It couldn't be…

Could it though? Like seriously it really, really could be!

But does it really matter whether it's true or not?

Hex yes it does!

Okay maybe it does, but what to do if it is proven that Raven really did feel that way?

Not much since she obviously wants nothing to do with Ever After High or a certain selfish princess who had effectively managed to kill off any sort of trust or friendship that Raven once had in her.

And how do we feel about that?

Awful. Obviously.

I meant how do we feel about Raven probably being head-over-heels in love with us before all of this and how we feel about her most likely moving on from us forever after now that we've mucked this all up?

She put up with some frustrating stuff coming from me didn't she?

That's a bit of an understatement and you know it.

So, okay, yeah… I was pretty rotten to her a bunch of times.

Yes we were.

And yet she still stayed.

She did, and she tried to steer us into a more steady relationship by avoiding talking about our destiny most of the time because she knew that it would only lead into a fight.

…I was the one who started most of our fights wasn't I?

Well we kept saying that we respected her decision and yet whenever she started acting… you know, like Raven usually acts naturally we just…

We hurt her feelings to try to get a reaction that we wanted, an evil reaction.

But can we really call it an evil reaction if she just flared up because we hurt her feelings and she lost control of her magic? And didn't Raven once say that it was embarrassing for a witch to lose control like that? Like it's kind of taboo for a witch to do that in certain situations? Besides that… it doesn't count if she didn't intend to be evil does it?

No it doesn't.

So why did we keep provoking her… we were hurting her weren't we? For her to lose control like that we must have been.

But she would ignore the destiny issue if she wasn't provoked! She- she just acted all nice and un-evil and would talk about things that were going on in her life and all of those things were not destiny related and un-evil and- and…

That was the whole point wasn't it?

Yeah. Fairly certain it was.

…And yet she still stayed… she still tried.

She did, didn't she. She must have cared about us a great deal if she was willing to try so hard to live with us.

She didn't even want to live here; she wanted to live with Maddie, her real best friend, why did I ever think that using my influence like this was okay?

Because you wanted to have an evil roommate to play with? Because mom told us all about how wonderful it was to have the Evil Queen as her rival and she regretted not being able to have her around all the time and you had wanted to have the most perfect high school experience so you just assumed that this thing between you and Raven would be the same? Because you knew that Raven couldn't say no even though she obviously wanted to? You are the fairest maiden in school and the local heir to the Ever After throne, all you had to do was smile sweetly and the RA had put Raven in your room even though she had already specifically requested and had been approved to be Maddie's roommate, if Raven had vocally protested or tried to have it changed you knew that the rest of the dorm would be on her back about it… now that I think about it she didn't really have any choice did she?

No she didn't. I trapped her here. Every time she tried to live her life like she wanted to or get away I would try to head her off so that she couldn't…

That doesn't sound like something that a friend would do.

No it's not but… she still liked me right? I mean she took care of me when I was sick, tried to comfort me when I was down, said that my glasses made me look so beautiful, and that she was amazed at how smart I was… she promised not to leave me without a happy ending… even though she would not be in the story herself. She knew just what to say as long as it didn't involve destinies and she practically knew everything about me, she knew secrets that I haven't even told my friends and-

Say just how much exactly do we know about her? She knew everything about us, our hopes, our dreams, our childhood but… did we ever find out what Raven wanted to do after graduation? How she met Maddie? …What being raised by the Evil Queen was like? Was purple her actual favorite color or was it just something she wore so that she wouldn't get into trouble with the whole dress code thing?

…Oh god.

We never asked… did she ever try to tell us?

She did. She must have. I remember a few times she started telling me something but because everything about Raven's likes, dislikes, and past were all directly related to her rebellion against the Evil Queen role…

That's right, she stopped trying to talk about herself after a while didn't she? When was the last time she talked about herself? Hex, she was a witch! Shouldn't there have been a cauldron in the dorm at some point?

Well that whole thing with the bath tub and holding her breath for so long was kind of creepy, she always went over to some other Rebel's room to conduct magic, and she really shouldn't have been climbing trees that high up… she said that it was all normal stuff for her to be doing and that she did all of it at home…

She also said that it wasn't healthy for witches to always be conducting fairytale evil spells whenever they used magic.

