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The worst part is that she doesn’t see it coming.

She’s just talking with Raven and Cedar at the lockers before homeroom. Duchess Swan and Blondie Locks are doing another interview--Duchess never shuts up about herself, how does Poppy even stand her?--and she can see Faybelle cartwheeling a hex on one of the Little Pigs out of the corner of her eye. Maddie and Lizzie are having mid-morning tea in midair with a perplexed Darling, and Daring is...staring at himself.

Cerise’s face crinkles with disgust as he makes kissy faces at the mirror. Seriously, dude?

She catches Kitty napping atop another set of lockers, which is nothing new. Briar, Ashlynn, and Apple seem to be debating heatedly over a shoe catalogue; she’d be able to hear them from across the hall even if she didn’t have sharper than average hearing, so Ashlynn’s squeal of delight makes her flinch in surprise. It’s way too easy to get overstimulated here. Her eyes move again to a snoozing Kitty and she wonders, quietly, how she can sleep through all this racket.

Dexter yelps behind her. Raven gasps, “No, Dex, don’t--! ”

Cerise feels a hand grab onto the hem of her cape. The pins at the edge pop free, taking patches of plaid cloth with them. Cerise barks a curse of shock, her blood going cold as the hood pulls free. Raven’s eyes are wide with terror, and Cedar drops her books and reaches out, like she can stop anything.

Cerise smells the perfume first; cloying lilac and boysenberry syrup from breakfast. Kitty materializes from the air in a flash of glitter, her palms clapping over Cerise’s ears. She’s so stunned that when Kitty covers her mouth with her own with a purring kiss, toppling them both to the ground--the fall softened by Dexter, somehow--Cerise doesn’t put up a fight.

Wait, what.

Kitty parts with a hum, and Cerise sputters. “What the spell are you--?! ”

“Ohhh, I’m sorry,” she says, too loudly. “I just couldn’t keep us a secret anymore. You were being too irresistible!”

Cerise’s voice raises an octave. “ What?! ”

Kitty closes in on her face again, head tilted so that her falling hair keeps the both of their faces relatively covered. “Play along,” she hisses under her breath. “Or do you want the whole school to know about your ears?!”

Oh. Right. Kitty’s hands are really the only thing keeping her ears a secret. Cerise still feels her blood boil, her eyes heating from grey to gold as she growls deep in her throat. “But did you have to kiss me ?!”

“Yes, now hold still . I need to pepper you with kisses.”

“ No you don’t! ”

“Uh, c-can you guys get off me?” Dexter wheezes from under them. “I can’t breathe.”

“Serves you right for hurting my little red,” Kitty says with false venom, not looking at him. “Get crushed, for all I care.”

Cerise looks to the side, feeling her face burn a bright red. Blondie slowly raises her MirrorPad to them only for Duchess to put her hand over it, lowering it forcefully. Rude , she mouths to Blondie, and if Cerise wasn’t in the middle of a crisis she might have lost it at Duchess Swan calling someone else rude.

She looks around the halls for more help. Maddie looks like she was in the middle of pouring Darling another cup of tea, though it looks like the tea is going to grace the ceiling. Lizzie nibbles lightly on a scone and slowly raises her hand to give Cerise a thumbs up. Darling gives her one too.

Daring hasn’t looked away from his mirrors. Faybelle stares at her for a full minute before turning around, and taking a selfie. With her keen eyes, Cerise can see herself looking murderous in the background. If she snaps that to the headmaster or any of her cheerhexing squad, Cerise really will kill her.

A quiet slap, as Ashlynn’s shoe catalogue falls to the floor. She bursts into quiet tears, her happy smile assuring everyone around her that she isn’t in any danger. “Oh, it’s just--I’m so sorry, I think it’s all just very sweet. I had no idea Kitty could be so, so--”

“Forward,” Briar drawls.

“Romantic!” Ashlynn snaps.

“You guys know there’s a rule against public displays of affection?” Apple covers her eyes with her hands, but peeks through her fingers. “Not to be rude but, you know, can’t you two have picked a different place…?”

“Oh, come on!” Duchess yells across the hall. “Ashlynn and Hunter do that gross nose nuzzling thing in the hall all the time and they’re never called out! Don’t be a prude, White!”

Darling spits out her tea. Briar puts her hands together in front of her face and looks at Apple with something like pity. Ashlynn stops crying and Faybelle says “Holy splits ,” in the background. Cerise wonders when this became her life, even as she tries to shuffle off of Dexter’s barely breathing body. Unfortunately, with Kitty on top of her and no way for her to safely move without revealing her ears, she’s stuck.

This day, Cerise decides, cannot get any worse.

“A--A prude?! ” Apple nearly shrieks it. Cerise flinches at the pitch and Kitty’s fingertips gently scratch at the bases to help mend the ache. “Excuse you?! At least some of us have the decency not to hext an illicit picture to our girlfriend’s twin sister! ”

Duchess rises on pointe and Blondie scrambles away to avoid being caught in the crossfire. Or to record the whole thing. Faybelle certainly is, and mouthing fight, fight, fight while she holds her Mirrorphone up to capture the trainwreck in all its glory.

“And at least some of us have girlfriends ,” Duchess says.

A collective ohhhh ripples over the slowly gathering crowd. Dexter manages a squawk of fear beneath Cerise and Kitty, lightly wheezing. Raven puts both hands on her cheeks, and hisses a very profane swear that has Cedar’s eyes boggling.

Apple White’s temper, when provoked, is a vicious and terrible thing to behold. Thank Godmother that it’s rare she actually gets revved up enough to really let her claws out. Insulting her... whatever she has with Raven, however, is a surefire way to get her from mildly insulted to absolutely livid and ready for murder. Cerise knows that she has precious few minutes to run before Apple obliterates the school and buries them all in the ruins of her hexistential homosexual homicide.

Cerise snaps her fingers by Kitty’s face, lips twisted off her fangs. “Kitty! Kitty! Come on , I think this mess is a good enough distraction, don’t you?”

“It’s paw sitively chaotic is what it is,” Kitty purrs with delight. “I’m really loving the view.”

Cerise doesn’t know if she’s more angry with the pun or the fact that Kitty is content to be at ground zero. “ Why you little-- ”

“Duchess Swan,” Apple says, in a voice like ice. “I pride myself on handling disagreements in a mature, stately fashion.”

Every instinct both animal and teenage inside of Cerise begs her to run. Her fight or flight response is firmly in flight mode.

“Let me up,” Cerise nearly begs in a whisper. “Kitty, I don’t want to die.”

“It’s okay,” Kitty says back, and when she looks down Cerise feels a thump in her chest. For some reason, she looks completely...serious, when she says, “I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you.”

Cerise’s throat goes dry.

“Raven and I don’t care to label ourselves!” Apple marches up, and she barely clears Duchess’s chest. “And we. Are. Like. This! ” She holds up her fingers and crosses them together. “Best friends and everything else forever after!”

“Aw, good for you.” Duchess sneers. “ Poppy and I are like this .”

She mimes a pair of scissors. Briar slaps a hand over Ashlynn’s eyes. Darling spits out her tea again; Maddie compliments her technique and Lizzie holds up the ten of hearts.

