Alice-Edward Labyrinth OOM

[themidnightson]

Edward has a penchant for being irritably snappish and ruefully quieter given the month.

Which means, when he isn't attempting to hold face he's usually alone in his room or Carlisle's study.

On the rare occasions when he needs quieter companionship, for better or worse come the discussion time (or the sharing of "opinions"), he finds himself in the Freaks Only closet with Alice. Today is one of those days. School that day was maddening and his near constant struggle over Bella had him fed up with thinking before he'd finished the days classes, leading him to snap at his siblings before even getting home.

Edward shifted his hands under his head, fingers plaited in his hair, and continued to study the ceiling beam as though his gaze might burn it. The only sound for the better part of the evening was of Alice's sketching, but Edward hadn't looked at it (except through her eyes). It usually didn't bother him -- today it did. Today everything did.

He had considering a number of semi-reckless things. Watching certain ones dance into and out of her thoughts. While she hadn't commented, it didn't stop her from making faces or glancing at him. He stopped the more outlandish ones after she gave a forced sigh and poked him hard in the shoulder with her pencil.

Now he was thinking about Milliways and whether he should simply escape to there for a few hours. He had been meaning to go explore certain areas there. Perhaps, Emmett would like that.

Edward glanced, peripherally. Or maybe...

Comments

[betagainstme]

She tossed the pencil to the side, the bracelet on her wrist glinting. "The sketches can hold. They will not go bad...or out of fashion so quickly."

[themidnightson]

Edward canted his head, freeing one hand to ruffle his hair. The idea of a fight and a meal and letting go was far more than tempting.

"The door?"

[betagainstme]

Alice stilled again, slumped in her seat, her fingers loose on her sketchbook. "It's appeared...in the downstairs bathroom."

She quirked her brow at the silliness of it. Perhaps one day, we'll get an anchored door.

[themidnightson]

Edward snorted. Of all the places.

It liked rooms they didn't need.

"That would be convenient."


He was up without even a second passing for the movement, with a hand held out to help her up. Not that he would ever be implying she needed it.

[betagainstme]

She set her sketchbook down with deliberate care. No one bothered to enter this room besides Edward and herself, but it didn't mean she couldn't still treat everything in here like it was a special secret.

It was, after all.

Alice took his hand, lifting herself up with a smirk. She's excited, to get to go back there with Edward, with someone who likes the place. Jasper's trying, she knew (the bracelet he'd given her from some woman at the Bar flashes accusingly at her again), but it wasn't the same as the excitement of exploring.

Especially the labyrinth. She smiled brightly, stepping lightly to the door as she dropped his hand. C'mon!

[themidnightson]

Edward did give the bracelet a pointedly curios look as she walked through the door. "New accessory from around time and space?"

[betagainstme]

"Jasper got it for me." She said softly, looking down at the amethyst gems. "He's trying."

That doesn't mean she's about to announce their plans to explore the labyrinth to the rest of the household. Jasper will find out when she's back and be suitably annoyed with her, she's sure.

After lightly stepping to the bathroom in the hall, her hand closed over the handle and she turns it, already the futures of her family fading out of her mind. She pulled and stepped through, waiting for Edward to follow her.

[themidnightson]

He follows easily, quickly, behind her, slipping behind her and catching the handle of the door from her as he passed in. It closes silently behind them.

"He came back without you?"

As much as the note of worry is covered, there is a note of something pleased. That Jasper really is trying.

[betagainstme]

"Yes." She turned to look up at her brother, her smile proud. "He did."

Alice watched the people in the Bar for a moment, her breathing slower. Do you know where the labyrinth exactly is?

[themidnightson]

Edward smiled very, very, very, very faintly. The first time since possibly his family seeing him in the morning, before the day just turned black in his reference.

That was good news.

He nodded his head toward the back door as he kept an easy step with her. "In the mountains, hidden near a cave."

[betagainstme]

Alice nudged his side as they walked, nodding. "I have only ever gone to the lake. I knew there was a lot out there, but mountains and caves...it's still so new. And exciting."

[themidnightson]

Edward nudged her back, expression loosening.

His families voices and their stress faded, except for Alice, and then a new world of people he didn't need to focus or care about. The relief almost visible in the gait of his steps.

"I haven't made it that far." He pushed the door open, looking at the gray-white sky. Lucky them. He pointed toward the mountains, before he said, with a quiet almsot laugh. "Race you?"

[betagainstme]

The words barely left his mouth before she reached to nudge him again before running for the mountains.

It was only fair, of course, that she got a head-start. Edward was much faster than she was.

