The Outlaw, the Queen and the Year
A/N: This is my first story here and I plan to continue making more stories in the future but,for now, this is it. English is not my first language so please bear with me.
All mistakes are mine.
Hope you like it!
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Chapter 1
"Regina, are you okay?" she heard Snow's sickening sweet voice behind her. Regina turned around, furious.
"Okay?" she fumed, "I just lost Henry and you think I'm okay?" Regina glared at her step-daughter.
She was holding back tears and trying to look as much as the evil queen but she can't hold back much longer. It was getting hard to breathe in her corset. After almost 29 years in Storybrooke, she did not miss her corsets that much. She would rather prefer the comfortable lingerie that Storybrooke had to offer.
"I understand that you feel pain but that doesn't mean you can't have what Henry has always wanted—happiness." Snow smiled softly at Regina.
"I can't be happy without him."
"Of course you can, you just have to believe."
"You always say that but it's because you haven't felt loss before, Snow."
"I have. I just lost Emma, for the second time. Henry, too."
"You have your precious Charming, anyway. He's caring, loving. Something I won't find. Ever," she growled, "And by the way, don't follow me." At Snow's confused face, she disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.
#
"Papa! Papa! Stop, pwease, papa!" Roland's voice echoed across the forest. Robin abruptly stopped.
"No, Roland, you're very naughty," his father, Robin Hood started tickling his 4-year-old son again.
"Pwease! I'll be good. I pwomise!" Roland said, in between laughs. Robin stopped.
"Ok. You promise?" they both stood.
"Yes, Papa." The little boy gave a salute.
"Ok. I'll just be off my morning walk, son. Be a good boy." He carried Roland.
"'Kay, Papa." He gave a kiss to his father on the cheek. Robin put him down.
"Wuv you."
"Love you, too." He tapped his head and turned around to walk to the forest.
He had always walked every day during the mornings, an hour after breakfast. It has calmed him every time.
He was walking on his everyday path when he saw a shadow lurking near the trees. He readied his bow and approached it.
When he got to really look at the shadow, he saw the Queen. He's been trying to get past her for years now. The Sherriff of Nottingham had made an alliance with Queen Regina and he spent half his life getting away. He has never seen the Queen in person, just in sketches. But now he's dumbfounded, he knows the Queen is beautiful but in person, she is just stunning.
He then saw something glowing bright red in her hand. A heart. Her heart.
He stepped in. "You know, your majesty, I thought people like you held their enemy's hearts, not their own."
Regina turned around to find a stranger aiming an arrow at her.
"Who the hell do you think you are, pointing an arrow at me?" she screamed.
"Robin of Locksley, at your service."
She raised an eyebrow. "The thief? How wonderful," she narrowed her eyes at him, "A thief has caught me; I'm so scared." She added sarcastically.
"Your Majesty, please put your heart down. Whatever you're going to do with it, don't."
"No, you don't understand, thief. I've already lost Hen—my son. I've already lost everything I care about."
"That doesn't mean you won't find a new reason to be happy. We all get a second chance, Regina. You just have to open your eyes to see it."
"I don't see anything. There's no second chance for me."
"You have to feel so that you can find something better—love."
"I've already lost love. Now, will you leave me alone?"
"No, I won't." He stayed put.
"I've already asked nicely, so I won't this time," She waved her hand and suddenly there was an invisible barrier separating them. "If you care so much, now, you get to watch." Robin just stood there, stunned. When Regina started squeezing her heart, Robin was pulled back from his trance. He started to punch and shoot arrows towards the barrier. But it didn't do a thing.
Then an idea came to him. He stood there patiently while Regina has been screaming in pain. Once Robin's breathing pace subsided, he extended his hand to the barrier.
It went through.
#
Pain.
Everything felt like pain.
And she deserved every single second of it.
A hand snatched her heart from her hand. Her screams of pain instantly turned into screams of anger and confusion.
"How the hell did you enter?" she looked at the barrier she put up then to the thief, wondering if there's anything wrong with her magic.
"Well, I assumed that you assumed I will be in panic to go inside so I steadied my breathing pace," he smirked smugly, damn him. His gaze traveled to her heart.
"Why would you want to turn something so valuable into ashes?"
"I already told you; now, give it back to me." She glared at him as she took out her hand.
"I can't, milady. Not until I make sure that you put it back to your chest."
"And if you don't?"
"I'll put it back myself."
"And how exactly would you do that?" she raised an eyebrow, curious of what he has to say.
"With this." He took a bottle with transparent glowing liquid inside from his breast pocket and looked pointedly at it.
"Where did you get that?" It was a potion that Regina was very familiar with. It was like the potion she gave that one handless wonder a long time ago to take her mother's heart.
"Stole from a witch." Typical. What would I expect from a thief?, she thought.
He sprinkled some of its contents on his hand, then, holding the heart firmly, he slammed it back in her chest.
Regina gasped for air as pain and loss overwhelmed her. She was about to take her heart out again when Robin sprinkled something on her this time.
"What was that?!" Regina glared deathly at him and she readied her hand to throw him a fireball.
Nothing.
Happened.
"Vaporized your magic for a week." He shrugged with a smug grin.
"What?!" Fear struck through her as she remembered the last time she was without magic.
Pain shook throughout her body. The laughter of Greg Mendell. The smell of sardines and burning hair. Sweat running down her sleeked skin. The electricity and sensation so great, her back was arched so far from the table. The whispers, "You're a monster."
"Regina? Regina, are you alright?" the thief's voice shook her from her thoughts.
"I'm fine," she said then looked at him. "No, on second thought, I'm not. I won't be able to bring this barrier down and Snow will be panicking that I died."
"No worries. I'll be your company." He stepped forward and Regina stepped backwards, trying to add more space between them and her foot accidentally hit a rock.
Robin reached out his arms to steady her as she tripped and they both fell with Robin on top of Regina.
When she looked up, her chocolate browns connected with his sea blues. She realized that they were so close, they can practically hear each other's thoughts.
They didn't know how much time had passed, too engrossed in each other.
His eyes are addicting, she thought.
She is so beautiful, he thought.
Then he makes a mistake.
"You look stunning," he whispered.
His words got her out of her trance.
"Get off me, thief," she pushed him away and he rolled next to her.
"Okay, thief. What the hell do we do now?" she started, "You've taken my magic, stopped me from self-harm and officially trapped us here. Congratulations." She rolled her eyes.
He chuckled, partly because of her insults, partly because of her temper, and all of the things that happened, she forgot that they could come in or out the barrier in a calm state.
"Have you forgotten, milady, that I live here in the woods. But I have to say, 'Did you think about living here? There's a lake residing right inside this barrier," he teased.
"Ha-ha. Very funny, thief." She walked towards the lake.
He put his hand to his forehead.
What has he gotten himself into?