When Regina arrived home after work the house was unnervingly… quiet. So quiet that all she could hear was her own heartbeat. So quiet that there was no doubt that something… strange was going on, especially since only twenty minutes before had Emma called her to say that she was home.

But the house was empty.

Strange. Very, very strange.

Regina wandered slowly around the house, half expecting to find Emma asleep, or about to jump out at her. After double-checking the mound of sheets on their bed, she made her way back downstairs to feed Mollie.

Then she realized that she hadn't actually seen Mollie before leaving for work that morning, and that was only to de-tangle the kitten's claws from her pants when she had chased the Mayor's feet – correction, her ruined pair of pants.

"Mollie?" Regina called out, hoping that the kitten would come running. She even tried shaking the Tupperware full of cat food, but alas, Mollie was nowhere to be seen.

It was only when she looked out of the kitchen window into the garden that she spotted something out of the ordinary. The Mayor narrowed her eyes at whatever it was in her apple tree.

Wait… was that a person!?

By the time that Regina had hurried outside she could no longer see whoever it was in the boughs of her beloved tree. It was then that she caught a flash of blonde hair through the leaves.

"Care to explain?" Emma jumped in her precarious position in one of the upper branches, and leaned over to see Regina casually standing beside the trunk of the tree.

"Uh… no?" She replied, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly, and noticed with a great deal of resignation that Regina was smirking.

Wait, was she enjoying this?! Emma sighed.

That was when the Mayor's snark was at its strongest.

Regina raised an eyebrow.

"I accidently let the cat out, and she climbed up here." Emma pointed awkwardly to the kitten indeed sitting about a meter out of her reach, and looking rather… accomplished.

"Okay, cat, come over here," Emma attempted to say kindly, but when the kitten stared blankly at her she snapped, "Dammit, get over here!" It was then to Regina's amusement that Mollie jumped down a branch, trotted straight passed a bewildered Emma, and eventually climbed down the tree and into Regina's waiting arms.

"Good cat." She smirked up at Emma, burying her fingers in soft fur.

"Well whatever are you doing in the tree, dear? The cat is clearly down here."

"Reginaaaaaa!" Emma complained. Loudly.

"Well, aren't you going to come down?" Emma winced. "You're stuck, aren't you?" Regina sighed way too dramatically for the blonde's liking.

"Hang on." The Mayor began walking away, silencing Emma's protests with the hand that wasn't holding onto Mollie. She quickly shut the cat inside the house, and after looking around to check that Henry wasn't home she made her way back out to the backyard.

"I can't levitate you down, there's too many branches in the way." Emma was just thankful that Regina wasn't taking a photo right now.

"Then come up here and 'poof' us both back down."

…

"Regina?"

"No."

"Reginaaaaa!"

"…"

"…"

"Fine."

…

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Regina kicked off her heels, and pulled her hair back into a hair tie that she'd conjured.

"Come on, Mills." She whispered to herself, quiet enough for the blonde to not overhear. Regina reached up for the branch above her head, and held a foot up, bracing it against the rough trunk.

"One… Two… Three!" She counted herself down out loud before hoisting herself up into the air, using an inane amount of upper-body strength that not even she knew she possessed. God forbid anyone see her right now.

"Uh, there's a branch right above you that you can grab." Emma tried to help.

"Yes, yes. I know. I do have eyes, dear."

"I'm sorry for not knowing you had 'highly adept at climbing trees' in your repertoire." Emma snarked back, but Regina spotted the grin on her face and knew she was only joking.

"Touché, but purely because I had no idea you had words such as repertoire in your repertoire." She huffed, smirking as she pulled herself further up the tree.

Regina had denied herself the ability to look down until she was leveled with the Sheriff.

"Remind me why you felt the need to climb up here instead of using magic?" The Mayor asked, rolling her eyes at the blonde – who was gripping the tree branch beside her so hard her knuckles had no color in them whatsoever.

"Well now that you mention it…" Emma trailed off, thinking that magic probably would have made this situation a lot easier.

"Or, you know, you could have just waited for me to get the cat down." Regina rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Careful!" Emma practically yelled, even though they were sitting right next to each other, "Hold on or you'll fall!" Regina rolled her eyes again.

"I'm not going to fall. Some people actually have this thing called balance." Just as she said this, Regina began to teeter in her spot, and her eyes showed a flash of panic before she began to slide off of the branch she had been seated on.

