Robert took two more days to completely heal - which meant he was free to go back home.

Now that Elsa's nightmares were slightly under control, along with Joan's, she could focus on things like that now. Along with the nagging problem that she hadn't actually rewarded him yet.

He'd already turned down anything sea captain related, and merely paying him with gold and riches seemed inadequate. There had to be something Elsa could give him that would be truly rewarding. Something that could slightly come close to matching the gift he gave her and her entire family.

Then the answer became so obvious, she almost felt as oblivious as Anna.

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"I'm sorry….I have to decline."

Now Elsa definitely felt Anna-esque at how she didn't see Robert's answer coming. But logically, this would be fairly easy to change. It should be.

"Are you sure? I can't think of a better way to reward your service," Elsa started, setting back onto her throne as Robert kept standing in front. "You have the experience for it. Regardless of how long ago it was."

"Your Majesty, you know why I can't be your royal blacksmith," Robert replied. "You know my history with….doing work like that for royalty. How I feel about it."

"It'll be different now," Elsa assured. "You don't have to be haunted by those shackles, because I forgive you. Because there's nothing to forgive. And I won't ever ask you to make something like that. At least not without telling you everything first. Why else shouldn't you go back to the only career you've ever loved?"

"I haven't made anything with my hands in years," Robert came back with. "No royal blacksmith should be that rusty." Elsa subtly held back a smirk at that ironic line, and Robert would have as well, if he was in a laughing mood.

"You're a hero of Arendelle. I'm sure we can give you a re-learning curve," Elsa said.

"I'm no hero. I may be slightly even with your family now. But overall, I'm no hero," Robert objected. "Can't I just take some gold and be done with it?"

"That's not enough. You made the royal family whole again, you deserve more," Elsa pressed.

"That doesn't mean I can just….jump back into service like that on a whim," Robert retorted. "I wasted my talents, and they almost helped kill off the royal family 16 years ago. If there was any coming back from that, I would have found it already."

"You didn't have the full support of the royal family then. Or me," Elsa pointed out. "Logically, this works out perfectly."

"What about this has ever been logical?" Robert asked. "Your father commissioned me, as a teenager, to make shackles for his snow princess daughter! If those shackles had held you a few more minutes, you and your sister would have died 16 years ago! And now I just saved your niece! Where's the logic in any of that? And why….why should there be some now?"

Robert turned away from Elsa, as if that could hide his emotions. "It's too much. It's all just too much. You don't….waste so many of your best years on guilt….find out how pointless it was, and then get to come back from it. It doesn't happen for people like me."

"Yes it does," Elsa rose back up. "I know that better than anyone."

"Well, I'm not you!" Robert forgot his place, thanks to fear, frustration and panic. Anger then made him commit a lower blow. "Don't pretend this isn't about making yourself feel better about your past! You wanna fix someone just because no one fixed you for a decade? Save it for your own family!"

Naturally, he didn't realize how far he'd gone until the second after he stopped talking.

"Oh God….oh no," Robert crumbled, not bothering to look at Elsa. She would probably be the last thing he ever saw – at least without looking through the ice cube he'd be put in. "Elsa – I, I mean, Your Majesty! That was out of line too, I'm…."

He couldn't even bring himself to finish an apology. It seemed so inadequate. Now that his brief bout with adequacy was over, it made perfect sense.

"Just don't freeze me forever. That's reward enough now," Robert pleaded. When he wasn't frozen at all, he conceded. "Okay….that should make us even. I'll leave you and your family alone for good now."

Robert still hadn't taken a last look at Elsa. But he'd already tempted fate enough. It seemed he'd finally reached his limit in defying fate this last week. So he turned and left the throne room, since he obviously had to get going.

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He only got halfway out of the castle before he asked what the hell he was doing.

For someone who wasn't an impulsive man, Robert was sure going the opposite direction lately. First by snapping at his kidnappers – then by snapping at the Queen. He didn't know which situation he was luckier to survive.

This one was probably stupider, though.

Logically, everything he had to feel guilty over should have been settled. Everything but his wounded pride and lack of belief in himself. The Queen's magic couldn't make that melt away.

And yet she tried. Even though she had much, much better things to do with her time.

Then he happened to run into one of them.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir!" a little blond boy apologized quickly. A blond boy who matched the description of someone Robert hadn't met, but was well aware of. In fact, he was the only royal he wasn't more aware of yet.

"No, that's all right. Prince Christian," Robert brushed it aside.

"Wait….are you my sister's friend?" Christian wondered.

"Friend? Is that what she said about me?" Robert got out of it. "I know her and I helped her escape, but…."

