As the elevator continues its ascent, Emma keeps her eyes locked firmly with the Mayor's; her expression hard with warning as she silently challenges the darker woman to go ahead and keep on antagonising her– she'll learn to regret it. Something in her stony glare must be effective, as while they climb ever higher, Regina loses some of her smug elation and simply resorts to regarding her amiably.

Good. Else I'd have had to teach you a lesson...

The blonde seethes to herself, and she balls her hands irritably into fists when this thought only serves to make her stomach tighten with confused anticipation.

She supposes that even if Regina does go on making cruel comments at her expense, she'll not actually do anything about it- nothing physical, anyway- but this knowledge irks her more than it calms her. It is the way she has always made a habit of dealing with matters of disagreement. Not to mention- as has been proven already- she lacks the quick and cutting way with words that the Mayor seems to have perfected to an art form. Her inability to bite back in an argument is something that has infuriated her on several occasions before this one, as she knows within herself that she possesses both the vocabulary and the wit to be able to play the game- hell, to win it!- but that when the time comes for action, she finds herself tripping over the words fighting to get out and inevitably ends up simply using her knuckles. Her failure to express herself as eloquently as she would sometimes like has usually resulted in a deep rage that is as much directed towards herself as it is her antagoniser. She has a feeling the brunette might relish this fact if she were let in on it, and so does her best to reciprocate Regina's polite interest to hide her anxiety.

"They didn't build this contraption with speed in mind, did they?"

The Mayor sighs to break the silence, and this gets her a more genuine smile as Emma nods.

"I know, it's painful! I've gotten to the point where I just cut five minutes off of the end of my workout and take the stairs."

"That's perhaps pushing it, dear. You live on the thirteenth floor."

Regina points out as she studies the pleasing lines of the younger woman's physique and wonders just what sort of attire Emma might wear for said workouts. She is careful to keep her poker face in place as she runs through several options she would certainly approve of in her head.

"I'm aware of this. Having taken the stairs and all."

"... Contrariness is really a talent with you, isn't it, Miss Swan?"

The brunette shakes her head, but a small smile finds her lips and Emma shrugs and grins

"I may have gone in there and pressed all the buttons and then tried to beat it upstairs once or twice."

She plays along. After all, she's fine with letting Regina poke a little fun and engage her in the queer back and forth that seems to come effortlessly between the two of them. That's okay. It's strange to her- being able to find something to say to someone she barely knows and enjoying their company- but it's fine. It's actually fun. So long as it's not directed at how and what she might feel about her new acquaintance, she's perfectly happy to play ball.

I don't know what I feel. What I think. I don't know what the hell is going on here... I'm both excruciatingly uncomfortable and fantastically at ease, neither of which I'm used to.

"You pressed all of the buttons?"

"A bit juvenile, I guess, but... You gotta get your fun someplace, right?"

"Right... I was merely pondering the fact that if you were to push all the buttons, including the emergency button, you'd be giving yourself quite an unfair advantage."

Regina goads, and the blonde mutters back something about not being a smartass, although her mind is no longer working her mouth but rather stuck someplace else entirely.

The emergency stop button...

Yes, it's there. Red. Taunting. Teasing. Beckoning. Baiting.

It's there and she'd wanted to push it.

... Wants to push it...

Wait, but what's happening here?

The walls are flat and shiny and she can see the brunette reflected a little hazily, but well enough to at least appreciate the delicious curve of her backside. Her own features are blurred, however, and she guesses maybe that's because she's standing further away, but that's not really what this is all about, because the wall... Well, the wall is silver.

It's some sort of steel or aluminium, or who the hell knows what elevators are made out of.

And that's not right.

The walls are black. Or at least, they should be. They were. Black, and neatly posted with polite notices about the building. She shouldn't be able to see either of their reflections.

Not against the black.

Black.

Wasn't she wearing black?

This morning- didn't she pull on the jeans hanging up on the clothes horse in the kitchenette so as not to disturb the brunette sleeping in her room?

She's sure she did...

But now, she'd almost say her jeans look blue. Her top white and the jacket, well, of course, she recognises the splash of vivid red, but she'd not put on a jacket earlier; the morning had been unseasonably warm...

"What... Uh...?"

She opens her mouth to say, but what comes out instead causes her cheeks to flare with heat as she may well have been thinking it ever since they got in here, but she'd never have dreamed of saying it!

"Always wanted to do it in an elevator."

And her fingers brush against that evil red button suggestively, and oh god, she knows the Mayor is just going to chew her out over that one.

But...

Well, she also knows what's going to come next.

Regina's going to tell her to spare her such inappropriate suggestions. That's the way she's going to word it. And she's going to pretend to be mad at her when they both know she's not. She's-

"-Have you?"

Regina purrs, and Emma blinks as suddenly she only sees the two of them in here- no confusing reflections- and the walls are black, and she knows she's dressed how she was this morning, and the hazy feeling of deja vu leaves them because this isn't how the scene- what scene?!- played out. This is how it should go, could go, might go now, and she's opening her mouth and, oh shit-

"-Yes."

She states brazenly, in the tone she had wanted to use when she'd caught the darker woman trying to catch a glimpse of her underwear the previous evening. And, she steps forward, grinning as the brunette mimics her movements, and when wandering fingers find her hair, she reciprocates with a forceful shove; pinning the Mayor against the wall and smashing her palm against the emergency stop button. Her advance is wordlessly reciprocated as painted lips mould against her own, and she presses her hips more pointedly into the darker woman as she slips a hand up under her shirt to find luxurious silk. The brunette takes the opportunity to work a hot trail down her throat, before letting her own hands fall down to wrestle blindly with rough denim.

And she knows this is all going nauseatingly fast. And she knows there's probably cameras mounted up in the ceiling.

She knows this isn't like her at all, and yet-

-And yet it feels right! So right!

And who really gives a fuck, as skilled fingers- well, that answers that question!- slip where they probably shouldn't, but where she'd really been hoping they might, and her rough ripping down of soft silk is met with a guttural sound of approval.

This is wrong, but it's right, and oh god, it's beginning to feel good, and-

-"Are you coming?"

"... Huh?"

Emma chokes as the brunette's clipped tone pulls her from her thoughts.

"I asked if you might consider joining me, or if you were planning to ride up and down a few more times."

Regina sighs impatiently as she stands with her finger held on the button to keep the door open while Emma gathers herself dazedly.

"Oh."

"Well?!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Calm down. I just got lost in my thoughts is all."

The blonde grumbles as she leads them out into the hallway, feeling flushed and shaken.

"Is that so?"

The Mayor smirks, as she has seen Emma's pupils dilate the way they do now enough times to know when the younger woman is thinking about things besides church.

"Yeah."

Emma snaps, hoping that will be the end of the matter.

"Yes, Miss Swan, not 'yeah'."

Regina sighs in a way that is by now simply habitual.

Or rather, it had been.

Back when-

"Miss Swan? Emma?... Are you alright?!"