Curate, connect, and discover
somethin silly for a cringetober prompt I was doing on instagram, I love jim.
I love your writing! Can you please do 5+1 Things-type with ineffable bureaucracy?
Thank you!! And of course I can, have some angst <3
(According to Wikipedia and also some forms of Judaism, Zadkiel is the archangel of benevolence, freedom, and mercy. Zadkiel is also said to be a he, but I’m considered to be a she and I say fuck gender so that’s not what’s happening)
*
1.
The first time she questioned, she was only moments old, bathing in the light of her holy Creator, awash with love and wonder and glory.
“Who am I?” She asked, picking herself up from the floor, her wings new and brilliant and trembling with the effort of simply being in the presence of such magnitude.
You are Zadkiel, said the one who had breathed life into her, the one who had put every golden freckle on her face, the one who had a Plan for this little angel.
“Zadkiel,” she echoes, the name clumsy on her tongue. “I am Zadkiel.”
You are the benevolent one, God continues, the merciful one, the one who harbors freedom. You are one of my Seven.
“I am Zadkiel,” the little Archangel repeats, looking up to the One Most Holy, a smile on her lips.
2.
The second time Zadkiel questions, she is hand in hand with her lover, Gabriel. They are standing on the outskirts of a crowd, in which the greatest Archangel is speaking. Lucifer was something of a prodigy here, a perfect being who held the attention of everyone around him. His tongue was silver and his reasoning sound.
At least, it was to a select few.
“One day he’s going to regret the things that he says,” Gabriel says, his gaze dark and his grip on Zadkiel’s hand tightening.
The little Archangel blinks, looking up at him in confusion. She’d always walked the line, always done things that had pushed patience or made the other angels nervous. Most said it was her connection to freedom, but Gabriel chalked it up to her ability to be difficult.
“What do you mean?” She asks, and shrinks when her lover turns a sharp glare her way.
“The things he’s saying are treason, Zadkiel.” He hisses, pulling her away from the crowd to speak with her privately. “You’d do well to disregard him, he has nothing to say that would do any of us any good.”
The little angel averts her gaze from Gabriel’s, staring at the gold cobblestone under her feet. She didn’t like being told what not to think, didn’t like having her feelings disregarded and swept aside. Gabriel was good at that, though, especially when it came to the Great Plan or anything related to it or Her.
“Alright,” she relents at last, if only to have him release his crushing grip on her hand.
He does, relief seeming to help him relax. He tilts Zadkiel’s chin up, giving her a kind smile and leaning down to kiss her. “It’s better this way.” He murmurs when he pulls away.
But Zadkiel wasn’t so sure.
3.
The third time she questioned, it was in a private nook of Heaven, in the lap of her lover.
Lucifer had been cast out of favor, banished to tar pits and fire and endless suffering. A handful of angels had come too, and Zadkiel had nearly been one of them. She had seen the disappointment in Lucifer’s eyes when she had shied away and hidden behind Gabriel, still walking her line.
After nearly driving herself mad with guilt and doubt, Zadkiel had to tell someone. And who best to tell than the one she had fallen in love with?
Gabriel listened silently as she spoke of treason and guilt and worry — so many things that angels were simply not meant to have. He let her speak until she was out of breath, out of words, and finally feeling a bit better.
“Zadkiel,” he says, slow and soft.
“You haven’t the faintest how worried I was,” the little Archangel breathes, turning to face him, a relieved smile on her face. “I thought I would burst!”
“Zadkiel,” he says again, a little louder this time.
“Maybe I was wrong, you know? About all this? Maybe I was just being silly.”
“ZADKIEL!”
The littlest Archangel falls silent, looking up at her lover. Gabriel’s face was stone, his eyes cold and hard, his mouth a thin line. Her smile fades, the relief following.
“Gabriel,” she says, her voice wavering as she realizes the gravity of what she had done. What she had said. “Gabriel, can you still love me? It was only a slip, just a lapse in judgement…”
“I do not love traitors.” Gabriel growls, and shoves her away.
4.
Her next question comes from ichor stained lips, from the depths of a place that had sounded so good when it had come from Lucifer’s stories. The air smelled of singed flesh from the wings that had been burnt black as a punishment for her crimes. Her beautiful freckles, the ones that had been painted so delicately in gold all those years ago, were now blood and diseased flesh.
