Set as a kind of AU some time after the curse after the curse breaks in S1.
Also any evidence of Emma being able to boil water without it spontaneously bursting into flames in the show is clearly fake.

I meant to post this yesterday for Mother's Day (I'm not American so my mother's day was a month or two ago, but seeing the posts on tumblr really worried me that I had missed it accidentally.)
I'll be posting this both as a oneshot and through my oneshot collection Charming Family drabbles.

Emma Swan had no idea how to do this. The whole cooking thing, the whole daughter thing, the whole Mother's Day thing. But she was trying.

Emma had spent the day before being treated by Henry and that night he had gone to Regina's to spend the actual Mother's Day with her, Emma understood after all he had traditions which had formed long before she had come around, if anything she was jealous she hadn't been able to form such traditions with her mother. So, she figured she should probably try to come up with something, she had laughed at herself when she had actually googled 'things to do for Mother's Day', but that didn't stop her from trying to follow some of the advice. But that meant waking up early, which Emma never did, if she had to go to work early she'd often just pull an all-nighter and load herself with caffeine. But she would wake up early for this, for her mom.

She was starting to think that she really wasn't cut out for the whole daughter on Mother's Day thing, at least if she was younger she could have just made her a macaroni picture, dumped some paint on a handmade card, and picked some flowers or something. But no, she had to have her first ever Mother's Day at the age of twenty-eight. What did people her age even do? Surely most of them were so used to them that they already had traditions, or it was acceptable to just give them a give a card or a mug or something, but this was her first Mother's Day she had to do something special. She already had one present for her mother, though she wasn't really sure if she would give it to her or not, she wasn't sure how her mother would feel about it so she might just keep it a secret.

Breakfast in bed was a go to Mother's Day treat, apparently, so Emma woke up early stuck a huge pot of coffee on and got to work. Their kitchen was always well stocked, something which Emma was still getting used to even after the year with Mary Margaret, even her apartment in Boston was mainly empty of food which wasn't microwavable, frozen, or takeout leftovers. She grabbed a few eggs from the carton, she wasn't sure if her mom and dad (she couldn't leave him out) preferred fried or scrambled eggs so she figured she could do both.

She pulled up a few recipes on her phone and began to flick through the tabs. She was pretty sure whenever her mom or dad made breakfast it took forever, though that might be because she was still sleepy in the morning, so she set the hob as high as it could go. She read the instructions on the scrambled egg and frowned. "Crack the eggs into the bowl, add a pinch of salt and pepper, stir, then add to the pan." She rolled her eyes. "That's stupid, why would I bother to pour it into a bowl when I could just do all that in the pan?" She cracked all four of the eggs carelessly into the pan, not thinking to take out the bits of shell, she grabbed the salt and pepper and shook out a large amount into her hand and threw it all onto the eggs. "Who the hell measures in pinches?" She sneered and quickly scrambled the eggs in the pan. She added some oil to another pan and cracked three eggs in it. "That's easy." She shrugged, perhaps the whole cooking thing was easier than everyone made out.

"And now for the better parts of the meal." She muttered as she grabbed the bread from the breadbin and the sausages and bacon from the fridge. She dumped them all down on the counter. She didn't often make toast, in fact she last made some when she was a teenager probably no more than fifteen, she would much rather eat a bear claw or other sweet treats than cook for herself even if that cooking was only toast. She put in as many slices of bread as she possibly could fit in the toaster and set the timer on the toaster for ten minutes, that was about how long it seemed to last when she last made it. She half-filled another frying pan with oil and dumped several rashers of bacon and several sausages, she knew it was pretty full but then things were bound to shrink by the time they were cooked.

She poured some coffee for herself into a mug, then half-filled that with her usual creamer and about a hundred spoonsful of sugar. She jogged up the stairs to get dressed for the day.

~OUAT~

When she got down the stairs it was only a few minutes later, but everything had changed, and not for the better. She stopped on the staircase, her mouth fell open, and she stayed frozen on stairs.

David came racing in. "Emma! What the hell happened? Are you okay?" He shouted as he ran to grab the fire blanket. He placed it on the toaster and smothered the flames. He looked back at Emma his eyes wide and insistent. "Emma, are you okay?" He shouted again and watched her her eyes didn't leave the kitchen, he figured she was probably just in shock. He heard his wife follow him into the kitchen and announce her arrival with a gasp but he was too busy to turn around and greet her. He grabbed a cloth and picked up the boiling hot pan of spitting sausages and bacon and threw it into the sink and turning the cold tap on full, he did the same with the fried egg, then the charcoal which was once scrambled egg followed it. The he turned to his daughter, his heart was almost beating out of his chest, and his hands were on his hips.

