Snow White crept along the castle corridors in which she had once run and laughed and played. The dwarfs had meant well, she knew that, but there was only one way she was ever going to reclaim her life. It wasn't that hard to sneak into the castle. Regina might have ruthless guards and set traps, but she grew up there and knew every corner and every crack.

Regina hadn't moved into the King's chambers it seemed, still using her own. Her mother's. Snow pulled the knife from its sheaf as she crept towards the Queen's sleeping form. The blade caught the light from the moon outside and she hovered above her frozen in indecision she did not expect to have. This woman... lied to her for years, she killed her father, she sent men after her to rip out her heart. How could she be hesitating now?

But the figure below her was not just the Evil Queen. She was Regina, the soft lines of her face tracing the smile she remembered so easily. curve of her jaw... the silky blackness of her hair.

Her father had once called Snow the fairest of them all, but even then she knew he was delusional if he thought that was true.

She raised the knife again, trying to steel her determination to murder the sleeping Queen.

Except she wasn't sleeping. Regina turned in the bed and looked up into her eyes, wide awake.

"I have to say, I didn't think you had it in you Snow. But then again... you've been standing there for quite some time so perhaps you don't."

"You ruined my life," Snow breathed hard, her hand was shaking though and the queen made no move to stop her.

She knew she could. She was a bit surprised that her neck was not already snapped or that she hadn't been lit on fire. Or both.

"I ruined your life?" Regina asked with a raised eyebrow and a sneer that brought out the lines of the scar on her lip even in the low light. "Why don't you just go ahead and do it Snow? Plunge the knife in."

The bandit princess' took a large inhale but instead of sinking the blade in she dropped it.

Even with the darkness in her heart from the potion she didn't remember taking... she could not kill Regina.

The queen stood up and smiled.

"Always so predictable princess. Though I will grant you, it takes a certain amount of reckless stupidity I didn't really attribute to you for you to sneak into your own home. But then again... you were stupid enough to lose it."

Stupid. This entire thing had been stupid of her. Of course she knew that, but hearing Regina's words. Knowing she probably wouldn't survive the night, stupid seemed like it was all she had left. And so she did something even stupider.

She kissed Regina. Their lips crashed together and she knew she'd surprised her because she didn't respond at all for a moment before much to Snow's surprise the Queen was kissing her back. There was even a little bit of a growl.

"You don't want to do this, Princess."

"For once in your life shut up, Regina." And snow pushed the queen back into the bed and crawled on top of her, continuing the kissing, moving down to her neck and running a free hand through her long thick hair. "If I'm going to die I'm going to at least do this first."

She expected to be pushed off, to be stopped, to be restrained, but none of that happened. The Queen's body moved with her as if she too had been longing for this. Or she knew how to make Snow think she had been longing for it. And the truth was Snow didn't care.

She stopped kissing her long enough to push Regina's night gown up and place a hand between her legs. Snow didn't have a lot of sexual experience but she knew what that dampness meant. She knew that Regina wanted this. Perhaps even needed it.

And she needed it. Because in that moment it wasn't the mad woman trying to kill her or the ice bitch. In that moment the look on Regina's face as she touched her was the woman she fell in love with so many years ago. But still the woman she also hated. Two fingers pushed in, with all the gentleness of a rough forest-woman she was now and none of the ease of the princess she once was. Curling a little she pumped them in and out a few times before resting her thumb on Regina's clitoris. She wasn't moving fast. She had no real desire to have this over with quickly and making Regina long for her might be the last thing she ever did so she was going to make it worth the fight.

Regina for her part was staring at her eyes sharp and hard, but a smile creeping across her lips.

"Had I known this was what you were looking for all along, Snow, I might not have wanted to kill you."

Snow twisted her fingers a bit just to make sure she got a reaction from Regina for that, but began to move her fingers faster. When the Queen came it was a powerful orgasm and much to Snow's satisfaction she screamed out her name.

It was good to know that she could scream for more than her head.

Her hand tired she lay down next to Regina and waited for death to come. Her life was forfeit, she knew, the moment she didn't kill her. Or perhaps the moment she got the idea to try.

But her neck didn't snap. And she didn't find herself on fire. Instead the queen rolled over and stroked her hair. "You smell like forest dear. I really must insist you take a bath in the morning and we find you some cloths befitting a princess." There was a dark fire in the Evil Queen's eyes.

"You aren't going to kill me?"

"Not tonight. Perhaps tomorrow. Now sleep my Princess." She leaned in and kissed her forehead like Regina had done a thousand times before.