Chapter 3: Breakfast With A Madman
"Uhh... Hatter..."
"Yes~"
"Why are we at a cemetery?" I ask looking at the grinning man with a raised brow and one ear bent slightly.
"Why I live here of course!" he says opening the gate door and skipping through it happily. I look at Grell who has the same wary expression as I do before letting out a tired sigh.
"Well let's at least follow him for now." I say taking Grell's gloved hand in mine and smiling at him softly. We quickly rush off after the madman while dodging headstones and the like. After about 10 minutes or so we catch up with him when he has stopped in front of an old building. The building is made of brick painted a dark greyish-purple with a faded black tile roof, a large sign with the word Undertaker painted in bold black letters hangs above the door. Coffins and wooden grave markers are leaning against the front of the building and the visible windows appear to be boarded up.
"Welcome to my humble abode~ Gehehehihi~" Hatter chuckles opening the door for us to enter first the grin never leaving his face. Grell tries to sneak away but I grab him by the tail before he can. Not seeing the blush on the older cats face from the act.
"Grell even if it is scary to you at least give it a chance." I say releasing his tail so I can grip onto his arm instead and pull him inside the building. There is a sort of counter/desk to my left that has many old books and papers on top of it. Behind that is an old bookcase filled to the brim and covered with dust and cobwebs. To my right is a sort of display area for the coffins, some leaned against the wall while others are on stands or laying on the floor open. A line of wooden shelves that go around the whole shop, they are filled with skulls with candles on them,bottles of chemicals or such things, and jars filled with some kind of liquid and a body part in each. Cobwebs and dust cover these as well, the whole shop has a fine layer of dust, all except for the coffins they are completely dust free.
"As my name suggests I am also an Undertaker." Grell jumps and makes a small squeal before vanishing, but I can still fell him holding onto my arm next to me. "Sorry deary I didn't mean to scare you." Hatter snickers from behind us before heading towards a door at the back of the room. "Come on then." I follow after him with Grell still invisible and gripping my arm tightly. He leads us to a room at the end of the hall and pushing us inside it. "You can sleep here for now dearies." he says before wishing us pleasant dreams and leaving the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. The room isn't very large but not small either, it has a large bed in the far left corner with a small table on each side at the head of it. The bed itself has a couple large black pillows and matching bed sheets and covers. To the right of the door is another door that I guess to be a closet. Grell makes himself visible again and hovers over to the bed landing on the edge of it and looking at me over the rim of his glasses.
"Grell why are you following me shouldn't you be getting home too?" I ask sitting next to him on the bed. "Not that I want you to leave! I mean I just.." I stutter out feeling nervous for some reason.
"It's alright darling I know what you mean." he stretches out on the bed on his stomach and swishing his tail side to side. "Cheshires here don't really stick to living in one place for too long. We travel around constantly and every once in while one of us finds a place to truly call home." he looks up at me with half lidded eyes and his sharp smile. "We all wish to find our true loves~ our life partners, our mates. Until that happens we continue to travel around to our hearts content."
"Do you never see any of your own kind at all?" I ask taking my shoes off and sitting them next to the bed before climbing up and laying next to him.
"Yes every now and then meetings or gatherings are done but it is only to do a counting usually." he says pulling the covers down and getting under them after he has taken his own heeled boots off. I do the same getting under the covers with him a slight blush covering my cheeks.
"A counting?"
"Yes a counting. Basically it is when the elders or heads count out all the newborn Cheshire's and any that have chosen mates. They also make a list of which ones are mixed with other animals, humans, or wonderland creatures." Grell yawns and buries his head in one of the pillows his ears going slack and drooping slightly.
"What does that make me then?" I murmur laying my head on my own pillow and closing my eyes. "Goodnight Grell." I say before drifting off into a deep sleep but hearing his own tired reply before I do.
X
X
I wake up feeling warm and very comfortable, but at the same time something doesn't seem right. A soft thumping noise is echoing in my ears nearly lulling me back to sleep. Wait why is my pillow moving? I open my eyes slowly and rub the sleep from them once my eyes have adjusted I nearly scream at what I see. Grell has me pulled against his chest tightly with his tail wrapped together with mine. His face is buried in my hair and I can feel his breath hitting my ears making them twitch. I start to push on his chest slightly trying to get him to release me but he only pulls me tighter. I hear someone giggling behind me and turn to see Hatter standing at the door watching us. I flush scarlet and look away from him and try to push Grell away again, but instead he decides to roll onto his back and pulling me with him. I am now laying on top of him with my face buried in his chest and my legs between his, making this one of the most embarrassing things ever to happen to me. Hatter loses it when Grell unconsciously intertwine his tail with mine further making them look like a large spiral.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hatter bellows falling to the floor holding onto his sides and drooling slightly. This is what finally seems to wake up the redheaded feline from his deep sleep. He looks at me confused and I blush as red as his hair and try to look anywhere but at him.
"G -Grell p -please let me g -go..." I stutter out pushing against his chest slightly to get his attention. He goes wide eyed and releases me immediately and I jump away from him and the bed as fast as possible. I huddle in the corner or the room with my ears flattened and tail curled around me. I don't look at them and keep my face buried in my knees trying to calm down my frantically beating heart. I hear Grell's heels as he walks over to me and look up at him with what I call the 'Chibi anime tears' look.
