NINE
Firewood and Fireside Chat
When it was time to dismount, he hopped down and then reached up for Alice but she was already swinging her leg over the other side. Well, that had been short lived. No more comforting half, not quite hugs, it would seem. He tied the reins on the post Charlie had stopped near.
"Before the war," Charlie began somberly, "Before the Queen of Hearts, this was once the greatest city in the realm. The Red King and his elected council ruled Wonderland with the wisdom of the ages."
"And the Hearts destroyed everything?" Alice asked as they worked their way through overgrown weeds and shrubs. Might have been a road once, but you couldn't tell.
"We lived in harmony for a thousand years, but when the Queen came to power, she just wanted to feel the good…not the bad." Charlie walked through the brush. "Believe it or not, this was once the throne room. Sadly, all that's left now…is the throne."
Charlie followed a path, no doubt one he created. His things, clothes, and other oddities were set up around the decaying throne room. Hatter was the last to enter the camp. The whole place had put a bad taste in his mouth. Brought up memories he didn't exactly feel like addressing right then. Charlie began to mumble, attending to his other inventions as if they weren't there. Guess that's what happened when you spent all your time alone. You forget what it's like to be around people. In a way, Hatter could relate.
No, he wasn't bat-ass crazy. But he'd lived his life for so long without a single true friend and now…well he liked to think they were becoming friends. Alice and him. Friendly. When he remembered why he'd lived like that, it brought up that bitter taste again.
"Hey, Charlie." Alice rubbed at her hands, wiping the residue from the rope away. The knight shuffled in her direction, head tilted in answer. "Got anything to eat?"
Food. Hatter hadn't eaten since that morning. How do you forget to eat? Charlie brightened, "Aha! I've just the thing. You scraps get yourselves settled. I'll take care of the provisions."
Hatter watched Charlie waddle toward the other end of the camp. "I really hope his idea of food doesn't match his taste in armor." He smirked. "Really old and slightly rusted."
He could see her fight the smile and do a very poor job of it. "That's enough. He's been nothing but nice to us. Give him a chance."
"Oh, I am. Trust me—" He bit his tongue. There was that word again…
Alice adjusted her coat, fidgeting. She was uncomfortable. This time it didn't make him want to grin like an idiot. "We should get a fire going. It'll be dark soon." She had walked near a burnt out fire pit. "Do you see any wood around here?"
Hatter stuffed his hands into his pockets. "No. But there's a hell of a pile of twigs behind you."
Alice spun around and looked at the ground. "Should we, I don't know, go collect some firewood? That's what they always do…" She seemed to be talking more to herself and he strolled closer.
"They?"
She looked up, "Oh," she tucked some hair behind her ear absently. "Uh, movies. You know, in movies when they're making camp someone always has to get the firewood."
"Movies, huh?" The word sounded strange.
"Yep." She added and he could feel the situation growing awkward.
"So, do you want to get on that or shall I?" He asked, meaning the firewood.
Alice shrugged. "We should…both probably go. I mean, we'd get it done faster that way."
Now he grinned. Devilishly. "Oh yeah?"
"Yes. Now are you going to stand there or help me?" Temper, temper.
"After you." He motioned for her to lead the way and she did. But not without some considerable agitated stomping. He'd never seen these 'movies' and he'd never had to make a fire before. He watched Alice for reference. She just stalked about, looking at her feet and stopping every so often to pick up a thick piece of wood. Easy enough. When both their arms were considerably full, they returned to camp and dumped the wood into the fire pit.
Alice set about trying to figure out how to light it, but Hatter had found the contraption connected to the fire pit more interesting. "What'd you suppose it does?" He asked, tone light and conversational.
She glanced at him, "I don't know. Ask Charlie, he made it." She crouched near the pit, pushing her hair out of her face. "Do you have a lighter on you?"
"A lighter?"
She sighed. "A match? Something that could create a spark?"
He smiled. "Why on earth would I carry something that could potentially start a fire on my person?"
