Regina's tired, and her feet hurt.
It'd been a long, stressful day of work, just one thing after another piling up to the edge of her patience.
She'd actually let a few tears fall from exhaustion and stress (stress triggers thoughts of her pain, her mother, her father, when Robin left, who is now back, when Henry said he never wanted to see her again, remembrance of being evil, a true villain, but she pushed them aside when she left the office, for she never lets anyone see her cry).
So when she gets home and sees a bouquet of roses sitting on her front doorstep, she's utterly confused.
Why are these just lying here? she thinks. Regina picks up the flowers and guides the petals up to her nose, breathing in the sweet scent of roses (her favorite scent other than the scent of apples).
She jiggles the key in the lock and closes the door behind her without so much as a glance into her home. As she turns around she let's out a slight gasp, surprised by all the white candles lit and carefully placed about. She hears faint music playing in the other room. God, is that Frank Sinatra? she wonders, and yes it is, because she hears The Way You Look Tonight on it's last chorus. She trots up the short amount of stairs and goes about finding where it's coming from.
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose, it touches my foolish heart...
And that's when she sees him, two hands leaning against the fireplace and turned away from her, dressed in a white button-down, trousers, and suspenders (she found that she loves him in suspenders, found that it gives him the perfect look of serious-romantic and casual-humor).
She smiles at him while he's still turned, admiring his unnecessary act of trying to impress her (which he most certainly has), and appreciates his well-fitted trousers.
God, she'd missed him, even though he's been back for four months now, it still hurts to think about the emptiness she felt in her bed late at night, how much she'd missed his chest pressed against her back, how much she'd missed watching the gentle caressing of their hands in front of her on the mattress, the steady, rhythmic beating of his heart, lulling her to sleep when she thought it to be impossible.
But now he's here, and he's real and alive and pure, and he's here to love her, and love her well.
•••
Robin is nervous, hoping she'll like what he has in store for her tonight. He knew she would stay awhile after work, but he didn't think it would take this long.
He decides to call her and make sure she's okay, but when he turns, he finds his beautiful soulmate standing there, grinning at him with glassy eyes.
His heart surges with his uncomprehended love for her, a love so strong it could break the worst of curses. He takes a few steps forward to close the distance between them and envelopes her small form into a tight hug. They're both still unused to coming home to one another, being able to do things like this freely— no town line, no Zelena, nothing to separate them from each other anymore.
•••
Regina places her head in the crook of his neck and shoulder and breathes in the scent of forest, her all time favorite scent (even above apples and roses). His large arms wrap around her middle, one hand reaching up to run his fingers through her soft tresses. She wraps her arms around his neck and squeezes him just as hard as he's doing so.
The song continues on softly in the background.
Lovely... don't you ever change. Keep that breathless charm.
"I missed you today," he sighs into her hair.
She hugs him a little tighter and releases, pulling back to look him in the eyes. "Missed you too," she replies, pressing her lips to his in a chaste kiss.
"What's all this?" she continues, wondering about the candles and the music playing from somewhere she's still not sure.
"Just me showing my soulmate how much I love her," he starts. "Take off those back killers," he says urgingly, gesturing to her red suede heels.
She sighs and kicks them off, letting out a small moan of contentment after relieving the uncomfortable position her feet were stuck in all day.
"Better?" he asks with a smile.
"Better," she says, both her hands still joined behind his neck.
Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, let me see what spring is like, on Jupiter and Mars.
She smiles at the starting of another masterpiece by Frank Sinatra. "I love this song," she says quietly and mostly to herself, looking around the room before meeting his eyes and giving him one of those wide smiles she knows he loves.
"I know you do," he starts with a chuckle. They both laugh and stare at each other like lovesick idiots for a moment before the next words of the song fill the room.
In other words, hold my hand...
Robin guides one of her hands into his own and let's his other hand fall to the small of her back, holding her firmly against him. To her complete surprise, he starts swaying them side to side and turns in place, forcing her to step along with him.
"In other words, baby, kiss me..." Robin sings softly but confidently into the space between them as they dance.
She smiles as he leans his forehead down to meet hers. They both close their eyes, enjoying their relatively slow movements to the beat of the song. Instead of kissing her, he presses his lips to her forehead, making her heart flutter with her uncomprehended love for him.
•••
"Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more..." he sings to her. He knows she loves hearing his voice. He remembers the time she told him it was soothing, how it felt like she was floating in the middle of a calm lake when he sang.
He loves hearing her sing too. She has a lovely voice, a mesmerizing, beautiful, angelic voice she doesn't share very often. She's unaware that he's caught her a few times, singing softly in the shower, or while she's cooking dinner, or singing to Roland, or occasionally when she brushes her hair before going to bed.
"You're all I long for, all I worship and adore," he sings while looking directly into her eyes.
She blushes and an aura of shyness washes over her for a moment, but quickly passes because now they're both thinking about what he "worships". He throws her a smirk and she throws it right back, chuckling as they do so.
They dance quietly for a short moment, and suddenly she's singing.
"In other words, please be true..." she sings slightly off to the side. He smiles widely at her when she turns back to look at him.
He can't help but sing along with her.
"In other words, I love you." they sing in unison. They look deeply into each other's eyes as they sway and turn, and Robin remembers all over again that this woman has held his heart since the moment they met in the enchanted forest. He loves her, loves her with every cell in his body.
•••
The instrumental part of the song comes around, and she is surely surprised by Robin's dancing skills. Regina had no idea he could dance, to be honest.
He spins her out of his embrace, keeps hold of one of her hands while she poses and then spins her back in, his chest now against her back in a snug position. Their hands are joined on both sides of her waist, her arms crossed and laying across her stomach. She leans her head back and falls into his embrace, swaying along to the music she's so thoroughly enjoying.
He kisses the joint of her neck and shoulder, making her sigh and lean further into him, so he trails his mouth up further until he's peppering kisses along her jawline, until her eyes are closed.
He spins her out once more and pulls her back in, fronts pressed together now, and they continue singing to each other.
"Fill my heart with song, let me sing forever more. You're all I long for, all I worship and adore."
She smiles, laughs as they spin and sway about, and he continues singing, "In other words, please be true..."
"In other words, I love you," Regina sings back.
"In other words... I love..." Robin starts, and as the few beats play before the last word of the song, he spins her in, dips her, and instead of singing "you", he crushes his mouth to hers while she's still in his arms. She hums a moan in response and brings one of her hands to the back of his neck for leverage.
He pulls her back up, never parting their lips, and now they're both standing, opening their mouths and turning their heads to deepen the kiss. Her tongue slips out and teases his lower lip, making his hands travel further down her waist and grip tighter. When he bites her lower lip, her thighs start to feel like liquid. He holds his teeth around her lip for a few moments before releasing, and then they stop, but they don't move. Their lips are a mere centimeter away from touching, their breaths mingling and trading, lips and noses now brushing lightly with one another's.
"You," she finishes the line for him. She leans her forehead on his and subconsciously bites her kiss-swollen bottom lip.
He let's out a groan and murmurs, "Why don't we continue this upstairs?"
She keeps her lip between her teeth and nods, and when he picks her up and wraps her legs around his waist, she laughs, because oh God, she loves him, loves her soulmate loving her and doing little things like dancing to make her happy.
And God, he loves her so much, loves her like the moon loves the sun, loves her like there is nothing else to love (besides Roland, oh he loves his boy more than anything).
So he lays her gently on the bed and leans over her, lands his lips on her own, and he does what he sang: worships and adores and loves her, and really flies her to the moon.