Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, as usual, I just use these characters to my advantage.

Heart of Glass

She knew it was going to happen. Eventually.

She just didn't think it was going to be this fast. One moment he was all hers, souls connected in more ways than she could actually understand. The next she felt her battered heart missing a beat, sinking in a pool filled with the very familiar taste of heartbreak and sadness.

She suddenly felt lost, her heart pounding madly in her chest, her reason begging her to run away, to leave. She felt her eyes sting with tears; tears that blurred her vision, the cold chill of the night hitting her face, shooting a shiver through her body when she slammed the diner's door behind her. She had to run, to go somewhere and not look back.

She tried to get rid of those stubborn tears. His voice echoing behind her. She needs to go. "Wait!" The memory is shockingly bitter. "Please!" There's an awful desperation in his voice, something she never heard before. She wants to believe this means he cares, still cares, but she can't let herself believe again. She will never believe again.

Believing led her to him. Believing gave her a number of precious moments that were now forever crystallized as memories and memories only for she can't be an obstacle in his life. His happiness has come back from the past. It is his chance and he deserves the happiness she will never really have.

She hears the words and she hears her heart breaking more. Resilience is a gift, but it can also be a curse when you know your heart will be able to piece itself together just to be broken once again, and by now she should have been used to it. To lose. To be left aside.

But the saddest part of it is that she would never trade this heart ache, a proof that she was still capable of loving, for the peaceful numbness of not caring.

Her heart was resilient, but it was made of glass and it was mended repeatedly and every single time it piece itself together a part was lost, but this time, Regina thought while walking through the empty streets of Storybrooke, this time she had left her heart behind, along with her soul and her hopes. Maybe she could retrieve everything some day, but for now she just needed (once again) to be strong.

Thanks for reading. Reviews are always welcomed! ;)