AN: The wait is over! I'm really sorry for the delay but I got another fic in my head (it was supposed to be a oneshot but got longer, most of it is finished now though, so it will probably not interfere much more with this!) and I couldn't resist to write it. To make up some for this I'm intending to upload chapter 11 next week, but as usual I'm not making any promises.

I've updated the introduction / first AN in chapter 1 so would be great if you all could take a look at that. It's about trigger warnings for future chapters, not much of that yet though :)

This is also strategically posted today because it's
Swan Queen Week 2016 (Winter)
and the deadly sin for today (day 6) is:
ENVY
(in the sense of jealousy)

The Spring Gathering

I stood right where the beach met the forest, waiting for Ruby. She should be here by now. Perhaps I had misunderstood her directions? But there was a map here, showing different jogging tracks and which colour markings to follow, so it should be the right place. She had probably just overslept. Great. I had gotten up early on a Sunday morning for nothing. Well, not nothing, I could still run alone, but Ruby had said she had a surprise for me and now I wouldn't get to know what it was.

"Hi, you must be Emma."

I spun around and found myself face to face with a pretty Asian, slightly taller than myself and sporting a red and black sweat suite. The sides of her head were shaved while the rest of her raven hair was long, pulled back and loosely braided into a single braid.

"Um, yeah," I replied with a frown. "How-"

Realization then hit me. This must be her.

"I'm Mei Lan, a friend of Ruby's," the girl introduced herself, keeping her expressing serious. "I believe you were expecting her?"

"Well, I was," I said, narrowing my gaze. "Now I'm beginning to suspect she had other plans for this meeting."

The young woman in front of me didn't exactly smile, but she got an amused glint in her eyes.

"It appears so," she agreed. "This is such a typical Ruby thing to do."

"She didn't tell you either?" I asked, and Mei Lan shook her head. "But then how did you know who I was?"

"I called Ruby to inform her I was gonna be late and by her tone I could tell she wasn't even out of bed yet, so I got angry with her and she had to explain."

"Well... You said this was typical for her, does she play matchmaker a lot?"

"It's not the first time," Mei Lan admitted. "Every now and then she gets this idea that I need to get together with someone. Or, you know, at least give it a try."

"And you don't want that," I concluded, since she didn't sound overly thrilled.

"I mean, it's still nice to meet new people," she assured me, probably sensing my disappointment. "But I'm not really looking for a relationship. Ruby and I are pretty close but she just doesn't get that."

"Well, honestly I'm not much for relationships either," I revealed. "At least not romantic ones. I've learned the hard way to avoid getting feelings involved."

"Oh, that's unfortunate. I totally get you, but I don't really... You know... I'm still waiting for her."

As bad news as this was for my sexual life it actually got me quite hopeful. It suggested that there were indeed more gay people out there, somewhere in this town, and most likely I would be able to find them. Find them,and fuck their brains out, I added, frustrated as an image of the mayor flashed through my mind. If only...

"Then I wish you the best of luck," I said earnestly. "Do you still want to run, though? I might get lost otherwise."

Mei Lan smiled at my playful tone and put her hands in her pockets, her posture confident.

"Sure. Let's see if you can keep up with me."

"Yeah, let's see that," I accepted the challenge.

It had been a while since running had been a part of my regular exercise routine but to my joy I hadn't lost too much stamina. Probably thanks to my other training.

We jogged quietly, our breaths and the rhythmic beating of shoes against dirt being the only sounds breaking the silence. Except the birds, of course, but I was more focused on not falling behind Mei Lan. After what felt like an eternity she finally slowed down to a walk, giving me a pleased look.

"Not bad," she admitted.

"I try to keep in shape," I panted out, tightening the knot of the sweatshirt sitting around my waist.

"It shows. You have nice arms."

I perked up, thrilled by the compliment. Good to know my training was paying off.

"Thanks! You don't look so bad yourself," I told the other woman.

"Well, I'm a personal trainer, so it's kind of important for my image."

So, a personal trainer had just complimented my arms. This day was progressing from acceptable to good pretty fast.

"Cool!" I said enthusiastically, then mentally slapped myself because it sounded so terribly awkward.

Was I not, in fact, twenty-six years old? Did I have to sound like a stupid teenager? Mei Lan gave me one of her rare smiles, though.

"I love my job. What do you do for a living?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, um, I clean offices, basically. Can't say I love it, but it pays the bills."

"Nothing wrong with that. What would you like to do?"

I thought about my education, how my dad hated to see my 'potential go to waste'. I had been so motivated during my studies, fuelled by recent happenings in my life, but after graduating and getting my certification I kind of lost my drive. When I didn't even make it as far as to job interviews I started second-guessing myself, whether I was really cut out for this profession anyway, because I'd always been more of a practical person. But I was living with my parents again, for all four years of studies, and just needed to get away. Which brought me to Storybrooke, of all places.

