The chosen one

"Where is my skirt?"

That question, pronounced in a clearly annoyed tone and accompanied by abrupt movements directed to the search of the precious clothing, was all Regina said. Hook, sitting on the bed, watched her in silence for a while, while a pleasant smile was forming on his lips: the image of the major of Storybrooke walking in his bedroom aboard the Jolly Roger with just a shirt on, was more than he could have dreamed of the night before and at that thought, he couldn't help but change the smile in a chuckle.

"What the hell is your problem, pirate?" she blurted out, turning quickly to him.

"I think I don't understand, Your Majesty" he replied raising an eyebrow, vaguely confused.

Regina shook her head, seeming even more annoyed, and moved towards him with a threatening look.

"You like to ruin couples, to be the third tip of triangles… Don't you?" she asked with a trace of marked irony in the voice "That's how it went with Rumpelstiltskin and your true love… That's how it went with Emma and Baelfire… And now-"

The sudden leap of the captain interrupted the conclusion of that accurate list.

"And now? Now what? Don't tell me what is between you and the 'man of the woods' is love because…"

"Robin and I are going to get married, he is the right one and this is my chance to be finally happy!"

"Of course it is… Yay to the future spouses!" he exclaimed with dark joy "But don't deceive youself that this time will be less farce than your first marriage" he added then with a serious expression, referring to her marriage with King Leopold.

The queen looked away at that comment and, not caring to answer, she walked away from him, starting again to look for the skirt in the room. She finally saw it sticking out under the bed and, after bending slightly to grab it, she put it on quickly, still in a obstinate silence of words and looks.

"Look at me!" Hook in fact said with a tone in a mixture of order and plea, cutting again the distance between them.

With a sudden twitch of his hand, he grab her arm and attracted her to him, putting his arm with the hook behind her back, pushing their bodies to stick on against the other. The woman's eyes widened when their foreheads and their noses touched; the mysterious darkness in her brown eyes met again the blue ocean of his ones and the storm that was released was showed in a passionate, ravenous, almost desperate kiss. It was Regina the first to regain her lucidity and, putting the palms of her hands on his chest, she tried to move him aside, escaping the voluptuous contact between their lips.

"Let me go" she hissed staring at him with a flash of almost hate.

But it wasn't that the feeling to obtain the wanted effect; in that look, the captain could see much more than what she wanted to show: unexpressed tears, sadness, sense of guilt… emotions that he could somehow feel too.

"I am tired of these games" she murmured now with a tone that let shine through her real interior state.

"Who said I want to play?" he immediately asked, letting go of her and keeping only the visual contact between them.

"That's what you always do" Regina pointed out looking up to the sky.

"Always when?"

"For example with Emma"

"Emma, Emma, Emma…" the pirate repeated, exasperated to hear again the name of the Savior on the lips of the woman "If I didn't know you, I would say you are jealous, love"

"You did it with Emma too" Regina simply said again, ignoring the provocation.

"Why don't you understand that what happened between me and Swan was completely different?"

"And what is the difference then? That you didn't bed the Savior?"

Regina's attempt of irony failed miserably and the exasperation took completely control of the pirate, who, extending his arms as a sign of surrender, found himself letting talk the instinct.

"Damn it, Regina! For how much I liked Emma, I wasn't so much in love with her!"

As soon as the words escaped his lips, he wished to have never said them. They stood still the one in front of the other, while the implicit meaning of that confession hit them both at the same time as a slap. He was in love with her, Hook really loved Regina.

"Killian, I…"

The recall of that whisper got lost in the room and the hand protracted towards him found itself clinching the empty: before she could even think about a coherent reaction, he had already disappeared from the room.

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"Regina, you are stunning"

The sound of Snow White's voice behind her and the soft touch of the woman on her bare shoulders shook her from that memory, which seemed now assuming the fading contours of a far dream. But the emotions she had felt just a week before aboard on the Jolly Roger, couldn't be just the simple outcome of a reverie; it had been a week and the last words that the captain had said were, in her ears, a constant echo impossible to ignore.

"Damn it, Regina! For how much I liked Emma, I wasn't so much in love with her!"

She shook her head and wiggled out almost burnt of Snow White's grab, while the other woman assumed an expression of pure confusion. But Regina was far away from that moment: it was like her body, tight in the elegant qhite dress ready for the marriage with Robin Hood, was separated from her mind, inevitably lost in thoughts about how it would have been to have another person at her side on that day.

