Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't written for a while, but work overload has killed too many brain cells lately. This chapter would have been out earlier, too, but I rewrote a lot of it. I hope you like it! To be honest, I have no idea where I'm going with this story.

Also, for lent (Google it if you don't recognize the term), I'm giving up anime and manga. It's killing me. I usually refer to HNKNA manga to write my fanfic chapters, but now I have to do without. When I can have my manga back, there better be lots of chapters waiting for me!

Blood, Elliot, and Emma walked through the front door of the Hatter Mansion to stumble upon a… most interesting scene.

Tara's eyes were glued to the television screen. Her fingers were busy flying over the buttons and controls of a Gamecube game controller as she focused her attention on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Both Dee and Dum were at her feet - literally - busy painting her nails with images of AK-47's and AA-12's on various rainbow-colored backgrounds. Obviously, there was a think layer of newspaper separating the nail polish from the recently cleaned carpet, but Dee and Dum didn't really need it. They were surprisingly adept manicurists and pedicurists. Tara's fingernails were already finished and dry - hence her ability to engage in gaming while she waited for the boys to finish with her feet.

Emma recognized her relative immediately. She let out a small squeak of excitement. "Tara!"

Tara set down her controller and turned to see her cousin. Her face lit up at the sight of Emma. "Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?"
Emma grinned. "I don't know! But it's so awesome that you're here, too!"

"I'd give you a hug, but…" Tara said. She pointed to the twins.

"No problem!" Emma said in a delighted, bubbly voice. She bounced over to her cousin's spot, sat down right next to her, and gave her a hug.
Tara laughed. "Did I really have to hint that much to get a hug from my own cousin?" she asked rhetorically. She laughed

"Sorry," Emma apologized as she laughed alongside Tara.

Blood cleared his throat loudly. "I'd hate to interrupt your touching reunion, but I have to ask. Why are my gatekeepers… um… what are they…?" he struggled to find words for whatever the twins were doing.

"Giving Tara a mani-pedi?" Emma offered.

"I guess…?" Blood asked-stated. He was definitely not used to being at a loss for words.

"Retribution," Tara answered. She had picked up the Gamecube controller again and was continuing Link's adventure.

"Retribution?" Blood inquired.

"They were fighting about which gun was better – the AK-47 and AA-12, both very fine choices, if you ask me – and got into a fistfight. I didn't mind the fight much, but then they got blood on the carpet. Blood stains are so hard to clean, you know. So I made them paint my nails. A just punishment in my book," Tara explained without diverting her attention from the video game.

…

Boris paced at the front of the amusement park, muttering worriedly to himself. "Where is she…? Where is she…? Where is she?"

Gowland was going to check on the ticket sales. He also had to see about some complaints of a creepy punk teen who was pacing incessantly by the front gate of the amusement park. When Gowland arrived at his destination, he saw Boris there. Well, saw him there again. That crazy kid's been at it for hours! Gowland thought."Take a break already," he called out to Boris, "I know you're lovesick, but your pacing isn't helping anything, and it's scaring the kids!"

…

"So you two are related – what a coincidence!" Blood exclaimed, pretending to be surprised. His act was eerily convincing. Elliot wondered what else Blood would lie about. It took every ounce of self-restraint Elliot had to remain silent.
The mansion residents and foreigners were seated at a large table outside. They were supposed to be having an evening tea party, but Blood and Emma were the only ones drinking tea. Tara hated tea with a passion, and had opted for a latte instead; Elliot was enjoying the carrot pastries that Tara had baked for him; and the twins were eating oreos with milk.

"We're cousins, but we were raised together like sisters, so we're almost twins," Emma informed the roleholders after being asked.

Blood didn't believe that the annoying bundle of energy he had brought to the mansion was in any way similar to Tara, but he smiled and nodded all the same.

The group lapsed into silence after that. All except Blood found the silence unnerving and awkward, but none knew what to say next. Therefore, the twins became fascinated with the process of disecting oreos, Elliot began to take extra care admiring the decorative frosting applied to look like a carrot on his cupcakes, Emma found the sudden need to stir the sugar around in her teacup until it appeared to completely dissolve into the beverage, and Tara stared, enthralled, at the images in her latte* and then at her cousin and back again.

"Emma, are you alright?" Tara asked after a while. Something about Emma seemed... off to Tara, and she was driving herself crazy trying to figure out what it was.

"Yes," Emma answered slowly. "Why do you ask? Do I look sad or something?"

"Bingo. You also look like you've been crying," Tara pried. "Did something happen?" Tara turned to Elliot and Blood. "Do you know anything about this?" she asked them without giving Emma a chance to respond.

"It's nothing important," Emma said.

"You're hiding something from me, and I wanna know what it is," Tara told her firmly.

"Really! It's nothing," Emma assured her.

