Chapter Text
Red has decided she isn’t going to get married.
Not to a total stranger.
Certainly not one that the maids seem to dance around discussing.
And definitely Not in a foreign country that looks down on her and her home land.
She just…can’t.
With that—Red gathers the layers of her gown and sneaks away to the gardens.
now facing a garden wall, kissed by flowers and vines, by the looks of it she’s certainly climbed higher ones.
Climbing it should have been light work.
But instead of making a clean escape, red found herself increasingly annoyed with the scent of lavender around her.
Gripping at the English ivy covered bricks her mother’s bickering played in her mind. It was her key motivation for getting over the wall.
That and the relief of getting away from a lifetime of gossiping whispers and away from a future where doesn’t get a say.
What if her ‘bride to be’ is a complete monster?
It had been such a controversy for red to be in the United States of auradon in
The first place, thanks to her mother’s reputation.
In the short hours she had been in the kingdom, the whispers grew louder through Auradon.
wonderland wasn’t her home anymore. It was a twisted fairytale. a place of ‘Mad freaks of nature and talking teapots’
Telling by those stories alone, red would’ve faced prejudice regardless of her mother’s reputation.
So who’s to say this marriage wasn’t a trap to overthrow wonderland. Who’s to say red wasn’t just bait?
Yeah, hell no. She was getting over this wall one way or another.
her nails dug into the stone kissed by foliage she grumbled, frustrated.
It had been 10 frustratingly long minutes of trial and error. Of scraping her elbows and she was barely even halfway up the wall.
Her form was drowned by a layered gown, corset tight around her waist and skirts sweeping the grass. Red was clad in the same color of froth that lined the edges of a freshly brewed cups of tea. A beverage she was sure to over indulge in before this day, hoping that chamomile would calm her nerves. (Spoiler: it didn’t)
The dress crinkled and fought against her attempts at escape, as if it were enchanted to do so.
The weight of the garments humbled her, reminding her the laws of gravity that she never once obeyed in wonderland—or had to for that matter.
This place was driving her mad already.
Red cursed at the wall, dusting her hands off as she stepped away. Stuffing any other strategies from where she stood.
That’s when reds straining to get up the wall was interrupted and the lavender that invaded her senses was replaced by a new fresh scent.
“Pardon me, m’lady. Is something wrong?” A woman spoke, soft and Polite yet unafraid to take up space, like she had owned it. but respected those who may of stood there long either of them had.
“I am fine. You can go back inside and wait with all the other gawkers.” She dismissed the stranger. Uninterested in Facing them as she slid back down to the ground with a grunt.
The stranger clearly hadn’t gotten the Memo.
“I will, but— I am curious. What are you doing…?” The stranger questioned, sounding almost…amused? Ugh.
“Nothing.” Red was quick to retort.
“But you are.” The stranger kept up. Witty. Irritating.
“I Am not.” Red hadn’t the interest to irritate back. She just wanted them to go away.
“Are too.”
“Not.”
“You are.” The stranger laughed. LAUGHED. So freely that It was utterly obnoxious.
“I am not!” Reds defensive demeanor fell flat immediately after the words left her mouth.
This stranger was stubborn. It should have been infuriating. But her charm, her presence was disarming.
“If you must know I am trying to ascertain the best way to climb over this wall.” She sighed, still faced away from the other woman. Her hazel eyes scanning each crack and curve of the wall.
“Climb the—…why?” The woman was baffled. If red was lucky enough maybe she would think she was insane and tell the queen herself that red was not fit to marry her.
“Because I think she may be a beast…” red confessed her head hung low, her waves of hair falling down to her shoulders, moving with the unsteady rise and fall of her chest.
“A beast?” The stranger questioned.
“or a troll.” Red added. Entirely serious.
“Who are we discussing?”
“I have no obligation to disclose that with you. Mind your own.” Red tugged at the ivy, testing the durability from a different angle.
…the stranger remained. The silence weighed.
Red sighed, her hands loose around the plants entangled with the stone.
She didn’t attempt to climb again she just fiddled with the greenery, wishing she had the same ability to grow as wild and freely as it did.
“The queen of auradon. No one will speak of her. No one.” She gripped the ivy in her palms.
“She is clearly a beast or a troll. That’s how most the stories here go, correct?” Red doubled down on her previous assumptions.
