I have never told you the story of Alice in Wonderland, have I?
-Edgar BergenI don't own Hetalia Ψ
It was too cold to be considered Spring, Amelia decided. Spring should be borderline warm and bright, like her favorite season Summer. It really shouldn't feel as if Winter had decided to take up a few more extra weeks then usual.
But seasonal thoughts aside, Amelia had work to get done, and work she would do. However, she felt inclined to go visit (bother) her older sister Alice, the first daughter of her step-father. Madeline, the youngest daughter and Amelia's only full sibling, was in bed with a passing illness, while the youngest son Peter was out and about with his best friend and stable boy Raivis.
As much as much as Amelia loved her mismatched family, she couldn't help but long for the old days when it was just her, baby Maddie, her mother, and her now deceased father. But things changed, and she had a new and bigger family now. Besides, however much Amelia would miss her father, she'd never forget him, the locket around her neck made sure of it.
"Ally!" Amelia yelled at the sight of her older sibling in the large gardens, sitting under a willow tree, sipping nonchalantly at her black tea with emerald orbs closed to the world.
Emerald orbs snapped open at the sound of the younger and more wild blonde. "Don't shout Amelia," She scowled. "Has no one taught you manners? I can hear you just fine! And that's Alice to you!"
Ignoring the usual and expected grumpiness of the more experienced gentlewoman, Amelia bounded over to Alice, sky blue eyes wide and gleaming. "Lighten up Al, you're so uptight!" Cue indignant stare. "Anyways, just thought I'd come check on you before lessons start."
"You mean you came to visit me just to avoid having to go to lessons, which began five minutes ago." Alice corrected flatly, disapproval lining her gaze. "Don't argue, we both know it's the truth." She added, cutting off the splutter of protest about to leap from her halfsister's jaw.
"Well...can you blame me? It's not like those lessons are going to teach me anything useful!" Amelia huffed, plunking down on the grassy field ungracefully. Her blue and white dress ruffled and shoes untied, she looked like she normally did before her daily scoldings. "'Sides, I'm not even the oldest."
"You are of the Jones family, which means you'll be inheriting your father's estate and money when you come of age." Alice reminded her, having calmed down some. Taking another sip, she began again. "And how do you expect to impress suitors if you're going about yelling like a wild hooligan?"
"That's just it!" Amelia's voice rose in desperation. "I don't want to impress any guy! I want to marry when I'm ready, and I certainly don't want to be with those...those...tea sipping, uptight, oafs that're twice my age!"
Alice's eyes narrowed. "Watch your tone and language. You wouldn't want to get a scolding from father again, would you?" She asked dryly, setting the china cup back on the minuscule plate in her lap.
That shut the reckless girl up, but did nothing to rid her of the pout perched on her features.
Satisfied at the silence, Alice said "Now that you're done with your rambunctious ramblings, I'd like to get some reading done. Charles Dickens is an author not to be neglected." With that final statement, the dirty blonde-haired woman pulled out one of his famous tales, instantly flicking it open to the page it'd been marked to.
Amelia sulked for a minute more, before crawling over ( to which Alice winced for she was getting grass stains all over her nice dress) and grabbed a random book from the pile Alice brought out with her. Maybe Alice wouldn't send her back to her classes if she read with her in silence.
Padding back over on all fours ( earning another wince from Alice), Amelia settled herself comfortably against the wide trunk of a huge oak tree, pulling the large, maroon-covered book into her lap.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland..." She murmured the title aloud, blue eyes darting over the old cover and drinking in the age. The book itself was well-taken care of (her sister did love her books) and in good condition considering when it had been printed.
Alice glanced up momentarily. "Oh, that one. That used to be my favorite when I was a young girl. My elder brother would read it to me to ease me to sleep near every night." She said softly. "It would give me the strangest dreams..."
Amelia flicked her gaze up, interested. "Really? This old thing? Wow, I always thought you read Beckford or Shakespeare to bed!" She teased lightly.
