THE BROKEN PIECES OF DAN'S DRUNKEN MEMORY

[Where "---" indicates the missing blanks of unknown duration in Dan's memory of the night's events.]

Dan had every intention of returning to his room after that drink.

Neil seemed to have the same plan, he crinkled his brow at the human and tried to remember, "The other year when Wil passed out… do you remember what he said did it?"

"It was probably from something Hotstuff gave him. You know how Hotstuff always likes the hard stuff." Jax brushed it off while downing a second cup.

"I'm fine." Dan waved off Neil's concern. Funny how the ground would wave whenever he did.

---

"Hey, Hotshot, you okay?"

Dan blinked at Dave who was peering at him in concern, "You sort of zoned out there."

"Where?" Dan looked around.

Jax slapped him on his back laughing, "If he can still joke, he's fine."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Dan nodded. Jax refilled his cup.

---

"No more." Neil was taking his cup away very firmly, like a mother who realized her pup had been eating WAY too much ice cream.

"I'm fun!" Dan insisted.

"You hear him? He's fine!" Jax understood him, "Just let the man drink, Neil."

"I don't know, Jax." Dave looked worried, "Don't humans die if they drink too much?"

"Nobody dies from drinking!" Jax scoffed.

"I won't die." Dan agreed, "A little alcohol won't kill me."

---

"Luna Bell! Yo!" Someone shouted (Dan wasn't sure who was talking most of the time now.) They had somehow made it to the back porch of the packhouse again. Neil had been most determined to make sure Dan went to bed.

The other guys wanted to check around the packhouse kitchen, in case there was an opportunity to get some fudge. Of course that was just fat hope on their part, "But a man can dream, right, Hotshot?"

"Yeah." Hotshot nodded, "What is a man without a dream?"

"Hear, hear!" Dave yelled, and everyone got Apple Cider topped up into their plastic cups - only that the bottle had a label. What happened to Dan's bottle? The homemade one Beta Dante had given him… He had meant to save that… Dan frowned, where could he have left it?

"What's wrong? You don't look too happy to see me."

Dan found himself looking up at the new arrival. The other man was taller, broader, and very handsome. It wasn't that Dan ever noticed if a man was handsome or not, mind you, not consciously anyway, but this guy - if Wolfgang looked like an angel, this man looked like a god.

"Hm?" Dan blinked at the god-like man. So this was the infamous Luna Bell.

Dan shook his head and waved off the other man, "It's nothing."

"Come on, Hotshot." Neil physically pulled him away, "Sorry, Luna. He's wasted. We're getting him back to his room."

"All of you?" Luna Bell asked, "He's just a human? How many warriors does it take?"

The guys around him laughed sheepishly.

"You underestimate me, Luna." Hotshot said.

"Alright, that's enough Hotshot..." Neil patted his back and steered him firmly away, "It's been a long day…"

Hotshot dug his heel in and refused to move along. Well, actually, he couldn't? It was like his brain was thinking one thing, his body was doing another, and there was a burning in his heart - which could've just been the alcohol, "I'm fine."

He shrugged off Neil's large hand and turned around unsteadily, "I still can make him take it back."

The beautiful man lifted a brow and smiled coldly, "Oh? Do tell how you mean to convince me, Dan Lion."

Suddenly Dan realized he had been wrong all this while. Alpha Henri didn't just take after her mother - she was beautiful like her father too.

---

"Dan!" Wolf and Wil broke through the gathering crowd, their breaths like white clouds. Did they run here? Were they here to watch his fight?

"Call me Hotshot." Dan said cockily swinging his sword. It wasn't really his sword. It was shorter than what he was used to, but Dan liked its weight.

"What the hell are you doing?" Wolf was the first to his side. He grabbed Dan's wrist and tried to take the sword from him.

"I don't know." Dan said with great determination, "But I'm going to do it."

"Go Hotshot!" Jax cheered.

"Hotshot! Hotshot!" The other guys echoed. The atmosphere was electric.

"Shut up, you idiots!" Wolf shouted back. The firewolf was furious enough that his eyes flashed, but the warriors just laughed.

"He's drunk." Wil said, he glanced over uneasily at the warriors around them, "They probably all are…"

"What the hell did you guys do to him?" Wolf scolded the group of warriors around him. Despite Wil's diagnosis, the warriors were all much more sober than Dan, at least they were still able to realize their mistake.

"Luna Bell came and it got out of hand…" Dave tried to explain. He looked very sorry.

"Are you ready Dan Lion?" Luna Bell called from the other side of the open space.

"I told you to call me Hotshot!" Dan yelled back. Dan, who was far too gone to even notice that he wasn't quite himself anymore.

