"What is taking Alice so long?" Nightmare pouted.
"I don't know." Gray replied.
"Why did you leave her there?!" Nightmare snapped. "What if she is lost?"
"She wouldn't be lost. The town is right outside the tower." He grumbled.
"What if she went to the Hatters mansion to stay?" Gray cleared his throat and tried to forget what he did to her. "What did you do?!" Nightmare fumed as he turned to Gray angrily.
"I asked her a question."
"A question doesn't involve holding her against a wall against her will! Get out."
"But Lord Night-"
"I said get out! And don't come back until you have Alice with you!" He snapped. Gray then turned and ran out of the room. 'Finally,' Nightmare thought. 'I can take a nap.' He laid his head down on his desk and fell asleep.
"Julius." He said as he entered the dream of the clockmaker. His long navy blue hair was pulled back by a bow at his shoulders like usual. His arms were crossed and he started glaring at Nightmare.
"Nightmare." He grumbled acknowledging the incubus. Silence.
"Alice is fine, just so you know." Nightmare said. Julius's eyes widened in shock.
"So she made it through the move?" he asked.
"Yes. She is staying with me and Gray at the tower here."
"well that's good to know…."
"She is worried about you. Told me to tell you make sure you sleep and eat." Julius grunted in response. "Any message you want me to send back to her when I wake up?" Nightmare asked.
"Why bother? The sooner she moves on from me the better."
"So you knew she had feelings for you?" Julius nodded. "And you didn't act on the feelings you had for her?"
"Of course not. What kind of person do you think I am? I'm almost 10 years older than her."
"Age shouldn't matter to anybody. Actually it seems you're the only one it matters to. All the other male role holders have an interest, including Gowland."
"And you?"
"I plan to make my move soon." He laughed. "You know she misses you a lot…."
"Why?" Julius asked.
"Because you're the reason she stayed in Wonderland in the first place." He mumbled. Julius began to blush. "Oh. Gray tried to kill her."
"WHAT?!" Julius yelled.
"Yeah. Did you know she is allergic to cigarette smoke? She couldn't breathe for the longest of time. It kinda scared me actually. Then he kinda attacked her in the hallway, holding her against a wall." Nightmare paused for a second. "Errr… I gotta go now. Someone is waking me up from my nap. Still no message for Alice?"
"T... Tell her that this place is a whole lot quieter without her… and I miss the coffee..."
"Nightmare! Wake up. You have work to do!"
"Hmmmm…. Alice?" he asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What are you doing back…? YAWN"
"I came back thinking you would be worried…. I have been gone for several hours…. I guess I was wrong….." She frowned.
"No, no, no. I was worried. I just sent Gray out to find you. Well… maybe not just… I wonder how long I was asleep for…. Well... Oh yeah. I talked to Julius just now."
"R-Really?!"
"Yup."
"What did he say?!" Alice asked.
"He says… the clock tower is a lot quieter without you." Alice frowned.
"Oh….." she said sadly.
"He also said he misses the coffee. Hm. Coffee sounds nice right now." He said getting up.
"N-no. You can stay here. I will make you a cup" she said before darting out of the room. Nightmare smiled.
'Such a sweet girl' he thought to himself.
Several minutes later Alice walked in with two mugs, some cream, sugar, honey, and some other things that she thought he could put in coffee and placed everything on his desk. She was unsure as to how he liked his so she just brought everything. Julius always liked his coffee plain.
"I-I wasn't sure how you liked your coffee so I just brought whatever I could find." She said, blushing.
"It's fine. I like my coffee sweet, so next time all you need is sugar and cream." He chuckled. He began to put what he wanted in his drink while Alice just drank it straight. "Why do you drink it plain?" he asked.
"Well… Julius always drank it plain and he didn't have sugar and cream and all that so I just drank it plain as well. I'm sure he would have bought some additives for me if I wanted it but I didn't want to trouble him. Now I'm used to it like this." She said, taking another sip.
"This coffee isn't bad." He said, taking a sip for himself.
"Julius asked me to make coffee all the time… I just used it as practice. Sometimes he even showed me the best way to grind the beans for maximum flavor…. But I can never seem to get it right. The coffee he made was delicious."
"You really miss him, don't you…?" Nightmare asked.
"Yeah…. He… he let me stay at the clock tower for my stay in wonderland…. He explained everything to me that I needed to know at the time…. He helped me so much…. Now I can't repay him for all the kindness he has given to me." Her eyes began to water.
"Want me to tell him that next time?"
"N-no. He would probably just call me a troublesome woman…."
"You think so?"
"I'm pretty sure of it."
"I could tell you exactly what he thinks."
"I find no point to that." Alice sighed. "I won't ever get to see him again…. He must be happy I am out of his hair. He always said I was too noisy anyway…"
"If that's what you want then so be it. Any message you want me to give him the next time I see him?"
"No. I don't want to trouble him with my feelings…. What about Gowland? Can you see Gowland?"
"Getting to Gowland is no problem. He sleeps a lot more often than Julius does. Do you want me to give him a message?"
"Yeah. I want him to know that I miss having fun at the amusement park with him."
"You need to stop thinking about what you would want to say. I might just have to tell them what I pick up from your mind." Nightmare chuckled.
"Tell them and you die." She threatened.
"Well you would never know if I told them or not."
"Lord Nightmare! I have looked everywhere and can't… find….." Gray said as he entered the door and looked at Nightmare and then saw Alice.
"Oh good. You made it back." Nightmare said, smiling.
Dawww, Julius cares. I love you Julius.