Pairings: GrayxOC, one-sided GrayxAlice.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Kuni no Alice franchise. I do, however, own the character Sieglinde.

Runaway

"Do you realize that you've been missing for a total of thirty-seven time periods?"

Sieglinde made a noise of irritation, turning her head to glare at the silver haired incubus who had let himself into her dream and was now coughing up blood in it. She did not want to hear that from the man who was labeled as childish himself. While she had been expecting this visit from Nightmare at some point after her abrupt departure from Clover Tower, that didn't mean Sieglinde was happy about it all the same. The privacy of her head was still being invaded, after all.

Plus she didn't want to talk to anyone right now. Inside or outside of her dreams.

"Not really. I just left to clear my head and get my thoughts sorted out." Then Sieglinde added wryly. "Or is that not allowed?"

"As an Outsider, you are free to do whatever you want. The rules of this world do not bind you." There was a pause. "However, as your best friend, I am concerned about the rift that has developed between you and Gray ever since Alice's arrival."

It was impossible to not notice and Nightmare had caught on to this fact when he realized that Sieglinde and Gray weren't spending as much time together as they did in the past. After a bit of snooping and eavesdropping on the conversations of his subordinates, he was able to put together that the distance between Wonderland's most insane fighters started after Alice made it a habit of visiting Clover Tower. Or rather his recently christened assistant, Gray Ringmarc.

While Gray had denounced his womanizer ways after he became Nightmare's assistant and was working diligently on refining his manners, he was still considered attractive by women much to the former assassin's embarrassment and Sieglinde's delight in finding something to hold against him. As such, Sieglinde took to mercilessly teasing him, often making him blush harder.

But Sieglinde wasn't laughing so hard when Gray's gentleman like behaviour towards Alice made the latter fall in love with him.

The raven haired girl's eyes narrowed and darkened at the mention of the recently reformed assassin and the second Outsider. "This has nothing to do with Gray. Or Alice."

She did not want to talk about Gray. At least, she didn't want to talk about him right this instant.

And she especially did not want to talk about Alice.

"On the contrary," Nightmare sat next to her. "Alice kisses Gray by Clover Tower's entrance where anyone can see and then we don't see you at all after wards? It's been nearly forty time periods since anyone saw you and Gray has been stressed and distracted the entire time you were gone. It's obvious to everyone that he is worried about you."

Which was an understatement. Gray had been pushing himself relentlessly trying to find Sieglinde; forgoing his own paper work, his health and dragging Nightmare to his doctor appointments to do so. It was painful to watch Gray return to Clover Tower empty handed, his shoulders slumped in defeat, his clothes crumpled and shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep. Not to mention he smelled like an ashtray with the amount of cigarettes he was smoking during those few rare moments he stopped to take a break during his searches.

Nightmare had to order Gray to take a rest before he passed out from exhaustion several times.

'So let him be stressed,' Sieglinde rolled her eyes. 'I'm sure that you're contributing to most of said stress in the first place by running away and procrastinating on your work all the time anyways,'

The leader of Clover Tower gave the Outsider a sharp look when he mentioned his assistant and an even sharper glare at the retort within her head, but it had gone unnoticed by her.

Sieglinde tensed at the mention of that particular memory; she had been trying to block that memory out of her mind, thank you very much! She buried her face in her knees, hoping that Nightmare got the hint that she did not want to talk about this anymore and would he drop it?

The ache in her chest that had previously died down to a dull throb flared again as she replayed the scene in her head once more. The scene that had made her run away, flee, get as far away from them as possible and make her never want to return.

It had been a normal day. Well, at least as normal as it could be ever since the big move that had brought the Hatter Estate and Castle of Hearts into the Country of Clover. When Alice came and disrupted the routines she had developed in the time Sieglinde had been living in Wonderland.

Adjusting to the violent world had not been easy. As loathed as she was to admit it, Alice's arrival had thrown the carefully constructed life she had adopted within Wonderland out of whack and no matter how much the genetically enhanced weapon had tried, a small part of her had always held this fact against the second outsider. It was irrational and stupid to blame Alice for... for everything, but nothing could banish those feelings.

