The neighbors were ready to send in a complaint. Alex and Charlie played Facelift so often and so loud that you'd think they thought each play of the record would be their last. Luckily, the neighbors were able to appreciate the music; just not at 3 a.m. on work nights. The girls were understanding of that and promised to keep it down so they wouldn't get kicked to the curb.

Friday was an awful day at work. Alex felt she almost died a few times there, kept alive only by her will to make it to the party. She thought about it constantly in order to find the motivation to keep moving those stupid boxes. It helped for a while, but when the thought of the party itself stopped helping, she tried to think of other things that made her happy. Charlie, new flannel shirts, Facelift, hot cocoa, Stone, nice cars, the Alice In Chains guys, the way her feet felt in her boots, Jeff, all her friends, really...

"Any closer to quitting?" Jo asked in a half-kidding half-serious tone.

"Yes, oh my God. The only reason I haven't taken one of these boxes and bashed my head in with it is this party I'm going to later."

"You're lucky, in that case. I have literally nothing to look forward to. Unless you count the delicious dinner of instant mashed potatoes that awaits me."

Alex blinked as she remembered Sean telling her to bring as many people as possible to the party. "Hey, why don't you come with me?"

"What? Me?"

"Yeah, who else?" Alex laughed, looking around. None of their coworkers were even in earshot.

"Would that be okay though? Whose party is it?"

"Some friends of mine. They just put out an album, so they're throwing a party to celebrate."

"Your friends have an album out?"

"Uh huh. Alice In Chains. My cousin's the drummer, he's how I met the rest of the band."

"You're related to the drummer of Alice In Chains? Wow, I feel like I have connections," Jo teased. Alex couldn't help but laugh again at the thought that anyone would consider knowing her a good thing.

"Hell yeah, you do. So what do you say?"

"Well...I don't have anything nice to wear. This is probably my best outfit," she said, looking down at what she was wearing.

"Dude, that's fine. I'm just gonna wear this." Alex gestured to her own clothing. "I might change shirts, but that'll be about it."

Jo agreed to go with her after a little more reassurance from Alex. So they spent the next few hours in a more gleeful state of mind, Jo finally having something to really look forward to. She had lots of questions about the party and the band, sounding a lot like what Alex imagined an overprotective or generally caring mother would. What time will it be over? What are the guys in the band like? Who else is gonna be there? Alex didn't even know how to answer some of her questions.

As their shifts drew to a close, Alex began to realize she really couldn't put Jo through the hour-and-a-half walk to the apartment. So she looked in her boots and under the counters for loose change until she'd scrounged up enough to cover their bus fares. Then the time to punch out came around and Alex made sure to grab one of the old rolls of duct tape on their way out.

The bus ride was over soon enough, and Alex hoped to never ride the damn bus again after that day if she could help it. Even though it was cold and quite a long walk, she'd grown used to the trek home, and the bus took the fun out of it. She also had to practically throw Jo off the bus before the doors closed and they remained trapped. That had happened with Charlie once, and it hadn't been fun.

Alex could almost feel Jo's nerves as they climbed the stairs to the apartment. "You nervous or something?"

"No, why?" Jo asked, rapidly tapping her hand against the side of her leg as Alex dug her key out of her pocket.

"You're making me nervous. Well, this is it," she said as she opened the door, "home sweet home."

It looked the opposite of a sweet home. Charlie had clearly been searching for something and trashed the main room in the process. Alex stepped over random articles of clothing, old album covers, unidentifiable sheets of paper, and other miscellaneous items as she made her way over to the bedroom. She stood in the doorway and looked around, not knowing where exactly her roommate was. "Charlie! We have a guest!"

Charlie's head poked out from under the bed. "We do?" Her brows lowered. "Who?"

"Jo, from work. She's going to the party with us. And what are you doing?"

"Looking for the Seahawks dress."

"Are you seriously gonna wear that?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"I--okay. Come on, hurry up." She turned and took a step away to see Jo standing in the living room. "You can sit if you want. The couch isn't gross or anything, just old."

Jo laughed and took a seat on the couch. "I wasn't worried."

They waited for a while, Alex taking the spare minutes to replace the old tape on her boots, until finally Charlie emerged wearing the dress. Alex laughed when she saw it. She couldn't even lie; it was cute.

"Once I find a Chicago Bears shirt, it's all over for everyone else," she said.

