Clawstorm stood as Mira on her dorm room balcony, laying her crossed arms heavily onto the stone railing grimacing and shifting her weight as a bandaged gash on her arm was aggravated to a dull ache.

"Clawstorm?" A male voice piped up from the prone phone lying beside the witch on the railing.

"Give her a moment dearest, this is one motional rollercoaster that's going to take a moment to sort out." A female voice came through dryly.

"That and Mira Shards was the name of my childhood stuffed animal… and you tell me that my father left yesterday for a long overdue talk with my mother, about the kingdom, the enemy, my daughter, and…" The witch trailed off.

"And you." Red Riding Hood finished sympathetically.

"And me." Clawstorm nodded. "My mother still loves him, enough that she'll give him a chance as long as he behaves himself, and he's always been good about sucking up to the right people."

"You think that he's going to find you out?" Bad Wolf asked in concern.

"Well that all depends on whether or not he's going to insist on her showing him photographs of me as a witchling or have her recount stories of happier days to him. She won't tell him unless she's prompted to, she's the type of woman who'll test him to an inch of his life just to make certain he's on the up and up." Clawstorm mused.

"Should we move you out of the school then?" The man asked. "He's sure to ask your mother about everything."

"Do you really think that he'll ask that much about his disgraceful daughter Bane?" Clawstorm snorted disdainfully. "He'll be curious sure, but probably not enough to be asking about everything. The gods only know how much of spin his head was given when he found out about my double life as Clawstorm Grimbook, I hardly doubt that he'll be snooping around for any more surprises-"

"But he will!" Bane insisted. "Why is it so difficult for you to believe that he's starting to care? I told you what I heard!"

"And how do you know that he wasn't just being all sentimental only because I have his blood running through my veins?" Mira demanded, leaning irritably over the phone's screen.

"Because I'm a father too, and I can tell when a man is being phony with his affections towards his kid. King Charming and I have noticed how much of a wreck he's been for the past while, we don't necessarily agree on whether or not his sudden concern for you and little Raven is because of him finding out about the troubles as well as his relation to you two, but we do agree that he wants to get to know you better. It's no small thing to find out that you had been the one to lock your own child away in a mirror for seven years you know." Bane argued. "Especially back when he was convinced that his past behavior towards you had led to your mental breakdown and apparent insanity, and especially, especially now that he knows that your innocent and not insane."

"I'm not innocent!" Clawstorm denied fervently. "And I'd be the first to tell anybody that my sanity is more than rather iffy on a good day…"

"That does not matter to him, he's a father now you nutty woman, before he left he was far too relieved that you were not a genocidal maniac! And he is insanely worried about you right now since he is under the impression that you are currently miles away, injured, and perhaps dying in a remote ditch somewhere." Bad Wolf snorted.

"I'm pretty sure that I woke up in a gutter once or twice after Snowy had sent me that ill written letter after her wedding… or was it after I woke up naked next to Rafael? That entire week had been an absolute blur…" Clawstorm mused, mostly to get the man to stop talking about her father like she should care at all about him. "A grassy ditch might actually be a step up for me."

"You do this on purpose you wicked woman." The Big Bad Wolf's wolf face scrunched up in revulsion.

"I don't think I should be running away just yet." Clawstorm sighed. "If he tries to confine me to a more secure prison, yeah I'll run away, faster than the speed of light and sound, but for now… there is no need to overreact to what has yet to happen, and besides that, it's not like the name Mira or Shards isn't necessarily uncommon from my kingdom. Besides, I'm starting to really enjoy this second chance at school, at the very least I know that Blondie won't be shouting "witch" like it's a bad thing."

"It has done wonders for you to be so accepted." Simone acknowledged with a nod.

XXX

"How long do you think she's going to have her face glued to that book my cousin gave her?" Faybelle murmured as she stared at the wide-eyed blonde princess curled up in the corner of the dark grey couch of the main living area.

