The stairs were …well the stairs were long. At one point Hatter started counting every three-pair of stairs in a sing-song voice until Alice threatened than she would shove him off and this time she would certainly not jump down after him. Though she had expected him to respond in kind, something like how the stairs appreciated his musical interpretation and would not let him fall, Hatter instead fell silent for a moment before asking, "Why did you jump the first time?"

I… You were falling; it seemed like the right thing to do."

"You did not think about it?"

"No I most definitely thought about it." A shy smile crept onto her face as she added silently; decisions of the heart are probably just faster than decisions of the mind. Realizing she was blushing Alice quickly added, "Still, if I never see another stair again it will be too soon."

"That's quite prejudiced against stairs, it is not their fault we have to climb them."

"Oh so whose fault is it then?"

Hatter, at that point, realized it was in his best interest to not continue his line of conversation, but it was too late – Alice pounced, "Shall I blame the one who went and got himself thrown over a cliff then? Hmm?"

"No. No I believe you were right the first time. Those dastardly stairs. Horrible creatures. Hate the whole lot!"

"Now who's prejudiced?" Alice chided with mock scorn.

He grinned back and Alice decided there was nothing quite as mesmerizing as Hatter's grin. She could see the humor with which he reacted to her teasing, the intelligence and wit with which he teased her back, and the pleasure he found in an equal partner. His grin, though, did not completely fill his eyes, behind the carefree green a far darker color hid a far darker grin. This grin belonged to the self-deprecating Hatter. The one that had given up, the one who all but let himself be pushed off a cliff. They had avoided talking about that Hatter so far, but Alice could still see him, following behind them and growing ever more apparent with each silence. Enough, thought Alice, best to just attack it head on. Or hat on. En garde.

"How long?"

"How long what?

"How long have hallucinations kept you company?"

She felt him fidget as he tried to avoid the question, "when do they not? Hallucinations are but imagination and what a boring life I would lead if I had none of that. Why the last time you were here I recall you saying you dream up six impossibilities before breakfast and I remarked what an admirable practice that was, so clearly this imagination and dreaming business should not be of concern, why it's absence would be the more worrisome thing really, and – "

"Tarrant, answer me please."

Even Hatter's roundabout answers could not avoid the directness of Alice's order and he sighed heavily, refusing to meet her gaze as he mumbled, "How many days are in a year?"

"Oh …"

"How many years between now and then?"

"Since the day I left?" Alice could not keep the incredulity out of her voice.

"No…not immediately. But when you left some of my muchness must have left with you." He looked at her and tried to smile, "terribly rude of it don't you think? Running off without a second thought."

Alice frowned slightly, "maybe your muchness had prior obligations, which you would have known, it being your muchness and all."

"Well my muchness could have at least stayed for the celebration instead flying off in a most hurried manner."

They were both very aware Hatter's muchness was not, and had never really been the subject of this particular problem, but metaphors were terribly convenient shields.

"Your muchness had to hurry away so it could reject a marriage proposal from someone who was the antithesis of muchness."

"My muchness," Hatter stopped, thoughts completely derailed by the words "marriage proposal." Derailed was really too soft a term, more like his train of thought flew off the tracks, over the cliff, and down the gorge. " PROPOSAL?!"

His shocked expression, with hints of orange around the rims of his eyes, was the last thing Alice saw before they both ran straight into something solid. In their defense neither Hatter nor Alice had been looking in front of them for quite some time, as after a couple thousand steps (one thousand two hundred and five to be exact) it was easy to climb without much conscious thought.

"I suppose this means we've reached the exit," Alice stated, gingerly rubbing her cheek. The solid object was a door that stood on the step above them and seemingly led to nowhere as, if Alice craned her neck just so, she could see the backside of the door. Still, just because something appeared to do something or not do something did not at all reveal its actual purpose – this was Underland after all – so Alice turned the knob to open the door almost completely confident something different would appear on the other side.

Her expectations were rewarded, the door swung open to reveal a grassy island floating among the clouds in a light blue sky. A sign post was the only thing aside from the door on the floating island, which was really more of a floating rock. In large block letters was "Other side of the Fine Line" scrawled across the sign, and in smaller letters under it read "Please do not walk back across." There was an arrow pointing forward, and if Alice squinted in its direction she could just make out what might be land on the horizon.

"I can't really imagine anyone could walk back across, wherever across might be." Alice turned to Hatter for confirmation only to realize he was no longer next to her. He was still standing stupefied in the doorway, hat knocked askew by shock (or by merit of running headlong into the door).

"Oh come now, it was Hamish. As if I would say yes to him. That would be like agreeing to marry a rock, but at least a rock as a couple centuries of history behind it to make it interesting; Hamish does not even have that."

Hatter finally moved through the doorway, closing it behind him. "That is what you left unfinished, a marriage proposal?"

Alice snorted, "no that was just an annoying prerequisite."

Hatter readjusted his hat, "Oh, that's remarkably good to hear. Not to say you should not be –" midway through his explanation he realized they were stranded. "That two-faced whimsy of a weasel," Hatter growled.

Alice sat down in front of the sign, dress billowing out around her. "There must be some way off of here."