Funny how history repeats itself.

"What's up?" her daughter-in-law asked now worried, staring at the future spouse.

But the older woman wasn't even looking at her, her eyes were trapped into the big mirror in front of her. Future, present and past seemed to come alive: memories of a life full of sadness and surrenders with Leopold, illusions of a serenity with Robin, dreams of a denied love with Daniel and fragments of an unexpected happiness in Hook's arms… Not even realizing it, her eyes filled with tears and a sudden paralyses seemed to have stopped every discretion, while her real condition as a person eternally unhappy and constantly afraid and weak seemed to have been painted on the surface of the mirror, becoming clear in the image of the unusually childish look that it gave back to her.

It was in that moment that, in front of a powerless Snow, Emma moved from the door and stepped forward with determination towards the woman she had learnt to consider as a friend. It didn't take her to understand that Regina didn't really want to marry the Prince of Thieves, but it had been useful when she went to talk with Hook. There was a thin thread that seemed to link the two villains and that was something that would have potentially turned them into good people.

"That's enough" she declared, taking the bouquet of roses from her hands "I will talk to Robin…"

The other two women turned to the blonde with wide eyes, but if that reaction was imposed in Snow by confusion, in Regina the surprise was animated by hope.

"Go to him…" the sheriff added again taking the major's hands, now free, in her own, squeezing them as to give her that courage they both knew she needed.

"How do you know that…?"

Swan interrupted that question with a smile and, without answering, hinted to the door, remering her that there was no time to loose. Regina nodded in silence and then, after taking a breath, she moved, going out the room to the opposite direction to the place where the others were waiting.

"What does it mean? I don't understand!" Snow exclaimed, recovering from the astonishment and addressing t her daughter.

Emma shook her head and sighed, while the words escaped her mouth as she thought of them in that moment.

"Love always finds its way"

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The hems of the long gown between her hands, the face slightly reddened because of the run and the make-up ruined for the tears that she didn't know to have cried: that's how Regina Mills appeared on the jetty of Storybrooke. She remained still, with the eyes fixed on the Jolly Roger and a fearful expression realizing what was happening inside the ship in front of her.

"You are leaving"

The whisper that escaped her lips didn't sound as a question, it was a simple statement that had the aftertaste of disappointment and ill-concealed desperation. The noise of the breaking of glass was all that followed the reaction of the pirate finally realizing her presence. Hook widened his eyes and remained in silence for a while, not caring about the flask of rum just ended up in a thousand pieces on the ground, but the surprise soon turned into suspicious curiosity.

"How did the marriage go? Let me guess: it has been the crocodile's girlfriend to take the bouquet…"

The ironic tone that had accompanied those words pointed out how the defense barriers were up again between them, actually they never let them totally crumble; they had both spent their whole lives defending and attacking, but Regina this time was ready to surrender and risk. The bet was high, there was all her life at stake and she knew that, but someone once said that only risking life, you can conserve freedom.

"There hasn't been any marriage" she announced, breaking his conjectures.

A smile crossed her lips seeing him widening his eyes again and take the hand on his mouth, unusually wordless. Too many surprises for a single day, captain? Yes, maybe, but he had some surprises too, for her and for himself, since, not even thinking too much about it, he approached her and grabbed one of her hands, helping her climbing on the ship.

"Really?" he simply asked, putting suddenly hesitant the only hand behind her back, covered by the refined white corset and attracting her towards him.

The woman nodded and grinned even more, before her lips were captured by his own in a kiss full of passion. And there was more than that in that gesture: desperation, hope, fear, happiness… love.

"Why?" Killian asked again, breaking the contact.

The truth was that he knew exactly the reason behind that decision, but he needed to hear those words from her; she needed to know that all was real and that they could really have that happy ending they both had been searching for too long. Regina got lost for some moments in his eyes and most of all in the light of hope they emanated, then she slowly put her hand on his face and sighed, while the smile slowly vanished in a melancholy determination.

"Because I always make the wrong choice, captain"

Hook made a face at those words, pretending to be hurt, but then he chuckled and pressed again his lips against hers claiming a new kiss.

And wrong never felt so right.


Here it is my new one-shot Hooked Queen. Hope you liked it! I had this idea and couldn't get it out of my mind!

See you soon hopefully;)