AN: I made a few changes to the story since last chapter. I edited chapters one through six, so hopefully I fixed most of my past mistakes. Nothing plot-wise changed, I just fixed mistakes and added a little more content and dialogue here and there. Another thing I changed is my story's timeline. Not by much, though. I looked over some things from previous chapters and realized that my math was a bit off (no shocker there).
RECENTLY RE-EDITTED (11/3/16)
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.
She paints her fingers with a close precision
He starts to notice empty bottles of gin
And takes a moment to assess the sins she's paid for
A lonely speaker in a conversation
Her words were swimming through his ears again
There's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you've paid for
Ballad of Mona Lisa ~ Panic! At The Disco
~O~
Drained.
That was how Alice felt when she woke up the next morning. She felt hollow, like something had sucked all the energy out of her body and left nothing but an empty shell and a splitting headache for her to deal with.
So much for a restful night's sleep.
Alice blinked her eyes, trying to clear the fog of sleep that clouded them. Her muscles felt stiff and they screamed in protest when she tried to move them. She ended up laying on her back staring at the ceiling for a little while longer until a noise in the room finally reached her ears. A soft clearing of a throat. Dread filled her stomach at thought of someone inside her room, and despite the awful crick in her neck, Alice rolled her head to the side and searched her surroundings. Her brow furrowed in confusion when she spotted the Easter Bunny and the Sandman sitting in the red lounge chair in the corner of her guest room.
Bunny was sitting on the cushion of the chair with his big feet tucked underneath him while Sandy was perched on the arm, leaning halfway on the pooka's shoulder, neither one noticing that Alice had awoken. Bunny was examining the stitching of his boomerang holders in a desperate attempt to preoccupy himself while the Sandman was visibly more relaxed, peacefully dozing off with his round face buried in Bunny's fur.
"Bunny?" Alice croaked.
She winced at the sound of her own voice. That ungodly noise couldn't have possibly come from her, could it? It was hoarse and it rang unpleasantly in her ears - foreign and entirely too wrecked to be her smooth, accented tone.
When Bunny heard his name, his ears perked up and his forest green eyes fell on her. Once he saw that she was finally awake, he immediately shot out of his seat, abruptly jostling Sandy out of his nap, and hopped over to Alice's bedside.
"Alice!" Bunny gasped out her name in relief. Her brow furrowed even tighter when she picked up on the desperation in his voice. "You're awake!"
Feeling slightly awkward about having Bunny's undivided attention so early in the morning, Alice inched away from the pooka as she moved to sit up. As she moved, she let out an involuntary moan as the ache in her muscles intensified, her arms shaking almost violently with the effort of lifting up her body. She would have fallen back down again if it wasn't for the paw that Bunny placed on her back for support. She threw him a grateful look before scooting backwards to lean against the headboard behind her.
"How are ya feelin'?" Bunny asked once she was settled.
"Quite terrible, actually," she murmured as she pulled up the bed sheets over her bare legs.
With one look down at herself, Alice was reminded of her serious distaste for her current sleepwear. She knew it was ridiculous to be worried about something so trivial when she had just woken up feeling like someone had ran her over with a carriage pulled by steel-hoove horses, but she couldn't help it. The light blue nightgown only fell to mid-thigh for Hatter's sake! Not mention how thin the straps holding it up were. It was scandalous, really.
"Are ya alright, though?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed with one paw resting gently on her arm. "You're not hurt or anythin', are ya?"
Alice titled her head, perplexed by Bunny's behavior. She regarded her friend more closely. He looked on edge, even more so than usual. She could see how tense his shoulders were even under all his shaggy fur, and how his green eyes were wide with worry. It was then that Alice remembered that the Sandman was also in her room. She turned her gaze away from Bunny and towards the golden spirit floating silently next to the balcony windows. He also looked concern, with his yellow eyes trained on her, just as unwavering as Bunny's.
For several seconds, Alice said nothing as she looked back and forth between the two uninvited guests in her room.
"What are you doing in my room, Bunny?"
Bunny's expression hardened and he looked over his shoulder at Sandy. The spirit mirrored his expression and nodded once, prompting Bunny to answer her. The pooka turned back to Alice and looked her in the eye.
"Alice, do you remember what happened last night?"
