A/n: I've realized that I'm starting to put too much subplots into this story so I'm going to try to pull it back a little and try to tie in all of these loose ends until it's just about working towards an ending with an epic showdown and aftermath with all of the main relationships and pairings intact. Think of it like weaving a blanket of subplots that contribute to the main body of work and there will still be stuff going on in the background, but it won't be the main focus which will mainly be about our main bad guys, the strange relationship between Apple, Raven, and Faybelle, and Clawstorm.
Also Faybelle is still going to be pretty evil (by fairy and fairytale standards).
And nothing gets by Raven in her own household. She's just that kind of housewife.
XXX
Daring stares at Maid Marion with wide eyes as he watches her spar with her son in the gym for fun, the woman's eyes are fierce as she eyes her opponent carefully, her fiery red hair slowly falling out of it's tight bun as time wears on, her body posture is like that of a coiled snake, waiting for just the right moment to strike, she is wild and untamed and yet she holds her control in a vice grip wisely directing hits to teach and punish for slip-ups, sending praise only where it is due and cunningly using her and her student's performance to show an example to her prodigy.
Daring places a hand over his fast beating heart, attempting to quell its attempts to beat itself up his dry throat and out of his mouth.
He swears for just a moment too long that he is in love.
When the thought finally registers in his brain the boy races away, not bothering to stop and find a decent excuse to his friends who call after him in confusion or even explain things to Darling as he just simply plucks her up and away from the basketball court as he goes by and races the both of them out of the building.
Dexter doesn't know what is going on at first, he was merely minding his own business, sleeping in like a normal person when suddenly his sister was shouting, the dorm door was slamming, and there was two heavy weights compressing on top of him. But then one look at Darling's outraged face as she was pinned under a panic-stricken Daring sort of clued him in just a little bit.
"Are they out of your favorite hair products at the market again?" Dexter asked slowly.
"No! Thank goodness it's not that, but it's something different- someone different. She's so beautiful and strong and independent and not maidenly at all and when I saw her I-I just…" Daring trailed off blushing beat red and looking away.
"Ah, so Raven's grandmother has come to school?" Dexter asked.
"No!" Daring wailed dramatically. "It was a different woman! The feelings were the same but the woman was not the beautiful Elenore!"
Dexter slowly blinked at his brother.
"Darling my brain is still too sleepy could you take over from here?" Dexter asked his sister who was glowering spitefully into his collarbone.
"Daring, you feel the same intense attraction for two separate women?" Darling huffed trying to blow hair out of her face.
"Yes." Daring sniffed.
"And are they both older than you, and completely un-maiden-like?" Their sister growled out in a way that suggested that she knew intuitively exactly what was going on.
"And they are both strong and powerful and they can defeat their enemies swiftly while making their wild and untamed natures look like they are as gorgeously dangerous as battle experienced Valkyries." Daring waxed poetically. "Against all odds going out into battle with-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it; they're awesome bad asses." Darling snorted disdainfully. "Its called having a type Daring. You feel the way you do not because you are in love with these women in particular, but because you are overall extremely attracted to older women, who are independent, not maiden-like, and can hold their ground in a fight."
Daring paused to mull over this information for a moment.
"Well I do suppose that makes sense…" He admitted. "But if these intense feelings are just those of mere attractions what's a crush or actual love going to feel like? Daring asks fretfully.
"You'll be bowled completely over." Dexter predicted sagely, grunting softly when Darling tried to scoot out and ended up pinching his side between her hand and the mattress in the process.
"How did you know this about me?" Daring asked their sister, placing more weight over the top of his younger siblings to keep them from escaping.
"Because it's all you've been able to talk about for days, these reasons why you are so into this strange woman that you had just met so briefly now getoff!" Darling let out a growling roar as she found her grip and rolled herself and Daring off of Dexter.
"This is wonderful news!" Daring cheered putting his sister into a headlock.
"It is?" Dexter asked wearily as he scotched away from his wrestling siblings.