Alice stood up now, not finding him amusing. "Well then how do you suggest we start the fire?"
"I suppose I'd just ask Charlie." The Knight had just started to approach, an apron tied around his waist and a huge plate of meat in his arms. "How do you start the fire?" Hatter asked, much to Alice's annoyance. He knew, because he could see it on her face.
"Hm?" Charlie set down the food near the pit and looked at them. "Ah. Yes. The fire." Charlie circled around and picked up a magnifying glass. "This is my Sunlight Refraction Burner."
"That's a magnifying glass." Hatter corrected. This made Charlie huff indignantly.
"Excuse me, but I believe I know what to call my own invention." Charlie scoffed.
"You invented the magnifying glass?" Hatter looked at Alice's glare. "What? I'm jus' saying."
Charlie held the 'Sunlight Refraction Burner' out over the pit and then glanced up at the canopy, aligning it until a beam of light hit one of the pieces of wood. He held it there for several seconds and nothing happened.
Hatter squatted down, his elbow on his knee and his chin in his palm and he watched with mock fascination. "Wow. Works great."
"Give it time." Charlie assured. "In life, certain things take time. Patience, my young vassal, is a virtue."
Hatter rolled his eyes and stage whispered to Alice, "Now I know why he's so old. Spent all his time trying to light a fire." Alice moved next to him for the express purpose of elbowing him in the arm. "Ow." He rubbed the arm.
The wood began to smoke and, eventually, a fire did start. When it did, Alice was quick to make note of it. "You should apologize." She whispered, hoping Charlie couldn't hear. Once the fire had stared he immediately moved to the contraption near the pit and started it up, blowing air over the flames so they grew more quickly.
Hatter was about to argue when he realized she was right. Sighing, he let his arms hang at his side as he rose to his feet. Charlie looked up from his food preparation and gave him a vacant smile. "Look, I'm sorry I made fun of your magnifying-er…Sunlight…burner thing. It's a…nice fire." He offered, feeling rather awkward. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been told to apologize. It didn't sit well in his mouth. He usually only said sorry when it would help the situation if he did so.
"Consider it forgotten." Charlie replied and then he began to sing to himself. Hatter raised his eyebrows as he turned to sit next to Alice by the fire.
"See, that wasn't so hard." She said.
"You've no idea." He confided. It had been hard. Everything had been since she'd showed up. The sun began to set behind them. Had it really only been a day? A single day and everything was different. He had no home. He'd spent years trying to keep both the Resistance and the Queen happy and had destroyed both those bridges in less than a few hours. And then there was Alice. He couldn't even begin to articulate all the havoc she'd tossed on him.
When the food was ready it had grown dark and she had accepted it greedily. Hatter was handed a plate but he barely touched it. He had too much on his mind to worry about eating.
Alice, however, dived in with abandon. He smiled when she pulled her face away from the slab of meat bigger than her head, mouth full and sauce on her cheek. He pointed to his own face, trying to alert her to this without spelling it out.
"Hm?" She leaned forward, mid-chew. "Something on my face?"
"Little bit." He said and then he watched her shrug and take another generous bite.
"No point cleaning it now." And she was right. Her face was a mess when she finished and he was astounded nothing had spilled on her dress or his coat. She accepted a piece of cloth, which Hatter wasn't sure would be much cleaner than her face given the state of everything else, but it did its job. She held up the now cleaned bone.
"Mm. That was good, Charlie. What was it?"
Charlie, who apparently owned two outfits: the armor and the long underwear underneath it. Unfortunately, he'd found the armor too cumbersome for cooking and had discarded it. Fortunately, his underwear had sleeves and long pants. "Barbequed borogove." He answered. "They're the devil to catch, but well worth the trouble. Don't you think?"
Hatter smiled at her. Considering she had worn half of it on her face, he guessed she would agree.
She looked at the bone in her hand. "When in Rome." She said as she set the bone near the fire. Whatever the hell Rome was.
