Archive of Our Own

Chloe’s 15th Birthday — Cinderella’s Castle, Cinderellasburg

The mark appeared exactly at midnight.

One second, Chloe was laughing softly while her parents finished singing happy birthday for what felt like the tenth time that evening, and the next, a sharp burning sensation spread across her left forearm so suddenly that she nearly dropped the glass in her hand.

She gasped quietly and instinctively grabbed her wrist, the sting pulsing beneath her skin.

“Chloe?” Ella asked immediately, noticing the shift in her expression. “Sweetheart, are you alright?”

“I—I think so,” Chloe murmured, although she clearly wasn’t sure.

The burning only intensified.

Excusing herself quickly, she hurried out of the small private dining room and up the staircase toward her bedroom, heels echoing against polished marble floors while her heart hammered nervously in her chest. She had heard stories about soulmate marks her entire life. Everyone in Auradon had. 

The moment you turned fifteen, the mark appeared somewhere on your body, revealing the first fragment of the person you were supposedly destined to meet one day.

Some people cried when they saw theirs.

Some people immediately loved it.

Others spent years trying to understand what it meant.

Chloe had always imagined hers would look elegant somehow. Something balanced and graceful. Something that made sense.

Instead, when she rolled up the sleeve of her gown and looked in the mirror standing beside her bed, all she saw was chaos.

Sharp crimson brushstrokes spread across the inside of her forearm in jagged swirls and uneven lines, deep reds layered over one another like paint violently dragged across a canvas. The mark looked intense, almost aggressive, completely unlike the neat and controlled image Chloe had spent her whole life trying to embody.

For a long moment, she simply stared at it silently.

Her bedroom door opened gently behind her, and Ella stepped inside first, followed closely by Christopher. The moment they saw their daughter standing frozen in front of the mirror, both of them understood immediately.

“You got your mark,” Charming said softly.

Chloe looked down at it again before letting out a small, uncertain laugh. “I think the universe made a mistake.”

Ella walked closer, her expression warm as she carefully took her daughter’s arm to look at the mark better. “Why would you say that?”

“Because it looks like a mess,” Chloe admitted quietly. “It’s so… intense.” Her fingers traced one of the crimson strokes carefully. “I’m supposed to be organized and disciplined and controlled, and this looks like the exact opposite of that.”

Christopher smiled faintly. “Maybe your soulmate isn’t supposed to be exactly like you.”

“That’s what worries me.”

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

Chloe frowned slightly at her reflection in the mirror. Whoever the mark belonged to felt impossible to picture. The colors were too bold. Too reckless, way emotional. Nothing about it resembled the careful future she had always imagined for herself.

Still, despite how unsettling it felt, she couldn’t stop staring at it.

Because somewhere out there existed a person connected to these colors. Someone whose soul fit perfectly against hers even if she couldn’t understand how yet.

And maybe that should have comforted her.

Instead, it only made her more curious.

“I guess I’ll meet them someday,” Chloe whispered softly, mostly to herself.

Red’s 15th Birthday — The Queen of Hearts' Castle, Wonderland

Red woke up to shouting.

Not unusual shouting, either. Wonderland was never quiet, but birthdays inside the castle somehow managed to make everything worse. 

Servants rushed through the halls carrying ribbons and roses, card soldiers argued downstairs over decorations, and somewhere in the distance her mother’s voice echoed through the palace walls loud enough for everyone to hear.

“IF THAT CAKE IS CROOKED, SOMEONE IS LOSING THEIR HEAD.”

Red groaned and pulled a pillow over her face.

A second later, something burned sharply across her right forearm.

She froze.

The pain wasn’t unbearable—she had experienced worse—but it came so suddenly that she sat upright before she fully realized what had happened.

Frowning, she pushed up the sleeve of her sleep shirt and froze as a mark slowly emerged across her forearm.

Royal blue and golden-yellow brushstrokes curled over her skin in smooth, elegant lines, gradually forming a design that looked far more sophisticated than anything Red would have chosen for herself.

Her stomach dropped.

“Nope. Absolutely not.”

She stared at it harder, as if sheer stubbornness could somehow make it disappear.

It didn't.

If anything, the mark only seemed to become clearer.

Refined.

Elegant.

Suspiciously princess-shaped.

“Oh, come on.”

A knock sounded against her bedroom door before it suddenly swung open without waiting for permission. Pink rushed inside still half-wearing one of her shoes, curls messy from sleep.

“Sis! Mom’s already yelling at people and—”

She stopped the second she noticed Red covering her arm.

Her eyes widened instantly. “You got it?”

Red pulled her sleeve down so quickly it was almost aggressive. “Keep your voice down.”

Pink immediately lowered her voice to a whisper, practically vibrating with excitement as she climbed onto the bed beside her older sister. “What does it look like?”

“Terrible.”

“That’s not a description.”

“It looks like my soulmate probably says things like ‘manners matter’ unironically.”

“That’s very specific.”

“Look at it.”

Pink snorted loudly before clapping a hand over her mouth.

Red pointed accusingly at her forearm.

“Blue and gold. Smooth lines. This is the soulmate mark of someone who reminds teachers about homework.”

Pink immediately lost it.

“That’s not what soulmate marks mean.”

“It absolutely is.”

Before Pink could answer, heavy footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Both girls immediately straightened.

The Queen of Hearts entered the room without knocking, dressed perfectly despite how early it was, red hair pinned flawlessly into place. Her sharp eyes moved across the room once before settling on Red.

“Well?” Bridget asked expectantly. “Did it appear?”

Red’s shoulders tensed automatically.

Love ain’t soft in Wonderland.

That was one of the first things Bridget had ever taught her.

Love made people weak. Distracted. Stupid enough to trust someone with the power to hurt them. The Queen of Hearts never spoke about soulmate marks like they were romantic fairy tales the way people in Auradon did. To her, they were simply another dangerous attachment waiting to become a vulnerability.

Red learned very young not to give people vulnerabilities.

So she shrugged casually. “No.”

Pink looked at her in surprise but thankfully stayed quiet.

Bridget narrowed her eyes slightly like she didn’t fully believe her, but after a moment she simply sighed. “Late bloomer, then. Unfortunate.”

Red forced herself not to react.

The Queen’s gaze lingered for another second before she turned sharply toward Pink instead. “And you are still not dressed. Honestly, must I do everything myself?”

Pink jumped off the bed immediately. “Sorry, Mom.”

The second Bridget swept back out of the room, the tension disappeared with her.

Red exhaled quietly.

Pink looked back at her carefully. “You lied.”

“No kidding.”

“You didn’t want her to see it?”

Red glanced down at the mark hidden beneath her sleeve.

The smooth blue and gold strokes almost seemed to glow against her skin, elegant in a way she hated more the longer she looked at them.

If her mother saw something beautiful and refined, she’d immediately start building expectations around it. Expectations about who Red was supposed to become. Who she was supposed to love. How she was supposed to act.

Red already spent her entire life fighting against expectations she never asked for.

She wasn’t about to let a soulmate mark become another chain around her neck.

“She doesn’t need to know everything about me,” Red muttered quietly.

Pink watched her for a moment before leaning her head against her older sister’s shoulder gently. “I think it’s pretty.”

Red rolled her eyes automatically, though there was no real annoyance behind it this time. “Traitor.”

Pink grinned. “You’re just mad because your soulmate probably has their life together.”

“That sounds horrifying, actually.”

But even as she joked about it, Red couldn’t stop thinking about the mark hidden beneath her sleeve.

The worst part was that somebody was attached to it.

An actual person.

Somewhere.

Waiting to become her problem.

“Absolutely not.”

The mark, unsurprisingly, did not disappear.

Red groaned and flopped backward onto her bed.

This sounded like a future problem.

And future Red could deal with it.

1 year later — Auradon Prep, Auradon

Chloe Charming had come to one very unfortunate conclusion.

She hated her roommate.

Not immediately, though. That was the frustrating part.

At first, Chloe had genuinely tried.

When Auradon Prep released the dorm assignments before the semester started, Chloe remembered staring at the name Red of Hearts printed beneath hers and immediately recognizing it. 

Everyone knew who Red was. Daughter of the Queen of Hearts. Wonderland royalty. Rebellious. Difficult. Constantly involved in some kind of trouble if rumors were to be believed.

Still, Chloe had promised herself she wouldn’t judge her before actually meeting her.

People did that to Chloe all the time, assuming they already knew everything about her because she was Cinderella’s daughter. She hated when people looked at her and only saw the princess of Cinderellasburg instead of an actual person. It would’ve been hypocritical to do the same thing to Red.

So when Chloe arrived at their shared dorm for the first time, she had been determined to make things work.

Their room sat near the west tower of Auradon Prep, large enough for two students but still small enough that privacy barely existed. Two beds stood against opposite walls beneath tall arched windows overlooking the training grounds below. Chloe had already unpacked most of her things by the time the door swung open later that afternoon.

And then Red walked in.

She carried two bags slung over one shoulder, vivid red hair slightly messy from travel, hazel eyes scanning the room quickly before landing on the bluenette. There was something sharp about the way she looked at people, Chloe noticed immediately. 

Still, Chloe smiled politely.

“Hi,” she said, setting aside the book she’d been organizing on her desk. “You must be princess Red of Wonderland, I’m Chloe Charming.”

“I know.”

The answer came instantly.

Not rude exactly.

Just flat.

