Hello all! Sorry this is late, but I've been freakishly busy the past couple weeks with school since it's nearing the end of the semester, and I just haven't really been in the best place, mentally, for a while so I'm just trying to focus on that too. I'm still continuing to write these chapters, and I only have two and a half more to write before I'm done, but there are five more for me to upload for you all.

Thanks for sticking with me through my crappy update schedule, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. It has quite a bit of fluff in it because, well, it is our Queen's birthday chapter and I just felt like it would go better here and not the Holiday chapters. Enjoy :)

Chapter 14 (Thirty-one weeks)

Regina's Birthday

Over the next few weeks, Robin and Regina's relationship grew stronger, if that was even possible after everything they have gone through together. But nevertheless, they are more sure, confident, and content in their relationship now than ever before.

So, the morning of February first, finds them snuggled up in bed together, wearing not a stitch of clothing and dried sweat clinging to their skin.

Robin had taken Regina out to dinner the night before, as an early birthday celebration, because all she wanted for her birthday was to spend time with her immediate family. Of course, that meant having Robin, Henry, Roland, Henry Sr., Zelena, Kiara, and possibly Cora over for dinner on her birthday. She just wanted a lazy day with her family for her birthday.

Robin wakes up first, opening his eyes and looking at Regina's peaceful slumbering face. He smiles at how relaxed she looks, and realizes how much younger she looks when she is completely at ease and her walls aren't so carefully built up around her. He leans in and kisses her nose, causing her to scrunch her face up momentarily before relaxing once again. He kisses her forehead, temples, cheeks, and chin before placing a kiss to her lips, each kiss waking Regina further.

After the third kiss to her lips, Regina finally opens her eyes and stretches her arms and legs.

"G'morning," Regina mumbles while stretching.

"Morning, Love. Did you sleep well?" Robin asks with a bit of a smirk, knowing she could barely keep her eyes open after their love making the previous night.

Regina looks at him with an unamused look on her face, and then simply says, "Yes, I did."

Robin leans in and kisses her once again, this time Regina eagerly returns the kiss, and they don't break apart until the need for air becomes too much.

"How did you sleep?" Regina questions, raising her brow and a smirk appearing on her lips.

Robin chuckles at her, "I slept very well, milady." Robin kisses her nose and then says, "Happy birthday, my love."

Regina groans and rolls over facing away from him. "Don't remind me."

"I will remind you as much as want because today is one of my favorite days out of the entire year. Today is the day my beautiful and wonderful wife and mother to my children was born," Robin declares, reaching over and pulling Regina up against him; her back to his front. He places a kiss to her head, causing Regina to smile.

"You're a fool, Robin Hood," Regina quips good-naturedly, turning her head to look at him and smiles.

"Ah, but I'm your fool, Your Majesty," Robin smiles and then leans down to place another kiss to her lips, but before their lips meet, they are interrupted by a knock on the bedroom door.

"Mama?" Comes Roland's voice through the wooden door.

"Shit," Robin mutters, fumbling out of the sheets and landing with a thud on the floor.

Regina giggles, "You alright there, Thief?"

Robin pops his head up over the side of the bed and looks over at Regina with an unamused scowl on his face. He then gets up to his feet when he hears another knock and the door knob turning and the door creaking open behind him.

"Roland, hang on a minute, son," Robin calls, grabbing his knit pants and throwing them on as Regina puts her robe on and ties it. Robin looks back to make sure Regina's ready, and, receiving a nod, he goes and opens the door to find Roland, Henry, Zelena, and Kiara standing out in the hallway, Henry carrying a tray of food, no doubt meant for Regina.

"Breakfast in bed for the birthday girl," Zelena explains.

"It's Mama's birthday!" Roland exclaims, running past Robin and launching himself on his parent's bed. He crawls over to Regina who has settled herself under the blankets again. "Happy birthday, Mama!" Roland throws his arms around Regina's neck in a tight hug, then settles himself in her lap.

Regina lands a big sloppy kiss on Roland's cheek, "Thank you, sweetie."

"Happy birthday, Mom," Henry says as he walks into the room and places the tray he had been holding down on the bed next to Regina.

