Ever After

CHAPTER 1 - Once Upon a Time

        The sun was starting to set a bit earlier, the sky was painted with orange deepening to a darker hue as the evening came approaching. All the days in the town for the past few months have been more or less, comparable to this. They were peaceful and beautiful just like how the stories were written in every fairytale book. Sometimes, to think that it’s so great make it too good to be true, unbelievable and yet, it’s real.

A streak of light hit the dark brown hair of the woman sleeping silently on a rocking chair across the fruitful apple tree of the enormous garden. Her hands laid on her baby bump while keeping a book entitled “Raising the Princess” on place. Regina had started reading it a few weeks after Belle had personally chosen it for her, although she hadn’t have the ultrasound that time, Robin Hood was confident that their child is going to be a girl. Everyone was excited to hear about the Princess. The warm wind was rustling against the leaves and Regina’s hair was slightly hovering across her face causing her to wake. Her eyes fluttered open as she struggled to focus her sight against the sudden light. She saw a silhouette of a man right in front of her – a man whose physique she knows just too well.

 “You’re trying to creep me out?” Regina asked with a glint of smirk slowly forming on her lips.

“Milady,” Robin Hood greeted with a smile as he leaned to place a peck on Regina’s red lips and just as when he pulled away, she grabbed the collar of his jacket and dragged him closer to her so her parted lips would meet his for another time.

“You’re home early,” Regina mentioned as she observed that the sun hasn’t completely set yet, her palm on his cheek.

“Well,” he began with that notable accent of his. “I just want to check on my Queen,” he smiled before he added, “and my little Princess.” He kneeled beside the rocking chair and placed his hand on Regina’s abdomen trying to feel their unborn’s movement. Only few seconds had passed, Robin felt the baby quickened inside his soulmate’s womb.

“Oh,” Regina squealed, her brows furrowing. “There she goes again,” she winced. The baby’s kicks have been more frequent since Regina stepped onto her eight month of pregnancy.

“Hey, princess, you’re giving mama a hard time, huh?” Robin muttered as he rubbed the baby bump.

Regina chuckled in admission of how adorable the Outlaw seemed until she felt another whirl inside her belly. She grimaced just as when Robin looked up to catch her expression. “But then,” she tried to clarify as she began pursing her lips and drawing long slow blows. “I like this better knowing that she’s growing healthy inside me,” she finally said as she patted her own tummy.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Robin reassured her as he stood upright and bent to kiss her forehead. “Everything’s going to be fine. She’s a little you,” he said with a smile.

“A little Regina,” she modified, grinning before puckering her lips again as if trying to find comfort.

“Yeah, you’ve warned me about that,” he reminded her.

“Clearly, I’m the one who wasn’t prepared, at all,” she tried to say it without the sound of complaining. Because although this pregnancy, this child of hers, wasn’t planned, it was more than what she could ever ask for. She rose from her seat and placed her right hand on her right flank for support, entering her bold mansion and asked, “Where are the boys?”

“At Emma’s,” Robin answered quickly. “I’ll fetch them later after you…” his voice trailed discerning Regina’s difficulty to move around. “After I make us some dinner,” he voluntarily corrected himself.