White Queen

Two Are Needed to Dance

I had the urge to call this chapter "Teamwork Makes the Dream Works" but I resisted.

The strangest thing was, embarrassment was the last thing that she felt at that moment.

With the high of celebration regarding the birth of the Crown Prince fading as the days rolled by, the life within the castle's walls had fallen back into the pattern of regularity. The Queen did not waste much time of straying away from her duties and responsibilities, as she knew there were many waiting for her to put her attention into and she could not rely on both Hans and Anna forever. It took some time for her to adjust Wilhelm into her day, for she did not wish to miss out on taking care of him either, though she understood that the help of his nannies would have to be accepted still, she was actually rather thankful of it now.

Attending meetings with her Council was proved to be a little difficult though, when her mind kept drifting away to her son upstairs even when according to Anja -one of Wilhelm's nannies, he had spent most of his time sleeping when she was busy taking care of the kingdom.

It felt odd when instead of feeling his movement in her womb she was greeted with nothingness when she placed her hand over her stomach that had not yet reduced back to it's original size -which frustrated her to some degree but Gerda assured her it would be back to normal with time. She... longed for her babe's company; to have him to talk to when she was working alone, his mere presence was comforting. Now that he has been born, she had to actually make her way into his nursery just to see him.

"Your Majesty," the uncertainty in Lord Melbourne's voice had taken her mind back to the men at the table, who had their eyes on the Queen who rose her eyebrow in question. "You're... leaking."

Her head tilted down then, heaving out a sigh at the sight of the incident over her left breast. It had aching since about halfway through the meeting, yes, but she had originally thought she would be fine until the end; apparently, she was mistaken. Yet instead of the flush of red she thought she would be bearing across her cheeks, she had simply moved her singular braid over the wet spot of her dress before looking back up. "I believe we can end this meeting for the day as my son would shortly need me more than you do at the moment."

She had stood up and made her way toward the door when she had heard the whispers behind her back, of the fact that this would not have happened should she was not being stubborn with insisting to breastfeed her son instead of accepting the wet nurse. Her jaw tightened at that, ice magic swirling right under her fingertips, but her irritation had disappeared the moment she met Anja at the door with her hand halfway raised to knock on the door.

"The Prince has woken up, Your Majesty."

Nodding her head, she had merely made the request for a fresh new dress to be brought up for her as she made her way up the stairs, already hearing her son's cries even from the staircase, hitching up the skirt of her dress to pick up her pace.

He was already attended to when she reached the nursery, but it was clear for everyone that it was his mother that he needed the most. Letting her ladies-in-waiting to undo the laces on the back of her much simpler dress -as her usual ones would take too much time, she was quick to hold and gently rocked the still weeping child, lowering herself onto the armchair by the window without bothering with the need to look up and see the ladies leaving through the door, not with her focus on feeding her son as the top of her priority.

The sight of him alone had already able to captivate her, eyes barely even glancing away from how his mouth moved so hungrily, tiny hand clenching up into a fist, cheeks flushing red so adorably she could not help but to lean down and press a loving kiss, inhaling the unique baby scent that she had grown in love with.

"I knew I would find you here."

She had heard the door opening, of his footsteps coming in and approaching her, but she had not bothered to look up even then, too much in awed in watching their son that her attention could not be divided. "Where else would I be?"

His lips pressed against her own cheek as his hand came to cradle Wilhelm's head with such care as not to cause any sort of harm, sitting down on the arm of the chair. "He looks like you," his murmur was low and quiet, mindful as not to disturb the young Prince. When she –who had let her head to lean against him, had questioned where his comment had come from, as she was sure that she did not look like a newborn baby at all, he had only chuckled. "When you are asleep."

"I do not look like that when I'm asleep."

"Oh, but you do." His head turned to press a light kiss on her temple before turning his attention back to the child, whose lips had now loosened around her nipple as he found himself quite full already. "The way his lips pursed, you did that sometimes."

Her eyes rolled then. "I do not."

Hans was already on his feet, ready to take over with Wilhelm even without the need for her to speak up after he had placed the burping cloth on his shoulder, holding him up securely before his hand started to work on patting the babe's back, rocking gently on the sole of his boots while she fixed her dress.

From the day Wilhelm was born, the auburn-haired Prince had never once complained when it comes to giving a helping hand in caring for him, had taken the responsibility rather seriously actually, willing to do anything he could to ease her, as he had found each interaction with his son a precious moment he did not wish to pass up, much like she did.

"Other fathers would have been very reluctant."

Then she was thankful that he was not like the others. He was not the man who would simply turn a blind eye when it comes to their child and expect the women to do all the work by herself, never once did he ever think that caring for his son was something that would shame a man.

"I do wonder if he would inherit your powers."

She had almost choked on the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat the moment he had expressed his wonder to her, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she hurried her fingers into tugging her dress into it's proper place. "By God, I hope you're wrong." One ice-wielding royalty currently sitting on the throne was enough for Arendelle to handle, if it's next ruler -the newborn Crown Prince himself, possessed the same magic as his mother then the chance of it turning disastrous was high.

Wilhelm's hair was far from her platinum blonde color, which had her breathing a sigh of relief the moment she had laid her eyes on him for the first time, for many had believed that her hair color was the ultimate indication that she possessed magic. But now that Hans spoke of it, of his innocent little wonder, she had only felt rather panic-stricken, as what if he possessed it still no matter what color his hair had taken.

The reaction that she had given him made his head turned to look up at her, brows furrowing at the expression that she had, of her tightly pulled lips and the hardness of her jaw, though he had not said a word.

"Hans, he can't-" their son surely had not inherited her ability -she used to call it a curse and he called it a gift thus a middle point was made, no one that she knew in her family heritage had it, so surely it was only for her to bear. "We would have known."

"Well, he sneezed and no snow flurry had come up."

And his skin did not feel cold, unlike hers, it was warm and had caused Anna to be unable to resist the urge to cuddle him too; his grip over things -mostly people's fingers, had not caused any sort of frost to grow and bite the air. He's... he can't be having her magic, she was sure of it.

"Magic or not," Hans had given the babe back into her arms now, to let her hold him and rocked him until he fell back asleep, while his own hands had come to comfortingly caressed her upper-arms. "He will be fine, Elsa."

Also, I'm watching Frozen II tomorrow, but will not put any sort of spoiler into this story, no worries. Watching it will help determined whether I would make a continuing with a third book though.