Alice peeked outside of her room door cautiously.
Her fingers clutched the cool metallic doorknob in her palm lightly and her breathing remained low as she stuck her head out into the hallway slightly in order to get a look down the corridor.
On both sides it appeared to be empty.
Letting out a small breath, she glanced over her shoulder at her bed that she had been sure to make up herself with the nightgown she had been provided folded up neatly near the pillows before she turned back to the exit.
Alice allowed her steps to go out and in the direction of Peter's room as she had gone only several hours previously.
Last night she hadn't been successful with getting Peter to tell her the proper way to get home, but she was determined to get through to him today.
As she began walking in the direction of his bedroom she couldn't help but notice how much she was actually used to her outfit. Before it had admittedly been a bit on the stuffy side, but now she felt way more comfortable.
With that passing thought, she couldn't help but wonder how Lorina reacted to her missing… Did she call the police? Or did she think that Alice had gone to a friend's house or something?
It'd only been about a day… Unless the time between this world and hers were on completely different spectrums.
Quickly shaking her head to rid herself of that notion, Alice stopped her steps as she made it before the White Rabbit's room.
Her eyes watched ahead at the door dully before she began knocking.
After her first few raps, she ceased and waited patiently for some kind of response and when several seconds came by with no results, she sighed before knocking again.
"Peter White, open the door! It's me, Alice! I need to speak to you!" She voiced out plainly before her knuckles stopped knocking.
Now folding her arms over her chests, she kept her eyes planted on the door bleakly.
This time when they talked she couldn't let him escape. She'd get her answers on how to go home.
With that, her eyes lowered slightly as she remembered how Peter claimed he brought her to Underland because he loved her…
That was unbelievably hard to comprehend. If anything, he hated her and that's why he brought her there.
Alice felt her heart begin to speed up and her stomach twist and she silently stood as her thoughts continued.
She was a human in a world of monsters now; he had to have wanted her dead if that was any reason for kidnapping her. And there was also the fact that he didn't even know her, how could he possibly love her?
Really, she wasn't anyone worth loving. If anything, he was probably aiming for Lorina, but accidentally scooped her up by accident. Anyone would rather have Lorina than her, after all so did—
Out of nowhere, a skull crushing sensation hit her in the brain and Alice choked out a gasp of pain as both of her hands flew to her head in an effort to comfort it. She could feel her body beginning to heat up rapidly and sweat forming on her face.
Her knees began to weaken and she shakily leaned against the cool wooden doorframe ahead of her in order to stay standing.
Too far back. You're thinking too far back.
In the back of her mind she could hear a small voice whispering to her, though a majority of her focus was on the pain circulating in her skull like something were attempting to squeeze it in.
"Ah! Miss Alice, are you alright!?"
Alice blinked her eyes, the pain rushing away from her as though it had been carried back by a flood of water.
Her teal irises slowly moved from the floor to glance over at a maid that had her eyeless face inclined downward to her with nothing but concern seen on her expressible features.
Alice moved one of her hands to her heart that was still beating at an unbelievable pace but was slowly beginning to settle down while she let out a shaky breath, her legs allowing her to wobble a bit before she stood up straighter.
"Y-yeah! Haha, it was just a little headache! I'm fine!" She attempted to reassure with a smile.
The pain came out of nowhere and left just as quickly.
What the hell even was that?
The maid put a hand to her mouth, her eyebrows still creased in worry, "If you believe you're growing sick, I suggest visiting the Castle doctor! He is very good! It'd stop your illness before it becomes serious!"
Alice scratched her cheek, "Ah, I'm not getting sick or anything. I'm fine, really." As an afterthought she blinked, "Would elemental medication even work on me? We're different species after all."
"Medication is medication! In your world, I'm sure they test vaccines on animals before on humans even though you're different species, right?"
Nodding at the logic, the brunette put a hand to her chin, "Very good point. Anyways, thank you for your concern… I was just out here for Peter, but he isn't answering… I don't think he's in?"
The faceless maid smiled at her, "Oh, no, Lord White is currently in the garden with His and Her Majesty for breakfast!"
Alice's hands clasped together as she looked ahead at the woman pleadingly, "If it isn't too much trouble, could you pretty please show me the way there?"
After the maid nodded pleasantly, the female couldn't help but allow her smile to widen.
The walk throughout the Castle to reach the gardens was actually quite the workout and Alice at one point couldn't help but grow exasperated because she had a feeling in this world, she'd be getting a lot of exercising with the amount of walking she had been doing lately.