"It means that I can find a woman that I can stand a chance with! Elenore and Professor Maid Marion are fantastic but they are both rather daunting to try to enter a relationship with." Daring giggled as Darling flipped him over and pinned him down.
"Too much information brother dear." Darling growled out when Daring attempted to tickle her.
"And I am going to pretend that I did not hear that." Dexter could do nothing but roll his eyes as he hopped out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. "Congratulations, by the way, on your big revelation about yourself Daring." The younger boy called over his shoulder.
"Yes! Isn't it grand?" Daring grinned widely, hugging his struggling sister close as he still attempted to tickle her.
Really a big brother couldn't ask for better siblings.
XXX
It should have been impossible, so much time had passed and they had both grown into different people over the years, really it should not have been so easy to start up with the same zeal that they had when they were young and had hope for a future.
But then a gain maybe that was why it had felt so easy, it was far too early to be saying that they were going to make it but there had been something there, something that fit into place in the places where the separation, betrayal, and the hurt had left holes that had never really been filled properly, that neither of them had wanted to fill.
They were still themselves but still they were different versions of themselves, older, a little wiser, and perhaps a little smarter about love this time around.
There was something there, something tangible to work with but the question now was whether or not something so fragile could survive in the coming trials ahead.
"So… do you feel a sense of closure now… or regret…?" Milton fidgeted his fingers nervously into the cuffs of his shirt and picked at a stray thread of his vest, looking tentative and worried from his end of the antique-replica couch they were both sitting on.
Elenore huffed a breath through her nose, smiling softly as she curled up further into the man's jacket that had been given to her to keep her form from getting too cold. "No regrets, a bit of closure, but mostly hope? There was a flicker of something on my end, I'm fairly confident that depending on how you feel it could either turn into friendship or something more given time and lost of honesty."
Milton sagged in relief, grinning widely as he leaned over to steal a kiss, one of many to come or so he hoped.
"You kept the wand I gave you." Milton hummed, helping the witch maneuver herself so that she could lean against his side contently. "I've seen our granddaughter use it, I had thought that you threw it away."
"I'll admit I had been tempted at one point, however it is a very good wand and it was something that I could tell my daughter that definitely came from her father if she had ever wanted to ask more about you." Elenore gave the man a cheeky grin. "That was one of the reasons why I gave it to Raven, I wanted her to have a little something from her grandfather… of course that was before…"
"I had forced us to separate." The man finished solemnly. "Didn't see how good I had it until I threw it all away."
"I was going to say that certain circumstances prevented me from recruiting Giles to help me drag you into fatherhood whether you liked it or not…" Elenore trailed off.
"Well I am here now." Milton spread his arms. "And I don't plan on going anywhere."
"Good because you are going to take me out on a proper date to the nearby gardens and afterwards we can discuss how we plan on making this new thing between us work." Elenore smirked, a determined look in her eye.
"I'm so glad that your back." Milton smiled fondly at the woman.
XXX
Cedar outstretched her arms in wonder, giggling in delight when a butterfly landed on her arm, as she danced around the front lawn of the school.
"She's adapting well after the shock of everything has died down." Briar observed from the sidewalk.
"She's got a lot of questions, and some I couldn't even answer." Cerise sighed. "The Healers and her father warned that it's going to be quite the eventful next few months as she learns all the complexities of being a being of flesh and blood."
"She's so… innocent." Daring realized with a mixture of awe and hurt. "Will she be all right when the harsher things in life come to beat her down? Hurt her?"
"Like it has harmed you?" Cerise glanced over to the boy knowingly.
"Fairytales can't protect us from real life." Daring mumbled to the ground darkly. "It isn't fair that we had been lied to and told otherwise. If we had just been told the truth…"
"You would have been prepared and it would have hurt less." Briar finished looking contemplative. "Do you… do you think that whatever happened between Raven and the Book of Legends… do you suppose that she has somehow freed us? Is that the reason why Cedar and the rest of them are… human now?"
