Ha ha ha. I enjoyed writing this! Hopefully you guys enjoy reading this and please leave reviews at the end! I want to know what you think!
This is a bit of introduction to my other story, Records of The Lost Time. So if you're curious to know about Yulia, please check out my other story and read it! And don't forget to review!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Kuni no Alice series. I do, however, own Yulia who can apparently get no privacy.
Bed
There was just something about being tucked into a bed underneath warm blankets and a thick comforter that made the world's problems go away. Or rather kept them at bay while I got my thoughts in order and figured out how I was going to face the world.
I was not one for running away from my problems. But there were times you had to put things on the back burner or run the risk of burning yourself out emotionally... or going insane. I liked dealing with my problems head on as soon as they entered the picture. But even I couldn't deal with everything that the universe threw at me immediately.
I hated retreating. But sometimes there was no choice.
Which is probably why I buried myself underneath the sheets of my bed and brooded about what to do next. I couldn't hide away in bed forever; eventually I had to come out and deal with everything that awaited me in the outside world.
But the bed was so warm that I figured it could wait.
Nothing short of an emergency was going to drag me out of my safe haven. If anyone else tried to drag me out from under the covers too early, I would mercilessly kick them out.
At some point during my brooding marathon of what I was going to do next, I might have heard someone come into my room. Which I highly doubted since everyone in Clover Tower knew how volatile I could be if I was not left to my own devices when I wanted to be alone.
I realized that it had not been part of my imagination that there was another person with me when I felt my bed shift and the space next to me give out underneath the weight of whoever was making themselves right at home in my room. There was a tense silence as I debated on whether I should check who decided to invade the sanctum of my room when the trespasser spoke.
"...Yulia?" A distinctively feminine voice ventured.
I immediately relaxed and lifted my covers to peak out. There were few people who were brave enough to break into my room, especially if I was in a foul mood, and the owner of the voice was one of them. Out of those who were insane enough to risk their necks like that, she was the one whose presence annoyed me the least.
"Oh, Alice. It's you." I didn't bother hiding the relief in my voice. The intruder in my room was Alice and not one of the more insane Role Holders.
Like, say, the Knight of Hearts, Ace.
"May I ask who you were expecting?" She sounded amused.
"Ace. Nightmare. Gray." I deadpanned as I listed those who were suicidal enough to just enter my room.
Though if it were the former, he would have loudly slammed the door and announced himself before unsheathing his sword and jumping me. Nightmare would have just dived into my bed with no consideration for the fact that he was invading my personal space and Gray would have the grace of mind to let me know that he was coming in... by knocking on my door first.
"What are you doing? Nightmare said that you haven't left your room for a few time changes..." She looked bashful. "He said not to bother with knocking. You would just refuse to let me inside, other wise."
Wait... what?
"A few time changes?" I lifted the blanket enough so that I was giving my full attention to the other foreigner. "I didn't realize so much time had passed."
"That's probably because your room is so dark." Was that an accusing tone in her voice? "You wouldn't be able to tell if it was night or day in here!"
"It adds to the depressing atmosphere and matches my mood. And as strange as it sounds, I find the darkness pretty peaceful." Then I added. "I also feel as if I don't have to deal with the crap load of problems that are on my plate for the moment."
Darkness was often associated with the darkest of evils, but in my experience whether the element was evil or not depended on who was using it. Darkness represented the unknown and undisturbed. It was peaceful because most people were afraid to go anywhere near the element that robbed them of all their senses.
It was also a sanctuary for of sorts when the multiverse and everyone else decided to dump their problems on me.
"Anyways, as much as I appreciate your visit Alice, do you mind leaving? I just want to brood some more and I highly doubt you would find that entertaining."
Another silence settled in after I made my point. Now the only thing left was for Alice to stand up and leave-
"-the hell?!"
A cold rush of air hit me in the face when all of my sheets were suddenly lifted over my head. I barely had time to register the shadowy figure that was looking straight at me before it joined me under the comfort zone. I shivered when the intruder's cold body touched mine, but made no move to shove them out of the sanctuary of my bed.
