A/N: Here, read this thing I wrote in like five hours.


"They say there's a witch living in the forest, gathering our names to kill us all one day. It's forbidden to go into the forest at night, Sherry." Sherry nodded, not entirely listening to her parents as they helped her pick apples from the orchard. She looked to the eastern forest where the witch supposedly lived, thick oak branches casting shadows over roots and brambles. She wanted to go there. Despite the darkness, it seemed peaceful. She smelled something in the air. Something fragrant. Something that wasn't the rich red apple in her hand.

Seven years passed. Sherry reached up and grasped an apple, yanking it down. She clicked her tongue when she saw the stem hadn't come down with it. She preferred the apples have stems so that she could hold more in one hand. The apple was placed gently atop other similar apples in the basket. A warm breeze blew down, rustling the leaves of the apple trees. Sherry picked up the basket and began her slow walk back to the cottage when she heard soft footsteps on the dirt path. She turned and saw a young girl her age with rich red hair and light brown eyes. She wore a black traveling cloak that brushed the road with each step and a red dress of equal length. In her hand was a woven straw basket that was covered with a checkered cloth.

"Hello," the stranger greeted, smiling. "My name is Aki." Sherry ignored her. "I want one of your apples. How much for one?" The blonde girl put her basket down and put up two fingers. Two copper coins were placed into Sherry's calloused hand and an apple was snatched out of the basket, the one without the stem. "I like the ones without the stems. Is that strange?"

"No," Sherry said. "Then you don't have to pull the stem out before eating."

"Exactly!" the strange girl replied. "Though it's a little inconvenient if you want to carry more than two in one hand." She reached into her cloak and produced a silver coin. "Five more please. With stems this time." Sherry took the money and as Aki's fingertips brushed against her palm, she smelled something in the air. Something fragrant. Something that wasn't the rich red apples in her hand.

Five years passed. The sun let out slivers of its first light upon the world. Sherry was on her way to the market, a faithful donkey pulling the wooden wagon filled with baskets of red apples. Try as they might, no one else in town could produce apples as sweet and red as the Leblanc family. Sherry wasn't sure what the secret was. Her parents had never passed down the secret since the previous year's fever outbreak took her parents with it.

The marketplace wasn't as busy as it used to be since the summer heat kept everyone indoors as long as they could keep to themselves. Sherry was grateful for this. She led the donkey to the well worn spot where her family had been selling apples for generations, right between the carrot farm and the baker's fresh loaves. Sherry wrinkled her nose at the strange combination of unwashed dirt and singed flour. As soon as she set up the small display stand, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw a familiar woman with rich red hair and light brown eyes. She wore a black traveling cloak that reached her knees and a red dress of equal length with mahogany boots. In her hand was a woven straw basket that was covered with a striped cloth.

Time stopped as Sherry gazed into the woman's eyes. She knew that friendly look anywhere. "Aki," Sherry whispered, her tongue unsure of how to say it after such a long time. The redhead nodded. Time started again when Aki stepped aside to let the butcher pass with his cart of soup bones. "Are you here to buy apples again?"

"Something like that," Aki replied, putting two copper coins on the wooden surface of the counter. "Is this good for one apple?" Sherry stared at the two brown coins, wondering if she should tell Aki that the price had gone up one copper in the past five years.

"No. It's three for one apple now," the blonde answered truthfully, feeding a bruised apple to the donkey. Its neck was a little weak so she held the apple for it, turning it every now and again.

"If I kiss you, will that cover for the last copper?" Sherry nearly dropped the donkey's treat. "Hm, no, it wouldn't. I can't put a value on a kiss. Otherwise, it'd be too good of a currency system." Aki noticed how flustered Sherry looked and laughed quietly. "You look like an apple." She dropped another copper coin onto the counter and took an apple, biting into its crisp skin and juicy flesh. "See you later." Aki walked away, her basket swinging in the rays of the early morning. Sherry blinked and the redhead was gone. She turned to look at the counter and saw the apple Aki had purchased. It had a small chunk missing from it.

Sherry picked up the apple and hesitantly brought it to her lips. She bit down and she tasted something incredible. Something sweet. Something that wasn't the rich red apple in her hand.

