Pulls My Focus Out
Summary: Something in her ignited, perhaps sparked by the amount of alcohol in her drink or her growing aggravation at the writer, and this time she was unable to suppress it.
Disclaimer: I hate disclaimers, because I'm obviously one of the writers of OUAT and I definitely own all of the characters. Yep. (End sarcasm).
A/N: Posted this on tumblr a while ago (user: msemmaswan), but I just got a fanfic account so I thought I'd throw it up here as well! Originally for the anon prompt: Remma, jealous and possessive Regina. This, however, ended up spiraling into something much more and longer than I expected.
"- he and Emma seemed kinda cozy if you ask me…"
Regina's ears involuntarily perked, overhearing snippets of Ruby's conversation with Ashley, "…they were sitting awfully close, from what I could see."
Regina Mills was sitting at the counter at Granny's for her lunch break, looking over paperwork as she ate. The job of a leader, in this world or otherwise, was never finished. Regina could hear the two young women's conversation from where she sat, but she had been tuning them out as usual until the familiar insufferable name of the town's Sheriff had turned up in their chatter.
"I wonder what this Booth guy is doing in Storybrooke anyway," the blonde responded in wonder, her chin coming to rest on her hand.
"I wonder who he's doing in Storybrooke," Ruby quipped with a suggestively immature eyebrow wiggle that had the Mayor inwardly grimacing.
Regina usually left the trifling gossip that floated around the town to Sydney, but with more and more rumors spreading about August W. Booth in Storybrooke, she couldn't help but take interest. Especially, she thought bitterly, when they involved the town's pot-stirring Sheriff.
It was clear that Emma Swan created a sense of unease within Regina Mills, and that unease had only multiplied at the arrival of this new second stranger. She didn't like it. Emma wasn't going anywhere, though, so the only thing Regina could do was make sure the two weren't digging their noses into where they shouldn't.
At least, that was what Regina actively told herself.
Suppressed into a tiny ember, Regina stored something else entirely – something so concealed and distant that she could not identify what it might be or mean. So, she went on protecting and controlling the town she had created as she had been doing for the past twenty-eight years.
She fished out some cash from her wallet to leave at the counter before dropping her wallet back into her purse and gracefully sliding off of the stool she had been perched at; she still had work to do.
...
She found them talking lowly outside the Sheriff's station on her way back to work. She had planned on forgetting about the conversation she overheard at Granny's, but seeing the two huddled in plain sight felt like they were doing so just to bug her and draw her suspicion. Her nostrils flaring at the mere annoyance of the two conspirators, Regina squared her shoulders and marched right up to them not caring what she was interrupting. Her lips pursed (involuntarily, of course) when she noticed August's hand resting lightly on Emma's bicep.
"Madame Mayor!" Emma stepped back in surprise, causing August's arm to fall away from her, "What are you doing here?"
August had stepped back as well, though he appeared less intimidated by her than did the blonde, to the Mayor's dismay.
"I need to speak with Miss Swan for a moment, if you don't mind," she said pointedly, leaving no room for objection. She placed a predatory hand on Emma's shoulder, dark eyes staying locked on August, "perhaps we can step into the station, Sheriff?"
Emma gave an apologetic look at August before nodding and holding her arm out as if to tell Regina to lead the way.
Inside the police station, they stopped in the hallway far enough out of earshot from Miss Blanchard in her lone jail cell. Emma folded her arms and looked at Regina expectantly, wondering what she had done to provoke the Mayor's unannounced visit this time.
"What is it that you want, Regina?" Emma finally said, cutting to the chase after standing facing the other woman for a moment. The Mayor took a step forward in response, effectively invading the Sheriff's personal space.
"I want," Regina began after re-evaluating why she was here and how she could communicate her spite for August W. Booth to the blonde without it sending the wrong (or true) message, "you to be wary of Mr. Booth and do your job without his input. Despite the obvious evidence pointing toward Miss Blanchard's offense-," Emma's eyes slightly narrowed at this, "-for all we know, Mr. Booth could be a suspect as well. After all, this strange incident occurred after he appeared here in Storybrooke."
"With all due respect Madame Mayor, August has been incredibly helpful-,"
"Still," Regina spoke forcefully, "I don't trust him."
"And… you trust me?" Emma softened a bit in disbelief. She was surprised to find that she was disappointed that couldn't say she felt the same; every word the Mayor said hit Emma with a sort of suspicion, the kind where she felt like Regina never quite said what she truly meant. And yet, the Sheriff realized, this suspicion still wasn't a malicious sort but rather a pressingly curious type that Emma had never before experienced.
The Mayor paused, wetting her lips and contemplating her response, "I trust that you'll do your job, Miss Swan, for the sake of this town, if not just your son."