"I fail to imagine why I would. I was asleep last night," she said, hoping to reassure him and calm his frazzled nerves, but when Bunny knotted his eyebrows and bit his lip uneasily, her confused look turned into a scrutinizing one. "Now answer my question, Bunny. Why are you in my room?"
After a few beats Bunny sighed, taking his paw off her arm. "Alice, you had some sort of panic attack last night, in your sleep."
"What?"
"You were thrashin' and screamin' like you were bein' attacked," he told her, carefully watching her reaction just in case she remembered the violent episode and lashed out again.
He gave her time to process the information and recall anything she could about last night's incident, but Alice only shook her head.
"No, that's not possible," she said slowly, as if Bunny was sorely mistaken. "I remember my nightmares vividly and I haven't had one for quite sometime, certainly not last night. There must be a misunderstanding. If I did have one, then I would remember having it, but I don't. So off you both go now, I would like to get dressed for the day. Preferably without an audience."
Bunny barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Alice's obvious dismissal. When she moved to get off the bed, he placed both of his paws on her shoulders and held them there firmly until she stopped trying to shake them off. She tried to dislodge them, but when it didn't work, she let out an indignant huff, refusing to meet the pooka's eyes. He knew then, that even though she had just brushed him off, Alice believed that he was telling the truth, because he would never lie to her. She knew he was telling the truth, she just didn't want to hear it.
Alice was a walking contradiction if Bunny ever did see one. She was a very blunt person with a very direct way of approaching things, but when faced with something she didn't want to hear or deal with, Alice could be more elusive than Jack was after the blizzard of '68 when Bunny spent the rest of that year trying to hunt down him and club his reckless head in for ruining his Easter egg hunts.
"Listen to me, Alice," the demanding tone in his voice grabbed her attention. "It wasn't a nightmare. You had a night terror and Sandy says those are some real nasty dreams, worse than nightmares."
Sandy gave an affirmative nod when Alice looked over at him again.
She didn't remember anything. Thrashing and screaming? Surely she would remember something like that, wouldn't she? But then again, Alice remembered how positively awful she felt when she woke up, like she had been thrown against a brick wall and then stomped on by lead soles. Her mind said one thing and her body said another and she didn't know which one she should listen to. Without so much of a single glance at either spirit occupying her room, Alice gingerly climbed off her bed and practically stumbled to the conjoined bathroom. She flicked on the light switch and stepped in front of the mirror above the sink. When she caught sight of her reflection, Alice nearly gasped.
She looked bloody horrible.
Her dark hair was in complete disarray and shared an uncanny resemblance to that of a rat's nest. Her skin looked clammy with a pallor more severe than normal. The carefully applied makeup that always lined her eyes ran down her face in long streaks like she had been crying uncontrollably with the whites of her eyes bloodshot and dark circles forming just underneath. In short, it truly did look like Alice had the life sucked right out of her. The only color she had left in her was her green eyes and even those seemed to be lacking their usual emerald luster.
Alice's breathing picked up and her chest heaved as she looked at the lifeless husk in the bathroom mirror. If her hair had been shorter, falling only to her slender shoulders in choppy locks, Alice would have looked exactly like her old human self when she was living as an orphan back in Victorian London. It wasn't a healthy look then and it most certainly wasn't one now.
Slowly, the dark-haired spirit reached out a shaking hand and placed her fingertips against the surface of the mirror, right over her downtrodden reflection. She had no idea that she looked far worse than she felt. And to make matters worse, her pounding headache made itself known once again. She groaned and clutched her forehead with her cold hand as a sharp ache throbbed somewhere deep within her skull. She quickly flicked off the bathroom light in an attempt to alleviate the pain. It helped a little, but not by much.
"Alice?" Bunny's worried voice called from her room. "Are you alright?"
Before the pooka could come in and investigate, Alice came out of the bathroom and stopped in the doorway. She had one hand cupping her dampening forehead, trying to block out the sunlight streaming in through the balcony windows, while her other hand held on to the doorway for balance. Her eyes were shut tightly and she had a deep scowl on her face.
Bunny took a step towards the girl, but stopped when she took her hand off her forehead and held it in front of her in a halting gesture.
"Alice?"
"No," she said, her eyes still closed. "Don't say anything. Just please, leave."
"But-"
She cut him off and pointed towards the door. "Leave."
