I'm so sorry for the long gap between updates! I had a wicked case of writers block and have been super sick for the past three weeks and therefore haven't been in much of a writing mood :( I don't know what I'm sick with but it's still hanging on and it's pissing me off. I think it's almost gone now though. Anyway I felt bad and stayed up late to finish this up for you all :) I hope you enjoy it and I would love to read your reviews!
"So," Hook grinned as he sat down next to the prince on the log and he looked up at him, "you and the queen," another grin as he cocked his head and David's expression quickly became guarded and defensive, "oh don't play coy with me, mate. The woman nearly tore my bloody head off when I tried to treat her with a gentle hand," he chuckled with a small shake of his head at the fire in front of them.
"I was going to try and like you but now I don't want anything to do with you," he shook his head stood up from the log to walk away.
"Oi! Mate!" He called with his arms outstretched a little with a laugh under his breath as he watched him leave, "where you going?"
David shook his head again and continued walking away in the direction he had seen Regina and Aurora disappear in to. He didn't even make it in to the thick trees before the two women found him on their way out, "hey."
Regina cocked her head a little with her brow furrowed at the odd greeting as she took her last step before stopping next to Aurora, "hey?"
"Where'd you go?"
"I was healing Aurora's burns...why?"
"Just wondering."
"I figured you and Hook would be chatting up a storm by now. It's been awhile since you've seen another man. Was I wrong when I believed you two to be oddly compatible for a friendship?"
David shrugged a little and looked off to the side, "I don't know I haven't really talked to him. I don't like him all that much. I much prefer your company."
Regina hummed through closed lips as she smirked and tilted her head, "you found out I slept with him."
"You slept with him?" Aurora questioned in surprise and leaned to the side to look past David and on to the man they now called Hook.
"Many timeless years ago, yes."
"Mmm so I'm gonna take that answer as a right before you enacted the curse, yes?" David questioned with a raised eyebrow and Regina shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly with a smile and a slow blink.
"It was good sex," she reasoned and ignored Aurora's uncomfortable weight shift and instead focused on David's subtly clenching jaw and his hardening eyes, "you're jealous."
"No! No I am not jealous," he snapped quickly and she raised her eyebrows with a knowing smirk and he could practically hear her voice in his head 'you wanna try that answer again?'
Aurora laughed quietly at his answer and shook her head, "why are you jealous?"
"Because he thinks I'm his," she supplied with a wonderfully amused smirk without breaking eye contact with David as he gritted his teeth together and folded his arms over his chest.
"...wait...what?"
"You are mine," David nodded once and Regina's grin grew to show her teeth.
"Oh I am not to own, dear."
"Perhaps not," his voice quiet but possessive as he nodded slowly and she hummed quietly and quickly looked him up and down when he stepped closer, "but you are still mine."
She let out a low laugh as she dropped her eyes and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. If they had been alone she would have acted on impulse and pulled him in for a kiss but instead she stepped past him almost close enough to touch.
David looked down and to the side as she passed him and then looked up to Aurora with no clear expression on his face while she looked back at him with wide eyes and her mouth open to speak. When she didn't say anything he turned and followed Regina back to the fire and heard Aurora fall in step behind him.
...
He kept trying to get closer to her, kept trying to hold her and it was driving her insane and putting her on edge, "are you going to see my son tonight?"
"I'm not sure," Aurora answered quietly, "there's a good chance but sometimes he's not there..."
She allowed David to touch her fingertips with his next to her thigh but she didn't acknowledge it, "well when you see him tell him to expect us home in just a few days. And tell him I love him," she nodded and smiled and when David moved his hand to cover hers she pulled it away and rested it in her lap instead.
"Of course," Aurora nodded with a friendly smile and the corners of Regina's eyes creased a little more with her growing smile.
"May I be so bold as to inquire where exactly we are going?" Hook smiled at the queen and David glared.
"No," she answered simply and felt David lean in closer to her much to her discomfort.
"No I may not inquire or no you are not going to tell me?"
"Both."
"If it makes you feel better I don't know where we are going either," Aurora offered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Yes well they haven't told you because you are not too adept at holding your tongue, love," he smiled sweetly and she squinted her eyes and gave a bitter smile in return.
"No," Regina shook her head slowly at the pirate, "the less people that know, the better. I do not need any surprises when we get to our destination," she snapped and crossed one leg over the other when David tried to touch her thigh.
