The Most Resilient Heart.

The Safety Net.

Ok. I couldn't find Roland's age or Raphael Alejandro's birth date so... I just made up his age. If you have ANY idea how old Roland is meant to be, please tell me and I can change it. Thanks. ;)

Regina was pacing. Back and forth. Back and forth. She may have even been making the carpet beneath her feet sink in from walking over the same area a multiple number of times. But she couldn't have noticed. The only thing that went through her mind was Roland's light magic and that kiss. Both images would appear before her eyes and her heart would beat faster and faster at an impossible rate.

It's not possible. It's just not possible. Pixie dust never lies. Well, it just did. Or maybe pixie dust just can't tell the future. (Or the past?) Regina was incredibly confused about her feelings now, and the ones before. If she was so distressed at this knowledge of Robin's 'real' true-love than what on Earth did she think before? Suddenly the idea of Robin and Marion being together because they were meant to seemed so... evil. Hadn't she been pushing away from him for that exact same reason? For him and Marion to be together because they were meant for each other?

Maybe just the proof killed her. Maybe there had been just a tiny bit of hope in her that he was meant to love her as much as she loved him.

The doorbell rings. She stops, stares at the door. 

It takes another ring of the bell to unfreeze her. (Like what I did there?)

"Roland?" Her eyes widen at the small eight-year-old boy in her doorway. "What are you doing here?"

The boy grins. "Teach me."

She almost chokes her words. "T-Teach you?"

He nods enthusiastically. 

"Does your father know you're here?" It always had to come back to Robin, didn't it?

The boy's smile disappears but his eyes brighten. Regina knew that sparkle. Little boys' eyes brighten like that at the thought of doing something forbidden. "I need you to teach me to use magic."

Regina sighs. She made her decision there and then. This kid needed to learn or he could really end up hurting someone. "Control. Control magic."

***

His eyes were shut tightly and his small body was shaking violently. It wasn't because he was doing something, he was just trying really hard. 

"Why isn't it working?" He screams frustrated.

Regina quickly places her hands on his shoulders. "Stop, Roland. I said stop." The boy relaxes his muscles. 

"I can't do it."

Regina smiles at the kid's cute expression of frustration. It reminded her so much of her younger self trying to perform magic. "It takes time, Roland. It took me years to learn."

He looks at her, scared. "But that's so much time! I can't wait that long, Gina!"

She laughs. "I'm sure you'll learn faster than I did."

He grins. "Because you're teaching me."

She felt like hugging him, crying. She smiled widely. "No, because you're a very good student."

She felt like adding, and because you're being taught light magic, but it there was no need for it to be said. Regina wondered if she had of been taught by someone else; not Rumplestiltkin. Would things have been different? Of course they would have.

"Okay, Roland. Close your eyes." The boy obeys. "Now imagine..." She stops, takes in a breath, then speaks. "Your perfect family." Her voice was a little shaky. "Standing there. They're smiling." It wasn't getting any better. There was a rock in her throat. "The people you love most in the world, standing there, smiling at you."

The boy takes easy breaths in, a contrast to Regina's rushed ones. She tried to relax a little, to no avail.

"And suddenly, danger." 

The boy catches a breath.

"They aren't smiling anymore, but they stare at you. You need to do something. You need to save them."

The boy starts to tremble and Regina starts to worry. This wasn't right. She was going to traumatise him.

"Stop, Roland."

His face scrunches up, he tries harder but determination soon turns into desperation. "Regina..." Her name leaves his lips and she pulls him into a hug as tears fall down his face. 

"Shhh... Shhh... It's ok, Roland." She's trembling herself. She must have just put him through so much pain. This was not the way to teach him. "I'm so sorry..."

The doorbell. Again she stares at the door until the second ring. Roland had calmed down in her arms and she stands up helping him up. She motions to the bathroom. 

"Hide." She whispers. His eyes widen but he obeys and races to the bathroom.

No one could see him here. 

She opens the door, all flushed. The man in front of her stares. Why was it that everytime he saw her, she seemed even more beautiful? It happens when it comes to things you can't have.

"Robin?" She gasps and keeps the door only half open.

"Regina." He seemed breathless.

She could see he was about to do something rash. "You're not meant to be here..."

He continues to stare into her eyes and she trails off. "You weren't meant to kiss back. But you did." He seemed to be getting closer, closer to her lips.

She looked down at his lips longingly. But she couldn't. She had the product of true-love in her bathroom. "I'm sorry." She whispers. She had said those few words too many times that day.

She opens the door a little and waves her hand. Robin disappears in a cloud of purple smoke. Magic was the thing she always fell back on. It was a safety net and it was exactly what her instinct followed. She goes back to when Roland was in trouble. She couldn't save him because her instinct was screaming in her ear: MAGIC! MAGIC! But there was none. No magic and suddenly the people she loved seemed to be in more danger. People were wrong about magic.

She turns around closing the door. She leans against it and breathes in slowly. Her eyes open. Roland stands there, an unreadable expression across his face. He saw it. She sighs.

"Gina, why did you magic my dad away?" He blinks.

She walks up to him and kneels before him. "Roland, do you know why we learn magic?"

"Because it's cool."

She smiles at the modern-world word she had noticed he had been using very often lately. Henry must have been having quite an effect on the boy. But she shakes her head. "Most people are wrong about magic. They think it's only dangerous or only for fun, but they're wrong. Magic is beautiful," Anyone could have seen the passion in her eyes. "But we learn it to protect. To protect the people we love."

He watches her with big eyes. "And do you love daddy?"

She stares at him, you can't lie to children. "Yes."

Roland smiles.

Regina looks at the ground a little embarassed. "I think  you should go."

The little boy nods, still smiling.

He's halfway out the door when he turns around and frowns sadly. It was as if he could feel Regina's own sadness. "Gina, do you wanna know who I couldn't save?"

He was talking about when he closed his eyes. She nods, a fake smile across her face. Just keep it together until he's gone. 

"It was you."

... Lovely...

CC;)