“I’m protecting my kingdom from the interloper,” Miles declared exaggeratedly in his own defense when Iris told them to stop talking about vomit. “Have to make sure he doesn’t destroy it on his way out.” As he spoke, he sat up and leaned back heavily against the bottom edge of the sofa. While he was still very drunk, he hadn’t had as many shots as Caspian, so he was still semi-mobile. He just had to move a little more carefully to keep from losing his balance and falling back to the ground.

[color=#b97703]“Shut up,”[/color] Cas slurred. [color=#b97703]“I can hold my damn liquor… Just have to do it from th’ floor.”[/color] Even though he wouldn’t be able to get up again without stumbling, he’d convinced himself that he was fine. Being intoxicated usually made him overly confident and somewhat aggressive. Fortunately, he’d never gotten himself into a bar fight, but he’d come close once or twice when he’d overindulged, and his friends had had to drag him away from whomever he believed had “wronged” him. Despite the arrogant persona he tended to take on, he’d never fought anyone—well, before he’d been abducted—and would have learned quickly that he wasn’t innately good at it. He probably would have also accidentally landed his opponent in prison for treason—if speaking poorly about the royal family was illegal, throwing a punch at one of them was a serious crime—and felt horribly guilty after he sobered up the next day.

“If you can’t get off the floor, you’re not holding your liquor,” Miles snorted and then glanced at Iris when she asked how Jay would get them back to the palace. “Very carefully,” he answered with a snicker, amused by his own cheesy joke, then followed it with a more practical response: “He’ll pro’ly have to carry Cas, but I can walk. Just can’t do it in a straight line anymore.” He shrugged. “Jay’s the one who’ll be driving, so I don’t have to pass a sobriety test, so we’re good.”

“That’s right, and if you try to grab the steering wheel again, I swear to god I’m gonna knock you out,” Jay, who had just returned with a glass of water, threatened his drunk friend dryly. He stepped over to hand it to Iris and then bent down to take Cas by the arm and lift him up into a sitting position. “Come on, Your Highness,” he said, using the title in jest. “Get up. You have to be home before midnight, or the king is going to think someone else kidnapped you.”

[color=#b97703]“Stupid curfew,”[/color] the prince mumbled, carefully pulling his knees closer to his body to get his feet underneath him as his friend hauled him off the floor. [color=#b97703]“I’m a grown ass man. I can stay out as long as I want.”[/color]

“You can see how that goes when we’re [i]not[/i] around to take the blame for it,” Jay shook his head, supporting the inebriated royal by the waist.

Miles stood up to join them and turned to Iris once more before following them out the door, “Make yourself comfortable wherever you want. Jus’ don’t leave the room, okay? I’ll be back later… Hopefully sobered up at least a little.”

“Miles, come on,” Jay called, ushering the other high born along. “We’ve gotta go.”

“Coming!” he called back. “See you later, Iris.” He added to her before turning to hurry after his friends as they exited the room.