Red or White Wine?

Jade

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. She was born the king and queen of a peaceful kingdom in the woods, and she was beautiful, pale as a winter morning and gentle as it too. Her mother, who loved her, named her Snow White.

Whenever I heard this particular fairy tale, growing up, I pictured her with green eyes. Skin white as snow, hair black as ebony, lips red as rubies or maybe blood. Eyes green as jade. It seemed to fit. Or maybe I was just projecting.

"Baby, you asleep?"

It's four am and it's still raining. It's been a while since I've seen rain like this, rain so heavy you could drown as it fills the space between the street and the sidewalk. I lift my head to rest it on his chest. "No"

Roy moves his hand towards me, then sets it back down, like he's scared to touch me. "Me either."

I rest my hand on his. "Roy, you… You can touch me, you know."

He swallows, hard, and doesn't look at me. His eyes are as clear and as wet as the rain falling outside. "I'm a murderer."

"No more than I am."

He doesn't answer. I curl up against his side and intertwine my fingers with his. I want so badly to know what to say. He's been keeping me safe all these weeks, keeping me warm and dry in the rain and I wish I knew how to return that. What I want, more than anything in the word what I want is to be there for him.

"You didn't go through with it, Roy," I say. "You stopped yourself."
"Been stopping myself from shooting up three years now, doesn't mean I'm not an addict." His voice is tense, angry.

"Roy-"

He kisses me, suddenly and hard, his tongue against mine and his hands on my thighs. before I can react.

"Roy-" I try to say. He doesn't listen, instead pulling off his shirt and starting at the ribbons holding up my nightgown.

"Roy!"

He pulls away, covers his mouth with his hand, looking ashamed of himself. "Oh, god, Jade, I'm sorry I didn't mean to… To force myself onto you, I…" There's thunder outside and when his voice cracks, the sound is just as unstable.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers. He starts to cry. When he came home this morning, I realize, was the first time I've ever seen him cry. "I… I told you I'm a monster."

My chest hurts. Is there a word for that- feeling someone else's pain, as physically as if it were your own? I kiss the tears off his cheek, then kiss his lips.

"Shh…" I whisper. "It's okay. You didn't… It's okay." I kiss him again, run my fingers down his chest and towards the waistline of his boxers. He pulls my nightgown over my head and leans me back against the bed. His lips taste like saltwater and coffee and his hands are hot and rough as the desert. Outside, in that desert, the rain beats down.

For a few years, Snow White lived a perfect life. She could have everything she could want, every dress and book and jewel. But more importantly, she was surrounded by people she loved- her mother, her father, her kingdom. She loved them with all her heart, and they loved her back, and she was happy.

Then one fall, when Snow White was old enough to know but too small to understand, her mother fell ill. She died that winter, on a day that was ice cold and grey but without a single flake of snow.

Snow White's father soon remarried. His new wife was a young noble woman from the outskirts of the kingdom. She was beautiful, and although she was vain, her heart was not yet filled with the hate that would soon overcome it. She was overjoyed to become queen, and she did her best to be a good mother to her small stepdaughter. Things had changed, but they went on, and Snow White was happy.

Then one winter, just a few years later, when Snow White was old enough to understand but still too small to make a difference, her father went to visit a nearby kingdom that had been threatening war. He hoped to make peace.

He never returned home. The snow, that winter morning, fell in drifts.

The rain's stopped when I wake up. The light is soft and the air is calm and he's already out of bed. Six in the morning, that doesn't usually happen.

I get dressed and then go to kitchen. He and Emma are at the table, both in their pajamas and both looking like they haven't slept. Three plates of eggs and toast sit in front of them.

"We cooked," Emma says quietly. She glances at the plates, which are untouched. "And then we didn't eat."

"You should eat," Roy tells her. "You puked up everything you ate yesterday, you need nutrients."

"I'm not hungry," she replies.

"You're always hungry." She makes a face, but picks up a fork anyway.

"You should eat too," I say, walking to Roy's side and resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not hungry," he says, blankly, ignoring the fact that she just said that same thing.

I sit down and lean my head against his shoulder, hold his hand and wish there was more I could do for him. I'm trying so hard to be strong for once and I think I'm failing pretty miserably at it.

Emma polishes off her plate in minutes. She sets it tone, the fork clinking against the china link the ringing of a bell.

"So is he alive?" she asks, peering up at Roy from under her bangs.

"I don't know," he answers, blankly.

"But you didn't kill him?"
"I didn't," he says. "Heather's drug might have."

