Alice barely had time to register that ace was kissing her when Blood jerked him backwards with an angry hiss.
"Why are you here, knight?"he growled.
Ace smiled his usual sunny smile. "Oh, you know just enjoying the ride. Keeping Alice safe. All that typical stuff, ya know. Haha!"
"Well I would appreciate if you hadn't interrupted us. Do you want to die?"asked Blood coldly.
"No thanks! Not right now anyways, haha! So how you been enjoying the ride, hatter?"
As Ace and Blood argued intensely all Alice could do was sit there in shock, her hand touching her lips. Ace had kissed her! Kissed her! But why?! He was friends with Julius! How could he do such a thing! Fury enveloped her.
"Ace, how could you?!"Alice screamed, grabbing ace and turning him so that she was yelling in his face.
Ace smiled sheepishly. " how could I what?!"
"You know what I'm talking about! Don't play stupid!"
"Actually I don't!"
"Don't lie!"
"I'm serious!"
"The kiss! Why did you kiss me?!"
Ace's smile froze for a second and then he laughed cheerily . "Oh, yeah! The kiss. Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I've always wondered what it would be like to kiss you and saw my chance."
Alice glared at him furiously and ace seemed to realize something. It made him laugh even more.
"Oh! Did you think I liked you or something!"ace snorted. "Heck no! I could never do that to Julius. He's my bae. And I ship you guys too much to even think of a thing."
Alice let go of ace's collar, but refused to look at him, her blood boiling.
"Oh yeah,"ace said seeming to realize something. "This ride is three hours long. I don't want to wait that long." He grinned and then scooped Alice up and jumped off the cart and began running through the tunnel as fast as he could.
"Curses!"blood hissed. Ace had moved so fast that blood barely even had time to react. He was pondering what to do when Boris finally caught up and jumped into the cart. Boris and blood stared at each other, eyes twitching.
"Aight, this is too awkward for me!"Boris said, and then opened up a door and jumped into it.
Blood didn't want to ride out the remainder of this ride without Alice so he climbed out, shot a hole into the side of the tunnel and waltzed on through.
Julius was relieved when he saw Alice and Ace running towards him, but frowned when he saw that ace was holding Alice and that she was clinging to him.
"Alice! Ace! Where were you? I've been looking everywhere for you!" Julius was distressed but tried to hide it.
"Julius!"Alice wailed and when ace let her go she ran immediately into Julius's arms.
"Alice, what's wrong?!"
When Alice didn't answer Julius looked at ace questioningly.
"Oh Alice decided to ride the tunnel of love with Boris,"ace began.
"What?! You went on the tunnel of love with Boris!"yelped Julius. "You told me you and Boris were just friends!"
"We are!"
Julius let go of her and took a step back. "Then why did you ride the tunnel of love with Boris?"
Alice looked pitiful. "I'm sorry, Julius. He was just really convincing."
Julius gritted his teeth and ace continued.
"Oh yeah and then while they were in the tunnel of love, blood showed up and kicked Boris out and began making out with Alice."
"What?! You kissed blood? Alice how could you?"Julius stared at Alice with rage and betrayal and concealed hurt. Jealousy was stinging him like a viper. His heart hurt.
He waited for Alice to deny it, but to his dismay she didn't.
"He was kissing me! He made me do it!"Alice protested.
"And then I showed up and grabbed Alice and carried her to you,"ace finished with an easygoing smile.
Alice shot a glare at him. "You left out an important part! You kissed me too!"
"WHAT?!"Julius yelled again. He couldn't believe it. He thought that he was enough for Alice, that she loved him but then all of this happened. She'd even cheated on him with his beat friend. "We're going home!"Julius shouted, grabbing her hand roughly. "NOW!"
Alice gulped but let him drag her through the amusement park and home.
Back at the tower Julius ignored Alice and wouldn't talk to her.
"Please, Julius, I'm sorry,"whispered Alice.
But he just continued working, sullen and quiet. Then after an hour went by of Alice begging him to talk to her and apologizing his heart couldn't take it anymore.
He slammed his hand down on the table, making Alice jump. " I don't want to hear it, Alice. If I'm not enough for you, just say it. I should have known this day would come. If the hatter wasn't enough for you, then why did I believe I would be enough?"Julius smiled sadly and bitterly. " you're an outsider. I can't tie you down to only me. I-if I'm not enough for you then just leave. My heart can't take it, seeing you with other men. I could forgive you for anything, Alice, but my heart can't take it!"
