Note: This story deals with the effects of irresponsible drinking in a light-hearted way. If that offends you, please do not read this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Lightweights

It had been a bad idea from the start. If it had not been such a big celebration party, he would not have bothered attending at all. However, Syrus, Alexis and Atticus had all asked him to come, and considering that it was a rather big party to commemorate more than one event, he reasoned that if he attended this particular party, he could skip the next several.

This party was a joint birthday party, for the three people in the room whose birthdays all happened to fall around the same time of year; it had been reasoned by their friends that three smaller parties wouldn't be as memorable as a single big one. Therefore, Jim Cook, Aster Phoenix and Alexis Rhodes had agreed to this celebration – two eagerly, one grudgingly since he didn't care for such things.

This party in and of itself was fine; even if it wasn't his sort of thing, a bit of socialising couldn't do much harm if it was just for a few hours. He was not otherwise occupied and, for the moment, his heart condition was fairly stable. He would just get through it, like he had so many other things. After all, nothing could be worse than Atticus' party the previous year, when he and Jaden Yuki had run riot, both on a sugar-high, through the town, resulting in Jaden going missing for an hour and Atticus making full use of an unfortunate lamppost as a stripper pole.

After witnessing such a spectacle, Zane was fairly certain that, by sheer comparison, this party would be tame enough. There weren't even that many people attending: the guest list was himself, Syrus, Jaden, Alexis, Jesse, Chazz, Aster, Jim, Atticus and Hasselberry. He assumed it would be fairly safe. Had he known that his assumption would be entirely wrong, he would have never turned up, and their feelings be damned.

Zane had received three separate invitations to this event and not one of them had deigned to mention that this so-called innocent get-together would involve a large quantity of alcohol. He had been under the impression that none of the people there, save maybe for Atticus and surprising enough Jim, were drinkers. He was correct; as it turned out, many of the party-goers had never really consumed alcohol before, and this was to be their first proper drinking party.

Although he had not been aware of it until the various bottles were produced, Zane quickly understood that, since this was the day when Aster, one of the youngest attending, would turn eighteen and therefore could drink legally, it would be a 'good idea' for alcohol to be involved. He knew he could not prove it, but somehow Zane could read 'Atticus Rhodes' all over the situation.

Zane was honestly surprised, not that he would ever admit it, to see all the people he supposed he could consider friends firing into the alcohol so eagerly. It was quite the sight to witness: Jaden and Chazz fighting over who got to have the first drink of the sambuka, Alexis trying to mix the contents of her drink to perfection, Atticus hovering over both Aster and Syrus until the two had each taken a drink. Part of him wondering if he should maybe stop his younger brother from drinking, but decided not to bother; it'd do him good to get drunk and suffer the consequences. Most people will do it at some point in their life, and it was better to do it when you were younger and learn your lesson then.

Now the awkward thing for Zane Truesdale was this: he could not drink alcohol. His heart condition at that specific point in time would not allow him to consume any alcohol. Therefore, he was the solely sober person in the room.

On one hand, it was great; everyone else could make a fool of themselves and he knew that he would not do so himself, and he could have the pleasure of telling them all the next day about their own humiliation. On the other hand, it meant that, later in the night when everyone else had had just a little too much, he was the only one in a fit state to deal with the bunch of drunken idiots.

Although not all of them had intended to get themselves into that state. He was fairly certain that Atticus had spiked Aster's drink several times, and that Jaden had done the same to both Syrus and Chazz. Either way, it all led to the same conclusion: he was left to take care of a bunch of drunken idiots.

Not so very long ago, he would have just walked away and left them all to it, since it was their own faults. However, since his return from the alternate dimension Zane possessed new morals and self-standards, and these damn things would not allow him to retire guilt free, leaving those idiots to their own devices. Inwardly thinking that he would make them – each and every one of them – pay individually for subjecting him to this, Zane resigned himself to his fate and set about getting them all to settle down for the night.

/

He would later think to himself how they had all handled their drunkenness in a different way, some far more easily than others.