"So he's still out there?"
"Yeah, I guess so."

She exhales and brushes her bangs out of her eyes. Her skin seems splotchy, like she's been crying but it could just be her freckles.

"So what do we do now?"

"Wait," he says firmly. He is still, despite everything, strong. "Now we wait."
"What for?" she asks. His mouth is set tight, his expression hard, but he has no answer.

Snow White soon grew into a young woman. She was soft-spoken and fragile, but kind, and always hoping to help others. She always tried to see the good in things, and in people. Although she missed her parents dearly, her life had gone on, and she was, for the most part, happy.

As she had grown, though, Snow White had also become quite beautiful. Her stepmother, a beauty herself, and wanted only the best for the girl. Soon, she thought perhaps it was time to marry the girl off. The queen had tried, since her husband's death, to raise the girl and run the kingdom on her own, but despite her best efforts, the kingdom was seeing hard times. War and crop failure had plagued them. The queen hoped marrying her stepdaughter to the prince of a nearby kingdom might give them the ally they so badly needed. The people, after all, were growing angry, and the queen was growing desperate.

The Queen journeyed to the neighboring kingdom, only to discover that their prince had recently become betrothed. Discouraged, she began the long trip home. As she left the palace grounds, though, someone stopped her- the king. He, too, was widowed, and lonely. Hoping for a bit of company, he asked her to for dinner. She did. And over the candlelight, they fell in love.

The Queen soon had to return to her own castle, and after a few months of long-distance correspondence, The King came to visit. With his dead wife's ring in his pocket, he pulled up to the castle on a white horse, planning to propose.

And then he caught a glimpse of Snow White.

She was standing at her wishing well, singing to herself, her ebony hair down to her knees and shining in the moonlight. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Lust is a powerful thing, and perhaps the king had truly fallen in love with the queen, or perhaps he had, out of some sick desire or other, only deluded himself into thinking he had, but either way, it didn't matter. As soon as he saw Snow White, he wanted her, instead and all for himself.

The King proposed, and the queen accepted. She introduced her fiancé to her stepdaughter the next morning. Both women were unaware that he had already glimpsed the girl in the night. Neither could see the hunger in his eyes. Or maybe they could and just chose not to believe it.

Knowing how she took pride in her appearance, The King gave the queen an engagement gift of a large mirror, its silver frame carved into a pattern of apple blossoms and dusted with diamonds. She hung it on the wall of the corridor just outside Snow White's bedroom, feeling it was simply too beautiful to keep all for herself.

The wedding, a few months later, was a lavish affair, as big and glamorous as money could afford. The Queen, after all, loved all things beautiful. Dressed in her lavish white gown, the bride was stunning. Snow White was the maiden of honor, and though she was dressed much less extravagantly, in a simple dress of pale pink and lace, her hair woven with apple blossoms, she was equally stunning. Or perhaps more.

As the clock approached midnight, Snow White, tired from an evening of dancing and livelihood, quietly slipped away, climbing the servant's staircase to her bedroom for some rest. The King followed her.

The Queen realized her husband was no longer there. As the party raged on like a fire in the ballroom, she went in search of him. She reached Snow White's bedroom just as the clock struck midnight. The door was open a crack, and in the reflection of the mirror on the corridor wall, she saw. Or at least, she thought she saw. For in the mirror, all The Queen could see was her husband with his hands under Snow White's dress and his mouth against her ruby red lips. She could not see the tears on Snow White's face, or her useless attempts to struggle as the man bruised her fragile body, or that the girl's pink dress was stained with something equally red. The Queen shattered the mirror with her hand. Years later, as the story spread to other kingdoms, became nothing more than an urban legend, some would say a shard of it pierced her heart.

The next morning we get what we're waiting for.

It's about six am when the phone rings. Neither Roy nor Emma are up at this hour so I'm the one who answers. "You'll never guess who I met at the stable this morning," Magdalena tells me, her voice sweeter than honey, like she really wants to play a guessing game with me.

My throat feels dry and I'm dizzy with nerves. "Who?" I ask, quietly. She was right about me. I'm pathetic.

"The police," she says, her tone going dark. "I played damsel-in-distress, asked what was going on. Apparently the JLA tipped them off about a case, and they're pretty sure it's connected to the body they found not far from there a few days ago."
"Oh," I say. I'm not sure I understand but I don't want her to know that.

"And do you know how the JLA found out about this 'case'?" she asks harshly.

