Notes: Let's get them together now!
Leopold and Snow were an extremely boring couple. He had been looking forward to coming back from the moment he entered the palace, and now he had to spend an evening with the queen on top of this boring father-daughter.
While the king continued to talk about his country, one of the guards announced the queen's arrival and saved Robin from this torture for a while. He turned his head to the opening door and found the last person he expected to see before him.
Was he dreaming of the violence of his desire to find Regina, or was the woman he was looking for always by his side? Was it possible that he had been so enslaved by this woman as to confuse the imaginary and the real world?
It was possible if you asked Robin, but no, he didn't mix fantasy with reality because the woman had the same surprise in her eyes and she was looking right into his eyes as if to say, "What are you doing here?" He wanted to say that "I was going to ask you the exact same thing." She was very different from her in the forest, but even more beautiful than he remembered.
Regina had to dug her nails into her palms to keep from screaming for that fleeting moment. The man who had occupied her mind for two days was making her life difficult just by doing so. Now, it was clear that she had involved the same man into her evil plans, doing everything to get her to marry her stepdaughter. She would be surprised if fate was on her side for once.
The woman, getting over her surprise faster than the man, forced herself to walk towards them. Otherwise, Leopold would have known that something was wrong, but this time the queen knew in her heart that it would not be easy to hide her feelings.
"My dear wife, we've been waiting for you too." The nonverbal communication between them was interrupted by the king.
Robin would have laughed out loud if they said he could hate a word, but here he was. Trying to calm down, he was wanting to eliminate that word from the world.
"Sorry I'm late." She said with that smile etched in his mind.
The King stood up and put his arm around Regina's waist. First he introduced the prince to the queen. "Prince Robin of Locksley." Then the queen to the prince: "Queen Regina."
He would have blamed her for this calmness and indifference if he hadn't seen the gesture of swallowing hard on her graceful neck. Maybe their previous meeting didn't have as much meaning as he had expressed it to herself, but he would have preferred that she at least enjoyed the company.
"Nice to meet you."
Now it was time for Robin to gather himself together. He took her outstretched hand, planted a gentle kiss on her fingers. It was as if there was a magical power in her skin. It wasn't because of her magic, of course. When their hands touched, the prince felt as if he was in a surreal world, far from that palace. It might have been just a moment, but he thought that the queen, whose chest swelled with a deep breath, felt the same.
The feelings of finding her again quickly gave way to disappointment and frustration. Why hadn't she told him she was the queen? "The honor is mine, Your Majesty." He couldn't help emphasizing his last word.
"Do you know where Henry is, Regina? It would not be right for us to keep our guest waiting any longer."
"Probably not aware of time." She turned to the man at the door. "Tell our prince when it's time for dinner."
Sitting on the seat shown to him, he was trying to figure out who Prince Henry was. Because of their close age, he knew that Snow could not be Regina's daughter. He remembered that his father had said that the king had lost his wife a long time ago. So Leopold had another child with his ex-wife?
Regina sat at one end of the great table, and the king at the other. They had the princess and the prince seated side by side. On the side near the queen was an empty chair, which he guessed belonged to the prince.
Everyone turned to him when a boy ran into the dining room. Regina had a face that shouted disapproval of the way he entered. Her beautiful eyes silently warned the boy from under her frown.
"Sorry, I wasn't aware of the time." The Queen's warning must have been fulfilled, as his steps slowed when he reached the table.
"What did we talk about being on time for dinner and not running around?" Regina asked the little boy sweetly.
"I'm sorry, mom."
Robin loved to spend time with his arrows since he was little. At first, he was shooting target boards, then he started working with trees in the forest. When he became a master archer, hunting animals became child's play for him. He had never thought about how the arrows that hit their heart made the animals feel. Until the moment when Henry calls Regina as mom. Did they feel their breath suffocation too, the blood in their veins starting to poison them? Did it hurt them to see the world slip under their feet?
"Hello, I'm Henry." The boy said, smiling. "Welcome to Enchanted Forest."
His smile is like his mother's, his eyes are as expressive as hers. Henry is definitely a copy of the woman he loves. She's not the woman you love, she's a married woman with a child.
"Thank you, Henry. I'm Robin. I'm glad to meet you."
"How is your father, Robin?" The king asked when the food arrived.
"He asked me to give you his regards. He talked a lot about you, I think you were old friends."
