Hi, so here is another chapter, i apologise for the lateness of this chapter but i had a nightmare of an essay to write and everything else took a kind of backseat.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

This story will be ten chapters long and have alternating points of view so keep that in mind.

Please Read and Review.

If You Really Love Someone

The story of how Alice and Cyrus fell in love as told by both of them during those months in Wonderland before their adventures, before the Red Queen and before Jafar. Told from both point of views.

Chapter 2-Alice-Heat and Light

Events-Alice's point of view of her new friend, her doubts about her father and her knowledge that she must send Cyrus on his way in order to get back home.

She was finding it hard to look. She had always been taught that modesty was a woman's greatest virtue. A modest woman looks down rather than gaze at a man and a modest woman does certainly not sleep under the stars with men she has only met an hour or so ago. A woman, a decent woman would have took Cyrus's offer up to sleep in the bottle and a decent woman most certainly would not have entertained the idea of curling up in a blanket next to a strong man for any reason other than survival and warmth.

But she couldn't help it. For the first time in her life Alice found herself attracted to a man that she had met and it was a new feeling. She had thought that whenever she was eventually accepted back into her family she would marry a man of her father's choosing. She had not wanted that but she knew that it was unfair to leave him thinking she was dead a second time when she had willingly chosen to go back to Wonderland this time. She wanted her acceptance that this world she had grown up in was real-that she was not insane. She was struggling to survive in the 1800s. The Queen was on the throne, her father had wanted to give her a strong and dependable husband and considering all she had put him through Alice had considered the options and thought why not? It wasn't like there was going to be any wild adventures in England anyway. It was 1842 for pity's sake.

But first she had to prove that she wasn't mad.

And that was what had led her to this predicament.

Or more importantly…

Cyrus.

Even now sleeping upon the ground with a blanket he had fished out of the bottle she still couldn't let her eyes fall shut and her body relax even though every bone ached for rest. She stared up at the purple sky that changed into the deep blue peppered with golden stars and she tried to force herself to relax. Whenever her hands had brushed against him in some such way she had felt almost overcome. Alice had found herself greedy for more of Cyrus's little touches but he was either too much a gentlemen to press upon her advances or he was too much a gentlemen to even comment on them and both were a tad humiliating to say the least.

Not for the first time she wished that she had someone there to tell her what to do. She tried to roll over and fall asleep but even though the ground was comfortable and the blanket impossibly soft she couldn't. She turned to see Cyrus with his back to her firmly separating the two of them though weather that was intentional or not she wasn't sure.

Alice bit her lip again thinking hard worrying the skin between her teeth. It had been a nervous habit since childhood-since her mother had died if she was being completely honest with herself. She didn't know what to do. She found that she didn't want to go home. To be honest she never had. Home was something she had to do it felt, almost like a chore she had to complete. Her father was remarried by now she was sure, perhaps he even had other children, besides, the two of them had never gotten on and there was more than enough mistrust and frustration on both sides. Alice was unsure how she would ever be able to go back to a life of society dinners, balls and afternoon tea's in café's and being told about all the prosperous young men that were out there.

She wanted something real. More to the point the only place that she had ever felt like herself was here in Wonderland. And what was the point in staying in Wonderland when it was becoming more and more clear to everyone including herself that the magic this world ran on could spit you back out of the world whenever it wanted to.

There was a pause where she stated again at the stars. She wanted to be adventurous, she wanted to be bold and brazen. Alice had never been one of those girls that women in her world looked up to, the kinds that never spoke without being spoken to and then it was only about the simplest of subjects.

Well she thought wryly. She was doing that right now alright.

That still didn't change her predicament. She liked Cyrus, she enjoyed the company of someone who understood her for the first time in her life-and that was certainly what it felt like. She found herself thinking hard about what to do next. She was now in possession of three wishes and a very handsome genie that came with them and then when they were gone, so was he.

A part of her wanted to use them now. She couldn't deny that anymore than she could deny to herself that she thought Cyrus a handsome man. She wanted to use these wishes to keep the peace and harmony in her home. She wanted to use them for her independence and a small selfish part of her wondered if she might perhaps break the ever so important laws of magic and bring back her mother and win over her father's love regardless of weather or not that was wrong-but the thought even after she had considered her options-even after she had only known him for a few hours-of letting Cyrus go from her side was nothing short of sickening.