"You like the Bears?" Jo asked.

"She sure does," Charlie sighed. "Alex here is a Chicago native." She looked at her friend with narrowed eyes. "Loser."

"Hey, I like the Seahawks just as much."

"You'd go for the Bears if they were to play each other."

"I don't--"

That's not up for discussion."

"It should be! I moved to Seattle when I was thirteen," Alex said, turning to Jo, "and if the teams met I wouldn't care who won. It'd be a win-win for me."

"She's lying to you," Charlie scoffed, crossing her arms.

"That's okay, I'm from San Francisco and I like the 49ers."

Alex and Charlie, who'd been staring at each other with mock sneers, slowly turned to look at her.

"You like the Niners?"

"The Seahawks' arch-rivals?"

"I like the Seahawks too," Jo said with a sheepish grin, shrinking under their incredulous looks.

"You're worse than me, Jo," Alex said. She waved it off as a joke and they all shared a laugh before Charlie started insisting they head out (even though she was the one they'd been waiting for in the first place).

They ended up taking the bus again, which Alex admitted was a lot faster but was still wary of riding. They made it to the party after a panic over thinking that the bus was taking them somewhere else when in reality it was just doing its normal rounds and they weren't used to the route.

The guys' apartment was overflowing with people. There were some hanging out in the small courtyard and some standing or sitting on the walkway leading to the apartment doors. The door was open and music was blasting out from it.

"I really hope the cops don't shut this down," Charlie said as she surveyed the scene.

"This isn't a real fancy neighborhood, it'll be fine. Now come on, I want beer," Alex said.

"I should've brought a gift," Jo mumbled, trailing along next to Charlie as Alex ran up the stairs to find the guys.

"We didn't bring any but the gift of our presence," Charlie shrugged. "Don't worry, they'll think you being here is enough. As soon as we introduce you," she grinned.

Meanwhile, Alex had run into the apartment and quickly congratulated Sean, who was happy to see his cousin even though she seemed close to kicking down half the crowd for being in her way. She found Layne and eagerly shook his hand as she congratulated him as well. He thanked her and immediately asked what she thought of the record.

"Fucking fantastic," she beamed, making Layne put on a smile so wide his face almost couldn't hold it.

She asked where Jerry was and he told her he was out in the courtyard. She ran out of the apartment and down the stairs again, passing Charlie and Jo on the way down. The courtyard was just as crowded, but it wasn't hard to spot the blond guitarist standing in the crowd, trying to light a cigarette as the wind repeatedly blew out his lighter. Alex ran over to him at a higher speed than she'd intended to go and accidentally crashed into him, making him stumble back a little. Jerry looked down, confused, then put on a big smile when he saw who it was. She had to cling to him for balance and he took hold of her elbows to help as both of them laughed, but he wasn't laughing at her; joy at seeing her again was really the only thing going through his mind.

"Congratulations, Jerry! The album's so great, I still can't even believe my ears when I listen to it, and Charlie and I have that shit on a loop!"

"Really?" His smile grew. "You have no idea how happy that makes m--"

Alex, finally having regained her footing, grabbed his jacket and pulled him down a little to firmly plant a kiss on his cheek before letting go and running back up the stairs to find Mike. He laughed as he watched her take the stairs three at a time, subconsciously touching his cheek before shaking his head and going back to trying to light the orange-tipped stick.

Back inside (and after nearly tackling an unsuspecting Mike) Alex was told that the Soundgarden guys would be arriving soon, and her excitement increased. She hadn't been to a party in a long time, and she'd rather missed the happy air and carefree attitude being at one granted.

It turned out Soundgarden weren't coming alone. They brought Jeff, Stone, and Mike McCready too, to which Alex's reaction was "now it's a fucking party!"

And it was. Jo fit right in with the group and Charlie got lots of compliments on her dress, which made her and Alex laugh and offer to make one for everyone.

After an two hours or so of partying, Alex, feeling absolutely exhausted from stupidly dancing around with Jerry (who'd given up on trying to light the damn cigarette and moved indoors), flopped down on the couch next to a blond guy sitting there with a cigarette in his mouth and his arm resting on the armrest of the couch, which Alex found to be absolutely fucking hilarious for no reason other than the alcohol singing in her head making everything seem funny. This guy was probably the definition of cool.

