She was running late. She hadn't meant to stay so late looking over the plans for a new realm charter for one of the newer additions to the U.R.
The party seemed to be in full swing at the diner as far as she could hear it from down the block having opted to stretch her legs after sitting for so long instead of using magic to get there faster.
Also, she wanted to make a little detour as well before putting in an appearance for her friends and family's sake then turning in for the night.
"One more year without you." She sighs kneeling in front of the grave brushing a few dead leaves away that had caught on the engraved name on the stone. "and another one just on the horizon." She whispers tracing her fingers in the lion that she'd first seen inked on the forearm of a stranger through the hazy glass of a pub window.
"One of the worst pains a mortal can endure." A voice behind her interrupts making the Queen spin around in the quiet of the churchyard in the growing darkness. The man doesn't seem fazed by the growing ball of fire in the startled woman's outstretched hand. "The lose of what can only be called their soul mate." The unnamed continued taking a knee a few feet away from Regina.
"What would you know about lost?" Regina questioned turning back to the grave while still being hyperaware of the man behind her.
"We should move away for a few moments. Give them some form of privacy." He says his voice just above a whisper as he holds out a hand to Regina already on his feet at her side before the Queen of the Realms is aware he's moved. "We'll not go far, Regina." He promises startling her by saying her name as if they were somehow close friends when she'd only met him moments before.
It was only when they are safely out of sight behind another row of stones that Regina sees her niece and her new fiancée winding their way between the headstones.
"Shouldn't we be going to Granny's?" Alice asks apparently not realizing just where the two were, but Robin shakes her head tightening her hold around her fiancée's hand as they walked even pulling their interlocked hands up to press a kiss against the back of Alice's then let their hands drop back to swing lightly between them in the coming darkness. "We will but first I want to introduce you to someone very important to me."
Regina starts to speak but her companion puts a finger to his lips to quiet her the pair move so softly Regina would have sworn they had levitated from the ground to another hiding place as the couple stops in front of the stone they needed.
"Well, I thought that it was only far that since I've gotten to meet your dad-." Robin doesn't finish her thought, but she doesn't need to.
Regina feels more tears stinging her eyes, but she blinks them away not wanting to cry in front of the unknown man still resting a hand against her arm keeping her away.
Robin lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding slowly while also leaning against Alice's side feeling the other woman's arm slide around her waist giving her the strength she needed to keep her tears in check just a little while longer before she speaks again her eyes locked on the beautiful blue she loves so much. "Tower Girl this is my Dad. The original Robin Hood." Then to the grave marker, she whispers a shaky "Dad this is my fiancée Alice Jones."
Regina felt her own emotions threatening to give herself away when Alice gave a shy "Pleasure to finally meet you sir" to the white stone in front of the pair. The former villainess was ashamed to say that she didn't catch on to the shaking in her niece's shoulders until Alice whispered a pained "Oh Nobin." And pulled the crying other women in for a comforting hug.
"Not yet." The man at her side whispers the hand against her arms tightening.
Regina throws off his hand wanting to say that her niece rarely cries even in public since she turned six so to see her crying so freely now and from obvious upset was cause for serious consoling and not just from Alice. "Trust me child." The voice in her head says as her eyes meet her companion's only for him to node over to the couple.
The flower Robin was now holding had to be Alice's doing as they couple talked in tones to low for Regina to catch as they stood facing each other now instead of the grave their foreheads resting against one another and Alice's arms slung around Robin's waist cradling her as they swayed on the spot.
It doesn't take long before Robin is nodding in agreement to something Alice has suggested, and the pair makes to leave pausing to whisper a tender "We'll come back soon" to the grave. Yet they don't make it more than seven steps away when Robin is turning back looking from the flower in her fingers to the gravestone and back again.
The tears Regina had been holding back spill over when the daughter kneels in front of her father's headstone the flower pressed along her trembling lips as she whispers to it letting a few of her tears fall onto the petals before she presses a final kiss against the flower head and places it against the grassy base of the gravestone.
Alice it there to help her up her arms sliding once again around Robin's waist letting her fiancée lean against her side as they headed back along the path between the headstones.