When the maid turned down one of the corners of the maze they had been treading through, Alice found her eyes widening in amazement at the table ahead of her that was so abundantly filled with food, drinks, and even little favors.
Seated at the table were Vivaldi and a green haired man that appeared to have eyes that were dully lowered and Peter stood to Vivaldi's right side, just a few inches away from the umbrella that was cast over the Queen and held by a servant.
Peter's eyes were glued to one of the many sheets of paper he held in his hands and he appeared to be reading off of them, his face easily distinguishable as annoyed and Alice found herself inwardly sighing at the sight.
It didn't look like she should interrogate him for answers here or now.
If anything, she couldn't stick around with the elementals for too long, not if she valued her life. With that passing thought, her eyes blankly watched at the faceless soldiers that were near Vivaldi.
She'd just head back to the Clock Tower and probably come back some other time to figure out how to get home.
Briefly, she considered just turning around and getting out of the Castle's territory, but she stopped herself.
Leaving without at least thanking Vivaldi for letting her spend the night would be rude and could quite possibly make her come off as some sort of freeloader, and that wasn't the best first impression ever.
Pushing down all of her anxiety, Alice cleared her throat, "Hello…" She greeted with a small wave as she emerged from the maze, a smile planted on her lips while she regarded the Queen of Hearts in particular.
Vivaldi glanced up from her tea, one of her eyebrows arching upward in questioning that nearly made Alice want to wet herself because it didn't appear as though she remembered her, however, the look was quickly replaced with that of apparent glee and the brunette was able to inwardly give a breath of relief.
"Alice, what a surprise it is to see you—"
"Alice!" Peter's voice immediately drowned out the Queen's words as he dropped the papers in his grasp before dashing off towards her.
Alice felt a twitch come to her eye as she prepared for his assault and when his body slammed into hers and encased her in the familiar spine breaking hug as before.
Grunting, she glared down at him, "Let me go!"
"Good morning, my sweet! Seeing you lucid and adorable so early has just made my morning!" The man exclaimed with a grin as he separated the hug in order to watch down at her face, "You came to see me again! Ahhh, being separated for too long makes you anxious too, huh?"
Alice felt her face flush slightly, the compliments catching her by surprise before she clenched her fists and huffed, "As if I came here to see you! I actually came to see Vivaldi!"
The White Rabbit's ear twitched while Vivaldi haughtily gave a laugh from her seat.
Both standing beings turned to look at the Queen as she gave Peter a condescending look, "Oh ho! White, we should have known you spoke nothing but lies when you claimed she was smitten with you. How pathetic, your delusions are beginning to catch up to your incompetency it would appear." With her words, Alice could only watch as some of the maids began frantically picking up the scattered papers Peter had dropped in favor of hugging her.
Vivaldi's head moved to rest on her hand that was propped up on the arm of her chair and Alice sighed right before Peter gave an indignant scoff, "Of course an unlovable hag like you would never understand the love Alice and I share."
Alice blanched.
Did he just call her an unlovable hag!?
The Queen of Hearts' smirk evaporated in favor of a scowl and the green haired man at the table held his hands out toward her, "N-now, now, Vivaldi… Don't get angry now…" He weakly stammered out and Alice found her head tilting to the side while she observed him.
Was it possible that he was the King of Hearts?
Thinking back on it, she was pretty sure she had seen him the night before in the hallway when she had met Vivaldi, but her mind mostly blocked him out.
Even now his presence seemed to fade into the background.
"You call us the unlovable one when it is clear that the girl would rather eat ashes than even have you within a mile radius of her." The Queen stated in a rather bored manner before her violet eyes cut over to Alice more positive way, "Alice, you should join us for the rest of breakfast. The food is better prepared than yesterday's, we are sure you will enjoy it."
Peter grunted, his eyes expressionlessly eyeing the older woman, "Naturally, all the gluttonous witch cares for is food. It's no wonder you've been appearing more spacious lately—"
Alice placed a hand over Peter's face in an effort to silence him with a groan of annoyance, "Geez, you're so rude. Watch your tongue, she's the Queen." She muttered over to him before she began to approach the table, a smile back on her face.
"Thank you for the offer, Vivaldi, but I really need to get going—"
"Are you rejecting us!?"
The brunette froze, her irises watching the woman that looked on at her through narrowed eyes.
