Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kuroshitsuji or the extra characters that were added by AShinigamiToDIEFor (Eric Slingby as the Walrus and Alan Humphries as the Carpenter). The only thing I own is the basic plot of the fanfiction starting at this point and all OC characters that appear later on that I created myself. Thirdly, I do not own any details of A Nightmare Before Christmas's main character Jack Skellington; I merely used him as inspiration for one of my OC characters' appearances
From here on out, the fanfiction Hatter's New Kitten will be continued under the new title: A Madman and His Mews. It's just a title I came up with and is meant to be a cat pun with 'mews' replacing 'muse'. Although you could interpret it as a way of describing the relationship between Undertaker and Grell...seeing as how the Cheshire cat inspires the Mad Hatter to be genuinely happy. Either way, I just like the name
Also, from here on out...the story is uniquely mine because I'm using my ideas to continue it. To reiterate: I'm only claiming credit for the fanfiction as of this chapter and so on...all the rest that came earlier belongs to AShinigamiToDIEFor and he had also given me permission to adopt the story when I asked him on his dA account under the name DarylsChupacabra
Warning: contains strong language, implied past abuse, brief violence, blood, hints of depressive mindset
Walking along the path, Hatter's steps were somewhat slow; he hurried to get home because, logically he knew that despite being a man, getting stuck in the middle of the forest at night could still be dangerous...and yet...he loathed the very idea because it meant the possibility of returning to an empty house. A part of him started to wonder if it would really be so bad that some random creature of the night were to get lucky and fell the silver haired male?
The thought was disregarded as quickly as it had entered Undertaker's mind.
A short while later, Hatter's intermittent pace brought him close to reaching the gate that led to his property. He slowed down even more, clinging to the hope of uncertainty as to whether or not the Cheshire cat would have come back. It was bittersweet and not entirely realistic, but hope was one of the few things Hatter still had nowadays.
The Mad Hatter was literally almost out of the woods when a dark figure suddenly jumped down from nowhere and landed right in front of him. Undertaker was so focused on his own situation that the strangers' appearance actually somewhat startled him causing the man to fall backwards onto the ground.
"My apologies, Señor; I did not mean to frighten you" the figure spoke softly, extending a hand. From their voice, Undertaker knew it was a woman standing over him; she also had an accent that indicated she likely wasn't from around here. However, this wasn't exactly a useful clue in determining where the woman was from originally since the Caterpillar, the Mushroom, the Duchess and his cook all had accents that didn't quite match with the rest of Wonderlands' citizens. "Are you alright?" the woman asked. Hatter didn't reply, but took the offered hand and was helped back onto his feet.
Clouds parted overhead allowing moonlight to shine through, illuminating the shadow covered land below. Hatter was rendered speechless at the sight before him; he had parted his bangs out of his eyes to get a clear view of whoever stood in front of him. The woman had long black hair that reached halfway down her back and clad in a Gothic style black suit with white vertical pinstripes and matching plain, black heels. Under her jacket was a white blouse and a simple black bow tie adorned her neck with an orange citrine pumpkin shaped stone in the center. But what stuck out the most was her face: pale like the moon, plump black lips, soft violet eyes, all complimented well with facial features that resembled a skeleton.
"Pardon the question; I didn't recognize at first that you are perhaps the furthest from alright that anyone possibly can be" she stated, staring into his eyes for a moment. "How perceptive of you" replied Hatter, flatly. Sidestepping around her, Hatter continued on the path toward his house. "You should know...that la gata of yours will return to you...in time". "Arrogant bitch...who are you to say-" Hatter had begun to shout, but froze mid-sentence when he spun on his heel and saw the woman had vanished into thin air. Confusion and weariness overtook outrage at that moment; Undertaker kept walking back home and ignored the encounter all together.
Over the next few days, Hatter was steadily sinking back into his old feelings of loneliness...only now, it was much worse since the silverette had known true love and subsequently lost it for whatever reason that was unknown to him. His energy, his passion for life and all desire to engage in the world were missing as well; Undertaker now preferred to stay shut up inside his house and wait for his precious feline lover.
