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Robin didn't do well in Wonderland. Not at first.
The first day she leaned on a tree that turned out to be an illusion and fell into a tunnel and ended up on a giant chessboard, and it took Alice several hours to find her.
The second day, she ate a questionable salad, shrunk to six inches tall, and had to be carried around in Alice's pocket until they could sort it out.
The third, she met a Jabberwock.
She tried not to think about day three very much.
It wasn't until the fourth day that Robin felt like she finally understood the appeal of Wonderland. Alice set up a tea party among the giant mushrooms, but on a blanket instead of at a table, and she put her favorite top hat on Robin's head, and Robin lay in her arms and watched things that looked like both flowers and birds fly above the treetops. Alice lifted up her hand and some of the flower-birds flew down and brushed against her fingertips, and she smiled, big and unhindered.
Wonderland itself might be a little wild for Robin, but Alice in Wonderland was breathtaking.
*
They'd decided to travel through the realms, both of them finding a lot of wanderlust returning with their memories. It was a spur of the moment decision, impulsive and giddy, a sense of adventure burning in them. Robin had always wanted to see more of the fairytale lands and Alice was eager to show them to her.
The difference between traveling in the real world and any fairytale land was that there were limits to what humans could do without magic. With magic, there wasn't much that couldn't be done, not many things that couldn't exist, if someone was inclined to do or make them and willing to pay the price. As a popular girl in a small town, Robin had learned the rules, had learned how to make people like her and listen to her, in ways that she could figure out how to translate to almost any person in any country.
But magic was something different. It wasn't reasonable, or predictable, not in ways that Robin understood. She was the daughter of one of the the most powerful witches to ever live, and of two of the most famed and popular characters in the Western canon, but it didn't seem to help. She struggled to adjust to each new world and each new form of magic she came across.
Not Alice. With magic around her, Alice thrived.
*
In Agrabah, Robin stepped on the magic carpet by accident, which promptly yanked itself out from under her foot and sent her tumbling on her ass.
But when they went flying on it that night, Alice couldn't stop laughing, delighting in the views and the speed, glowing under the stars. Robin couldn't keep her eyes off of her, even as her fingers clutched tightly to the carpet's edges.
*
Atlantis involved a lot of trusting magic that Robin didn't understand that she wasn't going to drown. And while she liked swimming, the constant weightlessness was disconcerting, and it was stressful, never going to the surface.
Alice gave them fish tails and lead Robin out into the open water to play with dolphins.
*
The Enchanted Forest was a relief, much as Robin hated to admit it. Magic here was still wild, but in a way she understood, something she'd grown up with, that Aunt Regina had done to make her laugh when she was a kid. In a place she knew, where the people she loved came from, she finally felt on firm ground.
It was also where, during a stroll through the woods, Alice seemed to grow more and more agitated, like something was on her mind. Robin let her get to it in her own time, and was rewarded when she finally asked, "Do you wish you had magic?"
Robin stopped in tracks, genuinely surprised. "What?"
"Do you wish you still had magic?" Alice repeated, looking sideways at Robin. "It's just, I realized I never thought to ask. I know you used to want to do magic because of your mom, and I've been using mine so much lately, I didn't think ..."
"Woah, Tower Girl," Robin said gently, putting her hands on Alice's shoulders and rubbing them soothingly. "Breathe."
"But -"
"Listen to me, okay? I gave up my magic for a reason. Not that I'll ever admit this to her, but I got some of my mom's control freak genes, and magic sometimes makes me feel a little too out of control. I'll stick to archery."
Alice's eyes filled with worry, which was the opposite reaction than what Robin was hoping for. "Do I make you feel out of control?"
"Absolutely," Robin said, tucking a piece of Alice's hair behind her ear, smiling when her girlfriend leaned into her hand. "But only in good ways. The same way leaving home did, back when I was Margot, or when I picked up a bow for the first time. Intense and a little nerve-wracking but comfortable at the same time. Does that make any sense?"
Alice smiled. "Maybe not. But I think I get it anyway."
"Good," said Robin. Then she dropped to her knee.
Being with Alice could chaotic sometimes. But she knew Alice's heart, and that made things less scary, less unpredictable. Like how she knew - or at least, she was pretty sure - that if she asked Alice to marry her, she would say yes.
And she did.
*
"So this is Storybrooke. Nicer when no one's chasing us."
"This is it," Robin said, as they wandered down Main Street, holding hands. She could feel Alice's engagement ring between her fingers.
"It's lovely," Alice said, looking around with bright eyes. "It's my favorite place so far."
"It's a town with, like, five streets and everyone goes to the same diner. You've been to so many amazing places - hell, I've been to so many amazing places, even if some of the memories are probably fake. How is this your favorite?"
"It's where you grew up," Alice explained, squeezing her hand. "And it's a home. Maybe not your home anymore, but not not your home, I guess. It's not a tower, it's not someplace you're passing through or where people can't see you. People here know you and love you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Robin looked around and it was like seeing the whole town with new eyes. "I always felt trapped here. But I guess it's about perspective."
Perspective like seeing magic in unknown and confusing ways.
Perspective like seeing Alice's tower.
Perspective like having new places to explore and her own adventures. It was good, having a safe place to return to.
"Let me show you around," she said, pulling a giggling Alice along behind her.
Seeing Storybrooke through Alice's eyes made her appreciate it more. It also made her think she might want to Wonderland another try.
Magic might be too much for Robin sometimes. But she could handle anything, when she was with Alice.