A Merry Mayoral Christmas

Sitting with her legs tucked up neatly underneath her, Regina swilled the amber liquid around the diamond cut glass and resisted the urge to finish the last mouthful of cider left in the tumbler.

She had always been someone who preferred delayed gratification to straightforward indulgence; the anticipation and expectation always more pleasurable than the act of getting what it was she desired.

Her mother had encouraged it of course, in her own dark meandering way arguing that it prolonged the agony as well as the ecstasy but Regina didn't like to think of it that way. It was a private experiment for her- to see how long she could exist without something that she knew would shine even the briefest of lights on her otherwise tedious loveless days. To prove how strong she was.

Even if no-one else could appreciate it.

She was used to the solitude of the act. It was almost calming in a strange way.

Rolling her shoulders, she grimaced as a twinge in her neck ached for a second and swigged down the remnants of alcohol.

Ding dong!

That was when her front doorbell echoed through the house.

Damnit.

Growling under her breath, the brunette snuck a glance at the clock and wondered with undisguised irritation who could be so uncouth as to interrupt her at home this late on Christmas Eve. Still, she wasn't going to exacerbate the lack of manners by ignoring them and so dragged herself up, setting the glass down before padding out of her study to the shadowy front door.

Jerking it open, her face dropped as she took in the sight of the dishevelled blonde Sheriff staring back at her with embarrassed eyes.

"Uh...hi Regina."

"Miss Swan."

The younger woman hopped from foot to foot, her unruly hair snaking out from a knitted hat that was covered with light flakes of snow but didn't say anything further.

Regina stiffened. "So is there a point to this intrusion or are have you taken up a second job I don't know about as a door to door saleswoman?"

"I..."

"Because that would invalidate the contract that you signed when you became the town Sheriff and I would be well within my rights to sack you on the spot."

Emma huffed out a stream of frigid air. "It's nice to see you too."

It was only then that the mayor noticed that the blonde's hands were slung behind her back, obviously concealing something between them and she arched an eyebrow in response.

"What is it to be then; a swift blow to the neck or a quick hanging?"

Emma's face crumpled with confusion and then followed the brunette's gaze towards her obscured hands, a relieved smile taking its place when she realised what the Mayor meant

"Jesus, it's not a weapon Regina." Revealing the small but beautifully wrapped box, she was carrying; the Sheriff thrust it forward towards the other woman. "I just figured...it's Christmas Eve and I know Henry's over at my Mom and Dad's for the night so I wanted to..."

"Show me exactly what I'm missing?" finished Regina, an odd discordant tone in her reply.

"What? No! I wanted to make sure you were ok...and...and bring you your gift so you'd have it to unwrap tomorrow morning." Emma shrugged. "You like daggers, right?"

Regina's gaze hardened instantly and Emma threw her hands up, backtracking with flaming cheeks. "That was a joke! I said it wasn't a weapon ok. It's not. Not even a can of mace, I swear." Shuffling her feet on the bristled mat, her wide green eyes looked up.

"So...can I like come in for a minute? Coz it's cold as a witch's nipple out here and I think I might have already lost a toe. "

Blinking a little to clear the soft alcoholic fog in her brain, Regina ranged back and forth over the decision for a few seconds although her face showed none of the internal battle. But in the end, her sense of etiquette won out and she motioned for the other woman to follow her inside. That's what she told herself at least. That it was a sense of propriety and not the brief tingle of excitement that had burned through her at the sight of the blonde curls standing on her front step.

That was just pure surprise, nothing else.

Trooping into the hallway Emma's jaw instantly dropped at the change of decor.

The beat of Christmas bells was echoing through some speakers somewhere, swooping around the atrium as it skimmed over flickering surfaces. As they made their way into the warmth of the study everything in the house seemed to her to glitter and shimmer with reflected light from the twisted tinsel wreaths propped up on the marble fireplace to the curved baubles dangling from the enormous tree in the far corner of the room.

"Wow."

Regina looked back at her as the word fell out of her mouth, eyes narrowed searching for any sign of sarcasm but her posture relaxed when she took in the sheer amazement written on the face opposite. The blonde really was awestruck by her surroundings and despite all her best intentions that undisguised appreciation caused a flood of heat to seep through the brunette's bones.

"It's for Henry really," she said quietly. "I was never one for...all this wrapping."

Emma smiled, scanning the streamers and decorations above them. "Well you do it really well. For someone who's not that bothered."

A strange almost wistful look lit up the blonde's face for a moment then although it was gone again in an instant- so quick that Regina almost missed it. Almost. It nagged at her though as she poured two drinks out of the decanter and sauntered over to her guest. What it meant. Why there was such a sense of melancholy buried in the younger woman's façade of Christmas cheer.

She held out the glass of cider, noting Emma surprised glance but not commenting on it.

"Not that it's any of my business Sheriff but isn't there a pair of lovesick idiots waiting for you in a warm, cloying flat somewhere?"

Emma's eyes dropped in response. "Yup. All twinkly eyed and nogged up to the hilt."

