Regina did not know what had woken her.
She was used to waking up suddenly, gasping for air, soaked in sweat with her heart beating erratically, and sometimes even screaming out due to the more than usual nightmares that haunted her.
But this time, her eyes did not snap open and her senses did not hit her all at once.
One moment Regina was enwrapped in peaceful slumber, buzzing energy travelled about her body, and her heart, for once, was at ease. She moved a little, and slowly became more and more aware of the fact that what she was laying upon was not her mattress. Her mattress did not breathe, or snore.
Regina took a deep breath – taking in the scent of pinewood and sweat that was strangely familiar – and eased herself more into the warm, delicious embrace of whatever was holding her. She hummed in agreement to the arm that held her a little tighter around the waist when she moved. It felt quite good, she felt well rested and safe, which was something she had not felt for a very long time.
The vibrant energy made her want to sleep the morning away there, even though she was becoming more and more aware of the fact that she was on top of somebody and that both of them were stark naked.
She bit tentatively at her lower lip and found that it was a little swollen, for some strange reason, her half-awaken mind knew it was so because she had been so thoroughly kissed the night before-
A rush of cold wind hit her bare skin, making her shiver, and waking her almost fully. But she did not want to give up this blissful something just yet, and so she tried to snuggle closer to the warm body beneath her, which was quite impossible, since she was laying on top of him, so their bodies were practically glued to one another as it was. Another arm came to hold her when she moved, covering a small patch of skin on her back that was heated with buzzing energy in an instant.
She placed an unconscious thank-you kiss on the patch of skin nearest to her mouth. A collarbone. Her ears picked up a satisfied groan coming from whoever was beneath her. She had just placed a kiss on a man's collarbone. Another sigh and a small grunt that sounded a little bit too much like "Regina'' from the male beneath her only served to make her sure that it had been his collarbone that she had just kissed. The wheels inside her head started turning as she thought of herself stupid. Who else could it have possibly been, lying beneath her naked, but him? The familiar electricity they shared made that fact ridiculously obvious then.
She suddenly became aware of her position; one of her hands was unconsciously toying with his hair while the other rested on the furry surface of the rug. She was laying on her belly on top of him, legs slightly parted housing one of his own in between, and face turned to the side rested on his shoulder.
Her eyes shot open when, like a lightning bolt, full consciousness came to her, as well as all the memories of the previous day.
You're nothing, she had spat at his face, he tried to kill her.
I'm not your pet, he threw back at her face when he couldn't go through with strangling her.
Who knew a thief had honor?
Who knew an Evil Queen had a soft spot for children?
The Queen is not as bad as she looks, he had defended her for no good reason to a little boy who seemed to take his words into consideration.
The children you eat will little by little become your little one, the siren-like voice of the witch retold and Regina had felt sick and angry.
End her misery, her voice had been grave but her intention had been merciful, he had understood.
We would never want to live with someone as terrible as you! That bratty girl had thrown it at her face, rejecting Regina and everything she could offer.
I didn't have a say in the matter of my marriage, she had confessed to the thief using the same words as her father had when describing his own marriage.
Don't leave, I don't want to be alone tonight, she had asked him and he had complied.
Regina, my name is Regina, she had told him her name as if they were meeting for the very first time.
I stayed, but not for the reason you think I did, he had told her, his words had been enigmatic and yet they had lifted such a huge burden from her heart.
I want to feel this with you, she had confessed to him, she had trusted him.
You're real, you've never looked more beautiful, he had said with admiration and reverence dancing in his blue eyes
Say it again, my name, he had asked in all earnest.
"Robin?" her voice came out weak and a little croaky, although it had not been her intention to say anything at all. Her eyes widened when they finally focused, she lifted her head a little, and was met with the features of the man she had just called out, his eyes were still half-closed and sleepy but she could see their color, it seemed more vibrant than ever.
He groaned something she could not understand and licked his lips absent-mindedly. Regina regarded him for a beat and, at first, felt comfortable and untroubled herself at his ease. But the feeling only lasted a moment, her heart almost stopped as she remembered what they had done the night before, and most importantly, what she had disclosed. She had told him a lot of things, things she should not have said, things about her past, bared a part of her to him she hardly let show to anyone. And now, she felt absolutely terrified of what he might do.
What if he used all that information against her? He knew now of things that would trigger her, things that would upset her. How could she have been so stupid? What if he turned against her, demanded his heart back and if not-?
"You know-" he grumbled beneath her, bringing her back to the here and now, "-you're heavier than you look."
That took Regina by surprise, her head snapped back at his comment and she was sure her expression was something in between confused, outraged and sleepy. She blinked twice and took in what he had just uttered, casual tone, eyes regarding her just as they had always, with a hint of amusement and a silent challenge, urging her to respond in the same fashion. He bared a big grin at her silence, and she felt him stroke the patch of skin on her lower back with his thumb as she continued to stare at him completely baffled at what he had just uttered.
"You-" she managed to say, but found herself completely at a loss of words. He was being his usual prick self, funny and charming in his own irritating way, acting as if waking up stark naked on top of each other was a daily occurrence. Regina was not sure it was just a simple act to try to distract her or if he really had woken up in such a merry mood.
