So, this is supposed to be a oneshot to jog my brain so that it would loosen up. It's something I wrote a while ago (Got inspiration on something I read so it isn't that original) but never finished so yeah... it ended up being a twoshot though.
Disclaimer: I do not own Elsword or Alice in Wonderland.
The jingling bell rang, signaling the presence of someone who just entered the little cozy cafe known as Wonderland. The black and white floor tiles seem spotless in the lighting of the store despite the place being crowded.
"Ah, Aisha!" An older-looking blonde greeted once the girl entered. She is wearing a preppy outfit of a dark blue vest over a blouse and a white pleated skirt; rabbit paws consumed her hands and a rabbit tail attached to the back of her outfit as well as long rabbit ears sitting on her silky golden hair. "Right on time, why don't you go in the back and get ready? We have a lot of customers today but we can't have a Wonderland without our Alice, now can we?"
Aisha did a salute and smiled. "Roger that, Rena the Rabbit!"
Rena Lire, the shop owner, founded this shop and named it Wonderland because of her love for the fairy tale. It attracted a lot of attention as well as other Alice in Wondering lovers with it's unique setting and the cosplaying employees. Despite having a lot of customers compared to other shops, Rena decided to keep the place small because she liked the cozy atmosphere.
Aisha came upon the shop when she was searching for a job. Being fond of Alice in Wonderland, she decided to apply. She was acquainted with Rena and had gotten the role of Alice based on the shop owner's reasoning of "you looking like a Alice so you're hired!"
It was unorthodox but the purplette didn't complain.
Aisha headed into the back of her shop to put away her school things, on the way, she meet with the Queen of Hearts.
"Hiya Eve!" Aisha greeted, who got a nod of acknowledgement back. Knowing Eve to be quiet and stoic all the time, Aisha didn't take mind the silent reply and made her way to the lockers so that she could change into her blue dress with a white apron.
Deciding on keeping her low pigtails, she just put the black bow hairband on her head before heading out to wait on customers.
"Hey Aisha!" The King of Hearts greeted as he was clocked on break.
"Hi Chung, how are things?" Aisha asked as she walked by
"All right."
The purplette bid a quick goodbye before entering back into the shop. She looked around, seeing Eve taking orders placidly and Rena seemed to be talking to one of the customers sitting alone.
"You're just like the sleepy dormouse!" Rena chirped.
"Hm…?" The raven haired man looked as though he was going to fall asleep any minute now but manage to stay awake. While Rena was chirping with all the energy she has compared to him, he didn't seem to care as he looked at the menu, yawning.
"... Can you stop talking now?" He decided to interrupt the blonde's blabbering and then pointed to the menu. "I want to order."
"Alice! I'm ready for my order!"
"Coming!" Aisha shifted her attention and that started her busy work days at Wonderland Cafe.
Although this place was successful, they were pretty short on staffs but Rena took her time finding more. She reasoned that she wants to find people who can fit the role exactly - how she evaluate people, Aisha haven't a clue. But so far, they have most of the Wonderland characters but… they were missing a few. The main one being the Mad Hatter. Aisha hoped that Rena would make up her mind soon, because a Wonderland without a Mad Hatter is like...a fairy tale without magic.
By closing time, everyone else has already left for home except for Aisha and Rena.
The purplette was cleaning the tables while Rena was in the back, working out the new applications.
Aisha sighed a breath of exhaustion when she finished and wiped her forehead. At that moment, she decided to looking up and out the window of the shop, finding the full moon to be somehow mesmerizing.
She reluctantly ripped her gaze away because it was getting late and she needed to go home. Just as she turned, there was a sudden influx of air that caused her to tilt down, seeing a hole in the ground.
"...Eh?" Was all she could uttered before taking a fall. "EEEEHHHHH?!"
Her heart wanted to abandon her as she screamed in panic. She dared to look down, only to realize that she was falling in the sky, and below her was a forest. She closed her eyes shut, panicking even more.
Oh God, I'm going to die!
Just as she was about to accept her fate, Aisha felt everything around her slowing to a halt. She pried open an eye and then another, meeting crimson red ones.
The man that had a arm wrapped around her shoulders had messy crimson hair that was being swept by a gently breeze. He was wearing a suit, something that looked a bit familiar but Aisha didn't remember where.
