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1: Alice and Anastasia
"I see the way you look at him, you know," Ana said, picking her way carefully across the river. The stones were slippery, but one advantage to her new wardrobe as White Queen was that she felt she could dress practically when necessary, and that included boots suited to hiking through the woods.
And trousers. She had truly come to love a proper pair of trousers.
"Not that I mind, so much," she continued, hopping off the last rock and onto the riverbank. She turned and reached a hand out to Alice, helping the other woman steady herself as she reached dry land. "And I certainly understand. Will does have a… certain charm about him."
Alice laughed. "That is definitely one way to describe him, yes. Um, I should apologise, I suppose. It's nothing serious, I promise. I've never… truly wanted him, that way. Not that there was ever time, for that matter."
Ana waved her hand, making flame dance about it briefly, before flicking it back into non-existence. "If I thought you had, you wouldn't be standing there."
The two women stared at each other for a long moment before dissolving into peals of laughter.
"No, no, truly, I'm glad we're getting this time together, just the two of us," Ana explained. "We've spent so little time together as women, and you're in Wonderland so infrequently…"
"It's difficult to find the time. Cyrus has his work back in London, and sometimes I lose track of entire weeks when at my writing desk. But we can try harder, make the time if you need us."
Ana shook her head. "It's not that. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that as admonishment." She pushed some branches out of the way and waved Alice along down the trail. "I just wish I saw you more. Both of you, truly. We miss you, Will and I."
"Three years ago, I'd never have thought I'd be saying this, but I miss you, too." Alice stopped, turned, and pulled Anastasia into a hug, which the queen warmly returned. They held it for a few moments before letting go and turning back to the road.
2: Will and Cyrus
Will stared at Cyrus.
Cyrus stared at Will.
The bottle rocked, and they were jostled into each other with an, "Ow!" of thumping heads.
Righting themselves, they returned to staring at each other in silence, until Will spoke. "Well," he said, rubbing his forehead where it had thumped against Cyrus'. "This is not where I expected to be on my wedding anniversary, let me tell you."
"I hadn't thought I'd be returning here myself," Cyrus agreed. "What did you do to that sorceress?"
"Me? I thought it was you! I've never seen her before in my life."
"What, no, I-" Cyrus broke off and groaned. "Alice."
Will stared at him before returning the groan and agreeing, "Alice."
Silence reigned for a few more moments before Will stood, balanced himself against the softly swaying bottle, and started pacing. "How do you put up with her?" he complained to Cyrus. "Always causing trouble, even when she's not here!"
"Well, to start, the sex is amazing." Cyrus grinned when Will stopped, shocked, and stared at him. "No, truly, it's phenomenal. Best I've ever had. I always assumed that was the true love."
"Is this- Are we those kind of friends now, then?" Will asked him, an unexpected flush of warmth running through him at the thought of Cyrus and Alice together. "Because I would have liked that memo. Although, y'know, you may be right about that true love thing. Never was anybody half as good as my Anastasia. But you could have warned a bloke!"
Cyrus shrugged. "Where's the fun in that? In all seriousness, though, I suppose I put up with her because I love her. Doesn't even feel like 'putting up with' most of the time. She deals with just as many of my… foibles… as I do hers, so it's only fair we do it reasonably."
"Rabbit said it at your wedding, he did," Will agreed. "Through sickness and health, 'til death do you part, you've already done all that. I guess after that, everything's gravy."
"Now that things are… settled… with Anastasia, are you finding it the same?"
"Eh, I suppose." Will sat down again, the swaying bottle getting to be a little too much and making him feel seasick. "Different problems now, of course, what with running the kingdom and all that. We're talking about finding a new Queen of Hearts to handle some things for us."
"You know, I never did get an explanation of that." Cyrus frowned. "If Anastasia was queen of Wonderland when she married the Red King, what did the Queen of Hearts rule?"
"Fucked if I know. I worked for her and all it ever seemed she ruled was her maze. But she had loads of soldiers who had free reign of most of Wonderland, so… I guess she ruled hearts? Seems fitting, with the name and all."
"I suppose." Cyrus stood, his balance much more certain than Will's had been -- reasonable, Will supposed, as he had decades practice to Will's rather short tenure -- and began knocking on the wall.
"What are you doing?"
"If this truly is a replica of our bottle -- a perfect one, I mean -- there's a little secret I left hidden away for a rainy day." He grinned at Will as a small section of wall popped open, a low glow emanating from within. "And don't you know, I think it's raining."
3: Will and Alice
"Kiss me," Alice said suddenly, pulling Will close as she moved towards an alleyway.
