Here's the full Chapter Nine. Again, I apologize for the quick way the last chapter ended, but it was just me sucking at cliffhangers again. Nothing to worry about. It all eases up from here.

A bit of a warning, though—mentions of alcoholism up ahead. I'm not making light of it, quite the opposite actually.

Enjoy Chapter Nine—Chapter Ten is on the way.

Ash mentally kicked himself at the sudden realization.

He should have known by the pictures scattered around the floor. She never was that unkempt when it came to photographs.

He should have known from the glass bottles that had been poorly hidden behind her couch.

He should have known from the far off look in her eyes.

He definitely knew by the time he tasted her lips.

May Maple was very drunk.

He squinted his eyes a bit, thinking for a few seconds as she sloppily fell off his face and stumbled into the counter.

"May? Are you drunk?" He asked worriedly.

She raised a hand in her defense. "No..."

He had to give it to her. The girl was very clever, even when intoxicated. She didn't even sound that drunk, in fact, she sounded perfectly fine and coherent. But by the way she slowly walked and had a lack of enthusiasm, he knew that she wasn't herself. She was also fairly nice looking when she was impaired...

That and she confessed something to him that may or may not have been true. Ash's face burned at the realization of what he himself said after that.

"May, you can't do this..." Ash reprimanded, watching her slump down into the couch.

"Why not?" She combatted.

He glanced at two bottles on the counter, almost disgustedly shoving them into the trash bin. "Because you aren't competent when you're drunk."

She looked confused for a few seconds, taking much longer to come to conclusions. "But Ash, I love you."

He shook his head violently. "That's, uh - no! No you don't! You're just drunk!"

She seemed taken aback. Checking herself, she raised her arms. "No I'm not!"

A hiccup betrayed her. Ash groaned. Embarrassedly, he grabbed her hand and led her to the door, giving her snow clothes that she sloppily put on. He stared as she had trouble zipping up her coat.

He was surprised that she didn't inquire as to where he was going with her as he led her to his house, opening the door and ushering her inside, away from the cold.

When he checked her eyes again, she seemed incredibly confused. "How did we get here?"

He gestured to the couch. "You're staying here until you're ready to go back home."

"Noooo..." She whined childishly, but complied anyway as she fell face-first onto the leather couch with baited breathing. Pikachu stared confusedly from the corner.

"Yeah, bud. She's gonna have a helluva hangover tomorrow." He replied to the confused mouse. Glancing towards his sleeping neighbor, he noticed that she had already fallen asleep, coat and all.

He groaned. "May, you can't sleep in that." She didn't reply; he knew she wouldn't. She was asleep, after all. Carefully, he sat her upright. The girl didn't budge at all. He then began his surgery with a cringe.

Starting with the zipper, Ash slowly grasped the metal zipper and pulled down. The motion pulled the woman in front of him forward a bit, and her face slammed onto his shoulder. Staring upward through a burning blush, he cursed aloud, using his left hand to slowly put her back against the couch. Holding her against the sofa so she wouldn't fall forward again, he finally unzipped her leather-brown felty coat. Revealed underneath was her lazily put on tank top, with no straps of underwear visible. He chose to ignore that little detail.

He tugged a bit at her sleeves, coming to a dreading realization that they wouldn't come off unless he forced her arms to move. Huffing, he stood up, holding her arms above her head. She made a sort of groan, unhappy at being moved so suddenly. Ash panicked, swiftly removing her naked arms from her coat. She made a silent noise of disapproval before slumping over on her side.

She had stuck to her athletic shorts during the frigid expedition outside, a point which Ash was happy she was drunk for. He studied her closely, rolling some hair in her face back. He frowned.

"Hopefully you won't remember what I said when the hangover hits." The sound of his own voice surprised him. It was easy to admit that it was weird to be talking to someone who was fast asleep, and even weirder, he realized with a jerk, to be creeping on her during said sleep. He shook his head violently at the thought.

Stepping back, he felt pity for the cold sleeping girl. Carefully tossing a quilt over her, he trudged upstairs back to his writing room to think.

Shutting the door behind him, he stared back up into the slowly rotating ceiling fan's blades.

"Did I jump to a conclusion I shouldn't have?"

He stared at his hands through the void. "I'd always thought she was pretty, and she was really a great girl... but why would I just let all that happen in the span of twenty seconds? It... it was too rushed."

He closed his eyes, frowning at himself as he drifted off.

"I don't know if I love her at all. It was probably just the spur of the moment. She doesn't even like me, probably, just a side effect of downing so many wines."

"AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!"

He jerked awake, eyes wide at the sound of the scream. Scrambling out of bed and tripping over a disgruntled Pikachu on the floor, he threw the door open and fell down the stairs.

He wasn't prepared for what he saw next.

May sat seated on the floor, staring at her hands incredulously. An impeccable scarlet blush laced her cheeks as her worried eyes frantically searched the room for... something. She stopped when her searchlight gaze met a confused Ash still standing like a doofus on the staircase.

