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Grasping At Straws

Summary:

Canonverse AU where Anna quietly accepts Elsa's judgement against Hans and goes back to an isolated life in the castle. However, Elsa finds it's a lot harder to avoid Anna now with not being able to just hide in her bedroom all the time.

Chapter 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Anna firmly pins Elsa against the wall by her shoulders, her sister’s expression priceless with how angry Anna appears to be. The recently coronated Queen trembles under her little sister’s dominating posture, stuttering and begging for Anna to leave her be. But Anna wants answers. Sure, this is a lot more forceful than she initially wants to be, but Elsa just refuses to give in. Elsa had made her resort to this, so it’s her fault.

“Just tell me why you’ve been hiding!” Anna hisses into the older woman’s face, who turns her head away and closes her eyes tight. “It doesn’t have to be this hard, Elsa.”

“Anna, what part a- about “I can’t” don’t you understand?” Elsa’s voice is much quieter, and frail in terms of trying to stand up for herself.

“All of it. I don’t understand why you can’t just tell me. There is no secret you can tell me that we can’t figure out together. I’m not going to judge you whatever it is.” The silence from Elsa after saying that gives away her skepticism. “Elsa, come on!! Please!!”

“B- begging? Really, Anna?”

“Oh, I’ll do a lot more than begging, sis.” Finally, Elsa opens her eyes to glare at Anna, who glares right back at her. There becomes a heavy silence between them as they stare, reading each other’s eyes. If anyone were to stumble upon these two, just lurking in the hallway, it would look like a much different scene.

“Tell me.”

“No.”

Anna has to repress a scream of frustration, instead just grunting and slamming her fist into the wall. That makes Elsa jump away into Anna herself, knocking them both to the floor in a clumsy mess. At first, Anna scrambles to get Elsa off of her, but that just leads them into a more intimate position somehow. Elsa’s thigh presses firmly between Anna’s legs, their faces inches away.

“What about now?” She breathes the words, feeling slightly crushed under Elsa. Elsa’s face gets a deep shade of red that is so cute Anna can’t stop herself from giggling.

“You’re unbelievable.” Pushing herself off of Anna with a scoff, it takes only a second for her to be pulled back down by her cape’s clasp. What happens next is not at all what Anna was trying to do, but it’s the one thing that finally gets her answers. Both freeze in place with their lips firmly connected. Anna’s first thought is how strangely soft and pleasant they were, then how her heart raced in her chest, and then the dawning, unfortunate fact that this is her sister.

Then it’s the sudden cold that wraps around her, even when Elsa pulls herself back. Anna doesn’t have the strength from her surprise to keep hold of her cape, so Elsa gets away easily. Now both of their faces are painted in a shade of red. Though Anna has a feeling she doesn’t compare with how red Elsa manages to get. She’s so focused on her sister’s face that she almost doesn’t notice the physical ice around her. Elsa waits for her to notice though, almost like a mix of being terrified for the reaction and… relieved. When Anna does notice, she’s careful not to touch it, or even move for fear of disturbing something, but inevitably, her curiosity outweighs her caution. With a single finger, Anna traces the sharp outline of where Elsa’s palm had been and the spikes that surrounded the thin ice covering the floor.

“Ice?”

When Anna finally turns her attention back to Elsa, she finds the woman still trembling, and now huddled into herself against the wall. Of course, she could have made a run for it while Anna was distracted, but maybe she was tired of running from this. Maybe she finally did trust Anna to know, even if she’s still afraid to say it.

“Is this what you were hiding?” Slowly, Elsa looks down at her satin-gloved hands. “Elsa, this is amazing!”

“The gloves were supposed to help, but… they don’t always conceal.” Anna scoots forward so she could gently take Elsa’s hands if it were allowed to her, which Elsa very reluctantly does.

“You don’t have to conceal this anymore, Elsa. I can help you feel again! You don’t have to hide away anymore.” That’s all it takes for Elsa to pull her hands away again, a fearful look in her eyes.

“No! It isn’t safe for me to feel!”

Anna scoffs. “Don’t make me kiss you again.”

Wait- what?

“...what?”

“I mean-!! D- don’t make me take your gloves from you.”

Saved it.

“You wouldn’t!” Elsa tries to slink away, only to be easily brought to the ground again with Anna’s arms wrapped snugly around her torso.

