Chapter Text
part one
why is this happening to you? how is this happening to you?
chapter one
i don't know
SOLEIL FIRST HEARD OF “ALICE IN WONDERLAND” when she was seven years old. Sitting down under a tree in her backyard, book in hand, she saw the girl of twelve named Alice with her blonde hair, blue and white dress with a black bow headband. Soleil was taken by the world of Wonderland itself, its confusing turns of the roads, its potions that could make someone tiny or a giant, its card soldiers painting the roses red. It was the first fairytale she read.
So it made sense that she dreamed about it at night.
Soleil was mildly surprised that she was aware that she was in a dream but no matter. It happened sometimes. She hummed along with the tunes of the card soldiers as they painted the roses red, singing the song.
The cards with their pink faces dressed in their card soldier uniforms sang aloud, “Painting the roses red! We’re painting the roses red! We dare not stop or waste a drop so let the paint we spread!”
A clover went over to another rose as Soleil hummed the song under her breath, painting another rose red, “Painting the roses red! And many a tear we shed!”
“Because we know,” sang the Three.
“They’ll cease to grow,” sang the Two.
“In fact they’ll soon be dead,” sang the Ace.
And the cards sang together as Soleil nodded to the beat, “Painting the roses red – we’re painting the roses red!”
And then Soleil saw her. Alice who was now much shorter compared to Soleil, “Oh, pardon me, but Mister Three,” Alice turned to the Three, “Why must you paint them red?”
And the cards sang together, “The queen, she likes them red! If she saw white instead! She’d raise a fuss, and each of us would quickly lose his head! Since this is the thought we dread! We’re painting the roses red!”
And that was when Soleil remembered.
The Queen of Hearts existed in Twisted Wonderland, didn’t she?
Come again, wasn’t the Queen of Hearts supposedly a hero in Twisted Wonderland? One of the Great Seven, as Ace had put it the first time they met? How would that even work?
And which one was the lie?
The Queen of Hearts couldn’t have both been revered as a hero in one world but a villain in another if she decapitated people. Hell, in Twisted Wonderland, she was a real person too! How could two worlds who apparently had no contact with each other ever have the exact same person who was both real and fictional, good and evil? Was there some sort of link between Earth and Twisted Wonderland? And who the fuck named the planet Twisted Wonderland by the way? Did they want it to sound evil or something?
Wait.
Was someone knocking at the door?
Soleil got up from her bed, rubbing her eyes groggily as Grim groaned, “Myaaah… Hey, Soleil…” Grim got up and tugged at Soleil’s pants, “I know it’s the middle of the night, but I think we’ve got a visitor. Maybe it’s those pesky ghosts again?” Grim yawned, “They just don’t know when to quit.”
Soleil tsked and descended the stairs, yawning and walked upto the door, blearily asking, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Ace! Just let me in, alright?”
What.
Soleil opened the door and there Ace was. Fiery orange hair with a tint of blue near his neck with a heart painted on his cheek. His red eyes were tired and a frown was there on his face.
“Ace?” Grim was not too far behind Soleil and then he yelped, “That – that collar!”
And oh, how did Soleil not notice? A heart-shaped collar was around Ace’s neck, painted half black, half red. Ace looked majorly ticked off at it.
“I can’t go back to Heartslabyul House.” Ace looked away, “I’m joining your dorm. For good.”
What.
“Myah?!” Grim’s non-existent eyebrows furrowed, “Come again?!”
“I know that collar.” Soleil realized, memories from the orientation ceremony coming back, “Wasn’t that the collar that the red-headed boy gave Grim? His name was Riddle, yeah?”
“Myah! I remember that!” Grim jumped and then she shivered, “That psycho! What’d you do to get shackled with that?!”
Ace said simply, crossing his arms, “I ate a tart.”
Soleil blinked, waiting for more. More did not come.
“You… ate a tart.” Soleil repeated dumbly and Ace nodded.
“Yeah, that’s it!” Ace’s body language was more open now, “That’s all I did! I was a little hungry, see.” Ace explained, waving his arms around exaggeratedly, “So I went down to the dorm kitchen and found some tarts in the fridge. Three whole tarts! Big ones, too! I was tired from our little adventure, yeah? You know, the one in the mine – and I missed dinner so I was starving! So you couldn’t blame me for going down the stairs and just sneaking some food. Because what was I supposed to do? Stay hungry? So I had one! And it was soo good!” Ace licked his lips dreamily, “So sweet, so soft, melted in my mouth!”
“Yeah, yeah, go on.” Soleil said disinterestedly while Grim looked starstruck at the existence fo such a tart.
“And then, behind me was the worst. Person. Ever.” Ace said angrily, “I heard a “Of course they’re good.”” Ace imitated what seemed to be Riddle. ““Trey made them. His tarts are always exceptional.” And I…” Ace coughed, “I didn’t exactly recognize him at first but again! Not my fault! I was occupied during the first day and all, you know! So obviously I almost chatted with the mystery person until I realized it was Housewarden Riddle!” Ace groaned, “And then he went, “That you would think to touch something of MINE… well, I’m impressed with your audacity at least.”” Ace’s face contorted and his voice had somewhat of a snooty tone, and Soleil found herself snickering at the impersonation, “ “But the Queen of Hearts’ rule eighty-nine is quite clear: Never eat a tart without the queen’s permission. The theft of tarts is a serious crime.” And then… Off with your Heaaaaadddd!”
