The prompts in this chapter include a trigger warning or two (mild, only mentions of it), so if you need the warning, it's at the end of the chapter.
Too many years as the Evil Queen meant that Regina wasn't used to sleeping on a hard surface of any kind. In fact, she hated it. While she had been dating Daniel, they would lie down in stacks of hay in the loft of the stables, exchanging secrets and kisses until she had to go to tea or some other frivolous event that her mother had planned. Since then, she had become accustomed to thick mattresses and fluffy pillows, warm blankets that she could snuggle into at night that were soft as kittens and far better than any man at keeping her warm- and didn't come with the added effort of pretending to feel things she would never experience again.
Given these truths, she should've known that she would be uncomfortable on the stone floor of Rumple's dungeon. However, she didn't realize just how uncomfortable she'd be. Time may have stood still for almost thirty years in Storybrooke, but now she was finally starting to feel the first signs of her true age. Her back ached so much that no matter how she tossed and turned in the tiny cell, she couldn't get comfortable.
"Let me guess, you can't sleep either?" a familiar voice suddenly asked.
All she did was grunt in reply. The moment she realized that her kiss that had woken him, was, in fact, true love's kiss, she had been avoiding him as much as possible. She knew that wouldn't last forever- after all, Roland still thought she was his mama (a situation she knew she needed to rectify as soon as possible). For now, though, she was perfectly content to live under the illusion that nothing had happened, that everything between her and the man with the lion tattoo was exactly as it had been before Zelena messed with his mind, which meant acting aloof toward him, even if she didn't want to do that at all. She wasn't the same woman who had burned villages to the ground anymore… she hoped. Her past was undeniable, unchangeable (as proven by the refusals she had gotten when she offered the cure to some people who now resided at the castle), but there had been moments with Roland and the Merry Men, even Robin, in the past few weeks when she had felt differentlu toward them than she had felt toward any of the Enchanted Forest's other residents. But that didn't mean that she had to act any particular way around him. Better for them all if she acted like nothing had happened.
"Really?" Robin scoffed. "You're just going to ignore me?"
"I have nothing to say," she said truthfully. Nothing that she wouldn't regret later. She already regretted waking him. He had been a thorn in her side ever since.
"Well I do, so you can just listen then. My leg hurts. A lot. In all my years of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, I've never experienced pain like this. There's a fire running through my leg, and it feels like it won't stop until it's left nothing but destruction in its wake. Can't you get us out of here so I can have Tuck treat it?"
That was the last straw. He was an idiot. An absolute idiot. "Didn't you see her put this cuff on my wrist?" she snapped. "Between that and the fact that Rumple himself built these cells, there's no chance of us getting out of here unless Zelena wants us to- and I'm sure she'll never want that. My unhappiness plays directly into her plot, I guarantee it. No matter how long it lasts."
"Well, can you figure it out?" Robin demanded. "I really need to get back to my son. His birthday is in a week, and if we're both not there for him…" There was silence for a moment, and she could practically see him shaking his head. "It'll be a disaster."
"Both of us?" she asked, astonished. She would have thought that while yes, he trusted her with his son to an extent, he would send Roland to find her when he needed a break instead of doing an activity together. Even the hint of the suggestion that they would do something together was more than she had dared to hope for. It was like the Robin that Zelena had created with that potion was back, and she didn't dare hope that he would stay. She knew this part of him- and her never-ending streak of unhappy endings- too well for that.
"Yes, both of us. You don't think I would deny him the company of the woman he thinks is his mother, do you?" He was silent for a moment, then inquired, "By the way, why does my son still believe that? I'm a bit surprised you haven't found a cure by now."
"Me?" she repeated, her tamper flaring. "Do you really think I've had time for that?" Everyone is expecting me to do everything: Will wants me to help him find Ana, and we need to escape these cells and defeat Zelena- and I'm the only one here with magic. I lost my son and I miss him so much it's a physical pang in my chest. And on top of everything, something that I didn't expect to work did, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I'm hanging on by a thread, and I just can't do it anymore.
"Well, you could have tried," he bit back. "Do you at least know what she used?"
"I do- in loco matris," she told him, smug that she could at least give him that. "I just haven't figured out a cure yet." And I'm not sure I want to, she confessed silently. For better or worse, Roland had a piece of her heart now- as did his father, though there was no way she would ever tell him that.
