Well, this is my first multi-chapter fic and one that's been bouncing around in my head for the last six months. I have to thank a few people for this actually ever making it here because I am nervous as hell: Lee, for being the first one to read it, Celina, for being my beta (and the copious amounts of swear words!) and Lindsay, for helping me with literally everything!

Title is a song of the same name by Nerina Pallot, and I don't own Robin, Regina or anything Once-related, I'm sorry to say. I just like to play with them from time to time.

This chapter and the next two are set several years back. T-rated for now, will go up to M in later chapters. For reference, I always imagined the bar to look a little like the one in Miami Medical. Hope you enjoy!

The darkness was obliterated by the harsh artificial light surrounding the noisy, heaving bar. You could have sworn it was the middle of the day during that warm, sticky July. You couldn't move for student after student celebrating the end of finals and Regina and her fellow medical students were no different. She and Daniel silently blessed being equipped with elbows, clutching several drinks between them with nary a drop spilt.

"It's your round next, Swan," Regina playfully chided her blonde pal. Emma laughed, a raucous sound, like it was the funniest thing she had heard in her life. "Already affected, I see." The brunette raised an eyebrow, grinning.

Daniel handed out shots to each member of the group and cleared his throat. "To the end of five years of blood, gore and late nights… and to the next fifty of much the same. We survived!" The friends cheered themselves and downed their various poisons in unison, slamming the glasses back down onto the table.

"Isn't it something to think that we've spent the best part of the last five years together..?" Robin's clear English accent rang out amongst the rabble. "I mean, we've laughed, cried, drunk, thrown up together…"

"But we haven't slept together!" Emma roared, bent double in fits of laughter. She was practically on the floor, half held up by August's arm hooked under hers. Robin glanced briefly at Regina, whose eyes met his and held for a beat. They grinned at one another, knowingly, interrupted by Daniel.

"No you don't, Robin! Leave that English sentimentality at the door!" Daniel thrust his next shot into the air and downed it with just as much valour.

Robin rolled his eyes and smiled, picking up his next shot and turning to Regina, passing her another. "Well, Miss Mills, hasn't it been fun?"

She nodded coyly, pushing the stray strands of her long, dark hair away from her face. "Indeed it has, Mr Locksley." She smiled warmly. "I can imagine you will be the finest cardio surgeon this fair country has ever seen. You know your way around a heart or two."

Robin grinned and put his arm around her. "And you will be one hell of a paediatrician." They turned to face each other. "You know, Regina, there's…"

"And to everyone else!" She needed to breathe and the best way to garner control of the situation was to address everyone. "To us!" Again, the group simultaneously relieved their glasses of their liquor.

"Let this night last forever!" Emma had her arms in the air, waving them in time to some sort of silent beat in her head. They knew what that meant. "On to Wonderland!"

Wonderland was the number one student dive bar-club amalgamation in the area and as generally downmarket as it was considered, the cheap drinks and skull pounding music was a guilty pleasure for the group (except Emma, who proudly declared she felt no guilt about her pleasure).

Regina stood up from her stool and pulled down the navy dress which had bunched up around her upper thighs and slammed her hands onto the table with a devilish look upon her face, thanks to the alcohol and heat now coursing round her body. "Let's do it."

"Thank you August!" Emma yelled over the barely discernible melody blaring from the speakers. August had got the group in quickly, thanks to his connections and they were now approaching the throng of pissed students on the dance floor. Emma insisted August and Regina come dance with her, leaving Daniel and Robin to get the next round, courtesy of Emma's credit card.

The guys leaned against the bar as they awaited their orders. "Robin, can I ask you something?" Daniel's eyes met his.

"Yes, of course."

The look on Daniel's face gave it away. This was going to be one of those conversations about…

"Regina." The pair glanced at the beautiful young woman dancing alongside Emma, her hips swaying in time to the music, her hair tossed over her shoulder, her smile luminous even from a distance.

"I thought we'd talked about this." Robin sighed. He wasn't willing to jeopardise her friendship for something that could fizzle out with the summer. The lead up to finals had been a month of high tensions for all, some exam-based, but for Robin and Regina, it was more intimate than that. Not that they'd ever done anything about it, except briefly considering the possibility together the night before the last exam. They'd spoke openly about why it wouldn't be a good idea, before agreeing to remain friends. He glanced up and Regina's eyes met his again. She smiled at him and carried on having a good time.

"Okay, okay." Daniel placed the drinks into Robin's grasp. "I promise I'll take care of her." Daniel and Regina had been given their first placement in the same area and had already made plans to live together. Robin's posting was halfway across the country, as was Emma's and August had been placed locally. The distance was one of the many reasons they decided not to try. Robin suspected it might be the biggest reason of them all. That, and putting their friendship on the line.

"I know you will."

They nodded towards one another, a silent 'shall we?' and headed towards an empty table near their friends. Daniel joined the group, eager to enjoy the buzz of the liquor, whilst Robin sat at the table, picking up his pint and staring into it, feeling startlingly sober. It wasn't a feeling he welcomed, so he placed it down and picked up one of the many sour shots he and Daniel had purchased, knocking it back with speed, willing himself to not focus on the woman currently with her back to him. He could hear her laughter pealing through the white noise. He could always identify her voice. At that point, his next shot was in his hand, gone, and the next was lined up and ready to go.

