A/N: I know I should be finishing up Rendered Useless, but I've had this planned for a very long time, ever since I accidentally said "Alec in Wonderland' when I was supposed to be saying Alice in Wonderland. It's actually planned, for once! For the readers who know me, I've never done that before XD I have a beta now, too. Less errors, mates!

Do NOT own the characters or places. They belong to Cassandra Clare. And the Alice in Wonderland theme, which by the way, is a combination of the old and new version, does not belong to me!

(Line-Line-Line)

Things started off very normally for Alexander Lightwood in basically everything. The day, for instance, began normally, as every day does. And the year started off normally too. Life was normal, and normal was good, because it meant nothing was unusual or out of place.

Then things went downhill, like a slippery slope. It started off slow, then someone just had to be that giant asshole who made the ramp go steeper because they thought it might be just a little bit funny to watch as things escalated to the point of no return. Or just the point of which is too steep to climb.

His parents' marriage had started off normal. A young, happy couple, very much in love, but very busy with their work schedules.

Alec's parents were what you might call 'workaholics,' or people who were originally married to their career and thought cheating on that commitment with a real human being would be any good for their stress levels.

Maryse Lightwood, aged 23 at the time, had been a dedicated journalist for a paper, always running around and doing interviews, trying to get that next promotion. She had met Robert Lightwood through an interview while scoping out a news hotspot.

Robert Lightwood, aged 27 at the time, had been a hard-working officer of the law. A policeman who worked over time for fun.

The two had met when Robert had saved a few hostages at a bank hold-up. Maryse had been sent down to the scene of the crime to get the report of the brave policeman who had very valiantly risked his life to save the tellers, and the customers in the National Bank of Alicante.

An interview was conducted, and a date was set for the future.

One date turned into two, then four, and eight, and then drinking heavily one night and ending up with a mistake of a pregnancy for Maryse Lightwood.

Feeling responsible, Robert Lightwood asked for her hand in marriage four months after that fateful interview, and she agreed.

A normal beginning to parenthood and committed life, as far as 'normal' stands. Alec was born later on. Very healthy, very normal. He was destined to grow up with a normal childhood, as they would predict.

Alec's parents would go off to work every morning, and come back very late at night. He was usually left with a babysitter for those hours of the day. Or sometimes the neighbors, when they weren't working. Once he even went to his grandmother's house. They even found him a cat to keep him company. Church, was his name, and he was a sleek black, kind kitty.

Everything was like clockwork, save for who watched over him. But then Robert Lightwood started coming home later. Sometimes he wouldn't be home until early the next day.

They thought nothing of it, him and his mother. His mother just assumed he was putting in later hours, and Alec, barely seeing his parents during the day, and too tired to stay up late at night to see them, didn't notice much.

This went on until Isabelle was born.

She was too young to remember anything if you asked her, but Alec could remember. Alec could remember the times his father's clothes smelled like some different perfume when they were left on the floor in the laundry room. And Alec remembered when he was old enough to stay home by himself (with the neighbor woman across the street checking up on him every other hour), that his father sometimes snuck a lady into the house and into the bedroom. They wouldn't come out until much, much later, after much screaming resounded through the house.

Maryse came home early during one of these events at one point, her work finished early for once. Robert Lightwood was caught in the act, and he apologized. He even promised it would never happen again. Maryse allowed this to pass only once.

For a while then, their lives returned to normal. Back to the clockwork schedule they had. Alec started school and didn't have to stay home alone. Isabelle had a babysitter now, or the neighbor lady.

The elder male Lightwood kept his promise for quite a few years. But nearly a decade and a half later, that promise was forgotten.

Both busy with their work still, the incident was forgotten, and Robert Lightwood strayed yet again. He didn't bring the woman by the house now that Alec and Isabelle were both old enough to understand what cheating was. He just stayed at her house with the excuse of "sleeping over with one of the co-workers" due to "over time," or some such nonsense that they all believed.