“I am well aware that she’s your hairdresser!” Apple replies, oblivious. “She scissors me too, you know!”

Cerise closes her eyes. Oh, no.

“Oh my Godmother,” Briar says, shrilly as Faybelle explodes into guffaws, doubling over. “Apple, no! ”

“Wait--wh-what, what did I say?” Apple’s steam runs out as she looks back at Briar. “She does all of our hair, I don’t--I don’t get it?”

Faybelle falls to the ground, beating on the linoleum with her fists. If she wasn’t already blue, she’d probably be blue in the face from lack of oxygen. Darling has her head in her hands.

“Oh, wow. Seriously? “ Duchess aims a look to Raven that might be a sorry about your repressed S.O. pal . “I mean, just... really ? I can’t even be mad anymore. That’s just sad. I’m so sorry.”

“ That’s it! ” Raven’s voice reverberates with power. The lights go out, and Raven’s magic explodes from her fists in tongues of violet flame. “Get out of the hall and into class! Before I turn each and every one of you into toads! No offense, Hopper!”

A croak, and a quiet, “None taken, fair lady.”

Students beat feet and for good reason.Briar hauls Ashlynn by the back of her dress and grabs Faybelle’s swinging ankle, dragging them both as far away from the incoming chaos as she can while Maddie’s tea table whinnies like a startled horse and gallops in the opposite direction with its three charges clinging to the tablecloth.  

Duchess opens her mouth--to either apologize (unlikely.) or snark (very likely.) when the ribbons of her heels grow bright violet.

“What the heee-- ” The rest of her voice is lost in a terrified honk as Duchess speeds down the hall. Kitty hisses at the sight and Cerise winces in sympathy. Duchess deserved it, sort of, but that speed spell was trouble enough outdoors. Who knows what kind of mayhem it can do inside?

A beat later, and Apple is gently shushing and whispering to Raven, bringing her down from the emotional high with an obnoxious amount of handholding and soft strokes over her hair. It’s not she’s a wild beast that needs taming, Cerise thinks, but with the way Raven’s magic fizzles out completely--like it can’t stand to remain wickedly bright in the face of Apple’s unwavering comfort-- maybe that’s not too far off. Apple leads Raven away to the bathroom to decompress, leaving Cerise, Kitty, Cedar, and an unconscious Dexter alone.

“Coast is clear,” Cedar says after a beat. “I, uh, think you’re good to go.”

Cerise growls low and Kitty snickers, sitting on her knees. “Listen. I appreciate the save, but how about next time you think of a way to keep it under wraps while not assaulting me!”

“Aw, but where’s the fun in that?” Kitty grins. “We’ve got an image to keep up now, cutie. And if our little coming out was this chaotic...well.” Her voice lowers and Cerise feels her ears prick up. “Think of what else we can do.”

“I--I am not your--we’re not --”

“For now, Red,” Kitty flicks her on the nose, “we are . See you at lunch.”

Kitty vanishes in a shower of glitter, leaving only her smile behind before it winks out of sight as well. Cerise scrambles up, feeling her face utterly aflame with humiliation-- she just called me cutie? Who the spell does she think she--?! Ugh! --and yanks her hood from Dexter’s slack grip. Once it’s back on, and secure, she toes at Dexter with a guilty grimace.

“What should we…?” Cedar jumps at a sudden slam of a locker door. Daring peeks his head around the corner, eyes wide.

“What in Ever After did I miss?”

Not even a rare steak can salvage her day. Cerise can hear the whispers following her around the Castleteria like a ghost, and she’s on edge. When Kitty shows up, she’s going to have to act...how? Exactly how are they going to salvage this? Does she expect Cerise to like, break up with her?

“Hey, Cerise.” Darling sits across from her, smiling a little sheepishly. “That was a bit of a… catas-- ”

“Don’t,” Cerise warns with a growl, aiming her fork in Charming’s direction. “I’m in the middle of a crisis and I don’t need anymore cat puns.”

“Sorry, sorry. Breakfast with Wonderlandians leaves you feeling--” Darling stops herself, clears her throat, and finishes with, “--jokey. I definitely wasn’t going to say punny .“

“Mmhm,” Cerise hums lowering her fork back to the cut of meat on her plate. If she lets it sit it’ll get too cold to enjoy properly, so she forces herself to dig in. It feels like it takes hours to chew, even with her fangs, and Cerise feels like she’s on autopilot. “How’re things with Raven and Apple? And uh, Duchess?”

“Well,” Darling sighs, daubing at her lips with a napkin, “Duchess is alright, the speed spell just got her detention with Baba Yaga for running in the halls. Raven’s sleeping off the headache, last Apple hexted me.”

Cerise relaxes just a little, glad to hear that no one was seriously injured. Just a lot of bruised egos and a non-official ban from the Tower Hair Salon for a week or two. It’s not that Poppy would maliciously give anyone a bad haircut when she’s on the clock, but no one wants to suffer through the frosty silence of a woman (and hair stylist) scorned. Poppy gets that tranquil brand of fury, the kind that makes the hair stand on end, and messing with Holly or Duchess is a nice way of courting it.

Kind of like Apple. Seriously, what’s up with the girls at this school?

“So.” Darling sets down her fork. “Kitty, huh?”

And she’s back to being tense.

“Honestly, after the whole Chemythstry incident, I’m not very surprised,” Darling continues, keeping her volume low. It helps to keep Cerise from totally exploding . “I mean, from what I heard--you smelled catnip? And yarn. “

She stabs her fork into the steak and shoves the plate aside, appetite spoiled. She’s been trying to forget about that, okay? The moment Cupid had mentioned that they were smelling things that pertained to the person they loved the most, Cerise had wanted to claw her skin off. She wants to fight back, to say that it means nothing because love potions are just drama bombs waiting to go off with a single sip, but she’s got a part to play.

It’s not that she hates Kitty, not anymore. Kitty’s a pain but ever since the Wonderland fiasco and Spring Fairest, she’s calmed down on her pranks. They’re actually funny a lot of the times, instead of brutally humiliating.

This morning notwithstanding. But it... was done to keep her secret, even if Kitty’s ulterior motive was to cause havoc. Kitty could have let it all slip out and watched the real fur fly, but she didn’t.

Lilacs fill her nose just before Kitty materializes beside her. Cerise should tense up, should bolt, should feel like her space is being encroached on. But, weirdly enough, she does none of that; if anything the tension leaves her all over again. Maybe it’s the smell of the baked salmon on Kitty’s plate. Sure. The idea that it’s Kitty that’s making her feel better is just a little too much right now.

“Hey.” Kitty butts her head against Cerise’s shoulder, casually affectionate. Cerise clears her throat, eyes darting up to Darling, silently pleading for help on how to proceed. Darling was Wonderland’s knight for a spell, she knows Wonderland etiquette. Darling rolls her eyes and makes a motion with her arm--

Oh. Arm around the shoulder. Oh, Godmother, no.

“Hey,” Cerise says, strained, and she hesitates before letting an arm wrap around Kitty’s shoulders. “Uh... sweetie? ”

Kitty snickers under her breath. “Leave the endearments to me, okay? You’ve always been bad at them.” She digs the side of her fork into her lunch, and to Cerise’s surprise, holds it up to her . “Want some?”