"Well her actions on Legacy Day has already freed many people from our cursed duties to our stories." Daring hummed looking up at the sky. "But it still feels like we've been left behind you know? We're still stuck in the past while the kingdoms we rule over are far into the future, perhaps our need to stick so strictly to past traditions is far too inappropriate, just look at Mira, she's terrified of the lot of us. In other schools calling a witch evil or automatically assuming that when something goes wrong it has to be a witch's fault is considered highly racist and bad form for just assuming such things just because there is a witch around."
"Well yeah, but to be fair that same racism can go the other way too Daring, I mean have you heard how Faybelle talks? She makes it sound as though humans are the most despicable race to have ever existed." Cerise pointed out carefully.
"I'd be as bitter as she is too if I had to live at Ever After High." Daring argued back with a soft huff. "I'm not saying that Faybelle, or the rest of them are in the right to be talking stuff like that about humans, but on the other hand look at this place, it's the most diverse school in Ever After and yet it is guided by human social norms, dark aged human schools of magical thought, and human fairytale stories! I mean can you name one story where the human isn't the main character, a good guy character who isn't human but is the main character and not the supporting cast, or a character that wants to become human?"
The two girls visibly scrunched up their faces as they wracked their brains for a story title, a character, anything.
"Well I'm sure that there has to be at least one right?" Cerise asked tentatively.
"One in and amongst how many other stories?" Daring challenged.
"Oh." Briar bit her bottom lip. "…And there is… I can't think of an older fairytale that doesn't have a witch cast as the main bad guy…"
"Exactly." Daring stated. "How can we just expect people like Faybelle to see our race as equal and legitimate if we are the ones instigating these racist concepts in the first place? Raven said that Faybelle has family who are witches and ogres and other people who we at Ever After High label as bad or evil just simply based on race and family ties, it's little wonder that she hates us so badly!"
"You've put a lot of thought into this." Briar observed.
"Yeah well…" Daring sighed. "I've just… started noticing these things after-… Raven, she understood the hurt that I was going through at the time, so well that once I bothered to look a little bit closer I realized that… this place can be pretty messed up at times. How often has the Royal faction sneered or shied away from someone just because of their family ties or because of their race? Or even their gender? Ginger is one of the kindest witches I know and people still like to hurt her feelings by calling her a cannibal, even though nobody is actually in danger of getting eaten by her in the recreation of the story, everybody knows this and yet they still treat her horribly and my sister is still getting flack from people who just don't understand that a girl is perfectly capable of being a knight or a prince too."
"So just for clarification… you are saying that a lot of the humans in the worlds outside of fairytales, namely most of the future citizens a lot of you will rule over one day, understand the concept of equal rights better than their future monarchs?" Cerise asked, a note of hope catching in her voice that only Briar understood the real implications for.
"Yes." Daring nodded. "Ever After High may be one of the best schools for future rulers to attend, but it is still the most racist and sexist in existence too."
The two girls shared a knowing smile before beaming proudly at the boy.
"…You two already knew about this…" Daring pouted.
"Yes but sometimes it's nice hearing someone willing to point it out so freely." Cerise's beaming grin shrank into an almost wistful look. "Having to listen to talk day in and day out about destinies and roles and expectations kind of makes you feel a special kind of sad inside, especially if you are a girl or from a villain family and that you know that at one point in time your family line was seen as important and honorable but then over time that all crumbled away because old outdated ideals on race superiority and political nonsense came in and reduced everything down to what we are today. Nothing but one side believing that they are better than the rest for having a better story ending and the other side forced to suffer in silence."
"The people who are hurting Raven's family and kingdom are using their lineage as if it's a viable excuse for murder." Daring murmured quietly.
"They want to start a race war." Briar stated coldly, her expression softening as Cedar giggled and rolled down a grassy hill. "We may not know the reasons why but somebody is trying to resurrect the bad old days of Ever After, back when everybody was terrified of each other."