The answer regarding the level of merriment of his mood was answered by the hardness she felt pressed against her thigh, some things never changed.
He yawned, and by all the Gods above did he have a baboon's breath in the morning, she was sure she was going to faint if he did that again. He regarded her for a beat while Regina twisted her face in disgust and tried not to breathe through her nose given the swamp located inside his mouth.
Regina decided to play along, it was no use worrying about something he might as well not even remember with clarity. She tried to calm her heart as best as she could and arched an unimpressed brow. If he wanted to be nasty, pun intended, two could play this game. It was easier to simply banter than to talk about the events of the night before.
"At least I don't have a rotten breath in the morning." She spoke, pushing at his chest a little, trying to put some distance between her nose and his mouth.
He looked mockingly wounded, "Does that mean I get no good morning kiss?"
Gods, he annoyed her, "Ugh you're insufferable." She whined and thought to herself she should roll off him, and not just because his breath was going to succeed in making her pass out, but because she was enjoying herself far too much. However, she did not budge.
"I never promised to be charming." He gave back to her and Regina could not help but release a laugh at his comment.
A victorious smile quickly decorated his lips and Regina grew angry at herself for having succumbed to his cheap but rather witty humor. She found she rather enjoyed this, them, and for that same reason, this, them was a very dangerous thing to do. Regina tried to push herself off him but found that her limbs were not as wide-awake as her brain. Her legs ached from the strain of what they had done the night before, although the new position had made her feel like she was going to burst with pleasure, her legs were not so used to that kind of stretch. Most that she managed to do was rub her thigh to Robin's stiff groin, which resulted in an instantaneous change in his expression.
He released puffy breath and closed his eyes, "By all the Gods in heaven do not stop that." He groaned. His bottom lip between his teeth, his tone had changed, it had sounded almost like a plea.
Regina rather enjoyed that tone.
She smirked and quickly formulated a plan inside her head. She hummed and traced her tongue up his neck, tasting a little bit of lingering sweat – not everything was sunshine and rainbows when waking up after a night of such intense activities – until she reached his earlobe. She bit down at it softly while she ground herself against him, making her thigh rub softly against his hard member, as well as making her own desire grow as well. She was delighted to see the thief, Robin, so helpless at her mercy.
"And if I do?" she slurred on the shell of his ear, and ground her sex to his leg again, feeling the sharp pleasure it created pulsate down her legs. She could see gooseflesh rise in the back of his neck.
"Well, I would be most-" but he stopped mid-sentence as Regina had slid her hand down his torso and got ahold of his stiff cock. Words were substituted by a strangled moan on his part when she squeezed him a little and nibbled at his neck.
Wonderful, having him at her mercy was one of the most satisfying things-
"Your majesty!" a third voice cried out of the blue, startling them both.
The fright was such that Regina actually tumbled off the man completely, coming to lay beside him. She looked to her left to be met with the image of him covering his eyes with one of his hands and mumbling something about smashing mirrors to pieces.
She was rather surprised he recognized the voice, then again, this was not the first time he had interrupted them. Unfortunately for Regina, she also knew to whom that voice belonged, he always seemed to interrupt the most inappropriate of moments – then again, most of the moments she had spent in the company of the naked outlaw beside her had been quite inappropriate.
Regina quickly used her magic to clothe them both, the outlaw with his clothes from the night before, and her, with a thick, long, black robe that concealed everything the genie might want to glimpse at. She knew his lingering eyes were intense enough to make her want to empty the contents of her stomach.
She looked up and the outlaw had already risen while she had performed her spell, and now was extending a hand to help her get to her feet as well. She eyed the hand, ever suspicious, but took it, accepting his assistance.
Her head snapped in the direction of the full-length mirror she had punched the night before.
"You may appear." She commanded, and the slightly distorted face of the once genie appeared on the reflective surface. At first he looked smug, most probably he had good information, but then, upon seeing that Regina was not alone, his face shifted to an expression that made her skin crawl.
"What?" Regina hissed in between her teeth and his eyes went back to her.
Before the genie could reply, the outlaw was suddenly right beside her pointing an accusing finger at the mirror, "If you interrupted us again just because of your half crazed obsession, I swear that I will-" his tone made it perfectly clear he was ready to throw the mirror out the window depending on the genie's response.
Regina only gave the thief a look and he stopped speaking, he looked back at her and he rolled his eyes.
"He can't do that anymore." She informed him, her voice was much smoother than she expected, "He can only ask for permission to appear when he has truly valuable information." She brought her gaze back to the man in the mirror who looked at the pair with jealousy plain in his eyes.
Regina felt a kick of wickedness rush through her veins when an idea dawned on her. She smirked and turned to face the outlaw. She leaned forward so their lips almost met. Her fingers came up and caressed his jaw ever so lightly while she licked her lips looking down at his own. She felt the tip of her tongue nearly make contact with his own lips and grinned at him. She traced a single finger on his cheek and slurred, "We'll finish it later."
