New fic. New story. New point of view.

All the events happen during the first curse, before Emma gets to Storybrooke, so forget all the decisions the showrunners made for OutlawQueen.

I don't force anybody to read my story. If you don't like my ideas, my writing, my wording or the decisions I'm gonna make, please, just forget about it. Don't criticize or offend me for them, writing is just an hobby. Thank you!

Storybrooke.

It's late night, Regina is working in her office, trying to keep herself busy for as long as she can. The last thing she wants is to go back in that empty house. Her adopted son, Henry, is sleeping over his friend's house. The things between her and Henry are not going in the right way, not always at least. She can't explain why he deeply believes she doesn't love him. She would do anything for that little boy, but somehow he can only see her as the Evil Queen from the fairytales. Regina keeps doing her best to discourage that idea but in vain, her son doesn't buy it.

Regina looks up at the clock on her desk. 11:30pm. She's tired enough that she'll fall asleep as soon as she lays down on her bed. She leaves those papers right where they were, grabs her bag and walks outsides. It's a beautiful night, the moon is shining high in the sky and the weather isn't too cold, even if it was early October. The blue scarf is perfect for nights like this one.

When Henry isn't at home, Regina usually calls Graham, the Sheriff of Storybrooke, and asks him to come over. The situation between them is complicated. His heart belongs to her, literally, she can make him do whatever she pleases, but she can't control her feelings as she wish. Most of the times it's just sex, a way to fill that whole in her life, but sometimes she just needs him. She needs someone to keep her warm, she needs to feel loved. Regina is tempted to grab her phone and ring him but she stops herself before it's too late.

She realizes her thoughts distracted her enough to take a different way to get home. She rarely walks on that street, especially because it's the most isolated area of the town. There are only few houses and a modern tavern, called 'The Bandit'.

A Queen like me will never step in a tavern like that, she promised herself the first time she saw it. The idea of being surrounded by drunk and rude men makes her skin crawl. She keeps walking, trying not to draw anybody's attention, but she suddenly hears some male voices coming from the tavern.

'Come on, mate. You need to go back home.'

'NO! I'm.. I'm fine! I.. I told you I just need one more beer!'.

Regina slowly turns to her left and sees two men trying to keep a third one on his feet. These men are closer than she expected, so she jumps back when the drunk one stretches his arm toward her.

'What a wonder!' he says.

'HOW DARE YOU?' Regina says with a tone full of disgust. This is the main reason why she never walked in that street.

'John, please. Be sure he gets home safely'. Two of them walk over the car parked on the side of the road. 'Apologies, Madame Mayor..' the third man says. She turns and takes a long, silent look at him. He is slightly taller than her, brown hair, beard and two beautiful blue eyes. 'My friend just had a bad day…'.

'Didn't we all?' she whispers.

'Can I get you anything? Something to drink, perhaps?' he asks friendly.

'No.. thanks.' she replies immediately. The man smiles at her politely before to turn around and start walking over the tavern. Regina takes a deep breath and bites her own tongue. 'Wait!'. She doesn't know what pushed her to do that but she can't take it back anymore.

'Yes?' he turns back. She notices the smirk on his face.

'Perhaps I could use a drink' she says smiling.

She follows him. 'After you.' he says, opening the door and letting her walk in first. That place reminds her the many taverns in the Enchanted Forest, just modernized. Everything is made of wood: the tables, the chairs, the stairs and even the counter. The main difference is the light. There aren't candles to light up the room, but electronic lanterns. It feels like a huge jump in the past for Regina. She takes few steps and sits at the first table on her right, while he reaches the counter. Leaving the coat and the blue scarf on the back of the chair, she sits down.

'This.. This place is yours?' she asks, noticing that it's empty.

'Does that surprise you?'

'Hmm.. No.. I mean..' she can barely talk. This situation is testing her more that she's willing to admit.

'I'm joking!' he says, laughing. 'But I should probably mark this day on the calendar..' he gabs two glasses and a bottle of whiskey and starts walking over her. 'This is the first time you walk through that door in.. forever'.

Regina takes a deep breath, thinking of what to say before to get herself in more troubles. In the meantime, Robin sit in front of her and started pouring the whiskey. 'Well, I'm not that kind of person who drowns her problems into alcohol.' she says taking one of the glasses that separate them. 'Thank you.'

'So.. what kind of person you are?' he asks playing with the tip of his fingers on his glass. 'No, wait. Let me guess.'

Regina spontaneously smiles. Is it a good or bad sign? She's willing to play that sort of game with a man she just met.

'You're that kind of person who would rather deal with her problems alone. Asking for help is the last thing you'd ever do.' He continues after taking a long look straight into her brown eyes. 'You usually find a way to solve them very quickly but when you can't.. well.. I guess you temporary push them away with sex?!'

'How dare you?' Regina says immediately. She's not happy when people can read her so easily, especially a stranger.

'Come on, Madame Mayor, this is just what I think.' His smirk starts having a unpleasant effect on her. 'Let's drink on it.'

Regina doesn't dare asking on what they should drink exactly. She rises her glass and, in sync, they drink. The whiskey burns its way down her throat, she really needed it. It's weird for Regina to not feel uncomfortable with him. He can read her so easily that scares her. Nobody can do that, except for two people in her entire life: her father, Henry and her true love, Daniel. Since the night she lost Daniel, she erected a wall to keep everybody out. Sometimes even for her father was hard to understand her decisions.

She raises her head from her glass on the table and notices that he's not taking his eyes off of her. 'So..' Regina clears her voice, 'How come I've never seen you before?' Obviously she doesn't know every single person she has cursed but she is sure she's never met the man in front of her before, not even in the Enchanted Forest. She couldn't forget those sky blue eyes very easily.

'I'm not a big fan of local events or city council meetings. I'd rather spend my time with my boy in the forest, when I'm not here.'

My boy?

'You have a son?'

'Yes, ma'am. Roland. He's 4.' He says with a proud smile on his face. 'I'm all he has.'

Regina's heart is melting and breaking at the same time. Raising a child all by himself it's not easy, especially for a man. 'I'm sorry.' Regina barely whispers.

'Don't be. We are strong men, we're gonna make it.' He tries to cheer her up. 'What about you? I heard you have a son too.'

Why does he know a lot about me, but I know nothing of him?

'Henry. My little prince.' Regina says taking another sip of whiskey. 'He grows so fast. He's already 8.'

'I know that feeling, like.. time is slipping through your fingers and there's nothing you can do to slow it down.'

This man is more likeable than she is willing to admit. They're so different and yet they have a lot in common. Regina finds herself staring at him. There is something very attractive in him and she can't deny it.

'Daddy?' A voice breaks the silence.

They both turn to the stairs behind the counter in sync. A little boy is standing there.

'Roland? What are you doing?' The man stands up and starts walking over him. 'It's late.'

'I had a bad dream-' the little boy says as his father is taking him in his arms.

'Daddy is here now.'

Regina can spend hours looking at that scene. Her heart is melting in front of so much kindness. But she knows she can't, so she stands up and grabs her things. 'I should probably go, now.' she says softly, still capturing his attention. 'Thank you for the drink…' she stops as she realizes she doesn't know his name.

'Robin'. He smirks.

'Right. Thank you, Robin.' she says, smiling.

'Anytime, Madame Mayor'.

'Call me Regina.'

Regina leaves the tavern and walks fast home. It's really late but the only thing she can think of is that stranger man that made her feel so well, like nobody else, in a very long time. She can't stop thinking of Robin.

If this fic sounds very familiar to you, that's perfectly fine. I re-wrote a oneshot story I published last year and turned it into a multichapter fic.

I really hope you liked it.