Regina reaches her hands out to which Henry takes them and is soon engulfed in a hug.

"Choking. Not. Breathing," Henry jokes and then sits down on the bed next to his mom.

Regina lets go and smiles, "Too old for hugs from your mother?"

"Never," Henry says, and wraps his arms around his mom. "Love you, mom."

Regina silently curses her hormones for making her an emotional wreck at the smallest things. She hurriedly wipes her cheeks free of the few tears that had managed to slip out of her eyes. "I love you too, my little prince."

"I love you, too, Momma!" Roland declares and wraps his little arms around her waist as best he can.

Regina chuckles, as does Robin and Zelena who are still standing by the door. "I love you too, my brave knight."

"Happy birthday, Auntie Gina," Kiara says shyly, walking over and handing her a card.

Regina takes the card and sees that her niece has drawn a picture of the two of them holding hands and 'Hapee Birfday' written at the top. Kiara hadn't learned how to read or write while growing up in Oz and her mother, aunt, uncle, and cousins were helping her out. When Regina opens the card, she finds a picture that the two of them had taken in a photo-booth when they had gone shopping for the little girl. Kiara had seen the weird contraption, asked about it, and insisted on getting a picture with everyone.

Regina starts tearing up again when she sees that her wonderful niece has written 'I love you Auntie Gina' on the card with another picture of the two of them, but instead of holding hands, they are in the photo-booth, smiling.

"I wrote and drawed the whole thing all by myself," Kiara announces proudly.

Regina wraps her arm around her niece, "I love it, Kiara. I love the pictures."

Kiara smiles up at her aunt proudly and then over to her mom who smiles back encouragingly.

"I gotsed you something, too, Momma," Roland announces, not wanting to be outdone by his cousin. He runs out of the room and comes back only ten seconds later with a card made out of blue cardstock and with lots of stickers on it. Roland had just recently gotten into a sticker phase, and used them whenever he could.

"I drawed you, me, Papa, Henry, and Baby Sister at the park," Roland points out.

Regina nods her head and smiles at her youngest. "I love it, baby." Regina wraps Roland up in a hug and kisses the top of his head.

After Regina had finished her breakfast, everyone had been shooed out of the room so that she and Robin could get showered and dressed for the day. When they walk out of their room, holding hands, they hear multiple voices floating up the stairs from what sounds like the living room. They share a look and make their way downstairs.

When they walk into the living room, they see Henry, Roland, and Kiara playing Mario Kart on the Xbox while Henry Sr. and Zelena talk together on the sofa behind the children. Henry Sr. looks up at the sound of footsteps and sees his daughter. He smiles, stands, and walks over to her, engulfing her in a hug.

"Happy birthday, princess," Henry Sr. whispers into her ear.

Regina pulls back and smiles at her father. "Thanks, Daddy."

"Your mother called me this morning and said she plans on coming over for dinner this evening," Henry Sr. informs her.

Regina nods her head, "Thanks for passing on the message. Though I don't know why she didn't call me herself. She has my number."

"I'm sure she figured telling me was better," Henry Sr. attempts to placate Regina, and on the outside it looks like it worked, but on the inside, she was still troubled.

"C'mon, milady. Shall we have a relaxing, lazy day, today?" Robin suggests, raising his eyebrows in excitement.

Regina laughs, "You are a child sometimes, Thief."

"Ah, but so are you, Your Majesty," Robin quips back.

"True," Regina concedes as she sits down on the sofa next to her sister and Robin sits next to her.

Henry Sr. just watches the couple with a mixture of awe and confusion on his face. He turns to Henry who has let the two younger kids play against each other since he had been winning every race, and asks, "Are they always like this?"

Henry looks up at his grandfather and then over at his parents, before smiling and nodding his head. "Always. I've heard they were worse during the Missing Year. Grams says they were constantly at each other's throats, throwing insults back and forth to each other."

"Really? And they ended up married," Henry Sr. asks incredulously, looking over his shoulder at his daughter and his son-in-law.

"Yep. Don't know how or why, but Grams also said mom wasn't in a great place when they went back to the Enchanted Forest," Henry explains sadly, looking down at his hands.

Regina sees Henry's smile turn into a look of sadness and scrunches her face up in worry. "What's the matter, Henry?"