Alex knew she'd seen him before. She stared at him for a moment, not even trying to be discreet. It was only when he turned to look at her with one eyebrow raised that it clicked. She snapped her fingers and nodded, making herself slightly dizzy (yeah, yeah, she was a bit drunk). "Y-you're Kurt Cobain, aren't you?"

He nodded in a slow, unaffected way, giving her a once-over before moving his hand up to take his cigarette from his mouth and offer it to her. She blinked twice before taking it and taking such a deep inhale that a bit of ash just fell off the end of it. She swept it off her lap and handed the cigarette back to Kurt before nodding again. "Cool."

One side of his mouth turned up and he nodded again as well. "Cool."

She was ready to get back to her other friends, so she stood up, falling back onto the couch the first time she tried. She stood again and looked back at Kurt, saying "I like your music" before stumbling off to find Charlie and Jo.

Jo turned out to have hit it off with Matt and was talking to him out on the apartment walkway. Through the haze Alex thought she should congratulate Matt on his flirting, but that was as far as that mission got before her train of thought derailed. Now her focus was on Sean, who seemed to really want to get her attention.

"Alex! Hey, Alex!"

"Sean! Is there any more beer?"

"I think you might've finished it all! Anyway, don't you think you've had enough to drink?"

"Hell no, the party's just getting started! Where's the rest of Soundgarden?"

"Uh, I think Chris is downstairs, Ben is in the apartment, and I have no idea where Kim is."

"Alright, I'll catch you later!"

"Wait--"

But Alex was already gone. She headed down the stairs, this time having to hold onto the railing so as to not trip and fall. She looked around the now emptying courtyard and spotted Chris leaning against a wall, all alone.

"Wow, you'd think a celebrity would be surrounded at a party," Alex teased as she walked up to him.

"There's a celebrity here? Where? Who is it?" He looked down at her with half-lidded eyes and a slight grin.

Alex cleared her throat and held her hand out. He put his bottle of beer in it and she held it by the neck, pretending it was a microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden! Say, is it Chris as in Christian or Chris as in Christopher? I never found out. Or if I did, I can't remember at the moment. Hey, one of the guys' songs is called I Can't Remember. That's funny."

He laughed and shook his head as she held the beer out for him to take back and leaned against the wall like he was. "Chris as in Christopher. And what about you? Alex Kinney, Seattle rocker..."

"Good. Christophers are the best. Christopher is the alpha Chris. And shut up, I'm not famous. Anyway, what are you doing out here all alone?"

"Thanks, I guess it's okay...and you could be. And I don't know, I guess I'm just not a social butterfly or whatever."

"Damn, that's deep," Alex replied, staring at the ground. "Yeah, being alone is kind of cool. But I like people. Especially Charlie...and someone else but he...left..."

He looked at her with a soft expression on his face, knowing who she meant and that she was probably just talking to fill the space at that point. That and she was obviously drunk. But it hardly mattered, hell, he was too.

"You're one of the people I like," he said, tipping his head back and finishing his beer.

"Yeah, you're one of those for me too," she said with a small laugh. "I'm glad you're around. You're special."

He laughed as well and pushed himself off the wall, turning and leaning on his shoulder instead and looking directly at her. "So are you."

"The Cornell stamp of approval. Wow." Alex turned her head to face him. "How truly honored I am."

Passed another exchange of smiles and somewhat distorted gazes. Alex found herself a little too focused on his eyes and lowered hers, shaking her head and trying to collect her thoughts. She couldn't do that when a voice in her head kept shouting her name...

Except it wasn't in her head. She shook her head again and realized Charlie was calling her upstairs.

"Are you gonna...?" she started to ask, gesturing around the area.

He nodded and patted her arm, tipping his head up to get her to start walking toward Charlie's call. She did after a moment taken to once again look in his eyes, a funny feeling flitting around her as she did. She chose to ignore it and turned back, not forgetting to grab his arm so she could drag him along. And he, who would've been fully able to resist, allowed himself to be pulled away from his corner.

✩✩✩

and thus, i die. party scenes are hard because i want to include so much more, but then the party chapters would be 6000 words long (this has 2695). i think that's enough...
Kurt will return in Avengers 5.
okay seriously, he'll be back along with the rest of Nirvana; one small cameo at a party is definitely not all he gets.
  anyway, that's all! remember to have fun but stay safe and hydrated, listen to good music, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne! until next time! :)