By now the sexual tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife and spread it on a bagel. (Bad analogy is bad.) They're going to snap—but only if I let them! Poor Will and Djaq. Maybe I'm just a mean old lady.

Thanks again to everybody who's been reading so far! It's very encouraging to see so many people interested in this story.

Disclaimer: I don't claim any ownership of Robin Hood, or the characters therein.

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She was going to make him absolutely crazy. For days, she'd teased him relentlessly—nuzzling his neck, sitting so very close to him, discreetly brushing his hand with hers or grazing his thigh with her fingertips when nobody was looking. How he'd enjoyed it, revelled in the sweet torment she inflicted upon him. It was wonderful.

Except when it frightened him.

At first, he thoroughly enjoyed her forwardness, her taking initiative. He felt awkward, clumsily inexperienced, and so very unsure of himself when confronted with their newly found romantic feelings towards one another; he didn't know how far Djaq would or wouldn't let him go, what he could do that wouldn't scare her or offend her. For that matter, he didn't know how, exactly, to go about doing anything. He'd never done this before—any of it—and found himself wading into rather dismayingly unfamiliar territory. At least when she took the lead, he knew she was doing what she felt comfortable with and could copy her actions himself.

But didn't she realize what she was doing to him? He could only restrain himself so much, and when he feared he might lose control, he would back away from her to collect himself. She must not have realized how much she affected him, how much every little smile and lingering look, the tiniest little touches all sent him reeling. Unless—no, he couldn't imagine…

Did she want to go further?

He hadn't considered that before.

It was hardly something he could outright ask her. It was possible—had it been another woman, he might have thought that she was being quite obvious. But equally possible was that Djaq simply had no idea how beautiful and alluring she was. It was difficult to resist her. He wanted to do right by her—certainly didn't want to savage her like a wild animal. And what if… what if they did…? And she regretted it later. He didn't want to put her through that; he didn't think he'd survive such a thing, either.

It would be best to do things properly. Wouldn't it?

The more he thought about it, though, the more he wondered if perhaps it was all in vain. But he didn't want to hurt her—he loved her. He didn't… but he wanted to… except that he couldn't possibly… no matter how much he wanted her…

His head was a mass of half-thoughts and contradictions. No matter how much he wanted Djaq, wanted all of her, he feared more than anything that he would scare her away with his actions. Then again, if he wasted this chance with her, he would surely hate himself. He didn't know what to do, and the more he thought about it, the more it made his head hurt.

Maybe he shouldn't think about it so much.

He folded his arms around his knees and rested his forehead against them. Wide coils of thick, fat rope surrounded him, rose up over his head; he was sitting inside the coils of some mooring rope sitting on a corner of the deck, making a private little place for him to hide. He was afraid that if he got up and walked around the deck again, that Djaq might find him and… possibly ambush him.

So he hid down here to be alone with his thoughts, but thinking only made him even more confused, and the confusion only added to the tension he was already feeling.

Much of that tension was caused by Djaq, and her apparent determination to drive him blissfully mad; the rest was a combination of things. He was antsy and uncomfortable on this tiny little ship. There was only so much jumping and climbing that he could do in such a confined space, and he longed for the freedom to take a horse and ride through the forest until he was exhausted or to lose himself in the sprawling green for miles and miles. The fresh food on board was starting to run low, and they would soon be eating dry rations and salted fish, nonstop, for the remainder of the journey, which didn't appeal to any of them, least of all Will, who wasn't particularly fond of fish, salted or not.

And then there was the knowledge that this damned cramped, tiny, dank little boat was taking him further from home than he had ever been before in his life. He didn't know what lay ahead, and it scared him, filled his head with frightening 'whatif' thoughts. The unknown scared him, and with so much weight on their choice and the actions they would later have to take, it made him worry for their collective futures.

And, of course, Djaq, whose very existence turned him into a hopeless oozing puddle of lovesick mush.

She came up twice. Naturally she would—he couldn't get the woman out of his mind.

