A/N: It's PAINFUL not owning ANY of this! Alice and Boys Like Girls aren't mine.
The tea shop had been quiet all morning. Not a soul running in and out, and the lack of noises began to seep into him. Usually, he could hear the screaming of the people who were only a few doors down in the betting lab. Yelling out how much they would pay for a teaspoon of joy. But on this day as he sipped at his normal tea, he couldn't hear a thing. And it made him suspicious. His back was facing the door, with no business there seemed to be no need to stay attuned to the rest of his shop.
I remember what you wore on the first day
You came into my life and I thought
"Hey, you know, this could be something"
'Cause everything you do and words you say
You know that it all takes my breath away
And now I'm left with nothing.
It was only then that he heard familiar clicks. Ratty's boots had a familiar click to them that anyone who wasn't under the influence of the Queen's emotions would recognize. Hatter wondered what the old man had brought him for the exchange of an emotion. "Would you like a cup of tea?" He asked the silent room. Any moment now Ratty would be begging him for some of the 'priceless' tea that the Queen enjoyed so much.
"No thank you…" Hatter's head cocked to the side, that certainty was not Ratty's voice. "Who are you?" Came the voice again, it carried with it an inquisitive tone. Who ever she was, she sounded pretty, and that alone forced Hatter to spin his chair around.
"A friend…" She was soaking wet. Why?
"I hope." Looking at her, he really did hope so.
"I run the tea shop."
"Ya see?" Came Ratty's question. Hatter's eyes found the strange girl's arm, she was an Oyster. This changed everything.
He stood, and for a moment was breathless. He looked back down at his tea wondering if maybe something had been slipped into it. He was disappointed to see that nothing had. Which meant this soaking wet girl had made him feel this way.
"How did you break out of the Scarab?" He asked quickly recovering.
"The beetle thing?"
A strange noise erupted from his throat. Confirming her question.
"I used my hairpin and…" she trailed off.
"Fell." He completed her sentence.
"As you can see, I'm drenched. Where…What is this place?" She asked forcefully.
Hatter found himself up against his desk, bracing himself. This woman could very well prove to be different than all the other Oysters that he had stumbled upon.
"Oh. Wonderland."
So maybe it's true
That I can't live without you
And maybe two is better than one
There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking two is better than one.
He doubted that she was Alice of Legend as much as she did. But it still didn't stop him from wanting to help the poor girl. He had recieved his information, insulted her money system, and lent her his coat. Which he fully expected back. But in all of this 'introducing her to his world' thing, he never realized that she was a strange Oyster. The ones that he had all met were women who threw themselves at him. His charm after all, was astounding. But this Alice wasn't having any of it.
"I've got a thing about heights." She stated, her eyes screaming terror. In that moment, Hatter felt sorry for the girl.
"Why couldn't you guys build this city on the ground?" She said breathlessly.
He offered her his hand and a simple, "Look at me." But when she didn't move a muscle, he reached his hand a little further. "Alice." He said softer.
"Try not to look down, okay?"
She was terrified of falling off the edge, and he was terrified of losing this Oyster.
It wasn't only a comfort to her when she grabbed his hand, it was a comfort to him. This Alice was a invigorating woman, who wanted nothing more than to find her boyfriend. But as he stared straight into her eyes, leading her to safer ground he hoped that maybe she would forget about her boyfriend. Her grip was far too delicate and powerful at the same time for him to be able to not have it around everyday.
He was staring down at her while the elevator bus was sending them beneath the floors of Wonderland. She was apprehensive about it, but with a simple reassurance from him she seemed to calm down.
Alice wasn't what he had expected. He thought that she would be a gentle woman most of the time, but when she took down Dodo, and dragged him back on the bus, he was surprised at the strength that the tiny woman held. She had saved him. Her life was in danger, his life too. And she had no right coming back for him. She could have been killed. The bruise where the bullet meant for her was going to sting for a few days, he knew that. But he rather would have had it for himself than watch the ring be taken from her small dead finger.
The Stone of Wonderland was the least of his problems. Everyone would be after him, and now Alice. Guilt plagued him at that thought, but he figured in this war; two was better than one.
I remember every look upon your face
The way you roll your eyes
The way you taste
You make it hard for breathing
'Cause when I close my eyes and drift away
I think of you and everything's okay
I'm finally now believing.
