Paul froze and despite his abnormally high temperature, his skin felt cold. Ariadne didn't seem to notice his change in demeanour and laughed loudly, resting her head on his shoulder with a sigh. If he wasn't so blindsided by her last comment, he would've melted against her frame.

"Ariadne, what did you just say?" Reluctantly, he nudged her head off his shoulder and looked her carefully in the eye.

"I said, I'm not stupid," she repeated as she clumsily rolled off him so that she landed on the floor in a heap. As soon as her head hit the carpet, she let out a boisterous laugh followed by a hiccup.

"No, after that," he cut in sharply, poking her on the forehead when she looked like she was a few seconds from falling asleep.

"After what?" She repeated drowsily, looking confused at his sudden piercing gaze.

"After you said the - you said I was a werewolf!" He fought the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Seemingly unbothered by his sudden panic, Ariadne merely yawned and sleepily shrugged her shoulders.

"Did I?" She cocked her head to the side confused and tugged on her comforter from her bed and pulled it down so it covered her lower body. Paul's temper spiked at her uncaring manner and he nudged her waist with his foot but she grumbled and slapped it away, turning over.

"Ariadne," he encircled his hand around her ankle and pulled her roughly towards her, making her groan loudly. "Why did you say that?"

"God, I just said you're a werewolf," she mumbled angrily and shook her foot free. "Calm down, asshole."

Unhappy with his harsh movement, Ariadne rolled over and wriggled her foot until he eventually let go. She grabbed the edges of her comforter which had slipped off her when Paul pulled her, and she rolled into it, cocooning herself into its warmth. Irritation shot through the hulking werewolf like a snake and he brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, more than annoyed that she had decided to drop a bomb then ignore him.

"Ariadne -" he started through gritted teeth but she kicked him away in a huff and turned around, pulling her blanket around her frame. He tried to speak up again but he was distracted by the new scent that presented itself from under her window. He froze for a second, immediately pulling himself into a crouched position but then relaxed as soon as he recognized the smell. Moving toward the window, he glanced down and saw Embry standing at the bottom, preparing to jump up. Paul stepped back and waited for his packmate to enter the room.

"Yo, Paul. Is she okay?" Embry glided through the window as easily as Paul had and moved towards where Ariadne was. He sniffed her once and almost recoiled. "Shit, she's fucking wasted."

"Embry -" Paul tried to call out to him but he sidestepped him easily and crouched down so that he was eye to eye with Ariadne who had seemingly either fallen asleep or completely passed out.

"How did she even get on the roof if she was this drunk?" Embry wondered aloud as he poked her forehead; she didn't move under his touch and merely made a noise that sounded like both a groan and the word "fuck".

"Em - she knows," Paul was too stressed about Ariadne's confession to bother asking what the hell Embry was even doing there. "She fucking knows about - about what we are!"

The younger wolf stared back in silence, obviously shocked at Paul's seemingly sudden outburst.

"... huh?"

"Ariadne knows about what we are," Paul repeated furiously through gritted teeth. Both Ariadne and Embry seemed to be unbothered by the stressful situation at hand and that only made the already-volatile wolf more annoyed.

"I didn't tell her - I swear!" Embry immediately raised his hands defensively as soon as Paul gave him an accusatory glare. "Did she say I told you?"

"She said she figured it out," he replied, panic lacing his tone as he tried to figure out what the hell that meant.

"She's the most oblivious person in the world," Embry snorted as he recalled all the times he had made stupid slips and she had completely missed them.

"Is she? Is she really?" Paul shot him a dirty look as memories of her knowing looks surfaced. "No one is that oblivious. Maybe she's known this whole time and -"

"Or maybe she's someone who respects privacy and doesn't try to pry into shit that isn't her business because she knows what it feels like," he replied with a snort. Paul didn't share his good humour and merely narrowed his eyes in response - he knew that Embry and Ariadne were close but that didn't mean he enjoyed hearing how the younger wolf knew her much better than he did.

Before Paul could reply with a snarky retort, Ariadne finally seemed to stir and she blearily rubbed her eyes as she blinked up at the wolf at the side of her bed. "Embry? When did you get here?"

