AN: I know I really should be working on the next chapter for my Ice Tea AU, and Winter Wonderland, but again, I was just in a Bunny and Alice mood today. As a heads-up though, most of the italicized dialogue in the chapter was taken from Hallmark's Alice in Wonderland.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.

June, 1862

It had been a rather typical visit the day Alice finally told Bunny about her Wonderland.

Before, Bunny had only ever heard her mention it briefly. He remembered asking her a few times what it was and why she seemed to go there so often, but until now, she had never really given him a straight answer. Unintentionally, all her answers were rather cryptic; however, Bunny assumed that was because she herself wasn't entirely sure what Wonderland was, or how to describe it in a way that her pooka friend would understand.

As he suspected though, Wonderland was only a figment of her overactive imagination. Albeit, a very wild and elaborate figment, but still a figment, nonetheless.

Mostly, Alice only talked about the characters that dwelled within her fantastical dream world, rather than the world itself. One of them being a rabbit, similar to himself. A little white rabbit, to be more specific, adorned in a black top hat and red tailcoat, and who always seemed to be in a hurry.

"How come you don't wear any clothes, Mr. Bunnymund?" Alice asked curiously after she had just finished telling the furry Spring spirit about the grinning cat that loved to confuse and mislead her when she was lost in the many forests of Wonderland.

"Because I don't need to," Bunny murmured lazily. "My fur works just fine for me."

Because of the particularly stuffy, summer day, the two had taken solace in the shade underneath the large oak tree in Alice's backyard. A place where they usually spent their visits whenever neither of them were in the mood to do anything that involved a lot of movement, which happened quite often. Alice wasn't as rambunctious as other children. Bunny played games with her, such as Hide N' Seek and occasionally Tag, which he always let her win because of the many unfair advantages he had over her, but usually, Alice fancied playing make-believe. Surprise, surprise.

On more than one occasion, Bunny found himself a guest at one of Alice's many tea parties, along with several of her dolls, despite how utterly suicidal it was to his rough and tough reputation.

During those times, the Easter Bunny could only pray that there weren't any little Tooth Fairies spying on him from the bushes.

"Do you ever want to though?" Alice asked while she weaved together the stems of yet another daisy crown.

She was tucked tightly into Bunny's side with her back resting up against his rib-cage while he leaned against the trunk of the tree. He had his arms crossed behind his head and his big rabbit feet sprawled out in front of him.

And on top of his furry head, there was a daisy crown of his own, nestled neatly around his long ears.

"Not really. Clothing makes it difficult for me to move around. I can't go as fast as I need to. Plus, I run around in tunnels all day. It would be a nightmare trying to keep 'em clean."

"The White Rabbit wears clothes," Alice pointed out.

'The White Rabbit isn't real,' Bunny thought to himself before saying out loud, "Well that's because he's a rabbit. I'm a bunny, Half-pint."

"There's a difference?"

"Yep, a big difference."

"So..." Alice drawled slowly, her little brow creased deeply in thought. "Rabbits can wear clothes, but bunnies can't?"

"I can wear clothes if I want to," Bunny chided lightly, nudging the girl gently with his paw before putting it back behind his head. "I just don't."

"Hmm."

Bunny chuckled at her thoughtful expression. He had clearly just given her a lot to think about.

"Tell me about someone else," Bunny said while closing his eyes. "I already know all about rabbits."

"I had a tea party with the Mad Hatter yesterday," Alice suggested cheerfully.

Alice always liked to talk about the Mad Hatter. He was just so silly and eccentric that she couldn't help it sometimes.

Last night, soon after Lizzie had tucked her into bed, Alice was invited to attend one of Hatter's famous parties, which were always grand affairs in Wonderland.

Not only were his party tables completely covered in a remarkable assortment of teas and baked goodies, but the parties were always held suspended in the air, defying all laws of gravity as the long table slowly rotated in an endless spiral while the party guests sat in their floating chairs and engaged themselves in their usual bizarre banter.

For the most part, Hatter and the March Hare chattered adamantly to each other while the slumbering Dormouse proceeded to sleep the day away in the seat between them. The only time they directly addressed Alice was when they were having one of their infamous debates and had reached a stalemate. In those cases, they would turn to the little girl for help in breaking new ground so they could continue bickering.

Hatter was obviously the ringleader of the peculiar three. He had a habit of being boastful about the fact that the tables, tea sets, pastries, and occasion mechanical contraptions, were all made and provided by his truly. He especially liked to being that fact up whenever he found himself losing an argument with "Marchie".

Their all time favorite hobby was confusing Alice though, as it seemed to be a shared likeness with a lot of Wonderland's inhabitants.

