𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍'𝐓 𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃. It had been one of their longer jobs, not the longest, but incredibly close, and Doc had to be in charge of keeping time and reminding them to go through everything again to make sure they stayed in and secure; security was always tight when bad things were happening.

But when bad things were done by powerful people, they were bound to get sloppy, and, fortunately for them, there were many holes, and while it did take them until three seventeen in the morning to finish, they had been able to get virtually everything.

Snow hadn't slept until well into sunrise, but she would have stayed awake even longer if it hadn't been for Grumpy who had chosen to stay awake and, when talking over certain sections with Snow as they read and wrote their summaries, made an effort to not be rude even though it was clear they were tired, though the post-heist high always made it hard to be in a sour mood, especially if things went well.

"You might wanna go over my grammar, make sure it's all good if you want to send this in early, Snow," Grumpy said around seven in the morning when they finally threw the towel in, unable to stay awake any longer.

"I'm going to send it in the afternoon, I'm just going to make groups and go over my work one last time to make sure revisions will be easy once I wake up. Thank you for staying up, Grumpy, and good work tonight, you did amazing," she explained, unable to help herself as she thought back to how well managed Grumpy was in keeping everything secure.

She could hear them smiling as they replied, "Thanks, Snow. And give yourself some credit, that document you made was really hot."

Snow snorted then, unable to stop her giggling, the sleep deprivation starting to get to her. "Sorry, I didn't realize I was talking to Happy."

Grumpy made a sound that she wasn't even sure had come from them, an indignant laugh that sounded a little too angry to even count as a laugh, but she knew it did all the same. "If you tell anyone I said that, I'll find your house and mess you up, girly, don't test me."

Snow had just laughed and laughed and if she had been in her fully right mind she would've known better than to have, not wanting to alert her stepmother, but she did have a white noise machine and took precautions to make sure she wasn't noticed, so she figured she was fine, and she was.

But that didn't mean she wasn't tired. She had gone to sleep an hour later and had been able to sleep until eleven thirty before her stepmother came knocking on her door, shouting at her to get up, that it was nearly noon and she had to clean the house, as well as more frustrations and complaints about Snow's lazy disposition in general, as well as her ungrateful nature, but those were standard.

Snow, fortunately, woke up just fine, so there weren't any problems when she opened her door and told her stepmother that she would get right to work, the woman telling her that she expected the kitchen to be spotless by the time that she returned later that night, and Snow didn't spend too much time wondering where she was going, but her stepmother had been leaving the house more and more as of late, and while she didn't have any qualms about the time to herself, she couldn't help but be curious as to why.

Either way, she had lost most of her morning—though considering how long she had stayed awake, there wasn't much time lost—and she still had to go back over the document in order to send it to her informant, but he was generally easy going so there was no immense rush, though she was far too polite to keep anyone waiting.

Speaking of, she knew better than to keep her stepmother waiting so, while she would have much rather waited until the woman left the house to get started on cleaning, she didn't want to run the risk of getting into trouble or her stepmother demanding to know what she was doing, so she grabbed her phone and speaker, sliding them into her pockets so her stepmother wouldn't see, making her way downstairs.

She was surprised to find the cleaning supplies waiting for her on the wall by the kitchen, dropping down onto the first floor, looking around, almost expecting her stepmother to come out and surprise her, as if the cleaning supplies weren't a surprise enough. Her stepmother always expected her to do the work she needed to, her helping her in any way was out of character, and while she felt rather guilty about it, she felt more concerned than pleased.

Her stepmother didn't pay too much attention to the purchases Snow made, so long as they weren't too grandiose and exceed the monthly budget—not to mention Snow did a very good job of hiding her tracks amongst the bills that her stepmother's accountant and personal secretary and friend handled—so while it wouldn't matter whether Snow made it known that she had purchased a Bluetooth speaker, the threat of her stepmother paying closer attention to what she did online—even her so much as realizing that Snow often did go online—was far too serious a concern to be taken lightly.

So, until her stepmother left, Snow just whistled while she worked.

She whistled as she opened the windows, letting in the fresh air, planning on cleaning the glass later on, instead going to dust and wipe down the various drawers and tables and other surfaces, adjusting her blue headband to help get her hair out of her eyes as she bent forward.

