Sorry for the wait; but thanks for the reviews~
Chapter 6
Alice had been fighting with everyone, all day. The cause of this was a particular weird dream she had, which will be explained later. But because of that, she woke up a lot earlier than she wanted to, and therefore lacked a lot more hours sleep than usual.
And that sure got her crankier than Gilbert would get without a day cigarettes.
"You're blocking my view!"
"Which view?!"
Of course, Gilbert didn't even have pity for her, as his master seemed so willing to do (other than doing whatever she said like a – oh no, not a puppy!) and threw back tantrums as vividly as she did.
"You wouldn't be able to see it with that seaweed blocking your eyes! Get a decent hair cut!"
"You're one to talk! You're not a godforsaken cat!"
Oz snorted in amusement at this.
"What?!"
Of course, everyone in the Rainsworth mansion had long noticed today's schedule, and most servants made sure not to come in the room.
Eventually, after a good half an hour of bickering, abusive language and death glares, Gilbert was tackled by a fuming Alice (even he didn't expect her to go this far) and they rolled on the ground for a few seconds, before the entire room went quiet.
Suddenly, Alice howled with laughter, trying her best to keep it somewhat decent (the devil of the noble family was in the same room) while clutching something in her hands. Oh, this made her day!
She jumped up quicker than a normal human should be able to, and jumped on the couch to the ground, running away from Gilbert. Said person had just caught up with what happened, and chased her in her circles immediately.
"STAND STILL YOU BALISTIC RABBIT!" Gilbert seethed, running after her, yet not as agile as her. He tripped once and Oz burst out in laughter as Gilbert growled and stood up again.
"You suck!" Emily cheered happily as he passed the other three calm people residing in the room. Reim, who had just arrived and was watching the scene with wide eyes, turned to Sharon slowly.
"…Is something the matter?" He asked quietly and Sharon giggled, not replying but watching her little precious Alice in delight.
Alice, meanwhile, held up a picture of Oz in her hands and paraded through the room with it. Oz had just been trying to reason with both of them that; yes, Alice could get one too, and no, he wasn't mad that Gilbert had one. Of course neither really listened right now.
After a few minutes Sharon had completely switched to fan girl mode and started wondering (aloud, if I dare say) if Gilbert used that picture for anything. At this, her beloved Xerxes-nii chuckled and helped her thoughts to continue. This had an outrage as consequence, not only from Gilbert but also from Reim, who was wondering if they all had finally gone insane. He quickly left the room after that.
When Oz got tired of the circles that were formed around him, he caught Gilbert by his left arm and firmly kept him still. Alice, too busy to notice the chase had long ended, still ran around with a wicked wide grin on her face, before Break (who had been spurred on by Oz's disturbed glance) grabbed her by her own left elbow, halting her in the process.
"Now." Oz started, very much teacher-like. "You can use that picture for whatever you want." He leaned in to whisper something in Gilbert's ear, to which Gilbert blushed faintly but nodded ashamed. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to hear what was said, not even Sharon, who had started inching across the length of the wall to get closer.
"And Alice can have one too." Oz stated, to which Alice face lightened a little. "We can even make one of us together, okay?" She nodded to this and threw the picture of Oz on the table, to which Gilbert ran to collect it.
"Stupid rabbit."
"Seaweed."
"And now, we'll go on with tea and act like nothing happened." Oz finished sternly and Gilbert sat down immediately to drink his tea.
Alice frowned, her mood killed again. Bullying the seaweed head was fun, but being so close to the clown was not. She shrugged him off of her with a deadly glare, which sure surprised him. Hadn't they already passed the hate in their love-hate relationship (as he oh so lovingly put it)?
"I swear I don't have cooties," He amusingly remarked. "They're not good for the heart~"
Alice resisted snarling at him to shut up and turned around, leaving the room with an obviously defiant 'bang'.
Not only had this idiotic, foolish, and yet slightly scary nightmare been plaguing her the night before, but she also had a fight with Gilbert the same day. She should forget about it, but seeing him with Oz made her remember a little. It wasn't really her fault that he'd get to the Abyss if they kept this up. And it almost never happened that his seal moved. So seaweed shouldn't complain, she already did a lot more by hand than by her chain powers.
However, a lot of people around here seemed to think she actually wanted to kill Oz. That clown was already working on a solution, so all those stupid people need to shut up.
Like a rabbit left behind, Alice locked herself up in her room and didn't come out the rest of the day, not even hungry. The thing that annoyed her the most was that no one was actually looking for her. It came to such an extend, that around evening, Alice had to resist the urge to talk to the teddy bear that had been in the room ever since she came here.
