Title: Carpe Noctem
Timeline: post-1x15 Red-Handed
Prompt by: alorarosa
Rating: PG-13/T
Originally posted: 22nd December 2013
Notes: for the OUAT Exchange on Livejournal.

They had searched all night and both were worried. Granny was sure that when they finally found poor Red, she and Mary would have to break the news of Peter's demise at the hands of the wolf. When the girl came to realise she was that awful beast on nights when the full moon shone, her heart would surely break, but the lies had gone on too long. Red must know the truth, no matter how painful. Things were becoming far too dangerous to keep it concealed.

Neither Mary nor Granny could decide if it was good or bad news when they stumbled upon chains lying by a tree on the hill. There was no sign of blood, no body or remains. Peter could not have been chained up when the change came over Red. The wolf she became would have torn him limb from limb leaving at least some evidence, and yet none existed.

"You think he got away?" asked Mary in hope rather than anything else.

Granny didn't answer, just cast a look her way and kept on walking. Peter may have run, but he could not have gotten far. The striding footprints of the wolf ought to have proved to Mary how easily it would bring a human down. That poor boy. Poor Red. She would be desolate to realise she was not only a creature feared by all who knew of it, but the murderer of her own beloved. It seemed too cruel a fate for one so young and so kind, but it was reality and a truth they must all bear.

Granny and Mary continued walking, the former with crossbow in hand, the latter in the red cape that could not really save its owner now. After a while, the moon dipped below the horizon and the sun peeked its head up, throwing a golden light across the snow. The cold remained, having frozen the two walking to the bone. They could not feel warm, nor safe or comforted. They were only pained for the loss their dear Red would have to endure.

The real shock came when they found her. There was blood staining the snow in places and they expected the worst, yet there was no body, no shredded remains of a man. Red lay in the snow, naked as the day she was born, and apparently unconscious, but not alone.

"My Gods!" Granny gasped, though she didn't turn away as was Mary's first instinct.

There on the ground, their arms around each other, were Red and Peter. They were cut and bruised, but they were both alive, it seemed, though probably frozen. Mary only reacted when she felt Granny pulling the red cloak from her back to cover the unconscious pair before she tried to bring them around.

It wasn't entirely clear what had happened, less so to the young couple practically blue from cold than to those that had found them. Here was not the time or place for explanation of course. Granny got them to their feet with Mary's help, wrapping Red in her usual cloak as best they could and passing over further wrappings for the sake of Peter's modesty.

The young couple swore on their lives that they didn't know what happened, looking to each other with panicked, haunted expressions. Granny would hear no excuses nor apology until they were all home safe, and so they set off by the light of the rising sun.

"Thank you." Peter nodded gratefully as he was handed a steaming mug by Mary.

Granny had given him clothes to wear, old trousers of her husband and fur wrappings. Red sat on the other seat opposite, the two of them trying their best to get warm by the fire. There had been hardly a word spoken since they got here, only the chattering of teeth and the crackle of the fire to be heard until now. Wounds had been cleaned out with only a hiss of pain heard from either Red or Peter. The greatest of these blood stained gouges was between the young man's neck and shoulder, though he had not noticed it himself. Granny said no more about that than she did about any other cut and scar she and Mary patched up. Now things were different. There was nothing left to do, and only explanations left to speak.

"We only did what we thought was right, Granny," said Red softly, her eyes staring deep into the hot drink she held in both hands. "When Mary and I... Well, we thought Peter must be the wolf so we planned to chain him up..."

"You foolish girl!" her grandmother sighed. "I told you! I told you never to take off your hood, and I told you to stay away from this boy, but you never listen!"

"You can't blame her like that!" argued Peter. "I'm sorry if the way you found us today upset you, but I honestly don't remember what happened, it's... it's all so vague and misty..."

"It will be," Granny spoke in a more even tone, then as Mary's eyes darted between all three people before her as if it were a game of catch and she must keep her eye on the ball. "The blood loss will have effected you, and... the change."

Red's eyes went wide at what Granny seemed to be implying. The change; that was what the wolf went through, to alter itself from man to beast by the light of the full mon. Yes, they had suspected Peter was the one but it couldn't be true, for they were both here and alive to tell the tale. It made no sense, but then neither did their being found together in the woods in a state of undress. She remembered next to nothing from the moment the moon hit it's highest spot to now. She couldn't understand, and Granny couldn't blame her.

"Oh, I should've told you the truth long ago, but I didn't know how," the older woman admitted, shaking her head. "I still don't."

Mary knew the truth too of course but wondered if she should speak of it. It wasn't really her place to say anything and yet seeing the poor woman beside her suffer, and her new friend too. After too long a pause she just had to speak.

