-8-
Hangover
By Shardy

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Flabbergasted.

Stunned.

Stone-shocked.

None of those words compared to what I was feeling at the moment as I sat completely frozen with Wheeler's face pressed gently into mine. Had I known Wheeler was gonna kiss me, I would've puked at the mere thought. But I didn't expect his lips to be warm and soft. He's a pretty decent kisser actually. Well, personally I've never been kissed before so who was I to say if he was a good kisser or not? Okay, he didn't slobber all over me or anything. It felt...rather nice.

A million reasons came to my mind on why I should shove him out the window, one of them being the fact that in my mind, I'm still a guy here, another being how was I to know where Joey's mouth had been. Both extremely strong reasons in their own right, and yet I made no attempt to make a protest.

I must of had a lot more to drink than I thought.

Joey leaned in a little more, and I found my back pressed down against the seat. He nipped my bottom lip and I opened my mouth in soft gasp. He slipped his tongue inside, causing liquid heat slithering to the base of my spine. I ran my hands through his golden tresses, pulling him closer if it were possible, too drunk with pleasure and alcohol to give a damn. I have never been kissed and probably never will again so I was determined to enjoy this one, dammit!

He pulled away from me, the both of us gasping for air, and I was surprised to see that his eyes were almost black and glazed over as if he, too, had a little too much to drink. He was sweating and his lips were fuller than ever, and it hit me full force on how attractive this guy could be.

That's just it, Kaiba! He's a GUY! As are YOU!

Damn to hell all the little voices inside your head that ruin everything with their on-the-money logic.

I shoved Wheeler off of me with all the strength I could muster. As he stared at me in shock, I grabbed the vodka and chugged down its contents straight from the bottle.

***

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I suffered with a massive hangover from hell the next day. I lay in bed, moaning into my mattress, feeling utterly miserable. I felt like my head had grown three times it's normal size and still growing. I could feel the blood throbbing in the vessels of my brain...or was it my heart? Shit, for all I knew my fingers were on my feet, my eyeballs were my toenails, pigs could fly, cows could sing opera, but it was all okay because of China.

See, even my narration doesn't make a lick of sense.

I heard the door creak open, and someone walked in. I lifted my face from beneath my pillow to see Mokuba coming in with a tray. Usually I was all over my favorite breakfast of waffles and maple syrup, cinnamon toast, orange juice, bacon (grease good) and powered donuts (sugar good, too). Now just the thought of food made me sick to my stomach. I gave a long pitiful groan and a soft sob as I re-buried my face under my pillow.

"Are you okay, Seto?" Mokuba inquired setting the try on the night-table. "You look terrible."

"I look like a girl!" I yelled, my voice muffled thanks to the pillow. "Now, go away and let me die in peace."

Mokuba lifted up the pillow and smiled at me. "This pillow couldn't suffocate a fish out of water," he remarked.

"And this point in my life, Mokuba, I don't care how I die just as long as I can end this misery one way or another. Please cancel all of my appointments as of today so I can slip out of this world quietly and efficiently."

" All of them?"

I thought for a moment, just a moment because it was too painful. "Except one."

"Which one?"

"My funeral."

Mokuba released a snort of disgust and threw the pillow back at me. I winced with pain. Yes, my hangover was THAT massive that 100% pure cotton pillows could hurt. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Yes, call up the funeral home and order a large casket made of silver. I hate gold. And be sure that I wear my dark blue trench coat because the white one is TOO nice and the purple one just makes look like a..."

"Seto, YOU ARE NOT GONNA DIE!"

At first I thought I had really upset the kid with all this talk about me dying, but when I looked up at him, Mokuba looked like he was going to pass out with laughter than anything else. "Nice to know you care," I muttered. "Some little brother."

Shaking his head and still giggling, Mokuba placed a bottle of something next to my breakfast tray. "You're just suffering from a hangover, Seto, and from the sound of it, a really bad hangover at that. But you'll live. Just take some aspirin and drink lots of water."

I nearly bolted from the bed. I sat straight up and gaped at Mokuba. Okay, how would he know what to do when someone has a hangover? How the hell did he even know what a hangover was?