There was an emptiness in her heart, if she even had one now at all. An absence. A place where once, she could feel the love and warmth around her. Now all she felt was rage, and hatred, and disgust.
They had watched her fall, with pity! Those who she had called her friends had looked away when she begged for forgiveness, when she screamed and cried and was torn from the sky. They had watched Her shatter the halo that tied her to the stars, and had done nothing about it.
Tears drip from her eyes, her breath coming in ragged gasps that sounded like something a wild beast would make, not one who had been part of the Heavenly Host. All this for a simple doubt? All this for a slip, for questions that had been asked by another?
Zadkiel looks to the heavens and screams, cursing the Creator that had created this. She screams until her voice breaks and she gasps for air, her voice as broken as the mess she had become.
“Why?” She asks, to one who was not listening. To one who would never listen again.
5.
The next time she sees a part of the heavens, she is called Beelzebub, and she is a Prince.
It takes her by surprise — all the angels were supposed to have left Eden. It was her job to clean up what was left, take what Hell needed, and leave the forsaken garden. All the angels were supposed to have been gone.
Gabriel doesn’t see her, not at first.
Do you remember me?
When he does, there is no recognition. There is no trace of the love he had once freely given, only the disgust and repulsion that she had seen the day she Fell. Gabriel looks as though he’d rather be anywhere else, looks more pretentious than she remembers, and she vows specifically to make him suffer for what he’d done to her.
+1.
Six thousand years later, after a failed end of the world, Beelzebub finds herself in bed with none other than the one she had loved so many years ago.
It had become a regular occurrence for him to be in her bed, sometime after Rome had fallen. Try as she might, her rage died quickly, and it was easier to bed him than to admit that still, in some ways, she missed him. But as the years went on, their hate-fueled fucking softened, and turned into an attachment neither of them knew they needed.
Gabriel had gone from the thorn in her side to the only one she wanted at her side. He didn’t remember her from Before, but after millenia, she didn’t really remember herself either. Just this. Just the decay and the power and the throne. Zadkiel was dead, and what remained was something better.
Her questions faded over the years, too. She no longer cared why she’d been cast here, just how she was going to get an army in gear enough to get her paperwork finished. Gabriel had proven his loyalty many, many times in hundreds of different ways, so there was no question anywhere near that.
Now she was more concerned with lazing about in bed with the Archangel, his hands on her skin, and perhaps the lazy pleasure that came with it.
“Morning,” comes Gabriel’s voice from behind her, rough with sleep and from the activities they’d indulged in the night before. His hand wraps around her slight waist, pulling Beelzebub flush against his body.
The Prince pretends to be irritated, wiggling around in a half attempt to get closer and a half pretense of annoyance. “Ugh, you’re too hot.”
“I know,” the Archangel says smugly, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck. They both knew she didn’t mind it either way.
Beelzebub rolls over, settling into his chest and looking up into those purple eyes. Gabriel gives her a lazy smile, his arm adjusting to rest on her back. The casual intimacy had been too much, once, had hurt too badly. It was a reminder of things she had once had, and until Beelzebub realized he didn’t remember, she thought he was making fun of her.
But now she knew the truth. Now she could look into his eyes, bask in his warmth, and feel safe enough to be vulnerable like this.
Now she could look into his eyes, into the I love you that always lingered, and for once since the beginning of her life, didn’t find the need to question it.
I’ve been watching a lot of Mad Men because Jon Hamm and I cant stop thinking of like a sixties AU with Gabe and Beez, or just switching out broody Don Draper for Gabriel so could I suggest a domestic 60s set Ineffable Bureaucracy thing?
I decided to do 1968 because of the Apollo 7 mission (I think Bee is just a huge space nerd) and also because I have no idea what Mad Men is (thank you for giving me a new show to watch though, holy shit!! Jon Hamm is a gift). I tried very hard to do this in a 60s setting but it may come off more as 50s themed- I pulled some familiar stuff I know from The Help and read up on some careers before I hopped into this. Bee’s name is Beatrice in this because reasons.
*
Gabriel loved his life. He had a good job working as a Creative Director in a big advertising company, made enough money to be comfortable, got the weekends off to do whatever he pleased, and had a lovely wife to go home to.
Wife. The concept was still foreign, still made him shiver and smile and feel mushy as could be. Bee would tell him to shove a sock in it, if she were here.
