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Regina stared into the bathroom mirror as she tried to steel herself, it was so much quieter than the main area of the pub so she finally had a chance to think clearly. He was out there waiting for her and she couldn't bring herself to go back out. The boldness had subdued a little along with the emptying of her bladder.

She opened her small clutch bag and retrieved her deep red lipstick before reapplying it with a pop. "I can do this," she whispered, "I can, no big deal. Just telling a guy that you're basically in love with him. It's nothing." She closed her eyes and shook her head.

Looking around her, she checked that no one else was in the bathroom before meeting her own eyes in the mirror, "Robin, I have feelings for you, I have for a while now." Regina tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear, "I want to be more than friends, is there any way that you… maybe you might feel the same?" She groaned and took a deep breath, "just do it, Regina, just…" the door to the bathroom opened, and a woman she didn't know slipped into one of the cubicles.

Grabbing her purse she turned to the door and left the room, heading back out, determined to find Robin and tell him exactly how she felt. She ordered one last drink before moving to go over and talk to him, he wasn't where she had asked him to wait so she assumed he had gone back to the table where his friends were, she supposed she had been longer than she thought in the bathroom.

"Regina!"

She turned her head to see Mal coming towards her, the blonde's arm was slung around her ex-girlfriend and she had a massive grin on her face. The girl seemed happier than Regina had ever seen her, the small brunette tightly tucked to her side. "Hi, you."

"We're back together," Mal quipped, "thank you so much for your help."

"I'm so glad to hear that!"

"Esme's going to tell her parents we're together. We're going to stay over at hers tonight, so I won't be back. Though I hope that my room remains completely vacant tonight," she winked moving closer to her and giving her a little hug. "I went and got my girl, I think it's your turn to get your guy."

"I told you, I'm going to do it."

"Please do!" Mal chuckled, pressing a kiss to her cheek before pulling back and taking her girlfriend's hand, "I'll see you tomorrow hey?"

"Yes, see you tomorrow. Have a good night."

"Thanks, you too."

"Get out of here," she laughed, watching as the couple left the bar together. She felt warm inside seeing her friend so happy and in love compared to how she had been the night before. It also spurred her on to get that for herself, to have something like that with Robin. Her eyes scanned the crowd in an attempt to find him, people were dancing now on a makeshift dance floor and the music had clearly been turned up even louder than it was previously.

It took her a while to spot him in the ever-expanding crowd, but when she did, she felt her stomach plummet. What was she doing here? Why right now was that woman here, sat beside him, laughing and joking? She tried desperately not to let herself get worked up, but it was extremely hard when there was another woman all over the man she was in love with.

Her mouth went sour and she turned away, trying to shove down the jealousy that was raging within, but she couldn't quite manage it. She downed the rest of her cocktail, her fifth of the night and instantly regretted it, she felt queasy, like she might be about to throw up. "Fuck me," she breathed, closing her eyes as she buried her face in her hands, elbows leant against the bar to support her.

Why?

Why?!

WHY?!

She was drunk, single and the guy she loved was being chatted up by another woman. Not to mention that she had been hit on by some drunkard. Could the night get any worse? She didn't think so.

"Hey, you."

"Hi," she sighed, not even bothering to look up at the person who had just sat beside her.

"Okay, so I seem to remember the last time you got this pissed you were a crazy happy drunk, this doesn't look crazy happy."

"Have you seen who's here?" she grumbled as he passed her a glass of water, "thanks."

"Regina, he's not interested in her."

"Did he tell you that? Because I know he used to be in love with her."

"It's not like that now Regina, trust me, he hadn't thought about her in months, not since you."

"Me?"

"Pretty sure he's in love with you."

"He's what?" she breathed, looking at the guy sat beside her, a man she had met at the very same time as Robin, well not met exactly, he'd bumped into her and been too much of a coward to stick around and apologise, yet they'd never had a conversation between just the two of them. "Are you being serious right now?"

"Do I look serious?"

