Thank you all once again for the reviews/ alerts/ story favorites. I'm having so much fun writing this story, but I'm even more excited that you all like it. I'm honored that you're all taking the time to read it, so thank you so very much. Please leave me a review after you're finished, to tell me if there's anything you liked/ want to see/ I can improve on. Thank you again.
I don't own the Hunger Games or Alice in Wonderland.
Tick Tock.
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Prim had Buttercup cuddled on her lap. She was rubbing the grey fur growing behind his ears before she tickled under his chin. He was purring, large glowing eyes closed, as his whiskers stuck out in happiness.
The girl looked up at the sky, and noted that it turned blood red during the night. A moon hung low on the horizon, bright silver against the crimson. Sighing, she glanced over at the redhaired man. Finnick was watching her with wide teal eyes, he had been since Peeta ran off after her sister. Her stubborn sister.
"Do you think they'll be okay?" She asked softly, using her free hand to grab one of the Hatter's pastries and stuffing it into her mouth. He had been right, they were delectable. The dough melted on her tongue, and the icing complemented the taste in a sweet way, but not overbearing.
Finnick nodded quickly, bright hair swaying on his shoulder. His fingers dug into his breast pocket and pulled out a piece of rope, knotting it and unknotting it swiftly. "Yes, yes I imagine they will be. Peeta's not one to be reckoned with, not after what happened." The Hare's eyes widened as he stared off into the distance, lost in some sort of long past thought, as his fingers kept working on the string.
Prim sat quietly, the magic cat now asleep in her lap.
"I told you that we were going to get lost!" a shrill voice trilled from the opposite tree line.
"No, you damn woman, I told you that if you didn't have to do your hair, we would have gotten here much quicker. But no you had to do it up like some sort of freak show."
A couple appeared out of the blue haze of the trees. Prim stood, still cradling Buttercup in her arms. The March Hare looked up, a grin spread wide across his cheeks. "So they finally made it, eh?"
"You didn't have a problem with my 'freak show' hair when we got married!" The woman speaking had bright pink tresses in high piles of curls on the top of her head. Her lips were painted with the same fuchsia color, and her golden heels were probably 6 inches high. "Besides, dear, I had time to spare while you slept off your drunken stupor!"
The man waved her off, ignoring the statement, his grey eyes coming to rest on the girl standing beside Peeta's normal chair.
"H-hello," Primrose said softly, taking a few steps closer as the two new comers walked to the tables. The woman's eyes scanned the thin girl, noting the way the Cheshire Cat slept docilely in her arms. "My name is Primrose Everdeen, who are you?" she stuck out a hand, cradling the sleeping animal deftly in one arm.
"This is Tweedle Dee," Frinnick jumped up and motioned to the man, "otherwise known as Haymitch. And pinkie here," his golden fingers traced a circlet in her hair. "Is Effie, or as I like to call her, Tweedle Dum."
The pink woman glared at the Hare warily. "Ha. Ha. Very funny Finnick." She turned back to Prim and shook her small hand with thin fingers. "My name is Effie."
The young Everdeen nodded, hesitating before dropping her hand to her side. She took in Effie's clothes and golden shoes, and wondered why the woman was dressed like that in the middle of the woods. A pang of jealousy hit her, she felt disgusting and normal.
Effie took a seat at the table, gathering a few cakes onto a plate before pouring herself a cup of tea with careful hands.
Prim opened her mouth to formally greet Tweedle Dee, or Haymitch as Finnick referred to him. But the man was already turning away from her. "Yea, I'm Haymitch, you're a normal girl, big deal." He sat beside his wife, grabbing a cookie from her fingers and popping it in his mouth before speaking around the crumbs. "Where's Peeta? He's normally here grinning like an idiot at us. He's the one who introduced us, mind you."
The young blonde girl's jaw hung open as Effie gave Haymitch an irritated scowl. "Why are you here, Ms. Primrose? I can't imagine why any normal person would come down a rabbit hole on a whim."
"O-oh, there was a woman, Wiress I believe they called her. She mentioned Real Alice and my sister and I followed her through the gardens. We ended up falling down the hole and… into here."
The pastel pink woman nodded, as if a trip to another world, maybe dimension, was a completely normal habit. "Ah, the White Rabbit. I remember when I fell down the-"
"No one wants to hear this story for the millionth time," Tweedle Dee grouched, running a hand through his sand colored hair. "Give the poor girl a break, she's probably freaked out beyond belief, she doesn't need to know you were escorting the winning soccer team on their victory tour when you had a fling with one and ended up tripping over an exposed root and falling down here." The woman glared at him once more. "Not that it's not an interesting story or anything like that," he muttered, turning back to the plate of sweets in front of him.
Prim noticed the way the March Hare was smiling, taking a short break from knot tying to stir his lumpy tea. "Don't try to save yourself now," Peeta's voice came from the trees, "I heard that whole thing, Haymitch, you can't cover with that line."
