The Man With the Lion Tattoo

Regina stared angrily at the hooded man behind her. How dare he and his companion look at her with that level of distaste?

What kind of name was 'Little John' anyways? There was nothing even remotely Little about the fat man who called her out.

She was trying to change; she really was. And if she wasn't in enough pain over losing her son, she had to sit here and endure watching everyone together. It seemed as if everyone had someone; Bae and Belle could grieve together over Rumple, Snow had Charming, Red and Granny. The only person who was just alone as she had taken off on a horse, claiming to be all rouge and evil now that he had lost his precious Swan. She could relate to him and his pain, even if her love was different. Her love of Henry. Maybe she should have gone with him, even though she knew Snow was right about needing to remain a solid front.

She closed her eyes; she never should have let Snow talk her into putting her heart back into her chest. Now all she felt was pain and anguish; neither of which were a pleasant feeling. It was almost like losing Daniel all over again, but Henry wasn't dead. He was with his mother, his real mother. It was everything she had been afraid of from the moment Emma Swan walked back into Henry's life, however it certainly was not as she was expecting. Who knew it would be Regina telling Emma to take him away to keep him safe?

Dead or not, she would never see him again. There were no more beans; which meant no more portals. There was no way for her to get back to her child. Henry would never even remember all the things she had done for him. The worst part was making sure that Emma's memories were based off her own, when it came to raising Henry. Every little thing she had done for her child, Emma now believed was what she had done.

"Misery does love company," an accented voice said. Regina looked up in time to see Robin sitting down beside her.

"What do you want?" She said snapping at him. "I can't imagine why you would want to put yourself in my company, as you pointed out earlier. I'm nothing but a 'evil queen who has no feelings for anyone else', remember?" she said, as she referenced their earlier fight, in which had ended with some not so pleasant things being said.

"I'm sorry," Robin said. "It's been hard for all of us, and it's not fair of us to take it out on you just because of the past. Granted, you've done some bad things in the past, but so have the rest of us. And clearly you're suffering, just as much as us. So what is it that has caused you pain? What happened to all of you back in that land? How did you all come back?"

"I had to cast a counter curse to reverse another one, which would have nearly destroyed us all," Regina said stiffly, unable to open up more about it.

"Is that why Neal's son is still there? What happened?" Robin asked, prodding for more.

"I-yeah. He was born there, and could not return. His mother, the Saviour, was not a part of the original curse, as she escaped it, and thus she was able to remain there."

"So who is it that you lost?" Robin asked her.

Regina looked at him, completely for the first time. In his eyes, she saw nothing but genuine curiosity, and concern. How could anyone feel like that for a stranger whom they had never met, or knew nothing about?

"The same child. I adopted him when his mother gave him up, so I raised him as my own. When she returned, we had a bit of a struggle to get to raise him, yet in the last few months we had managed to raise him together. I had to give him his best chance of surviving, and that was with his mother, so I did so," Regina said softly, as she finally spoke the words aloud. She hadn't had to with anyone else; they all knew just as well as she what had happened. Somehow it made it all the more real to tell Robin.

"I'm sorry," Robin said as he took her hand within hers. "I have a child, Roland, who I've raised as my own. I nearly lost him a little while back when Neal was here. He needed to get to Neverland, where I assume you must have been as well, so he wanted to use my child for bait. I hated the idea with every fibre of my being, but I agreed because I knew how important my child was to me. So I let him use Roland to summon the shadow, but when it finally came, the shadow grabbed my son and nearly took him away. If it weren't for Mulan, it would have taken him. That was the most terrifying day of my life. I thought I would lose him, just as I did my wife in childbirth."

Regina placed her other hand over the one clamped on hers. "I can feel your pain. I lost someone I love very dearly too."

They sat for a few moments in silence, and Regina was simply taking everything in. she hadn't felt as close to anyone in a long time, as she felt now, and it cause a sort of spark in her; one that she thought was long since burned out.

Something on Robin's wrist caught her eye.

Regina looked at his wrist, "What's that marking on your wrist?" she asked him curiously, as a bit of a pattern popped out on his skin.

Robin looked down at his arm, and rolled up the sleeve. "It's a tattoo. I got it a few years back to remind me to keep looking to the future and to be brave."

Regina gasped as she recognised the lion tattoo as one she had seen several years ago, in what could be another life.

Maybe there was hope for her to have love again after all.

A/N: Hey guys! I had so many different emotions with today's episode, so I wanted to post some oneshots. I'll keep adding drabbles to this, but hope you all enjoyed!s