Emma couldn't help but inhale sharply out of surprise; Regina had, although perhaps painstakingly, referred to Henry as Emma's son too. She hadn't done that before, and it pulled at something inside her to think that maybe the Mayor was finally accepting Emma's permanent position in Storybrooke. She wondered off-handedly what had prompted this change in Regina today, and hoped that whatever it was would remain active in the brunette woman.
Emma took a moment before nodding, coming to a strange understanding with the Mayor, making her question if maybe the other woman wasn't so unreasonably deceitful after all.
...
When Emma didn't receive an answer after knocking on the Mayor's office door, she hesitantly opened it anyway, peeking inside to see if Regina was there.
She blinked curiously when she saw the Mayor herself asleep over her paperwork, one arm hanging haphazardly over the edge of her desk and the other serving as a pillow for her head. She entered quietly, not quite sure whether she should just come later, or leave the file for Regina to wake up to. Emma approached the desk ever so carefully, still mentally weighing her options. She could see part of the Mayor's face, despite the dark choppy locks that had fallen over it. Asleep, there were no angry lines on the brunette's face, no snarl, no glares. She looked younger now, Emma noticed with surprise, like the carefree young woman she might have been in her youth. The Sheriff could only barely imagine a Regina who wasn't plagued by whatever coldness had swept over her far longer than the time Emma had come to know her. It was strange, Emma decided. She cautiously, lifted her hand up to brush the hair from Regina's face, if only to get a better look at this rare occurrence.
Regina was soft – her hair, her skin- it was something she thought she knew, but it still caught her off guard for a woman who, when awake, was so rigid.
She placed a timid hand on the Mayor's shoulder, finally making a decision she wasn't altogether sure was a good one, "Regina," she whispered, "Regina wake up, you've fallen asleep at your desk."
The other woman's eyes fluttered open and, seeing the Sheriff standing over her, she sat up abruptly trying to straighten herself. She cleared her throat and ran her fingers through her hair automatically, looking around for where she was. "Oh…" she uttered, registering her office with her eyes before they locked on Emma once again.
"Miss Swan," she cleared her throat again, "I apologize, I was expecting you and was reading over -,"
"Hey," Emma casually interrupted, "it's fine, you're tired and probably overworked. I just came to really drop this file off anyway," she explained offering the manila folder up. Regina took it wordlessly, placing it on the top of another pile of documents. Emma had caught Regina off guard waking her from her slumber, and looking in Regina's eyes she could see something still open from the vulnerability of sleep that piqued her curiosity about the other woman further.
"Would you want to, I mean, feel like having a drink before you go home?" Her words were rushed, escaping from her lips impulsively before her mouth could reel them back in. "Er, Henry-,"
"Henry left for a sleepover a couple of hours ago," Regina answered before the blonde could ask. She paused, mauling over the idea of having a drink with the Sheriff. She didn't typically just go get a drink with anyone, preferring dinner parties or having a glass of wine alone by the fire.
"Alright. One drink would be satisfactory, I suppose," It was a peace offering? No, it was a stake to a claim, a way to know where the Sheriff was tonight. Who she was with, and who she wasn't. Regina stood up from her desk slowly, organizing the papers in her desk and putting a couple of smaller documents into her purse. Slinging it over her shoulder, she looked back up at Emma, giving a confident albeit forced smile – she still needed to appear to have the upper hand, after all.
"After you, dear."
...
It was a Friday night, and there were a fair amount of people at the bar. Not that Regina had ever stepped foot in the bar more than maybe twice before. She let Emma lead the way to the counter and watched her order two drinks that Regina had never heard of before. She eyed the bartender as she watched him pour different kinds of liquor into their glasses, wondering just what exactly she had agreed to.
"Cheers," the blonde offered as soon as their drinks were set in front of them, "to, uhm. To alcohol," she decided nodding her head and lifting her glass. Regina raised an eyebrow at her but held her tongue as she touched her own glass to Emma's and they both drank.
It was strong, but went down fast leaving only a slight burning sensation in her throat. She decided she much preferred cider or a nice wine.
"Hey, it's Emma and Mayor Mills! Fancy seeing you two here."
Regina inwardly groaned as August Booth approached them, a beer in hand. He was inescapable it seemed. Regina took another, rather large, gulp from her drink.
"Hey August," Emma greeted politely as he rested his arm on the back of Emma's barstool chair. Regina caught a strange glint flicker in the man's eyes as he glanced between the two women, and she wondered what he was trying to play at.
"Do you ladies mind if I join you?" He gestured to the empty seat next to Emma, and Regina stiffened.
