Wrong Move
Regina had turned around to find her tip toeing backwards. Realising she was on the verge of a head-tree collision, Emma shuffled sideways in order to correct her backward trajectory. Instead she rolled her ankle on a rock and found herself falling toward the very same tree she tried to avoid. Fortunately, Emma caught herself in a push up position before her head had a chance to crash into the thick tree roots lining the forest floor.
"And 50, 51, 52,” Emma began lowering herself to the ground and pushing upwards in fluid, well-practiced movements.
"As charming as ever, I see,” Regina declared. Emma supposed the comment was intended to be delivered with an element of mockery. Instead, the woman sounded completely defeated. She looked to see whether her awkward fall had at least caused a small smirk of amusement, any sign that Regina was open to being approached. To Emma's disappointment, just like her voice, there was no amusement in her face.
Despite being irritated for her disrupted peace, Regina observed the source of her disturbance, taking in the golden locks, muscled shoulders and flexing triceps, with a cool, expressionless demeanour. "In case you misunderstood Miss Swan, when someone continually ignores your messages and calls it means they do not wish to speak to you."
Emma completed one final push up before rolling to a side and seating herself against the enormous trunk of a nearby tree. "Oh I got your message alright - loud and clear,” Emma puffed out. "As you can see,” she gestured over her sweat soaked body, "I was running, not on a mission to locate you."
"Coincidence aside, I do not appreciate being spied upon, especially when I have been explicitly clear that I want nothing to do with you."
"Listen Regina, I only came over to apologise,” Emma sighed, giving no indication she intended to move from her relaxed, seated position.
Heat was rising up from within Regina as her frustration threatened to reveal itself. Was it Emma's aim to disarm her defences by positioning herself on a lower plane? Did Emma expect her to reciprocate her casual air? Whatever the motive, this display of vulnerability only succeeded in further aggravating her irritation. Regina hoovered her hand over her abdominal and took a deep, prolonged breath. "I don't want you to apologise."
Regina's comment took the blonde a second to process. "I have to. We can't move forward otherwise"
"Who can't move forward? I certainly can." Regina replied confidently but was unsure of how long she could maintain the level of civility required for this specific conversation, particularly in the presence of the pathetic, pleading expression the blonde currently wore.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I am not doing anything, Miss Swan."
"Exactly! You're not doing anything." Emma rose to her feet, thoroughly peeved at Regina's unusual display of passiveness. "All you're doing is shutting everyone out, shutting me out. I thought we were starting to become friends."
"You certainly have a twisted view of what friendship entails Emma,” Regina noted bitterly.
"I'm the one who has a twisted view?" Emma's outraged response was so instantaneous she failed to notice that Regina had finally used her first name. "I'm not the twisted one who terrorised and slaughtered hundreds of people to chase down an innocent girl in the pursuit revenge. For what? Breaking a promise? Doing what she thought was the right thing?"
There is was. Her biggest emotional trigger and Emma slammed into it. Somewhere between the last comment and now Regina snapped and allowed herself to slip. She welcomed the familiar rush of heat, the feel of volatile, fiery power filling her soul. There was no hesitation when she launched forward.
The brunette's speed was terrifyingly fast. Emma witnessed the shift in deep, darkening brown eyes and registered the force of the smaller woman slamming her back into the tree trunk almost simultaneously. Whatever minuscule chance she had of apologising, of taking back some control of the conversation, dissipated after her thoughtless remark about Regina's past. Although the blonde was not overly fond of being pinned down (she preferred pinning in other contexts), she made no effort to move. Emma felt bizarrely comforted by the brunette's act of aggression - a furious Mayor was an improvement on an unresponsive, despondent Regina. Emma only fought to regain lost air as she waited for the brunette to exact her punishment.
Regina smiled wildly and wickedly when she heard the satisfying, dull crack produced by the collision of spine and bark. Her fist, full with the cold, wet fabric of Emma's singlet, was pressed into the taut muscle below the blonde's collar bone. She was close enough to smell the mixed blend of sweat and something sweet and spicy she could not place. With her arm firmly wedged into the valley between small breasts, she could feel each strained intake of breath. It felt good. To see the object she longed to unleash her anger out on, struggling to breathe under her force pleased the brunette immensely.
"Just be thankful you haven't seen the worst," Regina savagely snarled as her gaze finally came to rest on brilliant green eyes. In place of the anger she expected to see, the blonde looked like she wanted it, like she deserved to be winded and held down. Confused and enraged that Emma wasn't fighting back, Regina was at a loss for how to proceed. The strength of her grip and volume of her rage did not falter as she disappeared into thick, purple mist.
Reappearing in the familiar contrasting tones of her monochromatic office helped to ease Regina's tension slightly. Unclenching her fist, she headed to the bathroom. Exposing her hands and face to the cool water was a welcome relief. Now that the anger was subsiding, she felt drained. It was almost as if it took all her energy to pin Emma down when she acted on her impulse of fury. She washed longer than necessary, intent on washing her hands of Emma.
Freshly cleansed, the Mayor returned to her office. A list of calls to return and a stack of paperwork had been neatly placed by her secretary on the corner of her desk. There was no need to dwell further on the events of the morning. There was work to be done.
The day passed quickly as the brunette fell into her usual rhythm. She was grateful for the distraction of day to day tasks required to run the town. No matter the state of her private life, she always had Mayoral duties forcing her into keeping up appearances. With the day's work completed, Regina exhaled wearily and stood. Noticing a stray, neon yellow, sticky note peeking out from the completed paperwork, she reached out to pluck it from the white heap. The familiar scrawl of her secretary read:
Last minute addition to tomorrow's council meeting – Sheriff Swan.
Regina scrunched the small, brightly coloured note in her fist and threw it across the room. She watched it magically ignite and vanish in angry, yellow-blue flames before she too, vanished into thin air.