Hello! I know it's taken me only like 90 years to update this one, but I got really stuck in it as I didn't know where to take it. Obviously I have an end goal in mind as this was a prompt given to me by a friend, but to get there-well I kind of needed a map, still do. I do think it's kind of really slow, the progression and the chapter itself, but I do hope that it sheds some light to our beloved couple, mostly on Regina, this chapter is very heavy on Regina and her feelings, and how Robin analyses it. So it's gonna be wordy and kinda lengthy and maybe boring to some, but it's sort of setting stage. And yes, as you might deduce at the end of the chapter and in almost all of my stories, I do love adding bits and pieces from the show and incorporating them in my AU fics, and just seeing how it works on a "normal" world setting. So yep, here we go. Sorry for the rant, enjoy!

Chapter Three

"That's him."

Regina takes a quick gulp of her drink before placing the glass back down on the table. She follows where her friend, Isabelle Tinkerson, or Tink as Regina likes to call her, is pointing at with her index finger. Her eyes land on a man at the bar, his back facing them, and his arm is raised in some sort of toast to his companions. His wrist is bared, and Regina could see something black etched on his skin. Something—

"The man with the lion tattoo," her friend continues, oblivious to the way she's just rolled her eyes. She doesn't really care about any man at the moment, lion tattoo or not. And she doesn't care for any man, ever. "You should kiss him."

Regina almost chuckles at this, because of course it is rather perfectly normal to kiss random strangers in bars, and hope to god that they could be your true love, your honest to goodness soul mate, as if things like that even exist. Instead, she scoffs and rolls her eyes. She is not about to march up to the bar and kiss a stranger.

"Next you'll be telling me to ride off with him to the sunset," Regina says with a great deal of sarcasm. "Or that pixie dust doesn't lie and he's supposed to be my soul mate, or whatever."

Tink laughs beside her and shakes her head. "Well, you'll never know that if you don't kiss him, now would you?" she says, teasing, as she gets up and tries to pull Regina up her seat as well.

This is going to end up in a disaster, that much Regina knows, but she keeps mum, because there is no way to tell her friend (best friend, as Tink insists that she is to Regina), that him being a stranger is least of Regina's concerns why she shouldn't go up there and kiss him. It's more about her fiancé, or ex-fiancé, she mentally corrects herself, because he's long gone now. He's been dead for more than two years, yet her heart cannot forget, cannot move on, and therefore she can't do this, can't kiss the man with the lion tattoo, just because he's a perfect, unassuming stranger, and Tink just happens to have dared her to.

"He might be your second chance at happiness," her friend continues.

"Shut up, you're drunk," she retorts, rolling her eyes.

And just how is she supposed to believe that she's supposed to find her happiness in a drunken man in a bar? She won't. She won't find anymore happiness because Regina doesn't have any more chances at happiness. Her happiness is gone, buried six feet under the ground.

Without saying a word to her friend, Regina shakes her head and walks away and out of the bar, far from the man with the lion tattoo.

Regina wakes with a start, gasping for breath as her dream reels in her mind. She can see it playing clearly, and it's familiar because it's not just a dream, it's a memory of a time long passed, of a time when she hasn't been damaged and broken by the life she's led.

It's something new to her, however, because for the first time in what seems to be months, she dreams of anything but Cora finding out about her days in the Center and dragging her out of there and tossing her out on her ear. In some of her dreams, Cora has the whole place burn down, but in reality she knows that Cora would surely have the whole center close down, to spite Regina, because Regina has once again gone with her heart and against Cora's orders. At this age, turning thirty soon (not that she likes the reminder), she is still under her Mother's thumb and Cora still controls every single, little detail of her life.

Regina wonders why she's dreamt of such thing, a drunken night on a bar with her friend urging her to walk up to a stranger and make out with him for no apparent reason. She understands the other dreams, or nightmares as they are, because they are a subconscious manifestation of how terrified she really is of her mother, of what her mother could do—because Regina sometimes believes that Cora is heartless and will stop at nothing to do as she pleases.

