Title: "One Golden Afternoon"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Cheshire makes a revelation to his beloved Hatter that will one day change their lives forever.
Warnings: Slash, Established Pairing, Het, Alternate Universe
Word Count: 2,182
Date Written: 28 January, 2012
Challenge: For a Aphrodite's Blessings Yuku forum's weekly challenge
Disclaimer: These versions of Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Alice, and Dinah, all other recognizable characters mentioned within, and Alice in Wonderland are ﾩ & TM Disney and Lewis Carroll, neither of whom are the author, and are used without permission. The four new characters and everything else are ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"Hatter, my love, what troubles you so today?" Cheshire purred before slowly beginning to appariate right behind his oldest and dearest friend.
Hatter looked up, his red eyes blinking in surprise. He could usually tell, even before his sweetheart chose to show himself, when Cheshire was around him. There was something that changed in the air. It seemed to vibrate almost with Cheshire's unheard purr. It filled the air with a staticy heat and made the hairs on his pale arms stand on end. In truth, it was quite a magical feeling to be anywhere close to the one who shared his heart.
Yet, today, Hatter had not sensed Cheshire's presence in the slightest until just now when he had spoken to him. Cheshire's wide, tooth-filled grin appeared first, as always, hanging in the apparently empty air behind Hatter before he slowly chose to let the rest of his body show. He sank down through the air and settled onto Hatter's slender shoulders. He wrapped his long, furry body around his neck and felt his shoulders sag not so much with his weight as with the weight of their world.
"Hatter?" Cheshire asked, purring reassuringly to his love. His furry, gray tail gently popped his thin shoulders before tickling him just underneath his right ear lobe. "What ails you today, sweetheart?"
"Oh," Hatter replied at last in his usual absent minded tone, "I was just thinking."
"Never a good thing," Cheshire purred, his tail swishing and claws ever so gently kneading Hatter's jacketed shoulder.
"No," Hatter replied distractedly. "No, no, of course not." He poured himself another cup of tea. "Yet I simply can not help but to think sometimes, Cheshire," he admitted, sipping the tea that was always just as warm and smooth as he desired it.
"And what were you thinking of today, dear boy?" Cheshire's long, fluffy tail swished through the air again, then came up and slightly pushed the back brim of Hatter's top hat.
"Leave the hat," Hatter directed, taking another sip of tea.
Cheshire left it . . . for now. They both liked Hatter's choice in hats, and Cheshire's desire to take his favorite top hat for himself was a never ending game between them. For now, however, there were more important matters at paw for Cheshire had been sensing his love's unease from a long distance before he had come to him. He lowered his grinning mouth next to his ear and purred into it his question once more, "What were you thinking, Hatter, dearrr?"
"I was just wondering, you know . . . " Hatter laid his china cup down, picked up a spoon, and idly spun the tea around with his silverware. "Do you think . . . "
He again stopped speaking, and Cheshire prompted him once more, "Yessss . . . ?" His claws softly kneaded his shoulder.
Hatter took another sip of tea, and then he at last blurted out his question, "Do you think she ever thinks about us, Cheshire? I mean, of course, we were the most interesting characters she ever met, and I find it hard to believe that any one could forget Wonderland. Her father certainly tried but never quite achieved his goal. Do you think it possible she could have forgotten about us? Not that we're very forgettable, of course. I mean, who could forget me or you or the Queen or . . . "
Cheshire leaned forward and, purring deeply, replaced the tip of his tail with his tongue. He licked Hatter right beneath his ear lobe, simultaneously thrilling his love and quieting him. "I know," he assured him, his tail swishing again, "that she has not. She never will, my dear boy, for I made certain of that."
Hatter was so surprised by Cheshire's admission that he spun his head around and looked directly at him through wide, red eyes. It was a very improper thing to do, to spin one's head around backwards, but both Hatter and Cheshire were never too concerned with proprieties unless they were trying to impress a certain some one. They held no need to impress one another any longer for they had fallen deeply and maddeningly in love with each other long ago, and there is no one, after all, that one is more deeply impressed with or by than the one who owns their heart and completes their soul.
Cheshire grinned guiltily. He had been caught red pawed, but he had known this day would eventually come ever since he'd done the deed. It had been a deed that needed doing, however, and he had done it quite smoothly and with no one else being the wiser until now. Now his secret would come to light, but his beloved Hatter, though he might at first be angry, would come to understand the importance of the deed he had done.
Some indiscernible miles and another realm away, a young, blonde woman laid beneath a tree whose arms spread wide as she reached for the heavens above and cast a considerable shade on this warm afternoon. A white cat was nestled into the girl's side, and both the cat and girl smiled as they watched their companions scampering up the tree. Alice stroked her best friend's long, fluffy fur with one hand while her other hand remained crooked beneath her neck. "You have done an amazing job with them, Dinah," she applauded, and the cat purred.
Alice sighed softly, wishing that she could talk to her as once animals had talked to her. She would never forget those days, though they seemed so far away now. She knew they would come again one day or, at least, she hoped with all her heart that they would and that hope helped her to believe that the impossible would again come true for her and her pet, Dinah. Yet waiting for their rightful world to call them back again to it and those who waited there for them seemed to be lasting an eternity.
Alice's attention was returned to the present with a calling mew. Dinah rose from her side, padded closer to the foot of the tree, and laid down. Alice's smile grew as she watched a gray and white kitten scamper down the tree and come to nurse her mother again. She looked higher and saw that the rest of the kittens were following the first. The second in line was climbing down the tree so swiftly that he almost seemed to be walking down the bark rather than climbing.
