She can't stay she's surprised when an owl lands with a letter for her at breakfast. She'd been waiting for it after all. It was December, nearing Christmas and therefore nearing Christmas term. The question of whether she'd been allowed to stay at Hogwarts or have to return home for Christmas would be answered with a few simple words and she imagined it would be the latter, as always.
She tears the envelope open and unfolds the parchment, immediately finding it addressed to both her and Snow. Regina takes a glance down the table, finds her sister engrossed in conversation with Ruby and Ella. She'll give it to her later, Regina thinks turning back to the letter in her hand. Drop it in front of her as she passes.
The letter reads what Regina expected; Mother wants her home for Christmas. Regina sighs, shuffling the letter back into the envelope. She can't get anything she wants it seems. There was also a side note to Regina, a request that she should write more.
Regina will admit, letters to home decreased as she got older. Of course, Mother should have saw that happening. Regina could imagine Snow's letters have also became less and less now that she was a year away from her O. . Still, she supposes she could write more, has told herself to write but by the time she got back from the library, back from all that studying and working, all Regina had wanted was her bed, not the long trip up to the owlry. So she'd put it off. Put it off for longer than was deemed appropriate.
She'll do it later.
Maybe.
"Watch out for the flying apple!"
Wha-
Regina doesn't have time to react as something round falls from the sky, landing into her cereal bowl and splashes milk and food all over her.
She jumps up from her seat, pushing the bench out as far as it can go with bodies sitting atop of it. Anger and humiliation courses through her. Seeing only red, she spins around, eyes scanning for the children that decided to start a food fight in the middle of breakfast.
And she finds them. The two of them.
Robin Locksley and Will Scarlet.
She has to give Locksley the credit, he at least has the decency to look guilty for what happened. Perhaps he hadn't intended for food to end up all over her, or for even the apple to go flying her way. The same could not be said for his friend, however. Scarlet's attempts at hiding his grin (let alone full blown laughter) is absolutely futile, even when he tries to take a drink out of his goblet, it's not enough to shun the hilarity he so finds.
It dauns of her that the room has became silent. Those who aren't looking towards Will Scarlet are looking to her. They're waiting for her to get angry, say something, throw some food back so the Hall can break out in a food fight. She won't, though. Mother raised her better than that. She'll take herself out of the room and go clean up, forget the incident happened. And she will not cry, she tells herself as tears begin budding in her eyes.
"Regina?" come the hesitant tone of Snow's voice. She's standing near her, weary of her sister's possible wrath (she's heard Cora's a few times and, well, Regina is Cora's daughter)
"You're going home for Christmas." She doesn't even hand her the letter, just picks it up and her bag and climbs over the bench, not making eye contact with anyone. Gaze ahead and head held high. She won't crumble in front of these people.
It's not until she's tucked away in the Common Room does she break.
.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
"I can't believe they did that. To you of all people. I've got more maturity then they have."
Regina rolls her eyes as she begins packing up her things. She'd had two hours alone in the Common Room. Two hours of piece to just study and finish essays and forget about what happened at breakfast. Until Snow walked in.
She loves her sister, has done since Mother had came home with her (the relief at not being the youngest) but at times, she's like a thorn at her side. Constantly there. Snow's first year was spent following Regina around, attached to her hip, never giving her space. Had it been Zelena, and Regina was the one following her around every day, her sister would've hexed her by now. Yet Regina couldn't do that to Snow. Regina didn't seem to come with that maliciousness that seemed to be a Mills trait, of hurting anyone just for fun, even if it was their own family. It was almost like she belonged in another.
She clears her mind from that thought. She can't go down at road again.
"Are you okay, though?"
She wasn't, not really. She'd changed robes after her little break down (it was weak and stupid and blamed on lack of sleep) But the thought of walking into Potions in a few minutes and seeing those people again, seeing him, it makes her want to stay tucked away in the Common Room with her notes and never leave.
But that's not possible. Mother's voice telling her that she's weak for letting these people, for letting immaturity get to her has her powering on. She'll go into that classroom, ignore the looks, the stares at focus on her N.E. . She doesn't have time for childish behaviour.
"I'm fine." she tells Snow finally. Maybe now she'll be left alone.
"I wanted to stay for Christmas. Ruby's staying."
Regina had been waiting for this. Waiting since Snow entered the room for her to bring up the letter.
"Mother wants us home." is all Regina says. She glances towards the clock. She really needs to get going.
"Whyyy?" Snow whines and Regina cringes. She really needs to break that whining habit her sister has, should have done it years ago. "Me and Ruby we're going to stay up and play tricks on the ghosts and eat cookies."
Regina frowns. "It's Christmas," she says looking questioningly towards Snow. "Not Halloween. You shouldn't be playing tricks."
Snow looks to the ground, shuffles her feet. "You can still play tricks at Christmas..." she mumbles.
Something within Regina snaps. "Snow," she says, placing her bag a little too forcefully on the table and Snow winces. "You have to stop being like you are. You have to stop being relaxed and friendly around people, agreeing to whatever they say. That's how you lose. That's how you lose your power and your status and your importance. One day, you'll be the one who gets an apple thrown at you while everyone stares at you."