So with normal once again becoming abnormal in their lives, the folks were getting into more and more fights, and working ever more later. Robert was caught in another affair not long after he had started the new one. Maryse and he were at each others throats every time they were in the same room, so one of them had to budge.

The wrong doer, aka Robert, temporarily moved out of the house and into a motel down the street, courtesy of Maryse, who had demanded him out if he was sleeping with another one of his co-workers. Her, unable to handle the stress of her job, her failing marriage, and her kids, decided to send her kids away in the summer, to their other (summer) house that they never used anymore out by Lake Sirdi, to cool off and settle things. Her reasoning for them leaving the house was that these were things kids should not be seeing, or hearing, and they were definitely old enough to handle themselves. She would send a check once a week for their food supply.

Alec and Isabelle had been here for a grand total of two weeks, and they were perfectly content with the silence of their summer home surrounded by deep woods they used to explore in their young age. They even got to bring Church with them, who was really getting up in his age now. None of them were sure how old he was, but he as energetic as a young kitten, for some odd reason.

This was were Alec sat now. Adapting to the new type of normal. Sitting outside on nice, warm days by the lake's edge, petting the cat, watching the surface of Lake Sirdi ripple.

Their home was almost entirely surrounded by the area of trees, save for the plot of woodland their parents had hired to be cleared out. The house sat in a clearing with a clear view of the large lake beside it. Half the view of the lake sat in the clearing, while the other half rested within the trees' cover. It was almost like living on a secluded island in Alec's opinion.

It was where Alec felt the most normal. He enjoyed the tranquility he got out of watching the deep blue lake shimmer and reflect the sun and the drifting clouds in the sky. If he had to say it, this would probably be the most normal his life had ever been. Fending for themselves was normal, cooking was Alec's jurisdiction when he and Isabelle were alone, so that was normal too. Getting their own groceries was normal, and relying on each other for company was so normal, it was painful.

Church purred happily in his arms, Alec stroked the soft head of his long time friend. He watched the cat's tail lazily dance, almost like it had a mind of its own.

Yes, Alec was comfortable, and content. He was wearing tattered, worn out jeans, with his tattered, holey sweater that had become a faded black color. Kind of brownish, if he had to place a guess. The sun was nice on his pale skin, and the wind was fair, tousling his dark, unevenly cut hair, just enough to play with a few strands, but not enough to muss it around.

He was happy, despite the situation going on at home, and despite the fact that he had grown up with parents who never spared a second to raise him the way normal parents did. He grew up to enjoy the solitude, go through life the way he was used to without his parents caring enough to change anything about him. No change was a good thing for him. He was a routine person, he might say.

Isabelle, his dear, sweet younger sister, couldn't stand that. So no, it wasn't his parents who tried to change his lifestyle. It was his fashionista of a sister. Isabelle was all about changing things up, breaking routine and such.

She was everything he wasn't. Personality wise, and appearance wise.

Where he was lacking in dress sense, she flourished everything she had, she decked herself out every day. She told him that every day was a chance to dress and impress. Alec was, however, not impressed with her attempts to dress him up and make him look like a half decent kid.

Isabelle had long, beautiful hair, with her father's eyes. Alec had his mother's bottle-blue eyes, which was probably the only thing that popped out in his appearance.

Where Isabelle thrived off attention from her many admirers, Alec liked to remain alone. He liked to be that quiet kid who sits in the back and only speaks when spoken to. Isabelle couldn't stand that about him, but accepted it when it appeared he was too socially awkward to start conversations on his own.

Alec always felt so out of place in the world. Like he didn't belong there with all of those loud, bright people. Isabelle looked like she belonged with the crowd, but Alec liked to sit in the back and think. Which was another thing Isabelle didn't like. She said he thought too often, thought too much to have fun. It made him a kill joy, she told him.

He didn't mind. He didn't want to associate with those people anyway. They all liked things he didn't care about. He just wasn't one of those average teenagers who used cell phones to live, and used internet for things other than homework. Maybe he wasn't so normal after all?

