A/N: Sorry for the delay, friends. Life has been crazy lately and then the internet was out all day yesterday. Eep! Hopefully this cavity-inducing fluffy chapter will make up for it!

Our first anniversary was a magical day. Tarrant promised to take the day off from his beloved hats and even from having tea with his crazy cohorts.

True to his word, when we woke that morning, he made no movement to get out of bed.

"Good morning, my precious Alice," he whispered in that brogue that he knew I was beginning to love.

"Good morning, sweet Tarrant."

"Happy anniversary, love. Or at least, as best as we can figure anniversary," he said with a giggle.

"Happy anniversary. What do you have planned for today?"

"Ah, ah, ah. As I've told you for the past few days, this is all a surprise. First and foremost, you stay here and I will bring you breakfast."

He got out of bed and went downstairs. "And don't you follow me!" he called from the steps.

I already had one foot on the floor. How did he know?

I crawled back under the covers and pondered my life. In just over a year, I had run away from a proposal, fallen down a rabbit hole, been reunited with friends, fought an evil queen, tamed a bandersnatch, beheaded a jabberwocky, fallen in love, and gotten married.

It was a wonderful year.

In the middle of my thoughts, Tarrant returned with breakfast on a tray. There were two roses on the tray: one yellow and one red.

He put the tray on the bed and handed me the flowers. I brought them to my nose and smelled them. "They're beautiful," I murmured.

"Not as beautiful as you. But they do represent us. The red, of course is for love. The yellow is for friendship, because dearheart, you are my best friend as well as my lover. You are everything I could ever want."

"Tarrant …you are …" I trailed off. I could barely speak with the tears welling up. I couldn't believe this amazing man was actually my husband.

He placed a gentle hand on my cheek. "Alice, please don't cry. I certainly didn't mean to make you cry. I just love you so much."

"I love you, too, Tarrant. I just have a hard time accepting that this is my life now."

He got a sad look on his face. He was always so scared of losing me. As if that would ever happen.

"No, no! Not in a bad way! My life is impossibly wonderful now!"

"It's only impossible if you believe it is," he said with a smile.

"You know, someone told me that before."

"Probably a madman."

"You know, now that you mention it, he was half mad!"

"Well, all the best people are. Now, eat breakfast before it gets too cold."

He put a fork into the eggs and brought it to my mouth.

"Hatter, I can feed myself."

"Let me pamper you today. You deserve it."

I wanted to argue. I wanted to insist that he deserved pampering just as much as I did, but I knew he must have put so much work into this day, so I let him do it.

Once we had breakfast, Tarrant told me to get dressed because we were going for a walk. He then handed me a beautiful hat with blue flowers that matched the sundress he liked best on me.

We walked all through the woods along a path that I didn't recognize and seemed as though it was recently made. Tarrant chatted all about how he had plans to make a beautiful new hat for Mirana and then how he really thought hats these days had far too many feathers on them.

It was the same kind of idle chit-chat that he tried to distract me with when he was mustering up the courage to propose, so I knew he had something up his sleeve.

Finally, we came to a meadow full of flowers.

"Tarrant … it's wonderful!"

He beamed and I knew he was proud of himself with this one.

A few feet away was a little picnic set up.

"Now, you've been with me all morning, how did you manage that?" I asked.

"Well, I might have had some help," he admitted.

"I see." Nothing was broken, so I assumed Thackery was probably not one of the co-conspirators. Probably the Tweedles or Nivens. Maybe even someone from the court. No matter who helped, it was a very sweet doing.

"Would you like some lunch now?" he asked.

"Yes, yes. Of course!"

We sat down and opened the basket. Cheese and crackers, some sandwiches and even a bottle of wine.

"No tea?" I questioned.

"Some occasions are even more special than tea," he said softly.

I blushed. Never in my life did I expect to find someone who understood me so well, someone who treated me so well, or someone who loved me so much. And Tarrant did all three of those things perfectly.

**Quick POV change**

As we sat in the meadow eating, a breeze blew through and knocked her hat off her head. I cursed myself for not putting a ribbon on the hat to secure it to her head, but then I saw the sunlight bouncing off of Alice's hair. It made her look like a goddess. A halo of light surrounded her as she chased after the hat. I knew I really should have been the one to fetch it, but I was captivated by her. Even after a year, my love for her had not diminished a bit. On the contrary, it had grown exponentially. I was amazed at her grace as she bounced through the meadow, giggling like a girl as she finally caught the hat. She placed it back on her head, and though the sunbeams could no longer reach her hair, she still looked like a goddess to me.

