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Grasping At Straws

Chapter 2: The Sequel

Summary:

Anna is still a pain in the ass, and Elsa... let's just say she's starting to melt a little. ;)

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

A cold hand on the back of Anna’s neck wakes her from her tired doze on the dining room table, making her jerk upright in her seat and look around to see who her cold-handed attacker is. Elsa sits down in her seat at the end of the table, just beside where Anna sits. She should have known. Despite having snagged one of her sister’s gloves, Elsa seems to have a mass supply or something, because both of her hands bear the same satin gloves they always have.

“Goodmorning, Anna. Not used to being up so early, I see.” Elsa must notice her staring, but she makes no comment about it.

“I’m fine, thank you very much.” Anna stretches her arms out while she yawns.

“I didn’t say you weren’t.” With how quick Elsa says that, Anna inhales a sharp breath that makes her cough. “Er, why did you decide to sleep so late in the first place?” Elsa hesitates to touch her food of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. Anna has the same breakfast, but with less salmon and more eggs. It has been so long since she's eaten breakfast in the morning.

“I didn’t decide to start sleeping in. It just happened when there was no longer anybody to wake up for.” Finally looking away, Anna starts to pick at her food with a fork. The room is quickly swallowed with an awkward silence. So quiet that Anna could hear the floor creak ever so slightly with any movement on her chair.

“Does… that mean you’re waking up early again for me?” Elsa only hesitantly breaks the silence, being very invested in finishing her food before Anna now, which wouldn’t be much of a feat this morning.

“...Maybe.”

When Elsa rises from her seat, Anna makes an effort not to look up at her, afraid of what she might see on her sister’s face for some reason. The tiredness weighs heavily on Anna’s shoulders and heart, making the world a little more dreary than she usually would see it. But, when she feels Elsa’s hand delicately placed on her head, it’s like her body gets a new kind of jump start. Is this affection? Physical affection from her sister?! Anna suddenly feels like she might cry.

“That’s sweet,” Elsa murmurs before retracting her hand.

The moment is gone and maybe Elsa didn’t think much of it, but Anna is so close to having a breakdown. As soon as the dining room doors close, she lets out a short breathless sobs, tears leaving her eyes like suppressed rainfall. It worked! It actually worked! Elsa is finally finding herself more comfortable with physical contact! Absolutely terrible that it happened through the means it did, but she’s actually comfortable with touching Anna now! And with her hands no less! Maybe that’s quick to assume Elsa really felt that and patting Anna’s head was just a reluctant thing, but Anna desperately wants to put this down as an accomplishment after what her sister has already done for her.

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Anna pants out every deep inhalation of the lingering scent on her sister’s glove, the hand holding it to her face trying not to hold it too tight while her other hand focuses on pleasing the hot needs below her waist. It isn’t nearly the same, and that felt devastating. Nothing her fingers could do could replicate the stimuli she had gotten from Elsa’s curious tongue. Maybe it was the fact of how wrong it is, but just thinking about Elsa’s head between her legs again…

“Elsa! Ahhhh, Elsa!!”

Her back lifts from the bed, her head falling deep into her pillows. Not the same… Not the same… When Anna’s body relaxes, she feels less than satisfied. Part of her wonders if using the glove would be any different, but that just leads her to a frustrated train of thought. Why did this have to be so hard, so confusing?! Why couldn’t she be allowed to fall for anyone else? And worst of all, why doesn’t she feel any sense of remorse and disgust when fantasizing about her sister this way?!?

Groaning at the thought she might have officially lost her mind and any sane emotion she may have had, Anna sits up and slides off her bed to change out of her sweaty dress and into a fresh pair of underwear. Just as she does so, a very light knock sounds on her door. Either Elsa or a maid. Anna would assume the latter, and yet, once opening the door, she finds her sister standing a fair few feet away from the door.

“Oh. Hey.” It takes a moment for her to realize her hair might be a bit of a mess before Anna starts quickly letting her hair down out of its tangled mess that used to be a french braid.

“I’m not even going to ask.” Elsa shakes her head a little and clears her throat. “I request your presence, in person, so you would join me at the wine cellar in exactly an hour.”

“What’s the occasion?”

The question seems to sizzle in the air for a moment while Elsa refuses to respond, though Anna can see heavy hints of her anxiety. Elsa’s fingers are twitching, even with her hands placed ever so gracefully over each other, and her eyebrows furrow like she's frowning, but her mouth strains against a grimace.

“Okay, whatever it is, I’ll be there, don’t worry.”

After the assurance, Elsa visibly relaxes and gives Anna a small nod before continuing her walk down the corridor. What the hell was that about?

_________________________________

Like Elsa had asked, Anna makes sure she’s at least at the cellar door by an hour later. Such a feat was somehow hard because of how she tried to fill the time and inevitably got extremely distracted. By the time she had to be there, she was in a full-on sprint down the halls, only to find the small round door cracked open already. Maybe Elsa is waiting for her?

