Chapter Two: The Visitor.

London.

A sound woke her up, saving her from her nightmares of sneering masks and the knowledge of her impending death. Alice blinked furiously, acclimatizing her eyes to the darkened room. Her pulse that has been beating madly, now slowly resumed back to its normal rhythm.

For one disoriented moment, she looked around her, heaving a big sigh of relief to find herself back in her room. It was cold, but she was damp from perspiration…telling her how much the dream affected her, how much it affects her still. Shivering she threw the blanket and sat up, knowing she won't be able to go back to sleep so soon.

The room was dark except for the moon rays filtering through the balcony glass doors. With a start she realized the doors were gaping open, the linen curtains fluttering against the cold breeze that whispered into the room.

Shuddering, Alice rubbed her hands over her cold arms and looked around her, certain that she's no longer alone. Before she could reach to switch the bedside lamp on, a figure moved from the darkened background, causing her to gasp in alarm. She didn't notice it was there all this time and felt her pulse kick in fear.

Before she could bolt from the bed, the figure stepped directly in front of the balcony door, illuminating his outline as that of a man.

She easily recognized the ragged, unruly hair and that particular stance.

"Yuri?" She gasped, clasping the bedclothes closer to her neck, a gesture she was unaware of doing. Wholesale relief flooded her as fear dissipated into nothingness. Now she felt like laughing hysterically if not for the fact that she noticed there's something different about him.

Self consciously, Alice pulled the thin quilt higher up her throat. Even donned in her nightgown and covered with the blanket to her little toes, there was something too intimate in having him in her room.

He staggered towards her unsteadily, "Alice…" He said in a slur, and vaguely, through the dim light the filtered into the room, she recognized a long necked bottle he carried at his side.

She switched on the lamp before he could reach her bed, the light illuminating his features, his tousled hair and rumpled clothes. Yuri blinked repeatedly, covering his eyes with his arm as if even the soft light of the lamp was too much for him. But even so, he approached her unsteadily, slightly swinging at his sides. He was wearing pajamas, shirtless and barefooted…obviously he'd come here straight from bed, and not from the hotel's bar downstairs like she had first thought.

Alice felt her mouth go dry at the sight of his bare chest. Smooth, tanned and sleekly muscled…despite his drunken gait, power fairly seethed with every movement; a coordinated, graceful flow of healthy muscles that seemed to enthrall her more and more each time.

"What's this?" He asked, his words slurry, said in that peculiar way only drunks do. "No kiss fer me?" He collapsed on his knees before Alice, making her jump slightly in her place. Yuri seemed to think nothing is amiss and lifted his bottle up to her.

"Wanna drink?" He offered, smiling idiotically, and her nose wrinkled as she caught a whiff of the strong alcohol.

"Yuri…Yuri what are you doing here?" She asked, not knowing what else to say. At the back of her mind Alice kept on wondering what brought him to this state, she had been with him long enough to know that Yuri would never subject himself to anything that would strip him of control.

"…keeping my woman company…something…wrong with that?" He muttered brokenly, breaking in through her thoughts. Yuri displayed another one of his lopsided grin, one that should have made him look like an obnoxious jerk and yet had a different effect on her. He seemed to know exactly how his smile affects her for he kept the silly smile in place and then took another pull at the bottle. "Ain't ya ever lonely? Without me warming yer bed?" He asked, eyeing the bed where she sat, then wiped his lips against the back of his hand that shook unsteadily.

Alice opened her mouth then closed it again, too outraged at his words that she was literally tongue-tied. How dare this cad disturb her sleep and now say these kinds of things to her? She should boot him out, right now, this instant!

But Yuri was clearly foxed and no doubt the drink had made him bolder more than ever. God knows he's a rascal enough without indulging the bottle, and now…

"I think you better go back to your bed." She suggested, resorting to being rational instead of hitting him with anything, her books were tucked away in her nightstand, but the lamp looked tempting enough to use on him.

Alice wrinkled her nose as more alcohol-laden breath fanned her nose. She decided that it's best that she didn't give in to the impulse, Yuri's not himself tonight, who knows what she might provoked him into doing if she does club him, tempting as it was.

Yuri seemed unperturbed, grinning up at her without answering. Without warning he took hold of both her hands. His eyes looked impossibly bright against the darkened background, almost inhuman, feral, reflecting the glow of the soft light. But Alice only felt herself drawn in by the sheer magnetism of his gaze, it was as if he's drinking her in, as if slowly stealing her conscious mind, her soul.

