This is technically number five in a multi-fandom series of tropes that I plan to eventually write about, but since the stories will be unrelated, I figured I could write them out of order. The trope here "Rivalmance."
Graham was good-looking, Regina knew. A nicer women might've even described him as cute, or something equally nauseating. But the truth, to be entirely frank, was that the huntsman was boring. There was nothing truly exciting about him. There was no mystery with him, no wit or challenge – and not just because she sometimes had his heart literally in her hand, either. Regina missed the… intelligence in her romances. She missed not knowing what to expect.
But with so few people that she could trust, let alone love, beggars couldn't be choosers, she supposed. In her romantic interests, it seemed like she could only have one thing or the other in any given man – good looks or a good mind.
And maybe that was why she so enjoyed her games with the sparkly imp of a Dark One, Rumplestiltskin. His face was far from a thing of beauty, and don't even get her started on those claws, but he was unpredictable, and she loved that about him.
Of course it went without saying that she didn't love him as a… well, whatever he was supposed to be – was "person" even still the right word? Then again, truth be told during the rare moments when she allowed herself to even consider it, the Evil Queen could never really be sure if they somehow loved one another or simply loved to hate one another.
Either way, she knew that she enjoyed whatever it was that she and the Dark One had.
And as of late she'd even noticed that, so long as one saw him from behind without having to see his face, Rumplestiltskin looked good in those leather breeches of his.