Even Villians Can Love: Evil!RedCricket Ficlet
The happiest birthday to @heatherfield! An amazing and kind friend and the reason I am on this hellsite to begin with 😈. So in honor of your birthday I have a little ficlet below the cut just for you 🥰 I hope you enjoy it 😘
Marriage! A King! I could kill her, it would be easy to do, let the wolf have control for just an evening, let my maw grip around her tiny throat to: Rip. Tear. Kill.
Her boots trodden along the well worn path, wolf’s time was near, but not near enough.
She needed space.
She needed to run.
She couldn’t breathe.
She howled!
—
The troops came quickly and almost relentlessly, Regina wanting her throne back, but Snow was not going down without a fight, and Ruby learned long ago to fight tooth and claw for every scrap.
Her mother died trying to force her to become one of them, and her granny died trying to make her human.
She was both, and she fought like both when the battle called for it.
Today the battle was not snide remarks or passive agressive looks of hunger, no today was a battle with her sharp teeth and even sharper claws.
Only Jiminy decided to be a fucking idiot and join the fray! He wasn’t much of a fighter, he was their diplomat, though sometimes other skills came in handy.
She growled as she saw him pick up a sword and to her surprise he knew how to use it.
Most men new to the blade would try and stab through the armor, but Jiminy hacked and slit throats, blood spraying him, there was something feral in his gaze and had she not had her own arms to bite or throats to slit she would have asked, especially as he picked up an fallen arrow and jammed it through the Queen’s soldier’s neck that was attacking her flank.
Somehow she lost track of him, and then Snow screamed and the battle ended not long after.
As she transformed back, her hand wiping at her bloodied mouth, she was surprised to see Jiminy bloodstained and growling at the three knights holding him down, the sword he had been using in Lieutenant Charming’s hands, the man’s face to her unreadable, but all she could feel was the prickles of dread on the back of her neck.
And, in her gut.
“Take him to the dungeons, I want him away from the other prisoners, no one is to speak with him until I have gotten her Majesty to safety. Am I understood?”
Everyone nodded except her, they roughly manhandled Jiminy away, her ears hearing their foul words, noting who said them, something was wrong and she did not just mean the stench that clung to Charming whenever he was around their Queen.
It was nauseating to have to deal with his pheromones on a constant basis, and the man was constantly around Snow.
She would go see Jiminy tonight, after everyone went to bed.
—
His wrists were shackled as were his ankles, everything stung like annoying prickles against his skin.
He longed to be free, but he looked at her Majesty and her two guards and he made sure to keep his face clear of any betrayal souring in his stomach.
He did not use that sword, the blood on it was not the Queen’s. He was sure of it, but he has not able to speak to anyone, not even Red visited him, and while he was alone in his feelings, still he thought of all people she would have defended him.
Currently, she would not meet his eye, instead the yellow tinted glare eyeing everyone but him, and he felt his heart break that she thought so ill of him.
Her long red and black dress encased her body almost like a third skin. It looked soft despite it being form-fitting, perhaps made from fur or something resembling for the sleeves cascaded off her wrists. The dark flower crystals on the bodice and embroidered on the sleeves and hidden down the floor length fabric contrasted with the blood red. Her raven hair tied up, tiny ringlets framing her face, made his heart pound, and his palms sweat.
He could believe that her Majesty did not fully trust him, trust was not something they all had the luxury of and of her Lieutenant who was almost as paranoid as the Black Queen didn’t trust anyone; but the Captain, he had never doubted she trusted him.
Until now.
Son of thieves, murderer by fifteen, a pickpocket from the cradle, a con artist from the womb. Only free of his parents after administering that potion, saving that woodcarver and his wife with an easy distraction.
Yet his life ended here in the former White Court, as both a diplomat, and a jack of all trades, one secret after another shared to him.
For everyone might not trust the man, but the little cricket that sat on windowsills and in crannies easily allowed to listen in on conversations and plan tactics in secret, tactics of which betrayal of the woman he loved did not factor into it.
Love did not factor into it.
“James Archibald, you stand here in the Queen’s court accused of an attempted assasination of her Majesty. The penalty of which is death. Do you have anything to say to prove your innocence?”
He eyed the man he knew was more than just the queen’s closest guard, even closer than Red.
It would crush Red, if she ever found out Charming’s secret, for Jiminy knew his feelings to be unrequited for he saw her lovelorn look as the lieutenant walked away from a conversation the two were having weeks ago.
Jiminy was smart enough to never mention it, for what would she see in Jiminy in comparison anyway? He was no fighter, he knew how to wield a sword as well as his words, he was not prone to violence, but he loved her.
He wanted her happiness above anything in this realm or the next.
He lifted his chin proudly, and made sure he stood tall.
“Nothing. I am but a servant here to serve her Majesty in her diplomatic capacity. I had the sword because your captain was not being protected enough. And if memory serves correctly, the Dwarves were supposed to watch the pack, and yet they were suspiciously absent for their detail. Of course that could be a mere coincidence, or none of us were aware of any switch to the plan that has been in place for weeks.”
“You used a sword!” Charming was angry, and he could understand why.
“I know how to use one, I have never claimed the contrary, I only have said I prefer not to weild a weapon that can cut down a life faster than fairy magic can heal them.” He spat the words of the creatures that changed sides more than he changed his mind on Charming’s ability to put aside his loathing of him to actually work with him.
“I knew of no change to the plan myself,” Red agreed with a nod of her head, he watched as the ringlets bounced gently with the motion.
“Yet he was supposed to stay with the Queen!” Charming refuted adamantly.
“I was separated from her Majesty in the fray, she joined and she is quick on her feet. I could not follow fast enough, but I joined in where I was needed, only locating the queen after she screamed, bloody sword in hand and the dwarves tackling me to the ground.”
Said Queen’s lips quirked in what he could guess as amusement, and some knowing glance she gave him, or so he fooled himself to believe as she stood and walked towards him, her hand reaching out to let her fingers trail against his collarbone, and into his hair, nails scratching lightly in his scalp.
Both Red and Charming stiffened as the Queen moved around him, sizing him up, her touch lingering heavily against his skin.
“He’s right. We were separated, though I had no doubt he would come to Red’s aide for I was the one that pulled the Dwarves to my side, for I had to be sure, unfortunately I was proven right. Isn’t that right, Grumpy? The plan failed, and he will be executed, for the punishment for treason is death, Jiminy wouldn’t hurt me, but Stealthy heard something he shouldn’t have, and he plotted with my enemies to have me murdered and he…will...die.”
She hissed and suddenly he was no longer in chains, his skin no longer itched from them, but the lingering touch of the Queen made him shiver.
There was movement and a growl as he pushed the Queen behind him, just as the metal of a sword tried to stab where she just was.
There was a quick fray of swords and soon two bodies littered the ground. Two dwarves were dead, the Queen back on her throne unharmed, and Red’s beautiful face smeared with traitor’s blood.
Their eyes met for a second and he turned on his heel and walked away.
No one came after him.
It both relieved and disappointed him.
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