I'm falling into you
Cause no one's gonna
Love me like you do (alright)
I've got nothing to lose
So I can't stop, won't stop
Falling into you (alright)
(Song is Falling into you)
The oak bough groaned under the young girl's weight, a mournful warning whispered on the cool evening breeze, mingling with the soft rustle of the leaves. Yet, the warning had come for Regina Mills too late. The branch snapped beneath her, tossing her from her perch above the heart of the maze garden, hurling her toward the gravel below.
Her body convulsed with a realization that sparked every nerve, that slammed her heart against the wall of her chest and sucked air from her lungs, she was about to die. She threw out her arms. Flapping like a bird tumbling from its nest, she fought frantically for something to grab hold to. Limbs slashed at her, each a dark, angry demon clawing at her legs, her arms, her hands, eluding her grasp. Leaves ripped from their morning tumbled from her hands, spilling a sharp edge into the air.
From below, Regina heard a woman scream. She heard the deep rumble of Robin's voice, his words lost in her own piercing scream of panic. Suddenly there was nothing but air streaming over her in a soft rush, nothing to save her from her fall. She clawed at the air, trying to snatch the last branch as it retreated from her. Fractured thoughts flickered through the fear flaring like fire in her brain...Robin...he would discover what she had done...she would die humiliated...broken and bloody at his feet.
Something hard whipped around her. A solid bulk slammed against her back before she hit the ground, her moan entwining with a gravely groan. For a moment she lay with her eyes closed, the reassuring roar of her pulse pounding in her ears. Alive! She was still alive somehow.
Earthy spices and something else, something intriguing tensed her senses. Gathering her shattered wits, Regina became aware of the hard cushion of a male body beneath her, the warm embrace of strong arms around her form. Oh no! She had landed on Robin.
Regina turned in his arms, her knee colliding with something solid, dragging a moan from his lips. "Are you all right?"
Robin released his breath between clenched teeth as he looked up at her, his blue eyes filled with moonlight and shadows. "Fine."
The husky whisper was less than convincing. What must he be thinking of her? Heaven help her, she wasn't sure she wanted to know anymore. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to..."
"Just what were you doing spying on us?" Zelena demanded. Zelena was Regina's older half sister, by their mother's first marriage.
Regina scrambled to her feet, gravel bitting into her naked feet. Although she was only sixteen, Regina stood up proudly.
"Where did you come from?" Zelena asked as she stared at Regina with murderous rage in her eyes. "Well, mother shall hear of this, and you will soon find yourself banned to your room."
"I suppose you intend to tell her?" Regina asked with her throat growing tight.
"That's right," Zelena tilted her head back, a smug smile curving on her lips. "With pleasure."
Regina forced her lips into a smile, hoping she looked more confident than she felt, "Well, then I suppose I shall also have to tell mother, about what you and Zander Goodson were doing in the barn last weekend."
"How dare you threaten me!"
"I think you'd better go back, Zelena," Robin said, rising to his feet, brushing bits of gravel from his coat and trousers, "I'll take care of her."
"Robin...Zander...he doesn't mean anything to me," Zelena protested, pivoting to him.
"Whether he does or not, means nothing to me," Robin said.
"Instead of catching her, you should have let her fall," Zelena said, her skirt swaying, swishing against her petticoat. "It would have taught her a lesson."
Robin shook his head, "Draw in your claws, otherwise I'd think you were jealous."
"Get rid of her quickly," Zelena ran her hand down the studs lining the front of his white shirt as she spoke. "I'll be waiting for you."
Regina clenched her hands into fists at her sides. She had half a notion to knock her sister on her plump backside. Zelena had no right to paw at Robin, she sent Regina an arrogant glare before turning toward the entrance of the maze.
Regina was staring at him. Yet, she could do nothing to stop herself. It didn't seem possible, just a few feet away stood the living image of her dream; only, Robin was taller, more handsome than the shadowy figure conjured in the realm of her dreams.
Roses swayed in the breeze nearby, sliding their perfume around them. Regina had dreamed of them being here, imagined Robin on one knee asking for her hand, imagined him telling her that he loved her more than anything...
"So, you're Zelena's little sister," Robin said rubbing the back of his head, as though he were easing a tender spot.
Dreams bumped painfully into reality. She already felt foolish, worse than foolish. She had just witnessed the man she loved, the man she intended to marry, about to kiss her own sister. On top of it, she didn't need to be treated like she was a child, not by him. "I'll have you know, Mr. Locksley, I turned sixteen earlier this year. Hardly a baby."
