Almata would have gladly worshipped her as his all-knowing queen and succumbed to be her most faithful human fairytale prize if Raven so much as asked. To spend his days laying his blond head in her lap pillowed by her long dark skirts at the foot of her throne while she ruled her kingdom with the dark grace and sharp intelligence of a true Evil Queen would be close to paradise for him. For someone as perfect as her to accept someone as un-perfect as him into her life in such a fairytale-like fashion was something that he craved with an ache that would just not go away, the same ache he felt for not being born a girl, for having blonde hair instead of dark black, for his skin to be a healthy blush pink instead of so pale it could be compared to snow…

The ache he felt when his mother, the latest Snow White in the line, would be thinking about his short comings when she looked at him, and it would get to be too much for her fair smile to hold position and her mask would slip into that familiar pinched look of disappointment.

For he would never be like her, he would never be her perfect heir to mold into her mighty shape and continue on her legacy just the way she wished it when the day came for her to give up the throne so that he could take up her duties and lead things in just the way she desired.

He could never be the daughter she always longed to have. To fulfill the roll of Snow White just like it should have been if only he was born-… if he had been born correctly.

His mother tried her best and she loved him dearly, he knew she did but that did not stop the fact that it pained her that she was only able to bear a son before her own body betrayed her and she could not perhaps try again for a more suitable heir and have him take on the job of any other Prince Charming… like it was supposed to be.

Her plans were further ruined when his intended, Darling Charming, the only girl fair enough, of the right breeding, and able to be woken solely by him from a sleeping spell… the girl who would have become the next Snow White was not only extremely gay but also sought to be at best a prince herself or at least a knight in shining armor, enflaming a rebellion that had been quietly brewing for three or so generations into an all out epidemic!

That had been one call back home that still had him flinching at the very memory of it to this very day.

But at least his mother didn't give him those brief pained glances anymore! Suffice to say the Rebellion raging at Ever After High did much to boost his image in his mother's eyes so comparatively he was practically the only thing in her life that went right at least, he was still her heir, and he was now the fairest one in the school! …Even if he was born a boy and not a girl...

But his mother and the issues between them aside, Raven Queen, who would have been his- er- the fairytale story's Evil Queen character, was pretty much his only bid for redemption for not being born a girl, if Raven were to accept him like a fair prince that she had bewitched into becoming her most loyal slave, in an extremely emergency interpretation (alright, it was a complete bastardization but compared to the Rebel thing it would be able to pass muster) of the story. In his mind, Darling could "save him" as a knight sent from his mother's court, bring him back home where he could be crowned the next king while she rode off alone into the sunset to begin her next adventure.

Or something like that, he had trouble thinking past the distracting image of Raven bewitching him with a poisoned apple and running her fingers through his hair as his head lay prone and obedient in her lap to really care for specifics…

You see… the main issue in this situation was that Almata had somehow found himself hopelessly in love with Raven… his destined villain.

It wasn't like he wanted her to change and become his fair princess instead of Darling- well actually that could work out now that he thought about it, he was sure that they could find a Queen-Charming hybrid somewhere in Raven's family tree and one of Raven's relatives could act as the Evil Queen in her stead…

But Almata didn't want that, he wanted Raven to be a powerful queen, not a helpless maiden, he wanted her to dazzle him with her confident presence and magic, tease and flirt with him in that wickedly dark manner he knew that she was capable of, impishly play games and mind teasers with him to pass the time, and maybe even go so far as to gather him up in her arms when they were alone, far away from the prying eyes of the world and comfort him from his insecurities, and make him feel partially like the person everybody had wanted him to be before they found out that he was born a boy while still keeping his sense of male pride intact.

She had always been good at that, making him feel both perfect as his own person while at the same time making him feel, just for an instant, like he was rightful in being his mother's heir to the throne now that he was left without a princess to take that role for him.

Of course Raven never would go that far for a mere fairytale, though a fantastic Evil Queen Raven would make the problem was that… her family wasn't all that big on following the prewritten script down to the letter. They were quite famous for it actually.