“I--” Cerise stammers. “I, uh, not, not that hungry--”

“You barely touched your ribeye. Come on, it’s really good.”

Cerise catches Darling watching them out of the corner of her eye, and realizes that she has to bite the bullet. Clearly, they’re the kind of couple that feed each other. She growls, low, before opening her mouth. The salmon practically melts against against her tongue, the tangy contrast of lemon making her hum out of appreciation.

She feels something rumbling against her side; Cerise goes red when she realizes that Kitty’s starting to purr. It’s almost kind of cute .

“Well, a girl can take a hint from an expression,” Darling says. “I’ll leave the two of you alone.”

She leaves before Cerise can ask what she meant by that. Kitty feeds her another bite that Cerise grunts around. The whispers stop and life continues, as odd as it is.

She runs out her frustrations in Grimmnastics, ignoring the fact that Kitty is also in this class too. When things get too hectic in her head, at least Cerise can let it all out through physical activity. It’s the only thing that keeps her sane, some days. Thankfully she doesn’t have to focus on letting Ramona outrun her; her sister is in a fairly rough looking Bookball tussle with Daring, Darling and Hunter. Holly O’Hair seems to be acting as their one woman cheerhexer.

All the luck to them. Ramona doesn’t play dirty in official sports matches, but without a referee all bets are off. Hunter already has a swollen lip.

Her first lap isn’t even enough to get her out into a sweat. The second lap around fails at that too, as does the third; by the fourth, though, she feels her bangs pressing against her forehead and the white shirt of her physical education uniform plastering against her back. All good signs, but her lungs aren’t screaming for mercy and her legs feel like they could go for miles.

She should be smelling the field, the packed dirt of the track field and athletic chalk; the tangy scent of spilled blood and wilderness as Ramona takes Darling’s elbow to her face and grins, animal and proud, through the red spilling from her nose. Sweat, or freshly cut grass, or even Hopper’s stupid gym socks , anything but those cursed lilacs .

It chases her like Cerise chases freedom from her head; trapped in her nose, the pressure so sharp against her sinuses that the scent feels like a blade pressing against her skull. On the sixth lap she looks to the side, by the bleachers, and sees Kitty sitting there and just watching her run.

Something in her thrills at that. Watch me. Watch me run, over the hills, through the wood. Look at how fast I am . The train of thought nearly makes her stumble and fall, but she just pushes herself even harder. Soon even the roars and rumbles of her sister fade into the background, replaced by the rushing thump of her heart and the numbing cry of her blood.

Eighth lap. Kitty holds Cerise’s Mirrorphone with a teasing smile, the patented Chesire Cat Grin that makes her want to howl with fury. Cerise skids to a halt, makes grooves in the dirt from her heels, and feels the frayed ropes of her patience unraveling further. Cerise has spent her entire life in battle with Ramona to keep her private things private--sibling rivalry coupled with wolf’s blood makes for an agonizing time in a family-pack environment--and Kitty handling her property just might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“Put that back,” Cerise demands, stomping forward. “That is not yours.”

“What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours, Red.” Kitty crosses her legs. “That’s how relationships work, you know.”

“That’s not how it works, Cat. Put my phone back in my locker, for Godmother’s sake.” Cerise feels the aggression roiling in her muscles. Can’t get her smell out of my nose.

“Mmm…” Kitty’s eyes linger over her shoulders, to her thighs. Cerise bristles and flushes; she’s not used to being oogled. It might all be for show but that doesn’t make it any less real to her. “How about we make a deal?”

“No deals --”

“Catch me,” Kitty says, and dangles her phone like a treat, “and you get your Mirrorphone back.”

Cerise feels like she’s going to explode from the swelling surge of anger and-- excitement?

Kitty vanishes. Reforms just behind her, leaning up on her toes to whisper over Cerise’s shoulder.

“Running without a goal is all well and good, but wouldn’t you rather get a prize for it?”

When Cerise turns she’s gone again, reforming at the starting line. The anger bleeds away as she realizes, with a bolt of heat, that Kitty’s right; running is all well and good, but what she craves is a chase. Something that can end; a goal she can focus on that isn’t the nebulous forget about this morning, forget about lunch, forget about your blood .

Plus, she can stop beating herself up about Kitty’s scent; she’s going to need to smell it, now. It makes sense for it to linger. It’s a chase.

It’s softness wrapped up in silver claws; there’s no malice in the act. Kitty wants to...help, so she guesses. It doesn’t stop her from jogging toward the starting line of the hundred meter dash, watching Kitty blink out to reform at the four hundred meter mark; Cerise crouches down, feels her blood surging under her skin, and runs .

It’s not a mad dash to get her phone as fast as she can; Kitty wisps in and out of sight, always reappearing dozens of meters away only to magic herself away again with a laugh. To Cerise’s own shock, she wants to laugh too.

She nearly catches Kitty twice; close enough that her fingers graze the insides of Kitty’s wrists, feeling the soft and tender skin of her pulse, but never enough to satisfy the rules. Kitty starts materializing further and further away, which urges Cerise to push her body further. Almost there. Almost. Just another few laps, and maybe, maybe --

A bookball sails overhead. Ramona charges for it, just as Kitty touches down. She doesn’t vanish immediately, either--she looks a little worn out, color flushed to her cheeks from exertion. Cerise never thought that magic took an enormous toll for a being made entirely from it, but she knows a crash when she sees it.

Ramona is too into her stride to break it. Have to be faster, have to be --

Something roars in her ears as her muscles howl. Cerise pushes every last ounce of strength she has in her legs into one final, mad-as-a-Hatter dash and flings herself forward. She makes sure to tuck Kitty under her chin when they collide, curling around her as they tumble, rolling across the rough track. She hopes she takes most of the blow, but the haze in her brain--full of instinct and adrenaline--makes it hard to tell.

They bounce to a stop and just lay there together, breathing hard. Cerise blinks the sweat from her eyes and slowly peels back when she can find the strength, balancing herself on her elbows. The strain in her biceps make it so that she doesn’t pull back a respectable amount; she can count the nearly invisible freckles scattered on Kitty’s cheeks like stars. Close enough to see the unique slit shape of her pupils dilate from sharp slashes to ovals. Close enough to hear her heart racing like a rabbit, like prey --

Cerise swallows. Hard. It takes her a few tries to get an Are you okay? Out of her dry throat, but when she manages it Kitty gives a shaky nod.

“Caught me,” Kitty breathes, and brings Cerise’s Mirrorphone out from between the cushion of their bodies. The real miracle is that the screen isn’t cracked in the slightest; their bones, too, Cerise guesses. “And--about taking it, I--”

“I know. What you did. Why you did it.” Kitty’s other hand is gripped tight to her hood, making sure it stays right over her head where it belongs. “And...thanks.”

“No--” Kitty’s eyes move to her mouth and her breath hitches with a purr. “No problem.”

Oh no , Cerise thinks without any alarm. Oh no, are we going to kiss again?

