Chapter 5: moving in and conversations
Disclaimer: I don't own, either Hakuouki or American McGee's Alice/ Alice the madness returns in sense I own nothing.
It took a few days for Alice to get settled properly, due to everything being so rushed, she opted to follow instructions and decided to remain in her rooms, she opted to unpack her possessions.
While there wasn't much, it was enough for her, a photo of her and her late family, some clothing, her drawing and sketching equipment (book, graphite sticks, paints, pastels, ink etc, etc), her sewing kit, her treasured stuffed rabbit, her writing equipment, her diary and some other Items from her travel trunk and her bags.
"What now, I mean most of the men know there's a woman amongst them" she said to herself as she sat writing in her diary adding sketches and descriptions of the men that she could remember, as she wrote and sketched her mind turned to Hijikata's face, his sharp angular jaw line, his defined features along with his sharp eyes, she had never seen eye's that were that color, they were like burning amethysts, they seemed to Pierce everything right down to her very soul, somehow he made her feel safe free from her troubles, but she believed this was just a pale facade.
Looking up and shaking her head as she looked to the window, seeing the sky was already a glow with a pink hew a sign of dusk's swift approach.
Smiling as she got up and wondered, towards the window she silently started to watch the sky's daily display of colour, from pink to lavender, then orange, Alice carried on watching is peaceful silence as the sun turned a stunning shade of red and began to dip beneath the hill's the clouds looked like they where glowing from with in.
"beautiful isn't it?" Said a soft voice out of no where, causing Alice to jump three feet high.
Shocked at the sudden introduction of noise, Alice leaned out of the window to see who was there only to see Okita lent up against the wall also looking at the sun set.
"huh what a surprise, you didn't notice" he said in a tired and lazy tone to her looking up to see her peeping out of the window.
" I was so sunk into my writing, so I didn't notice" said Alice going pink with embarrassment.
"dinner has been prepared, are you ready?" A soft stoic voice came out of no where, causing Alice to turn her head only to see Saito carrying a tray with her evening meal, followed by Heisuke behind him.
"I'm very busy , you go ahead and eat" said Saito, showing his obvious lack of concern for Alice in his deep voice.
"Hijikata-sans order that she was to be watched at all times" said Okita in a near brattish tone.
"Well if we're supposed to keep an eye on her why don't we have her eat with us?" Asked Heisuke trying to resolve the situation unaware of the possible situation he was creating.
"We where ordered not to let her leave her room" Saito replied to Heisuke's question.
"Aww come on Hijikata is in Osaka he won't know" Heisuke countered in a winy voice.
"In that case" Okita sighed lifting the dinner trey out of Saito's hands and placed into, Heisuke's hands.
"Hey why are you...?" Heisuke asked confused, as to why the was handed Alice's dinner.
"It was your idea so we think you should be the one to escort her" Okita said whilst chuckling.
"But..."the poor boy stuttered before Alice cut in.
"Oh for heavens sake, I can look after my self, but if your so insistent, which way is the dinning hall?" she snapped causing Heisuke to jump three feet into the air.
"wow" he muttered his cheeks going fuchsia from embarrassment at being scared of the young woman in front of him.
The walk to the dinning hall was conducted in a vary awkward silence due to tempers running high, Heisuke thought that Alice has some right to be angry because of being stuck with nothing to do as well as being confined to her room, mean while Alice's thought where filled with regret of her action, but she was frustrated, lonely and most of all she felt trapped, she hated those feeling, because to her they where reminiscent of the life in England, over there the world was an extremely cold and harsh place, if you where different you where locked away and never seen again, no one noticed and no one had the heart to care.
Both youths trains of thought where shattered when they reached the door to the dinning hall, causing them to stop and shake their heads to clear their minds.
"Look I'm sorry for snapping, but every thing has just gone so wrong" Alice said, blushing slightly as she looked at Heisuke.
"Don't apologise, you have a right to feel angry, if I was in your place I probably would have done a lot worse than just snapping at people" he replied, rubbing the back of his head, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
With apologies out of the way, the pair opened, the door and entered the dinning, only to be greeted with a sea of grins and smiles, as their new guest is introduced and seated.
"You took your time" chuckled Harada as he shifted positions.
"What are you going to do about the growls my stomach is making" moaned Shinpachi uncomfortably.
"I'm sorry, this is my fault" said Alice in a more relaxed tone, trying to hide her shame at unwittingly making every one wait to eat, also causing every one to stare at her.
"What's she doing here?" Ask Harada, trying to assess her.
"What, she not allowed?" Asked Heisuke, defensively.
"That ain't it at all, food tastes better when good friends come together to eat" Shinpachi, said grinning madly.
"Look don't just stand there, sit down with us" said Harada, moving to make room, for their new guest to sit.
"Okay, here you go" said Heisuke, calmly as if to reassure Alice that it was alright to be with them, while he placed her food down ready for her.
"Thank you Mr Toudou" said Alice politely.
"Yeah, but enough of that Mr Toudou stuff, every one just calls me Heisuke, I'm fine with that" said Heisuke in mild annoyance at how formal Alice was being.
"But..." Alice began to say before she was cut off.
"It looks like we're about the same age, so it's better any way, and I'll just call you Alice " he said before she could get another word in either way.
"So it' s Heisuke then" she said softly trying to process what's going on.
"Yeah, much better, okay then Alice, Very nice to meet you" he said warmly, cultivating what he hoped to be a good friendship with the young woman stood before him and his associates. With that every one sat and gladly began to eat, once Saito had thanked god/the gods for the food.
