I didn't have enough time to write 13 one-shots for each day so today, a few weeks too late I'm posting one one-shot that has almost all the prompts from the week! I hope you'll like it!
Happy Halloween!
(...)
Robin's always been a strange man. When his friends imagined being soldiers, he imagined being a wizard. He imagined meeting a witch who would show him the secrets of magic, who would show him a life no other could see.
Robin has been interested in magic for as long as he can remember. Witches, heaven, hell drove him insane, he could spend days or even months reading about those things. He didn't miss any witches burning which happened in the village quite frequently for he believed that one day the real witch will be found and she'll fly off on her broom instead of being burned alive.
It seems like his interests turned his life into a living hell.
He was stabbed to death and his wife was burned alive as a witch.
So when he died, he was returned with an ability to see the dead, with an ability to communicate with them. He could feel magic, he could see it.
The village's priest called his survival the devil's power because there were too many stabs, there was blood all over him and all his tavern when he was found, there was no chance someone could survive losing this much blood.
The priest was right.
The devil himself saved Robin.
Now he was undead. People could see him, people could touch him but he was just a ghost. A ghost with feelings. He would've been happy for his powers if it allowed him to communicate with his dear wife again. But he has never ever seen her.
It's like she was banned to see him.
The moon is full over Robin tonight, the fog already surrounding him as he sits down on the cold grass in the cemetery. It isn't a surprise that Robin is here, in front of his wife's grave, waiting for her to come. It's the time when most of the souls come out to play, come out to cause some misery or madness. So perhaps tonight will be the night he sees Marian again.
Robin is sitting patiently, waiting, lost in his thoughts, until all of a sudden he sees a black cat digging the grave beside him. He looks curiously at the animal which is digging so quickly, obviously with some kind of purpose.
Something flashes a bit and he squints his eyes so he can see better.
The cat has a bone in her mouth, just like a dog would.
The animal must feel that someone is watching it because the cat freezes and then slowly, oh so slowly it turns around, the dark eyes huge and fearless as they meet Robin's.
Robin grins.
He felt that something was different about this cat, its energy was just not… cat's.
And indeed. It most definitely is not a cat at all.
This cat has the eyes of the woman who lives nearby, who's an obedient wife to an awful governor of the village. The man is a bastard, he comes to Robin's tavern and drinks and drinks and tells his friends about his young wife and her beautiful body that he owns.
Most of the time, Robin wants to ask his ghost friends to scare him off so that old asshole would shut up.
"Hello, Regina," Robin greets the woman, a huge smile forms on him face before he can help it.
For a moment there's no reaction from her but then the cat's glossy fur gets ruffed, it feels like she's going to tear him into pieces.
The purple fog surrounds the animal and when it fades away, Regina is standing in front of him, her eyes wide and furious. If looks could kill, he would definitely be dead.
"How did you know that it was me?!" She demands, hands on her hips in a defiant manner, as she stares at him, eyes still throwing daggers at him.
"It's nice to see you too," Robin sasses her, enjoying the way she's breathing heavily, obviously burning with anger.
"If you tell a living soul about what you've just seen, I'll poison you." She hisses and he thinks she's not lying, he thinks she could do that without a second thought and she would enjoy every second of it.
She may look like an obedient wife beside her husband, always looking down and following that bastard dutifully but for a really long time Robin knew that there was more about her, he has always been sure that she was more than ordinary.
Indeed. She's a witch.
"Why should I do that?" Robin asks, crossing his arms over his chest. Oh, he likes playing games with her.
"Because you want to live," she replies simply and it looks like she relaxes a bit, it seems as if she remembered that she has her powers. However, he can still feel anger radiating off her.
"You couldn't kill me no matter how bad you wanted to."
"You think so? Why don't we try?" She challenges with a raised eyebrow, her eyes shining with something indescribable.
Before Robin knows it, she's on him, scratching him and digging the dagger (which she was probably hiding somewhere in her dress) all over his body, and there should be blood and he should be already dead but he's not.
He falls to the ground and she falls on top of him, stabbing him over and over again but instead of begging for her to stop like anyone would do, he just grins and states, "You can't kill the dead."
