Brandon smiled and gave her a squeeze. Simply her presence was enough to fill him with joy and happiness, feelings he doesn't experience often. Alice snuggled closer to him, feeling completely at ease.
Until she remembered she didn't eat breakfast and her stomach growled.
She chuckled. "Hey, Brandon, you hungry?"
"Hmm?" He asked, then his stomach grumbled loudly. "Huh, guess that answers your question." Brandon responded, cracking a grin.
"C'mon, Kidd's probably ordering pizza." Alice said, sitting up and reaching down to grab her nightgown off the floor.
"I hope so, I'm starved." Brandon said, throwing on his clothes. "Uh, you might wanna dress in actual clothes." Brandon said, realizing a possibility. "You may...uh...'drip'."
She blushed. "OK." she said, opening one of the drawers in the dresser beside her bed. She pulled out some jeans, clean underwear and a loose t-shirt before putting them on quickly. She chuckled. "I'm going to have to wash those sheets before Kidd notices."
"Yeah, that may not leave the best of impressions." Brandon said, rubbing the back of his head while looking over the soiled blankets.
"Eh, I'll get the maids to. They won't tell." she smirked before grabbing her beer off the dresser and heading towards the door. "C'mon!"
"Coming." Brandon said, and followed Alice down to the kitchen.
When they arrived downstairs, they saw Kidd talking on the phone, ordering enough pizza to last over a week-possibly a month. "Oooh! Get a Mountain Dew with it!" Alice said, earning an odd glance from Kidd. After all, she didn't know what Soda was before she met Brandon.
"Uh, OK." Kidd said, adding that to the order.
Noticing Kidd's confused look, Brandon decided to pipe in. "Uh, that's kinda my fault?" He said, rubbing the back of his head. "I introduced her to soda in the other dimension."
"Ah," Kidd replied.
"I feel great!" Alice said with a yawn. Kidd gave her a chuckle, it was fake but she couldn't tell. He looked at Brandon out of the corner of his eyes. His expression was happy, but the look in his eyes told Brandon that he knew what they'd just done and said clearly 'I'm going to fucking kill you'. Brandon clearly understood the message, and simply a have a shrug that said 'Hey, shit happens.'
Kidd narrowed his eyes in response. "Alice, I'd like to talk to Brandon alone for a moment."
"Oh, OK!" Alice said before leaving and going back upstairs to talk to the maids about her bed sheets.
Almost as soon as he left, Kidd's expression turned murderous and within a second, he had his icy cold hand around Brandon's neck, strangling him, and had him up against the wall. "Didn't I tell you not thirty minutes ago not to try anything with Alice?! Back at Stein's house, remember?!" he snarled. "In case you haven't noticed, this is my town, and it's a VERY bad idea to piss me off here."
"I'm sorry, but who in this situation has Alice aligned herself with by her own free will?!" Brandon snapped back, too enraged to care about Kidd's grip on his throat.
"She doesn't know how humans work," Kidd replied, feeling like he was about to snap Brandon's neck. "Wendigo's can only get pregnant if they want to, she's not a Wendigo anymore. She doesn't know that humans don't really have a choice whether they get pregnant if they have sex all the time." he reluctantly lowered his hand. "Do NOT let this happen again."
"Fine." Brandon spat, finding Kidd to be more like a control-freak father then the ruthless dictator Alice made him out to be.
Kidd put on a fake smile once again. "OK, now that we agree on this, want to play a video game?"
"Um, what?" Brandon asked, confused by how quickly Kidd changed moods and that video games still existed in this dimension.
"I asked if you wanted to play a violent video game." Kidd replied.
"Uh, sure." Brandon responded, still a tiny bit hesitant if video games had some different meaning or form in this dimension. "What games do you have?"
"A lot of Xbox games, you like Left 4 Dead?"
"Does the sun shine?" Brandon replied with a grin.
"Not here," Kidd replied somberly. "But I'll take that as a yes."
"Oh, uh, yeah." Brandon said, remembering that logic doesn't work in this dimension.
"C'mon, I'll take you to the game room."
"Ok." Brandon replied, following Kidd, though still keeping his guard up. The room was on the first floor, in a dark room in the back. When Kidd flipped the light on, it was still dim but Brandon could clearly see the huge flat screen TV that covered the entire wall, the many game systems all neatly arranged(Which included a really old gameboy console from the 90s and the first Xbox.) in front of it and the closets full of video games. "Dear God..." Brandon breathed, nearly coming to tears at the sight.