Slowly, Anna pushes open the door. An old wooden staircase leads down into an empty black abyss that makes her hesitant to descend. Well, if Elsa is waiting for her down there, she’s definitely a creep to feel so comfortable in such a dark secluded place.

“Good, you’re here.” The sound of Elsa’s voice from behind jerks Anna out of her trance, making her jump and almost fall down the stairs until Elsa pulls her back with a careful hand on her shoulder.

“Jeezus, Elsa! Do I have to put a bell on that collar now, too?”

“Please don’t.”

Elsa goes first down the stairs, her posture as graceful as ever. Anna still only hesitantly follows.

“Close the door behind you.”

“But it’s dark-”

Just as Anna starts to protest, an oil lamp flickers alive, dimly illuminating the room below she still couldn’t see just yet. So, she backs up the stairs to close the door and rushes down the rest of the steps to curiously gaze around. It isn’t the first time she’s been here, having too much time to explore every inch of the castle, but she doesn’t come down here very often with how cold it is. The walls and floor are made of cobblestone, keeping any bugs or parasites away from the finely aged wines.

“So…” Anna gazes expectantly at Elsa, who seats herself on a large wooden crate. “What is it you wanted me to join you down here for?”

“I need… I want to start becoming more confident over my ice powers. I’m tired of being so afraid to touch or do anything with my hands.” Anna didn’t know what she thought she would expect from this, but that definitely wasn’t it. Still, amidst the mind-blowing surprise, she's ecstatic her sister is now taking the first step in conquering her fears.

“Elsa, that’s great! But why me? Isn’t your powers the main reason you avoided me specifically in the first place?”

“You’re the only one I can trust to keep this a secret while also being… the one I’m most relaxed around. I- if I start to freak out-”

“You won’t.” Anna takes a step towards Elsa to gently cup her sister’s face with a warm hand. Elsa lets out a shuddering breath, her own hand lifting to cover Anna’s.

“This is why. I’m sure I can make your time worth the while if there’s a price to your help.” Anna’s first instinct is to tell her sister there would never be a price on her help, but a part of her hesitates to do so. No, she has already been manipulative enough of Elsa.

“Don’t worry, that’s not necessary this time.” Instantly she knows she made the right decision when the smile Elsa gives her is so genuine and happy, that Anna’s sure she might die from the sight. “Now, c’mon, hand over those gloves.”

“S- so soon?” The smile turns to fear. Thankfully, Anna has already had good practice pushing past her sister’s fearful expressions.

“Yep, this is how you start learning to control, by accepting that the power exists and is yours.” Anna gently slips off both of Elsa’s gloves and places them on one of the smaller crates. When Elsa’s hands start to shake, Anna takes both in her own and looks her sister deep in the eyes. “Take a deep breath and relax. You’re going to be fine.”

“It isn’t me who I’m worried about…”

“Ha, you won’t hurt me.” Smirking with how she’s so sure of this, Anna presses one of Elsa’s very cold hands to her cheek. That seems to be too much for Elsa though, and she pulls her hands away.

“I can’t do this.” As Elsa looks down in defeat, Anna looks around the cellar again. With a short hum, she walks away from Elsa to scan the bottles before picking one at complete random. “What are you doing?”

“Well, we are in a wine cellar. Maybe after a couple of drinks, you’ll be able to relax and let it go.” That doesn’t seem like a horrible idea, but she's a little concerned about Elsa probably being a lightweight. She wouldn’t want to have her sister throwing up, or heaven forbid, running out of the cellar while having a burst of confidence in her powers. Eh, that’s a chance she’s willing to take. Elsa, now joining Anna by the racks of wine, takes the bottle from Anna.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“It’ll be fine! I’ll just leave the liquid courage to you and make sure you don’t leave the room.” While still not completely convinced, Elsa helps Anna get the top off the bottle.

Several drinks for Elsa later, while Anna reserves herself to minor sips, and the floor is already covered in snow. Anna is immensely enjoying herself without the drinks anyways because Elsa is a giggly mess. If she thought seeing her big sister smile was worth dying over, hearing her laugh like this for no reason is a million times better. Best of all, this Elsa is less than repulsed by Anna’s flirts and the dreamy swooning.

“Do you think you could build a snowman?”

“Oh, uh haha probably. Let’s give this a go!” Elsa can barely stand up straight, but she sure as hell makes an effort. Just in case, Anna stands behind her. A brilliant decision for, when Elsa swings her arms to the snow, the magical gust of blue sweeps her off balance and into Anna’s arms.

“I gotcha!” Looking up at Anna with a surprised goofy look, Elsa giggles again and reaches up to pat Anna’s cheek. “Hey, would you look at that!” They both look over to where the dust is clearing away. The snowman that sits before them isn’t in any way generic and is pretty small and kind of… disproportional. It's more special to both of them than what Anna had expected to come out of this.

“Hahaha! I made a snowman.” Elsa slinks down to the floor out of Anna’s arms, and she accidentally lets her with the shock and memories flooding her mind.

