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“So, remind me why we’re doing this by hand when you have a wicked cool girlfriend who can just snap her fingers and clean it out for you in a second?” Raven said sitting on the floor, her voice curious as her head tilted along with a glance at Apple and her ebony wings downcast, who was rustling through a box the witch had pulled from her red closet to sort on her golden and white bed. She simply gave Raven a pout in response as she spoke up.
“It’s not thorough if you use magic!” She insisted, putting down the box of perfume she had pulled out next to her. Although she knew deep down this was her convoluted way of asking the blackbird to hang out, even if she was aware they could be spending the time elsewhere, she got a clean closet and she got to spend time with Raven, it was a win-win.
“If you say so.” The witchling shrugged as there was a swift knock on the door, irritation flooded the blonde’s expression when it began, Apple didn’t appreciate her free time being interrupted, especially if she’s in Raven’s company, it may come as a surprise but Apple White is not to be trifled with after consecutive days without a break with her lover.
“I’ll handle it- can you just finish this box for me?” Apple batted her eyelashes and gave a bright grin, a display of her charm as an attempt to seduce her roommate to do it for her, even if it had never worked, she tried anyway, it was worth a shot. The witch merely snorted as she got up from the floor and sat on Apple’s bed before snarking at her.
“I’m doing this because I want to, not because your “charm” suddenly has an effect on me.” She motioned with her fingers as Apple let out a giggle, her smile curling to a more genuine one, it was almost addicting to Raven, as she turned to the door and let out a sly remark in her sweet voice.
“I know!” Apple saw it more as a personal win if Raven was doing something of her freewill than if the princess ever had the power to allure the maiden. “I’ll be back soon!” She promised, as she opened the door to what sounded like distressed royals, took a step outside and closed the door behind her.
Raven clicked her tongue as the door locked, well that was a sign she’d be gone for a bit, the witch sat alone in their shared room. The silence of the newfound loneliness settling in the room her gleeful roommate filled before she left. She sighed softly as a familiar feeling sat in her stomach. Envy.
Actually, no, it wasn’t envy. She had gotten used to assuming everything bad was envy because that’s what her mother told her, fat chance of that being true. Raven doesn’t think she’s ever actually been envious of something in her life. Hm, maybe the occasional bird or a functional family but that’s it. Cupid described it as simply being lonely, but the god never expected that she could be lonely, her childhood was being stuck in a dreary castle with the occasional dinner and that’s when her mother was still around.
Perhaps… She was terrified. That was her hypothesis. She’s become infatuated with the feeling of Apple’s attention and how Apple gawked at her like she hung up the stars, and the concept of being able to lose that was soul crushing as it made her feel worth something- the idea of losing it becoming more likely and arriving hurt every single time she let it plague her head. Then, she flinched to a sudden shatter.
She glanced around to find the source, sporting the puddle on the ground surrounded with glass shards, coming to the conclusion she must have accidentally knocked it over as she was mindlessly digging in the cardboard box. Huffing in disappointment at herself as she shot a ray of magic to fix it and place it on the bedside table. Good as new.
Refocusing was for the best. Her hands now make a trek through the box. Whatever was in here hadn’t been touched in a very long time. Plushies of various animals, some books and graded papers, all having a thin layer of dust. One thing stood out to Raven, it was pushed to the bottom but looked brand new, it was a binder. Raven pulls it out, she sees the word “Wedding Plans” on the front.
“Oh.” She practically squeaked.
It was probably for her and Daring before her and Raven became a couple. That checked out since it was hidden in an old store box. Raven’s interest had risen however, might as well see what her roommate dreamed of, it could be helpful one day if- when they planned their own wedding.
Inside were a few pictures, nature was prominent. Flowers everywhere her eyes landed. A lot was crossed out, Most of the flower pictures were crossed out, even if she had drawn hearts below them in the past. The venue was mostly white and golden. It fit her roommates color palette that was obvious.
Continuing in the chamber of secrets she has somehow discovered, all she could describe it as was rich people extravagance. Wine, fancy apparel, a cake with layers she didn’t want to try and count. Next, she found a list of guests.
She saw a name at the top scribbled out, next to it written ‘Daring Charming’ and all decipherable being a ‘Q’ in the last name. Which made it pretty obvious who was removed, she’d be a little hurt if this hadn’t been (probably) a few months old. But Legacy Day getting her uninvited from a wedding? She chuckled to herself.
