Piper/Clovis, overuse of the fairytale theme and metaphors. This may be the ONLY fic I ever write that has Piper in a (GASP!) slightly positive role. Of course, this is also one of my more crackier crackfics. Sensing a theme here, everyone.
let's dream tonight
Once upon a time, he says no. He says no and you don't believe him, won't believe him because he can't be saying no, not to you, not to the two of you.
Oh, but he is, princess. He's saying no and that single syllable tears through you, breaks you, pricks your finger and a drop of crimson blood falls to the cracked, ashen ground where the two of you are standing. You watch that drop of blood fall, you watch his mouth move around the nonono but you don't hear anything, you don't feel anything, you drift farther and farther away and fall asleep.
.
And then you're trapped, trapped in a nightmare of murky figures and cackling shadows and echoes of no. And everywhere you run, it's no, I'm sorry, we weren't ever really together.
And then you're screaming, screaming so hard you start to crack, but no one hears and if they do, they don't care, they don't help, they don't wake you up.
.
Better run, sleeping beauty. Better run before you fall to pieces.
.
Once upon a sometime, you stumble through a desolate, bloodstained land, searching, searching, but you don't know what you're looking for. You pass cracked deserts, carcasses rotting away; you pass glistening lakes, their mirror smooth surface masking the churning chaos within. You pass dazzling castles, but those kingdoms aren't open to you, and finally, finally, you end up in a small room with the promise of forgotten dripdropping towards you.
You drift forward in your sleeping haze, towards the vow of nevertoberemembered. Your eyes flutter open, you might finally wake up from this nightmare but then a hand slaps yours away and your eyes slam shut again.
.
Hey, sleeping beauty. Is that your prince charming come to save you?
.
He stares at you, aghast. Why would you risk that? He wants to know.
You don't know. You just stare at him, stare past him, because you don't really see anything. You're too busy trying to wake up.
.
But you can't wake up, no matter how hard you scream. So you dig deeper into your apocalyptic dreamland, deeper into the heart of your nightmare kingdom, deep where no one will wake you up, ever.
.
Wow, sleeping beauty. Look at the time. Has a hundred years really gone by that fast?
.
Once upon an inbetweentime, you roam the halls of your palace. Dark, dreary, desolate. What hurts more? Being shut in or shut out? You don't know, you just stay holed up in your ebony palace, away from hurt and no and pain.
Oh, but don't you realize, princess? The hurt is already inside.
.
You find yourself in that room, the one with the pseudo rescuer and the forgetful water. Everyone is sleeping and you are wideawakeasleep, humming a lullaby. Hush, little baby, don't say a word.
.
Sometimes he wakes up, and starts talking to you, nonsensical little stories of Elvis and the fall of Rome, and you find yourself… laughing?
.
Oh, sleeping beauty. Looks like you've dropped your standards pretty far. (Or have you raised them?)
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Once upon a nevermind, he has his head in your lap and you sing him to sleep. Hush, little baby. He takes you dreaming to castles and flying carpets and Madonna concerts. It's so real, you can't believe you're asleep.
And then you realize that you're happy.
.
And just like that, sleeping beauty woke up. Isn't it cliché?