All the man could do was nod, his eyes glued to her lips as she grinned one more time and turned back to face the genie. She arched an unimpressed brow and said, "This better be good."
It took the figure inside the mirror a moment to gather his wits about him. Regina's small demonstration of affection towards the outlaw had its desired effects on him. He was disgusting and foul, he deserved it.
The former genie shook his head after a beat and said, "Oh it is, your majesty!" he was suddenly overly excited to share and Regina felt sick, why did she allow that horrific creature to linger anyway?
Regina simply huffed and waited. The image in her mirror shifted, the pitiful face of the genie melting away to display the image of what seemed to be a group of people walking in the moonlight at the woods. Upon further inspection, Regina could see that in the middle, the tallest of the bunch was none other than Snow White. The men around her were short and odd looking, not exactly human per say. She squinted and came to the conclusion that they were in fact dwarves, mine dwarves.
"Now she's cavorting with dwarves?" she found herself asking.
"When did that happen?" The outlaw was still beside her looking intently at the mirror, she brought her eyes from the mirror and met his as he continued, "Wasn't she only three nights ago paying Prince Charming nightly visits?" He sounded confused.
"Maybe your perception of true love is dulled thief," she told him with sarcasm, turning back to inspect the scene in the mirror.
"I don't know about her-" he bit back, "But he seemed pretty stupidly taken with her-"
But Regina was barely listening to him at this point, she was more preoccupied in studying Snow's face on the image. At first, she had a small smile on her cherry red lips, but Regina quickly noticed the smile was a sad one, and soon a tear trailed its way down the girl's impossibly pale cheek. Even though she could not hear what was being said, Regina knew what heartbreak looked like, and the lack of light in Snow's eyes, her too pale cheeks and seemingly bland expression gave away her true disposition.
The outlaw was still speaking, "-she's way too vanilla for my taste, I mean-"
An evil smile creeped about her lips, anticipation filled her as her heart started pounding fast inside her chest. She did not know how much of George's story was actually true, but she could see heartbreak in Snow's green eyes, and that was reason enough for Regina to rejoice.
She interrupted the outlaw's monologue with a mere whispered comment that made his talking cease at once, "She's crying Robin."
"What did you say?" he asked in a quiet tone, the atmosphere between the two of them shifted all of a sudden. She felt his strong presence beside her as he turned to face her. He placed his hand on her small back ever so softly, just resting it there; the spark between them startled Regina, and made her gasp in surprise and fear.
She jumped away from his hand but turned to face him, trying to conceal her emotions behind a cold mask, "She's crying-" she repeated herself while pointing at the mirror and the man's gaze followed her finger, "-can't you see?"
"Yes-" he frowned.
She looked at the image of Snow and the little men once more but the venomous glee of the moment suddenly vanished, "Wait!" Her eyes widened looking at the image with a slightly maniac intensity. She could hear the outlaw's irritation in the huff he produced, but she was far too preoccupied with what she saw than with his disposition, "This is-" she squinted at the image, "This has happened in the evening time, this is not happening right now-" she took in a deep breath and spoke in a commanding voice, "When was this?"
The face of the genie reappeared on the mirror, "Last night."
"Last night?" Regina nearly screamed at him, anger taking hold of her sanity, she felt like lunging at the mirror and smashing it with her own bare hands, "You knew the location of Snow White last night and you didn't deem it important to tell me?" she felt as if fire was going to come off her ears, mouth and nose.
"Forgive me your majesty-" he stuttered, "I, I-"
"YOU WHAT?" Regina was pretty sure her face had turned red.
"I tried to contact you my Queen, but-" by the look of fright on his face, he would have backed several steps if he had the legs and body to do so, "-but I couldn't. The magical agreement we made did not allow me to since you had company." He eyed the outlaw with a mix of loathing and jealousy in his eyes that had immediate effects on the man in question, who took a step forward. "Whatever that man was doing to you, it enabled me to approach, maybe you should rethink-" but he was cut off by Robin who no doubt would deliver an extensive amount of colorful words at the man in the mirror or maybe give it another punch.
Regina was surprised when the words that tumbled from his lips were of a protective nature, "I'm sure that the Queen has very good reasons for such restrictions." He arched a defying brow at the mirror who scolded back at him but said nothing.
She had not even noticed that he had actually stepped in front of her in order to deliver the words to the mirror, she was momentarily stunned by the nature of his words. There was something odd emanating from him, something warm and protective that Regina had discovered the night before that he was capable of sharing.
The small spell was broken when the mirror's voice sounded again, he seemed a bit too confident for his own good, "I could-" he started, looking at Regina with mischief in his dark eyes, she felt sick, "-keep on looking for her your majesty." He tilted his head a little wanting to sound superior, "You do know I'm your best chance at finding her. Maybe we could come to another sort of agreement with more flexible rules." He smirked when he finished and Regina was pretty sure the outlaw was about to punch the mirror had she not placed her hand on his shoulder.
