Updating this because I was inspired by the song Rehab by Amy Winehouse. I promise the hurt will be over sooner than later. But, until then: HURT! Also, trigger warning for drug use and attempt/wishing for death due to drug usage. Other than that, go ahead and dive in.
Apple's eyes opened slowly and her vision remained blurred when she heard a voice.
"Miss White? Are you awake now, Miss White?" The voice was that of an older male.
"Hm?" Apple blinked again and her vision focused, "Wha…Where am I?"
"You are in SpellCaster's Village hospital. I am Dr. Fernon. You passed out from a combination of over-hexaustion and a near-lethal dose of Dragon Dust." The elderly doctor explained.
"I…I don't remember that," Apple looked away from Dr. Fernon.
Dr. Fernon sighed loudly, "Miss White, Dragon Dust has the power to wipe entire chapters of one's life. It is no surprise that you do not remember."
Too embarrassed to speak, Apple simple nodded in understanding.
"Lucky for you, you were found before it was too late. If I were you, I would thank your savior," Dr. Fernon began walking towards the door when he turned back to face Apple one last time, "Miss White, may I let in your savior?"
Apple felt her cheeks turning bright red. If Daring and or Cerise had found her passed out on the bathroom floor she would never live it down…She was already gathering her things to leave their place and she was certain that they would kick her out since they did have a reputation to maintain and…
"Are you feeling any better?" Apple's savior entered the room as Dr. Fernon exited.
"R-Raven…!? What are you doing here?" Apple felt her voice shaking.
"I can explain…"
Open Mic Night: Apple's workload at the club was set to be cut in half and she might even be able to dip out early if the number of open mic singers was high enough.
"Ow!" Apple shook out her wrist, the one with her tattoo on it.
She couldn't explain why but, since coming into work, Apple's wrist had been killing her. She knew that she had better get over it or least pretend it didn't hurt because even if she didn't have to sing all night, she did have to at least open up the night with a nice greeting to the club patrons and a little medley if nothing else.
As the curtain opened, Apple allowed herself to exhale, walked forward to the mic on the stand and prepped to deliver her intro flawlessly as always.
"Good evening, everyone! I will be your MC for the night, the name's Apple White. I hope you're all having a good time and if that isn't the case, allow me to help," Apple took the microphone off of the stand and her music started.
"This night has only begun, yeaaaaaah," Apple quickly took to showing off her vocal range, "I can't predict the future but, take a chance and you miiiight just have some fuuuun. Pour out your heart into this mic, sing ouuuuuut and proud that you've beaten stage-fright riiiiiigggght down!"
The crowd roared with applause when Apple noticed a certain ebony-haired and midnight-violet eyed beauty.
Raven.
What in the name of all fairytales was she doing here? Who had spilled Apple's whereabouts? As much as Apple wanted to storm off the stage in a huff and refuse to go on for the remainder of the night, she realized that behaving in such a fashion would not only cost her this job but, then she would only be showing Raven and the world her bad side.
"Any volunteers to kick off this open mic night?" Apple spoke into the mic once a quiet had loomed over the club once more, "If no one volunteers, our spotlight will have to do the picking."
Apple leaned back in her hospital bed and shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to remember the pieces of memory that were coming back to her, "And the spotlight landed on you, didn't it?"
"Yeah, and then…" Raven sighed, not necessarily thrilled to be relaying the info to Apple.
"…then you simply had to take control of open mic night the same way you do everything because you can't stand going by the book for once in your life!" Apple pouted without opening her eyes.
"Oh? I find it so funny that you're calling me a control freak when your open mic night was just you and I going back forth passive-aggressively with songs that responded to one another," Raven glared at Apple, "In that regard, we are both control freaks. We kept at it until someone else volunteered and…"
"…and you just had to follow me, didn't you?"
"Apple, wait," Raven chased after Apple, "Please, I just want to…"
"No, no. You made everything clear with that last One Reflection song. You have no intention of making me part of the 'Storybook of Your Life' so, why do we need to bother talking?" Apple felt ready to cry but, she was going to fight it for as long as she could.
"You are impossible, you know that?" Raven frowned, "You act like I'm the one who ran…"
"We both know that you're the one who drove me away," Apple crossed her arms.
"Both of us were in the wrong and there isn't a day that goes by where I don't wish we could back to before everything fell apart and…" Raven was struggling to find that last chunk of words.
"And, curse you, Raven Queen! For you'll always have a piece of my heart!" Apple did something rather uncharacteristic as she grabbed the collar of Raven's dress and forcefully pulled her into a kiss.
