[For Snow] The New Black, Just Like the Old Black But Smaller

[st_oriedqueen]

"You have got to be kidding me," Regina muttered under her breath as she peered through the door she'd just opened. After a dumbfounded, annoyed moment, she asked Snow, "Are they all like this?" No wonder Snow hadn't wanted to go back to her room.

She could march back down to the lobby and demand another room, but she doubted she'd get one, and she was more interested in what Snow would tell her. Like where Robin and Roland were and whether Henry had arrived with them, or anyone else she knew. She hadn't asked yet, in case they were hiding or organizing a resistance or because they might not be here and she didn't want to cry in public.

Sighing, she squared her shoulders and gestured Snow into the red monstrosity in "Tack Room." "If the red is too much...we can just go for a walk."

Comments

[st_arkcrowblack]

"They're all like this," Snow affirmed with a softly wry tone.

Truthfully, the room was horrible. The walls were so red, it was like something straight out of her nightmares of her father's house. But she straightened her spine and went in.

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina took a cursory glance around and determined that the master bedroom was the least objectionable. The smaller bedroom looked precisely like a tack room and she shuddered in memory, then backed out.

"At least there's a bit of blue in the rug," she offered wryly, took a seat and patted the seat beside her. Her heart pounded and her mouth had gone dry, but she managed to ask, "Are they here, Robin and Roland?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow was cautious in the room, as if expecting something to bite her. But she carefully sat down beside Regina and said, "No." There was nothing else for it. If Roland had been here, he would have been at Snow's side day and night so she could keep him safe, even if she had no idea what to do with a child.

Robin was of no consequence.

[st_oriedqueen]

Her heart dropped and the tears sprang to her eyes, but they didn't fall. Unable to form words without threatening the stability of that, Regina merely nodded over. She'd clasped her hands tightly in her lap, and now she clasped them so tightly her nails cut into her skin.

She'd known, of course she had, because Snow would have told her already and taken her to Roland. Robin had been lost to her twice already, and much as she loved him, it was Roland that truly hurt. He'd lost his mother, and then both his parents, and now her.

And she'd lost him. Both of them.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow was bewildered enough by her own displays of distress, let alone those of others, and for a moment she had no idea what to do. She sat stupid and silent for an awkwardly long moment before slipping an arm around Regina's shoulders.

[st_oriedqueen]

As awkward as Snow was about giving comfort, Regina was possibly more awkward about receiving it. She sat still and stiff under Snow's arm almost as long as Snow had taken to embrace her.

But Snow was no Charming with a hope speech or a pep talk. The comfort offered was genuine and personal, and Regina felt it. She turned toward Snow and put her arms around her, pulling her close.

"I'm glad you're here," she whispered fiercely. "I've missed you."

[st_arkcrowblack]

"I've missed you, too." Snow's voice cracked when she said it, all of the desperate fear and loneliness she'd barely kept bottled up trying to escape at once.

[st_oriedqueen]

Jolted out of her own pain by the desperation in Snow's voice, Regina sat back to take her face in both hands. She'd meant to apologize or promise she'd always come for her, but Regina didn't have that much Family Charming in her. Instead, she said the only thing that she could that was true. She smoothed a hand over Snow's hair and curved it around again to cup her cheek. "I love you."

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow swallowed hard, the words 'I love you, too' sticking like that apple had in her throat. She wanted to say them, she meant them, but even so she struggled.

If you love me, I'll love you back. That was the deal she had tried to strike once, with her stepmother.

But she nodded.

[st_oriedqueen]

If it had been Henry or Roland instead of Snow not responding in words, Regina would have worried. That wasn't to say she didn't care that Snow didn't say she loved her, but she understood, and she knew Snow would when she found her voice for it.

So she hugged Snow again, and then released her, but stayed close, occasionally stroking her hair. After awhile, she asked, "Is anyone else here that we know?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

She may not have been able to say it, but she was able to snuggle close when Regina embraced her.

"Yasmeen's here...?" The girl's fear of the captain lifted the words into a question. "She's been watching out for me."

[st_oriedqueen]

"I'm glad." Knowing there had been someone to protect her little girl while she wasn't here helped, somewhat. "I'll have to do something to thank her."

It didn't surprise Regina that Yasmeen had taken to looking out for Snow. The woman might not be remotely maternal but she was deeply loyal and protective of 'her' people. It was how they had managed to become something like friends after the trip that brought Roland to her and Snow.

"At least someone will be glad to see Dyson."

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow quite honestly didn't think Yasmeen was ever glad to see anybody, but that she'd keep to herself as though afraid the woman would overhear her. No, what she dared say instead was, "You knew him?"

[st_oriedqueen]

"By name and face." She reached out to stroke Snow's hair again, trying to soothe away the petrified expression. "We never spoke, but I knew of him as Yasmeen's occasional lover." She'd been seeing less of him when she disappeared and more of Raleigh.

[st_arkcrowblack]

The affection was just as well, because the idea that the man who had snarled at her was a lover of Yasmeen's was both fitting and a little terrifying in its own right. "Oh."