The last time he'd let himself get carried away with her, the night she lost her bodice because of him, played over and over again in his head. Her touch was gentle and far too light on his shoulders and across his back, and she pressed herself thoroughly against him—he remembered feeling her breasts against his chest, less covered by that cumbersome leather clothing. Her lips on his neck tickled, even when she bit him. And when she threw her leg over his hip, he very nearly gave into that first instinct, the animal lust that told him to have her right there on the deck and the consequences be damned.

It took an extraordinary grasp on willpower to make him tear himself away from her.

"What're you doin' down there?"

He startled and lurched as far up as he could, which was to his knees as he was trapped in the rope coils. "Gyah!"

"Hey!"

Will looked up to see who was there. It was Allan.

"You frightened me," the younger man gasped.

"You scared me," Allan shot back. "You look awfully high-strung today. Something wrong?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Uh-huh. What're you doing sitting in there?"

"I'm… hiding."

Snort. "Hiding?" He asked. "What from? You're a pretty thing, but I don't think that them sailors would go for you unless they were really desperate."

He looked up with his eyebrows raised. It felt good to have Allan back, if he was completely honest with himself. He was the only one of the gang that could make humour out of any situation—make humour on purpose, unlike Much who managed to be funny without wanting to be.

"Really, what's so scary that you've gotta hide in a rope coil?"

He didn't answer right away.

"Will?"

"I'm just hiding from somebody, all right?" He said quickly, realizing that seeing somebody talking to a pile of mooring rope might give away his hiding place.

A rakish grin lit his friend's face. "You're not hiding from Djaq, are you?" He drawled.

"So what if I am? Look, could you please go? I wanted to be alone—"

But he couldn't finish that sentence, because Allan was laughing so hard. He sighed—of course Allan would laugh at such a thought. It was probably unfathomable to his friend that somebody would run away and hide from a girl, particularly a girl who was so clearly infatuated. Except that Allan was much more confident than he was and, he had no doubt, had much more experience with women than he did.

The man wiped his eyes as he recovered from his laughter. "I'm not bein' funny, mate, but you sure your head's on proper?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" He hissed, his face turning red. Why wouldn't he go away?

Allan shook his head. "Dunno what's wrong with you, Will. That girl's—"

"Woman."

"Right—look, Djaq's mad for you. Why would you waste that?"

"Who are you talking to?" The heavily accented voice came from nearby, accompanied by light footfalls.

Djaq.

"Huh? Me?" Allan asked. Looking up, Will could see him backing up to the coiled rope that served as his hiding place. He held his breath and didn't dare move.

She didn't look down at him, and instead stopped in front of Allan.

"Yes, you," she answered. "Unless you have taken to talking to yourself."

"Doesn't sound like too bad an idea, to be honest," he sighed. "Myself's the only person what'll listen to me anymore."

"Stop talking that way," she ordered. Although he couldn't see her, he imagined that she was standing there with her hands planted on her hips and giving him that stern, no-nonsense frown. "If you need to talk, I will listen to you. I do not hate you."

"I still dunno why that is."

"Because," she said, then paused briefly. Will wondered what expression was playing over her face—she could be a very difficult person to read. "You are a good man, Allan a-Dale."

He heard Allan sigh.

Even though they had all tentatively accepted Allan back into the group after he tried to help them escape the mercenaries, then helped them fight them, most of them were still extremely wary of their once-former comrade—and they made absolutely no effort to hide their unease from him, undoubtedly making him feel both guilty and unwelcome. Except for Djaq and himself, the rest of the gang was only acting vaguely decent to the man.

"Thanks," he said. "It means a lot, coming from you."

Pause.

"So… what're you up to?" He asked casually.

"I was hoping to find Will," she sighed. "But he is awfully difficult to find these days."

"Yeah, I've… I've noticed that. Something wrong with him?"

Will breathed a quiet sigh of relief that he was playing dumb. Thank goodness.

He heard a shift of clothing—Djaq shrugging.

"I do not know. I have not been able to talk to him long enough to ask him."

"What is it between you two, anyway?"

