Mad Archer - One Shots

Deliver the Message - Part 2

One of the biggest changes in her life, since the day she had found Alice lurking a few hundred feet away from the team's camp, was how Robin regarded things. 

She had always been looking for some adventure, whether she had picked up the magic book her aunt Regina had given to her or when she trusted Gothel to teach her some awesome sorcery spells.

She was still that person, cherishing an action filled hunt more than sitting at a coffee table and listening, for what must have been the hundred time, to the story of how Henry and Ella met.

Seriously, they reminded her too much of David and Snow, who even in their late forties hadn't been able to stop making heart eyes at each other. Though, she could kinda relate with the sentiment now. Meeting someone special in a special way was, in every meaning of the term, memorable. But listening to those old stories was not her thing.

She loved adventure.

Alice was an adventure.

Every smile she procured was intriguing, every of her laughs was alluring and every breath caught between them when their eyes locked was thrilling.

So Robin didn't find the idea of spending some time sitting close to Alice in the small hut of hers bothersome at all. Quite the opposite, actually. When she walked in, following after Alice, she was excited to see how the other girl lived.

Unlike the times she had been in the rooms of her friends for the first time back in Storybrooke, she was looking forward to find out more about Alice from the way her hut was decorated; what trinkets she kept from her journeys, what things she had saved from her childhood. Robin was sure each of those items were a lot more interesting than any boy group poster or poorly hidden, pre-teen Hello Kitty collection, her so-called friends possessed.

So when Robin stepped inside, she tried to drink in everything at once: The size of the hut which in the most generous way could only be described as 'tiny', the sturdy looking cupboard straight ahead, on which a tea set rested, next to the big mirror with its blurry edges and the small stool in the middle, show casting a pile of books and a basket filled with wool.

While Robin's gaze shifted from one detail to another, Alice carried a kettle from the kitchen unit in the right corner to the fireplace harboring a dimming fire. Candles, tea cups, bowls and a vase were placed on the sim, looking particularly unorganized. Above it all towered a painting of a ship on the raging sea, painted in dark blue tones. Was it romanticism? Impressionism? Expressionism? Robin could not recall and wished for a moment she would have paid more attention in art class.

"How have you been?" Alice asked as she hooked the kettle in.

'Besides seriously pining for you?' Robin thought while her eyes scooted over the bowed form of Alice in front of the fireplace. The light of the fire warmed the color of her hair and skin.

Robin's heart clenched. Clearing her throat she replied, "Great. And you?"

"I've started preparing for winter, which means a lot of preserving vegetables and meat," Alice said while feeding a few more logs to the fire.

Turning around Robin noticed the products of Alice's work. Jars piled up next to the cupboard and meat hung from the roof to dry. Having little to no experience in preparing for winter in the Enchanted Forest, Robin could only guess on how much time the other blonde had spend on the task.

"Sounds bothersome," she commented.

"Not so much. It reminds me of when I used to live in the tower with my papa. It's a tiring but rewarding work."

Robin's heart ached. In Alice's voice she could hear the typical smile whenever Alice remembered her time with her father. A smile drenched in joy but burdened with regret and despair. "You must miss doing these things with him."