To be honest, I don’t really remember much of what happened next. What I remember from the rest of the evening is that Luna and I went on to the entertainment area on our floor and that we sat down next to one of the pool tables there. I also remember Gunny arriving there a bit later and us sitting down for some drinks, allowed by my girlfriend too of course. But after that… Only vague memories of Gunny buying us more drinks and Luna drinking a bit too.

And that’s how, in the end, even though we had said we wouldn't, we still ended up in the same room. I found out after I had just woken up with Luna on top of me in a bed that was definitely too small to be occupied by two people.

Luckily for me, it seemed that I wasn’t really hung-over, otherwise I’d have to take a pill or two before meeting up with the higher-ups. A shower definitely wouldn’t hurt though.

As for Luna, she was just knocked out cold, just drooling a little on my chest. As she was still wearing most of her clothes it seemed as though we at least didn’t do any tomfoolery yesterday evening. At least drunk me kept my standard of not making out with people who are not sober enough to really make any decisions. Good job, myself from the past. Although less of a good job considering I apparently didn’t say no clearly enough to Gunny.

I gently poked my girlfriend’s cheek but rather than waking her it just made her mumble my name a bit. She looked terribly happy when she said my name which immediately resulted in me wanting to kiss her very badly, but I decided that, due to circumstances in the near future, it would be best to persist and try to wake her nonetheless. While I wasn’t hung over, considering Luna’s alien constitution, she might be, incredibly so.

It took me a couple of minutes poking her cheeks and brushing my hand through her hair while softly whispering her name before Luna finally started to wake up little by little.

“L-Lauren?” She weakly opened her eyes after which she closed them back again. “Ughhh… My head…”

“As I had expected. That’s quite the hangover, isn’t it?” I said silently. “Could you get off me for a second, I’ll go and grab you a pill that will make you feel better in no-time.”

“Hmmm….” She groaned. “Why did I do thaaaaat?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did I drink so muuuch?” She painfully slipped off me just as I made some room for her so she could rest on the mattress for a bit longer.

“Gunny can be quite convincing. Maybe you decided to do so because you were a bit stressed. Hell… If I could remember why I did so, that would probably be the reason.” I walked over to my bags and sifted through one of the side pockets for my small drug store’s worth of pills. “There they are.” I smiled to myself before I thought to myself it might probably not be a good idea to give one of these pills as a whole to Luna…

-It’s probably best if I send a message to Eva first… Just to make sure…-

“Laureeeeen…” Luna moaned at me.

“Just give me a minute, I don’t want to poison you.” I looked around the room and quickly found my holo stick so I could send our friend and personal doctor a quick message. I just hoped that she was awake already.

Lady luck had blessed me that day as my holo stick started vibrating with an incoming call just a minute after I had sent the message, with Eva being the caller. I picked it up immediately.

“Hey there Eva.”

“Lauren, what’s all that fuss about you having to give a hangover pill to Luna? Did she actually get drunk?”

“Yeah… I think Gunny convinced her to drink a glass… Not that I remember anything of it myself but considering her constitution it wouldn’t have taken much for her to get drunk… And now she has a pretty big hangover.”

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I could hear Eva sigh on the other side of the line. “I can’t believe you three, the evening before an important meeting?”

“You know firsthand how convincing Gunny can be, Eva…” I retorted. In the past Gunny had managed to make Eva cross the line on multiple occasions.

She sighed again. “That’s true… But still… I’ll have to give Gunny a stern talking to later today.” She paused for a second. “As for Luna, I’d start by giving her half a pill at first and see how much she clears up. I think that should do it but if it doesn't, just add another quarter, alright?”

“Will do.” I replied. “By the way, are you already at the HQ?”

“I’ll be arriving shortly.” She answered. “I took the overnight train here as I still needed to do some last minute stuff at home.”

“Did you get plenty of rest?”

“Probably more than you two did.” She chuckled. “Don’t worry about me and go give her the pill. She’ll probably need it. See you in a bit.”

“See you.” I replied as Eva hung up on me.

I didn’t waste another second to divide the aforementioned pill in half. Together with a glass of water I walked by to my suffering girlfriend and handed them over.

With some effort she managed to swallow it. “Thanks…” She replied, pain still coursing over her body.

“It will take a bit to settle in. Is it okay if I go take a shower first?”

“Yeah… Go ahead…”

“Just stay in bed and don’t try to get up yet.” I gave her a soft kiss on her forehead after which I went to the bathroom to get myself cleaned up.

After I was done I put on my full dress uniform. When I exited the bathroom, Luna was already sitting at the little desk that was provided in the room. From the looks of it it seemed as though the pill was having its desired effects already. When she saw me exit she smiled at me, reinforcing that idea.

“Feeling better?”

“A lot.” She nodded.

I smiled. “Well, if you feel good enough, go ahead and shower so we can pack things up again and get ready for the meeting.”

“Ah… About that, could you go and get my bag in my room? Looks like I didn’t bring it over yesterday evening.”

I walked over to her and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “I will. Don’t worry, you won’t have to stroll through the hallway in a towel.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “Thanks for taking care of me though.”

“It’s only natural.” I winked and headed towards the door. “I’ll be back soon.”

It only took me two minutes to come back with her bags but my girlfriend had already made it to the shower by that time. After she was done we repacked the couple of items that we had taken out in our very short stay and vacated our room once more.

We went for breakfast where we met up with Gunny and Yuki who were conversing with one-another when we arrived. Gunny also looked incredibly sober, especially after presuming he had drunk just as much as we did yesterday.

“Doctor Winter is going to chew you out later.” I mentioned as I gave our Gunnery Sergeant a firm handshake.

Yuki looked surprised to hear that. “Uh? Why is she going to chew him out exactly? Did something happen while I went to bed?”

“Something happened alright.” I nodded.

Gunny guiltily scratched the back of his head. “I might have pushed our Commander and Lieutenant-Commander to drink just a bit too much alcohol…” He admitted.

“The day before an important meeting?” Yuki replied in disbelief.

Gunny backed off a little and raised his hands while preparing his defense. “Look, I had already drunk quite a bit by that point. You can’t exactly blame me for that.”

“Gunnery Sergeant… That’s still not a good excuse. You shouldn’t have been drinking that much yourself. What were you thinking?”

“Well…”

Luna stepped in between our Ensign and Gunny. “I don’t blame him. The Gunnery Sergeant was having a rough time. We were there to support him but one thing turned into the other. We are just as guilty as he is.”

“He was? I can’t remember that at all.” I scratched my chin and looked at our Gunnery Sergeant. “Is that true?”

Gunny nodded with a somewhat downtrodden look on his face. A look that was very, very atypical for him.

“Oh… I’m sorry I don’t remember anything about it…”

“It’s okay, Commander. I’ve not really told much aside from the fact that something bad happened. So it’s not like you missed much.”

“I’m sorry for laying into you that much, Gunnery Sergeant. I shouldn’t have without knowing the circumstances.” Yuki was quick to apologize.

“You are a commanding officer, Ensign Yuigahama. It’s your job to do so.” Gunny replied. “But if you all wouldn’t mind. I’d rather not speak about it just yet. Maybe for after the meeting if I can get another drink…”