stands, visits the bathroom, and goes back into his room.*

*The door of his room is wide open, and he hears from the doorway.* "Hey, man."

*Luke looks up to see Chuck. His eyes go slightly wide and he finds it hard not to laugh at the message written across his roommate's face. He manages though.* "Hey. ....How are we feeling?"

"Ugh... Better than I should, I'll tell you that much." *Apparently, Chuck still has not looked at himself in the mirror yet this morning. He casually leans against the doorframe.* "Cora made her flight, huh?"

*It's not exactly a lie when he says.* "Early this morning she was out of here."

*Chuck nods.* "Man... My stomach hurts."

"Really? Must be all the alcohol you put in it last night."

"Yeah."

*Luke motions to Chuck, looking concerned.* "Hey, man .... You got something on your face."

"Yeah?" *Chuck looks equally concerned.* "Where?"

*Luke points to where Max drew a large c**k and balls.* "Right there."

*Chuck rubbed the side of his mouth.*

*Luke nodded.* "You got it."

"Thanks."

*Luke nodded again.* "No problem."

*A few seconds later, Chuck left to go to the bathroom. .... About ten seconds pass, before Luke hears Chuck shout.* "OH ******** YOU GUYS!"

*Luke laughs appreciatively at Chuck's reaction. Man.... He couldn't wait to tell Cora.*

**End "Call It What You Wanna Call It"**

As Luke entered his apartment, Chuck looked up from his laptop at the kitchen table. “Hey, man.”

“Hey.” Luke plunked down in the chair across from him and leaned back comfortably.

Chuck typed in a few more words on his computer, pressed enter, and sat back in own chair. “So,” he began. “I talked to Stephanie today.”

“Stephanie,” Luke echoed. “You mean, tits?”

“No, no. Not Chesty. Stephanie from English class.”

Luke echoed again softly. “Stephanie from English class.”

“So she asks me to come by her place to help her study.”

Luke grinned. He liked where this story was going. Or at least, he thought he did. Where Luke was smiling, Chuck wasn’t. Luke sent him an odd stare and Chuck continued, “We’re going over Tennyson and getting all cozy on her bed. And we’re talking, and she starts saying that I’m the only one who gets her, how nobody else understands her … So I’m thinking – Perfect, I’m in. I lean over and kind of rest my arm behind her, so we’re looking at each other.” Chuck sighed laboriously. “And she moves backwards and puts her hands up. Like I just violated her or something. She starts giving me this line about how – oh, we’re just friends and she doesn’t want me getting ‘the wrong idea’. On and on. And I mean … what the <********/>
As Luke sat back in his chair, he was honestly trying not to smile. It wasn’t that he liked hearing about how Chuck got shot down by some prudish b***h with a poetry book shoved up her a**, and it wasn’t that he found something humorous about his situation either. Hearing Chuck b***h about his love life was like hearing his own language spoken for the first time in days. There was nothing to decipher, nothing to calculate, nothing to translate. It was such a comfort that Luke had to focus to make sure he frowned. “What a stupid v****a. Did you kick her out?”

“I was in her room.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Luke said. “Trust me, you could have kicked her out."

“No,” Chuck answered. “I didn’t kick her out.”

“Well, did you leave?”

“I didn’t even leave. I stayed there and we finished studying for the test that we have Tuesday.”

“What? No, that’s unacceptable. You can’t let girls d**k you around like that.”

Chuck sighed and closed his laptop. “I am telling you, if one more girl tells me that I’m such a great friend, or that I’m just like her brother – I’m gonna lose it, man.”

Luke shook his head. “That's not your problem. We gotta get you away from these stuck-up, Tennyson-reading, c**k-teasing bitches.”

“That’s all I’ve got in my classes. A room full of girls that ‘just want to be my friend’.” Chuck tried to continue looking pissed off, but he was doing a poor job of it. He threw a hand towards Max’s room. “If that’s not enough, we’ve still got the sexual Olympics going on in there.”