His younger brother was probably the easiest to deal with: after his fifth (spiked) drink, Syrus just kind of flopped and collapsed onto the sofa, sound asleep. Zane turned him onto his side to ensure that his brother wouldn't vomit and choke, but otherwise had left him be.

Unsurprisingly, Chazz was an aggressive drunk. Zane didn't know exactly what it was that Atticus had said, but it led to Chazz chasing him, neither of them managing to run in a straight line, around the room. Zane had left them to it for a while before he'd held Chazz back, vaguely amused that only in his drunken state would Chazz struggle against him the way he did. Atticus said something about Chazz being scary, and this served only to further antagonise the other.

"Them's fighting words!" he yelled, trying to lunge for the now running Atticus but being held back by Zane. Zane had managed to drag the other boy upstairs by the arm and lock him in a bedroom, shouting through the heavy door that he could just go to sleep seeing as he wouldn't be getting out of there until the morning.

Atticus had been easy to deal with; he was such a loving drunk. He attached himself to Zane, drunkenly saying, "I love you", in a way that made Zane roll his eyes; when drunk, Atticus loved everyone. Zane had just replied, "Yeah, yeah," before dragging Atticus to a different room and telling him to lie down and go to sleep. Atticus' head hit the pillow a millisecond after he fell asleep.

His sister was not so easy. Alexis claimed to be feeling sick and locked herself in the upstairs bathroom, and when Zane eventually decided that he'd had enough and kicked the door open, she was lying curled up in front of the toilet; evidently she was finished praying to the porcelain god, and Zane half-dragged, half-carried her to the nearest room, where he left her on her side on the only available furniture, the large armchair.

Following all this, he took a well deserved break; playing the knight in shining armour was not as rewarding as it was made out to be. In fact, it was highly irritating.

He wandered back down the stairs, and was only further annoyed by the fact that someone – he'd find out whose idea it had been and kill them when they were sober – had turned on music and that Jaden and Jesse were now dancing. Well. They were swaying, at best.

Hasselberry and Aster had somehow managed to get a new bottle of vodka open; Zane left them to it for the time being, figuring that the worse their hangover was, the happier he'd be. Jim was trying, completely unsuccessfully, to unearth a 'fossil' which was supposedly hidden underneath the carpet by using an empty glass to 'dig'. Zane raised one eyebrow; how much had he had? One thing was for sure, Chazz was not going to appreciate the damage done to his carpet in the morning.

Zane pretty much just left them to it, leaning against the doorframe and watching in mild amusement while he tried to determine just how much blackmail he was gaining in one single night.

/

It was only once Hasselberry somehow managed to smash a half-full bottle over his own foot that Zane went over and dragged him out, growling at him that he'd better not have hurt himself because Zane damn well wasn't phoning the hospital. Hasselberry, if he was hurt, was too far gone to truly notice, considering that he allowed Zane to guide him up the stairs and into a spare room – Chazz's house was impressive, with three floors and countless rooms, doubtless a result of family ties and his hugely successful new career – where Zane left him.

He then stalked back down the stairs to see Jaden, who had two spherical fruits shoved down his shirt, skipping past while singing "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts". Apparently a drunken Jaden was anything but a mature Jaden. Needless to say, Zane grabbed him by the jacket and dragged him to the nearest room – a study, if he had to guess – and pushed the other down to floor, telling him to go to sleep. Zane left the room with Jaden still giggling, but since the brunette didn't follow he supposed that Jaden had either gone to sleep or simply couldn't get back up.

Zane then had the infuriating task of having to locate the remaining three (Jim, Aster and Jesse) since none of them were where he had left them. As the night wore on, he was becoming more and more sorely tempted to just give up and go home. But if something happened to them, he would likely feel bad in the morning. And besides, he had done most of the work; only three people were on the loose.

/

He found Jesse first; curled up on the stairs in a position that could not have been comfortable. Zane knew he should probably move the boy, but decided against it; consequences are consequences. He did turn the Crystal Beast duellist over so that there would be no choking on his own vomit, and then Zane's quest for the two remaining idiots continued.

