"You're already familiar with the town charter; we bring it out rarely and mostly for reference. Form 13 was filled properly, but there was a misspell in form 10A so we will have to redo it. We'll also need Ms. White's signature on form 32 before the swearing-in, with her resignation letter attached. She's coming in today, isn't she?"
A shroud of blonde hair slowly revealed itself from behind the large pile of papers. Emma's neck craned up, watching in disbelief as the young girl still kept piling papers atop, listing them inaudibly while she waited for her to answer. The look on Emma's face must have served a close enough one as she started speaking again.
"That's alright. Even with the weekend tomorrow, we should be right on track with the paperwork by the time you officially take over. There is the matter of these", she removed the rest of the files from under her arm but with much less enthusiasm, "but we can push it till after the New Year."
"Are you fu- joking?"
"I'm afraid not", she smiled in empathy, "It's a lot to take in but it will get better. First week with Ms. White was chaotic considering the circumstances." The fact that it never ceased being chaotic till Snow retired was not voiced by either one.
"Oh god, ok", Emma's index traced the stack height wise, "Just give me a second, um, uh-" her finger paused on the top as she forced her brain to think of the name of the girl standing in front. Tall, light brown hair reaching her elbows, sharp nose; oh-so familiar but still no name in sight.
"Aurelia", the tall brunette answered after waiting a polite amount of time.
"Yeah. Aurelia. Right. Sorry, I used to come to town-hall a lot more when Regina was the mayor." She chuckled, "I don't think her secretary liked me though."
Aurelia's cheeks turned slightly pink as she shuffled back, "That was me."
It was Emma's turn to blush as she tried to backtrack, "Oh no, not you, I'd remember you; I meant the one before you, she would never let me go inside without an appointment. She had blonde curls like I have. Had."
"Yes, that was also me", she smiled as she whispered the next part, "Curse identity." Her hands touched the tips of her straight hair as she said, "When the curse broke, I kept the name but not the hair."
"Oh fuck. I mean frick. I mean-" Emma sighed, "Let's just say I'm unlike any of the previous ladies that have sat here."
"Oh ma'am, you'd be surprised just how much our previous mayor shared your interest of... colourful language."
Emma cocked her eyebrow, "Snow?"
Aurelia pressed her lips together and shook her head.
Emma's mouth opened in a small oh before she whispered, "Regina?"
Aurelia's dark eyes brightened ever so slightly as she nodded.
"No shit. Regina, really?"
"Am I interrupting a meeting on myself?" a low voice purred, prickling both their senses into full alert. Emma and Aurelia's eyes shot to the door where Regina was standing.
"Miss Loch", Regina's voice lightened with recognition as she nodded in their general direction, "Glad to see you still in Town Hall."
Aurelia was aware that Regina was joining in as the deputy Mayor but she was still quite shocked on seeing her again in her old office. She quickly overcame it by returning the greeting and ducking out of the room with a handful of files. Emma was shocked too, but for an entirely different reason.
"I thought you weren't coming." Emma said softly, her toes curling inside her boots as she thought of yesterday. She'd lain in bed for the longest time, just watching Regina sleep by her side. By the time the sun fell, Henry had arrived and Regina acted like it was just another day. Scratch that, she'd acted much much lighter, all smiles and affection and everything that made Emma's heart warm. Henry and Emma had left before Cora returned from Hook's.
Regina just arched her perfect eyebrow as she sauntered to the middle of the room, "Oh, am I only allowed after you've been sworn in? Or did I ruin your meet-n-greet with the office staff? I should head back home then."
Emma relaxed at the teasing tone. Regina's good mood hadn't been momentary; she wasn't mad, and Emma sure as hell wasn't going to do anything to jeopardise it now. Instead, she swivelled on her chair, the tip of her tongue outlining her lower lip as she smiled at Regina, "Ah, is that jealousy I suspect?"
Regina smirked as she removed her coat and placed her bag along with it on the table. "Regina Mills doesn't do jealousy."
"No I get it", Emma slowly pulled herself up the chair, much like a cat arching her back on a lazy Sunday, and grinned over the table. "Saviour and a princess, plus this smoking body. I'd be jealous if someone talked to me too."
"How you even managed to enter this room with that big head of yours baffles me." Regina chuckled as she sat herself upon the table with her back to Emma. She leant back on her arms till the back of her head was almost resting on Emma's shoulder. Emma's grin shrank to a sweet smile as she met Regina's lips for a tender kiss.
"So are you just here to show off your mad kissing skills or do you also have time to help me?"
Regina let out a breath of a laugh before lightly pressing her lips on the frown on Emma's face, "And what does the mighty saviour need my help in?"
Emma straightened up and picked up the two closest files, flapping them right in Regina's face, "This! What the fuck is this?"
