A/N: I'm back! Sorry it took so long to update, but my muse flew to Africa on holiday and decided to stay there a bit longer than I allowed her to. Anyway, as promised, this is a Corinne/Louis centered chapter (Many of you requested them, I don't think any other pairing had had this number of requests) the first part is the "aftermath", the middle part is the flashback of the events leading up to the aftermath, and the last part is a small bonus scene. Enjoy!

-x-

Scenario 6: Get Another Boyfriend

Corinne yawned and stretched her arms lazily as the sunlight filtered in through the window curtains. She had never felt so comfortable in such a long time. It almost felt like a shame to leave the soft mattress right now, but the sun is shining so brightly, she should get up, or else she'll be late for-

Wait, where did her alarm clock go? Corinne's hand began frantically searching the surface of the small nightstand. She could have sworn she wound it up and placed it on the nightstand every night before bed. Did it fall onto the floor or-

Oh no.

Corinne sat up in the bed and looked around. This was most definitely not her room. Panic surged through her mind as the memories of last night came back washing over her like a tidal wave. Going to a stupid blind date arranged by her friends Viveca and Aramina. Getting ditched by said friends. Getting drunk to drown the awkward silence between her and her date. Getting really drunk and doing who knows what. Then somehow finding herself in an unfamiliar room, wearing- oh no. Another moment of panic followed as she studied her own clothing. Last time she checked, she was certainly not dressed like this.

She quickly got off the bed and grabbed her clothes, which she found hanging on the bathroom door. Then she almost screamed as she came across yet another surprise of the day.

She stumbled upon a guy who was legit sleeping on the floor, about a safe distance from the bed she had been sleeping in. Her date. What was his name? Louis? Why was he sleeping here? More importantly, how did he get here? Wait, how did she get here? Corinne racked her mind, but couldn't remember anything. Angry, confused and a little bit scared, she slightly nudged sleeping man.

"Um… Hello? Hey, you, wake up."

The man, Louis- Corinne still wasn't very sure if she remembered his name correctly- yawned and mumbled some unintelligible noises under his breath before going back to sleep.

Corinne was losing her temper. There she was, in a room that was not her own, dressed like a pole dancer, with a man she only knew for five hours tops, whose name she couldn't remember, and he could still be sleeping?

"WAKE! UP! NOW!" She yelled, grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling him up and down like he was some kind of rag doll. Louis, startled by the noise and the violent way in which he was jerked, woke up almost immediately and pulled away from her.

Before he could ask any questions or at least reprimand her for waking him up in such an insensitive manner, however, Corinne cut him off. "What did you do?"

"What did I do? What do you mean?" He asked, genuinely puzzled.

"You know exactly what I mean. Why did you take me here? And why…" She gestured around, unable to find appropriate words to describe the situation she had just been thrust into. "All of this. Why did this happen?"

"You got drunk. I tried to ask you where your house was, but you weren't conscious enough to answer me so I brought you here." Louis, having regained his composure, said simply as he got off the floor and went over to pick up his clothes, which were scattered around the room.

"But… but…" Corinne tried to argue, to tell him off for doing that, but instead she asked "Why did you stay with me?"

"Well, I just thought it wouldn't be right to leave my drunk date alone in a hotel room like this. Especially since I kind of promised Viveca I'd pay all the expenses that might arise during our date." He answered with a playful tone in his voice.

Corinne did not find his poor attempt at a joke funny. Instead, she glared at him. As if reading her mind, Louis put up his hands in a defensive position.

"Relax, Corinne. Nothing happened. Look, I slept on the floor. I even slept super far from you to make sure you didn't do anything to me during the night while I was asleep." Louis said casually as he began dressing. Right in front of Corinne.

She eyed him for another moment before finally lowering her guard, partly because she realized he was telling the truth, partly because… well, the shameful events of the previous night had come back to her. She could recall every single thing that happened in HD. And she couldn't say she was too proud of it.

-x-

She was having a horrible week. She had spent an entire month on an article for the special issue of the paper she was working for, editing and polishing every word, wasting who knows how much paper and ink on it, and by the time she presented it to her boss, she was fairly proud of it. She expected the boss to be pleased and hopefully consider her request for a pay raise or something. She expected it to be so brilliant everyone in town will be talking about it once the issue is published.

What she didn't expect was an angry boss, a scrunched piece of what used to be her article lying in the trash can, and her work transferred to someone "more capable".

She hadn't even finished pondering what was wrong with it when her phone rang and a familiar name was on the screen. Her boyfriend of three years. Corinne was so glad to have someone to talk to who would understand what she had been going through, but no, life had to throw another unpleasant surprise at her.