The sound of her stepmother's high heeled shoes clicking against the floor silenced her whistling, her breath caught in her throat, and she took a few moments before carefully turning to look at her, averting her gaze to the ground, staring at her shoes.

"Snow White," Grimhilde began, and Snow would never understand why she insisted on using her full name, yet she always did, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Cleaning, stepmother," Snow replied, careful to make her voice more even than it already was; her stepmother could find disrespect even in the most docile of phrases.

"I mean what was that noise you were making?" the woman asked, and she didn't normally become so frustrated so early on, yet there she was now, and Snow knew better than to genuinely think she was curious.

"I'm sorry, stepmother, it won't happen again," she said, turning to look towards the kitchen, wishing that she could just be allowed to continue to clean; she actually liked cleaning, she couldn't do anything if things weren't in their proper place and tidied away.

"Good," Grimhilde sniffed, and she sounded rather pleased with herself, "I'm leaving now, this house better be spotless when I return."

"Yes, stepmother," Snow replied, watching her head towards the garage, but when the woman turned around, she immediately threw herself back into her work, her heart pounding.

She listened to the sound of the garage door opening and the car thrumming to life, trying to keep still as she waited until she heard the sounds of the garage door closing and the retreat of the car down the street, fading into the distance.

Instantly, Snow jumped to her feet, placing the speaker on one of the tables she had already cleaned, turning on her phone and finding one of the many playlists she had made for herself. She had been introduced to many kinds of music, though Sleepy seemed particularly invested and, as such, had just sent her a link to his own playlists, unable to stay focused enough to come up with the variety of lists that he wanted to give to her.

It was no issue to Snow who had spent hours of her time listening to his playlists, adding some to her own, and the two had bonded deeply over music, always reaching out to the other when they found new music, and their conversations bled into other areas and, while Snow loved spending time with all her friends, Sleepy was her unspoken favorite of the seven, though Snow often found herself with bouts of silence when the boy fell asleep, though he was never asleep for too long.

She smiled as her music filled the open house, reaching out to the walls and up to the ceiling, and Snow could play it as loud as she wanted without fear of consequence, which was perfect enough for her.

So she went back to work, glancing towards the clock, reminding herself to hurry as she still needed to finish up the report, though, with the music, things would be much more interesting. She smiled to herself, thinking about what her stepmother had told her; she said she couldn't whistle, she didn't say that Snow couldn't sing.

º º º

It had taken quite some time—the house was big and Snow was not—but with sore arms that were filled with snacks, Snow made her way up the stairs and into her room, ready to finish her work and relax.

She sometimes wondered how she still remained as small as she was, thinner than average, as she was never allowed outside, but considering that her stepmother wasn't in the habit of letting her come down to eat with her, and all of their meals together and interactions often had her stepmother criticizing and restricting her diet—despite Snow preferring fruits over the chips that she occasionally indulged in—so it was really no wonder why Snow was the way she was.

She tried not to think too much of it as she opened up her laptop, climbing onto her bed. She liked to work on her bed more than her desk chair, as it wasn't the most comfortable and she didn't dare try to get a new one; she currently had the desk chair that her stepmother had replaced with a better, more comfortable one, which meant that Snow's own was anything but.

She had great use of her desktop set up, but there were times when she preferred the simplicity and mobility of her laptop, and she was able to do everything she needed on it—for the most part—so she connected her headphones and got to work, figuring to play YouTube videos in the background so she could have someone's voice to listen to.

She didn't have many people to talk to outside Fantasie.

It didn't take long for Snow to fall into the easy rhythm of writing her report, so used to this it was almost commonplace, and ever since she had garnered the attention and partnership of Eddie Brock, it was easier than ever to write her reports, knowing that he would contact her with any questions and much appreciated her set-up and abundance of documents and resources.

"What you're doing is kind of illegal," he had pointed out during one of their phone calls, Snow bouncing the signal and hiding herself, using a voice manipulator so he wouldn't realize just how young she was.

"Do you have an issue with that?" she had countered; she had heard of what he had done to expose the Life Foundation, so it would be rather hypocritical of him to say so, but there was no harm in asking.

