We Can Love Again

Pure Torture

She was beginning to loose sleep due to the secret of the nursery gnawing away at her brain. Secrets had never gone well with her throughout her life; she either figured them out as quickly as they came, or simply never saw it coming- but that one rarely happened. It was aggravating knowing that Robin was blatantly lying to her face, and was taking pure enjoyment out of her being in the dark. Christmas was only a week away.

"Will you let me into the nursery now?" She asked him what seemed like every morning, hating herself for stopping so low. Her fiancé would always respond with a shake of his head and a faint victorious smile he tried so hard to hide.

"Now you're just being mean," Regina grumbled, not even bothering to glance towards the closed door. "If I had my magic right now, this wouldn't be happening."
He chuckled lightly as he pulled her into a hug. "That's the fun of it! Nothing like an impatient child waiting for Christmas Day."

Regina stop thinking about what he could be doing in that room; it was plaguing her mind. "This is torture! I don't even know if Henry or Roland know about any of this- if they do, they're doing a really good job at hiding it. Do I not even know my own kids?"

"Regina, you're going to make yourself insane," Robin interjected softly, "I know you're not a fan of surprises, but you'll thank me once you see it. You just have to be patient."

The word was like fire to her. "Patient my ass!"

"I think you need to get out for a while- why don't you call up Emma and go do something?"

Regina glared at him. "What, so you can disappear into the nursery again?"

Rolling his eyes, Robin held her squarely by the shoulders. "I already called her. She'll be here in a few minutes."

"Robin!" She groaned, "why do you have to put me through this?

"Because I love you!" He grinned, "I'll find something fun to do with the boys. You just have fun- do whatever girls do when they hang out."

The thing was, Emma Swan wasn't like most girls- neither was she. Whenever they did anything with each other, it was always to watch a movie or to go out for lunch. Snow was the one who wanted to do the girly stuff; Regina could only imagine how awkward it would be for Snow to drag her daughter out to do things she wanted.

"That's easy for you to say- when you hang out with the guys, all you do is drink beer and talk about sports," she retorted dryly, just as the doorbell rang from downstairs.

Robin tried so hard to act offended. "Sometimes we talk about other things!"

His fiancé debated him on the topic the entire way to the door, having to shut him up when she answered it.

"Miss Swan, what a surprise," Regina announced, putting on a fake smile to fight the irritation she felt inside.

"Yeah, uh-" Emma glanced towards Robin quickly before continuing, "I thought, you know, we could do something together for a little bit."

She didn't see anything to loose, so she decided to play along. "Well, I would be up for it, but the weather is horrible outside. We can't possibly do anything with it snowing like this."

"Oh don't be ridiculous," the blonde scoffed, so undeniably uncharacteristic it was impressive, "we can go get our nails done. Come on, I know you want to."

Regina felt Robin gently push her out the door from behind, handing her jacket and waving.

She resisted the urge to hurt him as he shut the door, leaning them both out in the freezing cold.