I own none of these characters.

This is a spur of the moment one-shot, with the potential to become more. Or it may be a collection of one shots at different points of the story. I don't know, it depends if you like it. ;)

Enjoy!

There are just some people who would make your entire day if only you were to wake up to an email from them. A text. A Facebook message. An Instagram like. 's how he felt about her; if only she would acknowledge his existence in some way, if only she would give even the slightest hint that she cared the tiniest bit about him…

There she was, standing across the book store, across the chasm where you could look down onto the first floor of the store, across distance that was like the crater of the meteor that had affected their relationship with a few wayward remarks on his part.

Robin had seen her as he walked into the store, seen her from downstairs as he made his way up the escalators to the Starbucks for a coffee to go so that'd he'd be awake enough for his ten a.m. seminar on Museology to actually stimulate a decent class discussion. It had taken him out of his internal debate about whether or not the kid who looked like Theon Greyjoy with the attitude to match was actually smart or if he was just an arrogant ass, and in that moment he had thought that no one could ever doubt her intelligence. Snarky, a bit tactless, and difficult to impress she may be, but she had the GPA and the accolades to back it up. She looked just the same as she had done at the final exam back in April, although this time in an outfit that screamed "autumn" rather than brighter - well, at least for her, she seemed to prefer neutrals - spring colours.

Now, as he made his way from the escalator to the cafe, he kept her in the corner of his eye, wondering what she would do when - if - she noticed him. Standing in the stationary department of the store, only a few metres from the coffee counter, she seemed to be having an intense internal debate about which agenda to buy, forehead crinkled, only a section of her lovely mouth visible as the rest was hidden behind her teeth. God, he had sworn last year that her incessant habit of biting her lips in any and all situations would be the end of him. Seeing that habit again after so many months of going without, after so many nights of dreaming about the habit manifesting itself in quite a different way…well, it felt like that alone could make his whole morning, acknowledgement be damned.

As he waited in line he saw that in one hand, she held a small notebook designed with peacock feathers, and in the other, she had a cream notebook with what looked to be, at least from this distance and with upside down perspective, a watercolour depiction of an owl in a tree. The corners of his mouth couldn't help but lift at that; both designs just seemed so natural to what he had come to know as her tastes that it was no wonder that she seemed so concentrated on choosing one or the other. A bit of her raven black hair had fallen into her face, but she didn't release either agenda to move it away, instead, she gently threw back her head to shake the rebellious hair back into place. Robin wondered how long she had been standing there, weighing the pros and cons, perhaps making a list - "well this one matches my pencil case, but it would clash with my school bag…."

"Sir?"

He was torn from his amused observations by the barista waiting for his order and he noticed that he had been completely oblivious to the fact that the suit in front of him had finally finished his order; no doubt an intern at one of the big financial buildings around the corner. He sheepishly stepped up to the counter: "Chai Latte, Grande, please." As he paid for his order, he thought back to last semester, when he would come in to class with his tea, and she would smirk at his choice of beverage. The first time he had done it, she had made a clever crack about his British background. He had come to know that she was more of a coffee drinker herself; she seemed to be inseparable from her thermos last year. It was either that, or a cardboard cup from Starbucks with her name "Regina", written on the side. Regina, he thought. It was a name that had echoed in his mind for the past four months when he had not had the chance to see her on a weekly basis and to say out loud. He made his way to the other end of the counter and looked to his left to where she seemed to finally have decided on an agenda. The peacock feathered one, then. A small smile returned to his lips as he watched her pick up her bag from the floor and proceed to the cash register to pay. No coffee mug in her hand, he noticed. That was almost unheard of for her, especially at this hour in the morning. Would she come to Starbucks for her fix? He glanced quickly at his watch, there was still twenty minutes before his class, maybe if he sat down at one of the tables and pretended to read, she would walk by his table and say hello when she noticed him…

He thanked the barista as she handed him his drink, and sat down at one of the tables with a chair that faced out into the book store. Taking out a book from his bag, he then flipped to where his bookmark lay in his book, but all the while his eyes flicked upwards to watch her progress. It looked like she had paid and was putting the agenda in her bag - ah, and there it was. She was making a beeline for Starbucks. He couldn't stop the grin that lit up his face - he had equally teased her last semester about her coffee addiction, had joked that she couldn't walk by a Starbucks without getting a grande beverage, though she never told him what it was she ordered, and he never was quite able to decipher the short forms on the side of the cup.

