My Dreams

By: SilverLunarStar

Disclaimer: I do not own Alice in Wonderland… =(

Author's Note: I wrote this Tarrice (this is what I've been calling this pairing since I fell in love with them over a month ago. I've never seen this combination of their names before, so I made that up completely) fanfic earlier this month and plan to do A LOT more. However, I also need to get my in-progress story finished… This isn't my best idea, but I wrote this out in three hours while at work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIA-CHAN!!! THIS IS FOR YOU! *GLOMPS*

"Meow."

Alice Kingsleigh heard a cat mewing and couldn't help but follow the sound as it continued to do so. She was at Lord Ascot's estate, having tea with a few business men and all she could think was, 'What dull tea,' as a flash of orange passed in her mental eyes. When she heard a cat meowing, she'd excused herself, "I just need to stretch a bit."

The men simply nodded.

Lord Ascot got up as she stood. "Be careful, my dear. We wouldn't want you to fall down any more holes." His eyes twinkled in amusement.

She smiled and nodded all the while thinking how grand it'd be if the rabbit hole were to actually lead somewhere, a magical place. Oh, how wonderful that would be! Once she'd been out of sight, she ran towards the sound. As it got louder, she realized it was coming from a fairly large, rather familiar hole. Ever since her almost-engagement three years ago, she'd been having dreams of this hole, although she couldn't say for certain it was this hold she had taken a nasty fall into, bumping her head in the process, her whole body aching. However, right after this mishap, she had somehow found the courage to refuse Hamish Ascot's proposal and even did a strange…dance. Where she had gotten the nerve to do that, she wasn't certain. Hearing the cat meow even louder, impatiently? – she imagined, she carefully looked into the dark pit.

"Here kitty, kitty." Suddenly, a bright blue butterfly landed on her nose. Shaking her head carefully, it flew off and she stared into the dark hole once again. Glowing eyes suddenly appeared in front of her face and she let out a startled gasp; she brought her hands to her face as it got closer. In doing so, she no longer maintained her balance and she fell down, down, down, down, down, down…

As she continued to fall, all she could think of were of the dreams she'd been having since she was a child. During her travels, the dreams only became more vivid. A month after her almost-engagement party, she had thought it was all real, but as time went on they became less…real, less vivid. It was nothing more than a strange, peculiar, extraordinary, wonderful dream. 'Wonderful… Wonder… Wonder-' She suddenly crashed into the end of the hole. Her hair stood up and, before realizing it, she took another fall, this time landing on the floor.

Bits and pieces of her dreams swam in her already dizzy mind. As if on autopilot, she grabbed a key from the center table, drank from a bottle, and felt herself shrink. A sense of déjà vu overcame her. 'Curiouser and curiouser,' she thought as she grabbed a bit of cloth from her dress. Looking around, she saw a tiny door, but, before she even went towards it, she looked back to the table and saw a box underneath it. Opening it, she saw two cakes labeled 'Eat Me.' She grabbed a couple of fistfuls, which were not very big to begin with, and headed to the tiny door which would usually only be big enough for a…a cat, for certain, but also a…rabbit. Unlocking the door, she decided to try and drag her dress through. 'What if I grow again and rip what I'm wearing? That'd be highly inappropriate, not to mention completely embarrassing.' It took a while, but she was finally able to drag the whole thing out the door. She gasped when she turned around and looked into a luminous pair of floating eyes.

Slowly, teasingly, a face started to form, followed by a pair of ears, a body, feet, and, finally, a tail.

No, Alice decided. The last thing to form was a big, white grin.

"You, my dear, took far too long."

"W-what?"

"Do you know how many hours I've spent the last several days meowing? It's highly unbecoming for a Cheshire Cat."

"A- a Cheshire Cat, is that what you are?"

"Of course, what else would I-?" He cut himself off and glared above her head. "You never said she forgot again."

The girl suddenly felt a weight on her head as a blue butterfly landed on it without a no-never-mind.

"I thought coming down here would jolt her memory," the butterfly said in a slow, bored tone.

"Well, that obviously didn't work," he said sourly.

"Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" she exclaimed, very un-lady-like. If there was one thing she hated more than anything was when people did that.

They stared at her.

"At least she hasn't lost her muchness. Now, as long as-"

"Chessur," she suddenly said.

His grin, which had shrunk a bit, was now back at full force. "Do you remember now?"

"I remember dreaming about a cat that could vanish into thin air and calling him- you Chessur, then- then," she looked up a little, "I saw a blue butterfly when I first headed to china and called him Absolem, but in my dreams he was a caterpillar."

"Stupid girl, those were not dreams as you can see. If you named the creatures in your dreams, you'd be completely mad, but seeing as you didn't, you're only half out of your mind."

"B-but this can't be real."

Chessur let out a groan. "Here we go again."

Alice shook her head. "You don't understand. There were so many times I wished it was all real, that I could just reside in my- here forever, but I always woke up." Tears welled in her eyes.

