Jinki groaned and rolled around his mattress for a good two minutes before he thought himself stable enough to get out of bed. He remembered almost everything from last night, every embarrassing moment. That was enough to make him want to stay in bed and consider how long it would take to develop bed sores, he didn’t think it was worth it. There was coffee to be had.

He ambled through the door down the hall into the kitchen greeted by the last and coincidently the first person he wanted to see. Sam was leaning against the kitchen counter in her work attire waiting for him. Maybe if he groaned loud enough she would take pity on him.

Sam just gave him the “you ed up” look. 

He hated the “you ed up” look.

“Don’t say anything. I know, ok.” Jinki said through a yawn.

He sat at the island in front of a glass of water and two aspirin she laid out for him. Sam was a good person. 

“Can we just pretend last night was just a horrible, horrible nightmare?”

He hoped, prayed that she would just shrug him off and drop it but her expression was serious.

“You know that that’s not going to happen Jinki. Last night was bad, like all time low bad–” 

“I know and I get it, I promise I won’t go back to the bar–” Jinki  knew she wasn’t having it.

“Jinki you have a problem and you need help.” 

Woah, Jinki was not an alcoholic. 

“I’m not an alcoholic Sam, I might have gone overboard last night–” he could practically feel her eye roll. 

Maybe he had gone further than he thought, flashes of the black and white tiled bathroom floor were starting to come back.

“You out Jinx, it was… it scared me.” 

That he didn’t remember, now he felt like a bigger pile of if that was even possible and seeing her eyes water was just too much for him. He felt something tug at his heart and reached across the kitchen island to lace his fingers with hers.

”Sammy… I’m sorry I scared you. It’s just been really hard for me and…” he was interrupted by her abruptly untangling her fingers and walking towards the door, if she put on her coat anymore forcefully she would have ripped it in half. 

Jinki was about to ask what was wrong when she whipped around in a huff. 

“You know what Jinki, I get it. I get you loved her and I get that it’s hard to get over. That’s fine, it’s all fine but now you’re just being selfish and destructive. We all warned you time and time again and as much as I don’t want to throw this in your face I feel like I don’t have a choice anymore. I, we all hate seeing you like this..” He could only cower in his chair because yeah this hurt but it hurt more coming from her. 

“I’ll be there for you Jinx, every time because you’re my best friend but it’s tiring. Stop making excuses. If you want to move on then ing move on.”

He couldn’t sink lower in his chair if he tried. 

He only looked up when she signed heavily opening the door. 

“You’re an adult and I can’t force you to do anything.” She let a tear slip down her cheek but quickly wiped it away.

“Just get your together ok?”

He could only nod as she slipped through the door. 

He was wrong earlier, he could feel like a bigger pile of .

Samantha slumped against the door and rubbed her temples. As much as she wanted her best friend to come to his senses, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt him while he was already hurting. 

They were all tired of walking on eggshells around him and as his oldest friend she was elected to do something about it.

Key had already warned her about giving him a piece of his mind when he came back from Fashion Week so she had to work fast to save him from that possible nuclear war, now that would destroy him.

Sam pounded her head on the door frame a couple times just to clear her head when she heard someone shuffling down the hallway.

“Rough morning Detective?” a low deep familiar voice startled her from her thoughts and she was pretty sure she didn’t need to hear that voice outside of a courtroom let alone the hallway outside the door of her apartment. 

How are you here right now? 

She didn’t have time for this nor was she in the mood. She didn’t care to know why their new very sweaty and handsome DA, clad only in skin tight under armour was standing in her hallway, smirking at her.

That smug smirk that made her want to punch him in the face. That smirk that made her remember that one night stand back in college. That was a bad road to go down.

Suddenly it was hard to swallow.

“I live here as of two days ago.” 

Sam blinked in confusion, she hadn’t said anything.

"I’m sorry? What?”

“You asked how was I here right now.”

Oh.

“Oh…I didn’t realize i said that out loud.” Sam fidgeted in her spot in front of her door. He always had some sort of affect on her. Today it turned her into a bumbling idiot. Jinki’s current situationwas rubbing off on her. She hated it, so she turned to the one emotion she knew best, indifference. 

“Well glad we cleared that up, I’ve got to go.” But he didn’t move, just tilted his head and moved his hair out of his face. .

“Is your friend from last night going to be ok?” He smelled of fresh grass and it was slightly intoxicating, the flashes of that night years ago were not helping, yeah it was time to leave. 

“Cool, fine, can you move so I can go.” She clipped and he stepped aside. 

“I’ll see you later.” He gave her a small wave before unlocking his door. 

Like it wasn’t bad enough that she had to work with him. Now she had to see him like that, just like he looked those years ago. 

I’m so ed.