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giftapfelina · 6 years ago

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A Very Merry Unbirthday

Chapter 2: Madhouse

I hate mornings.

Even as the effects of sleep has faded away, the thought whirls around Lorina’s fuzzy head. Poking the fluffy texture of scrambled eggs with her finger, she stares accusingly at her sister’s back.

Apparently, her dear sister, Edith, finds it’s a brilliant idea to scream into Lorina’s ear while she is asleep. While it effectively does prove to be the best wake-up call, Edith disregards the fact that it almost gives Lorina a heart attack and sends her to kingdom come.

Lorina closes her eyes tiredly, letting her finger slips further into the breakfast.

There’s the sound of bird chirpings, greeting the first break of dawn.

There’s the faint barking of an enthusiastic dog from afar; probably the baker’s son taking his golden receiver out for its usual, morning walk.

There’s the chattering of a couple, who live in the cottage across theirs, stomp about, slam doors as they hurry for their daily morning routine.

Lorina is about to be lulled back to sleep when Edith gives her nose a well-aimed flick.

“Ow! What was that for?” protests Lorina, cupping the reddening spot. Edith stands there, grinning. “For sleeping on me. Didn’t you hear what I was talking about?”

“Should I?” Lorina fakes interest, looking out the nearest window and seriously considering jumping out of it.

“Of course!” cries Edith passionately, jumping into Lorina’s line of vision. The grimacing girl, however, could almost see hearts in Edith’s eyes—that could only mean one thing. “I was talking about the formal audience. The Red Army is scouting for King Lancelot’s dance partner!”

Lorina let out a heavy sigh. “I sincerely hope something hinders you from going.”

“Don’t you start!” Edith jumps her sister, shaking the girl violently. “You already cursed me last year! I was coughing my guts out because you forbade me from meeting the love of my life!”

The look Lorina gives Edith is absolutely dead-pan. She’s dead exhausted; last night, she had to clean up the mess that Kyle dude had unintentionally left, while at the same time a certain hatter was being a total jerkass. Adding to that, the lack of sleep has her temper on short fuse.

“I’m done. It’s too early to deal with this,” she claims, moving to get up, but the firm grip on her shoulder tells her otherwise.

Edith continues to smile sweetly at the taller girl. The sparkle in her eyes indicates any other objections will henceforth forever fall on deaf ears. “Lorina~”

“No, I refuse,” Lorina says immediately, not needing to know what kind of task her insane sister would demand. Her hands are already grabbing the threshold to shake the girl off but Edith is equally if not more relentless.

“Can you let go?” Lorina asks impatiently when Edith begins to grasp the hem of her pants, not letting her sister leave. At least not without having her dignity in tatters.

“Let go.”

Before they know it, Edith is dragging Lorina through the bustling streets of the Central Quarter. The Chattaway sisters look exceptionally beautiful, as they are now clothed in ones of their best clothes.

In the beginning, Lorina did try to make a run for it, but Edith was no easy match as she forced Lorina into the dress.

Lorina glances over at her sister. They may be siblings, but Lorina has always felt Edith is the more favoured one. While Lorina prioritizes hard work, Edith would charm her way to the top. Even her hair shines radiantly, quickly catching the eyes of men around her.

The older sibling looks down at the peachy hand wrapped around her more tanned one, watching in a daze as their family heirloom—a silver bracelet dangling innocently around Edith’s wrist.

Lorina unknowingly furrows her eyebrows.

Unbeknownst to the girls, a man is observing them from afar. He isn’t the most striking chap out there, yet the lithe young man with a genuine smile and prominent cheeks is exactly what people see—the only son and heir to the aristocratic Godspeed family.

“Fenrir, what is it?” a sandy-haired girl approaches him, noticing the hint of fondness in his eyes.

There was a time where one of the Chattaway sisters used to joke how dazzling Fenrir Godspeed’s smile was. So dazzling that he could blind an entire squad of bullies. Ever since then, the two girls have been important figures in his youth.

“Oh, just saw some friendly faces,” says Fenrir offhandedly, smiling.

