AN: Hey, long time, no see!! Well I'm back with a chapter and everything!! I hope y'all like it. The characters/WCMI story belong to Bri-chan and Rain, of course. Hopefully, by this point you've read their web comic over on LiveJournal. If you haven't, holy crow, go read it!!

Oh, and for lack of anything else to call him, I started referring to the March Hare as just "March". Hope nobody minds.

The door slid shut behind Reginald with a faint ringing of the shop's bells. Silence reigned for a moment after he departed, feeling impossibly long to Alice. Reginald seemed to take something away with him as he left, as if his very presence leant an air of light-hearted insanity to the room.

Alice felt a small pang as she watched his brightly colored self disappear around the corner.

Then all hell seemed to break loose in the small store. What had before been reduced to mere whispers sprang forth in loud conversation. Patrons turned to each other, gossiping shamelessly about the dramatic scene they'd watched unfurl.

'Oh my,' pondered Alice to herself. 'Everyone will be talking about it by the end of today…' Her headache seemed to intensify for a moment, before she brusquely shook herself out of such thoughts. 'That's self centered; why should people focus on you? And you shouldn't care regardless.'

She nodded resolutely, and meant to go determinedly back to work. However, her two emotional friends interrupted her. They flew into Alice's line of sight, seemingly out of nowhere, both faces contorted into very different expressions. Belle was bursting from the seams with excited joy for her friend, while Ariel looked shocked and appalled.

Alice threw her hands up in a desperate gesture to cut them off, which Belle recognized and (reluctantly) heeded. Ariel, on the other hand, took no notice of Alice's testy expression.

The small blonde seemed to dare the once-mermaid to speak, and Ariel- unwittingly- stepped up to the challenge.

"What were you thinking?" She nearly bellowed, sounding more like King Trident than she realized. Had she known how much she resembled her father in that moment, Ariel would have remembered how it felt to have her affections questioned. As it was, the red head carried on, unaware of just how angry she sounded.

Alice flinched at her tone, but hid the brief sting of her friend's harsh opinion behind an equally furious front. "I'm afraid I haven't a clue what you mean, Ariel. Nevertheless, you had better make yourself clear quickly, because I don't like what I think you're saying. At all."

Ariel didn't back down from Alice's cold response. Her hands rose to her hips in fists against her becoming green dress, and she glared. "Alice. I'm saying this for you. I don't think you know exactly what you just agreed to. You can't possibly. You're going on a date with the Mad Hatter on Friday! With REGINALD!"

Alice sniffed dismissively, as if unimpressed. "I fail to see your point."

"My point," said Ariel, finally lowering her voice. "Is that you just promised to go out with a lunatic! It's…it's…preposterous, Alice. What are you thinking? I mean, it's Reginald."

Alice felt her jaw clench as a fire began to burn in her throat. 'How dare she? How dare she?' She found that- rather than the usual embarrassment she felt over Reginald's affections- she had only one thought at the moment: to defend him.

"You don't know him, Ariel. Mr. Theophilus is a wonderful man- sweet, caring and determined. He will not give up; it's admirable." Alice carried on with her rant, unaware of Belle's triumphantly smiling face in the background. "He does whatever he can think of to make me happy, and he never hides what he's thinking or feeling."

Fixing Ariel with a stare that could freeze Cruella mid-step, Alice spoke her forceful opinion without a trace of doubt. "I believe him to be quite the catch." With a small nod, Alice swept out from behind the counter and past Ariel.

"If you will please excuse me?" She didn't wait for an answer, marching indignantly to the back room of the store. The small crowd of customers (who had once again fallen silent to watch unabashed as the two women argued) parted before her like the Red Sea, unwilling to get in her way.

Ariel stared after her, mouth hanging open in shock, and Belle fought the urge to liken her to a fish. At least, not out loud.

After a moment, her face dissolved into a pout as she turned to see Belle standing behind her with a triumphant smile. Holding one hand out, palm up, Belle remarked, "Pay up, Ariel. I believe you owe me…20 Disney Dollars?" Ariel huffed, but obligingly began rummaging through her purse.

"I didn't think she'd defend him like that," muttered Ariel. "How is it that you always know what people are going to do?"

Belle shrugged, happily counting her well-earned cash. "I guess it comes of having read so much. Living in Disneyland is very like a story, after all."

Ariel (who, in all honesty, hadn't much cared about the answer) was still glaring sullenly at Belle. "I think you cheated, just to win the bet. Did you tell Alice beforehand?" she demanded.

The brunette scoffed, and moved to take Alice's former place behind the counter. "Of course not. Alice is a sweet person, even if she perhaps cares too much about propriety."

