The night was just beginning to think about turning into day. Robin slipped out of camp and headed towards the river. Today, he wanted to see the sun rise. And while in a forest, it was pretty hard to actually witness that event, he at least wanted to be up when the sun rose and the river was as good a place to be as any. He hadn't told any of the others where he was going; today he wanted to be alone, and he really didn't feel like anyone knowing where he was. It was childish, and probably more than a little stupid, but that didn't sway Locksley. Today he wanted, no needed, to be alone, at least for a little while.

He sat down on the riverbank, but not right next to the water. He looked around where he was and smiled; this was where he first talked to Marian when she came looking for him. But even though the thought of Marian brought a smile to his face, it also brought sadness. Thinking about Marian also made him think about Peter. Today he really missed him.

Peter had been a good friend—a great friend. Locksley couldn't believe he was gone. And it pained him that he wasn't able to at least bring his body home, so that he could be buried in his homeland. But at least he died a free Englishman, Robin reminded himself. But oh, there were so many times he wanted to talk to Peter. Azeem and John were his two closest companions in his outlaw band, and they were good friends, but they couldn't compare to a childhood friend. He didn't know how Azeem could stand being here; surely the pangs of loneliness must be ten, twenty, a hundred times greater than his own. But Azeem never spoke of being lonely. Really, he didn't speak of anything personal at all.

He missed Peter. But he was gone, along with his father. Robin closed his eyes. His father. After six years of the Crusades, he had finally, finally, come back home to find his father murdered. The last words he had said to him had been so vicious. The argument, one of many, about him going on the Crusades. He had never said goodbye to him then, well, he had, but it was one of those angry-over-the-shoulder-as he-is-leaving-after-just-arguing-with-him "goodbye father"s. But now he would never be able to say a proper goodbye, and he'd never be able to try to reestablish their relationship, and his children (if he had any) would never know their grandfather.

A noise behind him made him turn slightly. He frowned; of course, the one time he was able to slip away for a moment of peace, who had to interrupt but Will Scarlett.

Will didn't seem to be aware of him yet though and hopefully the vegetation would continue to conceal him. Scarlett was walking towards the river a few yards downstream. Robin held his breath; maybe Will wouldn't notice him, do whatever he was going to do, and then quickly leave. Because if he didn't want to be around his good friends Azeem and John, then he most certainly didn't want to be around his good enemy Will Scarlett.

Will didn't look to be leaving anytime soon, though. He walked right to the water's edge, and stood looking over at the other bank. Then he leaned down and picked up a few rocks, and—Robin shook his head in bemusement—began to skip them across the water.

Locksley could not believe that his morning of reflection and mourning was being interrupted by a man skipping rocks. He just wanted to be left alone, and Scarlett had to go and mess this up too. But then again, Will didn't know he was here. Perhaps if he made his presence known, Scarlett would leave.

"Do you always skip stones at this hour of the morning?"

Will jerked around in surprise, but he did not (as Robin had half hoped) fall into the river.

"Sheesh, Locksley. What are you doing here?"

"Apparently watching you skip rocks."

"Thrilling, isn't it?"

"You have no idea."

He watched as Will tried to come up with another witty comment but fail. But he didn't leave; he just turned back and resumed skipping stones. Oh well, Locksley should have known. Will might not want to have Robin watch him skip stones, but he also for sure wasn't going to appear to concede the riverbank to Locksley. Robin sighed; he supposed he could get up and leave, but he didn't want to appear to concede to Scarlett either, and besides, he was here first. So he sat there in the semi-darkness and watched Will flick the stones across the water.

"You're doing it wrong."

Will grit his teeth. "How would you know?"

"Because everyone's skipped rocks, Will. And you need more snap in your wrist."

Will took another stone, snapped his wrist, and made sure the stone just plopped once straight into the water. He then turned and gave Robin the smallest of oops, how did that happen looks with the accompanying shoulder, hand, and head shrugs.

"Care to try?" Will challenged.

Robin shook his head. "I don't think I can compare to that level of skill you just demonstrated."

"Suit yourself."

"You never answered my question."

"And what question was that?"

"Do you always skip stones at this hour of the morning?"

"As a matter of fact I do."

"Figures."

"What do you mean by that?" Will demanded.

"I just meant that you're the type of person that would be out here this early."

"Why, because I'm just some peasant scum, and only peasant scum would be up this early, while the rich man's son gets to sleep until noon?"

"No," Robin replied calmly, "because you like to keep to yourself, and it figures that you would enjoy this time of solitude."

"Well, it's not really solitude if you're here, is it?"

"Very true," Robin once again replied calmly, and without a hint of apology in his tone. He was here first; it was up to Scarlett to leave.

Will threw a few more stones across the water, then turned back to Robin.

