I hope you enjoy, I enjoyed writing this. It helped ease the pain from last night's episode a little. I own nothing.
The slightest breeze blows through the cracked open window, gently rustling the curtains of her bedroom, bringing with it the unparalleled scent of a lazy summer night. Over the horizon, the sun has yet to begin its ascent into the sky, and all is dark, all is quiet except for the August song of the crickets. The moon and the stars shine their light through the room's windows, creating patterns of light and darkness on the floor. A particular slant of the light illuminates the two lying in bed. The hands of the clock may be slowly moving towards 3, but they do not sleep. Their bare legs are tangled together, they lie on their sides facing each other, their hands roaming over arms and chests as they whisper silently into the night.
Robin's just finished telling her a ridiculous story of an expedition into a noble's vault a few years back with his Merry Men, and it has her dissolving in laughter, pressing her face into the pillow under her head as she giggles, and he's grinning back her with a smile he assumes makes him look like an idiot, because he loves this, he loves her, he loves being able to make her forget all of their troubles and make her laugh as they lie together within these four walls, where nothing can hurt them, nothing can make them worry about their future, where nothing else matters but the two of them.
As her laughter dies down, she lets out a contented sigh and looks back at him with a small smile. He moves his hand from where it had been resting on her arm, moves it down to her thigh, and slowly, slowly, moves it up towards her waist. Despite the diligent way in which he had attended to the stimulation of her senses earlier, she still finds that his touch draws light shivers out of her. He makes her feel loved and cherished, and so, so special and she wants to spend the rest of her nights, for the rest of her life, in his arms. As his hand makes it way further up her body, as he runs his fingers into her hair, smoothing it away from her face, she thinks that she will never tire of hearing tales of his life whispered to her in the dead of night as they lie alone, as his stories reveal so much about the man lying before her with his arms wrapped around, and she wants to know all of him. She wants to know everything, past and present, wants the chance to know his whole soul.
She stares back at him with such love in her eyes, such trust, the mask that she holds in place for everyone else no where in sight for him, that he can feel stinging in the back of his eyes accompanied by a prickling sensation in his nose.
"What good deed have I done that the gods have thought me worthy of the gift of spending my life with you?" he whispers, his voice low and rough.
Her smile widens then, as she gives silent thanks once again for him, for Robin, for the man that wholly and willingly accepts her for who she is, that will never ask for more, who will never demand that she change, who will always love her because of her flaws and not in spite of them, who thinks that she is more than enough, that she is perfect just as she is.
There are a few moments of silence between them as they gaze into each others eyes, as Robin places his hand on top of her hand as it rests on his chest, as he laces their fingers together over his beating heart.
The heart that beats for her, the heart that beats because of her.
As she looks deeply into her lover's eyes, she finds herself reflecting on his life, stealing from the rich and giving to the needy. A thought suddenly crosses her mind, and she finds that she's so curious to hear the answer that she speaks before thinking it through.
He watches as her eyebrows knit together, and he is surprised when she suddenly blurts out, her eyes searching his, "Did you ever steal from Leopold?"
Robin finds himself taken aback by her question, stunned by the fact that she's uttered the name of her ex-husband, tries to think back if she ever has before when they'd been together, realizes that this is probably the first time she's ever brought Leopold up in conversation with him.
He doesn't want to ask questions she's not ready to give answers to yet, so he keeps his tone light as he finds the words to respond.
"Once," he says, "but technically - technically, I stole it from you, though I suppose it belonged more to Leopold than to you."
Her eyebrows lift at that, he can see the curiosity in her eyes, so before she asks what she means, he carries on with his story.
"I suppose it was your third or fourth wedding anniversary, and rumours were swirling in the forest that King Midas had commissioned a tapestry as a gift for you - a tapestry woven from thread spun from silver and gold - "
She nods, she remembers it. It had made her sick just to look at that stupid tapestry, because the image woven into the fabric had been a scene from her wedding to Leopold. The artist had depicted her with a lovesick expression on her face as she gazed at Leopold as they stood at the altar, and it had been so far from the reality of the situation that she'd had to excuse herself when it had been presented to her in an attempt to mask her boiling rage. Leopold had insisted on hanging it in her chambers, so she'd been forced to look at it everyday, until one night, she'd walked back into her chambers after another excruciatingly boring ball to find it missing from its place on the wall across from her bed. She'd smiled then, had gone to bed happy that night for the first time since Daniel had died, and she hadn't raised the alert until the morning. Leopold had been outraged, had demanded that a price be put on the heads of whomever had dared to steal from him, while she'd sat silently, stoic beside him in the throne room.
Robin continues, " - and we thought that if we melted it down, the gold and silver in it could feed at least a dozen villages for a year. So I snuck into your chambers with three of my men on the night of your anniversary ball, and - and we stole it."
"Thief!" she exclaims with mock outrage, gently pushing at his chest with her palm, playfully mimicking her Evil Queen persona as she says, "you dare lie here beside me after stealing something so precious from me?"
He chuckles, because he knows she never cared about that stupid tapestry, he just knows that she had been relieved at its disappearance, that she's pleased that the object depicting the farce that had been her marriage had been useful in the end, had helped the poor warm their homes and feed their children. As she gazes at him with a teasing glint in her eye, he thinks again how stunning she is, how lucky he is that she chose to open herself up to him and let him love her.
"Speaking of precious objects, have I managed to steal your heart yet, milady?" he asks with a teasing smile.
The smile fades from her lips as she turns serious, as she moves her face even closer to his, closing her eyes and nuzzling her nose against his before she responds quietly, repeating what she had told him months ago, "You can't steal something that's been given to you."
She can hear his breath catch, can feel the quickened pace of his heart under her hand on his chest before his lips crash into hers. She opens her mouth to let his tongue in and gasps as his leg that lies between her own moves up until it is snugly placed against her. For a few moments, everything else falls away as all that matters is the passionate meetings of their lips, as they attempt to physically demonstrate their love for one another with every press of their lips.
The sun peaks over the horizon and the darkness outside begins to lift as they remain locked in an embrace. The light from the sun illuminates the room, illuminating the two soul mates on the bed who have taken the long road in finding each other, two soul mates who now finally had the chance to be together and now never wanted to let each other go.
Slowly, they withdraw from their kiss, resting their foreheads together as they revel in the fact that in this moment, they are together, and it is real.
Regina sighs contently, happy to be in Robin's arms, not yet ready for whatever the day will bring, wishing the night would last forever so they'd never have to leave her bed. For his part, Robin continues running his finger through her hair, thumb caressing her cheek, and he knows she already knows what he's going to say, but he wants her to hear it, so he quietly says her name so that she'll open her eyes that lie only centimetres away from his.
Her eyes open at the sound of her name, and he finds himself wanting to drown in the love he sees in her deep brown eyes. Softly, he tells her, "I love you, Regina. Always."
She beams back at him and coyly replies, "You'll always be my thief, Thief."
Let me know what you thought!:)