Red's Descent
Red tugs uncomfortably on the fingerless gloves she's wearing. She's used to wearing them, her hands actually feel vulnerable and bare without them, but they feel awkward over the gauze. Gauze her mother would spot instantly if she wasn't wearing them.
As it is, her fingertips are just as cut up from her scrambling frantically across the floor in a puddle of glass, but they are shallow and it's less noticeable than the thick wrappings that previously concealed them. Her cheeks are only marginally scraped and most of it is hidden by her loose hair.
Red winces as she fumbles the icing, hands hurting as she squeezes a bit onto her cookie.
She's decorating fucking cookies. She's never decorated cookies before in her life.
Apparently the her of this world has, though, because apparently it's tradition for her and her brother to do this part together. She almost feels bad for making the kid wait, now.
Her brother, standing on a step stool beside her, leans over to look at her work. He frowns. "What is that?" he asks.
Chloe snorts from Red's other side, and Red takes revenge by smearing a bit of icing across her cheek without looking.
"Red," her mother scolds from across the table, and Red stiffens, eyes darting up to take her in. She has a fond look on her face, amusement dancing in her eyes, and Red doesn't know how she's supposed to react.
Then the boy beside her is giggling and slaps an icing covered hand across her face, obscuring her line of sight.
"Bishop!" Her mother gasps, less amused, and Red reacts automatically, scooping him from the stool and ready to dart out of the room with him- when he shrieks and squirms so hard that she loses her hold on him.
"Moooom!" he shouts, a mix between a giggle and a sob, dropping easily to his feet and then darting around the table to hide behind the Queen.
Red blinks dumbly at her empty arms.
The Red Queen clicks her tongue, "Well, then you shouldn't have slapped her with icing if you didn't want her retaliating."
Lost, Red looks over to Chloe. Her friend offers her a reassuring smile and reaches for a napkin, wiping Red's face clean for the second time that day. "Everything is fine," she whispers, squeezing her hand before letting go and turning to mother and son.
"Don't worry, Bishop, I'll protect you. You were just getting her back for me, right?"
"Yeah!" he agrees quickly, still giggling and gasping like he ran up several flights rather than across the room. Red's been instantly breathless like that before. She never finds it funny, though.
Things calm down again after that, the pink haired boy coming back around the table, and he sets up on the other side of Chloe, sending Red suspicion, giddy, glances.
Bridget happily goes back to mixing icing colors. If Red did what Bishop did, in her timeline, she'd get whipped. He wasn't scared of their mother's consequences in the slightest, though. He was running from Red. He thought Red would get him.
Red frowns, looking down at her cookie. Did she hurt her brother here? But, no, Bridget wouldn't let her actually hurt him, and he's way too smiley at Red for her to have genuinely put her hands on him like that.
Chloe ducks her head close again as she manually puts a new color of icing in Red's hands. "It's sibling rivalry. Relax, this is normal."
Red does her best to wipe the frown from her face, and she spends the next few hours watching her mother and her brother and her friend, smile and laugh and decorate so many cookies, there's no way they are expected to eat them all.
Then the doors to the kitchen swing open and in strolls Maddox Hatter. He enters with a little skip and twirl as he plucks up a cookie, stuffs it into his mouth, and then drops into a bow so dramatic and low it reeks of mocking insubordination.
"My queen," he says, and then pops up without permission.
Red stares.
"Maddox," Bridget says, affection thick in her voice. "Have you come to join us?"
"No, no, not for long," he pulls his hat off, sweeps three more cookies into it, and then places it back on his head, taping the top so it sits snugly on his brow. "Just came to pay my respects to my old pupil- hello, Princess, welcome home." He dips into another bow that hits nowhere near proper, and grins up at Red.
Her lips move automatically, "I thought I told you not to call me that."
"Hm, did you? I don't recall." He's moving again through the room, pocketing more cookies. He takes up Chloe's hand and gives it a few enthusiastic pumps, "Hello- hello again, Bluebird," and ducks under her arm. "Young prince." He shoves another cookie into his mouth and then is out the door.
Bishop is thrilled with the whole thing- the whirlwind that was Maddox- but Red stares after him, trying to recognise her old friend.
He seems much more scattered than her Maddox. Almost fluttery. Entirely unafraid- which, why wouldn't he be?
An ache grows in Red's chest, and she misses her friend. The only person she ever had growing up, who taught her all she knows to prepare her for life, and who built her a time machine to give her a life.
She can't tell, from that brief interaction, if they have any sort of friendship at all, here.
Chloe puts another color icing in her hand, and Red goes back to decorating cookies and watching her mom, watching her brother.
The kitchen is a mess, they are a mess, and the Queen of Hearts seems absolutely unbothered by it.
"Now come on, my little Heart," the queen says so fondly to her brother once they put the last mixing spoon in the sink. "Shower and then bed."
"But Red-"
"-Will be here in the morning. Now scoot." She gives his shoulder a very small push, and he darts over, hugging first Red, then Chloe before doing as his mother bids.
The queen turns to them next, and Red braces herself as a manicured hand cups her cheek. There is a reluctant sadness this time when her mother looks at her, but there is also pride and resignation. Red suddenly worries that she's hurt her mother. She hadn't meant to, but she knows she hasn't been hiding her weariness well. "My other Heart," she sighs. She kisses Red's cheek, and Red flinches, panic flashing through her, hot and immediate. Her mother uses her thumb to wipe at the lipstick mark. "Sleep well. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Chloe."
