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Hatter fell. He falls, he is falling.
“Don’t wait too long,” Jack Heart—the King—said. “She’s been abandoned too many times, and she won’t wait forever.”
Hatter looked up at him. He was tall and blond and regal and cold. Hatter hated that Alice loved this man. Jack nodded once.
You could always come to my world, Alice had said. Right, Hatter thought. That settles it.
His feet began to move. “Remember to breathe,” the Suit said. Hatter briefly wondered if they would still be called Suits now that Jack was King. He wondered what would happen to his home, how much would change without him there to see it happen. He was also quite sure he hadn’t breathed once since a girl called Alice showed up at his Tea Shop. Instead he held onto his hat.
“You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” Alice said.
Hatter had an idea how she felt. Definitely, he thought, if anyone had an idea of how happy Alice was to see him, it would be Hatter. He’d only travelled through worlds to see her again.
“I missed you,” he whispered against her mouth, and kissed her again and again and again. Her mouth tasted like joy and lust and longing and desire, and Hatter thought maybe love, too, deep down underneath it all. Hatter would chase that taste down the rabbit hole and anywhere else it led him in the universe.
“You changed your hair,” Alice said when Hatter pulled back; just to make sure she was really there.
That’s when her mom started screaming.
Hatter paced. He paces, he is pacing.
In the other room he could hear Alice and her mother’s frantic voices.
“Who is this man?” Carol asked. “What happened to Jack?” Hatter wondered how one man he had only known personally for a few days could cause him so much trouble. Again, he wondered how Alice could love a man so different to himself.
“He saved me,” Alice said. Her voice was quiet, but Hatter could hear her still, somehow. He knew she didn’t just mean as the construction worker from the abandoned building. He had saved her, but Alice had saved him too. Would that be enough for them?
“And Jack?” Jack. Jack Chase. Jack Heart. The King. He was gone. He left. He stayed behind. He would always be there.
“Jack lied to me, Mom. He’s not coming back.” He was still there.
“I don’t understand! Jack just left yesterday, and now you’re kissing this strange man you’ve never met before and putting away all of Daddy’s things. What’s going on Alice?”
“I’m just moving on with my life. Hatter,” she broke off. “David, he’s a good man, Mom, and I do know him. Just trust me on this one. It’ll be ok.”
“Normally I wouldn’t have introduced you to my mother so soon,” Alice told him. She held his hand as they walked down the street, and Hatter found it difficult to care about irate mothers or anything else.
He smiled down at her.
Alice leaned into his shoulder. “I guess after facing the Queen of Hearts, and Drs. Dee and Dum, my mother doesn’t seem too terrible.”
Hatter wasn’t sure what to say. Instead he put his arm around her shoulders.
“So where does David come from?” Alice asked after a moment.
“It was my father’s name,” Hatter said. That much at least, is true.
Hatter lied. He lies, he is lying.
“What do you do, David?” Carol asked at dinner.
(“My mom wants you to come to dinner,” Alice said.
“You mom hates me,” Hatter replied.
“She doesn’t hate you. She just doesn’t know you,” Alice paused. “I know it’s a lot to ask,” she said. “But it would mean a lot to my mom, and me. Please?”
Hatter squeezed his eyes shut, like that would help block out the look on Alice’s face. It didn’t. “Okay,” he said. For you.”)
“Oh,” Hatter said. “You know, a bit of everything.”
Carol nodded and took a sip of his wine. Hatter had never felt so small, even when Dee and Dum had shrunk him down, and left him to stew under their scrutiny.
“Right,” she said. “And where did you and Alice meet?”
“Mom,” Alice hissed. “Cut it out. I already told you we met at school.”
“Right,” Carol said. She sipped on her wine.
“I’m so sorry,” Alice said, later in the hallway. It was just them, and that was what Hatter liked best of all.
He shook his head, and smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it,” he said.
Alice pulled him down for a kiss, her fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck. He pressed her up against the door frame, his hands at her waist holding on like she might disappear if he let go.
“Are you okay?” Alice asked a moment later.
He smiled down at her and kissed the tip of her nose. “Me?” he asked. “Of course.”
Alice smiled back at him, her hands still around his neck. It felt good. “You know,” she said, “I think I preferred your old hairdo.” Her eyes twinkled, and before he could stop her, she ran her hands back and forth in his hair, sending it in all directions. She smiled, looking satisfied. “There, that’s much better.”
Hatter grabbed her hand off his shoulder, and stared at the blank expanse of her forearm, stroking it softly. Alice looked down, her hair falling across her eyes. “It seems empty,” she said. “Like it never really happened.”
Hatter kissed the inside of her wrist, the inside of her elbow, her shoulder, her collarbone, under her jaw. Alice sighed, and he pressed up against her tightly. “I’m here,” he whispered against her mouth.
Alice wrapped her arms closely around his neck, and held on for a long time. He kissed her again and again and again.
“Let’s go get that pizza,” he said.
“And lots of other things,” she said.
Hatter laughed. He laughs, he is laughing.