Author's Note: Ever sit down to write, and instead of anything related to the plot all that comes out is word after word of Robin and Regina being sickeningly fluffy and romantic? Yeah, that happened. Sorry? Hope you enjoy the fluff.

Robin wakes up so warm that he's sweating despite the snow outside. He turns his head to the two bodies curled up against his. Roland is sleeping as ever with legs askew and half on top of Robin. But tonight the boy is curled up against Regina, his back to her chest, his head snuggled against the crook of her neck, and her arms wrapped protectively around him. Regina's head is against Robin's shoulder, her lips parted, her warm breath against his skin. His shoulder is damp because Regina drools a little while she sleeps. It makes Robin smile. This amazing woman whose walls are always up for the rest of the world is drooling on his shoulder and holding his son in her arms. It makes Robin giddy with happiness.

"I can feel you staring at me," Regina mumbles against Robin's shoulder, her voice think with sleep, eyes still closed.

Robin chuckles, shaking Regina's body. "How long have you been pretending to be asleep?" Robin asks.

Regina presses a kiss to Robin's shoulder, her eyes fluttering open slowly to look at him. "Comfortable," Regina mutters, doing her best not to wake Roland as she moves her head more firmly onto Robin's chest. His arm wraps around her, his hand settles on her hip, his thumb ghosting over her hip bone. "Mmm, even better," Regina tells him, her eyes closing again.

Robin can't understand how it is possible to want so desperately to be ever closer to someone. Regina is lying on his chest and he wants more. His hand is on her cheek, stroking along her cheek bone, skimming along the curve of her lips.

His fingers still over her mouth and she kisses them before reminding him, "Roland is in bed with us."

"I know. I just want a kiss," he tells her.

"All you had to do was ask." Regina inches up on the bed so that she's face to face with Robin. She smiles at him and shakes her head half at his antics and half in disbelief that this man is really hers before pressing her lips to his, lightly, lazily running her tongue over his bottom lip. His mouth is warm against hers, tongue flicking out to caress hers. Regina moans softly against Robin, the noise sending a shiver up his spine.

He rubs his nose against hers, rests his forehead against hers. "Good morning my love," Robin whispers against Regina's lips. She smiles at the endearment, can't even bring herself to scold him for using it. "You did tell me it was acceptable to call you that when we're in bed," Robin reminds her.

"I suppose I did," Regina replies. Robin is grinning at her like a love sick teenager, and Regina knows her smile matches his. She can't help it. Even with the snow outside and the gnawing fear that this will disappear at any minute, she can't stop the perhaps foolish hope and happiness that feels stronger every day.

Regina blinks her eyes, opening them properly and looking out the window at the snow filled town. Her gaze flitters back to Robin, can't ignore him as his thumb runs over her neck, fingers massaging her scalp lightly. "And what am I going to call you?" Regina asks Robin.

"I have no problem with my darling."

"Awfully presumptuous of you. I was thinking more like my thief."

"Ah but it is you who stole my heart. Perhaps the moniker suits you."

"Such a sweet talker," Regina admonishes.

"It's all perfectly true."

"After we eat breakfast, I'm going to go search the woods and see if there are any clues as to the origin of the snow."

"You must mean we are going to search the woods," Robin corrects.

Regina rolls her eyes a bit, still too sleepy for more of an effort. "Yes that is exactly what I meant."

"Glad to hear it."

After three hours of searching had turned up nothing, the trip transformed into a bit of a stroll in the woods. Robin had insisted, adores the winter, even the unnatural winter, and cannot imagine anything more perfect than holding Regina's hand as they walk through the snow cover forest floor.

"I loved the snow as a child," Robin tells Regina. "It was the only time my parents deemed it appropriate for a noble boy to play outdoors. I always wished for a brother to play with, but nonetheless even alone I adored running through the forest in the snow."

"Of course you did," Regina says. "I can just imagine you staying out for hours until your hands were frozen."

"You didn't do the same?"

"I hated the winter before Henry was old enough to want to play in the snow."

"How is that possible?" Robin asks, actually confused by the idea of any child not adoring the snow.

Regina swallows, her brows knitting together, and she realizes she's never told anyone this. "A particularly bad punishment from my mother," she says, her voice tight and controlled. "She found me playing in the snow with the cook's daughter. Mother left me outside bound and dangling in the air for two days. She told me the cook and his family were sent away. I was always too afraid to try to find out what she really did to them."

Robin drops Regina's hand so that he can pull her into his side and press his lips to her temple. He shakes his head in disgust, his lips still on her cold skin. His arm pulls tighter; he wants to chase the cold away from her, wants to chase away the pain of enduring something so awful at the hands of her own mother.