Remembering how unstable elementals could be, Alice immediately began waving her hands in front of her frantically, "A-aha… You didn't let me finish…" Alice laughed out nervously, "I was going to say, I really need to get going and sit down so I can enjoy a quick breakfast with you!"
Quickly, she went to pull out a seat and she released a breath when two maids both rushed to her sides in order to begin filling her plate.
"Back away from her!" Peter shouted, instantly causing the two assisting her to flee while they mumbled their apologies fearfully, "You'll both get your germs on her food! Urgh, it's all tainted now!" The White Rabbit hissed as he took Alice's plate and chucked it across the table before the brunette could even voice her protest on his actions.
Alice watched speechlessly as the plate soared over in Vivaldi's direction and in her mind she prepared to panic because she was so positive it was going to land on her, but before the image of what she had already dreadfully playing in mind could occur, Vivaldi simply rose her hand up and waved it off with a flick of her wrist.
The reaction to this wasn't what Alice expected at all as the plate flipped backward and landed toward the middle of the table with a heavy crunch that signaled it had broken.
"Don't worry, Alice! I'll serve you!" Peter obliviously exclaimed as he began fixing more food from across the table for her.
Alice blinked her eyes, her gaze not lifting from Vivaldi in amazement.
Obviously, Vivaldi wasn't an esper so the only other explanation Alice's mind could come up with was the fact that she was an air elemental.
She supposed in a way that probably made sense…
The foot soldiers all had earth as an element which was kind of homely and anyone would associate earth as more of a 'dirty' commoner sort of element, for lack of a better word. Air on the other hand was the complete opposite and considering how Vivaldi was a royal to their peasant, it all fit.
She also couldn't help but remember something about 'noble gases' in one of her classes back in her world from years ago.
"That was so cool!" She praised with a hand to her chest.
Sensing that she was being addressed, Vivaldi turned to look at her with an arched brow and Alice knew she probably sounded a bit too excited and childish, but she couldn't help it.
The feat had been done so quickly, yet so nonchalantly and Vivaldi was so pretty that it made her look like some sort of super femme fatale or something.
"Hm?"
"What you just did! It was amazing!"
The Queen of Hearts didn't appear to understand and Alice placed both of her hands back on her lap, "I'm probably acting super embarrassing… But when you deflected the plate, it was very cool!" She couldn't help the reddening in her cheeks as it appeared everyone was beginning to look at her curiously.
Slowly, Vivaldi blinked her eyes as she now came to terms with what Alice was attempting to explain.
Putting a hand to her mouth as though to stifle a laugh, Vivaldi watched at her in amusement, "You find something so trivial to be worthy of praise? Humans truly are odd."
"Calling me odd is a bit harsh, don't you think?" Alice muttered dejectedly right before Peter pursed his lips, his hand fitting the heavily built plate of breakfast before her, "Stop trying to steal her attention from me!"
"There is nothing to steal because her attention was never with you, fool."
Alice let out a breath as she took in a forkful of eggs to her mouth.
So far, Peter was a fire elemental, Vivaldi was air, Ace was ice, and the other faceless soldiers were all earth.
She had yet to actually see Peter's abilities in action though…
Wordlessly, her gaze trailed over to him as she watched him continue arguing with Vivaldi from beside her through half lidded eyes.
He was actually pretty annoying the more she thought about it.
After downing a glass of orange juice and taking a couple more bits of a croissant she let out a breath, "Alright, so…" She began a bit loudly in order to gain Vivaldi's attention once more.
Alice sent the woman a beam, "I just wanted to say thank you so much for allowing me to spend the night in the Castle, Vivaldi. It really means so much to me and I hope sometime later I can repay you for your hospitality."
The violet haired woman eyed her curiously, "It was nothing. However, with the way you speak, we assume you plan on leaving?"
"Yes, I am."
"What!? Where would you go!?" Peter questioned frantically before Alice found his hands gripping her shoulders. She released an irritated moan as he lightly shook her, "Alice, you don't have to go! You can stay here at the Castle to live!"
"Hah. Not even on your life."
"Why not? What he says is valid for once." Vivaldi spoke out with a beckoning expression to her features, "You are free to stay and make the Castle of Hearts your home. You truly would not be a burden and we welcome you here with opened arms."
Alice sighed, her face giving her a smile as to not upset her because the last thing she wanted was for this to end badly, "No, no… I'm already staying at the Clock Tower and yesterday I actually told Julius I'd be back before nightfall, so I'm sure he's worried about me by now."
