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Chapter 4
The door to Break's office slammed open and the objects close to it moved lightly from their spot. Alice, who woke up rather late, stormed in wearing nothing but knee-high socks and a long button-up shirt she stole from someone's laundry. Break looked up, lightly confused, but smiled nonetheless.
"Good morning, Miss Alice~"
"Look outside!" She immediately shouted. Break followed the direction of her finger and soon she ran towards the window to point some more.
"Look! Look!"
"I am looking?"
Alice glared at him. "Why is it so white? Is this world dying or something?!"
Break grinned amused at the lack of knowledge and stood up as well, standing next to her, giving off the aura of a kinder garden teacher.
"Well, the world's just fine now. But it's winter; so the weather changed."
"It can?" Alice rebutted, curiously.
Break nodded smartly. He opened his mouth to explain the logical facts of the four climates when she shrieked angrily.
"Oi! Gilbert is attacking Oz! How dare he! I need to-" She had turned around to stomp out of the room when Break grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"It's okay, they're having a snow fight~"
"!"
"They're having fun~" He reformed at her alarmed expression.
Alice nodded suspiciously. "I wanna join, then." She turned around again but Break closed the door before her.
"First we'll need to dress you warmly, Miss Alice." He countered and she raised an eyebrow.
"Why?" Alice responded, glaring now.
"Because it's very cold. We wouldn't want you to come down with a cold or an infection!"
"Do it quickly then." Alice waited impatiently and Break kept silent for a while, blinking. Then he smiled, opened the door and took her arm.
"I'll take you to Milady Sharon~"
Alice scrunched her nose at hearing the female's name, but followed anyway. Half an hour and a lot of squeals later, Alice ran outside, completely stuffed in shawls, sweaters, a coat, some layers of pants, and a woollen hat planted on top of her head. Alice resisted the urge to scratch on all those DAMN ITCHY PLACES –
"Alice!" Oz yelled and she looked his way annoyed, when a snow ball hit her square in the face. Oz, meanwhile, giggled manically and hid behind a tree.
"…" Alice stuck out her tongue and tasted the wet and cold stuff on her face. Well, it wasn't tasty. Maybe lunch was ready yet…
Another snow ball hit her in the face. Not as perfect as Oz's, but still rather nice hit.
"Haha! Stupid rabbit!"
A device in Alice's mind switched to 'kill-seaweed' and mimicking Oz, she ducked down rapidly; grabbing all the snow she could get in her hands, and smacked them together. It all disappeared through her hands.
Cursing, she gave it another try and a snow ball (or a triangle) was formed. She grinned widely and went to search the seaweed.
She saw, targeted, and threw. And hit target as well!
"Haha! Who's stupid now?!" Wow, this was fun. Abusing the seaweed physically and NOT getting punished for it?
"You-" Gilbert glared dangerously at her when a snow ball of Oz hit him as well, in his hair. Oz smiled rather creepy and Gilbert threw his snow ball to the ground.
"Oh forget it." With that he stomped off and Oz laughed at his childish behaviour.
A few minutes later, Oz started doing something that was weird in Alice's eyes, but oh hey, she walked over to him to help out anyway. Of course, the snow ball fight wasn't over yet.
"My apologies." Break clapped his hands to get rid of the snow in his gloves. "I just thought that I had to revenge Raven!"
This enraged Oz and Alice, and they formed a team, hiding behind the thing they just build and shooting snow balls to him like a cannon. When he was drenched, Oz continued his snow thing, and Alice kept a good eye on the clown.
But because Alice wasn't that familiar with the snow yet, she slipped and fell down on her butt rather harshly, arms wide. Above her, snow was falling, and she snorted ironically. She didn't like it anymore; it seemed like rain. And she did not like the wet.
"Are you all right, Miss Alice?" Break mused, his face suddenly above her.
"Do I have to walk around in this gorilla outfit forever?"
"Of course not! The snow will melt soon."
Alice nodded. "Good. It's itchy. And why aren't you wearing something like me?! Aren't you getting a cold or whatever that is?!"
"I'm afraid Milady has been a little extreme with you, Miss Alice. But it's only sisterly love~"
She grabbed a handful snow and threw it up to him, but gravity ticked her and it fell right down on her own face. She pouted at this and shook her head roughly to get rid of the snow, before accepting Break's hand to stand up.
