AN: Okay, now I kinda feel like a jerk. I keep forgetting sarcasm/teasing doesn't always transfer so good through the internet. Sorry if any of you actually took me seriously when I said last chapter was the final chapter. And sorry that there was a bit of delay too. I needed to focus on grades and finals these past few weeks, but now I'm free to write FanFiction again. Thank God.
Anyways, a lot of you were wondering if Winter Wonderland will be the end of my Ice Tea writing career and I'm glad to report that NO, it is not. I can't promise a direct sequel to WW (I have an idea in mind, but it still has a lot of kinks I need to work out). However, I do have other ROTG/AMR projects planned that I will probably start once I finish WW and my "Bunny & Alice" story, which I will also being finishing up. I'll probably post a description list of upcoming projects on my Tumblr blog soon.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.
You've seen this all before
Life left on the shore
We're smiling all the same
You sail away again
I'm there in the water
Still looking for ya
I'm there in the water
Can't you see, can't you see?
Dead in the Water ~ Ellie Goulding
Alice was floating.
She was floating underwater.
It was surreal and she was weightless. The water was pitch black below her and midnight blue above with long highlights of silver streaming in from beyond the surface that could have only come from the dazzling moon. Her limbs floated motionlessly around her while her hair and clothing moved ever so slightly with the faint echo of the water's currents. Her hair spilled like ink through the murky depths. Her mind was empty, empty of fears, empty of emotions, empty of everything. And it was the greatest feeling in the world. Black eyelashes gently fluttered, but remained closed, surrendering to the serene realm around her.
Somewhere in the back of her head she knew what this was. She remembered what happened on a different level of conscious that she had yet to float past, but she knew it was coming. She knew that somewhere out there, it was possible that she could be dying, bleeding to death from a possibly fatal head wound, but leaving her new found peace was almost unthinkable. That serenity she had yearned for ever since she could remember, the serenity that sat on the edge of her fingertips, always just out of reach, was now here, in her hands, wrapped around her like her mother's arms, cradling her like her sister did when she was still too small to pull herself up when she had fallen down, like her father's proud hands as they cupped her face lovingly.
Coming back into consciousness after the Dollmaker's harsh blow was anything but serene. Once she realized what was happening to her, Alice found the process agonizingly slower than all the other times she was smacked into unconsciousness, like the time that despicable pimp, Jack Splatter, landed a punch to her temple back when she was a human, or all those times in Wonderland when her enemies managed to gain the upper hand and knock her down.
It also didn't make the experience easier when there was a voice echoing through her pounding head, calling out to her repeatedly. She wanted to tell it to be quiet, to leave her be, but she was still too far gone to work her mouth.
Alice.
It was difficult to decipher who the voice belonged to, it sounded like two voices speaking at once, one following directly behind the other. Both hauntingly familiar.
She blinked open her eyes again and peered through the water to see a dark blur floating above her. It was a silhouette of a person, with dark hair that spilled about the water, much like her own.
Alice.
Lizzie?
The first voice was still a mystery, but the second voice she would know anywhere, even if she hadn't heard it in person since she was seven. The silhouette began to take more of a shape. Alice could just barely make out the flow of Lizzie's maroon dress skirt as she floated above with her arms spread out wide, allowing the water to suspend her. The bright moon hung behind her, creating a backdrop of silver, making it difficult to make out the soft features of her face. Alice tried to move her hand to shield her eyes from the glow, but her limbs felt heavy despite herself feeling so weightless, unable to move.
Lizzie's eyes were trained on Alice, a cross between being wide opened and half lidded. They were so similar to Alice's, and yet entirely different. They shined subtly like shards of sea glass, smooth around the edges and gentler than her younger sister's. They bore straight into Alice's own acidic ones as she opened her mouth and whispered softly, allowing tiny bubbles to escape her mouth and ascend towards the surface.
Alice, wake up.
