From Absolutely Alice, To Used-Up Alice
I don't own Alice in Wonderland or any of its characters. Based on the 2010 Tim Burton film.
Written for the Alice and Tarrant Advent Calander.
Alice decides to remain after slaying the Jabberwocky, but Tarrant rejects her profession of love. How will they both cope with the pain and hurt between them?
From Absolutely Alice, To Used-Up Alice
Prologue
"You could stay," the Hatter said, his eyes glowing with hope, and a gentle smile curving his lips.
"Stay?" Alice held up the vial of Jabberwocky blood and could barely see through it. This mostly opaque substance could be the means of her getting home. She was dirty, exhausted, slightly bloody, aching in every muscle and joint, and yet she was suddenly more happy and content than she had ever been.
"What a mad and wonderful idea," she said, swirling the thick contents of the vial, her gaze shifting to Tarrant's emerald eyes.
There was a pause, then he smiled wider. "Yes, you could stay, Alice. You belong here. You have friends here! You are a part of Our Family! And...I'd like you to stay."
Did he...did he really? Alice's mind quickly relived several moments from the past several days. The look in his eyes when she had cradled his face between her palms in the Red Queen's Work Room, the way he was so happy to see her when he had escaped his execution and had seen her in her proper size for the first time. He had gazed at her with adoration and appreciation, his hands unconsciously commenting on her womanly form and curves. And then the way he had carried his hat under his arm the night before when she was on the Queen's balcony.
Alice smiled and threw the vial to the ground, smashing it, the precious Jabberwocky blood seeping into the stones. Tarrant's smile was even brighter and he crushed Alice in a hug that was so wonderful and so adoring, that Alice barely knew when it was that she suddenly leaned back and pulled his head down to hers and pressed her lips against his.
His mouth was warm and cinnamon and tea and...suddenly gone.
"Lass?" he asked, looked into her face, puzzled. "What...are you doing?"
Oh, he didn't know that she felt for him as he felt for her!
"Tarrant...I love you," she whispered. "I've loved you for...oh, I don't know for how long, but maybe since we met so long ago!"
"You love me?" he whispered, his eyes showing a tinge of grey and lavender in them. He hesitated and gently unwound her arms from around his neck. "Lass, I think you may possibly be confused. Think about what you are saying."
Alice's stomach roiled with fear and dread. He didn't... He didn't love her? She had misread every gesture? Every sigh? Every look in his eye and...all of it?
She allowed Tarrant to push her gently away from him and she suddenly fell to her knees, rubbing her fingers over the purple blood that was now too soaked into the stones to be scooped up, even by desperate fingers.
"Alice?"
She couldn't help herself. She began to cry.
"I...you...I have been so stupid!" she cried out, tears flowing copiously down her dusty cheeks. "I've been an utter fool!"
Tarrant knelt beside her and took her in his arms. "Alice, please! I just want you to think about what you said! You've just slayed the Jabberwocky and saved Underland! You may not be in your right mind! As for me, perhaps in Time I..."
Alice shoved him back so violently that he fell on his behind and Alice bolted to her feet, her joints screaming in protest.
"Just forget I said anything, Tarrant! I...can't even go home now! I threw away my chance because...oh, just leave me alone!"
Alice dropped the sword and ran off, sobbing.
Tarrant had never felt so miserable. She had misunderstood everything! But he would make it up to her. He would make her see.
She wouldn't be sorry that she had dashed that vial of Jabberwocky Blood to the ground; not if he had any say in the matter.
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