*A short MadHatterXWhiteQueen one-shot. Because I haven't seen one on here, and they're both amazing. Burton-verse.
**Alice in Wonderland isn't mine. All rights to Tim Burton/Lewis Carroll.
The battle is over. The battle is over, the Red Queen has been banished, Alice has gone home, and the White Queen is happy, happy, so happy that she feels that before this moment she hasn't known what happy is.
And she is surrounded by people who have pledged to follow her to the very end. There is Nivens, the worry-wart of a rabbit who never before has let her down. Chessur – the cat who remains tricky until the very end, although his mischief is only harmless. The March Hare, the Dormouse, the Bloodhound… Each and every one of them is central to the restoration of the power to the White Queen.
And of course, the most important of them all, the one who always held that special place in Mirana of Marmoreal's heart, is Tarrant Hightopp, the Mad Hatter who has always adorned her with the most lovely of headwear, the one who was most important to the success of Alice's slaying of the Jabberwocky.
He is mad. The White Queen knows this. He is irreparably, inexplicably, beautifully mad, as Alice says all the best people are. After all, Mirana muses, she herself must be mad. She must have been mad in the past, at least, to believe that this girl could defeat the most terrible of the Red Queen's minions – but all her followers are mad. How could they be anything but, to follow her when the Red Queen's power stretched so far, and so menacingly?
But she is gone now, as is the Knave of Hearts, and the crown is the White Queen's once again. Underland is hers, and she will rule justly, just as she has done in the past. And even though Alice is the one who committed the final blow…
Mirana truly believes that all the credit goes to the Mad Hatter, his irresistible beautiful madness being that which saved them all.
His dance in itself lifted her spirits, and she clapped to the beat of the music, waiting for him to finish. Everything in Underland is mad, and he is the maddest of all.
And it is for this reason that Tarrant is the White Queen's only love.
She remembers long ago, in her past ruling, before his madness had completely overcome his mind. They could never possibly be anything but good friends, but still, she loves him. She always has, and she believes herself lucky that her madness is tempered by his, and that he has managed to overlook this for many a year.
When she lost power – the Mad Hatter has always been mad, as his name suggests, but his mind became a kaleidoscopic mess. Tarrant shifts from sanity to insanity, and Mirana still could not love him less.
She has tried for a long, long time, eternity it seems, to make him call herself by her first name, and no matter what tricks the White Queen has attempted, Tarrant manages to evade her. She, for her part, however, will always call him Tarrant behind closed doors, as he insists she call him Hatter in public.
The White Queen approaches him only a moment after Alice returns back to her home, her walk as floating as always. She pulls him away, not before he can kneel down and place a kiss upon her hand, and the two walk away from what will always be known as a battlefield.
They disappear behind the thickest of trees, and in solitude the royal airs fall away from her, although she is still the same woman she has always been.
"I knew she was the right Alice." The Hatter's statement is sad, though, and Mirana knows he has grown fond of the girl.
The White Queen smiles sadly. "Of course you knew, my dear. The maddest are often the ones with the clearest sight."
The Hatter smiles gently at the Queen's statement. "I suppose one could say that, Your Majesty."
The glimmer in her eyes dims as he refers to her so formally, a reminder that what she dreams of is not whatsoever possible. She has always known this though; in fact, she thinks he is probably oblivious to her train of thought regarding this.
Mirana, for once though, disregards the royal etiquette that she knows under every other circumstance she must obey. The White Queen envelops the mad, mad, mad man in her arms, and whispers in his ear, "Alice was crucial – but this would not have been possible without you, my dear Tarrant."
Her arms release him although she does not want to let go. The Hatter's arms don't. She is shocked by this, but Mirana has nevertheless been more happy.
"No – if not for you, I would not have been able to do anything, Mirana." The powder on the White Queen's face successfully masks her blush. The thing she has been waiting so long for has caught her by surprise, and she knows there is one more thing she must do before she will ever be satisfied and before she can possibly even think of forgetting how she truly adores him.
She quickly grabs the maddest of men's face, and plants her lips upon his before he can protest. The kiss is brief, briefer than Mirana would have wished, but the Hatter pulls away. She bites her lip with regret, regret at her birthing, regret with the fact it could not last longer.
Tarrant tips his hat, and walks into the distance. The White Queen looks after him fondly and remorsefully all at once, and a heel click combined with a mad cackle reminds her – she will never be able to let him go.
But it doesn't matter. Mirana is still the happiest she has ever been.