Note: This story has a clear start and finish, and it should be 2 or 3 chapters. I'm not sure whether to rate this T or M, so I may move up the rating when I upload the next chapter. I proof-read all of my own work, so all mistakes are my own. Also, this is possibly AU/canon divergent from season 2b, as it ignores Zelena's presence/actions in Storybrooke.
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time.
Warning: This story contains non-sexual ageplay and disciplinary spanking. If you do not like those things, then do not read this story.
Stupid corner, Emma thinks as she glowers at the dark trees on the wallpaper in front of her.
Emma doesn't think Miss Regina is being very nice—at least not today.
"Stupid corner," she mutters under her breath in a rush of confidence that makes her heart beat a little faster. However, the blonde girl peers through the corner of her eye to make sure Regina didn't hear her.
She counts to fifteen in her head before whispering the words slightly louder.
She does this two more times, using a louder voice each time. Miss Regina finally hears her.
Her tummy flip flops as her babysitter's shoes thump on the floor closer and closer to her spot in the corner. Maybe she shouldn't have spoken out loud. Miss Regina is very strict about making sure Emma stays silent during time outs.
"Why are you making noise, young lady?" Emma pictures Miss Regina standing behind her with her arms crossed over her chest. That's the way Mama always stands when Emma is in a lot of trouble at home. Emma named it the Rain Cloud stance because whenever adults look at her from that position, they are about to drop an even worse punishment on her and ruin her day just like a rain storm would.
"I just wanted you to hear me," Emma whines as she tilts her head back to pout at Miss Regina over her shoulder. Her imagination is correct, since the mayor has her arms folded in front of her.
"Well, if you truly needed my attention, that was not the way to get it," Miss Regina said in a stern voice.
Usually, that tone would scare Emma into behaving immediately, but today Emma is sick of being reprimanded and treated like a pest by all of her caretakers. She can't stop the anger from bubbling up and spewing out of her mouth in the form of a bratty comment.
"You're being mean to me all the time, so I'm just making it even by being mean to you, too!"
She isn't quick enough to dodge the smacks aimed at her backside, leaving her to squeal and squirm in response.
"Maybe this is the kind of attention you need, hm?" Something about Miss Regina's serious tone of voice makes her angrier.
"Ow! No!"
Regina only gives her five spanks, but to Emma each one feels like a bolt of lightning aimed at her bottom. Tears nearly spill out of her green eyes, but Emma holds them at bay until she is turned back toward the corner again.
Emma wishes she could melt into the creepy white and black wallpaper and disappear from the office. Then she could run away from her mean babysitter and find her mama or daddy. Emma imagines them giving her lots of hugs when they see her coming home early, but then the young girl remembers how annoyed Mama had been earlier in the morning before she dropped Emma off at Miss Regina's work place. Maybe Mama wouldn't want to give Emma hugs today. She had seemed very eager to get Emma out of her hair. Thinking about this only makes Emma feel like crying more.
A steady flow of tears trail down Emma's cheeks as she begins to feel more and more sorry for herself.
A horrible thought comes into Emma's head. What if Mama decides to spank Emma for being naughty and annoying? Her backside tingles where Miss Regina swatted her, but Emma knows extra spanks will make it hurt worse. Mama only threatens to spank her little girl; she's never actually punished Emma that way—Miss Regina is the only person who has ever spanked her. Still, Emma wonders if she has been especially bad today, since first Mama sent her away, and then Miss Regina gave her more than one kind of punishment.
And, even though Emma is just now learning how to tell time, she can read the clock on the wall well enough to tell that it's only twelve o'clock, which means there is still a long time for Emma to earn more punishments until Mama comes to pick her up.
She frowns deeply and hugs her arms around herself as she continues to cry silently until her time out ends.
Regina lets Emma out of the corner ten minutes later. She takes one look at Emma's tear-stained face before she has a fistful of tissues in her hand as she crouches down in front of the little girl. The blonde's face heats up in embarrassment as her caretaker wipes her cheeks.
"Your corner time is over, Emma, but I don't want you to keep breaking the rules. You were in time out because you were being disrespectful and rude, even after I asked you to quiet down. I swatted you because you weren't obeying your rules of time out. There was no reason for you to yell at me with such a bad attitude. Look at me, Emma," Regina softly commands. Emma's big green eyes are filled with tears again, but Miss Regina catches them in the tissue before they fall. "I want you to apologize for being naughty."
"I'm sorry for being rude," she says quietly. Miss Regina has such an intense gaze that it makes Emma sort of nervous to look into her brown eyes, but once the words leave her mouth, her caretaker pulls her into a quick hug.
"Thank you. You're forgiven, sweetheart. Let's have a good day now, alright?"
Though she is not filled with enthusiasm, Emma nods along and wanders back over to the big table on the other side of the office. She reaches for her coloring book and opens to the half-finished picture of a knight and a castle before grabbing a silver crayon and swiping it over the knight's armor. Deciding she doesn't want Regina's attention after all, Emma sits in silence until the mayor tells her to go wash up for lunch.
