Cerise Hood was having the time of her life. With her cape gone, and the wind rushing past her ears and through her hair as she ran, her father by her side. Cerise would only be having a better time if Headmaster Grimm suddenly showed up and told her that she could finally be herself. Only then.
Cerise howled a big, long howl and grinned a feral grin at her father. He smiled back.
"Race ya," Cerise said, "I bet that I could beat you."
Her father barked out a laugh. "Double the chores?"
Cerise nodded. "Double the chores."
That was all that her father needed. He darted away and within seconds, he was out of sight. Cerise didn't even have time to speak. A second later, she darted after him.
Cerise could see her father a few meters in front of her. She knew that he would win, but it was worth it. She rarely ever got to run through the enchanted forest with her dad. They had to stay apart at school. Full moons like this one almost made the hiding worth it. Almost.
She lost sight of her father up ahead. Cerise growled. She wasn't going to win, but that didn't mean that she would make winning easy for him. Cerise sped up, turning the corner and running right in to a very tall person that was definitely not a tree.
Cerise bounced off the person, landing on the ground. "Hey!" Cerise started to say, but she stopped as she finally realized who the person was.
Standing only two feet away from her, not even looking at her, was Daring Charming...her crush.
Cerise's hands flew instantly to cover her ears, hoping that Daring hadn't noticed. He hadn't. It was more than that though. Daring Charming wasn't noticing anything. He hadn't even realized that she had bumped in to him.
"Daring?" Cerise asked. He didn't respond.
Cautiously, Cerise pulled a hand from her ear and waved it in front of his face. Nothing happened. Daring just stood there, he didn't even flinch. Cerise moved around to face Daring.
He looked just as handsome as ever, but something was off. His expression, which was normally prideful, was blank. His eyes were glazed over, and he was starting wistfully at the moon. Cerise Hood had never known Daring to do anything wistfully.
"The moon," Daring murmured. Cerise looked up at the moon, but couldn't figure out what Daring was talking about. Of course, Cerise found the moon to be beautiful, but she was a wolf, it was in her wasn't it Daring's.
"Dad!" Cerise called in to the direction that her father had run off, but he didn't appear. Cerise sighed, she'd have to do this one on her own then.
Something was wrong with Daring Charming, very wrong. Cerise grabbed his wrist and dragged him off to go find Raven. Daring followed her like a puppy.
"It's a love potion," Raven said with a groan.
Cerise raised an eyebrow. "A love potion? Who's?"
Raven looked at Daring, who was sitting, staring out in to the night. "It could be anyone's," Raven said, "It's pretty powerful, but it obviously didn't work."
"It didn't work?"
"If it had worked then we'd have a love sick Daring Charming, instead," She gestured at Daring, "I don't even know what to call that."
"Moon sick."
"Moon sick?"
"Yeah," Cerise explained, "It's like he's in love with the moon."
"Right," Raven said with a nod.
"Now the question is how do we get rid of the love potion?"
"I have an idea," Raven said, crawling under her bed and pulling out a large, leather bound tome.
"What's that?"
"My mom's old spell book," Raven said. At Cerise's worried expression, she said, "Don't worry, it's not a dangerous one."
"I didn't know that your mom owned anything not dangerous."
"Okay, it's less dangerous. But it'll have what we need." She opened the spell book with a thud and flipped through the index. "Here it is," she rummaged through a couple of pages, "Getting rid of love potions. It says that we either have to wait for it to wear off-"
"How long will that take?"
Raven glanced at Daring. "I'd say, a week and a half."
"What's the other option?"
"We have to get his true love to kiss him."
"Oh," Cerise said. That would be the easier option. Daring had a true love-one that everyone knew about. Even if Cerise had a crush on him, his true love was Apple. "Apple, then?"
Raven slammed the spell book shut. "Apple it is."
"So, your saying that someone gave Daring a love potion and now I have to kiss him because I'm his true love?"
"Exactly," Raven exclaimed.
"Who would do that to Daring?"
Cerise snorted. "Who wouldn't?"
Apple shot her a threatening look. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I was the one who found him," Cerise said.
"Will you kiss him already so we can all go to bed?" Raven asked.
Or go find our father who is out in the woods, Cerise thought to herself. As soon as Apple kissed Daring she would be able to be rid of this stupid hood and get back to what was important.
"This will only take a minute," Apple said. Smiling, she walked over to where Daring was standing, and placed a quick peck on his lips. Nothing happened.
"What's wrong?" Apple asked.
"Maybe, it needs to be longer," Raven suggested. Apple kissed Daring again, this time for a longer amount of time. Again, nothing happened.
"Why's it not working?"
"Maybe something went wrong with the potion," Raven said.
"Yes," Apple nodded in agreement, "That must be it. That has to be it. Otherwise-"
"No. No. No."
"Otherwise we're not true love," Apple said and burst in to tears.
Cerise stomped out of Raven's room and threw her hood against the wall. It was late at night, so no one was around to see her wolf ears. Cerise sat down with a thump on the floor and stared at the impossible Daring Charming.
Raven was inside her room, reassuring Apple, so Cerise had been pushed out of the room along with moon sick Daring. He was currently leaning against the window just outside the room, looking out at the moon. Quietly, Cerise picked herself up and walked over to lean against the railing with him.
"You're impossible," she muttered, looking at Daring with his blonde hair looking as perfect as it had when she'd seen him earlier that morning. He had been laughing then, with Apple, Humphry, and a few other of his friends. As usual, he hadn't noticed her at all.
"It's so beautiful," Daring murmured, looking out at the moon.
Cerise sighed. "Yeah, it really is."
Daring turned to her then. He turned to her and he looked at her, but it was like he wasn't actually looking at her. Instead, he was watching the reflection of the moon in her eyes.
Cerise couldn't take him looking at her that way. She liked him, like liked him. She had to remind herself that it was the moon that he was so enchanted by, not her. But, maybe it wasn't?
Without thinking, because if she had been she would've definitely never done it, Cerise took a step forward and planted a kiss on Daring Charming's lips. A second later, she retreated, already regretting it.
"I shouldn't've done that," she scolded herself.
"Shouldn't've done what?" Cerise turned to find Daring Charming blinking at her, his gaze no longer blank but confused.
"Eep," Cerise let out a small, undignified noise.
"Cerise?" Daring asked, no longer staring at the moon, but at her, "Why does it look like you have wolf ears?"
Cerise ran. Quickly picking up her hood as she darted out of the corridor. This was bad. Daring Charming had seen her ears. Cerise defied the hood and ran as fast as she could. Still, one thing kept nagging at the back of her brain. Maybe, it had been a fluke and Apple's kiss had just taken some time. It was the more reasonable answer. But maybe...
Maybe Daring Charming was Cerise Hood's true loves kiss.
Just maybe.