Relief flooded over everyone's faces at the pair's appearance, but it quickly turned to shock and concern when they saw him leaning heavily on Katniss for support.
"What happened?" Effie quavered, taking long steps on her golden shoes, coming up to the injured male in a heartbeat. "Here, set him down on the table." She pushed pastries and platters off of the clean white fabric. Some crashed to the ground and splattered as others made it to the relatively safe edge of the table.
"A Mutt attacked, that's all." He said, wincing as the March Hare and Tweedle Dee picked him up. "It was just a cub."
The other males winced as Effie set to work mending his leg. She grabbed a pink and blue stripped tea pot, and opened it. Reaching in she took out a handful of leaves.
"What are those for?" Katniss asked quickly, taking up the space beside the pink woman, dove eyes inspecting the viridian greenery. She felt her heart jump when the Hatter reached for her hand, and without thinking, she let him take it.
His grip tightened as Tweedle Dum gently placed the leaves against his still seeping skin. "This is going to hurt for a while," she mumbled, tenderly taking the pieces of fabric and soaking them in a different tea pot. "And you may get blood poisoning but the leaves are supposed to help fight it."
The blond male nodded, pain dancing through his features as she pressed the fabric tightly and bound it. Katniss let out a sigh of relief when the agony swept out of Peeta's features.
"Can I do anything?" Prim asked, taking a few steps forward, Buttercup still in her hands, "I want to be a doctor when I'm older, and I've taken a few classes..."
Effie smiled but shook her head. "A curse of this place is that medical treatment will never be good. We don't have the instruments your world has created. We traded health for magic years and years ago. This," She motioned to the leaves and the assortment of different tea pots. "Is all we have, so we have to make due."
Prim nodded as Katniss helped the Hatter down from the table, settling him on the chair at the head of the tea party once more.
"What now?" Haymitch questioned, also taking a seat. He kneaded his large hands together on the surface. "You're injured, the Dormouse hasn't arrived yet, and we don't even know if Absolem is still at his house."
Peeta nodded, still keeping ahold of Kat's hand. "I know, so we'll wait."
"Bu-" The Hatter sent a glare towards Haymitch, silencing him for the moment.
"They don't even know what's going on yet, we have to explain everything or else they'll be left in the dark forever and won't know what we're fighting for until it's too late and everyone is dead."
This seemed to stun the rest of the group into submission, and Peeta turned to look at Katniss. His eyes were still swirling beautifully, ice and lightning dancing together behind his pale lashes. The March Hare twitched as he scrawled another note on his forearm with the quill, then quickly picked up the piece of rope again. Tweedle Dee took Tweedle Dum's hand and petted it with the rough pad of his thumb, while Buttercup stretched in Prim's arm. The young blonde was sitting beside her sister, thing legs folded underneath her as she turned her attention to the Hatter, who took a deep breath and watched them both intensely.
.
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"It started more than a century ago. Legend has it that the Red King and the White Queen stopped generations of fighting, and for a year, it was all love and kisses. They say that war can eventually bring the strongest love, and for that year people believed it.
"But then… then everything fell apart. They had a child together, but one way or another, the baby was killed. That's when the war started again, and when the Red King instilled the Hunger Games. He blamed the White Queen's court for their child's death, and he was determined to make sure the children of his daughter's killers paid for it."
Peeta motioned for a tea cup, and Katniss jumped to her feet, quickly grabbing it and pouring tea into it according to his directions. He took no sugar.
Prim looked around and noticed that Effie had her face pressed against Haymitch's chest, and she also noted that he didn't push her away. His large hands traced circles on her lower back and he mumbled soft words into her ear.
"He wanted it to be a reminder to everyone. So after the first Games, he just started to kidnap people. The first kidnapping started in his woods," the Everdeen sisters glanced at the calming blue of the forest and shivered.
"Eventually the King died of an infection. There were rumors that the White Queen somehow poisoned him, but after another month she died too. The next set of royalty was chosen from the remaining families. The Red King became Coriolanus Snow. The White Queen was chosen as Denise Cresta. They fought for another generation. The Red King's wife was killed, her body was never found. The White Queen was killed shortly thereafter, the King claiming it was revenge. Her only daughter took the throne, Annie."
Finnick looked up from tying and untying knots, brows twisting on his forehead, aquamarine eyes penetrating. "Annie, Annie in danger," he mumbled, eyes closing tightly, dropping the string and wrapping his long fingers around his tea cup. "Annie, Annie, Annie." His mouth contorted and he picked up the cup and hurled it across the clearing. Wet sugar flung through the air and the porcelain shattered it against a nearby tree. "That damn man, and the damn war!" He grabbed for a tea pot this time, but Prim jumped out of her seat, upsetting the Cheshire Cat from her lap.
"Finnick!" Prim ran over to him before anyone else could act. She wrapped his larger hands in her tiny ones, looking him directly in the eye as she removed the ceramic pot and set it down. "It's okay." She had tears running from blue orbs, fingers tightening against his gold skin.