"Whoa, easy Robin, save some for the rest of us!" Regina grabbed the shot from his hand and knocked it back just as quickly as he had just done, shuffling close to him. She picked up the next two mini glasses and passed one to him. "To us, Mr Locksley. We made it."

Robin's gaze held hers as their heads tilted back in time, both dizzy from the sudden movement. "Hey, you okay there?" Robin reached out and placed his hand on Regina's arm.

"I'm good. I feel like I'm on that wonderful cusp between tipsy and drunk, you know?" That perfect line. She beamed at him, taking his hand in hers. "You have been the most wonderful friend to me, Robin." She giggled gently, "You were the one who bought me soup when I was dying with fever. Remember that?"

Robin was also walking that tightrope between merry and pissed, but of course he remembered. "Third year. You got through your entire placement without so much as a sniffle, but misplaced belief in the weather that time of year rendered you bedridden for, what was it, three days? Drama queen." He gave her a little nudge and she giggled again.

"Then we watched several seasons of one of those Top Model shows which, despite your protests, you know you enjoyed," Regina added, teasing.

Robin's eyes narrowed to slits at the reminder. "I did not say…"

"You said that model was FIERCE! Robin Locksley, saying the phrase 'FIERCE'!?" She yelled that last word, entwined with a laugh, one that Robin couldn't help but join in with.

"Yes, okay, I did say that… and you haven't let me live it down!" and before long, the two of them were holding on to each other for support, their ribs and jaws sore from the hilarity.

"Oh Robin, I am going to miss you so much." Her face fell almost instantly. "I'm serious here. I don't know what I'm gonna do!"

"You have Dani…"

She cut him off, dark boring into ice blue. "I know. I know, I know, I know. I am very grateful!" She wanted to say something else, but stopped herself in time.

Robin also sensed there was something unsaid, but decided not to push it. "Will you all come visit?"

"Of course!" Her smile returned, her face instantly brightened. "Whenever we can!" With that, she flung her arms around him, pressing her torso to his.

She turned her head to his ear, her lips gently grazing the lobe. He heard her take a deep breath. "I love you Robin. Thank you."

The sensation, the action, the words –they were all too much for him, physically and emotionally. He knew she meant well, that she was talking platonically, but he couldn't hear this right now. He tensed, which only served for her to squeeze him tighter. He stayed in her embrace, unwilling to break this closeness but at the same time unable to handle it. When she pulled back, their gazes held. If neither of them moved soon, they would be acting upon something they promised they wouldn't.

Regina's gaze was penetrating, unrelenting. When Robin felt himself glancing that minute a fraction lower to her gently parted red, red lips, he knew he had to get out of there. Wordlessly, he picked himself up, swaying slightly, letting go of her hand, and left their booth, out of sight in a blink.

She was utterly dazed. Not from any of the copious amounts of alcohol they'd both consumed, but by what had just happened. There was heat in the air and creeping around her body, from her face, to her breasts, lower. She took one hell of a deep breath before standing up.

"What the..?" Emma didn't even get to finish her sentence before Regina put her hand up to stop her.

"I have to fix this." She pulled Emma into the quickest of hugs before flitting to the exit, the blonde none the wiser to what had just occurred between her two friends.

Regina cursed her bloody heels for hindering her current mission. The straps were digging in painfully to her ankles and she was one agonising step away from ripping them off, when she saw him. Robin was pacing slightly just across the road from the club, his brows knitted, deep in thought. Swearing quietly, she removed her shoes and ran across the street barefooted, heels in grasp. By the time she reached him, under the palest of light of a flickering streetlamp, she could only whisper his name.

Robin heard the faintest gasp of his name and he turned to face the very woman he needed distance from, and she was closing that distance rapidly. He opened his mouth in preparation to apologise but she was too quick. Her body collided with his, angled to pin him to the wall, sheltered from the light, but he could see the desire sparkling in her eyes. His open mouth met her open mouth in a rough kiss, one hand snaking around his neck to grasp his hair to bring him closer, her other hand, having dropped her heels onto the pavement, bunched his shirt between her fingers.

Too shocked to respond for the first moment, Robin quickly caught up, his hands settling first on her hips before sliding their way back to her rear, settling there to pull her flush against him. They stood devouring one another in the darkness of the empty street for what felt like the briefest of moments before Robin spun them round, pressing Regina into the wall. Her breathy moan was all the encouragement he needed, slipping his palm upwards, past her hips, laying upon the underside of her fabric-clad breast.

He took the chance to break away from their heated kiss to appreciate her, all swollen lips and trembling limbs. "Regina…" he gasped her name in reverence, sliding his hand upwards to cradle her cheek. Her tongue snaked out to wet her lips, assuming he was going to kiss her again. For a moment, he considered it, but that would be unfair on the both of them. "We can't. We shouldn't."

Regina's breaths were coming fast now, barely able to speak for her heaving lungs. "Wh-what?" she managed eventually as she felt his hands drop from her, but she kept a hold of him. "We can." She emphasised the 'we' so heavily that he explained, in a very strained voice, that 'he' couldn't. The hurt on her face was clear as day as he felt her embrace loosen.

"I'm sorry, I…"

She lifted her eyes to his, her lips pressed together in a thin line. "Don't. I'm not sorry." She adjusted her skin-tight dress, pulling it down again. "Goodbye, Robin." With that, she left him, walking away slowly enough to give him the chance to call her back, but he never did. He watched her walk, making sure she was safe with Emma before turning away.

"Goodbye, Regina."