Apologies for the wait, i've been busy with school and holidays. I hope those celebrating Passover and Easter had a lovely weekend. The bunny visited me, gifting me with chocolate and lip gloss. A nice haul.
Now, on to the awkwardness!
-XXX-
Dinner was an awkward affair. Alice wore a dull lilac dress – Mirana insisted on dresses for dinner, no tunics or trousers – in an attempt to blend in. Her encounter with Hatter left her quite disheartened for their friendship. She wished to avoid him, but, as was expected, she was seated next to him at dinner.
Alice smiled tightly when she sat. Mirana, at the head of the table, glowed, smirking faintly at the pair of them. As he had in the stables, Tarrent kept his gaze staunchly forward, avoiding Alice's eyes. The silence between them was heavy, awkward, and uncomfortable. She could remember a time when it was was simply torture.
By the soup course she'd gathered enough courage to ask after his journey. "A pleasant one, I hope."
Hatter mumbled something that sounded vaguely positive. Alice surged on.
"The weather seemed nice. Not too cold or hot."
"Yes."
She bit back a sigh. "I wrote to you."
"I nae."
"Why did you never write back?"
Hatter looked pained. He stirred his soup for a long while before replying. "I did not know what to say."
"Neither did I, but I still managed to write." Her voice dropped. "Hatter, I am sorry."
He sipped his soup for a moment. His eyes were swirling yellow and green before the flickered briefly to orange. Once he was under control again, he set his spoon down.
"I believe you are."
"But you don't forgive me."
He finally looked at her. "I believe you are sorry, Alice."
The young woman accepted this. She nodded, staring into to her lap.
Later in the meal Mirana seemed to note their discomfort. During dessert she encouraged Hatter to accompany Alice to the gardens for a walk. "Poor dear is looking peakish," she simpered. "I do believe the air would do her wonders."
He reluctantly agreed. They walked in utter silence before Alice spoke of wishing to return to her room for weariness.
They were just turning down the corridor when Hatter made a sound. Clearing his throat., he spoke. "I don't know why you could not tell me, Alice. I would have helped you. I would not have liked it, but I would have done anything for your happiness. And now we have both been humiliated by Mirana."
The bitterness in his words struck her. "I did not want to hurt you, Hatter. But I didn't want to disappoint you, or even get my own hopes up with the possibility that I could go home. Oh, Tarrent, I didn't think. I didn't think that Mirana would get so angry, I didn't think you would be so upset, I didn't think I was doing anything very special."
"You were." He grit his teeth. "Alice, I assumed you care for me more than that. Trusted me, even."
"I do. I can't help but trust you, Tarrent. You would've been so disappointed. But I see now you're even more upset. I'm sorry. I'll keep saying it until you believe it, but I want so badly for you to know it and forgive me."
His orange eyes bore down upon her. "I nae."
"Then why can't you?" she cried. "Hatter, what must I say? What can I do to prove my regrets?
He cannot answer. In despair, Alice turn and fled. But when she made it to her door, a hand stopped her. Hatter spun her around, startling her. Back hitting the door, Alice winced as she stared up at her former friend.
"Alice," he said heavily.
Her eyes flickered across his face wildly, seeking intention and finding none. However, her anxiety was soon given way to a freezing sensation when Tarrent pressed his lips into hers urgently. After a moment, Alice's arms wrapped around his neck, shifting closer as she sighed.
He was warm and surprisingly sweet. Despite this, however, his muscles are strung with tension. Alice moves her hands down his arms lightly, trying to calm him with her touch. But the tension does not leave. Hatter backs away before he can relax. Alice's lips attempt to follow, eyed closed and neck straining.
"I must go," he squeaked. Without another word, he slipped away.
-XXX-
They were both present for Mirana's fitting the next day. She was first, with her ladies-in-waiting tittering off to the sidelines. Alice did her best to ignore the vapid women. Many of them were also present in the Red Queen's court, according to Mallymkun. Alice did not know exactly what that implied, but it did not sound good to her.
Tarrent, for his part, was trying hard to avoid all eye contact with Alice. It wasn't easy. She strode around the parlor with something like carelessness in her trousers, her bright brown eyes taking everything in. While his fingers probed the queen's head, attempting to avoid mussing her snowy locks, his mind wandered to thoughts of their extracurriculars from the night previous. When, from across the room, Alice sighed at the sight of a blue butterfly resting upon a lily outside the window, Hatter's hands slipped, pulling Mirana's hair. The queen protested lightly. In the background her ladies giggled. Alice glanced back, half of a smile pulling at her small mouth.
Mirana insisted Alice also be fitted after all of her ladies had their turn. His hands trembled to touch her skull. Neither spoke as he measured. When inquiring after a style or color, the queen recommended a deep purple. Alice didn't disagree. While Tarrent thought indigo a fine color indeed for Miss Alice, her silence did not sit well with him.
Things did not get better as the day progressed.
