Regina's reading glasses slide down the bridge of her nose, and she shifts them, once, then again, because they tickle when they get down that far.
Robin runs his hand over her leg, sliding over her pajamas. "So was dinner as bad as you thought or almost tolerable?"
Glancing across the bed at him, she smiles but even the muscles of her face are tired. "I would say it was somewhere in between."
"Mal cried."
She nods, shifting her eyes towards the bathroom door. "She doesn't hide anything. Never has."
His hand continues to run over her leg, comforting and warm. "Is that a dragon thing?"
"I think that's just her," she says. Taking off her glasses, Regina sets the book aside. The ancient tome on magical creatures didn't have anything useful about dragons and their reproductive habits, and finding some book that contains the depth of information that she's grown accustomed to having at her fingertips is unlikely. She might have to start searching tomes that aren't in English, which is far more complicated when she can't magically translate them because she has to set them back. Perhaps it's time to try a translation spell through the computer and see how that works.
Robin kisses the side of her neck and she sighs, turning to him. "And you're all right?"
She nods, then kisses his cheek. "Lily has every right to be angry at all of us, and I'm so relieved she opened up to you. She needed someone to talk to, and I'm so glad she has you." Brushing her hand against his face, she shuts her eyes before they sting. Lily needs so much more than she's given her, having her here is only a start. Regina's used to slow progress, but it's painful watching Lily try to believe yet doubt so much.
Robin studies her face, getting comfortable against the headboard. "It's funny how I can see you and Mal in her so easily. Some of her mannerism, the way she moves her hands, those remind me so much of you, but her facial expressions, the way she smiles- those are Mal." He smirks and then tilts his head in a very dragon-like manner. "Or dragon, I suppose."
She leans back next to him, listening to Mal in the shower and the silence settling over the house. Regina snuggles closer, and his arm slips around her waist. "She seemed relieved after she talked to you."
"You didn't answer the question," he reminds her. "Are you all right? Not Mal or Lily, you."
Lily and Robin had returned inside long after Emma had tried to make peace, and Snow had watched her comfort Mal with that look that was closer to understanding. Snow and David thought they understood, they'd given up their daughter, but that was different then losing her, or failing to protect her. Emma got it, she usually did, but that didn't mean she could help her parents.
There was so little any of them could do for Lily, knowing where she'd come from, hints of what had happened only made things worse, because it was something she didn't understand.
She'd had Leopold, but even he was only one man, and she'd known she had power over him, that he would die for what he'd done, she just had to find a way, a scapegoat- How had Lily coped?
"She's been hurt, many times, it's hard for her to open up." Robin nuzzles her cheek. "Like someone else I know."
Regina kisses him, lingering on his mouth because it's easier to believe that they can do this while she kisses him. Robin kisses back, running his hand up her belly and even tired, she understands why he wants this. It's more than sex, it's connection, emotion and feeling safe.
Mal emerges from the bathroom, lazily half-nude in her robe. Her long blonde hair falls straight and wet down her back, leaving a damp patch on her robe. She walks over to the dresser, watching Robin kiss his way down Regina's neck in the mirror. Her eyes are still red, and even the shower couldn't take that. She didn't care that Snow and David saw her cry, and Regina can't help being slightly in awe of that. She fights so hard to hide her feelings, but Mal doesn't care who watches.
Maybe it helped Snow understand more what she's been through, how brutal losing Lily was for both of them. She'll never truly get it, because she thinks non-humans just experience the world differently, but she's closer. She saw how hurt Mal was, and Snow's not an idiot. At least, not most of the time.
Regina waves her over. "Let me get the tangles out of your hair."
Mal raises an eyebrow, and her gaze remains on Robin and the way he's nibbling her neck.
"You should use the conditioner, the one I showed you," Regina reminds her. Mal shrugs and sits on the floor, handing Regina the comb and letting her hold her head. Robin continues to toy with her through the silky fabric of her pajamas, teasing her with the warmth of his fingers moving steadily upward.
