Again~ Thank you for all of the reviews for the last chapter, I'm really happy people are enjoying this story. Because right now i'm just writing off of the top of my head. I'm trying to keep the chapters a decent length, but it's becoming harder and harder.

Anyways, this chapter mainly focuses around Boris meeting the Hatters. And a surprise appearance from someone from another territory! Not gonna say which one~ that's cheating.

Next chapter will probably be another time skip. Enjoy!

Once again I don't own Heart no kuni no alice, just Chance.

Chapter 3: New friends

"Sorry. I'm not giving you any of my territory yet again." Blood crossed his arms, tightening his grip in his shirt. Truly, negotiating with this man always ended in a failure.

"How come you never even consider my offers?" A squeak from the door cut Gowland off from stating the obvious to the hatter. They both turned and a pink haired teenager poked his head in. His ears perked up as he noticed he was caught and he quickly ran off.

Gowland couldn't help but chuckle. "That boy is why, Blood." The duke stood up, walking over to the door. "This meeting is over. Please get yourself out of my Amusement park." The door slammed behind him and he looked at the pink haired boy that was standing outside, leaning against the wall. "Boris, what was that?"

The Cheshire cat was not 'officially' a teenager, now being 13 years old. He had gotten taller, getting up to Gowland's shoulder now. Somehow the cat had convinced Gowland to get his ears and tail pierced at some point, Gowland didn't quite remember the conversation - the cat probably asked when he was drunk. He wore a purple and pink sleeveless shirt with black pants, one purple sock, one pink, with black shoes. He carried the purple and pink boa around his shoulders, small medals hanging off of it. The workers had given him the medals as gifts. Boris held a pout on his face as his tail swayed. "I thought you were sneakier than that."

"Sorry Uncle Mary~" Boris grinned. "But I got bored!"

"Aren't you supposed to be at your shooting lesson?"

"Yeah...got bored of that too." Boris said, putting his hands behind his head with a grin. Gowland sighed, this kid could be a pain...

"Then go help with some repairs. It's either that or you're going to help me with paperwork." Boris whined as the duke started to walk off.

"Why can't I go play in the forest?" Gowland turned around to see a grumpy teenager. They have had this conversation alot, and it always ended badly for either of them. "You're so mean Uncle Mary! Making me stay in the territory all the time. I'm curious of other places too you know!" The cat's tail poofed out as he glared up at the older male. Gowland ran his hair through his bangs. He was getting to old to deal with this kid.

"You just can't Boris."

"That's not a good reason!"

"Yes it is!" Blood looked over to see the duke and cat in an argument. Maybe he could use this..."You will stay in the territory and that's final!"

"Excuse me, Mister Gowland." Blood walked up to the them. Gowland glared and Boris's ears perked up. "But I think I have a solution to this argument."

"Didn't I tell you to leave hatter?" Gowland glared, ready to take out his rifle.

"Yes, I suppose you did." Blood chuckled. "But like I said, I have a solution. How about the little cat comes back with me for a tea party?"

"I'm not little - wait..." Boris blinked. "You'd let me come over?"

"Of course."

"Wait just a second-"

"No dirty tricks Mister Gowland." Blood held up his hands in defeat. "I'm just inviting the Cheshire to tea. I invite roleholders from time to time, you should know this."

Gowland knew that alittle to well, the tea party he went to with Chance was the last one he ever went to. "I don't know..."

"PLEASE!" Boris jumped Gowland's back, hugging the man around his neck so tightly he was chocking him. "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE-"

"Alright! Fine! Just get off of me!" Gowland managed to say. Boris made a cheer as he jumped off of the Duke's back. Gowland sighed, knelling infront of Boris. "You got your gun?" He whispered to the Hatter couldn't hear.

"Yup!"

"If he puts you in any sort of danger, shoot him." Boris looked at him with a confused look. "Just do it. I don't like this guy, so i don't really care."

Boris nodded. "Okay Uncle Mary!" He said before running over to Blood with a smile on his face. "Can we go now Mister Blood?"

The Hatter chuckled. "Of course." He held out his hand, and Boris gladly took it. Blood exchanged a look with Gowland "I'll have him back alittle after nightfall. Promise, Mister Gowland."

"Bye Uncle Mary!" Boris waved before he started to skip off with the Hatter.

Gowland crossed his arms and huffed. "This can't end well..."

Boris stared up with wide eyes at the mansion. It was so huge! Not as huge as the amusement park of course, but still huge. He held tightly onto the Hatter's hand as they entered through the gates. Boris looked around, about to run off and explore but Blood pulled him back. "Hey~"

"Would you like to meet the Bloody twins?" Boris's ears perked up.