Regina wrinkled her nose and gave a soft snort. "Don't get me wrong but you seem like the kind of person who would enjoy a good...nog."

Her breath hitched imperceptibly before she got up the courage to ask what she really wanted to ask.

"Which begs the question…why are you here?"

"Because it's a bad mix," came the mumbled reply, spoken so softly Regina wasn't even sure she'd heard right

Regina stared at her.

"Alcohol, me and my parents in the same room. I'm more than likely to say something I really shouldn't."

In vino veritas, thought the brunette with a tinge of sadness. She'd seen enough families destroyed by the accuracy of that statement, as clichéd as it was. She'd never considered the blonde might have come to the same conclusion though.

"So you turned your back on truth for the evening and came to find solace in the house of lies?"

Emma's head shot up at the slightly wounded accusation and dropping her drink down onto the coaster on the nearest glass table, she reached out and gently grasped the older woman's thin wrist at the pulse point.

"No! That's not what I'm doing and…that's... not how I see this place. Please…I want you to understand…Jesus I'm not explaining myself very well. Just give me a minute ok…"

Agitated and frustrated by her own inability to express herself, Emma let go, running a hand through her curls and scowled as it got caught in a small knot.

"I finally have parents to love me and that's great. Really, it's what I always wanted. But the thing is no-one tells you how to deal with parents after a lifetime of not having them there. No-one tells you how to take it when they ask where you've been and where you're going. What time you'll be back. I guess if they'd been doing it since I was like twelve I'd have gotten used to it by now through….exposure therapy or something… but…it's…I…get so angry. As if a couple of strangers I've never met before have just wandered into my apartment and started criticizing everything in there- the décor and the furniture and anything I ever bought for myself. Everything I ever figured made me…me. You know?"

Brown orbs locked with green ones and Emma searched them desperately for a sense of recognition but the swirls inside them were so indistinct and unreadable that she wasn't at all sure what Regina made of her confession.

Still, I might as well go all in now, she thought weakly.

Taking a step closer to the other woman, Emma swallowed thickly. "And I know none of that is your problem and you probably don't care one way or the other whether I get on with my Mo…Mary Margaret and David but I came here because of all the people in this town, you're the only one who understands why I wanna punch something really hard." She tailed off for a moment, "You're the only one who tells things like they are. Shitty and broken and downtrodden for the most part but…I guess," her hands motioned to the glittering room around them, "…fixable too. That's why I came here. Just so you know."

Out of breath and worn down by the rant that seemed to have burst out of her chest from nowhere, Emma eyed the brunette warily as she stood there unmoving staring at her.

And for her part Regina was truly stunned.

By the warmth and desperation on display in front of her. When she'd gotten up this morning she hadn't foreseen the day turning out this way, with the blonde Sheriff looking to her for sympathy and compassion. With anyone looking to her for maybe the most human of emotions.

She had no idea what to say. For maybe the first time in her life.

And so she just stared wide eyed at her houseguest, a million things caught up at the back of her tongue unable to make their way out into the air.

"Miss Swan...I..."

It was all she could manage.

Unfortunately for her though, the younger woman misread her response and rocking on her heels, her hands now balled up in her jeans pockets turned to leave, her eyes glistening slightly.

"I'm sorry Regina." She said as she walked towards the door. "I didn't mean to drop all this on you, I know it's not your concern. And I'm sorry I messed up your evening. I hope you can forgive me."

The mayor went to make a move, to catch up with her, to say something, anything to explain herself and make Emma stay but the blonde turned back of her own accord and motioned with her head to the box on the table.

"I really hope you like the present. I know it's unusual and kind of cheap but...back in juvie, when they took Henry from me, it was the only thing they let me keep of his. And it's kind of stupid but every year at Christmas once I'd gotten out, I used to get it out of the box and just hold it inbetween my fingers, like some kind of rosary I guess, wishing that he was safe. That he'd found a home where someone loved him more than anyone else on earth."

And with that the blonde moved off again, her face indecipherable as she made her way out of the room, out of sight scurrying away from the emotions fogging up the room.

Regina didn't know what to do, she was so conflicted. Somehow though she found the strength to walk unsteadily to the table and lift the unexpected gift up. Tearing a corner off the wrapping to reveal a corner of cardboard, she ripped the rest off and gingerly opened up the lid. To reveal a small plastic hospital tag, Baby Swan written in a neat but faded cursive.

Henry's tag.

Her mouth dropped open as a wave of sensations surged through her.

She was so overwhelmed that she barely heard the final words Emma offered her softly from the hallway.

"You can keep it you know. I don't need it anymore. Because I got my wish. He found you. And I...I just..." The voice faltered before the creak of the front door opening lilted into the air. "I'll always be grateful. So Merry Christmas Regina."

And then she was gone, the slam of the door and an icy wind blowing through the hallway the only sign that she'd even been there at all. And Regina could only look down in wonder at the small plastic tag cradled in her palm.

Her heart pounding in her chest.

Wanting to speak for the first time in years.