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When she first tells her mother about it, Snow White is robbed of speech for a good thirty seconds. Apple has the dubious honor of rendering the queen of Ever After utterly speechless. With her draw dropped and her reading glasses dangling limply from her fingers, she is a disaster frozen in time. Well, that’s what her mother would think of herself, at least. The public wouldn’t care two hoots, as they adore their queen so.
“I...that is…” Snow White’s mouth opens and closes like a fish. “...An unusual way of going about things, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes.” Apple begins to pace around the office, wringing her hands together. “But for all intents and purposes we’d be following the script. With different intent and definitely, definitely a different ending, for sure, but it’s still…”
Apple stops in her tracks and aims a look to her mother, eyes wide.
“...It’s still enough for a happily ever after, right?”
Snow White sets her glasses on the desk and rearranges herself, sweeping the shock away to be dissected and compartmentalized later; the Whites are nothing if not meticulous in their coping methods.
“Theoretically,” Snow White murmurs. “No, it...yes. Yes, even if the stage is different, it’s still the same characters. That should be enough to satisfy the requirements.”
Relief and exhaustion from a twelve hour work day make it easy for Apple to collapse into the chair across from her mother’s desk. It’s only been four years after graduation and, while nothing is the same anymore, she can at least count on her mother to keep her busy as an intern. Really, it’s grooming; one way or another Apple White is going to be a queen, and after four years neck deep in the behind-the-scenes of queendom, she thinks she might be ready for it.
But then, that all depends on Raven.
When she first tells her mother about it, the Evil Queen throws her head back and laughs. Thankfully, it’s not as full of scorn or belittling mockery as it would have been years ago. No, this is genuine amusement--at Raven’s expense, yes--but not harmful yet.
“A consensual poisoning?” Her mother’s lips quirk as her voice reverberates through the magic glass. “Who’s idea was that?”
“Apple’s.” Raven smiles wryly. “If we both make it clear that it’s not about malice or hate then she’s hoping that it keeps the kingdom from throwing me to the wolves.”
“Or to Mummy,” the Queen cooes. “It’s smart, manipulative. Playing the kingdom, cheating the system. I’m impressed but not at all surprised. Trust in a White to be as diabolical as I am under all that fluff and flounce.”
“Hey,” Raven says, scolding, “that’s my girlfriend you’re talking about there. She’s not diabolical , she’s just…”
Raven trails off, trying to find a proper synonym that won’t besmirch Apple’s name. The Evil Queen waits, lips curled. Raven gives up after a few moments, shrugging.
“Alright, maybe a little bit.”
“How did she ever get you to agree with the plan, though, that’s what I want to know.” The Queen’s eyes alight with vermillion flame, an old familiar hunger that Raven watches more with pity and a pang of regret than anger anymore. “Ah, perhaps this is the moment where you finally accept your--”
“It’s not, Mom.”
Firm, a denial. It still hurts to see her mother wilt, to watch the disappointment flash across her face. Years without a mirror to practice her stoicism has done the Queen no favors.
“She still wants her happily ever after. Our ever after.” Raven shrugs again in the silence, and then her face goes red. “Besides, I...there’s a...I have a surprise for her.”
When she tells her mother her real plan, she watches those flames sprout again. Only, now, it’s not with hunger for an evil daughter who walks proudly in her rotting footsteps, just a slow aching love that the Queen has never been able to properly express.
“Oh, my little blackbird,” she whispers and wipes away a tear. “How absolutely wicked of you. "
The actual poisoning doesn’t happen until a month later; there’s several days dedicated to finding slots in her schedule, moving things around and around and attending meeting after meeting until they move onto the press conference stage. And oh, Stars, is that another nightmare entirely.
Then there are the announcements to be made, the coronation to plan, and three balls night after night. Apple doesn’t know how her mother handles it all, how she’s ever going to handle it all.
Still, getting home and dropping face first into bed, with Raven close behind. A quick magic spell to get them both ready for bed, pulses of heat taking away every and and bruise that formed over the day. Having an unparalleled sorceress as a girlfriend has its perks, she’s gotta say. Having Raven as her partner, in every which way there is, though. That’s the real prize. The fact that she can lay her head against Raven’s back and hear the steady beating of her heart, that they can share slow and secret kisses in the dark without meaning a thing--and when the need and hunger blazes through them, too--is the real reason she’s doing it all. To secure her happily ever after, so that they both get the closure of that chapter ending.
