A/N: I forgot to mention at the previous chapter but the italics are for flashbacks, ok? u-u

This story is a collaboration between me and withgirl, so please send her some of your love xD

Neither of us own Once Upon A Time (or we'd be somewhat rich and not have to worry about college xD) nor do we own the story The Cold Heart by Wilhelm Hauff.

Please review! If not, then i wish you enjoy this story nonetheless ^^.

All errors are ours u-u

Chapter two

"That arrow almost took off my head."

"That trap nearly took off your arm. Where I come from a simple 'thank you' would suffice."

"Where you come from people bathe in the river and use pine cones for money."

Henry Sr. Smirked triumphantly as he watched his daughter.

Since he had found out that this Robin Hood was meant to be her True Love, he began to dislike him more and more with each passing moment.

The thief supposedly had an honour code, and yet he just seemed to do whatever he wanted, always believing that he was doing it for the 'greater good'.

But then there was the saviour. Henry had watched the innumerable times Emma Swan had saved Regina. He had seen the yearning looks from the blonde, every time Regina turned away, and he was really becoming sick of it!

He began to resent being trapped in purgatory more than ever. All he wanted to do was walk up to his daughter and shout at her for ignoring what was right in front of her. Fate had quite literally offered Regina a family, and yet she still seemed unable to take it. The sad truth was that he knew that was partly his fault.

He had never even tried to force Cora to be a caring mother, so how could expect his broken daughter to be able to recognise love?

He deeply wished that she would be able to return to Emma soon, maybe the saviour could gather the courage to do something about her feelings?

With a sigh he watched his daughter stare angrily at the thief, she better not listen to that fairy, he thought.

-Present time-

"Are you okay?" Emma asked while pulling up to Milfin Street.

Regina looked sadly at the empty mansion for a moment before nodding, "I'm fine Miss Swan."

The mayor began to get out of the car, but the blonde grabbed her arm and pulled her back down, "you know you shouldn't bottle up your feelings, right?"

Regina scoffed, "I've done it for years, I assure you, I am an expert."

Emma tilted her head in disbelief, "and look at how that turned out, your majesty."

"I may not have dealt with my emotions well-"

It was Emma's turn to scoff, "Regina, you were the freaking Evil Queen."

"Was?" Regina choked out.

Emma furrowed her brow, "yeah, of course. You can't possibly see yourself as still being evil."

"Well most of the town seems to think I had something to do with the missing year, and let's face it: I probably did," she sighed.

Emma rolled her eyes, "you really need to stop listening to the townspeople."

"We can't rule out the possibility."

"And why would you wipe your own memories?" Emma asked with an exasperated sigh.

Regina just shook her head.

"Are you thinking about Aalam?"

"This had nothing to do with him," she shouted, before deflating at Emma's expression. "I really don't feel like talking about him."

"At least tell me who he is."

"All you need to know is that he is a bastard who poses no threat to anyone in this town. Our lives will be better if we just ignore him," she replied with crossed arms.

Emma nodded, "well you know where I am if you ever do want to talk about him."

Regina looked ahead for a few moments, before giving the saviour a small nod, and leaving the car. Before closing the bug's door she turned with a sigh, "thank you, Emma, for everything."

"No problem," Emma smiled.

-The next morning-

Aalam stopped in his tracks as he inspected his surroundings, where the hell am I? He wondered, noticing a sign that read Granny's. The last thing he remembered was one of those strange moving metal contraptions hitting him, he could remember waking up or receiving medical treatment in anyway, did I imagine the whole thing?

He simply shook his head before a strange sensation made itself known.

He brought a shaky hand up to his chest, placing over where piece of stone should be. He received many strange looks, but they went unnoticed, as his breathe was taken away by the feeling of a beating heart. He long since traded his heart to lead what he believed would be a better life.

A rush of unfamiliar emotions rushed through him, almost as if they had accumulated overtime.