It was an obvious demand but Bunny wasn't about to let Alice brush this off. She might not remembered anything, but he did, and so did Sandy, and so did the rest of the bloody workshop. Seeing Alice in such a state of panic and being unable to calm her down really upset him. He wouldn't say it out loud of course, but he was just a little bit scared of the situation. Scared for Alice and what being back in real world was doing to her. As far as he knew, Alice stopped having nightmares soon after she retreated to Wonderland over a hundred years ago, but now she was having these night terrors. Worse than nightmares, tenfold. Was being back in the real world causing this?
"No, I'm not leavin', Alice," he refused with his arm crossed to show her that he was just as serious as she was. "We need to talk 'bout this so we can figure out-"
"Get out!"
Both Bunny and Sandy jumped. Her eyes were open again and she was giving them a bloodcurdling glare that was just daring them to argue further. Sandy certainly didn't need to be told twice; he was already floating over to the door while gesturing Bunny to follow before Alice forced them to leave her room. Bunny was already used to this sort of behavior, though, and he wasn't so easily intimidated. He matched her glare with a fierce one of his own, but ultimately he decided it would probably be best if Alice was left to clear her head and collect her thoughts in peace. He could only push this so far. With one last sigh, he made for the door. He opened it and allowed Sandy to leave first. He stepped through the doorway and turned to face Alice once again.
"I'll give ya an hour before I come back. And when I do, we will talk about this," he said in earnest, leaving no room for arguments.
Sometimes Alice needed to be reminded that the Easter Bunny wasn't like most people who would just bow out and let the issue drop because it was upsetting. Quite frankly, Bunny didn't care if it was. A lot of stuff made Alice upset and if Bunny always let things go because of that, then nothing would ever get resolved. She wasn't as fragile as he sometimes treated her. She was tough with a core of steel and would always stand her ground against opposing forces. In order to get her to cooperate with him, sometimes the pooka needed to be just as unrelenting as her, and he had no problem with that if meant something useful would come of it. Sure, it caused fights between them but they would always forgive each other in the end, no matter how bad the fight was. That's just how they were. Too stubborn to admit they were wrong but also too stubborn to let their friendship end because of a few nasty spats.
After seeing that he wasn't going to back down, Alice dropped her defensive stance and crossed her arms under her chest, letting her eyes roll towards the ceiling.
"Do what ever you like, rabbit. See if I care."
Bunny scoffed before closing the door behind him. As soon as the door clicked shut, she picked up a pillow from the floor and threw it at the door in frustration. Crossing her arms again, Alice walked over to the nearby vanity and gathered her dress and apron in her arms. She would worry about Bunny later. Right now, she was more focused on getting dressed and making herself look less like a reanimated corpse.
~O~
True to his word, Alice rolled her eyes as the gray pooka walked into the grand kitchen of Santoff Claussen, exactly one hour later.
After getting dressed and presentable, Alice left her room and navigated the halls of the Russian palace until she came across the network of kitchens that occupied almost an entire wing of North's domain. The main kitchen was empty, lunch having just been served not too long ago, except for the yetis in charge of cleaning the kitchens and keeping the elves out of the pantries and wine cellars. She didn't mind their presence, they were quite friendly. One of the furry creatures was even nice enough to make Alice a cup of hazelnut tea and a few slices of toast with strawberry jam.
She had been in the middle of reading a book she had found in her guest room about the legend of Nicolas St. North, and the different interpretations of him throughout the world, when Bunny came through the swinging kitchen doors. He looked frustrated and it only grew when he spotted Alice sitting at one of the tables, sipping away at her cup of tea as she idly flipped through her book. She hadn't visited North's library yet. She didn't feel up to exploring the complex any farther than the kitchens. At least, not right now.
"There you are," Bunny grumbled. "Ya could've told me that you weren't goin' to stay in your room. Would've saved me 'lot time."
Alice let out a very unladylike snort around the rim of her teacup. "You only work one day year, in the Spring no less. It's not like you have anything more imperative you need to be doing at the moment."
"Maybe not," he fired back, "but there's 'lot I rather be doin' right now than dealin' with one of your tantrums."
"I do not throw tantrums!" she snapped, almost slamming her teacup back down on her plate.
Bunny held back a snort of his own as he raised a paw in surrender. "Okay, whatever you say, Half-pint."
"Oh be quiet, you overgrown ball of puff," the annoyed girl glared as she turned another page in her book a little harder than necessary.