“I understand…the queen is rather private.” The stranger sounded less enthused, more reserved. The confidence that was so strong that red could feel it from 10 steps away, flickered. Like a candle in the wind.
Red having moved on from the conversation, advanced back to the wall.
“YES! Maybe if I climbed from there I could” she glanced back at the woman for the first time. Smiling hopefully before facing the wall again
“perhaps you could help me?” She hated to ask but it was worth it
“Is it only her looks that matter to you? Is that why you worry whether she is a beast or troll?” The woman didn’t acknowledge reds request.
“I do not care what she looks like because I will make it over this wall before I have to face her. Now if you were to just lift me—“ red began to climb again. Her eyebrows knitting as her fingertips ached, blistering.
“You want me to lift you over the wall so you can escape?” The woman asked, stepping forward.
“Do you not worry that people will notice you are missing?” She stood close enough to catch red if needed, far enough to honor her space.
“I will worry about that later. Now come, make haste.” Red urged, inching as high as she could.
The stranger was silent. Unmoving.
“Can you not see I’m a ‘damsel in distress’? Isn’t saving what you Auradonian people do?”
Red hissed, clinging on for the life of her.
“I have no intention of helping a damsel that is trying to avoid marrying me.”
The stranger— no. The queen responded.
Red lost her grip, her breath catching.
A sharp pain that she expected on impact if the ground was instead replaced by muscular arms holding her bridal style.
Red was to slow to process a disgusted disposition she would have had.
Traitorous for her own arms to slot so perfectly around the bluenettes neck, as if they’d belonged there.
“Hello Red.” She smiled charmingly at the other. But it was charged with a playfulness. She had really played in reds face for this long?
“I am Chloe. Chloe charming.” She gently set red back to the ground, her toned arms were hidden by her suit but evident when they briefly steadied red who stumbled upon meeting the ground.
Her arm still rested around the queens neck, their breaths mingled. Their closeness was appropriate for future wives.
Reds stomach twisted when she noticed it.
“Get off of me!”
She pushed Chloe off of her like the others touch had stung rather than stabilized.
Like red hadn’t been the one to hold on longer than intended.
Despite their height difference, red being the taller one, the shove did nothing.
Chloe moved of her on volition, smile still resting on her lips where a sneer should have.
Red is hesitant and begrudging to bow her head to the queen.
“apologies, your majesty.” Her tone was biting and sarcastic. yet the princess hadn’t even treated the bite as a mere pinch. Brushing it off.
“I am not your majesty, nor am I the queen.”
Red lifted her head, confused. Intrigued.
“I am simply Chloe to you.”
The queen smiled. It wasn’t flashy, it was human. Not beast like at all.
“Seeing as you may be my wife, and I yours.” so Casually said, like they weren’t being forcibly bound to one another.
“I do not know you.” Red shamelessly laid it out, flat. Straight to the point.
“I do not know you either…other than the fact that you are terrible at climbing walls.”
Chloe raised her hands in surrender before they found a place in her suit pockets. Blue embroidered and silver, a heart shape on the collar.
Red sucked her teeth, biting her cheek so that she wouldn’t say something she’d regret.
“What do you want know?” Chloe asked.
“What?” Red furrowed.
“What do you want to know about me?” Chloe asked once more. Pointing to herself.
Red let the question settle between them. studying the tone, polite, patient and not at all a rhyme meant to trick.
“Everything.” Red answered, but discovered Her new fear being that she’d actually be proven wrong about her past theories of the queen. That she would even actually…like…the queen— Chloe. Simply Chloe.
“Let’s see…” chloe said more to herself before she took a grounding breath.
They stood across from one another, no watching eyes. Just two strangers who were reaching the climax of the biggest day of their lives.
“I hate cauliflower. I love literally anything my mother cooks,”
Red noticed that the formality of her tone gave way to a more casual one, not noticing her own shoulders relaxed at the smooth voice that gently rang through her ears. Sweet as a lullaby, confident as a carried note.
“I love fencing even though it scares the shit out of my parents.”
That earned a huff of reds nose. The corner of her lip quirking up into something close enough to a smile to make Chloe’s eyes twinkle as she continued to talk.
“Contrary to popular belief my favorite color isn’t blue…I wear it to represent my kingdom.” Her hands smoothed the fabric of her suit “But chartreuse…that’s my favorite color.” Chloe’s eyes very intentionally flickered to the sunflowers that graced the garden, then back to reds eyes.
