I own no one but my own people
"Hello!"
"We're home!"
Regina smiled at the sound of two pairs of snowy boots coming through the entryway and making their way into the kitchen where the delectable holiday scents of gingerbread and warm cinnamon wrapped the fortunate recipients to the delightful treats all in a cozy blanket.
Roland raced into the kitchen first, his own child sized quiver and bow sling over his shoulder with a toothy grin, his dark brown curls damp from melted snow.
"I shot a turkey, Regina!" he announced with a beaming toothy grin.
"You did?!"
"Uh huh! And papa didn't even have to do a mercy shot either 'cause I got it right in the chest!"
Regina held back a grimace, still not used to her husband much less her eight year old step son speak about hunting in such a cavalier way. Henry went with Robin once last year but the sixteen year old had less than a stellar time and when it came time to actually loose the bow at the stag, Henry didn't have the heart.
"That's great, Roland!"
"He is turning out to be an exceptional little hunter," Robin added as he walked into the kitchen bursting with fatherly pride.
Two large wild turkeys were slung over both his shoulders, one with an obvious arrow wound in its chest where its heart would be and the other with an arrow hole in the direct center of its head, a far more difficult shot that few, if any, archers apart from Robin could have made.
Robyn, who was standing on a chair in the kitchen helping Regina stir the dough for her latest batch of apple tarts, grinned and hopped down from her stool and raced over to her dad and hugged him tight, not minding the cold or the wet a bit.
"Hi, Daddy!" Robyn greeted him, being met with a smile from the blue eyed thief.
"Hello, my little love. What are you up to?"
"Making cookies! Gina helped," she added as an afterthought to the amusement of her dad and step mom.
"You made cookies? Well then I shall have to go and try one immediately."
Robin set the two oversized birds in the sink so that he and Roland could clean them later (the rule was, Robin told his son, if you kill it you clean it) and made his way over to Regina who, as luck would have it, just finished putting the newest batch of her apple cinnamon cookies on the cooling rack.
"Hey, you," she purred, pausing in her baking to give him a quick kiss, moaning softly as she glorious and tantalizing scent of forest blended perfectly with the cold wintery air filled her senses. "I missed you."
"And I you," he told her, sealing his words with another kiss. Regina reached over and snagged one of the cookies from the cooling rack, holding it up to Robin who took a bite from it with a rather large grin.
"Good?" asked Robyn.
"That," Robin said with a mouthful of cookie, "is quite possibly the best cookie I ever had in my life."
Robyn beamed at the compliment and, now that her baking skills had been so highly praised, she hurried off to go play.
Robin took another bite of the pleasantly spiced cookie and turned towards Roland.
"Go get washed up and changed so you can help Regina with dinner."
"Yes, Papa."
Before he could scurry off however, Robin walked over to him with a warm soft cookie and kissed the top of his son's head.
"I'm very proud of you, Roland," Robin told him as he handed him the treat. "You treated the animal with respect and you didn't take a shot you weren't confident you could make without making it suffer."
After Roland thanked his father for the compliment and ran off, Robin finished off the cookie in his hand before he went over and snagged another one, this one direct from the baking sheet. "Where's Henry?" he asked the Queen.
"Up in his room working on his Secret Santa gift," she told him as she put another batch in the oven.
"Still? What on earth could he be working on, it's been two weeks and he started the day we picked our names."
"I have no idea but he's actually really excited about it."
"That makes one of us," Robin muttered. He sat down at the table, not bothering to take his outer clothes off knowing he was just about to go back out with his men and David for the food-drive.
If truth would have it Robin nor the Merry Men wanted the prince to come on their excursion seeing as how they had their own less than scrupulous methods for getting food from some of the less than willing patrons of Storybrooke.
But David overheard Robin talking to Blue about it one morning at Grannies and had volunteered his services, not to mention his truck, and who was Robin to tell someone not to volunteer for charity?
Especially when that particular volunteer had a truck they could use.