But I didn't believe her.

No we did not.

…So when she was home all of that weird stuff was normal? What kind of normal is that?

Witch normal?

Oh. Oooh dear… cultural and racial differences… I forgot- I-I should have- it was so obvious! Raven was a witch!

One witch that mostly practiced her powers outside of the dorm, her own temporary home away from home, to be as far away from us as possible…

Because I forbade her from all of it, I told her it wasn't what normal people did or that Evil Queens shouldn't do it. I outright forbade her from being a witch while in my or my friend's presence and I never even considered what I was asking her! Mom never mentioned the Evil Queen acting like a witch around her so I-I… oh god!

Raven must have loved me; there is just no way that she would have put up with that if she hadn't!

Oh gods she loved me… she- oh no, she really did love me… and I treated her so horribly! I betrayed her! It had always been about me, never was it completely about her! Oh god…

And just to point out mom hasn't exactly proven to be the best authoritative source on what a witch or an Evil Queen really is.

My mother is a monster!

Apple stared up at her canopy in shock, suddenly feeling very cold in the heat of the early summer warmed room.

XXX

"Huh." Dexter said sitting back after reading Raven's letter.

"You doing okay there buddy?" Hunter, Dexter's roommate asked as he idly packed up more of his things. Hunter's parents had decided to simply go for broke and take their son out of school a little earlier for summer so that they could move, the boy who was already practically living with Ashlynn and her parents had been so used to living out of a suitcase that packing just became second nature to him as far as Dexter could tell.

"Yeah actually I am." Dexter admitted earnestly. "This actually explains a lot, I'm glad that she was willing to tell me all of this and I'm really glad that she still considers me her friend."

When Briar had come up to Dexter to give him Raven's letter the boy had surprised the princess by throwing himself onto his hands and knees at her feet (yes he literally did, he was determined to get his point across and by the ancestors he wanted to do it right!) and formally requested that she relay to Raven that he was strong enough to handle all that she was protecting him from and if need be that she consider him and honorary human princess (which had caused Daring, who was standing close by, to grow both mortified and horrified) if that was what it took for her to see that he was serious about being a good friend and helping her out with dealing with her troubles so that she may live a happy life of her own choosing (silently praying to any deity that would listen and trying to cross his toes that he had gotten the cultural nuances right for this sort of situation while ignoring Daring who had attempted to pluck his little brother off the floor and was looking Dexter over for any signs that the younger prince had somehow concussed himself and was babbling nonsense).

Thankfully Briar seemed to be endeared and appeased by Dexter's show and gifted him with the letter Raven had sent to him and a kiss on the cheek in reward (Though Daring hardly noticed, too busy sobbing into his brother's chest when Dexter had snapped at him that there was nothing wrong with a guy being a princess in witch culture and that he'd be a damn adorable one if he so choose to be damnit! It was a high honor amongst witches! And it didn't mean that he'd have to wear a skirt or put on makeup yeesh!).

"That's real mature of you, considering that you've been in love with her ever since first year." Hunter observed.

Dexter rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah well if Raven has taught me anything it's to observe the mood and temperament of others around me to gain a better understanding of myself and to be honest… I really can't find it in myself to be too hurt about Raven marrying Faybelle after everything that she's gone through, and really isn't the only thing that matters is that she's happy?"

"It means everything." Hunter chuckled. "To be honest I find it a little sad that it had ended up this way under less than desirable circumstances but from what I've seen she's doing very well for herself, she's much more happy there than she ever was here."

"That's pretty easy for me to imagine." Especially in the love department, at least Faybelle seems to like Raven back enough for this relationship to work out. Dexter thought to himself, wincing slightly because between the two of then Raven was at the disadvantage in regards to first loves, at least Raven had been kind and understanding with Dexter and had always supported him regardless of what their relationship had been… the same could not be said (much to his guilt) towards Apple's behavior towards Raven.

"She's trusting me to make a very important decision for her." Dexter piped up. "I confess I am a bit conflicted about it though."