The man had laughed, and Snow wondered what it would be like to talk to him face-to-face, to see him laugh, not just hear it, the way it always was. "Nah. I mean...ethically speaking, I should, but I don't know what you do and I have no part in that, I just get the email and, I mean, who am I not to expose the truth that I have been led to?"

Needless to say, Snow was a fan, and with a clear recipient of her reports, their work was never for naught, and it was easier to vet the statements being written, to help if need be, and to not have the news be twisted to aid those she was trying to bring to justice.

With a final scan over her work, she reached for her phone, figuring that she should ask Grumpy to take a look over it and make sure that there wasn't anything else they wanted to include; they had been very prominent in the writing of the report, so Snow felt it was only respectful that she ask them if it was okay to send it in.

to: Grumpy (3:37 pm)
I'm finished with the report
is there anything else you
want added before I send
it in?

from: Grumpy (3:40 pm)
Nah you're good. I didn't
look over it sorry but I trust
you Snow you haven't
screwed up yet

Snow giggled at that, sending a smiley face emoji back before setting her phone aside, getting to work compiling the report and various documents and evidence that they had gathered, going over what she had been given by the seven, placing them into neat folders so it would be easy for Eddie to find everything.

Sending it to him was always an endeavor, not wanting to be traced or caught, but with the help of the others and a great time spent researching, Snow had come up with a foolproof system that never used the same tactic twice, rendering her utterly invisible, just the way she needed to be.

As she watched it upload, she reached for her phone again, figuring to tell Eddie to expect the file. The man had been afraid at first of their communication, but she had assured him of her precautions and, considering she had yet to be caught, it seemed she was doing a fine job.

to: Eddie Brock (4:05 pm)
The file is being sent to you
right now. Good luck

from: Eddie Brock (4:06 pm)
Let's hope we get em "Snow"
whoever they are

Snow couldn't help but laugh at the way Eddie always put her name into quotations. When she had introduced herself, she hadn't thought to use an alias, not until it had already left her mouth, and the man had laughed, telling her that she should choose a pen name that was a little more believable, or at the very least menacing, and she figured that she would just let him keep believing that her name wasn't truly Snow; it was easier for both of them.

Setting her phone aside, she hummed, closing out of her tabs and windows, smiling when the file completed uploading, the notification that it had been successfully delivered appearing in the upper right corner.

Now, she could relax.

Snow hummed, glancing towards her phone, wondering if she should send a text to someone or the group chat, trying to see if someone would be willing to play with her, but she decided against it; they had been up all night together, if they were going to play, they would just find her online.

So, still on her laptop, she opened Fantasie, figuring that she could at least kill some time and do some exploring. She still enjoyed the game as a game itself, and there was always much to do, and much that she could do without the seven and still be able to play with them, so there would be no harm in going on her own.

She smiled when she saw her avatar who wore the same blue headband that she did, clad in a brown dress with white sleeves. Her character was of the princess class, but she decided to give her one of the raggedy dresses, finding the patches on the edge of the frayed skirt rather charming.

Falling into first person perspective, as was the way most played the game, save for certain circumstances, she started on her way. She was in the same server she always used, allowing her to play with others in her general area.

That was how she met the seven, all of them playing as dwarves. They had befriended each other before befriending her, but she was able to keep them altogether, most going off by themselves or in groups, only playing with each other sometimes, but generally finding their clashing personalities to be too much; they worked best together when busy or with a mediator, and Doc was usually that mediator, but he wasn't always around.

There were many kinds of characters that players could choose from, and the game was very inclusive and customizable, which made many of the dwarves happy, their characters able to go by the same pronouns that they did.

Snow was just trying to find out exactly which forest she was in—she could use the map, but she preferred to find out for herself—when she saw the pop-up asking for her permission to connect her headset communication with someone that wasn't in frame, but was in range. She barely needed to glance at the name before connecting, her smile widening at the news that he was on.

"How's it going, princess?"

She turned to find herself looking at the animated character of the Prince who stood a short distance away from her, both of them standing by the well where they had first crossed paths, the sound of rustling filling her ears as the Prince opened a bag of chips from wherever it was that he was playing.

