"This is quite nice." Alice lifted her teacup to her lips once more, addressing the table as a whole. Tarrant looked up from his cup, "Yes. Not exactly what I planned though."

Alice looked curiously at him then glanced around the table, everyone was there. The Cheshire Cat sat at the far end from the Hatter. She watched the March Hare compulsively straitening his setting. The White Rabbit beside him seemed to be explaining something rather simple to the Tweedles or at least trying to.

"What do you mean not what you planned."Alice asked rather loudly over Mallymkun's shrill little laugh. More people seemed to be listening now.

"Let's just say if it wasn't for the White Queen this would be a more...private party."Alice thought she saw his eyes turn rather dark but only for a moment and it was gone.

"Are you saying you don't like our company?" Chessur purred from across the table, everyone was in the conversation now.

"Of course not, I'm simply saying I don't like being told how I am supposed to enjoy me tea, it is after all my tea, no one else's unless I say so, UNLESS I..."

"Hatter." Alice was relieved to watch him clam again and smile at her apologetically.

"What is this all about?" she was seriously concerned for her friend; she hadn't seen him behave this way since before the fall of the Red Queen.

"Oh, nothing really. Simply that the White Queen believes me to be a tad wasteful with my tea. She claims throwing a tea party set for twelve and only inviting three isn't fair to all the poor who can't afford tea."

Alice thought it over a moment, "It is a bit. But if it's your tea you should do what you like with it."

"Precisely. I work hard; I make hats, selling my hats I buy tea. It's very fair. The White queen thinks I should share my tea with the poor. Have you ever seen a poor person around Underland? If so would they want tea?"

"I would think food and shelter would be more of a priority." Chessur added from his end of the table.

"Quite." The Mad Hatter leaned back in his chair as if feeling he'd argued his case.

"That's nothing compared to what she did to me." The blue cat suddenly appeared floating by Alice's head and she jumped a moment startled.

"What did she do?"

"She outlawed catnip."

"Oh, no. Not catnip. Whatever will Chessur do without his drugs?" The Hatter mocked as if tea was of course more important than catnip.

The cat's large green eyes narrowed. "Catnip is a natural herbal supplement. It does no harm. She just thinks I act funny when using it."

"Oh, is that why?" The Hatter asked with pretend innocence.

"Oh?" The Cheshire Cat grinned showing long rows of white teeth.

At first Alice had been a little concerned about their bickering but after getting to know the two of them for almost a year she knew the banter was a game they liked to play and she listened intently. It was Chessur's turn.

"I don't know what you and the March Hair usually drink from these teacups but I'm sure it isn't tea."

Mallymkun giggled shrilly and upset a bowl of cherries falling into it. There was light laughter all around until it was broken by a shout from the White Rabbit.

"We're in love."

Everyone got quiet and turned to look at him. Under all their gazes he faltered a moment but cleared his throat and forced onward. "The March Hair and I. We want to be married but the White Queen has forbidden it."

A silence descended upon the party. Tarrant opened his mouth and closed it a couple times; Alice was the first to speak.

"I'm so sorry. That's lovely I mean, the two of you. Has she really for bidden it? It doesn't seem like her."

The Hatter nodded. "Indeed it doesn't. It seems to me as if she's been trying harder to make things right after the Red Queen's rule but she only seems to be making things worse."

"Yes, but no one's died." Tweedledee inserted.

"No, but why live if one has nothing to live for?" Tweedledum argued.

"But one need only a life to have a reason to live if life is life then it's meant to be lived as..."

"This conversation is going nowhere." Alice insisted. "What are we all saying? Are we no longer happy with the White Queen?"

There was a chorus of "no" and "of course not, we love her" but Alice didn't think it sounded very sincere. She didn't know what to think herself after all she hadn't known the White Queen before, she'd never known what to expect.

"She's not like she used to be." The Hatter whispered and that was the last thing said for the rest of the party.