The afternoon sinks into twilight when Regina finally crosses the threshold of her house. Her high heels dig into the floor with a dull click that echoes through the empty hallways. Her fingers still grip the leather briefcase—remnants of a hellish day at city hall, where every bureaucrat seemed determined to test her patience.

She takes a deep breath, waiting for the homely silence to calm her nerves. Until an unexpected sound cuts through the air: the distinct crunch of an apple being bitten. Her body stiffens even before her eyes find the scene in the kitchen.

There, sitting casually on the marble counter, you are. A perfect golden apple rests in your hand, already several bold bites deep. The crunching sound of the fruit being devoured seems unnaturally loud in the silence of the house. Beside her, two more apples lie unceremoniously on the granite—stolen, not offered.

The corner of Regina's mouth twitches. Her dark eyes, once merely tired, now shine with a mixture of fury and something more complex. She drops her bag on the sofa with a deliberately loud thud.

"I should have put a curse on this tree," she murmurs, her voice soft as velvet but with a razor's edge. "Something painful. Something that would make your fingers burn every time they dared touch something that's mine."

She advances, her heels marking each step like a sentence. When she gets close enough to smell the apple on her breath, her nose twitches slightly.

"You always do this," she continues, now in a whisper that sends more chills than any shout. "You break into my house, steal my food, sit on my counter like you have some right..."

Her fingers clench abruptly, and the apple in her hand explodes into a thousand tiny pieces, only to instantly reconstitute itself in the fruit basket on the table—intact, but now with a subtle purple glow.

"...and then you act surprised when I decide to exact the price."

The air around her seems to vibrate slightly, charged with the promise of retribution—and maybe, just maybe, with something else neither of them dares name aloud.