another update! Look at me go! fingers crossed I can keep up the pace! Hahahaha! Enjoy! And please leave a review letting me know what you think or what you would like to see :)
David walked toward Regina's bed chambers with a relaxed smile. He had every intention now to stand by her. She had saved Ruth's life. She had given them the resources to get to her when they couldn't use her magic to get to her, she had plucked the lethal arrow from the air during his lapse of judgement and attention, she had eliminated any further threat for the time being in gathering and killing every one of George's men, and she had given her a safe place to stay with anything and everything she could ask for.
There was indeed good in her. And he was now fully devoted to bringing it out for everyone to see. He felt good about it too. Like when you know you've made the right choice and your chest seems to swell with pride and warmth.
His smile only faltered when he saw through her cracked open door, a man slamming her against the back of the bedpost at the foot of her bed and closest to the door kissing her with just as much ferocity as she gave. His brow furrowed ever so slightly as a small frown tugged the corners of his mouth as Regina clawed at the black guard of her choice and he kissed her open mouth in a way that had her making a sound that shot right to David's gut. That perfect mixture of a moan and a whimper.
As the man tugged Regina's long riding coat from her arms and left her in her black leather corset and black riding pants and boots, David felt an irrational dislike for the man growing a burning heat low in his belly. He could only call it jealousy and that was confusing in of itself. He had no reason to be jealous of her plaything. No right to be jealous either. She wasn't his and he had Snow.
And yet the jealousy bored deeper and deeper in to him. He turned from the door when the guard lifted her and threw them both on to the bed. He wasn't angry at her however. Merely jealous that she was with another man. Which he knew was ridiculous.
...
Regina sat on the edge of the bed with her eyes glazed in thought. She was furious. But her expression didn't show it. She had never felt so unsatisfied after having sex with her huntsman. Especially after having such good sex. She couldn't even blame it on him. He just wasn't...enough. And that was infuriating.
Screwing her huntsman always put her in better spirits and after the dream she woke up from that morning, she needed to get her mind on someone else. He had. But now that they were done, the dream of David came back stronger than before. Every soft touch, tender kiss, loving look, all of it. As clear as a memory rather than a murky recollection of a dream.
She was abruptly snapped from her thoughts when a soft kiss was placed on her shoulder and his hands held her bare waist as she sat up straight having been leaning forward over her clothed legs. Her brow furrowed as his softer kisses continued up her shoulder and her neck, "what are you doing."
"I may not have my heart," he whispered against her neck and placed another kiss below the corner of her jaw, "and I may have spent a great deal of my time with wolves," a kiss on the edge of her jaw, "but I do believe a woman as beautiful as yourself deserves to be treated as such a treasure from time to time."
Regina frowned even more at his quiet answer as he kissed his way back down her neck and his slow warm hands caused goosebumps to raise on her soft skin. "I am in no mood, huntsman," she scolded halfheartedly and she felt him smile against her skin before he lifted his head and met her eye.
"I believe that to be a lie," he whispered and her dark eyes flicked between his own. When she said nothing else he moved in and kissed her slowly and she kissed him back only as much as she had to and nothing more. He pulled away and rested his chin on her shoulder, waiting for her reaction and he wasn't surprised by it at all when it finally came.
"You have put me in a foul mood, huntsman. I suggest you leave," she stated with a low voice that was verging on deadly.
"As you wish, your majesty," he agreed with one final kiss to her shoulder before he turned away to continue dressing himself. Entirely unaffected by her denial of his offer.
She didn't want him. She didn't want the huntsman. For whatever reason something had possessed her mind with the idea of wanting David. Of all people. David. Absurd.
...
David stood leaning forward against the railing as he overlooked the sun setting on the forest through the impressive expanse of glass that made up the one side on the hall. The same hall he and Regina had spoken in a few nights before. He quite enjoyed this hallway and the spectacular view it lent. He knew Regina did too and that at some point this evening she was likely to come here as well.
Just as he was thinking of the complicated brunette he turned his head toward the sound of footsteps and saw her coming down the hall toward him, "hey," he greeted with a smile and she scowled at him before looking out at the forest, stopping a good several feet from him. She didn't say a word and made a point not to look at him and under normal circumstances he probably would have turned and let her be. But now? Now he was just as determined as Henry to mend this woman.
