Well, this is my first Alice In Wonderland fic. I wrote this back in April, just after I had first seen the movie, but I just now stumbled upon it whilst doing some organizing on my laptop. I saw the movie, loved it, and immediately fell in love with Hatter/Alice, because they are just so cute and OTP and cute!

Oh, by the way, I don't own Alice in Wonderland, if I did; the movie would have had a major alternate ending...

"You could… stay," The Hatter suggested meekly. I stood before him, all of my Wonderland friends gathered around us. But he was the closest. Not only physically, but he was my closest friend in Wonderland, my closest friend, period, for that matter. I glanced at the vile of Jabberwocky blood in my hand, at all of the creatures around me; noticing that the Cheshire Cat had even stuck around long enough for my goodbye. Then my gaze turned to the Hatter. He was looking at the ground, being silent. His normally vibrant emerald eyes had turned to a gray-green color, making even more clear the sadness that was written all over his face.

Without thinking, I grabbed his hand and pulled him along with me into the nearby forest. "Hatter, what's wrong?" I asked him. He was still looking down but he had kept his hand in mine, which I found that I enjoyed probably more than I should. "Please tell me, I hate to see you sad," I whispered.

Hatter finally looked at me "I missed you," he said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered, utterly dumbfounded by the thought.

"You were gone, Alice, gone. For years and years you were gone, and I was left here, getting madder and madder, wondering where you were, wondering if you were okay. And then you come back and I am ecstatic with joy! You had returned to us a beautiful woman, and even though you had lost your muchness I still knew that it was you! And then you had found your muchness and defeated the bloody red queen and killed the Jabberwocky, you have become the champion of Underland! But now, you are leaving us, leaving me, and returning to the horrid Upperland and who knows when you'll come back? What if you marry some awful man and have children with him when you could have just stayed here and married me because I love you an-"Suddenly realizing what he had said, the Hatter cut himself off abruptly.

Yet again, the Hatter had shocked me. The only response I could think of was "What?"

"I love you, Alice. But I should never have said that because obviously a wonderful woman like you could never be in love with a madman and now I've prob-"

I interrupted him, "How can you possibly think that I could never love you?"

He was still looking at the ground when he responded, "Because I'm a madman, Alice. You deserve someone much better than me; I'd be even crazier than I already am to think that I would even have a chance with you,"

I placed my hand under his chin and raised his head so that our eyes met. "Well, you're wrong, because I love you," I whispered before leaning in and kissing him, wrapping my arms around him. He was unresponsive for a second, before kissing me back, holding me close to him. Being in his arms felt so right and in that moment I couldn't fathom ever being anywhere else. We reluctantly broke apart and I rested my forehead against his, looking into his shining eyes.

"You… love me?" the Hatter questioned, disbelief evident in his voice.

"Yes," I breathed, "Yes. I love you, and I do not want to return to the Upperworld and marry some awful man and have children with him. I want to stay here, with you. And if you had told me all of this sooner I would have never even considered leaving, because now I can't imagine anything better than being here with you," I smiled at him, and he grinned his amazing smile back at me before he pulled me in for another kiss, this one surprisingly chaste compared to our last. Over his shoulder I could see a certain mischievous cat's grin. I mentioned this to the Hatter, and we decided now would be an excellent time to return to our friends with the news that I had decided to stay.

As we began our trek back, Tarrant, as I was recently informed his name was, took a hold of my hand and laced his fingers with mine. He began rambling about all of the ideas for hats that he had, and in that moment I found that I didn't care that he was now talking so fast that I could barely understand a word that he said, I was just happy that he was saying those words to me.

As we had discovered when we returned to the battleground, there was no time for stolen kisses on our walk back, as the Cheshire Cat was already smirking at the agitated-looking group, boasting that he knew something they did not.

Mallymkun, who was currently spewing obscenities at the cat for not telling her what he had witnessed, was the first to notice our return (always the observant one, even in fits of rage). "Alice! 'Arrant!" She cried, her small sword pointed at Chessur's eye " 'his wretched 'at won't 'ell us a-" She gaped as she noticed our clasped hands.

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise," Chessur purred, giving Mally a pointed look as she reluctantly withdrew her sword.

I looked at Tarrant and then back to the shell-shocked group, most of whom were gaping at us, others, including Queen Mirana and Absolem, wore knowing smiles. "Well…" I began, "I suppose that most of you have already realized or assumed this, but… I'm staying!" The crowd broke from their silence and began applauding and cheering, and I felt myself blush. Tarrant looked down and smiled at me before kissing me once again.

So… sequel? Make a story out of it? End it here? I love hearing what you think, so drop me a line, even if it's only a smiley. :3