This story started long ago in my head (circa season one, I think) when I created the character Rose Red for a now disbanded roleplay group. Since I recently got back into Once, I have had the hankering to finally put fingers to keyboard and get this story down as a whole. So here goes nothing... Also, this is sort of a prologue of sorts but like the show we will drift back and forth between a pre-curse FTL and Storybrooke. And I've never really written in Enchanted Forest verse before so if it sucks, I'm sorry.

Dedicated to Summer for long being the Snow White of my life.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not yours. Definitely A&E's.

You look at me and you don't like what you see,
but this is the price, mother, the price of belonging to you.
-Astrid (White Oleander)

She is invisible. Moving around the castle like a ghost, the young girl has begun to truly believe that no one can see her or maybe it's just that no one wants to see her. If that's the case then maybe she doesn't need to skirt around, moving between curtains and peeking around corners as she waits behind empty armor for a vacant corridor to race down. Should she be more confident, she might move around the castle like her older sister – with all the grace and ease that a princess is supposed to possess, greeting everyone with poise and elegance – but Rose Red is small and has been told since birth that she is inconsequential, little more than a burden, another mouth for the kingdom to feed. And so the adolescent finds comfort in her ghost-like existence as she floats around the castle in her figurative cloak of invisibility, making for the kitchen and her sister's stash of cocoa.

"Rose Red," there's a harsh tone in her sister's voice that makes her cringe as she turns on her heel. Invisibility failed her this time. Snow White stands with her hands on her hips and her eyebrow quirked nearly to her hairline. "Just where do you think you're going? If the queen catches you out of the tower she'll have your head."

"Snow," the girl whines as she twists on the toe of her shoe. "I'm bored and hungry. I just wanted to get to the kitchen for some of the cocoa."

"You should have rang one of the servants," the older princess, the heir to the throne, tells her as she reaches out to card long fingers through her sister's tangled raven hair. "I'll get you some. Go back to your room and get out the books, we'll go over some lessons once I get there."

"If I had a real tutor you wouldn't have to teach me," Rose complains because she is a child and that is what children are wont to do. "I could go out in the gardens and you wouldn't have to-"

"Rose," Snow cuts her off. "I know... I know it's not fair but this is what the queen wants. Besides, I like teaching you. I would rather teach you then go on these ridiculous diplomatic missions the queen keeps sending me on."

Rose frowns. "When do you leave again?"

"Soon enough." Snow tells her. "Now. To your chambers, princess, or you'll do double lessons and receive no cocoa."

"Yes, Snow," the nine year old relents as she turns and marches back to the tower she's been remanded to since her father's murder at the hands of that blasted genie. She drags her feet as she scurries through the halls of the castle, head cast downward and not caring if people see her – her mother could have her head for all she cared. She longed for adventures like the ones in the books Snow read to her, she longed to see beyond the castle gates, but her mother had rules. Before her father's passing, she had at least been allowed into the city every once in awhile with her sister and a full guard at their beck and call but since her father's murder Snow had been the only one Queen Regina had allowed to leave.

Throwing shut the door to her chambers with a loud bang, she almost wished her mother had heard the ruckus because at least then the queen would deign to make an appearance, dare to yell at her daughter. Trouble was the only time Queen Regina looked in her daughter's eyes before dressing her down about how a princess should act and scolding Snow for not teaching her sister better.

Emotionally distraught, the princess fell across her bed and teary eyed glanced out the window at the rain that started to dance across the pane. She sniffled as she drew her knees to her chest the best she could and clung to the ornate pillow on her bed. The door creaks quietly open as Snow slips through, if it had been her mother the door would have opened with the same bang Rose had slammed it close, and the smell of hot cocoa and cinnamon wafts through the air. The older princess places the fine china on the bedside table before letting her hand trace calm circles over her baby sister's back, hushing her quietly. "It's okay, Rose."

"I hate it here," the girl cries. "I miss daddy."

"Me too," Snow confesses. "So very much."

The castle is still cloaked in black even though a bit of time has passed, Queen Regina has seemed to turn the color of grief into a political statement, but the daughters of King Leopold still find comfort in the darkness of their pain – to know that the time has not yet come for them to shove their grief aside.

"Why didn't you send for the servants earlier," Snow asks as she begins to braid the hair back from her sister's face. "You know how Regina hates it when you wander the halls."