"Who?"

"Tweedle dee and dum. They're younger than you of course, they just came here after they got their roles a few weeks ago."

Boris thought for a moment. Besides Gowland, the Hatter, and Julius, he hadn't really meant any of the other roleholders. So he was curious. "Sure!" Blood smirked before leading the cat to the second floor of the mansion and down a long hallway. He stopped infront of a large door that said 'Dee and Dum' on a sign.

"Here we are." Blood knocked on the door. "Dee, Dum, open up." The door flew open at Blood was soon tackled by two young boys, and Boris stepped back a few steps. They were twins, obviously by what blood had called them minutes before. They both had black hair, one had blue eyes, one had red eyes. The one with blue eyes was wearing an over sized red shirt, the one with red eyes was wearing blue. They both had black pants on and no shoes. Blood groaned and pushed the kids off of him. "Stop that."

"But Boss-"

"No." He sighed, looking over at Boris. "I brought you someone to play with." The twins looked over to see Boris, who shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, I came here to explore, not be a baby sitter."

"Dee and Dum can show you around. They need some fresh air anyways."

"Look brother!" The blue eyed one said. "It's a kitty!"

"Kitty!" The twins ran over to Boris, tugging at his arms. "Wanna play with us kitty?"

'Okay...they're kinda cute when they do that.' Boris sighed and gave a small nod. "Sure! Why not?"

"Let's go!" And the twins started to drag him down the hallway. Blood sighed, crossing his arms.

"What have I just done?"

Boris probably had the time of his life with the small twins. Even though a few times they pulled dangerous weapons on him, he would easily dodge and jump onto the highest thing he could. The twins seemed fascinated by this and started throwing anything they could up at him, just to see if they could knock him down. He used his acrobatic skills to dodge everything, and started literally bouncing off of the walls at one point. They had a group of servants chasing after them soon enough. The three took over behind a bush in the garden.

"Hey, wanna go over to the heart castle?" Boris looked over at dee as he spoke in a hush tone.

"You're allowed to go there?"

"Nah! But we sneak in all the time!" Boris seemed amazed at the idea.

"I-I've never been there before..."

"Let's go then!" Dum said loudly, standing up from the bush. Dee and Boris quickly shushed him, pulling him back down.

"You almost got us caught brother!"

"Sorry brother.."

"Let's get out of here before they get us!" Boris said quietly as his cat ears perked up as he heard footsteps. "To late..."

"Run for it!" Dee grabbed his brother's hand, quickly standing up and dragging Dum behind him as Boris followed them, and a few servants following him. They jumped through a few bushes and eventually lost the servants. The three laughed as they walked down the forest path.

"I don't think I've ever had this much fun!"

"You don't get out much, do you?" Dum asked, grabbing onto Boris's left hand, Dee grabbed onto his right.

"Nah, Uncle Mary doesn't let me leave that much."

"Uncle Mary?" They both asked.

"Yeah! Mary, you know, the owner of the Amusement park."

"I thought his name was Gowland." Dee asked.

"Mary Gowland?" Dum thought and the twins looked at eachother.

"Mary go round!" Boris laughed.

"I know right? But Uncle Mary hates it when I call him that." He said, the twins laughing along with him. "So where is this Castle?"

"Up there!" The twins stopped infront of a hedge maze, pointing up to a large castle ontop of a hill. Boris's eyes widened, he had only ever seen the castle from the top of the clock tower, and even from this far away - the castle looked so cool! "We normally just play around in the maze, I don't think we've ever made it to the actual castle." Dum said, looking around.

"Aw man! We forgot our axes brother!"

"Aw~"

"I have my gun! I got this." Boris said with a grin the twins, his pink gun appearing at the end of one of the chains hanging off of his belt. He grabbed it with a grin and the twins smiled with him.

"Let's go!"

So the three headed into the maze, laughing as the guards chased them around. Half way through, a question popped into his mind. 'How come such young kids do stuff like this?' The answer was simple really, they were in Wonderland. No other explanation was needed. The three hid once again, the guards running past them. They snickered before moving out into a clearing. "This is so much fun~" Boris said, the twins nodded behind him. Boris's ears perked up, hearing footsteps again. But it wasn't the guards...

Boris turned to face one of the paths leading into the clearing. "Dee, Dum, get behind me." The twins stared at him before doing as they were told. Boris held up his gun as someone walked into the clearing. It was a teenager, definitely older than Boris himself was. He had white hair, bright red eyes, and was wearing a white button up shirt, red vest, black pants are red books. Boris snickered quietly at the large white rabbit ears that decorated his head. The newcomer squinted his eyes to see the three infront of him.

