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Chapter 3

How she ended up in front of the door that led to clown's office? Well, here's the deal. Gilbert didn't feel like getting Alice near Oz without those nasty glares. Personally Alice thought that he should get over it; it's been a week already. If she had to be honest, Oz is the only one she would ever trust anything to. She loved Oz, maybe not in Sharon-novels' way, but definitely in a friend-like way. So she started the conversation while Gilbert had been out to fetch Oz something to eat.

And boy; was Oz angry that Alice accused Gilbert of such a thing. Two days earlier, they've been on a small trip for some sight seeing. She had to admit that standing on a cliff and over looking the sea looked pretty impressive, but the look on her black-haired companion did not.

And when Alice tried to tell this to Oz, he got slightly miffed, telling her she shouldn't think that. When she continued, he got angry. This of course, got Alice angry. And all of this eventually led to Oz telling her she should leave.

Figures; stupid servant is more important than his own Chain.

Alice bit her lip and looked away for a second, wondering if this wasn't a stupid idea. He'd probably only make fun of her or get angry with her as well. But even so… it might be worth a shot. She knows no one else except Oz, Gilbert, Sharon and Break. The first two could be scratched down for this, and Sharon… well, she didn't want maidenly advice. She just… well, she didn't even know what she wanted. And since the clown has… been pretty nice last week…

She harrumphed at herself. She was being such an idiot! It wasn't that hard to just knock, walk in and tell whatever she wanted to tell! But then why… did she felt so constricted? As if the room had a bad effect on her. Alice made a face.

"Screw this." She walked right into the room, not bothering to knock. He was sitting before his desk, lazily sucking on a lollipop as he stared at the door.

"I was wondering how long you were going to take." He mused and Alice ignored any comment that wanted to make it up through her throat.

"Raven wanted to push me off the cliff." She started distastefully. Break cocked his head to one side lightly and kept silent. "He didn't do it, obviously, but I could see it by the look in his eyes that he more than wanted to."

Break nodded, throwing the empty stick of the lollipop into a trashcan next to the desk.

"I'm not a nuisance, right?" Alice continued, slightly confused. "He's just too obsessed with Oz to realize I have feelings too. It's not like I want to drag Oz and myself to the depths of the Abyss. Che, next time he looks at me like that I'll punch him. The nerve! And you know, Oz didn't even want to hear me out! He's so loyal to his own servant, while he's mine! He should trust me, to think I was lying!"

It was silent for a while, and Alice waited for any kind of response. Hell, even an insult would do. Break looked at her underneath his bangs.

"How exactly did he look at you?" He asked and Alice shrugged. "Murderous." As if he were a large bird and she truly would be a tiny bunny.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Break continued quietly, and Alice frowned.

"I can't do anything about it! If I'll make a fight with him, Oz will get mad at me because he thinks I'm talking nonsense. The one thing I can do is to be on my edge to make sure he'll never do something with those damn thoughts!"

"And have you considered a possibility that you indeed, might have been seeing things?"

"No… but I'm not seeing things! You should've seen it!"

Break nodded again, looking down at his desk. He had, of course, known of Gilbert's thoughts for a while now. It wasn't hard to figure out he wanted to protect Oz against all costs, even if it meant killing Oz's chain, Alice.

As a silence continued, Alice began realizing how mentally wrong this was. Confessing all this to the clown?! What had she been thinking?! He won't do anything about it, other than chewing candy throughout her speech!

"I take it you feel better now?" Break asked lightly while he looked up at her again. Alice frowned and shrugged again. "Not particularly."

"If you want me to talk to Raven, I can." He suggested and Alice looked at him suspiciously. He was supposed to do nothing about it. Because he's the stupid clown. Why should he care about it anyway?

"That won't work." She muttered while looking around. The office looked quite messy, but if she had to believe Reim, it would be obvious that this was the cause of the man sitting on the desk.

Break smiled and leaned back in his chair lightly. "Is there anything else?"

"…No. I… forget it." Alice blinked and glared at the ground for a while before she turned around and made to leave.

"Good night, Miss Alice." Break said sweetly and Alice's lips curved upwards lightly. "Yeah." She responded, before walking out of the office and back to her own room.

On her way back, she walked past the room with Oz, Sharon and Gilbert still in it. Well, she didn't feel like drinking tea. She quickly continued walking when she heard her name called out.

"Hey, Alice! Wait up!" Oz called, running up to her. Alice turned around and raised an eyebrow expectantly. He grinned sweetly at her. "I was wondering where you were! Silly Alice, we've been missing you!"

Alice nodded. "I'm tired." She answered and Oz raised his eyebrows confused.

"Oh, okay…well, we'll see each other tomorrow right? Sweet dreams!" He hesitated for a while before he reached out and gently patted her head. Alice closed her eyes for a second and grinned lightly at the boy in front of her.

X-X

Alice had been thinking. She had wandered in Sharon's room a little too early today, and left as soon as she thought she was doing something with Break. That something being described in those novels.

Thankfully, she also discovered that she had been thinking wrong (why thankfully? Why had her head hurt so much?), but she did see Sharon carefully touching Break's face, the section where his left eye should be.