Turning the page never felt so good.
The affair is glamorous and a little gaudy. The Charming family pitched in with the decorations, of course, since Darling still has her part to play. She spies Darling in the crowd and waves with her fingers, getting a thumbs up in return. Darling scurries away to await her cue, and Apple stands tall. This is happening; this is really happening! Even if it's not the way she thought it would be, that old satisfaction rolls through her.
The urge to rock back and forth on her heels is a childish one, and one she barely manages to stifle; she can’t help it! She’s so excited! Her dress is ivory white and ruby red satin, bordered in gold. Diamonds and prisms sit at her throat and drip her ears, though she doesn’t wear any of her rings; Raven's suggestion.
Raven approaches in a flash of light, purple flames trailing from her shoulders. Leather, belts, spiked shoulders and garishly purple feathers; Apple can’t stifle her laughter at Raven’s sullen face. She hates her mother’s fashion sense and makes no secret of it.
Speaking of mothers--she can see Snow White near the Evil Queen, quietly narrating the goings on. The Queen’s mouth moves in reply, probably something snarky if Snow White’s flabbergasted expression is worth anything.
Raven conjures an apple, bright red and tempting. The crowd goes into a hush and Apple waves to the cameras with a signature grin.
“This is all one hundred percent my idea!” She makes sure to stress it, so that this can’t come back to bite Raven. She would never allow it to. “So nobody go and make a fuss, alright?”
Uneasy laughter rolls through the crowd before they fall in a tense silence again. Apple takes her steps, and takes the apple. She opens her mouth, wide, before Raven yelps, “Stop, stop!”
Apple yanks the fruit away, eyes wide.
“Small...just, just a small bite.” Raven’s hands twist. “Please.”
“O-okay. Sure, no problem.” Apple hesitates, remembering the last time she’d eaten of a Queen’s apple--black ichor spilling down her chin, lodging in her throat and pulling her to sleep--before she shakes her head. This is Raven’s apple, and Raven’s spell; if there is one thing that has always been consistent, is that Raven has only used her magic to safeguard her or support her. Never for evil, save for the occasional outbursts that take a few hours to decompress from, but those are never because of her or aimed at her.
She takes her bite, and flinches when her teeth scrape against something hard inside. Startling, Apple swallows her mouthful and looks down.
A ring sits, cradled by the white flesh and framed by her teethmarks. Mouth flailing uselessly, she plucks the ring out to hear a chorus of cheers, startled gasps, and wolf whistles. She thinks she hears Briar shout, Finally!
“What--” The world bucks beneath her feet as she feels drowsy. “Raven--is this--are you--?”
“I am,” Raven says softly, reaching out to steady her as the spell begins to spread from her stomach to her limbs. “I really am, Apple.”
The last thing Apple sees is Raven’s smile. The last thing she says is a breathless yes.
Eight hours later Apple opens her eyes. Darling leans back with a satisfied curl to her lips, armor shining in the moonlight and glinting off her platinum hair. Apple notes that she is back home, in the bed she shares with Raven. Her roomie. Her best friend, forever after.
Her everything, forever after?
She sits up and brings up her left hand. The ring is made of some black metal, cradling a blood red diamond amidst a nest of amethyst stones. Evil, wicked; Raven's. It's as good as any shackle, any tattoo, any marking in the whole world. She is Raven's; Raven is hers in turn.
“Look at you,” Darling says, laughter warm in her voice. “Welcome to your happily ever after, Apple. You got your nap and your Queen, all in one day. Ah, sorry I didn’t wake you up sooner--Raven said not to, because you’d been running yourself ragged and you could use the sleep and…”
Apple laughs, wipes at her wet eyes with shaking hands. Classic Raven, to use her own spell to get Apple to take a nap. “I love her. I love that wicked thing so much.”
“She loves you too.” Darling hands over her mirrophone. “Briar recorded the whole show for you so you can see her face when you fall asleep.”
Apple watches it. She sees the moment she falls asleep, cradled against Raven’s body. Raven, predictably, is crying with a grin on her face and her hand strokes over Apple’s hair so gently that she wonders why she ever thought Raven could be her Evil Queen.
Now she’s just her Queen. Or, Apple stares at the ring on her finger, the Queen Consort.
In the end, Apple never gets the happily ever after she always thought she would.
She chooses one much, much better, with a kiss and an I do.