"You liiiiiiike?" Kidd asked, waggling his eyebrows in a joking way.
"I think earlier you actually broke my neck, and by some typo on St. Peter's list, I've made it into heaven." Brandon said, words failing to describe the disbelief and bliss he was feeling.
Kidd chuckled. "Heaven doesn't exist, only the Underworld. Didn't you know that?"
"...Huh?" Brandon asked, snapping out of his emotional state.
"Heaven doesn't exist." Kidd said.
"Eh, I had a hunch." Brandon said with a shrug, not a firm enough believer of any religion to buy into heaven or hell.
"Yeah, only the Underworld exists, but I don't bother telling people that."
"Better to let them live a life of ignorance, eh?" Brandon asked with a chuckle, remembering how the old saying went.
"Yeah, got to keep the populace happy," Kidd replied. "But the biggest suckers are the Kishins."
"I've heard. The whole 'Pandora's Box' thing." Brandon said, recalling Alice telling him about it. Brandon then realized something and began chuckling.
"Yeah, it's hard to believe they think heaven exists." Kidd replied. "Especially those really devoted ones-the ones crazy enough to think their hallucinations are demons." This reminded Brandon of Alec, back when they were in the cell. Maybe he was one of those Kishin...
"In the other dimension, I met a kishin very much like that." Brandon recalled, remembering that Alec died clasping a bible and wearing a cross necklace.
"Oh? Poor sucker," Kidd replied.
"Yeah. He was the male equivalent of Alice." Brandon said, not sure how the reaper would react.
"Really? The Kishin she killed the day I sent that spell?" Kidd asked, intrigued.
"The very one." Brandon said, collapsing on the couch in front of the tv.
"Ah, that poor sap," Kidd replied. "Last night, Alice told me he worked for Medusa. Poor soul. I almost pity him."
"Medusa's a bitch universally, I've determined." Brandon said, relaxing into the soft seat.
"Oh well, unless a person was born to Medusa," Kidd replied. "It's their fault they're with her."
"Say, since you're essentially God, at least in this universe, then do you have vast knowledge?" Brandon asked, seizing the opportunity to finish a debate he's been having with himself.
"Why, yes. But as you know, I'm not the only God here. My knowledge is not infinite." he replied.
"Well, does your knowledge expand far enough to know who Chrona's parents were?" Brandon asked, hoping to find out.
"Oh, about that," Kidd said. "She told me she was made in a lab."
"Huh." Was all Brandon could muster. He stared in disbelief fof a second, then flashed to rage, then sorrow, then neutrality. He blinked a few times, not knowing what just happened. "I think I need a drink." Brandon said calmly, taking out his flask and downing the entire thing in a few seconds.
Soon they heard a knock at the door. "Must be the pizza." Kidd said.
"Wonderful. I'm starving." Brandon said, following Kidd to the kitchen.
When they answered the door, however, it was not the pizza man. It was a boy with lavender eyes, like Chrona's, and black hair. There was a scar across his face. "So.. I heard you found Alice?" he asked.
"Yeah, come on in, Ragnarok." Kidd replied.
"Um, what?" Brandon asked, unsure if he heard Kidd correctly.
"Uh, I'm Ragnarok," The boy said, stretching out his hand for Brandon to shake. He was lanky, wearing a gray shirt, blue jeans and a black leather jacket.
Brandon extended his hand and shook Ragnarok's. "I'm gonna need a few more drinks." Brandon said in disbelief, staggering towards the liquor cabinet.
Kidd sighed before Ragnarok spoke again. "So.. where is Alice?"
"She's upstairs." Brandon chimed, finding a bottle of Kentucky bourbon and filling his flask with that.
"Oh, thanks," he replied, walking upstairs. He was holding something behind his back. Brandon caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye, and decided to investigate. He trailed as quietly as possible, darting behind a corner of into a room whenever Ragnorak looked around. He held something out to her, a bouquet of white Carnations. "Here, I thought I should get you something for when you came back."
