This was a prompt I have been meaning to do for a while! Hope you enjoy, also feel free to leave me more prompts in the comments! :)
Regina was super late; she had meant to drop Heidi off at her parents' house earlier so that she and Robin could attend his degree show opening. It was a fancy black-tie drinks thing at a gallery in Portland which was at least an hour's drive away. The whole day had been thrown off schedule by accidentally taking a nap with Heidi on the couch as they watched some kids program, the now three-year-old dozing off against her had made Regina sleep as well, only waking when Robin arrived home from work and startled them both.
"Robin! Have you seen my lipstick?" she called from the bathroom, rooting around in her makeup bag not knowing where else it could have possibly gone.
"Which one?" he asked, appearing at the door, putting cufflinks on his shirt cuffs.
"My usual red one."
"No, I haven't seen it."
"It was in here; I can't go without lipstick."
"Don't you have another?"
"Not one that will go with the dress," she groaned, shaking her head as she looked down at the red silky dress, she had taken ages to pick it out from the store earlier that week. "That one was perfect, I'm sure it was in here, I can't think that I would have put it anywhere else."
"What about in your bag?"
"Maybe," she sighed, spritzing a little of her perfume before heading towards her room, glancing into Heidi's bedroom to check on her as she passed, only to find that she couldn't actually see her daughter. "Heidi?" she called out, walking further into the room. "Robin do you know where Heidi… oh my god!"
"What, what is it… oh fuc… fudge."
"Heidi! What are you doing?" Regina asked, finding her daughter behind the lilac curtains covered from head to toe in red lipstick, it wasn't just on her pyjamas though, it was on the walls and the carpet too and Regina had to take a deep breath to calm herself down, she'd already been worked up and this just took the biscuit. "Is that mommy's?" she questioned in her stern mother voice.
"Uh huh," Heidi nodded, still trying to apply to the broken red lipstick to her lips, making herself look like a tiny little toddler clown. "I put mommy's paint on, go with you to party," she grinned, her little white milk teeth showing as she presented them with her artistic skills, or lack of skills. "Look pretty like mommy."
"Baby, that's mommy's lipstick, not for children," Robin tried, cringing as he got closer and realised the extent of the damage. "Did you forget that you were going for a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house?"
"No, don't wanna go. I come look at paintings with you," she nodded, smiling at her father before looking over at her mother and frowning. "Moma angry?"
"You shouldn't take mommy's things without asking Heidi. Look at the mess you made," she sighed.
Regina shook her head and walked away from the room, hurrying into her own and unzipping her dress before stepping out of it and quickly putting on some leggings and a shirt. Once she was changed, she went downstairs and grabbed the cleaning products before rushing upstairs and into Heidi's room. "Give me that madam," she took the unsalvageable lipstick from her daughter's hands and tossed it in the bin.
"Look at your bedroom and tell me what you did that was wrong?" Regina stated, trying not to be too firm with her daughter but knowing that she had to know that what she had done was wrong otherwise she wouldn't learn.
"I sorry, didn't mean to make mess. It was oopsie." Regina looked at her daughter and took in her downcast blue eyes and all of her anger melted away, it was just impossible to stay mad at Heidi, you had to be heartless to still be mad at her after that.
"Okay, but you know not to play with mommy's things."
"Uh huh," she nodded quickly, wrapping her small arms around her mother, "where did the pretty dress go?"
"I have to make sure that this comes out of your carpet so it doesn't stain," Regina stated, running her fingers through her daughter's hair, only to find chunks of lipstick there as well, was there anywhere it hadn't gone? Her main concern though was the carpet. Walls could be painted over, carpets were harder to replace and much more expensive. "Right, Robin, give her another bath whilst I try and save this."
"I already had bath!" the little girl protested, "I said sorry. Don't want 'nother bath!"
"Heidi, you're covered from head to toe, you need a bath," Robin sighed, "come on." Regina watched as he shepherded her into the bathroom trying not to touch her, clearly worried about his suit coming into contact with the lipstick. They'd had issues before concerning a white shirt of his and her lipstick marks, though truthfully, they had come from more exciting ventures than a daughter covered in makeup.
She could hear her daughter grumbling all the way to the bathroom, still doing as her daddy told her though. She knew she was in trouble though Regina had a feeling that she had meant well, she always did, it was just the outcome was never what she was expecting, bless her heart. Turning to the carpet she shook her head and got to scrubbing.
After around twenty minutes the walls were clean and all that was left on the carpet was a pinkish stain which she could live with, but they were late and she could tell that Robin was panicking when he ran into the room with Heidi wrapped up in her frog towel, the boggle eyes peering on top of her head covering her freshly washed curls. "Okay, one clean daughter here we go." He dropped her playfully on the bed and she landed with a bounce. "I don't think we are saving those pyjamas, to be honest."
"Never mind, I need to go get my dress back on, can you make sure she has everything? We're super late."
"We definitely are, thank you, Heidi," he scoffed, hurrying over to the chest of drawers to grab a fresh set of pyjamas to dress her in.
It was another ten minutes before they were all stood in the hallway, Heidi clinging to her Dumbo toy in one hand and her daddy's hand in the other. She had her dressing gown on and her fluffy slippers, "moma, you look pretty," she smiled.
"Thanks Heidi," she sighed with a playful eye roll, "you look ready for bed."
"Daddy says I has to stay with grandma and grandpa."
