Alice's Adventure in Karaoke Night [Invite only]

"Alrighty, then. It is nice to meet you Byron," Dusk says in response. He thought for a moment before asking, "Also, speaking of dinner. Where's the food here?" Dusk looked around the room.

On the table there were a plethora of cakes and chips as well as liters of soda on buckets of ice.

"Ah, there it is!" Dusk says once he spots the table. He goes over and gets a piece of cake and pours himself some soda. Cheshire said he should find something to do, so the easiest thing was to eat. Mmm, this tastes great, he thinks to himself.

After watching the little scene between the girl named Robin and Rider Blanc, Liseran sighed a bit, already anxious about all the new people gathered into one room. Seeing that no one was really talking to Alice, Liseran inched her way over and sat down next to her.

"So, Alice," Liseran said smiling. "It must be great now that you're going to Beacon. I honestly never saw you in combat, but being accepted at Beacon so young probably suggests you're a good fighter, huh?"

Meanwhile, Rory inched over to Cheshire and looked at him evilly. "I think you owe me something, Mr. Cat. A little deal we had?"

Grumpily, Cheshire picked up one of of the gift bags and handed it to Rory. The bag was sealed shut but it smelled heavily of honey roast.

Alice fidgeted a bit, looking at the ground awkwardly. "Well... to be honest, I'm not so sure how it happened," Alice murmured, "And well... I've never been to a school before... so I'm kind of nervous... And those guys are making too much of a fuss about this..."

Rory inhaled the scent deeply before letting out a sigh of satisfaction. She grinned mischievously at Cheshire. "My lips are sealed." She moved over to Lao Tzu and raised the gift bag. "Shen, lookie! We have another ham for dinner! We're going to have a banquet this week, I can tell you that!"

She moved over to the foreigner and hugged him affectionately in a childish manner. "How are you enjoying things so far?"


"Well, I think they're doing it because they really care about you and want to show you how special of a thing you've accomplished," Liseran said warmly. She leaned back a bit in her chair and sighed. "I can understand if you're nervous. School can be pressuring with all those new people and the tasks you have to do. But these guys look like they'll have your back no matter what happens. And besides..."

Liseran leaned a bit to face Alice with a warm smile. "New beginnings mean new opportunities for happier times. Even if you're nervous, I'm sure things will turn out right in the end. Trust me, I can see the future."

She winked at the last remark.

Titling her head, she turned to Byron, "Uh, I'm not really good at the whole flirting thing...wanna go get something to eat?" She asked.

"It is... strange," Shen stated, "I've been to many celebrations but... nothing like this. This method of celebration seem so... free."

The foreigner looked around awkwardly as if he had set onto strange land again.

"Well..." Alice murmured, averting her eyes off to the side with a slight blush to her face, "If you say so... So you're dating Cheshire, right? What exactly is that guy like as a boyfriend?"


Byron chuckled and draped his arms over Robin's shoulders from behind, leaning his head against hers. "I like you better when you're just yourself," Byron remarked, "No need to force yourself into the role. The only real difference between us is that we get to kiss now, right?"

Rory giggled a bit. "Well, celebrations don't always have to be formal and stiff," she said. "It's all about having a good time with one another. In faaact...do you sing?"

Hearing Alice's remark, it was Liseran's turn to blush and she buried half of her face in her scarf. "W-well, yes, we're dating. Uhm...well, Cheshire's really wonderful to me. He's kind and thoughtful and stuff...I mean, he can be a bit of a closed book, but I'd like to think we deeply care about one another. Gah, I probably sound cheesy right now..."

Liseran had been looking off to Cheshire and behind her scarf, she felt herself smile a bit, recalling that just hours earlier, they were together with Bell.

"He's a wonderful man, really he is..." Liseran smiled.

Robin blushed cutely, "Y-yeah." She nodded, shifting her eyes away, "Uh, whose on next for karaoke?" She asked.

"I do sing a little," Shen stated, "Verbal and vocal exercises were a usual thing for me in the afternoon."

