Okay, I know I am bad, I promised to get this out to you on Sunday and now here it is, late monday night and I am just posting this. I won't write off a bunch of excuses, I'll just say I am super sorry and let you read, this chapters is a bit of a doozy, enjoy!
It was a mess to say the least, getting all the Oysters together and into scarabs.
"It'll take a few hours to get the Looking Glass restarted so were transporting them to a safe house for now until they can be sent back home." Jack told Hatter and Alice as he oversaw the organization of the Oysters. Alice nodded, trying to trust in what Jack was saying.
"Would you like us to escort you there as well?" he asked. Alice thought for a second, and then glanced at Hatter.
"I'd actually like to go back to the city with Hatter, if that's okay." She said. She could tell Jack wasn't pleased with her decision.
"Of course, I'll have you two sent into the city with the rest of our workers, they're getting ready to leave now, I'll take you to them." He said, leading Alice and Hatter down the hill they were standing on and up to a scarab.
"I'll send a suit to alert you when the looking glass is running again." Jack said as he shut the door behind them.
The ride back to the city was quiet; no one spoke much, the suits still in shock of losing their leader. Alice and Hatter kept quiet as well, the two of them sitting as close as they could. Alice was simply happy to have him back with her again, she didn't know how long they were separated for before they met up again in the game room but it felt like forever, and then losing him again in the crowd of people, she didn't exactly want to think about it. She looked up at him and he smiled down at her, planting a kiss softly on her head and then giving a little wince.
"You alright?" She asked. He nodded but kept his hand on his side. Alice let it slide for now, she didn't want to get into anything here, she'd wait till they were safely on the ground before she said anything else.
The scarab dropped them off in front of the tea house. Alice stood on the small deck and watched as it took off deep into the city.
"You coming?" She head Hatter say. She turned around and saw him waiting for her. He took her hand and led her into the building
"Hatter you're sure your okay?" Alice asked.
"Positive, why wouldn't I be, I am just." He stopped short and Alice almost ran into his back.
"Just fine." He said quietly. She stepped around him and took in the damage. The trading room was a mess. Glass tables were turned over and broken; the giant chalkboard at the front of the room was on the floor in pieces. She let him go in first, knowing how hard it was for him. She followed slowly, setting chairs upright and trying to fix tables that were still in one piece.
"I am sorry Hatter." She said from the back of the room. He shook his head and turned to face her.
"Not your fault." He said, but she knew it was. He took her into his back office which was a mess but not as bad as the trade room in front.
Alice helped him right his furniture, setting up his desk and chair and putting the cushions back on the small sofa. Alice took over cleaning up his wardrobe, putting jackets back on hangers and setting his hats on top while Hatter worried himself with the papers that lay scattered across the floor.
When they were done it didn't look like anyone had ever been in the room. The grass covering the floor was a bit ripped but other than that the room looked mostly the same as it had when Alice first arrived.
Hatter collapsed onto the sofa and Alice followed suit leaning her head against his shoulder. She could tell he was breathing heavy and he was still clutching his side.
"Hatter seriously, can I just see what it is." She said. He shook his head and winced again. Alice sighed and sat him up, pushing his jacket off his shoulders.
"Come on, let me see." She said. He sat still for a second but finally obliged when she didn't take her eyes off his. He sighed and slipped the tie from around his neck, slowly undoing the buttons on his shirt until he was down to his waist.
Alice's eyes had already grown wide at the scars and burns that dotted his chest but when he pulled the shirt away with a wince and glanced at his side she was on her feet instantly.
"Do you have a medical kit in this place?" She asked. Hatter rolled his eyes at how worried she was.
"Bottom right side of the desk." He said, sitting back against the sofa again. She took the kit out of the desk and brought it over to where he sat, she knelt down in front of him and opened the kit, taking out the things she needed.
"Why didn't you just tell me Hatter?" She asked.
"Cause there not that bad." He said, wincing when she dabbed the antiseptic onto the small wounds. She tried not to pay attention but she knew he was hurting and she continually apologized for it. She decided to let the small wounds open, they weren't bleeding just black and blue but they'd be fine without bandages, the large burn on his right side however, she covered with a bandage. When she was done she glanced at his left side and saw the mark of the scar he'd shown to the king.
"What is this?" She asked, running her fingers over what little of it she could see.
