A/N: Thanks to everyone who's followed/favorited and/or is reading but not reviewing.:)

theblindwriter95-I think so, too.:) Little Elsa is really cute, even when she's being naughty.:P

Olivia O'Neil-Agdar doesn't hate her, but he's scared of her and doesn't like her magic at all.:/ I figured since Elsa's getting older, she would probably get into things and cause trouble (like breaking the vase). I mean, she's just a little kid, so I think she would have done things like that whether she's well-mannered as a child or not.:) I have nothing to say to defend Agdar, as I don't like him either.:/

IndyGirl89-Now that you say that, you're probably right...Oh well. I hadn't thought of that.:/

Elsa Tomago-Agdar is just being really unfair to Elsa. Don't worry, they are not going to give little Elsa away (obviously, since this is supposed to satisfy canon!) :)

BellaCullen931-Thank you:) I like writing little Elsa being mischievous, but it also kind of makes me upset, since she shoves that bit of her away when she's older...:/ After all, she was only EIGHT when the accident happened...

Mandy-Thank you:) Idun is simply nervous around little Elsa, and she does want a 'normal' child, but she does genuinely care about Elsa, too. (ie., I think if she had been the only one deciding what to do with Elsa after the accident, she would probably have separated the girls but still let them talk to one another or something, and she wouldn't have forced Elsa to stay in her room constantly.:/) Agdar does have a conscience; it's just still not nearly enough for him to treat Elsa properly. That's why he randomly decided he did want to keep Elsa. I have no idea how long this story will end up being, but it'll end around or right after Anna is born. Elsa is 19 months old at the end of this chapter, so...yeah. I don't know how long it'll be.:P

Dragonheart35-Um...I have nothing to say. I guess that was a pretty mean hint to what happens in the future, but...yeah.:/ :P

On to the story! (I am so sorry for the insanely ridiculously late update...:P)

"Christhmath!" little Elsa exclaimed happily. She had been hearing so much about this special day that she was very excited even though she had no idea what it was…she couldn't really remember her actual first Christmas from the year before. Her blue eyes immediately focused on all the shiny packages under the tree when her mother carried her into the library. "Prethenths?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, Elsa, presents," Idun told Elsa, being extra careful of the little girl's arm even though Dr. Raske had said she was perfectly fine now. Elsa still favored the arm she'd broken, but it didn't seem to hurt her and she was able to move it easily.

A few minutes later, the adults discovered that little Elsa was far more interested in playing with the wrapping paper than the things inside her gifts. Elsa would take a long, long time to open each present, carefully tearing the paper off; then discard whatever was inside and just happily scrunch up the paper…or drape it over her head, which she seemed to think was hilarious. She scooted closer to her father and hesitantly tugged on his pants leg. "Papa hat?" she asked hopefully, holding out a large piece of wrapping paper.

"No, Elsa, I do not want a paper hat," Agdar told her firmly.

Elsa's shoulders slumped at that, and her blue eyes began welling with tears. "Bad El-tha?"

"No, Elsa, you are not being bad," Agdar said, debating whether or not he should pick the little girl up. Elsa's hand felt cold to him, and part of him was quite honestly slightly scared Elsa would cause more trouble with her magic, like when she'd stuck her hands to that chair. Elsa might look cute and innocent, but she wasn't going to stay a toddler forever. She would grow up and she could be dangerous.

Idun quickly picked Elsa up and just held her close. "Agdar, you're making her upset. What is with you? She wasn't even doing anything…strange. Playing with wrapping paper isn't going to hurt her or anyone else." She turned her attention to Elsa and just gave the toddler a smile. "Let's fix that headband, you silly girl," Idun said quietly.

Elsa just tilted her head to one side, not understanding why her headband needed fixing. So what if it was a bit askew over one ear and her hair was all rumpled? She tried to smooth her bangs herself and then was confused when her mother began trying not to laugh. Elsa looked down at her hands and v-e-r-y carefully made a pretty icy snowflake; then stuck it in her hair. "El-tha pretty," she said proudly.

"Idun, take that thing out of that girl's hair right now," Agdar ordered, noticing what Elsa had done. And Elsa looks…pleased about it. That's…not good. He took Elsa from Idun and took the snowflake out of Elsa's hair. "Bad Elsa! You know better than that!"

