Disclaimer: Alice is owned by people with money, I just spend my free time writing fan fiction.

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Where it All Began

"Well, David, I suppose that until you have a source of revenue in her world, you can use my old apartment as your home. Alice of course has a key." A key that she had never used. Why couldn't Jack be civil with Hatter? "The documents will take a few hours at the least. Perhaps you might want to go about getting your affairs in order." The way Jack said "affairs" made it sound as if he meant physical affairs rather than business ones.

Alice kept her hand in Hatter's.

"I guess we'll be going then. We'll be at the Tea Shoppe." Alice caught the faint blush of color along Hatter's cheekbones and wondered if it was caused by anger at Jack or pleasure that she was yet again holding his hand.

Charlie escorted them back to the Scarab.

"He's not a bad king, you know. Hatter just seems to bring out the worst in him." The knight's comment was wrong. She was the person who brought out the worst in Jack, every time he had treated Hatter poorly, it was because of her.

"Thank you, Charlie." She kissed the old knight's cheek at the same time as she felt Hatter squeezing her hand. These two men made Wonderland worthwhile, despite all the heartache that she associated with it.

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The Tea Shoppe was worse than she expected. Not all of Hatter's precious clothes had survived Mad March's rampage and bits of silk, polyester and cotton littered his office. His large white chair had a slash roughly where Hatter's head would be if he sat down. The furniture was overturned, the grass looked trampled and large stains marred the white of the décor. Even though the place had never been particularly clean or well kept, the damage was noticeable. Every last one of the flowers that had sprung up between the furniture had been cut down.

Alice wondered what it was like for Hatter to see the business that he had tried so carefully to keep out of harm from both the Suits and the Resistance destroyed in this way. But he had seen it all before.

"Well, some of it can be salvaged. Not exactly sure if it's worth taking through the Glass though." She turned to him. He was holding up the pair of headphones that had been on the back of his chair when they first met, the day he had introduced himself as a friend. "I mean, some of it's got some value still, as long as I can find a buyer. I'm not certain if I can find anything like it in your world though." Alice looked around. Some of it might be replaceable. The designs weren't completely out of style.

"There are places where you can buy things like this." She said, gesturing to the toppled furniture. "It probably won't be cheap though."

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Hatter shrugged that off. Those strange bits of paper that passed as money in her world wouldn't really be a problem soon. His plan made sure of that. He just needed to save enough to put things into motion, after that, the plan would pay for itself.

And that's when he found it, the box that he so stupidly forgotten to fit into his suitcase (not that it would have fit). Music. The box was filled with records that had never been released in Alice's world, but that were outrageously popular in Wonderland. With this he wouldn't have to suffer through that pulsing thunder that passed as music on the other side of the Glass.

He heard a creaking noise outside of the shop and motioned for Alice to stay quiet.

Quietly placing his hat on the ground beside him, he stood up and made his way to the door.

The door opened in a swirl of motion and shortly Hatter found himself sitting on the chest of a slightly smelly and quite dirty man.

"Ratty?" It wasn't really a surprise that the tea addict would find his way back to the shop. Hatter was glad that most of the bottles had been broken and that the remaining ones had been taken away by the king's Suits when the Scarab dropped them off. Ratty wouldn't have thought twice about mixing the teas, no matter if that might prove bad for his health of not.

"You're back?" The man sounded confused and in pain. Hatter got off of him and helped him up, being careful to brush the dirt off his hands.

"Alice, you remember Ratty." He announced, trying to sound confident. She nodded.

"Hello, Ratty." They all stood quiet. It was a strange situation, back where Hatter had first met Alice, with the man who had introduced them. Hatter was proud of the fact that he had been able to help Alice like Ratty had thought, even if it hadn't always been for purely philanthropic reasons.

Hatter bent down and grabbed his hat, letting it roll up his arm and deposit itself on his head.

"So, why are you here?" He asked suddenly, hoping to startle Ratty into giving a clear answer.

"I was hopin' to get a good look at the place before the crowds move it. Rumor has it that the King is planning on fixin' up the city." Hatter contemplated this. It was about as much as he had expected. In order to win the loyalty of the people, Jack had to work to make their lives better. That meant that shortly the Tea Shoppe, as one of the few buildings with working plumbing and air systems was going to be worth quite a bit of money. Not to mention the fact that the building had working lights and power. That alone made it worth a small fortune.

Hatter kicked at a fallen pencil holder, wondering whom he should ask Ratty to get in contact with. Or better yet…

"Ratty, could you possibly do me a favor? I know I don't have your usual payment, but it's a favor for Alice as well." Ratty really did believe that she was the Alice of Legend, and Hatter knew that he could capitalize on that fact.

The man nodded.

"Tell Dormie that I'll sell the shop to him, special discounted value, since tea's illegal and all now." Ratty's head bobbed faster. "Good." The man hurried out the door without another word to Hatter or Alice.

"Was that really necessary?" She asked, pushing a chair back up and sitting in it.

"Yes, my dear Alice, it was. Dormie has enough to buy the shop from me without fuss. Only problem's gonna be convincing Jack to change it out for your type of money." He sat down on the arm of her chair, noticing that there seemed to be another hat in the corner that he had missed on his first round through the place. "If everything works out, I'll be able to start my own business in your world, earn enough to keep on me feet. And maybe set a little aside for the future."

Alice's face froze and Hatter mentally kicked himself for mentioning the future to her. He doubted she even believed that they would last through tomorrow, let alone have a possibility of something more. But he had meant what he said when they first met, he did think she was very pretty, and he wanted to help her, especially if that meant he could be with her for longer.

"I mean, of course I'll have to have some set aside for when those Resistance members show up. Have you ever seen how much food refugees eat? It's absurd." He watched as Alice relaxed thanks to his ranting. Maybe she was just on edge because the last time she had been in his office, she hadn't known if he was a friend or not, and now… well they were at least a little more than friends.

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"Thank you, Hatter." The words pushed their way out of her throat before she could stop them. He was being far more considerate of her than he had any right to be. So far he had compensated for her strange moods and the fact that her life had fallen apart and gotten put back together in just the last few days.

She leaned over and kissed him.

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AN:

Merry Christmas! I decided that music in Wonderland would be called records or albums just like in our world, since there seem to be quite a few similarities between the two. I figured that Hatter would like music considering his headphones, and the machine behind him in his introduction scene that looked like it might be a music system of some sort.

I've decided on your Christmas present, a double update!

Reviews are loved.