Hello again, fellow readers! How are you? I hope fine because here's the next chapter of AAIPA! I'll make this short by making the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I do not own or never will Pandora Hearts or anything associated with it. I only own the story for this fanfic and of course, myself.

"Stupid rabbit.." The raven haired man muttered while he carried Alice around. His thoughts went back to the conversation with the student council president, Grace. "Why did she tell me that anyway? Vincent wouldn't do that right?"

~Flashback~

"H-hey! Don't drag me away like that!" Grace stopped, closed the door behind Gil and turned around. Gilbert noticed she had the you-can't-tell-me-what-to-do look, but after a few seconds, she cleared her throat and looked at him with a serious look.

"Gilbert, this is important." The posture she was making, the expression she was wearing, told Gilbert that she had it for real.

"What is it?" His golden orbs travelled down her features to notice any sign, but no such luck.

"Alice is in a bad condition. I may not be a doctor, but I can understand when someone is suffering." The brunette played with her hair, but her brown eyes still stayed on Gilbert's. Apparently, she understood that Gil didn't know what part he had in this history, so she continued. "I want all of you to stay close to her. This means you-"

"Why me?"

"Because even though you quarrel I know you both care a lot about each-other. Plus, you're her teacher so when she takes her break from school these days, you have to inform her about the school events." Gil nodded, Grace continued.

"As I was saying, you, Break, Oz-"

"Why Oz? And why Break? I understand a little Oz, but Break?"

The brunette face-palmed, and her hand stayed there but she continued talking. "If you interrupt me one more time I'm going to cut your tongue and feed it to my neighbor's cat." Gil paled, he swallowed hard, but nodded. "Anyway, Oz because he and Alice have a special bond, and I'm sure she'd love to have Oz by her side, and Break because he's a doctor. After these two I would say Sharon too, maybe Echo, Elliot, Leo-"

"Why-" Immediately in front of his face Grace showed a pair of scissors. Gil would faint, but he thought that if he did, then something even worse could happen.

"Alice needs all the company she can get. But with the exception of Vincent and Jack." Gil was trying to say something but Grace cut his words before he even started. "That is, because if she's with them she'll want to practice more and that's probably going to make her current condition worse."

After a minute of silence, Gilbert finally spoke without being interrupted. "What is actually going on with Alice? And if she's that sick shouldn't we call off the tournament?" The seriousness of this conversation was even deeper now, but after staring off to space the brunette shook her head.

"No we can't call off the finals. And you know why. We need the funds we can get by selling tickets, it's to help the school. Sure, we can make other activities, but this is a really important season for some students, so that has to wait. And we also have that school trip after two weeks, and we need money for that too. You know, I'm trying the best I can."

Gilbert put a hand under his chin and nodded. "You can also ask Elliot if you need any hel-"

"I DON'T NEED HELP FROM THAT- Uh.. Err..." Grace blushed from the sudden outburst, it wasn't like her to shout like that. Nor was it to get embarrassed about it later. "I m-mean, I don't need help from that weird-haired Nightray. You know we're rivals so there is NO way I'm asking him for help. For all the chocolates in the world, he almost reached my number of votes in the elections!" Gilbert sighed at the president's way of thinking. Yeah it was true that Elliot and Grace were rivals. Yeah it was true that Elliot had gained a lot of votes even though he just had transferred to their school along with Leo and Ada. Grace had been so mad.

And so was Elliot for not winning.

Gilbert thought that calling each-other names and quarreling for little reasons was cute. It was like they were made for each-other.

Wait.

He and Alice also called each-other names and fought for stupid, little reasons. ...Did this mean they were a cute couple..?

No way!

Gilbert shook his head furiously as he felt heat rise to his cheeks. He and that stupid rabbit weren't cute together!

Or were they?

Gilbert thought his head would explode if it wasn't for the brunette to snap him out of it by kicking his knee. "Hey, Nightray. Listen to me when I'm talking." She glared at poor Gil as he winced in pain. "I was saying, y-you could t-tell that weird-haired Nightray to help me s-since you're his older brother.. I have no intention to beg him, is that clear?"