Henry looks up at his mother, "Were you really that sad when you went back to the Enchanted Forest?"

Regina blinks, his question coming from seemingly nowhere.

"Gina was sad a lot," Roland nods his head, turning his attention from the TV screen and joining the conversation. He then looks over at his older brother and says, "She misseded you a lot. She yelled at Papa a lot too."

Roland's last sentences causes everyone to laugh, Regina's face turning red as a blush rises up to her cheeks.

"How in the world did you two fall in love with each other if you were constantly yelling at each other?" Henry Sr. wonders, looking between his daughter and her thief, the conversation turning from Regina being sad for the time being, much to Henry's relief. That is a conversation he'd like to have with his mother in private.

Regina and Robin exchange a look between each other, remembering certain dalliances between them during the Missing Year. Nothing serious. Just steamy make-out sessions that usually ended with them both topless and in Regina's bedchambers on more than one occasion. But explaining to Henry Sr. that the constant bickering and insult-throwing was just pent-up sexual tension, is not something either one of them would like to say.

"Perhaps I don't want to know all of it," Henry Sr. says, looking between his daughter and her husband, and possibly realizing what they aren't saying.

Regina whips her head around to face her father, a blush creeping up onto her cheeks. "We, uh, only threw insults at each other when other people –namely Snow and Charming –were around. We actually would wind up being in the gardens at the same times, most nights, and just talk," Regina explains.

"It wasn't by coincidence, though, that we were in the gardens at the same time," Robin admits, looking a mixture of sheepishness and smugness.

Regina looks at her husband confusedly. "What? I always assumed you would go there when you couldn't sleep?"

"Well, part of that is true. I would wake some nights and wander the halls of the castle until I was tired enough to go back to my rooms for a couple hours of sleep before Roland would wake up with the sun," Robin explains, looking over at his son and smiling at the end. "But one night I happened by a window that overlooked the gardens and I saw you sitting by a fountain. You had on a simple cream colored dress and your hair was down and wavy. It was the first time I had seen you look actually human, and not as the Evil Queen. When I walked out and stood beside you, and you turned your head to look at me, I realized how much younger you looked when your guard wasn't up. I also half expected you to throw some kind of insult or rude comment my way, but you did nothing of the sort. That's when I realized you had been crying."

Regina nods her head, remembering that first night of just sitting and exchanging the occasional word here and there.

"Why were you crying, sweetheart?" Henry Sr. asks his daughter, looking at her worriedly.

Regina looks up at him and then at Henry before saying, "I didn't sleep most nights. I would be out in the gardens or in the kitchens, depending on my mood, and just think about Henry. What he was doing. How school was going for him. What his life was like. Did he miss me, even if he didn't remember me? That night, I had gone out to the gardens to let my mind wander. The theif and I had a particularly nasty fight earlier that day, and I just needed to just calm down and relax before I did something rather terrible."

"I don't ever remember you not being in the gardens, and we were out almost every night there?" Robin questions, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

Regina lets out a laugh at that. "No, because after that night, I never went back to the kitchens at night. I always went to the garden, because –though I wouldn't admit it then –I actually enjoyed and looked forward to our nightly conversations."

Robin smiles at her, "Well I'm glad you did, because otherwise that would've just made our daily verbal sparring matches so much worse. I did notice that you eased up on the insults after that first night, though."

Regina smiles sheepishly at that. "Well, after getting to know you more, I found it quite difficult to actually find insults to throw at you. Which is why I really enjoyed when you tried telling me what to do or argued with me on something. That was much easier to put all my energy in; much more satisfying, too." Regina smirks, looking over at Robin and finding him looking at her incredulously. "What?"

"You, Your Majesty, are unappeasable," Robin says simply.

"I know," Regina sasses smugly.

"You two were outside nearly every night?" Zelena inquires, looking between her sister and Robin with a shocked look on her face. "I could've come after you at night?"

Regina chuckles, "No, I put up a protection spell around the castle and the grounds –much like you had –shortly after everyone was settled inside the castle. So you wouldn't have been able to get to us."

Zelena hurumphs as she slouches back into the couch cushions, causing everyone to laugh at her.

