Mirana looked at the girl with a soft look in her eyes, who was still asleep in her arms despite the fact that it was almost mid-morning.
She hadn't woken up for which the Queen was, sort of, glad, because she could watch her sleep undisturbed.
Not that she'd admit it, of course.
Despite how beautiful the weather was and how calmly Alice slept in her arms, Mirana felt less anxiety.
Her anxiety was misplaced, given that she and Alice had made love and that she and Alice had been a couple for more than a few months.
Just from that fact, she shouldn't feel tense, but she still felt that way.
Alice was a complex person, and her reactions were often hard to discern, which made Mirana very nervous about what they were doing together last night.
She wasn't ashamed of it, but she didn't know how Alice would could have been thrilled, of course, or she could have been more than a little disgusted...by their...lovemaking.
Mirana called it that in her head, because it was more than just sex to her.
Anyone could have sex with anyone,but making love was just between people in love.
I mean... at least that's how she saw it.
She could not think more about her fears as her Champion began to wake up.
"How are you feeling, love?"Said Mirana to test how Alice was feeling. Thank God she managed to say it without showing any doubt she had felt a few moments earlier.
"Amazing."That was all she got in return as a response to Mirana before Alice kissed her.
She certainly surprised Mirana, but the Queen quickly recovered and kiss, not only reciprocated, but deepened.
Their kiss continued until Alice ended up on top of Mirana, her hands in platinum curls.
Not far behind, either, the Queen clutched the girl's hips enthusiastically.
They were so buried in each other that neither of them noticed where Mirana's hand had gone until the girl groaned in pain.
"Are you all right, Alice?"Mirana asked, removing her hand from Alice's most sacred place.
"Yes, I'm Mirana.I'm just a little sore."And that was true when she woke up,she didn't even register the pain, but now that she was fully awake, she realized how her body and the place Mirana had touched hurt.
'Can I give you something for the pain, sweetheart, if you like?' Mirana's offer sounded tempting, but she was too hungry to handle such an offer.
"No, it's not necessary, can have something for a late breakfast now, I'm really very hungry."The young Champion, not even realizing that she was completely undressed and still on top of the Queen when she wasn't even that she wasn't aware of this, but rather that she was showing Mirana all her scars.
"Of course we can.I'll have something brought to our room, but we'll get dressed first, okay?"It wasn't so much a question, but if her kind Champion wanted to stay naked for any reason, she wouldn't object.
"Sure."Alice said, and her cheerful mood faded a little as she realized she'd let Mirana see her whole body in the that Mirana didn't want her to see Alice naked...but the scars still made the girl uncomfortable.
"Not that I mind you walking around naked, but it would be most inappropriate."Now the Queen sat down and protectively hugged the girl on her lap."Moreover, my dear Champion would have too many people looking at you with not exactly the kind of thoughts I would approve of."
Alice shuddered at how possessively, normally sweet and kindly the Queen spoke.
And she shuddered even more at what Mirana said next.
"You are mine and nothing that I do not share."Oh, the tone in which Mirana spoke to Alice completely was a tone of strength but tenderness at the same time.
"Just yours, just like you are mine."Instead of being shocked at what Mirana had just told her, she felt rather overjoyed.
Moreover, why should she be surprised, they had been dating for months and things between them were serious, it was obvious that Mirana would be hurt and hurt a lot if she started it with someone else.
Which would never have happened, because she loved Mirana, and she honestly never wanted mirana to have anything like what she was eating happen to her.
"Well, let's get changed."Alice hadn't noticed until it was over, but Mirana's eyes were a lot darker than usual.
She didn't pay much more attention to it, untangling herself from Mirana's grasp.
She was completely unaware of how sad and courageous the accumulating glances had thrown Miran at her back.
"Mirana, you're going to change, too, or you're going to be in bed all day, because that's more my style, love."She said to tease Mirana, who hasn't moved from her bed yet, god knows how she missed the sad look in her love's eyes.
"Of course I'm going to change, Alice.I was just thinking."Her tone, despite her best efforts, bore the remnants of her negative got out of bed with her thoughts revolving around whether the younger girl had happened to notice.