"Tomorrow we'll pry her out of it so that we can take a proper bath at the bathhouse." Raven decided as she adjusted her new sunhat she had discovered tucked in where her new clothes could be found in her duffel bag (it would seem as though Apple had finally won the battle against the old stained and hole-filled clothes the witch used to own, which Raven wasn't exactly going to complain about since the articles of clothing were more tattered rags than clothes at this point). "So far we've all been able to just miss each other as we've been using the shower here but it's just better for everyone if we just go to the bathhouse."

"I never knew that these kind of people existed!" Apple defended exasperatedly. "And since I will be interacting with these kind of people while I'm here I don't want to look like an ignorant idiot human by being ill informed, especially since Raven's mom is apart of this specific community, I don't want to embarrass myself or Raven."

"Aw princess, are you forgetting about me?" Faybelle taunted in a babyish tone, earning her a jab to the ribs by Raven.

Apple merely snorted rolling her eyes. "As if, you would just fall to the bathhouse floor or pool laughing at me."

"That I would." The fairy acknowledged unapologetically. "Speaking of which; Raven, you still have as of yet to take a shower." Faybelle observed the witch with keen interest. "And neither have I, we should conserve water by bathing together!"

"Oh yeah, that sounds completely legitimate…" Raven rolled her eyes as her tone dipping into a dark grumble.

"For once Faybelle has come up with a good idea!" Apple stated with false cheer, dropping her book and leaping up from the couch. "There is enough room for three in there, let's all conserve water by sharing!"

The princess cast the surprised fairy a pointed look. "We did say that we would do our best to share, remember?"

"Apple you too?" Raven's eyes widened.

"Yes… I suppose we could have Apple too." Faybelle allowed reluctantly, yet there was a slight not of interest in her tone and gaze as she eyed the two other girls. "She is good with hair after all… and seeing as how her education of the body has been oh so woefully incomplete… I suppose a little demonstration with the resident witch would be-"

"That will not be necessary!" Raven exclaimed with a heavy blush, taking off her hat to reveal her recently washed hair. "I already took a quick shower while you two were out buying groceries earlier!"

"Drat." Apple cursed.

"But we were only gone for like ten minutes!" Faybelle exclaimed. "Hardly enough time for a girl to get her hair washed completely to glowing perfection."

"Speed showering is my specialty as Apple will kindly vouch for me." Raven crossed her arms, glowering at the two.

"There isn't any harm in going in for a second time is there?" The blonde princess blinked innocently, trying to train her best begging eyes at the witch.

Raven's glower became a little bit more severe.

XXX

"Honestly who takes such short showers? Warm water from the tap is only there to be enjoyed by everybody!" Faybelle groused as she rinsed out the lather in Apple's hair. "And how exactly did we end up bathing together without Raven?"

"Because she pushed us in here and threatened to cook us spinach rolls with pulled pork and cabbage for the next several meals if we didn't stop being so perverted and just get clean already." Apple pouted, her knees tucked under her chin as she sat on the padded toilet lid in the tiny shower/toilet room combination.

"And that was with you helping out with your innocent princess tempting tricks alongside my seduction methods." Faybelle tsked. "Both should have been highly effective so it's not either one of our individual faults… she's just very stubborn…"

"I'm not even sure why I suddenly thought that it would be a good idea." Apple confessed. "One minute I was trying to keep you from molesting her while you two were alone and the next I suddenly found this whole showering together thing as good idea…"

"It's called being a healthy teenager with a pulse." Faybelle informed the girl. "Having those kind of urges, especially for the one you love the most is normal."

"But is it normal that I was okay with you being there too?" Apple wondered. "Even for a moment?"

"That depends on whether you were imagining me along with Raven, or just Raven arching and moaning in ecstasy as we surround her and keep her from escaping while we-"

"I was definitely thinking about Raven!" Apple squeaked blushing from head to toe.

"Then you were probably having an unrealized fantasy realized." Faybelle mused. "Again, nothing wrong with it, as long as it's all consensual and you don't spoil things by getting jealous."

"…And what about you?" Apple asked hunching up her shoulders. "You weren't fighting the idea either."