"Emma, what were you doing?" Snow pulled her robe tighter around herself as she stared at the carnage of the kitchen. "Why are you cooking? You don't cook…" She glanced at the toaster as David pulled the fire blanket from it. "Did you break the toaster, again? I thought we agreed to never touch it again after the last time."

Snow's words spurred Emma to action. She headed straight for the door, the documents and card burning a hole in her hoodie pocket. Her mom hadn't even noticed it was Mother's Day, or maybe she did, maybe she just didn't think they were there in their relationship, maybe she was still more of her roommate than her mother. After all she had only about a month before started to call David and Snow dad and mom, and even then she would sometimes slip, accidentally but she could see the quickly veiled hurt on their faces whenever she would do so. That idea terrified Emma most of all. "I'm… We need new pots." She mumbled as she fled the scene.

~OUAT~

Emma didn't get back to the loft for a long while, it was night when she finally opened the door handle, and late enough that she knew that her parents wouldn't be awake. Or at least that was the plan. Her parents, unlike herself, were more 'early to bed early to rise' than night owls. But when she closed the door she realised the lights were still on. She had forgotten the card and mug she had bought her mom earlier, when she had seen how many missed calls and texts she had from her parents, in the car but she still had the other present. She barely had time to breathe before she was wrapped in a loving but firm hug.

David's hand cupped the back of Emma's head. They had been searching for her all day, they only knew she was still in the town because people kept getting glances of her car, they had come back to the loft to get a couple of hours rest before they formed a search party. David had forced Snow to go to bed and try and get some sleep, but he had stayed on the couch, waiting and praying that Emma would come home. It was he who had realised why Emma was cooking, he was sure Snow would have realised if the roles were reversed and it was Father's Day instead, Snow had just never imagined in her wildest dreams that Emma would try to do something so special (though even a bunch of flowers would mean to the world to her).

He was surprised when Emma didn't pull away but stayed in his embrace, eventually though he moved her back, holding onto her arms still, he bent his knees a little so he could look her in the eye, he examined her face making sure that she wasn't in pain or injured, there was no reason she would be, but it was a father's prerogative. When she finally met his eye he spoke. "Please don't ever, ever, disappear like that again, Emma." He half ordered half begged.

Emma wasn't sure why she had ever been hesitant to go home when she looked at her father, he always made her feel calm, though she was still waiting for the other foot to drop, an old habit which was almost impossible to break. "I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"It's okay, kid." He accepted easily. He pulled her into another hug and felt her relax in his arms. He sighed out the worry which had built up. He pressed a kiss to the top of her golden curls. He sighed again though this time it was contently. "You're going to give me grey hair one of these days." They both pulled back, a mutually exclusive yet unsaid decision, and when David let go of her he found her looking at him expectantly and lost. "Your mom's in the bedroom, she's still awake, she's been so worried about you."

Emma nodded her head, she heard the order of 'go talk to your mother', so she turned around and headed to the curtains which the light of the room was spilling out. As she walked there she wasn't sure what the reaction would be, whether she would just wait by the doorway, whether she would be shouted at for ruining the kitchen.

But as soon she went through the curtain it was as though a curse had been broken, clarity came upon her, she strode over to her mom and sat beside her on the bed. Before she could think of anything else she was pulled into yet another hug. She was pressed tight to her mother, her mother's signature way of hugging her, and she ducked her head to rest on Snow's shoulder.
"I'm sorry mom." She mumbled, she was shushed as her mom slowly rocked her, but she couldn't find herself disliking it in the slightest.

Eventually, Snow pulled back a little, she placed her hands on Emma's cheeks and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry sweetie." She watched Emma's face change and it was clear to her that her daughter understood what she meant by that.

Emma half shrugged, her mom hadn't expected anything, she internally berated herself for acting rashly. She should have spent at least a few seconds explaining what it was she had done, she had been cooking (or trying to cook) the breakfast, without expecting her disorientated mother who had only just woke up to their kitchen close to being set on fire to realise what was happening straight away. Though she also knew her mom understood why she did disappear too, it had been 28 years, they were still getting used to life as a family.
"S'okay. I'm sorry you didn't get your breakfast in bed."

Snow fixed her with a firm look. "Just the idea of the breakfast in bed is enough for me." That was probably good as the food which wasn't on fire look inedible.