_______________________________________________________________

Anna hides behind a small table, the surface barren besides just a plant in one of their most priceless vases. Staying as still as she can, she grips a collar tightly in both of her hands, dazzled with blue topaz and made from baby blue leather. The sound of Elsa’s heels quietly taps on the floor, slowly getting louder. The closer she gets, the more Anna’s heart races. All the while, she’s questioning and debating going through with this. It’s crazy! And yet, it’s almost like she didn’t have a choice. Who else is she going to harass like this? Certainly not the people who feed or pick up after her. No, this kind of assholery deserves to be thrown on the one that refuses to have the kingdom gates open.

Finally, Elsa’s shoes pass by her awful hiding spot. The only reason Elsa must not have spotted her is because of the papers she currently viewed while walking. This was the perfect opportunity. Too perfect. Choking, Anna hesitates. But, before it’s too late, she rushes forward to tackle her older sister from behind. Papers fly from Elsa’s hands and she drops to the floor with a startled cry and a thud. Anna couldn’t even think of anything witty. Her fingers were too focused on getting the collar around her sister’s neck and latching the small padlock closed.

Once the leather is tightly secured to the blonde’s exposed neck, Anna makes a clumsy run for it, the key firmly in one of her hands. She doesn’t dare look back until having rounded the corner, and by the time she does, Elsa gives another, much angrier, cry.

“Anna!!! Get back here!!! Unlock this right now!!” Anna looks out around the corner, the sound of quick footsteps giving her a rush, as does it to see Elsa running down the hall at her. Giving an excited squeak, Anna goes back to sprinting until she can find safety in her bedroom. Here, the tables have finally turned. Leaning back against the door, she can feel each knock and pound as Elsa demands to be let in.

“gO aWaY, eLsA!”

“Fine! I’ll just get the blacksmith to cut the leather! Or hell, I’m sure a kitchen knife would do the trick.”

“Yeah, have fun explaining how you got it on in the first place to them.”

“I don’t have to answer any of their questions!”

“Oh, you will once I tell them all your secret.” What Anna could imagine as panicked silence follows the threat. Taking that with a nervous grin, she reaches over to the dresser to retrieve a short leash, made of the same leather as the collar. Best not to ask where and how she obtained these items… That’s just an awkward conversation she’d rather pretend didn’t happen.

So, after tucking the key away in a dresser door, Anna opens the door to see if Elsa is still there. She was apparently leaning against it until it suddenly swung away, making her drop down into Anna’s arms. The ginger smiles down at Elsa, who turns a light shade of red over the bridge of her nose.

“You’re going to blackmail me?” Elsa questions in quiet disbelief, quickly getting herself out of Anna’s arms. “What do you even want?”

“F- funny you ask that…It’s not that I want something from you, it’s the fact I want you to tell the people yourself and open up the gates so we can actually meet our people.”

“Anna, for the last time, no! If I have to wear this damn collar just to avoid that, you know I-”

“That’s not it.” Anna raises the leash in her hand up a bit to catch Elsa’s line of sight. She stares at it for a moment, semi-blankly.

“What? What is this? I don’t understand.” Oh god, she’s going to make her say it out loud. Anna reaches one end of the leash forward to clasp it to Elsa’s collar, who is too baffled to understand what’s going on. With a nervous glimpse out of the bedroom to make sure there’s no one around to see, Anna uses the leash to tug Elsa into her bedroom so she could close the door.

“Elsa, I don’t think you realize just how alone and… desperate for touch I am. Yesterday, when you fell on me and we accidentally kissed, it clicked in my head. If you won’t let me marry a man, or even leave the castle without banishing me from Arendelle, then you’re going to be a substitute for all of it.” Elsa looked nothing less than repulsed by this and took a step back, only to be tugged forward again by the leash.

“You can’t be serious! We’re sisters, Anna! Can’t you find some servant boy to play these games on instead?” Pained and furious tears build behind Anna’s eyes as she glares at her sister.

“No, in fact, I can’t! Not only are there no servant boys around my age, but no one wants anything to do with me!” She doesn’t want to bitterly pin all of that on Elsa, but it sure looked a lot like her fault. “So, there it is. Open the gate and confess your secret, or deal with me.”