The sound of heels pounding the pavement brought him out of his shock, and he saw the one and only Regina Mills walking with a small brunette boy. She seemed to be explaining something to him, and most strange of all, she had a huge smile on her face, something he hadn't seen in a while.

"Daniel, let go of me," Regina giggled, with a huge smile.

The stable boy just laughed, and placed her down, before planting a kiss on the smaller woman.

Aalam made a sharp intake of breath as jealousy began to overwhelm him.

"Aalam, is mother coming?" Regina asked worriedly.

The servant shook his head, leaning against the stable door; he had been tasked with watching out for Cora, so that Regina could have some time with Daniel. He loved Regina as s sister, but he still wished that this would end soon. He just couldn't stand to watch the man he loved be so desperately in love with another.

Shaking his head, Aalam looked away from Regina; he wished with all his being in that moment that she wasn't so happy.

"Aalam?" the young queen asked desperately.

The former servant clenched his jaw, "I am no longer in your service, your majesty," he sneered.

"You can't leave, I'll be all alone with him, you can't leave," she cried

"I have no interest in remaining in your service for my entire life," he replied with a cold expression.

Regina suddenly launched forward and gave him a unpermitted hug, "please, don't leave."

Pulling away slightly she placed a hand on his chest, only to furrow her brow. Moving her palm down slightly, she still felt nothing, "did mother do something..."

Pushing her back slightly he said, "I chose this."

"Chose what?" she cried.

"Love is weakness, with my stone heart I can be ten times the man I was before."

"Love isn't weakness," she retorted.

"Well Daniel's love for you certainly wasn't his greatest strength," he sneered.

Regina looked at him blankly for a few moments, before more tears began to fall down her face, "fine, leave," she whispered, before walking away.

Aalam gulped, as regret began to engulf his very being, shaking his head he looked towards the other side of the street, The Rabbit Hole? he thought, before making his way towards what he sincerely hoped was a pub.

Waking up, Aalam couldn't quite remember where he was, but he was sure he wasn't sober.

Deciding that going home was the best course of action, he tried to stand and with a little more effort and some stumbling, he was able to, but stopped his movements after hearing someone mention the Evil Queen.

"'After all you have done!' Says the Evil Queen! Funny how we are supposed to forget what she has done just like that but she seems to have the right not to!" Aalam heard a short, fat man with a beard that really needed some trimming, shout, and he had to stop himself from screaming a reply of how she had all the right to do so because he deserved her anger but she had already proven herself as a different person enough times to at least get a second chance.

"That guy may not be a king anymore, but she is no queen either!" There were some few agreements from the people hearing and some shouts of the guy's name, Grumpy apparently, a name fitting for the person, Aalam decided.

"Whatever that guy did, she deserved it!" Aalam could live with them being angry at her, but she wouldn't stand there while these people wished something like that to her, so, in one swift move the Latin man used all his muscle power to run to where the man was and to hit him with all his might.

The sheriff couldn't quite believe the situation she was in. Merely a day after she got that scare from Regina about a new bad guy and he already had caused trouble.

Looking at the cell in front of her made her shake her head. Apparently the guy had, for some reason, decided to attack Grumpy, only to be given back all he had done by the dwarf's friends.

"Why did you think it was a good idea to attack a guy with all his friends there to see?" Shaking her head harder, she stood up to take the melting ice pack he had been using to nurse his head injury, and, with a mocking tone, completed. "Missing the hospital already?" she got only a little laugh and friendly smile in response.

Observing him, she couldn't help but think how good an actor he had to be, because he just didn't seem threatening at all. But, again, he had just gotten himself into a fight, so whatever farce he had in mind, it was probably out of the window by now.

"Look, here's the thing, you seem like a good guy, but Regina said not to trust you, so I won't. Whatever plan you may have, I will not make it any easier for you to put it into play. So, if you want to get out of this cell, you better come up with a really good excuse for assaulting Grumpy."

