Things start to change between them in this chapter :) As for the location of this chapter no one said where her property was in relation to anything else and it's my story and I wanted this to happen early on ;) I am hoping to get a bunch of writing done while I'm away for the week so that I can post the updates for this story as well as SLBP more regularly when I get back but I'm not making any promises. Enjoy!
She hadn't been paying much attention to her surroundings at all. When she wasn't bickering with David, or Aurora she was silently thanking whatever god there may be for giving Mulan the grace to leave her be, or she was thinking about Henry, thinking about if she should find a way back, or she was just simply letting her mind run blank. It was only when she caught her toe on something that sounded to be wood under the overgrown grass that she snapped back to the present.
She stopped in her tracks and looked down with her brow furrowed as she thoughtlessly pushed away the grass with her foot to uncover a pole that was painted red and white. Instantly her lips parted and it felt like there was something squeezing her sore heart. She recognized these poles and fallen standards. She had used them to jump Rocinante.
He looked over his shoulder when he came to realize that she was no longer just behind him. He didn't want to lose her, he wanted to keep an eye on her to keep her from causing mass panic and chaos, "Regina," he called but there was no answer and no movement. So with an irritated huff he walked back up to her, "come on we have to keep moving," she only shook her head and turned around quickly to face the abandoned stable at the top of the hill.
"I have to go somewhere..." She whispered as tears filled her eyes and she made a point to avoid any and all eye contact with him.
"Seriously? We have to keep moving!" She simply ignored his frustrated tone and walked away from him, "Regina!" She continued to ignore him so he chased after her and took her arm firmly in his hand but she only planted her feet in the ground and kept her back to him as she continued to avoid eye contact but he was not oblivious to the way she was suddenly quivering. Quickly he put together that the feared queen was crying and he instantly let go of her arm as though he had been burned and she continued on her way up to the abandoned stable.
He stared at the stable on the hill curiously as she walked with the weight of the world on her shoulders and suddenly his heart simply plummeted and shattered on the ground. The stable. Stable boy.
Silently he debated whether or not to follow her. He knew if he went up there he would not find the queen he knew and hated. He knew that if he went up there he would find the woman she hid beneath the queen and he did not know who that woman would be. Gently he cleared his throat and turned to face the Mulan and Aurora, "I'll go get her," he nodded and then turned to walk up the hill where Regina had disappeared.
He didn't particularly like what he found. She sat in the middle of the dirtied floor with her legs curled beside her, her hands in her lap, and her head bowed as quiet cries shook her shoulders. He could only frown as his chest tightened with sadness, "Regina?" He called her quietly and so so gently.
She only shook her head in defeat, "I used to be so happy," she felt just raw, "this is the only place I have ever been truly happy."
She sounded so small and he was relieved he couldn't see her face because her eyes were the most expressive he had ever seen and right now he had a feeling they would be utterly broken and overflowing with pain and loneliness. He walked a little closer to the crumbled woman, not the queen, who had truly lost everything, "come on," he coaxed softly, "let's get us all back."
She laughed humorlessly and quietly through her tears, "to what?" She whispered. She had no reason to go back. Yes there was Henry but who was she kidding, he wanted Emma he didn't want her. He would never be hers. Yes it would hurt to let him go but would it hurt more than watching him grow up with another? No. No she didn't believe it would, "I don't want to leave," the tears fell silently and painfully down her cheeks through closed eyes.
He shook his head and swallowed the thick sadness in his throat as he walked around so he stood in front of her. When he looked down at her he saw no evil, no pride, no queen, no fight, no fire, just defeat. Defeat, pain, and loneliness in the woman who only caused pain because she knew nothing else.
He had come to that sudden realization now. That good only caused her pain and heartbreak so why not just save herself the disappointment and dwell in the grief and hatred that would eat at her anyway. Just get it over with.
He crouched down so he balanced on his toes and sat on his heels and handled her with tenderness as he reached forward and gently lifted her chin with the side of his finger. Red lips parted with despair and she opened her eyes slowly as she allowed him to lift her hung head. Those dark eyes were filled with nothing but a heartwrenching grief and surrender, "Regina," he said softly and her eyes filled with more tears that fell down her cheeks, "when was the last time someone held you?" He asked tenderly and she began to quiver and shake her head slowly as the tears fell faster.
She was not prepared. She was not prepared to be thrown back in to this land, she was not prepared to see her stables again, she was not prepared for the overwhelming rush of memories provided by this place, she was not prepared for her enemy to treat her with such tender and honest kindness. She was trying with any fight she may have left to keep herself from completely breaking down but it was not exactly working.
When was the last time she was held? She couldn't even remember what it felt like to be held. That was the last time she was held, so long ago that she couldn't remember what it was like, "Daniel," she whimpered and cocked her head slightly as she continued to shake her head, his finger still holding her chin up.
Nearly half a century without being touched lovingly by another or even in a manner of lucid friendship. What would that feel like? He tried for a moment to imagine it but the ache in his chest made him stop because he realized it would only grow to be unbearable. And then to watch people live happily around you? She had Henry to hold her when he was small he would imagine but Henry would not have been able to comfort her in the way she needed.
