A/N: It's been years since I've written fanfiction, but this was a request from one of my very best friends for his birthday. Happy birthday, Alphonso! I hope you love it!
Challenging Ignorance
It was another warm, beautiful, sunny day in Arendelle and Elsa sighed in contentment as she soaked in the summer sun. The cold may not have bother her, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the heat.
She strolled past the open gates, nodding this way and that in greeting to the various citizens that she passed. Words couldn't express her joy at the smiles that met her rather than the cold looks of distrust that she had once been accustomed to.
After the Fiorde incident six years ago, it took some time for some of the village folks to really trust her - even after Anna's idea to permanently open the gates and form a public ice rink. Despite learning that love thaws, Elsa still had had trouble learning to completely master her gifts. An occasional glacier or snow storm when she was upset seemed to make her people nervous about her ability to keep them all safe from herself.
But, Elsa thought as she spread out her arms and spun, making her away across the bridge, now I finally have a handle on things. I'm in complete control. As if to prove it, she paused her stride and held open her hand. A snowflake - her snowflake - appeared floating in midair above her palm and Elsa smirked to herself.
"Woah!" she heard a child gasp. She beamed at the little redhead girl who reminded her so much of Anna, and she blew the snowflake in her direction. It danced in the air as it travelled and landed on the young girl's outstretched hands. She giggled as it began to melt and she looked up Elsa with a bright smile.
"Kelda!" an older woman with blonde hair called. The little girl, Kelda, curtsied and scampered off back to her mother.
"Bye," Elsa softly called out. She always felt good when she was given the opportunity to just be amongst her people. As queen, she was always busy with one thing or another so she tried to spend her infrequent free days in town so she could interact with as many people as possible. After so many years being locked away from human interaction, it was refreshing and she wanted the people to really know her after that isolation.
The queen continued her stroll, mind focused on a particular shop. She'd had a sudden craving for the cookies that only this particular woman made, and even though she knew she could send servants out for them, she preferred to pick them out herself.
Plus, Elsa grinned to herself. If I get them myself, I won't have to share with Anna.
She had nearly reached Amalia's pastry shop when she heard a child cry out something that sounded like 'stop it' in the nearby distance. I probably heard incorrectly, Elsa thought. Perhaps they said 'got it' or something similar. So she took another couple steps before she heard it again, clear as day.
"Stop it, you guys!"
Without a second thought, Elsa changed direction and quickly went in the direction of the commotion. As she got closer to the source, she saw that it was a group of children playing with something. She breathed a sigh of relief that she had must not have understood the cry out of context, but as she turned to return to her original course, she caught sight of the reality of the situation.
A group of six to seven children were standing in a circle, pushing another child around from person to person. They were shouting "Anton is a girly boy! Anton is a girly boy!"
Elsa didn't understand what they meant by 'girly boy', but she didn't support bullying in any form for any reason. She could feel her blood boiling at the obvious mistreatment of another human being, especially when Anton's foot caught on something mid-shove and he fell to the hard ground. Her fists clenched. She wanted to do something, but what? Her attention was caught by the frozen fractals flurrying around her head and she smirked.
She concealed herself behind a nearby store and formed three snowballs. They spun in a neverending loop as Elsa formed a fourth one and aimed. Her tongue peaked out from between her lips and her eyes squinted in concentration. She pulled her arm back and threw as hard as she could - which was admittedly not very hard.
Nevertheless, her throw was spot-on and it hit one of the larger boys on the back of the head. Elsa had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing and giving away her position at the dumbstruck look on the boy's face. He couldn't seem to figure out who had attacked him. And as he felt the back of his head and looked at the remnants of the now melted snowball on his hand, he also couldn't seem to figure out how it had existed in the first place.
His confusion didn't stop him from turning back around towards Anton and yelling something nasty. Quickly and swiftly, Elsa let the other three snowballs fly and silently cheered as they all hit their targets. She made a few more and hurled them at the children who thought bullying was fun.
They were really freaking out now and she decided to finally approach them. She stepped out from behind the building and calmly walked over, a few freshly-made, circling snowballs following close behind.
A few of the children spotted her approaching and they quickly ran up to her, about to inform her of how they had been attacked, when they saw the snowballs circling behind her.
"It doesn't feel nice when someone makes you feel scared, does it?" she asked softly.
A couple of the smaller children looked guilty and bowed their heads, but the older and bigger ones looked confused.
