Very, very short but it sounded good by itself. I saw the movie last night and OH MY GOD! I was in awe of its fantabulousity! That's right, i made up a word! I suggest you all use it. But I don't want to give a detailed summary yet, that with be in Chapter 3. Let me know what you think! thanks a bunch!

Chapter 1: The Hatter Left Behind

The Hatter sat for the hundredth time at the head of his rickety tea table, his foot prints from Alice's last visit still showing in some of the cake that had yet to be removed. His eyes stared blankly into the nothingness around him as he strained his ears to hear either her footsteps or the White Rabbit's. Neither came. To anyone who cared to look, he appeared to be a statue, his stoic exterior hiding the true madness within, the madness that threatened to consume him, the madness of loosing Alice. Periodically, the Door Mouse and March Hare would notice his eyes shift to a burnt orange, brown, or even a nearly bright red before fading back to their green, without so much as a single word being spoken, all of which were signs that he was truly losing his mind.

He could still see her, clear as day before him, her blonde curls waving in the slight breeze of the battlefield, a smile touching her lips as she looked at him with an adoration he couldn't remember anyone showing him before. Him of all people. She wasn't the same little girl as before, the same scared yet adventurous six years old she had been. She was a woman, a beautiful, wonderful woman that had saved his world and brought him out of his maddening delirium more than once. She was Alice, his Alice. His heart had been taken with her when she left, ripped from his chest as she disappeared into a puff of smoke before him. He had asked her to stay in their perfect world of insanity but she simply refused as politely as she could. He knew she wasn't meant for Underland, not truly. She was destined to change and mold her own world, not fall into theirs.

"Tea?"

The kind voice brought the Hatter out of his stupor. His eyes searched around for the lighthearted source to find the Door Mouse sitting on the table in front of him with a cup, a smile on her face. He grinned kindly to her as he took the cup, thrusting multiple cubes of sugar to the point he had begun to build a structure out of the liquid.

"Tea." He replied with a halfhearted answer.