Hiiiiiii :-D so,here's another update, as always, with a very much appreciated help from my beta! (she deserves the biggest hug,I am telling you!) I hope you enjoy! I loved writing this chapter as well as the 5th and I just cant wait to see where this story will take...itself! we'll see ;-)

Chapter 4

Things progressed very quickly and very very poorly soon afterwards… Zelena's flying beasts had proven to be a lot smarter than both Robin and Regina had originally estimated… well… maybe not smart (Regina wouldn't go as far as giving such a compliment to such foul creatures) but, for sure, they were canny, and a lot more well trained than one would imagine.

Despite the fact that the duo had thought that a level of safety would be accomplished if they were to stay hidden underneath the heaviness of the lavish forest, this ever resourceful simian army had them, once again, trying to figure out the best possible hiding place. They had walked a good ten meters forward where they would be led to the deepest part of the forest, the darkness barely enveloping them in its safeness, when these atrocious monkeys had taken a dive and had chosen to proceed their mission of capturing their targets on foot. Their very own footsteps, stepping on fallen leaves, would had hidden the sound of the creatures' descend, had Robin not being paying equal attention to his companion and to their hunters' movements. Their landing couldn't have lasted more than mere seconds but the gap that that submergence provided was enough for Robin to make his quick move. Having been the first to realize what was taking place and what would soon transpire if he didn't move fast enough he pulled an unaware Regina to his right, behind a tree large enough to keep them both unseen for a while longer.

To say that Regina was surprised by his bold move would be the understatement of the century (might as well of the millennium, why the hell not!?). One moment she was scanning the woods for a hint of direction and the next her whole body was being moved without her consent, her back landing with noise on the aforementioned tree and Robin's body resting almost entirely on top of hers, placing his left forearm at her eye's level next to her head, and the other, his right one, tightly securing a hold at the dagger he was always carrying with him, a dagger hanging securely from a loop of his belt.

Drawing a deep breath she was about to vocalize an unimaginable amount of protests when she was beaten to it as the thief had apparently realized her intentions and decided to take things on his own hands (his very very skilled ,masculine ,calloused yet soft hands) - quite literally .Indeed, she felt two fingers landing on top of her lips, silencing her, while he lifted his other hand, placing his index finger to his own lips and with a nod of his head he pointed at the direction that the monkeys were currently standing, sniffing the air for their prey.

She was so curious as to what his eyes were seeing and what hers were deprived of that she instinctively leaned forward, her upper body now colliding with Robin's in its entirety, causing her breath to catch somewhere in her throat and her eyes to lift .Her uncertainty palpable, she allowed her eyes to take their time, absorbing his face, mapping his details, the route from his shoulders (where she was until then resting her eyes) to the lines of his lean neck, his strong jaw, his trimmed beard, his straight ,lean, nose, and finally, his eyes. Eyes as blue as a cloudless summer day that were now staring back at her with an intensity she had tried to deny before, but was now so apparent as it was the warmth she was nurturing towards this man more and more lately.

Leaves rustling and feet moving unveiled their clouded minds and her attempt to see what Robin was looking at continued once more. Still in a haze from the connection that was still taking place between them, she leaned a little further (clearly more than she should have) and miscalculating the shift of her body's weight she felt her body falling …

She had to admit, she owed the man, more than she could ever pay him back, she thought, for he was quick in his movements, skilled in noticing even the slightest of changes thus he too easily encircled her body, returning it in its original, natural, straight posture, securing them both from exposal.

She tried to avoid his gaze but she could feel his eyes caressing her skin, scanning her face slowly, wandering, searching with a curiosity that she realized had everything to do with the fact that her clumsiness must have been misinterpreted for a death wish…only it was everything but a death wish. It was more of a need, a want and a willingness for something she couldn't quite pin point but felt oddly familiar and yet somehow nothing but an aftertaste of emotions and situation she thought she would never come to experience ever again.

