Chapter Text
Alex walked into the room outside the dorms. He had just been explaining to Kaito what was happening with Eleanor and Lina. Lina said, ‘Eleanor couldn't go anywhere or something,’ and ‘Eleanor wasn't happy with that.’ He kept explaining until Kaito fully understood, which he doubted he had understood fully since he was listening so intently. He turned a corner and jumped. Eleanor was sitting on the stairs to the girls’ dorms, holding two swords. She scraped them against each other, making them more pointy and lethal. It barely made any noise, which made it more scary…
‘Are you mad…?’ he said cautiously.
‘No.’ Her voice cut through the silence, overpowering Alex’s quiet voice.
‘So sharpening a sword with another sword at three in the morning is normal?’
Her hands paused. She lifted her head and looked straight into his eyes. ‘Yes.’
‘Well then, what are you thinking about?’
‘Why I keep dying before the age of thirty and why I can’t do anything about it.’ Eleanor’s answer took him by surprise.
‘Ok then…’
When daylight shined through the windows, Alex poked his head out to see if Eleanor was still sitting there like a vengeful ghost. Luckily, she wasn't there, or he would've been jump scared again.
‘Alex!’ Kaito appeared behind him, holding two cowboy hats. He put one on his head and put the other on Alex, pushing his hair down.
‘Woah where'd you get these from?’ He asked, taking it off and examining it. It looked like it was a thief's hat. One that he saw through a window.
‘One of the other knights got it as a gift, then gave it to me!’ He grinned, posing like he had a sword and was ready to fight Alex. ‘It's nice, ain't it?’ Alex nodded and posed back. They both laughed, and when Eleanor came, they laughed even more at her reaction. Her face looked tired (‘Cause she was awake at THREE A.M.’ Alex whispered to Kaito) and she just stared at them.
‘Looks stupid.’ She muttered under her breath as she turned to leave.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Alex says while slowly taking off the cowboy hat.
‘I said, your hat looks stupid.’
‘Did you say my beautiful hat looks unintelligent?’
‘Yes.’
‘GASP. Kaito… back me up here.’ He whispered to him, but Kaito just nodded to agree with Alex. ‘That's not helping.’ He tried to say discreetly.
…
‘It's too dangerous!’ The king's fist pounded on the table, making quills and bottles of ink jump.
‘But Your Majesty, Estella is planning to go to war! Against us! Shouldn't we get the upper hand and attack first?’ One of the higher level knights stood up and tried to change the king's mind. Clearly, it wasn't working. It was evening when a rock was thrown into the castle, breaking a window in the process. There was a paper stuck to it with two single words written in a fancy handwriting that only a noble would be capable of writing with: ‘Watch out.’
‘Sir, he's right. There has been evidence of them wanting war. We would have an advantage if we attack when they have a chance to be unprepared-’
‘A chance.’ The king glared at them. ‘What if we were wrong? I'm not risking our entire army dying just for a small tiny chance that we would win. And last time, what did they have?’
‘Showers of arrows, fire, ice, mind control…’ the three of them listed together, droning on like it had been said countless times before.
‘Exactly. Now leave. My head aches now… ah, but bring Eleanor here first.’
…
‘Your Majesty,’ Eleanor bowed when she entered. The king motioned her forward and started talking.
‘Eleanor, you have heard that Estella is planning on war, right?’
‘Yes, I have-’
‘And you've also heard that there might be spies, right?’ She paused, tilting her head a bit.
‘No, I haven't heard-’
‘Well, now you have. That's it, I just wanted to let you know.’ The king interrupted her again. She left wondering about what the king had said. Spies? Unlikely…
Eleanor sat down in front of the dorms again. The swords that she had sharpened were still in front of her, right where she had left them from the morning. Soon she slowly fell asleep, her head nearly falling onto her shoulder. Alex walked in, trying to find her to tell her that there was a rumour that Wonderland and Estella were going to war with each other. He saw her on the couch asleep and couldn't help but smile. Her hair was sliding to one side of her face, covering it. So she looks pretty even when she sleeps… When her head was about to fall again, Alex suddenly sat next to her, so her head went on his shoulder. He put his hand next to hers, but pulled away when she moved slightly, in case she woke up. She probably wouldn’t be happy that he was there, but… oh well.
Kaito poked his head into the room, still wearing the cowboy hat. When he saw them, his heart sank a little. Alex didn’t seem to notice him staring. It was silent, and he still didn’t notice until he heard Kaito’s shoes shuffling away into the hallway.