"What's on your mind?" He smiled a little and moved so his side was against the railing. He received no answer, not even a blink or a clenching of her jaw as she stared out at the forest. So he stepped closer to her and stopped when she turned her head to look at him when he was only maybe two feet away. She scowled at him and he looked her up and down and questioned lightheartedly, "what has you in such a bad mood?"
"You do."
"Me? Why?" He shook his head with a small laugh and she looked back out at the forest with her jaw crossed. He tried to recall anything he had done that day to upset her but nothing came to mind, "what did I do?" Silence. So he took one step closer because that seemed to be the only thing that gave him a reaction. And it did. She took a step sideways to get away from him so he paused his movement for a couple seconds and then took another step. It set her off and she hissed out a breath as she pushed herself from the railing and tried to walk around him.
"Regina," he caught her arm and she tore her arm away and screamed at him, catching him completely of guard.
"I am furious with you!"
"Why? What have I done?"
"You're changing things! You're changing me!"
"Regina-"
"I had a purpose before you came along! I had something to work toward! And now I don't know what I'm doing! I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing!"
"Well what about what you want to do?" He questioned, not taking her sudden rage personally. But she didn't answer his question. She thought about it for a split second but then changed her mind and didn't give him her answer.
"You're in my mind and you won't leave! All I can think about is you! I can't enjoy anything because all I can think about is you!" She shouted and felt her throat start to tighten, her stress and emotions all bubbling to the surface at once, "I want you out of my head!"
He was just going to not mention that he knew exactly what enjoyment she was referring to. And he was also going to try and not let that feed his pride and status over whomever he had seen with her in her bed chambers.
"You ruined me with that stunt you pulled last night!" She screamed furiously and felt those tears fight to come to her eyes again as she unintentionally recalled his gentle touch over her skin and her lips.
Realization hit him hard and guilt knocked him square in the chest as he shook his head, "Regina I am sorry for that, my intentions were never to hurt you."
"What the hell were they then?!"
"They were to get you to remember a different time, a time when-"
"I don't want to remember, David!" She screamed and leaned forward and he tilted his head and opened his mouth to speak, "that isn't something someone wants to remember when the ending is always there to haunt you!"
So many questions came to mind at her incredible distress and her pain seemed to flow from her and ache in his heart, "Regina you have to know I did not intend to bring up Daniel. I-"
"Who told you his name?!" She roared, her sorrow momentarily replaced with rage.
"I-the boy, Henry, when I came out of the room with you he asked if I had brought up Daniel and I put the name to the stableboy I had mentioned the last time we spoke in this hall. The way you flinched and the touch you gave your ring finger, you were to be wed. Weren't you?" He asked gently with his brow furrowed in sorrow and he had never seen her so angry. He supposed he couldn't blame her. She wasn't a woman who appreciated being known without her permission.
"You don't get to know my story," she gritted out furiously through teary eyes but none had yet fallen, "I am not going to tell it, I don't want to tell it!"
"What do you want?!" He rose his voice in to a booming yell to set her off again and set her off it did.
"I want to be happy!" She screamed and looked him up and down, her lip curled back to show her white teeth but once again her rage was being mixed back in with her broken heart instead of burning in her eyes, "I want to be loved! But no one! No one could ever love me! No one loves the Evil Queen!" She yelled at him and then they both fell in to silence while she tried to steady her breaths. She hated the way he was looking at her. Hated it because it was how she wanted him to look at her but she didn't want to want him.
She wanted those kind eyes and that gentle mouth, she wanted that understanding and honest expression, she wanted that welcoming aura around him, she wanted to be grounded by strong warm arms, but she didn't want it to be him. She couldn't have him.
She could feel the tears threatening to fall and she could feel her rage starting to wither away and drown in her pain and heartache but she wouldn't dare let him see it all. She closed her eyes in a slow blink and felt her mouth soften in despair as she turned around and hurried away from him. She pushed her hands through her hair and put a small hurried skip in her step as she rushed away with the length of her riding coat flowing and twisting behind her.
