Chapter Text
snow white apple von waldeck screamed in agony as nurses shuffled around her franticly. she wasn’t quite sure what they were doing, her vision far too blurry to pinpoint anything. if she focused really hard, she could see her husband, daring standing in the corner leaning against a wall, talking to one of the nurses with a smirk on his face. if she wasn’t currently in labour, she’d almost be mad at him for flirting with one of her nurses while she pushed out his child, but she was simply too exhausted to care right now.
she was DEFINETELY only doing this once.
technically, the law decreed that she only actually needed one. every major fairytale character had to have at least one child to carry on their legacy lest their story die out, although the law had been tweaked and more closely monitored after the disaster cerise and ramona badwolf had been. after cerise’s story concluded, the hood’s were stripped of their legacy and it had been added to the scholarship system, cerise being burdened with the big bad wolf destiny after her father died and her sister moved away with their mother.
so really, apple only had to have one child to carry on the mantle of snow white. a perfect baby girl, according to the ultrasound daring hadn’t bothered to show up to.
that was fine, it wasn’t like she needed him. he’d played his part, he was of no use to her now.
now, all she needed was her baby and everything would be perfect.
the perfect happily ever after.
the 28 year old queen gave another push and gritted her teeth before sighing in relief, feeling something pass that made her feel less full than before. she heard cheers and bustling as she laid her sweaty head on the pillow, panting. she couldn’t help but wonder how un-queen-like she looked right now. she was always conscious of how she looked and would be perceived, even in the most inconvenient of times (yes, even childbirth), something instilled in her by her own mother before her untimely passing. apple didn’t dwell though; it was all part of the story. eventually, she too would pass on to set the stage for her own dau-
“it’s a boy!”
apple felt her face drain more than it already had. the world went quiet as apple fought to raise her head to look at the doctor holding her baby. daring still wasn’t paying attention.
it’s a boy.
“w... what?” her shaky voice wavered as she asked. the doctor smiled, turning the baby to face her. it’s eyes were wide open, staring at her with big green orbs she’s sure mirrored her own. yep, it was definitely a boy.
apple felt tears leaking down her face, which the nurses assumed was from the labour, doting after her immediately, pressing a cold cloth to her forehead, but it wasn’t. it wasn’t supposed to be a boy, a boy couldn’t be snow white! that wasn’t how it worked! they’d timed it perfectly with her cycle and her paediatrician had assured her she would have a girl, that her carefully laid out plans would come to fruition, that she wouldn’t disappoint her mother further even from beyond the grave-
she let out another unladylike grunt as her head fell back down, and the nurses began bustling around again. apple had been warned by her friend, ashlynn (formally ella, now pendragon), who’d had her own son a year or two prior that there would be post labour contractions, but this felt different. she still felt... off. she thought her body would at least feel somewhat of her own again once she’d actually birthed the baby, but she still felt incredibly pregnant and incredibly in labour. she still felt too taut to relax.
the ringing in her ears got louder as she felt doctors’ hands on her again, poking and prodding. her vision went spotty, and she almost passed out when she distantly heard someone yell “there’s another!”
another?! she’d only signed up for one baby, a girl! her paediatrician hadn’t told her she was having twins! how could she take care of two babies at once, she could barely handle daring on a good day! daring, who still wasn’t paying attention. couldn’t he hear his wife screaming right across the room?
despite the noise and the chaos, the boy hadn’t cried yet. good, she thought cruelly, as she pushed again. i don’t want to hear you, you weren’t what i wanted. the next few minutes were the same agony, rage and screaming as the past several hours had been, before she finally sighed in relief once more. the same cheering from before sounded again, and the doctor, to apple’s absolute glee, announced it was a girl.
there you are, my sweet apple dumpling, she finally allowed herself to smile as she stared at her daughter, her beautiful princess. she shakily reached her arms out, signaling for the doctor to hand her to her. he placed her in her arms as the baby began wailing, finally catching daring’s attention.
she could see the shock on his face as he walked over to her bedside, exclaiming, “oh, twins!”, smiling and reaching a hand out to wiggle a finger at her their daughter, and apple fought the urge to scowl as she saw him slip a post it note into his pocket.
they stayed silent for a few moments, one of the midwives still focusing on the boy who’d finally started crying, much softer and reserved than the girl in her arms, but she couldn’t care less. she paid no mind to daring moving away from her bedside towards the other baby, nor to the doctors still moving around her. all she could think about was her beautiful baby girl.
she distantly felt daring return and sit in the chair beside her bed, and although she didn’t look up at him, she could see out of the corner of her eye that he was holding him. she almost didn’t hear him when he said, “so... which was born first?”