“Olaf?” The snowman misses all the normal features a snowman should have because of the lack of accessories in this room, but the physique and mouth are unmistakable. Anna hesitantly steps over her sister to get a better look. Some details on the snowman are creepily lifelike, like it might start moving or opening its mouth at random. She reaches forward to poke it with a hesitant finger, when-

“Hi, I’m Olaf!! And I like warm hugs!!!” Elsa flops onto Anna’s crouched position, knocking her over into the snow and scaring a yelp out of her.

“Damn it, Elsa! Okay, bedtime. We’ll figure out how to clear up this snow in the morning.” Giggling again, Elsa takes Anna’s hand and brings it to her collar, where she wraps Anna’s fingers around it.

“Oh yeahhhh, take me to your bedroom~” The lust-filled way Elsa says that makes Anna all sorts of hot, but she has to resist the temptation. As much as she wants to, taking Elsa in a state like this is all new kinds of wrong she wants no part of. Like was mentioned previously, she does not want Elsa as a pet. So, she gives a nervous laugh and pulls her hand away.

“No, I think we need to get you to your own bed.”

Elsa doesn’t verbally protest this idea, but she does hinder Anna from standing up by pushing her back into the snow and kissing her face. Now the bigger question is if she should tell Elsa about this tomorrow...

Eventually, with only a tiny bit of willpower left in her body to deny Elsa, Anna gets out from under her big sister’s body and manages to pull her towards the cellar door by her collar. It's the only way she can keep the older woman focused, and if she were honest with herself, really fun to drag her around like this. Especially fun when drunk Elsa thought Anna would be doing her as soon as they got to her bedroom. It really begs the curiosity if this is just drunk Elsa being horny or if real Elsa actually has some deep desires for her little sister. Anna doesn’t know what to believe and isn’t about to ask. Yet.

“Alright. Get in there and stay like a good girl. I’ll be back as soon as possible, so don’t fall asleep.” Elsa practically purrs while passing Anna into the dark bedroom. Chances are, the second Elsa reaches the bed, she would be out like a light. That’s what Anna’s betting on, based on her own drunk experience. Anna’s so relieved when her sister goes inside, that she turns without another thought and starts to shut the door, only for a pale hand to reach out and pull Anna in.

When she’s pushed out again, her hair is a mess from enthused hands and she’s completely out of breath from wine-flavored kisses, but at least she makes it out alive. Doing it for her friendship with Elsa. For Elsa.

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Just like Anna had said the night before, they are both at the cellar door bright and early at 10 in the morning since Anna refused to be awake any sooner.

“I can’t believe you. What if someone has seen the snow already? We may be too late!” Elsa quickly pushes open the door and rushes inside while Anna takes her sweet time.

“Why would anybody come down to the wine cellar this early in the morning?”

“That isn’t the point, Anna.”

Rolling her eyes, Anna closes the door behind herself as soon as the oil lamp is once again lit. Though she jerks fully awake quite quickly when a very important part of the snow is somehow missing. The snowman has completely disappeared off the snow. Elsa notices Anna vigorously searching behind bottles of wine and stops her before she could clumsily drop any.

“What? What are you looking for? All the snow is on the ground.”

“There was a snowman.”

“A what?”

“A snowman! Exactly like the one we made as kids! Well, not exactly the same because there aren’t any coals or sticks down here, but-”

“Maybe it melted?” Elsa looks confused and mostly disinterested in finding it.

“Why would a snowman melt and the rest of the snow stay the same?” When Elsa doesn’t have an answer for that, Anna continues looking.

“Uh, excuse me. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m trying to sleep, so could you guys-” Anna bangs her head on a shelf at the same time Elsa screams. Just as she looks to see what’s going on, her sister falls into her, desperately trying to get away from something.

“Wha-?! Who said that?!” Anna demands, looking around while protectively holding Elsa. A crate by the staircase shifts away, revealing boxes of wine and storage just sitting under the staircase, along with a short little lumpy snowman with buck teeth and big eyes. Struggling not to be taken by fear, Anna is closer to hyperventilating than screaming.

“Hello!” The snowman waves a makeshift arm of straw, a big smile on his face. “I’m new around here, I think that’s kind of obvious. It’s so refreshing to see new faces. That rat I found last night was not the friendliest. Very rude actually.”

“R- rat…?” With her arms wrapped tighter around Elsa, Anna stares down at the living snow in disbelief. Elsa does the same, clinging to Anna.

“Who are you two? And what’s outside? Also, do you think I look like a Trevor? Or maybe a Jason? I have no idea who I am!”

“I- I’m Anna. This is… Elsa.” Carefully, Anna pries Elsa off of her. It’s starting to become clear that this snowman is no harm to them. Startling, yes, but not harmful. “And you’re Olaf.” Still a little nervous anyway, she crouches down to the snowman’s level. Elsa moves quietly behind her, glancing from Olaf to her gloved hands and back in conflict of her own.

“Olaf? That’s a great name!” Anna finds herself smiling. Old childhood memories that were her favorite, all wrapped up into a few piles of talking snow. “Your guys’ names are cool, too! Oh, it’s so nice to meet you both! Will I be able to meet more people?”

