Title: Treasure
Rating: T
Summary: Nick Midnight is a high school girl who's a victim of fierce bullying regarding her appearance and name. On one rainy day she falls into Wonderland and hopes to start a new life. Will she ever find anyone who will accept her for who she is, or will the vicious cycle begin again? Mary Gowland x Original Character
A/N's: I have to admit, AcexJulius is my guilty pleasure ship for Heart/Clover/Anniversary/Joker/Diamond no Kuni no Alice. (Hey, would you look at that - sequential publication order. *shot*) Anyway, here's a Treasure headcanon: Ace is gay and can only love the Outsiders in a family/friend way, but Julius has made the mistake of telling Ace he's actually bisexual, so Ace gets very jealous and protective when Outsiders come to Wonderland so they don't take his precious Julie away.
Chapter Three: Nifty Gifts
As per Nightmare's word, when I opened my eyes in my guest bedroom in the Clock Tower Plaza, upon my bedside nightstand rested a pile of blue, black, and white clothing. On the floor, leaning against the small table, was a brand new pair of black combat boots. Reaching over from the side of the bed and feeling up the side of the footwear, I discover that the two shoes are made of real leather - or at least a good enough faux leather that makes them feel like real thing.
"Damn," I say aloud to myself, "These alone must have cost Nightmare a fortune."
Slowly removing the warm sheets and climbing, or rather my clumsy self tumbles, off the bed, I pick up the pile of clothes, feeling the softness and silkiness of the materials under my fingertips, and begin to change out of the borrowed nightgown.
A smile graces my face and I shake my head back and forth. I mutter, "Of course Nightmare would know exactly what I like - that mental sneak."
My outfit resulted in being a pair of black boot-cut jeans with white ringlets traveling around the circumference of my legs, a long-sleeved, light blue v-neck collared shirt, and a pristine white button-up vest. The clothes were slightly snug and form fitting, attaching to the curves I never knew I had. Almost, just almost, the clothes make me think that maybe I'm not as hideous as I thought.
I look at my reflection in the stand-up mirror that lies against the wall, ironically, in the left corner of the room. Being adventurous, I let my multi-colored brown, black, and streaked red hair down from my ponytail to rest upon my shoulders and beyond. The curls at the bottom bounced up a bit, framing my face to a v-shape. I feel as if I look like a young sparrow - my hair, like ruffled feathers, sprays out vibrantly in every direction. A mixture of straight patches, wild waves, and swaying curls gives me a messy yet pleasant-looking appearance. Capturing a light strand in an open hand, I move the hair and gently push it back behind an ear. After staring at myself for a bit longer, I energetically pat my hands on the sides of my legs in anticipation for the grand day, and after pulling up the pair of new, beautiful boots, I walk out of the room and down the stairs to the main congregational room where Alice and Julius were gathered and having a discussion, barely remembering to return the used nightgown and robe to the other female's room beforehand.
_~|TREASURE|~_
"There is no space for you to remain living here permanently."
"Julius! Don't say it like that, you sound so mean."
After staying in the Clock Tower's hospitality for a single night, it was time for me to be pushed out. While I have no idea where I will be able to stay - Alice suggested the Castle of Hearts, but that would be way too fancy for my tastes - and I'm a bit worried about looking for such, I can understand why Julius may not want me here and besides, as Nightmare said, 'everyone loves an Outsider'.
Julius, while also in an attempt to keep Ace's temperament at bay, has good reason to not keep me here; the Clock Tower Plaza is very odd, and there is no space as it only has three bedrooms: Julius's, Alice's, and the guestroom I slept in the previous night. While the Clock Tower Plaza is a large structure with extensive grounds, the way the building is organized is very unique. The white-washed brick walls, the winding staircases, and few amenities throughout the Plaza make it hard to find room to place rooms within, and is unable to house more than a couple individuals. Granted the Clockmaker is not the most hospitable person on Earth or down… up here (?) in Wonderland, but he is highly logical and often means well.
However, that does not stop me from being completely pissed about the situation.
"Well, thanks for the minute warning before kicking me out. It's appreciated." I snot-off sarcastically.
Alice looks torn between the two of us, unable to pick a side seeing that it was unfair to invite me in and then kick me out right away and also seeing that there really was no space for me to stay permanently.
"There is no space; Ace uses the guest room when he stays in the Tower after late business."
Smirking, "I understand that, but couldn't Ace just sleep with you? Unless he already does…"
Alice, like a pure little child, does not catch the connotation that I added to my words, but the Clockmaker does and a slight blush forms on his face before he looks back down at the clock pile on his desk and continues to work.
