To Be Loved For Who I Am

by Raberba girl

It was not supposed to happen this way. But maybe he's right when he says it's okay for things to be different. Platonic VenVan / Snow White; rated for implied off-screen violence.

Shadowless Princesses: To Be Loved For Who I Am

(rough draft)

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

Dedicated to Kiryn, who wanted to see all seven. XD

Summary: It was not supposed to happen this way. But maybe he's right when he says it's okay for things to be different. Platonic VenVan / Snow White; rated for implied off-screen violence.

A/N: This was supposed to be a Ven/Snow fic (platonic, though you can interpret it as romance if you want), but I ship (platonic) VenVan hard, guys, and I consider them to still literally be two halves of the same person. So...Van got jealous and shoved his way in, it's complicated, and I barely planned this fic at all. *sweatdrop*

o.o.o

She didn't understand. "Wh...What?"

"I'm sorry, princess," Doc said, fidgeting unhappily. "But I'm afraid that the prince has been...well, taken."

That's what she thought he had said. But she couldn't believe it. It was never the prince that was stolen away, that was just - wrong. "Oh, Doc, there must be some mistake. Isn't that evil man trying to find the Princesses of Heart?"

"Well, yes, my dear, but you're so well-guarded, you see, and..."

'I don't understand. I don't understand.' It repeated through her head like a chant, all throughout the long afternoon as the dwarfs and the huntsman conferred together, trying to decide what to do. No one was paying attention to her. It was getting close to suppertime, but it wasn't right to eat when there would be no one sitting at the head of the table, and...why was he gone? Why wasn't she the one sitting helpless in the clutches of the dark right now? She certainly felt helpless, the confusion in her mind as stifling as the darkness should have been, but since she was still here, in her home, alive and well...she felt like she shouldn't be helpless. But what could she do? "Dopey, dear, would you like to take a walk with me?"

He nodded eagerly, as she had known he would. He knew what he was supposed to do. No surprises there. It calmed her down a little, and she was able to manage a smile as she held out her hand, and he took it in an absurd caricature of a gentleman's gesture. "My dear Dopey."

They went out for a walk. It made her uneasy again, the setting sun and darkening sky. Princesses ought to take their walks earlier in the day, when the air was bright and warm with sunshine, and there were animals wandering about and butterflies going about their business. This was wrong...she and her companion seemed like the only creatures out in the open at this hour, it was too quiet...oh, why was everything so wrong?

"There's a beautiful meadow just up ahead, with the loveliest flowers you ever did see..."

Ah, this was why a princess ought not to pick flowers in the evening. They were closing as the sunlight faded, as if they were falling asleep. She didn't have the heart to reach out and pick them just when they were starting to rest. When they were off their guard. Like her husband had been when the darkness had snatched him instead of her. There was something else that was deeply wrong about this, but she was trying very hard to think about the other wrong things instead. She was a princess of the Light, and she knew what her feelings ought to be.

Dopey danced about in concerned agitation.

"Oh, Dopey," she wept. "If only I had been more selfless...because everybody was protecting me and keeping me safe, they weren't able to help my prince. Oh, Dopey, it's all my fault that he's gone. I wonder if he's frightened." If that person was even capable of being frightened. She knew that she would be, but...he was the prince. He was handsome and strong and brave, he wouldn't be afraid of anything. He would fight until he returned to her. "Oh, my...my beloved..."

Dopey was puffing his chest up, glaring fiercely in a way that ill-suited his chubby, childlike features, and miming a knight charging forward on a horse. It made her laugh, despite herself. "Yes, I just remembered. He'll fight the darkness, and he will come home all right." And that would be a good thing.

It was at that moment she realized that the darkness that had taken her true love was not the only kind of darkness. The woods beside her seemed black now, the weak rays of the setting sun unable to penetrate their dark depths. She shuddered immediately. "Oh, Dopey...we had better return at once-"

That was when a cry echoed through the trees.

She stared, paralyzed. "D...Dopey..."

"Get back here!"

