Author's note: Sorry this chapter is a teensy bit late! I had actually taken it in a different direction originally, but then I decided on something different and of course had to rewrite it over time, and I've been very busy this week. But here it is! Also, as we learned from the latest OUAT episode (spoilers, other than the AMAZING kiss), Robin didn't actually become a noble thief until he met Marian. Obviously that's not how it is here. I guess that's what makes an AU an AU right? (: Enjoy!

Regina couldn't help but bask for a moment in her own triumph. Why she'd reserved this tactic for so long, she couldn't say. Now she could simply have the thief executed and the whole ordeal would be yesterday's news. There was no use in capturing the rest of the thief's band. No doubt as their leader he was also their prime motivator, and his death would lead to their dissolution. Then she could focus on what was really important.

Her happy ending.

When at last they reached the palace, she ordered her knights to take the thief to his cell. She glanced back at the thief to see his expression.

He was hard to make out among surrounding knights, but Regina was able to see that his head was bowed in defeat. She felt satisfied until she saw that his eyes were lifted and… right on her.

His eyes had this look about them – he seemed at first to be glaring in anger at her (understandable – she was about to kill him), but then they also had this sad look. She couldn't call it defeated. Rather… disappointed.

She frowned, dissatisfied. "He dies tonight," she sneered.

"A public execution, Your Majesty?" inquired a knight.

Regina continued watching the thief as he was escorted rather roughly into the palace. A public execution would certainly make a point to the people, she thought. But despite her excuses of making him an example, Regina knew deep down that this was personal. She needed to let this thief know exactly who he had dared challenge before he was punished.

"No," she said at last as the thief disappeared into the dungeon. "This needs to be a private affair."

When Regina arrived in the dungeon early that evening, the thief was asleep. How foolish, she thought, to waste your final precious hours sleeping.

But then, she supposed, why should she care?

Next to the cell a sort of miniature black knight stood guard. Regina said in a hushed voice, "What are you doing here? Where is your father?"

The boy was one of her knights' sons, whom she let bring to his duties with him, and whom she secretly rather loved to spoil.

"He went somewhere… He told me to keep watch."

Regina pursed her lips. Clearly his father had not counted on her arriving so early, but she didn't have time to punish him right now. "Well you can go now, Dear."

The boy's eyes widened, and he shook his head vigorously. "Father said not to leave for any reason."

Regina raised her eyebrows. "Not even if the queen orders you to?"

The boy looked down. "Well…"

Regina glanced over at the sleeping thief, and then looked at the child. "Last I heard, there were some apple pastries fresh in the kitchen," she said with a smile and a wink.

His eyes widened as he gasped excitedly. "Really, Your Majesty? Oh, thank you!" the boy scurried quickly out of the dungeon, leaving Regina alone with the thief. Regina smiled to herself, her heart a little warmer.

"Who knew The Evil Queen had a soft spot for children."

Regina jumped in surprise and spun around to face the thief, now sitting up and grinning mischievously at her.

Regina frowned and tried to look away to hide her embarrassment because staring right back at her was that smug expression. The same expression he had during their first encounter that made her teeth clench and her shoulders tense. And there was that feeling in her heart again. An aching, a pounding, a tugging. Something she still didn't understand but had decided to interpret as hatred.

"You don't know anything about me," she growled.

The thief stood up. His hands were shackled together, and his foot chained to the wall, but he was still able to step up to the bars only a foot or two from Regina.

"I know," he said, examining her carefully, "that a woman, who would one moment threaten to destroy an entire village, would offer sweets to a young boy on the very same day."

Regina scoffed. "And what of you? A thief with honor? There's a contradiction if I ever heard one." The thief chuckled, and it made Regina hot with anger. "What are you laughing at?" she snapped.

The thief's soft blue eyes met hers and a crooked smile spread across his face. "The Evil Queen has a heart…"

Regina shook her head in disbelief. "I'm sorry, would you prefer I broke the boy's neck in front of you?"

The thief continued smiling for a moment but then looked at Regina more seriously. She couldn't help but notice how close they were, though the bars separated them, and how intensely he stared at her, and how it made her heart rush.

"You know, I really was starting to think you didn't have a heart after all."

Regina blinked, speechless for a moment. She turned away, shutting her eyes tightly. Every retort and witty comeback vanished, and all she could think of was how this criminal was talking about her humanity when he was about to die by her own hand. It had been a long, long time since anyone had spoken to her the way he just had.

But of course, she soon realized. This was a thief. And this, no doubt, was a trick to soften her up. Who else would be acting so confident shortly before their execution unless they were planning to escape somehow?

"I don't suppose you could loosen these shackles a bit. They're a bit rusty—"

"Enough, you worthless thief!" Regina huffed, spinning around to face him. At the sight of her expression, the thief took several steps back. "I know what you're thinking," Regina began, putting her face closer to the bars of the cell and balling her hands into fists. "You think you'll get out of this one, like you always do. Yes, the great and heroic Robin of Loxley, outlaw protector of Sherwood Forest." Regina paused and looked straight into the thief's intense eyes, summoning every vengeful sense of her being. "Well I have news for you, Robin Hood. No one is coming to rescue you. You're not going to make your big, noble escape. You are going to die, and that will be the end of your 'honorable' yet meaningless crusade!"

Without a moment spared for the thief's response, Regina plunged her hand into his chest. His face twisted as he gargled in pain.

The time for witty retorts was over. Regina was done playing games. She was done obsessing over this thief who shouldn't have bothered her as much as he did. She was done with the strange feelings. She was done focusing on anything but her revenge against Snow White.

