Chapter Text
By the night of the third annual Tyrolean Kinder Charity Auction ball, Hunt Zmenn had been Snow White's personal secretary at the Tyrolean Mining Corporation for three years, five months and three days.
By the night of the third annual Tyrolean Kinder Charity Auction ball, he'd been in love with Snow White for three years, five months and eight days.
That made it sound like he'd fallen in love like a sudden trip of the cobblestones into the Wishing well in the town square.
But he wasn't so green.
Not with his parents eaten by wolves and growing up in the Kinderhaus orphanage, or as those who grew up within those white sterile walls, Purgatory. It might have been called Hell, but as his best friend, Lil' Red, pointed out, "Hell's permanent. Purgatory, that's got an end date to it. Now, moment I'm eighteen, I'm outa here like liver from a duck's ass. Open myself one of those burl wood shops by the side of the road and sell crap to people who don't need it." She'd belly laugh when she said that.
Lil' Red had made Kinderhaus bearable. She'd protected him when she could, but he still bore the scars. The thin marks on his back where Mr. Myrsina's belt had fallen. The burns on his feet from where he'd been made to wear the hot lead shoes when he'd done something that Mr. Myrsina deemed unseemly.
He never knew why, but Hunt had often been unseemly.
The shoes were why he worked an indoor job instead of in the great green woods that surrounded the town like he'd dreamed as a boy. Far away from having to deal with people on a daily basis. The burns those shoes left behind were why he walked with a slight limp. They were the reason he joined Tyrolean Mining's secretarial pool a week before he turned eighteen.
So, no. He hadn't ever been that green. He knew the world was too unsafe to trust. It took at least an hour to fall. Stripping away his defenses as he tumbled.
When Snow White had joined Tyrolean Mining as the new CEO, the gossip had it that she'd only been appointed CEO on account of "special favors" that she'd done for the Board of Seven Dwarves. Darlene had winked at the other secretaries. "Way I hear it, the Frost giantess made all their beds in one night."
Meryl had laughed. "If she did that explains things. Snapped their jiggly bits right off and held them hostage." The open plan room buzzed with laughing suggestions for the rest of their break.
Hunt had laughed with everyone else as if he knew what they were talking about. He knew to blend in, it was important to laugh.
But the truth was that growing up as he had, he'd never dated much. Oh, everyone thought that he and Lil' Red were an item. But ever since the day she'd shown up at Kinderhaus after her gran had been eaten by a wolf, they had been siblings from another mother. Anyway, she wanted someone who would kick her ass from time to time. They both knew that couldn't be him.
He'd always felt awkward about his looks. His lips were too full and red. His eyes were a weird purple color with thick curling eyelashes. He couldn't count the number of whippings he'd taken from Mr. Myrsina for looking at him with his evil eyes. His hair was this horrible curling white blonde. His skin marked him as different from the rest of the town. It would have been one thing to look as he did if he worked outside, but no matter how many hours he spent under the fluorescent office lights, he remained a dark bronze.
Even his body made him feel awkward and clumsy. A growth spurt in eighth grade had him going from the smallest kid in class to towering over his classmates at six foot three. While his hobby carving figures out of wood with an axe had him filling out in the chest and arms. It was hard to fade into the wall looking so ridiculous. At work, he wore baggy second hand suits that hid his body. He slouched. He wore glasses with clear lenses. He faded into the woodwork as much as he could.
So, no, he'd never dated much, or really at all.
Despite that, some executives at Tyrolean Mining thought that the secretarial pool meant dating pool.
Mr. Piper was a particular problem for the entire secretarial staff. Or he had been.
The day Hunt met Snow White, he'd been in the copy room. By room they meant closet with a copier in it. He'd been trying to finish compiling the Red Carbuncle presentation for the Sinbad Inc. bid for the next day. Of course, the copier decided to compile the pages in completely the wrong order. He hated the copy room. He always felt clumsy and trapped when he went there.
Mr. Piper came into the copy room, as if he ever made a photocopy in his life. "Why look if it isn't my favorite member of the secretarial pool." He stood up on his toes to brush a strand of hair behind Hunt's ear. "God, your mouth. Has anyone told you what kind of mouth you've got?"
"Sir." Hunt pressed back against the wall leaning away from the slighter man. "I need to finish these copies." He felt panic rising like a balloon in his throat with no easy exit.
"All work and no play makes Hunt a dull boy." Mr. Piper moved closer blocking Hunt's escape route. "I've been thinking of requesting you as my personal secretary." He licked his lips.
