Snippet #2454349

Once everyone was situated around the table with bowls of soup in front of them, Alice took to spooning as much of the delicacy into her mouth as she could without choking and while still remaining proper. She could remember this taste, and every bite tasted a little more real, a little more homey. It was comforting, and it gave her an excuse to not talk, which Alice needed. Emotions were bubbling through her veins and swirling through her head and she was, for the first time in what seemed like forever, she was overwhelmed.

"The soup is delicious, Your Majesty. I've never had anything like it in any world I've ever been! What's it made of?" Wendy's words snapped her back to reality and Alice racked her brain for a moment.

"Oh! I know, I know!" she said after a moment. Alice looked to the Queen, who nodded at her to continue and Alice looked to Wendy, feeling quite smug that she knew more about this place than her flatmate, and not for the first time that day.

"Slithy tove soup with borogrove feather. Borogrove feathers are surprisingly edible and taste like the trees the pompous birds live in. They dissolve and make everything thicker and more forest-y. I had it my first time here, when I was a kid. Well, I say I had it, but actually I was trying to care for that horrid pig-child and that's what the lady was cooking. Liked pepper too much, that horrid woman," Alice crinkled her nose at the thought and spooned more soup into her mouth quickly to rid the taste the memory still left in her mouth. She almost had to consciously stop herself from sneezing.

"Very true, Alice. The duchess's cook does have a horrid affinity for pepper and the whole lot is loud. I cannot speak ill of someone, but they are a family I sometimes wish lived farther away," The queen said, and Alice rolled her eyes. The queen was, well, the queen of gossipers everywhere and Alice found it delightful.

Just then the door to the kitchen opened and Alice turned her head to look at the latecomer of the evening. At first she couldn't quite place him, but then he turned slightly to give a slight bow to the queen and the card sticking from his hat gave him away. Hat... fedora, not tophat? How odd, for someone like the Hatter. Hatter! her mind screamed at her and Alice had to dig her heels into the legs of the chair and wrap them around the porcelain facet to prevent herself from jumping up. No, I will remain calm, and I will have a civilized dinner with the Queen and then I will do my duty and take Peter home, she told herself as she turned back to the table and looked at Peter to help steel her resolve. Right. Duty. Peter. Neverland, she repeated her knew mantra in her head so that she didn't abandon the mission. She could come back, right? No big deal. After Peter and Wendy were safe in Neverland.

The sound of a chair sliding over the floor almost had Alice's resolve crumbling, but she kept it up. Peter. Neverland. Peter. Neverland, she said to herself once more before looking up at the Hatter politely. He wasn't looking at her, and for that she was thankful. Her propriety was slipping and she was gawking, and she knew it. He did look different, very different, but he was also the same. She remembered him being more colorful, though, and the thought that he had lost his colorfulness had her frowning for a moment. He was wearing a scarf she remembered liking at one point in her adventures, but that was all that remained of Hatter. He was like a coloring book that hadn't been filled in yet. That's it! He's just on a new chapter. No one's come along to color him in yet, she thought, but she dismissed the notion almost immediately. He'd never needed coloring in before.

"Ah, well, this is wonderful isn't it?" Hatter said after a moment of terse silence and Alice looked at him funnily. She'd never known him to be so... civil. He threw mad tea parties, and he certainly wasn't acting the part of a mad host.

"It is, Hatter. It's been a while... you look different," Alice said, deciding to go about talking to him as politely as possible. He might not even want to be her friend anymore, after what she said to him. She didn't want to go about it as if they were something they weren't, and Alice was too confused to know what that was at the moment. So, she simply acted as civil as possible.

"Uh... Hatter. This is Peter, and that's Wendy-- Wendy's my flatmate, and Peter's the homeless boy I ran into. He's got really good stories," Alice said with a breathy giggle, thinking that that was how she was going to introduce them in the future, to everyone. Hatter was still avoiding looking at her, and Alice's brows crinkled in frustration. She would need to speak to him, and she knew it. Clear the air between them, get an opportunity to say sorry. Color him back in? a jovial voice said within her head and she smiled, the corners of her lips crinkling in mirth. Eventually, Alice thought back, and that seemed enough. After.. after I help Peter, of course.