Chapter Text
Branzy woke up with a pounding headache- he already knew what it was before he gained full consciousness. Hangovers were a common occurrence for Branzy- he was honestly shocked he’d made it this far into the year before drinking his head off.
Branzy’s eyes were still screwed shut- he had a mental list to go through before opening his eyes and reviewing whatever chaos he found himself surrounded by.
First; does he remember anything from the party or club he was at? That’d be a very firm, no. It was what Branzy referred to as a ‘blank hand.’ Which referred to when he could remember literally nothing.
Second; what is the last thing he remembered? That’d be showing up at Rek’s apartment with the alcohol and setting up the lights and music- ok, he didn’t remember when he started drinking, that means he started fast.
Third; where did he get the alcohol? This time, he supplied it- and a lot of it.
Fourth; did he have someone to help him get back home- or back to his apartment in this case. Yes, Clown was going to come get him- so, in theory, he should be back in his apartment in his room-
Branzy slowly, cautiously, opened his eyes. He winced at the light entering his very much not prepared pupils.
The first thing he realized? He was on top of somebody.
Shoot-
He could feel all his clothes on him so that was good at least- he was really, really hoping he was just at Rek’s apartment still and just fell asleep on some rando he didn’t know.
He’d woken up in some strange places before- with stranger people.
He forced himself up to look around and was surprised to see- his apartment- huh?
Branzy winced again as his brain circled through the possible options to how this happened.
“Geez- you don’t have to look so upset with yourself.” A familiar voice said below him- a voice Branzy really should have expected but he didn’t.
He whipped his head down to see, yup, he was in fact- on top of Clown.
Branzy, upon realizing this information- promptly yelped- and fell onto the floor. Which did not help his already aching muscles.
Clown looked down at him from the couch with a smirk that- to his credit, he was trying to hide.
“Wooowwww, that horrified about waking up on top of me, after essentially holding me captive on the couch all night?” Clown joked.
“It’s not- horrified. Just… surprised.” Surprised he managed to get himself into such a position. “Um… we didn’t- do anything… right?” He asked. He highly doubted Clown would even think about doing something- but it’s always good to check.
“Huh? No- you were drunk.” Clown replied a little startled.
“Okay great- I didn’t think you would but uh- you’d be shocked the amount of people who don’t know you can’t give consent while drunk.”
“Uh-”
“Don’t ask, you don’t want to know. I don’t even remember most of it anyway.” Branzy grumbled. He also didn’t really want to talk about it.
“Ok- you feeling alright? Do you need me to get you anything?” Clown asked.
“Water- no ice, and the saltines that are in the cabinet.”
“Ok, do you need help to get back on the couch?” Clown asked extending a hand down. Branzy took it.
He was extremely grateful when Clown handed him the water and crackers.
“Have you ever gotten drunk before?” Branzy asked- he knew most of the European drinking ages were 18 so Clown could legally drink back home…
“No, I’ve had a few drinks, but the closest I’ve come to ‘drunk’ is chugging a pint of beer before promptly throwing it up almost immediately after. I’ve only done that once on my 18th birthday because I quickly found out, I hated beer.
Branzy laughed- though was a bit surprised Clown had never gotten drunk before- though admittedly, not everyone enjoyed chugging an unholy amount of alcohol.
“My mom basically forbade me from ever drinking publicly without supervision- I didn’t really care cuz the only alcohol I actually like is wine- and I only ever drink wine when I’m with my mom.”
“Oh, why’d she do that?”
“She’s scared that if I drink to much I’ll end up in jail- she’s probably right.” Clown admitted with a laugh.
“Huh- guess it’s good thing you don’t have the taste for it then.” That was the only thing Branzy could think of to respond.
Clown nodded and chuckled.
“So- do you remember anything about last night?” Clown asked after a while, sitting down next to Branzy.
“Nope. I don’t even remember when I started drinking- so um… what happened?”
Clown chuckled turning his head away from him- that wasn’t a good sign.
“So, I showed up at around one fifteen…”
“Oh no-”
“Yeah- but the part was still by the looks of it in full swing, I walked around looking for you for about five minutes- saw Spoke on top of Rek- I need that memory pulled from my brain.”
Branzy stared cackling.
“I finally found you with one of those red cups- you’re a pretty good dancer by the way-”
He felt his face flush- if he wasn’t hung over he’d probably be hopelessly embarrassed but right now the banging in his head was to loud for him to care.
“You chugged what I assume was alcohol in the cup, and then asked who drank your alcohol, that clewed me in to just how drunk you were. Then I pushed you out of the party so we could come back.”
“I’m no sorry for whatever you had to do to get me out of that party.” Branzy mumbled- he knew he could be such a pain about that.
“You were actually pretty easy to get out- didn’t have an issue fallowing me- well, except for that you kept tripping…”
“Ah yes- the loss of what little fine motor control I have in my lower body, I’ve broken my nose a many a time due to my feet refusing to cooperate.”
“I could kinda tell- I eventually got concerned enough when we were walking home I just carried you- you’re uh- very light.”
Ooooo- that was embarrassing.