"Well that's something," he mumbled.
There was a long pause, when Regina became convinced that Robin had fallen asleep, but then she heard him ask, "How did you save me from the sleeping curse? And saving me from that flying monkey- why did you do it?"
She was struck silent by his questions. She had no idea what to say. There was no part of her that wanted to confess the whole truth, but he deserved some version of it, didn't he? Finally, she settled on a half-truth. "I broke the curse the only way I knew how. As for the flying monkey… I couldn't bear the thought of Roland losing the only biological parent he has left."
"You love him, don't you?" he asked, his smile evident even in the dark.
With a small laugh she confessed, "I do. I still miss my son more with every passing day, but he makes the loss… bearable, at least."
He didn't say anything after that, and she tried once more to sleep. However, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't do it. No position was comfortable, and had it been this cold the whole time? She found herself shivering, and she wished more than anything that she could make a fire to keep herself warm.
Robin didn't make things any easier. He constantly whined about his leg and the temperature. There was a part of her that wanted more than anything to silence him so she could try to get some beauty sleep, and part of her that wanted to fix everything troubling him. It was the same debate that had plagued her ever since she had woken him. Yes, he had woken because of the true love's kiss she gave him, but did that really mean anything? The feelings that had been consuming her must have been just because of the accidental love potion Zelena made him drink and the effects of that on his character, nothing more.
Still, that didn't mean she enjoyed seeing him suffer. Squinting through the darkness, she could see that he was shivering just as much as she was. There was no need for them both to be uncomfortable- not when she could do something about it, even if she wanted to recoil from even the thought of the idea.
Standing, she walked the two paces it took to reach him. "I think I know how to fix this."
Even in the darkness around them, with the mere inches of space between them, she could see his eyes light up. "For my leg? Really?"
She sighed. "No. You're cold, and so am I. We should sleep as close as we can to each other so we're both warmer." Her heart was in her throat as she said it. Would he be too repulsed by the Evil Queen to do this, even if it was what was best for both of them?
"All right," he responded to her surprise.
Slowly, she sank down next to him and turned on her side. She couldn't resist facing him so she could take advantage of the opportunity to see his face up close, to stare into those endless sapphire pools.
He chuckled. "If you want us both to be warmer, you'll have to get closer than that."
"Are you sure you want to be so close to the Evil Queen?" she asked, trepidation in her voice.
"I've been in your castle for long enough that I'm not sure evil is the best word to describe you. I don't know what word to use instead yet… but evil may not be quite right."
She inched even closer and reluctantly turned so her back was to him. She didn't expect anything, no arm around her, no fingers running through her hair. Robin wasn't under the influence of a potion that forced him to love her now, after all. So she was surprised when he asked her to lift her head so he could allow her to use his arm as a pillow. All she could feel was his warm breath on her neck as he exhaled, the rhythm soothing enough to calm her.
However, just as she had suspected, that didn't solve her other problems. The floor was still impossibly hard beneath her side, and their new proximity did nothing to ease the pain in Robin's leg. He moaned sporadically throughout the night, and she kept quietly shushing him, trying her best to be nothing but soothing.
It was impossible to know what time it was in that impenetrable darkness. In what Robin assumed was the first hours of a new day, he heard doors open and shut.
To his surprise, it was Zelena herself who stood at the bars of their cell. He immediately understood why the witch had personally come to them when suddenly, she raised her hands and a green light shone, rendering Regina immobile. He could see in her eyes that she couldn't even open her lips to exchange taunts with her sister, but she really wanted to.
He realized what a compromising position Zelena had found them in (somehow, his arm had found its way around her waist in the night, the consequences of which he suspected he'd suffer as soon as the witch was gone) when the queen's sister said, "Oh, did you sleep together just to keep each other warm? I know you love him, sis, but does he?"
Robin's eyes widened as he turned to look at Regina. Did she love him? No… it couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Even with all he knew she had done for himself and Roland… she had said it herself: she had done it all for his son, not for him.
Zelena laughed. "Oh, this is delicious! You didn't tell him, sis?" She cackled again. "Well, you must love her too, and now, you'll suffer for it."
Robin had no idea what she was talking about. Love? He certainly didn't hate the Evil Queen, but he also knew what love felt like, and while he tolerated her, his feelings were nowhere near what he had felt for Marian, and he sincerely doubted that she felt that way toward him. Otherwise, why would she act the way she had toward him?
