A/N: This story starts roughly 3.14, and is set during the siege of the Wicked Witch in season 3.

It was colder in this new realm than it was back home, but the game plentiful and the local constabulary happy to leave the merry men living in the woods be. Robin thought he might even get used to it. The princess came out to visit them and see that all was well. He'd never met Snow White, but admired her exploits and she had admired the work of their bowyer and asked about commissioning a new bow for herself for the summer after her baby was born.

Little John's absence was still keenly felt, and each time they heard the shrieks of the flying monkeys he hoped it wasn't his friend.

"The princess has gone back into town I take it?" Robin asked as he sat down on the camp stool next to Friar Tuck.

"Yes, she says that her husband and the Queen don't want her out after dark with the witch about. I wanted to ask about the Queen, but it didn't seem like a welcome conversation."

"Royals are capricious people. I won't say I'm not surprised they've made up, but it's not out of the realm of possibility." Robin shrugged.

"But the Evil Queen?"

"I rather doubt she's all that evil if fences can be mended. Besides, legends become bigger with the telling." He smiled. Tuck and Robin had discussed his own legend more than once. The legend of the Prince of Thieves could run further, fire a half dozen arrows at once, rescue a damsel in distress and take the king's gold all without a care in the world.

Except he had a son, and men to feed, and if it got much colder here he'd have to consider finding shelter for everyone beyond the camp.

"They say she's beautiful." The monk remarked.

"You aren't supposed to care about such things."

"I don't, but I can still appreciate the view. Even if her heart is as cold and as dead as they say."

"Legends become bigger in the telling."

"Aye, that they do."

They didn't meet at the pot luck. Robin and his men had been invited by Sheriff Swan. How strange it was to be on good terms with the sheriff. How strange it was for the sheriff to look like that, Alan a Dale remarked.

"A new world, we can adapt." Robin had said.

The dark haired beauty had caught his eye before he knew who she was. Not too tall, but wearing a skirt that showed off her curves, a main of dark hair and eyes that looked like they could pick one out of a crowd of thousands.

He didn't need an introduction. He could have guessed who she was based on how people avoided her gaze. Even in the clothes of this new world, and without the trappings of her black knights, she looked like a Queen. The prince and the princess seemed at great pains to include her, but her eyes tracked only one person. A boy of perhaps 13. Robin had heard rumors that the queen was desperate to have children of her own.

The boy was dark haired, and looked a bit like he could be hers. A distant part of his mind wondered what it must be like to be the son of a tyrant. Even a tyrant on the mend, as this one apparently was.

But Friar Tuck was right. She was beautiful.

"You met the Queen today?"

Tuck asked as he settled onto the stool besides Robin, a flask in his hand. Roland was settled in his bedroll and there were guards posted against the Witch and her minions. The Prince had suggested they move into town, at least until the witch was caught, but he had declined. They needed people to watch the woods or else they might miss whatever the Witch was after.

"I fired a bolt at her head."

The monk raised an eyebrow. "I mistook her for the Witch."

"Well, technically not a mistake. You came away with your life?" He reached out and put a hand over Robin's heart. "It feels like it is still there."

"I wouldn't say she was pleased at the greeting. But great and terrible she may be, evil I doubt."

The other man raised an eyebrow. "You are forgetting the black nights already my friend?"

"All royals are tyrants. But not all tyrants are evil." He shrugged and poked the fire with a stick, turning a log. "Not that she couldn't be. She just seemed... so very sad."

Friar Tuck shook his head. "Well, at least this time it was you with the arrows and not her."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

"The last time you were taken with a woman was when she pointed an arrow at your head."

Marian. Part of him felt suddenly guilty and he looked away.

"She's not like Marian."

"I rather doubt she's like anyone else. Just don't let her get too far into your head Robin."

"The Queen?"

"People don't earn the moniker Evil for no reason."

"I remember her kingdom." Robin responded. Queen Regina's kingdom had been prosperous, but hardly happy. You were unlikely to starve within her borders but there was not much laughter there either. It had a sense of a heavy depressing fog that had settled over the land.

Tuck seemed satisfied. "I'm glad to see you looking at women again Robin."

"It's been a long time," he agreed.

"But this one?"

"She just seemed so sad. There was a smile. Brief. Like light before a fire is snuffed out."

Tuck just shook his head. "I know when to give up. Just be careful my friend."