“Yeah- sorry… Rek’s had to do that a few times.” Branzy cringed.
“Oh- he has?” Clown asked he seemed- disappointed? It was probably just Branzys mind making stuff up.
“Yeah… we grew up in the country so uh- some sidewalks weren’t the greatest.” Branzy explained. He then lifted his shirt up slightly to see how bad the bruising was- he couldn’t feel anything so that wasn’t good…
“What are you doing?” Clown asked looking at Branzy with a bit of confusion.
“Oh- I bruise easily, and getting thrown over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes tends to leave some marks so I’m inspecting the damage- which side did you throw me over I’m not seeing any splotches?”
“Oh I didn’t throw you over my shoulder- I uh…” Clown lifted his arms in a way that indicated he carried Branzy- bridal style???
Oh no- oh that was embarrassing and- oh gosh what did he say while drunk?? Hopefully he passed out quickly- shoot- shoot- shoot-
“So um… what happened after we got back..?”
“Well- I tried to put you down but you wouldn’t let me- and eventually you dragged me over to the couch and passed out on my chest.”
“Yup- sounds about right.” Branzy admitted. Clown was laughing, much to his annoyance.
“So um- did I- no, what did I say while I was drunk?” Branzy was running through all the horrible, terrible, embarrassing beyond embarrassing, things he could’ve said.
“Nothing embarrassing if you’re worried about that.” Clown assured- Branzy didn’t really believe him.
“You did mention- that you were trying to teach yourself Dutch?” There was a question in Clowns voice- Branzy didn’t really know what it was referring too.
“Um- yeah, you told me-”
“That I wanted you to be able to understand me while I was talking.”
Ah- so he mentioned that while he was drunk.
“You asked for some help with it- and I’m happy to, but why didn’t you mention it sooner?”
“Well- I’m horrible at English- I- I didn’t want you to have to listen though my attempt at your first language…”
“Trust me, as long as you don’t go into it thinking you can pronounce every word first try, you’re not going to be the worst person I’ve ever taught- no where close actually.” Branzy saw Clowns eye twitching slightly- probably remembering whatever horrible tutoring session he had to sit through.
“Anything else?” Branzy asked- Clowns eyes immediately looked away communicating that yeah- there was.
“You just said-”
“It’s not embarrassing! Not- not for you at least.”
Branzy eyed Clown with suspicion as he took a deliberately slow sip of his glass of water.
“You- you kinda mentioned that you found me hot- and um-”
Branzy slammed his glass down on his knee- Clown had a goofy smile on his face.
“Not embarrassing hmmmm??? Just because it’s a fact of reality doesn’t mean it’s not embarrassing to admit!”
Clown started wheezing with laughter. “Sorry, sorry, you were just so confident saying it while drunk-”
“I was drunk- of course I was confident! I don’t think over anything while drunk!” Branzy rolled his eyes- he honestly liked this. Liked be able to just joke around with Clown again.
There wasn’t a hint of the stupid glass walking they’d been doing for the pass month- he must’ve cleaned that up when he was drunk.
That was one of the few benefits to interacting with people while drunk, no stupid social anxiety getting in the way.
“So- anything else of note?” Branzy asked rubbing his temple for some attempt to relieve the throbbing headache- he knew it wouldn’t work but of well.
“Well- uh… you did ask about me calling you cute.” Clown half mumbled.
“Oh- tracks, Rek said you did and I was wondering about it for a while- not that I particularly care anymore.” Branzy laughed talking another sip of water.
“You don’t?”
“Well- it’s not like you were using it in the like- the romantic sense.”
“What makes you think that?”
Clown was staring at Branzy intensely obviously waiting for a reply, his hands were fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.
“Were you?”
“Yeah- I think so.”
“What do you mean you think so?”
“Eh- I don’t know. They never cover this in the American romance movies.”
They both started laughing hysterically because yeah, so far- this was basically the plot of a dumb romance movie that Branzy had definitely seen before.
The two leads awkwardly dancing around each other- avoiding contact because of some dumb misunderstanding- eventually talking to each other because one got hopelessly drunk…
“I think this is the part where the audience starts shouting to kiss already.” Branzy commented, realizing how close Clown was sitting to him.
“Huh- I guess it is.” Clown replied with a bit of a smirk growing on his face.
Clown gently cupped Branzys cheek in his hand pulling him closer, Branzy draped his arms around Clowns neck, before leaning in and kissing him.
They pulled away relatively quickly, Clown had a wide grin on his face his eyes darting around the room.
“What?” Branzy asked- for some reason Clown seemed kinda nervous.
“I’m a little conflicted here…” Clown admitted biting his lip.
“Why?”
“Because on one hand- I really like kissing you, on the other you currently taste like alcohol and- well I don’t really know how you can drink so much of that stuff.”
The two started laughing again, Branzy curling up on Clowns chest again- forcing him back down on the couch.
“Oh come on- I just had to spend the night here!” He cried- but wrapped his arms around Branzy’s waist.
“Oh well- you’re comfortable and unfortunately kissing doesn’t cure a hangover.”