"Yes, you do and we're dropping you off right now."
"Okay."
Regina blinked and turned to look at her daughter, she was never okay with being left out of what they were doing so that reaction was a strange one. She guessed that it most likely stemmed from the fact that she knew she was already in trouble. "Good girl," Regina smiled, running her fingers through her daughter's hair gently, "right, in the car."
She scooped Heidi up and headed outside, leaving Robin to lock up as she secured the little girl in her car seat for the five-minute drive to her grandparent's house.
By the time they reached the venue they were a little late but hadn't done too badly for making up time. Regina had to borrow a lipstick from her mother, the situation had made her realise that she probably needed more than one of her favourite lipstick in the future for moments just like this one.
She was bursting with pride as she walked into the gallery, her hand secured tightly within Robin's. She knew he was nervous about the exhibition, about what people might think of his work, but she couldn't have been prouder of him. She'd seen bits of the collection, however, some of the pieces he had been working on at the university in the studio and she hadn't had chance to get a sneak peek.
She bit her bottom lip as she looked at them, they were similar to his high school work, but so much stronger. Depicting their family, the three of them in a magical world. There were dragons and other creatures and it was breath-taking the amount of detail he had put into each piece. One in particular that caught her eye was a canvas depicting Heidi in a cute blue dress, pressing her little hand to the nose of a rather majestic looking Unicorn, that one was certainly going up in their house, no doubt about it.
Regina was stood looking at the pieces as Robin mingled around, talking to the people who had come to view the work. She had a flute of champagne in one hand as she took in all the details of one of the dragon pieces, this particular one was of Heidi staring into the eyes of a dragon, her hair blowing behind her.
"Pretty amazing aren't they," someone stated, coming up behind her.
She turned to see an older man approaching her and nodded, "they really are."
"You're the woman depicted in some of the pieces."
"That would be me, yes," she smiled, looking back at the work as he came to stand beside her.
"So you know the artist then?"
"You could say that yes, I'm his girlfriend."
"He obviously likes to paint you."
"He's been painting me since the moment we met," Regina chuckled softly, remembering the moment in the library when he had asked if he could draw her. She had been reluctant at first but when she saw the drawing he created she couldn't have been happier with it.
"So, do you model or…"
"No," she laughed, "no definitely not, Robin just likes to paint me as you said so I'll sit for him, but no, I don't model."
"You should, here's my card."
"Oh I don't think…"
"Just take it, I know some people who are looking out for new talent."
"Talent?"
"Models." Regina reluctantly took the card from the man as Robin came up behind her, his arm wrapping around her waist. "You must be the artist."
"Robin Locksley," he nodded, shaking the man's outstretched hand before giving Regina a reassuring squeeze. "What are the two of you talking about?"
"I was just telling your girlfriend here that she should think about modelling. Oh, and I want to buy the entire collection."
Robin's eyes widened as he stared at the guy in shock, Regina looked up at him feeling her heart rate quicken, she didn't know what to think about it. In a way, it would be amazing for Robin, but for some reason, it unsettled her, the man was unsettling. "The ones of the little girl aren't for sale," she stated before Robin could even say anything. She didn't want strangers having paintings of her daughter in their house.
"Mr Locksley?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm sure we can sort something out, but Regina is right, the ones with the girl in them aren't for sale. Our daughter would kill me if I didn't let her keep them."
"Fine, how much are we talking? What's the price tag?"
"Well…"
"Come we'll find somewhere to sit and talk about numbers."
Robin nodded and gave Regina a look before following the man through the gallery, leaving her stood there feeling a little stunned. She turned back to the image before glancing down at the business card, Sydney Glass. Interesting. She wondered what he was going to do with ten paintings of her and Robin, that's how many there were without Heidi in them. How could anyone have enough room for ten paintings that size in their house? Unless they were fully redecorating or starting from scratch. The art world was a mystery to her.
Robin was gone for a while and she had walked around the gallery at least another ten times before he re-emerged looking very pale. She furrowed her eyebrows and made her way over to him as he stood leaning against the doorway, just staring into the room. "Robin."
He looked up and she saw how he took a deep breath before meeting her halfway. "What happened?" she asked, taking his hand gently.
"You won't even believe it, Regina," he breathed before laughing softly and shaking his head, "you won't believe how much he just offered me."
"How much?" she whispered prompting him to continue.
"65 thousand."
"What?" she almost squeaked as she stared at him, realising why he had been as shocked as he looked. "I think I must have misheard."
"He offered me 65 thousand dollars for the lot of them, minus the ones of Heidi."
"Fuck me, that's… that's insane!"
"I know!" he laughed, biting down on his bottom lip, "just think about what we could do with that money."
"Christmas is coming up and my god that would be helpful," she chuckled, it would be around thirty-five times what they currently had in their bank account, "you accepted right?"
"Uh yeah. When I made these, I never even considered selling them but, I couldn't pass that one up."
"Good! I would have been pissed if you had!" she laughed shaking her head at him, "I can't believe it. Congratulations!" she beamed, leaning in and pressing her lips to his, "I'm so proud of you, you know that? I wanted to tell you earlier but you were busy socialising."
"Thank you," he smiled, bumping his nose against hers, "I guess that also means we can afford to buy you a new lipstick."
"Oh wow, thank you," she giggled, kissing him again as she tried to come to terms with how that amount of money would be able to change their lives for the better.