A/N: Ok, definitely more than 4 chapters then! Please enjoy and please review! :)
The following week goes by in a series of awkward and rushed encounters. The Mayor seems suddenly to have other things to do with her spare time than to drop in on the Sheriff unannounced, and the younger woman herself seems to have taken a new and rather keen interest in helping Hook find a way of reclaiming his ship. Their interactions have been strained and unusually formal, and yet that old flame that had once flickered warningly between them burns brighter than ever.
By Friday afternoon, it's fixing to engulf them whole.
"Emma, we're headed over to Granny's to start setting things up for Leroy's birthday. We didn't do invitations as all of us know when and where it is, but I guess that might not be true for Regina... I'm sure she has a million things she'd rather do, but I guess one of us should invite her as a formality. You know how she can be about that kind of thing. Will you go and let her know on your way to pick up the cake?"
Mary Margaret asks, furrowing her pale brow and tapping sternly at the blonde's neatly crossed ankles as the latter lounges lazily on one of the cots in the Station. Emma cracks open one eye and regards her mother warily.
"Why me?"
"Well, if you haven't noticed, the rest of us are busy!"
The schoolteacher scolds amiably, nodding over towards David who is busy arguing with the jurrasic-aged printer in the office in an attempt to get it to spit out some decorations.
"What did you guys even look up? Dwarf interests?"
The younger woman grumbles as she rolls unceremoniously over onto her side in the arduous struggle of getting up.
"I searched for fishing pictures."
Snow informs her, and Emma raises a brow as she pushes herself the right way up and strives to tame her hair.
"Fishing? Really?"
"Really."
Mary Margaret grins, before wincing when I few choice words come floating over from the office.
"You have to thump it!"
Emma calls out helpfully, before returning to the issue at hand.
"Seriously, why do I have to go over to Regina's? Can't I just call her?"
"No, because then you wouldn't be able to give her these at the same time."
Snow instructs, handing over the papers previously dropped off by the Mayor, now bearing neat flourishes at the bottom where she's signed them off.
"Oh."
The blonde sighs, seeing no way she can argue her way out of her predicament without drawing attention to her disinclination to go and visit the brunette all of a sudden. After all, before their little game up in the apartment, she'd made almost as much of a habit of dropping in on the Mayor without reason as Regina had done to her.
"Okay."
She agrees finally, and she takes the papers from Mary Margaret and shrugs on her jacket stiffly. Pulling the long sheaf of her ponytail out from its trap beneath the collar, she checks herself in the hazy reflection offered by the glass of the window before catching the schoolteacher watching her curiously.
"What?"
She demands gruffly, and Snow shrugs with a look of surprise.
"Nothing."
She assures swiftly; thrown off by the strange note of defensiveness in the younger woman's voice. Watching Emma stalk out, she shrugs before heading over to help David conquer what passes as the Station's technology.
"Hi."
Emma greets as she lets herself into the Mayor's office, and Regina looks up from her work, startled, and narrows her eyes.
"Don't you knock?"
"Sorry."
The blonde shrugs awkwardly, and the darker woman opens her mouth to further scold the Sheriff before deciding this might be dangerous territory.
She has always so enjoyed sniping at the younger woman after all.
"What do you want?"
She asks instead, and Emma hesitates for a moment in the doorway as she lets this question resonate between them damningly, before taking a few tentative steps towards the brunette's desk.
"Mary Margaret asked me to give these to you."
She explains, handing over the papers, and Regina holds out her palm to accept them with a wooden nod.
"Thank you."
"I also came to ask if you wanted to come to Leroy's birthday thingy with me... Well, not with me, but... Well. Yes. I guess it would be with me. At the same time as me."
"Smooth."
The brunette sighs, and Emma pulls a face as she shrugs once more- not sure what else to do.
"I think I might have better ways to spend my time."
Regina continues loftily, and the younger woman nods as she shoves her hands into her jeans' pockets uncomfortably.
"Yeah. I figured you might."
"I'm surprised you're going. I didn't know you were particularly close to any of the dwarves."
"Well... I kind of have to. Cos my mom and all."
"Of course. What a good little girl you are, dear."
"Quit it."
"Never."
"And Leroy's alright."
"Yes, I suppose you two do share elements of the same temperament."
"Seriously, Regina..."
Emma warns.
"Yes, Miss Swan. Seriously."
The darker woman smirks.
"...I said I'd pick up a cake, and there's going to be drinks."
The blonde explains irritably, and Regina smiles as she shakes her head with an expression of disdain.
