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Chapter 5

"What is that?!" Alice murmured distasteful. It looked awful! Oz smiled sweetly.

"It's a dog, Alice!"

Gilbert grinned wickedly. "They chase rabbits."

Alice, not listening to the seaweed, bent down and looked the small animal right in its eyes. After a second or five, it barked happily and lapped out his tongue to meet her. Because of her reflexes, Alice jumped back and hid behind the table with her hair practically up. "It wants to kill me!" She hissed.

Oz laughed. "She likes you! She wants to kiss you!"

Alice glared hard at the dog. "Kiss me?! I don't want a sexual relationship with something on four legs!" Of course, Alice had been taught (by a certain lady) that kissing involved a… sexual relationship. Or contracting. Most of the time.

To this Gilbert snorted. "No one would want to-"

"No Alice, she just likes you as a friend. Normal people hug, they lick." Oz explained and Break almost wanted to say something manically disturbed, but stopped when he saw Oz's dangerous glance.

"Che. So, are we gonna roast it tonight?" Alice thought, wondering if she had ever eaten something that was called a dog. Oz nearly choked on this.

"Roast it?! She's a pet, Alice. We don't eat pets. Most of the time." He added in a sweat drop and Alice didn't question that.

"I don't understand; is that thing a pet or a dog?"

"Both!"

"What-"

Oz laughed and petted the dog when it jumped closer to him. "A pet is an animal you keep and treat as your family. A dog is this little creature. Other pets are birds, horses, cats (Gilbert whined at this) or fish."

"Hm, fish is nice."

"She's not eatable~" Break emphasized.

Alice huffed and looked at the tail-wagging creature. It was tiny. Very tiny. If Oz intended keeping it in this building, she had to be careful not to step on it.

"It's a shame we need to bring her back to its owner." Oz murmured and Alice could practically feel the next question coming up. God, these people were so predictable.

"You'd like to have a dog, Master Oz?" Break mused and Oz grinned.

"Maybe. They're good company. There's no way I'd ever get a cat…"

"Damn right!" Gilbert almost fumed, nearly passing out from only the thought of one, cradled in his master's arms.

Alice grinned. She somehow loved cats. The dog ran over to her when everyone started talking about other things and looked up at her happily, jumping against her legs. She raised an eyebrow and glared at it, but it only licked her knee. Oh well, she knew she was hard to resist. So even the dog wanted to become her servant? Fine with her.

After a few minutes Alice decided the dog was worthy of her attention, even though it was doing some strange things at the moment. "Oz, what's it doing?"

The crew looked back at her only to find the dog riding against Alice's boot, his tongue out of his mouth.

"!" Gilbert nearly gagged at the sight and Break held his sleeve in front of his mouth to hide a grin. Oz yelped.

"Bad dog, bad! Come here!" He grabbed the dog up and put it on the far corner of the room, waving his finger at him. "Bad!"

Alice looked at the scenery dumbfounded. "What? It only showed me it wanted to be my servant, right?"

"Indeed, Miss Alice~" Break grinned widely and Oz sweat dropped.

"Well, he sure liked you all right. Gil! Bring it back, please?"

"Why do I have to do it?!"

"Pleaaase~"

Gilbert sighed and picked the dog up with one hand, holding it in front of him like it was a disease. In reality, he thought that the dog was insane for coming THAT close with the rabbit. Didn't it have some sort sense of smell and hunt her down?!

"Well, at least we found out it isn't a girl." Break mused happily.

Alice stood still on her spot, slightly dumbfounded. Whatever the dog did, it wasn't a good thing. Another point to the list; don't do the same thing. Check. She blinked when Break walked over to her, and Oz was trying to avoid Sharon's fan-abuses, uttering that he didn't mean for the dog to come so close to her precious little Alice.

"My, my, even the animals start to like you nowadays~" Break mused when he arrived close to her, and Alice snapped her head up lightly to look at him.