And Regina has plenty of experiences with her Mother in that regard to make that a fair assessment. It's not an unfair assessment and it sure as hell isn't totally unfounded to fear her mother.

It's been weeks, after all, and still Regina manages to continue volunteering at the Centre. It's been hard, to keep sneaking from Cora. She doesn't seem to have any clue about what Regina gets up to, and that thought is dangerous in itself—Regina is playing with fire, she knows that—just because Cora doesn't know now doesn't mean she won't ever (it is Cora after all) but it's worth it. It is worth it to be there in that place. It's liberating and educating, and as depressing as the place can be, it still makes her happy to do volunteer work there. Not only is it a few days and a few hours, away from the scrutinizing eyes of her mother, but that place, with all the sadness and the loneliness and the embodiment of the people with life so precariously held by…well fate, faith and science and all it takes away—it's given her so much.

It's given her a new look to life that she's never had before. Imprisoned and ensnared by her mother's crutches with a steady future that seemed to be nothing but submitting to Cora's will, she'd thought herself unlucky, given a life that had been so cruel and full of misery. And it's all that she's ever held on to, the sadness and loneliness and the misery—she's held on to it like a lifeline because it had seemed like it is all she had. It had been the only thing she held on to tether her and make her feel like she still existed after every good thing in her life had been ripped away from her, without all of those she'd have floated away and lost herself…or so she thought anyway…because now, now that it seems as though life for her isn't as bleak anymore, not so miserable, she's not so lost.

She's found a part of her she hadn't even realized had gone.

And there are so many other things as well. She's been earning more friends than she's ever had in her life, after being so sheltered and hindered. There's Mary Margaret, who can be annoying with her endless optimism and steadfast belief that unicorn stickers and rainbow kisses can make everything okay but is also gracious and a constant ray of sunshine. There's also Ruby who can be tactless and vulgar, but knows how to have a good time, and can make her laugh. And Granny, who can be quite a lioness, but makes one great cheesecake and gives one hell of an advice. There's Will, Tuck, Little John, Killian and David, who are like the brothers she's never had. Henry and Roland, who both have filled a void in her heart she never even knew is there. Then there's Robin, whose smile and dimples, wit and constant need to be there for her which annoys her, makes her feel things that she cannot and never will admit to him—feelings that make her feel safe and cared for.

It's weird that these people, these people she's known barely a month have become such a big part of her life, has become somewhat like a dysfunctional family she can't live without. Her life just seems brighter on the days that she volunteers.

And she vows that if her mother wants to, in anyway, hurt them because they are part of the life Regina wants, an act of rebellion in Cora's eyes, then Cora would have to go through her first, because it is more than just likely that Cora would, Regina knows.

With that thought in mind, Regina strives to be extra careful when she makes her way to the Storybrooke Heart Center. Call her crazy or even paranoid, but she'd really rather be cautious. She cannot allow this beautiful place to be put in danger, just because Cora deems it beneath Regina's level.

She checks her side and rear-view mirrors more than she usually does and takes careful and precise note of the time. She is cautious of the people she meets on the streets, wondering if maybe one of them is her mother's spy or private detective, following her around on Cora's orders.

Better be safe than sorry, right?

She hopes she won't cause anyone alarm with her bordering maniac behavior, but it isn't meant to be, because it doesn't escape Mary Margaret's notice. The younger woman (by a year, Regina notes) sets her aside a few days after she's begun being extra careful, and calls her on it.

"Nothing's going on," she tells the woman with a slight smile. It's as much as she can muster, as much placating as she can do, because she, herself, is as anxious as she could be. "I'm just tired, I suppose."

Mary Margaret looks at her doubtfully. "Are you sure?" she asks with a look in her eyes that tells her that unless Regina goes right out and tells her the truth, she'd know that it's a lie. And Regina's always thought she's some Disney Princess who believes that the world is good and nothing is wrong. Apparently not.