Raven's mother, the current Evil Queen, had gone with the classic poisoned comb and tampered corset that is technically old fashioned for modern times, but still traditional during her reign the story of Snow White. The objects were to come before what was supposed to be one last "attempt on his mother's life" via poisoned apple.

…Except his mother wasn't poisoned with an apple she was poisoned with a pear.

His mother never forgave the current Evil Queen for that.

Raven's great-grandmother famously levitated his great-grandfather to his unconscious great-grandmother when he got lost in the woods and somehow managed to twist his ankle. Raven's great-grandmother refused to act her part by running away or hiding herself after that, the woman merely told the complaining dwarves to stuff it and supposedly watched over the following proceedings like a nanny would watch over her charge's first date.

Raven's grandmother, Elenore Queen, went above and beyond in her story, putting the whole thing off until she finished six years of getting two degrees at university, and then during the story she actively attempted to marry her princess off to anybody that was not the chosen Prince Charming, doing everything in her power to humiliate and impede the Prince Charming who was supposed to be his grandmother's future husband from succeeding in anything in his part of the story, even going as far as to spontaneously change his princely outfit into a tight-corseted-long-skirted dress several times over the course of events. The story never got to the dwarves or the hiding from the Evil Queen part because Raven's grandmother was so adamant that Almata's grandmother's intended never lay a hand on her princess.

Elenore Queen, quite obviously, never did approve of the intended Prince Charming. Never, ever, not even for a second. It is said that the second his grandmother's betrothed had been announced when they were all children Elenore promptly threatened to poison the prince instead of the princess and vowed to provide her best friend with a better prince.

However thanks to his grandmother's quick thinking, and the privileged secret knowledge that Elenore Queen had been pregnant with not only her firstborn daughter, but also Headmaster Milton Grimm's firstborn daughter, Almata's grandmother was able to push forward the events of her own story.

The details of the whole thing was still rather fuzzy to Almata, his grandmother passed before he was old enough to understand the entire story, and his mother's little known contempt towards the current Evil Queen prevented him from finding out the whole truth. However it was his understanding that Elenore Queen had been severely displeased that the current Headmaster Milton Grimm had such a fear of his father, the former Headmaster, that he was petrified of revealing the true nature of his relationship with the witch to anybody outside of a select few, on top of the fact that her best friend and princess was to be wed to somebody she thoroughly disapproved of, and that the growing witchling in her womb ran the real risk of not knowing about her father until the retired former Headmaster had left the world of the living. The witch was fed up with it all and was willing to go to extremes and take calculated risks until everyone ceased being so irksomely illogical!

Elenore Queen in her usual fashion had attempted to kill two irksome birds with one stone by rebelling against the norm and finding her princess a Prince Charming that she approved of before proceeding with the poisoning and the rest of the story, and thus proving to her future father-in-law that not only did he have no business in personally arranging future marriages for other people's children by proving that his choice in a Prince Charming was flawed, but he also held no grounds in holding dominance over the marriages of fairytales that did not require a marriage, his own son and her own personal life included.

The whole ordeal took unexpected turns when one surprising transformation revealed that the chosen Prince Charming was not a Prince Charming but in actuality The Beast from the tale Beauty and the Beast, and the unexpected arrivals of Headmaster Milton Grimm plus (for reasons that were never explained to him) a lower ranked prince from a small kingdom showing up to find out why the Snow White fairytale had not proceeded as planned.

Having had enough with the insanity that had been ensuing at the Queen family manor Almata's grandmother engineered Milton Grimm finding out about his girlfriend being pregnant with their child and While Elenore had her hands full of an ecstatic young Headmaster proposing marriage and being extremely affectionate without a care (he distinctly remembers his grandmother saying that there was a lot of kissing from the young Headmaster and bewildered looks from Elenore), the former Snow White snuck down to where she knew where the former Evil Queen kept the poisoned apples and took a big bite out of one of them.

Everyone was surprised once again when the low ranking prince that had tagged along had turned out to be Snow White's Prince Charming.

With such fantastic stories retold to her about her ancestors while growing up it was little wonder that Raven was perfectly happy with following her family's unwritten tradition of skirting on the border between not following written tradition and finding new, barely legal, twists to follow those same traditions.

