Joan: 10 years old

Christian: 3 years old

Elsa didn't know what unnerved her most. The rocking of the sea, or Christian shivering in his bed.

However, when Christian made himself still once he noticed Elsa watching him, Elsa figured it out.

Taking her quiet, solitary nephew with her on a royal voyage to the Western Isles was always going to be a gamble. But by now, she could accept the kingdom would stay standing without her – especially with Joan keeping Anna and Kristoff from going off on many adventures. It also wasn't Elsa's first voyage by boat, although they still made her….less than comfortable. But that was manageable too.

It should be easy to manage Christian, since he never got in much trouble or talked to many people, other than his family. Yet Elsa almost hoped it wouldn't be easy.

She wanted this trip to help Christian expand his horizons. To open up and enjoy a whole wider world - within safe reason. Since the Western Isles had proven it was different than….other Isles years ago, Elsa knew this would be a safe place for Christian's first trip to another land.

Of course, if Christian still insisted on keeping his feelings to himself – as he did with Elsa just seconds ago – then this was a hare-baked idea. Usually those ideas worked when Anna used them. Maybe Elsa should have brought her along and gotten some of her residue dumb luck.

But no, she had to insist on doing this herself. That she and Christian would have fun together.

Of course, Elsa knew the boat ride would hardly be fun, for various reasons. She had hoped it wouldn't set the tone for the whole trip.

Perhaps once she stopped thinking about the noise outside, the rain – and the waves they could create – the tone could be salvaged in the morning.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

By morning, the rain had stopped and there were no boat destroying waves in sight. In fact, the shores of the Western Isles were in sight instead. Relieved, Elsa went down to her room and got Christian out to see for himself.

Christian was dressed by then, in a nice blue suit that was still kind of stuffy on him. His dark blonde hair was brushed back, and his blue eyes looked calm. At least they did before they got to the docks and he got his first look at the Western Isles.

He tried to stay placid and calm – but Elsa knew all the signs of someone clearly trying to be calm. She might understand too many things about Christian that she had hoped to forget. But she couldn't forget Christian telling her now that, "I wanna go home."

"You can stay in your room until we get there," Elsa deliberately misunderstood him.

"No, I wanna go home. To Mom, Dad and Joan," Christian corrected her.

"We will. But we have to stay there for two days first," Elsa explained again. "Don't worry. We'll have so much to do there together, the time will go by real quick."

"I don't wanna," Christian spoke up. Now he was getting assertive. "I don't know people there. It's sc…." He cut himself off before completing the word.

"You know I'll be with you the whole time. Most of the time," Elsa corrected before she could stop herself. But she couldn't well bring him to her meetings with the King and the royal family – and she didn't know if he could come to the ball in her honor tomorrow. As such, false hope probably wouldn't help him.

"They wanna see you, not me. I don't have to be here. I'm better at home," Christian told her. "Don't need anything else."

"I think this will be good for you," Elsa tried to be reasonable. "You can't just talk to your family all day. You need to surround yourself with more people. Talk to them. Let them get to know you. Get to know the world around you," she explained - saying everything she wished she'd been taught when she was a few years older than Christian.

"I like my world! What if we don't get back? We barely got here!" Christian exaggerated a little. "Can we go back, please?"

"I promised the Western Isles king I'd come here. I can't break my promise. And I can't send you home by yourself. Even with these men," Elsa pointed out, trying to stay even. "You wouldn't like that anyway."

"No, it's scary!" Christian completed that word this time. Yet he gasped and covered his mouth as a result – then truly looked scared. Of Elsa.

"Christian, what's wrong?" Elsa asked, starting to get nervous herself. However, Christian looked like he was trying to….conceal again. He wasn't as successful this time, although he still wasn't talking.

"Can we go home?" Christian finally asked quietly. Elsa frowned, feeling frustrated, a bit inadequate and a little annoyed.

He had been shy and kind of antisocial in Arendelle – to a sometimes uncomfortably familiar degree. Kristoff assumed he took after him, yet Elsa didn't entirely see Kristoff in Christian's behavior. Even if Elsa's days of acting like that were over a decade ago – and Christian didn't have ice powers as an excuse. What was his excuse now?

"Christian, you never wanted to come here," Elsa guessed. Since he clearly wouldn't answer, Elsa reminded him, "I asked you back home if you wanted to go with me, and you said yes."

"I thought I could. I can't," Christian sounded embarrassed.

"Why did you think you could in the first place?" Elsa pressed on. "Why didn't you just say no then, before I took you? Did you think…."

Before she got angrier and scarier, Elsa started to think and say a truly terrifying thought. "Did you think I'd be mad if you said no?" Is that what her own nephew thought of her? Is that why he looked so scared? Why he was concealing from her?

