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Every morning Alice woke long before Hatter. She lay in bed beside him for a time and watched him sleep. Hatter's hair was ruffled from turning in his sleep. This was the only time of day when it seemed he wasn't in constant motion. She knew that as soon as he awoke, he would take his hat from where it hung on the bedpost and put it on his head.
His coat was tossed over an arm of the couch. As she did every morning, Alice stopped to check the breast pocket to see if the wallet she'd given him was still tucked inside it. It was still inside of. She checked it for the oyster money he insisted he didn't need, but she gave him just in case, and a card with her number and an explanation that Hatter was just 'special'. She'd put the card in his wallet, not that he was inclined to carry a wallet, so that someone would know to call her if something happened to him. Alice checked for it every morning, and every morning it was there.
She moved into the kitchen to start her breakfast. Pizza boxes from the night before were blocking the coffee maker, so Alice set them on the tiny kitchen table to go out into the trash when she left for work. She had to fiddle with the coffee maker before it agreed to brew anything.
"Worse than your oyster tea," Hatter announced on after grabbing her cup of coffee and downing half of it before she could react on what was their first official date. His proclaimed dislike for coffee didn't keep him from stealing her mug most mornings of the week.
Alice sat on the counter as she waited for the coffee to brew. There was no room for a chair in the kitchen, so they had both become accustomed to sitting on the shallow counters.
They, or rather Alice, had moved into this apartment shortly after they had reunited in this world. It was tiny and all she could afford. There wasn't much to the apartment: kitchen that could barely fit the two of them, a bedroom where the bed took up almost all of the room, a bath, and a decently sized living room.
Hatter came and went. He still ran the teashop in Wonderland. There was no way she could convince him to give up Wonderland anymore than he could convince her to give up this world. Most of the time she didn't notice him go. He would return to Wonderland while she taught and would be back napping on the couch by the time she made it home.
The coffee maker clicked off and snapped Alice out of her thoughts. She retreated to the living room with her usual breakfast of yogurt and coffee just in time to watch Hatter stumble out of the bedroom.
"Morning," he mumbled. As usual, he wasn't wearing anything but a pair of boxers and his hat. Hatter he cornered her in the kitchen doorway for a morning kiss. When he stepped away he lifted her coffee cup to his lips and took a long sip.
Alice shook her head and went to pour another cup.