There's another time jump just fyi guys
Chapter 11
"Nik, Alyssa wants you." I mumbled, half asleep.
"She's three weeks old. She can't tell you who she wants specifically." He mumbled back. I pushed his leg with my foot and he sighed. Pulling himself out of bed, I let myself drift back to sleep. The serenity didn't last long when my baby woke me up with her crying a few hours later. I let Nikolai sleep and crawled out from under the covers, picking the little crying child up from her bassinet. Her screeching stopped instantly and she gummed on the sleeve of my nightdress.
"You know, for such a little human, you make a lot of noise." I pulled down the front of the dress to let Alyssa feed before she started to scream again. I sat down in the rocking chair beside her bassinet. Before long, I was falling asleep myself and little Alyssa was long finished her feed and gone back to sleep in my arms.
I remember the day she was born when Tara handed her to me, I looked at her and saw the start of a beautiful head of brown hair she got from her father. I started crying when I saw it. Her eyes of course were the usual blue of a newborn baby, and they haven't changed much since. They've grown bluer if anything. My eyes, her father's hair, and skin you wouldn't know who she inherited from. If you looked at her, Nikolai and myself, you would question she was ours. The hair wasn't a help. Nikolai sported the trademark red hair of the Isles' royal family and I was blonde, though my parents always speculated that was from the powers I was born with. Without them, I always thought I would have my mother's brown locks.
Figuring she wouldn't wake up again until dawn, I carefully placed Alyssa back in her bassinet and crawled back into bed beside Nikolai. The air was growing colder every day as the winter air seeped back into Arendelle and chased away the glowing autumn feeling. Fortunately, it was still warm enough that I could get back to sleep.
"Elsa, Alyssa is awake." I groaned.
"You get her." Nik didn't move. I opened my eyes to attend to my screaming child, only to see Anna holding her.
"My baby sister, my knight in shining armour." I nudged Nikolai with my foot and received nothing but a grumble and a tug on the sheets. Anna leaned on the bed beside me, gently bouncing Alyssa in her arms.
"Morning." She whispered before returning to her cooing.
"Did she wake you up?" Anna shook her head, keeping her eyes trained on her niece.
"Kristoff paid an early morning visit." I raised a questioning brow at her and she rolled her eyes.
"We're going to have breakfast together, but I wanted to come see this pretty little princess first." She made a face at Alyssa that earned her a swat to the face. I got out of bed and took said little princess from her aunt, laying her over my shoulder.
"This pretty little princess is going to be fed and dressed before her dad is even out of bed yet." I made noises at Lyss before sitting down in my rocking chair and setting her up for a feed. "Enjoy your breakfast. Give Kristoff my best." She nodded and smiled absently before she skipped from the room.
Once the baby was fed and dressed, I roused Nikolai just enough to keep an eye on her so I could get dressed myself. It took me two days to find out my daughter didn't like the cold fabric of my self-made dresses and was forced into wearing proper gowns from the closet for the time being.
"Your majesties?" Kai's voice came through the door. I tied the last of my dress up and called him in, picking Alyssa up from the arms of a once again sleeping Nikolai. "Queen Elsa, little princess." Kai cooed at Lyss. "You have a visitor who arrived this morning unannounced. I think you'll want to wake up the Prince to greet him." I closed my eyes, quelling the irritation in my chest. I could tell that it was the King of the Isles; my father-in-law, the great King Desmond.
"Thank you, Kai. He'll be up and dressed in ten minutes if he knows what's good for him." He smiled and shut the door with one last coo to my daughter. "Nik. Get up, come on. I think your dad has finally shown up." Nikolai groaned and opened his eyes, stretching out his hand to rest on Alyssa's stomach, giving her a light tickle. She grabbed at his hand and he smiled. "Stop playing and get up before he comes up here." He groaned again and rolled out of bed onto his feet. He trudged his way into the closet to find his Southern Isles military uniform.
"My Queen?" Nik pulled the curtain shut on the closet at the voice and I let Gerda and my ladies in to help draw the curtains. By the time they were done and my hair was tied into a neat braid, Nikolai emerged from the closet, dressed, but with a head of bed hair. I left Alyssa in her bassinet to make noises at a blanket and attended to my husband's shocking hair. I combed it quickly into place just in time for Kai to come knocking again.