"Alice!" I hissed. "What are you doing?!"
The stubborn look on her face told me that she was not going to be leaving anytime soon. "Joining you!"
She snuggled up against me and I could not keep the second shiver that ran up my spine. She was freezing!
"Why?" I asked.
"I..." Alice hesitated.
Seeing the sudden downtrodden expression on her face made me sigh. Something must have happened. Again. As good friends the two of us have become over the insanity that was Wonderland, Alice tended to bring drama wherever she went. Not all the time, thank god, otherwise I would avoid her out of principle.
"Whatever. Fine. Join me in the comfort of my bed. There's enough room for the both of us." I scooted back towards the wall to make more room for her.
Seeing the look of delight on her face made me smile. Oh well. I guess if I have to angst in company, it might as well be with Alice.
"People are going to get the wrong idea, you know." I sighed.
"About what?" She asked curiously.
"About us sharing the same bed."
"Why?"
I stared at her. Didn't she realize what kind of conclusions people would draw about two grown women sleeping in a bed together? Or was that just me? Probably me. Alice lived in the Victorian Era, so...
Ah, well. If she didn't get what people could draw from this, then it wasn't my place to tell her. At least it was Alice who decided to pay me a visit and not any of the Role Holders (though I wouldn't complain if Vivaldi was the one who joined me since she was a woman as well).
A few seconds later I realized that I spoke too soon.
"I didn't know there was a sleepover in Yulia's bed!" A voice that could only belong to the Knight of Hearts' laughed. "You should have invited me!"
Both Alice and I looked at each other in horror as it dawned on us that freaking Ace was in my room. Before that information could sink in, we let out simultaneous shouts of pain and outrage as something heavy flopped on to our legs and started crawling over us. I let out another yell as I was kicked in the stomach and Alice shouted that I just elbowed her in the face. In the confusion, the intruder made his way to the space between the wall and me.
Before I could kick the new intruder out, my covers were lifted up once again and I suddenly found myself sandwiched between Alice and Ace.
"Hey! Get out!" I shouted as a pair of arms wrapped around me, turned me around and then crushed me against his hard chest. "ACE!"
Unsurprisingly, the smiling bastard just hugged me harder against him and laughed.
"You're so warm, Yulia!" He grinned.
"Yeah?" I huffed. "That's great. Now let me go before I kick you in the family jewels!"
"Alice!" Though I couldn't see anything from being squeezed into the jerk's chest, I could hear the grin in his voice. "You should hug her too! She'll warm you up!"
A second pair of arms wrapped around me and not only did I find myself being hugged by one person, but two.
"What the hell?! Alice!" My shout was muffled because Ace was still hugging me with all his might.
"Isn't she warm, Alice?" I could feel Ace's grin.
Alice did not reply immediately, but when she did, the foreigner let out a breathy sigh. "Yes, she is."
Wonderful. I was sandwiched between the psycho Knight of Hearts and my friend. I didn't mind Alice so much; it was Ace I had the biggest issue with because who knew where his hands would be going. But unless I wanted to hurt Alice in the ensuing struggle that would end with the brunet being kicked out of my room, I was resigned to stay in this really awkward position.
"Oh god." I groaned when a thought came to me.
"What?" Came Alice's muffled reply from somewhere within my hair.
"People are definitely going to get the wrong idea about this. With Alice, I could have just said we were having a slumber party. But now that Ace is here... it complicates things a little."
I didn't have to look at him to know that Ace knew perfectly well what I was talking about. The amusement was radiating from him and he was just waiting for me to explain it all to Alice.
I decided to go for the direct approach.
"People are going to think that we're involved in a threesome or something." I deadpanned. "No doubt the rumours are going to be all over the place by the next time change."
There was complete silence (again) as Ace and I waited for it all to register in Alice's mind. It was a long silence and just when I thought I was going to pass out from a combination of boredom and the soothing ticking sound of Ace's clock, Alice let out a little shriek that made me squirm due to our close proximity to each other. A chuckle reverberated from Ace while I just rolled my eyes.
"Ngh..." She leaned into me.
"Yeah."
