The Most Resilient Heart.

The Boy Who Saw It All.

No idea where to go from here... I'm just IMPROVISING. ;)

What just happened? Regina couldn't stop thinking about it. She couldn't get that gorgeous face out of her head. That gorgeous face, those incredible lips, that muscular body... Her head was spinning going over their moment in the street over and over again. She couldn't even remember what had happened afterwards. She couldn't remember pulling back, looking into his eyes for a last second, both breathless, before they both turned and walked off without another word. 

She stumbled into her house, still breathless from the pounding of her heart and the infinite shivers that continued to run through her body. She was sure she had never felt so much. So much pure want. Pure need. Pure need to hold him again, to kiss him again. Just seeing him again would be enough. 

She needed a walk. There was no way she could work with this hysterical state she was in. 

She found herself in the middle of the forest, heart still pounding, body still trembling, but something about the forest seemed to calm her. Maybe it was the fresh, forest air or maybe it was the amazing green that surrounded her or maybe it was just her place. Her place to calm herself. Her place to slow down. Her place to believe. Her mind could calmly imagine what her life could have been like without her usual distressful mental state. Of course, all the worring was inside her head, the Queen's appearance never mirrored her inside thoughts. Except for when it came to him... 

She goes back to the time Peter Pan had had them tied to a tree. A tree of regret. She had lied that day. Everyone had believed her, she had even believed herself. There was only one thing in Regina's life that she regretted. One thing that lately she seemed to regret even more: not walking into that pub. Marion's life could have been hers, she wonders. It could have been all hers. And these days, she hated the idea that it may have been possible for her. A life like that. A man like that. 

But in the forest, she could think about it without her heart aching and without all energy being drained from her.

Maybe it wasn't the fresh, forest air, or the amazing green that surrounded her. Maybe it wasn't even the fact that is was her place. The way she felt in the forest, maybe it was just because it was his place. His place.

"Papa! Papa!" 

A small, squeaky voice calls out. Regina stops her thoughts and looks around quickly. Roland. The voice kept screaming, slowly getting weaker and weaker. She started run. She ran and ran and tried to follow the voice. He's in danger. 

"Roland? Roland!" Her voice became more exasperated. She needed to find him. 

She comes into a clearing, gasping for air. The voice had stopped. But she sees him. It was a hunter's trap. He was entangled in a net of wire that had blood spurting from his small cuts. He had lost his voice. The small boy sat there, eyes shut tightly in the natural child's belief that if you can't see it, it doesn't exist. 

Regina watched, her head still spinning from everything that had occurred already that day. She couldn't focus. Her magic wasn't working and so all she could do was watch him, scared and frustrated that she couldn't do anything to help him. 

The small boy hadn't seen her, of course with his eyes closed it was a bit hard. No voice left him. It probably could have, but he remained silent, eyes shut tightly, blood dripping from his fingers from gripping tightly to the sharp, wirey netting.

Regina's eyes tried to follow the wires holding the net up, looking for a way to get him down. She didn't have the same instincts as some people and hadn't learnt anything apart from magic and how to be a lady. Her eyes searched for the origin of this trap but before she was able to act, the net fell. She looked around for someone, but the clearing was empty apart from them two. She glances back at the boy and her heart jumps to her throat. In the confusion of the red of blood, and grey of wire, there was light. A bright light. Magic. 

She watched, entranced as this light magic flew out of this small boy's fingers. The net disappears, it slowly dissolves, breaking into small pieces that soon dissapate into thin air. 

"Roland?" Regina whispers, overwelmed. 

He opens his eyes. "Gina!" He stutters, getting up quickly running up to her. He wraps his arms quickly around her thighs, (he couldn't reach any higher) and hugs her tightly. "Gina..." His voice is weak and tears fall down his cheeks and onto Regina's short dress. 

Regina pulls his up into her arms and holds him tighter. "Roland," She whispers. "You're going to be alright. You're safe now."

"Thank you."

Regina looks down at the small boy. "For what?"

He opens his eyes and looks into hers. "For saving me." He seemed oblivious to the fact that he had been the one to save himself.

"Roland," She shakes her head and looks down, ashamed that she hadn't been able to save him. "That wasn't me."

He looks at her, confused.

"You did that."

"But- But..." He stutters. "I- I c-can't..."

She smiles and pulls him in again, glad that he was okay. "Looks like we've got a little magician on our hands."

She can feel his smile against her shoulder. She still couldn't believe it herself though. How could he perform magic?  This small little boy? Neither of his parents could. And then something hit her. Not literally. But something hit her and her heart flew to her throat again. Not because she was scared, not because she was suprised but because she felt that she was about to cry. The little boy pulled back and stared into her eyes again. Two big brown eyes bearing into her. 

"Gina, what's wrong?" He looked extremely concerned and it made her smile despite the tears in her eyes. 

"Nothing." She lied. "I'm just happy that you're not too hurt." She places him back down on the ground and kneels down to look at his hands, them having finished bleeding. 

But something was very wrong. Very wrong in Regina's mind and it made her regret something else more than not walking into that pub: the kiss. The kiss earlier that morning should not have happened. She had ruined the life of another. She could even ruin lives without meaning to. The Evil Queen had to be somewhere within her, making sure that someone would suffer no matter how hard she tried. No matter how hard she tried to be good. 

If this boy was magical, in his case, there would be only one reason: the result of true-love. And Regina wasn't stupid. She knew what that meant. 

Roland was the result of Robin and Marion. He was the result of true-love. She was destroying that love. She was crushing it and breaking it into tiny little pieces and everyone who watched her do this, to them, she seemed to watch it die and smile. Smile that well-used smile that no one had ever wondered what lay behind it. That pain, those dolorous memories that lay behind it.

And so she looked down into this boy's eyes and for the first time in her life that she could remember, she couldn't smile. And that boy, saw it all. All that pain, all that suffering. Regina couldn't stop them though; those tears. They just fell, uncontrollably. Her face did not scrunch up, they just fell lightly and silently onto the cold, forest floor. 

"Roland?" A voice called.

Regina recognised the voice. Then her practised smile came and she let her hands fall from the boy's injured hands. Then she left. She ran. Away from the clearing, away from the boy and away from that woman. That woman whose love had been taken away from her by the very same queen who had kissed her husband earlier that morning. That very woman who was pregnant with the child of a man Regina could not stop loving. That very same woman whom Regina could not help hating with all her soul.

... the Phantom of the Opera...

CC;)