He both loved and hated that she wore trousers like a man. It drew his eyes to her, became an incessant compulsion that he must look. When wearing trousers Alice didn't move like a woman – or, at least, any woman he knew. She was faster, wider in her stance, more at-ease. He recalled her telling him that in her land, women frequently wore trousers. And not only was it a regular occurrence, they sometimes wore them cropped up to the thigh.
"Shorts," she had said.
"I can imagine so," he'd exclaimed, and for some reason Alice had roared in laughed at that.
At tea in the gardens, she made a point to stand next to him. Sipping her tea serenely, she did not appear to be nearly as perturbed as he felt. Making quiet conversation, she spoke of the weather, mutual friends, and other passing subjects.
When he nearly choked on a biscuit after she had murmured a particularly cutting phrase in reference to one obnoxious lady with a ill-suited taste for ruffles.
"Paired with that cleavage, it's all hitting her in the face."
At his spluttering cough she smiled widely. Judging by the stretch in her cheeks, he would guess that she had not been smiling much of late. He could not blame her – Alice would not have had much reason to smile as a prisoner in Mirana's court. The White Palace held its charms, but nothing compared to unadulterated freedom.
They were turning about the gardens, just out of earshot of the rest of the party when Alice seized one of his gloved hands. Examining their combined limbs, her thumb stroking his knuckles, she spoke softly.
"I haven't decided if you meant to kiss me merely to shut me up or as an act of forgiveness. I should hope it was not out of any frustration, but I don't mean to hope foolishly."
He struggled to find words. Voice a little higher in pitch than he'd intended, Hatter replied, "Tis not a foolish hope to hold, lass. Yer fergiven."
She squeezed his hand with enough strength to make his bones creak. "Thank you, Hatter." Standing on tiptoe, she leaned forward to peck his check chastely, ignoring the buzz that rose up behind them. "I am glad to have earned it."
"Earned or persuaded," he murmured.
"Either way. I have missed you."
He had missed her too. But Hatter could not form the words before Mirana descending upon them.
Drifting near, her dark lips stretching in a smile, she beckoned. "What are you conspiring?" The question was posed innocently enough, but both knew heard the edge in her words.
"Nothing, Your Grace. Merely observing the general loveliness of the gathering. Tis a fine day."
"Indeed." Her eyes flickered between them, mouth downturning slightly. "Well, you must join the rest of the party. We are all fans of your particularly diverting breed of conversation, dear Alice."
"Thank you, my lady, but I'm sure I've nothing the least bit diverting to share today. I am quite weary after last night's dinner."
"Oh, but you must!" She reached out and gripped Alice's arm, pulling her firmly forward.
As Alice stumbled behind the regent Tarrent trailed behind. He caught the brilliant blue butterfly that had affixed itself to Alice's blonde crown, where a few locks where a few were gathered back from her face. It fluttered its wings, contemplating before ultimately pausing, settling on the young woman's head. Hatter considered shooing the creature away, but he remembered how lucky butterflies tended to be a knew that Alice needed all of the luck she could get.
-XXX-
He was nearly sent away again. But, to everyone's surprise, he stayed, claiming that he need the "inspiration of court" to complete his hats. Alice was overjoyed. Mirana was less-than-pleased, but having made the offer thoughtlessly, could not retract it. So he stayed.
Alice still studied voraciously, but in between her books would find herself perched on his work bench, watching the gloved hands fly though molded felt, arrange silk flowers, and braid ribbons. She attempted dressing a few rejected hats herself. "Not half-bad," Hatter said, but they both knew it was pitiful in comparison to his millinary prowess. After a while, she took to simply reading while in the same room. They both benefited from the arrangement, particularly when Alice tested spells.
Well, sometimes when Alice tested her spell. Color-changing was easy enough, as was moving or summoning objects, however, bigger things such as changing the innate properties of an item prove challenging. Buttons were easy enough – she could change metal to plastic to wood easily. Anything more substance was difficult. She could not, for instance, transform a chair into a bicycle without the wheels remaining wood. Organic objects were easier – those that were still living, anyways. In the gardens, violets were always eager to turn to roses for her, even if they maintained a bit of their purple tinge.
"It's common," she explained, unconcerned. "that an item retain something of its original self."
He believed her, but that did not make Hatter worry any less when the snake she'd transformed into a caterpillar barred tiny fangs.
"It is a marvelous talent," he agreed, placing the bug on a leaf tentatively with one finger.
"I only wish I was further." She sighed. "I've been here over a year, Hatter, and I'm barely any closer to finding a way home."
He remained quiet at this. He did not like to think about Alice leaving. Even when he was displeased with her for all those months, he hated to imagine her going.
"One day, soon, I will make a breakthrough. Though, it feels like 'soon' is further and further away every day." Her eyes closed as she threw her head back, lifting her face to the sun. When a butterfly landed on the tip of her nose, she sniffed lightly. Tarrent was tempted to bat the insect away, but it was such a lovely sight he couldn't bear to lift a hand.
-XXX-
Well, things are right in the Alice-Hatter sphere, but all in not well in general! How will Alice find her way back? When will Mirana stop being such a pain? Tune in next weekend!
As always, reviews would be great. I will strive to start answering some this week.
