/An AU where Ivy wins in 'The Curse of Princess Ivy'. No warnings really applicable. Enjoy.
"What's that?" Sofia asks, and Miss Nettle quickly shuts her hand. She gives Sofia a tired look, and shakes her head.
"Nothing, child." In her long dark dress, Sofia could probably pass for a fairy (And that was the idea. Ivy was unlikely to be looking around these parts, and even if she was, she wouldn't think twice of her taking on an apprentice. She knew her well enough to know that.)
"It didn't look like nothing." Sofia insists, hoping up onto the bed next to the fairy. Miss Nettle sighed softly, and gently brushed a strand of soft hair off of Sofia's face. As the years had passed, Sofia had grown into a powerful young sorceress. Miss Nettle had grown close to her, perhaps even motherly at times. Even though she would deny it all. After a pause, Miss Nettle opened her hand again so that Sofia could see the dancing memory.
"It's pretty. Who is it?" She asks, as she studied the dancing figures.
"Look closer." Miss Nettle murmured, and Sofia does.
One figure had long red hair, styled into long ringlets that reached her waist. Her soft white dressed billowed out around her, the fabric light, the embroidery simple. Poking out from under her hair was a pair of wings, see through and delicate. When the fairy turned to face her, Sofia actually laughed. "That's you!" She exclaimed softly. Miss Nettle nodded.
"It was, yes."
"Who are you dancing with?" She asked. But Miss Nettle didn't reply, so Sofia continued to study the dancing figure. A long black dress, with a white top. Hair two toned, it fell to her shoulders, one hald black, the other grey. On her head, she wore a crown, right down on her forehead, with rubies glinting in the light of wherever they were dancing. "Princess Ivy!" Sofia exclaimed. Why would Miss Nettle, an ally, be dancing with the enemy, who stole her life from her? Her sister, her amulet, her kingdom.
"Yes, Child." Miss Nettle agreed, and started the memory again. "She was such a good dancer, my Ivy."
"Your Ivy?" Miss Nettle nods.
"Hm." She said.
"You knew her?" Nettle nods.
"I did, yes."
"When?"
"A long time before you were even considered." She murmured. "When I trained under your faries three."
"I forgot you ever did that."
"I wish I was able to forget." She said, softly. "But alas, it is not so easy for the likes of me."
"What...Happened?" She asked, hesitantly. Miss Nettle sighed softly.
"It was a long time ago."
"You still love her, obviously."
"I am doomed to love her."
"Tell me?" Miss Nettle closes her hand, shutting off her projection of the memory.
"She was like no one I'd ever met, and together we were…." Miss Nettle looked thoughtful, and gazed out the window of their ugly little shack to the stars, where Sofia always thought that Miss Nettle would rather be. "Unreliable." She offers, after a few moments. "But that's always the case, isn't it?" She murmured, "When a human and fairy fall in love.' It reminds Sofia that Miss Nettle is very much not a human, not at all. "We were...So different." She admits. "Ivy liked black and white. I liked colour."
"And you got on?"
"Very well." Miss Nettle admits. "She was like….Lava." She said, finally. "She consumed everything and everyone in her path. I was no different." She smiles, as Sofia puts her head on the smaller's shoulder.
"She loved you?"
"I think so, but humans..." She shakes her head. "It's hard to tell, sometimes." Miss Nettle admits. "She was so smart, so wonderfully smart." Miss Nettle whispers. "She had the best grades in her year.' she murmured. "I met her, one afternoon when I scrubbing the hallways."
"You didn't use magic?"
"I wasn't allowed."
"Oh."
"She saw me, arched over, hands cracked and dress soaked, and then got down on her hands and knees to help me." "
"Why?" It didn't seem like something Ivy that she knew would do.
"We were different people, back then." Miss Nettle admits, "I still believed that the world was kind, and that we all had a happy ending." Sofia doesn't like to think of the connotations that the statement holds. "She believed that she was destined for things greater then Royal Prep."
"Was she?"
Miss Nettle gazes out at the black and white trees. "You saw her first hand,did you not?"
"I did but...Was she always like that?" Miss Nettle shook her head no.
"She was a kindly child. Even to young faires who scrubbed floors."
"And you fell in love, then?"
"No. We were children. She must have been...Ten years old." She murmured, "I was young for a fairy." She hummed. "She fell in love with nature." Miss Nettle whispered. "And I loved to teach her." She murmured. "She saw the butterflies that would approach me, and she wanted them too."
"She always wanted what other people had?"
"I was no different." Miss Nettle counters. "She wanted them in black and white."
"Why?"
"She was raised that way." Miss Nettle murmurs, putting a small arm around Sofia's shoulders. "She was very good, at magic. Much like yourself." She comments. "I would show her all sorts of party tricks, and she was always able to one up me." Miss Nettle looks dreamy. "We grew up together." She said, quietly. "She showed me how to be ambitious, and I showed her the good parts of colour."
"I take it she didn't listen to you?"
"No, she never did." Miss Nettle said, softly, before opening one hand up to show Sofia the memory again. It seems more complete now, Miss Nettle, young and excited dances with the young Ivy. Sofia laughs happily as they dance on the table, kicking plates and glasses aside carelessly. Miss Nettle smiles as well. Everywhere Ivy stepped, her darkness seemed to infect, but Miss Nettle seemed to clear it up.
"What happened?" She asked, "You look so happy."
"She was a human. I was a fairy."
"That explains nothing."
"She wanted a kingdom. I wanted a garden. I told her that I wanted to be with her, that I would be happy. She told me that she couldn't. We parted ways."
"You loved her."
"You are so young." Miss Nettle whispered, pressing a soft kiss to the top of Sofia's head. "You think that life is kind, and that you will come out on top." She said, quietly. Sofia watches the memory again. "You were young, once."
"I was." She agreed, "And I thought all of the same things." She said, "Sometimes things just don't change, do you understand?" Sofia nods, and sighs softly.
"Perhaps I don't need to fight her. Perhaps you could just talk with her." Miss Nettle laughs.
"No, that won't work. You still need to fight...She won't go down without it."
"Oh." Sofia said, as the two stare off into the night sky.
…
The blacks whites and greys in front of them seem endless. They stand on the edge of it, Sofia in her robe and Miss Nettle in her yellow dress, faded to almost pastel from age and wear. After several moments, one yellow slippered foot touches the grey, and it dissipated under her foot. Flowers begin to bloom in the small circle of colour. After a minute, Miss Nettle holds a hand out for Sofia to take. She does, and they dance.
Each time Miss Nettle takes a step, the ground goes colourful, they dance past the guards, and into the unused ballroom. As Miss Nettle steps, colour slowly returns. Vines crawl up the walls and onto the pilliars, red flowers blooming. They step up onto the table, and Sofia feels like the child she had been dancing in here with her father for the first time. They yellow marble seems to shine under her feet as they step back onto the ground.
Amber runs in, white hair flying behind her as she sees her sister for the first time in five years, dancing with Miss Nettle. After a long moment, Sofia holds a hand out to her, and Amber takes it. When their fingers touch, Miss Nettle watches colour burst across their skin, up Amber's arm. She releases the girls to dance, only to be face to face with the Princess herself. "Nettle." Ivy said, softly, Miss Nettle nods slightly, and after a moment, offered her hand to the princess. Ivy looked at it, before taking it into hers, and engaging Miss Nettle in one final dance.