“No!” Finally, Elsa chimes into the conversation, though she sounds less than happy about Olaf’s existence. “You… You have to stay here.”

“Why?” Olaf, while not seeming incredibly disappointed by this, gives them both very curious looks.

“Because…”

“Because outside of this room is very warm. You won’t get very far down the corridor without becoming a…” Anna stops mid-sentence, suddenly realizing how morbid this would sound for the poor creature. “It’s just much safer for you in here. We’ll make sure to come see you every once in a while so you don't get lonely though, okay, Olaf?”

“Oh, that sounds lovely.” The snowman claps his straw hands and twirls around on the snow. Satisfied that she hadn’t needed to ruin the snowman’s first day of life, Anna stands and smiles at her sister, who bears a dreadful look.

“Yes… Speaking of which, Anna and I must go now.” Without actually asking for Anna to join her, Elsa takes her hand and starts quickly pulling her up the stairs.

“Okay, I’ll see you guys later then!! Oh, the rat is back!”

When the door closes behind Anna, Elsa spends a long moment staring at the door handle instead of talking to Anna. What she expected was some sort of lecture about doing or saying the wrong thing, but apparently, Elsa is far more interested in something else. The door bore no lock on it, but with Olaf’s straw hands, it would seem foolish to worry about. Although, someone could walk in and see him…

“What are you thinking?”

“We have to get rid of him somehow.”

“Wait- what?! No!”

“Anna, this isn’t a discussion! That is a talking, living snowman! We can’t just have him live in our wine cellar! What if someone sees him?” Maybe Elsa has a point, but it just feels like so much more than eradicating a problem. Olaf is their childhood, their happy memories as friends when they were kids.

“Fine, but snowman murder is on your hands, not mine!”

“Please, quiet your voice… And I can’t do this without you!” Elsa whisper-yells, her hands nervously rubbing her arms. “We were supposed to figure out how to thaw the snow together.”

Anna takes a moment to think about this. She wants nothing to do with Elsa getting rid of Olaf, but she did promise to help her. So, the right thing to do would be…

“Anna?” Acting on immediate thoughts and impulses alone, Anna reaches out to take Elsa’s collar and starts to lead them down the corridor. “Let go and t- tell me what you’re doing!” Elsa demands, her hand on Anna’s arm, but doing nothing more than threatening to pull her away. Anna abides by no such commands and brings her sister to the next empty room; the library. It doesn’t have a lock on it, but people don’t just randomly come in here so it would be fine enough.

“Okay, take off one of your gloves.” After finally letting go of Elsa, she pushes the older woman onto the couch. “We’re going to figure this out.”

“Here?”

“You’re the one who’s rushing the process! Now take it off before I do it for you. That sounds way worse out loud…” Elsa is quick to peel off the glove to her right hand, now sitting up more graciously on the couch. “Good girl. Now.. Do you remember anything from what we discovered last night?” Anna sits down beside her, but not too close in case it makes Elsa nervous.

“It’s pretty fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure the gist was to relax and…” Elsa lifts her hand over her other and closes her eyes to take a zenful deep breath. When she opens her eyes again, her fingers are delicately trailing magical blue snowflakes from the air into the palm of her gloved hand until a small pile of pearly white snow has formed.

“That’s great, Elsa!” Anna feels she couldn’t compare her enthusiasm to the pure relief and joy on Elsa’s face for doing something with her power that's calmly controlled and executed. “Now we can work on what might thaw it. Well, science says that heat thaws, so maybe think warm thoughts?”

“Right, okay. Uh, fireplace, the sun, summer, this isn’t working.” Elsa taps the pile with her finger, but other than putting an indent in the soft powder, it does nothing.

“Maybe you’re thinking of the wrong kind of warm.” Anna now scoots up to Elsa’s shoulder, making her sister tense and give her a cautious glance. “I was thinking more like… you and I sitting by a cozy fireplace, wrapped in fluffy blankets, and sharing hot cocoa.” Though Elsa’s face blushes a soft rose color, the pile of snow still doesn’t budge. “Think about it, Elsa. Us alone in a room, huddled extremely close beside the fire, while I lean in and give you..” She leans over to wrap both arms around Elsa. “A big warm hug.”

With the smallest motion from Elsa’s hand, the snow pile dissipates into the air.

“The warmest feeling out there is love.” Giggling, Anna kisses Elsa’s cheek and lets go of her. “I knew you could do it.” Then, with a gentle tap on her sister’s lap, she stands and starts towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Elsa, still rigid in her spot, looks over at Anna, looking a bit dismayed to see her go.

“Oh, do you want me to stay? I assumed you would go play assassin once learning how to melt.”

“No, I…” The Queen finally puts her hands down and pulls her glove back on before she stands from the couch. “I would rather become a little better at it first. I wouldn’t want to only half complete the job and leave Olaf… well… you know.” Anna shudders and nods. “Besides, I believe there’s a bit of a debt I owe to you now.”

