The trouble with sisters

CharmingsDaughter asked for a oneshot of a daddy Charming moment with a fuming teenaged Emma. Set in the "Emma in the middle" AU since people seemed to like that so much haha. This is before the events of that chapter.

"I am going to KILL her!" Emma screeched. She tried to launch herself out of her bedroom door to hurtle down the corridor and chase after her older sister. Charming just caught her round the middle in time and did his best to hold her back.

"Let me go!" Emma demanded, squirming around. "I want to throttle her!"

"That is exactly why I am not letting you go." Charming pointed out. This didn't calm Emma down much. This sort of fight was nothing new to Charming. It seemed as they got older that Emma and Marali were constantly bickering over something. Today, it was that Marali had borrowed Emma's necklace without asking. Not just any necklace, the one that belonged to her Grandma Eva.

"You always take her side! Let me go!" Emma continued to protest.

"This isn't about taking sides, Emma. This is about everybody leaving this situation with all their limbs, and their necks, intact. Now if you'd just calm down for a minute we can talk about this rationally." Charming told her. It took a lot longer than a minute, but eventually Charming was confident that Emma would no longer charge after her sister when he let her go. Emma took a step back from him and straightened out her tunic. She then began to pace furiously back and forth, so angry that she could not stand still.

"I'm so angry with her." Emma snarled through gritted teeth.

"I understand." Charming said sympathetically. "Marali shouldn't take any of your things without asking, but especially special things like that necklace. She's left the palace already, so there isn't much we can do right now. When she gets back though, she will be giving the necklace straight back with a very sincere apology and I will have words with her myself." Charming promised his youngest daughter. This didn't seem to satisfy Emma. She'd heard it all before. "I'm proud of you, you know. You're handling this quite well." Charming praised her. Emma stopped and raised an eyebrow at her father.

"A few minutes ago I was threatening to tear her own arm off and slap her with it." Emma reminded him.

"Yes, that's true, but not so long ago you would have used your magic to force Marali to come back here, and would have probably used your magic to get your revenge too. That shows progress." Charming pointed out. Emma decided now wasn't the best time to tell her father the only reason she hasn't used magic was because it wasn't anywhere near as satisfying as doing it with her own bare hands. Charming was also quite proud of himself. It wasn't always easy to contain either of his daughters when the red mist came down, but especially Emma. It was progress for them too that he had been able to do that. Maybe things weren't as bad as he sometimes thought they were.