Raven didn't fight back, she let Apple kiss her and she kissed back; her heart aching for their happy past full of tender romance.
"I…" Apple broke her kiss with Raven and look at her in disbelief, "I can't believe I just…Oh, curses!"
At those words, Apple ran off to the backstage area in tears. What had ever possessed her to kiss Raven? She shouldn't have, they had been over for a while now and why bother fixing it if all they were capable of doing was hurting each other? She needed to forget and fast.
The bright blue eyes of the blonde princess widened in realization. She ran out through the back entrance of the club and was met by one of the older waitresses.
"Talia, I need a little boost…" Apple cleared her throat as she spoke those words.
"How much of a little boost?" The older waitress smirked.
"How ever much this will buy me," Apple threw a small sack full of shillings at Talia.
Raven stared at Apple in disbelief, "So, you mean to tell me that you've been using Dragon Dust this whole time?"
"I never developed a dependency, I just liked taking a little here and there to get me through long nights at the club," Apple turned away from Raven, "Besides, last night I may have gone a little overboard but…"
"But, nothing! You would've died if I hadn't used my magic to keep your heart beating while waiting for help to arrive," Raven frowned, "If…I…"
"If you what?" Apple had yet to turn back to face her.
"If I hadn't done anything last night I would've regretted it for the rest of my existence," Raven sighed and then she reached down for her wrist where she felt a sudden pressure.
She heard Apple also utter a pained squeak and noticed that the bedridden blonde was holding her tattooed wrist to her chest.
"Hurting you too?" Raven walked to the other side of Apple's bed so that they had to face one another, she then held up her tattooed wrist.
"Yes, very much," Apple held up her wrist in response.
Without saying any more words, the two put their wrists side by side so that the raven and the dove were united again. They watched in that comfortable silence as a flash of rainbow-tinted light burst across the lines of their tattoos.
In this moment, Apple felt a sharp pang deep in her heart. She was hit by the memory of the night she and Raven had gotten those matching tattoos.
Daring and Cerise had done the unthinkable and had gotten married on a beach in Hexico —in a rather small ceremony to be very honest but, their love was true and that was why they had invited everyone to come and celebrate along with them.
After the wedding, Daring and Cerise took off to Storykyo for their honeymoon and had left the hotel suites booked for their friends for another few days. While most everyone was quick to leave once the bride and groom had departed, Apple and Raven decided to appreciate that generosity. They enjoyed the hotel suite and after a bit of excessive drinking they had ended up in a tattoo parlor. The sign in the window said 'Please, ask about our non-removable tattoos!'
And, they had. The lead artist of the shop with the name neither Raven or Apple remembered explained that a tattoo done by a magic wand which was technically a magic needle at that point, would always remain on one's skin.
"Our love is true, let's do it!" Raven stole a quick kiss with Apple.
"Raven, you'll hold my other hand, won't you?" Apple was rather nervous but, she did want this very much.
"Of course, I will my dove," Raven reached over for Apple's freehand.
"Thank you, my Raven," Apple had giggled happily and gripped Raven's hand, excited but also nervous to get tattooed.
Apple was convinced that the love between Raven and herself could protect her from anything and everything. There was no changing that.
Sighing loudly, Apple realized that all of that love was a memory of the past or…was it?
The only reasons she had ever turned to buying Dragon Dust in the first place was because she knew that enough Dragon Dust one day would make her forget Raven eventually and if not, at least she wouldn't have to live with the pain of having lost her—she was ready for whichever came first.
Both remained silent until Apple spoke up.
"If I agree to get help, can we please attempt to figure out where we went wrong or…where to go from here at least?" The tears in Apple's eyes spilled over and ran down her smooth, snow-white cheeks.
Raven nodded and reached over to wipe those tears, "We can."
A/N: Yup, I'll stop this here. To clarify, I was in England for a bit and well, I was listening to a lot of British musicians and the spark hit me. Oh and the name Talia is a shout to an older version of a fairytale and 'Dr. Fernon' was my attempt at making a fairy-tale-y sounding name for a doctor, I hope that was okay. I also want to put it out there that I am indeed, working on several fics while also balancing 2 jobs so, constantly commenting on a fic and demanding that I update will get you nowhere (someone keeps doing this on another fic of mine). Anyway, hope this was enjoyable and, this may only have another 1 or 2 parts, I'll see what happens. But, thank you for being so patient with me, thanks!
