Joan: Seven years old
"Do you even understand what you did?" Elsa asked Joan, in perhaps the loudest tone of voice she'd ever used with her. Under the circumstances, it was warranted, even if Joan couldn't see it yet.
"I just wanted to ride Bjorn," Joan brought up Sven's third son. "I wanted to do it by myself. I stayed on the whole time and everything."
"Barely!" Elsa recalled. "Then you rode him into the castle, barged into my meeting, and made me scared enough to almost freeze the ambassador!"
"I didn't tell him to go in there! I wanted to ride him on my bed, he took a wrong turn!" Joan defended.
"Which he couldn't have done if it wasn't for you! You're lucky you weren't hurt!" Elsa stated with fear. "You're lucky I still salvaged the trade renegotiations!" she said with more anger this time.
"I'm sorry," Joan said. "Can I go?"
"No!" Elsa put her foot down, only freezing a few square feet in the process. "Joan, you can't do things like this. Not without consequences."
"Are you gonna tell Mommy and Daddy?" Joan asked, reminding Elsa they were gone for the weekend. It didn't mean there wasn't an authority figure in charge, though. Perhaps it was time Elsa reminded her.
"I'll have to. But until they get back, you're not allowed to leave your room. Not except for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Elsa decreed. "When they return, I'll leave any further punishments up to them."
"What?" Joan was confused. "But…..but we were supposed to have fun this weekend!"
"You had too much of it on your own. I think you're all funned out for a little while," Elsa stayed firm.
"Just because I rode by myself? You could have ridden Yorgen with me! But you were too busy!" Joan protested.
"I was busy being Queen. Business you almost disrupted today," Elsa reminded.
"That's all you care about?" Joan asked. Getting more desperate, she added, "But I….I can't stay in my room for two whole days!"
"I'm sure you've got it in you. Trust me," Elsa made a little allusion to their family's history with rooms.
"You're locking me in my room? Do you know how weird that is?" Joan was blunter with her reference.
"Yes, but it has to be done. You need to learn to control yourself," Elsa had to get across.
"Is that what Grandmom and Grandpop told you? Or are you gonna let me out before I turn 21?" Joan let get away from her. But after the brief second when she realized she went too far, Elsa got even chillier.
"Joan, you're a young lady now. It's time I treated you like one," Elsa said, with misleading calm. "I know I've never punished you like this before. That's because I never had to. You're the one that made it necessary today. If you staying in your room means you won't make it necessary again, then so be it. That's how young ladies are supposed to learn their lesson."
"Well….well, I hate learning! Mommy didn't need it! It's not fair!" Joan came back, out of a mix of fear, seeing an unfamiliar side of her aunt, and an inherited stubbornness that helped her ignore she was wrong. Elsa knew this too well, which made her less offended than she should have been.
"Just please go to your room, and we'll talk at dinner. Okay?" Elsa tried to end diplomatically. But while that tone of voice worked with diplomats, it was less effective on a seven-year-old in trouble.
"Well, I'm not talking to you! Ever again!" Joan snapped, before finally going to her room. Presumably.
Joan wasn't familiar with being punished like this by Elsa. She was inexperienced at it, just like Elsa was on the other end. That's why she let herself get out of hand, even though she had to know she was out of line. Elsa knew this because she felt the same way – except for the out of line part, since she was being the completely fair one.
So Elsa sighed, choosing to hope it couldn't get any worse. The ambassadors were calmer now and were ice free, and Joan would probably calm down after a while.
She'd probably get quiet by tonight, behave tomorrow, and then maybe they could have some fun again on Sunday before Anna and Kristoff got back.
Of course, Elsa had to pay for her rare spurt of optimism.
She heard reports that Joan snuck out of her room at least once before dinner. When Elsa tried to talk to her about it, Joan kept her vow not to talk. By the time Elsa knocked on her door that night and Joan wanted Greta to tuck her in instead, she was somewhere between heartbroken and furious.
Elsa had never been at odds with her niece before. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she loved and adored her so much, Joan thought she could get away with anything on her – and didn't understand why she couldn't.
How could she, when Elsa spoiled her rotten and treated her like she was perfect, until today? How else could Joan react, other than to lash out?
Well, that last part wasn't Elsa's fault. Joan was too good a girl to be like that, for any reason. If Elsa let her off the hook for not being a good girl this time, she'd keep pushing and pushing until….she wasn't a good girl anymore.
Maybe that was paranoia, but Elsa would always be the queen of that. No matter how dormant that power was.