"Raven is my wife and you are our princess." Faybelle shrugged as if that explained everything. "You have to remember princess that it is common in my culture to have more than one lover or spouse and since that said spouse would be involved if we had succeeded, and things would be a lot more simple on my end if we had that experience to tie you down to the both of us, I have little to no issue with it."

"That doesn't make sense." Apple shook her head. "You don't love me."

"But Raven does." Faybelle reminded. "And I am the Evil Fairy Queen, establishing my claim over the most fairest princess of all of Ever After along with establishing claim to my wife in that matter appeals greatly to my fae instincts. It comes from the old days when humans couldn't decide whether they feared us enough to either try to kill us off, or steer as clear as they could from our territories as possible. Every so often when the humans, men mostly, treaded on our toes we did our recon on them, usually we'd steal one of their women, especially if they had children with them, and especially if they fit the profile of someone that wouldn't fight back as much for being taken. The children were given to large fae families raised and taught as our own, the women more often than not ended up in those same family's harems and were also assimilated into our culture."

"You didn't imprison them? The women?" Apple asked.

"Didn't have to most of the time." Faybelle sighed. "Back then, women were treated so terribly in Ever After that a bit of kindness and care from us and they never wanted to go back. That's why there are so many cautionary tales of fae-folk stealing women and children almost exclusively in human literature, even when they were given ample opportunity the women never fought back or returned home and the children… the children became the same as us sooner or later."

The princess bit her lip. "So you weren't joking when you said that I'd be considered Raven's concubine?"

"Human women from the past were famous for becoming some of the most loyal of concubines and harem wives ever known to our kind, feisty too if some human sap tried to steal them back to their world, the humans never could understand why so many of their former wives would rather kill them and stay in their new homes instead of going back to their confined and dreary lives as mere property of human males, it is because of that loyalty that it is still considered of high class for a fae-kin who is the head of a household to have acquired a human for their spouse." Faybelle shrugged nonchalantly. "Almost as high class as being a fairytale character actually..."

"W-wait." Apple tilted her head back until she was staring at the fairy's face. "Are you saying that this whole sharing arrangement would be beneficial to your social standing back home?"

"Beneficial to my social and fairytale standing." Faybelle corrected. "Since you are dead set against the whole fairytale business it would only help me if I said that I was so evil that I managed to acquire you as my wife's human toy by putting you off of the whole Snow White thing myself. Beneficial to you too in some ways… of course you would have to stop trying to steal Raven away and abide by whatever sharing agreement we can reach with each other, although seeing as you are the heir to a human kingdom throne you would probably find more difficulties than benefits if it were all made official…"

Apple looked down running her tongue over the inside of her teeth nervously. "And what if I'm thinking about not becoming Queen of Ever After at all?"

The fairy blinked owlishly at the girl. "What?"

"I'm just thinking about it." Apple murmured to the tiled floor. "And don't tell Raven because she'll be worried that I'd be doing this for her and she'd try to dissuade me from these thoughts, but… it's not for her or because I want to be with her, I'd find some way of doing that even with the responsibility of becoming Queen… no, this is entirely for me."

"Why?" Faybelle asked in astonishment. "I thought that becoming Queen was the only thing you wanted in the whole wide world."

"It's what I've been told that I want." Apple spat poisonously. "Other people said that I wanted the fairytale, other people said that I wanted the kingdom throne, other people said that I wanted to become the fairest princess married to the perfect prince, it was all their wants and wishes imposed on me with such conviction that I was never given the chance to even consider that I had other options, until Raven came along no one asked me what I wanted out of life, no one but her cared!"

"I'm just thinking about it." The princess repeated. "Because now I know that I have options and I know that no matter what Raven will be there to make sure that I always have a safe place to run to when things get tough, and that I won't be completely abandoned for wanting to want something different for myself, I have the freedom now to really wonder what is the best for me."

"…Your childhood makes me really depressed you know that?" Faybelle huffed heavily through her nose. "It's making it difficult to be suitably evil towards you when you are a range from; too oblivious to get it, and; oh dear gods what the hell did they teach you when you were a kid? How am I supposed to be evil if being evil to you is the same pathetic equivalent of toying with a blind, deaf, and limbless animal?" The fairy griped.

