Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alice: Lee Taeyong
Alice's Elder sibling: Lee Taemin (Shinee)
White Rabbit: Doyoung
Cheshire Cat: Winwin
Mad Hatter: Lucan
March Hare: Johnny
Dormouse: Jisung
Caterpillar: Chenle
Queen of hearts: Haechan
Timekeeper: Ten
Knave of hearts: Renjun
King of hearts: Mark
Duchess: Yuta
Cook: Taeil
Animals that alice meets : Nomin and Jungwoo

Chapter Text

"Hyung let's go outside today! The weather's nice and there's wind!" Taeyong burst into his brother's room suddenly. Taemin didn't even look up from the book he was reading. "Please hyung?"

Taemin finally glanced at him to reply "No I'm lazy. Can't you go by yourself?"

"But mom doesn't allow us out of the house by ourselves. Pleeeeeaaase Taemin hyung?"

"No"

"I'll make you a flower crown"

"What makes you think I need a flower crown?"

Taeyong pouted. "Hyuuuuuung" he whined. Taemin sighed and closed his book. "Okay fine but stop being whiney."

-

So they sat in the shade of an oak tree, Taemin reading his book, and Taeyong watching the leaves rustle in the wind. Suddenly, he saw a man. In a suit. With white ears on top of his head. And he was running.And mumbling to himself. Do running men in suits usually have bunny ears and mumble while they run? Curious, he got up quickly to follow the odd man. He paused for a split second to wonder if he should tell his hyung that he was leaving. But before he could decide, the rabbit man was already disappearing from sight so he rushed to follow. 

He looked around, wondering if he'd lost the suited man before catching a glimpse of white rabbit ears disappearing down a large hole. "How deep is that?" he mumbled to himself. He jumped without hesitation and fell down the hole. 

Except that he didn't seem to be falling, only floating downwards very slowly. Taeyong notices that then walls of the rabbit hole are made of cupboards and shelves with various crockery and containers on them. Taeyong floats over to a wall and takes a jar from a shelf. Upon closer inspection, he finds that the jar is empty, so he puts it back on a different shelf on the way down. The fall down the hole was awfully long and Taeyong couldn't help but start daydreaming. 

-

After abruptly reaching the bottom and making sure that he hadn't broken any bones, Taeyong looked around. He caught a glimpse of a pair or white ears disappearing round a corridor. He turned the corner but in his haste, tripped and fell.  By the time he got back up, the man in a suit was gone. He was now in a long corridor with only one door at the end and a glass table next to him. He looked up, but the hole he fell down had disappeared. The door was too small for him to fit through. He tried the door anyways but found that it was locked. On the glass table there was a small key, a bottle that said "Drink Me" containing some sort of clear liquid and a slice of cake with the words "Eat Me" written on it in icing. 

Taeyong picked up the bottle and cake and drank from the bottle. He felt himself start shrinking until he was small enough to fit through the door but he realised that he left the key on the glass table. He reached for the cold metal legs of the table to try and climb back up to reach the key. But the metal was cold and slippery and he didn't make it more than a metre off the ground before slipping and falling back down. Seeing as he had no other choice, Taeyong ate the cake in his hand. He felt himself grow back to his original size and could now pick up the key on the table. He grinned happily and ran to the door. However, he realised he was now too big to fit though the tiny door. 

He also realised that he was now trapped in this corridor. The hole was gone and he couldn't go through the only door. The thought of not being able to see his beloved hyung and parents and friends again made him quickly burst into tears. He soon found that now he couldn't stop crying even if he tried. 

What to do, what to do.

Chapter Text

Once Taeyong had calmed down and finally stops crying like a baby, he realized that he was now in the middle of a large body of water. The long corridor had disappeared and so had the key and empty bottle. The water was deep, so he had to swim to prevent himself from drowning in what he supposed were his own tears.

He felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned and saw a boy with mouse ears smiling at him. "Hi there! Are you lost? Everyone here seems to be lost. The shore's right over there, c'mon I'll bring you. It's been a while since we last saw a human. Where're you from?I'm Jaemin by the way, what's your name?" Taeyong was slightly overwhelmed this boy with a long introduction speech. He also seemed to have a very bright smile. "U-uh yeah, hi. I'm Taeyong. I don't really know how i got here." He introduced himself while swimming after Jaemin.

As the two of them neared the shore, Taeyong could see a few other boys with animal ears standing onshore and talking amongst themselves. Taeyong suddenly thought of the man that he'd been following and wondered if he was here. He looked around but didn't see anyone with white rabbit ears.

Another boy with dog ears waved at him and Jaemin. "Hi! You're lost aren't you? Everyone that comes here is. The only other way is there," he gestured with his hand."But all of us are too scared to go. Did you know apparently its dangerous in there but we wouldn't know, we've never been there." Further down the shore was what seemed like a forest with a path though it. "But you're all wet. You should dry off first, or you might catch a cold. Oh yeah, and my name's Jeno."

Jeno hadn't asked for Taeyong's name but he figured it would be nice to introduce himself as well. "I'm Taeyong, nice to meet you. I don't suppose you have a way that i can dry off faster that sitting around, do you?"

