A/N: Blatant allusion (more so before I had to chop a hundred words) to '10 Things I Hate About You', which wow, somebody please write an OQ AU of? Reviews very welcome.


Startle -

They've been fighting monkeys longer than's strictly complimentary for once-feared Evil Queens when an arrow flies too close to her and Regina tenses, startled.

She'd seen it – she should've caught it.

The Thief who'd drawn his bow on her once in threat and thought better had drawn on her again – too close, in chaos – and let the arrow fly.

And she'd let the arrow hit.

(A monkey behind her, shrieking.)

Despite threats, despite weakness, truth lies uncomfortable – she trusts him, and hates him most of all that he might be worthy of it, and mightn't really hate him, at all.