But here, by the lake, and surrounded by the trees, he felt like he was home. Maybe it was just because it was pure solitude, or maybe it was just because he liked the area. He never knew why, but he didn't question it. He just relaxed and enjoyed himself, like normal people would do in a nice house like theirs.

Yeah, for a summer home, it was pretty freaking nice, especially for a house built in what was basically the middle of a forest. Their parents were kind of rich from all the work and success they had going.

So far, every day had been the same as the last, for the past two weeks here. The siblings would wake up around eight or nine in the morning, clean the house a little after Alec prepared a simple breakfast, and then the two would spend the rest of the day doing something leisurely. Usually something they did separate, but they had gotten together a few times so far.

Today had started normal, just like he said before. But it progressively started to slide downhill. Alec could tell things were going downhill when Isabelle snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, shouting into his ear a very enthusiastic "Happy Birthday!"

Needless to say, Alec was very startled out of his happy, quiet time. So startled, that he very nearly flipped the cat into the lake. After a very manly shriek and a few colorful words, Alec regained himself, recomposed himself, that is to say.

"Izzy!" he shouted, his heart pounding loudly into his ears. "You could have given me cardiac arrest or something!" He placed a hand over his heart, feeling it beat quickly and fiercely against his chest. He took a deep breath before starting again.

"What do you want?" he said a little more calmer. She had let him go and was smiling at him deviously. She was up to something, if he ever knew what that looked like.

"Nothing, nothing," she 'assured' him, still grinning. "It's only JUST your 18th birthday today, that's all."

It took a moment for that statement to register to him. He blinked once, twice, thrice before giving a very eloquent "Ah."

"Yes, 'ah'," Isabelle agreed. "You are now legally an adult, can legally live on your own. You can legally do a whole bunch of things now, except drink. But that never stopped me, so never mind that last part."

Alec said nothing to her end statement, just rolled his eyes. Isabelle was more experienced in things, despite being younger. Alec would bet she had had more than one alcoholic drink before. At those parties she went to, Heavens above knows what she's already experienced.

"So, did you disturb the peace just to tell me that?" Alec asked, unimpressed with the fact that today was the day of his birth.

Isabelle looked severely annoyed by his lack of enthusiasm.

"No, actually, I made some plans. Maybe I'll just leave if you don't care," she said petulantly, sticking her nose in the air.

"Okay." Alec would like that. Very much so.

Her face twisted into that devilish grin again, all pretenses of annoyance dropped.

"Sorry, big bro, but it isn't that easy to get rid of me." Oh, didn't he already know this. "You act like some old man, just forgetting his birthday and everything, and not even caring."

The older sibling just shrugged uncaringly. "Just another year gone by to me," he admitted. "Never did excite me the way it does you."

"Clearly."

His lack of enthusiasm probably contributed to the fact that his birthday had been more or less ignored as a child. Once Robert had been caught cheating, they decided their youngest deserved a little more attention, so her birthdays were often celebrated. At first, that irked Alec, and then he realized there was no point in getting upset, or in the small, silly parties his parents threw for Isabelle.

"So, neither of us really expected to be here a few months ago," she began slowly. "Neither of us thought Mom would send us here, but that just makes things easier!"

"What was that last part?" Alec asked, suddenly confused at the sudden change in tone of the sentence.

"It makes it easier for today," she said, as if that would clarify everything.

"What? My birthday is easier being here?"

"Sure. It's quieter for one, no parents yelling right now. And you can express yourself out here with neither of them to judge you. Hint hint," she trailed off.

"What?" Alec wasn't catching on at all. He never was very good at these things. Maybe it was due to his lack of regular social communication, and the fact that he acted like he was never up to date with society's average teenage issues. Not that he ever cared enough to learn those things.

"I have to spell it out for you?" Isabelle asked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. She shook her head and sighed heavily.

"Spell what out?"

"You know. What you are." She watched him fidget a little, she knew he knew she had picked up on something over the years.

"And um, what exactly am I?" he tried, sounding nervous and dodgy.