Footsteps. The rancid scent of another wolf, familiar, before she hears Ramona grating, “Godmother, are you two okay--”

Cerise turns her head, and for some reason, her hackles rise and she snarls . Her eyes are hot, molten gold and Kitty hisses in shock, letting go of her hood. Ramona stumbles back, briefly, and a shock of hurt races across her face before she grits her teeth right back.

“Hey. Hood.” Ramona spits. “ Chill out .”

Kitty’s trembling hand presses against Cerise’s neck, and she whispers, “Cerise, before the others see --”

She snaps out of it fairly quick after that, gasping as the haze sucks itself back into the dark corners of her mind. When a small crowd of people jog forward, the exhaustion of it really sinks in. She rolls off of Kitty with a groan, feeling the slight burn of the scrapes on her elbows, her knees, the bruises forming on her back. Ramona kneels by her face, snorting.

“You good?” It’s gruff, but love shines from her eyes. Cerise gives her a nod. “I really didn’t see her until it was too late.”

“That’s what I’m there for,” Cerise says, like she’s supposed to. When she holds Kitty’s hand, their palms sticky with sweat, it doesn’t feel forced. “Don’t worry. It was an accident and nobody got hurt.”

“Awfully chummy with your villain, huh?” Kitty hums. “That’s my big bad Rebel.”

That night brings the answer to the problem with her instincts, and the prowling blood under her skin. Full moons tend to bring out the worst parts of her, though she knows her father and Ramona have it harder. Cerise dresses in track pants and a red crop hoodie, deciding to chance it by braiding her hair over her ears instead of the cape and cowl. She sneaks out to the tune of Cedar’s nasally snores and meets Ramona by the fork in the Enchanted Forest.

Her body makes quiet protests; Cerise can bounce back fast from a lot of things, but even she has her limits of stamina, and the thought of running all night makes her ears wilt. Still, if she doesn’t occupy herself with something, she’ll be a bundle of nervous, restless energy all night; better to run it out than to let it disturb her sleep.

“I’m--” Cerise looks down. “Ramona, I’m so sorry about earlier today--”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Ramona shrugs off her apologies carelessly. “It’s the full moon, sis. Makes us all a little weird. Should have known not to get close to your boo when you were fresh off a hunt.”

“Fresh off a--” Cerise stammers, feels her neck grow warm. “I wasn’t hunting her.”

Ramona cackles. “Keep telling yourself that, Cerise. You were downright drooling for her.”

“I was not!”

“You chased her like Dad chases Mom,” Ramona says, softly. It’s not said to tease, but it carries a thoughtful, careful weight. “All concentration. You were showing off for her too.”

“I…” Cerise has nothing to say to that, really. She kind of was . “...She knows. About...me.” She tells Ramona the whole story, as short as it is, and how Kitty started the whole fake dating thing to keep Cerise’s ears under cover.

“ Cheshire? ” Ramona whistles, low. “Loyal, for a cat. She hasn’t been blackmailing you with your secret, has she?”

“No.” Cerise blinks. “No, she really hasn’t. I mean, she tried once but that was a while back. She apologized.” Sort of. A thought nags at her, gnawing on her good sense, and Cerise takes a deep breath. Is she willing to risk Ramona’s teasing? “Is it--is it normal to still...smell her?”

Ramona pauses in the middle of pre run stretching, tossing her wild mane over a shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“She smells like lilacs, and it’s like, it’s not going away. She’s not here, but I can still--”

“--get a trace of it.” Ramona finishes. She cracks her neck, her expression hard to read; if she had to guess, Cerise would call it pensive. “Like it’s stuck in your nose, in your head.”

“Yes!” Cerise starts on her own stretches, the slight ache in her muscles forgotten. “It’s so weird! It’s never happened before, not even on a full moon. Does it...do you fight through it with Dad?”

“You’re really not gonna like the answer.” Ramona chuckles. “You want her.”

Cerise stands straight, already frowning. “What--”

“Trust me, sis. When a Badwolf wants something, they want it . S’what Dad says all the time. S’how he knew how to find Mom.” She looks between the Dark Forest and the Enchanted Forest, calculating her route for the night. “Doesn’t mean you want to settle down and start a pack, but you just want her. The nose knows, sis.”

Before Cerise can stammer another useless protest--Ramona and their father know more about wolfblood than she ever will--her sister is already jogging for the Dark Forest.

“Take the Enchanted one tonight,” she calls over her shoulder, eyes glowing gold. “You’re still sore from Grimmnastics.”

“Be careful,” Cerise says in return, not even bothering to argue that point. “Don’t bite any trolls!”

A distant no promises! Is sent back her way, and Cerise laughs a little. The moon climbs higher and the light feels like a soft breeze against the skin of her stomach, her hands. It tingles inside of her, bubbling like soda; even though the nip of pre-autumn lingers in the air, Cerise doesn’t feel it. Loping into the woods, she thinks about Ramona’s words and tries not to blush over it.

She is not an animal, not a slave to her instincts. Or her hormones, for that matter.

And sure , Kitty Cheshire is kind of cute. Really cute, if she’s going to dare to be honest with herself. Caught up in the smells of the forest around her, Cerise can only catch the barest hint of lilac, lingering like a ghost at the edges of her senses. It’s not unpleasant, but it is a red flag on its own.

Does Ramona have someone’s scent caught in her, like this? Cerise racks her brain but she can’t think of anyone off the top of her head. Well, someone single.

Her wayward thoughts grind to a halt. Her ears catch the tingle of magic and her nose burns with a scent that she draws deep into her lungs anyway. The buzz of anxiety floating in her head settles; Cerise stops and looks up to the tree branches, feeling a half smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

“Kitty.”

Silhouetted against the full moon, Kitty lounges in the cradle of branches in her nightgown, a silky robe tied closed, and cartoonishly evil looking cat slippers. Cerise almost wishes she didn’t have good night vision; she wonders what Kitty would look like dripping with shadows, nothing but the subtle glow of her eyes to betray her. Animal.

“You’re getting good at this,” Kitty says, giggling impishly. “What are you doing out here, Little Red?”

Cerise juts her chin up to the moon, propping her hands on her hips. “Running off excess energy. The...the moon, kind of makes me twitchy at night, so I wouldn’t be able to sleep. What are you doing out here?”

“I saw you sneaking out.” Kitty grins without shame. “Or maybe the full moon makes me twitchy, too. Magic always gets a little stronger around this time of the month. As for the running, didn’t you have enough of that today?”

Cerise laughs, softly, which startles her. “You’d think, yeah? I’m gonna take it easy, I think. Just walk out the energy, or something.”

Kitty slinks from the tree branch, the hem of her robe fluttering around her legs. Her nightgown rides up and Cerise forces herself to look away to preserve her modesty. She makes the mistake of looking at the moon, feeling her heart start to race. It’s so beautiful , calling to her in ways that never make sense, inspiring her to run free and wild and soothing her at the same time. When she hears Kitty’s footsteps padding on the soft grass, she turns to the other girl.

“I…” Kitty bites her lip, and looks down. With her hair loose and free, her claws sheathed, she looks so much smaller. “I wanted to apologize for earlier. With the whole...kissing, thing.”

Cerise barely stops herself from letting her jaw drop.

