Anonymous asked you: AU, Red isn't the wolf, the Huntsman is and he's loved her from a distance for years. "Let's kill the wolf. We'd be heroes." Red says to Snow one night.
Graham heard it from the distance he kept form them. He heard her say, "Let's kill the wolf. We'd be heroes." He just didn't know what to do.
He knew that Red could track better than anyone in the village. He'd taught her how. He knew that it was only a matter of time before he was found out and put to death. He had to figure out how to be one with his wolf side. He knew there was a way, it was just a matter of actually accomplishing it.
He ran away from the village that day. That way there would be no more wolf's time for the time being and Red and Snow wouldn't be able to find him.
He spent almost a year trying to become one with his wolf, and when he finally had he came back. It was the middle of the night during the week of the full moon. He couldn't help going to Red's window to check on her. To make sure nothing had changed… that she was still there with Granny. Thankfully she was.
What he was not expecting was Snow and another man to be running up to the window as well. Graham was thankful that he smelt Snow long before she and the other guy actually rounded the house; he had enough time to duck to the side and wait.
"Red! Red! We need your help! They're coming!" Snow said.
Graham sniffed the air for anything out of the ordinary, then he smelt them—all of them. The Queen's guards and King George's guards. He did not wait for the window to open to let them in, he simply trotted from his hiding place towards the sounds he was now hearing.
"Good gods!" was out of Snow's mouth in a panicked scream before she could be hoisted up to the window.
Graham turned to look at her then the other man, then to Red. He stared at Red the longest before he howled and took off.
"Red…" Snow looked at her stunned face still staring in the direction the great beast went, "How long has the wolf been back?"
Red shook her head, "I…" She kept shaking her head, "I have no idea…"
~0~0~0~0~0~
Graham sat in the darkest booth as he watched Ruby scurry around, filling and refilling the night crowd's drinks. He downed his scotch, but did nothing in askance for another.
He simply waited, knowing Ruby would eventually get to him. Emma was first though. She plopped down across from him and pushed another scotch to him, "Why are you all dark and broody?"
He knit his brows, "I am not dark and broody."
"Yes you are. You are all the time, actually." Emma tilted her head in a sympathetic curiosity, "You're eyes seem to carry the most weight at night. I mean… I know that it's been six months since your heart attack, but you seem just as lost as you did when you wigged out."
Graham stared at her, "It's hard when you have visions—memories of a place you don't remember, of a place that you know logically can't exist."
"Maybe it's a past life…" Emma shrugged.
Graham looked at her dumbfounded, "You believe in past lives?"
"Why not?" She looked up in contemplation, "I mean, science, reasoning and logic only go so far, and as they say, then comes God…" She looked back to Graham, "Or maybe then comes memories of another life or whatever the singular person believes in…" she shrugged again.
Graham gave a grunt of acknowledgement to her statement before turning back to Ruby, trying to analyze everything that Emma said.
Emma looked to see where his eyes went. She smiled, "Maybe your memories and my kid's book are one and the same. Maybe it's not fiction."
"Why do you say that?" Graham asked questioningly.
Emma only gave him a pointed look with the slightest hint of a smirk as a response.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Graham had run willingly into the pack of humans, swords, arrows and horses because Red was going to be in the line of fire. He couldn't let that happen. He let the wolf in him completely take over. He was jabbed once with a sword and hit once with an arrow, but he left a massacre in the end.
He tried to get deeper into the woods. At least somewhere that no one would find him, but the blood, he knew was easy to track. He finally made it far enough away that the collected group of hunters wouldn't get to him and he slumped against a tree as he turned back to his human form. He first took in the arrow that was lodged between two ribs. He took two deep breaths before he yanked it out and covered the wound with a ripped sleeve of his shirt.
He was breathing hard, short breaths as he looked out to see the top of Red and Granny's house over a clearing. He had literally run in a circle because he was so disoriented. He watched the smoke escape through the chimney until sleep took over.
The next thing he knew he was waking up in front of a fire, hands on his bare chest working on the wound from the arrow and another set of soothing hands running through his hair.
"Snow, where are those bandages?" Granny, the familiar voice of the hard, old woman called. She was the one working on his gash.
He groaned as Granny poured something over it.
"It's okay!" He heard from directly above. He opened his eyes with a squint and found Ruby's blue, warm, worry-filled eyes, "It's okay. You're okay. You're fine. And, I'm right here, alright."
Graham could only nod before grunting out again and passing out.
He woke up again between the blankets of a bed. He groaned and looked around.
"Hey!" Ruby spoke softly as she looked over from the fireplace and set down the book that her best friend had leant her. "How are you feeling?"
An instant panic set in, "What time is it? How long have I been sleeping?"
"The sun's about to set. You've been sleeping basically all day." She slowly walked over to him, "You scared us today, Graham."
"I need to leave. I need—you can't be in here when the sun sets."
Red smiled sympathetically, "Yes I can."
"No. You need to get out. You can't see me when the sun—ahh!" He cried. It was too late.
Red backed away with worry about to call out for Granny when she saw his hands. They'd turned to paws. She was too scared to move as she watched him turn to a wolf.
Graham jumped from the bed and walked in a circle before walking slowly up to Red and sitting a few feet away. He ducked his head down a bit and looked up at her. He hoped that she could still see him.
Red was trembling. Every inch of her entire body was shaking. Something took over her though and she reached out for him. He slowly walked up to her and then, with his long nose leading, tried to get her to pet his head.
