This is a sequel to my story "The Birth Day". You don't have to read that one to get this (Elsa and Anna have a baby, yay!) but I do think that you'd enjoy reading it. :D
btw: Kari apparently means "a gust of wind" in Norwegian and was suggested by one of my lovely followers on tumblr.
"No grab me the pink one!" Anna said, flapping her hand impatiently.
"What does it matter what colour it is?"
"I can get it!"
"No, Olaf, I'll grab it."
"The pink one is warmer," Anna said. She picked up baby Kari and placed a hand to her skin. She always felt so cold to Anna. She was sure newborns were supposed to be kept warm. She held the sleeping baby close to her.
"She doesn't need warmth, I'm telling you," Elsa said, yet again, even as she went to go get the pink swaddling cloth from the drawer.
"And I'm sure I'll be very comforted by your theories if she catches pneumonia." Anna held out an imperious hand for the cloth and began to wrap Kari tightly. How had the midwife told her to do it? Left side, right side, tuck in bottom? "That isn't right," she muttered. Now Kari looked like a great big ball of cotton candy instead of the adorable little caterpillar that she was supposed to.
"I think the blanket's turned the wrong way," Olaf said.
"Let me try, Love," Elsa said, moving to pick up their daughter.
"No! I can do it!" Anna said, too loudly.
Kari began to wail.
"Oh..." was all Anna could say as snowflakes began to fall on her head again. She felt herself tearing up. Why was being a mother so... hard?
Elsa had told her that all this crying definitely came from her. She remembered baby Anna, she said, and she cried all the time unless Elsa was there to comfort her. And because of the unpredictability of the weather around the baby the nursemaid had quit within eight hours.
"It's okay," Elsa said. But her voice was strained. Neither of them had really slept for the last three days. Anna picked up Kari and rocked her, murmuring in the baby's ear.
"It's not working," Elsa said when the baby cried louder. Soft snow began to turn to tiny pellets of hail.
"I'll rock her!"
"No, Olaf, that isn't a good idea," Elsa said. She reached down to take the baby from Anna. Anna let her take over comforting while she pulled a blanket on her head. How many new mothers needed winter gear to take care of their kids? How had their parents managed Elsa?
Olaf's smile began to fade. "Why don't you go get the shovel?" Anna suggested. The snowman went off to do as asked, but his step wasn't so jaunty. Neither of the new mothers had the time to give it much thought.
"Hi, Guys!"
Elsa lifted her head up just enough to see Olaf poking his head through the door.
"Hi Olaf," she said softly. It was a rare quiet moment. Elsa lay on her side. Kari was on her back next to her, staring wide eyed at her mother's face. She gurgled a bit, waving tiny limbs. Elsa was smiling, making nonsense noises and occasionally tickling the tiny tummy.
Anna was taking a well earned bath and Elsa could hear her splashing and singing to herself from the adjoining bathing room.
"What are you doing?" Olaf asked, waddling over to the bed.
"Playing with Kari."
She poked the babies nose gently. Kari wiggled her legs in response.
Curious how Kari might react, Elsa lifted up a hand. She closed her palm tightly, concentrated for a moment, then opened it. A perfect shower of ice erupted like a firework over their head, melting into the air before it touched them.
Kari's mouth opened in a surprised 'O' and she wiggled her arms, as if wanting to touch the ice, but unsure how her arms worked.
"I think she likes it!" Olaf exclaimed
Elsa smiled even more and did it again.
This time the chubby cheeks dimpled, the corners of the 'O' turning up into an unmistakable smile.
Olaf gasped.
"Anna!" Elsa called. There was the sound of a thunk, then a splash from the bathroom.
"What?!" Anna exclaimed. A second later she had torn into the room, stark naked and dripping wet, eyes zeroing in on her daughter. She turned her eyes to Elsa when she was that Kari was safe.
"She smiled!" Elsa said. Anna hurried over, peering down at the baby, but Kari's face had returned to that of perpetual confusion.
"Here," Elsa said. She conjured another miniature ice-firework. Kari wiggled and gurgled, but she didn't smile.
Elsa tried it again and got the same reaction. "She did smile..." she said, sad that Anna couldn't share in the moment.
"Can I try?" Olaf asked, reaching out for the baby.
"No!" Elsa instinctively reached down to protect Kari from the grabbing snowman. "I mean... sorry, Olaf, but I don't think that's a good idea."
Olaf withdrew his hands slowly.
"I'm sure she'll do it again," Anna assured Elsa, reaching down to poke Kari's belly.
"Marshmallow?" Olaf called. He heard the big snow-monster reply with a roar from the top of the ice palace. Olaf ran up the stairs to where what he thought of as his little brother was waiting. Marshmallow was happily skating around on the smooth icy floor. He stopped when he saw Olaf's downcast face.
"Graw?"
"Kari's doing great!" he assured the big guy. Marshallow nodded. "Really great..."
"Grawwww?"
"Oh well, you know, Elsa and Anna don't have much time, what with the baby. I just thought I'd come keep you company."
The big guy frowned. "Gruff."
"I am happy!" Olaf protested. "I am the happiest snowman in the world!"