There's an awkward silence, and neither of them have noticed my new appearance yet, so I make one of those throat-clearing coughs and ask Alice to go make the Julius and I a cup of coffee. I'm not personally a huge fan of coffee, or tea for the matter - I'm more of a hot chocolate person, but I wanted the opportunity to speak with Julius about this situation alone.
I step forwards until I reach the edge of his large table, the heels on my boots clicking along the entire way, and fold my arms across my chest.
"I know why you want me to leave, I know there's a second reason, and I respect your decision since this is your territory and I am but a visitor. However, where in this world could you possibly expect me to move to?" I question.
He pauses, sets down the metal screwdriver he was using on the cherry wood, and pushes up his working glasses before lifting his head to look at me. Sighing, and almost begrudgingly, "What domains have you been to?" he questions.
Leaning my back against the table with the least amount of pressure as possible so as not to disturb the already-teetering pile of broken clocks, I tell him.
"I landed in the woods somewhere, and Ace led Alice and I down a path - a path he thought led here - and we ended up at the Hatter's Mansion." Before he could comment or ask about the experience, I quickly added, "There's no way in hell I'll live there. Blood, a bastard like them…"
I pause, and he takes the opportunity, "And then Alice corrected his way and you all ended up here, at the Plaza?"
I nod, "Yeah… Alice wants me to check out the Castle of Hearts, but I don't think that would be a suitable place for me - too fancy and royal, you know?"
"Hmm…"
The two of us remained in silence until Alice comes back with two steaming coffee mugs in hand.
"Alright, you two! Fresh, hot coffee!~"
Alice passes me her fresh brew and sets down Julius's next to his clock pile. I take a sip of the drink, only to find that it's a lumpy, ill-prepared, dark blend, and cough a bit at the unexpected bitterness of the soggy dirt. How in the hell does Julius drink this crap?
"Thirty-two." Julius mumbles after taking his first dreadful, and last, sip.
Alice's face is full of confusion and anger surfacing at the same time, leaving her with a hilarious visage. "W-what?" she sputters, "That's it?!" questioning the drinkability of her coffee.
"Yes, it's quite dreadful, Alice," he replies to the awestruck woman. Alice, since she's staying at the Clock Tower Plaza with Julius, tries to make herself useful makes coffee regularly for the man. However, it is apparent that she has no talent for it and vast room for major improvement.
Voicing my own opinion, I add, "He's right, Alice. It tastes like… a cross between wet sock and mud."
"How do you even know what that tastes like?"
"I don't know what that tastes like, but if I did, it would most definitely taste like this."
Alice begins to chatter on about how she is a beginner to coffee-brewing and how she has Julius grade her on each cup, but to be honest, I wasn't very interested so I wasn't really paying attention. If she was talking about books or music, then I'd watch like a hawk, but with my ears - wait, that doesn't make much sense, does it? Well, anyways, those types of discussions pique my interest, not quaint little frettings about coffee making.
Finding a break in our one-sided conversation, Julius cuts through. "Alice, take Midnight to the Amusement Park and have her meet Gowland - I think she'll like it there."
That's his suggestion? Julius thinks I should stay at the Amusement Park? An Amusement Park is very crowded, loud, rapturous - which isn't a bad thing, by the way - and I'm not sure it's natural for a person to live there. But, I don't know much about the place, and for all I know it could be like Disney World with lodging located everywhere along the surrounding premises... I guess I don't have much of a choice and need to give it a try, since I am not going to stay at the Hatter's Mansion and I'd really rather not go live at the Castle of Hearts.
"That's an excellent idea! Midnight, don't forget to bring your backpack with you when we leave, okay?"
Alice, I assume, trots off to go collect a few things before we leave, or perhaps ready herself a bit more before we go, as we are practically being ushered off the property by everybody's favorite morning person. I pick up Julius's coffee mug to take to the kitchen to clean while he continues to fix the clocks from his ever-growing pile of broken time-tickers.
"Gowland's a lot like you, Midnight. I think you and him will get along quite well." Julius speaks into the silent room and I stop my advancement towards the door.
"Who is this Gowland, anyways?" I ask, "I know he's a man from the Park, but…"
"He's… a friend of mine who happens to be a 'Duke' and the owner of said Amusement Park."
I laugh, "Hey, be sure not to tell Ace that!~"
A faint blush crosses Julius's cheeks, or maybe it's a tinge of anger, as he promptly, "Get out of here, you're an annoyance," switches back to his common crabby self.
"Of course, as soon as these get rinsed out."
I smile figuring that to him, that act alone should suffice as a thank-you and goodbye.
_~|TREASURE|~_
"What do you keep in that thing, Midnight!?" Alice exclaims as she tries to pick up my backpack.
Which is a completely normal thing to do in the middle of a forest.
