Chapter 4: Tales of Distrust

It's been a month since Alice had been kidnapped by Black. To say, Alice was overwhelmed, was an understatement. Living with aliens was comforting at most but other times, it was downright dangerous. She almost had once been captured by other aliens who had grudges over her first kidnappers and if it weren't for Boris, who was going to steal from Ace, then she might have been captured.

She also noticed that she had a weird relationship to the three aliens living with her—four if counting the times Boris had sleep over. She, at least, liked how White and Ace didn't annoy her too much. Black and Boris—whenever the alien visited—just really rubbed something wrong in her mind.

Although the only person, she really was wary about, was Ace.

It didn't really make sense for Alice but she thought that out of everyone, Ace was the one she should not trust. Not to mention, Ace always seemed to try to get information out of her. Though, he was sly in getting them.

So at one time when they were left in the house together, let's just say things went out of hand.

...

"Can you cook, Brother?" Alice asked breaking the unusual silent atmosphere in the house but then again, the loud mutts weren't there so the girl was not really surprised that the place was quiet. It made her frown though when she noticed it was too quiet.

"No." Ace replied softly, causing the blonde to narrow her eyes at him. He had a rather depressing aura. "But of course, you can cook, can't you, Ali-chan?"

Said female paused in whatever she's doing and glared at him. It wasn't the first time he had called him by that nickname but this was the first time, it carried certain intent.

"What are you trying to say?"

The brunet smiled coolly but his voice was cold. "I'm just saying that you must be able to cook since your parents aren't home that much, right? With mafia works and killing, I mean..."

Snap.

"You know my parents." Alice deadpanned, feeling dread in her stomach. She had already thought some of these aliens would research about her but now, she realized the signs.

Ace had already researched about from the start. He knew about her parents and the things they had done.

"Yup, it was really easy to know. Alice Liddell, daughter of a madman and a female mafia boss, was rather famous in the mafia world. With just the name, the information and rumors are mine to read." Ace said nonchalantly.

"I'm a good informer, don't you think?"

Alice glanced at his actions with neutrality. "So why are you telling me this now?" she asked. It really didn't matter if he knew since she's still stuck for a year with him and the others. She might as well just go on with it.

"Aren't you afraid that I'll tell the others?" the chilly threat was there and it made the little girl tensed, her mind already thinking of why the other did this.

'Get the prey to think he's safe and then, attack fiercely.' Alice mentally praised him at that. 'A predator, he's definitely one heck of a predator.'

"Why should I?" she countered with raised eyebrows as she spoke the truth. If she was someone else, maybe he would have eaten her already but she was a Liddell. That kind of threats wouldn't scare her. "It doesn't really matter to me if the others know or not."

'I just really hate people who talks about them.' was a thought she didn't add.

"I see... Well, aren't you just used to being kidnapped with people using the same threat then? I guessed it doesn't bother you that I also know your mother's remarriage, huh?"

Snap.

Aquamarine eyes sparked up with anger and pale lips curved up into a scowl. Naturally impassive voice turned ruthless as Alice hissed out with malice, her every bit control slipping at the mention of sensitive topics. "I don't fucking care what happened to you for you to be so annoying today but if you think I'll just stand, you've got another thing coming. See you, Aniki. You can cook for your own food, too. I'm not eating nor cooking."

She left the other by himself, stomping her feet angrily as she walked to her room and shut herself with a bang.

"Ah, she snapped." Ace muttered, smirking but he couldn't bring satisfaction at being able to get the girl to lose control of her emotions. He really was so out of it this day. He narrowed his eyes in distaste at the calendar, showing the date and snarled in disgust.

"I really hate this day. It just shows how much I can also lose control over my emotions."

He sighed, thinking of the human pet that just hissed at him. 'I'm not affected by it. She's just someone that's going to leave after the one-year contract is over. She doesn't mean anything. I'm not attached.' the brunet thought, annoyed at how it sounded like a denial instead of the truth.

'I won't be affected.'

That day, Ace and Alice spoke to each with their hearts and they had broken into a fight. They ignored each other and just went with their own thing, never once glancing or talking to one another.

It continued to the next day...and for some reasons he couldn't tell, Ace was feeling tension in the house. He knew the other still hadn't notice that the two were ignoring each other. It made Ace frowned.

Why was it that he was missing something?

'Tch and I thought that Alice won't affect me.' he thought darkly. 'Heh, I'm just in denial, huh? It's better that than admit that I enjoyed the small talks we had, which was a battle of wits to get more information of the other.'