"Ariadne, hey sweetie," Embry ignored Paul's threatening growl at the term of the endearment and bent down to brush her hair out of her face. He nudged her shoulder a few times until she finally managed to fully open her eyes.

"Embry!" She smiled happily at his appearance in between a big yawn. "You came!"

"Why do you think we're wolves?" Not bothering to beat around the bush, Embry quickly asked her, ignoring Paul when he made a choked noise.

"Because … you just are," she wasn't very eloquent in her inhibited state and poked Embry's cheek, cooing when she touched the dimple. "Wolf man!"

"Is that so?" He was grinning as if she was amusing and her grin was equally playful - he took delight in her drunken state. Paul, on the other hand, had never wanted to hit Embry so much in his life.

"Yup, you're a werewolf! And that girl from - the pretty one with curly hair - she's a witch!" Ariadne babbled incessantly, giggling when Embry lifted her up gently into sitting position. "She has powers! She knew about Sunshine! I hate Sunshine because it's worse than being a princess."

At her words, Paul and Embry looked at each other in confusion.

"Who's Sunshine?" Paul's eyebrows were crinkled in bemusement as Ariadne smiled back at him.

"Can't tell you, it's a secret! No one knows 'cept for the witch," she gave him a cheesy wink and clumsily placed her finger on her lips.

"Paul, I think she's just really drunk," Embry decided as he watched Ariadne continue to babble about nothing in particular.

"No I'm not! You're a wolf! And Blue or was her name Pink? I can't remember but she was a witch! Or was her name rainbow? I can't remember - maybe it was a leprechaun?" She laughed again and her nonsensical words rang through the room.

"Yeah, she's really drunk," Embry shook his head in disbelief at the words that left her mouth. He wouldn't have been surprised if she had taken more than just a few shots of vodka.

"And she drunkenly thinks we're werewolves? What are the chances?" Unconvinced but still thoroughly confused, Paul ran a frazzled hand through his hair.

"Everyone knows the stories and we do act weird, it's just something her drunken mind has conjured up," Embry consoled, puzzled at why Paul was acting so worried.

"Embry, she knows!"

"Paul, she's talking about witches and leprechauns and princesses," Embry gave him a flat look and they both turned to Ariadne who was now saying talking about Miss Enders being a demon. "She probably doesn't even know her own name."

"I do too! It's Sunshine!" She interjected indignantly and tried to slap Embry's shoulder but she missed and hit her head on his knee.

"See," Embry gave Paul a pointed look while balancing Ariadne carefully.

Still unsure, Paul groaned and held his head. Imprints were supposed to make him stronger - make him feel better with the change.

Ariadne made Paul want to break something. He hated the feeling of complete and utter panic that flared in his chest every time he so much as thought she was in trouble. He hated the way he panted after her, almost swooning if she so much as smiled at him. He hated how he cared so much about what she thought about him - what he hated the most was the fact that he didn't hate her. Not even a little bit.

"I - I can't deal with this right now," Paul finally got out as he rubbed his temples. "Just make sure she doesn't choke on own her own vomit or something."

"What? Where are you going?" Embry's eyes flew to him as soon as he realised that the older teen was planning on leaving.

"Home," he replied as he moved towards the window. "I'm fucking exhausted, tell her to call me when she wakes up."

"Wait - you can't leave me here -" Embry immediately protested.

As much as Embry liked Ariadne, he didn't particularly want to have to hold her hair back while she threw up.

"Just look after her," Paul scowled, growing irritated that Embry couldn't just understand that he wanted to leave.

"She's your imprint!" Embry squawked indignantly when he saw Paul slowly make his way over to the window, readying himself to jump out. "You should be looking after her!"

"You're higher on the chart!" Paul growled back in return and peered over his shoulder to see that Ariadne wasn't paying their argument any mind and looked more focused on trying not to throw up, as she swallowed her saliva.

"What chart?" Embry's face contorted into a look of pure confusion as he reached out to try and stop his packmate.