On our way to the Amusement Park, I had begun to complain about how I had to carry around the stupid heavy pack, and Alice fooled herself into believing that it really wasn't heavy at all - I guess I can't blame her for thinking that, it really doesn't look to weigh all that much. In response, I brought it down from my single shoulder, dropped it on a bright-green patch of grass, and told Alice to pick it up herself. Since, she has found it to be an impossible feat for her small, lithe frame.
"Actually, now that you mention it, I'm not quite sure."
This was a true statement, as I have not looked inside the carrier since I came to Wonderland, but only felt around inside of it to find a glass vial. I should probably pay more attention to objects that randomly appear in my backpack, probably make sure nothing new appears once in a while; I should also make sure that vial doesn't break… it is a glass container floating around in a heavy backpack - it's sure to get a crack eventually. Well, I suppose, once I find a place to stay, I'll leave it in a drawer or on a desk as one of those options would be much safer.
The two of us kneel down on the patch of grass in this random area of a forest - not a very thick one, but nonetheless a forest - and unzip the backpack to discover what is inside.
Alice pulls out two textbooks, and I remove the vial, a journal, an empty metal water canteen, and a copy of Johann Sebastian Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Viola Solo.
I look at the books Alice has pulled from my backpack - my physics textbook and my calculus textbook. Oddly enough, they were not dirty or had any evidence of water damage from when I slipped in all the rain water in my homeworld. Also, they were not near me when I woke up, and my bag was considerably lighter back then. Where in Wonderland did these come from? These newly appearing books seem to be replacements for the ones that were lost and damaged that someone placed in my bag this morning, I deduce.
"I have no idea what these are doing here," I say aloud, "These were lost, and now they look brand new, so who… how…"
Alice, in a fit of curiosity, takes the books from my hand and opens them, flipping through the pages while a flapping sound occurs as a result. Somewhere in the book is lodged a note, which falls out as Alice explores the text and reads.
"Missing something? - Nightmare Gottschalk," the note says, and I just huff and shake my head. That Dream Demon really does know everything I think. The clothes, the textbooks, Nightmare really does give nice gifts. However, they're a real pain in the ass to carry.
"Midnight, how come there's nothing written in here?" Alice asks while holding up my brown, leather journal. Without my knowledge, Alice has picked up and flipped through the journal I removed from my backpack. She's right - not a single word has graced the paper within, not even a name to identify my property. There's an explanation for that; originally I was going to make it a book of quotes and poems that I enjoy so that I could look them over and reread them if I had the urge to, but somewhere along the way I changed my mind of what I wanted to put into the small book. I was considering to possibly craft it into a novella of sorts, about a journey, about love, or maybe an adventure, a drama.
Either way, no matter what I choose, I respond: "Well, Alice, I haven't discovered the perfect tale to author yet."
"Sounds interesting, nya," an unknown voice interrupts our duo. A pink, unholy mixture of cat and human appears from the bushes. A cat-man, complete with a swishing tail and twitching ears, dressed in a skirt, leggings, and a cutoff top while decorated with chains and a boa, smiles widely at the two of us.
"Boris!" Alice exclaims, and rockets up from her seated position to stand and give him a hug.
Cat-man, I mean Boris, waves to me before turning to Alice and asking, "Alice, who's your friend?"
Alice, chipper, responds, "Boris, this is Midnight - she's a new Outsider!"
A look of confusion appears on Boris's face, "O-oh? But I heard from the twins that…" he quietly ends and trails off, but is nevertheless heard.
"Heard from the twins, what?" I ask, having a bad feeling in my gut that I already knew what those easily-influenced little boys said.
"Big sis!" Two miniature figures popped out behind where Boris and Alice were, and completely enveloped their attention, and pushed the thought of me and my words away from them.
"Big sis, let's go to the Amusement Park!"
"Yeah, Alice, come with us, we were already on our way there."
"Well, I was going there anyways, so sure!"
They left me there, sitting on the ground with my backpack's contents strewn across the ground. The three of them, a group of friends, laughing and in their own little world walked on the path towards the Amusement Park and never looking back; the twins, capturing them, Boris, leaving an unanswered question, and Alice, leaving me behind and forgetting me entirely.
It is in this moment I realize that even here, here in Wonderland, I am unimportant. I am worthless and unwanted, an unnecessary distraction who's forgotten in the long run. Ace distrusts me and thinks I am of adulterous ways, Julius wants my presence away from his life, Alice deserts me for others, the twins slander my name, Blood, my body. Boris ignores my existence, Nightmare gives me gifts for me to leave him alone and get out of his realm.
As thunder clouds begin to brew in the newly evening time period, I repack my bag and then continue to travel through the forest to the Amusement Park, seeing that there's nowhere else for me to go. Maybe the owner, maybe Gowland will be one to befriend me.
Maybe I do need a rapturous place to live.