"So what are you doing out here?"

"Wishing for the solitude."

"Because it's not really solitude if I'm here, right?"

"Exactly," Locksley muttered absently, his mind already starting to wander back to their earlier gloomier thoughts.

"I never took you for a loner Locksley."

"What do you take me for? Don't answer that," Robin quickly backtracked from his absent-minded question. Will smiled in triumph and let him have his escape.

"Getting tired of leading our outlaw band?" Escape from the one question, not the interrogation, that is.

"Will…"

"Can't take living with all these peasants and outlaws. Too bad you have a price on your head too."

"Will…"

"Otherwise, you'd hightail it back to Nottingham first chance you got. But nope, you're stuck here."

"Will please. I came here to be alone."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know that," Will replied amicably. He promptly plopped himself down next to Robin and smirked.

Robin glared at him with such venom that Scarlett actually looked a little taken aback. Good. Wait, was he, was he actually, yes he was. Will was actually getting up and leaving. Man, how angry had he looked to make the man back down? But then Will was coming back, and Locksley suppressed the urge to throttle the younger man.

"You all right?" The words themselves sounded sincere and concerned, but Scarlett spoke them in the same tone of voice that a child who was being forced to apologize would say "so-rry."

"I'm fine." Or I will be if you just get outta here!

Will laughed incredulously. "Locksley, you're about as fine as the Sheriff is sane."

Robin smiled at the joke, but it quickly faded.

"You look awful," Will continued in a softer voice and a much more sincere tone. He took a quick glance around, as if making sure no one was around to witness this. He sat back down. "What's wrong?"

Robin looked up and met Will's eyes; there was sincere and genuine concern in them. And suddenly Robin felt the overwhelming need to share what was preying on his mind with someone. Even Scarlett. Maybe even especially Scarlett.

"My mother died today."

He heard Will suck in a sharp breath. "Oh, Locksley…"

"Well, not today, obviously," he amended with a sad smile, "but twenty years ago today."

Will anxiously ran a hand through his hair. "Locksley, you should-you should talk to someone else about this. Let me go get Azeem or-or John, but you just –you should really talk to someone else about this."

Robin shook his head at the suggestion of getting someone else. "No, it's okay. I don't need to…it's okay." The whim of speaking about it had passed; he was already regretting telling this much to Scarlett.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. And then, Will asked it.

"What was she like?" It was forced out quickly and softly, in a voice that nowhere near resembled Scarlett's normal voice. To Robin it seemed laced with desperation—a seemingly great desperation to ask, and an even greater desperation to never know. Which didn't make any sense.

"She was beautiful. And kind. Always the perfect lady whenever company was around, but when it was just us, just her, me, and Father…" Robin smiled at the memories, "…We used to run all around the house, chasing each other like madmen. She loved to play games with me. And tell me stories." Robin's eyes were starting to moisten; it had been so long since he'd said any of this out loud.

"She loved to watch the sun rise. My father too. Sometimes they'd wake me up and drag me outside to watch the sun rise with them. I used to pretend to hate it. I loved it." The last part Robin barely gave voice to, and Scarlett had to strain to hear it.

"How did she die?" Will asked softly.

Robin closed his eyes against the memories. "She got sick," he answered simply, not wanted to relive anymore than that. "And she died. Twenty years ago." He shook his head in disbelief. "Twenty years. You probably haven't even been alive for twenty years."

Will smiled sadly, but other than that didn't respond. Robin continued.

"I was twelve. After she died, I felt so lost. My father, he woke me up a couple of times and we'd watch the sun rise, trying to keep the tradition alive and…trying to find a way to put our lives back together. But then…"

He felt Will tense next to him as he trailed off, in response to what Robin didn't know.

"About a month after she'd died, a new woman entered my father's life. I felt so betrayed. I thought he'd betrayed my mother, me. I mean, he didn't have the decency to wait a year, or wait even half a year, before he…" Robin trailed off.

"It destroyed my faith in him. I thought he loved my mother, but…how could he when less than a month later he's with another woman?" A pause. "I hated him for it. And I never forgave him."

He had forgotten how perceptive Scarlett was, for he picked up on the particular way that Locksley had phrased that.

"Do you forgive him now?"

"Now?" It was a question he had been wrestling with for quite some time.

"Do I forgive him?" Did he?

"No." It was blunt, but it was true. "I don't hate him now. I can understand the reasons he did it now. I can feel ashamed of my reaction to it now, but…"

"But it didn't happen to you now," Will finished the thought for him. "It happened when you were twelve years old and had just lost your mother."

"Exactly. Maybe I should forgive him, but I can't. I can't forgive him for giving in to the basest of desires right when I needed him the most."

