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katleeptTitle: One Magical Night In A Forest
Author: Kat Lee
Dedicated To: My beloved better half, my Drew (I love you, darling!!! Happy early anniversary!!!)
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Character/Pairing: Red/Snow, past Charming/Snow
Rating: PG-13/T
Warning(s): Spoilers
Word Count: 4,314
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She's just passing by the forest when her scent touches her nose. She lifts her nose, tossing her head back as she does so, and the delicious aroma wraps around her. She inhales her scent deeply and lets it linger inside of her a moment, but then she faces the truth. She doesn't know what scent it is that smells so much like her Snow, but it can't be her. She left her with her family and her life without her a long time ago.
Still, she can't seem to help turning toward the scent. She can't stop her heart from racing harder and faster or her bare feet from beginning to slap against the forest floor as she breaks into a run. She almost changes into her wolf form, all in response to a single touch of Snow White's natural aroma on her senses. She stops herself just in time as she breaks into a familiar clearing that's far from empty this evening.
Every one's in costume, and now she can hear the beat of the music to which the partiers are spinning. A stranger takes her hand, only it's not a stranger at all. Red turns to the other woman and knows her instantly despite the mask she wears. She knows her scent. She knows her touch, and even if she couldn't feel her, she'd know her brown eyes behind any mask. "Sn-" she starts to say but stops herself again as the stranger who isn't a stranger at all asks her to dance.
She hasn't felt Snow's touch in so very long. She hasn't seen her look at her in the way this woman is now gazing at her. This is her Snow, -- of that, Red has no doubt whatsoever --, but how can it be that her Snow is back in their woods and wanting to dance with her? It shouldn't be possible. It isn't possible. Yet, here she is, and it's to her, not to Charming, that she's looking so beguilingly as though Red has all the answer she needs when she has none for herself.
"Well, will you?"
"What?" Red blinks, trying to orientate herself. Is she falling under a spell? If this woman who smells like Snow, looks like Snow, and touches her as Snow once did is not her Snow, who is she?
"Will you dance with me under the pale moonlight?"
Red looks up at the moon, always a beacon of hope and home now that she's accepted the wolf inside of her with her most cherished friend's help. She looks back to her, her own confusion continuing to grow. "The moon isn't pale," she says, and it's not. Its bright, silver light is radiant and encompassing tonight. It will be full in a few more nights.
The woman grins and gives her a little shrug. "I know. It just . . . sounded like a good line, is all."
"It does sound somewhat familiar," Red agrees, trying and failing to work up her courage to ask the woman who she is.
"Will you dance with me?" the masked woman persists, and at last, Red nods. Whoever she is -- and she can't be her Snow, Red tells herself again -- one dance can not hurt but will instead offer her an ample opportunity to come closer to the woman and perhaps discern for herself just who she is and what she truly wants.
She lets the woman take the lead, and by all the grace of the moon, if she doesn't sway exactly as Snow once did in her arms! They dance for hours, and as the stranger whirls Red around and around on the forest floor, the wolf becomes all the more confused. She loses track of the time and the moon's natural progress across the night sky. She forgets there are others dancing all around them. She doesn't hear the music made by man. Instead, she hears the music of the night that's always there for her to hear and the beating of their two hearts, beating much the same rhythm as hers and Snow's once did.
They dance for hours, and Red, though she knows she must be falling into a trap, can not seem to hold to that thought to focus -- or any thought, for that matter, save that the woman spinning her around is so much like her Snow. They come closer as the night grows older, and her hips sliding so closely and provocatively against Snow's still feel so much like the hips and the treasure just below them of which she still dreams every night. She came back to this world to find her life, to find her family. Yet, she's felt more lost every since she stepped back onto this land than she ever did in Storybrooke with Snow by her side.
But Snow no longer wants to be by her side, Red reminds herself. She's chosen her Prince, not a Princess and most certainly not a wild, wolf girl fresh from the forest. She has children and a happy life now, and that life barely includes Red as a friend, let alone anything more. She told her she'll always love her. She still says the same, but now, it's as a friend. It will never be the way Red still aches for it. That's why she had to leave.
She said she was leaving to find her family, and her happy ending, but everything she ever really was right there in that town, with or without magic. Snow had it all. She had her heart and the better part of her soul a long time before they ever came to Storybrooke. She had told her her marriage to her Prince and having a daughter with him would never change her or the way she felt about Red, but she had lied not just to herself but to them both.
The woman who once ran wild in the woods with Red as her only companion is long buried. She'll never see her again, never feel her again, but if that's so, then who in the heck is this with whom Red is now slow dancing, cheek to cheek?! "Who are you?" Red finally whispers.
The woman pulls back to look at her with a mysterious smile. "Who do you want me to be?" she returns, one brow arching in question as Snow used to sometimes do.
"That doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does."
"No, it doesn't."
"Why not?"
"Because you can't be her," Red explains, shaking her head and loving the way her dance partner's fingers lift into the falling curls.
"Why can I not be . . . ?"