"Yeah! You're that Robert guy!" Christian exclaimed. "That's great! You can help me find her!"

"Find her?" Robert repeated. "Wait, why does she need to be found?" he got worried.

"She said she needed to play hide and seek again. I gotta seek her faster than this," Christian declared. "I can do it better with someone who rescued her before! I know I can!"

"Well….I guess when you put it like that," Robert gave in, postponing his departure a while longer.

The two walked down the hall and checked two rooms, not finding Joan anywhere. On their way to a third room, Christian asked, "Is it true? Did you really hurt those guys who took my sister?"

"I tried to," Robert answered. "Your aunt did the rest. In ways she had every right to use."

"Those guys….they were Devin's guys?" Christian checked. "They took Joan because he made them?"

"I understand it was their idea first. Devin just made it real for them," Robert recalled.

"Then they got what was coming to them," Christian ruled. "They listened to someone who woulda hurt my sister. And tried to hurt me…."

"Hurt you?" Robert tried to understand, but then recalled a few pieces of gossip. "But….you stopped him, didn't you? You're the one that found out it was him, right? And….and that's why your family got to the docks."

"Mommy and Aunt Elsa made him talk. The door's still broke and everything," Christian explained, although the last part went over Robert's head. It didn't matter much to the point that was coming to him, though.

"But they wouldn't have had the chance if it wasn't for you. You set everything in motion," Robert figured out. "If you didn't, me and Joan might still be gone. We might have been auctioned by now or worse. She wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be here….I wouldn't have finally told your aunt about me….she wouldn't have offered me a job…."

"A job? Is it finding and saving people?" Christian asked. "Finding Joan might be really good for practice," he offered, before opening the nearest door and looking around the room behind it.

"No, that's not it," Robert replied, while looking around himself. "It's….not important." Since Christian was scouring the room, he didn't follow up on it. Yet his and Robert's scouring didn't help them find Joan.

"But I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for what you did. Joan might not be here either," Robert still told Christian anyway. "She probably thanked you already. I'm sorry I didn't until now."

"That's okay," Christian shrugged off as they walked back down the halls. "I mean….it's not like I do that stuff every day. I'd be pretty scared if I did. Joan and Mom and Dad and Aunt Elsa do that stuff all the time. Not me, though."

"I don't do stuff like that either," Robert shared. "What I did on the boat….isn't usually me. I saw her in trouble and I saw what it'd do to your family. And I snapped."

"I missed Joan a lot and I wanted my family back together. So I snapped too," Christian echoed.

"And look where we are now because of it. Look where I am," Robert reflected. "You're a shy little prince, and you took on a big prince for your sister. I let a lot more happen before I took my big bullies on. You got it all started and gave us all another chance….and I can't even…."

"Wait!" Christian ordered, then began to smell the air. "We're near the kitchen….and they're serving….Joan!"

"They're what?! Mind adding more to that?" Robert hoped. But Christian was following his nose all the way to the kitchen, with Robert only able to give chase.

By the time Robert got to the kitchen, Christian was already searching inside the nearest cupboard. He didn't have to search for long.

"Joan!" Christian announced, right before he was covered by a blur – one that had a few inches and years on him.

"You found me! I knew you would! I hoped you would!" Joan praised, hugging Christian throughout. She only broke when she saw Robert coming over, then raced to hug his legs next.

"Hello to you too…." was all Robert had, until he could think up, "How did all this happen?"

"They were making chocolate cookies," was Christian's simple explanation.

"Yeah! I thought it'd be easier to hide in the dark with a few of those!" Joan said, more hyper than usual for a few reasons. "And because I knew you'd come get me again! But it got hard after a while…."

"I'm sorry," Christian apologized. "I got Robert to help me, but…."

"Before you pass the buck to me…." Robert interrupted, before going to Joan. "Why did you want to hide in the dark? I thought that was your least favorite thing."

"I….I wanted to play hide and seek with my brother again," Joan told him. "I just wanted to play like normal with him."

"Robert said we wouldn't be playing now if it wasn't for me too," Christian informed.

"He's really smart," Joan agreed. "Not like me. I'm your big sister….you're not supposed to be rescuing me. Not from the dark or kidnappers."

"Mommy saved Aunt Elsa, and she's old," Christian pointed out. "And Aunt Elsa saved you too. So I guess that makes it even?"

And these two weird royal kids saved Robert. No matter what the score was now.

"Do you wanna go back to our room?" Joan asked her brother. "We can play regular hiding games there."

"Okay," Christian agreed. Turning to Robert, he followed up with, "Do you wanna come with us?"