When she opened her eyes and dropped her hands from her hair her eyes happened upon Ruth who was standing of to the side in the archway in to the glass sided hall. Her expression was still indecipherable but Regina did catch a flash of compassion in the older woman's eyes that had her tears falling before she could pass her.
...
Yes Ruth had followed her. She found her halted outside beneath a beautiful apple tree as the sun set below the horizon and painted the sky with various oranges and pinks. Her back was to her for she was on the far side of the tree with her focus out on the dark forest and setting sun. Ruth stood back in silence and only approached when the queen sat down on the small white wall around the tree did she start to walk toward her.
She was bent over and her shoulders were shaking with her silent cries in to her hands but Ruth didn't speak a word about it and silently sat down right next to her. If the queen knew of her presence she didn't acknowledge it and Ruth didn't quite know what she was dealing with. But she placed a careful hand on the woman's knee all the same.
She jumped a little at the contact and dropped her hands from her eyes as she sat up and looked her in the eye, "you've been avoiding me," Ruth nodded and moved a thumb over the queen's knee.
Regina looked down at the moving touch and frowned at it as she moved her leg away and the woman let her touch slip from her, "and you took it as an invitation to join my company?"
Ruth smiled at the woman's hard and seemingly disgusted voice and when her dark guarded eyes flashed up to meet hers, Ruth merely shrugged a little, "I wanted to say thank you. For saving my life today," she smiled gently and those dark eyes looked her up and down, her jaw set in stone and her pretty lips forming a small scowl. She was an entirely different woman from the one there only moments ago that was crying softly in to her hands because of her unhappiness.
"It was very...out of character for you to do such a thing and I want you to know I am incredibly grateful for what you did for me and for my son," she nodded and refrained from touching her.
Regina didn't want her there, she didn't want her in her company, she was far too honest and open and it unsettled Regina. People lie, people hide, people keep secrets, but Ruth was an open book. "I find it distasteful and annoying when people show endless blabbering gratitude toward me," she bit out and Ruth laughed quietly which threw Regina off a little.
"As do I," she nodded with a light chuckle, "just so long as you know I am grateful and that I will heed anything you ask of me to the best of my ability, I shan't mention the arrow again," she shook her head with a smile and after a moment's pause Regina nodded as well and then looked back out at the forest.
-three weeks later-
Henry laughed wildly as he rode Rocinante at a full gallop down the narrow road through the grand forest. His mother was nowhere to be seen but he knew she was close and it was exhilarating. David was right behind him though, his pretty mare's head in line with Rocinante's flank as they galloped fast and hard. He could hear David laughing behind him and urging his mare faster to try and pass him. While Rocinante was smaller, she was impressively quick and her heart was put in to every thundering stride she took which gave her the advantage over David's mount.
The air rushing past him had his eyes watering just a little and he laughed at the freedom the movement lent him. And then seemingly out of nowhere he saw a flash of black out of the corner of his eye and when he looked to it he saw his mother laughing as she raced through the trees along the side of the road just because she could. When she moved him to the road and Rocinante saw him in front of her she opened a whole new gear and pushed herself harder to overrun the dark stallion. It had Henry laughing joyously through his panting breaths and soon enough he was stride in stride with her and her stallion.
And then the finish line was in view. The glistening shore of the lake had him laughing even more and pushing Rocinante to go faster and faster in hopes that her stride could match the huge stallion's. He lost by hardly a nose, the black horse's hooves smacking the water hardly a heartbeat before Rocinante's did the same. "No!" He drew out in defeat as he laughed and both horse's charged deeper in to the lake while their riders slowed them.
Regina laughed in success as she closed her eyes and turned her head to the side to try and avoid the spray of the cool water. When her horse came to a halt he was up to the base of his neck in the water so her feet and part of her legs were submersed as well. Not that she cared in the slightest. "I never lose a race!" She laughed and Henry came up beside her, the water hitting the middle of Rocinante's shoulder and therefore Henry's knees.
"You almost did though!" Henry laughed and pointed at her through his heavy breaths while Rocinante splashed at the water with her lips and head.
"You truly did nearly lose to him," David laughed as his mare waded up to the pair of them.
