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T’was a mimsy morn in which Kitty Cheshire found herself laying despondent, wakefulness from her catnap sneaking upon her. Her characteristic slithyness was nowhere to be found, no matter how high or low she searched for it in the ensuing hour. With a distinct un-smile, she slipped In-Between, surroundings becoming more wobbly gray and water-wavery than the dawn light, and skulked on top of an eight-story bookshelf. There, curling on her side, she attempted to recapture sleep in her claws, but it evaded her clutches.
The silence shrouding the library was torn by the scissor-sharp sound of heels on stone tiles. The cavernous room’s wide dual-doors wailed open, allowing entry to a Step-Librarian and a squad of determined cleaning pixies. Wrinkling her nose when a feather duster passed through her stomach, Kitty batted at the offending object, turning her fingertips tangible just long enough to knock it out of the pesky pixie’s pestering hand. Ignoring their confuzzled chitters, she air-swam to the reliably undisturbed roof and popped back into Reality, shivering off the jelly sensation of too long a time spent in shadows.
With a deep breath, Kitty yowled long and hard at the retreating stars, but remained unanswered.
chink
A protective-gloved hand emerged from the side of the school and stuck a dagger in the roof, its struggling human heaving himself onto the flat surface in its wake. Moments later, a whiff of peach-salt-cream reached Kitty, followed by a sweating Darling Charming.
“I win,” said a smug Chase Redford.
“Hmmph,” Darling stuck her tongue out at him. “I will choose an unchess match you can’t stand next weekend.”
“But you like rock-climbing,” Chase complained. “Oh, hey Kitty.”
Kitty hissed.
“Hairball?” Darling asked sympathetically.
“More like pathetically,” Kitty muttered.
“You good?” Chase gave her uncomfortably gooey eyes. “You don’t seem like yourself.”
“Who else would I be?” Kitty said disinterestedly, studying a chipped nail.
“You didn’t even try to scare us into almost falling on our way up,” Darling said, adding awkwardly liquid eyes to Chase’s itchy gaze.
“Do you want a cracked skull?” Kitty inquired. “Because I'd be happy to oblige.”
“Threats of physical violence?” Chase said. “You’re really not feeling it today, huh?”
“Breakfast isn’t for a while,” Darling said. “But the kitchen goblins give us free rein of the coffee machine if you want to join us for a hot drink.”
Kitty’s fingers twitched.
“Will there be frothed milk?” she asked reluctantly.
“Yep!” Chase gave her excited puppy eyes.
“Fine. See you there.”
Kitty restrained the urge to change her mind at the distinct sound of a high-five from behind her back.
No-effort-required warm milk was on the line after all.
- - - - - - -
Madeline Hatter woke to her old-fashioned alarm clock’s screeches about teatime. With a practiced flourish, she reached for the enchanted teapot balanced on her headboard and poured a hot stream of tea into one of the many scattered cups within reach. With a satisfied sip, Maddie turned to ask her roommate if she wanted any, only to not-find her.
“Where is she?” she asked the empty room, despite the fact that Kitty was either absent or asleep most mornings.
“Yes, but you’re usually not here to emphasize it.”
The Narrator did not address this, as to not affect the story more than they indirectly may have already.
- - - - - - -
Lizzie Hearts stared at the surface of her vanity’s looking glass, ensuring the neatness of the painted heart round her eye and the precise-ness of her eyeliner. As the closest thing to Wonderland’s representative in Ever After (ignoring the White Queen), she had to make sure there were no superficial faults on her person to be shallowly critiqued by idle gossips.
Blondie had her flaws, but at least she wasn’t focused on looks .
With a sniff, Lizzie turned from the mirror, satisfied.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the vainest of them all?” the nasal tones of Duchess Swan asked.
Lizzie ignored her uncaffeinated roommate, as she elected to do every morning of endured Grumpiness™. Pocketing a tube of lipstick for post-breakfast application, the heir to Wonderland adjusted her heavy crown one last time before donning a pair of black lace gloves and marching off to the castleteria.
A distinct lack of cats and hatters led to Lizzie setting down her tray on an unoccupied table, not in the mood for Ever Afterlings so early in the day, and not wishing to intrude upon Alistair’s and Bunny’s sleepy cuddle session.
“Hey,” said the familiar voice of Darling Charming. “Mind if we sit here?”
The White Knight was accompanied by the Red one, as well as a certain Cheshire.
“I suppose you’re an honorary Wonder Worm,” Lizzie conceded. “Very well.”
Darling didn’t even look thrown by the statement.
This was why she was more tolerable than most of her world-fellows.
“What have you been up to?” Chase asked.
“Ignoring Duchess,” Lizzie responded. “You?”
“Losing at croquet,” Kitty smirked.
“You played without me?”
“You were sleeping.”
Lizzie growled, but bit back the instinctive cry of ‘off with your heads!’.
“Where is Maddie?” is what she settled on instead, as Alistair and Bunny deigned to join the rest of them.
“A riddle begging to be solved,” Alistair announced.
Everyone seated at the table groaned.
- - - - - - -
“There you are!” Bunny said at the sight of Maddie sitting calmly in the Wonderland Grove.
“Told you,” Alistair said, smug as a bug in a rug.
He had dragged his breakfast companions (minus the knights) behind him on a March Hare-brained quest throughout all of Maddie’s usual haunts, but was triumphantly beamish at finding her at last.
“I knew you’d all pass through here eventually,” Maddie explained. “And I was worried about Kitty, so I stopped by Dad’s shoppe first.”
She gestured to the spread on the table before her; sour cherry scones and chocolate chip cookies, thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches and mini-quiches, whipped butter and sticky jam, and, of course, a cozy-covered pot of still-hot charmblossom tea.
“How thoughtful,” Bunny spoke in her soft voice, and Alistair’s heart warmed.
Kitty rolled her eyes.
“I’m fine,” she insisted uffishly.
“Well, I wanted to do something nice for you guys, anyway.”
“Bleugh.”
But Kitty sat at the table for second breakfast with the rest of them.
- - - - - - -
Bunny was content, sunbathed and full. With no classes to get to, she rested in the shade, listening to the leaves rustling up above. Although it wasn’t resting beneath Tumtum trees, this was still one of the best starts to a day she’d had, hands up, because you better reach for the sky if you interrupted her and her friends.
And, tilting her head as though listening to something, Kitty…
Kitty grinned.