"No. Just…..dis'pointed," Christian admitted. Once Elsa filled in the gap from that last word, she was even more confused. And maybe even more concerned than if he was just scared of her.

"Why would I feel that? Did you think I'd be…..dis'pointed, in you?" Elsa asked him. When he didn't answer yes – but didn't answer no, either – she didn't feel like a very good aunt all of a sudden.

"You think I'm someone who would feel that? About my own nephew?" she began to look and sound heartbroken. "What do you really think I am? Tell me the truth!"

Elsa knew that tone was probably making it worse. But if Christian was already terrified of her, or of letting her down, it was likely too late now. One way or another, the damage was done. Where was Anna's incredible, irrational luck when –

"You're the bravest person ever."

Now that was an incredible, irrational way to break her panic attack.

"And….I wanted not to be scared too. I failed." That was a less flattering and more sad way to get her attention.

"Christian, what are you talking about?" Elsa tried to clear this up further. If a three-year-old who didn't talk about his feelings too much could do that.

"You're Queen. You got magic. You talk to lots of people. You make Joan stop running 'round," Christian listed off, making Elsa chuckle a little at the end. "You're not scared of anything. I….I didn't want you to know I was." Losing his courage, Christian put his head down and said quietly, "I'm sorry, Aunt Elsa."

So that was it? Hiding how scared he was from her last night? Thinking she would be disappointed in him for not going? Not because he was scared of Elsa, but because he thought…. "You think I'd be upset because you were scared?" Elsa tried to make sense of.

"Yeah. You're never scared," Christian repeated. "I can't do that stuff. I wanted to! But I'm….not brave like you."

By instinct, Elsa's heart broke at the misery of a family member. By instinct, she felt compelled to think it was really her fault. Maybe this time it was warranted. But….someone being ashamed because they weren't as brave as Elsa? That was new.

In fact, it was almost downright funny.

Before Elsa knew it, she was
actually laughing at this downright funny thing. "Aunt Elsa?" Christian asked and was eventually heard when Elsa quieted down.

"Oh, sweetheart…." Elsa answered, with fondness, a bit of sorrow and with leftover humor. She knelt down to hug her nephew, hoping to sooth him before she educated him about her.

"You think I'm too brave for you? You don't know how funny that is. Not yet," Elsa told him. "I've been terrified every day for the last 26 years. The last 13 years haven't been so bad, but….oh, the stories I could tell. The stories I will tell….later."

Pulling back to face Christian, Elsa continued, "Here's one. I'm still terrified of boats. Like you."

"You?" Christian looked confused now.

"You probably didn't hear my nerves over yours. But I have them. Every time I come on a boat," Elsa admitted. "Your Grandmom and Grandpop went on a boat once. They….never went on anything else again," she sugarcoated. "It's really hard for me to be on a boat at night, especially when it's raining. But I got through it last night. Do you want to know how?"

Elsa was filled with warmth and confidence again, now that she figured this out as she went along. Not quite as chaotically as when Anna did it, but there was something to be said for this. Especially if she could get the truth through to Christian.

When she saw Christian waiting, Elsa smiled and shared, "You got me through it."

"Me? No I didn't," Christian denied. "I was too scared."

"I know," Elsa told him. "That's why I wouldn't let myself get more scared. Because you needed me. That's how it all works."

"What works?" Christian asked.

"Me being brave. The only reason I can do all those things you said….is because of the people I love," Elsa shared. "Your mom, dad, Joan, Olaf, the Svens, our people….and you. I need to be strong so I can protect you and care for you. Having you there last night….reminded me as scared as I was, I had to be brave if you needed me."

"But I tried not to," Christian confessed.

"I know. I made myself ready if you failed. And it got me through the night. Just like your parents and your sister get me through everything else I do," Elsa went on. "They don't need to be brave themselves. They just need to be there with me. That's….a gift I still don't take for granted."

Once Elsa counted her blessings anew, she brought it back to Christian. "It's like how you're here now, even if you are scared. Just like me."

"Like you? Me?" Christian hopefully started to understand.

"I'm not comfortable with most people either. I could freeze them in an instant if I'm really uncomfortable," Elsa sighed. "But as long as I have you to look after, I know I'll be under control while I'm here."

"But I can't do magic or talk good," Christian still insisted.

"But you're my nephew, and I love you, and you love me. You don't have to do anything else. I don't ever want you to think you have to again," Elsa urged.

"But you said I had to know the world," Christian reminded her. Elsa hated that he was smart enough to remember that, for about a second.

"Yes, I want you to play and get out there more. I'm still going to love you if you don't," Elsa promised. "And whatever you're feeling, I never want you to hide it from me. I want you to feel however you want. And I want you to know you can tell me anything."

