Yay! An update! I have decided to continue this story:) And I am deeply sorry for the long wait. Life has not been too kind to me lately. Hopefully that will start to change (doubtful) and updates will come more frequently. I don't know about the other stories, though… These past few months have managed to wipe clean any and all inspiration regarding them, and for those of who have reviewed and followed the story I am also deeply sorry for that as well. What can I say? Life is a bitch.
Some of you may have noticed…I changed my username! It used to be t3ars0fglass, but I change it every year because…well I don't know I just do. I'm weird like that.:) Anyways, thank you so much for the amazing responses to the last chapter. This one is a little longer and very angsty…but it will get better! Fear not!
No one had noticed her absence, and they likely never would because, while Regina was the queen, her stature of importance did not venture far from the confines of her chambers…and Snow's chambers. It was a dreary life, one she wished to escape someday, but hope was quickly fleeting alongside the existence she had once craved for herself. She wished on the stars sometimes, when they would pass by her eyes as she looked over her balcony. Of course, they never came true, but she had never stopped. It was silly, she thought, the ideas of a child. She just couldn't bring herself to watch idly when they shot by, for the fear that she would miss one which would actually grant her desires was too much for her to bear. On this night, though, the sky was unusually dark. Black coveted the heavens with its shadow until not even the moon could be seen, until there was no possibility of seeing a star worth wishing on. But what Regina could see was the torches of the guards, she could hear the clanking of their dark metal suits when they walked, and she could faintly make out some of the things they whispered of if they passed closely enough to her balcony.
She waited until two of the castle guards stepped around the corner before she made her move. The vines on the right side of her balcony served as her ladder to the grounds—her salvation into freedom. Her bare toes touched the moist grass first, followed by her heels and the train of her black floor length cloak. She pulled it over her face so that she matched the shadows, and under the cover of night, she managed to slip away into the forest.
The ground felt so good under her feet, and the air; it tasted like freedom! True freedom from the hell she inhabited. Regina's fingers danced delicately along the bark of the trees, sometimes slipping over a patch of moss. The outside world was so different—so strange and mysterious—compared to the royal life, and it could not possibly have thrilled her more to be wandering through it, able for the first time in her life to forget her troubles, her mistakes, her heartaches, and focus on what truly mattered…finding that damned fairy. It took a while for Regina to get far enough away from the castle to actually call on Tinkerbelle, but when she did, the name rolled from her tongue, coated with venom. "Tinkerbelle!" She spat once, her head tilting up towards the sky. "Tink! Gods be damned, you little moth. Where the hell are you?" She stamped her foot into the mud like a child with her fists balled at her sides. Her knuckles had turned white, and her face red.
"You know, some fairies take offense to being called such names." Regina spun at the voice. Up in a tree to her right sat the little fairy. She wiggled her cotton ball toes with a grin. "I guess you got lucky, Regina. I just so happen to like you."
"Get your pixie little ass down here before I have your wings for my earrings." The brunette miffed, perhaps more viciously than she had actually meant it to be. When Tink landed, and only after she managed to return herself to her true size did Regina stepped forward 'til they were only a few inches from each other. She was furious, and it was not bettered by the fact that the insect had a smug grin on her face. "You know," the Queen started, backing off with her hands clasped tightly behind her back. "I almost believed I had another chance at true love. I almost allowed myself to trust you and your pixie dust. Wanna know why?" She didn't even wait for a reply before she began to scream. "Because I am so absolutely miserable here! Day and night, I sit and I watch while people fawn over the little girl who murdered my true love! I cry myself to sleep every night, and I mourn the loss of the mother who mentally and physically abused me for years. I am so confused and out of place, and then you! You come along with your stolen fairy dust, promising that it will all be better. You promised me that I was loved, and do you know who you promised me I was loved by? A thief! A bloody thief! He took my bracelet, and he took my money, a-and he didn't even care! If you think a man like that and a woman like me could ever work, then there must be a lot more wrong up there in your brain than I thought." She finally gave up her rant and succumbed to the sobs that ripped their way out of her mouth. She had been filled to the brim with an overflowing enthusiasm, and just like her stolen property, it was gone, taken by someone she had tried to trust. Her broken soul just couldn't handle any more pain. Her heart hurt. Her head hurt. Hell! Even her hair hurt! Everything hurt so immensely that she didn't even notice when the fairy had wrapped her arms tightly around her shoulders and pulled her in.
"Regina," Tink soothed. "Come on, look at me."
"I don't wanna."
"Come on, Your Majesty," the blonde huffed with a smirk which only grew when Regina lifted her head. "Do you even know who he was? Robin Hood? The man with the lion tattoo?"
"He is a thief! I don't really think—" Tink stepped back and turned so that she faced away from Regina as she spoke.
"Exactly! You don't think! You are a stubborn and relentless woman, and whenever you set your mind to something, there is no stopping you because you are just so stupidly hard headed!"
"Is there a point to this?" Regina's question went unheard by the fairy.
"You didn't even bother to ask yourself just why he was stealing. You assume things! You can't just assume things, because then you wouldn't know that the man in the bar in the green hood with the tattoo has been through a hell of a lot of trouble. Just like you! Then you wouldn't know that he is not only the most well-known thief in all the realm, but the most generous man in all the realm! Regina, he steals from the rich and gives whatever he can to the poor. None of what he steals is for himself, and granted, stealing may be wrong, but he is saving people's lives every time he does it!
"And you just assume the worst in him because that is what you are used to! You always look for the lies and the danger in others because that is all you have ever known! And if you would listen to me, if you would give this man just one more chance, I can promise you that you will never, ever have to look for the threat in other people. Please, Regina, just trust me." Feeling as though she had gotten through to the queen, Tinkerbelle spun on her heels, dropped her arms next to her side, and awaited a response from her.
Regina bowed her head, unwilling to allow the fairy to see what truly lay beneath the surface…confusion, hurt, and doubt. But there was hope. It still flickered inside of her. It hadn't been completely taken from her yet. Yet. Regina chuckled darkly to herself. Everything was a "yet" because nothing good ever lasted for her, so why should this have been any different? It wouldn't be; she shook her head. It would only end in more heartache than she had room for. Surely anymore would kill her. Losing Daniel had crippled her. It had torn a piece of her soul away and had left her heart in shambles so that every time she tried to put the pieces back together, every time she found two shards that fit perfectly, they would crumble into dust between her fingers. Her heart was a dark place; it couldn't be fixed.
But then again…this was love. True love.
And true love is the most powerful magic of all.
The memory struck a chord within her and managed to bring a small smile to her lips. Daniel would want her to move on, be happy, and she wanted to honor him by doing just that…just not as queen…or mother to Snow White. She lifted her head, her hair falling away from her eyes and she nervously tucked it behind her ears. "Okay." She whispered fearfully, and Tink's head shot up, her eyes widening.
"What?" Tinkerbelle whispered right back. Of all of the possible answers she had been expecting from Regina, that one was sure as hell not the one she had anticipated.
"Okay," Regina claimed a little louder. "I shall give this man another chance…but just once more." She was caught quite off guard by the loud squeal emitted from the fairy, and even more so when the woman threw her arms are her and squeezed.
"Oh, Regina! I am so excited! You are going to be so happy!"
Happy. The concept was slightly foreign to the girl who knew only misery.