Regina parked her car outside the Sheriff’s office. Getting off, she closed the door and glanced up. It was a lovely day and she was almost done with her work at the office. She just had to pick up a few files from the Sheriff’s office, which needed her signature and then she was good to go.
She entered the building, her mind already occupied with plans for dinner. She had taken a few steps forward in the hallway when she was brought up short by the sound of her own name.
The thing that stopped her in her tracks was not that her name was being called out loud.
It was the fact that it was being sung out in a rather loud but very clear voice, a voice which she very well knew belonged to the one and only occupant of the building, and the last person Regina would have expected to sing her name out loud.
Frowning, straining to hear the rest of the words, she stepped right up to the door of the Sheriff’s main office. Emma’s voice was much clearer here.
“…salve, salve, salve, Regina! Salve, Regina! Salve, Regina…”
Wasn’t that Latin for ‘Hail, Queen’?
Her brows snapped together again as she slipped quietly into the room.
Her eyes were met with the sight of the Sheriff’s jean-clad ass high up in the air and shaking, no, wiggling — there was no other word for it — in time with the beat her short heeled boots were tapping out as Emma bent over her desk and burst into a high, loud, “Aaaaaaaaalleeeeeeeeeelluuuuuujaaaaa...”
Regina’s eyebrows climbed higher and higher on her forehead with each note, though she had to admit that the Sheriff did have a surprisingly good voice.
The beat — and consequently the wiggling pattern — changed as Emma went on.
“Salve, salve, salve, Regina,” she straightened and turned around on one heel. “Salve, Reginaaaaargh! Regina!” she yelped, one hand reaching up to her heart when she spotted the mayor standing in front of her. “Don’t do that! Jesus! Creepy much?”
“You tell me, Sheriff,” said Regina, voice dry and a smirk playing on her lips. “At least I’m not the one singing out renditions of your name up to the heavens.”
Emma promptly turned a delicate shade of pink.
“It wasn’t your — it’s a hymn!”
“Oh?” Regina raised an eyebrow.
Emma turned even pinker.
“I used to be in the choir at one of the homes. And ‘Sister Act’ was on last night on Channel 4, so…”
“If you say so, Sheriff,” Regina said sweetly, though her look said otherwise.
Emma rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here, anyway? Don’t you get off work right about—” she checked her watch “—right about now?”
Regina chose not to comment on the fact that the Sheriff knew to the dot when she got off work.
“I came to pick up the files that needed my signature.”
“Oh, yeah, I meant to drop them off earlier but I kind of got busy,”
She bent down to pick up a stack of files from the couch by her desk. The mayor tried not to stare at her ass and remember the wiggling patter — Regina took a deep breath and cleared her throat.
“Oh, yes, I saw how … busy … you were.”
“Hey, I was filing misdemeanors,” Emma said, handing her a stack of the files and throwing her hands up to make her point. “It’s boring work, one can sing if one wants to!”
Regina raised her eyebrows in the gesture which was very particular to her. “But, really, hymns? Wouldn’t have pegged you for the religious type, Sheriff.”
“I’m really not. It was stuck in my head from last night.”
“Of course.”
“What about you?” Emma asked.
“What about me?”
“Are you the religious type?”
“Really, Sheriff, my religious beliefs are none of your concern.”
A smirk played on Emma’s lips.
“Don’t want to share the secrets of your super wicked witches’ coven with me?”
“I beg your pardon?” Regina frowned at her.
“Jesus,” Emma rolled her eyes again. “Lighten up sometimes, Madam Mayor. Here you go.” She piled the last of the files in Regina’s arms before the mayor could make another caustic comment. “Happy signing, or whatever.”
Regina’s throat went a little dry as Emma’s hands brushed lightly against her breasts as she extracted them from beneath the pile of files. She couldn’t have trusted her voice with correct speech at that moment so she just nodded before abruptly turning around and making a beeline for the door.
“Well, you’re welcome, and a good evening to you, too!” came the exasperated shout from behind her as she turned into the hallway.
Regina didn’t know she was smiling until she had settled down into the driving seat and happened to glance in the side view mirror.