"Back when lots of human kingdoms used to be the real bad guys." Daring looked down in guilt.
"Back when every kingdom used to be bad." Cerise corrected softly. "Not all humans were bad just like not all the other races were good."
"Yes but humans in Ever After were the most brutal, even to each other- especially to each other, just look at what they tried to do to Wonderland, and let's not forget that my home kingdom and Apple's family's old kingdom used to be bitter enemies, we both thought that we were better than the other so we tried to kill each other off." Daring spoke sullenly.
"But that was way back into the past you guys." Cerise sighed at the guilty looks the two humans were giving the sidewalk. "The bad guys may be trying to resurrect the bad old days but there is a lot more proper education and interaction and… mixed marriages these days. It is because of this that I know that they will not succeed, Raven, Ginger, and a lot of others don't hold it against humans or any other races as a whole for things that happened between our ancestors in the past, what matters to them are you actions now. How you are going to contribute now so that we won't be seeing the bad old days come back."
The prince and princess exchanged a look.
"It's still pretty difficult for ancestor driven families not to feel ashamed of some of the things that happened in the past sweetie." Briar pointed out.
"Then don't act like your ancestors, act like yourselves and treat others equally, that's really the best thing that you can do, I know that people like Mira and Raven appreciate it." Cerise gave a small smile to Briar, silently telling the princess that she appreciated being treated as an equal too. "Trust me I live in the forest when I'm not living here, having respect for others and resect towards you in return… means everything sometimes."
Before either prince or princess could speak Cerise chuckled, pointing past them. "Looks like somebody tired herself out." Cerise continued to chuckle as she started walking towards the fast asleep girl on the lawn, the other two close on her heels.
"Speaking of resident witches, I hope Mira can one day feel safe enough here to open up a little, she's really brave and smart but it's obvious that she feels like it could all turn bad on her on a moment's notice." Briar sighed.
"She reminds me a little of my and Sparrow's uncle Malstorm, he and her are really similar in personality, it's a shame that he lives so far away though. I'd love to meet him in person but his job hasn't allowed anything aside from old-fashioned calls from the big mirror." Cerise sighed.
"I really like her too." Daring confessed. "She reminds me of my godmother, Auntie Clawstorm, they even have the same hair color. It's too bad that she's never able to visit us, she's the one who helped me perfect my Charming grin you know, it would be nice to show it to her face to face instead of an old mirror…"
Briar looked at the other two in weary alarm. "Well… she reminds me a lot like a close friend of my aunt's who lives very far away and could only contact us through the mirror, my cousin and I used to spend hours listening to the woman tell us stories. …Her name is Mira actually and she too has red hair like the Mira here does and lives too far away to visit…"
The three teens share uneasy looks.
"Didn't Apple say that Raven's mother was able to change gender at will?" Briar glanced to Daring. "And that her male name was Malstorm?"
"I suppose that Mira is a common name…" Daring mumbled. "Is Clawstorm a common name too?"
"My parents always defended Raven's mom, said that there was always more than one side to a story…" Cerise murmured to the sky.
A moment of silence (save for Cedar's snoring) passed between them.
"Nah, it can't be." Cerise shook her head. "…Could it?"
"Hey!" Mira called out from the sidewalk, waving at the three as she jogged over.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't see that she was asleep." The witch whispered as she drew close.
"It's fine." Cerise waved the witch off as she stooped to pick Cedar up. "She sleeps like a log, almost nothing can wake her up before she's ready."
"I just wanted to check in and make sure that she's doing alright." Mira crooned down to the slumbering girl in the hooded girl's arms. "It's been an eventful couple of days."
"It really has." Briar nodded. "How are the rest of the students so far? Do you know?"
"So far there has been nothing reported but relief." Mira informed seriously. "No one is certain what this means for the faction conflict but it seems as though most students are taking a moment to enjoy their newfound freedoms before getting too worried about what this means for the dynamic at school. I'm hoping that when Apple comes back she can help settle any potential panic."
