Come back to us... Alice x Hatter

Fiance

(Just a little A/N, this is an updated and edited version from what I previously wrote. The other chapters have yet to be rewritten and updated. Cheers!) - Sevi

"An arranged marriage?!" Alice shouted, outraged, as she stormed out of the dining room of her mothers summer estate.

"Yes dear, we both know it isn't right for a girl your age not to be married!" Alice's mother called after her. "You had a choice with Hamish, of course, the boy was unseemly. But you've seemed to have gotten on well with Arthur! This is a second chance, darling!" Alice's mother spoke, genuine concern and intent to help in her voice.

"I never asked for a second chance!" Alice continued, swiftly turning her head to look at her mother. "I am not to be married!"

"Nonsense, child! This is really not as bad as it may seem." Her mother insisted.

"My life is not yours to decide!" Alice stated with a glare in her eyes. She opened the front door of the house and stepped outside. She huffed, letting the anger fall out of her like the breath from her lungs as if she had been holding it all back.

Alice did know what her mother was trying to do. Trying to help the family to go on with a legacy. They had discussed it before, calmly. Her mother wanted Alice's success to be carried on, children to follow in Alice's footsteps. Of course, she also knew that arranged marriages were a normal occurrence with daughters in her homeland. Whether it be for wealth or power, daughters were married off to the best available suitor before having a chance to breathe on their own. In that aspect, Alice was lucky, she hadn't been destined for that life.

What Alice's mother never discussed with her was an arranged marriage. Or a requirement to be married at all. Alice knew the man she was to be married to, and she didn't find anything wrong with him either. Arthur was slightly taller than Alice herself. His skin was a pale colour, yet still tanner than Alice's complexion. Adorned with messy blond hair and thick bushy eyebrows to frame his face.

A rather interesting man, but someone she didn't wish to be married. Not now, not like this and not to someone she didn't choose. She wanted to find love on her own, as her own adventure, if she even intended to marry at all.

It had only been two years since she had returned from Underland and she missed it like crazy. She had become a great apprentice with the trading company, earning a proud title to her name. She had brought experimental ideas to the company her father worked with and made revolutionary changes. Although, she hadn't been able to go as far as she would have liked due to her position as a woman. Despite trying very hard to fight it and oh, she has tried.

Alice walked out of the yard and down a small path leading to the forest, the closest she could get to her once found home. It's quite the amazing place, the leaves of trees created a sort of secret land, darkening the farther in you ventured, despite the bright sunshine above. An assortment of animals called the forest home, rarely invaded by humans other than herself. As the light inside depleted, it was replaced by the gentle glow of fireflies, forever inside the endless night the forest produced. Here she could think up fantastical, incredible ideas. Here, she could bring back the memories she longed to relive, the few memories she has left of Underland.

Alice ambled over to an old willow tree, the branches of the tree hanging down, swaying like wind chimes with the movement of creatures up above. It cast shadows in the dark, creating a home in the centre of the tree to be illuminated by the many fireflies the forest held. It cast a serene light, one you would expect to see if a star chose to lay upon earth. She ventured through the branches of the tree to the trunk, laying against it.

Alice closed her eyes and let her mind drift off, and, as it usually does, it drifted off to the land she isn't sure is real or not. It drifted off to memories of Underland. She thought of the friends she made. The Cheshire cat, Mally, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle-dum... she smiled at the thought of the adventures they could be going on to do.