Life in Arendelle was finally getting back to normal after being cursed to what was rumored to be an "Eternal Winter." The cold weather, brought on so suddenly in summer by their magically empowered queen, had vanished, and the young monarch set about the task of fixing her mistakes and showing her people just how sorry she was for the accidental three day freeze.

It took some time, but the small kingdom was back on its feet, trading with others for supplies that had been ruined from the unseasonal weather and attracting enough dignitaries to keep surrounding kingdoms interested in future business. The queen and the princess spent many days ensuring that Arendelle would prosper, ruling fair and with grace. Despite her icy touch, the queen was no longer feared by her people, but loved for her tireless devotion to them. All was well.

Until one fateful day they were brought news that an Evil Queen was planning to curse the Enchanted Forest and all the kingdoms within it. The Queen and the Princess of Arendelle searched for a way to stop it, refusing to let their people know about it until they had a plan to thwart it. They spent many sleepless nights together searching in dusty tomes for a way to shield their small kingdom from the curse, but they came up empty handed. They visited the mystical trolls, native to their homeland, for help against the darkness, but even they were powerless to stop it.

With no options left and no one to save them, the royal sisters stood before the throne, hand in hand, as the dark cloud washed over Arendelle and took away everything they knew.

The sisters were thrown through time, launched into another world and stripped of their memories. They became shells of their former selves, unaware they were related to each other but still connected to each other as friends. They were two cursed souls in a sea of many others, all prisoners in the small town of Storybrooke, Maine.

Days in Storybrooke were very peculiar. The sun rose in the east and set in the west, just as it always did, but something about the town was just… strange. There were never any visitors from outside of town, the town's residents would never leave to venture out of state, and every day, no matter how the residents tried to make it different, ended up being exactly the same as before.

This kind of boring repetitiveness bothered Nina Hummel. She sat at her window, teal eyes sparkling in the streetlight as she gazed to the clock above the library. For as long as she lived here, which was forever, that clock has always been stuck at 8:15. Huffing, she stared at it harder, trying to make it move with her mind, but she failed, just like she failed every other night.

Still at her window, she played with the fabric of her red and white flannelled shirt, completely lost in the sounds and sights of the town. Despite the clock tower claiming it was later, it was actually quite early in the evening, somewhere around 6:00. People were still walking the streets, going home from work or stopping in at one of the local shops to browse. Her strawberry colored hair fluttered in the crisp autumn breeze, relaxing her more but making her jittery at the same time.

Every night was like this for as far as she could remember. It wasn't a terrible thing, actually, it was as normal as normal got. Still, she longed for something more, something bigger, and something…

Her thoughts were cut short by the familiar jiggling and turning of the door handle. "I'm home…" a familiar voice called. "Nina? Are you there?"

"I'm right here!" the energetic girl called back. She hastily shut the window to the fire escape, locked it, and exited the bedroom to greet the pale, blonde-headed woman who just walked in. She carried a brown bag of groceries in her hand and smiled at Nina, first happy to see her, and then quickly becoming amused. "Copying my style again, huh?"

Nina giggled and took the groceries from the taller woman's hands. She whipped her head to the side, showing off her twin braids with some kind of pride, even if she did steal the idea from her friend. "Hey, we've known each other since we were kids! So what if I want to imitate my "big sister"? Consider it a form of flattery."

The older girl with blonde hair in a French braid, Alison Vinter, could only giggle at her younger friend. It was true. Despite being separated by three years, the two managed to form a lifelong friendship in their youth that lasted now into their young adult lives. They trusted and knew each other so well that they even decided to live together until the day they found their prince charmings and rode off into the sunset… or at least, that's what Nina said they would do if either one of them ever had any luck in the realm of love.

"Fine, fine. Consider me flattered. Just don't start dressing like me or steal my shoes," Alison joked. She kicked off her boots and reached into her back pocket, pulling out an envelope as Nina put the groceries away. She looked at it for a while before turning her sights to Nina. "What's for dinner tonight?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Spaghetti. I was going to make meatballs too, but we were kind of short on ground beef, so I just browned what we had and put it in the sauce."

"How about we make beef stew this Friday?"

"Ali!" Nina groaned as she all but threw a carton of eggs into the refrigerator. "You know we can't afford to make that!" She turned around, ready to give her friend more reasons why it was out of their price range, but she stopped when she saw the envelope. She pointed to it as though she were afraid to address it. "What is that?"

The blonde grinned from ear to ear, holding it up so Nina could read the writing on the front. "My commission from Mr. Gold. Nina, I sold three paintings!"

A shrill screech filled the small apartment before Alison found herself tackled into a bear hug. "Alisoooooon!" Nina cried as she squeezed the life out of her best friend, shaking her back and forth as she were some kind of stuffed animal bereft from the idea of pain from tight hugs. "I'm so happy for you!" Her eyes suddenly went wide and she set Alison back down on the ground, clutching at the sleeves of her blue sweater. "Wait, he didn't cheat you out this time, did he?"

"I made sure I got what we agreed to," Alison told her, opening up the envelope to show her the stack of bills inside. "Last time he used some kind of weird way of talking to scoot around so he got the better end of the bargain, but I made sure I got what was fair." She rolled her eyes at the memory, embarrassed how Mr. Gold outsmarted her and used his cunning to take more money from her paintings than he deserved to have. That was the last time she'd let him do that to her, and she played his game this time around. If she knew any better, she'd say he looked impressed when she left his shop this afternoon.

"The rent money is all here, and I had enough left over from shopping to cover next week's groceries and the ingredients for the stew!"

"Alison, you're so awesome! Come on, let's eat!"