Regina's nose crinkled, "What?" She sat up straight as Emma groaned, handing one file to Regina and going around the table to stand closer to the brunette, holding the other herself.
"I mean I thought the sheriffs had a butt load of paperwork. But this, how do I even start with this? Do I have to do this or you can just take care of them?"
Emma did know mayors had it bad, especially after that one near-hysterical weekend; Snow had brought home all the work and David and her had stayed up all night to help. Now that she thought about it, that weekend might have been the tipping point for Snow when she finally put her foot down. She wasn't going to wither away her life doing something a.) she had no skill to pull off and b.) even with skill, didn't make her feel the contentment teaching had provided.
Emma played with the file, as she thought of job fulfilment and how foreign the concept would feel to her when Snow would vent about her job. All her life she'd held onto jobs for money, not for some sort of nine-to-five nirvana. The sheriff position was the first time she'd took on a job for non-monetary reasons. Mayorship would be the second. Storybrooke unknowingly changed a lot of things for her. Her thoughts rippled into unintelligible mush when a hot breath caressed her ear.
"Well..."
Emma's knees almost gave way at the shot of arousal that spread through her entire body. All over one fucking syllable.
Regina slid off the table with such grace as though she had decided to bless the ground below by floating down from the clouds above. She slipped closer, her one hand supporting Emma's lower back. The other hand turned the file around so it was right side up. The tip of her manicured index finger traced Emma's thumb that held the file before gliding up.
"It's quite easy actually. First comes the title."
Her other hand started rubbing small circles on her back as the finger on the file slid down.
"And then, we have abstract."
Emma looked at her with slightly unfocused eyes, her mind only registering the low husky voice and not the words. When Regina continued looking at her she spluttered out, "Abstract."
Regina hummed as she smiled, "Good." She watched Emma follow her index finger from the corner of the page to her lip, slowly wetting it before turning a page. What Regina said next was lost because Emma felt Regina's left hand playing with her shirt. She wasn't pulling it out, no-no; she was enticing it out with sweet promises of freedom, a world far better than the feral prison of her tight blue jeans.
"Did you get that saviour-princess?"
Regina looked at her with faux worry and shook her head slowly when Emma didn't reply, "No?"
Emma just copied Regina, shaking her head in reply, "No."
"I'll go slower then", she grinned. Her one finger dipped into her waistband and her nail lightly grazed the hidden skin, skin that seemed to be burning up now. The air felt so thick with desire that Emma had hard time breathing. She was about to lean in when there was a knock on the door, bursting her bubble of arousal.
"Come in." Regina said, prompting Emma to groan in displeasure. She tried to take a step away but Regina's hand bunched up her shirt, keeping her in place.
Aurelia peeked in and saw Regina and Emma standing with an open file in between. To her, it looked like they were discussing something, so she decided to hasten.
"Forgive me for not asking before, should I get coffee?"
Regina looked up as she hummed.
"Care for a cup of coffee?" Regina asked Emma as her hand sneaked inside the blonde's shirt and started caressing the lower back. Emma gritted out, "Coffee. Yes." Damn, she cursed, this woman and her evil streak.
"Coffee sounds good. Miss Lucas is well versed with our order, but be sure to ask for less sugar in the Miss Swan's. And..."
Emma was far-gone now, miles away from the conversation taking place between Regina and Aurelia. Her attention was solely on the slender fingers that were now writing something. She nodded with every letter, internally melting at the delicious feeling. Was cursive supposed to be this sexy, oh god. When Regina lingered on the last dot Emma mentally read the whole thing.
Return to R. M.
"Jesus Christ Regina!" she wheezed out at reading the words but quickly clamped her mouth shut. Scared of their company, her eyes shot up, but were met with handsome mahogany instead of the tall brunette. When had Aurelia left, she had not a single clue.
"Now what she's gone", Regina said, smirking as she withdrew from Emma, "Let's get atleast two files done before our coffee comes."
With wide eyes, Emma watched the woman let out a deep and menacing chuckle as she carried the files to the table in the middle.
"Wha-? Regina, no! Dammit, don't start what you can't finish."
"Wow. That certainly looks different."
Belle's eyes took in the dish in front. She was still adjusting to the new and vast variety of culinary options in Storybrooke. But there was something about this dish, something familiar, that just by looking at it she could guess that this dish was as foreign to this new world as the two librarians surrounding it. This was also surprising because Belle was certain something similar had never caught her eye in the entirety of her old life.
Cora had packed lunch and while Belle was used to lunch at granny's, she didn't want to be rude and leave the older woman alone, whether Cora desired the alone time or not. So she had called Ruby and cancelled.
"Don't stay here on my accord, dear. You are free to join your furry friend in the diner if you like."
"No no. I meant good different. It's just, I don't think I've ever seen it before."
