REVIEWS ARE LIKE CANDY. SWEET EGO BOOSTING CANDY. :D
Erik sat in the room they provided him. He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Olaf had come running back very quickly and ushered him off to his room. He really had no idea how he was going to train a little girl like that, one much younger than he was expecting. He was even starting to wonder if Charles had somehow manipulated him into volunteering when it became clear that Charles's telepathy was too much for the aging diplomat to handle. Thinking back, he knew that wasn't the case.
it's very important to.. my government..
That was the line that caught his attention and alarmed him to his soul that another mutant might be held against her will because someone in power wanted to abuse the gifts of a young child. He still wasn't sure what to make of the situation. This was obviously no Auschwitz, but a gilded cage was still a cage, and there had been no mention of her parents. He wanted to be sure before he did anything, but what to do in the meantime. Thoughts of Schmidt, or Shaw, or whatever the monster named himself lately, being so much closer here, was a distraction he could scarcely afford. The other mutants were training, and even the Soviet political machine took months to accomplish anything. Even Shaw's particular kind of motivation could speed it up only so much.
Even though he'd met Elsa, he still needed to be sure that she wasn't in any danger, and at least try to do what he said he would do, only now he was even less sure how to do it. How do you talk to a 9 year old girl, let alone train her? It wasn't until he accidentally brought up the unpleasant circumstances how he had been trained that he realized he didn't know what he was doing. Well, thinking about how a baby learns fine motor control was a good start. Pick a target and focus. He looked at the elaborate metal utensils on the tray they had used to bring him his breakfast. He had an idea how to start.
A knock on the door, followed by Olaf announcing himself as he entered prompted Erik to stand quickly, sliding the utensils in his pocket.
"Are you ready?" the old diplomat asked.
"Of course." He smiled in a way that anyone who knew him wouldn't trust. "I'm here to help."
{In Elsa's Room}
Olaf sat in a chair near the fire. He made it clear that he didn't intend to leave them alone, making it impossible for Erik to ask what he really wanted to know, and Elsa could pick up on the tension in the room.
"If you fear your powers, they will always control you."
"But how can I not be afraid?" She pleaded.
"Have you always been afraid?" Erik tried sitting on the floor with his back to Olaf.
"uh-uh" She shook her head no.
"Think back, Elsa. I know something happened. Something bad."
Elsa started breathing faster, more shallow, her emotional state deteriorating rapidly and the frost spreading from her feet growing faster. Just as Olaf was about to intervene, Erik spoke up.
"No, no, no. No, no, no. Shhhh... Shhhhh..." He reached out one hand to stroke her shoulder very gently. "Don't think about the bad thing. Think about before. You had powers, and you used them but no one was hurt, so you were not afraid. What did you do? How did you use them? How did you feel? Close your eyes and think about it."
Elsa closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed as she thought back and remembered. She always loved her sister calling them "tickle bumps". The indoor snow fall was the best release of her powers fueled by pure simple joy. Always in her thoughts was her sister's laughter. The frost around them both started to recede.
"Keep your eyes closed, and try to do it again. What did you do?"
Elsa started swirling her hands around forming the glowing snowball, her mind playing through the scene of love and fun. The memory played through and she felt herself slipping on the ice again, her sister hanging in the air, much too high to land safely without snow under her. Elsa's face scrunched up to an expression of pain and fear, her eyes still closed.
Olaf noticed this, leaning forward in his chair, "Elsa!"
Her eyes opened, and she threw the growing snowball forward. It hit the fireplace next to Olaf, filling it with snow and instantly smothering the fire. Both men couldn't help but jump at such a display of power and instant change in temperature.
"Elsa!" Olaf said again, his voice full of concern, but to a child, also full of rebuke.
She got up from next to Erik and ran to the other side of her bed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Erik first turned and held his hand up, "Olaf, please."
Then he turned to Elsa, "You did fine, Elsa. Really, I understand."
Looking over his shoulder with an accusatory glance he added, "You were distracted."
Olaf scowled at Erik but said nothing.
"Please, Elsa. You were doing really good. Can you come out and try again? Please?"
"No! I'll hurt you! Please just go away."