"You never look serious," she chuckled, smirking a little, "so he's really in love with me?"

"I'd say so yeah."

She released a breath she hadn't even known she was holding and smoothed down her hair. If what Will was saying was the truth, and what reason was there for it not to be? She stood every chance of getting together with Robin, if he loved her that would mean everything.

"One thing I can tell you for certain is that he certainly isn't in love with her anymore. As much as I teased him about it, I don't think he ever properly loved her, not in the way he does you."

Regina took another sip of her water before standing from her seat, "thank you, Will, for letting me know." The music changed, a song she was rather fond of started playing and she grinned at Will, holding her hand out, "dance?"

"Uh, hell yeah," he smirked, following her onto the dancefloor as they bopped to the music. Regina felt herself getting caught up in the tune as all her earlier worries drifted away, assisted by the alcohol swimming in her veins.

Robin couldn't believe that Marian was actually here right now, it was ridiculous. He couldn't seem to catch a break, all he wanted to do was talk to Regina about his feelings and it just didn't seem to be working. How many more bloody interruptions could they possibly have?

"You're home for the holidays?" she asked, smoothing her hands over the sparkling golden sequins of her dress, "I didn't know if you'd be staying in Oxford or coming back here."

"Yeah, well here I am."

"It's good to see you, you look good," she chuckled, eying him up and down for a moment, "I see the rest of the group is here. Shall we go say hello?"

"Sure, okay," he nodded awkwardly. He and Marian had been in the same friendship circle at school, his friends were also her friends so it was inevitable that she would want to spend time with them, he just hadn't realised that she would be here, yet here she was.

They walked over to the table the rest of the gang were sat at and Marian rushed Robin into the booth first before sandwiching him against John, trapping him in place. "Hi everyone!"

As soon as they realised she was there, there was a barrage of different greetings and conversation starters, Robin was stuck in the middle of it. His eyes moved over to the bar, Regina had asked him to stay put before scurrying off to the bathroom and he hadn't, he'd planned on it but now here he was sat with his ex. How the hell was that going to look to Regina?

He tried to join in the conversation the best he could, but he was a little preoccupied with looking out for the beauty in the red suit. How long did it actually take in the bathroom?

"So Robin, how actually are you? How's Uni going?" Marian asked once the cacophony of different questions from the others calmed down.

"I'm good thanks and Uni is great. How about you?"

"Wonderful! It's so amazing being away from home, isn't it? Being able to do what you want, when you want, with whoever you want."

Robin chuckled and shook his head, "you could say that again. I think you forgot being able to eat what you want."

"Yeah, breakfast for dinner is the best."

"Very true."

"So, are you seeing anyone at the minute or riding the solo train?"

"It's a little complicated actually, I'm…"

"Holy shit!"

"What?"

"It's the hot girl from the party!" she gasped, gawking over towards the bar. Robin followed her gaze, seeing that whilst they had been talking Regina had clearly returned from the bathroom and had a fresh cocktail in her hand. "Wait a minute… I get it, you were giving her the eyes that night," a smirk formed on her face as she turned to look at him, "I mean she's a decent kisser."

"Marian."

"What? It's true. So you're seeing her then?"

"As I said, it's complicated."

"She must like you to be here in the first place, no girl in their right mind would travel up here to spend Christmas with a guy that she wasn't interested in."

"You think?"

"Totally! You should go for it with her, I think you'd make a cute couple," she grinned, taking a sip of her drink as she sat back in her chair, relaxing a little as they continued to look in Regina's directions. "Trust me, if you don't go for it, maybe I will."

"Shut up," he chuckled, shaking his head at her. He was pretty sure that she was joking but he couldn't be one-hundred percent certain.

"Looks as though she's got company at the bar."

Robin furrowed his eyebrows, worrying that he was going to have to help her with another drunk guy, but instead, he saw his friend standing there chatting to her. She was laughing at something he must have said and Robin couldn't help that ebb of jealousy that began to bubble up inside, he wanted her to be laughing and joking with him, not anyone else, even if that someone happened to be his long-time best friend.