"That's because you are a princess, Belle."
Both women's heads turned to the entrance on hearing the third voice. Both women had quite the opposite expressions on their faces on seeing whom it belonged to.
"David", Belle smiled at Storybrooke's soon-to-be sheriff.
Cora sniffed as she took out the packed cutlery, the whole Charming family using nepotism to reshuffle high positions within their own family, how nauseating. She didn't bother to pay any attention to the man but apparently none of the Sheriffs in Storybrooke understood dismissals.
"Sorry to barge in, I was uh, just patrolling." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. He didn't budge from his place though.
"Oh no worries", Belle said politely, "What was that? Me being a princess?"
"Oh", he smiled, "I mean that you were born royalty. This was more of a", he waved off his hand trying to find an acceptable word, "a peasant dish."
"But you're George's son." Belle's confusion carried itself heavily with her voice as she questioned his reasoning.
David's hand fell stiff on hearing his father's name, "Yes. But that was more of a... recent development. I spent most of my life away from the castle, with my mother. We used to herd sheep."
"Oh, I'm so sorry", Belle automatically said and Cora's head snapped up.
"Being born poor was not a crime, Belle." The words came out a little harsher than Cora was hoping for, because she knew for royalty, Belle certainly didn't fall in the pompous kind. Belle's eyes widened as she looked between her and David.
"I- no I didn't mean to- I am so sorry it came out that way."
"Fret not, dear. Would the shepherd be joining us for lunch or would that leave you feeling threatened by the sudden majority of poor lineage?"
Belle's cheeks pinked as she felt wholly out of her element. Cora's words left behind an uneasy feeling, a sort of helplessness that stemmed from unawareness.
David felt bad for Belle and wanted to intervene, but a small and undeniably petty part was glowing on hearing Cora's words. He smiled his charming smile, acknowledging the older woman's invitation, "That's quite alright. I was just leaving. It's, just, the smell reminded me... of home." He shook his head to himself, not able to stop the acute pain of homesickness coursing through his heart.
Cora, not looking up, took out an extra set of forks and kept them in front of the empty chair on their table.
"There's more than enough. Unless your daughter inherited her appetite from you, it shouldn't be a bother."
David stayed standing on the door. If he took a step forward it would be unacceptable. This was Cora, the queen of hearts. But she was also Cora, Henry's grandmother. And Henry had a soft spot for her. And spoke greatly about her cooking skills. All the time. And his stomach grumbled at that very moment making him blush. It was just lunch, he mused. And technically, she was family. Technically, he stressed as he crossed the threshold.
So that afternoon, the library remained closed at half past one as a princess shared a meal with the miller's daughter and the shepherd.
"You did what?"
Cora continued to stir the pot without batting an eyelash. Regina was almost tempted to sit on top of the counter to look at her better but decided against it. Regina also blamed Emma for that train of thought.
"Mother, please tell me you are joking", she asked in jest.
Her mother, but, was not in the mood for fun, "I don't understand your fascination."
"No-no-no", she laughed, "This is something I want to bask in. You'd rather pretend sickness to get out of dinners with Em-Miss Swan, but you willingly had lunch with her father, Prince Charming."
Cora's hands stirred the pot with added vigour, the wooden spatula now roughly touching the sides. Cora's eyes never left the pot as she sternly bit out, "Regina, now that's enough."
Cora waited for another tease but it never came. She tapped the spatula one final time before leaving it to rest on a plate on the side. When she turned back she saw Regina just standing there, staring at the ground.
The good difference between now and a month ago was that Cora didn't hesitate to reach out.
"Regina, darling, I'm sorry for snapping at you. But I just don't see how it's a big deal."
Regina just shook her head, "Sorry."
She made way to leave but Cora placed her hand on her shoulder.
"I could use some help with the cutting."
Regina nodded as she stood next to her, not looking at her in the eye. Cora's heart dropped seeing her work so mechanically. She thought of Archie and his whiny and annoyingly calm voice repeating the word communicate, and she found herself heeding, "I made Lampredotto today. For lunch."
Regina continued cutting, asking only because her mother must have wanted her to ask, "What is that?"
Regina continued cutting till she sensed the silence that had been stretching on since the question. The knife paused mid-slice as she looked to her side from the corner of her eye. Her mother was standing stiffly, spatula in the air and the dish forgotten. When Regina kept the knife at bay, the action brought Cora out of her trance, leading to words gushing out without care.
