Sleep Over

Eria was still slurring her words, but she eventually managed to explain to Elric, and they re-routed to head back toward his home.

Eria… was allergic to alcohol.

She didn't know if it was one of the ingredients in it, or if it was the entire thing, but any time she drank any alcohol, she would quickly become nauseous, unsteady, and light-headed. Sometimes the symptoms could be similar to being drunk, which she seemed to be as well.

The hives on the girl's shoulder made Elric worry that she had drank too much and should still be brought in for a checkup- ingesting a bunch of something she was allergic to would surely have a bad effect- but she insisted that she would be fine.

"If you know this, why did you have a drink?!"

The girl didn't answer his question and instead drifted off to sleep.

Elric turned to speak to West. The other young man looked a bit ashamed by his inaction back at the party.

"Do you know where her house is?"

West shook his head.

"Nope. Also, why are you saying 'her'? Is she really a girl?"

West's face brightened up a bit. At least then the embarrassment when they first arrived could be wiped away. He also felt a bit of regret squirming in his stomach if that was the case.

He'd dumped Eria to hang out with Elric and Ember, and now she was clearly closer to them than she was with him.

He'd missed his chance at getting together with one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen.

After a moment of hesitating, Elric shrugged. He wanted to talk with Eria first to figure out why she was in their group chat made up entirely of The Boys.

'It's not that there are no women in the group chat. Ladies can be part of The Boys too, but all of them have a tag for it and have been widely accepted. There aren't many of them, though… but Eria, she doesn't have one of those tags.'

If Elric had to describe it, the requirement to join the group chat was to be a 'dude bro'.

Everyone there would support each other, and try to keep each other on a good path in life. Even without deeply knowing other members, they still wanted to support each other.

It's why the –Jobs– channel worked.

Even if someone didn't have the resources to provide payment for help, people would still flood in to help them out. Stuff similar to Eria's situation with joining West's job could happen as well, where random chat members donate for a good cause. Milky was able to raise nearly a thousand dollars in a matter of minutes, though it was just to troll another member.

After a bit more discussion, Elric decided to bring Eria back to his house. They had no idea where she lived, but Elric's place wasn't too far away.

With both Ember and Elric there, it shouldn't be too difficult to take care of her, and there was a hospital a few minutes away near the college, in case her condition worsened.

After they decided what to do with Eria, Ember spoke up.

"While you were going around meeting people, we went over to the bar. You mentioned that you wanted information on Ned, right?"

Elric had totally forgotten the initial goal of the job, but it seemed Ember hadn't.

She and Eria had gone over to where the fashion designer was sitting, then started coaxing info out of him.

Back at the party, the two girls had already shared much of what they learned with West.

"He did seem like a pretty nice guy, but it might just have been because of how we look."

Ember looked a bit embarrassed, but she wasn't blushing.

"We got asked out quite a few times, but you don't need to worry! I turned everyone down! Eria did the same. That Ned guy was the only one we accepted anything from, he bought us food and offered drinks as well."

Ember's eyes lit up as she suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right! He's allergic to shellfish, just like you."

Elric was confused as to how she knew of his allergy, but West jumped into the conversation.

"Allergic to shellfish? Nice! I think I can work with this!"

Elric frowned at the idea of his own weakness being used on someone else, but he agreed with West's line of thinking.

'If this Ned guy really is nice- or even if he's just horny- it should be pretty easy to get him to eat some custom-made food. If we sneak some crab meat in there, he'll go down like a sack of potatoes!'

Ned would have a tough time designing award-winning clothes if he was too busy vomiting his guts out.

"Good catch, Ember!"

The girl looked happy to receive Elric's praise, but she still looked a bit confused.

"Why is that a good catch? What does his having a shellfish allergy have to do with anything?"

West brushed away her question as the limo pulled up out front of Elric's place.

Elric picked the unconscious Eria up again, and Ember followed him out of the car.

"My pops probably wouldn't be happy if she puked on the couch, it's new… I guess I'll have to giv-"

"It's fine, we can put her in my room."

Elric looked a bit surprised that Ember would willingly give up her bed to sleep on the couch, but he wasn't going to complain. He carried the unconscious girl to Ember's bed, then tucked her in. Ember brought over an ice cream pale and a bottle of water, then placed them on the nightstand beside the bed.

"I don't have any of my stuff near the bed, and we can wash these sheets if she gets them messy. This should be fine, right?"

Elric nodded, then headed for his own room. After a long day of socializing, he was ready to sleep.

Behind him, Ember balled up her fists, and her face was indecisive.

'I'm going back home tomorrow morning, and I won't be back for a week. That's longer than I've known Elric… and while I'm gone, this voyeuristic vixen will be here with him all alone. A- after what happened at the party, we're a couple now, right?'

Ember's face reddened as she remembered their kiss a few hours before.

'I need to do this. I'm not losing him!'

Finally building up her courage, Ember pushed through the door into Elric's room. All of the lights were already off, and her heart raced as she walked over to his bedside.

'This is it. Say it.'

"E- Elric… can I sleep with you?"

There was no answer, and Ember's face reddened further.

'W- Why isn't he saying anything?! Is he-'

"Zzzz… Zzzz…"

A faint snoring noise came from Elric's nose, and Ember's heart was washed with both relief and disappointment.

'He's asleep already! How?! He just walked in here! I missed my chance…'

A regretful expression hung on the girl's face as she carried her blankets over to the couch to sleep for the night.