“I shouldn’t have done that, not without your permission.” Her fingers twist together. “I just didn’t--I know you want to keep your ears a secret. I mean, I don’t see why , they’re cute and frankly ears don’t change who you are inside, but it’s your business. It’s not funny.” Kitty looks at her through her lashes. “If you want, we can stop fake dating, too.”

“This is.” Cerise searches for her words, utterly turned around. “This is a little...out of character for you?”

“I know! It’s killing me.” She huffs. “But, you--you matter more? I guess? I just. We weren’t even friends--” Cerise’s ear flicks at the note of hurt there, and it makes her heart clench. “--and it just really! Stinks! I’m trying to be better at pranks and things that don’t actually hurt people! And I’ve been worried that I hurt you! Like, a lot!”

Kitty gestures to her head, a wild look in her eyes. “You’re stuck in my head and I can’t get you out, do you know how annoying that is!”

It’s enough to startle a laugh out of her, and she covers her mouth. “I didn’t think I was that annoying.” Kitty’s face drops and before she can send herself into another spiral Cerise hurries to add, “Apology accepted, okay? And you’re forgiven. No hard feelings, for real.”

“...Really?” Kitty leans in, eyes wide. “That was--this was a lot easier than I was anticipating.”

“That’s what happens when you offer someone a genuine apology,” Cerise snarks, “you know, like a regular human being.”

“Shut up!” Kitty laughs as cattily as her name suggests, and she lightly raps Cerise on the arm. “About the whole--the dating thing, I’ll just tell people--”

“Let’s do it.” Cerise swallows. “For at least another month. If we suddenly break up the day after then people will probably blame you, and I...wouldn’t feel right about that? Just, uh, no more keepaway with my Mirrorphone.”

“And no more kissing,” Kitty says as neutrally as she can manage.

She draws in a breath, and runs her response through her head. What’s a not-creepy way to say this… “We’ll probably have to do that. Just to...make sure no one gets suspicious.” She scratches the back of her neck, hoping against hope that Kitty can’t see in the dark as well as she can. “No surprise ones, though.”

“Okay,” Kitty agrees, quickly. “I’ll say something in Riddlish beforehand! And if you agree then you just say, ‘sure, I’d like that’, or something, and then it won’t be a surprise.”

“Sounds fairly reasonable,” Cerise says, inwardly screaming. She’s negotiating fake dating with Kitty Cheshire and she’ll probably regret this all by morning. Honestly, what the spell is wrong with her?

You want her , Ramona’s voice lingers in the back of her mind.

Not like that, Cerise assures herself. But if they end up friends after this, then surely it’ll be worth it. Right? Right! Problem solved! Besides, it’s only for a month.

They shake on it, and Kitty giggles. “Good luck on your run, Red,” she says before vanishing.

It turns into the longest and, ironically, shortest month of Cerise’s life.

‘Dating’ Kitty isn’t as hard as she thought it would be. Kitty likes her space just as much as Cerise does, so they don’t have to be attached at the hip to make it work. They don’t hold hands or swoon or fawn over each other. The most Cerise does is put an arm around Kitty’s shoulders on occasion, and it’s...satisfying.

They do have lunch together every day, either alone or with a group of friends; Briar comments that they’re pretty tame considering the ruckus they raised coming out, and Cerise laughs it off.

“You don’t have to be so cute-sy, though,” Briar continues, taking a bite of salad. “Ashlynn and Hunter kiss all the time, and no one raises a fuss about it.”

Cerise goes still, feeling her face heat up. Kitty shifts under her arm, arching a brow. “We kiss plenty,” Cerise says, a tad too defensively if Briar’s slightly furrowed brow is any indication. “I mean, you know. That is a thing that happens. A ton, even.”

“Uh, alright. Whatever you say--”

“Do you need proof of romance, Beauty?” Kitty snickers, and Cerise can hear her heart pounding.

“I don’t! I’m sorry? Godmother, I must sound creepy.” Briar holds her hands for peace, wincing. “No judgement from me, okay? I was just saying that, if you two were...worried about it, everyone fully supports and loves you guys. I mean, come on, who in this school is one hundred percent straight? No one!”

Cerise frowns. “Ashlynn?”

“Had a crush on Apple for like, five hundred years.” Briar waves it off. “See! Super not straight.”

“Hunter, then.” Kitty blinks.

“Had a fling with Sparrow Hood the year before he and Ashlynn started their secret romance thing. Now, okay, maybe Bunny and Alis--”

“Nope,” Kitty shakes her head. “Not at all. You’re talking about Wonderlandians, here.”

Maddie, Lizzie, Raven, and Apple take seats with trays full of food. The topic is forgotten with laughter and small talk, complaining about Professor Rumplestiltskin’s classes, gossip about the upcoming Dragon Game match.

Kitty suddenly takes her hand during a lull in the conversation, voice just above a murmur; not a private talk, but not something she wants broadcast to other tables.

“Eyes of silver, heart of gold; my treasure, should I be so bold?” Kitty’s voice lilts oddly, an accent that seems like all of the world’s tongues at once and nothing Cerise has ever heard. Riddlish, she realizes, and sits just a little straighter.

She nods Kitty on, trying not to look eager. She thinks she might have failed by the feeling of eyes on her, but she ignores it.

“Such sweetness in its touch, but a poisonous refrain! Would you grace me such, the caress of wolfsbane?”

Okay! That makes sense, sort of. Cerise opens her mouth, and half giggles out an, “Of course. Yes.”

Kitty takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes. If anyone’s watching them now--and they have to be, Briar was just talking about this very thing --they bleed from Cerise’s periphery. She hesitates a moment, making sure to angle herself just right so that she doesn’t completely bash against Kitty’s face. It has to look like they’ve done this ‘plenty of times’ before, and sure Cerise may not know how to kiss but it’s just lips on lips and--

-- Oh.

Kitty’s mouth is softer than silk, a little sticky from her lipgloss; Cerise thanks every Godmother in Ever After that she put on chapstick just before lunch. It’s chaste, by all accounts--inexperienced as she is, Cerise knows that much at least--but it’s certainly not a peck. It lingers, maybe a bit longer than a ‘fake dating kiss’ should. Cerise tightens her grip on Kitty’s shoulders before she’s aware of it, feels the first few rattles of Kitty’s purr before it rolls against her lips.

Cerise ducks away, a little breathless. Kitty’s eyes open slowly, and she wonders if they have matching thunderstruck expressions.

Oh no. We kissed again. Cerise can’t bring herself to say anything. And I really...really liked that.

“Oh, Kitty ,” Lizzie whispers, her voice watery. “That was so romantic of you! “

“It was like watching a very first kiss,” Apple sighs, her head dropping to Raven’s shoulder. Their hands link together on the table. “Was that Riddlish just now? Kitty, it was beautiful .”

“It really was,” Cerise says, softly. “Thank you.”

Kitty’s eyes go wide, sparkling with something that Cerise doesn’t recognize. And then she catches a twinkle of mischief; Kitty’s pupils thin to slits and the corners of her lips curl, all warning signs.

“Thank me not for words from a flower. Come hither, we have but an hour.”