"Cora will find you no matter what you do and you know that. She is more than determined. As for me I merely need passage to this Storybrooke and I do not care who gives it to me."
"Well I wouldn't count on it being myself or David," she deadpanned and David let out a long defeated sigh and she allowed some of the tension in her shoulders go when she connected his sigh to him finishing with his attempts and closeness. However he instead dropped his head so his chin rested on her shoulder. Her muscles went rigid and she drew in a tense but quiet breath as she turned her head to look at him.
He looked up at her with a tired smile and a tilt of his head and she tried to lean away only to bump in to Mulan sitting next to her. She hadn't noticed she had moved so close to her in her attempts to get away from David. "Stop it," she whispered sharply and he smiled and hummed a small laugh, resting his head a little heavier for a few seconds before leaving a soft kiss on her shoulder and sitting up straight once more.
...
With the sun long gone and the rest of them fast asleep, Regina walked up behind David who sat on a stump and watched the dying fire. She breathed out a long soft breath and she placed her hands on his shoulders and moved them down over his chest as she leaned down to rest her head on his shoulder. "You okay?" He whispered and let his eyes fall shut as he tilted his head to push against hers a little, "you were a little tense earlier."
Regina turned her head a little in to him and brushed her lips against his neck as she spoke quietly, "I don't know how to to show affection with watching eyes."
David smiled and her thumbs moved over his chest in soft soothing patterns, "I promise it isn't too much different than when we are alone," he encouraged quietly and felt her lips press gently against the side of his neck in a lingering kiss.
"I wouldn't know," she whispered and kissed the corner of his jaw before resting her forehead and the bridge of her nose against his jaw and cheek, "my love was a secret."
A sharp pang rang through his heart at the reminder and a frown pulled on the corners of his mouth. He assumed that she was uncomfortable because she wasn't used to it not that she had never gotten the opportunity to show her happiness to others before it was taken from her. She had gone an entire lifetime without anyone seeing her truly happy. The only person who had seen it was long since dead. Perhaps there was a small chance Henry had seen it when he was small?
Without a word he turned his head and lifted his hand to hold the side of her face as he leaned in slowly for a kiss. Her lips were soft against his and she returned his gentle movements with her own while her loving hand slid up his chest and pushed through some of his hair at the base of his neck. She pulled away contentedly and lowered her chin to rest on his shoulder again as she removed her hand from his neck and hugged him around his neck and shoulders once more.
He kept his head turned with a smile and while he couldn't focus on much because of their close proximity he still watched her, "you're kind of perfect," he whispered adoringly against her ear.
Regina smiled and moved a thumb over his chest, "I am far from perfect."
"That's why you're only kind of perfect," his smile grew when hers did and he heard the softest laugh leave her lips, "you'll get there though," he whispered and her smile softened as she pushed her chin in a little heavier in to his shoulder, "you're not too far away," he assured gently and she let out a long quiet breath and closed her eyes when he kissed her temple. She hugged him tighter when he straightened his neck and leaned the side of his head against hers and much to his delight she nuzzled in a little deeper in to his neck and shoulder.
...
She hadn't slept well for she was anxious about waking up and having the rest of their company finding her curled in David's arms. When she had woken up she woke up first and she woke up just before he sun and while she imagined she could at least lay there in his arms for a while longer, she didn't know when the others would wake and she couldn't settle so she slid out of David's hold and built a fire without her magic. There had been no meeting with Henry and that only had her worried and frustrated. Again David tried to get close to her and ease her discomfort but it only made it worse and she only got cranky.
So he gave her space and that was easier for her but it also made her upset with herself. She wanted to be close to him and she wanted him to keep her level headed but she couldn't calm down enough to let him to do it. She hadn't planned on running in to company and it threw her off the balance she had so precariously achieved and now she was angry. Not to mention Cora could be anywhere just waiting to take the chance to pull her aside again, waiting to put her own twisted plan in to action.
She had half a mind to just say their goodbyes to their company and magic herself and David to the lake but she knew she couldn't because Cora would be there moments after them and they wouldn't have enough time to open the portal and get away without unpredictable interference. She was tired, angry at everyone including herself, and deprived of the loving affection she craved and could have but couldn't let herself accept.
David was sure she didn't know she was mumbling under her breath as she swatted furiously at the tall dry grass as they walked. Mulan led the way and was followed by Hook and then Aurora and then himself which left Regina at the back with her incoherent words to herself. She was far out of her element and his heart went out to her. She was stuck in her own head and couldn't let go of whatever was holding her back.