Their laughter is soon interrupted by a knock on the front door. Everyone looks around confusedly, before recognition crosses Regina's features.

"I'll get it," Regina says, getting up off the couch and going to answer the door. When she pulls open the door, her mother is standing on the front step, looking rather . . . Nervous? "Mother," Regina greets stiffly, then more relaxed, "Come in."

"Thank you, Regina," Cora says as she steps past her daughter into the mansion.

"Momma, who is it?" Roland asks as he slides into the foyer from the living room. He stops abruptly when he sees that it's Cora. He then gets really shy and runs over to Regina and clings to her leg. "Oh. Hi."

"Hello there, Roland," Cora greets, her voice softening so as not to frighten him. "How are you today?"

"Good. It's Momma's birthday today," Roland says, all shyness disappearing and excitement taking its place.

"Yes, I know," Cora replies.

Roland's mouth forms an "O" shape, "Right. 'Cause you're Momma's mom."

Cora nods her head in agreement.

"Shall we go into the living room where everyone else is at?" Regina suggests, taking Roland's hand in her own and leading him away from the front door and to the living room.

"Excellent idea, dear," Cora says, following her daughter and Roland.

"…And when I walked into the room, not only was my son covered in flour, but the Queen in her big fancy dress was too. She had flour all over her," Robin finishes telling, looking up when he hears his now pregnant wife walk into the room.

Her father is laughing so hard he has tears leaking out of his eyes. Zelena has her head thrown back against the couch, laughing. Both Henry and Kiara are on the floor, holding their stomachs because they are laughing so hard.

"What's going on in here," Regina questions, crossing her arms across her chest and shifting her weight onto one foot as she leans against the door jamb.

"Just telling your father, son, sister, and niece about some funny moments between us during the Missing Year. I was just telling them about the time you tried to help Roland make a chocolate cake in one of the kitchens and ended up wearing more of the ingredients than getting them in the pans," Robin explains, standing up and walking over to his wife and placing a kiss to the side of her head.

Robin then notices Cora standing behind and off to the side of Regina and smiles slightly at her. "Cora," He nods his head towards her in greeting.

"Robin," Cora nods back. "Good to see you again."

"Mhmm," Robin hums, but doesn't agree, because he really has issues with Cora still, especially after everything Regina told him of her upbringing.

"Cora, why don't you have a seat?" Henry Sr. suggests, indicating for his wife to sit in one of the chairs in the living room.

"Momma? What's for lunch?" Roland asks, looking up at his parents.

Regina begins running her fingers through his curls and smiles down at him. "How do chicken nuggets and broccoli sound?" Regina suggests, looking over at Kiara and Henry.

Both Roland and Kiara are slightly obsessed with chicken nuggets at the moment, and Henry loves broccoli in general.

"Yeah!" Both Roland and Kiara exclaim at once.

All the adults chuckle at the children's enthusiasm at eating chicken nuggets for lunch.

"I will get started on that, milady," Robin offers, walking into the kitchen, the three children following after him –though Henry would insist he isn't a child anymore.

Cora's eyes follow Kiara out of the room before turning to look at her daughters. "Who is the little girl?"

Both Zelena and Regina make eye contact, exchanging a look, before turning to look at their mother.

"That's your granddaughter," Zelena explains, then at Cora's 'I figured as such' look, she elaborates. "My daughter."

Cora's eyebrows nearly disappear into her hairline and her eyes bug out at this bit of information. "Daughter? Yours?"

Zelena scoffs and rolls her eyes, as does Regina, nearly at the same time.

"Whose daughter did you think she was? Did you think Regina had yet another child? She couldn't have children of her own before Robin, and besides, Kiara looks more like me," Zelena gets defensive, crossing her arms over her chest and scowling at Cora.

Regina leans over and whispers in Zelena's ear, "Careful, Sis. You're looking a little green."

Zelena looks down and sees that her chest has a slight green tint to it. "Sorry."

Regina just smiles at her sister and shakes her head. "It's okay. You really shouldn't be jealous of me. You've got a wonderful daughter now and things are finally looking up for you. Enjoy what you have, and not what others have."

"I know," Zelena smiles at her little sister.

