.: Choose Christmas Gifts Carefully ~ Part Two ~ :.
After spending several time periods at work, it was always nice to kick back and relax. Whether certain people would let Alice do so or not always depended on those certain people's moods, and whether certain other people could stop them from being a distraction or not.
She wasn't going to use names. It was unnecessary.
Although the room she stayed in at the Clover Tower was technically a guest room, Alice had used it for so long that it had become "her" room. It had the same basic design as all the other rooms in the Clover Tower- the same giant clovers painted on the ceiling, the same flooring, the same windows with seats, the same drapery, etc.- but she had given this room her own personal touch, adding decorations and moving a few things around and such.
Alice lay now on her back on her bed, staring up at the slanted ceiling over her head and pondering the day's events. It had been her intention to get to her room without being noticed by a certain mind-reading dream demon so that the contents of the bag she'd carried wouldn't be found out, but it had turned out to be unnecessary. He'd ticked her off so badly that she hadn't thought even once about the bag until she'd returned to her room, despite that she had been carrying the bag the entire time.
A sigh escaped her. This wasn't something that was new to her; that didn't make it any more fun. One could never expect the things that Nightmare pulled.
Still, Alice had to admit that his antics weren't usually all that annoying, and at times were even amusing. It was because of this that she could put up with him and even respect him for what he could be and was. Smiling, Alice shook her head to herself. To be honest, she could even say he was a good friend.
… And then her smile slid off of her face. The memory of her earlier trip to the town had resurfaced at these thoughts, despite that she had wanted to forget. However, these things couldn't be forgotten, especially because this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. The last time had been during the one time she had walked with Nightmare anywhere outside of the Tower, to the town.
The clench in Alice's chest, that unpleasant pulling of her heart- her heart- echoed the feeling she'd had at the time of the incident itself.
~)(~)(~)(~)(~
"I could easily have come by myself," huffed Nightmare, who was more put off that Alice had come with him than she had expected. "I'm great enough that I don't need help buying this." [1][2]
Alice gave him a flat look. "Oh really? You didn't even remember your wallet- Gray had to give it to me."
"Th- that has nothing to do with this!"
"Sure, whatever you say. Besides, you wouldn't even be here if I hadn't suggested you do something yourself for once. And hinted that it's a break from work. And convinced Gray to let us go. And-"
"All right, all right, you have a right to come with me!" Nightmare waved both hands as if that would stem her words, and Alice smiled. He really couldn't argue with that logic after all.
As she had expected, going anywhere with Nightmare was half chore, half fun adventure. He made the easiest things difficult and the hardest things enjoyable, just by being himself, which Alice supposed made everything even out. At the very least, she was having an interesting time.
"… Demon…"
"… Where?"
"Over there…"
Alice blinked. What was this? Was she just imagining things, or were people really…?
"… It's the demon…"
"Why is he here?"
A chill ran through her as she realized that, no, she wasn't just imagining the whispers of everyone around her, whispers that all seemed to be about her companion.
It would have been one thing, Alice thought, if the people had sounded admiring or curious. 'But no… they all sound afraid- downright terrified in some cases.'
"Do you think…?"
"The demon's here, what could he want…?"
Alice glanced sidelong at Nightmare and was startled to see that he didn't even seem to have noticed any of the whispers, frightened looks, glares, or anything else. In fact, he was looking at a small display of cakes in a window with no less or more than his usual enthusiasm, which, since these were cakes, was quite a bit.
Suppressing a shudder, Alice whispered to him, "Hey, Nightmare…?"
"Ah, there you are, Alice. Don't you think that Mont Blanc cake looks good?" was Nightmare's immediate response as he looked in her direction with a happy smile. "Of course, the strawberry shortcake does too…"
For several moments she couldn't even reply, too startled by this response. 'How does he ignore them?' she wondered.
"Pay them no mind, Alice," Nightmare said without looking away from the display case. "It's only natural."
Rather than being annoyed that he'd read her mind, Alice just felt her surprise grow. 'You say it's only natural? Are you really used to this?'
To that she received no answer.
~)(~)(~)(~)(~
Even now Alice was unsettled by the revelation that most people feared Nightmare. Why would anyone be afraid of someone so… childish? So sickly? So gentle? Someone who was anything but frightening?
But they'd called him "demon" rather than by his name. Was it because Nightmare was an incubus, a dream demon, someone who wasn't a human or an animal? [3] He preferred to keep people from having bad dreams than giving them to people, and his ability to read minds was more annoying than anything…
… But he had those abilities. Merely the fact that he had those abilities would make him scary to those who didn't know him, who had never seen him throw a tantrum because he was being ignored, or whine about his work load, or sneak out of work, or just generally give everyone working for him a hard time. Or had never had a conversation with him when he was being mature and nice.