Raven chokes on her water. That should be Cerise’s first sign of danger, but the kiss has left her worryingly empty headed except for the thought, does she want another? And she shouldn’t be as okay with that as she is, because, again. Fake dating. Line in the sand. Line in the sand that she is more than happy to jump right over, apparently.

Kitty’s fingers brush under her chin and Cerise hides the sudden shiver that runs down her spine. “With such petals fair and supple, allow me another taste of honeysuckle?”

Lizzie drops her fork and Maddie’s teapot whistles shrilly. Cerise ignores it, because apparently kisses make her an idiot , and she says, “Yes. You don’t have to ask.”

“Oh my Godmother, I don’t know Riddlish but I know freakin’ innuendo when I see it!” Briar smothers her cackles with her hands. Now that gets Cerise to snap out of it, reeling back from her subconscious move to lean into Kitty’s touch. Lizzie fans herself with her cards, and Maddie dabs at her eyes with a lacy doily.

“They grow up so fast, those kittens,” she says wistfully.

“I--I’m missing something.” She turns to Kitty, who grins wide. “What did you say? Kitty?”

“Oh, look at the time!” Kitty winks. “Gotta go. See you later, Red.”

“Don’t you dare vanish without telling me what you just-- Kitty Chesire! ” Cerise snaps at empty air. She has a very strong feeling that she’s just been humiliated again . By her fake girlfriend. Again . In front of roughly the same people. Again!

Despite it all, Cerise’s anger quickly evaporates. She can still smell lilacs.

By the next full moon, dressed in loose shorts and the same red, crop hoodie, Cerise is pretty sure she’s a little infatuated. Or at least crushing, hard . She takes the Enchanted Forest route again, needing an easy run to muddle through her thoughts; Ramona doesn’t fight the decision at all--she loves the challenge of running through the Dark Forest--but she does clap Cerise on the shoulder for luck.

“Howl if you need help,” Ramona says, before vanishing into the dark. Cerise does the same, starting with a light jog. She wonders how she’s going to explain this to Kitty-- hey, I want to keep fake dating, only for real! --when she isn’t a hundred percent sure that Kitty would reciprocate.

She’s fairly sure, though. They have only shared another In Public kiss after (what Raven later tells her) a raunchy spew of Riddlish, but Kitty seeks her out, makes it a point to sit next to her when she can. They talk every day, text each other goodnight, the works.

Cerise is twenty minutes into her run when Kitty appears in the cradle of tree branches, back in her robe and her nightgown and her slippers. The moon is at her back, sluicing ivory light over her shoulders and highlighting the arch of her back, lavender color of her hair. Looking at her means looking at the moon, and this time Cerise isn’t recovering from Grimmnastic’s. Her eyes are warm and she drags in breaths through her mouth, tasting sweetness on the back of her tongue.

You want her .

I do, Cerise thinks, gulping down a lump in her throat. I do.

“So.” Kitty’s voice is quiet. “Month’s up.”

“Is it--I mean, it, it is.” Cerise watches her descend from the tree this time, hypnotized. Was it like this for her father? She can scarcely breathe. “What do you want to do?”

“I was leaving that up to you, Red.” Kitty gets in her space again, head tilted. “I mean, we did play our parts. I like...having fun with it, though. I’ve never seen Lizzie blush over Riddlish before.” She giggles, teeth flashing. “But this is a prank that needs the both of us. If you’re out, Cerise, then so am I.”

Cerise steps closer. “I’m out.”

Kitty’s face crumples, just for a moment, before she nods. “Fair enough. Charm you later, I gu--”

Cerise grabs her wrist, taking a sharp breath. Kitty’s pulse throbs under her fingers. “I’m out because I don’t want this to be a--a prank.” Kitty parts her lips in surprise, eyes searching her face. “I want--I want it to be real,” Cerise manages.

The moon climbs higher in the pause that follows, dappling them through the trees; each beam feels like a caress, and sweat beads across her brow. There’s an odd sense of urgency moving inside of her, nipping at her heels.

Breathless, she says, “I want us to be real.”

“Oh.” A startled gasp from Kitty, her eyes glassy. The moonlight curves over the line of her jaw and Cerise tracks it, her grip shaking around the other girl’s wrist. “So you want--want to be--”

“Girlfriends still, yeah.” Cerise’s voice cracks with a laugh, strained as it is. “If you don’t, that’s okay. We’ll still be friends.”

Kitty shivers, and closes the last bit of space between them, gasping at the front of her hoodie. Either the night is a lot colder than Cerise thought, or her own body temperature is on an all time high, because Kitty feels small and cool against her. Hesitantly she brings her arms around Kitty, ears perked and strained for her answer. Any answer, really.

“I’ll just keep saying embarrassing things in Riddlish if you go out with me,” Kitty murmurs against her shoulder. “I’ll play pranks on you, like, constantly. I need a lot of attention.”

A heartbeat. Cerise grinds her teeth to keep the plaintive whine deep in her throat where it belongs.

“If you can deal with...with all of that,” she whispers, “then it’s a yes. I want to be yours.”

A poor choice of words, for Kitty; a low growl rumbles in her chest, her grip tightening. Kitty responds with a deep purr. It sinks in after a moment that she has a girlfriend now, which is just. Kind of wild. And surprising, too; Cerise had never imagined that she’d actually get to date someone at all. It must sink in for Kitty too, because she goes tense in their embrace, and moves to pull back. Cerise is loathe to let her go, but she lets her arms drop.

Kitty doesn’t go far. She moves her arms up, cool hands on either sides of Cerise’s neck.

“Your...hood.” Kitty stares at her, her expression tender. “Can I…?”

Out of habit, Cerise looks around the forest and gives a few cautious sniffs. All she can smell is wildlife and lilacs, which is as much of a pass as she’ll get. The moment she says yes Kitty pulls the hood down and frees her hair. Carefully, she brushes over the backs of her ears; Cerise’s eyes close briefly, pleasure wracking down her spine.

“They really are super cute,” Kitty whispers, giving a final scratch before resting her hands on Cerise’s shoulders. “Cerise, I...do you, maybe, want to…”

When she bends her head for a kiss, the motions come on instinct. There is no audience to please, and nothing to prove; just herself, and Kitty, and the moon beating down on them both. It starts as soft as wind; Kitty makes a quiet noise, and digs her claws in, and Cerise presses with just a bit more pressure. She sets her hands on Kitty’s hips, feels the silk of her robe under her calloused palms and shudders.

She tastes like she smells. With a hint of mint from her toothpaste. Cerise feels dizzy, weak-kneed, and most of all she feels so hungry--

She breaks the kiss with a gasp. “You have to go.”

Kitty’s eyes flutter open, mouth parted. “Wait--what? No. Get back here, I wasn’t done…”

“I have to run,” Cerise says, willing herself to let Kitty go, to take a step back. “With the moon like that and--and you, here, I don’t know what I…”

Kitty toes out of her slippers with a scowl and vanishes. Cerise blinks at the spot where she was, about to call out, when she feels Kitty behind her. Her claws rake against the exposed skin of her lower back, drawing a ragged gasp.

“We’ve been through this before, Red.” It’s a hiss against her ear. “It’s not a run you want.”

