So yeah...hi guys. I've come to join the ranks of kuni no alice fanfictioners (this after reading ALL the fanfics in this section, some twice, reading all the available manga and then translating a lot of the raws because I cba waiting for people to get off thier arses and translating them - I'm looking at you, Joker no Kuni and Tokeiya translators :3 ) well this one's been sitting in my head for a while (especially since there isn't enough smoochy-ness between Julius and Alice, I mean, come on guys! (not that I totally don't ship AliceXBlack - gotta love the badboy...)

And I'm gonna stop waffling now, except for those poor sods who've been waiting almost a year for the next chapter of "A Beast and his Doctor". Just give up! I can grumble on about deadlines and uni work (who knew how much harder second year was going to be?!), but you all know that craic. Basically I know what's going to happen (as I guess so do most of you), but I don't know how to write it...I keep getting distracted by the lovely Benedict and the fact that they started filming Series 3 on my birthday! Yaaay! Fangirl-ness...

So, back to Alice and Julius, my readers all know the drill, especially about all those lovely flames keeping my Scottish feet nice and toasty (I'm going to Akita next year, so I'll be needing them even more then...).

Read, Enjoy, Review folks!

ta fer now!

Heart no Kuni no Julius

Alice shivered as yet another blast of icy wind blustered through the tower. She really should've been getting used to this eternal winter in Nightmare's territory, but she knew she never could. It was just too cold, no matter how close she sat to the fireplace, or how many blankets she cocooned herself in (although never as many as the sickly incubus). However, instead of hiding herself away to hibernate for, say, forever, Alice simply tried to warm her hands over the pan of boiling water she was trying not to stare at intently. The mug, ground coffee and a little bit of warmed milk sat on the sideboard, awaiting their fate - a scoring by the pickiest coffee drinking hermit in all of Wonderland...

Atchoo!

The sneeze startled Alice, nearly causing her to knock over the pot of, now boiling, water.

'Julius...' she thought, 'he must be suffering because of this stupid weather, too. I doubt he's been getting enough sleep, either. If I come in to find him still working in the morning one more time...'

As she poured the hot water into the mug, Alice wondered what on earth she could do to help the stubborn Clockmaker. He was blatantly ill and sleep deprived, but wouldn't accept any help - except his usual coffee (in exchange for a rating, which she always looked forward to). It was now one of those rare moments when she allowed herself to think about her sister, Lorina, and what she would do. She always seeme to have a perfect solution.

...

This time, it was one evening when her father had come home from work late. He rarely came home, and whenever he did, he usually brought home a stack of paperwork. They usually left him to it (with the risk of a sharp word or two if they disturbed him), and each worried about in the privacy of their own mind. Alice had hated it when he returned in that state - she sometimes wished he would never come home at all...It was Lorina who finally did something about it when their father came back looking almost at his death bed - haggard eyes, straggly beard and hair, hollow cheeks.

"Alice, sweetie, could you do me a favour? I'm going to send you on a secret mission, ok?" Lorina said conspiratorially, as she walked into Alice's room.

"Umm...sure onee-san. What can I do?"

"I want you to sneak into otou-san's study and grab one of his special bottles that he keeps in the cabinet next to the door. Can you do that without him noticing?"

Alice couldn't believe it! Her sister, her perfect sister, wanted her to sneak some of otou-san's special drink for her!

"But onee-san! What do you want with otou-san's alcohol? Is there something going on?"

Lorina sighed, so much for being subtle.

"Ok, Alice. Basically, I need to do something about otou-san. He looks terrible and you know it. I'm just gonna give him a drink to help him, you know, fall asleep - even if he didn't mean to!"

"Wow, onee-san. That's so smart!" the 9 year old Alice said, in awe of her older sister, "what kind of drink is it? Are you mashing up sleeping pills or something? Won't he notice something?"

Lorina sighed again...it would have been so much easier to do this on her own, but she needed Alice to get the whiskey.

"It's called a hot toddy, Alice. It's a cup of tea with a drop of whisky and lemon in it. Although since otou-san only drinks coffee, I'm gonna have to experiment a bit..."

...

Alice was rapidly searching through the cupboards for some whisky before the coffee got cold. She thought back, remembering how she had snuck into her father's study. She had been so nervous she had nearly fallen over twice, but she needn't have worried. Her father was so engrossed in his work, he'd thought she was just one of the maids and ordered her out, back still facing her. She'd never been so nervous in her life!

Her hand hit the cold glass of a bottle. Got it! It looked like whisky, but the label was written in a language she wasn't familiar with, possibly Russian...surely it was whisky - whisky was clear, right? It didn't matter too much, she just had to drop a bit in the coffee and Julius would be forced into a nice peaceful sleep! But how much should she put in? She never actually stuck around to see the her sister make the hot toddy. She splashed a bit into the coffee, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

"I guess I'd better add a little bit more, just in case, you know?" Alice muttered to no one in particular, "it can't hurt to put in a just a biiit more..."

In the end, several capfuls of the "whisky" had gone into the coffee. Alice stirred it carefully and composed herself, so she could give it to Julius without him noticing anything different.

She walked into Julius' workshop and breathed a sigh of relief - he must've gone to get some more parts from the store cupboard. Alice set the coffee on the table, careful not to knock any of the bits of clocks spewed across the surface, and backed out as quietly as possible. It was late and she figured this could be her "goodnight" to Julius. She was shattered and just needed to sleep (much like her stubborn Clockmaker friend). She deeply hoped she was doing the right thing...she really cared about Julius and, like her and her sisters worried over her father, she worried about him.

