I'm alive! Sorry for the long gap, but with AP testing, I didn't really have a lot of time to post stories. This story has actually been in my journal for months, I just never got around to typing it. A note: this story was written before the second half of the season aired, so I didn't know that they were staying at Regina's castle and so on. Anyways, enjoy, and tell me what you think!
"It's going to rain soon," Little John complained.
Looking up at the sky, Robin couldn't help but agree. Far off in the distance, gray storm clouds were approaching, and when it rained in Sherwood Forest, it was never anything less than a full-blown storm.
"We're going to need to find proper shelter," Robin announced to the group. Looking behind himself, he could see the Charmings and the rest of their friends nodding in agreement.
"But where can we go?" Mulan asked. "Both the Dark Castle and Aurora's palace are leagues away, and we won't be able to reach it before the storm hits."
That stumped them all, and they puzzled over it for a few minutes until a voice in the back said, "I know a place where we can go."
All eyes swiveled to the speaker. Regina stood a little away from the rest of the group, looking slightly uncomfortable with all the attention focused on her. Since Robin and his Merry Men had found the Charmings and their entourage in the forest, the Evil Queen had been either ignored or treated with distrust. No matter how much Snow White vouched for her, no matter how much people said she'd changed, it was impossible to forget the years of terror under her rule.
"Where is it?" Robin asked, when it became clear that no one else was going to say anything. He may not have been able to forget what she'd done, but at this moment, finding shelter from the coming storm was more important.
"This way," she answered vaguely, before walking off in the direction that, presumably, led to shelter. His men, after a nod from him, followed behind her.
It was a long while later that they finally reached their destination. The sky had darkened, and Roland had long since fallen asleep on his shoulder.
They rounded the crest of a small incline, and there before them was a manor. It looked abandoned, common for many homes after the curse, yet still showed off its splendor. But the most important thing was that it was still standing, and would help them weather out the storm.
Little John turned to Regina, who, as they had come closer and closer to the manor, had lagged further and further behind the rest of the group. "How do you know about this place?" he asked. "I don't want to drag those whose home it is into this mess while we plan against the Wicked Witch."
"The owners won't bother us," Regina told him.
"How do you know?" Little John persisted.
"Because I killed them," Regina snapped, before stalking away from the group, and the men parted to let her by. Robin watched as she strode away, watched until she entered the house and disappeared from sight.
For the rest of the afternoon, the mood towards the former Queen was…icy, at best. Of course, no one had been particularly welcoming before, but the reminder that she had killed people simply made everything worse. Regina, for her part, seemed unaffected by everything, but Robin knew that a Queen as powerful as her would have learned to hide behind masks a long time ago.
He was walking down the hallway that led to his room when he heard the sound of two people arguing. He stilled, then followed the voices to one of the other rooms, where the door was slightly ajar.
"…leave it alone."
"I'm just offering to be an ear. I know that with everything that happened here, with Daniel – "
"You don't know anything!" Regina snapped, ad before Robin could move away and pretend he hadn't been eavesdropping, she stormed out of the room. She made brief eye contact with him – were those tears glistening in her eyes? – before she rushed down the hallway.
Snow exited a few seconds later, and Robin sent her a questioning look.
"This place brings up…unwanted memories for Regina," she explained. Then she changed the subject, telling him that the war council was meeting later that night, and Robin took that as his cue to leave.
The storm that they had all been expecting hit late in the night. Robin left the grand hall, which served as the war room for the time being. It was late, and most of the council had already left. Only Robin, Little John, and a few others had stayed behind to talk about various strategies.
He quickly strode down the hallway, intent on getting to his room (and his bed) as fast as possible. He passed the other rooms, but stopped when he heard a familiar voice coming from a room that was most certainly not his.
"Regina? Regina? Wake up." Roland, who had not yet learned the art of whispering quietly, was speaking from inside one of the rooms. Robin wondered what exactly Roland was doing in Regina's room, until a flash of lightning illuminated the space through a window at the end of the corridor, soon followed by a rumble of thunder. Robin realized that Roland must have gotten scared by the storm, but with him and the rest of the Merry Men in the council meeting, he'd gone to the first person nearby. That just happened to be Regina.
"Roland?" It seemed that Regina had woken up, and through a crack in the doorway, Robin could see her sitting up and looking at the boy huddled on the bed. "What's wrong?"
Roland sniffled before answering. "There's a storm, and I was having a bad dream but Papa's not here so canIsleepinherewithyou?" The last part came out in a rush, as if he was afraid that she would refuse. But when Regina pulled back the blankets, he dived in and snuggled as close as he could to her.
"Do you want to hear a story?" Regina asked, and Roland nodded sleepily. It seemed that without the fear of the storm hanging over him, the warmth was sending him quickly back to sleep.
