There are a lot of different ways to go about doing a lot of different things. Some ways are better and the other ways are what Emma chooses to do. There wasn't exactly a book labeled "How to Hone Your Magical Outbursts" and her new parents didn't really know how to deal with a 29 year-old child, especially not one that had sparks shooting out of her palms. So, how was she going to deal with this little situation? Why, ask a freaky untrustworthy sorcerer.
"Hey!" A dinging sound resounded through the old pawn shop as Emma made her appearance known. "You ready for some action, Gold?"
He walked into view and stood behind the glass case. "Why am I helping you again?"
Emma sat down on the stool that was positioned next to the case. She couldn't help but smile, even though she was in the presence of someone who could potentially really screw things up for you.
"Because if I learn how to control my powers, then I won't destroy this lovely shop." She gestured around her. "And I could totally be kickass and stuff."
"And that makes me help you?" He sighed.
"Don't question what you already agreed to. I'm sure you have some twisted reason for helping me control these freakish powers." He nodded his head in appreciation of her thought process.
"The thing is, dearie…it's not really me showing you how to control your powers." He pointed to Emma. "It's all about your concentration." He laid a thin book in front of her on the counter. "Try to shrink this. Really concentrate. Just picture it in your head, and let it happen." He walked back into the far corners of the shop, leaving Emma with a sad expression and a stupid book.
"And here I thought I would learn something…" She grumbled to herself as she stared at the book.
It wasn't changing. Nor would it change with Emma's lack of magical experience.
This sucked.
Emma lowered her face so that her chin was resting on the counter. Her eyes scrunched in concentration. How hard could it be for the savior to shrink a thin book? Apparently really hard, because the next thing she knew was that her vision started the blur slightly.
"Aw man, I think this magic thing has side effects…" She rubbed her eyes in an attempt to right her vision. She looked at her hand….this wasn't her hand.
"SHIT!" Emma flailed the hand in front of her, trying to rid herself of the foreign object. The flailing caused her to lose balance on the stool and fall back. "DAMN IT! GOLD!" She yelled, rubbing her sore head.
"Give up already, dearie…" He trailed off after getting a good look at her. He attempted to stifle his laughter.
"What's so freakin' funny?!" Emma screeched, still sitting on the ground.
"You might want to take a good look at your reflection…" Gold pointed to the glass case.
Emma realized at that moment that she had the power to turn people into dwarves.
"What the hell is that?!" She screeched, not realizing that her voice was significantly higher pitched than before.
"I think "that" is actually you." Emma started feeling her own face, noticing that the reflection was moving in unison. "If I were to guess…I would say that instead of shrinking the book, you shrunk yourself! Funny how things turn out this way."
Emma started to examine her extremely small appendages. Her legs….were short. Really short. So were her arms. Actually, everything was uncomfortably short. And she wasn't wearing pants….
Wait a second…where were her pants?!
Emma's head whipped towards the stool, eyeing her long forgotten pants resting on the top. Shit was going down. At least her shirt covered all her vital body parts. Her magic lesson could have gone a lot better.
"Don't worry…you're covered." Gold said, noticing her panicked expression. "I might have some clothing in the back…" Emma nodded in her depression. Gold went to retrieve the mini pair of jeans and a small white t-shirt. "You can change behind the counter."
Yup, everything was small. Everything. She struggled into her shirt, taking into account that her miniature arms lacked any coordination for forcing clothing onto her body. The button on her pants was even worse. She didn't even attempt that hell. She was fine with leaving her pants unbuttoned.
"I couldn't find shoes…" Gold started saying, but Emma raised her small yet slightly chubby hand to silence him.
"Thank you for this." She gestured to her new outfit.
"Do you want to call your parents?" He asked, going to pick up the phone.
"OH HELL NO!" She almost full body tackled him.
"Positive?"
She nodded, walking towards the front door. "Definitely. I don't need them seeing me like this…" She thought for a moment. "besides, I don't want to get sidetracked. I have a lot of work to get done at the station and what not."
