The next morning Regina opened her eyes to the sounds of quiet breathing nearby. She felt the soft, warm blankets and pillow around her and sighed contentedly. This was a significantly better start to the day than the previous one. Peeking out of the covers she saw that the sun was already up outside, although Robin still slept soundly on his cot. She took a moment to study his features as he slept.
Although he looked like the other Robin there were some subtle differences. The darker hair was an obvious one, which perhaps explained why the blue of his eyes seemed more startling to her. But most striking were the lines of his face, which stretched out to form a map of an entirely different life. He had a few more broken edges that hadn't been worn down, and she liked that the sharper edge of his personality showed on his face. Of course asleep she couldn't see the parts that were particularly intriguing to her. While the other Robin had met Regina's sharp barbs with a quiet, wry humor, this Robin came back with a fire of his own. It was exciting and fun and… maybe even hot? A little bit? She groaned at the direction her own thoughts were taking, threw the covers off herself, and quietly made her way out of the tent.
Stretching in the dappled sunlight of the clearing she caught the scent of smoke and realized it was coming from herself. Although she had stripped off her charred clothing, the smell lingered on her hair and skin and she longed for a hot shower. Her eyes wandered to the stream, and she decided to walk along it to see if it ever got deep enough for her to take a quick dip. She was delighted to find that it widened out into a small alpine lake about five minutes from the campsite.
After conjuring a swimsuit to replace the tank top and pants she dove into the water. It was cold but refreshing, and she swam around happily, cleaning the smoke scent off herself. After swimming for a bit she relaxed into floating quietly on the water, thinking about the events of the past few days. She still felt a bit raw when she thought of Henry and Storybrooke, but she also realized that for a little while this morning, as she walked through the sunlit forest and swam in the cold lake, she had felt contentment. Not full happiness, but she could see the promise in her fresh start, and she felt hopeful for the first time in awhile.
She swam back to the shore and made her way out of the lake. Putting the discarded leggings and tank top back on over the swimsuit she made her way back towards the camp, arriving to find it empty. She made her way towards the tent to see if Robin was still asleep.
Robin opened his eyes to the dim light of the early morning. Regina was coming through the flap of the tent wearing the jeweled corset and red velvet dress from the day before. Where did the burns go he wondered for a second before she began slowly making her way towards him, swaying her hips alluringly as she went, and all coherent thoughts fled his mind.
"Good morning," Robin said clearing his throat.
"That's the plan," she purred back at him, arriving next to his cot and climbing onto it. She placed on leg on either side of him so that she was straddling him, and one edge of her mouth twisted up as she reached up to unhook the clasp at the front of the velvet dress. She slowly slipped it off her shoulders as he watched, his breath hitching in his chest. He looked down at her creamy, delicate shoulders, bared by the strapless jeweled corset. She slipped her arms around his neck, bringing her breasts directly under his gaze, and he looked down and felt himself growing hard. "I was thinking it might be more than a 'good' morning actually," she said smiling.
Robin had absolutely no idea what was going on, but honestly he didn't really care. He slowly ran his hands up her sides to cup the sides of her breasts and began running his lips down her chest towards them. She moaned softly and began gently rubbing herself against him. His mouth reached her breasts and he peppered them with kisses, occasionally biting her delicate skin and immediately soothing it with his tongue. As he lavishly attended to her breasts, she continued writhing against his hard length, running her hands through his hair as she held his head against her chest. He ran his hands back down her sides, grasping her hips and meeting her movements with his own gentle thrusts. "I want you," she said softly to him, and he was happy to oblige. Wrapping his arms around her back to catch her he rolled them over so that he could pin her underneath himself, and rudely woke up as he landed on the floor next to his cot.
He rolled over and opened his eyes to find it was light outside and he was alone in the tent. "Damnit," he said quietly, bracing his elbow on the bed next to him as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Thank god she wasn't in the tent, as he wasn't sure what noises he had been making and he had a raging hard-on that he needed to get under control. He got up, piling his blanket back on his bed and taking a few deep breaths to calm down again. He wished he had a cold bucket of water with which to douse himself. As soon as his physique could pass for normal under the baggy pajama pants he made his way out of the tent, hoping to at least splash some cold water on his face in the stream.
As he opened the flap to the tent, Regina was just reaching out to open it, and the two collided. Robin wrapped an arm around her back to catch her while she clutched at his waist, and the two narrowly avoided landing on the ground in a heap. She felt… well, exactly like she had felt as he held her in his dream. Except wet. For the love of all that is holy he thought, quickly taking a step back so that he wasn't pressed up against her as his mind flashed back to the dream, now substituting a dripping wet Regina into it.
"Sorry," Robin said, taking her in. Her hair was dripping water onto the ground as well as down her chest and arms, and droplets of water glistened on her arms, shoulders, and chest; he realized she must have been swimming.
"It's fine, I was just going in to see if you were up," she said, turning and walking back towards the middle of the clearing and conjuring a small towel.