"Which reminds me; Blondie and Cupid wanted us to find you so that you and the news club could further formulate plans to deal with all the changes going on, and also to tell you to turn on your phone." Briar informed the witch.
"Oh bother." Mira cursed taking out her phone to turn it on. "I keep forgetting to turn it on after class! Ooh I'll never catch up with modern technology at this rate!"
The teens (save for Cedar who was still sound asleep) all cast each other bewildered looks at the way the witch phrased her words.
"You didn't have much tech growing up did you?" Briar asked slowly.
"Oh no, the Enchanted Mirror was very strict about that kind of thing." Mira shrugged. "Though it wasn't too bad, we didn't need all this new stuff back home."
"But isn't the Queen kingdom one of the most technologically advanced in regards to mirror technology, just second to Ever After?" Briar asked with a raised brow.
"I think that it was jealousy for the most part, you know how old mirrors can get when newer versions come out with all these different features." Mira shrugged again. "That and an Enchanted Mirror can't use a tech-mirror very well."
"Uh huh." Briar looked at the witch strangely. "Well good luck with the news club stuff."
"Thank you for the luck little rose." Mira smiled charmingly fond, a true charming smile, as she started to walk off.
"Did your aunt's friend used to call you little rose?" Cerise asked Briar once the witch was out of earshot.
"Ye-ah…" The princess stared after Mira with a bewildered look.
"That was a Charming smile." Daring whispered in shock. "Nobody outside of the families do that kind of smile."
"Nobody?" Briar raised a skeptical brow.
"Well no one that I know of aside from Auntie Mira…" Daring trailed off looking uncertain.
"This is weird." Cerise grumbled. "Even by our standards."
XXX
"Don't want to leave." Apple pouted as she clutched onto Raven. "It's going to be too empty in the dorm without you there."
"I'll see you two next weekend, and I'll call. Promise." Raven swore, accepting a departing kiss from Faybelle and then one from Apple before the fairy dragged the princess away towards the waiting carriage.
Charlotte cast the fellow witch a confused look. "So… you're with both of them?"
"Not sure." Raven admitted honestly watching as the carriage grew smaller and smaller into the distance. "They've developed a truce of sorts so far as I've been able to overhear… really I've got not choice but to wait for things to settle down long enough to see what they've mapped out. Gods only know that I'll be way too preoccupied to be of any help."
"Two magical beings and one human all under one tiny roof…" Charlotte trailed off. "My cousin is either incredibly idiotic or incredibly brave, especially considering the fairy race's long blood-stained history involving taking human women and children away from their realms by force to be used as food or the playthings of fae-kind. Even if everything is completely consensual in this particular case I highly doubt that a fair maiden princess would feel very safe with one of the dreaded Thorn Clan. Hex, I wouldn't be all that surprised if one or two of Princess Apple White's ancestors are still being held as a captive plaything in some fairy lord's manor."
Raven rubbed the back of her neck guiltily, the walls between the kitchen and the shower were rather thin and did not impede spoken conversation from being overheard, especially if one dutifully kept their ear to the door to make sure no fighting broke out in such a tiny space. "Er… let's just say that Apple has been… rather uninformed about any stories that do not relate to fairytales. It is not seen as proper for a maiden to be reading material outside of her character role in Ever After."
Charlotte made a face as a niggling suspicion tickled the back of her mind.
"What did my dear cousin tell her?" Charlotte demanded wearily.
"It may have been mentioned that some humans grew to love their new fairy prisons…" Raven looked to the side shiftily.
"And by some you mean that she implied that there were many, more than there actually was?" The platinum blonde witch raised a brow.
"…Yes." Raven sighed.
"Ignorance is bliss." Charlotte hummed. "Well it should be entertaining at the very least to see your princess's reaction when she finds out."
"The tradition of the human maiden fighting off the fairy trickster may very well be upheld." Raven predicted wearily. "Apple is rather proficient at using her purse like a weapon depending on how mad she gets…"