"A win is a win and a loss is a loss, doesn't matter by how much in the end," she laughed and watched as Henry lifted his legs from the cool water and stood up on Rocinante's back.
"Because I have lost I must surrender my mount to you!"
"You didn't lose, I lost! You came in second place," David laughed and Henry waved him off but it was Regina who replied with a playful smile and a wink.
"You weren't exactly a contender to begin with, Charming," she grinned and he laughed and shook his head.
"She is yours, your majesty," he bowed with his dramatic voice and she and David laughed in thorough amusement.
"She was always mine, you little-no! Henry!" She shrieked and laughed when he leapt and tackled her, knocking her off her stallion's back and in to the water with a great splash and a wild laugh.
David threw his head back with a loud laugh of his own as he clapped his hands together and watched as the pair of them pushed up out of the water again, Regina with a vocal of utter disbelief and horror and Henry with a hysterical laugh while the water licked their shoulders. "You're gonna get it now, kid! There is nowhere you can go to escape the wrath of a sopping wet evil queen," he teased with his unceasing laughter.
"Come here you little hellion!" Regina laughed as she pushed herself forward and Henry thrashed around in the water as he tried to swim away with panicked playful laughter. She dragged him back under the water by his ankles and he was laughing harder than before when he finally managed to squirm free and come up for air.
David watched and laughed as the pair wrestled in the water, the boy bringing out the carefree and playful woman in the stern queen once again. And then they disappeared. The both of them somewhere beneath the surface of the water and he leaned over with a laugh to try and find them, putting the majority of his weight in one stirrup.
"Rah!" Henry shouted as he burst out of the water causing David to yelp and jump away from him only to have Regina pull him down in to the water from the other side which had him shouting in surprise and hitting the water with a loud splash that was combined with Regina and Henry's laughter.
He shot back out of the water with a surprised gasp of air as he tried to gather his thoughts after having them scattered by the chilly water. He looked to Regina who was laughing as free and as happily as he had ever seen. So with a grin and a hunger for a little payback he shot his hand forward and gripped her little waist in his hands causing her to yelp in surprise and try to push him away with her hands on his chest.
"Let go!" She laughed and turned her head away from him as he hands pushed harder against his chest.
He leaned forward with a devious laugh and a playfully menacing grin but found his thoughts quickly slipping from his grasp and running rampant at the sight of drips of clear water making paths down her flawless neck to join the rest of the lake. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to know if her skin tasted as sweet as he imagined, he wanted to pull that sea coloured riding coat from her slim figure and make her moan his name.
But he didn't.
Instead he didn't miss a beat and picked her up and tossed her backward a little ways and she let out a shriek of laughter before she hit the water and sunk beneath the surface. His thoughts had begun to wander ever since she had saved Ruth and began allowing herself to warm up around him. She smiled more and lost her temper less, she spoke with him now rather than ignoring or snarling at him, she was a new person and each day was getting easier. Easier if he didn't take in to account the fact he was growing a little too fond of her. He found he hardly thought of Snow anymore except for when he felt guilty for fantasizing about Regina.
He wasn't going to lie and say that he didn't often have little fantasies of sleeping with her but that wasn't all he thought about. What he found he really wanted was to just have her near, to have her close to him and in his arms. He wanted to be the one who called her his, the one who loved her as Henry so adamantly demanded she needed to find. He didn't want her with anyone else but him. But that was impossible and was never going to happen.
"Cannonball!" Henry hollered as loud as he could and leapt from Rocinante's back and curled his knees up to his chest before he hit the water with a huge splash that had both Regina and David turning away and shielding their faces with their hands.
...
They sat side by side now in comfortable silence, wrapped in heavy blankets as they watched the fire burn strong in the hearth. The sun had set and the only light now was that of the orange flames cracking and popping the wood. He closed his eyes with a smile and a long silent exhale, opening his eyes only when he heard a soft breathy laughter come from the woman next to him, "what?" He smiled and she shrugged a little and smiled at the fire.
"I had fun today," she replied quietly and hugged her blankets closer around her.
