HOOKED MY HEART | CHESHIRE TEARS
Synopsis: As you continue your way into Wonderland, you discover that the mad man was mad but not a liar and that some heroic tampering had caused some unpredictable consequences
pairing: Hazel Hook x Daughter of the Cheshire Cat!reader
genre: Angst, hurt/comfort
warning: Chessy taunting, brief discussion of death and injury, finding out you weren't meant to exist, implied bad family dynamics (may also be outright bad family dynamics but I can't tell), other cliff hanger (I'm sorry)
Author's note: dude there's gonna be a part three for this it's a series now
I plan on writing a few requests before I wrap this one up so lets hope that it doesn't bite me in the ass and make me lose motivation
thank you to the people who have sent in Hazel requests (and the one person who sent in a pink one; your a real one) you guys are cooking with these ideas
You ended up crashing at the white rabbit's house for the night. According to Pink, it was fine because he was on vacation.
You had bigger concerns at the moment so you didn't ask questions.
The walk from the chess table had been long and very tense. Everyone decided it was better to stay together. None of the VKs knew your way around Wonderland and the HKs could use yours and Max's insight on Maddox and Chessy.
Didn't mean anyone liked it.
By the time you go to the house, you spilt off to your own areas.
Hazel had gone dead silent since the chess board. Max was also pretty quiet, and he still had Hazel's hook. Squeaky was pretty much himself.
"I'm going to get us some food." You announced after you all sat, staring at each other.
Heading down the stairs, you saw Luis and Pink making rather awkward small talk, dipped around Chloe sat on the stair case, apologising as you went past. Red was nowhere to be seen.
"You like… colours?" Pink asked him.
"Colours? Uh, yeah, I like them. I'm pretty fond of purple and green." He paused. "…and Pink."
A toothy grin appeared on her face when he said that.
You walked into the kitchen, finding Red looking through cabinets.
"Oh, sorry." You said. "I'll just—"
"Please don't." She said. "I can only find carrots."
You pivoted on your feet. "Okay."
You started looking throughout the kitchen. Turns out the white rabbit didn't own a fridge. or much else kitchen wise besides tea supplies, carrots and a pink lemonade tree.
Carrots would work but they weren't the most filling things in the world.
"I mean, I guess we could just eat carrots and tea and not die." You tried to joke.
"I'm sorry for using you as bait." Red said suddenly.
You paused, shutting the cupboard you were looking in and standing up to face her. "…Thanks for the apology?"
"I didn't mean to cause such a strife."
"Well, you did kinda throw me in front of an evil plant without warning."
"I thought it was the right call." Red sighed, not looking directly at you.
"In the end, it wasn't." You shrugged. "You also did it at the wrong time."
Red looked at you confused. "We went from pink accusing us of being Villain to the chess board. You still would've gotten an explosive reaction regards, but the way we get treated is getting on everyone's nerves." You explained.
Red sighed, thinking. "I know what it feels like."
"Do you really?" You asked. "You're an HK, not to mention one that grew up in a castle, with servants and what looks like a doting mother. That's a massive level of privilege that a lot of VKs dream of."
"Maybe not, but do you know what it was like on the isle?"
"Do you know how often people dying was on there?"
That managed to catch her off guard. "What?"
"We didn't exactly have doctors. A broken bone often led to life long struggles, A cold could mean death. Not to mention we were basically eating trash."
"Most people don't. In Auradon, empathy tends to only be given to people who are morally correct, at least in your eyes."
Red fell silent again. "That was really insightful."
"Wait until you hear my metaphor about barriers." You tried to lighten the mood a little, turning back to the cupboards. You grabbed on of the carrots and took a bite. You were pretty hungry at this point.
"Uh, Red." Your voice muffled by your mouthful, before you swallowed. "Did you realise this was cake?"
"You got to be kidding me." She deadpanned. "I was hungry this whole time for nothing?"
You laughed as you plated up the carrot cake. "I mean, you could've eaten it."
She playfully rolled her eyes.
You grabbed a few other things so that everyone had some food and went to head back to them, but Red stopped you. "We're good, right?"
"Uh, yeah, you could say that." You continued your way back.
When you reached the top of the stairs, you found Hazel waiting for you and Squeaky touching everything on a trinket table.
"Dinner has arrived." You chuckled, looking around. "Where's Max?"
"He went to play hero and get the Oraculum." Hazel sighed, taking the plate you held out for her.