"A long story." He said jokingly. She glanced up at him, and he sighed, knowing he wouldn't get away with not telling her.
"I am not the only city person who works for the hearts and doesn't live at the casino. There are about five of us and they needed a way to tell who we were. Initially they had us tattooed; we all had hearts on our arms, like you and your Oyster mark." He said, taking her arm in his hand.
"But soon it became a fad and everyone started getting them. The people who actually worked for the Hearts had theirs removed and no one could tell who was who anymore. So the suits decided to take the radical approach and gave us each a scar on our backs, when you put the scars of all five of us together it makes a heart, clever hu?" He said laughing. Alice didn't find it so funny. She pushed on his side and he willingly moved. She pulled the rest of his shirt back to look at the scar fully. It seemed bigger now, reaching from the lower middle of his back to the side of his chest. She traced it carefully with her fingers.
"Not clever, stupid." She said, letting him sit back down.
"Yeah well." He didn't know what else to say, he agreed with her but it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it now.
He let Alice watch as he buttoned his shirt back up and slipped the tie around his neck again. She sighed and leaned back into the sofa, this was the first time she'd been able to relax in what felt like days, she was going to take the chance. Hatter wrapped his arm around her slowly and pulled her close to him.
"Thank you." She said. He looked down at her, confusion written on his face.
"For what?" He asked.
"For everything. For buying me from Ratty, saving me from whatever that thing was in the forest, coming to rescue me at the casino, and then rescuing me again at the casino." He laughed; she certainly had a way with getting in trouble.
"For helping me along that ledge when we first met." She said glancing up at him.
"For shooting a man who was about to kill me." She was being honest, and she knew he wasn't one for guns; he probably would have never used the one he had if that other man hadn't tried to kill her.
"You know I'd do it all again." He said, brushing it off as if it was a daily occurrence. She rolled her eyes and rested her head back against his shoulder.
"I mean it Hatter." She said.
"So do I." He said with a laugh. He cupped her chin in his hand and brought her eyes up to his own.
"I love you Alice." He said. She sighed and closed her eyes, a smile playing on her face.
"God I missed that." She said. He laughed and kissed her slowly, he'd missed her too.
A soft knock on the door interrupted them, Alice turned to find a suit standing across the room.
"Alice, Jack sent me to alert you that the Looking Glass should be running early tomorrow morning, you're to put your affairs in order and be ready to leave as soon as possible." He said strictly.
Alice nodded slowly.
"Sure, tell Jack I'll see him then." She said quietly. The suit gave a curt nod, turned and left.
Alice turned back around and put her face in her hands. Now that the immediate threat of dying was out of the way she realized she had bigger things to deal with, like this entire thing with Hatter. Certainly he wouldn't give up his world to come to hers, and she didn't really think she was ready to up and move to Wonderland, so now what would they do?
"We should go get you cleaned up." Hatter said, breaking her from her thoughts. He stood and offered his hand.
"Come on." He said, guiding her to a panel hidden in the wall.
"Gotta have some privacy yeah?" he said, opening the panel to reveal a staircase. He went ahead of her, checking to make sure things were okay before she came up.
"They didn't find it, everything's fine, come on up." He called down to her eventually. She ascended the staircase and stopped suddenly at the top. A huge room spread out in front of her. There was a large bed in front of her, topped with chocolate brown pillows and sheets. Book cases on any open wall space. To her right was what she assumed he considered the living room, with plush couches and chairs and a table in the middle of it all. Next to the living room was a kitchen, which is where she found Hatter, poking around in cabinets, looking for food.
"You live here?" She asked. He glanced at her.
"No, there's someone else who owns the tea shop below and lives above it." He said
"That's not what I meant I just, where did you get all this stuff?" She asked.
"Trade, barter, sold old stuff of my own. Some of it was payment from the resistance." He told her setting out food in front of her.
"It's very nice." She said finally. He smiled a full fledged dimpled smile.
"Thanks." He said
"I'll start making us something to eat if you wanna clean up, the bathrooms back there." He said pointing to a small hallway behind him. She nodded and walked down the hallway into the bathroom.
She took a shower that might have been a bit longer than necessary but she hadn't bathed in days so she was happy to just see running water again. She stepped out of the shower and suddenly realized a problem, she didn't want to get back into the same clothes she'd been wearing the past, who knows how many days. She was going to ask Hatter if she could wash them but that would mean she needed something else to wear. She scrounged up some courage and called down the hall to Hatter.