Vivaldi's eyes widened and Peter gasped in disbelief.
"You're staying at the Clock Tower with Julius Monrey!? Alice, no! That man is crawling in bacteria! Rumor has it that he never leaves his work to even take baths! That's not the type of man you want to be near! Stay here!"
Alice attempted to ignore Peter's cries as Vivaldi evaluated her knowledgably, "We see that even the espers aren't immune to your charm… Interesting…"
Blinking, the brunette tilted her head to the side slightly, "My charm…?"
The Queen snickered, "Your human's charm, dear. Your kind has a pleasant affect on Underlanders, no matter the species. That would explain why the Clockmaker is actually willing to let you be near him. He's rather reclusive, you know."
"Trust me, I know and I've barely spoken to him twice." Alice blankly remarked before she shook Peter from her side in order to stand up, "Anyways, I'll be off now." She smiled sweetly, "Thanks again, Vivaldi!"
With a nod, Vivaldi raised her hand to her mouth in order to take a sip of her tea, "Very well. We do hope that you will visit us during your stay here, Alice. You are rather interesting."
Waving, Alice laughed a bit, "Don't worry, I will! Goodbye for now!"
Turning back to reenter the maze she couldn't help but inwardly grunt when she realized she was being followed.
Not even bothering to turn around, Alice sped up her steps with aggravation threatening to erupt on her features as she heard Peter speak up, his steps now falling beside her, "Come on, Alice, you don't have to go. You can stay here; you'll love it way more than the Clock Tower."
"No. Now go away."
"But you like it here, don't you?"
"I thought it was alright before, but with you here, I'm actually thinking of never visiting again just so I won't have to see your face."
Peter let out a whine as Alice made a noise of surprise when his hand reached out to grab hers.
Alice prepared to shout at him for abruptly touching her, but when she turned to face him she found her voice gone when she saw how his face watched down at her.
He looked somewhat desperate and faintly frantic; practically as though he were growing distressed with the fact what he was saying wasn't getting through to her. Alice could have rolled her eyes at the thought.
Although she liked it at the Castle, she'd prefer to stay with Julius because even though he seemed snappy and cold, she'd rather put up with his verbal assaults rather than deal with a physical assault that any of the elementals could pull if she said the wrong thing.
Now, looking into Peter's red eyes, she couldn't help but notice again how attractive he was.
His white rabbit ears looked as furry as ever beneath the light and she beat down the fleeting thought in her mind that urged her to reach out and touch them.
"Please, Alice! That man can't make you happy like I can!" He protested with a slight pout, "Live here at the Castle and I promise I'll make you happy like you deserve to be!"
"If you want to make me happy, you'll stay as far away from me as possible." Alice dryly voiced out causing him to frown even deeper, "My sweet, your words are sharper than any knife could be to my skin, but the fiery embers of your love that flicker so passionately keep me coming back for more!" He then swooned out with a hand moving to his cheek while he released a blissful sigh.
"Were the poetic metaphors really necessary!?" She tore her hand away from him with a twitch, "Geez, if you want to make me happy, how about you tell me how to get home?"
Unlike what she expected, he didn't turn all serious as before and instead he continued going on obliviously about how she was simply showing 'tough love' because she was 'shy' and other nonsense that only made the brunette groan in irritation.
"Forget it. God, you're such a major waste of time, why did I even bother?" Alice mumbled mostly to herself as she turned down one of the maze ways quickly in an effort to lose him before he realized she was leaving.
"Wait, Alice! Where did you go!?"
Taking that as a signal to pick of the pace, Alice immediately began sprinting, her steps taking her down various turns throughout the maze, her thoughts not even on escaping out of the territory, just on losing Peter.
Huffing breathlessly, the female finally allowed her run to come to a halt.
She placed her hands on her knees tiredly while she attempted to catch her breath and as she did so, she perked up when she heard a familiar voice speak up not too far away from her.
"Hey, there Alice!"
With a glance upward through the thick of her hair, Alice was able to see Ace just about to walk through one of the maze's hedges, his scarlet eyes brimming brightly in optimism while he watched back at her with a grin.
Managing a smile, Alice weakly looked over at him as she straightened herself up, "Good morning, Ace." She greeted with a nod.
The brunet observed her knowingly, a hand moving to his chin wistfully, "Were you doing a morning jog?"
His voice was as light and carefree as usual and she couldn't help but laugh while she placed some of her hair behind her ears.