"You still don't know what to get yours?" asked Regina as she filled a large thermos full of hot tea for Robin.
"Not even a hint of a clue," he sighed. "It would be different if the gift was going to someone I actually liked but…"
"You don't wanna put an effort into it?" Regina guessed, the answer confirmed when he shrugged.
"I should want to. It's Christmas, we're supposed to set aside our differences and love one another but… my person is, forgive me, rather unloveable."
Regina poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down beside him, taking a slow sip from it. "I get your side but to be fair at one point that whole group except Henry thought I was unlovable."
Robin shook his head. "You're not unloveable. You were just misunderstood, and you've made up for your mistakes," he assured her. The words of confidence brought a soft smile to her lips.
"Well thank you. But I think you'll find that whoever you got made up for their mistakes as well."
"Not all of them," he muttered, taking a rather sad bite of the cookie in his hand and casting his eyes to the table.
Regina reaches across the table, taking a hold of his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. She pursed her lips for a moment, running her finger alongside the rim of her mug. "Well if it's really that hard for you, we can always switch," she offered rather hopefully. "Snow will never know."
Robin turned to her, his brow furrowed in confusion. "I thought the point of this was to keep it a secret? Plus didn't Snow instruct us rather specifically not to switch names once we drew them?"
"She did but she'd never know. Plus I'm having a bit of a time finding something for my own person as well," she admitted. "I think you'll find my guy a lot easier to come up with a gift for. I mean I don't HATE my guy but… I'd really rather have someone else."
"But I would know. Not to mention my honor would be at stake; I don't want to break Snow's rules. Especially not when it involves something related to Christmas."
"I really don't think your code will be broken because you traded your secret Santa name, Robin."
"Nevertheless, I'd rather just keep my name and come up with… something."
Before Regina could continue to comfort him there was three sharp rapts on the the front door followed by the sound of the front door opening. She gave that exasperated look to the group of men who, far more often than she would have liked, walked into her home without an invitation no matter how many times she asked them to knock first.
"Sure, come right in," Regina grumbled as Little John, Friar Tuck and a few other of the Merry Men made their way into her kitchen.
"Hey we knocked this time," John protested.
"Yes but you're supposed to wait until someone answers the door," Regina argued but didn't press the issue too much. When they married she had talked Robin out of having his men move their camp to her back yard but he wouldn't give up his open door policy when it came to them.
Robin flashed her a sympathetic smile followed by a gentle squeeze of her hand before he turned to his best friend.
"You ready to go?" Robin asked him. Before John could answer however he spotted the cookies cooling in the rack and practically floated like those in cartoons did when they smelled something delicious over to the baked treats.
"Apple cinnamon oatmeal," Regina answered the unasked question. John picked up one of the still warm soft cookies and took a bite, groaning and throwing his head back in what one might describe as ecstasy.
"Jesus Christ, Rob; how you stay under 500 pounds with the way she cooks I'll never understand," he moaned as he grabbed another cookie.
Regina just smirked at her husband's lieutenant. "Well it helps that I always try to give him a work out later on at night."
John let out a loud belly laugh along with Tuck and the rest of the group. Robin's heart soared as he too laughed at the joke she made, the same as it did every time Regina and his men got along.
They weren't best friends by any means, nor were they as close to Regina as they had been to Marian, but the mistrust and animosity on their part and disgust on hers had ceased at least and she could laugh at the bawdy jokes they told, even make some herself, and they respected her not only as Robin's wife but who she was as a person.
The laughter of the men caught the attention of Robyn who raced in from the living room and threw herself at the large man who caught her and lifted her up as easy as one might lift a feather, tossing her in the air and easily catching her again, looking at her with the same amount of affection that he looked at Roland with.
"Hi, John!" Robyn greeted him with a beaming grin. "I made cookies!"
"And they are delicious, little Robyn," he told her, kissing the side of her head.