In the infinite sea of her subconscious where Alice found her and Lizzie floating in, she finally reached out a searching hand, trying to gather purchase in her own mind, but there was nothing there except herself, the two-toned voice, a ghost, and the moon. She reached out to touch her sister's pale face, but her fingertips passed through her cheek like mist.
She stared deeply into Lizzie's eyes, cataloging every shade, every hue, and re-committing it to memory, knowing that even though her sister wasn't truly there, this could be her only chance to gaze upon her sister's face and look her in the eyes again, without pain and without guilt. Next time she would see them, she would be dead. And Alice had no intention of dying anytime soon.
She shut her eyes tightly in an attempt to commit this final image of her beloved sister to memory, but the more the voice spoke and the closer Alice came to the waking world again, and the less there was of Elizabeth's presence. She was fading away like an apparition as Alice felt her prone body being pulled towards the surface by an unseen force.
"Come on, Pleasance. Come back."
She could hear it more clearly now. The second voice was male, and very familiar.
Her real vision was coming back now and Lizzie's voice and silhouette were now gone. An entirely different blur took her place as Alice broke the surface of the sea and a bright, white light exploded around her, causing her to wince at the sudden wave of pain that washed over her. A pleasant welcome back into the world of the living.
"Alice, look at me. Are you still in there?"
Alice's pounding headache intensified as the light burned inside her head before it eventually started to recede and the new blur took on a more recognizable shape. Her ability to feel her limbs came back too as a chill racked her body and goosebumps erupted along her skin. She was laying on the hard ground with the top half of her body resting in someone's lap. She felt cool fabric against her bare arms and it shifted every time the figure above her moved.
"Alice?"
The figure was still a little blurry, but she was able to tell who it was. She blinked her eyes a few times to ward away the dryness before she fixed the blue and white blur with an agitated, and partly disorientated, glare. The aches and pains from her various battle nicks had returned along with her consciousness and her muscles practically screamed with overexertion. Her right shoulder smarted the worst, sending a sharp bolt of pain up her spine every time she moved it.
"I thought I told you to go back to the workshop with the others," Alice mumbled, her voice hoarse like nails against a chalkboard. "Are you so thick in the head that you can't follow a simple order?"
Jack let out a relieved sigh when the injured girl laying across his lap finally spoke. For a moment there, when he saw the Dollmaker strike Alice with one last dying blow, sending the dark-haired spirit hurling to the ground like a swatted fly, he thought he was going to have to make the trip back to North's workshop alone. His stomach churned at the sight of her body smacking against the ground. His throat tightened with emotion at the thought of facing the others with the news of their new loss, especially if Bunny pulled through his own injuries. There wasn't anything that terrified him more than thinking about the pooka's face when he told him what happened to Alice and how he was just a second too late to help her. If that were the case, the Easter Bunny would surely hate him now more than ever.
So while the Dollmaker screamed in agony and slowly disintegrated into a boiling puddle of ooze before disappearing completely in a puff of black smoke, Jack ran over to his fallen comrade, leaving behind a frosted trail of panic near the entrance of the chamber. She was laying motionlessly on her side when he reached her, with her eyes half-lidded, staring off into nothing while a long stream of blood ran down the side of her head from somewhere behind her hairline.
Jack dropped his staff and fell to his knees next to Alice's body, gently wrapping his arms around her torso and pulling her into his lap. When her eyes didn't blink to meet his after he cupped her face and turned it in his direction, he feared the worse. Her stare was cold and vacant, dead and empty as he turned it towards his own pleading one. Fortunately though, after calling her name and snapping his fingers in front of her face a few times, the life in Alice's eyes gradually returned before her emerald irises dilated and she blinked them closed, her face curling up in pain.
He had been worried at first, that the blow to her head had done more damage than he thought, when Alice called him "Lizzie", but now that she was glaring up at him and was coherent enough to give him the usual sass, Jack finally allowed himself to relax. She was okay.