"Because she stopped loving me long ago." Red stops dancing and turns from the woman, only now once again seeing the other dancers all around them. She doesn't need this, and she doesn't want to make a scene. She doesn't need all of this forest looking at her, and perhaps it is a trick after all. Perhaps it is a trap. Perhaps every one of these dancers is an enemy, just waiting to spring on her . . .
The woman grasps her elbow. Red starts to snatch away from her, but the fingers that wrap around her flesh feel so familiar. She looks up again into those same familiar, dark eyes. They look just like Snow's. She feels just like Snow. But she can't be her. "You can't be her," she whispers aloud hoarsely.
"Why not? I don't see how anybody could not love you. Perhaps forget how she loves and needs you, but not not love you at all . . . "
"This doesn't make any sense!" Red cries out in frustration.
"Kiss me, and it will."
"What?" She stares at the woman, more perplexed than ever before. "Who are you?" she demands again, and this time, her wolf's eyes glow through her own with quiet but bold fury.
"Kiss me, and you'll know." The woman's grinning now.
Part of Red wants to smack that grin off of her smiling, bright red lips. Part of her wants to kiss those lips so badly there seems to be a hunger gnawing inside of her to do just that very thing. But she can't kiss her! This has to be a trick, a trap of some sort, and kissing her would only allow her defenses to finish crumbling and open herself --
The woman springs forward and kisses Red. Relief, joy, and passion flood the lycanthrope, bringing a howl surging up inside of her from way down deep. The woman drops her mask to the ground, and finally Red can see that it is her beloved Snow after all. A moan escapes her, and then she's kissing her back with a hunger that only she has ever been able to satisfy.
Snow shouldn't be here. She should be with her family back in modern times. She shouldn't be kissing her; her heart belongs to her Prince Charming. This could still be a trap, but Red can ignore her feelings no longer. She pushes her back away from the other dancers, back into the comforting, familiar shadows of the forest that wrap eagerly around them both, back until Snow's back is pressed against the hard bark of a tall tree. All the while, she's still kissing her, her tongue diving into her mouth, wrapping against hers, pressing against her teeth, tickling the very back of her throat with a promise of things to come . . .
A promise that, Red knows, should be impossible. She puts a hand against Snow White's throat and pushes her back, finally breaking their kiss as she pins her to the tree. Snow's gazing up at her with smiles on her face and in her eyes and seems equally as breathless as Red. "Explain," Red huffs.
Snow shrugs. "I was tired of waiting. I came after you."
"You couldn't just leave Storybrooke, and you wouldn't leave your family!"
"Regina found a way for me to travel back -- "
"You were getting to where you trusted that Witch."
"She's changed, Red. You know people can change. You're living proof of that."
"I -- " Red's voice wavers for just a moment. "I do," she agrees, "but you still wouldn't leave your family."
"Not for long," she admits. "I can't stay." Then, to Red's astonishment, she looks like she might cry. "Come back with me, Red. Please?"
"Why should I?!" Red demands, anger overtaking passion and what hope she'd felt before. She pushes against Snow one more time before shoving away from her. She turns her back on her. "You don't love me, Snow. You made that abundantly clear back in Storybrooke."
"I didn't mean to," Snow whispers.
"You love Charming," Red hisses. "You told me you wouldn't fall back in love with him! You told me what we shared was stronger than anything you two ever felt before!"
"And then I ended up pregnant, and I had to try to be a good wife and a good mother, and -- " She's grasped a hold of Red's hand and is trying to pull her back around to face her again, but Red is as stubborn a woman as her wolf. She won't budge. Finally, Snow's hand drops from hers. She lowers her face in shame and lets her misery sound clearly in her voice, "I was wrong. I lost track of what was really important."
"Your family is important," Red whispers admittingly.
"I forgot who I really love."
"You love your family. You love Charming," she adds in a snarl.
"Yes," Snow agrees, "and no."
Red finally turns to face her again. "You didn't come all this way just to play a game with my feelings!"
"No, I didn't. I came to get you back! I miss you, Red! I love you!"
"Then why the Hell did you shut me out?!" The wolf's eyes blaze yellow again.
"Because I couldn't handle it!" Snow snaps back. "I was afraid of losing Charming and of losing Emma and of losing you and I couldn't make a decision!"
"So what changed?" Red growls.
"You made it for me! You left!"
"You're damn right I left! I couldn't continue watching you, Snow, and not being a part of your life any longer!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that to happen!"
"But it did!"
"I shouldn't have let it!"
Red's furious glower blazes at Snow. "You're right. You shouldn't have, and you shouldn't have come back here! I'm not going back to Storybrooke!"
"Even if I promise I won't do it again? I won't shut you out again?"
"You promised that before, Snow! You promised more than that before!"
"I did," Snow agrees with a slow, thoughtful nod, "and it's time I kept my word."
"It's pass time! It's too late!"
"Is it?" Snow whispers, tears stinging her eyes. "Please tell me it's not -- "
"It is," Red growls and turns away from her again.