I think she called before they'd be up on purpose. She wanted me to be the one to pick up. Because she knows she can intimidate me. Well it's working. I'm terrified. "Because Roy got caught by the press," I whisper.

"What are you to, Jade?" she snaps.

I swallow the lump in my throat. "Nothing."

"You better hope that's true," she says. Her voice is sweet again, but the connection is bad, crackling and it makes her sound tinny. "Or who knows where the police might get tipped off to showing up next?"
She hangs up, leaving a metallic ringing in my ear. Only the faintest bits of light are coming through the venetian blinds, and I am so dizzy I can barely see. I am left only to imagine what expression could possibly accompany that last sentence. Why Grandma what big teeth you have.

The next thing Snow White knew, she had been enslaved in her home. All of her possessions, from her beautiful dresses and jewels to her favorite teacup, were taken from her, as was her bedroom, the scene of the crime. In their place, she was given tattered dresses even the servants would never have been told to wear, and made to sleep on straw in the dungeon. The queen forced her to do chore after chore, every day from the crack of dawn until midnight, when she nearly passed out with exhaustion. The enslavement made the queen's aching heart harden, more and more by the second. At first she felt remorse, but soon she began to take a perverse sort of pleasure in torturing the girl, and after a time she felt no remorse at all. Perhaps The

Queen was truly "evil", if such a thing exists, but even if it does not, she was no longer the kind woman she had once been. She had succumbed to her vanity and her pain, and become ruthless and selfish and cruel.

Maybe Snow White should have been angry, or fought at the injustice of her new situation. But she wasn't. For after what the king had done to her, Snow White was unable to feel much of anything but sadness and guilt and pain. At first she just hated herself, for not being able to stop what had happened, but then she started to think perhaps she had deserved it. She recounted the days leading up to the wedding, over and over in her head, and saw only how she might have angered the queen, or led the king on. She recounted the years of her life and saw only her flaws. She'd look in the mirror and see a horrible, ugly, weak and stupid and worthless girl, and every little mistake she made just made her more certain of the fact that she deserved what the king had done and the way the queen treated her. At first she cried herself to sleep every night, thinking of perhaps taking one of the jagged rocks from the dungeon floor and slicing her wrists open just to stop the hurt and because the world would be better without her anyway. And then she stopped feeling the hurt, and all she felt was numb.

None of this, however, stopped The King from lusting over the girl. He'd sneak into the dungeon at night, hurting her again and again and making her hate herself more and more. The Queen observed this, and, enraged that her husband still did not want her and only her, did the only thing she could think to do: kill them both.

She hired her best huntsman for the job- a young man about Snow White's age and trained with a bow and arrow. She told him to bring her their hearts, ripped out of their chest as they were still beating.

The Huntsman was a jaded man. His parents had died when he was very young, and he had learned to kill as a means of survival. The the request did not jar him, and he killed the king without a second thought.

It was midnight when he came for Snow White. She was in the garden, sitting on the edge of the wishing well, knees folded against her chest, starlight glistening in eyes the color of jade, and when he raised his bow she did not scream. Instead she stared silently ahead, having nothing to wish for but death.

And he looked into her eyes and he could not do it.

The Huntsman told her of her stepmother's plan, of how he was supposed to kill her. He had tears in his eyes, the color of an overcast sky as he begged her to run. Though Snow White wanted nothing more than the death he offered her, she did what he asked. She ran. It was his tears that did it.

"Do you think she was serious?" Roy asks. He's sitting next to me at the kitchen table, his hand on my knee, the only thing keeping me steady.

"I don't know," I say, meekly. "She sounded pretty mad."

"But she can't," Emma declares. "If she calls the cops it'll draw attention to her. She wouldn't do that." She swallows, and then adds, more quietly, "Would she?"

Roy presses his lips together. "Probably not, but we can't take that risk. We have to get out of here."

"Get out of here?" I ask.

"We'll go to a hotel," Roy decides. "I have cash, she won't be able to trace us."

Emma gives a brisk nod and stands up. "I'll go pack," she says, before disappearing into the bedroom.

"Are you all right?" he asks me, once she's gone. His expression is firm. He's barely shown any emotion at all, the last two days, which is how I know he's hurting and god I just wish I could make that go away.

"I'm…" I try to say I'm fine but I'm not and I'm not brave like he is. Instead I just burst into tears.

Roy wraps his arms around me, kisses the top of my head. "We'll figure out a way out of this," he says. I almost believe that he believes it.

"I love you," he says, suddenly. "You know that, right? Whatever happens, you know that I love you more than anything."

