Hello, here is another story and another leap into the Once Upon A Time In Wonderland fandom for me. I really enjoy the Alice/Cyrus relationship and this is my spin on how they got together pre the series. If you like it then please leave a review.

I expect this story to be ten chapters each with a different point of view and while i do take some liberties (for example Cyrus being in Wonderland before some years ago and Alice's background and surname) most of this should be related to the scenes that we do see in the flashbacks such as when Alice and Cyrus first meet.

Disclaimer-Nothing in here is mine all of it belongs to someone else.

And please do let me know what you think, i hope to have another chapter up soon.

If You Really Love Someone

The story of how Alice and Cyrus fell in love as told by both of them during those months in Wonderland before their adventures, before the Red Queen and before Jafar. Told from both point of views.

Chapter 1-Cyrus-The Becoming

Events-Cyrus in the aftermath of Alice becoming his new mistress, their first night together and the stirrings of something believed to be long dead.

He couldn't stop looking at her. Little glances whenever he thought she wasn't looking at him, occasionally stumbling like a fool so that she would reach out and touch him just that little bit more. If his brothers were here they would laugh at him right now…trying so desperately to not pretend that in the few short moments since this girl…no this woman (because that was undeniably what she was) had stumbled into his life he had been so desperately affected.

But she was without a shadow of a doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. He had over the course of his centuries as boy and genie more than his fair share of sexual relations. This was not his first mistress and he had regarded them as something in his contract. Something that meant he didn't have to go back in his bottle for one night. He did not believe that there had been any discussion of feelings, all of them, the women before had been a means almost to an end that was never in sight.

But Alice…Alice was something else entirely. Alice was golden in a way that every other member of the female sex he had seen were a common mix of pewter and lead. When she had climbed through the bottle top he had noticed her beauty but it was when she had started speaking that her had noted how she simply shone.

Even now the concept of her using her three wishes and sending him onwards hurt more than he cared to admit and the relief that he had felt when she had declared herself unmarried was such that he had almost been alarmed by how quickly he had opened himself to her presence.

He swallowed again and decided to focus on walking. It would do no good for him to focus his attention on something that could not happen. Despite the fact that she was struggling to prove herself and he couldn't help but find that endearing he knew it would do no good to get attached. Soon he would be gone and she would be a memory that he suspected he would pull out at the darkest hours of the loneliest nights.

"So where should we go?" Alice said her voice like bells cutting through his musing. Cyrus was more than ashamed to say he jumped like some sort of lusting idiot but he couldn't help herself, she had brushed her hair forwards and a little bit of it was brushing his shoulders. He was suddenly gripped with the urge to touch it and had to force himself to remember that he was not a free man anymore-he was a slave almost to every whim this woman had.

Oddly enough however he found that rather appealing which really did just go to show how deluded he was sometimes. Being alone made him crave human company more and Alice…well he might have only just met her but she was turning out to be surprising him every second he was with her.

Then he realised that she was staring at him and he was staring at her with…well somewhat impure thoughts. He gave himself a mental kick and then forced himself to speak not really trusting himself to look her in the eyes but unable to deny himself another legitimate glance at the woman.

What was it about her that made her so breath taking? He had never felt like this before of that he was sure off and it was rather unnerving to say the least.

"I suggest we go to a little watering hole I know and…get to know each other more?" oh he could have kicked himself for that, he had tried to be chivalrous and yet somehow his attempt at romance had come across as awkward and old fashioned. Alice however did not seem bothered by this and nodded smiling that big wide smile again that made her eyes sparkle.

The Caterpillar's hole was a dark and dingy kind of place and Cyrus the last time he had been in Wonderland (and that had to be about one hundred years ago give or take a time frame that both he and Wonderland tried so desperately to ignore) had hated being there because everyone looked at him like an object to be taken at a whim. Genies were rare and therefore coveted and it was not the sought of place he wanted to go back willingly too but as far as drinking holes were this was one of the few that had a reputation for not killing the customers if they didn't pay.

He was right about the looks though. Alice was wide-eyed when she saw the people gathered there. He imagined that this was not the sought of place a little girl went to which had been the first time she had told him as they walked-she had come to this place. He dusted off a chair and held it out for her glaring at a couple of traders as they leered at them.

Again-this was not the type of place where…respectable women went alone.

Alice either didn't see the looks she was being given or she did a wonderful job of ignoring them. Cyrus got them both two glasses of wine and wondered how they should bring the conversation around to the wishes. He was basking in her company like a plant denied sunlight and he was sure that if she prolonged this…whatever this was (and he knew what this couldn't be he wasn't that arrogant) was over it would be marginally easier for him if she let him go now rather than keeping him stringing along desperate to lay down in the wake that was Alice.

"Sorry" he said sitting down finally. "Being a genie is a bit like being a wanted man"

"Everyone wants you" Alice said finally her smile just as bright. Cyrus nodded. Well, it wasn't that everyone wanted him it was that he suspected one person wanted him. He remembered the look of terror on his last masters face as he knew that something evil was stalking his lands looking for the genie that was granting wishes.