She pulls away from him then, panting (from lack of oxygen or anger, he cannot tell) and then suddenly stabs the knife right over where his heart should be.
Robin only laughs. She's a stubborn one.
For a moment she just pants, her hand wrapped tightly around the knife inside Robin's body and she twists it a few times but when Robin doesn't let out a sound, she snorts and tries to get up from the dirty ground, her breathing labored, and she glares at him angrily.
"What were you doing here, Mrs. King?" He asks, wiggling his eyebrows at her and her face scrunches in what looks to be like disgust.
"Don't call me that!" She hisses, her eyes widening with rage.
She's mad.
For some unknown reason Robin likes it.
"So what do you want me to call you?"
"I don't want you talking with me at all."
"Well, your wishes don't really matter here, you see. I can easily tell the whole town what I've just seen and you'll be burned just like others were," he threatens, though he would never do that. Marian died as a witch, she was burned with their unborn child, and she was innocent.
This woman may be the real witch but he would never ever tell a living soul about that. He would never put her in this kind of danger.
However, it's fun to torture her a bit.
"You do understand that I could easily say the same about you. You're a what? A living ghost? An undead? A vampire?"
"Have you ever heard of a man with magical powers? I didn't. I'm sure the villagers didn't too. So they would first burn you and only then try to deal with me. I would have enough time to escape." He points out, making Regina frown – she knows he's right. "So answer my question, witch. What were you doing here?"
She groans, and pushes hard against his chest as she gets off of him. She dusts her dress and then spats, "I needed some bones for a curse."
"What curse?"
She narrows her eyes at him, presses her lips in a tight line, showing her displeasure that he's asking such questions.
"I want to kill my husband." She states simply and Robin grins.
Oh, he likes her. He would like to kill her husband too.
But there are also other people he would like to kill very much.
And then an idea hits him.
"I'll keep quiet if you help me kill one of my enemies," he states, feeling anger bubbling up. Damn it, he's been waiting for this day for longer than he can remember. He'll finally make that bastard pay for what he did to Marian.
It looks like Regina doesn't want to agree, she looks at him doubtfully, still frowning. She opens her mouth to say something but closes it before any words leave her, her eyes squeezing shut as she groans.
"Fine. I'll help you kill whoever you want if you keep quiet for the rest of your life. Do we have a deal?"
"Deal." He agrees without a second thought and stretches his hand out for her but in a cloud of purple she turns into a black cat again and runs away from him.
(…)
Robin knocks on the door lightly and looks around, fascinated. He's never been in this part of the village, and now seeing the house where the governor lives makes Robin feel disgusted even more. It's one thing to live in a starving village and hear about the Leopold King's 'castle' and completely the other to see it with your own eyes.
A young brown-haired woman, not much older than Regina, opens the door and lets Robin it. He tells he came to see the governor's wife and the maid tells him that the lady is in the garden, and then he's escorted there.
Regina's eyes turn wide as she sees him, he can see how the cup she's been holding start to shake in her hands. Her hand tightens around it as she clears her throat; she obviously didn't expect to see him in her own house.
"What are you doing here?" She hisses when the maid leaves them alone.
"I haven't seen you for two weeks, wanted to know how the curse is going."
"Why don't you say it louder so the whole village can hear you!" She exclaims, and she's obviously irritated to see him here, standing in front of her and smirking. For a moment she just stares at him, her look still deadly, but then she blinks her eyes repeatedly, looks away from him, puts down the cup on the table in the garden. "Come with me," she demands and walks past him, moving her hips from side to side and Robin wonders if this witch is trying to seduce him.
He follows her dutifully, glad that he can check out her curves for as much as he wants.
They walk through the narrow corridors and empty rooms until finally she opens the door of some strange and dark door and motions for him to walk in. Once Robin is inside, she joins him, shutting the door behind herself.
When Robin looks around, he understands that they're in the library. Regina quickly walks to the bookshelf while he keeps looking around, fascinated by the amount of books there. This is insanity.