"He deserve it! There's no reason for me to be here!" He shouted while getting up, visibly upset.

'So, there it is' Emma thought, he really wasn't all that friendly was he? But, still, he didn't seem all that scary to her. But then, she remembered Regina mentioning something about him not being a threat to the town, so, maybe, he probably just had done something to the woman herself. Sighing the sheriff really wished to get some answer about this guy for once.

"And why is that?" She asked, not really expecting a good reason at all, only assuming the guy was just one of these really self centered people who thought all they did was right.

"How could I just stand by while he talked things like that about Regina?!" Now that was an excuse that hadn't even crossed her mind. It certainly sounded like Grumpy to be talking badly about the mayor. "He doesn't know what happened to her! He doesn't know anything! How can he just assume she deserves even half of what was done to her?! How?! Someone needed to put him into his place! And that's what I did!"

"And what gives you any right to do that, hm?" She said back to him, because as much as she would also have wanted to punch the dwarf herself if he said anything about the brunette in front of her, she knew it still wasn't the right approach, and this man had no right to anything regarding Regina after hurting her more than Grumpy ever did or could.

"I might not know half of what happened between you and Regina, but I've gathered enough to know you were one of said people that hurt her. What gives you the right to go punching people? Where were you to punch the people who were actually doing something to hurt her, back in the Enchanted Forest? Oh, that's right, you were too busy being one of them!" She just got more and more angry about that man when she remembered Regina's face of worry and the hurt in her eyes while talking to him at the hospital.

"I may have had no right to punch that man, but I did anyway, because if I didn't, no one else would." He said with a finishing look in his eyes and turned away from the blonde to sleep.

Observing her prisoner, Emma started to reanalyze their interaction. He somehow seemed really passionate about Regina, like he needed to protect her, but, for some reason, he had betrayed Regina one way or another and now he was determined to win her back. 'What exactly was the nature of their relationship?' Just getting more and more flustered with her lack of answers, the sheriff decided to go on patrol.

Getting out of the building, she run straight at her mother.

"Oh, Emma, there you are." Snow said with her best mothering smile while her hands stopped at her daughter's arms to stop the impact they were about to have. "I was just passing by and decided to say hello."

"Hey mom..." Answered the blonde while sighing and giving her mother a reluctant smile. Her palpable tension making Snow instantly worried.

"What's wrong honey?" Said the short brunette now rubbing her arms in, what she hoped, was soothing way.

"Nothing-" Was her instant reply, but it was stopped halfway through by her mother's look of 'no bullshit'. Hesitantly, she considered talking to Snow about the tall, mysterious man, and after coming to the conclusion that Snow might actually be able to give her some answers, she gave in.

"It's just that there's this guy called 'Aalam' or whatever that got Regina all worried and now he got into a fight to, apparently, 'protect her honour' or some bullshit like that and I just am really confused as to what exactly happened between them!" She said all in one breath, earning herself an amused look from Snow.

"Aalam you say? Hm... I do remember someone with that name, you mean, a really handsome, tall, latin guy, with broad shoulders, black hair and brown eyes?" She got an eager nod from her daughter, the blonde was rather curious about him. "I don't really know much about him, just that he was her servant. But I do remembered he was around Regina a lot, wherever she went, he went too, they were inseparable! When I was older I actually considered if he actually wasn't 'serving' her in more ways than one, I certainly saw my father being jealous of him some times."

The short woman kept on rambling about how oblivious she was as an child for not noticing how close they were, only proving that she was still just as oblivious by not noticing the clench of the blonde's jaw and the jealousy burning into her eyes, nor how, the now free from her grip blonde, got away as fast as she could because she couldn't bare the idea of imagining Regina being romantically involved with anyone, even less to hear about it.

A/N²: Here it is, thank you guys for reading! And for withgirl to helping me create this!

See you guys next chapter!