"Out In The Open"

Rated K+

Pairing: Cerise Hood x Hunter Huntsman

Summary: It's a snowy day outside Ever After High and Hunter Huntsman is busy chopping some firewood, only to have an incidental run-in with one Cerise Hood that fateful morning. When her secret gets exposed via an accidental collision, how will Hunter react to her? Will Cerise take it?

Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with Ever After High or any of its characters. Ever After High and its characters are owned and associated by Mattel and the respective co-authors of the Ever After High books, Shannon Hale and Suzanne Selfors. Anyway, since I'm bored as hell itself, here's a nice little Cerise/Hunter one-shot just to keep you occupied.

P.S.: This is held in an alternate universe in which Hunter Huntsman isn't Ashlynn Ella's boyfriend, but Cerise Hood is instead.

The snow had began fallen down around a good portion of Ever After High as most of the students were busy cooped up inside their dorm rooms with nothing more than a glass of hot chocolate and a warm blanket wrapped around their bodies while watching old movies. Hunter Huntsman, however, wasn't any of those people being covered by warm blankets.

No, the son of the Huntsman, decided to take in the fresh cold air with a scarf around his neck, signature green-brown jacket wrapped around his body, big earmuffs and his trusty axe in hand. He was inside the snowy woods, busy cutting down pieces of wood he needed for the fireplace inside their lounge/library room. He was very skillful and careful of his chops, hoping not to kill the little tiny animals that was being stuffed inside the big fat wood blocks. Good thing he had checked before he chopped the wood in half.

"Whew, there goes another one." Hunter sighed just before he finished cutting down another block.

After he threw those two separate pieces of wood straight into a basket, it was yet time for another wood block to chop. Hunter dusted the dust off his gloves before grabbing another chunk. He placed it around the stump and then gripped the handles of the axe, increasing more power and strength that was added to the sharp black corners. He took in the biggest, yet slightest breath that he could ever form, and as he raised his axe high and mighty...

*WHACK!*

Down went another block of wood.

"There goes another one too." He sighed once more, putting the chopped pieces of wood into the basket again.

No doubt that he was a very busy man in the middle of winter. Good news is that with the firewood, he definitely had enough to make some s'mores later. So deep down, that was a plus for him either way.

As he continued to chop off more of the lumber, another figure was busy spriting around the snowy woods as if that person were having some sort of race. Unsurprisingly, that figure happened to be a "she", dressed in red plaid tanktop and skirt, black leggings, brown boots, decked out in her signature red hood and possessed long darkish brown hair with a long white streak around her bangs. She wasn't alone however as there was a huge wolf-pup chasing after her with such a bloodthirsty smile. But the figure did not need to worry as the wolf-pup was not deadly, but very competitive. And highly so, knowing that to the both of them, this was indeed a race.

The two mysterious figures was both Cerise Hood and her pet wolfpup, Carmine, who were busy going neck and neck with each other.

"C'mon, Carmine, you can do better than that!" Cerise replied, looking back at her pet while she was taking the lead.

The two managed to race for a good mile until Carmine had now started to take the lead in their little race. He was running and sprinting with twice the speed, forcing Cerise to quicken her pace in order to catch up with him. It was definitely going neck-to-neck between human and animal. This was feeling very more intense than a Tri-Castle-On race and more suspenseful than a plot twist to one of the episodes of Saved By The Spell, one of Cerise's favorite shows.

Carmine looked back at her master and barked happily towards her as if he was somehow taunting her.

"Ohhhh, it's soooooo on now." Cerise smirked in return, forcing the daughter of Little Red Riding Hood to finally catch up to Carmine.

It wasn't long until finally, Cerise began taking the lead. Even though it was by only a hair, just having to run past Carmine made the lead enough.

"Hahaha, I'm beating you now, Carmine!" Cerise shouted as if she earned a huge victory.

But then all of a sudden, she looked to her shoulder to see Carmine stop in his tracks for some reason.

"Hey Carmine, why did ya stop?" smirked Cerise.

"Arf arf arf!" barked Carmine. ("Cerise, stop! Look out!")

"But can't you see I'm beating you already?" She asked once more.

"Cerise, watch out!" Hunter shouted to her from afar.

Hearing the voice of one Hunter Huntsman, Cerise turned to her head, only to realize he was running towards Hunter himself. Cerise gasped in surprise as she attempted to put on the brakes, hoping not to run over Hunter a la head-on collision. Alas, it was too late as all of a sudden...

*CRASH!*

Cerise had crashed onto Hunter with a huge thud, knocking him and her down altogether!

"Ohhhhhh, I guess Carmine was telling me to watch out all along..." Cerise groaned in pain right before looking down on Hunter, who was basicially pinned by the wolf-girl. "Hunter, are you alright?" She asked.