"We weren't the richest ones you know, growing up. Father was always drunk and mother spent all her time trying to earn bare minimum to feed us three. My mother used to make Lampredotto, but only sometimes, mostly when I was sick. It became something special, like a tradition of sorts. I even started believing that it was the one healing me. Not like we could afford to call healers. Mother would hide money from him to make it, so he wouldn't squander it over alcohol but after her death-"
She didn't hear the gasp that left Regina's mouth. She did feel Regina's hand on her face. Startled, she saw her daughter wiping her own eyes. Regina took her to the counter, drawing a chair to seat her before returning to simmer the stove. Quietly, she drew another chair parallel to her mother's, so she could look at her while she held her hand.
"Were you... remembering her today?"
"She'd passed way around winter solstice when I was young", Cora nodded and then laughed bitterly, "Oh, she'd laugh if she could see me, crying like a child in front of my own."
"Mother", Regina said so softly, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I've worked my whole life to never let a shadow of my old life fall onto yours, darling. What would I tell you, how it felt like I was dying every winter, how we spent scourging for pieces of silver and copper every summer, how people looked down at us like we were below vermin, how I had to work for both me and father when mother passed away." Her voice grew darker as she finished, "You don't need to know the repulsive details of my life."
"Mother", Regina exclaimed in horror, "I don't care that you-no, we were poor. How can you even think that I would find it repulsive?"
Cora's lips let out a small sigh as she patted the hand nestled inside hers, "You never did care for the riches. But my child, I'm grateful that you never saw the gruesomeness that came with the lack of it."
Regina looked unsettled at the words, her eyes livid as she stared at her mother. She slowly let them drop to focus on the hands below.
"I saw the gruesomeness that came with it."
Cora was struck silent at the rawness of her daughter's words. Regina's hand never moved from its place but she could feel them trembling. Or maybe they were hers, Cora wasn't too sure.
After the longest time, Regina looked up and gave her a watery smile.
"I love you, mother. And I would have loved to have met my grandmother."
Cora couldn't believe how this beautiful child got cursed into being her daughter. She was grasping for words when the bell rung loudly, throwing a lifebuoy in her direction.
"Oh my", Cora choked out, "Kathryn is already here. If she sees us like this, the poor thing is going to want us to talk about our feelings and what not."
"Mother", Regina scolded but couldn't help the bark of laugh that followed. They both chuckled as they wiped their faces.
Kathryn was a regular visitor at the Mills' mansion. Anytime Fredrick found Kathryn missing from their house, he very well knew his fiancé would be in the vicinity of Mifflin Street. It wasn't a secret that she was invested in re-kindling her friendship with Regina, but Kathryn had also confided that even though the woman had the ability to scare the daylights out of her, it felt nice to have a mother figure in Cora.
As Cora had predicted, it was Kathryn at the door. Regina had a penchant of sometimes falling back into a more formal routine with Kathryn, but that was when the blonde retaliated with an extra effort to be comfortable. She overtook Regina's place with the vegetables ignoring her weak protests, and went on with helping Cora finish preparing the dinner as Regina told them about her first day on the job. Which, for Regina, was extremely hard with Kathryn's suggestive expressions. Cora, amongst many others, always regarded Kathryn as terribly chaste; oh, how wrong were they, Regina thought, considering how she never shied away from teasing the former evil queen.
After dinner, Fredrick had called and informed that he'd pick Kathryn up on his way back from work. So the three ladies took advantage of the extended time and retired to the study for a drink.
"So Kathryn, you've told us nothing of the wedding. Have you started planning?" Cora asked with a smile.
"How can I, when my maid of honour is too busy to find time for me."
Regina momentarily felt an odd sense of disappointment but didn't let it show.
"Oh really, who is it?" she asked calmly, looking at the swirling red inside her glass.
With her head down, she didn't notice the confounded expression on Kathryn's face, but did hear her talking to Cora, "Is she really that slow?"
"Not slow darling, just careful." Cora commented rather sadly, keeping Regina still in the dark.
"What are we talking about again?"
"You Madam Mills, you're my maid of honour. I want to plan my wedding with you, so when you're free from doing the mayor", she paused dramatically before coughing on dry air, "sorry, mayor's work, we can get started."
Regina narrowed her eyes, mouthing, 'Mature.' Her glare slowly turned soft as she asked in a small voice, "So, I'm your maid of honour?"
"Yes, Regina Mills. Or would you like me to get down on one knee?"
Regina's face lit up which she tried and failed to hide, "I wouldn't mind a proposal."
A/N:
I just googled peasant dishes and got Lampredotto, don't know much about it except that it's food and food is food and all food is awesome. And I just made myself a li'll hungry there, you should also grab a bite too.
There's no big reveal for the secretary so I just wanted to clear it up that Aurelia is Goldilocks (Aurelia- gold + lochs). After dying her hair I kinda picture her as Toula from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, after the contacts but minus the curls.
Thanks for the reviews xxx
(I sincerely doubt it, but if any of you were wondering why the fuck I was writing about David and sandwiches earlier, yeah.. be prepared for a broship you didn't expect.)