Something black, with horrid glowing red eyes, came swooping out of the woods. It gave a terrible shriek and whirled about, seeming to glare at them balefully like a gigantic deadly bird. "Help me!" she screamed.

It dove.

Her panicked gasps filled her ears, she flinched in pain as branches raked her flesh or she stumbled over stones, and she finally realized that she was running, fleeing through the woods as she had done once before, having no idea where she was going in the pitch-black. "Oh...!"

Dopey. She had left Dopey.

She stumbled to a halt, eyes wide, heart hammering in her chest. 'Dopey. He stayed behind to protect me, because I'm the princess.'

He was no match for that monster. Surely he had been destroyed, as she'd fled without even thinking. "Nooo!"

She had done something wrong she had done something wrong she had done something wrong. A girl was supposed to flee when in danger, was supposed to leave the man behind to defend her. Yet her heart seemed to twist as she thought about what she had done, about how she had left a dear friend to the mercies of a creature who would tear him to pieces, about how that sweet childlike creature wasn't even a man, about how she had left him alone, done nothing to help.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" she cried in agony. She didn't know what to do, so she sank to the ground and sobbed.

Gradually, it occurred to her that this wasn't really doing any good. No one was coming to help her. No one was helping her friend, or fighting the monster. "Dopey," she whispered. She hunched there a moment longer, listening. Then she straightened up and peered around at the darkness.

She could see nothing. The noises were eerie in the dark, but there was nothing out of the ordinary for a forest at night. There were no animals approaching; no handsome, helpful, kind young men; not even any raging trees or forest spirits. "...Hello?" Slowly, she got to her feet.

She was in the middle of the woods, lost, alone, in the dark, and somewhere out there, her friend was being hurt.

"I have light, at least," she whispered, clasping her hands together over her breast. Even if it was only in her heart, she still had light. "Dopey..." Could she go find him again? Was that...allowed?

"..."

Did it matter?

"I'm going to find you." She listened to the sound of her own voice. It sounded strange, like something a man would say, but... Well, there wasn't a man anywhere near. She was the only one who could help Dopey. "I'm coming," she said, louder. And she began to walk.

It soon became apparent that she had no idea where she was going, and the calm began to give way to distress again. "Where...oh, where am I going...?" Perhaps Dopey would be able to hear her if she called out. "Dopey!"

Still nothing but silence, and the sounds of the forest. "DOPEY!" She began to run again, more carefully this time, which meant she was much slower. "Oh, please!" 'Please don't let him be hurt, please-'

There was a strange whooshing sound. "Will you shut up? Seriously, your voice is giving me an actual headache."

She was startled when a small young man came dropping out of nowhere, landing right in front of her, seeming to carry his own glow with him. "Oh, my!"

The odd little vehicle seemed to collapse into itself and settle in his hand, now resembling one of those key-like swords.

"Who are-?" No. She knew him. "Ven! Ven, is it you?" His face was the same, and that incredible hair, but...his eyes...she didn't recognize those hard eyes at all.

"Yeah, what of it?" he said in an annoyed tone. Then he blinked, shook his head, and sighed. "Sorry...do I know you...?" To her relief, his eyes seemed to have softened, at least somewhat.

"Oh...why...I-"

"A princess," he realized. "From one of those first three worlds, I bet. Let's see...there was the sparkly shoe one, Cinder-something, and I remember Sleeping Beauty, so you're the other one...snowy...White! Snow White?"

"Oh, why, yes, that's me, but...Ven?"

He sighed deeply again, and shook his head. "Look, princess...a lot's happened since we met, I think it's just better if we go our own separate ways..."

What? The hero wasn't supposed to abandon the damsel in distress without having done anything to help her. "Wait, oh, wait, please! Please, won't you help me? Like you did once before?"

He looked annoyed again. "I'm on my own mission, you know. Speaking of which, you didn't happen to see a giant Heartless flying around, did you?"

"Oh! That must have been what attacked us."

"Where?" he said sharply.

"I-I don't know...I was trying to find my way back out of the woods, but I...I'm afraid I'm lost."

