Through the Looking Glass: Chapter Four

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Kay pulled him further into the room, so they had a bit more privacy. He tucked the tablet away so he could use both his hands, snuggling into Asher and carefully resting one wing around him as well. Yes this was very wierd, but it was also really nice.

Matt snickered. "Have fuuuuun!"

"You all sicken me." Esk muttered.

"You're just jealous." Matt stuck his tongue out

"Really Matt? really? Mature, really mature. " Esk got to his feet and drained the last of his second bottle. "Six years older than me, still acts like a teenager."

"Growing up sucks man!" Matt laughed.

"Remember I threatened to hit you with this?" Esk held up the bottle.

"No.. you threatened to hit me with the previous bottle."

"Catch." Esk hurled the bottle at Matt, who actually did manage to catch it. He stared at it, then burst into laughter. "oh my gods.. I caught it! I actually caught it!"

Esk grumbled and stalked off, walking in a bit of a wobbly manner. Oh well.

Shane laughed at the brother's antics then tried to stand. He was a bit wobbly but managed to get to his feet and hold a hand out to Ellie.

Ellie got up, clinging to Shane's hand kind of hard and still giggling. "So glad we don't have to drive home."

Shane laughed at that and started to nod, only to stop quickly. Yeah, nodding made the room spin. Not good." He wrapped an arm around Ellie and grabbed a bottle to take with them to the hydroponics or wherever they ended up.

"Okay," said Ellie as they stumbled away, "Okay, so like, you should totally tell me something about yourself cause I'm drunk and there's a 50% chance I'll remember in the morning, but I still wanna know."

"Hm" Shane frowned as he made a thoughtful noise. What could he tell her that she didn't already know about him?

Ellie was going to lean against him to keep her balance, but she decided that would knock him over and leaned against the wall again. "It doesn't have to be anything super important. Just like, a story or something from when you were younger, or whatever."

"I..." Shane tilted his head then looked to the hall as they walked along "Well, when I was really little the boss was allowed to play on a treehouse with me. We could climb in the tree for hours and not get bored. Of course I always ended up being the invader, so I fell a lot."

"He never got told to take turns? That explains a lot," Ellie said, shaking her head. "Still, tree climbing is fun. Were you good at it?"

Shane giggled and looked to her again "Yeah, I almost got in the treehouse quite a few times before he knocked me down"

"You were so strong and brave even as a kid," Ellie said, snorting with laughter. "No wonder you grew up to be so badass, how could you not?"

Shane reached for her again so they could lean against one another and walk in a random direction. "You think? I wasn't scared of falling, it hurt sometimes, but never for long."

Ellie smiled. "I guess a dragon wouldn't be scared of falling, would he? Was your boss scared of falling, do you think?"

Shane frowned then shrugged "Probably." He said uncertainly "He and his dad called me crazy and fearless."

"Well they were right on that. You are pretty crazy," Ellie said. "So like, did you go to school, or were you homeschooled or something?"

"I was homeschooled if you can call it that. Training was more to the point." Shane said with a frown then a head shake "When I didn't have to go with him to be a bodyguard. Can we talk about something else?" He was losing that nice buzz the more he thought about that.

"Aww," Ellie said, hugging Shane gently, "Sorry, didn't mean to make you remember stuff you don't wanna." She thought, "Uhhh, well I could tell you about the time I was the worst Human Scout ever."

"I doubt you could be the worst ever at anything" Shane said with a smile, steering them to a room that seemed empty so they could sit together and he could open the bottle to get a drink from it.

"I so was though! I kept forgetting the Human Scout pledge, and I couldn't tell the difference between most of the humanoid races. And then I was bad at pitching tents, and accidentally set one on fire once." Ellie nodded. "I was a terrible Human Scout."

Shane laughed at that, sitting and bringing Ellie to the seat with him "You set the tent on fire? That must have caused quite a ruckus"

"Never build a tent really close to a campfire, even if it's super cold out," Ellie said sagely, sitting next to him, "The sparks do unexpected things." She grinned, "It was okay though! Nobody was in the tent when it burned down."

Shane chuckled and drank some of the wine. He liked this, being alone with her and able to drink.

"Also," Ellie added, "Using gooey marshmallows as a Santa beard isn't as good an idea as it sounds."

"Santa beard?" Shane asked with surprise, looking to her then giggling at that image. Ok, that deserved something. He leaned over to kiss her gently "I bet that did look cute."

Ellie kissed him back, getting distracted for a bit by that, and losing her train of thought for a few moments. "So hard to get off though," she told him when she remembered the topic they were discussing, "And it doesn't really come out of your hair ever. Which is how I got my first short haircut."

Shane grinned at her again "The perks of being a boy, you can have shaved hair and wear a wig if you have to for stuff like that." He said and chuckled

Ellie giggled. "I don't think my parents would have gone for getting me a wig, and I don't think my grandma would have liked seeing me with my hair shaved off. But man, that would have made getting the marshmallow off so much easier."