He watched as the pair moved away from the bar and towards the dancefloor before proceeding to dance sillily to the song that boomed over the sound system. He wanted to be there dancing with her instead of Will, instead of being here, sat beside his ex-girlfriend.

"I am so drunk," Regina slurred as she leant her head against Will's shoulder, the music had changed from fast-paced to slow and she had somewhat slumped against him.

"I know you are."

"I think I should be heading back now and sleeping it off."

"Probably for the best," Will chuckled, pulling back to look at her, "Robin will most likely want to be leaving now too. Come on let's go see."

Regina nodded against his shoulder and pulled back, they were on the way back to the booth when Will quipped that he needed the bathroom and disappeared, leaving her to get there alone. She was almost there when she stopped in her tracks, Marian's hand was resting atop of Robin's on the table, she was leaning in, laughing with him and what was worse, he was laughing too.

She wasn't entirely sure how long she had been dancing, but she had thought that he might have tried to cut in and steal her away for a dance himself. That just hadn't happened. He was clearly too busy with Marian to even think about it.

She took a deep breath to try and steady herself but it wasn't happening. Without another thought, she was hurrying away, pushing her way through the crowd towards the exit, needing the fresh air, just wanting to getaway. He didn't care about her, did he? She thought he had, had hoped that he felt the same way as she did. But it was all just a stupid fantasy.

It was dark outside, but there were quite a few people milling around, most of them had come out for a smoke and she had to move away from the bar to get past the smell. She went further and further until there was no one around and leant against a wall, her eyes flickering closed as she tried to steady her breathing. It was probably the alcohol making her irrational, sober Regina wouldn't be stood there alone at one in the morning, no because sober Regina had more common sense than drunk Regina.

Once her eyes were opened again, a shadowed figure caught her attention, they were loitering further down the street and seemed to be watching her. She felt her breath quicken as her heart raced in her chest; were they following her? No, surely not, she was probably just imagining it.

She subtly looked in their direction, they were watching her but she couldn't really see them in the dark, they were just a silhouette and just so happened to be blocking the way back to the bar. Regina cleared her throat, she didn't know what to do. What if it was the guy from earlier? Maybe he had been waiting for her to come out before he made his move. What if he was going to attack her? She was panicking and they were moving towards her. Should she run? She should probably run but she had no idea where she was going. She was so stupid!

Instead of moving or even grabbing her phone to call someone she simply froze in place, watching as they got closer. It was only when they were around two meters away that she recognised them, her shoulders dropped in relief as she shook her head.

"Hi."

"God, you scared me."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. I saw you leave the bar and I didn't want you to go out there alone. I just wanted to make sure you were safe."

"Thanks, I hadn't even realised you were in there."

"Yeah, I was just with a couple of colleagues. Want me to walk you home?"

"Are you leaving now?"

"Might as well," he grinned, offering her his arm.

"Alright, I suppose that would be okay. Just don't go trying to kiss me," she chuckled, clearing her throat a little as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Robin was listening as Marian talked about what she had been up to back at Oxford, he had laughed in all the right places, but his mind wasn't on their conversation, not at all, he had drifted off in his head and was thinking about something completely different. Well, more specifically, someone different.

He was in the middle of a daydream when it was rudely interrupted by his friend. "Alright mate? Are we heading back then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Regina was coming to find you to ask if you were ready to go home. Didn't she find you?"

"Regina? No, I haven't seen her, I thought she was with you."

"Nah, I went to the bathroom, last I saw her she was on her way over."

"That's weird. Excuse me, Marian."

"Sure, go," she smiled with a nod, allowing him to exit the booth.

He and Will searched the bar, but there was no sign of her, he was worried about her, had no idea where she had gone.

"You don't think she would have headed back on her own do you?" Will asked.

"I don't think so, maybe she found Mal and…"

"Mal went home with Esmerelda around an hour ago, so I doubt it."