Chloe blinked once before recovering. “Right. Um… do you want help unpacking?”

“No.”

Red dropped her bags beside the empty bed without another word and immediately started opening drawers like Chloe wasn’t even there.

The silence stretched awkwardly.

Chloe tried again anyway.

“I figured we could maybe split the room evenly,” she offered carefully. “I already took this side, but if you want the bed closer to the window, I can switch.”

Red finally glanced at her then, expression unreadable.

“You always this nice,” she asked, “or are you just trying not to look judgmental?”

The question caught Chloe completely off guard.

“What?”

“You heard me, Princess.”

There was no teasing in the nickname yet. If anything, it sounded more defensive than mocking, like Red was putting distance between them on purpose before Chloe could do it first.

Chloe frowned slightly. “I’m not judging you.”

“Sure.”

“I’m not.”

Red gave a small shrug and turned away again. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

And somehow, from that moment on, every conversation between them turned into an argument.

It wasn’t even about important things at first.

It was stupid things.

Room boundaries. Noise levels. Open windows. Training schedules. Whether weapons belonged inside dorm rooms at all.

Chloe liked structure. Red seemed determined to destroy it out of spite.

By the second week, Chloe had discovered Red had an infuriating habit of leaving jackets everywhere except where they belonged. She played music loudly while doing homework, disappeared randomly for hours without explanation, and constantly borrowed things without asking first.

By the third week, Red had started calling her Princess almost exclusively.

By the fourth, Chloe was fairly certain the girl enjoyed getting under her skin.

Which brought Chloe directly to her current situation.

“You cannot seriously be climbing out the window right now.”

Red paused halfway onto the windowsill and glanced back over her shoulder with complete calm. “Watch me.”

Chloe dropped her pen onto the desk with a frustrated sigh. “There’s a door. Normal people use doors.”

“Good thing I’m not normal.”

“It’s after curfew.”

“Again,” the rebel said patiently, like Chloe was the one struggling here, “good thing I’m not normal.”

Moonlight spilled across the dorm room through the open window, catching against Red’s red hair while cold night air drifted inside. Chloe crossed her arms tightly, already annoyed because she knew exactly how this conversation was going to go.

Poorly.

“You’re going to get caught,” Chloe said.

Red snorted softly. “Please. I’ve been sneaking around palace guards since I was ten.”

“That is not reassuring.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be.”

Chloe watched as Red adjusted the strap of the bag hanging across her shoulder. Probably another midnight trip into the woods surrounding campus. Or the village nearby. Or somewhere equally reckless and irresponsible.

“You know,” she said carefully, “if you keep breaking rules just because someone tells you not to do something, eventually you’re going to get yourself into actual trouble.”

Something flickered briefly across Red’s expression.

“You say that like rules automatically deserve obedience.”

Chloe frowned. “That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you meant.”

“No, it isn’t.”

Red hopped down from the windowsill before Chloe could stop her, boots hitting the stone floor softly. She stepped closer, arms crossed defensively.

“You grew up in Auradon,” she said. “People here like rules because they were made for them. Wonderland doesn’t work like that.”

Chloe opened her mouth, then hesitated.

For once, Red wasn't being sarcastic.

She sounded tired.

Like this argument wasn't really about curfew at all.

Before Chloe could figure out what to say, Red shook her head as though she regretted saying any of it.

“Forget it.”

She climbed back onto the windowsill.

“Red—”

The words died in Chloe’s throat.

For a brief moment, she thought Red might actually explain herself.

Instead, whatever vulnerability had slipped through vanished behind a familiar smirk.

“Good night, Charming.”

Before Chloe could respond, the redhead swung herself out of the window with the kind of effortless confidence that always seemed to follow her. Chloe hurried forward, reaching the sill just in time to catch a glimpse of red hair vanishing into the darkness below.

She stayed there for a moment, staring out into the night.

The room felt strangely empty.

Which was ridiculous.

Red was annoying.

Reckless.

Impossible.

And yet Chloe found herself standing there longer than necessary before finally pulling the window shut and returning to her desk.

By the middle of the semester, Red had realized something deeply unfortunate.

She actually liked Chloe Charming.

Not in a romantic way, obviously not.

Just… as a person.

Which was annoying enough on its own.

Because when Red first arrived at Auradon Prep, she had been completely prepared to hate the princess. Everything about her screamed perfect royal golden girl — the kind of person Red had spent her entire life trying to avoid. 

Chloe followed schedules voluntarily, woke up early for sword training without complaining, and somehow managed to keep her side of the dorm spotless no matter how chaotic school became.

At first, Red had assumed it was all fake.

Nobody could actually be that patient.

That organized.

That genuinely good.

But the longer they lived together, the harder it became to believe Chloe was pretending.

Especially because the bluenette kept trying.

That was the problem.

Even after all their arguments during the first few months, Chloe still knocked on Red’s side of the room before borrowing things. She still reminded the redhead about assignments she knew the girl forgot. She still saved her a seat during assemblies even after Red spent the entire morning being sarcastic toward her.

Worst of all, Chloe looked at Red like she genuinely expected her to be better than the reputation everyone else already decided she had.

Red didn’t know what to do with that.

“You know,” the rebel said one evening from where she was sprawled upside down across her bed, “normal roommates don’t reorganize shared bookshelves for fun.”

Across the room, Chloe barely looked up from the stack of papers she was grading for Swords and Shields Club sign-ups. “Normal roommates also don’t leave throwing knives inside desk drawers with no protective covering.”

“That happened one time.”

“Red, I cut my finger.”

“You survived.”

Chloe sighed dramatically, but Red caught the tiny smile threatening at the corners of her mouth.

That has happened more often lately too.

The smiling.

Not big smiles. Chloe was usually too controlled for that. But little ones Red noticed when she said something particularly stupid or dramatic.

And somehow, without either of them fully realizing when it happened, the constant tension between them had started changing shape.

The arguments were still there.

They probably always would be.

But now they lasted longer because neither of them walked away anymore.

Now Red stole Chloe’s fries during lunch while the princess complained without actually stopping her. Chloe waited up when the redhead snuck out late at night, pretending she was “just awake studying” even though both of them knew that was a lie. 

Now they sat together during free periods, working on separate homework assignments in comfortable silence instead of the awkward tension that used to hang between them.

It was… nice.

Weirdly nice.

Which honestly should’ve worried Red more than it did.

“You’re staring again.”

Red blinked.

Chloe was looking at her now, eyebrow raised slightly from across the room.

“I am not.”

“You absolutely are.”

Red scoffed immediately and grabbed the nearest pillow to throw at her. “You’re obsessed with yourself.”

Chloe caught the pillow easily without even looking annoyed anymore. “You started this conversation.”

“And I regret it already.”

“Tragic.”

Red rolled her eyes, but there was no real bite behind it this time.

Because somewhere along the way, Chloe had stopped feeling exhausting.

These days, Red found herself looking for the bluenette automatically whenever something interesting happened.

She'd gotten used to hearing Chloe's voice from across the room.

Gotten used to someone waiting up when she came back late.

Gotten used to never really being alone.

The realization felt strangely dangerous.

So naturally, Red buried it under sarcasm before she could think about it too hard.

Luis Madrigal entered Red's life completely by accident.

Which, honestly, felt unfair.

She met him because Chloe had dragged her into helping clean up after a school festival. According to the bluenette, it was an opportunity to contribute to the community. According to Red, it was a carefully orchestrated trap designed specifically to ruin her afternoon.

"You could just help instead of complaining the entire time," Chloe said as they carried a large box of leftover decorations down one of the castle hallways. The festival had ended hours ago, but somehow there were still banners to fold, streamers to remove, and enough boxes to make Red suspect Auradon held festivals solely to create cleanup work afterward.

"You say that like complaining and helping can't happen simultaneously."

"They really can't."

"They absolutely can."

Chloe adjusted her grip on the box and shot her a look. "You've spent the last twenty minutes proving otherwise."

"No, I've spent the last twenty minutes proving I'm capable of multitasking."

"You've spent the last twenty minutes being annoying."

"And yet you've kept me around."

"Unfortunately."

Red grinned.

The fact that Chloe didn't immediately tell her to shut up was probably evidence of how much their friendship had changed over the past few months.

Not that either of them would ever say that out loud.

Before Chloe could continue the argument, someone stepped around the corner ahead of them carrying an enormous stack of folded tables. The pile was balanced against his chest and shoulders, stacked high enough that Red couldn't even see his face at first.

The sight alone made her pause.

Those tables were heavy.

She knew they were heavy because she'd helped move a few earlier and had immediately decided she never wanted to do it again.

Whoever this person was, he was carrying at least six of them by himself.

Then one of the tables shifted.

The entire stack tilted sideways.

"Oh—"

The voice came from somewhere behind the pile.

Without thinking, Red dropped her side of the box and reached forward, catching the edge of the slipping table before it could crash to the floor. For a brief moment she expected the entire stack to collapse on top of both of them.

Instead, another hand immediately steadied the pile.

The boy adjusted his grip and effortlessly shifted the weight back into place.

Effortlessly.

Red blinked.

Because there was no way that should have been easy.

The stack must have weighed more than she did, yet he barely seemed bothered by it. His footing never changed. His expression never tightened. He simply moved the tables back into position as though they weighed little more than a pile of books.

Only then did she finally get a good look at him.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, with dark curls that looked slightly messy from a long day of work. His school jacket sleeves were pushed up to his forearms, and despite carrying enough furniture to furnish a classroom, he didn't seem remotely out of breath.