He recognized that Alice was giving him the silent treatment almost instantly. She always did it when she was annoyed with him and she was very good at it. She once went an entire year without acknowledging him. He rolled his eyes before reaching over and snatching the book away from her. She didn't try to get it back, but the pooka could feel the raising anger coming off her.
"You know," Bunny started slowly as she glared at him again. "If this you tryin' to convince me that you don't throw tantrums, you're not doin' a very good job of it. And you can ignore me all you want, Alice, I'm not lettin' this go. This is serious and I can't let you run away from it."
"I'm not running from anything, Bunny," Alice practically growled. Her grip on the porcelain teacup curled tighter. Bunny was surprised that the fragile ceramic didn't crack under the pressure. "I don't remember anything, so why do you insist on pushing this? If I don't remember what happened, then how can it harm me?"
"That's ironic coming from you," Bunny mumbled under his breath but regretted it when Alice's eyes widened in shock. He hadn't been blunt, but the underlying meaning wasn't lost on her. "Crikey, I'm sorry, that wasn't right to say."
"That's putting it mildly," she hissed, slamming her teacup down again. This time the small cup shattered and hot tea splattered over the surface of the table. Bunny jumped in surprised when some of it splashed on to his fur. Furious, Alice stood up from her seat and marched around the table.
"Hey! Wait, wait, wait," Bunny pleaded as he tried to wipe off the burning liquid. He stepped in front of her and held up both paws, trying to stop Alice from storming out of the kitchen. "Just hold up a second, I'm sorry! That was stupid of me to say, but you gotta understand this, everythin' been a disaster so far. I swear my fur is going to start fallin' out, I'm so stressed."
"You're stressed? How do you think I feel? My whole world is being turned topsy turvy, yet again, just because a floating rock in the blooming sky is telling a whimsical bundle of spirits how to dictate my life!"
"Oh stop being so overdramatic, Alice. And you're not the only one who's effected by the Man in the Moon's decision. We're all-"
"Excuse me? This isn't happening to you, it's happening to me. You might have been right dandy when you were chosen, but I am not you, Bunny! I'm not about to blindly accept a responsibility of this magnitude when I'm not even the proper spirit for the job. Pick someone else!"
"How many times do I hafta say it? It doesn't work like that! The Moon doesn't randomly pick someone. He has a reason for everything and if you would just open your eyes for once, you'll see that-"
"I do not answer to the Man in the Moon! How many times must I say that!"
Their argument had broken out into a full shouting match at that point. They were shouting at each other, speaking at the same time and not gaining any ground, attempting to force their own point across. The few yetis that were wondering the workshop kitchens were now standing nearby in a small group, watching the two spirits. They knew that they should alert North about the fight, in the likely case that it escalated, but none of them wanted to miss the spectacle that was unfolding. The spirits reached a stalemate but neither was backing down. They weren't even aware of their audience, they were only focused on out-doing each other in volume and the occasional insult. Neither Bunny, nor Alice, noticed when the kitchen doors swung open and someone new entered.
Jack stood near the doors awkwardly as he listened to the shouting. He would have let out a low whistle at how heated things had become between the two friends, if he wasn't afraid that they would stop screaming at each other and turn on him instead. Too bad for him though, North sent Jack to summon Bunny to the Russian's office. He had to get their attention eventually.
He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "Uh, excuse me."
The two stopped shouting and turned their glares on the pale spirit. "What!?"
Jack felt two inches tall and he had to stifle the urge to flinch. He took a step back and held his staff in front of him as if to protect himself from an attack.
"Whoa ho, ho, stand down! I'm only here as a mere messenger for the big guy. North wants to see you, Bunny. Posthaste."
They stood there, processing the ice spirit's words. Most of their anger had died down with interruption, but both still looked extremely peeved with one another. Alice sent Bunny one last glare before turning away to find a dish rag to clean up her tea with. Bunny just let out another sigh, shaking his head.
"Alright, where is he?"
"In his office," Jack replied, jutting a pale thumb over his shoulder.
"Did he say why?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Jack claimed as he accentuated the last two words. As he said it, he twitched his head in Alice's direction with a telling expression, letting Bunny know exactly why North wanted to see him.
Bunny cursed under his breath and pinched the center of his brow in irritation. All this drama was giving him a headache.
In lieu of voicing his complaints, the pooka just gave Jack a nod before turning to look at Alice. She was in the back of kitchen near the sinks, and even from where he was standing, Bunny could faintly hear her mumbling to herself. Probably saying some unkind things about him.