______________________________________________________________

A week later and Elsa still doesn’t budge. It hadn’t escaped Anna how her older sister attempted to hide her collar when attending meetings both in and out of the castle, but only semi-shamelessly got used to wearing it all the time. Only when she finds the courage to walk up to Anna herself and ask they share a bath could it get removed for cleaning, but that has yet to happen. Anna didn’t want Elsa as a pet. That was -not- how this was supposed to go! But she had underestimated Elsa’s fear and desire to keep the gates closed.

Furiously writing these frustrations in a journal was the only way to healthily get it out at this point. Well, that and-

A nicely timed knock on her door pulls Anna from her daze of writing. She shuts the journal and tucks it into a drawer to her desk before getting the door and giving her big sister a cheeky smile. However, Elsa is adamant to wear only a scowl or miserable frown unless peacefully reading a book.

“Can I help you~?”

“You haven’t come to bug me at all today. I was just checking to make sure you’re still alive.” With that cold remark, her sister starts walking away.

“Ahuh, sure? Collar a little tight today?” That stops Elsa in her tracks, though she doesn’t turn back. “Would you like me to loosen it?”

“I c- can loosen it myself!” Leaning against her door until it gives way and she has to reobtain her balance, Anna frowns at Elsa. She wouldn’t drop by here for just anything, but here she is walking away.

“Hm... Okay.” With a shrug, she starts to close her door, only for a strong satin-covered hand to stop it from closing all the way. A bit of frost chips at the side from the force of impact, but it was nothing Anna couldn’t rub off once opening the door up again.

“Wait- I…” Once again, they share an awkward stare, one of the many that had been happening since Anna started making Elsa spend time with her. It was never sexual or intrusive, except for maybe hugs. That seemed a little intrusive for Elsa, but Anna decided she could still need it as much as Anna did.

“Elsa, if you’re going to ask me for something, just spit it out.” Unfortunately, her older sister stays rigid and frozen in her stare. Until her stomach grumbles and they both look down. Anna giggles and she swears she could just barely catch the embarrassed smile of Elsa. “Oh, I see.”

“N- no, that’s not…”

“We haven’t had dinner together yet, have we?” Anna reaches up to grab Elsa’s collar and pulls her down a little. “I’m sure the chefs are already waiting for us with a delicious dinner. It’s about time they would normally bring it to your room, right?” Slowly, Elsa nods, that familiar pink shade returning to her cheeks. “You’ll willingly join me tonight then, won’t you?” At that, she hesitates to respond, but slowly nods again. Better to go willingly than be dragged by a leash like she was to the library on their first day of spending time with each other. “Good girl.” Finally, Anna lets go of the collar and instead links her arm around Elsa’s before closing her bedroom door and starting them forward.

The dinner was far more enjoyable than Anna had expected it to be. For someone so stubborn about strange things, Elsa was strangely cooperative in certain activities with Anna. She wouldn’t hug back, but she would engage in a heated dinner conversation about horses and other less important things. Anna is more than dismayed when the dinner is finally over and Elsa covers a yawn.

The fact is, it still can be so much fun to hang out with her big sister, just as fun as she remembered having when they were kids. That’s what made this so bittersweet. The only reason she’s having this relationship with her sister right now is because of a dumb trick that wasn’t even supposed to work like this. She doesn’t trust for one second that if she removed the collar, or the symbolism it held, that Elsa would want anything to do with her. Maybe that makes her a horribly selfish person, but at least she and Elsa were alike in that way.

“Tonight was really nice.” Anna muses as she walks her sister to her bedroom. “I love talking to you, and sitting in silence with you.” Elsa does nothing more than glance at her until they get to her bedroom door.

“Goodnight, Anna.”

Soon… Elsa will open up to her soon… Or so Anna will keep hoping.

____________________________________________________________________

There’s no warning when a sudden gentle knock wakes Anna from her sleep. She jerks upright, hardly aware of the moonlight still shining high when she slips out of her blankets and crumbles to the floor. In the next instant, she’s up again, just as another knock sounds at the door, even quieter than the first time.

When she opens up the door, she isn’t prepared to be tackled back onto the floor. It wasn’t a very hard landing, but it does jerk her pretty well from her sleep. With how dark the room and hallway are, she couldn’t easily identify her attacker, but judging by the cold that suddenly seeps into her body and the crisp minty smell, she has an educated guess that it’s Elsa.