He rolled his eyes and tossed his sword out before him, where it expanded back into the strange little vehicle. She had no idea how it remained in the air without anything like wheels. "Hop on."

"Pardon me?"

He stepped onto it - it dipped slightly under his weight, but did not drop to the ground. "C'mon. I don't have all night."

It took her a minute to realize that he meant her to step onto the vehicle behind him. Gingerly, she set a foot on the metal, and gasped as he impatiently grabbed her, hoisted her all the way up, and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Hold on tight. And bend your knees a bit."

"Pardon?" she said helplessly.

The first time she fell off, she was so shocked that she simply lay there, staring up at the darkness, trying to figure out what to think. What was one supposed to think when she had fallen off a piece of metal that floated in the air and sometimes turned into a sword? 'I feel as if I just fell off a horse.' Ahhh - that was it. It was exactly as if she had fallen off a horse. "Oh! Oh, I've twisted my ankle!"

"Seriously?"

Actually, when she tried to move her leg, then the other leg, she found that neither of them hurt very much. "Oh..." Her posterior did, though. But it wasn't ladylike to mention that, so she didn't.

"I'm so tempted to just leave you here...no, Ven, no, you're a good person, you don't just leave helpless girls all alone in the middle of the woods, what kind of jerk are you...oh yeah, the kind of jerk who'd unleash hordes of dark monsters throughout the multiverse, gah, why do I even bother..."

She was very cautious as she climbed to her feet. "I think I'm all right," she said uncertainly. A little sore, but she didn't think he would have to carry her home, which didn't actually seem right, either. Wasn't she supposed to be incapacitated?

"Good. Get back on."

"What?! I can't do that! I'll fall off!"

"So? Then just get back on again. Let's go! Who knows what that Heartless is up to while we're sitting here wasting time."

He was right, but it was such a novel idea, she had to stand there and think about it first. 'If I fall...just get back up?' She couldn't think of any reason why not, no matter how hard she tried. 'I can still walk. It doesn't hurt very much. If I'm able to step back on that thing and hold onto him and fly again - why shouldn't I?'

So she did. And just as the wind was starting to blow her hair into disarray and she began to feel breathless with a strange delight - she lost her balance, and fell again. '...Am I all right?' It seemed so. Her arm hurt a bit where he had scratched her, trying and failing to catch hold of her as she fell, but she was still able to stand up. "I shall get back on again," she told him, a little hesitant.

"Come on, let's go!"

They reached the meadow. She screamed when she saw the little body stretched out on the ground, surrounded by darkness as if it was feeding on him. "Dopey!"

"Ow! What are you trying to do, break my eardrums? Get off!"

She barely even heard him. She was already stumbling to the ground and running, flinging herself on her dear friend's body and clasping him close to her breast as she sobbed. "Oh, Dopey, Dopey, please open your eyes..."

Light.

"Oh..." There was work to do. She closed her eyes and tried to remember how it had felt, when she and the other Princesses of Heart had...battled. The darkness.

Battled? That was not how it was supposed to work at all, they were as far from warriors as could be. But...what else could she call it, the struggle to repel and defeat an enemy who wanted to harm them and everything that was important in the worlds?

"I will fight," she whispered, listening to how the words sounded as she said them. She might be a girl, and small, and weak, but the Light within her was powerful, and if the darkness receded before it...it was simply easiest to visualize it as a weapon, wasn't it? It was the only weapon she could use, but it had saved many worlds before. Perhaps she needed nothing else. 'I won't let you take my friend. My silly, funny, kind friend, I won't let him fall to darkness, because I have enough light to wrap around him a hundred times over!'

And so she fought.

It was so difficult without the other six to strengthen and support her. But then she got used to it, and she could feel Dopey's heart reviving and joining her, and then - a sudden new light. Conflicted and agitated and decidedly impure, but so powerful, and with its brightness surrounding the darkness within, holding it firmly in check.

'Who are you?' she thought.

'Don't mind me. Do your Princess thing. I'll take care of the rest.'

Then, a third voice. 'We'll fight together, princess!'