"You're gay," Isabelle said flatly, making Alec flinch. He had never vocalized this statement, but she had noticed things over the years that their parents had never taken time to notice. They had never even noticed that he had yet to obtain his first kiss!

"No way. You don't know anything!" the guilty male objected, shaking his head furiously in denial.

"But I do, Alec," Isabelle tried gently, trying to calm her dearly loved brother down. "I know it all. Or most of it. And I still love you."

The last part seemed to catch Alec's attention and stop the head shaking. He looked up at her with wide eyes, his panic seemed to be dying down.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I won't judge you about anything. I couldn't do that because we're family. And it would make me a sort of hypocrite considering the things I've gone and tried," she answered honestly, shrugging her shoulders. "The important thing is, I'm not judging you, and that's why being here makes my plan all the better."

Alec decided to bite, though he wasn't sure why he didn't just say no and walk away. He figured it was because his sister had just told him she didn't care what he was, so he decided to play along with whatever was going on.

"Why?"

"Because, I got you this really nice present, something to express yourself in, and the privacy here, well, only I would know!" She was getting excited and started to walk back to the house. Alec didn't want to get up, but he was a little curious by now. He picked himself up, then stooped down to get the cat and carrier him in the house. Alec followed behind her slowly, cautiously.

The walk was mostly performed in silence, with Alec pondering why Isabelle knew, and for Isabelle, she was giddy with excitement for her plan. She was excited, and she had her camera. That was the most important thing. Now she just had to get him to agree to it.

When the Lightwood siblings arrived at the house, Isabelle opened the back door and stepped through, holding it open for her brother to step through next.

He almost expected to see the back room, or porch, as their dad called it, decked out in birthday-related decorations. He sighed in relief when there was none. He let the cat down on a near by chair to sit and wait. Sometimes he didn't even have to vocalize what he wanted the cat to do, sometimes the cat just did it. He wanted the cat to sit and wait for him to come back and get this over with. The cat sat down and watched the two human children talk.

"So, what are we doing?" Alec asked hesitantly, knowing that the answer was sometimes -most of the time- never any good for him.

Isabelle turned around with a twirl, her hair flying out and whipping him in the face. She gave him a sheepish smile when he looked irked from getting smacked by her hair.

"We," she started dramatically, "are going to dress you up like the 'girl' we know you will be in the relationship."

Alec spluttered indignantly, at a loss for words, he even choked on his own saliva. He didn't know whether to be embarrassed or angry or what.

"R-relationship? Girl? What?" he managed to spit out when he got his voice back. Isabelle should be one of those kids on that one show, where people laugh at what kids say because it's ridiculous and cute.

His sister smiled sweetly, like she hadn't even suggested such a perverted term.

"We both know you won't be topping anyone any time soon, Alec," she stated a little impatiently like it was supposed to be all too obvious. "And that's why the privacy here is a blessing in disguise. Mom and Dad won't ever had to know this all happened. Just little ol' me."

Really he had no idea what to say to her. He was just slightly disturbed by the fact that she thought about these things more than he did. Or at all, for that matter.

"What am I doing that requires so much privacy?" he asked, feeling like he would never get an answer with her dodging around the question each time.

"As I said, dress up. I'm going to make you look to pretty!"

Okay, so Alec may be gay. Completely and entirely gay with absolutely no interest in females, but that did not, and he would repeat, did NOT, make him want to look 'pretty' or some such nonsense. He was not a flamboyant sort of male, and in case you forgot, he was still a man, with manly pride that must be upheld by all men.

"Um, do I look like I want to be pretty?" he questioned his sister, questioning her sanity behind that original inquiring. "Do you not see these clothes I'm wearing right now?"

Isabelle wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Of course I can see them. I can see they're incredibly ugly and ripped, and that you're hiding the body you got from running track under loose, baggy, and terribly ugly clothing."

"What makes you think I would agree to this?"

The diva just rolled her eyes at his stubbornness, like she didn't understand why he was being so difficult.