Before he could even begin to determine the answer, he was being yanked off the floor. He tried to fight back- after all, nowhere she could be leading him would end well for him- but his bad leg made fighting with his full strength impossible.
With a flick of Zelena's wrist, he saw that Regina was able to move again. She ran toward them, but before she could act on whatever plan she had concocted, the cell door slammed shut behind them. Where they were going, Robin didn't know, but he knew that nothing that the witch did to him would be good.
Regina spent the entire time that Zelena had Robin pacing the tiny perimeter of their cell. Every bad thing that had happened to him and each injury he accumulated, including breaking his leg in the flying monkey attack, was entirely her fault, and it was all because Zelena thought she loved him. That obviously hadn't been the truth at first, but now…
It was best not to dwell on that. What she needed to focus on was discovering Zelena's plan. Surely there had to be some method to the madness, some scheme that she wasn't aware of. Everything up to this point had seemed random, but there had to be something she wanted other than to destroy Regina's happiness (what little scraps of it she had at the moment). Zelena was too clever, too cunning, for the circumstances to be otherwise.
Suddenly, she was frozen once more as the door opened and a stumbling Robin was pushed inside. He collapsed on the floor as the door slammed shut and Regina rushed over to help him.
"Are we even going to get food and water?" she called out. Surely her sister wouldn't want her to starve… right?
"We'll see," that infuriatingly sweet voice replied. "Soon, it won't matter. You won't be around. In fact," she added with a laugh, "you won't even have been born."
With that ominous remark, she left and Regina was left to puzzle over her words and tend to Robin. With her help, he was able to hobble over to the far wall of the cell and sit down against it. If she thought he seemed miserable the night before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. The light of the torch (which Zelena had unfortunately taken with her, Regina lamented) had revealed that Robin's face was covered in bruises and burns that disappeared below the collar of his shirt. His face was bloody too, and she shuddered to think what had been done to him, but she asked for details anyway, wanting to show him that she cared.
He groaned. "Nothing I'm going to tell you. I'm sure you could handle it, knowing your past, but some things are just too painful to relive. You see the state I'm in now. Is that not enough?"
"True…" she mused, giving him a once-over. She desperately wished she had a cloth and some water at the very least so she could mop up the blood before it was caked on him and would be even more difficult to clean up. She reached out and gently touched the hem of his shirt. "May I? I want to assess the full extent of the damage."
He shrugged, nodding to show his approval of her plan. "Sure, but I don't know what you'll be able to do about it. You said it yourself: you don't have your magic thanks to the cuff, correct?"
Her shoulders sagged. "Yes," she admitted. "But I have to do something. I can't just sit here and let her torture you."
He smiled. "Even more proof that you're not the Evil Queen I once heard tales about."
She lifted the hem of his shirt and gasped. Whatever Zelena had done to him had left his chest red, each mark a long stripe against his skin. Bruises were starting to form as well. What these marks were from, she didn't know, but she knew it couldn't have been any easier for him than when Greg and Tamara tortured her- or the monstrosities her own mother had done to her, for that matter. "What can I do?" she whispered, staring at him intently to let him know that nothing was not an acceptable answer. She had to do something to ease his pain.
"Well, it doesn't seem that there's much either of us can do to stop her at the moment, but what you could do is distract me by telling me a story."
She laughed. "I can't imagine you'd enjoy any of the stories that I would tell Roland- or Henry when he was that age," she added quietly.
He smiled. "On the contrary, I'd love to hear legends from the Land Without Magic. However, if you don't want to share those, I do have another idea." He gestured to her lip- more specifically, to the scar that still sat there no matter what she tried to do to hide it. "How did you get that?"
She sighed and sat down next to him on the floor, her gown billowing out around her. "That's a long story- and like most of the stories I could tell you, it's not a happy one."
"Well, there's no need to worry about that- we have all the time in the world," he pointed out. "And I don't mind a bit of darkness. I've certainly had my share of it in the past. From Zelena alone-"
She frowned remembering what she had witnessed in his memories. Yes, she supposed that living with his father couldn't have been easy. If there was anyone who could maybe begin to understand the trials she had endured with her mother, it would be Robin. "I know, she's horrible, isn't she? I'm sorry she's dragged you into this."
