Hi, everyone here is another chapter. I am hoping to do another update before my exams however they do come first so I might not be able to update until after May, however I will do a multiple update before I go on holiday anyway so don't worry.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

And to anyone doing exams like me good luck.

If You Really Love Someone

Chapter 4-Alice-Half Empty-Half Full

Events-Alice comes to an agreement with herself (even if it is a bit premature) and makes one of the most daring decisions of her life-or essentially Alice's point of view of the previous chapter.

She needed to bathe. Consciously Alice was aware that she had been trapped in this world for nearly a weak on her own so far which meant that she had not had chance to even pull of her boots in that time. She needed to bathe, wash her hair and then she desperately needed a change of clothes.

Usually she wouldn't be worried by these facts. When she had been a child she had seen most of this world in her blue frock and apron and she had been more than prepared to do it again however now there was a problem cutting into that fact.

Cyrus.

For the first time in her life Alice didn't want to be dirty or strong or brave. She had fought back in her own world for a time where women could be whatever they wanted, as a child she had wanted to play outdoors and ruin her dress and get twigs and leaves in her hair playing make believe battles like the boys not sit indoors with her embroidery like so many other girls her own age. She had once stumbled across an article the maid had kept hidden about the women who were fighting by whatever means necessary to win the vote and that had seemed at the time rather daring.

Wonderland had seemed rather daring in the beginning both as a child when everything had been bright and shiny and run under a king that might have been lazy and incompetent but did not tax his people into corruption and starvation. From what Alice could understand here and now as a young women another young women held the throne of this realm and the world was very different.

When she had first arrived here she had stumbled across the little clearing with the waterfall coming out from the rocks and the warm water that seemed to never get cold and she had used it as a place for bathing and sometimes drinking. And she wanted to strip of her clothes until she was naked and sink into the water never to rise again.

But then there was Cyrus. Which led her to her current predicament.

If Alice was a little braver nothing would stop her debate as they continued through the dense forest. If she was as brave as those women who had thrown bricks through windows or the poor people who had took to the streets to protest in favour of a decent wage then she would have found no issue with stripping naked and taking Cyrus by the hand into that damn pool.

However, however long her time with her mother had been cut short by Alice had been raised by a lady and certain things even she was not brave enough to do. She would keep some level of propriety she knew that even if she didn't particularly want to.

And gods above she didn't want to.

And she didn't understand why these feelings were happening or where they were coming from or what the hell was going to happen next. These were the questions that you needed a mother for she thought bitterly. What she needed to do was sit down and not break down into tears at the thought of all these feelings. What she needed to was remain in control because if her control faltered for less than a second then she knew the aftereffects might be considered a tad unseemly.

But she wanted him.

Oh god did she want him.

Alice couldn't understand what it was about him though, she had known him for a day, a strange man in a strange land and yet there was something about him that made her feel for the first time in too long a time that she was safe. That she was free from prying eyes and whispers and the constant strain of pretending to be something she wasn't. She found it increasingly difficult for her mind to even consider letting him go once she used her wishes and she wasn't sure if she could even get back to her own realm never mind take him with her.

And wasn't it wrong? To keep him here with her when he might not even want to be with her even though she was seriously struggling with the idea of letting him go? Was it selfish? Was it a horrible thing to even be contemplating? Yes. Did she care?

No.

She forced herself to stop even as Cyrus bumped into her. For a second they were perfectly slotted together, and she could feel his trousers, and more importantly a very specific part of the male anatomy press against her backside. Without warning she was overcome with such a strong sense of arousal that it nearly knocked her to her knees. She wanted him, Cyrus with such a fierce longing that she knew if she turned around and saw his face head on then she wouldn't be able to control herself.

She closed her eyes. For Alice it felt like every bone in her body was on high alert and the closest she could ever come to being touched by a man was in that second where the two of them were pressed against each other. Then Cyrus took a step back, Alice opened her eyes and turned around and made some comment about hearing the stream in order to keep her voice steady and hoping against hope the desire that was stoked inside her stomach like a never ending flame didn't show on her face.

Instead there was a pool of cool water and the sounds of the rushing waterfall and Alice who could feel dirt and grime in every bone of her body, who could feel her blood boil with something so toxic that she wanted to strip off her clothes just to cool down did just that…

Well…not entirely just that. She did have some morals she would prefer to keep. Even if Wonderland was looser than a brothel in the East End of London on payday.