Absolem and Chessur stared at each other for a minute before nodding.

"Eat a bit of the Upelkuchen you have. The cake," Chessur explained impatiently when he saw her confused face, "and get into your dress. If anyone can prove to you it's not a dream, it'll be him."

"Take only three bites," Absolem ordered.

She looked at the two for a few seconds before resigning. What she wouldn't give for this to be real! Doing as told, she grew to her correct height. Slipping her dress on (raised like gentlemen, although with their mad talk one could never tell), they had looked away, Absolem now on Chessur.

"Alright," she said. "Lead the way."

Lead they did. They continued on and on and on and…well, on.

After a while, Alice thought they were having it in on her until, finally, they reached a clearing where an extra long table was set up. Looking at the items and condiments, she realized it was set up for a tea party. 'Which means…'

"Alice?"

Looking up from the table, her eyes led her to the other end where a man in an appropriately mismatched suit sat. The next thing she noticed as he stood up and placed his feet on the table was his attractive top hat which didn't hide his abundance of flaming hair. Without another thought, she too stepped on the table, heading towards him. As she got closer, she noticed a pair of enriching green eyes. No, they weren't green at all, they were…yellow? Blue? Gold? Red? Orange? Purple? It seemed as if a rainbow had possessed his eyes and it took her breath away.

They met half-way and she couldn't help but smile when he grinned, showing a gap between his top teeth.

'He seems…familiar.'

Silence reigned as they stared at each other; Absolem and Chessur had mysteriously vanished and there was no one else about.

Alice placed a hand on his cheek and her smile widened as he leaned in.

"Alice?" he questioned.

"You seem so familiar," she whispered; as if anticipating his reaction, she used both her hands to keep him where he was. "You're the man who's always in my dreams. We're always here, having tea, laughing at nonsense, at nothing at all, having a ball."

He giggled when she rhymed at the end, leaning a bit closer. He was a bit upset she didn't know him, but it only lasted a millisecond. This Alice was the Alice; she was even a perfectly proportion-sized Alice, even though she couldn't quite recall him just yet he was confident she would. He shouldn't have gotten upset for that tiny bit; he knew this would happen.

Her breath caught and became shallow when he leaned in closer. Just like… "You- I, we always lean in close to each other; we're just that comfortable with one another and…" She frowned, eyes overcast.

He'd never liked seeing Alice like this; an Alice should never look glum. He gently pushed her on, "And then?"

"I wake up," she stated sadly. She looked down to the surface of the table in resignation. How she yearned for this to be true… Maybe Chessur and Absolem were right, maybe this wasn't a dream. Maybe, this time, it's all real. She moved her hands away from his cheek and was about to pinch herself when she thought better of it. This man, who always haunted her dreams, whether in solid form or in vivid shades of green, orange, white…had never, ever lied to her. She ended up gripping his shoulders tightly and looked straight into his eyes searchingly. "Please tell me this isn't a dream that you're really here, that I'm really here."

He heard the desperation in her voice and it just about broke his heart. Unlike last time, when she kept saying this was all a dream and that she'd wake up at any moment, this time she wanted it to be real and, what's more, she trusted him to tell her the truth. His hands, which had been limp at his sides, settled on her forearms. He leaned closer still and whispered into her ear, "It's all real Alice, you're really, truly here, you're completely real, I'm positively real, and this is all absolutely real."

Without notice, her arms wrapped themselves around his neck tightly and she exclaimed, "Tarrant!" before her lips were firmly planted onto his.

Tarrant Hightopp's, better known as the Mad Hatter, eyes widened dramatically and his hands gripped her arms a bit before he relaxed, his arms wrapping around her, pulling her flush against him.

What seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes – Time was such a tricky fellow – they parted.

"I'm sorry," Alice offered after catching her breath. How could she forget?

He shook his head. "I told you you'd forget me, but what matters is that you remember now." He paused. "And I see ye haven't gone off and lost yer muchness." He allowed a small smirk as his brogue took over, his irises a dark emerald, mixed with red, burned with passion.

She blushed. "You're right and you've never lied to me; I should have listened."

He placed a finger on her lips. "Ye did remember, sort of." His eyes questioned her. "Did ye really dream of me?"

"Every night. Always."

He smiled and, this time, he leaned in as they locked into another passionate embrace.

Here is where Alice will stay, in her very own Wonderland, with the man of her dreams.

Cheesy? Check. Cliché? Check. Overdone? Double check. I really, really didn't like it when I wrote it, but because it's Tarrice, I'll love it despite its horrible mini-story line. *sighs* (I did like how I used Cheshire to draw her in though!)

Hope it gave you some form of entertainment.

Let me know what you thought, please!

Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIA-CHAN!!! LOVE YOU ODDLES AND NOODLES AND HONEY BUNCHES!!! XD

~*Eli