Regina was so sick, so tired of having people want to use her. She suddenly felt very angry, somehow she could feel Robin was angry too, she could feel it emanated from him, she could feel it suddenly invading her body through the hand she had on his shoulder, his own singular brand of rage started coursing through her veins. Upon impulse, Regina extended the other hand and somehow managed to grasp the genie's throat even if he was inside the mirror.
"You will keep on looking for her," she said in between gritted teeth, gripping his throat a little tighter for good measure, "-for that was your vow and your duty." She squeezed harder, "Do not try my patience, as of late, it has been running thin rather fast."
She gave him one mighty squeeze with abnormal force her magic created that should have done some permanent damage if he were made of flesh and bone.
The man managed to choke out an answer that seemed like a "Yes, your majesty" and Regina took a deep breath before she released him. He gasped for air with his eyes wide with terror.
"Now tell me where she was last night!" she roared.
"A-" he still struggled for air, it took him a few moments to compose himself, "She was-" he took a generous intake of breath, "Not far from here. She has apparently been with the dwarves ever since she left King George's castle." He informed her, "They had some business at one of the villages in your very kingdom last night, in this house."
Regina's eyes were glued to the reflection as the image changed to show the insides of a humble house, most of the furniture was made out of wood, a lot of hideous crochet art hung about the curtains, sofa and tables, some might say it was cozy, but Regina was not one of those people. There was an old lady with gray hair pinned up carelessly above her head sitting on a rocking chair. She was a little on the heavy side and wore half-moon glasses on the tip of her nose, was knitting and seemed completely immersed in her activity.
"This is where I last spotted Snow White-" the genie's voice sounded, "-she spoke to the young woman who lives in this house in hushed tones and in the dark. I could not see the young woman's face very well, only that she wore a blood red cape."
As soon as the genie stopped speaking, as if on cue, the old woman's head snapped up, she sniffed something in the air and she dropped her needles at once. She reached out for the other side of the chair, and before Regina knew it, was pointing a crossbow at the mirror the genie was using to broadcast the image. The connection was lost.
"I apologize your majesty-" the genie's face was again inside the mirror, much to Regina's dismay, "She must have sensed the magic somehow-" He stuttered, Regina lifted her hand in a dismissive way, tired of his ramblings and the man added quickly. "I do not know which village that was, but from what I could overhear, it has been suffering werewolf attacks."
Regina regarded him with distaste, "You don't." she told him, "But I do." She had had enough, "Be gone!" she waved her hand and that annoying man's image was finally gone from her presence.
There was a moment of silence in which Regina thought of what she could do with this newfound information. Snow was clearly upset, there was definitely something going on between her and Prince James, the pretender. Regina had to do something about those newfound allies of hers, the dwarves and plain looking peasants that somehow could smell magic. This was not good. Regina had to know what she would be up against.
"I need to send out a scout, a spy to learn more about these people and maybe even find out Snow's hideout-" she thought aloud, the outlaw hummed to her statement and she turned around to meet his eye, "I am pretty sure that old bag with a crossbow knows something."
"It would appear so," he had placed two fingers to his lips, "since the meeting with the red capped girl was inside the old bag's house-" His gaze shifted from her for a beat as he regarded the broken mirror once more. "I wouldn't underestimate her though, you saw how quickly she went from sweet grannie to 'I may be old but I still can handle a crossbow'."
"I would have to send someone good, someone I can trust." He cleaned his throat and Regina tilted her head to the side a little and continued to speak, "It can't be you!"
"Why on earth not?" he pretended to be wounded as his voice went up a little bit, "I can be rather charming if I want to be, you know." He gave her a far too dashing smile, "I'll get all the information you need and more. You won't need to use that mirror thing anymore."
She huffed a laugh at his words, "You forget you have left behind a rather long trail of 'innocent' blood, even before you came into my service. And now you're mostly known as my heartless henchman, no one will trust you with any information about Snow White-"
"Oh!" he interrupted her and lifted his finger, "Does that mean that you trust me?"
Her eyes widened and an icy insecure feeling took over for a second, she knew she had grown paler, she felt her face cold and her hands turn into fists.
He was no idiot, even though she had not said anything, he noticed the shift in her disposition.
"I won't turn on you," he told her, his tone also had changed completely, he was dead serious and for some strange reason Regina knew that he spoke the truth.
Or maybe you are far too involved to tell the difference between a lie and the truth. Haven't you considered that possibility dearie? That annoying impish voice mocked, giggled that atrocious laugh and Regina felt like punching it.
She gave him an icy stare, her face was hard, "You'd better not." She tried to sound as emotionless as possible.
"I won't." he gave her simply, his eyes vibrated with something different, "You have my word."
For a moment Regina could only stare at him, at how absolutely serious he was about what he was saying, even though he did not seem to have a drop of honor left in him – or so she thought – he was giving her his word, and she found herself believing him.
She finally nodded and he exhaled through his mouth producing an exasperated noise.
There was a brief silence between them until he broke it, "It's going to be hard finding a person who fits the description."
She had to agree, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're right-" she started pacing while she ran through a list of people she might use, "It has to be someone common, someone they won't even notice." She wet her lips, "And yet someone who is skilled enough to extract the information without those dumbass allies of Snow not even noticing-"
She stopped mid sentence and stopped her pacing altogether.
