Robin like early mornings. She liked how she could just wander around the sleepy quiet of the streets with only her own thoughts and her backpack for company. A backpack that she would keep stocked with a few snacks and juice boxes maybe a coloring book or real book or two along with a box of crayons and a jacket all rolled up and carried with her like in the stories her Mom and Aunt Gina would tell her about her Dad. How he'd sometimes have to live out of a backpack and sleep under the stars from time to time.
The five-year-old liked to think she was somehow carrying at least some of her Daddy's tradition every time she'd head out like she had every morning since she was four to go watch the dull gray of the sky turn into the prettiest shades of purples and pinks she'd ever seen in her young life as the sun rose over the trees in the woods beside the town and today was no different. Only this time she wouldn't be going out into the sleepy world alone.
Alice liked that idea as well eagerly jumping at the offer to watch the sunrise with her new friend and even commenting as she and Robin quietly slipped out of cute Robin's bedroom window that it was something she and her Papa did every day since Alice could remember.
The girls were each wearing a pair of Robin's kicking boots and a hastily tossed on jacket over their mismatched pajamas with Robin wearing the pants from one set and a shirt from another while Alice had on the reverse set her friend had let her borrow the night before, so she wouldn't have to sleep in her nice dress that unknown to the blonde was currently stashed in the almost too big Star Wars backpack Robin was carrying along with anything else the five-year-old could think of that they might need for their trip.
"Maybe we should go back and wake up pretty Robin, so she can come with us." Alice suggested a full two and a half blocks away from the house. The young blonde was happily holding onto her friend's hand letting her lead the way to some special secret place she wanted to show her that they could play and maybe even have a breakfast tea party as they watched the sunrise, but she couldn't help the longing she had for the pretty older girl that had helped her when that evil tree had tried to eat her foot.
Robin shook her head the determined look never leaving her eyes "I asked her yesterday if she wanted to come and she said it'd be okay if it was just us going so we could talk and stuff." The younger girl fibbed shifting the pack into a more comfortable position against her back. "Other Robin told me I had to keep you safe and that's what I'm gonna do." The little brunette confessed pulling them to a stop outside one of the towns thrift stores.
"But I am safe." Alice pointed out with a little laugh "I'm with you." The blonde smiled moving closer to pull the other girl into a hug.
Robin blushed hugging her back as tight as a five-year-old could hug someone even being so bold as to press a little kiss against Alice's cheek before pulling back to look into her eyes. "That means you trust me?" the darker haired blonde wondered taking her hand again at cute Alice's blushing node and tugging her down a side alley when a glance across the road told her that Granny was heading out of the diner across the street to put the open sign out in front of the diner.
The town was waking up. She had to hurry if she wanted to save her friend.
******(changing over to the Adult Alice & Robin now)********
Thanks to her cursed memories Alice was unsure if she really liked or disliked mornings. On the one hand, waking up in her girlfriend's arms was something that she always savored that gratefully had carried over to her cursed self in the warm safe feelings warming her heart when Tilly would accidentally fall asleep while cuddled up against Margot during a movie date night. Even when a day waking up in Margot's arms turned into a bad one the second she stepped out into the world.
Now Alice was wiser in realizing that every one of Tilly's 'bad days' were just her own memories trying to push past the haze of the curse to remind the confused blonde of who she really was on those rare days Tilly didn't have the added help of her pills keeping Alice repressed in a room in her mind. A fact Robin had repeatedly apologized for unintentionally helping with when the archer remembered all the times Margot had either prodded (always gently but prodded nonetheless) the medication into the rambling blonde's hand and told her to take them or just casually reminded Tilly over the phone during the days they'd have a cute over a phone call breakfast date to take them before heading into work.
"Care to share what's going on in that beautiful mind of yours Tower Girl?" Robin whispered against her ear pulling Alice back to her own mind with a teasing giggle and the pleasing feel of nibbling kisses being places along the cords of her throat.
Alice paused tilting her head back against her true love's shoulder with a low exhaled breath "Just thinking about how happy I am that you're in my life." She admitted picking up the cup Robin had just set down letting the hot liquid inside it warm her hands back up in the chilly morning air just as the first rays of the morning sun crested the tree line ahead of them while the darker haired blonde finished settling herself in behind her on the laid-out blanket they'd brought with them that morning.
It had worried the blonde a little when she and Robin had woken up only to find that their younger selves weren't still snuggled up on the sofa beside them in the quiet house but after a sleepy shrug from Robin and the promise of a shared breakfast from the diner her archer had been raving about since before the curse Alice had put the thoughts out of her mind for the time being knowing that even when she might be a younger version of her love her Robin was more than capable of taking care of herself.
Well, that and an adorably written crayon note the younger girl had left with her name on it on the coffee table telling them that she'd just taken little Alice out to see the sunrise at the 'castle'.
"Mom?" Robin wondered when her phone started ringing and breaking the quiet calm of cuddling against her true love in library rooftop in the morning. "Hang on hang on hang on Mom slow down…." Robin stammered as she listened to the other end of the call. "No, they aren't with us but they said they'd be…." she explained feeling Alice shift uneasily in her arms scooting closer to try and listen in as well when Zelena quickly started talking again more frantically than before.
"Okay, we'll meet you there in ten." She promised closing the phone with shaking hands and whispered curses. "Seems I fell for one of my own ruses." She admitted getting to her feet with Alice close behind her "Aunt Regina went to pick up little you and mini-me from the park but they weren't there and Mom says that magic bean she'd been hiding is missing."