"How about a shower? Together?" She proposed.

Robin began to shake his head even before she had finished her question. "No...no, Regina. I can't be near you... not that way..." he couldn't look at her in the eyes and that hurted her even more.

"Robin, stop it." she said angrily. He snapped his head up "well, that worked" she said with a soft smile. "Stop thinking. Just feel, ok?" she took his hand and placed it on her face. "Let's just feel. I don't expect to jump in a bed with you tonight, I just want to feel near you... I miss you" she said with a broken voice.

Tears fell from Robin's eyes. He missed her as well, as the air he breathed. He missed that easy connection, he missed those intimate kisses, he missed everything about herm but he didn't feel worth of her anymore. He had wished a different future for them. One where they could start a family together, with those two beautiful boys upstais of course, but with a little girl with her eyes and her smile. Now he was burdened with a child with her sister who posed as his dead wife out of revenge. She poisoned him, she dirtied their relationship. But he made a promise to himself in the Enchanted Forest: whenever he saw her wandering through the corridors of the castle, always alone and looking sad, he promised to do everything he could to make her smile, if not happy. So he agreed to the shower.

Regina beamed, eyes full of tears, and, never letting go of his hand, she led him upstairs. She locked the door of their bathroom and turned to him. She started to unbotton her shirt looking in his eyes and he mantained the eye contact, never breaking it to look elsewhere. Not when he heard the soft swish of her shirt on the floor, not when he heard the sound of her trouser's zip. He knew she was naked then and he didn't move a muscle. He hadn't removed his clothes, he just stood there.

Regina approached him, standing on her toes she gave him a kiss on his cheek and whispered in his ear "Don't make me be the only one with no clothes on." Then she moved to the shower, adjusting the right temperature and stepping inside.

Robin remained where he was, still processing all the emotions she stirred up in him. The trust she poned in him, after everything he put her through. He was so lucky to have her, to have her help and her love. That spurred him on, the eternal gratitude for just being her. He quickly disposed of his t-shirt and his trousers, then he took off his boxers and joined her under the warm spray. He still didn't dare to look at her body. He waited on her, he trusted her to make the right choise, the right move whenever she decided.

She had her back to him, enjoying the warm water on her body when she felt the curtain move behind her. She looked at him on her shoulder and smiled. God, wasn't he attractive like that. She knew she had to took the matter in her own hands (she smiled at the double meaning in her head), but she was used to it. She had manipulated many men in her past but this was different. This was her Robin, her brave true love who was wounded and was selfdoubting himself and their love and she couldn't allow it. She turned to him and placed her arms on his shoulders. When he didn't move she took his hands and placed them on her hips. He closed his eyes at the contact, the smooth skin was warm under his fingers.

"Look at me, I want you to know who you're with." She said and he obeyed. He opened his blue eyes and she could see the hurt in them so she rephrased it. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean like that. I mean, I want you to know that I am here. I am where I want to be, not out of a prophecy or the pixie dust but because I care about you. Deeply." She stuttered on the words, she couldn't say it yet. It wasn't the right moment but, for the firts time since Daniel, she thought she was finally ready.

He took his right hand from his safe place on her hip and played with the end of her hair. "You are here" he repeated in a whisper. His eyes shone, his hand trembled while he looked in her eyes and saw the love. She was lowering her barriers for his sake, helping him healing from those months in New York.

Regina smiled at him. "Let me help you" she said, looking around for his sponge before pouring a generous dollop of his (and her) favourite soap. It smelt of pine and forest and it reminded of him during their time apart. She moved her eyes to his chest and gasped "Robin?!". His perfect muscled chest was red and it seemed scratched. "Robin?...What is this?" she asked with a low voice tracing the pattern of one of the many signs marking his pectorals.

He looked like he couldn't breath. He gasped for air and for a way to explain this to her. He felt her fingers moving up and down the scars and tears pooled again in his eyes. "I... I had to... clean her from me. I coudn't stand the thought of being touched from her" he confessed.

Regina was on the verge of tears herself "My God, what has she done to you..." But she knew that she could not make this stop her, she began to soap his chest with accuracy, tracing the outlines of his muscle with the other hand to make more suds. She followed her movements with her eyes while Robin was enchanted by her expressive eyes. She began to descend on his body when he stopped her "Regina" he said.

"Robin" she playfully imitated him.

"Milady... you... you don't have to..." he felt like a teenboy in front of his first girl. He huffed at himself.

"I'm just cleaning you" She said intently, she waited for him to catch her meaning but, just to be sure, she explained herself anyway. "Water is symbol of purification, it cleans away the dirt, will it be physical or otherwise. I'm cleaning you. I'm forgiving you."

Robin crumbled then, he was overwhelmed by her words, her love. He crushed her naked body to his, not caring about anything else but her closeness. She breathed in relief when she felt him and the desperation he clinged to her. God, she missed this man. She hugged him with the same intensity while he said over and over "I am sorry... I am deeply sorry, Milady..."

She shushed him, like a baby, she scratched her nails on his scalp soothing him, the other hand caressed his back while sobs took control of his entire body. "Let it go, let it all go" she said, shedding tears of her own. "I'm here"

He shall have sensed her tears as well because his arms tensed around her, he would have never let her go. When he felt more in control of his emotion he looked in her eyes, smiling slighly. "Let me wash you." He said and she took note of the fact that he used a different verb from hers. He still thought that she was good and didn't need any cleaning from her past actions, he thought she redimed herself more that enough. She smiled at him and passed her sponge.

He took care of her body with love and devotion, not a hint of lust in movements, he put extra attention to touch her with his bare hands as little as possible and Regina didn't really know what to think.

