Summary: Alice was given the chance to go back to the real world after she was first in Wonderland. But now she's back after falling into the rabbit hole....AGAIN. This time, after the adventure is through, she will have the chance to return. But will a certain person convince her that staying is really the best option for her?
Pairing: Alice/Hatter
Chapter 1: Through the Hole and onto the tea table
Alice ran. She didn't want to get married. The duke she was to marry was absolutely horrid. He had no imagination and scoffed at hers. It wasn't 'proper' for a girl of her age and status to have an imagination, apparently. Alice ran through the rose maze that was on her family's property, trying to get lost in it. Her wedding dress flew behind her, her hair coming out of its complicated up do. Alice stopped once she was deep in the maze and tried to calm her breathing as she blindly followed the path. Alice stopped at a fork in the path before going right, not realizing she was heading straight for the rabbit hole she had fallen in only 11 years previous. At 21, Alice is just as free-spirited and imaginative as she was at 10 years of age.
Alice tripped on a rock, expecting to hit the ground. But she was startled when she fell head first into a hole, a rabbit's hole that was far to big just for a rabbit to fit into. She sighed and whispered to herself as she fell past the strange, yet familiar objects,
"Not again". Alice expected to hit the floor of the room from her first visit but instead she landed right in the middle of a table. Alice stared at the multicolored sky, shocked from the wind being knocked out of her. The familiar smell of tea drifted into her nose and as she sat up, Alice couldn't help but grin. The Mad Hatter, the same as he was back when Alice first visited, stared at her in shock before his face was lit up in a broad smile. Alice smiled back at him and she asked with a small giggle,
"My dear Hatter. Why is a Raven like a writing desk?"
"ALICE!!!" Alice laughed as she got up off the table and hugged her old friend, his orange hair tickling her nose. Hatter gripped her tightly before releasing her ever so slightly. He held her at arms length and looked at the now ruined wedding dress and asked,
"Why so formal?"
"I was suppose to get married to an awful guy with not so much....muchness in him I suppose," was Alice's reply as she sat in a chair. The March Hare had bounded off, muttering something about the White Queen and the White Rabbit.
"He didn't have much muchness!? My that would be positively dreadful!" Alice giggled at Hatter and accepted a cup of tea from him as she asked,
"So how is my favorite Mad Hatter?"
"Absolutely mad. It's been far too long, Alice. Everyone in Wonderland who had the pleasure of meeting you the first time you fell through that Rabbit hole has missed you something positively maddening."
"And the Red Queen?" A stormy look passed over Hatter's face as he set down his tea cup and said quietly,
"That, my dear, is a very long and dreadful story. I'm afraid that the Red Queen is attempting to take over Wonderland."