Hello, and welcome to my first non-Yu-Gi-Oh related story! At least that I've published: I've got a LOT of unpublished/unfinished fanfics, most of them needing to be re-written. You shall see them eventually, but for now, we shall focus on this one.

I got the idea for this oneshot when I was observing Mallymkun's character and being a hopelessly romanticizing fangirl that I admit I am. I figured that all those grump-moments directed at Alice were merely her letting her jealousy show through. I feel sorry for the poor creature, but I still ship TarrantxAlice. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Alice in Wonderland and its characters belong to Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton, but most definitely not to me.

To be perfectly fair, Mallymkun hadn't hated Alice when she first saw her. She had thought she was the wrong Alice, yes, a little stupid for standing up to an angry bandersnatch, maybe, but she hadn't hated her. She was even willing to protect her from the great galumphing beast and hide her from the knave of hearts.

That was before the Hatter invited Alice to ride on his hat and left Mally behind.

At that moment, a great, ugly Green Monster awakened inside Mally and threw such a fit that she wasn't sure that she could contain it. But contain it she did, although not without releasing some of the monster's rage against the Alice occasionally. It was only a small amount each time, so she only came across as grumpy or – dare she say it – a sourpuss.

She began studying the Green Monster the moment it first appeared. There were several reasons, she saw, that this monster had been released. The first reason that presented itself was how uppity Alice acted. One minute she was ordering Mally, McTwisp and the Tweetles around like she was the queen of Underland, and the next she was running away from her Underland-given duty like a cowardly dog (no offense meant to Bayard of course – he was truly a hero among dogs).

The most prominent reason that seemed to be fueling the monster was in the way that the Hatter looked at Alice when he thought no one was looking, or even when he knew people were looking. His face lit up like he was a child with free reign on the Queen's tarts. Mally wasn't the only one who had noticed his glee: she was sure that Queen Mirana knew (because Mirana knew everything), and she had caught the Cheshire Cat winking at the Hatter behind Alice's back.

However, what really burned Mally up – what really got the monster screaming with fury – was the way Alice had just left when all was said and done. To be sure, Mally would have been delighted or even overjoyed to see the Alice go on an ordinary day (or what passed for one in Underland), but Mally had seen the Hatter ask her to say, and still she had drank the Jabberwocky's blood, the slurvish, ungrateful wench! The Hatter had been offering more than just a place for Alice to live – he had been offering himself as well. And she had just left as if his love meant nothing to her.

Love. Did Mally really think that the Hatter was in love with the Alice? No, no, of course not! It wasn't love, but merely an affection that would soon go away as Alice stayed Aboveground longer and longer. Deep within, the rational bit of Mally's thinking told her that this wasn't so, but she tended to ignore that bit of her brain as often as possible. After all, what was the use of being mad if you were going to be rational about it?

Lately she had been telling these thoughts and feelings to – of all creatures – the Cheshire Cat, who always listened with a big, almost mocking grin on his face, only commenting when he thought necessary, like when Mally had told him what she had thought of Alice leaving them all. "Now really," he had said in that irritatingly posh voice of his, "You have to look at this from Alice's point of view. Suppose you were dragged Aboveground and told that it was your duty to slay some great scary beast when you had never had any battle training. Wouldn't you much rather go home too?"

Mally had merely grumbled and refused to reply.

However, today she wasn't talking with Chess, but with the Hatter himself. Or rather, not really talking, but sitting beside him at the tea table as he became gloomier and gloomier. The man seemed to almost have a blue tint about him he was so depressed. At last, Mally could stand it no longer and said gruffly, "Would you just forget about her already?"

The Hatter started, as if awaking from a dream, and turned his big green eyes in her direction. "Forget about whom, may I ask?"

She scrunched up her nose at him. "Don't you give me that, you know exactly who I'm talking about: forget about Alice!"

He blinked in surprise, and then frowned. "Why ever would ah do tha'," said he, his brogue showing through his speech, "She's th' champion o' Under—"

"She left you behind, Hatta'," Mally broke in angrily. "She left us all behind! She cares more about her stupid Londonplace than she does you, and she always will! You'd be better off finding someone else to care for than mooning over her for the rest of your life!"

"Someone like me…" she thought to herself.

But the ginger merely shook his head. "Oh no, Mally, you don't understand," he said, a lisp replacing his brogue. "See, Alice promised that she'd come back, and Alice never breaks a promise, although she did break the one where she said that she couldn't slay the Jabberwocky, but really that was an okay promise to break because it mean that Underland was saved, and besides that she's got so much muchness in her that I doubt that she could break a promise to anyone even under pain of—"

"HATTA'!" Mally said sternly, noticing that he was getting a bit worked up.

"…Of…" the Hatter said in a strangled voice, before saying in a very meek voice, "I'm fine…"

Mally rolled her eyes at his obvious not-fineness and took a half-hearted bite of a nearby scone. "Really, Hatta', you yourself said that she won't remember you, what makes you so sure that she'll come back?"

Now his face took on a look that was so serious that it startled her. "Because she said she would."

She gave an impudent sniff and took a sip of her tea. It wasn't fair – why did her Hatter have to spend so much time thinking about a flimsy twit whom he barely knew? Mally had been by his side almost since she was a suckling babe, and he never looked at her the way he looked when he was thinking of Alice. That was all Mally really wanted: for the Hatter to look at her with all of the affection he was giving Alice in his head and for him to say, "Sod on Alice, you're the one for me, Mallymkun!"

"Hatter?"

The Hatter's eyes lit up and Mally's heart dropped into her stomach at the sound of that all too familiar voice invading their trains of thought. They both slowly turned to face the owner of the voice and caught sight of a tangled mess of blond hair.

"Hello, Hatter." Said Underland's champion.

The Hatter stood up to greet her, but Mally couldn't move a muscle. It was as if her limbs were made of lead. She could feel the Green Monster, who had previously been dormant until now, furiously devour her insides.

"Is it truly you, Alice?" asked the Hatter, his voice full of awe.

Alice nodded, looking a little nervous. "Yes, Hatter, it truly is, and this time I'm here to stay. I'm sorry I took so long to—"

She was interrupted by the Hatter, who had swept her up into a bone-crushing hug. "You remembered me…" he said softly and joyously.

Alice smiled and hugged him back. "Of course I did, how could I forget?"

Suddenly, as quickly as it had first appeared, the Green Monster just died. Mally could now see that she had been fooling herself. Hatter didn't just harbor affections for the Alice; he was most definitely in love with the Alice. He had never belonged to Mally, and now he never would. The space that the Green Monster had had taken up inside her was now a lake of sorrow.

"Oh Hatta'," she thought, fighting the tears that were trying to force their way out of her eyes, "why couldn't you have fallen for me?"

Afternote; And now I have an ache in my shoulder from sitting up straight and typing so long. Hopefully this will be worth it.

While I'm here, I'd ask that you all send up prayers for my brother, who broke his collarbone during karate a few days ago, and has been couch-ridden ever since. He's doing better, but he's still in quite a bit of pain.

Also, if you like Yu-Gi-Oh or have read any of my previous stories, I ask that you vote on the poll on my userpage if you haven't already. The opinions would be greatly appreciated.

That's all for now – tootles!

~DaAmazingMeepers ^w^