Title: Gift for Symphonyflute 2007

Author: tarotgal

Fandom: Robin Hood

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their world. Please don't sue me. I'm just having fun and not making any money.

Summary: Robin finds himself sick and in Marian's bed- how did that happen?

Notes: Happy holidays, Symphonyflute! This is a sort of mixture of several different Robin Hood fandoms. I tried to keep it as general as possible as far as people, settings, and circumstances so it wouldn't contradict canon from any version too much. Hope it works.

                Robin Hood opened his eyes and gave a start, realizing that he had not woken up in his own bed. There were four, tall, wooden poles instead of trees. There were silken sheets instead of plain cotton ones. And there were frilly, pink, lace pillows that he would not have been caught dead with. He sat up at once in bed, eyes scanning the room for answers and a way out. It was another shock to realize he was in a state of undress. Then his eyes snapped shut. "Hatchooo! Ah'TChoo!"

                The door on the other side of the room opened quickly and closed so softly it didn't make a sound. Instantly, he yanked the covers up to his neck to hide his bare chest.

                "Hshhhh!" Maid Marian glided across the room with another blanket cradled in her arms. "My ladies in waiting are just outside. Do you want them to hear you?" She smiled. "Try to sneeze more quietly. Or, preferably, go back to sleep so that you do not sneeze at all."

                Robin could not have been more uncomfortable had he been put in the town square stocks by the sheriff himself. A million questions ran through his mind, and he looked around to try to find the answers.

                Marian supplied one. "Sunrise is still many hours away. You have time left to sleep."

                His body desperately wanted sleep, but his mind raced. He cast his memory back, trying to remember how he had landed himself here so inappropriately in Maid Marian's bedroom.

*

                The footsteps were sloppy and leaves crunched loudly underfoot. There was not an animal, bird, or man within the forest which wouldn't be able to hear that Prince John's men were in Sherwood Forest.

                "We must be close. The camp has to be around here somewhere," Robin heard a familiar but unfriendly voice say, and a smirk found its way onto Robin's face. He would never set up camp in a place like this, so close to the edge of the forest. Robin Hood's band moved camp frequently, and their current location was far from this place; it was so well protected that even if they managed to find the general area, they would never get close enough to do damage to the outlaws.

                Robin crouched amongst the foliage with a handful of his men, as silent as the dead. The forest was just as quiet, on the defensive because of the intruders. As Robin watched through the thick leaf cover, the enemy trampled past his hiding spot. The very best strategy was to let the Sheriff of Nottingham get exhausted and frustrated. The men would find nothing and leave.

                A sneeze, sneezed loudly and somewhere to Robin's left, was cause for more concern.

                Once the shouting men established that none of them had sneezed, the reaction was to draw their swords and spread out into the forest, stabbing and swiping at everything in their paths. Robin and his men did not run. They did, however, dart around, moving swiftly through the forest to both surround and mislead the Sheriff and his men. Like Will Scarlet, several of the Merry Men were best at sword fighting, and those were the ones who made themselves known first, pushing the group in on itself. Robin and those like him, better at archery, blanketed the group with arrows, forcing them towards the front of Sherwood Forest.

                For his part, Robin perched upon a low branch of a tall tree and aimed in the direction of the sheriff himself, who was dodging about as though dancing were a new sword fighting technique. The man seemed keen to put up with as much as Robin and the Merry Men could dish out, but neither side could hold out indefinitely. The only difference was that Robin's men wouldn't kill unless absolutely necessary. Robin already felt heat and fatigue rushing through him, and every arrow seemed harder to shoot than the last had been.

                 The sheriff's men withstood quite a bit of the onslaught but inevitably retreated. No one bested Robin Hood in his own wood.  The Sheriff of Nottingham looked especially put out about ordering the retreat, and hesitated before leaving, shouting threats in Robin's direction which were lost and unnecessary, besides. Robin smiled to himself over the accomplishment.

                There was, however, still the matter of what had alerted the men to their presence in the first place. Whether preventable or not, whoever it had been had put the rest of them at some risk. They were lucky not to have lost any among their number this day, and Robin knew that such luck could not be counted on forever.

                 As the band walked home, taking a roundabout way to be certain there were no spies following or tracking them, Robin Hood looked around at his men, trying to guess who the mysterious sneezer might have been. He attempted to picture each man in turn, squatting in the bushes, finger under his nose, trying to fight off an impending sneeze. Robin looked about his men for one whose nose might be a little pink or whose nostrils might be flaring still with the need to sneeze again. He would not ask, of course, and none of his men would answer truthfully even if Robin did ask. And all this imagining was making his own nose tickle madly. Robin scrubbed at it and looked about again, expecting to see someone else doing likewise, but finding no one. At any rate, Robin was less concerned about finding the sneezer and more concerned with what the sneeze had meant.

