A quick note before we start because I always forget to say this, thank you for all the nice reviews you leave me! You're such a joy every time ;)
so I wrote some fluff from the prompt: hi would you consider continuing your love is all around christmas oq o/s you wrote a while ago? like sometime in the future with them or what happens next? it's so cute! (Thanks for the request!)
This is a continuation from ch 34 so you should probably read that one first!
Where Lights Glow
"Yes, that box. Yes, that's the one! I have to tell you everything, aren't you supposed to be, like, a professional?"
"They don't pay me that much, sister," the man, Leroy, grumbles, lifting the box that holds her books. "Holy shit, my back is going to turn into a puddle of bones, what the hell did you put in here?"
Regina sighs, her hand going up to her forehead. It's two in the afternoon and she can already tell it's going to be Headache Day, and of course this had to be that same day when her boyfriend is not home until seven. Of course. She'd give her lungs for aspirin and a dark room, right now, but she has to listen to these seven men bickering and walking around with boxes of things.
And they're just starting, because there's the other house to clean up as well, so that they can pile them up in the truck and drive towards her new home.
Their new home.
When she has showed up drunk, at Christmas Eve, right at Robin Locksley's door, it was because the zip of her dress was stuck. So she remembers too little of their first kiss, it's all a daze of liquor and his arms around her and cold tiles beneath her feet.
Best Christmas gift ever.
And then, he has… stayed. In her life.
That night, they've kissed and kissed some more, and he has accompanied her to her door, even if she lives just in front of him. And she has giggled, when he has given her a goodnight kiss, and asked her out. As if she'd ever say no. As if she's ever turn down that sexy, handsome man who has stolen her heart in two dates and a half, who has brought her to dinner, and whom she has made love with on every surface of her house. It has been a warm winter, with him, then a happy spring, and in summer he has met her mother and sister – a very interesting day, that one – and in autumn they've flown to England and she has met his mother.
And here they are again.
Another Christmas, but this year she won't be spending it with people she dislikes – instead, she'll be with her friends, and his, and it will be… better. Life is better, now. Now she gets to see the man who has become her best friend and lover every night when she gets home, now she gets to hold his hand whenever she likes and to steal the blankets at night and have someone to drag over and see cheesy movies with.
"Hey, love, do we take those things too?" Leroy asks, pointing at one last box in Robin's room. She walks there, checks inside, and tells him No, I'll bring this one by car, thanks. He shrugs, and tells her Fine by me.
She knows what that box is – the box that holds inside the valuables of Robin's life, photo albums, his father's tie, some books, an ancient pocket watch. She lifts a glass ball, smiles at a frame with a picture of them in it, and… ops.
There's a… jewelry box there.
;
When he comes home – her home, they've agreed to stay there for the last night – he finds her on the makeshift sofa, curled up with a blanket and pillows, candles lit around her as she rewatches something he classifies as Downton Abbey.
"Hello, love," he greets, and Regina turns her head to smile at him. It will forever make him happy, the way she smiles, so he bends over to kiss her lips and tells her he'll be right back, he'll go change into something more comfortable and get some food for them, uh?
She nods, her eyes drifting back to Sybil Crawley as she pulls the blanket up and settles herself on the mattress.
When he comes back with heated pizza and Ben & Jerry's, Regina smiles at him, but it's… a weird smile, that has him wonder if she's okay.
"Is everything alright?"
She hums, curls against him and offers some blanket as she takes a slice of pizza. "I've had a bad headache today," she murmurs. "It's getting better now though."
"Oh, darling, I'm so sorry I wasn't here," he tells her, with a pang of guilt. "You had to deal with the moving stuff all by yourself, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she says. Munches quietly on her pizza, and they watch for a little while as Maggie Smith roasts someone with her usual sass.
The silence stretches to an unbearable level, so Robin curls his hand around hers and sighs. "Regina, what is it?"
He looks at her, and doesn't miss the way a corner of her lips lifts before she meets his eyes. "Nothing's wrong," she says, earnestly, and he believes her. She takes a deep breath, and blurts it out. "Robin, do you… have you…" she gulps down, and he stays silent, waits.
"Have you thought about… marriage?"
;
She sees in his eyes a myriad of emotions, but he's calm as ever when he answers. "Yes," he says, "we have been together for months, yes, I have."
She shifts uncomfortably on the mattress, still holding his hand. "We have… never discussed it."
"Oh, well," there's a glint of a smile in his eyes, "I just… thought about it. A lot, lately, since we came back from England."
"But…" she draws a breath in, telling herself there's no reason to be nervous, it's… Robin, after all, and she loves him. "But, like, you started… planning something?"
He smiles at her, squeezes her fingers, and then answers, "Not really. I… think things like that take time, and we have to wait for our time," he brings a hand up to replace a lock of hair behind her ear. "There is no rush, Regina, it's just… I'd like that. Very much."
She stifles a laugh, because why is she so embarrassed about this?
"And… if – if – I asked you to marry me, what would you say?"
"Can't you guess?" he tells her. Pecks her lips, just a small thing, and pulls back. "What would you say?"
She smiles, tilting her head. "I'd say… Robin Locksley, you are an amazing man, a wonderful friend and a generous lover, and I adore you, and above all…"
"Above all?"
"… you suck at hiding things."
He widens his eyes, immediately understanding, as Regina finally laughs and pulls against him to kiss him. He tangles his fingers in her hair, right away, then she breaks the kiss, her forehead resting against his. "You are such a goofy idiot," she tells him affectionately. Then pulls the jewelry box out, as Robin bites his lip, and grins at her.
"So, my darling," she starts, "would you like to be tied to me for all eternity and to wake up at my side until death do us part?"
"You're such an ass," he answers, taking the box from her hands and opening it. "Yes, Regina Mills, I'd very much like to have that opportunity," he says, serious, and she feels so happy that maybe she's crying. "And do you want to marry me?"
"God, yes," she whispers, as he slides the ring to her finger. "Merry Christmas, my love."