He and Beatrice Romanov had gotten married only a month ago, but only because she had insisted she was going to finish her college degree before he was allowed to strap her down. Gabriel would have liked to have married her the minute he had seen her under those trees in the college courtyard, but she had put her foot down.
It took a lot more to court her than just a charming smile and a compliment, he had learned very quickly. In fact, the first time he’d done that, he’d ended up with a milkshake in his lap.
“I’m not a cheap whore,” the soon-to-be love of his life had snapped, her dark eyes blazing with hellfire. “Don’t treat me like one.”
Gabriel had never been spoken to like that by a girl — or anyone — before. At first he was offended, so he made it his duty to try and outdo her in each of the classes they had together. Unfortunately for him, he’d found his match. She was whip smart, mean as a junkyard dog, and took shit from absolutely nobody. Many men had walked away with tattered dignity and a broken nose after attempting to tame this wildfire of a girl.
He quickly found that instead of wanting to defeat her, Gabriel wanted to impress her. He wanted her to give him that sharp little smile she got when she won. He wanted to hear that laugh, wicked and graceless, that she would let loose on occasion when she was around her friends. He wanted those dark eyes to be on him, always. He wanted.
That wanting turned into a game of cat and mouse very quickly, both of them doing things that had society frowning and the other taunting them to continue. Heated looks across classrooms. Stolen kisses against the bookshelves of the library. His hand on her thigh, her back pressed to the cold stone wall of her dorm building.
One night, Gabriel took the bait, and had his world shattered by his name broken on her lips, her body bare against his, those eyes looking up at him like he was the only thing that mattered in the world.
Gabriel woke up the next morning with his vessel of hellfire next to him in bed, her inky black hair spilling over his pillow and tickling his nose. The sunlight streaming in the window made her skin look like porcelain, her body ethereal and too perfect to belong in even Heaven. The frustration and pent up tension that remained in him quickly gave way to something that melted his insides, took his breath, and made him pull her closer and press a kiss to her hair.
Three years later, he knelt in front of her with a small velvet box and watched those beautiful dark eyes glisten with tears and love and the promise of a future.
And now he got to go home to his future every single night.
“Leaving already?” Comes a teasing call as Gabriel packs his things up for the weekend.
He looks up, then gives his co-worker a polite smile. “Ah, Sandalphon. Yes, it’s my night for the dishes and Bee wants to watch the Apollo 7 launch with me.”
“You’re whipped, you know.” Comes the predictable laugh, accompanied by others in the office who were bad at pretending to not listen in on conversations. “That wife of yours has you on a leash.”
Gabriel shakes his head, unable to help his smile. “What can I say? I like a girl who takes charge. Evening, gentlemen.”
He leaves with wolf whistling and whoops following him out, but his mind is focused on calculating how much more time it would be until he got to go home to his wife. If he stopped at the supermarket and bought her favorite bottle of wine and some flowers, it would only add another fifteen minutes…
*
“You’re late!” Comes the call when he closes the door. He winces — he had been trying to be quiet so he could surprise her. Nothing got past Bee.
“Sorry, my love.” He calls, slipping his shoes off and treading carefully into the kitchen.
The sight that greets him is one he’d come home to for the rest of his life, but one that would always make his heart swell and his knees weak.
His wife was standing at the stove, stirring what smelled like spaghetti sauce, a red gingham apron tied around her neck and waist. Her hair was pulled back from her face, piled messily on her head and stuck through with a knitting needle (his mother had gotten them for her, trying to insist she needed to be more ladylike. Bee wore them in her hair out of spite. Besides, they did well in a pinch).
“Hello,” Gabriel walks over, pausing to kiss her cheek before fetching a vase to put the flowers in. “I brought you something.”
Bee glances up, surprise flickering in dark eyes, before she smiles. “Sap. Put the wine on ice, we can have it with dinner. It’ll be ready in a little bit.”
“It smells good, Bee.” He does as he’s told, then pulls up a chair at the table to sit and talk with her while she finishes dinner.
His wife blows a stray hair from her face, her brows creasing. “Your mother sent the recipe to me. No, she showed up to my work to give it to me. Spent twenty minutes going on and on and on about how a good housewife always makes her husband’s favorite things…” Bee makes an irritated noise.