He seemed to smile when she opened her eyes, which made her heart skip a beat. "Hello, and welcome to Wonderland, where dreams can come true but where it can distorted. I'm Elsword, the Mad Hatter."
Her eyes blinked several times before processing what was happening. She only got to the part where there was a strange man holding her before giving a yelp of surprise and trying to push the man away.
Once she was out of his grip, Aisha could feel the air rushing back and realized that she was still in midair and still falling to her death!
"Wha -"
"Be careful," The man cautioned before taking the purplette by the finger tips and Aisha could feel her body steadying as if she was on ground. Lilia irises looked up at the man to see him holding an umbrella with his other hand - something she hadn't noticed till now - except, it was inside out, but it still seem to keep the man and her afloat for some odd reason.
If Aisha had been in her right state of mind, she would write a ten page essay as to how that was physically impossible. But for now, she settled with: What's going on?!
They slowly descend to the ground, with Aisha gaping like a fish. Elsword found that a bit tiring, since he was used to such reactions.
"You should stop staring," He advised, but then smirked. "Or is it perhaps you have fallen for me?"
"... Eh?" Aisha blinked, finally able to function again - but not in the normal way. She immediately ripped her hand away from the strange man and distanced herself as far as possible. "W-what kind of a l-lame p-pick-up line is that?!"
The redhead shrugged, closing his inside-out umbrella as if there wasn't anything wrong with it nor did he paid it any heed when it look like cane.
He gave the newcomer a look over, seeing her donning in clothes fit of an Alice. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You must be another one."
Aisha's face immediately contorted into confusion. "Another one? Of what?"
Elsword shook her head, dismissing it as something trivial that would stay and go as they please.
"... What?"
The Mad Hatter sighed. "I don't want to indulge in more of this silliness but may I ask of your name Alice? Everyone must have a name or they wouldn't dare to exist and if they didn't exist, then that would mean Wonderland had erased the name long ago.."
The purplette raised a brow, trying to understand what he was rambling about but couldn't. Her head hurts from the nonsense he spouted so she decided to cut him off. "Aisha. Aisha Cerise. Nice to meet you…" She trailed, the redhead's previous introduction finally caught up to her. "... EEEEHHHH?!"
She has been using that too often in one day.
Elsword winced and pulled the brim of his top hat, only for them to turn into earmuffs. "You're quite the unusually loud one but then again, if you aren't loud, then you wouldn't be you."
"Y-you - Mad Hatter- Wonderland - WHAT?!" Aisha exclaimed, her eyes swirling from everything flooding her all the once. "But - but - t-that's only…"
Elsword sighed and placed his hands in his pant pockets. "Yes, yes. This is the land of imagination and only that. But can't imagination itself be real with the mind? It is the imagination of Wonderland that created that fairy tale that you humans called Alice in Wonderland. It may be real or it may be fake, just like your hair - did you dye it in grape juice?"
Aisha took offense to that. "W-what?! Just so you know, my hair color is one hundred percent natural unlike yours!"
Elsword was amused. "Now, now, Aisha the Alice. If my hair isn't red then it'll be every other color of the rainbow. But it isn't because the blue is taken by the sky, the green by the grass, yellow by the sun, orange by orangutans, purple by your hair, and all that's left is red, which is left for my hair."
The purplette twitched an eye. "Okay, whatever, I'll get a headache if I keep listening to you talking in circles. Wake me up from this dream right now because this is a nightmare!"
"How could you say that?" Elsword pouted and the Aisha resisted the urge to blush. "Wonderland is like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! I would show you but you won't be able survive because -"
"Yeah yeah, I'm not as mad as the hatter." Aisha interrupted with an eye roll, knowing the story from heart.
The redhead smiled and tipped his earmuffs that turned back into a top hat. "I would love to stand and be a chatter bug but I'm not said insect. I have a tea party to attend for the last one ended when I was abruptly summoned. Such as I am, you are invited, so would you care to join? Or will you be trying to find a way home, like every other girl that came and went?"
He offered a hand and waited for the purplette to decide.
Aisha looked around, finding that being along in a forest was not the best idea in a strange place such as this. Hesitantly, she took Elsword's hand.
