Dear god -_- I don't know why inspiration is so hard for me to keep lately. I get ideas but finding the right words to write down can get pretty hard *sighs* You have no idea how happy I am to finally finish this. I am sorry for any rushness or OOC you might come across.
From the very first moment Alice had met Pierce she couldn't imagine how he could possibly be part of the Hatter family mafia. Even after Blood confirmed that the mouse worked for him she couldn't believe it. How could she? He was the most timid and easily scared role holder she had ever met. He ran away from danger any chance he got and would only fight if he absolutely had to. There were times that Pierce could have his cool moments and seem fearless, though. Unfortunately, he often ruined these moments by expressing how worried or scared he had been seconds later.
When the mouse wasn't acting like a frightened toddler he was actually one of the friendliest role holders around. Much like the queen he had a love for cute things, people included. When finding a person he liked he'd often latch around them and try to kiss them; regardless of their gender. That is actually how Pierce and Alice met. Alice had gotten lost in the forest shortly after the move to Clover Country and Pierce had found her. The mouse instantly branded her as cute and tried to kiss her. Before he could, however, Boris had appeared and scared him off.
It wasn't until Alice accidently walked in on Pierce doing a job that she finally believed he was part of the mafia. She had been on her way to visit Vivaldi when she spotted him in the forest. Considering that the mouse seemed to live in the forest she wasn't all that surprised to see him. What did surprise her, however... no, what shocked her, was the fact that he seemed to be covered in blood and was burying a dead body. It was a completely different sight from the usually friendly and timid boy she had gotten to know.
It was at that point that Alice learned of his role inside the mafia, though she wishes she hadn't. As it turned out he was the mafias' interrogator and 'cleaner.' It was his job to torture any captured enemy of the Hatter family for information as well as 'clean' the bodies up afterwards. This meant that the mouse had to bury the bodies before they could revert back into clocks. It was part of his role as a role holder but that didn't stop Ace, who often helped Julius, from trying to kill him because of it.
Despite learning the surprising truth, Alice still considered Pierce one of her closest friends. In a strange way it kind of relieved her to learn he was no different from anyone else in Wonderland. Sure, he had more concern for his safety than most others but the concept of death was the same for him. That alone, along with how cute the mouse could be, was enough for Alice to overlook that he wasn't nearly as harmless as she first thought he was.
"Alice, Alice, look at this one! Doesn't it look delicious?"
And that brought Alice back to where she was now.
Somehow, Peirce had managed to convince her into going to a new bakery that opened. He insisted that he wanted to treat her to something because she protected him from the knight the last time they met up. At first Alice had tried to refuse the offer, as she felt that she hadn't done anything special. To her, helping him had been the normal thing to do; she believed anyone else would have done the same thing. It wasn't until Pierce gave her a disappointed look that she finally gave in and accepted his offer. She never could refuse anything cute.
Looking over to the ecstatic mouse, Alice saw that he was hovering over the cheese pastries. More specifically, he was looking at a tray of cheese danishes. Typical; she should have guessed that was what he was talking about. When it came to food, cheese was one of the biggest things Pierce would talk about. It was kind of like Elliot and his carrots. The only difference between the two was Pierce also expressed an interest in sunflower seeds and some nuts. Also, unlike how Elliot was in denial of being a rabbit, Pierce didn't deny that he was a mouse.
"That does look pretty good." Alice agreed half heartedly. She herself didn't care all that much about cheese but she didn't want to ruin Pierce's good mood by saying that.
"Doesn't it, doesn't it?" The mouse asked excitedly as he practically bounced in place. "I'm going to get myself six! Do you want one too?"
'Doesn't six seem like a little too much? I wonder if all Wonderland animals eat this much.' She thought with a sweat drop and was reminded of Elliot's heavy carrot appetite. That man could literally eat a whole carrot cake to himself; she's seen him do it before at Blood's tea parties. Perhaps Pierce was just the same way but with cheese.
"I think I'd rather just have that strawberry tart over there." Alice responded and pointed to the tray of sweets. Pierce looked over to where she was pointing and cutely tilted his head curiously before he looked back to the girl.
