Here's a bit of Hood-Mills family fluff for ouat day :)
It's set after Marian returns, but as if Zelena did die. Enjoy!
"Go on Roland, Daddy's watching!" Robin tells him from his position.
"I'm gonna hit it! Watch!" Roland replies, his chubby cheeks flushed, his breath steamy against the cold morning air.
Robin watches Roland pull back, the way he taught him, his short fingers pressed against his face, his expression one of unrivalled determination. When he releases, the arrow flies forward, he has exactly the right speed and strength needed to hit the target a few feet in front of him. Not too far, he's only a child at the end of the day, but far enough to warrant some sort of skill.
Robin holds his breath, watches the arrow fly. It ends up landing decidedly away from its target. Robin screws up his face at first, knowing he had the right speed. It was almost as if he had aimed in completely the wrong direction, because Roland had done all the necessary steps to get this right, but to no avail. Robin looks across at Roland, realises the chocolate brown eyes are on him, on his Daddy.
When they catch each others eyes, Robin's face splits into a wide grin, one that matches on Roland's face. Two sets of dimples coming on full show. At his Father's smile, Roland begins to run to Robin, his little arms dropping the kid-sized bow he had been holding, his legs going as fast as they can go. Once he reaches Robin, he scoops him up, throwing him in the air before catching him and pulling him in close, pressing his face into Roland's mop of curls.
"Did I do good?" Roland asks, leaning away from Robin to look into his Dad's eyes.
"So good Roland! So nearly there!" Not one to kill the hope in his son's heart. "Just a little bit more practice and you'll be even better than me!"
It happens again at Christmas, when Robin and Roland are helping Regina and Henry decorate the tree at Mifflin Street.
"Robin, just a little bit higher on that bit." Regina instructs, her face screwed up, trying to get the perfect drape of fairy lights across their tree.
Robin moves the string of lights, looking back to her for affirmation. Robin smiles when he looks at her, her head tilted to one side, fingers pressed to her lips.
"Perfect yet?" Robin asks, pulling her out of her concentration.
"I think so." She tells him, with a smile.
"Ready for Operation Bauble!" Henry cries, with a little nudge to Roland, willing him to help him start unpacking the ornaments for hanging on the branches.
Robin strides across the room to her, nuzzling into her from behind, his arms coming around her waist. Regina's body answers immediately, relaxing into his broad chest, a sigh leaving her lips. She fights the urge to close her eyes, wanting to savour every moment of this perfect day. Three of the people she loves most, her favourite boys, turning the once lonesome mansion into a home.
"You're cute when you're concentrating." Robin says breathily into her ear.
"I'm a lot of things. Cute is not one of them." Regina tells him, her hips pressing back into his. It was a move meant to nudge him away from her a bit, a little show of annoyance at being called cute, but it ends up pressing her ass into his now half-erection. Oops.
"You're a minx." Robin groans, his hands tightening around her waist.
"Ha! Down boy." She tells him, peeling out of his arms, turning to give him a quick kiss.
"Guys! Gross!" Henry protests, with an exasperated sigh.
"Yeah, gross!" Roland repeats, his face matching Henry's in disgust, although Regina knows the littlest of their boys is only copying Henry, as is his habit.
Regina chuckles, walking away from Robin, kneeling to help the boys unpack the ornaments.
"So who's passing? Who's hanging?" Regina asks the two of them.
"I'm passing, Roland's hanging. That way I can make sure the colours are spread evenly, right Mom?" Henry tells her teasingly, aware of Regina's need for perfection on her Christmas tree, his shoulder nudging into hers.
"Watch it you! Or you'll be off bauble duty all together." She jokes.
She hears Robin laughing, and turns to look back at him, allowing the boys to continue unwrapping the decorations.
"Shouldn't you be going to sort your little problem out in the kitchen?" Regina teases.
"You and I both know it's not a little problem."
"Are you two being gross again?" Henry asks them, his eyes narrowed, before Roland catches his attention, itching to tell him which ornaments he likes best.
