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His head was one dull ache: a combination of the black eye that consumed almost the entire left side of his face, the concussion, and the far-too-much alcohol he'd consumed with Drew the night before. At four in the afternoon, Ever was still largely unconscious, in and out of the shower, hungry but terrified to eat, well, anything. Everything he put in just seemed to come out again.

Such was the price of stupidity.

He should at least have been dressed, but instead he wandered the apartment in a morose sort of way, clinging to the waist band of his pajama bottoms to keep them from falling down and, not for the first time, wishing desperately that he had a television set. He made money at work; perhaps if he laid off the booze for a bit, he could afford a little twelve-inch set or something, hook it up for at least basic cable...

But right now, that seemed like much too much effort. Instead he sat on the rumpled edge of the bed and nursed a cup of water, considering the benefits of going back to sleep and never mind the hour.

Each rap was like nails pounded forcefully into the swollen mess of his face, loud and sharp. If he hurt this much as a Negaverse Captain, how would he have felt had he been human? He remembered it being bad when Chaonis jumped him outside the library, but the man must have been holding back. Or maybe he'd just taken the hit in exactly the wrong way this time...

Matthew was going to have to cool his heels for a minute or two while Ever worked out the complicated choreography of setting down his glass, standing up, and shuffling to the door. One quick peering glance out through the peephole before he cracked it open.

His expression was understandably suspicious. They'd never met out of uniform. He had a stranger on his doorstep.

Usually they were asking for money.

He probably could have introduced himself as 'Matthew', any other day, and Ever would have recognized the name. Ashley had dropped it enough times, perhaps, that he would remember. Right now, however, even 'Alunite' took a couple moments to sink in -- but eventually it did, and almost automatically, Ever stepped back to let him in.

The reconnaissance had been wrong. Ever was most certainly not living alone right now, judging from the pile of blankets, the makeshift bed on the floor, the tousled state of the proper bed above it. Someone else was crashing here, at the moment, and there had certainly been a party. There were still empty bottles on the floor, enough to get two fully grown men blackout drunk.

It had been wonderful.

Now, of course, his head throbbed and his stomach twisted and Ever wondered if he was going to need Matthew to hold his hair while he wretched into the toilet. Drinking wasn't terribly glamorous. "...uh. Alunite. Yeah. Sure."

At least it was just the two of them right now.

"What for?" It wasn't touched with surprise or admonition, Ever didn't sound shocked that Alunite was coming to offer an apology. Mostly he just sounded flat, picking his way across the pile of blankets to the bathroom. He needed to rinse out a glass and drink about a gallon of water. That might help -- probably.

In all honesty, it hadn't been much of a party. Drew was mean, and Ever'd gotten drunk enough that he could barely remember what had happened. Or maybe that was the post-concussion-memory loss; he vaguely remembered reading, somewhere, that it could happen. Probably for the best.

"This isn't a dig for something, is it?"

He got silence for a moment, and then the sound of running water; Ever quickly rinsing out his glass, a quick swipe of fingers, another dump, and filled it up with cold. He was still sipping it as he leaned out into the bathroom doorway to watch Matthew. Eyes shuttered, it was hard to see what he was thinking.

Swallow. A lick of his lips. He chewed on words, might have been digging for something mean to smack him with, and then swallowed them down.

"You mean the girl who went invisible and then tried to break my ******** cheekbone." It was still flat, dark eyes flicking away as he said it -- and he brought the water back up to his mouth. Matthew was, apparently, not getting away that easy.

He didn't get punched. Instead, Ever shifted in a decisively uncomfortable sort of way, and his eyes sidled away. Seemed obvious that he had his own healthy dose of guilt, took responsibility at least as much as Matthew did. For this moment, his expression wasn't flat, it was juts depressed.

He licked his lips, took an automatic sip from his glass of water, forced himself into focus some. The words came slowly. "...does that at least mean she can't do it next time?"

His eyes flashed back onto Matthew, briefly, and his shoulders hiked upward in a quick shrug. It was obvious that they'd just have to take her out, if so.

"...you're not crippled just because you can't use your magic." Ever shook his head at that, not quite rolling his eyes -- but at least mild annoyance was better than that flat distance, that distracted indifference. It meant, at least, that Ever was listening to him, and paying attention, and he wasn't just going to shrug Matthew off.

"Most of us don't even get magic. I have duct tape balls tied to the end of some string. I'm pretty sure you could improvise something." He shook his head, finally stepping forward to nudge a bottle on the floor with his toe, frowning. Checking to see if it was empty, perhaps. Sadly, it was.

"Worst case stay in civvies and throw things at her..." Except then he paused, eyebrows pulling together, foggy thoughts starting to gather.

"Or -- I don't know." He floundered, thinking about that, a hand smoothing over the hopelessly tousled mess that was his hair. Really, there was nothing to be done about the hair, and he didn't even try; it was a nervous tick, it helped him think, gathered the idea perhaps.

Or maybe it just made him feel better.

"God I want to ******** her up, though, don't you?" His eyes settled onto Matthew -- and the man could take some consolation, at least, in the fact that he wasn't offering any accusations. Ever had accepted the apology instead of shrugging it off, yes, but he wasn't digging for more. Over and done and it had been more his own fault anyway.

"I want to embarrass her." Because it had been embarrassing for him, and would likely only be worse when he bumped into other officers.