"Well, I had dreams where women were all chasing after me," added Hunter before continuing, "The difference is, it doesn't end pleasant with me. What about-"

Strange enough, Cerise was now seeing Hunter's shocked expression close-up. Cerise couldn't explain why Hunter was making that face towards her, so she needed to know why.

"Um, why are you staring at me like that?" asked Cerise.

"Your... your ears!" Hunter exclaimed.

"Huh, what about th-"

But then, Cerise took in a huge gasp herself, realizing that her red hood was taken off. Which meant that as a result of Hunter's shock, he was now seeing Cerise's wolf ears for the first time, which forced a scared Cerise to react in a combination of shock and awe.

"Oh no, my ears!" she exclaimed while getting off of him and covering her ears.

"Cerise, I..." Hunter said, right before Cerise cut the Huntsman off.

"Okay, fine, I admit it!" shouted Cerise. "I'm half daughter of Red Riding Hood and half wolf, okay? My mom married the Big Bad Wolf and I didn't want that secret to be brought out by anyone, especially Kitty! I mean, she was gonna try to force it out of me for sure, but Raven managed to save my hide in the nick of time before I could ever reveal it out. So it looks like you finally know about me all along. I guess you're just gonna make fun of me and call me a freak, just because I look different with these ugly wolf ears of mine! So go ahead and call me names, I deserve it just for revealing this dirty little secret to you!"

"But Cerise-"

"Just say no more!" Cerise cried out before closing her eyes, "Just call me an ugly freak and get it over with!"

Cerise's eyes were basically hurting her due to being shut a little tight. She could feel her inner and outer soul whimper in fear and rejection, knowing that Hunter was gonna hate her for being different than all of the other students who were attending Ever After High. Cerise didn't want this to happen to her due to one lousy accidental incident, but whatever she liked it or not, it was already happening.

Surprisingly, she didn't hear Hunter call Cerise names such as 'ugly', or 'freak' or in Sparrow Hood's terms, an 'itchy dog' (which Sparrow Hood regretted calling Cerise that, causing a black eye to the guitarist). No, what Cerise Hood was feeling was the warm resonance of Hunter's hand touching her right shoulder out of concern, forcing him to undergo a very deep sigh.

"Cerise, you're not ugly." said the Huntsman.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better when you realize it's actually true." Cerise replied, trying to change the subject.

"No, it's not true, Cerise." Hunter shook his head. "Just please open your eyes and look at me."

Cerise then responded with a huge gulp as she opened up her eyes to see Hunter stare at her with such a compassionate concern. With her gaze locked between his, Hunter decided to continue his statement.

"Cerise, you may be different, but in my eyes, you're not ugly." Hunter spoke reassuringly.

"You really think so?" She asked again, just to be sure.

"Totally," Hunter nodded with a whisper. "I mean, you'd be half-human and half-dragon and I'd still think you wouldn't be ugly. Hex, you would even be half-human/ogre and I'd still think you're that attractive. In fact Cerise, you're actually very cute and adorable with those awesome wolf ears of yours."

"Really?" Cerise blushed while whispering back.

All of a sudden, she felt his hand caress the top of her chin, feeling his gaze get a little close to Cerise and said:

"Does this answer your question?"

Without a shadow of a doubt, Cerise felt Hunter's lips press towards hers, leaving the wolf-girl speechless, shocked and quite relieved of how soft, tender and comforting Hunter's kiss towards hers was. It was like every single worry about Cerise's secret being blown out in the open was pretty much gone in an instant. Even though Cerise was still worried about her secret being blown throughout Ever After High, Hunter was quite willing to keep this a secret in order to make Cerise feel better and relaxed about herself. And that kiss of complete security made her worry about it a bit less now as she found the perfect answer to Hunter's little question with a comforting smile:

"I... guess it really does."

"That's my girl." Hunter smiled back before looking back at the firewood he chopped up. "You wanna head back inside? Got enough wood for the fireplace."

"I'd love that." Cerise nodded.

With that mess finally behind her, Cerise and Hunter decided to walk side by side with her pet wolfpup, Carmine, while carrying a basket full of firewood right back to the halls of Ever After High itself. For the first time, Cerise had felt comfortable with Hunter knowing about her secret, and he couldn't help but love Cerise even more for it.

Awwwwww! I swear, Hunter is just so sweet. I'm not gonna lie, but this story totally gave me the feels. Who knows? Maybe I'll start shipping Cerise and Hunter even more. I think it would be a pretty darn good couple in my opinion. What do you think?

Anyway, feel free for some feedback if you want. Now that's out of the way, time to eat breakfast! Mmm mmm mmm!