Nightmare Gottschalk was not a scary person, Alice decided almost stubbornly, and rolled over onto her side. He was unpredictable, true, but he was gentle even to those who weren't so kind to him. Even in arguments he wasn't violent.
(Arguments with Elliot March did not count. Both sides were usually at fault there.)
Once again Alice felt a kind of pain in her heart. She was more different from him than she was everyone else in this world, where the differences were limited to clocks for hearts and occasional animal ears… and a disregard for life…
Something that Nightmare didn't seem to have… he had always seemed to respect life more, like Julius did, although in a different way from the Clockmaker.
With these thoughts running through her head, Alice gave a long sigh, drifting off to sleep…
Only to open her eyes to see a familiar world of emptiness.
"… Nightmare, what now? Are you skipping on work again?"
He was floating behind her, and Alice could almost hear him pull a face. "Of course not. I have an actual break now, I'll have you know. I've been working for three time turns straight and I deserve a break."
"Whatever you say. I'm not sticking up for you if you turn out to be just hiding from Gray yet again," Alice replied.
"I promise you, I'm not." His presence was close, Alice looked up to see the unmanageable dream demon hovering right behind her and leaning over her head to look down at her. "Alice… I'm flattered that you think so highly of me."
Now Alice felt her eyelid twitch. "What have I told you about reading my mind at all, let alone when I'm IN MY ROOM AT NIGHT? That's more inappropriate and more of an invasion of my privacy than going through my underwear drawer." And to give him a mental smack, she thought of an image of him doing just that.
As she'd expected, Nightmare went red, eyes wide as he shook his head hard. "I would never do that and you know that!"
"Then don't read my mind when I'm my room. You never know what I could be doing."
"W-well, that's tru- DON'T THINK OF SUCH THINGS!" Now he had to turn away with a face darker red than she had ever seen it. Just another example of how this incubus wasn't an incubus from the stories- he was far too innocent.
Alice smirked to herself and said, "Then don't read my mind."
Nightmare was silent for several moments, and she began to think that he wasn't going to answer her at all. Then, "… Does what people think of me really bother you that much?"
"What?" It took Alice a few seconds to catch that he was going back to the previous topic she'd barely touched upon. "Hm, I suppose. It's true that I don't know you as well as Gray does, but I like to think that I know you quite well, and I don't think that you're a scary person. Really, how can you ignore what people say?"
"Because there isn't anything I can do about it," was Nightmare's calm reply. He drifted on his side past her to meet her gaze, his single visible eye steady. "And there isn't anything anyone can do about it, either. I'm used to it, since it's only natural that people be afraid of me."
"How can you say that?" Alice burst out, half angry and half despondant. "'It's only natural'? Simply because you're… not the same as everyone else?"
"I told you when you first came to this world that all role holders are feared by the general population," he answered, "and I'm a role holder. I may be in charge of the Tower of Clover, the peaceful faction in this country, but I'm still a role holer, just the same as the Queen of Hearts or the Hatter or Gowland or Joker. What's more, unlike Joker or Gowland, my job is not to entertain, and unlike all of them, I'm not human."
Alice bit her lip. "But I'm different from everyone here as well."
"Ah, but that is a special kind of difference. You're 'loved by everyone,' Alice." Nightmare leaned close, but Alice didn't make a move to lean away. "Just as I'm 'feared by everyone'."
"… Because you can read minds?"
"Exactly. Or rather, that is indeed a part of it."
"But the people of the Tower of Clover don't fear you. They respect you-"
"That's where you're wrong. There is not a single person in this country that doesn't fear me."
"… But what about the Gray?"
"Talk to him yourself. He won't be bothered by it and will tell you the truth."
Alice 's mouth moved, but no sound came out. It didn't occur to her to doubt what she was being told. Even Gray was afraid of Nightmare, the boss he never hesitated to scold and praise in the same breath? Whom he respected yet would sometimes have to treat like a child? That was… that was…
The gentle way Nightmare said her name was what caught Alice's attention the most, and you refocused your gaze on him. He was smiling, but it wasn't a happy smile; rather, it was warm and just a little sad.
"I don't mind," he said kindly, putting a hand on her head. "But thank you. You're such a caring child."
'You're the one who's caring,' Alice thought with a mental frown, forgetting for a moment he'd hear even though she was used to her mind read by now. It was just something that was too foreign for a person to really comprehend… and therein lay yet another reason he may have been feared.
Nightmare chuckled. "It's all a matter of perspective."
