Chapter Text
Hiding from their adoptive parents was a talent Alice and Jude had perfected a long time ago. They had about 15 different locations they could fuck off to were no one could find them until they wanted to be found. 8 of them were bars and clubs where they found meaningless people to have meaningless sex with while getting drunk and high on whatever ended up in their hands. 4 of them were houses that usually had parties every night and were far too large to see anyone you run into (and do drugs and have sex with) again. 2 of them were bookshops, simply because no one would ever think to look for them in such a quiet, dull place. And the last was a section of garden so far from any houses, there was no knowing who it belonged to. They'd never seen anyone through the hedge walls, yet the garden showed clear signs of regular maintenance — trimmed hedges, mowed lawns, weeded flower beds full of roses in every color.
At the center of the garden is a large tree, which is where Alice and Jude are currently resting to avoid some banquet or another their father demanded them to appear at. Alice and Jude did not often respond well to demands, and their father did not respond well to his demands being refused. What were a few more scars to add to their collection? Especially when it meant they didn't have to deal with stupid people's stupid bullshit. And they would be expected to be sober. It is much better to be here, under the big, weird tree in the weird, secluded garden with a bottle of absinthe where no one can find them and nothing matters.
"You should tell me a story," Alice speaks into the silence once they drained about a third of the bottle. Her hair is spread across the grass around her head like a halo of bright red tentacles. Paired with her lanky, athletic limbs contorted at odd angles from her body, she looks something akin to a drunken eldritch being nestled in the shade of the tree.
"What? Why the fuck would I do that?" Comes Jude's response from where he is similarly sprawled on the ground with an arm thrown over his eyes. His words aren't quite slurred from years of practice being drunk and pretending he wasn't, but there is still a softness in the transition between his words that alludes to his inebriation. The bun holding back his dark turquoise hair was beginning to unravel under the stress of Jude's tossing and turning on the ground. Strands of hair stuck to his forehead and the back of his neck, looking like channels of dark water running down his skin. He is similarly built to his sister, both of them tall, toned, and gorgeous as models — they had actually done some modeling here and there at the behest of their adoptive father and could be seen on billboards and in advertisements for anything from clothing lines to soda companies. They hated modeling about as much as they hated everything, but at least they could show up to the studios high or drunk without anyone batting an eye.
"Awwww, you're no fun." Alice lets herself tip over to sprawl across Jude's torso and splay her arms in every direction. He removes his arm from eyes nearly the same color as his hair to glare down at her. "You should amuse me because I'm your sister." She blinks up at her brother with big, multicolored eyes, attempting to make them look round and sweet like a puppy. Jude knows her far too well however, to fall for an act like that.
Jude attempts to shove her off, but is only partially successful. "Amuse yourself. Why don't you tell a story?"
Alice might've responded, were it not for a rustling of the hedges to their left. They both sit up, alarmed, as a figure dressed in an elaborate, frilly black and blue costume bursts from the bushes and walks right past them, seemingly unaware of their presence.
"Pollux, where are you?" The boy — because they can see now that he is male despite the frills — mutters to himself as he checks a comically large pocket watch. "We're already late! The Queen will have our heads for this!" He's turned mostly away from them, so they can see his fluffy rabbit's tale twitch anxiously. It is then that both twins notice that the boy is partially a rabbit, with ears and a tail that move like actual parts of his body. The rest of him was pale and slender, several inches shorter than either of the twins, with nearly shoulder length hair as dark as the night sky arranged messily around his ears and across his forehead.
"What the fuck?" The words slip from Jude's mouth before he can think to stop himself. The boy startles — actually he nearly jumps out of his skin — and turns to face the drunk twins staring at him slack-jawed. They get a good look at his eyes then, a color that is hard to determine as it shifts and swirls with shades of dark blue and purple scattered with pinpricks of light that look almost like stars.
"Wha-Who are you?" The boy stutters, his comical pocket watch slipping from his grip and only being saved from hitting the ground by the chain attaching the watch to his pocket. He quickly pulls it back up by the chain and clutches it to his chest.
Alice blinks at the bunny boy, and smiles a savage, drunken smile. "I'm Alice. And you're the frilliest twink I've ever seen." A dark flush spreads across the boy's face, but as her name clicks in his mind he straightens, nearly dropping his pocket watch again.
"You're an Alice?" He takes a step toward her, but Jude stumbles to his feet and steps between them.
"She's not an anything, Bunny Boy. Who even are you?" Jude's voice has gone dark with might be protectiveness or wariness, perhaps both. All signs of drunkenness have now gone from his demeanor.
The boy blushes once again, but his brow is furrowed with annoyance. "My name is Castor. And an Alice is a very important title where I'm from. Not that you would know. I highly doubt you're anyone of significance."
Jude scoffs and steps closer into Castor's space, effectively trapping him against a hedge. "And where exactly are you from?" Jude flicks his gaze up to his rabbit ears and back down again. "An anime convention?"
"I don't even know what that is." He glances over Jude's shoulder at Alice, and the tree she is sitting beneath, legs still splayed out in a way that could not be comfortable. "As for where I'm from, I could take you if you wish." The words are directed to Alice, but he turns back to Jude and adds, "I suppose you may tag along too, even though you don't matter nearly as much. Or at all." He attempts to step out of Jude's blockade, but Jude moves to keep him blocked. Castor fixes him with a glare.
"Why should we go anywhere with you?"
From the ground, drunken Alice adds, "Weren't you waiting for someone?"
Castor sighs and crosses his arms, still glaring at Jude. "My sister can manage on her own if she insists on being so late. And you mustn't come if you don't wish, but I'd appreciate if you would at least allow me to leave."
Thye glare at each other for several moments more, long enough for Jude to notice the freckles spread over Castor's nose and cheeks likes constellations of stars. Then reluctantly, Jude steps aside. Castor turns up his nose at him and walks to the tree. He looks down at Alice, then to the bottle of absinthe abandoned by her side. "We have more interesting drinks where I'm going. And far more entertaining escapes from responsibility."
Alice blinks up at him blankly, then a slow, vicious grin spreads across her lips. She stumbles to her feet, wavering only a little bit. "Then lead the way, Bunny Boy."
He flushes again and groans. "My name is Castor, not Bunny Boy." Nonetheless, Castor steps all the way up to the tree and taps his foot on the ground in a rhythmic pattern. Then, he steps back just as a hole opens up in the ground, large enough for a person to fall through.
Jude, knowing something has happened but not quite able to see, steps up behind his sister and peers into the hole. "What the fuck? What is that?"
"A rabbit hole, of course," is Castor's only response before he steps into the hole and falls, immediately disappearing from sight.
Alice makes to follow him but Jude grabs her arm. "Wait. We don't know what that is or where it'll take us. Maybe we shouldn't go." In fact, he's sure they shouldn't go, but saying as much to Alice would only ensure she did.
"Don't be boring. What do we really have to lose?" She jerks her arm from his grip and steps up to the edge of the hole, turning her back on it to face her twin. "Go or don't. But this is the first thing, like, ever that doesn't seem totally fucking lame." Without another word, she tips backwards and disappears into the hole. Jude instinctively reaches out to catch her, but it's too late. She's gone.
With a long string of curses, and a rather violent description of making rabbit soup, Jude follows his sister down the rabbit hole.