"Corinne, things between us haven't been the same in the last few months. I hardly even see you anymore. I think it's best for us both to go separate ways."

That was the last straw. Not caring about an entire office staring at her or her boss' threats of firing her, Corinne grabbed her bag and quickly exited the room.

In that moment, desperation surged through her body as she reflected on her current situation. She had been working too hard with no pay, she lost her inspiration to write, and her boyfriend, from whom she (and everyone else who knew them) had been expecting a marriage proposal had just dumped her over the phone, and she probably just lost her job due to her sudden outburst.

Could life get anymore worse?

-x-

"Corinne, come on. Go shopping with us or something. I'll pick out the most beautiful dress they have in the mall for you. Let's have a girls' night out. Forget about that jerk Philippe. He doesn't deserve you, anyway." Viveca pleaded as she tried to gently remove the ice cream box from Corinne's hands.

"If this makes you feel any better, Corinne, I made a punching bag version of him for you." Renee said, holding up a punching bag with a cut-out picture of Philippe glued to the upper part. "You can kick his sorry ass as much as you like."

Corinne groaned and fell face first into her pillow. "I don't want to punch a picture of him," she said, her voice muffled. "I want to punch the real him."

"Well in order to do that I thought you had to go out first," Renee reminded her. Corinne groaned again. "You can't stay inside forever, you know."

Aramina, who had been uncharacteristically silent the whole time, suddenly decided it was time to voice her own suggestion.

"Girls… We all know the best way to forget a guy, right?" She asked enthusiastically.

The other three girls looked at her questioningly. Corinne, who had been sulking in her pillow the whole time, also managed to look interested. Aramina took it as a cue to continue.

"Get a new guy!" She chirped happily.

"Huh?" Renee uttered, confused.

"Yes! Great idea, Aramina! Come on, Corinne, I know the perfect guy for you!" Viveca said as she pulled Corinne to her feet and began rummaging through the closet, a bubbly Aramina assisting her.

"Let's get Corinne another boyfriend!" She said.

After a moment of silence (the only noise being Viveca and Aramina's quiet squeals at the "cuteness" of the outfits they were going through), Renee spoke, a bit uncertainly:

"So… Is that a no to the punching bag idea then?"

-x-

Corinne couldn't believe she was getting cajoled into a blind date. According to Viveca, the guy was her brother's best friend for ages and she knew him like the back of her hand. Also according to her, his name was Louis, he loved poetry, novels and all sort of sentimental things like that. Viveca even had the nerve to claim "he'd be perfect for her", "he's much more sensitive than that jerk of a boyfriend", and so on and so forth.

Fine. She'd do this. But only so that her friends would drop the matchmaking thing. Maybe if the date didn't work out, they'd give up. Hopefully.

"Louis! We're here!" Viveca's squeals interrupted Corinne's train of thought. Slowly bringing herself back to the present, she found herself being pulled a little bit too hard toward a table in the nightclub, where she saw a young man sitting by himself.

At the sound of his name, Louis- that was his name, Corinne reminded herself again- waved at Viveca and gestured for them to come over. More merciless pulling, and they were finally at the table.

"Corinne," Viveca started enthusiastically, "this is Louis, as you probably know. Louis, this is Corinne."

"Nice to meet you, Corinne," Louis said shyly. Corinne only managed to utter a "Likewise" that she wasn't even sure he heard, considering the loud noise of the music and people chatting and dancing.

An awkward silence passed, in which both victims didn't really know what to say, especially in the presence of their matchmaker, and Viveca was too thick to catch the hint. Finally, to make the atmosphere less tense, Corinne directed a glare toward her and the girl finally got the idea and quickly left, claiming she had a date, too.

But Corinne was wrong. Even when Viveca was fully out of hearing range, their non-existent conversation was still awkward.

"Um…" Louis attempted to begin a conversation as Corinne downed a glass of liquor. "Viv told me you're a writer."

"Kind of. I'm a journalist," She said, and wondered how much information Viveca had relayed to him. "Well, maybe not anymore."

His face turned into an expression that Corinne assumed was concern. Or not. It could probably be her imagination going hyperactive.

"Really? What happened? I mean, if you don't mind me asking, that is." He said, then added as an afterthought. "I don't mean to pry."

"Oh, it's fine," She waved her hand dismissively, like it was no big deal. "My boss didn't like the article I spent an entire month writing, and I might have overreacted after that. He fired me. I haven't come back there ever since, but I'm sure he did."

"Sorry to hear that," Louis replied.

A few moment of silence passed, in which Corinne drank another two glasses, before she spoke again.

"He's probably right, though… I've lost my inspiration. Nothing I write turns out good these days, no matter how much I try. I think I'm becoming insane."

