The Most Resilient Heart.

Love is Weakness.

Ok. A month to finish this. I should be excited, and trust me, I am, but not sure if I'm gonna make it... ;)

She awoke to a soft humming. A soft, deep humming that seemed to enter one ear and somehow find its way to her heart. It was warming and comforting and seemed to pull her away for a second. Away from all the thoughts and worries that really should have been rushing through her mind, that really should have been the things to warm her heart, maybe a little too much as well. And that is exactly what happens. She sits up suddenly in a cold sweat. 

He was there beside her. He was holding her hand. Well, at least, he used to be. 

"What- What-" She stutters but suddenly it all comes back and she looks back at him. She looks back at his face. And there is that cocky smile again. She scowls. She could have read it wrong, seeing what she wanted to see instead of the reality, or she could have read it right but either way, she still would have gotten up in a rush and hurried to find an exit, any exit only to find herself falling again. Where on Earth did all this weakness come from? Since when was she all of a sudden fainting and falling and crying every second of the day? And suddenly an image flashes before her eyes. Her mother. 

Love is weakness, Regina.

Love is weakness, love is weakness, love is weakness...

The phrase repeated over and over and over again until she screamed. "STOP!" Strong arms were once again by her side in the flash of an eye.

How he hated to see her so sad, so distressed, so pained. It was a thing he couldn't stand and yet all he seemed to do was make it worse. Every time she saw him, she made it obvious that she didn't want to see him, she pushed him away so much, and yet he continued to advance upon her, to get closer, to... hurt her. That was when he realised, that was it. If the next time he sees her walk away, and she doesn't look back, he won't hurt her anymore. He will promise her, in his mind, that he will not disturb her anymore. The thought scares him, the thought of never seeing her again. Or maybe that wasn't it at all. Maybe it was just the thought of seeing her again, and not being able to love her.

"Regina?" His voice is low, weak. She looks up at him confused. It was a voice she never would have expected to coem out of him. 

"Sorry..." She is helped up. And suddenly her brain starts to work as she starts to pace the room, or tent as she has suddenly realised. 

He watches entraced as this woman paces with a cute, concentrated look upon her face that seems to make him fall in love with her even more.

She stops suddenly. And turns to him. "Robin?" Her tone was stern. Worried, but stern.

"What?" His voice still had that unusual hint of delicacy in it. 

It took her another moment to get over the change in his tone. "Your lips were cursed."

He looks at her strangely. This time no voice comes out of him. His new-found fragile tone didn't seem to suit the retort.

So Regina continues. "Someone cursed your lips. Cursed your lips so that the next person you kissed would be sent off that cliff." She shudders at the memory. And then she looks him dead in the eye and, voice sterner than ever, she speaks: "Robin, you need to tell me, has there been anyone, anyone, that has done something strange to you lately? Anyone who has sent shivers up your spine..."

He raises his eyebrows. You.

"Anyone who has in any way touched your lips, or your face..."

Still you.

"Anyone who has whispered into your lips," He was staring at her. Was it just him that found this significantly weird? "Or into your ear or against your skin?"