“W- what? Oh! Uh!” Giving a very nervous laugh, Anna backs against the library door. Her hand quickly searches for the door handle. “Now? Right now? You don’t have to worry about that right now. I’m sure you have Queenly things to do, and I don’t want to get in your way.”

“Don’t want to get in my way? Since when?” Either catching on to Anna’s submissive gay panic or just finding this behavior amusing, Elsa smirks and gets closer to Anna. “Would you rather wait until tonight?”

Anna has to swallow back her emotions, feeling herself slowly drowning in Elsa’s stare. She almost couldn’t register what was said. Tonight? Gosh, she didn’t imagine herself getting this far again. So much for Elsa’s “one-time-thing”.

“Anna, is something the matter? If it makes you more comfortable, I can do something else for you. Within reason, of course.”

“No! I- I mean, no that’s- it’s fine! Tonight would be great!” Elsa cocks an eyebrow to her, but seemingly shrugs it off and looks down at the door handle, which is tight in Anna’s grasp.

“Can you open the door then?” Nodding quickly, Anna does so and lets Elsa out the door first. While Elsa walks to the left of the corridor, towards where they had come from, Anna makes an awkward dash to the right. Not that she doesn’t want to walk side by side with Elsa after that whole awkwardness, but she wants food.

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A couple of hours later, when she’s grooming Kjekk out of pure boredom, Anna gets an idea. Her horse is more interested in the hay at his feet than the bucket of fruits and vegetables, so before he can protest, Anna snags a large carrot from the bucket.

“You won’t mind if I just… keep this one, do you? I know someone who might enjoy it more.” Kjekk’s response is to swat her back with his tail, which she’ll take as he doesn’t care as long as there’s still plenty of food for him. “Fantastic.” She puts down the brush and pats his side.

After leaving the stable, Anna keeps one eye on the ground so she could pick up a couple of loose sticks on the way. Then, once she’s inside, she sneaks into the kitchen to grab a couple of coal pieces from the dormant ovens.

“Princess Anna, what on earth are you doing, your majesty?” Caught in the act, Anna stares at the bewildered Kai.

“Uh, just collecting some stuff for a little project.”

“What kind of project?” Searching for more excuses, she stands and readjusts the stuff under one arm so she could wipe off the black smudge from her hand. “Look at you, you’re a mess now. I’ll have the maids start putting together a bath for you.” Then Kai just walks away before Anna could devise a foolproof lie. Well, that was easy.

Before anyone else could catch or question her, Anna makes a run for the wine cellar. With how far away it is, she should have been caught, but lucky her that the staff in this castle is a very short list.

There’s no sound of life within the darkness the door opens up to, so she can only pray that Olaf has stayed put, but as she descends the stairs, a shuffling from the boxes under the staircase gives away the second presence in the room. It could have been the rat Olaf spoke about, but with the oil lamp at the bottom of the stairs lit, she could see nothing of the sort.

“Olaf?”

“Anna! You’re back!” Anna almost jumps with the tendrils of hay wrapping around her leg from behind and the cold snow on her leg as Olaf tries to hug her. The surprise eases into her own excitement to see him again and she crouches down.

“Yep! And I brought you some things.”

“Gifts?”

Putting down the stuff in her arms, Olaf gasps at the display and waves his arms in excitement. Anna giggles and helps him equip the new and improved stick arms, as well as giving him the coal button accessories, stylishly giving him a hairdo of much smaller twigs, and last but not least, adjusting the carrot nose in place.

“Oh Anna, I love it!! I feel like a real snowman!”

“I’m so glad! You look great, too!” The snowman giggles and grins up at her, and for a second Anna thought she might cry.

Elsa would be mad she came back, mad that she’s getting herself too attached, but this may be the only time she’ll be able to confront her childhood and get lost in the fun. Olaf is a harmless memory, maybe the sweetest of everything she has shared with her sister. So, forcing back her heavy heart, she stands up.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. There’s a couple of books I want to grab, and then we can spend the rest of the day together.”

__________________________________________________

“Anna, are you in here?”

Elsa’s voice rouses Anna from sleep, where she finds herself still sitting against the staircase with a book in her lap and Olaf asleep on her shoulder. Footsteps on the stairs above start up her heart with a sudden rush of anxiety.

“I’m here.” She murmurs, careful not to wake Olaf when slowly scooting herself away.

“People have been looking for you for hours!” Elsa exclaims, rounding the bottom of the stairs.

“Shhh!” Anna glares at her sister and moves past her on the stairs. If they were going to argue, she would rather do it out of earshot of Olaf. After extinguishing the flame, Elsa follows close behind Anna until she could close the door behind herself.

“Did… you spend the last several hours with that snowman?”

“His name is Olaf, and yes, I did.”

“Anna…” Elsa’s disappointed tone cuts Anna deep where she’s not yet ready to accept her bad choices.

“I mean, if you’re going to- y'know… in a few days, then I want to make his time still alive worth living.”

“But that only makes this so much harder on yourself, Anna. It’s just a snowman.”

