A/N: Finally things begin to happen, eh?
Alice wasn't the only one who dreamed.
But while she dreamt in sadness, Tarrant dreamt in madness.
"What's taking you so long?" Mirana cried.
"I found her, your majesty!" he said proudly. "We'll be home soon, I promise."
"It's too late," McTwisp frowned. "You're dreaming, Tarrant. You don't actually know any of this."
"How can we see him if he's dreaming?" the queen asked her messenger.
"Because we believe he's here, obviously."
"Then maybe Mallymkun really saw Alice!" she said hopefully.
"I told you I found her! We just need to figure out how to get back," the hatter informed them.
"You won't get back, you fool. Your majesty, I told you: Absolem's been following Alice for years. She hasn't remembered yet and never will," the rabbit sighed.
That made the hatter angrier than it should have.
"I'll make her remember," he growled. "Underland needs its champion."
"You can't do anything! You're useless in Overland, like all humans!" said the messenger. "Our only hope is for Absolem to lead her down the rabbit hole. Or even Chess."
"She's nowhere near the rabbit hole!" Tarrant yelled. "This was our only option! Were we to wait years hoping that maybe, one day, eventually perhaps, she might, in time, stumble upon a fucking hole in the ground?"
"Tarrant," the queen warned, watching his eyes carefully.
"It would have been better than losing you!" Nivens cried. "Now we have no queen, no champion, and no general! We have nothing! If you were here, we might at least have a modest rebellion on our hands! Instead, we have the dreams of an imprisoned woman, the hallucinations of a dying dormouse, and an evaporating cat! How can we rise with that?"
"McTwisp," Mirana began to intervene, but the hatter was already gone. He roared in anger, lunging towards the frightened rabbit, but unable to get to him through the cell bars.
"We can do nothing without Alice!" was the only coherent sentence they heard out of him. The rest was a smothering of curses, Outlandish, and pure fury.
"No," Nivens argued, safe behind the bars. "You can do nothing without Alice. You've sacrificed all of Underland because you're in love with the girl! You chose her over us."
Tarrant's orange eyes flashed, and as the Madness began to take over, he started to drift.
"Stay with us," Mirana said softly, trying to gently call him back. But at this point both of them knew that in the same way Alice's tears woke her, the hatter's madness woke him.
Mornings dawned daily for Tarrant Hightopp in a murderous rage.
They didn't plan on meeting at the cliff again that morning, but somehow Alice's feet brought her there, and sitting down on the grass to finish her cry seemed like a very good idea. And in his fury Tarrant wasn't sure where he was headed – so long as it was away from people so he didn't hurt anyone – until he found himself staring at the sobbing form of a hastily clad Alice Kingsleigh.
If he had a mirror, he would have noticed his eyes fade back to green.
"Alice?" he asked quietly, and she looked up sharply, surprised.
"T-Tarrant!" she sniffed. "I…"
"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting on the grass next to her.
She shrugged, bringing a hand up to wipe at her face. He drew a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her. She looked at it in shock for a moment before letting out a sad laugh and taking it.
"No one's offered me a handkerchief since my father died," she explained, using it to wipe her eyes then blow her nose.
"Don't you only work with men?" he asked, unsure of English chivalry.
"Yes, well," she paused and blew again. "I don't make a habit of crying in front of people very often."
"You're secret's safe with me," he assured her.
"Thanks," she said, pocketing the soiled linen.
"Are you okay?" he asked after a moment. "Did anyone hurt you?"
That would be a wonderful way to work out his anger issues, Tarrant thought, because if anyone laid a finger on Alice he'd skewer them thirty different ways before breakfast.
"No, no, not at all," she assured him. "I just… I…I wake up sad sometimes," she finished lamely.
That wasn't just sad, he wanted to tell her, that was hysterical. But he knew the feeling far too well.
"I wake up mad sometimes," he confided.
She looked up at him and smiled. "Then you understand."
He looked at her strangely. "Of course I understand."
"No one else has ever understood me," she said quietly, refusing to meet his eyes.
He was quiet for a long moment. Alice looked back out on the horizon, and she and Tarrant sat there silently, unmoving for a while.
Then he found her hand and squeezed it tightly.
"No one's ever understood me either," he replied.
Her smile light up the dark morning.
"Come with me to London," she said suddenly.
"I am," he reminded her. "I'm your escort, remember?"