"Goodnight, Aunt Bridget," Blue says.
"Goodnight, mom," Red murmurs. And then they are alone in the kitchen.
Red blows out a rush of air all at once, hand coming up to wipe shakily, desperately, at her face. Her mother has only kissed her one other time before. "Is it gone? Blue, is it gone?"
"What? Red, what? Is what gone?" The princess catches her shoulders, holding her still.
"I knew you had it in you."
"The lipstick, is it gone?"
Chloe softens. "Yeah, Red, it's gone."
Red lets out another shaky breath and nods. "Okay. Okay. Good." She wipes again at her cheek, ignoring the sting of irritating her scrapes.
Red's heart is racing, it has been since this all started, since it all started going wrong. Her breaths come faster. Wrong, wrong, everything in her screams that this is wrong.
"Look at her. She's enjoying this."
"Like mother, like daughter."
She has to fix this. She has to make it right.
"No, this is wrong- let her go !" The Blue girl lunges forward, drawing her sword and desperate to save her mother-
Chloe catches her hand and pulls it away from her face. "Come on, let's go back to your room."
"Okay," Red agrees.
Red ends up having to lead again, and she inevitably devolves into sneaking, pulling her friend through secret passageways and empty corridors. When they come upon guards, Chloe humors her by hiding with her, waiting until they pass before continuing on.
When they finally make it to her door, she doesn't hesitate to shove through this time. She immediately slings off her jacket and peels off her bulky gloves. Some of her cuts have reopened and blood has started to seep through the wraps, so she pulls those off too.
The cool air feels nice on her hands anyway.
"You okay?"
Red turns to see the princess still hovering by the door, wearily watching her.
"I'm fine." She breaks her gaze and turns to her dresser, tossing her gloves and soiled bandages onto it. She flexes her hand, feeling the scabbing cuts pull pleasantly. "Don't worry, I'm not going to have another episode."
She flops onto the bed.
She hears Chloe sigh and start moving through the room. "You should change before you get too comfy," she advises as she unzips their discarded bags.
"Too late," Red grunts, toeing off her bulky boots and hearing them thump heavily against the floor. Exhaustion pulls at her, her short nap earlier having done nothing for her. She feels wrecked and frayed.
Face buried in the pillows, the sounds easily help her form a picture of her friend collecting Red's discarded shoes and putting them by the door along with her own. Then there is the shift of clothing that says she's changing, and then folding the clothes to put aside. Then there's bathroom noises, water running, teeth brushing, and Red almost drifts off to the soothing sound of her friend's nightly routine.
The sound of drawers opening draws her back out of her doze, and she turns her head to view her friend standing before the dresser again, shuffling through the contents.
"What're you doing?" she slurs.
"Snooping," Chloe responds.
"How delinquent," Red hums, and her eyes drift shut again. But then the noises stop and she blinks her eyes back open to see her friend frozen with something cradled in her hand. "Blue?"
"Is this…?" She turns toward Red slowly. "Is this the Looking Glass?"
"I don't want that. I don't want to be anything like you."
"You don't have a choice . You and I are more alike than you think."
Red bolts upright, scrambling off the bed as sleep is instantly chased away. She's next to Blue in two strides and rudely snatching the heart-shaped mirror out of her hand. She already knows that it is- her instincts scream it at her- and she unhesitatingly snaps it open.
Red's throat immediately closes, breath hitching.
No sound plays from the Looking Glass. It's not necessary, anyway. Even through the reflected images, shimmery and angular with the smallest turn of the mirror, the scene is unmistakable. The emotions, glaring.
The sun in the mirror is so bright it can't be anywhere but Auradon. The Red in the mirror is sitting under a shady tree in a field somewhere with green grasses stretching as far as the image reaches. Blue is there, sitting between Red's legs, slouched back with her head resting on Red's chest. They are both noticeably a few years older, their hands clasped and a picnic basket beside them and Red's other arm wrapped tightly around Chloe's waist.
They are happy. Red can't take her eyes off her own face that has a smile so wide and bright, so open, that it could be another image that she ripped off her wall. But this is Red's future. The mirror wouldn't show her the Red of a different timeline. Only the one that she's living right now.
They are laughing in the image, words shaped. Red watches as she bends down and kisses the princess' neck, and watches as the princess turns her head and lifts her hand, and she pulls Red into a proper kiss. Their smiles are what force them to stop.
There is no blood, no throne, no lifeless, hardened, Red staring back (cheek marked with finally gaining her mother's affection).
Red's gut burns. She wants this. She wants it so bad it hurts.
She feels a weight lean against her, and she glances over as Chloe hooks her chin over her shoulder, looking down at their future.
Her expression is just as open and happy as her image. It doesn't change when she lifts her eyes back to Red.
"Well, I think I like that future," she hums, eyes tracing over Red's face.
Red very gently closes the Looking Glass as her eyes drop to her friend's mouth. For the first time since they changed the world, she feels… like maybe it's real. "Me too," she murmurs, tangling their hands together.
A/N: Thanks for reading, please review!
~Silver~