Just for you guys!

Drip. Drip. Drip, drop. Regina slowly opened her eyes. It was raining. She rolled over onto her side only to discover she and her husband had company. Roland. She wondered when exactly he climbed into bed with them. Actually, when had she gone to bed, she wondered. Last thing she recalled was sitting on the couch with Robin after they sent the boys to bed. It was a little thing they liked to do at the end of the day. They liked to sit on the couch without the boys and reconnect with each other. She seemed to recall Robin telling her about the latest soccer drills he and the head coach had come up with for practice on Saturday. She was distracted, pulling at the fabric on the blanket Robin draped over her lap when she complained it was too cold to sit in the den for their nightly chat routine. Regina huffed out. She had to pee and there was a little boy who was cuddled against her side. She really hated to move, to disturb his peaceful slumber. What the hell, she thought, the alarm would be going off in 10 minutes anyway. She ever so slightly shifted the boy onto a pillow hoping he would cuddle with that instead. The room felt uncharacteristically warm. Regina swung her legs from under the covers and reached for her house robe that had fallen on the floor when Roland crawled into bed. She tucked the covers up around Robin and Roland's sleeping figures and gazed at them for a moment before her bladder decided it was in serious need of emptying. She rushed to the bathroom and relieved herself. Might as well get a head start on getting ready she thought as she grabbed her toothbrush. Brush, brush, up and down, in circles, spit. She grabbed the mouthwash for one final rinse. The alarm sounded and she rushed to shut it off.

"Good morning," she cooed softly to Roland while she stroked his head. "Did you sleep well, my little prince?"

"Mmm hmmm. But I needs more beautiful rest, mommy," Roland whined. He was never easy to wake up, especially when he slept in mommy and daddy's bed.

"I know dear, but you have to get up and get ready for school," she reminded him hoping he would get up of his own accord. He snuggled close to Robin. "Roland dear, come on, get up. If you get up and start getting ready for school, mommy will make you apple pancakes for breakfast."

Roland let out a shy grin with his eyes still closed, "You will?"

"Yes dear, now hurry up and go brush your teeth and pick out something to wear, ok?"

"Okay mommy!" Roland pulled back the covers and scurried over to his room across the hall.

"Mmmmm, if I get up can I have apple pancakes too?" Robin questioned as he rolled over, glancing at his wife.

"Hmmmm. No, the apple pancakes were to coax a little boy out of bed. You, however, are a grown man who does not need coaxing out of bed. You should just do it because you enjoy going to work, earning money, supporting your family and keeping your wife happy. Remember that bit of advice David gave at our wedding?" Regina challenged Robin who was now sitting up in bed trying to decipher from his wife's blank stare if she was teasing or not. He was never really good at that and often thought she'd make a great actress should she ever decide to quit her job as an editor.

"Uh, he gave me lots of tid bits over the course of our dating, send the woman flowers at work to show off to her coworkers, make her a home-cooked meal…"

"Uh-huh, anything else? Anything along the lines of happy wife, happy life?" she questioned as she headed towards the door to their bedroom.

"Oh yeah! Maybe I do recall him saying that during the uh, best man speech?" he winked at Regina and pulled her into a hug.

"Yes, happy wife, happy life. Making you pancakes while trying to get the kids ready for school does not make me happy, it makes me stressed."

"Oh? Well what I can do to help de-stress you? Maybe a foot rub?" he queried as he pulled her down onto the bed with him.

"A foot rub would be nice," she hummed as he reached for her leg.

"Why do I sense a but?" he asked as he finally reached her foot and began rubbing.

"But I promised Roland I would make him apple pancakes and so I must get started!" And with that Regina hopped off the bed and quickly dressed. "Will you get dressed, make sure Henry is up and about and that Roland picked out an outfit suitable for rainy weather?" she called as she headed downstairs to start on breakfast.

Sure, sure, I'll get the boys ready while you make Roland your famous pancakes just for getting out of bed, Robin huffed to himself. If it made Regina happy though, he was more than happy to do it, he supposed.

"Hey Ro! Whatcha got on for today?" Robin asked as he stepped into the little boy's room.

"Hey dad! I pickeded out my Iron Man shirt, but I don't know what shorts to wear. Mommy always takes clothes out for me," he responded with a slight frown of frustration.

"Okay, why don't you take out a couple of pairs of pants to choose from while I go check on Henry, okay?" Suggested Robin as he headed next door to make sure Henry was awake and getting dressed.

"Hey Henry, if you hurry up I think your mom is making her famous apple pancakes."

"Oh, okay, thanks Robin, I'll be down in a few minutes," Henry responded.

Robin stepped back to Roland's room. "Hey Ro, you got some pants pulled out?"

"Yep! Which ones dad, which ones?"

"Well let's see, how about these gray corduroys?" he said holding up the pair of pants for Roland to look at. The boy cocked his head for moment, considering the proffered pants of Robin's choice and then moved his hands over to a pair of green cargo pants that decidedly did not match the shirt Roland picked.