No, the only option was to stand her ground. Show Joan Aunt Elsa could discipline her, and that she couldn't behave like there'd be no consequences. Leaving aside how this was the first major time she did. At least in front of Elsa.
Regardless, Elsa didn't budge the next morning when Joan came for breakfast, and left without ever saying a word a half-hour later. She stayed even firmer when the same thing happened at lunch, and when she heard that Joan was playing in the kitchen twice that afternoon. In fact, Elsa was more emboldened to call her out at dinner.
"I heard you left your room when you weren't supposed to," Elsa informed her. "Since you're not speaking to me, I assume I can tell you how wrong that was now." Joan made a noise that sounded like a scoff, so that was progress.
"Joan, I know you know what you did was wrong. You're so much better than that," Elsa was encouraged to try nicer words.
"Maybe you don't know everything," Joan finally spoke, which was one step forward and two big steps back.
"I know you don't mean to give me the cold shoulder," Elsa tried to stay reasonable.
"You do, so why can't I?" Joan asked. This sparked Elsa's own stubbornness, regardless of how it could backfire.
"I do it because I love you. You're just being stubborn, like your mother," Elsa frowned.
"At least my mommy loves me. I thought you did, but…." Joan accused – even better at melodrama than Anna sounded like at her age. Of course, Joan sounded more like she meant it.
Elsa couldn't pretend it didn't piece her heart, though. Or that it hardened it a second later.
"I try to be a real aunt for you, and that's what you take from it?" she raised her voice. "I guess since I don't love you, I shouldn't mind, huh?"
"I guess not," Joan said, too calm and seemingly unmoved for Elsa to stand.
"Good, I don't! And I'm putting a guard at your door the next time you sneak out!" Elsa announced.
"Fine, you can fire him when I break outta jail!" Joan shot back.
"Fine, I will!" Elsa repeated, forgetting her usual etiquette.
"Fine!" Joan echoed one last time, then gobbled down the rest of her dinner in Anna like fashion. Then she left Elsa alone, in very un-Anna like fashion.
Elsa convinced herself she was still totally in the right – at least until that sleepless night. Even the loud gusts of winds she made couldn't distract her from Joan's escalating attitude, how it was never this bad before Elsa punished her – and how she thought Elsa didn't love her.
Perhaps it made sense that she wasn't good at this. Elsa had never dealt with a seven-year-old child in her life. She never dealt with anyone between the ages of five and 18 before.
She missed out on how they rebelled when they got older, needed more discipline, and could say out of control things when they were challenged. When they…..maybe didn't mean them. But Elsa was so head over heels over baby Joan, she completely ignored how…..different growing up Joan might be.
Now Anna and Kristoff would come home tomorrow to the ugly results. They'd probably never leave Joan with her for a weekend again – maybe not even a night. Would Joan even want them to? If she didn't fix this soon, would Joan ever want to be around her again?
God help her, Elsa still wanted to be around her. She was still her baby girl. She was still the second greatest love of her life – one of only two great loves. But because she loved Joan so much, she couldn't let her think being a brat paid off. She had to be tough because she loved her.
When Elsa wondered if her own parents felt the same way about her – and how much she'd felt the same around Anna - she really couldn't get to sleep.
The next morning, Elsa tried to clear her head by walking in the castle garden. Natural snow was still there after a few days – still fresh, and still uncluttered with snowmen. Far from what Elsa had imagined when the weekend started.
Not even a snowball fight to –
Okay, she wasn't lost in fantasy enough to imagine a snowball hitting the back of her head.
And she wasn't. This became clear when Elsa turned around and saw Joan – wearing mittens that clearly just had snow in them. "How did you get out?" Elsa sighed.
"Don't wanna give your next guard any ideas," Joan answered.
"So a snowball's supposed to punish me? Me?" Elsa argued, despite losing the strength to do so.
"Something should! You hate me! I should hate you too!" Joan accused – bringing Elsa's ire and heartbreak back up in spades.
"Don't you say that," Elsa said, more desperately than she wanted to sound. "What if something happened to me? What if that was the last thing you ever said to me, and you could never take it back? I said terrible things I thought I could never take back to your mom, you know!"
"Well, I'm not getting frozen, so no problem," Joan thought she had Elsa there.
Elsa was now beyond tired of Joan's posturing, beyond tired of this mess – and beyond sick of wondering how much she really meant these things.
If she was being unreasonable, then reason wouldn't work to end it. If it took over the top antics to get through to her, then Elsa was ready to stoop to her level. And do it much better.
"Okay, so…..hold on," Elsa began to act. "Oh no….it's happening," she started pretend-panicking, trying to act out and spaz out like Anna would. "The snow gods that gave me my powers….they want them back! I knew this day would come!"