'But it seems like Alice isn't affected by this situation.' was a bitter statement that made him frown even harder.

He hated that thought. It seemed like he wanted Alice to be affected as he was. 'But that's impossible.' Ace decided by himself. 'Because Alice won't be affected if it's me. Maybe if it's Black, White or Boris, she will but not when it's me.'

Now, he was getting angry at the three aliens when they hadn't anything to him. It was ridiculous! Everything that concerned Alice made him lose control of his emotions.

He had thought he stayed distant to the girl but it didn't appear to matter. The blonde just made Ace drawn to her. She made it so easy to be attached, especially with how she was the only female, who can prove to be challenging.

'If I can just kill her...then, I wouldn't be getting these emotions. But I can't even think of killing her when I'm feeling something for her. Tch, I'm blaming all to this to Black.'

'If he hadn't brought Alice, I wouldn't have to meet her and get to know her. I wouldn't have been attracted to the girl. I wouldn't have something that makes me lose control. Fuck Black. Fuck Alice. Fuck life. They're all out to get me.'

...

The first one to notice the distance was White and he confronted Ace, not Alice. The red-haired alien knew that he couldn't win an argument with Alice. Boris had proven that fact so White chose to try to win Ace over instead.

To say, Ace was stubborn, was an understatement. He was proving to be more obstinate than Alice, which was saying since the little girl was so stubborn, she won every debate.

"Ace, can't you at least try to talk to Alice if you aren't going to tell what's wrong?" White urged his cousin with a tight smile. "You do feel the tension in the house, don't you? It's kind of hard not to notice, you know...with how you two are not talking and all..."

"What are you talking about?" Ace smiled innocently and laughed off his concern. "There's no tension really. I'm just too busy to talk to Alice."

One red eye raised an eyebrow. "You mean, too busy moping?" the eye-patched alien hit the nail sarcastically, turning his cousin stiff with anxiety. "I understand that you have no control that time since it's that date but Alice is staying with us for a year... You need to be civil at least."

Ace said nothing but the way his lips curved down, White sighed. It seemed like Alice and Ace were both too stubborn for their own good.

"Just try talking okay?" he asked the brunet pleadingly and left with frown. He closed his eye and thought to himself. 'The way things are... It seems like Alice is becoming closer to us than we think. If it were somebody else, I don't think I'd react like this. Even if Alice is our pet, I can just ignore the tension as long as Ace doesn't kill her...'

White opened his eye and glanced at his room. '...yet, I choose to get involved...' he ended grimly.

Ace was no better than him with his emotions to the girl. "Try to talk to her?" his voice surrounded his quiet room and his red eyes glowed in cynicism. "If I did, I will get more attached to her... My control will be harder to maintain."

However, he did try to talk to the girl, only to get avoided. He had already told her that he knew her family so Alice was suspicious in what he would be talking now.

This then lead to Black—who was quite annoyed at the awkwardness in the air—and Boris—who had just visited the girl to annoy her—noticing the tension in the house. It also leaded to them talking to Alice—or more precisely, complaining to her.

"Fucking Brat." Black shouted to the little blonde as Boris pounced said girl into a tight embrace. "Ali-chan!"

Alice lightly groaned in annoyance. Of the three other aliens she had thought would come to her and talk to her about Ace, these two together were not in her list. Just stuck with one was frustrating enough. Stuck with two was the worst.

"What do you guys want?" she asked innocently, playing oblivious like a certain brunet and tried to pry the younger looking alien off of her. In all honesty, she and Ace were a lot common than Alice had wanted to admit.

"You're not fucking getting out of this, brat." Black said, his eye twitching in anger. He had personally been calling her "brat" as soon as he realized that the little girl didn't like being treated as a child.

"The tension in the house is just really too much, Ali-chan." on the other hand, Boris just liked calling the nickname Ace usually called her. Somehow, the familiarity of the name was making Alice edgy.

However, Alice said nothing to their statements. Of course, she had noticed. It wasn't hard to when she knew she was one of the cause of it. She just never bothered with it, too busy being caution around Ace.

"Don't fucking play innocent with me! The whole thing is damn annoying so stop whatever shit's going on with you and fucking make up with the bastard!" the red-haired twin snapped and watched as the lone human turned her poker face on.