At that, Louis laughed. Not a mocking laugh, but a genuine, amused laugh. Corinne looked at him questioningly. "What's so funny about that?"

"Corinne," Louis stated after the laughing fit had passed. "No one who writes is sane."

She managed to crinkle a smile. "Yeah, you're probably right. I guess only the insane can imagine powerful stories that can still affect readers for generations to come," She mused as she emptied yet another glass. "We insane people have the wildest dreams. We dream of true love and happily ever afters. Stuff like that."

Louis continued to look at her. "Maybe… maybe you're lacking inspiration because of that."

She shot him another questioning look. Louis really was strange. He was different from the other men she met and dated in that he wasn't straightforward. He held some kind of mysterious aura around him, and he kept her guessing with every word he spoke. She liked that.

"We draw our inspiration from them. Our dreams. Our desires. Without them, the inspiration is gone."

"Are you trying to imply that I don't have a dream?" Corinne asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"No, our dreams are somewhere inside of us. Each of us has one. We just haven't found it yet, or have been misled to believe that what I dream of is so, so different."

Corinne's head was beginning to spin from all the drinking and trying to comprehend what exactly Louis meant. To be honest, she found his words to be of little sense, but curiosity couldn't stop her from pondering. What was her greatest desire? What did she want to do the most?

She had established in herself that she wanted to become a writer ever since she graduated from college. But now that she thought about it, being a writer- or journalist, whichever way they preferred- did not drive her inspiration at all. But if being a writer itself couldn't provide her the inspiration to write, then what?

True love… Philippe… But hadn't she already lost him?

"I… I don't understand." Corinne said as she felt the world before her spinning wildly. Maybe drinking too much was not a good idea…

"Corinne!" Louis called as he left his seat across from her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I don't know. This place… is making me crazy. Let's go, Louis," She stated and got up from her seat, only to collapse again.

"Maybe I should have controlled the amount of liquor you consumed," Louis said, and without a word, left the money on the table and swept her up into his arms.

Goodness, she's heavy, he thought as he struggled to get through the front door.

"Corinne, where's your house?" He asked, but got nothing but unintelligible mumblings in response. "I suppose I should call Viv, then."

It proved to be pointless when no one picked up the phone. Viveca was probably telling the truth when she said she had a date of her own. She was probably busy kissing her date senseless right now.

Sighing, Louis slid his phone into his pocket with one hand (with much difficulty, that is) and was just about to ask Corinne again when a male voice startled him.

"What do you think you're doing with my girlfriend?"

Louis turned around to see a man about his age, standing right before him with a deathly glare directing toward him.

Okay. She never mentioned anything about having a boyfriend.

"Um… This is your girlfriend… I was just… taking her home. She's drunk." Louis tried to elaborate.

"She can walk home by herself," The other man said as he approached the pair and forced Corinne to stand on her own. "Come with me, Corinne."

"Philippe?" Corinne asked. She still felt dizzy, but thankfully it had gotten much better. "What are you doing here?"

"The question is what are you doing here!" Philippe growled and began to pull her away from Louis.

"Sir, please release her. Now. You're hurting her." Louis intervened before he could even stop himself.

"Stay out of my business," Philippe warned him.

"Leave him alone," Corinne said, all the while still struggling to break free. "He's my date. Yes, my date, Philippe. If you didn't want me to go out with other people, you shouldn't have dumped me!"

Finally breaking away from his iron grip, Corinne added breathlessly. "Besides, he's a writer. He understands me, unlike you! All you ever did was make fun of me! I can't believe I wanted to marry you!"

Philippe laughed. "A fellow writer, eh? Then I guess you two deserve each other. You can spend the rest of your life writing stupid crap no publishing house would ever agree to publish."

Realization hit Corinne hard, and all the memories came back to her, all at once, flooding like tidal waves.

An image of their shared apartment. Or more precisely, her apartment. Philippe was drinking, while Corinne was working on her article.

"Corinne, baby, come here to me. We haven't snuggled in such a long time."

"Philippe, we just "snuggled" last night. And I have to work on this article. Boss' probably have me fired if I don't finish it by Monday."

"Ugh, come on," his tone changed to one of anger and annoyance. "Why do you keep writing that? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life writing stupid crap no publishing house would ever agree to publish?"

By this time, Corinne regretted having put up with him and his abusive ways for so long. She admitted Philippe was quite a prince charming when they first met. But then he revealed his true colors, and Corinne was still so in love with the fake image of prince charming he had created that she overlooked all the times he had trashed her feelings and made fun of her dreams. She wouldn't make the same mistake again.

"Well?" Philippe asked. "Are you coming?"

He turned to grab her again, but she jerked her arm from his grip and without even thinking, delivered a punch right to his nose.

