All one shots will be made with the collaborative help of CreditlessKumo

~Pairings that appear in this one shot: Outlaw Queen.

Disclaimer - We do not own the rights to Once Upon a Time (although we wish we did), but we do own the plot of this idea.

The light scent of cakes baking had filled the small bakery. The sun shining directly through the window made the room seem bright and airy whilst the sight of buns and pastries attracted all kinds of hungry customers to her store. Regina was currently kneading bread dough on a floury surface as she waited for the chime of the door, which would tell her when another customer had entered. Once she'd finished kneading, she placed the dough on a tray to her left and put it straight into the oven behind her. She then clapped her hands together and smiled as a puff of white flour filled the air.

The doorbell chimed and she turned with a pleasant smile. The smile grew even wider when she saw that it wasn't just a customer that had walked in, but Robin Hood. The man that she loved and adored.

"How is my fair maiden doing on this bright and sunny morning?" he asked her, a mischievous look in his eye. Regina looked at the gold watch on her wrist then replied.

"It's two o'clock in the afternoon I'll have you know." She flashed a smirk at him as he came closer, lifting the counter door so he could come through onto her side. Regina's breathing became steadily faster as Robin drew closer to where she was stood.

"An even better reason to tell me how you are." Robin pondered.

"I'm doing fine, thanks. What's brought you here? Where's Roland?" Regina questioned. Robin stepped closer, and Regina felt an urge to hold him, however her hands were covered in flour that would mess up his green hoodie.

"The merry men are minding him for a little while, thought i'd take the opportunity to visit my favourite woman doing what she loves," Robin slipped his arms around Regina's waist and held her close. Regina smiled in adoration.

"I should be preparing more of today's special, you know, it's very popular,"

Robin smiled. "And what would that be?"

"Apple crumble, my own recipe." Robin glanced behind Regina and his eyes lit up with inspiration. Several small piles of ingredients had been placed on the counter in preparation, including flour, sugar, butter and several gleaming red apples. Regina always used her own fruit, which she grew in her garden at home. Robin knew exactly what he had to do, he just needed some distractions.
He quickly scanned the room to check if any customers were waiting to be served while Regina gave him a playful but curious look. When he was sure no one was looking, Robin guided Regina backwards until she was leaning back against the counter. He leaned in, and pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss. Regina couldn't help but smile, temporarily breaking the contact before quickly returning the gesture. She forgot about her flour-covered hands and brought them to hold the sides of Robin's head, while Robin placed his hands on the counter behind them. The kiss lasted longer than both expected, which was deep with lust and infatuation. The busy sounds of the bakery and ovens was lost on them, and for a short moment, it felt as if they were the only people in the building. Neither wanted to let go.

Suddenly, a voice spoke up behind them.

"Erm... excuse me?" Robin and Regina jumped in shock, and both spun around. Robin quickly placed his hands into his large, hoodie pockets. The customer looked embarrassed to say the least. "I'd... like some service please," Regina tried to steady her breathing while laughing at the flour that was now smeared across the sides of Robin's face.

"Of course! I do apologise," she replied, attempting composure. She hurried over to the counter, looking over her shoulder to give Robin a lustful smile. He returned it, but as soon as Regina was busy with the customer, he got to work.

With Regina now at the other side of the kitchen, Robin grabbed the nearest empty bag he could find lying around under the countertop. He placed one of each of Regina's apple crumble ingredients into the bag, such as a bag of sugar and a pack of butter, with exception to one of the apples. He could pick some when he returned home. He retrieved the supplies he had snuck into his hoodie pockets and also added them to his small collection. Finally, he grabbed a cloth near to the sink and used it to wipe away some of the flour on his cheeks and in his hair.
Robin then looked around, and spotted the back door. He swiftly made his way over to it and exited. He paused, realising he couldn't just leave without saying farewell. He leaned half his body back into the kitchen, being careful not to reveal the bag of supplies he held behind his back. He called over to Regina.

"I'm afraid I have to dash off! I'll see you when you return from work!" Regina turned in his direction, puzzled.

"Oh, okay," she replied with disappointment just loud enough for Robin to hear over the bustling noise of the bakery. "I'll miss you,"

Robin responded with that beautiful smile of his that Regina couldn't get enough of. "Till then, my Queen!" he said before finally leaving.

Robin admired the bag he was holding as he made his way home. Surely Regina wouldn't miss just one of each ingredient? Even if she noticed, Robin was doing this for a good cause. He would make it up to her later today. And if this wasn't enough, he had other ways of apologising. Robin smirked to himself, remembering his and Regina's encounter just a moment ago. Today was going to be a fun day.

Robin stood in front of the carefully prepared ingredients as he considered what was his first step in making this apple crumble. He had no idea how to make one but he'd seen Regina do it and she made it look effortless, so how hard could it be?

He decided that he should probably heat the oven up first. That was the first step in all recipes, right? He looked at the dial on the oven. It went up to two hundred and fifty celsius. What was the average baking temperature? He decided to just put it on full and hope for the best.

That done he turned his attention to the apples which he had just freshly picked from the garden. How did Regina cut them? Did she slice them? Dice them? Blend them? Definitely not that last one. He decided to play it safe and just dice them, as he remembered when eating that the pieces had been quite small. He pulled a knife from the block to the right of him and set to work initially slicing the apples, ready to dice them soon. He took a deep breath as a trickle of perspiration beaded from his forehead. Who knew that baking could be such hard work? Regina made it look like a piece of cake, pun intended.

Once the apples were diced (core included. Regina did include the cores, didn't she?) he placed them all into the bottom of a ceramic baking dish. He looked quizzically at the dish as he tried to remember whether it was that he used or the metal cake tin. He decided to go for the metal tin instead so poured all of the apples into the base of it. It was looking good so far. He allowed himself a small moment of celebration at having made it this far before becoming engrossed in his task again.

