It happens again and again, night after night. No matter how many times they promise themselves they are going to stop, that this will be the last time, it never is. They can't stay away. Have lost track of the number of times they've failed at this point.
Regina is lying naked in his arms, her ear listening to the steady beating of his heart still returning to a normal rhythm after they'd finished driving each other wild. Their bodies are still slick with sweat, her fingers swirling aimlessly around his chest as she whispers, "We can't keep doing this." Robin sighs deeply, his arms tightening around her as if afraid she'll disappear if he lets go.
"We've said that before, many times in fact, and yet here we are," he points out.
"That doesn't make it right, Robin," Regina counters, exasperation coloring her tone. She wants to push away, to draw herself out of his hold because this has to end. But she's weak. Just as her mother had always told her. Love is weakness. And she loves him so very much. More than either of their honors, it would seem, and she can't quite bring herself to untether that feeble connection quite yet.
Marian is lying frozen on the other side of her vault, and they are no closer to discovering a way to bring her back. Yet here they are. Lying naked and sated in each other's arms and the guilt weighs heavily on Regina's heart. She doesn't know when she became this person, considering others before her own selfish desires. The Evil Queen never would have hesitated to take what she wanted from anyone, least of all the woman who had returned from the dead to rip her soulmate away from her. Not that it would appear she's doing a bang up job of it, but that's why this has to stop.
Robin's nose nuzzles into her hair, his grip tightening ever so slightly as he admits, "I know." Because she's right. What they're doing is wrong. It's disrespectful to not only his wife but to Regina and himself as well. They're in a messy, complicated situation, but he can't deny that he's no longer in love with Marian. He'd had years to grieve her, to allow his heart to open up to the possibility of loving another again. And then Regina had swooped into his life, the same way that wretched witches flying beasts had, and stolen his heart right out from under him. Though if he's honest, he knows he'd given it to her willingly. He hadn't stood a chance from that first snarky retort.
The end result remains the same, however, and Robin is incapable of turning those feelings off. After even the short amount of time apart they had managed, he knows that he would never survive cutting her out of his life, the thought too painful to even contemplate. That's what had driven him to her arms in the first place. There's no going back for them. "But I don't know what to do, Regina. I will not forget you to save Marian. I just can't do it. I want you."
Regina's heart squeezes painfully in her chest at his confession, torn between elation and bitter heartache. For what she would have given to hear him say those words to her under better circumstances, with both of them free to follow their heart's desire. The universe is determined to keep every meager measure of happiness from her grasp though it seems.
Suddenly, the heat of his skin seeping into hers, the smell of pine surrounding her and the soft cadence of his voice so near to her ear is too much. She can't take it or the pain and wonder that accompanies such closeness any longer. She pushes away from him, rolling over and sitting up in bed, the soft silk sheets falling to her waist as her knees draw up. Perhaps she should be more concerned with her nudity, but what's the point? Robin's reached depths inside her far deeper than that of merely her flesh.
Hesitantly, his hand reaches over to stroke down her spine, "Regina…" his voice is soft and concerned, and she has to fight the onslaught of tears that have welled up in her eyes. She refuses to let them fall, is stronger than that. She is not weak, and it seems it's going to be up to her to fulfill the role of moral pillar this go around. And isn't the irony in that just perfect?
Shrugging off his hand with an arch of her back, Regina shakes her head and scoots off the bed, moving to find a robe to cover herself from the closet of this hidden room in her vault. The one that's been her escape in Storybrooke when she's needed it over the years. Of course, that's where they'd come for all of their intimate nights together, stored away from the outside world here. It seems they can't hide from reality within these walls any longer though.
"Robin, don't," she finally tells him, voice much steadier than she feels. "I know you care for me, that perhaps we could have had something real in another life," her voice chokes just a little at that, thinking of pixie dust and taverns and long forgotten second chances.
The mattress squeaks behind her and Regina turns back around to face the bed just in time to see him sitting up as well. The sight takes her breath away as she glances at his bare chest and the rumpled sheets covering him from the waist down. It's the crease between his eyebrows and the utterly distraught look on his face that slices through her thin façade. "Care for you?" Robin questions, almost angrily in his offence before he drops his biggest bomb yet. "Regina, I love you. I am so incredibly in love with you I can't breathe without you anymore."
It steals her own breath from her lungs, makes her heart ache painfully in her chest. He's alluded to it before, when Marian had first been frozen, but this is the first time he's said it in so many words, so definitely. And maybe she is weak after all because Regina loses her battle with tears then, trails of them running rivers down her cheeks as she wraps her arms tightly around her waist and shakes her head in defence of this onslaught of emotions.
