"No! Buzz Lightyear can't be beat by Woody! He has lasers! Elsa, they're lasers!" Idun smiled as her children made a general mess of things, Mr. Potato Head pieces over here, Woody over there, and that slinky dog that she never quite understood.
"Okay Anna, I get it, lasers." the elder sister responded with air quotes.
"That's enough girls, mom may not have lasers, but she has another power, THE POWER OF BED TIME! WOOOOOO!" The children shrieked gleefully as Idun chased them around the family room, tickling the sisters, as she took one in each arm. "Oof, you girls are getting big, mommy's not going to be able to carry you for much longer."
"That's okay, daddy can still carry us!" Anna said, burrowing her head into her mother's neck.
"I can walk mom." responded Elsa, squirming for her freedom. Once let down Elsa carefully fixed the wrinkles of her clothes as she strolled to her room.
"Now I wonder where she gets that from?" Idun said with a smile, bringing young Anna to her room and tucking her into bed.
"Mommy, tell me a story!" Demanded Anna from her sheets.
"Alright rosebud, but just one. Long ago when your great great grandpapa lived in Norway he used to cut ice from the mountains. He would bring it down during the summer so that the people of Arendelle could keep their food cold. One year the summer was hotter than usual, so he had to go farther up the mountain than he's ever gone before! It was a long and dangerous trip, and he almost ran out of food just on the way up! He had no idea of how he was going to get back down again."
"But great great grandpapa lived! He has to mommy!"
"Yes rosebud, you see when he got to the top of the mountain he found a palace made of ice and being a brave man he knocked on the door. Legends say that in this castle lives The Ice Queen, and the people of Arendelle say that The Ice Queen has a frozen heart and will eat the heart of any man that comes to see her to steal their warmth!" Anna slid under her covers with that line and curled up next to her mother. "But not to fear Anna, your great great grandpapa didn't come to fight the Ice Queen. He came with respect and greeted the Ice Queen and explained his predicament."
"Perdicamend?"
"Predicament, his problem. He asked the Ice Queen for permission to take some of the ice from near her castle. The Ice Queen, who had spent her entire life fighting heroes who came to fight her, or would be princes that came to win her heart was so moved by this simple man just trying to make a living that she showed him her magic and made him a whole bunch of ice. Not only that, but she told him that he could come back for ice whenever he wanted!"
"The Ice Queen wasn't bad?"
"No one is really bad rosebud Great great grandpapa knew that. He kept coming back to visit the Ice Queen, at first just during the summer, then more and more often. They say in Arendelle that he thawed her frozen heart, and few years later she came down from her castle with him and married him, and they lived happily ever after!"
"Mommy, there isn't any such thing as an Ice Queen!"
"Well just don't tell that to your father, it was his favorite story as a boy." Idun gave her younger daughter a kiss on the forehead and turned out the light before making her way to Elsa's room. Not surprising she found Elsa already changed into her pajamas and laying in her well made bed with her nose in a book.
"Looks like you found your own bed time, huh story princess?" Idun ran her fingers through Elsa's long blonde hair.
"I can read on my own mom, I don't need silly stories to put me to bed." Idun kissed her forehead as well as she left and headed back down to the den where her maid was finishing placing all of the toys into an antique chest near the love seat.
"Oh Gerda, you didn't have to do that, I would have made the children clean up after themselves tomorrow."
"They're children, they play and make messes, why don't we let them while they're still young."
"I think you're going to spoil my children more than I do. Why don't you take off for the night Gerda, it's late. Say hello to Kai for me."
"Of course, I'll see you tomorrow then Mrs. Menzel."
"See you tomorrow Gerda."
Idun made her way down to the basement and poured a glass of her favorite Cru Beaujolais. Back upstairs in the living room the exhausted mother sprawled upon her Rigoletto sofa and started Netflix. Another hour and another glass of wine went by before the door unlocked and Agdar found his way into the living room. Idun greeted him with a smile while he straightened out his clothes and carefully removed his sports jacket and shirt, meticulously folding each item and laying it over the sofa to be collected later. Agdar slid over his wife with a smile, pushing his lips against hers with a longing kiss.
"It's good to be home baby."
"Welcome home, I think the children are already asleep."
"I'll make it up to them over the weekend." Her husband said with a long stare into her eyes and a soft smile. "I always do."
"Somehow..." She agreed, trailing off as his lips brushed against hers before trailing off down her neck.