Chapter 1
The beloved guest
Tired, baggy eyes stared dully at the ratty reflection on the mirror on the other side of the room. A brunette lay tired and battered from the everyday struggles that came along with being a human. Amber eyes blinked lazily and blurred out the edges of his vision as if to force the boy into resignation, to take a well-deserved nap. Slowly, it darkened the world the bruised boy saw, so as to say "Show's over folks!" and drew the curtains to end the play. The boy complied and drifted into a slow lull, his thoughts shifting from the ceaseless chatter of gossiping ladies to that of the gentle buzzing of bees, and finally shifted to a silence that would only be broken by a pin.
When the brunette woke up, he saw a silver bunny looking at him with unimpressed eyes. In fact, it couldn't even be called a rabbit- it was a stuffed doll with half-hearted patches that blocked any holes. It looked like the doll's equivalent of a sinking ship. Looking at the boy's judgy eyes, it grew indignant and tapped its fluffy, overly large feet that were too big for its body. The loud taps and the crossed arms made the boy snap straight up. He then moved his eyes to the world around it. The skies looked like they were a painted piece and the clouds were pinned up to the sky with literal safety pins. The sky seemed to be caving in due to the weight of the clouds and the pins.
There was grass under his feet, but when he added weight to the ground, he couldn't feel the underlying earth- but he could feel more grass. It made him feel like he could sink into non-existence, and it scared him a little. When he looked around, there were trees that he swore looked like they were staring at him through the tree hollow. But since they couldn't close their eyes, their intense stares had made their eyes hurt, and they wept dew drops of tears. Before he could observe more, the rabbit demanded his attention.
"Speak up, boy! Time's a wasting and you're going to ruin the tour."
"...What do you want me to say?"
"I know you've got plenty to say!
The suit on me is chic and the pocket watch shines like gold. Where does he get that style? Where does he get those looks from?
Look at the rabbit's fabulous fur and the sleek shine! Even the moon's got nothing on him. I'll have you know I've ditched that lass after a good pounding. It's her that keeps those memories like her very own shadows. But I ain't ever going to look back. The moment's passed.
And before you make a request, too bad, lad! You ain't going one foot next to it, let alone have a chance to feel it. You're not going to be my sugar daddy."
The boy looked shocked at the delusions that the rabbit could come up with. It was nowhere close to what he had in mind. The rabbit had almost gotten into a hysteria, hiding his fur from his sights like as if he was going to act like a damn pervert, by sniffing it and molesting it or something. Even if it seemed like the rabbit expected him to pet it, or do some kind of play beyond that, he shuddered, he dare not do that. Other than the fact that it quite frankly intimidated him with that opening, it had worked itself up so much that stuffing was slightly spilling out of its patches.
"U-um... Your patches-"
He flinched and shut his mouth promptly when given a death glare for his warnings. Its glower darkened with every stare that lingered in its flaws and so the brunette changed topics.
"Nevermind all that. Where am I? How did I get here?-"
"Tut, tut. How self-centered. Straight to yourself huh?
You've got to be a bit more considerate, Alice. You won't make any friends if you can't put someone else in your eyes."
"Don't call me that. My name's-"
"You sure you want to divulge that? Even though, I've been so kind as to give you an alias?
No-one knows you here. No-one has to know about you here. Thus, you can be yourself here."
He shakily stood up and a breeze fluttered into his legs. He was wearing a sky blue pin frock with a white apron and a black hairband on his hair. He even had striped stockings and black ballet shoes. It left him momentarily speechless and then he blew his top, shrieking in embarrassment.
"Why would you give me these clothes out of everything to wear?! I'm a guy!"
"Your visit was unexpected. You weren't even invited, yet you decided to barge in anyway. We had to settle with this, to set up your dream world."
"You decided that My idea of a dream world would be a knock-off of Alice in Wonderland?! You aren't even a real rabbit."
It seemed to have touched a nerve since the other glared at him before it huffed at him and complained.