Sieglinde had spent most of the day (once again) avoiding the tower since Alice had dropped by. The reason for this was because whenever Alice and Sieglinde were in the same room, things tended to get awkward. After the fifth time the two girls and outsiders found themselves together in a room, the air heavy with both their discomfort in each others' presence, Sieglinde decided to screw formality and make herself scarce whenever the second Outsider was over.

Aka ditch and come back after a couple of time periods had passed.

But things were different that day. When Sieglinde had been returning from town that day, she had spotted the two people she was working hard to avoid standing right in front of the entrance of the tower. Because her enhanced eyesight was better than her hearing, she was able to spot the two before she could hear what they were saying. She had debated with herself for a few minutes on whether she should eavesdrop or not, before deciding on the former.

She was just within her hearing range when she saw them kiss. Alice initiated the kiss, but Gray had kissed her back.

Her memories after that were blurred. No matter how much she tried to remember what had happened after that moment, she could only recall small flashbacks here and there. They weren't very helpful considering that they were memories of her running away and stumbling on whenever her foot caught on something. Next thing she knew, she was deep in the forest and high up in a tree.

Oh, and hiding from that damned Peter White. She had already kicked his ass him four times, but he was a persistent little bunny in love. And according to him, nothing would stop him from hunting her down and killing her to make Alice happy again.

"Wait, Peter White is trying to kill you?"

Nightmare had apparently once again forgone the matter of privacy and how most people tended to hate having their minds invaded.

Sieglinde made a noise of annoyance. "Yes. He's also managed to form a temporary alliance with Ace, so now the both of them are after my blood. Of course on Ace's part, he just wants to fight me."

Nightmare looked at her in concern, deciding to forgo the chastising she deserved for the moment. The Prime Minister of Hearts castle singling you out to the point that he would kill you himself was nothing to laugh at. He often hired people to do his dirty work for him. Prominent examples being when he hired faceless to kill his own ally, the Knight of Hearts.

The fact that he was willing to ally himself with Ace of all people to kill Sieglinde sent a chill down the incubus' spine.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

He was surprised to see the bitter smile on Sieglinde's lips; something he had been seeing on her face lately ever since the move. It tugged on his clock to see his former bodyguard so forlorn.

"I only got a few cuts here and there. I... can't say the same for Ace and Peter though. They're alive and I hid the both of them, but..." She shrugged. "You'll forgive me if I don't go out of my way to help the two who were trying to kill me. Whether they live or die will be determined by their own wills."

Oh dear. Perhaps it was those two he should be concerned about, then...

But Nightmare couldn't feel it in his clock to feel pity for either of them. Not when they had been hunting Sieglinde like an animal with the intent to kill her- though Ace just probably wanted to fight.

He supposed that was the outcome of picking on Sieglinde, who often referred to herself as a 'genetically enhanced weapon'.

Stronger and faster than ordinary people in her world, she even overpowered the strongest Roleholders.

Nightmare himself could attest to her strength. He had witnessed the many battles between Sieglinde and Gray when he was still trying to take Nightmare's life. Sieglinde often won, chasing off Gray and vowing to fight him again if he continued to come back with the intent of killing the incubus.

And she held to her vow.

When Gray came back again and again after every defeat at her hands, Sieglinde and him exchanged blows. And no matter how many chances she had to take Gray's life and end him permanently, she never took them. She was conditioned to destroy and kill, she told Nightmare at one point, but she could not bring herself to execute what she was designed to do. Hence why she left her opponents alive, with the exception of the most atrocious of people who were better off dead so that they no longer endangered the living.

Foolish, yes, but that was what drew the citizens of Wonderland to her. She had the power to kill, the power to destroy and make sure they never got up again, but any fights against her were never fatal. She always left her opponents alive.

Beaten, but alive.

Alice was similar in that aspect, but it was Sieglinde that people in the country of Clover both respected and admired while Alice was the idol of Heart country. She was not one for killing people, but she had the strength to reinforce her beliefs.

It was much easier to kill people than leave them alive.

Where Alice was all compassion, refusing to pick up a weapon even to defend herself from the dangers of Wonderland (and that in itself was a strength since NO one in this world would go anywhere without a weapon, but it was also a headache because she was unable to defend herself so someone else had to do the defending for her) and throwing herself in front of a weapon to protect someone else (another admirable feat), Sieglinde was a perfect balance between kindness and capability of defending herself from other attackers. She had a compassionate side, but was more than capable of fighting back if she had to. Neither he or Gray ever had to worry about Sieglinde whenever she went out.