"Just wait until you see what I bought you first," she said. "And yes, I bought them. Not with our parents' money, but with my own, so you have to appreciate it and you have to wear it at least once."

Oh no, she wasn't. Guilt tripping was not going to work on him this time. He may fall for it fifty percent of the time, but not today he wasn't!

His sister had left while he had been fuming in his mind. He wondered where she had gone and considered sneaking off. But where would he hide, anyway? And besides, he had to come back here for food some time. He may as well just get it over with.

So he patiently, but nervously, waited for his sister's return. He mumbled a few words to his feline friend, who gave no response except a lazy mewl. It didn't take her too long to reappear, and when she did, she was carting a large, brightly wrapped box with an equally large and bright smile.

That smile made him nervous, he wasn't going to lie. Whenever he saw that smile, he shivered a little bit on the inside.

She brought the multicolored box to him, stopping in front of him and holding it out for him to take.

Alec eyed it warily, like it might contain a handful of snakes, or mushrooms or something. Whatever was in this box was going to make him look 'pretty,' and the way he saw it, that was enough to make any man nervous.

"All right," she said once he had taken the box from her and had started carefully undoing the tape. "So, I just want to tell you that I spent a lot of hard earned money to get you these things, and I want you to appreciate them like it was the last thing you were getting on earth. I also want you to wear it a minimum amount of once."

Alec peeked at her from under his long bangs from where he had his head bowed, focusing on getting the wrapper off in one, neat piece. This always pissed his sister off. Taking too long and not just tearing it off like she did.

And then came the moment of truth. The truth so big, that revealing it would be devastatingly tragic to one's future.

As the young man pulled away the wrapper successfully removed in one piece, he was faced with this box of figurative truth. Ever so carefully did he remove the top half of the box, holding his breath to see what laid inside.

What he was presented with was no disappointment on the shock factor. He was so shocked, that he had been shocked into silence and staring in disbelief. Actually, he wasn't entirely positive with what he was seeing. It was all folded up in the box, so he couldn't be completely certain until he picked up these dangerous garments and held them up to full view.

"Well? Take them out of the box and look at them!" Isabelle insisted, getting fidgety with impatience. Alec just huffed at her and told her to "hold her horses." To which she commented that nobody said that these days. Which he ignored, caring less.

There appeared to be a couple of items in it. From what he could tell, the first layer was a pair of long, stripped socks. Beneath that, he wasn't completely sure, but it had a string of ribbon around it, so it couldn't be any good.

"Socks? I have socks, Iz," he commented, picking them up and waving them around. "And as far as I know, guys don't wear socks that go up to the knee."

"Your socks have holes in them. They're really gross, and I threw a ton out yesterday, by the way."

Alec wasn't too sure what to say to his baby sister who had taken such consideration into this day that she had to throw out things ahead of time. He didn't need to ask when she had found the time to do that, since he had spent most of the day outside in his usual place.

"Keep looking," she demanded. "There's the thing that I worked so hard for that you have yet to get to." She was really going to continue enforcing the fact that she had spent countless hours 'working' for that money. She wouldn't tell him how he got that money, of course, because he'd just get mad, but as long as he knew she worked hard, that was all he needed to know.

So Alec kept looking, perhaps falling for the guilt tripping. After removing the long socks from the box, he moved on to the next item. The fabric was a light shade of gentle blue, it was soft, possibly made of cotton. He picked the mysterious article of clothing up, letting it unfold before his eyes.

"I'm still a guy, Izzy. You can't expect me to wear this," he said, looking over at her gleeful expression with wide eyes.

"A guy who shaves all the hair on his body. Yeah, I know that too. It'll look perfect on you!"

And so Alec returned to staring at the now identified article of clothing. Mostly in disbelief, mind you. He was also a little frightened, but he would never admit that aloud.

It was a dress.

A blue dress, to give it an adjective and make it more specific than 'that dress,'

It even had a ribbon for around the waist, to give females that shapely hourglass figure.