Then, suddenly, his left, back paw slipped, and he lost his balance. "Oh, my!" Alice cried, whirling around, but even as she moved to rescue the falling kitten, something very startling happened. Her blue eyes grew wide, and she breathed more sharply again, "Oh, my!" for the kitten was no longer falling. He floated down, instead, and came to nestle next to his sibling.
Alice stared at the kitten until another little meow called her to look back up the tree. Dinah's other two kittens were still playing in the tree's lowest branch. Alice stood and started to go to them but then stopped in her tracks at the surprising display to which she bore witness. The kittens was playing with one of their tails. The little boy whipped his fluffy tail about, batting tentatively at the girl's outstretched paws, but then just as the girl started to clasp his tail in her paws, his gray tail disappeared!
Alice's blue eyes grew larger than they had been in quite some time as she watched the kittens play and remembered the only other cat she'd ever known with the ability to disappear. "Dinah!" she exclaimed in surprise, looking down at her cat. Dinah gazed back at her, a quite pleased smile curving her beautiful, furry face. Though her furry lips did not move, Alice could almost hear her voice asking her, "Well, Alice, my dear, really, what did you expect?"
She stood with her mouth open and her hands perched on her hips until another meow called her to look up. She was just in time to see a small, toothy grin floating down to her. She quickly reached out, grasped the invisible kitten, and pulled them close to her. Looking back to the tree, she noted that the boy was still on the branch and realized both that it was the girl she held and that at least three of her beloved Dinah's kittens had certainly taken after their father in some very magical ways.
"Oh, dear. Oh, dear," she murmured. "What are we to do?" Yet, even as she asked the question, she knew the answers. The rest of the human population was so slow that they would never accept the fact that a kitten, or even a cat, could appear and disappear with ease. Why, if they were looking right at the kitten when she chose to disappear again, they'd simply think either that they were imagining things or that the kitten had moved faster than they could see!
Alice shook her head in wonder, then looked back down as she felt her hands being licked. She smiled as the kitten, now fully appeared once more, gazed up at her with a sweet and completely innocent expression. "Meow?" Alice laughed and hugged her close. Kittens were always special - all animals were -, but this litter was truly amazing, and it would happen, she knew now beyond any further shadow of a doubt! They would all go home when the time was right.
Hatter was disturbingly quiet when Cheshire finished relating his tale. The cat waited patiently for his soul mate to speak, but when Hatter remained quite too quiet, he at last prodded, "You know she did not mean anything to me in that way, Hatter. I've only eyes for you, my love, but we needed a way to make sure they would return to us when we need them again."
Cheshire stretched out, curling closer around Hatter's pale neck, and gently kneaded the lapels of his bright jacket. "You know their father promised to, but he never did. He fell in love above ground and chose to stay with Alice's human mother. The more's the pity, really. The poor chap never realized just how much he was missing by not returning home, but Alice's home is here and she and Dinah will return. That's the only reason why I mated with her, sweetheart; you must believe me." He purred deeply and reassuringly to him.
"Doing a female was the most unthinkable deed I've ever had to accomplish." His long, gray tail swished; his fur stood on end at the memory. "But it was worth it, you see, love, for this guarantees their return. You're the only one for me, my beloved Hatter, male or female!" He nuzzled his ear. "You know that. I love you, and you alone, darrrling, but I did what must be done to make sure they rrreturrrn when the time is rrright!"
He was deeply troubled by his love's continual silence. "Hatterrrr, please, darrrling," he purred, "say something, anything!"
"You took matters into your own paws," Hatter whispered quietly at long last.
"Always." Cheshire's tail swished. "We both know what happens when I don't."
"True, true." Hatter nodded absent mindedly. "So they will return?"
"Absolutely." Cheshire continued to purr to his beloved, his deep and reassuring rumbling filling not only his soul mate's ears but seeping pass the physical to glow in his very heart and soul.
Hatter reached up a hand and stroked his head. "And you love me?" he asked.
"Always, and only you, my darrrrling Hatterrr!" Cheshire vowed. He flipped through the air and came down into Hatter's waiting arms. He stared up into his eyes, and Hatter saw the truth in his glowing orbs. "Now, thrrroughout all ourrr past, and forrreverrr, my darrrling Hatterrr, I love you with all my heart and soul, all that I am, everrr have been, and everrr will be!" he vowed. "I mated with Dinah only to guarrrantee yourrr futurrre safety, my love! Besides, you know the tales: It was either I did Dinah or you did Alice."
Hatter made a face. "You saved me then, sweetheart."
"Always, my love!" Hatter nuzzled his face against Cheshire's, and Cheshire, still purring, covered his love's handsome, if still somewhat disturbed face, first with tentative licks and then passionate kisses. He'd always love him alone, and he showed him the truth of his words with his every lick, kiss, and caress until, at last, Hatter was laughing happily.
Holding Cheshire close against his heart, Hatter jumped up and started to dance. "You, my dear Cheshire, are a genius!"
Cheshire laughed. "Tell me something I don't know," he purred.
"I love you!"
His smile was the biggest it could be as Hatter lowered his mouth over his. "I told you to tell me something I don't know, sweethearrrt," he purred, "but I love you too!" Hatter kissed him again and continued to kiss him and flutterwack with him for the rest of the glorious, golden afternoon.
The End