Knowing this couldn't go on any longer; Alice stormed to the door and threw it open. She yelped – as she'd been too participated with her thoughts – when someone was actually standing in front of her.
Sharon smiled sweetly. "Ah Alice, I was wondering how you were." She asked sweetly and Alice nearly felt the urge to throw the door closed in her face. But she couldn't; she just mentioned she wanted company. And whoever was up there answered her prayers. Or something like that.
"I'm fine." Alice grumbled and Sharon cocked her head to one side. "You don't sound… oh well," She said when Alice fixed her with a glare. "I wanted to ask you if you felt like joining us for dinner. You must be hungry?"
Alice, haven't eaten nothing since morning, could practically see delicious meat everywhere she looked. Oh well, maybe she was a little hungry. She nodded and stepped out of the room quickly, following the other girl.
"Master Oz is fine, if you would want to know." Sharon said quietly. Alice raised an eyebrow.
"…Okay." Not really understanding why Oz shouldn't be fine, she just shrugged and continued walking.
Sharon looked behind her briefly. "Is something the matter with you and Master Oz, Alice?"
"Should there be?" Alice replied harshly, wondering where the entire conversation would go.
"Obviously not. It's good to hear you like each other so well."
"Che."
"Then…" Sharon doubted for a while but decided to come to the point anyway. "Is there something with you and Break?"
Alice tensed lightly, but didn't let it show or hear. "Should there be?" She repeated, wanting to turn around and go back to her room again.
"You repeated the answer twice, Alice." Sharon said sweetly (Oh, that was dangerous. Help her now). "I know you don't lack in vocabulary, especially when it comes to the adult men in the manor. What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong."
Sharon of course noticed the light venom laced right on those words, so she just laid of the subject. If she really wanted to know she'd just make Eques spy on her and then it wouldn't be too hard to figure out.
X-X
"Why are you coming again?" Gilbert quietly asked the question that Alice had wanted to ask as well. We don't know about Oz, but he had spaced of looking out of the window a long time ago. Break grinned. "Milady has ordered me to come with you~"
"And she'll confirm that?"
"Maybe~"
Alice glared at both of them before looking out of the window as well, wondering if something entertaining caught Oz's eye. Nothing but trees, bushes and sand, so she turned around to the two men again. Thankfully it wasn't Gilbert sitting next to her, because it would've been war if it had.
Break smiled at her. "Something interesting out there, Miss Alice?"
She ignored him pointedly and continued staring out of the window. They were going to that dusty old mansion Oz seemed to be bothered with so much.
After another small hour, the carriage came to a halt and all got out quickly. Alice roughly implanted her feet on the ground and looked around with her nose up in the air. "I don't get why you always want to go to this place anyway. And why do I need to come?"
It was just an old dusty place… there were no memories of her there, since they'd been there a few months earlier, and the only thing he could possibly get was some sort of allergy for dust.
So why did he wanted to go? It (almost) angered Alice that Gilbert probably knew the reason why.
"But Alice, without you it's no fun!" Oz consoled and Alice grinned wickedly. "I'm sure you'd be able to entertain yourself." With that she turned back to the carriage. Oz, understanding the game she was playing, ran after her playfully and fell down on one knee. "Oh please Mistress Alice, stay with us~"
Break stood still next to Gilbert, watching the exchange before turning his head to say something. "Are they…?"
"Talk about it." Gilbert murmured annoyed before continuing to walk towards the old mansion. The other three soon followed, Alice bragging about how 'Mistress' fitted so well with her name.
When Oz caught up with Gilbert, Alice roughly nudged Break's side in order to get his attention without letting the others know.
"Ah, why must Miss Alice be so -"
"Why are you here?" Alice asked quietly, but without enough strength to forcefully interrupt the other. Break looked at her briefly and grinned.
"Those are private matters~"
Alice snorted. "I don't care. If you don't tell me why I'll tell a reason to Oz." The way she said it made it more than clear that the made-up reason would not be a good one. Break chuckled softly.
"More importantly; have I done something to make you angry?"
She didn't answer. And since Alice was quite dull on some matters, she wouldn't have noticed Oz glancing at Break for every now and then. Eventually he shook his head and began a conversation with Gilbert, something about his tries to stop smoking.
