“This is fantastic guacamole, Sam,” Bryan said between his mouthful of nachos. “And good job spreading cheese on the chips, Ki.”

Kian made a face, “Thank you, Bryan.”

“’Tis the best I’ve ever had!” Nicky yelled, spraying them all with crumbs from his mouth; he had, easily, seven or eight chips in there smothered in guacamole.

Bryan feigned anger, “NICOLAS! Say it, don’t SPRAY it!”

Mark dabbed some guacamole onto his chip, “Why are you talking like you’re in the eighteenth century?”

“Seventeenth,” Maddy corrected, sipping her drink; she was eating cereal with toast, because she was not a fan of guacamole, and the eggplant had not made it through the fight.

Shane shook his head, “Could be sixteenth. What do we know? We weren’t there.”

“What signified we’re in any century but this one, anyway? He only called Nicky by his full name,” Samantha questioned.

“It was more the way he said it, than what he actually said,” Kian replied evenly.

She stared at him, “I think I liked you better when you were an arse to me.”

He looked confused, but couldn’t reply since Maddy took over, “Yeah, because it was easier to hate him then. Now that he’s being Prince Charming, you’ll be all Cinderella and go off and have your way with him.”

Samantha’s cheeks reddened; Shane spoke up, “Cinderella had standards, Maddy. She married the Prince before…er…giving herself over to him.”

“How do you know?” Maddy requested, setting her cereal bowl down. “You’ve only seen the Disney version, and we all know those are hardly sexual.”

Bryan made a face and snorted, “Why are we debating the sexual relationship between Prince Charming and Cinderella? Did I miss the memo that said we didn’t have any lives?”

Kian jabbed a thumb behind him, towards the window. “In case you hadn’t noticed, our lives have been hindered due to that blizzard. So, therefore, no, we haven’t got any lives. At the moment. I intend to make good use of mine when we get home, however.” He glanced at Samantha and then looked quickly away; she didn’t notice since she was busy spooning more guacamole onto Nicky’s plate.

Bryan looked interested, “You’re going to go to the nearest pub and try and pull as many birds as you can at one time?”

Shaking his head and standing up, Kian cleared his throat, “No. As a matter of fact, the days that I did such things are over.”

“Would you please talk like a normal person?” Mark asked, rubbing his temples. “Stop showing off.”

“I’m not showing off, Mark. Shut up.” He swooped down and picked up all the empty plates; Nicky held tightly to his and made a growling noise when Kian’s hand got too close.

Kian rolled his eyes, “Calm down, Gollum. You can have the rest of it. I’m not going to touch it.”

Samantha patted Nicky’s head as he spooned the rest of the green mush into his mouth with a tortilla chip. “I’ve never seen someone enjoy this stuff so much.”

“It’s my precious,” Nicky cooed, and then started giggling at the craziness of it all.

“Hey, Mark?” Maddy asked all of a sudden, “Do you want to go try out the bed?”

“I already have,” Mark responded, leaning back in his seat. “It doesn’t creak or anything, and there’s plenty of room for both of us. We could even put something down the middle so I don’t ‘try anything’ in the middle of the night.”

“If I were you,” Shane remarked lightly, watching Maddy’s face, “I wouldn’t worry about what YOU are apt to do, I’d worry about her.”

Maddy stood up, grabbed Mark’s collar, and heaved him up before dragging him into the bedroom and closing the door behind them.

“Oooh barracuda,” Bryan sang, giving his hips a little shake.

“I HEARD THAT!”

When Kian came back into the room, after having deposited all of the dirty dishes into the sink and running water over some of them, he noticed that Samantha was curled up at one end of the couch with her eyes closed; Nicky was sitting in the middle, snoring; Shane was beside him, wide awake and silently laughing with Bryan, who was laid out on the floor.

“How are we sleeping?” He asked, standing in front of them all.

“I’m going to guess not well,” Bryan replied honestly. “I was just saying to Sheeny--

“Don’t call me Sheeny.”

“---that maybe we could just stay up all night,” Bryan concluded, ignoring Shane’s glare.

“Normally I’d say that was a fantastic idea, considering the circumstances…but Nix and Sam are already dead to the world.”

“I’m awake,” Samantha mumbled, lifting her head up and stretching. “I was merely resting my eyes.”

Kian grinned, “Yeah, I’ve heard that a million times before. Hit Nix or something; we should open up the couch. It’ll probably fit three of us.” He looked towards Bryan, “How do you feel about the floor?”

Bryan felt around on the floor, a peculiar look on his face, “It feels nice. And surprisingly comfortable.”

Shane stood up, and with Sam’s help, pulled Nicky to a standing position so that Kian and Bryan could open up the couch.

“If you think I’m sleeping with you, you’re high,” Samantha remarked, laying on one edge of the bed; she was nearly falling off, she was leaving so much room on the other side.

Kian gawked. “I never said we’d be sleeping together, Sam. Just sleeping. You know. With our eyes closed, and Nix snoring in between us.”

Nicky jumped on the bed beside her, leaving Kian with the remaining end. Samantha yawned. “Oh. Sorry for saying you were high.”

“No problem.” Kian pulled a blanket over the three of them.

“Where am I sleeping?” Shane pouted.

Everyone pointed to the vacant chair in the corner; he obliged and curled himself into it before Bryan turned off the light, plunging them all into darkness.