Paperwork
by Erin Griffin
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Pairing: Emma/Regina (Swan Queen)
Summary: Regina stops by the sheriff's office in order to finish up the bi-weekly reports.
Unbeta'd and written in about 45 minutes.
Emma hated paper work. So much. She was the sheriff in a small town of fairytales, so how much paperwork was there, really, when the most exciting thing to happen this week was that Granny's now had avocados for a whopping extra charge twenty five cents? Seriously. So why did it take an extra hour and a half to tell the mayor that yes, Leroy is still the town drunk, and yes the burly man formerly known as Baby Bear STILL doesn't know how to properly park his truck? Emma sighed as she hunkered down. She wanted nothing more than to go home to a hot meal and a hot bath, not necessarily in that order, but she would hear an ear full from Regina if these files weren't in the mayor's drop box by seven thirty that evening. It was close to five when the door to the station opened. Hoping it was Ruby doing a delivery, as the once deputy was prone to do from time to time, Emma looked up hopefully.
"Miss Swan, I forgot to include the bi-monthly report for community watch. The meeting is next week, and I need everything gathered."
"Add it to the stack," Emma said with a sigh. Of all things, she hated the meetings she was required to go to. Luckily she didn't need to actually contribute much, as Regina's notes were always sent to her in an email afterwards with some biting comment about her attention span or comprehension of most of the things that were said.
"I am actually in need of this paper right away, Sheriff," Regina replied.
"I need to finish this stack before I fall asleep and forget about it," Emma responded, doing the best she could to keep the snippy tone out of her voice. "Just put it here and I will get to it in about fifteen minutes."
There was a short pause before the blonde heard, "I can wait."
"Whatever."
There was silence after that, if Emma didn't include the small clip of Regina's heels as she went to the desk and placed the folder of papers Emma had to go over and sign. It wasn't like she had to do more than the current date and her signature. She knew what it said. It was what they all said with little to no revisions. If she wanted to, she could just sign it right then and there, and it would take less than ten seconds, but she also knew that she could have a little more fun if she made the impatient mayor wait a little while, if that was the other woman's prerogative. So, Emma watched out of the corner of her eye as Regina shifted from one foot to the other, looking around the station as if she hadn't seen all of the pictures on the wall before, let alone for the last twenty-eight years. Really, Emma was just waiting for signs of the brunette's impatience. She wouldn't have to wait long. There was the small tap of her heel on the tile, and Emma looked up at her, which stopped the movement when she had been caught.
"Please, Madame Mayor, have a seat. It shouldn't be much longer."
"Fine." Regina all but huffed. Emma was surprised when the other woman didn't sit in the small cushioned chair on the other side of the room, but the chair opposite her at the desk. She tried not to show it as she continued looking through the pages she was already working on. She glanced at the clock on the wall. She still had over two hours until she need to get her paperwork in. She twisted her mouth as she worked, her hands moving slower this time. Part of her was distracted by the scent of the woman next to her, but the other part of her really was going slower on purpose. As the minutes passed, Regina looked over her nails, and then brought out her own paper work when the fifteen minutes turned into twenty. Emma waited for a snarky remark about her ability to get her paperwork done in a timely manner, but got none. The other woman continued to do her own work. Finally, at around six, Emma opened the folder, sighed deeply, and put her name in large swirls over the paper.
"Here you are. Sorry the other stuff took so long."
There wasn't an answer at first as the brunette took her time putting her folders away before she reached for the one Emma had needed to sign. When their hands touched, Emma looked into the other woman's eyes. She then reached for her shoulder and took a step forward. She had known the whole time why the other woman was there, and she knew that this was what she had been waiting for more than the damn paperwork. Regina wasn't really someone who could simply say how she felt, but Emma had a few months to interpret some of her seemingly erratic behavior, like showing up at the station unannounced or calling her about Henry when they had just seen each other. The other woman missed Emma, something she found sweet. Of course, she never acknowledged it in those actual words too often. She mostly let the conversation about Henry turn into a conversation about their work day and then anything else that happened to come up. She purposely took the extra time to work on the paper the woman needed signed so that they could have those extra few minutes, even though both women would see each other later that evening.
As Emma placed the fingertips of her left hand on Regina's cheek, the older woman closed her eyes, anticipating the very thing she had come into the sheriff's station for. Emma leaned in for a kiss, one that replicated the kiss that broke Regina's own curse several months ago. Emma wanted to say that she had spent the day missing the mayor, too, ever since she had left her bed that morning, but dared not. Instead, she ended the kiss, looked at her girlfriend and went in for another kiss, one that promised her her own Happily Ever After. "I'll see you tonight."
"Do not be late, Miss Swan," Regina said, as if the last thirty seconds hadn't happened.
"I won't," Emma said softly, but the door to the sheriff's office closed, and she found herself alone again, her lips tingling and her heart pounding as usual. Emma then went back to her desk, ready to tackle more paperwork. She'd slayed a dragon and traveled through the Enchanted Forest to get back to that woman. Surely she could get through the last of the incident reports for the week and make it to dinner.
END