Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for your kind words about the last chapter! I'm glad Mirana's POV sounded so natural to you all. I don't know if I'll do her POV again in the course of the story - I might, but we'll have to see. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and thanks for reading!

-Chapter 6-

Inquisitions

The soft glow of the oil lamps, one on her dressing table and the other her nightstand, gave off just enough light for Alice to see to change into her nightclothes. She had not brought anything but the clothes on her back with her, yet there had been several dresses and the like waiting for her in her room at Marmoreal. She knew who had made the dresses, but wondered who had made the nightgowns and pajamas.

After brushing out her hair, Alice puffed out the lamp sitting on her dressing table and headed for the inviting bed. It had been a long day, not just in Otherland but in Underland as well, and the thought of getting a night's rest without a threatening headache or any other interruptions was magnificent. Knowing Tarrant was on the other side of the wall helped too, especially since his proximity was keeping her headache at bay. It was, at the least, a good temporary measure.

She blew out the other lamp and crawled into bed with a sigh of relief. All the sore kinks and aches in her body eased away, and she felt herself relaxing. She had been preparing to crawl into bed when the messenger from Mirana had arrived, and with him an invitation to tea. What Alice really wanted to do was crawl into bed and go to sleep, but she had gone to tea for several reasons. She hadn't wanted to offend her hostess, more than that, the queen; she had dearly missed Underland and its inhabitants; and she was insanely curious to know if Mirana had discovered anything during her investigations earlier in the day.

Disappointment was her answer to the final. Mirana and Chessur had gone through a lot of materials but turned up nothing to even hint at the reason why Tarrant and Alice were sharing a headache, and why their being near each other made it disappear. She had noticed that even when she went across the castle to have tea with Mirana, thus moving away from Tarrant, that her headache had returned with a few twinges, but it had been nothing unmanageable. She still mentioned it to the Queen, however, in case it was important to her research.

Rolling onto her side, Alice gazed out the glass doors leading to her private balcony. The moon was high in the sky, spilling beautiful silver light across the carpets on the floor. She admired the patterns, which she realized with a start were of her, in the style of the Oraculum - moving pictures that depicted her at the Mad Tea Party, the small her perched on the rim of Tarrant's Hat on their interrupted journey to Marmoreal, all of them gathered in front of the castle on the morning of the Frabjous Day, and, lastly, her and Tarrant facing each other on the battlefield, the others quietly gathered to the side. She realized they were all telling the story of the last time she'd been in Underland, and wondered if, like the Oraculum, the pictures would continue to draw themselves across her rugs to include this visit (not really visit, she reminded herself, this stay). For a while she watched the shifting scenes, which were almost hypnotic in their looping motions.

When at last her eyelids grew too heavy to hold open anymore, she allowed them to sag shut. Her imagination took her immediately to dreamland, where she relived the more enjoyable portions of her last time spent in Underland…

Alice woke feeling surprisingly refreshed. For a moment she lay still in bed, taking in her unfamiliar surroundings. At last she remembered - the headache, returning to Underland, seeing Tarrant again, having tea with the White Queen…

Feeling a happy smile curl her lips, she scurried out of bed and went to complete her morning ablutions and dress. She wasn't sure what the exact specifications for breakfast in Marmoreal were, but she knew someone who would.

A scant few minutes later, she quietly knocked on the door to the room next to hers. "Tarrant? It's Alice."

The door flew open even as she was drawing her hand back to knock again. Tarrant stood framed in the doorway, the sun shining on his bare head and glittering in his bright green eyes. "You're not a dream!"

His near-shout of pleasure startled her. "Excuse me?"

Tarrant blinked, suddenly looking shy. "I - sorry. I woke up this morning wondering if your coming back to Underland was just a dream." He cleared his throat and smiled. "Let me try this again. Good morning, Alice." He bowed slightly at the waist, looking like the butler at home, except much younger, more handsome, and a lot friendlier.

She couldn't help but smile. "Good morning, Tarrant."

Standing, he shifted slightly from foot to foot, seeming a little anxious. "Have you had breakfast yet?" he finally asked.