"No you didn't," Joan didn't buy it. However, Elsa put a swirling whirlwind of snow around herself to look more convincing.
"Oh no….they're taking it all away….my power, my life force, everything!" Elsa kept acting. "It's all over now…."
Elsa let the snow storm fall away, then stumbled around and fell down. "Getting colder….slipping away….I lo-" Yet Elsa stopped right there, pretending to choke and croak before sending another gust of snow to completely bury her.
Elsa held her breath underneath the snow, which she could do as long as she had to. She could also make her body temperature drop pretty low without being harmed – although she would feel like death to everyone else. Joan didn't know she could do that, which stood to work just fine later.
"Okay, Aunt Elsa, you can get up now," Elsa heard Joan say, still unconvinced. "Aunt Elsa? Come on, the joke's over," Joan told her. But Elsa didn't move a muscle – not even when Joan asked "Aunt Elsa?" with a tiny bit of a tremor.
Eventually, Joan went over and started to dig up Elsa's body. She kept perfectly still and didn't breathe, not even when Joan touched her ice cold face. "Aunt Elsa? Come on, it's not funny anymore," Joan insisted. She didn't laugh when she shook her and got no response either.
"Aunt Elsa?" Joan's fear increased. "It's time to get up, okay? You got no fun queen stuff to do!" When Elsa didn't move and got even colder, Joan scrambled with, "Okay, okay, it's fun, it's fun! Now will you get up?"
Elsa heard Joan breathe heavily, and with much more fear. A few more seconds and the guilt over this cruel joke would be too much. As such. Elsa concentrated extra hard on the next part of the act, hoping Joan would help speed it along too.
"Aunt Elsa, wake up! Aunt Elsa!" Joan shook her some more, to no apparent effect. "Aunt Elsa, you can't go! I didn't want you to go, I promise! Please don't go!"
Elsa thought she might literally have to freeze herself to stay still, as she heard the tears start coming. "Aunt Elsa, you can't…..I didn't, I shouldn't, you aren't…..just please don't! I love you!"
That would do. And with that, the snowball Elsa formed behind Joan flew into the back of her head.
Right after Joan groaned, Elsa's eyes opened and made her scream.
Despite the utter cruelty behind this "joke" Elsa couldn't help but giggle as Joan backed up and fell. Both at how thoroughly Elsa got her, and how good it was to hear that she loved her again. If only for that second. The next few might be different, though.
That part she might not have thought through as much.
"Aunt Elsa! You…..you're not dead!" Joan yelled, with happiness that soon turned to anger when she figured it out. "You were pretending! That's why the snowball hit me! You fibbed!"
"Got some truth out of you, didn't it?" Elsa told Joan and herself to calm them down. But she was easier to calm down than Joan.
"I didn't, you didn't, you…..you liar!" Joan screamed. For a split second, Elsa feared she'd really pushed her beyond repair.
At least until all Joan did to lash out was make and throw more snowballs.
The relief and confidence that Joan would burn her anger out soon made Elsa stay still, taking every snowball she had. They all hit her in the body – but the last one got her right in the face. This took Elsa aback, right as she heard Joan hold back a laugh.
"That's funny to you?" Elsa asked, half teasingly and half cautiously.
"Uh huh!" Joan agreed, letting more laughter out – until Elsa made a natural snowball of her own, without powers, and got her niece in the face right back.
"You might be onto something," Elsa conceded.
Instead of conceding back, Joan quickly gathered another pile of snow. Elsa backed up and made a snow wall to hide behind, right as Joan had her snowballs ready. But Elsa made a few powerless snowballs of her own to carry with her, before Joan cheated and went around the wall with her own snowballs.
What followed was one of the more unorganized snowball fights the two ever had. Only half of the snowballs connected, and Elsa only pretended to miss half of her strikes. Yet against most logic, by the time they tired out, both of them were laughing.
Elsa collapsed first and laid down, with Joan following soon after. The two kept a smile on their faces for a while, before they actually looked at each other again. Remembering what it took to get to this point, some overdue guilt came in – on both sides.
"I'm sorry," Joan finally said, a split second before Elsa said it.
"You said it first," Elsa made sure Joan remembered. But she did anyway.
"I know you don't hate me. I don't hate you too," Joan confessed. "And….maybe I should have kept Bjorn in the stable. His sisters could have calmed him down."
"Sometimes they can do that," Elsa admitted.
"It's just….you never yelled at me before," Joan brought herself to admit.