Finally, the Dormouse had had enough and was getting ready to drag his friend out - kicking and screaming, if necessary - when the front door suddenly opened and Undertaker emerged of his own volition.
"What timing, Hatter" the Dormouse began, "I was just about to go in there and pull you out by force!" His tone was half joking, half serious. Undertaker said nothing...did nothing, except step outside and close the door behind him. As he walked toward the gate, Ronald followed beside him and tried talking to the silver haired male. "Hatter, what the hell is going on; you've been acting like a hermit for the better part of a week and now, all of a sudden you just pop out as if everything's normal?" Hatter stopped at the gate and without turning to face him, replied, "I had hoped I wouldn't have to resort to this, but I see no other recourse...I'm off to see the Red Queen". Those seven dreaded words hung in the air like a thick fog and left the mouse dumbstruck. Everyone that knew him well was fully aware of how much Hatter despised the Red Queen...so for him to willingly go to her for ANYTHING told Ronald how desperate the Hatter was becoming. After walking through the gate, Hatter stopped a few feet away and looked to the side as if waiting for something.
Within no time at all, a pink carriage screeched to a halt on the road; the driver greeted him with a sympathetic frown. The door opened and from what Dormouse could see, there were three people inside: the Frogman, the Flamingo and the Fish Footman. Ronald also noted that the man up front holding the horses' reigns was the Hedgehog Man.
"Oi, Hatter; long time no see!" the Footman greeted with a wave. "Bardroy, Mey-Rin, Finnian" Undertaker acknowledged the trio and climbed into the carriage without another word. The door closed and just before departing, Tanaka turned to Ronald and spoke to him, "Fear not, Mr. Knox; he'll be quite safe with us". Snapping the reigns, the horses took off and the group of five left for the Red Queen's castle.
[The queen's castle - a few days earlier]
Grell had long since fallen asleep as expected, dried tear tracks on his cheeks. However, despite looking every bit the picture of a peacefully slumbering kitty...the cats' mind was quite active. He thought about all the events that had occurred since first arriving to the Red Queen's palace. At first, she seemed nice and even cared for the Cheshire cat...but as time passed, Madam Red started to show her true nature in little ways; the incident at the hospital being one of the more recent ones. One of his hands went to the back of his head and absently rubbed at the spot where the queens' hand had connected to his skull. And that expression on her face...it reminded the redhead all too well of what others had done to him in the past.
'...worthless...freak...disgusting...'
Those words repeated themselves in his head, once spoken by a past mate at some point. His ears twitched in agitation and fresh tears began welling up in his eyes, threatening to spill out.
Suddenly, the mean voices faded out until they ceased completely; at first, it was quiet...'I can't fathom that no one would give you a true home; you're clearly a very sweet cat...' a familiar voice echoed, breaking the silence.
'...I adored you before I even got to know you...I love you Grell...'
The Cheshire cats' eyes shot open; 'enough feeling sorry fur myself; my leg's all better and I'm sick to death of letting people mistreat me' Grell thought determinedly to himself. Standing up from the bed, Grell yanked the ostentatious collar from around his neck and tossed it aside, not caring at all if it got damaged. Going over to the door, he grabbed the knob to open the door...only for it to remain closed. Using all his strength, Grell pulled as hard as he could to get the door to budge; unfortunately, it had been locked at some point. 'Damn, I'll try the balcony window'. Crossing the room, he reached out to open the large glass doors and to his relief, they were unlocked. Walking onto the balcony, Grell went straight for the railing and peeked over to see how far it was from the ground. "Too far to jump, even for me; I'll just have to float" murmured Grell, under his breath after assessing the approximate distance. The cat climbed onto the railing and mentally prepared himself for what he was about to attempt. Once he was a couple inches in the air, Grell went over the ledge and slowly drifted down.
The redhead landed on his feet with all the grace and agility of his species; opening his eyes, Grell took a quick look around to make sure no one was nearby. Confirming that the coast was clear after also not picking up any suspicious scents or sounds, Grell's mind flooded with a whole slew of thoughts regarding his current situation.
'A carnivore like you does not belong here; that...creature...has to go...this is our home, not yours' Williams' voice sounded off in his head repeating a few of the things he'd said to the cat.