On his journeys, he encountered a puddle of vomit, which left him with the odd desire to hold his nose, which he suppressed, as he passed it. He was hardly going to clean it up, that was out of the question.

He had to admit, that night he liked Jim more than most of the others. Jim had found his own way to bed, and was lying on the floor next to Hasselberry's bed. He seemed okay, prompting Zane to just leave him where he was; at least he had found his own way to sleep.

There was a strange relief to knowing that the ordeal was almost over: only one more drunken idiot to find and deal with. Only cruel fate would have it that it was Aster Phoenix; it was no big secret that the two didn't see eye to eye on many things. They had reached a grudging truce during their forced time together in Dark World, but besides that neither of them had a particular fondness for the other. Still, what Zane was doing tonight had to be completed: once it was, he had done his good deed for the century and earned himself the right to guiltlessly refuse invitations to any future parties no matter what the occasion was.

Zane, as it happened, found Aster not by seeing him but by hearing him. Or more accurately, hearing what he was doing.

/

He reluctantly followed the hopeless sound of retching to the nearest bathroom, where he found Aster hanging over the toilet bowl. He was taken by unwanted surprise by the small spark of sympathy he found he felt for the younger boy. This was not exactly how Aster had wanted to spend the night of his eighteenth birthday, Zane was sure.

Zane stood still for a few minutes, and when he was fairly sure that the other had stopped vomiting, he made his presence known. Aster looked up at him and drunkenly glared; a lot of the alcohol was out of his system now, meaning that he most likely wouldn't be in a drunken state for much longer, but the vomiting had left him obviously shaky.

"Go away" Aster moaned, turning back around as he had begun to feel like he was going to throw up again.

This, however, was unfortunately not noticed by Zane, who ignored Aster's request for privacy, went over and heaved the boy to his feet, intent on making him go lie down somewhere and go to sleep. However, the force of the motion had done absolutely no favours for Aster's shaken stomach, and he barely managed to turn his head enough to avoid the bile from hitting Zane. Zane was luckily safe; the bathroom wall was not so lucky.

Zane shoved the boy down to his knees in front of the porcelain bowl, which was just as well, considering that Aster was hardly finished throwing up, much to his own embarrassment and Zane's annoyance. For a moment, the more gothic of the two simply stood by with folded arms, looking at anything that wasn't the boy in front of him and internally wincing every time said boy retched again. After a short time of this, however, Zane figured that the calmer he got Aster, the sooner he could move him upstairs and go home himself.

He couldn't just leave him like this; Aster could then use it against him and say that he was heartless, which his brother would hear and this could ultimately end up in his little brother being mad at him again, and contrary to some popular beliefs, Zane truly did care for Syrus. He didn't want any more fights going on between them than there already were. And Syrus would be enormously angry – he cared about his friends almost as much as Jaden did – if Zane just walked out and left Aster here in this state.

And so it was by total self motivation that Zane happened to decide to try and take care of a sick person, something he had never done before in his life – not even when his brother had been sick as a kid, as their mother had always tended to him.

There's a first time for everything, he reassured himself bitterly.

Zane grabbed the nearest towel off the rack – which had avoided being hit by the vomit that had instead splattered the wall elsewhere – and ran it under cold water. He then rinsed this towel out over the sink before kneeling down beside the other duellist and gently pressing it to Aster's forehead. He didn't meet the surprised look the other shot at him; instead he just held the damp towel in place until Aster gathered his wits together enough to take hold of it himself, leaving Zane to just kneel beside him.

For a few minutes, there was no sound in the room save for Aster's heavy breathing. Zane sat silently beside him, watching him warily; he had stopped vomiting, but that may only be a temporary measure, and if he tried to yank the boy up again and got hit this time, he knew he would not be able to keep his patience. So he remained still and silent, waiting, keeping his impatience to himself for the time being.