Elsa stubbornly clenched her little hands into fists when she felt her daddy trying to put mittens on her. "No, no, no! Icky!" she protested. "Hate th-th-dose!"

Idun simply grabbed Elsa back, making sure not to drop her again. "You're hurting my baby," she spat angrily, clutching the crying child tightly. She could feel that Elsa was downright freezing to hold, but she didn't put her down. Not this time. Deep inside she knew that Elsa hadn't done anything wrong, and she refused to let the little girl be punished for absolutely nothing. "Elsa. Elsa, look. More wrapping paper," Idun said, offering Elsa more of the shiny paper in an effort to distract her and calm her down.

Elsa kept her face hidden in her mother's dress, but she hesitantly peeked at what her mother was showing her; then stuck one hand out and grabbed the paper, scrunching it in her fist.

"Gerda, please take Elsa back to the nursery," Idun called, and handed the little girl to Gerda the second Gerda was close enough to do so. Elsa will be happier in there with Gerda, and I need to talk to Agdar.

Once Gerda was gone, Idun turned her attention back to her husband. "Agdar, please don't scare little Elsa like that again. You know she's been much better recently…talking more and acting more confident. She'll go right back the way she was if we hurt her," she said carefully.

"She was putting ice in her hair, Idun. That's not normal! You know we can't let her do things like that," Agdar told her.

"Well, Elsa isn't normal. And she's way too little to be told she's inherently bad just because she's being herself. She won't understand we just don't like her…her strange abilities; she'll think we don't like her. We have to come up with something else," Idun replied. "Elsa is a sweet little girl, just like Gerda has said so many times. She's just…just messed up, too. She doesn't mean to cause trouble."

Agdar frowned. "For argument's sake, let's just say we let Elsa 'be herself'. What's going to happen when someone sees what she can do? She could get labeled a freak or a witch or worse. She could never be queen, let alone be accepted into normal society. We could end up with a rebellion or something for harboring sorcery in the royal castle. The whole thing is just trouble waiting to happen. I still say we try for another child and hope it ends up normal. If the new baby ends up like Elsa, we'll just send him or her to Corona with your sister before the baby realizes its real parents gave him or her away, before anyone finds out there's another baby at all. Your sister didn't seem to care about Elsa being like she is."

Idun hesitated, mulling over Agdar's newest idea. Primrose didn't mind Elsa at all…she even offered to adopt Elsa should Agdar decide he didn't want her anymore… "What would happen to Elsa if the new baby was normal?" she asked finally. "I don't want her to think we just had another baby because she wasn't good enough herself."

"She's not."

Idun's gray-blue eyes began filling with tears. She remembered how tiny…and just downright cute…Elsa had been as a newborn and the way she hadn't breathed properly in her sleep for the first few months. She remembered the very first time she had heard Elsa say a word. "That's not true. Elsa is plenty 'good enough'! I don't care if she still hasn't started walking and she's abnormal and looks different or anything else! She's ours. If she can't be queen, then fine. I think Elsa's still young enough she wouldn't really mind not being the crown princess. But…but I want to make sure she's going to be all right!"

"She couldn't be pushed out of line as crown princess unless the new baby was a boy," Agdar mused thoughtfully.

"It would be nice to have a normal little girl, though, along with Elsa," Idun replied, warming up a bit to the idea. As much as she hated to admit it, Idun knew she would like to have a normal child very much. She wanted Elsa safe; she did care about the little ice mage; but Elsa just wasn't the child she'd dreamed of having. What right do I have to get mad at Agdar for saying the things he does about Elsa? I don't want to admit it, but evidently I don't think Elsa is 'good enough' either since I still want a normal baby… And what would poor Elsa think if she found out her own parents didn't really want her? It's not her fault she's like she is.

Back in the nursery, Gerda just held Elsa close until she was completely calm again. "Do you want a snack?" Gerda asked.

Little Elsa shook her head and stuck her scrunched up wrapping paper in her mouth. She wasn't hungry; she just wanted to chew on the paper.

