A/n: statistically I can't help but find it highly suspicious that there wasn't a few Snow Whites whose true loves were women (and this is working under the assumption that Darling is Apple's Lady Prince Charming. Apparently there is a lot of controversy over this topic).
Also this takes place sometime after my fic; The Case of the Illusive Raven.
XXX
"I mean it's not like I'm not fond of Apple or anything." Darling shrugs. "It's just that despite me swinging that way I just don't see her in that light you know? I've spent so long considering her as a future sister-in-law that it's kind of weird thinking of myself as her prince… even though I really do like the prince part. And besides that she and I were never really all that close to start with."
"But what does this mean?" Ramona asked. "Did Raven's refusal to abide by the script change the dynamic of fairytale magic somehow? Because I highly doubt that all of those generations of Snow Whites wouldn't have had a girl for a prince at some point if this was all part of the normal course of fairytales as we knew it."
"Actually it's more normal than one would've thought." Raven confessed looking a little tired as she began to explain. "While I was studying to test out of my mandatory villain classes Apple and I came across some discrepancies between the spell normally used for the story, the spell my mother used on Apple's apple, and the original spell that the original Evil Queen had supposedly used on the original Snow White. Apparently the spell my mother used, which was roughly the same spell the original Evil Queen used, was different from the spell traditionally used in the poisoned apples of the story for the past several hundred years."
All eyes stared at the witch in wide-eyed confusion.
Raven sighed. "You see in the poison that my mother and the original Evil Queen used, it does exactly what it says on the tin; puts victim to a sleep so deep that they appear dead at a cursory glance, and can only be countered by a kiss from someone- or someone's since apparently it is possible for there to be more than one good candidate to be the victim's true love- who is compatible with the victim. The spell normally used in the story is slightly different; several key ingredients are different, one of them being a hair that would be needed to be plucked from Daring's head."
Said boy (who was sitting at the same table only because it was filled with girls and after his disastrous attempts at trying to woo Raven and his lack of dates lately he was beginning to feel somewhat inadequate as the school's most sought out bachelor so to remedy this he was trying to be near as many large groups of girls as possible in the hopes of perhaps getting his groove back) looked up from staring boredly at his food with an outraged yelp, hands flying protectively up to his head as he cast Raven a horrified look.
"I'm never going to go anywhere near your prized hair if I can help it." Raven assured the boy with a long-suffering look. "I'm the Rebel Queen remember?"
"And he's not Apple's prince." Someone mumbled lowly in a jeering tone before yelping when Raven flicked her plastic spoon at the perpetrator.
"Terribly sorry my hand slipped." Raven stated quickly and with a false apologetic tone, glaring warningly at the girl who had spoken as she patted a gloomy looking Daring kindly on the shoulder. "Essentially the reason why no Snow Whites have ever had a girl as their prince, or that the hero of the story was always a prince, was because it was ensured that such a divergence in the story would never happen. That was why the spell calls for the chosen prince's hair, it doesn't explain why in the spellbooks but Apple did some digging and she discovered that if you wanted a specific person to undo a spell you needed to add that person's hair, blood, or something of that nature to it."
The table gasped in scandalized shock.
"So you're saying that it's all rigged?" Cerise gaped, sounding nearly ready to burst out laughing.
"I could've been Prince Charming if you hadn't rebelled?" Daring cried out.
The table all turned their exasperated gazes to the boy.
"You do realize…" Kitty spoke slowly. "That you would not have been Apple's actual true love right? It would have all been a lie."
Daring stared at them all in confusion.
"And that would be a bad thing Daring." Raven told the boy in the same tone that one would speak to a small child. "Because there would have been no love or romance, which is essential in that very romantic fairytale. Apple would have been very upset to discover that her marriage and her promised happy ending with you was all a lie."
Daring appeared to look conflicted between agreeing with the witch and mourning his loss at a chance at the best fairytale in Ever After.