"We'll deal with it later." She buried her face even further into my hair. "Didn't you say you were staying in bed to avoid your problems?"
"I am not avoiding my problems!" I tell her harshly. "I'm just putting them off for now!"
"Isn't that the same thing?" Ace asked.
"Avoiding means to not deal with them at all and to just run away. Putting them off means to deal with them at a later date!"
"Sounds like the same thing to me!"
"No one asked for your opinion!"
The argument between us was abruptly cut off as Alice let out a shout of alarm. Because her mouth just so happened to be right next to my ear, I heard the shout loud and clear which made my knee jerk up right into Ace's-
Let's just say that the Red Knight let go of me really fast after that.
"ALICE!" I growl as she shouted in my ear again.
"There's someone behind me!" She said.
"What?!"
There was no way. There was no way-
"Why didn't you invite me too?! This is the perfect place to hide from Gray!" A fourth voice wailed.
I groaned. Loudly.
"Nightmare?" Just when I thought that the situation could not get any weirder beyond Alice and Ace joining me in my own bed, the Ruler of Clover Country decides to grace us with his presence too?!
Then again, he did explain to me when I first came that he could sense everything that was going on within Clover Country. And because Clover Tower was his home and main base of operations, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he could sense the weird... situation going on in my room.
I shouldn't have been surprised he came to check things out. That, and to avoid the looming paperwork that sat on his desk because he kept finding ways to avoid it.
"How rude!" Nightmare huffed. I saw Alice wince at him essentially shouting in her ear and couldn't keep the smirk off my face. Now she knew how I felt when she was shouting in my ear. "I came here to check up on you after I sensed the Knight walk into your room, and this is the thanks I get?!"
'You forgot to add the part where you're clearly hiding from your hardworking assistant,' I deadpanned in my mind. Out loud, I said, "Thanks."
I could feel Nightmare pouting.
After a few minutes of deafening silence, I let out a long suffering sigh that I hoped got the message of just how exasperated I was of the entire situation.
"Alright, we're going to have to lie in bed side ways if we all want to fit in. Men take up a lot of space and no doubt Nightmare is about to fall off the-"
There was a loud thud and a squawk of indignation.
"-bed." I finished with a sigh.
"Are you okay, Nightmare?" I asked.
He groaned.
"You're obviously alive, so I'll take that as a yes. Come on guys, time to make some more room for Nightmare and any other guests that decide to drop in unannounced."
After a lot of arguing between the four of us and who was going to go where, we finally managed to settle on something that made most, not all, of us happy. I was at the edge of the group, near the top of my bed and was lying next to Nightmare. The silver-haired incubus was next to Alice and the other foreigner was sandwiched between him and Ace.
She was now officially Ace's new teddy bear.
Ace for his part didn't complain a lot. Probably because he was next to Alice and got to hug her. Though he did say to Nightmare:
"You got lucky, Mr. Incubus! You're squeezed between Yulia and Alice!" And then he tried to cuddle with Alice and got punched for his troubles.
Nightmare then passed out from shock once Ace's words hit him. He stayed unconscious for half an hour and only woke up after I poked him and kicked him in the shin several times. For some reason, he wasn't very grateful over me reviving him.
Despite the fact that there were three other people in my bed and it was slightly overcrowded, I did not want to leave. Not when it was so warm and soft.
It was so, so warm and comfy.
It was also beginning to make me sleepy...
A loud knock on my door forced me back into the land of wakefulness. Shooting a warning glare at the others not to make another sound, I lifted up my sheets and growled, "What?!"
"Yulia, I am sorry for disturbing you," It was Gray. "But I was wondering if Lord Nightmare was in there with you?"
I felt the body right next to me stiffen at the mention of his name. Shooting him a second glare, I placed a finger over top of my lips to signal him to keep his mouth shut. Taking a deep breath, I proceeded to lie my ass off.
"No. He's not in here." Annoyance coloured my voice as I answered Gray back. "I haven't seen anyone for a while if you haven't noticed. I've been in bed the entire time, and I highly doubt your esteemed ruler is going to be hiding in my room of all places!"