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina snorted softly and kissed Snow's hair. "I'm not sure what she sees in him either. Or why she'd bother with him when she had Raleigh, but exile makes strange bedfellows." Wasn't that the truth? "She'll need him if she doesn't have Raleigh here. Did the Lady Corsair make the trip?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

Indeed, considering Snow had actually done wildly new things like talk to people. Some of them more than once. "Raleigh, yes. Lady Corsair, no."

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina nodded and quieted a moment, lifting her hand again to brush the backs of her fingers against Snow's cheek. "That ship is both child and lover to her." It was her everything, almost the same way revenge had been for Regina. "Better Raleigh than me."

She sighed and glanced around the room, trying to focus on the pieces she actually liked. "Tell me about you. How you've been, what you've been doing... everything I've missed." With a little knowing smile, she tucked a lock of Snow's hair behind her ear. "Everything you haven't known how to tell anyone else."

[st_arkcrowblack]

Where did she even start? Even though Snow could tell Regina more than she could tell most anyone, there had been so much building up for so long. She made a soft sound that might have been distress, or at the very least, indecision.

"I was one of the first," she murmured, looking down at her lap. "There were four of us, for two weeks. The rest started coming on New Years. And they just keep coming."

[st_oriedqueen]

"I was going to say, 'only four?'" Regina smiled knowingly at Snow. "But that was probably at least two too many for you. Who are they, the other three? Anyone you like?" It would be novel for Snow to have made friends, but Regina judged it not impossible under the circumstances. "Were they kind to you, or do I need to put the fear of me into them?" she teased, a very little, to remind Snow it was safe now.

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Steph," Snow began slowly. "She lives upstairs. And Sam and Dean. They're brothers, they live in building one." She bit her lip. "I didn't talk at first. They let me."

[st_oriedqueen]

The names, all together like that, rang several bells. The strongest, of course, was, "Winchester?" Sam's brother had been called Dean, she'd learned. Not a magic user, nor a fan of Sam being a vampire. Still, if Sam was here, that could be useful. "From Gotham?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

This Snow did know, and she shook her head firmly. "They've never heard of Gotham. Steph's from there... but it doesn't sound like the one we came from."

[st_oriedqueen]

"You'd think after the Dark Curse, I'd be used to this," she muttered, mostly to herself, and gave Snow a nod of understanding.

"What about the ones who came after? Is there anyone I need to know about or meet?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Lindsey's a snake," Snow said right away. She didn't sound particularly distressed by this fact. "He works in the stable with me. He tries to hide what he is, and he ain't sure how he's dangerous, but I saw it."

She looked down at her hands, as she considered. "Dot's all right. Constance too, and Joanna. And Molly." She pulled a face. "Kitty talks too much." She had not known what to do with Kitty when they had met, and she still didn't know what to do with her now, but so long as Kitty didn't talk to her, she didn't particularly care.

[st_oriedqueen]

"Snakes can be useful." Like the two-headed viper the Genie had put in Leopold's bed for her. But she wasn't that person anymore and she wouldn't be. Still, it was good to know the people who might be of use. "Did you ever meet my friend Molly in Gotham? Is it her?" Regina was grasping at straws, she knew. But there had to be someone besides Yasmeen and Raleigh. Someone with magic.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow had to bite her lip at that. "Maybe? But... I don't think she knows Gotham, either."

[st_oriedqueen]

"This is karma." Regina had never been so aware of it, the universal forces or whatever balance sheet it operated on. "For the Dark Curse." She'd built a world where no one remembered him or herself, and now she'd been sent to one where no one remembered her.

"All right. I've earned it. What else do I need to know about our new home?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow thought a moment, pulling words together. "You can only go for four hours in any direction. However far you get in that time. That's the boundary. There's nobody else here, except the hotel staff, and they ain't really people. Not enough of 'em to keep everything running. The cook only makes chicken. So, we do most of the making the place run. Supplies come in, but nobody knows how or why. We just turn it into another day of living in this world."

[st_oriedqueen]

"A gilded cage, then." Like the one she'd made in Storybrooke. And magic was definitely involved if distances were measured in time rather than space. "Has anyone taken charge of preparing for the inevitable crises?"

If they hadn't, Regina would, and if they had, then she would...help. Protecting these people and this place, putting their needs before her own were the closest she could come to making amends, and if she ever wanted to break out of this karmic cycle, she had a lot of amends to make.

[st_arkcrowblack]

At that, Snow had to shrug. "There's some busy women who like to think they took charge of a whole bunch of shit, and they might've done. But I don't talk to any of 'em. If I can help it."

[st_oriedqueen]

Busy women. That sounded like Snow and it made her smile a little, pained. "Is that what you call me when I pour myself into work?" Because if it was, she ought to get used to it now before it would sting.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow shook her head, but she wasn't sure what words she wanted to describe the difference. But no, Regina wasn't anything like Kitty's painful attempts to relate. Nor was she like Caroline's... everything. Phryne mostly seemed tolerable, but thus far she'd tried to avoid finding out.

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina smoothed a hand down Snow's back and then stroked her hair again. "I trust you'll tell me anything else you think I need to know. It's enough for now." For now, all that really mattered was that they were both here and she'd missed her terribly. "Why don't we put something on the TV and curl up here on the bed for awhile."

[st_arkcrowblack]

For the first time in a long time, Snow brightened, black eyes lighting up. She didn't smile, not quite, but she didn't have to.