The raven-haired man cleared his throat and asked the brown eyed girl, "Well what do you intend to do with the tournament?"

Grace turned her head to her right, focusing on nothing in particular. "I suppose I can ask the preparations to be done for Friday. I'm sorry, that's all I can do. And if Alice still can't play then her team has to find someone to fill in for her, or your team will win. That's all I had to tell you. Now don't forget to make your little brother and Jack to stay away from Alice, I don't want her to get hurt."

~End of Flashback~

The conversation had been weird, but what weirded him out even more was the fact that Alice turned out to be very important in this whole thing. And there she was, snoring her way to heaven. "Seaweed-head.." Huh? Was she finally awake? "Cook me meat.."

Gilbert flinched. "The hell are you talking about stupid rabbit?!" Alice raised her arms that a minute ago were on her sides and wrapped Gil's chest with them. "What in the name of..?" Red colored Gil's cheek. "Oi, stupid rabbit! What are you doing?!" His mind went back to the conversation with himself while he was with Grace.

Were he and Alice a cute couple?

'What the hell! No! No! NO! We are NOT a couple!' Gilbert breathed deeply, the turned his head to look at Alice. She was sleeping. She was talk-sleeping. And act-sleeping if that's even a word. And Gil actually believed she was awake.

I'm starting to wonder who is the real "stupid rabbit"? Because sometimes Gil was so helplessly stupid..

Gil sighed, kind of relieved, yet a little sad. Why? He didn't know. But he understood that in a matter of seconds they were both in front of the infirmary. The raven-haired man knocked five times, a signal he shared with Break. He heard from the other side of the door "Enter!~" and he opened the door. Break, like always when he didn't have patients, was sitting lazily with his feet on his desk, Emily on his shoulder, lollipop in mouth and manga in hand. He turned his head with a goofy expression and smiled at the younger man, but the latter just snorted. Then, the white haired man noticed the wrapped hands around Gil's chest and a sleeping, cute face on his shoulder. Immediately, Break sat up and walked to their direction. His face wore an expression of confusion. "What happened?"

Gil sighed, and with a disgusted expression pointed at the sleeping girl. "Where can I put her? She's been drooling on me for the past five minutes." Break laughed an amused laugh, and showed him the bed. "Anyway, I came here to deliver Alice."

Break's eyebrow twitched. "She's not an object dear Gilbert. Why has she fainted?" Gil shrugged.

"I can't tell for sure. She was practicing with her team and then I noticed she was falling. Maybe she overworked herself?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow and looked at Break as he eyed Alice.

The next thing the wine-eyed man did was kiss the girl on the forehead, yes you heard me right! Gilbert was shocked at the gesture, his face reddened and he started stuttering. "B-break! What d-do you think y-you're doing?!" His golden eyes met with Break's crimson ones.

Break calmly shrugged. "I just checked her temperature. Why are you red? Did you get miss Alice's fever?"

Gil coughed and tried to hide his embarrassment. "I'm not red!" After some seconds Gil caught the last part of Break's statement. "And what do you mean with 'getting Alice's fever'? Does she have a fever?"

Break clapped his hands. "You're a genius aren't you? I never thought you would guess it!" The white-haired man let out a fake gasp and cheer. In return, Gil glared daggers at him so Break chuckled. "I think she has a cold. But training and doing stuff that acquires physical activity made her condition worse. She has to stay in bed for the next four days minimum."

"Should I call her uncle to pick her up?" Gilbert took out of his pocket his phone and was ready to dial his number, just waiting for Break's response.

"Yeah, sure.. But why not her parents? Wouldn't that be better?" Break narrowed his visible eyebrow in confusion. Gilbert stared for some moments at Break, but then looked away and sighed.

"Don't you know?"

"What should I know?" Break was very confused and interested now, usually he was the first to learn news, but this had apparently slipped him. "Is it something concerning her parents?"