"Is this why you left?" Graham only looked at her before sighing and laying down so that his head was in her lap. "I told you I wanted to kill the wolf and the next day you were gone. Then almost a year later, you come back the day after I see the wolf again because you are the wolf." She kept petting the top of his head, "I mean, I know you're the wolf, I just watched you change." She looked down at him, "Why aren't you trying to murder me?"
Graham whined before he licked the hand not on his head.
"I don't know what that means." Red looked down at him.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Hey Ruby!" Emma got up from her place in the bar and walked over to her.
Graham watched them talk for a few minutes then he watched Emma glance back at him before walking out of the now empty diner.
Ruby walked over to Graham, "Emma tells me that you are having visions still?"
Graham looked away from her as she took a seat where Emma had been. He moved to get up and not talk about it, but her hand on his stopped him, "Are they of us?"
He turned to Ruby with surprise, "How could you…?"
"I've been having very memorable dreams for the last couple weeks…"
"What about?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Red are you sure, he's not dangerous?" Snow asked quietly as the two women walked ahead of their men.
"Yes." Red smiled.
"How?"
"Because he's changed every wolf's week since he came back and not once has he ever laid a hand, er, paw on me… Except for when he wants his ears scratched." She grinned.
Snow looked at her friend, "I'm just not sure I—"
"He killed all those men that were after you and Charming." She said slowly, "Granted he did that because he loves me, not necessarily out of the goodness his heart—which there is a lot of, but he almost died because he was trying to protect me and in turn you and Charming. The least you could do is thank him and trust him." Red looked at her friend, "He makes me happy. He always has. He left and learned to control it for me." She smiled a sad smile, "No one's done anything like that for me, but he has." She swallowed, "He is my Charming, alright?"
Snow smiled back, "Alright."
They had met up with the dwarves and Granny and the blue fairy… and Cinderella, Thomas, Abigail and Frederick to plan a take over the kingdom. But they had been interrupted and the blue fairy had to poof everyone out of Red and Granny's house except for Red, Granny and Graham.
It was night and it was wolf's week and Graham was hiding in another room. Regina was in Red's house. She was asking questions and being pleasant. She had brought something 'special' just for Red and 'her dear lover'. Graham could smell the ornament dripping with black magic. He didn't want Red to touch it, but she reached for it anyways. Her eyes had been glowing and she had been under a trance. He leapt into the air and snapped, accidentally catching Red's wrist. He'd caused blood, but he also caused the trance to break.
He turned to Regina and began growling.
"Well, you certainly are as fierce as they say…" She tilted her head as she waved her hand and the 'present' was gone. "Tell me Red," she turned back to the brunette, "Would you like to keep your life?" She asked just before she ripped Red's heart out.
"Yes." She cried.
"Then I need to keep him." She pointed to the wolf. "He is now mine. My pet." She glared at the wolf before waving her hand, making him freeze in place before ripping his heart out as well. "And you are just a girl now; you have nothing to live fore and nothing to die for."
~0~0~0~0~0~
"I remember that." Graham looked at her. "Do you have a scar from where I bit you?"
Ruby showed him her hand to show nothing, "It wasn't this life, Graham." She said quietly. "Maybe you're having all these flashbacks and I'm having all these dreams because we're meant to be together and we're not…"
Graham stared at her, "Well, what do we do?"
Ruby smiled, "We could start with a date?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
The curse was taking over, but Graham still needed to do something. He ran for Regina's heart room… she'd been on her way to the castle anyways, she wouldn't have a clue. He took out his heart and Red's before running out of the dark fortress and in search of his true love.
It didn't take long, they'd agreed on a meeting place during the last wolf's week. See, the thing that the Queen didn't know was that Red had become a wolf after Graham bit her. And the other thing the Queen didn't know was that when she let Graham loose to become a wolf on the nights she didn't use him to kill anyone, he found Red and Red found him.
He opened the boxes as Red approached with worry and he gave her his heart, "Just put it back." He whispered.
"You do me first. That way, I won't know if it hurts…"
Graham looked at the cracking universe, "Same time." He said.
Ruby nodded and they both shoved their hearts back into each other's chest.
~0~0~0~0~0~
A few months later, Graham and Ruby were the talk of the town. They were the town's cutest couple. Or so they were told. When Emma caught wind of that she laughed at her boss's face.
"You are not the cutest couple." She said with so much arrogance, it was hard not to believe her.
"And who is?" Ruby asked as she walked into the station with Graham's lunch.
"Me and the mayor."
Ruby turned and gave her a look, "No you are not the cutest couple…"
Emma knit her brows, "Yes huh!"
"No… The mayor is not cute. She is sexy. You are not cute; you are hardcore—granted you do have adorable moments, which I think you get from…" She stopped herself.
Emma gave her a look, "From my mother, you can say it. I don't mind."
"Well, then I think you get the only cuteness you have from her. But the Mayor is not cute. Therefore you two are not cute. You are…" She thought of a word, "Heart-stopping." She grinned.
Emma stared at her friend before looking at her boss's amused face, "Were you trying to be punny? Or…"
Graham looked up at her, "Do you believe us?"
Emma didn't respond to him, "Heart-stopping… I'll take that." She nodded, "I'm going on lunch, Boss." She walked out of the station.
"I think she believes us…" Graham said softly.
Ruby nodded, "Oh, I've been meaning to show you something." She showed him her hand, "I think that the curse is breaking…"
Graham smiled before leaning into his girlfriend. "I think you might be right."