'William can go to hell for all I care; I refuse to let some long eared bastard keep me from my rightful place with Hatter!'
Grell immediately came up with the idea of seeking out help from Hatter's friends Alan and Eric for backup in order to confront the Hare; after which, Grell would explain everything that had happened to him to Undertaker. 'I just hope Adrian isn't too angry with me for running away' Grell sadly mused to himself. With that last pondering, Grell sprinted forward keeping to the shadows to avoid possible detection and make a successful egress.
It didn't take very long at all for him to reach the rose garden; all that was left for Grell to do was get through the garden and then disappear into the town until morning. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done...the rose garden was more like a maze given how elaborate it was and thus complicating the cats' plans significantly. "Guess I'll just keep going straight till I hit a dead end".
About ten minutes passed and the Cheshire cat had gotten lost...again. After walking straight ahead for a couple of paces, he had come to a fork and turned right; this direction took him all the way to a dead end, resulting in Grell having to turn around and go back to the fork, this time going left. The feline wound up going back and forth all over the place, eventually stopping in the middle of what looked like a clearing. "What's a kitten gotta do to find a way out of some stupid rose bushes?" the cat hissed irritably to open air. Grell was so distracted by his current predicament that he failed to notice the presence of another person in the garden.
He was just about to float over the whole thing when something connected with his head causing the cat to fall limply to the ground unconscious. The figure was almost completely hidden by the dark; only a pair of red eyes could be clearly seen, staring down at the Cheshire cat.
When Grell started coming to, everything was blurry; whether it was from his head injury or that his glasses not being on his face, he wasn't sure. "Naughty puss; this was VERY expensive and you've gone and broken it". As soon as the voice reached his ears, Grell tried to find where the owner was, but all he could make out were fuzzy, dark shapes in the room. The clicking of heels alerted him that the Red Queen was approaching him; she pushed those red frames back into place, allowing Grell to see clearly again. "But no matter; I have a new collar for you" she chirped in a sickly sweet tone.
Madam Red made to secure the collar around Grell's neck; the redhead wasn't having any of that and tried to move away from her, but quickly found that his efforts yielded no results. "I wouldn't waste my energy if I were you...I think you'll find it quite impossible to move an inch with the special restraints I have put on you" the queen boasted cruelly.
One of the few things he could still do was turn his head side to side and to his confusion, Grell saw no restraints of any kind that were holding him down. And yet, somehow the sensation of being tied up was present in his body. From what he could see, the 'new' collar in the queens' hand was a simple black strap with a minimalist pattern on the outside and a heart shaped metal tag attached to it.
"I bet you're wondering how you can be trussed up without any ropes or manacles. Well, I shall tell you..." the woman trailed off, walking over to the head of the bed, "a little trick I picked up from an old friend of mine". Angelina produced a doll that slightly resembled Grell, but otherwise possessed ambiguous physical features. The doll also had what looked to be about a foot of rope wrapped around its body. "A few strands of hair, a bit of research and voilà: a voodoo icon to keep my sweet little kitty in line" came the Red Queen's cheery explanation. Grell shot her a nasty look, much to Angelina's dismay when she placed a hand on his head. "Fret not, Grell; I didn't cut one lock of this pretty red mane of yours...I merely collected the shed pieces that you left lying around". Placing the doll on the bedside table, Madam Red proceeded with putting on the collar; the most Grell could do was twist his neck back and forth in a weak attempt at avoiding the horrid accessory.
After a few tries, the queen managed to get it around his neck, but just as she began to pull her hands back...Grell leaned forward as much as he could and bit down hard on the appendage.
"Fuck!" the queen shouted, clutching her bloody hand to her chest. The Cheshire cat glared at her, a ghost of a smirk on his face at his successful act of retaliation. "I will deal with you later; I must attend to my wound" Madam Red seethed to the feline, her eyes narrowed into slits. Madam Red exited the room at a brisk pace, presumably somewhere in the castle where she could clean and dress the bite mark.
"Serves that bitch right" Grell muttered under his breath.
The cat spent the rest of the night in a fitful sleep; the doll was still 'tied up' meaning that Grell was unable to even shift into a comfortable position to rest.