"What's going on?" Cora asks, causing the girls to look over at their mother.

"Nothing, Mother," Regina replies immediately, almost on impulse, before her sister nudges her side and gives her a questioning look.

Cora gives Regina the same look she always gives her when Regina gives that answer: skepticism and disapproval.

Regina sinks back into the couch cushions from her mother's glare, but tries to pass it off as needing to relax because her back was hurting. Zelena sees this and looks between her sister and mother.

"We were just discussing some private matters," Zelena excuses, leveling her mother with a glare that is daring her to argue with her.

Just then, Robin comes walking back into the room, sans children, and sits down on the couch next to his wife. "What'd I miss?"

"Oh just explaining to Mother here that I have a daughter," Zelena explains, still staring her mother down.

"Alright, stop it. Both of you. It's my birthday today and I don't want any fights, any family drama –well not more of it, anyway –and no stress. I just want to relax," Regina declares, looking at her mother and sister, and sighing when they reluctantly nod their heads and turn away from each other.

And a relaxing day is what follows. After lunch had been eaten, everyone settles back in the living room to watch a movie. Regina lets the kids pick it since it is usually hard to get them to focus on something they aren't interested in. Once the movie is going, Regina snuggles into Robin's side and Roland lays across his parents' laps and rests his feet on his big brother's lap. Henry sits next to his mom and snuggles into her side while Zelena and Kiara relax on the other couch next to Henry Sr. while Cora sits in a chair.

"What movie did you kids choose?" Robin inquires, looking at Kiara and then down at Roland, who is trying to stifle his giggles. "Roland?"

"Kiara?" Regina questions, looking over at her niece who is trying and failing to stifle her laughter.

"We chose a really good movie that Henry bought you for your birthday," Roland announces, looking up at Regina proudly, a ridiculous grin on his face.

"I got a birthday present I knew nothing about?" Regina questions, looking next to her at Henry.

"Well, this was part of the present," Henry explains just as the opening title of the movie they are watching comes on the screen.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No," Robin says when he reads 'Robin Hood' on the TV screen. "We are not watching this."

"Oh yes we are, Mister," Regina says, reaching for the remote and keeping it out of Robin's reach.

Everyone in the room chuckles, even Cora, who relaxes back into the chair cushions.

"Hey, Mom? You know what we are missing right now?" Henry asks, looking up at Regina with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Regina looks at him confusedly before she gets the same look in her eyes as he does. She looks over at her sister who looks momentarily confused before she catches on and poofs popcorn and Twizzler's licorice on the coffee table.

"Yes!" Both Henry and Roland exclaim, reaching forward and grabbing a bowl and some licorice.

Once the popcorn and licorice has been disbursed, everyone settles in and turns their attention to the movie. Robin voices his displeasure throughout the movie, causing Regina and everyone else to laugh.

-OQ-

As soon as the movie is over, Robin gets up and goes into the kitchen, leaving a very confused Regina on the couch looking after him.

"Be right back, Love," Robin tosses over his shoulder, as if he read her mind.

Not one minute later is Robin coming back into the room, but with a cake in his hands. When he sets the cake in front of Regina on the table, Zelena waves her hand and the candles light with flickering flames.

Regina smiles up at her husband, mouthing a thank you to him, to which he simply smiles at her.

Henry then inhales and starts singing, everyone soon following him.

"Happy birthday, to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Regina/mom/momma/auntie Gina! Happy birthday to you."

Everyone laughs at all the different names they say and then Regina is closing her eyes like an eager five year-old, and blowing out her candles.

"Happy birthday, Love," Robin says, kissing the side of her head once before she turns her head and captures his lips with her own.

And it really is: A happy birthday. One of many to come because she has all these wonderful people who love her. People who encourage her and help her to be the best person she can possibly be. People she couldn't even begin to imagine not being in her life.

Her parents are the one exception, because she knows that they will have to leave at some point. The dead don't belong up with the living, and the living don't belong down with the dead. She knows she is going to have to say goodbye sometime soon, but for today, she is just going to enjoy being surrounded by her family.

Because after all: it is her birthday.

What did ya think? Let me know. Reviews give me life and let me know that people are still reading and enjoying. Mwah! :)