His heart stopped. What was Allan getting at, asking such personal questions? He already knew of his encounter with Djaq in the barn, of their admission to one another and the kiss they shared when they were afraid they were going to die. What more information did he want, unless he wanted to know if they already had—

"We already told you what happened," she said curtly, interrupting his thoughts.

"I know that, but, I mean… what's going on? You've sort of been chasing after that boy, haven't you?"

Another sigh from Djaq. "I do not know if I should tell you."

"What, don't you trust me?"

"It is not that—it is just private."

"Oh?"

The silence between them was a very loud silence, he noted absently.

"I want to make the most of the time I have with him," she blurted out quickly. Through a tiny gap in the ropes, he saw her arms shoot down by her sides, her hands balled into fists. "I am so afraid of what might happen after we arrive in Acre. I am—I do not even know what will happen tomorrow. We could be attacked by sea monsters or pirates, we could capsize in a freak storm."

Will held his breath, not wanting to make any unnecessary noise and miss anything she was about to say. Something told him it was important.

"I was so, so frightened in the barn. I thought we were going to die," her voice was heartbreakingly sad. "I kissed him knowing that it would be all we would ever get—one kiss. That was it. I waited too long to tell him that I loved him, and then it was too late."

Silence.

"And now we have this second chance. I would hate to waste it—I would never live with myself if I let that happen. I only… I wish I could tell him."

The blood rushed in his ears. She really felt that way?

He hadn't thought of the whole situation the same way she had—and now that he had, he realized how right she was. It was like a light in a darkened room, the way this realization dawned on him. They really were incredibly lucky to have escaped with their lives, to have this new opportunity to explore their love for each other. It would be foolish and downright stupid not to take advantage of what they had, while they had the time to enjoy it.

Before what amounted to their deathbed confession of love, he would never have imagined that the young Saracen woman would ever have feelings for him; she was never particularly girlish to begin with, and certainly the words 'falling in love' never before seemed compatible with Djaq. She just wasn't the type. If anything at all, he thought she would have fancied Allan over any of them. It was amazing to know that she, who was so beautiful and clever and wonderful and could have had her pick of any man in the world that she liked, wanted him.

"You don't think he already knows this?" Allan asked her after a beat.

"I do not know."

Pause.

"Are you sure you do not know where he is?"

"I… can't say that I do, no," he said, artfully dodging the answer and a lie at the same time.

Sigh. "Well… thank you for listening to me. I will go look for him elsewhere."

As he heard her footsteps walking away from him, his breath released in a slow hiss between his teeth. He was almost unwilling to believe what he'd just heard. It would be too good to be true, wouldn't it? Except that it wasn't. It was all real.

Allan poked his head down into his hiding spot. "D'you hear that all right, Will?"

Nod. "Help me up—I've gotta go talk to her." He reached up a hand.

"Try not to be too loud, all right?" He said with a cheeky grin as he pulled him up. "Or else, be really loud on purpose—we could all use the show."

"Allan, stop it."

"Sorry."

"Ouch!" He winced as he unfurled his legs and climbed over the edge of his rope confines. "Which way did she go?"

"That way," he pointed vaguely towards the hatch. "Now, Will, you've got to find that one spot that drives her crazy, you know? Like, take her from—"

"Allan!" His face burned red with embarrassment. It was bad enough that Much kept mentioning 'honey' around him with a funny look on his face. He didn't need his friend offering him explicit operating instructions.

He was snorting into his hands. "I just thought you might want some advice."

"We've only just had you back—it would be a shame if I had to throw you overboard."

The man gave him a shove. "Go! Before you start thinking about it and you back out."

Still blushing furiously, Will made off in search of Djaq.

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Oh goodness, I really I am just a mean old lady, aren't I? I cut you off right before The Sexing. I swear to you, once again, the reason for the rating is coming! You see why this never would have worked as a one-shot? It took three chapters just to get this far, and there isn't even any sex yet! Curse my long-windedness. I have just noticed something, though—these chapters are less than half the length of a standard chapter for HF. Wow.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Feedback is greatly appreciated, but not demanded.