More surprising than that, he was smiling.

Not the polite kind of smile people used when trying to be friendly. Not the nervous kind that usually appeared when someone realized who she was. It seemed completely natural, as though smiling at strangers and thanking them for helping was simply who he was.

"Thanks," he said, readjusting the stack against his chest. "That probably would've crushed my foot."

Red folded her arms.

"Would've made cleanup more interesting."

The laugh that escaped him was immediate and genuine.

For some reason, that caught her off guard.

Most people either looked uncomfortable around her or tried too hard not to. Luis did neither. He just laughed like she'd said something genuinely funny, and the warmth in his expression didn't fade afterward.

Before she could stop herself, Red felt the corner of her mouth tug upward in return.

Something about him felt familiar, though she couldn't quite explain why. Maybe it was the easy confidence he carried himself with, the kind that didn't need to be announced to everyone in the room. Maybe it was the warmth in his smile. Or maybe it was simply the fact that he was looking at her like a person instead of a reputation.

Beside her, Chloe shifted the decoration box against her hip.

"Oh, right," she said. "Luis, this is princess Red. Red, this is Luis Madrigal."

The name clicked immediately.

Of course.

One of the Madrigals.

Looking at the stack of tables still balanced against his chest, Red suddenly felt a little stupid for not figuring it out sooner. She'd heard stories about the Madrigals before. Seeing someone carry half a room's worth of furniture without breaking a sweat probably should've been a clue.

Luis carefully lowered the tables beside the wall, setting them down with surprising gentleness considering how much they weighed. Once he was finished, he straightened and offered his hand.

"Nice to officially meet you."

Officially.

The word immediately caught Red's attention.

It meant he already knew who she was.

And just like that, she found herself bracing for the shift she knew so well.

It happened with almost everyone eventually.

Sometimes people tried to hide it. Sometimes they didn't. But there was usually a moment when they remembered she wasn't just Red. She was the Queen of Hearts' daughter.

A glance, a hesitation, a slight change in posture.

The careful choice of words that followed.

Something always changed.

So Red waited for it.

And waited.

And waited.

But it never came.

Luis didn't suddenly look nervous. He didn't become cautious or awkward. He didn't start treating her like she might explode if he said the wrong thing.

If anything, he looked exactly the same as he had thirty seconds ago.

Relaxed.

Friendly.

Comfortable.

As though knowing who her mother was hadn't altered his opinion of her in the slightest.

The realization unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.

Not in a bad way.

Just... unexpectedly.

She was so busy trying to figure out why that she almost missed Chloe speaking again.

"Well," the Charming princess said, shifting the box in her arms with exaggerated suffering, "now that introductions are over, can someone help me before this thing permanently damages my royal posture?"

Red snorted.

Luis laughed.

And between the two of them, they rescued Chloe from her tragic burden.

Somehow, that should have been the end of it.

Instead, the three of them spent the next hour working together.

They folded banners, stacked chairs, carried boxes back and forth across the castle, and repeatedly fought a losing battle against glitter that Red became increasingly convinced was sentient. Every time she thought they'd finally cleaned the last of it, another patch appeared in a different corner. 

Later that night, after cleanup finally ended, Red sat cross-legged on her bed absentmindedly tracing the blue and gold brushstrokes hidden beneath her sleeve.

Luis wore orange, blue and gold.

Red stared at the colors for a moment.

Then looked away.

That was ridiculous.

Colors didn't mean anything.

Unfortunately, her soulmate mark seemed to disagree.

Across the room, Chloe was half-asleep over an open textbook, blue curls falling across her face beneath the warm glow of the desk lamp.

Red glanced over automatically.

Then paused.

For a moment, she couldn't quite remember what she'd been thinking about before.

The feeling vanished almost immediately.

Across the room, Chloe shifted slightly in her chair, still stubbornly trying to study despite looking exhausted.

Idiot.

The thought came with surprising fondness.

Red looked away before she could examine that too closely.

Luis wore blue and gold.

That was what mattered.

Eventually, she managed to convince herself of that.

Somewhere between late-night arguments, shared homework sessions, and nearly getting detention together twice, Chloe Charming became Red's favorite person in the world.

It happened so slowly neither of them noticed at first.

One day they were just roommates who constantly irritated each other. The next, Red was automatically saving the seat beside her at lunch before Chloe even arrived.

The Charming princess started bringing extra snacks back to the dorm because she already knew Red would steal half of them anyway. They trained together after classes, studied together during free periods, and somehow developed the strange ability to hold entire conversations through nothing but eye contact whenever someone annoyed them in class.

By winter break, people at Auradon Prep had mostly stopped asking where one of them was if the other showed up first.

Because the answer was usually obvious.

Probably nearby.

“You know,” Hazel said one afternoon while watching Red practically draped across Chloe during lunch, “this is getting ridiculous.”

Red didn’t even bother lifting her head from her friend’s shoulder. “Nobody asked.”

Hazel smirked slightly. “I’m just saying. At this point, if someone separates you two, you’ll probably both die.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, but there was fond amusement hidden underneath it now instead of embarrassment. She continued reading her book one-handed while absentmindedly playing with a strand of Red’s hair using the other.

Red almost melted immediately.

Which was humiliating.

Because Red of Hearts did not do clingy.

Not with anyone.

She hated physical contact most of the time, actually. 

Too much grabbing, too much expectation, too much vulnerability in letting people close enough to touch her freely. Growing up in Wonderland taught her very quickly that letting someone too close usually ended badly.

She had spent years cultivating a very respectable reputation for emotional unavailability.

Chloe had somehow destroyed that in less than a semester.

And now it was a disaster.

It started after the nightmare.

Red never talked about those.

Not the dreams about Wonderland. The ones about her mother. The memories she tried pretending didn’t bother her as much as they actually did.

Usually, when she woke up shaking and unable to breathe properly, she just dealt with it alone until it passed.

But one night during their second semester, the panic attack hit harder than usual.

Red remembered waking abruptly in complete darkness, chest painfully tight while panic clawed its way up her throat so fast she couldn’t think straight. Her breathing turned uneven immediately, heartbeat too loud, hands trembling hard enough she could barely grab onto the blankets.

And before she fully realized what she was doing, she was already crossing the room.

The realization hit halfway there.

She was going to Chloe.

Not because Chloe could fix it.

Not because Chloe had some magical solution.

Just because she wanted Chloe.

The thought should have embarrassed her.

Instead, she knocked softly against the bedframe.

“Princess,” she whispered weakly.

No response.

“Chloe.”

This time Chloe woke instantly.

The second she saw Red standing there shaking, exhaustion disappeared from her face completely. “Hey,” she said softly, immediately sitting up. “What happened?”

Red hated how small her own voice sounded.

“Can’t breathe.”

That was all it took.

Chloe pulled the blankets back without hesitation. “Come here.”

Red hesitated.

Normally, she would’ve refused.

She would've told Chloe she was fine, gone back to her own bed, and suffered through it alone.

Instead, she climbed under the blankets, like her body had already decided before her brain could argue about it.

And somehow, impossibly, the bluenette understood exactly what Red needed without asking questions.

No talking.

No pushing.

No forcing her to explain.

She simply wrapped an arm carefully around Red and let her press close enough to hear the steady rhythm of her heartbeat beneath her ribs.

“Focus on breathing with me,” Chloe whispered sleepily into her hair.

Red did.

Slowly, painfully slowly, the panic loosened enough for air to return properly to her lungs.

And after that night, things quietly changed.

At first it only happened occasionally. Bad nights. Stressful days. Moments where Red couldn’t shut her thoughts off long enough to sleep.

Then eventually it just… became normal.

Sometimes Chloe woke up with Red already curled against her side stealing half the blankets. Sometimes Red complained dramatically about Chloe’s cold feet while actively refusing to move away from her. Sometimes they fell asleep talking and woke up tangled together without either questioning it anymore.

Chloe teased her constantly for it too.

“You’re clingy,” she informed her one evening while Red practically laid on top of her during movie night.

Red gasped dramatically. “I am not.”

“You’re literally using me as a pillow right now.”

“And?”

“And five months ago you threatened someone for touching your shoulder.”

“That was different.”

Chloe grinned knowingly. “Because it wasn’t me?”

Red immediately grabbed the nearest pillow and shoved it directly into Chloe’s face before she could answer.

Unfortunately, the smug smile Chloe gave her afterward made it very obvious she already knew the answer anyway.

And honestly?

That should’ve been Red’s first warning sign.

The second warning sign was Luis.

Not because Red disliked him.

Actually, that was the problem.

Luis was easy to like.

He stayed kind without being fake about it. He never treated Red carefully like she might explode at any second, but he also never pushed too hard when she pulled away emotionally. Somewhere along the way, cleanup duty conversations turned into lunch together occasionally, then walks around campus, then actual friendship.

And eventually, Luis asked her out.

Not dramatically.

Not publicly.

Just the two of them sitting beneath one of the trees near the training courtyard while sunset painted warm gold across campus.

“I was wondering,” Luis said carefully, “if maybe you’d want to go into town with me this weekend.”

Red blinked once.

“Oh.”

Luis smiled nervously now. “You can say no.”

“No, I just…” Red rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“You don’t have to answer right now.”

But strangely, Red already knew she was going to say yes.

Because Luis made sense.

Her soulmate mark made sense around him.