'Dopey,' she realized, in shock and growing delight. Hearing the voice of his heart, his voice for the very first time - it was strange how much it reminded her of Sora, the unexpected strength and resistance to the darkness. It was not a child's voice.

'Stop getting distracted,' the conflicted light thought impatiently, 'pull it away from him so I can bash its brains in!'

She was not entirely sure what he was talking about, but she hardened her resolve and did her best.

o.o.o.o.o

When she opened her eyes, she felt a sense of excitement, pride, and triumph, though she couldn't think why - she was exhausted. And could not imagine feeling worse if she had fallen off a horse a hundred times.

"Here. Drink this." Something was set to her lips, and then the most delicious taste filled her mouth. She drank eagerly, then opened her eyes to find Dopey cradling her head in his lap, and Ven holding an empty bottle. "Feel better?" he asked.

"Oh, yes! My goodness, what was that?"

"Just a Hi-Potion. Figured you could use it."

"Certainly. I am quite grateful, Ven." She sat up and smiled at her smaller friend, who leaped to his feet and did a little joyful dance. "And you, too, Dopey dear. Are you all right?"

'Fit as a fiddle,' the dwarf mimed.

She smiled again, studying him, trying for the first time to see him as something other than a quaint little boy. "Dopey...you were very brave, to protect me and to help me fight the darkness."

He imitated the knight on a horse again. This time, instead of assuming it was a joke, she thought about it. Of course he would look ridiculous, dolled up in ill-fitting armor and riding a horse many times his size, but...in the depths of their hearts, when he had faced the darkness without flinching and sent it retreating in the wake of his unflagging joy and determination and loyalty...how was that different from a warrior who held to his noble principles while fighting wicked enemies?

"I'm the one who's been wrong, aren't I," she said softly.

"What's up?" Ven said, switching out some of his Accessory pieces.

"All this time...I keep expecting things to go a certain way, the right way. But they never do. Nothing ever goes right. And now I'm starting to think...maybe...the way I thought was right...isn't right at all. That maybe I haven't understood anything my whole life."

"Well, you're not the only one of my friends who's stupid," Ven said, then winced. "Sorry, um...I could have worded that better..."

"For so long, I dreamed of my true love."

"Great. Here we go."

"I knew how it was supposed to happen...it always happened the same way in the stories." She began to sing, and Ven covered his ears. "Some day, my prince will come. Some day, we'll meet again, and away to his castle we'll go, to be happy forever, I know..."

Dopey had settled into a relaxed pose on the grass, listening with a dreamy look on his face. Snow White smiled sadly at him and rested a hand on his head. "The prince is my true love. We are supposed to adore each other, and live happily ever after together in his grand castle..."

"Do you happen to know how long this story's gonna be?" Ven asked with a strained smile.

"...but...I don't understand...why it's been so horrible." Slowly, she rested one arm across her stomach, and the other across her chest, hugging herself tightly. Ven looked at her hunched, miserable figure and thought that she seemed really small. "I...I was so looking forward to the wedding...and it was truly lovely, it was. It was everything I dreamed and expected. But then...but...then..."

There was a long pause, and Ven finally frowned. "You're not talking about the, uh...night...after...the wedding ceremony...are you? Like, don't, 'cause Aqua already sat me down and grossed me out for life about all this, and I think I'll do just fine without your Happily Ever Afters, thank you very much, and-"

She was shivering a little. Her fingers curled tightly into the fabric of her cloak. Then she suddenly sat up straight and burst out, with a more poisonous expression than either of her companions had ever imagined the little princess would be capable of, "I want to kill him."

"Uh...what?"

Dopey just stared with his jaw hanging.

Then her face crumpled. "I'm not supposed to feel that way. I'm a princess of Light. But I've been wrong about so many things, maybe I'm wrong about this, too, and I maybe I really can reach out with darkness and crush him and hurt him like he's hurt me...like he hurts me so - many - times, and I'm glad he got taken, I'm glad he's gone I'm glad I'm glad and I never want to see that monster ever again!"

