Today was like any other day she served him his coffee, suspensefully watching his moist lips place themselves on the hot glass, that was warmed form the hot, fresh coffee that was poured into it just moments ago, and watching as the fresh drink made it's way down his throat. Truly, this was … true suspense.

"It was good, but for today I'll give you a–"

"Ah~...this is so boring!"

The girl stood frozen in place as she glared down at the brown-haired man who was bending down placing his head on Julius' desk. He had made her miss the most important part of it! IF she didn't hear the score, it was meaningless! She'd kill him.

"A-Alice," he said in a playful voice, "you're piercing daggers through me, you know?"

She stood there, her gaze of death increasing, her hands tightly gripped to the tray in her hands. She would die before she would let Julius see such an unladylike side of her. There was no way this man would ever get her to show that side to Julius. Never.

"Ace," he said in a stern voice, rubbing his forehead, " must you always interrupt when I say something? Was that comment really necessary?" His gaze increased, trying his best no to make his point to the obviously oblivious man in front of him.

"Eh? But, Julius!" he whined, "when you talk like that, you're so boring. Being cooped up in this tower all the time, I don't know how you do it! If it were me, I could never!" he exclaimed, pointing out the obvious fact about him – he was an outdoors person.

She stood there, silently emitting malice, not taking the risk to speak her mind now. No matter how much she wanted to hit him and throw him out, after she made sure her point was clearly made, she would refrain from it.

"Alice will take you then. Since I don't have the time, she's the only one left to take you. You're being a distraction to my work, now LEAVE," he shouted, using his fingers to point to the door, which clearly meant he wanted them out, and out now.

"Yay!" he exclaimed happily, walking out of the tower while being dragged by the hand by Alice, "Another adventure together!"

"No! Not another adventure! We're only going to the castle! Julius said for me to lead! No shortcuts!" she snapped at him, tightening her grasp on his arm as she angrily stomped forward.

He chuckled to himself happily. Of course he was right on the fact that harassing Alice would be fun. Now all he had to do was find more ways to pull ever little string she had. And this, was something only he could do. "Hey, Alice?" he asked with a big grin.

"What?" she calmly asked.

"Where are we?"

"Don't be stupid! Of course we're on our way to the ca...stle..." When she looked up she found herself looking up at the trees, no castle in sight.

"So, even Alice can get lost too!"

"No! I-I'm not lost! I … I'm simply..."

"Taking a shortcut? !" they said together. Ace burst out into laughter, seeing this was something he said all the time, and Alice glared at him, her face as red as a tomato. It was all his fault she had to get lost! If he hadn't of distracted her like that before, she would never have gotten lost in the first place.

"Haha, Alice, that face is funny. But" his face suddenly got serious, "since it's so dark out, we're going to have to set up camp, whether you like it or not."

She knew she couldn't resist until she knew where she was. Any landmark would do, so long as she got a clear picture of about where she was. Since she'd been living here so long, she had basically got the place memorized, it was, after all, like a second home to her.

"Hey? Hey, Alice?" she glanced over at the man, who had already had everything set up and ready to go, "Come on, come on!" he smiled, patting the seat on the log next to him.

She gave him a strange look before heading cautiously over to him. Sitting down, she made sure to stay far away from him, and flattened her dress. "Ace?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you like getting lost so much? I mean, why would anyone want to be lost? Even I don't, though, sometime I think I am. But, when I'm like that, I always try my hardest to get back on track, because … being lost is lonely."

"Lonely?" He had never thought of being lost as lonely before. He had never felt lonely. Never once. He had always only relied upon himself for support, doing jobs outside his role as to get out of his role. That was really the only thing he ever thought about.

"Yeah, because being out here all alone like this really can make one feel lonely. Looking up into the sky and you can see all the stars surrounded by other stars, tress are surrounded by other trees, but we're all alone here, or at least that's how I feel."

Truly she was a foreigner. She was so native and innocent that it just made him want to harass her, and harass her would he. "Hey, Alice," he said, leaning closer to the girl, "I want to feel it."

Her heart began to beat, blood flowing up into her cheeks made her whole face taint red. "Wha … what are you talking about, Ace?"

She drew back, but the knight pressed on further into her personal space. "You're heart." As usual a smile was on his face, but the smile on his face this time was sinister, a cold and emotionless smile. She tried to struggle away, but his arms were on both sides of her, pinning her to the log. She could feel his breath on her skin. His eyes – captivating ruby color that seemed to suck in whatever looked their way – were drawing her closer and closer to him, making her not able to even look away from them.

"Ace," she tried to protest, but was stopped as he began to chuckle.

"As I thought, Alice is interesting! Do you do this to everyone? Making all the people here love you, changing them to fit what you like, do you like that? Is this how you seduce them, Alice? Showing them this cute face of yours? Or am I the only one who get's to see this side of Alice?"

"That's not true! I don't seduce them! I didn't ask for them to love me!" she screamed at him.

"Oh, but, Alice, this is what you wanted. If it's not, then prove it to me." Plucking every bit of security she had left until she was at his every command begging for more sounded good to him. "Alice."

