Please send feedback and I hope you enjoy!

The journey was harrowingly long-it's been a month since they found the last village, where they got the horse- and cold, but worth it when the girls had each other. Snow was getting accustomed to being a wolf, but had accidentally scared away their horse when she was in wolf-form. Red had stood by and fell over laughing when her companion watched the horse take off.

Snow had apologetically turned to her and looked so innocent, like a child caught sneaking an extra cookie, and Red immediately stopped laughing and assured Snow it was alright.

Don't worry about it, we can just travel as wolves.

But what if a hunter comes around?

Then we'll fight them off. They can't take the both of us. Snow was now the one to laugh, nearly-hysterically.

Not with a fearsome predator such as yourself.

Fearsome? Me? It's nothing compared to the dangerous Snow White. Snow laughed again. C'mon, we need to get going. Snow grabbed the pack in her teeth and continued on, talking with Red as they went. Red snuck up on her and snatched the bag from Snow, fastening it to her own back.

I was handling it just fine. Red rolled her eyes and snickered. When the sun rose again, Red shifted into her human form, with Snow following suit. Red hoisted the pack up higher on her back and hummed to herself as they trekked. Snow drew closer to her and grabbed the other woman's hand tentatively. Red looked up at her and smiled.

"We've been doing this for a while, but…what are we doing?"

"Well, what do you want it to be?"

"I was hoping you were…courting me, in a way."

"In a way?"

"Well, we've already been caught in unforeseen circumstances like this one, so I thought our relationship was as spontaneous as our living situation."

"I could use a little spontaneity," Red remarked. "Not too much though." Snow laughed and leaned against Red's shoulder.

"I'm tired," Snow whined. Red chuckled and dusted a layer of snow off a large rock gesturing for her to go ahead.

"Take as much time as you need."

"I don't deserve you." Snow sat down, but instead of pulling Red beside her, she pulled her right onto her lap.

"Oh!"

"Hi," Snow said slyly. Red adorably scrunched her nose and smirked.

"Hi."

"So how's the weather?" Red shoved Snow's shoulder before chuckling and kissing her gently. Their lips barely brushed before Snow was standing up, carrying Red.

"Put me down," Red yelled.

"Nope. You're mine now." Red resigned herself, but turned the tables on her by morphing into a wolf and hopping out of her arms.

"I win," Red changed back and cheered.

"What's your prize?" Red cocked her head. "There's always a prize for winners. What's yours?"

"A kiss from the fairest maiden in all the lands." Snow rolled her eyes.

"You're a dork, but a kiss you shall have," she muttered, before literally sweeping her off her feet and dipping her until she was nearly parallel with the ground. She pressed her lips gently against hers, but quickly demanded entrance from Red's lips. Snow turned her back upright and Red blinked quickly for a minute.

"You okay?" Red giggled.

"Yup. I didn't think the fair maiden could kiss quite so…"

"Beautifully?"

"That's one way to put it."

"And the other?"

"…uses choice words." Snow burst out laughing and Red couldn't help but giggle with her.

"C'mon, now we really need to get going." Red nodded and wound her arm around Snow's waist. Even in the bitter cold, her skin was always warm.

By the next hour, they were well into the borders of the next kingdom, and relatively safe from Regina's black knights. Red was very near getting frostbite on her fingers, and Snow did everything she could to warm them up before they stopped and made camp for the evening.


Red was getting really tired of everything being trees. Everywhere she looked, trees and snow.

Snow was just tired in general. Red knew she was having nightmares nearly every night, and she would never tell her what they were about. She understood that dreams were pictures conjured by the brain, and it could very well be something she wasn't keen on telling just yet. Red just knew that Snow was always tired. Her body was constantly slumping and tired, her eyes forcing themselves open, and her hands have begun twitching at some points during the day.

To be truthful, Red didn't know a lot about Snow. She knew she was a bandit on the run from the Evil Queen, who wrongfully charged her with crimes she couldn't even fathom Snow committing, and that she is a princess on the run. And she was a great cook, but that wasn't important.

"Tell me a good memory from your childhood," Red said. Snow furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and it was hard not to kiss the space between them.

"Uh, there was this one time I had found a swimming hole near the castle. I really wanted to go into the water, so the next day, I brought some better clothes for the water, and something to change into after. I had the time of my life, I dove to the bottom and glided through the water. I came out with huge streaks of mud on my chest, my cheeks, and mud all over my feet. I tried drying myself off with leaves, but I ended up covering over half of my body with Poison Oak. I was bed-ridden for three days." Red laughed loudly. "Now tell me a story of yours."

"My childhood wasn't interesting."

"Of course it was. Mine wasn't, and I still came out with that story. There has to be something!"

"Well, there was this one time I was sledding in the winter and I flew from the sled. I got a cut all the way up my cheek, and it was the day before the school music concert. I was playing the flute." Red smiled to herself.