"Are you sure that's all you want? I don't mind getting..." he started but abruptly cut himself off. Alice blinked in surprise as the mouse suddenly began to tremble and tears appeared in the corners of his eyes.
Alice could instantly tell that something was scaring Pierce, and scaring him pretty badly. Though seeing him frightened was nothing new, the girl found herself feeling concerned and somewhat worried. After all, while the boy was somewhat of a coward, there weren't many things that could scare him for no reason. Something has to happen first. So, turning to look behind her, Alice instantly saw the source of Pierce's fear. It was Boris Airay; the former Amusement Park cat who often bullied the Sleepy Mouse.
Apparently, along with cheese pastries, one of the items the bakery specialized in were tuna cakes. Pierce and Alice had been so focused on the other sweets that they failed to notice them in one of the display cases. So neither of them would have expected Boris to show up at any point in time. Fortunately, it didn't seem as though the Cheshire Cat had noticed them... well, at least not yet. Alice knew it was only a matter of time before the cat would look over or that Pierce would run off; whatever came first. That was unless she did something about it first.
"Excuse me, is there another way out of the bakery?" Alice whispered to the nearest employee. The faceless stared at her for a moment but, after glancing between the two role holders, smiled.
"Yes, ma'am. There is a back door next to the bathrooms that leads into the ally. It's right around that corner." He whispered back and pointed to a corner that lead off into a hall. Smiling in appreciation, Alice nodded in thanks and, after making sure Boris hadn't noticed them yet, turned to face Pierce.
"Pierce, this way; before he sees us." She urged as she reached out for his arm, intending to pull him to the exit. Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as the girl was hoping they would.
Since the mouse had been so caught up in the terror at seeing Boris he hadn't noticed Alice closing in on him. So, the moment her fingers brushed his arm, he freaked. With how jumpy the boy could be it didn't come as much of a surprise. What did surprise Alice, however, was how Pierce reacted to the situation; aside from squeaking out in fear. Rather than running away, or using her as a shield like he normally did, he wrapped his arms around her. Before Alice could realize what was happening she found both herself and Pierce the size of mice.
While the girl was aware that all role holders had special powers, she didn't exactly know who could do what. Alice knew that Peter could turn into a rabbit, Boris had a power with doors and Nightmare could read minds as well as enter dreams. Dee and Dum could also turn into adults but Alice had been told that all role holders could do that; the twins were just the only ones that abused the ability. So she never knew that Pierce could change his size at will, or the size of others.
Alice wouldn't lie; while it kind of irritated her that he shrunk her against her will, the ability impressed her. Since it didn't seem as though that Pierce had a mouse form, changing his size to one seemed like the next best thing. However, she couldn't quite understand how he could also shrink others as well. Perhaps she didn't want to know, though, as most things role holders could do confused her; and their explanations didn't help all that much.
Ether way, Alice now found herself the size of a mouse and in danger of accidently being stepped on. Or least, that is until Pierce grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards the nearest hiding place. Unfortunately for her, said hiding place turned out to be under the nearest display case. While she wasn't the most ladylike she still cared about the filth that could be under there and getting it on her dress. Even if most of the role holders regularly got blood spatter on their clothes, she liked to keep hers as clean as possible. It was no where near the ideal hiding spot. So, needless to say, Alice was annoyed.
As all this happened everyone, including Boris, turned to look towards the source of the scream. Upon seeing that nothing was there, however, everyone returned to what they were doing. That is, everyone except for the Cheshire Cat. He continued to stare at the empty spot where he had, just moments ago, heard the very familiar scream. His ears twitched and his tail swayed as he tilted his head to the side, a small frown on his face.
There was no mistaking who the scream came from. He had heard it many times before in his life; usually being the cause of it. However, how Boris could have missed him he wasn't sure. Especially since it seemed he had only been a few feet away from the mouse. Perhaps he had been just too distracted with the fish sweets to notice that the mouse was there; just like how Pierce had been too distracted with the cheese sweets to notice Boris. Oh well, there was nothing he could do about it now. The squeaker was gone and the cat was eager to eat the tuna sweets he had bought.