"I dodged a fire breathing dragon in regards to that one." Apple mused to Briar from their separate table, which was across the isle from the other. The blonde princess's eye twitching in irritation as the prince only acknowledged that the witch held a point after Cerise kicked his shin under the table and growled menacingly at Daring.
"I can't decide whether he is a brave soul for sitting in on the Rebel faction's unofficial all girl lunch meeting or if he's been driven off the edge after the whole dragon games fiasco." Briar confessed blandly, casting the boy in question a flat look.
"Is it true?" Blondie asked her eyes wide. "About the potion?"
"Yes." Apple grimaced. "And apparently its not just Raven's family secret, my mother, as it had turned out, knew all about this. Because the original spell was all about a Snow White's true love waking them up, and… well as Cupid has been saying all this time, love is… not a thing you can control, so in order to keep to tradition…"
"They made it so that there was no choice but to marry the prince that the families had chosen for the princess." Briar deadpanned looking unimpressed. "It's a royalty thing, the whole idea of a princess needing to marry a prince. It's slowly fallen out of popularity for obvious reasons, even more so now that Raven's rebellion has taken flight."
"The idea certainly isn't popular with me." Ashlynn snorted into her drink.
"How do you feel about this Apple?" Blondie turned her wide, worried eyes to her best friend.
Apple tilted her head and considered the question thoughtfully; her gaze drifted towards Raven and she felt her cheeks warm as a small smile spread across her face.
"Not as hurt or scared as I would have thought I'd be." Apple confessed after a while. "I'm actually, surprisingly, just fine with not having to marry Daring."
"You are?" Blondie's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I thought that not having a fairytale perfect ending frightened you?"
Apple bit the corner of her lip in interest when Raven met her gaze and shyly smiled back, a light blush painting the witch's nose.
Her secret girlfriend was so cute~.
"Ah… well I'm still working towards that happy ending, though how it's going to play out is going to have to be a secret for a while yet because it's… just going to take some time and work before I reveal to you guys what it is and whether or not it has worked out or not, I really hope that it does though." Apple stated cryptically, not looking her friends in the eye.
"You're not going to tell us?" Blondie gasped scandalized, it went against all of her being to be told that she wasn't going to be told a secret. "B-but Apple-"
"You'll be the first few people to know." Apple soothed diplomatically, because it would be cruel to not let her friends know at least that there was something up if she and Raven did work out. "Just… it's fragile right now and I want to do this right you know? So please, and I do realize that I am asking a lot from some of you, be patient? For me? This is just something I have to work out without my BFFA's input for a while, it… it's really important to me that I do this on my own, after all what kind of ruler would I be if I just sat around and let everyone else do the heavy lifting for me in regards to my own private life?"
Briar and Ashlynn nodded because they knew without a doubt that they would find out eventually, whether by accident or by Apple caving and telling them, it was just a matter of time.
Blondie on the other hand looked as though she had swallowed a potato chip without chewing first but reluctantly (very reluctantly, and with a great amount of hunched shoulders and pouting) promised not to look into it personally or have anybody else look into it for her and respect Apple's decision.
Apple hoped that the other blonde didn't eventually spontaneously combust from all the waiting; graduation was still a fair ways away after all.
XXX
"I did make Blondie promise on her favorite set of lock picks and childhood teddy bear that she was to leave the subject be you know." Apple murmured between open-mouthed kisses to Raven's neck.
"I'm just enabling light reminders of this if she so happens to fall into temptation." Raven assured as she attempted to raise thin magical privacy shields to the balcony windows, the witch shivered and had to breathe deeply to steady her hand when Apple's hands slipped teasingly under her button-up sleep shirt. "Until she has something to occupy her attention she'll be hurting to figure out something. And Graduation is a long ways away still."
"How did your talk with Maddie go?" Apple asked, the two of them had agreed that they had wanted to keep their relationship extremely private until there came a time when they were both ready to come clean about it and/or after they were no longer attending High School.