"You stay here, call me if you see her. I'm going to try her cell." With that, he hurried out of the bar and straight down the street that led back home. He wasn't exactly sure that she would know which way to go, especially given the fact that she had downed at least five cocktails.

He'd only been walking, well jogging, for a couple of minutes when he spotted a woman in a red suit further down the pavement and he was without doubt that it was Regina. She was with a man and he had his arm slung around her shoulders. Worry shuddered through him and he picked up the pace, almost sprinting towards them, "hey! Regina!"

He was panicking, was someone taking advantage of her? He knew she had been a little bit drunk, she'd had a few drinks when he had last seen her and however many since then. What if she wasn't in her right mind and some dickhead thought he was in luck? "Hey! Let go of her!"

The pair obviously heard him and they turned around, that was when he realised who she was with and his worry both dropped and increased all at once. Did she like him instead, why was she letting him walk her home? He thought she wanted him, "where are you going?"

"We were just heading back home," Regina shrugged. He was here and he was panting, why was he out of breath? Had he been running after her, did he think she was leaving with someone else out of choice?

"I would have walked you home."

"I've had too much to drink, Killian offered to walk me back."

"Ah, well I can get you home now. Thanks for looking out for her," he knew it was a bit dismissive, but if that was all that was going on then Killian wouldn't mind letting him take over, "you might as well go back and enjoy the night."

"Mate, you should have been looking out for her before."

Robin scoffed and shook his head, who did this guy actually think he was? "She's more than capable of looking after herself you know."

"Maybe so, but she was out here on her own and I was just trying to help her. You're not her boyfriend anyway, so…"

"No, I'm not her boyfriend but she's important to me and I don't trust you."

"To be fair you don't even know me."

"I don't have to know you to know I don't trust you. As I said, I'll head back with Regina, so don't worry about it." He was getting annoyed, why did the man still have his arm around her?

Regina shuffled awkwardly, her eyes moving to Killian's, she would much rather be going home with Robin and she was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable being at the centre of the drama.

Getting the hint from Regina's movements, Killian moved his arm from around her and stepped back, "okay, well I'll catch you later then I suppose," the man quipped, smiling at Regina before walking back in the direction of the bar, leaving the pair together.

"You had me scared for a bit then," Robin stated, meeting her eyes, he could tell that she was drunk by the way her pupils were dilated, she was also swaying a little bit, she was clearly not that stable.

"Sorry, I came out for a bit of fresh air, Killian must have seen me leave and asked if I needed help walking home. I figured I'd leave you to enjoy the night with your friends and head back."

"I wanted to enjoy the night with you," he sighed with a shake of his head, everything had gone up in smoke, "I'm sorry, it all went a bit pear-shaped tonight."

"Don't worry about it," she whispered, her eyes trained to the ground, "how were you to know that Marian was going to show up?"

"I should have guessed as much, she's best friends with Fiona, the woman probably invited her along. Can I please walk you home?"

Regina bit down on her bottom lip and held her hand out for him to take, "I think I could allow that. Only because you need protection of course."

"Oh yeah, of course, I've seen you when you get pissed off, and it's really impressive."

"To be fair you've only seen me slap someone, my right hook is much better than that, only I didn't want to knock the drunk guy's teeth out," she smirked.

Robin chuckled at her and took her hand in his, the pair of them started walking, her fingers were smooth and cold wrapped around his, her thumb gently caressing over his skin. He looked up at her face and could see that she was shivering, "you're cold?"

"Yes a little," she whispered. She was freezing, she wished that she had worn a coat, she'd been so keen to show off her outfit and now she was shivering from the cold.

"Here, take this," he shook off his own jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, making sure that she was warm. The cold of the night hit him immediately and he knew she must have been absolutely freezing.

"Why thank you, kind sir."

"You're very much welcome buttercup."

Now she was warm again she felt a little light on her feet, the alcohol swimming in her veins making itself known. She giggled as she looked at Robin, she didn't know if it was because she knew that she was safe with him and could let herself relax, but she was back to feeling drunk again. "Aren't you cold now?"