                With seven score of men to worry about, the prospect of a cold running rampant through the camp was not the least bit comforting. There would be fewer men to hunt and fewer to patrol. At any given time, there were up to five groups of Merry Men out on patrol in the forest. Robin took his turn in the rotation as well, even when he felt exhausted as he had today. However, if their ranks were diminished by illness, Robin would be forced to patrol on every shift.

                Robin was glad when he was back at camp, seated with a third of his band at the meal tent, slurping down steaming hot stew for dinner and listening to Alan singing of a warm May morning. It made him feel drowsy, and afterward it was all he could do to slip out for some sleep as night descended upon Sherwood Forest. He found a nice mossy patch by one of the tents and flopped down, wrapping up in his cloak and a blanket then curling up slightly.

                Robin Hood woke several hours later, feeling chilled and generally unwell. His concern about a cold spreading through camp was suddenly less important than a concern about a cold spreading through his own body. He sniffed experimentally and frowned at the congestion already settling in. He felt thirsty and his mouth was a fiery sort of dry. Shivering, Robin pulled himself up to his feet, but kept the blanket around his shoulders as he walked back to the meal tent. There would be water there, and ale as well. He could do with a good, strong whiskey to warm his bones.

                Before he reached the spirits he hoped would raise his spirits, a sound stopped him in his tracks. "ihChoo! H'Choo!" Instinctively, Robin rubbed at his nose, assuring himself that he hadn't sneezed. His nose felt cold to the touch but not wet. Someone else's was, though, and as he veered off into the woods, he was determined to find out who.

                Will Scarlet stood a few paces away, his back against a tree. He hugged his sword to his chest, holding it by the hilt. He looked terribly fatigued, and his eyes were closed, but his nostrils were twitching. Robin paused in his steps, watching silently as Will tried to fight against it. His skill with a blade did him no good this time, however, and he ended up bending at the waist and sneezing freely. "YihhChoo!" Robin jumped back to avoid the spray.

                Started by the sound, Will snapped up and swung his sword, and Robin was equally glad now that he had moved back.

                The two men stared at each other for a moment, and then Will had to raise his sleeve to his nose and rub. "B'sorry," he said. "Thig I'b cobig dowd ill. But before, id the woods with the Sheriff, that wasd't be. I swear."

                Robin nodded. The sneezes hadn't sounded too similar, and that didn't matter anymore anyway. "I know it wasn't you, Will." Reluctantly but selflessly, Robin pulled the blanket from around his shoulders and made to drape it around Will's.

                But the younger man narrowed his eyes at Robin and resisted the gesture. At least, he did until he shivered again. Then he stepped forward and accepted the offer. He pulled the dark green material tightly around himself and bounced up and down a little until his shivering stopped. "Thanks," he said softly.

                "Go get some sleep, Will."

                Will shook his head and nodded up towards the heavens. "I have udtil the bood is--"

                "I'll take over your watch shift."

                For the first time that night, Will looked truly happy. His whole face lit up and, in the darkness, that was saying something.

                Robin laughed and patted his arm. "Go get some rest now and sleep off that cold." 

                As Robin watched him go, he wished he could have asked for his blanket back. He had his bow and quiver of arrows, because he felt absolutely naked without them, but he hadn't thought to bring his dagger or sword with him. He clenched his teeth to keep them from chattering, but there was no stopping the rest of his body. He hugged his arms against his chest and settled back against the tree for what would surely be a long night.

                Tired as he felt, he managed to stay awake and relatively alert until the lightest rays of sunrise fell upon him through the dense forest. He never wanted to let his guard down, but he felt his eyes trying to close as warmth struck him.

                "Robin?" Something smacked his cheek hard, and Robin winced.

                He turned his head back and blinked, staring into a large chest. "Little John," he whispered in recognition. Then he sneezed, lifting his arm just in time to sneeze into the crook. "Ahshoo! Hatshoo!" He felt Little John's hand on his shoulder, steering him away. "What...?"

                "You're sick. Half the camp is sick. No robbing for us for a little while. Now go lie down, man."