From under the display case Alice watched Boris leave with a sigh of relief. As much as she disliked her current situation she much rather prefer it over being found by the cat. Though she considered Boris one of her closest friends she knew nothing good would come out of the two animals meeting. She also had no idea how the cat would react to seeing her the size of a mouse.
Once Boris was completely out of sight, Alice turned her attention back towards Pierce. The mouse currently had his arms wrapped around himself as his body shook viciously. He had his eyes closed tightly but tears still managed to poke through the corners and freely rolled down his cheeks. All the while Pierce continually muttered about how scary the cat was and how he didn't want to be eaten.
"Pierce?" Alice called softly as she slowly walked over to him. She was worried that, if she approached too quickly, she'd spook the boy even further. If that happen he might run away and she'd be stuck the current size she was at the moment.
"Pierce, Boris is gone now."
Sniffling, the role holder slowly opened his eyes and directed his gaze towards the girl. Though his eyes, or rather the one Alice could see, were still glossy, the speed in which they fell slowed. His shaking also slowed but his arms stayed firmly around his body; as if he were afraid he'd fall apart if he were to let go.
"Are you sure? The scary kitty can be very sneaky." Pierce said with a small whimper, still appearing quite scared. Alice nodded and offered a re-insuring smile.
"Yes, Pierce, I'm sure. I watched him leave." She answered, torn between feeling annoyed and wanting to hug him. She settled for suppressing her annoyance. At least until the mouse did something else to annoy her.
"Yay! Now we can go back to our date!" Pierce cried, a bright smile placing his frightened expression. Alice blinked at how quick his attitude changed but, having seen it all before, simply sighed.
"Can you change me back to normal first, Pierce? I don't like being this small." She said, her smile dropping. She didn't bother correct him about this being a date since, when she last tried to do that, he misunderstood that for her not liking him. An annoying as it could get, the girl rather have the mouse think this was a date than get him teary eyed again.
"Change you back?" He asked with a confused blink, tilting his head to the side. "I can change back on my own but you'll need the medicine if you want to be normal size again."
A nerve in Alice's forehead twitched as she stared at the mouse. Figures changing back wouldn't be that simple. Nothing in Wonderland was ever simple. Why was there even a need for medicine? Pierce didn't use any when he shrunk her so why did he need some to return her to normal size? Maybe he did need medicine to shrink her but, in his panic, broke some rule and used his role holder powers on her? Or perhaps it was just one of the many smaller things in Wonderland that made no sense.
"Where is the medicine?" She asked, sighing tiredly. It was starting to get harder to hide her annoyance and, by this point, she didn't even care.
"I keep them hidden in my hideouts. That way the others can't steal them." Pierce answered, seeming oblivious to the Alice's growing annoyance. Alice's eye twitched and her lips curled into a tight smile, a irritation mark appearing on her forehead.
Of course he wouldn't have the medicine on him. Oh no, that would be far too easy. For whatever reason, Wonderland seemed to delight in challenging Alice. First by making Peter crazily obsessed with her, then by making Blood look like her former boyfriend. Now it seemed to be having fun by having Pierce conveniently forget his vials of anti-shrinking, or growth, medicine at home.
"And where are your hideouts?"
"All around Wonderland!" Pierce replied happily. Before Alice could retort, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of their hiding place. Then, before she knew what was happening, the girl found herself being held in the mouse's hand as he returned to normal size; startling a few faceless around him.
"I can get to them faster if I carry you." He explained with a cheerful smile. Then, ignoring the faceless that he had startled with his sudden size change, dashed out of the bakery.
Alice yelped and latched onto Pierce's thumb to keep herself from falling. Wind caused by his running brushed against her face and messed up her hair. It would probably take hours to get all the knots out of it. Fortunately the wind was not strong enough to blow her away, not that it would have a chance to. In addition to Alice holding onto Pierce's thumb, his other fingers were curled in a cup shape; making sure the girl had no where to fall.
'I suppose this day could have gone worse.' Alice thought to herself and hid her face behind Pierce's fingers to block out the wind. 'He's really lucky he's cute.'
For those that follow my Was it a Mistake story I still don't know when I'll finish it since I am slipping in and out of inspiration but I currently have 3,122 words written and the unfinished work is posted in DA.