"Oh? And what decision is that?" Hunter asked.

"She's written a letter to Apple in the hopes that it'll push her to move on and stop getting me to hack into people's phones." Dexter coughed in embarrassment. "Raven's worried about this toxic thing that's between her and Apple ending up harming innocent bystanders she's hoping that a tangible "break up" of their former friendship will snap Apple out of it and allow her to get past this."

Hunter's face soured a bit. "I'd say that you should give it to her, let Apple hear from Raven herself the truth of the matter so that she can quit trying to control everybody for her own personal gain and darn the consequences… or the casualties."

"Raven's nervous that her acknowledging Apple's existence will only make things worse. Give Apple hope that just by the mere fact of Raven contacting her will mean that she can force everything to return to normal." Dexter spoke gently causing Hunter to sigh unhappily.

"…How is Ashlynn?" Dexter decided to ask.

"She's one tough cookie." Hunter smiled sadly. "Her hip was the worst hit and she has to keep up her walks everyday or else her whole leg will stiffen up on her, changes in weather always bother her these days, recovering is slow and she's in pain most of the time, but the doctors are optimistic that her young age and vitality will see her walking without the cane at least. You should come and visit when you have the chance, she'd like that."

"I'll bring Darling, maybe even Daring if I can hide his mirror for long enough." Dexter promised with a small smile.

"Do you need help with you decision?" Hunter asked.

"Raven said that I could allow more than one person to see her letter as long as they keep quiet about it and don't gossip about it to the entire school. So basically she's excluding most everyone on the Royal side of the fence." Dexter nodded while handing the letter out for Hunter to read. "I gotta warn you though, it's pretty bittersweet."

"I'll keep that in mind." Hunter promised as he began to read.

XXX

Apple lay boneless on her bed, staring mournfully up at Briar's hard, angry glower, the two were silent, not a word being spoken between them since Briar had barged in with a very irritated; "You had better not give me a bunch of lousy half-baked excuses and you had better not feel justified in what you did!" Before assuming her current position, arms crossed, posture stiff, beside the bed of the morose blonde princess.

Apple knew that if she said a word that she'd get yelled at, and that if she tried to ignore her former best friend that she'd still get yelled at, sure Apple supposed that she did deserve it, even though she was already feeling pretty down and wasn't in the mood to fight.

Apple sighed suddenly feeling a pang of pity for what Raven must have felt back in the days when Apple was adamant that perhaps if she could argue and needle the witch enough that perhaps this time Raven would lose it and finally realize that she was evil after all-

Apple's mood plummeted impossibly further.

"Before you yell at me like I know I deserve to be right now please just… answer one question for me? Before all of this… before I messed it all up and caused Raven to go away from Ever After… wassheinlovewithme?" Apple immediately held her breath eyes squeezed shut.

"You mean you didn't know before now?" Briar snorted in disbelief.

Apple's heart stopped. "So she really is in love with me… it wasn't… it couldn't have been romantic could it?"

"She was romantically in love with you." Briar corrected. "She was in love with you, but she isn't anymore. She has moved on. She has a new life far away from here, She is happy to be married to Faybelle and that is not going to change just because you demand it."

"She told you she was in love with me?" Apple continued on her voice breathlessly quiet.

Briar narrowed her eyes. "Yes she did, but I knew about her feelings for you long before then, lots of us knew as it has turned out."

"Lots of us?" Apple squeaked.

"Would you put up with someone constantly calling you evil and openly scheming all the ways to that they could go about destroying your freedom and dreams? Not to mention trying to forcefully get you to make a bloody fool of yourself in front of the entire school by publically being shamed at each and every opportunity by a spoiled princess using her power and popularity to humiliate you and stayed their roommate throughout it all in spite of everything else?" Briar demanded. "Apple… how anybody could deny that Raven must have cared for you an extraordinary amount is simply insane! She always took care not to hurt your feelings too much and the way that she used to look at you… ancestors I've never seen anything more sweet and heartbreaking at the same time!"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Apple demanded sounding confused and hurt.

