AN: This is short… compared to all the other chapters this is just a baby. I hammered at this chapter for days upon days upon days and got nowhere with it. If I didn't end it when I did, I would still be hammering weeks from now.

There are certain chapters that have to be there to move the plot along, get people to like certain characters and to introduce those characters into the plot. Then there are chapters that don't want to be written. This was one of those chapters.

Frankly, I hate this one. The characters did their own things while I was stuck trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Part of me wanted to give up control and just let Alice do her own thing, let Hatter take the stage a little more (He demands more time than any other character I've written thus far,) but I knew that if I let them do that I would give away too much of the plot. The only option was to cut the chapter short and try and space things out a little more.

I don't know if this is going to be the normal length for the new chapters that are to come, but after I started on chapter six I was able to write a little easier.
I'm breaking the writers block by enjoying a guided tour on Elfwood. If you've never checked that site out, do so now. The art on there is lovely, and most of it does give a writer ideas. I saw one that was of a doorway in a set of trees… I might use that image later on in this story.

Anyway. As always. Read it. Review it. Then get luvs, obviously luvs are ten times more reliable than your authoress who happily disappears for weeks on end lol.

NO FLAMES.

Queenie.

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Chapter Five.

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Alice wasn't sure whether it was for minutes or hours that she lay strapped to the bed, staring into nothingness. But slowly the fog around her brain began to lift; she was able to think a little more clearly.

She hurt. Her head. Her body. Everything. It hurt like she'd just taken a bad fall, which was odd as the only thing she'd done was ride in the back of a cart. That and get drugged without even knowing it. Spray drugging shouldn't have been fair play… but did any of these people play fair to begin with?

She squirmed against the straps, twisting her body this way and that. The straps held tight, pinning her against the mattress. She might have cursed if her tongue didn't feel like someone had put a fur coat on it.

All she could do was lay there and wait… wait for what though? Who would come for her? Would it be one of the twins? Would Edu give her away to Ede? The idea was enough to make her stomach knot itself.

The fact that she couldn't reach the orb, which felt like a warm weight against her chest, bothered her beyond everything else that had happened so far.

Then there was the fact that time was going very strange inside of the room. Alice wasn't sure if it was the drugs or if it was her own head playing tricks on her. She found herself feeling like she lay there for hours but it couldn't be possible… could it?

She began counting the cracks in the ceiling. It was all she could do.

She didn't want to think about the fact that for the first time in her life, she had to save herself. There was no dad here, no Cheshire, no White. The only person who was going to ride to her rescue had to be herself.

She felt terribly alone in that instant.

It was the sound of the door opening that made Alice's heart jump into her throat, beating so fast that it pounded in her ears. She could taste her own pulse in her throat. choking. She strained her neck to see who had entered the room.

Hatter.

He was the same as she remembered him. His white hair was tied back in a braid that trailed down too the center of his back. His eyes were silver on the outside and golden as a sunrise in the center. His skin was liquid moonlight. He was tall, slender, and insanely handsome. He was the opposite of his brother in the sense that he was the sunrise. Time had always been the sunset.

He was dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, the sleeves rolled up, a pair of brown fingerless leather gloves covered his hands. A red vest was worn over top of the shirt. on his head was a typical black top hat. Dark colored pants with silver lining made his legs look long and slender, but they were long and slender anyway. A pair of knee-high boots completed the look. A look that was more suited for the inside of a goth club.

He looked older, tired. His eyes, his face, his body language, everything about him spoke of weariness. He looked at Alice with those sunrise eyes, and he looked almost afraid, like he knew something he didn't want to know.

Alice gave up strained against the restraints and instead tried for a small smile, "Hi," she whispered.

Hatter's eyes stayed carefully guarded, "Why are you here, Alice?" he questioned. His voice was so soft, but it also had a touchable quality to it. It was like someone had run a feather down the length of Alice's body, at a very slow pace.

She shivered. "Can't I just stop by and say hello?" she teased, her voice soft. She could taste her own fear; it was something alive, so thick and hot in her mouth. She swallowed it back.

Hatter's eyes flashed, "Don't play, Alice." He hissed. He stepped closer to her, anger filling his eyes, causing the colors to blend and ripple. "Don't play like we're friends."

Alice flinched. That had been a low blow. "…I thought we were friends…" she whispered.