"We can have a Caucus Race! That speeds up the process!" a boy with fluffy brown rabbit ears piped up. Jeno grinned. "This is Jungwoo. He's cute ain't he? He's older than all of us but he doesn't really act like it." The three boys watched as Jungwoo hopped about excitedly, saying something along the lines of how much he loved Caucus Races and how no one ever wanted to play with him and he was perpetually bored.

"What's a Caucus Race?" Taeyong had never heard this term before.

"Its a race where all of us run in a circle! It's really fun, I promise!"

-

"Is it... finally... over yet?" Taeyong asked, out of breath. "Can we...stop now?"

"No! We can't stop until someone wins!" Jungwoo yells, long brown ears flopping about as he continues to run.

"Well alright then" Taeyong supposed it made sense to win before stopping, though how one could win in a never-ending race, he had no idea. "How do you...win?"

"You don't!" Jungwoo grinned widely.

"What?!" Taeyong stopped running, slightly taken aback. "Then when do you stop running?"

"You don't!" Jungwoo only repeated his earlier words, now looking confused at Taeyong's own confusion.

"B-but thats absurd! We'll all die of exhaustion or something!"

Jungwoo frowned. Jaemin and Jeno were also looking at him confusedly, heads tilted to one side. Taeyong sighed. It didn't look like an explanation would do them any good other than confuse them even more so after waving goodbye to the confused animals, Taeyong began his journey through the forest.

Chapter Text

Taeyong continues walking until he saw the man in a suit. He seemed to be checking a pocket watch for the time. Taeyong came slightly closer but wasn't noticed. Up close, he could see that the man wasn't really a man at all. Just a very tall boy in a suit with white ears on his head. He was also very pretty. Why a boy had ears and would need to wear a suit, Taeyong couldn't understand. But then again, nothing here seemed to make any sense at all anyways. The boy put the watch back in his pocket and turned around, noticing Taeyong. "You!Go back to my house and get me my things! And be quick about it, I'm about to be late!" Startled by the suddenness of his demands, Taeyong obeys and leaves in search of the boy's house. He sees a sort of mansion and could only assume that this was the boy's house. The door was ajar, so he pushed it open and entered the house quietly. 

As he went in, he started to feel himself growing larger. He hit his head on the ceiling and stopped growing. He pushed one of the large windows in the house open. He puts his arm out the window and tries to wave for help. People have started gathering around the house to stare at his huge arm. "Hey! Can you help me? I got stuck in this house..." Taeyong tried to get the people to help him. Suddenly they were throwing rocks at him. What in the world was happening in this strange world? Most of the rocks missed, but as they neared his arm they turned into little cakes. Taeyong caught one of them in his huge hand and was suddenly reminded of the cake that he had eaten in the long corridor with the table when he turned small. He brought his hand back through the window and ate the tiny cake. He feels himself shrink back to his original tiny size and the people outside dispersed. He explores the house, looking into the bedrooms in hopes of finding the rabbit boy again. 

Once he is satisfied that the house was empty, he left the house. Outside, there is a little dog sitting next to a tree. Taeyong kneels down to stroke the dog's golden fur. He plays with the dog for a while before it starts to run down the path. Seeing as he has nowhere else to go, now that the rabbit boy has once again disappeared, he follows the little dog down the path. 

The little dog led him to a huge mushroom. Taeyong stares at the mushroom, amazed and does not notice the dog run off. A huge caterpillar was sitting on the mushroom cap. It was smoking a hookah and blowing multicoloured bubbles out of its mouth. The caterpillar notices Taeyong staring at it and stops smoking to look at him. They stare at each other in silence before the caterpillar breaks the silence. "Did you need something?" it asks. 

"Who are you? Why are you blowing bubbles? And why is this mushroom so big?" Taeyong doesn't answer the caterpillar's question. The caterpillar huffs impatiently. 

"My name is Chenle, though i don't see why it's of any importance to you. I blow bubbles because I can. Again, it's of no importance to you. And this mushroom is big because it isn't small now stop asking so many questions and tell me who you are." Taeyong decides that Chenle isn't a very nice caterpillar and turns to leave without answering his question. But Chenle calls him back to tell him a story. He tells a story about a butterfly he knew who became a caterpillar overnight. Taeyong vaguely remembers that caterpillars turn into butterflies and not the other way around but he isn't about to interrupt Chenle's story so he indulges him. Suddenly, Chenle asks him a question. 

"What size would you like to be?" Taeyong thinks a while and simply says that being only three inches tall is absolutely horrible. This insults Chenle who really is only three inches tall and he scowls at Taeyong. Chenle turns around in a huff to leave. "One side of the mushroom makes you big, one side of the mushroom makes you small." he says before promptly climbing down his mushroom and disappearing into the forest. Taeyong breaks off both sides of the mushroom and eats a bit of the right side. He feels himself shrink even more until he comes face to face with a passing ant. Next he eats a bit of the left side of the the mushroom and grows so fast he hits his head on a protruding tree branch. He eats little bits of each side of the mushroom until he is back to his original human height and continues down the path through the forest.