"It's nice to hear from you again, Charming," she greeted, unable to help herself from giggling at the name she had been told to call him.

The dwarves each had a name they generally went by, an attribute that was more prominent than anything, as they didn't want to use their real names. Snow gave them her real one, not knowing that it would be for the best that she didn't, but since no one ever believed that it truly was, there was no harm.

When it came to the Prince, Snow always referred to him as such in her mind, but when it came to speaking directly to him, she had found calling him 'Prince' was rather awkward and asked what he would rather she called him, bringing up the name scheme of the dwarves. Of course, she should have known better than to ask that of a teenage boy—he seemed to be a teenager, anyways—the young man immediately replying with, "Charming," and Snow couldn't very well disagree; it would have been very rude of her to.

So she called him Charming when speaking, but the Prince any other time, and they didn't play together nearly as much as she did the dwarves, but she did enjoy his company when they ran into each other. The dwarves didn't play with him without Snow, and hardly did with, but there had been occasion where they all crossed paths, the dwarves introducing themselves briefly before disappearing on their ways.

Snow had debated inviting him in on their excursions, but she didn't know him well enough, and from what she had gathered, he had a rather demanding job and school wasn't easy for him, so to offer another responsibility seemed cruel, and Snow didn't want to be cruel.

"Same here, finals were hell and graduation was a whole thing, but since it's summer, I've got more time to kill before I have to worry about college and stuff...and, I mean, I've got my job, but since when is it not there, you know?" he said, sighing heavily, and Snow wasn't quite sure what to do with that information; she didn't even know that he was about to start college.

"I hope you have time to relax," she said, because she wanted to be kind and it sounded like he needed the support.

"Thanks, princess," he replied, and it was quieter than she was expecting, more sincere, and she wondered if he meant for it to come across that way, but it was nice.

"So how have you been?" he asked, the sound of him eating a chip filling the mic before it was moved aside, "Sorry, my bad."

She laughed softly, reaching out to grab one of her strawberries, taking a bite for herself, figuring that they wouldn't actually be playing anytime soon; it was strange, they never really talked about their real lives, but it seemed that he needed this.

"It's okay," she replied, swallowing before continuing, "I've been fine. I'm homeschooled, actually, and I'm doing online school, I'm supposed to all through the summer since there was a complication last semester."

"Oh huh, that's whack," the Prince whistled, taking another bite of his chips, speaking around them, "So what grade are you in, I always figured you were my age, whenever I talked about my classes you understood them."

"I'm going to be a senior, I think," she said, rubbing the back of her neck, "If I'm being honest, I haven't been paying much attention, my stepmother hasn't been talking to me about college or anything. And, um, I'm almost eighteen. My birthday is in two weeks."

She had nearly forgotten about it.

"Oh!" the Prince cried, and Snow almost heard a sigh of relief, "I'm eighteen, I just turned about two months ago. Happy early birthday, you have any plans?"

Snow ran a hand through her hair, knocking her headband off, and she was glad that the game didn't have a camera feature, finding that she was extremely flustered. "Um, no. No, I don't, um...we don't really celebrate my birthday, my stepmother doesn't want to."

"Shit, I'm sorry," the Prince breathed, and Snow fought back her urge to tell him not to curse, biting her tongue as he continued, "Honestly, princess, that's awful. Hey, you know, tell me the day and, I don't know, I'll find a way to throw you a party over here, invite your little dwarves."

She laughed, feeling a warm feeling bloom in her chest. "Thank you, Charming, that's really sweet."

"Yeah, of course," he hummed, sighing heavily a moment later, "Aw shit, I'm sorry, princess, I gotta go. I'm running the late shift tonight, doing the deliveries and whatever. I had fun talking to you, though, we should hang again, I missed this."

"Yeah," she agreed, surprised to hear that he had missed hearing from her, "Yeah, I missed talking to you too."

The Prince let out a short laugh, not unkind. "See you later, princess."

With that, his character disappeared and a pop-up alerted Snow that they were now disconnected. She couldn't help but feel a bit sad about it, but she wasn't sad about their conversation; it was nice to have someone to talk to about things that weren't important.