It was only when Aster retched again – how much alcohol had he consumed in just one night? It was sadly obvious he had never had any before in his life – that Zane reached out an unsure hand to rest on the boy's back, where he rubbed gentle circles without looking at the other.

From Aster's point of view, this had to be a trick. Either Zane had a hidden motherly side – not going to happen – or he was planning something that would almost certainly result in him holding this over Aster's head for the rest of his life, and that was not an attractive thought to the pro duellist, even in his semi-drunken state.

But he couldn't control what was happening now – although considering how bad this was, he now knew with absolute certainty that a number of his drinks had been spiked – and he was intelligent enough to realise that he was better off not moving from this humiliating position until he'd completely finished emptying the contents of his stomach, including the sinful liquid he'd consumed far too much of. He tried, a couple of times, to tell Zane to piss off and leave him alone, but the other was either deaf or ignoring him, and Aster would put enormous sums of money on the latter.

This was not Zane. This wasn't the duellist whom Aster was fairly convinced hated him. Zane never spoke to Aster unless Aster initiated the conversation nowadays, and this sent off an obvious enough message of dislike. This had never bothered him, but it was definitely confusing to see the same man sitting with him now, offering him a cool towel to rest on his forehead and rubbing his back – Aster didn't think Zane was capable of such a soothing, gentle touch, but here was the proof.

Throughout the night he vaguely, drunkenly, remembered Zane rounding up their friends and taking them off to settle down for the night, before returning for the next one. He was aware that Zane was doing this because he was the only one sober and likely didn't want the entire crowd to be mad at him he next day; Zane wasn't the bitter person he had once been, and it would hurt him to know that everyone was angry at him because he just walked out when he could've helped. So it made sense enough for Zane to stay and get people into safe enough positions.

But to actually sit with Aster Phoenix and comfort him through a phase of vomiting which was entirely his own fault? Zane had no way of knowing, from Aster's point of view, that the latter's drinks had often been spiked. This was a whole new ball game.

And by the time that he was finally sure that was well and truly void of alcohol in his system, Aster had decided that it was actually bearable to have, just this once, someone sitting with him while he was ill.

Ever since his father was killed, he'd never had anyone to sit with him whenever he got sick. His 'adoptive father', as he had thought of him at the time, wasn't one to nurse him back to health; his idea of caring was just to leave a glass of water next to his bed and then stay out of the way. So this whole being taken care of thing, it was unfamiliar.

But he found that it wasn't entirely unpleasant, even with that person being Zane Truesdale. Maybe ... maybe even because it was him; maybe it wasn't so much the care as it was just knowing that Zane didn't hate him after all. And this was a huge comfort to Aster, since – although he would never, never admit it in a million years, he had a little bit of a crush on the older duellist.

/

Zane had been enormously relieved when Aster had told him to move so that he could get up, that he was in the way – in his mind, Zane translated this to 'I'm done puking my guts up and I'd really like to get out of here before I embarrass myself further'. However, he hadn't been so thrilled to realise that, even with the alcohol out of his system, Aster was having trouble walking, and so Zane had to grab his arm and guide him to the nearest room – which just so happened to be the living room.

His younger brother was asleep on the sofa already, curled up like a kitten and softly snoring, so he got Aster to sit down on the enormous, cushy armchair opposite said sofa.

His plan had been to force the boy to lie down, turn off the lights, write a note for Chazz explaining that he'd have to clean up the place a bit, and then go home and head for his bed; this rather eventful night had left him exhausted.

Unfortunately for him, Phoenix had other plans.

He lay the smaller boy down on the armchair and straightened up properly, ready to make his departure, but a trembling hand grabbed hold of his sleeve and held on with a firm grip. Zane looked down, irritated, into bright blue eyes that shone with what could only be a mixture of tiredness, hope and the shakiness gained by a recent bout of vomiting. He didn't get a chance to speak before Aster did.

"Are we friends?" Aster mumbled, his tone indifferent but his eyes telling a different story.

Zane was mildly amused; Aster would never have said this if he wasn't sick or drunk or tired or whichever it was that had caused him to let his guard down.