She had sat back on Apple’s bed as she skipped through the pages, she got to the dream dresses and they suited the princess rather well, most of the people on the guest list had a role she wanted them to play. Blondie would be the photographer, Holly would scribe the whole event, Briar would be in charge of food and drinks along with being her best woman. The list goes on, an entire part seemed erased and written over with Daring being the one who went dress shopping with her, Darling added to that job as well, Raven didn’t see her name anywhere.
It didn’t matter really, it was fictional and likely created by childhood aspirations. The goddess knew as well as anyone else that Apple loved her and not Daring, this book was the mindset that was pushed onto her when she was younger, that was it, that was all there was to it. Her hands naturally skipped all the pages until she reached the back. Though this wasn’t like the rest of the book.
The final five pages were drawings, all colored in and detailed. Apple’s handiwork had a special shine to it and Raven could tell she had poured her heart into designing which looked to be polished and thought out. They were intricate and oddly enough, new.
One of the designs was a poisoned apple, it had a cartoonish gleam to it, with a skull pattern seeming to drip off of it, Apple didn’t seem to like it all that much as she never finished the shading for it. Another was a hand taking a talon and brushing over it with a thumb, Raven speculated that one Apple must have liked to finish it. Raven brushed her fingers over the binders pages, her face flushed a dark shade of red, not far from her girlfriend’s namesake.
A common tradition for gods and goddesses for a marriage to be officiated in the eyes of the law for gods was a tattoo of love to their mortal partner. Once embedded in their skin, it gave them access to permanent residence on Mount Olympus and the key to immortality. The love from their partner would keep them alive, together and always.
Raven was a lot of things, completely illogical was not one of them. She was about 70% sure this part was made with her in mind. Cupid must have told her about her situation. If the book was edited for her, it would explain the erasures and the many, from the lack of dust, it became obvious to be recent changes. Was that why she was nowhere to be seen in the book? Raven scoffed at her head, wishful thinking.
She simply ran her fingers down the page once more as she heard the door open, the light of her life skipping inside and with a chirp greeted Raven, not noticing the contents in her hand quite yet as she was more focused on her words, her words came off with an apologetic tone and a guilty wording.
“Raven! I’m so sorry about that, Briar was-“ She stopped once she noticed the white and pink binder in Raven’s hands, open for all to see as the winged queen was reading it. Her eyes widened as she field tackled Raven roughly, wrestling for it as they both got shoved off the bed. Apple tried to yank the book out of her hands with the strength of ten bulls.
The goddess yelped as she instinctively tucked Apple’s head under a black wing as they both were knocked off the mattress, panicked and trying to evaluate why exactly the other in right mind had seemed to think this was the brightest idea, Apple prid the journal out of her arms with ease as the other was more focused on making sure the other hadn’t gotten hurt, and Raven was built like a broomstick. Apple landed on top of her, she braced the blonde’s fall, though her wings still curled around the princess. Raven hissed in pain and peered up with a hint of confusion, she wasn’t angry anymore… only worried. Apple just looked a little hazy as she clutched it close to her chest.
“How did you find this- how much did you read?” Apple stammered, her face maroon as she gazed down, she had been sitting on Raven at this point and with a deadpan from the witch, got up and sat on the bed, her head in her hands.
Raven got up and stretched, there was a light cut on her arm from the plastic binder scraping against her pale skin, she could wrap it up later, in the meantime she’ll let the feathers growing around it do its magic as she sat next to Apple.
“It was in the box and I skimmed it- I didn’t think I’d not be invited to your wedding because of Legacy Day.” She teased, though the other blinked with light confusion before the dots connected in her head.
“Legacy Day?- Raven, the reason you're not in this is because of the wedding-'' She seemed a little nervous as she put her hands up into her lap. “The wedding planned there was my idea for ours, the public one, anyways.” Apple admitted, finally releasing the binder and placing it in her lap, flipping it to the first page which had both their names on the top, the word “husband” scribbled out and in a pink pen, was written ”wife”.
“Oh.” Was all that left Raven, Apple had… edited the whole thing just to plan their wedding? They’d barely been dating for a year now so it felt a little early, the good intentions were there and- Raven was probably never meant to see this, not this early at the very least.
“I always thought you’d prefer a private wedding honestly, but since I’m the future queen, I wanted to plan one out for the general public to see. I asked a certain cherub about how to be wed in your family’s way and I wanted to use that for our private one, just to invite close friends and family as we promise to be by one another’s side outside of paparazzi’s eyes.” She rambled before pausing, her face morphing into a stupid smile, the one Raven had grown to love, as she left out a scoff. “That’s really cheesy and dumb, I know.” Apple remarked, Raven simply took one of her roommates' hands in hers.