Her heart pounded wildly at the sound of her name. His hand slowly crept up from the log, and was soon placed atop her chest where the beat of her heart pounded against it. Her cheeks burned red as she felt his touch, her eyes wandering down.

"Can you feel it?"

Her breaths were becoming irregular, turning from breaths to gasps to finally pants, and he had barely even touched her yet. A wide smirk came across his face. His plan was working. Now, the real play time would begin.

"Hey, Alice? How about we play a game? This game is reeeeally simple to play. I touch you and see what kind of sounds you make. Sounds interesting, no?"

She seemed to snap out of her delinted sate for a moment enough to try to refuse playing this "game." "No! Absolutely no! Ace, get off of me! Ace ...mmm mmm..." When he lifted his lips off f her's, her face was red and her eyes were gazed over. Her hands were tightly gripped on his shirt. He was now in complete control of her, and he wasn't going to let this chance go. He was going to drive her crazy, crazy enough that she can only think of him.

She once again began to come to, trying to refuse, this time with less of a fight then before, but still putting up a fight. He lifted his free hand, that was placed on the log, and squeezed her mouth open. She was so fragile, so he'd have to make sure not to hurt her, after all, if he did, he'd never be able to listen to her heart beat again. He would make full sure that he savored this moment between them to his fullest.

She flashed her eyes open at him. Her eyes said she was ready to fight him. She placed her hands on his chest and tried to push him away, but before she was able to she felt something inside her mouth. "Mmmm," she tried to protest, but his tongue kept her from doing so.

"Ace? Ace are you here?" rang a familiar voice from the distance.

Alice's eyes shot open. What was she doing? She tried to get up, but the hand on her mouth was pinning her down. She had never realized before just how strong he really was. He placed his finger on his mouth, motioning her not to make a sound, as he got up from on top of her. Quickly, without a sound, he splashed the bucket of water over the fire, terminating the only ting that lead Julius to her. With that gone, what was she going to do? She'd have to say there all night with him.

He sighed. "I guess I was only imagining things." They heard the crunch of the leaves as he began to walk back.

"J-Julius," she cried, finding that she had no more means of protection. "Don't leave me here alone with him!"

He laughed to himself. "Hey, Alice?" he asked, looking up into the starry sky.

"W-what?" she flinched.

"Remember when you said that getting lost was lonely? Well, it's really not that lonely with you!" he smiled back at her. "Hey, can I … Alice?" She had gotten up and ran past him and into the tent, screaming good night as she past him. This only made him laugh some more. What else can I do? he thought to himself.

When he walked into the tent, she had already gotten her blanket and was lying down, pretending to sleep, he knew, however, she was only pretending, going off the fact her breathing was completely uneven. He walked up beside her and took his coat off, gently placing it on her. "Good night, Alice." As she heard him say that, her eyes became heavy until there was nothing but blackness.

Sunlight crept thought the tent as she opened her eyes. "When did I fall asleep?" she asked with a yawn.

"About the time I said goodnight. You were drooling a lot, Alice. It was cute." Her face flushed as she quickly looked down to see where she drooled. "Haha! You fell for it, Alice!" He laughed so hard he fell onto his back. The girl, on the other hand, was pissed.

"That was not funny, Ace."

"Hey, Alice, let me listen to your heart again, okay?" he asked with a smile.

Her faced flushed red, once again. "W-wha?" She began to remember what happened the night before, which only made her face even more redder then it already was.

"I think we should go together on another adventure!"

She turned her head, her death stare in full power. "No! WE need to go to the castle right now!" she screamed, marching out of the tent. "Clean this up by the time I get back!" She marched off to go look for a landmark. They couldn't have wondered off too far.

When she came back the place had looked the same as it did before he pulled anything out, yet he looked the same as before. "Where you put that stuff I will never know," she said, looking at the man.

"If you want to I could show you," she said, pulling back his coat.

"No thank you!" she screamed, running up to the man and pulling him by the arm. He lost his footing from Alice suddenly grabbing him and ended up falling on top of her. As she hit the ground she felt Ace's face smash into her chest. Looking down she could see she was right. In her chest was one stupid, perverted knight's head. She could feel the anger rise up within her against him. "Ace."

"Ow! Alice! Why did you suddenly grab me like that?" he whined toward the girl. "...Alice?"

slap!

.

"Well, here's the castle. Please, hurry up and go," she ordered, pointing to the castle that was right in front of them.

Ace rubbed the red hand mark that was left on his face after Alice had slapped him. "Do I have to go?"

"Do you want me to slap your other cheek?"

"When Alice gets angry like that, it turns me on."

She felt the anger come boiling back up. She looked up and smiled sweetly at the man. "Leave while I am still smiling, Ace."

He looked surprised at the girl. "Every string," he said.

"What?"

His lips were on her's in seconds flat, and back off again just as fast. "Like I said, an angry Alice turns me on."

"Ace!" she screamed, covering her mouth with her hand.

"You got stuck with a very troublesome person, Alice," he said, wrapping his arms around her neck, "I really like, Alice."

- The End -