She shivered as if cold when he ran his hands over her arms, while pleasure radiated in warm, delicious waves, spreading through her skin, sinking in to the marrow of her bones, making her sigh involuntarily.

The words died on her lips, while her eyelids threatened to droop close, such was her intense reaction to his touch. She was lulled, completely mesmerized by the gentle way he stroked her.

Suddenly, without warning, she felt the whole world tilt on its axis, a movement so swift she never had a chance to protest.

With a start, Alice found herself staring up at the ceiling of the canopied bed. Before she could sit upright again, Yuri hovered over her and pressed her against the pillows, still imprisoning her arms at her side. He surveyed her body boldly, almost arrogantly, and she felt her blood kick in outrage that he would look at her so rudely.

The tousled locks of his hair fell over his face as he looked down at her and declared with a slur. "Alice…I want you Alice."

Alice felt her heart do another somersault when he straddled her body, pining her down the bed between his thighs. He kept most of his weight off her, but that wasn't what made her cheeks burn.

She may be a virgin, but she's not that innocent. The hard thing pulsating against her stomach blatantly declared his arousal.

Lord have mercy. She thought silently, fighting off panic. First he comes here nearly naked, foxed,…and now hornier than jackrabbits in heat. She should have shooed him away when she still had the chance!

"Don't be afraid sweetheart…" Yuri whispered huskily, lightly brushing the soft wisps of hair from her face. "I won't harm you…I just…I just wanna love you…" His accent sound thicker, his voice deeper and as she looked up at him, the clarity as well as the seriousness of his gaze belied the irrefutable reek of alcohol.

He may have been drinking, but not as drunk as she first thought.

Her eyes widened in indignation as she realized what Yuri had done. He had caught her unaware by playing the drunk and got her where he wanted her.

In bed.

Seeing that she found out what he'd been about, Yuri dropped the act.

He lowered his head to kiss her and sighed as if weary when Alice turned her head away from his lips. She was stiff in his arms, and by her silence he knew she's working up a big tantrum for what he had done. Yuri knew his tricking her wouldn't please her, but he couldn't think of any other way to get close to her. His ways of seduction may be crude, for he never had a reason to seduce his women, they had flocked to him with open arms, and Alice…well, she's Alice, not just any woman.

"Baby…baby…" He whispered against her skin, lightly running his lips over the angry pulse beating in her neck. "I ain't gonna tell you sorry, 'cause I regret nothin'!"

Alice stiffened even more and Yuri knew she would have thrown him off her if she had the strength, clubbed him with her book until he couldn't see straight and then cast another one of her light spells to keep him sprawled on the floor and stay there.

But not this time. This time he'll have his way if he has to use every trick and ploy to get her where he wants her.

"I ain't gonna do anything you don' want me to…" He promised, "I just wanna hold you and wake up with you beside me…"

She still glowered at him beneath her lashes, still miffed by being neatly tricked. He couldn't help it, Yuri smiled at the slightly mutinous pout of her lips, and wondered if she would bite him if he gave in to the urge to kiss her.

He brushed her lips with his despite the 'threat', felt his blood kick at the brief contact and tremble with it. He had never been satisfied with teasers anyway.

But before he could steal another kiss, the bright warning in her eyes stopped him. Yuri tried not to smile, knowing it would only serve to annoy her even more, but he couldn't help it so he planted his lips against her forehead, took in the sweet, subtle scent of the shampoo she used that evening and felt his chest tighten with an emotion that is becoming as familiar as his right hand. Yuri held her closer, tighter when Alice squirmed once more to be free of him.

Yuri sighed again and closed his eyes for a moment. He had been patient long enough. He wants his answers and he wants them right now. Her actions these past days have left him alternately angry and depressed. He just couldn't seem to figure out where he stands with her.

"Why have you been avoiding me sweetheart?" He asked softly, making her pause.

Whatever it was he was going to say, this wasn't what she expected. She had thought he would try to sweet talk her to get his way, and she had been half prepared to counter him, but this…

"I…I don't know what you're talking about." Alice said carefully, "and you better go back to your room this instant Yuri Hyuga or I'll scream the roof down!"

But he was not about to be distracted, she should have known it takes more than that to divert his attention elsewhere.

As if he had a changed of mind, Yuri released her and sat at the edge of the bed with his back to her. Alice wasted no time in pulling the blanket high on her throat as if it was an effective shield against him.