It’s a hunt. Cerise’s eyes slide shut and she trembles, teeth clacking. Her fists clench and unclench, something under her skin utterly desperate to escape. Cerise has half a mind to let it, but she has no idea how to.

Kitty’s hand slides into the pocket of her shorts. Cerise lets her take the Mirrorphone again, her body thrumming with energy. Her mouth feels full of fangs and her eyes itch as they turn gold in color but she forces herself to wait.

“Wouldn’t you rather get a prize for it?”

Kitty vanishes with a wicked giggle. Cerise lets her take a head start, backing out of the moonlight to think clearly. Rationally. Logically. Yeah, no, not working. She whirls around and gives chase. Kitty leaves no tracks, but Cerise doesn’t need them. The wind howls in her ears and her heart roars in triumph.

She is no slave to her instincts. That doesn’t mean she can’t let them take the reins every once in a while.

She comes across the sash of Kitty’s robe lying in a bush. Her robe, hanging pointedly on a low hanging branch. Cerise does her best to ignore the fever that ignites, but by now it’s useless. Only running far, far away would quell it and she has no desire to run away from Kitty. At this point, she doesn’t think she could. In a scenic little clearing she spots Kitty pacing, her Mirrorphone carefully cradled in her hands. At every soft noise Kitty looks up, searching for something, her body language screaming eagerness, a desire to be found.

Cerise quietly toes off her sneakers, pulls her hood over her head, and lets herself melt against the shadows. She’s more than happy to oblige. She can’t do it while the moon is out, though; Cerise isn’t sure if she wants to kiss her, or maul her. Or both, even.

Godmother , has lilac ever smelled so good before?

A cloud rolls in, leaving most of the clearing caught in shadow. Cerise makes her move, creeping unseen around to the back. She waits a heartbeat, then two, then three; then she pounces , grabbing Kitty around the waist and dragging her to the soft grass. Kitty shrieks in her arms, playfully wriggling until she settles down with giggles; Cerise puffs out breathless laughter in return, pressing dry kisses against her cheeks until she gets to her lips.

“Caught you,” she murrs against Kitty’s mouth.

“Mmm.” Kitty stretches under her, and Cerise feels her Mirrorphone sliding back into her pocket. “There’s your prize, Red. Feeling better?”

Cerise opens her mouth to lie that she is, when the clouds part just enough to send a spear of moonlight piercing through her. She jerks with a groan that rolls out of her throat like a snarl. Something in her snaps , or clicks into place, or something , because the next second she’s kissing Kitty like she’s going to die. All teeth, and tongue, and possession; Kitty grabs at the bare skin of her back and scratches, arching into it with a startled sound. Cerise has to stop, pull back as best she can, fists curling into the grass.

“No,” she grates. “I need to run --”

Kitty’s claws dig in again. “If you leave right now, I will break up with you so help me Godmother .“

She reaches up after Cerise nods, and yanks off her hood again. When she combs through Cerise’s hair with her fingers, she sighs with delight at the heavy weight of it. Then, wraps it around her fingers and pulls--gently--to kiss her again.

It’s sloppy, and probably gross. Neither of them care. At some point she wedges her hips in between Kitty’s legs, trapping her down as much as one can a Cheshire Cat. Then her teeth are at Kitty’s throat, dragging against skin until she tastes her fluttering pulse.

“Oh,” Kitty chokes, and her head tilts to the side, leaving a stretch of pale skin in a gesture of sweet submission. “Just, just a little softer--”

Cerise whispers an apology, pressing a damp kiss against the vivid bruise forming. When she bites again, just beneath it, Kitty drags her fingers against her scalp with a shaking sigh, gripping the nape of her neck. She rocks forward with a muted growl, hip against hip; the friction makes her whine. She releases Kitty’s neck again, rising up on her knees.

“ Cerise-- ”

“I’m not leaving.”, Cerise gasps, “Just give me a minute, okay?”

Kitty nods, chest heaving. One side of her neck is full of deep red marks, the one over her pulse deepening by the second, and the spaghetti straps of her nightgown have slid off of her shoulders. Puddles of moonlight spill from above, shadows pooling in the dip of her clavicle, the folds of her gown, rucked up to her hips. Cerise’s mouth goes dry and the fire in her blood moves to her face, pulsing in her groin; Kitty bites her lip.

“Y-your, your eyes. They’re gold, Cerise.” The smile she gives is blinding. “They’re so pretty… ”

Cerise shivers and yanks off the crop hoodie before she can second guess herself, balling it up as the night air cools the bared skin of her stomach. It should shock her to her senses, or at least slap her sense of modesty back into her skull, but it does neither. “H-here. Pillow.”

Kitty sits up, bracing herself on one hand to let her put the hoodie behind her. Cerise jumps as she feels a cold hand on her stomach, the muscles contracting out of reflex. Kitty makes a pleased sound in the back of her throat.

“You could grate cheese on these,” she whispers. Cerise would blush to her ears if she had the blood to spare, but most of it has pooled south. They kiss again; slow, deep. When Kitty lays back she wraps her legs around Cerise’s hips, rolling her own. One of her hands rises to brace against the grass, the other curling around Kitty’s hip.

This is--this is as far as they’ll go, right? It’s normal to make out with your girlfriend in the woods while you’re only wearing shorts and a sports bra. That’s what Cerise is going to use to justify herself, and not the fact that Kitty’s scent has deepened to a honey sweet heat and that she’s running on limited brain functions. Maybe she should have just waited out the night in her empty dorm room and approached Kitty about the whole dating thing in the morning.

Then Kitty rolls her hips again, blistering friction against her, and Cerise decides to just stop thinking.

She buries her face in the crook of her neck, panting harshly. Kitty grips her hair in one hand, the other scratching down her shoulder. Blood rises just to the surface but her skin remains unbroken; it draws a heady groan all the same and she drags in the smell of honey and lilacs, bucking.

“S-stars, Cerise, Cerise --” Kitty lets go of her hair, fumbles for the hand at her hip, and pries it away. She growls low in protest and then chokes on it when Kitty brings it to her chest, pressing a shaking kiss against the fuzzy tip of an ear. “ Please .”

Through the thin silk of her nightgown, Kitty is soft and warm, filling her palm and then some. They’ve never stopped moving against each other, and she’s already mourning the loss of her favorite pair of boyshorts and running shorts, but the moment feels like the collision of stars, a supernova in slow motion. The clouds misting over the moon finally move on and it washes over her in its full splendor, driving her utterly mad.

She snarls, her fangs aching, and she bites at Kitty’s neck again with as much care as she can rationally muster to not taste blood. Her ear flicks at an exalted, breathless yes and the sharp jerk of Kitty’s hips, her scent burning in her nose. She grinds back harder still, bearing down with her thighs.

You want her.

Every blessed inch.

Cerise moves faster than Kitty can react, releasing her bite to grab her hands and pin them over her head. Palm to palm, chest to chest; hip to hip and then some. Her hair falls around their faces like a dark curtain, and there’s a slow, building pressure in the divot of spine.