"Well, if you're sure."
"I will turn back to normal right?" Emma gestured to her whole body. She didn't know if this magic stuff wore off or not. Again, there was no convenient handbook that explained things.
"You will…when you learn to control your magic." She huffed in displeasure and walked towards the front of the shop. She could deal with this later.
Emma attempted to open the front door and failed miserably. Now she knows how short people feel…how they can see what they want but it's just slightly out of reach. She glared at the door handle when she saw Gold open it for her. She nodded in thank you and booked it out of the shop, her bare feet hitting the pavement.
Amazingly enough, she was able to hide from everyone who stepped out of their house today. That was one perk to having a small body- lots of hiding places. Of course her happiness had to turn sour when she realized the door to the station was out of reach as well. Emma frowned and stood on her tippy toes.
Nope, she wasn't reaching it by herself. Wait, she could stand on something.
Emma walked to the back of the station and saw a crate. She sighed as she dragged it to the door, realizing how depressing this whole situation was. At least she was able to open the door.
"Damn these non-muscular child arms…." She grumbled as she sat on her chair and began to look through her papers. As she began actually getting work done, she noticed that magic had more than one side effect. First, she turned into a smallish creature. Second, she felt like she had just outrun a horde of cops in the middle of August (extreme fatigue if you're catchin' the drift).
The next thing Emma saw was that it was dark outside and the station door was slamming open.
"Oh Emma!" She heard the slight accent and lifted her heard, deciding to ignore the drool that accumulated on her desk.
"Hey Belle." She yawned, her voice was still thick from sleep. "Waz up?"
After getting over her shock of seeing a little Emma, she walked up to her desk and squatted to Emma's eye level.
"Rumple told me you would be here, but I didn't expect you to look so…"
"Dwarf like?" Emma guessed.
"I was going to say childlike." Belle smiled, resisting the urge to ruffle the sleepy girl's hair.
"Not trying to sound mean, but why are you here?" Emma jumped down from her chair. Belle stood up straight and crossed her arms.
"Your parents are on a mad search for you." Emma's eyes widened. "Apparently a certain person wouldn't answer her phone." She felt her front pocket and mentally cursed. Damn her other big person pants.
"Um, well you can obviously see why I didn't." Emma gestured to herself. Belle frowned. "What? It's not like I lied about anything!"
Belle sighed and lowered herself back down to Emma's level. "No, but your parents are very worried about you." Emma was not appreciating how she was being spoken to like a child. "And are your pants unbuttoned?" Well crap. Emma's cheeks reddened slightly.
"I…I like them like that?" Belle gave her a look.
"You couldn't button them, could you?"
"Yeah, I totally couldn't."
Belle laughed softly and buttoned the pants so easily that Emma was kind of jealous. "Why'd you do that?"
Belle straightened up and dusted the imaginary dirt off her pants. "Because I wanted to." She held out her hand and Emma just gave a wary look at it. "Well?"
"What did you want me to do?" Emma was honestly confused. She could give Belle a high five, but that would feel awkward.
"Just take my hand." Belle grabbed Emma's hand and began to walk out of the station.
Emma was left speechless. It's not like people hold your hand on a daily basis, and no one treated her like this as a child, so this treatment was weird. Okay, maybe not weird…but strange. Different. Not sure if it's a good or bad different.
Instead of fighting Belle, Emma just looked down and let herself be dragged outside…probably towards her parents…who would totally kill her for not calling them. Curse this little body.
"Your parents are probably regrouping at Granny's." Emma made a surprised look. "Yeah, that's right, they formed a search party for you."
"I'm surprised Gold didn't tell em'…" Emma mumbled, getting nervous that Granny's was right around the corner.
"Rumple said it was none of his business."
"Why can't everyone think like that as well…" Emma mumbled again.
Granny's finally came into view and the large crowd in front of the restaurant was proof that her parents had formed their own army. Her mother was clutching Neal while her father had his hand on her shoulder. Red and the Dwarves were huddled in their in their own little circle, almost like a battle formation. Oh god, so many things could go wrong now.