He seemed to think for a moment before speaking again. The words when they came out, were soft, almost as if they didn't come from him. "Ever since we came here…you've been—I know you ain't directly avoiding me… but you seem to hold yourself aloof from me. What I wanna know is why?"

Alice was about to reinstate that he leave her room immediately when she heard his words. Slowly she sat upright, suddenly cold despite the blanket that covered her. Chewing her lower lip worriedly, she began to think furiously how she could answer him without lying as well as telling him the whole truth. She cautioned herself that silence is her friend, that she's more likely to give herself away if she tries to counter him with half-truths.

"…insisted on going back to Rouen alone…" Yuri continued talking, unaware of her inner agitation. "Christ! I didn't know whether I should pull you on my lap and spank you for being stubborn or feel hurt or insulted that you didn't want me to tag along."

The thought of him spanking her made her cheeks burn, not even as a little girl, had her own father applied the rod to her backside, and Yuri is...

"I thought you didn't go back to Rouen, that it was just an excuse for you to leave on your own…"

Then perhaps perplexed at her continued silence, Yuri turned his head to look at her. Alice willed her face to betray nothing, though she wondered if she was successful in keeping the mask in place. She looked down at her lap, felt the weight of his stare as he looked at her for what felt like an eternity. She knew what he wants, what he was hoping she would say, and felt like dying for keeping her silence.

And yet, she seemed able to convince him of her indifference, for Yuri turned his head back with a sigh.

He's so tense, Alice thought, her agitation rising by the second, she wondered how long she can keep her pretense. Seeing him like that was hurting her beyond that what she expected, and he wasn't finished by a long shot.

"I believed you ain't ever coming back…that you…left us." I thought you left me, didn't want me anymore. He added silently. "And after all that crap you've gone through, I didn't think I could blame you if you really did…a lesser woman would have given in the first time trouble came knocking…" He continued talking, his voice beginning to fray with emotions she easily recognized as hurt and confusion

"But you returned, and I had hoped…" He paused, as if debating with himself whether to continue or not. It worried her even more, for Yuri, the proud man who will never own his mistakes even when caught red handed, is now about to open himself to her…making himself vulnerable. As if he hadn't already! A voice scoffed in her ears. Tears pricked her eyes, knowing the reason why he's doing it. Please don't make this any harder on both of us Yuri! She longed to cry out to him, but those words remained unspoken, and by keeping silent, Alice knew he would finish what he had begun.

"I was afraid of this. Guess I saw it coming, but refused to believe it. I didn't want to believe it." Yuri confessed softly, his voice trembling as if it hurt him to say those words out loud. "I knew that once you're back in the world you lived in, back with your own people…you won't need me anymore."

If he was going to say anymore words, he finally seemed unable to voice them, Yuri sat there stiffly and waited as if willing her to prove him wrong, his whole body tense, racked by the certainty that she can devastate his whole world with a single word.

Alice closed her eyes even as she felt her chest tighten, gripped by an emotion she didn't want him to see. She longed to deny, refute the words he had spoken, but held herself back. The pain that shot in her palms told her she had been clenching her fists too hard and too long, the pain surprised her. She didn't know she was still capable of feeling hurt, such was her emotional anguish that she believed it eclipsed all pain but its own. All her senses seemed to focus solely on the man who sat at the edge of her bed. The slump of those once proud shoulders told her how down he is. How her ruse had worked effectively to make him believe anything but the truth.

He must not know. Alice thought furiously, reaffirming it to herself once more, He mustn't. It would spoil our last moments together. He'd blame himself, and do stupid things…and there's nothing either of us can do.

I'm dying. I have accepted that fact a long time ago, when I chose to follow him beyond that gate. He must never know.

Better to let him believe I'm living somewhere else, away from him but alive and well…

A/N: Yes, this is take 2 on this chapter. XD
Aegis' review says it all, though may I add that picturing a Yuri in a kilt would probably scar someone for life, it's beginning to sound appealing to me...makes me especially curious now what's underneath a Scotsman's kilt. XD If this doesn't make sense, don't worry, you just missed something er, whacky?

Anyway, this is as far as I can do to improve this chapter, if I could skip this chp and another one and jump to the 'hanky-panky' part, I would do it! Mwahahaha! But no, if I want to write a 'plotless' lemon, I would have done it by now...me is trying to improve! Hehehe, but habits die hard. ;)