Notes:
Hii, I'm here to make you cry a little, don't be mad at me, please! :)
In the previous chapter
The father lighting the fireplace, the mother preparing the food, the excited child. That was the closest scene to family that house had ever seen.
As they say, if the walls can speak... If those walls can speak, they would have called the memories that had accumulated over the years it had housed the Mills family, it would simply call loneliness.
Henry and Cora Mills had only been to this house a few times together. Their daughters, Regina and Zelena, had few memories of the four of them being happy together because the day these four always ended up in a fight when they got together.
So at first Henry would come alone with his daughters, taking them away from their mother for a few days. Years later it became a home where only Regina and Zelena came. The number of visitors decreased slowly from four, first to three, then to two, often to one. It consisted of walls representing loneliness with its peaceful atmosphere.
But that day, every tree that surrounded the garden, every drop that filled the lake knew that this house would now accompany a family. For the first time in years, it would represent happiness, not loneliness.
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" He turned to the woman hugging her shawl after put his son in the boat safely.
"I'll almost with you, Robin, you will only go 10 meters." Her wide smile faded even the light of the sun overhead. "I'll stay here and read a book."
She had adjusted the seat on the dock and lit the small fireplace, her book and coffee ready on the table.
"Okay, I will leave you in peace."
"Be careful."
After the man nodded, he carefully got into the boat with the boy examining his fishing rod and dipped the oars into the water.
After making sure that they were continuing carefully, the woman who retreated to her corner thought she couldn't be happier, but she spoke early.
She often looked up from her book to watch father and son chat, with Robin teaching Henry how to use a fishing rod.
With a cry of joy coming from the lake, she realized that Henry's effort had succeeded, saw her son drop the fish from the end of his fishing rod into the bucket on the boat.
When she finally realized that she couldn't focus on her book, she closed it and placed it next to her, focusing only on the most beautiful sight her eyes had ever seen.
Their adventures, which continued until it was time for lunch, would soon come to an end, and they would return home, so she decided to go inside and prepare something hot. She called Robin before returning to the kitchen.
When the man who saw her name on the phone turned towards the house, he saw the woman standing on the pier and held the phone to her ear.
"Regina?"
"I see you have a lot of fun, but don't you come back? We have to cook the fish."
Robin raised her wrist and look at his watch, he saw that they had been there for two hours and that it was almost two o'clock.
"Oh, you're right. We are coming."
"I'll make hot chocolate. Come before it gets cold."
After hang up the phone, Robin turned to his son again. "Someone tricked me with hot chocolate, kid, I'm sorry."
"I think I'll join you. We can't say no to hot chocolate."
The woman who is pouring the chocolate in the glasses heard voices that informed that the fishermen were returning. She prevented her family from entering, who soon joined her in the kitchen.
"Uh-huh. Change your clothes first, you don't deserve hot chocolate in this state."
"Even if we brought our lunch?" Robin said.
"Even if you brought our lunch." She stayed in front of the door confidently. "Come on, it will take a few minutes, and we won't have to put up with that smell."
"Henry, one more information for you; our queen hates the fishy smell."
"I'm just sensitive for the smells." She crinkled her nose as one corner of her lip curled upwards.
"Okay, we don't want the queen to run away from us, do we?" Robin kept standing there as Henry ran upstairs to the room Regina had showed earlier.
"I know one more scent you are sensitive to." He narrowed the gap between them slightly.
"Hmm, yes, vanilla and apple." She knew what scent he was talking about, but she wanted to reciprocate his flirt.
The blond man lowered his head a little and brought his nose close to her neck. As she said, he filled his lungs with the scent of vanilla and apple.
"It seems we have a common love."
Regina bit her lip as she worried the man could hear her heartbeat.
"But... Are you sure there isn't another one?"
"Actually, maybe there is one more."
"Hmm? Will you tell me?"
"I'd want to tell, but..." She extended her head to him, as Robin had just done, and brought her nose close to his neck. "I can't smell anything but the fishy smell, I think it's making my mind a bit cloudy."
"I guess I have to figure it out."
"It seems so."
As Robin headed for the stairs, she let out the breath she was holding and had to take air through the window to calm the fire in her veins. God, those two days were going to be so hard!
Henry who turning down first took his glass from the table and went into the living room to watch TV. Regina took out the salad ingredients she had put in the cupboard earlier and started washing them.
As she held the tomato in her hand under the water, she felt the presence of the spirit behind her and jumped.
"Ah, you scared me!"