"All you have to do is work up her temper, and she'll forget all about doing what others expect of her." Belle nodded with a fond smile as she thought of her friend. "I have long suspected that she was fonder of Reginald than she was willing to let on."

Ariel, leaning on the opposite side of the counter, had her usual look of excited curiosity. She simply loved everything about this strange world on land. And the strange inhabitants. "I thought so too, but I never imagined she'd admit it out loud."

"Oh she wouldn't have, Ariel. Not on her own," said Belle with a knowing look. "That's why I thought we should…help her along a bit. You're the one who turned my plan into a wager."

Belle sighed a bit dreamily as she thought of her own husband. "Things like this tend to work out here- a normal, lovely girl who finds herself caring for a man who is a bit…unconventional. Really, it's a tale as old as time."

As soon as the last words left her mouth, Belle froze in place and a frown crossed her face. After a moment, she sighed, resigned to a life of quoting her own movie against her will.

Ariel (completely oblivious to any and all references) just carried on beaming.

Alice slammed the door to the backroom shut behind her, trying to let off some of her furious energy.

Alice found herself pacing the length of the room irritably, muttering under breath. "How dare she? I mean…I simply cannot understand…" A slow understanding of the scene she'd made (for the second time) seeped through her anger, and she sank back against the door.

"Oh dear," she groaned aloud, her hands coming up to hide her red face.

Despite her embarrassment however, Alice found that she was not in the least ashamed of herself. Nor of the cause she'd argued. "He may be mad, but that is no reason to treat him like some sort of social pariah!"

'As long as Reginald never finds out, I believe I've done a wonderful thing.'

Feeling proud to have so well defended a friend (she took no real mental note of his promotion from 'pest' to 'friend'), Alice mentally ran back through her words. Then she paled, sliding down the door to the rest on the floor.

"Oh dear," she murmured again, but instead of the mortified complaint it had been before, it was a shocked whisper. Alice stared at nothing in particular as she realized what she'd just admitted to an eager audience.

'Admitted?' She frowned over her own choice of words. 'I sound as if…as if I meant every word…'

A quiet "oh" slipped past her lips without any conscious thought on her part.

Alice was beginning to grasp what she had been denying to herself all along. Despite the insanity and chaos of Reginald's determined perusal of her, perhaps in spite of her constant annoyance with and disapproval of the man, she was falling for him.

"Oh, dear."

Reginald couldn't remember precisely how he had gotten home, only that it had taken much longer than it should have. He vaguely recalled leaving the bookshop on a cloud of pure bliss sometime in the afternoon.

Some time later that evening, he realized, quite suddenly, that he was seated at the head of the garden table, holding a cup of tea he had yet to drink from.

Upon taking a sip, he found it to be one of the oddest concoctions he'd ever put together. His overly large nose wrinkled as he tried to decide how he could possibly describe the taste. Reginald eventually settled for "incredibly similar to Cajun food" and left it at that.

The reason behind his great distraction was (of course) his success with Alice. Finally, after a long time trying, he had a date with the lovely Ms. Liddell.

The excitement overwhelmed him for a moment, and Reginald abruptly leapt from his chair to punch one fist triumphantly into the air, all while practically crowing a loud "YES!" to anyone who happened to be listening.

That someone happened to be the Doormouse, who poked his head from underneath an overturned butter dish, glaring through sleepy eyes. He hissed emphatically, "Shut up, Theophilus."

Reginald (who was in the middle of a victory dance that meant he was currently doing the can-can with an invisible line of dancers) froze mid kick to stare at the dish, as the Doormouse had retreated back to sleep and could no longer be seen. "What's gotten into him," he wondered aloud.

And then he shrugged, falling back into his seat. Nothing could put a damper in his celebratory mood that evening. Or so he thought.

"Reginald Theophilus!" The infuriated bellow rang across the garden with no forewarning, making said Mr. Theophilus jump in his seat. The sound of his own name had never inspired fear in him before, yet the Mad Hatter found himself quaking in his rather-exceptionally-sized shoes. This was followed by the gate slamming shut and a familiar figure coming into view.

The March Hare came storming through the garden, his face twisted in anger. Reginald- for once in his life- could think of no response. With one giant leap (that assured anyone who may have been watching that he was in fact a rabbit), March threw himself up onto the table, charging down the length of it and tackling into Reginald's chest. The force of impact sent the rabbit, Reginald, and the chair tumbling backwards and onto the ground. In a moment that appeared to pass in slow motion (it may have been the most dramatic thing to happen all day), Reginald's glorious green hat fell from his head and rolled to a stop against a chair leg some distance away.