"Thank God," He breathed, putting the hand that wasn't holding Alice's shoulders up against his chest in exaggerated relief. "Your personality is completely intact. For a second there, I thought I was going to have to go the rest of my life without it. What a nightmare that would be."
"Oh shove off," Alice snapped, raising a hand to rest along her brow to block out some of the lighting from her eyes. The white glare coming off Jack's hair and skin wasn't sitting well with her throbbing head. "I do really hope I am not dead because if so, heaven looks positively dreadful so far."
"Ha! As if you would go to heaven."
For once Alice didn't reply back with her own witty comeback, a true testament of how poor she must've been feeling. Jack had to admit, she didn't look so good either. Rips and black scorch marks covered her blue dress and apron, with one of her sleeves completely in tatters where a particularly nasty cut ran along her exposed shoulder. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but Jack could see that some of the Dollmaker's ooze had gotten into the wound and burned some of her skin. They would definitely need to have that looked at when they got back to the pole, along with her head. He knew she had least one cut somewhere on her scalp because of the stream of blood on her face, but they also needed to make sure she didn't have a concussion or a cracked skull. Immortal or not, head injuries could still be fatal.
Her striped stockings were also in poor condition, with small tears littering them; no doubt from splintered wood. She had several smaller cuts on her arms and legs, most likely from the same thing. Her peach pale skin was marked with smeared ash. She had patches of it on her cheeks and neck while her messy, dark hair hung freely in her face. She felt rigid in his arms and Jack could tell that she was doing everything she could to lay as still as possible to avoid aggravating her already battered condition. He helped her along by doing the same.
"Of course I would've had to inquire how you managed to get yourself killed in a relatively stagnant interval of time," Alice finally replied with a tired smirk. "A much less valiant tale than mine, I'm sure,"
Nevermind. There it was. Apparently she just needed a minute to collect herself before delivering her comeback.
Jack only chuckled softly before bringing his free hand up to his mouth and using his teeth to pull his hoodie sleeve over his fingers. He then used the sleeve of his hoodie to wipe away some of the blood on Alice's face. She flinched slightly at the sting, but did nothing else to stop him. She just looked up at him with half lidded eyes. The Winter spirit avoided her gaze, seemingly fascinated with watching the silver frost on his hoodie sleeve immediately melt away as it came in contact with Alice's warm blood.
"Alice?" Jack spoke eventually as he stopped dabbing at her face. The dark-haired spirit didn't speak, but her eyes urged him on. With the adrenaline gone and his worry for Alice's health slowly dissipating, Jack suddenly felt uneasy and acutely aware of how close she was to him, still laying in his arms and lap. His heart was pounding in his ribcage again and he prayed she wouldn't be able to feel it on the arm she had pressed against his chest. "I um..I'm- I'm glad you're okay. I know you told me to go back with the others and protect Bunny, but I couldn't leave. It just didn't seem right for us to leave without you, even if what you said about being the only one who could defeat the Dollmaker was true. I still couldn't go. I was-"
Alice was suddenly at full alert again, shooting up out of Jack's arms even as her head screamed in protest. Her vision whited out again for a split second and a high-pitched ringing erupted inside her head, but she forced it aside as she quickly scanned the chamber for her deadly foe.
"Where's the Dollmaker?" Her tone was urgent once again and Jack felt a stab of guilt in his stomach. It clearly took a lot out of her just sitting up.
"He's gone," He said, gently easing her back down. "You did it. You beat him."
Realizing he was speaking the truth, Alice let him guide her backwards on to the ground again.
Jack was right. She could feel it. She could feel it when she closed her eyes and tapped deeply into that dark space inside the core of her mind, where all her doubts, fears, and unsavory desires boiled and festered. She could no longer sense his presence there, in both her mind and her Wonderland. When she would eventually return to her sanctuary, she knew she would find the Wonderland Graveyard empty. The ruins of her enemy's first workshop will have dissolved into oblivion by then, leaving behind no traces of its existence. The Dollmaker was gone once again and he was gone for good.
