No One Mourns The Wicked

Chapter 16

Monday morning rolled around. Morrighan was in much better spirits. She made small talk with the Hoods during breakfast before she left for the pawnshop and they planned to celebrate at Granny's when she returned that evening.

Regina got back form a town meeting around one o'clock. When she came through the door, she heard Robin muttering to himself, frustrated.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Trying to learn German," he said. "She speaks to us in her third language and we can't even be bothered to learn a second."

Regina walked over to where he had Duolingo opened on the laptop. "Have you considered asking her for help?" she asked.

"But," he argued.

"No," Regina said. She closed the laptop. "Ask her for help. She's talking to you now. Bond."

"I'm horrible at it," he said.

"And you can get better," Regina said. "I'll do this with you. Besides, she's not looking for you to be an all-perfect hero. She wants you to be a person. People are flawed."

"How can you be so certain?"

"She's a teenage girl. You've never been a teenage girl."

"True," Robin said.

"So, I was thinking," Regina started. "What if I could find a way to help Zelena?"

"Hm?"

"Magic. Find a way to cure her with magic."

"Go on," said Robin.

"Morrighan said the doctors couldn't find anything, but if we could find a way to get Zelena here, we could fix it with magic."

"What happens if she leaves Storybrooke?"

"Nothing. Magic may not work out there, but spells still hold."

"How do we get Zelena here?"

"That's the issue, I have no idea. I don't know where to start," she explained. "If Zelena was here in Storybrooke, it would be pretty easy to just fix whatever is wrong, but since I highly doubt that's going to happen, I need to get something to her. But I don't know what, or how. I was thinking of talking to Rumple, but I'm not sure."

"I'm not keen on going to Gold about this," Robin said. "I think he's still a bit bitter about Neil. I don't think he's going to do anything to Morrighan, but I don't see him being very inclined to save Zelena."

"We could ask Belle to research spells, at least," Regina said. "I'm pretty sure she won't mind helping."

"Maybe," Robin said. "We need to be careful. This is a powder keg. People are fine with Morrighan right now. However, I don't think that they are going to be keen on saving Zelena."

"They got over me," she said.

"That's different."

"How? I cast a curse, got Henry, found something worth changing for, and changed."

"Zelena didn't change," Robin said. "And you two aren't the same people. I'm not saying that we shouldn't try, I'm just saying that we have to tread carefully."

"I agree," said Regina, "now," she turned to the computer screen. "I sincerely think you should ask Morgan for some German help. I don't think you'll be conversing much by asking her if she likes red berries in her car," she joked, reading the line from the site.

Robin blushed. "It's meant to teach vocabulary," he said. "Car is Auto and berries is Beeren."

"You're right, you do need help," Regina teased. "Your accent is atrocious."

"Why do I get the feeling yours is just as bad?" he asked.

"It is not!" Regina said, then attempting to read the line.

"You're right," Robin said. "It's worse. Much worse. More badder." Regina snorted.

They were consumed by their fits of giggling.

"More badder," Regina echoed through snorts. "That's not even proper English. I haven't heard anyone who isn't two say that."

"Well, now I've said it. What are you going to do about it, Your Majesty?" He tickled her.

"Stop," whined Regina. "I can barely breathe."

He arched an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yes, stop!" she shrieked with laughter.

"If you insist." He stopped, but not without a devilish grin. "I love you, you know."

"Could have fooled me," Regina said, regaining her composure. Her face was red and adorable. She couldn't help grinning. "I love you too." Her hand subconsciously went to the lion tattoo on his forearm, the symbol that Tinkerbell had used to identify him as her soulmate.

"For the record, saving Zelena is the right thing to do," her soulmate said, taking her hands in his. "The noble and honourable thing. The good thing."

"Now you really sound like Snow."

"I told you, she's smart."

"And that's why I'm going to help you. We have to be in this together."

"All the way," Regina said.

"All the way," he agreed.