King George is dead and of course Regina took his castle and his kingdom because poor George didn't have a son that would become king after his death. She was waiting him to finally die because of his pneumonia and she certainly wasn't going to let another ruler take his kingdom. So she moved to his castle where she brought a few prisoners and a many of her knights. It became a second home for her to live, rule and..kill. Bigger kingdom, bigger army. Her knights were given the command to find more men and make them good guards. Like Robin Hood and his group of thieves which were forced to become guards. For Regina it's easy to find new people that work at her castle, She just threatens to kill their families. Of course she knows the infamous Robin Hood and the stories about him too well. But this man would no longer be a threat because now she makes him useful to herself.
Tonight he has to guard the stables. With the injury he got from the attack earlier it's not quite pleasant but it's nothing he can't handle. So he sits there on the straw, waiting. Both, waiting for time to pass and his shift to be over and for something to possibly happen cuz at night the stables aren't really the most exciting place. Suddenly he hears foot steps. Hand on his sword and looking at the big entrance he hears them come closer, perhaps an enemy. But Robin doesn't really think so. In the next moment his eyes widen a bit at the sight cuz this person he didn't expect to see that late in the night at this place..the queen herself. She steps into the light and her eyes fall on him immediately after the noise he made by shoving his sword back the little bit he'd pulled it out to be prepared in case it was an enemy. He stands up and takes a few steps towards her and as to show his respect he bows. "Your Majesty." The queen just raises an eyebrow. "So, it's you who has to guard the stables for this night ?" "Indeed it is." He answers with a small nod and a little smile but his eyes never leave hers. "Lucky for you that you weren't asleep right now." She says like she would have done god knows what things to him if he had fallen asleep at work. "I actually don't sleep at work, my queen." He can't hide the cheeky smile that plays on his lips. Regina frowns in return. "Tell me, what does the queen do at her stables in the middle of the night..?" With that she opens her mouth to snap something cuz it's nobody's business what she's doing. But then her eyes meet his and his kind smile irritates her so she looks away. "Before I go to bed I often look after my horse. But it's still non of your concern what I'm doing. " She says, crossing her arms, looking over at her horse for a moment. Robin looks at her and lays his head a bit to the side. Her beauty is unbelievable...She wears a long skinny red dress and her hair, as always up in one of her queen styles. Robin wonders if he would ever see her with her hair open. "Well, I took care of her." He turns to Regina's horse for a moment and when he turns back to look at her again, he notices that this was a bad move. He feels great pain running through his ribs. The injury. He winces and lays his hand on it reflexively. Regina looks at him and tilts her head slightly. "Are you..hurt ?" Her voice sounds softer than she actually intends. Robin looks back at her and shakes his head, letting his hand fall back down his side: "It's..nothing." "Really." She says in a deep harsh tone as if she already knows. "Show me." Robin knows he has to show her that stupid injury if he wants or not. So he carefully pulls his shirt up and there it is..a big deep wound at his ribs. Regina raises an eyebrow. "So, that's what you call 'nothing' ?" He slightly shrugs. "Well...I thought I could handle it." She rolls her eyes and that causes the cheeky smile on his lips to show up again. "Sit." She demands and points at the straw bale he was sitting on before. Robin knows he couldn't disobey the queen. So without thinking any longer about it he does as she says and sits down at the straw bale, looking at her. She walks towards him and a cold shower runs down his spine. She sits down right beside him and Robin's heart beat increases immediately. "Take it off." She looks at his shirt for a moment and then back at him with a raised brow. Robin looks at her for a moment and his heart pounds crazily fast. Then he carefully starts to take off his shirt but winces as it slightly brushes his wound. He lays his shirt beside him and looks back at her. Regina can't help it but to look a bit too long at his toned body..very muscular and strong. Then she looks back up at him..a grin on his lips but Regina ignores it and just looks back down at his wound. "Now don't move or I'm gonna push." She warns threateningly and gives him a sharp gaze. He can't help it but to keep his grin. "I wouldn't dream of it." Regina then slowly raises her hand and carefully lays it beside his wound. The contact sends electricity through his whole body and he looks down at Regina's hand. She then looks up at him and carefully gives his rib a slight push. "Does