Impractical timing

A guest asked for a oneshot of Emma teaching Neal some practical jokes. He does one at an inappropriate time and Snowing get mad and punish both of them. Later they regret their rashness.

snowcharmingxox: Check out chapter 159 "A surprise connection" for your request :)

Neal sat eagerly in the corner with his toy cars waiting for his daddy to open his bottle of water. Emma had been teaching him some cool jokes lately, and he thought he would try this one out on daddy. As soon as he unscrewed the lid he was going to get soaked! Waiting for the bottle to be opened was the most entertaining thing Neal had right now. A town meeting was in place, and seeing as all their usual babysitters were at the meeting Neal had to come too and just sit and play quietly. That was hard to do for a six year old. Neal couldn't help a grin spreading across his face when he finally saw his daddy pick up the bottle. He unscrewed the lid and- bam. Water all over him. Charming gasped, shocked. Neal rolled around the floor laughing.

"Gotcha daddy!" He shouted proudly. The majority of people at the meeting were either hiding laughs behind their hands or just openly laughing.

"He really did get you there." Prince Philip chuckled. Charming could feel his cheeks heating up slightly in embarrassment. This was not the time for practical jokes.

"Neal," He said, fighting to keep calm. "Do you think that was a very clever thing to do to daddy during an important meeting?" Neal gulped, normally daddy laughed when he did stuff like this! He was going to be in big trouble unless he got out of it fast. He saw Emma sitting beside daddy and pointed at her.

"She taught me!" He blamed her. Emma could now feel her own face heating up as she noticed everyone now staring at her. She sunk down in her seat in a weak attempt to sink into the floor.

"It's times like this I'm grateful Alexandria is an only child." Prince Thomas mumbled. Ella nudged him harshly in the ribs.

"Shh, not here!" She hissed to him, seeing the dangerous look Snow was now giving Emma. Both Snow and Charming knew Emma had been teaching Neal some practical jokes. Both had warned her it was a bad idea.

"Take him home." Snow said quietly to her daughter.

"What?!" Emma snapped. "I am one of the sheriffs! I need to be part of this meeting!"

"As the other sheriff I can pass any information onto you. Don't make a fuss. We will talk about this at home." Charming warned her. Not wanting to draw anymore attention to herself, Emma got up and stormed to the back of the room. Neal was terrified, sissy looked really mad. She didn't even speak to him as she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room.

When the meeting finished, Snow and Charming were feeling pretty bad about having both of them sent out.

"I shouldn't have been so stern with Neal, that wasn't fair. I normally laugh at his practical jokes and then suddenly gave him into trouble. That's mixed messages."

"I shouldn't have sent Emma out. She was just trying to bond with her brother, it was humiliating for her." She said glumly. They pulled up at the house and came into the house. They found Emma sitting silently on the couch and Neal sitting at his little table colouring in. When they heard their parents come in both looked up. Emma looked seriously irritated, Neal looked terrified.

"Neal, come sit beside your sister please." Snow said calmly as she and Charming came and sat down in the living room. Neal came over slowly and sat on the couch.

"Do you understand why I got mad at you Neal?" He asked. Neal nodded. "Ok, good. It's partly my fault because I encouraged you by laughing. From now on no more practical jokes ok?" Neal nodded again. "That's my boy. Now up you go to your room while we talk to your sister." Feeling like he'd got off really lightly, Neal scrambled off to his room. Snow and Charming turned their attention to Emma.

"We're sorry for excluding you from the meeting. That wasn't the right way to deal with the situation. We realise you were just trying to bond with your brother by teaching those pranks to him. But please, no more. We can't have him behaving like that- especially at meetings." Emma nodded silently, still feeling cheesed off. Snow and Charming understood she'd need more time to calm down. "Good. Thank you, Emma." Emma got up and went to sit in the kitchen, purely for some breathing space. Snow and Charming didn't follow her, knowing she'd come round in her own time.