She expects Snow to grab her once more, but the Princess doesn't move. She hesitates. Her fear and uncertainty are real. Red can smell her emotions as clearly as she can now smell her own natural aroma. Her mind has finally stopped arguing with her. This is her Snow, and she has come for her. She is genuinely apologetic that she ever let her leave her, but she's afraid, too, and not just afraid of losing her.
"I'm sorry, Snow," she adds carefully, "but I'm not coming back." She can't. She can't bear to lose her again. She can't bear to watch her loving, laughing, smiling, and just generally living and being happy without her. She can't stand to watch her, to see her every day and know she'll never love her as she does her.
"I do love you, Red," Snow whispers, trying again, and Red snorts. She steps away. Snow drops to her knees. Red freezes and almost looks back.
"I didn't want to do this like this," Snow says, sounding almost as though she's apologizing again for something she hasn't even done yet. Red snorts. That shouldn't surprise her, although it does. They both know, after all, that if she goes back with her, she'll only be returning to the same Hell of knowing the woman she loves will never love her in equal return.
"I wanted to wait until we were back," Snow continues, "to prove to you myself with my actions, to show you I love you, to divorce Charming before I . . . before I . . . "
"Before you what, Snow?!" Red snaps, finally whirling back around in a blaze of anger. "Before you break my heart again?! It's not going to happen! I'm not going to be that stupid ever again! I'm not going to let you hurt me -- "
But Red's voice breaks off. Her declaration dies in her throat, because Snow is before her, kneeling before her, tears streaming down her beautiful face as she holds up a little box with a ring in it. Suddenly, it's Red who can't speak, Red who can't move, Red who's frozen to the spot, her big eyes staring at that not-so little ring in that little box held up as an offering to her by the woman who she still loves.
After a long moment has stretched out between them in which she's had time to examine the ring, Red finally manages to wet her lips. "S-Snow?" she squeaks out questioningly. That ring is not meant for Charming. It isn't a simple wedding band, or a man's ring at all. There's a piece of silver intricately shaped into a wolf's head with glittering eyes in the very center of the ring. Surrounding the wolf is a heart made of rubies, and beneath the wolf's head are two human hands clasped together. Red swallows hard, her heart now beating even harder with the knowledge that such a ring could never be intended for Charming.
"You told me once," Snow says, her whole body trembling and Red has to resist the urge to run to her and gather her in the protection of her arms, "that wolves mate for life. Humans aren't always like that. Sometimes we're stupid. Sometimes we don't see what's right in front of us, or we run from what we really feel. Sometimes, even when we know the mate we're supposed to end up with, we choose the wrong one, and sometimes, when we think we know who we're supposed to be with, we find out we're wrong."
She shakes her head but continues, "You know me, Red. You know I strive to be a woman of my word. I'd already given my word of love to Charming long before we met. I felt I had to go through with the marriage, especially after finding out I was pregnant, and I tried to be a good wife. I did."
Red snorts. "You are a good wife," she interjects. "You only have time for your family and saving your subjects."
"Then let me save you," Snow answers, gazing imploringly up into her eyes. "Let me save -- "
"I don't need you to save me!"
Snow licks her lips and persists, "Let me save the woman I love." She shrugs. "Hell, let me save us both."
Red cocks her head to one side and continues carefully examining her dearest friend, the one person in all the kingdoms she's ever truly loved. "Keep talking."
"Come back home with me. Let me break the news to Charming. Let me explain things to Emma. Let me be the woman I should have been, the friend and lover to you you deserve."
"You weren't either of those things when I left."
"I was your friend. We've always been friends!"
"Barely."
"You're right," Snow says, and her quiet admission hushes the growl rising in Red's throat. "I shut you out. I shut you out to try to be the woman I thought I was supposed to be, especially with Neal coming along, but I was wrong. I love Charming, but he's my best friend. You're the one I love. You're the one who's heart I should be sharing. You're the one who I should have beside me every day, every night, every moment. Come back to me, and let me make things right."
"What if he doesn't understand?"
"He will," Snow vows.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because he cares about you, too. He was the one who told me to go to you that night you were going to sneak away. And he has part of my heart. Every piece of me loves you, Red, so that piece of my heart that's in him will make him love you too."
"I'm not -- " Red struggles with her words and her temper and then finally vows carefully, "I'm not sharing you again, Snow."
"I'm not asking you to. I'm just asking for you to come home, for you to let me love you again, for you to let me put this ring on your finger -- "
"That is some ring," she interjects.
Snow grins. "You like it?"
"Of course!"
"I had it especially made."
"How on Earth did you make that thing underneath David's nose?"
"I had help."
Red cocks her head curiously, and then from behind two thick trees again comes the other familiar scent she smelled earlier but to which she gave no attention in her yearning to be reunited with Snow. "What?" Grumpy asks, stepping into her sight. "You think I'd let our sister come all this way by herself?"
"She's more than my sister," Red whispers.
This time, it's Grumpy who snorts. "Duh. You really think I didn't smell you on her every time you two snuck off alone?"
