Pain. Aching, perverse pain was all Cinderella felt in her head when she came to. What in the world had happened? Okay, rewind.

She had flown full speed from the castle, crashed the broom, landed in a tree before being thrown from it and flying into the window of the nearby house. Next thing she knew six little green....men had come up on her and then she was out. 

Now she was lying on what could only be a bed, seven green blurs above her whispering. Were these the men that had walked in her her earlier? Even though her head was spinning she tried to make out what they were saying.

"Oh, beautiful," someone murmured.

"I didn't know anyone could be so beautiful," Merlin wistfully stated. These words were true. Yes, having gone around fairy tale island saving princesses, he had seen some of the most stunning women imaginable, but the blonde beauty lying in front of him put them all to shame.

"She's the one." He thought, while continuing to gaze in wonder at the girl. "The one who will break the curse. She must be!" 

"How did she end up with us?" Jack asked. Then, the girl started to stir as her head twisted front-word and her eyes cracked open, revealing a peak of blue. In amazement, all seven dwarfs let out an "aww." Cinderella then swiftly sat up with her elbows, causing them to jump back and yelp in surprise.

"What happened?" She groaned, before finally noticing the dwarfs surrounding her, she herself scooting back and gasping. So this is what happened. She was stuck in a house with seven dwarfs, who honestly looked adorable in their own...green way to her.

The one clad in orange to her left stepped forward first, one in blue behind him giving a little wave. "Hello dear lady," He gave a flourish of his hand and winked at her. "Welcome to my home slash command post. I have six roommates but my names on the lease."

"I pay the rent," the blonde one snidely added.

Good. So far, by as much as she could tell they weren't hostile nor were they a band of weirdos camped out in the middle of Risky Rock Forest. For now, all Cinderella could do was be cordial in return. She could assume they had lifted her into the bed, and that to her was a sign of good will.

"Hello," She graciously said with a smile which for some reason unknown to her caused the dwarfs to swoon before the servant girl could continue. "I'm sorry about the whole crashing into your house thing. If I had known I would have...." before the brunette one in blue cut her off.

"There's no need to apologize. We didn't mean to intrude on your nap." He leaned on the bed as the red-head spoke next. "You've been asleep for a a time. If you're hungry I could whip up something simple."

"No, no. I don't want to intrude."" Cinderella held up her hand to stop him. She then attempted to get out of the bed, but stumbled a bit once she stood up fully. Right, she was wearing Regina's shoes. Which now that she was thinking about it, how had they not broken?"

"Are you okay," the brunette dwarf in blue asked as he steadied her by securing her wrist, to which the other six looked at him with disdain. Always the charmer, Merlin was! "Yes, thank you," she smiled before walking over to he mirror to inspect herself for any damage. 

Thankfully her body had miraculously sustained no damage, and no bruising was visible on her face. Although the back of her head was sore, she felt it wasn't enough for a concussion and any mark would be hidden by her hair.

Still just to be safe, she turned to the dwarfs, whom were starring at her from behind, to ask their advice. "Do any of you see any bruises? I just wanna make sure, since you've been staring at me for a time."

"Our apologizes, miss, we can't seem to help it." The one in orange said.

"What do you mean?" Cinderella asked.

"Your're beautiful, miss," the red-head said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Like an angel," the brunette added. Cinderella blushed madly at this. She knew she wasn't bad-looking, but she certainly didn't think of herself that highly. Years of swimming in ash by a fireplace and being ridiculed had done a number on her self-esteem.

"Excuse me, but who are you," The brunette's voice broke her out of her musings. That was a tricky one. She was sure Regina was sending out posters for her head by now, but then again, these seemed like trustworthy fellows. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry. My name is Cinderella."

"Cinderella," he echoed. "That's beautiful. By any chance would that be Princess Cinderella?"

"Of course she's a princess," The orange-clad one stepped forward and slung his arm around the brunette. "How could she be so beautiful if she weren't. Obviously. Right miss?"

Well honesty was the best policy. Cinderella was smart enough to know that if she said anything other then the truth it would come back to bite her. "Actually no, just Cinderella. I actually work..er...worked in the palace of King White."