"Hatter, do you have anything I could wear for the night?" She asked. Her reply was a loud crash and some mumbling from Hatter.
"Um, something of mine?" he asked, his voice in an unusually high register.
"Uh, yeah, unless you have women's clothes floating around here for some reason." She said, a smile appearing on her face. She could hear him rummaging through drawers and finally she heard footsteps making their way down the hallway. She shut the door to a small crack and he stuck his hand through, handing her a pile of clothes.
"Thank you." She said. He didn't reply just a simple.
"Sure." And he left again. She found it strange that this bothered him, but then she supposed he'd only ever really seen her in that blue dress and going from that to something of his, she could see how it would be a bit, well she didn't know the word, but she understood. She changed quickly, Hatter had given her simple clothes, A pair of dark blue lounge pants that were a bit too long for her but they were comfortable, and a simple white t-shirt that was also a bit big on her but she found she quite liked it. She left the bathroom, taking the blue dress and red tights with her and met Hatter in the living room, he was sitting on the couch, flipping through a book with a cup of tea next to him.
"I left you a cup on the counter." He said, trying not to look at her.
"Okay, thanks." She said, taking the cup over and sitting down next to Hatter. She could feel him staring at her but she tried to ignore it.
"The food should be ready soon." He said, the conversation going nowhere.
"Hatter are you okay with this or should I just change back?" She asked finally, frustrated at how strange he was acting about all this.
"No, no it's fine I am just, I am sorry." He said shaking his head.
"I don't know why it's just weird for me, no one's ever worn my clothes but me." He said quietly.
"Well I quite like them." She said, scooting in closer. He looked down at her finally, a smile emerging on his face.
"Yeah me too." He said, giving her a quick kiss.
"Good, so now that, that's taken care of." She said.
"Is there any place I can wash my dress?" She asked, he thought for a while.
"I usually have to send my clothes out to be cleaned, we don't have those things you have back in your world, whatever their called." He said, dismissing it with his hand.
"A washing machine." Alice offered. He nodded, taking a sip of his tea.
"Yeah those. I suppose you could just wash um in the sink, I wouldn't know how but you could try." He said. Alice shrugged.
"I'll just leave it; I'll only be wearing it for a while tomorrow anyway." She said, curling back up next to Hatter.
They stayed that way for a while, comfortable silence filling the space until Hatter's meal was ready.
She didn't know what it was, or even how to say it but it was good, and it was food so she wouldn't complain.
Hatter was next to shower, leaving Alice alone for a bit. She cleaned up dinner first, washing dishes and stacking them next to the sink since she didn't exactly know where they belonged. They she began to explore. She glanced at some of the books he kept, she recognized a good many of the titles which surprised her a bit, but there were also some she'd never heard of in her life. She checked down the hallway and when she still heard the water running she scooted over to his closet, opening the doors slowly and staring in awe at the amount of clothes he owned. She was a shopper herself, and a bit of a compulsive one at that, but she didn't think her closet at home was this full. She sifted through shirts and jackets, all of them similar to the ones he wore now, silk shirts with strange patters and short leather jackets. He owned a few pairs of jeans too, which she found odd, but then again who's to say they didn't sell jeans in Wonderland. She glanced up at the shelf above the clothes to find even more hats which made her laugh. She pulled down a black fedora that looked like it'd been worn to death and slipped it on her head, turning her attention back to the multitude of clothes in front of her.
"There's more in those drawers over there if you'd like to sift through those too." Came a deep voice from behind her. She spun around to find Hatter looking at her with a smile and a hand on his hip.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to snoop, just, admiring." Alice said, brushing the hat off her head and playing with it in her hands.
"It's fine, and actually I think it looks quite good on you." Hatter said, taking the hat from her and placing it back on her head. She smiled up at him and tipped the hat to the side like he wore his. He laughed and turned to walk back to the large sofa, she followed close behind. They each sat down on opposite corners but Hatter glanced over at her and motioned for her to join him so she scooted closer.
"So we have a little while before we should probably get you to bed." He informed her, she nodded.
"You want something to drink?" He asked, brushing hair out of her face.