"North needs me," he called. "I'll be back later, because this isn't over, Half-pint. Not by a mile."
Alice didn't turn around as she gave him a dismissive wave behind her back and continued to root around the kitchen drawers in search for a dish towel. "I disagree strongly."
Bunny rolled his eyes and turned to leave. Jack stepped out of Bunny's way when he brushed by. The doors squeaked as he pushed them open and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Jack alone with Alice and the small group of snooping yetis. Jack rolled his head to the side to look at the furry workers with a smirk, his expression telling them that their "hiding" spot behind the stainless steel shelves wasn't fooling anyone. When they noticed the boy smirking at them, they realized that the jig was up and started grumbling things in Yetish before quickly dispersed and they went back to their duties, all the while pretending that they weren't just eavesdropping. Jack chuckled.
As he strolled towards the table with a puddle of tea on it and sat down, Jack's attention lazily landed on the woman by the sinks. She was still looking through the drawers for a rag. He idly tapped his fingers against the table as he watched her search, notably getting more frustrated as she turned up empty, if the slamming of drawers was anything to go by. When she finally let out an embittered noise and placed her hands on her hips, Jack decided to give her a break.
"The towels are in the middle drawer on your left."
Alice looked over her shoulder with an unreadable expression. She knew the ice spirit hadn't left with Bunny and she heard him sit down, but she didn't expect him to be there watching her. Alice nearly scowled at the prospect, but instead mumbled a quiet "Thank You", and opened the mentioned drawer.
"No problem," he mumbled back, noticing the grizzly skull charm placed in the middle of Alice's apron bow. Its hollow eye sockets stared at him from across the room and Jack found it disturbingly memorizing. The trance soon broken when Alice turned around and made her way back to the table. He averted his gaze and pretended to be thoroughly interested in something else across the room. He listened to the clicks Alice's boots made against the tiled floor as she strode purposely back to the table. She mopped up the cooling tea and gathered up the broken pieces of the teacup.
As she worked, Alice sent a few cursory glances in Jack's direction. After several minutes of silence, she let out a sigh.
"If you're going to ask, then ask. I have a pounding headache and I am in no mood for games."
"Ask what?"
He didn't know why he thought playing dumb would be a good idea. Alice's unimpressed look made him feel stupid for trying. She already knew what was going on inside his head; the kinds of questions he wanted to ask. Her paralyzing glare only grew worse when the ice spirit didn't respond. While he sat there, Alice brushed the teacup shards into her upturned apron bottom.
"Don't waste my time with platitudes, Frost."
Jack listened to her footsteps again while she walked away to dispose of the broken dish.
"Alright, you got me," he confessed when Alice came back with a new teacup filled with fresh tea. "I just wanted to ask about what happened last night."
"What did they tell you happened?" Alice asked almost conversationally as she sat down on the stool across from his.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Just that you had a night terror."
"Then that's what happened," she said, raising her teacup to her mouth.
"Care to elaborate a little?"
"Not really."
"Why not?"
Alice let out another sigh at Frost's persistence. "Because I don't remember anything about it."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
At her tone, Jack decided to back off with the questions. He didn't want to antagonize Alice any more than he already had, especially since he discovered yesterday that she could pull sharp knifes out of thin air.
The two spirits fell silent again and the only noise was the garbled arguing of two yetis somewhere in the distance. Jack was a little disappointed about the lack of answers. His curiosity was piqued, but he also couldn't help but feel concerned for the woman. If it had been him, Jack would be just as worried as the other guardians about what happened, but Alice didn't seem bothered by any of it. She just sat there sipping her tea, staring off at something that he couldn't see.
Jack moved to get up, but stopped short when Alice spoke.
"Was it truly that bad?"
The winter spirit looked back up at her, not entirely sure she had spoken. She was still sitting in the same position, holding her teacup with both hands.
"Yeah, it kinda was," he said, settling back down in his seat. "I mean, I wasn't in your room during it, but I could hear you screaming all the way from my room. It sounded like you were being attacked. You really don't remember anything?"
Alice shook her head. "No, nothing. Bunny seems to think I'm avoiding the situation, but how can I be actively invested in something when I have nothing to offer? I can't give him what I don't have."