She took them happily. "Thank you, Raggy! I love them," she said. It made her happy that SOMEONE remembered her other than Kidd. Brandon decided to simply watch, curious as to how far their relationship extends to, though he couldn't help the rage beginning to burn deep within. She hugged him, and he hugged back, though it looked a bit awkward. "Thanks," she said, pulling away from the hug. "I'll go put these in a vase." Ragnarok walked down the stairs while Alice followed, but she couldn't help but notice Brandon's jealous stare. Judging by her reaction, Brandon realized he must've been showing emotion. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and walked into his/Cameron's room. Alice told Ragnarok she'd be right back before putting the Carnations in a vase and giving him another hug and following Brandon.
Brandon heard the footsteps behind him, and kept walking until he was sure he was out of the downstair's hearing range. He then wheeled around on his heels to face Alice. He wasn't angry, and took a pause, searching for the proper words. "That seemed weird, awkward, and selfish, didn't it?" He asked, knowing that he wasn't in the best of circumstances.
"It's OK, Brandon," Alice said, hugging him. "There's nothing between me and Raggy. We're just good friends."
"Ok. Sorry if that came off wrong. I'm just, ya'know..." Brandon trailed, trying to find proper words, but quickly gave up and returned the hug.
"It's OK," she giggled and kissed him on the cheek.
He smiled and kissed hers back. "Anyways, about earlier..." He began, debating whether or not to tell her about his experience with Kidd or not.
Alice tilted her head. "What happened?" Brandon closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. He then reopened then, his decision being made.
"Kidd knows."
"Oh, really? He didn't seem mad, though..."
"He has one hell of a poker face, I'll give him that much." Brandon said, realizing how sore his neck was from Kidd's grasp.
"What'd he do?"
"Nothing." Brandon said quickly, not wanting to cause tension between Alice and Kidd. He instantly concluded that this was a bad idea.
"He was pissed, wasn't he?" Alice asked. "Did he try to strangle you or push down the stairs or something? Because that's usually how you can tell if Kidd is mad."
"Um, it was the first." Brandon said. He also concluded that he would always walk BEHIND Kidd from now on. "And he forbid us fooling around anymore."
Alice pouted. "He did?"
"Yeah." Brandon said, just as if not more depressed then Alice. "But, it's because you don't understand human biology. You're still thinking in Wendigo terms, but you're not a Wendigo anymore."
"What's the difference?" Alice asked.
"Well, for starters, your reproductive system works differently." Brandon began. "For example, earlier when we were, um, fornicating, did you choose to accept or deny the impregnation?"
"Er, deny it." Alice replied. Actually, she didn't really remember.
"Well, you don't have a choice when you're human." Brandon explained. "It doesn't matter if you accept or deny it. It's truly up to whether or not a sperm makes it into an ova. And if that occurs, guess what? You got the preggors."
Alice blushed, wondering if that happened when they had sex. "Oh!"
"What?" Brandon asked, slightly confused.
"Um, n-nothing." she replied. "Uh... how can someone tell if they're pregnant?"
"There's a pregnancy test strip that you use. We should probably get you one." Brandon explained, knowing that he couldn't leave the house alone and certainly not with Alice.
"Oh, OK." Alice replied.
"It's just a mater of getting our hands on one that might be problematic." Brandon thought aloud.
"Oh? Why would that be a problem?" she asked.
"Because I can't leave the house without a 'Kidd's Blessing' or whatever, Kidd hates my guts, and there's no way in HELL that he'd let me leave with you." Brandon listed, suddenly seeing his situation clearly. "Holy shit, it's as if I'm in fuckin' North Korea."
"You mean his protection?" Alice asked. "And what's North Korea? That country we bombed a few months ago? That's gone now."
"Huh." Brandon replied, not really surprised anymore.
"Yeah, it's just a bunch of nuclear waste now," Alice replied.
"I really should've figured as much." Brandon said, chuckling a little.
"Yeah.., Things get pretty crazy around here." Alice chuckled. "Oh, have you met Raggy yet?"
"To an extent." Brandon said, remembering their odd introduction to eachother.
"I mean, I know you saw him give me the flowers, but..."
"It's just friends, right?" Brandon replied, leaning against a wall.
Alice nodded. "White Carnations mean 'remembrance'. He just gave them to me as a 'Welcome Home' gift."
"Well, that's sweet of him." Brandon said, not knowing the second meaning of the flowers.
"Yeah," Alice grinned. "He was my first friend since I came to the Academy. You were my second, but I guess you're my boyfriend now?"
"Uh, I guess so." Brandon said, realizing their relationship status.
Alice grinned. "So I have two friends and a boyfriend!"
"Good for you." Brandon said, happy for his girlfriend's accomplishments.