Hatter stared at her for the space of a heart beat. Then his eyes darkened, the beginnings of a storm. "You shouldn't have come back!" he screamed, his hands slammed down on the bed, inches from Alice's side. "You should have stayed gone!"

Alice flinched away from him. "Hatter, what's wrong?" she whispered. "Why are you so angry with me?"

His shoulders were shaking, head lowered, his hat almost falling off. "I accepted it, Alice, I accepted the fact that you were gone… I…" he whispered, "I tried to forget you. I wanted… needed to forget you," he lifted his head, eyes brimming with tears, "and here you are, you come back. Expecting things to be the same. Your always a selfish brat."

Alice felt angry, "Don't you go blame me." She snapped, straining to look at him, "I wasn't the one who abandoned you, wonderland abandoned me! I didn't choose to come back, I didn't choose any of this!" she was crying. Why was it that the men in her life always seemed to make her cry. At home she never cried like this. She had fought the tears that had wanted to come after her mothers death… and yet here, with these men, she cried like a baby.

Hatter's finger slid against her cheek, his skin so soft. "Don't cry,"

Alice blinked up at him, confused by the sudden change. She swallowed hard when she saw the look in his eyes.

"I don't want you to cry." Hatter whispered again. He leaned forward.

Alice snapped her eyes closed at the last second. The touch of his mouth against hers was… strange. But before she could try and understand the feeling and taste of him, a sensation built up inside of her. She could taste his sorrow, so rich and thick in her mouth. He felt regret. He didn't want to hurt those people, but he didn't know how to stop. He was afraid of himself because he enjoyed it. He enjoyed the feeling of a blade cutting into flesh. He enjoyed the sound of screaming… and he was selfish. He wanted Time back. God damn him for it, but he would kill everyone to get his brother back. But he would have felt better if he didn't enjoy killing them.

Alice drew the taste of his sorrow, pain and fear into her mouth. It was like someone had placed a hard candy in her mouth, the taste of it was sweet, but it boarded on being painfully sweet, too much of a good thing. She swallowed it, drew it in to her body. Frantic to drink it down before she drowned in it.

Hatter trembled above her, his hand had cupped the back of her neck, holding their mouths together, his tongue dipped into her mouth, giving her something to focus on.

Alice had never kissed someone like this, but she slowly sucked on his tongue, focusing the feeling of drinking in whatever it was she was swallowing. The kiss made things lower in her body tighten so hard and fast it was painful. She couldn't deny it felt good to be kissed like this.

Hatter moaned into the kiss. He pressed the front of his upper body against her, or as much as he could with the angle being so odd. The taste and feel of her mouth was strange, so different than the mouth that he was used too. But it was pleasant nonetheless.

Alice took in all the sweet sorrow that she could, and then she broke this kiss. It felt like she'd gone swimming and swum too deep, she was swimming toward the surface of the water but her lungs were screaming at her, a panic had settled over her chest. And then she broke the surface that rich, warm air filled her lungs.

She lay there blinking. The light of the room was suddenly too bright, making her head hurt a little. Hatter's weight felt gentle and warm. She could have buried her face into the crook of his neck and stayed there for a very long time. Instead she turned her head to rest against his shoulder as much as she could with the restrains still in place.

She could smell him. It was a very strange sensation, one she'd never thought of before. Humans had their normal five senses but she'd never thought about how much use they were before. It was as if someone had jolted all the senses of her body into overdrive, and she couldn't help but sigh. The scent that came off of Hatter wasn't something she knew, but her brain translated it into smells she did know. It was like rain, that strange scent of rain just before it falls, when the first few drops had just hit the ground and the earth gives that first shy kiss. It was mixed with another scent, a scent that Alice wished she hadn't smelled. Blood, that rich, irony smell that was almost over powering.

Alice shuddered as these thoughts and feelings washed over her. The smell of rain, that which gives life. And the smell of blood, the scent that is almost always present with death. These two smells should have clashed, they shouldn't have mixed well, but they did.

They blended perfectly, and they were the scents of their owner, a man who was forced to walk the delicate line between giving life, and taking it. A man who was ashamed of the fact that he had taken on the role of Death, he was the ferryman of the river.

God help the ones who didn't have a coin to cross.

Hatter gave a lazy blink of his dual colored eyes. He slowly lifted his head away from Alice, her breath was hot and tickled along his skin. His emotions felt like someone had tied them in a knot. He felt both tired, like he'd been running for a while, and he also felt like someone had just jolted every nerve in his body. It was an odd feeling but a very good feeling as well.

