It had been exactly 2 years 47 days 58 minuets and 16 seconds since Alice had left underland and for the most part many of the inhabitants had moved on to bettering their lives after the red queens rule. Most; but most does not include all and almost as if proving a point napping at a desolate and utterly distroyed table on a chair almost as sad as it's owner sat the resident Mad Hatter, tarrant hightopp. His most cherished top hat was casually sitting atop his firery orange hair covering eyes that changed as often as his mood and as a "mad" hatter he was prone to a wild array of those within minutes. A passerbyer might assume that being asleep might allow this man to have a break from the tornado of thoughts stampeding through his mind but instead it just gave fuel to the perverbrial fire.
Often his dreams took him to the place he most feared back to the day when fire rained from the sky and all of his clan was murdered by the great and ferocious jabberwalky. On these ocasions he would awaken his cravat drenched in sweat and the terror and guilt bright and ferice in his pale fevered face. Though these dreams haunted most of periods of so called "rest" another dream was begining to take hold in the frenzy of tarrants broken mind. These dreams brought about an entirely new feeling to the mad man and though he did not fully comprehend he soon began to take every minute he could to doze off and hope to experiance it again. It would start off vaugly umimpressivly with him sitting at the head of the table he dozed at now though there where subtle changes. All the tea cups where in full repair and all of the tea pots where seated comfortably in their proper places down the center of the table. The sky had fluffy white clouds and the breeze smelled of fresh rain though nothing was damp. But none of these trivial facts really mattered to the dream or alive Hatter because seated at the opposite side of the now beautifully arranged table was Alice; his Alice. Her soft features where framed by the same sunlight colored ringlets and she was wearing a dress so blue that it rivaled the skys at first light. Through most of these dreams they simply sat and talked about their lives (boring to most but exerlating to Tarrant) and right before he woke without fail she would grace him with a peck on the cheek that sent the bread and butterflies in his stomach a flutter and his mind reeling again with thoughts of her when he woke up to the disaster that was the actual tea table.
Day after day he would rush to forfill his orders of various hats for the court of the White queen so he could get back to the table and continue to wait for alice. After all she had promised she would come back home. Killing time did have it's disavantages though. The days passed slower and slower and eventually the mad hatter became much like he was during the red queens rein. More often than not his eyes took on a glazed look, the tea was left unloved and the colorful hatter had begun to take on a greyish tint that frightened all around him. Slowly his nickname turned from the mad hatter to the sad hatter and after two years no matter how despertly his friends tried they could no longer even pull him away from the table. Everytime they tried they were met with a solid "Not yet," and a pained look towards the overgrown path through the forest.
2 years 47 days 58 minuets and 16 seconds.
That's how long it took for the hatter to truly realise she was gone. To realise that the peice of cloth he had so gleefully found in the teapot the day she left smelled more of him then her anymore. That he couldn't quite remember the exact color of her eyes or the timber of her laugh or even the slight quirk of her mouth when he told her somehing amusing. He couldn't remember and that above all else was what was tearing the hatter apart. How could he ever let himself forget such a wonderful, beautiful, splendifirous peice of his life? How could he forget her?
And so day in day out he would sit at the tea table and wait for her to arrive back in his life so he could take hold of the fire in his heart and finally tell her how dearly he had missed her. She was his alice and whatever the hatter he despertly needed her by his side. So time would pass, the leaves would come and go and one day as she walks through the desolate path leading to the tea table she will come across a smiling cat, feisty mouse, odd twins, late rabbit, mad hare and White queen. They will all talk of her adventures and when she reaches the table she will hear a sharp gasp and she would forget all of her company in her mad rush to get to the head chair with a grin that challenged the cheshire's. Caught up in strong comforting arms the tears would fall from her eyes as she buried her face in his chest and take in the deep heady scent of tealeaves and hatter as he did the same to her. Nothing else would really matter, the knowing stares of their company or the fact that somehow the world had flipped and they ended up on the ground he on top of him, they were together at last. This is what the hatter believed the most in as he waited and waited for her arrival. Though he may not completely remember ever detail he knew Alice and he knew the day she came back she would be his. They would be together and nothing, not a Jabberwocky or likewise could separate them ever again.
As the Hatter sat and contemplated this future with Alice a wistful smile would take over his face, his eyes would droop and on the occasion he was alone he would whisper the words he held inside his heart for so long.
"One more day, In one more way you steal bits of my heart and have since the start. Alice, dear Alice, come home to me and you'll forever see the love that I carry for you."