Teenagers

A guest asked for a oneshot of a teenaged Neal yelling at his parents that he wished they weren't part of his life. Emma then talks to him about what it was like for her growing up without a family. By the way, your English was wonderful. I assume English is an additional language for you so I can tell you now that you can speak English far better than I can speak your first language. I hope you enjoy!

For the guest who asked for toddler Neal having a tantrum about going to bed, check out chapter 135 "Worth it" :)

Neal sat on his bed with his knees up at his chest, absolutely fizzing. His parents never let him do anything fun! It was only a stupid camping trip in the woods, what exactly did they think was going to happen? He was fourteen, he could look after himself! He heard someone knock on his door.

"Go away!" He bellowed. "I said I don't want to talk to either of you!"

"Well it's just as well I'm not either of them then, is it?" Emma said, coming into the room. Neal rolled his eyes.

"What do you want?" He grumbled.

"Well that's a lovely way to speak to your favourite big sister now isn't it?" Emma said, sitting down at the end of his bed. "Before you say it, I am very well aware that I am your only big sister. Anyway, I hear you've been saying some pretty nasty things to mom and dad?" Emma said, getting straight to the point. Neal shrugged.

"Well it's true. If they weren't part of my life anymore I'd be able to do what I want, when I want." He reasoned. Emma sighed. The kid didn't know how lucky he was.

"Do you remember my story? How I was brought up?" She asked. Neal nodded against his knees. "Neal, I know you don't want to hear it, but you're still a kid. Even if mom and dad weren't part of your life, you'd just be made to live with some other adults until you were eighteen." Emma decided not to mention her own running away from the system at seventeen. "And trust me, you've got it pretty good with mom and dad." Neal snorted in response. "No, I'm serious kid. I would have traded anything growing up to have mom and dad in my life. They're only not letting you go because they care about you and they don't want you to get hurt. Sure, I could run away and camp out somewhere if I wanted to because my foster parents didn't care about me. But whenever I did pull a stunt like that I ended up getting hurt. So mom and dad are right not to let you go. Even if it doesn't feel that way to you." Emma reached out and ruffled his hair. "Cut them some slack, kid." Was her final words to him before leaving to allow him time to think.

An hour later, Neal shuffled down the stairs. He saw that both his parents were sitting in the living room watching TV.

"Sorry." He muttered quietly, feeling pretty ashamed of himself. Both parents smiled up at him.

"That's alright." Snow said gently.

"We can move past it. Thank you for apologising. That was very grown up of you, Neal." Charming added. Neal shrugged, heading back for his bedroom. Snow and Charming turned and smiled at each other.

"Teenagers." Charming sighed. Snow nodded against his chest in agreement. Only five and a half more years to go.