Day 2: Regina uses a disguise to check up on Robin and Roland, but when she gets the feeling that Robin is unhappy, she has to come clean.
No beta again, so apologies for any of the mistakes! Enjoy!
The first time Robin noticed the mysterious blonde, he was in the public library with Roland. The young boy was smiling madly at the colourful pages of every book he could get his little hands on, and Robin loved every second of it.
He and Roland were sounding out words together and that's when he caught the oddly familiar woman watching them from a chair near the entryway to the children's books. Her face was decorated with a sad smile, but it was the pride in her eyes as Roland read an entire page all by himself that grappled his interest. He watched as her lungs inflated proudly, as she smiled brightly, but before he could introduce himself, she disappeared into the mass of readers.
The next time was in Central Park. He and Roland kept strolling by an area in the park where little sail boats made rippling patterns in a small body of water. Together, they'd watch families sail the boats around but never once had they thought about doing it themselves, but on this particular day, someone dropped a sailboat and remote by their side without them realising.
Roland was over the moon, bubbling with glee, and Robin can't explain how he knew, but he just knew this mysterious blonde was responsible. He'd caught a glimpse of her numerous times that day and when he turned around with the sailboat in hand, he noticed how she watched them slyly from amongst the trees off to their right. And much like at the library, before he could relay any sort of thank you, she had disappeared without a trace.
It's been a week since that day and he finds her for the third time. After a fierce argument with Marian, yet again, he escapes downstairs and gets comfortable in his usual seat. He usually has a drink or two, focusses on his breathing.
But today is different.
She's at the end of the bar. Perched on the barstool and nursing steaming mug of coffee, avoiding his eye contact whenever he gazes that way.
He's a sip into his second whiskey, rattling around his brain to find out why she seems so familiar to him; the way her elbows are resting on the bar, the way she subtly licks her bottom lip after each sip of hot coffee. The way she cranes her neck from left to right in a comforting stretch makes him feel like he knows her somehow. Heck, even the simple act of ordering a coffee in a bar in the middle of the day sparks something in his mind. He feels an attraction to her that he can't explain and it's stirring around a level of confusion that tightens in the front of his skull.
When Robin pinches the bridge of his nose, the bartender places a new drink in front of him, his preferred whiskey.
"I didn't order this, he says. The drink he had ordered is barely touched, the glass settled in the curve of his fingers.
"No," the barman laughs and points to the end of the bar, but the seat is now vacant.
She's gone. Again. Disappeared without a trace.
"Oh. The woman there told me to pour it for you. And to give you this," he fiddled in his pocket and gives Robin a napkin with a scribbled message.
His eyes widen. He reads it multiple times. Over and over, memorising the cursive way the woman has written the drink I owe you on the scratchy material.
Regina.
It can't be, he thinks. And his head snaps up and searches around the bar, asking, "Where did she go?"
"I didn't see," the voice behind the bar tells him, "but she also asked me to give you this." The barman has something in his hand, a thick bundled up piece of porous paper and sellotape. "She said you'd understand."
When Robin unravels the storybook page, his heart flutters.
Page 23.
It has been hastily torn but delicately taped back together. It's her. It has to be.
"She covered your tab," he hears. "Go get her."
Robin doesn't need to be told twice. He walks promptly out the main entrance, chooses to go left without hesitation and follows the pull inside him. He thinks he's going to end up crossing the intersection before he spots something out of the corner of his eye.
His attention is captured by the woman standing in the middle of the alley way. The soft, dark hair he's missed brushing his fingers through, the brown eyes that he longs to see when he wakes, the body he's missed worshipping, the soul that makes his soul feel complete.
Regina is standing there sheepishly, a nervous smile painted on her tight lips as she shrugs her shoulders, unsure of what to do.
Her names slips softly from his lungs as his legs start the short spring towards her. Her arms open in anticipation, giving him the room he needs to scoop her against his front. She pulls herself even closer with the arms looped around his neck and then they just drown in each other.
He drops his face into curve in her neck, resting his nose against the soft material of her jacket.
"I missed you," she breathes against his neck.
"And I, you…"
He reluctantly pulls from the embrace, but he has to look at her again. He grips her shoulders gently, squeezing to make sure she's real. His palms glide upward to cradle her face and she clasps her fingers around his wrists.
"I knew it was you." He says softly, pressing his forehead lovingly against hers. Maybe not completely and not right away, but he knew.
"What gave me away?"
"Now that I think about it, almost everything," he chuckles, his eyes fluttering closed as he recalls, "but you came to a bar to drink coffee. I guess it reminded me that you don't daytime drink."
She smirks freely, pushing up on her tiptoes to kiss his again finally, mumbling, "Only you would remember that."
He revels in her kiss, in the warmth and softness of her lips before asking, "Why the disguise?"
"I…" she hesitates for a moment. "I had to see if you were happy. Preferably without throwing a wrench into your life. Henry suggested cloaking myself as another person. That way I could check on you without confusing you, just incase you had settled. But… after everything I saw today, you don't seem like you are." She dares not lose his eyes. "Happy, I mean..."
"I'm not," he sighs before explaining, "I tried to forget you. I really did try. But even then, every waking thought I had was consumed by you. And Marian… she… she's so different. She's not the woman I once knew. I can't pretend that she is anymore."
Her eyes are understanding, comfort seeping from the swirling colour of her iris, "What if I told you that there is a way to bring you home. All of you. Would you be interested?"
"As long as I'm with you, I will go anywhere," he assures. "I chose you and I will always choose you."