Chapter 1

So, basically, I am madly in love with SeaDevil. This fanfic is my heartbroken response to 'Poor Unfortunate Souls.' Enjoy,

'Are you absolutely sure this is the only place we can stay in? It's positively ghastly.' Cruella wrinkled her nose as she entered the dingy motel room, scanning it briefly before her eyes stopped on the one double bed in the middle. 'At the very least, we could have separate rooms.'

'With what money, exactly? I'm broke. Rumple's been sleeping on my sofa for the past 6 weeks, and now we find out you're broke too,' Ursula drawled, following the taller woman into the room. She immediately took off her coat and flung it onto the bed. The room was hardly much worse than her own apartment. 'It's for your sake only we bothered stopping here at all. I know the Dark One and I would much rather be on our way to our happy endings right now.'

It was only earlier that day that Ursula and Rumpelstiltskin had arrived at Long Island to watch as their old ally's possessions were carted away by the US Government, leaving her penniless aside from the coins in her purse, a car full of driving tickets, and the fur she managed to reclaim. While they'd managed to get her onboard with Rumple's ridiculous 'happy endings' plan, the idea of a seven hour drive had not quite gone down so easily.

'I'm hungover, darling; I could hardly be expected to drive through the night.' Cruella sat down gingerly on the bed, keeping her furs close around her shoulders; as if she feared just sitting down would result in disease of some kind. 'Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to have any liquor on you at all? I haven't had a sober night in years.'

'Did you miss the part when I said I was broke?' Ursula couldn't help rolling her eyes, slightly disgusted at the state her old friend was in. 'Besides, you're driving tomorrow. No breaks. No more stops. We don't have the time. And I do not want you driving intoxicated in any way.'

'Why? Don't you trust me?' The fur clad woman asked, her lips curled mockingly, as she leant back on the bed. 'I'm a perfectly safe driver.'

'Oh yeah, that's exactly what all your speeding fines say.' She turned away from the bed and Cruella's piercing gaze, trying to resist saying all the words now swarming in her head. But she couldn't. 'You're a fine one to talk about trust anyway, Cruella. You really think after you left me alone in a completely new World, so you could marry some rich old man and wear fur and drink gin that I'd ever be able to trust you again? Never mind trust you to get me to my happy ending?'

'How did I know this was going to come up? Darling, we've only been here about 5 minutes, and it was 30 years ago…'

'Exactly. We haven't seen each other in 30 years. Not even a call. Or a letter. I didn't even know where you were.'

'I sent you a cheque after the wedding. You received that?' Cruella stood up and approached the Sea Witch, as if to comfort her in some way. Ursula pushed her hands away angrily.

'Don't touch me; I don't need your pity. And I have never needed your charity. I burnt your lousy cheque.'

'You're so stubborn.'

'And you're so selfish,' Ursula hissed, eyes narrowed as she watched the other woman stalk off to the other side of the room, lighting a cigarette as she did. Again, she could feel words heavy on her tongue that this time; she didn't even try to stop herself from saying them. 'You left me, Cruella. You left me alone, almost penniless, in some unknown city in some unknown World so you could go prostitute yourself for easy money and expensive booze. I don't know how you've been spinning it to yourself all these years, but there it is in black and white for you. We came here together. I thought I could rely on you. And then you took the first chance you got to get away from me. And after all that, you thought you could send me a cheque and I'd let it go? You thought you could pay me off? Or was it compensation? Because no amount of money would ever compensate me for the long days I have had to spend without you, or the longer nights.'

She stopped suddenly, as if quite shocked at her own outburst.

This was 30 years of frustration and anger, Cruella thought as she put her cigarette down, stabbing it out on the bedside table, scorching the wood without realising as all her focus lay with the blonde woman in front of her. With regret, another thought crossed her mind. And heartbreak. 30 years of heartbreak.

'Ursula, I never meant for this…'

'At least tell me you were happy.' She was almost whispering, tears slipping down her cheeks. Tears she had never meant for Cruella to ever see, but she could no longer care. 'At least tell me that you found happiness in this World, even if it was without me. Tell me that you left me for something worthwhile. That you left us, what we had, for something that made you happier. Tell me my heartbreak meant something.'

The pleading in her voice caused Cruella herself to feel the tears beginning to form in her eyes, a bite at the back of her throat as she felt a sob near. She tried to force them both back, shaking her head and replying with a bitter joke. 'Darling, it was marriage. It's not meant to make anyone happy…'

'Don't, Cruella. Don't you dare try squirm your way out of this. Just tell me if it…if he made you happy. Were you happier with him?'

'And what if I say no?' She sat down on the bed tiredly, all concern for hygiene standards gone. She kept her back to the Sea Witch and she let her voice choke with emotion as she finally gave in to her tears. 'It was ghastly, darling, if you want the truth. I regret every minute I spent in that house with him, and I wasn't with you. I regretted it from the moment I left, because I knew I could never go back.'

'You could have come back. I would have been there,' Ursula said earnestly, as she sat down beside her. She was met with a mocking cackle.

'Please don't try to fool me. We both know you would never have opened the door to me, even if I'd been on my hands and knees. You have too much pride.'

'You didn't know that.'

'I knew you, darling. Better than you know yourself, it seems. Certainly better than I knew myself.' She shook her head. 'I didn't think I could stand living in that apartment. In that city. It was so big and we were so ordinary. It felt like taking five steps backwards. Like falling back to where I began. And you know how I've always loved the dramatics. The wealth. The attention. I thought having those at any price would make me happier than being nobody. But the marriage was a sham from the start. I don't know what I expected. All he wanted was some thing on his arm. Someone he could show off. Someone he could use when he wanted.'

'Look, Cruella, I really do not want to hear about your marital activities between the sheets…'

'No, I never could. Every time he tried to come near, all I could do was think of you.' She took both of Ursula's hands in hers, all trace of any mocking sneer gone from her face. Her cheeks were stained with mascara blackened tears. Her eyes wide. She looked the most vulnerable Ursula had seen her in 30 years. 'I never stopped loving you, darling. I don't think I ever could.'

Ursula took her hands away quickly and stood up. 'You don't get to do this to me, Cru. Not now. It's been 30 years since we last saw each other. You can't do this to me now.'

'I know. I know.' She followed suit, standing up and taking Ursula's hand in hers once again. The Sea Witch didn't try and shake her touch, instead looking down at their joined hands before looking at her ex-lover once again. 'But we could try again. I fucked us up last time, I know that. And if I had the power to, I would change it. I don't have that power. But we're going to find a man who does. If the Dark One's right, if there is truly a place in this World with magic, with some magical Author who can write us villains a happy ending, then maybe we can have ours. Together. As it should have been.' She took a step closer, taking Ursula's other hand and sliding them beneath her furs so that Ursula was embracing her once more. When she spoke again, her voice was lower, a voice she well knew Ursula could not resist. 'And surely you want that too? Surely you never stopped loving me either?'

'You know very well I could never stop loving you.' Cruella might have had all the words, but it was Ursula who finally pulled the other woman close and kissed her. Even with the 30 years of distance between them, the kiss, the pressure, the movement, the warmth of each other's hands on their bodies, was just as they remembered it to be.

They were both suddenly very grateful for the double bed.