She had learned to walk silently as a small child, quieting her steps as she played hide-and-seek in the autumn leaves. Try as she might, she could never be quiet enough. A foot nicked the side of a leaf a little too hard, set it to rustle. She'd hold her breath, and pause, for just a moment, her ears straining.
Never. Not once had she heard him from the trees, his steps skimming over the ground. His breathe never quickened or shallow. Out of nowhere he would come, flying out of space and time it seemed, and once again, she would lose.
She smiled to herself, thinking that they obviously had not grown up much since those days. Her foot now rested lightly on the edge of the tree branch where she was keeping watch.
Sunlight lay, melting through the leaves, and was puddling on the forest floor. Not a whisper of a wind could be heard, and she felt a thin film of sweat on the back of her neck, under her hood. Where would that blasted man be?
Standing up, Marian brushed her brown hair away from her face, the wisps catching on her sweaty fingers. She dropped her hand away from her face, her eyes still taking in every leaf, every twig, and every particle of dirt around her. Fingers twitched by her side. She was getting impatient.
As she made to move to the next branch, she was held back by her shoulders and turned around by hands behind her, gracefully pinning her back against the tree's trunk.
"Marian." Her name was a breathless whisper as she pretended to grimace.
"What?" Robin's face was so close she could count the almost non-existent freckles on his face.
"You win again. You do realize chivalry isn't dead? I thought it was something you were trying to uphold," she told him, bringing her hand up to the side of his face.
"You mad you lost?" he asked, a devilish grin spread across his face.
"I wouldn't put that way...exactly," she said, tilting her head to the side.
"Well, if I didn't win, I wouldn't get to claim my prize now would I?"
"What who said you get a prize?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I did." His breathe fanned across her chin and cheek.
"You have only been fooling yourself then," she told him, trying not to show her pounding heart.
"He could sense it though, she knew it. His gaze lowered, and she felt her breathe hitch. Praying her voice didn't give her up, she asked, "Just what do you think the prize is that you deserve?"
"This," and before she could properly close her eyes, he had captured her lips in his own.
The hair on his chin scratched against her own smooth face. She desperately wished they were in better position, the remembrance of where they were drifting foggily through her brain. The thought vanished completely as his hand crept up her neck, cupping her cheek. His teeth scraped against her bottom lip, and his other hand made its way up the side of her face, and wove through her hair.
Robin pulled away, slowly, trailing gentle kisses at the corner of her mouth down to her chin. When they ended, she looked up.
"I love you," he told her; as if it were the first time he had told her such a thing. It did feel like it. Her stomach exploded into a million beautiful butterflies, all trying to escape to tell the world that Robin loved her. Her. Marian.
"I love you too," she whispered, winding her hands across the back of his neck, twining her fingers in the hair that scraped along his collar.
"Do you?"
This made her roll her eyes and smile fondly at him.
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it," she reassured him, moving her head under his chin.
Somewhere, deep down, she wished she could go back with him. To the Outlaws' Camp, where Much and Will and Djaq where. She knew they wondered why she didn't. In truth, she sometimes wondered as well. However, she knew that she had to stay with her father. He was old and weak and tired, even if he didn't like to admit it. Without her, who knew what would happen. No, for the time, at least, she couldn't leave with Robin. Her Robin.
With a sigh, she pulled back and smiled, somewhat sadly, up at him.
"Leaving?"
"You know I must," she told him, as she had so many other times before.
"Doesn't mean I wish you didn't."
"Me too."
At this he smiled and dropped his face closer to hers. A sigh of happiness escaped her lips a breath before his touched them.
She felt the curve of his smile against her skin, his hand losing itself farther in the waves of her hair.
She wanted to stay.