"Ooh, do you?" Joan inquired eagerly. When she put it and made it sound like that….

Robert wound up taking Christian's left hand, as his right held onto Joan. The three walked out of the kitchen and down the hall together, until Robert ran into yet another royal family member. Ironically, the one that made him start walking in the first place – even if she didn't want him to.

"Aunt Elsa!" Christian called out. "I found Joan in the cupboard!"

"You did?" Elsa put on a smile for him. "What was she doing in there?"

"Eating chocolate cookies," Joan explained as simply as she wanted to.

"Ah. You'll probably want to lie down in a few minutes," Elsa warned, right as she focused on Robert. "Why don't you go to your rooms and get a head start?"

"We were gonna anyway! Thanks, Aunt Elsa! Bye, Robert!" Joan called, putting a sugary and/or happy pep in her step as she and Christian left hand in hand.

Without the kids as a buffer, Robert had no escape now. It figured he'd have one last epiphany or two at the very last moment.

"You yelled at the Queen of Arendelle," Elsa reminded. "You need to apologize. It would make her weak if she said she was sorry before you did. Or if she said things like….she knows she can go pretty far when someone's suffering like she did. Whether wanting to help fix it makes her selfish or guilty or not. But you can't hear those things until you apologize."

Robert held back from smirking at her little back handed apology – at least until he could actually follow her orders. "That's only fair. Since I am sorry and you're the furthest thing from selfish, it's actually easy."

Elsa didn't hold back a little relieved smile, which made Robert unable to hold himself back from a grand idea. However, the more he worked it out, the more he realized he would have to hold back now.

When he worked out the specific details, he finally told her, "But I do still have to go. I should be back home where I belong. Give me….two days to settle back down there. Then I'll come back and ask for some other reward."

"That seems fair too," Elsa agreed, despite almost stumbling in the middle.

"I hoped it would. In that case….I should get going," Robert decided. "Please tell the Prince and Princess good bye and thank you for me."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Elsa agreed, although the thank you part was briefly puzzling.

"Thank you. Your Majesty," Robert wrapped up with a little bow.

"Mr. Hansen," Elsa replied out of formal habit – in spite of how they might have been beyond that at this point.

Nevertheless, Robert took his leave from the castle for keeps this time. As far as Elsa knew.

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Two nights later, Elsa was restless, in spite of how her nightmares were starting to cool down. After easily melting the icicles in her room, however, she didn't feel like going back to sleep yet. Instead, she got up and felt like taking a walk.

She passed by Joan and Christian's door and felt like taking a peek inside, but everything sounded peaceful at the moment. If she was getting better, she had to trust they were as well.

With her conscience just guilty enough for her to handle, Elsa headed outside, keeping within the castle grounds. She made sure not to disturb anyone or anything else that might be out there – although something was starting to sound noisy enough on its own.

Something noisy that was coming from the blacksmith's quarters.

Elsa wasn't entirely ignorant of how significant this might be. But she brushed it aside, in case this was something else. The regular blacksmith doing late night work – albeit really, really late – or perhaps it was a run of the mill thief or intruder. Regardless, thieves and intruders would know to be quieter than this.

Perhaps she was due for a break. This gave her a welcome bit of confidence as she went to the door, froze the knob and made her way in. But she didn't find an intruder. Not exactly.

She found someone banging around – someone who didn't want to be caught. "Don't come in, don't come in, don't come in!" the occupant called, trying to put away his tools and hide his evidence, but it was no use.

"Elsa?" Robert exclaimed, forgetting proper protocol once she recognized the intruder.

"Robert?" Elsa did the exact same thing to the letter.

However, Elsa took an extra second to examine him. He looked sweaty, but probably not because she scared him. Given the tools around him, and the equipment that had clearly been used, it seemed he got sweaty from other activities.

"Are you…building something in here?!" Elsa demanded to know. If possible, she went from shocked, happy and angry in the span of those six little words. First he says he can't be her blacksmith, and now he's doing….blacksmith things anyway?!

"Blast it….you were going to find out tomorrow. If that means anything," Robert revealed.

"I need to hear a few more meaningful things right now," Elsa ordered.

"I suppose it's meaningful that….I've been here ever since I left the castle," Robert started. "Turns out being the hero of Arendelle does have other perks. Like getting people to let you work here, keep quiet and not bother you."

"Why would you need to be quiet about it?" Elsa was confused.

"Because if I was going to make something….I wanted to do it in private first! Have one less thing to worry about!" Robert let out, proving to have a masterful grasp of a guilt trip. He did soften enough to finish, "But I probably needed your help for the second thing anyway."

