A/N: I'm not back, per se, but I liked the idea of this.

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The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies

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The little girl twirls in her room, singing softly to her doll. She doesn't mind staying in her tower, although she does feel a bit lonely. Tomorrow is her seventh birthday. She sings to her doll of better times, when daddy didn't yell at her, and mommy wasn't in another country on business. Daddy said she couldn't leave the tower, so she didn't. She stayed up in the tower like a good little girl, hoping someday that somehow things might change.

Alice hoped, and hoped, and hoped. Things hadn't changed for two years now.

She still hopes, and tomorrow she will be seven years old.

She wishes to the stars in a carrying whisper, wrought with the tears of a lonely little girl: "I wish I could leave."

But it's no use, Alice knows. She will never leave. It's best to leave these childish thoughts behind.

Tomorrow is her seventh birthday… and tomorrow, she will be grown-up, she vows.

—

A boy sits in an over-large armchair, reading a book apparently titled "The Holy Knight". He reads, but doesn't. He's far too concerned with what his father said to him.

"Don't touch me, you filthy brat."

He slams the book shut, pressing his lips together firmly. Don't cry, he admonishes himself. You'll look so weak. Who is he kidding? He is weak. He couldn't even protect Gil from his father's wrath. Oz's lip trembles. When is Uncle Oscar going to get here with Jack? He has never felt so lonely before in his life.

Compare that to how Gil must feel, he rebukes himself, trapped all alone in that cold, dark cell. You're pathetic. Be thankful you are in a warm room with books and comfortable furniture.

Even his rebuking doesn't help now, for Oz feels that the room is altogether freezing. It's nothing like its picture suggests, or maybe it is, and Oz just can't feel the warmth, being too preoccupied with the status of his favorite servant—his only servant. More like his best friend.

When father comes home, Oz will show him that he is grown up. Then maybe, just maybe, his father will like him better. He can only hope.

—

"You don't know what you're doing, Glen! That girl is miserable up in that tower!"

"She's a mistake, Jack! She should never have been born!"

That's me, thinks Alice glumly. The mistake. The illegitimate child, born when her parents were only fourteen. It's not really her fault, but Alice doesn't know that. She's only a child. Her father was forced to keep her locked in a tower, and her mother was banished, exiled. All that Alice could remember of her was a gently sweet smile, loving, warm, and caring. Alice misses her mother so badly, it hurts her chest. She's leaning out of the tower window, eavesdropping on her father's conversation with his best friend. She likes daddy's best friend. He brings her sweets and keeps her company sometimes.

Her father and Jack argue some more, and then Jack gives a frustrated growl and stomps away. Glen sniffs haughtily and walks away to the tower to check on Alice. She scurries to her bed and is just brushing her doll's hair when Glen walks in angrily.

"What are you doing?"

"Just brushing my doll's hair, daddy."

He looks away. "I told you not to call me that. Why must you look like her so?"

"Like who, daddy?"

"Lacie. You look so much like her." His eyes switch to the floor, somewhat either ashamed or upset.

"I can't help it, daddy. I was born like this."

Glen gives her a heavy sigh. "I wish you hadn't been born. Then maybe things would have been different. Better, even. Lacie wouldn't have had to leave. I wouldn't have to keep you locked in this tower. I'm sorry."

Alice bites her lip, trying so hard not to cry. Daddy loves me, I know he does, she whispers in her mind over and over as a sort of mantra to keep away the horrible feelings. Glen chokes back a sob and turns around. "I can't even look at you," he says, voice cracking. Then he leaves the tower, locking the door securely.

As soon as his footsteps die, Alice grabs her pillow, hugging it, burying her face in it and begins to sob wholeheartedly, crying herself to sleep.

—

"Oz, we are going to visit a friend of mine."

Oz smiles. He loves it when his cousin Jack comes back from his travels, and he's delighted whenever Jack asks him to go somewhere. The seven-year-old boy takes his twenty-one-year-old cousin's hand and is led into a carriage. Gilbert was to go somewhere with Uncle Oscar today. Uncle said that he may have found Gil's brother in the Nightray house. Oz would be sad if that was true, because it would mean that Gil couldn't be his servant anymore, but it was okay because if Gil found his brother and was happy, Oz would be happy too.

He and Jack arrive at their destination quite soon indeed. Carriage rides with Jack are always fun. Jack sings merrily, laughing the entire way, and Oz basks in the warm sunlight he radiates. Sometimes Oz wishes Jack was his big brother, and that way he wouldn't have to leave. Stepping out of the carriage, Oz shields his eyes with a small hand. Jack sees his friend on the lawn.

"Glen! I told you I'd be back, didn't I?"

Glen turns and his scowling face turns into a sardonically humorous smile. "Jack. Good to see you."

"This is my cousin, Oz Vessalius."

Jack's best friend inclines his head toward the seven-year-old boy. "A pleasure."

"Same to you, sir," Oz says quietly, unwilling to disrespect this tall, cold man.

Jack gets down to Oz's height and whispers something in his ear with a mischievous smile. Oz nods emphatically, gives Glen a scared glance, and then runs off towards a tower in the distance.

—

A sigh, and Alice leans out of her window again. It's her birthday. Not that daddy would remember or anything. She wants company, a friend, someone to talk to who will talk to her as well. The sun glares harshly down at her, but she doesn't care, she's too busy smelling the wonders of nature.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" a childish voice cries below her. Surprised, she looks down, and a boy who looks about her age grins up at her, hand over his eyes in a scouting position. His blond hair glints in the sunlight.

Alice giggles. "My hair isn't that long, sir knight. I'm afraid you'll have to find some other means of entering the tower."

The boy's eyes widen in a sort of idea expression. He climbs a tree right next to the tower and leaps across to the tower, grabbing onto vines and pulling himself into the window. He sticks his hand out, offering it to Alice.

"I'm Oz!" he proclaims, grinning happily.

She takes his hand cautiously and he shakes vigorously. "It's Alice," she says after the handshake.

"How old are you?" he asks curiously.

"I just turned seven today."

He hugs her, beaming. "Happy birthday!"

Alice's mouth falls open, and she looks at him like he just shattered her heart into a million pieces. Nobody had ever told Alice to have a happy birthday before. She didn't know how. Her father never celebrated her birthday, rather, he mourned it. She bursts into tears, and Oz is shocked.

"W-why are you crying? Did I do something wrong?"

"N-n-no," she sobs, "It's just… n-nobody's told me that b-before…" She receives another hug, but this time it's purely comforting.

"That's okay, there's a first time for everything, Alice!" He's so optimistic, so sure of himself. She smiles in spite of herself and begins talking with Oz. They talk all day until Jack and Glen enter the tower, Jack smiling his trademark smile, and Glen with his grim smile.

"Jack, can we come back again sometime?" Oz pleads.

His cousin smiles gently. "If Glen will have us."

"It's fine by me."

And for the first time in Alice's life, she was really, truly happy.

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A/N: This started out as a prompt, but I soon realized it didn't exactly fit the prompt. However, it was going so well that I decided, heck, why not continue? So I did, and this was the result.

Please review?