"Thank you!" the toddler exclaimed before hugging the large thief tightly around the neck. After returning the embrace John set her down and she immediately ran into the open waiting arms of her father who picked her up and set her on his lap. "Daddy, I wanna go on the food drive too," said Robyn.
"I'm afraid you're too little, my little peanut," Robin told her. "Besides it's Friday, your mum is picking you up tonight so you can spend the weekend with her."
At that particular reminder Robyn pouted and hugged her dad tighter. "Nuh uh. Wanna stay with you and Gina," she protested rather adorably.
"I know you do but you still have to visit with her." Then as an afterthought he added, "your mum loves you, Robyn, and you love her."
Rather than nod in agreement, Robyn's pout just grew more pronounced and Robin felt a guilt gnaw at him.
He may not have any particularly loving feelings towards Zelena but a child should love their mother, no matter how they were conceived, even if they only spend at most eight days a month with them.
"Here's an idea…" said Robin. "How about you draw your mum a Christmas picture of you two to give her tonight. You can add a pretty tree, some gifts… I bet she'll even hang it up on the fridge like Regina and I do."
"That sounds like a great idea," Regina added with a smile, getting exactly what Robin was trying to do. "I think your mom will really like that."
Robyn looked rather ponderous for a moment before she looked up at her father. "I put you and Gina in it? And Roland and Henry?"
"Um… I- I think it might be nice if it was just you and your mum in the picture."
"Okay," she muttered with a rather sad pout, sliding off her dads lap and walking away from the group.
A rather awkward silence took over the men. John cleared his throat, slapping Regina on the shoulder and stealing another cookie for the road before he motioned for the other men to get up and leave the couple alone with the excuse that they were going to wait for David to show up with his much coveted truck.
When they were finally left alone, Robin groaned and buried his face in his hands.
"Robyn hates her mum and it's all my fault. A child shouldn't hate their mother, not unless they've done something awful to them."
"She does not hate Zelena," Regina assured him. "She just doesn't really get to see her that much so she's closer to you," she said, trying her best to keep the accusatory tone to a minimum.
Robin signed, running a hand through his hair. "I know and I know deep down Zelena should be allowed more time with Robyn, she is her mother afterall, but after what she did to me, to us, to Marian… it's been over two years and I still can't forgive her for what she did."
"I know. And I don't want you to forgive her until you're ready, if you ever are, and no one will judge you for that, Robin, least of all me," Regina promised him. "But… she was the one who found the spell that made it possible to split my soul, she was the one who gave me the idea to get the Evil Queen part out of me so your soul would still be pure, she was the one who preserved your body and looked after you until I got back from New York…"
"I know I owe Zelena my life, but that doesn't mean I have to forget what she did to me."
"And you shouldn't have to but… she does love her daughter, it is Christmas, she deserves some… memories… together."
Regina bit her lip and Robin could practically hear the wheels turning inside her mind.
"Regina? What's going on?"
"I think… I might have just come up with my secret service gift… they'll either going to love me for it or hate me for it but it's something free that quite frankly I'm the only one who can give."
"Oh?"
"Mmm hmm. But hey, you are an amazing father. Whatever is best for Robyn, I know you're gonna choose."
She leaned down to give him a kiss just as David pulled up and honked his horn to let them know he was here. Regina handed Robin his thermos of tea as he stood up, kissing him again and straightening out his jacket. "Go get the poor a lot of food. And who knows, maybe riding around in the truck might clear your head, maybe give you some ideas."
"I'll try, M'lady," Robin promised her. With a final kiss between the two soulmates, the thief grabbed his satchel, slung it up over his shoulder and headed out.
And, as he passed Robyn in the living room drawing a picture of herself and Zelena that, despite his earlier wishes, included himself and Regina along with the lesser sins of Roland and Henry taking up much of the paper, a sudden, terrific idea popped into his head…
He knew exactly what to get his secret Santa. He just hoped the other person involved would go along with it…
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