"No, no… I was just trying to run away to avoid a very annoying rabbit…" She muttered with her expression slowly becoming more and more cynical as she thought of Peter's face.
Ace blinked his eyes, his head tilting to the side a bit as Alice began walking toward him with her hands behind her back, "I'm on my way to the Clock Tower now. What about you?" She inquisitively inquired.
"Clock Tower? Cool, I'll walk you there. I have business there anyways." He smiled before scratching his cheek, "A rabbit? Oh, that reminds me! Did you ever solve what you wanted with Mr. Peter?" Ace questioned her with curiosity in his irises.
Alice sighed in preparation to answer, but before she could, he was continuing, "Did he burn you? Or at least tried to? Haha, I heard he was in such a good mood last night, so I doubt that he did."
Scoffing, Alice folded her arms over her chest, "Honestly, if Peter ever even tried to raise a flame my way, I'd beat him up. Stupid rabbit, he's so unhelpful…"
With her words it was practically impossible to ignore the look of bemusement that etched its way onto Ace's face while he watched her, "Eh? You're really speaking about him that way?"
She blinked as he went on with a knowing finger pointed upward, "I guess you and Mr. Peter must be really close friends or something! I'm surprised that you have such a casual relationship with him since he's normally so ruthless and cold!"
Taken by surprised, Alice made a low noise, "Uh… Cold and ruthless? Try annoying and useless. If anything I'm the one who's cold and ruthless to him, not the other way around at all." She blankly stated.
Before Ace could reply, the brunette found the wind being knocked out of her from behind as she was forcibly pulled into a crushing embrace.
Already knowing who it was, she found herself cringing in distaste immediately as Peter's voice rang in her ear, "Oh, Alice! I thought I lost you back there!" He stated loudly causing her to grimace even more in agitation.
"Let go of me!"
"Have you rethought your decision of living at the Clock Tower?"
"Get off!"
"The Castle of Hearts is the best option for you!"
"You're either deaf or you like pissing me off! Argh!"
From the corner of her eye Alice could see Ace standing and watching the scene, his face at first surprised before it gradually faded into amusement as he let out a laugh that caught Peter's attention enough for his grip on Alice to loosen slightly.
"I get it now! Mr. Peter has a crush on Alice!" The brunet acknowledged with his arms crossing over his chest.
Alice took that opportunity to break free of Peter's grip and move closer to Ace while she watched the Knight with flushing cheeks, "It's not even a crush! It's some weird stalker obsession!"
Her words went unnoticed as Peter snorted, "To downgrade my feelings for her to such an elementary degree is undignified. I wouldn't expect someone as dense as you to understand love, so I suppose it's expected." He harshly stated.
Ace's smile didn't fade as he let out another chuckle, "I may not understand love, but I do understand hate. So it's pretty easy for me to tell that Alice hates you—"
Before his words could properly end, Alice found her eyes widening as Peter drew back his right hand and in the process of him doing so, it was clear to see an orange light begin to emit from his forearm and downward, before he pushed it back ahead in Ace's direction allowing for a spiraling flame to cast off of his limb and go soaring.
The sight was enough to startle her as she winced with an instinct step backward. Her head whirled over to Ace fearfully and she watched at the male simply side stepped the incoming fireball that landed on the ground near the hedge behind him, immediately causing it to burn out a dark spot on the earth.
Alice put a hand to her mouth in astonishment at the display, her eyes moving back to look at Peter's arm where the fire had come from and she couldn't help but intrigued at how there was no sign of burn marks on his clothing or anything.
"Watch your mouth when speaking about things you don't know anything about, you idiotic Knight." Peter spitefully commanded, his eyes watching at Ace in annoyance.
Alice actually found herself growing a bit more fearful at the impending situation.
Peter had actually been aiming for Ace with how close the collision had been.
They were both workers for the Castle of Hearts, wasn't that a bad thing!?
Before she could voice her thoughts, Ace let out a loud laugh, "Oooh! So the thought of Alice hating you gets you touchy, huh?" With his words he began walking toward the female in question and Alice made a small noise when his hand rested on her shoulder before he grinned at Peter, "Sorry to hit you where it hurts again, but Alice ha-tes yo-u~" He pronounced both words out in a sing-song like fashion and Alice watched at him in disbelief.
"Ace, you—"
Before she could finish, she found herself yelping in surprise as Ace suddenly pulled her to the side roughly, her body entirely unprepared as her feet dragged on the floor right before she felt a large amount of heat soar by her face along with a bright light.
