Red Shoes, Red Hood, 7 Dwarves ~ Merlin x Reader

Commit a B&E and get a make-over

"Psst!"

I groan, waving my hand in the direction of whatever was making the noise. It's too early to be alive.

"Psst!"

"No..." I mumble into the pillow. "Five more minutes..."

"Five minutes will turn into an hour if I let you," I hear the familiar voice of my adopted sister, Snow White. "So get up! We have to look for Papa, remember?"

Snow White is a beautiful woman. She's a bit husky, some may say overweight, but they don't see her for what she really is. She's kind and wonderful... And strong as a horse! I swear, 90% of her body mass is muscle. She's almost as strong as me, and I have enhanced strength thanks to being a half-wolf.

My mother was Red Riding hood and my father was the Big Bad Wolf that supposedly ate her and my grandma. Not true, though. The hunter was the real bad guy. My mother walked in on her husband, my father, fighting the hunter in my grandma's house. The hunter was trying to rob her and my father was trying to stop it. The story ended with both my parents and my grandma getting killed by the hunter. I was only three at the time. King White and his wife took me in after that. I will forever be grateful.

I chuckle as I stretch, getting all the kinks out from my four-hour night's rest. "I remember," I yawn. "But next time we go on an adventure, let's make it an evening thing, not a middle-of-the-night thing."

She giggles. "Sure thing, Loopy," she smirks, calling me by the dumb nicknames we gave each other when we were little. She calls me Loopy after the Latin word for wolf. I call her Winny; short for Winter. We were five when we came up with them, so I fully understand how stupid they are. But hey, they're stupid but cute, hence why they stuck for sixteen years.

"Oh, shut it, Winny," I laugh back, now ready to go. "Let's commit crime."

I throw on my leggings, tuck in my tunic, a satchel full of supplies across my neck and throw my mother's red cloak over my shoulders and pull up the hood. I modified it with a weighted hood to hide my ears and eyes. My ears are furry and pointy, like my father's. I also take after him with my eyes. They are rimmed with gold and glow like rings of sunlight in the dark so I try to keep them hidden at all times. I must admit, I do like snarling at people with the extra sharp, slightly larger than average canines I also inherited. And the enhanced senses and strength are pretty fucking cool too. So I may be a freak, and I have to hide most of the time, and I scare people, but at least I'm a badass freak.

Snow and I run through the woods from my house to the castle our stepmother, Regina, has taken over with a magic tree. When the castle comes into view, Snow and I pause, both softly sighing at the sight. The low moon illuminates the stone walls which are surrounded by thick tree roots, bricks missing from the walls, some actively falling as we approach. Any other night, at 4 in the morning, this palace would be beautiful. But Regina has lost it, the castle on the brink of becoming ruins.

Argh! If only we noticed Regina was a witch sooner. I should have sensed something was off. She was beautiful, yes, beautiful as a picturesque perfect princess. That should have been the first red flag. No one is that perfect. Rapunzel is a clutz, Cinderella has a temper, Aurora is always late, Ariel is too curious for her own good - I had to stop her from walking into a volcano once. It was not a good day. All of them are beautiful and amazing people, but everyone has flaws and Regina was flawless. We should have known from the moment she walked in that something was wrong. And, not to mention, when we did finally get our heads out of our asses, the Fearless Seven had already disappeared by then. They could have helped. Ugh, I always thought they were a little stuck up; a bunch of handsome, heroic princes who only cared about their image. Never liked princes, most of them are idiots anyway.