“Elsa, what are you doing up this late? Is something wrong?” The only reply she gets are small feverish kisses to her neck, each making her shiver until her back arches up off the floor and Elsa’s cold arms could wrap around underneath. Something is definitely wrong, but is it a wrong she wants to right? The affection feels so different… so good… Slowly, Anna’s arms wrap tight around Elsa’s body as her sister starts to lower her kisses. Over her chest, over her abdomen, teasing frigid kisses over her thighs while her bare hands roam under her nightgown and Anna’s hands are left grasping at the long soft hair on Elsa’s head. Closer… The lips trail closer to her covered center… and closer… until...

__________________________________________

A more violent knock jerks Anna awake. Like an alarm, Kai always makes sure to wake her before noon, and sure enough, the sun breaks through her windows bright enough to blind her sight.

“I’m awake! I’m awake!” What a strange dream. If it weren’t for the alarming awakening, it might have caught her off, but as it were, it’s now slowly drifting away. Though a strange damp feeling between her legs kinda brings it back. What might she have been thinking about that would make her wake up like this?

“Queen Elsa invites you to join her for lunch.” Ohno.

“Tell her I’ll be right down!” Oh god no. This can’t be happening. Falling for her sister? Legitly?! No, there has to be another explanation! Maybe that was just a one-time thing... No reason to get worked up about it, right? For once, her sister actually wants her to join her for a meal. Actually, she probably just wants to tell her something important, but it’s the thought that counts.

In a hurry, she changes out of her nightgown, and into an afternoon dress the color of grass and daisies. Then she rushes out of her bedroom as fast as possible without tripping or bumping into anything. Finding Elsa waiting for her in the dining room, Anna feels like her heart might flutter away. Not in a romantic way, obviously.

“Goooodmorn- afternoon, your majesty.” Anna gives a short curtsey before joining Elsa at the end of the table, where her food choice of oatmeal and a buffet of scones, toast, and pastries are also waiting for her.

“Afternoon, Anna.” Elsa’s face is stoic as she enjoys her oatmeal, visibly topped with raisins and honey.

“Uh, what is it you want to tell me?”

“Hm?” Her sister gives her a confused side-eye glance, to which Anna blushes and quickly looks away in embarrassment. Well, so much for assuming that. Maybe she really did just want to share breakfast with her.

“Nevermind.”

“Eat, Anna.” Elsa points with her spoon to the oatmeal and then gestures to the side dishes. While she wants to trust Elsa, this kind of gives her “about to be poisoned” vibes. Regardless, Anna hastily picks up her spoon and starts to mix in a large scoop of cinnamon sugar into it before taking a bite. This peaceful silence lasts a few more awkward moments before Elsa’s spoon clunks into her empty bowl and catches Anna’s attention. “I need a favor.”

“I knew it,” Anna mutters to herself, not bothering to put her spoon down yet.

“What?”

“Nothing. What do you need?”

“I need this collar off for the rest of the afternoon. I have to travel outside of the castle today to meet someone important.”

“You? Traveling outside the castle?” Anna gives a short unenthused laugh and goes to munch on a raspberry tart.

“I’m serious, Anna. Please, unlock it.” Begging? Elsa doesn’t do that either. Finally, Anna lifts her gaze to level suspiciously on the Queen, whose face is practically unreadable today, or maybe she’s just tired.

“Fine…” Before Elsa can voice her gratitude, Anna cuts in, “For a price.” Elsa gives a deep sigh, her hands lowering into her lap.

“What do you want now? I don’t have time for the… bath, nor am I comfortable with the idea of-”

“Not a bath.” Her sister’s eyebrow raises to her, worry and curiosity now clear in her gorgeous blue eyes. Wait- gorgeous? I mean- yeah, but do we really have to… Nevermind.

“Then, what’s your price?”

Anna quietly taps her spoon into the emptiness that had become of her bowl, her gaze searching the drying remains while she debates in her head. She must be crazy, but how funny would it be when Elsa comes back to the castle either furious or embarrassed. Slowly, a grin forms over her mouth.

“Anna? I don’t like when you get that face. Come on, be reasonable!”

“Oh, it’s totally reasonable, don’t worry.” She lies.

“What is it?”

