Waking up to a hangover was still relatively new to me. I had avoided drinking alcohol for most of my life and even now I only really drink it when it's a mixed drink or a cocktail. Well, about a week before my newest hangover, it only being the third so far in my life, I was contacted by an old classmate of mine. On hindsight, I should have deleted Skype from my PC. It would have prevented my classmate from contacting me and as a result, I wouldn't be in the situation I am currently in. And I barely used that program in the first place. But I am getting just a tad bit ahead of myself.

So I got invited to a little get together. Well, I say little, but our old class consisted of thirty one dudes and dudettes and around twenty of them, myself included, showed up. We had fun, we laughed about the old times, our teachers, our fails, what we were doing now and so on and so forth. But most important of all, we got wasted. Well, I didn't plan to get wasted, not this time anyways, but you know how it is once the alcohol has entered your system. I was even laughing about the fact that I would wake up with a massive headache. I think I at least managed to fall asleep in my sleeping bag. Oh yeah, some of us had sleeping bags with us, because of course we would still need to clean up the place after we were done. And me knowing how reliable (read unreliable) most of my former classmates were when it came to that particular task, I decided to volunteer when I accepted the invitation. In return, I had to spend no money on foods or drinks.

And indeed, the headache I got the next morning was nothing like I've ever felt before. It was like someone was pounding a chisel into my brain with a sledgehammer. I let out a long, drawn-out groan, as my senses slowly, but eventually returned to me, after having a somewhat uncomfortable rest. Not that I was expecting much from sleeping on the ground. Still, I would have loved to sleep more, but that headache made it pretty much impossible. Plus, I needed to use the bathroom.

I didn't even try to avoid falling off from wherever I had fallen asleep. I tried that the first time and somehow managed to twist my arm in a harrowing way around a lamp, which then toppled over and caused a flat-screen TV to fall on my back. It's a long story.

Anyways, I landed on the ground with my left arm first, somewhat dampening my fall. Luckily my teeth didn't hit the ground. I didn't exactly want to visit the dentist again. With a lot of groaning and moaning, I stumbled my way through the room, trying not to trip over my own feet or whatever was lying across the room. By some miracle I managed to get to the bathroom, with only hitting the walls and one table a total of five times. If my brain hadn't been laced with alcohol at the time, I might have remembered that the toilets were actually outside, in a separate building. But as things stood, I didn't even realize I was barefoot. And of course, I didn't just need to use the bathroom to empty my bladder, but my stomach as well. I will spare you the rather gruesome details of that particular incident.

I don't know how much time I spent in there. It could have been anything from five minutes to an hour. Needless to say I was feeling even worse afterwards and decided to lie down for a little bit longer after washing up. I kept my eyes on the floor, as the second I would look up I knew I'd lose my balance and fall over. To further avoid me eating dirt, I kept hugging the next best wall for as long as possible. At one point I stopped, suddenly feeling the need to catch my breath. My world was still spinning and the sledgehammer turning my brain into paste had long since replaced with a jackhammer.

"For fuck's sake..." I mumbled, still keeping my head low. My voice sounded more than a little off today. It was raspy, yet a little high pitched at the same time. It sounded a little alien to be honest, though on hindsight this shouldn't have been a surprise. "That's the last time I partake in a drinking game."

With that false vow I continued my long and strenuous journey to my sleeping back. It certainly didn't help that I vehemently refused to look up for reasons I already mentioned. Well, the entire endeavor was pretty pointless in the first place. I suddenly heard a door opening to my left and I looked up just a tad bit too fast. I just managed to make out two humans, a small and a big one, before my brain and by proxy myself, lost its sense of balance. Can you even say it that way? Well, I don't care. The point is, I hit the ground with my back and the world started spinning again. Actually, it never stopped spinning it just went on faster now.

My vision was slightly blurred and I think my hearing took a little damper as well. I certainly heard something, but couldn't properly focus on it to make out what kind of noise was being made. Instead, I was trying, heavy emphasis on trying, to keep my stomach under control. It didn't work out. I rolled to the side and could only think how it was possible that I had still something left in there to get out.

Gross, I know, but I felt the need to put it into words for some reason. Anyhow, after that little episode was over, I found myself being carried by someone. Now back then it felt like I was floating in mid-air and only after talking with the people afterward did I find out that someone tucked me back into bed. Yes, bed. Not a sleeping bag, but a bed.