In a split second decision, she reached out and grabbed the nearest thing she could get her hands on: Emma's leg. The noise that the blonde had made when she too had began to fall out of the tree was inhuman, until a familiar purple smoke surrounded them in the air – when they were just short of hitting a tree branch – and they reappeared in a sprawled heap on the ground.

Emma sat up, flicking Regina's hair out of her face.

"Not gonna fall, huh?" She asked the brunette, smirking cockily. Before the Mayor could reply, they both turned at the sound of hysterical laughter behind them.

"Henry." Emma said shortly, not realizing that the boy had arrived home.

"How long have you been there?" The boy's brunette mother asked.

"Long enough." Henry choked out, holding up his phone, "And I got it all on video." The boy had tears in his eyes he was laughing so hard.

"Hey!" Emma got up quickly, "Gimme that!" She ran towards him, arm outstretched for his cell. Henry, however, was just as quick, running into the house and uploading the video to Facebook as he went.

"C'mon kid!" The blonde continued to shout, spying what he was doing with the clip – and hoping to catch him before it uploaded.

"Sorry Ma, couldn't resist!" Henry continued to cackle with laughter, running madly around the house, stopping behind the kitchen island, both of his mothers on the other side.

"Henry Mills, give me that phone right now." Henry wasn't sure if his mom was seriously threatening him or just playing along, and quite frankly Regina herself wasn't sure either.

"Oh, look at that," Henry twisted the phone around to show them the small screen, "Uploaded." He announced triumphantly.

"Henry, delete that right now." Emma ordered, but was also trying not to smirk when she caught an eyeful of Regina's smoky-eyed pissiness she had going on. Gods she was cute.

Not that she'd tell her that.

"Oooh," The boy hissed, just as the cat strolled along the counter, "No can do." He locked the device, knowing that neither of his parents knew the passcode. Emma gave her son the evil-eye.

"Well played, kid. Well played." She said to him, but Regina had had enough of their childishness and proceeded to walk away. Not after rolling her eyes at the pair first, that is.

"Hey Mollie." Henry cooed when he was finally alone in the room with the kitten, "I don't know how you managed it, but well done." He scratched her forehead lovingly.

…

A few hours later Emma stalked into Regina's study, interrupting her work.

"Ugh!" She sighed dramatically, falling onto the couch in a similar fashion to those in the movies.

"Yes dear?" Regina asked pointedly, removing her glasses – knowing that with the blonde present she wouldn't get anything done.

"Every few minutes the kid's phone makes a noise, and he starts laughing all over again. I know there's people commenting on it." She began tapping her foot anxiously, "I mean, surely you don't want to know what people are saying too?" Regina stared at her for a moment.

"Fine." The brunette said, gesturing Emma over beside her. She quickly logged into Facebook, and found the video with ease, as it was at the top of her newsfeed. Emma leaned earnestly over her shoulder.

"What does it say?"

"Well, most of them are Ruby, claiming that she is 'literally dying', which is a terrible use of hyperbole. She's not actually dying. And there's loads of those smiley-face-things, which are laughing and crying at the same time." Emma shook her head amusedly at Regina – obviously she would comment on the use of grammar rather than the actual text.

Emma then checked how many 'likes' the video had gotten and did a double take at the number.

"Holy shit! Thirty seven likes?! The kid doesn't even have thirty seven friends!" Regina halfheartedly swatted Emma's arm for cursing, but she was to busy balking at the number.

Emma slyly looked sideways to the brunette beside her.

"Should we watch it?" Regina looked at Emma like she had grown a second head.

"Why would we – fine." Regina couldn't even kid herself.

The video started with the Mayor pulling herself up onto the first branch of the tree – as she had predicted, Henry had caught practically the entire thing on his pesky phone.

"Emma stop looking at my ass." Regina had to remind the blonde, who was unashamedly staring at the video.

"I can't help but appreciate the amazingness of your glutes." The blonde responded, making Regina shake her head at her juvenile behavior. She managed to keep a stony face at the majority of the video, but as Emma screeched when Regina latched onto her leg, the mayor lost it just as Henry had earlier.

"Hey it's not funny!" Emma pouted, slapping at Regina's thigh.

"I'm sorry dear," Regina managed to get out, wiping under her eyes, "But it was rather hilarious."

"I'll give you rather hilarious." Emma threatened, taking control of Regina's keyboard and beginning to type.

"What are you saying?" She was silenced when she read what Emma had written: We would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kid, and your little cat, too!

hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I currently have ideas for the next two, but if you have any prompts they would be greatly appreciated - especially since it would mean you get an update quicker.

Thanks, please review!