Before reading, here's a sense of my timeline throughout this piece for anyone wondering Alice's age. Also note that Underlandians age differently than regular humans (hence Tarrant and the others looking the same when Alice is 8 as when she is 19) so assume they all look the same in age as they do in the movies.
1859: eight-year-old Alice makes her first trip to Underland.
1870: Alice's second trip, now nineteen- she slays the Jabberwocky and returns home to make her father's name known throughout the lands
1874: Alice returns for her third trip to Underland at age 23 where she rescues the Hatter's family
1878: Alice successfully travels the world and her father's name is known throughout the continents
1879: Now 28, Alice makes her final trip to Underland and the events of my story unfold -
Cheers!
[Disclaimer: All characters belong to Lewis Carol, Tim Burton and Disney. I will make 0 profits from this work.
A faint pitter-patter could be heard outside the whimsical hat-shaped house, though it was too faint to awake the sleeping man who resided inside.
Knock-Knock-Knock.
"Hatter!" A feminine voice called out. Abruptly, the redhead shot up from his slumber, like a rocket being launched into space. Could it be? No - surely it could not.
"One moment!"
After rubbing the tiredness from his eyes, Tarrant hastily composed and reorganized himself and his surroundings, rearranging the pillows on the settee he had been napping atop. In the midst of his slumber, his signature hat had slid off his orange locks and onto the floor, which he quickly grabbed and dusted off before planting it back onto his wild mounds of hair. Tarrant made his way through the corridor before placing his mangled fingers around the front door's knob. Exhaling the warm air inside his home which smelled strongly of Earl Grey tea, he twisted the silver-plated knob revealing a treasure that made his heart nearly skip a beat.
"Alice? You- I can't believe... But surely you can't really be here. You said you had things to do, and what about your family? Why ever would you come back? I mean it isn't that I'm complaining because I most definitely am not. I would hate for you to think that I was. I really am quite happy to see you, dear. We've all missed you so much and..." His lisped words trailed off into soft, incomprehensive jibberish before being silenced with a warm embrace.
"I'm here. And it's so good to be back." The blonde headed girl stood at her proper height, having reacclimated her stature ensuing her passage through the little door which she had to shrink herself to enter. Upon reentering Underland, she did things right this time - at least when compared to her previous visits to this fanciful and inconsequent world. Unlike her other infamously small or sky-breaking entrances, she had gathered and consumed the proper amount of Upelkuchen and landed on both feet. She recalled the hatter mentioning before how she was always "too small or too tall" and so she decided to make her arrival perfect this time around. After all, she had planned for this to be her last big arrival, or rather her last arrival at all, for she had no intentions of ever returning to the world in which she was born. Alice was here to stay. The two reunited friends had been basking in the comfort of their shared embrace for several heartbeats and Alice could have sworn she heard a faint sniffle come from Tarrant. Alice shifted to pull away, longing to meet his emerald gaze, but he tightened his grip on her before she could.
"I've missed you more than you could ever know." He spoke phlegmatically, his fingers becoming tangled in her blonde curls. He lazed in her sweet scent. She smelled of lavender and chamomile - a favorite tea of his, which often helped in soothing his maddened mind - and the scent was calming enough to put the man to sleep; though part of him believed he already was asleep and this was all just a dream that he'd have to awake from. He dreaded this thought, and quickly pushed it aside. This moment was far too flabbergasting and wondrous to have pesky worries interfering. Alice - his Alice - had returned to him at long last, and he could not be more jovial.
"I believe I could know," Alice said finally, "I've missed you incredibly. This whole world, really." Tarrant loosened his grip around the blonde and finally she was able to pull apart from their embrace, though their faces and bodies still remained close. Their eyes locked and the two smiled, before the hatter quickly jolted.
"Goodness! Where ever have my manners gone? It seems while being wrapped up in the excitement of the moment they must have slipped me! Please, do come in." He stood aside while holding the door open for Alice as she entered. His home was just as she remembered it; filled with brown and cerulean interior with an array of beautiful hats displayed upon racks and shelves. The home was quite picturesque and rather fitting to Alice's taste. She closed her eyes for a moment before lounging on the settee placed squarely in the middle of the parlour. It was a good feeling to have returned to Underland, or "Wonderland" as she so stubbornly insisted on calling it, on her own accord. There was no Jabberwocky that needed slaying, or families that needed finding - only friends and old connections that needed reuniting - and Alice was nothing but thrilled to continue with said goals. As Alice daydreamed in the sitting room, Tarrant had occupied the kitchen to prepare tea for his special guest - black tea, to be exact. After heating the water in the pot and setting cups and saucers, along with biscuits, on a tea tray, Tarrant made his way to the sitting room where he placed the tray upon the coffee table in front of the settee. He began to pour tea from the pot into each cup and when serving Alice he did so just as she liked it, with exactly 2 sugar cubes and just a dash of milk. He, on the other hand, prefered the absence of sugar.
"Oh, thank you!" Alice cooed as she reached for her cup, sipping on the warm beverage. "It's delicious as always," she smiled. There was a small moment of silence amidst the pair, before Tarrant finally spoke.
"So tell me, Alice. Why did you come back?"
Alice returned her cup to its place atop the saucer and began to twiddle her thumbs. She puffed her cheeks out and sighed hesitantly, avoiding the hatter's emerald orbs. It wasn't a pleasant story, and truthfully she wished to keep it from him. Her past was just that - the past. It was of no more importance to her. As far as Alice was concerned, everyone she ever knew from the world above was dead to her.