"It's fine," Regina says, trying very hard not to just snap and say that it's none of Mary Margaret's business because the other woman has been nothing but kind to her. "It's just some family stuff."

That is the best she could come up with. And that is not even a lie.

Mary Margaret hesitates, and then purses her lips before nodding, accepting her words as the truth. They are the truth, after all, just not the whole truth.

"If you ever need anything, I'm here," she offers though, and Regina sighs gratefully, smiling at the younger woman even if she knows she can never divulge the horror that is her Mother.

…

Regina Mills is a lot of things, but frantic is not one of the things he's ever thought she would be. She's snarky, temperamental at times, guarded, but she's never been anxious, and if she ever has been in the few short months that he's known her then she has never outwardly shown it. He has always known her to hide her emotions well. He wonders now, as he watches her hand tremble as she places the glass down on the table, what has happened.

He wants to ask her, really, wants to help calm her down, but aside from that little episode where he's asked her out for drinks (which hasn't happened yet, much to his dismay), there hasn't really been a lot of progress between them. Sure, they're a lot more civil now, and she doesn't seem to have the urge to run the opposite way when they see each other, but they are far from friendly, and even farther from actually being friends.

He watches her as she moves across the room, food trays in hand and handing them over to the children. The children beam up at her, and she smiles softly in return, relaxing infinitesimally, shoulders dropping just a little bit, but the tension is still there. It makes him curious how someone could be so guarded.

But more than that it worries him, it worries him in a way that he is not allowed to be.

When she makes the last round, and Robin finishes with helping Tuck and John bring the food over, he slinks back into the corner, quietly watching her. He doesn't mean to be a creep, and he really isn't, but she fascinates him, confounds him at time, and his mind often drifts to her for reasons even he cannot explain.

She moves to the back, hiding behind the corner, and remains quiet, watching over the kids the way he is watching over her. But it is as if she feels his gaze upon her and she turns her head his way. He smiles, embarrassed about being caught but not willing to embarrass himself further by averting his eyes like a school boy caught ogling his first crush. She only raises her eyebrow at him then, and looks away again.

…

She feels his eyes on her, feels him look over at her and watch over her every movement. She doesn't know why, but he knows that there is something wrong, and it isn't like it's any of his business. It unnerves her, how someone, a stranger, could be so in tuned to her and know, instinctively, that something is going on.

They are barely even friends. He shouldn't have to know.

But she can't push him away if he doesn't try to push his way in, so she remains passive, lets him watch her and speculate. Just because he suspects, doesn't mean he has to know. And besides, she's not sure she's all that willing to share to him the burden of what she feels or what's going on in her life, despite his soft, warm blue eyes that makes her want to just let him comfort her and hold her and…no, hell no, she isn't about to let herself fall into this kind of trap. It never does end well.

So she ignores him, pretends he's not there even when his presence is too overwhelming for her, even when his presence threatens to suffocate her sometimes because she feels him so acutely (so weirdly and so disconcertingly). It's just hard when he seems to keep getting in her way.

"Stop getting in my way," she tells him, half growling at him, when for the third time, he intercepts her accidentally, sidestepping just as she does and on the same direction. Really, could he be more childish than his own son?

"I'm not," he says, his innocent words turning out to be not so innocent when he accompanies it with that stupid smug smirk she wants to kiss...what? no, punch, Regina wants to punch that smug smirk off his face.

Regina looks up at him and glares, nostrils flaring because this man unnerves her for some reason even she doesn't know. He gets under her skin and it seems like, for some weird reason, he does it on purpose and actually enjoys doing it.

She stares at him, eyes wide, and really looks at him. At first, it had been only so she could stare him down, but something's shifted between them, and suddenly she feels this—this something, this weird something that sends shivers down her spine and makes goosebumps rise all over her skin.