However this presented an issue in regards to also keeping such a big secret from their friends, so they decided to be honest with them that they were keeping a secret in regards to what they were planning for the future and that all would be revealed sooner or later, perhaps even after graduation if necessary and the two were safe from certain nosey school officials from trying to break them up.
"B- ah-better than I had expected." Raven's breath hitched when the princess's wandering hands met their destinations on the witch's chest and squeezed. "She and I already have an agreement in place; if it's a secret involving other people then we are allowed to keep it from one another as long as it's not harmful towards ourselves, each other, or others. She said that she couldn't wait for graduation and that she hoped that it all worked out for me."
"It hurts keeping all of this a secret from them." Apple admitted lowly, burying her face into Raven's shoulder. "I want to show you off in their presence as my girlfriend!"
"We did talk about trusting their ability to keep a secret." Raven pointed out, somehow managing to turn around in the princess's hold and pressing the other close.
"Yes but the more people that know the more likely that it'll get out accidentally before we're ready." Apple sighed. "And we'd risk getting our friends into trouble if you-know-who found out that they were in on our secret."
"Far more preferable that if he ever finds out about all of this is after we are long gone from here." Raven grumbled giving the ground to the left of her the stink eye. "I swear there is something wrong with that man's brain- er… that sounded less rude in my head."
"It's probably true." Apple allows. "According to a secret school poll that Blondie doesn't dare publish to the general public, his respect amongst the students took a sharp downturn after the whole wishing well incident, your particular entry to that poll was in the negative numbers if I remember correctly." The princess gave the witch an amused, knowing look.
"That was supposed to be an anonymous survey." Raven coughed guiltily but didn't deny it.
"It doesn't take a detective to know who gave that review dear." Apple giggled, peering up at her girlfriend seductively. "But I gotta say I kind of like the way you internally fight to be fair and proper against the raised instinct to be… thoroughly wicked and brooding about all of this." The princess smugly held the flustered witch's gaze as her hands traveled south and slowly began traveling under a different set of clothes. "Now if only I can figure out how to incite the same reaction from you on a more… fun subject…"
"… What happened to the girl I once knew who didn't even want to kiss anybody before her fairytale and wedding?" Raven blushed and swallowed thickly as she stared at the smirking blonde in disbelief.
"She found out that she was free from the prince obligation and was fortunate enough to snag a hot girlfriend that would allow her to get away with lots of fun stuff before marriage!" Apple grinned like a kid who was getting away with something…, which the princess actually was getting away with something now that Raven thought about it…
XXX
"I can't believe that she won't tell us her secret!" Blondie whined. "It's not fair of her to tease me like this!"
"Wow, she's super tense about this." Ashlynn commented to Briar lightly as she took a bite from her ice cream.
"You bet your fairytale I'm tense!" Blondie snapped. "What kind of sense does it make to tell someone that they're keeping a secret from them and will only tell them that secret at a later date?"
"It makes sense to me since I did the same thing with Apple back when I was beginning to realize that I didn't want to become sleeping beauty." Briar shrugged calmly.
Blondie gasped in shock. "You've turned Rebel?" The blonde gaped.
Briar blinked. "You didn't know? I thought that it would be all over the school by now since I told Faybelle and she had that conniption fit."
"Who's going to believe anything that Faybelle says?" Blondie threw her hands into the air.
"She does have a point." Ashlynn told Briar.
"Why are all of my friends keeping all these secrets from me?" Blondie wailed pitifully at the sky. "First Ashlynn's relationship with Hunter, then Apple revealing that she has a secret that she'll only tell me after graduation, and now Briar's turned Rebel?"
"To be fair Apple is trying to at least let us know that something is up so that it will hurt us less when she does tell us about whatever it is. Better to know that she's working out some stuff on her own now than to be blind sighted by it in the future right?" Ashlynn attempted to soothe the reporter.
"How is telling someone like me that she has a secret and won't tell me it for a very long time going to hurt me less?" Blondie demanded.