Something else I didn't realize back then was that I wasn't at the shack anymore. In fact, I was pretty far away from home and the chances of me ever getting back there are worse than Luna stopping to talk to her duel spirit friends. Once again, I'm getting way ahead of myself.

So, I was placed back into bed, which at the very least provided me with a little comfort, but that was about it. It wasn't like I was falling back asleep, oh no. My brain made the irrational decision that I had to live through my entire hangover. I really wished I could have gotten up and got something to help me with that hangover, like lots and lots of ice water. But as I was now? It felt very similar to when you have a cold and your body is so weak that even lifting your arm hurts.

I was left in that stayed for... I need to ask Luna, she should remember. After all, she had been with me the entire time. You see, when my head finally started to calm somewhat down, I actually managed to get a hold of myself and take a proper look at my surroundings. Unsurprisingly at this point, even for me, was that I was inside a hospital room. That little fact was pretty easy to figure out with the unhooked machines standing next to every bed inside the room. My nose must have been out of commission at the time because I didn't smell any antiseptics.

"Oh man," I groaned out, my voice still being raspy. "Whoa, I must have really overdone it with the karaoke." I chuckled at my own misery. One of the girls brought her Playstation 2 and a copy of Singstar with her. Now, ever since I went to seventh grade, my voice wasn't cut for singing anymore. That didn't mean me and the others didn't enjoy causing a ruckus with our voices, even though my score was almost always at the bottom.

"Wonder how much I got into my system that they had to call an ambulance," I voiced my thoughts. Tilting my head left and right I was looking for a button to call the nurse. No luck on my left side, but on the right I could easily see it. However, I didn't press the button like I planned to, because there was something or rather someone else who had caught my attention. I didn't notice it up until then, but I had no feeling in my right hand. And the reason for that was because someone was laying on it, a girl to be precise. She had green hair, styled into two braids, wore a white-pinkish vest and a red t-shirt with yellow markings underneath. If I had to guess, I would put her in the age range of seven to nine.

Seriously though, green hair?! Or is it blue?! Turquoise maybe?! I know it's an odd thing to focus on, considering a pre-teen girl was hugging my arm, but seriously! That hair color! Granted I have seen plenty of people dying their hair in all kinds of colors, in one case using every color of the rainbow, but still, that hair!

I'm just going to go ahead and say that my liver needs some time to properly clean my brain of everything that is not supposed to be in there. Anyways, after getting over the fact that this girl indeed had one weird, albeit admittedly cool hair color, I started wondering just why there was a girl hugging my arm. A few speculations came to mind, like me actually seeing things due to the alcohol in my system or this potentially being the weird little sister of one of my classmates. Whatever was the case, I decided to shake the girl awake by moving the arm she was currently laying. It was harder than one might expect, given that the girl had been pressuring my blood vessels for who knows how long. But by simply making her head bob a little bit, I managed to wake the girl up. She blinked a couple of times, looking confused.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked no one in particular. I could now see her eye color, it is similar to mine actually: a greenish-brown. The difference was that her eyes were more heavily leaned towards the green, whereas in my case they were a little bit browner. Although, now that she was looking directly at me, I might want to correct my previous statement and say her eyes are more yellow than-

"You're awake!" The girl shouted all of a sudden and leapt at me. Not only did she stop me in my train of thought but she also interrupted the supply convoy transporting oxygen to my integral systems.

"Hrrngh!"

"I was so worried about you! There was so much blood and the doctors didn't know when you would wake up and then all of a sudden you were out of bed and then you fell to the ground and... and..."

And that was the time where she all of a sudden started sobbing into my clothes. Worth of note here, someone, presumably the doctor, had put me into a hospital gown. Now, I don't know what the usual reaction is upon having some random girl worry about you and having her cry her eyes out on how, but I was genuinely stunned. I looked down on her for a few moments, wondering just why the fuck this girl seemingly cared so much about me. Maybe she had somehow mistaken me for someone else, although how that would work, I wasn't sure.

"Er...argh!" For a moment I forgot the girl was still holding me in a chokehold, so talking was a no go for me. I tried to make the girl aware of this little issue by tapping on her shoulders repeatedly. It took me longer than should have been necessary to get her attention, but eventually she looked up and at me with tears still streaming down her eyes. She rubbed her eyes clean with her sleeve and looked at me again. As urgently as I could I pointed at her arm that she had wrapped around my neck. Additionally I scrunched up my face to get the point across that I needed air. It worked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized and let go me. I hacked and coughed for a little while until I slumped back onto my pillow taking in some deep breaths.