"Why on earth would he think that was a good idea?" Your eyes went wide.
"If he led everyone into a trap, they'd think it was on purpose."
"So he walked into the possible trap completely alone?" You deeply sighed, rubbing a hand over your face.
You got so overwhelmed that you had gone full circle to completely calm. "It's fine. It's not like Maddox would try and kill him, right?"
Hazel stayed quiet, her lips in a thin line as she just looked at you.
"Don't do that. You being quiet makes it worse."
"I don't think Maddox's the problem." She admitted, before taking a bite of the cake. Her face lit up at the realisation it was cake.
You would've laughed at that. "You don't think…" You trailed off, your mind going to your sister.
"Look, I'm sure it's fine. Max's done this thing before."
You did not believe her words, but smiled at her anyways, moving closer.
"How are you feeling, though?" She asked, wrapping an arm around you. "About everything."
"Exhausted. It's just been one thing after another. No break, no breather, just everything thrown at your face. I never thought I'd say it, but I can't wait to be back in Auradon."
"At least we're not far now. Once Max returns, we'll go to the castle, make our deal and then we can go back to regular life. I remember being promised a date once we went back to school."
You laughed, making Hazel grin. "Thank you. For being here."
"I don't plan on stopping any time soon."
Waiting until Hazel was asleep, you tried to creep out of bed.
Hazel woke up. "Where are you going?" She muttered tiredly.
"Bathroom." You whispered. "I'll be back in a minute."
Hazel let go of her grip on you.
You quietly went down the stairs, walking past a sleeping Pink (who knows where Red, Luis and Chloe went) and went out the door.
Once that door was shut, you started running towards the general direction of the tower. You were taking a leap of faith with the actual location. You only visited twice and barely knew your way around Wonderland yet.
You found Max before you ever found the tower.
"Max!" You ran up to him. "Thank goodness you're okay."
"The pocket watch is real. Time travel is real." He said breathlessly.
A gasp escaped you. All this time, Maddox wasn't crazy. Obsessive, sure, but not insane.
The entire reason he was on the isle, the entire reason that Max's life had been put at such a disadvantage, was based in a reality that no one believed him about.
"I saw it. In the Oraculum. I saw my previous life. I was happy. My dad wasn't insane. He was proud of me." He told you, his face turning angry. "Red and Chloe caused this. They changed the timeline. Red took my life."
Your mind was reeling. This was insane to process normally, and here you were trying to do it on like no sleep and after everything else Wonderland had thrown at you. "Red had your current life before?"
"Her mum was the evil one."
You studied him. You didn't like the familiar look in his eye. "…with what?"
"I'm taking the pocket watch back. I'm getting my life back."
Your eyes widened. "Woah, that's a big thing to attempt here. Are you even sure if it can be reverted?"
"They can't just get away with this!"
"They shouldn't but who's to say reverting it won't make it worse?! You could mess with so many other people's lives, Max. You could mess with your friend's lives. We don't know what we're playing with here!"
"If you don't want to help, I'll find someone who will." He walked off.
"Max! Max!" You called out.
"Ruining a friendship over morals? Look at you, setting boundaries." Chessy appeared.
"What did you do?!" You demanded, whipping around at her.
"I just helped him see the truth." She walked around you. "You know, you could use with the same enlightenment—"
You charged at her, making her disappear momentarily, only for her grading voice to speak again. "You know that never works."
"Leave me alone!" You started to walk away.
"Come on, don't you wanna experience life that way it was meant to be? No Isle, No restrictions, No you—"
You stopped, her words ringing in your ears. "Oh, I said too much, didn't I?" She teased.
"You're lying." Your voice was so small that it made anything you said unbelievable.
"You should know better than anyone that I taunt, annoy, and tease but I never lie."
Your chest tightened. Your vision blurred.
You weren't meant to exist.
You only exist because two teenage girls played with a pocket watch.
All of that was true. And now one of your best friends was trying to revert back to a timeline where you didn't exist at all.
"Cool cool cool cool cool—" You just repeated as your chest began to heave.
Through your teary vision, you saw Chessy smile at you, and disappear again.
You let yourself drop to the ground, you breaths coming into short gasps as you tried to gather yourself.
You weren't going to just not exist. Unless Max actually reverted the timeline.
Were any of your memories actually real? This timeline was only created however long ago Red and Chloe returned.
Does Max actually know about this? Was he aware and decided that you weren't worth enough to keep the timeline?