"… Alright you do have a point there." Briar sighed. "But look at it this way; at a place like this school it's practically impossible to keep big secrets from your friends for long periods of time, eventually things just accidentally get brought into the light."
The calm smile Briar had on her face fell. "Ashlynn why is she grinning like that?"
"You just gave her an idea on how she can circumnavigate her promise to Apple not to investigate anything." Ashlynn sighed despairingly. "Blondie please stop making that face, you'll scare the locals."
"It's brilliant!" Blondie exclaimed as she stood up from her chair, not heeding Ashlynn's advice. "All that I have to do is stick close by and all will be revealed! Thanks guys!" The reporter announced before running off.
Ashlynn cast Briar a flat look.
"I didn't mean to set her loose like that!" Briar defended.
"Hey babe, is Blondie all right? She's had this really scary look on her face when I passed her." Hunter asked worriedly as he walked up to their table outside the ice cream parlor.
XXX
"Day one in totally legally observing best friend for any sign of her secret accidentally coming out." Blondie spoke quietly to her mirrorpad. "After a long day of observing subject appears to be sneaking around the locker area with a small package behind her back and- …oh never mind she was just giving Raven some chocolates and a hug. Nothing unusual there." The reporter sighed in disappointment turning off her recording App.
This was going to take some time…
XXX
"Day two in totally legally observing best friend for any sign of her secret accidentally coming out." Blondie sighed quietly as she kneeled down between game machines at the arcade. "Nothing to report for the day, only notable unusual thing that happened was that Raven had won Apple a plushy from that game that is so difficult to win anything from."
"Are you going to stay down there the entire time?" Sparrow Hood complained. "It's kind of difficult playing this game with you whispering to yourself."
"A true reporter is never afraid to go the extra mile." Blondie replied with pride in her tone.
"…Good to know…?" Sparrow huffed in frustration before moving on to a different game, far, far away from the blonde talking to herself.
XXX
"Day six in totally legally observing best friend for any sign of her secret accidentally coming out." Blondie hissed as she attempted to tiptoe around a slumbering Kitty Cheshire on the tree branch they were both on. "After Briar's study party the subject snuck away to the dorm kitchens where she retrieved a basket full of food, I followed her to the lake where she is in a secret meeting with- oh its just Raven. Looks like they're going for a boat ride and a picnic. Nothing odd going on. Never mind." The blonde sighed in disappointment.
"Chase…" Daring's oddly tentative and defeated voice caught Blondie's attention. "Tell me again how you managed to convince me into yet another date with you?"
"Not sure to be honest." The knight shrugged. "I'm just more thankful that I've been able to convince you to another date so I'm just going to enjoy this and not question my luck."
From her perch Blondie could see Daring Charming actually blush and stare up at the taller boy all a fluster.
"What?" Blondie blinked in confusion at the odd sight, she could have sworn Daring was strictly a maiden man.
"Noisy…" A voice growled behind the reporter and that was Blondie's only warning before Kitty grabbed her around the waist and teleported the two of them away before Blondie could find enough breath to scream.
Later that day…
"What happened to you?" Cupid asked her roommate in concern when Blondie staggered into their dorm looking tired, ragged, and a little burnt around the edges.
"Kitty doesn't like it when people disturb her naps by sneaking over her to catch the latest scoop, also she's super protective of her Wonderlandian friends, and unsurprisingly dragons dislike being startled." Blondie stated in explanation as she fell face first into bed and rightfully refused to elaborate when asked.
XXX
"Day fifteen in totally legally observing best friend for any sign of her secret accidentally coming out." Blondie sighed into her recording App, ignoring how Humphrey and Dexter looked up from their work and eyed her wearily.
"Decided to explain situation and ask subjects roommate if she knew what subject's secret was, for some reason subject's roommate began laughing uncontrollably for a spell before being oddly unhelpfully cryptic by saying that; sometimes the best way to keep a secret in a place like this school was to hide it in plain sight and let other's assumptions do the hiding for you. But subject's roommate did buy this reporter some well-made porridge that was just right so all was forgiven."