"Ash!" She whined, "How did I get here?"

He shrugged a little. "May, you downed at least four bottles of cheap champagne and something else I couldn't decipher from the title." He held up a bottle she had apparently smuggled in that seemed oddly German in translation.

She cupped her head in her hands, sighing a sound that could have possibly been frustration, embarrassment, or both.

"I'm sorry for whatever I did when I was drunk, Ash. I've never been drunk before—I haven't even drank before..." She admitted softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

A sudden pit fell in Ash's stomach as he felt the urge to rush over; to comfort her, hold her, anything. Instead, he stood like an idiot above her, darting his eyes between her and his yellow companion who stood shrugging in the corner. Eventually, he took a deep breath and manned up enough to step over and explain.

"It's... it's fine, May." He answered, kneeling in front of her and rubbing her back while she hid her head in her knees, barely above sobbing in her place.

"No, it's not." May burst through muffled sobs, still not raising her head. "I-I didn't mean to. I mean, I just had a few for the first time, and then they turned into more, a-and..."

He shushed her softly, embracing her tightly as she broke down in his arms. "It's okay, honestly. I know it's not a habit or a problem, and I'll make sure it never is."

She raised her head, exposing her matted hair and red eyes. She looked (and probably felt) like an eyesore. Her voice was quiet. "Really?"

He nodded, backing away while his cheeks lit up again. "Yeah. I'll make sure you don't have more than one when we go out. O-or, y'know, just when I come over, or, like whenever you feel like—"

She almost tackled him with another hug, smiling profusely through her laughter. "No, silly. I'll invite you over."

Ash playfully pushed her off, laughing to disguise his obvious attraction and sitting cross-legged across from her, waiting for any hint of a conversation to pick up.

May caught on to his implications when he raised his eyebrows. "Oh, um, yeah, so, what exactly did I... say, when I was, uh, drunk?" She rubbed the back of her head and looked into her cross-legged lap awkwardly.

Ash really wanted his face to not be as visible. "Well, ah, you see..."

Ash debated heavily with himself over the span of three or four seconds. If he told her, she might get angry or feel awkward and end their friendship. Or maybe she'd just not say anything to him for the rest of his life. Then he'd never get to figure out his feelings for her.

He quickly made his decision. "Screw it... May, you told me you loved me when you were drunk."

There was an awful silence as he couldn't bring himself to look at her. May felt the same way, turning away from him as she recollected her own distraught thoughts. The only sound in the room was that of the old grandfather clock in the darkened corner, ticking constantly as though it were disappointed in the two young adults.

"I'm... sorry about that." She finally answered after a while. "I, uh... Yeah."

Ash nodded, not giving her a look. The blush from earlier was completely gone, replaced with a cold rush of fear and a pit in his stomach.

"I guess... I guess I was rushing a few things." She reiterated, staring at her lap and not willing herself to look back at him again. Ash, by now, had finally looked back towards his neighbor and saw her look. Again, he wanted to comfort her and out his arms around her, but at this point, that was completely inappropriate. Instead, he waited, expecting the worst and a cold hard slap as she left his life forever.

"But... maybe I wasn't completely wrong."

He jerked, looking at her again through squinted eyes. She raised her head up, laughing at his confused expression. "Yeah. I mean, I'd like to try it out. I feel like we're good friends. I mean, how long has it been since we first met? And we're already this close? Agh, uh, not too close, but... you get it."

He laughed, sitting straight again. "Yeah. Close enough."

She returned to tapping her chin. "But yeah. I'd be willing to try it out. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been thinking about it recently, but I don't think I meant 'love' love."

He smiled, resting his chin on his fist. "Yeah. I figured that much."

She scowled at him playfully before rocking in her sitting stance. "So... you wanna try this out?"

A wave of relief came over him. She still wanted to be friends, and now he could figure out if he really loved her or not while she figured out the same thing. As far as he was concerned, this was a win-win situation. "Sure thing."

She grinned at him, standing up and taking her coat. "Well, see ya tomorrow."

Ash stood up, concern on his face as she walked outside without even putting her coat on. Before he could rush over her and tell her, she ran outside into the nine p.m. night air. She returned within seconds.

"Or maybe tomorrow morning," she laughed heartily, letting the goosebumps on her exposed arms and legs tell the story for her.

"And that's when the realization hit Carter—the wizard was evil."

As finished his thirtieth chapter with a click of the enter button on his laptop. He'd gotten a lot done that day since May had cleared things up that evening. Of course, thirteen 5,000-word chapters were nothing for him back in the day. But now, as he checked his alarm clock that beamed a proud 4:30 a.m. back at him, he rolled back from his desk and flopped lazily onto his bed with a rub of his sandy eyes. It took a huge toll on him.

He gazed up at the black ceiling. A smile filled his face as he rethought the events of the day.

"Good thing she didn't ask what I said when she was drunk." He murmured softly before sleep overtook him.

I bet half of you are excited right now. Next chapter comes out before Spring Break ends. The end is coming up soon, so get ready for the finale.