For OQ Prompt Party Week - Day 2.

Prompt 120: Cuddling during a flight.


Regina never gets to have quiet moments anymore.

Before she became president, she and Robin knew how to skate around their duties, how to keep their work schedules and still find time to just hold each other close and ground themselves in the action. She remembers one particular time, back when she was governor of Maine, where Robin had found a way to sneak into her bedroom in the middle of the day. She'd been sick back then, dealing with a bout of food poisoning that had made nausea churn horribly in her stomach. She'd been put on bed rest by her doctor, and she'd begrudgingly agreed, falling asleep in the soft covers, only to find Robin there when the early afternoon sun had let its rays bleed in through the window, warming her face enough to wake her.

"Look who's finally woken up," he'd teased, but kept her on the bed, drawing her close and peppering kisses on her brow until she'd fallen back asleep with her head on his chest, his hand slowly drawing patterns over her arm.

She misses those days. She wants that leisure back.

Instead, she's aboard Air Force One, flying off to Thailand for a special visit. Robin is off in one of the other areas of the giant plane, addressing the staff, surely, and giving them final orders, as they should be landing in the next hour.

To her surprise, carpet-muffled steps enter the otherwise lonely cabin, and his voice is tired but lovely as he greets her, "Figured I'd find you here."

"Where else would I be?" she tells him without tearing her eyes away from the window. This is her favorite part of the plane. The conference room. It's cold, but not too cold; there's an espresso machine and a freezer full of ice cream, and it's peaceful, the rumble of the engines barely audible, the windows giving way to wide, open air without the rotors or the wings of the plane interrupting the blue-and-clouds landscape.

She loves this place.

"Well, I figured maybe in our bed, naked and ready," she hears Robin tease in reply. Regina chuckles, then tears her eyes away from the view out the window to feast on the view of him as he sits beside her.

"I just... needed some quiet," she tells him honestly, giving him a relaxed smile.

"Would you like me to leave you alone?" he asks politely, and she loves him, loves him so much for understanding that sometimes she just needs a bit of time to herself, but right now, all she wants is to feel his warmth enveloping her in the slight chill of the room.

"No, please stay," she answers. Robin leans in then, gives her a quick kiss, and then taps her thigh gently as he tells her, Come here.

They shift and move around until he's sitting in the window seat, his back pressed to the wall of the plane as Regina lies between his parted legs, one of which is dangling from the seat, foot flat on the floor, while the other stretches out between her side and the cushy backrests of the three empty seats they're now occupying.

His chest heaves and sighs as he relaxes, pressing against her back on every deep inhale. His lips trail kisses on her hair, his arms wrapped around her with his hands clasped just over her belly button. Regina turns her head to the side, so that his next kiss lands on her brow instead of her hair, and the one after that he places on her lips, a slow, soft exchange that warms her from the inside out.

"You're beautiful," he says as they part, one of his hands coming up to stroke his thumb over her cheek. She smiles, leans in for another kiss, and settles back in her previous position, this time with his chin digging into her shoulder as he places his head right next to hers and they both look at their joint hands over her upper stomach.

"I've missed this," she confesses, her fingers playing with his, twirling his wedding band, a subconscious habit she's developed during the seven months they've been married.

"I've missed you, too," Robin agrees, kissing her cheek. Regina closes her eyes then, lets go of his fingers and basks in the sweet passes of his thumb over her wrist, his tender kisses on her neck, his warm sighs and the devoted whispers of "Love you," that he presses into her shoulder...

"Love you," she replies, threading their fingers together and scooting down just a little, so that her forehead now rests right by his lips (and never one to miss an opportunity, Robin kisses her there instantly). His arm is still around her waist, elbow pressed into the backrest, hand splayed over her thigh.

His other hand is now in her hair, massaging at her scalp, and Regina could just about purr.

"Mmm, that feels good," she tells him, her eyes closing as she tilts her head back and lets him knead and caress her sore body, working out the kinks on her upper back and sliding smoothly down her arm.

Slowly, she settles into the comforting hold of his arms around her, and breathes in deep as she surrenders to her exhaustion, falling asleep almost instantly.

When he wakes her, it's with soft kisses on her brow, and a low whisper letting her know that they will land soon. But when they finally touch down on their destination, Regina doesn't move, merely settles in more comfortably, and lets everyone else deplane while she takes a short nap with her husband, his strong arms wrapped securely around her, his steady breathing a lullaby in her ear.

Because these quiet moments, well, they are everything.