Dexter looked over to Humphrey and pointed to Blondie. "Should we find out what's-?"
"No!" Humphrey hissed shaking his head rapidly. "Remember what happened last time?"
Dexter shuttered, he was still haunted by the memory of Tiny wearing very tight fitting (disturbingly near-revealing tight fitting) lederhosen while practicing his yodeling and clogdancing in the forest. Even though Blondie had been rather impressed at the giant's talent with the vocals and Cupid with his dance moves…
XXX
"Day nineteen in totally legally observing best friend for any sign of her secret accidentally coming out." Blondie huffed walking down the hall of the girl's dorm. "Only thing that happened today was that Raven and Apple went out to see a movie that Raven actually liked and had dinner at one of Apple's favorite restaurants before heading back to their dorm. Nothing unusual happened, they were just as close as they've always been so I still don't get why Cupid had to cover my eyes every so often."
Blondie cast the winged girl walking beside her an odd look.
"I thought that some parts from that movie would be a bit much for you?" Cupid tried, in reality it seemed almost as though Apple and Raven were trying to mold themselves into each other with how closely they were sitting together and more than once the cherub could have sworn that they were going to kiss at some point or something.
It never happened but Cupid couldn't help but get the feeling…
"And when we were at the restaurant and they were having that silly staring contest?" Blondie pressed one eyebrow raised.
It wasn't a staring contest Cupid knew but who was she to explain such a thing to the blonde? "You were attracting attention from the other tables with the way you were staring so obviously." Cupid explained, which actually was the reason why she had covered the girl's eyes to subtly warn the other that she was attracting too much attention.
"I guess that makes sense." Blondie allowed. "But why did you cover my eyes a few minutes ago in the hallway? We were all alone while we were watching them go back into their dorm."
Cupid had covered Blondie's eyes because Apple had curled her littlest finger under Raven's collar and had cast the witch a look that could not be anything but seductive before leading Raven inside their dorm.
"…I got bored." Cupid informed the space to the right of Blondie's left shoulder.
"I guess I can sympathize with that." Blondie sighed before continuing her trek back to their own dorm.
Cupid released a breath, silently thankful that the blonde did not push, a small smile spreading across her lips as she thought back to the evening's events between Raven and Apple, she hoped nothing but the best of luck for them, their secret would stay safe with her until they were good and ready to go public (that is if she had interpreted the truth behind the secret that Apple had alluded to Blondie right).
Let them enjoy the privacy that they had at the moment they both deserved it.
XXX
"Day twenty in totally legally observing best friend for any sign of her secret accidentally coming out." Blondie whispered as she stepped onto Apple and Raven's balcony. "Admittedly I might be stretching my promise a bit but casually glancing through the windows of the subject's dorm balcony doors while on my way back to my dorm isn't that uncommon for me so…"
Blondie glanced over to the mentioned balcony doors only to discover that the pains of glass making up the doors were only showing off her reflection, they did not appear to be translucent at all, not even when Blondie practically pushed her face into the glass did she see anything on the inside.
"This reporter has found that the doors to the balcony have been covered with magical-mirror-privacy film, which is not an uncommon sight to see at the girls dorms since the film is fairly cheep to buy in all kinds of stores and markets in the village, in fact I think that I overheard Maddie and Apple discussing the benefits of having all of the windows to the girls dorms have such a thing…
Inside…
"Hey Apple did you invite Blondie to swing by today?" Raven asked, calmly sipping her tea as she stood in front of the balcony doors.
Apple looked up from the book she was reading at her desk in confusion. "No why do you ask- oh! That's why." The princess giggled as Blondie took out her comb from her purse and attempted to tame a stubborn lock of hair that had strayed from it's place at some point, using the reflective windows to help her. "She sometimes hops from balcony to balcony to get back home, she likes to keep fit for when she plans to give those bears the chase of their lives."