How could have she been so stupid?
If you want a job well done, you have to do it yourself. Otherwise, you end up with barking mad blind witches staining the carpets of your castle with their filthy blood.
She smirked victoriously and the outlaw frowned at her, confused.
"I've got it." She beamed.
"You do?" he asked, still looking a little perplexed.
"I'll go." She gave him simply.
He laughed and Regina felt like shoving a fireball down his throat, "Your majesty, with all due respect, but, no matter how your techniques of persuasion are-" he cleaned his throat, "-effective. I don't think they'll be too eager to share the information with you."
"I know that you buffoon," she rolled her eyes at him, "Which is why old Granny won't see this face when I speak to her." Regina called on her magic. The spell she had used only the day before on Hansel and Gretel, the glamour that would give her another face. The golden yellow, shimmery smoke engulfed her face and she could hear the outlaw release a small gasp.
The smoke cleared and the man's frown only deepened when he saw her face again.
"What?" Regina asked, patting her own face, "Do I have a mole?"
He chuckled and told her, "No, you look exactly the same."
Before Regina could say anything, another voice rang about the room, a voice that normally only Regina could hear, for it haunted her thoughts along with several others.
"He's right dearie-'' as soon as the impish tone reached her ears, Regina turned sharply towards the sound.
Rumpelstiltskin sat on top of a large wardrobe with his legs crossed, his disgusting looking golden skin shining and that irritating smirk on his lips, as if he had all the answers. Regina was reluctant to admit that he probably did, he had been the one who taught her most of the magic she knew, like this spell that had just gone wrong for some reason.
"What do you want, Rumpel?" Regina asked, annoyed, she did not feel like making deals with that imp. She suddenly felt the thief's presence beside her and looked at him confused. His face was hard, his hands were in fists and his eyes threw daggers at the small but powerful man sitting on the wardrobe.
"Why-" he gesticulated with his hands in a flamboyant way, "I want to help you of course!" he gave her with an air of faked innocence.
"I don't need your help," Regina spat back at him.
"Oh, I think you do-" he uncrossed his legs and had an odd glint in his horribly dark eyes, "Even your little boyfriend could tell your magic was ineffective." He giggled and Regina swallowed hard and gritted her teeth at that infernal term 'boyfriend', it was the second time someone had referred to him as such and for some reason, it made her mad. She could feel the man beside her grow angrier as well.
The imp had the nerve to smile down at them and continued, "You see, the spell you just used works to make your features change to one person alone. The rest of the world will still see you as you truly are." He giggled. Robin made to take a step forward but she stopped him with a light touch of the back of her hand to his middle. "Quite effective to use it on those two mice so their father could never see their true faces-" he gave her a look that seemed as if he knew about everything, "-but not very helpful when you're trying to go by unnoticed."
Regina arched an unimpressed brow, kicking herself inwardly for forgetting of such an important detail, "I don't need your help Rumple-" she smirked, "-I can just brew a-"
"Don't take me for a fool dearie-" he interrupted her, his tone grew rather serious, "-you as well as I know that Polyjuice will take you a month to brew. And I am pretty sure you are not willing to wait that long to get your clutches on your stepdaughter, her trail will be long gone by then." He crossed his arms about his chest, waiting for her response.
Damn him
Regina huffed, "Let me guess-" she licked her lips, "You can teach me the spell that will shapeshift me to all eyes instead of just one pair."
"Oh no dearie-" he laughed, placing his palms on his twiggy thighs, "-neither I nor you has time for all that as well." He spoke with pompousness now as he placed one hand to his chest proudly, "I can cast the spell on you." He gauged for her reaction for a few seconds but Regina chose to remain like a stone. Like hell I am going to let him place a spell on me, she thought. He took in a breath to speak again but was cut by the outlaw's voice.
"For a price." The man sounded angry, and Regina's head shot in his direction, she was more surprised than mad at the fact that he had interrupted. He tilted his chin up a little, "What's the catch?"
"How very observant of you," the imp turned his dark gaze towards the thief for the first time since he had made his presence known. Regina could sense a heavy amount of animosity between the two of them and could not help but wonder why.
There was a moment of silence in which both men held each other's gaze, Regina looked from one to another and broke the silence, "Well?"
"My maid" the imp said, still looking at the outlaw, "Where is she?" he then turned his head ever so slowly towards Regina, like a viper waiting to pounce.
Oh, the girl, Regina thought, Rumple's apparent weak spot who resided in one of Regina's many prison cells.
Regina decided to play dumb, "That girl I met on the road?" she asked innocently, twisting her face in mockery, showing Rumple she knew only too well what that girl meant to him. "What was her name? Margie? Berna?"
"Belle" to her surprise, the outlaw's voice was the one to utter the correct name, as he was standing a few feet behind her, Regina turned to face him and gave him a look that told him to shut the hell up before he ruined everything. His eyes were oddly hard, but he seemed to grasp what she meant.
"Right," she gave the outlaw before spinning back to face Rumple who was no longer sitting on the wardrobe but standing a couple of paces away from her. She regarded him for a beat, "You can rest assured I had nothing to do with that tragedy."