Red falls quiet, considering his words, and then finally looking back to Snow, she asks, "So the Dwarfs know. Granny . . . knows?"
Snow nods. "I suspect even Charming knew, but he was too Charming to say anything about it."
"So all this time we thought we were hiding . . . "
"We really weren't," Snow agrees, standing and carefully beginning to edge toward her. She keeps the box out stretched before her, an offering of peace and so much more. "The wolf's eyes are made of Fairy dust," she tells her, "just in case you ever need it."
"You drive a hard bargain," Red acknowledges, looking back into Snow's eyes and beginning to grin a little.
Snow's answering grin is wide and open. "I'm a thief and a Princess," she admits. "What do you expect?"
"I expect you to be true to the one you love."
"I will be," she vows, "if you give me the chance."
"Sister," Grumpy calls, and Red glances at him as she notes the warning in his voice.
"But we have to hurry," Snow says, nodding in understanding. "This spell won't last for much longer. It's good for one night."
Red frowns. "For one night? What night is so powerful . . . " She stops, realization dawning.
"Did you forget?" Snow asks. "Tonight's one of our favorite holidays, your favorite, Halloween." Red nods and grins a little wider.
Snow comes to a stop right before her. "So what do you say?" the Princess asks the wolf and woman, who have always been her other best friend. "Do you think you can find your happily ever after ending with me?"
"I know I can," Red answers honestly. "I always could have before. But you've got to be true to me."
"I will be," Snow vows.
"And only me. No more sharing with the Prince."
"I don't want to share you," Snow's grin widens and takes a little, teasing twist, but she hurries on before Red can protest, "and I will never ask you to share me ever again. I never should have asked you before. We've wasted a lot of time when we could have all been happy together."
"Everybody might not understand," Red warns. "I am a wolf, after all."
Snow's eyes twinkle in the first golden rays of the sun that's just beginning to lift over the hills. "And I look forward to riding that wolf again," she teases before growing solemn once more. "But if they don't understand, that's their problem. I love you, Red, and I want the whole world to know it! Will you wear my ring? And when my marriage to David is over, and when my divorce has gone through and is official, will you marry me?"
"I will!" Ruby exclaims, and Snow whoops with joy. She throws her arms around her, hugging her tight, but Ruby can't help adding, "But you have to promise me one more thing."
"Girls," Grumpy calls.
"Not now, Grumpy." Gazing up into her real True Love's eyes, Snow asks curiously, "I'll do anything, but what is it?"
Red grins. "You'll never go realm hopping without me again."
"Snow -- "
"I promise!" Snow says and kisses her long and deep.
"Girls!"
They continue to kiss for a good, long while, at last feeling whole, joyful, and united again. They don't want to stop, and they don't adhere to Grumpy calling their names. Snow takes Red's hand off of her face and, by feel alone for she's too busy gazing into her eyes as they continue kissing, slides her ring onto her finger. It's about that time that something barrels into them.
They hit the ground hard, Snow landing on top of Red hard. Red beams as even Snow's "Whuff!"ing release of breath sounds cute to her now. Snow looks to Grumpy, who's pulling himself up off of them. "Grumpy, what are you -- "
"It was time, sister, and you two were too busy making out to listen."
"Time?"
Both women blink in confusion. Looking up and around, Red acknowledges, "The night is over. Halloween's always been a magical night, but not like last night." She grins at Snow. "I spent all night dancing in your arms."
"As glad as I am to see our friend happy again, kindly spare us the details, Miss Lucas." Red looks up into Regina's stern face. "The Dwarf is right," the former Evil Queen adds. "You cut it close."
Ruby opens her mouth, then shuts it again, before finally saying, "Thank you, Regina, for helping Snow."
"I didn't do it for you." Regina scowls as Snow helps Red up.
The younger wolf is instantly barreled into by her grandmother. "I told you you should have talked to her before you left!"
Red rolls her eyes but hugs her tightly back. "I missed you too, Granny."
"Don't you ever leave me again, girl!"
"I won't."
"Now go." Granny gives her a little push toward Snow. "You two have a wedding to plan."
Red laughs but shoots a glance at Snow. "Did you tell everybody?!"
"No, not everybody, but I had to have a sounding board. I had to make sure my plan was going to work."
"And if it hadn't?"
Snow shrugs. "That's part of why I let Grumpy come along. He had the rope."
"You wouldn't!" Red laughs.
"I was bringing you back one way or another, missy!"
"Well, I am back. I'm home." Red turns, her arms wrapping fully around Snow, and looks directly into her eyes. "You are going to keep your word, right?"
"Oh, you bet I am!" She squeezes her hard. "And I'm never letting you go again!"
"You'd better not," Red whispers against Snow's smiling, upturned lips.
"I'm not," Snow vows in the early morning light of All Hallow's Day.
Red hugs her fiercely, then kisses her just as passionately. She's never had a more magical Halloween, and she knows it's just the beginning. This is going to be the best, and most magical, year of their lives, because finally her soul mate is all hers. She kisses her again, her tongue stroking hers, and this time, she doesn't let up until long after their romp in the forest in the first day of this magical new year.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Dedicated To: My beloved better half, my Drew (I love you, darling!!! Happy early anniversary!!!)
