OMG SOOOOO SORRY FOR SUCH THE LONG WAIT!
I promise I haven't forgotten about Lucas and the Hatter!
Night set upon the Red Castle as things went on normal, for the most part. The twins were given a special room by the Queen with all sorts of luxury, while The hatter was given a room within the castle with every and all necessities for creating a new crown, along with other head wares. He sat in front of a canvas, scribbling about a sloppy mess of lines. He was no where interested in making a new crown, or anything for the Queen for that matter.
"This just won't do..." He sighed as he ripped the page off, balled it up and tossed it aside to a large pile of other unsuccessful drawings.
A knock of the door snaps the hatter out of his artistic slump.
"Hatter? It's me, Lucas." Lucas's cautious voice slips in through the door,
"Do come in." Hatter calls out, the door opens without a creak as Lucas enters and shuts the door behind him.
"I spy that the growth spur wore off. How did the looney queen react?" Hatter ask.
"Surprised, but she believed us when we told her that it's happens randomly each day."
"Mh." The Hatter is more focused on drawing than anything else, and Lucas could feel the uninterested vibes coming from him.
Lucas is surprised to see the hatter so quiet and serious, with a frustrated look as he draws all around. He notices the big piles of crumbled papers as the hatter tosses off another failure onto it.
"How are you doing?" Lucas asks worryingly.
"Not good, not great. Near depression, near madness, but close to absurd frustration." Hatter explains with boredom in his voice.
"I'm sorry you've been through so much because of us. And to end up creating a crown for that despicable women."
It's okay, dear boy. The both of you continue to live and survive, and I am just captured in a prison of hats." Lucas remains silent, beginning to feel bad. It's his fault, along with his sister, that the Hatter is stuck here, forced to work for the awful Queen.
"Hat after hat. Failure after failure with no spark of inspiration in sight. Who even needs multiple hats?" The Hatter begins as he makes large strokes across the page, and quickly ripping it off, it makes Lucas jump in shock.
"One should be enough, no matter how swelled her head may be. And a crown no less. How many gems, how many sparkles, how many shiny little dots." He gets up in anger, continually ripping page after page off the canvas.
"Enough to blind all those she stomps on!" He stomps down the pyramid of balled up papers, and then kicks all around as papers fly around the air while he swears in his own language, destroying thew few finished hats he did, knocking over mannequins and fabrics, only the chain around his foot limiting the damage he does in his tiny room.
"Hatter! Calm down, Hatter!" Lucas runs up and holds onto hatter from behind. Hatter suddenly stops in mid motion, his eyes mixed matched eyes frozen, feeling the tender warmth of Lucas on his. Lucas too sizes too big body presses against the Hatter's normal sized back, his large arms wrapped around him. Lucas was astonished at how much strength the hatter had, although his thrashing did stop the moment Hatter felt Lucas' arms wrap around him. Lucas was unaware at how close they were together, had someone unknowingly stepped into the room, one may have thought something entirely else was going on.
Hatter felt a warming flush come over him the minute Lucas put his arms around him. Something about the boy, always about the boy...
Hatter still was still in the teeter-totter of his uncontrollable emotions, his irises ringing in purple and orange, his already large pupils somehow a bit dialated.
He didn't like Lucas calling him Hatter.
"... Tarrant." Hatter says with an emotionless stare to the window.
"Huh?" Lucas looks up confused, unwrapping his arms around him.
"My name is Tarrant. Please call me it." He regains his posture and turns to look into Lucas's eyes.
"Okay, Tarrant." Lucas looks at him with a kind smile. Hatter begins to clean up all around and set things back to normal.
"You know, I am very relieved to see the both of you sound and safe." Tarrant says with sincerity in his voice.
"It was only because of you that we ended up making it this far. And we're going to get you out of here any way we can." Tarrant sees the determination in Lucas's eyes and gives a pleasant smile.
"Would you like to stay and assist me in making a crown?" Tarrant asks.
"How about assist in making an escape plan instead?" Both individuals chuckle as the sit beside each other in front of the canvas, creating the most devious plot to foil the queen and make a run for it.