~O~

"Why is a raven like a writing desk," Alice mused softly to herself after having just been asked the strange riddle by the even stranger man sitting across the table from her. "You know, I'm pretty sure I can guess."

"You mean, you think you know the answer," The March Hare corrected her in a very condescending tone of voice.

"Yes!" Alice proclaimed as she quickly dropped pastry she had in her hand, back on to its silver platter.

It just turned into a baby turtle!

"Then you should say what you mean, my dear girl," The uppity hare said snidely.

Alice blinked owlishly at him for a moment. "Well, I do!...or at least...I mean what I say. That is the same thing, isn't it?"

Oh dear, she was starting to get a bit turned around. It was so difficult for her to follow the odd trio's contradicting statements sometimes.

"It's not the same thing at all," Hatter stated in a matter-of-fact tone while gesturing sharply with his gloved hands. "You might as well say "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see", Alice."

"Or, you might as well say "I like what I get" is similar to "I get what I like"," March Hare added slowly just before he whipped out a rug-beater and whacked a crab cake that had suddenly sprouted small appendages and started crawling along the table.

Alice jumped and gasped at the loud, hollow sound the blow made against the hardwood table.

The Dormouse snorted and whimpered as the sound jolted him from his peacefully nap. The little mouse didn't seem too peeved by the rude awakening though, most likely used to that sort of thing. He only blinked his small, black eyes tiredly before adding in his own two cents.

"Or you might as well say "I breath when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breath"."

Hatter laughed obnoxiously as his sleepy guest yawned and placed his furry head back on the table. "Well it is the same with you, Dormie."

"I suppose I could say that..." Alice trailed off slowly while she idly played with her silverware, having lost her place in the conversation a long time ago.

Very difficult to follow, indeed.

At least the mad pair were fun when they sang and danced.

~O~

"Do you know how a raven is like a writing desk, Mr. Bunnymund?"

"I ain't got the slightest clue," Bunny murmured dully. "But I wouldn't dwell on it, Half-pint. If those two are half as loony as you make them out to be, I bet they don't even know the answer themselves."

"Maybe..."

"Now what about this 'Red Queen' that always has you pulling sour faces?"

Bunny has only ever heard Alice speak ill of one Wonderland character; the barely mentioned Queen of Hearts. The rest were always spoken very fondly of. It made the pooka curious as to what role the ruling monarch had in Alice's little make-believe world, since it clearly wasn't a good one.

"She's the queen of Wonderland," Alice sighed distastefully as she continued weaving flower stems.

Bunny snorted softly as he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I figured that already, ya lil' dingo. Tell me what else there is to know 'bout her."

"She's very loud and very rude," Alice stated in a clipped tone. "All she does is walk around and yell at everyone in an extremely high voice that makes my ears hurt."

"Isn't that how you describe all your Wonderland friends?"

He had come to realize a while ago that he should never call Alice's creation "imaginary". It was a sure-fire way to make her pout and stomp her foot in childish anger. More than once has Bunny found himself being lectured on just how "real" Alice believed her creations were. She definitely had a strong sense of belief in her, but it never seemed to occur to her as strange that she could only visit Wonderland in her sleep.

"Yes, but the others at least have some redeeming quantities-"

"Qualities," Bunny corrected fondly as he gently reached down to idly run his paw through Alice's dark hair.

"-the queen has absolutely none."

"Why not?"

"Because all she does is scream and behead people!" Alice exclaimed while throwing her hands up in obvious exasperation. "Papa says that kings and queens exist to lead their kingdoms and better the lives of their people. I don't see how the Red Queen can do her job properly if all she does is cut off her followers' heads. If she continues on like that, there won't be anyone left for her to rule!"

"Maybe she doesn't want to better the lives of her people," Bunny pointed out. "Maybe she's just selfish."

"Clearly."

Bunny chuckled as he looked down at the girl again. Despite his own ineptness when it came to anything creative beyond paint patterns, colors, and eggs designs, the pooka had to admit that Alice had quite an imagination.

"What do the other Wonderlanders think of her?"

"How should I know?" Alice replied somewhat flippantly. "They're all too mad to pay attention to anything around them. The only one who ever seems to pay attention to such things is the Cheshire Cat, but he's not very fond of her at all."

"He sounds very wise, for a cat."

"Cats are always wise, Mr. Bunnymund," Alice insisted. "Cheshire says the Queen's head is full of hot air and horseflies. The only reason she's still queen is because everybody's either too scared to stand against her, or too stupid."

"Do your parents let you say stupid?"

"He also says that I'm the rightful queen of Wonderland," Alice said, ignoring the Easter Bunny flawlessly. "But I have to disagree. I certainly don't feel like a queen."