"They're so loud," Rose complains. "When it's my choice to wander forth instead of inviting them into my world... it's easier." Her powers of empathy began to make themselves clear not long after the girl's fifth birthday but the sisters had kept it a secret from all, making sure Snow was by her side as much as possible as if to act as a buffer between the child and the rest of the world. Not even their father had been told, let alone the queen, because while magic wasn't uncommon in their world it was rare for one to be born of magic – it was a skill most had to acquire – and it would make the already disliked daughter of the queen even more of a black sheep. So the elder princess did research, acted as buffer, and tried to teach the girl to control the powers within herself.

Snow kisses her temple after the braid is complete. "Am I loud today, Rose?"

"No, you're quieter now," the girl tells her with a sniffle. "After daddy died, your feelings were so... loud, Snow. Your sadness was a cacophony."

"Good word," Snow encourages her. "You've been reading?"

"Mmm," she hums. "Yes. When you're away on the diplomatic missions, reading is the only bit of adventure that I'm allotted."

"Someday, Rose, I am going to be queen," she promises. "And when that day comes, I am going to take you on the most epic adventure of your life, my love."

"Do you swear it," she asks.

"On every star in the sky."

The child flings her arms around the teenager and she clings to her neck, burrowing her face just below her jaw as she clung. "I love you, Snow White."

"And I love you, Rose Red." Snow dropped a kiss to her head. "What do you say we skip lessons today? I think you've earned yourself a break. Go pick out a book and we'll read until the rain stops... Maybe, if the queen is busy, we can hazard a trip to the gardens."

"That sounds wonderful." Rose clambers off the bed and races to the bookshelf, searching for a book that might quell her deep seated need for adventure. She glances over her shoulder at where Snow sits on her bed, watching her, before turning back to her quest; she never tells anyone but sometimes she likes to pretend that Snow White is actually her mother – Snow is kind, caring, attentive and affectionate, just like the stories she heard about the beloved Queen Eva. Somewhere, locked away inside, the princess loves her mother and longs for her approval but a larger part of her is wounded by Regina's constant neglect – only attending to her daughter when it suits her.

Plucking a book at random, she carries the leather bound tome back to her sister as she climbs onto the bed and tucks into her side. Snow kisses her head and some of the nastier thoughts are chased away; Snow's feelings are neutral, calm, except for the gentle wave of love that pulses off of her and it calms the child. "Once upon a time," Snow reads. "In a land so unlike our own, there lived a princess that didn't know who she truly was..."

Sleepy, Rose's eyes flutter close and she relaxes into her sister as the gentle cadence of her voice fills the chambers. Snow reads a story that would be terribly sad if not for the happy ever after, a story of a princess who grows up all alone – an orphan who believes she's unwanted, until she finds her parents cursed and unable to remember her existence. When the brave warrior princess breaks the curse with an act of true love, Rose smiles up at her sister through the haze of drowsiness and Snow finishes the story with a grin of her own as the princess is reunited with her family. "Rest, Rose," Snow instructs. "It's still raining, I'll wake you when it stops and we'll go to the garden."

Just as she begins to slumber, there comes a knock on the chamber door that is followed by one of the guards slipping inside. He removes his helmet and his curly honey hair sticks in every direction – the huntsman, her mother's newest knight. "Pardon the interruption, my ladies," he pleads as he clears his throat and lowers his head in a slight bow. "Princess Snow, the queen has instructed me to accompany you on a journey to the woods; there is a sickness sweeping the castle and because of your studies and my experience growing up in the woods... She believes we can find the necessary herbs to make a healing tonic."

"Of course," Snow relents and Rose paws at her stomach, feeling the waves of guilt coming off the huntsman. "I'll be back, Rose Red," she promises with a kiss to her forehead. "You sleep and I'll accompany the knight... I'm sure I'll return before you even awake."

"Snow," she protests but the look she receives silences her whining. "I love you."

"And I, you," the elder sister promises. "More than all the stars in the sky."

"More than all the stars in the sky," she echoes and watches her sister leave. Sinking back into the pillows, relishing in the warmth left by her sister's body, she drifts off to sleep with the sounds of the rain on the castle roof acting as her lullaby.

She awakens hours later to darkness and her mother perched on the edge of her bed, cold hand shaking her shoulders. Waking with a start, she gasps and recoils from her mother's touch. The darkness coming off her mother is louder than it has ever been before and it nearly causes the young girl to double over. "Mother," she manages. "What are you doing here?"