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Character/Pairing: Red/Snow, past Charming/Snow
Rating: PG-13/T
Warning(s): Spoilers
Word Count: 4,314
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She's just passing by the forest when her scent touches her nose. She lifts her nose, tossing her head back as she does so, and the delicious aroma wraps around her. She inhales her scent deeply and lets it linger inside of her a moment, but then she faces the truth. She doesn't know what scent it is that smells so much like her Snow, but it can't be her. She left her with her family and her life without her a long time ago.
Still, she can't seem to help turning toward the scent. She can't stop her heart from racing harder and faster or her bare feet from beginning to slap against the forest floor as she breaks into a run. She almost changes into her wolf form, all in response to a single touch of Snow White's natural aroma on her senses. She stops herself just in time as she breaks into a familiar clearing that's far from empty this evening.
Every one's in costume, and now she can hear the beat of the music to which the partiers are spinning. A stranger takes her hand, only it's not a stranger at all. Red turns to the other woman and knows her instantly despite the mask she wears. She knows her scent. She knows her touch, and even if she couldn't feel her, she'd know her brown eyes behind any mask. "Sn-" she starts to say but stops herself again as the stranger who isn't a stranger at all asks her to dance.
She hasn't felt Snow's touch in so very long. She hasn't seen her look at her in the way this woman is now gazing at her. This is her Snow, -- of that, Red has no doubt whatsoever --, but how can it be that her Snow is back in their woods and wanting to dance with her? It shouldn't be possible. It isn't possible. Yet, here she is, and it's to her, not to Charming, that she's looking so beguilingly as though Red has all the answer she needs when she has none for herself.
"Well, will you?"
"What?" Red blinks, trying to orientate herself. Is she falling under a spell? If this woman who smells like Snow, looks like Snow, and touches her as Snow once did is not her Snow, who is she?
"Will you dance with me under the pale moonlight?"
Red looks up at the moon, always a beacon of hope and home now that she's accepted the wolf inside of her with her most cherished friend's help. She looks back to her, her own confusion continuing to grow. "The moon isn't pale," she says, and it's not. Its bright, silver light is radiant and encompassing tonight. It will be full in a few more nights.
The woman grins and gives her a little shrug. "I know. It just . . . sounded like a good line, is all."
"It does sound somewhat familiar," Red agrees, trying and failing to work up her courage to ask the woman who she is.
"Will you dance with me?" the masked woman persists, and at last, Red nods. Whoever she is -- and she can't be her Snow, Red tells herself again -- one dance can not hurt but will instead offer her an ample opportunity to come closer to the woman and perhaps discern for herself just who she is and what she truly wants.
She lets the woman take the lead, and by all the grace of the moon, if she doesn't sway exactly as Snow once did in her arms! They dance for hours, and as the stranger whirls Red around and around on the forest floor, the wolf becomes all the more confused. She loses track of the time and the moon's natural progress across the night sky. She forgets there are others dancing all around them. She doesn't hear the music made by man. Instead, she hears the music of the night that's always there for her to hear and the beating of their two hearts, beating much the same rhythm as hers and Snow's once did.
They dance for hours, and Red, though she knows she must be falling into a trap, can not seem to hold to that thought to focus -- or any thought, for that matter, save that the woman spinning her around is so much like her Snow. They come closer as the night grows older, and her hips sliding so closely and provocatively against Snow's still feel so much like the hips and the treasure just below them of which she still dreams every night. She came back to this world to find her life, to find her family. Yet, she's felt more lost every since she stepped back onto this land than she ever did in Storybrooke with Snow by her side.
But Snow no longer wants to be by her side, Red reminds herself. She's chosen her Prince, not a Princess and most certainly not a wild, wolf girl fresh from the forest. She has children and a happy life now, and that life barely includes Red as a friend, let alone anything more. She told her she'll always love her. She still says the same, but now, it's as a friend. It will never be the way Red still aches for it. That's why she had to leave.
She said she was leaving to find her family, and her happy ending, but everything she ever really was right there in that town, with or without magic. Snow had it all. She had her heart and the better part of her soul a long time before they ever came to Storybrooke. She had told her her marriage to her Prince and having a daughter with him would never change her or the way she felt about Red, but she had lied not just to herself but to them both.
The woman who once ran wild in the woods with Red as her only companion is long buried. She'll never see her again, never feel her again, but if that's so, then who in the heck is this with whom Red is now slow dancing, cheek to cheek?! "Who are you?" Red finally whispers.
The woman pulls back to look at her with a mysterious smile. "Who do you want me to be?" she returns, one brow arching in question as Snow used to sometimes do.
"That doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does."
"No, it doesn't."
"Why not?"
"Because you can't be her," Red explains, shaking her head and loving the way her dance partner's fingers lift into the falling curls.
"Why can I not be . . . ?"
