Happy Valentine's day wicked_lisboa! I tried my best to put together what you told me you would have liked, I really hope you like this.

Thank you Nani for the betareading work.

It was like in a movie

February 14th, present time

Valentine's day, one of the few nights they went out to dinner without little monkeys demanding their attention, well almost, not that they really minded that. Their little monkeys were their whole world.

"Hey, do you remember our first Valentine's day?" The man known as Robin Locksley asked his wife.

The black haired woman known as Regina Mills wiped her face with the napkin as a smile began to form on her lips.

She smirked. "Which one? The one that led us to be here now? Or our real first Valentine's day as a real couple?" She asked, putting some emphasis on the word 'real'.

Robin took her hand and he kissed it. "You know I mean that first." He said with a smirk too.

And staring into each other's eyes, it was like they had been thrown back in the past…

.

..

February 14th , years ago

"No no no, absolutely NO!" The raven-haired woman turned around to leave, but she was stopped by a gentle hand on her arm.

"Please, Regina! I don't know what else to do!" The sandy blond man pleaded with her.

"No Robin, we'll find another way, but I can't do that."

Robin looked at her like she had said the most absurd thing in the world.

"Why not?"

"Robin, you're asking me to marry you because you have been an idiot and now you'll have to go back to Canada for good!"

"I know! Please, we'll just be married for a bit of time, so I won't be sent back to Canada!"

Regina snorted. There were so many reasons why she shouldn't accept, first of all her feelings.

"Please can we at least talk about it? Tonight? Over dinner?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. "You want to go out to dinner tonight, of all the nights?"

Robin looked at her a bit lost. "What's the problem with tonight?"

"It's Valentine's day, Robin. Sometimes I wonder if you really have a brain in that head of yours."

Considering why he was in that situation, he couldn't blame her for taking that into consideration.

Robin looked at her with puppy eyes. "So will you come to dinner with me?" It was like she hadn't spoken at all.

Regina pretended to think about it but it wasn't a difficult decision. Especially with Robin showing her his dimples, and oh boy she had a weakness for those. Why couldn't he ask her out because he wanted and not because he needed it? Why couldn't he just ask her out like a normal person? She would say yes immediately!

"Fine," she answered, annoyed.

"Yes! Thank you, milady! Thank you!" And with that, Robin kissed the side of her head and left Regina standing in the hallway, pondering on how to deal with everything.

Finding a decent place to eat that night had been a deed but Robin had done it and they were now eating in a really nice Italian restaurant.

"Tell me how you got yourself in this situation, again?"

Robin snorted. He couldn't understand if she was being serious or if she was making fun of him.

"I told you. We were so focused on our project that before I could actually realize it, I received a letter that my work visa was about to expire."

"And you can't just renew it?"

"I don't have the time. By the time every single thing is done, it would be too late. It would mean I would work here irregularly and before I know it my ass would be sent back to Vancuver with no possibility of coming here again to work."

Robin stopped his rumbling and took Regina's hands in his.

"Please Regina. I love this city, I love where we work, the people I work with, they are fantastic." 'You are fantastic and I wish I had the courage to ask you out for real' Robin would have also wanted to add that to his little speech, but he kept that to himself.

"And what about our families, huh? What are we going to say to them?"

Robin's mouth began to open and close like he was a fish. He hadn't thought about that. How come this never crossed his mind?

He ran his hand over his face and let out a deep breath. "I can tell my parents the truth. They would say I'm an idiot because I wasn't careful with the documents and everything, but that's it. We could do the same with yours. Or we could not say a word to both our families," Robin proposed, doubtfully.

Yes, he was definitely an idiot, she thought. Regina shook her head. "For my family marriage is something important, not to be taken lightly. They are already on me because I'm 25 and I'm still single. If I marry someone there won't be an escape to that. It would be a huge thing, they would adopt you into the family, after roasting you, and they would push us for children. And if there would be a divorce they would say I did something wrong," she pointed out.

That was something Robin hadn't taken into consideration, and now he was rethinking about the whole thing, or maybe not completely.

And it was all true. She loved her family but sometimes she wished that the Italian and latina parts of them, that she loves of course, the exuberant part, the extra part, the part that wanted a huge family with tons of grandkids, would stand down a bit. Her sister married when she was barely twenty years old, with a huge and extra (like her sister after all) wedding, and now six years later she was expecting her fourth child. Why couldn't her parents just be happy with those grandbabies, who they spoil rotten, and leave Regina alone?