The girl looks over his shoulder, seeing only the back of a black-haired girl, disappearing in the direction of the Red Bridge.

“As I just said, state your business.”

It isn’t uncommon there are biased, anecdotal views of the Red Army. As a neutral Cradle resident, Lorina tries not to get involved with politics. And she does this by not taking sides, but at the moment, the Red Army is making it hard not to.

Particularly this gate guard, who pulls out the inspection card on Edith and her. Lorina assumes it’s because they don’t appear ‘trustworthy’ enough.

Talk about power abuse, Lorina thinks sourly.

“I told you, we’re simply going to attend the interview,” insists Edith, though she too is beginning to lose patience. “Please let us through.”

“Last time a commoner is let into the headquarters, we were reduced to humiliation by that lowlife Ace of Spades,” says the man, gritting his teeth in reminiscent anger.

Lorina smirks smugly. She’d have to thank a certain gun-wielding maniac for that. “Why? It’s not our fault that you’re not trained well,” she retaliates dully, ignoring the nudge Edith sends her as well as the soldier’s hostile once-over. “Look, buddy; sooner or later, you’ve to let us in.”

“Or what?” his hand inches closer to his sword.

“Cause I really need to pee, like right now.”

There’s a taut pause, and then the man splutters. “Y-you’re kidding, right?”

“On the contrary, good sir! My sister has a rather small bladder,” chimes Edith, clueless to his flustered expression. “But she’s rather good at aiming! Would you like a demonstration?”

“No, thank you!” the blushing soldier has all but screamed. “You’re free to go inside!”

“You sure?” asks Lorina, hands lifting the hem of her skirt up, revealing her ankles. That manages to scare him as he takes a huge step back, frantically dismissing them.

The ladies then casually continue their way, the disturbed look of the soldier following their retreating forms. Once they are out of view, Edith glomps Lorina, forcing kisses on each of her cheeks. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! See, I told you coming here would do you good! Breathing the same air as King Lancelot clears your head! Amazing, isn’t it?”

Lorina begrudgingly rubs her cheeks. “Your number of thank yous is amazing.”

“Oh, look at the time! We need to hurry!” When Edith tries to grab Lorina, Lorina swiftly dodges her hand.

“You go on,” Lorina indicates at the head entrance, where a cluster of girls is gathering. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I had to pee.”

Edith has a disbelieving look on her face. “Again? You and your unavoidable visits to every restroom…Alright, meet me somewhere in the middle of the queue. Hear me? Don’t you dare run away!”

With a dismissive wave, Lorina hurries away in search of the restroom.

Lorina somehow manages to give herself an unprompted tour of the place. It’s definitely not her first time at the luxurious barrack of the Red Army, yet she can’t seem to recall the way leading to the ladies’ room.

“Why the heck do they have so many rooms?” Lorina mumbles to herself as she trudges along one of the halls. The sound of her footsteps is muffled by the richly-carpeted floors. Paintings of previous Kings and Queens adorn the walls, making her feel as if she is being watched by their expressionless eyes.

In her haste to get away from the creepy ‘hall of fame’, Lorina rounds a corner too quickly that she almost run into a surprised pair of blue eyes. With a gasp, the brunette narrowly avoids bumping smack dab into the person.

Their eyes meet, and Lorina swears her heart has skipped a beat.

Edith will be jealous when she hears this.

“Who are you?” asks the King of Hearts, narrowing his eyes. “This side of the building is off-limits to visitors.”

Lorina has a feeling that if he doesn’t like the answer, there will be serious consequences. Everything, from his polished shoes and his cape to the tip of his blond hair, just emits an air of authority.

She straightens immediately, praising herself for not sweating buckets under his steely gaze. “King Lancelot, sir, I seem to have lost my way from the crowd,” she inwardly flinches at the increasing falsetto in her voice. “Would you happen to know the way to the restroom?”

A dawning look flickers across his face, softening his gaze a bit. “Ah—you must be one of the girls who is being scouted for the dance…”

Lorina’s face reddens slightly at that. “Uh…it’s very unlikely that I will be chosen for that but yeah, that’s…the idea.”