"I'll never cease to be surprised by the people we go to school with…" The witch mumbled, suddenly thankful that she had the foresight to install all that soundproofing and window privacy stuff earlier that month as Apple stood up and moved to almost drape herself around the taller witch's side. "Should we invite her in?"
"After she's had some time to make all those silly faces to herself." Apple snickered pointing to Blondie as the girl stuck her tongue out at her reflection. "You certainly had fun doing the same thing the other day."
Raven blushed. "You saw that?"
"Kind of difficult not to considering the fact that we essentially live in one box room with a bath in it." Apple pointed out teasingly. "I still say that we should just push our beds together since we already share the same bed every night anyway, if somebody as perceptive as Blondie hasn't figured us out by now it's hardly unlikely that anybody will for quite some time, even if we do share a bed."
"And the fact that you'd have an excuse to redecorate everything?" Raven asked with a teasing smirk.
"Merely a perk my dear." Apple replied serenely.
XXX
"Day twenty seven and this reporter's other best friends are staging an intervention." Blondie reported to her phone as she kept eye contact with Briar, Cupid, and Ashlynn's annoyed stares. "It's sweet of them to worry, however unnecessary since I'm quitting this particular line of investigation anyway."
"You are?" Briar blinked in surprise even as Cupid wiped her forehead in relief.
Blondie sighed, setting down her phone on the lunch table beside her meal. "Nothing is out of the ordinary with Apple!" The reporter shook her head. "She's been her usual self, off doing princess things and clinging to Raven at every opportunity… although now that I think about it is odd that Raven seems to be suddenly accommodating whenever Apple wants to hold hands for a long time or hug in the hallways… it used to be that Raven would slip her hand away after a certain amount of time and she didn't always return those hugs…" The reporter narrowed her eyes in thought.
Cupid froze in panic, mind racing to come up with a logical excuse that would divert the reporter's brain away from that line of thought.
"I was wondering when Raven would get used to that." Ashlynn hummed. "Being raised by the Evil Queen, Raven hasn't had much experience with people wanting to be all that tactile with her."
"Really?" Blondie's eyes widened. "That makes a lot of things make way more sense! Oh that's so sad, I never thought what the repercussions that particular destiny and being the Evil Queen's daughter would have on Raven's childhood in that light."
"It is sad." Briar pouted. "It explains why Apple has been so persistent with the touching, she just wanted to let Raven know that she was appreciated and that there was at least one princess who wasn't afraid of her."
"And now Raven is slowly being rehabilitated, just like an abandoned serpent-dragon kit who has never known tactile love." Ashlynn sniffled out poetically.
"Hey guys, I managed to pick up the last piece of apple rhubarb pie for Apple, so just as a warning, I'm going to leave this here for her, okay?" Raven's voice caused the entire table to turn towards the witch.
"Um…" Raven cleared her throat nervously at the pitifully sympathetic stares she was receiving as she gently set the plate of food down in Apple's usual spot. "It's not that unusual for me to be giving Apple food you know… she does the same for me and she lets me cook stuff for her whenever she needs to study late without commenting that I haven't poisoned anything and lately she's even taken me out to all of these hextacular food places and… why are you staring at me like tha- EEEP?"
Cupid bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud as the three other residents of the table all got up and proceeded to hug the stuffing out of the very bewildered and confused witch.
"Cupid what's going on?" Apple's calm, but clearly annoyed voice came up behind the winged girl. When Cupid turned around she could see that the princess was casting her three best friends a highly irritated and suspicious look, her expression seemed to turn even more severe when Raven began making confused squeaks of embarrassment.
Oh boy. Cupid thought to herself as she attempted to explain things to an increasingly annoyed princess whose thunderous possessive glare went unnoticed by the three maidens embracing the flustered witch and promising to give Raven more hugs in the future.
At least Blondie hadn't found out about anything. Cupid mentally assured herself that for now the developing romance between Apple and Raven was still safely a secret, even though Apple was probably going to have to learn to share in the public hugging department from now on...