"Enchanted Tales With Belle"
Upon my flowering breast,
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
"No!"
"Regina. . ."
"No!"
"For Roland!"
"Oh that's low. " She sighed, " Belle hates me, Robin. I will be the ultimate buzz kill!"
"Belle is the woman who loved the Dark One. She saw him torture me and still forgave him."
"But this is different. She actually got hurt by the person she should forgive!"
He took her hand, "Roland wants his mother there."
"I'm not his mother."
Robin flinched.
Damn.
"I'm sorry, " Regina offered. "I guess I am, even though this isn't official."
Not official. But they were back to being lovers. A man could only take so much, and Regina felt a little guilty that she had stretched his limits. But then there was the thought always in the back of her head that he secretly hoped she'd get pregnant.
Dammit, it was the woman who was supposed to trap a man!
But sometimes she thought that maybe she wished it too. That would solve the "when" that had been hanging over them for months.
But no luck.
Or maybe luck.
A shotgun wedding would be the chicken way of getting around what he wished for. He wanted her to be ready to mean her vows when the time came.
Until the time she meant her vows . . .
And he knew more than she, that she wouldn't mean them. Not yet. There was still too much darkness left in her, that hole in her heart, the bitterness.
Not at peace.
Determined to destroy Zelena.
If she ever saw that melodramatic brat ever again.
Her literally green-with-envy sister was keeping a frustrating absence.
Biding her time.
But for what?
Brat!
"For me," Robin interrupted her thoughts, giving her his killer grin as he nuzzled at her.
"Now that's not fair!"
He chuckled against her neck. "I know." He kissed her, "But you owe me for taking my virtue."
Oh good gods!
So Regina sat with Roland and all the other little children sitting on the floor in the "children's section" of the castle library Belle had created.
"And then they lived happily ever after . . ." Belle finished in her sickenly sweet voice, closing the book.
Yet Roland squirmed in Regina's lap.
"What is it baby?" Regina asked.
He didn't answer, but instead addressed Belle, "But then the mommy died. Didn't she?"
Regina could've sworn she actually hear a pin drop.
"Uh," Belle's eyes shifted. "This mommy didn't."
"Mine did, and so did yours, and Aunt Snow's, and my new mommy's and..."
"And hey, it's time for snacks!" Belle chirped, as the little children all scrambled to get their treats.
But Roland was still frowning, "Why didn't the story talk about the mommy dying after they got married?"
Regina paused in a minor panic. Whattosaywhattosay?
"Sometimes happily ever after can be…can be…"
And thank the gods she didn't believe in Roland helped her, "Mommies go to Heaven?"
"Yes!"
Hell, she let the kid believe in Santa Claus, why not Heaven?
Regina continued, "And then you have an angel mommy looking down protecting you, and you get a new mommy from her heart."
Roland nodded, and then ran off to join the other kids, snarfing down their treats.
Belle was collecting her books awkwardly, and Regina couldn't help but feel a little smug.
And a little sad.
Enchanted Tales indeed.
But later as she tucked him in bed, she let Roland take her ring and chain, which he clutched to his little chest.
"Mommies sometimes go to Heaven, Roland," Regina soothed, "but little boys' new ones love them very much."
He smiled and kissed her. Soon he had drifted off to sleep.
And Robin had heard it all.
"You were the one who insisted we go!" she let him know.
He kissed her on the forehead. "Mothers do go away, but you were right. New ones, second chances, come again."
Enchanted Tales.
He took her in his arms, "And I love you for it, love you for being to Roland what he needs." He kissed her a little more passionately, "I was there when Marian slipped away from the fever, and I felt her soul leave, Regina. It was the worst and the best moment of my life." He paused, "Though it took me many years to see it that way."
Regina sighed. It wasn't like that for Daniel.
"And they do go to Heaven," he whispered, "sending new ones."
Regina snorted, "Now you're just parroting me to try and get me in bed!"
"Do I have to try?"
"No," she laughed.
"But before we do," he said. "I have a little surprise for you, if you're ready for one."
Regina smiled in spite of herself, "Always ready for one from you!"
He led her out to the nearby balcony and pulled out a ring.
A ring from a saddle. Just like Daniel's.
"I gave you an engagement ring, but maybe a wedding ring? One for me to wear around my neck until we are wed?"
Tears filled Regina's eyes.
Robin touched her face, "I know it's not the same, but close?"
He placed it in the palm of her hand, and her tears dripped on it.
She handed it back. "Yes. Oh yes." She kissed him, "damn you, you perfect man, yes!"
Then Robin wrapped his arms around her again, her head on his shoulder.
"But I'm still not ready," she muttered against him.
"I know, Beloved. Not yet."
"Not yet."
But when she saw it on a chain around his neck the next morning at breakfast, she sensed it may be closer than she thought.