"But everyone else usually has a lot more, though..." She turned a little sad when she said this.
"Eh, it's not the quantity that matters, its the quality." Brandon said, hugging Alice around her waist.
She looked thoughtful, laying her head on his chest. "I guess," she said.
"Trust me, you're better than anyone else, despite what they say." Brandon said, trying to comfort her.
Alice smiled before kissing him on the cheek. "Thanks." she said.
Brandon kissed her cheek back. "It's no problem." He said, smiling warmly at her.
She blushed, smiling back. "I wonder if the pizza's here yet."
"I don't know."
"Hm... I wonder where Ra went." she said randomly. "He's Kidd's dog."
"Fitting." Brandon said, chuckling a little.
"He's a Hell Hound!" Alice grinned. "I have one named Amaterasu, but she's always with Ra, so..."
"A bunch of love birds, eh?" Brandon joked, cracking a grin.
"Hm," Alice looked thoughtful. "Maybe. They never said otherwise."
"Um, what?" Brandon asked, not sure if he heard Alice correctly.
"What, don't Hell Hounds talk in your dimension, too?" she asked. "But the Fanile are really annoying, you don't want to meet one of those. Kidd used to have a pet Fayne, and he named it Prick because it was an asshole."
Brandon chuckled at that. "There aren't any Hell Hounds in my dimension."
"Oh." Alice replied dumbly, not sure what to say.
"It's ok." Brandon said, playfully squeezing her. She giggled, blushing at the feeling and close proximity. Brandon rested his head on her shoulder, holding her close. "I love you." He whispered in her ear.
Brandon smiled into her shoulder, but it instantly vanished when he realized that this would all be over when they figured this mess out. Alice could sense this and worried. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Brandon replied quickly, though he knew she would sense that he was lying., and even though she knew, she didn't push, instead just nuzzling his neck. Brandon tried to ignore it and enjoy the moment, though it was still their, stuffed in the back of his head.
"C'mon, I don't want to keep my guest waiting," she said, kissing his neck before pulling away.
"Alright, alright." Brandon said in a highly faked reluctant tone.
"You and Ragnarok need to meet properly!" she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the kitchen. Ragnarok and Kidd weren't there, so she checked the game room. Sure enough, the two were playing Super Smash Brothers' Brawl. Kidd was Pikachu and Ragnarok was playing as cringed as he saw Pit, and sure enough, the character just kept screaming 'Piya' over and over. Alice chuckled. "I personally like playing as Sheik." she said.
"Snake's my man. I can beat anyone's ass with him." Brandon boasted, then realized he sounded like BlackStar, and immedietly covered his mouth.
Alice chuckled, moving his hand and giving him a light peck on the lips. Ragnarok glanced at them out of the corner of his eye, accidentally allowing Kidd to get the Smash Ball and thus kicking Pit's ass with a volt tackle. "Gah!" Ragnarok exclaimed when he lost. "I call a rematch!"
"No way. I wanna kick some ass." Brandon grinned, approaching the couch.
"Sure, you can play Raggy!" Kidd replied, handing Brandon his remote. Ragnarok glared at Kidd, shaking his head before once again turning to the screen. He changed his character to Dark Toon Link.
"Thank God." Brandon muttered, picking Snake and changing his outfit to the leopard camo. When they chose their characters, Ragnarok let Brandon choose which stage to fight on. From the choices, Brandon chose Hyrule Temple from Melee.
Alice gave a soft chuckle. She liked the music on this stage, but Ragnarok... not so much. "If I win this one, we're playing on the Norfair stage," Ragnarok said.
"Fine." Brandon said, and then focused purely on playing.
And then the smash ball came to them. Ragnarok fought for it, dreading what would happen to his character if Brandon got to it. Unfortunately, Brandon got it before he did. "Dammit!"
"I hope you like trinitrotoluene." Brandon said, watching with a grin as Snake loaded the grenade launcher. "Cause I'm TNT! I'm dynomite! TNT! And I'll win the fight!" He sang as he mercilessly vaporized toon link multiple times.
"Oh, shit!" Ragnarok replied, trying to keep his character from getting hit. He did get hit, quite a few times, but didn't die. Instead, he had Toon Link eat some food that fell randomly out of the sky.