A year and five months passed. The night was silenced by a blanket of wet snow. The occasional sound of water dropping into a bucket would break that silence. Sherry awoke to the sound of someone knocking on her door. She could see nothing in the dark of her cottage and lit a candle before creeping to the door, her hand clasping the pouch of apple seeds dangling from her neck. Someone was outside. She unlatched the bolt and opened the door. Aki stood there, her face red from the cold and her eyes panicked. Without another thought, Sherry pulled her inside and immediately closed and bolted the door. Aki's traveling cloak was shredded and her red dress was covered in mud. Her hair was full of melting snow and oak leaves. She smelled of ash.

"What happened to you?" Sherry asked, guiding the traveler to the fireplace. Aki didn't answer as Sherry stirred up the embers and tossed chunks of wood in. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me. I understand." The blonde blew the fire to life with a thin pipe and went out to get some snow for boiling. It was snowing gently. She looked down at Aki's footsteps in the snow. She only saw three pairs in front of her door and nothing else except undisturbed snow. When she came back with two buckets of snow, Aki had taken off her boots, putting them by the entrance. Her cloak was a crumpled mess on the floor. She looked calmer but her hands trembled. "Do you want some tea?"

"Yes." Aki's normally smooth singsong voice was hoarse. Sherry poured the snow into kettle and set it on the fire to boil with a hooked metal rod. Sherry pulled another chair next to Aki, the two of them staring at the kettle. "My home... my home was burned down." As these words slipped from Aki's lips, a stampede of horses and metal boots came by the door. A jar of apple preserves rattled on the wooden table. The stampede passed and the quiet of the night returned. "I'm sorry."

Sherry stayed silent. "Were you... in the forest to the east?" She didn't look at Aki, her eyes boring holes into the kettle. "It's dangerous enter at night. That's what my parents told me in the past." They sat in silence for a little longer. "I never introduced myself. My name is Sh-"

Aki placed her hands on her ears and began to repeat nonsensical words. When she saw that Sherry stopped trying to say anything, she removed her hands. "I can't know your name," Aki admitted. "It's forbidden." Aki's voice broke and she began to cry hysterically, burying her face in her hands.

Sherry didn't know what to do but decided it was best to let Aki cry it out. The kettle screamed for attention and she removed it from the fire and set it to rest on the stone floor. She pulled out some tea leaves and crushed them before putting them into two clay mugs. She then used the hooked rod to lift the kettle up and pour hot water into the mugs. By now, the redhead had quieted down. Sherry gave Aki a towel to wipe her face with and stirred the tea with a wooden spoon, adding some crystallized honey to both.

"Here, this will make your throat feel a little better." Aki took the mug of tea, cradling it in her hands. "If you want, you can stay with me." The redhead didn't move, almost as if expecting Sherry to add more. "There's no time limit for how long you can stay. I don't mind." Aki blew on the surface of her tea and took a careful sip. "If anyone asks for you, I'll hide you."

Aki stood up and placed the mug onto the table. "Could you wash my dress for me?" she whispered.

"Yes. Of course," Sherry assured. "It'll have to wait until tomorrow though. Do you want to take a bath?" Aki nodded and lifted her dress above her head, placing it on the chair she'd been sitting on earlier. Sherry did her best to look away as she filled the bathing tub with hot water and busied herself with fixing the bed for the hundredth time or wiping dust off of the cabinets.

"What's in the pouch around your neck?" Aki asked as she washed dirt and pebbles out of her hair. Sherry felt her face grow hot as she fumbled for an answer.

"Apple seeds. They're from the apple you bought and left with me over a year ago," Sherry admitted, feeling her neck grow warm from embarrassment. She could feel Aki's eyes on her back.

"Oh I see." There was some amusement in Aki's hoarse voice. There was the sound of something rising out of the water and a towel being unfurled. "You can look at me now." Sherry slowly turned around and felt her breathing stop. Aki looked beautiful, her wet hair wrapped around her face and neck. She looked tired but relaxed, her red eyebrows rising when Sherry didn't say anything. "I'm flattered you find me so attractive but do you have something I could wear?"

Sherry let out a garbled apology and dug out some underwear, a pair of soft pants and a shirt from the dresser. She shyly handed the clothes to Aki and the redhead pulled off the towel to dry her hair once more before dressing. "Take the bed. I can sleep on the bench for tonight," Sherry offered.

"That's not fair at all." Aki pulled the thick fur blanket aside to slip underneath it. The bed that Sherry had considered small looked large from how small thin Aki was. The redhead patted the bed. "We can share." The blonde blushed and got into the bed with Aki. She turned her head and noticed that her friend was already fast asleep. Sherry felt something strange in her chest. Something warm. Something that wasn't the apple seeds tucked under her shirt.