Mal shrugs and her robe slides down her beautiful shoulders, leaving them bare. "I don't like the smell."
Robin chuckles, then leans down and kisses Mal's cheek. "Thank you. That fake flower smell is atrocious. That's not what lavender smells like."
Regina rolls her eyes. "We can buy a different conditioner, and another shampoo. You can sniff all of them before we choose."
Tracing Mal's shoulder with his hand, Robin smirks. "That sounds like a promise not to roll her eyes while we smell every bottle in the shop."
Mal nods, turning towards his hand. Regina's not sure, but then it's obvious she's fishing for a kiss, which Robin obliges. Their mouths meet while she eases the tangles from Mal's soft, wet hair and she could lose herself watching them so easily. Regina's fingers keep moving, working their way through. Robin slides further down the bed and their kissing grows more passionate.
She moves her hips, growing more aware of the ache between her thighs. She sets the comb aside and reaches down to stroke the line of Mal's jaw.
"Do you want to join us, Regina?" Mal asks, her voice a purr.
Robin leaves the bed and offers his hands to help Mal up. They pause, facing each other, nearly wrapped in each other and the kissing starts again. Robin guides Mal back, leading her to the bed beside Regina. Mal reaches for her chin, taking the moment to kiss her. The warmth of her mouth makes Regina gasp, and Robin's watching her, his eyes full of desire.
Arousal teases her, hot and desperate, pooling in her hips. Robin amuses himself by slipping Mal's robe from one of her shoulders, tugging it down. His fingers brush her breast and she sighs.
"Sore?"
"Yes," Mal says, turning to him. "Be gentle."
"I'm always gentle," Robin says, and now Mal laughs.
Regina kisses her neck, and Mal's laughter vibrates against her mouth. "Except for when we ask you not to be," Mal teases. "Which, you are good at."
Robin runs his palm over one of her nipples, rolling her breast against his hand. Mal shudders, nearly squirms, and they must be worse today. Hormones, even dragon ones, are complicated. "We'll be gentle tonight."
Mal kisses his neck, resting her teeth against his skin. "It'll be different."
Regina could lose herself watching them, forget all about her body until it screams to be touched. Robin nuzzles his way down, then licks the exposed skin of Mal's breast. That earns another gasp, and Mal's hand digs into Regina's thigh. Regina's hitch in her breath makes Mal turn, and they kiss again, this time deeper, their tongues meeting and breathing is hard.
Robin guides Mal back, lifting her legs onto the bed and Regina starts to follow.
"No," Mal says, smirking. "You're overdressed."
"Maybe you should help me," Regina answers, kneeling in front of her on the bed. Mal's fingers work their way to the buttons of her pajama top, opening it up, exposing her skin. Robin drags it from her shoulders and his cooler hands dance across her back. Regina slips between Mal's bare legs and Robin eases off her bottoms.
Mal flicks her fingers, waving Robin closer so they can undress him together. He's already half-hard and a few strokes of their hands has him full, ripe against their palms. He's controlled, patient, and Mal shifts to kiss his chest. Robin's hand teases up Mal's bare thigh and he touches her in return, making her gasp.
"You're wet," he murmurs.
"Must have been the shower," Mal teases. Her hot fingertips brush Regina's sex, finding the wetness of her arousal and bringing it to her clit. "I think Regina's wetter."
"I wasn't aware it was a contest," Regina answers, trying to keep her breath even, somehow level, because the more Mal touches her, the more she just wants to squirm and gasp and beg.
"Some people are competitive." Robin adds his hand to Mal's, and his fingers are more insistent because he slides in, and that finger curls upward. "And if we are, you're winning."
"Told you." Mal settles back, watching Robin's hand move against Regina. She drags her own fingers lazily across her breast, then tastes them, licking Regina from her fingertips. "She tastes eager."