Regina glances up at Robin, knows he's upset hearing this. "It's all right," she promises bringing a gloved hand to his cheek. "It was a very long time ago."

Robin's face looks so pained to hear this. Regina doesn't know what reaction she had expected, thinks she had perhaps feared being seen as weak, knows she didn't expect someone to hurt for her like this, even though this is Robin, and of course he aches at her pain. Regina always feels so weak when she remembers her mother's punishments, when she remembers how Cora would insist that's what her daughter was when she would finally untie the small child after days left alone and restrained. Cora would look over Regina, crying and shaking in her soiled clothes, and tell her that this was for her own good, so that she could learn to be strong.

"How old were you?" Robin asks.

"Seven."

As soon as the word is out, Robin has Regina wrapped in both his arms, her face pressed to his chest, his grasp so tight. "I love you," he whispers against her hair. "I love you so much. You never cease to amaze me." He hears Regina's mirthless laugh. "No please don't do that. I see you with Henry, and it is the most beautiful thing. The more you tell me about your childhood and everything that you've been through, the more I am truly in awe of you. You are a beautiful person Regina. And the fact that you've overcome so much to be the person you are now, well I am allowed to be amazed by the woman I love, am I not?"

Regina looks up at Robin with an incredulous smile and a shake of her head, and then she's pulling him against her side and continuing their walk. "Come on," she tells him. "There's a beautiful river very nearby."

Robin allows Regina the change of topic, presses a soft kiss to her temple before smiling at her playfully. "And in the summer? Is this river nice for swimming? Or bathing perhaps."

Regina smacks Robin's arm with a smile, lets herself get wrapped up in the present, in the amazing, wonderful present when Robin is here and she is finally, finally loved.

"Careful," Robin warns, "Your true colors are showing. I may start getting you pinecones as presents."

"Is that so?" Regina asks, her hand squeezing Robin's hip. "And if I were to use them as currency what would you give me in return?"

Regina tries to wink at Robin and he realizes how very bad she is at it. Both her eyes close a bit, her whole face scrunched. Then she grins at him, so pleased with herself and her goofy flirting, and Robin can't help the full bellied laugh that escapes his mouth.

"Hush," Regina tells Robin, his laughter echoing through the trees, eerily green and alive under the fresh coat of snow. "We have a river to find."

"And that means I'm not allowed to laugh?"

"At me? No you're not."

"My apologies."

Regina loses track of how long she and Robin sit by the frozen river. Long enough that her toes have begun to go a bit numb, but it's hard to care too much when she's pressed up against Robin's side, their arms around each other's waists. She's smiling. Can't stop. As soon as she gets herself under control, his fingers graze her side or he presses a soft kiss to her hair, and then she's smiling uncontrollably again. She looks up at Robin, and her chest actually aches when their eyes meet, her cheeks hurt from grinning so widely.

Regina reaches for a kiss, presses a quick peck to his lips, because damn, that smile is not going anywhere. But Robin is grinning at her too, the two of them looking like idiots, she's certain. But neither of them can stop smiling long enough for a proper kiss.

Regina leans into Robin, kissing him as best she can manage, pressing further and further against him until he's toppling back into the snow, flakes of it sneaking between his hat and his scarf and making him shiver. Robin wraps his arms around Regina, pulls her body closer to his so that she's laying on his chest, still kissing him through her smiles. She loves this man so much, so much, she thinks as she kisses him, his eyes wide open and staring back at her with such love.

"I'm so happy," Regina whispers against his lips. She hadn't meant to say it out loud, feels embarrassed that she has, but the joy feels so hard to contain here with Robin. She's sought this feeling out for so long, and now she has it, and it is so much more than she ever though she would have.

Robin's hand tangles in Regina's hair, pushes loose strands back from her face so he can look at her and tell her, "That's all I want Regina, for you to be as happy as you make me."

"I love you Robin." It still scares her to say it, but she needs him to know, can't bear the thought that he should ever not know how loved he is, how amazing he is, simply because she is afraid. Robin deserves everything, and Regina wills herself to be strong enough and good enough to give it to him. "I love you," she repeats her lips tickling against his as she speaks. She presses a kiss against the corner of his mouth. "I love you. I love you," she tells him again and again between light kisses. Robin laughs, a smile spreading across his face, eyes crinkled and cheeks dimpled. That smile makes Regina feel so light with love and hope and joy; she thinks she feels almost like the girl she had been so long ago who knew how to love.

Robin keeps smiling at Regina. He looks as terribly, hopelessly in love as she feels. He lifts his head from the snow, his hair dusted with white flakes, and kisses Regina again. "I love you so much," he tells her as he pulls her flush against his chest, "even though you threw me in the snow."

Regina is smiling again, Robin right along there with her, grinning and grinning like lovesick fools.