The two made themselves as comfortable as they could, cramped in folding chairs at a card table in the corner of the small kitchen. They would eat in the living area, but Alison's art supplies were set up in there, ready for when she came back to work on a piece in progress. They helped themselves to heaps of pasta and sauce, scarfing it down like they hadn't eaten all day.

They chatted for a good while, talking about their day, Alison elaborating more on how she was triumphant against Mr. Gold's wit, but the conversation died as soon as they neared the end of their meal. Nina rested her chin in the palm of one of her hands, poking an untouched noodle still left on her plate.

"Do you think…" she started, unsure if her question was appropriate enough to avoid angering the blonde. Her eyes met a curious blue gaze and she knew she couldn't stop now that she had Alison's attention. She would keep bugging her until she asked, so she did. "Do you think that maybe instead of using the extra money to buy more food, maybe we should save it? You know, for a rainy day or to move out?"

Alison blinked at the question, and while it didn't quite aggravate her, it still bothered her. "What? We're not saving enough already?"

Her stare bore straight into Nina, demanding an answer without saying it. "No, I mean, we are, but…"

"But what? Nina, don't you get it?" Alison's voice raised and she felt as though she were scolding a child, but her words needed to be heard. She's been over it a million times in her head and it was the only way she saw the outcome. "If we move to a better place, a bigger apartment or a small house like you wanted, we'd have bigger bills to pay. Bigger bills means more money to spend, and I can't make that much on just my paintings!"

There was something burning in Alison's eyes, but Nina had seen it before. They've had this argument many times before. Nina wanted to move on from the tiny apartment they shared, but Alison refused to move, afraid that the debt would be too much for them to handle, and she was right. Nina didn't have a job, refused to get one actually, because she claimed that she wanted to find out what she liked and make a career out of that instead of wasting her time at a dead-end occupation. The money came strictly from Alison's artistic ability and her negotiation skills with vendors around town, gaining commissions from the work that they sold for her since opening a shop of her own would cost too much.

The blonde huffed and glared at her glass of water. She was so angry she felt as though the water could freeze just from her stare alone. Avoiding Nina's innocent gaze, she continued on, anger dissolving to disappointment. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired of living on pasta, cereal and fruit juice. I thought with the extra money we could have a better meal that will last a few days."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Alison got up to clear the table. She cleaned the dishes and went into the living area, flipping on the lights to prepare a palette of blues, whites and purples for a painting she needed to finish. Nina simply retreated to the bedroom they shared, leaving the door open and turning on the radio for company. Alison usually liked it quiet when she painted, but occasionally she found herself inspired by the music. She didn't say anything about it tonight, so Nina was free to enjoy it in peace.

Several hours of music later, Nina got bored. She turned off the radio and slipped her shoes on. Carefully, she opened the window as high as it would go and climbed out onto the fire escape, leaving the window open as a quick exit for when she got too cold. She sat on the edge of the grated metal platform, putting her legs between two of the safety bars and letting them dangle over the side.

She liked Storybrooke, but it always just struck her as odd, like it didn't belong in Maine, or perhaps, that she didn't belong in Storybrooke. Leaving was always on her mind, but she wouldn't dare tell Alison that. They were happy living together, so long as money wasn't an issue.

The thought brought a deep sigh from her lips. When was money never the issue? They've struggled just to keep the tiny apartment. They didn't have many nice things; a few nice dresses for special occasions, a radio and a digital camera seemed to be the extent of their luxury. They didn't even have bedframes; they slept on twin bed mattresses on the floor.

Alison was doing all she could to keep up the place and keep them fed. She painted all day and all night, creating even when she ran out of ideas. Sometimes the paintings would sell as soon as she put them to market, which was great, but then there were times when nothing sold at all. They've had the power turned off in their apartment more than once because they couldn't afford it, a few of those times occurring during winter. It was miserable, but somehow, just being together made it seem fine. They got through hard times together, laughed together, and cried together, and when everything went so wrong, it just felt so right that she had Alison by her side.

So even though Nina felt so out of place in Storybrooke, she smiled knowing that she had her place next to Alison. Through thick and thin, they had each other's backs.

Her mind wandered again as she stared at the clock tower, and she almost didn't notice when the blonde sat next to her cross-legged. "It's getting cold out here," Nina warned her. The sun was far beyond set and she imagined it must be past midnight by now. "Are you sure you want to sit with me?"

Alison shrugged with her hands behind her back. "Eh. It doesn't bother me." Silence passed between them again, both thinking about their financial situation and the conversation at dinner that almost turned into an argument. Alison took her hands from behind her back and held a small white box. She set it down between them and nudged her younger friend in the arm. "Here," she said, pointing down at it. "I figured we deserved a treat after everything we've been though."

Nina's eyes widened at the box, not only in surprise but with an excitement just waiting to spill out of her. "No. Way." She gasped and balled up her fists, shaking them like a little girl getting the best present in the world.

There was a polite chuckle coming from Alison and she smiled, the lights from the street illuminating her pale features and seemingly washing away all of the stress she had gone through that day. "Yes way!" she responded. "I didn't tell you that Marco bought one of my sketches, so I used that money to get us a little something extra." She took a thin hand and calmly opened the lid.

It took a moment in the crisp autumn air to catch the scent, but they both knew when they did. They closed their eyes, nearly at the same time, and inhaled.

Chocolate.

One of the many things they agreed on was that chocolate solved every problem. It ended world hunger, stopped arguments, turned frogs into people…

"It doesn't really do that," Alison stated in a deadpan voice.

"Well it's better than kissing the frog! Blegh! Who would want to do that!?"

So they sat there that night, hanging out together like the best friends they were, eating chocolate on the fire escape and watching the empty main street of Storybrooke. They've done it before, even if they couldn't remember it, but that was okay. They had each other, they had chocolate, and everything was right with the world.

"That clock is never going to move, is it?"

"Nope."