"Red, the hood your grandma makes you wear isn't to deter the wolf," she explained carefully, continuing only when she realised Granny would not stop her. "It's... it's enchanted, a safeguard against yourself, against you changing," she said as gently as she could in the circumstances.

"That's crazy talk," Peter cut in, literally laughing though there was little humour in it. "Red is no wolf, that... that's..."

"True," Granny cut in then. "It's the truth. You, your mother, myself," she went on, eyes meeting Red's own then. "We're all infected by the wolf, and I'm afraid now you may have passed on that curse."

Red's eyes were wide as the full moon itself and fast filling with tears. She would not hear this, she could not take it in. She rose abruptly to her feet and looked ready to run, but knew she had no place to go. Mary and Granny were in the way of her escape route, and even if she shoved her way through, the solace of her room was not far enough to run.

"I'm the creature? The wolf?" she asked, voice cracking with heart-breaking sadness. "I... I killed all those men?"

"No, child," Granny told her fast, standing up and grabbing her by her arms, making Red meet her eyes. "The wolf is what we become but not who we are. You will out-grow this curse, as I did, but in the meantime... you must go," she admitted sadly.

"Go?" Peter echoed even when his dearest love was unable. "Why should she go? None of this is her fault!"

As he turned his head, the wound at his neck pulled beneath it's covering and began to open again. He winced at the pain and the awful feeling of blood trickling from his bandages. Red's forehead creased into a frown as Granny's words echoed in her head. She looked down at the older woman's arm, marred as it was with a scar the wolf had given her. If this ran in her family, starting with Granny herself then the original beast would have been Red's own grandfather. He passed on his curse and now they all suffered. It was her fault alone that Peter was dragged into it.

"We remember nothing," she all but whispered. "The wolf could've killed you but it didn't, it... I..." she looked to her love with panic in all her features and a pain in her eyes he could not bear.

"She... turned him?" asked Mary in confusion when Granny looked her way.

Honestly, she really hadn't meant to make matters worse, nor even speak the question aloud, but now it was out and there was no taking it back. Peter stared passed the others at Mary, his hand going absently to his weeping neck as he took in her words. Turned. Turned into what? A wolf as Red was? The idea that his darling dearest love could be such a beast as well was already beyond ridiculous. Now to think he was the same, a vicious killing machine without memory or guilt for what he had done.

"I am sorry, Red," said Granny, gripping her granddaughter's hands tightly even as the poor young thing sank back into her seat with shock. "For both of you, if I'd told you the truth before, this couldn't have happened."

Her apology went by unchecked, barely noticed. With this new information to think on, Red and Peter both started to think back to last night's events. They slotted together all the misty memories they each possessed, and when they looked toward each other then, their eyes meeting, they realised just exactly what had happened. It was vague at best, but as the shock subsided and the truth shone through like a flame in the dark, Peter remembered, and so did Red.

She was about to secure the chain when the pain hit her. Red fell to her knees in the snow, clutching her own stomach. She felt as if she were being ripped in two from the inside. Somehow the pain was familiar and oddly welcome, though for the life of her she did not know why. So intense was the agony she could hardly breathe, barely heard Peter as he called her name. She thought his hands touched her back but it might have been snow fall or anything else in fact. The world was growing hazy, and somewhere an animal howled as if pained. She did not realise until too late that the noise emanated from her own throat.

Peter was beyond panicked when Red first began to change. By the time he realised what was happening, he already knew it was fruitless to run, and yet he tried. Down into the forest amongst the trees. He hoped that with some careful footwork, some zig-zag patterns amongst the tall trunks, he might out-smart the wolf. He was only right for so long and should've known it.

Pinned against a tall fir, his back flush to the bark of the trunk, Peter was sure this was the end. He would die by the jaws and teeth of his beloved's now monstrous form. Though even now he clung onto hope, forced his eyes to meet Red's own that still shone through, even in the face of the beast. In vain, he begged her to be forgiving, to remember him, to overcome this change.

"Red, you know who I am," he told her desperately as the wolf drew nearing, sniffing, snarling. "It's Peter. It's me and I love you. You know I do, and you love me. You don't wanna do this," he begged her, tears flowing down his cheeks unbidden.

Her wolfish breath was hot on his neck, her eyes hungry in a way he had never seen before in anyone or anything. Peter closed his eyes to the sight of Red as she was now, and pictured her only as she had been before. He would always love her, even if tonight would be the night when she ended his life.

"Somehow, I changed you?" asked Red, looking from Peter to Granny. "How?"

"With the bite," her grandmother confirmed. "True love has to exist between you, enough for you to know, even in your most unknowing of moments, that you must keep Peter safe," she explained. "The bite infected him with the curse, caused him to change form. As a pair of the same creature, you did each other little harm. The... the animal instincts would have taken over."