“It’s cheesy and dumb, but it’s yours and that’s what matters.” Raven confidently stated. “I think what you planned is really sweet, even if it won’t happen soon. I want to be able to get to that day with you, and as long as you’ll have me, we will.” She confirmed with a grin, she wasn’t the best with words sometimes but it came out naturally with Apple.
Apple paused as she simply rushed the other with a hug, squeezing her tightly. While she was positive she could keep up the relationship even with her work schedule, it was…relieving to hear come from Raven’s mouth that one day, even if it’s far away, she’d want to marry Apple and spend all of eternity with her, even if the princess was flawed.
“Raven!!” She squealed out with tears of joy seeping from her eyes, burying her face into the witches shoulder, the other only chuckling softly at the affection from the other and rubbing her back, Apple seemed to try and compose herself as she clung to Raven, soon scrubbing at her watery eyes with her arm to look up to the taller girl.
“I love you so much, you’re too good for me.” Apple said with a dedicated stare, still keeping a tight grip on the other, Raven was about to argue but Apple put a hand to her lips before she could. For being barely above five feet, she was the strongest person Raven knew, you’d think the girl with innate magic instead of honed wouldn’t be stronger (psychically) than a god, but here they were, the pool noodle and her athletic princess. She took the wedding plans binder from her lap and threw it to her bed, beginning to ramble.
“I’ll have to edit it later to seem more fitting- if it still seemed like it was for Daring, I’m clearly doing something wrong.” Apple giggled awkwardly, cringing on the inside at the idea of marrying that prince. At the start of the year, she thought she had to marry him for her happy future but now? She was hanging from Raven like a dainty accessory. Raven let out a snort when the other mentioned that, shaking her head and putting a palm to her forehead to try and reassure the other.
“It didn’t seem like it was all for Daring- I just never took you as the kind who’d want a garden wedding, seeing how technologically advanced your future kingdom is, now that I think about it, maybe it makes sense with your old password” Raven snarked, spending three days at Snow White’s castle for Yester Day changed her outlook on the White’s way of living, she got to see the depths of the machinery and security they used, it was nearly astonishing on how dependent they were on it, it made sense, since Queen’s Castle was based on magic and they were opposites, but it was fascinating to see the other side of the coin for Raven.
“I’m quite handy with tech, that much is true, but nature has a certain beauty to it. The soft breeze, the birds chirping and the glow of the sun, it makes it feel more special and real- Hey! I didn’t realize how weak of a password it was until you guessed it!” Apple gushed, before the jab sunk in and she raced to defend it, leaning on Raven with her hands bundled in her lap like a tidied picnic basket as she spoke.
“Well, when you put it like that, it’s clear you put your heart into it, and that means it’s perfect.” Raven hummed, ignoring the lovers dispute she started and instead planting kisses on Apple’s hair, now that the other was practically sitting in her lap, she saw the opportunity, the other seemed to sink into it with a smug smile, Raven couldn’t tell exactly what the look was for until the other began to speak. “Oh, trust me, I’m nowhere near done.” Apple let out a near devious laugh, but it still came out as frivolous as her normal laughter, which to Raven, was music to the goddess ears. Though once she broke out of the trance the other had put her in, she tilted her head in light confusion, like a bird staring at a flame.
“We still have years to go, I want to incorporate you more into it, right now it’s just fake, no love at all, while this is the public one, I still want it to be a special day for us both.” Apple explained, continuing her explanation from earlier about how she wanted it to be memorable and the best wedding it could be, how she brainstormed everything out, what she wanted to do for the ceremony, all of it.
Raven listened with a loving expression sitting contently, her head resting on the others blonde locks as she continued her chatter about the future, the other had practically become a comfortable pillow for her girlfriend as she talked about cake flavors or how she wanted to get silk roses so that Raven’s sneezes couldn’t kill them, she talked about anything that came to mind really.
Quietly letting the other continue her ideas as she stroked her hair, Apple was practically the sun with how much she was beaming while thinking about their future together. Her eyes shutting and her fond smile remaining as she held the other close to her, never planning to ever let go of the one in her arms, her happily ever after- as Apple a few months ago would have put it. One single thought popped into Raven’s head.
“ Maybe manually cleaning out the closet was the best idea after all. ”