Broken Hearts Bleed Together

It's odd he thinks, Cora had described her daughter in such detail, right down to the freckle on the left side of her face, below her mouth. He'd known what she looked like with devastating clarity and Cora had told him her personality wasn't to be trifled with either. He'd expected an absolute spitfire when he finally found her and while he knew she'd be beautiful, he hadn't expected her beautiful heartbroken eyes.

Staring into them, he couldn't understand how anything Cora or anyone else had said could be true about her. She didn't look much like an Evil Queen, especially in the simple pants she wore and button up blouse, instead she looked sad; her whole demeanour was one of a deeply heartbroken person. He'd heard stories of the infamous Evil Queen back in his land and he'd wanted to meet this evil woman who could tear still beating hearts out of chests without a care. Looking at her now though, all he could see was pure heartache and he couldn't fathom how someone so purely sad, because that is what she was, could do the evil acts that people spoke of her.

The sadness in her eyes was familiar however; it was a sadness he saw reflected in his own eyes whenever he had the misfortune of seeing their reflection. He wondered if others could see the sadness and heartbreak so plainly in his eyes as he did in hers but, if others couldn't see it in the Evil Queen's they surely couldn't see it in a Pirate Captain either. He wanted to know her story, he wanted to know who it was she lost that it affected her so deeply, he was sure there was more to that story than anyone ever bothered to learn. Cora however, had forbidden him from talking with her daughter and despite his rebellious pirate nature he would do as Cora asked while she was still helping him gain revenge on Rumpelstilskin.

Still, sitting across from her as she watched him with her sad, broken eyes, he couldn't help but want to learn all about her heartache. He wondered if it was anything like his own, a lover torn from her without notice or something as equally as traumatising. He hadn't been this interested in another person since Milha was taken from him and he'd sworn vengeance on Rumpelstilskin but now, it seemed all he could think about, even not when he was watching guard over her was Regina.

She fascinated him, more than he'd ever care to admit but he felt a kind of closeness with the woman, even if they never spoke. There was something about this woman that he kept prisoner, more than just what her mother told of her and he wanted to uncover what it was, even if the urge was unexplainable to him. It was the sadness in her eyes he was sure, it was because she looked how he felt almost all the time and even if he tried not to sympathise with her, he still felt something towards her.

"What's your name?" she asks, breaking the silence that is typical of their encounters. It is the first time she's ever initiated conversation; any attempts by him had all been refused in the past.

"Captain Hook, love," he tells her with his trademark smirk.

She eyes him carefully, her face not betraying any emotion, something which unnerves him greatly. No one should be that good at looking so dispassionate about anything, even he knows that and he's just a lowly pirate captain acting as a babysitter for hire.

"That's not your real name though, like the Evil Queen isn't mine. So, what was your name before you took a hook for a hand?" she asks again, this time smirk just the tiniest bit.

"You're right there, love. Hook isn't my name; it's only what people call me," he told her earnestly, "I'll make ya a deal. You tell me why you're so sad and I'll tell ya my real name."

The former Evil Queen looks taken aback for a moment, confused by his proposition. This in turn confuses him; surely asking her to share why she looks so sad isn't a foreign concept to her. If it is there's far more wrong with the woman than even he'd anticipated and Cora had told him a lot about her daughter, even if most of it didn't seem to be accurate anymore.

"Why would you care?" she asks her voice so quiet and broken he almost doesn't hear it.

"Why wouldn't I love? Everyone's got pain and you've got more than most, I can see it in your eyes," he tells her, being uncharacteristically frank and honest.

"Ha, how do I know this isn't just some ploy by my mother to reveal more of my weaknesses? Although, it's not like she doesn't already know why I am the way I am. It was all her doing to begin with," she spat, hatred burning hot in her eyes.

"Look, I don't really care why you think I asked but like ya said, you're mother probably already knows. I asked because, I want to know. No one is just that sad over nothing, ya know," Hook replied with a shrug of his shoulders, glancing away from the woman.

"What would you know of being sad?" she asked almost spitefully, scoffing as she spoke.

"I know enough to recognise it when I see it," he all but growled, not used to having anyone mocking him in such a way.

"I'm…sorry. It's just hard to believe that you, an infamous pirate would know sadness in such a way," she told him gently, already regretting her harsh words.

"There's much people don't know about me, like I'm sure there's much people don't know about you. So tell me, what happened to make you so sad and heartbroken, even to this day?" he asked with a nod of his head as he looked her straight in the eye, not wanting to back down from the confused glare she was sending his way.

"I…uh…my true love, was killed right before my eyes, his heart ripped out and crushed to dust," she said so softly he thought she might not have actually spoke.

"What?" he asked, his body leaning forward as he strived to hear her words better.

"My mother crushed his heart to dust right in front of me. It was…the most horrific thing I'd ever seen. The second time I had to kill him myself… it's like the gods themselves conspired against me," she whispered wistfully, tears brimming in her eyes as she spoke.

"The second time?" he said puzzled, trying to process all that she'd said to him. He couldn't believe her true love had met the same fate as his own, a coincidence perhaps but too unusual to actually be one.

"Yes, the second time," this time her voice actually broke, making her sound far younger than she really was, "he was brought back but he wasn't the same. He was in pain and I…I couldn't let him suffer like that. I turned him to ash," she told him breaking down into sobs that he didn't know how stop.

It took a moment of awkward staring before he shuffled forward and cautiously wrapped his arms around the sobbing woman. It was odd hugging someone like this after so long without such physical contact but as much as she needed it, he did too. He hadn't thought he'd find anyone else with whom he could share the pain of his true love's murder with but it seemed that this former Queen was it. He'd watched Milha's heart be crushed to dust and her body fall lifeless and this woman in his arm's had, had the same happen to her own true love. It seemed as if fate had been kind yet cruel enough to deliver him someone who knew his pain but was also untouchable.

How could he share his pain with this woman if she was to be used as a pawn within Cora's power hungry games of revenge? It was a taunt almost too cruel for him but he knew then, that he couldn't let any more harm come to the woman. She was almost broken beyond repair and he wondered if he would end up as she is now someday. He wanted to know this woman, more than any other person since Milha and it scared him almost as much as it excited him that there was someone else like him out there. The woman in his arms is a kindred spirit he could tell and he knew their broken hearts would bleed together if he ever got the chance to take her from her mothers clutches.

"I won't let any harm come to you," he whispered to her, wondering if she could hear him. This woman intrigued him and for reasons he himself didn't even really understand he felt the urge to protect Regina and he was going to try his bloody hardest to make sure she made it out of the imprisonment alive. As long as he felt they were connected in this way, he wasn't about to let any harm befall her.

AN: A completely random pairing here. I don't even know how it happened. All I know is that if Hook and Regina aren't kindred spirits I don't know what I'll do. I honestly just see so much potential between and for these two, it's crazy. Also, I'm not even sure what half of this is. Lol. Most of it's been written in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and please review! :) LT.