"I'm sorry I forgot to warn you that I cuddle things in my sleep!" Grell says apologetically while at the same time being hyperactive and flamboyant. The reason for the last two is because he was swinging his hips side to side along with his tail. I look away from him still feeling embarrassed. I mumble out a reply that has even him straining to hear it. "What was that darling?"
"I said I've never..." I stop seeing Hatter watching us from the doorway still snickering softly to himself. I stand and grab my shoes putting them on before combing through my hair with my fingers. I give up on getting out all the knots and turn to head towards the door.
"Midnight what have you never done?" Grell asks pulling out a comb from his pocket and brushing out his own hair then doing mine for me. I hesitate keeping my eyes glued to the floor and my cheeks still red.
"Done that." I finally murmur stiffening when his hand brushes against my left ear.
"Deary you need to be more specific than that~" Hatter sings stepping into the room to pull me and Grell out and into the front room. A tray of tea, biscuits and other sweets is sitting on one of the coffins that has had a tablecloth draped over it, two other coffins lay on each side of the one acting as chairs. Hatter literally picks me up placing me on one of the coffins pouring out tea for all of us. Grell floats over to where I am ,having grabbed a cherry muffin on the way, and hovering on his stomach at my shoulder. Hatter grabs a few of the bone shaped cookies that remind me of dog treats somewhat. I carefully look over all the treats really hating my allergy to cinnamon right now. My ears droop when I can't find anything that doesn't either smell of cinnamon or I know has it in it.
"Something wrong deary?" Hatter asks tilting his head slightly and biting into another bone cookie.
"I'm allergic to cinnamon..."
"Eh?" he looks at me blankly like I just spoke in another language or something. "Allergic?"
"Darling Hatter it means she cannot eat anything with cinnamon in it." Grell purrs finishing off his muffin and picking up his tea "Like how Ronnie can't get near the duchess and her pepper filled house."
"OH! You mean how his throat closes up and he turns all those colors." Hatter exclaims as if it is something to celebrate greatly.
"Pretty much. For me my throat gets swollen and irritated and my eyes get all runny like I am crying constantly." I say picking up my own tea only to have Hatter grab it from me quickly, leaving me to blink slowly with wide confused eyes. "...I'm guessing you put cinnamon in the tea?"
"Ehhehe... I find adding it makes it more mysterious~" he chuckles pouring me a different cup of tea and handing me one of the bone cookies like he was eating. "They don't have cinnamon in them I swear." he says holding his hands up as if I had accused him of something.
"Well I don't see why you would lie to me and try and kill me or anything." I say taking the cookie from him and biting it softly, it tastes like peanut butter and caramel. "Good." I say making him smile at me with his fingers intertwined under his chin and laughing to himself again.
"Well my darling we really need to find you a place to stay don't we." Grell states after we have all finished eating and have cleaned up the leftovers.
"Do you mean I get my own house?"
"Every Alice had their own house for while they stayed here, most of them just fixed up one of the old buildings and lived in those."
"So I guess that means we are house hunting today hmm.." I say with a swish of my tail and a sigh.
"Talent!" Hatter yells scaring both me and Grell and causing us to cling to each other like in a horror movie.
"You crazy old man don't just yell like that!" Grell fumes and I swear I could see that little anger sign flashing around his head. "Did you forget that Cheshires have sensitive hearing! ?"
"Sorry m'dears but I was trying to help." he says giving us what I assume is his best hurt puppy look.
"What is it Hatter?" I ask stopping Grell from pummeling the poor man into the floor.
"What was it..." he whispers to himself placing a finger to his lips in thought. "OH! Talent do you have any talents?"
"Talents?"
"Oh well done Hatter a purr~fect idea indeed." Grell says looking at the silverhaired man over the rim of his glasses.
"Well I can play practically any instrument, cook and I know how to sew or mend things." I say cupping my face with one hand and looking up trying to think of anything else that is really useful to me.
"Why not be a tailor or seamstress?" Grell suggests heading towards the door. "Come on we can test your other cheshire powers on the way." he then vanishes only to reappear at the end of the path, his tail being the only part of him showing. I sigh standing to leave but pause looking back at the Hatter.
"Do you want to come with us?"
"No no deary~" is his reply as he starts pushing me out the door and locking it behind us. "Just come back and tell us about it soon okay." I nod and he skips off down the path tugging on Grell's tail as he passes the still mostly invisible cat. I run after him stopping next to Grell who has materialized his eyes,mouth, and glasses now.
"So where do we start our search Grell?" I ask placing a hand on his head in an attempt to calm him down. He glares after the Hatter for another minute then fully materializes next to me.
"Well houses work a little differently here Midnight, most are either in shambles or in area's noone wants to go to now.." he says grabbing my hand from his head so he can link arms with me.
"Well then lets hope we can find one in a good spot nya~" I cover my mouth again and blush slightly, Grell only smiles and starts leading me down a path opposite the Hatter's.
'Well I wonder how this little adventure will turn out ne?"