But that was before. Before the dynamic had shifted, before they had become awkward and tongue-tied in each other's presence, before she stopped coming to him to discuss 13th century marginalia and to discuss Raoul de Cambrai, before he had accidentally blurted out to her that their conversations meant more to him than she probably realized, before he had admitted that he wanted to see more of her outside their academic setting. She had told him about her loss, told him about Daniel, had said that she just wasn't ready for a relationship yet, and also that she wasn't quite sure if it would be entirely appropriate…

Now, as she made her way to the line for coffee, his palms started to sweat as he wondered what she would do if she noticed him.

She was getting closer…His heart started pounding faster.

Would she ignore him?

Closer…His feet nervously tapped against the foot of the table.

Would she awkwardly wave, or would she approach him…

And there she was. At the end of the line, only a few feet away from his table. He saw her feet, and didn't dare look up. He thought he might have noticed her look his way from his peripheral vision, and…

"Robin?"

His eyes closed for a split second before he looked up at her, a small smile slowly spreading across his face…"Regina!"

As he took her in from up close, he was once again stunned, as he always was, by her. Not only was she beautiful, but she just had this aura about her that made you want to know more about her; it made you yearn for her approval, since you could just tell by looking at her that it was something that wasn't very easy to come by…

"How was your summer? I haven't seen you around since school started again," she remarked, her teeth delicately tugging at a corner of her lip again once she finished speaking, the slight crinkle between her perfectly sculpted eyebrows the only sign that she was a bit uneasy.

"Filled with research in France, actually. Didn't get to see much of it, unfortunately, since I spent most of my time in archives…" he realized he was beginning to ramble, and he saw by the slight lift of her eyebrow that she had noticed too. Was she finding the effect she had on him amusing, he wondered? "…Ergh, how are your classes going this semester?"

Eyebrow still raised, she answered: "Really well, thank you! I like that the third year classes are more specialized, it's really giving me a chance to focus my studies on what I'm really interested in."

"More marginalia, then?" he joked, hoping to lift some of the tension between them and get back to the good-naturedness that had characterized their relationship before.

She let out a chuckle at that. "No, but more of the chansons de geste. I find them fascinating." She glanced down at her cell phone in her hand. "I actually have a class on that in fifteen minutes, I should grab a coffee and run. It's all the way at the other end of campus…I'll see you around?" she finished, and Robin wondered if he was imagining the tiniest hint of hope in her voice.

"See you around, Regina," he nodded, looking down at his book on the table and reaching for his bag. "I should get going, too. Don't want to be late in the second week of class," he sighed.

She smiled at him as he stood up, and he felt his knees shake a little at that; did she notice his slight wobble?

Another nod of farewell, and she turned back towards the line as he headed to the escalators and out onto the busy down town street. As he stopped on the side walk outside the store, he thought that an entire summer without her had been made up for with just that two minute conversation. It was actually more than he had expected; she had acknowledged him. Things had been so awkward the last time they met he was surprised that she hadn't ignored him.

But she was Regina. She wasn't intimidated by anyone. Especially not him.

And yet…it seemed as though time and distance had evaporated most of the awkwardness.

As he walked down the street towards his class, chai latte in hand, he allowed a small sliver of hope to grow in him. What she had told him was a tragedy, but maybe time had healed the wound, maybe she would be ready this year…

I'm very new to story writing, so any and all reviews would be very much appreciated!:)