I didn't intend a second chapter for this one, but alas, it just sort of happened. Thank you for reading!

For RegalVampress23, because she made me smile. I hope you're not disappointed.

She was standing in the middle of the street. People were screaming and running in all directions. Regina looked down and saw the fire being wielded from her palms. She felt the heat building within her, unbearable. She couldn't stop it. She screamed for them all to keep running, to get away, but her voice was barely audible over the commotion around her. Henry stood with Emma and the Charmings; they all looked at her with fear and contempt before walking away, leaving her to her destruction. Regina gasped when Robin cupped her cheek, turning her face towards him. She screamed at him, begged him to run but he refused. He never left her; he always burned. Every time she closed her eyes his murder haunted her nightmares.

She woke gasping his name, arms flailing wildly, knocking everything on the bedside table to the floor. The light behind her switched on and Regina swung towards it ready to strike. Robin grabbed her wrist inches before her fist collided with his jaw. She couldn't stop the choked scream from escaping her mouth as he pulled her to him. His arms engulfed her instantly, pulling her from the tangle of sheets around her legs until she lay on top of his chest. "I'm here, Regina." He breathed into her hair as his hands ran up and down her back. It broke Robin's heart that the nightmares had become routine. Most often she called out for him, sometimes Henry, Emma Swan, once even Roland's name had ripped from her lips. Each time her face had showed him pure terror and each time it seemed to take her longer to return to the here and now. "You're safe." He ran his fingers through her hair and waited.

"I'm not worried about me," her words were muffled by his chest. Regina tried to focus on him, on his steady heartbeat but she was still lost in the fog of the dream. Breathe. She ordered herself, Breathing is good. But each time she tried to take a deep breath it ended in a sob that shuddered through her body. He said nothing just continued to hold her until her breathing eventually evened out and the hands that clutched at him almost painfully, finally relaxed. There was nothing more that he could say to assuage her fears. He'd run out of platitudes and assurances. "You were burning," she finally managed. Her voice was almost steady.

Two nights ago he had been falling; Robin remembered she had told him when she was finally able to speak. Falling into some endless chasm and her magic couldn't hold him. She'd thrashed so hard she'd fallen off the edge of the bed and it took both him and Henry to wake her. She had decided the next morning that Henry should stay with Emma until Gold and Maleficent were dealt with. Robin didn't blame her. He would never want Roland to see him in such a state. Regina was a shell of her vibrant self: exhausted and scared far worse than she would let anyone know.

"It's been eleven days, Regina, and the only marks on me are the ones that you've left." Robin finally relented. He would have this argument as many times as it took for her to understand that he would always win and that he would never leave. "And I rather enjoyed those." He kissed the top of her head and gave her a self-satisfied smile as she finally raised her face from his chest to meet his eyes. Robin's thumb brushed back and forth along her cheek bone as her took her in. Her eyes were circled, her cheeks more sunken than he had remembered, but he was still struck by her beauty.

The way she stared at him reminded him of the first time he'd seen her back in the Enchanted Forest. Not the bold and audacious queen, but Regina.

He'd come across her completely by accident (or fate he sometimes thought) in the woods one night. She was alone, unadorned, and unguarded. "Your Majesty?" he questioned as he cautiously approached her.

"Not here," she laughed, never taking her eyes from the fire she had undoubtedly conjured.

"Regina, then," as he sat gingerly next to her, absorbing the fire's heat.

"I never thanked you for saving me, Theif." Regina handed him the wine she'd been drinking.

He accepted it gladly, but didn't drink. "You saved my boy. That is more than I can ever repay."

"Still, there's not many in this land that would lift a finger to help the Evil Queen." She sneered at him and raised an eyebrow, but in the firelight it was more defense than threat.

"What about Regina?" Robin asked honestly, bringing the wine to his lips. She looked at him then and he saw her: the woman that was trying so hard to be nothing more than herself in a land where her past haunted her every step.

"I'm not sure I know who she is anymore." Regina's honest omission had startled her and she had no idea why she felt she could trust this man more than any other, but she did.

He remembered kissing her gently and how it happened just as naturally as breathing. They'd talked well into the night. She'd told him that she hadn't been kissed like that since she was a girl and that she had forgotten the feeling. He told her about his son and how he was terrified that he wasn't enough of a man to be both father and mother. She told him about her curse, the prices she had paid and how she didn't think her heart would ever be whole without either Henry Mills in her life.

At some point after she had brought him to tears he had her laughing uncontrollably. He'd fallen in love with her in that moment: when her eyes were bright with too much wine and she fell into his arms breathless. He'd held her until she fell asleep against him. When he woke in the morning she was gone, off to help Snow White cast a curse that would turn his world upside down.

"Where did she go?" he asked, still caressing her cheek.

"Who?" Regina lay her head back against his chest and let her hands rest on his biceps.

"I was just remembering a woman I met in the woods whose eyes were brighter than the stars."

She didn't reply and Robin was afraid he had gone too far. He was furious with her for putting herself through this torture, but never had any intention of causing her further pain or worry. His body tensed beneath her when the seconds of silence turned into long minutes before she finally spoke. "I fell in love with you that night," she said. Her eyes were closed and Robin could feel her smile against him. "I wish we'd had more time."

"We seem to keep managing to find on another," Robin said. But that he agreed; they had spent far too much wasted time apart.

"I'm never going to stop worrying about you," she said, as she scooted off his chest and snuggled into his side.

He stroked the hair at her temples, knowing she'd give into her exhaustion in a few more breaths. "Nor I you." He pulled her hand to cover his heart and held it there. "So you may as well accept that I'm not going anywhere: fire balls or no." Her lips pressed against his neck as Robin reached up to turn of light, knowing she was at last in a place where she could face the darkness and just maybe, she'd let him face it with her.