Helloooooo you guys! This is kind of a historic moment! okay maybe this is a bit of an overstatement BUT it IS a moment in MY history so let's leave it at that. I am so sorry for such a long absence and I am also very sorry that I cannot promise you when the next update will be. You see, I HAD in mind a certain way I'd have liked my story to move forward but whether it is just a coincidence or so many of us share a very kindred imagination, but so happened that I read many many fics leading to my prefered ending so I felt like that wouldn't do . I DO plan on finishing this story though, that's for sure ! that's about it for now...Have fun! fyi this is Robin's POV. Hopefully there'll be dialogue (YESSS) between these two in the following chapter!
Chapter 7b
On the other side of the grounds, in the exact opposite location of where Regina currently was, in a place dearly beloved by a certain five year-old young outlaw, Robin found himself feeling as if time wasn't quite following its destined norm. It was as if everything that was taking place right now, in this small but imposing little yard, with the apple trees encircling it like a half moon, and a fountain in the middle that portrayed a young unicorn, standing on his back feet, water hiding the hooves and reaching mid-thigh, (quite a majestic creature, Robin thought, wondering at the same time ,if they actually ever existed) even the activities in which he himself participated in, weren't exactly…real… Realistic maybe but there was a quality missing, a quality that Robin had never before remembered feeling lacking. It was the kind of quality that one can only grasp in understanding if they have found themselves in a similar position as Robin now found himself. And what that position may be, you would ask? Well…for Robin's peculiar state of mind the only person deemed responsible was a very specific woman, with long raven hair that – he recalled - seemed highlighted when the sun would cast its glow upon it, a woman with luscious full lips, brown eyes that reminded him of the colors of an oak tree he once encountered in one of his journeys, warm brown but emanating something impossibly strong and fierce (and that's how a soul reveals itself, he thought) a woman with such delicate ,lean nose and such strong yet calming features, a woman who ,the outlaw realized, had been waving her way into his heart, possibly, from day one. It is the kind of quality that one is experiencing only when there are newly-comprehended emotions overtaking every single vacant spot of his heart, even the ones that he had agreed with himself need never be filled again after Marian's passing.
Maybe, it was in these spots that he found her more than anyplace else, Robin realized and somehow that filled him with the explanation he'd been searching ever since he awoke that very same morning. An explanation that revealed why, in spite of all the things he should be thinking, all the thoughts that were occupying his mind were leaning towards Regina. Well…leaning would be an understatement. It was more like, his own brain, had succumbed to her, had given in, had surrendered itself willingly and she had taken it, accepting it all, and now there she was, resilient and vibrating life, a life inside his life, a soul within a soul. Oh God… when had he become such a romantic? When had his mind started placing all those words together, words that he hadn't summoned, not since his early adulthood, long before he met Marian, when he wasn't an outlaw ,yet, but a noble, and it was then that he had found himself falling in love for the first time. He realized that he was thinking about Regina with the same words, the same freshness and naivety of a new love, of a person standing in the threshold of a new beginning.
Little John was apparently all too aware of his friend's need of privacy and so he had taken Roland in a wild dragon-chase across the grounds (although, to be honest, when he had first suggested the game he hadn't, exactly, in mind him being the dragon) thus leading a fully energized Roland to poking him with his –thank Heavens not a real one- but a wooden-knife, or "ouch ! Rolaaaand ! What have we said about hitting people in the b-" "okay!" came Robin's fast reply when he realized what his mate was about to say! True, Roland had indeed unceremoniously poked Little John in his arse with the excuse that the latter "was taking too long daddy! Dragons don't rest!" came his son's declaration, accompanied by a lopsided grin that soon became a pout when he realized that his papa was not finding the joke in the situation and that his uncle (cause that's how he used to call Little John his whole life) had a pair of very red cheeks while trying to seize the pain from his…behind!
"Roland, uncle John is not a dragon, my boy, although…", said Robin only to continue with his own teasing grin attracting both Roland and Jon's attention "if your uncle hadn't eaten all these potatoes at lunch maybe he'd be moving a little easier" and with that Roland was back at his dimpled happy squeaky self, for he knew his papa was teasing uncle John and that was always funny!
"Hey! A man has needs!" John said quickly but Robin was in a full-teasing mode and the game had just begun!
"You know, needs come with the size", Robin teased and "tell that to Granny Lucas!" John said fast "if she didn't cook so well I wouldn't be eating so much!"
"So I surmise that the roots and the rabbits on the fire we used to eat before were equally tasty? 'Cause I remember us running to get some food before you indulged in all of our dinners" Robin's hearty laughter was soon released from deep within his throat and that was enough for a guilty smile to spread upon John's face and his "What can I say? Food is my soft spot" was soon met with Robin's "I wouldn't dare call it a "spot" anymore, old friend" resolved in laughter from both sides.
That was good, Robin thought. Laughing and joking with his men over matters that would not determine the course of a lifetime. For the matters of the heart more often than not, leave indeed, their distinctive mark, changing the person over and over again, resonating deep within his most unconscious thoughts and participating in decisions that indeed alter one's life. He somehow felt that the Queen was such a person. A person carrying the potential for a three hundred and sixty five degrees' shift of his reality and yet, despite all the significance, all the power that she beheld against him, despite it all, he trusted her in such a profound way that even he was surprised to acknowledge. Cause he trusted her with the most important kind of trust. The one that makes you want to give your heart to someone and not be afraid they'll break it.
He knew not where such faith in her stemmed from and, still, he felt it in his bones that despite all her heartbreak and all her dark moments, she was somehow the only person he found himself wanting to share a future with.
Maybe all that was moving too fast… Gosh they had to talk, really talk! He had to be sure, sure that what he felt in the forest, what took place between them wasn't just a last chance to express themselves before death, cause he didn't want to be that for her. He wanted more. He wanted everything. He wanted her…
And they had to talk…
With that thought he left his son under the protection of his friend, and moved in quick pace towards the Great Hall. He had a meeting to attend and words to share.