"Of course I know that," I say. How could I ever not? He's the one person who's ever made me feel loved. "And I love you. More than anything."

Whatever happens?

"Roy…" I begin. And then I see the deadness in his eyes, colorless and dull like they've been since he came home that night, and I don't finish. I kiss him instead, wishing it would bring him back to life.

Snow White ran.

She ran until her feet were numb and she finally collapsed, sobbing in a heap in the middle of a dark forest. She didn't know why she was crying. She hadn't felt anything at all for months now and yet, all of a sudden, she was unable to stop the tears.

It had been a while since anyway had shown her any sort of kindness. Maybe that was why.

Snow White soon fell asleep, and when she woke up she found herself on a soft bed in a small cottage. Seven dwarf brother stood above, offering tea and gentle smiles. The
Eldest Dwarf explained that The Youngest Dwarf, who did not speak, how found Snow White in the forest while on his way to their mine and, loving soul that he was, fetched his brothers to help bring her to safety. The dwarfs asked Snow White for her name and her story and she told them truth-even if they were dishonest, she figured, she had nothing left to lose. The dwarfs- who were not, as she would soon learn, dishonest, who were in fact as kind and loving as anyone could be- offered her a place to stay. Though they asked nothing in exchanged, Snow White, not wanting to take advantage, offered to help them with their cooking and housekeeping. And so a friendship was born.

The dwarfs' cottage, in a pretty little clearing deep in the woods, was small and plain, nothing compared to the luxuries of the palace. But compared to the life she had been living, it was heavenly. For the first time in a long time, Snow White was safe. And for the first time in a long time, she felt happy.

She often found herself thinking about The Huntsman, though she didn't know why. Perhaps, she thought, it was because he was dead. Surely, The Queen would have killed him for failing to kill her. Surely she was responsible for his death. Perhaps that was why she thought of him. Or maybe it was just the way his eyes had no color to them. She hoped he was alive. She wanted nothing more than to thank him for what he'd done.

Far from there, at the palace, The Huntsman was, in fact, still alive. He had ripped the heart from a deer, to trick The Queen into believing Snow White was dead. And though he didn't know why it mattered, he knew he'd do anything to keep her safe.

The Queen had kept the broken mirror, moving it to the throne room, where it sat above her black velvet throne and a rapidly increasing collection of bodies. She had begun to kill many of the kingdom's beautiful women, for no reason other than to appease her rage and vanity. The king's heart and the heart she believed was Snow White's sat in a gilded cage in the center of the room, her prized possessions, and though she tried to mask it, with fresh apples and perfume, the room smelled of death.

One day, in the middle of an ice cold winter, a beggar entered the throne room. A small, ragged looking woman, the Queen was about to turn her away- or because kill her just for disturbing her piece- when The Beggar produced an object that caught the Queen's attention: a length of hair, several feet long and black as ebony.

The Beggar- who made her living as a con woman, and was quite lovely herself- explained that she had been wandering through the forest, searching for someone to steal from. She had come across the hair in a clearing, by a small cottage. The cottage was empty, so The Beggar, curious, waiting until nightfall for the inhabitants to return home. When they did, she saw seven small men, and a young girl with shoulder-length black hair, skin white as snow lips red as blood eyes green as jade and very much alive.

The Queen realized The Huntsman must have helped her escape. She called for him at once, and when he entered the room, she removed the rotting flesh of the deer's heart from it's gilded cage and asked him what it was. When he replied that it was Snow White's heart, she thrust a dagger into his stomach, called him a liar and instructed him to a eat it, smiling the whole time.

The Huntsman, though in excruciating pain, managed to swallow the heart, the image Snow White's face the only thing her could think of. Then The Queen took an apple from a silver bowl beside the throne. She took her dagger and slammed it into the mirror, shattering it once more and leaving silvery shards that glistened on the blood-stained floor. Carefully, she chose a shard, hid it inside the apple, and gave it to The Beggar. She instructed her to give the apple to Snow White and make sure she died. When The Huntsman cried out, it was not because of his pain, but because he wanted nothing more than to protect Snow White. He realized, then, that he was in love with her.

The Queen realized it as well, and, still smiling, told him to go with The Beggar. His punishment, for lying and for disobeying orders, was that he would have to watch. She gagged his mouth and shackled his hands and feet, so that he could not attempt to help Snow White, promised the Beggar a handsome reward, and then sent them on their way.

The Beggar led The Hunstman through a path in the dark forest. It was freezing cold and the snowflakes felt heavy as stone. They arrived at the forest night had fallen. She tied him to a tree before she approached the house. He could do nothing but cry silently.