Ven could feel himself shaking. He didn't...know...how to feel...about a being of light who had been so wrecked by darkness. 'Yes, you do,' a voice seemed to whisper in his mind. 'You remember what it was like. It's just that it was forced into her, but ripped out of you. Otherwise, it's the same.'

It was a long time before he was able to break free of dark memories, before he regained awareness of his surroundings and looked up and saw Snow White standing a little distance away from him, looking up at the stars. Dopey held her hand as he kept her company.

Ven got up and made his way over to them. "Hey...Snow White."

"You'll tell the others, won't you," she said, her voice completely expressionless. "You'll tell them that I'm no longer worthy to be a Princess of Heart. That there is someone I want to hurt. And I don't even have a true love. I thought he was the one-" Her eyes widened. "But he is the one! It was his kiss that awakened me..."

"Awakened?"

"When I lay in my enchanted sleep for so long and everyone thought I was dead, only the kiss of true love could rescue me, and he was the one who found me and kissed me."

"When he thought you were dead? Snow, how long did you know this guy before...?"

"Well, we'd only met that once, but I felt like we'd always known each other. I was frightened when he climbed over the castle wall, so I ran inside, but when he began to sing that lovely-"

"He climbed over- Wait, what?"

"-and that's why the kiss worked, isn't it? Because he is my true love..."

"...So, let me get this straight. You were lying dead in the middle of nowhere, and some creepy stalker you barely know came and dug you up and kissed you without permission, so you married him."

"He saved me," she said unhappily. "My dear dwarfs were so very happy... When they saw me open my eyes, they began to dance and sing like-"

"Open your- They were there?"

"Why, yes. They were keeping vigil-"

"Snow White. Just tell me one thing: who do you like better? The prince, or the dwarfs?"

"Oh, my dwarfs, of course! They are ever so sweet and kind and lovely. You know, right, Dopey?"

He nodded vigorously.

"They let me stay with them when I had no home, and kept me safe, and we had such fun times in the evenings when we would sing and dance together just as if we were family. Oh, I love them so much!"

"And they love you, right?"

'Heart beats for Snow White forever,' Dopey mimed.

"It's true love, isn't it," Ven continued slowly. "You were lying there surrounded by true love, and you were kissed, and the spell was broken."

"Oh, the dwarfs can't be my true love, silly! Seven little men, and so old, and they're not handsome, and-"

'No, no. Love you love you love you, forever.'

"They love you. Maybe not the way where you'll get married to them and ride off on a big white horse and live in a castle in the clouds, but they love you."

"But-"

"Family love each other, don't they? At least, they're supposed to. Friends love each other. Those other Princesses of Heart - do you wanna marry them? And if you don't, does that mean you hate them?"

It took a moment. Then, "Ohhhhhhhhh."

"Love is love. There's different kinds. But it's still love. You know?" The things that he and Aqua and Terra had done for each other, there was no other word for it. Ven knew true love when he saw it.

Snow White was quiet for a while, thinking. Then she finally said, "He was never my true love. His kiss awakened me, but only because of the love of my dear d- my dear family. I didn't- I didn't have to marry him."

"You shouldn't have to marry anybody."

Her eyes were distant. "It was so very romantic, the way he sang to me and made me feel pretty even when I was in those horrible rags...but once I became his wife...he stopped singing. Or smiling. I found out why he really wanted me, and it wasn't so we could be happy together. He isn't my true love. I don't have a prince after all."

"Well...neither does Alice," Ven said lamely.

Her lips formed a very small smile. "Yes. But Alice is just a little girl. She is still...oh Ven, now I'm afraid for her. She is still wishing and singing and dreaming, but what she longs for is all a - a lie."

"Pfft, yeah, Alice is wishing and dreaming, all right. About writing poems that sound as cool as the ones in Wonderland, but actually make sense. And her poems are actually pretty good, even though she's still just a kid." He glanced at Snow White. "Heck, you look like a kid. How old are you, anyway?"

"Me? Why, I'm fourteen- Well, no, I'm not, am I. They said I was asleep for a whole year, so I suppose I'm fifteen now..."

"Heh. Sounds like someone I know. That guy's clueless when it comes to dating, too."

