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Don was half-asleep, slumped over his textbook, listening to Jeremy and Duncan somewhere in the near vicinity snoring when he got the call.
He jolted awake, hands scrambling across the table to find his phone, not without knocking over a cup of pens and nearly slapping the lamp off of his desk while doing so. The phone light shone bright in his eyes, and he blinked a couple times to adjust, still having to squint to make out the letters on the screen.
He wasn’t necessarily surprised that it was Ash calling him. Ash and Katie always found a way to call Don when it was the least convenient, and for the stupidest reasons. He was, however, a little bit surprised that Ash was calling so late, which he only realized as he let his eyes wander to the top of his screen. It was nearing 1 in the morning.
With one last tired sigh, Don clicked the accept button, to be greeted almost immediately with Ash’s voice.
“Please pick up, please pick up, please— oh! Don?”
“What do you want?”
“Don!” He exclaimed, briefly pausing after realizing the connotation of Don’s response. “Well, geez, you don’t have to be so hostile.”
It took Don a moment to hear that Ash’s voice wasn’t the only one filtering through the phone call. He could hear a variety of noises, nothing quite distinguishable. A faint thrum of music in the background, the chitter chatter of people around him.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Don asked hesitantly, letting out a yawn.
“Okay, please don’t get mad at me—“ Don could practically hear Ash’s grimace, and it shook him awake further. Jesus Christ, it was always something with this kid.
“Ash,” Don interrupted, his voice growing more and more skeptical. “What did you do?”
Ash sighed, barely audible within all of the background noise. “Just promise you won’t get mad at us, okay?”
“Us? What’s going on?”
“Well, Katie and I—actually, it was mostly Katie—Katie decided she wanted to have some fun and, listen, I tried to talk her out of it, but, y’know, I’m not perfect either, so—“
“Ash.”
“We snuck out, okay? We went to this party, and we were going to leave before it got too late, but… Katie was having a lot of fun, and I decided to just let her have it—“
“How much fun?” Don interrupted again.
Ash didn’t answer for a moment, the party sounds growing louder around him.
“…She’s currently dancing on the table like Kat Stratford in 10 Things I Hate About You.”
“Oh my god.” Don practically facepalmed.
“Can you pick us up please?”
Don sighed loudly and dramatically, mulling over his options. He could go back to sleep now, leave them to deal with it on their own. But… he has more studying to do tonight anyways, and who knew what would happen to them if he didn’t intervene.
“Send me the address.”
Don didn’t have to double check the address to know he was at the right house. There were half a dozen drunk teenagers sprawled around, a few others crowded around the front door, and music blaring through the house, practically shaking the walls.
Don stepped out of his car with a sigh. He was still dressed in his pajamas, and he was honestly probably wearing one of his roommates’ shoes.
He walked up to the door, weaving through bodies, feeling ridiculously out of place. It took three knocks before the door swung open.
“Hey! Hey, do I know you?” A teenage boy who clearly had a few two many drinks greeted Don enthusiastically.
Don cleared his throat, having to raise his voice to a yell to be heard over the music. “I’m looking for my brother!”
“You’re looking for another? Another what?”
“No,” Don shook his head. “My brother. Ashswag.”
“Another trash bag? Uhm, you can look in the pantry, maybe, dude.”
Don rubbed his temples. The things he does for these kids. “Have you at least seen my sister-“
Don didn’t have to finish the sentence before the door was being pushed open further. Ash poked his head out, enthusiastically dragging Don by his forearm.
“Thank god you’re here.“ Ash sighed.
Don, still a little upset that he had been dragged out of bed, only huffed. “Where is she?”
Ash stared around for a second, trying to see over the crowd crammed into the house. Eventually, he managed to catch sight of Katie, and turned back to Don.
“Follow me.”
Don followed as Ash weaved through the crowd, almost loosing sight of him multiple times. Ash pushed to the front of what seemed to be a dance circle, which Katie was in the center of. People around them cheered as Katie flailed around drunkenly. Her hair was a frizzy mess and her pink suit top was falling off her shoulder. Don sighed. Why the hell was she dressed like a pimp to go to a party, anyways? He turned to Ash, who only shrugged.
Begrudgingly, Don shoved into the circle, cheers roaring around him. He leaned down to Katie, who was now spinning around on the floor.