"The stupid fucking friend chart that she goes on about - you're higher than me and Denev is at the top and she's probably going to give her virginity to her!" Paul was flailing his arms around as he tried to ignore the uneasiness he felt in his stomach at the thought of leaving his imprint in such a vulnerable state.

"What the hell are you talking about? Wait, are you drunk as well?" Embry's tone was coloured with disbelief as Paul's rambling did nothing to rid his confusion.

"No, you dumb mo- look, just fucking, I can't deal with this right now," Paul pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to suppress the anger that was swimming in the pit of stomach.

"Why's it even a big deal? If she really knows - and she probably doesn't - what's wrong with that?" He questioned with a pinched expression. "You're going to have tell her anyway!"

"Not anytime soon," he spat back through gritted teeth. If she was upset enough to get wasted on a Thursday night alone, she definitely wasn't in the right mindset to find out about being bound to a fucking werewolf.

"You make this hard in yourself," Embry threw his arms up in frustration.

"Because this is fucking hard!" Paul shouted back, feeling furious. "You don't understand what it's like - I'm tied to her now! She's my responsibility and I can't even - she knows and - fuck -"

As the stress and anger began to pile up, Paul's frame began to shake.

"Paul, just calm down."

"No, you shut the fuck up," Paul snarled, shoving Embry back so that he crashed into Ariadne's wardrobe causing the door to splinter in half. "The only reason she's even upset is because you're ignoring her because you're a little bitch -"

"Fuck you! I was her friend before you imprinted on her -" Embry kicked the broken wooden door to the side, no longer trying to calm the situation. He was merely trying to help and he was sick of Paul acting like everything was his fault. If anything, it was Paul's fault for taking such shit care of his imprint.

"She's been mine since the beginning!"

"Listen to yourself, you sound like a fucking idiot -" Embry scoffed incredulously. "And don't even think about fucking phasing right now - you'll hurt her!"

"Embry, I swear to God I'm going to throw you out of this room if you don't shut the -" Paul spat out through gritted teeth although he moved back and focused on breathing in and out; he was not going to phase in the middle of his imprint's bedroom. Realising that Paul was trying to calm down, Embry wisely remained quiet and evened out his own breathing. After a few moments of forced peace, Embry slowly bent down to pick up the broken door to Ariadne's cupboard.

Unable to help himself, he made a jibe at Paul. "Nice going, you broke her cupboard."

"For fucks sake Em, give me a fucking break!"

"What the hell are you two doing?" A new voice cut in shrilly before either could get riled up again.

Paul reacted first and spun around on his heel, teeth bared at the newcomer, a growl ready to leave his throat. Thankfully once he caught sight of who the newcomer was, he was only just able to stop himself and quickly snapped his mouth shut - although his eyes were still wild with anticipation.

In their anger and frustration (and the fact that the stench of alcohol seemed to clog their senses), they didn't hear or smell Teya - who was staring that the both of them in both horror and fear. There was a brief moment of silence where no one said anything and all three just stared at each other in what seemed like equal bewilderment and terror.

"Shit - what are you doing here?" Panicked by her sudden appearance, Paul blurted out the first question that came to his mind.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing!" When she managed to regain her composure, she quickly retorted, eyes taking in Ariadne's messy room and the broken cupboard door.

"We were just here for Ari," Embry managed to snap out of his stupor and gave the confused girl a forced smile (although it came out more like a grimace). "She's not in the best condition right now."

"..."

"She's drunk and we thought we'd come and check up on her," Embry clarified when she still didn't respond. This time, the smile he gave her was more sincere and slowly rolled his shoulders back, showing a more relaxed stance.

Under the assumption that his reassurance would placate her, Embry was surprised when her eyes narrowed even further. Both Paul and Embry seemed to underestimate Teya because she didn't seem at all convinced and just stared at them.

"She left me like eight drunk voicemails and so I came to check up on her and you're both here," Teya told them slowly, her eyes flickering between their angry postures and the passed out Ariadne on the bed. Her eyes then travelled to the broken cupboard door and her lips curled at the sight. Wordlessly, she walked past them and approached the ill girl, crouching down so she was eye-level with her.

