While Anna was laying on a sofa in the entrance hall, a thick blanket wrapped around her, Idun turned her attention to her eldest daughter. Still stood where her father had placed her before he ran off to find a map, the Queen stood from the couch and knelt down before her, pulling the blonde into her arms.
"It’ll be all right, my love,“ she murmured, cupping the back of Elsa’s head, her other arm wrapping tightly around her. "It’ll be all right.”
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”Oh,” the girl said, listening in the fashion that toddlers than, and then taking a good long pause to think about it, to understand.
And a party surely meant lots of people, like the one time all the adults were dancing. “I wanna go!” she announced, once all her thinking was done, “Go on ‘trip!”
Whether she even understood the type of trip her parents would be encroaching, was another matter. It was doubtful she knew of a trip beyond a ‘trip to the marketplace’ or somewhere else of similar nature.
"And leave Elsa here all alone?“ Idun countered, bouncing the girl on her knee a little. "Someone needs to stay here and look after Arendelle, and we thought that the two of you would do a wonderful job. Do you think you could?”
Such a sweet little request to deny. But the Queen knew Anna didn’t really understand what it meant, even with her explaining. At least it wasn’t one of the longer journeys royals sometimes took, just to attend a wedding, participate in a few social activities and then return to her darling girls, both big and small.
Elsa was brought up, and Anna’s smile was wiped off clean.
”W-well, I think they’re pretty important,” Anna said, the edges of resentment just hiding under the surface of her words, “A-and so what if Elsa hasn’t had one? Doesn’t mean that I can’t have one. In fact, I—I think I really should.”
Elsa was going to be Queen one day, and Anna… Anna was just the second-born, the one who would probably just get married off anyway. And if she was going to get married, she’d rather choose herself.
And that meant actually meeting people.
"Anna, you’re fifteen, everything seems important,“ Idun said, before sighing. So it was to be one of those conversations, the ones most mother’s would call ‘difficult’. Anna would be difficult to most others, but the Queen of Arendelle quite understood. "And Elsa is the eldest, therefore if there were to be such a thing, she would have hers first. But, love, I highly doubt your father will allow it.”
Yes, Anna would likely be married off, as Idun herself had been, but she wouldn’t let it be to some stranger. She would make sure both parties got along and that love was a possibility. She would not let her daughter remain unhappy forever.
And so after a glance at her mother, Anna took to trying again, letting her mother hold up most of her weight.
It made that first step much easier. It was jittery, it was a struggle of a step, but it was made, and Anna worked on that next step just as hard, and another, and another.
In her first try that afternoon, Anna already made quite a few steps—-thanks to her mother’s help.
The Queen’s own steps became shuffles to keep slow enough for her daughter, but she did it nonetheless. As Anna got her sense of balance back, she could help her put more weight on those little feet, strengthen her legs up a little.
"Well done, sweetheart,“ she said, a bright smile on her face. "Very well done. Do you want to keep going?"
The girl stared at her mother as she was brought to sit with the Queen on the rocking chair, and that usually meant that she was either going to scold her or tell a story, so Anna was all ears.
”A trip?” the girl repeated, eyes wide as they usually were when she listened to her Mama, “Going on a trip? Why?”
A hand rested lightly on Anna’s back as Idun thought how best to explain an important wedding invitation.
"Papa and I have been invited to a… a party,“ she began, beginning to rock gently. "It will only be for two weeks, and then we’ll be right back.”
But she knew two weeks could be like an eternity to a small child.
”Well, w-why not?” Anna said, trying again, keeping up her nervous little smile the best she could, “I mean, Papa’s a little… I don’t think he’d like it too much, but if you talked to him, maybe we could work it out… maybe?”
She was certainly old enough now, wasn’t she? Papa was a bit… overprotective, but surely Mama would know how important a ball like that was, wouldn’t she?
"Elsa hasn’t had one yet, for one thing,“ the Queen said, instantly regretting it. Bringing up her elder daughter would probably not help matters in anyway, but it did provide a little explanation. "Besides, they’re not truly that important.”
She could certainly remember her own–grand, but not too much. And it had been the happiest night of her life until she met her husband. But still, she knew he would not be convinced by her. He never had before.
”Thank you, Mama,” came her croaky, and yet very much happy voice.
And sure enough, as soon as her feet touched the ground, she ended up grabbing at her mom’s skirts to support herself. That should have been enough to upset a child, but Anna simply huffed and stuck her tongue out, determined to walk around even with legs that seemed to only be made of jelly.
When Anna fell against her, much as she used to do when first learning to use her legs, Idun stood, and took a pair of little hands in her own. It had worked the first time around, why not try the trick again?
"All right, my little one, I have you,“ she murmured with a smile, holding Anna up. But she had turned her around, so that she was facing the way she wanted to go. "Try again now I’m helping, go on.”
Anna had, at the time, been playing with blocks, and was certainly trying to make it the tallest tower of blocks that she could make it, reaching up to her tippy toes even after she could no longer reach the top. When the Queen came, however, the concentration vanished, and the block in her hands was forgotten.
”Mama, Mama!” she exclaimed, turning around to fall onto her mother’s lap, “Mama, a tower!“ she was pointing to the tower of blocks, the small building already looking like it didn’t seem quite sound, but was standing all the same.
Bringing her little one up onto her lap proper, Idun gave the structure, while rather wobbly looking, an appreciative glance.
"Yes, a magnificent tower,” she replied, before lifting the little mite up into her arms and carrying her over to the rocking chair. She hoped that if there was an adverse reaction, the movement may help soothe the young princess.
"Sweetheart,“ she began, tucking a stray piece of wispy hair before Anna’s ear. "Mama and Papa are going to go on a trip soon. And you and Elsa will stay here.”
”So I was thinking, Mama, that you know, since I’m fifteen and all, that maybe I could be—you know… have a debutante ball… or something?” Her voice which was usually quite loud was quiet with that question, and turned rather mumbly near the end.
A sharp intake of breath. She should have prepared for the question, had they had a normal household, Anna wouldn’t have had to bring it up herself. And yet all these years had passed by without her noticing. Not even Elsa had had such a thing.
"I don’t think that’s advisable, love,“ Idun murmured, hoping her low tone would soften the blow a little. "But you’d have to ask your father.”