Warm gold. Calm blue. Someone steady and dependable and kind.

Exactly what she’d always imagined.

So why did she immediately wonder what Chloe would say about it?

Chloe was developing a completely separate problem.

Her name was Hazel Hook.

It had started innocently enough during training sessions. Hazel challenged her in a way few people ever did, pushing her harder than most opponents dared to. She was competitive, confident, and completely unafraid of Chloe's reputation. Training with her quickly became something the princess genuinely looked forward to, even if she refused to admit it out loud.

"You're distracted."

The accusation came in the middle of a sparring match. Chloe nearly missed Hazel's sword entirely before blocking at the last second, stumbling back a step as metal clashed against metal.

"I'm not distracted."

Hazel grinned immediately.

"You almost lost."

"I adjusted."

"You panicked."

"I did not panic."

The pirate laughed under her breath and circled her again, sunlight flashing briefly against the metal hook attached to her arm. Chloe rolled her eyes, but the smile threatening at the corner of her mouth probably ruined the effect.

Unfortunately, Red noticed.

A few days later, the princess was standing in front of the mirror getting ready for dinner when her roommate—who had somehow claimed half of Chloe's bed despite owning one of her own—looked up from where she was sprawled across the blankets.

"Oh my god."

The immediate dread that settled in Chloe's stomach told her she wasn't going to enjoy whatever came next.

"What?"

Red pointed dramatically.

"You like her."

"Who?"

"The pirate."

The hairbrush nearly slipped from Chloe's hand.

"I do not like Hazel."

"You smile differently after sword practice."

"That is not a real thing."

"It absolutely is."

Spinning around so quickly her curls whipped behind her, Chloe pointed accusingly back.

"You are literally going out with Luis this weekend."

That seemed to catch the redhead off guard.

"Okay? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing," she answered far too quickly.

The conversation ended there.

At least on the surface.

Neither of them brought it up again. One went to dinner. The other went to training. Life continued exactly as it always had.

And yet, something felt different afterward.

A few days later, Chloe found herself watching Luis slide into the seat beside Red at lunch. The two of them immediately started arguing about something, judging by the way the redhead was gesturing dramatically while Luis laughed. The sight shouldn't have bothered her.

For some reason, it did.

She looked away before she could examine that feeling too closely.

Across campus, Red had a similar problem. While passing the training grounds after class, she spotted Hazel leaning casually against the fence while talking to Chloe. Whatever the pirate said made the princess laugh, bright and effortless in a way that drew attention immediately.

Something unpleasant twisted in Red's chest.

The feeling vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, buried beneath annoyance and a dozen other distractions. She focused on literally anything else.

Neither of them thought much about it.

At least not consciously.

The uncomfortable feeling remained anyway, lingering quietly in the background of lunches, training sessions, study periods, and every passing mention of Luis or Hazel. Neither of them understood it yet.

They only knew one thing.

The uncomfortable feeling remained anyway.

By spring semester, everyone at Auradon Prep had already decided the situation was obvious.

Red and Luis were practically dating.

Chloe and Hazel were heading dangerously close to the same thing.

And somehow, despite all of that, Red and Chloe still spent most of their free time together.

Maybe that should have been the first sign something was wrong.

Or maybe it was the fact that neither of them ever seemed completely happy with the people they were supposedly supposed to want.

Luis was good to Red. That was undeniable.

He was patient with her in a way most people weren't, calm without being condescending and steady without trying to control her. He understood when she needed space and never pushed too hard when she withdrew into herself. Being around him felt easy in the safest possible way.

And logically, she knew she liked him.

At least, she thought she did.

Even her soulmate mark seemed to make sense around him. Blue and gold. Warm colors. Stable colors. The kind of person she'd imagined ever since she was fifteen years old and woke up with elegant brushstrokes spread across her skin.

So when Luis held her hand for the first time during a walk through town, she let him. When he brushed a strand of hair away from her face, she let him do that too. And when he kissed her cheek one evening beneath the lantern lights outside campus, she smiled afterward because she thought she was supposed to.

Later that night, though, she still crawled into Chloe's bed automatically.

Like always.

"You're smiling," came the sleepy voice beside her.

Red rolled her eyes despite the warmth creeping into her face.

"Go back to sleep."

A grin immediately appeared on Chloe's face even though her eyes remained stubbornly closed.

"Ooooh. It's about the Madrigal boy."

"Shut up."

The princess laughed softly and shifted closer without thinking, one arm draping lazily across Red's waist. It was such a familiar movement neither of them questioned it anymore. Months of sharing nightmares, late-night conversations, and accidental sleepovers had turned moments like this into routine.

For some reason, Red's heartbeat reacted far more violently to that unconscious touch than it had to Luis kissing her at all.

She ignored it.

Aggressively.

Meanwhile, Chloe was trying very hard not to think too deeply about Hazel Hook.

Unfortunately, that became significantly more difficult after the kiss.

It happened after training one evening while rain hammered against the windows of the practice room. They'd been sparring for nearly two hours, both exhausted and breathless by the time Hazel finally lowered her sword.

Laughing, she wiped sweat from her forehead and shook her head.

"You know, for someone who acts proper all the time, you fight terrifyingly aggressively."

A small smile tugged at Chloe's mouth.

"You bring out the worst in me."

"Funny," Hazel replied, stepping closer, "I was about to say the same thing."

Then she kissed her.

The kiss was brief at first, careful and testing. But when Chloe kissed her back, Hazel's hand slid gently to her waist, and suddenly the moment deepened into something warm and dizzying and very real.

For a second, she truly thought this was it.

It had to be.

Hazel was confident and fearless and challenged her in all the right ways. They understood each other naturally during training, pushed each other constantly, and somehow always ended arguments smiling instead of angry.

Everything about it made sense.

So when they finally pulled apart, Chloe's gaze dropped instinctively toward her wrist, waiting for warmth, for light, for something to change.

Nothing happened.

There was no glow, no sudden completion—only the same unfinished crimson brushstrokes she'd carried since her fifteenth birthday.

Disappointment settled heavily in her stomach before she could stop it.

Hazel noticed immediately.

Of course she did.

"It's okay," she said quietly.

"Yeah," Chloe answered too quickly. "Of course."

Because soulmate marks weren't everything.

At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Auradon romanticized them far too much anyway. People could still fall in love without them. They could still choose each other.

So she ignored the uneasy feeling lingering in her chest, just like Red ignored hers.

And for a while, things almost worked.

Almost.

The argument started over absolutely nothing.

At least, that was what Chloe told herself later.

Rain hammered softly against the dorm windows while she sat cross-legged on her bed pretending to read, though she had been stuck on the same paragraph for nearly ten minutes now. Across the room, Red was halfway through changing out of her training clothes, still talking about something Luis had said earlier during lunch.

Chloe wasn’t really listening anymore.

“…and then he somehow convinced the Fairy Godmother to extend the library hours for another week,” Red said, laughing lightly while pulling one of her hoodies over her head. “I swear that boy could survive anything through pure charm alone.”

The bluenette turned a page a little too hard. “Mhm.”

Red paused slightly.

“You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know.” Red frowned faintly before sitting down on the edge of Chloe’s bed. “You’ve been weird all evening.”

Chloe resisted the urge to immediately deny it.

Because the problem was that she had been weird all evening.

Ever since seeing Luis casually sling an arm around Red’s shoulders earlier at lunch like it belonged there naturally.

Ever since Red smiled at him so easily afterward.

It shouldn’t have bothered her.

“I’m fine,” she answered finally.

Red studied her for another second, clearly unconvinced. “You know, for someone who claims not to care about my love life, you get strangely irritated every time I mention Luis.”

Chloe immediately looked up from her book. “That is not true.”

“It kind of is.”

“No, it kind of isn’t.”

Red leaned back slightly against the headboard, arms crossed now. “Princess, you literally went silent for twenty minutes after he held my hand earlier.”

Heat crawled up Chloe’s neck instantly. “I did not.”

“You absolutely did.”

“I was thinking.”

“About murdering him?”

Despite herself, Chloe laughed once under her breath.

Unfortunately, Red smiled back automatically.

And suddenly the room felt too warm.

The familiar ease between them lingered there for one dangerous second too long before Chloe ruined it by asking casually, “So are you seeing him tomorrow too?”

Red blinked once. “Yeah. Why?”

“No reason.”

But the answer came too quickly.

Red noticed immediately.

Just like Chloe noticed the subtle shift in Red’s own expression when she added, “Hazel invited me to training after classes anyway, so I’ll be busy too.”

There it was again.

That awful tension.

Red’s shoulders stiffened almost invisibly before she forced herself to sound normal. “Right. Training.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes slightly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Red.”

Red looked away first, jaw tightening faintly. “I just think it’s interesting how much time you spend with her lately.”

Chloe stared at her in disbelief. “You spend almost every weekend with Luis.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

Because it wasn’t different.

Not really.

And somehow they both knew that.

The silence stretched tightly between them while rain battered harder against the windows outside.

Red hated hearing Hazel’s name lately.

Not because she disliked Hazel.

Actually, that was the problem.

Hazel was easy to like.

She was funny in a sharp, effortless kind of way that always caught Chloe off guard enough to make her laugh unexpectedly during training. She was confident without becoming arrogant about it, competitive enough to challenge Chloe properly instead of constantly agreeing with her like most people at Auradon tended to do. 

More than that, Hazel understood pieces of Chloe most people never even noticed existed.