"That boy certainly does know how to have a good time," David chuckled quietly and Regina laughed a little more and nodded, her smile and laughter warming his heart. Henry had left them maybe a half hour earlier to go to bed for he was falling asleep against Regina's side. And now it was just himself and the queen in front of the fire.
"Yes he does," she laughed quietly and kept her eyes on the fire. She couldn't look him in the eye. Not with the burning fire reflecting in those perfect kind eyes of his and further warming that heart stopping smile of his. She was going mad for him and she was having an incredibly difficult time reining herself in. She was a queen who was used to taking what she wanted right when she wanted it. And she couldn't have David.
Well she probably could without much trouble but she wanted it to be...mutual. She wanted him to want her and that was something she hadn't felt in a long time. So she continued to try and get her wandering mind and wishful heart back under control for she knew she would never have him.
"I didn't know you swam," he started with a smile, trying to get her to carry a conversation longer than a few words, "I believed you to be above that."
Regina laughed under her breath with a shake of her head, "are queens not supposed to leave their throne room?"
"Well they certainly don't tend to ride bareback, race through the forest, or jump in lakes fully clothed," he teased with a happy smile and she laughed a little more.
"Can't let my weakness merely be that I can't swim. They'd all take turns trying to drown me if that were true," she smirked and glanced up at him only to let her eyes fall back to the fire.
"That could very well be true," he nodded with a light laugh, "although I do not believe that to be your reason for learning."
"No," she smiled and shook her head, picking at her blanket for a few moments before she decided the tale was harmless enough to tell, "Daniel taught me how. It started as a dare and then turned in to a game and then...well it ended in sex," she shrugged and laughed quietly, cursing the burn that came to her cheeks when David happily laughed with her.
"What was the dare that started it all?" He laughed happily and she transformed in to a bashful young woman right before his eyes when she rolled her smiling lips in to her mouth and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and kept her eyes on the floor in front of her.
"He said that if I truly was the bold woman I claimed to be that I must swim to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a crystal from its bed, because surely a proper lady wouldn't dare," she laughed quietly and then ran her tongue over her teeth beneath her top lip as she smiled, "I quickly accepted only I raised the stakes. As I backed toward the pool I explained that surely a proper lady would not dare ruin her hair and clothes over such a foolish challenge. However if she must do it and must do it in the company of a man that she wouldn't so much as think to do it without her clothes. Especially if said man had to teach her to swim first," she laughed and David laughed with her, just as amused and joyed by the tale as she was, "being young, wet, and that close can only end in one thing."
"Oh it applies at any age," he assured and immediately kicked himself when her dark eyes snapped up to him curiously and he dropped his to the floor. So he changed the topic a little, "I learned on my own in a shallow pond with my father's grey plough horse. I'd ride her out to the water everyday and she'd stand belly deep in the middle of the water and wait and watch me flail around in there until I got it," he laughed with a shake of his head, "I must have been eight or something like that. Not nearly as fun as your lessons I'm sure," he teased and she laughed quietly at the fire.
"I would have given anything for that kind of freedom," Regina admitted with a quiet voice and her thoughts ran elsewhere for a little while.
David watched her quietly as her mind ran. The firelight did wonderful things to her eyes. The flames danced in her dark irises and played in the shine of her dark hair while simultaneously warming the tone of her flawless skin and moving shadows of her features. She once brought him tension and rage but these days occupying the same space as her brought him serenity and a relaxed joy.
When her expression began to fall in to sorrow he reached over the short distance between them and tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers moving down the contour of her jaw when she snapped back from her thoughts and turned her head to look at him. He tilted his head a little and the side of his finger rested beneath her chin while his thumb moved slowly over her chin and jaw, "you have that freedom now," he nodded with his quiet voice and her eyes fell to the ground once more.
So he increased the pressure ever so slightly beneath her chin and her eyes flicked back up to his, her mouth forming an unreadable frown. "You are free now to do as you wish, Regina. Just be sure that what you wish is worth doing," he nodded with his quiet voice and held her eye with the certainty she didn't have.