"I swear," she sniffled, holding onto his gaze. "Whether I'm Real Alice or not… I'll do whatever I can to stop this," She turned and glanced at all of them individually. "To protect Annie and help all of you."
Katniss was about to open her mouth, but a squeeze from Peeta's hand silenced her.
The March Hare's panicked mania subsided and he pulled the small girl tight against his chest, crushing her into the sinewy muscles. "Thank you," he muttered as she blushed crimson, matching his hair.
Within seconds Katniss noticed the difference in the air. Tweedle Dum started to laugh, a high and sweet tinkling noise, extracting herself from her husband's arms and made her way to the small girl. Buttercup followed lead, lacing his way through their legs, purring loudly. Even Haymitch stood, happily embracing the thin girl in his arms.
Katniss looked at the Hatter and noticed the smile resting on his full lips. "They just need something to believe in," he spoke softly, watching the exchange as Effie pulled Prim into a dance, Finnick pulled out a wooden flute and started to play. Haymitch picked up the cat, and twirled around.
"Even if neither of you are Real Alice," his thumb wiped across her knuckles. "You might be able to hold us over until she really comes."
"That's-"
"Selfish, I know." He sighed, tugging on her to come closer. "But we've been trying to survive here for so long, we can't give up now."
Kat nodded, and before she could help herself, she pressed her mouth to his cheek. "Something to believe in."
Peeta lifted his other hand, grabbing ahold of her chin and moving her face so that he could properly kiss her. But a throat cleared beside them before he had the chance, and a woman was standing there.
She was short, but stiff. Standing as tall as her small frame would let her, her silvery hair falling in an unforgiving sheet to her shoulders. Her eyes were the color of snow slush, staring angrily at the dark haired female and the blond male.
"Hatter, I thought we were fighting a war, not making love."
Katiss flushed and struggled to pull away from him as quickly as possible. But he refused to let go of her hand. "Ah, Dormouse, we never thought you'd arrive."
The sun was starting to rise in the bright sky. The red leeching away back to its semi normal orange color. There were a few clouds scattered around, odd white tufts in the atmosphere.
The woman flashed him an irritated smile. "Don't sass me, Hatter. I don't play your mad little games." Her stone eyes turned on the others, irritated with the fact that they were dancing. "Oi, March Hare, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, and you stupid Cheshire Cat, I don't think you have a reason to dance. This war is far from over. I don't know about you, but I know I don't dance when children are sent to the slaughter."
The happiness leaked out of them and the tune stopped, Finnick replacing the flute in his pocket. He sat in his seat again, eyes glazing dangerously over the glass cups, fingers working furiously on the rope once more.
"That's better." The woman said. "Now, may we finally talk strategy, or are you pretentious idiots going to lollygag around all day?"
The other people sat on their seats, Prim walking once again to rest by her older sister. Buttercup ambled behind her, meowing softly for her to pick him up. She did and cuddled his warm body close.
"Always a pleasure, Alma Coin," Peeta started, but immediately there were noises coming from the woods. Heavy footsteps and chanting voices. They could hear the clinking of armor and the slicing sounds of swords being drawn. Branches broke and leaves rustled ominously in the dim aqua of the forest.
Finnick looked up, frightened with his skin going taunt over his muscle. Effie and Haymitch jumped and scrambled from their chairs, grabbing onto each other before starting to run in the opposite direction.
Coin shot to her feet, "There you go, Hatter. That's what you get for keeping your Tea Party in the middle of the Red King's woods." She started to run, but within heartbeats men were stomping into the area.
Prim let out a scream and Katniss reached for her as the men flooded in. They tossed the made-up tables, the glass crunching and shattering as it landed on the ground. The pretty pastries painted and splattered their brilliant colors across the grass.
Peeta pulled on her arm, tugging her away from the scene as he struggled to stand. He stumbled and hissed when he put pressure on his injured leg, but he refused to slow down. His fingers dug into Katniss' shoulder and it stung her skin, drawing blood as he propelled her forward.
Kat heard Prim shriek, and turned, waist long hair swirling as she saw Finnick being thrown against the ground, his pretty face slammed into the pieces of broken china. It cut him and blood welled over his golden skin. Coin was being beaten to the ground as well. Kat's eyes swiveled around, noting that Prim was skittering away from the hulking men in blood red armor.
The blonde Everdeen was clutching Buttercup to her chest as she dove beneath a low bush. It caused a diversion as the men ran into each other, trying to get beneath the foliage to grab the girl. But Primrose was too fast and she was on her feet without hesitation, barreling through the low hanging blue branches and away from the disastrous Tea Party.
Katniss lost sight of everything when Peeta finally gave her a shove through tightly bound trees. He was following her, huffing and panting. She turned and wrapped her arm under his, helping to hold his weight as the adrenaline started to course faster.
"We have to get out of here," he hissed, the girl nodded. She cursed her shoes once more and hoped Effie was having an easier time in her golden heels.