“the girl,” she raced to beat the doctor to it, steeling him with a hard glare very unlike her, a glare she saved for moments like this. he closed his mouth, a silent nod signalling his understanding in what she meant.
legally, given that the boy was born first, he’d have to take on the role of snow white whether she liked it or not, and she couldn’t have that. she couldn’t have some brutish mirror image of her stupid husband ruining her family’s legacy, she wouldn’t allow it. from this moment forward, to anyone who asked her, her daughter came out first. her son would be the one who took several minutes of excruciating pain, that came out screaming, that made her feel like she was dying, not the other way around. her daughter would be perfect.
her inner thoughts were interrupted when daring spoke once again. “well, we didn’t really pick out any boys name... actually, we didn’t pick out any names at all, you did. remember, my parents assigned us the letter c, so whatever you pick must start with that.”
she rolled her eyes, lightly scoffing at daring’s family’s stupid adjective name rule. she’d always thought it was rather stupid, even when they were teenagers, and she’d much rather prefer to call her sweet daughter something apple themed fitting of the next snow white, like pomeline or ambrosia, but she didn’t have her mother here to back her up anymore, and she’d been outnumbered and vetoed, so adjective name it is.
she felt a small amount of envy. she was the only one being held to this standard and it bothered her. you’d think being snow white AND queen of ever after held some kind of weight. duchess hadn’t been expected to follow that stupid rule when she and dexter had started planning for a child a few years prior and had got to pick out her own names because apparently the tragedy of her story outweighed being a charming and the family had pitied her (not that dexter had ever cared much for their rules anyway), and darling had never bared any children. she hadn’t even fulfilled her destiny, whatever it was. she’d been missing for years. for all anybody knew, she’d simply poofed.
apple felt a pang in her chest at the thought, quickly pushing it away and back into the box with the rest of her silly childhood fantasies, and focused back on her child.
despite how much she hated the name rule, she had reluctantly picked out a few names she could stomach, so after a moment of thinking and studying her daughter, with her voice much more confident and no longer shaking, she announced “charity. charity ambrosia charming."
no, she hadn’t been allowed to keep her surname, either.
daring looked over to the doctor who quickly wrote it down on the birth certificate now baring the earlier timestamp and he nodded, looking back at his son in his hands. “well, since we didn’t pick out any boy names, can i name him? ambrosia is a type of apple, right? we could give him an apple themed middle name too, then they can match-“
“whatever, call him whatever you want,” she interrupted curtly and unkindly, her exhaustion setting back in as she continued looking at nothing but her daughter. she’d always wondered what being a mother would feel like, as she hadn’t had a strong maternal instinct in her youth and had assumed it was something that would kick in when it was needed, as her singing voice had, but she couldn’t help but wonder if this was it.
if it was, maybe she finally understood her mother.
daring furrowed his eyebrows at her, not knowing why she was so snappy with him right now. sure, she was tired, but that seemed to be a bit overkill, especially considering it was about naming the child she’d just given birth to.
to apple, he seemed to be thinking, and she could almost see the steam pouring out of ears in an attempt to do something useful other than heroics. after several minutes of silence other than their breathing and the babies’ occasional coos, he finally said, “cerulean.”
she raised an eyebrow, looking at him sideways from her bed, shocked he even knew a word that big. “cerulean? is that even an adjective?”
“it’s a colour! it’s a bright blue, fitting for a charming prince!”
she looked at him blankly, almost willing him to read her mind and realise how stupid she thought he sounded. by some miracle, it seemed he did, because he pouted and muttered, “it counts.”
she sighed, laying her head back against her pillow, feeling simultaneously gross and exhausted, ready to go to sleep. “fine. cerulean. jonathan is a kind of apple, that can be his middle name. now let me go to sleep."
daring stared blankly at her, looking a bit like an owl, before nodding quickly with a soft “right, right, sleep, right...” he stood carefully, making sure to cradle cerulean to his chest so he didn’t drop him, before a nurse came over and pried charity from apple’s tired arms. she almost didn’t want to let her go, but she was already half asleep and didn’t want to risk hurting her accidentally.
the last thing she saw before she finally closed her eyes were those same bright green eyes staring at her from daring’s arms.