It must be hard to evoke emotions in this bloke of ice, but at the moment Lorina barely manages to detect the tiniest smile forming on the corners of his lips. “If you walk down the hallway from here, you’ll see the ladies room on your right side.”

“Ah…cool—I mean, that’s good to know,” Lorina grimaces in a sad attempt to smile. “Thank you, your majesty.”

“Yeah.” Lorina pointedly ignores the brief shiver running down her back as she hightails out of there. He has a nice voice.

Thump! Thump!

The several bangs on the door surprise Lorina. Scowling at the reflection of the door, she aggressively wipes her dripping, wet face, deciding that the person knocking can just wait for a minute or two.

“Hello? Hello! Open up!”

Lorina flinches at the very masculine voice before strutting over to the door, unlocking it. “Hey, this is the ladies’ room!”

There’s a blur of red, and Lorina finds herself being shoved back by the sheer force of the opening door. She trips and lands, hard, on the floor, causing her elbows to ache in protest from the fall.

Pristine, white trousers scuffle into the room. And as Lorina raises her head, she sees that they belong to—

“Kyle? Kyle Ash?”

Kyle pauses and looks down. He has just caught sight of Lorina, who is still laying on the ground, looking nothing less of vulnerable with how she is displayed to him. “What’re you doing down there?” he asks dumbly.

Her face is twitching, and she abruptly sits up, annoyed. “What’s it look like I’m doing? You pushed me! Jeez, what’s with you and making my life difficult?”

Kyle openly stares at her for a moment before offering a hand. He is evaluating his chances of a harmless exchange of pleasantries as she accepts his hand, when—

“You work here? Does your employer know of your tendencies to puke everywhere you see fit?”

The redhead feels his lips thinning. “If you’re still angry about yesterday, I told you I’m sorry, didn’t I?”

Lorina, however, makes as though she doesn’t hear him. “So why are you hiding in here, may I ask?”

Resigned, Kyle indicates at the door. “Just don’t let them catch you.”

Making a show of rolling her eyes, she pushes past him and looks through the small opening. All along the corridor, armed soldiers are rushing around, faces alert and wary.

“Apparently someone thinks it’s a genius move to douse Jonah with tea,” chuckles Kyle from behind. “So—our Queen, being his majestic, forgiving self, decides to..uh…I quote ’cut her fingers off and makes her eat it to rue the day she soiled his perfect hair.’”

“And that explains why you’re hiding in the ladies’ room…?”

It took a while for the ginger to consider this. “Do I look like a guy who would want to get involved in anything physical?” he deadpans.

God help me. Lorina sighs, her bangs fanning upward before resettling again over her blank eyes. “I’m getting out,” she announces, no longer bothering to keep civility. She feels like she’s going to lose a brain cell or two talking with this man.

“No,_ wait_!”

It’s too late. Lorina throws open the door, just as the soldiers are moving to the next searching location. Several pairs of eyes land on her as she stands there, expression blank, grey eyes staring aimlessly ahead.

It goes downhill from there though.

There’s a heck of lot yelling, quickly followed by blades pointing at the tip of her hair to her toes. Quite literally.

The girl nervously smiles, feeling a trickle of sweat on her spine. “H-hi.”

It is then, that another gentleman marches forward, the rest of the soldiers moving out of his way in synchronization. His steps are quiet, movement regal and graceful as he comes to stand before her.

“There you’re,” this man’s beautiful features contradict the condescending air that lurks beneath his amber eyes. “After the atrocious act you just pulled on me, you don’t think you can get away from it, do you?”

What’s in the blazes hell?

Before she could even defend herself, she feels the telltale clasp of something around her wrists. Looking down, Lorina isn’t sure what to make of the handcuffs securing her hands together.

“Ms Edith Chattaway, you’re hereby charged with assaulting the Queen of Hearts,” declares a Red officer. “Anything you say may or may not be used against you in a court of law.”

Her gaze turns flat. Of course.

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