Olaf sighed and stood to leave, so accustomed to following orders.
"We shall try again later, Erik."
Erik made no motion to get up off the floor. "And leave her like this? You go. I will stay."
Olaf was affronted, "She requested us to leave, and we shall leave. We shall not stay here and make her obey like an animal."
Erik did stand then, and as he was about to respond heatedly, he looked over at Elsa, her back to them, curled up next to the bed. "Elsa, I will be waiting right outside by the door when you are ready. I want to help you Elsa, I do, but to do that we have to keep trying."
Erik moved out of the room like the headwind of storm. Olaf gently followed, closing the door with almost no sound. Erik stood by the door, and to his disappointment, Olaf stood across from him in the hall.
After a few minutes, Erik asked him, "don't you have anything else to be doing?"
"That girl is my first priority right now." Somehow Erik wasn't reassured.
Elsa shivered in her room, fearful of the fact that she almost struck Olaf too. In her mind, control meant to lock it up so it couldn't hurt anyone, not actually using her powers. While she wouldn't have thought of it in these terms, what she really wanted was to be normal, like everyone else. She thought about how close she came to hurting Olaf, and she thought about Erik's words. He really did seem to want to help.
Slowly she shuffled across the room and quietly opened the door.
"Okay, I think I'm ready to try again."
"Excellent" Olaf moved to re-enter the room.
"No" Elsa said sharply, holding up her hand to stop him, then hugging her hand to her like she'd done something wrong. "No. Just - just Erik."
"Elsa" Olaf's voice was full of hurt. It had never occurred to him that Elsa herself would get the idea in her head to be alone with Erik. He couldn't think of how to tell her without bluntly stating in front of Erik that they didn't fully trust him enough to be alone with her.
"Please Olaf, I don't want to hurt you. I need to learn how to control this."
Erik's smile was painfully close to smug without really showing it. "And you will." He entered Elsa's room, closing the door behind him.
Olaf spoke through the door, "I'll be right here, Elsa."
Sitting back on the floor, Erik said, "Let's try again, but this time keep your eyes open, focused on what you are doing, okay?" Elsa nodded. Erik continued, "you moved your hands like this?" He swirled his hands around each other. "And the most beautiful thing started to grow. It was glowing."
Elsa knew that's what happened but to hear someone describe it with awe, and not be her sister, made her feel warm inside.
"Okay" She said, and started to do it again. Her whole focus was on her hands, the small super compact ball of snow, shimmering with power, growing ever larger until it was finally ready to burst apart at the seams. She threw it up in the air, and then realized just how small her room was as it hit the much lower ceiling and a dense shower of snow blanketed her room, matching the fireplace.
Erik was covered in snow, and unlike Elsa, was probably very cold from it. "I'm sorry" she started again, her anxiety building, "I didn't realize how much smaller this room is, I'm so sorry." She stopped to hear the sound bubbling out of him.
Soon his chuckling became a full body laugh. "Elsa, this is amazing!" He said, throwing snow around trying to get it off his back, legs and head, "Truly, you are an amazing little girl."
Her anxiety melted and she started chuckling, and then laughing herself. After a while her laughter calmed to a smile, and then she looked around her room. Her smiled disappeared. "But I made another mess again. Everything will get wet and need to be washed and dried." Her words took on the worn out frustration of someone accustomed to unpleasant necessities.
Erik looked around and had a thought. He got up and opened the door, "Olaf, we need tools for the fireplace, more wood, and a large kettle."
"A kettle? But there is no crane in her fireplace." Olaf protested.
"Then bring one."
"And who will install it?"
Erik's look could best be summed up as very similar to one that Sven gave at the end of Frozen when dense Kristoff insisted that Anna was with her "true love".
"Just bring it, and I will take care of it." He closed the door.
Olaf stood blankly for a minute. This was even worse. Leaving would mean not even being about listen at the door, and they would be truly alone together. Well, it wouldn't be for very long, he reasoned, and started at a brisk walk to get Kai to help.