Reginald stared after it in pure anguish until the March Hare shook him a bit to recapture his attention. "The hell do you think you're doing?" shouted the poor unsuspecting victim, completely bewildered by this attack upon his person.

The March Hare paid him no attention, crouched on his chest and holding Reginald by his shirt. "What did you do to Alice, you fiend?" he demanded, sounding slightly, well, mad.

"I…have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," he answered honestly, brows furrowed. 'Usually I'm the one ranting while Ears looks confused. What is this world coming to?'

March shook his head, not believing a word that came from his eccentric friend's mouth. "Oh no. I know you did something, you shameless womanizer! How else could you explain what I heard from Briar Rabbit at the market today, hmm?"

Reginald, having grown tired of being manhandled by a bunny a third of his size, pushed March off quite forcefully. The two rarely pulled punches when squabbling.

"Perhaps I'd be able to enlighten you," he groused as he sat up, attempting to straighten out his collar. "If you would tell me what the hell is going on?" March also got back to his feet, still glaring at Reginald through narrowed eyes.

"My dear cousin saw fit to inform me that you and Alice have a date planned for this Friday." Before Reginald could reply, the hare continued. "He implied- quite clearly- that a great deal of harassment went into convincing her to agree."

Reginald shot to his feet in offended rage. "That is completely untrue!" Stooping to grab his hat, Reginald stormed off around the table and randomly selected an overly plush armchair to collapse upon in an indignant huff. "The nerve of some people," he growled. "Honestly, it's shocking what people will say when overcome by helpless jealousy."

March, who had been following Reginald's (predicted) response fairly well up to that point, startled. "Jealousy?" he began incredulously.

Before he could continue, his rather insane companion cut him off. "But of course," Reginald cried, gesturing dramatically with both arms. "The other, sadly-unattached people of Disneyland cannot help but envy a relationship as lovely as my darling Alice's and mine."

He fully believed every word he said, imagining the characters of Disney (And there are some who do not speak so well of Reginald. A few can be quite scathing with their gossip and the Mad Hatter makes an easy target…) as poor men and women forced to live lonely in a cruel world.

The March Hare however scoffed, knowing full well that his friend was not mocked out of jealousy. Still, he couldn't find it in himself to pop Reginald's idealistic bubble.

With a resigned sort of sigh, March seemed to accept that Reginald had not forced his sweetheart to submit to a dinner date. Sinking into a chair across the table, he reached wearily for a cup of tea. He had run all the way from the market to his home without stopping. Crisis averted, he just wanted to rest. Before he could pick up and enjoy a relaxing drink, Reginald leapt to his feet with an excited shout of "Clean Cup, Clean Cup! Move down!"

"Oh, for the love of…" March heaved himself up sullenly, moved one seat to the left and sat once more, ears drooping in exhaustion. Reginald, on the other hand, dashed seven places down and threw himself into a lime green rocking chair.

Which promptly rocked all the way over from the force of impact.

Reginald was quite bewildered to find himself on the ground for the second time that afternoon. Then he quickly shot to his feet, nervously glancing around in the hopes that no one had seen that. March caught his eye, one brow raised as if to question his intelligence.

Reginald's clever response was to stick out his tongue.

Rather than right the fallen chair, he ignored the treacherous piece of furniture and sat in the slightly plain chair beside it. "As I was saying," he began, attempting to pick up as though nothing had just happened. "My Cricket and I made a deal, and we shall be dining out this Friday evening."

He nodded decisively, trying and failing to keep the elated grin from his face.

March sighed, wanting details, but at the same time dreading the overly excited, ridiculously embellished story that Reginald was apt to tell him. Instead, he offered a sleepy "Congratulations," and sank back in his chair to enjoy his tea.

The pair managed to maintain a period of peaceful quiet for a while. The March Hare dosed off while Reginald absently stirred his tea and daydreamed of a date with his lovely Ms. Liddell. As he mentally ran through the possibilities, a horrifying thought occurred to him.

He shot to his feet with a desperately deranged cry of "Eeeaaaars!"

His poor furry friend jolted awake with a start, looking blearily around with alarm as he replied, "Dear Lord, what?"

Reginald, in a peak of dramatics, climbed over the table rather than waste time walking around it. "Ears," he whined as he went. "Ears, Marchy, March, buddy, pal, friend." Finally making it to the right side of the table, he bounded over to the March Hare and grabbed onto his shoulders.

"I…" he began, face twisted in terror. "Have nothing to wear."