"You are so two-dimensional."
"Are you really looking for a fight?"
Emma goads, and the brunette leans forward as she makes to snap back coquettishly, before catching herself in the act. Musing on the Sheriff's words cautiously, she sits back in her chair and crosses her arms with a sigh.
"I suppose that wouldn't be wise..."
She answers quietly, realising that she really had been looking for some sort of fire and wrath from the younger woman; having missed her smart retorts this week.
Studying Emma with a frown, she meets the blonde's eyes for a moment, supposing that the confused uncertainty the Sheriff does a poor job of hiding exists in spades behind her own mask of superiority. Lowering her gaze, she takes in brash red leather over a simple white button down shirt and the same black jeans she'd explored so candidly back in the Station. The obscure- and unwarranted!- thought that she never got a chance to even discover the color of the blonde's underwear in spite of roaming around in its confines comes to her out of the blue and she clears her throat uncomfortably as she feels hot blood rush to her cheeks. Waiting for Emma to take her leave and sighing defeatedly when she doesn't, she addresses the blonde quietly.
"Is there something else you wanted to talk to me about?"
"No."
The Sheriff answers immediately with a teenage toss of her hair, sending tumbling gold swishing coyly behind her. Suffering the silence that follows, tense shoulders droop as Emma continues more tentatively
"I keep waiting."
"... For what?"
The brunette replies cautiously, aware that she's holding her breath and telling herself to quit it.
"To feel guilty."
Emma answers after a long pause, and the Mayor has to lean forwards in her seat in order to catch what is little more than a whisper. She does catch it though, and she raises an eyebrow in surprise before letting out a low, audible breath.
"You don't?"
"I know I should."
"I'm not asking if you should. I'm asking if you do?"
"Do you?"
"I..."
Regina searches for an answer but comes up short. She can't find a way to word how she feels. She supposes she had felt a little guilty, but not as severely as she possibly should. It's something else too, though.
It had been her.
It had been her instigating, but Emma not telling her to stop.
She can't word it in a way that sounds reasonable even in her own mind, so she certainly isn't going to try and attempt to explain it to Emma. The words that come to mind when trying to put across her feelings on the matter sound accusatory, and that's really not the case. She supposes what it comes down to is that the old part of herself that has always worked to displace blame feels that Emma's 'benefiting' from events puts her more at fault than she is herself. She knows this is neither fair nor accurate, but she can't shake the notion just the same.
"I'm confused about how I feel."
She states eventually, meaning it in so many more ways than one. To her surprise Emma lets out a short bark of laughter before grinning with obvious relief.
"Thank fuck for that!"
The blonde states and she offers a tentative smile.
"Sorry. I know that's not helpful. I'm just glad it's not just me."
"You're confused?"
Regina asks slowly, knowing that while she might have many thoughts going through her head, Emma's own point of contention is quite clear in this instance.
"... Yes."
The younger woman admits, and she walks further into the room with a quick raising of her brow as though asking if she's permitted to do so. Uncrossing her arms in an attempt to appear slightly less forbidding, Regina lays her hands out on the desk and sits stiffly as she allows the blonde's approach. When Emma gets to the desk, she moves around to perch on it and look down at the Mayor from her slightly elevated position, as she has done countless times before.
It's never been like this, though. Before we've been discussing work. Henry. Her parents or mine. It's never been like this.
Regina swallows as her eyes remain fixed with the Sheriff's as the latter sits in a way that seems obscenely casual given the situation.
Casual, but so nicely. I never scolded her for sitting on the desk when she first decided it would be appropriate to do so because she looked nice like that. I don't think I was even fully aware of that assessment at the time, but I know I didn't mind...
No. She hadn't minded. She has never once told the younger woman off for sitting as she does now, and she supposes she can answer Emma's previous question about guilt more easily now as she recalls snapping at Robin for perching on her desk exactly as the blonde now does little more than a week ago.
And oh, lord, she can smell the sweet almond of her shampoo from here.
"I never understood it before."
Emma sighs as she adopts an almost childish expression of shy distress.
"Understood what?"
Regina asks, striving to acquire a relaxed, almost businesslike tone and missing the mark by a long shot.
"What it was about you. What it was about you that just drove me fucking crazy! I mean, lots of people irritate me, and you're not even the first person to full on threaten me... Fortunately you are the only one to attempt to poison me, though... But, all of that bitching and snarling at each other we've done? I shared a cell. I've been there. I've done that. I've shared a bedroom with three angry teenagers and an office with four incredibly territorial men. Someone wanting to get rid of me? I'm pretty damn well acquainted with that! With you, though... It's always been different. There was always this spark. I guess once things fell into place around here with the book and the curse and everything I considered the possibility that it might be, well, magic... I actually really hoped that it was... I never allowed myself to consider the alternative."