“At work?” Gabriel sits up, frowning. “I’ll talk to her…”
“No need,” she says, with that grin she used to give him just before she dragged him behind a building at school and kissed him senseless. “I took care of it.”
“Bee,” he says, a rush of fondness and exasperation rolling over him. And maybe a bit of dread. “What did you do?”
“Oh, she’ll call you about it later.” She waves a hand, her smile growing.
Gabriel didn’t even have it in him to be upset — his mother was insufferable about everything Bee did. About how she dressed, how she behaved, how she treated Gabriel. When Bee’d refused to marry her son in a church, that was when Gabriel accepted that he was going to be stuck in the middle of an eternal feud.
But watching his wife move around their kitchen and complain about her day, he found he couldn’t mind. It was amusing to see his wife come up with petty ways to get back at the people who annoyed her. It was definitely a good reminder that she would put up with none of his shit, not ever.
“Are we watching the launch during dinner?” Gabriel asks when she turns the stove top off.
She brightens. “Yes! And the newest Star Trek comes out tonight, too. You don’t mind if we watch both?”
Gabriel gives her a fond look, getting up to get them both some wine. “Not at all. Whatever makes you happy, darling.”
Bee grins, blocking his way and leaning up on her tiptoes for a kiss, her fingers snagging and wrinkling his work shirt. He bends to meet her, his hand resting against the curve of her spine and tugging her closer against him as their lips meet.
The chase had been well worth it, Gabriel reflects, as his wife hooks a hand around the back of his neck and pulls him down farther to her mercy with a wicked smile. He wouldn’t trade any of this for anything.
Hey if y’all have anything specific Good Omens you want me to write send in an ask
Hey all! I've re-joined a fandom that is near and dear to my heart and I wanted to write something for all of these lovely people. Welcome to Good Omens!!
I'll be taking a break from Voltron for the time being, I need a change in scenery. Sorry to all those who are here specifically for that!
Without further ado; please join me and some drunk demons.
*
It was the one time a year where Heaven grouped together as a congregation to have their annual Great Plan meeting, where everyone was briefed on the vague idea of what could be happening in the coming year. Nobody was quite sure what to do now that the Apocalypse…. Hadn’t happened. Thus the vague meetings.
It was also the one time a year that Gabriel and Aziraphale dropped their respective demon partners at a bar and left them to their own devices for a few hours.
Despite popular belief, Crowley and Beelzebub got along quite well when there was alcohol involved. On this one day, they were reluctant friends instead of boss and subordinate. It was nice to have a change. Besides, it was also one of the only days that the Prince herself actually banished her flies and ran a comb through her messy hair, all for the sake of a few hours.
“Your Angel left you, too?” Crowley asks after they’d both gotten their drinks and sat in respective awkward silence for a few minutes.
Beelzebub scowls at her drink, a little more intensely than usual. “Yezzz. He’zzz running the damn thing.”
“You should’ve convinced him to cancel.” The snake scoffs, sipping his wine and glancing at the door. Twenty minutes in. This was going to last an eternity.
“I tried! He told me to buzzz off. Bloody angels and their bloody meetings.”
“Amen to that,” Crowley mumbles into his drink, ignoring the dirty look that earned him. Maybe he was picking up a few too many of Aziraphale’s linguistic habits. “So how is Hell doing, after you-know-what?”
“It’s more Hellish than usual, no thanks to you.” She scoffs. “Incredibly hot. Chaotic.”
“You should come and visit Earth more often, you might like it.”
Beelzebub rolls her eyes, knocking back the last of her drink and flagging over the bartender. “You sound like Gabriel.”
He makes a face, shaking his head. “Eugh, I make it a habit not to sound anything like him. Please don’t insult me like that.”
The Prince gives him a smug smile. “You dezzerve to be knocked down a few pegzz.”
Crowley ignores that. “Seriously, Beelzebub, your terrible Highness — coming up here may do you some good. You can… air out, as it were.”
“I quite like my office.” She says dryly, glancing up as the bartender pours her another drink. “It’zz familiar.”
“You’re festering.” He grins.
“I will not hezzitate to throw my drink on you, Crawley.”
“My name is Crowley,” the demon hisses, his yellow eyes flashing.
Beelzebub grins, tilting her head. “That’zz what I said.”
