Glimpses through Time
Summary: Tarrant met Alice twice before she met him. And when she did, she didn't know him. Both times.
A/N: Just a pre-movie thought that uses the trailers and a post from Tumblr about the Alice Through the Looking Glass book - which I have not read myself.
The first time he met her, he was eight years old, trying to impress his father with his hat-making skills.
He had seen her standing by the street, looking saddly at him, or in his general direction, like she had lost something. Or someone.
She was beautiful and sad and he wanted to make her smile.
It doesn'y go as he had wanted, and he ends up running away angry and disappointed.
Only for the beautiful woman to follow him.
"Don't worry about the hat. And don't get mad at your dad. I know you will one day make amazing hats."
"But I wanted to make one for you, now." he said, dejectedly.
She smiled.
"Maybe, one day, you will." she said, like she knew something he didn't. "I have to go now. But I will see you again, Tarrant." she pressed a kiss to his cheek and then left.
It took him a few moments to realise he never gave her his name for her to know it and that she never gave him hers.
AK~TH~AK~TH
The second time he met her, he was twenty-eight.
He didn't recognise her at first, what with her turning him around to see his face and then hugging him like she found a long lost friend.
"It's you! You're you again!" she exclaimed, as she wrapped him a quick tight hug.
"And if I'm not, I wish I was!" he grinned finally.
He gives her his name, she gives him hers, after she explains that he'll meet again when he's older and she's younger.
He leaves her and she follows him.
And he remembers the woman from twenty years ago, and how she said he will make her a hat, how she knew he was a really good hatter.
So he starts picking up items, glancing at her clothes once or twice, and settling to a flowery arrangement, colourful like her.
"Close your eyes, please." he says, turning around suddenly, his hands at his back.
Alice complies and he sets the hat on her head, carefully arranging it.
"Hatter?" she wondered.
"Not yet." he smiled. He pulled a hand mirror from his pocket and held it before her. "Open."
He watched her whole face light up.
"Oh, this is so beautiful, Tarrant." she breathed out, reaching for the mirror herself.
Not to take it from his hands, he noted, just to hold it with him, like she needed to be connected to him. He wonders if she just came from meeting eight-year-old him. He shakes that thought. She had looked like he had made her a hat once, even if something saddened her.
"Thank you." she said quietly, a strange look passing through her face, almost nostalgic.
"You're most welcome, Alice."
"Can I ask of you a favor?"
"If I can help you with it."
"Would it be alright with you to hold on to it for me? I will be back to ask for it. After all, it is my hat." she smiled softly. "There is something I need to do and I am afraid I will ruin it. And you made this for me. I'd hate myself if I wasn't careful enough."
"Oh." he said saddly. "Are you leaving now?" he asked. He liked her company. She liked his hats.
She shook her head.
"Not yet. I will come to find you when it's time." she said.
She does find him, late in the evening, as he is about to enter his house.
"Tarrant!" a voice calls him.
He turns and there she is, hat carefully held in her hands, as if it is the best china teapot.
"Thank you for keeping it safe for me." she says, kissing his cheek again. "I'll be back soon."
And then she was gone in the darkening evening.
AK~TH~AK~TH
It had been years for Tarrant. He lost everything to the Red Queen and Horunvendush Day; his job, his family, almost his sanity. Alice kept him sane. Her promise to come back soon. He even offended Time in his waiting of her.
And when she did come – her first time – she was but a girl of seven. Tarrant Hightopp wants to find the Alice that told him she'd be younger and him older when they'd actually meet and laugh, because this was an understatement, if he was sane enough to comprehend it.
He knew Alice was a girl, but kept calling her 'he', his mind not really here to realise the difference – or he did understood, he thought, but he couldn't use the right one. It would've eaten him alive if young, young Alice hadn't found it funny.
AK~TH~AK~TH
When she returns for Frabjous Day, she looks more like the Alice from his memories. But not. There is something missing. Soemthing his Alice from the past had in spades. Muchness. He knows she has it because he met her, he knows it's her – he'd know her anywhere. But something must have happened for her to lose her muchness.
It doesn't matter how long she'll need to be ready. He'll make sure she is safe until – and after if he has any say in it – the Frabjous Day.
After all, friends protect, believe in and support each other. She believed in him. He believes in her. She was there for him, and so he'll be. It was simple as that.
Maybe she looked sad when he first saw her, because the Red Queen had taken his head?
But no, he survives that.
Why was she sad then?
She had found her muchness again, and took her role as the White Queen's Champion and in that moment, when she came astride the Bandersnatch, he recognised the woman of his past, his sliver of sanity.
And then, after she had won, she left, like she always did, promising to return.
"Be back again, before you know it."
"You won't remember me."
"Of course I will. How could I forget?"
It was what they always did. Alice would come, change his world and then she'd leave quietly, promising to return. It was the fourth time. She never did ask for her hat back, too.
Oh, well. Maybe she will remember next time. Maybe he'll find out why she looked so sad when he was a kid, when he first saw her, too.