When he caught sight of a white daisy-like flower growing up through the grass he reached forward and picked it. He took a few more steps forward as he examined it for any imperfections before he turned around with a smile. She stopped when he did and her angry mumbling stopped as she stared at the flower with the hard expression that remained on her face from the thoughts that plagued her mind. Without softening her expression she took the flower gingerly from his outstretched hand and cocked her head at it. Her confused and frustrated response had him smiling all the more and he turned back around and continued on after the three ahead of him.
Regina stared at the flower and spun the stem slowly between her thumb and finger and watched the petals turn with the motion. Slowly her expression softened and she brought the little flower up to her nose and closed her eyes as she took a breath of its sweet and subtle smell. She couldn't even remember the last time she had been given a flower...had it really not been since Daniel?
When she opened her eyes she caught David's gaze as he looked over his shoulder to check on her. He smiled at her and slowly she allowed a small smile in return as she started walking again and kept the flower under her nose. When he turned his head back straight she hurried her steps to catch up to him. She had lost her first love and didn't get the chance to show her love for him...she didn't want to lose David to Snow without someone aside from herself knowing that he did make her happy.
When she slowed down beside him instead of behind him he subtly offered his hand for her to take and after a long moment of hesitance she carefully intertwined her fingers with his. Smiling, he moved his thumb over the backs of her knuckles in an act of comfort, "think of it as a practice run before we go home. There are only a few of them. Not an entire town," he encouraged quietly and he watched her start to get lost in troubling thoughts again. "Would it help if I kissed you?" He offered with a smile and she have an uneasy laugh as she shook her head and kept her eyes on the backs of their company ahead.
She shook her head at first but then upon second thought she changed her mind, "actually it might," she answered quietly, her voice low and raspy as she turned her head to look him in the eye. Perhaps if they settled the questions of their relationship status in the eyes of their company then maybe she could relax a little more.
"Okay," David smiled at her and held her eye contact for a couple more steps before straightening his neck to watch where he was going.
Regina walked with him and watched him as she did, her brow furrowing slowly with each step they took and he did nothing. "Well?" She drew out the word in confusion and pushed her head forward.
"Well what?"
"You're just going to keep walking then?"
"...yes?"
"You're not going to do anything?"
"...no?"
"Nothing?"
David laughed and shook his head at her sharpening tone that was beginning to catch the attention of Aurora and Hook and Mulan, "am I missing something here?" She growled in frustration and ripped her hand from his but he only smiled as she tried to storm off ahead of him. When all three were watching himself and Regina, he snatched her wrist up and tugged her back, catching her head in his other hand as he dropped down and kissed her.
Instantly he felt the tension leave her body and it had him smiling all the more against her mouth. Slowly her arms moved up to hang lazily around his shoulders while he moved his down her sides and rested them on her hips to keep her close. He kept it slow but firm so there would be little mix ups from their piers over who felt what for who. He let out a small quiet chuckle against her mouth when she grinned and wound her arms a little tighter around his shoulders to bring him even closer to her for a hard kiss.
"Feeling better?" He smiled when she pulled away and loosened her arms a little.
"Mhm," she nodded with her lips pushed together to keep her smile from getting too wide.
"Excellent," he grinned and her smile broke to show her teeth before he dropped down for a quick chaste kiss and then pulled away to listen to her quiet giddy laughter. He lifted a hand from her hip and flicked a finger off her chin with a smile and then continued past her and she happily fell in step just askew from his side so she was just a little behind him.
Aurora was staring at them with eyes wide in disbelief and confusion while Mulan studied with a curious but guarded expression and Hook simply stood there with a grin plastered on his face. Much to David's annoyance. But at least now there was no doubt as to who Regina belonged to. To his surprise however, it was Hook who spoke up first and his words were nothing but supportive really.
"Well, Mulan, now that the queen and the prince are in better spirits shall we continue on to this mystery destination?" He smiled at the woman and she nodded at him, continuing on her path with one last glance toward Regina and David. With a gentle kick to Aurora's boot he snapped her out of her daze and motioned for her to start walking again and she did but with frequent looks over her shoulder.
Regina took a deep breath and timidly reached for David's hand, second guessing herself several times before actually touching him. She smiled when he intertwined their fingers with a quiet happy hum and a squeeze of her hand. "Thank you," she whispered with a smile and a calmer mind as she looked down at the white flower in her fingertips.