"I saw what you were doing to that poor boy," she explained, gesturing towards the small child still lying on the ground hiding his face. "He looked scared to death."
The biggest boy (her first target) shook his head and replied, "Oh no. Queen Elsa, you don't understand. He - "
She held up her hand. "I don't need to understand anything. You need to understand that your actions have consequences. What you did was wrong and I won't tolerate bullying of any sort in Arendelle."
Some of the children began to protest, offended that she had accused them of being bullies. Elsa merely raised an eyebrow and kept her stony expression, and they quickly quieted down.
She gestured to a nearby shopkeeper who had been curiously watching the interaction between her and the children. He was a tall, thick man with short brown hair and glasses. He hurried over and quickly bowed to his queen.
"My good sir," Elsa said. "What is your name?"
"Alfonse, your Majesty," he answered, eyes darting from the woman in front of him to the group of children to his left.
"Alfonse," she said. "Do you know these children and their parents?"
He nodded. "Yes, your Majesty."
"Excellent," she smiled, clasping her hands together. "Could you please escort them home and inform their parents that they are to come to the castle tomorrow morning? They have been summoned by the queen to answer for their children's misbehavior."
Some of the children visibly blanched at the idea of what their parents would do after hearing about today. But neither Alfonse nor Elsa paid them any mind.
"Certainly, my queen," he answered. And after a quick thanks and dismissal from the queen, he herded the children toward the center of the bustling town where their parents would surely be found. She watched them leave then turned back to the child who was surprisingly still lying on the ground in a heap. Elsa allowed the snowballs to melt and slowly approached the small child who couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old.
Now that she was no longer distracted by the other children, Elsa finally got a good look at the boy they called Anton. He was thin, but not frail from what she could see. He had dark brown hair that was a little longer than most boys his age, just shy of his shoulders, but that wasn't the strangest thing. She took in his outfit and saw that he was wearing a dark blue girls' dress with white frills, as well as tanned boys' boots. Elsa shook her head. Those bullies must have forced the dress on him before they started shoving him around.
Just as the thought left her mind, the young boy lifted his head and looked up at her. Elsa gasped when his warm brown eyes met her cool blue ones. Despite the difference in appearance, she saw herself in his eyes and in the expression of shame and fear written plainly on his face. It was everything she used to see in the mirror growing up.
Her heart ached for both the child she used to be and the one before her. Elsa searched her brain for something to say to make this better, but nothing seemed appropriate.
Suddenly, she smiled as it hit her. She knelt down next to the boy and held out her hand. "Do you wanna build a snowman?"
At first, he looked at her as though she was the strangest thing he'd ever seen in his life, but Elsa figured she couldn't blame him. How often did one's queen randomly turn up at the site of bullying, attack the bullies with snowballs, and then ask the victim if they wanted to build a snowman? Not often, she'd wager.
But Elsa could only think of those years she had spent in solitude and how she had longed to answer her sister's pleas to play with her, to build a snowman.
Anton considered her proposal for a few moments more before nodding. "Okay."
He took Elsa's outstretched hand and she began to lead him back the way she came, to the safety and privacy the gates of the castle could provide. It would also be easier to play with snow in an environment that already had its own personal flurry to keep the ice from melting.
She took another look at his clothes and asked, "Would you like to go home first? Perhaps change out of that dress and into something more comfortable?"
He looked at her, obviously confused. "This is my dress. I like wearing it."
Elsa tried not to let her surprise show on her face. That wasn't the answer she had been expecting at all. Nonetheless, she nodded, her genuine smile never fading. "Alright. We keep the dress."
Mentally, she shrugged to herself. She'd always thought dresses were more comfortable than pants. Why couldn't he?
The pair silently made their way back towards the gates, Anton quietly humming some tune as he swung Elsa's hand with each step. The queen felt her heart swell at the innocence of the child she'd saved from bullies, but that feeling didn't last long once she took notice of the faces of the people they passed.
First, they would smile at Elsa with a respectful nod, but once they saw Anton, their faces darkened with some sort of disgust. Then their expressions would suddenly switch to confusion when they realized he was walking hand-in-hand with the queen.
Perhaps I haven't saved him from the bullies, Elsa thought as she returned every hateful look with a dark one of her own. She surprised herself with the sudden protectiveness she had over this small child and made a note to herself to find some way to further defend Anton from the repulsive attitudes other people seemed to have towards him.
For now, she was determined to just make his day a lot better. So when they crossed the bridge and passed the gates, Elsa picked a more isolated corner for them to play in. She waved her hand and snow covered the ground. With a snap of her fingers, snowflakes began to drift down.
