a|n: written for oq prompt party, based on the prompt "we have to be quick"


queen's gambit


Life in the castle was an interesting one, never a dull moment to be found when there were always new wings to explore – not to mention new ways of testing the Queen's temper each time Robin ventured just a bit too far.

She mostly kept to herself, when she wasn't conferring with the Charmings or exchanging soft smiles with a certain four-year-old boy. But whenever Robin returned from his wanderings, he would feel her gaze land sharply on him, and only a well-timed greeting from Snow would save him the trouble of explaining himself in front of everyone.

"Oh, Regina, let's have a walk in your gardens before the sun sets, won't that be nice?" The Princess would always say something to this effect, on this particular occasion steering her firmly away from the banquet hall before Regina could manage more than a helpless glare in his direction.

"The roses were particularly lovely this afternoon," Robin offered, and even Tuck looked at him in slight alarm, as though he harbored some secret death wish.

"What in the gods' name were you doing in Her Majesty's private garden?" John whispered, aghast, like it was about the most scandalous thing he'd ever heard.

"It was a nice day for a stroll," said Robin with a shrug, "now, if you'll excuse me—" and he ambled off, whistling to himself as he thought about how the sun would indeed be going down soon, and that one of those upper floor terraces might be a nice place to take in the view.

He detoured past the kitchens as he went, nicking a carafe of coffee and then, as a last-minute concession, a small pitcher of cream to go with it, though he personally could not understand the need to take one's coffee any other way but black.

She was already waiting for him on one of the benches when he pushed through the vigilant curtain of vine guarding the entrance to her balcony.

Robin smiled, sweeping his body into a bow. "Your Majesty. We have to stop meeting like this."

Regina rolled her eyes at him, fingernails tapping an impatient rhythm into the circular stone table in front of her. "You're late."

He shrugged as he approached her, seating himself on the bench across from hers. "I thought you may have a while yet to shake the Princess off your trail."

"I told her all her constant smiling was starting to give me a headache. It wasn't exactly a lie." Regina gave him a repressive smile of her own while he procured two cups from the inner pockets of his cloak, but there was a distinct softening to it when he set down her little pitcher of cream.

She was doing her best not to look up from her cup as he poured out their coffee, like hiding her smile might somehow mean it had nothing at all to do with him. He humored her anyway, pretending not to notice the way she suddenly sat a bit straighter and primly added the most measured splashing of cream to her coffee.

"Now. Where were we?" Robin cleared his throat, leaning back to regard her with a faintly smug expression. "Ah, yes, I believe I nearly had you in checkmate, before Mrs. Lucas rang the dinner bell."

Regina paused mid-sip, brows knitting into a glare above the rim of her cup at him. "You're delusional."

Robin's grin went decidedly crooked. "And you, milady, are stalling."

Looking vaguely murderous, she raised her free hand, and with a delicate turn of her wrist, a flourishing twist of her fingers, a black-and-white checkered board began to paint its way across the stone slab between them. A scattering of black pawns carved themselves out of thin air, a lone bishop and queen, the black king ensconced in one corner behind his two rooks.

"No cheating," Robin reminded her teasingly, and Regina scowled in exasperation at him.

"Where would be the fun in beating you that way?"

He chuckled, watching as his side of the board began to fill with what remained of his own white marble army. "Well if memory serves correctly, my knight was…" and he nudged it one square over, placing both her king and her queen directly in its path. "…there. Check, by the way."

To her credit, Regina only glowered a little before waving her hand, and the black king did a trudging sidestep away from Robin's knight, removing itself from harm's way.

The knight creaked its armored head back at Robin, awaiting further instructions.

"You know what to do," Robin told him, with a wink in Regina's direction.

The white knight promptly cantered his horse over to Regina's now-vulnerable queen, dismounting with a gallant bow and bending over her hand with a kiss.

The queen looked appalled, or about as appalled as a marble figurine could manage, and walked very stiffly off of the board, refusing to look back at him while Regina's bishop ran him through with the long end of a staff. But as Robin's wounded knight limped over to where she was standing, leaning into his horse for support, she gave a flustered wave of her arms and rushed over to be by his side.

Regina hardly blinked an eye in their direction, busily commanding her army and cutting their losses as they marched strategically forward. Robin's had been whittled rather woefully down to a rook and a handful of pawns, but one of them slipped doggedly past Regina's defenses, reaching the end of the board where it could transform into any other piece of his choosing.

"I assume you'll be wanting your queen back?" Regina asked him dourly, already reaching to replace his pawn.

"Oh, I think I've found the one I want," said Robin, with a knowing smile. In his periphery, the white knight – all patched up now, from the looks of it – was helping the black queen onto his steed before mounting up behind her, cupping a hand around her ear and whispering something while she played with her hair.

Robin was endeavoring not to smirk too hard at them when he caught the look on Regina's face.

"We have to be quick," she told him in a brusque tone. "Before Snow tries to come cure my headache with something ridiculous like—"

"More smiling?" Robin suggested, feeling pleased when her frown lost a bit of its severity with him. "And might I add how charming it is, that you think I haven't already defeated you?" He gestured toward his waiting pawn. "I'm going to need my knight back, thank you."

Regina stared at him, looking positively affronted. "Excuse me?"

"Come along, then," said Robin, and both his knight and her queen appeared crestfallen, the queen slipping back out of the saddle and watching them return to the board with a pretty but forlorn expression.

"Right there, that's a good lad," Robin encouraged the knight, who was reluctantly greeting the pawn while stealing a glance back at his queen.

Regina was glowering when Robin looked up again.

"Check," he said, grinning over a sip of his coffee at her, wondering which of the two might taste more deliciously dark at the moment. "And mate."

The knight seemed to perk back into shape at that, puffing out his armored chest and purposefully unsheathing his sword. The king was cowering on his square, arms held entreatingly over his head as the knight made his deadly approach.

He paused for a hesitant moment, turning to look at his queen one last time. She was watching him in anticipation, her slim marble body poised as though eager to watch him fell the black king. She gave a coy tilt of her chin, hands clasped in front of her, waiting.

He swung, and the king's crown landed with a stony clatter, slowly rolling to a stop halfway across the board. The rest of Robin's pawns cheered, throwing their helmets about as some of them took up the game of kicking the crown back and forth between one another. Meanwhile, the queen had sidled up to her knight, kissing his cheek and all but preening when he turned to take her hand again.

"Two out of three," sniffed Regina, pursing her lips and refusing to look Robin quite in the eye.

He smiled. "It's a date, Your Majesty."