Without a second thought he moved so he sat next to her and he pulled her in close and she fought it, of course she did but he held her anyway and soon she gave in. She gave in to the strong steady arms he wrapped around her and she cried in to him while her hands balled in to tight fists and brought his shirt with them.
He held her unconditionally and let his heart go out to her and offer her some sort of hope perhaps. He supposed he had just never sat down and tried to put himself in her place. But really why would he have done that?
She had forgotten what a relief it was to have someone to turn to when you were simply done and tired. Her walls were torn down and everything, all of the hatred, anger, grief, joy, pain, and love poured out of her. She couldn't hold it back, there was too much that had been buried down and bottled away inside her that she just burst, "I miss him," she sobbed and shook in the prince's arms.
"I know," he whispered and lowered his head down on to hers and tightened his arms around her as he closed his eyes, "I know you do."
It was so easy to fall into the illusion that it was Daniel holding her close. The smells, the sounds, the sights, and the feel of strong and seemingly familiar arms around her had her almost truly believing he was there and not the charming shepherd turned prince. It had her completely losing her composure and wailing in to his chest and wrapping her arms around his neck, afraid to let go. The arms around her only grew tighter and that made her cry harder.
He remained silent and allowed her to break down in his arms. He handled her with great care for he knew that any misstep would cause her to shut down again or turn violent. There was one thing about her that he knew above all else and that was that she did not show weakness, she did not expose where she was vulnerable. Now that she had sent herself in to hysterics he knew not to make any move that would make her fully aware of how vulnerable she had become. So he kept still and silent and held her close and tight as her raw pain plucked his heart strings.
He didn't move when she lifted her head and rested her forehead against his and continued to cry. Her eyes were still shut but tears still fell through thick dark lashes.
"Kiss me, Daniel."
It was then that he felt his heart crush in his chest. She had forgotten who he really was and lost herself in the love she had lost and never gotten past. He fought hard within himself. Kiss her unconditionally and perhaps soothe her wounded heart for a little while or deny her innocent request and save themselves the awkwardness and tension that would rise later.
Her broken cries were getting to him though and the true innocence and heartbreaking pain of her request were what led to his decision.
Slowly and carefully he removed one arm from around her shaking figure and brought his hand up to softly hold her face, his heart wrenching when she leaned in to his touch. With plenty of second thoughts he tilted his chin up and caught her lips in his in the most comforting way, the way he imagined the innocent and young love shared between a girl and her loving stable boy.
Her soft lips tasted of her tears and he wiped them away from her cheek with his thumb as she cried through the kiss. He didn't make any move to advance it, he only reciprocated when she parted her lips and cried in the moment it took for her to softly kiss him back as she quivered in his arms. He wasn't expecting her to be so gentle with her kiss and that combined with how she broke it off suddenly with a harsh sob and fingers clawing at his shirt simply shattered the image of the woman he thought he had known.
He shook his head at her, his heart just aching in his chest and he kissed her cheek before pulling her head in to his shoulder and holding it there. David lowered his own head down on hers and closed his eyes tightly as her painful cries were continuously muffled by his shoulder and her fingers constantly tried to grasp for more to hold.
He remained silent however and let her cry it all out. There was no reason for him to interrupt. He didn't want to be in Regina's head right now.
...
"What are you doing?" Aurora questioned suspiciously when she and Mulan stopped in the stable doorway to find the snappy brunette asleep in her supposed enemy's arms.
"We aren't going any further today," he kept his voice down to a near whisper so as not to wake Regina.
"We can't stay here in the open," Mulan snapped, "the ogres-"
"Are not here," he finished sternly and quietly, turning his head slightly so he could just see her over his shoulder, "as long as we are quiet there isn't a great chance they'll find us anyway."
"There is still daylight left, if we continue our journey we can-"
"I'm not going anywhere until this woman has gotten a good sleep," he wasn't usually one to cut off other's mid sentence but he was in no particular mood to listen to anyone right then. He had accomplished a lot of thinking after Regina had fallen asleep and none of it was pleasant, none of it friendly. He had found himself living his life over again only this time living it through Regina's eyes. The only joys he found in her life were Daniel, the success of the curse, and the receiving of Henry, all were short lived and all ended in despair and loneliness.
"Why?!" Aurora hissed and folded her arms over her chest, "we are all tired, she doesn't get special treatment."
"The woman hasn't slept in over two days and with the emotional stress that came with those days it's a wonder how she made it this far at all without collapsing," with the newly acquired insight to the emotional storm playing behind her mask that last statement was not applied to just the last forty eight hours. "Unless you want a furious and exhausted witch on your hands then we are letting her sleep and we will continue to your safe haven in the morning," he was not bothered with any further protests from either woman. They simply retired themselves somewhere off behind him in the shelter of Regina's stables.
He could see it. He could see a bright young brunette hurrying to the stables to steal a kiss and kind words from her stable boy. A romance that was forbidden but was so right. A romance that was the brunette's lifeline and when it was cut off she had nothing left to keep her from slowly withering away until she was death itself.
Death had had never taken a more beautiful form. He frowned at the way his heart skipped in his chest when he softly brought his fingertips up to push a few strands of soft dark hair from her eyes and behind her ear. There was no denying that Regina was a beautiful woman to look at.