"Is something the matter?"Alice asked, passing behind Mirana, who was turned away from her by the closet, where she chose the dress she should wear that day.
Despite wearing nothing but underwear and her blue tank top, which she wore under her shirt, Alice walked up to the Queen and hugged her from behind.
Mirana has yet to answer her question, only putting on the tights she wore under her dress.
She wasn't wearing more than that and underwear, but that didn't stop her from asking a question she hadn't had the courage to ask in so long.
But before she asked such an important question, she turned to face the girl and ran her hands through her tousled hair.
"Alice, how did you get the scars on your back?"Any joy and happiness evaporated from Alice's point of view, replaced only by despair.
Mirana suddenly realized how overwhelming this question must have been for Alice and tried to think of a way to close the wound she had opened with her stupid query.
Seriously, a silly inquiry, after all, she could have waited a little longer and not ruined such a good mood and obviously the emotions Alice had today.
"You don't have to ans-"Alice interrupted in a monotonous voice that even to her own ears sounded like it didn't belong to her."It's okay.I'll just tell you...we'll both change clothes and eat some breakfast."
Alice didn't ask it as a question, and that's why right after she finished talking, she got away from Mirana and started getting dressed.
Mirana had no choice but to do the same, knowing that Alice wouldn't do it any other way.
They didn't speak to each other, not a single word, as they was silent and her eyes betrayed a lot of pain that was mixed with shame.
She wasn't in the mood to talk, and Mirana obviously understood that, too, because she didn't speak either, despite seeming to want to speak to her several times.
Alice was glad she didn' was sure that if Mirana did it she would break completely and... honestly there was probably nothing to stop her from running into the kitchen, taking the sharpest knife and cutting herself with it more than ever before.
They still did not speak, though a servant came with their breakfast, which Mirana must have summoned when she was lost in her morbid thoughts.
"Thank you."Mirana said, taking a tray of food from the servant bowed wordlessly and left.
"I hope you like lazena.''Mirana really hoped that Alice liked this traditional dish from Underland because it was one of the three main items of food on the tray.
"I don't know, I've never eaten one, but according to Hatter, it's delicious."Yes, she said it in the plural, because it could have been several dishes and not just one.
Mirana flinched when she heard the distant tone in which the girl knew it wasn't directed at her, but it was still chilling because Alice only spoke that way when she really felt the enormous pain she wanted to pretend didn't exist, even though it was tearing at her inside.
"You'll see soon enough."She whispered to herself rather than to Alice, placing the tray in front of the girl, who was sitting on her bed in rather simple men's trousers and shirt.
"Aren't we going to eat it at the table rather than on the bed?"She understood Alice's opinion, because she hated having crumbs on the bed herself, but decided to make an exception for the day.
"No, I don't mind the crumbs for today."She said, and she meant it. Today she would have survived such a stupid thing as crumbs in her bed if it had made Alice smile a little.
And it was really worth it when Alice gave her a little smile.
She sat down behind Alice when the girl reached for the tray with the intention of putting it in the middle so they could both reach it comfortably, thinking Mirana would sit next to her.
However, Mirana overtook her, so instead of Alice laying him on the bed, she still had him in her hand when Mirana pulled her so that she was between her legs and Alice's back merged with Mirana's front.
When she did, Alice giggled a little, which warmed Mirana's heart.
"Let's go eat, shall we, love?"She said, breaking the ice a little between seemed considerably less tense and worried in her arms than she was when she wasn't there.
"I am definitely going to eat and what are you going to do with your hands around my waist?"The teasing question from the younger girl elicited laughter.
"Well... I guess somebody's gonna have to do the duty of feeding me."She kept joking, but Alice took it seriously and actually handed her one piece of lazen.
"Thank you."And that was the last thing they said to each other, not because they had nothing to say to each other, but because their silence soon became their own language to them.
Hand gestures,nods,kisses soon communicated all of this.
Before they knew it, they ate all the cakes, a special Thackery creation he called "chocolate yogurt" and last but not least, a surprisingly sweet pastry with whatever filling they invented, otherwise also a familiar lazen.