Now that she had seen that, she had wondered if there was some huge bad-ass scar beneath that hair. There had to be something, right? He always kept it hidden, and sometimes he'd touch it – she'd even caught him absentmindedly scratching it! Maybe he had flees. Or a stinking infection!

Despite her personality, Alice's face scrunched up disgusted as she thought about really bad infections involving pus. Shoving that out of her mind, Alice wondered how she was going to figure out what was wrong underneath that layer of hair. Should she spy on him? But that clown is likely to notice… he was the master of spying himself, she wouldn't stand a chance. That, she could give him.

So maybe she had to push him real hard, so that he'd fall back and the whoosh of wind would show her what's underneath? Or she needed to call him so loud and sudden that he'd turn his head quickly? Maybe she could pull his hair in order to annoy him, and then look quickly.

Of course, the idea of just asking never crossed our female protagonist's mind. Alice spent an entire day of staring at Break and wondering how to do it, when she noticed that everyone noticed she was brooding over something. So after that, she spent an entire day ignoring Break like the pest, and then another two days intensely spending her time with Oz and Sharon.

But eventually, she ended up in Break's office again, wondering how it became a habit. Really, she's been in here twice this week. He had just let her in, and was still standing before her.

"What's beneath that?" Alice suddenly asked, tired of thinking so much. Break raised one eyebrow.

"Pardon me?"

Alice pointed at his face. "The hair."

In a second his expression got serious and he looked her straight in the eye. "The other side of my face, obviously." He responded, but for Alice's feeling it wasn't convincible enough. He'd need a lesson lying!

"There's something wrong with that side, isn't there?" Alice prodded, taking a step closer. Break tensed lightly but didn't move away, but the tensing was enough prove for Alice. Yeah, there was. The clown usually got way to close to her himself, so he didn't have problems with people invading his private space. Nor did he seem to mind cramped spaces such as cabins.

"I assure you, everything is okay."

"Can I see it?" She asked, voice softer. Something was wrong, something that he disliked greatly. It was only natural she was curious… but even she knew when to act a little friendlier. Besides… he was somewhat worth her attention, right? He'd been awfully… nice? Well, she wasn't sure if he was nice or not, but the feeling she got nowadays felt more pleasant than it did before.

She reached out to brush his hair away (resisted the motion to yank it out of the way, seeing he'd probably push her away) and he looked away, allowing her, waiting for her response once she seen it.

Alice… was a little intrigued. Shocked, yes, as she immediately dropped her hand and widened her eyes more than she would've liked too… but a little intrigued. She didn't even know it was possible to just remove something from the human body without it being thoroughly damaged.

"…You…"

"I'd prefer this to be between us, Miss Alice." Break whispered as his hand grabbed hold on hers. She still stared at the now hidden place on his face and allowed him to gently trace the back of her hand with his thumb. "I'm afraid that Master Oz does not yet know of this."

So Gilbert did? He must've pulled some sort of seaweedy kind of trick on him! And Sharon… well that was only obvious. Sharon did tell once that they've been friends (almost family) since a long time. "Yeah, s-sure." Alice choked out, taking her hand and a step back.

"I-I'll go now."

"Good day, Miss Alice."

Alice was already out of the room and walking back to hers in a fast pace. Darn, that was NOT an infection. How'd he lose his eye anyway? Was it magically wished out, or did someone rip it out? Did he himself rip it out?! Maybe there was an infection and that's why it needed to go out? Alice turned right on her heel and straight back to Break's office. She could be embarrassed later; first she wanted those darn answers!

"Oi!" She called when she threw the door open again. Break was leaning against the wall next to the window and was absentmindedly touching the space beneath the hair. He turned his head lightly to look at her, and it occurred to her he might've been disappointed with her reaction. Oh, that wasn't her problem!

Was it?

"Um… can I know how it happened?" She decided on going straight to the point, closing the door harshly with her foot. Break turned his head to the window again. "Just a small accident on my part. Nothing you should fret about."

"Well clown, I already do." Alice shot back, crossing her arms impatiently. It was hard to keep this appearance up when she felt so mixed…

"Really Miss Alice, could we do this another time?"

"No, what's so difficult in discussing this now? You weren't so hesitating to let me see it, were you?!" Alice decided for going harsh, and it would probably get the best response. Break doubted for a while before he put Emily down on a bookshelf.

"You have heard about my mistakes, right?"

Alice guessed he was referring to the entire story she had heard with that Barma guy. So, she nodded. "I traded an eye for another history. That's all."

Oh. The Will of Abyss, then.

On this, Alice turned around to leave again. She hated any subject that had something to do with the Will of Abyss. Why, she wasn't sure. She somehow felt that she loathed her, but had to love her as well. They were described as sisters, but they weren't supposed to be related by blood, right? And she only wanted her in the Abyss. That's not something a sister should want. But why was she so desperate to get her and Oz in the Abyss?

"Clown," Alice called out softly. "You don't need to worry or anything. I'll keep quiet."

"I'd expect nothing less of you, my dear." Break murmured back softly, and Alice nodded before leaving the office again.

R&R!:D