~The next morning...

~Aqua's POV~

I groaned as I was trying to get out of bed. "Ugh... what the fuck..?" I spoke to myself as I held my head into place. "Ouch... ouch..." I moaned in pain.

Damn, last night was pretty much a blur. All I remembered from last night was drinking a whole bottle of Taylor wine and a whole bottle of Casamigos. I could still taste the after taste from the alcohol which I didn't like. My head was pounding like somebody was banging a hammer on my head. I shook my head and started to get ready for the weekend. It was a lucky thing there was no work today.

After I was finished, I went down to the lobby to try to walk down the stairs. As I was walking down, I saw Nifty run passed under my legs. "Wowee!" I looked back at her running with a bottle of what looked like Husker's alcohol.

"Nift!" a voice called her name.

I turned back around to see that Husker was running straight right at me!

"Ah!" I yelled out.

"Whoa!" Husker said as we both collided with each other, which made both of us tumble down the stairs.

"Oh! Oh! Oh..." I moaned.

"Ugh... fuck..." Husker groaned.

"Uhh my head..." I held it into place. I shook my head to see that Husk was on the ground with me. "Husk! Are you okay?" I crawled over to him.

"I think so. What about y- wow. You look like shit." he sat up.

I moaned more and held my head into place. "No kidding. This hangover isn't giving me a fucking break." I said as I stood up, stumbling a bit.

"Uhh how are you feeling from last night?" he asked as he got up too.

"I ended up having a hangover and I was coming to you for help. Damn, I'm never gonna drink Casamigos or Taylor wine from the bottles ever again."

He chuckled. "I got something for that. Usually for me it's more alcohol, but not for somebody like you." he motioned me to come with him to the bar.

"I don't know how you can get used to that." I said to him as I was taking my seat.

"That's how I do it." he said as he poured me a glass of water with a fizzy pill in here. "Here ya go."

"Thanks Husk." I said as I drank all of the fizzy medicine. "Hey Husk?"

"What now?" he grumbled softly.

"About last night..." I trailed off for a bit. "I had a really good time. Even if we were drunk."

He chuckled. "My head's still in a daze, but it was nice. I enjoyed it too."

"And we were starting to bond too. Me and you just a little bit." I said as I gave him back the cup.

"I guess we did." he said as he was cleaning the cup I used to drink the fizzy medicine from. "I still can't believe that Rachel won the drinking competition."

"Yeah. She had 30 bottles of booze while you stopped at 20 bottles."

"That's completely nuts. Nobody has ever been able to pass me."

"Easy for you to say. I had 2 whole bottles of casamigos and Taylor wine."

"But I was still pretty impressed. You chugged it down like a champ. You're wild." he chuckled.

I giggled. "Well, we should enjoy life all we can. So I ended up living a little."

"I think we all ended up wasted. Except for Charlie and Vaggie."

"But it was a lot of fun. I've never had that much fun like that before. Can we do it again?"

He chuckled. "Sure. Why not?"

I smiled. "Well umm... how about tonight..?"

"That soon?" he raised a brow. "Well shit, I don't see why not."

"Okay. Let's hang out at the pool tonight. Me and you."

"The pool? Why?"

"Just to be here. We can have the booze with a cheeseboard." I blushed lightly. 'My god. It feels like I'm asking him out on a date!' I thought to myself.

"A cheeseboard? Well shit, I'm interested."

"I can find us a good booze. I see that you don't have Hennessy in your bar. And that stuff's pretty good. I try it with a coke."

"I can do that shit straight up."

"Okay. So me and you tonight?"

"Got nothing to lose. So why not?"

I wagged my tail lightly. "It's a date. I mean a night." I smiled lightly. I was really proud of myself to tell Husk that. "Can I have a saltwater please?"

"It's on the house." he said as he slides the cup over to me.

I caught the glass and saw that there were cucumbers in the water. "You added cucumbers to the water?"

"Figured that you might need them. They have a lot of water."

The way he said that touched me. He added cucumbers just for me, so my hydration can be on point. I couldn't help but smile at him. "I really appreciate it Husk. You know how to take good care of me."

"It's whatever." he smirked as he was cleaning the cups.

"Thanks." I said to him as I drank the cucumber infused saltwater.

"No problem."

'I'm proud of the progress that we're making. I'd say ever since his panic attack, he's changed slightly. And the fun that we had last night topped it off. But there's still one more challenge that would change him forever. Maybe us altogether.' I thought to myself as I took a deep breath. "Hey Husk?"

"What?"

"About tonight..." I looked at the pendent he was wearing which was one of my scales. "You're wearing the key to my secret. The secret that I want to share with you."

"What key?"

"That key." I pointed at his scale pendent.

"You mean this?"

"Yeah. That came from me."

"How?"

"You'll find out tonight." I said as I held his paw. "I promise."

"Hey, don't make it sound like it's your day to die now." he looked away while I saw a tad bit of blush on his fuzzy cheeks.

"It's not." I said as I held his paw a bit more firm. 'My god his paws are so soft~! Okay calm down. Calm down.' I thought to myself. "Everything will fall into place once you see it."

"Uhh sure. Whatever. Can you let go now?"

"Sure. I'll see you tonight." I said as I slowly let go of his paw. After I left the bar, I was mentally preparing myself for tonight. This was going to be the real test between me and Husk. A test that will either strengthen us, or weaken us. Only the very fabric of us will determine our fate together.