“I just want a good heartfelt smooch.” Biting her lip, Anna gives Elsa a wink before standing from the table and making her way over to her big sister. The Queen is already starting to shake again, her hands nervously tightening around each other in her lap. When Anna pulls gently on her collar, Elsa jerks away.

“No! You’re ridiculous!”

“No?” Partially relieved and excited, Anna tries to look disappointed by pushing her bottom lip out in a pout. “Fine. See you when you get back.”

She pulls the small key out from between her boobs and delicately wipes the small piece of metal on her dress before putting it on her tongue and closing her mouth. Elsa looks a mix between nauseous and afraid. Eh, she’ll be fine. If it mattered that much, she would just get the damn thing cut already. Anna wouldn’t blame her for that, but would still play it up like the manipulative brat she’s become. Isolation does crazy things to people and Anna… just couldn’t handle it anymore. That being said, she did, honestly, feel a twinge of guilt after just leaving Elsa like that alone in the dining room.

______________________________________________

Several hours into the evening, Anna’s wandering the halls aimlessly and having short conversations with the characters she imagined of the paintings. They didn’t always have a lot to say, but they were company when she needed it most, which hopefully wouldn’t be the case any longer. A part of her is sure Elsa is finally cracking.

Speaking of the poor woman, Elsa stalks across the corridor in front of Anna, her posture slouched and her hands covering her face.

“Hey, Elsa, how’d your outing go?”

“Exhausting.” Against what Anna would assume to be loathing for what she had done at brunch, Elsa turns to look at her and points at her collar, which is in very plain sight for having just returned to the castle. As Anna’s eyes go wide to see it, Elsa gives a dry chuckle. “The man I was talking with noticed this, and do you know what his comment was?” She quickly shakes her head. “You have a mistress, too?”

A short silence follows that while Anna stares dumbfoundedly at her sister. Then what Elsa said catches up to Anna’s varied sense of humor and she cracks up laughing. Even though she tries not to, Elsa does the same, moved by her sister’s accidental snort.

_________________________________________________________________

The next couple of weeks fly by with even fewer problems. While Elsa is still too stubborn to do as Anna suggests and open the gates, she has let herself get much closer to Anna. She hardly needs to use the leash anymore to get her to go anywhere. Though she still doesn’t unlock the collar out of her own fear, but Elsa has grown accustomed to that now as well. Physical touch is taking a bit, which is what Anna plans to take advantage of next. Er- help with. Make her more comfortable by making her uncomfortable. This could either go very well or incredibly badly. Those sound like good odds for Anna.

In other news, that dream about Elsa happened again. It’s so realistic and unpredictable that she just can’t stop it, but it only invades her thoughts three times a week, so that’s probably fine. Definitely doesn’t have any strange feelings for her sister. Though she does catch herself staring at Elsa quite a bit, and focusing on watching Elsa read instead of doing so herself.

“Take your gloves off.” Sitting in Elsa’s bed while they read tonight, Anna once again finds herself distracted by Elsa’s presence. A curious thought came to mind, and then a scandalous one. At first, Elsa doesn’t notice, but when Anna reaches over to one of her hands and slowly pulls it away from her novel, she sleepily watches it drift away. Until Anna starts to pull off the turquoise satin protecting the ice from getting out, to which she curls her hand into a fish so it couldn’t be removed.

“No.” Anna pouts, but the expression is half-hearted.

“Then gimme a kiss.”

“Also politely declined.”

“Since when do you think you can just start denying me?” Elsa finally picks up her gaze to look Anna in the eyes.

“Since I’m already doing what you wanted. We’ve been reading together for a couple of hours. Well, I have. You’ve been daydreaming about making out with me.” While her point is valid, it still makes Anna slightly upset.

“I have not!”

“Then why do you keep asking for a kiss?” Elsa closes her book with a hand and casually slides off the bed so she could put it away and find her nightgown.

“B- because I can use it against you. You don’t want to do it, so I can get you to do other things.” Elsa scowls at this, but it’s better than admitting Anna wants to kiss her. I mean, what?

“You’re a rotten little sister, you know that?”

“You could’ve been rid of me a month ago when this whole thing started, but you didn’t, so…” Anna closes her own book and tosses it in front of her so she could cross her arms.

“Because you’re family, for one. I don’t -want- you to be banished from Arendelle should something happen to me, and you know my secret. I don’t care about the possibility people might not even believe you, I just can’t risk it getting out in case someone does.” While talking, Elsa goes behind her wooden divider to change into her nightgown, leaving Anna to totally not imagine what she might look like under all that grace and fear.