"Now, Alice, I know I'm devilishly handsome and all, but I think Ana might set you on fire if I do that. Or me. Or at least my private parts, and I rather like them un-immolated."
"Oh, shut up," Alice retorted, and proceeded to make him do just that by application of her lips against his.
Startled at first, Will melted into the kiss and returned it with fervor; moments later, men in armor ran by the alley, not giving Will and Alice more than a glance as they passed. Pulling her mouth slightly from Will, Alice counted, "One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand," before stepping away and grinning. "We'll just have to explain to Anastasia that I was saving your life," she said. "Or did you want to leave me to tell her that I'd let you be killed at the hands of those idiots?"
"I don't know what would be the worst part of that." Will shuddered. "Being killed by morons, or Anastasia going all evil again just to get the power she needs to resurrect me so she can kill me again herself."
There's silence for a long moment before Alice says, her tone serious, "You know that we would stop that, don't you?" She slings an arm around the former Knave, her body language casual for all the import of her words, as she leads him out of the alleyway. "Cyrus and I. We wouldn't let her go evil. Not even for you." Grinning again, she adds, "Although if you kiss like that, no wonder she doesn't want to give you up."
"I knew it, I knew it!" Will crowed. "Even you can't resist me. I'm irresistible. Cannot be resisted. Resistance is futile." He gives Alice a moment to respond before sighing. "Oh, right, you wouldn't have seen that. No Borg yet in Victorian London."
"You'll have to explain that sometime. Or take me back to your Storybrooke. I think I'd like to see it again."
"Not much to see, really," Will says, shrugging. "Half the time you can't leave the town at all, and that's usually when you've got giants or wizards or… or bloody snow queens running around everywhere killing people. Not so much fun as all that. Star Trek definitely can't make up for it."
Reaching the inn they were looking for, Alice laughed and pulled Will inside. "So many adventures. I'm starting to think your number might even rival mine."
"I'll show you an adventure," Will retorted, stepping around her and grabbing her ass as he walked by. Alice jumped, but then laughed and followed him as he walked towards the man they'd come to see about a horse.
4: Ana and Cyrus
Cyrus felt something brush against his lips, a feather-light touch; startled, he jumped, looking around, but nothing was nearer than Anastasia, sitting across the table from him and reading a book while sipping tea.
"That was Alice," she explained, not even looking up from the book as she turned a page. "Kissing Will."
"I- What? What do you mean? They wouldn't-" Flustered, Cyrus looked down at his own cup, untouched and cooling rapidly.
Anastasia rolled her eyes. "Of course they would. Or, well, Alice would, to prevent them from being caught. Here." She turned the book around, showing Cyrus that it held a window looking at…
"Alice?"
"She can't hear you," Anastasia explained. "I'm following them through Will's eyes, not his ears or his mouth." Words appeared beneath the window, as Alice spoke inaudibly; Cyrus realised quickly that the spell was transcribing her words.
"-I was saving your life," she said. "Or did you want to leave me to tell her that I'd let you be killed at the hands of those idiots?"
"I don't know what would be the worst part of that." Will shuddered. "Being killed by morons, or Anastasia going-"
"Ah," Cyrus said, understanding. "Hiding in plain sight. Alice always did have a talent for that."
"Everyone knows that Will's the White King now, married to me, and they all know what a temper I have. They'd never look twice at a man kissing another woman. It's the perfect disguise."
"It doesn't make you… worry? Wonder?"
Anastasia shook her head. "Will went to the ends of the world for me, sacrificed his heart because the ache of losing me was too strong. His kiss broke the curse of the most powerful sorcerer who ever lived. It's true love, absolutely. A few kisses between friends doesn't have anything on that."
Cyrus nodded, chuckling a bit. "I suppose that makes sense," he agreed. He watched the window a few moments more, seeing Alice and Will make contact with the man they'd gone to find, and then nodded at Anastasia, who turned the book back, flipping another page. "... Keeping the spell going?" he asked.
"Hmm?" Anastasia looked up, and Cyrus indicated the page-turning. "Oh, no, just checking other parts of the kingdom. I try to keep an eye on trouble spots when I can, make sure nothing gets too big for us to handle. Will and Alice can handle themselves; I hardly need to keep a constant eye. I just like knowing what's going on."
"Anything worth worrying about?"
Anastasia shook her head. "Nothing that requires my personal intervention. I usually just end up taking note of a few things and passing it on to the guard captain or the seneschal, depending on whether it needs military intervention or some other kind of aid. The hope is that I manage things before they get so big that I need to put a hand in myself."
"Like what?" Cyrus asked.
