A/N: Yaay, chapter two! I realize Sharon wasn't included in Oz's whole flirting session, and that's because THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO AGE. As in, in this AU, there are no chains (spoiler!) and all the contracted people are not contracted, therefore they do not not age. Aka they age. Aka they do not not not not not not not not not not not not not NOT age. Well, actually... They kind of age, but they don't age, and at the same time they sometimes age... Just pretend that for the Pandora Hearts cast, aging is a very complicated process.
And, yay, Oz's life turns into chaos! Isn't making your characters suffer fun?
"So, what's the point of this again?" Oz mumbled as he flipped through the pages. Written on them were all the lines that he was supposed to say, when he was supposed to say them, and what the priest would say first. All in all, there were about five pages, double-sided, written in small script. He tossed them aside and the maids shrieked.
"Oz-sama!" One of them rushed forward and began to gather them all up. "Oz-sama, you must take good care of these pages for now! It is only a few minutes until the ceremony begins, and we don't have the time to recopy all these pages!"
"Ah, whatever!" Oz sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I just wish that the ceremony was over with already! It's so stupid, anyways!"
"Don't say that, Oz-sama," the maid chided. "It's very important - today is the day you officially become an adult."
She shoved the papers back into his hands, and he sighed again. "I wish the stupid ceremony didn't have to take place," he muttered.
-0-o-0-o-0-
"And now... Please welcome Oz Vessalius, who is officially turning into an adult today!"
Oz fidgeted and looked around. He didn't see his father anywhere, but that wasn't much of a surprise - his father preferred to not have to see him if possible. He sighed, then turned back to the priest and began to recite his lines.
"I, Oz of the Vessalius household, do swear..."
Before he could get any further than that, he heard a loud explosion. Then the acrid scent of smoke hit him.
Smoke?
He looked up, aware that he wasn't meant to right at that moment, but wanting to anyway. Why did he smell smoke? It couldn't be - the house?
He heard a loud bang and spun around. Standing at the entrance to the ballroom, leaning on one of the doors, stood one of his family's butlers. The man held his arm, which had turned an unnatural shade of red, and yelled, "Everyone, out! The house is on fire!"
Everything after that was a blur.
Oz could faintly remember falling as the priest yelled and shoved him aside, dashed to the doors, and escaped. He thought that he stayed there for a few minutes as everyone else began running, panicked, and then getting up and forcing his way over to the doors. He'd turned around and run back in, searching for Gil and his younger sister, but he hadn't been able to find them - everyone's faces were blurred in his memory. He stayed there long after the guests had left, searching for the only two people who were precious to him. He searched behind the potted plants, behind curtains, under tables and chairs, but couldn't find them. He remembered a faint sense of panic as the room filled with a thick cloud of smoke, and he could remember a faint, stinging pain that he guessed was from jumping out a window. Then, for a long time, he ran.
He ran outside, over the lawn, refusing to look back at the raging inferno that had consumed his house. He ran into the woods that his father and guests sometimes hunted in, and he ran until he felt like his lungs would burst and his legs would fall off. When he fell, he crawled. He crawled until his hands and knees were bloody and sore, and when his lungs and his feet couldn't take it anymore, he clawed his way over to a tree stump, somehow pulling himself up on it to sit and rest. His vision blurred and his eyelids drooped, and, exhausted, he shut his eyes and fell over.
The last thing he remembered was the feeling of falling.
-0-o-0-o-0-
"Hey, kid. Human. Wake up!"
Oz felt something hit him on the top of his head, and he bolted upright, only to hit the person with his forehead.
"Owww! You stupid human! Apologize for that!"
"Apologize for what?"
The girl - it sounded like a girl - smacked him on the head again. "Duh! Apologize for hitting me!"
"You hit me first!" Oz gingerly felt the top of his head. It was bruised, for sure. He peered up at his attacker. "Who are you, anyway?"
The girl grinned and stood up, crossing her arms. Her red-and-white cloak billowed around her as she yelled, "I am the Bloody Black Rabbit - the B-Rabbit for short - and I am the most powerful person around here, so you'd better bow down to me and beg for forgiveness, human!"
Oz peered around. In every direction, as far as he could see, there was wilderness - giant trees and dangerous-looking vines, all enshrouded in darkness. He looked up; the sky was dark, as though it were night, minus the moon and stars. Even the ground was a dark, sickly green. "It doesn't look like there's anybody around except for the two of us."
She hit him again, and as he clutched his head in agony, she grumbled, "Well, there used to be. Before they all left and shut me up in this place."
He peeked up at her. Bloody Black Rabbit? Sure, those two bits of extra-short hair on the sides of her head kind of looked like rabbit ears, and her hair was a dark brown - not quite black, but close enough - but... She looked more like a cute black bunny than a 'bloody black rabbit'. "Who named you that?"