"I'm actually a paralegal," I said to the young woman walking beside me, as we approached the spot where we had met earlier. "But I don't know if that's my dream job. I just wanted to become a part of bringing justice to the world, you know."

"That sounds honourable. And there are many different ways to achieve what you want, I'm sure you're gonna find your calling."

She was probably right and it wasn't like I was in that much of a hurry. For now the most pressing issue was not work related. Okay, scratch that, it was totally work related. I didn't look forward to tomorrow when I would have to deal with the repercussions of my thoughtless comments Friday night.

Monday at work was, unsurprisingly, an awkward business. Though there had been days when I hadn't spotted the mayor even once, this wasn't one of them. When I noticed her in the other end of a corridor I was cleaning, I quickly looked down at the floor and prayed she wouldn't come my way. Then I heard the clicking of her heels and swallowed thickly. If I didn't look I would be fine, right?

"Good morning, Miss Swan."

My head snapped up, and crap, she was smirking at me. It was rather discreet but I could tell she was extremely smug behind her restrained facade, and did her hips really sway that much normally? There was no doubt, no doubt, that she was mocking me for what had happened Friday night.

"Good morning, Madame Mayor," I said, trying to sound unfazed, and watched her smirk grow to a self-content smile as she turned her gaze forward again and strutted past me with her head high.

I almost expected her to call over her shoulder for me to stop staring at her ass, but fortunately – cause I was staring – she didn't. I sighed and closed my eyes, thinking that this was almost worse than when she had been simply hostile. At least then I had known what to expect and I had learnt to deal with it. This was different. If she hadn't been my boss I might've had an idea or two how to proceed, but now... It was beyond frustrating.

It became Tuesday and this new dynamic prevailed. I was riding the elevator with my cleaning trolley – as I did several times a day – and there she was, as the doors opened, the corner of her mouth lifting ever so slightly.

"Miss Swan."

"Madame Mayor."

A couple of seconds passed in complete stillness as I mused over this new tone of hers. I may also have raked my eyes over her flawless appearance – purely on instinct, of course – and I may not have been very subtle about it.

"Did you forget how to move?"

Her remark shook me out of my stupor and I quickly exited the elevator, cheeks ablaze. Perfect, just perfect! God, my lack of subtlety was not making this any better. Squaring my shoulders I made an effort to at least look confident as I walked away.

Wednesday started out much better. The mayor was apparently having a bad day and strangely enough I was relieved. No smirks. No looks. No games. She lashed out at me once and I had no trouble coming up with a retort. Afterwards I smiled to myself, finding her frantic outburst rather entertaining. I hadn't even done anything wrong, just happened to be in her way when she needed someone to take out her anger on.

As the hours ticked by, though, I began to feel a bit nervous. Tonight was going to be a special night and I didn't want to screw up. There was this spring gathering thing coming up and I didn't know what to wear. Everyone in the office, including the maintenance and cleaning staff, was invited and I felt as if my suit would be too much. I didn't own any appropriate dresses – in fact, I barely owned any dresses at all – and settled on something I hoped would help me fit in acceptably.

I had heard a few different versions of what this party actually involved but everyone had seemed to agree that there was a number of free drinks involved and that it was going to be held at the fancy bar in town. Apparently there only was one.

Like most places in Storybrooke this wasn't very far and I decided to leave the Pug at home. Really had to do something about it's poor shape soon. When I had just a couple of blocks left to walk a certain Irishman suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Swan!" he greeted loudly and put what looked like a pocket flask inside his coat, striding up to me. "What a pleasure!"

"Hardly," I huffed and raised my eyebrows disapprovingly. "Are you bringing your own booze?"

"Why, of course!" he exclaimed. "The office only pays for two drinks and this place is pricey as hell. I never really go here except for these parties."

"So, two is the correct amount?" I asked, deciding to ignore his questionable drinking habits. "I've heard a lot of different facts."

"Well, some people get special treatment. You don't think the mayor actually has to pay for anything, do you?"

"Probably not..."

He opened the door for me and I stepped inside with an eye roll at the gesture. Most people seemed to be here already, mingling in the open space of the bar with drink in hand, and I realized that I had probably underdressed. Crap. But oh well, nothing to do about that now.

Mr Glass, the PR manager, was standing nearby with Mr Humbert, both speaking with the mayor. I didn't know what annoyed me the most. The mayor making normal polite conversation with them – something I had yet to experience – or the very fact that it made me feel...well, jealous. She was probably just putting on a show but at least she didn't look like she would rip their heads of any time soon.

"Do you care to join me for our first drink?" I heard an accented voice in my ear and felt an arm being put casually around my shoulders. "Well, your first, anyway."