"Because she stopped loving me long ago." Red stops dancing and turns from the woman, only now once again seeing the other dancers all around them. She doesn't need this, and she doesn't want to make a scene. She doesn't need all of this forest looking at her, and perhaps it is a trick after all. Perhaps it is a trap. Perhaps every one of these dancers is an enemy, just waiting to spring on her . . .
The woman grasps her elbow. Red starts to snatch away from her, but the fingers that wrap around her flesh feel so familiar. She looks up again into those same familiar, dark eyes. They look just like Snow's. She feels just like Snow. But she can't be her. "You can't be her," she whispers aloud hoarsely.
"Why not? I don't see how anybody could not love you. Perhaps forget how she loves and needs you, but not not love you at all . . . "
"This doesn't make any sense!" Red cries out in frustration.
"Kiss me, and it will."
"What?" She stares at the woman, more perplexed than ever before. "Who are you?" she demands again, and this time, her wolf's eyes glow through her own with quiet but bold fury.
"Kiss me, and you'll know." The woman's grinning now.
Part of Red wants to smack that grin off of her smiling, bright red lips. Part of her wants to kiss those lips so badly there seems to be a hunger gnawing inside of her to do just that very thing. But she can't kiss her! This has to be a trick, a trap of some sort, and kissing her would only allow her defenses to finish crumbling and open herself --
The woman springs forward and kisses Red. Relief, joy, and passion flood the lycanthrope, bringing a howl surging up inside of her from way down deep. The woman drops her mask to the ground, and finally Red can see that it is her beloved Snow after all. A moan escapes her, and then she's kissing her back with a hunger that only she has ever been able to satisfy.
Snow shouldn't be here. She should be with her family back in modern times. She shouldn't be kissing her; her heart belongs to her Prince Charming. This could still be a trap, but Red can ignore her feelings no longer. She pushes her back away from the other dancers, back into the comforting, familiar shadows of the forest that wrap eagerly around them both, back until Snow's back is pressed against the hard bark of a tall tree. All the while, she's still kissing her, her tongue diving into her mouth, wrapping against hers, pressing against her teeth, tickling the very back of her throat with a promise of things to come . . .
A promise that, Red knows, should be impossible. She puts a hand against Snow White's throat and pushes her back, finally breaking their kiss as she pins her to the tree. Snow's gazing up at her with smiles on her face and in her eyes and seems equally as breathless as Red. "Explain," Red huffs.
Snow shrugs. "I was tired of waiting. I came after you."
"You couldn't just leave Storybrooke, and you wouldn't leave your family!"
"Regina found a way for me to travel back -- "
"You were getting to where you trusted that Witch."
"She's changed, Red. You know people can change. You're living proof of that."
"I -- " Red's voice wavers for just a moment. "I do," she agrees, "but you still wouldn't leave your family."
"Not for long," she admits. "I can't stay." Then, to Red's astonishment, she looks like she might cry. "Come back with me, Red. Please?"
"Why should I?!" Red demands, anger overtaking passion and what hope she'd felt before. She pushes against Snow one more time before shoving away from her. She turns her back on her. "You don't love me, Snow. You made that abundantly clear back in Storybrooke."
"I didn't mean to," Snow whispers.
"You love Charming," Red hisses. "You told me you wouldn't fall back in love with him! You told me what we shared was stronger than anything you two ever felt before!"
"And then I ended up pregnant, and I had to try to be a good wife and a good mother, and -- " She's grasped a hold of Red's hand and is trying to pull her back around to face her again, but Red is as stubborn a woman as her wolf. She won't budge. Finally, Snow's hand drops from hers. She lowers her face in shame and lets her misery sound clearly in her voice, "I was wrong. I lost track of what was really important."
"Your family is important," Red whispers admittingly.
"I forgot who I really love."
"You love your family. You love Charming," she adds in a snarl.
"Yes," Snow agrees, "and no."
Red finally turns to face her again. "You didn't come all this way just to play a game with my feelings!"
"No, I didn't. I came to get you back! I miss you, Red! I love you!"
"Then why the Hell did you shut me out?!" The wolf's eyes blaze yellow again.
"Because I couldn't handle it!" Snow snaps back. "I was afraid of losing Charming and of losing Emma and of losing you and I couldn't make a decision!"
"So what changed?" Red growls.
"You made it for me! You left!"
"You're damn right I left! I couldn't continue watching you, Snow, and not being a part of your life any longer!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that to happen!"
"But it did!"
"I shouldn't have let it!"
Red's furious glower blazes at Snow. "You're right. You shouldn't have, and you shouldn't have come back here! I'm not going back to Storybrooke!"
"Even if I promise I won't do it again? I won't shut you out again?"
"You promised that before, Snow! You promised more than that before!"
"I did," Snow agrees with a slow, thoughtful nod, "and it's time I kept my word."
"It's pass time! It's too late!"
"Is it?" Snow whispers, tears stinging her eyes. "Please tell me it's not -- "
"It is," Red growls and turns away from her again.