"That was delicious."Alice said, leaning even more against Mirana, who held her so affectionately.
"Yes,it was."She wondered how to say her next the end she decided to go straight to the center of things."Alice...will you tell the story to me?"
Alice, for her part, became tense in her arms, though she seemed a little more certain than when she had asked her question the previous time.
"Okay, but don't do anything stupid, please, because what you're about to hear is probably not going to appeal to you very much."Mirana realized that Alice seemed really scared by what she might do.
"As you wish, my dear."She would never break anything she promised a younger woman, even though she knew in her heart that she would soon be tested to see if she could.
Nervously, Alice moved the tray to one side and turned to stare into Mirana's eyes.
She wouldn't have survived if it had ever been too much for Mirana in the middle of a conversation, and she would have continued to ...maybe it was true on both sides, but a little different for one.
"I came to them in the Crims."In that one sentence,Alice got a huge stone out of her got one on her heart at the same time.
"It was just after they tried to arrest me for "unlawful seduction".She stopped talking and Mirana had to take several deep breaths to calm couldn't believe what she had just heard.
"What do you mean?" She Alice would never do something like that, so why would anyone blame her?
"Stayne tried to kiss me, but I refused, but a lady with false ears saw that your sister's court and told her so."Mirana could vividly imagine her reaction and what she most likely wanted to do was so glad now that Alice had escaped from there.
"But he managed to convince the Red Queen that I was the one who tried to kiss him and not the other way around."Alice sighed and tried to get her labored breathing under control.
"You know, I... we didn't try to escape then the way we described it to you."Well, now Mirana was very...very...she didn't even know how she felt about it, but it wasn't a positive come she didn't even notice how they lied to her when she asked them how Alice's escape happened, after everyone was safe in her castle?
"At the time, it wasn't like Stayne and two guards caught me in Hatter's workshop and I after Hatter threw canvases at two soldiers and fought Stayne off..."It was very clear that the girl was struggling with words and trying to prolong the story as long as possible so she didn't have to explain directly what had happened to her, but that didn't matter.
"He grabbed me just outside Hatter's workshop with Vorpal's sword in his 's when...he...figured out who...I was."Alice began to hyperventilate at her last she had to think about what she should say in a moment, she felt physically sick.
She quickly ran from the comforting grip of Mirana's arms, straight into the slammed the door behind her and immediately went to the toilet.
She vomited her breakfast, but even so she was not feeling of distress and terrible shame did not help to soothe her stomach, which was like on the she thought about it, she felt like she was revolved around her, she could not find the strength to even try to grab her head in her hands.
"Alice..."Mirana made her presence known, right after she walked in the seemed like a lifetime ago, when she tried to comfort a panicked almost forgot what it felt like when her heart was broken in half in the pain of her Champion.
She wisely left the door open behind her so Alice wouldn't think she was trapped.
With careful steps, she approached the girl, who tried not to lean too hard on the toilet in front of her to look at her.
All she did after her reassuring look was look away too quickly.
She walked in front of the girl and sat down next to made no attempt to reach for it, very aware of how badly it had gone the last time she tried.
"Alice."Mirana repeated her name, hoping that the girl would return to her, that she would not remain locked in her mind for very long.
It didn't help much but,Mirana didn't want to do anything else just yet so as not to startle the younger girl too much.
"Mirana?"The blonde's gaze focused on the platinum beauty, who sat next to her as if she had only just realized she was there.
"Yes, love?"She couldn't blame the younger woman for behaving the way she did, but Mirana would also really like to know what made her run out here.
"..."She didn't answer it. Wasn't she sure she could trust her?She had already proved several times that she was suitable for Alice's trust, so why did she seem not to believe her.
"I believe you."Alice Mirana didn't know better, she'd think she could read minds.
"Will you please help me up?"Alice said nothing else, looking hopefully at the Queen.
"Of course I do."This line has been said by the river several times today because it could not refuse its Champion.
Mirana extended her hand to Alice and the girl accepted it. She carefully pulled at her to help the girl stand.
