Dragons, Dystopians, and Denial

"Rek is..." She sighed, a pang of homesickness running through her chest. Well, not sick for home -- but wishing she could see Rek and Derik and Akie again. "My best friend," she admitted. "He's so selfless. He always helps me... and everyone... and pretends like he does things sometimes when I really did them because Levin doesn't hate him so he doesn't get in trouble when he takes wine from the kitchen like I would."

"Best friend..." Elias repeated softly, letting Jerica's words seep in. He gave one short, subtle nod. "He sounds like a good guy. Do you miss him?"

Tears sprang to Jerica's eyes in an instant and she choked as her throat constricted. She looked away from him and took another long drink of the rum. Stop it, you baby. "Yeah."

Elias noticed Jerica turning away, seemingly trying to hold back a cry. He sat up straight more alert and then gingerly reached out to put his hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked gently.

"Yeah." She furiously scrubbed away the tears that she couldn't hold back. "I'm fine. This isn't like me... it's... the rum."

Elias patiently waited for her to finish her teary explanation, hand still on her shoulder.

"Would you like a hug?" he asked when she finished.

"No." But she leaned into his chest anyway. It was like her words knew what to do but her body was rebelling against her anyway.

Even though Jerica said no, she came in close for a hug anyways. It was a bit confusing, but he figured she wouldn't lean in if she didn't want to, so he loosely wrapped his arms around her. One hand was on her back, and the other patted her head as he let her cry against his chest.

"I think this is the first time I've had good alcohol," Elias absently thought out loud, dazing out into the space in front of him as he felt her chest rise up and down with every breath.

"What's so good about it?" She sniffled, still rubbing away the tears. "It just makes me miss Rek."

"I guess, for me, it makes me a little less sad," Elias said, rubbing her back with her palm. "And I don't think it's going to poison me."

"Just lil bits of poison," she agreed, popping to her feet before she even realized that she'd decided to stand up. She needed to snap herself out of it. "Confuses your body so you can't think anymore."

She wished that were true. It would take a fair bit more to get her properly drunk to the point that she wouldn't care about anything anymore -- but she couldn't do that. Someone had to be able to protect them if outlaws tried to attack in the middle of the night, and it damn sure wasn't going to be Elias.

"Wanna see what I can do?" Suppress my emotions to an impressive degree.

Elias flinched as Jerica suddenly got to her feet, and still sitting down, he looked up at her big, curious eyes.

"What?" he asked curiously.

Jerica unbuckled her swordbelt and just dropped it, letting it fall to the ground heavily. Her daggers clattered to the ground on top of it. She pulled the last two from the back of her trousers and boot, then stepped away from the fire.

She turned to back to him with a grin. Her mood was heavy still -- but her favorite thing to do drunk was show off. And it was showtime. "This."

She bent to put her hands on the ground and staggered slightly. Maybe she was a bit drunker than she'd thought. But it didn't matter -- she'd pulled gimmicks like this far, far drunker than she was now.

She kicked her heels in the air and waited until she found her balance, then started walking around the camp on her hands. She awkwardly turned towards him and stared at his upside-down body, ignoring the fact that her tunic was falling down to reveal her abdomen. "I can drink like this, too. But I'm not gonna show you and risk spilling any of our rum since we can't get more out here."

Elias expected some magic trick or something entertaining, and he was not disappointed. He watched within a grin on his face as Jerica started to walk around on her hands, upside-down.

She walked in circles and then came back toward him, looking completely silly with a triumphant grin as her hair reached down towards the ground.

He lifted his arm and then quickly poked her belly button.

"Boop," he said, returning the silly smile.

And then he poked the side of her waist, using just enough force so that she may topple.

She wrinkled her nose at him as he touched her stomach, then gave him a challenging look as he tried to push her over. Which only gave her yet another excuse to show off. She put her left hand out a bit further to stabilize herself on one arm and swatted his hand away with her right hand.

Then she bent over backward and planted both feet on the ground, before popping the rest of the way to her feet. "Pretty cool, huh?"