"I'm sure you'd make a great queen," Bunny remarked gently before dryly adding, "Better than the Red Queen, at least."

Alice didn't respond to that. She only let out a heavy sigh before detaching herself from Bunny's side and slowly climbing to her feet. Bunny watched her curiously as she moved to walk away from him in favor of going to collect more daisies from the flower patch for her crown.

He chuckled softly to himself as he continued to watch the girl walk across the yard while occasionally stumbling forward on the hem of her gray dress. She would quickly use her small hands to just barely catch herself before she could fall face first on the ground; although Bunny could never understand how she managed it. Her hands were always completely swallowed up by the sleeves of her dress because they were too long for her arms.

Everything seemed to be too big when it came to Alice. Bunny met the girl a little over a year ago and to him, she didn't appear to have grown much since then. Fifteen months were barely half a tick in Bunny's mental clock, but children had a tendency to grow like bloody weeds. One moment they barely reached your knees, and then the next, they were pushing past your ribs.

Not Alice though. She was still short and cute. Most likely going to be a late bloomer, Bunny concluded.

"I've been thinking," Alice announced as she made her way back to the cooling shade of the oak tree with a handful of daisies.

"Oh joy," Bunny drawled sarcastically.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about what you said a long time ago," Alice continued before stopping a few inches away from one of the pooka's big feet while looking up at his face. "About you being the only one of your kind."

The mirthful smirk that had been gracing his furry face, immediately dropped at her words. With a swiftly developing lump in his throat, Bunny opened his eyes and moved to sit up a little as he wondered where this unexpected turn in their conversation was headed.

"Yeah?"

"I was just wondering if you would like to be a Wonderlander."

"What?" Bunny asked with a disbelieving chuckle.

"You could become a Wonderlander. That way you can have a new kind!" Alice suggested cheerfully. "My kind!"

Bunny smirked to himself and shook his head. "No offense, Half-pint, but I don't think the Wonderland dream team would be a very pleasant bunch to be a part of, especially not with beheading queens and carnivorous duchesses runnin' the land."

"Oh...perhaps you're right," Alice murmured before letting out a small, contemplative hum as her brow knotted in deep thought again and she looked down at the flowers in her hands. "Well, what if I become queen? I could order them to leave you alone. Or better yet, I could make you my own personal guard. No one would dare attack you if you're guarding me all the time. They would never get away with it!"

"Now there's a thought," Bunny smirked. "But there would still be one big problem though."

Alice blinked up at him. "And what's that?"

"How would I get to Wonderland?" He asked. "It seems like you're the only one who can come and go as she pleases."

Again, Alice's brow knotted in clear concentration as she looked down at the daisies in her hands, staring intensely into their small, yellow centers as the gears in her head churned.

Mr. Bunnymund made a very valid point. How would he get to Wonderland?

As amazing and fantastical as her Wonderland was, Alice couldn't deny that she felt a pang of sadness that she wasn't able to share its beauty with others. She always wanted to show Lizzie all the strange, wondrous things she saw whenever she closed her eyes at night and finally prove, to everybody who ever doubted her, that her "fantasy world" was truly real.

Then maybe the other children wouldn't find her so mad.

"I don't know," Alice quietly admitted as she got on her knees and crawled over to take her place again, curled into Bunny's side. "But I'll figure it out. Eventually. Will you come with me when I do?"

Bunny let out a long hum as if he really needed to think about it until Alice finally grew impatient and smacked him as hard as she could in his stomach. He barely felt the tiny blow, but he let out a loud whine and pretended that she had just wounded him greatly, which he knew she didn't buy for a second because he soon found himself under a sudden flurry of small punches.

"Okay, okay, I'll come with you to Wonderland!" Bunny laughed, holding his paws up in defense. "Just stop hittin' me, Slugger."

"Good," Alice huffed cutely as she crossed her arms across her chest. "When I am queen, you shall be my royal guardian."

Bunny rolled his eyes before taking his daisy crown off his head and giving the bossy girl an exaggerated bow.

"Yes, you majesty."

AN: Obviously at this point, Alice's Wonderland is still good. I would imagine it closely resembles the Alice in Wonderland books. Personally, I like to imagine little Alice's Wonderland to be like Hallmark's 1999 Alice in Wonderland adaptation. You know, the one where Martin Short plays the Mad Hatter and Whoopi Goldberg plays the Cheshire Cat. It was my favorite as a child and I love the cute snark that Tina Majorino gives to that version of Alice. Just how I imagine McGee's Alice would be at that age.

If you haven't seen Hallmark's Alice in Wonderland, I'm pretty sure you can find it on YouTube somewhere. I highly recommend it.

Sorry for any mistakes in the content! If you spot one, let me know in a review!

~Scorpiofreak~