"Tarrant, are you all right?" I heard her ask.

"What? Oh! Oh yes, I'm fine. I suppose I was just caught up in your beauty."

She blushed again. What a wonderful shade of pink. It was a color that I would have to use for her next hat.

"Beauty," she scoffed.

"Alice Hightopp!" (I loved saying that.) "Never deny your beauty again! Especially in front of me. There is no being in any world that is more beautiful than you. Of course, I have only seen the one world, but I can tell you that you are certainly the most stunning here. And I have heard you describe the Otherworld and it seems to me as if you are certainly the loveliest lady from there as well. Now, to be fair, I know nothing of other worlds, but I do know you and I know your beauty must have to be superior to—"

"Hatter," she said softly.

I smiled. "I'm fine. My point is that you are beyond exquisite and I wish you would see yourself as thus."

"Perhaps one day," she said.

"Perhaps," I said. If I had to tell her everyday for the rest of eternity, then I would certainly do that. "So, are you enjoying lunch?"

"It's delicious. And such a nice day for it."

And suddenly I was taken by the need to kiss her. My love for Alice was very nearly like the madness. At times it was almost tangible for me. I knew at that moment my eyes must be darkening and she must have noticed it. She always got the same look on her face when she saw that. A look of power.

I'll admit, I loved knowing I had that power over Tarrant. That it was me that put him in such an amorous mood.

He leaned in and kissed me so gently. It was very sweet, but I knew it wouldn't last. And I was right. Soon, the kisses became more passionate and he pushed me down onto the blanket.

Once we stopped for air, I breathlessly asked, "Tarrant, should we be doing this here?"

"I took many precautions…" kiss "to make sure…" kiss "we are completely…" kiss "alone here." kiss "Shall I continue?"

I couldn't believe I was about to say this. But I did. "By all means, continue."

His smile said everything and he made love to me right there.

Afterwards, we strolled back to the house. I thought surely that was the end of the surprises, but Tarrant insisted that the day was not over yet.

He sat in his arm chair at the head of the tea table and pulled me onto his lap. He reached for a book of poetry and read to me in his Outlandish accent.

Soon it was time for supper. He stood up so suddenly that I almost fell to the ground.

"Cricket, go put on something nice. Not that you don't always look nice. I mean to say, look at you now, you look fantastic right –"

"Hatter…"

"I'm fine. And you're fine. Just, put on a fancier dress, all right?"

I smiled. "All right."

We went inside and changed. Then there was a knock at the door. Nivens was there.

"Good evening, sir, m'lady," he said. "I am here to take you to the palace."

I turned to Tarrant. "You really did go all out, didn't you?"

He tipped his hat to me.

We got into the carriage and rode to the castle. Once we were there, Tarrant escorted me to the chambers we spent our honeymoon in.

"This looks familiar," I said with a smirk.

"Yes, I was hoping it would."

He put a hand on my back and guided me into the room. Inside was a wonderful candlelit dinner.

"Tarrant, this is … amazing."

"An amazing day for an amazing Alice."

He led me to the table and pulled out my chair.

The dinner was mouthwatering.

"I just can't believe that you went to this much trouble for me," I told him as we finished up.

"Dear one, I don't think you fully understand. There is nothing I wouldn't do for you. You make my life so much better. Before you, my life was empty. All I had was Thackery and Mallymkun. Now, those two are fine friends, but they're no Alice. You brought love to me. No one has told me that they love me since my family has been gone. And even then, it wasn't the same kind of love. My life means something now and can never repay you for that. But I plan on spending every day trying to."

"Tarrant, you deserve love. I'm honored that I get to be the one to give it to you."

He smiled. "I'm honored that it's you as well. So, did you enjoy your day?"

"It was fabulous. Probably the best day I've ever had. After our wedding day, of course."

He stood and came over to me, took my hand and kissed it. "I get the feeling that both days will end similarly."

I gave him a grin as I stood. "You know, I was just thinking the same thing." I put my hand on his neck and pulled him down to kiss me.

I began to wonder, would I get two hats for today, or just one large one?

A/N: Oh, those two and their hats. *eg*

And speaking of those hats, here's a question for you, dear readers. I recently started a story for Alice and Hatter's wedding night. Of course, this is a M-rated story. I'm unsure of it since I've never written something like that before. Would anyone be interested in reading it?