Clarification.
Author's Note: This is just a little drabble I wrote last summer when I was making my way through the show on Netflix. Set following the action of "The Return of the King"/"A Clue...No" at the end of Series 1. Finally posting it; I hope another Robin/Marian fan or two will enjoy. Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: These characters are obviously not mine.
!
"Did you mean it?"
There was no need to whisper. They were both quite certain they were alone, nestled beneath a tree not too far from the outlaw's camp, as safe as Robin could ever really hope to be until the King returned. Yet Marian's voice had been soft, low. As if this rare, quiet moment shared between them was too precious to disturb.
Robin's eyebrows drew together in confusion, unsure of just what he had said that was in question. She shifted slightly in her position, seated between his legs, leaning her back against his chest, so that she could angle her head up to see his handsome face just over her shoulder. "When you said you regretted going to the Holy Land, regretted leaving me….did you mean it?"
"Yes." His answer was just as soft as her question, but both immediate and certain.
"Because I almost died, or…"
"Because I almost lost you," he quickly spoke over her, moving a hand to her chin to gently hold her gaze locked on his. "To death and to Gisborne, to the years we were apart. All while knowing I'm not more certain of anything than that I am meant for you, and you are meant for me. In some ways I've regretted leaving from the moment I left, but it was not until I came back that I truly realized how much it cost me, how much more it could have cost me had the last few days gone differently. No future without you is one I'd want to be living. And I regret so many of the risks I've taken because something so important should not have been left to chance."
His voice had remained steady, drenched in conviction despite its hushed tone, and he begged with his eyes for her to understand him. Three nights ago the then-believed loss of her had torn apart the dam inside that had kept, since his return, all his deepest feelings silenced. That had prevented him from expressing all he truly wanted when it came to her, beyond the few hints cowardly disguised as teasing. He'd been terrified, before, of what she might do with the information, with the sincere knowledge of how powerless he was in her presence. Until he thought she'd been taken from this world without knowing of his love. Now, after, it seemed as if the flow of his professions of adoration, his admissions and intentions, could not stop. Or at least, would not stop, until she saw for herself the great extent of his feelings for her.
Her eyes remained focused on him, wide and bright. And searching. "I was so determined not to love you after you left. I put so much effort into pushing every feeling away, because I was convinced they had not been returned or you could never have left me. And when you came back, I hated myself for failing, for it being so obvious that never once, in five years, had I escaped for a moment the pull you have on my heart. Now, I could not be more grateful for that failure. Because you did love me, didn't you?"
"I did and I do, Marian."
A smile pulled at her lips, slowly stretching them across her face until landing at a brilliant beam. The sight of her was glorious, so gorgeous, and it warmed Robin to see his spoken love inspire such unrestrained beauty.
"And you love me?" There was a tint of hopefulness in his question, but he was more confident in her answer than he'd ever been before.
He watched, mesmerized, as she twisted herself further around to face him, now resting a hand gently on his shoulder and leaning in, head slightly tilted, to align her lips just before his own. He felt the breath of her whisper. "More than anything, Robin."