[themidnightson]

He laughed and gave a calm whistle, looking at the sky counting to about five, when he could barely see her in distance.

Then he took off. The thoughts from the bar dwindled from his focus and he smiled in spite of the shackles of his moon being unchanged. The wind ruffled over his clothes and through his hair.

The world around him a blur of green and gray, perfectly clear and ignorable as he started easily graining on his sister.

[betagainstme]

Alice loved this part, the running, the whipping through the air. It felt like she was flying and she stretched her arms out as she moved. She could hear him, feel him, see him gaining on her and she never once cared, not really.

A laugh escaped her and she glanced to the side as he evened with her before pulling ahead until they reached the mountains. She would pout if she could stop grinning. "Hmph."

[themidnightson]

When they both stopped at a perfect stand still, looking as perfectly unrumpled as if they'd walked or just reappeared, Edward was glowing as he laughed and looking around at the mountain.

Another good thing about Milliways.

Wide, open spaces with no one.

"That way," he pointed toward a break in the earliest rises, flicking through the thoughts Bonzo had had about arriving there. "It should be around here somewhere."

[betagainstme]

Alice nodded, smiling a little wider at Edward's laugh, his easier smiles. She loved it when he was like this, easy-going and fun to be around. His moodiness was a drag.

"Okay." Alice nodded, traipsing toward the vague path. After a moment she cocked her head at him. "Edward, what sort of monsters does this labyrinth contain?"

[themidnightson]

"Snakes, insects, monsters," Edward listed, giving a teasing tone of voice on the last word. "Rooms that try to kill you at every turn. There was a blizzard room, and a meadow. A forest. Waterfall."

He seemed to be thinking even as he walked.

Jasper wouldn't like it - nor would Rosalie, and possibly not Carlisle given the possible risk in the unknown - but Alice was fully capable of making her own choices.

"This doesn't look right, but I think this is it." Edward had stopped before a large stone with the symbol of Δ on, before a copse of trees. "He saw that symbol right before he went in."

[betagainstme]

Jasper was going to be ridiculously pissed at Edward for this...and at Alice. It was a little nerve-wracking, the idea of this place, but she could make the unknown known.


And if that failed, there was always Edward to help her. Alice never really got the chance to protect herself, to see how far she could push herself, someone was always there to do it for her. This would be thrilling.

Alice ran her finger over the symbol, looking into the dark trees. "Okay. Brothers first. If you get eaten first, I'll know not to go that way."

:D?

[themidnightson]

"Afraid, little miss I can see everything?"

Edward was half twisted, walking in but backwards as he looked at her, voice turned to teasing. It was easy not to even realize he wasn't thinking about other topics when this felt just so natural -- so normal.

"I could still take you back home?"

He was smirking but still headed into the trees walking backwards.

[betagainstme]

"I will find a way to hurt you." Alice glared at him coolly. "I'm not afraid for me, I'm afraid of what Jasper's gonna do to you when he finds out."

She shrugged, grinning, following him in. "Keep your eyes forward. I'd hate to see you trip."

[themidnightson]

"No, you'd love it. I'd never live it down, even if you couldn't prove it," Edward snorted. Before adding, with a flourish of a smirk, as he glanced over his shoulder, "He knows you can take care of yourself."

Jasper was just old fashioned like that.

They all knew Alice could be a creepy little monster when it came down to it. And they wouldn't have had that any other way either.

The trees had grown thick, almost into a thicket of color which drew them deeper and deeper inside it. somewhere along the way merging themselves into walls and into a passage that took them deeper, intensifying the scent of earth and echoing sounds through further chambers.

[betagainstme]

"I know he knows. It won't stop him from being royally pissed off when he finds out." Alice grinned. She did feel bad for running headfirst into what might be danger without him...but she just wanted to see how it went. She wanted to take care of herself.

She wanted to be that creepy little monster.

Alice breathed in as they moved further, watching the trees. The sounds echoing around her would make her shiver if she were, well, human. "It's been a while since I've traipsed through such creepy trees."

[themidnightson]

"Europe?" Edward whispered thoughtfully, more a mouthing of the word than actual sounds, as he was looking up.

There was something like the edge of whispering voice just out of range against his mind, which came and went. Snagging his attention for a couple of seconds.

The trees melded entirely in the room and then stopped before a large door.It looked ironically like someone's movie dungeon door.

[betagainstme]

Europe, Alice agreed, oblivious to the voices in Edward's head. She tilted her head at the door and frowned, pursing her lips. The futures were fuzzy right now, not spooling out like thread, but tangling together and fading out.

She shook her head and glanced at her brother, her hand on the door. No where to go but forward...