"Oh yeah that would've turned out well." Briar rolled her eyes. "Apple, before the Dragon Games Raven was doing her best to be a good friend while also trying to get over you without harming your friendship. If we had told you, with the way you are about destiny how do you think it would have turned out for her? Or how you would have treated her? It would have been a very cruel thing for us to do indeed."

"You thought that I would have hurt her?" Apple accused.

"It's more like I had a hunch that the knowledge of her feelings for you would've gotten twisted up with your obsession for her to become your story's villain and that you would've overreacted and done something drastic to try to force her into compliance with your views on how she should feel and behave… granted you ended up doing just that during the Dragon Games…" Briar's eye twitched in irritation. "Really Apple how do you think you would have reacted?"

"I don't know how I would have reacted but I wouldn't have- I-I wouldn't have intentionally tried to hurt her!" Apple proclaimed defensively.

"And I'm sure that you said the same thing to yourself when you stabbed her in the back and let her mother go free." Briar's smile was condescending and dripping with venom.

"I made one mistake! I was desperate! I just wanted everyone to follow their stories like they should!" Apple snapped, upset despite knowing that this was going to lead to a fight (for a guilty instant Apple missed fighting with Raven, at the very least the witch did not go out of her way to arrange her words to hurt the blonde).

"A mistake that could have very well cost a lot of people their lives!" Briar hissed, eyes wide with anger. "You keep saying that you only want the best for everybody, that it is for their own good that they stick with tradition, and that you going through with your story will not only give you the life you had always wanted but we both know that is nothing but a lie!"

"How is it a lie if it's the truth?" Apple threw one hand up in the air, exasperated beyond belief.

"I had believed that it was true, that you genuinely thought that, and that you genuinely cared about the rest of us, until the little fact about popularity points came out!" Briar snipped. "How the mere thought of Raven being a little bit more likable with the general populace than you were had been enough excuse for you to go into drastic action. Oh dear, dear no Raven simply could not dare to be likable or successful in her revolution now could she? She just had to be hated and feared and all alone save for the times when you generously decided to grace her with your perfect presence right?"

"How did you know about-? Did Faybelle tell you?" Apple demanded.

"The Evil Fairy told me actually, while she had swung by the hospital to see how Ashlynn's first surgery had gone." Briar sneered. "She had a recorded confession from your mother that she played for us at Ashlynn's parent's request. It told us everything from the loss in popularity points- and how your mother got enough information to create a baseline of your overall popularity still creeps me out FYI- to you and your mother's plot to use the inevitable evil outburst from the Evil Queen to both boost your own popularity and to belittle Raven's legitimacy in her rebel cause!"

Apple visibly wilted.

Briar began pacing. "But you want to know the really scary part? Aside from the fact that you willingly risked the lives of everyone at school in the process I believe that you and your mother truly had no idea of the wider long-term ramifications such a scheme would have had upon the villain community at large!"

"Ramifications?" Apple asked confused.

"Did you honestly expect that the stigma of being the child of the worst crazed villain in recorded history would merely fall solely upon Raven's shoulders?" Briar demanded. "If you and your mother had been successful Raven's home kingdoms would have suffered even more than they already are and other villain ruled kingdoms would be suffering as well! Do you have any idea how much trade and allied relationships to fairytale kingdoms depend on the reputations of the ruling families? That is the livelihoods of not thousands but perhaps millions of ordinary citizens that live in those countries and territories threatened because of your need to appear better than the fairytale villains and more popular than all of the other fairytale princesses in the school! You may not see much harm in it since you have lived nothing but a sheltered life of wealth and have only seen the inside of your own kingdom for nearly your entire existence but really a mere basic search on the mirror-net would have shown you enough proof that the former Queen kingdom has been suffering greatly since the former Evil Queen lost it! What happens in the fairytales matters more than stupid popularity points damnit!"

"What?" Apple actually sits up slightly at this looking alarmed. "How bad off were they?"

"Almost all of their imports and exports had to be filtered through the Good King's original kingdom and more than once before Raven's big show on Legacy Day a citizen from the old Queen kingdom or territory had ran the risk of being targeted by hate groups and merchants wrongfully imprisoned in fringe communities of Ever After simply due to their ancestry and culture." Briar informed grimly.

