Of all the things that happened to me that I never would have expected, I think this topped the list.
"Good morning, Alice," Ace greeted with a soft kiss on my forehead, grinning stupidly. "You're a heavy sleeper, you know. You didn't even notice me here!"
On a regular day I would have just scolded him like I usually did, and more than likely I would have turned him in to Vivaldi for a lecture, too. Except this wasn't a regular day, or at least not one in Wonderland. After all, I'd returned home years ago!
'I'm dreaming,' I thought simply. 'This is just a dream. I haven't been there in a long time, there's no way it's going to come back and haunt me now.' At least, no more than the memory did already. But there was no conceivable way that the knight was really there, at my real house that I'd really bought when I returned to the real world. Of course I thoroughly had believed my time in the wonder-world through the rabbit hole had actually happened, but by now it was no more than a vivid dream.
"Ace?" I finally responded, realizing I'd done nothing but stare at him for several moments.
"Haha~, yep! And they said you wouldn't remember me!" He was definitely being too loud for so early in the morning.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to live with you." He spoke so matter-of-factly that even I could have believed he'd discussed this with me already. "You always said in your world that people weren't bound to a role, so-"
"None of my neighbors saw you come in, did they?" I hadn't been a morning person since I returned back home and no longer had to worry about (or so I'd thought) waking up to find a different man who'd snuck into my bed every day, so my priorities were a bit odd. "I've got a reputation, you know!"
He laughed again, pulling himself over me and pinning me down with his familiar gloved hands. The short-haired man still looked exactly the same, save for a new scar on his cheek, and evidently acted the same as well. His face got serious. "I came all the way here to find you and you're focused on who else saw me? Are you embarrassed?"
"Yes! Do you know what that would look like?" I pointed at the window. "The man that lives across the street is my boss, and he barely likes me as it is. The last thing I need is some pervert breaking into my house and making it look like I'm sneaking men around at night!"
'Calm down, Alice. You've got to be dreaming.'
"If you don't like him I'll just go over and kill him-."
"Absolutely not!" I snapped, Ace seeming totally unaffected by my aggressive attitude. I suppose I hadn't changed much since I'd seen him last, either. "You can't just kill people in this world!"
I surpressed my excitement when he sighed and appeared to have agreed, knowing full well the bipolar knight was liable to try something fishy anyway. In fact, telling him no probably only tempted him more, but if he ended up in prison I know for a fact he would find a way to blame me. I certainly wouldn't appreciate that sort of notice from my father, either, so soon after moving away to America and telling him I could handle myself.
Knowing full well by the foreigner's touch I couldn't possibly still be dreaming, I accepted the insane reality with great reluctance that I would have to take care of him. As much as I wished I could have thrown him out and said I wanted nothing to do with him, he would still end up my responsiblilty one way or another.
"Ace, just give me a minute to get dressed," I told him after pondering the situation more thoroughy (and coming to the conclusion that if worse came to worst I could always have him institutionalized). "Go wait downstairs."
"Alice, I've seen you undress before," he complained. How could I not have seen that coming? He then raised an eyebrow, his face coming close enough for me to feel his breathing. "Unless you found another man? I never thought you were the cheating type."
I pushed him away and patted my night gown indignantly. "What if I did?" I asked hypothetically. "How would it even be cheating?"
"You never formally broke up with me. So if you found another guy, you should break my heart right now." He complimented this statement with a creepily happy grin.
"I can't win with you, can I?" I was completely exhasperated by the Wonderlandian sense of logic that somehow always seemed to make sense. I really hadn't broken up with him before leaving- but we hadn't dated that long anyway! And I definitely didn't have feelings for him anymore. It wasn't possible. There was no way I could still feel anything for a guy like him, especially when I was back in the real world where I could associate with normal, pleasant people. "Just get out!"
After a bit more 'convincing' he finally gave in, but I waited until I heard his footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs before frantically putting on some decent clothing. I dared a glance at the clock- 5:00 a.m.- before collecting my courage and following him down to the kitchen. I had plenty of questions to ask: how was everyone else doing? where there any new Outsiders? how did he come back? how did he find me?
And perhaps most importantly, though I didn't think of this one until I got a good look around the room downstairs, whose blood was on that sword?

AN/This story was an idea I had a while ago, actually, though I took a different turn than I originally had intended. Before I actually had Ace go back WITH Alice, but I thought it would be better if he turned up several years later in a different country entirely :3. I had to move her to America, though, because... well, that's where I live and I imagine it will be much better this way XD