Hunt flinched back. He fussed with his glasses.
"Mr. Piper. This is the third time that you've been warned about this type of behavior." A voice as cold as a winter's gale cracked across the tiny room. Frost puffed and crackled across the floor and walls. He'd only seen her at the all company meeting, but there was no mistaking Snow White.
Her lips as red as blood were twisted in anger. Her face as white as snow was stern. Her hair as black as coal was screwed tight into a bun. She wore a sharp black suit with a high necked red blouse. Her eyes were sharp as shards of ice that had broken off a roof. "Now that I am running Tyrolean, we operate with a zero harassment tolerance." She turned to Hunt. She looked him in the eyes. She was taller than he was. By at least six or seven inches. He had to look up at her. It made him feel strangely warm and fluttery inside. He felt pinned by that gaze. Finally she said, "If you would like to file a complaint against this man, I will go with you right now to HR."
His eyes darted to Mr. Piper, who had been with the company since dinosaurs literally roamed the earth. His father, Mr. Pied Piper, had been the one to invent the tune that caused the prehistoric menaces to walk in a long line and march into the river. The Piper family had been an untouchable fixture ever since.
"Don't look at him. Look at me." Snow White's voice was firm. He couldn't help, but give himself over to the assurance in that cool voice. "Do you want to file a complaint?"
Hunt felt a sharp pang for the times that he'd joined in the laughter at Snow White's expense. He knew in that instant that she'd never gotten where she was by doing whatever it was they all thought she did. He swallowed and nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."
She nodded briskly. He followed her out into the hallway, leaving Mr. Piper sputtering behind.
As they walked down the hall, or rather she strode and he limped, he had to call out, "Ma'am, please. I can't walk that fast." His cheeks flushed. He hated the everyday reminder that compared to everyone else, he was broken.
She turned around and her expression changed. Glaciers melted in an instant. "Oh, I'm so sorry. It's just that you're so," she waved a hand at him, "but that's... I'm sorry. We'll walk slower." As they walked, she asked him if he felt that Tyrolean Mining was, "Sufficiently caring toward the handicapable?"
Since he had no idea what she meant, he could only nod. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Oh, please, Ms. White is bad enough. Call me Snow." She smiled. He heard the bluebirds that sang when a heart was given away singing like happy harbingers of doom.
He ignored them. It took everything he had to not do as she asked. "No, Mrs. White. I don't think I could do that."
"Of course, whatever makes you feel comfortable." The spring froze back into winter in her expression.
They went to the HR office and even though she was the CEO, and must be very busy, she entered her own statement regarding his complaint backing him up and encouraging him when he faltered. With Ms. White standing behind him, he felt safe.
Darlene whistled when he came into the secretarial pool office with his stack of copies. "Looks like someone's been warming up the big boss. What did you do, put a heater under the Frost giant? Careful, you might blow a fuse."
Hunt blushed and ducked his head.
By the afternoon, it was all over the building that Mr. Piper had been put on unpaid suspension. The other secretaries slapped him on the back, but he was careful to let them all know that it had been Ms. White.
Within a week, Mr. Piper was no longer working at the company. He was snapped up by the Winter Corporation, which had belonged to Snow's father. She'd lost it as part of some sort of dirty dealing during a merger. Hunt hadn't thought much about it before, but now he felt angry on Ms. White's behalf.
He told Lil' Red everything. He told her about most things.
Lil' Red rearranged a set of wooden wind chimes. "Ah, Honey Bunny, it's just like she just swooped in and saved you." She turned and looked at him. She stared at him for a long time. "You've got a crush on Ms. Ice Queen herself. I suppose it makes sense, being as you are and how you met, but Honey Bunny, that's about a good idea as getting cozy with a glacier."
Hunt paused where he was carving a bear eating a wolf from a piece of redwood. He didn't meet Lil' Red's eyes. "She's not an Ice Queen. She's just very professional. People are mad because she's improving things to make it more efficient."
"Good Lord, you do have a crush. And I'm sorry, but she so is an Ice Queen. She's a Frost giant for Christ's sake. Everyone in town knows that. She doesn't smile when you pass her on the road or in the store. She's doesn't stop to talk down by the Wishing well. Bet she doesn't think she even needs to visit the well. Get frostbite sure as you touch her." Lil' Red gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. "Honey Bunny, you are so totally screwed."
Hunt remembered the sound of the bluebirds singing. She wasn't wrong.