"Of course I did," She replied grouchily, opening her eyes. "Was there any doubt?"
Jack pursed his mouth together, thinking about it, really thinking about it, before shaking his head. "No, I guess not."
Silence fell between them as Alice closed her eyes again and leaned her head back against Jack's arm. She was so exhausted from her fight that she would happily let herself nap right there in Jack's lap, while they were still inside the Dollmaker's workshop, and since Jack didn't have the heart to say or do anything about it, the Winter spirit was half inclined to just let her, but they needed to leave soon. In the distance, they could hear the sound of groaning wood as it was pushed down and pulled apart by an unseen pressure. Tremors shook the structure in random intervals and the dark, heavy atmosphere was lighten. The Dollmaker's Wonderland was starting to crumble.
Alice lazily opened her eyes when a loud cracking sound ripped through the peaceful silence and a large fissure appeared along the high ceiling of the chamber. It was narrow in width, but she could still see a sliver of the stormy red sky from between its edges. It wouldn't be long before more cracks followed and the walls would start to fold in on themselves. Her eyes flickered back to Jack, who was looking at something off to the side, stubbornly pretending he hadn't just been staring at her. Wordlessly, she prompted him to let her go and stand up, which he did without protest as he picked up his forgotten staff. He liked watching Alice's face when she was peaceful like that, but the sooner they left this hellhole and returned to Santoff Claussen, the better he would feel.
"You sure you can walk?" Jack asked his friend as he watched her gingerly pull herself on to her knees. She was looking a bit green around the gills so he held out his free hand to steady her. It hovered barely an inch above the puffy, blue sleeve of her dress, ready to grab hold if Alice lost her balance, but never actually touching her. She had that determined look on her face and he knew she would just shrug him off.
"I'm fine," She grumbled, a little out of breath.
Jack reached out a hand to help her up anyways and smiled brightly when she accepted it, slipping her warm fingers into his cool palm. He tightened his grip and gave a small jerk to support her weight when Alice pulled herself up. The dark-haired spirit sprung to her feet faster than she had expected and immediately stumbled. She overestimated just how capable she was of standing on her own feet and was stricken with a rushing sense of vertigo. She felt her balance lurch to the side and her stomach churn unpleasantly with the sensation, but just as she was about to fall, Jack's arm quickly wrapped around her waist, saving her from falling backwards on to her bottom.
A soft laugh escaped the Winter spirit when he heard Alice growl in frustration at her wobbly legs. He readjusted his grip and shifted his weight to give her a better chance at righting her feet. Long fingernails dug into his ribs through the fabric of his hoodie, letting him know the woman did not appreciate him witnessing her in such a vulnerable state, but she took his assistance anyways while mumbling a very insincere sounding Thank You under her breath. Jack didn't comment, though. He just gave her an affectionate smirk and tightened his grip around her waist, gentle and supportive as he steered them out of the main chamber and far away from the Dollmaker's final resting place.
"Let's go home."
~O~
It was about three days after the Dollmaker's defeat that Bunny finally woke up.
He drifted in and out of consciousness before that. His friends floated above him in a series of colorful blurs and voices as they buzzed around him like a bunch of bumblebees. It was difficult to tell which blur was which, even though each of his friends had their own distinct color scheme that he could usually recognize from a mile away. Everything was just a jumble to him. There was a constant pain in his chest that made itself known every time he found himself ambling along the land of the living and it made it almost impossible for him to focus on anything else. It sat heavy somewhere inside his ribcage and smarted something awful every time he tried to move. It was the worst in the beginning, but each time he woke up, the pain grew less and less until it finally came down to a dull ache, mild enough to where he could have a, somewhat, peaceful climb back into full consciousness.
