A/N: My friend Beth asked for an Alice fic for Christmas. So I wrote her one. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!

Mistletoe

By angellwings

"Tell me again why I'm dragging this evergreen monstrosity down the street, up the stairs, and into your house?" Hatter asked as he tugged a bundled up Christmas tree down the sidewalk.

"Because it's Christmas."

"Right," he said as they stopped outside the door to the building. "And at Christmastime women punish the men by making them lug heavy trees up stairs?"

Alice rolled her eyes and chuckled at him. "No, at Christmastime we buy Christmas trees and decorate them and put presents around them."

He nodded and braced the tree against his back as he reached behind him and grabbed one of the sturdy pieces of twine that bound the branches. He lifted it and started up the stairs. "As a reward for lugging heavy trees around?"

"No, idiot, we have Christmas trees because of Christmas," Alice told him with a smirk as she helped him by lifting the bottom of the tree.

"Well, you'll have to teach me about this Christmas we don't celebrate this holiday where I'm from," Hatter said as they continued to climb the stairs.

"It's the one time of year where most everyone is kind and actually concerned about their fellow man," Alice told him.

"Uh huh, and how did it start?" He asked as they finally reached Alice's front door.

"Um, well, there was this baby who was born to a virgin and he was—"

Hatter's brow furrowed and he spoke up sarcastically. "A baby…born to a virgin? Isn't that, I don't know, impossible?"

"Exactly," Alice said with a nod.

Hatter shook his head. "You're playing some sort of joke on me. You have to be."

"No, I'm really not."

"I refuse to believe you. It's like that time you convinced me television shows were about real people. Like those Kardashians could ever be actual people," Hatter muttered as he waited for her to unlock the door.

"For the last time, the Kardashians are real. It's called reality TV," Alice said with a sigh.

"Fine, then I guess Gilligan is real too? Or that Fran the Nanny woman you find so hilarious, I bet she's real. Are those shows reality TV?" he asked as he lifted the tree again once the door was open.

She motioned for him to go first and huffed tiredly. "No, those are sitcoms. They are definitely not the same as the Kardashians."

"Well, I still say this story you're feeding me is rubbish," Hatter said as he looked to her for a direction on where to take the tree.

She pointed to the only vacant corner in the living room. "Just forget it. It's clear that I'll have to refer you to the source material."

Alice retrieved the stand out of a storage container and filled it with water before she set it down in the corner where Hatter was waiting. He set the end of the trunk inside of the container and Alice secured the tree in place. Hatter reluctantly released it and looked surprised when it stood on its own. "Right, so now we adorn it with baubles and multi-colored lights, yes?"

Alice smiled at him in amusement and nodded. "Yes."

"Why do all of you do this, exactly?"

"It's a tradition."

"Yes, but why? What's the story behind it?"

Alice's eyes widened and she frowned thoughtfully. "I, um—well…the evergreen tree is a symbol of…and the ornaments they're…"

Hatter smirked at her and tried not to chuckle. "You don't know, do you?"

"Yes I do! I definitely do!"

There was an awkward silence and Hatter did chuckle this time. "Well, I'm waiting."

"…there is no story. It's just a tradition," Alice lied.

Hatter laughed and shook his head. "There's no story? So you're ancestors just randomly decided that one December they would chop down a tree, put it up in their living room, and decorate it with popcorn, things children make out of macaroni, and images of a large bearded man?"

"Um, yes?" Alice answered with uncertainty.

"And you think my world's crazy. It sounds to me like you Oysters are all mixed up," Hatter said with a grin.

She smacked his arm and tried not to laugh. "Shut up."

She walked away from him to unpack one of the boxes of Christmas decorations and gasped at what she found sitting on top. "Oh, I forgot we had this."

"What?" Hatter asked. "What is it?"

She smirked at him and waltzed over to the doorway that led from the living room to the hallway. "You're taller. Could you tape this to the top of the door frame for me?"

His brow furrowed and he stared at the green and leafy plant she held in her hands. "You want me to hang that on the doorway? Why?"

She winked and tossed it to him. "If you want to know badly enough you'll figure it out."

He watched Alice walk back to the boxes and begin to unpack other things. He stared at the fake plant in his hand in confusion. What did this have to do with the Oysters' holidays? He quickly taped it to the door frame and then joined Alice by the tree. They strung the lights on the tree and that turned out to be far more complicated than he'd anticipated. He'd gotten wrapped in the strand more the once and nearly tripped. Of course, he'd end up in extremely close proximity to Alice which was always a more than welcome thing in his opinion. Once the lights were on they began unwrapping ornaments and placing them on the tree. His eyes kept drifting to the funny plant he'd hung up in the doorway. He couldn't stop thinking about it. Alice wasn't going to tell him so he supposed he was going to have to research it himself.

Several hours later when they finished decorating the tree and the living room Hatter decided to do something he normally avoided at all costs. He turned on Alice's computer. He just barely understood how to use it, and it appeared not to like him at all. He double clicked on the little icon that Alice used to search the all knowing internet. He was sure they had the capabilities to produce this technology on his side of the looking glass, but for whatever reason no one had. He supposed the Queen feared something like the internet would open her subjects up to too many possibilities and too much thought. He searched for information on a "holiday plant". And three options came up.

Poinsettias, Holly, and Mistletoe.

Poinsettias were red flowers so those definitely weren't it. Holly appeared to be a rather boring plant. Nothing that struck him as anything to wink over. His eyes glossed over as he scanned an article about mistletoe. An image suddenly appeared toward the bottom of the article and his eyes widened. That was the plant. It was mistletoe. He paid closer attention as he glanced over the words until he finally found something.

"According to ancient Christmas custom, a man and a woman who meet under a hanging of mistletoe were obliged to kiss. The custom may be of Scandinavian origin. It was described in 1820 by American author Washington Irving in his 'The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon':

"The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases."

Now, that was interesting, and definitely wink worthy. He smirked and turned off the computer. He found Alice rolling out some sort of dough in the kitchen and immediately grabbed her hand and led her back toward the fake mistletoe hanging in the doorway. "I know what this is now."

"You do, do you?" Alice asked with a grin.

"Oh yeah," Hatter said before he pulled her under the mistletoe and then pulled her flush against him.

She gave him an amused look and wrapped her arms around his neck. "What's next?"

"I believe, according to tradition, I'm obligated to kiss you now. Since we are under mistletoe and all," Hatter told her.

Alice nodded. "Then stop talking and kiss me already."

Hatter chuckled and leaned toward her. His lips hovered over hers. "Done."

He swooped down to capture her lips and she smiled against them before sinking into the kiss. She pulled him closer to her and deepened the kiss. His eyes opened in surprise for a split second before he closed them again and began to kiss her in kind. They pulled apart for air after a few more moments and Alice smiled brightly at him.

"Don't you just love Christmas?" Alice asked with a knowing chuckle.

"I have no idea what it's about, but I'm already a huge supporter," Hatter said as he cleared his throat and straightened his hat. "So, any other traditions I should know about?"