the truth is

Kitty was a beast when it came to drinking. Sure, one day it would probably catch up to her and her liver would explode if she kept this up, but for now she was at peak performance. While he chugged along at a solid three, working his way up the party ladder, Kitty (and Phoebe) were constantly rocking out at a solid 11. They’d down drinks all night, shot glass after shot glass ringing off the bar, their balance almost perfect as they’d drag him out onto the dance floor, where his head would end up spinning like the lights by the end of the night. On sheer body mass alone it should’ve been impossible, but somehow it happened week in, week out, the balance never seeming to change all that much.

How the two of them had gotten him back tonight had been mysterious enough. One of them tucked under each arm, if he’d been sober he probably could’ve carried them both back that way (if his knee held out). Apologies had spilled out as he’d wobbled his way back, his attention drifting every now and then leaving him leaning heavier as he tried to piece together the breadcrumb trail of just how they’d ended up out in the woods. It wasn’t the first time, he’d warned himself, although those times he didn’t have the excuse of getting obliterated at the club to explain the gaping, creepy holes in his memory.

Barefoot he’d padded his way into the building’s elevator, leaning back against its wall as they’d risen up to Kitty’s floor. He’d been on a thirty-hour shift that had wrapped up yesterday morning. The ER Attending had practically shoved him out the door at the end, ordering him to tap out. Come Saturday the clock would start on a week of working nights, he was gonna need his sleep for it. If he’d been smart he would’ve gone straight back to his apartment to sleep like the dead for at least 12 hours. If he had slept at all, he couldn’t remember it, the thought etching a deep drown on Bram’s brow. He remembered heading home, getting showered at least. Maybe he’d called Kitty, or she’d called him and inevitably it would’ve ended with an agreement to meet her at the club later. Music – or was it just a headache? – throbbed away in the back of his brain, lingering proof of one hell of a night.

”G’night,” Bram called back over his shoulder in a stage whisper as Phoebe headed for the door. He woulda twisted around to wave at her, but with just Kitty supporting him now, he’d probably have taken her down to the floor. Instead he thumped down on the couch, smiling blearily up at her as she said she’d get him some water. ”Thanks,” he murmured, genuine gratitude tugging at his lips. He didn’t know what he’d have done without her. Flopping back against the cushions he let his head loll and stared down at his nearly naked body. Yikes. Where the hell had he left his clothes? His Nikes had been practically new, only bought a month ago when the last pair had been destroyed by a five year old with the stomach flu.

Sooty smears covered his skin, leaving him feeling bad for Kitty and her furniture. He’d clean up after himself – in the morning maybe. What the hell had he been doing out there in the woods? Rolling around in the mud? How many shots had he downed? His frown was deep as Kitty reappeared, passing him a glass of water before she settled down beside him. ”Apologetic,” he said tightly. ”Sorry you had to drag me back here. Sorry for the couch too.” As though he could save it at this point, he leaned forward, hunching over the glass as he took a deep gulp.

”Musta been one hell of a night,” he puffed, vague amusement overlying his concern for a minute. Another sip and his throat felt a little less dry. Fire? Had he blacked out again and missed some part of the conversation. Brows rising, Bram looked over at Kitty. ”I told you about that?” It wasn’t something he brought up often, not cause he didn’t wanna be seen as a hero, but because it still felt fuzzy in his head most of the time. What was he meant to say when they asked him what it was like? ”Right. A wildfire back home. I went camping in the national park, didn’t know a fire had started ‘til it was practically on me. Almost didn’t make it out of there, I was trapped by it, so were a couple of firefighters. We ended up in a pond to escape the flames.” That was where his memory grew foggy, what had happened he’d submerged his tent over the two of them vanishing into one of those black holes in his brain.

Tagged: KITANA RYO * Word Count: 822

The way it was going, he was gonna have to ask Kitty if her could leave a bag here. A few items of clothing stashed under her bed or in her closet maybe – somewhere out of sight of Krista’s boyfriend to avoid another fight. A little back up in case of nights like this, at least until he’d built up enough of a tolerance that a few drinks didn’t leave him pulling off a Magic Mike (at least that was the explanation his brain could seize on). As was so fucking usual for him these days there were blank spots big enough in his memory that he could slide his fist through. From the first time he’d stumbled into Kitty’s path on campus she’d helped to fill them in. Sat on the edge of her couch Bram imagined that she’d do that again now, flopping down next to him in a minute to laugh over some stupid thing he’d done under the influence of tequila shots.

Heat rose up in his cheeks as Kitty shrugged off the mucky streaks he might’ve been transferring to her couch. He’d spent enough time in locker rooms as a kid and adult to lose most bashfulness when it came to bare skin. If Kitty was alright with it, he was too. Bram slanted her a grin, the frown mostly erased. ”They’d probably end up floor length if I stretched them out. It’s OK, thanks,” he murmured. One brawny arm was wrapped over his stomach as he leaned forward to drink though (downing pints of water was probably gonna stave off at least some of his hangover). Like she always seemed to, Kitty would probably bounce straight out of bed in the morning, ready to at least shimmy to the couch to kick off a day of work, while he fought not to drag himself into her bathroom on all fours to try and recover some humanity under a scalding shower.

Tomorrow morning they’d probably be back here. Maybe Phoebe would burst back in, spilling those stories about what he’d gotten up to. At the rate he was going, he’d probably have to stop going to the club just to avoid the embarrassment of people who’d seen his sasquatch ass shimmying up there on the bar. Bram puffed out a little laugh, like he’d at least got a feel for what had gone down. These days he couldn’t rely on his memory to do even that. Somehow he’d even forgotten telling Kitty about ending up in the middle of a forest fire, it wasn’t the sort of thing he dragged out of his closet of his dicey past every day. He could understand why he would’ve done it though, Kitty had turned out to be a shoulder he could lean on in oh so many ways in the last year.

Seeing as he’d gone through it before she probably knew all about the fire, about the two firefighters he’d managed to save and him being pulled out of the water unconscious afterwards. The burns had itched like a bitch for weeks after. Maybe if she looked hard enough now she’d see the faint discolouration of the scars of them on his back, but these days he didn’t even notice them when he looked in the mirror. ”You think they had something to do with the park burning?” he said with a chuckle.

”I mean there are plenty of stories back home about that stuff. Everybody’s got legends where they grew up, right? My mom used to tell me all these traditional stories about those things when I was growing up – like the Keelut following travellers at night and attacking them. I guess when you’re five it seems like it might be true.” That crawling sensation was back under his skin though, leaving him shifting a little closer to her as he remembered those sounds they’d heard out in the woods when he’d still been at Whitmore. ”Do you believe in that stuff? I guess maybe some of it could be true.” People called themselves witches didn’t they? Girls who had a bunch of candles in their room and swore they were getting rid of bad energy by burning bunches of herbs in their room and just ended up stinking out the dorms.

Tagged: KITANA RYO * Word Count: 717