that hurt ?" She asks and meets his eyes as he looks back at her. Those beautiful brown eyes...silence...a bit too long before he answers. "No.." and her hand travels to another spot next to his injury. "And that ?" She knows exactly where to push..and she does. Robin hisses sharply through his teeth and winces. Regina can't hold back an evil grin at his reaction. She seems to enjoy this.."Yes it hurts. Very funny, could you please stop that..?" Robin complains and looks at her with a frown. "What do you mean ? You mean that..?" Then she pushes again. And Robin winces in pain. The wide and wicked grin doesn't leave her lips for a single second. He takes a breath to calm himself before looking back up at her and before he can protest again Regina just says: "Well..it was the only way to find out that you have broken ribs." She frowns and then moves her hand glowing with magic over his ribs and in the next moment, his wound is gone without any other pain. He looks down at her hand which lingers a few seconds longer at the spot where just moments ago were several broken ribs before she slowly removes it. "Thank you.." she looks back up and they were close now..very close. They look at each other, threatening to get lost in the other one's eyes. Advantage, Regina thinks because if the thief wasn't so handsome she probably would have killed him already. Robin can't look away..it seems like her eyes hide something, a story..The air fills with a tension , they both don't actually notice at first. But then Regina's mind tells her to stop looking at him. So she does... Robin gets back to the reality as well and lets out a deep breath he doesn't know he was holding. "So, fine. I'm sure it will be easier for you to work now." Regina says with a hint of sarcasm in her voice and raises a brow, standing up. "Thank you, your majesty." Robin stands up as well and gives her a teasing but warm smile which she instantly avoids by looking down at his still bare body. "But please get dressed again. We don't wanna have my horse get a crush on you." Was that a compliment..? "Right of course." Robin grins and then bows respectfully. "I wish her majesty a wonderful night." She gives him a nod in return "Good night thief." Then she walks off. Robin looks after her until she disappears in the darkness of the night.
The next few days he doesn't meet her very often, just maybe by guarding the long corridors and coincidencely seeing her. She is busy with her prisoners, deciding when each of them will die and in which way and that kind of stuff. That is actually really one of her favourite duties of being the queen. Regina plans to go back to her own castle after her little trip of 3 weeks to her new one. Cuz she has to do the same there. Many prisoners are waiting for their execution. A few of her guards will stay at this castle and protect it from possible attacks. The others will come with her to her other one. One of them is Robin. He prefers the queen's actual palast because there're the most of his men and of course his sweet little five year old son.
They start their journey soon in the early morning. The sun already rises and sends warm and bright rays through the trees but the slightly cold breeze from the night still lays in the air. Regina looks outside the little window of her carriage, deep in thoughts. She thinks back to the mornings she sent with her father by taking walks through the forest when she was a little girl. They were smiling so much together and she was enjoying the time with only him and herself. If there hadn't been her mother...who used to tell them it was a waste of time to walk around outside. Who used to tell Regina to do useful things in her life like to act like a real lady or to marry. But all Regina wanted was to be free and be the person she wanted to. But her mother thought she had to take control and decide what was "best" for her. And here she is now..sitting in a carriage, wearing a noble dress and being queen. How could someone be unhappy like that..? She then snapped out of her thoughts by an annoying noise, someone clearing their throat. The reality comes back to her mind and the sharp look in her eyes meets the one of a certain thief. For her own safety there always was a guard with her in the carriage and of course it has to be exactly him who was told to play her personal protector that day. Of course it has to be his damn ass sitting in front of her with that stupid grin on his lips. Regina gives him that 'What !?'