“No! He’s not just a snowman! He’s our snowman! We were friends when we were kids, and he represents all of that! He loves warm hugs and summer, and flowers, and he-” Anna quickly wipes at her eyes, shaking in her attempt not to start crying. Elsa hesitantly puts a hand on her shoulder, clearly unsure what to do about this. “I’ve been trying for so long to come to terms with how our friendship just… melted one day, how we suddenly weren’t close anymore, but it hurts. It has always hurt.”

“I know… It hurts for me, too. I guess I just thought we were getting close again, and my mistakes in the past didn’t have to mean so much anymore.” Anna lowers her hands from her face to look at Elsa’s lowered guilty face. Then in an instant, those hands are pulling Elsa into a tight hug. There’s still pain for them both, but maybe now there will be healing.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make this so hard.”

“It’s okay.” Elsa carefully holds Anna for a moment before leaning back and holding Anna’s face in her hands instead. “Hey, let’s get you to the bath. I’m sure a nice warm soak will make you feel better.” With her gaze anywhere but looking at Elsa, Anna solemnly nods. She reaches up to take one of Elsa’s gloved hands and lets the older woman lead the way to the bathing chambers.

The particular room Elsa takes her to is one of their most secluded, and yet very large, rooms. Patterns on the walls are carved directly into the stone and lead across the polished floor towards the center, where a marble bath waits for her. Gentle steam rises from the surface of bubbles, giving a very warm and welcoming air about it. Just the soft scent of strawberries wafting with the steam makes Anna’s head feel a little clearer.

Anna turns to Elsa, who’s looking very sheepish to still be standing in the room. She lifts Elsa’s hand to her mouth and kisses the satin fabric covering the back of her sister’s hand. That seems to ease her tensions with an amused smile.

“Join me, your majesty?”

“Anna, you know I…” Elsa’s voice trails off, like she has forgotten her excuse.

“I won’t try anything. I promise.” While Elsa searches Anna’s face for signs of mischievous intentions, Anna can see she’s finally breaking into Elsa’s walls. Who knew patience, trust, and a little bit of annoyance, could melt even the most petrified ice?

“Very well. I’ll let the maid outside know.” Anna has to use too many ounces of will not to let her excitement burst from every pore in her body. Though she can hardly contain the grin on her face. Elsa’s face darkens a shade before she can escape the room quick enough.

Quickly, Anna departs with her shoes and slides over the floor on her socks to the bath, taking a deep breath of the alluring smell as she does. Standing behind the jutting round edge, she starts to pull off her dress, the cloth revealing an abundance of freckles across her skin. When all of her clothes are shed from her, she leaves them on the ground and slowly slips herself into the warm, almost too hot, water. Moaning softly at how it soothes her body, Anna leans her head back against the edge.

The soft tap of heels on the floor perks Anna’s attention again and she lifts herself a bit out of the water so she could watch Elsa getting closer. Her sister’s gaze is on the clothes littered over the ground, her mouth in a frown. She picks them up herself and takes them to a woven black bin. When she looks back over at Anna, the ginger sheepishly ducks back under the safe enclosure of marble.

“Is it really so hard to pick up your clothes?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.” Anna smirks to herself, rolling her eyes. Though she isn’t so smug when a sudden chill comes over the exposed air. Despite the cold, Anna looks up out of the tub again at Elsa, who takes off her dress near the clothes bin like a responsible person. She can’t help but stare. Her sister’s skin is pale as snow, delicately formed on a body as graceful as the most intricate ice sculpture.

It doesn’t take long for Elsa to notice the staring, and when she does, her face turns another shade of red. With a small grumble, the Queen deposits her clothes into the bin and makes her way over to the tub. She slides in on the other side of Anna, just her presence making the water a tad cooler. Anna less than minds. Her heart races in her chest, a sudden nervousness in her throat that prohibits her from saying anything.

“Can you stop staring?”

Elsa’s arms cross over her chest, obstructing Anna’s view of her shapely breast, not much bigger than Anna’s herself, but far more interesting. Anna quickly chooses to stare at the wall instead, her eyes pretending that the patterns of reindeer, cats, moose, and other forest animals are more interesting.

“I swear, it’s like you actually have feelings for me when you’re like this.”

“Like what?” Glancing back at Elsa, the suspicious expression on the woman’s face tells her she had answered too quickly. “I mean, obviously, I don’t, so I’m just… What do you want me to do? Pretend you’re not stunning and that you’re not super nice to be around?”

“It feels like more than that,” Elsa murmurs, possibly more to herself than Anna with how quiet it is. She reaches outside of the tub for a round glass bottle, a pearly white substance filling it. Placing the bottle on the tub’s edge, Elsa lets down her hair, forcing Anna to look away again before another rush of gay makes her look even more suspicious.

“Yeah, well, what’s it say about you that you haven’t once asked for your collar to be removed since you-”

“Don’t say it. What’s your point?”

“Do you like it now or something?” The bath grows noticeably colder.

“No, but I did kind of forget it was there, so thank you for the reminder. You wouldn’t happen to have the key with your clothes, would you?”

“You think I just carry the key with me wherever I go?” Elsa levels her with a half-lidded stare, clearly not about to answer that question.

