~{Madly In Love~Mad Hatter}~

13~So This Is Goodbye

"You won't remember me." "Of course I will! How could I forget?"

"In the gardens of memory, in the palace of dreams, that is where you and I will meet." "But a dream is not reality." "Who's to say which is which?"

"My dear Alice, how I've treasured your presence here these past few days. I'll miss you always."

"I gotta go back home now Alice." "Will you return?" "Perhaps one day I'll be old enough to come see you again." "Don't forget about me, Evie." "You and I are like twins, Lissa. Together we're Alicynn! Or Evlice. Something like that." "You're entirely bonkers, Evie. I'll miss you."

{•~•~•~•~•~}

Alice woke up to the setting of the sun on Underland. Evie and Tarrant were still asleep. "Might as well get to work cleaning up the house," Alice whispered to herself. She spent an hour fixing what was most necessary like flipping the overturned couch back or putting away stray objects. There was still much to fix, poor Tarrant, but that was a task for another time. Alice sighed and wiped the sweat off her forehead as she sat down in a kitchen chair. She thought about the gut-wrenching thing she'd have to face within a few days. Leaving. Alice knew damn well Evie would stay. There's no way she'd leave now, Tarrant probably wouldn't even let her.

Alice didn't want to leave. Underland was like her second home. But she couldn't just abandon her mother and the Wonder and their company.  Hamish would get his hands on everything they own in a heartbeat without Alice there to stop him.  Although Alice suspected that her mother could hold her own if she had to.  She's noticed in recent years how stubborn her own mother was.  Alice always assumed that, like most of her traits, her stubbornness came from her father.

In the end, however, Alice decided she'd stay in Underland for three days before she'd have to leave again.  She'd visit as often as she could.  Alice decided to head to Marmoreal since she wanted to give Evie and Hatter some time to catch up on their own.  Alice left a quick note and went to the castle to request a room.  She quietly snuck out without waking her friends.

{•~•~•~•~•~}

Warm sunbeams on Evie's face caused her eyes to flutter open. In addition to the morning sun, she was also comfortably surrounded by the warmth of Tarrant and his blankets.  Evie was firmly pressed to his bare, pale chest.  She tried to shift her position but the Hatter's grip on her tightened before coming to his senses from waking up.  Still pressed to his chest, Evie heard a low growl rumbling from deep within him.  "Tarrant, are you alright?"  She felt one of his bandaged hands lovingly caressing her hair.  Tarrant's eyes opened and an adoring smile spread across his face.  His bright green orbs stared into Evie's deep brown ones with such admiration and love.  "Oh nothing my love, I just really want to lay here with you till the end of our days."  He dipped his head down and pecked her forehead as delicately as possible.  "Who says we can't?"

"No no, we don't want to waste time." He shook his head with a smile, a light chuckle escaping his lips.  "After all, I've offended Time on more than one occasion and I paid the price,"  Tarrant said with a distant stare.  Evie looked at him confused.  "What happened?"  The Hatter just shrugged.  "Well...he stopped time altogether.  He even restricted Mally, Thackery, and I to one minute to tea time until the young Alice arrived."  Evie was still confused.  "Time is a he?  Wait no, time is a person?"  Tarrant grinned.  "Why of course!  I thought Alice told you all about Faldifal day?"  Evie blinked.  "Well, I just assumed that 'Time's castle' was like a metaphorical thing.  I didn't think she was actually serious!" Tarrant laughed.

Evie stretched and got out of bed. She gasped when she noticed she was wearing a beautifully crafted satin nightgown. An elegant dark purple faded into a pristine white towards the bottom. A white lace lined the bottom of the gown as well as the wrist-length sleeves. Black lace spilled from the neckline down the bodice. The whole piece came down to about mid-thigh. "I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that you were still in those dreadfully itchy and uncomfortable clothes of yours. I changed you into that since it's was the easiest to put on you." Hatter explained. Evie went over to the other side of the room and looked in the mirror. It looked even more magnificent now that she could see the whole thing. "Do you like it?" Tarrant asked nervously. Evie spun around. "I love it!" Evie noticed a small insignia in the center of the neckline. It appeared to be a tiny top hat with the initials "T.H." next to it. "What's that?" She asked, pointing to the emblem. "My signature mark! You see? It has my initials."