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No matter how much Ray wanted it to, the pillow he held over his face didn't put him out of his misery. It was still damp from his drool, a sticky reminder of the state he was in when he'd finally climbed into bed the night before. Ray wasn't a big drinker and he hadn't set out to get drunk but when he had seen Del, he'd had one, then another, to steel himself before approaching. Somewhere along the line though, two had become seven and the rest was history.

As if his pounding head wasn't bad enough, Ray had to suffer with the clearest memory of his behavior at the party. Wasn't getting drunk off his ass supposed to come with the promise of blissful ignorance the next morning?

"Kill me now," he groaned, squashing the pillow against his face one last time before chucking it out of the bed in frustration. No amount of pain relief was going to let him open his eyes without weeping in agony.

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"I told Del you were going to apologize today, so that's not happening." Asher figured if Ray didn't like the thought of other people making promises for him maybe he'd reconsider before drinking himself stupid and acting like a moron the next time. Ray was just lucky that was all he had promised.

"If you still want me to kill you after that, we'll talk."

"Noo, don't make me," Ray whined pathetically, rolling over and pulling up his knees to burrow back into the covers on the bed. He tucked the sheet up to his chin, mumbling is a disheartened tone. "I'm sick."

"I will drag Ashby's drums down here and do your head in worse than whatever's happening in there now," Asher threatened. By now, he hoped Ray knew better than to test and calling his bluff, because he didn't really want to make that trip only to have to come right back.

That didn't mean he wouldn't, though.

"A rock or a sledgehammer would be easier," Ray grunted, suddenly slapping a hand over his face to hide from the overwhelming wave of shame that hit him. "Oh God..."

He'd broken one of his most important and self-ingrained rules. Having grown up in a household where his own Pop was regularly drunk and stinking of booze, Ray had made a vow to himself never to appear that way in front of his nieces and nephews. That vow extended to any child and was more important than ever given his involvement with Asher.

It was no good having a rule never to hit a kid. Fear could be instilled way before a fist could fly and could cause just as much irreparable damage to a relationship.

"Abby saw me." It was't a question. It was more an vocal lament.

"...Who?" Asher asked. He could deal with Del insisting on calling her Abby Cee, but Ray's slip was almost more offensive than his drunken behavior.

"You smelled weird and acted a little strange." Considering the other adults in her life, a few minutes around that was hardly anything that was going to scar her for life. "Don't make it a habit and she'll forget it happened. Del, on the other hand..."

"Celia, sorry," Ray corrected himself, almost immediately but not without prompting from Asher. Having never met the offensive Abigail Whistler, it was easy for Ray to forget how blasphemous it was to speak the name in Asher's company. A kid having two names was too much for his booze-addled brain to compute.

"I should never have raised my voice in front of her." He sat up in bed, looking dizzy and nauseous for a moment before getting a grip. "People are gonna think that's what I'm like behind closed doors."

Ray was under no illusion that Delirium was going to keep last night's incident to herself.

"No, you shouldn't have, but it's done and you can't take it back." All he could do was apologize and make sure it didn't happen in the future.

"You were an ass an now you have to make up for it. And soon, because I fucking hate the fact that it went as far as her having to threaten to not letting you around them. I already can't have my sister near them. You know what this would knock my babysitter list to? A Mountie and the doctor who's doing said sister I can't have them near."

"Ugh." Ray dropped his head back and closed his eyes. Despite the shame and the guilt, it only really extended as far as the twins. He felt bad for having said what he'd said to Delirium while drunk but the sentiment behind his words still held true.

He rubbed the front of his head. "She can't seriously lump me in the same category as Danica."

"I doubt she does, but who cares about the specifics of why the two of you can't be near them when the simple fact is you can't be near them. So, fix it." Unlike Danica, Ray's offense was actually capable of being mended.

"Hold back any urge to start spelling out swear words and you should be fine."

Ray paused mid-rub, glancing over at Asher from beneath his hand.

"........is she gonna apologize to me?"

At least he wouldn't have Celia asking him what a bitch was. That was a conversation better suited for their aunt if ever there was one.

"Grow up, please." If was bad enough that he had to mediate spats between two four year olds, but that was to be expected. He wasn't going to start doing the same for a grown man and a being who was older than the dinosaurs that they shared the Island with.

"If you think you deserve one, ask for it."

"I do deserve one," Ray insisted. As far as he was concerned, Delirium ought to offer an apology without any prompting from him.