Regina and her companion watch them go only stepping out from the shadows of the tree when the couple as turned the corner and had crossed to the opposite side of the street only to stop under the glow of the streetlight to share a sweet looking kiss before heading off down the sidewalk hand in hand.
"The final pieces to the puzzle."
The words startled the dazed queen back to where she was standing. "Put that down or I roast your hand off." She threatens already feeling the sparks of fire growing in her palm the longer the clean-shaven man cradles the flower her niece had just left in his hands.
He agrees for the most part taking only a single flower petal and one of the thorns from the plant's stem both of which he placed into an old whiskey bottle. "How did you get that?"
The still unnamed man was again unfazed by the venom in the voice as he finished replacing the flower beside the grave as the bottle starts to glow in his grip showing off the other thing it contains. The last remaining shard of the crystal that destroyed the man Regina Mills loved. "We only need one last thing to make this worth it." Is all he says by way of an answer gesturing to Regina herself as he spoke. "You're necklace please." He says holding out his hand.
Regina blinks her hand reaching up to close around the thing defensive. "Excuse me?"
"Unless you want your love to come back without his legendary accuracy skills, I'm going to need that arrow feather if you please." He answers as if it were obvious without dropping his outstretched hand. "Its nearly midnight we're running out of time."
Regina pulls out her phone to check the time just to be sure. He's right it's now less than five minutes until the new year.
"Look even for Gods it's hard to bring someone back from oblivion but somehow we've managed it now please Regina hand over that feather before this is all for nothing."
The Good Queen feels her hands move on their own while her mind is slower on taking in what he just said. Yet before she can take back what she'd done the last remaining thing Robin had given her had dissolved right before her eyes along with the rest of the strange concoction now glowing a warm golden color.
"Stand back." He warns making Regina's teeth snap together audibly when he digs around in the earth covering her Robin's grave despite him only going deep enough to bury the bottle. "Time?" he asks once the dirt it replaced as if the defilement had never happened.
Regina barley hears his question but somehow, she responds "one minute." Her anger builds the longer he just stands there smiling in some weirdly proud way when she has just lost something more precious to her than the saddle ring Daniel had given her to serve as an engagement ring all those years ago. She's already advancing on him giving in to that little pocket of darkness she's still carried since 'splitting' her heart with her more darker self.
"Regina?"
The fire both in her hand and her heart are blown out at the sound of her name coming from those lips. She wishes it were lighter outside just to prove to herself that its not a trick even though she keeps her back to him facing the still smirking face of the supposed God in front of her.
"Regina." Her archer says again closer this time.
It's not until she feels his touch against her arm as if he's assuring himself, she's real as well that she trusts herself to turn around to face him. As soon as she sees he is in fact solidly standing behind her, she pulls him in by the lapels of his jacket needing to feel his lips back on her own one more time before this amazing dream of hers ends.
The wave of magic that hums just below the surface of the second kiss the two share when the first had been cut short by the annoying need for air isn't lost on the former villainess but for once she can't find it in herself to care much losing even more of herself in the heat of the deepening kiss.
"Emma Swan isn't the only one in this realm that deserves her happy ending." Zeus says with a shrug as soon as the couple can take a long enough break from sharing kisses to look over at him. "Yours just took a little while longer to happen." He says sound somewhat apologetic about the matter.
"What's the catch." Regina answers keeping her arms tightly wrapped around Robin's waist just as tightly as her archer is holding onto her. At that, the king of the Gods shook his head "No catch. The only price to this magic is trading a God killer for a Legend. A fair trade I'd say."
The man is gone by the time the couple thinks to look at anything other than each other as they thought it over.
"I have a party to go to. Want to come with me?"
Robin's smile makes her heat rate pick up along with the brush of his lips against her own once more. His mouth tastes like hints of whiskey and the musk of the deep forests. "I would be honored to my Queen." He says with a small bow. "Shall we?" he asks as he straightens up offering his arm to her with that cocky grin she was more than pleased to see had been passed to his daughter when she takes the offering looping her arm with his.