I don’t get any sort of romantic-entanglement vibe from them. And rumplegoldfankristi summed up my sentiments on that to a tee.
I see them as no more or less than the perfect foils for each other. They both recognize and grudgingly respect the other’s power. EQ sought out Rumple, as did pretty much everybody else in the kingdom, because he was well known to be the most powerful person in the land. I would be very interested to know what EQ paid for the curse in the first place. Did she place a custom order or was this just something Rumple had dreamed up and had on the shelf in his curse shop? And what did Rumple require as payment? We know what the payment was for telling her what she did wrong (apparently tech support doesn’t come with the purchase of the curse), but what did she have to give up to get it way back when, before she traded it to Malificent?
I know I have gone way off-topic, but I have a mind that wanders. Sue me!