"Doesn't matter."

"It does," she nodded, dropping his hand and wrapping her arm around his waist instead, snuggling close to his side. He followed suit pulling her into him, also working to prop her up a little, making sure that she didn't lose her footing. "Nothing was happening with Killian," she murmured, feeling the need to clarify.

"I didn't think it was."

"I told him that he couldn't kiss me, but you could if you wanted to."

"As much as I would love to kiss you. You're drunk."

"I'm not drunk." She was.

"Maybe not as much as you were last time, but you're still drunk."

"Doesn't make a difference, I'd still want you to kiss me if I wasn't drunk."

Robin chuckled, playing with some of her hair that brushed against his hand, it was so soft, the dark tendrils slipped through his fingers like silk. "If you were sober, I would believe you."

"Maybe I shouldn't have to ask you. You should just kiss me; it could be my Christmas present."

"We'll see."

Regina struggled with the hills in her heels and it hadn't helped that she was pretty sloshed. They were around halfway home when she decided to take her heels off, holding onto Robin for balance as she slipped them off her feet with a low moan. "God that's better," she breathed, her tortured feet now free.

"You can't be serious."

"What?"

"You're not thinking of walking home with bare feet."

"Of course, I am. It'll be fine."

"What if you stand on glass, or holly or god knows what else?"

"It'll be better than the killer blisters these are giving me."

Robin cast her a pessimistic look, he wasn't so sure, "don't blame me in the morning when you sober up and have cuts and bruises all over."

She simply shook her head and swung her shoes back and forth in her hand, her other arm still wrapped around him. "As I said, I'm not that drunk."

"Sure, you're not."

"I'll prove it, here hold these," she thrust her black heels into his grasp and moved out of his arms, her warmth leaving his side as she made her way to the edge of the path. There were no cars around, it was past one am on what was essentially Christmas day in the middle of nowhere, most people were long asleep in preparation for the big day ahead.

He watched her for a moment, unsure what she might be about to do. It was only when she reached the very curb that he realised. She concentrated with her arms stretched out and her eyes trained on the ground below her, moving one foot in front of the other as she walked along the stone edging of the pavement. "See! Look, I'm doing it."

"Wow. I'm impressed," he grinned, jogging to catch up with her, taking one of her outstretched hands, the last thing he wanted was for her to fall into the road. They walked that way for a little while, at a pace much slower than they had been going when she'd had the shoes on. At this rate, it was going to take them the rest of the night to get back home. "Okay, you can do it. Fancy walking properly now?"

"Nope."

She stopped entirely and he turned to look at her, she smiled at him for a moment before throwing herself at him. Because he was still on the road and she was on the pavement, she had been higher, meaning that she was able to swing her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He had to be quick to grab her before she slipped down, his hands unceremoniously landing on her ass, her shoes dangling from his fingers. "Can you carry me?"

"Up these hills? I'd have to be a bloody strong man to carry you all the way up there."

"You carried me home in Oxford."

"Yeah, that was Oxford, not West Yorkshire."

She wasn't too heavy, but he wasn't sure he would make it all the way home with her in his arms this way. On another note, he couldn't stop himself from getting a little aroused at the feel of her pressed against him and that was another definite reason for him putting her down.

"Aww," she pouted, sliding down his body in a way that made the situation even worse. Her dark eyes looked into his, twinkling in the moonlight and his throat went dry. God, she was so bloody beautiful.

"I suppose I can give you a piggyback."

She grinned and he lent down so that she could hop on, her arms wrapping around his neck as her cheek pressed against his, her legs still wrapped around his waist but this time from a different direction. He could feel her soft breath against his cheek and smell her perfume, it was surrounding him and he had to steady himself for a moment. Her feet were bare and poking out of the bottom of her smart red pants, the soles were dirty from the pavement and he couldn't help but look at them for a moment, admiring the glossy red nail polish that was painted on her dainty toes.

"Thank you," Regina hummed, holding on tight as he set off again, heading up the road with her clinging to his back.