Her throat feels dry and she swallows, trying to push down the lump that seems to have lodged in there. It doesn't help, but she shakes her head anyway and pretends that it—whatever it was—had not affected her.

"Have we met before?" she asks him, out of the blue, surprised herself when the words come out of her mouth before she can even process them. She doesn't know why she's asked that, but she's always wondered, and well, she supposes, she's been doing a lot of things without thinking nowadays.

His eyebrows raise in a confused and intrigued manner, before he shakes his head. If there is doubt lingering behind his eyes, neither of them acknowledge it. "I doubt I'd ever forget meeting you," he answers.

She nods once and opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes to mind, so she shuts it back up, and turns away from him.

"Milady, are you okay?" he asks her, and she wants to punch him because she can see that he's attracted the attention of the others by now, but the last thing she needs or wants is a scene, and so she shakes her head and sighs.

She doesn't bother with an answer, overwhelmed as she is by the ready and steadfast comfort he seems to offer that she cannot, for the life of her, bring herself to accept—out of fear, out of doubt, out of need to not be attached to him, for whatever reason—and then she takes her leave, not bothering to look back even when he calls her name.

…

Something is definitely off with her.

He doesn't know what it is, he's been trying to figure it out but it isn't like he knows much about her to form a conclusion here. So he watches her go, his mind clouded by a thousand different things that could be wrong. Regina is already a pretty closed off person, erecting walls around her to keep herself and her true feelings locked in and not ever letting anyone in. He at least knows that much about her, can see that without having to look deeper, and what he wants to know is why. Something has happened that has made her the way she is, and there is an insane part of her that just itches to know, that just wants to know her no matter how much she tries to push back and send him away.

He doesn't know what it is about her, but there is something, and he really wants to help.

He sighs and watches as she places the tray she's been holding atop the table and makes her way out of the room. He doesn't know what's happened, but he's pretty sure he's hit a nerve within her. Or something in the span of that five second exchange that's made her upset.

He feels terrible. He hadn't meant to do anything to upset her. It's just that she is already upset about something and he's only wanted to be able to help relieve her of that burden, in whichever way he can. He doesn't understand it either, and at this point, he's stopped trying to understand it.

"If you really want her that much then why don't you just ask her out?" he hears someone say from behind him, and he finds Will Scarlett looking at the general direction of where Regina had walked off to.

"Scarlett," Robin says in mock disdain as he rolls his eyes and faces forward again. "If you know you're useless why don't you scamper off?" He smirks as Will punches him lightly on the arm. It's good old ribbing from two mates who's known each other a long time, and neither of them takes it to heart when they send insults to each other. It's just a thing they've developed through years and years of camaraderie. After all, they've begun their friendship with less than friendly insults, and had begrudgingly turned it into friendship at the time when it seemed like each other was all they would have when they both moved in the United States at the same time.

"It's obvious you fancy her, you know," Will continues, ignoring Robin's jab. Robin, for his part, maintained the cool expression he'd schooled his face into. "Even a blind man could see it, and that's okay, I suppose, if you're into that…which you are."

"And what exactly do you mean about that?" Robin asks, raising an eyebrow at his friend. He can't help but let his hackles up and the insinuation. He loves Will, they have been friends a very long time, but his mouth sometimes can run and his words leave a lot to be desired.

Will raises his hands up in mock surrender. "Just that you never seem to like it easy," he says in a way of an explanation, and it's not much better, Robin thinks. "Your situation with Marian had not been easy either, and it seems neither will it be with this one."

Robin sighs, it's true enough, and so he decides not to take offense on it. "She…there's something about her. There's a part of her and I know she doesn't need help, she's said it herself, and made it clear through her actions countless of times, but I still…I want to help her."

"Robin, look, Regina is great, she's kind if a bit sarcastic and snide. But she's not a damsel in distress," Will warns and it's true, he's right. Regina is the farthest thing from a damsel. "You can't save her."

