Title: I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Author: Hana
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own Robin Hood. Also, the title is taken from the Death Cab For Cutie song of the same name.
Spoilers: Begins pre-series, but assumes you know everything up to 2x13.
Summary: "We were fighters."
Author's Note: This was written for the last ficathon at saythewordsthen, I just forgot to post it here until now.
They dance around it for years.
Their first conversation ends up as an argument and as the years pass by they don't change much. Growing up together, they spend very little time apart, but they fight more than they play.
Robin, being a bit older and a bit more open, is the first to admit when his feelings change. The realisation is a shock, but, he comes to acknowledge, not altogether unwelcome. - But Marian doesn't notice the charming boy from Locksley slowly breaking down the defences she had built up after saying goodbye to her mother. She is in love before she even knew she was falling.
They spend the better part of the next year avoiding each other, attempting to suppress unwanted feelings from surfacing at inopportune moments. Until one day, Robin finds he just can't help himself and for the first time since Marian became the only lady in her father's life she knows peace.
They still fight, but it's more playful now. Both know just what to do to win the argument and they think this is how it will always be with them. After all, they have forever together.
Young and hopeful they believe in the wonder of the forests where they spend all their time together, the streets of the town where they first met - they believe in each other.
Then they hear of the Crusades and all too soon Marian realises saying goodbye is no easier when the person you're saying it to is still alive to hear you.
She waits by her window for days, desperately hoping he will come back. She isn't sure how long it takes before she accepts his decision, but once she does her armour glides slowly back into place and settles there; she wears her mask like a second skin.
Marian becomes the Nightwatchman by accident but she is glad to be of help to all the people of Nottingham who are suffering far worse than she. She doesn't like how the name she is given is a man's but it helps keep her identity a secret, which is crucial. She must hide it from her father - from everyone - and although it makes her feel guilt, she also knows bravery and strength. She feels a certain freedom in having this all to herself.
She becomes a warrior. She becomes hope - hope for Nottingham, when she herself has none.
She doesn't even realise what she's become until she sees his face again.
But it is altered. The war has changed it and now he wears a mask too.
The boyish grin that always graced his handsome features has become a disguise. It is one that warms the heart of Nottingham, but in her own it causes a pang of regret.
The war has changed them both in their own way but they can never admit it to each other. To do so would be to admit that the thing they are fighting for has already been lost. And to do that would mean they had lost hope.
And now that's all they have left.
So they swear to themselves that they will keep on fighting. For Richard. For England. For each other. They will keep on fighting with every breath they have.
So they do.
And, when it happens, they go out in battle - like every good warrior.
She goes first, but she waits for him. Again.
This time, she doesn't have to wait very long.