"... And what was the alternative?"
The brunette breathes, feeling trapped in the Sheriff's earnest stare. She has always found this habit- this trait- of Emma's unsettling. The blonde seldom lets people in, but when she does, she has a way of showing not just her secrets, but her vulnerability. It's written all over her face, and the days when this maliciously pleased the darker woman have long since passed. Now, it gives her a peculiar feeling low in her gut. A warm feeling.
"That I liked you."
Emma murmurs quietly, and the Mayor swallows silently before challenging stiffly
"You've told me plenty of times since the curse broke that you liked me"
"I don't mean it like that."
"Then what do you mean?"
Regina asks, knowing the answer, but not knowing how to deal with this situation. The only way she has ever been able to deal with an uncomfortable situation is to make the other person feel lower than she does herself, and she thinks for a moment she's succeeded when Emma blinks and errs awkwardly- clearly having hoped she wouldn't have to spell it out- before the blonde finds another way of answering the question.
Leaning a little clumsily over the desk, any lack of grace is quickly forgotten as she kisses the brunette firmly, almost as though she has a point to prove. Regina lets out a noise that is born both of surprise and anticipation as she grips the curved armrests of her chair and closes her eyes. She permits Emma to deepen the kiss hesitantly but without regret, and makes a slightly more affirmative moan against pale lips when the Sheriff pulls herself around and up onto the desk properly so that she kneels on its hard surface (and several forgotten documents). She in turn pushes herself up so that she stands just a little taller, her hand finding the blonde's jaw and keeping her in place.
"I mean that I like you..."
Emma murmurs against full lips, and the brunette nods as she takes her turn in initiating their kiss, injecting her own brand of dominance as she pushes the blonde back a little.
"I always knew you were bad news..."
She sighs as she tugs lightly at the younger woman's hair, winding it around her fist and clenching experimentally.
"You've certainly accused me of it enough times."
Emma agrees, finding the small of the Mayor's back and digging in her nails to earn a hiss and a nip of perfect teeth.
"I suppose those claims could now be justified."
Regina taunts, pushing at red leather to guide the blonde's jacket off of slim shoulders. It catches at the younger woman's wrist, and the brunette tugs at it aggressively before tossing it carelessly onto the floor.
"Might as well make them count."
The Sheriff nods, her hand slipping a little lower and pulling the Mayor hard against the desk.
"You are bad news, Miss Swan."
The darker woman reiterates, starting at the top of the five out of seven buttons the blonde had done up on her shirt and ruining her handiwork with a series deft flourishes of her wrist. Her previous musing about being denied knowledge of the younger woman's underwear comes to mind, and she assesses the delicate green cups of the Sheriff's bra peaking coyly from between wings of white cotton, before stripping Emma of her shirt entirely and letting it fall discarded onto her chair.
Tracing her nails teasingly up exposed flesh, she throws her head back with a small hiss of encouragement when the blonde grazes her teeth gently down her throat and begins to return the recent favour with a coy tug at the zipper hidden in the side of her skirt.
"Emma, this is going to-"
But she stops. Frozen.
The blonde stiffens up in kind, muttering a breathless 'shit!' as a low pounding sounds on the door.
Snapping out of her horrified stupor, the brunette makes a move to shove the Sheriff off of her desk, before realising the compromising state she's currently in. Grabbing a hold of her arm with bruising force, she yanks at her instead; pulling her up and over the desk before pushing her down none too gently.
"Get under there now!"
She hisses at Emma, who- although slightly dazed- can't help but feel she's being punished for what is about to become an excruciatingly uncomfortable situation on Regina's behalf.
"Ok, ok! Quit pushing me!"
She grumbles, feeling hatefully sheepish as she crawls awkwardly into the small cubby beneath the Mayors desk.
"Ouch."
She mutters irritably as the brunette's knee knocks her unceremoniously in the shoulder, and she bites back a yelp as Regina kicks her warningly, before holding her breath when the door opens.
"Hi."
"Hello."
"Are you busy?"
"Just working..."
Regina replies breezily.
"Well, I won't keep you long. I just wanted to run something by you..."
And, underneath the desk, Emma groans silently and closes her eyes as Robin launches into an entirely uncalled for indepth discussion.