Alice was actually standing, but on wobbly didn't look well,her hands were cold and when she looked into Alice's face, she was wearing a greenish , however, were her eyes, which looked dead ahead.
She tried to walk over to the sink, which was yards from the huge tub, but her knees buckled.
Mirana was at her side in an instant and managed to prop the woman up at the right moment because Alice would have fallen to the ground otherwise.
"Thank you."Alice murmured, leaning a little against Mirana, despite her head advising her to keep her distance.
Mirana's only reaction to thanking her was to kiss the younger woman on the head.
She didn't want to say anything in was sure all she could do was make things worse.
Alice rinsed her mouth with water before she drank it. She hated the feeling she got when she didn't do it that way.
"Shall we move back to the bed now?"Surprisingly, it was Alice who asked this question.
"You...want to...keep telling me what happened then?"She began cursing herself for the question that had left her could mean that they could rest in it or a thousand other things.
Mirana doubted,the girl meant she wanted to continue the story.
"Yes."Alice replied evenly to how bad she had been a few moments earlier.
"What-what?" If it weren't for the fact that she didn't want Alice to learn ancient swearing from her, which should certainly never have left anyone's mouth, she would now be swearing like a sailor.
Funny how she picked up some things from Alice's of all the proverbs,she liked them most of all.
'You heard right, I'll tell you just...can you do one thing for me?'Mirana's mind didn't have to think about the answer.
"Alice, you don't have to ask, I would do anything for you that you wanted."
The young woman seemed more than happy with her response as she told her just after they went for it hand in hand through the door.
They didn't go slow, but at the same time, they didn't go Alice wanted to go faster, but Mirana didn't want to because the girl hasn't regained her color yet, even though she started to recover.
"You'll hold me when I tell it, it comforts me."She didn't ask shyly, but at the same time not confidently, just the way it suited her.
"With pleasure."She said to Mirana, when she had reached the bed with the girl and they lay down carefully on so that she could listen to the calming heartbeat of the older woman.
Alice didn't know how to begin, but her hands were turned away from the panic as they calmly rubbed the rings on her back.
"You know, like I said, that's when he grabbed me.I wanted to break free or, at least scream for help but, before I had a chance to do anything, he knocked me out."Her breathing was calm, she wasn't sick at all, it was like something in her brain went over and told her she could say anything she wanted without any repercussions.
"It must have been premeditated because when I woke up I was in the dungeon and I had a terrible now I remember what he first said to me: You're finally awake and alive.I the fool thought I'd killed you with that blow to the head, but where the hell did you live."She didn't feel anything negative in that part either, she almost thought there was something wrong with her, but she quickly put that out of her just didn't feel anything and what was meant to be, it could happen to anyone at some point...no?
"It wasn't the words he said to me that were terrible, but rather how stupidly these ropes bound me.I was on my... knees in the middle of a dungeon that was more like a... torture held her hands over my head because she was leading from the ceiling using straps legs were holding me, too, ropes but in two places,one was around... thighs and one around my ankles."
Alice spoke a little faster, but that didn't bother Mirana, she was glad alice had told her about this horrific experience, for all the pain it caused her, even though she didn't let it show in her mind, either, the way she talked.
"Honestly it was very embarrassing and it was even worse when I noticed... the tape that was lying around my neck."Both Mirana and Alice knew this used to be used in Underland and in Alice's world until was a sign, both because it would soon cover her eyes and because whoever wore it would soon become a slave or was already, depending on the situation.
"I was afraid he'd try to ... force me again, but fortunately he didn't."Mirana, in one sentence, was relieved by the worry she had to say, but the other one only made it worse."He wanted to punish me... because we made a big mess of him at Red Queen by... torturing me."
Mirana was speechless she understood why the younger girl sometimes mumbled "Stayne leave me" in her sleep.
The feeling of total hatred, she experienced only after it was the moment she felt hate, but not so great,not so blinding,not so continued on even though she felt her breathing is faster again and felt even more as she began to lose herself between reality and the dangerous of her mind.
