Notes: I owe at least the general idea of the plot to a dear friend, Jon.
Disclaimer: I own none of the content used within that is copyrighted, owned, or otherwise protected by the law. With any such content and the entirety of this work, I do not intend to gain a profit and I will not.
Walk, Watch, Wait
Patchouli took little trips from time to time. It was natural to tire of the library interior and the direct surroundings of the Mansion.
She would claim that she wanted to go out to fill the library with even more knowledge.
More often than not, though, what she would see on the outside would never be written down.
It was...a different sort of relaxation for her. So many different smells, sights, and...sounds.
She nearly jumped out of her clothes when a scream pierced the quiet of the surrounding trees, "Nooo! You're going to break it!"
With only a moment to think, she knew who had made Alice squeal like that.
Surreptitiously, she walked towards the source of the commotion.
"What? I didn't throw it up there!" Marisa answered loudly, sounding mildly apologetic.
It almost made the librarian smile; the only time Marisa was ever quiet was when something was wrong or when she was scheming. It was annoying, but endearing. It was a quirk that made the magician an interesting character in the story of her life.
Alice was a unique individual, however. The mistress of dolls was not interesting like Marisa was interesting.
The sounds of Alice fretting and Marisa trying to ameliorate herself in this situation kept her from her thoughts, though.
It felt like her short foray into the wilderness had gone on forever. Perhaps she had gone further than she thought? Her heart was beating faster from such a slow walk.
Leaning up against a tree, taking deep and long breaths, Patchouli looked around the trunk to see the blondes staring up at the branches of a tree. Her eyes traced the tree upwards to see branches, leaves, and even the tops of a couple trees burned off in a fairly big radius.
Only one person she knew would aim that high over something petty.
That got her to raise an eyebrow, 'Why would you do that, Marisa?'
Then, she saw something snarled in the branches up high. Though her eyes weren't keen, she was able to pick out a humanoid shape. It was too small to be an actual person. Black and gold seemed to dominate it's colors...at least what wasn't obscured by the branches.
Whatever it was, it was caught in branches that seemed to be holding it almost maliciously.
Alice had her hands in her hair, clutching tightly like she might rip every last hair free, "I can't believe you got it stuck up there! Then you try to get it down by shooting at it with Master Spark?!? You're insane!"
It hurt the purple haired girl's ears to hear her from this distance. Or maybe she was just getting another headache.
"Jeez!" Marisa was scratching the back of her head, wondering what she could do to make this all better.
Patchouli looked up at the object of the pair's attention again. She noticed that it seemed to be held by branches that were all attached to one main branch. Focusing her mind on the desired result, she very carefully burned through the branch.
Gasps from the girls below heralded the plummet of the object and the branches.
"I got it, I got it!" Marisa called out, holding her hands high to catch it.
Alice shoved her with one arm, holding up the other to grab at the it, "No! You're going to ruin it with your dirty hands!"
This quickly turned into a shoving match and the falling item should have landed right on their heads, but it stopped before it landed.
She carefully set it down to the side, far away from the pair who just noticed that they hadn't heard it touch down.
"What the hell?" Marisa looked at the fallen item in surprise.
Patchouli carefully stepped out and leaned a bit more heavily on the tree, "Sorry, but I couldn't help but meddle."
"Patchy!" Marisa cried out, as Alice ran for the fallen object. She looked cheerful as could be.
"Hello, Marisa." She smiled a little, trying to cover up how out of breath and tired she was.
In the silence that lasted for a few seconds, Ms. Knowledge found herself looking at Alice as she fussed over the mess of branches. Her dress was getting all dirty from the ground, but that must have been the last thing on her mind at the moment. After a little work, the marionette maker had freed the trapped possession from its wood prison. It turned out to be a doll...almost like one made to resemble Marisa, but something was weird about it.
However, Alice was getting so worked up about every little mark that she didn't notice she was being stared at.
Her attention to detail was admirable, but her display of emotion was unusual.
This doll was special.
"Hey, Alice, aren't you gonna thank Patchy?"
There was a few seconds of silence spent in further examination of the doll, before Alice stood and turned around, "T-thank you, Patchouli." There was a light blush about her cheeks as she held the object of her labor tightly in her arms.
"You're welcome, Alice."
"Yeah, thanks, Patchy!"
Though she had felt good to help out Alice, Marisa's approval made her heart race a little faster, "It's n-no problem!"
That was when she caught Alice's gaze. She was being studied.
Patchouli couldn't tell if the other girl was angry with her, though. Something about her gaze didn't add up.
It seemed just as confused as she was. 'Patchy' was pretty sure that Alice had the same kind of feelings for Marisa that she did, though...but shouldn't they be angry at each other?
Shouldn't it be like that book she read about how one girl's jealous lovers killed each other over her? Two people who share affections for the same person shouldn't have to think twice...
At the moment, however, she didn't have the energy to be furious, even when someone else might want to take Marisa away from her. It was taking a lot of concentration just to keep up this staring contest.
"Hey, whoo-oo!" The ever impatient Marisa broke up their 'moment', "Are you two going to stare at each other until tomorrow morning? We'll be able to see the fireflies in a couple hours, in that spot we found last week! You could come too, Patchy! You could see it with us!"
Patchouli looked at Alice again and found just as much help as she expected.
"...I think..." She trailed off, taking one last glance at Alice, "That'd be just fine." She still felt out of breath...and now she felt like she was going to slide down the tree.
It was Alice that looked her way with concern, "Patchouli...is something wrong?"
The purple haired girl shook her head tiredly as she began to slip. In seconds, she was sitting up against the tree. Her vision began to blur a little bit, but a quick shake of her head cleared her vision for the moment.
"Just need a moment to rest..." There was her vision blurring again.
"Patchy?" Marisa was concerned now, too. Her worried face made Patchouli want to do anything to make her smile again.
"Just...I just...didn't sleep that well last night." She forced a smile for Marisa, "...could you...?"
Marisa leaned closer, "What?"
The librarian considered her response carefully in an ever weakening voice, "Could you...you two stay with me?" Given a few more seconds, she might fall over.
The response shocked her, "Sure."
It wasn't Marisa who said that.
It wasn't Marisa who was sitting right next to her on her left side to keep her from falling over.
It was Alice looking at her rival for Marisa's affections with such worry that she felt like one of her dolls.
It took Marisa a second to take up the opposite side, "Of course we'll stay with you, Patchy! You need your rest."
Her eye lids were trying to fall shut on her, "Thanks...you...you guys are..." And that was where the darkness overtook her.