"Pardon me?"

"Um, like finding his true love and stuff. He's kind of making a mess of it right now."

She stared at him. "You mean, I'm...I'm not...the only one, who was wrong about my true love?"

"Snow, I think everyone sucks at it. Aladdin and Jasmine seem pretty happy together, and I guess Phillip and Aurora are, too, but Terra and Cinderella keep making cow eyes at each other when they think no one's looking. And Aqua looks at me weird sometimes and won't tell me who her 'lost love' is, and Hayner and Olette fight all the time ever since they started dating even though they got along great when they were just friends, and one time me and Roxas found these lovey-dovey letters in Master Eraqus's stuff from Lady Tremaine that she wrote, like, a billion years ago, and Rapunzel keeps saying that it was Eugene she married, not Flynn, and that he'd better figure out who he is before she decides to leave him behind on her next adventure, and Axel said that dating Larxene was the worst thing that'd ever happened to him, and, just...everyone sucks at it, Snow. I suck at it, because I don't have a true love, either, and I don't even want one. It looks like a huge pain."

She just stared at him for a while. Eventually, he got bored and went to shop with the holo-Moogle he could see hanging out on the other side of the flower field, who looked as bored as he was. Then he came back and was trying to remember which worlds had Heartless that dropped Lightning Stones, because he just needed two more before he could synthesize the new Command he wanted, when Snow White finally said in a voice of wonder, "There are many worlds, aren't there."

"Yes, Snow White," he said, trying to aim his tone more towards the condescending end of the spectrum than the scathing end. "There are lots and lots of worlds."

"Each person. Every person has their own world. And none of them are wrong. They're just different."

"Uh...yeah. I guess." He paused. "No. Sometimes they are wrong. Like Master-" That man was not his master. "...Like Xehanort. He was- What he did to me was wrong."

"Yes," Snow White said softly. "We protect the light because it's good, and it heals, and makes people happy. The darkness is why there is evil and pain in these worlds. And the ones who cause that are...are wrong. No matter what anyone says. He was the one wrong. Not me."

"Sucks when people tell you different, huh," Ven said bitterly.

"V-Ven...why did they lie to me? His mother, and the other ladies...why did they lie when they said that this was the way things were supposed to be?"

"Because they didn't care about you. All they cared about was how they could use you. All they cared about was that you'd do what they said and not get in their way." He didn't expect her to reach out and caress his face, her fingertips as light as butterflies.

"They lied to you, too?"

"Xehanort did, yeah," he mumbled.

"But now we know the truth."

"The truth is that people are horrible, but we try to save them anyway because it's The Right Thing To Do. And sometimes it does help, and sometimes things are better because we fought even when we didn't want to. Not all the time. But sometimes. Sometimes we manage to not screw up, and everything works out all right."

"I'm so glad." She looked back at Dopey and smiled, clasping his other hand. Dopey looked very happy to see her back in better spirits again.

"Oh...I...there's so much. So much to think about." She suddenly paused. "And I don't want to go home to think. I don't want to go home ever again."

"Uh..."

Snow White turned to look at Ven, her expression more serious than he had ever seen it. "I have no home. Those castles where I was tormented and unloved - I never want to set foot in either of them ever again."

"Well...what are you expecting me to do, find you somewhere else to live?" The sentence was barely out of his mouth before he remembered that he'd actually done that exact same thing before, the first time he'd seen her.

"Oh, yes! Oh, would you, Ven? Would you, please? I can't go back home to the little cottage with dear Doc and the others, because the darkness will find me, like my stepmother did before. I want to go and be with my friends." Her eyes were shining. "With my sisters. We were born in different worlds, but in our hearts, we are sisters."

"For crying out loud. Okay. But we'll have to take a dark corridor, because you don't have any Keyblade armor or anything."

"All right. Thank you so much, Ven!"

"It's a dark corridor, Snow! I don't even have a coat for you."

Still holding one of Dopey's hands, she reached out to take Ven's, as well. She was smiling.

"You don't listen very well, do you," he remarked.