"Ancient. I'm surprised you could make it up that tree, what with the rheumatism and such."
"Oooo, I don't know why I even came out here."
A whisper of a smirk curved on his lips, "Just what were you doing in that tree, Minx?"
"Don't call me that!"
"Don't act like one, and I won't call you one."
"I don't intend to stand here and listen to you insult me." Mortified, she marched toward the entrance, giving him a sharp look when he joined her. "I don't wish for your company."
"Well, you've got it." He bowed, pressing his hand to his heart. "After you, milady."
Regina pivoted on her heel, determined to ignore him as he walked beside her. Impossible! Easier to ignore the sun on a hot August day. Without touching her, he surrounded her, the heat of his body shielding her from the chill; and inside, deep within her, she felt a foreign warmth flicker and burn, a candle kissed by a flame.
"Do you always go around spying on people?" he asked as they emerged from the maze finally. "Or am I special?"
"I wasn't spying!"
Moonlight caressed his features, illuminating the crooked curve of his smile. "Are you sure?"
Regina glanced down to her bare toes, fragrant, freshly cut grass curling in cool tendrils around her feet, "All right. Maybe I was. But you're lucky I followed you, Zelena was about to hang you up in her smokehouse."
He tossed back his head, his laughter vibrating the cool night air, each robust note a blade slicing into her pride.
"Jackass! The two of you were meant for each other!" He grabbed her waist length braid when she started to run, tethering her like a young filly on a rein, "Let go of me!"
He gave her braid a soft rug, "Not yet."
"I don't care to be made fun of," Regina said, twisting her braid, feeling the bite of tears in the back of her eyes, "Just let go of me!"
"I apologize, I didn't mean to make fun of you."
The sincerity of his lush tone brought her gaze up to his face. He was smiling in a way that soothed her wounded pride, in a way that seemed to say he understood her youth and appreciated her innocence. "Well, you've been doing a good job for someone not trying."
"I'll try to do better," he said, dropping her braid.
Trying to hide her smile, she turned and marched toward the house, with Robin in step beside her. A waltz drifted from the ballroom, the notes streaming around them in shimmering strands, like mist rising in the moonlight. If she were older, she could be in that ballroom, she would be holding a dance card with Robin Locksley's name written beside every dance, she could waltz with him here under the moon and stars.
She loved him. In church this morning, she had taken one look at Robin and known he was the man for her. A slab of longing a mile wide settled in her chest when she realized she might never get the chance to dance with him, to taste his kisses, to be his bride. Six short years separated them in age, but it might as well have been a hundred.
"Zelena is no good for you. If you're smart, you'll wait for the right woman before you get married."
"I'm not planning on marrying anyone for a while," Robin gave her that special smile, a smile that seemed to shine only for her. "I wonder what you're going to be like in a few years. I have the hunch you're going to grow up to be quite a heartbreaker."
"No, I'm not. I don't like those fancy games that some women play. I'll give my whole heart to one special man, and I'll cherish his love all my days."
Robin brushed the curve of her cheek with his fingertips, looking at her as though he could see the promise of the woman she would one day become, "And he'll be a very fortunate man."
She hesitated a moment, collecting her courage. "If you're real smart, Robin Locksley, you'll wait for me." She sprang to her toes, grabbed him by his shirt and pulled, grazing his lips with hers, then dashed toward the house.
"Regina!" he called, running after her.
She started to scamper up a shapely elm tree planted beside the house. If he laughed at her, she would die, just die.
"Regina!"
Regina paused on the ledge of her cousin's Layla's open second story bedroom window, her breath pounding at the base of her throat. After taking a deep breath she glared down at him, "What?"
Robin took a minute before he replied, smiling up at her, moonlight burning his features into her heart. "You just might be worth the wait."
She smiled. "You just wait and see, Robin Locksley."
"I just might do that," Robin turned, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked away from the big elm, softly whistling a waltz.
"Regina, you're going to get into a lot of trouble," Layla said at Regina, climbed into the room. "Mama says girls are always throwing themselves at Robin Locksley. She says they'll end up in trouble. And...and you kissed him!"
Layla was ten, far too young to understand. "One day I'm going to marry that man," Regina said, leaning on the windowsill, watching Robin Locksley until he faded into the shadows near the ballroom. "He'll wait for me. I know it. I feel it in my heart."