Around her, Chloe relaxed differently.

Red noticed that immediately.

She noticed how Chloe’s shoulders loosened during sword practice whenever Hazel walked in. How arguments between them somehow always ended with both of them smirking instead of genuinely irritated. How Hazel touched Chloe casually and confidently, like standing close to her had already become natural.

And every single time Red saw it happen, something painfully unfamiliar twisted deep inside her chest before she could stop it.

Meanwhile, across the room, Chloe was dealing with the exact same problem.

Because Luis had quietly become important to Red in ways Chloe still didn’t entirely know how to process.

At first he had simply been someone Red tolerated. Then someone she laughed with occasionally. Then suddenly he was woven carefully into parts of her routine that Chloe hadn’t realized she considered hers until someone else occupied them.

Luis understood Red’s moods naturally now. 

He knew when to tease her and when to back off. Could calm her down without making her feel handled, which was impressive enough on its own. Sometimes Chloe would catch Red smiling at something he said before she could hide it again, soft and genuine.

And the worst part was that Chloe liked him.

She really did.

Luis was good to Red. Patient with her. Kind in ways that felt steady instead of overwhelming.

Logically, Chloe should have been relieved.

Instead, every time she saw him beside Red, irritation flared so quickly it embarrassed her.

For months, Chloe and Red had belonged to each other in every way that mattered without ever needing to acknowledge it out loud.

They were together constantly. Sleeping in the same bed half the time, stealing each other’s clothes, reaching for each other automatically in crowded hallways without thinking about it first. Chloe had grown so used to being Red’s person that the idea of sharing that role with somebody else suddenly felt strangely unbearable.

And apparently Red was struggling with the exact same thing.

Now there were other people stepping into spaces that used to feel exclusively theirs.

Neither of them knew how to handle it.

“You know what?” Red muttered eventually, pushing herself abruptly off the bed before beginning to pace restlessly across the room. “Forget it.”

Chloe frowned immediately, irritation already simmering beneath her skin from the entire conversation. “No, apparently you have something to say.”

Red laughed sharply under her breath, though there was very little actual humor in it. “Please. You’re the one glaring every time Luis touches me.”

“Because he touches you constantly.”

The words left Chloe’s mouth before she could stop them.

Silence crashed heavily into the room.

Red stopped pacing.

Slowly, she turned toward Chloe with an expression somewhere between surprise and realization.

“…Wow.”

Heat flooded Chloe’s face instantly.

She looked away first, horrified by how jealous that had sounded.

Not protective or annoyed. Jealous.

Actually jealous.

And judging by the look on Red’s face, she heard it too.

Unfortunately, Red only made the situation worse.

“At least Hazel doesn’t look miserable every time someone gets close to you,” she replied quietly, though the sharp edge beneath the words still landed hard enough to sting.

Chloe’s head snapped back toward her immediately. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“No, I heard you,” Chloe shot back, standing now too while frustration twisted tightly in her chest, “I just don’t understand why you suddenly care so much about Hazel.”

Red opened her mouth immediately with some defensive response already prepared—

Then stopped.

Because she didn’t actually have an answer she was willing to say out loud.

Not one that made sense.

The room suddenly felt much smaller.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Whatever this was, it had stopped feeling like ordinary jealousy a long time ago.

“You know what your problem is?” Red said finally.

She pushed herself abruptly off Chloe’s bed and began pacing the room again, restless energy practically radiating off her now. Rain hammered harder against the dorm windows while thunder rumbled somewhere outside, low and distant enough to make the glass tremble faintly.

Chloe crossed her arms immediately, defensive irritation already burning beneath her skin. “Oh, this should be interesting.”

Red laughed once under her breath, though there was nothing genuinely amused about the sound anymore. “You act like you want people to be honest with you, but the second something makes you uncomfortable, you shut down completely.”

Chloe stared at her in disbelief. “Me?” she repeated sharply. “You literally avoid every serious conversation you’ve ever had in your life.”

“At least I don’t pretend everything’s fine all the time.”

“At least I don’t run away every time things get complicated.”

The second the words left her mouth, Chloe regretted them.

Instantly.

Red’s expression changed so quickly it made Chloe’s stomach drop.

The anger vanished first. Then the frustration. All the sharp defensiveness disappeared almost immediately, leaving behind something far worse.

Hurt.

Real hurt.

For one awful second, Chloe remembered the panic attacks. The nightmares. Every single moment Red instinctively tried to disappear whenever emotions became too overwhelming for her to handle properly.

And Chloe had just weaponized it against her.

“Right,” Red said quietly.

The softness in her voice hurt more than yelling would have.

Before Chloe could figure out how to take the words back, Red turned away and grabbed her jacket from the chair beside the window.

“Red—”

“I’m going out.”

Chloe blinked in disbelief, glancing automatically toward the storm raging outside the windows. “It’s pouring.”

“I noticed.”

Red shoved one arm aggressively through the sleeve of her jacket, movements sharp and angry now, like she needed to do something with all the emotion clawing violently through her chest before it consumed her completely.

Chloe’s own frustration flared again despite the guilt twisting underneath it. “So your solution is seriously to climb out a window and disappear every time you’re upset?”

Red yanked the jacket fully on. “Worked fine these past few months.”

The response hit harder than Chloe expected.

Because underneath the anger, she could hear it now.

Fear.

Not fear of Chloe.
Fear of whatever this entire conversation was turning into.

Then Red moved toward the window.

And suddenly panic hit Chloe so fast it nearly stole the air from her lungs.

Not because of the argument itself.

Because she suddenly couldn’t stand the idea of Red leaving angry.

“Red, wait—”

Red ignored her completely and shoved the window open.

Cold wind and rain exploded violently into the room at once, curtains whipping sharply while icy rainwater splattered across the floorboards. Thunder cracked somewhere much closer this time, loud enough to shake the walls.

“Seriously?” Chloe snapped, hurrying after her instinctively. “You’re acting insane right now.”

Red climbed halfway onto the windowsill without even looking back at her. “And you’re acting jealous.”

“I am not jealous.”

Red laughed bitterly, finally glancing over her shoulder. “Sure, Princess.”

Something in Chloe broke then.

Maybe it was the nickname.

Maybe it was the thought of Luis touching Red in ways Chloe suddenly realized she hated witnessing. Maybe it was Hazel kissing her earlier that week while somehow still feeling wrong afterward no matter how much Chloe tried convincing herself otherwise.

Or maybe it was simply the unbearable thought of Red walking away from her right now.

Whatever it was, Chloe reacted before thinking.

“Just stop leaving for one second!”

She grabbed for Red instinctively, fingers catching the sleeve of her jacket before it slipped suddenly beneath her grip.

And then—

Skin.

Direct contact against Red’s soulmate mark.

Everything happened at once.

Red gasped sharply, the sound breaking violently from her throat as a sudden burning sensation exploded across both of their wrists hard enough to make Chloe stumble backward in shock.

Crimson light flashed beneath their skin.

“What the hell—”

Red cursed loudly, grabbing her wrist with her free hand while the marks across her skin began glowing intensely, bright enough to illuminate the darkened room around them.

Chloe looked down instinctively.

And froze.

The unfinished crimson brushstrokes spread across her forearm were moving.

The abstract lines twisted violently beneath her skin, colors swirling together like wet paint dragged across a canvas before suddenly locking into place all at once. A heart split apart by a sharp white lightning bolt formed at the center, half black and half red, fierce and chaotic and painfully familiar.

Across from her, Red stared at her own wrist in horror.

The elegant blue and gold strokes decorating her skin widened and connected rapidly, reshaping themselves into the outline of a diamond framed by crossed swords with a crown resting above them.

Chloe’s symbol.

Red’s symbol.

For one horrifying second, neither of them breathed.

Rain hammered violently against the open windows while the fading glow from their completed soulmate marks illuminated the room softly around them.

And suddenly every single thing that never made sense finally did.

Because it was never Luis. It was never Hazel.

It was always each other.

Red looked up first.

Her eyes were wide with something dangerously close to panic.

“No,” she whispered immediately, the denial leaving her lips so fast it sounded almost instinctive, like her brain physically refused to process what she was seeing.

But Chloe couldn’t speak at all.

Her thoughts felt completely frozen.

Red ran.

The second the shock loosened enough for her body to move again, she jerked backward away from Chloe so quickly it almost hurt.

“No,” she repeated breathlessly, shaking her head harder now. “No, no, absolutely not.”

“Red—”

But Red was already backing toward the window again.

Panic flashed instantly across Chloe’s face.

“Wait, just— can we talk about this?”

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

Their marks still burned faintly beneath their skin. Complete. Permanent. Real.

Red felt sick.

Because soulmate marks were supposed to make things easier. Simpler. They were supposed to clarify feelings, not destroy entire worlds in the span of thirty seconds.

Instead, everything inside her suddenly felt upside down.

No.

No, she refused to think about that right now.

Because if she did, then she’d have to acknowledge the horrifying truth sitting directly in front of her.

Some part of her was relieved.

And somehow that terrified her more than anything else.

“Red,” Chloe said quietly this time, her voice softer now in a way that almost hurt to hear. “Please don’t leave.”

And that nearly made Red stay.

Nearly.

But then her eyes dropped toward Chloe’s wrist again, toward her own symbol sitting perfectly completed inside Chloe’s soulmate mark.

And panic slammed violently back into her chest.

So she ran.

This time Chloe followed immediately.

“Red!”