"You expect me to wear this?" Alec asked, raising a dark eyebrow. No way was he wearing this. No way was she going to convince him to wear that.

"No, I don't expect you, I'm asking you."

"In that case, n-"

"But I would like to remind you," she interrupted, "that I spent a lot of money for that dress, and I had to get into a cat fight with some other girl who was trying to take it. It was the last one, you know."

Damn the guilt tripping! Alec was falling hard for the guilt trip, especially when Isabelle batted her eyelashes and looking humble.

"What if I say no?" he tested, narrowing his eyes. He watched as Isabelle's eyes narrowed as well.

"Then I dye your hair pink while you sleep. I promise you it won't come out easily. In fact, it'll be pink by the time we get to go back home with Mom and Dad."

"How long do I have to wear it?" he asked resignedly, sighing as he wondered what he was signing himself up for.

"The entire day," she replied smugly, making him sigh once more.

How bad could it be, really? Just one day, with no one but Isabelle seeing him. He could live with that.

"Will you help me put it on?" he asked, dreading the next upcoming hours.

Isabelle looked flattered, like he had just told her that she was the only person in the world who could really bring out the best in him. And by the best in him, she meant fashion and looks.

"I thought you'd never ask!" she exclaimed, jumping up a little in her excitement. She snatched the dress from him and grabbed the socks he had put aside. She ran behind him and shoved him in the direction of the bathroom.

"Go, go, go! No time to waste!" she rushed, nudging him repeatedly until he was walking towards the bathroom on his own. "Keep the door open and I'll hand you the dress when you're ready. Just slip it over your head like a shirt and find the arm holes and the hole for your head. Piece of cake, right?"

It sounded simple enough, he supposed. When he was ushered into the bathroom, door slightly cracked to allow Isabelle to talk to him, he undressed, casting his hoodie aside, along with his jeans. He hadn't been wearing socks or shoes since he had just been going outside.

"Ready," he announced, his voice cracking a little on the end. He watched socks fly through the opening of the door. He knew how to put these on. It just felt really awkward when they slipped up past his knees and up to mid thigh. They nearly reached the edge of his boxer shorts, which, in his opinion, looked ridiculous.

"Okay," he said. "Socks are on." He looked down at his legs covered in black stripes. White socks and black stripes? He had never worn so many colors on his legs. He usually just wore the blue jeans. Or black, but those were all single colors, if you didn't count the patches that were different faded colors.

This time, he saw Isabelle stick her hand in the door, holding the dress carefully.

"Don't drop this," she instructed, letting him grab it before withdrawing her hand. "Just like putting a shirt on. Don't get lost in there."

Alec did get lost. Somehow.

First he didn't know if it would just be easier to put it on by stepping into it, but that didn't work because it got stuck half way up to his hips. Then when he slipped it over as he had been told, he couldn't find his way out. When he found the spots where he put his arms and head through, he found out he had put the dress on backwards.

If the dress wasn't so snug, he would have just withdrawn his arms and twisted it around, but it wouldn't allow him to do that. His sweaters and shirts let him do that. He didn't like this dress already.

Finally, he managed to get it on the right way. He felt kind of naked under the dress because there were no pant legs to cover his legs. The socks helped, but he still felt naked.

"Done," he groaned, looking at himself in the mirror.

He looked ridiculous, in his opinion. A tall, slightly muscled young man in a dress. He couldn't get over how stupid he looked. The shoulders were a little tight because his shoulders were more broad than a woman's. The front looked kind of loose towards the bottom due to the fact that he had no breasts to fill it out. The ribbon hung loose around his waist, so he would need his sister to tie it up.

Isabelle walked in, her face lighting up to match a 10,000 watt light bulb.

"You look so cute!" she squealed, clasping her hands together and hopping up and down a few times.

Alec felt his cheeks heat up and looked away. He felt her tug at a few spots on the dress and comment on how tight or loose it was.

