Note: This is sort of an outtake from my longer fic - this started out as a flashback but got unwieldy so now it's here! The first line is just from that, which is why it's sort of an abrupt beginning.

This is juuuuust fluff. There is zero substance here. Only fluff, and arguing, and kissing.

Robin remembers the first time he kissed her, years ago. After a fair in Nottingham he cornered her outside the castle's stables. She was fifteen and suddenly beautiful, he was seventeen and dreamed about her every night, and all day he watched other boys follow her around, begging for her favor in one contest or another. Merchants' sons and nobles alike, she waved them off with a laugh and returned to Robin's side every time, snickering at her suitors.

"I think I won't marry at all," she said airily. "If these are the kinds of fools I'll have to put up with."

He raised an eyebrow and didn't say anything, but the words hummed in his head the rest of the day, whispering at him through pig roasts and party games. Didn't she know? He hadn't really thought about it before, but he'd just assumed that Marian would marry him. He'd always assumed that.

It occurred to him suddenly that he probably needed to tell her.

Ask her.

So as he walked her home that night he pulled her aside, into a recessed wall near the stables. The moonlight played on her face so she was half in shadow, and half lit up like something otherworldly. But he was close enough to feel the heat of her body in the cool night air, and he knew that she was flesh and blood, a mortal creature.

Someone he could deserve.

"What you said earlier about not getting married," he said lightly, "you didn't mean it."

Marian barely glanced at him. "Of course I meant it. Men are insufferable."

Robin laughed. "Not all of us, surely."

She thought about it for a moment. "I suppose not. You're tolerable. Much is - somewhat tolerable. My father is perfect, of course." She rolled her eyes. "But it's not like I can marry any of you."

Robin blinked. This was not what he was expecting. "All right," he said slowly.

"Obviously not my father. Obviously not Much." She laughed a little at that, but her eyes were keen as they settled on him. "And it can't be you, can it?"

His mouth was dry. "Why not?"

"Surely you're not going to marry, either."

Robin was almost sure he knew what she was going to say next, but he asked anyway. He was a glutton for punishment, at least when the punishment came from her. "What makes you say that?"

"Please," Marian said, stepping back from him. He felt the chill immediately. "I know about Bessie and Mattie. And Cecily, in Clun. Word gets around in the villages, you know. And Lady Margaret, when her father was visiting mine." Her voice turned icy. "That one I figured out myself."

Robin winced with every name she listed. All of it was true, of course, and he couldn't deny it. He tried a different tack. "That doesn't mean I'm not going to marry."

The set of her chin made it clear that she was entirely unimpressed with him. "Well, who would have you?"

He looked at her, incredulous. Surely she would not reject him for a few - dalliances with other girls - they were not betrothed, he'd made no promises to her. They were friends, that was all, and if Robin had hoped they'd become something more - well, that was later, wasn't it, and this was now.

Now. She was clearly expecting an answer.

Robin scratched the back of his neck, a habitual gesture that seemed to infuriate her. Her face reddened, and she opened her mouth in a way that suggested Robin was about to get yelled at, so he cut her off.

"You, all right?" It burst out of him before he knew what he was saying. If anything, her face got even redder. He tried to soften his voice. "I thought - I always thought I would marry you."

And she didn't say anything. She opened her mouth and made a noise that might have been shock or anger or a hundred other emotions that weren't happiness.

After a minute Robin couldn't look at her anymore. He turned away and stalked off, and he made it halfway across the courtyard before she finally spoke.

"You could do a better job of showing it," she called to him. He turned instantly at the sound of her voice.

She was smiling.

Oh, she was trying to hide it - it was coy and shy and her face was mostly in shadow, but she was definitely smiling.

"I'll have to try harder," he called back.

Both of them took a few steps toward each other. Tentative.

"Why all of those other girls, then?" she asked, and he realized that she was hurt. She wasn't angry - well, maybe she was angry - but mostly, she was jealous.

Robin sighed. "You're young." And her father would have him arrested if he touched her.

Marian crossed her arms. "And that gives you an excuse to go around - tumbling other girls?"

His temper flared. "Well, I can't exactly 'tumble' you, can I?"

"Then I suppose you'll have to learn to keep your hands to yourself!" She was nearly shouting by then, and Robin wondered if they would ever learn to talk to each other without fighting. He was never good at this part. They fought, and she ran off or he did, to nurse their wounds, and later they'd apologize, but it just took so long to get there, and Robin didn't want to walk away from her.

So he kissed her.

He stepped across the space between them, took her face in his hands, and kissed her.

It was a delicate thing. He'd strode over so forcefully, but by the time he finally leaned in to kiss her, he stopped just a breath away from her lips. He could feel her breath warm on his face.

And he waited for her to close the distance between them.

And she did.

Her lips were light and soft on his, and he had to resist the urge to pull her tight against him. Instead he kept one hand on her cheek, and let the other move to tangle in her hair. He didn't deepen the kiss, and when she pulled away - after a long, long moment - he didn't move in to kiss her again.

"Marian," he said, when he finally remembered how to speak again. "I want to marry you."

He heard her breath catch before she opened her eyes. "Is that a proposal?" she asked, teasing, but she must have forgotten that he could see the way she looked when she said it.

Marian wanted to marry him.

Robin grinned. He thought he might never stop grinning. "Not yet," he said, but it sounded like a promise.

He tilted his head and leaned in to kiss her again, but this time she pulled away, pressing a finger to his lips.

Marian looked absolutely delighted as she echoed, "Not yet." As soon as she was sure he wasn't going to try to kiss her again, she put her hands on his shoulders, linking her thumbs behind his neck. She looked so pleased with herself.

He groaned.

"We're not engaged," she reminded him. "So I'm afraid you'll have to wait until we are." Her eyes narrowed. "And that includes other girls. You can't kiss them, either."

"Yes," Robin said. He'd have agreed to anything just then. His head was still full of her, and she was still close enough that her scent filled the air around him. He would agree to anything just to stay there for one more minute, holding her.

"Good." Marian smiled and leaned into him, dropping her hands to wrap around his waist. She rested her head against his chest and he ran his hands up and down her back, and loved how warm she felt in his arms. She fit there like she was made for him. "Robin?" she said.

"Mm."

Her voice was muffled by his shirt, but Robin heard every word. "I want to marry you, too."