Alice had started staring closely at Liseran, her eyes squinting as if to look that much closer that the raspberry scented girl. "Liseran right? ... You seem... different," Alice remarked, "And I don't mean the look. You look like you have... a glow...."

Rider chuckled off to the side. "A girl with a glow huh? What happened? Did Cheshire propose to you or what?"

Cheshire did a spit take, spewing orange soda in a sudden spray upon hearing that last remark.

"Hey, Shen, that reminds me, you mentioned something of the sort," Rory said eyeing Liseran and Cheshire.

Liseran's face buried low into her scarf as she turned a color even brighter than it. She and Cheshire hadn't really discussed that matter yet after the boat trip and she didn't know what to do. She twiddled her thumbs nervously before standing upright.

"I-I-I-uh-what do you mean by--I mean--" Liseran sputtered gibberish as she looked at Rider flustered. Finally she darted to her wrist watch and stood up. "W-well, look at the time! That reminds me! I have to phone to see if my daughter's okay! I'll make sure to give her your regards, Cheshire. Give me five minutes!"

The words had been said utterly fast, but not enough for Rory to not hear it.

"Daughter??" Rory said. But Liseran zipped by too fast out the door with her scroll. Rory tilted her head slowly and shrugged. She eyed Cheshire suspiciously. "What's she talking about?"

And then turning to Shen while waiting for an answer, "Oh, Shen! We should do a song number! It'll help you get used to it all. What songs do you know?"

"I don't know many, so if you wish Miss Rory, I would rather you choose," Shen said.

Aside from Lao's neutrality, the rest of the room suddenly turned to a new mood. Alice, Rider, and Byron suddenly turned their gazes upon Cheshire who flinched upon seeing their stares. The hatter, the rabbit, and Alice started approaching Cheshire, creeping towards him with smiles on their faces. The faunus back away shaking until his back hit against the wall, surrounded by three amused people who cornered him like a rat.

"Cheeeeshiiiire~" Alice giggled.

"Would you like to share something with uuuuus~?" Rider grinned.

"Stay baaaaack..." Cheshire quivered, "I- It's not what you think!"

Rory snickered as the three cornered Cheshire but decided not to intrude and turned to Shen. "Hmm..let's see if you can sing along to this."

Just as Cheshire got cornered, the cracked open and Liseran's face appeared, still lightly red.

"U-uh...Cheshire?" Liseran called hesitantly as she saw the small scene. Her eyes looked to the side and she blushed more. "C-could you join me for a moment to...uh..."

Liseran's face turned bright red. She looked too embarrassed to finish the sentence.

As the karaoke machine was set up, Shen nodded to Rory, raising the microphone to his mouth and started singing in perfect tune to the song, reading the words as they lit up on the screen perfectly.

Without the need for explanation, Cheshire disappeared and reappeared at the door, quickly following Liseran outside and shutting it close right when he heard Alice call out, "Don't make another baby now!"

The door slammed shut the moment he started hearing Byron and Rider laughing.

Rory grinned at Lao Tzu, impressed. "Are you sure you never sang this before? Because you dang right nailed it."

Hearing the comments from the door, Liseran turned even brighter and, clutching her scroll tightly she yelled to it. "I-it's not like that!!"

Rory eventually joined in on the laughter.

She sighed a bit and looked Cheshire apologetically. "Sorry about all that...it sort of slipped from my mouth earlier..."

Her face hid behind her hair and scarf, which was pretty useful, Liseran now saw. "Bell woke up again, but I managed to get her to sleep. It's hard for her to sleel alone. She misses you, by the way. Anyways..."

Liseran had been nervous to ask but her bright blue and green eyes glanced at Cheshire as she steeled herself. "Well, I wanted to ask about...well the thing on the boat..."

"Are you having second thoughts?" Cheshire asked anxiously, grabbing Liseran's hand into his own.

Robin titled her head, Those two are gonna have problems... She thought, watching Cheshire leave the room. Shaking her head in both parts amusement and pity, the white haired huntress looked up to the karaoke machine and wondered what would happen if she ever went up there. Probably nothing good, she was never very good at singing. Growing up on a farm didn't leave any room for music lessons.