Regina shakes her head, then kisses her, tasting herself and Mal, and the hint of fire that's always present. Robin's finger slides deeper, and then there's a second, and his thumb's on her clit, and she breaks the kiss, gasping into Mal's neck. "You two are terrible teases."
Mal toys with Regina's bottom lip, then drops her mouth towards Regina's breast. "And you want us to touch you, or to touch each other?"
Robin's erection burns her thigh and Regina can't take her eyes from it.
Mal grins, predatory, hungry and so very damn smug. "Should he take you while I watch? Maybe from behind, so I can play." She opens her thighs, drawing Regina in. Mal shares a glance with Robin, and he kisses her hand. The two of them will be the death of her, because Robin circles behind her, running his erection across her, making him wet and her so desperate to be full.
Mal's hands find her breasts, teasing, taunting and rubbing her nipples erect. Then they kiss and this time Regina's mouth crashes into hers, gasping as she fists her hands into the sheets. Robin's hand runs down her back, and Mal's eyes are only for him.
"I'd like to be inside of you," he murmurs, the words as full of promise as a fireball. "Would you like that?"
She shifts her hips back, rubbing against him, trying to make him ache as much as she does. "Yes."
"So impatient." Mal ghosts her fingers down Regina's stomach, finding her clit just long enough to tease. Regina's half in her lap when Robin's erection rests hard and hot against her.
Regina gasps into her neck because Mal's fingers are almost too much and being empty hurts. "Please."
Mal's eyes glow, and Regina wants to say that magic is cheating, that she shouldn't, but there's fire in her belly that demands her attention, demands Robin that neither of them ever stop touching her.
"Take her."
She's wet enough that Robin slips within deep, and damn. That stretch, the fullness, she tilts her hips, wanting more.
"She feels amazing," he says, letting her breath, taking a moment. "So wet."
"That's our girl," Mal agrees. Her fingers stroke Regina's clit just as Robin starts to thrust and the two of them in unison is so unfair that she curses into Mal's breasts.
"Deeper?" Robin asks, leaning over her, finding a rhythm and then he is deeper, and her head's starting to spin.
"How good does he feel like inside of you?" Mal whispers, her eyes still full of mischief. "Is that what you wanted?"
"Good, fucking good, yes." Regina fights the desire just to moan. She will find words, somehow. She finds Mal's mouth, kissing her to shut her up and to pay her back, and because having all of them connected just seems right. She breaks it again, panting, her head swirling upwards. "Gods, yes."
She drags a hand from the bed, grabs Mal's thigh, then strokes her sex in return, and they were lying, because Mal's so wet, so needy that she shudders even though Regina's hand is clumsy.
"That's it," Robin agrees above her. "See if you can make her squirm."
It's almost too much to keep track of, the ache of Robin pulling back and the pressure of him returning that makes her squirm back, wanting more, moaning for more, while Mal slips beneath her, wrapping her legs around her hips, letting Robin's powerful thrusts make Regina's stomach rub against her. With Mal beneath her, she can almost balance, and her hand seeks the incredible heat of Mal's sex, the promise of her clit, but she can barely breathe for moaning. Robin is so deep, so good inside of her.
She starts to tighten around him, and that shifts the sound of his pleasure.
"Make him climax," Mal whispers up at her. "Take him over the edge."
"He'll wait," Regina protests, because he always does, somehow Robin always sends her first.
"Don't let him," Mal teases. "I'm sure you feel good enough that he can barely stand it. So hot, so wet, so firm and supple around him."
Robin mutters something that sounds half-draconic while Mal continues to whisper about how good Regina feels, how sensational she is, how wonderful it is to let go. Regina's clumsy fingers make her miss words, occasionally stutter, because she's as aroused by taunting them as they are close to the edge, and it's the battle of wills that fascinates them all.
Mal's more conscious fingers and Robin's sweet fullness tease her, then push, and orgasm takes her, drawing a stubborn gasp, then a long, delighted cry of shock and release. Something happens between Mal and Robin, because he gasps, almost as surprised as Regina, and he reaches his peak a moment later, spilling within her while she pants against Mal's chest.