Something in her ignited, perhaps sparked by the amount of alcohol in her drink or her growing aggravation at the writer, and this time she was unable to suppress it. Knocking back the rest of her drink (Emma noted how fast it had disappeared from the Mayor's glass), Regina sat up taller in her seat and directed herself toward August while also scooting herself closer to the blonde.
"I'm afraid," she began, leaning over to place a possessive hand on Emma's leg, "that tonight's a girl's night only," she leveled him with a gaze and a wicked grin, daring him to challenge her, "perhaps another time."
August, for what is was worth, took the rejection with a grain of salt – in fact, he didn't appear surprised at all (another thing that irked the Mayor). Nodding in friendly understanding, he wished them a good night and walked off to his former table.
She smirked in satisfaction, glad she could get rid of the intruder at least for now. Yes, Regina sought not only to rule but to protect the town she had entrapped herself in – and now, with the alcohol working inside her, Regina could reluctantly admit that this included Emma Swan.
Emma Swan, however, did not take Regina's actions so gracefully. When Regina looked back at her, the blonde's eyes were wide open with astonishment. Emma was also painfully aware of the Mayor's hand still gripping her thigh; she could feel it everywhere, a blaze moving through her bones, beating on her heart, and flushing her face. The Sheriff was trying to comprehend her, but just when she thought Regina was going to move right, she faked left and threw Emma for a loop. She was beginning to wonder if she would ever understand Regina Mills.
"What- what was that?" Emma sputtered at the older woman incredulously.
Regina, keeping her external composure, casually slid her hand off the Sheriff's leg and signaled the bartender for another drink.
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," she said in a low voice, "I was under the impression we were bonding? Being civil for the sake of - the town?"
"I-," she started, but paused and shook her head with a loss for words. After taking a swig of her own drink, she finally said, "O-kay. Right. Sorry, I guess."
"Maybe this was not a good idea," Regina sighed looking down into her glass, "I have an early morning tomorrow anyway, I suppose I should just-,"
"Hey, no, Regina, wait. I'm sorry, really. You didn't do anything, the trial's just got me on edge a little bit. C'mon, stay. Finish your drink with me. Alright?"
"Alright."
...
Later when Emma allowed August to convince her into breaking into the Mayor's garage, instead of feeling triumph at newfound evidence in Regina's broken shovel, she was startled to feel something akin to a jagged disappointment settle in her stomach. As if she expected, no, as if she had hoped that Regina would continue to prove to be someone other than the villain she was made out as.
...
"I'm not sure what you were expecting to find, Miss Swan," the Mayor said crossing her arms and furrowing her brows in mock confusion, "but I can assure you, I have nothing to hide."
Emma stood shell-shocked at the complete lack of evidence in Regina's garage. She had been loath to bust Regina for the shovel, but she had been on to something- she knew it- and now…
Regina Mills was damn confusing, was what it was. One moment Emma thought that she and the Mayor were making progress in their strange, semi-competitive and yet overlapping relationship and the next thing she knew, something happened to push them right back to where they started. And Regina, ever self-righteous, would act the perfectly innocent politician.
"Perhaps if you had listened to me and spent less time gallivanting around with that stranger and more time doing your job-,"
"Jealous?" It had slipped out before Emma even registered what she was really saying, like a gun without safety, shooting off without regard for its handler or target. It was just that Regina had been infuriating lately, pushing her patience what with the trial, along with running her around the town looking for "other suspicious activity" (that seemed to revolve around Regina's distaste for August). It was a wonder she and August had any time to snoop at all. Then, there was that stint at the bar, and the way Regina eyed her with inescapable intensity. And now, looking at a pristine shovel that vanquished her lead – the lead she had dreaded finding in the first place- she couldn't help but snap back automatically at the woman that was making her feel insane.
Regina's eyes widened in anger - how dare she speak to her this way, and to insinuate something so completely absurd, so off the mark, so incredibly… Regina gulped, swallowing the mess of sensations that threatened to crash through her. Because well, it was Emma's fault she acting this way (not that there was anything wrong with how she was acting, thank-you-very-much).
Regina gave a single low, unbelieving laugh before emphasizing, "I am not jealous!"
"Well then Jesus Christ, Regina, what the hell are you doing? - you've been yanking me around, pulling me away from August like an envious child! And, at the bar, the thigh-grabbing and the suggestiveness-,"
"Excuse me?" Even through Regina's act of appall, Emma could see it when she finally allowed herself to. The battling sparks in the Mayor's deep eyes, the way her face reddened just slightly and her chest heaved. Not only could she see it, after searching the Mayor's eyes for what felt like decades, but Emma could feel it too. Something built up inside each woman that was now beginning to engulf them both in flames.
So, instead of replying, Emma invaded Regina's personal space (call it payback), pushed the taller woman into the garage door and captured her protest with her lips.
Regina soon found herself complying.
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