Alice's cat obviously had not been expecting her. His grin, although as broad as ever, had grown slowly as she entered his private quarters. Dilating eyes becoming curious, unsurprisingly, in a very feline manner. The lanky, attorney's body her cat wore stiffening like a predator catching the sent of either pray or a mate. Keir's torso as pale and naked as a frail creature with mange.

"Miss Alice." He hummed. His eyes, gradually reducing to a more human like size as the doorman that had lead Alice to room dismissed himself. Once door to chamber was closed with the servant's leave Keir's vision sprang from threshold to teen girl standing awkwardly just beyond it.

With their privacy the cat dropped formality's costmary of London officials, allowing his natural demeanor to shine better. His following words flowing with the rhythm of a riddle.

"Why, dear Alice, are you here? Especially at such a late hour? What would the public think if word leaked that a prominent attorney, like myself, were accepting clients at this time of night? When a lawyer should be turning in and not conversing with young ladies in need."

For a moment the teen girl was voiceless. In all honestly she felt as peculiar and bewildered as Keir looked. Why was she here? Inside the house her cat had made his London home, when the stars and the moon had been attempting to shine through city smog for at least an hour.

"The public can believe what they want to believe." Alice forced herself to say something in the hopes that an explanation would come to her if only she could arrange her thoughts thoroughly. To the girl's bafflement and displeasure Keir's lack of completed attire was proving to be a distraction; leaving Alice with a tied tongue, blotched cheeks and a foggy mind. "Beside, it's not inappropriately late in the evening. Not yet."

"Hmm, well who am I to argue about hours with the girl who fabricated the Hatter and his sense of time? Still, an answer to my first inquiry if you please? What are you doing her Alice?"

"I've- just come from an interesting conversation."

"You've come to call on advice then? Which I am happy to give, but most advice can wait till morning, can it not? And if memory serves me correctly you are usually not too fond of my comments, no matter how much you may need them."

Fighting an erg to clench her fingers into fist Alice scolded herself for not thinking this through. Nerves told her she shouldn't have come. Any sane person would have gone home after an exchange like the one she'd had with Asia Irving. A rational girl would have chosen to settle their head, hoping a night's sleep would make more sense of radical presumption about romance. Romance with, in one sense or another, a imaginary cat.

Yet Alice knew she was far from sane. Even as she had left Asia and Candice to salvage their evening, the girl could tell walking about with a lagging gear in an already broken mind would cause trouble.

"I'm here under the suggestion of your secretary, Miss Asia." Alice blathered as she decided on a somewhat sensible reasoning for ending up on his the cat's doorstep. Although Asia had never so much as said "go speak with Keir Cheston," with out the young woman's suggestions teen girl most likely wouldn't have made her way to him that night.

"Asia." Her cat snorted with a glint of understanding to his hue. "She does have an odd way doesn't she? A creature like her can make even one's like yourself think or do oddities. Though I can't imagine what sort of strange thing she might have put in an already, no disrespect, fanciful mind. Hearing you've come from a meeting with Asia, however, makes more sense then anything else I could imagine. The woman can be a bit manipulative without realizing it."

"Agreed." Alice allowed herself a sigh, breath heavy with lack of understanding and frustration.

"Well then," Keir continued after he mumbled what could have been a chuckle, "was a suggesting of a nightly visit to your attorney the only thing Asia put in your mind? Or is there something more to her manipulation? An alternate reason I can owe your company to?"

Every muscle in the teen girl's body felt as if it had tensed at question. How much of her conversation with Asia should she reveal to her cat? If any of it at all? Yes Asia had managed to convince Alice, she could, probably, or in all actuality was, enamored with Keir. That by no means meant he would reciprocate, or even respond kindly. Even if the attorney was a bit mad himself he was still her cat. And what would a cat want with a girl? A potentially psychotic girl?

Shuffling her thoughts for a decent way to respond Alice tried to appear as sure of herself as she was not. Tea green eyes attempting to stay strong and firm oh the cat's manly shape when she would rather be looking anywhere else.

As unanswered inquiry began to hang like a forgotten man on the gallows Alice could sense Keir stirring across the room. He hadn't much moved sense her arrival, though his indicial stiffness had dissolved. And knowing her cat he didn't have the tongue to keep quiet for long. Not while she was around at least.

