Chapter One
Emma Swan sat at her usual table, at the same time she did every day. Her routine had become like clockwork; get up at seven, leave the apartment by seven forty-five, arrive at Granny's for her must-have cup of hot chocolate and cinnamon, at seven fifty-five sharp.
It had gotten to the point where Ruby now had her morning cup of bliss waiting for her.
Things were official; she was in a relationship with Storybrooke. Roots had begun to spring out from her normally fleeing feet. For some reason she had become perfectly fine with staying in the tiny town of oddities and neighborly love. Well, if she were honest with herself, she stayed for Henry, her son; a fact in her life that she was still coming to terms with.
Emma's eyes moved down to her steaming cup of dark goodness. She swirled the drink and took a satisfying gulp, drumming her finger tips across the side of the mug.
If she were to be really honest with herself, she would admit to staying for one other person as well; someone she couldn't even fathom to name aloud within her own mind. The most tempting, seductive, beautiful, annoyingly perfect…
"You know, Miss Swan, you're going to rot your teeth if you continue to drink that sickeningly sweet, hot chocolate for breakfast every morning." Regina made a look of disgust at the seemingly offending mug of cocoa while she sashayed past Emma, towards the bar.
"Aw, Madame Mayor, it's so sweet of you to worry about my dental hygiene." Emma retorted sacrasticly, taking a loud slurp.
"I would just rather not live in a town where the citizens, namely my Sheriff, have disgusting teeth." Emma could hear the glare being shot at hear by the mere inflections in the Mayor's voice.
"Well, I am pretty sure what I have for breakfast is none of your concern, Madame Mayor." Emma cast the best "eat shit" smirk she could muster in Regina's direction.
Emma watched as the Mayor paid for her cup of Joe, while rolling her eyes at the blonde's comment.
"Just make sure you don't rot out my son's teeth while he's around you," Regina replied easily as she walked by Emma once more. Her perfume surrounded Emma, assaulting Emma's senses in the most pleasant way, making it nearly impossible for Emma to interject one more last comment into their short conversation.
"Our son."
She tried to hide the smirk creeping its way out across her lips, as she watched Regina turn around slowly, shooting her a predatory glare. "My son, Sheriff Swan, as I am sure I do not need to remind you that you gave him up ten years ago."
She took a step forward and gave Emma her best shark-like smile, "Good day, Miss Swan."
The Sheriff watched Regina briskly walk out to the diner with purpose. "You know I do believe I will, Madame Mayor." She replied to herself as she watched Regina disappear from view, as she continued to walk further down the street.
She stretched her lithe body for a moment. Basking in the new warmth that seemed to radiate of of her body. Whether that warmth had come from her little interaction she had with the Mayor, or if it was the product of Grannies delicious hot chocolate, well Emma Swan didn't really want to know. Reaching into her wallet, she pulled out a coupl of bills, slapping them down onto the table. "Thanks for the morning boost, Rubes." She turned and gave the waitress a quick wave.
"See you later, Emma." Ruby gave her a warm smile.
Reaching for her trusty red leather jacket, Emma stood up and walked out of what had become her most frequent haunt, and stepped out onto the street. She shoved her arms into the warm sleeves of her jacket as the fall winds began to pick up around her.
As she walked towards the direction of her office, she noticed Regina not too far away from her, with a menacing scowl placed on her face. Woops, someone's pissed her off. Emma could barely make out what the dark woman was saying as she talked on the phone.
"I really don't care if that seems like an impossible task." Regina growled into the phone, while she shifted her hips in annoyance.
"Well make her…" Emma watched her as she sighed deeply, before flipping her hair. "Enough. Do what I pay you to do. Is that understood? I want the information you actually on my desk before one."
Emma was now close enough to draw the Mayor's attention. She watched as her dark eyes grazed over her form slowly, "Get it done. We'll talk more later."
"Trouble in paradise, Madame Mayor?"
Regina narrowed her eyes and mocked Emma's earlier response, "I really don't think my business is any of you concern… Sheriff."
Regina turned and walked away from her. Emma moved quickly to catch up, "Don't be silly. Everything concerns the Sheriff." Emma couldn't help but antagonize the woman for some reason.
"Miss Swan," Regina glanced towards the blonde, "Why…"
She let out a loud sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance, "Don't you have something better to do than walk me to my office? Something like keeping the teenage hooligans at bay, or something else equally as trivial as that?"
"Actually, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Of course you do, dear. Now let me guess," she pretended to ponder for a moment. "Could it possibly have something to with Henry?" Regina chuckled somewhat darkly.
Emma nerves grated slightly as she watched watched Regina take a sip of her coffee, God, she always thinks she has the upper hand. "Actually I was wondering if you would like to go out to dinner with me this Friday night?"
The reaction was exactly what Emma had hoped for. Regina's eyes bulged out as the coffee she was drinking flew out of her mouth. The Mayor stopped walking immediately and turned to the Sheriff, shock was written upon her face.
"What did…? Miss Swan, I…" Regina attempted to pull herself together, as she attempted to clean up her now coffee stained blouse.
Emma rolled her eyes as she quietly did a victory dance inside, "Relax, Madame Mayor. No need to have a heart attack. I really just wanted to ask if I could take Henry to the movies this weekend. The old theatre house is doing a salute to 80's movies, and I think he would enjoy seeing one."
Regina wiped her mouth clean of any remaining coffee droplets, "I guess that is reasonable." She started to walk away before turning around again, abruptly, giving Emma a questioning look. "Miss Swan, please inform me later today the details of your outing with Henry."
Emma shot her a quick smile, "No prob'."
Giving her a small nod, the Mayor continued her walk to her office, leaving a gleeful Sheriff behind her.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo x
Regina sat quietly in her office, staring at a city council report. If anyone were to walk past her office, they would assume, rightfully so, that the Mayor was hard at work.
Quite the opposite was happening. Though her eyes were on the sheet of paper, her mind was elsewhere; lingering on a certain blonde sheriff, who was no doubt wandering about the town, avoiding paper work. A woman, who used to be placed in one category for the mayor – archnemisis.
However, recent events were now shedding a different light onto Miss Swan, and Regina had absolutely no idea what to do about that.
Turning away from her desk, Regina idly played with the collar of her blouse. A blouse, she quietly fumed, that had been ruined by a certain annoying sexy, blonde haired-
Regina flipped her hair out of her face and straightened in her chair, muttering to herself, "Stupid woman. I should send her my dry cleaning bill. Or better yet take one of her hidious jackets and burn it until it is nothing but ash."
She chuckled at the thought of destroying something Miss Swan held so dear.
Staring back at the various reports upon her desk her eyes fell on one of Emma's signatures. The woman had pleasant handwriting at least, Regina reasoned within her mind. She was also unfortunately quite attractive, and it would be completely understandable if her thoughts tended to lingered on the blonde.
The mayor let an uncharacteristic sigh pass over her lips.
The fact of the matter was Regina had become lonely lately. Not that she would ever say that aloud.
Life had gotten to be so tedious. And she felt drained, so incredibly drained. Nothing seemed to be going right lately. Ever since Emma Swan came to town, her life had begun to spiral into a void of darkness. Henry no longer wanted any of her attention, always preferring to be with her. Even Graham wanted to be released from his duties, her own huntsman.
Regina stood abrutptly, and walked to the window. She willed her thoughts not to go to what had to be done to him. She closed her eyes and leaned against the windowsill. All she wanted was her own happy ending.
A/N: I hoped you enjoyed the story so far. I'm a little nervous about putting my two cents into a new fandom. Let me know what you think! (Please review! I always enjoy hearing back from you guys.)