Alice rolled her eyes. "No, you imbecile. I did read children's books too, believe it or not. Besides, I started Beckford at ten and Shakespeare at fourteen." She stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "But Lewis came before that..." The woman began to mumble, eyes taking on a nostalgic and thoughtful look. "Or was it Frank...?"
Amelia did what she did best and tuned the muttering gentlewoman out. No point in stopping her now, she'll go for the next ten minutes or so. Instead, the blonde turned her attention back to the book sitting in her lap, interest for reading it rekindled.
Fingering the cover, Amelia gently pushed it open with care lest she tear the childhood treasure. "Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister..." She read near inaudibly to herself. It was a quirk Amelia had, reading out loud. Something no one really cared enough or bothered to correct. "At least she's reading at all," Her step-father had murmured a while back.
Heh, Alice, Amelia smirked slightly at the name shared between fictional character and real one. It led her to wonder whether her sister ever dreamed of taking her namesake's place and adventuring down in Wonderland. I know I would... Amelia smiled in envy. Oh how she'd love to be in a world where you weren't expected to follow any rules and be as carefree as possible.
Alice had barely made it through the second chapter before exhaustion began to take over. Resting her head back against the cool bark of the oak tree, she found the silent gardens to be suddenly calming, like a lullaby. Alice had long since stopped her ramblings and returned to her quiet reading, tea cup forgotten as it sat neatly upon the plate.
Surely Alice won't mind if I...close my eyes for a moment... She thought, eyelids starting to droop over tired sky-touched pools of blue. Before they did, she caught sight of Alice not even flicking a gaze in her general direction, just carrying on as if she were awake. Amelia didn't dwell on it, just took the rare opportunity to rest her eyes. Only for a little bit... She thought, not sure whether she mumbled it aloud also.
Then Amelia was asleep, and the clock started ticking.
Ψ
When Amelia awoke, Alice was fast asleep against the willow tree, looking completely dead to the world.
The short-haired sixteen-year old savored the rare moment with a sly smirk and small giggle. How full of surprises Alice was today. First she hadn't reported her back to her lessons ( which she had surely missed), allowed her to stay and read with her ( in what Alice claimed was her special alone time no less), and let her fall asleep. Alice even ended up doing so herself.
Amelia was half surprised no one had come looking for the two of them. Oh well, less scoldings for me! She thought with a grin. Maybe her stepfather would accept the answer that she had been out reading with Alice. He was the main one who wanted them to get along better. He'd understand, right? She really hoped so, his yellings were rarely taken seriously anymore due to the way his huge eyebrows furrowed and moved across his too-small forehead.
While grinning to herself about her stepdad's odd pair of brows, Amelia flipped the book back to the page she had been reading. Oh well, if she were to get caught, at least she'd avoid trouble by being caught doing something good.
Or she would've, had the pages not been completely blank.
"What...?" Amelia asked aloud, thankfully normal eyebrows raising in confusion at the lack of text and pictures to go with it. Was this some kind of joke? If so, who was playing it on her? Certainly not Alice, she considered herself too proper and mature for such childish projects. Madeline was sick in bed, so that left...
Peter... Amelia exhaled loudly. Of course, who else would be so willing for attention to simply switch a book? I'll have to teach him new tricks of the trade. This is elementary. She couldn't help but smile with fondness and pride at his attempt and potential as a trickster. The girl was glad to see at least someone other than herself with the same sense of humor.
Shaking her head, Amelia placed the blank book down, and stretched. She'd converse with Peter about his feeble attempt at a prank later, right now she'd go and wake Alice, so the two could head in for lunch ( and so the older woman could back her explanation of why she skipped out on classes up).
"Alice," Amelia muttered, setting the blank Alice's Adventures in Wonderland book aside in favor of crawling over to her older halfsister. When she wasn't awoken by the curt but gentle shaking Amelia applied, she tried again. "Alice!" She said, a little louder now.
