99% of this is Regina's POV.

I own nothing.


Once in the dining room, Regina stood behind her usual chair, one arm hugging her abdomen and the other's elbow resting on her hand. With a small flick of her wrist, she gestured for Robin to take a seat. He pulled out the chair on her right, and lowered himself slowly into the chair, facing her. He leaned forward as he rested his elbows on his thighs, hands clasped together before him, one of his thumbs stroking the other in an attempt to calm himself as he looked at the carpet laid over her parqueted floor.

Regina remained standing, watching him. She hadn't turned the light on in the dining room, instead allowing the light from the hall to illuminate them both. Through the low light, she noted that he hadn't taken off his jacket when he had come in, and the sleeves were covering his tattoo.

"It's not your fault," she finally exhaled, her voice hoarse. She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to continue, but stopped when she saw that his thumb had started to make a sharp pounding motion rather than a stroking one.

"It isn't fair," he whispered.

She barked a laugh. Since when had life ever been fair for her? Born to a psychotic, power-hungry mother who'd killed her first love. Forced to be the queen of a king who couldn't get over his dead wife, forced to play the role of a "mommy" to an insipid child barely younger than herself. Manipulated by the Dark One so that she would become so broken that her only focus would be revenge. Rejected by children, forced to give up her own son to save all who still doubted her transformation. Hated by the only blood relative she had left in the world. And now, destined to be alone for the rest of her life because "heroes" just couldn't act any other way but honourably.

She had been gazing at the candelabra on the side table with a pained sneer on her face as she reminisced about the tribulations of her past. Tears threatened to spill over again, and she was sure Robin was noting the glassiness of her eyes when she turned to him to see that he had finally lifted his gaze from the floor to look at her.

"Villains don't get happy endings," she said, raising her eyebrows in a manner of explanation.

He began to shake his head and opened his mouth to protest, but was silenced by her next words.

"You may be an outlaw, but you have honour," she conceded, "You're a hero." The words came out in a rush in an attempt to not let even a second of silence allow him to speak. It hurt enough without him adding to the pain by objecting. "The love of your life has returned, and your family is complete once more. That is your happy ending. Take it, and forget about the Heartless Queen."

There, she thought, as she turned her back on him, signalling for him to leave her, did being selfless earn her any "hero" points? Internally, she laughed sardonically. It probably didn't even begin to make up for having acted so terribly as the Evil Queen. Maybe she hadn't completed her penance yet.

His voice broke the silence.

"Regina - the past year has shown me that you are anything but 'heartless'. Even without your heart, I've seen that you are capable of feeling. Capable of love and of mercy. You are deserving of a happy ending, but -" his voice caught.

She didn't move.

Taking a shaky breath, he spoke once more in a hushed tone, "I'm sorry that I am no longer the one that can provide it for you."

Her back still to him, the tears that had threatened to fall earlier now erupted from her eyes. She tried to keep her back as still as she possibly could as silent sobs forced themselves out. She didn't want him to notice her reaction to the words she had known would come.

"Regina, I've come to care for you deeply over the past year. Marian's return hasn't changed my feelings for you, but I do love Marian. I thought I had been able to let her go, but when she suddenly appeared in front of me, my feelings came back. We'd never had any real closure, you see. Even if I didn't feel this way...I would owe it to her and to my vows to pick up where we left off."

A hardness settled over her even as tears continued to fall down her cheeks.

"S'okay," She sniffled. "I might have done the same if it was Daniel who'd returned."

It was a lie. She would have, two years ago, but in the two years since Daniel had been resurrected for the briefest of moment, she had let go, and opened herself up to love as he had asked her to do. But there was a child involved in Robin's case, and that complicated matters.

"Leopold..." she closed her eyes as she remembered the unhappy farce that was her marriage. "Leopold never got over the love he had for his first wife. No matter how hard I tried to be like her in the first few years, to show him affection even as I was repulsed by him, he never reciprocated." She didn't turn to look at him as she spoke, but kept her arms wrapped around her middle. "He was gentle, yes, but he was always distant. He never treated me as a wife, but as a lodger who happened to be entitled to the rights and privileges of being his Queen. You and I might have been happy at first, but I don't think I would be able to stand it if that same yearning for your Marian resurfaced somewhere down the road. I'd rather it end now than be tormented by it down the road. If you love her, go to her, and let me be."

Her eyes prickled with tears once again at the remembrance of how inadequate and spurned Leopold had made her feel. She would not let anyone make her feel that way again. It had nearly destroyed her the first time, it had been what had made her focus on her revenge on Snow White above all else.

She heard him sigh, and was startled by his next words.

"Nonetheless, I have been unable to forget what you said about my tattoo."

Damn that Tinkerbell, she thought.