Seeing she wasn't done with 'hurting' him, she pushed him harshly. Break, used to some violence, staggered back slightly and pulled her against him in the process.
Alice blushed fiercely (thank god for all the shawls) and jumped back what would seem like a mile.
Break grinned. "My apologies, Miss Alice."
"Y-yeah." Alice muttered, quickly wandering over to Oz who had pointed a stick into the upper ball of the snow-thing.
And as promised, a month later, the snow was almost completely gone. Phew. She can go out safe again without getting choked…
"Achoo!"
She scrunched her nose; looking at the door she was going to open dumbfounded. Achoo? What the…
"Achoo!"
With no other thought she ran through the corridors to Oz's room, and practically dragged him out of his bed.
He whined pathetically and dragged his pillow with him, hugging it as if it were his life.
"Wake up!" Alice beamed and Oz moaned about something involving warm sheets and he unconsciously crawled back to his bed.
"Oz!" Alice jumped right on him as if he were a prey and started pulling his cheeks. "Achoo! Oz!"
With a groan he opened one eye. "Alice, it's too early. Go back to sleep~"
"Oz-Achoo!"
He opened his eyes again, and to her distraught look seemed to immediately understand what was going on. Wow, he was a quick learner for someone who just woke up.
"Bless you?"
"Achoo! What is this?!" Alice grabbed at her own throat and glared at her elbows. Oz grinned.
"You're sneezing, Alice."
"Huh?"
Oz, being no expert in human logic at all, tried to explain it inefficient. "Um, well, people sneeze when they're… allergic to something! Or when they smell something funny. Or when they have a… oh." He caught up with his own thoughts.
"Achoo! What?" Alice raised her eyebrows as he gently removed her from his lap and crawled back a little. He grinned.
"You got a cold, Alice! Though I can't understand why…"
Of course only Alice could get a cold wearing too much clothes.
"…Make it end?"
Oz laughed. "I'm afraid I don't know how. But since you're sick, I'll take care of you!"
That, at least, sounded good in Alice's ears.
X-X
"My, aren't you glowing~" Break commented when Alice entered his office. She didn't even care to think why she would ever want to enter his office for random, but somehow it became just that; random. He was pretty nice if she could talk to him without him annoying her. She didn't hate Oz now or something; he was just pretty dim-witted (or pretended to be) sometimes.
"I'm sick." Alice excused herself before sitting down on one of the armchairs.
"So I have heard. Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"
"Ssht. Oz'll never find me here. He's like a Chain of the Abyss! Once they see you they never leave you alone until you get rid of them!" She murmured, quite stressed about the whole matter. "I had enough herbal tea and soup for years!"
Break laughed heartily at this and finished something on a paper. Alice frowned before coughing.
"Look, it's just a temporarily hiding place. An hour or two."
"Fine by me, Miss Alice." Break responded, grabbing another file he needed to look through (damn, office work is boring)
But only after a half an hour did this apply to Alice. She fiddled with her fingers and ran a hand through her hair annoyed. That, plus the burning in her throat was so irritating she would trade ten horrid Chains for it.
"Say, clown…"
Break looked up momentarily as Alice looked away to the ceiling.
"Do you… mind me coming here?"
"Well, I would love to work at the moment, seeing Mister Reim will scold me-"
"I meant ordinary visits, not now!"
Break grinned knowingly – he was just teasing her. "Do you mind coming here, then?" He rebutted and Alice blushed lightly, glaring at the ceiling in the process.
"No, but that's not an answer to my question. Got ears?"
"I don't think you mind anything though~"
"Got a death wish too?" Alice threatened and Break smiled.
"To be honest Miss Alice, it's quite nice to have someone else's presence in the same room."
Alice looked away again, slightly uncomfortable. When she had 'talks' with him that concern these kinda subjects, that pressure would only deepen and she'd hate it.
"Okay. So…I can come more often, right?"
"Sure, Miss Alice."
Alice blushed again and hid her face in the overlarge shirt she was forced to wear from Sharon. Underneath her bangs she looked at him as he was concentrating on his job.
Now she thought about it… he didn't really look like a clown (maybe he just acted like one). And… she didn't hate looking at him either. She smiled in the safety of her overlarge shirt and put her chin to her collarbone. It felt… warm. Alice closed her eyes and breathed out deeply, creating somehow a bubble in her shirt. The chair wasn't as comfortable as the bed, but it could do. She faintly noticed someone putting something on her.
R&R! :D