"A matter of-?"
… And her eyes opened.
"Darn him, he ran away again," she mumbled to herself, gaze fixing on the brown ceiling over her head. "And what did that mean? 'A matter of perspective'?"
Well, whatever. It was pointless to dwell over it right now, because there was no way that Alice would be able to get answers out of him until the next time she spoke in her dream- Nightmare almost never talked about things from their dream conversations anywhere outside of the dream world.
Besides, there was work to be done. In the time that it took Alice to get dressed and ready for the day time period, she'd planned out a schedule of what she would get done at what time, hoping against hope that her unpredictable boss wouldn't go and throw things off like he was so good at doing.
… Unfortunately, that was exactly what he seemed to be planning on doing, because as soon as Alice opened the door to his office and room, she found that there was no one present at all.
All right then, time to find Gray. Unlike when the world was just in the Country of Clover and the weather was warm, now Nightmare wouldn't go running to town- it was too cold. Thus, he had to be somewhere in the Tower of Clover, and Alice could help Gray find the troublesome dream demon.
Ten minutes of searching later yielded no results. She hadn't found Nightmare, nor had she located Gray. Asking a few attendants hadn't been successful either.
Come to think of it… She slowed her stride to consider. There weren't very many people at all in the Clover Tower this day time period, certainly far less than usual. Maybe Julius would know why, although she doubted it. He wasn't interested in anything but his own work… but one never knew. She might as well ask.
And here was where the real oddity made itself known: Julius wasn't present in his room. He did go out on occasion for work related purposes, or even, although rarely, to purchase food or coffee beans; his absence at the same time as the other role players in the Tower was what made this an unusual, and indeed suspicious, event.
"What's going on?" Alice mumbled to herself, picking up her pace as she strode through the Tower hallways and noting as she did that the heating was broken again, which explained why she was so cold. "Where is ev…?"
Just as she was passing a window, movement outside caught her eye. She paused to take a better look- and stared. It looked as if the entire Tower had gathered outside at the front steps leading to the Tower, but she couldn't tell exactly what they were doing.
'… I'm a little worried… but I'm also really curious,' thought Alice as she eyed the crowd. Even from this distance she could make out the three role players of the Tower of Clover, Julius with his arms folded, Nightmare saying something to him while in an agitated state, Gray trying to calm Nightmare down…
At least whatever they were doing they were keeping in character while doing. That was enough to help reassure her.
Minutes later, Alice had joined the group, dressed appropriately for the weather. "What is going on here?" she wanted to know. Since Julius was a short distance apart from the more distracted other two, she'd decided to pose the question to him first.
"Just another of Nightmare's selfish ideas," was the Clockmaker's short reply. "At least this time he's not insisting that other people make snow statues of him."
"Indeed… Then… why are YOU out here?"
"…" The dark silence that was the reply told Alice that she'd rather not know.
Stifling a sigh, she decided to leave Julius to his black cloud of brooding, instead turning her attention to the apparent cause of all the trouble. Said cause was, surprisingly, not complaining about the cold; judging by the scarf, hat, and mittens he wore, he was more prepared for the freezing weather than usual.
… The cat he held probably also helped keep him warm.
"Oho, you've come to join us last, Alice!" Nightmare exclaimed on seeing her. "I was expecting you a while ago!"
"Not everyone knows everything that goes on around here," was her dry response, "and you're the only one who knows what goes on in anyone else's head. So what the heck is going on here?"
Nightmare smiled and swept the arm that he wasn't holding the cat with in an arc that encompassed the area in front of the Clover Tower walls. "Exactly what you see!" he proclaimed. Following the motion, Alice noted that there were a half dozen or so small groups building what looked like snow statues of some sort… Snow statues…
Her eye twitched. "Nightmare… I thought it was already agreed that a Snow Festival is not an essential part of winter?"
"But all the other seasons are celebrating some sort of holiday! Besides, this is good for our reputation!"
"What about Christmas? You were talking about that the other day."
"Well of course we have to celebrate that too! But this is an event that people from other seasons can enjoy as well!"
"… Your logic never fails to astound me." With yet another sigh, Alice rubbed her hands together to warm them up, shaking her head. "I suppose I should be relieved that you're not making Julius or Gray build snow statues of YOU or something ridiculous like that."
That comment made Nightmare wince, to her surprise. "I must correct you there, Alice. Julius is one thing and I admit would probably do an excellent job; on the other hand, Gray would NOT. I will not let Gray make anything that is supposed to look like me."
"Ah." Considering that Nightmare's aide had as much talent with art as he did with cooking- which is to say, none at all- this was probably a good idea.
