Snow tapped her fingernails against the vanity mirror until they started to break through the thin glass.

She heard footsteps down the hall and the sound triggered something within her. She grabbed the mirror and screamed as she shattered it against the floor. Self defence.
"Stay away!" She yelled and the steps ceased with one last click.

"Mom...I..." Oak started after a long pause.
"Can I come in?"

Snow gritted her fangs against her bottom row of teeth.
"Kind of busy right-"
She dragged her sharp nails down her face.
"Now..."

"I just want to make sure you're safe."

"Oh I'm perfectly fine." Snow moved to the shattered mirror and removed her gloves to pick up the sharp pieces.

Oak opened the door, he disobeyed.
"We need to get this under control, mom."

Snow growled, looking into her broken mirror. She was beautiful, and that had saved her life many a time.
"There's nothing to fix. I'm more perfect than perfection, my life is to be envied."

Oak shook his head and put a hand on her arm.
"I know you're struggling, but soon I'll be king, and I'll try my best to make you happy."

"You could never make us both happy."

"Both?"

"Your mother and I. We...well...our interests are rather different, right now..." Snow clicked her teeth and her eyes darted around.
"She's putting up an amazing fight. She loves you very much."

Oak looked down. He never knew what to say when Snow's second self spoke to him. And...the real Snow never told him she loved him. She didn't seem to partial to those words, Oak had never heard her say them.

"But really though,"
The woman held her hand against Oak's jawline, inspecting him.
"It causes her heartache to look at you, you look like..."
Snow paused, the other Snow sometimes had to think before recalling her own memories.
"Your father."

Oak ran a hand through his jade coloured hair.
"Oh? I always thought Basil was his spitting image, I don't look much like him I-"

"Your real father."

Oak froze.
They didn't talk about him. Not ever.

Maybe this Snow...'The Ice Queen' as he called her...maybe she'd finally tell him.
"Who was he?" He asked.

"I don't know every-" Snow's hand shot to her chest as if having a heart attack.

"Oak! My boy," she buried her face in his hair.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
She finally wiped the blood off her nails.
"This is going to ruin my manicure..."

When Snow first returned to her own consciousness...she was so much nicer than usual. Snow was just as her name implied. An ice cold ruler, she often seemed completely devoid of all feeling. Like a porcelain doll, she was pretty but hardly regarded as a person. Oak wasn't sure if she was treated this way because of that, or if she was like this because of her living conditions.

Oak grabbed a broom that rested against a nearby wall. He stepped into Snow's room and began to brush the pieces of mirror into a neat pile.

Snow sat gently on her bed and after she noticed Oak's frown she commented.
"For the record, I'm not scared at all for your reign. You'll be great."

Oak gave a toothy smile. Snow didn't give compliments like that.
He felt special knowing his mom actually didn't mind him.

The Prince thought his true father must have been worse than Elm if Basil - Elm's spitting image- was beloved more than him who apparently looked much like his own mysterious father.

"I'll see you soon." Snow said after a while.

"Yeah, every day..." Oak started, confused.

Snow looked up at him with wild eyes.
"She won't be around much longer. I'll see you soon."

Snow looked down at her hands, bloodless, she seemed disappointed.
"Sorry, I had to leave for a moment, kid."

Snow's life must have been harder than anyone else he knew. Oak heard that most people with split personalities make these personas to deal with problems they're too afraid to.

Oak hid his face from the Ice Queen.
"Why are you here?" He whispered.

Snow chuckled to herself.
"It's finally time they spoke up, they always screamed for help in the old times...I'd love to hear their voices crying out in my head...you know, the comforting thing about blood isn't the promise of physical pain, it's the representation of emotional pain..."

Oak looked at her with a straight face.
He had to be harsh when she spoke so vaguely.
"If you're not going to say anything to me leave my mom alone." He growled.

"You know, Oak, I was thinking, if I killed Snow, she really wouldn't mind. Her subjects hate her, Elm is ashamed of her -she's hurting his public image- her sons are scared of her, and she has no place in the kingdom. Let's have a toast to Snow tonight for being most wanted dead!"

Oak threw the broom down.
"You don't even know her! Just shut up!" He yelled, shoving a finger at the pale skinned woman.

Snow nodded and smiled wickedly.
"You have a strong will, Prince. I hope we can build a mutual respect."
She raised her shaking fingers and snapped them, Snow collapsed but Oak was sure she was fine.

Oak left the room, his fist shaking with anger, even though that was just what the Ice Queen wanted.

He walked away and as he calmed down he made a decision. The next time this happened, he'd get more information from her. He'd find his father and he'd run away.

That night, after all his anger had melted into fear he banged his fist on Tsunami's door until she, rubbing her eyes, answered.
"Oak, it's...umm... it's late..."

"I have a crush on you." Oak said quickly.

Tsunami heaved a sigh and started to close the door.
"You're my fiancé."

Oak stuck his foot between the door and the wall so that it wouldn't close.
He resisted crying as his foot was brutally squashed against the doorframe.
"I don't want you to become my mother, I...really, really mean it."

Tsunami gave him a nod.
But she didn't understand. She couldn't.
"We're getting married." Oak said,
"But...we're just kids."

That caught Tsunami's attention.

"We have to build from the ground up. I can't trust you like it's nothing and I can't love you like it's nothing. Let's start as friends."
Crap. That sounded disrespectful, she would hate him for that she would hate him just like everyone else-

"Oak-kay!" Tsunami exclaimed seeming quite possibly too excited.

Oak moved his foot from the door relieved that she wasn't mad (she was just an idiot) and Tsunami turned away.

"Wait!" He called and the young woman looked at him.

Oak tried not to look at her eyes. They were pretty, he wondered why she always hid them in portraits.
"I don't need a wife but I do need someone to have my back."

He held out his hand and pulled a piece of mirror from his jacket.

Tsunami raised an eyebrow and glanced at the jagged piece of glass.
"What?"

"Blood oath."

Oak stepped into her room and lifted his hand, he extended it to her. Awkwardly, the princess took it and shot him a confused look.

"Let's make a promise. If one of us needs help, the other will be there, forever."

Oak decided to do it quickly. He ran the glass across his palm and looked to Tsunami. She gently took the mirror piece from his hand and struck her own palm with it. She inhaled sharply in pain but resisted screaming. It was like she had never made a blood oath before.

Oak grabbed her hand and held it in his own, their blood mixed and once it had he separated their palms, their fingers still intertwined. Their scarlet blood fell to the floor together into a small ocean of red.

"Umm...should I call a maid to clean this up?"

Oak nodded.
"I guess so."

Tsunami looked at her hand, blood smeared.
"You know...when I was a kid...I always thought royal blood turned into gold when it fell."

Oak looked at the floor.
"Didn't you ever see yourself bleed?"

Fern realized what she had said at the same time Oak realized what he said might have been a little dark. They both stood in silence.

Fern had to lie, lie for the millionth time.
"My parents fixed me up before it could ever hit the ground."

Oak frowned.
"I hope...you told your parents that you love them."

Fern never got to tell Rose she loved her. She hoped she was okay.
And she hoped Cliff was doing good.

The next day Cliff lugged out all his swords and shields and welding supplies and dumped them off to the side of a capitol road.
He wished he could see a familiar face.
No, no, no, no, he wanted to take back that thought, he wished he wasn't calling out to random strangers who weren't random strangers.