"Death by a hug from a cute girl," I breathed out eventually. "Now that's a horror movie just waiting to be made." I let out a small snicker. Probably not a joke I should make in front of a kid, but I have done worse.

"Don't joke about that!" the girl shrieked angrily, punching my arm. I barely felt it. "I was really worried about you!" she continued and I could see that she meant it. Her eyes were watering again. I was taken by surprise by how emotionally she reacted by my off-handed comment. I mean sure, little kids, especially the little girls, don't take my kind of humor all too well, but still, the last time I saw this kind of reaction was when I and my mom had a pretty serious fight.

"Okay, I'm sorry?" I tried and blinked. "Man, I really gave my voice a beating yesterday," I mumbled. This was the first time I had a hoarse voice and I wondered how long it would take to become normal again. Something I should ask the doctor once I get the chance or at least those were my thoughts.

"Leo?" I felt something small touching my shoulder. It was the girl's hand and she was looking at me with worry.

"Huh?"

"You spaced out..." she spoke in a low tone.

"I did?" I blinked. "Sorry, guess my mainframe is still rebooting," I pointed at my brain, hoping my little metaphor would come across. Judging by how the girl was tilting her head, she didn't get it.

"Forget it," I waved off. "Anyways, gotta get used to that voice for a while I guess, who are you?" I asked as friendly as I could.

That seemingly threw the girl for a loop. At least I got that impression. She looked at me in a way that is hard to interpret, but if I had to guess, I'd say she was at least partially confused.

"Leo? It's me, Luna." She put her hand on her chest. "Don't you recognize me?"

"Luna?" I asked tilting my head. That name rang multiple bells. The very first was the avatar character from a pokémon game, but that was obviously a no go. Next up came a character from a children's TV-show to my mind, but that one was wrong again. I gave the girl a once over from top to bottom and I have to say, I love the t-shirt she had been wearing.

"Er... nope. Sorry, I think you're in the room of the wrong dude. Besides, I'm fairly sure my name isn't Leo." Although having a name like that would be a way better alternative to my actual name. Max is just such a generic and boring name. That's not to mention people like comparing me to the Max from the Goofy cartoons.

"Huh? What are you talking about Leo?! Is that your idea of a joke?" The girl, Luna, pointed an accusatory finger at me.

In response, I gave the girl a deadpan stare. "Trust me, kiddo, you don't want to hear my jokes. Not to mention you parents would probably have me thrown into jail if I just tell you one. Actually almost happened once, no joke." Okay, I was exaggerating. These particular parents just gave me an earful and one of the two happened to be a police officer.

"Besides, do I even remotely look like your brother?" After I said that, I actually got to thinking and figured I might look remotely like her brother Leo. I mean, how else was it possible for her to mistake me for him?

"What are you talking about, Leo?! This isn't funny!"

Okay, as cute as her voice was, the last thing I wanted to deal with was an angry kid. From experience alone, I knew just how annoying those could be.

"Alright," I rolled my eyes and got up.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked as I got off the bed. And man was that bed high. I actually had to crouch a little to compensate for the impact. And when I stretched my legs, I had to support myself on the bed for a second before I could let go.

"Damn, my head..." I groaned but shook the pain off.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked, still sitting on the bed.

"Simple," I turned towards her. "We'll go to the mirror in the bathroom and see if I really am your brother."

"Huh?"

I ignored her questioning gaze and just made my way to the bathroom. I was still a little shaky on my legs, but it was nowhere near as bad as earlier. I could hear the girl behind me landing on her shoes and following me into the bathroom. For some reason or other, the mirror in this bathroom hung pretty high, so high in fact that I had to support myself on the sink to get myself at the same level the mirror was attached to the wall. At precisely that time Luna appeared next to me.

"See, I-" I stopped before I could even bring out three syllables because what was staring back at me from that mirror was definitely not my face. "I... I..." Yeah, I was at a loss for words.

"What?" the girl gave me an unimpressed look, which I pointedly ignored. I could definitely see now why this girl thought I was her brother. I mean we had the same hair, almost the same face and it looks like I've shrunk a good chunk since the day before. I took it, considerably well, given the circumstances.

"WHAT THE MOTHERFUCKING HELL IN THE FATHERFUCKING BITCHLOAD OF BITCHINESS OF THE FUCKING SHIT THAT CAME OUT OF SATAN'S ANUS, WHILE FUCKING A PROSTITUTE FROM PERU IS GOING ON?!"

And that's when the doctor stormed in.