Midnight Storms
It was a night period and Elliot March had laid his head down to rest. Normally Blood would've held a tea party in the garden, but it had begun to rain. This of course set the mafia boss in a foul mood, but it wasn't as if he could enjoy his tea during a storm. He just had his tea sent to his office and he glared out his window, trying to will the weather into submission. This made Elliot admit something he never thought he would. It appeared that there were some things that even Blood couldn't do.
Every once and a while his room lit up from the lightning. Storms like this weren't common. Elliot was tempted to stay up just to stare in wonder, but he knew that he would have to get back to work soon and he didn't want to let Blood down over something so silly. Not with what he owed him.
The hare was about to drift into slumber when he realized something was wrong. He felt his entire body tense. The Hatter's mansion was normally an impenetrable fortress. The grounds could be pretty dangerous with the brats' habit of abandoning the gate, but he never expected trouble in his room.
The door to his room was ajar. He knew that he had closed it behind him. He had learned when he had first joined the mafia that a closed door could give you enough warning to save your life. Plus manners dictated that you never got changed in the open when a lady could be wandering about.
He hadn't even heard the door open. It had to have been timed with the thunder. He clasped his gun and pulled it beneath his pillow as his eyes carefully scanned for the intruder. How long had they been in there?
He had to wait for the lightning to light up his room. He didn't dare move without knowing the enemies location. It was better that they remain ignorant that he had become aware of their presence. He wasn't conscious that his ears twitching about would've given him away had he been in any real danger.
He felt the tension leave his body when he heard quiet sniffling. Another loud round of thunder hid the noise. After it died out he swore his could hear soft whimpering. Elliot gave a small sigh and released his gun, sitting up in his bed.
He kicked the covers off of his body. A shame, really. He had just gotten comfortable. He practically rolled out of bed and wandered to his light switch. Since it was his room he had no trouble locating it in the dark. He switched the light on and scanned the room.
Nothing. He didn't see anything. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He heard another sniffle. He shook his head chasing out the word 'ghost' from his mind. He turned to the direction it came from, slowly approaching it.
It was coming from... His desk? He scratched his head and then groaned. He crouched down and leaned to look underneath his desk. He stifled and laugh at what he saw.
Pierce had curled up underneath his desk. He sniffled and his lower lip quivered as he saw the hare had found his hiding place. When thunder crashed through the room Pierce jumped visibly nearly hitting his head.
Elliot switched from his crouched position to sitting, making himself comfortable. The dormouse was easily startled and was often treated poorly. In Elliot's mind there were both a part of the Hatter's Mafia, so he'd do his best to understand.
He wasn't really sure how to handle this situation though. He awkwardly scratched his head and cleared his throat before speaking up, "So, uh... The storm's freaking you out, is that right?"
The poor trembling guy didn't even make eye-contact. He just nodded mutely, his eye shut tight. He had his arms raised in front of himself protectively. It was hard to imagine that he was the cleaner. He had seen and done much, but he was so timid. He had met the dormouse before, but he was always so busy and always so tired. He didn't really know much about him, other than that he was terrified of the Cheshire cat from the amusement park and he's take a cup of coffee over a cup of tea. Blasphemy in the Hatter's mansion.
The hare cracked his neck and prepared to settle down for the long run, "It's okay. You're safe in here. Nothing's going to hurt you."
Pierce's eye opened slowly and he observed the march hare. His head tilted, and he actually looked kind of cute, "Are you trying to comfort me?" his voice was soft. It was barely audible over the rain.
Elliot rubbed his face and kind of chuckled at himself, "Yeah, I guess. I'm pretty terrible at it though. Sorry about that."
He slowly lowered his arms. Now he was just gripping himself in a shrug. He was still trembling a little, but he seemed calmer, "You're trying to comfort me..." he sounded so confused.
Elliot kind of nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. He felt so awkward. It wasn't as if he could be mad at the mouse for ducking into his room with how terrified he obviously was. If it was the bloody twins that had interrupted his rest, he would've yelled and tossed them out on their asses. He had no clue how to deal with this guy.
"Uh… I'm Elliot March," he felt awkward introducing himself, but he was sure that they had never actually been formally introduced.
He gave a small giggle, "Of course I know who you are, Elli."
'Elli?' this kind of threw the hare through a loop, but he knew that it was best to leave him be for now. He seemed to have gone through enough, he'll have to tell him not to call him that later.
"Think you can get out from under there?" Elliot kind of chuckled and he saw the dormouse's cheek flush and he hid his face in his hands.
"Did you want me to leave Elli? I'm bothering you, aren't I? I'm sorry, Elli. I just really don't like storms," his voice was trembling and it was obvious he was trying to hold back tears. Elliot hadn't meant to upset him just when he had gotten him to calm down.
Elliot took a deep breath, "You didn't upset me, Pierce. I just thought you couldn't be comfortable under there. I'll keep you company until the storm lets up, okay?"
The green eye that was visible lit up and he gave a pleased squeak and leaped towards the hare wrapping him a tight hug, "Oh, Elli, you're the nicest person ever!"
The impact made Elliot fall backwards. He felt a little silly rolling around on his bedroom floor with the dormouse, but he was just glad that he had stopped crying.
Elliot pulled himself up, Pierce and all. He stood the smaller man up. He pulled out his chair for the dormouse to sit down, but he bolted past him and wrapped himself up in Elliot's covers. The hare stared at his bed, dumbfounded.