"So, Anton," Elsa said, with a grin. "should we build a snowboy that looks like you?"
The young child (who had been looking at the falling snow with bright eyes) now looked at her with with annoyance. "I'm not a boy. And my name is Antonia."
Elsa faltered. Hadn't those children been saying 'Anton's a girly boy'? Perhaps she had been mistaken. Perhaps she had misheard. Perhaps -
"Well, I guess I'm supposed to be a boy," Anton (no, Antonia) continued, giving Elsa a more understanding smile. "My mommy says that when she had me, she thought I was a boy. So she named me Anton. But I've never felt like a boy and when I told her, she started calling me Antonia and made me some new clothes."
Antonia shrugged and trudged out to the snowpile, sticking out her tongue to catch a nearby snowflake. Without waiting for Elsa, she began to mold the snow to start making her snowperson.
At first, Elsa was completely flabbergasted. She'd never heard of such a thing before and her initial instinct was to back up and deny it all. But immediately, the image of her parents pulling away from her and the look of fear in their eyes came to her and she knew she couldn't do that. No child deserves to have their identity erased. No matter what.
So despite not really understanding, Elsa stood next to Antonia and caught the little girl's gaze. "Then how about we make a snowgirl? One that looks just like you?"
The little girl giggled and playfully nudged the queen beside her. "Noooo. I'm not pretty enough. She should look like you." She tilted her head forward and let her hair fall in front of her face.
Elsa brushed Antonia's hair back behind her ears and softly said, "You're beautiful and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Our snowgirl should look like you."
Antonia blushed, but nodded. "Okay."
"Okay," Elsa nodded.
They worked in a companionable silence as molding the snow and only spoke when they were determining whether to make a dress or a skirt. When they moved up to form the torso, Elsa finally spoke.
"By the way, I'm sorry for calling you by the wrong name, Antonia. I didn't understand."
The other girl shrugged. "It's okay. Nobody really gets it. That's why they all make fun of me."
The queen felt her anger rise again at the memory of the other children pushing and teasing the little girl next to her. "You know that doesn't mean what they did was right, don't you?"
"I guess," Antonia murmured.
Elsa kneeled and brought herself down to the little girl's level. As soon as brown eyes met blue, she said, "You're special, Antonia. You're not like everyone else and that's okay. It's more than okay. Even your name means 'priceless'."
"Really?" Antonia asked, her question laced with hope.
Elsa beamed. "Really." She cupped the child's cheek and said. "You know who you are, and that's more than what most people can say. Sometimes, when people are faced with something they can't understand, they react with fear and they'll try to squash it out of you. Don't let them, Antonia. Embrace what makes you special. You don't need anyone's permission."
"Thank you, Queen Elsa," Antonia whispered.
Elsa wiped away a tear that had escaped from the young girl's right eye, completely ignoring the ones streaming down her own face. "No. Thank you, Antonia. I never knew there were people in this world like you."
Antonia nodded and quickly turned back to their snowgirl, and Elsa wiped away the tears that were drying on her face. As she helped Antonia form the top part of the dress, she changed the subject.
"So, what's your favorite color, Antonia?"
"Probably blue," was the answer. "I know it's a boy color, but I like it 'cos it's the color of the sky."
Elsa shook her head. "That's my favorite color, too. It isn't just for boys."
And as the day progressed, the two learned more about each other and found that they had a lot more in common than just being different. They both loved chocolate chip cookies, their favorite color was blue, they had sisters, and they both loved to draw. And when the time came for Antonia to go home, Elsa was surprised when the little girl called back to her,
"Goodbye, Elsa! I'll come back tomorrow so we can draw!"
Elsa didn't know what she was supposed to be doing the next day (other than speaking to the parents of the bullies she'd sent home earlier that day), but she knew that she'd change her schedule just so she could play with that wonderful little girl.
She had set out that morning to find some cookies and had instead made a new friend and learned about a different sort of person. Elsa had never met someone like Antonia before and, to be honest, she still didn't quite understand the young girl's identity. She knew that she didn't have to understand the little girl to her for who she was. All that mattered was that Antonia knew who she was.
But Elsa knew better than anybody what it was like to be different and what it felt like to not have anyone understand you. So when Antonia had finally disappeared into the distance, Elsa made her way to the castle library. She didn't know if people like Antonia had ever been written about in books, but she was about to find out.