And the most daunting thing of all was the fact that Raven didn't care whether she got to be in a fairytale or not, whatever her hero and princess counterparts eventually came up with in regards to whether or not there would be a fairytale at all was not her biggest concern, she knew who she was and fairytale or not that would not change,

And although Almata found Raven's unshaking assurance in her self-identity hopelessly endearing and something else to adore about her, the fact still remained that all of the possible alternate story options that Almata came up with would not be enough to satisfy either Darling and her decision to go with her heart and Rebel against being his princess or his own need for an ending that would end happily and leave him feeling… fulfilled, like he had finally found his denied fairytale destiny.

Well except perhaps the one where he convinces Raven to become his princess but then he'd never get to see her in full Evil Queen glory and her grandfather, the Headmaster, would surely make his demise look like an accident. Still, with the simple application of some red lipstick Raven would cut a very lovely picture as a Snow White, she could, in theory, fit all the requirements needed for the role with just that simple act.

And of course there was the issue of convincing Raven to become his princess in the first place… that or to be the Evil Queen of his dreams. He had yet to even begin to find the words to start and neither version of that conversation would be easy for him to attempt, not counting the astronomically small chances of Raven feeling the same for him as he felt for her.

Almata heaved a heavy sigh.

"Is there something the matter?" Raven asked; shifting her position on the picnic blanket the two had spread on the ground on the edge of one of the lawns for today's thronework session, so that she could peer down at the prone boy.

"Destiny, making mom happy, not being a failure." Almata stated as explanation.

"Ah." Raven nodded sagely knowing that the boy was troubled over his destiny all because, as far as she could see about the problem, he was born a male (if only she knew the full scope of things…). "Do you want to talk about it?"

Almata bit his lip in thought; maybe… he just needed to take a chance? Take the opportunity given to him and finally find out if… if he stood an iota of a chance.

"Will you be my Snow White?" Almata blurted out, pouting into the fabric of the blanket and making his eyes look super pathetic in the hopes that she wouldn't get too mad at him. "I know that it's not the destiny that you are looking forward to but I promise to do whatever is in my power to make you happy and I really think that you'd be able to pull off being a Snow White perfectly, I mean you're already the most beautiful and capable girl on campus I'm sure that merging into a Snow White roll with be practically child's play for you and… I really, really would do anything to ensure your happiness if you were to accept, I promise."

Almata's heart soared when Raven's shocked expression melted into a genuine fond smile, she wasn't mad at him at the very least.

"If it comes down to that I'd be happy to help you find your deserved happy ending to your story Almata." Raven assured taking the boy's gloved hand in her own and holding it close to her heart. In the background over the roar in his ears Almata could hear a choked sound of outrage but he was more distracted by the angel in front of him to be concerned by any Royal who had overheard and was scandalized by their love.

"We are best friends forever after, after all and if you can't find the Prince Charming of your dreams to save you from my poisoned apple then of course I'll gladly help you out by becoming your fake True Love. I'm sure that there is a Charming or two in the family tree somewhere if my Grimm heritage isn't enough to make this work." Raven continued on, blissfully ignorant to Almata's sudden inability to breathe.

"Uh Raven… what Prince Charming?" Almata eeked out.

"The lucky guy you're going to find and fall in love with." Raven eyed the boy knowingly. "It's okay Almata, I've been informed about your preferences back when…" The witch blushed. "Oh it's so embarrassing to admit but at one time I had a major crush on you, but don't worry, I still love you as just a friend and that's more important than just some crush that I'll get over in time and I'd be happy for whatever lucky guy catches your eye as long as he treats you right, I'll always be your friend Almata and until your ready to come out to the world, or even if you'll never be ready to come out to the world, your secret's safe with me."

Almata's eyes widened. Raven had feelings for him? She thought that he was gay? Who told her that he was gay? He wasn't gay, Darling was the gay one!

"Raven…" Almata cleared his throat before sitting up. "I want to marry you if that's alright. Nobody else, just you."

Raven cast him a kind look. "Oh Almata don't sell yourself short, you'll find the right guy for you sooner or later."

