Finally recovered from the cold! I finally feel better now. Since I feel better, maybe I should treat Alice a little better? lol

Alice snuggled in the embrace of Gray. The assassin, who supposed to have been so terrifying and scary, was close to the girl. It may have been too close that it might not have been surprising if Alice fainted in shock and terrified. But instead of shivering in fright, the girl felt a comfort in this position. The muscular build and wide broad shoulder enveloped the girl as if it was protecting her from the cold. As the girl relaxed in Gray's arm, she began to hear a clock ticking, "A clock?" But from where? Gray didn't carry any clocks, that she confirmed when she treated him.

Gray noticed this and explained, "We have a clock instead of heart."

Wide eyed, Alice touched Gray's wide chest incredulously, "How…could it be?"

"Just like your heart. It's only natural for us to have clocks," it was said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

After a few seconds of silence, Alice realized the situation and awkwardly broke the embrace, "Sorry." Even after the separation, the lingering feeling of loneliness left an odd impression on both the man and the girl.

Without saying a word, Gray silently grabbed the chains on the ground and tucked it inside his jacket pocket. Alice widened her eyes in surprise, "the chain…" The foreigner thought that she was going to be chained again, but instead Gray was letting it go. This was an unexpected action from a professional assassin.

"…as long as you don't run away…I will allow you to roam around only this building," saying this, he quietly left the room.

After the door was shut, Alice held her heart and sighed in relief, "What was that about?"

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

On the other side of the door, Gray punched the ground and let out his frustration, "…Shit!" When he first heard the owner's advice he let out a mental laughter. It was too ridiculous to play a love game with his prisoner, and so he left the bar thinking that any of this faceless' advice would not work. Moreover, it was a waste of time to even linger around this boring place; it was more interesting to tease the foreigner. Yes, this was not a love game. This was merely an act of a cat nabbing around a mouse. Once the mouse is not so interesting anymore, he can just kill her. It was supposed to be like that, but…

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Even if I am able to roam around the room, what am I suppose to really do?" Alice slowly turned the door knob and walked out of the room, the place where she was held captive. Without turning back, Alice slowly walked down the hallway. The building was bigger than she thought. Although it was big, it was far from grand. The cemented building left a cold, dark impression. Without having a single window, light only came from the dim artificial lights. The only sound Alice heard was the nervous footsteps across the hollow pathway. As the brunette was getting more scared of the place, she stopped her feet. Alice stared at a door, which had beyond insane amount of locks and chains. Alice didn't know if she was lucky or not, but the locks on the door were all open. There was a conscious urgently telling Alice to turn around and run away from the door, but devil curiosity taunted the girl's mind. Finally unable to suppress the taunts, Alice made an attempt to open the door.

"Stop! Don't go inside that room," Gray's panicked voice came rushing to stop the girl.

Alice stopped as she swiftly moved her hand away from the door knob, "W-why?"

Gray rushed right in between of Alice and the door, "Just don't!" There was no doubt that Gray was hiding something from Alice and was keeping her away from it.

"O-ok," The girl was startled by the sudden intervention of the murderer and was already suspicious of his odd behavior. Suddenly an idea popped into her mind. It must be the way out. I know this will be reckless, but… I have to try!

Alice suddenly let out a fake scream, "Aaah!" Alice was not a natural actress, but if she is with a person who held her captive for a very long time, she can let out all her emotion at this type of situation. Alice pushed her weight towards Gray.

"Wha- !" Gray was obviously surprised, but since his reactions were quicker than a normal person, he was able to stand his ground. But Alice wasn't backing down with just this. She screamed the second time and pushed him with a greater force leading her to hug Gray. Normally, Gray would have calmly dealt with this, but something made his mind go wild. Was it her scent? Her soft, silky hair? Or was it just her frail body jumping towards his? This confusion led him to fall over and forced the door to open.

"Sorry…there was a rat and I just…" Alice swiftly got up from the ground; she was prepared to run outside anytime until she saw what was beyond the door.

"….What?" A little dizzy, Gray also sat up from the ground and realized the situation as he hastily stood up.

"I told you don't look at them! Get out!"

Alice looked at the piles of dolls and the frilly decorations as she skeptically questioned Gray, "…Are these…stuffed animals?"

The full grown man's face was flushed in red as he awkwardly answered, "Yeah it is, what, do you want to say that assassins can't love cute stuff?"

"No! No! But it's just…unexpected," Alice had the urge to laugh, not because of his odd hobby, but because of his cute facial expression. She would have done so, not unless Gray didn't have that murderous aura surrounding him.

"People have said that countless times already. Anyway just get out," still embarrassed, Gray tried to grab Alice's arm, but lost track when he heard the girl's next line.

"This gray cat is cute!" Alice was holding one of the stuffed animals as she was playing with it.

"What?" A relief washed over the man's emotion, he thought she called Gray cute. The last statement truly made the man's clock tick a little faster as he frantically tried to calm down.

Alice now adored multiples of stuffed animals as she tried to hug them all, "Oh and this whale and this bear too. So~~~ cute!" Finally meeting Gray's stare, Alice put down all the dolls as she tried to leave the room, "Sorry, I will get out right away."

A sudden baritone voice stopped the girl, "Don't say sorry."

"What?" Alice turned to look at Gray and noticed he was standing right in front of her.

With a death stare, Gray commanded the timid girl, "I forbid you to ever say the word sorry. It's annoying hearing that word all the time."

"A-alright," Alice backed a few inches away from the man as she was trying to move further away from him.

"…You can take any doll you like," with a sigh, Gray quickly passed by Alice and left the room.

Alice was left alone in the room, confused, but still muttered, "Thanks…"

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"DARNITT!" The minister of the castle of Heart was now lying on the bed. His injury from the battle with Gray was taking a heavy toll on him.

Ace was sitting right beside Peter's bed as he was plucking the flowers, a get well gift sent from various faceless people, "Mr. Peter, you shouldn't yell like that or else you might really die." This statement was true; Peter White had few broken ribs plus a fractured leg. Ace had some big scale injuries which could only be explained with a knife and a few other scratches, but wasn't as serious as Peter. This greatly annoyed the ill tempered rabbit.

"Shut up! This is all you despicable germ's fault that I missed that sleazy reptile and don't eat my apple!"

Ignoring Peter, Ace kept on eating the gift as he made a fake sigh, "Well I think I could have won, if you didn't interfere with the battle."

"That's BS, you were the one who bothered me."

"Hmm~ Maybe I should have cut you up first and then fought Mr. Lizard."

"Fine then, let me shut your ugly mouth up," it was already bad enough that Peter was not able to beat up the lizard and save Alice; he didn't want to talk with the knight and waste his precious time. Peter swiftly got out his gun as he aimed towards Ace.

Ace smiled as he also unsheathed his sword, "Hahaha, Mr. Peter, are you having a death wish?"

"You have death wish, universally beyond hopeless idiot," Peter was about to pull the trigger, but was intruded by someone.

A nervous voice questioned both Ace and Peter, "Um…are you the Knight of Heart and the Minister?"

Peter was hanging on to his last string of patience as he glared at the faceless woman, "…Who are you? You have less than a minute to explain why you are disturbing me!"

Flinching in fright, the faceless replied, "I'm called Lori and I know where Alice is…."

Lori once again came back! Is she the one who will save Alice? Seems like I'm not torturing Alice anymore, but I'm teasing Gray instead. ^w^