Look At Me (Patreon)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4341899

Regina had to hand it to Emma. She had been shockingly understanding of Regina’s mayoral duties cutting into their date night, and she was now waiting patiently for Regina to type into her laptop all the little dotted Is and crossed Ts that would take her proposal from poorly worded filth to legislative perfection.

Even mentally, Regina had to restate how mind-bogglingly mature Emma was being in just sitting there, on Regina’s admittedly very comfortable couch, and allowing Regina to finish her work despite promising to be ready at nine o’clock. Perhaps Emma was thinking through her day, mollifying over a problem she would attend to the next day, or perhaps pondering a philosophical conundrum. There was no telling. Only that she was doing it quietly, in complete deference to Regina’s heavy workload and important responsibilities.

It was really a little bracing. She wasn’t even checking her phone. Just sitting there, being an adult. It struck Regina as particularly attractive. Or maybe it was just the angle she sat at, her head turned for her to gaze out the window, exposing her profile to Regina—and at a very attractive angle.

Regina stopped. She forbade herself from staring at her date when she had work she had promised would only take a few minutes to wrap up. Once she was done, then she could stare at Emma Swan all she wanted.

Although then, it was unlikely Emma would be sitting at that angle. It really was her good side. Not that Emma had a bad side, per se. If their outright acrobatic dating history had proven anything, it was that there were a jawdropping number of angles that Emma was attractive from (and Regina often had seen them with her jaw dropped, for one reason or another).

Regina looked again, just to commit it to memory. The gentlest of smiles lifted Emma’s cheeks cherubically, Regina’s heart leaping to the conclusion that Emma was thinking of her. After a moment, Emma’s face relaxed into a detached sort of scowl. If anything, Regina found it more adorable. Her strong chin set like the foundation of her face, her determination and will seeming to be cemented there. Where Regina projected power with her eyes, seduction with her voice, Emma led with her chin. But then that pert little nose—the long and unbound feminine hair. It softened Emma’s harsh face without tipping over into saccharine, like the sight of Mary-Margaret tended to do for Regina…

She was staring. And then Emma looked casually in her direction, offering up one of her damned smug grins like she knew exactly what she was doing…

“Emma,” Regina said, trying very hard to focus on her laptop screen. “This is very important.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The town’s population is increasing, yet we can’t expand outside the boundary. We need a clear, concise, long-term plan to provide housing and services to our new residents.”

“Absolutely.”

“The last thing we need is some kind of class struggle between those who have access to modern utilities and those who arrived after all the pre-established living space was taken! We need to be building homes, we need to be shoring up the power grid…”

Emma said nothing. Regina let herself look. Emma had sat down on her desk. And if her face was good, her ass was downright amazing.

“The proposal is almost done! I just need to proof-read it!”

“I know.” Emma smiled lovingly at her and Regina felt, quite unfairly, her own face contort into a grin. “But I think you made a little typo there.”

Regina checked the last line she’d added.

Adgsnghlkdnhdhdhnlkndfh

“My keyboard was sticking,” she explained.

“Yeah. Would it help if maybe I wasn’t in your line of sight?”

Regina sighed in relief. People could so sensitive about how you just couldn’t work while looking at them. Hook could take it so personally. “Yes. Just for a few more minutes. Then I promise to look at you all night.”

“Okay then.”

“Emma?”

“Yes, Regina?”

“You’re under my desk now.”

“You can’t see me.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re not distracting me.”

“Hey, if it distracts you to see my amazing jawline, imagine how it feels to look at you wearing those little nerd glasses.”

“They’re reading glasses. You would know this if you’d cracked a book since Harry Potter ended—Ms. Swan!”

“I’m feeling much less distracted now.”

“If someone walks in—“

“I’ll stop. Probably. Right now, I really just want you to make that little squealing noise. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

“And then you’ll let me finish my proposal?”

“Promise. I’ll just sit back and stare at your legs. It’s a hard life, but it’s the one I’ve chosen.”

“Very well.”

A minute passed.

“Regina? Are you typing?”

“I’m almost done—keep going, you’ve given me an amazing idea of how to finally balance the budget. This really is very stimulating. In terms of productivity.”

“I’m going to stick my thumb right up your ass.”

“I just used a semicolon! I feel so alive!”