Luna Bell laughed, "You're crazy drunk, you know that?"

"At least I'm sane when I'm sober!" Hotshot shot back, "That's more than I can say for you!"

Dan smirked, it turned out that Dan had a super power after all. He could be drunk as a skunk and still enunciate perfectly.

"Ooooohhhh… burn luna!" The warriors yelled because they immediately forgot they were sorry.

"I told you lot to shut up!" Wolfgang was truly infuriated.

"Don't get in my way, Wolf." Luna Bell warned.

Wolf growled, "Luna, I don't know what had transpired between the two of you, but Dan is my guest, please allow me to take his place…"

Dan lost his footing but managed to grab hold of the blond wolf to right himself.

"Wha…" Wolf jerked his head back at the sudden half hug from his drunk friend.

Dan patted Wolf's shoulder while righting himself, "I'm fine, Wolfie. Don't get in my way."

Wil tried to grab Dan from his other side, "Dan, stop it."

Wolf was growling at him now too. Dan laughed, he had no idea why he used to be so worried about pissing off the Lord fire wolf. See, he was fine!

---

Dan could not remember how he got away from Wolf and Wil to the grassy patch in the middle of the party. He felt a little dazed, the dark and the general din all around didn't help orientate him. The ground kept tilting too. But he was alright, or at least he was upright, sword in hand, and on both his feet.

"Fight Start!" Someone shouted.

Luna Bell smirked as he approached Dan, "It's not too late to surrender."

"If that's how you feel, luna. Feel free to do so." Hotshot smirked back. He had no idea provoking powerful wolves would feel so liberating.

"Why should I?" Luna Bell asked, "When you're too drunk to even stay on your feet?"

Actually, that would be plenty a good reason to not duel a guy, but Luna Bell obviously didn't believe in a fair fight. Dan felt his heart quicken in a moment of rationality, he was either going to die, or he was going to die. There was no way around it.

It was most unfortunate that Dan could not remember the consequence of death at the moment. Actually, Dan was currently Hotshot, and Hotshot didn't consider consequences as something of import in the grand scheme of things.

The grand scheme of things being… nothing that came to mind. If he had to be absolutely honest, Hotshot wasn't the kind of guy who bothered with grand schemes, or small plans, or any kind of thought-provoked action for that matter.

But Luna Bell was right now exactly in front of him, and the man had lowered his guard (and sword) to smirk at him. Hotshot took his one chance to lunge - and naturally, his sword went right into the luna's side.

The wolves around them gasped. Someone screamed. And of course there were the idiots who yelled, "WOOOOAAAHHHH…."

"Hotshot! Hotshot!" His supporters chanted.

Luna Bell was so furious, his black fumes whipped up around them, and then with a sudden flash of metal, he plunged his sword into Dan. Eye for an eye.

Dan hissed. Dammit. He looked down and grabbed at the blade, which was a mistake because now his hand was also bleeding. There was a lot of blood.

This time, the crowd panicked. Someone was shouting his name, "Dan! Dan!"

"Oh man! Hotshot! He's dead!" Someone else exclaimed.

"Someone get a medic, or healer, or something!"

How hilarious. Why was this wolf pack was more frantic about a sword going through a human outsider than their own luna? Dan blinked. He could taste the blood in his mouth, and it would sometimes gurgle at the back of his throat and choke him whenever he exhaled. That couldn't be a good sign.

Was it getting darker? It wasn't hot or cold anymore. For some reason, Dan was still standing. Luna Bell's hand on his shoulder… was the luna keeping him conscious on purpose? Dan felt quite sure it would not be out of kindness.

He watched Bell pull Dan's sword out of his torso and drop it on the ground with a showy flair. The Luna was such a showoff. Bell even took the trouble to pull up his ripped bloodied shirtfront to show Dan the lycan's flesh fusing back in a perfect heal. Not even a scar.

Bell turned to him and smiled coldly, "That's the difference between you and me."

"That's not fair." Dan said, quite aware of the warm blood dribbling down the side of his mouth when he spoke and the cold metal slab in his body.

"I'm a healer wolf. You're just a human." Luna Bell said, "You need to know your limits to stay alive, Dan Lion."

Dan Lion had always been careful with his limits. He had always made it a point to stay alive too. But the luna was talking to Hotshot, who was quite another creature altogether, "I told you not to underestimate humans."

He drew out the sword from his own body. He was lucky it was shorter than a regular sword or he would have sliced himself open. Ignoring the strange wheezing sound coming out of his chest, or the blood that came out with the sword, he plunged it into the luna, again. So there, "Take.it.back."