"I think he's just worried. The whole thing freaked us all out a little bit. I can only imagine how Bunny is handling it, being the bundle of nerves he is," Jack said, propping his staff up against the table. "Sandy says that night terrors are harder on the person witnessing the terror than the person having it. He also says that night terrors usually only happen to children unless there's something wrong, so maybe that's why Bunny is worried."
"Perhaps," Alice murmured into her teacup before taking a drink.
"Why does he think you're avoiding the situation?"
'Because I've done it before and dozens of children suffered for it,' Alice mused grimly, suddenly feeling very disgusted with herself. Although Bunny knew that Doctor Bumby was the one who started the fire, he had no idea why the man did it. He didn't know how much of a monster the good doctor truly was. He also didn't know that Alice had, unintentionally, turned a blind-eye to the suffering of innocent children. She couldn't even imagine the horrified expression on his furry face if he ever found out.
"I'm sure I don't have to tell you how resilient Bunny can be when he feels the rare need to meddle into other people's business," she said, instead.
"Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that," Jack smiled, realizing that they actually agreed on something.
Alice seemed to realize it too, but before she could comment on it, her headache suddenly flared up again. It happened every time she thought too hard about last night. She wanted to remember, but every time she tried to, she would hit a brick wall in her mind that she didn't even know was there. She let out a groan as the pain made clutch her forehead.
Jack looked up from the swirled patterns in the table and saw Alice in obvious discomfort. "Are you alright?"
"Hardly," she drawled, rubbing one of her temples. "I may not remember the terror, but I'm most certainly feeling the after effects."
"Is it just a headache?"
Alice looked over at him from underneath her palm and regarded him closely.
Despite her reclusive behavior, even Alice occasionally felt the need to talk to someone, and this whole business about her night terror was only amplifying that need. Just because she couldn't remember what happened, didn't mean she had absolutely no thoughts or feelings on the matter. On the outside, Alice acted as passive as ever in the face of difficult situations, but truthfully, her mind was probably just as overworked as Bunny's.
She couldn't tell that to the pooka, though. He knew her far too well and if she were to voice her thoughts, Bunny would look for connections that weren't really there and develop irrelevant ideas about how they could "fix" everything. No, Bunny was way too involved in her life to be an adequate listener. Mind, her friend was a good listener and gave useful advice, but when the Easter Bunny's protective side was alerted, he was beyond annoying and very hard to reassure. So no, going to Bunny was out of the question.
Frost, on the other hand - he was neutral. He knew nothing about Alice, and thus was less likely to nick-pick her night terror experience. He would probably see it for what it truly was; a somewhat, ordinary sleep affliction brought on by too much stress and too little sleep.
"No, it's not only a headache," Alice admitted. "It's quite bizarre actually, and at the risk of sounding completely mad, it feels as if something was...taken. From inside my head."
Jack's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Alice bit her bottom lip in thought as she tried to come up with the right words to describe what she was feeling.
"It's the same feeling one would get if they left their room without a certain object. Something insignificant enough that if you were to try to recall what you had forgotten, the object wouldn't come to mind. In my case, that object is something inside my head, and I can't think about it or else my head hurts every time I try."
Jack took in what she said, her accented voice ringing almost pleasantly through his ears. He tried to think of something to say that would make her feel better, but nothing came to mind. So instead, he settled with "Wow, that sounds insane". which turned out to be a very big mistake.
At first, Jack didn't realize he had said anything wrong, but when he looked up at Alice again, she was giving him a very scary look.
"So you find me insane, do you, Mr. Frost?" Alice hissed at him and stood from her seat. Jack blinked in confusion at her random shift in mood.
"What? No!" he said desperately. He held up a hand in defense. "That's not what I meant at all!"
Alice scoffed. "Don't attempt to cover up your true thoughts. I am not daft, nor blind. I know that all the guardians are thinking the same thing now. Well, you can go tell them that they are not getting their answers because I haven't got any. Now leave, I'm tired of speaking with you."
She sat back down and calmly sipped at her tea again like nothing had happened. Jack just stared wide-eyed at the woman in utter bewilderment. It was like he had blinked and Alice went from troubled, to absolutely livid. And she had just dismissed him like a servant.
Jack became angry, finally fed up with the woman sitting across from him. What did he ever do to her? Why was he the only one she treated like dirt? He tried to be nice to her, but every time he tried Alice threw it right back in his face without a second thought. It hurt a lot, and Jack hated getting hurt.