"Sleeping the day away is unbecoming of a princess, Rose Red," Queen Regina addresses her daughter.

"Snow instructed me to take a nap," Rose explained. "She said she'd awaken me when she returned from her journey for medicine with the knight."

"Snow White is-" Regina begins harshly but stops herself. "My dear, Snow White will no longer be your caregiver."

"What is that to mean," the child asks. "Where is Snow White?"

"She committed an act of treason, my child," Regina speaks to her but does not look her in the eye. "And she escaped my guard... for now. But rest assured, I'll find her and when I do... Snow White will pay for her crimes."

"What crimes has she committed," Rose asks, tears springing to her eyes. "Perhaps it was an accident. Snow White is so good... Surely-"

"Stop," her mother directs. "Snow committed an act of treason and, while I'm sure you care for her very much, she must pay for those crimes whether she intended to commit them or not."

"But she's supposed to be queen," Rose protested. "The throne is rightfully hers!"

"Silence," the queen shouts. "That is enough of your insolence, Rose Red, but you can count on never seeing Snow White again unless it is at the gallows."

"No," she cries. "Mother, I'll... I'll take her punishment."

A quick hand cracks her across the face. "I said 'enough', Rose, and I meant it. You'll remain in your chambers until I say otherwise and you will not see Snow White again, do you understand? Snow White will pay the ultimate price for her crimes and nothing you say is going to change that."

Rose shrinks back in her bed. "Yes, mother."

"That's my girl," Regina breathes and rubs a thumb over her daughter's cheek. "I'll send a servant up with your dinner and then I would like you to get some sleep, Rose Red. Tomorrow... Tomorrow, I will start your lessons. Proper lessons that Snow White obviously didn't give you."

"You're going to teach me," she asked with an eyebrow quirk identical to her sister's.

"Yes," Regina said. "I know of your powers, Rose. You've got magic inside of you. It's okay, I know that Snow is the reason you kept them hidden away, but I'll teach you to control them and together we'll be more powerful than anyone before."

"But I don't wish to be powerful," Rose protested. "I just... I want adventures."

"Adventures you shall have, my girl. Magical ones." She wrinkled her nose. "Far better than the likes of Snow White could provide you."

She relented, knowing a fight would just get her smacked once more. "Yes, mother."

"Goodnight, my dear." Regina crosses the room and turns to give her daughter one more look at the threshold.

"Mother," Rose stops her. "Mother... do you love me?"

"You're my daughter," Regina tells her, like that's an answer. "Goodnight, Rose Red."

"Goodnight, my queen."

A blue bird pecks quietly at her window and she rushes to answer after she's sure her mother has descended the stairs; the blue birds were Snow's calling card, she always sent them while she was away on missions for the kingdom. There is a note tied to it's ankle and she quickly removes it before pouring a small bit of water from the jug she keeps in her room. Perching beside the open window on a bench, she reads the letter by candlelight.

"My dearest sister,
Something has happened. I'm not sure why but, Rose, the queen wants me dead. She sent the knight to rip out my heart... I know she is your mother but, please, do not trust her. Know that I would not leave you if I had any other choice – you are my heart, Rose Red – but I fear, for now, you are safer with the queen. I'll come for you as soon as it is safe. Be a good girl... For me. Please. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. I love you. More than all the stars in the sky.
Love,
Snow"

Rose crumpled in on herself as the tears came forth; she had known it, the darkness having totally taken over her mother. Pushing down the tears, she quickly grabbed a fresh piece of parchment from her desk and scrawled a messy note in the dim light of her room.
"Dear Snow,
She told me you committed treason and that you would die for your crimes. Please be safe. We'll be together again someday but for now, you're right, it's safer for you to be away from here. I love you, Snow. More than all the stars in the sky.
Love,
Your sister."

She tied the scroll around the bird's ankle and gave it a quick petting before it flew off, just in time for the servants knocked on her door. Steadying herself, she opened the chamber door and took on her new role until she could be with her sister once more.

–

In the basement of Storybrooke General there lies an asylum and in that asylum there are many rooms that lock from the outside; Rose Red sits inside one of those rooms in hospital issued pajamas with ratted hair, every bit aware of the last twenty-eight years she has spent not aging at the hands of her mother.