"Goddamn random tomatoes!" Brandon exclaimed, mortaring him as soon as he landed. Ragnarok cackled as he evaded the attack, hitting him with a boomerang. "Bastard!" Brandon yelled, dropping a bomb as he flew back, that he then detonated when Ragnorak rushed him. Ragnarok's jaw dropped as he lost a life and lost the match.
He forgot Kidd had it set to a one-life match...
"Boom motherfucker! I beat you wearing a leotard!" Brandon exclaimed while laughing loudly.
Ragnarok's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he stared at the screen dumbfounded. "Lucky bastard..." he muttered.
"Lucky, huh?" Brandon grinned, feeling cocky.
"Eh, I bet you couldn't beat Alice," Ragnarok said, turning to her. "You play a mean Sheik, don't ya?" Alice grinned and nodded. Brandon grinned wider, anticipating a challenge. Ragnarok passed the remote to Alice, who grinned widely. She chose Sheik and changed her uniform to black. She chose the stage this time, it was Norfair.
"Everyone here is obsessed with Nofair, eh?" Brandon asked, keeping his character as Snake but giving him red and black camo.
"One of the toughest stages, in my opinion," Alice said. "Prepare to get your cocky ass beat!"
"Bring it." Brandon said, and then focused once more upon the game. It started with Sheik throwing needles at Snake, knocking him into the lava. "Ah, damnit!" Brandon exclaimed, jumping out of the lava, though heavily damaged. Next, she disappeared, then reappeared next to him, getting him with a side-A combo. "Hey, bad touch!" Brandon joked, trying to break her grapple.
"Hehehe~" Alice chuckled, before a smash ball came on screen. She got to it first, hit Brandon with her light arrow and knocked him off screen with it, killing him.
Brandon sighed, knowing he'd been bested. "Goddamnit." He sighed, shaking his head. "I used to be a super smash bros player like you, but then I took a light arrow to the knee." Ragnarok chuckled, Alice didn't get the reference. Brandon heard Ragnorak's reaction and laughed. "This guy gets it!"
Rangnarok laughed. "That's 'cause I'm one of the most awesome people here!"
"That's debatable, but I still appreciate you getting my joke." Brandon said, looking back at the boy.
"Hey, Raggy's still awesome in his own way." Alice replied with a chuckle.
"Stop calling me that." Ragnarok replied.
"Why?"
"Because it's a pet name. Duh."
"Dude, take ya lumps." Brandon joked, knowing he most likely wouldn't understand it. (The Author of Brandon would like to take a moment and personally thank any reader who got that reference.)
"...What?" they both asked.
"Nothing, forget about it." Brandon said, waving it off.
"OK," Ragnarok said. Alice just remained confused.
Brandon saw Alice's confusion, so he tried to change the topic. "Hey, do you know when the pizza's gonna get here?"
"Should be here any minute," Kidd said from a dark corner of the room. Only his grin and his pale yellow eyes were visible, making him seem like the Cheshire Cat. Alice jumped, she'd forgotten he was there.
"Creepy..." Ragnarok said.
Brandon glanced over at Kidd, and decided to try to out-creep him. A crooked grin formed on his lips and he met Kidd's eyes. "Yes, hopefully it shall." Brandon replied, altering his choice so that it was i between two notes, making it sound, well, odd. Alice chuckled, Raggy raised an eyebrow. He came off more as a weirdo than creepy to him. Brandon turned his gaze upon Ragnarok, his grin growing a little wider. "I can see into you. I know who you are, and I know what you have done." He said, keeping his voice on it's odd pitch.
"Name something about me that you wouldn't know from your dimension," Ragnarok said. Alice chuckled. Brandon kept his face the same as it was, though inside he knew his bluff had been called. "Seriously," Ragnarok chuckled, his face obviously saying 'Prove it'. "Name ONE thing and I'll be convinced."
Brandon closed his eyes and contacted Alice telepathically. 'Can I get some help, please?' He asked, wondering if Ragnarok could somehow figure out he was talking with Alice.
'Uh, I don't really know much. He hasn't done anything major... Try guessing at how he was given a human shape.' she replied.
'Well, thanks.' Brandon said, feeling the pressure. "You were separated from Chrona through an extremely painful process."
"Not really." Ragnarok replied.
'Sorry!' Alice thought to Brandon, trying not to look sheepish.
"Eh, I just bullshitted that." Brandon said, shrugging.
"Yep, you really did," Raggy replied.
"But, I assume you knew that already."
"Yes."
Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it~~!" Kidd said, dashing out of the room.