Who else didn't exist before?
Why did your sister hate you so much?
Chessy appeared next to a half asleep Hazel. "Where's your girlfriend, hook? She didn't run away from you, right?"
Hazel shot up, fear running down her spine. How long has it been? She looked around, yelping when she saw Chessy's face three inches from hers as she turned her head.
"Piss off, Chessy." She barked, going to grab her hook but feeling an empty slot in her belt.
"A pirate without their hook?" Chessy laughed. "That's like a cat without their meow."
"Can't I just talk to my sister's girlfriend?"
"Such a shame. I thought you'd want to know where she is." She walked down the top of the loveseat that Hazel sat on.
"Stop taunting and spit it out then."
"If you want information then you're going to have to be nicer."
"I'm so sorry for being rude, my liege. Please, oh please tell me where my loving girlfriend is." Hazel said through a tense smile.
Chessy rolled her eyes. "You Hooks are so dramatic. Your brother always did this too."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean brother?"
Chessy laughed. "Don't you know? Maddox was right all along, and you, dear Hazel, used to have a brother."
"Go bother someone else with your bullshit." She turned away, going to slip on her boot to go and find you.
"You really don't want to know what your old life was like? Your real one?"
"No. Either tell me where [name] is or get lost."
Chessy rolled her eyes. "For being so insistent I'll tell you this; she's at Maddox's tower, having an existential breakdown." And with that, she smiled and disappear.
Hazel went silent, freezing for a moment. Before putting her boots on ever faster and rushing down the stairs.
Her heart beated in her ears. All she could think was that she needed to get to you.
No one else mattered to her right now. Nothing else mattered.
She went out the door, staring at the sickenly bright Wonderland, the realisation that she didn't know what direction to head in dawning on her.
She went back inside, her eyes laying on Pink's sleeping figure.
She felt bad, but Pink would want to help, right?
She went over, lightly shaking her should. "Hey. Wake up."
Pink jolted within the first few. "Huh? I'm up." She shot up, blinking bleary. "Why is it still dark?"
"Sorry for waking you, but I kinda need your help. Only if you want too."
A smile crept its way into her lips. "What do you need help with?"
"Is everything okay between you two?" Pink asked as they walked to the tower.
It had been quiet for the walk so far. Hazel and Pink weren't exactly friends, what were they going to talk about? The weather?
"Yeah. We're going along fine." Hazel answered, looking over to her. "Why?"
"Normally, people go off into the woods when they're anger with someone, don't they?"
"I guess normal people do." Hazel shrugged.
"Are you guys not normal people?"
Hazel shook her head. "Anything but, and I'm proud to be."
Pink nodded, looking almost solemn. "People don't seem to like abnormal things." She paused, glancing at Hazel. "Like Villains."
Hazel fell silent for a moment. "No, they don't."
Further up the path was you, almost jogging towards the white rabbit's house, ready to deliver the news of Max's change in mindset.
Your eyes were puffy and red from your tears as you willed yourself not to burst into another fit of them.
Trying not to panic about the truth of your existence wasn't an easy task but you had a feeling you had harder things to face soon. Right now wasn't about you, it was about helping Max out of his blinded rage.
Everything else would have to wait.
Having your name being called brought you out of your thoughts in time to see Hazel run towards you. You didn't have enough to prepare for the hug you were tackled into, but havign Hazel hold you made your eyes start to burn.
"Hey, hey." Her calming voice whispered "What's wrong?"
Your face was buried into her shoulder, probably staining her undershirt with purple marcara streaks. "I fucked up." You whimpered.
"Max saw something… in the Oraculum." You sniffled, wiping some rogue tears. "He… He saw the effects of time travel and now he's going to try and reverse it. He asked for my help and I think I made it worse."
Hazel tensed against you. "Max learnt about time travel?"
You nodded before heistancely speaking. "I don't think I existed in the old timeline." You admitted quietly.
Hazel squeezed you tighter at that. You saw Pink approach from her spot in the distance. "We can't let you not exist, can we?" She put a hand on your shoulder.
You stared at her for a moment. This was the same girl who accused you of being evil 24 hours ago.
"Are you sure?" You spluttered out.
Her eybrows furrowed slightly. "Of course. No one should just stop existing."
You paused for a moment, before pulling away from Hazel, gesturing for Pink to take the lead.
Time to stop a new mad man, I guess.