"He's getting impatient." I nodded and pointed to Nikolai staring at himself in the mirror, fixing his hair.
"We're ready, right Nik?" He looked up and smiled at Kai.
"Oh, sure, can't wait to see my dad." He chimed sarcastically. Shaking his head and his prince, Kai escorted the three of us down to the sitting room where King Desmond was waiting with a stern face.
"Father." Nikolai called as we crossed the threshold. The stern face turned into a happy one as the King stood to hug his son.
"It's been too long." Nik released his father and we sat across from the two.
"It wouldn't have been so bad if you came to the wedding." The King wagged a finger at his son playfully. I sat stiffly across from them, waiting for one to say something to the other and set them off. Desmond's attention soon turned to me and the bundle in my arms.
"Queen Elsa, lovely to see you again so grown up. May I hold my granddaughter?" The stiffness in my back didn't relax and I saw Kai stiffen at his words out of the corner of my eye. I smiled graciously and handed her over carefully. "She's beautiful, probably because there's nothing of you in her gorgeous little face. Hey, aren't you lucky to not have his ugly mug." He cooed softly to what he thought was his grandchild. I breathed a silent sight of relief he didn't notice just how non-existent Nikolai's features were in her.
"Are you going to cut to the chase any time soon?" Nik asked his father, not looking away from Lyss.
"I want the three of you to come back to the Isles at the end of the week. You haven't visited yet and the boys want to see Elsa and the baby." I watched the two men talk stiffly. Any one of those brothers could easily pick out that Alyssa wasn't Nikolai's daughter.
"What if we refuse?" Nik handed Alyssa to me and turned back to his father, his features serious.
"Well I'm your father and I control the trade to this country now, so there is really no choice in the matter." Nikolai's jaw shifted before locking back into a firm, secretly pissed off position.
"Alyssa is too young to travel that far. She'll get sick." The King scoffed a laugh,
"Please son, don't try to educate me in the workings of children. You and all of your brothers were travelling when you were that young. One of your brothers was even born on a boat. She will be fine." With a shaky breath and an abundance of thought as to how to try and persuade his father to drop the matter, Nikolai sighed and shook his head.
"Father, you must understand why I don't want to go." Desmond leaned back into the sofa and sipped from his glass.
"Your troubles with your brothers? More specifically, your quarrel with Albert." I watched Nik's featured flicker into anger before he restrained himself.
"A quarrel you only worsened by giving me the throne of another Kingdom. One he has wanted for himself since he was nine years old. He won't be happy to see me and nor I, him. I highly doubt that Viktor, Andrew, Damien, Derek and Hans will be thrilled by my return either. Nor any of my sisters, though they don't like any of us in particular." The tension in the room was starting to get to Lyss and she stirred, making the smallest of uncomfortable sounds in my lap.
"Your sisters' feelings are irrelevant in the matter, and your brothers are far old enough to know that they are princes first and this alliance is important." Nikolai stood up and I immediately reached out to grab his arm.
"Say one more word against my sisters. I dare you. You've already excluded them from the monarchy of the Isles, the least you can do for them is to hold back your insults." I put more strength into my grip and Nik sat back down, though his fury was still ablaze.
"I wont argue any more, you will be packed and on that boat in two days time. Understood?" A staring match resulted in a forced nod of Nikolai's head and a sigh of relief from me that the argument was over with no blood spilled. We were waved off as though this weren't my castle we were in. Desmond has claimed Arendelle.
"I have learned more about the Southern Isles' royal family in the last two minutes than I have the whole time knowing you." I muttered when the doors closed behind us.
"I'm sorry. I have mentioned a few times how much of an asshole my father is." I smiled,
"And apparently a few of your brothers and sisters inherited that trait from what I heard." Nikolai managed a quiet laugh.
"I don't think you can be Desmond's child and not have some of it in your system." I settled my gaze on Alyssa,
"In that case, I think I've dodged a bullet for her." Thankfully, Nikolai laughed at my dig. He kissed Lyss' forehead and ran his fingers over her hair.
"Lucky kid. I'd better go let your ladies know we'll be packing for a trip to the Isles." I nodded and he went up the staircase.
"Well, how about we go see grandma?" I whispered to my daughter. She made a gurgling noise and patted my arm. Taking that as a yes, I called on a driver in the courtyard.
A/N
Just another HUGE thanks to everyone who has been reviewing, keep it up please :D