Sometime after eating, Emma decides she wants to go home and test her luck with her mother and father. Miss Regina is no longer being mean, but the lady is still plenty boring. All she does is open manila folders and write all over the papers in black pen. Emma has to sit at another table quietly and read books or color pictures. Those things become super boring super quickly, not to mention that it's so quiet that Emma can hear the clock ticking on the wall. It makes Emma wish her babysitter had a TV in her office. Spongebob and Adventure Time are never this dull.
"I wanna go to Mama's house," Emma announces through pouting lips.
"If I take you to your Mama's house right now, your Mama will put you straight to bed for the way you've been behaving all day," Miss Regina says without looking up from her papers. The idea of more discipline puts knots in Emma's stomach. "Now, I know that as much as you want to get away from me at the moment," Emma wants to scream that this is exactly right… "you also don't want to be sent to bed early, so why don't I invite your Mama to come to my house for dinner? That way you can see her without being in trouble right away," her babysitter suggests. She's still using her serious voice, but it doesn't sound as harsh anymore.
Even so, Emma regards her for several seconds as though she doesn't trust Miss Regina's words. Soon enough, though, the young girl agrees to the mayor's plan.
"Are we going there soon?" she asks, absentmindedly rubbing a green crayon inside the lines of a cartoon dragon in her coloring book.
"Yes, dear. I have a little more work to do, but we can leave in about another hour." The lady points to the clock on the wall, and Emma's gaze follows. "When the small hand reaches the 4, it will be time for us to go. Will you be my time keeper?"
Emma sighs in annoyance, but she says yes anyway. Adults take forever!
At six-thirty, Regina answers the front door to let Snow White inside her house on Mifflin Street. As the younger woman passes through the entryway, Regina rushes forward to help her up the steps to dining room. She can't keep her eyes from wandering down to the large baby bump that seems to be expanding each and every day they see one another.
Snow White is pregnant. Very pregnant. Seven and half months, to be exact. The woman's mental and physical exhaustion are apparent in her lackluster appearance and slow, defeated movements. Recently, Snow confided in Regina that on top of feeling bloated, sweaty, heavy, tired, irritable, and achy, her mentally-regressed daughter keeps trying her patience with wild antics. Snow suspects her child's clingy, aggressive, and bratty behavior has something to do with the new sibling on the way, and she has told Regina as much, but Emma won't open up to anyone in either her little kid mindset or her adult life. David seems to think their daughter will sort it all out in her own time, but Snow doesn't believe that constructive parenting mean leaving her child in an emotional labyrinth without offering a guiding hand. Her step-mother suggested she drop a hard line and establish some boundaries quickly before the baby arrives and disrupts their crumbling family dynamic even more.
Though Snow is feeling a bit lost and entirely inexperienced, she decides it is time for a change. They've tried Charming's way. Now Snow vows to take a more hands-on approach to parenting, per Regina's advice, to correct Emma's behavior problems and amend her emotional instability.
She sits down at the dining room table, and Regina joins her, though there is no food in front of them yet. Snow shoots Regina a questioning look.
"We need to talk about your daughter's behavior today before we eat," Regina says bluntly. Her hands brush through her dark hair once before resting clasped on the table. "She's been skirting a spanking the entire time she's been with me. I don't know if she was just nervous when you dropped her off, but she completely ignored my attempts at conversation for the first hour she was in the office. She eventually told me about your rough morning, which seemed to rile her up all over again to the point where I sent her to the corner for her bad attitude. Her behavior improved after lunch but deteriorated again once we arrived here this evening."
The whirlwind of events did not surprise Snow, given how Emma had been whining and aggressive that morning, but she did feel a pang of disappointment in response to hearing about more snags from the rest of the day.
"I'm sorry she's been such a handful. I probably should have taken care of her bad behavior the minute it started to show this morning. Everything was just so frazzled this morning, and I couldn't get a quiet minute to take her aside and reprimand her properly." Snow rests her face in her hands in momentary defeat and exasperation, but Regina reaches out to pull one arm down so Snow will look at her. Once the tired woman acquiesces, Regina speaks again.
"Sometimes you can't wait for the right moment to come; you have to make it happen no matter how busy or hectic your day is. It is important to enforce discipline, Snow, because it shows your daughter you have time for her. And I think you might also be forgetting to show her some good attention, too. There needs to be a balance, or she will never fully trust you enough to open up."
After taking a shaky breath to will back her tears, Snow says, "This is so hard. I feel so inadequate."
"You have to decide that this is worth it, Snow. Be a better mother for her sake…and for yours."
"You're right. Things change starting now," Snow states, nodding.
Regina does not smile, but she inclines her head slightly and untightens her lips, which Snow thinks is close enough. The mayor leaves to bring Emma and their meal into the dining room.