He felt groggy as hell when he finally did. It took him several seconds to realize where he was before his memories came flooding back to him. Thankfully, he recognized the clover green walls of his guest room in Santoff Claussen. The familiar surroundings of a multi-green decor and egg-shaped furniture kept the pooka from completely freaking out when he remembered what happened to him. He noticed almost immediately that his aching torso was wrapped up in stark white bandages. His head felt like it was full of cotton, but Bunny was able to put the pieces together and realize he had been rescued by the other guardians.
'Took 'em long enough,' he thought grouchily as he lifted his head from his pillow and looked around the room.
He wasn't alone. His eyes fell on Alice. She was sitting in an armchair next to his bed with her legs curled up underneath her. She had an unreadable expression on her face as she watched him reacquaint himself with the waking world. Bunny took a quick assessment of her, out of deep-seeded habit, and noted she looked just as she did when he last saw her in the workshop, before his abduction. The only evidence that betrayed her involvement in his rescue, was the white bandage wrapped tightly around her left wrist and palm, the worn and filed down state of her usually clean and manicured nails, and the slight hint of another white bandage, peeking through the collar of her blue dress on her right shoulder.
His eyes flickered back to hers.
"I killed him," was the first thing out of Alice's mouth.
The words rattled around in his head while the fog kept him from processing her words right away, still relearning the art of language after being under so long. When his mind was finally clear, he leaned his head back on his pillows and slowly exhaled through his twitching nose. He blinked a couple times, warding away the dryness in his eyes before eventually replying.
"Yeah," Bunny mumbled, looking up at the ceiling. "I figured you would. Couldn't imagine why you wouldn't-"
"I wasn't talking about the Dollmaker," Alice cut in. "I mean, that is to say, I did kill him too. He is gone and neither him or Mr. Black are a threat, but I was speaking of Bumby. Angus Bumby. The man who killed my family. I killed him."
A heavy silence fell over the room as a century-old secret was finally dropped. For several minutes, neither spirit moved, letting the congested atmosphere of the room become even more uncomfortable while Bunny stared blankly at Alice. When she refused to meet his eyes, the pooka pulled himself up with a small grunt so he was sitting up against the headboard of his bed. He had a grim look on his furry mug, wordlessly prompting her to continue.
Alice stared down at her hands as her fingers twisted anxiously in her lap. "I know when you asked me a long time ago what had become of Bumby after I discovered the truth about him and his crimes, I said I didn't know. And that I said the last time I saw him was when the police came to arrest him, and I also said I assumed he was hung for his crimes, but I was lying...obviously."
"Obviously," Bunny snorted dryly.
"I know I also said that I didn't know why he had started the fire, that I assumed my father was his target because of some schooling matter gone wrong between him and Bumby, but that was a lie too. My father wasn't the reason why Bumby started the fire. Elizabeth was," Her voice darkened around her sister's name, the tone hitching ever so slightly in a way only Bunny's oversensitive ears could pick up on. "Bumby had become infatuated with her - obsessed with her. Lizzie, of course, wanted nothing to do with him, but Bumby believed that her refusal of his affections was part of some ploy to make him want her more."
Bunny continued to sit in silence as he watched Alice. Her emotions were raising. She kept her head bowed as she spoke, her dark hair falling to frame her face like a curtain, shielding the full blunt of her confession and its effect on her from his unwavering stare.
In a way, he was glad she refused to look him in the face. He could see where this was going. The mystery of "why" Bumby had killed the Liddell family had always been something Bunny craved to know, and he wasn't much of a creature to ask why. To him, good things happened and bad things happened and that was just how the world worked. You find yourself in situations you can't control and sometimes there isn't an easy explanation of why things turned out the way they did, and even worse, there's no way to find out. Asking why was just a surefire way to drive yourself crazy.
Still, Alice was the cornerstone of his life. Her pain was his pain and the need to know and understand every aspect of the tragedy that tore them apart and broke Alice beyond repair, was just as strong in him as it was in her.
"Lizzie had rejected him so he had abused and destroyed her in retaliation."
