Whatever!

His hands were jammed in both pockets of his lab coat. He sighed, continuing to twirl the test tube in his pocket. Honestly, all he noticed was the lips moving on the small white rabbit in the double-breasted coat decorated with hearts. The Cheshire Cat looked over to the Duchess sitting in the thrown next to where he stood. It wasn’t like she were invested in administering proper health care for Wonderland residents either.

Why did he have to be human today? Well, he did need thumbs to carry out his experiments. It was a disappointment that his only engaging activity was interrupted by a summoning.

“I’ll think about this later,” the Duchess waved her hand towards the furry creature.

The brow on the white rabbit furrowed. “Later? Madam, my Queen requests that we borrow the knowledge of the Cheshire Cat-”

A breath escaped his lips before quickly shifting into his feline form and sized up the rabbit in front of him. “You know that I am not Duchess’s pet, little one.”

The white rabbit tensed. “Ah…” he started to rub his elbow. “Yes, you are quite right, sir.” He gulped. “Though we require the information from your experiments and that lies in the Madam’s territory.”

The cat rolled his eyes and merely grunted. If only he had his own land in this world!

The Duchess scoffed. “Yes, the cat can do what he wants.”

The cat turned back to the woman. Another sigh escaped again. She didn’t even bother to put up a fight? How boring.

“Fine,” the cat turned back to the rabbit. “Let the Queen of Hearts know that I will help her, but I request that I have a lab in Heart territory as well.”

“Ah!” the rabbit shrunk. “I-I will try to see that it works that way.”

He didn’t bother to walk the rabbit out the castle. Instead, he popped right into his lab in his human form. The Cheshire Cat reached into his pocket to place the test tube into the centrifuge. He examined the purple liquid ensuring that none of the sample escaped its seal. The human-like cat placed the tube in one of the holes of the lab equipment. His lab assistants in their light blue lab coats leaned over each other. He looked towards them realizing that they weren’t away of his presence. They knew he was a stickler to completely his experiments in a timely manner, so would not have dared to gossip with each other.

“He’s back, you know?”

“The cat?” The assistant looked around finding nothing. The cat managed to turn invisible before his assistants noticed his arrival.

“No! The Hatter.”

“The Mad Hatter? He’s been missing for decades!”

It was nothing new. The Cat knew that the Hatter would return someday. He had done it before, so he would do it again. It’s not like he could spice up the lull across Wonderland. The Hatter would most likely go about his previous activities, sipping tea and pretending that his territory meant something him. He went about his task to level out the centrifuge. He took another tube and placed a liquid of equal volume and placed it in the hole across the test tube with purple liquid.

“Oh, but I heard that he brought a girl with him.”

Oh? Did Alice come back? That would interesting. He and the Caterpillar did enjoy teasing the Hatter for having a crush on the foreigner.

“At first I thought it was her, you know that girl he left Wonderland for.” He waited for a response from the other assistant but didn’t get any. She was busy trying to pipe samples into the trays in front of them and under the hood. “Well, it wasn’t. She definitely didn’t smell like her, but you know, they’re oddly similar.”

That’s new. The Hatter brought a woman who wasn’t Alice.

The Cat placed the lid of the centrifuge down and pushed the start button. His assistants looked back a the contraption realizing that their boss was in the lab. Their eyes widened. The Cheshire Cat appeared, instilling a jolt to their tremoring bodies, leaning against the hood.

“Where did you see the Hatter?”

The male assistant’s shoulders dropped, but only an inch. He still had to be on alert because he wouldn’t know if would still be reprimanded for his gossip session with his lab partner. “Ah…”

“Spit it out,” he crossed his arms. “Before I shrink you and put you into a centrifuge as well.” The Cheshire Cat didn’t have those capabilities, but he did want to leave an air of mystery and his dominance over his poor assistants.

“He was in the caterpillar forest!” The assistant blurted out.

“Good boy,” his signature grin appeared, curling from ear to ear.

The color in his assistants’ face drained. They hadn’t seen that mischievous grin in years, and usually when it did, they received a punishment that lead to night sweats. Cheshire chuckled. His laugh billowed throughout the entire lab, even shaking the floor beneath them.

“Go,” he waved at his assistants. “I’m going to have a good night tonight and you two deserve one too.”

They were quiet. The female of the two snapped out of her trance. She tugged at her partner. They had to accept his offer to give them the night off before the Cheshire Cat rejected them. The two quickly got off from their seats and removed their gloves in a flash. They quickly dashed out of the lab ready to have their first night of relaxation since they started their job many decades ago.