After a long walk through the empty streets, they finally arrived home, it had taken much longer with Regina piggybacking a ride from him but he hadn't really minded. At some point, he was pretty sure that she had fallen asleep on his back, she had slumped a little and became heavier against him. He still felt warm puffs of air brushing against his skin though so knew she was alright, it was comforting and pushed him to get home quicker.

He carefully took one hand from her to dig in his pocket for his keys so they could get inside. Once they were in, and he had locked the door behind him, he turned around and looked at the stairs that faced him. He had to get up there with her on his back without waking her up, that was going to be a tricky one. Robin dropped her shoes to the side and slipped his own off before slowly starting up the stairs, one hand holding the bannister and the other Regina. He was leaning forward ever so slightly, making sure that there was no risk of her falling backwards.

He made it, much to his relief, and headed for his sister's bedroom where Regina was staying. It was only when he was inside the room that he remembered Regina had been staying on the top bunk, well there was not a chance he was putting her up there. For one he didn't want to wake her to get her up there and for another there was no way he was risking her rolling in the night, even though there was a bar, there was still a possibility she could fall off.

He opted for carefully laying her down on the bottom bunk, he was sure that his sister wouldn't mind. She'd let him know that she wouldn't be home earlier that night. It was a struggle to get her to let go of him so that he could lay her down, he had to untangle her limbs from his body, she'd been clinging to him rather fiercely. Once she was on the bed, he didn't really know what to do. With a soft sigh, he stood and retreated to the bathroom, he grabbed a fresh washcloth and applied a little water with soap before returning to the bedroom.

Robin perched by the bottom of the bed, Regina was still asleep, her head pressed against the pillow, dark eyelashes contrasting with her olive skin. He admired her for a moment before taking her foot gently and placing it on his lap. Carefully he ran the washcloth over her sole, wiping the dirt from her foot, checking for any injuries and finding none but the blisters made by her shoes. He repeated his actions with the other foot and when both of them were clean, he returned them to the mattress and stood up again. He looked at her for a moment, fingers reaching out to tuck some stray strands of her hair behind her ear, lingering for a little while.

"Good night buttercup," he whispered, laying a blanket over her form before leaving her to sleep.

Regina groaned, running her fingers over her face, she couldn't remember arriving home, but she was in bed, that was about as far as she got. Her eyes opened reluctantly, only to be met with darkness, she had no clue what time it was. She reached out her hand, searching for something but all her fingers met were cold sheets.

She suddenly sat up, whacking her head full force into something above her, "what the fuck," she grumbled. Eyes looking in the dark, noticing that her head had just collided with the bottom of the top bunk.

Glancing down she realised that she was still in her clothes she had worn to the bar, she slipped out of bed and stripped off, finding her pyjamas that were on the top bunk and changing into them. She trundled to the bathroom to get the makeup off her face, her eyes were smudged, but the red tint from her lips was now none existent. She scrubbed her face with a washcloth before looking in the mirror to see that her forehead was already coming out in a faint bruise from where she had just bumped it.

Grabbing her toothbrush she brushed her teeth and shuffled back towards Mal's room, but she found herself stopping, her eyes turning to look at the door down the hall which led to Robin's room. In her sleepy haze, she found herself ignoring any doubt inside her and marching down the hallway, not even bothering to knock before opening the door.

Robin was asleep in the middle of the bed, his head situated in the gap between the two pillows. She bit down on her lip and watched him sleep for a moment, she was too weak to resist. Her legs moved involuntarily as she lifted the covers and slipped underneath them, shuffling closer to seek out his body heat.

She hummed as she wrapped her arm around him, her head resting on his chest as she snuggled into him. He stirred a little, his arms reaching out as he roused from his sleep, holding her as he looked down, "Regina?" His voice was husky from sleep and she couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips.

"Go back to sleep," she whispered, closing her eyes as she nuzzled against his shoulder, both of them falling back to sleep, contentedly lying in one another's arms.