Regina sits back on her knees, a little choked at the implication of what just happened. Her little boy is getting older, and it makes her heart clench inside her chest. Years ago, an adult conversation like that would have flown over his head. She looks at him, huddled close with Roland. Looks at how much of him there is compared to Robin's son. How he doesn't have the chubby hands Roland has, how his pudgy cheeks have begun to hollow.
She feels Robin's hands ground her, his thumbs digging into her shoulders, aware of the sudden change in Regina's disposition. Ever attentive, ever loving. She reaches up and puts her hand over his on her shoulder, letting him know she's okay. She rises from the floor, joining Robin on the sofa to watch (and in her case, police) the boys hanging the ornaments.
They settle on the sofa together, Regina's legs curled up under her, her side pressed against his. His arm is draped across her shoulders, his hand drawing soothing circles on her shoulder.
She settles into his side and sighs deeply, her whole body becoming relaxed and heavy against him. She watches Henry worry his lip as he chooses a bauble, watches him direct Roland who clumsily hangs them where directed.
Then she notices it. Roland continually dropping the baubles becomes a pattern, clearly not a mistake made occasionally. She watches him closely. On each turn, he goes to hang the branch, but he is inches shy of the branch causing him to stumble or sometimes to drop the bauble. It makes Henry giggle, which in turn makes Roland none too bothered about not succeeding, not when he's making Henry laugh.
She nudges Robin. To which he replies with a sleepy mmm?
"Have you noticed a problem with Roland's sight?" Regina asks him, low enough to say out of earshot of their giggling boys.
"What?"
"Watch him. He's not recognising the distance."
"Fine, but I'm sure you're just worrying." He leans forward then, watching the boys.
Sure enough, Roland is clearly struggling with his distance and sight. He wonders how he didn't put two and two together before. When he thinks about it, there had been a lot of times when Roland had shown difficultly, right back to being a tiny tot who, for the life of him, completely failed to match the square block to the square hole, or the circle block to the circle hole. He had avoided any other visual toys, growing up, ever since. No jigsaws, no colouring and no drawing for Roland, he'd just never shown interest. Had become frustrated when it was forced upon him. Robin mentally kicks himself for not even taking notice of his own son. He'd always just assumed his boy was more into doing, he'd always had no problem being outside, helping the Merry Men.
He turns back to Regina, and she's looking at him pointedly, eyebrow raised, arms crossed.
"Well?"
"As usual, you're right." He says with a smile, "What do you do in this world when a little boy needs some help seeing?"
"Well, it's fairly easy to sort." Regina explains, leaning back in to Robin, resuming their former position. "We'll get him registered at the opticians here..."
When she notices his confusion, she explains;
"They look after your eyes." That satisfies Robin, so she continues. "Then they'll do some tests to see how bad the problem is, then they'll make him up some glasses to wear, perfectly fitted for him."
"Ahh, I see." He turns his face into her hair, "What would I do without you?"
"Struggle." She says simply, with a smirk.
Roland sits in the large clinical chair, his legs swinging.
"Are you sure this won't hurt Daddy?"
Robin looks to Regina, she knows he doesn't really know the answer to this, but he answers anyway.
"No sunshine, the nice lady will ask you to look through some different glasses and you've got to tell her which one is the best, okay?" Robin tells him from their seat in the corner, giving him a reassuring smile.
Roland nods, his little eyes wide, how he looks when he's about to burst into tears, Robin notes.
"There will be some letters too, okay? Like we practised at home?" Regina tells him then, rising from her seat and touching her fingertips under his chin. A move, for 12 years of her life solely reserved for Henry. But, when their little family unit formed, she found herself doing it to Roland too.
"Will it spell my name?" Roland asks with an innocence only a child his age has.
"That would be exciting wouldn't it!" Robin exclaims, "Do you know what letters you're looking for?"
"Yep." Roland puffs up his chest, his nerves beginning to melt away, much to Robin and Regina's relief. "ROLAND."