"I'm so proud of myself. I've never tried converting male sizes to female sizes. I'm good at guessing, but daamnnn, I guess I could go pro now."

"Yeah, yeah, you did a good job. Can I wear my own shoes for this? Or did you pick out some high heels?"

Isabelle shook her head, moving behind him to tighten the ribbon. He gasped as she tugged it tightly, pulling it tight and tying it in a bow.

"Don't be so silly. I know you couldn't walk in heels for your life. With your luck, you'd break your ankle. You can use my converse shoes."

"But your size is too small for me. And I have my own. Why can't I use my own?"

The girl sighed like she was talking to a child who couldn't get the simplest of math equations through his head.

"Your shoes are just like your clothes. Tattered, and gross, and ripped. Besides, mine will be fine, maybe just a little tight."

Alec didn't want to, but he also didn't want pink hair.

"I'll wear them," he agreed, putting his head down. He hoped no one but Isabelle would see him like this.

"Oh, and one more thing!" Isabelle quickly added, waiting until he looked up. "I have these half-gloves for you to borrow. They might fit you since they stretch a little."

"Why do I have to wear half of a glove?" Alec asked, wishing the day were over already.

"Because they compliment your dress, that's why," his sister responded before leaving him alone and going to retrieve the items she had mentioned.

The young cross-dresser left the bathroom, feeling very much exposed as he left the small space to walk through the other parts of the house. His plan was to just go back outside and sit, but if he felt vulnerable and exposed now, how much worse would he feel outside? The entire area they were in was secluded, the Lightwood siblings were perhaps the only two people for a few miles around.

Isabelle returned to find him sulking by the back door, muttering to himself about not wanting pink hair, and hating how the dress was cutting off the air supply.

She cleared her throat to announce her presence, he looked up and flushed red again. She handed him the shoes and the half-gloves she had been talking about.

Alec really had been picturing half a glove when she had mentioned it, but now that he was looking at it, it was more like a sort of hand sleeve. All it did was cover his hand from his knuckles to about his wrist. It was fingerless and a bit tight around his knuckles, maybe because his hands were bigger than his sister's.

"See," Isabelle started once Alec had put on the small accessories from his sister. "I think you look darling like that. You're going to attract a ton of men from miles around, trust me!"

Alec rolled his eyes. "Can't have that, actually. Mom and Dad would start questioning my orientation if I showed up in a dress with a flock of other guys behind me." Not that the dress wasn't enough to give everything away.

"Guys will like how cute you look, anyways."

"Only if they have a cross dressing fetish, I suppose."

The younger girl just rolled her eyes and looked him over once more.

"There's something missing. I just know it," she said, mostly to herself. No way Alec would appreciate the things she had done to him to change him. He would just say that nothing was missing and everything was fine. Then he'd be off to be boring and independent out by the lake.

As she expected, Alec muttered to himself that nothing was missing. She figured out what was off when he brushed away his bangs out of his eyes.

"Ah, I got it!" she exclaimed, startling Alec. "Your hair!"

"What about my hair?" he asked suddenly, his hands going to cover the dark locks.

"I need to cut it for you!" She had a wild look in her eyes, the second most feared look in her arsenal.

"No, thanks. I cut it myself," Alec refused, backing away to get out of the house. "Once a month," he added.

"And that's where the problem is. You cutting it yourself. In the dark. With your left hand, it looks like." She wasn't that far off in guessing, he supposed. He cut with his right hand, but not quite in the dark. Just not with a mirror. He cut whatever was long.

"I'm going outside," Alec said, picking up the cat that had been so patiently waiting for him to return as he had instructed.

"I'll be right there with scissors," his sister forewarned him. She left and he left the room, and the first thing he noticed when he stepped outside was that it was awful breezy. Especially between his legs. He missed pants already.

Alec set the cat down beside him, the cat had never run off before, so they trusted the cat to be alone outside, or at least not being held on to the entire time.

The dress's ends were pushed slightly by the gentle winds that were passing through. One particularly stronger breeze had given more than just a light push to the dress, and he was suddenly cold. The socks just weren't enough to beat the cold.