"You do everything with passion. Including washing tomatoes."
"I remember someone saying he fell in love with this passion. It must be engraved in every cell of me. Can you blame me?"
"I never dare, milady."
She forced her heart to stay in control as the tomato she had washed slipped through her hands and fell into the sink.
She turned her head over her shoulder and met his blue eyes. "We have a story to tell today, thief, what do you think of it?"
"It's a wonderful story to tell while toasting marshmallows in the fireplace. A story that will satisfy a curious child... Well, as I recall, a curious man just didn't get a satisfactory answer. What will you do now that the obstacles are gone?"
She turned off the faucet and turned straight to the man.
"I will think of something."
She brought her head back to his neck. She closed her eyes as her lungs filled with the scent she knew. She let out a slow, deep but small groan that made Robin shiver. She couldn't always be the one whose tread on air, sometimes she would be a reason to tread on air.
Opened her eyes halfway and raised her lips to his ear. "It seems the forest scent open my mind."
She pulled back from the unresponsive man and presented her most charming smile, then bit the corner of her lip.
"You're going to kill me, woman!"
"Mmm, it's not exactly my intention. I still need someone who can cook the fish."
"Are you sure this is all you need?"
She turned to the countertop that behind her and took a look. "I guess, I need more tomatoes."
"Then I'll leave you with your tomatoes and cook the fish. I wouldn't want to know you don't need me."
Henry who saw the swing in the garden through the window after the delicious lunch offered to go out again.
After a quick tidying up together, they fulfilled the boy's request.
Robin continued his steps towards the corner of the garden as Henry jumped on the swing. He faced the emptiness of the sitting area, which used to be a large tree behind it. It didn't feel the same without the apples they were sitting under.
No matter how much she wanted to, she did not go near him because she wanted to give him space. It wasn't easy for her to face it either.
She took her eyes off the man she loved, choosing to focus on her son.
"Regina, will you push me?"
"Hold on tight, dear."
Long ropes allowed the swing to rise into the sky, making it feel like it was above the lake. It had given her the moments when she felt closest to freedom for a long time. She used to close her eyes and let the sound of nature penetrate her soul, imagining she had wings. She used to rise high enough to take her away from everything and to her freedom.
At Henry's request, they played a few board games later in the day. Regina with the experience of being queen in for years won all three rounds by a wide margin in Monopoly.
As the day was almost over, they had taken a walk around the lake to watch the sunset and had returned home.
"I need helpers to prepare dinner. Stop lying there and come here!" The Queen called from the kitchen in her commanding tone.
When she didn't get an answer for a while, she came out of the kitchen and stood in front of the living room door, her eyes filled with threats.
"If you won't be in the kitchen in five seconds, and you won't be getting lasagna and apple pie."
"Really? Are you going to cook lasagna and apple pie?" Robin sat up in disbelief.
"I'm not too old to know what I'm talking about, am I?" She squinted her eyes and frowned, and replied in a sweet stern tone.
"Point taken. We are coming, your majesty, please don't be angry. Come on, Henry, I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss out on those tasty treats."
After putting the lasagna in the oven, the family started to prepare the apple pie, and they couldn't stop dirtying each other and the environment throughout the process. In addition to their clothes, which were covered with various sauces, their hair had whiteness caused by flour.
After only the baking portion of the pie remained, the not-so-brunette woman at the moment sent each of them to a bathroom and went to her room herself. They had half an hour for a quick shower and prep until the lasagna was cooked.
She wore comfortable black trousers and a red wide-necked sleeveless blouse. She left the zipper of her black sweatshirt open. She shaped the natural waves of her hair and went down.
Men were already downstairs before her, they had changed into more casual clothes like her. It was suitable for a simple family evening.
"We set the table." Henry said proudly.
"I admire your speed." She ran his fingers through her son's hair and pushed back the strands that had fallen in front of him. "I'll take the lasagna and put the pie.
She left the plate whose scent came before it on the table, and after cutting and distributing the slices, she sat down.
"Robin was right, this is the best lasagna I've ever had. There's no better!"
"I am glad you like it."
"I adore it! If I wasn't with you when you did it, I would have thought you were doing magic."
"Who said I didn't?"
"We're dealing with a master wizard, Henry. I watched her many times while she was doing it, but I couldn't discover her secret."
The Queen laughed as she shrugged lightly. "What kind of wizard would I be if I couldn't keep my secret?"
"A wizard who will have to make lasagna all the time if she doesn't tell me her secret?" Henry looked up from his half-finished plate and asked.
