"Get off me!" Marian shouted at Robin, as he pulled her off Djaq and into deeper water of the stream. "Robin, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to save you!" the outlaw shouted back. "You could help by not elbowing me in my ribs!"
"For your information, I don't need to be saved!" Uttering a quick gasp of realization, Marian asked, "Are you saying she's a better fighter than I am?" Is she a better kisser, too? her thoughts wondered.
"Ow!" After receiving an even harder elbow thrust in his ribcage, Robin readjusted his hold on Marian, infuriating her when she found herself a helpless prisoner in his arms.
On the stream bank, Allan watched the show, a wide grin lighting up his features. Djaq, dripping wet, pulled herself from the water, then scampered up the bank toward Will, who handed her his own cloak with awkward tenderness. Before covering her shivering body with it, she first made certain to shake as many droplets as she possibly could from herself, onto Allan a Dale.
"Oi! What was that for?" Allan indignantly asked.
"What? Is it raining?" Djaq countered back, smiling slyly at her friend.
"Are you alright?" Will asked Djaq, longing to put his arms around her, but feeling far too shy to try.
"I would like to get dry," she answered, the smile draining from her face as she gazed, mesmerized, into the handsome carpenter's hazel eyes.
At that precise moment, Much and Little John appeared running toward them, breaking the spell. Will and Djaq quickly looked away from one another, blushing.
"Master!" Much cried, slipping near the water's edge and falling on his backside. "Ugh! I hate mud!"
"We need to go back to camp," Djaq told the others, while Little John helped Much to his feet.
Allan voiced his objections. "What? And miss the show? Not bein' funny, but...she's wet!"
"They need to be alone, to sort things out," Djaq told them, in a sterner manner than any of them had ever heard from her before.
All of them understood, having had their sleep interrupted by Robin voicing Marian's name, over and over again, in his sleep.
"We go...to camp," Little John echoed, decisively.
There seemed no choice but to obey. Following Djaq's short strides, Robin's gang returned to their temporary camp, while Much and Allan complained all the way back.
Churning up water, Robin and Marian continued arguing while their bodies thrashed about in the stream.
"Get off me!" Marian repeated, growing more and more angry, locked in Robin's tight embrace.
"Promise me you won't elbow me again," Robin told her. "Give me your word."
"Let me go! What are you doing?"
"I told you! I'm saving you from drowning!"
"Shouldn't you be dragging me to dry land then, instead of the center of the stream? Besides, I can swim, Robin!"
"I know you can! I taught you myself, when we were small."
"Everything's always about you, isn't it?"
"Only when it is."
"Smugly!"
"Ugly? There used a time, you called me 'Handsome'!"
"I must have been blind! Besides, you didn't have that scraggly beard then!"
"You don't like it?"
Marian refused to answer. She liked it, too much. And so, instead, she demanded for the third time, "Get off me, Robin! This is ridiculous! Why are you holding me captive, under water?"
Now, it was his turn to be the one who refused to answer.
He didn't understand what she and Djaq had been doing, fighting in the stream. He only knew it felt right, holding her protectively, as far away from Gisbourne as was humanly possible.
But he knew he needed to let her go. She wasn't his, to control. Even if they had married, and were man and wife, she wouldn't be his to control.
Unlike Gisbourne, Robin had no desire to control anyone. In fact, one of the things he loved best about Marian was her own independent spirit. He adored arguing with her, for she made him think, and consider opposing points of view, and-
Feeling her shiver under his hands, his thoughts turned tender. "Marian! You're cold!"
"Yes, I'm cold! Aren't you?"
If he was, he didn't feel it. Holding her body, being so close, warmed his limbs, just as the very thought of her did during the nights when the forest temperatures plummeted.
Reluctantly, Robin released his grip on her, allowing Marian to push her body away, and swim toward shore. Robin slowed his strokes, to keep pace.
Pulling herself out of the water, Marian found herself shivering harder. Her gown clung to her like a second skin, causing Robin's eyes to widen in awe and delight. As soon as she noticed, she blushed violently, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Stop looking at me!" she commanded.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "It's just the way my eyes were pointing."
It was an old, familiar excuse he'd made, whenever he didn't realize his gaze had lingered upon her body, instead of her face. It had usually made her smile, but Marian wasn't smiling now.
Stomping through bracken, hampered by her wet dress clinging and tangling between her legs, Marian wanted nothing more than to put distance between herself and Robin Hood.
"Marian!" Robin called out, following her. "You're not leaving?"
"Goodbye," she snarled back at him, stepping into her horse's stirrup and trying to fling her other leg over her saddle.
She failed, for the first time in her life. Her wet gown hampered her, and she fell backwards, into Robin's outstretched arms.
"Get off me!" she cried out, yet again.
Turning her around to hold her face-to-face, as he hadn't been able to do under water, Robin could only stare into her beautiful, flashing eyes. Both of them were breathing heavily, and Robin was swept away, longing to kiss her with a yearning deeper than anything he'd ever felt in his life.