It was at this moment Robin realized that while his pajama bottoms were loose, hers left nothing to the imagination. She leaned over slightly, drying her hair with the towel, and her long toned legs were on display along with an absolutely criminal ass. It turned out that he wasn't so much a boobs or ass man, he was just a 'her' man. There was no part of this woman that he wasn't attracted to, physically or emotionally. Slumped over a table drunk, calmly walking through the woods, even fighting with him- he found her stunning.
He quickly brought his eyes back to her face as she turned back to look at him. "There's a lake about five minutes walk in that direction if you follow the stream, in case you want to wash off the smoke smell," she said, gesturing.
"That would be fantastic. I'll be quick," he said, setting off for the lake and the cold-water dousing he sorely needed.
Regina headed back into the tent and was about to summon one of her regular dresses when she remembered Robin's words from the night before. Instead she produced one of the traveling outfits she had worn when she was younger- simple brown pants and vest with a rich green and brown coat over them. It didn't exactly scream 'commoner', but it didn't screen 'Evil Queen' either. She took her time putting on the outfit along with some comfortable brown boots, and then headed out into the clearing with the wet bathing suit, leggings, and tank top, hanging them over a branch to dry. She settled on a log, basking in the sunshine, as she braided her hair into a long plait that lay over her shoulder.
As she was finishing she heard the snap of a branch underfoot and looked up to see Robin returning from the lake. It appeared that he had taken off the undershirt but gone swimming in his pajama pants, and the walk back here hadn't really dried them. They were still dripping water and clinging to every part of his lower body, showing off strong legs along with parts of him that she knew he wouldn't want her ogling (although she had already seen them on the other Robin). She dragged her eyes up over a dripping wet, chiseled, set of abs, pecs, and muscle sets she didn't have a name for (honestly, she hadn't even realized some of those muscles existed), to land on his face. He was looking back at her and smirking, clearly very aware of what she had just been doing.
"Next time why don't you ask me for a bathing suit so you don't drench a perfectly good pair of pajama pants in dirty lake water. We'll have to clean those now," she said, trying to save face in front of him.
"A what?" he said, looking confused.
"A bathing suit," she replied, pointing at hers drying on the branch.
Robin was slack-jawed for a moment looking at the bathing suit, then looked back at her. "I'm sorry but are you telling me you were wearing that this morning?"
"Yes, while I was swimming," she said.
"Is that from the other world?" he asked.
"Yes. It's fairly practical. It allows you to swim without getting your clothes wet when you're swimming with other people around and can't just taken them off," she replied.
"People wear those in public?!" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, but obviously men's swimsuits are different because you don't need anything on the top half," she said.
"To be clear, that thing," he pointed at the suit, "doesn't have much of anything on either half from what I can see. I'll stick with my clothes for swimming thank you very much."
"Fine. But next time we're swimming and you have to sit around in wet clothes all day while I'm comfortable and dry, you'll realize you're missing out," she said.
"Any situation in which you're wearing that and I'm present is one where I'm definitely not missing out," he said smirking. She smiled and blushed despite herself, and he suddenly realized he'd said that out loud. He cleared this throat awkwardly. "Alright well I'm going to go get dressed, and then we can get on our way. Maybe find a town and get some food?"
"That sounds good," she replied.
He turned and started walking towards the tent, then turned and came back towards her.
She wordlessly handed him the fresh set of non-burned clothes that she had just conjured out of thin air. "Thanks," he said, heading back towards the tent.
Once Robin was dressed and had re-emerged from the tent they stood side by side facing it and Regina raised her arms to make it disappear.
"Thanks again for the camp; it was unbelievably luxurious. Probably one of the reasons I overslept, actually. That was one of the best sleeps I've had in a long time," Robin said looking over at her.
Regina stilled her movements and looked up at him, suddenly lost in a memory and surrounded by the stone of her vault back in Storybrooke. She saw another version of him smiling down at her full of adoration as the morning sunlight drifted down the stairs and dust moats floated around them. She felt hands running down her back and butt and tucking a piece of hear behind her hair; felt the cold, hard stone wall against her back as he pressed her up against it, his warm, soft mouth devouring hers. She heard him whispering loving reassurances to her and words that made her feel more beautiful than she had ever felt in any royal ball gown.
And as she came crashing back into her body in the clearing she ached inside. Not because she wanted the old Robin or the sex. She wanted the intimacy. She wanted someone who understood her at the deepest levels and loved every corner of her being. Someone who knew the balm that her soul needed and could wrap himself around her, healing her with every touch and word, spoken or unspoken. But she couldn't imagine anyone ever loving the Evil Queen that way, and she felt the shadows in her heart trying to overtake the lightness once again.
Robin stared into her gorgeous eyes that changed ever so subtly as a wave of emotions swept over her. He had seen a deep-seated happiness shining within her for a moment, but then she looked away from him and seemed to deflate as she got rid of their camp with a subtle flick of her wrist and dropped her hands to her side. They stood in silence, her staring at the empty clearing as he stared at her. Without knowing why he reached down and took her hand, then began walking them back towards the road.
As he wrapped her hand in his the tiny light in her chest flared, keeping the shadows at bay.