“Thanks?” Again, Elsa sighs as she emerges from the other side, dressed in a dark violet silk gown that drapes just above her feet.

“Unlock the collar for the night, please. It’s been starting to rub my skin very uncomfortably.” Anna gives a short laugh/scoff and once again shows the small key before cheekily putting it into her mouth. “Right…” Elsa joins her again in the bed, though this time without a book. Sure she’s about to be asked to leave, Anna starts to move off the other side of the bed, but gloved hands each grasp the side of her face and prevent her from doing so. The next thing she knows, cold lips are pressing very firmly to hers, and this time it isn’t a dream. More than that, a tongue slips past her surprised lips and into her mouth, jarring her back into focus too late when the key is messily snagged. Saliva strings their mouths together when Elsa hastily pulls away again and spits the key into the palm of her hand.

“I… I didn’t mean…” Jaw still agape, Anna watches with darkly blushed features as Elsa unlocks the padlock and lets the collar finally drop to her lap. While the older woman is still trembling and had a horrible blush, she wore a look of triumph. “You didn’t have to do that. I would’ve unlocked the collar for you after just kissing me. Your tongue-”

“Okay, get out!” Before embarrassment could leak out of every pore in Elsa’s body and freeze the door shut, she starts pushing Anna out towards the door, plopping just the collar into her hand.

“Hey! The key!” Getting ignored, Anna finds herself on the opposite side of Elsa’s bedroom once more with the door slammed in her face. This time is much more rewarding than she expected it to be, and it made her so… excited. So, instead of staying until Elsa finally gives up the key, Anna rushes back to her room while her thoughts still rush from what just happened. A small chill still lays on her tongue even by the time she gets back to her bedroom.

______________________________________________________________________

After that night, Anna made sure to have Kai visit the locksmith so she could get a new padlock for the collar. Elsa seemed to enjoy her freedom from it for the day, having all but disappeared from Anna within the castle. While that could still just be her embarrassment from misunderstanding about the kiss, it still hurt that Anna would have to suffer another day alone.

However, the next day, Anna makes sure not to once leave Elsa’s bedroom door until her sister finally reappears. What actually ended up happening is Anna falling asleep against the door from the warm sun shining down on her from the hallway windows, and Elsa finding she wouldn’t be able to get into her bedroom without waking her. She gazes down at the recently cleaned collar grasped tightly in the young woman’s hand, and then the adorable sleeping face bathed in sunlight. Slowly, Elsa crouches down beside Anna, taking a glance in either direction before reaching for the collar.

Her fingers lightly pull Anna’s away from the leather, her eyes flicking back and forth from it to Anna’s face. When she manages to pull the jeweled leather piece away, she stands again and looks at how it’s already starting to wear around the edges. Then, with shaking hands, she puts the collar back around her neck and latches the padlock securely. Already embarrassed about doing that in itself, there’s no way she’s about to wake Anna up now. So, begrudgingly, she walks away from the door to brood on a balcony instead.

_________________________________________________________________________

Anna felt absolutely taken by Elsa. Wooed by her company and her graceful looks, she finds her heart always beating fast around her. Even the thought of her makes Anna’s heart flutter with giddy anxiety, the kind she thought she had with Hans. Sure, this is ridiculous as can be, but it could be worse. She could still want to marry a man she just met, which by the way, after several weeks of thinking about it, decided her sister was completely in the right to decline it. Of course, she only realizes this because technically, she isn’t alone anymore, but… Some things were just necessary for a healthy state of mind.

Taking advantage of Elsa? Maybe a little, but even that felt like a greater good when Anna sees how much her sister is starting to get adjusted to being in Anna’s company again. Anna had proven her trust by not uttering a word about their shared secret and hadn’t even once asked for a demonstration of the power, despite so desperately wanting to see it and explore the possibilities Elsa had under her fingertips. Elsa had made it quite clear how devastatingly afraid she was of her power and how she would much rather keep it concealed as much as possible.

“Anna, may I retire early for the day? It’s been a tiresome week, and I would greatly appreciate a good night’s rest.”