"You know he didn't start it right first he just insulted me...that's when he also told me that he knew about my secret..."Mirana knew that Alice meant that she was cutting herself and for that very reason, she didn't just say anything to her, like when Alice confided in her about how she came to believe that hurting herself was the only way out of her problems, even though it only got her more.
"He was laughing when he talked about how I was sick, that I was hurting seemed like an amazing laughed even more when he thought how much I would definitely enjoy myself if I was hurting so much."This was a bit much even for Mirana and she was one of the main players in the biggest war That Underland ever had between them.
"He said...for pleasure he blindfolded me so I wouldn't see anything...so I'd have a better experience, he thought, if I didn't know where... he was going to hit me."So this would seem sick even to a psychopath, and it was even more so when the young woman went on.
"I didn't know it at the time, but he took the whip he had in his torture kit or whatever it was and stood up for me."
Mirana couldn't help but sob tears proved how she felt about what had happened, but the girl in her arms sounded mechanically like a queen doubted she was aware that the very young woman who had told this horror story was aware that her voice was crying and breaking as she seemed to be living it up vividly, so little was in her arms in the present.
"He took off... the top of the dress and I was terrified that he had gone back to his pervy self and that he was going to rape me, but thank God he didn't and he just stayed there, just by whipping me in the back for a few minutes, thank God...spiked whip."Alice wasn't really as calm now as the beginning, she felt more like she was going to throw up again, but thank God it didn't.
She put it down to Mirana rubbing comforting circles in her back all the time and giving her loving kisses on the head.
"It was only a few minutes, but the pig was grazing on my screams, he liked a lot that he could torture me, but it wasn't like that either, because I got quite a few blows in the back and it was all thanks to Hatter coming to my aid at the time."
Mirana was confused and had a lot of first ly, how did Tarrant get there?Secondly, how could she not see,no cuts on the girl's back when she reduced it to its original size?How could she not have been informed about it and mainly meant Hatter, because he should have told her everything?How did no one know about it but the two of them?
All questions and no answers.
"Alice...how?"Alice must have understood what she wanted to ask her, because she answered a lot of questions and even ones that didn't occur to her.
"I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?"She laughed nervously and continued."First, Tarrant found me because he was looking for me and where to find me, he learned from one of the guards he threatened to kill and he preferred to tell him because his life was more important to him than Stayne."Mirana normally didn't approve of threats like this, but she had to admit that it was probably the only option in this case.
"Second, when Tarrant came in, he healed my wounds with some sort of powder, which he stole with an entire medicine cabinet, somewhere he stole it seems to me in the kitchen or somewhere."Alice sighed and smiled a little sheepishly at Mirana.
"You know, back then, I was so nervous that he saw all my scars, that I reached for one pill, in a test tube, with a forgetting sign that Tarrant had forgotten all about it."Alice looked embarrassed, while Mirana finally realized why Hatter hadn't told her about anything when he couldn't remember.
"No one else found out, because I quickly escorted the very confused Tarrant out, of course with Vorpal's sword out and we joined the others in looking for us, because we were delayed, because Hatter couldn't find me and then we couldn't find them either."Mirana had to admit that Alice had it pretty well made up, but honestly she'd rather a girl didn't have to experience it.
She couldn't have known that she was hurting a girl again with her silence just like she did a few months ago when they were in a similar situation.
Finally, Alice started crying, and that was because the emotions she'd been holding back the whole time she'd been talking had decided to relax.
She cried, scratched, screamed, gasped, and released more emotion and emotion through this behavior until she felt that Mirana had finally responded somehow.
"I'm sorry, Alice!I didn't mean to be silent!I couldn't find the words to help you!I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm-"Alice interrupted Mirana with a kiss.
Mirana had nothing for him and repaid the girl with kiss was not rushed, nor was it passionate in any way, and yet they could release their pent-up emotions through emotions they felt at the were a lot of tears coming from her eyes, but not all of them,there were tears of sadness or were also tears of liberation and happiness, and tears like this might not have been bad.
And until those tears were so bad, even the tears that would be shed in a few days after one announcement and one important question wouldn't be bad, even though neither of the aforementioned things had been expected by several people.