WitW: Basically can either be a continuation of "Though I'd Hate to Pull on Those Lovely Locks…" but can be read as a stand-alone.
Also: major credit to the Robin/Regina vids on youtube. Beatifullytragic6's The Thief and The Queen really helped me with this. Check it out! ^^
Robin's memories returned in flash of light.
A whole year's worth of memories knocked him back…and humbled him completely.
The Queen…Regina was… She was…
Stunning. Stunning in every way.
He hadn't realised what his initial betrayal of her vulnerabilities in the early stages of their acquaintance had done until he'd had the ability to compare their two very different first meetings. Without the Prince and Princess he hadn't given in to the trappings of assumptions and with a common goal in line from the start he'd been able to have the joy of experiencing the Queen's determination without having to battle her constantly for the privilege.
Without her pain and his short-sightedness he'd been impressed by her fire instead of intimidated by the flames. She'd had the capability to catch one of his arrows and here, in this new land, the tolerance to be amused. In the solitude of that meeting their relationship had been forged on the basis of who she was as a person not the expectations of everyone that knew her.
He hadn't realised what he'd cheated himself into missing…
Regina was breath-taking. In their new relationship she'd allowed him to see so many different sides of her; the softness of her determination, the frailty of her uncertain moments, the feeling in her kisses, and most of all her heart…
That was thing that humbled him most of all; she had barely known him by that point and allowed him to hold her still-beating heart in his hands. It was warm and fluttered and trembled like a baby bird.
Regina had given herself, fully, to him. Had given him the power to end her life with nothing more than a curl of his fingers and trusted him beyond that evening. And when he had failed she'd only shown concern for others, brushing aside her renewed mortality and seizing the opportunity. Seizing him.
The thing that had struck him was that even when their acquaintance was new it wasn't. The force of his intuition to trust and listen to this woman had astounded him then. She was the first person he had looked to in the wake of Zelena's threat…
And despite what he'd told her when he'd found her with the letter, half of him had been…hoping to run across her.
They'd had a handful of encounters in the New Land but that first kiss had felt…expected. Fraught and bursting with the kind of anticipation that builds up over the months tension-filled encounters that they'd forgotten but still felt. She battled him fiercely for the right to hold her, her kisses as fierce and gruelling as any adventure, as claiming as any brand. Her relinquishing of control had an air of momentariness about it; as if he were a boy given a rare treat. He'd wanted to savour and wallow in it's promise. To give the same gift of his heart that she'd given him.
But would she still?
These memories of the Missing Year… In their each and every meeting he'd been a boy; oblivious to the true intent behind his actions. While his memories of them may be of the wish to uncover this enigma of a woman he could also remember her reactions irritation and shortness. As if he were a pest…
Was he still?
He had to find her. Now.
And learn of her true intentions in the wake of new knowledge.
Without revealing this near-aching desperation to keep her.
WitW: I fixed it for myself (and others) again! Because Regina is her own master, bitch! And every man who manages to get even a finger onto that kind of flawless needs to be worried about what to do to keep it. TRUTH!