He nodded and then looked down at his hands. He had a sheet of magic paper picked up from one travel to another and he fumbled with it folding it to distract him from sinking into this conversation. He was so starved for this woman's touch and this woman's words that he knew his heart, so long closed and shrivelled was slowly becoming more and more open to the possibility that she might stay around with him as a companion and that he might enjoy that possibility.

He folded the paper intently. He had learnt a long time ago how to do it by memory and he found his fingers flying over the creases and the well-worn corners. While some masters had demanded he pay attention to the little intricacies that were there every demand some had just left him in a bottle and he had been forced to make his own amusement in order not to go completely mad with boredom.

He looked down realising he had been distracted. He had made a rose. Well he thought handing the paper over to a delighted smile that made his stomach do something very strange indeed and then he decided that they should leave. The Caterpillar was asleep but soon he would wake up and start smoking his pipe and then he would begin to notice his arrivals. Alice might not have crossed paths with him or perhaps she had-he didn't think it important enough to tell her but he knew from his own experience in Wonderland those many years ago that it was probably for the best that someone as stunning as Alice leave before the biggest trader in Wonderland woke up and wondered if there was anything worth selling for a price.

"Shall we go for a little walk?" he asked and then he remembered that it was polite to re-offer his arm again. He had been raised as a gentleman and unlike his brothers when it had come to the girls that he had grown up with he had been rigid in following the rules his long-gone Papa had taught him to abide by.

"Of course" Alice beamed. "But it's getting dark…err…do you have a place to stay I…I wasn't planning on being here long enough to stay but…I don't suppose you leave your bottle under a hedge most nights"

No he didn't and also…it had been a long time since he was out of the bottle. Most masters didn't want to draw attention to the fact that they had a genie for fear of reprisals and therefore more often than not Cyrus was back in the bottle most nights. This would be the first night where he had the chance of seeing the stars above the half purple skies of Wonderland and would be able to breath in a breeze instead of hot dusty air.

And anyway. Leaving a bottle under a hedge with both he and Alice in it was dangerous in the extreme. Plenty of people could pick it up and then they would be in real trouble. As soon as Alice made her wishes they could…he could be sent to another master and all would be well again or at least he would try to. Like he had already quickly learnt there was something about this woman that made his heart beat a little faster and the charm that he had relied upon for so long fail completely and utterly until he became nothing but a stuttering almost shell of a man.

But he had also never slept under the stars with a lady before.

Well, at least not a respectable one.

"I would like to sleep under the stars tonight if that is amendable to you?" Cyrus asked finally. "It is a rather warm night and while the woods might be dangerous I know of some places we can rest with a fire."

Alice was silent for a moment and Cyrus was sure that he had offended her. He could have kicked himself for all the good it would do. He might not know much about Alice's background other than the fact that her father was clearly some sort of idiot but she was clearly the type of woman that did not go sleeping in the woods on hard ground with a man that she had just met hours earlier.

He peeped at her wondering if she was angry. In truth she did not look it but Cyrus was unsure. He didn't have much experience with women to tell the truth.

"If you would prefer some shelter you could sleep in my bottle…" oh that did sound very wrong did it not? "I mean…err…if you wanted to sleep alone, I will guard it with my life"

Alice turned to look at him then her expression almost one of amusement. "I don't mind sleeping under the stars with you Cyrus" she said sweetly even as her cheeks flushed the most delightful shade of pink.

Cyrus's traitorous heart skipped a beat to that response. There was a pause where they stood there on the yellow pathway staring at each other and then Alice inclined her head and Cyrus remembered that as far as the woods were concerned he was the one that probably knew where they were going so he nodded and led them towards a dense thicket of trees where he knew it was safe from some of the more…unpleasant creatures that roamed these woods.

Alice smiled at him as she made herself ready for bed. They put the rabbit in the lamp which Cyrus took to mean that if he did make it out the bag his home would be ruined tomorrow but all thoughts of that went out of his head when he turned to see Alice lying down her legs crossed over her dress and her hands curled under her chin, her hair loose and flowing around her shoulders. Before he knew what he was doing he found his hand had reached out almost of his own accord and he could see it was close to touching Alice's hair.

He snatched it back feeling his cheeks burn, he didn't need to know he told himself sternly-how soft it felt under his fingers or what it would feel like to have it draped over his hand or weather or not it smelled like the paper rose he had given Alice.

Cyrus was ultimately his father's son and his father had raised him to have the utmost respect for woman, not to chase after them like a randy dog on heat. So instead he curled his hands into a fist and lay back and watched the stars twinkle in the half light purple and the half dark purple sky that was night time in Wonderland.

He thought he heard soft breathing beside him but he resolutely kept his eyes on the sky. He thought to himself that this was the first night that he was outside breathing in good clean fresh air for a long time but he couldn't enjoy…not really.

His heart, the long ago thing he had discarded when his own stupidity had cast him to this life gave another traitorous thud at the thought of the woman that would be his mistress.

Mistress Mine, he thought to himself ironically. Thy will is mine.

Cyrus was beginning to think when it came to Alice truer words had never been spoken.

And there it is. Next chapter will show some events from Alice's point of view.

Please review if you like.