Outranked
A guest asked for a oneshot of Emma doing whatever she wants. She doesn't listen to her parents because she thinks being a princess she can do whatever she wants without receiving a telling off. In retaliation, Snowing give Emma real royal tasks and responsibilities to do. They also ground her to remind her that they outrank her and show her that's not how a princess should behave.
"I love our daughter, but I think I'm going to throttle her." Snow grumbled. Charming made an agreeable noise. Lately, Emma seemed to have developed one heck of a teenage attitude. Neither parent was sure where she had got it from. They had never encouraged Emma to think she was better than anyone else, or that she could do whatever she wanted without so much as a by-your-leave from her parents. She seemed to be developing the opinion that being a princess meant she could whatever she wanted.
"Well, I'm not sure throttling Emma will solve this one." Charming pointed out. "But if she thinks being a princess is so great, maybe we should give her a little shock to the system…"
Emma looked up from the book she was reading when she heard a thud on the desk. She saw her parents, and they had dumped a large pile of paper.
"What's this?" Emma asked, pointing at it.
"Oh, that's today's decrees that need read through and signed." Snow answered her. "You seem so adamant that you're a princess and don't need to follow rules, but you forget being a royal comes with responsibilities." Emma's face started to pale. She started to open and close her mouth like a beached goldfish.
"Problem, Emma?" Charming asked her. "Since you're a princess, fulfilling all these royal duties shouldn't be a problem for you."
"All these royal duties?" Emma croaked. "You want me to do more than read and sign these? This will take me hours!"
"Not hours, surely, not for a practiced royal like yourself. Only you must be well practiced, if you're able to strut about the palace like you own the place and ignore any instructions anyone gives you. Including us." Charming told her. Emma began to shrink guiltily into her chair. She'd pushed them too far.
"We know you're not ready to fulfil all these duties. We're just making a point." Snow told her, stopping her daughter from panicking. "However, you're also not old enough to think you can do whatever you please. You're getting too big for your boots, Emma. Just because you're a princess doesn't mean you don't have respect for everybody. Oh, and just as a reminder, both as parents and in royal terms, we outrank you. So, on that note, rather than fill out these decrees, you're grounded."
"For two weeks." Charming added. "You can use those two weeks to try and fix this attitude." Emma nodded glumly, unable to fight back on this one. She knew she had been acting up recently, she just didn't realised she'd pushed over the edge already.