Apple winced peering over her shoulder. "Is it really that bad? …My lack of a proper education towards the world outside of the story and… the lies I have been told my entire life?"

"It's worse." Faybelle promised rubbing her temples. "I can completely understand why Raven had been so worried about you, and part of the reason why she stayed at the school instead of letting me spirit her away after the third and fourth ceremonies."

"Well then how do I make things better, I know now that a fairytale can't protect me from the real world so I need to know what I can do so that I don't… end up like my mother." The princess winced as she said this; all of her princess training made her feel as if she were saying the most horrible thing ever by admitting out loud to not wanting to become her mother, why was it easier to say such things to Raven and not anybody else?

Faybelle hesitated, feeling more than a little bit out of her depth. "You won't steal Raven away?"

Apple snorted giving the fairy a flat look. "The agreement was to share remember? Raven doesn't need us to be fighting over her while she is trying to fight for the safety of her family and kingdom. And besides… you need incentive not to poison me anyway right? And you're honor bound to both me and Raven right? So it's your job now to make sure we are all in mutually benefitted territory in exchange for your own personal gain."

Faybelle narrowed her eyes. "You catch on quick…"

"I have a lot of personal investments in all of this if you will recall." Apple replied back coolly.

And if the blonde human kept up this feisty confident attitude Faybelle would be in real danger of becoming quite fond of this new, un-maidenly creature…

Not that it would be a bad thing per-say, as long as it made her appear more evil and resulted in lots of mayhem… plus there was her new bride to think about and her fondness for this human… and how happy she'd be with Faybelle if the fairy and the human started to actually get along, even more so if the princess could wind up acquiring enough life skills to survive outside the witch's sheltering grasp if necessary…

"So how do you suppose we go about convincing Raven that pajamas are overrated?" Faybelle began conversationally.

XXX

Snow White stared blankly at the flames of her private bedroom fireplace as she brooded over her thoughts. Briefly she supposed that for the first time in a long while that she cut the overall perfect image of a maiden in distress, her pout must especially look picture perfect since she had her bi-weekly lip injection a few hours ago.

But it didn't matter to her how well she looked in her distressed state, it hadn't ever mattered to her since high school, since the poisonings had stopped and… since the dreams had stopped.

Maelstorm existed in the real world, he was Clawstorm in her male form, Snow White had wanted a Prince Charming and a happily ever after and so Clawstorm, her supposed villain, had provided her with one since the Prince Charming outside of the dreams was unable to provide her with one, by offering up a version of herself instead.

Gender-shifting, a condition where a witch or warlock is born with varying degrees of traits from the other gender, confusing the individual's magic into occasionally changing their gender either on it's own or at will, or at least that's what the books had described the matter.

Snow White had thought it odd when Clawstorm's voice as a teenager occasionally cracked or deepened, or how she looked a bit taller or broader in the shoulders on occasion…

"She knew." Snow White wondered at the concept her manicured fingertips coming up to her (still sore) lips.

Clawstorm knew that Snow White had been struggling her first few months of high school, that it was becoming immensely obvious that Prince Charming was not built to the task of becoming her perfect prince, at anytime Clawstorm could have called her out- could have called them both out on the public farce that they had been keeping up, but she never did! She suffered through Snow White's outright bullying and the whole school looking down their noses at the witch in silence… not because Clawstorm was a wuss, but because she… she was honorable and… loyal towards the White family, towards Snow White.

…Just like a Prince Charming would be towards their princess.

All this time Snow White had been praying for the perfect prince to give her the perfect fairytale ending that she had been looking for, and when Prince Charming had failed to do that himself, she had put pressure onto Apple to have a better ending… so that Snow White could at least have a perfect maiden daughter who had everything that Snow White had thought that she had been denied-

But Snow White had not been denied anything. She had asked for this ending, she had practically shouted it from the rooftops that she had wanted this Prince Charming and that she wanted to appear like the most fair and perfect maiden in all of Ever After and have the most evilest of villains in all the worlds as her fairytale enemy…

And Clawstorm had delivered that to her, gave her just the ending that Snow White had always desired… and had even gone a few steps further to give her princess what she wanted, what she asked for.