"We chose that as the theme since it's closest to what this mirror side represents, conceptually. I'm not a real rabbit, because we decided to stick close to your actual world so that you have something to relate to. When was the last time you actually saw a real rabbit, let alone a rabbit that walks on two legs and talks in your tongue? Hmm? Never?
I thought so."
"If you're not a real rabbit, what are you? I can't refer you by any other name in my headcanon."
"True, if we meet again later, I can be in different forms. If you must address me, call me Gokudera Hayato."
"Well... umm, Gokudera-kun, if we're in my dream, could you give me something else to wear. This dress is kind of disturbing me actually."
"Oh... right, you don't fancy wearing things that revealing, do you?"
The brunette felt like if the other had opposable thumbs, it would have snapped it to create a trick. But he just blinked and after the instant where the world turned dark, his clothes had changed.
It was now a frilly pale blue jacket on a white dress shirt. He had long, narrow slacks that reached his toecap shoes that he had worn over long checkered stockings. He had full glows that showed none of his skin and had a shawl that wrapped loosely around his neck, so as to not suffocate him. It was, surprisingly not stuffy.
"I feel like I'm too dressed up for this."
"This world has no dress code that you need to adhere to, so you don't have to dress up for anyone. If you're comfortable, things should be fine."
After that, it looked at him imploringly, awaiting further requests and the boy felt like for an uninvited guest, the other was being very hospitable to him. Gokudera-kun just stared silently at him, waiting for the former to make a move. So he decided to walk around a bit to get a feel of his surroundings. He heard squeaky footsteps that followed him wherever he went. It was as if he had gotten himself a butler.
He moved to the trees and saw that the leaves looked like his teacher- Nezu's wig. It didn't really fit onto the branches and just loosely hovered over the tree. it's hollow had been shifting upwards as he moved closer to it, to keep him in it's view and the brunette had the morbid curiosity to wonder what would happen if he stuck his hand into it.
"Alice. You don't have to wonder at all here. There are no consequences for any type of curiosity. No one would say that you're wrong in satiating your curiosity."
"But still... "
"It's just a dream. Who's going to find out what you've done here?"
Seeing the boy scrunched his face as he imagined that the tree would cry out in pain, the rabbit offered a solution.
"Don't worry, Alice. I promise you, it won't have any protests against your actions.
As a guide, I'm here to make your visit a pleasant one."
Being egged on by those promises, the boy brushed his finger against the hollow of the tree. True to the rabbit's word, there wasn't a peep from it. More dew dripped from the trunk as he sunk his finger deeper and deeper into the hole. It was as if his hand was in jelly. Pearl-like dew spread around the hole like spider webs. They were very pretty, glittering like that. Ruby like flowers bloomed at the edges of this web, making the tree look magnificent. The brunette wanted to see more trees looking like this, so he wandered off, not bothering to look at the tree whose hollow no longer followed him.
Of course, the brunette didn't obsessively poke into the tree hollows of all the trees, but in his wandering around, he ended up deeper into the forest. The boy wandered into a meadow of golden daffodils that shone like the sun. When he stepped into the bed, his feet felt like they were soothed of all burns and his fatigue washed away. It seemed like it was radiating golden and shrouded him in its beams. But when he looked up, there was no sun so it made him distinctly feel that incongruity.
"Gokudera-kun, where's the sun?"
The rabbit huffed forward, its bushy tail bouncing irritatedly, to the meadow and it chastised it loudly
"You guys better stop slacking around! Alice's skies need the sun."
The flowers fluttered around in panic, before the whole bed got uprooted into the sky and bunched up to form a dense garland that resembled a child's drawing of a sun. The sky immediately creaked down in its weight.
"We weren't slacking off! The sky wanted a break and told us to give it five so that it could have relief from its back pain!
What did you do that for, kid?! That was extremely uncool. I bet you haven't even experienced how that would feel like, with your youthful body."
The brunette looked around confusedly, trying to find the source of the slightly gruff squeaky voice.
"Don't you act the fool! Look at me when I talk to you!"