He considers her a moment, his eyes narrowing. Then he sighs heavily, shaking his head and turning back to his drink. “You’re still insufferable, I see.”
“The best of us never change.” She waves a hand. “How izz that Angel of yourzz?”
Crowley pauses, a dopey smile spreading over his lips at the thought of his Angel. Ah, Aziraphale… “He’s… He’s wonderful.”
“Dizzgusting.” She says flippantly.
The smile vanishes, replaced with an irritated scowl. That seemed to be a constant when he was in the Lord of the Flies’s presence. “And what about yours?”
“What, are you expecting me to get all mushy?”
“No, of course not.” He scoffs. “The Prince herself showing emotions? Preposterous. You don’t have a mushy bone in your body, Bee.”
“If I even have bones.” She says absently.
“If you even have bones,” he agrees. “But no, really, how is the Archangel Fucking Gabriel?”
The Prince cackles, throwing back her head. “He’s an azzhole! Juzzt like normal.”
“I never expected anything less.” Crowley rolls his eyes. How Aziraphale had put up with him for so long was a mystery to him — and it was an even bigger mystery how Beelzebub didn’t smite Gabriel where he stood every time he opened his mouth. Perhaps she was just attracted to rude dumbasses.
“He’s quite good in the bedroom, too.” She says, eyeing a couple in the corner who were making out like they would die if they didn’t spend their time swapping spit in a bar.
Crowley short circuits, the breath leaving his corporeal form. Then he smacks his hand on the counter with a triumphant, “I knew it!”
She gives him a flat look, but there was a hint of color creeping up on her sallow cheeks. “What? Did you place betzz?”
“Yes.” He nods. “I believe I won. My dear Angel owes me.”
“Azz if you two aren't fucking.” Beelzebub grumbles into her glass, glowering at him.
“In my defence,” Crowley holds up a finger. “It most definitely is not as frequent as you and Gabriel.”
“So that’zz your problem!” She grins, jabbing him with a bony finger. “You need to get laid.”
“He’s quite soft, he doesn’t do well with frequent, er… activity.” He quips, shaking his head.
“Your job is temptation, right?”
“Well, sure.”
“Then tempt him, you idiot!”
“But…” Crowley entertains this thought a moment, then makes a face. “But he’s so soft…”
“A little too zzoft, if you ask me.” Beelzebub rolls her eyes.
“He’s an Angel!” He scowls. “They’re soft by disposition!”
“No, I think yourzz is juzzt a zzpecial case.” She rolls her eyes, her finger tracing over the rim of her glass. “I must’ve mizzed that model.”
“Gabriel was just designed to be an ass.” Crowley huffs.
The Prince’s eyes go a bit hazy, and quite possibly… dreamy? “He does have a nice azz.”
“Oooh… was that an emotion?” The demon gasps in mock surprise. “Does the great Lord Beelzebub have feelings?”
She scowls into her drink. “Zzilence, imbecile.”
“I’m impressed,” he coos, leaning forward and looking over his glasses at her, eyes dancing with mischief. “Are you going soft, Bee?”
“I’ll zzmite you.” She says flatly, eyeing him.
“I’m already damned.” He snorts, leaning back and picking up his drink again.
“You’re a damned fool, that’zz what you are.”
“Perhaps,” he muses, looking up at the TV in the corner, following the sport with hazy eyes.
“I don’t see how Aziraphale puts up with you.”
He glares at her. “He — He loves me, thank you very much. He’s a very good individual.”
“How quaint.” Beelzebub drawls, rolling her eyes.
Crowley eyes her shrewdly, pursing his lips. Then he huffs. “Tell me about your Gabriel.”
The Prince, who had been taking a sip of her drink, chokes and splutters with a fantastic lack of grace. She wipes her mouth on her sleeve, giving him a deer-in-the-headlights look. “What aboutmy — my Gabriel.”
The demon grins lazily, lifting a shoulder in a half shrug. “I don’t know, anything.”
“Are you asking about my zz— my sex life?” She buzzes, concentrating on her words, metaphorical hackles raised.
“Heavens, no!” Crowley cackles. “I couldn’t care less what you get up to in the bedroom. What I mean is,” he wiggles his eyebrows. “Does he make you feel warm and fuzzy, your highness?”
“What?!” She squawks, flushing darkly, her gaze darting around. “No! Of course not!”