Eyes wide, she turned her head around in the direction she saw the flame pass her by to see it as nothing more but a burnt spot on the ground behind her.
Peter nearly hit them!
"Hahaha! Careful, Mr. Peter! You'll end up hitting Alice!" Ace laughed out cheerfully and Alice found nothing but fear beginning to overtake her senses as she remained frozen in Ace's grasp.
She was going to die!
Peter glowered at Ace viciously, one of his hands moving to push his glasses up his nose while the other remained upward in a rather offensive position that made Alice want to cry because she just knew that if he decided to attack with his flames again, that'd be the hand he'd use, "Release her now, you pathetic knave. Or are you really that pitiful that you can't fight me without using her as a way to protect yourself?"
Ace snickered, "Nah, I was just trying to get a rise out of you." His eyes flashed with anticipation as he now let go of her, his smile appearing to widen as he reached to his side to retrieve his sword, "But if you were actually looking for a fight, I'm happy you chose me for an opponent!" As he unsheathed his sword, Alice couldn't help but wordlessly watch in a mixture of both fear and wonder at how there were evident sparks of what appeared to be lightning encasing the metallic weapon.
But he was an ice elemental? How was there lightning…?
Pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind as she reminded herself of her situation, Alice held both of her hands upward and in between the males with a grunt, "Okay, that's enough!" She shouted out loudly, easily gaining both of their attentions.
She gave both of them firm glares, "No more fighting or at least, not now while I'm here! Put your weapons away!" She ordered and when they both remained in their same positions she groaned, "You, put your sword away!" Her eyes stared at Ace solidly before he slowly did as she commanded. Next, she whirled her head over towards Peter, "You, put your fire arms away!"
That pun needed to be said despite how grave her situation was.
It was needed.
Obediently, Peter did as she said before he launched himself off at her to embrace her in another hug, "Alice, I'm so sorry for almost hurting you! It really wasn't my intention!" He informed her while snuggling into her neck.
Alice released a heavy sigh, her eyes watching ahead of her blankly, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go back to the Castle now."
"But—"
"Don't you have more work to do or something?" She blandly inquired causing him to release her and gaze into her face in determination, "I do, however, spending the day with you seems much better!"
The human resisted the urge to roll her eyes before she groaned, "Alright, how about this? If you leave now and do your work diligently, I promise I'll come back to the Castle to visit at some point, deal?"
Her words didn't even properly finish as Peter was already zooming off in the opposite direction.
With him gone, Alice watched the direction he went off in expressionlessly, "I'd rather eat his flames than actually come back here."
Ace let out a laugh and Alice was reminded of his presence once more as she turned to him plainly.
The brunet chuckled, "That actually sounds pretty dirty!"
"How old are you?" Alice sarcastically muttered, though even she herself could understand how that was taken out of context. As an afterthought, she found her eyes wandering to his sheathed sword that was at his side.
"Say, Ace…" She began lowly as he ceased his laughs, "You're an ice elemental, right?"
Ace hummed, a new kind of smile making its way to his face that Alice had to note was a bit different from his normal smiles, just in a way she couldn't quite place, "Yes and no. I'm a tri-powered elemental."
Nodding, she began her walk ahead and Ace followed beside her, "Its self explanatory, but I can control three elements as opposed to the usual standard."
"Oh… So ice, lightning and…?"
"Earth."
"Like the soldiers?" She acknowledged in wonder as he nodded, the expression on his face didn't seem to lighten and Alice wondered if they were treading on a topic that wasn't comfortable for him.
Ace glanced upward at the sky, "At the end of the day, I'm not different from them at all."
Not really seeing that as an opened invitation to continue the conversation, Alice simply nodded her head silently and kept herself moving forward.
Their trip throughout the maze had been a fairly silent one and when they finally made it out; Ace seemed to be back to normal and was chattering on about trivial things that Alice engaged back in whole heartedly.
At one point he had insisted he knew a short cut to the Tower, but Alice had been weary because the Clock Tower was literally within sight and she stubbornly kept going her own way before Ace reluctantly followed.
"I'm telling you, if you had followed my directions, we would have been here way earlier!" Ace exclaimed lazily with his hands behind his head leisurely as Alice opened the door to Julius' office.
She gave him a tired look, "Alright, alright, next time we can use your short cut. Sorry, but I was a bit anxious about going off the path and into the forest. I'm a human and if monsters lurk in there, it'd be easy for me to get hurt or something."
