He tripped.
He just tripped, that idiot. Robin cursed as the first and only step of the secret passage to her small yet comfy room had him stumbling across the floor and nearly ended up on top of the wide, white sheets. "Great going Robin…" He scolded himself quietly as he closed the small door behind him and looked around. There weren't many changes actually; the bed was still in the centre of the room, her small vanity table near the window, which revealed the same small meadow, where Maria had first seen the small white horse, the same creature that helped them find their way out of the First moon princess's secret sleeping chamber. However if one looked long enough he could feel the changes. Her room was not falling apart any more. The stars were back where they belonged, the ceiling of her room looked even more fascinating, the moon now a part of the scenery. It shone down proudly as if watching over her every night. The pale blue paint wasn't falling along with small chunks of plaster, the faint smell of stagnation was completely gone. The young man remembered with a small smile the one time he was sent to spy on her and had caught her trying to perfume her whole room. Sitting outside her window on one of the huge branches near her window, hidden behind the leaves, he had watched her the whole night. At first he thought that she was crazy, twirling around and frantically trying to do something with an object that was out of his sight. He had seated himself more comfortably to try and find out what exactly was her purpose by the movements. Late at night, her room was the only lighted one. He had thought that the little princess would be tired and would go to bed early every day. Every since she had sacrificed herself on that cliff no one dared to mess with her temper. Even her uncle had a weakness when she pulled the same exact face with the big brilliant green eyes and the small pout which seemed to make her even more cute than usual. How she does it, he does not know. The nights he spent on the tree were all in vain for she was just running around in circles in her room. Robin thought that she was a lost case until she threw one of her very first bottles of his favorite scent outside the window in anger. It had flown with such speed that he barely had time to move or his face would have had a huge bruise. Intrigued, Robin picked the container up only to have that divine aroma greet him.
He had almost fallen off of the tree.
The boy did not know why but he had kept the small object and had hidden it in his pig of a room as Loveday liked to call it. It was now kept in a small wooden box he had carved out of boredom one day and decided to work on it a bit more, in the end he had outdone himself with the ornaments: a moon with impeccable details was carved in the middle as small stars were around it and the cliff of the amphitheatre was under them. Keeping the bottle was not the smartest thing he could do but considering the fact that Maria was the one with headaches in the morning because of her unusual activities late at night his mind let him go with only a warning that time. Her murmurs of different odors suddenly made sense as he put the little pieces together:
The little princess was trying hard to find a way to get rid of the horrid smell of decay in her room that she had complaint about for days on end. "She used all of her perfumes in the end…That governess of hers had to travel back to London to get her new bottles of that liquid. How on earth did she even think to use these?" He thought as he walked carefully towards her vanity table, the rays of the moonlight allowing him to see the small bottles neatly placed next to one another. He picked up one that he saw had the fewest amount of the colorful water and removed the lid.
The smell of lilies and fresh cut grass made its way to his nostrils and his eyes shut slowly as if he was savoring the sensation. It was not an everyday occasion: her scent being so close to him. Even if he preferred Maria herself being so close to him and not this crippled bottle it soothed him and he put it down again, back to its rightful place. He liked the way she smelled if he had to be honest. Why admitting it so freely? Because if being cornered, he would never admit that the girl, sleeping peacefully on the bed behind him with her red and brown hair in perfect curls, the length reaching now down to her shoulder blades, could smell so wonderful. "The day I admit that is the day I would her demon dog lick me." He chuckled quietly as he looked her again. Her eyes shut, she was sleeping soundlessly, one arm tucked under her pillow and the other under her head. He discovered a very long time ago that she was beautiful when she wasn't screaming at him. Or hitting him with her little fists, her delicate hands balled as she took her anger on his chest while her green eyes burned with emotions. He smiled for the simple reason that the only one who could make her pout in such childish ways and laugh a moment later was him. Robin of course was a healthy boy, which meant that her figure did certainly not go unannounced. It had been a few months and her figure had changed. "Certainly not in the wrong way tho…" His smirk was hard to be seen because of the lack of light but it does not take long to know why for. Maria, fed