Inside the room, Erik smirked at how easy it was to get the old man away from the door, but really he did need those things. He turned back to Elsa. "Let me show you something." He took out the utensils he had been hiding in his pocket. He seemed to press them like they were made of playdough and formed them around his hands like gloves. Then used his powers to float them off his hands and used them to scoop up a small pile of snow. He pressed it into a ball himself, and then smiling, gently used the metal gloves to throw the snowball at Elsa.
Elsa had been so enchanted by the floating metal hands that she didn't even realize what they were doing until she got a face full of her own snow. "Pah!" She wiped her face off with both hands, and looked at Erik, smiling with mischief. She smiled back and started gathering up snow herself, even as his "hands" were starting on another snowball.
After a few minutes of snowball throwing, Erik realized his chance to talk unobserved was slipping away.
"Elsa?" He asked as she was forming her next snowball.
"Hmm?" She didn't even look up.
"Are you happy here?" She stopped, but didn't look up. "I mean do you feel safe? Do they treat you well?"
She dropped the snowball and answered without looking up. "Why are you asking that?"
"I'm worried about you. They never let you leave this room. I'm worried because when I was a child someone hurt me and I don't want to see you hurt."
"They aren't hurting me. I hurt them." She was starting to shake. "You don't know what it's like!" She gestured with her hand to the fireplace and ice spikes shot out of the stone. Seeing this, she stopped talking and hid behind the bed again.
"Elsa" Erik stood up and started to break off icicles, first with his hands, and as they grew too cold, with his powers manipulating the metal hands. "It's not your fault. You are still growing, and your powers are too. Really liebschen, it's not your fault." He looked around the room. The warmth left in the room from before the fire went out and the warmth circulating under the door was turning part of the snow into slush.
"Can you help me clean up?"
"I'll only make it worse." She said, her face in her arms.
"If you make it freeze again, it will take longer to melt, and we can clean it up before there is a big wet mess." He reasoned gently.
She thought about it a moment, then said "I'll just make more snow on top of that!"
"Can you try? I just want you to try." Erik said over his shoulder, continuing to break off icicles and setting them in a pile by the fireplace. They looked a stack of clear wood waiting to be burned. Elsa saw this and smiled.
"Alright." She started with touching the floor and sending a layer of frost under the snow around the fireplace and refreezing it as it touched.
"Hmm." Erik looked at this like a teacher grading your homework. "It works, but I was wondering if you could refreeze just the snow." He pointed to some wet snow by the door to her room, "Over there. without freezing the floor."
She got up and went over by the door. She swirled her hands around twice and then pointed at the snow. More appeared on top, but it was clearly visible that the snow underneath had refrozen and stopped melting. "How's that?" She asked, hoping she had improved.
"Better." He said approvingly. Olaf knocked and then opened the door, followed by Kai, carrying the things Erik requested.
"Ah, Danke." Erik used his powers to grab all the metal: fireplace crane, cast iron kettle, and tools. He drove the ends of the support pole into floor and wall inside the fireplace. He set the large kettle hanging from the crane arm, and used the fireplace shovel to start digging snow out of the fireplace and into the kettle. As soon as enough was cleared, a fire was started to dry the wood, and the snow melted very quickly. The rest of the afternoon was spent shoveling snow into the kettle to be boiled off. Erik had Elsa practice refreezing snow that wasn't in the fireplace. Several times she made more, but each time was less and less until she was able to restore her snow to a frozen state by waving her hand over it. After the third time of not making more snow, she looked at her hands and smiled. She could do this. She could learn control, and Erik would help her. She smiled at him. Everything was going to be better now.
{{{Author's Note}}}
As I was writing this and wondering how Erik would handle a 9 yr old, I thought back to what I knew of the Holocaust. My mother had a strong interest in it when I was growing up. Despite having dyslexia, she got a degree in teaching and wrote more than one paper on the subject. I would read to her when the reading hurt her eyes too much. Families were kept apart a lot, and I imagine Erik being kept with other children, at least for a while, and I would like to imagine him having the temperament to try to help those younger than him to cope, probably as a way of coping himself. When we grow up, we don't always consciously remember why we know how to do certain things, we just do them, and so helping Elsa as her own powers kept frightening her would start to come naturally to him pretty quickly.