The Cheshire cat popped up beside the centrifuge when it signaled the end of its spin. He took the test tube, plopping it in the freezer, before taking his own leave.

The cat didn’t have any difficulty unveiling the gossip behind his lab assistants’ meaningless conversation. He knew all there was to know about everyone in Wonderland. It was his business. They were his future specimen. The Chesire cat wondered about the different territories out of sight and without the knowledge of the residents. He discerned so many possibilities of why the Mad Hatter brought along his companion. Perhaps the Hatter brought back Alice, but in a new form. They were secretive of their return because the poor girl wanted to avoid any questions about her appearance. Another, which the Cheshire cat believed more, was that the Hatter had a new replacement for Alice. He wanted to show the new toy a piece of his history. The Mad Hatter was always a sentimental man.

It wasn’t hard to locate the Hatter and the new girl. He had a combination of tricking the protectors of the caterpillar forest, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, into revealing any disturbances and his ability to pop in and out of place in Wonderland. The cat found them traversing the forest towards the caterpillar’s lair. Oh, but why were they going to the Hatter’s sworn enemy? Well, after himself of course. The Cheshire cat and the Hatter never got along because the cat devoured his dormouse servants.

He watched them from a distance in the brush of the thin and tall trees. Interesting. The Hatter was a changed man. Well, physically anyway. He lacked his signature hat with daffodils and sweet peas or his white coat. He instead wore a sheer textile over his shoulders. The girl… well, he could understand why the idiotic gossips mistook this girl for their former guest. She had blonder hair, but much shorter than Alice. This girl was much shorter in stature and dressed much differently. Alice wore blue dresses. This one wore green and black.

The Hatter shouldn’t mind if an old friend stopped him right?

The Cheshire cat appeared on a branch above their heads in his feline form.

“Oh…” he caught the Hatter’s attention. The Chesire Cat was immediately met with a glare as sharp as a knife. “So the rumors are true.”

“Get away, Cat!”

His lips curled at its ends as the Hatter pulled out his curved sword, pointing towards the cat above him. The girl quickly looked over at her companion, a dumbfounded expression over her features.

“You’re fighting a cat? Really?!” his friend threw disdain at him.

The Hatter rolled his eyes and turned back to her. His arm didn’t move from its defense and still pointed it to the cat. The cat tilted his head. When he use to approach Alice and the Hatter, the man would always reach out to the girl and use his body as a shield. Instead, Hatter extended a hand at the woman, signally her not to move.

“This is no ordinary cat, Belle.”

“Belle?” a giddiness tickled the cat’s chest. A warmth began to envelop his body as his smile grew wider.

This girl was definitely not Alice. What was she to the Hatter? A play thing? A servant?

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. She pointed at the cat. “It-it-it-it talked!”

“Again,” the Hatter signed. “It is no ordinary cat. And I already told you this place is not like your home, woman. Things don’t make sense here.”

The Cheshire cat wanted to laugh, but he feared he could have scared Belle away. HIs cackle had the effect of getting Wonderlandians to scurry away. He wanted more time to learn of the Hatter’s return and his very intriguing, new friend.

He jumped down, now appearing in front of her in his human form.

The Hatter turned around quickly, ready to attack. The cat raised his hand and snickered at the man.

“Now, now, that’s no way to introduce your guests, Mad Hatter.”

“Mad Hatter?” The name rose from Bell’s throat in a question.

“Oh, right. She must know you as Santiago.”

“Cheshire, leave my business be.”

“You in Wonderland is my business.”

He turned to Belle. “Now, Ms. Belle, my name is Cheshire cat.”

“Wait… you’re the cat?! How did you-”

“Questions are my favorite thing in this world,” he smiled before taking her hand in his. The cat raised it up to his lips and gave it a small peck. “Would you like to join me for dinner tonight, dear Belle?”

The Mad Hatter grabbed the girl by the shoulder. Her eyes widened as she was pushed into his chest. Belle looked up at the stern tea lover with a sigh of relief. Oh? Are the feelings one sided again?

“Leave us, Cheshire,” the Hatter growled.

“Well,” The Cat sighed. “I guess this is adieu, Belle.” He loved how the name rolled of tongue. “I’ll let the Hatter show you around Wonderland. I do hope you’ll make time for me to show my territory.”

Belle nodded at the humanized cat. “Sure…”

The Mad Hatter pulled at her hand. “We’re going!”

The Cheshire cat watched as both stalked off towards the end of Caterpillar Forest. Wonderland was about to get more interesting.