"Joey brought you in last night," Mokuba informed me as if reading my mind. "You had drank a whole bottle of vodka and passed out in the limo on your way home. Joey told me what to do when you woke up."

The damning parental instincts slammed into me. I am more than just Mokuba's big brother. I also have to be the nurturing mother and the firm father. Playing the parts of both parents and the sibling is a huge responsibility even bigger than those of my company, especially when Mokuba practically idolizes the way I breathe. I never cussed around him, and I never smoked, did drugs, or drank. If I did drink alcohol, it was on occasion and NEVER in front of him. And here I was with a hangover and Wheeler telling my brother than I had passed out from alcohol content last night!

Some example this was!

Mokuba sat down beside me and wrapped his arms around me, laying his head on my shoulder. "Joey told me that you were got in a fight with another girl at the dance. He said you were really upset by it so much that you had no idea what you were doing when you were drinking all that vodka...whatever that is," he added as an afterthought.

I was suddenly extremely grateful to Wheeler for making it sound like I had no clue what I was doing instead of making it sound like going out and binging myself to near death at night was something I'm inclined to do. Yes, I was extremely upset last night, but I knew that hard-core vodka wasn't going to have a happy ending. I didn't care, that's why I drank it all.

A whole bottle? I only remember drinking three or four of those little margarita glasses.

Damn.

I really must've been out of it.

Now that I thought of it, maybe I did drink a lot last night. After all, a lot did happen: the fight with Sofia, my sudden nervous paranoia around Wheeler, feeling guilty because of the way I treated him, confused as to why I was feeling guilty, the vodka, the kiss.......

"OH SHIT!" I screamed, fireworks exploding in my brain. I could only stare in wide-eyed horror at the opposite wall, slowly covering my mouth with my palm. "Seto, what's wrong?" Mokuba asked, obviously alarmed.

I couldn't answer. The taste of Wheeler's lips were still fresh on mine, those soft, soft lips and moist tongue that seemed to know exactly what it was doing. "Excuse me, Mokuba," I wheezed, suddenly sickened to my stomach. "I hafta......"

I couldn't finish as I raced into the bathroom, threw the toilet lid open, and heaved into the bowl. The sickening sweet smell of vodka and stomach acid surfaced into the atmosphere as my guts squeezed out the last drop of vomit up my throat. I gripped the sides of the toilet until my knuckles turned white, staring into my bodily fluids long after I finished puking.

What the hell was wrong with me? I mean, I understand I am in a girl's body and all, but this was.....no, this was above and beyond my punishment. Way above and beyond. I couldn't be attracted to Wheeler, of all people. Why not Yugi? Shit, I could live with falling for Yugi because at least the little pipsqueak had some intelligence and self-respect. Wheeler on the other hand was a major league idiot who always makes a total fool of himself, has no self-respect, no wit, no intelligence to speak of, no ambition, the list goes on and on.

And yet................

I remembered the deep concern in those large puppy brown eyes whenever he asked if I was okay. He even helped me home and kept my honor when I had drank too much. Now that I thought of it, he was always there for me ever since we "met".

He's stalking you, a small voice inside me spoke up.

Maybe, but I didn't think stalkers actually cared about their victims.

It could be all an act. I mean, Wheeler was poorer than dirt, living in the dingy part of Domino. He could be using me to get to "my cousin's" money, thinking that if I liked him enough, I would buy him whatever he wanted. Yes, that had to be it. It had to be. Everyone else around here uses me, so why should Wheeler be any different? Other than Mokuba, there was no one in this world I could trust. Users, all of them. I know all people want out of me is my money and my power, because everyone hates the real me. Especially Joey Wheeler.

I felt my eyes squeeze shut as I slammed the lid down and flushed the toilet.

No, I was not going to be used. Even though I craved to love and be loved like a dehydrated desert traveler craves for water, I refused to fall into those empty promises and then be tossed aside like a ragged shirt for the Salvation Army.

It happened to me once, and I swear on my parent's grave that it will never happen to me again.

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