"That's right! You see any of those you give us a shout, okay?" Robin tells Roland, leaving his seat to run a hand through his hair before pressing his head against him in as much a hug their height difference allow them at this point. "We'll be right there the whole time."
The door of their little room opens then and a young woman with long brunette hair and a kind face walks in, clipboard in hand. She directs a wide smile at Roland, offering her hand for his pudgy one to take.
"Hello! I'm Sophie. And who might you be?"
"Roland! That's ROLAND." He tells her with a lick of pride.
Sophie beams at Roland, his cuteness irresistible.
"Nice to meet you Roland!" Sophie turns to Robin and Regina then, "you must be his parents."
Regina freezes momentarily, unsure what to say.
"Yeah, we are." Robin answers without hesitation. "Are we okay to stay in here with him?"
"Yeah, that's no problem at all."
Regina watches the exchange between Robin and Sophie take place. After everything they've been through, fighting with a Wicked Witch and then Marian's return and then him choosing her, she can't quite believe they are finally one, a unit, where Robin totally accepts Regina as a Mother figure for his son. Robin never ceases to amaze Regina in the way that he totally accepts her, doesn't ask her to be any more than she is, accepts that the past is the past.
As far as Robin is concerned, Regina is his future.
While Regina has been in her reverie, Sophie has begun asking Roland questions, some of them he can answer on his own, some Robin has to help him with. Once they've finished that, they ask Roland to put his chin against a large machine.
"Roland, have you had your photo taken before?" Sophie asks him.
"Yes! Gina has ones on her phone but I'm not allowed to play with that."
"Ah, I see! Well, this machine is going to take a picture of your eye, but you have to be a big brave boy because it is going to be really bright, okay?" Sophie explains as she sets up the machine.
"Daddy says I'm brave." Roland tells her with the most serious expression on his face.
"Well, you'll have no problem then. Ready?"
The machine clicks and Roland pulls back.
"Oh Daddy, I can't see! Only colours!" Roland says, panicking a little.
"It's okay, we're here. It'll go in a second." Robin explains, itching to comfort his son, but trying to stay out of the Opticians way.
Roland screws up his little face, blinks a little bit and gradually his face softens again. Regina's heart swells at his adorable reaction.
"You're right! It's gone!" Roland exclaims with glee.
"Okay, this all looks okay to me, would you like to look Roland?" Sophie asks.
"Yeah!" Sophie turns around her screen then, allowing Roland to see. "But that's not my eye! That's all red! My eye is like Gina's." Roland's face forms into a frown.
"Yes, your eyes are brown, but this is picture really, really close, taken from the back of your eye. This isn't the bit of your eye that everyone can see, this is secret." Sophie tells him, conspiratorially, voice hushed.
Roland gives her one serious nod in return, lapping it all up.
Next, they move onto looking through the lenses.
"Okay, I'm going to put this funny pair of glasses on you now, Roland."
She places the instrument on his nose, tightening the arms so that they fit his face. Roland giggles excitedly.
"Look at me! I got glasses!" Roland squeals, causing Regina to reach into her bag and grab her phone, taking a quick snap of Roland before he has to start the next part of the test. Regina pulls the photo up, with a giggle herself, nudging Robin to show him.
"Okay Roland, I want you to tell me if you can see those letters clearly." Sophie asks him, pointing to the board across the room.
"They're fuzzy." Roland wines, turning to look at Regina and Robin.
Sophie nods slightly, adjusting the lens.
"How about now?" She asks, leaning back again.
"Nope, worse." Roland tells her, his short patience running out.
Sophie leans in again, switches up the lens.
"Now?"
"Better! Daddy there's a R!" Roland shouts out, his voice turning high pitched and giddy at the sudden revelation. Regina supposes his excitement is fair enough when the poor kid has just been given clear sight for the first time in his life.
"And what does R stand for?" Robin asks him, encouragingly.