Apple gaped. "…In my kingdom-?"

"Especially in your kingdom." Briar glared poisonously. "Your mother, their pure and maidenly queen, had been poisoned by the worst villain in history and she would not stop laminating about it. Being the loyal citizens that the people of Ever After are they strived to ensure that their beloved fair royal family was protected from the citizens of the Queen lands and let's not forget the written threats that such patriotic Ever After citizens sent to the Queen and King realms directed towards Raven as a baby and her entire family."

"Threats? Towards Raven?" Apple looked genuinely surprised, which only caused Briar's face to sour further.

"Yes, before she lost her mind every time the Evil Queen gained a fair bit of respect amongst her peers your mother would get on her soapbox about how horrible she was, thus upsetting Ever After citizens, thus leading to the threats that continued on up until Legacy Day if I got my information right." Briar tapped her foot impatiently. "But of course you had no clue about all of this."

"I certainly did not!" Apple stared at the other completely horrified. "Why didn't Raven tell me?"

"She tried." Briar gritted her teeth. "But every time she brought up international relations to try to use your goodwill towards her to help her people you would derail the subject and scold her about destiny!"

"Oh." Apple said, voice small.

"Yeah oh! And other villain countries would have been facing the same dilemma right now if the Thorn clan hadn't stepped in! Centuries of carefully constructed peace and international and inter-dimensional relations shot all to hell, maybe even risking all out war just like in the bad old days all because you and your mother wanted to be popular and rule over everybody else in a high school!" Briar snapped spitting mad now.

"I- we didn't know!" Apple defended clutching her chest.

Briar threw up her arms. "Of course not! Such things have nothing to do with the story of Snow White and are obviously not important enough to address over living out a supposed happily ever after! How horrible would it be for a Snow White or her daughter to have to actually address the real world around them when they could just as easily pretend that being a fairytale character exempts them from such things!"

Apple's mouth opens and closes like a suffocating fish, Briar's remark hitting so close to home that she is too stunned to even speak.

"There is nothing you could offer Raven that could possibly be worth her willingly coming back to Ever After under any circumstances aside from a vegetative state and a really hard to find tower." Briar continues slowly making her way towards the door. "You have to accept that in this instance the line you had crossed simply cannot be forgiven no matter how much you try to argue otherwise, and whether or not Raven sends you any form of physical or vocal message telling you so does not matter, it is done, and now you had better get on with your life just as Raven has hers, you are driving the lot of us up the wall with your constant bemoaning attitude."

"But I am sorry!" Apple called before Briar was out of sight. "I am so very sorry, for everything you have to believe me! I never meant to hurt Raven or anybody else, I swear if I had thought for an instant that my actions would hurt anybody I would have stopped it all!"

Briar paused, casting Apple a withering glance.

"It's true!" Apple pleaded to be heard. "I thought that things would go differently than they did because the Evil Queen loved Raven so much and because she was bound to her destiny! I knew that she was evil but she had never been as evil in my mother's stories about the two of them in high school! …How I had thought that Raven and I could become if she could just embrace her destiny to be my villain, I was too enchanted by what could have been to appreciate what I had and I was petrified that I'd never become the same kind of Snow White as my mother is if Raven weren't there to make certain that it all went according to plan-! …I never wanted to hurt her... and whatever you may think of me I'd never have lost it like that if I had known that she loved me so, I'd probably wouldn't have set the Evil Queen free in the first place if I had known just how much Raven loved me and was working so hard to keep our friendship as it was!"

"Of course you would have… princess." Briar intones after a moment of silence before walking out of the room, Apple breaking down at the sound of the door closing softly into place.

XXX

"So what do you think?" Dexter asks Hunter.

"…I think that I am ever grateful that Ashlynn loves me back, also, I now need a tissue." Hunter sniffled, wiping at his eyes as he offered the letter back to the boy.

