Cutting it fine
Marisol asked for a oneshot of Snow threatening Neal with Santa when he misbehaves. She also has to do it with Emma so Neal will believe her. Emma plays along, getting a little taste of what it would have been like to be raised by her parents.
Guest: Sorry, but that kind of thing has been covered many times.
"Mama said not to…" Neal said, unsure as he looked upon the bounty before them.
"She's not going to notice if a couple are missing, little bro. Especially if we take a few from the back of the pile and move them to the front." Emma reasoned. It was just a couple of cookies. What harm would it really do? Emma took her cookie first to show that Neal had nothing to worry about. Neal watched his big sister carefully. He then decided that Emma was right, mom would never notice a couple of cookies being missing. He reached out and went to take his cookie…
"Neal Leopold!" Neal's hand shot back guiltily from the tray. He whipped around and looked up, wide-eyed, at his angry looking mom.
"You were told not to take any of those cookies. That I would make you your own batch at the weekend, that these were for school. What on Earth will Santa think of you taking something you weren't supposed to, especially so close to Christmas?" Neal's eyes started to water. Surely after a whole year of being good, he couldn't be on the naughty list now? Emma felt dreadful for her little brother. She was the one who encouraged him to take a cookie.
"It's my fault mom. I've eaten one already, and I told Neal to eat one." Emma admitted. She hated seeing her brother so upset. Snow fixed her focus on Emma.
"No, Emma! Now you'll be on the naughty list too!" Neal said. Emma bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. Bless him.
"There's still plenty of time for both of you to earn your spots back on Santa's nice list." Snow told them calmly. "Maybe starting with helping me at the fayre tomorrow."
"Sure mom, anything to earn that spot back." Emma said for Neal's sake. She thought it was sweet he didn't want her on the naughty list. Even sweeter that their mom made out like Emma might be on it too. For just a moment, it was like there was a normal age difference between her and her brother, especially since they were both caught taking cookies. For a moment, Emma was able to imagine she was raised by her parents, and it felt nice. Hey, maybe there was such a thing as a nice list. Now Emma had a family, she was finally on it.
