It had been one year since the Champion of Light (he refused to think of her name, that accursed name) had left them (left him!). Peace restored had melted the ways of the creatures about him, and he had grown bored. Then, poof! - Here he was in court, serving the queen as hatter, just as his family had for years before his time.
The White Queen lingered at the end of the hall, her hand raised in a timid goodbye as her chessmen servants left. She smiled graciously at the madman waltzing towards her. "Will you be coming tonight?" she asked, falling into conversation without her usual warm greeting.
He frowned, his eyes falling into a deep orange-red. "No." the reply was short, and not even followed by the rambling nonsense that defined him. The White Queen nodded. It was the anniversary, of course, and he would not be coming.
What was there to remember or celebrate when she inhabited every corner of his mind?
"Don't worry." She had told him. "I'll be back before you know it." She hadn't, of course. He had known Time was passing, even though Time left him in peace now. She had lied to him. She wasn't returning.
She plagued his thoughts; those beautiful brown eyes refusing to leave him in peace. His hats had become less playful, and his demeanor had followed suit. His eyes were rarely green now; they lay instead in the realms of sunsets and fire.
She had left him. She had lied.
"I have been considering words that start with the letter 'L' of late." He muttered angrily to the Queen. Her gaze remained unfazed as they walked together down the hall.
"Llama, lioness, longing..." he listed, growling to himself. His mind was flooded with the words that he never wanted to think again. "Longing, lust, loving, liar, loss, left, lonely, late..."
He stopped at the door to his room and slammed it as he entered. He walked to his bed and stared at it, his eyes clouding over. He could see her, laying there, waiting for him. He watched as she stood from the bed and walked over to greet him, asked how his day was, and let her pretty lips rest on his.
He roared, announcing his pain to the world. Falling to his knees he sobbed in anguish. She was gone, she had left. He had never mattered, she had left. To go and answer those cursed questions that need answers like plants needed water and he needed her. To finish what her father had started, to travel the world without him. She had left him to die here in this world which he loved; she had left him to die. Without her it seemed he would.
"And why, my dear Hatter, are you filling our lovely world with your tears?" A floating grin appeared before the Hatter. Madly, Hatter swung at it. Cheshire reappeared next to his ear and began to whisper. "There are rumors that the Lady Alice will return tonight, some say for good. Some also say that the Queen knows, some say that the Queen and Alice have been planning her return for months now."
The Hatter shook violently, his moody eyes shifting from orange to deep, deep red. "No." he whispered back, his voice wracked with sobs and unshed tears. "She will never return. There is nothing for her here. She will never return. It is..." he hung his head, the word torn from his throat. "Impossible."