Elf on the shelf

power214063 asked for a oneshot of something involving elf on the shelf.

"Oh that darn elf! Why does he always have to make such a mess of my kitchen?!" Snow called out in desperation. Emma smirked. This was the third day in a row that she was up before her mom and had heard her getting frustrated with the way her dad must have positioned the elf the night before.

"I take it you'd rather he was causing some more neat mischief then?" Emma lightly teased her mother. Snow nodded, her lips pressed tightly together. "Then why don't you take over then?" Emma asked. Snow looked over at her in confusion. "Instead of allowing dad to position the thing before he goes to bed, you do it. That way it can still be fun, but you don't have to clear up the mess when you get up." Emma reasoned. Snow was still confused.

"What do you mean by dad positioning it?" She asked.

"Well it's not me, and I'm assuming it's not Neal since the whole ordeal is for him, so it must be dad that's causing the chaos when he moves the elf." Emma explained. Snow now looked horrified.

"Your dad would never touch one of Santa's elves. Everyone knows if you do that, you go on the naughty list That's why I can't ever clear it up properly until the next day." Snow warned her. Emma rolled her eyes. Neal was still asleep. There was no need to keep up the little game. She didn't know why they bothered in the first place, he wasn't even one yet! She moved forward to grab the elf so she could clean up the counter herself, when her mother swatted her hand away.

"Hey!" Emma protested. "I was just trying to help."

"I know you were, but didn't you hear me? You'll get put on the naughty list. Santa doesn't play games, Emma. That's why the elf is here in the first place." Snow told her. Emma was beginning to fit the pieces together.

"You…you mean dad isn't moving the elf? That it really is moving by itself and going back up the North Pole every night?" Emma croaked. Snow nodded. Didn't Emma know that already? They'd spoken about it all when it first appeared on the first of December. Emma looked back at the elf, horrified. Santa was REAL?! She smiled sheepishly at the elf, now knowing he really had been watching her. She hoped her heroics as the Saviour would be enough to keep her off the naughty list this year, regardless of what the elf had seen.