"Well if it will make you feel better," Nightmare sighed. "I do not think that Alice will be coming by Clover Tower any time soon in the nearby future."

Not after Gray made it very clear to Alice did not reciprocate her feelings.

Sieglinde lifted her head from her knees and regarded him with a blank expression.

Eventually though, she broke the silence. "Does this have anything to with Peter wanting me dead?"

Nightmare smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"After we realized you had been missing for six time periods, we knew something was wrong. It did not take us long to realize that you probably saw... what happened at the entrance." He figured that was the only thing that would drive Sieglinde away from what had been her home for many time periods.

What Sieglinde did not realize on a conscious level was that she was in love with Gray and vice-versa. Though Gray was not much better as it took Sieglinde running away and having to break Alice's heart to finally realize what everyone else around them pretty much knew.

"Gray in particular was not happy. He confronted Alice about her actions, and..." Nightmare paused, unable to say any more.

Things during Gray's confrontation of Alice only escalated. The former assassin had not confronted the second outsider with a clear head, resulting in him taking out his more recent frustrations on Alice and driving her into tears as he told her that he couldn't return her love and feelings for him. It had been in the heat of the moment and once Gray had calmed down and realized his mistake, Alice had already run off crying hysterically.

"...well, I know you and Alice did not get along! So now you don't have to worry about her coming between you and Gray any more!"

"Huh?" Sieglinde looked at him as if he had grown three heads, pink tinging her cheeks. "'Between me and Gray?'"

Oh for the love of... of... everything!

This was ridiculous! Enough was enough!

"You are in love with Gray! Gray is in love with you! Why don't you two realize it already?! We could have avoided all of this drama if you just admitted that you loved each other in the first place!"

Nightmare was literally pulling at his gray locks. Why were his assistant and best friend so dense?! WHY?!

Despite his frustration and anger at a situation that could have been averted if certain people weren't so adamant about being in denial, Nightmare would never forget the look on Sieglinde's face after his outburst. It was something he would forever treasure.

Sieglinde's jaw dropped and her face turned from pink to bright red and finally settling onto a dark crimson shade.

"Wh-what?!" She squeaked. "Th-there is n-no way-!"

Nightmare cut her off. "Yes, you are. I've seen how you look at Gray. I've listened to your thoughts about Alice and Gray being together whenever you saw them. I've observed how happy you and Gray are in each other's presence. You are undeniably and irrevocably in love with Gray!"

Rant done, the incubus focused his attention on the first outsider.

Sieglinde gaped at him. She opened her mouth several times before clamming it shut when she realized that no words were passing her lips.

"I- I-" Sieglinde tried to protest, but seeing Nightmare's glare made her freeze.

She could feel her face burning.

"B-but there's no way-"

"And why not?" Nightmare said tersely.

How could she be 'in love'? She knew what the emotion was and had seen enough of it to last her a life time (Alice and Gray), but her being in love was impossible. She hadn't been designed to fall in love.

"We'll talk about this later." Nightmare let out a long suffering sigh. "But right now, you should wake up. There's someone waiting for you."

"Eh?" Sieglinde's eyes widened. "What?"

Whoo! Finally done typing this up. There's more, but I thought that I would put that in the second chapter.

I'm sure you all want an explanation on a number of things. First of all, I will explain everything in detail in the next chapter but I thought that I would clear some things up.

1) This is a sort of AU. In this fic, Gray just recently reformed and is still trying to get the hang of things on his end. Therefore, he hasn't entirely reigned in how he used to be. Which was why he openly displayed his anger towards Alice. He hasn't perfected that mask of stoicism quite yet.

2) I think a lot of people would disagree with how I portrayed Alice in this. First of all, she is OoC, but there is an explanation to that. Most people, when they're desperate or nigh hysterical or nigh emotional are hardly going to be in character. Alice really liked Gray in this fic even though her feelings are one sided, hence the sudden kiss when her worst fear of losing another person she liked to someone else started to show itself. It was wrong of her to do that, but people are hardly rational when they give into their emotions.

I guess I'll see you all next time in the second and final chapter!