Robin's standing instantly, rushing across the room to wrap her up in his arms without a care for modesty, burying her face in his chest as he cups the back of her head and whispers soothing nothings into her hair. The two of them stand there for several minutes, Regina purging herself of all the pent up emotions she's suppressed the last few weeks. "Shhhh. It's alright, my love. It's going to be okay," Robin whispers to her, rocking them a bit, just as he'd soothe Roland when he's upset.
She scoffs at that, drawing back enough to look into those endless blue eyes that she could drown in every day for the rest of her life and be totally content. "How? How is any of this going to be alright, Robin?"
His hand slides up her spine, lifting to brush a stray lock of her mused bed hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "Because we are going to find a solution. I don't know what, but together we can figure out a way to right things. We'll find a way to unfreeze Marian, and then I'm going to tell her my true feelings and we'll work it out."
He sounds so certain, so confident in his convictions that Regina nearly believes it could be so easy. Robin cups her jaw in his palm, thumb stroking gently across her skin as he repeats reverently, "I love you, Regina. Marian or no Marian that isn't going to change, and I refuse to live my life as a lie. Not anymore. I don't want to sneak around or hide what I feel for you. I want to love you openly and whole heartedly for everyone to see."
It seems to good to be true, this incredible, wonderful, loving man can not possibly be choosing her. Yet here he stands, arms locked around her, looking at her as if she's his entire world when he should be anywhere else and her heart is weak, or maybe just too resilient for her own good, because she believes him.
And who is she to deny either of them what they really want any longer?
"Okay," she murmurs, giving up the fight against her own heart and his.
Robin's breath whooshes out of him, his muscles relaxing instantly. Still, he can't help but question, "Okay?"
Regina nods, swallowing another onslaught of tears that well up in her throat. "Okay," she repeats. "I believe you. I don't understand it, or how you could possibly love me more than her, but I'm tired of fighting this — of being the better person." She lifts one shoulder and settles one of her palms over Robin's heart, the organ beating steadily beneath her hand and comforting her immensely. "Turns out I'm just as selfish as everyone's always said and I want you too much..."
He shakes his head immediately, cupping her face in both his hands as he tells her, "Not at all, milady. You are the most extraordinary, stunning woman I've ever met. You deserve to be happy, to get what you want. Perhaps it's a bit presumptuous of me to assume that might include me."
"It does," Regina assures him instantly, interrupting him with a small smile, just the corners of her mouth tipping up.
Robin's own grin begins to form, a slight smirk gracing his features as he tells her for a third time, "I love you. With all of my heart and soul."
Fear and anxiety are a hard knot in her stomach as she gazes up at him. But his hands are still warm against her cheeks, his body close and his eyes reassuring in the depth of his feelings as she looks deeply into them. So Regina encircles his wrists with her fingers and takes a leap of faith, testing the fates as she whispers back, "I love you, too."
The smile that erupts on Robin's face makes her heart flutter, bursting inside her chest as he swoops in and covers her mouth with his. Everything about it feels right, despite the wrongness of the situation. The two of them make sense and it's time they both stop trying to pretend otherwise.
It takes almost no effort at all for Robin to coerce her back into bed, settling back amongst the mountain of pillows and sinking into the mattress, into each other again, getting lost in the exquisite feel of their bodies and souls joining together. Languid kisses and soft skin, quiet sighs and strangled moans as they bring each other to bliss yet again.
It takes them another few weeks. Endless nights and days pouring over every single magical book and potion she possess, a few desperate conversations with The Dark One, but eventually they find a spell that works. One that melts the frigid ice from Marian's crystalized form until she's warm blooded and fully herself again, heart and all.
The conversation Robin must have with her then isn't easy, and she's confused, hurt and heartbroken that her husband isn't the same man she remembers, the one who would have moved heaven and Earth to be with her, would have walked through fire just to have her standing at his side again. But true to the woman he'd fallen in love with in the first place, she eventually grows understanding, would never do anything to keep him from being happy, and as hard as it is to accept, that happiness lies with the queen now.
Things are a bit awkward and uncomfortable between the three of them at first, but gradually she begins to get to know Regina, discovers the qualities about her that Robin had fallen for in the first place and she and Regina fall into a bit of a tentative friendship, much to the shock of both of them.
With everything out in the open now, Regina and Robin have a chance to truly start to form a life together. There's weeks of breakfast dates at Granny's, afternoons spent in the park with their sons, and evenings cuddled together by the fire. Gradually, she begins to trust in their relationship, in their love for each other, and Regina begins to believe that this time might just be different. That she's finally repented enough to deserve her happy ending.
That's when Robin and Roland move from the Merry Men's camp into the mansion, when the four of them finally become the family she's always craved. Her and Henry, Robin and Roland, and the happily ever after that's always been just beyond her grasp. Until now.