"Ari? Are you okay?" Teya asked softly, and prodded her cheek that wasn't lying against the wall of her bathroom.

"Embry and Paul…" she mumbled as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Ariadne didn't say anything else and promptly passed out again.

Her last words before falling asleep did nothing to curb Teya's wariness.

"Did you … do anything?" Teya spun around and faced them head on. Paul had never really spoken to her before, he knew her as the short, outrageously hot (every guy on the Rez's wet dream) girl that hung around his imprint and had been (vocally) crushing on Embry since last year. He stared down at her and noticed that she was even smaller up close, she barely reached neither his or Embry's chest. He could smell the fear rolling off her and her heartbeat was racing - he didn't blame her, even a human could feel the tension and anger in the air.

But despite her fear, she stood protectively in front of Ariadne and Paul decided that even if she was an annoying little shrimp who was too loud, she was a good friend to his imprint. So instead of snapping at her (like he desperately wanted because he would never hurt Ariadne), he stepped back and pulled Embry back with him.

"We didn't, I swear. She called Embry, you can check her phone's call log if you want to," he appeased her quietly. "She said she was on the roof, and Embry got worried and sent me here instead coz he was busy. I didn't - I would never do anything like that. But if you want us to leave or anything, we will."

Embry seemed confused at Paul's reaction but quickly jumped in to add his own piece, not wanting Teya to assume the worst.

"Really," Embry added with a sincere look. "I - Ari is my friend - I'd never - I swear, she just drunk dialed us and we came to help."

Teya remained unmoving and only slid her eyes from the two teens that were standing there and the sleeping girl on her bed. After a few moments of tense silence, she finally breathed in deeply and nodded her head once.

"Okay… I'm going to trust you, but if she says anything or even has a single unexplained injury , then I'm going to kill you," she told them both seriously, as if she could actually even hurt either of them.

"Fair," they both agreed simultaneously and shuffled away from Ariadne's bed.

"What stage of drunkenness is she at?" Teya asked as she moved to the centre of the room to inspect Ariadne's

"What?" Paul raised a single eyebrow at her out of place question.

"Has she tried to kiss you?" Teya raised an eyebrow and looked at both of them. "She does that sometimes."

"No! She's just… saying weird stuff," Embry cleared his throat and Paul ignored the red hue that appeared on Embry's face at the thought of Ariadne kissing him. Paul could kill him later.

"Oh… she's probably about to throw up then," Teya grumbled and with a surprising amount of strength, pulled Ariadne up off the bed until the drunken girl slowly came back to consciousness.

"Huh? Whazzapening?" Ariadne asked as she swayed violently - thankfully, Teya was able to hold her up. The shorter girl didn't reply and just slowly pulled her to the bathroom, rubbing soothing circles on her back as she did.

"You guys go, I'm gonna change her and put her bed," Teya threw over her shoulder before she managed to pull Ariadne to her toilet and quickly flipped the lid so she could proceed with hurling her guts out.

Despite feeling the urge to stay and keep his imprint company while she was ill, Paul managed to slowly nod and grasped Embry's shoulder.

"Let's get out of here," he pulled the shorter male towards the window they'd entered through.

"Are you sure -?" Embry asked with a wrinkled nose (the smell of Ariadne's puke was pungent) and gave him an uncertain look.

"I said, let's go." The tone of finality in his voice jolted Embry and he didn't make any

Paul was tired and annoyed and confused - if he remained within Ariadne's presence any longer, he was sure he'd end up hurting something. So without a second glance back, he pulled her curtains back and leapt down onto the grass below his feet; Embry followed only moments after.

xxx

The next morning when Ariadne woke up, her head was pounding and she felt like she had been hit by a truck.

"Ariadne Selene Walker," a shrill voice cut into the silence that had welcomed the slumbering girl when she woke up and she instantly flinched at the sound.

"That's not my middle name," Ariadne groaned and brought her hand up to her eyes to try and block out the light that had filtered through the small gap of her half-closed curtains.

"You should get up," the voice nagged again and Ariadne realized that it could only be one person.

"Kim... what day is it?" She rolled over and asked into her pillow although somehow, the older girl still heard her question.

