pour one out for our ghosts

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

Curled around and slumped against her, you do indeed fall swiftly to sleep. What can you say? Her breasts are exemplary, and the beat of her heart plus the surge of the water would likely send you off to sleep even if you weren't stone cold drunk.

At some point you wake up enough to lie down, pulling her with you onto the firm dock. Your arms stay around her - you're not letting go - and through the haze of your sleep-and-booze addled brain she feels like the only solid thing in a listing world. "Don' disappear," you mumble sweetly into her hair, sighing softly, bringing her close, before falling back asleep.

---

Is the roof leaking? That's your first question on waking to drops of water on your face. Second question: what am I holding?

Third question: What have I done?

Almond eyes blink slowly open, squinting against the light. And the rain- light now in the early morning, but the threat of a deluge looms on the horizon. And yet you're surprisingly warm, the body next to you radiating heat.

Her body.

Oh gods.

Gently, quietly, you begin to disentangle yourself for her, wincing at the pain to your arm (sleeping on a hard dock? Somehow not a great idea, come the light of day). Whether or not you want to wake her is unclear even to you; for now you're focused on making sense of your swimming memory and trying to figure out how much of yesterday was a dream.

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

Vai doesn’t really have much of a choice in this, so it’s lucky that she’d have stayed even if she’d been given the option otherwise. She lets herself relax in Zeph’s lap, kept warm by the heat of him even as the sun disappeared beneath the waves and the stars begin to rise. At some point she nods off, and then he’s moving them, the boards hard beneath her, but the body she’s gathered against much more comfortable. And he tells her not to disappear, so... she doesn’t. Vai stays, and she’s still there when he wakes up.

Good job, Zeph.

It’s little surprise that she stirs as he peels himself away, taking away his warmth and letting the rain patter down onto her, Vai sighing deeply and blinking her eyes open. ”Morning,” she murmurs, her voice soft. ”You fell asleep on the dock. You told me to stay, so I stayed.” The explanation is calm, given by one with experience of trying to piece together a heavy night the morning afterwards.

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

Of course you don't manage to extract yourself, or slip away. Not that you really wanted to: even as you considered running you knew that the earthy smell of her perfume mixed with pertichor would anchor you to her for as long as she'd allow.

So when she looks up at you with those sleepy eyes and greets you with that melodious voice (who does that? Stays just because you ask them to?) You immediately settle back down, ignoring the rain in favor of stroking the mess of her dark hair. "Thought I dreamed you," you admit, words fuzzy as they push through the cotton haze of the hangover in your mouth.

Pushing up on your elbows carefully you wince as pain throbs against your temples. "Hnng.. so. How much'a an idiot was I las' night?" You've got a feeling you have a lot of apologizing to do.

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

”Maybe you’re still asleep,” Vai suggests with a sleepy smile, her eyes closing at the touch of his fingers in her hair. Were it not for the rain she’d have been content to laze there for a little longer; alas as Zeph gets his elbows under him, the huntress shifts to sit up as well. Hiding a yawn behind the back of her hand, she stretches out stiff muscles before his next question filters through to her.

”Mm... well. You cursed all the gods and contemplated suicide. A few times. Then you said you wish you’d never met me.” She shoots him an amused smile for his trouble. ”Then you said some other very sweet things, which I shan’t repeat for fear that you’ll take them back. Then you asked to kiss me, and fell asleep.” Reaching out, she gives his shoulder a pat. ”Fun date.”

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

Maybe you are still asleep. You'd believe it but for the pattering rain and the way your stomach pitches and churns like a ship adrift in a storm. Pieces of the day before fliter through the fog of your drunk, hungover brain, even as she confirms aloud just what a fool you were.

Well.

Your face twists into an unhappy grimace; at least you have the mental faculty to feel appropriately like a fool. Both in terms of the bad things - never a great look, telling someone you wish you never met them - and the mysterious, undisclosed good. Rolling stiff shoulders to work out the kinks, you consider your options from here. Running away still feels like a very viable plan, but...

All that, and she didn't run.

"Only th'best," you mutter softly, fingers running through your hair. The rain is getting heavier; a drip lands on your neck. You desperately want to know what sweet idiotic things you said, but they're still just out of reach. "Sorry, Vai. I was a a right mess. Reckon I owe ya quite a bit fer stayin' with my drunk ass through all'a that shit." And now, because somehow against all odds the woods witch is still here.

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

Having woken up to the rain pattering on them, Vai does not seem to mind when the weather gets worse; she merely glances up at the moody sky and leaves it to its own devices. Still, the look on Zeph’s face is more telling than any words, and the witch shuffles over a bit to rest a hand on his knee.

”Don’t apologise - I’m glad I found you.” She smiles sadly. ”I couldn’t say it yesterday because you were too drunk, but... fuck, you scared the shit out of me, the way you were talking,” she admits.

Glancing up, she nudges her shoulder gently against his. ”I also made you promise to kiss me again when you were sober, by the way. Though I might cash that in when you’re looking a bit less green around the gills. Want me to go and get some water?”

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

The hand on your knee brings you back from your wanderings, an anchor to reality and the regrets for what you've done. You hadn't meant to scare her, hadn't wanted to make her look at you the way she had. But you'd been sad, so desperately sad, the reason why slipping through your fingers like a half-remembered refrain. Rain, rain, go away....

Rain rain.

Rayne?

Oh. Ray.

She's talking about kissing you, about getting water, but your don't hear it. You're staring at your hands, hands that held him yesterday, or so you could swear. But it's impossible, isn't it? It must have been a dream. And yet as you open and close your fingers you can feel him against them...