"A wizard who will always be happy to do whatever you want. I guess I should put in a little more." She took the piece from the plate with a spatula and left it on her son's plate.
"Allow place for the pie, you'll enjoy it as much as lasagna." Robin warned his son very confidently.
So did it, Henry loved the pie too, but failed to get the recipe for either one from Regina.
The Queen son could give the world to him whenever he wanted, and she wouldn't withhold a recipe, of course, but she couldn't deny herself the pleasure of cooking lasagna and pies for her son.
"I think I deserve a good night story now." The boy, sunk into his armchair with the warmth of the fireplace, called his parents as they sat side by side sipping cider.
"Okay, where were we?"
"On my mother's fall into the lake."
"I was helping Killian get out, and Regina was helping Emma. In the meantime, we only saw each other for a moment."
"I wouldn't be surprised if you say you fell in love at first sight." He mocked, referring to Shakespeare session in the morning.
"There is no such thing as love at first sight, young man, you have to distinguish between like and love."
"Well, did you like then?"
"Hmm, I guess I wasn't paying that much attention. Emma's screams didn't create a magical moment." The woman laughed. "You, Robin?"
"I remember being busy with Killian grunting too. But I'm sure we'll give you something to make fun of, because I was too drunk to distinguish between tents that night.
Henry raised his hands to his face. "Please don't tell me anything traumatic."
"Not you, but I think I traumatized someone else."
"You did." Regina said firmly. "Imagine someone tampers through your bag inside your tent as you sleep, Henry."
"Oh my god, Robin!"
"It was so dark, and I was too drunk to even know she was inside, I was just looking for a lantern."
Henry let out his laughter. "Did you find it?"
"It would be more accurate to say that the lantern found me before I could find the lantern, because suddenly someone started screaming, 'There is a thief!'"
"It's not my fault you broke into my tent."
"It was the whiskey's fault, Regina, that's what we agreed."
"Whiskey didn't get into your stomach without your knowledge, Robin."
"I remind you that we owe that whiskey a thank you."
"I never objected to that."
Henry watched their sweet bickering, as much as he liked to make fun of their romance, contrary to his behavior, he loved seeing them. He thought he had never seen a couple so compatible with each other.
"You screamed? Then?" He wished for the continuation of the story.
"Of course, the entire camp woke up and gathered around us. Although my swirling head and the attack of a certain person made it very difficult for me to get out of the tent, I finally managed to fall into a place with light. I couldn't even understand what was going on."
"You made it very clear, dear, when you turned to me and said, 'What are you doing in my tent?'" Regina said.
"This is one of the funniest meet stories I've ever heard. I can't believe how you went from here to love."
"It might not have happened if Emma and Killian hadn't been involved and calmed the situation."
"You forget that I apologized to you in the morning. That still wasn't enough to deter you from calling me the thief."
"I like calling you thief because you were angry." She said with a mischievous smile.
"Henry, this woman you saw was like those naughty boys pulling the hair of the girl he loved in elementary school."
"You can't say you don't like me pulling your hair."
"I never said. After a while, when you started saying my nickname with love, not with a mock, I started to wish you would say it all the time."
"And I did."
"I believe the time has come to leave the thief and his lady alone. Good night to both of you. Thank you for today."
He left his parents and went upstairs. Robin also left the room after convincing Regina that he could tidy the kitchen alone.
The woman who having completed one of the best days of her life took her glass and went to the terrace to sit against the view.
At the end of the minutes when she took shelter in the warmth of the fire in front of her, she heard the footsteps echoing on the wooden floor and turned her head.
"Henry is asleep." Robin sat next to her on the sofa overlooking the lake.
Regina nodded. "He's tired today."
"It was worth all the tiredness though."
The piercing blue of his eyes met hers to melt the chocolate browns, they smiled at each other.
"Sorry to disrupt your time together Robin, I'll take care of it when we get back. Then I promise, I won't interfere again."
"Regina…" He touched her empty hand, which was resting on the sofa, making contact. "Henry was very happy today, and so was I. I want to spend time alone with him, just like you, but my biggest wish is that we can all be together, and that's what our son's wants, I'm sure."
Our son. She thought that she would never tire of hearing the best result of their shared love from the man she loved.
"I was very happy too." She said. She didn't know if it was the third glass of wine she had drunk or the beauty of the day, but her emotions turned into words outside of her consciousness. "I thought I forgot what it felt like to be happy."