"I'm not trying to save her," Robin says with a roll of his eyes. He really isn't. Regina seems to be more than capable, but no man is an island, and he knows that despite the front she puts up for the world to see, she needs someone. She needs someone to be there, maybe not to save her, or even help her, but just to be there. Just like Robin, himself, needs, just like everyone else does. "She doesn't need saving."

"And you can't fix her either," Will adds as though Robin doesn't know that already. "She isn't yours to fix."

"She doesn't need fixing ei8ther," Robin adds, because, "She's not broken."

Will shrugs, mouth pursing and forming a small pout. "Be careful," is all that Will says. "I know it seems like it's worth it, and maybe it is, I'll never know, but do be careful."

Robin sighs and nods, heeding his friend's warning, though he tells himself that it's really nothing to ponder over.

…

Regina hates this—hates that she tends to over think everything and that she gets affected. She isn't supposed to be, has spent so much of her life trying to rid herself of feelings that can be confusing and hard to deal with. She's lived her life where emotions are only a thing of a past, the life she's living certainly asks for it, but right now, with every second that she spends here, falling more and more into the comfort of being with people she's learned to care about, she's scared. She's so scared someone would just come and take it away from her—namely her own mother who seems to have zero regard for her feelings or needs if they do not coincide with the life she's mapped out for Regina.

It's all so depressing and she wishes she isn't like this, but there isn't anything to do. The fear takes over her, grips her at times she doesn't even suspect and it's too much.

It's all far too much for someone who has been trying to fight feeling anything for so long.

She sits on top of the table in the empty kitchens, knowing Granny would kill her if she ever found out, but not really feeling like doing anything about it at the moment.

"You don't need to be so scared," she hears someone say from beside her and she jumps, shifting to find robin sitting next to her, a soft smile on his face.

It all feels silly, now, when she keeps thinking about it, when she keeps anticipating something that seems to be a distant future, something that hasn't happened yet—but who can blame her? After everything that Cora had taken from her?

"I'm not scared," she tells him and that's a blatant lie, they both know it.

He shakes his head. "You're shaking Regina," he tells her, picking up he hand and holding it, despite it being clammy and—yes, he's right she's trembling. She should pull her hand away but his skin is warm, though rough, against hers and she really can't resist. "Talk to me."

She scoffs at him and rolls her eyes. "What makes you think I want to talk about it?" she asks him, though there is a part of her that does want to talk it out, to relieve herself of this anxiety, of this paranoia—but she can't.

She does not want to appear so weak.

"Well, for one, you'd have charred me to a crisp now, if you didn't want me to be here," he teases, and she lets out a breathy chuckle at that—if only she could. Then he turns serious, "And you'd pull your hand away if you didn't need the comfort."

With that, she pulls her hand away from him jerkily, ready to go on the defensive, but he doesn't let her, holds tightly on to her hand and even laces them together. She fights him still, even when it feels so good—something she won't ever admit to him.

"Stop fighting," he pleads softly, and then smirks. "I'm a doctor, I've spent a long, long time injecting the bottoms of the most squirmy, petulant children, you aren't going to win in this tug of war."

He grins at her, winking, and though it's absolutely ridiculous, and she doesn't even want to, she chuckles.

They both settle down, sitting next to each other, letting the silence soak through. It's pregnant with words unsaid but it's not totally uncomfortable, and Regina finds herself relaxing.

"My mother…" Regina begins, but pulls back her words. She doesn't know how to say it, if she even should divulge it to him.

"Yes?' he encourages though he doesn't pressure, just sits there and waits, holding her hand and making her feel things she doesn't want to feel.

She swallows and sighs. "She's…She's not the most maternal, and she has her own plans for me that she wants followed down to the t. She…she has this vision of what I should be and I'm afraid she won't stop at anything to get it. She doesn't care what stands on the way, she'll only step on it and destroy it the way she would a bug."