So the last part was obviously an exaggeration. From the little Soleil saw of Riddle, she didn’t peg him as the type to create such a ruckus at night, since he seemed like he valued organization above all else but she still couldn’t help but laugh.
“… And so.” Ace said with a dramatic finish, “Here I am.”
Grim stayed silent, just gazing at Ace wordlessly before saying, “So. The point is… you’re both terrible people.”
Ace looked like he’d been shot, “You don’t think it’s insane for my magic to get sealed away for eating one slice of tart?!” Ace gaped, turning to Soleil with pleading eyes, “For a mage, that’s like having your arms and legs bound and shackled! And there were three tarts! Three! It’s not like he could eat ‘em all himself! C’mon, you know this is messed up!”
Soleil was inclined to be on Ace’s side. But. He did steal food.
“I guess…?” She said ambiguously and Ace scoffed, “What kind of wishy-washy answer is that?!”
“Yeah, but…” Grim mulled it over, “I mean, if there were three of ‘em, they were probably for a party. Maybe it was someone’s birthday or somethin’? Lookit that!” Grim gave a smug, self-satisfied grin, “I’m, like, a master detective!” He looked at Soleil, seemingly showing his intelligence off.
“A birthday party, huh…?” Ace seemed to think it over.
“That would explain it.” Soleil nodded, “Did you apologize at least?”
“Man…” Ace lamented, shaking his head, “I thought you’d be more sympathetic! I’m a victim of the housewarden’s tyranny here!”
“He may have been a bit extreme.” And Ace brightened up at that but then Soleil said, “But stealing food is a serious offense.” Ace looked downcast at that.
“Tomorrow, go and apologize and say you’ve learned your lesson.” Soleil said firmly, “I’m sure he’d remove the collar if you just apologized.”
“You don’t go messin’ with another man’s meal…” Grim grumbled before he yelped, “Hey, wait a minute! I just realized I never got those cans of tuna the Headmage promised me!”
Ace ignored Grim, “All right, all right.” Ace sighed, “Fine. I get that I should apologize. But you’re coming with me, Soleil! It’s your idea after all!”
“Fair enough.” Soleil tiredly shrugged.
“And, um. Soleil.” Ace said, his volume lower and Soleil raised her eyebrows.
“I heard you.”
“Heard me?”
“With Deuce. Right after I left. I heard you.”
Soleil frowned. “You heard – ” before Soleil gasped quietly.
“Try not to let him do that. Get on your nerves.” Soleil had said, “Ignore him, you know. His words don’t have much quality in them.”
“Oh.” Soleil said dumbly, “Oh.”
“Yeah.” Ace looked away, ““Oh” is one way to describe it, I guess.”
Soleil didn’t know what to say. I’m sorry? You weren’t supposed to hear that?
“I – ”
“I’m sorry.” Ace beat her to it, “For the first time we met.” He said in a hushed voice, “And for my outburst at the mines. It was wrong of me.”
“Hell yeah, it was!” Grim said angrily, “How dare – myah!”
“Grim, not now!” Soleil hissed before looking at Ace, sighing, “I’m sorry too.”
“Huh?” Ace tilted his head, “For what?”
“Well, to be honest – I wasn’t really that mad at you for what you said.”
“Really?” Ace frowned.
“Yeah.” She scratched her neck carelessly, “I mean, I was mainly overwhelmed with a lot of things. Arriving at Twisted Wonderland – a whole other dimension – has been really hard on me. I’m surrounded by this new environment without my family and friends and, well – ”, Soleil looked away, “It won’t be long before there’ll be missing posters for me. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to fight a monster by coming up with a plan on the spot – a monster who definitely never existed back home. I was scared, I was confused, I was sad and I was angry – at everyone. Especially at the Headmage and the Dark Mirror since they’re pretty much responsible for my being here.” Soleil sighed, looking at Ace, “And I took it out on you because you were the easiest target for it. I needed someone to project all that anger at and there you were and I had the perfect excuse. I’m sorry. It wasn’t right of me.”
Ace blinked, looking like a deer in headlights before reverting to his usual Ace self, “Don’t sweat it.” He playfully punched Soleil’s shoulders and then sighed out of relief, “Well! You got a place to crash tonight?”
“Oi!” Grim cried out angrily, “You never apologized to me though!”
“Oh, Master Grim,” Ace scoffed, bending low, giving a mock bow, “May I have the honour of your forgiveness?”
“I expect tuna.” Grim said flatly and Ace sighed, “Should’ve expected that. Fine. So like I said,” he turned to Soleil, “Can I crash here?”
“Wait, you were serious about that?” Grim’s eyes widened, “Outside of the bedroom me and Soleil use, this entire dump is buried under a foot of dust. So if you wanna crash,” Grim grinned evilly, “ya better start cleanin’!”
“Dude, no way!” Ace protested, “I hate cleaning! Just let me stay with you, Soleil.” He crouched down and put his hands together, pleading, “I’m real slim. I won’t take up much space.”
Soleil grinned sheepishly before demonstrating the sofa, “Allow me to introduce you to the lounge sofa.”
“Tch.” Ace scoffed, “You’re about as flexible as a brick. Well, fine.” Ace made a huge show of sitting on the sofa and lying down on it theatrically while Soleil giggled, “The sofa it is.” He turned around, “Night!”
“G’night.” Grim snickered as he left. Soleil looked back at Ace’s form on the sofa.
(If Soleil was the one who silently put a blanket on Ace’s sleeping body in the middle of the night, then she didn’t say anything. If Ace noticed that it was Soleil who put it on him, he didn’t say anything about it either.)