"Alice, you have to understand that this is not just affecting you two. It affects everyone here, including me even when I don't live here." Boris said seriously when the blank face was presented. "You can realize how serious it is that even I am affected. That's why you should talk to Ace again."

"I'm not affected so it doesn't matter." Alice lied stubbornly. It did affect her. She missed their little game of finding information about each other and it made her angry at herself. She didn't want to be affected because it just meant she was getting closer to her kidnappers than she had planned.

The two aliens gave her one look that clearly said they didn't believe a word she had said.

"Did Ace mention about knowing your family or something?" Boris finally asked what he really wanted to ask and frowned when Alice went stiff. "Is that why you're avoiding him?"

Realization came to Black's eye and he cursed his cousin. "That fucking bastard...He should have just fucking told you about his damn ability from the start or keep his mouth shut." he muttered under his breath and then, turned to Alice with a fixed glare. "Oi, damn brat, listen well."

Alice stared at him blankly but there was a slight a surprise when she noticed Black was wearing a serious look. Boris just stayed quiet in the background.

"That bastard has the fucking ability to get the basic information of someone he meets but it doesn't fucking mean he damn know all the shit of everyone he meets. He only fucking gets basic information, the age, birthday, parents, sibling, step family, phobias, etc. He can't get the damn information like favorite color, pets, reasons of phobias, reasons of other families, dark pasts, etc."

Black closed his single eye.

"But with just fucking basic information, Ace can give shitting theories of what happens. He actually fucking rubbed it in my face that he fucking had theories of my damn past last year. I was so close to killing that fucking bastard."

"So why are you telling me this?"

The eye-patched alien looked pointedly at her. "You're just fucking paranoid if Ace damn knows your fucking past, right? So now, that you fucking know he's not, fix the damn shitting tension on the house!"

Alice winced at the loud voice while Boris merely glanced at her. It was probably the first time she had done something like that. Now that he thought of it, Alice seemed to be giving more reactions than her poker face lately.

"Well, even if you still don't listen, we're going to force you two to just do that." the reddish pink-haired alien bluntly gave the threat and watched as the little female spared her a look that clearly meant what he had just revealed.

Giving two sadistic laugh of their own, Black and Boris watched Alice in knowingly. For good reasons, Alice gave a cold shiver from her back.

That was not a good sign. The last time these two did something, the shopping district was destroyed and everyone was fully covered with paint that would only wear off after a week.

...

Alice shared a look at Ace when they're stuck in a locked small room together.

Well, this was awkward.

Of all the things Alice imagined Black and Boris would do, being straightforward and locking her and Ace in one room with no keys and door were not on her mind. Speaking of which, how could the door even disappear just with a poof?!

"Haha, Boris used his powers!" Ace laughed merrily like he wasn't one bit affected that he was stuck with the human, who caused him to lose control of his emotions. "Man, they're really serious in fixing this~"

"Don't act dumb, Aniki. The tension is clearly leaking that even those aliens outside don't dare to come in." Alice put her hands on her mouth as her eyes narrowed in annoyance. She hadn't meant to speak of their problem as if it affected her.

"So what do you what me to do?" Ace narrowed his eyes as well. "And aren't you supposed to be impassive about things like this?"

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't."

Red pair of orbs blinked in confusion...and dark delight? Alice raised an eyebrow before continuing with a long sigh. She had already started with this petty talking of the truth so she might as well just get it over with.

"I hate feeling like this but you guys really did manage to move my heart." Alice lightly spat at the words, feeling angry at herself for getting attached. "I hate it more than anything else. That's why I want distance. You snapping at me just gave me the chance to do just that. I don't like attachments."

Ace watched the little mortal in front of her. He wanted to laugh really at the irony of the situation. This girl here was a lot like him. She was so similar. It both annoyed and amused him.

'Heh, so much for keeping or wanting distance...with that kind of confession, how can I not understand this girl? How can I not sympathize with her? How can I keep distance now?' he thought, mocking himself. 'Well, let's just see how things would work out.'

"I don't like attachments, too." pair of aquamarine eyes bored daggers in his head but Ace didn't paid attention to it. "We can just act civil, you know... That way, the others won't do something like this again."

With narrowed eyes, Alice slowly nodded in agreement. "But on one condition, don't speak of this conversation ever again."

"Oh? Why not, Ali-chan? Here, I thought your condition would be about your past." Ace smiled teasingly like his old self and added in his thoughts only. 'And not like I want to. Talks like this are simply just annoying, even if they fix personal problems.'

