So I feel kind of naked posting this chapter without a beta, but I've read it over multiple times so it should be ok, and I'm itching for this story to just get to the fluffy goodness. So here you go!
"Wow."
Jefferson's mouth gaped wide as he took in the sight of his fantastic surroundings. The sky was a shade of brilliant cerulean, and looked vaguely of what Jefferson expected one would see if they were shrunk down to the size of a mouse. Vibrant stalks of grass and flowers stood as tall as Jefferson.
The mirror that they had just passed through suddenly rippled, and in a split second, collapsed into a single point and then rapidly expanded once again, this time into the form of the magical top hat, which fell to the ground.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said, taking a moment to admire it as well, before stooping to pick up the hat. "I absolutely love it here. When I came here as a child I felt as if I was stepping into a dream," she said with a reminiscent tone. "I'll take you to where I live," she said, pulling him through the grass.
Jefferson could hardly watch where he was going. He was overwhelmed by the strangeness of this world. And as they descended further into the grass, which became taller and taller until it almost seemed they were in a forest, and he could've sworn that the flowers that they were passing by had faces, faces which seemed to be gawking at him.
Alice turned back to face Jefferson, amused at his wide eyes that were looking anywhere but where they were going, resulting in a few stumbles from Jefferson who was not paying attention to the uneven terrain of the ground. "You get used to it," Alice smiled. "We're almost there," she said, as the grass began to dissipate and large and looming trees took their place, and a dark and overgrown path emerged.
They walked only a few steps before a silky voice was heard. "Who's your friend, Alice?" The velvety voice asked, seemingly from out of nowhere. It seemed like the voice was coming right from over Jefferson's shoulder, causing him to gasp in fear and spin around to search for the mysterious person, finding no one but Alice in front of him.
Suddenly something soft slithered along Jefferson shoulder. Jefferson let out a yelp, turned again and rapidly tried to escape whatever was there. He found himself gaping at a cat which was floating in mid air, waving its tail back and forth in a nonchalant manner, which apparently was what Jefferson had felt moments ago.
"Chessure!" She scolded. "Behave!"
"So sorry, Alice," he said, his voice dripping with exaggerated sincerity. He made a pouty face as if to ask for forgiveness, to which Alice responded to with a roll of the eyes.
"This is Jefferson, he's... a friend." she said awkwardly. "A friend from a different world," she added.
"Oh wow, a friend," he said with interest, his eyes fixed on Jefferson. Alice glared at him angrily with embarrassment, he sensed the insinuation, and it was just like Ethel all over again.
"Jefferson, this is Chessure," she said, he eyes still shooting daggers at the cat.
Jefferson cleared his throat. "Pleased to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine," he said languidly. Jefferson lifted his arm as if to shake a hand, but forgot he was talking to a cat. A talking cat, Jefferson amended. This probably should come as more of a shock to him than it is.
"Come on Jefferson," Alice said pulling him away, and the cat followed them, lounging in the air lazily as he floated behind. The path led to a small and dilapidated cottage, which looked as if it had once been painted with bright colors, but had faded into dullness over the years. It had two stories, the second of which seeming to lean lazily to one side as it was about to fall over. "Home sweet home," she said happily opening the door.
"Hare! I'm home!" She yelled loudly as she slammed the door, causing the whole house to shake in protest.
The floor and ceiling of the house seemed to be slanting to one side.
"Alice! You're back!" A rather disheveled and spastic rabbit seemed to appear out of nowhere. A rabbit that also happened to be wearing a shabbily patched up suit. "I was begining to worry something had happened to Alice," he said with his eyes wide and whiskers twitching. "You missed tea," he said suddenly angry.
"I'm sorry Hare," she said as if trying to reason with a child. "I got caught up with some cards, and then took a little road trip to another world and got stuck," she explained.
"Cards?" Jefferson asked curiously.
"The Queen of Hearts men... They uhh...They are gigantic card men," she said scratching the back of her head.