“Katie,” He hissed. No response. “Katie, come on. I’m bringing you home.”
Don grabbed her arm, yanking her up. Katie practically flopped straight onto Don like a puppet.
“No,” she groaned. “I’m having fun, Don.”
Don rolled his eyes as he stood her up straight. “Too much fun, girl. Let’s go.”
Boos echoed through the crowd. Katie tried to fight, but she wasn’t very strong against Don in her drunken state.
“You’re so boring,” she slurred, finally letting herself be dragged along when she recognized her efforts to stay were futile. “How’dyou even know I was here?”
“Ash called me.” Don shrugged. Ash appeared as if on cue, grabbing hold of Katie’s other arm.
“Ash!” Katie gasped, her voice cracking. “You traitor!”
Ash shrugged. “I at least waited until after you tried to backflip off the roof!”
“You tried to what?”
Katie groaned. “Please don’t tell Dad about this.”
Don had to physically close his eyes for a moment to regain his composure. “We’re going back to the café, and then you two can sort this out yourselves.”
“I say we just put all the blame on Katie.” Ash shrugged.
God, these kids are lucky Don loves them.
Eventually, by some miracle, Don was able to shove Ash and Katie into the backseat of his car.
“If either of you puke in here, I swear to god, you’re cleaning it up.” He huffed.
“Sir, yes, sir.” Katie offered a weary salute before collapsing onto Ash’s shoulder.
It didn’t take too much effort to get Ash and Katie back to the apartment, but that didn’t stop Don from complaining thoroughly all the way.
When he opened the door, he was greeted back with the exact position he had left it in: his textbook spread open at his desk, Jeremy lying in his beanbag with papers strewn around him, and Duncan on the floor with his head resting on his still open laptop.
The study session clearly hadn’t been very productive.
Ash collapsed onto the first bed he could reach, which was Duncan’s, and Don settled on dumping Katie onto Jeremy’s bed, hoping he wouldn’t mind. Exasperated, he tumbled down into his own bed, long abandoned the idea of finishing his studying.
Don woke up the next morning to the pitter patter of feet heading towards the bathroom. He sat up, staring around. He was in his bed, Jeremy was still fast asleep on the floor, Duncan was nowhere to be seen, and… oh, that’s right. Ash was collapsed into Duncan’s bed, and Katie was…
Don looked over to the open bathroom door.
Katie was puking up all of her bad ideas from last night.
Not without a loud groan, Don headed towards the bathroom, leaning down to pull back Katie’s hair.
“Thank you,” She coughed, voice raspy and tired.
“What are big bros for?” Don sighed.
“Morning,” Don looked up to see Ash standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes.
“Are you two regretting this now?” Don cocked an eyebrow.
“Yes,” nodded Ash, his eyes still squinted, adjusting to the light.
“Very,” agreed Katie through a cough, rubbing her mouth with the back of her arm.
Don sighed again, smoothing back Katie’s hair in a way that he hoped was comforting.
“Ash, will you go grab her a glass of water for the kitchen? And grab some Advil from the medicine cabinet on your way out.” Don instructed, pointing to a cabinet in the corner of the bathroom. Ash nodded sleepily.
“You two are the best brothers ever,” Katie smiled, before promptly getting sick straight back into the toilet.
When he heard footsteps approaching the room again, he expected it to be Ash. He was only slightly caught off guard when he heard Duncan’s voice, poking into the room.
“Don?” He called.
“In here,” Don replied.
Duncan sighed as he stepped towards the bathroom. “Why is there a teenage boy in our kitchen?” With this, he stepped into Don’s view in the bathroom doorframe, hesitating as he looked down at Katie, at Don, back at Katie, and back at Don.
“And a teenage girl in our bathroom, apparently.”
Katie slumped back onto the tiled floor, and Don sighed, resting back as well. “This is my sister, Katie.” He explained, gesturing to the girl in front of him, wiping more stray hairs out of her eyes. She offered a weak wave.
Ash took this moment to pop around the corner as well, sparing a quick glance at Duncan before handing a glass of water and bottle of Advil over to Katie, who grabbed it eagerly.
“And that’s our little brother, Ash.” Don added. “And they’re about to explain to our parents why they’re here instead of in bed.”
Katie and Ash groaned in sync, and Don rolled his eyes.