This still didn't explain why most of the Tower employees were outside building snow statues instead of inside working. At this point Alice wasn't sure she even wanted to know, and resigned herself to just accepting this. Such a thing seemed to happen a lot…
Judging by the laughter from so many of the faceless employees, they were enjoying themselves more than Alice had bargained. A smile tugged at her lips at this realization; they always did their best at work and deserved a break every once in a while.
Still, it was pretty cold out… and something hot to drink sounded really good right now… So… "Hey, Gray; let's go make hot chocolate for everyone."
"Excellent idea, Alice!" Nightmare called over his shoulder from a good dozen meters away, even before Gray had replied. "It's a good way to both warm everyone up and keep Gray from ruining everything!"
"Nightmare-sama…" Gray looked quite put out, while Alice frowned at the dream demon.
"Nightmare, you do not deserve the respect you get." She scooped up a handful of snow and jogged closer to Nightmare, packing the snow as she did. In a swift motion, Alice hurled the snowball at the back of his head, where it connected and almost knocked him over, during which time she spun around and raced up the steps to the Tower of Clover, trying not to let her grin get too big.
He had so deserved that one.
~0~ ~0~ ~0~ ~0~ ~0~
Approximately a half hour later found Alice offering hot chocolate to one of the Tower of Clover employees who were outside. He accepted the sweet, hot drinkshe was offering, returning her smile with another.
"Thank you; something hot like this is appreciated," he told Alice gratefully.
Her smile widened as she nodded. "I'm glad you appreciate it."
"What about me?" a very recognizable voice asked from behind her, more than a little plaintive.
Not losing her smile, she turned around to say, "What about you?"
"You're horrible, Alice!"
"Yes, yes, I know I am. Don't worry, you get some as well." So saying, she held out yet another cup from the tray of cups of hot cocoa that she was passing out.
Nightmare's happy reaction made Alice roll her eyes but smile. Sometimes it was hard to believe he was her boss, even though he definitely could act like it at times, especially when he was being selfish.
When Nightmare almost choked on his drink and glared at her, Alice gave a mental wince. "I don't mean any offense by that," she sighed, adding under her breath, "Although it's true…"
"Why am I never respected, even though I'm the boss?" Nightmare complained. "I deserve more respect than I get! You shouldn't treat me like this, throwing snowballs at me and insulting me and everything else! Why don't I get any respect?!"
"That's because you whine like a spoiled child," said Julius from nearby in a voice that was colder than the snow that blanketed the scene. Of course he'd had to insert his unnecessary thoughts… "If you would shut up for once and do your work properly instead of always slacking off…"
"~~~! No one asked for your opinion, Clockmaker!"
"It sounded to me as though you were asking a question, and so I answered it."
"Th-that was- geh! Who's a weak and pathetic Caterpillar?!" [4]
"Stop reading my mind, you're nothing but annoying." So saying, Julius turned his back on Nightmare in an obvious insult.
Alice shook her head, unsurprised by all this; it was nothing new, after.
However, she was given a shock by what happened next. Nightmare, glaring at Julius' back, looked for a moment as though he were going to retort back. Instead, he turned on his heel and took a few steps away.
Alice was about to mentally praise him for not continuing an argument FOR ONCE when her mind-reading boss scooped up a handful of snow and packed it into a firm ball. At that point her eyes went wide.
"H-hey, Nightmare, don't-!"
Too late. Nightmare had pulled back his arm and flung the ball of snow in Julius' direction. Either he was a better aim that Alice had expected or he was cheating with his mysterious demon powers, because the snowball connected soundly between Julius' shoulder blades, splattering everywhere.
The Clockmaker stumbled forward a few steps, caught off guard as she'd predicted. He reached over his shoulder to the spot where the snow had hit as if checking to make sure he was uninjured, or perhaps that it was just snow, before pivoting slowly around to glare at the culprit.
"You stupid Caterpillar…" Julius' glare was far colder than the air, but it didn't seem to faze Nightmare.
"Well now, don't you seem angry, Clockmaker."
"Perhaps that would be a good definition of things…" Alice noticed that Julius' hands had tightened into fists and could only imagine what he was thinking right now. "Or perhaps a better definition of things would be that I am more of a mood to kill you."
… Crap, you knew this would happen… Almost as soon as he'd said that, Julius had grabbed a double handful of snow and packed it down hard, pitching it full speed at Nightmare and only missing because the other dodged.
"Hold still, damn it," shouted Julius, who'd already swept up another handful of snow to throw in Nightmare's direction. "I've had it with your whining and stupid ideas and ridiculous stunts and everything!"
