For Day 10 of OQ Prompt Party

#92: Robin dies, #108: for whatever reason they drink memory potions and end up remembering something they did in the missing year that Regina forced them both to drink forgetting potions for & #282: Potion(s)

Regina's eyes narrow as she carefully mixes the garlic into the eye of newt. The potion inside the caldron turns from sheen to forest green. It sparkles beneath the torch she hung on the wall before she got to work. If this works, she'll be able to uncover a memory sure to be lost due the millions of curses and having Cora for a mother. And if she can do that, perhaps she can find a way to get it to the Land Without Magic as a save if Drizella ever does manage to cast the curse. The younger sorceress is currently a lawn ornament inside Tiana's garden, but Regina has learned to never trust magic. Not completely. She wasn't supposed to be able to hurt Snow or David in any way, Rumpelstiltskin's curse guaranteed she could.

She stares at the bubbling potion, frowning. There's so much she could've been forced to forget. Potential abuse that was so bad even Cora didn't wish her to recall. Something she's repressed. She's done so much work to move past the pain inflicted on her heart, to not allow herself to turn into the worst version of herself. What if this destroys her?

Flashes of Henry, Ella and Lucy dance across her mind. What would their lives be like under a curse? The pain is worth it, in order to preserve their family.

Regina measures the right amount of the potion into a vial. Plugging her nose, she allows the spicy liquid to pour down her throat. Glass shatters towards the ground as her body convulses, static appearing before her eyes and an inane buzzing sound drowning out her ears. If she dies because she was too stupid to tell anyone what she was doing, it'll be deserved.

The first thing she sees when she comes to is Robin. His handsome face watching her with a pensive look. A crystal ball sits before past Regina. She dons a long black dressed obnoxiously covered with jewels, he's in his thief garb. The pine radiates off his chest. When present Regina reaches forward, her fingers run against the felt of his collar. He remains still, as if she isn't even there. A sob escapes her lips and neither turn to face her. Once again, he is so close and yet, unattainable. She can't fall into his arms or kiss him. He can't see her or feel her love.

"What is this?" Robin asks.

"You insist my life is worth living," Regina replies, her eyes pensively on the ball. "I want to prove it. I need to know there's a chance I will see my son again."

"Milady, even if you don't, your life is still one worth living."

Past Regina rolls her eyes and the present version of her wants to throttle her. How can she not see how precious these moments are? Soon, she'll crave his optimism and positivity, the way he could always see the best when her heart always kept her on edge waiting for the next fight. He won't even be around to do it soon. She doesn't love him yet, Regina knows this. And oh, how she wishes it was love at first sight. That he didn't annoy the crap out of her from the first moment their paths cross.

They could've saved so much time.

"Just let me do this. You've already taken my sleeping curse…"

"And you're not getting it back."

Another eye roll. A small smile tugs on the current Regina's lips. He has no idea that she could easily make a new one and the past version of herself won't admit she's stop considered it all together. "If you were separated from Roland, wouldn't you want to know? Have concrete evidence that one day you'll see each other again?"

His silence is enough. Regina watches as the past version of herself presses her palm to the ball. It comes to life, showing a glowing image of Henry. A hand falls over Regina's heart. He was once so small, innocent. How she misses her little boy being well, little.

They walk side by side in the image, ice cream cones in hand. A relieved look takes over past Regina's face.

"He's older here," she mumbles. "I get to see him again, I'll get to watch him grow up."

Robin's hand falls over her shoulder. "I told you there was nothing to worry about."

Past Regina's head whips up and for once, she smiles at him. Her head returns to the ball in time to see images of her with Robin. A perplexed look crosses both of their faces and the current version of Regina just beams. Their first drink, seeing his tattoo. Him believing the best in her, always. Their first kiss, first time. It's all to bare in front of them. Regina's hands slide together with glee. This is it, this is their story. It was so damn short and yet, so beautiful.

"It seems we're quite happy," Robin muses.

Past Regina's eyes remain glued to the ball, her lips slowly tugging upwards. "We are."

"Perhaps we should turn this off before there are too many spoilers…"

At that moment, Hades enters the ball. Regina's stomach drops and she leaps to cover the ball, just in time to replay the crystal pierce his chest. With horror, the past version of herself is forced to watch Robin die in her arms.

Robin's grip has tightened on the past Regina, who's eyes are still solely on the ball that's now flickered to black.

"I should've known," she whispers harshly. "Everything good I touch, gets destroyed."

Robin clears his throat. "Maybe it's wrong. I mean, I heard once that these things are just folklore…"

"All premonitions come true," she interrupts, unkindly. "The path to them may be different, but they all end the same. You're going to die, because you know me."

"I refuse to believe that. Loving you, nothing bad could ever come from that."

She jumps up, causing the ball to shatter on the ground.

Regina winces, dropping to her knees as it all begins to flow back to her. The static appears before her eyes and the buzzing soon follows. Once she refocuses, she's back in the shed on Zelena's farm. Robin is gone. Fresh tears spark as the warmth of the fire burns her cheek.

It had been her idea, the memory potions. Robin kept insisting that they could change the future. They just wouldn't allow themselves to come face to face with Hades. Regina screamed until she was blue in the face that there was no changing this. He was going to die if he stayed with her. Robin still didn't listen.

So, she said they'd leave it up to fate but she wasn't going to spend the rest of her life with the anxiety that everything she loved, everything she held dear could be stolen. A forgetting potion was brewed and both parties consented to it. One moment, Regina had been filled with such horror and dread. In the next, she was back to rolling her eyes at Robin.

They'd go onto fall in love, have their short-lived fate. And maybe, just maybe, all of it could've been avoided.

"Or maybe he was always meant to die," Regina muses.

Emma rarely talks about the Wish Realm, but she says that there Neal was dead too. Young, shortly after Henry was born. He was dead in Isaac's cursed opposite land.

"It feels like no matter in what universe, I'm destined to lose him."

She and Robin are the same. Written in sand. Rich, beautiful, comforting.

And easy to wash away with a tidal wave.