Author's Note:

Not gonna lie, this entire fic was born out of my desire to see Blood get well and truly called out for how he treats Alice in the original HnKnA manga storyline.

I don't hate Blood as a character. He can be very amusing, especially his relationship with Elliot, the Twins, and Vivaldi; and I've heard he is much more pleasant in the original game. However, I've never been able to excuse his actions in the first story I encountered him in.

So without further ado, have a chapter of a hurt and angry Alice dressing down Blood at the castle ball.


It was hard to say where it had started. Maybe it was the first time Blood accused Alice of 'pleasuring' all the male role holders, or when he'd tried to strangle her with his bare hands. Perhaps it had even started all the way back when she had first compared him to her lost love. No matter the starting point, it all came to a head when he interrupted her chat with Vivaldi at the ball.

Alice truly admired the Queen of Hearts, on several levels. Vivaldi had a beauty and confidence that she would never posses, and Alice could admire that even if the Queen regularly beheaded people. Alice thought this as she listened to her now, even though he didn't completely agree with everything the Queen was saying.

Blood just had to interrupt things.

"You assume she cares about something other than the love of men."

And with a comment like that! Alice felt anger and hurt boiling up inside her, but she forced it down. Despite Blood's cool attitude, things were becoming heated between him and Vivaldi. If they didn't stop soon a fight could break out, and a lot of people could be hurt.

She wanted to say something herself, but with the way Blood had been acting around her recently anything she said would probably just rile him up more. Seeing Elliot standing to the side, she went to him.

"Elliot, could you try mediating? They really need to calm down." Alice pleaded. Elliot blushed and fidgeted.

"I...uh..."

"See? I told you." Blood's voice intruded once again. The pair turned to look at him. "That little lady doesn't know to survive without them around her."

'What?' Alice thought, her voice lost to her confusion.

"The same thing happened when I first met her. She avoided me by hiding behind her army of love-struck puppets."

The raging hurt that Alice had stamped down earlier came flooding back to her. Where the hell did he get off? She could barely get her own life together, much less figure out how to influence the lives of others! And it wasn't her fault! She never asked for anyone to fall in love with her, no matter what Nightmare said. She never wanted to be hurt by love again, and here he was smearing that hurt all over her and anyone she talked to! How dare he! She'd made good friends here, with Boris, Gowland, and Julius, even with scary people like Ace and the rest of the Mafia. Despite their differences they were some of the best friends she'd had in years. Then Blood strolls in and acts like she's committed some horrible crime just by talking to them!

"Alice? Are you okay?" Elliot's voice is worried, and strangely distant. She ignores it as she steps forward. The words 'tease' and 'manipulate' are the last straw.

Alice never thought about how much the the ballroom could echo until the sound of her slap reverberated throughout the room.

Not everyone stopped and turned to look of course; the room was far too crowded with the sounds of other people. But it certainly caught the attention of all the faceless in their corner of the room, as well as the several of the role holders. Alice wasn't aware of that though, or the way Elliot stared in shock and Vivaldi looked on in surprised approval, she only had eyes for Blood Dupre.

The Mafia boss looked completely scandalized at first, and Alice reveled in it before his features morphed into outrage.

"You...you slapped me! How dare you-"

"Don't." Alice growled lowly. "Don't you even think of acting like the offended party."

As her tone and words sunk in, some of his outrage was replaced with uncertainty. He opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't give him the chance.

"You harass me, act like I'm evil for having a past, tell me I'm a slut for having friends, try to strangle me for breaking a rule I didn't know existed, and you want ME to feel wrong?! Do you have any idea how messed up that is?! Oh sure, you can go off and have tea party in honor of how much I hurt your feelings, but you certainly have a field day messing around with mine!"

Alice wasn't sure at what point the tears started rolling down her face, but she could no longer keep the sobs out of her voice.

"You stupid- I can't- If for one second you would stop trying to...to seduce or bully me into something! I can't even figure out how I actually feel about you! Because- Because every time I try you ruin things by doing something stupid, and pervy, and hurtful and you don't care what I-"

She cut off and bowed her head to suppress the anguished cry that wanted to escape her throat. She stood there trembling for several long moments, until she felt gloved fingertips tentatively brush her hair.

"Alice...I-"

She smacked Blood's hand away without looking up. She wished her next words were strong and confident, like they would be coming from Vivaldi, but instead they came out choked and weak.

"Damn you, Blood!"

The young outsider suddenly realized how quiet it had gotten; the music had died and there was no movement of feet or murmur of voices. She lifted her head to discover that nearly the entire room has stopped to stare at them, at her.

Alice's face burned hotter than she could ever remember. One more sob broke through and she was suddenly running for the castle garden. She croaked out apologies as she bumped into people, but it wasn't long before they parted and gave her a clear path to the door.


Blood watched as Alice bolted from the room, stunned into complete silence.

Once Alice burst out of the room, Vivaldi made a quick gesture to the band and the music restarts. Things slowly began to pick back up, but he could feel the other role holders glare at him. Even the faceless retained some of the tension as they got back to dancing.

"I suppose you're amused by all this." Blood muttered to Vivaldi, who still remained by his side. The Queen of Hearts snorted.

"Were the words said by any other individual, we might be. We will keep out peace for now, since the ball is not over and the young lady is still upset. However, as soon as things have calmed we expect to hear of your efforts to make amends. Even if you do not succeed your efforts will still amuse us."

She suddenly leaned in close to his ear and whispered. "And we expect to hear the full details of the 'strangling' incident when next we visit the garden."

With that she strolled away to greet her other guests, which left the Hatter alone with a very concerned and equally stunned March Hare.

"Elliot."

"Y-Yeah boss?"

"Go find a maid who will show me to a room. I get the feeling I am no longer welcome in the ballroom."

"Uh, right. On it, boss."

Blood was silent as he followed the maid to the guestrooms. Just what was he going to do about this?


AN:

The rant Alice gives Blood is based very heavily off of a rant found in pika-la-cynique's fancomic 'Girls Next Door'. The specific comic containing the rant can be found here:

art/GND130-Outburst-198542810

A dramatic reading of the entire sequence leading up to and including the rant can be found on youtube:

watch?v=jZIJTrC1Krg

You can listen to that to get a better idea of how Alice sounds during this.

Please review and let me know what you think. I am planning on giving Blood and Alice a chance to make up. Though, considering it took Alice leaving to get him to truly own up to his feelings in the manga, I'm thinking something drastic will have to occur if he's going to do that before she leaves.