"Once upon a time," Regina began, "there was a princess. Now this princess was unlike all the other princesses in the land – she preferred horseback riding and going on adventures to embroidery and tea. However, her mother, the queen, thought that those were not things a princess should be doing. She thought that the princess should marry a man who was her equal in station, so she paraded suitors in front of her every day. Dukes, lords, princes, kings – these men were powerful, but the princess did not love any of them.
Then one day, the princess met the new stable boy. He was kind, and funny, but most importantly he did not treat the princess like she was a doll. He treated her like he would treat anyone else, and the princess soon fell in love with him because of it. She kept her feelings a secret though, because she knew the queen would never approve, and she didn't even know if the stable boy loved her back. But one day the stable boy surprised the princess by telling her that he had loved her for a long time, and even if she didn't return his feelings he had to let her know. Overjoyed, the princess told him that she had loved him for a long time as well.
Soon the two would meet every single day, in secret of course, and make grand plans for the future. They were going to run away together and get married, leaving the queen and the parade of suitors behind. They were going to get their happily ever after."
Regina paused, glanced down, and Robin could see her smile softly when she noticed that Roland had fallen asleep at her side. She looked happy and…peaceful, two expressions Robin thought he would never see on the Evil Queen's face.
Robin shifted his weight, wincing from the sharp pain that came of standing in one place for too long. Regina must have caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, because her head shot up and she met his eyes through the partially opened door.
He stepped out of sight but kept close by, sure that Regina would come out to the hallway. He was proven right when the door creaked open a few seconds later, and Regina walked out. When she turned to face him, Robin could see that her mask was firmly back in place.
Neither of them spoke, and the silence was oppressive. Finally, Robin said, "I thank you for looking after him, Your Majesty. I hadn't expected the meeting to run on so late."
Regina acknowledged his thanks with a nod of her head. "It wasn't a problem. You can take him back now if you wish. Otherwise, he can stay here until morning."
"I'll just retrieve him in the morning. Best not to disturb him now that he's finally fallen asleep." Regina accepted this with another nod, and she turned back to her room, intent on returning to her bed. But one question still nagged at Robin.
"What happened? The princess and the stable boy, what happened to them?"
Regina stiffened bit didn't turn around, and that only confirmed what Robin thought – that the princess had been her and the stable boy someone from her past. She hasn't lied about loving him, least not to Roland, but Robin had never heard of the Queen being engaged to anyone before her marriage to the King.
Seconds dragged, and Robin was about to admit defeat and excuse himself when Regina said, "The stable boy had promised the princess that he would take her away from the queen, away from everything she hated, and marry her. But they had trusted their secret to the wrong person, the daughter of a visiting king, who told the princess' mother because she thought she was doing the right thing. So the mother came to stop the princess and the stable boy, but when she realized that she couldn't persuade the princess to give up on her dream, she settled for killing the stable boy by ripping out his heart. Then the princess was forced to marry the visiting king, a man still in love with his dead wife."
Regina paused for so long that Robin feared she would never finish the story. "And then what happened, Regina?" he prompted.
"Then the princess-who-was-now-a-queen worked to become powerful so that she would never be as helpless as she had been that night. She killed her mother in revenge, and she killed her father so she could cast a curse that would take away everyone's happy endings. She thought it only fair – hers had been ripped from her a long time ago."
"And you never tried to find another happy ending?" Robin asked, dropping the pretense of the story altogether.
Regina laughed humorlessly. "I tried once or twice," she told him. "But it never worked out in the end." She offered a bitter smile. "Villains don't get happy endings, after all."
"But you're not a villain." Regina said nothing, instead choosing to drop her gaze to her feet. Robin stepped closer, crowding into her personal space but not really caring. "Regina, look at me," he ordered, and waited until her gaze met his before continuing. "You are not a villain."
"How do you know?" she asked, and her voice was so small, so unsure, that Robin could picture the girl she had been in the story.
"Because villains don't tell children bedtime stories when they're scared by storms. Villains don't come back to the home that they hate just to keep a group of strangers who don't trust her sheltered from a storm." He laid a hand on her arm. "Trust me, Regina. You're no villain. Not anymore."
She inhaled sharply and blinked rapidly. She looked down, probably to regain her composure…and froze. Robin frowned, following her line of sight to the lion tattoo on his arm, the one he had gotten to remember his family.
"Regina? What's the matter?"
"Nothing," she said, stepping away from him, her back hitting the door.
"Regina, if I did something unwanted or untoward…."
"You did nothing! It's just…it's very late, and I'm tired. You can come collect Roland in the morning. Good night, Robin."
Then she fled into the room, shutting the door firmly behind her. And Robin stared at the wood, wondering what the hell he had done wrong.