-look and his grin just gets wider. "What's so funny, thief ?" She asks, not really being in the mood for this man right now -she actually never really was. "You look like you were remembering something. And it seems like it's really troubling you." "So that's why you were grinning like a four-year-old ?" "No, I was grinning because you were looking at me like I was some idiot." "Well, that's because you are." She snaps. Robin puts a hand over his heart pretending to be hurt. "Woah, that was mean.." Regina frowns in a way as to say 'Seriously ?' and Robin just pouts mockingly. It was provokation and she knew it exactly. So narrowing her eyes and looking at him she crosses her arms and opens her mouth to snap something at him. But before she can say something he stops her by opening his mouth himself. "No, don't. You've already hurt my feelings enough." He says sarcastically "How about you just close your mouth ?" Her question rolling off her tongue like a threat and she tilts her head slightly to the side in a challenging way. "How about no ?" She rolls her eyes and gives him a look. He opens his mouth to say something but before he can, he gets interrupted by loud screams and noises. They instantly look outside the two windows of the carriage. An attack..a few men looking just like some ordinary peasants to Regina, dare to attack her royal carriage. Of course her guards immediately start fighting them but several just flee with their horses, which lets a bitter anger grow in the pit of her stomach. "We need to go." Robin looks back at her and takes her hand without any warning, kicking the door open with his foot and pulling her with him. They seem to be unnoticed and Regina just follows him. But unfortunately there's one guy who sees them escaping and shoots an arrow at them. Regina pulls away thanks to her reflexes but it doesn't miss her fully. It grazes her shoulder hard enough to cause the pain make her hiss but she and Robin don't stop running. They run until nothing's heard anymore from that damn attack. So slowing down and trying to catch their breaths Robin looks at her shoulder. "You're hurt, m'lady.." "It's nothing. I'm still alive. So, what now ?" Robin decides that he will discuss that thing with her shoulder later again. "Well, we need to wait till they're gone and we can go back there. I wish I could have fighted them too..but with the duty to protect a beautiful lady, it wouldn't have been that easy." "Fine. We'll wait then." She says crossing her arms, a smile appears at Robin's lips. He leans against the tree that was the closest one to him and watches her. Pure beauty...she can feel his look and it burns her skin. Silence fills the air between them. Silence which gets more uncomfortable with every second that passes..until finally Robin decides to break it. "So..time to talk I'd say." He says, his smile still there. "What would I wanna share with you, outlaw ?" She frowns. "Well maybe tell me what's troubling you outside here..you look...stressed." He says, looking over at her. "We were attacked and now I'm here in the forest full of thieves with YOU. Do you think I enjoy wasting my time with a thief in the woods ?" He can't hold back a cheeky grin. "Damn. I actually thought I would affect you with that irresistible charm of mine."
Time passes too slowly and they don't talk much. When the night finally has come, Robin says: "We should go back to the carriage and check if they're gone." So they do. Three men were lying on the ground, two of hers one of the others. They certainly are dead, their blood is everywhere. When they step around the carriage they see a horse standing next to it. It's one of hers. It obviously had to belong to one of the dead knights. Robin looks at Regina and shrugs. "I don't think someone will care if we borrow it." She rolls her eyes at that and turns to the horse before walking towards it. "I'll help you." She hears from behind her as well as she hears steps coming closer. Turning around, she gives him a threatening look but Robin just smiles cheekily. "What ?" "I'm very capable to get on a horse myself." "I don't doubt it at all, your majesty..but I'm just offering my help. So, will you accept it or keep being that stubborn ?" He asks challengingly and looks at her, stepping closer. "You'll help me anyway, if I agree or not. Right ?" She raises a brow." "Exactly. I'm afraid you have no choice, m'lady." He takes one last step and they're dangerously close. Their gazes lock and her beautiful eyes capture his. Nothing can make him look away now..she curses herself for looking into his magical blue eyes. Robin's heart wants him to inch even closer and gently kiss away her stubbornness. But he knows she would kill him on the spot. He would really die for a kiss of this woman...if there wasn't the voice of his mind that warns him to stop even just thinking about it. He knows he has to. So he just raises his hands and puts them on her hips and lifts her up carefully to sit comfortably in the saddle before he joins her. She's now behind him, feeling his strong body in front of her. His head turns slightly back to her as he whispers: "You know...I don't bite." With that she feels his hands softly taking hers and laying them around his strong waist between his chest and his sides. Her next move freezes him for a moment. She slowly leans forward so that her lips are right next to his ear as she whispers back: "But maybe I do bite.." He feels her breath on his skin and it feels like pure heat..tention instantly fills the air between them and it lingers even when she leans back. The horse walks down the way and they don't say another word.