The imp's eyes grew impossibly large but he did not move otherwise, his hands clenched each other in his front and he stood uncomfortably straight, "What tragedy?" his lips barely moved when he spoke.
Regina smirked and huffed out a small mocking laugh, "You really don't know?" she felt dark pleasure invade her very soul as she came up with a twisted and awful tale to tell the imp. He deserved it. Regina was pretty much aware of the fact that he had tricked her, had been tricking her all this time in order for her to surrender to her dark side, for her to yield dark magic and let it consume her. He had succeeded in making a monster out of Regina. She did not know the reasoning behind it, why he had done this to her. But she knew that he deserved to suffer for it.
"She went back home only to find out her fiancé was missing. He had mysteriously disappeared after he had set off on a journey to rescue her from you." She told her tale and the imp listened inventively. "She sought refuge with her father, but-" she licked her lips, loving the tension she had built hanging in the air, feeding in the agony she knew Rumple was feeling, "-he cut her off, shunned her and disowned her."
"She's-" Rumple spoke in a small voice Regina hardly recognized, "She's alone, then?" she could hear traces of hope in his tone, "She needs a home?"
Oh, she was going to enjoy this.
"Her own father had her seized the moment she set foot into his castle." She delivered with certainty, Regina knew she could lie her way around anything, "She was accused of having murdered her own fiancé because of her association with you." Regina made sure to emphasize that last word and saw that it hit hard on the little man in front of her, "Her father locked her up in a tower and had clerks cleanse her soul with scorching floggings and several other nasty rituals her silly people believe in." Regina could trace terror, misery, despair and disbelief dance about the imp's eyes, it had worked.
"After a few days she threw herself off the tower." Regina delivered her last blow as if it was nothing, "She died."
The silence that followed that moment was heavy and uncomfortable, but nevertheless Regina felt victorious. Let that despicable man experience a little of the utter misery she had to go through all her life.
"You're lying" he pointed his slightly crooked and glittery green finger at her.
"Am I?" she shot back at him with so much conviction she herself would have believed it.
His finger dropped and so did his head, that was a very first for Regina to witness. The great Rumpelstiltskin hanging his head, defeated.
"Well, I complied with my end of the bargain." Regina's voice cut down the silence.
Rumple did not move a muscle for a moment. He then lifted his head and looked straight at the outlaw, who stood a few feet behind her, something strange danced about his eyes. He then flexed his fingers and a golden, thick smoke suddenly engulfed Regina's entire frame. For the first few seconds she was afraid he had set off something other than what she had asked, as revenge for that unfortunate tale, for she felt the cold and as if the mist had found its way under her skin, making her shiver.
When the smoke cleared, she was oddly sure he had used the right spell on her. She looked down at her hands to find her skin had grown a few shades darker. She was no longer wearing her fine silks but simple corseted brown dress. Her hands felt at her waist and she could feel as well as see that she was still slim, her breasts felt a little bigger. Her fingers slid up and touched at her hair, it was thicker and curlier, much shorter than before, but still pitch black. Her fingers slipped about her features and she could feel she was still young – no wrinkles to be accounted for – her jaw line still thin and feminine, but she knew she was definitely different.
"You will need to call on me to undo the spell," Rumple's voice rang again, he looked deeply wounded, like he was hurting very badly on the inside, but there was a dangerous glimmer in his eye Regina could not understand, "We're done here." And with that he disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke.
There was a moment of silence in which Regina ran her hands about her new cotton frock trying to soothe the wrinkles it came with. She had her back turned to the outlaw but she could hear him shift from one foot to the other.
"Why did you say that to him?" his voice finally broke the silence, "The girl is alive, you know that. She's here, I brought her to you." He really did not get it. She should not expect him to, she had disclosed some things about her to him the night before, but not everything, not this.
Regina inspected her new hands again and shrugged wondering how she looked. She turned to face him with an answer on her lips, but it died as soon she heard the loud gasp he released and saw the expression on his face.
He tripped backways looking absolutely haunted, as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes were huge with astonishment as he looked her up and down, he had grown rather pale with terror.
"What?" Regina brought her hands to her face, wondering what was wrong. The man before her looked downright shocked, utterly petrified, Rumpelstiltskin must have done an awful job on her features to justify the look of horror in the outlaw's face. "Is it that bad?" she asked and noticed that she still had her own voice, which was very odd.
Regina turned away from him, who stood petrified on the spot, and walked to the full-length mirror in order to inspect herself. The dress was incredibly simple, awfully brown and common, which was not much to Regina's liking. But beyond that, she looked rather decent, dare she say it, even pretty. Rumpelstiltskin had given her the face of a woman that had to be near Regina's own age, her skin was a little darker, her features were gentle and attractive. Her hair was shorter and a little of it was done up in a simple hairdo. Regina kept on looking for something wrong, but could not seem to find any fault with her disguise, only that maybe she was far too good looking to go by unnoticed by the crowd.