Ace laughed lightly, "If you're worried about stray ghouls or something attacking you, you don't even have to stress! As a Knight, I'd be sure to protect you!"
Alice shook her head as she turned her attention up ahead to where Julius was sat still working on a clock as he had been right when she left the day before.
Upon seeing him, her lips broke out into a smile as he watched at both her and Ace in surprise, "You two have already met?" He questioned, momentarily halting his work.
The brunette nodded with a giggle, "Yeah, we—Mmmph!" She muffled out as Ace's fingers slid over her mouth smoothly.
The Knight leaned on her with a cheeky grin on his face, "Totally! Alice met me outside of the Castle of Hearts, you know! She seduced me into helping her get inside!" The brunet's eyes mischievously gazed on at Julius before he winked, "Are you jealous, Julius?"
Julius looked at him through completely unimpressed eyes while Alice sputtered in an attempt to remove his hand.
"H-he's lying!" She proclaimed with a flail to her arms.
Snickering, Ace began moving toward one of the ends of the room, "It was a joke! I actually met her outside of the Castle while she was crying!"
"How many times do I have to say that I wasn't crying!?"
Julius shook his head before he returned his attention to his work as Ace pulled off a brown cloak from the wall as well as a silver mask.
Alice watched him pull it over himself and adjust the mask to his face firmly, the look was actually kind of creepy in a way and couldn't help but wonder what exactly he was planning on doing while dressed like that.
"Well, anyways, I came here to see Alice off, but I figured I could get a head start on work today too, so I'll be back later, Julius! Also, see you around Alice!" He flashed a brief thumbs up to both of them right before he exited the room.
The brunette let out a breath before she turned toward the seated male with her hands by her apron tiredly, "Walking all the way from the Castle to here was so tiring." She remarked as she began walking to his desk, "But more importantly, I'm surprised that you and Ace are friends… What an odd mix."
"We're not really friends. We're co-workers." Julius firmly denied, his hands still working at the clock beneath his tools diligently.
"What? Really? He told me you guys are like besties." Alice blinked as she pulled out a seat from one the table nearby in order to place it near the man's desk.
She took a seat and watched as he continued, "Did he now? Well, Ace perceives the world differently than most do." Even with the insult, Alice couldn't help but let out a giggle.
He was being pretty sarcastic.
That must have meant he and Ace were close or something, which she still saw as weird considering how Ace was so warm and friendly and Julius was so cold and grumpy.
"Anyways, I should say that I'm surprised you're alive." One of his hands lowered his screw driver and Alice watched in awe as his fingers wiggled in the direction of his wrench from across the table and the tool floated upward before moving into his awaiting grasp, "After you didn't show up last night, I assumed you died." He bluntly informed.
Alice pouted, "Hey, that's mean! Don't just single me out as that weak!"
Julius didn't appear moved by her words and as she prepared to go on, she found herself briefly remembering Nightmare.
Putting a hand to her cup her chin, Alice's head leaned downward, "So I guess I should also mention that I'm probably going to be stuck here in Underland for a bit longer… Sorry for the intrusion, but I'll be sticking around the Tower more."
His expression didn't change in the slightest, but Alice didn't lose her good will as she straightened up, "In other news… Last night an incubus was in my dream. He said his name was Nightmare. I'm not sure if the food I ate at the Queen's dinner was drugged or not, but he seemed pretty real to me. Do you know him by any chance? He said he was an esper."
She came to notice that with her words Julius' pattern in work was disrupted momentarily and only for the slightest second, as though her words took him by surprise that he had to catch himself but he quickly brought his guard back up and continued his work.
"I do."
With how he replied, Alice knew not to press on the matter.
For a while she just sat and watched him continue fixing the clock. Every so often when he'd need a new tool that was on the farther end of the table, he'd raise his hand and use his telekinesis to retrieve it and at one point he rose up both of his hands and began using his abilities to make three screw drivers go to work on the clock with such precision that Alice was captivated in awe from it all.
Sure, what she had seen of the elementals with Peter, Ace, and Vivaldi had been cool, but what Julius was doing was so systematic, it was really something to marvel at.
"Are you alright?" Julius voiced and his voice broke the silence the two were under.
Alice blinked her eyes as she glanced up from the clock that he finished fixing to return his gaze.
Dumbly, she nodded, "Did it seem like I wasn't?" She laughed out lightly.
