[Mikelobmike]

Michael continued to pet her for a few seconds before finally taking his hand away. He leaned forward, running his hand through his hair. "You know, I've always wondered. So...how does it feel to get your ears rubbed? It seems nice, but I don't think I have a thing I can equate it to." he said, leaning back against the couch.

Michael looked as if he was going to say something else, but quickly changed gears when he looked back at Vivian. His face turned a bit red, and he quickly tried to shake the color out of it. Placing his hand on his cheek, he looked to Vivian for her answer. He was clearly trying to play it cool, his drunken mind not sure whether she saw that process or not.

[Metroidhunter]

Vivian was just mildly disappointed as he stopped, but considering what she had asked, it was fair. Looking over and up at him for a few seconds, it was easy for her to spot his odd behavior. It wouldn't have been the first time she had seen someone flushed and embarrassed like that, and she knew what sort of implications that could have. Still, she didn't want to say anything, as it would probably just end up making things more difficult for him.

Afterwards, she cleared her throat and turned to look forward again, deciding to respond to his question as best as she could. "It's... hm... I guess it feels kind of like, scratching an itch? Not exactly, but... Without the itch actually being there in the first place. Hard to explain." She shrugged, folding her arms together as she continued. "It's not amazing. Feels good though. Kinda relaxing. But it's also like tickling, in that you can't do it to yourself and get the same feeling."

It didn't take long after she finished her explanation for the room to fill with silence yet again. Out of boredom, she tapped one of her fingers against her arm repeatedly, making a light ding each time. While she usually had a lack of awareness when it came to awkward situations, even Vivian could feel it in the air. In attempt to try and ease away from the awkwardness with more conversation, she brought up the first thing that came to mind. "Sooo... What kind of pizza did ya order?"

[Mikelobmike]

Michael was going to speak, but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. Speak of the devil. "Well...I guess we'll find out now, won't we." he said, standing up and walking clumsily to the front door. With his hand on the wall to balance himself, he opened the door to reveal a generally startled teenage boy.

"U-Um, that'll be 23 even, sir." the teenager said, not being able to keep himself from looking at Michael's height. The kid had very curly hair under a baseball cap. Between that, his uniform, and the fact that he was gawking at Michael's height, he was looking just as awkward as the previous situation he helped to resolve.

Michael grabbed the two pizza boxes and replaced them with a stack of lien. "Here. Thanks." Michael said quickly, wanting the interaction to be over swiftly.

The kid looked down at the stack of money wide-eyed. "B-But sir-" was all he managed to sputter out before the door was shut in his face.

Michael walked back over to the kitchen, setting the two pizzas down on the counter. "I got pepperoni and cheese. Didn't know what kind you liked." he said, grabbing two plates from a high cabinet.

[Metroidhunter]

A sensation of relief came over Vivian as the silence was broken by the almost perfectly timed ding of the doorbell. Instead of getting up as Michael did, she remained on the couch, leaning back against the cushions and closing her eyes. She hadn't had nearly as much to drink as him, but she could tell that she was definitely intoxicated. It seemed like a good idea to stay there for the moment to avoid any tripping or breaking things in Michael's home.

Vivian's faunus ears easily picked up the brief conversation that Mike held with the pizza guy, the sudden closing of the door bringing a short chuckle out of her. That helped ease the awkward tension in the air, at least to her. Once he had gone into the kitchen with the boxes of pizza, the rabbit girl opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder, yelling out to him from her comfy spot on the couch.

"That's fine. Pepperoni sounds good." After a brief silence, she realized that getting a slice would also probably require getting up. "Think you could grab me some, Mike?"

[Mikelobmike]

"No problem. I got ya." he said, putting two slices of pepperoni on each plate and stumbling his way back toward the couch. He set one plate down on Vivian's lap before plopping back down on his side of the couch.  He leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and took a massive bite of his pizza.

And again, the awkward silence continued for a brief few seconds. Michael just ate his pizza and thought, his mind spinning with possibilities of what to say. After just enough tension to make it awkward hits the air, Michael just sort of blurts out "You know, I wish I could be more like you at times. Especially with the whole self-confidence thing."

[Metroidhunter]

"Thanks." Vivian answered as he handed her a plate. While she didn't eat pizza a whole lot, this pizza in particular looked amazing. That was most likely another side effect of the booze, but she didn't care. Carefully lifting one of the slices, she went ahead and started eating, not paying much attention to her surroundings. At this point, she didn't have any of the same uncomfortable feelings that Michael had, as she was much too involved in her food to care. It wasn't until he spoke up that she paused, slowly setting her slice down and finishing chewing before she turned to look at him. Despite his less than exciting topic, Vivian still smiled at him.

"I mean, I'm great. I won't deny that. But you are too, y'know." She was briefly distracted as she noticed a bit of sauce on one of her metallic fingers, which she quickly licked off before continuing. "I don't think you wanna be like me, really. Self-confidence is all about, like, liking who you are. Besides, I might like myself, but I know that I'm not very kind. That seems to come naturally to you." Looking at him for a few seconds without saying anything, she then started to laugh a little. "... Except for maybe that time you tried to get me arrested."

[Mikelobmike]

"B-But here's the thing." Michael said, cutting off Vivian as she was talking about him trying to arrest her. "I just wish that I could like myself like you do. Then, I wouldn't be constantly thinking of what my parents say. I wouldn't be settling for being without a team for so long. I wouldn't take any of these threats against me. I would stand up to those assholes. Stand up to my parents. I would have told them how I felt about them restricting my life. I would have told off all those assholes in Atlas who scoffed at me. I would have told you I liked you a long ass time a-" Michael went from high-speed rambling to a dead stop. He paused, suddenly gaining a thousand-yard stare as he realized what he said. "go." he finally finished, his face turning a pale white. His mind went into panic mode, but he lacked the capacity to do anything about it at the moment. He just sat there, frozen, looking off into space as he desperately thought of something, anything to say to make the situation better.