"No, not yet. I think I overslept a bit, and I wasn't sure if there were certain protocols for breakfast in Underland or not." Alice smoothed her skirt, hoping her modest tea-style dress was good enough for breakfast in the palace.

Tarrant smiled. "It's all right. Breakfast is usually very casual here, unless you're invited to a big to-do by the Queen. I usually go down to the kitchen, and Thackery whips something up for me. You can come, too." He offered her his arm, and then they were off.

Alice had seen bits and pieces of the White Castle over her times in Underland, but Tarrant took her a way she'd not been before, allowing her to see more than she had before. He pointed out rooms of interest along the way, and soon enough they were ducking their way into the kitchen.

"Yer la' fer breakfas'!" A bowl of something whisked over their heads and spattered on the wall behind them. This time Alice didn't do a taste test as she followed Tarrant over to the counter.

"Apologies," Hatter said to Thackery. "I don't suppose you have any leftovers from breakfast?"

"Si' down," Thackery said to them. "Ah'll make ya somethin' new." Laughing crazily, the March Hare headed for the big stove standing against the back wall.

Alice and Tarrant pulled stools up to the counter and sat down. Hatter poured them tea as Thackery happily chopped and cooked and sang to himself in Outlandish. For a few minutes the two humans sat and sipped in comfortable silence as they watched the Hare go about his work.

"Has Mally been in for breakfast yet, Thackery?" Tarrant finally asked.

"Aye." Thackery wove the word into the rhythm of his song, not even bothering to turn from his cooking.

Leaning against the counter, Alice spun her teacup between her hands and sighed. "It feels wonderful to be back in Underland again," she said. "Back among my friends, and people who understand me."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tarrant look hopefully at her. "Does this mean you'll be staying?" he whispered. The look on his face, in his eyes, almost made her cry. He looked like he so desperately wanted to believe that she was, but was afraid to let himself hope and be crushed again when she said no.

Like she'd told Mirana, she hadn't really given much thought to the long-term. She'd been in Underland for less than a day, actually, and overnight she'd been too busy getting rest to think about it. "When I originally came, I intended to stay in Underland for the rest of my life," she said truthfully. "Then again, at the time, I had not anticipated that the rest of my life would be - extended."

Hatter looked at her with that same torn expression, his eyes closer to yellow than green.

She had less than a few seconds to make her decision. She'd already hurt Hatter once, and she didn't want to do so again. But she had left her home and family so abruptly, and even though time moved differently in the two places, an extended stay in Underland would still equal a good bit of time Above. At the same time, the thought of leaving Underland again was less than attractive…

"I have no plans, in the foreseeable future, to leave." There. That was the truth, but it still left an opening for her to return Above, even for just a visit, in the future to see her family again. After Queen Mirana figured out what was wrong with her and Hatter…

Tarrant's eyes brightened back to green as he grinned at her, his relief evident. "That's good," he lisped. But then his grin faded, and he looked a little confused again. "So - the only reason why you came back to Underland was - because you thought you were going to die? If it had not been for that, you never would have returned?" His eyes widened in alarm.

Alice should have known her other words had left it wide open for interpretation. "No!" she denied. "That's not what I mean at all. That is why I returned this soon. I had every intention of keeping my word and returning at some point in the future. The headache just encouraged me to return sooner than planned, because I did not want to die without seeing Underland again - without seeing you again." And that was the complete truth.

For a moment he studied her face and eyes, as if trying to see down to her very heart to discover if what she was saying was true. He seemed to deem it so, because he finally nodded, smiled, and turned back to his tea. "Regardless of your reasons, I'm very glad you're back."

Thackery was suddenly there - in truth, Alice had been so caught up in her and Tarrant's conversation that she'd forgotten the Hare was present. "Aye, ye wee lass," he said, setting down plates in front of her and Hatter. "We're all gla' tae 'ave ye back."

Impulsively, Alice leaned over and hugged Thackery, laughing when he hit her across the shoulders with his cook spoon in surprise. "I'm glad to be back, Thackery," she said. "It feels truly wonderful to be in Underland again."

As the March Hare went back to his cooking, Alice and Tarrant ate their respective breakfasts in companionable silence as they watched him. It was almost surprising, how easily she'd settled into this routine. (Though could she really refer to it as a routine, since this was her first official breakfast in Underland?)