"What is your problem?"
Alice blinked up at him with mild surprise on her face. Oh, so now he had her attention?
'That figures,' Jack thought bitterly.
"Pardon me?"
He knew it was a bad idea, but the words came pouring out all the same.
"Ever since you came here, you've been nothing but cold and cruel, especially towards me. What did I ever do to you? Are you still mad about the whole toy airplane thing? It wasn't even that big of a deal. Bunny forgave me for hitting him and North forgave me for messing up his workshop and scaring his workers, so what are you still mad about?"
Alice sat and listened with a blank face as he ranted. Her green eyes only served to spur him on.
"Everybody here as been nothing but nice to you and all you do is snap at people and mock our belief in the Man in the Moon. I understand that this whole guardian situation is hard for you, believe me, I do, but you don't have to be so nasty! I've been trying to figure out why you act like this, and you know what, I think I finally figured it out. You're just mean. A mean-spirited person, who thinks she knows everything, and hates the world for no reason!"
Alice decided that she had enough. How dare he assume such things about her? He knew absolutely nothing.
"You haven't 'figured out' anything, Frost," she snapped. "Don't ever think that you have, and don't you dare presume to tell me about my faults. I'm well aware of them. Now, get out."
"No," Jack shot back. "This is North's kitchen, not yours, Alice. You can't just wave your little hand like a princess and make me go away. In fact, I'm actually pretty comfortable here. I think I'll stay a while."
The winter spirit got up from his seat and walked over to a fruit platter that the yetis were preparing for lunch. He started picking at its contents with a smug air about him. Alice glared furious at his back. She stood up and walked to the sinks to place her dishes inside. She was finished with Jack Frost, and since he obviously wasn't going to leave, she would have to. It was the only way she could have any peace and quiet.
Jack listened to Alice's angry footsteps. He had his back turned towards her with a smirk on his face. 'Let's see how you like being ignored.'
"Alright, Frost. You've made your point." She walked towards the kitchen doors, but stopped before them and looked back. "Oh, one thing, though. I don't know when you decided that it was alright for you to call me by my first name, but it's highly inappropriate. We are not friends, Mr. Frost, and that is not how you address a lady."
Jack snorted with his mouth full of grapes.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll make sure to remember that next time I see one."
~O~
"Alright Alice," Bunny called as he pushed open the kitchen doors. "I'm back-"
The pooka stopped when he spotted Jack sitting at the kitchen table alone, with Phil the yeti standing behind him holding an ice pack against the back of his head. For several seconds, the spirits of Spring and Winter looked at each other until Bunny crossed his arms, a smirk decorating his furry face.
"Picked a fight with Alice, did ya, Frostbite?"
"Hey, she's the one who did the picking," Jack argued while trying to shake off Phil for the eleventh time, but the yeti garbled at him and refused to move.
"But you retaliated," Bunny stated, like he knew exactly what happened after he left the kitchen.
"Kinda."
"Mm, big mistake, mate." He looked at Jack's irritated expression and the ice pack against the back of his head. He nodded his head in understanding. "What'd she throw at you?"
"A plate. She got me right in the back of my head, and stormed out. Then Phil came in and decided to play doctor. I tried to tell him that giving me an ice pack would be completely pointless since I'm already cold anyways, but he wouldn't listen."
Taking pity on the boy, Bunny waved the yeti away for him. Phil only grunted before backing away and retreating further into the kitchen. Once he was gone, Jack reached up and gingerly touched his head. He let out a hiss at the pain. "Damn, she has a good arm."
Bunny let out a shout bark of laughter. "Yeah, she does. I problem should've mentioned that earlier."
"No, ya think?" Jack snapped sarcastically before groaning. "God Bunny, why is she like that?"
"Like what? Vindictive, spiteful, ornery, ill-tempered?"
"Yeah."
"Our world made her that way, Frostbite," Bunny said as he rummaged through one of the many refrigerators in North's kitchen. "She's had it rough all her life. In fact, before she became a spirit, Alice lived in London during the Industrial Revolution, and that wasn't exactly the most cheery place to be during that time period."
"Life didn't exactly draw me a winning hand of cards, either. I spent three hundred years alone, ignored by everybody, including you guys, but you don't see me walking around with my nose up in the air, biting people's heads off as I go, do you?"
