Disclaimer: I don't own any part of it. If wishes were horses...

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Though she never thought she'd say it, she really sympathised with Blood right now.

As she sat in the forest, she could only imagine the horror the Hatter residence faced each meal-time, tables flooded by orange foods of all kinds.

Alice's vision however, was impaired not by the orange glow of cake and compote and cookies. No such diversity was afforded to her in her current predicament.

Yellow.

Yellow was all she saw. Pale yellow, bright yellow, and even the occasional cover of red, or streak of blue adorning the blinding amount of the sunny colour.

All the yellow that surrounded her was not some beautiful glowing mushroom display, not a new ride at the Amusement Park, which was long gone with the movement of the lands, or even some attack by the anti-militants trying to blind any moving creature before striking.

No, it was smelly, common, boring cheese. Every kind of cheese she knew, and a few that she had never seen in her world. Her former world.

Why? Why was Alice currently sitting in the middle of a mysterious forest surrounded by dairy products?

She had, out of pity or sheer boredom, agreed to eat lunch with Pierce Villiers, gravedigger and resident rodent Role-holder of Wonderland.

She had often spent some of her free time with him since the land had changed to Clover again. That is, when he wasn't being bullied by Boris, or carting around one of those 'presents' that seemed to constantly leave a red, wet trail to the Mafia head-quarters.

Alice blanched at the memory, and the faint stench that had emanated from the suitcases when she happened to pass him on those occasions.

The smell of parmesan cheese, just as noxious and invasive a smell as the packages the human rat carried, brought her back to the present time.

She could hardly comprehend how one person, half animal or not, could possibly think of eating only cheese, and such an amount.

Looking up, she noticed Pierce was not so much eating, as he was shovelling it down his throat, quickly followed by huge swigs of coffee from a thermis he had recently purchased. He was hungry and buzzing with caffeine. It was a vicious, messy cycle.

"Alice, have some cheese! It's delicious!"

Pierce's cheese-covered lips turned upwards, his hand holding one of the condiments out to Alice, a brand was unfamiliar with; Wonderland native cheese.

"Thank you, but I'll pass". Pierce did not seem upset by her decline, gleefully adding the offered sample into his already bulging mouth.

As grotesque as it was to witness, she understood why he ate at such a ravenous rate: he was constantly running around the forest, usually involuntarily. Not to mention the energy spent digging holes to dump murdered bodies in.

Alice thought it must be hard work being Pierce, so she would sit and wait politely. Always politely.

After a while, when the thermis was seemingly drained, and Alice's legs were starting to get cramped from staying seated for so long, transfixed with a morbid curiosity at how many times Pierce choked himself with food, one piece of cheese remained. Small, fragrant, tempting to Alice whom had not eaten since waking up that 'day'.

She knew Pierce's eating habits were to eat his least favourite foods first, and save the best until last, but having come accustomed to, and even enjoying the smell of the dairy smorgasbord that used to be there, she grabbed the petite chunk of mystery cheese while her rat companion searched through his rucksack for any forgotten morsels, and popped it into her waiting mouth, breaking her promise to herself to never accept any edibles from Pierce after the shrinking incident.

The taste was unusually sweet for a cheese, with a slight tang afterwards, that Alice found quite enjoyable.

Pierce, on the other hand, seemed quite distraught.

With mouth agape and eyes wide, one would think she had committed a horrendous crime. They only got bigger when she uncharacteristically licked her fingers, perhaps an unconscious means of bullying him.

He made it so easy to do.

"Sorry" was all Alice could get out, her mouth sticky with cheese.

Pierce's nose twitched reflexively. The smell of the cheese wafted from her breath to his heightened senses. Glazed eyes were the only thing she saw before he launched himself at her, quick reflexes used in sync with control. He barely managed to stop their heads from smacking together.

Before she knew it, a familiar, soft feeling brushed her lips, and an unwanted, but not entirely unpleasant foreign feeling broke the barrier of her mouth.

Only one sound was heard in the forest and Alice's hazy mind at that moment.

"Chu"

Pulling away, Pierce took the last gulp of his coffee, which always seemed to have just enough left over, and proceeded to pick up the many wrappers and labels that had been torn off the foodstuffs before they were unceremoniously devoured.

Alice, still in a little shock from the personal invasion, quickly grabbed the wrapper that was nearest to the cheese she just ate, shoving it in her pocket, her hidden treasure trove where she kept her vial.

Now it held two objects that had memories of surprise kisses with. She really must be a masochist.

On the good side, her mouth was now free of the sticky remnants of cheese.

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Another done. Please review, hope it was true to character!