"I got you something else, kind of, well I mean I got you an actual one but I left it and your card in my car, but I also got you something else, it's stupid but-"

"Emma." Snow stopped her spluttering. "I doubt very much it's stupid. Please can I have my present now?" she knew if she didn't ask for it Emma would lose confidence.

Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out the blank envelope. She passed it over to her mother.

"Thank you." Snow smiled, she carefully opened the envelope and tipped out the contents into her lap. Inside was Emma's social security card and two birth certificates. She suddenly remembered Emma looking intently at David's and her own, Regina had reissued them all with ones with whichever names they preferred, their Enchanted Forest names were the new ones or they could keep their cursed ones. David and Snow had taken their Enchanted Forest ones, though as surnames weren't really common in the Enchanted Forest they both now had the surname 'Charming'.
And that was what Emma's social security card now said. "Emma Ruth Charming." Snow read out loud, her voice breaking. "Oh, Emma, that's… that's wonderful. I don't know what to say. Thank you." She put all of her love into those last two words and saw Emma's face light up.

"I had to do my social security card for the world outside of Storybrooke, but I got Regina to help me with this birth certificate, I think Henry might have convinced her a little. But I needed the Enchanted Forest date and what yours and dad's were there. And the this one has this worlds dates and stuff."

Snow smile widened as Emma chattered away. She subtly brushed tears from her eyes, her girl really had thought of everything. She traced Emma's full name on the certificate with the Enchanted Forest's dates, she had never really thought of that before, Emma hadn't had the chance to have an official birth certificate made back in their realm, one hadn't even been drawn up as she was born early. She carefully took the birth certificates from her lap and placed them on the bed. She pulled Emma into her arms. "I love you." She whispered and felt Emma squeeze her tighter, it meant the same thing, Emma just wasn't quite ready to say the actual words yet.

They stayed in their embrace for a few minutes, Snow had started to think that Emma had fallen asleep, but Emma finally pulled away.

"So, do we get to tell your father?" Snow asked hopefully.

"I was thinking of waiting 'til Father's Day, that way I can save on buying an actual present." She joked back.

"Hmm, that would work if he hadn't been listening to our conversation behind the curtain since you stepped foot in here."

Emma grinned and rested her head upon Snow's shoulder. "Dad, you can come in here now."

David entered the room wearing a sheepish grin, though the excitement was clearly winning the fight for dominance on his face. He strode over and sat on Emma's other side on the bed. He wrapped his arm around his girls' shoulders and tilted his head so he could read the social security card and the birth certificates. After staring at it for a about a minute he pressed a kiss to Emma's temple.
"You'll have to get a new driver's licence, too." He reminded her, his voice showing how overjoyed he was by Snow's present.

"Yeah, I'll just magic that one up too, it's not like I ever had a real one I can't really be bothered going through all the hassle of getting my first one." Emma chuckled.

David and Snow both frowned.

"What do you mean?" David demanded.

At the same time Snow asked. "Emma, have you never passed your driver's test?"

Emma bit her lip to hide the smile on her face at her parents' reactions, they were so parental it was kind of nice to have that. "I was a foster kid, most of them don't really bother to give you anything other than two meals a day and something to sleep on. But I figured out how to on my own, over the years." She felt her parents hold on her tighten. "Then Neal helped me get a fake licence. I know how to drive so it's not really a big deal, I can just magic a new one up."

Snow and David shared a look, having a silent conversation as they often did, then Snow held out her hand to Emma. "Emma Ruth Charming, car keys, please."
Using her official new (or old depending how you looked at it) was a little weird for all of them but it felt right, Emma stopped trying to hide her smile, and even more miraculously she dug them out of her pocket and handed them over. Snow put them in a box on her bedside table without moving out of the cuddle Emma probably didn't realise was happening around her.
"Your father can teach you how to drive properly and you can take an actual drivers test."

Emma rolled her eyes, playfully, was this how it was going to be from now on? She'd be lying if she said she hated it. "You're not getting your place back." She told David instead she noticed him somehow both beaming and frowning at the prospect of teaching her how to drive and the fact that she had never officially learnt. "I'm comfy."

David smirked when he realised she meant the bed. "Okay, but I'm stealing one of the quilts and some cushions, that couch isn't comfortable."

"You could always stay here." Emma shrugged. "You're warm."

David kissed the top of her head at the same time Snow kissed her cheek. They both knew it was Emma's way of saying she wanted both of her parents there, it was adorable, they also figured she'd be asleep fairly soon so they just continued to cuddle her quietly.

David and Snow shared another look above Emma's head.

Snow's look was clear to read: 'Best Mother's Day ever'.