“I-I--” Cerise’s voice doesn’t sound like her own; it sounds ragged, animal, more like gravel clattering around in her voicebox until the mangled remains of words spill from her mouth. “ Kitty. ”

Kitty whines , her eyes glassy and dark. She flushes to her collarbones, and it makes the dark imprints of Cerise’s teeth stand out all the more. “Oh, please . Red, don’t--leave me hanging , here, please--”

“ Never. ” Ceries kisses her again, digging her teeth into Kitty’s bottom lip until she opens for her with a cry. Kitty grips at her hands, writhing; Cerise grips hers back just as tight, swayed beyond rational thought by the urgency, the heat, everything.

She quakes, her body burning, every muscle tensing; Kitty grows wild against her grip, her back arching. Whatever noise she makes is lost in Cerise’s kiss, but her claws scrape against her knuckles and her fangs dig in until Cerise tastes blood. The bolt of pain bleeds to pleasure; she snaps her hips against Kitty’s, pulls her head back--

--and howls.

White hot light--moonlight, or just bliss in its most primal form, she can’t tell--blinds her for an eternity. Every cell, every neuron fires at once; it is, without a single doubt, the best orgasm Cerise has ever had in her entire life. Considering it is the only one, though, that’s not the highest bar to clear. Semantics, whatever. When it ends a few seconds later she carefully pulls her hands away from Kitty’s so she can catch herself before she crushes her, arms shaking with the strain. She’s covered in sweat and more exhausted than she ever has been on a full moon.

“A-are, are you--” Cerise tries to breathe, clear her hoarse and cracked voice, and put together something coherent in what little remains of her brain. “Are you okay?”

Kitty squeaks. “Uh-huh.”

Cerise looks her over, lingering on the smear of red at her lips. “Oh, G-Godmother, did I--?” She winces at a sharp spike of pain in her lower lip, and the copper blooming on her tongue. “Ow.”

“No, I’m good,” Kitty wheezes. “Sorry. About the biting. I can’t feel my legs.”

“Same.” Carefully she lowers herself again, laying a sweaty cheek against Kitty’s heaving chest, listening to the rabbit fast beat of her heart. “Am I too heavy--”

“You’re f-fine .” Kitty hisses through an aftershock. “You’re... purr fect.”

“I hate you.” Cerise closes her eyes and grins, stupidly. “I hate you so, so much.”

“You love it .”

Kitty’s fingers run through her damp hair. Cerise nearly melts against her, sighing with sleepy bliss. Maybe they can make this a...thing. Maybe. A hunt through the moon dappled woods, maybe to a secret spot Kitty picks ahead of time...a picnic, even. They would make absolutely hexcellent dates and--

Her ears twitch. Are those footsteps?

Ramona comes crashing into the clearing, eyes blazing. “Cerise! Cerise, are you okaa augh?! ”

Cerise scrambles for cover. “ Aaah! ”

Ramona claps both hands over her eyes. “ Put on your fairy freakin’ shirt, you lunatic! ”

Kitty takes one look at the situation, screams, and does what she does best. She vanishes. Cerise grabs for her hoodie and pulls it on. “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up.”

“I cannot believe you,” Ramona snarls, still covering her eyes. “First you get me all freakin’ worried about you and your fake girlfriend thing and your instincts and then you get it on with her in the freakin’ woods and you make me run in and see it! I am so telling Dad!”

“No! No, no you are not telling him about this, Ramona! I will strangle you in your sleep if you try!”

“ Gaaah. You decent?” Cerise’s weak yes is what has Ramona uncovering her eyes, her scowl and blush visible for miles. “That’s it, I’m never worrying about you again . Ugh. I need bleach.”

“Just--stop talking.” Cerise covers her face. “Please just stop talking. ”

“We’re going home. Right now.” Ramona crosses her arms, and waits. Cerise flushes deeper. “Come on, Casanova, get up.”

“I--I can’t. My legs are still…”

“ You’ve got to be kidding me. ”

Ramona doesn’t tell their father, thank Godmother. The walk of shame back to the dormroom was bad enough, especially because Ramona had to carry her halfway there. She can’t meet her sister’s eyes and they awkwardly shuffle around each other in the halls, which everyone attributes to them preparing for a story Cerise has no desire to participate in. That’s fine; the less suspicion, the better.

She doesn’t see Kitty that morning, which nearly sends her into a panic, but she does find a note in her locker in Kitty’s handwriting saying that she got a case of the sniffles.

Being wet and out in the cold aren’t great combinations. Next time, your place? See you at lunch though, Red.

<3

Lunch rolls around and Kitty sparkles beside her, leaning against her side with a purr. Instead of feeling awkward about it, or like she has to put on a show, Cerise lifts her arm and welcomes Kitty snuggling against her side with a smile.

Their lunchtime friend-group of the day--Cedar, Raven, Maddie with special guests Bunny and Lizzie--spend half the time coo’ing and awing at the display. It’d raise her hackles but Cerise is still riding out her interrupted afterglow, so she’ll let them be for now.

Maddie stirs her tea, takes a hearty sip, then says a little too cheerfully and way too loudly, “Nice hickies, Kitty!”

Kitty squeaks , slapping a hand over her neck. Cerise burns with humiliation as she realizes that, because of the ‘sniffles’ her new girlfriend has completely forgotten to cover the visible parts of her neck. Oh no. Oh, are you kidding me? Blondie hears this bit of gossip like a bloodhound smells dinner and her Mirrorpad rises. Cupid snatches it out of her hands and shakes her head no.

“Maddie,” Raven says, voice strained. “We weren’t going to--we were just going to let them be, remember? We’ve all been there.”

Maddie laughs merrily, and says, “Nice hickies on you too, Raven Queen.”

“What--!? But I thought I--” Raven goes bright red. “--I mean-- okay, listen. ”

“Oh, come now, it’s natural! Although you’re a few seasons late for spring, that doesn’t mean you escape it unsprung.” Maddie sips her tea without a care in the world. “I feel bad for Bunny, though, her poor little nose has to uncover all kinds of secret tristes!”

Bunny’s nose twitches rapidly, and she coughs as delicately as she can, covering her mouth. “Please don’t bring me into this.”

“You and Apple should probably stay away from the fourth floor water closet, though. That’s Duchess and Poppy’s spot--”

Raven visibly shudders and distantly Duchess can be heard honking in outrage. “ Oh wow I didn’t need to know that. ”

Lizzie grabs her tea cup with a sigh, holding it out to Bunny. “I think someone’s spiked our dear Hatter’s tea.”

Bunny’s nose twitches again. “Oh--! Oh, yes, there is uh, definitely Too Truth serum in this. Who would--”

Bells jingle. Courtly makes a mad dash for the door, cackling. Maddie claps her hands with delight and Lizzie simply sighs. “Ah. Well. That makes sense.”

Cerise watches the chaos unfold, Kitty’s hand warm in her own. She ducks her head close to whisper to Kitty, “You snuck Courtly the serum, didn’t you?” It’s a prank that has Kitty Cheshire written all over it.

Kitty purrs, a little congestedly. “I mean. I might have.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” Cerise pecks Kitty on the lips, and turns to her lunch. Maybe it’s a bad sign that she’s already used to being utterly embarrassed in front of the school, but hey. That’s what she gets for dating a Cheshire.