"I don't get it. Does it like me or does it hate me? It seemed to do a bad thing."

Break grinned knowingly and reached out to pat her hair like she was a little child. She allowed it easily (Oz frowned) and looked at the door Gilbert disappeared in.

"I like cats better." She stated, ending the entire subject. Sharon smiled widely at her as Alice joined her on the couch, and started talking about something. To all of our surprises, Alice responded and a conversation followed.

Oz stepped closer to Break, trying to go unnoticed but failing horrible. Break raised his eyebrow.

"Master Oz?"

Oz looked at him and decided to drop the whole spy-act and just get right to the point. "I was wondering if something happened to you and Alice?" He asked sweetly, but Break couldn't help but notice the slightly concerned (angry?) tune to it.

"Nothing much~" Break responded easily. "Why would you ask?"

"She's nicer." Oz claimed. "Not that it's a bad thing." He quickly added. "It's just unlike her." Break shrugged, not responding anymore.

X-X

Alice couldn't sleep. After wriggling around for a good half hour, she kicked of her blankets and pillows and whatever else was stationed on her bed, wondering if she perhaps was too warm. This didn't prove successful, so Alice jumped out of bed and pushed open some windows. Breathing in the fresh air, she crawled back in bad and buried her face in the large amount of pillows. Seeing this didn't work as well, Alice sat up with a groan and wove her hands through her hair once to get it out of her face.

She did some math; she went to sleep at ten in the evening. So it had to be either midnight or after midnight, because she also knows she slept longer than two hours. Would someone still be awake? Deciding to just go and check, she jumped out of bed and pulled on some knee high socks, before leaving the room quietly. Quite confidently, she wandered the halls and checked several rooms, but they were all pretty empty. How boring. What was she supposed to do when she couldn't sleep?!

She could wake Oz… but last time she did that, she got an angry Gilbert on her roof. How he ever found out she was in his room, was completely unknown for her, but she figured he had some kind of Oz-sense. So, if she went again she might get him as a bonus as well.

That left Break. Well, would he be asleep? Alice stood still and raised an eyebrow. Somehow he seemed like the person who would stay up late and do some things she wouldn't want to know about.

Or not.

She knew his office was locked and rather empty, since she tried that before. But just wandering into his quarters? That kinda gave her the creeps. Sure she saw it but not with him and her alone in it.

Oh who was she kidding! Afraid to just stomp in? Dang, Sharon had too much influence on her. It was time to call the whole sister relationship to an end!

Alice continued walking slowly, before she heard some tapping behind her. Turning around, she dimly saw a light at the end of the hall she came from.

"Who's there?" She heard an unfamiliar voice call out. Oh great. She really didn't want to meet up with a Pandora member right now. They didn't seem to like her that much – and the feeling was mutual.

Alice turned around again and quickly tiptoed further into the hallway, away from the guard. If she was right, the clown's quarters had to be nearby. She could practically smell the womanly glitters that resided in Sharon's quarters, and Break's was close to hers.

She took a sharp turn to the left and collided right into someone's chest. Scrunching her nose, she immediately glared as said person took her wrist and pulled it up lightly.

"What are you doing snooping around?" A guard asked her rather suspiciously. Alice snorted.

"None of your business."

"We'll see-"

Alice balled her hands into fists and took one step back to throw a guided punch, when her hand was stopped. She turned her head lightly to see who it was, and was met by a lot of black clothing.

"I'll take it from here." Gilbert said rather annoyed and the guard nodded, releasing Alice instantly, probably grateful he didn't had to deal with her.

Alice pulled her hand out of Gilbert's grasp and jumped back a meter, staring at him suspiciously. Che, she didn't expect the cry-baby to be up so late.

Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"Walking around."

He closed his eyes rather irritated and pursed his lips. "That's not what I mean, stupid rabbit!"

"What was that, seaweed?!"