She spun on her heel to face the still petrified looking man once more, "What the hell is wrong with you?" she was growing rather impatient, his eyes roamed about her figure almost desperately, still mouth slightly agape.
"You still sound like you, not-" his voice came out weak, almost a whisper.
Regina frowned at his tone but had to acknowledge what he had just stated, "Yes," she sighed, placing her hands on her hips, "I'm going to have to be careful about that." She continued more to herself.
Even though the thief was in some manner of distress over her looks, Regina could not see it being too serious, maybe it was just the shock after seeing the dark one's magic. She had more important things to worry about. How she was going to get to that village and find the house of the crossbow old lady. And most importantly, how on earth was she going to extract the precious information from the old bag. She clearly was more than met the eye.
Regina pictured the whereabouts of the village she had seen in the mirror, picturing a solitary spot so she transported herself with magic. She called on her magic, and although she felt the bubbling energy of her dark sorcery, it did not reach the surface.
"Ugh not again!" she half whined, half yelped, "THAT IMP!" she nearly screamed. Of course, Rumpel had found a way to detain her magic with his own spell. How could she have been so stupid in letting him use magic on her?
She exhaled, trying to calm her nerves. Her head suddenly snapped in the direction of the thief, who no longer looked as if he had seen a ghost but had an unreadable expression on his face.
"In answering your previous question-" she told him bitterly, "-I told that imp that misfortunate tale because he deserved to suffer for it."
"And he deemed that I should suffer as well," Robin spoke in an odd tone.
Regina felt a stab in her heart and she did not even know why, "What is that supposed to mean?" she whispered dangerously.
He blinked a couple of times before placing both his hands in front of his middle and speaking with his normal, or at least faked normal tone, "Nothing, your majesty."
Regina regarded him for a good long beat, his face was hard and very difficult to read, it was as if he had built a wall, a barrier between her perception and his eyes, they did not betray him in the very least. She figured he had learned from her after all, whatever it was that he was trying to hide, she would eventually find out.
She huffed and told him, "Grab my arm."
"What?" he asked confused, "Why?"
"Because my castle is way too well guarded you idiot," she squinted a little when she spoke, as if stating the obvious, "Guards, maids and pageboys know who is from the castle, and this face-" she made a round movement near her face with her hand, "-does not work in the castle."
…
He seemed stiff the whole way there. Not the good kind of stiff, but an odd, uncomfortable type of stiff, as if he was holding something very strong back. He would scarcely look at her, although that might have been part of the act of walking her out of the castle without raising suspicion.
Even though Regina's magic was not able to surface, another thing most certainly did, fear. The idea of being out there in the world without her magic made Regina grateful for the fact that she was not wearing her own face. Fear also came on the account of the thief, who was acting odd, especially since this was right after they had spent a far too revealing night together and now she just happened to have no powers at her disposal.
He had insisted they went by his chambers before heading down to Regina's desired location. She did not know what he wanted in his rooms, for she was left standing by the door outside, but the man did not take a minute inside, quickly emerging, grabbing her arm and resuming their journey. Not a word was uttered.
The day was infuriatingly sunny, and yet a cold breeze soothed the heat of the Sun. They arrived at the stables and Regina was glad to notice that the earth was dry and there were very little clouds in the sky, no mud, she would get to the village faster.
He still had her seized by her upper arm which was rather uncomfortable but necessary, they had to keep appearances. Robin nodded at the stable hand in charge, the man quickly bowed his head and left the place, there did not seem to be anybody else inside but the horses.
"Anybody there?" The thief spoke loudly, but no reply came.
Since there was no one else around, she quickly freed herself from his burning grip and guided him through the straw covered corridors. Regina knew the place almost like the back of her hand, having spent a lot of time there when she was young, especially late at night when sleep would not come, and the prying eyes of the stable hands were not on her.
Upon passing by an empty stall, Regina remembered something that made a small smile crack on her lips. She stopped on her tracks, making the thief almost run into her.
He looked puzzled at the empty space, "Are you seriously taking the ghost horse?" he asked.
"Ghost horse?" she turned to him with that small smile still on her lips and could see how much it affected him.
He turned his gaze from her and regarded the empty stall while speaking, "It's just a silly story the stable hands came up with to explain-" his tone was final, as if he did not want to talk about it anymore, or maybe just not talk to her. He continued anyway after she hummed in agreement to what he had just said, "They say there's a horse ghost living in this stall, no one can get a single animal to come near it."
Regina chuckled, "That's because there is-" she waved her hand about the empty space praying that she could at least show him what was beneath her spell. She was victorious, for there appeared a full-grown horse with shiny chocolate brown hair. He was laying on the ground on his side, just as she had left him all those years ago. His tongue was slightly hanging out of his mouth and once beautiful chocolate brown eyes wide open.
The man beside her gasped and asked in a half whisper, "Is it dead?"
"Actually no," Regina said conversationally, "He's only asleep actually."
"It does not look asleep," the man regarded the horse as if it was from another world.