Elliot crossed his arms and sighed loudly, "What do you think you're doing?"
He poked his head out from underneath the covers, his hair and eye the only thing visible. He could hear him respond from behind the covers even if it was a tad muffled, "I thought Elli was tired so I thought we could probably just sleep through the storm together."
He thought about kicking him out of his room. He really did. One look at that cute little mess curled up in his bed and he caved. He walked over to the light switch and turned it off, "You better not steal all the blankets."
Pierce nodded excitedly and released the blankets so that 'Elli' would have enough to curl up underneath. Elliot supposed that he should be thankful that his bed was big enough for guests, not that it was a common occurrence.
Elliot stiffened when he felt Pierce curl up to him once the blankets had been laid over them. It wasn't that he found the touch unpleasant; he just found it a little hard to relax when sharing his bed. Though he knew that the dormouse would never try to harm him.
He could still feel him trembling. He had been acting so cheerful it never occurred to Elliot that he was still afraid. He jumped ever so slightly when thundered. Elliot gave in and wrapped an arm around him, hoping that Pierce would fall asleep and get some of that rest that he desperately needed. It didn't take long for a contented sigh to fall from Pierce's lips as he snuggled into Elliot's neck. The small warms breaths made Elliot's skin tingle and he felt that it was going to be him having a hard time falling asleep...
Elliot awoke to the sound of his door being splintered, torn apart by the bloody twins and their large axes. The March hare sat up, grabbing for his gun. This sent the smaller dormouse rolling off of him. He hung upside down, halfway off the bed, staring at the mischievous brothers.
"I'm going to kill you little snots! Why the hell would you break down my damn door!" he felt like smacking the two little idiots, but at the end of the day they were one of them and he'd never disappoint Blood by attacking family.
Their faces quickly shifted from playful , surprised and then finally to amusement, "Wow, blond chicken rabbit. If we'd have known you were busy we'd have told boss that he should get someone else to handle it," Dee was shaking his head as if considering Elliot's situation seriously.
Dum crossed his arms and nodded his head agreeing with his brother, "Didn't know you were that friendly with the cleaner. Whatever. Guess we'll have to find someone else to play with."
They turned around to leave the room. Elliot could feel his anger replaced with embarrassment, so he found himself unable to defend himself from the twin's quips. As they left, they spoke in unison reminding him, "Boss wants to see you. He'd probably understand if you're a bit late."
"Stop poking your noses in other people's business, you brats!" Elliot yelled after them desperately.
He looked down to see Pierce exactly where he had fallen. He stayed completely still during the entire conversation as if frozen. Elliot chuckled and shook his head. Right. He was afraid of the little idiots, wasn't he?
He held out his hand to the cowardly mouse, offered to help him up, "They're gone. They're probably not going to come back," he eyes drifted back to the devastated door and muttered, "I don't care if it'll fix itself in a few time periods. That door is coming out of their pay. Idiots."
Pierce gave a small giggle and gave the March hare's hand, allowing him to pull him back onto the bed, "Thanks for everything last night Elli. No one's ever been that nice to me."
"Yeah, yeah," Elliot waggled his finger at the dormouse, "Don't get too used to it. And don't call me 'Elli', alright?"
Elliot expect some sort of disappointed look. Maybe dejected. But nothing. He stretched. And looked unbelievably cute as he yawned. "Elli?"
Elliot rolled his eyes. Apparently the gutsy little thing had just decided to ignore him, "What?" he knew he sounded annoyed, but he didn't seem to pick up on it.
The small boy leaped forward and gave the hare an energetic hug, "Elli! You're my favorite person in the world!"
Elliot could feel the blush rush to his cheeks. He was always so proud to be useful to Blood, but he had never imagined that he could be someone's 'favorite'. All because he didn't have it in him to toss the whimpering mess out of him room.
Soon enough a matching blush covered Pierce's face. He stared at his new friend and swallowed hard, "Elli?"
Elliot found it kind of hard to make eye contact, so he decided to stare where his door used to be, "Y-yeah? What?"
"Elli is super cute when he blushes. Think I can squeak in a kiss?"
The march hare choked on air out of surprise and looked at the mouse incredulously, "What did you-"
Before he could even finish his sentence, the small boy pounced on him pressing his lips against Elliot's. He had never imagined that he'd do something so unexpected, so aggressive. Though he had to admit he liked the mouse's soft lips against his.
For once Pierce wasn't the only one who jumped ten feet in the air, when a tapping noise rang through the room. They looked towards the sound. Blood Dupre stood in the doorway, tapping his cane against the doorframe looking amused.
"I don't mind what you do in your free time, but when you're on my time you'll keep your tongue to yourself," Blood chuckled, shaking his head at his subordinates.
"Of course Boss!" Elliot was kicking himself for forgetting why the twins had woken him up in the first place.
Blood strode out of the room. Elliot knew that Blood would wait for him to make himself presentable for work. The hare looked around the room, to tell Pierce that they could talk later, but he noticed that he was now alone on the bed.
He leaned over to look under his desk. Nothing. He hung upside down from his bed and looked underneath. "There you are. I have to get to work. You probably should too. You don't want Boss to get upset with us, right?"
Pierce nodded from underneath the bed, a sweet smile wide across his face, "Whatever you say, Elli!"
A/N: Written for my beta's birthday. There's more Alice fanfiction to come. ElliotxPierce seemed like a natural place to start. The thought of Pierce being afraid of storms was just way too cute to pass up.