For a second, the dwarfs, especially Merlin, had a perplexed look plastered on all of their faces. What! How was it possible that a woman THIS beautiful wasn't a princess. It just didn't make sense. 

"Well she's still the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen. Besides it just a technicality. The spell never said the girl had to be royalty. " Merlin inwardly explained. To be fair, he really just asked out of the fact that if she was, it would be a bonus. Although this tidbit did make her quite the anomaly.

"Ah, I'm sorry but who are you all?"

This broke their prolonged staring as Merlin once again spoke for the group, while taking the time to toot his own horn. "Um, I'm Merlin. Part time hero, full time romantic. And this is Jack, Hans, Arthur, Pino, Noki, and Kio."

Once he was finished going down the line, Cinderella let out a stifled chuckle. "What a coincidence. Your names are the same as the Fearless Seven! I actually looking for them myself." 

Unknown to Cinderella at the time she was in the presence of the heroes she was searching for, but this also opened the floodgates for the dwarfs.

"Let me guess, Merlin's your favorite."

"Actually not really," She shot Merlin's hope down, causing Arthur to step forward. "Na, that Merlin's not your type. You seem more like a Prince Arthur fan to me!"

"Honestly, none of them are really my type."

With this confession, Cinderella scrambled their brains for the third time that day. Fortunately, Merlin 'covered' their tracks with a 'totally believable' excuse.

"Uh...well that's fine because we're not them. We're actually completely different people in no way the same guys transformed by a curse to look like this but only when someone looks at us. At all."

Rolling his eyes and having enough of this painful display, Arthur pushed passed Merlin to stand in front of Cinderella. "Glad were all clear. Now how can I...we assist you my lady?"

At this, the girl in question adopted a sad look of desperation on her face. "I need to find King White. Before he went missing he left clues to me and requested that I find the F7 to help. I can't tell you much but the fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance."

Seizing this chance, the groups wizard showcased his 'act first, think later' attitude. "We know the F7, and their schedule is fully booked. Leave it to me! I find the king within the month."

"I can do it in one week," Hans interuppted.

"Four days," declared Arthur.

"Three! Two! One!," The triplets went down the line.

"I already found him like two weeks ago," Jack pushed them all apart and yelled at Cinderella, to which she responded with a sarcastic, "Really?"

"I just need a few days to get him across state lines."

This clearly wasn't working. Cinderella could see this was turning into a masculinity contest, and she needed to reign them in. Fast! "I seriously need to find him. Did you forget the whole 'kingdom hangs in the balance' thing?"

"Well hold on," Merlin piped in. "No one has seen the F7 for over a year, and your not gonna find them now. We're your best bet."

"What! Their serious offering their services. Maybe their not so self-involved after all. Their actually kind of charming."

"Wow, no one's really ever offered to help me like this in my life. Stuff like this is rare. You guys are amazing." Cinderella said with sincerity.

They all seemed genuinely surprised by the compliment, with the resident magic user once again speaking for the pack. "Really? You think we're amazing?"

"Well yes, of course! From what I've seen your all caring, selfless and..."

"And not completely hideous to look at!" Merlin seemed genuinely shocked, and this statement left the servant girl feeling sympathy for them. Was that really how they viewed themselves? She certainly didn't think so.

While others may have found them not pleasant to look at, Cinderella from a young age had shown a love of all living things despite exterior looks. Heck, when she had learned the story of The Frog Prince, she had chased down a toad and kissed it full on the lips thinking it would turn into a handsome prince. So in essence, these guys were pretty cute by comparison.

"What, of course not! Your all rather cute, actually."

"I think I hit her too hard," Hans whispered to Merlin who added,"But she is beautiful." He then trotted over to her and grabbed her hand. "Well if your going to be receiving our assistance, you'll need to stay here with us. I'll show you to the guest room."

They then all lead her to an incredibly cozy looking room. While to others it might not have been much, It was like a king's chambers for Cinderella. The last time she had quarters like this were from before her step-mother. "It's beautiful! Thank you,"

"Of course," they all chimed in and with some final words they left Cinderella to her devices.