Regina could see the wheels in Robin's head work and that he was about to produce another stupid idea. She exhaled and went back to her food, waiting for him to spill it all out.

"We can do everything without telling it to a single soul. We can go to the town hall and no one else would have to know. Well, only human resources."

Regina finished what she was eating before looking at Robin. "First of all, you would need at least two witnesses. Second, you're assuming I will say yes. And third, what would there be for me? You get your documents, but what about me?" What was going to be for her other than a terrible heartbreak that she knew she would suffer?

"Besides the fact that you could say you were with a fascinating man? My eternal gratitude," Robin said, becoming serious. "I would forever be in debt with you. And I would do anything to repay you."

She decided to put a condition to all of that. "If we do this I only have one request: no feelings involved." Regina knew that would hurt, but she needed to protect herself a bit, because when everything would be over it would hurt a lot.

He hated that ,but he accepted. "No feelings." But also from Robin's part that was a big lie.

Regina could see the sincerity in his eyes and heard it in his words and, despite her reputation of being an evil queen with an iced-cold heart, she couldn't find it in herself to say no, and despite the fact that everything in her told her to not accept, to run away from that, she said yes.

Everything would have been perfect if someone wouldn't have heard them talk about the operation, as they called it, and ratted her out with her parents. Parents who, as soon as they heard the news, began to organize their wedding, way too big, way too exuberant, way too extra.

Regina's mother and sister began to bombard her with questions, her father wanted to talk with Robin. The day after finding everything out, both their parents were like best friends. Robin and Regina were doomed. And the person who blurted out everything was dead, as soon as they could find him or her.

Robin's mother suspected that they were getting married only because of the situation her son was in, but after seeing how they interacted, the looks, the touches… Maybe there was something more than just a necessity. And maybe those two have yet to realize it.

A week later Robin and Regina were married but many questions still remain unanswered: why they wanted to do everything in secret, where would they live since they still had both their apartment, what about children and so on.

The newly married couple did everything they could to balk the bullets of answering those questions, and when that night they collapsed onto the hotel bed, where they had decided to spend the night, they were exhausted. They almost fell asleep in their wedding clothes, the only reason why they didn't, was that Regina's dress was uncomfortable to sleep in.

When they woke up in the morning Robin's arms were around her and Regina's head was pillowed on his shoulder. They had taken that day off to avoid the world and they spent it eating junk food in bed and watching rom coms and musicals on television. To Regina's surprise, Robin loved musicals and had no problem watching them with her.

The next day they went on with their life like nothing had happened. They went to work, to their respective homes, out with their friends (only their most close friends knew the truth).

But it was the time they spent together that began to change the way they saw each other. Or maybe it just made sure they opened their eyes to see what was clear in front of them.

Maybe Robin's mother wasn't so wrong after all...

Their life was strange. They were not a couple, but it was like they were. Robin had moved into Regina's home because it was bigger and she had a guest room that had become Robin's. They would put up a show every time someone of their family would come around but apart from that, they kept living their life.

But more often than not, they would fall asleep together, on Regina's or Robin's bed or on the couch. Every occasion was a go for Robin to put his arms around her, to kiss the side of her head, to run his fingers through her hair. And not once Regina found herself wanting for him to stop.

On her part, Regina loved to stare into his blue eyes, entranced with his dimples and running her delicate hand over his cheeks.

Robin would surprise her with flowers or buying her favorite wine. And Regina would make Robin's favorite dishes even if she soon discovered that his favorite food went from what it used to be his comfort food, to her lasagna.

Even if they kept denying it, they were becoming a real couple and a real family and they loved spending time together.

Regina didn't even realize a whole year had almost gone by since Robin had proposed to her this crazy thing until Robin asked her if she had any preference about the restaurant for Valentine's day dinner. And that felt like a punch in the face for her.

They went to the same Italian restaurant of the year before, but while Robin was enjoying the night, Regina looked pensive, like she had a lot on her mind, and almost worried.

Robin captured her attention by taking her hand. "Hey, what's going on in that pretty head of yours?"

Regina exalted. "This year. Our lives. Us..."

He tilted his head. "I'm a bit lost here, beautiful."