Never in her life had she ever felt more romanced and on top of the world than when she was in one of Clawstorm's sleep induced spells. Maelstorm, although not the perfect textbook prince, was the perfect prince for her, with his bewitching manners and his tempting air… in the dreams he had been so sweet and loving in a way that was all-encompassing, filling every fiber of her being until she could not stand she was so overwhelmed by it all, not that she had ever complained about feeling so loved especially since Maelstorm had been there to hold her in his arms. Those dreams with the man had been completely and utterly magical… on more than one level…

But the fact still remained that… that Maelstorm was real, had always been real, he was Clawstorm, he had always been Clawstorm from the very beginning, one and the same and…

…And he… she- whatever the word was for Clawstorm- the witch was her prince, her real true prince. Not a Prince Charming, but something more darkly exotic and forbidden, yet so storybook perfect at the same time. Now that Snow White took the time to think back on it… Clawstorm was actually perfect for her, it was almost as if the witch was… born for her, if she dared think upon it in those kind of terms…

But Her real prince was so far from Snow White's grasp now she just… what was she to do now that the truth had finally been realized and- gods how could she have been so blind? Clawstorm and Maelstorm aside from gender appearance were exactly the same! In everything! From their mannerisms and personality to their maddening bewitching smirks and sharp intelligence! It should have been painfully obvious that dream Maelstorm was real life Clawstorm in male form but Snow White had chosen to be selectively blind to it!

Did… was it possible that… Clawstorm had loved her back then? Was that the reason why she was so hesitant to be outrageously villainous to Snow White in the beginning? Why the witch had taken pains to avoid her? Murmur in what had sounded at the time to be sarcastic tones… but could have just been tones of heartbroken despair that Snow White's wishes were the witch's to command and fulfill to the best of her abilities?

How tragic!

Everything was a shambled mess now! The things that she had done to spite Clawstorm all turning out so horribly, Apple finding out about it and being so angry that the girl could barely stand to look at her, Clawstorm having to clean up Snow White's mistakes by-

What kind of sorry excuse for a Snow White had she become? She wasn't a fair maiden at all, no… with her credentials she was nothing but a…

She was the villain in this story not Clawstorm. Paying for her crimes and bad deeds just like the villains of the past had to.

…But not as badly as Clawstorm was currently paying for crimes that the witch had not committed…

Snow White stood up with a determined air, stopping by her vanity to reapply her make-up (honestly tears made things so difficult for a maiden of her age to keep up a youthful appearance) before heading out of her room and making her way to her private office (not to be confused for her official office).

She was Snow White after all and her prince (or as close as she'd ever come to a true storybook prince) very well might be in need of her assistance to get her out of prison and to somewhere safe.

…Even though Clawstorm probably hated her by now, She would still come to the witch's aid.

It was the least that she could do after everything that had happened.

XXX

"You want to arrange a private meeting with the Evil Queen?" Giles blinked owlishly at the mirror-pad that the secretary was holding up to him, the candy bar in the tongs he was holding over a bowl of bubbling green liquid squishing a little bit from the force of him squeezing just a little bit too hard. "Any particular reason why you would want to?"

"I… merely have a few things that I wish to discuss with her." Snow White stated cryptically. "Why are you holding a candy bar, and why is your staff all hiding behind tables and wearing protective gear?" She asked, nodding to where Rumplestiltskin and the Big Bad Wolf were looking over a lab table at her in confusion.

"Because potential explosions make them nervous." Giles shrugged.

"Wait, what?" The secretary stepped back. "Sir I am no being paid enough for this-"

"Honorable Giles Grimm I have some paperwork from the News Club that- oh. My many apologies for interrupting, I'll come back later." A low voice spoke from off screen, the sound making Snow White freeze as she recognized the voice.