Cold rain hit Chloe the second she climbed through the window after her, shoes slipping dangerously against the wet stone outside while thunder cracked loudly overhead. Down below, Red sprinted across the courtyard without looking back once, red hair already soaked within seconds beneath the storm.

“Red, wait!”

She didn’t stop.

Of course she didn’t.

Chloe chased her anyway.

Across the training grounds. Past the east tower. Through rain heavy enough to blur the world beyond a few feet ahead.

But Red had spent her entire life learning how to disappear when things became too overwhelming.

And eventually, somewhere near the bridge leading toward the forest paths outside campus, Chloe lost sight of her completely.

Red was trying very hard not to completely lose her mind.

The rain had started again on her way back, soaking through her jacket and clinging to her hair, but she barely noticed. Her thoughts were louder than anything else, loud enough to drown out the storm, loud enough to make her feel like she was moving through water instead of air.

Her wrist still burned beneath her sleeve.

Every time she so much as glanced at it, panic surged all over again, sharp and disorienting. The mark was no longer just ink or mystery or something she could ignore. It had a meaning now. A shape. A name that refused to leave her head no matter how hard she tried to force it away.

Chloe Charming.

Her best friend.

Her roommate.

The person who had somehow been at the center of her life for so long that Red could no longer remember where she ended and Chloe began.

Everything suddenly made sense in a way that felt less like clarity and more like collapse.

And Red hated how much of her didn’t hate it at all.

By the time she reached the dorm building Luis stayed in, she was barely aware of climbing the stairs. Her body moved on its own, like her mind had disconnected from it entirely. She only stopped when she reached his door.

She knocked once.

Then, after a beat of hesitation she couldn’t quite explain, she knocked again.

The door opened almost immediately.

Luis blinked in surprise the moment he saw her standing there drenched from head to toe, rain dripping from her sleeves and hair. “Red? What happened?”

For a second, she almost said it. Almost let everything spill out in one breath, like that would make it real instead of terrifying.

Instead, she let out a small, broken laugh.

“I think I ruined my life.”

Concern shifted instantly across his face. “Okay… that is probably not a normal sentence to hear at midnight.”

Despite everything collapsing inside her chest, something about the way he said it pulled a weak laugh out of her anyway. It wasn’t enough to fix anything, but it kept her from breaking completely.

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Feels like it.”

Luis stepped aside immediately. “Come in before you freeze.”

She hesitated only briefly before stepping inside.

Warmth hit her all at once, making her realize just how cold she actually was. The contrast was almost dizzying. Luis closed the door behind her and moved without asking, grabbing a towel from somewhere and handing it to her while still giving her space.

“You want to tell me what happened?” he asked gently after a moment.

Red gripped the towel like it was the only stable thing in the room.

No.

She absolutely did not.

Because how was she supposed to explain this without sounding insane?

Sorry, turns out the person I’m apparently soulmates with is my best friend and roommate and the girl I’ve built my entire life around without realizing it.

The thought alone made her chest tighten painfully.

Luis sat down carefully on the edge of his bed, not pushing, just waiting. That patience somehow made it worse.

“You don’t have to deal with it alone,” he said quietly.

That almost broke her.

Red swallowed hard and looked away, unable to meet his eyes for too long.

Across campus, Chloe was probably looking for answers too. Piecing things together. Realizing the same thing Red had just been forced to face in a single, devastating moment.

And sitting there beside Luis, Red understood something with terrifying clarity.

She already knew what Chloe’s answer would be.

Luis stayed quiet for a while after that, watching her pace in slow, restless circles across his room.

Not because she had explained anything properly. She hadn’t. Red had mostly spoken in fragments, half-thoughts, and emotional spirals that sounded increasingly unhinged even to her own ears. Luis, somehow, was still listening.

“I feel like we skipped several important steps,” he said eventually, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck.

Red stopped pacing and dropped into the chair across from him with a frustrated sigh. “You ever have a moment where your entire life just rearranges itself and suddenly you realize you’ve been missing something obvious your whole life?”

Luis blinked. “That is… concerningly specific, but yes.”

“Great,” she muttered. “Now multiply that by ten and make it worse.”

“That did not help at all.”

She groaned and dragged both hands through her damp hair. The mark under her sleeve throbbed faintly, like it was reacting to her thoughts.

Luis studied her carefully for a moment before speaking again. “Did something happen with Chloe?”

Her head snapped up immediately.

The reaction was instant. Too instant.

Luis didn’t miss it.

He sighed softly, almost like he already knew where this was going. “Red.”

“No, it’s not—” She stopped herself abruptly, because whatever she was about to say didn’t even make sense anymore.

Because it was Chloe.

Always Chloe.

Luis leaned forward slightly, voice gentler now. “I’ve always wondered about you two.”

Red frowned. “What does that mean?”

“You and Chloe,” he repeated simply.

“We’re best friends.”

“Exactly.”

That answer should have ended it.

Instead, it only made Luis smile faintly, like he was looking at something she couldn’t quite see yet.

“Most people have best friends,” he said. “You two… don’t really behave like most people.”

Red’s jaw tightened. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know,” he said calmly. “But everything you do still somehow circles back to her.”

That made her go quiet.

Because she wanted to argue. She really did. But the words didn’t come as easily as they should have.

Luis didn’t push. He just continued, softer now.

"She's your best friend, I know that. But sometimes it felt like... she was the center of everything for you without you noticing."

Red looked away.

For a moment, she couldn't argue.

Because he was right.

"Oh," she said quietly.

The sound came out smaller than she intended. She stared at the floor for a long moment before dragging a hand across her face.

"Oh no."

A helpless laugh escaped Luis before he could stop it.

“Yeah.”

Red buried her face in her hands for a second before looking up again, eyes wide with dawning horror.

“This is bad.”

“You think?”

“I ran away into a storm,” she muttered. “I think I’m allowed to say it’s bad.”

“Fair.”

The silence that followed felt strangely different from before. Less uncertain. More inevitable. Luis watched her carefully while she sat there trying to untangle thoughts that seemed determined to knot themselves together again.

Then, more gently, he asked, “You’re thinking about going back, aren’t you?”

Red didn’t answer right away. The truth was already pulling her in that direction whether she wanted it to or not, and they both knew it.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” she admitted at last.

Luis nodded slowly.

“I think you already know more than you’re saying out loud.”

The words landed harder than anything else he could have said because he was right. Deep down, she already knew. She just didn’t like what the answer meant.

And that was the problem.

On the other side of campus, Chloe sat beside Hazel in one of the empty training rooms near the east wing while rain hammered relentlessly against the castle windows. The storm outside seemed determined to shake the entire building apart, but it still wasn’t loud enough to drown out her thoughts.

This time, the silence between them wasn’t comfortable. It sat heavily in the room, weighed down by too many unanswered questions and too many things neither of them quite knew how to say.

Hazel had given her a towel earlier, which Chloe still hadn’t really used. It sat crumpled in her hands while she stared at the floor, trying unsuccessfully to slow her thoughts long enough to make sense of them.

“They completed,” Chloe said again, her voice quieter now. “Both of them. Immediately.”

Hazel didn’t look surprised.

That should have been the first thing Chloe questioned.

“You knew.”

Hazel tilted her head slightly.

“Not exactly.”

“Hazel.”

A tired smile crossed Hazel’s face.

“I suspected.”

Chloe stared at her in disbelief.

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Would you have believed me?”

The answer should have been obvious. It should have been no.

“I kissed you,” Chloe said suddenly.

Hazel’s expression softened immediately. Not defensive. Not hurt. Just understanding.

Because she already knew what Chloe was really asking.

Why didn’t it feel like enough?

Hazel exhaled slowly before asking the question neither of them had wanted to say out loud.

“Did you want me to be her?”

Chloe’s breath caught.

No.

The answer arrived instantly, leaving no room for doubt.

She hadn’t wanted Hazel to be Red.

And somehow that realization hurt almost as much as the soulmate mark itself.

Hazel nudged her shoulder lightly.

“Hey. Look at me.”

Chloe did.

“You care about me,” Hazel said softly. “I know that.”

“I do.”

“I know. But when something happens to you—good or bad—who do you look for first?”

Chloe opened her mouth, then stopped.

She didn’t have an answer she could give without proving Hazel’s point.

Hazel’s smile was small and sad.

“Exactly.”

Guilt twisted immediately in Chloe’s chest.

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know,” Hazel said honestly. “And I think part of me knew from the start that I wasn’t the center of that story.”

“That’s not fair.”

“No,” Hazel agreed quietly. “It isn’t.”

For a while neither of them spoke. Rain rattled against the windows while the storm rolled across the sky beyond the castle walls.

Eventually Hazel tilted her head.

“So.”

Chloe blinked.

“So?”

“Are you going to go after her?”

The answer came before she could stop it.

“Yes.”

The certainty of it startled her.

There was no hesitation. No confusion. No need to think about it at all.

Just certainty.

And that terrified her almost as much as it had terrified Red.

By the time Chloe returned to their dorm room, the storm outside had started calming slightly.

Rain still tapped softly against the windows, but the violent thunder from earlier had faded into distant rumbles somewhere beyond the castle walls. Auradon Prep itself had mostly gone quiet too. Hallways empty. Lights dimmed. Nearly everyone already asleep.

Normally, Chloe liked nights like this.

Peaceful.

Predictable.

Tonight, the silence only made everything worse.