Luke grinned and laughed. “That's right. I almost forgot ...about that." When Chuck sent him a strange look, Luke picked it back up. "They're still going for the gold, huh?"

“They’re so loud.”

“You know, they were talking to each other the other day.” Luke got up from his chair and opened one of the cupboards. “ ‘Give it to me.’ ‘Give it to me hard’. I'm not joking.”

Chuck snickered loudly. “Yeah, I heard it, too.”

“And it’s the girl saying it!”

“Shh. Keep it down. They’re still in there.”

Luke smirked and kept his voice at the same level. “******** that. She gets to be loud, but I can’t? This is my house, man. I will be as loud as I want to be.”

Chuck shook his head, but let the issue drop. He was staring out across the table when he said, “I was thinking of doing an award’s ceremony.”

“You’re gonna give her a medal?"

“No, I was thinking more like ... making a certificate for her.”

After grabbing peanut butter, jelly, and some Wonderbread, Luke sat back down. “What would it say? … ‘World’s Loudest….’”

“Stop right there,” Chuck said. “That’s perfect."

Luke laughed as he put together a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. “World’s Loudest?"

“You know it doesn’t even have to be a certificate. It could just be a sign.”

Luke shook his head. "No, I still think a medal would be better. Just keep it vague. A medal means excellence all-around." Luke took a huge bite of his sandwich and added. “We can give it to her when she comes out of Max's room. When she steps out, we can start playing the Rocky Theme Song.”

“Or ‘The Final Countdown.’”

Luke barked a loud laugh, and he intoned “The Final Countdown!” At that exact moment, Max’s room creaked open. Carrie, the focus of their conversation, stepped out donning a pair of sweatpants and a tank-top that showed off her mid-rif. She ran her hand over her head of sex-hair and lazily walked into the kitchen. In a groggy voice she mumbled, “Hey guys.” She walked up to the fridge and took out a bottle of water.

Behind her back, Luke put his hands up to Chuck as if to say ‘what the ********?’. He put them back down before he said, “Hey, Carrie. How are you this evening?”

“Fine,” she breathed out in a bored voice. She looked to Chuck, then back at Luke. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Just the Olympics,” Chuck said.

“Oh.” Carrie took a swig from the water bottle.

Staring at her, Luke smiled a little. "You know, Carrie, since you're here. Maybe you could settle a debate between me and Chuck." Carrie shrugged, but allowed Luke to keep talking. "If you were gonna be recognized for something - would you rather get a certificate or a medal?"

Carrie blinked and said, "What am I being recognized for?"

"Excellence... all around."

"I'd want a medal. A certificate's just a piece of paper."

Luke turned back to Chuck with a shrug. "Told you. Medal."

Carrie looked between the two, raised her eyebrows, and returned to Max's room, where she shut the door behind her.

Chuck looked back at Luke and started singing ‘The Final Countdown’.

Luke shook his head. “Did you see that? What are we? The ********’ Comfort Inn? Is this the hotel bar?"

Chuck grinned. “I was waiting for you to say something to her.”

“Nah.” Then Luke sighed. “Not tonight.”

“You got work to do?”

“Yeah." Now that Luke had food in his stomach, his body was demanding rest, and it just wasn't going to get it. "I'm ... God, I'm tired.”

“Yeah. I hear that.”

Luke polished off another sandwich, and then made a third one before he got up from the table. “All right. Time to work.”

“You gonna be up later tonight?”

“I really hope not.”

Chuck smirked. “All right. I’ll catch you later, man.”

“Wheeeewww,” Luke breathed out, mostly to himself. He ran a hand over his face and back over his hair. “Christ. I have to work.”

That night, Luke churned out a 7-page paper in just under an hour. Before he went to sleep, he took out his keys, stared at the artifact for a moment, and set them down on the dresser beside his bed.

Luke crashed in his own bed and slept through his alarm. He remained passed out until the middle of the afternoon the next day. He missed two classes, one of which gave a pop-quiz and the other in which the paper was due.

**End "Aftermath"**