Satisfied, Elsword took off his hat. "Your carriage, M'lady."
The purplette would have blushed if she wasn't confused. "But that's your top hat."
He chuckled in amusement. "Of course. Anyone can go by horse or rail, but the absolute best way to travel is by hat. Why, have I made a rhyme?"
"No… no you didn't."
Elsword let out another laugh before placing the hat on the ground and suddenly scooping Aisha up, prompting her to yelp and squirm.
"L-let me down!"
"No can do," The redhead grinned before looking around. "Now… where's that door knob…"
"Huh?!"
"Ah, there it is." He took said brass knob out of his pocket and inserted it into the hat.
"In we go!" Elsword said suddenly and he leapt… right into the upside down top hat. "... And out we go!"
They were somehow spitted out of a bell flower and into a chair.
"Welcome back Elsword~!"
"What's up mate, you're late." Now that's a rhyme.
"No, I'm not. The party just started because I'm here," Elsword countered. "Just like how the last one ended when I'm gone with the wind. Now where's our cook, we have a new guest who is in need of something to eat… if she isn't asleep."
Elsword shook Aisha to get her to open her eyes. "Wake up wake up, yesterday is today and today is yesterday, Tomorrow has not come yet so don't prepare for it already you brunette."
The purplette smacked him on the head. "Will you stop talking in circles?! I can't understand a word! And my hair is not brown, it's violet!"
The redhead massage his head. "Great, another headache just came to take shelter in an already bulging pile. I wish they would leave but it seems they do not fear being crushed."
One of the Hatter's guests giggled. "It seems that you picked up a strange little girl."
"No, she's normal. We're strange because we're normal. If we're ever normal, then who's to say we're not strange?"
"True true." Another, a mouse, answered. "So she is not strange."
"Yep."
"Because she is normal." continued a flamingo.
"Absolutely."
"And normal is strange." finished a squirrel.
"You heard right."
"... I'm right here y'know." Aisha wondered if everyone in this so-called Wonderland always this weird... and confusing.
"On another note, can you get off of me?" Elsword interrupted her thoughts. "I'm not a chair but if I think I am, then therefore I am. But I'm not having such thoughts so I'm still the Mad Hatter."
Aisha blinked again before blushing profusely. "S-sorry!" She then hopped off of his lap but remained standing.
"W-what is this place?" She asked, looking around, finding them to be surrounded in all directions by leaves and flowers of different sizes.
"A place where tea is served and there's a party so don't be unnerved," Elsword quipped and gestured to an empty seat. "Are you going to stand? Or sit? Either way is fine with me but your share is getting hot."
Aisha looked to the plate that Elsword pointed, a pie. "Don't you mean getting cold?"
"No, I mean it's getting hot."
"But that's -"
Elsword sighed and took an empty tea cup to scoop into the pie. "Try some."
Hesitantly, the purplette took to cup, but instead of seeing cake, she saw tea. The porcelain that she was holding had also dropped in temperature.
"Wait, is this -"
"Ice tea." The redhead interrupted. "Today is hot so I decided to serve ice with tea. Does it not suit your taste? Maybe if you wear something different, then that will help you enjoy the tea"
"... That's not how it works." Aisha frowned but took a sip nonetheless, brightening right after. "This is delicious!"
A crow cawed as opposed to laughing. "Of course! Our cook makes exquisite tea!"
Holding up a teacup, Elsword turned towards the purpeltte. "Would you like to meet him?"
Aisha nodded. "Maybe I can even ask how to make them, Eve would definitely like to try this!"
Elsword tilt his head. "Eve? Eve as in the Queen of the Red Hearts? Since when was she ever interested in teas and the likes? Ah never mind that, meet Kor, the rabbit."
Out of the pot came spilling sweets of every kind, with a guinea pig rolling out with them.
"But he's a…"
The redhead was quick to cover her mouth with his hand. "Don't say anything that would upset our little friend. If he wants to be a rabbit, then so be it. Everyone is free to be what they want to be."
Aisha knitted her brows and pry his hand away. "You guys are weird."
"As weird as you are." Elsword replied without a beat and then pulled some more snacks out of his hat. "Toffee?"
…
With more time spent in Wonderland, Aisha found it more and more frustrating. She didn't know what was up and what was down. Elsword talking in circles wasn't of any help either.