She closed the dorm door quietly behind her before leaning back against it for a moment, exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with physical energy. Her thoughts still felt tangled together impossibly tightly, every memory from the last few months replaying differently now that she understood what it actually meant.

Or maybe what it had always meant.

Slowly, Chloe looked around the room.

Nothing had changed.

And somehow that made it feel completely unfamiliar anyway.

Red’s jacket was still thrown carelessly across the chair near her desk because she never hung it up properly no matter how many times Chloe complained about it. One of her rings sat abandoned beside the bathroom sink. There was still a half-finished deck of cards spread across the rug from where Red had insisted she could “absolutely teach Chloe how to cheat properly” two nights ago.

Every part of the room still looked like Red.

And suddenly Chloe couldn’t stop noticing all the small things she used to dismiss without thinking twice about them.

Red stealing her hoodies because they supposedly “smelled better,” even though Chloe was almost certain that made absolutely no sense considering Red always smelled amazing anyway. 

Reaching for Chloe’s hand automatically in crowded hallways without even looking first, like she already trusted Chloe would always be there beside her. 

Crawling into her bed every single night with the same casual certainty most people had about breathing, curling instinctively against her side before falling asleep like that was simply where she belonged. 

None of it had ever felt strange before.

It was just Red.

Just them.

But now Chloe couldn’t stop replaying every moment through an entirely different lens, and the realization hit harder each time.

The jealousy suddenly made sense too.

Gods.

The jealousy.

Every sharp, uncomfortable feeling Chloe had tried ignoring whenever Luis touched Red. Every irrational flare of irritation whenever Red canceled plans for him. Every ugly twist in her chest at the thought of someone else becoming more important to Red than she was.

How had she not realized what that meant sooner?

Maybe because acknowledging it would have changed everything.

Or maybe because some part of Chloe had always known and simply refused to look too closely at it.

Her gaze drifted automatically toward Red’s empty bed.

The sight hit painfully harder than it should have.

For the first time in months, the room felt genuinely wrong without her there. Too quiet. Too still. Like something essential was missing from the space itself.

A familiar instinct rose immediately in Chloe’s chest then, strong enough to make her fingers tighten slightly against her sleeves.

Go find her.

For one irrational second, she almost listened to it. Almost turned around and walked straight back out into the hallway to search the entire castle if she had to.

But she stopped herself before she could move.

Because chasing Red never worked.

Actually, it usually made things worse.

That was one of the first important things Chloe learned after becoming Red’s friend: whenever Red felt cornered emotionally, she ran.

Pushing her only made her retreat further. Arguments escalated faster. Walls went back up immediately, sharp and defensive and impossible to climb over once they were fully in place. The only times Red ever truly opened up were when she chose to. When she came back on her own after giving herself enough time to process whatever emotions she was trying so desperately not to feel.

So instead of running after her again, Chloe changed into softer clothes, climbed onto her own bed, and waited.

Hours passed slowly.

At some point, she tried reading, mostly because she needed something to do with her hands before anxiety completely consumed her. That lasted maybe three pages before she realized she had reread the same sentence five times without absorbing a single word.

Eventually, she gave up entirely.

The book remained forgotten beside her while Chloe sat with her knees pulled loosely against her chest, staring at the rain sliding down the dorm windows in uneven trails. The castle beyond the glass looked blurred and distant beneath the storm, softened by darkness and silver light.

Absentmindedly, her fingers drifted toward the completed soulmate mark on her wrist.

She'd seen that symbol before.

On jackets.

In notebooks.

Scratched into desks.

Red had been carrying pieces of it for years without knowing why.

A broken heart split apart by lightning.

Chloe remembered asking about it once during their second year together after noticing Red spray-painted the symbol across the back of an old hoodie.

“What’s with the broken heart thing?” Chloe had asked from her bed while Red worked on the design across the floor.

Red barely glanced up. “Trademark.”

“That seems dramatic.”

Red had laughed softly at that before continuing to paint. “It was the first thing I ever tagged.”

Chloe blinked. “You tagged something?”

Red looked genuinely offended. “Bluey, I’m from Wonderland. Of course I tagged things.”

“What did you even spray paint?”

A slow, dangerous grin had spread across Red’s face then.

“The palace.”

Chloe had nearly choked. “You spray-painted the Queen of Hearts’ palace walls?”

“Oh, not just the walls.” Red looked almost proud of herself now. “Massive mural. Right across the east courtyard.”

“You’re insane.”

“I was thirteen and angry.”

“That explains literally nothing.”

“It explains everything.”

Then Red had leaned back slightly, spinning the spray paint can between her fingers while amusement flickered across her expression.

“My mother spent three days trying to figure out who did it.”

Chloe stared at her. “And she never realized it was you?”

“Oh, she knew,” Red replied immediately. “She just couldn’t prove it.”

The memory hit differently now.

At the time, Chloe had only thought it was another ridiculous Red story, another example of her recklessness and rebellion and refusal to let anyone control her completely.

Now, staring at the soulmate mark on her wrist, Chloe realized Red had unknowingly been carrying pieces of their symbol everywhere for years.

Like some part of her had already belonged to Chloe long before either of them understood why.

The thought should have terrified her.

Instead, all Chloe could think about was how much she missed her already.

Red wandered aimlessly through the nearly empty campus trying unsuccessfully to outrun her own thoughts.

Which was ridiculous, honestly.

Mostly because her thoughts sounded exactly like Chloe now.

The rain had softened into a steady drizzle by then, leaving the pathways slick beneath her boots as she walked without any real destination in mind. Every attempt to focus on something else lasted maybe a few seconds before her mind circled right back to the same place.

Chloe.

Gods.

Red slowed near the west tower staircase before she even realized where her feet had taken her.

The sight hit harder than expected.

That staircase had become theirs accidentally sometime during their first semester after one particularly awful fight with the Queen of Hearts left Red too angry and shaken to sleep. Chloe had found her sitting halfway up the steps sometime after midnight, arms wrapped tightly around herself while she stared out one of the narrow castle windows pretending she wasn’t upset.

Red still remembered the way Chloe sat beside her without asking permission.

No pressure.

No demands.

Just quiet company.

Eventually, somehow, that silence turned into conversation. Conversation turned into hours. And before Red realized what was happening, dawn had started creeping across the horizon while Chloe still sat beside her listening patiently to every ugly thought Red usually kept locked away from everyone else.

That had been the first time Red truly understood how dangerous Chloe Charming could become to someone like her.

Because Chloe saw everything.

And somehow stayed anyway.

Red stared at the staircase for a long moment.

Luis’ words echoed painfully in her head.

She’s the center of everything for you without you noticing.

He was right. Chloe had always seen her differently — not as a problem, not as a reputation, but as someone worth staying for. The soulmate mark hadn’t created that feeling. It had only named it.

And that terrified her more than anything.

Because friendship with Chloe had somehow become the safest thing Red had ever known.

The thought of losing that made panic tighten immediately in her chest.

What if this changed everything?

What if Chloe only wanted her because of the marks?

What if Red ruined this the same way she eventually ruined every emotionally complicated thing in her life?

Rainwater dripped slowly from her curls as she turned toward the distant dorm building glowing faintly through the darkness.

Their room was there.

Chloe was there.

And despite all the panic and confusion clawing through her chest, there was still only one place Red actually wanted to be.

With her.

The realization hit hard enough to pull a weak laugh from her throat.

Clocks.

She was completely screwed.

It was sometime past two in the morning when Chloe finally heard movement outside the window.

At first, she thought she imagined it. The storm had quieted hours ago, leaving behind only soft rain and distant thunder somewhere beyond the castle walls, and exhaustion had started turning the entire night hazy around the edges.

Then the window creaked open slowly, and Chloe’s head snapped up instantly. 

A second later, Red climbed awkwardly through the window as quietly as possible, damp curls falling into her face while pale moonlight spilled across the room behind her. She landed softly against the floor, one hand still gripping the edge of the windowframe for balance before freezing completely after realizing Chloe was awake.

For one painfully awkward second, neither of them spoke.

Red still stood near the window dripping rainwater onto the floor while Chloe remained sitting upright beneath her blankets staring at her like she’d been waiting for hours.

Which, technically, she had.

Then Red sighed dramatically and looked away first. “You’re supposed to be asleep.”

Chloe’s voice came out softer than she intended. “You disappeared into a thunderstorm.”

“Yeah, well.” Red pulled off her soaked jacket without meeting her eyes. “Character development.”

Despite everything sitting painfully heavy in her chest, Chloe almost laughed.

The familiarity of it hurt unexpectedly. After everything that happened tonight, Red still sounded like herself, still hiding nervousness behind sarcasm and trying to derail emotional conversations by becoming increasingly dramatic until everyone around her got distracted.

Normally, Chloe would’ve rolled her eyes and called her impossible.

Tonight, she was just relieved Red had come back at all.

Red tossed the soaked jacket across the nearby chair before finally glancing toward Chloe properly, and the second their eyes met, the atmosphere in the room shifted again.

Not angry this time.

Just fragile.

Dark circles sat beneath her eyes, and the sarcasm usually protecting her voice sounded thinner tonight. Like she’d spent the last several hours fighting herself internally and lost repeatedly. 

Watching her now, Chloe suddenly found herself remembering all the moments Red had trusted her enough to return after running.

