This is my first fic ever, so please be nice (but honest) on your feelings about it! Starts off kinda slow, but stick with it, it'll get more exciting, I promise. I'm trying to build up an actual relationship here, it's gonna take time. So read on, enjoy, and please review! Also, this is not beta'd, so all mistakes are mine.
When she finally opened her eyes completely, trying to get accustomed to the morning light filtering in through the flimsy curtains, Regina sighed, stretching her body across the length of her bed. She rolled over onto her side, checking the time. Six thirty sharp, as usual. Trying to suppress a yawn, she sat up slowly, flattening her palm against her forehead and pushing her hair back in a practiced move. The yawn came anyway, and she stretched again, clasping her hands together and throwing them up and behind her head, giving in to the feeling.
Mornings always seemed to come around so quickly these days. Perhaps, she thought bitterly, that may have something to do with the fact that most of her nights lately were spent sipping apple cider in the study until long past a normal bedtime. She couldn't sleep. And when she did, it was a restless sleep, her head filled with dreams of a life that could have been, of dark memories that had been.
And then, inevitably, morning would come. And with it, the strict routine of a day in the life of the Mayor. Six thirty - wake up. A quick shower - cold, of course - to wash off the heady scent of apples and, lately, alcohol. She knew that if she turned the knob in the shower to a warmer temperature, she would never get out. She'd spend the entire day in there, letting the steam wrap around her skin, the hot water leaving red marks across her back like a lover's nails. So the water remained cold, the shower short and to the point. Then the hair, with it's perfectly flipped ends, and the makeup.
She went a little light on the makeup today, tired and wanting to forgo some small part of her routine, at least. She sighed, rubbing her fingers lightly over her lipstick and pursing her lips at the reflection presented in the mirror. The fairest in all the land... or so she had been told. She didn't feel that way now. Not with the slight bags under her eyes, the barely noticeable yet oh-so-there limpness in her usually shiny and full hair. The dullness of her eyes. Something was amiss.
That something was Emma Swan. The lion-hearted woman had barged into Regina's previously structured life and thrown everything into chaos. Henry had taken to her immediately, and, if we were being honest, so had Regina. She simply wasn't so keen to show it.
She knew, deep down at the heart of everything, that Emma Swan was there to get her son back. She may have denied it over and over again, but Regina's not stupid. She knows that Henry is the reason Emma came to Storybrooke. He's the reason Emma stayed in Storybrooke. He's also the reason Emma's somehow managed to wedge her way into the Mayor's life and flip everything upside down.
Oh, Regina pretends to be annoyed by it, and on a base level, she is. She's annoyed by Emma's stupid red jacket, her gruff manners, and her blunt words. She's annoyed, and yet it's endearing, all at once. It's endearing, because deep down, Regina sees what Emma Swan is. She sees that Emma wears a mask to protect her heart, same as Regina herself does. They've simply chosen different masks.
All the same, Regina buries her feelings towards the blonde woman. It's not that difficult; they're not strong feelings. She barely knows the woman. All she knows is that she feels some kind of kinship with Emma Swan; she feels pulled to her in a way she hasn't felt towards anyone for a long time - lover, family, or friend. And she knows that Emma is her enemy; she cannot be her friend, despite all of their obvious similarities, and she definitely cannot be more than a friend, as Regina sometimes finds herself thinking about after the sun goes down and her cider burns a path down to her belly. No, nothing more. They are at odds here, both wanting the same thing but neither exactly willing to share it. The only problem for Regina is that Emma basically already has all of it. Henry's love.
Still, Regina fights on, never one to give up. Henry is all that she has left of her happy ending, and she will cling to that last vestige of hope until the day she dies, that much she knows. Emma knows it too, which is perhaps the singular reason she still abides by Regina's rules regarding the boy. The rules that, under Regina's stipulation, have said that Emma will be joining the Mills family of two for dinner. Tonight.
"Henry! Time to go, grab your things and get in the car. Being late is a sign of disorder, and we wouldn't want to give anyone in this town a reason to think that this household is in disorder now, would we?" Regina smiled sweetly at her son as he came down the stairs into the foyer, shrugging his coat haphazardly onto his shoulders and throwing a scarf around his neck.
He sighed, grabbing his backpack from Regina's outstretched hands, and walked out the front door, his mother on his heels. "Oh no, no disorder in this family," he remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes at his mother's huff behind him.
"Excuse me?" Regina asked, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around on the front step after pulling the door shut behind them. She straightened his jacket, brushing invisible specks of dirt off the shoulders as her son rolled his eyes at her yet again.