"I'm sure it's easy to continue from this island if you can vaporize. Unfortunately we are a bit lacking in that department, something I'm sure that blunderhead neglected to concern himself with."

"Even he would have known we can't just waltz our way – " Alice trailed off, turning to Hatter with a playful sparkle in her eye.

He glanced at the sign then immediately caught on, "Waltzing is most definitely not walking. "He gave a slight bow and offered Alice his hand, "would you care to dance?"

Alice slipped her hand into his and let herself be pulled up. They easily fell into a waltz position, her other hand resting comfortably on Hatter's waist. He led them in a few practice steps over the grass and then, with a devious look in his eyes, asked "off we go?"

Alice matched his look, "need you ask?"

And with a twirl they had left solid ground. There was a slight drop, maybe a few centimeters at most, before the air started to support them. Something about the way the light played under their feet made them feel as if they weighed half as much as they had before. Suddenly it was a contest to see who could dance with more grace – Alice and Hatter or the passing clouds.

Alice sighed happily, "I've always imagined what it would be like to fly."

"Then you still should, we are dancing not flying."

"My head knows that but my feelings are convinced there is not such a distinction between the two here."

Hatter nodded approvingly.

"I wonder what would happen if we stopped dancing," Alice said as she watched her feet circle through empty air.

"I find I'm not particularly inclined to find out."

Alice laughed, "for once not curious?"

"Oh no, quite so still. But I've had quite enough falling down for one day. If we were to fall up or sideways perhaps it might be worth investigation, but anything in a generally downward direction I reject."

"I've fallen up, it's much like falling down, I wouldn't recommend it personally." Alice wrinkled her nose to emphasize her distaste.

Hatter chuckled, "Alice, Underland's Expert on All Things Falling."

"Hatter, Underland's UnExpert on Suitable Titles."


It was easy to let conversation lull because both were so distracted by the peculiarities of waltzing in the sky. The silence they fell into was not the morbid silence of their earlier journey, but instead the distracted one of wondering if clouds would make good chairs or if they danced fast enough could they make their own wind? At some point Alice leaned in to rest her head on Hatter's shoulder, mumbling "I'm feeling a bit tired," by way of explanation. Hatter made no objection, tightening his grip slightly as to better support her.

"How... " Hatter's musing interrupted Alice's thoughts.

"How what?"Alice asked through a yawn.

He took a deep breath and, with eyes mostly squeezed shut, quickly asked, "How long are you in Underland?" Of course he said it far too fast and all Alice heard was "How gongs are under the sand?" Her mystified look was enough to force him to breathe in once or four times and repeat his question as slow as he could (which was of course still twice as fast as it needed to be).

"How long is bloody big head sentenced to exile?" Alice countered mischievously.

She could feel him tense, "you mean to say – that – you are exiled here until the end of Underland too?" His eyes lit up, "I didn't mean exiled as that would mean Upperland did not want you and I cannot fathom a place that would not want an Alice. No, every place would want an Alice. But our place has got an Alice. Which makes our place infinitely superior to other places in so much as other places –"

"Hatter."

He grinned down at her at once sheepish and exuberantly, ridiculously happy. "I…This calls for a Futterwacken."

His happiness was infectious and Alice could not help but start laughing, "Hatter, Hatter! We have to waltz! You can't Futterwacken with two people."

"I certainly intend to try!"

Alice squealed as he grabbed her round the waist and spun them both around most dizzily in circles.

Neither of them was prepared for land to appear so when they hit grass momentum got the best of them and they landed in a tangled heap of Alice and Hatter.

"Do you always giggle indecently on other people's lawns?" A dry voice interrupted them.

They turned to look at a large, irate bird, wings on his hips.

"Oh – uhm, do pardon the intrusion, quite by accident you see, really circumstance of chance." Hatter said as he helped Alice up.

"Mhm. I'm sure." The bird grumbled, observing how Alice's hand lingered on Hatter's even after she was standing.

"Philipe, we have visitors?" An older man appeared at the doorway.

Alice curtsied, still giggling slightly as she spoke, "Alice Kingsley, Sir, so sorry about the – "

It was at that moment she looked up to see who she was addressing. All the color drained from her face and her mouth hung open, shock and surprise leaving her speechless. Now Alice was usually not the type to faint, she thought the girls back home weak for fainting at every little thing, a waste of time and energy really. In this instance, however, she felt completely justified. After all, when facing the father she long thought dead, what was Alice to do but faint?

So faint she did.


Long time no post. Life got in the way, how troublesome right?

Thank you for all the reviews! It's a beautiful thing to open my e-mail and see [Review Alert]. [Story Alert] and [Favorite Alert] too. Basically, you readers are awesome, hats off to you!

I know a lot of writers bring Alice's Dad into Underland and I admit I'm hopping on that bandwagon. There's just something about the way he responds to her 'dream' in the movie that is far too suspicious to suspect him of anything less than visiting Underland himself.

Going to Japan for the weekend – will try to have the next chapter up tomorrow before I leave but no promises. If not then definitely Monday when I get back.

Cheers,

- Savi