Now that she was fed and Charlie had wandered off to who knows where, she looked at Hatter seriously. "What I want to know is how we're going to cut a deal with the White Rabbit."
He stabbed at his plate, standing. "I did say it was a long shot. But as long as you've got that ring, you've got a chance." He set his plate down near the rest of the dishes.
"You?" Alice cocked her head and then she was standing, staring at him. "What happened to 'we'?"
He sighed. As much as he wanted to avoid the subject, he wouldn't. That was the old him. The one that fled from trouble, from anything that got too difficult. "I can't leave, Alice. Wonderland's my home. I can't just abandon it, despite what I said. I have to stay and fight."
She seemed…almost disappointed. God, he wished. "What?"
"Seeing all this, look. This great kingdom and what…what's become of it. It's a wake up call, to be honest. My people," Yes, now they were his people. He hadn't realized it, not truly, until then. "I mean, the hundreds of refugees that are all hiding, underground…they're all counting on me." He had walked to her side of the fire as he talked, hoping she'd understand what he was trying to say.
"But didn't that Dodo guy say he was going to have you hunted down and killed?"
Why, yes, thanks for mentioning. "Yep." He conceded there was no way around that except… "But. I'm thinking if I turn up with the ring, he might forgive me." He could see it before the words had left his lips. She didn't understand. Like he'd betrayed her by just mentioning it.
"So that's what this was about?"
"Don't worry, I'll get you home safe and sound first." That had always been his intention. Nothing was going to change that. And once she was home, why shouldn't he get the ring and use it to aid the Resistance? She sure as hell wouldn't need it any more. He thought she'd be glad to be shot of it. It's not like he was using her. Why did she have to look at him like he was?
"And Jack?"
Damn it. Two words and he was back to impossible stubborn Alice who couldn't seem to know a lost cause when she saw one. He held the choice words that sprung to mind, huffing and pacing to keep from snapping at her. "You have to forget about Jack." Jack. Jack. Jack. He was starting to hate that name. No, he already hated it. "We'll never get him out of the Casino alive and trying is only going to set off alarm bells," She started to walk away and he raised his voice, "it'll make your escape impossible."
"Okay, so you were just leading me on back there?" She accused.
He could scream. He could just…she was impossible. Truly and utterly impossible. "Just believe me, it'll be suicide." Why was he even trying? It was like arguing with a brick. But he couldn't help himself. He wanted…he wanted her to understand. To believe him…to give up on Jack…as horrible as that sounded even to him. And, maybe, he was a bit jealous. His own family wouldn't have tried half as hard if it were him. He knew that for a fact. But she was ready to risk her own escape for a guy she only 'liked.'
She ignored him and his tone lightened. "Jack's a lucky guy." And he was. And Hatter couldn't fathom that he deserved her. He couldn't picture anyone deserving that kind of devotion…or maybe it wasn't so much deserving the loyalty but deserving her that he couldn't picture. Well, that had been a near 360 from how he started this adventure.
Alice looked up from her seething. "What?"
"Nothing…" he shook his head. "Look, it's late. And we all need our…rest. We can…argue about this tomorrow." He offered. "Yeah?" Despite how infuriating the argument was, he was looking forward to it. He hadn't experience half as much as he had in the span of time since meeting her. No Teas were needed. She ignored his truce, naturally, and he left her brooding with a shake of his head. Once away from the fire he moved to the edge of the tree line, looking up at the stars. He never looked at the stars.
It was nice. The quiet. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a quiet night starring up at the sky. Which was because he'd never had before. His hat was in his hand and he turned it over by the brim, feeling fidgety. When he'd made his decision, the one about helping the Resistance, really truly helping, he'd had to face another voice that was all too loud, even after twelve years.
"You look out for you, cause that's all you can count on." The words had been spoken to him when he was ten and it had been his father that had said them. Back then, Hatter wasn't called Hatter. In Wonderland, it was natural for people to adopt their nicknames or title. Most did. But back then he hadn't been around to pass the hat, so back then he had gone by the name his mother had given him, David.