"Card... Men?" Jefferson said with a face of incredulity. "You mean a card was what did did that to you?" he said gesturing to her still healing leg with humor in his eyes.
"Hey! They are a lot more intimidating than they sound!" she said punching him in the shoulder. Alice turned back to the hare, who seemed to be distracted and intensely genuinely fascinated by a button on his jacket.
"Shall we have tea now, Hare?" Alice asked.
"Yes, that would be nice," the Hare agreed.
"I'll get it started then," she said smiling, and removing her hands from Jefferson's to rest on his upper back. "Make sure to make yourself at home," she whisper to Jefferson giving his ear a nip, causing Jefferson to jump.
"Yes, Our home is yours," Chessure said appearing out of nowhere next to them.
"Oh get out of here you old cat," Alice said grumpily, leaving Jefferson uncomfortably alone in a sitting room with the Hare.
"Nonsense Alice, I'll help you," he said drifting into the kitchen after Alice.
"Chessure, leave him be," Alice said sternly as she grabbed the kettle and began to fill it with water.
"Oh Alice, don't spoil the fun. I assure you, I would never be anything but gracious to your new beau," he purred.
"He's not my-" she started defensively, but upon thinking about it, she realized he kind of was. They were most definitely more than friends.
"You seem to like him a lot," Chessure prodded.
"I do," Alice said matter of factly, placing the kettle upon their stove.
For a moment they stood without speaking until Chessure broke the silence "Alice... I know that you feel a certain... Responsibility towards Wonderland but... You know you can leave. It's unsafe here in Wonderland for you," he said genuinely.
"But what about you? And everyone else?" she asked.
"Please Alice. We could handle ourselves. The queen hardly has any concern of a cat and psychotic rabbit stealing her throne," he said with a chuckle. "Just... I don't know... You seem to care for the boy... You could always run away from this world, find some place safe to settle down... Have a normal life," he offered.
"Normal is highly overrated," she said softly.
"Just something to consider."
"I think you are getting a little ahead of yourself. I've only known the man a few days. And you've known him less than an hour, yet your ready to send me off to another world to marry him! He could be evil mass murderer!" She said dramatically.
"I never said anything about marriage," he said defensively. "And he's not evil. He's too much of a bumbling fool."
"Chessure!"
"I say that in a completely endearing way," he amended. "And besides, he looks at you with complete infatuation at the very least. You say you've only known the boy a couple of days?"
"His name is Jefferson, not the boy, and yes," she said stubbornly.
"Curious. You must have done quite a number on him, he looks completely entranced," he joked, "And I could say the same for you as well," he said, causing Alice to scowl. Luckily the tea was done, and it gave her something to do and ignore Chessure.
Alice poured the tea, and placed the mismatched tea cups onto a tray and returned to the sitting room, to find a Jefferson, who seemed significantly less uncomfortable than he was when she left him.
The Hare was in the midst of the retelling of an encounter with an ornery Jabberwocky, which Alice assumed to be completely untrue, but Jefferson seemed to be fascinated. He finished up his tale, and turned to accept a cup of tea from Alice. "I like him, I do," he said with enthusiasm, causing Jefferson to blush.
They spent the rest of the evening telling Chessure and the Hare of Alice's last few days, from her fight with the Queen's guards to her getting stuck in the Enchanted Forest, all the while sitting close to Jefferson on the sofa, her hand gently resting on his knee and causing warmth to flood Jefferson's cheeks at the contact.
When the time came to retire for bed, Alice set up a bed for Jefferson on the couch with a blanket and pillow.
"Well, I look forward to sleeping on something that isn't the ground," Jefferson said jokingly. Alice merely smiled in return, and brought a hand to rest against Jefferson's face. Jefferson brought his hand to meet hers, holding her wrist in place and stroking gentle circles with his thumb.
"Goodnight love," she said affectionately, softly kissing his lower lip.