"I think, I think I want the green ones! Green's my favorite color!"

"Okay Ro, if that's what you want to wear let's get them on so we can have breakfast, okay?"

"Okay daddy!"

A few moments later Robin and Roland were heading down the stairs to join Henry and Regina for breakfast. Unsurprisingly, he supposed, there were only three places set with Regina's famous apple pancakes. She was really sticking it to him, then.

"Wow mommy, you did it!" Roland exclaimed as he climbed into his chair and began eating hungrily at the pancakes.

"Hmmm, yes I did. I made you a promise. One should always keep promises, shouldn't they, Robin?" She smiled in Robin's direction. Robin was starting to get the feeling that perhaps he forgot to do something and Regina was punishing him for it. The only problem now was to figure out what it might be that he forgot to do. He had taken out the trash like she asked him to, so that couldn't be it. He got Roland ready, complete with weather appropriate clothing just like she asked him to. He just couldn't put a finger on it. This was really going to bother him all day, he could feel it. He didn't really like being ill at ease while he was at work and starting off the morning on Regina's bad side certainly put a damper on things. He sighed as he walked over to his wife who was leaning on the counter. He was just about to lean in to kiss her when she stepped away.

"Okay boys, you've got five more minutes before Robin has to take you to school okay?" Regina stated as she sat down and began to eat her pancakes.

"Hey, are there anymore pancakes left?" Robin was beginning to get frustrated with his wife. Just exactly was she getting at?

"I'm afraid not dear, but there is coffee, if you'd like. Oh, there are some apple slices leftover from pancake making." She said nonchalantly as she took a sip of coffee from the mug in her hands. She made a face and then, "On second thought, you can have my coffee."

"Right, I can have your coffee. Could I get a bite of pancakes before we head out?"

"You can have some of my pancakes daddy! Mommy said she needed all her pancakes! I can't finish mine. Mommy said we shouldn't, we shouldn't, what shouldn't we do mommy?" Roland turned to Regina with the sweetest confused look.

"Wasteful. We shouldn't be wasteful. How sweet of you to offer your breakfast to your father. Five minutes are up! Grab your coats and head out to the car, your father will be there shortly." Regina told the boys. She went to stand up and faltered for a moment, placing her hands on the table to help steady herself.

"Regina, are you okay?" Robin asked, afraid to approach his wife given her cold demeanor this morning.

"I'm fine," she responded through gritted teeth. "The boys will be late if you don't get a move on, okay? I'll pour you some coffee in a thermos, okay?"

"Yeah, oh, okay. You know what, why don't you sit back down and take a moment? I'll pour the coffee myself and get you some water, how does that sound?" Robin pushed Regina back into her seat and walked to the sink to fill a glass of water.

"Don't trouble yourself. Pour your coffee and go, I'll be alright. I'll just here a moment, okay? I have to head out to the office in a few minutes anyway."

"Hey, what's going on? Are you feeling alright? Did I do something? If I did, can you tell me what it is so I can make it right?" Robin questioned while rubbing Regina's back.

"No, I'm okay. I'm not sure what's going with me right now. I'm feeling all out of sorts. I'm sure it's nothing. Sorry. Have a good day at work, okay? Be safe driving." Regina sighed staring off across the room. She really had no idea why she was in such a mood. Maybe she was PMSing, that would certainly explain the mood she was in. She would try to convince her friend Emma to meet her for lunch at Granny's and get a hot chocolate. Yes, she was definitely in need of some chocolate.

"Alright, dear. I love you and I'll see you later tonight, okay?" Regina shook her head as Robin leaned down to place a kiss on the forehead.

Hours later found Regina staring out the window of her office watching the raindrops race down the side. Her mood had not really improved since that morning. Not even the hot chocolate she convinced Emma she needed made her feel any better. In fact, it probably made things a little worse. She had taken a few sips, but it didn't quite satisfy her. Emma told her it was probably because of the disgusting lunch she gobbled down. Emma had never seen Regina eat something so unhealthy, let alone the quantity of food she consumed. Hell, Regina even helped herself to food off of Emma's plate and she's always complaining about the unhealthy food choices Emma makes. There was a knock on her door. Regina sighed before swinging her chair around and calling for whoever it was at her door to come in. She hoped they would be quick because she was due to leave the office shortly to pick up the boys.

"Hey, special delivery," came the voice of her secretary. In walked her secretary with a bouquet of wild flowers interspersed with chocolate covered strawberries. Regina silently chuckled to herself. Robin must have arrived at the same conclusion of her PMSing. She didn't know if she should be offended or glad he was thinking of her penchant for all things chocolate when she was menstruating. Who the hell cares? She has chocolate!

"Is it okay if I set them down right here?" the secretary asked.

"Oh yes, sure. You wanna help me eat the strawberries? I have to leave in ten minutes to get the boys. I won't have time to eat all of these before the chocolate starts to melt." It didn't take much to convince her secretary to help herself to the sweets. The secretary was surprised Regina was eating the confection at all. Regina was always very concerned with her figure. Although, the secretary thought, Regina seemed to have put on a couple of pounds recently. Oh well, the secretary thought, marriage tends to have that effect on people. Happy, fat and married.