"Julius..."Alice began crying and then hugged him. Julius was startled and hesitantly hugged her back, his face reddening despite himself. "I'm sorry. Julius, you're the only one for me. It's impossible for me to love anyone but you. Y-you... I couldn't stand to be with someone but you. You-"
Julius silenced her by kissing her mouth. He had heard enough and forgave her.
They kissed for a long time and eventually took it to bed.
The next morning while Alice and Julius were sleeping they were awoken when soldiers barged into the room. Peter was leading them with a stony expression. Before Alice and Julius could wonder why Peter was at the clock tower and not at the heart castle Peter spoke.
"Julius monrey, you are under arrest for the statuorary rape and domestic abuse of Alice Liddell."
"What?!"cried Alice and Julius.
"I will repeat. Julius monrey is under arrest for the statuorary rape and domestic abuse of Alice Liddell."
"That's not true!"cried Alice and Peter regarded her sadly. "you don't have proof of anything either! And I didn't know statuorary rape was even a law in this country!"
"Of course it is. The queen finds it repulsive of children having sex with adults. Which is what happened here. Alice, you're only sixteen and Julius is 27."
"But I thought the age of consent was 16!"Julius cried.
"The Queen changed it last night. The age of consent is now 18,"Peter said smugly. "And domestic abuse, especially against Alice, is highly against the law."
"But you have no proof!"Alice yelled. "Julius would never hurt me and we never had sex!" The last part was a lie, but how would Peter know that?
Peter looked sad again. "We received an anonymous tip and some photos as proof."
"Let's see them then!"Alice challenged. It was weird to see Peter being so serious and not crazy in love with her. It would have beneficial this time.
Sighing, Peter pulled out from his pockets a small stack of photos clipped together.
Alice grabbed them and she and Julius both studied them. Their jaws dropped.
The first photo was of Julius yelling at Alice and Alice looking scared and frightened. It was taken yesterday at the amusement park and in the photo Julius was raising his hand as if he would hit her when in reality he was just reaching to grab her arm. There was another of Alice and Julius laying beside each other in bed. Alice looked terrified and uncomfortable while Julius's arm that was wrapped around her looked possessive and domineering. But Alice had been thinking about blood that night! And another of Julius shouting at Alice while Alice was crying and his hand raised again as if he would hit her. That was only yesterday too and all Julius had been doing was run his hand through his hair. Eep, this was really bad. With a sinking heart Alice looked at the next photos. They were of Alice and Julius in bed. Blankets covered them but it was obvious they were in very compromising positions.
She closed her eyes as Julius sighed. This had been blood's doing. It had to be. She hated him.
"Come along quietly, clockmaker . Your trial will be in ten time periods,"Peter said coldly and the solders marched forward, handcuffed Julius and began dragging him out.
Alice should have done something, maybe fight but she felt frozen and blank.
"Alice, my sweet, I am so sorry this happened to you,"Peter told Alice softly.
"Just go,"Alice growled and he did.
Once she alone Alice collapsed on the floor and began crying.
"Oh dear, what a mess," said a familiar voice that Alice hated.
She glanced up, shaking with rage and unconcealed dislike. "Blood,"she spat, "how dare you show your face after what you did!"
Blood smirked, "but I was only helping. I can't stand to see it when a man abuses his woman and especially an underage one at that."
"You set us up."
"Who knows? But just think about it, Alice. All of this could have been avoided if you didn't leave me. Now because you did Julius will be facing jail time, possibly execution because we all know just how much Vivaldi loves you." Alice didn't say anything. Only stared at him coldly.
Then blood smiled. "But how's this for a deal, sweetheart? If you come back to me willingly and without fuss then I will have the charges against your clockmaker dropped."
"Y-you can do that?"
"Of course I can! Vivaldi is my sister, remember? I can even get her to change the age of consent back to sixteen so that it's no longer a crime that you and Julius... made love,"blood spat the last part viciously, but then resumed his charming smiles. "So what do you say Alice? Will you accept this deal?"
Alice stared at him.
Dunh dunh duh! As always feel free to leave a review!