"She shows me zero respect. Nothing, nada. She doesn't listen when I ask her to call me Ray. I mean, what is that? What kinda message does that send the kids?" He put on a weird voice, his approximation of an Endless one. "Don't listen to him, children, he's not important. Follow my example and ignore anything he asks."

"Complaining about it to me isn't going to fix your problem. And none of that is any excuse for your drunken outburst."

Whatever happened, Asher was determined not to get in the middle of it. As long as everyone stayed sober, he didn't think he'd have to again.

"I'm not comp--a little support here, Asher?" Ray gave him a look of disappointment and expectation all wrapped up in one. "Wouldn't go amiss."

It wasn't like he was asking Asher to choose sides. He was just reminding him he didn't really have a choice at all.

"Hey, considering how you acted in front of my daughter, I think I'm being pretty reasonable about this whole thing." He had every cause to want to verbally tear Ray a new one, but was he? No. Because he was feeling just that generous and levelheaded.

Ray waved a hand, not wanting to tempt Asher's suppressed anger in any way. "That, I feel bad about. But this Del issue is another thing entirely."

Aside from the fact he didn't trust her, she wasn't the type of person he'd mix with given the choice. She rubbed him up the wrong way, pure and simple, and what was worse was that Ray believed she did it on purpose now. She knew what buttons to press and happily went ahead, then had the gall to lecture him on his behavior whenever he blew his top.

"You think she'd put up with it if you belittled Robb Stark in front of the kids?"

"Yes, but probably only because I belittle everyone in front of them." It's who he was. If he did anything less they might begin to think something was wrong with him, or that it was just one of the other guys with his face.

"I'm not going to change that just because they're doing it."

Ray held his head, too hungover to point out that he wasn't asking Asher to change at all.

"I'll apologize for behaving like I did in front of the kids but that's it. That's as far as I compromise," he shrugged. He wasn't going to pretend to be sorry for what he'd said, just how he'd said it.

"I need an aspirin."

"So put on some pants and go get one. Then find Del and make... civil." Asking for him to make nice might have been pushing it a bit too far.

Puppy dog eyes might have been pushing it but Ray did give Asher a pitiful look, one that displayed his pain quite openly.

"You're closer..."

His mouth might not have said it but his gaze added the please.

"You want me to shove you out of the hut without pants and then barricade the door?" Asher asked, taking a step closer to the bed.

"It couldn't make me feel worse than I already do," Ray huffed, falling sideways onto the mattress in a heap and staying there. All he wanted was a millimeter of sympathy but he was quickly learning that was too much.

"See, this? This is the opposite of being productive," Asher said, waving a hand in Ray's general direction.

Ray really didn't want to go and speak to Delirium, even more than he didn't want to haul himself out of bed.

"I'll do anything if you go and apologise to her for me," he bargained, face smushed against the mattress.

"I didn't get drunk and insult her, so you'll apologize to her for yourself. And hopefully before I run into her."

It wasn't up for debate or compromise, and he knew the longer he stayed, the longer the back and forth continued. He had more important things to do than babysit a thirty-nine year-old man.

"I'm leaving. Do what you need to do," Asher said, heading to the door. "And do it right."

"Come with me," Ray compromised weakly, Asher already at the door. At least he hadn't called him a pathetic thirty-nine year old man, even though that was exactly how Ray felt.

"I need a witness." Otherwise known as a back-up slash bodyguard.

Hand on the doorknob, Asher paused against his better judgment. He pinched the bridge of his nose, warding off the headache he felt threatening to set up shop. "You're still no closer to having your pants on now than you were when I asked."

"Yes, I am, yes, I am." Ray rolled out immediately, grabbing hold of his bedside unit to keep his balance as he reached for a discarded pair of pants that looked suspiciously similar to yesterdays.

Vegas was currently ensconced on Ray's old shirt, so both Asher and the wider world were treated to a clean one of those. All the while, Ray had a hand lifted to his brow as if moving too fast might actually result in his head falling off.

He didn't make a habit of leaving the hut unshaven but he'd be damned if he dedicated anymore time in his day to Delirium.

"Coming?" he asked, not unlike someone who had been the one waiting, rather than the waitee.

"Why the fuck do you insist on doing things the hardest way possible?" Asher snapped, beyond aggravated.

"You're ridiculous, I hope you know that," he continued, storming out the door ahead of him. He'd said he'd go with him, not that he'd make his company enjoyable for Ray.

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