Let's get a toast to the good times
All y'all get your drinks up high
Everybody feelin' alright
Damn right

https://youtu.be/Uomy98GE_Qo?t=2m27s

-Brantley Gilbert


Xenia lifted the shot glass to her lips and tipped it back, letting the smooth caramel-tinted bourbon pour into her mouth. She inhaled sharply and swallowed, a hot glow spreading down her throat and into her stomach as she turned the empty glass over and slammed it down to the table alongside over two dozen others.

“Beat that,” she taunted in a slurred and confident voice. Leaning back in her chair, Xenia let her eyes roam over the rest of the hushed tavern. All the patrons were staring raptly at her table, their own drinks and conversations long forgotten in favor of this unusually long-lived drinking contest.

“With pleasure.”

Xenia’s opponent reached out with one slim hand for the bottle. The golden bracelet around their wrist clinked against the glass as they poured their own shot. Golden eyes that seemed to glow with mischief bored into her own as they raised the glass and calmly sipped it down. Running their tongue lightly over the rim, they carefully set it at the apex of a makeshift pyramid formed of other shot glasses.

Xenia scowled, snatching up the bottle again and going to pour, only to find it empty. Scowling, she peered into the open mouth, almost as if suspecting the bottle to be playing some trick on her. But despite her suspicions, the container remained empty. With a few muttered profanities, she tossed it over her shoulder, making the table behind duck for cover as it sailed through the air and shattered against a wall.

“Tony! Bring us another! Make it Vodka this time,” she ordered. The bat barkeeper gave her a grimace and held up his hands.

“Xenia, why don’t you two call it a draw? I think you’ve had way more than-”

She slammed her fist into the corner of the table, breaking off a large chunk of wood as she glared back at him. “Not a chance. We’re finishin’ this right now. Gonna show this pampered lil’ princess who’s better at holding their liquor!”

With a long-suffering sigh, Tony fetched another bottle, giving Xenia time to size up her adversary. Sirocco was leaning back in her chair with a casual smile, one arm draped over the chair’s back while the other swung back and forth at her side. Despite the numerous empty glasses and bottles around them, the jackal didn’t even appear buzzed. Only the slight rosy tint to her cheeks and a sloppier than usual smile betrayed the alcohol in her system.

“Still unwilling to surrender,” the jackal asked pleasantly. Her friendly smirk did little to soothe Xenia’s competitiveness, and she snapped her arm up to point a finger right between the jackal’s eyes, nearly toppling her shot glass pyramid in the process.

“Not a *hic* chance! This time yer goin’ down Siri! And all these people are gonna be here to see it happen!”

The jackal went cross-eyed staring at Xenia’s finger, then tilted her head up to give it a light kiss, evening flicking her tongue out to lap up some of the liquor that still wetted it. “As you wish.”

Flustered, Xenia pulled back her hand, sputtering drunkenly to try and regain her composure as Tony brought over the next bottle. She tried to work up a glare as Sirocco held out her shot glass, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Grumbling out a few choice profanities, Xenia filled the jackal’s glass then went to pour her own. Or at least, she would have, except she made a rather unpleasant discovery.

“Ey Tony! Gonna need some more glasses over here,” she hollered, not realizing that the poor bat was standing right behind her and she’d nearly busted his eardrums.

He sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead. “We don’t have anymore, Xenia! You two have used up every single one I’ve got! Why don’t you just reuse them?”

Xenia only snorted in reply. “Ya right! If I do that, we’ll lose count! And no way am I letting her cheat or say I didn’t beat ‘er fair in square!”

Siroccos’ grin widened, and she waggled her glass back and forth teasingly. “Such a pity. I assume then that this will be the last drink of the evening? And therefore I will take the lead and claim victory?”

“Hah! You wish!” Xenia grabbed the bottle by the neck and shook it back and forth. “Ya’ think you’re hot shit taking little sips like that? Lemme show you how a real woman drinks!” Not waiting for a reply, she pulled the bottle to her mouth and began chugging it down with rapid gulps.

All the while, Sirocco merely leaned back and swirled the liquid in her glass, her face set in a relaxed and victorious smile as if she had already won this little bout.

---

If there's one thing that can always be counted upon, it's Xenia's determination to win any contest or challenge placed before her. So when Sirocco made a passing remark during one of their spars about besting her when it came to alcohol endurance, Xenia was all too quick to prove her wrong. But has she bitten off more than she can chew?

Art by  metalmanda

Xenia belongs to  leochingu

Sirocco belongs to myself