                Robin was barely aware of being guided over to a spot where many of the men were sleeping, snoring, and sniffling. Robin curled up alongside a log and wiped his nose against a corner of the cloak tightly wrapped around him.

*

                "So what I'm hearing is that we have no choice?" Robin scrubbed the back of his hand under his sore nose. It had been a week and things had only gotten worse instead of better. His cold was hanging on and, if possible, making him feel just as bad as the first day he'd come down with it. He sat on a log with his cloak hugged tightly to his chest and his hood up over his head. There was a fire raging in camp, but he barely felt its warmth.

                Little John, thankfully still healthy as a horse, nodded. "The shipment's coming in today before sundown. We hear that the sheriff will be inspecting it and taking his share."

                Robin Hood nodded. The situation, or what of it they had been able to discern through rumors, correspondence, and spies, was that Marian 's father was supposed to receive a shipment of goods in trade. Given the suspicions those in charge had regarding Marian and her family, even they would not be immune to the high taxes and inspection that the sheriff had imposed on Nottinghamshire. As her house was under Robin's care, it was up to him to ensure that not only did the shipment remain intact but the suspicion was lifted.

                Rubbing at his nose, Robin cut a sneeze off well before it came to pass. "We'll have to be clever about an ambush in town. We're not at our best and I don't want anyone captured or injured, especially if they're looking specifically for us." The sneeze he had so deftly avoided was back, and wouldn't go away even as he rubbed his nose. "hah-ah-ahTshooo!" And it brought friends. "AhShoo-Kshoo! ahChoo! HahChoo!"

                "Robin, maybe you shouldn't-"

                "It's Marian," Robin said resolutely, though sniffling into his sleeve and clearing his throat. "I'm going."

                It was not necessarily a bad decision. After a week of sitting around camp resting and blowing his nose, Robin was ready for a little action. However, as he held the point of his sword to one of the sheriff's men's necks and felt a sneeze coming on, he thought perhaps he might be rushing his recovery slightly. "You understand," he said with a cocky sort of smile. "Couldn't let this go without a fight. Too good a score and too many hungry mouths to feed. Men?"

                About ten of his men, including Little John, Jack, and Alan, were all surrounding the cart and horses. They were unfastening the horses there and hitching their own to the cart, as well as keeping the sheriff's men at bay. "Ready, Robin!" One shouted.

                And though Robin would have loved to have been able to make a simple, grand getaway back into Sherwood forest, it was not to be. A fight broke out, and Robin soon lost himself to the clashing swords. Out of nowhere, a masked figure appeared, fighting on Robin's side, and Robin smiled to himself. Marian was as good a swordsman as many of his men and he was naturally glad to see her.

                Of course, he didn't want her to see him coughing his way through a fight or- worse- sneezing at just the wrong moment. He tried to keep his back to her, but being more aware of her made him less aware of everyone else. So Robin didn't see the man coming up behind him and would have felt more than just a nasty blow to the head of Marian hadn't gotten to him first. As it was, all he felt was pain and a strange falling sensation.

*

                Robin lay back against the pillows, rubbing at his nose. He pulled the blankets up to his chin to hide himself as best he could, but Marian noticed he was uncomfortable and handed him a handkerchief. "What about your fiancé?" he asked coldly, rubbing a little more desperately at his nose.

                "After the, ah, attack on my father, he understood my desire to stay here with Father instead of at the castle... assuming a few of my ladies stayed as well as insurance that I be watched in case the ruffians return." She smiled at him with amusement, but the smile began to fade. "Robin, I told you to sneeze quietly, not rub your nose raw as you try to keep from sneezing.

                Apologetically, Robin hid the lower half of his face behind the handkerchief. "ahhhChoo! AHTChoo!" He blew his nose just a little and winced. "I really should be going."

                "You should be resting," she said. "Sleeping out in the forest every night, it's no wonder you're ill."

                Robin sniffed miserably. This was not how he would have liked to have made his way into Marian's room or her bed, but if she wanted him there, that was certainly a good enough sign for him. "All right," he agreed. Besides, he didn't feel much like getting up and hightailing it back to the forest just now. A bit of rest was exactly what he needed. Exhausted, he closed his eyes again. He murmured, "What should happen if-"

                "Leave it to me. I'll make sure no one intrudes and that you're on your way while you still have the cover of darkness. I'll watch over you all night." Instinctively, she reached out and stroked his cheek, then pulled her hand back a second later.

                He smiled but, for her sake, pretended he hadn't felt it. However, he was sure the memory of the touch would get him through this and many a cold night that were to follow.