Next was the topping. The crumbly topping. He looked at the remaining ingredients he had. It looked like flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon and was that raw sugar? He searched his mind for what Regina always did at this point but then again, whenever he was watching her bake, he was watching her smile and eyes more than anything. He became entranced for a moment, imagining a memory of her laughing, covered in flour, before shaking his head and becoming serious again. He was distracted very easily it seemed.

He placed a plastic bowl in front of him and emptied the flour into it. That was the first and most vital ingredient of any dish, wasn't it? He then decided that the sugar would make it sweeter so poured in the white sugar, as he was still unsure about the raw sugar. It was brown, surely sugar should be white. Next he added the cinnamon as he knew that this was, in actual fact, an actual ingredient at this stage. Along with a pinch of...a pinch of…he stopped and thought for a moment before remembering. A pinch of salt! But how much salt was a pinch? An actual pinch? He doubted that. Nobody would be able to taste it. Wondering why salt was an ingredient in a dessert anyway, he picked up the salt shaker and opened the lid before pouring in a generous amount. There, that would do nicely. He got a wooden spoon and mixed the dry ingredients for a minute before he thought to carry on.

He needed to make these dry ingredients crumbly. Thus, the name 'crumble', but how on earth was it done? If he added water, he knew it would turn into dough, but keeping it dry wasn't doing it any favours either. He sighed heavily at this new obstacle. He had butter left. He picked it up tentatively and peered at it, wondering what on earth he would have to do with it.

He decided to just put the butter in the bowl then separate it into chunks using a knife. That sounded reasonable, right? He did so and then tried to mix it again with the spoon. When it wasn't working as well as he had hoped, he put his hands into the mixture and started rubbing the butter. It was cold and slimy but it appeared to be beginning to work, until it began to melt. Was that supposed to happen? He panicked slightly and decided to put the entire mixture in the fridge to cool it down.

Ten minutes later he returned and tried again. It still wasn't forming crumble, so he decided that he needed to make crumbs of his own. Now, what produced crumbs in large amounts? Bread most certainly did, but it needed to be sweeter. Cake… No...the crumbs would be too soft, but biscuits...shortbread in particular. That would be absolutely perfect. He hastily opened the cupboard and saw a box of unopened shortbread that made up part of Regina's extensive collection of biscuits. He smiled in success and carefully extracted them before crushing them in his hand and scattering all the crumbs created into the mixture. He did that for about ten biscuits and then started rubbing the butter and flour again. This time it seemed to work a lot better as there were some extra crumbs now to help the friction. He smiled at his own logic, then put the finished crumbs on top of the apples. Smiling in relief as he was spreading them evenly. Any big lumps were quickly pushed down and any sparse areas were quickly covered. It was starting to look really good now. He looked down at it proudly, then opened the oven door. Physically pulling back when the blast of hot air hit his face. Once he'd recovered he put the crumble in the oven then set the timer. An hour at two hundred and fifty degrees celsius.

Perfect.

Regina sighed with relief when she saw her white mansion. Home. After a long day at work she would finally be able to spend some quality time with Robin. She waltzed happily through the gate and opened the front door. The acrid smell of burning hit her nose as soon as she entered. She listened intently for any sound of fire crackling, however when there was none, she was immediately intrigued as to what on Earth had happened. Regina walked straight into the kitchen and was amused to see Robin furiously flapping a tea towel at the smoke alarm. All of the windows were open and there was a pleasant draft coming through because of it.

Robin turned exasperatedly and froze when he saw her. That was when she noticed the mess that her kitchen had become. There were ingredients everywhere, the oven door was left wide open, there were dishes piled high in the sink and a smoking...something...was left on the draining board.

"What happened here?" She asked in astoundment, honestly curious as to how one man could have destroyed her kitchen so considerably.

"Umm… Surprise, Regina." Robin faltered with a smile on his face. "I tried to make you an apple crumble, as I know it's your favourite but...it didn't go as well as I planned." He muttered before sending pleading eyes her way.

Regina sighed then looked at the burnt crumble.

"How long did you put it in for?"

"An hour,"

"And at what temperature?"

"Maximum."

"Oh."

"Look Regina, I'm really sorry. I just wanted to make you happy."

She looked at Robin compassionately as he begged for her forgiveness, but she couldn't find the will to be mad at him.

"You don't need to apologise. As long as you buttered the tin, I can get rid of it easily."

Robin froze.

"You did butter the tin, didn't you?" Regina questioned.

Robin closed his eyes in regret.

"I am ashamed to admit this, but I completely forgot to butter the tin. I understand if you see me as useless."

Regina gave a comforting smile.

"Of course you're not useless, Robin. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, my happy ending, and don't you forget that," Regina advanced slowly towards Robin, edging around the kitchen table. She grabbed the towel Robin was holding and threw it onto the counter behind her. Taking the sides of Robin's face in her hands, she pulled him into a seductive kiss. Robin welcomed the intimacy, wrapping his arms protectively around Regina, as if she might disappear if he let her go. Regina held him tighter, moving her hands down to caress his jawline and neck, before finally resting them over his chest and heart. Robin's body radiated warmth, a sensation that Regina melted into, so they stayed like this for a long while. The kiss was only broken so Regina could lay her head against Robin's chest. She listened to his heart beating while Robin closed his eyes once again and kissed the top of her head. Both of them lost track of time for a while, before Regina eventually remembered the state her kitchen was in around them. She looked up and met eye contact with Robin.

"Just one last thing,"

Robin gave her an inquisitive look.

"What's that?"

"Help me clear up this mess."

Robin laughed.

"Anything for my Queen."