Gil nodded. "Alice's an orphan. Her mother died giving birth to her and her twin, while her father was diagnosed with cancer and he died when both girls were four. And then Alice's twin has a mental illness so basically, Alice's family has a really bad luck. Only her uncle is in good conditions. I can't believe I'm saying this but I feel very bad for stupid rabbit."

Break looked wide-eyed at the sleeping girl. She didn't really show any sadness or sorrow when she was in school. As much as Break knew, Alice was supposedly the leader of a gang, she was stronger than she looked, she could be very naïve and cute sometimes or very haughty and cruel other times. No pain. Only today had Break actually noticed a change in Alice's behavior. He sighed. "Call him then. She should sleep on a proper bed."

Gil nodded and finally dialed Glen's number. After some minutes of silence and "beep-beep" another voice could be heard from the other line. "Hello? This is Glen Baskerville, who's calling?" Gilbert cleared his throat.

"Hey mr. Oswald. It's Gilbert Nightray." The raven-haired man smiled when he heard the other voice soften.

"Oh, Gilbert! Hello. What is it?"

"Err, I know you're usually busy and stuff, but could you come pick Alice up from school? She's sick and has fainted." Gil hoped he'd say yes. But another part of his consciousness told him the older man would say no.

"I'm sorry Gilbert, but I can't. I'm on a business trip right now. But is Alice ok? What happened?" Gil was sure a normal person would say that Glen's voice was empty, emotionless, but Gil knew that the latter cared a lot for Alice, he could even catch the glimpse of worry from his voice. "...Can I speak to her..?"

Gilbert was kinda surprised, Glen seemed more worried than the former thought he'd be. "Um.. Sorry but she's sleeping.. Maybe later..?"

After moments of silence finally the other voice was heard. "Nevermind. Don't tell Alice I wanted to speak to her. Goodbye." After Gil replied with a "Goodbye" of his own, he heard Glen hang up.

"How'd it go?" Asked Break, who now was sitting on a chair next to Alice's bed.

"Great." Gilbert thought the sarcasm in his voice just made him gloomier. "He can't pick her up. Busy."

Break frowned. "Is he her uncle or what? This Glen, or Oswald, what's even his name? And is that job so important or he doesn't give a crap about miss Alice's being?"

Closing his golden orbs, Gil sighed. "He does care, but doesn't show it and.. His name is Oswald, but only people close to him call him that. Normally, people in his job call him Glen. It's some name for the Baskerville family, apparently." Silence. That lasted more than ten seconds before he spoke again. "..If I continued living with the Baskervilles then I'd become the next Glen, thus taking over the Baskerville company. But if I stayed there I thought I'd always depend on Oswald and the Baskerville family so I ran away from home with Vince and Bernard Nightray took us in. Now that I think back, I was a stupid ten years old kid. I mean, wouldn't it be better if I took over the company and became successful? Heh, what if Bernard never found us, where would me and Vince be right no-"

Break's fist made contact with Gil's head in a light, playful way. "Shut up. What's done's done. You can't change that. I know that because of experience. Be happy with what you have. If you think you made a mistake or such you shouldn't fret about it later. You know, a person once told me, the past is history, the future is a mystery and the present is a gift, so try to enjoy it." He gave a smile to the wide-eyed English literature teacher. "Anyway, stop talking about yourself and let's do something about miss Alice."

Nodding, Gil turned his attention to the sleeping girl on the bed. "I could take her home. I have a car." He said casually, but Break shook his head.

"What about your students? Classes have started again you know, and I don't dare to think what could be going on in your current class." Break chuckled. Emily giggled creepily.

"Chaos!~" Gil glared at the blue doll. He looked at Alice again.

"What about Alice? Who'll take her home?"

Break raised his hand. "I always can.

Anyway, apparently today nobody's sick except miss Alice, so I'll giver her extra attention!~" It seemed like the hundredth time, but Gil sighed again.

"Can I trust you'll be taking her to the hospital?" He asked seriously but Break put up a fake hurt expression.