Not even stopping to observe the damage she had just done, Corinne grabbed Louis' hand and ran. Luckily for them, they found a small white building across the corner. A hotel.

Philippe's screams still echoed in her ears. Having no choice left, she pulled Louis into the hotel, hoping they lost the angry pursuer.

"Room for two, please," Corinne announced as soon as they reached the reception desk. "Make it quick, please." She added as she glanced behind them to make sure no one was lurking behind the glass entrance doors of the hotel.

-x-

"Can you please explain to me what just happened?" Louis asked as soon as the door to room 203 shut firmly behind them.

Corinne was still feeling a bit dizzy. She wasn't very willing to answer any questions, but figured she owed him an explanation.

"He's my ex-boyfriend. A possessive jerk, if you ask me. Just ignore him. Everything between us is long over."

As she sat down on the bed and massaged her temples, Louis recalled everything that happened. Then he smiled and sat down next to her.

"That was quite a punch," He said.

"Thanks," She answered, not bothering to look at him.

After a while, the dizziness finally subdued, and Corinne was able to regain her composure. She looked at Louis and smiled.

"You know, I think I know what you mean. With the inspiration and dreams thing, you know."

"You've figured out what your dream is?"

"Kind of. Not really. But I know I've been wrong. I thought my dream was to be a writer. It wasn't." She gave him another smile. "I also thought my dream was to be with… that guy, you know. But again, I was wrong. He was probably the reason I lost all of my inspiration, with his insults and talks about how horrible my writing is."

"You still haven't figured it out." Louis said, more of a statement than a question.

"That's true. But I will. In time I will." And without warning, she kissed him. And instantly felt delighted at the euphoric feeling it produced. It made her feel… alive.

She pulled him down and continued to kiss him. His kiss didn't feel like any of the other kisses she had shared with other men. He seemed clumsy, but sincere and passionate. And she knew.

Corinne was never one to believe in love at first sight, or the fact that people could have soulmates, but now she did.

Because he was the one for her. He cared for her, he understood her, he filled the hole she had, and he kept her guessing. He- Could he be the one?

And she wanted this moment to last forever.

-x-

"You kicked me out of the bed," Louis pouted.

"I don't remember doing that," Corinne confessed. "I don't remember anything. Not even punching Philippe, which was, mind you, the crowning moment of my life. Well, until now."

For a moment they stood in silence, unsure where this left them. Until Corinne broke the silence.

"Remember how you told me that insane people like us like to dream and get inspired by them?" She asked, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"Yes. Why do you keep bringing that up?" He asked, looking exasperated.

"I think I know what my dream is," She said. "I want a love that consumes me. A love so passionate it could make me forget about everything. A love… with someone who understands me."

"Your point being?" Louis asked, an eyebrow raised.

Well, for someone who kept her guessing an entire evening and preached about inspiration and dreams all through their date, Louis seemed a bit clueless right now.

She pulled his collar down so that he was facing her and whispered into his ear, "Who knows, it might be you."

Louis looked surprised for a moment, but then regained his cool. "That's horribly impulsive to assume such a thing upon our first meeting, Corinne."

"I know." And that was the truth, she knew. She knew she was being overly naïve and impulsive by putting so much faith into a relationship that started mere six hours ago, but she also knew that by doing that, she was doing the right thing.

"Hey, I'm insane, right? I'm bound to be impulsive." And they both laughed.

Corinne felt a refreshing feeling filling her mind, a sense of hope. Yes. While she wasn't absolutely sure whether Louis was going to be her new 'inspiration' or not- he was right, that would be a horribly jumping to conclusions- one thing she was certain: This was the start of something new.

The girls were right: Maybe getting another boyfriend wasn't such a bad idea.

"So…" Louis trailed off. "Aren't you going to invite me back to bed after kicking me out so rudely last night?"

Corinne laughed and pulled him down on the bed with her. "Of course, I'm sorry." And they kissed. Again. She let the blissful feeling overwhelm her for a moment before pulling back.

"Just promise me one thing," Louis told her.

"Anything."

"Next time, pick a room that's less pink." He said, his tone serious. "I can't concentrate with all the pinkness going on in here."

She laughed again. A sincere, happy laugh. And realized she hadn't felt so happy and content in such a long time. "I'll try."

-x-

"No one who writes is sane."

P/S: This has officially surpassed Last Waltz to become the craziest thing I've ever written. I hope it wasn't too over the top. Reviews are much appreciated! Remember guys, you asked for this couple, I gave you this couple, so at least take ten seconds to tell me what you think! Hotel Room didn't have much role in this one, but I promised you'll get to read plenty of him in the next one. *wink wink* Until next time!