"Sure." She said, moving over so he could get up. She watched him move into the kitchen, he looked so different, just changing from the deep brown and orange outfit she'd seen him in the past few days to what he had on now. She glanced at his form in the darkened kitchen. He wore gray loose fitting pants that hung deliciously low on his hips and a simple black shirt that seemed to be the perfect size for him. His head was hat-less at the moment and she watched him run a hand through his thick dark locks, a few of them falling in his face in the process. She saw him start to move back towards her so she averted her gaze elsewhere but it didn't go completely un noticed by Hatter.
He sat down next to her again and handed her a cup of tea which she gratefully took.
"So no one else knows about this place but you?" She asked, taking a sip of the warm tea.
"Well you and I now, but no one other than us." He said.
"Why didn't you tell anyone about it?" Hatter sighed and slumped more into the sofa, wrapping an arm around Alice. She tipped the fedora off her head and sat it next to her on the sofa.
"When you're around people all day, and not just normal people but mostly tea heads, in my opinion there's nothing I want more at the end of the day than complete privacy, just someplace where I can go and see or hear no one." He said. She nodded in understanding.
"But you like your job though right?" She asked. He shrugged.
"On most days its okay, Dormie usually handles most of the selling of the product so all I really have to do is keep track of the numbers but every now and then I get some interesting visitors." He said, taking a sip from his glass.
"Like Ratty?" She asked with a laugh, he joined her
"Yeah like Ratty." He said.
"But there was this one time where he actually brought me something very special." He said, as if just remembering.
"What'd he bring you?" Alice asked, setting her empty tea cup down on the table in front of her.
"Well, it wasn't totally special at first. When he first gave it to me it was kind of a pain, to understand how to, let's say make it work, you know?" he asked, setting his cup next to hers and wrapping his free arm around her waist. She nodded and he continued.
"But I kept trying and learning and eventually I figured out the right way to use it, or at least I think it's the right way." He said with a shrug.
"Okay but what is it?" Alice said glancing around the room for something that sounded like what he was talking about. Hatter leaned down slowly and kissed her lips softly.
"You." He said simply. Alice let herself be totally taken over by the moment, she stared at him in what he assumed was awe but for her was simply love. She brought her hand up to his face and cupped his cheek gently, bringing his lips to hers. She sighed contentedly and curled up next to him. They stayed that way for a while, both totally comfortable with not talking about anything, just sitting in the moment.
"We should get some rest, yeah?" Hatter said finally, Alice yawned and nodded, she had no clue what time it was but she was tired so she was more than happy to sleep.
"You can take the bed, just let me find a blanket first and I'll be outta your hair." He said moving past her into his bedroom.
"Hatter you can sleep in the bed with me, it is your house after all." She said following him.
"No it's fine, you've been running about Wonderland for the past few days, you take the bed." He told her.
"And you've been shot, tortured and been running around Wonderland too, or have you forgotten?" She asked. He paused and looked at her for a few seconds.
"So we both take the bed then." He said finally. She smiled and nodded. Alice slipped into the bed first as Hatter went around turning lights out and closing up the door and then he joined her.
Alice sighed and snuggled down into the plush pillows.
"Comfy?" Hatter asked with a smile.
"Much better than Charlie's old bed." She told him.
"Well that's good to know." He said with a laugh. He wrapped his arm around her waist and she let him pull her in close.
She wanted to ask him, she really did, but she couldn't find the courage anywhere. Wonderland was Hatters home; she didn't want to ask him to give it all up, just for her. But really she couldn't imagine living another day without him. She didn't want to think about it now though, she knew she was leaving in the morning but maybe he'd say something to her, maybe he already had it all figured out. She tried to remember that thought as she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Okay, Okay very long I know. But for some reason it just felt necessary to have this be a long chapter. I wanted to add a bit more time between the casino and the looking glass, I just feel that would have been a more drawn out process than a few hours, and I think that if that did happen Alice would have been more inclined to spend the time with Hatter so this is where we went. I also think it kind of gives us a little bit of insight into what life would be like for these two, after all the crazy saving the world stuff, so I tried to add a bit of that Alice/Hatter fluff we all love so much in there! I hope everything flowed the way it should have. I have to say out of all the chapters in this story this is my 2nd favorite, you'll see my first favorite soon. Next update should be by the end of the week.
Sorry for the long note there!
~Tara~