Julius' eyebrows appeared to scrunch up in brief confusion, "You just seemed to be in a daze. I wouldn't know. Are you bored? You don't have to feel obligated to stick around or anything."
Now understanding what was causing him the disturbance, the female blushed lightly, "Oh! Sorry, I didn't realize my staring was bothering you, I'll just—"
"No, it wasn't bothering me. You were just so quiet that I thought something was wrong."
"I still feel like it was kind of weird for me to stare, sorry about that." Alice scratched the back of her head with a smile before she stood to her feet, "You know what? I'll occupy myself now. How about I make you some food or something?"
She remembered passing the little kitchen in her exploration of the Tower from her first night there. There seemed to be plenty of food, it wouldn't be a problem to just whip something up really quickly.
Not even waiting for him to protest, Alice was already out the door.
When she made it back in with some sandwiches and fruit juice, she found Julius was working on yet another clock.
It was as though the work load was truly never ending…
"I have food!" She sang out with a grin, "It's lunch break time!"
Julius paused from his work, his eyes watching at her dully, "You're so loud."
"Well, if I don't announce it I feel as though you'll just ignore me."
He shook his head and for a moment Alice figured that he'd actually get up and approach her at the table to eat, but instead he went right back to work.
Giving him a look of disbelief, she flailed her arms, "Come on! I spent so much time making the sandwiches! I even cut them all cute!"
"I'll eat them when I go on break."
"When will that be?"
"When I finish these set of clocks."
"Julius."
"Hm?"
"There are at least fifty of those clocks in there!"
"Hm."
Groaning, Alice moved her hand over to take a sip of the red colored juice before her.
He kind of reminded her of her dad. He was a workaholic too and he had hermit tendencies whenever the work could be done within his office… Lorina would always have to go in there and practically force him to eat before he passed out.
She briefly wondered if she'd end up taking up that role with Julius before she remembered that Julius wasn't human and for all she knew, espers didn't need to eat as frequently as humans did to survive.
The thought actually made her realize there was a lot that she didn't necessarily know about the world she was in.
Elementals, espers, and humans all basically seemed the same, just with the former two having extra abilities over the later.
"Julius, how exactly are elementals and espers different from humans?" Alice inquired out loud while reaching for one of her triangle cut sandwiches, "I mean, I understand you all have like an added power, but other than that we all look the same. How can someone look at me and see me as a human instead of an esper?"
Julius didn't glance up from the clock that he was tuning with a wrench, "It's all in scent and aura."
After his words, she found herself perking up at the dim memory of all those at the Amusement Park remarking on her good smell and even Ace had said something about her aura being something like a witch when they first met.
"Humans are very distinct in both of those senses. Anyone here could look at you and see you're different just from those. Especially ghouls, they'd know you're human from a mile away."
His use of the word ghoul caught her attention and she recalled Ace saying something about them before too.
Curiously, she prepared to ask him what those were, but before she could the door to the office was opening and she turned around to see who was entering curiously.
"Alice~" Boris sang from his spot at the doorway mischievously.
Alice found herself laughing a bit as she waved at him politely, "Hey, Boris!"
"Sweet, so the Prime Minister didn't roast you!" He exclaimed with a grin as he walked inside and gave Julius an impish stare, "I still can't believe the Clockmaker is the one holding the human all to himself. Selfish, much?"
"You think I chose for her to stay here?"
"You're making it sound like I forced myself on you!"
"That's because you did."
"I had no other choice!"
"You forced yourself on the Clockmaker?" Boris intervened as he grabbed her by the wrist, his grin appearing to broaden, "That sounds hot. Maybe you can force yourself on me too… Though it wouldn't really be forceful since I'd want it." He winked at her before he pulled her closer and in her flustered state from his words, she found herself stumbling into his chest.
Snickering lowly, the Cheshire Cat glanced over at Julius, "I'm borrowing the human for a bit, Clockmaker."
Julius looked at him impassively, "She's not a toy."
Not really listening, Boris turned his attention back down to the squirming girl in grasp, "Let's hit up the Amusement Park together! Our time was cut short yesterday, but I guarantee this time your mind will be blown."
He didn't wait for her to respond before he began rushing out the door and Alice could only clumsily attempt to keep up.
Desperately, she glanced over her shoulder at Julius, "Uh, see you later?" She unsurely stated before the door shut.
-.-
Really having way too much fun thinking about where the plot is going to go. Haha also happy holidays everyone! Enjoy yourselves! :D
If you have the time I implore you to review :)