"You'll still be trying to get information to me so what's the point?" the ten-year-old girl deadpanned. "You have the right to be curious about me as I have the right to be curious about you guys."

"You're curious about us?" Ace blinked. He had never noticed it at all.

No answer and was it just him or did her pale skin flushed a little?

The brunet could feel his mouth threatening to curve up a grin. It was definitely a different reaction to what Ace was used to. Not that he was complaining, he was rather smug about it.

It never occurred to him that he liked seeing an Alice only he knew. That it was becoming a sign that he had growing feelings.

"What was that about you having an ability to get any basic information by just meeting someone and about Boris using his powers?"

'Avoiding the question, huh?' the brunet kept a pleased grin before he answered, still feeling smug. "Remember that even if we look like humans, we are still aliens. Super strength, hearing, eyesight, high senses and special abilities...we have them all."

"I see..." Alice glanced at him. "Can you tell me more about your ability?"

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Not going to ask about the others?" he asked and the blonde shook her head. "It isn't your duty to tell, Brother."

If Ace noticed the different naming or the softening of the eyes, he didn't ask.

"Anyway, I guess I can tell you about my ability. It's really simple. I just received the basic info of someone I met, by chance or not, even when it's a one-time thing. There's also the case where by just knowing the name, I can get information. Such a dull ability if you ask me..."

"I don't think so." Ace raised an eyebrow at what Alice said. "It's useful. Having information and knowledge is something I think is more powerful than strength. You can use what you know of your enemy to break their souls and mind, to make their give up, and to push them to insanity."

The brunet looked at Alice, who stared back with blankness in her eyes. 'Back to being indifferent already? If I didn't know better, I'd think this person is not Alice. She never seemed to care about them or anything.' he thought silently before inwardly, smacking himself. 'Great. I'm getting more curious. Damn!'

"Right." was the only thing he said and it was awarded with silence. He wasn't so sure if the atmosphere was tense or comfortable at all.

Alice moved around the room and looked around. Mostly, she stared at the wall clock beside the door. It was already 3 o'clock in the afternoon and they still hadn't gotten out yet.

"Hey..." Alice broke the silence and Ace looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Wanna play 20 Questions?"

"What's that?" the alien received a deadpanned look as if to ask if he was insane to not know the game. Ace held out a hand in defeat. "Alien here, remember? And yeah, my ability doesn't work on human terms apparently."

"Didn't you have other human pets who told you of the game?" seeing that he did not answer, Alice sighed and explained plainly. "20 Questions is a guessing game. There are one answerer and one questioner needed for the game. Maybe, there can be more questioners but I'm used to that number."

"The answerer picks an object but does not reveal it to the others and the questioner tries to guess the object by asking a question answered by "yes" or "no". Sometimes, the answer can be "maybe". So are you in with the game?"

Ace thought for a second and grinned. "Sure!" he replied, not seeing anything wrong with it. He was stuck with Alice so he might as well enjoy it.

"Okay, let's start with choosing who's the answerer or questioner." Alice formed a fist and asked Ace to do the same. He did the same and suddenly, Alice let a small grin.

"Jan-ken-pon!"

She opened her hand with fingers extended and touching and Ace watched in confusion. He also didn't know that game as well.

"Well, since your hand is a rock and mine's a paper. You lose so you're the questioner!"

"Wait, what?!" the alien didn't really like guessing whatever the little girl had in mind. He didn't even know why he lost.

Alice hummed softly. "You really should research about games in Earth. Anyway, let's get a move on with 20 Questions. I'll explain "jan-ken-pon" later." she promised, hiding the fact that she really just disliked being the questioner so she used Ace's lack of knowledge in the game to win and be the answerer instead.

"Let's begin~!"

It took almost the entire day before White, Black and Boris let them out of the room and in those hours, they talked about everything that was on their minds. They also played other games than 20 Questions.

In the end, Alice and Ace didn't answer how the talking went whenever the three asked. It wasn't the other's part to know and seeing how tension was already gone between the two, the other three aliens backed down in asking.

Ace would deny it really but he thought for a second his alien heart skipped a beat, knowing that their talk was theirs. It was their little secret...and theirs alone.

Cat: Not my greatest work... But at least, I'm finished! Good. Now, I won't have tension between those two though I fear that this pairing will always have the theme "serious denial". And before you ask, I really don't want to keep Alice impassive all the time. I think I want her to let her have other feelings. Since I'm done with Ace, who do you guys think will be the next?