She glared at him. "I did. Why, got a problem with it?"
"No, but it sounds more like a joke that your family or friends would call you..." He blinked. "Gil! Ada! What happened to them?"
"Who the heck are Gil and Ada?" she asked scornfully. "Look - give up on finding them, okay? There's no way out of here. I've been trying for at least five years. Maybe if I had a partner like they do, I'd be able to get out, but-" She paused and stared at Oz. He stared back at her.
"What?"
She narrowed her eyes and leaned down over him. He felt beads of sweat begin to run down his neck. "Uh...what is it?"
She sighed and turned away, dismissing him. "Nah. No way a stupid, useless kid like you would be able to be my partner."
He felt like the words were enormous five-ton weights falling on top of him. "Uh... Um..."
She didn't stop there. "How could somebody who got himself trapped in here possibly help me get out? And if you're stupid enough to get stuck here, then obviously you're waaay stupider than me, so there's no way you'd be of any help."
"W.. Wait a minute..."
"You haven't even got any powers, I bet, so how are you-"
"Ooh! Ýou've got magic powers?"
She paused mid-rant and gaped at him. "What?"
His appearance had changed completely. He crouched on his knees and clasped his hands together, beaming up at her. She felt sick - she could practically see the stars in his eyes. "Ooh! So you're the magical B-Rabbit! Amazing! I've never met somebody with actual magic before! Can you show me your powers? Please? Pretty please?"
She could feel her eyebrow begin to twitch. "You're on your knees in front of the Bloody B-Rabbit, the only person you'll ever meet again in your life; you're stuck in an unfamiliar place you'll never leave ever again; you don't know where the heck you are or what happened to your friends-"
"Sister and friend," he corrected. "Although Gil's more like a cute little brother that I can torture all day long."
"-and all you can say is can you show me your magic powers? What are you, crazy?"
He grinned. "Nah. I'm just really good at adapting. You're right, I'll probably never leave here, since you couldn't find a way out after half a decade of searching, so why not just accept that fact? I'm much more interested in your magic right now! Show me! Show me! Show me!"
She watched him hop around her like a cutesy bunny and sighed. "Jeez," she groaned. "Why does my first companion in five years have to be this crazy kid? Fine!" she snapped at him. He instantly sat back on his heels and beamed up at her like a chipmunk. "Just shut up already! I'll show you my stupid magic powers!"
"Ooh! What can you do?" He put a finger on his chin. "Can you turn invisible? Can you teleport? Oh, maybe you can transform into a bunny rabbit!"
Her face heated up, and he grinned. "I was right, wasn't I? You can turn into a rabbit!"
"I don't only transform into a rabbit!" she snapped, still blushing. "I can do this, too!"
She stuck out her hand, and Oz watched as two giant chains flew out from behind her back. She flicked her wrist and they plunged toward him, tying him up.
"I can make chains," she said, watching him struggle in satisfaction. "Only two, for some reason, because even though I can only make one chain if I've got one braid, more than two braids still make only two chains-"
"Braids?" He rolled over and stared at her hair. "I don't see any braids."
She kicked him. "Well, that's because they've turned into chains now, idiot!"
He giggled. "Ohhh... That makes a lot of sense! That's really cool, B-Rabbit!"
She kicked him again. "Don't call me B-Rabbit! When you say it like that..." She shuddered. "It feels like you really want to say 'little bunny'."
"Yeah, but you are a little bunny, aren't you?"
She blushed and kicked him again. "No, I'm not!"
He laughed as she crossed her arms and pouted. "Okay, fine then. What do you want me to call you?"
She frowned. "I'm only telling you my real name because of the way you say "B-Rabbit." Got it?"
He grinned. "Got it!"
"Alice."
"That's a pretty name, A~lice~!"
He watched as a vein began to pulse in her temple. Oops, was that going a bit too far...?
"Argh!" she yelled. "You stupid human! I shouldn't have told you my real name!"
She lifted her hands up like she was holding something, and the air around her hands began to shimmer. "I... Am..."
The shimmer began to darken, and Oz began to scuttle backward as quickly as possible. Uh-oh, not good...
A huge, blood-red scythe - the handle alone was longer than him, not to mention the blade - materialized in her hands, and she swung it down in fury. "B-Rabbit! Don't you forget that, human!"
A/N: Uh... My writing gets really bad near the end...and that's a really bad chapter ending... But I'm actually going somewhere with this, and trust me, there's a plot - an amazing plot, if I do say so myself - so just hang on and wait till then. Okay? The best part is the ending. Ah, how angsty and sad it will be~
Oh, and just a random note: Isn't this so cool? This: ~ It's so perfect for Oz~! Since some of his lines are kinda sing-song type (I don't know a better way to describe it), instead of just saying that he said it in a singsong voice, I'll just use this. It's so cool~! I've got no idea what it's called or what it should be used for, but it is awesome!