Red had always been wild, intense... sexual. She had always been too much for the various men and women in her life to handle. Her desire was too powerful, too feral. She couldn't help it. It was the wolf inside of her, just waiting to break free. Even though she was only physically a wolf during the full moon, it was always inside of her, just waiting to break out. Because of it, she would always be alone. Always too much for all of her boyfriends and girlfriend, her desire was always too powerful, never satisfied. Women in her village were supposed to be prim and proper, restrained and repressed,sweet and subdued. They weren't supposed to be out all night partying or exploring, kissing boys and girls in the woods, Flirting and dating, so she was given a nickname, the rather vulgar Red "Riding Hood", given to her because of her promiscuity and the rumor that she wore her red cloak whether she was riding horses or people. She was an easy target because she was an attractive young woman without parents to defend her virtue or to shame people into acceptance of her lack thereof. The people in her village would duck their heads and whisper when she walked by. They knew that she could hear them, but they didn't care. They condescendingly thought that their patronizing chastisements would shame Red into being the good little girl that they believed she ought to be, but the whispers and finger-waggings had the opposite effect on her. She would hold her head high and seductively wink at these small-minded people when she passed them then smirk when she saw their scandalized expressions. She was too much for everyone. At least until the queen came to visit.
Red had always heard that the Queen was cold and cruel but capable and that she always got what she wanted. She dressed seductively, but no one whispered about her because she had power. Red realized that you could get away with a lot of you had power, you would be celebrated for doing things that other people got condemned for doing because no one could stop you. While watching the Queen drive through her village in her opulent four horse carriage, then seeing her step out in all of her materialistic glory, Red decided something. She decided that she would become powerful so that people would look at her with awe instead of contempt, she could be whoever she wanted to and people would have to accept her for who she was. If she could have power, then she could have acceptance, so vowed to herself that she would make certain she becomes powerful, or, if she couldn't, she would at least get close to someone who was.
The little hamlet was poor and dirty, but at least it looked like it had some potential, if just in one person. As she drove by Regina saw a thin girl in a red cloak with dark hair and bright aquamarine eyes who looked like the monotonous poverty of her dirt-poor village hadn't quite sucked all of the life out of her yet. This girl intrigued her because she had seen children much younger than this girl who sported the dead eyes and weathered faces of a person who had become disenchanted with life, so to see a girl who had almost reached adulthood who still had life in her eyes surprised and delighted her. She didn't belong here in this dirty soul-crushing wasteland. This girl deserved to have beauty and wealth around her, to have everything she needed to keep herself bright and happy. Regina knew what it was like to be trapped in a place where her potential was wasted, what it was like to feel like she was going to die in the cage that robbed her of her change to make her mark on the world. It definitely wasn't something that she would wish on a fellow superior being, so at that moment she decided that she was going to free this bright-eyed girl from this dirty prison that reminded Regina so much of her time in her own gilded cage.
"Stop the carriage!" She commanded. Her driver obliged and she stepped out into the muddy street. She called out imperiously to the crowd that had followed her carriage.
"You there, in the red cloak, come with me." The crowd parted to let the girl through. She slowly walked up to the carriage. Her face was expressionless but her eyes showed her apprehension. The Queen whispered to her softly, "No need to be nervous, my dear. You haven't done anything wrong, I would just like for you to live in my palace for a while." The girl's eyes lit up and she stepped into the carriage with Regina entering behind her. When the carriage started again, Red looked at Regina lasciviously. "I like your dress, it makes you look really nice." Red let her eyes trail down The Queen's body suggestively.
"Thank you." Regina was surprised by how forward the girl was acting but was pleased that she appreciated her body and didn't play the games that so many other women did- herself included. Red slowly moved her foot up Regina's leg. "It's a long ride to the palace, why don't we find a way to entertain ourselves?" Regina gave the girl a small smile. She knew that if the girl was this bold, it was probably a defense mechanism that she'd developed to protect herself from the judgmental people in her small village.
"As flattered as I am by the offer, the carriage ride isn't actually that long, so we probably wouldn't have time. Besides, that's not what I want you for."
"Oh, how refreshing." The girl laughed bitterly. "It seems that it's all everyone else wants me for."
Regina was shocked and saddened by this. "Look at me!" She told the girl sharply. "You are more than just an attractive body. You don't need to act this way to get people to notice you. You seem like an intelligent young woman, so why do you let other people define who you are? I asked you to come to my palace with me not because I was getting bored and wanted to have a steamy affair, but because you seemed like you were dying in that village and I know what it's like to feel trapped in a place that is slowly sucking the life out of you. I wanted to save you from that fate, but if you don't care or don't want to come with me, I can have the carriage turned around right now and send you back to the the village that will slowly destroy you!" Regina's chest was heaving after her rant and Red looked just as angry. She opened her mouth in what Regina thought would be the beginning of her own rant, but instead just enveloped Regina's mouth in hers. Their kiss was angry, passionate and long. Red broke away first. "I'm sorry, I've just never met anyone else who knows what it's like to be completely trapped."
Regina pulled herself back together. "It's quite alright, you're actually an amazing kisser, but I'm the Queen. I have to represent my land so I can't have a girlfriend. I'm sorry."
It was at that moment that Red realized that the Queen was trapped in a cage of her own. It wasn't like Red's cage, it was a beautiful, gilded cage, but that didn't mean that the bars bound her any less tightly. Red pitied the Queen. She wasn't willing to give up either her power as Queen or the power that dark magic gave her. She believed that it gave her freedom, when really, it trapped her completely, taking away her ability to love or to know the wonderful woman she could become. What was worse was how the envy of her subjects made her believe that she had something to be desired when really the Queen was trapped more than any of her subjects. She was a slave to her country and Red wouldn't wish the life of the Queen on her worst enemy, nobody deserves to be completely trapped. Even the most evil people in the land deserve some tiny amount of freedom. Red realized that she couldn't become trapped in the cage that held the Queen, that no matter how stifled she felt in her tiny village, even though she had to escape it, she couldn't just run away to live in the Queen's palace. She had to find out who she was on her own terms, not the Queen's or anyone else's. She had to be able to let herself be "Wild Red Riding Hood" and let her inner wolf out every once in awhile. "I'm sorry, I can't go with you." She told The Queen. "You are right though, I do have to leave my village and I can't let people define who I am, which is why I have to leave. I can't be trapped in the cage that holds you. I have to be completely free to be wild." Red stroked the Queen's cheek. "When you finally figure out how trapped you still are and how to escape from your cage, I'll find you." Red kissed her again, more slowly this time. There was still passion, but the anger from their earlier kiss was gone, replaced by a gentleness that made the Queen know the kiss for what it really was; a bittersweet goodbye between two trapped women.