Repressing a scowl, Anna stands up out of the water and the tub, and makes her way over to the black bin. She rifles through the dirty clothes until finding the pocket of her dress where the key is. Walking over to where Elsa lays back into the water, a smug expression on her face, Anna reaches down into the water to tug her sister up a bit by the collar. Even with the rough demanding movement, Elsa holds a smirk, her entire face displaying some sort of triumph over this. While the look of Elsa being so overconfident is cute beyond comprehensive sounds, Anna still desires to wipe it off her older sister’s face.

So, in an attempt to do so, she quickly leans down to peck a quick kiss on Elsa’s lips, only for Elsa to be expecting that. In an instant, one of Elsa’s hands is holding Anna’s face while she tilts her chin up, eager not to let Anna escape a much deeper kiss. Little does Anna know that this is merely a trick. While she’s immense in the kiss, almost fainting with relief that her sister feels the same way, Elsa’s other hand snags the key. Then Elsa is pulling herself away and scooting over a bit so she can unlock the collar.

Anna stares at the water in disbelief and nervous fear, her heart rapidly bouncing against her ribs. She can hear the sound of metal as the collar and the key are set out of the bath, but she’s too afraid to look at her sister. Was that manipulation just now? I mean, it serves her right, but she would have never suspected such a thing from Elsa. Who knew she could be such a horrible influence as well as good?

“Your crush is obvious, Anna. I figured it out weeks ago…”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” She quietly croaks out before instinctually flinching away from cold hands. Elsa has taken her gloves off. Finally, Anna glances at Elsa again, who holds out a shaking hand to her. Still, Anna hesitates to take it.

“I didn’t want to make things awkward.”

“And you don’t feel the same…?”

“Please, come back into the bath. This is supposed to be relaxing you.” Against all of her thoughts and fears, Anna accepts Elsa’s hand and steps back into the water, which is significantly hotter than when she remembered leaving it. More like when she had first gotten into it.

“Oh yeah, so relaxing…” Elsa pulls Anna over to her, where her sister once again reaches over the side to produce a brush. They stay in tense silence while Elsa lathers Anna’s hair with the white soap, slowly drifting them both into a more peaceful silence with Elsa brushing Anna’s hair. Anna just can’t help relaxing under the soft rhythmic strokes. It’s much like how their mother would do it.

“Would you like to do mine?” Elsa’s voice is soft enough to keep Anna in an almost trance-like state. So, she nods and takes the brush from Elsa. Anna repeats what had been done for her, but Elsa leans against her when she starts to brush the gorgeous platinum strands of her hair. Somehow her hair is completely free of tangles, the brush flowing through perfectly with every stroke.

This close, Anna could see the very light freckles over Elsa’s face, too. Just over her cheeks and some on the bridge of her nose. So cute! Anna wants to kiss every single one of them. And she would have, too, if not for those icy eyes catching her stares.

“You’re staring again.”

“You have freckles on your face.”

“So do you.”

“Yours are much lighter. I love them.”

Elsa’s gaze darts away, a shy blush returning to her features.

_____________________________________________________________________

“I think you’re getting better at this!” Anna says, her shoulders and the top of her head covered in snow. Sighing in distraught, Elsa uses her hand to brush it off onto the snow-covered floor.

“I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong! What is it that I'm not feeling or doing that’s different from the first time I did it?” Elsa paces away from Anna and over to her bed before walking back and forth.

“Maybe you just need to relax.” Anna shrugs and reaches out her arms to catch Elsa before she can continue walking away. “When we were in the library, you weren’t frustrated, you had an open mind to failing the first time. It’s okay not to get it right if you don’t give up.”

“I’m not… giving up!” Elsa throws what she can of her arms into the air, snow puffing out around them that she tries to wave away while being trapped in Anna’s embrace. “I just feel like I’m going to go insane doing the same thing over and over!” Her arms fall to her sides in defeat.

“Right, right.” Repressing a sneeze, Anna turns her head away just in case. “Well, maybe take a deep breath and try to thaw a smaller portion of the snow rather than all of it at once.”

Elsa glares at a certain pile of snow and waves her hand over it. Instead of thawing, the snow sprouts a large spike that startles Elsa enough to jump back into Anna, forcing them both to the ground. While Elsa’s heart races from the fact she could’ve just killed them both, Anna lays in the snow laughing.

“Why are you laughing?! I could have just killed you!”

“But you didn’t!” Elsa moves out of the embrace so she could look down at Anna, only to be captured by her sister’s giggling happy face. It’s impossible not to smile, and she finds herself softly chuckling too.

“And here I thought I would be the crazy one.”

“Are you calling me crazy?” While Anna sounds offended, her face still betrays amusement.

“I am.” Elsa, unaware of the consequences of this, stands up off the floor and brushes the snow from her sleeves. It takes Anna the miracle of three seconds to have a snowball in her hands and to pelt that snowball at Elsa, bullseyeing her straight in the chest. “Anna!”

