Her Princess

Kiss Me, Princess

Snow White came up coughing and spluttering, waking to alarmed shouts and gasps. Her head throbbed with pain and her throat burned. She tried to sit up but something was blocking her- glass. Wildly, she clawed at it. A coffin, she realized. I'm in a coffin. Then the glass case opened and she found herself staring into burning green eyes flecked with gold. "Rapunzel?" she whispered.

Rapunzel just shook her head, eyes wide. "Alive again," she said. "Fairytales are so strange."

"Er, Prince Henry, actually. I rescued you." A muscular, bearded prince pushed in front of Rapunzel. He cleared his throat. "I saw you in the coffin and I thought you were the most beautiful creature imaginable. The dwarves said you were poisoned by an evil queen. I want to take you back to my kingdom."

"You want to what?" said Snow White incredulously.

"T-take you back to my kingdom," Prince Henry stuttered. "You shall be my wife. It is customary."

Snow White rubbed her head. What was happening? One moment she was eating an apple in the dwarves' cottage, and the next a strange prince was claiming to have rescued her and asking for her hand in marriage. Her eyes widened. Of course. The apple had been poisoned. Was the old woman the queen in disguise, or had she simply been working for the queen? No matter. The question now was what to say to this hunky, though not exactly eloquent, stranger. She tried to imagine herself living with him, but when she thought of herself in a wedding dress, it wasn't a prince next to her. It was a certain enchanting golden-haired girl.

"Rapunzel," she murmured. "Where's your prince?"

Rapunzel waved her hand in dismissal. "Here or there," she said vaguely, avoiding the other girl's eyes. But Snow White saw the bulky diamond ring glittering on her finger.

"You're engaged," she said coldly.

Rapunzel's eyes narrowed. "You ran away from me! What was I supposed to do, rot in the tower for all eternity?"

"Er, excuse me," said Prince Henry. "I believe I was asking for this lady's hand in marriage."

Snow White ignored him. She scrambled up out of her coffin, lurching slightly. Rapunzel tried to catch her and steady her, but Snow White pushed the other girl away. "I'm fine," she snapped, dusting herself off.

"Snow-" Rapunzel pleaded.

"You were saying?" Snow White adressed Prince Henry.

"Ah, yes." The prince cleared his throat eagerly. "You are more beautiful than, uh, than a jewel. Your eyes are like the mud of the forest. You are-"

Rapunzel cut him off impatiently. "Snow. Listen to me. This ring means nothing." To prove it, she slipped it off her finger and flung it into the knee-high rubbery yellow grass that surrounded them. "I don't care about that, okay? You are my princess. Always."

Snow White looked back and forth between the eager prince and the pleading princess. More than anything, she wanted to take Rapunzel's hand.

But she had a duty. In the Hero Academy, she had been trained to follow the story, and never question an opportunity for love, whether it came in the form of a frog, a ball invitation, or a stuttering stranger.

It was one thing to sneak away from the Academy to scout out the woods. It was quite another to betray all its most ancient laws, to not only cross fairytales, but to reject a prince.

She stood between them, torn.

"It's okay," Rapunzel said quietly. "I understand. Guess I'll go back to my prince."

Something Rapunzel had said while they were going to school in the Academy together flashed across her mind. We're all just pawns in one of their games. They'll try to bend you and mold you and make you into their perfect little cardboard cutout, she had said bitterly. This was after her ex-girlfriend, a princess hopeful, had been expelled from the school for chopping her hair too short and refusing to grow it out. Sure, they had a rocky history, but they still cared about each other. Don't you let them change you, Snow, Rapunzel had said. You're better than that. Maybe one of the only kids in the goddamn school who isn't trying to be a cutout, or vying for their humanity to be taken away. You're the only real goddamn princess.

"Wait," Snow White said quietly. Her dark eyes burned like fire.

"Does this mean you'll marry me?" Prince Henry said, scratching his head.

"Sorry, Henry," said Snow White. "I like the princesses.

Rapunzel looked up, eyes wide. Slowly, her lips curved into a smile.

* * * * *

A glass slipper gleamed in its case, cushioned on a blood red pillow sewn with gold thread.

A slightly crushed green pea was suspended from the top of a different glass case.

In yet another hung a crimson hood and a creamy white nightcap peppered with blue flowers.

In a bluish glass vase was one perfect rose, unnaturally lustrous and sheeny, floating in a few inches of clear water, preserved for all eternity.

The hallway twisted endlessly, swerving off, veering up a few flights of stairs, winding and circling back. Every inch of it was lined with cases, statues, framed photographs . . . A golden birdcage hanging from the ceiling, a polished lamp, a sword fastened to the wall, a bottle of sea foam labelled The Little Mermaid . . .

Somewhere between all the artifacts stood a stone statue. Two crudely carved girls stood gazing into each other's eyes, one with a braid that fell to the floor, the other with round cheeks and shoulder-length curls. It wasn't labelled or tagged, like many of the other artifacts. In fact it was shoved into a corner and covered in a thin film of dust. There were only four words etched at the foot of the statue.

She is my Princess.