Robin decides that he loves the rain when Regina spreads a throw blanket across their laps and cuddles against his side. Roland and Henry had tired of cartoons and planted themselves on the floor in front of the screen to play video games.
Robin would consider objecting to the amount of time his son is spending in front of the television, but Regina is snuggling into Robin's chest, her arms wrapped around his waist. When she tilts her head up to press a kiss to his collar bone, Robin finds it difficult to be upset about much of anything.
"Mmmmm," Regina purrs softly as she nuzzles her nose against his neck, and Robin lets out a breathy laugh.
"Something funny?" she asks lifting her head up and quirking an eyebrow.
Robin smiles at Regina so sweetly and runs his hand through her hair. For a minute he doesn't answer, just smiles and smiles, and Regina still feels overwhelmed by how much love she sees in Robin's eyes when he looks at her.
Robin leans in and gives Regina a light kiss, feels her lips immediately curving into a smile against his. He pulls back and sees her grinning, tells her, "You're adorable."
From the floor Robin and Regina hear a loud snort of laughter, and Regina feels a blush creep up her cheeks as she turns to look at her snickering son.
"Is that going on your next campaign poster Mom? Reelect Storybrooke's most adorable mayor."
"You're playing with fire there," Regina says, leaning back against Robin's chest and letting him wrap his arms around her. "I have albums full of baby pictures that I know you don't want widely distributed."
Then Henry's cheeks are as red as Regina's had been. He groans and looks terribly put upon. "We have a deal. I don't rip up bath time pictures and you never show them to anyone."
"You underestimate me if you think there aren't negatives."
"Mooom, you promised."
Regina smiles wickedly at her son. "Oh relax dear. I wouldn't do that to you."
Henry goes back to playing for a moment, before he hears his mother's voice again: "I'm saving those pictures for when you bring home the person you're dating."
"Mooooom," Henry groans again, his head in his hands.
"Come on Henry," Roland says, nudging the other boy's attention back to the game.
"Calm down little hobbit. I'm still playing."
Robin stares at the smile on Regina's face as she watches their sons playing. Robin leans his face against hers, presses his lips to her temple, and repeats, "Adorable."
"Humph," Regina groans, smile still firmly plastered on her lips.
Regina turns back against Robin's side and pulls the blanker up to her neck against the chill of the summer storm. Robin's hands find their way under Regina's pajama shirt beneath the blanket. It's a chaste touch really, his palms steady and warm on the small of her back, but it's enough to have her body humming in a way that really is unacceptable when Henry and Roland are here to keep her from doing anything about it.
"I believe I could grow to enjoy rainy days," Robin tells Regina, content to remain wrapped in a blanket with her all day. "How long will this game keep them entertained for?" Robin whispers, nodding his head at Roland and Henry.
"Henry could play all day. I'll drag him away in an hour or two. We can cook lunch together perhaps. It wouldn't hurt them to eat something with nutritional value today."
"Roland has picked up the game rather quickly. I'm afraid this world's technology comes a bit slower to me."
"Yes I've noticed. I really aught to teach you to drive if you intend to work at the sheriff's department. Second gear isn't optimal for engaging in high speed chases."
"High speed chases? David keeps telling me that I'll be bored since Storybrooke is a sleepy little town with no more than a few teenagers engaging in vandalism or shoplifting candy bars."
"Does it seem like a sleepy little town?" Regina asks. "Besides you really should learn to drive. Luckily for you I happen to be an excellent teacher."
"Is that so?"
"Yes it is!"
Henry turns to his mother, a grin on his face that Robin thinks is all Regina. "You could teach me too."
Regina raises a skeptical eyebrow. "To drive? You're still 10 months away from being old enough to get your permit if you recall."
"Come on Mom."
"Absolutely not."
"But I already went driving with David," Henry whines, and Regina wonders why he thinks that debacle will strengthen his case.
"Yes I recall the mailbox repair following that incident."
"Which is why you should teach me."
