Hatter's Revenge (rewriting - read at own risk)

Ch. 1: Tea With the Queen

Present Day...

Madison Hatter fiddled with the brim of his hat as he waited in the garden. He watched as Shiro Rabbit checked his pocket watch once more, tapping his foot nervously, glancing at Hatter. 

"Just another moment I'm sure, sir," he squeaked.

"If she's not here in the next five minutes, I'm leaving," Mad replied pleasantly.

"Oh no, sir! You couldn't possibly. I mean, how impolite. She is the Queen, sir! She would have your head removed!" Shiro quailed at the look Mad gave him.

"At least that would be interesting. Besides," Mad added brightly, "she couldn't because then you wouldn't have anywhere to put this magnificent hat!"

To demonstrate, Mad flipped the rather more elegant top hat that was currently taking the place of his usual fedora onto his head. He ran a finger along the brim, satisfied with the look he got from Shiro. It said Shiro thought him, well... mad. It was all part of the carefully crafted image he had conjured up over all these long years since Wonderland had taken him.

And it had taken him. He had been stolen from his life.

Mad had been in his home and passed by a mirror. He had stopped to straighten his tie when he had been ripped from Real World into Wonderland. He couldn't get back to the place he had been no matter what he tried.

Wonderland held onto him with cruel claws, keeping Mad prisoner. Eventually he had come to accept that. What he could not accept, however, was this.

Trumpets blared and Her Royal Highness, Queen Mavros Heart made her way into the garden. Next to him, Shiro knelt, as did the other guards and servants present.

Mad did not. He merely inclined his head, touching a finger to the brim of his hat. The Queen sniffed, "One of these days, Madison, your impertinence will kill you."

He grinned. "I thought it was the ax that would kill me?"

"Perhaps it will be me?" she asked.

Mad's eyes hardened. "No," he said slowly. "No, it won't be you."

The Queen flounced into a chair, propping her chin on her hands. "Watch him speak with such confidence! Sit, Hatter," she said imperiously. 

Mad hesitated momentarily, then sat lightly in the only other chair next to the Queen. He made certain that she saw when he pulled the chair farther from her though. It brought him a great deal of satisfaction, these small mutinies. 

Her sinister scarlet eyes narrowed and she asked, "What gives you such confidence, I wonder?"

Mad sipped at the tea prepared for him. "Mm. You do, Highness."

"Mavros," she corrected.

"Mavros." Mad grimaced slightly, hiding it with another sip of tea, which was overly sweet as always.

"Me?" she demurred.

"Yes. You see, if I die, you don't win your prize. And you want your prize." As he said the words, the Queen's eyes roved hungrily over him.

"I like to win," she responded simply, her words matter of fact and completely shameless. 

"I know," Mad replied, his tone dry. Once, the Queen's bluntness might have amused him, but he had been here for too long to find much entertainment within the walls of Heart Castle anymore. 

"Which," he added, simply because he could not leave it alone, "incidentally, is why my head is here. Not up there." 

He gestured to where severed heads sat on pikes atop the pale walls that surrounded the gardens. Mad wrinkled his nose when a soft breeze came toward them. It didn't matter that they were sitting in the middle of thousands of roses, the flowers could not quite mask the stink of rot.