Bunny shut his eyes against the sad revelation. 'Dear MiM. I am so sorry, Elizabeth.'
Alice kept her head bowed, knowing without looking that all the pieces of the puzzle had finally fallen into place inside her friend's head, just as they had done for her when her journey through Wonderland came to a head and she reclaimed all her memories. She didn't want to see that look on his face. The look of pure sadness and pain when Bunny tried to imagine what it must've been like for Lizzie, in her very last moments of life, and what it must've been like for Alice when she realized she had been manipulated into trusting the monster who had killed her family.
She didn't stop talking. Her honesty was unsettling and he was starting to wish she would. But just because she refused to look at him, didn't mean the words stopped pouring out. "Word vomit", she thought she once heard someone say, perhaps Frost. It sounded like a term he would use. Once she started telling her story, the truth, she found herself unable to stop. Bunny always had a way of making her face things head on, even without having to say, or do, a thing.
"He was a horrible, despicable creature. The things he had done. The people he had hurt. It couldn't have ended any other way! Can't you see that?"
"Alice-"
"My initial intentions weren't to kill him, though," She continued almost desperately, finally looking up again with pleading eyes. Bunny had to curb his surprise. It was rather uncharacteristic of Alice to defend herself. Because of her confident nature, the young woman never felt it necessary to justify herself, nor question her actions, mainly because she never did anything half-assed. She was like North in that aspect, Bunny supposed; immovable. When people like them felt the need to do something, they did it. No questions, no doubts. Made it damn near impossible to argue with them.
"I know that doesn't excuse or condone my actions, but I didn't seek him out that day at the train station with murder on my mind. Killing him would've been bestowing mercy and that monster did not deserve mercy. I wanted everybody to know what he had done, what he truly was. I wanted to watch his career, his reputation, his entire life burn up in flames. Just like he had done with mine. And I wanted him to suffer for all the misdeeds and damage he had inflicted on to others, have him thrown in a cell where he would be beaten and used by men who saw him as nothing but a piece of meat. Just like the children he sold. That's what I wanted.
But no one, no one would've believed me. No one was going to take my word over his. He was a respected doctor and I was just a diseased sewer rat, looking to tarnish a good man's reputation with spiteful words and lies. I was powerless. But I couldn't let him win. I couldn't let him leave that train station, Bunny. If I did, not only would he destroy more children, but he would destroy me too. I knew the truth. Even if no one believed the words of a mental patient, I was still a threat to the doctor. I knew, in the very core of my being, that he would have me disposed of. He would use me like he did with Lizzie, and then dump my lifeless body in the gutters. And nobody - nobody would've even cared, or even noticed."
Her words fell short as Alice's voice hitched again with emotion. She was crying now. Not sobbing, but tears ran freely down her cheeks, leaving her green eyes red and glossy. Past fears and hurts that she had long-since buried were finally floating back up to the surface without her consent. Alice bowed her head again and shut her eyes, unable to look her friend in the eye as she waited for his response. It was the moment of truth, in more ways than one, and she dreaded what it would do to them. Murder was wrong, regardless of the motive, and lying about it for so long was even worse. Bunny would hate her for it, she had always been sure of that.
She heard him exhale heavily through his nose again as he carefully gauged his next words. It was a lot to take in at once, especially after having just woken up from a mini coma.
"Do you have any idea-"
Alice flinched and shut her eyes tighter. A dull bolt of pain ran through her shoulder at the movement, the healing wound still a bit tender in places.
"-how long I've been waiting for you to tell me this?"
Surprise mixed with confusion as she opened her eyes and stared at him, unsure whether she had heard him correctly. "What?"
He gave her a look of hopeless frustration as he shook his head. She searched his expression for signs of disappointment, betrayal and anger, but found nothing. He looked peeved, with his brow knotted together and a deep frown on his face, but his forest green eyes were soft. "Alice, darlin', you don't think I know by now when you're lyin' to me? You don't think I can tell when you're lyin' to my face? I always know and I've always known."