"I know right? I knew that Raven was in love with somebody unattainable but I never knew the full extent of it." Dexter confessed with a shake of the head. "I gotta say I'm a little embarrassed, compared to her feeling for Apple my crush on Raven looks more like a little kid's infatuation towards their babysitter or something of the like. It's heartbreaking to see how such a love could be snuffed out of existence so thoroughly, even if it did all turn out for the best on Raven's end…"

"So what do you think? Should Apple read this letter?" Hunter asked. "Do you think that it would help things in any way?"

"…It can't hurt to try can it?" Dexter asked the air cautiously.

XXX

The letter had been found on Apple's bed, turning up mysteriously after she came back from class, a simple white envelope with her name written in Raven's elegant hand. It had been quite the thorough affair, going on for several pages addressing Raven's side of their relationship, trying to explain to Apple her motivations for turning Rebel and confessing her embarrassingly persistent growing infatuation with the princess in a way that Apple probably would have never been able to really listen to in it's entirety if Raven had been there to speak for herself. When it reached the Dragon Games and Raven's newly budding feelings for Faybelle Apple had been tempted to stop and toss the paper aside, the emotions within her growing unbearably painful, but she soldiered on regardless to her initial instincts… she owed Raven that much after everything that had happened.

…And then I suddenly realized one day that it was not a cage that I was now living in, it was a bird's nest! A new home that I could find happiness in, to be honest I'm too much of a cynic to be saying that this is my happily ever after, however I will say that I am happy and quite deliriously besotted with my wife. I will admit that I was hurting and utterly terrified when all this started out but it had all turned out so well so quickly that I could scarcely believe it! It was dizzying how well everything just started clicking into place now that I was well and truly free from destiny and I am still marveling how my gratitude towards Faybelle for risking her life to defeat my mother and stealing the Evil Queen role for herself had evolved into love and the first (and hopefully only, now that we are going steady) healthy long-term romantic relationship that I have ever experienced!

Now understand Apple that I still just cannot condone what you had done even though it has turned out very well for me, my personal dealings with fairytales and Ever After are over, and if Faybelle and I ever decide to have children my involvement will still be little to none outside of being ridiculously proud of them for whatever path they deem to choose in life, whether it be good, evil, or somewhere in the grey middle. That being said I still feel as though I should thank you to a certain extent for inadvertently ensuring that my mother now cannot truly harm anybody anymore and for unintentionally throwing Faybelle and myself together, I truly hope that this is the start of a long happy life for me.

Again that being said I do hope that you find the courage to stand up on your own and forge your own happily ever after as the new Snow White (because yes Faybelle poisoning you did count and even though you had missed your chance with Darling (she and Holly already liked each other before but between your life crisis and the realization that Darling qualifies as a bonafide female Prince Charming Holly couldn't help but steal Darling away and Darling being a Rebel did not think that she had to force you to be her princess since you were so dead set on denying that it counted) and I know for a fact that you have enough training and brains under your belt to become the next queen of Ever After once your mom is ready to retire) and even though our friendship did not work out I do hope that one day we could at least eventually learn to get along as allies? Maybe? It's a long shot I know but there is no reason to let our complicated situation affect our people and I know that once the two of you can get to the point of not arguing for two seconds that you and Faybelle could totally dominate the political international thing between our kingdoms and territories!

I only hope for you the very best and that you could please stop trying to kidnap me back into Ever After? No seriously, Faybelle and I have been tentatively discussing the possibility of children and even though that may be a few years off… you never really know and besides that I have responsibilities now that I'm the Lady Good King and being trained to help rule my new home at the side of my wife the Evil Fairy Queen. I know that you can find your own happily ever after if you just try, and I sincerely hope that you can find it within yourself to accept what has transpired and move on.

Always rooting for you even from afar, Lady Good King Raven.

A happily ever after without Raven always being in it? Apple mourned, but this time trying to listen, trying to do as Raven said and accept what had happened and to figure something out.

Being allies would not be much to sate the incurable feeling that Apple had missed out on something important but perhaps… it would be enough to properly apologize through actions and then… something positive may transpire from a great deal of patience and mutually beneficial action?

The maybes of the future hurt and were terrifying but Apple had to try. For Raven she would try.