Robin laughs and tells Regina, "I'd say Henry picked up your ability to argue."
"And I have a secret weapon," Henry says to Robin before giving Regina his best puppy dog pout.
Regina's laughing, the sound deep and rich, and Robin thinks she looks so joyful and free.
Roland turns around, adds his best pouty face as well. "Me too, Gina?"
"You," Regina tells Roland, "much like Henry, are too young to drive."
"Mom, that's not fair," Henry whines. "He's five. I'm almost fifteen!"
Regina can't help but be amused by her son's outrage. He's back to his exaggerated pout a minute later, Roland mirroring his expression. Next to her Robin laughs and then sticks out his bottom lip as well. "Please Regina," he says teasingly.
Regina shakes her head and looks around at the three of them. "Is this how things are going to be now?" she asks.
Robin sees almost instantly how Regina's smile falters. There's a second where he can see so much fear and darkness, and then it's gone. But this smile is different, merely an act. One he knows well, had seen for a year in the Enchanted Forest. He grabs her hands, pulls them to rest in his against his chest.
"Yes it is," Robin promises. He hears her breath hitch, and he can see the fear written on her face again, and that's ok, because he just needs her not to close herself off from him. This fear Robin can work with, this he can chip away at every day. And he will, he promises himself. Every day he will remind Regina that she isn't alone, that he and Henry and Roland aren't going anywhere, that she is worth staying for, she is worth everything.
"You're a formidable foe," Robin teases Regina, "but I believe that between the three of us we will be able to get our way. Don't you think boys?"
Henry and Roland nod their agreement and then are back to playing a moment later.
"You're stuck with us now Regina," Robin promises. He still sees the doubt, but she kisses him anyway and snuggles against his side, and Robin loves her for trying so hard to believe him. He will prove himself worthy of her belief.
"All right you two," Regina says when Henry and Roland's game ends. She knows that if she doesn't put a stop to this now, they will start a new game and be impossible to drag away for lunch.
Henry drops the controller, surprised his mom let him play so long already. "Can we make pizza for lunch?"
"As long as we have all the ingredients that sounds like a perfect idea. It'll give us something to do since the rain doesn't seem as though it's going to stop today. What do you say Roland?"
Roland shrugs his little shoulders.
"You're not hungry sweetie?" Regina asks. Roland shrugs again, his feet kicking at the floor. "Are you feeling sad?" she asks, but gets no reply. Regina sits down next to Roland. "It's ok to feel sad and miss your Mama. You know you can tell your Papa, and you can tell me too. Ok sweetheart?" She brushes the hair back from his forehead gently. Roland frowns at her, and Regina wishes she knew exactly how to comfort him. She has learned Henry's every mood, knows what to do for him, but she doesn't yet know how to help this grieving little boy.
"Come here," Regina tries, patting her lap and hoping that Roland wants to be held. He crawls on her lap and she wraps him up in his arms.
Robin joins them on the floor, his arms around both of them. "It's all right my boy," Robin says kissing Roland's cheek. "You'll be all right."
Roland lets Robin and Regina hug him for a few moments before he pops up from their embrace. "Can we have lunch now?" he asks, his voice quiet, his lips still turned in a bit of a frown.
Robin watches Roland run off towards the kitchen, and again Robin doesn't know what to do, doesn't feel like he's doing nearly enough. Regina wipes tears that he hadn't realized he had shed from his cheeks. "Roland will be all right," Regina tells Robin. He looks at her with wet eyes imploring her for that to be true. Robin needs her, Regina realizes. He needs her and it's a comfort to trust that he will lean on her, that she has something to offer him.
Robin stands, extending a hand to pull Regina up with him. She sees Henry on the couch, looking sad and thoughtful. "Give me a minute," Regina tells Robin as he follows Roland to the kitchen.
Regina sits down on the couch next to her son. "Are you thinking about Neal?"
"I didn't really know him at all."