Alice sighed when Hatter pulled away from her. She could breath again without catching his scent. It let her brain settle a little better. She shifted and blinked a couple times. "What… just happened?" she whispered.

Hatter leaned heavily on the bed, his hands clenching against the pale sheets. He gave a small shake of his head. "I… I don't know." He whispered.

Alice laughed weakly, "Great… if you don't know than no one does." She shook her head.

"Caterpillar might…" he mumbled.

"Been there, done that. He doesn't have a clue." Alice mumbled.

Hatter blinked, "When did you meet that old fart?" he asked.

Alice's lips twitched. "It's kind of a long story." She said, "and I'm tired."

Hatter gave a gruff laugh, he was barely staying on his feet. "Alice… you amaze me," he said, shaking his head slowly. "I haven't felt like this in a long time."

Alice grinned, "Who've you been kissing?" she teased.

Hatter blinked in surprise, "Never you mind!" he said sharply.

Alice giggled. "Fine, fine, be that way!" she closed her eyes. A feeling of exhausted feeling settled over her. She felt Hatter's fingertips brushing against her cheek, they were rough and warm, and she leaned into his touch.

She couldn't help the fact that her emotions toward Hatter were suddenly very confusing. One second they weren't friends at all, now… what were they now? It felt like they'd gone back to being best friends; laughing and teasing one another as if nothing had changed.

Hatter gave a shake sigh. There was one thing he could think of, only one reason as to why he and Alice had reacted that way to each other. But it couldn't be that. If it was that then that would mean…

He sighed softly. "Alice?" he said.

Alice blinked her eyes open, "Yeah?" she mumbled.

"Are you… did they make you queen?" he asked.

Alice tried to focus, but her brain was somewhere else. "Tricked me, but yeah." Why was she telling him this? He was working for the queen! But whatever the kiss had done to her it made think of him the way she had as a child, her was her friend.

"That would explain it." Hatter mumbled. He sounded stressed.

"Explain what?" Alice asked.

"You're changing us to suit you,"

Alice forced her eyes open again, she hadn't realized they'd closed. "Changing?" she asked.

"A queen is what her people need her to be. She changes to suit them and they to suit her. But each queen has a different way of going about this. Heart's only needed to touch one of us to change us, but she was able to twist her powers into cutting one way. In the end she changed us but not herself. The new queen isn't able to change us at all…" Hatter trailed off for a moment, "and you, it seems, change us with a kiss, with love and emotions. You're able to turn something as simple as a kiss into a channel for your powers. It would seem that love, lust and all emotions of that nature are what you'll be able to use." He sighed.

Alice snorted. She still felt fluttery inside, and there was a heat inside her stomach that couldn't be put out just yet. Wouldn't it be humorous if Hatter was right and lust was the way she handled things? Maybe not lust but love, love she was comfortable with admitting, lust on the other hand scared her. Lust was something that just happened. There were no emotions behind lust.

Hatter reached out again and smoothed his hand through her hair, "You should be frightened, but you aren't… why is that?"

Alice hesitated, "I don't know." She admitted. "I feel very calm, I know you wont let anything happen to me." She admitted. She lifted her head and looked at him, letting him see what was dancing in her eyes. "Does that make any sense to you?"

"More than I like," Hatter admitted. He reached one of his hands up and pinched the bridge of his nose. There was a sense of unease in the way he stood. He kept shifting the weight from one foot to the other, guilt was beginning to fill his eyes.

All of these were things that normally Alice would have missed. But now, she noticed every detail about him. The way his eyes seemed to have just a little bit of black mixed into the gold color. The way his nose was narrow and slightly pointed at the end. And the way his whole face seemed strained. It was as if he were fighting something inside himself.

"Hatter?" Alice said, "could you please release the restraints?"

Hatter blinked in surprise. He looked down at the straps that bound the teenager to the bed. A smile curled over his lips. "I guess I could do that," he said.

Alice rolled her eyes as Hatter's fingers began to nimbly undo the buckles.

How had things ended up so strange?

Was that one of those questions that just didn't have an answer?

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EN: Well. Short… I said it was short. Anyway. Any mistakes would be mine and mine alone. If you could point out the spelling mistakes (ones that slipped by,) I would be very grateful. I was so done with this by the time the edits came up that I probably did a piss poor job on it.

Queenie.