She blinked at him tearfully. "You have?"
"Yes. Not the whole truth, o' course, but I know a cock and bull story when I'm fed one. I didn't know why Bumby started the fire. I didn't know about...Christ - what he did to Elizabeth," He swore, curling one of his paws up in grief as he thought about it again. "But I know you, Half-pint. And you would've never have just let the matter go without makin' sure that bastard was dead in the ground. I knew there was a lot you weren't tellin' me because if he had been hung like you said, you would've been there to see it. You wouldn't have just taken someone's word for it. I know how you are and you don't work like that."
Alice held his knowing gaze before looking back down at her hands.
He had a point.
"What I don't get, though, is why?" Bunny asked, stressing the word. "Why in the hell didn't you just tell me when I asked you? What was it you were so afraid of that it got you thinkin' you couldn't tell me, kiddo?"
She felt the disappointment then. His sad tone of voice cut her deeply. She hadn't meant to make him feel that way; hurt by her lack of faith in him and his ability to understand the difficult choices she had made in life. He had always been someone she could trust unconditionally. Someone she could depend on. A beacon of stability in her otherwise chaotic mind.
"I was afraid you wouldn't want me if you had known what I had done," Her voice cracked and she had to speak carefully to keep back the sad sounds that crawled up the back of her throat as fresh tears ran down her face. She no longer cared about being vulnerable. Now was not the time for such things. It was a time for clarity and complete honesty. She owed Bunny that much. "I was clearly no longer the little girl you had befriended all those years ago. If there was anymore of a reason for you not to keep me, being a killer would certainly be at the top of the list. And a remorseless killer at that. I will never, ever regret pushing Bumby on to those tracks, but I would forever regret it if I allowed that to take you away from me again. So I lied."
"Wait a minute. You pushed him in front a train?" He stared at her, not sure whether he should feel impressed or disturbed. "I know he was a heartless monster and everythin', but that seems a bit excessive, don't ya think?"
"I work with what I'm given," She said around a small sniffle.
Bunny let out a snort as he leaned his head back on to his pillow and stared up at the ceiling with a pensive look, seemingly mulling something over with twitching whiskers before turning his gaze back to Alice. "Our communication skills are bloody awful."
The dark-haired girl let out a surprised, tearful laugh at her friend's reply.
"No, seriously," The pooka insisted. "All the trouble that gravitates towards us seems to always come from a moment where someone should've said somethin' about another somethin', but didn't. We can't admit it when we're wrong. That's the problem. Well, I'm goin' to put a stop to that right now before someone else gets kidnapped and tortured.
You were right before, back in the workshop. I ain't your father. I don't know how I keep letting myself forget that. You'd think the big rabbit ears, puffy tail, and whiskers would be a decent reminder. I ain't your father, but I'm supposed to be your friend, and what happened back in the workshop, that wasn't me bein' a friend, not to you and certainly not to Frost. It shouldn't be any of my business where you go and who you go with."
"None of that is relevant anymore, Bunny," Alice assured him, shaking her head. "We were both at fault for that fight, for letting it escalate as high as it did, but that's all it was, just a ridiculous fight."
"I know, but I needed to say it," Bunny huffed. "It's all I was thinkin' about when I was layin' in that bloody hellhole with that hollow-eyed bastard standin' over me. I kept thinkin' how horrible it would be if those were our last words to each other - if yellin' in each others faces was how our time together would end. Think I'd prefer flames. At least then I wouldn't be leavin' you with more guilt to carry on your shoulders."
Alice nodded, sniffling again. "I know. The thought haunted me also. I'm glad it hadn't come to that."
"Not as glad as I am," Bunny chuckled before spreading his arms out to her. "Now come 'ere."
Alice wiped away the last of her tears and climbed up on to the bed, accepting his embrace and carefully curling up against his side.
