It may be considered as a kind of prequel to the previous oneshot!


96. Photographs (set ten years before the previous chapter)

Daphne Grimm was babysitting her sister's children. Sabrina and her husband Puck went to New York to visit Puck's family and to help Titania with some queer problems. Their kids Susan and Robin were staying at home. Sabrina felt that the "queer problems" might be dangerous, and Susan was only four years old. Robin was a year younger than his sister.

"Aunt Daphne" did her best to please the kids. She brought them a box of chocolates, she played twenty different games with them, and yet she could hear them saying that "Mommy's better than Aunt Daphne". Thus she had to think of other good children's activities.

Finally, Daphne was exhausted, so she asked:

"What else do you want? I gave you chocolates, I played with you, I read to you..."

"Tell us something about Mommy's childhood," Susan begged her.

"About the Everafter War!" Robin added.

"Fine!" Daphne smiled and searched for something in her purse. "I even have some photographs of our childhood." She took out a file full of photographs.

Susan and Robin were anxious to see them. Robin snatched the file and took out a random picture. It showed a small golden-haired girl, not more than five years, with a smiling baby in her arms.

"Ah," Daphne laughed. "That's your mother and I. The picture has been taken when I was newborn."

The children giggled and picked another photo. That one was a picture of the same blond girl, only she was nine years old. There was a fake smile on her face, but she was frowning.

"That photo was for the police. We took it when your grandparents were kidnapped by the Scarlet Hand," Daphne explained.

"Poor Mommy. She's so unhappy on this picture," Susan said. She and her brother chose the next photo, which showed Sabrina and Daphne in the middle of their escape training. Daphne told Susan and Robin some funny stories about the escape training before taking out another photograph.

The next photo represented Sabrina and Daphne in warriors' armor, and Puck flying above. Puck was looking at Sabrina affectionately - it was obvious, even on a photo.

"When was this one taken?" Susan wondered.

"Just before the final battle," Daphne replied. "I was eight years old, yet I insisted on me being sent to the battle along with Sabrina and Puck. Your Mom and Dad were already in love back then, though they didn't want to admit it," she smiled and picked another photograph herself.

This one was the strangest. 16-year-old Daphne was on the foreground of it, biting her hand. 20-year-old Sabrina, with a bright red face, was speaking something to Daphne, trying to be angry. Puck was grinning widely, but his head was lowered. He had a small jewelry box in his hands, and he was staring at it.

"What is this?" Robin and Susan exclaimed in unison after examining the photo.

"That was taken after your dad proposed to your mom, and I accidentally heard it," Daphne said with an innocent smile.