Title: The First Annual Storybrooke Ball
Summary: "All I'm saying is that it's been quiet here the last couple of weeks. It's finally starting to feel normal and this place is finally starting to feel like home. I think throwing a town celebration is a wonderful idea.""Yeah, a celebration is great but does it have to be a ball?" Emma asked, her voice verging on a whine.
Spoilers: Set post-4x11, "Heroes and Villains."
Rating/Warning: K+. Charming Family angst/fluff, as per usual, with an eventual dash of Captain Swan because yeah.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I'm just playing in someone else's sandbox.
Author's Note: An anonymous prompt on Tumblr: "Think you can write a What If fic where they're back in the enchanted forest somewhere around season 3 final or season 4 mid-season finale and Emma is having a hard time adjusting to being royalty? (some really needed daddy charming and charming family fluff)?" They were kind enough to let me adapt the prompt a tetch to keep it canon compliant, resulting in what you see below. I'm so sorry it took me forever and a day to get this going for you! Feedback would make my week from hell a thousand times better. Enjoy. :)

"Have you completely lost your mind?"

Snow White's eyebrows shot to the ceiling. She'd known her daughter would meet the news of her plan for her next mayoral decree with incredulity but the shock on Emma's face was … kind of startling, to be honest. Her baby girl was staring at her as if she'd sprouted a couple of new appendages.

"I just thought it would be nice to organize some kind of celebration," Snow insisted. "It's been two weeks since Belle banished Gold, two weeks since there's been a vill–"

"Shh!" Emma interrupted, shooting up straight in her chair. "Stop with the v-word! Do not finish that sentence and knock on something wooden right now."

Though Emma was not at all superstitious, Snow humored her and gave the top of the kitchen table a cursory rap. "All I'm saying is that it's been quiet here the last couple of weeks. It's finally starting to feel normal and this place is finally starting to feel like home. I think throwing a town celebration is a wonderful idea."

"Yeah, a celebration is great but does it have to be a ball?" Emma asked, her voice verging on a whine. "What's wrong with like, a parade or a festival or something?"

Snow hid a smile at the disgust dripping in her baby girl's tone. "You went to a ball in the Enchanted Forest with Hook, remember," she reminded her. Emma's arched eyebrow indicated that her experience in King Midas' castle was not something she was sure to forget any time soon. "All I'm saying is that you saw what balls were like."

"Yeah, they were uncomfortable, fancy things filled with people wearing uncomfortable, fancy clothes ..." She trailed off, lost in the memory of the night that was decades ago for Snow but only weeks ago for Emma. Then she met her mother's eyes with a huff. "And I got taken to Regina's dungeon that night!"

"You also danced with Hook that night," Snow added gently. "I saw the picture in the book, Emma. Even though it was an illustration, the tenderness in your eyes and the smile on your face were clear as day. You were having fun, at least for that moment."

Emma pursed her lips but didn't offer any further argument, causing Snow to bite back a smile. The tides of battle were starting to turn in Snow's favor.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we don't exactly have a lot of ball provisions here," Emma said dryly. "Like, where the hell are we even going to put everybody?"

And now they were turning back in Emma's. "City Hall's big enough for town meetings," Snow replied, a touch of uncertainty in her voice. "Perhaps we could have it there."

"And what are people going to wear?" Emma continued as if Snow hadn't spoken at all. "Storybrooke isn't exactly overflowing with places to get ball gowns, Mom."

"I didn't envision it having all the trappings of home, Emma," Snow rebutted patiently. It was the truth; she'd known throwing a ball in Storybrooke wouldn't be the same as throwing one in the Enchanted Forest. It couldn't, not completely, but the spirit could still be the same. "I just thought it would be something nice to do … give everyone a little taste of the Enchanted Forest in our new home."

And she could see it, a cooling of the resistant fire in her baby girl's eyes. It was no shock to her, then, when Emma softened and said, "All right, I can appreciate that. But there are a lot of logistical things that we need to work out."

"And that, my darling daughter, is why I'm asking you to help me with this," Snow smiled. "You're a sheriff and you were a bail bondsperson. Plus, you're my amazingly wonderful and logical daughter. Logistics is kind of your area of expertise, is it not?"

Every single word she'd spoken was the gods' honest truth, but Snow couldn't help but bite her lip to hide her smirk when a sheepish flush colored Emma's fair cheeks. "You know what they say about flattery getting you everywhere, don't you?"