"You play flute? You'll have to show me."

"I will. I definitely will. Do you play any instruments?" Snow shook her head.

"I always wanted to play the piano, but I just didn't pick it up."

Snow had tried to be cautious with her heart. She's been broken too many times to believe that someone was here for her in the long run. Her parents, Regina, it was all too hard of experiences to be less than cautious with her heart. But Red was just so easy to let loose with. She made her laugh until she had to hold a hand over her chest to gather herself.

Her nightmares slowly went from Regina killing Red in some way of another, to Red leaving her, telling her she wasn't good enough; it was like Regina's words being regurgitated out of her lover's mouth. She didn't want to stray away from her, but she did, just slightly. Enough to have a chance at getting over Red leaving. She had to face it, it was inevitable.

Red noticed. She couldn't help but notice how Snow's touches didn't linger, she stood farther apart from Red, and she grew more and more silent, her gorgeous laughter growing scarce.

She tried to give her space to think, to do whatever she needed, but it's slowly been costing her own sanity.

"Snow, are you okay?" She looked to Snow, who smiled at her, but it didn't reach her once excited green eyes.

"I'm fine. Why?"

"You don't seem…yourself."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"Why not?"

"Why not what?"

"Worry about you. I want to, but you're retreating from me. What did I do?"

"It's nothing."

"Don't tell me it's nothing," Red pleaded. "I want to know. You can trust me." Snow sighed, and it took so long for her to answer, Red almost thought she wouldn't say.

"I don't want you to leave," Snow whimpered. Red's heart shattered to pieces in hearing her voice so sorrowful. It crushed in her chest even more when she saw Snow's eyes glimmer wetly.

"What makes you think I'm leaving you?"

"Because everyone else has. I just don't want to be alone again."

"Then why are you closing on me?"

"So I can move on faster when you leave." Red's eyes sprung with instant tears. She broke her rule of keeping to herself when Snow's eyes glistened and proved to Red just how innocent and small she was.

"God, no. I would never leave you. Ever. You're too perfect to leave. I know people have disappeared from your life many times before, and you've gotten so used to being alone, but trust me. I couldn't leave you even if I tried."

"Really?" Snow's eyes lit up with curiosity for the first time in so long. All she wanted to do was sink further and love her with everything she had. She immediately vowed that she would do just that.

"Yes. I can't believe you would think I would leave you. I'm in love with you, Snow. Are you blind? Can't you see me falling for you? It's literally impossible to. You are so kind. You loved the wolf in me, even when I thought I was unlovable. And now I'm having the time of my life being with you." Snow's smile shone through her doubts and she giggled like an idiot. Her happy, gorgeous, amazing idiot.

"You're really in love with me?"

"Of course I am. I really am." Snow was completely stunned into silence, and Red watched tears brim and flow down her face. Pure adoration completely filled the holes that her paranoia dug into her fragile body.

"I love you too." Snow launched herself at Red, grasping at the sides of her face and planting a loving kiss on her lips. Red held the smaller woman by the waist and poured everything she wanted to tell her into the kiss. I love you, you mean the world to me, and I'm sorry you've been alone for so long. Snow pulled back and breathed heavily. Red did the same, but never loosened the hold on Snow's waist.

"You are so magnificent. Magnificently beautiful," Red gasped.

"And you are fiercely loyal. You are absolutely bewitching, and you take all of my crap, and you are breathtaking, and-" Red quieted her with another ferocious kiss, stunning Snow beyond words. She took Snow's hand and flew down the road, passing a cart towed by a mule, and reached a hill. The stood on top and scanned the area. Snow no longer looked at this trip with dread for what was to come, she now soaked up every moment with fervour.

"Hey, look! There's a cabin," Red said, pointing to the land splayed out before them.

"We don't know if it's occupied or not."

"Let's go find out then." Red dragged her along again and ran down the hill, nearly struggling to find purchase on the slope while yelling in ecstasy. Snow giggled as she joined along in shouting like the wolves they were. The man directing the cart with the donkey turned his head and looked both confused and concerned. They couldn't care less as they reached the bottom of the hill and ran out of breath.

"We might have to come back when it's summertime and roll down the hill when there isn't any snow."

"Yes, though I don't suggest doing it on the road."

"Oh, definitely not, now let's go see if this is our new home!" Snow laughed once more and squeezed Red's hand. They arrived at the cabin and no smoke billowed out of the chimney.

"So far, so good," Snow said cautiously. Red put a finger over her lips to silence her and nudged open the door. It was unlocked, that was good.

"Well, nothing's in here," Red whispered.

"Welcome home," Snow breathed. Red turned around with a wicked gleam in her eye, and before Snow could wonder what it meant, she was being picked up and placed onto the kitchen counter. Red was pushing against her, lips attacking her own. "Welcome home indeed."