"It's all right," he said. "I couldn't just let her terrorize you, not if there was something I could do about it, even if it was something small."
She nodded. "Trust me, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Our mother isn't much better."
Bracing herself for the pain the memories would cause, she took a deep breath and began, "I know you don't remember me telling you this, but growing up with my mother was… a daily trial, to say the least. One day when I was eight…" She paused. "It was my own fault, I suppose. By then, I should have known that provoking my mother was never the wisest course of action."
Somewhere in the middle of her self-critique, Robin's hand had reached out to cover hers. "Even if you had done the most terrible thing, nothing justifies a mother being cruel to her daughter. I've had to learn the same lesson myself many times over. I know it's not an easy one."
The tenderness of the gesture, the empathy and compassion in his words, made tears spring into her eyes and she had to fight back a sob. This was the Robin she remembered, the one who had comforted her on her birthday and been understanding about her desire for distance between them even when he was convinced that she was his wife.
To her everlasting mortification, it was immediately apparent that Robin had seen her tears. He reached out to brush them away with the tip of his finger. "It's all right. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
She sniffed and shook her head. "No, I… it's all right." She almost confessed that she wanted him to know, that he deserved to know, but she kept having to remind herself that Robin didn't remember anything that had happened since Zelena had altered his and Roland's memories. She wasn't going to tell him that she trusted him, it was too close to voicing the truth: that despite everything, she loved him. Zelena might have stolen revealing that from her, but she wouldn't voice it until she was ready.
"Regina, I know we may have had our differences. After all, you live in a castle and I've lived much of my life in the forest. However, that doesn't mean that I won't try to understand. If you trust me to keep your secrets, of course. I promise I'm better at keeping them than what I steal from people like Nottingham."
She couldn't help laughing a little at that. "I know, that's why I do want to tell you. It's just a little harder than you might think." Why was everything with this man so complicated?
He squeezed the hand he was still holding. "We have all the time in the world. Tell me when you're ready."
She took a couple of minutes to take a few deep breaths. She could do this. This was Robin, after all. Yes, there had been moments that he had annoyed her since he woke up, but he was kind and thoughtful too. "There were moments growing up when she would use her magic to punish me, which I hated. Being held several feet above the ground, not being able to breathe, isn't what I would call fun by any means."
She paused, and his grip on her hand tightened, giving her the strength she didn't know she needed. She liked to think of herself as an independent woman, but she had to admit that not being strong, relying on someone even this small amount, was better than she could have ever hoped for, especially given how her acquaintance with this particular man had begun.
Swallowing hard, she continued, "On this particular day, she had caught me spending time with my horse Rocinante, whom my father had given me for my birthday that year, and the stable boy, Daniel, who was teaching me to ride." She paused. Talking about Daniel was always hard. "She didn't approve, of course, she always focused on teaching me to be a lady- and ladies don't ride horses, Regina," she uttered, mimicking her mother perfectly if she did say so herself.
She continued, "At the time, I was supposed to be getting ready for tea with some of the women that my mother was forever trying to impress. Of course, there were never any children my own age at these events. The only people with children were the neighbors, and my mother considered them too lowly for me to associate myself with them. The same was true of Daniel."
At this point, there was a lump in her throat, but she made herself continue. In comparison, this deed was like bumping into something and getting a bruise compared to some of the other things her mother had done. "She- she used magic to make a cut on my lip. She said it wouldn't heal, that from then on no one would want to be around with a scar like the one she had given me." She laughed. "Now, it seems silly- after all, her goal was always to move my trajectory upwards. After all, she plotted not only the queen's murder but for me to save Snow so the king would marry me."
At Robin's horrified expression, she shook her head. "That's not even the worst of what she's done, trust me. Anyway, now it seems silly, but at the time, all I wanted was a friend, anyone who would just spend time with me and talk to me. So the idea that no one would…" She trailed off, and to her surprise, she saw tears in his eyes. Had the pain from whatever Zelena had done to him gotten worse?
At that moment, they were both frozen and a pail of water was thrown into the cell, the door slamming shut. Zelena didn't utter a word as she walked away, and Regina rushed over to the bucket, eager to have something to treat Robin's wounds, or at least make sure they were clean. She lifted the hem of her skirt a fraction and tore one of the ridiculous petticoats that were in style for the dresses of this realm. Why she hadn't done away with the things when she had taken up residence in the castle once more, she had no idea, but now she was grateful for her negligence.
