"Nightmare, stop being such a baby, would you?" Alice Liddell asked as she plopped herself down next to the fellow college student in question.

Nightmare Gottschalk certainly didn't behave like a college student, and especially not at the moment Alice was witnessing. He was good looking and wealthy, but he reacted very much like a child. He was also very sickly, often missing school, and wore an eye patch on his right eye because, when he was younger, caught a disease that made him blind in that eye. Thankfully, they had treated it before it spread to his other eye.

Speaking of illnesses and being sickly, Nightmare hated hospitals, medicine, and basically anything that could make him healthy. It didn't help that his friend, Gray Ringmarc – who actually was more like his nanny or mom – tried to make him eat "healthy" food only to end up being toxic waste. Nightmare stuck to sweets.

Yet, that wasn't all there was to him. He was smart, more so than the average college student, and Alice could swear that he could read minds sometimes. He could be sweet and kind when he wanted to be, like helping Alice out when she was really struggling with something, be it school related or not. There were also times where he seemed very enigmatic, making cryptic remarks that, more often than not, left Alice baffled.

In fact, the first time they met, years ago, he seemed very mysterious to her. Looking at him now, though, she had a hard time reconciling her two impressions of him.

Nightmare, who had been whining about awful handmade lunch from Gray and was subtly trying to throw it in the trash, along with his medicine, paused when Alice arrived. Seeing her eyes suddenly gaze at something far away, became curious, and leaned toward her.

"Alice, what is it?"

The small smile tugging at her lips ceased as her focus snapped back to Nightmare.

"Oh, nothing. I was just remembering when we first met, is all," she answered honestly. She wanted to tell him that she was thinking about her first impression specifically, but she knew that would only inflate Nightmare's ego. That she wanted to avoid.

Nightmare's eye also took on a nostalgic look, and he smiled wryly.

"Ah, right. You had just moved, and were very unstable. I thought you would run away from home."

Alice's face twitched at the implication, but didn't comment, because it wasn't entirely off the mark.

"You weren't exactly helpful, either. Making cryptic remarks and acting like you could disappear in a cloud of smoke."

"That - "

Before Nightmare could get any more out, Alice smiled and said, "Still, I'm glad I came, and I'm glad I met you."

Nightmare, caught off guard by the unusually candid reply, blinked and his cheeks flushed the tiniest of bits. A contemplative silence fell over Alice for a moment. Then she reached inside her bag to check for her calendar.

"Well, would you look at that? Today's the 12 year anniversary of the day we met," Alice muttered.

Nightmare, who was sitting right next to her, heard her muttering, smiled, and then whispered in her ear, "Happy Anniversary, Alice."

Alice jumped about a foot in the air, and as her face took its turn to flush pink, she started objecting to Nightmare's whispering in her ear like a lover. The two proceeded to bicker until lunch was over.

After all their obligations for the day had been met, Alice and Nightmare met up to celebrate their first meeting anniversary. Reminiscing over dinner and desert, they talked until Alice had fallen asleep at the table.

The edges of the scene warped slightly, hazy colors peeking through, and Nightmare began to float over her, and whispered ever so quietly, "Sweet dreams, Alice."

A/N: This was written for the 12th Anniversary of the series back in February. I hope you enjoyed it.