Robin finally had soaped all of her so she took the shower head and proceeded to rinse them. He still was distant but his hand were at her waist clenching and unclenching, unsure of what to do. She then took her chances, she placed the shower head on its holder and got closer to him. She standed on her toes and approached their lips slowly, giving him the time to distance if he really wanted. He didn't move and their lips finally came in contact. She kissed him lightly not wanting to scare or startle him, but soon she couldn't resist to bit his lower lip just like he did when he enjoyed pissing her off in the Enchanted Forest. He moaned in the kiss and brought their foreheads together. He breathed deeply trying to calm himself but that was not what Regina wanted so she attacked his lips again, teasing them with her tongue until he couldn't do nothing but open them and give her access to his mouth.

They kissed for minutes, Robin slightly relaxing each passing moment until Regina started to draw lines on his torso lower and lower. He took her hand in his and stopped the kiss "Regina... you...we must stop. I can't"

Regina smirked at him, looking down "It seems to me that you can" she tried to lighten him did not expect him to back away from her, a frown deepening his wrinkles on the forehead and anger in his eyes.

"That is the problem! I cannot control myself! I am just an animal!" He almost shouted before remembering the two boys sleeping next door.

Regina didn't know what to do to make him understand "Robin, you thought she was your wife. I understand that you had to make it work with her, we decided it together. It doesn't mean I'm not hurt by your actions but now that we know the truth, we can't let her win. She wanted to keep you away from me and she's doing it even now. " She looked at him as he worked those words in his head, she gave him another minute before continuing "My mother always said to me that love is a weakness and I believed her, hell you know now what I have done to myself. But I know now that's not true. You have made me stronger, our love made me stronger."

"My love" he said brokenly. Tears runned freely on Regina's cheek.

"I am here and I intend to be next to you every step of the way if you want me to. We don't have to be alone anymore." She said. He nodded, seemed convinced and brought their lips together in a chaste but meaningfull kiss.

It escalated quickly, having missed each other for so long, hands roaming on eachother's body, rediscovering the places that made the other moan and gasp in pleasure. After a few minutes Robin moved away, Regina was ready to fight whatever he might throw her way but he simply smiled "Let's go to bed".

She turned off the water and wrapped herself in a bath towel while Robin was doing the same. He took her hand guiding her in the bedroom, he turned then and looked at her for a long moment. Regina tilted her head curiously waiting for him. "I love you. I want you to know it and I do not expect you say it back now. Maybe I shoud not say it as well, I have not showed you recently with... all that. But you must know that, regardless of everything, my heart is still yours, Regina Mills. It is your to keep, forever."

She smiled a happy smile and kissed him with all she have. She was relieved that he didn't expect anything. She needed time to heal herself, to adjust to these new changes that were about to come in their life. She needed time to smooth things over with the man she cared deeply, day after day.

Robin was still hesitant in their kiss, so Regina's tongue teased his lower lip and after a few seconds he granted the access to his mouth. Their kissed lasted for what seemed forever before she pushed him on the bed, straddling him. He took a breath of air before asking "My love, we do not have to..."

"But I want to" she said pouting adorably.

He couldn't help but laugh, he really laughed for the first time since leaving this town and she looked in amazement how his whole face lighted up, his eyes crinkling at the sides, his white teeth lightly biting his lower lip. She found herself smiling fondly at his mirth before lowering again and kissing his smile.

Regina took her bath towel and discared it carelessy on the floor still kissing him and then removed his as well. Finally here they were. She continued her ministration while her right hand started tracing intricate drawings on his chest, mapping it again in her head, memorizing each scar all over again. He left his hands on her back, tracing up and down the muscles never asking for more, simply taking confort from her skin. Her hand went down still and his breath sped up. She finally arrived to his hipbone and, looking in his blue eyes, she took him in her hand. He closed his eyelids for a moment but opened them right away remembering her words in the shower "I want you to know that I am here", she said. He wanted to ensure her presence, reassuring both of them that they were together against everyone and everything. Their love was strong.

She stroked him to full hardness and she positioned herself above him before he stopped her again "What now?" she asked anxious.

He smirked at her eagerness "Wait, I want to... Are you ready? I want to..."

"No," she interrupted him "This is about you" she smiled. He looked at her for a moment before taking her face in his hands and kissing her. She sinked on him and they both moaned at the intimate connection. They stood still, barely breathing: each of them savouring the moment, their hearts beating at the same time.

Regina felt him pulsing inside of her and started moving slightly, still adjusting to him. Robin moaned at her pace but never diverted the gaze from hers. She took one of his hand and placed it on her breast "Touch me, love" she said squeezing himand he jerked on the bed both at the sensation and at the nickname. She smirked, looking quite proud of herself. He took her lead and softly played with her breast, fully encased in his hand. Her nipple responded to his ministration right away and he lost it. He readjusted himself, placing his back on the headboard of the bed with her still seated on his lap. He placed a single kiss on the other nipple intending of stopping there but she sucked up a breath, content and he couldn't stop there. He kissed her breast, lapping at the hardened peak while his hand played with the other one.
Regina felt a tightening in her core, she increased her pace moving up and down of his shaft spurring him on. She placed her cheek on his head while playing with he short hair on his neck and concentrated just on him, on the beating of their syncronized heart, on the feeling of him inside of her, on him being there, being hers. She felt the tears on her chest and looked down. Looking in his eyes she could almost see that he was thinking the same. Maybe that meant being soulmates, feeling one another thought and emotions. "Use mine for the both of us" he wispered on her lips just like he said in Granny's hallway. That was it, the confirmation. He was feeling her. It was so earthshaking they climaxed together. He emptied himself inside of her and she welcomed it, milking him and prolonging their pleasure as much as possible. They didn't move, they hugged never breaking the phisical connection. Robin clunged to her like a lifeline and she managed to get even closer to his body.

He kissed her chest where her heart was . "Thank you, my love".