Thank you to everyone who favorited and reviewed! The tone on the second half is a bit different, but I think this was what I was after the first time when my brain got distracted. Enjoy!
She is done running. She promises herself over and over again until it became some internal mantra. She will not run from this, from him. It still terrifies her (anything so foreign would) but it's a fear she can live with and perhaps more accurately, one she can't live without. Rage and pain were all she had, but as she had grown, as she had worked so desperately to let that part of her go, he had stepped right in to fill the void the left.
She tells him she saw him, part of him, all those years ago. She tells him that he's her soulmate and she doesn't know why, but she can't look away, can't stop touching him. She's not normally good at this. Being open and honest with anyone was never her strong suit not to mention that vulnerability was something the Evil Queen couldn't afford. It's different with him. Easy. Even before, now that she remembers their missing year, they shared a certain intimacy. Underneath all the garb and guise of the queen, he still saw her.
And she let him.
He won't let her run. He tells her it's all about timing and he truly believes that. The man he was a lifetime ago was hardly worthy of this woman before him. She tells him about the night she saw him, the lion tattooed man in a tavern, and he's grateful for her indecision; grateful that she ran. He can't recall the night, nor the tavern. They were all the same, those dark days after he lost Marion. He was a sorry excuse for a man and an even worse father. He would have pushed her away, or worse, taken her to a dirty room above a dirty bar and forgotten her by morning.
He'd been inexplicably drawn to her, both here and in the Forest. She says they're soulmates and maybe he believes it, but he knows it more than that. He sees her: the pain, the regret, the playfulness she tries so hard to bury. He lives for her smile: the real one that shows too many teeth and brings the lines at the corners of her eyes. He thinks that each time he can coax it out he makes up for all his wasted years.
When he kisses her she opens her eyes because this feeling can't be real. He can't still be here after seeing what life has done to her darkened heart. He can't still be running his fingers through her hair, up and down her back. Gentle. Tender. When they skim up her thigh, her body goes rigid and she curses herself for it. He stops instantly, but doesn't remove his hand. Don't run, her internal mantra starts again and he's just looking at her, at her, and moving nothing but the fingers that are never still in her hair. I never thought I'd have this, she tells him, because why stop now. Fully clothed, she's bare before him. It's a nakedness much more raw than physical nudity. Her body has always been a tool; a means to an end, used but never cared for.
She's never had this. The confession hits him harder than he expected. He thinks about Marion, his wife, the woman he truly loved and who loved him in return. Tries to put something concrete to the moments they shared, but what other word is there than love? It can't be defined. It just is. Then he tries to imagine a life without that ambiguous and complicated word.
He holds her tighter, kisses her longer. If it were as simple as ripping out his heart and handing it over he would do it without hesitation, but love is nothing so tangible. He thinks he understands her better now. How this powerful, beautiful creature could be tentative, insecure. He shifts so that he's beside her and pulls her to his chest. What he had planned for the evening can wait.
She curls against him, grateful that he slowed down. Her body is on fire, but she doesn't know if her heart can take much more. "I'm sorry," she whispers into his neck. "It's just—"
"—overwhelming," he finishes for her and feels her nod against him. "Regina, I'd be lying if I said I don't want you, all of you. Or that I haven't wanted all of you for some time," he sees the lines pulling at her eyes and the flush in her cheeks and lets his own grin spread. "But this is good, really really good," he places a kiss on the top of her head. "And it's enough."
"For now," Regina muses. Robin can't see her face, but he can feel the devilish grin that it wears as Regina wrapped her arms around his stomach and settles further in.
A/N: And now I highly recommend that you all go read The Vault by Somewhereapart because it is amazing and beautiful and sexy as hell, and much much better than I would ever attempt to do.
As always, Thanks for reading!