Beautiful, Robin had started calling her like that some times prior, she actually didn't know when he started. One day she just realized he was calling her that, along with milady, darling, lovely. All things that should be used between a real couple and not just pretending. And they were still only pretending, right?

A deep breath. "You asked for a year and that year is almost up."

Right, their time was almost up. They had agreed on that, so why were they both dreading that moment?

"It's really been a year already? It's incredible how time flies when you are with someone incredible and that you love."

Regina looked at him with widened eyes. Shit, he had said it aloud.

"Robin, don't make everything more difficult than what already is, we said no feelings." Her eyes were shining, as she was about to cry.

Robin still hadn't let go of her hands and he was stroking them. It was now or never, so he took his chance. "I... I don't think I'm ready to put an end to all of this. I don't want to put an end to all of this, to us. I want to put a real start to all of this, to us."

Regina's heart began to beat faster. "Wh- What do you mean?" He couldn't really mean he wanted to stay with her, that wasn't possible.

"It means that I lied to both you and myself since the beginning. We said no feelings out of this but my feelings were there way before I asked for your help. I was just too scared to ask you out in the first place."

"Robin-" But she really didn't know what to say to him.

"It's okay, I didn't expect you to share my same feeli-"

"I do." And oh shit she had just said aloud that she had feelings for him too.

Robin looked at her incredulously. "You do?"

"I-" To hell with everything, they were putting everything out and there was no reason to lie now. "Yes, yes Robin, I do." A shy smile appeared on both their faces as Regina continued to talk.

"The idea of this, us together, coming to an end is killing me. But it was what we had agreed on, what would have made you happy. So I was ready to help you, with all the implications of the case."

Robin moved his chair so that he could be nearer her and cupped her face.

"You make me happy. Being with you, doing silly things with you, watching movies with you, cooking with you, waking up with you in my arms... Those are things that make me happy."

Regina was openly crying. If before she had tried to stop the tears, now that challenge was completely lost. Robin brushed the tears away from her cheeks but it was useless because fresh ones would immediately replace the ones that the man in front of her had dried.

"We can be together, for real this time. Let me show you how important you are to me, how much I care about you." He wanted to say love but he wasn't sure if either of them was ready for that word yet.

Regina's voice was stuck in her throat so she just nodded, looking at him like he was everything, and in that moment he was her everything.

Robin looked into her eyes, ice blue and chocolate brown melted together. "What do you say, ready for a new adventure?"

Instead of answering, Regina kissed him with all she had and around them people began to applaud.

Their foreheads were against each other, both slightly embarrassed but happier than what they had ever been.

And what an adventure that had been and still was.

They had married again, kind of, with the excuse to renew promises because they wanted to fully celebrate their first year together as a married couple. Or so they said to who needed to know. There were just them, an officiant and her and his best friends as witnesses.

One of the things, wishes, they had in common was to have a big family. And that wish was granted by their twin boys that came a year and half after the promise of a new adventure, and by the two little girls that came in the following years.

Henry and Roland, so different but at the same time so similar. Henry, straight hair like his father but dark as his mother, curious eyes, apparently quiet but always ready to get himself in trouble, lover of fairy tales, superheroes and comics; Roland, curly dark hair as his mother, big curious eyes that like his brother, hid a mischievous soul and a love for the nature like his father. And both super protective of their little sisters.

Margot and Clare, two and three years younger than them. Both with long sandy blond hair like their father, Margot with her father's eyes and Clare with her mother's. The older girl was a free spirit while the younger, despite her age, was the intellectual of the four of them.

The weekend mornings cuddling up with their children was something neither Robin or Regina could have ever imagined, but they loved every single moment of it.

.

..

Today, February 14th, present time

They both had big smiles on their faces as they thought about their decisions, his disorganization with his documents, their lives and what had led them there in the same Italian restaurant that had witnessed the beginning of their fairytale story.

They finished eating and they took a stroll in the nearby park, Robin's arm around Regina's body so that his hand could rest next to hers on her belly where two other miracles were growing. Regina put her head on his shoulder and he kissed it.

They had their ups and downs, moments of crisis, moments where they were so happy they could explode, and they wouldn't change a single thing. Everything that had happened had led them to that moment and it was perfect.

Their life was definitely like in a movie.

Hope you liked it.

Constructive criticism and thoughts are always welcomed.