Love Will Find a Way ~ The Final Part of Modern Fairytale

From Dusk Till Dawn

"Did you know you have a beauty mark here?" He asked, lifting her left breast and placing a gentle kiss where the mark lived on the skin just below it.

By then, neither one had any clue what time it was nor did they care. They lay naked in the still of the night, holding and caressing one another with more love than they'd felt in their entire lives. They spoke softly, laughing when appropriate and reveling in the events of that evening with great fondness. They were engaged. Finally.

Regina smiled as she replied, "I don't remember ever seeing that one."

He nodded, "You didn't have it when we met. It only just appeared."

"You notice the simplest things," she chuckled, running her fingers over the outline of his lion tattoo before adding, "When?"

His face turned to sadness for the first time since they'd returned to the apartment. He sighed, tracing the mark as he said, "When you started chemo. I noticed it--" He paused for a moment, reliving the horrors of their summer as the memories flooded back to him. He was merely a witness. He could only imagine how Regina felt. He released a sigh and leaned up to look into her eyes, "I saw it the night we shaved our heads."

It was the easiest way for him to explain without feeling his heart break in two. The thought of her frail, naked body standing on the cold tile nearly killed him each time the memory returned. When it came to him, he could still hear the sound of the buzzer and her sobs ringing in his ears.

Regina shook her head, disgusted with the memory of what her body looked like that night, "I'm surprised you were looking that closely at me."

Robin leaned up on his elbows, looking into her eyes more deeply as he asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," she began, "I was so thin and frail, I lost my hair; I was the furthest thing from attractive yet you happened to notice a new beauty mark on my breast."

He sat up, straddling her then. He took her by the hands and made her sit up. His hands held her face firmly in place as he stared into her eyes, wanting her to understand each word as he spoke them, "You were sick, Regina. Perhaps you didn't feel attractive or beautiful and I can understand that, but you can't see yourself through my eyes. When I look at you, I have only ever seen a beautiful woman. From the day we met to this very moment, you are the most attractive woman I've had the pleasure to set my eyes upon. Whether you're healthy, sick, thin, or obese; I didn't fall in love with your body, I fell in love with your heart."

She smiled sadly, kissing the palms of his hands as she removed them from her face, "You're too good for me, Doctor Locksley."

"On the contrary, Ms. Mills," he said, leaning forward to place a gentle kiss upon her lips, "I believe you are the one who is much too good for me."

"All the more reason to hold onto one another, I suppose," she said, her smile turning from sadness back to joy as she leaned back into her pillow, taking him down with her.

He chuckled as he held himself up above her, rubbing his thumb along her jaw, "I suppose."

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The following morning, the sun rose over the East Side of Manhattan and shone through the slit in the curtain of the couple's master bedroom. Sunlight kissed the skin of their naked bodies as their limbs were entangled amongst the warm sheets. Regina faced him, her arm wrapped around his torso and her face nestled in the crook of his neck. Robin held her close in the short amount of sleep they got that evening, his fingers pressed softly into the skin of her back while his lips grazed the top of her forehead throughout the night. As they slept, he would wake every so often to kiss her gently there before falling back to sleep. She did the same against his shoulder. They did this every night as a reassurance that the other was there and had no intention of ever leaving.