Honey brown with flecks of gold, the kind of spark that could light a match.
After a beat she exhaled, looking to the sky as she rocked back and forth of her own heels.
“I am a trained knight but due to my brother…the original heir’s passing, it is no longer a path I embark on.” Her gaze softened, a reminiscent grin graced her features.
“An important part of being a knight, is to be courageous.” She readjusted her posture.
“So—even though I am anxious to marry a girl I just met,” Chloe gave a reassuring nod. Reds gaze only intensified thinking of her mother’s contrary claim.
“I would be honored to if she was— if- you were willing to walk down the aisle to me.”
Chloe’s leaned closer to the taller girl, her attempt at meeting her height sent a foreign flutter of awe in reds chest.
voice softened to a tender whisper, like to was between them. As if there wasn’t an altar of people, waiting for the two of them to make a union of obligation.
Red internally scoffed at herself for the loss she felt once chloe stepped back.
A real scoff left her at an achingly familiar posh voice approaching the gardens.
“Red! I have been looking all over. where the clocks have you been?!”
Her voice was like a crack of thunder, effectively pulling red away from the small moment of peace that she found in the mist unexpected time.
“Hello, your highness,” Chloe greeted reds mother. “Red here was just ready to decide if she wanted to get married or not.”
The princess in question glared at Chloe then back at her mom. A chill chill creot across her skin, seeping into it like a sponge to water.
“Well of course she—“ Bridget was quick, Chloe was consistent. Unchallenged by Bridgets intimidating energy.
“The choice is hers to make.” The auradonian queen was sincere. Assertive.
Red stiffened. Her mother’s gaze on her intensified and The weight of two kingdoms was on her shoulders.
Yet, in the matter of minutes, Chloe made it feel like she wouldn’t be carrying that weight alone.
She still would rather be doing anything else compared to getting married.
But Chloe’s respect for her choice.
Her ability to disarm her. Calm her like chamomille.
It made the arrangement feel like less of a cage she was being cornered into and more like she held the key to freedom anytime she wanted out.
Even if that wasn’t true, she had to believe it was.
“Mother…I will be needing a new gown.” Red stated, holding up the dirtied beige garments she wore.
The orchestra sounded slower than it actually was
Gossiping lips were moving but not a word made it through reds ears
Maddox hatter locked arms with her down the aisle
Burgundy silk rained down into a Lacey white train, adorned by sparkling rubies. The dress wasn’t any lighter than her previous one.
But it made her look the part of the bride.
The red and white, a mesh of wonderland and auradon.
Purity and intensity woven into fabrics.
It all seemed so pointless until red looked up from the rose petaled floor and staring back at her was Chloe.
Of course there were others staring her down like she was on display.
But there looks didn’t matter. Not anymore.
Not when there was a pull on her heart from Chloe’s lips mouthing
‘focus on me’, the moment reds eyes wandered back to the direction where snarky comments came in the crowd.
By the time she stood in front of Chloe, the crowned queen whispered to her.
“You are beautiful. May I hold your hand?” Sweet. Stomach turning.
Red dumbly nodded.
The moment their ‘I do’s’ were said the crowd seemed to hold their breaths.
Hazel eyes met brown ones.
Holding friction in a stare.
Chloe’s dark lashes turned brown under the sun filtering through the stained windows, the curl of them in full view as her gaze landed on reds lips.
hands were still laced together, comfortable and not nearly as tight as her corset.
This wasn’t how the red head imagined her first would be.
Regardless she gave Chloe a consenting nod, leaning closer.
There was a hair of space left between them and she Chloe’s vanilla fragrance wrapped around her like a hug.
A gasp leapt out from reds mouth as Chloes soft lips pressed to hers. The kiss was timid at first but grew confident the moment warmth enveloped them.
It felt like Time itself slowed, dragging on the foreign sensation that danced below reds stomach.
If it weren’t for the officiant clearing his throat, the two wouldn’t have parted and even when they did, the kiss left more to desire.
Thanks to the crowd filling the room with cheers, Chloe was only one to hear the soft whine red gave the moment the kiss ended.
For once in reds life she didn’t feel like running.
Red wanted to stand with Chloe, entangled and lips pressed to one another for as long as possible.
But for now Chloe’s hand in hers as they left the crowd behind them, was enough.
That alone, made this matrimony pure.