"You never did anything to make me yell before," Elsa admitted back. "I guess we both weren't ready for it."
"I wasn't," Joan sighed. "I thought….if I made you feel guilty and stop punishing me….you wouldn't be mad at me anymore. Then you wouldn't do it again. Then you might not stop loving me someday."
Elsa's throat caught, realizing some of her own fears about losing good girl Joan resembled Joan's fears in losing good Aunt Elsa. Still, Elsa had to clarify, "But the way you did it made me mad anyway. Enough to make me do….my little trick. You see how that backfired?"
"Kinda…." Joan answered, whether she really saw it or was just agreeing to agree. Elsa figured she needed to know more.
"Look, I am always going to love you. The days where I abandon people I love are long over. You know that," Elsa reminded her. "You'll probably misbehave more, and I'll probably be mad when you do. But that's because I know you can be better. The kind of better where you realize your mistakes, accept responsibility, and try to make things right. Like your parents do….eventually."
Joan let out a little laugh, but not much else. Still, it looked like she was actually listening. So Elsa continued, "It'd probably go like this. I'm sorry I faked my death and scared you, and I'll never do it again. I'm not sorry I disciplined you, but I promise I won't make you think I hate you. You could never make me mad enough for that. Just try not to try, okay?"
"Okay…." Joan agreed. "I'm sorry I ruined your meeting. I'll never do it again. I'm sorry I said I hate you, too. I don't ever want to hate you for real. Cause I still love you."
"I love you too," Elsa finally smiled. "We both made….rookie mistakes in this sort of thing. The best we can do is learn from them and be better. It's better than the alternative."
"Yeah…." Joan saw it Elsa's way. Being the bigger person, she stuck her hand out and asked, "Truce?"
Elsa was proud of her for that grown up word alone. Smiling, she repeated, "Truce," and took her hand – then promptly pulled her over and on top on her, giving her a relieved truce hug as they both giggled.
When she was done, Elsa sat up and helped Joan get back on her feet. "Should I go back to my room?" Joan checked.
"Well….you've already learned your lesson. And we do have a truce," Elsa pretended to think. "When two people settle an argument, it's usually good to sit for a nice meal. And what's the best meal to drink down?"
"Hot chocolate?" Joan asked eagerly.
"Very good," Elsa said. "But I should only give you one plain cup. And I still have to tell your parents about your ride. If word hasn't gotten out already."
"Aww…." Joan pouted, probably more over the first thing.
"The most I can do is keep the rest of this weekend a secret. They'll probably go easier on both of us then," Elsa conceded. "But any punishments they might come up with are up to them. Okay?"
Elsa hoped laying down these last laws would ensure Joan still got the message – then they'd get to the delicious stuff with a clean conscience. When she sighed and said, "Okay," without more pouting or bargaining, Elsa felt clean enough.
"All right. That's a good girl," Elsa smiled, glad to have her good girl back. Joan smiled and took her hand, glad that her good aunt Elsa wasn't leaving her after all.
Sometime later, the two were safe and snug inside, sitting at the dining room table and each holding a mug of hot chocolate. Although Joan's wasn't flavored, she still drank it down eagerly while Elsa drank hers down too.
When they both sighed in relief, they smiled at each other and clinked their mugs together, toasting the return of peace. It came just in time, given how Anna and Kristoff barged in moments later.
"There you are!" Anna exclaimed. "What are you doing in here? Were you that bored without us?"
Elsa and Joan shared a conspiratorial look, before Elsa spoke up, "Let's just say we've been pretty cooped up in here."
"Well, it's our turn to say things now, then," Kristoff responded.
"No, you said I could do it! I had the best line, so there!" Anna protested. Kristoff sighed and let her get on with it, as Elsa and Joan now looked curious.
"Joan, I know I left you cooped up with Aunt Elsa," Anna started. "But I'm sure it wasn't that bad. You guys have a lot of things in common, and you're gonna have one more thing soon. In about eight months."
As Elsa and Joan did the math, Anna squealed and clarified, "You're gonna be a big sister! Just like your Aunt Elsa! And she's gonna be an aunt again too!"
If Elsa heard this news yesterday, in the midst of fighting with Joan, her enthusiasm might have been dampened. Maybe it'd have been too much bad timing for her to be completely happy. Maybe she would have thought, with some melancholy, that it was at least a chance to get being an aunt right this time.
But in the aftermath of making peace with her first niece, the announcement of a second one – or a first nephew, she supposed – couldn't have made Elsa happier.
She was happy enough to keep quiet about Joan and Bjorn's little joyride, anyway.