"Roland!" He answers to the joy of everyone in the room, then he stops, thinks for a moment, doing such a comical impression of thinking that Regina's fingers itch to take another photo. "And Regina!"
Roland's face is so wonderfully proud that Regina has to restrain herself from leaving her seat in the corner of the room and grabbing him for one of his cuddles. When Sophie begins asking Roland a few more questions she turns to look at Robin, and finds him looking back. They share the moment together, both of them knowing how much love Regina has felt for the little boy in such a short time. It might only be a tiny thing for Roland but it feels like one more acceptance for Regina. This little boy who simply sees her at face value, as Regina, and not as any of her past. Regina wonders how lucky she was to find her twin set of Locksley dimples.
Soon enough, the Optician has found the right set of lenses for Roland, and they are being ushered out of their little room and off to choose the frames.
"Okay Roland, this is the important bit. You've got to pick how you want them to look." Sophie explains as they walk, Regina and Robin following on behind. She takes him over to the children's section. A whole rack of colourful frames for him to pick from.
"Can I have green?" Roland asks sweetly, "green is my favourite colour!"
"If there's some green ones you like, of course you can." Sophie tells him, with a smile.
He runs up to the frames, a little in awe of all the choice. Sophie leaves them then, Robin and Regina step forward to assist Roland.
"There! There's green at the top!" Roland exclaims, pointing.
Robin reaches said frames down and places them on Roland's face. Roland turns to look in the mirror, his face screwing up slightly.
"Nope. Don't like them."
"Okay baby, let's try another pair." Regina soothes as she passes him a plainer pair.
"Nope, too boring." Roland whines.
"What about these?" Robin asks, taking the ones off of his nose and putting a new pair on.
"Too green!" He moans, his little lip curling out in a pout.
"But sunshine, you wanted green." Robin says, a little desperate.
"Not that green." Roland murmurs quietly.
Regina scans the frames, then, just to the side, she spots a pair. They're not the green Roland wanted, but they're the most beautiful shade of red, a muted tone, not too garish for him. When she picks them up out of the rack, she notices that the pair have tiny foxes running down the sides. She smiles, this is the pair for Roland.
"Hey, look at these. What do you think?"
"They've got foxes! Foxes, Daddy!" Roland squeals, yanking on Robin's sleeve to grab his attention.
"Your favourite." Robin says with a little smiled of relief, directed at Regina.
Roland puts them on his face, and turns to the mirror. A small gasp leaves his lips, his body leaning towards to mirror to take a closer look.
Regina and Robin hold their breath as he makes his decision, watching him turn his body this way and that to see the foxes on the sides of the glasses.
"I love them!" He cries, much to his parent's relief. "Can I have these please?"
"Of course you can sweetheart, we'll take them to the counter."
Regina and Robin sort out the necessary paperwork, confirming that they will return with Roland in a week to pick up his new glasses and their little boy couldn't be more excited.
Roland spends the week telling everybody he meets about his glasses. About how 'they're specially made for him', how he had a picture taken of his eye 'but that's a secret', how he has named the foxes on each side of the frames.
Regina and Robin feel relief in the way Roland has taken to them, any worries they had about his reaction melting away.
On the day of going to pick up Roland's glasses Regina has to work, leaving Robin to pick them up alone. She's home already when they arrive back.
She hears Roland's cries before Robin is through the front door.
She rushes down the stairs, greeted by the face of an exasperated Robin and the back of a crying Roland on his shoulder. Regina takes the bags from his hands, notices the glasses in their case. Allows Robin to take Roland through to the living room to begin soothing him as she takes the bags into to the kitchen, puts away the bits of groceries that they had run out of. She hears Roland's cries subside into hiccups, and then, the TV go on. Robin appears in the kitchen door moments later.
"So what happened?"
"Well, he was fine, we fitted the glasses and we sorted everything, and we were leaving and he went to wear them and he got...I don't know...five minutes down the road and just decided he didn't like them. Burst into tears. Think now he's upset because he wants to have good vision, but just doesn't want to wear them." Robin explains.