Oh! She closed her eyes with the weight of the words spilling from her lips. Why did she keep self dramatization, for God's sake? She can't be that weak, Regina Mills can never humiliate herself!
"Stop it."
The woman turned her head to the man suddenly. "What?"
"Stop it. I can hear what you're thinking. Even though your brain has forgotten that you don't have to hide behind your walls next to me, your heart remembers, you can't blame yourself for clashing with each other. You know which one has to win, Regina, you're the one to end this war."
He saw the woman's chest rising and falling with shaky breaths, the confusion reflected in her eyes with sparks from the fire.
Even though they had been flirting with each other all day, repairing their deeper feelings was more than words.
"What if I don't know how to do it?"
"I can take my heart out and put it in your hands if you want, but I can't help you with this, no matter how much I want to." He took her hand, where his fingertips touched, between his hands. "I can still feel a very strong attractiveness between us. Today was the biggest proof of that. Do you feel it too?"
The woman nodded with her eyes filled with tears.
"But this attractiveness, all the flirty words are not enough in our case. So I'm glad Henry stopped us in the car this morning."
Regina lowered her eyes to her lap, unable to continue staring into the eyes she fell in love with as she was invaded by the meaning of words. She didn't want to believe that what she had been through all day was just the magic of the moment, but it was for Robin… Wasn't it?
"You're doing it again, listening to the wrong side." He put his finger under her chin and pushed her head up. "If you don't take your eyes off me, you'll see what I mean there. Not that I don't want to kiss you, there isn't a second I don't want to. Let me ask you a question, is love physical or spiritual?"
"Physical attraction is not love. You cannot fall in love with someone whose soul you cannot see or feel."
"Love is what you dare to do, Regina. You are the woman who prefers to be close to me with your soul than with your body. You know our love is much greater than the physical attraction between us."
"So you're glad Henry stopped us."
The man's lips curved upward, but Regina saw his smile in his eyes, not his lips.
"There were many moments today where we would have lost ourselves if it weren't for Henry's presence in the next room, upstairs or downstairs, but I don't want anything to get in the way of our emotions, not even our desires. As I said in the palace, I want to be able to come to you right, I want to be with you with everything. I will heal Robin for you. You're going to heal Regina, for yourself before me."
"Reaching Regina is harder than I thought, there are so many obstacles ahead." A drop from the tip of her eyelashes landed on her lap.
Deep in her soul, in front of Regina who crouched in a corner, Cora Mills stood like a mountain, right behind her was Leopold Blanchard... But the hardest thing to pass was the queen of Storybrooke, a wall in herself that the two had created together.
"I'm sure you can, you just have to choose whose side you take in your fight. I'll be there every time you turn your head, I promise."
She watched the broken version in her soul rise from her seat. Even a single word from Robin was above most.
She marveled at how she had survived so many years away from him and his loving soul. She didn't think she would ever recover if she lost him again. So she had to do whatever it took to reach Regina. For herself, for the man she loves, for her son. For his family...
"My direction will always be towards you, Robin."
The reflection of the shining stars adorned the lake in the dark sky, which they watched with the peace of silence and their presence.
"I miss the sky view the most when I'm in the city."
"Some things never change." Robin said. "You still wear the necklace."
Regina's hand rose to her neck, clutched the end of her necklace as an old memory resurfaced.
"I never took it off."
It was clear from the surprise on his face that he had not expected this. For years Robin had believed that she had destroyed everything about him. Just as she planned. Just like her decision. So if it was her decision and the consequences of that decision, why was Regina still in so much pain?
"Do you remember what you said when you gave me this?"
She asked, though she knew he remembered.
Robin pulled her eyes away from hers and turned them upwards, after a moment his finger was raised to point in a spot.
"Polaris. Pole star. Sailors used to find their way home by looking at this star. This is what I see when I look at you."
"Wherever I am, I will find my way back to you, because you are my home." She finished the sentence she knew was intentionally left unfinished, without turning away from him for a moment. The words which said to her years ago, returned the same feelings.
"You told me that I was your home, but you were my home. I didn't know what family meant, I didn't know what a home felt like. The day I left you, I lost my family, my house, everything."
Once she had the courage to tell the story, she wanted to open herself, she didn't know when Regina, who had come out of her corner, would have that courage again. She had to try to break her barriers.
"The first year at the palace was very difficult. It was never easy, but... It was the most difficult. The more I was the queen that the public saw in the front, the more my mother was in the back. It took me five years as a queen to take charge of my own will, before it, I could do anything but submit to her. I let her rule me. Because... I had no desire to take the strings of my life into my own hands, I was no different than a breathing dead person anyway. I felt like an empty shell, my mother's puppet, Leopold's baby doll."