Almata shook his head wildly, frantically. "No you don't understand, I don't want a Prince Charming, because you see I'm not-"

"Little black bird! Where is my little black bird?" A hasty gravely voice called out from the trees.

Raven perked up in glee. "Grandfather Grimm!" She squealed letting go of Almata's hand as she stood up and raced barefoot (Having grown up around the school Raven felt comfortable walking barefoot outdoors) towards the source of the voice that had interrupted Almata.

"There's my granddaughter!" Headmaster Grimm emerged from the tree line and enveloped his first-born granddaughter in a mighty bear hug. "I just came by to see if you've finished for today so that I could fetch you to observe your auntie Amelia and your mother look over that new shipment of stuff for the thing."

Raven's eyes practically shined. "We get to catalogue the shipment of MiddleSea spell scrolls and wares for the magic classes today? I thought that shipment wasn't to come in until next week!"

"Apparently one Lady Baba Yaga's offspring was in charge of gathering and shipping the wares." The Headmaster shrugged. "Naturally they made certain that it all came early.

"Naturally." Raven giggled knowing that if the crone witch demanded that her descendants' jump they would ask how high she wanted them to jump.

Raven turned towards her study companion. "Sorry Almata but I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Kay…." Almata squeaked because as soon as the girl wasn't looking the Headmaster cast his best scary glare towards the boy, the man a dark looming protective presence behind his small and pleasantly smiling granddaughter, before hand in hand, grandfather led his granddaughter brusquely away.

Almata was too preoccupied staring flabbergasted after the retreating figures to take note of the sudden pick up of wind around him.

"Tough luck my man." Daring's voice suddenly sounding close to Almata's ear causing the younger boy to jump with a high pitched shriek.

Almata shrieked again when he realized that Daring was sitting at his left side and Cadmium on his right.

"Ow." Cadmium complained, shielding his hidden sensitive ears from the smaller boy's shrieks. "He startles easy."

"He does." Daring agreed.

"What are you two doing here? How did you even get here?"Almata demanded, his head turning back and forth quickly.

"Daring wanted me to show him something in the enchanted forest, we were just heading back to school when we noticed the Headmaster spying on the two of you from behind a tree. We got curious and decided to go see what all the fuss was about." Cadmium nearly snickered. "If it makes you feel any better you at least have my approval, and our willingness to help you out for the hand of my best friend and non-related sister. Daring's kindly vouched for you and after much observation over the past few weeks I've determined that you are a decent suitor, granted you still have to find a way to convince Raven that you really are interested in her and hope that she still feels the same way for you…"

"And you have to convince her that you aren't gay." Daring piped up.

"And convince her father and grandfather not to kill you." Cadmium reminded. "They are both incredibly protective."

"And convince your mother to let you marry the daughter of the one person in the world she loathes with every fiber of your being…" Daring winced.

"The Evil Queen is going to be a wild card, she could go either way or directly down the middle on the issue." Cadmium mused lightly.

"How is all this supposed to help me figure out how to convince Raven that I'm not gay? That I'm, hopelessly, irreversibly in love with her!" Almata interrupted by crying out in frustration and falling back onto the blanket.

Both Cadmium and Daring stared at the prone boy in surprise.

"You're in love with Raven?" Cadmium asked sounding a bit shocked. "We didn't know that. This changes everything."

"I wouldn't have asked Raven if I wasn't in love with her." Almata furrowed his brows in puzzlement. "Why is me being in love with her a surprise?"

"Well you never loved my sister, Darling, romantically and yet before she riled up the brewing revolution you were committed to marry her." Daring pointed out.

"Yes… well…" Almata coughed. "I'm glad she did start the revolution thing because it's given the both of us the opportunity to go after a real happy ending… that is if I can ever convince Raven to entertain the possibility of being with me…" The boy fretted. "Or at least I could find a way to go through a version of my story without having to marry Darling or anybody I did not truly love."

Cadmium shared another look with Daring.

"Well we've got no choice but to help him now." Cadmium sighed with a wry smile.

"Yes my dear man, I do believe that you are correct." Daring agreed with a flirtatious smile back.

Almata looked between the two and was overcome with the sudden dreading feeling that his personal love problems would be the least of his worries with these two hanging around…