Fic: Love
It wasn't love at first sight. Lust, yes, but that's what you get for walking in wearing a wet dress. It wasn't love yet- not until you came back for me.
I told you to run, and not only did you not run, you came back for me. You saved me, and you really didn't have to. I hadn't even asked you to.
You have no idea how bewildered I was. And that's part of why I fell, I think. That wasn't anything spectacular to you, it was just instinct. You didn't weigh the pros and cons and then decide that I was useful, you acted because I was in trouble and you could help. It was simple, for you. You were just that… good.
So I fell in love with you. And as we were dragged around half the country and dropped into a lake and captured by Suits, you kept on bewildering me, and I kept on falling. I am still.
I love you, Alice.
I don't know when I fell in love with you.
I tend to shut down when things get too scary, or intense, or dangerous, and Wonderland, especially as it was the first time, was all of the above. I was so focused on finding Jack, then my father, that I just closed myself to everything else. But somehow, you got in. And I didn't even realize it until I thought you were gone for good.
I was only gone an hour on this side; I thought I'd dreamed it all: Wonderland, Jack's fiancé, Dad dying, you existing.
I was mourning for you- well, the idea of you, I suppose- almost as much as I was mourning for Dad. I thought it had finally sunk in that Dad was gone, and you'd never been there in the first place.
And then you were there, with that ridiculous hairdo, and I never wanted to let you go again.
I love you too, Hatter.