Gerda frowned. "Princess Elsa, that's nasty. Let's not chew up the paper. Can you go put it in the trash can?" She was hoping the little girl would try to walk over to the trash can in the corner, but she just half-crawled, half-scooted instead.

"Book?" Elsa said hopefully once she had thrown the paper away, wanting Gerda to read to her. She happily sat on Gerda's lap when she received a 'yes' to her request.

"Yes, I'll read to you," Gerda told Elsa, holding the little princess close. "What sort of story would you like?"

"'Th…tory?" Elsa asked. Gerda did sometimes tell her stories, but that wasn't what she wanted right now. She wanted Gerda to read a book to her. "No, book! No 'tory. Book," she tried her best to clarify what she wanted. Elsa spotted the book she wanted on the end table and reached for it.

"The penguin book?" Gerda asked, wanting to clarify that that was indeed what Elsa wanted.

Elsa nodded and happily scooted closer to Gerda to hear the book.

In late January, Elsa finally took her first steps, much to the adults' delight. Ironically she did that outside in the snow. Elsa's little toddler legs were somehow less clumsy under her in the snow; she barely even left footprints in the deep snow, just little indentation that were nearly invisible. And when her mother turned her back, little Elsa wiggled out of her coat and boots and flumped herself into the snow. She loved the cold…it felt like it was part of her, although she didn't know how to explain that to herself at all.

Idun was horrified when she saw what Elsa was doing. The little girl had practically buried herself in the snow and was happily rolling around in it. She was absolutely covered with it. And she didn't even look cold, although her cheeks were slightly pink. The other odd thing was that the snow in direct contact with Elsa's skin and hair wasn't melting or sticking to her, really. Elsa's face and hair were glistening with tiny snowflakes, and her blue eyes were sparkling with mischief. It was like she had really, truly come alive in the snow. Idun had no idea what to say.

Elsa gave her mother a lopsided smile as she made a snowball-with her magic, not the natural snow-and threw it at her mother. "Mama p…play!" she announced, rather pleased with herself. She scrambled to her feet and took a few steps before tripping and falling right on her backside. A second later she was back on her feet. "Mama play," she said again, although less happy this time. Was her mother mad at her?

Idun scooped the child up and held her. "Let's go inside," she said. Watching Elsa play in the snow sans coat or even shoes was disturbing to her, even though she knew it wasn't going to hurt Elsa in any way.

"No!" Elsa cried. She did not want to go back inside, not for ages and ages. When her mother began carrying her back towards the castle, the little girl began struggling to get down. She kicked and wiggled and finally dropped snow down the back of her mother's dress, which made Idun yelp and drop Elsa. This didn't hurt since there was plenty of soft snow on the ground, though.

"Bad girl, Elsa!" Idun scolded. "Don't do that!"

Elsa spotted her father coming outside and began burrowing into the snow to get away. If the grownups didn't like the snow, then they wouldn't follow her, right? She stayed curled up in her snow hole, her thumb firmly stuck in her mouth. Besides, the snow was oddly comforting to her, like a soft blanket.

"Agdar, Elsa just took her first steps a few minutes ago!" Idun said immediately, not wanting to get Agdar mad at her little girl. While Idun wasn't happy with Elsa dropping snow down her dress and playing in the snow sans coat and shoes, she still didn't want Agdar interfering in any way. So she quickly reached into the snowy hole little Elsa had made and set her back on her feet. "Show your daddy how you can walk," she told Elsa.

Elsa gazed up at her mother, thinking carefully before obeying. She slowly toddled over to her father and hugged his leg. "El…Eltha good girl?" she asked hopefully.

Agdar hesitated before just scooping the little girl up and carrying her back inside before she could protest. "You are a very good girl for walking finally. It's about time. You are a very bad girl for playing in the snow barefoot, you crazy thing."

Elsa didn't understand why that was bad, so she said nothing. She still didn't want to go inside, but her daddy didn't seem particularly angry with her, just annoyed, so she stayed still and didn't start wiggling. But she did not relax; her big blue eyes gazed intently at her daddy, hoping he wouldn't start getting all angry at her again.

A/N: Next chapter coming soon, although I'm focusing more on Take Charge for now, so updates probably won't be as consistent.:)