She stripped just to what she felt comfortable with and the sunk into the pool of cool water only realising two things afterwards. Cyrus had done the same and was now titling his own head back so that his hair could be cleaned. This position showed his long neck arching beautifully. Alice didn't even know a neck could move like that and she was suddenly overcome with the urge to do unspeakable things that she was sure even married women didn't do when alone with their husbands.

Or did they? Oh the whole thing was such a mess.

She knew her father had loved her mother passionately but after she had died Alice had given up on love when you looked at someone. This couldn't be that, the whole concept of soulmates, of finding the one ended rather rapidly in her eyes and she was not about to fall for it.

Perhaps she should have a word with Cyrus she thought. If he wanted to stay with her as she explored some more of this world before she said her final goodbyes to it then it was only fair that he be given the choice. She wondered if being a genie took all of his choices away from him and then she turned in the water and saw the gold bangles on his arms still locking him in chains to that bottle that Alice was beginning to hate.

He had yet to notice, it looked like the first time he had managed to clean himself in a long time as well and he was cheerfully ignoring her.

(she was wrong about that in so many ways-but more on that later)

Cyrus had fallen asleep. That sight shouldn't be adorable but it was. Asleep he seemed to have years stripped away from him. He looked younger, his face smooth of all lines and worries and his hand curled around some spare grass as if he was reaching out to someone in his sleep. Alice eased the bottle out of the bag, the rabbit too it seemed had fallen asleep. She was lucky really that he had-that was another decision that needed to be made as soon as she had gathered herself-what to do with the rabbit.

Because the rabbit and Cyrus were inextricably linked. She knew she couldn't keep both of them no matter how much she wanted to. She had to choose weather or not to finally prove the existence of this world to her father or give him up altogether-for Alice knew that if she didn't return home with some kind of proof it was either marriage or the asylum. And she wasn't sure if she could stand the idea of either one.

So she slid the lid open of the bottle and stuck her hand in. She didn't need her magic mushroom once the tip of her finger brushed a blanket. It pulled out easily-magic was one of those things that Alice didn't know about or understand enough about to trust with any certainty and instead she decided to just simply close the lid on the bottle and all it's secrets and simply hope that she had not broken anything valuable in Cyrus's makeshift home.

Gently she draped the blanket over him. She had to give him-or whoever it was that had built this bottle some credit for the design. It might be small but even the blankets were edged in gold and intricate embroidery. Alice might not be interested in making a home showy for her neighbours like her father wished sometimes she was but even she had to admit that it was stunning.

She was just contemplating weather or not Cyrus would wake up (and by association be creeped out) if she brushed her hand through his hair (just to make sure it was drying out alright!) when she heard the same pitter patter of the clothes horse. She looked down. She was still in her skirt and silk corset and they were both soaked. No she needed something more practical-something that women in her world wouldn't wear and dare she even say it-something risqué.

She wanted to look appealing for the first time in her life.

Leaving Cyrus there she went to get some new clothes feeling more excited than she had done in a long time.

The clothes horse didn't have much by the way of goods. Either Alice could look (even in her liberal mind) like she wanted to be paid by the hour or she could look more like a man. In the end she went with some trousers brown and a bit tighter around her backside than she would have liked for climbing but as Alice didn't actually know what her body's best features were (only that she wanted to at least prove to herself that she had them) she had to make do, and a long flowing pink top that was one of the few on offer that didn't expose her breasts even if it was a bit too big. She decided to go with a brown belt to ensure it stayed on, paid the clothes horse with her other clothes so he could sell them on and then decided to use her stockings in order to buy a rabbit which she at least knew how to cook over a small fire.

Sometimes her previous experience in this place actually worked out well for her.

Staring down at the pot she made a decision there and then that whatever was going to happen would happen, she was not some stupid little girl to be pushed around in a corset and fancy dress and to be told what man she had to marry, she was a woman in charge of her own life and her own destiny and although she didn't know (not really) what this feeling was that she couldn't explain.

When Cyrus woke up she was going to ask him to stay with her, to explore this realm with her and she wondered if he would say yes.

She turned back to twist the spit hanging over the fire so the back of the rabbit could cook and she smiled to herself her face warmed by the fire as the man that she had a sinking feeling that she was falling in love with despite only meeting him two days ago slept peacefully, she would be given the answer she wanted alongside another brilliantly dimpled smile.

Next chapter will focus on Cyrus as usual. I hope to keep this story as cannon as possible and therefore the story should tie in perfectly in line with the scene with the swords in 1x02.

And let me know what you think. I will update soon.