"I never thought of it that way," Will quietly remarked after a long, long silence, "but in your place I don't know if I could either."

"But he wasn't a bad man," Robin continued after a bit of reflection, as if he wanted to make sure that Will didn't come to have a bad opinion of his father because of him. "Far from it. He loved me, he even loved me enough to give her up after I found out. And he took care of me and tried to raise me right. I just never listened to him."

Robin shook himself out of his melancholy and tried to lighten the mood. "Well, that about finishes my woeful tale. Sorry I blathered on. I do hope your opinion of me hasn't sunk any lower. If that's possible," he finished with a grin.

"No. I mean no, my opinion of you can't go any lower," Will hastened to amend. Robin's grin widened. Scarlett had to smile back.

"Look, the sun's risen," Locksley realized belatedly.

"Yeah. Oh."

"Oh what?"

"Oh I understand now why you wanted to be alone to watch the sunrise."

"Oh it's all right." Robin purposely began with the fourth oh uttered in the past ten seconds. Will, ever the perceptive one, caught it and smiled. It was almost like their minds worked in the exact same way, the way each of them understood the other's humor. "I wanted to be alone on the tenth anniversary of my mother's death, but Peter interrupted me then too."

"Who's Peter?"

"My childhood friend. We went on the Crusades together."

"He dead?"

"He was killed just after we'd escaped the prison."

"Prison?"

"Yeah for five years we were in prison—man you really don't know much about me," Robin commented lightly; it seemed everyone in camp knew that he had been in prison for the past five years—it was practically a legend to the children.

"Oh, that's rich. Like you know anything about me."

Well, maybe they didn't always understand the other's humor.

"That's true," Robin tried to placate the youth, and to his relief Will calmed. "Well, I've spilled my guts. Care to spill yours?"

"No. Not much to tell anyway."

"Come on, there has to be something. All right, how did you become an outlaw?" Robin queried when Will remained stubbornly silent.

"Same way you did."

"You killed some of the sheriff's men?"

"No, I stole some of Maid Marian's horses."

Robin tried to decipher if he was kidding or not. Okay, maybe they didn't understand each other's humor at all.

"I killed some of the sheriff's men," Will confirmed.

"Why did you kill the sheriff's men?"

"Because they were trying to kill me."

"Why were they trying to kill you?"

"Because I shot one of the sheriff's deer."

"You? You're not that good."

Will stared at him coolly for a moment, then conceded. "Okay, so Wulf killed the deer, but I knifed the men when they were trying to kill him. They didn't have as quick of reflexes as you." He had started the last statement off lightly, but they both grew uncomfortable with the mention of that day.

Robin looked down and was surprised to see that Will did not have his half gloves on this morning. He could clearly see the ugly scar on the back of Will's hand. Scarlett noticed his gaze and quickly moved his hand out of Robin's sight.

"Anyway, that was when I was officially named an outlaw. Before that, I was a pure, innocent, law-abiding citizen."

"Oh no doubt."

They shared a brief chuckle, both enjoying the return to the lighthearted jesting.

"Well, I should be getting back, before Azeem gets worried. Not that he'd actually do anything about it if he was."

Robin got up, turned to go, and then turned back. "Thank you Will. It was nice to get all that off my chest, and it was nice to learn more about you." It was very formal but also very true. Locksley walked off.

"Robin."

Locksley stopped and turned back at Will's call. Will was half-turned to look at him, but was now looking mighty unsure about what he was going to say.

"I…I never…I mean I never…I never thought," Will was trying but he just kept tripping over the words, "I mean I never actually thought…that your father was a devil worshipper."

"Then why did you say he was?" Locksley demanded.

Will shrugged, uncomfortable. "Because I wanted to make you angry," he answered truthfully, before averting his gaze.

Robin belatedly realized that Will had just apologized to him. And now it probably seemed to Will that he was refusing to accept it, when that wasn't the case at all; he had just been too blindsided to realize what that stuttering of Will's had been.

"He wasn't a devil worshipper," Robin stated calmly.

Will looked back up at him and nodded. "I know."

Robin smiled at him. "Good."

As Locksley made his way back to camp, it hit him. That had been the first time Will had ever called him Robin.

****

This might be continued with a few more chapters, kind of a mini-story. Still not completely sure yet, but there's a good chance this one will be continued; maybe this scene from Will's POV, or just some follow up. Anyway, I hope y'all like it (and I hope that this one gives an adequate line break, I apologize for the lack of one in In the End). And I hope the title is satisfactory; it seemed okay when I first wrote it, but now all I can think of is Chris Farley's "you'll be living in a van down by the river!" Of course, none of you probably thought of that until I put it into your heads just now, but oh well. Anyway, hope y'all liked it, please review, and have a great day!

--Jedi