As the meal progressed every one started talking and goofing around, some of the men had tried stealing from others meals.
"Still tonight's dinner looks a little stingy so..." Said Shinpachi as he proceeded to steal some of Heisuke's fish.
"Hey! Shinpachi why is it that you always steal my food!" Heisuke exclaimed.
"It's about body size Pipsqueak, us bigger guy's need more food" Shinpachi said laughing, heartily.
"Hey I'm still growing so I'll need more food than you" Heisuke cried out launching over to snatch Shinpachi's fish, only for Shinpachi so snatch it up and eat it faster than Heisuke could grab it.
"Too slow kid" was all that could be heard between munching and other sounds that where disgusting in Alice's view.
"You're eating that as it is, at least spit the bones out, it's disgusting" complained Heisuke, only for Shinpachi to offer him the tail piece, for which he declined, with disgust.
"It's like this every time, sorry for the ruckus their animals" said Harada in a way of apology.
Alice surveyed the room, the corner of her mouth twitching with amusement at the others antics while Shinpachi and Heisuke carried on arguing.
"Not at all dear, I must admit, it is nice to interact with every one at meal time" Alice said offhandedly, unknowingly allowing a tiny smile to form on her pale face.
"Ahh you finally smiled" said Harada calmly, causing Alice to turn and face him.
"I hope you do realize that we mean you no harm, you should smile like that more often it's adorable" he said smiling.
"Okay, if you say so" Alice replied, going into deep thought, wondering if her observations about the Shinsengumi where wrong and that she may have to reprioritise her thoughts on them.
The door suddenly opened breaking her chain of thought as one of the groups subordinates came in.
"Can I have a minute every one, I bring news from Hijikata-San who's currently in Osaka, it seems that in the course of his duties, Sannan-San incurred a great injury" the man said in a straight yet wavering tone. Causing every one to gasp or straighten up with concern.
"To what extent was the Injury" Inquired Shinpachi, sounding serious for the first time since Alice met him.
"The letter say's that his wounds are deep, but the injury's have been to his left arm I'm afraid, it'll be difficult for him to hold his sword, but his life is not in danger" the man almost sounded crestfallen, as he delivered the news to his superiors.
"Oh thank god" Alice said Quietly, she liked Sannan, seeing that he was one of the few people who where genuinely nice to her when she first arrived.
"That ain't good!" Heisuke nearly shouted at her not realizing that she's glad that Sannan was alive.
"A sword can not be wielded properly and successfully with only one arm, Sannan-San may never be able to hold a blade again" said Saito in an extremely dark tone of voice, obviously trying to reprimand Alice. Causing her to gasp and look away in shame.
"If it comes down to it all we can do is give him the medicine or something huh" said Okita looking down in an almost calculating way.
"Don't talk foolishness, we can't risk a Shinsengumi leader like that" said Shinpachi sternly obvoiusly knowing what was being implied.
"Isn't Sannan the deputy commander?" Alice inquired politely not knowing what to think any more, while she understood the benefits of medical drugs and serum's, she also understood that they could have detrimental effects in the future.
"Yeah about that, Shinsengumi means newly selected corps, for us the sen means..." Heisuke began before he was viciously punched in the face by Harada, followed by Shinpachi pulling Alice behind him in way of protection from the horrifying attack.
"That's going too far Sano, harming both Heisuke and the girl as well" yelled Shinpachi, bringing Harada back to his senses.
"I'm sorry" he said with closed eyes, his voice , conflicted and strained.
"It's alright, I'm really sorry about that too, but jeez you're quick to take a swing " was the horribly strained reply that came from Heisuke, who now was holding his hand to his face, and looking at Harada through one of his turquoise eyes.
"I'm sorry Alice-Chan, but what Heisuke said is all you're allowed to know about our inner workings and nothing more" said Sinpachi calmly as he stared at the two people in front of him and Alice.
"The Shinsengumi that Heisuke mentioned means some pretty unhappy children" said Okita callously as he sipped sake quietly.
Alice stood there silently looking from face to face, with a terrified expression etched on to her own. After a few moments, she took of running back to her room only to be pursued by Shinpachi, Heisuke and Harada.
As soon as she got to her room she sealed herself inside, leaning up against a wall hugging her knees to her chest, rocking as tears rolled down her cheeks, only for then to fall to the floor, as fist banged on the door and voices called out begging to let them in ricocheted of the walls and ceiling.
"Alice, please let us in" Heisuke, Harada and Shinpachi begged as they hammered away with their fists knowing that she was absolutely terrified, but unaware of the fact that they were making it worse.
"GO AWAY!" They heard her shriek from the other side of the door.
"But..." Heisuke said before Alice cut him off.
"I said go away I should of known that you all where nothing more than savage thugs!" She practically screamed through the door, her words hitting them all where it hurts, while Alice turned her mind to the people of London and the staff of Rutledge Asylum, the only two people who where kind to her long forgotten and replaced with the abuse she suffered.
Suddenly the banging and the yelling stopped, and she heard some soft shuffling out side along with some whispers, however they where too far for her to make any thing out, soon every thing was silent except for Alice's quiet sobs. Carefully with shaking hands Alice ignited a lanterns and picked up her sketch book and pencils and began to draw her nightmarish perspective of the three young men, depicting exactly how she saw them in the darkest pits of her mind, to her they weren't men, they where monsters in men's clothing.
After finishing her horrifyingly grotesque picture, she fell into a terrible, tortuously fitful sleep, tears still soaking the pillow as she lay there allowing her dreams to consume her once again.