"Crying is nothing?" Elliot asked. He figured that Tara would want to know what had been happening about her cousin. And if Emma had been crying, he was sure Tara would want to address it. It isn't that I care, but this is probably what Blood wants, Elliot figured.

"Out with it," Tara demanded, "If that boy broke your heart, I swear-"

"No! No, no, no – that's not what happened. It has nothing to do with that!" Emma interrupted frantically. "Anyway, I should go back the amusement soon. It's getting kind of late; I guess I lost track of the time."

"An amusement park?" Tara asked, puzzled. "What?"

Blood stood up. "It's getting late. I propose an end to tea. I suggest that you don't travel between territories at nighttime, Emma. It's extremely dangerous." He picked up his cane and walked away without another word.

"Hey Emma," Tara began, "are you going to tell me what happened anytime soon?"

"Just some friends of mine being really immature and tiring me out, don't worry," Emma answered.

Tara raised an eyebrow.

"It's one of those things when you get really emotional over the smallest things, just because it's one of those days, you know?"

Tara wasn't sure if she quite bought what her cousin was telling her, but if there was something else, she wouldn't be confided in just yet, judging from the way Emma was acting. So Tara decided to forget it – temporarily.

…

Elliot walked to Blood's study, where he assumed his boss would be. Tara and Emma were wearing nightclothes from their world – which, needless to say, were courtesy of Nightmare – while eating popcorn, playing video games, and having more fun than he thought possible under the circumstances that they were somewhere unfamiliar and had no idea how to get home. At least, that's what the girls had been doing before Elliot had left to check on his boss a minute ago. Who knew what they'd find amusement in next? According to them, people in their world had fun just "sleeping over" at a friend's house, whatever that meant. Elliot had also in a brief period of time learned that in their world, people sing songs promising that they'll "never say never**". What sort of song is that? Elliot had wondered, And if they will never say never, why did they just say it twice?

Elliot knocked on the door of Blood's study before opening the door, but didn't bother to wait for an answer before entering the room. When Elliot entered, he saw Blood sitting at his desk, talking to a visitor: Nightmare. Blood acknowledged Elliot's arrival. Then he continued whatever discussion he had been having with the incubus.

"…and that's when I left, if you have to know everything that happens around here," Blood said in a continuation of whatever Elliot had missed.

"Really? She said that?" Nightmare smirked. "Looks like Boris has some competition!" he sang. Then he coughed up blood.

…

Eventually, Tara and Emma decided to actually get some sleep. Luckily, it had been an extraordinarily long time period so far, so they would probably get adequate rest. Tara and Emma had decided to share the room Tara had been staying in. Emma didn't want to overburden her hosts, after all.

Unbeknownst to Emma, just as she was falling asleep, a worried Boris was finally drifting off as well.

…

Looking around the colorful landscape, Boris immediately knew where he was. "So I actually managed to fall asleep," he muttered. "Nightmare?" he called. The incubus had to be around somewhere.

Somewhere, Nightmare was. That somewhere was shortly right in front of the feline teen.

"Emma's gone," a miserable Boris told Nightmare.

"She's safe," Nightmare assured him.

Boris' eye lit up at the news. "Great! Where is she? I need to apologize, ASAP!"

"She's with the Hatters."

"You call that safe?"

"Don't get your no-longer-existent-tail in a twist, Boris. She plans to return soon – tomorrow, I believe."

Boris sighed in relief. "I still can't believe I let you talk me into letting you wave your little fairy wand and make my tail disappear, though," he said. Boris still held a grudge about that.

"Hey!" Nightmare exclaimed defensively. "You needed to fit in somehow in that world!" He coughed a little at the overexertion.

"At an amusement park?" Boris argued. "Nobody would've looked at me twice! Why didn't you tell me where you were sending me beforehand?"

"Because it's so much more fun my way," Nightmare answered truthfully. "Anyhow, that's not all I wanted to talk to you about," he added.

"What?" Boris asked suspiciously.

"You just might have some competition, little kitty," Nightmare teased.

"Huh?"

"You know, Emma?"

"Emma… competition…" Boris mumbled, trying to piece things together. "Oh crud, who?" he yelled at the incubus.

Nightmare only smirked at the teen as the dream world faded around Boris.

*Latte patterns: I am so out of touch of the world, I had no idea about this, and I think it's pretty neat. This here is straight out of the Wikipedia page for latte: "Increasingly common in the United States and Europe, latte art has led to the stylization of coffee making, and the creation of what is now a popular art form. Created by pouring steaming, and mostly frothed, milk into the coffee, that liquid is introduced into the beverage in such a way, patterns are distinguishable on the top of coffee. Popular patterns can include hearts, flowers, trees and other forms of simplistic representations of images and objects". Kind of cool, right?

**Oh, what's life without making fun of Justin Bieber? I swear, he's so much fun to tease!