Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nick had been up to her elbows in suds all night. Washing dishes. Normally she opted out of these evening chores, by leaving quickly and letting other trainees get picked for the job. But tonight she had delayed her exit too long. You would think that a group of secret monster-killing people would have more important things to do. You think they would invest in a dishwasher.

Walking down the hall towards her room, she noticed a figure leaning against the wall. What the ********, you can't just sleep in the hallway, she thought, noting his limp form.

She had been planning on merely stepping over the guy. The lingering scent of alcohol in the hall told her all she needed to know. This idiot probably drunk himself into a stupor and collapsed before he could get to his own room. But the closer Nick got, the more her irritation rose. That drunken jerk wasn't leaning against the wall.

He was leaning against her door!

"That ********..." she muttered under her breath, slowing down to regard the man in the hall. How was she going to get into her room if this jerk was in her way?

With a fierce scowl, she nudged his leg with the toe of her boot.

"******** drunk," Nick muttered under her breath. However she appeared entirely unphased by this turn of events. During her earlier rebellious teenage years she had gained plenty of experience with drunken boys, and suffered rough nights of her own. She liked to think she was done with that lifestyle completely.

She watched as the guy unceremoniously dumped himself on the floor, crossing her arms in front of her. It was almost funny. Had she been drinking with him, it might have been ******** hilarious. He just lay there like a pile of laundry.

Well, time to take him out.

The trainee grabbed the stranger by one leg and began dragging him out of her room. It took a lot of effort, not only was he much taller than she was, but he must have had a pretty decent physique under that heavy cloud of alcohol fumes and white coat. He was ******** heavy. Too ******** heavy, as a matter of fact.

Nick stopped when her butt hit the opposite side of the hallway, and let his foot drop. Unfortunately when she stepped over him to enter her room she realized she wouldn't be able to close the door with his head in the way. The girl frowned, and even tried to close it, just to see how close it was, stopping before it actually hit the drunk guy's head. He would have enough of a headache tomorrow without her adding to it.

"For ******** sakes..."

Nick stared at the guy. "Are you ******** serious? Don't make me ******** drag you down the ******** hall." She waited a moment or two. He really did seem like he was going to sleep right there, face down half in and half out of her room. Dealing with this s**t was way beyond her pay grade...

Finally the girl sighed in a long-wearied manner. "You had better not ******** throw up on my s**t," she said, leaning down to grab him by the arm and haul him further into her room. If he stayed where he was collapsed in her doorway, she wouldn't be able to get any sleep herself.

Somehow by some miracle she got him onto her bed, which was covered by a semi-translucent shower curtain that had been pilfered from one of the washrooms. "Stay the ******** there." Nick insisted as she dropped him like a sack of wet rags. Then she left without another word, closing the door behind her.

The next morning, Ian may have been woken up by something falling on his head. Something pointy. It was a dangerous game Nick often played, having thrown several pencils point-up at the ceiling, many of which remained stuck there only to fall at random upon anyone sleeping on that bed.

At some point during the night the girl had returned to the room and now slept on the floor. She had her back to the bed, and was sleeping with a pillow that had clearly been borrowed. Or stolen. It didn't belong in that room any more than her company did. It might have seemed like not even Nick belonged in that room, the only thing that looked like it had been touched during her occupancy was the set of drawers across from the bed, one of which was open with a lazily half-folded pair of pants hanging out.

On the little table, next to the alarm clock and glass of water, lay a little note with a couple painkillers resting on top. The note itself was written in pencil. It said, in a rather elegant print:

"Get out."

The reaction was instantaneous, upon feeling a nudge to her shoulder, Nick rolled over in her half-asleep state and slammed her elbow down on Ian's foot, right around the sensitive instep area. Clearly she had practice, and was not going to pull any punches in defending herself from whomever dared waking her ******** off," she muttered, fixing Ian with an irritable, sleep-blurred glare as though she had not just attacked him with her elbow. Her short hair, although it would have looked fine while facing away from the guy, was in complete disarray on the side she had slept on.

She narrowed her eyes. Clearly the events of the previous night were coming back to her... but not the jerk who had borrowed her bed.

"Can't you ******** read? For ******** sakes." Nick flopped back down, facing away from the guy. "******** drunks..." She muttered, this time to herself.

Nick took that opportunity to slap him across the side of the head, hard.

"YOU'RE IN MY ******** ROOM." She waited, to see if that would jog any memories, but it didn't take long for her to get tired of that plan of action. "You were so ******** drunk last night you ******** collapsed outside my ******** bedroom! ********, you don't remember that s**t?"

She stared at him for a long moment.

Then her glanced wandered to the floor next to the bed. Then she lifted her head, surveying the bed itself. "At least you didn't ******** throw up all over the place," she muttered, suspiciously glancing to the foot of the bed as well. Just to be sure.

"MAYBE YOU SHOULD DRINK IN ******** MODERATION!" Nick replied, just as loudly. "NOW LIE THE ******** BACK DOWN!"

She wasn't showing any signs of breaking, even under the guy's angry glare. "Do you even know what time it is? It is too ******** early in the morning for me to deal with this kind of s**t. I was gonna sleep in today, but you sorta ******** ruined that plan."

Nick flopped back down, her head resting on the pillow that she had stolen off the bed at some point during the night. And although she continued to glare irritably at her 'guest', she made no more moves to assault him.

"So just shut the ******** up already, and take another couple hours. ******** advil should kick in by then." Nick rolled over onto her side, once again facing away from the guy, but only for a second before she leaned back and pointed a warning finger at him. "You ******** touch me, and I'll end you."

Then it looked like her intent was to just go right back to sleep.