Maybe it's a little harsh, but it needs to be said. Snow's too friendly. Too much like a Blanchard, and not enough like a Mills no matter how much training Regina's given her. One of these days, she's gonna get hurt and it's going to look bad on the rest of them.
The speech seemed to have hit Snow. Eyebrows furrowing and Regina's sure she can still a little hurt in her eyes. It sends guilt through her but she stamps it down. No time for guilt right now, this will only help Snow is the long run.
She looks like she's about the say something, words on the tip of her tongue, but then she stops, takes them back, nails drumming on the table and perhaps Regina should apologise, tell her that she was just saying all this to help her. No. That's coddling. Regina would've paid Zelena to teach her all the things she's teaching Snow. She will no coddle or apologise.
"You know, Regina." Snow says and her voice is hard, different, that friendliness it usually has gone. "Have you ever thought that all those things you care about, all these things you're trying to teach me, are you reason you got that apple thrown at you? The reason you have no friends and I do."
Regina's stunned for a moment. Unsure of how to reply. But it doesn't matter. Snow isn't waiting for it.
"I won't get an apple thrown at me." she says. "Because I know how to be nice to everyone."
Then she's gone and Regina's left in the silence, Snow's and her own words gnawing away at her. Hasn't Snow just said the very thing she'd spent the two hours thinking about?
.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
She's uncharacteristically quiet today, he notes, as she sits on the stool and stares at the desk, nails scraping against the dents in the wood. Robin wonders if it's because of what happened at Breakfast. Think all she likes, that wasn't supposed to happen; what started out as a quick game of fetch between Robin and John turned into Will catching the ball and deciding to throw it half way across the Hall, it was just by chance that it just so happened to land in front of Regina.
Or maybe it's about this potion. Robin will admit, he's not over the moon about what will happen next, what he'll have to put up with. He's seen it already, those that have already made and drank the potion, Emma Swan's feeble attempts at getting away from a love-struck, obsessive Killian Jones. He looks to Regina, can't imagine her being like that at all, especially not towards him. Can she even feel love? He's heard rumours that her mother, Cora Mills, has no heart, that she believes love is weakness. He would've put it past that she projected those views onto her daughter.
Still, as he adds the final ingredient, it seems he's about to find out.
"You ready?" Robin asks, catching her attention.
Regina looks up, eyes the cauldron cautiously before looking towards him and taking a deep breath and releasing it.
"Not really." she says, shifting on the stool.
He gives her a smile and picks up the ladle. Drops it down into the liquid before bringing it back up and pouring it into the goblet.
"Here you go." Robin says, pushing the cup towards Regina.
She takes it gingerly, both hands coming to wrap around the goblet as she stares at it and he can see it, the way a mist clouds over her eyes and she seems to tip towards it. Even just smelling it as a powerful impact, it seems. Robin turns to the parchment, the list of questions the Blind Witch told them to write out and he starts with the first one.
"What does it smell like?"
That gets her out of her trance. Her head snapping up as she scowls at him.
"Really?" she asks, distaste in her tone.
Robin shrugs, picks up the parchment, "Blame the questions, not me."
She scoffs and rolls her eyes as Robin places the parchment down, quill in hand as he waits for her answer, eyes on her.
She shifts uncomfortably, faces down into the goblet as the steam carries on rising in swirls all around her.
He'll admit he's curious. Curious to know what she loves the smell of. Maybe it's something dark like the smell of death, or blood, or...something rotting.
Or maybe it's something lighter like the smell of fresh rain, maybe even that book shop smell, or even the smell of quill ink.
He doesn't have to wait much longer.
"Stables." she says and Robin dots it down, hopes that his handwriting isn't too scruffy that she's unable to copy it later on.
"Apples," comes another word and Robin writes that one down, too. "Red apples." she corrects and he nods, writes 'Red' just above 'apples'.
He finds himself chuckling, though. The irony that she likes red apples and that was just the thing thrown at her this morning.
"Um...Parchment and...coffee."
Robin nods again, adds those two to the list.
Regina goes quiet then and Robin glances up at her and...is she blushing? It hard to see with her lost within the steam but he's sure he can see a light red twinge to her cheeks.
"And...?" he prompts and Regina coughs a little, pulls her face away from the steam and looks anywhere but at Robin.
"And, um..." she brings her hands away from the goblet where they fall hidden under the table, no doubt tangling together. "Pine." she almost whispers. "Like that forest-y smell."
Robin frowns and nods, writes down 'Forest-y smell' and wonders why that made her blush.
He places the quill down and stares at the next question; List of effects Amortentia has on those who administer it? Robin knows the usual effects this love potion has, obsession being one of them yet the Blind Witch had proposed a question to them earlier; Does Amortentia have different effects depending on those who take it? And, well, that's what they had to find out.
"Whenever you're ready."
She gives him a little smile and a shaky breath as her hands grasp the goblet as she brings it up to her lips and downs the whole thing in one.