The rabbit came forward and stepped on the lone remaining daffodil and shouted angrily.
"Doofus! With that size, you won't even enter his sight of vision! How do you expect Alice to look at you straight in the eyes?!
Have some sense, you dunce!"
Then the flower grew larger and transformed into a huge sunflower, at the same size as that of the brunette. When it turned to face him, it faced east and the garland howled in pain. When the brunette looked upwards, he stared in slight horror as petals were forcibly plucked and scattered into the sky. Drops of crimson followed the petals and changed the time to dawn.
The bunny looked at the dawning horror on the boy's face and mumbled, "Oh right, you didn't like those sounds." He then waved his paws, and a breeze carried the shrieks and shrills away with the wind. The sunflower slapped the brunette with its huge leaves lightly, to bring his attention.
"That hurt, bugs bunny! What would you do if I can't orchestrate the time anymore? My followers would be lost without me!"
'Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?!'
"Don't call me that! You changed the time to dawn! It's supposed to be morning right now!"
"How am I supposed to meet Alice's eyes then?! We can't talk man to man that way."
"How 'bout if Alice just moves to you instead?!"
"I'm not going to stand around passively and wait for the talk to happen! I'm a man of action!"
The brunette hysterically asked, "Wait, what about those daffodils that were bleeding there?! Are they all right? No, of course not. Why did that happen?!"
The rabbit looked at him, unimpressed. "Where do you think we would get that shade from, then? Do you think the sky will turn red magically?"
"Then you could take mine."
"Not happening, do you think 3-4 pint of blood is enough to dye the whole sky red?"
Seeing the alarmed expression the brunette made at that, he reassured him with "Don't worry lad. We wouldn't make a deal that's that unfavorable. His group's just lending the amount for the time periods of dawn and dusk. I would personally have tried to get a better deal-"
The sunflower spatted out indignantly, "This Sasagawa Ryohei wouldn't do something so disgraceful like take interest from something in need!"
"See, this guy is that kind of idiot." the rabbit looked so fed up with the other's shit and weirdly enough if the brunette imagined that the other took a wiz off a cig, it would fit right at home.
"Unfortunately, this body would burn up if I puffed a cig. The fabric's inflammable."
"Pfft! It serves you right! You should use this opportunity to kick that hobby."
"I think it's equally ironic that the doctor is making a crowd bleed, twice a day, even-"
"It gets back inside them either way-"
"Yeah, when the sky pukes it back at the sun. You're the catalyst for the bleeding either way-"
The sunflower's leaves gave the rabbit a bunch of slaps, to which it snorted and said "To think the boxer can't pull any punches anymore. You're not either of the professions that you take so much pride in."
"What are you saying, these are magnificent punches."
The boy sweat dropped at that and decided to make that statement true. So he moved to a nearby tree and plucked two twigs from it and curled the leaves inwards and finally pinning the curl in place with a twig. He did it with the other leaf and the sunflower looked at its new formed fists in awe.
"Woah, Alice! This is extreme!"
It then looked upwards to the sky and pumped its fist upwards. The sky immediately groaned and puked sickly, but its voice got carried away into silence and the red droplets and petals gathered into the garland making them look refreshed and shine brightly. The heavens groaned at the slight weight that got concentrated at the center. When it looked like it was going to turn right towards them, the brunette hurriedly interrupted its movements.
"It's alright Sasagawa-kun, you don't have to turn here."
"But I want to give my thanks-"
"Your sentiments are more than enough."
"Alice... You're a really nice guy!" it sounded oddly touched.
It seemed like it was going to end up turning towards him, so the boy waived it off and gave his farewells hurriedly.
They had rushed into what seemed like a rose garden. The scent was overpowering, making him feel slightly drunk on it. They were right at the entrance gate which was entangled possessively with rose vines. Thorns bared their fangs at him, threatening him to not take a step closer to the gate. The rose gate was followed by a stone pathway that gave a feeling of support. The decorated stones were like a butler, that was trying to show the pathway that he should travel by. It seemed like if he refused the guide and traveled the path less traveled by, his rudeness would not go unpunished.