I was going to flat out refuse and swat his arm away but then the mayor suddenly caught sight of me, her smile faltering for an endless second. She quickly regained her composure though, shifting focus back to her company, but her increased tension didn't pass me by unnoticed. Perhaps I was being childish but if it upset Mayor Mills, sure, I could put up with spending some time with Captain Hooker.

"I would say no but what the hell."

"Great!"

I let myself be guided toward the bar counter and refrained from looking back until I got there, highly disappointed when I saw that the mayor was facing away from me. All in vain, then. I had agreed to drink with Killian for nothing. Probably served me right, it had been a stupid idea anyway.

"So, any luck with solving that little problem of yours?" the Irishman asked as soon as he got a glass in his hand.

"Problem? What problem?"

"Your lack of sex," he clarified without ceremony. "You've expressed trouble in that department."

That was not something I'd like to be common knowledge among the office employees and I quickly glanced around to see if anyone had heard, but luckily no one seemed to be paying attention to us.

"Are you seriously still trying to hook up with me?" I questioned disbelievingly, annoyed and astonished at once.

"Just asking questions," he said innocently and passed me my drink from the bartender.

I accepted it almost suspiciously but there was no way he could have done anything to it.

"Well, let's keep the questions at a less intimate level, then."

"Sure," he nonchalantly agreed and took a swig of his – of bloody course – rum. "How's it going with the Queen? Any new gruesome stories to share?"

"Don't get me started," I groaned. "You know, I think she actually enjoys making people suffer. It's like she feeds on it. When she's being mean she, like, glows in a certain way, and-"

I quieted, realizing Killian was giving me a strange look.

"She does! Don't tell me I'm the only one who's noticed."

"You're putting way too much thought into this, lass. Let's just agree she's the source of all evil ever born, alright?"

"Yeah, whatever," I muttered, because really, that was quite the exaggeration.

She was not the source of all evil ever born, just maybe twenty percent or so. And was I really the only one noticing that glow? Or did she only enjoy being mean to me? That could be it. Or not. Ugh. Killian was probably right, I was putting too much thought into this.

Groaning again I took a sip of my drink. Some party, huh? Talking shit about my boss and spending time with someone I actually disliked more than her. Nope, this wouldn't do.

"Do you mind?" I said, gesturing toward the crowd. "I'd like to talk to some other people."

"Go ahead, darling. I'll find you later."

I gave him a dark look for the pet name and mumbled a fairly audible "I hope not" as I moved away from the bar counter. This was my chance to get to know the other office employees a little better, in a quite different setting, and I might as well take it.

Two hours of – I'd like to say successful – mingling later the Irishman was following me around again.

"Do you have to sit here?" I protested when he flopped down beside me on the couch I had just claimed.

"These people don't know how to drink properly!" he complained, making a sweeping gesture toward the others. "Leroy doesn't even bother to come to these events because they tend to be so bloody boring."

"I don't know about your definition of 'proper drinking' but... You do realize that we're kind of at work, in a way, right?" I pointed out. "Our bosses are here."

"Exactly, and that's why you should come with me to The Rabbit Hole instead."

"Forget it, I'm not getting drunk with you again," I asserted. "Ever!"

"That's a little harsh."

"No, it's not, and I mean it. Heck, I'd rather take the mayor's insults for an hour than come with you to that place."

"Careful, love," he warned with a smug expression. "You may be asked to prove it."

"You don't think I'm being serious?" I questioned, challenge in my eyes.

I was completely serious. The choice between them was easy, because with her I at least had something nice to look at. Also, she wouldn't come after me like some sticky glue if I left, that was more his thing.

"Oh, it's not that," the Irishman explained importantly, lowering his voice slightly. "I just don't think you'll actually get her to talk to you. At all. I've been working here long enough to know her habits and right now she's in 'leave me alone mode' at the bar counter."

I turned my head to see for myself and let my gaze trail over the counter, finding the mayor sitting by the far end right next to the wall. She was looking down at her empty glass, twisting it slowly, and people kept their distance as if she was surrounded by an invisible force field. Killian seemed to be right, which made this rather troublesome. I was not one to back down from a challenge.

"I bet that I can," I said determinedly, facing the Irishman again.

He raised his brows but then gave me a smug smile.

"Self-confident are we? I'll give you fifty bucks if you manage to keep a conversion going for more than ten minutes," he promised. "But, if you fail, you'll accompany me to The Rabbit Hole."

"Deal!" I accepted and got up before I had the time to think better of it.

This was an even more stupid idea than my previous one but Killian had to be proved wrong. Or did he? What was actually at stake here? Was it worth to worsen my already bad relationship with the mayor just to prove a point? It wasn't without hesitation I approached the withdrawn woman, but if I was going to do this I was going to do it properly.