With a satisfying yank!, Regina pulled the heart from the thief's chest. As he struggled to recover, he stared wide-eyed at the beating, glowing orb. Regina looked down at it. She was surprised to find that it was no pure and red heart like Snow White's, but with a fair amount of darkness swirling inside. Regina looked upward at the thief, examining his features, searching for an explanation. The thief looked at her. "Everyone has a dark past," he murmured. His gaze was boring into Regina's, but she soon returned her attention to the heart.

Despite the darkness swirling within, the heart had a seemingly intense glow, unlike most of the hearts she'd collected. Regina's eyes softened for a moment, entranced. The heart felt especially warm in her hands. Then she noticed something else… her own heart inside her. It was fluttering and hot.

After a moment, Regina shook herself. Now was the time to be crushing the heart, not gawking at it.

Her fingers twitched, but something seemed to be stopping Regina from simply squeezing it into dust.

"Is there something wrong?" the thief asked. Regina was about to snap at him when she glanced down at his hands still gripping the cell bars.

The shackles around his wrists had pushed his sleeves back a bit, and barely visible was an indistinct black shape on his right forearm.

Regina's fingers twitched again.

No…

Regina looked at the heart in her hand once more, but with a clench of her teeth she found herself staring back at the thief's forearm. He followed her gaze and lifted his hands, still shackled, in confusion. His sleeve fell back a few more inches, and from under them appeared a black shield shape with the crest of a lion etched inside.

"There he is, the guy with the lion tattoo."

Regina's hand fell slack, practically shaking. Her heart was pounding at this point, and she dared to look at the thief's face. His expression was hard and bewildered.

The blood had drained from Regina's lips, and at last she stepped toward the thief. He continued to stare at her until she took a deep breath and plunged the heart back into his chest. He doubled over in pain, letting out a stifled breath.

With a wave of her hand, the shackles fell from his hands and feet, and the cell door swung open. Regina turned to face the wall.

"Your Maj – ?"

"Go."

She could sense the thief look at her for a moment, but she couldn't bring herself to look back.

"Well what are you waiting for? Hurry! It's not a trick! I never want to see you again."

The thief – Robin Hood – hesitated a moment more before unsurely making his way out of the cell, pausing another moment to look at her from behind before running the rest of the way out of the dungeons. Regina wasn't worried that he would be caught – he'd escaped her castle once, and he could do it again.

Regina stood still, staring at a singular brick in the wall for what seemed like ages. When his footsteps finally faded into silence, Regina let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and her mind began to race.

Lion tattoo… lion tattoo…

Surely there were other men with lion tattoos…

Regina nodded slowly to herself. Of course, she thought. For all she knew all the Merry Men had lion tattoos, or it was a family crest.

But despite her rationalizations, Regina couldn't help but think back to that day, when she had a choice. A choice to choose happiness over revenge. A choice she couldn't regret because anger was all she had.

And now this thief had broken –literally – into her life and made her question everything she had decided when she embraced that darkness.

She had to let him go. Even if he wasn't the man, she couldn't have that prodding her any longer. She needed to focus on what could truly make her happy, and anyone who got in the way would be brushed aside immediately.

"Your Majesty?" came a deep, familiar voice. The boy's father. He saw the empty cell. "Your Majesty! I – I was only going to be gone for a moment – I left my son – I –"

Regina shook her head, still not looking at him. "No… No it wasn't you."

The guard was silent for a moment. "Your Majesty?" he said slowly.

"I… I let him go."

When Robin finally found his Merry Men aiding the traumatized citizens of the nearby village, his mind was still racing from all that had just happened. Somehow he had managed to sneak out of the castle and journey on foot to the village he was captured in.

He traveled as if in a trance, his mind racing to process recent events. One minute the queen was a ruthless tyrant, the next she was talking sweetly to a young boy. One minute she was about to crush his heart, the next she was letting him go. If there's one thing he knew about The Evil Queen, it was that she was much more than she seemed.

"Robin!" exclaimed Little John as Robin strode clumsily into the village. Little John rushed towards him and grasped his shoulders, trying to get a good look at his face. "Robin, what happened? Did you escape? Will the queen be back?"

Robin stared at the ground for a moment longer before slowly raising his eyes to meet Little John's. "The queen…" he murmured. "She… let me go."

Little's John's eyes widened as a crowd of Merry Men and villagers began to surround them. "Let you go? But why? How?"

Robin thought back to his red, beating heart in the queen's hands, the utter anger and malice with which she swore to kill him. The strangest thing was… he had been afraid, but not really. Though she held his heart in her hand about to crush it, he somehow felt like this wasn't the end. The entire time she held his heart, it was if he could feel it in her hand, and it felt hotter than ever. And somehow this gut feeling had been right. The queen must have felt something too, he decided, because though he was sure she's crushed many hearts in her lifetime, she hesitated, as if she couldn't. And then she looked at his arm… his tattoo? And suddenly she was ordering him to go. He thought it might be a trick, but it soon became apparent that she wanted him gone.

"Robin?" Little John said, bringing Robin back out of his memories. He looked up at his trusted friend and grimaced.

"I never want to see you again," she had said.

"Little John, it's time to leave Sherwood Forest."

Thank you for reading! All of your reviews have been so kind. Some of them just make me so pleased, and I want to reply, but you post them as guests! So I must express my gratitude here. Thank you so, so much for your kindness. It really keeps me going!