Henry and Roland were out running in front of Regina. It finally stopped raining and the boys were glad to be outside. They couldn't go out for recess earlier because of the rain. She smiled. How sweet it was the boys were getting along today. Dividing her time between the two boys was sometimes a bit overwhelming. With Henry, she knew the things he liked to do, watch super hero movies, read comic books together and play video games. With Roland it was a little different. She knew what Henry liked to do when he was Roland's age, but she wasn't sure if that was the same thing Roland liked to do. She often tried to take Roland's lead which always leant to an exhausting adventure that she couldn't always follow. Especially lately, lately she found herself falling asleep often during their play-dates. Sometimes Robin would wake her when he shut the front door and she found herself hopping off the couch rushing to the kitchen to get started on dinner. He would shake his head and take over Regina and Roland's play date. She loved her husband more on those days. Today, however, today he was on her bad side and she wasn't quite sure why. Perhaps she'd just gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.

"Hey mom!" Henry called out to Regina, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"Mom! Mom! Can we stop for ice cream?"

"Ice cream? It's a bit chilly for ice cream, isn't it?" she asked the grinning faces of Henry and Roland.

"Nope, it's never too chilly for ice cream," explained Henry.

"Yeah, 'special when they gots apple pies! We can get them heateded up! Ms. Mary said so!" Roland told Regina as he went to grab her hand and drag her in the direction of the ice cream parlor.

"Ms. Mary told you that, did she? I'll have to have a little talk with her." Regina smirked as the entered into the parlor.

"Good afternoon! Have you guys come to try the apple pie a la mode special? It's been a big hit!" offered the proprietor, Ms. Ingrid.

"So I've heard. My boys would like to share one apple pie a la mode, please."

"Mo-om!" cried Henry and Roland in unison.

"I really shouldn't be letting you have any ice cream at all before dinner, so you either share or you don't get any at all."

"Okay," the boys both dropped their heads in defeat.

"Alright, anything for you Mrs. Hood? Would you like an apple pie a la mode as well?"

"Hmm? No, thank you. We'll just go sit over there." Regina led the boys over to a table in front of the window so they could do a little bit of people watching. Conversation soon drifted to what the boys did at school and how much homework they had to work on when they got home. Henry had Algebra homework and a reading assignment. Roland had letter tracings. She could have a nice evening and not be bothered too much then.

"Is this seat taken, mi'lady?" A strong British accent whispered into her ear.

"Robin? What are you doing here? How did you know we were here?" Regina gasped as Robin sat down next her.

"Well I was hoping to make it to you before you left work. I thought we could take a stroll before picking up the boys from school, but you are too fast for me!"

"Hmmm, well I enjoyed the flowers and chocolate covered strawberries. Are you apologizing for something?"

"I don't know, if I need to apologize for something, then yes they were an apology. If not, then they were just an "I'm thinking of you" gift."

"Oh, I see. How was your day?"

"It was great. Not too much trouble on patrol. I think the rain kept the crazies inside today."

"Well, it's not raining now. Good thing you're off duty so you don't get roped into anything to keep you late at work."

"Yes, good thing. Looks like the boys are done with their ice cream. You didn't get anything?"

"No, the strawberries were enough. Boys, are you ready to go? You've got homework and I need to get started on dinner, okay?"

"Okay momma." Roland said as he hopped of his chair. The rest of the family followed suit. Robin grabbed the door and allowed Regina to follow the boys outside to continue their trek home.

"Hey mom, look! A rainbow! Can we follow it to the end and look for the pot of gold?"

"Ha ha, so it is a rainbow! My dear you can chase the end of the rainbow but you'll never find it."

"No?"

"No my boy. A rainbow is a gift, a promise to be kept. You wouldn't want the promise to end, would you?" Henry shook his head no at Robin's statement. The family finally made it home and began their nightly routine. The boys sat down at the kitchen table and started on their homework while Robin and Regina started on dinner. Dinner went by in relative silence and soon it was time for the boys to head upstairs and get ready for bed. The parents sat on the couch to start on their routine of quality time to themselves.

"So my dear, are you in a better mood than this morning? Will you stay awake this time?" Robin teased.

"Hmmpf, I am more than capable of staying awake. And I was not in a bad mood this morning."

"Oh, you weren't? Why wouldn't you make me apple pancakes?"

"Because, because…well I don't quite know why. I was feeling flirty. I gave you mine."

"Heh, you gave me your pancakes because you didn't want them anymore. And if that was flirting, well allow me to give you some lessons." Robin pulled his wife into his arms so they could snuggle down.

"Well, you still have some making up to do."

"I do?"

"Yes. I require a snack."

"A snack? We just finished dinner!"

"I know, but I feel like something else."

"Ohhhhkay. What is it that you would like?"

"Apple pie a la mode."

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