12; the one with the sock bunnies.
"Hi", Alycia said as she sat on the couch next to Phoebe and Rachel. Ross was also there, sitting on an armchair doing a crossword. "What are you guys talking about?".
"Sushi", Rachel replied, smirking.
"It is not Sushi, alright?", Ross snapped back immediately. "Unagi is a state of total awareness", he continued, doing a gesture with his fingers next to his head. Alycia furrowed her eyebrows, trying to cover up her laughter. "Only by achieving true Unagi can you be prepared for any danger that may befall you".
"Looks like I got here just in time", Alycia commented.
Ross glared at her, standing up to sit on the couch with them. "All I'm saying is, it's one thing being prepared for an attack against each other, but a whole other thing is being prepared for an attack like...I don't know, a surprise!", he said, screaming the last part to scare them, which didn't work at all.
"Can you explain to me why he's lecturing you about an eel?", Alycia asked her two other friends, not getting exactly what was going on.
"We had our first self-defense class today", Phoebe replied. "Now he's teaching us a little about what he learned in karatey", Phoebe joked back, making Rachel chuckle.
Ross decided to give up, laughing sarcastically before going back to his seat to continue the crossword, knowing they weren't taking him or Unagi seriously.
"Hey, is Monica here?", Chandler asked, walking over them. "I need your help. I don't know what to get her for Valentine's Day".
"Valetine's Day was last week. Please, you can't tell me you already forgot what a great party we had", Alycia stated with sarcasm, remembering that awful day. "Sure Ross hasn't".
"I know, but we decided to have our own little Valentine's tonight".
"Hey, why don't you book a day for both of you at one of those romantic spas?", Joey suggested. "And of course, crotchless panties".
"As appealing as that sounds to her boyfriend...and brother", he pauses, turning to look at Ross who clearly didn't like the idea just by the look on his face. "I can't. We promised we'd make each other gifts this year".
"Aw, you guys!", Rachel, Phoebe and Alycia said at the same time, finding the idea way too adorable.
"You can't make crotchless panties?", Joey insisted.
"Honey", Alycia started, cutting him off. "No one liked that idea".
"Especially me", Ross added.
"Do you guys have anything that I can take credit for?", Chandler asked.
"Oh! I started making these sock bunnies", Phoebe said, taking one of them out of her purse and showing it to Chandler.
☀️
"Hi, babe", Alycia said from the couch, hearing the front door open.
"Hi", she heard someone saying. She turned around immediately, not recognizing the sound of that voice. It was a male, but definitely not Joey, Chandler or Ross. When she turned around, she saw a guy who was wearing something similar to what Joey wore today for his audition, but he was not her boyfriend.
"Who the hell are you?", she asked, confused. "And why are you in my apartment?".
The guy walked to the fridge and grabbed a soda. "I'm Joey!", he said as if it was an obvious thing. "How are you doin'?".
Alycia was beyond confused and scared. There's a weirdo inside the apartment claiming to be Joey. She was about to speak, when the front door opened again.
"No, no, no!", Joey said, looking very upset. "How you doin'!", he corrected.
"Joey", Alycia called out, clearly not okay with whatever is going on. "What are you doing?!".
"Oh, remember that experiments I told you about to earn a little extra money?".
"The ones I told you not to do?", she asked back.
"Might have not heard that", he quickly said, noticing she was very upset. "Anyway. This is Carl, my identical twin!".
"Have you ever seen identical twins in your life?", Alycia argued after a brief silence, pointing at the guy. "You two look nothing alike, Joe".
"Clearly", Joey agreed. "He keeps messing it up".
"Okay, I want this experiment out of the apartment", Alycia replied, pushing both guys out. "You can practice with Chandler and Monica".
☀️
"Hey", Joey saluted Alycia in a soft tone, almost scared she could still be upset over the situation with the identical twin.
"Should I even ask if your plan worked?", Alycia asked jokingly. He could sense by her tone and expression she wasn't mad at all.
Joey sighed. "You were right. That was a very stupid idea", he replied, walking over her, sitting on the couch next to her. "I'm sorry".
Alycia moves her legs up and rested them on Joey's lap. He didn't complain or comment on it, simply putting a hand or top of her legs. She gives a look, smiling softly. Joey's apology sounded very sincere.
She shakes her head. "You need more than a weird lab experiment to get me mad at you, Tribbiani", she says. "It's fine, really. Actually, it's another thing I can use to make fun of you", Alycia added jokingly, giving him an innocent smile.
"Well, I'm glad you're not upset", he commented, reaching out to grab the backpack he took to his audition earlier and then to the experiment, looking for something inside. "I got you one of Phoebe's sack bunnies as an apology gift".
Alycia giggled, accepting the gift, putting the sock on her arm, smiling softly at the creation one of her best friends did. "Best gift ever!", she exclaimed, sitting back again correctly, moving closer to give Joey a kiss he quickly accepted. "You are the best. Even if you do a lot of stupid things".
"And you're the best cause you tolerate the stupid things I do".
"And that's because I love you very, very much", she replied, snuggling up to his side, still with the sock bunny on her hand.
"Oh, cool. I love you very, very much too", he said back, making her smile as she played with the bunny's ears. "How are you gonna name it?", Joey asked shortly after, referring to the bunny.
Alycia looked down at the sock, thinking about it for a moment. "Let's name him Carl like your identical twin".
"Very funny", he said ironically, chuckling slightly. "Wel.l, he does look a lot more similar to me than human Carl".
"Maybe take Carl the sock tomorrow and see if they accept you this time", Alycia followed the joke, playing with the sock bunny, poking Joey on the arm he had around her. "Hey, you wanna order a pizza? Carl and I are hungry".
"Sure", he agreed, kissing her head before the girl moved away, allowing him to stand up to grab the phone. "I'd really appreciate if talking about 'Carl and I' doesn't become a habit. It's kind of weird".
"If it weirds you out, I'll only use it even more", she smiled, standing up from the couch to go the bedroom to find a special place to put Carl the sock.