"Are you saying you don't trust me?" He wiped a fake tear from his eye and then started laughing. "And as for your question, of course-" sighing, Gil felt relieved, "-not."

If you could choke on air, Gil would be dead right now. "The hell?! Then how can I entrust her to you?!"

Grinning, Break pinched Gil's cheek. "Care much? Is there something going on with you and miss Alice?" The black haired man blushed again, and got out of Break's hold.

Rubbing his sore cheek, Gil shook his head. "Of course not! Me and that stupid rabbit are just.."

"..just what?"

"Shut up Break! We're only teacher and student!" Break gave him a look. "..And childhood friends but that doesn't matter! Where do you plan on taking her anyway?!"

Break nodded, with a grin in his face. He felt relief pass over him, though he didn't know why. "Aha, childhood friends." Pause. "I'm taking her home. I don't trust hospitals. I even told Jack that if miss Alice's condition became worse not to take her to the hospital."

"So that's why Jack said.." Whispering, Gil looked down, then at Alice again. "Will she be better?"

He received a nod from Break. "Yeah, but she has to say in bed for real. No practicing for basketball or even thinking about it. Thinking would probably make her stressful and we certainly don't want that."

Gil remembered. "Oh yeah! Grace told me she has to have a lot of company these days."

"You mean the student council president?" Break wondered why was Grace in this situation. Thinking she was right that Alice needed company, Break wondered how did she knew in the first place. After a sigh, he shook those thoughts away.

"Yeah, her. She also told me that we should keep Vince and Jack away from her." Break raised an eyebrow in confusion. He wouldn't mind if that sewer rat Nightray or that clingy, kinda annoying Jack weren't around but he still wondered why they should keep them away. "And if you're wondering why, it's because Alice has to focus on something else except basketball. Those two will probably give her the need to practice if she sees them, that's why."

Break nodded in understanding. Then he clasped his hands together and grinned. "Okay, now I'll say this clearly and politely. Shoo shoo. Get out. I'll take off my uniform and take her home." He wiggled his hands, as if showing Gil another way to "shoo" him out of the room. A vein popped on his forehead, but he sighed and got out of the room. Before disappearing from Break's view, Gil waved him goodbye and stared a little at Alice before finally going to class.

Meanwhile, Break took off his glasses. He sighed an ran a hand through his hair. "Dammit Alice. I even told you not to practice. Not only your wound has probably opened but you get a fever too..?" With his long slender fingers he unbuttoned his doctor's shirt. Under it he wore the school's teachers uniform, a beige shirt and a purple tie. After taking every fabric on his upper body off, Break wore a purple shirt. He always felt relaxed when he wore something in purple, even though he started liking that color only after the accident with Alyss. "Sheesh, thinking about that now."

The white haired man sighed again, he put all his stuff in a black bag, and finally carried Alice bridal-style. Fortunately, students and teachers were in their own classes, so he could cross the corridor without anyone staring at him as a weirdo.

However, Break noticed that Alice's face was redder now, her heart was beating faster and she wasn't snoring like she did earlier that day. His crimson eye glanced at her face once in a while. Was she awake? Even if she was, he had no intention of calling her name. Instead, he had walked the way to his car and laid Alice in the back seat. Sitting in his place, Break started the engine and the car started moving slowly. Fortunately he knew the directions, or else he might have been asking random strangers "Do you know where the Baskerville mansion is?", and that would look strange.

After more than fifteen minutes, Break arrived in front of the gigantic gates. Two guards stood there, a short, fat, bald guy with a red tattoo in a side of his face and the other was taller, with spiky hair and with the same tattoo. The latter came to him with a serious expression on his face. "May I help you with something?" Break noticed that the man called "Fang", as his name card said, was staying all the time with closed eyes, something weird in his opinion.

"I am escorting Miss Alice. She's sick. Can I park my car inside?" Fang glanced at the backseat and saw the sleeping girl.

"No worry, we can take her to her room ourselves." Fang seemed to distrust Break, and the latter was pissed. Now he remembered that this was the same guard that had stopped Break when he delivered the package to Alyss some years ago.