Gilbert breathed in deeply. "Go back to your room." He ordered and Alice huffed, leaning on one foot more than the other.

"Che, go back yourself." She responded, wondering why he felt like he should be ordering her around.

"I was about too when I noticed your annoying voice." Gilbert said, glaring at her. Alice looked away to the hallway behind her, where she knew Break's quarters were. Surely, when she barged into there and hid behind the clown, seaweed would leave her alone right? Or she'd just close the door; he probably didn't even dare to enter the quarters of Break.

So because of that, she took a beeline for the door she thought was Break's and sped in, ignoring Gilbert's annoyed calls behind her. Hehe, stupid seaweed.

Her nose twitched and she looked around, noting that Break's walls didn't look pink last time she came.

Alice groaned and banged her head on the door once. "Sometimes, I really hate my life."

Hurrying out of the room before Sharon would wake and notice her, she ran right into someone – again, what were all those people doing up!? – and the door shut behind her with a cracking noise.

"Eh?" Break let out intelligently as he was just passing by. Alice stared at him dumbfounded when Gilbert caught up and glared at her.

"- and another thing rabbit, I don't want you using my shirts as your nightwear!" It was obvious he had been swearing at her, but Alice had been too busy to notice.

Break caught on with the situation and gently took a step forward, somewhat shielding Alice from direct contact with the other male. "I think she looks rather fashionable in it though~"

Gilbert, horrified that Break chose Alice's side, put the glare on him. He opened his mouth to say something – nasty perhaps? – but Break chose to interrupt him.

"Now, now Raven, we wouldn't want to wake Milady? You just go back to your room and have a nice rest~" Break mused as he gently pushed Alice to her own quarters. Gilbert looked at them dumbfounded.

"But the rabbit-"

"Has something to discuss with me~"

"This late?" Gilbert asked, rather suspicious. Break grinned.

"Yes?"

Break disappeared through another hallway and Alice shot him an ugly face with the infamous nickname before quickly following after Break. She could hear Gilbert ranting about something involving cooked rabbit before his voice became more muffled.

"I must say, you make your nightly trips rather interesting! Didn't you set a carpet on fire last week?"

Alice huffed. "That was an accident, and you know it. Dammit, if that closet had been somewhere else I would've never dropped the candle." She faintly remembered her bumping into a closet rather harshly and dropping the candle she carried with her in the process.

Break smiled. "I would like to believe that, but it's starting to sound a little unbelievable nowadays. Raven was right to be afraid you'd harm Oz!" He teased and Alice threw the object closest to her – a clip at the end of the left braid in her hair – straight at him. Break, succeeded in catching it and twirled it between his fingers.

"I would like to say I could entertain you for the night (how did he know? she wasn't that obvious, right?) , but I'm expected someplace else." He said once they arrived in front of the door to her quarters. Alice frowned. "Now? Where are you going?"

"I won't be gone for long~"

"Where are you going?"

"I think I might even be back before lunch!"

"Oi!" Alice resisted the urge to slap him and he looked down at her for a second. He smiled kindly at her and took her left braid, placing the clip back on the end of it. She blushed at the action and for that, she lowered her eyebrows, hoping it wouldn't show in the faint darkness.

"It isn't worthy of your concern, Miss Alice."

"But you-… never mind." Alice bit her lip and he raised his eyebrow. "I what?" He asked curiously, and her blush darkened. Darn him! She wouldn't tell him that he was of her concern. Psht, he'd send her straight to the nut house.

"You nothing." She replied harshly, somehow suspecting he saw through the façade anyway. Break smiled and leaned closer lightly.

"Good night then~" He murmured, pressing his lips against her forehead. Alice resisted the urge to – what?! – breathe out too deeply and covered her eyes with her hair, before quickly disappearing in her room, making a beeline for the bed.

As promised, he showed up right on time for lunch, and rest assured, Alice sighed out the slight stress she had been holding.

R&R~ :D