Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
It was the middle of the night, but I could hear arguing voices and it was beginning to worry me. I poked my head out of my room with a frown, my eyebrows together in confusion. Though I couldn't see anyone, it sounded like it was coming from the front door. I grabbed a sweater to starve off the cool air and stepped out of my room in pursuit of the voices.
                          
"Not right now. For crying out loud, it's almost one in the morning," I heard Chesh say, sounding tired and annoyed.
                          
Careful not to be seen, I looked around the corner. Cheshire was standing at the front door. I couldn't see who he was talking to since his body was covering them, but they must have been shorter than him. Not Rab or Hatter since I'd have seen either ears or a hat. Maybe Mouse, more likely March, though.
                          
"Come on! Please? We just got away from Mouse!" a young voice said.
                          
A slightly different voice, but close in pitch, agreed with the first, "Yeah! We wanted to talk to her earlier, but she ran off too fast," he complained.
                          
Realization washed over me. He was talking to the twins. Holding my sweater tight to my body, I walked out into the living room. "What's going on?" I asked.
                          
Chesh jumped at my voice and turned around. "Damn, Alice. You scared the crap out of me," he said. He tried to close the door firmly. "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it. Just go back to bed."
                          
I was about to walk back to my room, sulky from the dismissal, but tired enough not to care, when the twins suddenly burst past Cheshire and ran towards me. "Wow!" they said in unison. "She's so different than we thought she'd be!" 
                          
One of them grabbed my left hand and the other grabbed my right. "So, You're Alice? The one we've been waiting for?" the one on my left asked.
                          
"I bet the queen flipped when you told her you were a guy!" the other said. "You totally fooled her!"
                          
I frowned as I became overwhelmed. I wasn't awake enough to comprehend their excitement. "What? Slow down a little," I said.
                          
They didn't seem to hear me, or maybe they just didn't know how to be slow, and they kept talking. "You were so awesome!" They giggled and hopped up and down as they held my hands. "You're super brave for a girl too! I thought all girls were wimps, but you're really cool!"
                          
My frown turned to slight annoyance as my less-than-functional brain filled in the gaps of their sentences with implications. "Excuse me?" I said.
                          
The twins both grinned up at me, expectation in their eyes. They seemed to want an answer or something, but I didn't even know what was going on. Without much else to say, I stared blankly at them, my eyes flitting between the two. They glanced at each other and one of them snickered. "She's cute when she's flustered," he whispered to the other. 
                          
Before I could even process the fact that my gender was being misinterpreted yet again, Cheshire stepped in to my rescue. "Dee. Dum. Watch your manners," Chesh cut in. He pulled them away from me. "He's still tired from this afternoon," he said.
                          
They stared at him. Then they stared at me. They blinked at me with wide, confused eyes. Then they spoke at the same time "He?" they asked.
                          
Cheshire nodded, shuffling them towards the door. "That's right: he. Now, please. It's late and he needs to get some rest before tomorrow's meeting," Cheshire said.
                          
Forgetting their confusion, the twins pouted. "Aw! At least let us talk to him," they begged. They pulled away from Chesh before he could tell them no again and ran back up to me. I leaned back as they grabbed my hands again and got right in front of my face. "So, are you really the Alice from the legends? The one who's gonna give the queen a taste of her own medicine?"
                          
My throat swelled with fear and Cheshire took that as the cue to get them the hell out of his house. He grabbed their arms and hauled them back towards the front door, this time holding them tight enough they couldn't get away. "Out. Now. I'll let you interrogate him all you want tomorrow," he said.
                          
The twins whined and turned to give him looks of disappointment. "Come on, Cheshire!" they pleaded like children. "Just a few more minutes."
                          
Cheshire all but shoved them out the door. "Off you go," he said. "Get some sleep before the meeting and come back tomorrow."
                          
They turned to try and protest, but he had already closed the door. With a heavy, exaggerated sigh, Cheshire turned back around. He seemed to have forgotten I was there until he made eye-contact with me and stopped short. He looked wary for a moment and quickly walked past me. "Sorry to wake you," he said as he passed.
                          
I watched him go into his own room with raised eyebrows. He had seemed more than reluctant to talk to me. An urge I couldn't explain made me walk over to his door and put my ear close, listening. I could hear shuffling around and muttered swear words as he did something on the other side; he was definitely not sleeping.
                          
My hand hovered in front of the door for a second as I considered knocking before I shook my head and stepped away, walking back to my room. He probably wouldn't talk to me. He'd been avoiding me since we got back and it appeared he wasn't ready to stop now. When I entered my room, I closed the door quietly so as not to be heard. He said he wasn't mad at me, but he sure acted like he was. The only time my mom would give me the silent treatment was if I had disobeyed her and done something wrong. This felt the same.
                          
I sat down on my bed feeling a heavy weight on my shoulder. I didn't want him to be mad at me, I still had so many questions that needed answers. I couldn't ask him about anything when he was acting like this. It would only make things more awkward or worse.
                          
My mind flashed back to the kiss from the evening before and I blushed as I wondered what it had meant. It hadn't felt like his usual teases, making me feel flustered and upset. It felt like it had meant something more than that. 
                          
My face burned hard as images of thing popped into my head. Questions like 'Is it love?' or 'Could it be he loves me?' fluttered around in my mind and I shoved my face into a pillow, shaking my head in denial. He had no such feelings for m, nor I for him. I was just looking at it all too deep. It was probably nothing. He'd probably just been tired or confused and I shouldn't meddle with it. I should just leave things well enough alone.
                          
*******
                          
Cheshire closed his door with a sigh. He couldn't look at Alice. Deep down, Chesh knew Alice would ask about the kiss if he gave him time to talk, so he was avoiding him. Not even Cheshire had an answer for the kiss, it had just sort of happened and then when it was over, Cheshire had bailed because he had been afraid of what Alice would say. 
                          
Cheshire paced his room, walking back and forth with a deep frown. He needed to keep his distance. He was as close as he needed to be, any closer and things would teeter from a perfect balance to a plummet. It would be bad if Cheshire became too attached to things he knew he couldn't have.
                          
Suddenly, his ears picked up a noise and Cheshire's eyes slanted at the door. Alice was standing outside his door. Cheshire could hear his breathing and see the shadow at the bottom of the door frame. Rationally, Chesh new Alice had noticed his distance. He waited nervously for Alice to open the door or knock, but after a second, footsteps retreated from the door and Cheshire heard the sound of Alice's bedroom door closing a few moments later.
                          
That had been a surprise and Cheshire almost walked over to look out his door, half expecting to see Alice still fidgeting nervously as he thought of how to ask his questions. Cheshire couldn't be so close to Alice right now. He needed to clear his head. After waiting a few minutes in the silence to make sure Alice was back in bed, Cheshire slipped out of his room and out the front door.

                          
*******

                          
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