She closed her eyes allowing him to fully embrace her, not just as something to lean on but someone to lean to ,feeling him securing her more firmly to him ,holding her impossibly close, impossibly steady, impossibly his…

His arms never left her body, the spot they occupied upon her. Furthermore, the more he felt Regina relaxing, figures molding to one, the closer he held her , unable to define who was protecting whom, which of the two had the deepest desire for what was now occurring between them.

Although he couldn't see her face Regina felt more exposed than she ever had in the past. How strange, how entirely peculiar the human heart is, working in ways that none would expect. Longing for something and when the object of its desire is captured ,finally, it begins anew in a request different than before, searching, wondering, never settling….

He must have felt her heart's pace getting progressively ,almost instantaneously, quicker for ,after putting the slightest distance between them, enough for him to see her eyes without harming his very own he whispered "It's okay…", just a breath from her lips, the air his words created landing upon her sealed lips, cooling them, his forehead resting on her own, his nose bumping with hers in a most touching way that had her heart melting a bit towards where his own live-beating organ was resting. How odd of him to understand her in ways that words never could…

She wasn't worried… it wasn't fear the emotion that she was experiencing. It was more the heaviness of sentiments coming back to her from a very vague time when all she wanted was the love of a stable boy. And the amount of emotions she was trying to place , all rushing back in waves along with the whole "running for their lives" detail, made quite a load on her shoulders. So many emotions resurfacing in the hour they had spent together running from those beasts…

Coming to think about it…

Where were those horrid artifacts?

"Robin?"

Gosh ,why did her voice have to come out so hoarse?

"Hmm?", his only reply, obviously still under the cloak of their fogged state.

"It is quiet…Too quiet…" ,Regina provided, and she needn't say it a second time , for Robin's hands were already reaching for his arrows and bow, securing them in place, and with a swift turn he was no longer facing her ,his back to her face and his eyes ever inspecting of their surroundings.

She knew, herself, something was off. Before their … ehm…current state of…affairs the monkeys were heard , creating some short of sound, even distantly , this whole time. Now though, now there was an eerie stillness as if all sounds had vaporized. And that ,Regina knew, was never a good omen.

Her mind travelled back to another realm , another epoch, foreign to her now, when Henry was young enough, oblivious –to whom she really was-enough, ( long before words such as "you are the evil queen" and "you are not my mum" ever left his lips) when they would snuggle on their couch, resting on the soft, fluffy cushions, him soundly resting on the crook of her neck, her arms loosely hugging him, watching documentaries on Animal Planet.

She could ,even now , summon back memories of Henry's mild gasp, his lungs ceasing their movement for just a heartbeat, when ,in his tender age, wacthed a lion ,stalking its prey, lowering its body till it almost connected to the African soil, seemingly disappearing from sight before it reemerged, jumping forward, his claws digging and ripping the skin of the gazelle, a victim that the male was not two minutes later carrying back to its clan , to feed its members.

She could still recall these memories while she had inadvertently taken the place of that gazelle, of that victim. Victim to the claws of another hunter. Another animal. She could still recall these memories while a pandemonium of screeching noises erupted, clouding the atmosphere above them. She could still recall these memories while Robin's arrows were being shot the one after the other, leaving his bow , creating a wave of wood and steel meant to cause wounds that would never heal. She could still recall these memories while she watched him being thrown ten meters away from her, his ribs hitting a fallen log, his eyes getting lost in unconsciousness … She could still recall these memories while fireballs escaped her palms, fireballs she didn't remember having ordered to be released, but were now burning fur, nonetheless, allowing a solemn final breath from those two animals that were now nothing more than lifeless bodies… She could still recall these memories when , taking in her surroundings her eyes found the sight of an unmoving Robin, laying on the ground. And she could still recall these memories, when his name fell from her lips like a whisper. Her legs moving, running and ,ultimately, carrying her next to him. "Robin…"