Seeing what he can do
Lolita asked for a oneshot of Emma and Neal having a swimming lesson together. As he's younger he picks it up quicker and Snowing have to encourage Emma.
Emma tried her best not to look jealous as Neal quite happily made his way from one end of the pool to the other without any support…well, she at least tried not to look jealous. She couldn't do it unaided yet. She still needed one of the stupid floats, and even then she was quite wobbly. She had started learning on and off when Neal was eighteen months. Now he was six and already ahead of her after only learning for a year. She slunk into the corner of the pool, arms crossed tightly across her chest. Her parents didn't even notice. Charming was walking alongside Neal as he swam in case he faltered, and Snow was waiting at the other end of the pool for him. It was yet another milestone Neal would reach with their parents that seemed impossible for her to reach. It was enough hurt for one day. Emma quietly slipped out the pool to go and get showered and changed. This was too much for her.
"Emma, where are you going?" She heard her dad call. She turned and saw Neal had reached their mom and was in her arms, both of them looking at her too. Emma just shrugged.
"Not feeling so great. Going to go home." She lied, unable to even look at them.
"Don't go Emmy!" Neal cried. "Stay with us, please." Reluctantly Emma turned round and looked at her little brother's sad little face. She really didn't like hurting him, but it was too hard sometimes.
"I'm sorry kid. But I don't think I can." She hated the way his little face fell even more. Snow and Charming were fairly sure Emma wasn't sick. They knew she sometimes struggled swimming with Neal. Because she was an adult now it was harder for her to learn, and that was without taking her fear into account.
"Why don't you give it a few minutes?" Charming suggested, coming over to the edge close to where she was. "Please Emma, come back in. It's ok." He said the last sentence so only she could hear. "You'll get there. We have every faith in you." Emma looked over to see her mom giving Emma her sad eyes. She knew what those eyes meant. They showed Snow's pain at missing out on Emma's childhood. Not being able to do these kind of things with her before when Emma wouldn't have been frightened. Emma hated seeing her mom look like that. She hated her dad looking so lost for words. And she hated seeing her little brother so upset. Emma sighed, what choice did she have? Reluctantly, she got back into the pool.
"Woohoo!" Neal called out, splashing around. "Emmy's back!" Emma smiled, it was good seeing him happy again. Charming wrapped an arm around his daughter. "Well done." He told her. "We know this isn't always easy for you. We're so proud of you, I hope you know that." He told her sincerely. Emma nodded, leaning into his shoulder.
"Yeah." She said quietly. "I do."