"Nothing, can we go? Miss Blanchard said she would tell us another story today in class, I don't wanna miss it. She tells the best stories!"
Regina winced internally at that, the unintended barb hitting her hard in the chest. She remembered the days when Henry used to ask her to tell him stories, his eyes lighting up as he hung on her every word about dragons and fairies and magical rivers and genies. But those days were long gone. He wasn't that child anymore, she reminded herself. No, he was a growing boy with a mind of his own. A mind that was set on viewing his own mother as the Evil Queen.
Regina dropped Henry off at school, spotting Emma waiting around on the bench outside yet again. She huffed, annoyed that the Deputy had the gall to continue going behind her back even after she had made allowances regarding her son. She knew that the two used to meet in secret, but that was exactly why she had agreed to a few select times a week when Henry and Emma could meet... with Regina's supervision, of course. And yet here she was again, sneaking around and trying to see Henry when Regina wasn't there.
A fire burned in Regina's belly. She was furious. Never one to be undermined or cheated, she resolved to visit the Sheriff's office later in the day and have a word with Ms Swan about all of this.
Glaring down at her fists, which were clenched so tightly around the steering wheel that her knuckles were turning white, Regina hardly noticed Henry's short, "Bye mom," as he hopped out of the car, eager to go meet Emma on the bench. She looked up after he left, though, and was mildly confused by the scene playing out before her.
Emma ruffled Henry's hair in a confident, intimate gesture that got Regina's blood boiling with jealousy, but then Emma said something to him and he backed away, looking annoyed. She hugged him, ruffled his hair again, and pushed him off towards the front doors of the school. He trudged away, and Regina watched him go, wondering what she had just witnessed. Emma waited around in the morning just to say hey for ten seconds and get a hug?
Her eyes shifted back to the blonde, drawn there by some unknown force. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding as she unintentionally made eye contact with the Deputy. Emma Swan was staring straight at her. She cocked her head slightly and smiled that dopey little smile when she saw that Regina was finally looking at her, too. Regina's face flushed slightly, and she took in a sharp breath, quickly looking away.
Emma began to walk towards the sleek Lincoln, casually strutting across the street and walking up to the passenger's side window. She motioned for Regina to roll the window down, but Regina stayed still, staring straight ahead, not sure if she wanted to get into whatever was going on here. Emma, of course, didn't care. She simply opened the door and climbed right in, ignoring Regina's intake of breath at her doing so.
"Hey Regina," she said casually. Too casually.
"Hello, Ms Swan. To what do I owe the... pleasure?" Regina's lips curled around the last word, making it clear that she meant everything but.
"Oh stop being such a hardass, jesus. Sorry I climbed into your perfect limo without your permission. I just wanted to talk... again."
It always amazed Regina how Emma picked up on her moods so quickly, but was never afraid of the mayor's stony words like everyone else in the town seemed to be. She never shrunk away from her, and it always threw Regina off just a little bit, internally at least. Externally, she remained calm, cold, and professional, as usual.
"Yes, well, there are phones for that, Deputy. I'm quite sure you have one?" The mayor questioned in her silky smooth voice, making it clear that the comment was meant to be condescending.
"Yes, Regina, I have a phone. Now can we quit with the sarcasm and just talk for a minute? It's about Henry."
Regina finally turned to face the blonde, fixing her with a glare.
"I thought we had already talked about Henry plenty. An agreement was reached, Ms Swan. I do hope you are still satisfied with it, because I certainly don't intend to continue making deals with you regarding my son." Regina clenched tighter to the steering wheel, already conflicted about the agreement she had previously made with Emma.
The were two simple reasons why she was okay with the Deputy coming over for dinner twice a week. One - it gave Emma the chance to see Henry without going behind Regina's back to do so, and Regina hoped beyond hope that it would make Henry a little less cold with her. Two - it gave her an excuse to have Emma Swan in her home. And no matter that she knew she could never be anything but enemies with the blonde woman, Regina still took some small comfort from having her around.
Emma's laughter filled up the Mills household in a way that it had not been filled in years. It filled some of the cracks in Regina's heart, too, not that she'd ever admit it. It was hard, sometimes, to hold back the smiles Regina felt coming up her throat at the stupid jokes Emma would crack at the dinner table. But she held them back, kept her mask in place, and remained stony as ever. She had to.
Emma was there to take Henry away from her, and no matter how much happiness the blonde had unwittingly brought into her life, Regina knew she needed to remember that. She knew that she needed to retain the upper hand in this situation, and doing so required her to remain indifferent to the blonde. Or at least to act like she was.
But she was conflicted about the agreement because it was growing harder and harder for her to act indifferent towards the insufferable Deputy.