"Jack's a lucky guy." The sentence fell from his mouth like drops of rain.
When her head sprang up, he feared that she had somehow heard him, but when a question came from her lips he was relieved.
"Nothin,"
He took a deep breath. Not ready to let Alice know what was spinning around in his head. Not yet anyway. It was too much for her right now. To much pressure at Charlie's campsite for one night.
"Look, it's getting late. We can argue about this in the tomorrow, okay?" He said, feeling like the weight of the world was beginning to look a little heavy on her shoulders.
The last image that he would fall asleep to was of Alice rolling her eyes at him.
When he woke the next morning to find his plum jacket hanging from a tree, panic struck him. She had run away, and he could do nothing but blame himself.
"No!" He exclaimed. Images of her passing before his eyes like some sort of swirling slideshow. Her eyes, her lips, the way she smelled, the twitch in his hand every time that he got to hold hers. "No!" Escaped him again, and he felt his chest collapsing in on itself. He knew what awaited her at the casino better than she did. And he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he had killed her.
As he jumped on the horse Charlie had given him, he could think of nothing but her. He needed to find her, make sure that she was safe. When she was safely in his arms, everything would be okay.
What had this Oyster done to him? Had he finally begun to think that he was worthy of having a good life? With a good person like her? Was he beginning to believe in himself? Beginning to believe that he could save them both?
That maybe it's true
That I can't live without you
And maybe two is better than one
There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life
And you've already got me coming undone
And I'm thinking two is better than one.
"You're going to join them aren't you? Fight right along side them." She asked sadly.
Hatter looked beyond the grounds into the distance, "have to try. As Dodo said, I've lived my life playing both sides of the court. It's the only way that I could stay alive." He said turning back to her. Her piercing blue eyes gushed sadness at the fact that he may have to leave her. It was a look that he was used, as he had done it several times to women of her world, and of Wonderland's world. But could he do that too Alice?
"I made the hearts think I was working for them, while I fed their enemies." No, he wouldn't do that too her. He couldn't live with himself if he had.
"Those days are over." He said with finality.
It was the walk back that nearly had him coming undone, the prospects of her returning to her world were getting smaller by the minute and she couldn't help but ask him. "What'll I do, if I get stuck here?" She asked gloomily.
He stopped her from walking. And wrapped his fingers around her arms. Wanting the hot emotions spinning through him to never end. No matter how much tea that the Queen produced, nothing could compare to how he was feeling.
"Then I'll make sure you're okay." He said, leaning in to kiss her.
In that moment, he realized that he would have to take his time with Alice. She wasn't a simple woman to deal with. But he had that time, and he would figure out everything that he had to do with her. It would test his patience, and occasionally make him upset, but he had the rest of his life after all. Nothing would stop him either. Nothing expect…
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Came a deep voice that broke them apart.
Two was better than one, but three was just too much.
I remember what you wore on the first day
You came into my life and I thought
"Hey, you know, this could be something"
'Cause everything you do and words you say
You know that it all takes my breath away
And now I'm left with nothing.
She was about to go back through the mirror, and any rational thought that Hatter had had flown out the window. Any ability to speak had apparently left with it. All he could do was stand there as she sadly looked up at him. This sort of heartbreak, he had never felt before and it gripped itself around his every inch of him. She wasn't in danger, she wasn't being taken away by her ex-boyfriend, she wasn't even arguing with him. Instead, she was ripping his heart out. Without even knowing, and he watched her walk away without speaking up. Without letting her know that he needed her. That he hadn't ever felt this way about anyone, let alone an Oyster.
The first day that they had met slammed into his mind like a wall of bricks, she was soaking wet and stubborn as hell. And he couldn't see how they would ever get along to find her boyfriend and eventually her father. But somehow she had managed to break herself into his solid stone of a heart. The Oyster from the strange land had now made him even more breathless than before, and he clutched at the jacket that she had given him back. He didn't want it anymore, he wanted her to have it. Her smell was on it and it wafted around his nose, sending tears to sting at his eyes.
When all is said and done
Two is better than one.
"Finally." He said as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. It was a feeling that he couldn't let go of, nor did he want to. She had somehow become everything to him and it was a strange feeling. "I've missed you." He said, capturing her lips. He had never felt more complete in that moment, as he realized that two really was better than one.
~End.
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