"It's Friday," Kim told her promptly and helped her sit up, grimacing when she caught sight of the top of Ariadne's head which resembled a bird's nest.

"What time is it?" Ariadne groaned and blearily reached out to grab the bucket Kim had kindly offered her and proceeded to throw up. The older girl wrinkled her nose in disgust but was still kind enough to pat her back soothingly, and pushed her hair back. But

"It's 1:30 pm," Kim informed her loudly and leant over her head to open her curtains completely.

"You skipped school to see me?" Ariadne threw her a confused look as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"As if," Kim snorted incredulously. "I finished early today."

"Oh."

Ariadne nodded once before pulling her blanket back over her head, intent on sleeping until the weekend. Or at least until her violent headache left her. The silent bliss she felt only lasted about three seconds before her blanket was yanked from over her head.

"Ariadne Samantha Walker!" Kim nagged loudly, shaking her shoulder for good measure."

"Why are you yelling?" Ariadne moaned as she threw her arms up to cover her eyes from the incoming sun. "And that's not my middle name either."

Kim had been trying to figure out her middle name since middle school but all she knew was that it began with the letter 'S. Ariadne had promised her, she'd tell her if she ever guessed it correctly.

"You deserve it," Kim shot back scathingly and didn't even flinch when Ari pegged a pillow at her head. Realising that she probably did need to get up, Ariadne gave up and slowly pushed herself into sitting position.

"How did you even get in?" She asked while yawning, her eyes felt heavy and despite her best efforts to ignore it, the fogginess in her head made her want to double over.

"You left your door unlocked," she answered with a frown. "That is really dangerous by the way - you need to stop doing that!"

"Mm." Used to all Kim's complaints about leaving doors unlocked, Ariadne ignored her and just tried to get up.

"I can't believe you said that about Teya's dad," Kim admonished as soon as the younger girl managed to drag herself off the bed so that she could stretch properly

"She told you?" Ari groaned, the deep feeling of regret bubbled in her stomach along with pangs of hunger and thirst.

"No, you did, in ten of your drunk text messages that you sent me last night," Kim snorted with a roll of her eyes as she showed Ariadne the numerous missed calls and text messages she'd sent while drunk.

"Is she mad?" Ari couldn't help but frown at the memory of Teya's torn face. She wished she could go back and stop herself from ever saying anything like that.

"You know her, she can never stay angry for long," Kim assured her, although there was a little bit of disappointment with her tone.

Turning to Kim, Ariadne cocked her head to the side. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Kim responded, eyebrows raised as she picked up the discarded duvet from the floor and spread it out neatly onto Ariadne's bed.

"Are you mad at me?" It wasn't often that Teya and Ariadne fought but on the rare occasions they did, Kim never picking sides in secret. She was usually quite loud with who she agreed with (it was usually Ari) but somehow, that didn't hinder her ability to play peacemaker.

"You made a mistake and you're sorry for it," Kim shrugged and explained carefully. "It's normal to say things in the heat of the moment but it's also normal that Teya is mad. What you said was fucked up - even if you didn't mean to say it."

A little sulky, Ariadne rubbed her temples with a groan.

"What should I do?" She questioned, wracking her brain for a solution. Teya had never really been this upset with her before and it was weird.

After a few moments of silence Kim spoke up to suggest something. "Vanilla cake?"

Despite it sounding incredibly stupid, vanilla cake was all three girls' weakness. Whenever anything really bad happened, they'd get vanilla cake. It was from a little bakery in Forks and the girls would sit around the kitchen bench and eat the entire cake to themselves. They hadn't had one since Teya had been badly dumped.

"Think it'll work?"

"The vanilla cake always works," Kim rolled her eyes before she fluffed out Ariadne's pillows.

"Can you drive?" Ariadne asked as she dragged her feet to the bathroom, feeling dangerously ill.

"Obviously," Kim snorted and fished her keys out of her pocket. Just as Ariadne entered her bathroom and turned the tap on - Kim called out to her.

"Ari, what the hell happened to you cupboard door?"

a/n: sorry this sux but i just wanted to post something even if it is short.