Disclaimer: Don't own Once.

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Regina stood as still as a stone on her balcony overlooking the streetlights of Storybrooke. She's been in this place for so long that she's forgotten where she comes from; she's forgotten just how much this place isn't home to her. Thoughts of Robin drift through her mind. How they were so happy. Their lives intertwining so easily, so perfectly. She wanted to cry, to scream on this infamous rooftop that has seen so many of her failures- but her face remains stoic. Her chin subconsciously lifts. Emotions once controlled her to the point of great evil, they laid her soul bare for the world to see, and what did she get? A broken heart. She tried so hard to entrust her heart to Robin but to no avail- even her actual heart that he lost. They were too different, too much history, too many things in the way. You would think that maybe, just maybe, even the bond of Soulmates could overcome such repetitive trials, but hope has failed her so many times before.

The wind catches her hair and she closes her eyes. No matter how many times she says she's used to it, that she's strong enough... In these moments she thinks of Daniel and how such perfection was taken from her with Dark Magic. And she knows that Robin was taken from her with Light Magic, but it's the same story all over again. Yet when he smiled at Marian, the happiness and relief in his eyes... Oh, how her heart broke. What a beautifully wicked creature he is. Why did he forget her so easily? How do you forget your Soulmate in the blink of True Love?

Her heart starts to race as she imagines his arms around her... His lips on her neck... She remembers the way it felt when he would trail his fingertips across her arms, oh the goosebumps... The feel of his body pressed against her back… Her breath catches in her throat and she throws her head back. Why, why, why… And with eyes raised to the sky, and the wind in her hair, the scent of forest surrounds her.

Then familiar warm arms wrap around her waist.