"I don't know- Regina, you must understand how perplexed the situation has made me. I care for you, Regina, I do; when you told me about our destiny, everything that had happened and everything that I had been feeling started to make sense and I'd started to imagine spending the rest of my life with you until - "

She finally whirled around to face him, him voicing the hopes she'd had for their future too much to bear, tears streaking down her cheeks as she interrupted him with a cry of "Don't!" It came out sounding harsher than she had planned. Noting the hurt and alarm on his face, and seeing tears of his own in his eyes, she tried to soften her features and her voice. "Don't make this more difficult than it already is."

"The prophecy means nothing." She stood straighter as she spoke, her arms coming to rest at her sides, her gaze never leaving his. She tried not to come off as wounded as she really felt, but she knew it was no use. He had always been able to see past her masks, into her soul.

"Tinkerbell led me to that tavern in the first year of my marriage to Leopold. Before I was all-consumed by my need for revenge, before I became the Evil Queen, perhaps before you had even a chance to meet Marian. That was where our story was supposed to start, but in my fear, I ruined the chance that I had with you. You created a different happy ending with Marian, and I was deluded in thinking that my happy ending would come in killing Snow White. My actions changed everything. I became a villain, and like I said, villains don't get happy endings. Marian's return proves it. You and I aren't meant to be together, not as long as she is in the picture."

She took a deep breath, shaking as her lungs took in the air. She felt like she would never be done with paying for her mistakes. She turned her back on him once more, crossing her arms, refusing another glance at the sad light blue eyes which stared up at her.

"Years later, Tinkerbell told me that not approaching you had been a selfish thing to do, but whenever I had looked back at that night before that, I thought I had spared the man with the lion tattoo from any hurt or suffering that loving me would have invariably caused. She said that I had ruined both my life and yours. I could see how I had ruined mine, but I didn't understand how I could have possibly ruined yours. Now, I do."

She had made it through the first few sentences maintaining a steady voice, but at her last three words her voice cracked and she started to cry again.

She tried to speak through her tears. "If I had given you a chance, if I had been open to love, we could have had a wonderful life together. Instead, you were put through the inexplicable pain of losing a woman you loved, the mother of your child, blaming yourself for her loss. If I'd been braver, you might never have had to suffer through that."

She broke off with a choked sob.

What felt like an eternity later, she heard feet shuffling on the carpet. She figured that he was leaving and started to cry harder at the thought, until she felt a gentle hand on her arm forcing her to turn around. He wrapped his arms around her, and of their own accord, her arms let go of themselves to embrace him, bringing their bodies closer together. She wept into his shoulder as he held her. Being in his arms just felt so right. One of his hands ran up her back to rest in her hair. Feeling his heart beat against her empty chest soon calmed her sobs, and now only quiet tears left her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered gruffly.

"You have nothing to apologize for. I ruined it all for the both of us. At least your happy ending has been miraculously fixed. In a twisted way...let me leave you with that gift."

She pulled away to look into his eyes, which were now only inches from her own, pleading with him.

"Be happy, for me. Love her, cherish her, have a few more dimpled children to grow the ranks of your Merry Men. Even if it isn't with me, seeing you happy will be my consolation. Robin, I- I love you, and loving someone means letting them go, letting them be happy without you. Henry taught me that. Go." She gave him a gentle shove, but his hold on her only tightened for the briefest of moments as she felt his lips press against her forehead. She closed her eyes at the touch, capturing the feeling in her memory.

"I will," he promised,lips moving against her forehead, "if you do one thing for me. Don't ever doubt yourself. Don't ever doubt that you are capable of being good, and don't ever doubt that you are capable of a happy ending. It will come for you, I am sure of on that. Focus on your love for Henry and rule this land with the mercy and compassion that I have seen in you. Remember that you are capable of using light magic. Your time will come, just be patient."

She nodded even though she didn't truly believe what he said, and he finally released her to slowly back away, holding her gaze.

"You'll understand if I keep my distance for a while, won't you?" she asked him before he had made it out of the door of the dining room, her arms wrapping around her middle once more in an attempt to keep herself from falling apart.

He responded with a nod, and with that, he turned around and walked out of her house.


As Robin Hood walked down her front steps into the brisk night air, one thought reverberated through his mind.

He loved her.

He loved her, he loved her, he loved her.


My poor OQ shipper heart.

I hope I made you feel that too, because if I didn't, I'm not doing my job properly.

Thank you for reading!

Oooohhh so what is Robin going to do now?

Your guess is as good as mine, because this is pretty much all that I had planned out...I'll have to think about where I want this to go from here.

No matter what I do, OQ is endgame for this story.

Reviews make me smile, and suggestions would be great! :D