Church gave a low groan, deep in his throat, alarming Alec and causing him to look at his cat.

The sleek cat was crouched and groaning loudly, staring intently into the woods behind the house. His tail was whipping back and forth in anticipation. Alec didn't have cat's eyes, but he at least understood something that Church wanted or didn't like was out there.

"Hey, Church? It's okay, kitty," Alec tried in his best soothing voice, taking a step closer to his pet.

As soon as he took that step, the cat bolted, straight for the woods. With little time to stare in shock of his cat actually running away from him, Alec ran after the feline.

He lost sight of the animal when it reached the edge of the trees. Alec skidded to a halt before entering. There was less sunlight streaming through farther in. Running was kind of difficult with shoes too small, and it pinched his feet.

No, he couldn't just give up on his faithful pet like that. He had to search! He started running again, charging straight through and trying to listen for the cat making any noise as it ran through.

He tried to follow the small noises he heard, but it was hard to pick them out since he made thrice that amount of noise.

"Here, kitty kitty! Here kitty!" he called desperately, scared to hell about where his cat could be. Church had never done this before. Church was too bored with little things in life to chase them, like mice, or spiders. Now, suddenly, something interesting enough got him to run off after it?

Alec watched his feet as he ran through the trees, trying to dodge the roots that stuck up, and trying to weave around the trees. He also had to keep looking around for any signs of his cat. Black fur would be hard to spot in the dark, wooded area.

He saw a flash of color streak by, and he was unsure what it was, but he followed it. It was the best lead he had right now. He didn't stop to question why there might be color streaks. Maybe it was just in his head.

"Kitty!" Alec called again. "Kitty!" He made the clicking sounds with his tongue that the cat liked so much. Out of the corner of his eye, he could swear he saw Church. He followed that lead, catching only glimpses as he rushed by the streaks of green and brown of the trees.

When he was nearly sure he had to be close to the middle of the woods, he was positive he saw the long tail of his cat disappear down a fox hole.

Alec was gasping for breath by now, and his feet were on fire. Had he not been a track person, he probably wouldn't have made it this far. He usually had better running shoes, but these at least got him through the trees. Running in a dress wasn't as hard as it looked like. It was almost as easy as running in a track suit.

His cat had disappeared down the animal's den and didn't appear to be coming out any time soon.

Maybe he was stuck? But that seemed unlikely. Maybe it was a mole hole and had tunnels?

The idea of his cat being lost underground scared him a lot. He jogged to the hole and crouched down, careful not to kneel on the fabric of his dress. He tried to peer into the hole, but could see nothing.

Hesitantly, despite his intuition that it was never a good idea to stick one's hand into the strange, unknown hole of a mysterious animal, he stuck a hand in. Slowly, he pushed his hand in farther, as far as he could until he was almost laying down against the hole.

His hand patted around, feeling, searching, and when something felt like it had grabbed onto his wrist, he gave a startled cry and jerked back.

Tried to jerk back, anyways. Something down there had grabbed a hold of him and was intent on not letting go. Alec was seriously regretting his choice right now.

He was beginning to go into full blown panic mode. His arm was caught in a hole, his cat was probably eaten by whatever had a hold on him, and he would be lucky to make it out of this situation with both arms.

His arm was jerked, making him fall onto the ground instead of the hovering he had been doing. Isabelle would kill him when she saw what he had done to the dress.

"Help! Somebody!" Alec shouted, gasping as pain flared up his shoulder when he was tugged harshly. If it wasn't dislocated soon, he didn't know what would happen.

Suddenly, Alec found himself falling headfirst into the hole. To him, it looked as if the hole had expanded to a size large enough to allow his body to dive right in.

A pair of red eyes locked onto his from the dark depths of the pit, and Alec felt himself falling into the largest hole he had ever seen.

(End-End-End)

A/N: I hope it's all right. Drop a review. I have about 11 chapters planned out for this if all goes according to plan.