"I... apologize." I winced. He sounded pretty crestfallen; might have overdone it with the acting to sound realistic. "But I have looked all over the tower for him and the only place I haven't properly searched is your room."
"I'm pretty sure I would have heard him come in. But no one else is in this room but me!" Blatant lie, but he didn't know that and Gray was too much of a gentleman to break into my room and catch me on it.
"I apologize once again." He said and the kicked-puppy tone made me feel like an instant jerk. But it was too late to take them back now. I listened to the footsteps outside my room fade away in the distance as Gray resumed his search for his lazy ass boss. "I shall be taking my leave."
"We're going to have to make this up to him later." I said once I was sure it was safe to talk again. I sighed, looking at Nightmare. "He sounded really hurt."
"Well what do you expect?" Nightmare frowned at me. "You were yelling at him for entirely no reason. You didn't have to yell."
"I had to! It was the only way to convince him you weren't staying in my room!"
The strange look that Nightmare me told me that wasn't what he was getting at.
Before I could ask him what he meant by that, there was another knock on my door.
"Dammit, Gray! He's not here!" I shouted at my door (again).
"I am not the Lizard." A deep voice said in annoyance.
"Julius?" I said incredulously. What did he want? Last I checked, the guy stayed holed up in his own room unless he had to absolutely leave it either for clock supplies or ground coffee.
So what did the hermit want with me.
"I will get straight to the point. Have you seen Ace?"
"No." I said, using the same tone of voice I used on Gray. "I haven't left my room in ages. There's no way I would have seen him. Why?"
"...Ace was supposed to have dropped in four time changes ago. He has yet to appear."
"...you're talking about the guy who gets lost on a constant basis because he lacks a sense of direction. He couldn't make it on time ANYWHERE if his life depended on it." I shot back.
I muffled the 'snnrk' beside me just in time and judging by how Alice's giggle had been stopped midway, Ace must have quieted her down as well. If either of them gave the game away to Julius, then he would let Gray know where the Great Lord of Clover Tower was hiding and then ALL of us would get into trouble.
"Besides, don't you think that part of the tower would be destroyed if we saw each other by now? If just because I do not appreciate people entering my room without permission?"
At this point EVERYONE could attest to just how destructive our battles got when we drew our swords. Even more so once Gray got involved. Good thing everything here fixed itself after the time period changed, otherwise I would be paying for a lot of structural damage.
"That's true." Julius let out a long-suffering sigh.
At this point I could sympathize with him since there were three uninvited guests making themselves at home in my bed!
After Julius' footsteps faded, I lifted my head so I could see Ace.
"Shouldn't you go and see him?" I asked.
"Nah. I'll check up on him later! For now, I'll just stay in your bed and forget about life!" The Knight grinned.
"I was putting off dealing with my problems! Not forgetting about life! There's a difference!"
I flopped back on the bed. Whatever. Dealing with all of this was tiring and I just wanted nothing but sleep at this point.
"I'm going sleep. Wake me up if something interesting happens. Don't bother if you're leaving." I stretched my arms, yawned, and then dragged my pillow towards me and placed it underneath my head. "Good night."
"Yulia!" I heard Alice shout. "Don't leave me alone with them! Yulia!"
Good night, Alice. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Or in your case, don't let Ace try anything funny.
Waking up was the most awkward thing in the world. If just because I happened to wake up firmly snuggled in a sleeping Gray's arms with little breathing room. His chin rested on my head and he was clutching me pretty tightly... like a teddy bear.
"Ace! Release me!" The harsh whisper of Julius' voice made me jump... or jump as best I could in my place.
"Aw, but Julius, Alice won't let me hug her any more!" Came the Knight's reply.
"With good reason!" Julius shot back.
Gray grumbled underneath his breath, letting out a noise of displeasure as he brought me closer to him. I tried to shove him away because he was beginning to suffocate me, but that just made him tighten his grasp around me even more.
...
...when exactly did Gray and Julius get into my bed?
Whoo! I am finally done!
Sorry, I've been working on this for hours so I'm burned out, but I hope you enjoy it! Please don't forget to review the story!