A knife gets his attention and he grins as Regina nears him, holding the thing tightly in her hold.
"Trying to kill the dead again, milady?"
"I need your blood." She explains, rolling her eyes at him. "For the potion."
"Oh really? For what potion? The one that would end me?"
"The potion," she says and it's obvious that he annoys her. A lot.
Robin doesn't know why her anger makes him so happy.
"How do I know that you're not lying?"
"Bloody hell, Locksley! Do you want my help or not?!" She shouts, her face turning red from anger. "I need your blood for the potion if the person you want to kill is the one you hate the most." She rolls up her own sleeve and shows him a huge cut over her wrist. "I've already done it for my potion. Now I need to do the same with yours."
Robin nods his head and puts his hand on the desk, watches as she rather angrily leans over and slits his wrist. For a few moments there's no blood, nothing, and Robin wills his body to let the liquid flow. Instantly it starts flowing freely and she puts a napkin over it, tries to collect every single drop.
"What did your husband do to you that you want to kill him so badly?" He asks interested. Other people can hate that man for what he did to the village but she obviously didn't see that life, she must also not know about the way he talks about her to his buddies.
"He married me," she replies simply and pulls away from him, putting the blood-soaked napkin into the drawer. "That's all. You can go now," she says when she turns around to hide the knife in the bookshelf again.
Robin watches as she walks around the library, and cannot help but admire her. She may be insane and a witch but she most definitely is a very beautiful woman.
And he loves Marian, he does a lot, but he's missed having someone in his arms, it's been too long since he had any human contact with another person.
So he stands up from the desk and walks up to her and when she turns around, she gasps in surprise, obviously not expecting to find him so close.
Robin takes that moment of surprise and kisses her. He presses her against the bookshelf as his hands tangle in her hair, his lips pressing hard against hers.
She doesn't kiss him back, she tries to pull away from him and as soon as Robin feels that, he lets her push him away. Once their lips are not touching anymore, he feels a sharp slap against his cheek.
"Don't you ever try to touch me again" she hisses at him, eyes burning with rage. She pushes at his chest until she's able to walk away from him and storms out of the library, leaving him alone.
Robin grins. Oh, how he likes this woman.
(…)
"You need to make the person you want to kill drink this" Regina explains as she gives him a potion. "It will only work if you really hate that person the most."
"Good." Robin takes the bottle from her, fascinated that the curse was created in such a short time. However, he finds himself sad that he won't have another chance to tease her.
"Let me know if it worked." She asks. Robin nods and the she turn around and disappears from the same cemetery they've met a few months ago.
Robin holds the potion in his hands and smiles in satisfaction.
Nottingham will pay for what he did to Marian. That bastard will die tonight.
(…)
Two weeks later Robin hears unexpected news. The widow Regina Mills was captivated by the congress' governors. She's blamed for the murder of her husband and accused of being a witch.
"Monster! Monster!" The villagers shouted as she was dragged through the village to the court and Robin stood in the crowd, his eyes wide, as he watched the strongest woman he knew be dragged to meet her death.
As soon as Robin found that that she was kept in the dungeons for the night and will be killed in the morning for all people to see, he started a plan.
A plan to rescue her.
It wasn't hard to find the dungeons, it wasn't hard to kill the soldiers protecting her from escaping.
Robin thought this plan would be a complete success.
However, he realized he was wrong the moment he reached Regina's cage.
She was tied to the railings, her face blue from punches, eyes bloodshot for whatever they did to her. He feels rage boiling within himself but he doesn't let himself concentrate on that; he'll make everyone pay for what they did when she's free and somewhere safe.
Robin rushes to her, quickly unties her mouth and wrists, all the while asking if she's alright, if she'll be able to walk on her own but all she does is snort in reply.
"First you tell them all about me, now you come to rescue me?" She asks, her voice weak but dripping with sarcasm. "I really don't understand you, Robin."
"Come on, stand up, I'll get you out of here," he asks her, ignoring the fact that she thinks he was the one who sold her out.
"I won't go with you. It's better to be burned alive than rescue by a bastard like you."