Two and a half months passed. Sherry no longer felt nervous to be sleeping in the same bed as Aki, sometimes waking up to find their bodies tangled together. It was warmer to sleep close to one another. Aki took to calling Sherry "Goldilocks."Despite Sherry's insistence, Aki helped with chores. Some of them, that is. She couldn't perform a lot of strenuous tasks like chopping wood or hauling firewood from the forest.

It was on a particularly cold day when Aki spoke about the witch. "His name was Divine. I met him when I was about twelve years old and he spirited me away from my family. I know it's been at least thirteen years since that day. I'm too far away from my homeland to possibly find my family again," Aki said as she peeled a parsnip. Sherry, who was busy cutting some beef into cubes, had stopped her knife to listen to Aki. "Divine... he isn't alive anymore. I killed him a month ago. I set fire to the enclave where me and the other captives lived." Shavings of parsnip skin covered Aki's boots. "I set fire to it because his dying command was to have them kill me and everyone I knew by name. I'm sorry for not telling you until now. I'm grateful for your patience."

Sherry did not know how to answer and decided to continue cutting the beef instead. "Thank you for telling me, Aki," Sherry managed to say, embarrassed that she didn't know what to say. She placed the beef into a wooden bowl and washed the wooden board with snow and water. She picked up an onion and began to peel it. "Does this mean I can tell you my name?"

"It's not forbidden, Goldilocks," Aki said, smiling as tears pricked her eyes.

"My name is Sherry Leblanc," Sherry introduced, exaggerating a bow much to Aki's amusement.

The redhead looked at Sherry's smiling face. "Sherry," she said, her tongue rolling the last r out of habit. "You have a beautiful name."

Later when dinner had been cooked, Sherry tasted something strange in the stew. Something sweet. She paused her train of thought to look at Aki who was stirring her stew to let it cool down a bit.

"Aki, I taste something sweet in the stew. Is that strange?" Sherry asked in a serious tone of voice.

Aki shrugged. "Maybe it's the carrots? Or the parsnip?" She spooned a large chunk of beef into her mouth.

"I have been feeling warm in my chest and strange fluttering sensations in my stomach ever since I met you, especially when you smile at me or we sleep together or when you laugh," Sherry admitted. "I find myself wanting to spend more and more time with you even though you're already here. I don't know what to make of it." She stared into her bowl with a deep blush on her cheeks.

The redhead thought about this for a moment. "I think I'm the last person to ask about this sort of thing, Sherry," Aki said after some time. "I feel the same as you do. I want to spend more time with you too even though we're together practically every day. You're so kind to me. You took me in without question and never asked anything of me." She reached across the small table and placed her hand on top of Sherry's. The blonde felt a burst of tingling from her skin. "Do you want to try kissing?"

Sherry felt her heart leap up her throat and back down. "Try what now?"

"Kissing. I've read about it in books and I've seen others do it with people they like a lot," the redhead answered. "I also remember my parents doing it now and again when I was younger." Sherry cleared her throat. She didn't know what to say in response. "Though, it's something only men and women are supposed to do together. For women to kiss one another, it's unheard of."

"I want to try it. But when we go to bed." Aki raised an eyebrow. "So that if we feel weird about it, we can sleep it off." The redhead chuckled and remove her hand from Sherry's to continue eating her dinner.

"It's a promise then. When we're both in bed, we try it."

"Yes." It came out strained but Aki nodded. The wait was excruciating. Sherry spent the time mending a shirt and Aki had her nose buried in one of the dozens of books she'd purchased from the book store. The night came and they took their daily bath and readied for bed. As usual, Aki slipped under the covers first and Sherry followed.

The fireplace was still going strong enough for them to see on another sitting up in bed. "You look really beautiful in the light of the fire," Sherry managed to say.

Aki giggled. "Trying to get a romantic mood going, Sherry?"

"No. I just felt like saying it," the blonde mumbled.

Aki reached out and cupped Sherry's face. She leaned forward and kissed the blonde's cheek. "How do you feel?" Aki asked quietly.

"Can you try kissing me here next?" Sherry slowly raised her finger to her lips. She tasted something sweet when Aki kissed her. Something that wasn't forbidden. Something beautiful.


A/N: Yep it ends there. I wrote all this in like five hours. Might run through it for any errors later. RIP proofreading.