She expects Snow to grab her once more, but the Princess doesn't move. She hesitates. Her fear and uncertainty are real. Red can smell her emotions as clearly as she can now smell her own natural aroma. Her mind has finally stopped arguing with her. This is her Snow, and she has come for her. She is genuinely apologetic that she ever let her leave her, but she's afraid, too, and not just afraid of losing her.
"I'm sorry, Snow," she adds carefully, "but I'm not coming back." She can't. She can't bear to lose her again. She can't bear to watch her loving, laughing, smiling, and just generally living and being happy without her. She can't stand to watch her, to see her every day and know she'll never love her as she does her.
"I do love you, Red," Snow whispers, trying again, and Red snorts. She steps away. Snow drops to her knees. Red freezes and almost looks back.
"I didn't want to do this like this," Snow says, sounding almost as though she's apologizing again for something she hasn't even done yet. Red snorts. That shouldn't surprise her, although it does. They both know, after all, that if she goes back with her, she'll only be returning to the same Hell of knowing the woman she loves will never love her in equal return.
"I wanted to wait until we were back," Snow continues, "to prove to you myself with my actions, to show you I love you, to divorce Charming before I . . . before I . . . "
"Before you what, Snow?!" Red snaps, finally whirling back around in a blaze of anger. "Before you break my heart again?! It's not going to happen! I'm not going to be that stupid ever again! I'm not going to let you hurt me -- "
But Red's voice breaks off. Her declaration dies in her throat, because Snow is before her, kneeling before her, tears streaming down her beautiful face as she holds up a little box with a ring in it. Suddenly, it's Red who can't speak, Red who can't move, Red who's frozen to the spot, her big eyes staring at that not-so little ring in that little box held up as an offering to her by the woman who she still loves.
After a long moment has stretched out between them in which she's had time to examine the ring, Red finally manages to wet her lips. "S-Snow?" she squeaks out questioningly. That ring is not meant for Charming. It isn't a simple wedding band, or a man's ring at all. There's a piece of silver intricately shaped into a wolf's head with glittering eyes in the very center of the ring. Surrounding the wolf is a heart made of rubies, and beneath the wolf's head are two human hands clasped together. Red swallows hard, her heart now beating even harder with the knowledge that such a ring could never be intended for Charming.
"You told me once," Snow says, her whole body trembling and Red has to resist the urge to run to her and gather her in the protection of her arms, "that wolves mate for life. Humans aren't always like that. Sometimes we're stupid. Sometimes we don't see what's right in front of us, or we run from what we really feel. Sometimes, even when we know the mate we're supposed to end up with, we choose the wrong one, and sometimes, when we think we know who we're supposed to be with, we find out we're wrong."
She shakes her head but continues, "You know me, Red. You know I strive to be a woman of my word. I'd already given my word of love to Charming long before we met. I felt I had to go through with the marriage, especially after finding out I was pregnant, and I tried to be a good wife. I did."
Red snorts. "You are a good wife," she interjects. "You only have time for your family and saving your subjects."
"Then let me save you," Snow answers, gazing imploringly up into her eyes. "Let me save -- "
"I don't need you to save me!"
Snow licks her lips and persists, "Let me save the woman I love." She shrugs. "Hell, let me save us both."
Red cocks her head to one side and continues carefully examining her dearest friend, the one person in all the kingdoms she's ever truly loved. "Keep talking."
"Come back home with me. Let me break the news to Charming. Let me explain things to Emma. Let me be the woman I should have been, the friend and lover to you you deserve."
"You weren't either of those things when I left."
"I was your friend. We've always been friends!"
"Barely."
"You're right," Snow says, and her quiet admission hushes the growl rising in Red's throat. "I shut you out. I shut you out to try to be the woman I thought I was supposed to be, especially with Neal coming along, but I was wrong. I love Charming, but he's my best friend. You're the one I love. You're the one who's heart I should be sharing. You're the one who I should have beside me every day, every night, every moment. Come back to me, and let me make things right."
"What if he doesn't understand?"
"He will," Snow vows.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because he cares about you, too. He was the one who told me to go to you that night you were going to sneak away. And he has part of my heart. Every piece of me loves you, Red, so that piece of my heart that's in him will make him love you too."
"I'm not -- " Red struggles with her words and her temper and then finally vows carefully, "I'm not sharing you again, Snow."
"I'm not asking you to. I'm just asking for you to come home, for you to let me love you again, for you to let me put this ring on your finger -- "
"That is some ring," she interjects.
Snow grins. "You like it?"
"Of course!"
"I had it especially made."
"How on Earth did you make that thing underneath David's nose?"
"I had help."
Red cocks her head curiously, and then from behind two thick trees again comes the other familiar scent she smelled earlier but to which she gave no attention in her yearning to be reunited with Snow. "What?" Grumpy asks, stepping into her sight. "You think I'd let our sister come all this way by herself?"
"She's more than my sister," Red whispers.
This time, it's Grumpy who snorts. "Duh. You really think I didn't smell you on her every time you two snuck off alone?"
Red falls quiet, considering his words, and then finally looking back to Snow, she asks, "So the Dwarfs know. Granny . . . knows?"