"I'm sorry you didn't have the chance to," Regina tells Henry. Though the idea of another biological relative in Henry's life is threatening, Regina tries to trust that what she and Henry are building now is strong enough to withstand his seemingly ever growing family.
"Thanks Mom." Henry doesn't want to talk about this right now, doesn't have anything he can say about the ache in his heart at the thought of a father he never got to know. "Come on, I want pizza."
Henry wraps his arm around Regina's waist and leans against her, and it's everything, he is everything. Regina puts her arm around Henry's shoulder and presses a kiss to his hair. He's still tucked into her side happily when they find Robin and Roland taking out pizza ingredients. Roland is in Robin's arms, Roland's little arms holding tight to his father's neck. The child still looks a bit sullen but Robin is chatting away to him about making pizza. Regina can't help but smile at what a good father Robin is, what a good man.
While the pizza cooks Robin and Henry clean the dishes from cooking while Regina and Roland set the table.
Henry puts a plate in the washing machine, reaches out for the next one that Robin has washed.
"Robin?"
Robin smiles at Henry. "What is it lad?"
"You'll watch out for my mom, won't you?"
"Of course I will," Robin says stilling his movements and focusing his attention on Henry. "Your mother means the world to me Henry, and I will do everything in my power to make certain that she is safe and happy."
"Good. She deserves that, you know?"
"I do."
"It's awesome that she's a hero now," Henry says, "but I don't want her to be in danger all the time."
Robin thinks of Regina hiding bruises after her confrontations with Zelena, he thinks of her risking her life in the Enchanted Forest to save people she claimed to hate from flying monkeys, he thinks of the risks she's taken, thinks of her desperate to break into her castle and brew a sleeping curse. His heart aches.
"I promise to look after your mom," Robin repeats, a promise to himself as much as to Regina's son. "I know your mother wouldn't want you worrying about her."
"I know, but she's my family and family takes care of each other."
Robin would tell the boy not to worry, that it's hardly a child's job to look out for his parent, but Robin can already tell that Henry would never heed such words. "We'll share the job then, you and I."
Henry nods and returns to loading the dishwasher feeling grateful that his mother has another person to care for her.
"I'm bored!" Roland announces after lunch when Robin and Regina have curled back up together on the couch and Henry is reading a book.
"What do you want to do?" Regina asks. "We can all play a game or make an arts and crafts project. Or we could all read a book together."
Robin chuckles beside Regina and thinks that Henry must have been a far calmer child than Roland.
"That's boring," Roland insists, walking over to Regina and grabbing her hand to drag her from the couch. "Let's go play outside."
"It's still raining," Regina replies.
"So? Playing in the rain is fun. Tell her Papa."
Robin grins at Regina, his eyes alight with mischief. "It most certainly is milady."
"Well then," Regina says, absolutely refusing to back down from a challenge. "What are we playing?"
"Yay!" Roland cheers, jumping up and down. "Let's play soccer. Henry taught me and I'm good now and I bet the two of us can beat the two of you."
"You're on," Regina tells Roland. "Henry can you go get your soccer ball?"
When Henry returns with the ball Regina, Robin, and Roland are already outside. For a minute Henry stands there and watches them through the glass door to the porch. Roland is chasing Regina, both of their clothes completely soaked and covered in mud. Robin is just standing there and smiling until Regina runs right into him, setting him off balance on the slippery mud and knocking them into a heap on the ground.
They stay there for a minute, laughing and kissing, and it's still so new and almost unbelievable for Henry to see his mother like this. He remembers her easy laughter from before the curse broke, remembers her playing with him like she didn't have a care in the world. But it's been so long and he was so young then. But he sees that easy joy again now for the first time with someone other than himself.
After all Henry and his mom have gone through he just wants to be happy, and now he can tell that she is. Henry watches them through the door for another minute. For once Henry thinks they aren't all battling some evil, aren't being threatened or separated. For now everything seems peaceful and normal and good.
And then it begins to snow.