A/N: Sorry for the delay last week.

Half an hour and a bus ride later Alice stood in front of a cupboard with a split mirror glued to it and threw a critical eye at her own reflexion.

Swinging the blue shirt dress from side to side so it brushed her in tights clad thighs, she frowned at the image.

She wasn't sure what to wear and she fussed a lot more over her outfit now than she had when she had applied for a job. She wished she knew what was common to wear for meeting the parents or rather in this case, the single parent.

Her flatmate Mary had told her to wear something casual so she wouldn't appear trying too hard. But right now Alice wondered if this was too casual. Was it too much herself? Would it show all her true colours which were appalling to some people?

Burying her teeth deep into her lower lip, Alice eyed her outfit again. She had exchanged her well worn army boots for almost new plimsolls which she had figured had a much more friendly appeal.

Leaning closer to the mirror she examined her make up. The lines of her kohl were still intact. Her mascara did not clump together yet.

Tilting her head, Alice had to snigger at her mirror image. The crack of the mirror was beneath her head, making it appear as if it was bigger than her body.

Apparently, Alice got herself beheaded every time she looked too close into the looking glass.

A strong knock on the door startled her out of her silly daydream. Robin was here!

Jumping back Alice hurried to the door and ripped it open, revealing the brunette in the soft leather jacket, which actually was as soft as it looked Alice had learned. Her green eyes were smouldering with warmth. "Hi, painter girl."

"Robin," Alice chirped as she stepped aside to let the other woman into the room. She was surprised when instead of stepping in, Robin pulled her close and pressed her lips onto hers. Alice squealed but sank into the kiss quickly. She was getting more and more used to kissing Robin. Still these kisses would set her body aflame.

When they broke apart, they both sighed contently in the narrow space between them. Their foreheads leaned against one another.

"Are you ready to leave?" Robin asked and stepped away.

"Not yet. There is something I wanted to show you. A gift," Alice said and took Robin by the hand to lead her inside the room.

It was not as tidy as the first time she'd shown her – there was still a empty tea cup from this morning on her bedside table; the clothes she had worn earlier formed a pile on the floor where she had discarded them earlier. She hoped Robin would not mind.

"You did not need to buy a present for the host. My mom will be happy to meet you without it," Robin told her.

"Actually, it's not for her," Alice admitted tongue in cheek. "Although I feel bad now, since I have not considered this."

"It's fine," Robin repeated with a chuckle. "So for who is it for?"

"You, of course," Alice said and walked over to the end of her bed, where in the tiny space between the cupboard and the resting place, she had been able to squeeze in the stand for her canvas. Right now it faced the wall because Alice believed as much as Jefferson in unfortunate distractions. Only that it was her art which was distracting her from time to time, calling for her attention at the most inconvenient moments.

She picked up the canvas from the stand, turned it around and put it back.

This painting was so much different to what she had done before. Motifs of longing had been replaced by motifs filled with joy.

Whipping on heels she was excited to see Robin's reaction.

Art is in the eye of the beholder.

Alice never had found words more true than in this moment.

Robin's lips had dropped open and her eyes were crinkling with misty orbs of wonder as they ran over the painting. Alice could see how they darkened as they stopped on the lower deep blue dots forming rows of seats and how they lightened up as they rushed over the brushes of intensively green shades in the middle space and the glorious light blue tones of the sky in the higher section. Robin's eyes were filled with mirthfully amber sparks as they traced the white lines marking the pitch.

"Alice," Robin whispered. "This is awesome!"

Alice had painted CenturyLink Field from her memory of the game they had went to, had shaped the seats and lines with a play of perspective. She had painted it, not because she liked American Football, or rather football as Robin preferred her to call it but because it had been one of those days that has started with happy thoughts and ended with happy thoughts. She had wanted to keep this memory as vivid as she could.

"Thought you hated football," Robin mumbled as she leaned closer to the painting, staring at the point where "SEAHAWKS" was written in huge letters on the field beneath the lemon yellow goal, and Alice did not find it in her heart to tell her that she did not like it much. She just hummed and thought about how she had troubles hearing the next day.