She took a long sip from her glass before speaking of her husband.
"Leopold was 50 years old when he ascended the throne. He was so angry that it was his turn so late, so he spent about five years just having good days, until he suddenly changes his mind."
The knot in her throat prevented her from speaking, she blinked her eyelashes as she stared at the pole star to parry the tears that filled her eyes.
She knew at that moment that she had chosen the wrong place to tell the story. Feeling the presence of the pole star didn't make it any easier to tell. She was separated from the man who called her his home, for what...
"Robin, I am the prize of a bet."
She squinted her eyes at the man's dark blue eyes and frowning brows, she couldn't have continued if she didn't.
"There was a very old friend of Leopold at the ball that day. When my mother introduced me to them, There was an argument between Mr. Gold and Leopold. It's like I'm a property to be had."
Although Robin could only see the woman's face sideways, he could sense the disgust in her expression.
"Leopold, who had no intention of getting married, changed his mind out of hatred for his friend. My mother, of course, took advantage of this opportunity that came her way. She'd gotten into his mind and instead of making this simple, disgusting subject disappear, she convinced his that if he married me, his shattered reputation would increase.
"He thought that anyone who disregarded him would respect and envy him because of her beautiful, young wife. When I faced this fact it was hours to my wedding. I found out when Leopold took me in his arm and introduced me to Mr. Gold as if talking about his new car."
Robin felt as if the sky were crashing down on him, pouring down on every single one of the stars above him. He wanted to exhume those who treated the woman that he could not fit into the earth and sky, that he would not change for the world, that he would give his life for her without thinking,
his pupil, his heart, his breath, his soul like a simple piece of meat and strangle them with his own hands and kill them again and again.
"I waited for months for this torture to end, I waited for my mother to see my unhappiness, I waited for her to give up, I waited for Leopold to lose her enthusiasm. At the end of a year... When the next heir to the throne came to the fore... I gave up. I realized it wouldn't end. That day, I had the apple tree brought to the palace from here. I wanted to feel at home a little bit, I wanted to be close to you, I wanted to imagine my son still in my arms"
He pulled the woman who pressing her teeth hard to her lip to quiet her sobs into his arms. He hugged her tight as he wanted to protect her from the whole world as she fixed her head on his chest.
"Don't hold back, if you want to cry, cry, if you want to scream, scream. I'm here for you Regina. I will never go again."
Although he managed to make his voice strong, he released his silent tears after his love remained small and took shelter in him. He made a great effort not to let Regina feel his crying as his chin rested on her head. He didn't want to put any more weight on her shoulders and upset her even more.
As he continued to run his fingers through her hair, the years of accumulated tears flowed from the woman in his arms. When her successive sighs and sobs began to alarm Robin, he forced her head up from his chest to see her.
"Look at me, sweetheart. It passed. Look, here we are. We are at home. You are safe."
"Why-why me... Why, Robin?"
"It wasn't your fault, baby. I promise I will never let anyone hurt you again."
Fear and sadness had so engulfed him that everything suddenly became meaningless. He didn't even realize he called her as he used to, he was not thinking when he placed kisses on her head over and over again.
They spent minutes muttering his soothing words in her ear, and he didn't let go of the hug for a moment until Regina calmed down again.
When the air grew colder and the fever subsided, he lifted the shivering woman onto his lap, and entered from terrace as Regina quickly curled up against him and put her arm around his neck. He placed her gently on the wide sofa, adjusted the pillows, draped the thick blanket on the sofa over her, and pressed his lips to her forehead.
"Sleep, honey, I'll be here."
"Robin... Will you sleep with me?"
The wounds inflicted on her soul by all the shattered pieces did not allow her to be alone, She was not ready to leave his arms even if he was right next to her.
He lifted the blanket he had just draped over again and lay on his back to the place Regina had left blank. She rested her head on his chest as he ran an arm around her back and pulled her closer to him.
He continued to caress her hair until her breathing stabilizes and and was sure she was asleep.
"I swear I will dedicate every day to making you and our son happy. I love you!"
Notes:
Hey, did you like it? It really upset me when I was writing this chapter. Every day we learn about something of Regina's queenhood life. I love how connected they are to each other. I'm excited for you to read more. See you in the next chapter!
Thank you for reading, please, let me what you think. ❤️