"Hmm? Oh. Yeah." Abruptly you rise up to your feet, stomach lurching. Extending a hand for Vai to grab, you prepare to help her from the dock. "An' breakfast. Safrin's tits, I could eat a rhampire."

As she rises you draw her toward you, keeping her hand if she'll allow. "I meant it, y'know," you murmur absently, looking at the sky and the clouds but speaking to her. "The sweet things. Doesn't mean... You don't gotta say anythin'. But I meant 'em, Vai. I got a lotta regrets, but I don' regret that."

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

She drifts off, watching him watch his hands, only half aware of what might be going on behind almond eyes. So when Zeph stirs so abruptly no one is more surprised than Vai, and she raises her eyebrows as if impressed that he managed to get on his feet without keeling over or throwing his guts up. More than that - he even manages to pull her up as well. With a flicker of a smile, she follows suit, only to find herself caught in his grasp.

”I’ve still never seen one of those,” she says of the rhampire, not that her focus is at all on whatever sort of creature it might be. Water and breakfast sounds just fine even in the rain like this. Blue eyes track his expression - on the sky, the clouds, she notes - and silently she steps in to embrace him. It’s a gentle thing, a featherlight touch that shouldn’t jostle him about too much, and she leans in to kiss the side of his neck.

”You called me the sun,” she murmurs, smiling like what he’d said was terribly twee, but she loved it anyway. ”Lead the way - I trust you know where we can get good breakfast?”

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

"No? Hafta fix that when the rain lets up." When the rain lets up- as though you have a future together, as though she'll still be at your side with her fingers laced in yours when the rain lets up and the sun comes out. How many people have you seen washed away by the monsoons?

You wrinkle your nose and chuckle softly, a crooked smile pulling your lips. "Gods, an' ya didn' push me off th'dock?" Rubbing at the heat on your neck awkwardly, you turn in toward the woman beside you and press a kiss against her temple, squeezing her hand tight in yours.

Anyway. That's enough of that. Time for breakfast, before you go and get sick for real and utterly ruin the moment. "Hope ya like meat. An' eggs," you say, guiding her along the shoreline. "An' coffee. Fuck, I need some coffee." Black and strong to pierce the fog that still floats through your brain.

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

”I’d like that,” Vai smiles to him, setting off down the shoreline and letting her gaze wander to the slate grey sea to avoid the way her stomach has erupted into butterflies. Walking down the beach, holding hands with someone? Get a grip, Vai. ”Push you off the dock? Hardly - you were painting quite a lovely picture of me,” she informs Zeph with a wicked sort of grin, squeezing his hand back and settling into a pace as they stroll along.

The sort of breakfast he describes sounds divine, Vai nodding enthusiastically and keeping her eyes sharp for the stalls and vendors leading into Haulani. ”Don’t be teasing me, now,” she warns with a chuckle. ”What will you do, when the monsoons come? You going to hole up indoors and wait for it to blow over?”

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

The stalls are present but somewhat scant, many already taken down in deference to the monsoon. Still, those that remain release into the air a medley of enticing and interesting aromas, ranging from the simple scent of skewered meat to the sweet coaxing fingers of exotic desserts.

You draw her toward a stall that carries a selection of uncooked meat. "Nah. We'll baton down the hatches, but there's always work. Idiots leavin' shit out." Always a crisis or other during the monsoons.

As you speak you gesture for a pair of thick rhampire sausages, a set of potatoes, and a basket of goose eggs. "Look okay?" You're not much of a cook, but breakfast food was always Ray's favorite and so you learned a variety of ways to prepare potatoes, meat, and eggs.

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

Scant or not, what’s on offer is still impressive, and Vai lingers by Zeph’s side as he orders from one of the stalls, a smile tugging at her lips. ”They always do,” she says of the idiots, though she does nudge his arm gently with her elbow. ”You make sure you be safe though, okay?” Yes, as if Zeph hasn’t been dealing with monsoons for his whole entire life. ”I’ll be up at the Governor’s House. If you need anything, or if anyone gets hurt...” She doesn’t need to finish the sentence, she hopes.

Peering over at what he’s selected, the witch tilts her head and smiles again, nodding to him. ”Looks good to me. You going to be okay to cook?” She laughs softly. ”I’ll be your assistant, if you like.” Vai can and does cook often, so she’s more than happy to help.

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day

You're surprisingly comfortable with her presence at your elbow, something you didn't expect but it's been an unexpected day. "Worried about me?" you murmur back over your shoulder, nudging her back with an elevated eyebrow. "Careful, I'm gonna start thinkin' ya care." One bright smile flickers at her; you reach out and gently boop her nose.

Money exchanged for goods if not services, you reach back out on thoughtless instinct to take her by the hand. "Mm? I'll be fine. Yer th'one who has'ta eat it." Chuckling, you lead her toward your house at the end of the lane, trying to swallow down the churning sea in your stomach. "Might hafta take a shower first." You raise an arm and sniff your armpit, wrinkling your nose. "Wheeew. Here, have a smell."

And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?

zephyr

and I loved you so much it was making me sick

”Oh, we wouldn’t want that now, would we?” Vai drawls, laughing softly and wrinkling her nose at him as he boops it, of all things. Fine, she’ll just have to continue to care in secret, though the warm smile on her lips as he pays for their goods gives it away a little bit. As does the coral that floods her cheeks when he takes her hand again, Vai lacing their fingers together and following him down the lane, having zero idea where he lives.

Scoffing at the prospect of smelling his armpit, she raises her eyebrows at him. ”Absolutely not,” she tells him, a broad grin still in place. ”I’m surprised you didn’t turn into a puddle of whiskey with how much you drank. You go and wash up, I’ll start breakfast. I won’t show you up though, I promise.”