"Oh, there was this town dealing with a drought," Anastasia explained. "That's one that went onto the seneschal. They had an issue with their wells, mostly natural, so we interceded to make sure they had a water supply until the wells could be dealt with. They managed that themselves, but because we stepped in, they could focus on it without having to worry about where they were getting water from in the meantime."
"Admirable. No, truly, I mean it," Cyrus clarified, when Anastasia rolled his eyes. "Any number of monarchs wouldn't -- and haven't -- done that. You are truly thinking of your people, and doing the best for them that you can."
"Well, I didn't before," Anastasia admitted. "I have a lot to make up for."
"Not so much as all that, I don't think," Cyrus suggested. "But you are doing a fine job now, as queen."
"Yes, well." Anastasia flushed, just a little, hard to see in the soft light of sunset. "Thank you."
5: Ana and Will
"So Alice kissed me, then," Will said suddenly, not long after Alice and Cyrus had departed through Rabbit's portal back to London.
"Yes," Ana said, smirking. "I know."
"Not going to do anything about it, then?" he asked. "Parts and all, they're all safe?"
"And Alice, too. Just… Try not to make a habit of it? You're supposed to be kissing me, after all."
Will nodded, laughing and swinging Ana around, her cloak flaring out behind her. "And, generally, the only one I want to be kissing," he added, setting Ana down.
Raising an eyebrow, Ana brushed her dress flat and asked, "'Generally'?"
"Alice is a very attractive woman," Will pointed out. "And Cyrus isn't bad for a bloke at all. Can't say the thought's never crossed my mind before. Doesn't mean I plan to act on it. Those two are even more sickeningly in love than we are."
"Hmm. Not bad for a bloke, indeed," Ana agreed. "Well, let's just say -- if things ever… come up, as it were, and we're neither of us around... Should they ever be interested. Perhaps they can be… allowable?"
Will blinked. "Are you-- Did you seriously just--?"
"I trust you, Will. It took me long enough to get there, but I really do. I trust our love. And maybe it's not the same way, but you love Alice, too. I'd be surprised if you didn't, after all you two went through. After what I put you through." Ana shrugged. "You love each other, you're attracted to each other… Who am I to stand in the way of that, just because I love you, too? I'm not saying, 'Go out and chase them down,' but if things ever get there for you two, don't worry about me. Just come home to me afterwards, and tell me all about it."
"I don't quite know what to say to all this."
"Say that you love me, and that you always will."
Will grinned. "What, you don't know that already? Besides, I was always more fond of showing than telling..."
Grinning back, Ana pointed out, "That's probably better suited for our bedroom... I think we should get back there as fast as possible."
"I like the way you think."
"At least one of us does."
+1: Together
Alice grabbed Will and threw her arms around him, pulling him close. "I thought we'd lost you." Cyrus, too, came up, and Anastasia on the other side, joining the embrace. "I thought you were gone."
"We all did," Cyrus added, leaning in, his forehead resting against Will's temple. "I didn't think-- I thought-- I'm glad you're okay."
Anastasia kissed Will's cheek, a soft brush of her lips against his skin. "I don't know what I would have done," she admitted.
"A bloke likes to feel appreciated," Will said, "but he also likes to breathe." Laughing, the trio let him go, though Alice held him at arms length, her hands on his shoulders.
"Don't do that again," she admonished. "I don't think any of us would forgive you if you went and died on us. I- We love you, you know."
"I know," Will murmured. "I love you, too." And then, without giving it any further thought, he leaned in and kissed her.
Alice was shocked for the first moment, and Cyrus let out a small cry, but he held himself back as she started to respond to Will. For a long moment, they held the kiss, both breathing hard when they eventually separated. "Will, I-" Alice looked at Anastasia, who shrugged, smiling softly.
"He'll get his from me later," she explained, before giving Cyrus a little shove towards Will. "Go on, get it out of your systems, then." Cyrus looked plaintively at Alice, who grinned and considered it for a moment.
"You know," Alice said, "I think I might actually want to see this."
Will reached up to grab Cyrus by the shoulder. "I'm game for it if you are," he explained, grinning and licking his lips a little. "Kinda curious about it, honestly. It's been a long time since I did anything with a guy."
"I've never-- But I've always wondered..." Cyrus trailed off before leaning down and pushing his lips against Will's. The kiss deepened; Alice and Ana both looked on in growing interest.
Finally, separating, Will and Cyrus stared at each other before looking over to Alice and Anastasia. "Uh, yes, more of that, please," Will said. "Ana, did you want...?"
"I'll go take care of the prisoners," Ana said, laughing. "You three go have some fun. And change the bed afterwards."
And so they did.