Elementary School AU prompt: when Henry gets in trouble (for something very smart and possibly heroic), principal Mills has to call in his single mom Emma... Who is a totally different kind of trouble ;)
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The soft afternoon breeze seeped within the roomthanks to the open windows and the laughter of playing kids found it way insidein where a brunette teacher graded paper after paper with tired eyes, perfectpoise and black rimmed glasses on top of her nose. The wooden desk wasoverflowing with exams and essays and the pen of the woman moved from one placeto another from the paper, red ink interlacing itself with the sentences of thewoman’s pupils as she murmured softly every time she finished a new exam.
The left hand of the woman was playing absentmindedlywith the gold necklace that was fastened around her neck but her fingers fellwhen, from between the children’s laughter and warm light, she could make out aquick succession of steps that came from the other side of the closed door ofthe small office she worked in whenever she wasn’t at her classroom. Narrowingher eyes, she put down the pen and looked at her watch in where the sharp handsof the clock looked back at her.
Pursing her lips Regina threw her headbackwards, mentally preparing herself, squaring her shoulders as she did so.
It was always interesting to see the parents ofa child for the first time and it didn’t matter how many times that happened;Regina always found in the first impression the quickest way to see if achildren’s behavior was linked to how their parents looked or acted. That waswhy, even if outside she projected the calmest demeanor inside, she feltslightly curious of what kind of woman would be the mother of none other thanHenry Swan.
The ten-year-old boy had arrived to Storybrookefour months ago sporting a Bostonian accent and imagination to spare. He hadalways been kind to everyone around him and, although quiet, he had neverseemed to be picked up by the occasional bully that every course seemed to had.Regina had quickly found herself completely smitten with the kid and more oftenthan what she would like she would end up smiling at him whenever he answeredto her questions. Something that had already arrived the rumor mill consideringhow strict Regina was and how impeccable her reputation as being a respected buthated teacher was.
A few hours before, however, when she had seenHenry defending Nicholas Zimmel by punching a few of those damned bullies, shehad been forced to intervene. School rules were clear; no fights within itsborders and even though Henry insisted that what he had done was merelydefending himself Regina hadn’t had other option but send him to detention withthe express request that his mother would need to come to talk to her.
And so there they were, Regina thought grimly,licking her bottom lip and taking a deep breath, channeling her stricter lookpossible. Henry didn’t deserve the detention, that much she knew, but shecouldn’t very well tell that to whom had been signed as the only parentalcontact of the young dark haired boy; that would be inappropriate after all. Asmuch, some inner insidious voice whispered inside her mind, sounding verysimilar to her mother’s, as the gossips about the mother’s boy; a former bailbondsperson who had taken Graham’s place as a sheriff when the man had decidedto move on from the small city into greener pastures. Regina hadn’t come acrossher once ever since the boy’s arrival but it had been impossible to not hearabout the green-eyed beauty that now run the station with enough swagger tohave Ruby smirking whenever her name was uttered.
Green eyed beauty that suddenly opened her doorand stood in front of her with her hands on her hips and blonde tresses fallingto her shoulders as she took a step inside the room. Immediately Regina couldfeel the temperature in the room rose and so she settled her jaw, standing andoffering the woman the chair in front of her desk with one single nod.
“Miss Swan.” Her voice didn’t betray her suddennerves and for that she found herself thanking the interminable hours hermother had put her through during her teen years in where being proper was alwaysthe most important thing of all.
The other woman, however, shot her an angrylook scorching enough to probably make a dent on the desk’s glossy surface asshe took those last steps between her and Regina, her high boots stompingagainst the floor as she, too, rose her chin, the muscles on her throat visibleas she looked at Regina, as if sizing her.
“You must be Miss Mills.” She replied, not evenbothering to shake her hand with the teacher’s as she sat on the small chairwith one fluid movement that spoke of strength. Regina, however, could see thesmall nervous tics, tics that the boy the two of them were there for alsoshared with the new sheriff; the fidgeting fingers, the tilt on her head, thetightly closed jaw and for those she sat as well, interlacing her fingers afterpicking her glasses and leaving them on the desk’s surface, between them and ontop of the essays she had been marking before. She could see the other womanglance at them briefly but when she looked back at those green eyes Emma wasalready looking back at her, lips pursed and arms tightly crossed. “Henry toldme you wanted to talk with me.”
It was obvious that the sheriff had alreadyformed an opinion about Regina and the brunette teacher swallowed beforeforcing her eyes to not wander to the other woman’s arms, on display thanks tothe tank top she wore, or the general physique of the Bostonian. This, shethought while focusing on the matter at hand while trying her best not to callRuby Lucas on the spot and demand her to tell her why she hadn’t been told thatEmma Swan was as beautiful as she seemed to be infuriating, wasn’t the problem.Henry was and for him she cleared her throat before nodding quickly, composureas perfect as possible, back straight as she crossed her right leg over herleft. A movement Emma couldn’t see from her where she was seated at the otherside of the table but one that her eyes followed inexplicably when Reginamoved.
“He was seen punching John Darling.” Shestarted, doing her best not to look at the blonde as she explained herself. “Asyou probably know that kind of behavior is unacceptable.”
The sheriff hummed before moving forward,uncrossing her own legs and propping her arms over her knees as she did so. Hereyes still gleamed in anger and Regina found herself narrowing hers in anattempt to keep them frozen on those irises instead of start wandering.
“Wasn’t he defending Nicholas?” She said, asmirk touching her lips briefly before that, too, disappeared. “I thought thathelping a friend out in one of those… unacceptable situations would besomething the school would be more than happy to see.”
“Not if the method used is a punch in the face,Miss Swan”
Both women stared at each other. Emmaapparently not wanting to move an inch and Regina knowing full well that shehad smiled inwardly when she had seen the normally well-behaved Henry punchJohn after the boy had insulted Nicholas. Regardless, Henry needed to take inthe punishment and she was supposed to explain why to the mother. Mother thathad been subjected to rumors ever since she had arrived to Storybrooke and whohad been seen frequenting the small gay bar Storybrooke had at the edge oftown. A place that Regina knew very well thanks to a particular lanky brunetteshe could picture laughing her ass off the second Regina told her her firstimpression with the sheriff.
Growling between pursed lips, Emma moved backwardson her chair, eyeing Regina as she did so. The movement made the woman woke upfrom her reverie and she found herself looking at Emma with too manyinappropriate thoughts on her head.
“I will talk with him.” Emma finally spoke, amirthless smile on her face. “It’s the best I can do so I don’t add the epithetof bad mother to the list I already have.”
“Miss Swan I assure…”
“On one condition.” Emma stood and looked atRegina while transforming her mirthless smile into a smirk. “Go out with me.Today.”
“Miss…”
But Emma was already turning to the door, smirkstill intact when she turned and looked at her.
“Until later Miss Mills.”
Regina closed her eyes, propping her own elbowsover the desk and growling softly out of desperation. Infuriating indeed.
And gorgeous as well.