Normally Nightmare would have protested that the things he did were neither stupid nor ridiculous. Today it seemed he was unbothered by both the insults and the snowballs that narrowly missed him, and was in fact amused by them, because he was laughing.
"Oh lighten up, Julius, and get a sense of humor!" called Nightmare over his shoulder as he ran in the opposite direction, dodging flying balls of snow. Of course that didn't do any good; Julius ran after with clear intentions of shoving Nightmare headfirst into a snow bank.
Meanwhile, Alice had been watching in silence as Julius chased after Nightmare, throwing snowballs at the very amused dream demon. As Gray had his back turned and hadn't yet noticed this, she figured it was up to her to stop things before someone got hurt, whether by design or by slipping on ice.
"All right, I think that this has gone far enough," she said in a loud voice, heading in their direction. "Anything more is probably going to result in complete chaos, so how about you both stop and- !?"
Her words were very quickly silenced when one of Julius' snowballs missed and connected with her forehead, hard.
Both men skidded to a stop, literally, as they were in a particularly icy spot, and stared in shock at her. Alice was also frozen in place, the offending snowball now at her feet where it had fallen.
Lifting a hand, she pressed it to the red mark that that already formed on her forehead. "… That hurt," she said, voice both disbelieving and dangerous. "Julius…"
"Ah, um-" He seemed at quite a loss for words now, which had Nightmare snickering… at least until Alice turned her intensifying glare on him as well. All laughter ceased.
The ensuing chaos was, of course, blamed on Nightmare, even it had been thanks to Alice that things spiraled out of control. When she got several of the employees to assist her in tossing snowballs at Julius and Nightmare, said employees also started throwing snowballs at one another in fun, and all the others had joined in as well. Within ten minutes, only Gray and one other assistant were not participating, and the latter only because he had his hands full of paper.
After hitting Julius with a few snowballs, Alice had left him alone to exchange snowballs with a group employees, all of whom were in it more as a game than anything. On the other hand, Julius was particularly keen on nailing Nightmare even just once, something that Nightmare wasn't making easy for him by dodging every throw.
"Stupid Caterpillar, stand still and stop reading my mind!" Julius barked more than once.
"I don't intend to get hit by your snowballs, so that's a 'no'!" was Nightmare's reply.
To be honest, this little show was quite entertaining. Seeing Julius this worked up was rare, and Alice had been wondering if he'd ever get to the point where he actually retaliated back at Nightmare with something other than words. Plus, Nightmare would deserve whatever he got; she wasn'tgoing to help him out unless he got himself into some real trouble, which Gray seemed to agree with, as he was just sighing in resignation.
Throwing snowballs at other people like this was something Alice hadn't done in years, and when they were having as much fun as this and weren't aiming for her head on purpose, it was a lot of fun for her as well. She could even let her guard down and laugh as if she didn't have a care in the wo-
And that was when her hand was snagged and she was almost pulled off her feet by a person running past her. "Come on Alice, the Clockmaker's getting indiscriminate about whom he hits!" Nightmare called over his shoulder as he half dragged Alice after him. Times like this, she had to wonder how someone with such a weak body could have bursts of such strength.
"H-hey, don't get me wound up in your problems again!" Alice yelled. "And you'd better not be using me as a shield of sorts from Julius' snowballs!"
"Would I really do something like that?!"
"YES!"
"Well I'm not! Come on, save your breath and just run! But watch out for ice!"
For the dozenth time that day turn Alice wanted to sigh. There was quite a talking-to in store for her slacker boss, but now wasn't the time. For now… for now…
… For now, she'd just enjoy the moment. "Okay!" she replied, laughing as she raced after and along with Nightmare.
No matter what anyone else thought of him, Alice wasn't scared of this man.
~0~ ~0~ ~0~ ~0~ ~0~
[1] Nightmare has a "catchphrase" of sorts, that being, "Because I'm so great" or other variants of calling himself great., which he uses when he wants other people to respect him; it generally has the opposite effect. It's a total "ore-sama" line with the use of "watashi," if you know what I mean.
[2] What are they buying? It doesn't matter. I like to think they went to get cakes, since Nightmare has such a sweet tooth. You can decide whatever you like.
[3] This is Wonderland. It's not an insult to call someone an animal, as long as they ARE a rabbit or cat or mouse or other such animal.
[4] Direct quote from Joker, Nightmare's first event. Julius was annoyed that Nightmare was trying to make him make a snow sculpture of Nightmare, and started ignoring Nightmare's whining, at least until this thought.
I hope that you enjoyed this, and I'm very sorry for the stupidly long delay. Please let me know what you think!