"You're such a kind young man, Ven. Thank you again for helping me, I am ever so grateful."

"...Hmph. It's been a long time since anyone's told me that." The last time he'd heard something like that had been before he'd become whole again, actually. When half of him was still Vanitas, the despised bane of the multiverse who wasn't good at anything except being miserable and getting his butt kicked by Keyblade wielders. Of course it was the 'pure light' half of Ven that had been thanked, the half everyone loved, the half everyone missed and secretly hated the whole Ven for even though they never said anything about it, and even though that boy who'd 'disappeared' wasn't him. He was this now. He had been this before. And the only ones who had ever truly loved this version of him were dead.

"What the-?! Hey! You kissed me!" he cried, rubbing the top of his head indignantly even though he hadn't actually been able to feel her lips through his hair.

"Oh - I suppose you are like Grumpy," she said, almost slyly. "Please be careful when you walk, Ven. I wouldn't want you to get hurt because you've forgotten to watch where you're going."

"What are you talking about?"

Even Dopey was giggling at him.

"Ugh. Are you coming, or not?"

"Don't leave me behind, Ven."

Still hand in hand, the three of them went together into the dark corridor, and vanished from that world.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: ...In the midst of all my AkuSai(RokuShi) fever, I got the most random urge to finally write the Ven/Snow Shadowless Princesses fic. Like, why now? XD It was because I saw Amano Shiro's newest KH 10th anniversary wallpaper, of Snow White and the dwarfs playing in the flowers with Sora, Donald, Goofy, & Jiminy. Amano may not be the best at drawing anime-style characters, but Square Enix had to have hired him because he NAILS the Disney ones. Nails them. Seriously, Snow White looks like she came straight from the movie. 8O So seeing her with Sora in such a cute picture suddenly gave me fluffy feels and made me want to write her. X3 Even though it ended up being VenVan instead of Ven, and the fic became less-than-fluffy, but whatever.

Like I said, I didn't really have an outline for this fic, I basically just opened a word processor file and started typing. As I was actually drafting the story, it...kind of took a darker-than-intended turn...and I let it, since this fic is dedicated to Kiryn and I know how she feels about the Prince and pairing him with Snow. (Most of the stuff I said about him being a creepy stalker came from her written response to the movie.) So here you go, K; more reason to despise him. *sweatdrop*

At the end, Snow White is referring to when she'd kissed Grumpy for the first time, and he got all dreamy in response and kept banging into trees, falling into streams, etc. XD

"And the only ones who had ever truly loved this version of him were dead." Which is not actually true, Ven is just being a brat. (And briefly grieving again for what happened in the chapters of Before Sora that I haven't written yet.)

Ftr, Snow White is seven years old in the original fairy tale, and physically matures during her long sleep, even though she had to have retained her child's mental/emotional maturity level after being awakened. In the Disney version, she's fourteen and was asleep for a year, exactly like Sora. But dumb as Sora is, Snow is even dumber, and I think it's possible in her circumstances that no one told her the Facts of Life until the day before the wedding. Or maybe she got the romanticized version when she was young but never the more realistic, practical information. That's the impression I had, anyway. She's basically a young, less-intelligent-than-average adolescent who loses an entire year of development and life experience, and marries a pedo stalker whom she'd known for a grand total of about five minutes before they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
And the more I think about Charming/Cinderella, the more I wish canon gave me more room to break them up and ship her with Terra instead. There's a good reason why most modern Cinderella adaptations involve the heroine and the prince getting to know and befriend each other long before the climactic ballroom scene. *sweatdrop*

Now the only Princesses left are Belle & Kairi! 8D (But sorry, K, I don't think I'm up to the alternate Belle pairing after all...it'll have to be the one you hate, because that's the one I feel like I can actually write. *wince*)
For you newbs who have no idea what I'm talking about, Dream Waltz is Terra/Cinderella (mostly romance), Eyes Like A Tiger's is Saïx/Jasmine (complicated platonic/romance), "ACW" is PLATONIC Axel/Alice, and Heart of Light is platonic Aurora/Roxas. :3