Regina can't even demand to know what he's done, because he's slipped his hand around, between, and before he's even out of her, his fingers must be inside of Mal because her eyes go dark.
"Fuck," Mal whimpers.
Regina's head still spins, but she knows where to suck Mal's breasts and yes, they are sensitive because that next curse is draconic. Regina starts to slip off, but Mal shakes her head.
"Stay." Her legs wrap around Robin, tugging him closer, and they're tangled, panting, gasping in a heap of limbs and sweaty skin as Robin's skillful fingers send her up.
Regina kisses her, swallowing her little cries of pleasure. Making Mal orgasm is almost too easy over the last few weeks, but the ease takes none of the delight of her squirming, shifting then arching beneath Regina.
"Robin-"
"He's good with his hands," Regina says, kissing Mal's neck before she returns to torturing her nipples. "Especially when he curls up-"
"There," Mal says, the word half-strangled in her throat.
"Thank you," he answers Regina, and his free hand flicks across her clit, just to make her crumple. Her shuddering makes him chuckle.
"That's it," he says over Regina's shoulder. "It's good, isn't it? Deep and fast, just like-"
Mal reaches her climax, half-sobbing into Regina's neck, and then, they fall apart, collapsing together, sweat-slick and sated, Robin and Regina curl at her sides, all of their hearts racing.
Regina has to leave them to pee, but they take the time to settle the sheets over their legs and welcome her in. They're never cold with Mal there, and with her nightmares, it's easier if she's between them, so both of them can comfort her. Robin's so much more optimistic that they both need him. He thinks that this will work out, that they'll all be okay. Regina's not sure which of them needs that more. Robin and Mal both kiss her in welcome, and she curls up, her head on Mal's chest. There's a rise to her belly now, not much of one, but it's there. Regina's sure.
She rests her hand on that faintly rounded skin and Robin smiles at her. He kisses the back of her hand, then Mal's belly, before tugging the sheet and blanket over them all and settling down. Mal's head's on his shoulder and her hair's all mussed. Regina can fix it in the morning, and it's still beautiful, sex-rumpled, half-dry.
Robin lifts himself enough to kiss Regina, once on the lips, and then on her forehead. "I love you," he says easily, because that one has been repeated time and again.
Then he shifts, and kisses Mal. She shuts her eyes, because that's all she's expecting, and then he says it. "I love you too."
Regina's heart thuds in her chest and Mal's eyes flutter open, as if she's leaving a dream. Maybe she's entering one.
She traces Robin's jaw through his beard, then runs her hand down his chest. "You love me."
He nods, and that smile means he's sure. "After I accidentally told Lily, I thought you deserved to hear it."
"You told Lily?" Mal asks, and Regina's heart is so full that it aches through the warmth of the afterglow.
"She smiled."
"She worries," Mal agrees. She guides him up, holding his chin and they kiss, soft and gentle. "Lily gets that from her mother."
Robin and Mal both turn their eyes to Regina, and she would protest, but they're right.
"I love you both, very much," Regina says, and they nod.
Mal's smile has so much promise, and then her eyes are damp. "You humans."
Regina wants to save her because she doesn't have to say it. They know. "You don't have to-"
"You don't understand how vulnerable- how powerful- your hearts are." Mal looks from one to the other and blinks back tears. "I love you, each of you apart and together, and that is more frightening than any nightmare."
"You're safe," Regina promises.
"We can protect you."
Mal nods, and tugs them close to kiss them, each in turn. "Not from yourselves, and don't you dare. You're too precious to give up. Even if it terrifies me, I love you, and that won't go away."
Regina brushes her tears away, and Robin cradles them both. Flicking out the lights with her wrist, Regina holds them both in the dark, and she understands the fear, what they're all risking, what they could lose.
And it's worth it.