"But it is-" she told him, "You see, I myself cursed him. This was Snow's second horse, she discarded her first horse when it took a better liking to me than her-" she smirked and added, "-much like her betrothed." She huffed out a laugh, looking up at the ceiling and thinking of Jamie for a second before she continued, "This, second beast, was a prize winner, special breed, came to Snow already fully grown and trained. She loved him." Regina spat the word love like it was venom, she turned to the thief who still regarded the still animal.
"Leopold took this animal from its owner." She continued bitterly, "As all Kings take what does not belong to them because they think they were born with that right." She took a deep breath, "The young woman's name was Renée and I heard that she cried for three days straight after they took her best friend. I even went to see it for myself-" the man turned to her with puzzlement in his expression, "She was distraught and rightly so, her parents seemed to think it was some sort of blessing that the King would prize anything of theirs. I wanted to give Renée her horse back but knew that was impossible, so I gave her instead a precious stone the King had presented to me that would feed her for this and another lifetime."
"Meanwhile, Snow amused herself with her new toy and Gods-" she was silent for a moment looking up at the ceiling remembering, "-you see,-" she turned to the man once more, looked him right in the eye while telling him, "-I do hate her. So I decided to try out the curse I had fantasized about using on her, on her precious pet."
By the point the thief's mouth was hanging slightly ajar, "Which is?" he managed to ask.
"Neither life nor death, an eternal middle. Eternal sleep being haunted by your worst nightmares-" she spoke with gusto, loving the way his shock was evident in his wide eyes, Regina added, "Well, at least for the first hundred years or so, after that I have no idea what happens. The first person to fall under it has been asleep for five or so years now."
"That sounds-" he spoke again seemingly trying to take all that information in, Regina expected him to say 'vicious', 'awful', 'interesting' but he surprised her again, "-fitting."
"You really think so?" she asked him, truly curious.
"Yes-" he himself seemed a bit puzzled with his answer, "Don't know why, but it does."
"Glad I have your approval," she spoke again. Regina waved her hand and the image of the 'sleeping' horse became invisible again. She did not give the thief a second glance before turning away from the stall and walking towards another, "I would have done it anyway even if you hadn't liked it."
They finally arrived at the stall she was interested in, one she had made extra large and extra comfortable for the one who for a very long time had been her only friend in the world, Rocinante.
"There's a beauty." She heard his voice behind her.
"Rocinante" she said, not looking back at him but taking an apple from a bag just outside the stall and unlocking the door.
"Pardon?" she heard him reply.
"His name is Rocinante." she explained while getting inside the stall. Roci gave her the oddest look and Regina had to kick herself inwardly. Obviously, her old friend found it odd that a strange woman would simply walk into her stall. Regina kept her distance but smiled at the horse, bringing the apple up so Rocinante could see it.
"Roci, it's me." She spoke in the tone Rocinante was used to, sweet and easy. She had to thank her lucky stars she had retained her voice.
Rocinante soon realized that the woman standing by with an apple was in fact her oldest friend.
Regina had to wonder how animals saw the world, she had always been of the opinion that they could see things we could not, they could see into our souls, and that, no matter how good a disguise you wear, never changes. Roci accepted the apple and Regina sighed while she caressed her old friend's side.
The easy silence was broken by the outlaw, "Your majesty," Regina looked at him with an absent minded smile on her lips that seemed to once again daunt the man. He cleared his throat looking at the floor and continued, "A word?"
Regina huffed but complied, leaving Rocinante to enjoy her apple while she exited the stall and met the men just outside, "What?"
He lifted his shirt and the first thing that came to Regina's mind was that he was far too daring for her liking. She wasn't going to do anything inappropriate like this, and most certainly not in front of her horse!
Her ideas were quickly changed when he simply collected a dirk that he had been hiding under his shirt and held it out for her to take.
"Here." He told her, "Take it, you don't have your magic to protect yourself, at least take some sort of weapon." She took the dirk on reflex for it was being held in front of her, but truth be told, Regina was quite surprised he would think of this.
No rude remarks, no snappy comment came to her mind, the weapon was small but Regina knew it could be quite lethal in the right hands. The handle was carved with some interesting if not pretty designs, the blade was sharp but not razor sharp.
She finally looked up from the dirk at him and half whispered, "Thank you"
She did not wait to hear whatever he was going to say and turned away from him, placing the weapon skillfully in between her breasts and went about to start prepping her Rocinante for riding.
The outlaw stood outside the now opened stall looking rather baffled as she went on to strap on the gear and things. She could feel his eyes burn on her back and was trying very hard not to think of him at all, to concentrate on the task at hand, but that was proving to be very hard. Just as she was finishing up, he spoke again, "How on earth do you know how to do all that?" He sounded genuinely amazed.
Regina simply hummed while she gave the saddle one last pull in order to make sure it was strapped on firmly. She then stroked Rocinante's muzzle, closed her eyes for a second, and took a breath.
She was ready.
She quickly got on the horse and finally looked at the thief and smiled. He gave her a haunted look but said nothing. She led Rocinante out of the stall and passed him by, she turned back and gave him, "I told you I did not want to be a Queen," she did not know what possessed her to do it, but Regina winked at him before turning back and riding out of the stables and into the woods.