'Ello everyone! So I watched Syfy's Alice all the way through for the first time today, and absolutely fell in love with Hatter. Not only was he hilarious and also heart-wrenching, but down right adorable! *Fangirl squeek* Hatter is my favorite Alice in Wonderland character no matter what the version, apparently...Johnny Depp's is a wonderful, adorable piece of epicness, Martin Short's was hilarious and brilliant, the original cartoon is, of course, classic, and Syfy's Hatter melted my heart on the spot. So here's my first of many fics about him: a one-shot about how our Hatter feel about different feelings. In a world where you're not supposed to feel much of anything, Hatter manages to smuggle emotions like no other.

PS: My Alice in Wonderland, 2010 fic "The Poison" is still very much alive and running, I just had to write this fic because I just finished watching Syfy's Alice and it was fresh in my mind.

Smuggling Emotions

FRIENDSHIP

Yeah, about that...I'm not so sure what you mean by "friendship." You mean the "let's have a cup of tea and some cream cake" friendship or the "I'd fight the Queen of Hearts for ya, buddy" friendship? Oh, yeah. There's a difference. I have a few cup of tea and cream cake friends, and I have several fighting friends... Okay, I got two of 'em. Alice and Charlie. Charlie's a complete nut-case, of course, but he's a knight. Kind of. And he and his...skeleton army fought the Queen of Hearts...ish. That's not all he did, I guess. He "escorted" us to his sacred kingdom, or something like that, and not to mention he did kind of get us out of his pit he made...but I bet I could have done that one myself. Maybe. The bottom line? Charlie's really become one of my very best mates. Even if he is as mad as a box of frogs. And I mean a bouncing, slimy, full to the top box of frogs that can't stand the sight of each other and are scared of the dark if you get what I'm saying.

Well, in any case, Wonderland ain't exactly a place for good old chummy times. But to anyone who asks me who I am or something, the answer is usually the same.

A friend. I hope.

BETRAYAL

I can tell you about betrayal. In fact, I'm the top person to come to on that topic. Mad March? Used to be my best mate. We'd tell stupid riddles and have illegal tea. It was great fun. But then the Suits got him and made him one of them. And suddenly my best mate becomes my worst enemy. That's betrayal for ya. The first time I saw him after he was taken...I didn't want to believe it. Heck, I flat out didn't believe it. For crying out loud, the guy had a cookie jar for his head! Don't know how exactly I recognized him. When I did, though, I had to hide it from Alice. Had to call my best friend "the wierdo who's following us." Wasn't easy. But in the end, I realized it wasn't my friend who was out to get us. It was just Mad March.

I guess it wasn't real betrayal, now was it? Marchy had no control. He was controlled by the Hearts just like the rest of Wonderland. Sometimes, I'll think of some of our old riddles when I'm bored. There's one that never goes away, and that's because it has no answer.

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

FAMILY

Umm...don't really know what to say. My dad left when I was five or something. Became a Suit. Oh yeah. He was one of those maniacs controlled by the Red Queen. Until he lost his head. My mum? She was a good woman. Took care of me until I was about seventeen. Then she went mad. Never quite knew why. Just know she went off her rocker and then kicked the bucket. All I had then was me tea shop. Illegal, smuggling tea shop. Love it, I mean. It's my home. Met Ratty, helped me with the place. But Ratty ain't exactly family.

But family is nice enough I guess. When you get it. If you can get it. Only the lucky ones do, you know. Then again, what is family?

Just flesh and blood.

HAPPINESS

Ah, one of the most sought-after emotions in Wonderland. And I can get it for free. Not in a little bottle. No, I don't need that. I just need a smile from Alice, or a crazy plan from Charlie, or a memory of March before he went Mad and there's happiness for ya right there. Don't know how it happened, but that's one emotion that, in my opinion, you can't drink out of a bottle. That one just kind of has to happen on it's own. It's a nice feeling, ya know? Kind of like drinking one too many bottles of Hope and Bliss. And there you have Happiness. But like I said, you can't exactly put that one in a bottle. Not really.

Because if you do, you're getting someone else's Happiness. And it's not the same as having your own. Happiness is...priceless.

Oh that feels good.

CHANGE

Change? Yeah, that's more than normal here in Wonerland. It all started 150 years ago, way before I was even born. An Oyster named Alice came here and brought down the House of Cards. Of course, Wonderland was very different in those days. We are all descendants of those Wonderlandians, the original ones, of you will. But then the Queen of Hearts re-gained the throne, and the Resistance began. All Wonderlandians were drained of Emotion until the Queen started using Oyster's emotions, and those she gave to her people. Eventually I managed to find some people who knew some people who had relations with some other people, and I began my Emotion-tea smuggling buissness. I guess that's my link to the old Hatter. We both work with tea. But other than that, Wonderland is totally and completely changed. Alice had to save us. No, she wasn't the same Alice from 150 years ago. But somewhere, somehow, there was a family link or something, she was named Alice, and suddenly she's earned herself the title "Alice of Legend."

Alice in Wonderland used to be a little kid's story read to 'em by mommy and daddy.

Does this look like a kid's story to you?

LOVE

It's risky business, love. Say, for example, you love someone who ends up to be dating the Prince of Hearts. Yeah. That's a shock to your system, let me tell ya. But suddenly she's turning to you for help and then this happens and that happens and suddenly you find yourself saying good-bye to her as she's about to leave through the Looking Glass to go back to her home. Yeah. That's...hard. But you really do love her, and you know you need her...So what do you do?

I don't really know what else to say about love.

It's perfectly safe. Safeish.

THE END

Well? I'm not sure exactly what to think...it's my first Syfy Alice fic...With many more to come I'm sure!

Well all I can say now is REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please be gentle. :)

~Rosebud5