After they ate, they left poor Thackery alone with his cooking. He always worked best while alone, without any potential distractions around. Hatter took her hand as they entered the hall, smiling as he led her toward his workshop. "Queen Mirana gave me permission to go back to work today," he said. "I'd like to finish up a few things for you."

Alice, who had always wanted to watch him work, followed willingly. It would be a nice distraction until teatime, anyway, when Queen Mirana would hopefully have some answers for her and Tarrant.

Brillig arrived sooner than either of them had anticipated, and it wasn't until a very nervous Nivens McTwisp came to get them that they realized they were late for tea.

Everyone else, save McTwisp, was already there by the time they arrived, and greetings and apologies were exchanged. Alice went through the pleasantries by rote, inwardly reining in the urge to immediately ask if the Queen had made any headway in her investigations.

Chess didn't seem so interested in letting Alice ask her questions, since he addressed Tarrant the moment the "hello"s and "how are you"s were finished. "I certainly hope you've been brushing up on your Futterwacken, Tarrant," he drawled.

Hatter looked up from where he'd been preparing his tea. "Why is that, Chessur?" he asked.

"Before we settled in for today's research, Queen Mirana made arrangements for a lovely ball to celebrate the return of our Champion."

Mirana hastily interrupted. "Just a little one," she said, looking to Alice. "I know how you feel about these things, Alice. This will mostly be friends and acquaintances. I promise I haven't invited anyone you have not yet met."

Alice would have been lying if she had said that she hadn't gotten a little tense at the idea of spending an evening surrounded by people she didn't know. While she had a feeling Underland balls weren't quite as dry and boring as those Above, she was not fond of them, or even the idea of them. "Thank you, Highness," she said. "I look forward to it."

The White Queen's face lightened a bit at her diplomatic words. It was obvious she'd been a little concerned about Alice's reaction. "You have a little over a week to prepare," she said reassuringly. "I didn't want to schedule it too soon after your arrival. And - I'm hoping to have some answers for you by that time," she said, at last turning the subject to what Alice (and Tarrant, too, undoubtedly) was most interested in. "Chess and I still haven't come upon anything familiar in our research, but we're bound to be getting close." A brief shadow passed over her face. "And I know there is something familiar about all of this, if only I could put my finger on what it is…" The last almost seemed to have been addressed to herself.

"I have the utmost confidence in your abilities, Majesty," Alice said. "I just wish there were something more I could do to help."

Mirana held up a hand. "You and Tarrant are both here and, at the moment, healthy. That is what is most important to me and Underland." Murmurs of agreement passed around the table.

Looking down into her teacup as she felt her cheeks flush, Alice managed to make a thankful sound. She peeked out of the corner of her eye, catching Tarrant's gaze from where he was looking at her. They shared a secretive smile.

As the conversation around them turned to other, less intense, subjects, Alice addressed Hatter. "What are balls like in Underland?" she asked. She would, at least, like to know a little about what to expect.

He smiled at her, eyes brightening even more. "Great fun!" he said. "There's conversation and laughter, and dancing and lively music, and no one can ever be lonely!"

That sounded like the exact opposite of balls in London. Alice smiled. "And the dances? Are they all like the Futterwacken, or are there different styles?"

Tarrant hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "There is the Futterwacken, of course. But there are also other dances, more suited to couples. I cannot profess to being an expert, since I don't typically partake in those dances, but - I shall try to teach you, if you like?"

Dancing lessons with Tarrant? There were certainly more boring ways to spend her time in Underland, but she definitely couldn't think of more interesting ones. "I'd like that."

"We can start first thing tomorrow," Tarrant declared. "We'll take the east ballroom - it's smaller, and out of the way, so you don't have to worry about anyone seeing you." He smiled, and she felt oddly warm at the realization that he knew she didn't like to be a spectacle, even accidentally.

"I look forward to it," she said. In fact, she almost wished Time would move a little faster so she could get to tomorrow and dance lessons with Hatter a little faster.

~To Be Continued~

So some questions are answered and some more are raised... I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for reading it! I hope to have the next one up soon!