Belle walked up slowly. Emma decided that in her best interests for survival that she should probably hide behind Belle's leg- which she did. This was no time to be the savior or hero. Her mother walked up quickly, cradling Neal's head. "Oh! Belle!" Emma sunk farther into Belle's legs, if that was even possible. "Can you please help us- wait, who is that?" She was spotted, it was only a matter of time before her mother hardcore kills her.
Her father walked over to join the fun. "Uh, Snow?" Her eyes started to grow concerned at the tone of voice Belle was using. "I found something that could be of interest to you."
"What's up…mom?" Usually Emma wouldn't outwardly call her mom "mom", but right now she needed this leverage so that maybe her punishment wouldn't be too severe.
The hand that wasn't cradling Neal shot up to her mouth. "Emma?" She whispered. David's eyes widened and Snow practically shoved Neal into his arms so that she could freely kneel down in front of the childlike Emma.
Hands shaking, Snow slowly lifted them so that Emma's face was cupped in her palms. "Emma?" She whispered again. She began stroke her cheek with her thumbs. "Belle, what happened to my daughter?"
Belle shook her head. "I didn't ask for any details." She smiled slowly. "But Emma could probably fill you in."
Her mother's eyes whipped back to Emma's, attempting to read her soul. "Emma, what happened? How old are you? Are you okay?" Emma lifted her chubby child hand to silence the stream of questions.
"Well, I have the power of turning people into dwarves…" Her mother scowled and you could her one of the actual dwarves in the distance yell out.
"Did someone do this to you?" Her father asked carefully, crouching lower to get a better look at his daughter.
"Well…." Emma drew out the word, not looking her parents in the eyes.
She didn't want to exactly admit that all of this was her fault. She could put some of the blame on Gold, but she asked for his help to begin with. Yup, all her fault. At least Emma knew that she had enough magic to actually shrink herself, so she should have enough to change back to normal.
"Emma." Snow's voice sounded hard, almost as if she was about to scold her.
"It was my fault…" Emma looked over to David. She knew his eyes wouldn't be as hard as her mother's. "I asked Gold for some help to develop my powers…" She gestured to her body. "And then this happened."
"Why didn't you talk to us, honey?" Her mother's face scrunched in sadness. These terms of endearment were sounding strange.
"Guys," Emma backed away slightly. "I'm not used to having parents…in fact, I'm not even used to having the same people around me for a long period of time."
Now they looked hurt, but hey…the truth is the truth. Maybe they would feel guilty enough not to punish Emma too hard for going behind their backs and getting Gold's help.
Her mother took a deep breath. "Okay." She clapped her hands together. "Since you're this small, you finally need your parents." She smiled softly. "You'll be staying with us."
Emma backed away more, trying to use Belle as her shield, but realizing Belle backed off more than she did. "Whoa." She put up her hands to stop her mother's train of thoughts. "Whoa. No way, I have an apartment. I can take care of myself."
"Nope." Snow said quickly, stroking Neal's head. David snuggled him closer. "We're your parents, you're staying with us." Emma opened her mouth. "No back talk, you technically look four, so we would win."
Her mother took purposeful strides towards her daughter. Emma's eyes widened when she picked her up and propped her on her hip. No way was this happening. This is a nightmare.
"Snow!" Her mother ignored her and stood beside her father. "This is not necessary!"
She chuckled. "Of course it is." Emma felt her cold feet be squeezed. "You don't have shoes one! You could have hurt yourself!" Emma mumbled under her breath. "Thank you, Belle. Thank you for finding our daughter." Belle smiled and gave a small wave.
The family of four was about to experience an interesting night.
Okay, so I'm not too too well versed on some of the OUAT- mostly because some of it pisses me off. Mostly Henry. Neal's just there to fill some voids. So if there are some inconsistencies, then tough squash. This will be some intense Charming Family Feels right here. Enjoy.
