Painting the Roses Blue (wonderland au)

Chapter 12

 "No, I already told you, we don't have any money. We just have to take it and if someone yells at us we'll invite them to a tea party!" She paused for a second. "But, I guess if they don't want to come to the tea party we can just run. You're fast, you can hold the bags." She forced the bag full of stolen food into the man's chest, continuing on their trek throughout the village. The two had dressed in almost exclusively red clothes to seem as inconspicuous as possible. This was proven futile as every person they would pass stared at them like they were doing backflips on the top of the church's steeple. It was easy to ignore the stares, easy until they had to grab a loaf of bread or a few apples from a stand without being noticed.

They devised a system to steal the food, one of the pair would create a large distraction and the other would take as much of the merchandise as they could fit into their bags. The hare's distraction was to fall or knock something over loudly, and then loudly and quickly apologize until Ace could signal her to move along. Ace didn't really have to do much in order to be distracting, his skin was already bright green, so he just walked into the open and started talking about random things. His distraction was more like an awkward stand-up with an unresponsive audience. The watchers, of course, took the bait and observed the spectacle with their undivided attention.

Their method had been working for a good couple hours until March was seen stealing a small sack of flour. The merchant was watching Ace work his magic until he saw a brown hand reach over to take something in his peripheral. He whipped his head around, grabbing her wrist out of reflex. "Hey! What are you doing?!" The captivated audience quickly lost their interest in the green man, trading their attention to the thief. The woman stiffened, quickly averting her eyes to her companion. They knew what to do.

"Run!" She screamed, tossing the bag at Ace, who was the one to carry their belongings until they were in the clear, as he was faster than March. The hare tore her arm away and the two took off, sprinting as fast as they could. Their destination was just outside the kingdom walls, close to the forest that they called home. If they couldn't make it, the next area of reconciliation was an alley near the gate, not nearly as secluded as their initial sade space, but dark enough to hide while the controversy blew over.

They ran out of breath quickly, the spot from which they ran from being very far, they couldn't reach the gates if they wanted to. Ace took a sharp turn, running into an alley that the two had not previously discussed. March had no choice but to follow him, sprinting as fast as she could until she was forcefully stopped.

"Ow! Ace! Why'd ya stop-?" She was cut off by a hand covering her face. Her eyes traveled up to Ace, who was frozen, staring into the open space.

Staring right back at Ace was a man, wearing all white, his eyes wide and mouth open. He raised a shaky finger to point at the two, eyes rapidly looking around to look for Stuart as well. March frowned. "Who is that?"

"Eh, it's just this guy from that other kingdom, think his name is Marty or somethin'- well, he didn't like being called Marty. Guess that might've not been his name, actually," He mumbled as he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Shouldn't it be concerning that he's here? He's not from this kingdom."

Ace nodded then shook his head. "Neither are we, toots." He moved away from her, walking towards the man. "Ey, yo, Marty! Whassup, man?"

The man from the kingdom, dubbed Marty by Ace, took a few steps back, before realizing his mission. He had to return at least one of the missing members of the kingdom. He stepped up, feigning bravery, like a cat fluffing its tail up. He frowned. "You are to come with me back to the White Kingdom. Queen's orders." Ace raised a brow, looking between the two in his presence. His lips curled into a sneer, before laughing a bit.

"Nah."

Marty was stunned, babbling for a moment. "You-You can just say nah! You are to come with me! By the order of the Queen."

"Not in my kingdom, Marty. Gotta go. See ya!" He waved happily, grabbing March's arm and beginning their walk back to their very own kingdom.

The man from the white kingdom took a few steps back before looking around. He wanted to leave, to run back to his very own cottage in the kingdom, eat a nice meal before going to work once more in the castle. However, now it seemed that he was going to be murdered for not doing a job that he wasn't even trained to do. He figured that if he were to die, it wouldn't be in vain. He started making his way to the castle of the Red Kingdom, hoping to find Stuart.

Murdoc smiled, a sweet, genuine smile that mimicked his father when he watched his mother do anything. His eyes slowly shut, the melodic voice of the bunny softly caressing his ears. As the siren song ended and he was once again pulled back into the state of reality, frowning slightly. He opened his eyes again. "Why'd ya stop?"

Stuart looked up back at the king, shrugging and shifting his gaze down to his feet. "Well, the song ended. Didn't know if you wanted me to keep going."

Murdoc grunted, looking to his side. "Well, you can keep going if you want. It was nice, thank you. You can leave if you decide."

"But I.. I don't really want to leave. It's nice to be outside of the bedrooms, and to be around you." A light pink dusted his cheeks, smiling slightly up at the King.

Murdoc almost shattered into a million pieces. He finally understood his father, which was a fact that shook him to his core. He didn't want to be compared to his father, especially with how his father treated his children. He would give anything in order to not end up like Sebastian. As his thoughts swarmed, Stuart brought him back by shuffling a little bit. Murdoc looked back down at the man, sighing. He was going to be nicer.

"Alright. You can sit up here, in the chair beside me." He gestured to the empty throne beside him, acting as if he didn't know that the seat beside him was once used for the former Queen of Hearts. He enjoyed teasing the easily-flustered bunny.

Stuart's breath left his entire being, leaving him red and gasping for air. He got to sit in the Queen's throne? Was it his birthday? "Ah- really? Oh-Okay!" He grinned and ran up to the throne, taking his place beside the King. "It's really comfy!"

"That's 'cause it hasn't been used in decades," Murdoc mumbled, staring straight ahead. "Last Queen here was my mum, she's been long gone for over two decades."

Stuart's eyebrows raised, then furrowed them, as if about to cry. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I can get off if you want me to!" Murdoc looked to the side at the man, sighing and rolling his eyes. He glared a bit.

"I don't care. It's comfy. Sit. Don't remember her anyway." As Stuart was to say something else, one of the throne room guards entered.

"Sir, an ambassador from the White Kingdom has requested for your presence, it's about Stuart."

Murdoc's eyes widened for a fraction, before glaring back at the man at the door. "Tell him to leave. If Paula wants something, that bitch can come to get it herself. And she is not getting that rodent." He spoke with malice, venom dripping at his teeth with every word. The guard nodded quickly and left. Stuart's voice piped up from the side, his question meek and small.

"Am I gonna be taken back to the other kingdom?"

"Not if I have a say in it."