She folded the torn rectangle and dipped it in the water, squeezing it once she had extracted it. "I'm going to try to clean out your wounds a little," she told Robin. "This might sting, but I want to make sure the cuts don't get infected." True, her dress wasn't the cleanest it had been, but it had to be better than nothing, right?
He gave her a long look as she gently pressed the wet cloth against him. "What Zelena said- it's true, isn't it? You saved me because you love me. How exactly did you save me from the sleeping curse?"
She froze. There was no avoiding the truth now, even though she had been trying to evade it, had been denying it from the second she realized he had woken from the sleeping curse. "True love's kiss," she whispered, looking away from him. She hated to think what he must think of her now. It was like she was fifteen again, confessing her feelings to Daniel. What did he think of her now?
During the entire time she had been torturing him, Robin had wondered why Zelena thought there was any connection between himself and the queen- Regina, as he was starting to think of her, given how much she had helped him in the last few days and weeks. Zelena's claim that Regina loved him had seemed ludicrous, though. Surely, she had done everything- saved him, cared for and protected Roland- for his son? Her affection for the youngest Merry Man was undeniable, always had been, which was part of the reason why Robin had trusted her with him for so long, no matter how much the others might have disagreed with him.
Seeing Regina's hesitation, hearing her confession that her true love's kiss had woken him, changed his view of her entirely. He didn't know if he returned the feelings she hadn't yet voiced, but he did know that he didn't want her to be ashamed of them. He reached out and put his finger under her chin, turning her head so his eyes could meet hers. She may not like it, but he was confident now that she wouldn't hurt him. "You are the bravest woman I have ever met, Your Majesty," he told her. "It takes so much courage to go through what you've been through, and to tell me what you just did."
Her face remained expressionless, but he could see in her eyes that she was apprehensive. "You don't feel the same. And… you can call me Regina."
His smile broadened. He knew he had to lighten the mood by teasing her. "I never thought I'd see the day that you would be all right for me to call you anything other than "Your Majesty, milady."
"You didn't answer the question," she pointed out. Never deterred, that one.
"I admit that I do not… yet," he added. "Though I must confess that the more time I spend with you, the more that's starting to change. When did you first realize you love me?"
She paused, and he wondered if even she knew the answer to that particular question. Truth be told, he couldn't remember exactly when he had fallen for Marian either. He had learned that love was gradual, rarely something that happened instantaneously. "You may not remember this, but on my birthday, you took the time to listen to me, even comforted me, even though memories of my birthdays in the past aren't the easiest to recollect. I think that was the first time I realized there was more to you than just an annoying thief who smelled like forest."
He chuckled and caressed her cheek, and she leaned into his hand. "What do we do now?" she asked.
Robin shrugged. "I know nothing about magic, but from what I've gathered, true love is the most powerful magic of all. No matter what your sister does to us, I know we'll get through it."
Zelena watched in her crystal ball as her sister healed Robin's wounds and the spoiled brat as good as confessed her true feelings for the thief- ones that Zelena, of course, had known she harbored. She hated that it looked like once again, the younger of the two sisters got everything and she got nothing.
She turned away from the crystal ball in a huff. Then suddenly, something on one of the many shelves that housed Rumple's magical objects caught her eye. She smiled, her eyes glinting with glee. She knew exactly how to wipe that smile off of Regina's face.
Prompts included in this chapter: 2) Robin/Regina protecting each other from a flying monkey attack, 15) OQ as parents, 22) Work on any wip/ the next chapter of a fic you started, 70) one of them is sick/injured & a bad patient, 96) Robin hurts his leg and is bed ridden. Regina sees how a sick Robin acts, 106) oq get trapped together somewhere during the missing year, 107) oq talking about when each of them realized they were in love with the other, 118) Regina tells Robin how she got the scar on her lip, 130) Missing Year: Roland's birthday, 151) Regina says "I love you" first, mentions of 162) One of them is tortured, the other cares for them after released from torture, 174) OQ have to bedshare to save body heat, 180) accidental love potion, 182) random act of kindness, 258) a common enemy, Personal: next chapter. I'm also going to include a mild trigger warning for mentioning the moments in early episodes when Cora lifts Regina in the air with magic and makes it hard for her to breathe, just in case people need it. Let me know what you think, hope you enjoyed this!