[See, that's why he liked Iris. His nonsensical explanations made sense to her. That was rare. Hatter tried to impress her with rolling the hat back and then bouncing it off his elbow until it fell perfectly onto his head. He had dozens of those tricks. He had a lot of time to practice tricks. He felt strangely calm when she looked back at him. Less manic. He thought maybe they could sit there looking at each other and not talking and it would be okay, and that was different.
His smile faded, his expression turning quizzical.] No, no, you can stay. Stay right here. We don't have to go anywhere. Not even Wonderland, we can ... run around here. [Hatter looked around, he wasn't even entirely sure where he was at the moment. But he knew he didn't want her to go away.] Don't go, Iris, we don't have to be ponies or exchange hats. We can talk about .... [What do people talk about. Non-crazy people. Hmmmm.] What's your favorite color? And tea? And what's pizza? Also what's the point of opera? [It felt like these were things she'd know answers to.] And we can have pizza and operas.