Not that he knew his mother. He'd no memory of her except that she smelled like strawberry jam. Probably why it was his favorite. But she had died, sad but life happens. Then it had been Hatter and his father. Two down-and-out boys with no scrap of decency between them and it was all thanks to his father. Cons and robbery had been the start of it. Hatter had been a boy, easily overlooked, and his father exploited that. They both had. Hatter never had much of a stomach for it, but it was that or an empty one so he had always done his bit. Grew up to be a decent actor because of it. Perhaps that's why he enjoyed a performance so much, reminded him of a time when he had been truly innocent. Innocent enough to believe that they were doing what was necessary. That stealing and conning were the only way they had to make money. Now he knew that to be complete rubbish, but as a kid, well, you trust your parents.
It had been no surprise when their last job, the last time Hatter ever saw his father, had gone south real fast. His father, as was true to his character, had refused to pick sides. He worked for neither the Hearts nor the Resistance. That final job had been against the Resistance. They had conned their way inside, tried to get their hands on some from the food stores. And his father had snuck out the supplies while Hatter kept them charmed with his bright smile and childish hat tricks. No one could resist a kid with 'a neat-o trick.' So Hatter had gathered the audience and his father had gone to work.
However, this time, not everyone was as charmed by the little boy with the big smile and the hat. His father was found. Things escalated. Guns were drawn and Hatter had taken a bullet to his right arm before they could escape. His father, thinking it too dangerous to stick around, had bolted. Fancy that, the coward couldn't even stick around for his own son.
When Hatter woke next, he was bandaged up and with the very people he had tricked. He had backed into the wall, afraid they would be angry and want revenge. He knew he would. But they hadn't been mad. "Caterpillar fixed up your arm." They told him.
"Who?"
"Never you mind." They hadn't trusted him. He didn't blame them. "Now, it's going to feel funny for a little while. You'll have to get used to it. He made…some adjustments."
They fed him and let him sleep and he had escaped during the night. For a few years he had made it on his own. Doing what he could, but eventually the Resistance caught up to him. Not out of anger, again, they didn't seem to find the sense in holding a grudge against a kid, so they had tried to recruit him instead. He was seventeen. He hated life. He didn't trust anyone and the only thing he kept of his father had been those words. "You look out for you, cause that's all you can count on." His father had lived by them and now he knew he would too. He had secured his Tea Shoppe shortly after and turned into a mule for the Resistance. Both sides of the field happy. They had started calling him Hatter, then.
So when he stood there, on the edge of Charlie's camp, he knew he'd made up his mind. His father had been wrong and he had been a coward to listen to him. But fear was a powerful thing and he never wanted to trust anyone when his own father couldn't even be bothered to be dependable. Now, though, now he knew he could get past that. Alice had shown him that much. He'd done more for her than he'd ever done for another human without any gain for himself.
Hatter settled next to a stick fence, hat resting on his knee. He wasn't comfortable, but he managed to fall asleep easily enough. His day had been entirely too exhausting.
A/N: I know, two chapters in a few hours. Crazy. And this one is so long, too. But I was on a role. And I finally got to add the back story I had been saving. This is where I wanted it to go, felt it went with the mood and didn't disrupt the action. Then I also added the fluff bits with the fire wood and the magnifying glass. I also wanted to develop Hatter and Alice's relationship more. Wanted to show them falling for each other a little closer than the movie got. I think I did okay? No? Maybe. I just know that this is addictive to work on and I might even be posting the next chapter before I got to bed. I'd love feedback on my original stuff, just to make sure it's working and everything. It's can be hard to make sure things that are clear in your mind are clear to other people. And I hope that large chunk of pure narrative at the end wasn't too cumbersome to read. Anyway, thank you for reading if you made it this far. I'm going to start on the next chapter which, I'm thinking, will have a higher rating than the other chapters. ;) You'll see what I mean. Hehe. ^_^
