*BACK AT THE TREACLE Tart Café where Alice’s sister, Lory, and Jay’s brother, Mouse, are supposed to be tending to café business.

“Listen LD, get your shit and get out!”

Lory threw the clothes that Mouse had left strewn around the small apartment into his lap as he ignored her watching sports on the television.

“Can’t leave Sugar Booger, I have to babysit you until your sister gets back.”

He threw his head back to catch that last gulp of beer inside his can before smashing it against his forehead.

Lory rolled her eyes, “Could you be any more disgusting?”

Mouse looked directly at her while scratching his balls, “Do you want me to try?”

“I don’t need you, your mess, or your hairy man parts in my house. Get out LD!”

Mouse shrugged and went back to the TV. It hadn’t been his idea to be stuck there with Princess Impossible and he wasn’t about to let her win. He was already sleeping on the pullout couch that had more springs in it than feathers. He worked long hours in the café and she yelled at him nonstop for taking food to the wrong tables and sneaking bites here and there.

As far as Mouse was concerned, he didn’t care how beautiful Lory was. She was a fucking pain in his arse. Mouse was furious at his brother for leaving him there. He was a glorified babysitter and nothing more. Hell, he wasn’t even getting paid!

“You have dirty underwear on my table?” Lory screeched before launching the offending item at his head.

Mouse picked it and smelled it. Yep, definitely not clean. He had lived with his brother Jay and been catered to by Jubjub’s most of his life. Mouse wasn’t used to picking up after himself. If she thought, he would magically turn into some kind of cleaning freak overnight she had another thought coming her way.

He was a man of simple tastes. Mouse liked women, food, women, sports, and women. He didn’t understand why this shrew was out to get him. After all, for the first few days Mouse had been nothing but kindness and charm. But nothing was good enough for Lory, and after a while he quit trying.

For a small moment he felt a shiver of guilt, Mouse was messy, but nothing like he had been at Lory’s place. She was just so damn annoying with her yapping at him all day about this or that. He might have started going out of his way to piss her off. But she started it! He didn’t.

Lory brushed his nasty clothes into a pile and grabbed the bleach to wash the table off. She had just enough of LD to last her a lifetime. LD standing for little dick. She liked that nickname a whole lot better than Mouse. Days were bad with him always screwing things up at the café. To make matters worse there was an influx of teenage girls that had started hanging out there just to flirt with Mouse. Lory didn’t know why that bothered her so much, but it pissed her the hell off.

It wasn’t like they bought a lot either. No, they would order the stupidest items like crackers just, so they could stay and gawk at Mouse. Lory tried trading him places and putting Mouse into the kitchen but that resulted in a fire that almost burned the place down.

As of right now, the café was under repairs and Lory knew that Alice was going to skin her alive. Her only job had been to keep the place running and now they were having to rebuild some of the kitchen and a row of booths. She ran a hand through her long blonde hair. Life seemed content with biting her on the arse at every turn.

Glancing back over at Mouse she noticed that he had stuck his hand down the front of his pants.

“Stop touching your dick! That is disgusting!” she raged.

Mouse smirked at her, “I had an itch. Want to scratch it for me?”

Lory wanted to scratch his eyes out.

“Can’t you just behave for five minutes? Is that so hard LD?”

Mouse shrugged, “You know one of these days I am going to show you my dick and you will find out just how wrong you are.”

“Eww,” Lory’s eyes flashed with irritation, “Nobody wants to see your junk, sicko!”

Mouse raised a brow, “There are plenty of girls that want a piece of me, but none of them as much as you do, Lory. Do you think that I can’t see you watching me? That I can’t feel your eyes boring into my arse? Shit, you have it bad.”

Lory wanted to scream at him, “If you mean I badly want to kill you then congratulations LD you are right!”

Mouse watched her as she slammed things around the kitchen cleaning up the small space. There was no point that he could see cleaning it all when it would just get messy again. Grudgingly he got to his feet and started to gather up the dirty clothes that he had scattered every which way.

“What?” Lory dropped her wash cloth, “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning up, Princess Perfect, isn’t that what you wanted?”

Lory blinked, “Well, yeah.” After a moment’s hesitation she followed that with, “Thank you.” It would have been perfect if she hadn’t opened her mouth a third time, “It’s about damn time.”

Mouse dropped the clothes into the hamper and sauntered over to where she was leaning against the cupboard, “Listen PP, I think that you and I are going to need to come to an understanding.”

“PP?” Lory frowned.

“Princess Perfect,” he supplied, “We can’t do anything here because of the repairs necessary for the café need to be completed. So, I think we should go and see if Jay and Alice need any help. All we are doing here is pissing each other off.”

Lory nodded slowly, “Alright, do you know where they are?”

Mouse shook his head, “No, but I am a Jabberwocky, I can fly over Wonderland and find them easily enough.”

Lory felt excitement race through her veins, “Do you mean that I could fly too?”

Mouse gave her a sharp glance, “Or you could walk below me, but I think you will get lost.”

Lory smacked his shoulder, “Don’t be a smart arse! What do we need to bring?”

Mouse wrinkled his brow, “Lory, you will be holding on my scales, I don’t come with a luggage compartment.”

“But I can pack a bag and attach it to my back, right?” her light eyes sparkled for the first time in days.

Mouse was momentarily blinded by her sheer beauty.

Lory noticed him staring and frowned, “What is it?”

Mouse shook his head and answered gruffly, “Nothing. I will go out and see if I can find them. Pack whatever you need, and I will be back within the hour. Just remember PP, don’t bring anything that can’t be strapped to your back.”

Lory grinned at him and his chest tightened, He needed to get the hell out of there and fast. Mouse was having the strangest sensation go through him. He didn’t know what in the hell it was, but it was giving him odd ideas.

Like pushing Lory against the counter and kissing the shit out of her. Or cupping her face and staring into those gorgeous eyes.

Something was wrong with him. He didn’t do romance and he sure as shit didn’t do love. With the slamming of the door, Mouse went outside of the apartment. The leftover smell of the fire still permeated the air. He hadn’t meant to fuck up so badly. Mouse had thought he had everything under control. Obviously, he was delusional. With a huff he took to the air, searching for Jay, Alice, and that crazy dirigible.