It starts during the party at Granny's after the return from Neverland, when Hook expresses his wish to Neal to "back out" from their fight for Emma. Then, it all takes another turn LoL

Happy start

"I backed out" Hook simply announced sitting in front of the counter of the diner.

Regina looked up from her drink and casted a skeptical glance to him. She didn't know if she were more surprised by the revelation or by the fact that he was actually opening up to her… And he wasn't even drunk yet. She considered the situation for a moment and then just slightly shrugged, deciding to play along.

"You really did that, captain?"

"Yeah, I did"

Silence fell between them, but different thoughts were crossing through their minds, thoughts that somehow linked themselves just by the contact of their eyes.

"I never thought you were one to give up so easily" she finally said, teasing him a bit.

He just hinted a smile and waved with his only hand to recall Ruby's attention and when he did, he ordered immediately a shot of rum.

"Well, after everything I've tried for Emma, I wouldn't call this retirement easily" he replied, but only after taking a long sip "Besides, I'm not giving up"

Now the expression on her face turned to a confused one, but after some moments and another sip of wine, it wasn't difficult to connect the dots. That sort of silly fight between Neal and Hook was still very far from being over, and that backing out must have been just another part of a new strategy to win her heart. So, Regina nodded, giving him an understanding look, omitting anyway to tell him that she was actually on Baelfire's side.

"And… The woodsman?" he asked casually, moving his eyes again on the waitress already to ask for another shot.

The queen's eyes widened by surprise: it just took a moment to understand who he was referring to and the moment next she was trying hard to hold a laugh. When had they become so close to share love problems? That fact didn't concern her that much, actually, since there was no love going on for her at that moment.

"Robin? Nothing is going on" she revealed after a while "Another glass of wine, thanks" she said then to Ruby.

That sudden change of topic must have suddenly made her thirsty.

"Tinkerbell told me about the thing of soulmates between you two" he said, looking again at her giving her a conspiratorial smile.

But she didn't want to have nothing of conspiratorial with him, and the only emotion she was feeling at the moment was anger, toward the fairy. Why the hell had she told him? And why the hell was he telling it right now?

"Again, nothing is happening" she repeated, imperatively.

He chuckled a bit to that controlled and yet annoyed reaction and continued on his line; he continued to look at her with that same kind of look and she quickly understood that, for some unknown reasons, he wasn't going to end that conversation like that. He might had been able to back out – at least for a while - from Emma and Neal, but he wouldn't have backed out from that unexpected heart-to-heart between villains.

"Look, love… I think we are more similar than you may think" he stated, letting his fingers drumming on the table "And I think that we can somehow become allies again – this time for a good purpose"

Regina appeared now even more confused, but she couldn't tell how much the wine and how much his words had a part in it. A good purpose? And what would have that been? While she was silently asking herself those questions, he picked up his glass and approached it toward her a bit.

"What do you want to do?" she asked, with a half bitter smirk "A toast for how miserable we are?"

"No, a toast for how hot-blooded we are" he said, with a seriously tone "And I say: let's go getting or happy ending… with the savior and your woodsman"

Regina looked up to the sky hearing again Robin's nickname, but then nodded.

"You have a point" she found herself saying and she raised her glass too.

Two months had gone and nothing actually changed for the queen and the captain except for the fact that she started to dislike wine somehow and whiskey wasn't an option, not after the memories she had been collecting about Robin about that particular drink. The truth was that she had really believed she could have a happy ending with him and of course it was Hook's fault, damn him and his crazy ideas! He had been unlucky as well in his plan to win Emma's heart, on the contrary she and Neal had just announced their marriage, even if he didn't seem to be hurt too much.

"It's true" Regina whispered, staring at the empty bottom of the glass between her hand.

She had turned to rum at last, she still refused his flask though.

"What, love?" he asked a bit confused, raising his own look to move his eyes on her.

"Villains don't get happy endings. We don't have happy endings"

Killian laughed loudly and shook his head. He didn't know himself if he was laughing because of the sentence or the situation or simply because in that moment he just wanted to.

"Well… I'm sitting on my ship drinking rhum with a Queen… I don't feel that unhappy at the moment" he pointed out with a playful smirk.

"That's not what I meant… I'm not joking" she simply replied, looking up at him in an unfriendly glare.

"Well, I'm not joking either"

The smirk on his face disappeared almost in the same moment as did the nasty expression in her eyes. They just looked at each other in silence for some moment, and then both looked away again, staring at the late afternoon sea. A strange atmosphere seemed to have suddenly surrounded them and there was only a way they knew to make it disappear: filling again the glasses and drink some more liquid courage. And maybe it was about courage or it was about absence of filter, but he spoke up to continue his statement.

"I mean, have you ever thought that, maybe, everything that we've been through… The failures of finding happiness, love… What if all of it was meant to lead us here?"

Maybe it was something he was thinking about only then, or instead an idea he had silently had for a while but just concretely realizing it now; it didn't matter anyway, because in that very moment, he was really believing that theory and that new feeling couldn't just be blamed on the alcohol.

His eyes were again locked with hers and at first she was taken aback by the unusual conviction in his tone and in his expression. But then, she forced herself into a chuckle.

"Lead us to what?"

The smile reappeared on the captain's lips now, but just for a second because the next one, before he could have a second thought or she could realize what was about to happen, he kissed her. It was just a brush of lips at first, then she found herself naturally responding and it turned out to be a hot hungry contact that they probably never suspected to find between them.

Somehow it felt wrong, somehow it felt right and it would have been foolish to describe that moment otherwise.

It wasn't a happy ending after all and they both knew that.

But it did taste like a happy start.