Bottom's up [Claudius/Casual]

[JANE EYRE]

When Claudius had insisted on taking Jane out drinking, Jane had been reluctant. Yes, 21 was a big birthday, but it still wasn't anything to get worked up over. But, since he was her close friend and he seemed so excited for the event, Jane agreed. She had warned him off the bat that she didn't want to get drunk though, she just wanted to enjoy a drink with a friend.

That was 4 bourbons ago.

Jane sat in her side of the booth, slumped slightly to the right, giggling madly to herself over nothing. Her vision swam slightly but she was still able to focus on Claudius who was sitting across from her. "God, I'm such a lightweight," Jane snickered, laying her head on the table. Her shoulders shook with quiet laughs and she looked up at Claudius. "I told you I didn't want to get drunk! You should have stopped me!" Jane reached over, attempting to swat at him but missed entirely.

[CLAUDIUS CHANDLER]

Claudius had known even when he suggested it that it would be a bad idea to take Jane out for a few drinks. For one thing, in all technicality, he was meant to be sobering up. For another, this was Jane, of all people, whom he was taking to a bar. And yet they had both been at the bar for some time now. However many bourbons ago, Claudius wasn't sure. It wasn't as if he had been keeping count - he never had done, really, wasn't going to start now.

Jane had asked him, trusted him, not to let her get drunk. Yet there she sat, or slumped, rather, giggling away at nothing at all without a care in the world. Claudius had yet to reach the laughing stage - or maybe he'd passed it. They had had fun, to be sure, what with figuring out just what drink Jane liked, toasting to her birthday, talking about her art gallery and so forth. But the alcohol flowed as much as the conversation and so it was now painfully obvious, to both of them, just what sort of state they were in.

Drunk.

Or getting that was, at least.

Either way, no good could come of this - Jane had trusted Claudius, and he was doing his damnedest to break that trust. It had been misplaced, but that was beside the point.

"God, I'm such a lightweight,"

Claudius nodded, slowly. Then again, he wasn't one to judge. Anyone that didn't drink to excess as he did was a lightweight in his eyes. He knew quite a few lightweights. But none like Jane. Jane, whom he should have only given one glass of bourbon, maybe two. Jane, who he shouldn't have brought drinking in first place.

"I told you I didn't want to get drunk! You should have stopped me!"

This was said jokingly, a laugh on her lips, but Claudius didn't move even as she failed to swat at him. He deserved worse than that, a slap of nothing more. Yet it was clear Jane was quickly becoming incapable of such actions.

"I know..." he said, feebly, sadly, completely at odds with Jane's good humoured laughter. "I know...I should've...I'm really, really sorry, Jane..."

[JANE EYRE]

"I know... I know...I should've...I'm really, really sorry, Jane..."

Jane continued to giggled and reached over the table, patting Claudius's hand. "Oh, it's fine. I had to get drunk sooner or later. Just see what it's like." Jane smiled widely and then burst out into a snorting laughter. That made her nose feel all funny. "It's kinda fun."

Deciding she was quite cold and that is was unacceptable, Jane slid out of the booth and wobbled over to Claudius's side. Sliding in beside him, Jane leaned against his side and cuddled into him, intent on leeching his body heat. It was all done innocently, Jane completely unaware of her actions beyond the realm of friendship.

After all, there was nothing wrong with friends cuddling.

"What's got you all down and bluuuuue?"

[CLAUDIUS CHANDLER]

As Jane reached across the table to pat his hand, Claudius found himself looking at her once again, rather than the tabletop. The fact that she seemed quite happy with being drunk, despite have warned him against it, made him feel a little better, but not by much.

"Oh, it's fine. I had to get drunk sooner or later. Just see what it's like."

Claudius nodded, again. That made sense. But surely getting drunk with him, of all people, wasn't going to end well...

"It's kinda fun."

Jane's raucous laughter was somewhat alarming, as was her change in speech. Granted, Claudius knew the reason all too well, but that only served to make him feel worse. Jane wasn't meant to be like this, he wasn't meant to have let her get drunk and...

She was sitting next to him. Leaning against him, rather, cuddling him. Jane had never hugged him before. It would have been pleasant, were it not for the fact that her happily drunken state was reminding him painfully of the first time he got drunk after Hamlet's death - or, to put it more accurately, after he killed Hamlet. He'd been happy - too happy - laughing away at the smallest thing, drunk not only with the alcohol but with success, with power.

How had he let himself end up like this? How could he have let Jane end up like this?

"What's got you all down and bluuuuue?"

Claudius looked at Jane, sadly. He wasn't usually a sad drunk, but tonight was clearly an exception. He was unable to say what he wanted while looking at Jane, however - the expression her face, coupled with her newly close proximity to him, was almost too much.

"Not just this," he said, eventually, voice tremulous as though he were on the edge of tears. "I've been feeling this way for years now, I've tried to deny it, I've tried to hide it but I-" He broke off. "It's just...seeing you, like this...its brought it all back...the..." A sharp intake of breath, of though he himself couldn't believe what he was going to say, "...guilt."

To an outsider this may have appeared melodramatic, Claudius being his usual overly theatrical self, only in a newly melancholy and drunk state. But the serious, pained nature of his speech told another story.