Unexpectedly, her words cut deep and he pulls away from her, eyes wide and angry.
"I didn't tell them about you!" He exclaims, grabbing her by the shoulders. "We had a deal. You fulfilled your part, I fulfilled mine."
"Don't believe you," she replies simply, turning away from him.
"I love you!" He exclaims and this time she immediately turns at him, eyes wide and confused, her mouth opening and closing without letting a sound out.
Did he just…
"I liked you a lot from the moment I met you in the cemetery. You haunted my dreams, my thoughts, my everything!" He admits, holding her chin with his fingers and making her look at him. "I would never ever put you in harm's way! You mean too much to me." He swallows hard as he sees her bewildered stare. "Please, come with me," he asks and she's still cautious, doesn't trust him but when he stretches his hand out for her, she takes it, lets him pull her up from the ground and into his arms.
(…)
Once they're deep in the forest, Robin stops the horse. He jumps from the animal and helps Regina to get off of him too, her legs shaking underneath her, and Robin has an urge to wrap his arms around her waist, to support her but he doesn't, he gives her space.
She hasn't said a word to him since they escaped the dungeon. But now she's looking at him, her eyes piercing right through his soul. Robin clears his throat and turns around, walks to the river nearby to drink and wash his face, to clear his head.
Damn it, why did he have to tell her how he feels? Now things will get even more complicated than they've already been.
"Did you mean what you've said in the dungeon?" Regina asks, her voice quiet, as if to keep emotions out of it. But Robin can tell that she's struggling, still tensed and confused. "Or did you just say that so I would come with you without a fight?
"I did mean that," he admits and turns to face her. "It's not how I planned to tell you – not that I ever planned on telling you."
"I-…" she looks away from him, sighing. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He replies. "But now we should part our ways. I don't want to stop you from doing whatever you want." He adds, turning back to the river.
Regina doesn't say anything, and Robin thinks that she's just walked away but all of a sudden he feels her warm hands on his shoulders, squeezing. She leans over until her lips are against his neck, her warm breath making goose-bumps appear on his neck.
"I have feelings for you, too." Regina whispers into his ear and leaves a small kiss on his neck. "But it's not safe for us to be together."
She pulls away from him and turns around to leave but Robin is quicker, he grabs her by the wrist and stops her from leaving. There's no way he's letting her go now when he knows that she feels something too. "When did you care about safety?" he asks with an arched eyebrow.
Regina opens her mouth to reply but Robin thinks that it will only be another excuse so instead of listening to her useless arguments, he presses his lips against hers in a breathtaking kiss.
This time she doesn't push him away, this time she wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him closer, opens her mouth and moans when his hands rest on her hips.
It happens quickly, unconsciously even. One moment they're kissing, the other she's pulling at his tunic and he's lifting her dress up until his hands disappear in her underwear. She moans and he grunts, both of them gasping for air, and for the first time in a really long time Robin feels alive.
(…)
"I want to kill them all," Regina says to Robin as she rolls on her stomach, her hair a mess, her cheeks still flushed from mind-blowing sex they've just had.
"I couldn't agree more," Robin nods his head, his arm around her tightening. He's seen her wounds and blues all over her legs and arms and stomach, those bastards beat her up pretty badly. But she wasn't burn alive, that is all that matters Robin reminds himself. However, he wouldn't mind killing them all.
"Looks like I found a perfect partner," she says to him, a wicked smile on her face, and Robin grins, tangles his hand in her hair and kisses her again.
They'll enjoy each other a little bit more and then… then they will plan a massive murder.
(…)
They kill half of the village the following morning, the ones who called Regina a monster, the congress, Nottingham's soldiers who helped to burn Marian alive. They get revenge on everyone who did them wrong, they make everyone pay for whatever damage they've done to them.
And when all of their enemies are dead, they find their safe haven in the Sherwood forest, running away from thousands of soldiers who intend to kill them as soon as they're found out.
But Regina doesn't regret it. Nor does Robin.
Their revenge gave them the most beautiful thing – their relationship, and if they burn in hell for what they've done, at least they'll burn there together.