She eyed Break again. And why exactly did he come anyway? Sure it was normal for him to pop out of cabins or underneath beds, but he never actually drove in the carriage with them. Something was up. It was almost like Break wanted to tell all three of them that he was there and they could do nothing about it. Then again, when this had struck her mind, she had been debating over two things. One, it had something to do with the 'nightly visit' the week before. Or two, the one that was ridiculous, he… came for her. Maybe the change had been a little too visible after all. He did ask her about it just now…
Noticing her silence, Break nodded and looked forward. "My apologies, it is not of importance."
That doesn't sound very convincing. Alice thought bitterly. Somehow it felt as if she was doing it all wrong. And maybe she was. Why the heck did she felt like being bitter anyway? He wasn't seaweed.
They stayed there, searching for something Alice still didn't know of (though that grave looked familiar.) and eventually she decided to just wait out with the carriage. She sat down on the front porch of the enormous mansion and stared at the spacious site in front of her. This went on for a good hour, before she heard the door open and close again.
"Ah, I was wondering where you were, Miss Alice~" Break mused happily.
She doubted for a while before speaking up.
"Is there something with this place and Oz? I mean, sure he was here when he got dragged down into the Abyss… but I don't get it. Shouldn't he hate this place?" Alice asked directly. She heard him walk closer before he sat down next to her on the upper steps of the small stairs.
"I'm not the one you should ask." He replied light-heartedly. Alice frowned. Figures.
"I know." She muttered angrily for not having a proper answer. "I don't think he'll answer me either." It came out rather depressed, but she didn't mind. In fact, she had been feeling rather neglected. Not in Oz's attention, because she had enough of that… but more the serious conversations and secrets. It's almost as if they didn't consider her important enough to know of those things. Break smiled sincerely.
"Forgive me for being rude," Break murmured softly, testing if he could speak without her ignoring him. She didn't respond, but he knew she was listening anyway.
"But it has crossed my thoughts that you seem rather sad the last few days." She did? Oh well. "If something's wrong, I'd be more than happy to help you with it."
"Nothing's wrong." Alice responded harshly and he shrugged and patted her hair softly, keeping his hand there. Alice resisted flinching, because she knew she liked the gesture. It made her feel warm and safe.
After a silence of about five minutes, Alice shrugged the hand off. "Do you think you'd be able to… hurt me?"
He was quiet first, before he asked her for more clearance. Alice fiddled with her glove pointlessly.
"Say I was to hurt…Sharon. Would you kill me?"
"You won't hurt anyone." Came the reply and Alice bit her lip in annoyance, looking at him angrily.
"That's not what it's about, stupid cl…!" She glared at him and when he gave her a pointed look back she averted her eyes again.
"I look like her. And she did do horrible things. I might do those as well."
Eventually she heard a chuckle. Oh great, she wasn't even being taken serious here?! God, she hated humans more every day. Now, she was positive.
"I would never compare you to the Will of Abyss. If it's me, I'd say you are quite her opposite rather than her identical twin."
"What does that mean?" She asked confused, not losing the irritation laced on her voice. She couldn't give in that quick after all, she had a reputation to keep.
"Was it a nightmare that made you think that?" Ding-dong. Alice hugged her legs to her chest; why would she have dreams anyway? Only humans had dreams, as far as she knew. Suddenly, she felt his hands tugging at her shoulders, and with strength she already knew he possessed he gently pulled her to him and sat her down on his lap. First, she wanted to make some comment about how perverted he was, but when he actually encircled her in his arms and buried his face in the crook of her neck she decided it wouldn't be worth insulting him.
Slowly, she put her hands on his head and toyed with his hair, not really knowing how to respond to a hug. Sure, she hugged with Oz and she got hugs (quite tight ones) from Sharon… but this almost felt possessive, to the point he held her tight enough that she'd grew comfortable of the feeling of being uncomfortable.
"Don't ever do it again though," She heard him say quietly. "Making me feel like I did something wrong to you. It feels powerless."
"I-"
She heard some voices laughing and he effortlessly pushed her aside a little, so she sat down on the steps herself again, as he stood up, smiling politely at her.
"I believe Master Oz is done searching here."
Oh… so he really didn't have business in this mansion. Alice blushed fiercely at the thought just as Oz and Gilbert came through the enormous door.
"Ah, I'm hungry~ what do you say we go into town and have dinner, Alice?"
"Y-yeah… sounds nice."
Of course, Sharon had figured out the reason Alice had been sad for a while, and why she rapidly changed back to her own self again. She'd talk to Break later… or maybe not. The girl smiled behind a fan as she saw the four of her precious friends get out of the carriage and walk to the mansion.
R&R! :D