Just as she was about to continue exploring, there was another pop-up asking for connection permission, and Snow couldn't fight the audible gasp that filled her room as she saw the name, rushing to grant access.

"Scott!" she cried, wishing then that there was a camera feature, if only to show just how excited she was to hear from him, "How are you?"

Kind laughter filled her ears as the man on the other end replied, "I'm good, Snow. From the sounds of it, you're doing pretty good. Gosh, and I thought Cassie's voice was high."

Snow laughed, unable to stop smiling. Scott was the last friend that Snow had made on the site and, strangely, her closest friend. It was odd at first, no doubt about it, talking to an adult man on a site like this, but there was something about Scott that put her at ease. Their relationship wasn't anything strange, and it wasn't even similar to the relationship she had with the dwarves. It was paternal, if she could call it that, an acknowledgement that he was older.

They had met when his huntsman character had helped her during a small side quest, having taken it as well, and they had just used the chat log to speak to each other, Scott polite and kind. It had actually been his daughter Cassie who had bridged the contact between the two, the little girl asking to connect and Snow, while wary, had given her permission, figuring that Scott was around Doc's age.

It had been startling to hear Cassie's voice, and even more startling to hear Scott's, but after clearing a few things up, there was no real reason for Snow to be suspicious; she had heard the voices of Cassie's mom and stepfather in the background, and Cassie had spent quite a good deal talking about herself and Scott before the man had come in and reminded her about not talking to strangers on the internet.

Of course, there he was, talking to a stranger on the internet, but Snow trusted Scott. She didn't tell him everything about her life, but he listened to her when her stepmother had said something particularly hurtful, and he had been the one to help her realize that it wasn't okay for her stepmother to say the things she did, and do what she did. Of course, Snow knew better than to tell him everything, not wanting him to call the authorities and start more trouble, but she appreciated his presence.

"How're the magic tricks coming along?" she asked, the two starting to explore the forest without any real direction.

"Oh, they're going great, I just learned a new one, I wish I could show you," he said, groaning when he realized that they could only talk, they couldn't see.

"I bet it's great," she said, knowing the feeling well, wishing more than anything that she could talk to people face-to-face; it would be lovely.

Scott groaned, presumably stretching, before he sighed. "You know, I never realized that I would miss going to the grocery store. You know, just staying in your house all the time, you can find ways to pass the time, but you miss things. I can't believe I miss the grocery store."

That was possibly one of the main things Snow liked about Scott: he understood what it was like to want to leave. He didn't tell her why he had to stay inside, she assumed he was agoraphobic and didn't feel right in prying, but there was a clear want to leave, but a resignation of having to stay, and Snow had never thought she would find anyone who understood her plight, but Scott did almost perfectly.

It was like she wasn't alone.

Snow smiled as she listened to Scott drone on about the various grocery stores that he used to frequent, explaining that the first time he truly realized he was an adult was when he finally had a favorite grocery store, and how times had changed to the point where people could order their groceries to be delivered right to their door, though Cassie and her mom often dropped them off for him.

She smiled because Scott was entertaining, and because what he said was funny and was meant to make her laugh. She smiled because it had been quite some time since she had heard from him and hearing his voice always made her feel better. She smiled because talking to Scott made her feel safe in a way she hadn't felt since her father passed all those years ago.

She smiled because, even though she couldn't leave her home, she was never truly alone.

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

( 07.10.19 )

This chapter is dedicated to Cameron Boyce, may he rest in peace. I had wanted to make every dwarf equally represented in the story, and they will be, I promise, but because of what happened don't be surprised if you see a lot of Sleepy throughout this story. I'd also just like to make it clear that the choice to make him that dwarf was made months ago, and it's an unfortunate coincidence to the nature of his passing and is in no way meant to be in poor taste.

Also, sorry that this was so long, I didn't realize that it would take so long for me to get in all the information that I wanted to, but I did introduce two new characters, as well as show an interaction between Snow and her stepmother, so it was a lot, but I hope it was enjoyable. I'm really sorry for the ending, I didn't know where to end it and I actually really hate this, but you know what, I'll make up for it, it'll be fine.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!