"Second thing?" Elsa wished she could do more than repeat what he said. However, all her speech left her when Robert held up his first thing.

Elsa came closer and saw the first thing Robert had made in years – a solid gold crown. It wasn't a crown fit for a king, however. Not a full grown king.

"I made this for Christian," Robert confirmed as Elsa figured it out herself. "I know he probably has crowns and stuff like that already. But I wanted him to have some….token from me. For helping to save my life. Even if he didn't know it at the time."

Elsa was very careful to take the crown out of Robert's hands. She carefully looked it over, studied the craftsmanship, and became less careful about hiding her smile. "You made this for him? In secret for two days?"

"I had to work around the clock," Robert explained. "Between that, finding the materials, hiding from everyone who might spy or squeal on me, it took a lot of time. I just got done tonight. Or last night, if you want to get technical now."

"I don't…." Elsa started, taking a while to finish. "I don't believe you did this. I thought you hadn't made anything in years! How did you get this right this fast?"

"I didn't forget how to be a blacksmith. I learned it all at a very young age, so the knowledge is still there. I just chose not to use it again until now," Robert clarified.

"And you said you used it for two things?" Elsa recalled.

"One and a half so far, really," Robert admitted, drawing her attention to an item on a nearby table. It was half finished, yet Elsa could easily tell what it was going to be.

"You're making a tiara…." Elsa stated the now obvious.

"I wanted to get more done before I showed you. Before I needed to ask you for gems to put in it," Robert disclosed. "It's not up to that step yet, but when it is…."

"Of course! I have some gems back in my room that'll be perfect! Joan already loves them, so she'll love them in that!" Elsa got carried away.

"How big are they? What kind of designs will I have to make so they'll fit?" Robert asked.

"Well, what designs did you have in mind?" Elsa wondered.

Robert had made Christian's crown and the first part of Joan's tiara by herself, with his own ideas. Judging by Elsa's reaction, they weren't bad ones. However, Elsa exposed how….lacking his ideas about Joan's tiara were. Luckily, she stopped just shy of making him feel inadequate about the crown.

Once they finished collaborating on ideas, Robert finally felt the effects of his non-stop work. Especially when it was hard work he hadn't attempted in years. Nevertheless, when Elsa asked if it was okay for her to watch him work, now that the secret was out, he couldn't refuse her.

It wasn't only because it was the Queen. Or that he'd already turned her down enough.

Elsa was considerate enough to stay quiet and let Robert concentrate. Soon enough, he used his tools, gathered materials and added to the tiara in a way that didn't seem too self-conscious. If he looked at her, however, she might have started to feel self-conscious herself.

During the suitor process, Elsa wasn't unaware that many thought one of them would have powers. Some in her own love expert committee/family probably joked about it. To them or at least to others, it seemed obvious and predictable that her perfect match would be magical. Likely with ice or even more cliché fire powers.

Those powers were just tricks of the mind, though. And other unexplainable phenomenon she gave up understanding years ago. It was nothing to create with just a twirl of her hands, no matter how proud Elsa was of it or not.

But Robert was someone who built things with his bare hands. Someone who was the best at it, even when he was very young – and had total control over it. Even after years of hiding from his gift, feeling ashamed of it and pushing it away, he was still a natural.

He wasn't proving it with something like a giant ice palace. He technically ran away to do this, but not to a mountain – and he was still on palace grounds.

Plus he wasn't using his gifts again just to be selfish, or to run away. Right away, he was using them for someone else – her own family. Whom he already did enough for.

"Maybe I do need a rest," Robert interrupted her train of thought. "I can hide these things, and myself, away for a few hours of sleep. If I wake up early enough and you get me the gems in secret, I can come out and give them the gifts by….dinner time tomorrow."

"Are you sure you still want to work that fast?" Elsa asked.

"If you found me out while everyone was sleeping, it doesn't bode well," Robert figured. "I don't want anyone else to see this and give anything away. Two blacksmiths and the Queen are all I can keep quiet."

"Still, you shouldn't rush it. Something like this deserves a better ending," Elsa pondered. "I know they'll love it either way, but….you're doing all this to honor them. They should be honored as perfectly as they deserve."

Once that statement opened a door in her mind, a few more flung open even wider. Soon they connected into one big hallway of an idea.

"If you don't mind….you might need to keep this quiet for more than a day," Elsa warned. "Two or three, tops. If you do, I might have the perfect way to give them these presents."

"I suppose I should at least hear you out," Robert conceded to his new collaborator.

"You don't have to," Elsa promised. "But it did occur to me that….we never got around to having my birthday ball."