Snow just grinned. She most certainly did.

Between Emma's knack for logistics and Snow's knack for planning, the two of them had come up with quite the lengthy list of considerations for the First Annual Storybrooke Ball. (Their first argument had occurred when Emma had wanted to swap out "Ball" for "Gala." Much to her dismay, even Charming had agreed that "Ball" needed to remain in the title.)

Snow ran her eyes down their handwritten list, somewhat disheartened. Putting together a ball was more daunting than she'd anticipated. How on earth had her parents done this over and over for years on end?

Of course, her parents had also had a castle full of workers to make all the arrangements and take care of all the details. As a young princess, Snow had only watched everyone rush around and get everything ready while she herself brimmed with excitement and anticipation. Balls were parties, and to a child, there was nothing more fun than a party.

Emma frowned down at the list as well, reading it upside down from across the table. "Granny's isn't going to be able to feed the entire town, even on a catering basis. We could split the menu among the different restaurants. That way everyone gets some of the business."

Snow smiled at her brilliant daughter. "See, now, that's what I meant when I said that logistics was your area. I think that's a wonderful idea."

"Tony makes a great chicken marsala."

"Is that a hint?" Snow asked through a chuckle, already making a note on her sheet to ask Tony if he could provide chicken marsala.

Emma just smiled.

Snow made a couple more notes; she could approach the bakery for desserts and she could ask Mo French for some flower arrangements for decorations and centerpieces.

"So," Emma said somewhat uncomfortably. Snow looked up to find her baby girl fidgeting in the chair, hesitance written across her features. "Is this … is this how balls were planned in the Enchanted Forest?"

Snow smiled gently. Emma still wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of the Enchanted Forest – not that Snow could blame her, seeing as neither of her trips to the place had been walks in the park – but every now and then, she'd ask a question or two about life there. "There was a little more to it than two people sitting at a kitchen table, but basically, yes. My parents would decide they wanted to have a ball and the castle staff would take over from there. Everyone would prepare nonstop for days. It was amazing to watch it all come together."

"And King Midas' ball … that was pretty much the standard?"

"Yes," Snow allowed, "though I was always more partial to the children's balls."

Now Emma looked slightly intrigued. "Children's balls?"

"Oh, yes. I guess the equivalent here would be school dances. They were balls thrown for the sole purpose of allowing the children from the neighboring kingdoms to meet and have fun."

Emma wrinkled her nose. "I still don't know how you had fun wearing those stuffy clothes or having to be Miss Prim and Proper all the time."

Snow didn't see the wisdom in pointing out that Emma herself had managed to have fun at a ball despite the stuffy clothes. "I didn't know any different," she said instead, giving a dismissive half-shrug. "I prepared for ages for my first ball. Dance and etiquette lessons, dress fittings, hair styling, the whole nine yards. I loved it. I was at that age where you're still a child but you want to be an adult. All the preparations helped me feel a little bit more like a grown-up."

Soft wistfulness had settled on her baby girl's face. The vast differences between how Emma should have grown up and how she actually did grow up were not lost on Snow, and clearly they were not lost on Emma, either. Her wonderful little girl should have grown up as a princess, loved and cherished by an entire kingdom. Instead she'd grown up alone, unloved and unwanted.

The reality of her little princess's life in this world broke Snow's heart every single second of every single day.

"Becoming a grown-up before you're supposed to is overrated," Emma said softly.

And statements like that took Snow's broken heart and absolutely shattered it. Her poor baby had certainly had to grow up much earlier than she should have. She reached across the table for her daughter's hand and smiled when Emma took it. "I wish so hard that you could have had all of this growing up, Emma."

"Yeah," Emma said, swallowing hard, "I do, too."

Snow squeezed her hand, smiling gently. Then, when she sensed Emma had had enough of the mushiness, she let go and refocused on the task at hand.

For the next little while, they solely discussed preparations. Once neither one of them could think of a single consideration they hadn't covered, Snow set the pen down and smiled. "We've got quite the start."

Emma smiled, too, but hers didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yeah, we do."

Concern immediately flooded Snow. "Are you all right?"

Though Emma nodded, Snow could tell it wasn't exactly the truth.

Well, then. She'd just have to keep an eye on this, wouldn't she?