"Wait a sec!" Robin exclaimed suddenly. "Is that a rabbit on the field?!"

A grin broke on Alice's face and she had to giggle at the sight of Robin's eyes widened in shock.

"Yep," she chirped. "I thought the scene could use some movement."

"I assumed you usually painted some kind of romanticized realism," Robin noted, finally ripping her eyes away from the painting.

"No reality is as fixed as it is supposed to be believed. Our fantasies are what make the world around us appear real."

"So imaginative bunnies make a realistic painting even more realistic?" Robin asked with her eyebrows lifting into two half circles.

"In a way, yes," Alice nodded.

"Only you could come up with this kind of wisdom," Robin uttered with a softened voice, tones brightened by tenderness. Suddenly her jaw dropped and she grabbed Alice's arm. "That's what you should do!"

"Come again?" Alice asked confused. Had she missed something?

"Your style. This," Robin emphasized with a hand waving towards the painting, "should be your style. This is so much like you! An original Alice Jones. Even more so than the ship that bore a sense of loneliness."

Alice gulped and watched Robin wave her hands a bit more across the painting.

"Here you have straight lines going queer. A realistic setting exaggerated with vibrant colours and the intrusion of your imagination in form of a bunny. It's like the rabbit hole into a world of possibilities. Your rabbit hole."

Taken aback Alice looked at Robin.

Closely.

Nobody had taken a glance as observant as this onto her paintings ever before and had found so much of her in them. Unlike the mirror this was not a cracked image and Robin had seen all of it. Seen Alice for who she really was.

Alice was bare to Robin's sight and yet this did not make her feel scared or vulnerable. Her eyes filled with tears because she was so extremely thankful for having found her Robin.

The later one turned around now and bending one of her delicate eyebrows to an unsure crook. "Alice, are you alright? Did I say something to upset you?"

"No, you did not," Alice said and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss onto Robin's lips, "Thank you for seeing me. For seeing me as I truly am."

Robin released a sound fit for a sigh and a moan, before leaning in again, stealing a few more soft pecks. "You're welcome," she answered with a strained voice. "So if this is for me, basically, I get to take you home?"

"Yes, if that's what you want."

"I'd like that very much," Robin murmured. Green eyes softening to a mystical hue.

Alice felt her heart tumbling over an edge. It fell inside her chest. An eternal fall stripped from the limits of gravity. There was no crash. Only the fall.

Unable to formulate words she leaned in and captured Robin's lips in a searing kiss, desperately trying to articulate something that knew no words.

Robin answered again and moved her lips over hers as they opened up to each other.

Alice swayed at the first touch of tongue and was steadied by two arms engulfing her in a strong embrace. She was lost in the following haze of burning twitches and gentle waves inside her. Unconsciously Alice pushed her body fully against Robin's.

The later broke them apart with a gasp. Her cheeks reddened and pupils dilated. Croakily she said, "I hate to be the mood killer but we should leave now."

Alice nodded. She did not want to be late the first time she would meet Robin's mother either. She licked her lips and in an attempt to compensate her inner commotion with energy she quickly shouldered her bag and grabbed the painting stuffing it into her armpit.

"Okay. I am ready," she said. The hoarseness of her own voice surprised her.

Robin huffed and led them outside Alice's room and towards the lift.

Putting the painting into the back of Henry's dark blue Toyota, Alice and Robin drove north towards the suburbs.

The farther they drove the greener the scenery got.

It was not Nuneham Courtenay but there was a touch of nature at every corner. No wonder Seattle was called the Emerald City even if it had nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz. But as they drove down the road, Alice could imagine a yellow glow on the street. A group of children passing by reminded her of munchkins.

They parked at a road in the suburbs.

Cute houses were planted across the street. It was a homey place with whitewashed fences and broad patios in the middle of a huge city. Seattle was something else.

"Remember, don't mention –"

"The drug dealing, I know," Alice interrupted Robin with a wink as they exited the car.

