Chapter Text
“You've got to be kidding me?”
“I think you'll find that I most certainly am not.”
“But mom!”
“You will not take that tone with me, Red of Hearts, I highly doubt what I'm asking of you is in any way as unreasonable as you're making it out to be.” In fact there was a time, not long ago, that she wouldn't have had to ask at all. Just a month ago anyone with eyes could see her daughters, Red and Pink, were as close as two chess pieces on a board. The best of friends if ever there were.
Yet today, on their first visit home no less, what did she find but her sweet baby girl with tears in her eyes saying how lately she's felt nothing but a stranger to her own sister. Her older sister, who once loved her little sister so much she insisted her favorite bow was her favorite just because Pink had been the one to make it. Who used to get down on all fours and pretend to be a hobbyhorse just so a newborn Pink could feel comfortable enough to sleep on her back. “What happened at Auridon, Red?”
“Nothing happened!” Her daughter couldn't even look her in the eye as she said it. Her gaze fixed on the tips of her spiky red boots, something that was also new to her queen mother. Red has always been rather out there with her wardrobe, even in comparison to her mom and sister, but never, until now, has she worn something so…sharp.
Not that Bridget was bothered by them. They looked good. It was just the mix of that and everything else that made it all so unexpected and noteworthy.
“Is it bullying?” The question had Bridget's voice softening from that of the Queen to one of a mother. “Because, I had my share of that too and you know, you can always tell me if-”
“No mom, no one has bullied me! In fact, all they've done is see me as…as a… perfect princess.” Oh. That doesn't sound so bad. Except.
“You don't seem so pleased about that?”
“What does it matter whether I'm pleased or unpleased about it, mom?!” Finally did Red look up at her. It would have made Bridget happy except for, rather than the warm gaze she's always come to expect from her first daughter, what she finds is a gaze hot with cold fire and, almost, unrecognizable. But those are Red’s eyes. Her baby. She'd know them anywhere.
The queen sighs as she clasps her hands in front of her. Her posture straightens as seconds later a card guard enters the throne room. It was the Four of Spades and she seemed very out of breath. “Your highness, the March Hare has come to speak with you.” It took her a moment to get the words out between breaths, but she managed.
“Ah, that explains why you ran all the way here.” Nothing could stop the March Hare when his mind was onto something. He'd barge into a room any hour of the day and demand an audience. Any room, not just the Queen’s throne room. And if he was coming here that means.
“Another harebrained scheme it sounds like.” when the queen looked back to Red she was glad to see that the look from earlier was gone. Replaced with one more familiar to her.
“You may go, Four, and I thank you for bringing this information to me.” It gave her time to prepare, mentally, if just a little.
“Of course. I am at your service, my queen.” The guard card bows before leaving, as the queen directs her next words towards Red.
“Red darling, I-”
“Just one day?”
“What?”
“Just one day with Pink, that's all you're asking me to do?”
Admittedly the queen didn't like the phrasing. It made her feel like a bad mother forcing her child to do something they didn't want to do. But, if it was for her child, then she'll be a bad mother. Just for a minute.
“Just one day. She misses you terribly, Red.”
“We see each other every day, even at school. She's always around, and I have never once complained.” ‘To her face’ was the unspoken phrase there, but the queen was not about to look a gift giraffe in the eyes.
Instead the queen unclasps her hands in order to take both of Red’s into her own. “One day, I know you'll see what I mean.” She smiles at her daughter, and from her fingers she can feel Red relax even more, but the tension is still there. Tension that she knows she can't get rid of, even if she doesn't understand why it's there. So all she says is.
“Now, you better run before the March Hare catches you too.”