Hello! Yes, this story is still being continued! Sorry if there was any confusion! I went back to see what I wrote that would make you think that.. and what I wrote back at the end of Ch 9 was me talking simply about everything I went through to write the dang chapter, haha xD Should have clarified then but, ah well :)

Right, onward!

Alice wasn't paying attention to what was ahead. She didn't notice the narrowing of the corridor as she and Time walked side-by-side. But the bright purple of his sleeves caught her eye and sparked her tongue, "I never noticed you-"

Time's shoulder clunked against the oddly inward corridor and he fell flat on his back. "Argh!"

She let out a surprised gasp as he took the tumble. Then she looked at his face - it was annoyed, probably from falling for the millionth time. "What happened?" she asked, trying desperately to appear concerned but failing miserably to hide her mirth. She couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled from her chest and spilled over her lips.

He grumbled and picked himself up. "My stupid me-shaped corridor," he growled, scrutinizing the Timely shaped hall as if it would reshape under his harsh glare. His voice turned into a disgruntled mutter, "Don't know what I was thinking when I designed the castle."

What was worse: he had seen the hall, he had made sure he was in line with the shape, but yet he fell! He hoped the humiliation wouldn't last for too long.

She stepped back to take a look at the corridor.

The doorway was indeed outlined in his form- Then, quite comically, she remembered her first moment in the castle back when she was to borrow the chronosphere. The image of his coat's oversized pointy shoulder barely hitting the wall followed by him unceremoniously landing on the floor filled her mind. She grinned and glanced at him.

He brushed off his clothes and glared at her as she couldn't contain another hearty laugh. "It's not funny."

She hiccuped. "I'm sorry."

He tried to remain disgruntled but seeing her face bright with happiness and comedy and love - eh, he had plenty of other Underlandians to be grumbling at.

He stepped properly through the corridor. Then he turned to her as he remembered he his stupid fall had interrupted her. "Forgive my foolishness, what were you about to ask?"

Her soft fingers (as Time imagined that's what they would feel like), she touched the purple-pink fabric just about his gloved hand. "I never noticed it before. They're a different color. I haven't seen this shade of bright color so far from the rest of Wonderland."

He had quite forgotten those colors existed on his person. "Ah."

"Why?"

He shrugged lightly. He had never really thought about it. When he had been created, he hadn't been the one to choose his attire... save for that faux-furred shawl he continued to boast about (the one he had his seconds place on his shoulders as he spoke his Timely introduction) though he could really see that Alice wasn't a big fan of it.

"The Castle of Eternity and the Grand Clock show the bleak and dreary but straightforward business of time. Time is black and white and silver and gold, nothing grand or colorful about time. Underland, though, is full of color.. and I suppose it is my tie to Underland and it's colorful beings."

"Except blue-"

He snorted. "Blue is just a light here, not a fashion as you humans would say."

"Pity, and I thought you looked quite dashing in blue," she smiled.

"Alice-" he growled.

Her smile grew into a laugh that soon died down as they came upon the hall of the Underlandian Living. She leaned against the iron bars, looking with wonder into the corridor. Last time she had been there, she had given Time her father's watch and he had told her never to return.

He seemed to hear her unspoken question. He opened the gates and she stepped in.

Last time, she had stepped inside with a purpose and an apology - she hadn't had the slow and careful moments of looking around and admiring the grand corridor. But now in the present, she was instantly captivated by the bright yellow and white and orange and pink mixture of twinkling lights. The pocket-watches of every living being in Wonderland dangled calmly from what seemed like endless chains.

"It's all so beautiful," she admired.

Time shifted his eyes from her to what she deemed beautiful. "I suppose, yes. I hardly enter when all is well."

Alice wondered aloud, "How do you know when someone's time is up? Do you just pick and choose?"

He looked mildly offended. "No. And I don't guess," he scoffed. Then he glanced around at the twinkling pocket-watches. "But it's difficult to explain. It's.. it's more of a feeling I get. When something's not particularly right in Underland, I come in here and it'll call to me."

"And during battle, do you have a hand in that too?"

He made a hesitant noise. "Not usually. I mostly let the living take care of that." He turned and gave a small nod to the similar room across the hall. "I only give the dead a resting place."

He offered her a smile to which she returned one of her own. Then his eyes turned soft and lonely as her kind smile eventually faded. He cleared his throat. "You are to return to your world?"

She wrung her hands nervously. "Yes."

"Ah," he tried to nod. He studied her then. "Is everything alright? There, in your world?"

A sigh passed her lips. See, there was Mason and her mother and maybe even Margaret. Then there was the expedition-

Her breath hitched and it suddenly hurt to speak. But he had to know, at least this one part - she could save her troubles with Mason for another day. "I'll be gone for a few months- I actually don't know when I'll be returning."

A faint hum sounded in the back of his throat.

"We're to be sailing for India. It shouldn't take too long... that is if negotiations go as planned." Her sweet and kind face - with a single, simple, permanent scar (that still had Time's cog heart stretch painfully with guilt) below her left eye - was struggling to remain composed.

Time yearned to soothe her feelings. He bravely tugged her to him. "It'll be alright, my little yellow-haired girl. We'll see each other again soon-"

"Will you be alright?" she asked quietly. Her head rested in the crook of his neck.

"Of course, of course," he brushed off.

Then he thought of something. And he didn't like this something. But it A) would make Alice feel a bit better, B) give him an excuse to get out of the castle and try to make himself pass by faster, and C) would be pleasantly entertaining for him and the other.

A hesitant and strangled noise left his throat before he lightly said, "I'll visit Hatter. You know..."

He had the slightest feeling he was going to regret his words. "Mend the bond."

It's a real struggle not to use the word time when talking about time without describing Time. Usually, I can do it but this chapter, there were a lot more 'times' than I wanted there to be.