with the rubbish the town people called delicacies, at first was skeptical about the skills of Marmaduke. Even Zachariah the cat was a bit offended at first that someone did not trust his master but after a few strokes between the ears and some milk, the animal had taken a serious liking to the little witch as Robin liked to call her, following her around and even jumped on her right shoulder to lick her cheek. For a moment Robin wished he was a cat too. The De Noir's eyes scanned the room again, her trunk was nowhere to be seen, all of her clothes were neatly placed in the cupboard and the dress that Loveday picked out for her for the day was missing too. So he was here before her, he smirked with triumph. The last time they had nearly clashed because Robin had sat on the floor near the door and when some shadow is in your niece-in-law's room it didn't mean well. So Loveday had raised a book with the intention of hitting him but saw the boulder hat. With a smirk of her own, she wiggled her eyebrows at him and left without a word, leaving a red faced Robin and an unsuspecting Maria behind. "I swear, this girl does not even know what is going on in her own room. Even the damn rabbit has seen me more than her." There was once a time Serena tried to jump for the window because apparently to a little fearless Moonacre rabbit a two story building was nothing. Maria had searched for her darling pet along with Wiggins and Wrolf trailing behind. Not finding her was a reason enough to be down so she called out to her beloved rabbit all day, not knowing that Robin had caught it and put it back in her room the moment it tried to jump. The rabbit licked him as if to say thank you and never tried to do that again, jumping happily to a tired Maria, who in turn smiled brightly and with relief with the thought that she wasn't looking where she should be in her room. The uninvited guest was beginning to think that every animal falls in love with her after a short period of time. It made him a bit jealous that she spent more time with games and them than maybe..trying to find him instead?
As he sat there with memories of her adventures he noticed that the sun was beginning to rise and slowly light up the whole room, making the sleeping girl even more beautiful. It was moments like these that he truly got to see her, Maria Merryweather in all her natural beauty. It made him hard to breathe every damn time and every damn time he would swear that he could hear his brain snicker at his thoughts; the very ones that would make him blush.
There was this one time…He could feel another furious blush coming as he remember that one time when she declared to Serena that it was too hot for her to sleep in her night gown and with the blankets so as everyone would have guessed she stripped down to her undergarments and pulled only one blanket to cover herself, soon falling asleep. Two hours later he had turned up again only to have witnessed one of the few sights he could (or would for that manner) never erase from his brain. Even in her sleep she had somehow convinced herself that it was so hot that she did not need a blanket. So when he stepped into her room he thought that his heart would be the death of him as he saw her sleeping contently over the blanket, one arm over her head and the other resting on her slim stomach, her pale skin and the moon light nearly forcing him to come closer. He had stumbled his way near her and his wide eyes averted themselves as he lightly lifted her up and tucked her again with the blanket. After making sure that he would not have a nose bleed, he smiled gently at her and kissed her forehead. The next thing he had to do, he told himself, was to leave because it was enough for his heart today. One of the hardest things he had to do tho..
Robin was observing her as she made her daily walks through the forest alone. The De Noir clan and the Merryweathers were once again at peace so no harm would be done to her if she wandered around. She was exploring on her own, he wondered if she even considered asking him to show her around. After the curse had been lifted he feared that he no longer was of need to the princess and that she would just forget about him in time so he worked even harder for his father, who in turn declared him the official hair and even when he was not needed he would participate during the hunts for meat or the search for herbs. In his free time during the day it was not hard to track her down, her scent was unique and his senses were sharp. She would wander around, always seeming to find her way back to the house or to a little pond in the northern part of the forest where she would lay down and talk to Wrolf, Wiggins and occasionally Zachariah the cat or read a book. He noticed that the books she read where growing bigger in size and soon he laughed as he watched her carry encyclopedias to learn about the different types of plants and trees. "What kind of princess would I be if I don't even know what surrounds me?" She would often ask no one in particular as she scolded herself for forgetting the names of the flowers or small animals inhabiting the forest. One flower in particular, he noticed, she was fond of. Lilly of the valley was the name and it was very rare for it to be just found but Maria never lost hope and searched for it.