As it turns out, just about my entire life fits in two suitcases. I take the necessities- clothes and toiletries and a bit of food- a few of my teacups and the books I can't part with. Emma's life fits in even less- between the three of us, we need three suitcases and her violin case. And then we leave.

The hotel room has two double beds, with clean white sheets and fluffy pillows. The whole hotel is so pristine and elegant and I've only ever been in hotels like this for work and I feel so out of place. I sink down onto one of the beds and hold my head in my hands. "What are we going to do?" It feels like we've asked that question so many times, over and over and yet we still can't find the answer.

Roy sits down next to me, wraps his arms around my waist and kisses my neck. "We'll figure it out."

Emma set her violin case down, leaning the toe of her combat boot on top and crossing her arms. "What if we don't?" she asks. "What then?"

He exhales heavily. "Then I guess she wins."

She draws back the curtain of the window, letting the sun stream in so bright it obscures the features of her face. "Bit of a damned if we do damned if we don't, ain't it?" she asks. He gives a slight nod, his expression set tight.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Damned if we do what?" I ask.

Emma looks at me, the light picking up the reddish undertones of her hair, turning it the color of rust. "Kill her."

"You two have been talking about killing her?"

"Not seriously," Roy answers, his voice as dull as his eyes. "We're not gonna do it. We were just… Well, it just sort of came up."

"We didn't want to tell you 'cause we didn't want to scare you," Emma adds. I look at the floor. They think I'm weak too, don't they?

"I'm not…" No. No they're right. No point in arguing that, really.

"It's just that…" Emma begins. She sighs, walks to the bed and sits down, knees pulled to her. "You're the only one of us who's any good, you know that, Jade?"

It takes me a second to realize the implication of that statement. I shake my head. "No, that's not true."

Roy's eyes go darker than I've ever seen them. "Could you kill someone?" he asks, harshly, with more emotion than I've heard in him for days. "Ever, under any circumstance, could you?"

"I…" I bite my lip. "No."

"Well we could."

The harshness is gone. He's quiet again, catatonic even. I rest my hand on his cheek and he closes his eyes, wincing like he's in pain. "I could."

By the time they reached the Dwarfs cottage, night had fallen. The Dwarfs had returned to their mine after dinner, and Snow White was alone, singing softly to herself and she cleaned up from the meal. She was startled by the knock at the door, as hardly anyone ever came to this part of the woods, but she answered all the same.

The Beggar offered her the apple, telling the girl that she was a farmer's wife, poor and struggling to get by. Snow White believed her. She always did. She gave the woman a few coins, and thanked her as she took apple.

And the Huntsman watched, helplessly, as Snow White bit into the apple, and the shard of glass caught in her throat and she fell to the ground as she began to bleed, red staining deep into the white snow.

The Beggar left them both, him tied to a tree in tears and her bleeding on the ground returning to the castle to collect her reward. It was nearly an hour later when the Dwarfs arrived. They saw Snow White, and rushed to her body, all of them beginning to cry as they saw that her eyes were closed and she wasn't breathing. The Eldest Dwarf wrapped his scarf, a ragged old piece of cloth, around her neck, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.

That was when The Youngest Dwarf saw The Hunstman.

Silently, he approached him and undid the gag around his mouth. The Hunstman, desperate, told The Youngest Dwarf of The Queen's plan, and begged him to untie him, as he was the only one who could stop it. The Youngest Dwarf was a bit afraid to trust him, but, desperate to save Snow White, he untied him.

Still shackled, The Huntsman could barely manage to walk to Snow White's body. He fell to his knees at her side, sobbing, and told her he was so sorry he couldn't save her.

And he leaned down and kissed her lips- pale now, as the blood drained away and stained her impossibly white skin. And he whispered that he loved her.

And she opened her eyes.

The bleeding had stopped. She was alive. A miracle, or magic, or maybe just love. The Huntsman and the Dwarfs threw their arms around her, and when the Huntsman kissed her again she whispered that she loved him too.

I wake up in the middle of the night, from a nightmare I can't remember as soon as I open my eyes. I slip into a dress and flats before going outside, standing by the front of the building because I can't think of anywhere else to go. I stare up at the stars, and they seem so very far away.

Most nights I make wishes on stars. Tonight it feels pointless.

"Jade," I hear. I turn around to see Roy, barefoot, like he didn't even take the time to put on shoes. He must have heard me get up.

