"Muhhhh," Zars grumbled as soon as it was apparent she was getting no more sleep after tossing around for the past half-hour trying to get comfortable again. Reluctantly, she forced her eyes open, groaning as the little bit of light from the living room hit her eyes and made her throbbing headache even worse. She forced herself out of the warm embrace of the blankets and uncomfortably slung her tiny legs over the waterbed's frame, sliding off onto the ground. She found her fuzzy cat slippers by her nightstand and a small blanket to wrap up in against the cold. As she put on her slippers, she noticed that her clock read 2:45 P.M. and she found herself somewhat disgusted with waking up so late.

Too late now, she thought, pulling the blanket close and squinting her eyes as she pushed open the metal door to her equally metal living room lit fully by the horrific fluorescent lights that every building seemed to have around Edris. Her vision still blurred by the lights and mind still fogged by sleep, she didn't realize that the person sleeping on the couch was someone who didn't pass out there the night before. It was only the snickering that followed her as she went to open the door to the kitchen that alerted her. At first, her mind didn't really comprehend the noise, but it was soon plainly obvious that it was Ashenai sitting on the couch laughing at her. Wiping her eyes to see clearer, she opened them beyond a squint to stare at the amused figure on the white couch, a grin spread wide against her face.

"I think I've seen more of you than I've ever wanted to," came Ashenai's familiar, twisted voice marred by hisses and mispronunciations that was probably hard for her own mother to understand, "yet I find myself liking it. And why doesn't it surprise me that you have you--"

"Shut the fuck up, Ash," Zars hissed, interrupting the girl's question and pushing the door open into the kitchen and the soft darkness beyond. She had hid a smile at the girl's compliment of her body, and now it was full on her face as she wandered over to the steel cabinets hanging off her her steel wall above a very steel counter top. Why did everything have to be steel? When one lives in a mountain, one would think rock would be the building material of choice, but heaven forbid things make sense!

The woman dropped her throw onto the ground and slipped out of her cat slippers, pulling herself onto the countertop to reach into her pill cabinet. The bitter cold of the steel bit at her forelegs as soon as they touched it, making her shiver as she pulled a bottle of painkillers out of her cabinet. In all the years she'd been here, never once did they change from the generic painkillers of the surface, they still somehow had Percocet, Vicodin, and Oxycontin floating around. Sometimes it made her wonder if the surface really was so inhabitable as it seemed whenever Edris was built. She seriously doubted it, but she knew there was no time to dwell on what lie above them today. She had to worry about the things below.

Taking six of the pills into her hand and stuffing the bottle back into her cabinet next to the vials of various injectable drugs, she closed the cabinet and hopped down from the counter. Once on the ground and having her cat slippers and blanket to keep her warm, Zars debated whether or not to get something to drink, yet soon decided against it. She needed to be as sober as she could be when talking to Ash, so she stomached the bitter bite of the pills without a drop to drink and scuffled back into the living room where the neko awaited.

"Will your life wait five minutes while I get dressed?" She asked the neko sarcastically as her eyes stung at the harsh light. Hearing the negative response from the neko wasn't exactly going to change her plans to dress, so she walked back into her nice, dark room and returned within a few seconds wearing a black nightgown along with the blanket and slippers she'd been wearing before. She had done nothing to her ridiculously-tangled hair and looked like a confused checkerboard with her white cat slippers, black gown, and red blanket. Ashenai didn't laugh at her appearance this time, though, and simply stared as Zars sat down in the plush, very-white chair across from the couch and put her feet up on the glass table between them.

"So...?" Ashenai asked awkwardly, having no idea what to say. Zars was staring at her like she was some kind of alien, her red eyes surprised. The neko had no idea what in Edris was wrong with her, and she fell to looking at herself in confusion. She was wearing the same thing she'd worn yesterday: brown jacket, black tank-top, black pants, old sword belt, boots... sword. Maybe she smelled bad or her hair was disgusting. It wasn't like she took a bath often. She didn't have water to bathe with and it wasn't exactly like she was extremely fond of liquid. It liked to get in her cat ears.

"Do you have any outfit besides that thing?" Zars asked, completely bewildered. Sure, she wore the same thing sometimes, but she had some outfits because she had money. Evidently Ashenai didn't have money. Or, by the smell of her, a place to get a bath. The little lady generally wouldn't have cared about that, but Ashenai was in herhouse, sitting on her couch, and she did happen to have a liking to the neko.

"Uhm, no?" Ashenai said, staring at Zars in complete confusion. "Stealing clothes is harder than stealing drugs, you know." Zars cast the neko a grin, knowing all too well the girl's problems. It still didn't change her attitude toward not getting a shower, considering she simply couldn't go without at least one shower a day. If it weren't for more pressing matters, Ashenai would be locked in the bathroom with some soap and towels, but they had an important discussion ahead.

A very long discussion, no doubt.

"Want something to drink?" Zars asked, taking her feet from the table and staring at Ashenai curiously, waiting for some sort of reaction from the neko that would signal her not being completely consumed by the drug. Namely demanding answers before getting something to drink. Instead, she asked for water very timidly and stood up to take her jacket off. The little red-eyed lady took a curious glare at the neko before standing and scuffling to the kitchen, blanket dragging on the floor behind her.

She doesn't know what she's doing, Ashenai thought, throwing her dirty jacket onto the very clean white couch. She hoped that it didn't get the fabric dirty- there was no telling what Zars would do if something happened to her scary-clean couch. The neko placed her tail aside so she wouldn't be sitting on it like she had been before and sat back down, waiting for Zars to return with the drinks while dread took over her mind completely.