Red wanted to cry and laugh, to hide her face in shame and to scream in frustration all at the same time. Too many shocks altogether in one night and morning were certainly enough to overload the mind of anyone. She was but a simple girl with what she saw as such a basic life, poor Red had no concept of any of this, no frame of reference for any of it.

"We are the same now," said Peter, bemused himself, and yet seemingly taking it much better than some might.

"Apparently, yes," Red replied, even as she saw her lover's neck was being patched up again by dear Mary. "What does that mean?"

"It means you must go, just as I told you," Granny cut in, even though the question had been posed to Peter and he had gone so far as to open his mouth to answer it. "The damage one wolf causes is too much for this village to bear. Two together? It's too dangerous, for you and for the townsfolk," she shook her head sadly.

"But where would we go?" asked Red desperately. "Granny, we can't just leave..."

"You can. You must," her grandmother said definitely, gripping Red's hand tightly in her own. "You must go."

"But I'll never see you again," her granddaughter cried openly, hating that so much could have become so complicated and so fast.

"Of course you will, silly girl," she told her, forcing a smile she could barely manage. "One day, we'll all see each other again, and the worst will be over."

Red wanted to believe that and tried her best to as she pulled her dear Granny into a tight hug. Unfortunately, even though she had her man, and a kind of magic on her side, it was not so easy to convince herself of a happily ever after ending right now.

It was frightening to be out on their own in the beginning. Red was happy enough be with Peter at last, to be having this adventure with him at her side, but the reality of the world beyond Granny's cottage sometimes frightened her; she sometimes frightened herself.

Days turned into weeks and months, the bond between herself and Peter growing ever stronger. Their kindness to Mary, who they now knew to be Snow White, meant the world to the one-time princess too, and they saw her friendship as a great gift. They protected each other, the three of them, and then the seven dwarves too. Granny kept in contact, the group of them becoming extended family, banding together against the evil of the Queen's empire.

Through all the trials that befell them, through nights of the full moon and the hunger inside, Red and Peter held onto their secret and each other. They fought for what was right, they fought using the strength of the love they shared. All that was certain was that they were bound together, now and forever, at least they believed it to be so.

When the threat of the Queen's curse loomed large, the two human-wolves were there at the palace, side by side with Snow and her Charming, determined to defeat the evil that would take them all down.

It could not be done. Though baby Emma might be saved, the wolfish couple knew that just like everyone else, they could not out-run what was coming, no matter their own abilities and powers.

As the storm hit the castle, they clung to each other, declaring love and sealing it with a kiss. Whatever came next couldn't matter. They had each other, by love and blood combined. No curse could ever break such a bond, they were certain of it.

Ruby laughed heartily at the jokes her male customers made, leaning over the table to pick up the cups they were done with. She liked the attention, and she didn't feel bad about that. It wasn't as if she was doing any harm after all, she just had this hunger inside her, to be wanted, to be needed, to be loved perhaps. She hardly understood where it came from herself, she just ran with it. Granny never did approve.

"You shouldn't encourage them," she said snippily as Ruby rounded the counter to take the dirty dishes out back. "Flirting with those men, and at a time like this!"

Ruby's face fell at the sound of those words. She knew what Granny meant and it wasn't just her making eyes at the customers that bothered her. Playing up to the guys she served with coffee and breakfast was good for tips and fun to boot, whether her grandmother liked it or not. It was only being reminded of the timing that really made her stop and stare.

"At a time like this, yeah," she echoed the words as Granny turned to look at her then. "A kid dying in the hospital is a tragedy, but at least it should remind people to live while they have the chance. That's all I'm doing," said Ruby defiantly before she disappeared out back.

Granny shook her head as she watched her granddaughter disappear from sight. She knew full well that Ruby had a point even if she didn't like to admit it. Of course, she was not the only one watching the girl with red-streaked hair. There at the table by the door, Ruby had another admirer, though she barely ever seemed to notice. Of all the men she played up to, that drifter August, the slightly creepy Dr Whale, she never paid much mind to little Simon in the corner.

He seemed like a nice enough boy. He was the assistant at the butcher's shop, and would come by often with the bacon, sausages, and such for Granny to cook and sell. She liked him, and she encouraged Ruby to be kind. It wasn't that the girl was ever unpleasant to Simon, but she either didn't notice his affection for her or just didn't care for it. She seemed only to be interested in unsuitable, 'bad boy' types. Granny quite despaired of her.

"You could go ask Simon if he needs a refill," she told her granddaughter when she emerged from the kitchen again.