"Oh, it's you two again. And you brought a cat."

"Uh oh! It's the white rabbit!" Dee whispered, tugging on the stripped boa. "We should get out of here Mister Kitty!"

"Who?" Boris looked back at the twins before at the Rabbit.

"Peter White. What are you doing in her majesty's maze?"

"Getting rid of our boredom?" Boris shrugged with a laugh, the twins laughed with him. A shot rang out and Boris's ears pinned back against his head. The shot landed in the hedge behind him, but it was way to high to even hit the three. Peter cursed, bringing his gun down.

"Missed." He mumbled.

"Hey, can you not see?" Boris asked, his gun disappearing as he walked towards Peter. The twins tried to pull him back.

"What're you doing?"

"Talking to the guy." Boris pulled his boa out of their grasps before walking over to Peter. When Boris was close enough, Peter held the gun to his head. It didn't seem to faze the cat as Peter still squinted his eyes.

"I can see you from here just fine." Suddenly something was held up infront of Peter's face. He lowered the fun and reached for the item. "What are these things?"

"Glasses. Lifted them off of Uncle Mary." Boris said, opening the sides and sliding them onto Peter's face. "That better?"

The rabbit blinked, taking a step back. He actually could see better, even if it was just alittle bit. He looked down at the cat, finally able to see his features. "...Who ARE you?"

"Boris Airay~ Cheshire Cat!" He grinned.

Peter left soon after than, handing the glasses back to Boris. The three then left the maze as it was getting dark. "Why did you try to make friends with the rabbit?" Dee asked as they all walked along the path, hand in hand.

"I wasn't making friends."

"Then why did you give him Mary go round's glasses?" Boris shrugged.

"He looked weird squinting like that. I almost busted out laughing the entire time, and then it woulda ruined my shot if i had to shoot." The twins laughed at the cat's explanation, and Boris grinned. They got back to the mansion, to see Blood and Gowland standing outside the gate, both looking highly pissed off. The three gulped, walking up to them.

"Hey Mister Blood, Uncle Mary." Boris grinned.

"You're in big trouble Boris." The cat whined, letting go of the twins hands, but the twins held onto him.

"We wanna play with Mister Kitty longer!" They cried.

"Dee, Dum..."

"You can play with the cat later you two." Blood picked them up and pulled them away from the cat. "Right now, you have lessons to attend." The twins whined as they were pushed inside of the gates.

"Bye Mister Kitty!"

"Bye you two!" Boris waved with a smile on his face.

"I do hope we can have another good conversation like we did today, Mary." Blood smirked before turning forward and continued pushing the kids into the mansion.

Boris felt Gowland stiffen next to him, and he knew he was in trouble. This was reassured when the duke grabbed ahold of one of Boris's ears. "Ow, ow, ow! Let go!"

"You aren't leaving the park for a very long time!" Then there's was a very painful dragging back to the Amusement Park for Boris. "If that guy spreads my name around Wonderland - it's your fault!"

"He wouldn't do that! Mister Blood is a nice guy-" Gowland stopped suddenly right infront of the front gate to the Amusement Park. Workers were standing inside, waiting for the two to get in so they could lock up for the night. Gowland sighed, letting go of Boris's ear, and he gave a sigh of relief. Gowland knelled down infront of Boris, who grabbed hsi ears and squeezed his eyes shut.

"I'm not gonna hurt you Boris, stop that." The cat opened his eyes to see Gowland's sad expression.

"Uncle Mary? What's wrong?" Boris tilted his head.

"Well...There's something I haven't told you." Boris blinked, trying to figure out what he was going to say, but he didn't have a clue. "The person that killed Chance-" The cat stiffened. "he came from the Hatter mansion. Blood ordered him to kill a man, no matter what the cost. The shot went through Chance as well as the other man." Boris's body shook as he gripped his boa tightly.

"Why didn't you-"

"I didn't think I should tell you. But now you know why I don't trust Blood at all." Gowland said, standing up. "and you shouldn't either." He held out his hand to Boris, who slowly took it and they headed back into the park.

"Night Boris." Gowland said as the cat headed up to his room. Boris gave a small 'hn' in reply as he walked up the stairs. He shut the door to his room, standing in a daze for a moment before leaning against the door and sliding to his knees. He held in a sob that wanted to come out as he squeezed his eyes shut.

'3 years without crying...damn it' Boris let a tear or two escape his yes before he wiped them away and stood up. 'I need to talk to Blood...'