"No, but stay," she said, unsure as to how propriety would deal with her inviting some rustic hatter to winter with her.
"Stay?" he echoed, unsure what she meant.
"I mean…" suddenly her thoughts caught up to her, and she blushed. How wanton she sounded, inviting a man she just met to come live with her!
"Stay with you? In London?" he repeated, trying to keep his excitement from showing on his face.
"It's stupid, forget it. You have a life here; you can't just pick up and follow any silly girl who comes crashing in," she reasoned.
He agreed. "It sounds perfectly mad."
"Perfectly?" she dared to hope.
"Perfectly," he repeated, and a small smile graced her sad face. "You must help me pack, of course."
"Of course," she nodded, and they fell back into silence, appreciating the stillness of the black morning.
He never took his hand away from hers.
She wasn't sure what was worse: the actual business part of the tea or of the "helpful" warnings that her new friend "Hatter Hightopp" was quite insane.
"Really, my dear," said a kindly old gentlemen who she kept having to remind herself meant well. "He's not the best escort home you could have. Allow me to offer my son and his wife to accompany you."
But she kept politely refusing, a smile glued to her face even though she felt like swearing at them all. The business part had been conducted quickly and agreeably, and Alice only felt like it dragged on so because there was no arguments to spice up the meeting. Tarrant had cut out early, whispering in her ear a need to start packing, but after the post-tea discussions with some of the snootier business officials, she suddenly understood his need to escape. As much as they appreciated his work, these people obviously felt Tarrant to be a danger to the town.
She had never heard a more ridiculous thing in her life, and dearly wished to tell these people just that. Instead she merely ran off as soon as she could.
When she arrived at Tarrant's house, she opened the door without knocking and immediately began to berate him.
"A little warning would have been nice, you know!" she stormed in, straight to the bedroom where he was packing. "You could have told me what those people were like."
A smirk briefly graced his face before being erased into a look of pure innocence. "My dear Alice, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," she said, trying to be angry but the look on his face making her dissolve into giggles.
"I'm sure I do not," he said, letting out a small chuckle himself.
"Oh, you just wait until we get to London," she huffed, secure in her revenge. "I'll leave you alone with Lady Ascot."
"Your partner's wife?" he asked conversationally, filling a bag with various items of clothing.
"Ever wonder why he spends so much time abroad? She's such a - " and then she said something in Chinese that Tarrant thought sounded a lot like a nasty swear, but he couldn't be sure.
"I beg your pardon?" he asked, hoping for a translation. Instead she changed the subject entirely.
"Let me help," she said. "I'd like to be out of here by tomorrow morning. There's really nothing to be done; I just wanted to delay my return to London as long as possible."
"Pass me that pile over there," he suggested gesturing to a pile of clothes on top of which was his kilt.
"Why don't you wear this more often?" Alice asked, crossing the room to pick it up and then bringing it back to where his bag was on the bed.
"It's only for formal occasions," he explained, putting the pile away. "The day you met me Walker and I had just come from his cousin's wedding."
"Oh. But you're bringing it with you?"
He shrugged. "You never know what formal occasions I'll be forced to attend with you."
"We'll cut out early for all of them, I promise," she laughed, knowing that his statement was very true.
He tied his bag up, obviously finished, and brought it to rest by the front door. "Is there anything else you have to do?" he asked. She shook her head.
"No. I never even bother unpacking when we go places, and I finished all the official paperwork last night and put it away."
"Splendid!" Tarrant announced, clapping his hands together. "Then perhaps you'll agree that a celebration is in order?"
They did not get drunk. This was a very important point, Alice thought later as she drifted off to sleep on Tarrant's bed. They were not having a drunken one-night stand, nor was she rushing into a relationship. They had merely decided, under a very small influence – so small it barely counted, really – that it would be easier for them to meet the carriage that would take them to the train together.
The fact that the carriage was meeting them at the inn where Alice was staying at never crossed their minds. Nor did taking off their clothes, apparently, and Alice and Tarrant very quickly fell asleep on top of the covers, fully clothed, with their fingertips barely brushing. In fact, it was all very chaste.
Those brushing fingertips, however, changed both of their dreams entirely.
"We're here!" Tarrant cried, running into the dungeons holding Alice's hand, very nearly dragging him behind her. "I told you I'd find her, McTwisp! Everything's going to be okay now!"
