A Mad Tea Party For Three

Nicholas Hatter was dragged out of the room by his good friend, just right on time at that. It felt like he was about to have been killed by the Queen's intense gaze. He gave his friend a relieved grin. "Thanks Mal!"

"Not so fast—y'er not off the hook!" His friend narrowed her eyes at him, "Explain how the person who wanted y'er head off is now in my quarters?"

"Well, it's actually a long story—"

"Mallory why am I seeing the Queen of Hearts?!" A shout erupted from within the room.

The woman tsked as she opened the door, "Don't get your knickers into a twist, Harold!" One could already see his good old friend practically hiding behind the door, a wide berth between him and the Queen. As if the block of wood was enough of a shield.

Nicholas bit back his chuckling. At least he didn't have that big of a scream. Still his stomach churned at the sight of the woman sitting in one of the furniture that he and his friends would sit at.

Why exactly was the Queen of Hearts alone and ended up at his shop at that?

If she wanted him dead, she could have at least brought her very scary Knight. That ought to have done him in. Not that he wanted that.

. . .

Rosalyn Lockhart cleared her throat—well she had tried to shut the man up with a stern gaze but it hadn't worked. Now when the woman who had welcomed her in, when she walked back in with an angry look on their face...well that was the time that this Harold quieted down.

He quieted by just a small bit.

"Couldn't ye at least calm down instead of screeching our ears off?" The woman, Mallory rubbed her ear as she glared at the much larger man before her. She then turned to her and bowed, "Sorry bout that, Your Majesty. This lout is scared of Royalty—"

"Just her! Mallory, she's the one who had ordered Nicholas head off!" The man was clutching the woman's collar, he was shaking her while hiding behind her at the same time. "She's the reason why he's been hiding and staying low ever since!"

Rosalyn Lockhart blinked and found herself wanting to point out several things why this man could shut his mouth off. But she also took note of a lot of things. Her gaze flitted to the Hatter… so his name was Nicholas? 

"If you keep yapping my ear off—I'd do the Queen here a favor and cut y'er head off myself!" The woman rubbed her forehead, obvious displeasure apparent in their face. "Quiet down, the tenants here will complain again."

From one woman to another… Rosalyn Lockhart could feel the burden of having such a man at their side.

But if things were really going to be as tumultuous as this... she once again cleared her throat, "If things don't settle down here, I may need to get myself to the Castle of Hearts. I feel like I have intruded on your goodwill and hospitality too much."

She could kick them out of here if she truly wanted to do so.

Mallory sighed, "Your Majesty, if ye could do so it would be a kind gesture. But from the look of things… my friend Nicholas just wouldn't bring you here without good reason."

The woman was reasonable to say the least.

"I suppose, your friend had brought me here to save me. Some people have attempted to harm me." The Queen of Hearts weighed her words carefully as she did so, gazing at the woman in front of her.

Mallory's brows knotted together, "An attempted assassination—" Her gaze went from her to the Hatter. "Why you little!"

"Like I told Her Majesty before, I'm not that mad enough to ignore a woman about to be attacked." The Hatter tipped his hat, or at least if his hat had still been there. "Or attack her myself at least."

Rosalyn Lockhart felt her cheeks color. Her own Knight had beheaded her before, who was she to not be prepared for another similar occasion to arise? Or for her to think otherwise for another person? She felt her assumptions were the only clear and logical one to have.

"Alright, so our Queen here got attacked and ye saved her. Now she's here… so what's the proper course of action?" 

"Do we hold a tea party?"

"No, Harold. We don't hold tea parties because somebody nearly got killed." 

"But you served her some tea, why can't I have some?"

"Those are refreshments."

"...They're different?"

Choosing to ignore the two people bantering back and forth, Rosalyn Lockhart chose to dwell on something else. This Hatter had risked his life to save her… did that equate to friendship?

She tried to recount what Mary Ann had told her before, there and then she tried to slap a hand over her forehead. Was she really determining what friendship meant by someone else's words?

Couldn't she that before her very eyes?

The three before her seemed to be good friends, the amiable air around them despite the ongoing dispute. Rosalyn Lockhart pursed her lips as she thought about it at the moment.

If these things were so...was she truly friends with Catherine Duke? The two of them had talked and discussed things on occasion. What about her favorite knight, Julius Ginellevé? The man had always saved her and did everything to please her for as long as she could remember. Could she count on him as her friend?

And even if that were the case, even if the answer was yes to both of them...

She still wanted to befriend more people. Especially the ones right before her, but the question that made her flounder for a moment was… "How?"

The three people in front of her paused. Or rather Mallory stopped first and glanced at her and the other two followed suit as they gazed into her direction.

Had she said it aloud?

"How are the three of you such good friends?" She frowned and stared at them. Rosalyn Lockhart wasn't stupid enough to ask such an embarrassing question as 'How do you make friends?' Instead she opted for this one. "I cannot grasp how this could possibly happen without one of you wanting the other's head cut off. Or perhaps your own head cut off."