Byron suddenly grabbed Robin's hand without warning and pulled her towards the mini stage. "Let's have some fun," Byron smiled. "You can pick the song."

Robin epped, "Uh, sure." She said, wondering what the hell she was going to sing.

"Don't worry, I won't let you do it alone," Byron smiled charmingly, grabbing the mic from the stand. "Singing a song to kill time at parties is sorta my thing."

The hatter wrapped his arm around Robin's waist and pulled her closer. He gave her a nod signalling her to choose the song.

"What?" Liseran said alarmed. She shook her head wildly. "Of course not!"

She quickly moved to hug Cheshire reassuringly. And looked to the side. "It's just that...well...it's a big move and we haven't really discussed our plans an such. But right now, more importantly...are people supposed to know at the moment? Rory for one..."

Cheshire held Liseran in his arms, rubbing her back as he rested his chin on top of her head. "We can always tell our friends at a better time. And we have all the time in the world to plan it... I know we're moving a little fast but... when I saw Bell playing on the boat and looked at you that day, I couldn't help myself. I wanted to be a family. I wanted us to have this family. You're the most important person in my life Liseran. I want to spend the rest of our lives together..."

Liseran held Cheshire tighter before lifting her face and smiling at him brightly.

"It's all I ever want as well," Liseran said. "You and Bell are the most precious things to me now. And you're right, we do have all the time in the world..."

She kissed him lightly on the cheeks before letting go and holding settling on holding his hand.

"We should head back inside before they make up things," she said as she leaned her head on his arm. "I guess we can keep mum about if for a while..."

"The walls have eeeeeaaarss~"

The door suddenly flew open with Rider behind it, smiling wickedly, his big rabbit ears twitching in excitement. "Get over here!"

Before either of them could react, Rider grabbed them both and pulled them into the room.

"I think somebody has an announcement to make now~" Rider smiled mischievously, staring at Cheshire who had started sweating.

Liseran's eyes grew big and felt her vocal chords constrict so tightly that she could only let out tiny gasps of air. She smiled nervously and tried to speak, but Rory zipped over to her with a stern expression on her face.

"You two obviously need to be more careful of where you're speaking," Rory said. "You do know some of us here have faunus ears right? What's this thing? What happened at the Archives? And what's this about a daughter, Liseran and a family and stuff??"

Liseran felt so nervous and pressed that tiny tears were forming in the corner of her eyes. Her forced smile began to twitch and she lifted a finger that shook furiously. "I-I-I can explain!"

"You better!" Rory said with her hands on her hips. She leaned over and glared at Liseran. "Now what happened??"

Liseran's finger crooked as her head lowered and her face became bright red. She knew that she wasn't supposed to tell anything, but she knew Rory at least had to know about Bell eventually.

"W-well, you know I went to the Archives, right?"

"Uhuuuuh...and Cheshire went to check on you. So?"

Liseran's two index fingers pressed together furiously. "W-well...a lot of things happened really. Some...unexpected things...and well..."

"SPIT IT OUT!"

Liseran gulped loudly before lifting her head slowly, her eyes closed tightly, her temples sweating and a nervous smile on her face. "W-well, Rory...you're going to be an aunt now."

Rory stared blankly for a second and the room felt so quiet the silence actually hurt Liseran's ears.

"Uh-uh...Rory?"

Rory reached for her belt pocket and took out a long metal rod as it formed into a medium sized axe. She glared at Cheshire with sharp eyes and bared her teeth before charging at him. "YOU BASTARD! I'M GOING TO SLICE YOU!"

"Rory, what are you doing!?"

Before Rory could start swinging, her wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind by Lao. "What's wrong Miss Rory?"

"W-W-Woah!" Cheshire exclaimed, pressing his back against the wall, his eyes widening. "It's not what you think! She's six years old already!"

Rider, who was casually sipping a soda with an amused smile on his face did a spit take, spraying off to the side.