Happy birthday, Mel!
He ducks, avoiding the snowball right as it whooshes past him and lands on the trunk of a tree just behind him. He laughs now, and Henry growls in frustration.
"Papa! You're a grown-up! Grown-ups are supposed to lose!" Roland complains from where he stands next to Henry, a pouty little scowl on his face.
"Who told you such a thing?!"
"It's the law," Roland says solemnly, and Robin laughs at his son.
"I'm sorry, my boy, but I'm an outlaw, remember?" he says just before he sends another snowball flying and hits Henry square in the chest.
"You know, I can just rat you out to mom," he says once he shakes off the snow from his bulky jacket.
"You wouldn't dare," Robin gasps, and Henry's devilish smile tells him he's about to win this game in a whole new way.
"Oh moooooooom," he calls out in a sing-song voice, and a few seconds later, she pops out of the house, bundled up and looking utterly adorable as the breeze whips her hair around her face.
"Henry? What is it?"
"Papa won't let us win!" Roland interjects before Henry can reply, and Regina looks down at him and smiles.
"Oh, so Papa's being naughty then, huh?"
"Yes!"
"Well, you know what that means, don't you? Santa won't bring him any presents."
"Ha! You hear that, Papa? You're getting coal for Christmas!" he says excitedly, and Henry groans.
"Mom, he has to let us hit him at least once. There's no point to a snowball fight unless both sides get to play," Henry whines.
Regina says nothing, merely looks at Robin and raises an eyebrow.
"Oh, come on," he says, "what fun is there in losing?"
"Boys?" Regina calls out to them as she steps out of the way, and suddenly Henry and Roland are hurling snowballs at him from the pile he'd failed to notice right next to them, and he's covering his face with his hands and laughing as he yells at them to stop.
"Okay, winners get the first batch of gingerbread cookies," and she hasn't even finished her sentence before the boys are darting inside to grab their prize. She chuckles, yells "there's milk in the fridge!" after them and then turns to look at Robin's disgruntled face.
"That was cruel," he accuses, and he's so pouty she can't help but smile as she saunters over to him.
"I wasn't called the Evil Queen for nothing," she replies, and now would be the time for him to comfort her, to tell her she's not that person anymore, but the time where she needed his reassurances on that regard has long passed, and she accepts it, accepts who she was, who she became, who she is now, and she accepts that he loves every single part of her, past and present. There is nothing self-deprecating in the way she reminds him of one of her many personas, not anymore, and he smiles at her as he grabs her waist and pulls her closer.
"It hurt," he whines in her ear, dropping a kiss right under it and making her shiver.
"Serves you right for wanting to humiliate two little boys at their own game," she sasses back as they make their way to the porch, but her voice is husky now, goes lower as he drops a kiss to her jaw.
"I'm on the naughty list, then?" he asks her, the tip of his nose skimming her neck when they stop walking, and the action makes Regina hold on tight to his waist.
"Yes, you definitely are," she breathes against his hair.
"Mmm," he acknowledges, pulling her closer and letting her feel all of him pressed against her thigh. Regina moans into his mouth when his tongue darts out to lick her bottom lip, teeth nipping at it as she rakes her nails up and down his sides under his jacket, "totally worth it."
That makes her pause, pulling away from their embrace to look at him.
"You've spoken of nothing but those gingerbread cookies all day, and now you suddenly don't care that you're not having any?"
"Ah, but you see, I get to have something far tastier than cookies now that the boys are distracted," he says, backing her into the porch railing, and she can feel his fingers dig into her hip as he places open-mouthed kisses down the column of her throat.
"Robin," she warns, but then he's covering her jaw in tiny, teasing bites, and she can't help it, she sinks into it, into him, and enjoys every second of it.
"Oh god, not again!" a voice interrupts them, and they jump apart when Henry's groan is heard from just behind them.
"You guys have got to stop doing that when I'm around," he complains through a mouthful of cookie, and Regina is blushing furiously, burying her face in Robin's shoulder as she mutters "sorry, sweetheart," and grows all the more embarrassed when she raises her head and sees her son pointing an accusatory finger at Robin.
"You get two more snowballs for that. In fact, you know what? You both do."
"Excuse me?!" Regina's voice is louder and sharper than she intended, but Henry's smiling mischievously at them.
"Mom… run," he warns before he darts to the small pile of snowballs still in the yard.
They have no time to escape, but they try to anyway, running behind the porch as they laugh, trying to hide from Henry, but one of the snowballs lands on her shoulder blade, another on Robin's arm, and in an instant they're huddled on the floor, making snowballs of their own to throw back at him. When Henry realizes their plan, he calls for Roland, and the little boy comes running out of the house, ready to help his team win again.
It turns into full-on war, and after an hour Robin and Regina are sprawled in the snow, defeated and freezing, with rosy cheeks and huge smiles on their faces.
Roland and Henry are back inside preparing some hot cocoa, but when Regina moves to get up and follow them, Robin holds on to her hand, yanks at it so that she lands half on top of him, his arm snaking around her waist to press her body against his while his other hand cups her face, his lips landing on the tip of her nose.
"Are you happy?" he asks her, and there's a small grin on his face that tells her he knows the answer to that question, but he wants to hear it from her still, and she doesn't mind giving it, doesn't hesitate for a single moment when she whispers "I am," and then surrenders to his lips and his love and that unbelievable joy she feels whenever she looks into his eyes.