"Hi," I whisper. He wraps his arms around my waist and rests his chin on my shoulder.

"You okay?"

I feel like crying. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

He smiles, a little. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine," I say. "I know you're not fine. You've barely spoken in two days. I…"

"I'm a terrible person," he whispers, his eyes dead. "That's all, it is, I guess. That's what's wrong."

"You are not," I say. "Roy, you didn't kill him."

"But I could have," he says. "I… I don't know what I'm capable of, Jade, but I know I don't like it."

"It doesn't matter what you're capable of," I say, tears in my eyes and the words feeling like they're getting caught in my throat on the way up. "It matter what you choose to do. And I've made just as many bad choices as you have so if you're a terrible person then so am-"

He kisses me, hard and hot and then I'm ripping his shirt off and he's leaning me against the building and slipping his hands under my dress, beads of sweat glistening on his skin in the sweltering summer air that only seems to get hotter as we touch.

The stars wink at as. Voyeuristic little things, aren't they? They watch us and they listen to our wishes but do they ever grant them?
I wish for him to be okay. Please.

After a few days, The Dwarfs, Snow White and The Huntsman decided to return to the palace, to defeat The Queen once and for all. They did not, at Snow White's insistence, plan to kill, but simply to imprison her in the dungeon, where she could no longer do any harm.

When they got there, though, she was already dead, lying on the floor amongst the corpses, her throat slit with a shard of mirror glass. Her crown had been stolen, and a bite was taken out of every last apple in the throne room.

The Beggar- The Con Woman- had returned for her reward. It hadn't been to her satisfaction.

They cleaned out the throne room, giving a proper burial to each of the dead. Snow White was the only one to shed a tear for The Queen, remembering the days before the trouble had started.

And then the ordeal was done. Snow White took her rightful place as ruler of the kingdom, intent on ruling with the same kindness as her parents before her. The Dwarfs served as her cherished advisors.

Snow White and The Huntsman- The Prince- soon married. At the wedding, Snow White saw, for the first time, color, in The Prince's eyes. They were in love. And they lived happily ever after.

Honey, you're playing with matches.

It's not time to go, it's something in your eyes.
You can't take it slow, it's something in the wine.
You taste like something's wrong.
"Tell me, darling, is something wrong?"

Author's Notes:

So sorry about the wait on this. I dunno, this chapter was just giving me issues. I don't think there should be many more long delays on this story. You know how TV shows go on hiatus for a few weeks around the holidays? Just think of this delay as that. XD

Anyway, um… Yeah. Roy and Jade did just have sex up against the side of building. I seriously have no clue where that came from. I wasn't planning it, it just happened, and my reaction to it was pretty much "What the fuck, Elle?" XD Apparently I just like writing really angsty sex scenes? XD

So regarding the fairy tale, I just had this idea a while ago to sort of "frame" a chapter in Jade telling a fairy tale, and this seemed like the place to do it. I sort of see it as a little side-step inside her head- even though she's not really commenting on it, she's the one telling the reader the story, so it's all her thoughts, if that makes sense, and I think it says a lot about her, in it's own way. Because she believes in fairy tales. Because she's sweet and romantic and so horribly naïve. I don't really know why I picked Snow White- I think I was just inspired by Once Upon A Time. XD At first it was going to be Sleeping Beauty, but then I thought about it more and Jade seemed more like a Snow White to me. (and on that note I'm totally trying to figure out which Disney/fairy tale character each Teen Titans character would be now. XD Dick and Star are definitely Eric and Ariel. And Toni is Rapunzel, for my friend. And Em is Alice, if Em counts. But that's all I got. XD and now I'm thinking if I ever figure this out for enough characters I should totally do a series of one-shots of different characters telling fairy tales like this. Hmm.) And of course Jade's version of Snow White is also seriously messed up but that's mostly just me being incapable of doing anything that isn't exceptionally creepy. XD

I'll talk about what's going through Roy's head more in the next chapter, I guess, but… Poor guy. This is really hard on him. He is, as Jade says, near catatonic. He just doesn't know how to react so he's basically not reacting. And when he is, he's doing it by being really really sexually aggressive. So there's also that?

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (for those of who live in the US) and are having a wonderful start to the holiday season!

Title and lyrics from "Red or White Wine" by Drop Dead, Gorgeous. The album that song from is called "Worse Than A Fairy Tale" and some kind of crazy multi-media concept album about a serial killer. Now you know. Also this song choice totally proves once and for all that I am completely and totally emo. XD Now you know. XD