"Sure," Ruby smiled as she picked up the coffee pot and headed straight for the front corner table. "Hey, Simon. You want a top up?" she offered.

"Sure, yeah, please," he nodded furiously, fumbling when he tried to pick up the cup and move it closer across the table.

All he succeeded in doing was spilling what was left of his coffee all over the place.

"Damn it!" he cursed, grabbing for the paper napkins to mop up the mess, almost sending everything else on the table sprawling too.

"Careful," Ruby bit her lip so as not to laugh at him, whilst righting the salt shaker that had almost toppled over. "Granny says if you spill salt it's some kind of evil omen," she explained, pouring Simon's coffee now that the commotion was over.

He didn't talk much, mostly just stared at her and smiled a lot. He was a nice guy, no denying it, but perhaps a little too nice to interest her. Ruby liked more of a challenge than a guy like him provided. It was what made the next few moments between them so inexplicable, and yet Granny watched them play out with amusement and delight from behind the counter.

"What you said to your grandma," said Simon just as soon as Ruby turned to walk away. "Did you mean that?" he asked her.

"What? About living while I can?" she checked, watching as he nodded positively. "Yeah, I meant it," she told him definitely. "If a kid in the hospital proves anything, it's that life is short, and sometimes sad and lonely. You have to take chances when you get them. Live, love, laugh..."

"Go out with me," Simon said all in a rush Ruby's eyes going wide at the suggestion.

She wasn't blind, she knew he liked her, and she liked him too, just not in the same way. He looked at her like she was a prize to be won at the fair. In him she just saw a friend, that was all. Nothing exciting about this guy, but all at once she nodded her head and agreed.

"I get done here around six," she said with a genuine smile, ignoring the sniggers of the other customers, the big butch types she normally went for that couldn't believe she was serious. "Walk me home and then, well, we'll see what happens," she told Simon, before turning and walking away to tend to her other patrons.

The grin on the Simon's face proved how pleased he was, how completely in love he must be. It warmed Granny's heart to see it. She only ever wanted a happy ending for her precious granddaughter. If anyone in this town was capable of giving Ruby that, somehow Granny was sure it was Simon.

Ruby wasn't sure what she thought she was doing when she agreed that Simon could walk her home, but now they were actually here, he'd found words enough to say to her, and she really liked his company. He told her funny stories and complimented her on both her looks and her sense of humour. It was strange, because she always loved men telling her how great she was, but with him it felt different. When he met her eyes and said she was beautiful, Ruby almost forgot to breathe. There was just something about this guy, though she never could explain what it was in a million years.

"So, you really want me to take you home, or...?" he began to ask as they neared her house.

"I don't know. I guess," she shrugged as they stopped walking and faced each other then. "It's weird, I never really... I never thought about you this way, y'know?" she admitted. "You've always just been, good old Simon, the butcher's boy," she grinned overly much, socking him in the shoulder for good measure.

"That's all I am?" his face fell at that remark. "Oh, I get it. Those guys at Granny's were right, weren't they? You only said yes when I asked you out to make them jealous."

Ruby opened her mouth to argue but then closed it again fast. She couldn't deny it completely because he was right in his accusation. A large part of her reason for accepting him was to make the others wonder what they were missing out on. She knew she was safe with Simon, he would never hurt her. Still, as they stood face to face now, there was something almost wild in his eyes as they looked back into hers. A want she had never noticed before, a hunger.

"You don't really like me," she spat back at him, knowing it was unfair. "You just want me because you can't have me," she huffed as she turned her back on him and folded her arms across her chest.

Ruby intended to walk away then, but got only two steps when his hand on her shoulder spun her back around. She was stunned but she didn't yell or try to run, she just stood there with his hands grasping her upper arms, trying to remember how to breathe again.

Just when she thought she might have figured out what she wanted to say next, a feeling shot through Ruby's body the like of which she had never felt before. It was as if the world shifted somehow, as if everything altered in a split-second.

Eyes locked onto Ruby's own, Simon felt it too and almost wondered if it was her making him feel this way, the closeness of her, the passion of the moment. His mistake was all too clear a second or two later as his mind cleared and everything was suddenly as it once was, a very long time ago.

"Red?" he said as he stared at her.

"Peter," she smiled, the whole of their memories apparently flooding back to them in unison.

When he kissed her then, she welcomed it, and couldn't get close enough to the lover she had missed for so long. They had been here all this time, and yet, had not known it. Two sets of memories, two different lives for each of them, it made no sense, but in this moment, it couldn't matter.

Their arms wrapped around each other, the two of them kissing until they couldn't breathe. Red and Peter knew nothing but each other, and the animal passion that now made perfect sense to them both. They were back together, and now the world was once again as it should be.