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]

"Up." She repeated, moving to follow him. "Up up up--"

She broke off as she squinted at light seeping through the ivy-ceiling. "Lift me up."

She wanted to test something.

[themidnightson]

Edward glanced in the direction of the faint light in her thoughts, while he pulled her into his arms.

Forcing her upward without question and only pausing to snap toward a ivy tendril that shivered in the direction of Alice's legs while he was holding on to them.

[betagainstme]

The ivy above them recoiled away from her just like the rest had, but she didn't let it get that far. She grabbed a vine, letting it tug her up slightly, tugging Edward as long as he was holding her.

She wasn't concentrating on how to get Edward up...she was focusing on how to get the floor to not collapse on them when they were finally up again.

[themidnightson]

That was an intriguing idea.

Using it for their own purposes now.

It was a strange sensation, being lifted, the ivy curling and coiling and coming slightly closer because it coiled into the places they left. Yet it never coiled around them again. Shivered under their grasp. Upward seemed the good direction.

There air kept moving past them. The coils of smoke thinning into wisps as they got further from the bottom.

[betagainstme]

Alice bit her lip as the ivy dragged her (and Edward, by proxy) to the wall, and up to the little window in the wall. She cursed, lightly, under her breath as she crawled through (the ivy took care of Edward at this point, suitably chastised by angry vampire teeth) and dropped lightly to the ground, leaning against the wall with a sigh.


Ivy is on her list.

[themidnightson]

"No more ivy covered English cottages," Edward muttered, words in a fierce rush so quiet it would have been a two second hum to anyone human.

The room they were in now looked like a paradise.

There was the sound of birds and a water falling and flowing somewhere beyond the stunning green emerald trees with round jewel bright fruit.

[betagainstme]

Alice ran her hand over the grass before she stood, her fingers going over the tear in her shirt, breathing in the tropical air.

"This room I like." Alice grinned, stretching her arms out. "It's like being back on Tonga."

[themidnightson]

It was so very wide in comparison having no space, drowned by ivy. It made him feel irritable, even as he couldn't ignore it's sheer beauty.

"Tonga wasn't born to be troublesome," he said, with a flicker of something near a smirk. Or a sneer. Or both.

He walked further into the green density, keeping pace with his sister.

[betagainstme]

Alice looked down as they walked, shaking her head. It would do you good to enjoy the little things as they come. Not everything is as earth-shattering as Bella Swan.

She cringed when she thought the last bit (the ever present, very possible future of Bella flashing before their eyes). She reached up and touched a fruit on the tree, smiling as it changed colours. "See? That's neat. You should think it's neat."

[themidnightson]

The growl that registered in his chest suddenly is the reaction to her flicker of the futures -- all the muddled (im)possibilities. They were going to stay that way.

Then just as abruptly, to anyone else it would be jarringly too sudden, he rolled his eyes.

The way a petulantly brother would being admonished.

"It is quite beautiful, even if it is a manipulative place. Better?"

[betagainstme]

Alice smiled serenely at Edward, moving to take his arm. "Much better, thank you."

[themidnightson]

Even half-annoyed, he wasn't annoyed at her. It wasn't her fault either. None of it was. Not even her declaration was. It was just part of Alice being Alice.

That it came at the cost of glass shards being thrust into his head was just a bonus. One she would have avoided if that were even physically possible. For either of them.

He reached out with his free hand and ruffled her pixie hair with chagrin fondness. "Only for you."

[betagainstme]

She nudged him with her shoulder, ducking away from his hand. "I know."

They moved further into the forest, the woods denser here and she heard a bird squawk in the distance. "There better not be a monster in this place."

:(

[themidnightson]

The place seemed to open only all the more the further they walked in.

Small carpets of luscious flower beds, twisting path opening on to an alcove, where a a huge water fall splashed into the winding stream at it's feet.

"I wouldn't know whether to listen for it or to poke everything and see if it snapped at me," Edward said amused, after giving a very low whistle at the world before him.

[betagainstme]

Alice grinned at the sight of the waterfall, squealing slightly. "At this point, I don't care if the flowers try to eat me, I want to go--"

She broke off, traipsing through the flowers to get to the water.

[themidnightson]

Edward laughed, watching his sister go.

She looked beautiful against the backdrop. Not there was anything their kind didn't look beautiful against. But Alice seemed to shift and fit into it.

"Try not to fall too far in love with this place."

[betagainstme]

She pushed her fingers through her hair, stopping at the water's edge to slip her shoes off and roll her pants up, sinking her toes into the water. "It's not worth the ivy monsters."

[themidnightson]

He followed staying three steps behind her.

Looking at the water. Fish startled, came slightly closer to her feet and then splashed frantically swimming as fast as they could away. hiding in darkened shadows far across.

"Nice?"

[betagainstme]

"Very." Alice whispered, twisting around to look at him. "You should try it."

[themidnightson]

"To relax and enjoy the little not so earth-shattering things," Edward whispered, the words a quiet question, posed not as a question but a mimic of her thought.

Without even the pass of a second, he was sitting at her side. His feet were curled to his side, and he was pondering the brilliant color of the grass near his fingers. "Think the next room will be unfriendly?"

[betagainstme]

"Undoubtedly." She watched the waterfall. "Reprieves like this only happen to make the traveler feel safe before being fed to the proverbial lions."

A beat.

"Maybe not so proverbial here."

[themidnightson]

Edward smiled, brilliant and crooked.

"I wouldn't mind a lion, or three."

[betagainstme]

"You just ate a dinosaur." Alice giggled, laying back in the grass and staring up at the sky. Did that not fill you up?

[themidnightson]

Edward game a hmp that was half a laugh.

"Some of us," he said with more teasing than point. "here don't have to worry about being too hungry tomorrow if we are not full already."

He glanced up. "It did taste interestingly."

[betagainstme]

Alice made an assenting noise, turning her head toward him. "It did. Strange but...okay."

Of course, all animal blood is just 'okay.'


"Should we move forward?"