Day 3 (Wednesday) of OQ Prompt Party!

Prompt: #201| "Regina tells Robin that she saw his girlfriend cheating on him"

A/N: Firstly, this is kind of what happens after Regina tells him that his girlfriend cheated on him. Secondly, one of these days I'll stop writing Regina and Robin as best friends... but today's not one of those days. There will be a part two coming with Day 4 of OQPP!


It's their place and theirs alone.

A small little clearing deep in the woods with logs set up and a small fire pit in the middle; theirs. He didn't take any of his girlfriends there, just like she didn't take anybody. It's the place where they each go to breathe, to relax, to be one with nature, the air and that small spring a mile out east.

They'd stumbled upon that small clearing a couple of years ago, when they both had been fifteen and had started hiking through the woods, already gotten bored with spending their days either at his place or hers. Monotonous. Life had become monotonous for Robin of Locksley... even at the young age of fifteen.

So he had suggested a walk through the woods, something different, and fun, leaving behind marks as to easily trace their way back into the main road. And they'd found it, a small clearing just fifteen minutes in, dead trunks on the floor and a big boulder on the far right. That day they fixed the trunks as best as they could and sat for long hours until it was time to head back home. And ever since then, it'd become Robin and Regina's place to escape. Slowly they fixed it, cut down branches from the trunk, made a fire pit in front of log for those slightly chilly cold nights, and there's nothing special to it, nothing sort of homely to it, but still, it's their place. Usually they go there together, with him wanting to write, given how obsessed he is with poetry, and her with the utter need to read outside an overly loud house.

So it had been quite obvious to her that he'd go there instead of his house, her patio, or the much too boring docks where many of their high school friends choose to hang out at. Confidently, Regina walks along rough terrain, dead leaves, roots, mindful of the slightly heavy backpack she's carrying. She keeps walking down the path they familiar path, mindful of the R marked on different trunks every ten trees, until she reaches the last R, the bigger one out of the twelve she'd seen already. Knowingly, Regina takes a left there, walks the thirty-two steps, and then walks down the slight decline on the terrain stopping when she sees him.

Immediately her heart aches for him, her throat constricting for a moment.

She feels guilty, so so guilty because even though she's not related to the issue per se, she still collaborated to the drama unfolding today, ending with a very very worried Helga Locksley ringing her.

But there's no way in hell she could've kept that as a secret.

Not when Robin's the kindest man she knows. Not when he has been her best friend since they were six years old. Not when he has quite given Marian the world already even at their young age of 18, and she just didn't care. She couldn't keep it as secret. Refused to, so even though now she feels insanely guilty for having gone off at him so abruptly, for having told him that she had seen, with her own eyes, his girlfriend, his Marian, in the arms of another man two nights ago in the alley two blocks from Granny's, Regina's still, deep down, sure she made the right decision.

But still, he's her best friend, and as best friends it hurts her that he's hurting. Especially when she knows just how much he adored Marian. Knows he saw her as the woman he'll end up marrying down the road even though his mother didn't entirely like the woman. God.

She hurts for him, even more so now, when she looks at him from a couple of yards away and he looks so… different.

He's sitting on the log, staring at the distance as his fingers pull and pick apart a piece of bark in his hands. He pulls and breaks and drops the now small little pieces before he reaches for another one, and another one. On and on and on he goes until he shakes his head at himself and offers a dry chuckle to no one in particular. Different. This isn't him. This isn't her Robin. The Robin who laughs at the bad things in life. The Robin who has the best advice for any situation, the man who's wise beyond his years, who can't stay still for one moment because 'The world's still spinning Regina and I want to live life to the fullest'. Instead, there he is, sitting on a log fiddling with some bark.

Ignoring the small voice in her head that tells her she caused this, Regina walks carefully towards him, slowly, the leaves crunching under her combat boots but Robin doesn't even turn to face her, he knows it's her, instead he keeps playing with the piece of bark in his hands. Sighing, Regina jumps quietly over the log and sits down next to him.

He doesn't say anything, instead reaches for a leave on the floor and starts picking it apart too. Quietly, Regina brings her backpack carefully to her front, placing it on the forest floor before she's opening the zipper of the bigger pocket.

"I ransacked my father's secret cabinet," she says as a greeting, pulling from her backpack a half drunk bottle of whiskey. "Of course I couldn't bring the ice because it would've melted, but you're a strong dude, you can handle this."

Robin cracks a smile at that, shakes his head before he's turning to look at her and Regina offers him a small smile, feeling relieved before she's biting her lower lip and arching a brow.

"I also got some… edibles from Jefferson," she confesses with a shrug. "So in case you want them, they're here," she finishes patting slightly the front pocket.

He chuckles at that and shakes his head at her, eyes shining in appreciation. "I love you, you know that right?" Robin asks after a moment, smiling brightly at her.

Regina sighs in relief at that, her whole body becoming relaxed for a moment. "I do know that, though I must say, after you stormed out yesterday I thought that maybe—"

"Regina," he interrupts as he picks the bottle from her hands and places it carefully on the floor, before holding both of her hands, gaze meeting hers. "I love you precisely for what you did yesterday," he utters, before his hand moves up to her cheek to gently push a strand of hair behind her ear.

Clearing her throat, Regina nods at him, feeling her eyes slightly burning with tears that appear out of nowhere. "I just wasn't sure," she confesses. "I knew as soon as I saw that you needed to know this. But I still felt… feel so guilty."

He chuckles at that, a small tearful thing before he's offering her a small smile, dimples full on display.

"Don't," he mutters after a moment. "You have no reason to feel guilty. You did what friends do, and I appreciate that more than you could ever know."

She lets out a sigh of relief, before she shakes her head and slides closer to him on the log, hugging him gently.

"I'm still so sorry. You're the sweetest guy in all of Maine, possibly the world, and I'm not saying this as your best friend, but Robin, you're the last person who deserves this," she whispers against his neck, before she lets out a sigh and leans back, comfortably resting her head against his shoulder.

"Yes. But it's done, it's over," it's all he says as a reply, his voice filled both with anger and disappointment, yet she hears the slight relief there.

And that's good, that's very good.

She nods against his shoulder, just stares intently at her hand as it moves from his forearm down down down to his own own hand, caressing there. He turns his own after a moment, palms touching before he intertwines their fingers.

They stay like that for some quiet moments, just basking in the feeling of being.

"Think of the bright side," she murmurs after several minutes, in much his fashion, and chuckles slightly at herself before she changes her tone, a tone ten times higher almost childlike, a tone she knows amuses him to no end for it's the tone she uses to creep his mother out. "At least you still have your underage best friend who breaks the law by stealing her father's whiskey and carrying around edibles, only for it all to be completely ignored by you!"

He laughs loudly at that, her shaking in his embrace by the force of it, and he hugs her from the side, pulls her body closer to his absentmindedly before dropping a kiss to the top of her head.

For some reason, she feels herself getting lighter, happier, the guilt still present but now manageable because while yesterday she had gotten him upset, today she gets to make him laugh loudly even if it's only for a moment.

"Gods, I love you, woman," he whispers against her hair before sighing and moving his hand up and down her forearm. "Thank you."