The things had gone so strange that she had not slept very well, she wanted to understand Jupiter but his behaviour had gone so weird, the fight they had, she felt bad for listening to it. They had been gone about it for hours. Hecate couldn’t understand and Jupiter didn’t seem to want or able to explain at the moment and Alice had stayed for as long as she could downstairs in the bar but she couldn’t stay there forever. The bar would close at some point and they fought even more so and Alice had just walked past them, both not even noticing her or at least not showing and Alice decided to say nothing. She simply walked into the one bedroom that they had and would strip off her clothing and drop herself on the bed, snuggling herself underneath the blanket and tried her very best to zone out on the fight in the room next door, they were loud but she was sure that they didn’t hear it. She felt sad for Hecate but didn’t want to pick a side, even if she did already in her heart. Her mind told her again and again that she shouldn’t. She closed her eyes, tried to picture the faces of her children, dozing off when she ignored the sound, hearing a hard slam of the door of the room and she sat up straight immediately. Seeing the silhouette of Hecate at the door, after all the lights were out in the bedroom. Hecate sobbed but didn’t say anything, sat on the bed and rolled towards Alice. Where the red head soothed her friend with soft noises and little strokes through her aqua blue hair, she was sure the two of them would be fine. She didn’t know how long they had been together, she didn’t pry within their private business from before they met. She praised herself for that, because normally she was very curious, ”It will be fine Hecate,” she shushed, easy to say though, ”Give him some time, he will come to understand that he would have to tell you something.” if he could not tell the truth. She had not meant to listen in but that was impossible like this. Of course she understood that it was mostly also Hecate her frustration, having been looking around for him everywhere but not being able to find him. The worry, the craziness of all the potential things that could have happened, Alice herself was far too familiar with it as she had imagined the worst things when she heard about the coupe d’état in the capital and she didn’t get any messages from Kon at that point. But she had taken a risk, one that was okay now but still it was something she shouldn’t have done had she not gone crazy with thoughts. She let Hecate sob and waited till her friend fell asleep before she followed the example. Tomorrow she would talk to Jupiter, if possible.



Wordcount:500/2000

The following morning Alice woke up early, finding Hecate on the other side of the bed, curled up in her human form. She softly sat up herself, trying to not wake Hecate, and either her friend didn’t wanted to be woken up or she was really asleep but Alice took a clean t-shirt and her pair of jeans from yesterday and got out of the bed once she was ready and brushed her long hair with her fingers, it was a bit messy but that was okay in the ponytail that she got. She opened the door as softly as she could, she didn’t know if Hecate and Jupiter got sharper hear now that they were human or if it worked the same as their pet like state. She found Jupiter on the couch, clearly not asleep, not looking up at her either, he was staring at the ceiling, hand pressed against his forehead as if thinking hurt him, one leg off the couch, the other on top of it, his other hand brushing the carpet. She didn’t say anything, they will come to her when they wanted to like Hecate had done and she walked to the little kitchenette that they had and worked on some breakfast for herself. She had already decided that she would go on a job today to give them some time again and hopefully they would make up and she could leave for her family back home, it wouldn’t be that bad. She smiled at herself as that would be okay. She worked on the cornflake and the right amount of milk and leaned against the cabins and the cupboard while eating. She noticed in the corner of her eye that Jupiter turned his face towards her, his own golden eyes looking hollow and empty, he had cried too, it was clearly visible, ”I’m sorry.” And this let Alice turn her face towards him, ”You don’t have to say that to me. You don’t owe me anything, Jupiter. You picked me and I am glad you did, I was afraid something happened but I was also sure that you are capable to protect yourself. It’s Hecate that is broken, I’m fine.” Which seemed to hurt him even more but she wasn’t going to say anything to make things better if she didn’t feel like it needed to be said. He sat up straight, ”I know,” and Alice understood that he knew, she was sure that he wasn’t acting stupid or on a whim, he had to make a decision two days ago and he did, and it had perhaps brought a few regrets with him but he couldn’t turn back time, ”Look I will go out and find a job, but please, tell her as much as you can. If she gets angry about that, at least you are sure that you told her everything. You rather have that than to betray her trust in you.” All the advice she could give right now.



