OUASC one-shots [ON HOLD]

(The Swan-Jones family) - The Children's Pasts

(TRIGGER WARNING - mentions of childhood trauma and abuse)

(SPOILER WARNING: This chapter is a moment that is yet to occur in OUASC. I'm pretty sure it will at some point—I haven't entirely figured it out yet and if it will be different in some way. So you may read this scene here and may see it again in the story. If that's okay with you, then read on.)

Harry and CJ froze and looked at each other as what Emma imagined was a casual question replayed in their heads.

What were your childhoods like?

Harry shrugged, not interested in this conversation.

"...How much do ye know?" CJ asked.

"Well... Regina said how Evie explained to her that you were born and grew up in this containment area for villains," Emma said, not making eye contact, knowing what it was like to give birth to a child in prison. Even if they were villains, the Savior felt that she could sympathize with them in a certain way. "What was your mother like?"

"Never met mine," CJ said in sarcastic enthusiasm. "She bolted when I was born."

The group turned to Harry. "I don't know if mine is the same as CJ's, or what happened to her. I was two years old when I became motherless. Don't remember anything from that time."

The group's silence was almost deafening. Killian pursed his lips at the awkwardness. "So... what was life like with your father? Was he anything like me? Since he is that cursed 'Disney' version with the 'perm', I take it he wasn't nearly as devilishly handsome as yours truly?" the pirate said with a playful smirk to try to ease the tension. Emma lightly elbowed him in the shoulder.

"I... take it by yer tone, that perms are bad?" Harry asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"He was nothing like ye. That's for certain," CJ assured with a chuckle.

"What does that mean, if you don't mind me asking?" Emma persisted, leaning forward. She didn't want to pressure the kids to open up, but when her best friend tells her that their alternate children lived trapped on an island populated with nothing but villains and other villain children their whole lives, with leftovers for food, one could understand her eagerness to know how it affected the two kids she came to see as her own children. But, Regina already told her about the terrible living conditions on the Isle, conditions the made them all sick to their stomachs.

But there was another question burning in the back of her mind. "What was your home life like?"

"It was pretty normal," CJ shrugged, which wasn't entirely untrue. After all, the kind of home life they had was similar to most villain children who weren't one of the lucky few who had parents who actually cared about their kids, no matter how evil, or 'evil' they are.

"Aye? And what exactly was 'normal' over on the Isle of the Lost?" Killian raised an eyebrow.

Harry sighed, tiring of how much they pressed the topic that the two pirate children kept dodging. "Most children on the Isle had single parents. The other parent either died or walked out when the child was young. It was very rare to find a child living with two parents as well as even knowing who their other parent was."

"Well, did your father at least take an active role in your lives?" Killian asked, remembering what it was like to yearn for the parental love of the father who had left him when he was a child.

"Not exactly," Harry answered. "He was mostly busy running the 'crew' he still had, or drowning his sad sorrows in liquor."

"He would get drunk?" Emma asked in astonishment. "In front of you?"