"Wearing them all the time is a little different to trying them on in the shop, I suppose." Regina tells Robin.
"What are we going to do?" Robin asks Regina, a little bit desperately.
"We'll think of something." She tells him, a hand against his shoulder. "How is he now?"
"Getting better. Refusing to wear them though, even though I know he can't really see the TV properly." Robin explains with a roll of his eyes, the stubbornness of his little boy.
Regina thinks for a second. Then, she has an idea.
"Pass me the glasses." She takes them and heads upstairs, to her bedside table, searching through the drawer.
She pulls out a small case, flicks it open, pulling out the frames. Her glasses, the ones she decided she didn't need, shoved away. Maybe they would come into perfect use now. She goes back downstairs, finding Roland in the living room, joining him on the sofa. He snuggles into her automatically, her arm going around to hold him against her.
"Hey little guy." Regina soothes as she runs her fingers through his curls. "I've got a secret I've never told anyone."
He sits up at that, looks at her curiously.
"Not even Daddy?"
"Nope. You'll be the first person I've told."
She reaches into her pocket then, pulls out her pair of glasses, placed them on her nose.
"I have some too."
"You have to wear them too?" Roland asks, his eyes going wide.
"Yep. These are better than any magic I can make. I keep them upstairs, and if I don't wear them, my eyes get tired and my head gets sore." Regina tells him.
"How are they magic?" He asks, innocently.
"Because they take these two eyes," she taps on each of his cheeks, "and make them into the best eyes of all."
"They do?!" Roland asks.
"Yep! So how about, if I wear mine, you'll wear yours?"
"Hmm. But what if they fall off? Daddy said to be careful with them and I can't do anything cos they might fall off." He tells Regina, quietly.
"Is that what you've been worried about?"
"Well, I won't be able to play in the park or run around or dance or anything." Roland explains.
"Roland, they're specially fitted to you, that means they're not going to fall off." She tells him, bringing him in against her again. "Shall we test it out?"
She feels Roland nod against her. She pulls him away from her so she can leave the sofa.
"Watch, Roland."
She does a little jump about on the spot, spins around and then holds her hands open, a little flourish to end her routine.
"See! They stayed on my face!" Roland still looks wary so she encourages him. "Come on, you try."
He does, he stands and does a little wiggle with his bum, Regina scoffing out a laugh. Then he spins around as quick as he can. When he finishes he reaches up to his face, his little face going wide with shock when he realises his glasses have not moved. He runs around a little more, climbs onto the sofa and jumps off, all the while his glasses staying safe. Regina laughs as she watches him testing out his new eyewear. When he climbs onto the sofa once more, Regina stands, turning to face him. She reaches out and he runs and jumps into her arms, Regina giving him a little jostle before pulling him in close.
"Wow! They really are magic!" He tells her.
"Of course they are." She agrees, pressing a little kiss to his head.
"Thank you for doing that. I really don't know what else I'd have done." Robin tells her later, when they're alone, spooned up in bed together.
"It's okay, Roland needs them so we had to find some way." She tells him with a sigh.
"You're full of surprises, aren't you?" Robin teases.
"What do you mean?"
"Glasses." He says pointedly.
"Well, I don't really like wearing them, and I don't need them, so I don't."
"Well, I like them." Robin says, pulling her closer against him.
"You like anything on me." Regina sighs, with a roll of her eyes Robin can't see.
"True."
Then Regina smirks, "how much?"
"You want me to tell you? Or show you?" Robin asks, turning her around, sliding to move above her.
"What do you think?" Regina asks, eyebrow raised.
He leans down and joins their mouths then, a kiss, not heated, but one filled with gratitude and promise. A kiss not in line with the flirting that had led them there. But a kiss representative of respect and love, the qualities that define their wonderful little relationship.
When he pulls back and looks into her eyes, both him and Regina think to themselves how lucky they are to have each other, the second chance they didn't think they deserved. But they had found each other, in the end, and they would stay together, always.
Hope this made you smile :) x