"..."
"Well... maybe I'm a little sad."
"Gruff."
"Only a little!"
"..."
"A lot sad. They won't let me help with Kari. And Elsa forgot we were supposed to go sledding this morning. And I thought it was going to great. I was going to take Kari everywhere, and teach her about summer and play with her all the time but Anna keeps saying she's only a baby and she can't do that yet."
"Graw."
Olaf flopped down so he was sitting next to the big guy. Marshmallow, out of appropriately sympathetic growls, sat down too.
"I just want things to go back to they way they were."
They sat in silence for a minute before Marshmallow moved. He reached up and took off his tiara, passing it to Olaf. "Graw?"
Olaf took the crown, placing it on his head. "Thanks buddy."
Kari was crying. Anna had fed her, changed her, rocked her, cooed at her, and she still cried.
"Elsa!" she called, but Elsa didn't answer. Of course, she was off queening or something dumb like that. She couldn't sit there all day and keep Kari amused with her powers all day. But this was impossible – it was one thing dealing with the noise and shared distress of an infant crying, but it was currently sleeting inside the royal bedroom and Anna didn't have ice powers to protect her.
"Olaf?" The snowman was always around, after all, and he would at the very least be able to cheer Anna up. She waited a minute, but there was no response. She got up and poked her head out the door.
"Have you seen Olaf?" she asked a passing servant. The girl shook her head and stepped back from the snow that swirled out of the door. "Go find him," she ordered. "Check the garden."
Ten minutes later, Kari was still crying and Olaf hadn't been found.
"What do you mean he isn't anywhere? I saw him this morning."
"We can't find him, my lady," Kai said. He was the only one brave enough to approach while Anna was holding the baby. He was holding an umbrella over his head.
Now Anna was getting worried. This wasn't like Olaf at all. He was always there. Always.
"I need to talk to Elsa," she decided out loud and began to make her way to the throne room.
"She's in a very important meeting, my lady. If you just wait..." he stopped speaking when Anna glared at him.
Elsa's head slipped off her hand and she jolted back into wakefulness in order to hear the ambassador say "...bales of wheat in exchange for exports of fish."
She nodded, and tried to yawn without opening her mouth or making a sound. She wondered how long she had dropped off for. Last thing she could recall him saying was something about the shared community of their two countries.
She realised they were waiting for her to say something. "That sound very... respectable. However, I'll need to review any arrangements in writing before I can offer any sort of reasonable agreement."
Shit, she had no idea what he was talking about. How did people manage to work and have children?
"Elsa!" A swirl of snow preceded Anna's entrance into the room. Kari was cradled against her, still crying.
"What's wrong?" Elsa leapt to her feet, not even bothering to excuse herself to the ambassador.
"Olaf is missing."
"Olaf?"
"That's what I said. He's missing."
"Did you-"
"Don't you even begin to ask me if I looked for him. Of course I looked for him. Kari's been crying for an hour solid and I had the entire staff comb the castle for him. He. Is. Missing."
Okay. No arguments allowed. Elsa turned to Kai.
"Get my horse."
She didn't know how she knew that Olaf would be there, but she was pretty sure that the ice castle is where he could go. Maybe it was because he was such a part of her, a reflection of her and Anna as children, that made her so certain.
Or maybe it was the perfectly round footprints she started to find halfway up the mountain.
"Olaf?"
"Elsa?" Olaf poked his head through the door at the top of the staircase. He wasn't smiling, and had a tiara on his head.
She sighed with relief. "I was so worried. We thought we'd lost you," she said, running up the step to him. He seemed to shrink a bit when she came closer.
"But..." he said. "Why would you be worried?"
"What do you mean, why would I be worried?"
"You have Kari now. You don't need me."
His words hit her like a ton of ice. "What?" she gasped.
"You don't want me around," he said. It wasn't an accusation. He sounded like he was stating a fact. "You don't love me anymore."
"Of course I love you," she said. She opened her arms but Olaf did not run to claim the warm hug she offered. "You're like a son to me, you know that. And you," she said, looking at Marshmallow. "It's just... well, Kari is new. And she really takes up a lot of our time."
"But why won't you let me help?"
She thought about it. She hadn't thought she had been pushing Olaf aside, but now that she thought about it, there had been a lot of 'No, Olaf' being said in the last few weeks. A lot of "later, Olaf" and "I forgot, Olaf", too. She sagged.
"I'm sorry," she said, and she really meant it. "I didn't mean to be like that."
Olaf moved toward her and carefully gave her a hug. She pulled him in close.
"Will you forgive me?" she asked after a moment.
"Yup!" Olaf said. His smile reappeared like magic. He hopped up and waited while Elsa stood.
"We're still working out this parenting thing," she said, taking his hand. She knew he had forgiven her completely. He was pure as snow, after all, but she wanted to make sure that she could forgive herself, too. "I promise that we'll find ways you can help from now on."
Olaf smiled happily as they went down the steps out onto the mountain. He looked at the pristine snow and turned to look up at Elsa.
"Can we toboggan down the mountain?" he asked.
She smiled and waved a hand. Two sleds made of ice formed, ready for a race down the mountain.