"It's perfectly fine Mira, just bring the papers over, and how many times do I have to tell you that there is no need to be so formal with the titles, I'm just Giles around here." Giles stated motioning a redheaded girl over to his side.

"But everyone is above my station here." The tan girl with the familiar voice argued as she put on a pair of safety glasses without having to be told to, the flourish in which she puts on the glasses exactly like how Clawstorm used to put on safety glasses before a lab or a potion class. "I do not want to seem rude to anybody."

"This is a high school not a royal court, you are allowed to be informal with people here." Giles chastised lightly as he took the pen offered to him and signed the papers provided.

"Mira?" Snow White murmured, the name stirring up a memory. "Mira Shards?"

Said girl snapped her head up towards the woman on screen, her vague look of alarm hauntingly familiar.

Mira blinked rapidly for a moment before swallowing the hard lump in her throat and bowing deeply. "Your Fair Excellency, my sincere apologizes I did not see you."

Snow White was struck silent, the sarcastic tone and flair was missing but that-… that was how Clawstorm used to address her, no one else had ever called her Fair Excellency aside from the witch.

"I'll just set this here." The secretary announced in the ensuing awkward silence, propping up the mirror-pad on a stack of books before taking her leave.

"Have you two met before?" Giles queried, looking between the two females.

"Ah, not to my knowledge sir, however Miss Blondie Lockes has informed me in the past that my appearances on the mirror blogs and the news casting show has gained me some… unexpected attention around the school. I assume that is how her Fair Excellency has heard of my name?" Mira peeked up at Snow White, her gaze calculating and appearing ready to flee at any given moment.

"Your name is very familiar." Snow White nodded, her eyes narrowed at the girl in suspicion. "Giles might I ask about the whereabouts of the Evil Queen?"

Just as she asked Giles dropped the candy bar into the mixture and with several suspicious gurgles the liquid turned to a muddy brown, thickening and sprouting tentacles.

But Snow White's eyes were locked onto the Mira Shards girl, who was in turn giving the woman the exact same raised eyebrow and look that Clawstorm had always given her in the past.

"Whoops looks like we'll have to put our conversation off for the time being Snow White." Giles announced a little too gleefully as he batted away the forming potion's arms with a glass stirring rod. "But I'll contact my brother about this when he gets back and we will see what we can do."

"Might I query as to why?" Mira piped up almost desperately before Giles could end the call. "Forgive me, I know that it is not my place, however it is not every day that a queen requests to see such a dangerous criminal."

Ignoring Giles's confused glance at the girl Snow White tilted her head to the side as she regarded the younger.

"I merely wish to ask the Evil Queen about some evidence that has come to light about her supposed innocence. It is very strange for a villain to have acted so… selflessly." Snow White stated, assessing the girl intensely.

"I'm certain that many people would find such a thing coming from a witch of her blood to be very strange." Mira spoke, a tinge of bitterness and disappointment in her otherwise emotionless tone, her reflective eyes trained downward like that of an old abused creature that has just simply given up hoping for different treatment from the world at large. With a start Snow White realizes that the girl is a witch from the reflectivity of the girl's pupils. "Life is funny, throwing those kind of un-scripted things into the mix."

"So we shall talk later." Giles finishes quickly, ending the call.

"You do know that you don't have to worry about that kind of prejudice here." Giles spoke up, stopping Mira in her retreating steps. "Royalty or no Ever After is a school of tolerance toward other cultures, even if it doesn't seem like it at times, there are precautions in place that protect students of all races. No one, not even a king or queen is allowed to harm any of you."

Mira turns to face the man with a smile that is too wide to be real. "I am comforted by you assurances." She states in a tone too cheerful to be deemed as true, her overall body posture screams that she doesn't believe a word that Giles has said. "Thank you for taking the trouble to sign these papers Honorable Giles Grimm, if you will excuse me I must take my leave now."

"I am speaking the truth Mira." Giles calls one last time to the girl's retreating back. "If something happens don't be afraid to speak up, you will be protected. I promise."

That makes the girl falter, casting the man a confused and… almost hopeful stare for a long moment before she simply nods her head and disappears from the room.