30 June 2019
Prompt: My Cup…
Fandom: Alice in Wonderland (Burton)
Character/Pairing: Mallymkun, Tarrant Hightopp; Tarrant Hightopp/Alice Kingsleigh
Rating: K / G / All Ages
Notes: I actually have an Alice Cup. Unlike my Hatter and Cheshire mugs, this is not actual Disney merch and has Nothing Whatsoever to do with AiW beyond the fact that it reminds me of Alice. It's lovely.
The blue teacup was a new addition to the tea party, relatively speaking. It sat just to the right of the setting before the wingback chair at the head of the table. It was a pretty thing in pastel blue with gold swirls and delicate lilac flowers. It was also in pristine condition, completely unchipped – a rare sight at the tea party. It had also never been used, neither for drinking nor napping.
That was rare, too. Not that Mallymkun hadn't tried, but her excited coos over a new napping cup had turned to insulted squeals when Tarrant had snatched it away when she was halfway to crawling inside.
"Only Alices, if you please," he had tutted before dusting the cup off and putting it back in its proper place beside his own.
Mally was too busy being Worried to stay Insulted.
Tarrant had not been looking for an Alice Cup when he found it. No, if anything he had spent every day since the Frabjous steadfastly avoiding any Alice Thoughts at all. They tended to lead to Dark Places, and he was ever so tired of Underland being dark. Still, when he had found the cup in the weekend market, he had been unable to resist. The blue and gold was very Alice, after all, and she would need a cup for her tea when she finally returned. After all, the usual broken crockery just would not do for an Alice, who always deserved only the best – and the very best he could think of was her very own Alice Cup to break in herself. Oh, wouldn't she just love it?
That had been an awfully long time ago now. The cup was beginning to collect dust.
"Thackery, be a dear and toss the sugar," Mally called, tapping a spoon against her own cup.
"Say please!" Thackery bellowed, chucking two cubes Mally's way. The first landed in her tea with expert precision, yet the second hurtled towards the head of the table unchecked. Mally gasped and ran to catch it, but Tarrant just watched with detached eyes as the cube sailed towards Alice's cup. Mally caught it before it could land, yet her skidding stop nudged the Cup. The tea party grew deathly silent as the Alice Cup wobbled. Tarrant sucked in a breath as it teetered, then tottered, and finally Fell.
"Mally!" he cried, leaping from his chair as it shattered on the ground. A pesky stone had been waiting to catch the poor thing, and now his Alice Cup lay in pieces.
"Tarrant, love, I'm so sorry!" Mally cried, hopping onto his shoulder then down to help collect the pieces. He batted her away, not wanting the help of the one who had broken it to begin with.
"She'll never come back now!" Tarrant choked out. "Why would she, with nothing but broken pieces waiting for her? I wanted a whole cup to surprise her, to…"
Mally frowned as he rambled on. Alice had never seemed to have a problem with broken things, if you asked her.
"Hatter?"
The two froze at the voice. They looked up to find Alice standing at the entrance to the clearing, Chessur lolling lazily by her shoulders. She frowned as she approached.
"Whatever are you doing on the ground, you silly man?"