He had been prepared to bite back with a sarcastic comment, but the look on the other's face stopped him. Aster's usual mask of loftiness and pride was gone, and in its place was ... well, Zane wasn't really sure what. Aster no longer looked like the proud pro duellist he was. He more resembled a lonely little boy.

And that was when it hit Zane: that was all Aster really was.

The kid was still young. He'd lost his father as a child, leaving him an orphan with no relatives, and he'd found out only later in life that the one who had adopted him had done so with ulterior motives. Deep down, Zane now realised, Aster craved the love of a family. He may have hundreds of fans and his sponsor and his friends but ... he was still lonely. He didn't have any family, and he wasn't even sure if some of his 'friends' – specifically, Zane himself – even liked him.

Aster may be more than capable of taking care of himself and perfectly mature, but he was still a lonely kid.

This was what was running through Zane's mind when he didn't answer, but instead bent down a little and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, encasing him in the warm embrace that was all the comfort he knew how to give.

The grip on his sleeve loosened, and Zane felt the weight on his shoulder as Aster rested his head there, either in tiredness or in hopelessness. His grip tightened, ever so slightly, on the other's frame; idly, Zane wondered how someone with such a big mouth and attitude could seem so fragile to hold. It took him only moments to realise that this was how Aster really was, when he let his guard down and stopped pretending. This was when Zane began to truly understand that the image of himself that Aster allowed the world to see wasn't who he really was, but rather, who he wanted himself to be.

One arm was sloppily flung around his back, holding on tightly. He could hear the boy's breathing, still a little harsh, close to his ear.

Zane closed his eyes, wondering if, come morning, Aster would remember this. He surprised himself when he realised that he honestly hoped the boy would remember all of it. Maybe then he would voluntarily open up to Zane a little more.

Because, in all honesty, Zane was lonely too. Not as much as Aster - he had genuine friends, in Atticus especially, and a loyal little brother – but he did want to be able to open up to someone in particular. A 'best friend' type of person, as it were. Atticus was too carefree for Zane to open up to in this way, although that wasn't to say that Zane didn't tell him anything. Although Zane couldn't see him and Aster falling into the 'best friend' category, he wondered if they might be able to simply understand one another. They had both known pain, they had both made mistakes, they both had pride ... when it came down to it, they had some similarities.

And it was all too obvious to him now that Aster needed someone to understand him.

/

Zane was brought out of his own private world of his many thoughts by the sound of Aster's voice.

"Hm?" he queried, not sure what the other had said.

"You didn't answer" Aster muttered.

Oh, neither he had. Zane tightened his grip on Aster a little as he whispered, "Yes. We're friends."

There was a quiet sigh from the other, and Zane wondered just how vulnerable a position he had put himself in before the other continued the conversation.

"I thought ... that you didn't like me" he mumbled, half asleep.

Zane suppressed the urge to laugh; the kid was falling asleep in his arms, saying things he'd never say entirely consciously. Oh well. If Aster could humiliate himself, then so could Zane.

"I like you just fine" Zane muttered.

Aster nodded and then fell silent; his slightly heavier breathing indicated that he had fallen asleep. Zane shook his head – after this night, this would become a fond memory of his, that he would smile at whenever it crossed his mind – and gently lay Aster down, trying to arrange his limp limbs into a reasonably comfortable position.

And with that accomplished, Zane left the room and headed for the study to grab some paper and a pen, having to step over a snoring Jaden to grab these. He proceeded to write a short note to Chazz that basically said 'clean up this mess' and then he left the house, heading back to his own apartment.

In the morning that followed, there would be many hangovers, a furious Chazz, and a bunch of formerly drunken idiots who now had to be 'eternally grateful' for Zane's heroic rescues.

And Aster would remember. He would remember everything.

Which was why, when he turned up at Zane's apartment unannounced several days later, there were no sarcastic comments made as he was allowed into Zane's home, no mocking words, no competitions. Only two friends who had finally opened up to one another.

Two friends who, in time, would become something much more.

Please R&R