Break smiled at the man anyway, showed him the identity card and told him he was a doctor. Fang was going to stop him again, but the other guard, called "Doug" interfered and after convincing Fang, they finally let the white haired man in. He parked the car and got out with Alice in his arms. A maid opened the front door and he entered the big mansion.

He looked at the maid, she was checking her nails. Pink hair, pink eyes, red dress. Break was sure he had seen her before. "Um.. Miss?" He tried to get her attention, but apparently her nails were more important. Finally he remembered who she was. "Ahh!~ If it isn't Miss Lottie!~" The girl glanced up for the first time and looked intensely at the man.

After a minute or so, she finally spoke. "Aaaaand... Do I know you?" Break faked a hurt expression.

"You hurt me right in the kokoro miss! Well, I'll see what I can do to make you remember." After a smile, Break suddenly turned serious. "Can you tell me where's miss Alyss' Baskerville room? I came to deliver a package."

Lottie raised an eyebrow in confusion. "The room is in the other side of this mansion and anyway, I don't see any package in your hands besides Miss Alice." Break shook his head.

"No, you're not following me." He then, put a hand on his eye and made a pained expression. "H-help.. M-my eye.. Hurts.." Lottie narrowed her eyes in confusion as to what this crazy man was referring to. Then she remembered.

"You're that man!" Her eyes had widened as she pointed to the white-haired man. "You were here three years ago!" Break nodded excitedly. "Kevin Sincl-" Lottie's words were cut when he put a finger on her lips.

"Please miss, don't use that name. Now I go by the name of Xerxes Break. Please call me Break." Lottie stared at him for a while, then shrugged and started walking away.

"Well, Break, if you're searching for Alice's room then it's in the same floor as Alyss, but in the other side of the hallway."

"Are you a psychic? How did you know I wanted to know where's Alice's room?" Break's eyed glimmered with fake sparkles, and the pinkette noticed it right away.

"You've... Changed. I don't recall to have saved a clown's life, but that of a serious young man." She glanced at him as he followed her.

Break listened and gave out a chuckle. "I can say the same thing about you miss Lottie. I almost didn't notice you. You used to be more cautious, reserved and.. Well, I didn't know much about you but I remember that you used to wear a bun with a red ribbon and your maid dress reached below your knees. Now it seems.. Different. I hope that didn't sound as an insult."

Lottie shook her head. "I wasn't offended. And I get that a lot when I meet old acquaintances so it's not like I didn't know it." With that, the conversation was dropped and they walked silently through the huge mansion.

When they finally arrived in front of the room, Lottie excused herself and walked away. Break stared at the door in front of him. Somehow, he didn't want to go into that room and lay Alice on her bed. He liked holding her like that, it made him feel like a knight or stuff. And the way her head was using his chest like a pillow was also giving him a pleasure of some sort. Break looked at Alice, she was sleeping for real now. He supposed that he couldn't hold her forever.

With a slow movement, he opened the door and stepped into the room. The sight he saw made his eyes widen. "Sister! You're here!"

Well? How was it? Did you like it?

First of all, Grace, is me, not an OC. I just added myself for fun. Second, Grace doesn't have a crush on anyone, so don't go assuming she likes Elliot. She just usually is the type to control her anger and be somewhat creepy and unpredictable, but also kind and wise when needed to be. So when outbursts happens to her she gets flustered about it. Clear? I think so.

This chapter was supposed to end when Gil left the infirmary but I decided to make it longer. Each chapter is supposedly longer the previous so you could get a chapter with more than 4000 words next. Without counting author's notes like this one.

Also, school starts today for me. It's 1am here so after some hours I'll probably be absent for a while. Since this is just the first week of school I don't expect things to be that difficult, so I'll try to write whenever I can. But I'm almost sure that The Abyss Behind The Painting will be updated before this one. That's how I do things. Thanks for reading.

Read, Review, Follow or Favorite for more chapters to come!