A Thief and a Queen

Make Me Whole Again

Written for OQ Fix It Week Day 2

Used the following suggested prompt: When Robin has gone to NYC, Regina's heart is literally broken (they have to get him back to get her back)

Robin hated New York. It was too loud, too crowded and there weren't enough trees. Each night he laid awake on the couch as Marian and Roland slept in the bed, oblivious it seemed to the cars, horns and other sounds drifting up from the streets no matter the hour. The fights were the worst, he believed, as they would last the longest and he was forced to wait, unable to do something. He had tried to break up one fight early on and got a black eye for his troubles. People in New York weren't as kind as the people in Sotrybrooke.

Storybrooke. He missed the idyllic town he first called home in the Land Without Magic. If given a choice between New York, Storybrooke or his beloved Sherwood Forest, Robin would still choose Storybrooke. It was relatively safe—at least free from ogres—and had many technological advancements that made life better. The people were friendly, most active with honor and it was quiet. And most of all, Storybrooke had Regina.

Robin's heart ached whenever he thought about his beautiful and spirited queen. He missed her so fiercely, he was unable to feel anything else. And it was starting to affect his family. Roland was withdrawn and quiet around him while Marian's anger always simmered below the surface. She was trying to reconnect with him and he knew he was only giving a half-hearted attempt. Marian knew it was because of Regina and had forced him to make a clean break—he had deleted Regina's number from his phone and let him throw out the few mementos he had of Regina, save for the book of tales about him. The book only survived because he had lied and said Belle had given it to him. Yet unless there was some way to also purge Regina from his mind and heart, they both knew their marriage would never work. Both, though, were too scared to admit it out loud.

At least, he was too scared to actually say it. He and Marian had little resources in New York City except for the money Regina had given them, some faked identification cards and the keys to Baelfire's apartment. Work was not easy to come by as they had no experience to speak of and most of their skills were not marketable. They were stuck together and even if he could leave Marian, she couldn't return to Storybrooke and had made it clear she wanted to stay in New York. And she wanted to keep Roland with her. He couldn't abandon his son like that. It wasn't the man he was, the man Regina loved.

He was already letting Regina down as it was. When it became clear the only way to save Marian was for her to leave Storybrooke, it was obvious they couldn't send her out into a strange world on her own. Nor could they separate a mother from her son, which meant that Roland had to go as well. It all added up to Robin needing to leave. He had wanted to settle his family in a town near Storybrooke so he could travel between Marian and Roland and Regina and Henry. However, there was a curse on the town line they had yet to break and Regina couldn't guarantee he'd ever be able to come and go as he wanted. She insisted he needed to go to New York because if he stayed in Maine, he would spend the rest of his days trying to come back to her. With tears in her eyes, Regina insisted she didn't want that kind of life for him and they agreed it was best he tried to start over with Marian. What would she if she knew he wasn't trying as hard as he could be? That he was still pining for her?

Every day, Robin pondered all of that as he sat in a park by his apartment. He just needed to get out of the tense atmosphere there and clear his head at least once a day. Not that he every succeeded in completely clearing his head. This afternoon was no different and he sighed as he stood, noting it was time to head home to the wife who would know he had spent another afternoon in the park thinking of another woman. Shoving his hands in his jacket pockets, he turned to head home.