Snow nods. "I suspect even Charming knew, but he was too Charming to say anything about it."
"So all this time we thought we were hiding . . . "
"We really weren't," Snow agrees, standing and carefully beginning to edge toward her. She keeps the box out stretched before her, an offering of peace and so much more. "The wolf's eyes are made of Fairy dust," she tells her, "just in case you ever need it."
"You drive a hard bargain," Red acknowledges, looking back into Snow's eyes and beginning to grin a little.
Snow's answering grin is wide and open. "I'm a thief and a Princess," she admits. "What do you expect?"
"I expect you to be true to the one you love."
"I will be," she vows, "if you give me the chance."
"Sister," Grumpy calls, and Red glances at him as she notes the warning in his voice.
"But we have to hurry," Snow says, nodding in understanding. "This spell won't last for much longer. It's good for one night."
Red frowns. "For one night? What night is so powerful . . . " She stops, realization dawning.
"Did you forget?" Snow asks. "Tonight's one of our favorite holidays, your favorite, Halloween." Red nods and grins a little wider.
Snow comes to a stop right before her. "So what do you say?" the Princess asks the wolf and woman, who have always been her other best friend. "Do you think you can find your happily ever after ending with me?"
"I know I can," Red answers honestly. "I always could have before. But you've got to be true to me."
"I will be," Snow vows.
"And only me. No more sharing with the Prince."
"I don't want to share you," Snow's grin widens and takes a little, teasing twist, but she hurries on before Red can protest, "and I will never ask you to share me ever again. I never should have asked you before. We've wasted a lot of time when we could have all been happy together."
"Everybody might not understand," Red warns. "I am a wolf, after all."
Snow's eyes twinkle in the first golden rays of the sun that's just beginning to lift over the hills. "And I look forward to riding that wolf again," she teases before growing solemn once more. "But if they don't understand, that's their problem. I love you, Red, and I want the whole world to know it! Will you wear my ring? And when my marriage to David is over, and when my divorce has gone through and is official, will you marry me?"
"I will!" Ruby exclaims, and Snow whoops with joy. She throws her arms around her, hugging her tight, but Ruby can't help adding, "But you have to promise me one more thing."
"Girls," Grumpy calls.
"Not now, Grumpy." Gazing up into her real True Love's eyes, Snow asks curiously, "I'll do anything, but what is it?"
Red grins. "You'll never go realm hopping without me again."
"Snow -- "
"I promise!" Snow says and kisses her long and deep.
"Girls!"
They continue to kiss for a good, long while, at last feeling whole, joyful, and united again. They don't want to stop, and they don't adhere to Grumpy calling their names. Snow takes Red's hand off of her face and, by feel alone for she's too busy gazing into her eyes as they continue kissing, slides her ring onto her finger. It's about that time that something barrels into them.
They hit the ground hard, Snow landing on top of Red hard. Red beams as even Snow's "Whuff!"ing release of breath sounds cute to her now. Snow looks to Grumpy, who's pulling himself up off of them. "Grumpy, what are you -- "
"It was time, sister, and you two were too busy making out to listen."
"Time?"
Both women blink in confusion. Looking up and around, Red acknowledges, "The night is over. Halloween's always been a magical night, but not like last night." She grins at Snow. "I spent all night dancing in your arms."
"As glad as I am to see our friend happy again, kindly spare us the details, Miss Lucas." Red looks up into Regina's stern face. "The Dwarf is right," the former Evil Queen adds. "You cut it close."
Ruby opens her mouth, then shuts it again, before finally saying, "Thank you, Regina, for helping Snow."
"I didn't do it for you." Regina scowls as Snow helps Red up.
The younger wolf is instantly barreled into by her grandmother. "I told you you should have talked to her before you left!"
Red rolls her eyes but hugs her tightly back. "I missed you too, Granny."
"Don't you ever leave me again, girl!"
"I won't."
"Now go." Granny gives her a little push toward Snow. "You two have a wedding to plan."
Red laughs but shoots a glance at Snow. "Did you tell everybody?!"
"No, not everybody, but I had to have a sounding board. I had to make sure my plan was going to work."
"And if it hadn't?"
Snow shrugs. "That's part of why I let Grumpy come along. He had the rope."
"You wouldn't!" Red laughs.
"I was bringing you back one way or another, missy!"
"Well, I am back. I'm home." Red turns, her arms wrapping fully around Snow, and looks directly into her eyes. "You are going to keep your word, right?"
"Oh, you bet I am!" She squeezes her hard. "And I'm never letting you go again!"
"You'd better not," Red whispers against Snow's smiling, upturned lips.
"I'm not," Snow vows in the early morning light of All Hallow's Day.
Red hugs her fiercely, then kisses her just as passionately. She's never had a more magical Halloween, and she knows it's just the beginning. This is going to be the best, and most magical, year of their lives, because finally her soul mate is all hers. She kisses her again, her tongue stroking hers, and this time, she doesn't let up until long after their romp in the forest in the first day of this magical new year.
The End