"Sorry, the license is almost through. I want to show my mom that I am serious about becoming a PI and not have her scared about it before I lay all my cards on the table," Robin whispered as they walked over to the white front door of a mint green panelled one storey house.

Instinctively Alice grabbed her hand. "Surely everything will be fine."

Robin smiled softly and rang the bell.

Alice tried to stop herself from fidgeting and waited patiently in front of the door next to Robin until, finally somebody opened the door.

"Hello, dear," a bronze skinned and dark haired woman drawled in a low and sultry voice. White teeth shone brilliantly as she smiled at Alice, "my name is Regina Mills. I am Robin's aunt."

"Delighted to meet you. I am Alice! Alice Jones," she replied and shook the hand offered to her.

"Hey, Aunt Regina. How are you?" Robin said and sank into an embrace of her slightly smaller aunt who looked like she had nothing in common with her niece. Alice wondered how Robin's mother might look.

"I am glad you could make it."

"Have our guests flown in already?" A woman called from another room. The knock of heels on a wooden floor grew louder. A red haired woman appeared from behind a corner. Ice blue eyes caught Alice's almost immediately, beneath which a wide smile stretched on thin lips.

She looked so different to Robin's aunt, Regina Mills, and spoke in a familiar accent. An accent that did not feel like an accent to Alice at all. Alice wondered what the story behind this was, why these sisters appeared to be so different in their origin.

"Hello, dearie, it's nice to make your acquaintance," she said and held a hand out for Alice to shake. "My name is Zelena Mills. I am the mother of your girlfriend who finally chose to introduce us."

"Mom," Robin moaned behind them.

"Hello, Miss Mills. Pleased to meet you. I am Alice Jones," Alice said more happy about the term "girlfriend" than paying attention to the snappy remark.

There was an awkward moment afterwards, when Miss Mill's eyes skipped over to Robin and they both shared a forced smile. "Come," the first said, after Robin breathed out a compelled greeting, looking away with much more tightened lips. "Dinner is ready. I hope you like Cottage Pie."

A grin spread on Alice's lips.

She loved Cottage Pie!

Robin's mother led them through the sitting room into the bright dining room. White lacquered wooden stairs and a matching table dominated the room in the middle. The wallpaper was green and beige striped. A with cabinet in farmhouse style completed the scenery.

It looked wonderfully welcoming.

Green had become Alice's favourite colour, even though she had never treated colours with partiality.

They sat down in front of the table laid with pastel green plates and a steaming casserole in the middle. The nostalgic smell of Cottage pie made Alice feel at home. Except for her papa she did not miss much about the UK but this smell reminded her of lazy Sundays in front of the fireplace when her papa would narrate an exaggerated pirate story and she would paint scenes of freedom and loneliness.

Robin's mother sat at the head of the table and began cutting the dish into slices.

Everyone else was silent. Robin's aunt poured wine into glasses while Robin sat next to her stiffly. When Robin told her that it was not love, peace and harmony between them she seemed to have exaggerated a tiny bit.

The squeak of spatula against the enamelled pottery made Alice jump.

Not knowing where to look her gaze passed the cabinet. The struts between the glasses divided the reflection of the family sitting at the table into numerous pieces.

Wanting to break the silence she followed the rules of courtesy her papa had taught her and truthfully commented, "You have a lovely home, Miss Mills and Miss Mills." Her smile broadened, when she added, "It's so beautifully green."

Robin's aunt, Regina Mills, scoffed at that from the opposite side of the table and raised the glass of red wine to her lips. "Debatably," she muttered in low tones.

Irritated Alice knitted her eyebrows. Was this a wrong thing to say?

Robin's mum leaned over towards her daughter, who looked like she did not want to be here, and murmured, clear enough for everyone else to hear, "I like her."

Robin rolled her eyes her mother but then looked at Alice with her lips curling so sweetly and her green eyes glinting.

Alice thought, she might have said the right thing.

A/N: Lots and lots of kissing... You're welcome! XD

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