She pulled on her twin tails as she climbed a hill, the Mad Hatter following just a step behind. "I want to go home! I have already been here for a week and I just can't stand this place lacking all the logistics!"
"That's what every other Alice have wanted." She heard him muttered. Others? Did he mean that there were other girls just like her? And they found their way out?
She quickly turned of Elsword, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. "If there are others like me, then there has to be a way out right?! RIGHT?!"
Elsword had to take her hands and stop her from getting him dizzy. "Calm down. Of course there's a way out. But Wonderland invited you here for a reason and you cannot leave until your time is up. Everyone's time limit is different. You might find yourself home the next day, week, maybe a year but you will go back eventually."
"WHAT?!" The purplette panicked. Just thinking that she might have to be stuck here for a year was enough to give her a splitting headache. She couldn't take the illogical happenings in this twisted Wonderland. How Alice survived in the book was beyond a mystery. "But… but I have a test to study for! A college to get in! I always dreamed of becoming an artist or a writer, I can't just stay here for a year or more! And my parents will worry about me!"
"..." Elsword could only sigh. He didn't understand humans. Not at all. All they ever wanted was to find a way back home because of the things they could be doing instead of being here, enjoying Wonderland's givings. And she was just like any other girl that Wonderland invited. "Fine. If you're so eager to find a way home. I might be able to."
"Really?!"
"Though I have never been to the human world before so I'll have to make the connection through you."
Aisha frown. "What do you mean by that?"
Without warning, Elsword tipped her chin up and her purple eyes meeting with his red ones for the first time since they met.
"Like so." It was a fleeting moment but when he placed his lips onto hers, Aisha could the drumming of her heart and warmth that spread throughout her body. But at the same time, she could sense the Hatter's pain and frustration. There were other feelings but what caught her attention was the feeling of loneliness.
The purplette could see Elsword always in a tea party, talking and making conversations. However, all he had ever acquainted with were animals - talking animals but that wasn't the point. He never had an actual companion through his life in Wonderland and even if he does, he drove them away with his madness.
She was starting to understand why Wonderland had tried to invite her and many others here. Because she didn't want to see the Mad Hatter alone anymore, and quite frankly, Aisha doesn't either.
Wanting nothing but to rid of the feeling, Aisha placed her hands against Elsword and pushed him away.
Her hand then went up to cover her mouth as she turned as red as Elsword's hair. "W-what was that for?!"
The Hatter shrugged as if the kiss was nothing at all. "I think I got a good grasp as to where you were before you came."
He took off his top hat and pulled out a tea pot. He then placed it in midair and turned it as though it was a doorknob. The air shimmer and a door was revealed. "I won't guarantee that this will work so you better hold onto me or you'll be lost." He then tapped his head. "Like me."
Somehow, Aisha understood what he meant and was more hesitant to take his offered hand.
"I promise, I won't let anything happen to you until you're home."
These words comforted her and she took his head, believing that she was safe as long as Elsword was with her.
…
Aisha had to blink away the white spots in her vision.
"So this is the human world." Elsword mused, causing her to look at him. He pointed down and Aisha followed, gasping.
They were standing in midair, directly on top of the shop that Aisha worked in.
"That's my workplace!" She pointed.
"Hm…" Elsword hummed. "Wonderland Cafe? What a strange name. Is it like my Wonderland, where up is down and down is up?"
Aisha shook her head, a wave of homesickness hitting her. "Normal. Everything is normal and as it should be. People can't fly, things don't just randomly appear out of nowhere - especially hats and teapots."
Elsword frowned. "That's normal alright. If it was strange, then it wouldn't be normal. For normal can never be strange and strange can never be normal."
"... You're talking in circles again." Aisha pointed out. "Can't you talk normal for at least five minutes?"
"I am. Normal is strange and strange is normal. I am as normal as I can be or I would be strange."
"... Never mind." Aisha shook her head, hoping that she wouldn't get a migraine. "Can't we get down please? I don't want anyone seeing us floating or they'll freak."
"Can't."
"... And why not?"
"This is as much as I can connect, for Wonderland doesn't seem to want you to go just yet."
"... What?!"
Bleh, I'll upload the rest later since I needa fix some things.