"I'm going to take it," She murmured into the fur of his shoulder. "I'm going to take the oath and become the sixth guardian."
"Are ya now?" Bunny smirked softly as he leaned back into his pillows again with a content sigh. He had one arm hooked firmly around Alice's waist, keeping her close, while he rested his paw on the arm she had draped across his middle.
He felt her nod her head underneath his chin. "Yes. I'm tired of being alone. I hold my demented creations close to my heart, but they can never be enough. This whole ordeal has finally proven that to me. I thought I could only live in one world - that I had to chose between what I used to know, and what I've created. I now know, though, that I can have both. I want to help protect the children. I want to become closer with your family, with North, Tooth, Sandy and Jack. No more darkness. I want to stay in the light."
"Oh," Bunny hummed cheekily. "So it's Jack now, is it?"
Alice rolled her eyes at the teasing undertone, burying her face further into his fur. "For now it is, until he does something asinine. Then it's back to Frost."
"Still though, that's pretty impressive of him," He said, jostling her playfully.
It really was. Once Alice made her mind up about someone, it was nearly impossible to change it. Frost must've back flipped over the goddamn moon to get Alice to refer to him on a first name basis, especially with the rocky start they had. It made the pooka wonder just how long he had been gone.
"I really don't want to know everythin' that has happened since I was taken, especially between you an' Frostbite, but I'm guessin' you don't despise the very ground he walks on anymore, do ya?"
"Not really."
Bunny's brow knotted at that, his face falling into a familiar expression. "Hmph, I guess I'm gunna have to schedule a little talk with him then."
Alice scoffed gently against his fur. "It's not like that, Bunny."
"Sure it ain't," He replied, not believing it. That frozen gumbie could be quite the charmer when he aimed to be. He's wiggled his way out of trouble less threatening than Alice's opinion of him before. If such a thing was even possible.
"Am I forgiven then?" Alice asked softly, taking care to avoid aggravating his injuries as she moved to rest her head on his bandaged chest. She tugged absently on the white gauze while waiting for his response.
"Of course," Bunny curled his arms tighter around her, murmuring into the dark hair on the top of her head and closing his eyes. "My girl is always forgiven."
He closed his eyes then and they laid like that in peace. It was a calming silence, just what they both needed, until Bunny's ears suddenly perked up in alert and his eyes shot open again with an agitated growl.
"I can hear you breathing out there, you little frozen rat! Get away from the door!" The cranky pooka picked up a book from his bedside table and threw it at the door.
The book collided against the wood with a loud thud, rattling it on its hinges and causing a flurry of muffled footsteps to retreat hastily back down the hall.
AN: And then all was well again. Still not the final chapter though.
Honorable Mentions time! (Part One)
Even though I love all my readers and all of them deserve honorable mentions, here's a shout out to those who have either: helped me with my story, reviewed frequently, been with me since the beginning, and generally just anyone who left me a really nice review that made my day. Now, this isn't all the pen names on my list, this is just part one. Next chapter should have more. My beta readers get underlined because they're extra special.
~ TheObsessor11294, halicandropss, xshattered-reflectionx, Glory For Sleep, SunsetinVenezia (Sunvenice), AlexisBlack44, Sakufannel, Into the Rising Sun, LadyRavenCrow, Jack Inqu, Sunny Lighter, VampireHuntress72095, Chessure, Angelemy, fontsizearrow, Inferna Blossom, groaar, StormeRed, isi7140, Emori Loul, Rock Raider, francesco gallipoli .3, Celeste K. Raven, TheDarkestMind, NathanHale2, DarkQueenofWonderland, Alei-lei, Lupi-wolf, MissKainHearts, Clear Blue, Hope Diamond, bloodrosered, Commissar Pancakes, Person P, invader sugar, RainbowUnicornsR-MyLife, KaizoRulzs226, and Mary Sue Lover. And of course all you lovely Anonymous and Guests out there! Love ya all!
~Scorpiofreak~