“I’ll show you crazy!” Grinning wildly, Anna shuffles away to make more snowballs.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Elsa, frantic to thaw the snow, only makes more of it. So, with a helpless groan, goes with it and makes herself a snowbank of protection to duck under.

“You can’t hide behind there forever, Snow Queen!”

“Watch me!”

“No, I mean, because you’re completely unaware that I’m above you.” When Elsa looks up, sure enough, her little sister is leaning over the snowbank. “I could’ve bombarded the snow until it collapsed, but this seemed more fun.”

All Elsa can do now is close her eyes, shield against the snowy attack with her arms, and await cold wet misery. Only, she can hear the thunking of pelted snow, but feels no such attack. When she opens her eyes, she notices a stretch of ice has risen from the snow to protect above her, a blanket of snow slowly sliding down it.

“Woooaaaahhhh!” Anna, amazed, halts in her attacks against her sister. “Elsa, that’s awesome! How’d you do that?”

“I have no idea… Help!” While this is indeed a cool new thing, she doesn’t know how to undo it.

“Warm thoughts. You control it; it doesn’t control you.”

Right… Control.

Elsa focuses, though the only warm thought she can think of is the girl leaning so haphazardly against a wall of snow. She wants the ice to recede, and so she brings both of those thoughts together when touching the ice. Just as she wants, the ice uncovers from around Elsa and dissipates into the air. A sense of accomplishment comes over her, and then a rush of embarrassment when Anna starts enthusiastically clapping.

Out of maybe a little bit of spite or perhaps revenge, Elsa’s next target is the snow her sister so relaxedly lays against. When the snow melts away, Anna falls forward, half onto the floor and half into Elsa’s lap. However, she doesn’t seem at all perturbed.

“Hello, good girl~” Mistake. Already knowing her face is getting hot again, Elsa pushes Anna away by a cold hand on her face. The girl giggles and leans back onto the floor. “See? Just a little patience is all it takes.”

Despite minor grievances and how annoying Anna can be, she really is the key Elsa had needed when fixing the mess that had become of her powers. There’s still that fear of slipping and making a huge mistake that would put Anna’s life in danger again, but Anna believes in her too hard to let Elsa continue escaping her.

The fact Anna holds no fear of Elsa whatsoever is what’s making her hesitate to tell her the reason she had been shut out, and her fear of not being trusted keeps Elsa from revealing the blame more so on their parents than Elsa herself. It’s fine if Elsa is at fault, because Anna is clearly going to try and make things right between them both again, but she doesn’t have the choice of confronting their parents anymore.

“Like usual, you were right and I was stubborn. Forgive me?” Anna taps her chin, pretending to think about it.

“For a price.” She decides, another smug smile brightening her features. Elsa, unable to resist a grin of her own, rolls her eyes. “Now that you’ve gotten a lot more of a hold on your powers, I think we should have a ball!”

...Not the price she was expecting.

Elsa gives Anna a blank, partially astounded stare while she tries to figure out if she heard her sister right.

“I’m sorry, I’m confused. What is it you want?”

“A ball. Big party… lots of guests…. chocolate.” Anna gives a nervous laugh, wondering if she should have just asked for the usual instead of attempting to be a bit bolder. No, if Elsa is going to conquer her fears, Anna can’t let hers hold her back either. “I was just thinking-”

“No. Absolutely not.” Quick to decide, Elsa stands and turns to start thawing the rest of her room of snow. Still a slow process, but at least a progressing one. Anna stands as well and reaches over to take one of Elsa’s arms in both of hers.

“C’mon, Elsaaaaaa!!!” She whines, just waiting until Elsa looks down at her to give her sister an irresistible pleading look. Elsa, who has already fallen for that too many times, does her best to keep her eyes anywhere else.

“I said no, Anna. End of discussion.”

“But why?! What’s holding you from it now? I’ve done so much to help you, don’t I deserve a little bit of outside social interaction for once?”

“It isn’t safe still! I’ve just now learned how to thaw something under a cool head. What if I accidentally freeze someone or something, and then I panic and can’t fix it?!”

“That won’t happen.” Anna almost laughs, only resisting doing so because she doesn’t want to make fun of Elsa’s horrible paranoia.

“How do you know?” Finally, Elsa looks down at Anna with a hard skeptical stare.

“Because I’m going to be there with you. You aren’t alone in this anymore, Elsa. You’re going to be fine, I’ll make sure of it.” Elsa bites her lip, efficiently trapped in Anna’s determined gaze. It’s so hard to deny the girl.

“Fine.” She gives in with a sigh, her gaze dropping to the floor in defeat. While completely anticipating her sister’s excitement, Elsa instead gets a very loving kiss on her cheek.

“Don’t worry. I promise not to kiss or swoon over anyone else, even if they catch my eye. Wouldn’t want to make you jealous~” And the fury returns.

“Get out of my room before I turn you into a popsicle.”

“Oooh kinky.”

“Out!”

Notes:

Well, here it is :) Another 8,000-word chapter since y'all were unsatisfied with the ending to the last one. I hope this one appeases much better.