fandomhigh | (no subject)

Seras winced at the enthusiastic greeting but managed a smile.

"Hi Pippi. How're you?"

"As to be expected." she said grinning. "And yourself?"

She took a huge bite of her sandwich.

"Honestly? I feel horrid. Like I'm hung over. Only, I don't remember what I did to get this way."

Seras took a swallow of coffee.

Pippi leaned in to Seras. "You probably drank a lot of alcohol." she whispered.

Walter had yet to check his voicemail to be able to confirm that yes, Seras had definitely been drinking.

And for some reason, he felt really bad seeing her, so he ate on in silence.

Seras gave Pippi a baleful look over her coffee mug.

"Genius, Longstocking. What I meant was I don't remember where I went or what I drank or why I decided to get blitzed in the first place."

Seras noticed Walter sitting there chewing. She hadn't seen him in their first aid course. Which maybe was for the best. Because, looking at him, she felt a strange combination of wanting to hurry back to her room and sob and wanting to bash him over the head with her lunch tray.

She compromised by saying "Hey."

Nadia grabbed a bit of everything, but hesitated for a moment before heading to the usual table with the usual crew.

For some reason, she was really mad at Walter.

She must have dreamed something. And it wouldn't be fair to hold a dream against her boyfriend, so she just straightened her shoulders and went over to sit down, anyway.

Possibly between Pippi and Walter. But if so, there was no particular reason for that.

"Hi guys,"

"Good morning!" she said scooting over for Nadia.

Seras waved to Nadia because talking made echoey badness happen in her head.

Walter looked at Nadia and Seras and nodded, "Hey."

Then he went back to eating with a singular focus on "wow, subs."

As Nadia was very carefully not being mad at Walter, she knew she should be concerned at the fact that he wasn't being his usual talkative self.

"Everything okay?"

Walter looked away from his food and nodded carefully. "It seems so. I just woke up feeling a bit out of sorts. How are you?"

"Out of sorts" was a great way to say it. "About the same. I figured I had a dream or something that I wasn't remembering."

See? No reason to be mad at him. None at all.

Dream?

Nadia's mentioning dreams brought something to the forefront of Seras' mind. The taste that she'd had in her mouth when she woke up this morning.

"Sambuca...?" she muttered.

Pippi looked around the table at all her friends.

"Okay." she said putting her sandwich down. "Can anybody give me a good reason we're all tippy-toeing around eachother?"

"No. I have no good idea. Unless it's just one of those Fandom things. Maybe we all shared a bad dream last night and don't remember it."

"Yes." Pippi nodded, "Good, great, glad to hear it. So let's stop it before I have to do something drastic."

"It does sort of feel that way," he said slowly. "Like one of those dreams that leaves you spending the day checking to make sure you didn't accidentally cut off a hand. Or that might just be one of my dreams."

Seras looked over at Walter and nodded.

"I think that may just be you Dornez," she said, "But I know what you mean. I've got the mother of all hangover, and I don't remember why I wanted to drink so much."

"With me its more checking to make sure my eyes are still brown and my neck is okay," Nadia said quietly, then continued in a more normal tone. "Do you think it's a Fandom thing?"

"When isn't it?"

"I don't know what else it could be, since I don't remember doing anything to make me feel as though I should be expecting you to mallet me. Or get another forking from Seras."

"I'm not going to mallet you. I don't think I have a reason to, do I?" She didn't mention that she was carrying her mallet around, today. "We're okay. Right?"

Seras nodded.

"I have been resisting the urge to bash Walter over the head with my lunch tray. But, I'm not sure why. So, I'm not going to."

Walter smiled wanly at Seras. "Thank you for your restraint, since for some reason, I feel as though I would deserve it."

He put his food down and leaned toward Nadia. "I really want us to be okay."