...

Julius came back into the room (unknown to him) just after Alice had left, and spotted the steaming mug of coffee sat on the table. He smiled. Alice always seemed to know what he needed most and since the influx of clocks (he blamed that ass Hatter, whether or not it was actually him), he had more work than ever! He definitely wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight. He knew the face Alice would greet him with in the morning - a mixture of disappointment and worry - but he knew she wouldn't say anything. She would just fix him more coffee. Someday, someday he would repay her for all the kindness he had so undeservedly received from her. He never understood why she didn't just run as far away as possible, like everyone else. He was just a bitter mortician, and was most likely to have remained so, had Alice not come along...

So he dumped the clock parts on the table in a heap, slumped down into his chair and picked up the coffee. He was too tired to notice the strange whiff of alcohol coming from the cup, too tired to notice the strange aftertaste. He just knew his thoughts were becoming blurry and that he had a sudden need to go and find Alice right away to thank her.

...

Alice was blissfully unaware of the storm that was heading her way, having just finished her shower and slipped on her nightdress. It felt nice and cool against her bath-flushed skin. She was just picking up the towel to dry her hair when an unusually flustered Julius burst through her bedroom door (without knocking, like he usually did).

His face was quite flushed - she presumed from running all the way to her room.

"Ah, Julius, h-how was the coffee? Did it taste alright?" Alice said, hoping he wouldn't have noticed the little 'extra ingredient' she'd added.

"It was really good, thanks Alice! It did make my head feel a bit buzzy, but I guess that's normal and I don't think I've slept for a while so that might be the problem and I know you want me to sleep but I have so much work to do and that arse Hatter isn't making things any easier with his stupid territory battles and-"

"Julius, slow down! You're babbling, are you okay?"

Alice was now worried, had she put too much of the 'whisky' into his coffee? Was he drunk?

Her thoughts were slightly confirmed when Julius grabbed her towel, pulled her over to the bed and began to absentmindedly dry her hair. It was so soothing and she began to slowly dose off, even though she was kneeling on the cold stone floor. That was until she felt a pair of cool hands begin to run through her damp hair, lingering lightly on her shoulders each time they reach the ends. Even though the touch was icy on her still flushed skin, she leant into the touch. Not long after, she heard a rustling, indicating Julius leaving the bed and kneeling quietly behind her, his lips taking over from his hands (which were now winding themselves around her waist). He was almost gliding his lips over her skin, the kisses were so light, up and down her neck and shoulders. Alice mewled softly at the warmth of his breath against her and entwined her hands with his at her waist.

Eventually the hands at Alice's waist pulled her round, so she was now perched on Julius' lap as he continued to explore her neck and collarbone. Meanwhile, Alice's hands were doing some exploring of their own, pulling at the tucked in shirt Julius was wearing so that they could sneak under and wander over his stomach. She could feel his muscles clench slightly under her touch. He had given in with holding back and slammed his lips against hers, a rough rhythm forming in their kiss. Alice's hands moved further up Julius' chest, one hovering just over his clock - the ticking was perfectly in time with their kiss and as one sped up, the other followed. The feeling was so intense! The kiss deepened and Alice pressed herself against Julius - her heart against his clock in perfect time.

After what only seemed like a few minutes, she felt a strong pair of arms lift her off the floor and place her gently onto her bed. They were still kissing, but the pace was slowing as both started to succumb to the exhaustion that they knew was coming.

"Nnn, Julius…sleepy…" Alice mumbled into the chest of the man hovering above her, "You need sleep…"

"Alright," the slowly fading Julius answered.

The alcohol seemed to be leaving his system but he was still more compliant than his usual stubborn self. Julius hit the light, pulled off his glasses and crawled into the bed next to Alice, winding his arms around her waist. She snuggled up to him and placed a light kiss against his collarbone before falling into a deep sleep. Julius didn't take long to follow, but not before he'd placed a similarly light kiss on Alice's forehead.

...

Julius groaned as he realised how long he'd slept: he could hear the birds tweeting and figured at least 2 time changes must have passed. He was about to get up, when he froze! This wasn't his desk he'd fallen asleep at, with clock parts scattered everywhere; it wasn't even his little used bed. It was warm and he could hear the calm breathing of a second person fast asleep next to him. His eyes shot open and he turned his head slightly to see Alice lying next to him, her hair fanned out on the pillow. Blood rushed to his face as he realised how beautiful she looked as she slept - none of the worries or stresses of Wonderland. He saw his hand was resting on her stomach and it suddenly hit him, just what kind of position they were in - a very intimate one. One that, if ANYONE saw, there wouldn't be questions, but bullets flying.

He decided to wriggle out from the bed and carry on the day as if nothing had ever happened - his stoic face would help him get by and Alice would write it off surely…there must have been something in the coffee, though not enough of whatever it was that he couldn't remember what had happened the night before (it just took a few minutes to come back to him). He rose from the bed, and wandered over to Alice's side, leaning over her.

He bent over to lightly kiss her forehead before whispering in her ear "100 points, Alice" and leaving the room quietly.

Alice smiled softly in her faked sleep.

So that was utter codswollap, but please let me know what you think (don't leave me hanging)! It's just one click away! (^^)