"Tarrant," Mirana gave a sigh of relief, but was prevented from meeting them at the cell bars because of her chains. "Is it really you?"
"In the flesh," he said proudly. "I've retrieved our champion."
Alice curtseyed in front of the not-so-white, covered in filth, queen. "Your majesty."
"They've taken McTwisp and Mallymkun. Did you see them on your way in? Chess has been searching the castle, but he has to be careful," Mirana replied.
"No," Tarrant and Alice answered simultaneously, frowning as they did.
"How did you get in, anyway? Oh, Alice, I'm so happy you're here."
Tarrant and Alice looked at each other in confusion. "How did we get in?" Alice asked.
"Oh, no," Mirana moaned. "Don't tell me you're dreaming again? And I'm the fool who still believes…"
"No, your majesty!" Alice cried. "We will save you! I promise!"
Tarrant swore loudly in Outlandish. "There must be something we can do! How can I remember?"
"I can't help you," the queen said despondently. "I've failed my sister, I've failed my people, and now I've failed my hatter and my champion."
"It's not your fault!" Alice exclaimed, tears pricking her eyes at the queen's miserable state. "If I could only remember."
She tried not to cry loudly, but the tears streamed down her face anyway, and the water in her eyes blurred her image of Tarrant and Mirana, and as her friends blurred they began to fade until it was darkness and she woke hysterically sobbing in Tarrant Hightopp's bed.
She didn't mean to wake him, but she before she could even think of muffling her wails his arms were around her, comforting, whispering soothing things in a language she didn't recognize.
And for once, he didn't wake in madness. His thoughts were clear, unclouded by an all-consuming anger or depression - his first thought, of course, being to make his Alice happy again.
The second being simply, Underland.
"Alice, Alice, my dear," he said, switching back to English as soon as he noticed himself beginning to fade. Now that he had remembered, he only had a few minutes before the memory took him back home. He somehow needed to make her remember, or his whole trip to Overland would be for nothing.
Her cries slowly stopped, save for a sniffle every once in awhile, and he took his arms out from around her to cup her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Alice, you must remember. Underland, Alice, remember? Remember me? The Hatter? What about the March Hare? The White Rabbit? The blue caterpillar? The White Queen? The Red Queen? Alice, please, you must remember!"
She sniffed, and wiped her eyes. "Tarrant, are you mad?" she asked softly, even though it all felt so achingly familiar, she couldn't help but remember the warnings from the tea party.
He growled angrily. "Of course I'm mad, you foolish girl!" he roared. "We're all mad! But you must remember! The Red Queen has returned! She's taken our friends prisoner! Underland is in grave danger! We need our champion!"
He was fading; he knew he was fading, he felt it in his bones. But he hadn't yet seen any dawn of comprehension in her eyes.
"Alice, please!" he cried. "You slew the Jabberwocky! You had pishalver and upelkuchen, you drank my tea, you befriended the Bandersnatch!"
"What language are you speaking?" she asked timidly, and if he hadn't sworn to live his life protecting the girl, he would have slapped her.
"Dammit, Absolem, help me!" he yelled into the night, and for some reason the blue butterfly that followed Alice around everywhere came into her thoughts. A blue caterpillar…?
"You're frightening me," she told him flatly, and he took her face in his hands and with the last bit of grounding to Overland he had, pressed his lips to hers.
The first thing that she thought of was maybe staying alone overnight in the house of a man whom she just met was rather stupid of her. But the second thing she thought was that she was head over heels in love with that very same man.
She didn't have much experience kissing – in fact, she had no experience at all – but she very much enjoyed what he was doing. He seemed like such a gentle person that she was surprised to find his kiss demanding, urgent, frantic even. She parted her lips slightly to allow him to… well, for what purposes she wasn't sure, but it did seem like the right thing to do at the time.
She was extremely disappointed, therefore, when he pulled away a second later.
"Alice, please," he begged, and she was shocked to see tears in his eyes. She was even more shocked to see his body disappearing into a swirling fog.
"Tarrant!" she shrieked, grabbing his hands as they left her face in an effort to keep him grounded.
"Underland, Alice!" he repeated as he slowly disappeared. "Underland," he said again, when all that was left of him was his eyes. And then he was gone, and all that was left was a voice that cried, "Wonderland, Alice!"
Wonderland?
She screamed.