And that was where Alice got both confused and a tad emotional. She could not keep this man forever, she could not force him to be by her side. She knew that, that might be a way a lot of masters or mistresses used their genies but that was not what she wanted to do. She wanted Cyrus to stay by her side because he wanted to be with her. Even having known him for such a short time she was still desperate to get to know him more, to talk to him more and more and to spend time with him. Her hands were burning with his touch and she felt something like an ache deep inside of her. This was stupid she told herself sternly. She had known this man for five minutes. She was not some stupid little girl who fell in love at the first drop of a hat or at a smile. She came from a world where such a thing was forbidden and Alice was many things but she was no fool. And with that stern warning to herself she turned on her side and fell into an uneasy but nonetheless deep sleep.

She woke up in the morning to the birds singing through the trees. She forced her sleepy eyelids open and leaned against the trees trying to gather her thoughts, she was hungry and privately while she had enjoyed last night her back was screaming at her to find a bed for the night. Too many nights she had slept in the cool forests and that was nice but she was desperate for cool sheets and a hot bath and probably a good hot meal to boot. Either way she stretched feeling her bones and her muscles contract and detract and she forced herself to brush her hands through her hair. The Lord only knows what Cyrus would do whenever he woke up and saw her with leaves and twigs out of the birds nest that was her hair. She forced herself to calm down.

Also Alice thought looking down at her stained skirt. It wouldn't do to grab some new clothes. Perhaps some trousers that might make climbing through the undergrowth with a man more respectable. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with her wishes but she was damn sure that she wasn't going to use them today and that meant that she had Cyrus's company to contend with. This might be the perfect excuse to get her emotions under control.

Actually this might be the perfect excuse to get her body under control because even looking at Cyrus's sleeping back and the way his hair was ruffled by the ground was sending her heart beating in a to a rather unnatural rhythm.

The sun however was coming up and soon Alice knew they would be discovered either by the neighbouring villagers or by the animals that roamed the forest but she was loath to wake him. She couldn't see his face but she could imagine that he must look peaceful looking like that. So innocent even in sleep and she found she wanted to take the blanket that he had given her and then curl up next to him his back against her stomach so that he could turn over…

She stopped herself before she got to that point. She bit her lip looking away, she had only known this man for a day, there was no need for her stomach to do a waltz whenever she thought about him. She forced herself to breath in and out. She had to wake Cyrus up and ask him what the plan was, she had to get new clothes for her old ones were too muddy, she had to make a decision about that damn rabbit and she had to while she was on a decision making streak here-have to make herself look presentable. Alice didn't know much about the rules in Wonderland but if it was anything like her own world she imagined staggering into a town with a rather ravishing looking genie bearing all the signs of camping outside sharing blankets, wouldn't go over very well.

She leaned over and then placed her hand on Cyrus's shoulder. He jolted awake as soon as her hand met his skin which was hot to the touch as if his skin ran hot. Maybe that had something to do with the magic that was clearly running through his veins? Or maybe she was just imagining things?

He turned around on his side his whole body bumping against her bare knees and she had to look around-a force of habit that she longed to ignore-to make sure that nobody saw them like this-in some sort of sordid embrace, regardless of both how much she wanted it and how insane it was for her to even consider it.

By the time that she had turned around the heat and the light was gone from Cyrus's eyes but she wasn't sure if she had imagined it or if she had just looked at him and seen something that wasn't there but was her own desperate thoughts-as if she wanted to be the reason there was a spark in Cyrus's eyes when obviously there was not.

She forced a smile onto her face. She was Alice, she was used to pretending that everything was alright when the truth was it wasn't. Back in her little cottage, her little world, it had been a full time occupation.

"What would you like to do today?" Cyrus asked suddenly breaking the silence. Alice considered and then decided almost without thinking the one thing that she wanted to do.

"Is there some place where I can take a bath?"

A strange expression came over Cyrus's face for a second but then it was gone and his steady smile was back.

"Of course" he stood up brushing down his pants and then held out his hand, Alice took it ignored the sparks in her stomach, the heat of his skin and that dizzying need that came when she looked him directly in the eyes and then followed him out of the woods.

(She had a feeling she knew what this was but she wouldn't say it. Not yet. Not when it was impossible, not when it was clear that it wouldn't work out.)

And the next chapter will be from Cyrus's point of view and will hopefully be here much quicker.

And let me know what you think, thank you so far for all your kind reviews.