Leopold smiled. "We are. Albert is a very old friend of mine. You look a lot like his youth. But you look more like your mother."
"Do you know my mother?"
"We used to spend a lot of time Lisa and Albert with my wife."
Regina turned her eyes, which she had avoided Robin's throughout the meal, to the king, but no expression, no emotion appeared on her face. When he was talking about Eva, he said 'my wife'. She was surprised to finally admit that. She had long since realized that she was not his wife. The only woman Leopold truly loved was Snow's mother, Eva. Regina, on the other hand, was his prisoner who only satisfies his desires and makes him show off.
The queen, who was grateful that they had completed the dinner without reflecting the tension between them to the others, saw that her son had finished his meal. As always, her savior had been her little prince.
"Henry, it's bedtime, honey." The boy slid out of his chair after wishing everyone good evening. Regina immediately repeated the same move. "With your permission!"
On the way to his room, Henry tried to convince his mother that he was too big now for her to lay him down, but was unsuccessful. She refused to let him finish his day without at least one goodnight kiss.
After she covered her son and kissed him goodnight, she left his room, but she didn't want to go back to the dining room. She didn't have the energy to suppress her emotions any longer. The rules she had not compromised for years, all her emotions she had buried were turned upside down in two days. She was very angry with the man who caused it.
When a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the great column, she immediately took a defensive position, forming a ball of fire in her palm, ready to launch.
"I don't harm you, Your Majesty."
She put out the fire and lowered her hand as her eyes met a pair of blues and the scent of the forest filled her lungs. She took advantage of the hem of her dress to hide her trembling hands.
"What the hell are you doing?" She said, trying to sound as hard as possible.
Instead of fearing her and backing away, he took another step forward, making her lean against the column. The Queen felt her heart beating in her throat. My god! What's going on with me?
"What do 'you' think you're doing? How many times are you going to deceive me?" Robin's blue eyes darkened. Was he out of breath like she was? If so, the prince didn't show it.
She hoped she didn't show it too. She didn't even want to think about it. So she laughed and tried to hide it even more. "Deceiving? I didn't deceive anyone."
"First you hid that you can do magic. Then you hid that you are a queen." He pressed one of his hands against the wall and prevented her from escaping, but she had no such intention. "Why didn't you tell me, Regina?"
"As I didn't ask you if you were a prince, and you didn't tell, you didn't ask me if I was a queen, and I didn't tell you."
"Well. Why did you make me carry you all the way?"
What did he want to hear? Where did it come from that he was so important to her? She wasn't going to fall in love because he helped her.
She brought her face closer to his, her eyes found his lips. When she met the deep blues again, she adjusted her voice to its deepest, most captivating tone. "I'm very impressed with you."
She could have sworn a gleam had passed through his eyes, but it was too short, and he was back in his old questioner form. For a moment he wondered if she was telling the truth, and he believed what she was saying. He soon realized that she was making fun of him. He didn't know Regina very well, but he knew she wouldn't make such a confession like that.
She proved his observations was correct when she pulled back and laughed, taking advantage of that little gap to slip out of his arms. "I was just having some fun, Prince Robin." She said, shrugging her shoulders. "I hope you have a good time here."
She stopped when he called out as she turned and continued on her way. "Regina." She turned her head slightly enough that she could see him. "I said that I'd see you again, my queen. And we're sure to have a lot of fun."
She needs to breathe. This intense feeling is too strong to suppress anymore. She feels that the walls of the palace are walking to her. Her heart ripping out without the need for magic. A voice screams in her mind. No, Regina, you can't. You will use this man to destroy Snow's life. Nothing else!
"I won't let anyone spoil my plans, not even myself!" She murmured as she finally reached the garden. She took a deep breath and allowed the cold to permeate her body. Winter was coming... The leaves of the trees in the garden had turned brown, and they were making preparations to renew themselves.
She wanted to sit down and relax under the apple tree. What caught her attention as she placed her hands on the cold marble made her heart, which had just returned to normal, beating wildly again. A flower emerged from the dry earth. How could it bloom in mid-autumn, when winter was so close? She held her breath as the dream she had seen resurfaced in her mind. Could this really have anything to do with Robin's arrival?
Notes: Heyy, how did you find it? I loved this, I hope you like it too. They both were really surprised. Let's see what will happen next?
See you soon!