One day he gave up for his weakness and put a lily on her encyclopedia in the direction in which were many more. She had called out, pleading him to come out so she would thank him properly however he just hid even further with a hammering heart and a red face. His friends did not know this side of him, to them he was ruthless but fair, yet his legs would turn into jelly when seeing her smile and laugh. To this day he did not know why she had such an impact on him and never the less he did not care. He knew that no cure would heal him and he was content with just that. Her pleas continued for a week until she just left some cookies at the same spot where he left the lily. Robin should go and compliment Marmaduke for his exquisite skills. His hat however was something he cherished and looked out for on a regular basis. And on one fine day while jumping from one cliff his hat had fallen down and there was no way he could find it. His mood was sour all week, his curls that were usually under the hat were now free and Robin noticed that it was time to shorten them again so they would not get in his way while he was tracking or running. Finding it was a very interesting case in his opinion. While wandering around the boy found his beloved hat neatly placed on one of the lower branches of an old oak tree with the words: If you lose it again I will keep it. It looks better on me than it does on you. Scoffing, he took his hat and walked further into the forest. Marias' neat handwriting made the note itself pretty and he decided that keeping it with the perfume bottle she had thrown out was not such a bad idea. He would thank her one day, that was sure.
Robin walked past Serena's cage and another memory rose from within: taking a walk late at night, one of the few when the boy did not visit Maria in her room to calm down and get rid of his foul mood because Loveday had started making little notes for him and he would often find them around Marias neck for some reason or in Serena's cage. The De Noir boy was not satisfied because the notes were simply to tell him that Loveday had yet again stolen something of his and had hidden it in her room, the young man did not want to snoop around even if his curiosity was piling up with every visit. She would hide his notebook where he writes the reports to his father on Marias' bookshelf and he quickly found it along with information of what she liked to read. His knife would end up in Marias' vanity table, one of the feathers on his neck could be found in the section of Marias 'dresses. Taking a mental note of everything, he returned his items without saying a word to the smirking woman. Only warn her that in the end he would start looking around on his own without the need to find his own stuff and suddenly the disappearance of his things stopped abruptly. Robin kissed her forehead like he always did and walked out of her room. He wanted desperately to talk to her, to laugh with or at her, to feel her presence near him without feeling like a stalker. Many were the times that he wasted wondering if she wanted to see him again, to discuss important matters with his such as would Wrolf eat him if he got near her or would Marmaduke make them food for a picnic while they were out and wandering around the forest.
The sound of the secret passage closing behind him gave him the comfort that he did not wake her up even when being clumsy and he made his way out of the cave and towards the castle.
Maria's eyes shot open as she heard the passage close again. Her sleeping pattern has not changed for a long time therefore whenever her dear Loveday got in and left her dresses, she would still be undetected. Maria grumbled at that in a very unlady-like way she was sure Mrs. Heliotrope would scold her if she was here. Her room was filled with the first rays of the sun making it a cozy and quiet place only for her and no one else. Maria was at a loss of why Loveday still used the passage almost every night but she guessed that old habits die hard and got up to get dressed and eat before everyone else to go out and enjoy the beautiful summer day in the forest alone. Her hope of meeting Robin De Noir never faltered even after all this time apart from him. She still remembered his curly locks under that hat of his that she found lying around while searching for raspberries and the glimmer in her eyes was the only evidence that she still wanted him in her life and missed him dearly. The moon princess wandered every day with the hope of just stumbling into him but alas she ironically thought that it was too much to ask for. So she wandered and wandered, learning the nature around her at the same time. How she wanted to talk to him again but he had just walked away the same night the two clans gathered together to celebrate the peace and two engagements. Walked away from the mansion, from her. She was scared of the thought that she was no longer something special to him after saving his life and that the only gratitude she deserved was to stay away from him so he would do her no harm. His father Coeur De Noir did not know what was going on with his son and the young Maria but he was happy that his daughter was again with him and he would no longer kill for revenge, the banquets he gave generously were the fruit and he was happier than everyone around him had ever seen him. Her choice of dress, when Loveday could not beat her to it of course, was a black velvet dress with silver lining, the waist looking like a corset and the skirt flowy and loose as the silver lines made hard patterns where her chest was and disappearing further down the dress. She never liked make up but a perfume was a must so she picked her favorite one and continued to do her morning routine before quickly running down the stairs smiling at the portrait of the first Moon princess. Running down the hallways she laughed whole heartedly as she felt free as a bird, no more lies, no more grief.
The smell of the grass, the sweet aroma of flowers hit her as she entered the forest once more, unsuspecting the eyes of the De Noir boy, greeting her happily as he watched her carefully hidden in the shadows of the trees. Both hoped of a meeting in the future, hiding their desire for the company of the other.