She knows she's painting her own mother in a bad light, but it isn't like there is another stroke to this painting.

"She doesn't know I spend time volunteering here," Regina finally confesses, and God it feels good to finally tell someone. "She won't like it."

Robin nods. "And you're afraid because you think she would destroy everything, everyone if she finds out?" he asks, though it's obvious that he knows the answer.

Regina bites down on her lip. "No," she tells him, shaking her head. "I'm afraid because I know she would."

Robin sighs too, then, seemingly sharing the feeling she feels inside though he must not know what it is that she really is feeling—or maybe he does.

"I had a sister," Regina murmurs, then, and she doesn't really know why she's telling him this, maybe because she wants him to understand the extent of Cora's cruelty, heartlessness. Maybe because despite the way she's fought so hard not, begrudgingly, she does trust him.

Deep inside, she trusts him.

"I never met her, never knew her, not until a few years ago. My mother gave her away when she was a baby because mother wanted more out of life than…well, she was a farmer's daughter, and she wanted to be more. She wanted to become a rich man's wife. She got a scholarship for a good school, but a few months before, a man got her pregnant and ran out on her, an old boyfriend she met at a bar…and she thought a child out of wedlock was a hiccup on her road to success so she gave her away. Mother didn't bother with her until she showed up in our house, claiming she was the child my mother gave up…she was sick, she needed help…Actually, to be honest I think Zelena knew she was beyond help, she just wanted mom to be there, but until her last breath, mother never helped her, never even acknowledged her. And she died, and I was there at the funeral but mother never came."

Tears prickle at the back of her eyes, and she wants to cry, wants to sob and cry and fall apart, but she can't. She doesn't want to.

There are more things in her life she could grieve about, and if she lets herself fall apart now, there is no saying when she'll ever be better again.

"I know it sounds…I know how it sounds and maybe I'm over reacting, maybe I'm being paranoid, but I know her. I know what she can do…and I don't want to take this away from the kids, I don't want to be the reason that…this, all these…all of these gets taken away from them." She goes silent for a minute and she breathes in, out, in again, then out again before she closes her eyes. "It makes me feel evil."

"Regina," he breathes out with heaviness in his tone. "You are many things, many, many things I wish for the opportunity to get to know," he pauses and Regina feels her heart trip hammering inside her chest at his words and the look that comes along with them, "…but I do know one thing…you are the farthest thing from evil. These are things out of your control, and sure, if your mother finds out and she does I don't know, something drastic about it…then yes, that would definitely be devastating, but that won't be your fault."

She sighs, of course it is.

"It won't be, it isn't, and it sure as hell doesn't make you evil," he repeats sternly.

"Selfish?" she asks, and she is suddenly reminded of how selfish she's being, of how she's doing this, all of this, to be rebellious, she supposes. And though it is something she enjoys, something she does because it is a cause close to her heart, it doesn't really take away the fact that she should not be allowing herself to do this, should not be allowing for any of this to happen.

"No, Regina," Robin says, and he's holding her closely now, hands cupping her cheeks as he stares deeply into her eyes. "Again, you're many things—snarky, bold, audacious, stunning," he pauses, and she blushes, "but you're not selfish, not evil."

She shouldn't let him get too close, shouldn't let anyone—it would all just end in heartbreak, but she can't help it. Robin makes her feel things she's long since tried to forget, long since thought she'd never ever feel again.

She closes her eyes and breathes. She opens her eyes again, only to come face to face with a tattoo marking his forearm. Her eyes widen in horror, a gasp escaping her now parted lips.

It can't be. It just can't be. It would be too cruel a trick that fate could play on her.

Horrified, she takes struggles from his old and shakes her head before turning away and making a hasty exit, wishing to high heavens that he won't follow. And as bewildered and as confused as he probably is, he only calls her name and stays put.

Regina almost breathes in relief, if only there is much to be relieved about in the situation.

It's him.

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts, if any of you are still interested!