“I’m only kidding, relax.” He laughs. There was no need to suffer the wrath of one of Hell’s finest. “But really, what’s it like? Do you get along?”
“We get along well enough.” The Prince offers reluctantly. “He’s quite affectionate.”
“Is he?” That was hard to believe.
“Oh, yezz.” She nods, chewing on her lower lip. “Alwayzz wanting to touch me. He likes teazzing, too. The brat.”
That was shocking. Beelzebub was a prickly little thing. Many a demon had lost fingers for even brushing against her accidentally. “Is that so?” He muses, then gives her a wicked grin. “I’ll bet you love it.”
“You can’t prove that.” She says hotly into her drink.
He snorts. “No, suppose I can’t. Does he come into Hell to see you or do you go Upstairs?”
“What, you think I’d go up to that blasted place?” She scowls. “He comes to me. As he should.”
“How odd,” Crowley raises an eyebrow. “Gabriel doesn’t seem to be the type to come to Hell willingly.”
“He’zz quite willing when I’m through with him.” Beelzebub chuckles. “Angels are rather good bottomzz, aren’t they? Or does your Aziraphale step up?”
“What?” The demon laughs. “No, he doesn’t have an ounce of dominance in him! Although he is quite loud.”
“Yours is loud? Unfair.” She whines.
“It took some coaxing,” Crowley says smugly, unable to help feeling a tad superior. “But it was worth the effort.”
“I’ll take that into conzzideration.” She muses. “Although Gabriel isn’t as zzoft as your Angel.”
“Yes, Aziraphale is quite a soft boy.” He says fondly.
“Gabriel is a little piece of shit boy.” Beelzebub groans. “Speaking of — they should’ve been done by now. What’zz taking zzo long?”
“I don’t know.” He wrinkles his nose. “Maybe they’ll be here soon.”
“They better be.” The Prince mutters, squinting at the clock.
*
Aziraphale and Gabriel walked into the bar they had left their Demons in to find them drunk and getting along… alarmingly well.
“An’ then I said… I said…” Crowley was slurring. He looks up just in time to lose his train of thought and brightens, looking more like an excited puppy than a fearsome demon. “Aziraphale!”
“Heeeeey — it’zz the piece of shit boy!” Beelzebub crows, in a loud and loose fashion that was definitely nothing like her usual disposition.
“Oh, dear,” says Aziraphale, “they’re quite drunk.”
“Wonderful,” Gabriel says, his expression pinched.
“What did you get into, love?” Aziraphale asks fondly, walking over and steadying Crowley when he reaches for his Angel.
“Nothin’.” He gives him a dopey grin, his eyes shining from behind his glasses, which were knocked askew.
“Gabriel!” The Prince snaps. “Get your bitch azz over here!”
“There’s no need to be rude, Beelzebub.” The Archangel sighs, walking over to his own mess of a demon.
Crowley was looking up at Aziraphale like he’d hung the bloody moon, a dopey, drunken smile on his lips. The Angel chuckles softly, cupping his face and brushing his thumbs over his cheeks lovingly. “I think you’re quite drunk, my love.”
“Psshhh,” Crowley wobbles in his seat, waving a hand and accidentally swatting Aziraphale. “Naw… Jus’ a lil — hic — a lil…” He trails off, getting distracted by the smattering of freckles across the Angel’s nose. “Hmm…”
Meanwhile, Gabriel was in a similar position, trying to persuade Beelzebub it was time to go home as well.
“You alwayzzzzz… alwayzzz ruin my fun,” she pouts up at her Angel, her dark eyes bleary and her cheeks flushed from drink.
“I believe you have plenty of fun on your own, Bee.” He sighs, prying her off the barstool and slinging her over his shoulder. “Come on. Bedtime.”
“See you next year, Gabriel,” Aziraphale calls after them. “And, er… Good luck.”
“Thanks.” He sighs over the Prince’s drunken giggling. “You as well.”
The Angel turns his attention back to Crowley, who’s eyelids were slipping shut as he sagged against the counter. Aziraphale pays the tab, adding a hefty tip for the troubles the demons likely caused.
“Come on, my love,” he says as he helps his demon off the barstool. “Until next year.”
“Next year…” Crowley agrees, stumbling along as his Angel takes him home to tuck him into bed and nurse his impending hangover away.