Fandom: Alice in Wonderland, 2010

Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland or any of the characters, who belong to their respective owners.

Note: Set during the movie, before the battle. Apologies for any OOCness. AlicexHatter.

Unsaid, Unspoken

Alice met the Hatter's eyes and she knew. Those wide green eyes, clouded with madness and jumbled logic, for a brief moment, cleared to sparkle brighter than the purest emerald.

Her breath caught in her throat.

It suddenly all made sense, and her heart wanted to break at the thought. Within the blink of an eye, the clarity-the truth of his heart-was shrouded once again with jumbled strings of memories and strands of events.

He gave her a toothy smile, as if to apologize for the moment, and her heart wanted to split even more in two at the sight. It was unsaid and unspoken, but to the knowing eyes of another it was all too obvious.

Her heart called for adventure but she also found herself curious to the could-haves and would-haves of a life different than what she imagined. What if she chose to stay here, with this man, this loving Hatter who saw her when even she couldn't see herself. He knew her when she knew not. What, after all, was logic, in a world full of the topsy-turvy.

She blinked away the tears budding in her eyes and locked up her heart with a key. On the eve of a battle, where she was unsure of what path she would chose to take, she couldn't open that jar of potentially dangerous and fearsome maybes.

Perhaps one day she would accept that maybe, but it would not be this night. Even if she dreamed of kissing him, and he kissing her back.

FIN