"Goodnight, Alice he said, leaning further into her touch. He reluctantly let go of her wrist, and Alice retreated to her bedroom for the night.
Alice woke Jefferson in the morning insisting that they go exploring to return the favor of Jefferson showing her around the market near his home.
"I'm so excited to see you discover Wonderland," she beamed, pulling him into the woods. They spent a while walking, observing many different strange animals and plants. Jefferson seems enraptured, while Alice just enjoyed watching his expression of amazement.
They settled down in a meadow, where Alice found a tree to lean against in the shade. Jefferson joined her, and Alice gestured for him to lay his head in her lap, to which he obliged. He felt awkward at first doing so, but for Alice touching was so natural and frequent, and he was beginning to become accustomed to that. She began to stroke his hair, and she let out a sigh of contentment and closed her eyes. Jefferson found himself becoming tired as well, and his eyes drifted closed.
When Jefferson opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Alice, who was fiddling with his hair, and upon realizing he was awake, dropped her hands abruptly and had a look mischievous guilt on her face.
"What did you do Alice?" he asked with an eyebrow raised in a wary tone.
"Nothing," she said with feigned innocence.
Jefferson lifted a hand to his head, and his fingers were met with a plethora of flowers that had been weaved and folded into his hair. He merely glared at Alice, who smiled angelically.
"You looked so peaceful, I thought that the flowers would add to the angelic image," she giggled. Jefferson once again didn't respond, and instead pounced on Alice, throwing her completely off guard. Her back slipped from the tree and onto the ground, and Jefferson's arms formed a cage around her body. Alice let out a gasp, surprised by Jefferson's sudden burst of playfulness and confidence.
"You'll pay for that," he said in an attempt to sound menacing.
"I doubt that," she said with skepticism dripping from her voice.
He suddenly leaned into kiss her passionately, and his lips moved from her jaw to her ears, and then her neck. Alice was not prepared for the assault, and found herself moaning at the unexpected passion. Alice suddenly elevated her heads to meet Jefferson's lips with her own, and kissed him until they both were breathless. Jefferson pulled away, and flopped onto his back, panting. His hand searching for and grasping her hand.
"Wow," she said catching her breath. "So much for the shy gentlemen you've been leading me to believe you are," she said blissfully. Jefferson swore he could feel his ears turn pink.
Alice released Jefferson's hand, and groaned as she pulled herself up to a sitting position. "I suppose we should be getting back soon," she said.
Jefferson sat up with a groan of exasperation. They spent the whole day sleeping, and he was sorely disappointed they did not get to explore as much as he had anticipated. And also he was not looking forward to returning back to the cottage where they would no longer be alone. Jefferson lifted a hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but his attention was drawn to a piece of bread strangely lying on the ground. Jefferson picked it up. "Eat me," he read out loud.
"Well if you insist," Alice said seductively, until she realized that he was reading. "Oh my, I wouldn't advise eating that Jefferson," she said warningly.
"What is it? Does someone in Wonderland just go around leaving baked goods around the woods?" he asked with curiosity.
"Not exactly. It's a magic bread, it makes you grow. It kind of just... shows up" she explained.
"Hmm," he said thoughtfully examining it in his hand. "It makes you grow? I almost can't believe that, but I'll take your word," he said, turning the piece of bread over in his hand. "I bet people would pay fortunes for something like this in the Enchanted Forest," he mused.
"They would?" She asked with surprise.
"Imagine what you could do if you were a king and had an army of giants fighting on your side," he thought further.
Alice thought back to her conversation with Chessure from the day before, and her mind began to wander. A life outside of Wonderland. With Jefferson, living comfortably and safely. If they could make money off things like this... They could live a life of leisure. The idea continued to shape itself in her mind.
"Alice... Are you alright?" Jefferson asked with concern. "You're being awfully quiet."
"I have an idea Jefferson," she said with a smile. "Come on, we're going to find more bread. And tomorrow... We go back to the Enchanted Forest."
Feedback leads to quicker updates! Review if you like!