No response.
Alice was breathing, that much was visibly obvious, but she wouldn't awaken. "Ally!" Amelia cried, much more desperately. "Come on, get up! I want to go inside!"
Nothing.
With a small cry of frustration, Amelia sat back on her haunches and took a deep breath. Maybe Alice was just really tired and needed the rest from overworking herself? Maybe she was part of the joke Peter had set up? Both explanations sounded somewhat reasonable, but Amelia wasn't that naive and instantly knew something was amiss.
Pushing herself to her feet, the first notion in Amelia's head was to go find help. Lessons and classes be damned, her stepfather would excuse her instantly if he knew something was wrong with his eldest daughter. A misplaced hot flash of jealousy passed through Amelia as she thought of how much the father unrestrainedly loved his daughter, and how she'd never again experience such a feeling.
A rush of guilt soon followed the negative emotion. How could she stand by so idly and think such dark thoughts while her sister was possibly suffering a fatal condition? That's not what a heroin would do... Amelia thought to herself with remorse.
Stooping down, she made to pick up the British girl, only to be stopped by a curious rustling that came from the large hedge not fifty feet away.
Amelia knew full well it was wrong to leave Alice in favor of following a noise that could be anything from a bird to one of her stepfather's champion dogs, but the curiosity grew until it was near impossible to ignore, and the American girl stepped away from the darker-haired woman.
Well, one tiny glance wouldn't hurt anyone...right? Amelia hurried towards the hedges, the dangerous emotion surpassing her concern for Alice. She was only asleep, right? She hadn't shown any signs of being sick or unwell before she had dozed off either.
Ignoring the prickly leaves of the hedge as she thrust her way through it, Amelia quickly dispatched her dress from the ragged edges. She found herself never minding them even as they shredded her dress and pulled at the fringe.
The cause of the rustling was only a few steps away, underneath a bush. Throwing caution to the wind, Amelia appeased her adventurous side by bending low to clear the foliage away just enough to see the culprit behind the odd and curious noises...
...Only to find a tiny albino rabbit staring back at her, mischief in its crimson gaze and what looked eerily to be a smirk upon its furry lips.
"...That's it?" Amelia stared incredulously down at the tiny beast. "I came all the way through those painful hedges, left my sister behind, tore my dress, and got dirty just to find a useless bunny?" She groaned. The smirk and mischief instantly vanished, replaced by a look of indignant anger.
Amelia paid it no mind.
Or, at least she did until it suddenly dove forward, took the sky blue ribbon given to her by her father before he passed in its jaws, and bolted. And Amelia followed. There was no way she was letting a stupid albino bunny steal her prized possession and get away with it, not in this lifetime.
"Hey! Come back 'ere, rabbit! This is so uncool!" Amelia called after the animal, legs moving automatically as they strained to carry her further after the mischievous rabbit.
If it meant getting that precious ribbon back, then Amelia'd follow the small creature across the four oceans* and many countries, or anywhere on earth. Even down the rabbit hole it was speeding towards.
"Wait-!" Amelia's blue eyes widened, and she skidded to a stop as she caught sight of the gaping hole that resided in the never-ending gardens that should've stopped acres ago. Luckily she stopped just before the huge death trap, whirling her arms a bit to regain much needed balance.
It was only then that Amelia realized the lack of white rabbit around. "Ah-crap!" She swore, forgetting all about manners and words a lady should never use. "My ribbon! That stupid rodent..." The blonde pouted, eyebrows meeting on her forehead.
"Stupid rodent? I've been called a lot of things, but that hurts blondie!" A masculine voice rang out from behind her.
Amelia barely had time to turn around before a flash of red caught her gaze and a pressure on her back sent her tumbling down the rabbit hole.
And the game began.
Ψ
*four oceans: There're five, but this was before the Southern Ocean was named.