Arguments that ended with Red storming off because emotions overwhelmed her too quickly when she couldn’t control them. Nights where she claimed she “needed air” before eventually coming back quieter and softer around the edges. Long hours Chloe spent awake pretending not to worry while secretly listening for footsteps outside the dorm door.

Running had always been Red’s first instinct.

Still, somehow, she always found her way back eventually.

During fights. After panic attacks. On nights where Red looked at Chloe like she wanted to confess something terrifyingly important but couldn’t quite force the words out loud.

She still returned.

“You waited for me,” Red said quietly after a long moment.

Chloe frowned slightly, like the answer should’ve been obvious. “Of course I did.”

Something shifted briefly across Red’s expression then. Not surprise exactly. Something softer than that.

The feeling appeared so quickly Chloe almost missed it before Red instinctively buried it beneath sarcasm again, retreating automatically toward the safest version of herself.

“You know,” she muttered while climbing onto her own bed, “this is getting kind of creepy. You’re starting to act emotionally attached to me.”

Chloe rolled her eyes automatically, though warmth spread painfully through her chest anyway at how familiar this felt. “You literally had a panic attack the first night I wasn’t here to sleep beside you.”

Red gasped immediately, hand pressing dramatically against her chest. “Wow. Using my trauma against me. Very heroic of you, Princess.”

And there it was again.

That familiar rhythm between them. The teasing. The sarcasm. The effortless way they always seemed to find each other again, even after emotionally catastrophic nights like this one.

For the first time all evening, Chloe finally felt herself breathe properly again.

Because Red was here.

Back where she belonged.

Then Red’s gaze dropped absentmindedly toward her wrist.

The soulmate mark glowed faintly beneath the dim moonlight spilling across the room, and almost instantly the warmth between them quieted again. The teasing faded as reality settled heavily back over the room before either of them could fully escape into normalcy.

Because no matter how familiar this still felt, neither of them could pretend things hadn’t changed anymore.

The silence that followed wasn’t uncomfortable exactly. It simply carried too much inside it — fear, realization, relief, and all the words neither of them fully knew how to say yet.

Moonlight spilled through the still-open window in pale silver streaks while rain tapped gently against the glass. Red sat with her back against the wall beside her bed, one knee pulled loosely toward her chest while her fingers absently twisted the sleeve of her hoodie.

Across from her, Chloe remained curled beneath her blankets, though neither of them looked remotely close to sleeping anymore.

Every once in a while, Chloe caught Red glancing down at the completed soulmate mark on her wrist before immediately looking away again like the sight overwhelmed her all over each time.

Eventually, Chloe spoke first.

“You really scared me tonight.”

Red’s expression shifted immediately, guilt crossing her face fast and sharp before she lowered her eyes.

“I know.”

Chloe swallowed slightly before continuing. “When I lost you near the bridge, I thought…”

The sentence died unfinished in her throat.

Because she didn’t actually know how to explain what she thought in that moment.

That Red wouldn’t come back?

That Chloe had pushed too hard and finally broken something between them?

That somehow, after all these months of building their lives around each other so naturally neither of them even noticed it happening, this had become the thing that ruined them?

The worst part was realizing none of those fears sounded irrational.

Red looked down quietly at her hands.

“I didn’t mean to disappear like that.”

“But you did.”

“Yeah.”

Neither of them argued about it. Running was still Red’s first instinct whenever emotions became too overwhelming to hold in place for long, and Chloe had spent months learning that chasing after her usually only pushed her further away.

So Red ran.

And Chloe waited.

That had been true long before soulmate marks complicated everything.

Rain tapped softly against the windows while Chloe studied her from across the room. Red looked strangely small tonight despite how sharp and overwhelming her personality usually felt, curled up against the wall almost defensively like she was unconsciously trying not to take up too much space.

Something painful twisted immediately in Chloe’s chest at the sight.

“You thought I wouldn’t want this,” Chloe realized softly.

Red laughed quietly under her breath, though there wasn’t any real humor in the sound. “Can you honestly tell me your first reaction wasn’t complete panic?”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

Chloe opened her mouth automatically, ready to argue on instinct before the words caught somewhere in her throat.

Because frustratingly, Red had a point.

Finding out your soulmate was your best friend was already overwhelming enough on its own. Realizing it after months spent trying to convince yourself your feelings meant something else entirely made it infinitely worse.

Both of them had tried so hard to move toward people who made more sense. People safer. Easier. More logical.

And now suddenly all of that had collapsed beneath them at once.

Honestly?

That was terrifying.

Still, Chloe slowly pushed herself upright against the headboard, unable to stop the hurt creeping into her voice. “You looked at me like this was the worst thing that could’ve happened to you.”

Red’s head snapped up instantly. “That’s not what I—”

“It felt like it.”

The honesty in Chloe’s voice made Red freeze completely.

For a second, neither of them moved.

Then Red exhaled shakily and dragged a hand through her curls. “God, Chloe.”

She suddenly looked exhausted all over again.

“That’s not why I ran.”

“Then why did you?”

Red stared at her for a long moment before finally answering.

“Because it mattered too much.”

The words landed hard enough to knock the breath from Chloe’s lungs.

Red focused hard on the rain outside instead., voice quieter now. More vulnerable than Chloe was used to hearing.

“If this had been anyone else, I think I could’ve handled it. But it’s you.”

Something warm and painful twisted tightly inside Chloe’s chest.

“You’re my best friend,” Red admitted softly. “You’re… everything, okay? You’re the person I go to first for literally everything. And suddenly finding out all of this—”

She gestured vaguely between them.

“—it felt like if I messed it up, I’d lose the most important person in my life.”

Chloe’s eyes burned unexpectedly.

Because that fear sounded painfully familiar.

“You wouldn’t lose me,” she whispered.

Red laughed weakly. “You say that now.”

“I mean it.”

Silence settled between them again, softer this time.

Then, after a long moment, Chloe quietly pushed her blankets aside and climbed out of bed.

Red looked up immediately as Chloe crossed the room slowly before sitting down beside her on the floor close enough that their shoulders brushed lightly together.

Neither of them moved away.

“I think,” Chloe said carefully after a moment, “part of me knew before tonight.”

Red blinked and turned toward her slightly. “What?”

“The marks didn’t create anything.” Chloe glanced down absentmindedly at her wrist. “They just explained it.”

Red’s breath caught softly because those were almost the exact same thoughts she’d had earlier while wandering campus alone.

Chloe smiled faintly. “You know what Hazel asked me tonight?”

“What?”

“She asked who I look for first whenever something happens.”

Red’s heartbeat sped up immediately.

“And?” she asked quietly.

This time Chloe turned toward her fully.

“You.”

The answer shattered something open inside Red’s chest.

Suddenly the last few months replayed in her mind with terrifying clarity. All the small things she’d stopped noticing because Chloe had become so deeply woven into her life that being around her simply felt natural now.

The instinctive touches. The way Red automatically searched for Chloe first whenever she entered a crowded room. Falling asleep beside her so often it stopped feeling unusual entirely. Even their arguments suddenly looked different now, charged with too much emotion because neither of them had ever really known how to handle caring this deeply about someone.

Red looked down quickly before Chloe could read her expression too clearly. “This is so unfair.”

“What is?”

“You.”

A soft frown crossed the princess’s face. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“You make me feel things,” Red muttered miserably.

To her complete horror, the other girl laughed.

Actually laughed.

Warm, soft, and impossibly fond.

“Oh my god,” Red groaned, covering part of her face with one hand. “Don’t laugh at me right now.”

“I’m not laughing at you.” Chloe’s smile softened immediately. “Okay, maybe a little.”

“Traitor.”

“You literally climbed through a thunderstorm window dramatically like some emotionally unstable raccoon.”

“That is unbelievably rude.”

Chloe’s grin widened slightly.

And there it was again.

That warmth Red had spent months trying not to examine too closely because somewhere deep down, she already knew that once she acknowledged it properly, there would be no pretending anymore.

Now, sitting here beside Chloe in the middle of the night while moonlight spilled softly across the room, denial suddenly felt impossible.

Especially when Chloe was looking at her like she mattered more than anything else in the world.

And maybe she did.

Red’s voice came out quieter this time.

“I think I’m in love with you.”

The room went completely still.

Wide deep brown eyes stared back at her in shock.

Instantly, the urge to throw herself back out the window became overwhelmingly strong.

“Okay,” she said quickly, panic crashing back into her chest almost instantly. “Actually, hearing it out loud somehow made this worse—”

Chloe kissed her before she could continue.

Soft.

Warm.

Certain.

For one stunned second, Red’s thoughts disappeared completely.

Chloe’s hand slid gently against her cheek while the other settled instinctively over Red’s wrist, directly above the soulmate mark still burning warmly beneath her skin. Red melted into the kiss almost immediately, fingers tightening around the front of Chloe’s sleeve like she was terrified this might vanish if she let go for even a second.

Nothing about this felt uncertain anymore.

Not the aching pull between them. Not the emotions they’d spent months mislabeling. Not the terrifying realization that Chloe had quietly become the center of Red’s entire world long before either of them understood what was happening.

Kissing her felt less like something new and more like finally understanding something that had always been there.

Like breathing properly after being underwater too long.

When they finally pulled apart, neither of them moved very far. Their foreheads rested lightly together while both struggled to process what had just happened.

Red looked completely stunned.

Chloe honestly didn’t seem much better.

“Well,” Red whispered after several long seconds, “that explains a lot.”

Chloe laughed softly against her mouth.

Then Red kissed her again before she could answer.