Getting another sudden but perfect idea, Elsa knew just what to tell him. "Here's something for you. It's something your mother taught me a long time ago. It's the reason I can control my powers. It's….it's really the reason you were born. So it's kind of a family motto."

"What is it?" Christian wondered.

Elsa briefly went back to 13 years ago, then came back and held Christian's hands - just like how she once did with his revived mother. "Love will thaw."

Christian seemed to think it over, so Elsa helped him out further. "Every time I'm scared, I think of someone in my family. Your mother, father, sister, snowman, reindeer, anyone. If they're there with me, it's even better. Because I know if I don't feel good, someone I love will be there to help me let it go. Whether I'm brave or not."

"Love will thaw….." Christian repeated.

"Yes," Elsa encouraged. "It's thawing right now. Because I have you here. Knowing you're with me is all I need to get through this trip. Like it got me through the boat ride. I just hope that….you can feel the same way about me. That thinking of me….knowing I'll be there with anything you need….will make you feel stronger."

Elsa closed her eyes in amazement, although her smile stayed on. She knew she didn't sound like herself just now – at least not the Elsa from years past. She sounded like Anna from years past – and from the present sometimes, she had to admit.

Nevertheless, she was passing on Anna's life-saving advice and wisdom to Anna's own son. It was as if Anna really was here. Like Christian's mother was here. Like Anna and Elsa's own mother was here – at least the dream version of her Elsa still sometimes wished she had for those 13 years.

All told, Elsa didn't feel like the aunt right now. Even if that was all she might ever be.

But it was in moments like this where it always didn't feel too bad.

"Even if you have Queen stuff?" Christian checked, answering Elsa's last statement.

"Yes, even then," Elsa laughed in relief. "Love even thaws through Queen stuff too. And I love you that much. Do you love me too?"

Christian didn't answer in that second, which briefly made Elsa nervous. But she began to thaw when Christian began to open his mouth – yet a louder sound drowned him out.

It seemed while they were talking, their boat had finally docked into the Western Isles. What's more, there was a whole crowd of people and dignitaries, complete with a marching band, waiting to greet them. Hardly a good way to ease them in.

Elsa stood up, far more used to such a crowded greeting than Christian. Still, getting caught off guard like this – and right before a major breakthrough with her nephew – wasn't ideal. It would take a while to compose herself.

Fortunately, the right motivation was next to him.

Before she started using it, Elsa kept a shaken up look on her face when she looked at Christian. To show him proof that her aunt didn't always have it so together. Yet he would see her face morph back to one of strength, royalty and love before his eyes – all because she looked at and thought of him.

If Christian saw for himself that he was her strength, merely by being there – and being alive in general – maybe he'd see that Elsa could be his strength too. Still, he had to know he didn't have to act a certain way just to please her. There'd been enough of that in this family in the past.

"You can stay in the boat if you want. I can send the guards to bring you to the castle later. If that's what you want," Elsa offered. "Whatever you feel like is okay."

Christian looked back at the awaiting crowd. Since he didn't run away or look more intimidated, Elsa felt encouraged. He then looked up at her, so Elsa put on her best thawed face, hoping it would hold back his fear.

He said nothing to show her it had. He might have if it wasn't for the boat arriving on time – another reason not to trust them.

However, instead of words, Christian used the simple act of taking Elsa's hand. Kind of like what Joan would do – perhaps thinking of her gave him that final burst. Elsa felt pride and slight jealousy at her niece for hypothetically doing that.

Whoever did it, it worked either way, as Elsa finally made her way off the ship, hand in hand with a willing Christian.

Cheering crowds, guards keeping them at a distance, and the attention from strangers wasn't Christian or Elsa's first cup of tea at Arendelle. Let alone at a foreign nation, even if it was one of the two best Isles. But unlike over a decade ago, Elsa could accept their cheers and greet their ambassadors without flinching inside once.

Maybe Christian wasn't that far along yet. But he wasn't flinching on the outside now. The one time he did, he just squeezed Elsa's hand harder, yet an extra squeeze from her settled him down.

Elsa assumed it might be different when he got to the Western Isles castle, saw their rooms for the next two days, and explored the unfamiliar grounds. Meeting foreign royal figures and a foreign staff, without the comfort of being at home, might be intimidating for him as well.

Even if it was, he wouldn't have to take it on alone. He would learn that lesson much sooner than others in his family did. If he hadn't already. At the least, Christian didn't ask Elsa to go home early again.

For so long, Elsa thought she could never properly repay Anna. Or make things up to her. Yet helping her son slowly emerge from his shell, much like Anna did for Elsa….without anyone almost dying or getting separated….

For the first time, Elsa thought they might be even someday after all.