The rabbit stared at him unnervingly with its beady eyes and quietly said, "Good instincts, Alice"
A shiver traveled across his spine as he paled slightly. He had to be escorted as a guest to wherever the path led him to.
"There are areas which follow the will of their master.", Gokudera warned- advising the other to try any tomfoolery.
So he walked down the colorful delicate pebbles that shone like marbles, but were surprisingly steady to a tea party table that had a kettle pouring angrily into a cup that seemed like it would never be satisfied. It huffed and puffed in anger and blew hotter and hotter tea, infuriated at the cup's audacity. It took a mile when provided an inch.
The other cups formed groups and seemed like they were gossiping and socializing against the uncouth teacup that didn't know its place. The tea cakes visibly sagged, air deflating from them, making the cake look flat and even slightly dented. It looked tired from the long wait. There were other pastries that circled and surrounded the teacup and cakes like as if they were the star of the show. It was a bit surprising since they looked far more colorful and fancy that them.
His eyes then traveled to the lone guest on the table who was waving at them cheerfully, and recognition flitted across the brunette's auburn eyes.
There was a tall teen with black hair having carrot orange, very explicit looking ears on top of his slightly messy hair. The guy wore a brown suit with an open jacket with the dress shirt's top buttons open.
"Hey there, Alice. Glad to see that you were able to make it to the tea party on time."
"...Hey, Yamamoto-kun.
What do you mean by a tea party? I don't remember getting invited to one."
"Hmm? It's right there in your hands, though."
When the brunette looked at his hands, sure enough, his fingers were gripping at a black invitation letter, rimmed with gold. It was open and the red rose seal had been broken, making his eyes peek at a golden sheet of paper that had some words written on them.
"Are you the host of the party?"
"No, no, no. I'm the master's companion. I chose to be the March Hare, to give Gokudera over there some company."
"What 'company', idiot?! Don't put us in the same boat. You're the one who decided to be the pet to the Mad Hatter."
"I don't think he'd appreciate the fact that you called me his sugar baby..."
"I claimed no such thing-"
"And it's not like you're any different. The white rabbit is like the Red queen's pet, right?"
It seemed like the rabbit disliked that sentiment and it felt like the two would get into a fight at this rate, so he intervened and said,
"I've never really been to a tea party before. What do you do in it, anyway?"
The orange rabbit's eyes twinkled as it said,
"You've just got to try the tea they have here. It's amazing." saying that, he grabbed the kettle by the handle and poured it on the next teacup. The cup which had tea poured into it until recently, drained the tea and started turning black and moldy, with moss growing on it and creating cracks. When Yamamoto noticed the state of the old teacup, he flung it aside, callously. It crashed against the stone, and the teen shoved the filled tea in the beautiful, porcelain cup that had a wonderful aroma. The cakes and pastries giggled at the unsightly appearance of the former teacup, while the kettle dutifully filled the rest of the cups with no more trouble. The patch of grass that it was cracked against was freshened up and looked brilliant green.
"You could have at least told him the blend of tea if you're offering it to him." the white rabbit chastised, distracting the other from noticing the uncomfortable look that the brunette sported.
The tea was simply delicious. His throat parched immediately and he just swallowed the rest of it, not paying attention to its taste. He was just, simply, so thirsty. But his vision shook as he remembered the parched cup and the view in front of him, where every cup, even the one in front of the teen itself was untouched.
He wondered if he was ever supposed to drink the tea since he was beginning to suspect that its contents didn't belong in his stomach. He felt like the blades of grass surrounding him looked at his greed disapprovingly.
It seemed that he was now, the substitute for the cracked porcelain that lay abandoned in the field.
The March Hare was laughing sheepishly, as he explained to the white rabbit that he had no idea what that tea was.
he croaked, "Say, Yamamoto. Do you have something other than tea that I could sip on?"
The rabbit stared owlishly at him
"Alice, why would we have anything else on a tea party?"