[Metroidhunter]

While the last part of his short rant was not the most surprising of revelations, Vivian herself looked somewhat shocked, mostly by how he had gone about accidentally saying it. She was never one to hold her tongue, but even she knew that she had to pick her next choice of words rather carefully. The difficult part was deciding what exactly would be and what wouldn't be the right things to say. She didn't want to make him more terrified than he already appeared, but the two of them were also drunk. For all she knew, she could say something that she would totally regret the next morning. On the other hand, she had done plenty of awful things while wasted in the past, so it would be hard to fuck up any worse than she had those times, right? With that idiotic train of thought, she soon decided to just... go for it.

"I like you too!" she exclaimed a little loudly, with quite a bit of enthusiasm behind it. Her goal was to not make him feel scared, but with her sudden change in tone, she was probably achieving the opposite. One of her metal hands landed on his shoulder as she turned to look at him while smiling widely. "There you go! That's one obstacle out of the way! Now you can, like, totally deal with the others just fine, yeah?" Still unaware of the fact that she had probably made the situation stranger and more confusing for him, she gave him a thumbs up with her other hand.

[Mikelobmike]

Michael was in shock. Between what he said and her response, he had absolutely no clue what to do at this point. The gears in his head were turning, but he still could not process what was happening. He proceeded to bite the inside of his cheek, drawing a little blood and confirming that he was, in fact, not dreaming.

After a few seconds of silence, Michael did the first thing that came to his head. He grabbed Vivian and pulled her into a tight hug. Thankfully, the size difference meant that his head was mostly behind her, which did well to hide his big, goofy smile. "T-Thank you." he said meekly.

[Metroidhunter]

"Yay!" Vivian laughed as he came in and hugged her. It surprised her somewhat, but she didn't mind it whatsoever. Seeing how much better he was feeling made her just as happy as him, something that would be obvious given the wide grin on her face. Despite her agreeing with him, she really didn't have much of an idea as to what she was supposed to do next. They both liked each other, that much was clear. But what did that mean? Vivian couldn't really decide, but realizing her drunken state, she decided to herself that focusing on that topic might be better off being held at a different time.

The rabbit girl soon started to hug him back, though not with the same strength that he was using. It took a few more seconds for her to realize that he was hugging her just a little too tightly. While she didn't want to interrupt him, she also didn't want to be squeezed to death. After waiting a couple moments, she then tapped him a couple times with her hand, attempting to signal that she needed him to loosen the hug.

[Mikelobmike]

After feeling her tap on his shoulder, Michael slowly weakened his hug until he let go. "S-Sorry. I just got excited. And nervous. And, well, everything." he said, digging himself into a verbal ditch. "I just thought you would get angry and then we wouldn't be friends, and I would be alone again. A-And just...thank you."

After further embarrassing himself, Michael just decided to settle down onto the couch and scoot closer to Vivian. He kept his hands to himself for now, wanting to let her feel comfortable, especially given the state he was in. Slowly, exhaustion started to take over him again, not helped by the alcohol.

[Metroidhunter]

"You should be thanking yourself for accidentally letting me know." Moving back to rest against the couch once again after she had been freed from the hug, she then folded her hands together as they rested in her lap. "You gotta just try to stop worrying about all that stuff so much." As she went on, the slight slur in her voice became a little noticeable, as the last glass that she had drank was still settling in. Not that she would notice or care. They were both drunk, after all. "We're preparing to have one of the most dangerous jobs you can get. We might die young. No point in wasting time overthinking everything."

She paused for a moment of brief consideration over whether or not the next thing she wanted to say was appropriate. Of course, that questioning didn't last very long in her mind. "Though, not gonna lie... It is a little adorable when you get all embarrassed like that." Looking back up at him, she smirked, expecting that his reaction would prove her point.

[Mikelobmike]

Vivian got what she was looking for, as Michael blushed lightly. It did not last long, however, as he leaned back and closed his eyes. "Maybe I should..." he said weakly before dozing off. He slumped away from Vivian, his head resting softly against the top of the couch. The silence in the room only broken by the sound of the giant's soft breathing.

[Metroidhunter]

Vivian didn't watch him for long, as she herself had begun to zone out again once it got quiet. It wasn't until she listened to his breathing that she realized what exactly it was that he was doing.

"... Mike?" she asked curiously, looking back over at him to see that his eyes were closed. There was no way that he could have fallen that quickly, she had thought to herself, and yet it seemed as if it had indeed happened. It wasn't an immense shock or anything, seeing as Michael had downed an entire bottle, though she had expected him to maybe stay conscious for just a little longer. Either way, she was now lacking anyone to talk to, defeating her original purpose of being there. She didn't feel way too tired herself, but without much to do, she could probably fall asleep if she tried.

Frowning, Vivian moved to lay down, pulling her legs up onto the couch was well. Without much room, she had to rest her feet on top of him, doubting that he would mind. After all, he was asleep. She sat there with her eyes closed, mind wandering as she attempted to rest. With the alcohol in her system, it didn't take too long for her to start drifting off. It may have felt like it was taking forever for her, but in reality, she was out in less than ten minutes.

[Mikelobmike]

The Next Morning

Michael was confused, petrified, and a little thirsty. He  stared at the wall, not moving a single muscle, save for his heart. He really had no control over that at the moment. He had no idea how he got into this situation, and he really did not think it would be good for his health if he asked. He had woken up a few minutes earlier to a very confusing sight. He was on his living room couch with Vivian asleep in his arms. And he had not gotten his chest caved in yet. His breathing picked up, heart pounding in his chest the only thing informing him he was not dreaming.