Bunny let out his own sigh as he looked back at Jack. How could he make the young spirit understand without actually telling him anything? Alice would kill Bunny if she found out he was talking about her past without her consent.
"Jack," Bunny sighed, now sullen. "Don't take anything she says or does personally, alright? She's like that with everybody at first. It's not just you."
"But why?"
"Alice is a fighter," Bunny answered simply, shrugging his shoulders. "She's been fightin' her entire life. Doesn't matter if it's physically or verbally. It's hard for her to turn it off. Usually she's not this difficult to be around, but bein' back in our world hasn't been easy on her. Even though everyone is bein' friendly to her, Alice still doesn't feel comfortable enough to lower her guard yet, but she will eventually."
"What happened to her, Bunny?" Jack finally asked. "You all know something about her that I don't, but nobody's telling me anything. Do you guys not trust me or something?"
The pooka's arms dropped to his sides. "Of course we trust you."
"Then why all the secrets, Bunny?"
"Because it ain't anybody's place to tell you except for Alice," he replied, trying to ignore the hurt look in Jack's blue eyes. It made him feel guilty that Jack believed the other guardians didn't trust him, which wasn't true, at all. "It's her business and if she wants you to know then she'll tell you, but if not, I want you to leave it alone. Got it? You wouldn't want someone muckin' around in your private business, would you?"
Jack's hands curled into fists as he looked away. Bunny claimed that they trusted him, but whenever he asked they would act the complete opposite and change the subject. Why couldn't anybody just give him a simple answer?
Then, a thought occurred to him and he turned his eyes back to Bunny.
"Did she-" Jack stopped and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Did she die? Did Alice die and become a spirit like I did? Is that what happened? Because if it is, then there isn't anybody on this entire continent who can understand that better than I can."
"No, she didn't die," Bunny said, as bad memories tried to fight their way to the forefront of his mind. Memories of bright flames, shouting policemen and a charred, broken little girl laying on snow-covered ground.
No, there would be no thinking of that now. That was a long time ago and that little girl was now a strong, powerful young woman.
"Look, I don't want to talk about this anymore. If you're really that upset about how Alice is acting around you, I'll talk to her. Maybe I can get her to lighten up a little."
Jack let out a frustrated noise at being denied answers again as Bunny continued to go through North's food supply.
"Whatever, I'm seriously done with trying to be nice to her. She changes moods faster than an overworked yeti on wrapping duty. I'm going to get whiplash if I try to keep up."
Bunny let out another short laugh while sniffing at a container of carrots he found in one of refrigerators. "Don't I know it."
"I'm going to Jamie's," Jack announced. He rubbed the sore spot on his head one last time before standing up and grabbing his staff. He laid the aged wood on his shoulder and stuffed his free hand into his hoodie pocket. "Drop a line if you need me."
"Hey."
Jack looked back when he heard Bunny speak. The pooka stood next to the open fridge with a small container in one paw, and a carrot in the other. He pointed the tip of the carrot at Jack with a serious look.
"We weren't ignoring you, Jack. There's a line between not noticing someone, and ignoring them."
"A very fine line, if you ask me," the ice spirit scoffed.
"I'm serious," Bunny insisted. "We weren't ignoring you. We were just too-"
"Busy," Jack finished. "Yeah, I know. I'm not mad about that anymore, Bunny. Honest."
His reassuring smile did little to calm Bunny, but he figured he should drop it and let Jack visit his human friend. It would help. Tempers were running high, and not just between Jack and Alice. North and Tooth have been riding his tail for answers about last night. Why couldn't they understand that talking to an upset Alice Liddell was like talking to a brick wall? Actually, talking to a brick wall would easier. It wouldn't give him attitude.
"I'll be back later," Jack promised, leaving Bunny to his thoughts.
Two emotionally screwed up spirits, he thought. Permanently stuck in teenage bodies, and now Bunny had to deal with both of them in the same world.
Fantastic.
AN: Oh, ho, ho! Jack finally got the nerve to talk back to the ice queen! Well done, Mr. Frost. Sorry if I made Alice seem mean in this chapter, but in her defense, she had a splitting headache and spirits kept bombarding her with questions she couldn't answer.
After giving it some more thought, I think I've finally come up with the perfect name for the Jack/Alice pairing. How do you guys like the sound of Ice Tea? Yes, no, maybe so?
~Scorpiofreak~