Wordcount: 1000/2000

She put the empty bowl in the sink and took her jacket, ”Be honest to her Jupiter, that’s all I can say.” She put the black leather jacket over her shoulders and took the doorknob, with one last look at her friend and the sound of another door opening, Alice took her leave, trying to find another job. She bumped into Reign already soon on her journey towards the questboard and he was glad to see her, formally asked if her friends were alright, not knowing that they were her companions of course. Alice said that they were fine, not everyone needed to know the drama they were in right now. So she let it be and looked at Reign, asking if he was looking for something as he seemed to be a bit in distress. So the blonde man explained to her that he was looking for a nanny or babysitter rather quickly now as he had a meeting but his niece was ill and the maid couldn’t look after her as she wanted to play. ”I could do it.” The red head offered and the noble man looked at her a little strange, ”I just got two little ones myself, unfortunately jobs came into view and they are with their father but for as long as I am here today I can help you out.” Which seemed to be good enough for Reign and they talked a little why he guided her to his house. So when Alice arrived and Reign believed it would be fine, he left the three of them alone, and soon it would be the two of them as the maid had other jobs to do for the household. So Alice asked little Petunia what she wanted to do and she wanted to go to the beach, that wasn’t that far away, so Alice didn’t see a problem. Today this spring day was a bright one, a few white puffy clouds but that was okay, it was a good warm day for spring.



So she held the hand of the little girl and brought the picnic items, such as food and water and a plaid with them for the little girl and she was interested to see how it worked, would Tanya ever be like Petunia, her hair so golden and the like? Her eyes of course more like Alice her own instead of the ones Petunia had. Alice let the plaid down and put the basket on it and made sure that the girl was in the shade for as far as that was necessary in spring. ”I want seashells.” the three year old said and pointed at the beach shore. Alice shook her head, thought about Reign and wondered how spoiled his niece would be. ”We can look for them if you want?” but the girl shook her head full of bright blonde curls, ”You would have to do it.” To which Alice turned her gaze at the girl and shook her head.



1501/2000

”It will be us together or no seashells, I wouldn’t know to pick the pretty ones, so you could better do that yourself.” and Petunia seemed to consider it before complaining that the sun was too warm and that she needed to stay in the shade. As it just turned spring, Alice was more afraid that she would be too cold but then again it could perhaps be good to avoid something like sun, although it would make the girl cold, but it might also stop some of the wind, so Alice didn’t mind to work on something like that. When Alice finally worked out how to do that, Petunia had jumped up and pointed at the forest on the other side of the beach, ”I want to see the flowers.” and the young lady let out a sigh before simply accepting it, it was after all for Petunia to go out and play after being ill. So she walked with Petunia over there and Petunia asked her, not commanded, asked her to pick some flowers so Alice did, five would be enough right? But when she wanted to show Petunia, the child was gone. The blood dropped out of her face as she was a horrible disaster. She looked around, huge eyes staring around, panic rising and making her heart beat fast, where could she have gone so quickly? Alice dropped the flowers and hurried into the forest, at this point she could have definitely used Hecate and Jupiter, with the three of them, they would find her in a blink of an eye but now she had to do it all by herself, how dumb! What kind of mother was she, she would lose the twin within two blink of her eyes. Finally Alice found her, little twigs and leaves in her beautiful blonde curls and crying very badly, ”Petunia?” she called out softly, the girl had probably already learned from her misbehaving and Alice didn’t mention anything about it yet. She picked up the girl and walked towards the beach and towards the house. She brought her back into the house and helped her pick out the little twigs and leaves and brushed her hair softly, ”Thank you Awice.” The girl said and Alice smiled, ”You are very welcome Petunia.” And the maid came and gave Alice her reward when the child wasn’t looking. Which made Alice say goodbye to Petunia and head back towards the hotel, she would see how her companions were doing before deciding that she would go onto another job, she still had some more time today, so it wouldn’t be too much trouble, it would be nice though to be able to head back to her home but not everything was an option right now. Alice yawned, the sleep had been rather shortly but it was okay, she hoped on a good result in the hotel but only time would tell and rather soon if Jupiter had listened to her piece of advice.



2002/2000