As consciousness returned to the Lord of Decay, the first thing he did was break out in a coughing fit. Not quite awake, Arkay desperately reached for the first container of liquid he could find and quickly swallowed it. Sure, the liquid turned out to be flat lemonade mixed with a bit too much vodka, but at least it stopped the coughing. Arkay hated coughing, it was his second least favourite mouth-based ailment, after vomiting.
Once the coughing fit had passed, Arkay sat up straight, being careful not to pour his impromptu drink all over himself. For the first time in a long, long time, he had fallen asleep in somewhere that wasn’t his tiny apartment in the Skyan districts of Palaestra. No, he was on a large sofa with probably too many cushions and blankets on it, partially covered in a stripy red and gold sheet. And standing in the kitchen watching him was the owner of said sofa, cushions and sheet.
“Good morning, Thantophor.”
“Uh, morning, Retvik. I didn’t wake you up with my coughing, did I?” Arkay asked awkwardly, taking a moment to remember what he had done the night before. He drank a lot of alcohol, that was for certain. Something he rarely did. But he’d also had a rather nice time.
“Oh, no, not at all, Kyr Arkay. I have been awake for a couple of hours now. Everyone else is still asleep.”
Arkay glanced at Retvik, who had gone back to what he was doing. From the smell of things, he was cooking up a large amount of eggs and bacon. A plate could be spotted nearby with six slices of buttered toast on it.
“Someone’s hungry.”
“Someone is sleepy…” Retvik grunted. “It is 10am. I did not know whether to wake you or not, but you looked… very cute and comfortable, sleeping there.”
The Thantophor blinked several times, stars flickering in his golden eyes. “It’s fucking 10am? Wow, I really overslept.”
“We did all go to bed at 4am and we did all drink a lot of alcohol. I might actually need to restock because I have no idea how Nyssi and Tenuk can drink so much…” Retvik flipped over the eggs to cook them on the top side, then bit through a slice of toast. “It was nice though. You are a curious drunkard.”
Arkay hesitated, then coughed again. He didn’t know why he was coughing, and his throat was slightly sore too, which added to his vague annoyance. “What do you mean by that?”
Retvik shrugged. His food was now all cooked, so he shoved everything onto the plate with the toast, grabbed a fork then made his way down to the sofa area, sitting in an armchair opposite the Death God. “Do you want anything?”
The food looked tempting, but Arkay shook his head. “I’m good thanks.”
“Fair enough. But yes, I guess I just assumed that a deity would be an angry drunkard, assuming you could even get drunk in the first place. In fact, I always somewhat assumed that the Four Above were…” Retvik hesitated. “I assumed you were all assholes, up until I met you up close.”
Arkay smiled, just a little. To Rethavok, the word ‘asshole’ was a very deep insult. “Well, to be fair, you are right, we are assholes.”
“You are not an asshole.”
“I’m literally the reason stars fade and vok die, of course I am an asshole.”
Retvik simply shrugged again. He was both hungover and ever so slightly still drunk, which seemed to make putting food on his fork and into his mouth a little bit tricky. “Yes but you do your job so no one else has to, correct?” Retvik lost track of what he was on about. “Whatever it is, you are a pleasant drunkard. You just listen, tell stories and laugh. Universe would be nicer if there were more vok like you. Also, you are very cute when you make yourself look like a Rethavok.”
Arkay though just laughed. “Heh. I think you are a very sentimental drunkard. And you’re still drunk.”
“And you are not?” Retvik dropped some egg on the floor, considered picking it up but changed his mind, not wanting to lose the rest of his meal.
“No, I seem to have sobered up pretty quickly. One of the perks of being a g-” Arkay’s sentence was abruptly ended as he started coughing again. It took the entirety of the cup of flat lemonade for Arkay to finally stop coughing and catch his breath. Retvik almost wanted to laugh, but both of them were distracted by movement upstairs.
“I think someone is awake…” Retvik muttered. “If it is Nyssi, I hope she puts clothes on before she comes down.”
“Nah, that was Kayel falling out of bed.”
“Oh. He has done that a few times. I think he has nightmares.”
“Understandable.”
Retvik eyed Arkay awkwardly. “What do you mean by that?”
“It’s… not my place to say.”
“You are chattier when you are drunk. Now you are sober again, you have closed up.”
Arkay smiled uneasily. “I just hope I didn’t reveal anything too horrible last night. Kinda don’t really remember, I just remember being really, really happy. For once.”
“You seemed happy. You should come by and drink with us more often.”
The Thantophor smiled again, coughed again, then stood up. “I’ll consider it. Although you four need more hobbies aside Dessaron battles and drinking. Although I don’t blame you lot for drinking, you guys went through some nasty stuff, and pretty much everyone turns to some form of drugs after escaping one of Sini’s labs… I gotta get going though, got a Cycle to maintain.”
Retvik gently rested his plate on the edge of his chair, then got up too. “You are not going to wait for the others to wake up?”
“I’d like to, but I need to check that the universe is still in one piece first. Then I need to go back to that hole I sealed on Friday to make sure it’s still, well, sealed…” Another cough. “I should probably stop by Sini’s and see what this damn cough is all about too.”
Arkay made his way to the door, grabbing his gunstaff as he did so. Weirdly though, Retvik followed him and very briefly hugged the Death God. The act seemed to surprise both of them.
“Uh, sorry.”
“It’s, uh, fine…” the Thantophor hesitated. “You are still very drunk.”
Retvik nodded solemnly. “I am.”
“Eh, like I said, it’s fine. Have a good one, alright?”
“You too, Thantophor…”