That was when she saw it. That was when Ruth saw the most bizarre and yet most human thing from the queen. The woman had found herself hopelessly in love with her son. It had her breath stopping in her lungs and her heart skipping a beat or two. There was no denying it. The queen's shoulders fell and her body moved forward ever so slightly of its own accord while her head remained in place. As though her heart said 'go' and her mind said 'no'. And then the way her lips parted for the desire to speak as her eyes fell down and she leaned in to David's touch.
It all happened at once and every movement was smooth and subtle but Ruth caught it all the same and it had her jaw slacking in shock just enough for her lips to part. She had caught the end of their conversation and during their pause while the queen fell in to her thoughts, she was going to make her presence known. But when David reached to pull her from her thoughts it had Ruth pausing so as not to interrupt. And now she was stunned in place.
It wasn't something she had ever thought on. Even after living in the woman's presence for weeks. Yes David was kind to her, yes he treated her with a gentle hand, yes he was capable of making her laugh, but she never imagined that the woman would in turn find herself wishing to give her heart to him. She hadn't even thought the woman capable of such a tender and secret love. It caught her completely off guard and she didn't know how to process it. It seemed David hadn't even noticed the way the queen reacted to his touch and if he had he certainly didn't show it.
"Am I...interrupting something?" Ruth smiled as she approached them with her hands clasped in front of her. She had asked David but her eyes soon moved to Regina to see her reaction regarding David's answer.
"No," he smiled and withdrew his hand from Regina, "nothing at all."
Even though she knew they shouldn't, Regina felt those words stab through her heart like a cold knife. Of course Ruth wasn't interrupting anything, she wasn't anything. They were just talking, he hadn't meant anything, he hadn't felt anything. She was still nothing.
Ruth felt a little jab off sorrow for Regina when she turned her head away from them both and back to the fire with the saddest smile and silent laugh to herself. As if she were laughing at herself for believing even for a moment that she could be cared for. David looked to her when she moved but he quickly dismissed her turn away for simply not wishing to interact with Ruth. He had missed that heartbreaking smile.
"Did you need something, mother?"
"No, no I was just up and about and wondering if you had gone off to bed."
"No not yet," he smiled with a shake of his head and then looked back to Regina but she made a point not to look at him, "I think I'll start heading over though. It is getting rather late," he spoke to Ruth but his eyes were curiously on Regina who still made a point not to look at him but she did not her head in acknowledgement. "Regina," he started softly but when he reached forward to turn her chin to him, she flinched at the contact and was on her feet before he could say another word.
"I suppose I will retire as well then," she spoke smoothly but her voice was empty of any feeling as she hung her blanket over the nearest chair and began heading for the door, welcoming the chill the cool air gave her skin. "I will see you both tomorrow," she nodded and avoided looking in David's direction but couldn't help but meet Ruth's eye for she was standing right in her way. She didn't like what she saw either when she did look at her.
Her kind eyes were filled with shock and understanding and a special twinge of sorrow that had Regina swallowing in a sudden rush of panic. Ruth knew what she was struggling with regarding David and it scared the hell out of her. She opened her mouth to say something but was at a loss for words as she looked back and forth between eyes that were just as dark as her own. When she heard David stand up she quickly dropped her eyes and pushed a hand through her hair as she sidestepped Ruth and tried not to sprint from the room.
"Regina!" David called after her and tried to run to her but was stopped by a hand on his chest.
"Just leave her be, son," Ruth shook her head with a put on smile to mask her jumbled thoughts over what she had seen from the queen, "she's enough of a basket case as it is, she doesn't need any more-"
"What the hell did I even do?" He pushed a hand out in the direction Regina had disappeared in and looked over Ruth's shoulder to the door.
Ruth smiled a false smile again and shook her head as she placed both hands on his chest and gave him a light pat, "just trust me when I say that she needs a moment to herself. If you follow her now the pair of you are going to get thrown in to something neither of you are ready for."
"...what do you mean?"
"David please," she laughed shakily, her composure starting to slip in to her own hysteria over what was happening. How was she supposed to react to the Evil Queen falling in love with her dear son, "just let her go tonight."
David nodded slowly, his brow furrowed in confusion as to what had shaken his unwavering mother, "alright...I'll leave her be..."
"Good," she nodded and patted his chest once more, "good."