A short little filler chapter dealing with Henry and Emma and setting us up for the inevitable confrontation between Regina and Leopold. Hope you enjoy! I'm thinking maybe two more chapters of this one guys. I can't believe I'm actually this close to finishing something I never thought I would! Thanks for all of your encouraging words throughout this entire process. Some of you have been following this fic since it was a lonely little prompt on my Tumblr some time last year and you've been loyal ever since so thank you! I hope you enjoy these last few chapters xo
The dining room table was full of food; pancakes, streaky bacon, sausages, a jug filled with sweet and sticky syrup, a fruit bowl, plain and flavoured yoghurt and a variety of cereals. They'd really gone all out and Regina couldn't deny the enjoyment she'd felt when both she and Robin had been stood hip to hip, cooking and gathering the food together, stealing kisses before the boys made their way downstairs and giggling foolishly at one another. Her declaration the previous night had only aided her healing heart - she felt lighter than she had in a very long time.
Right now they were in the living room, taking a quick moment to themselves whilst Roland and Henry washed up before breakfast. Her arms were wrapped loosely around his neck, his her waist, and their fronts were pressed lightly together as their mouths met over and over in a way that had her pressing closer and closer to him.
He tasted of coffee and syrup and though a part of her wanted to scold him for sneaking a bite of the pancakes before their guest arrived, more of her wanted him to keep kissing her and never stop, especially when he slid his tongue along hers in that way that had her toes curling in her shoes and her arms tightening around his neck.
They hadn't been together in that way yet, not with everything that had been going on but now that things were calming down, now that she was beginning to feel more like the person she wanted to be and not the one she thought she had to be, she found long forgotten urges creeping back in.
There was a heat pooling low in her stomach, one that was getting harder and harder to both ignore and control, so much so that she hadn't even realised she'd been walking Robin backwards until the backs of his knees hit the couch and he dropped down to sit. He was panting and as flushed as she when he looked up at her with hungry blue eyes, whispering "Regina?" to which she merely put a finger upon his lips and moved to straddle his lap with knees on either side of his thighs. The next breath against her finger was shuddered and she couldn't help but chuckle as she looked at him for a long moment with a hand on his shoulder for balance before she was replacing her finger with her lips, curling her palm around the back of his head to keep him in place.
He let out a poorly contained moan when she opened his mouth with her own and instantly deepened the kiss, the force of it knocking his head back to rest upon the back of the couch whilst eager hands found her hips and squeezed as hard as he was able without causing her pain. She had to suppress the need to rock her hips against his own - the boys finding them making out like teenagers on the sofa was one thing but seeing her dry humping Robin into the couch was another thing entirely. With that in mind, she pushed herself up higher onto her knees so that her stomach was against his chest and her hair was curtaining their faces from view as she moved her mouth over his, little whimpers caught in her throat.
"And good morning to you too."
Regina shot back from Robin, their lips parting with a wet smack at the sound of another voice that she was too dazed to recognise as Emma Swan's. The blonde was leaning against the doorframe, smirking at the pair of them as both stared rather dumbfoundedly at her, unable to come up with any plausible excuse for their mid-morning makeout in their current headspace.
"You two finish up," she rolled her eyes with an amused smirk, pushing herself back up straight before shaking her head "I'm gonna help the boys dish up." and disappearing from view.
Robin's hands had moved to her waist, breath still coming heavily though it seemed he'd managed to find himself quicker than Regina as he began laughing beneath her. She turned with eyes wide and lips still parted and wonderfully kiss swollen before she smacked a hand upon his chest and chided "it's not funny!" even as her own chest began bouncing with her laughter.
"Not funny, huh?" he raised his eyebrows amusedly, loving the way she shook atop him before he tightened his grip on her waist and pushed himself up enough to drop her on her back on the sofa with knees on either side of his hips and a soft yelp of surprise falling from her lips. He didn't give her long before he was kissing her again but this time he kept it chaste, moving from her lips to her cheeks, her brow, her closed eyes and back to her lips again, reveling in her joy, the joy he was able to bring out in her.
Her dark eyes were electric when they opened once more to look at him, one hand moving up from its place on his shoulder to stroke through his mussed hair as she smiled beautifully. "I love you," she whispered, a small amount of fear still finding its way into her expression with the fairly new confession but she held steady.
He was quite sure that if she were to pull his heart from his chest, it would be glowing and twice the size of a normal heart at the moment. "I love you, too" he shook his head before ducking his head down to capture her lips in a kiss a little longer and almost unbearably tender before whispering "my precious Regina," and delighting in her soft breath of laughter against his jaw.
"Good of you to join us," Emma teased from her place at the table, her eyes falling to their joined hands for a moment before she met Regina's gaze once more with an infectiously wide smile.
Henry was beside her, working away at a large stack of syrup covered pancakes with an ease that told her they'd perhaps used the time she and Robin had been given by the blonde to talk. Roland was happily chewing away at his bacon, his head bobbing from side to side as he hummed tunelessly.
She ruffled the fingers of her free hand through his messy curls before moving over to the head of the table, glad when Robin kept their fingers laced even as he sat down to her right. Her cheeks were beginning to hurt with her smile but she didn't care, not when she looked up and found her family, with the addition of a tentative new friend, all enjoying the breakfast she and Robin had put together and one another's company. Things were not right just yet but they were most certainly getting there.
She peeked in through the open living room door, smiling at the sight of Henry and Emma on the sofa with arms wrapped around one another as they rocked gently from side to side. They'd been speaking for the better part of the past hour, the blonde giving Henry the opportunity to explain why her part in bringing Leopold back had been the easiest thing to focus on and that she'd been the easiest to blame for it despite there being no malice in her actions.
Regina was proud of him for it. She hadn't pushed during the times he'd refused to speak to his other mother but she certainly hadn't encouraged their estrangement and seeing them now, talking it through properly, had her smile remaining as she moved into the kitchen.
Robin was at the sink, washing dishes with his back to her and humming softly to himself. He startled when she moved close enough to snake her arms around his waist, pressing her front to his back and resting her cheek between his shoulders with a warm hum. "Hello there, beautiful" he chuckled softly, placing the dish he'd been washing in the drying wrack before drying his hands on a dish towel. "You okay?" he asked after a long moment, laying his hands atop the backs of hers before asking her to let go enough for him to turn.
Her smile was warm, her eyes creased with the expression as she looked up at him with her palms on his chest. His own had fallen to her waist, their torsos pressed together. "More than okay," she replied softly, dropping her head into his hand when he lifted one to cup her cheek and stroke his thumb across her cheekbone affectionately.
His kind blue eyes trailed over her features as he looked at her in that way she absolutely adored before he dropped his head enough to capture her lips within his own in one of the more tender kisses they'd ever shared. It was absolute bliss. He didn't go far when he pulled back, nudged his nose against her own before he told her "I want to take you out," he dipped his head to press a lingering kiss to her neck before continuing "show you off," one on the other side, "give us a chance to dress up, to dance beneath the stars." He lifted his head again, eyes on her smiling lips as he asked "a night for just the two of us, would that be okay?"
It was Regina who lifted herself then, enough to press her lips to his once more before she nodded and replied "I would love that."
He breathed out a soft laugh against her mouth as he whispered "good," and "I love you."
"I love you, too" she replied easily before sliding her arms up to hang around his neck and stealing some more kisses before they'd have to go back to hosting. A date with Robin sounded like absolute perfection and whilst she couldn't wait, tonight she was going to finally confront Leopold, to set herself free of his hold. Free to live and free to love for once in her dark, dark life.