Soon enough he hinted at movement. Panther like eyes thinned and posture adjusting like a lion ready for a challenge.

As panic started to set in, Alice never having been fond of sudden movement or surprises, unrelated astonishment halted her cat's advance. The way he stepped and how lamp light hit exposed muscles illuminated something Alice found herself openly inquiring to.

"Are those scars?" If she hadn't known any better the teen girl would have called response a flinch. Yet the cat's features were as mischievous and foreboding as ever when he replied.

"You are not the only one that was licked by flames the night of the fire."

"-Don't- don't be ridiculous. I've never seen those before. Not to mention, you weren't present that night. At least not externally."

To Alice's astonishment the Cheshire cat's grin slacked. For the fist time in nearly twelve years of knowing him his usual amusement nearly shattered into a frown. "Huh. Now that you mention it "You've grown quiet mangy cat" was the first sentence between us after that night. I assume then, that you've taken the pattern to my skin as an unusually decorative affect due to a skin condition? Or maybe just another of several creative elements to wonderland?"

Like an exhausted laborer suddenly nipped into action by a fly's bite dull confusion soon spurred Alice's mind into action. Feeling as if she'd just located a piece to a puzzle she hadn't realized she was missing memories neatly placed themselves into an incomplete part of her brain.

Attempting to reach her parents' and sister's rooms through fire, panicked demands as to why Lizzie would not open her door, being told to save herself, and a blast of flames driving Alice back to her own quarters. A blast she recalled hearing, but neither seeing nor feeling.

"You can't be serious? You didn't. You couldn't. Could you?" Even more out of sorts then when she first arrived Alice gasped at her cat, all other concerns misplaced for the moment; her vision taking in ever faint, but solid, imperfection to chest arms and torso. Even if he had coats and shirts to cover such marking when masquerading as Keir Cheston, surely she couldn't have been blind enough to overlook not just his scaring, but also what that meant.

With a fraction of his former grin returning her cat responded with a hue as quiet and strong as a lullaby with lurid origins. "Did I ever say that Keir Cheston was my first attempt at manifesting myself as a man in your reality? Honestly dear Alice, I've said it before. One would think you'd remember, but I'll repeat myself if I have to. What good would a cat have been to you in such a situation?"

"But-" Before she could complete her own thought Alice silenced it. If she started to question the possibilities and impossibilities of wonderland, reality, and how they overlapped she would surely go even more insane. Holding onto that ideal, more firmly then she ever had before Alice brashly made a decision to evicted caution.

"Asia Irving has threatened to lock the pair of us in a room at the Mangled Mermaid until we are intimate with each other."

Alice had never seen, nor really thought it possible, for someone to go white and flush in the same moment until Keir responded with such a look. The girl nearly scoffed laughter at peculiar look.

"Did she?"

"She also suggested we- do something else." Alice flushed; modesty taking up vacancy caution had left. "But I will not repeat that. If you want to know those words you'll have to ask her yourself."

"I-I see. Then, is that what I have to thank for seeing you tonight?"

"-Yes-"

"And- you want my advice?" Like a kitten awed and baffled by an orb of light reflected on a wall Keir was fumbling. And although his rare unsteadiness came off rather amusing in Alice's eyes it did not stop her from matching it.

"No. I actually would like- if you have one of course- your opinion-"

"Need I bring to your attention, fact that you rarely wish to hear my opinion?" As her cat spoke again his tone was firm, but slow. As if he was trying to control a stead with a fowl reputation.

"When- has that ever stopped you?"

"Then my opinion, dear Alice, is up to you."

Normally the girl would have demanded what kind of reply her cat thought him was. Yet his eyes were holding onto hers with growing irises. As if the feline, no the man, were unsure whether he should be preparing for a touch of affection or a slap of antagonism. And although his grin had steadily been returning to its familiar sight Alice somehow felt as if she currently held a power to either feed his expression or starve it.

"-I think-" She struggled to locate her voice as Keir continued to keep her gaze locked with his. "-I think- I'm curious. If you are willing."

Like an overfed house cat that had just contented himself with a delectable meal of fish and cream Keir smiled at Alice. His hue almost purring when he spoke.

"Well then Miss Alice Liddel. Would you care to join me for tea and tarts tomorrow afternoon?"


Thank you all for reading! Maybe I'll write a fallow up to this later. (a follow up to a squeal?) And please comment if you have time! Thankies again!