Anna’s head rests comfortably on Elsa’s lap, her eyes giving a half-lidded stare to the ceiling. Elsa slowly closes the long novel she had gotten into reading aloud for Anna, being careful not to do it so loudly or abruptly in case Anna is in a doze.

“Hm? Have you not been sleeping well?” There’s a short pause where Anna thinks she catches Elsa glancing down to the white streak in her loose mess of ginger hair before politely gazing down at Anna’s face.

“Not particularly, no.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Anna…”

“Right. Sleep. Gotcha.” Anna sits up with a stretch, her back popping when she straightens it.

“Thank you.” Elsa sets the book down on the nightstand beside her bed.

“Do one last thing for me though?”

“Please don’t ask for a kiss.”

Instead of telling her what it is, Anna leans towards the older woman and wraps her arms around Elsa in a hug, Anna’s head resting on Elsa’s shoulder while she breathes in the wintery smell of her sister.

“A hug?”

“Just a hug.”

Very very hesitantly, Elsa loosely drapes her arms around Anna’s waist.

“C’mon, you can do better than thAT-” Just as she starts to patronize Elsa’s hugging ability, the arms tighten around her tremendously, holding Anna against her. Then Elsa’s face buries snugly into Anna’s hair as it covers her neck, sprouting a blush upon the ginger’s face.

“I’m going to tell you everything tomorrow, okay?” She whispers, catching Anna’s heart in her throat. Tell her everything? What else did she not know? And why would her sister make her be so patient? All the questions she wants to say get lodged behind the huge gay lump in her throat, making it impossible for her to do more than just nod. “Goodnight, Anna.” It’s all she can do not to melt right there and then when Elsa kisses her cheek.

The rest of the evening is Anna spending too long of a time laying in her bed and staring out the window, wondering what Elsa meant and if it would finally piece things together more clearly. Maybe there’s an actual reason why Elsa just suddenly started to hide. Did it have to do with their parents? It takes a while before her mind rests.

_________________________________________________________________

“Not here? What do you mean she’s not here?!”

“I mean, the Queen left early this morning for important business. You would have seen her if you started waking up earlier in the morning, your majesty.” Kai had no room for Anna’s temper. Anna, however, is only a mixed pie of panic and anger. Now she has to be more patient?!

“Fine! Start waking me up at 9 instead.”

“The Queen wakes much sooner than that.”

“Good for her.” As Anna crosses her arms, Kai seems to stifle a chuckle.

“Yes, Princess Anna, as you wish.”

Now that she needs to wait a couple more hours for answers, Anna decides to ride her bike around the castle for a while, until one trip down the stairs pops a wheel and she has to retire with conversations at a hallway gallery. She does this for a while until noticing a quiet presence at the end of the hall. Startled by the sight of Elsa leaning so casually against the wall at the other end of the hall, Anna stands from her relaxed lay on the bench.

“Elsa! You’re back!” She rushes over to her sister, frightening the girl enough to take a step back, but that wouldn’t protect her from the hug that tackles her to the floor.

“Anna, let go!!!” Refusing to do so, Anna holds Elsa there on the floor until her sister physically relaxes, which takes a long long moment. Even when she does, her hands are still raised off the ground and far from where they could touch Anna. Finally, Anna sits up, her hands on the ground on either side of Elsa’s beet-red face while she straddles the older woman’s abdomen.

“You’ll get used to that eventually.” She decides, making Elsa frown uncertainly. “Now, I believe there’s something you said you would tell me today?” At first, her sister gives her a baffled look, but when the memory hits hard, she seems to start to panic.

“O- oh, well, that’s- It isn’t that important. I was just speaking tiredly. I’ve already told you everything.”

“Oh no, you don’t. You are going to spill everything to me now! Right now.”

“Please, d- don’t make me..” Elsa whispers pathetically. In a normal circumstance, Anna would take the plea to heart, but now she knows there’s something Elsa is keeping from her, and she just has to know. “I’ll do anything!” Elsa sees that Anna isn’t about to give in, so she desperately tries to wiggle out of it.

“Pff- anything?”

“Well, almost anything. Opening the castle gates is still completely off-limits. I’m already suffering from that decision.”

“You say that like it’s so awful to hang out with me.”

Face filled with shame, Elsa casts her gaze away. Leaning back a little so she could focus on a compromise, Anna gets comfortable on her Elsa seat while the Queen stays how she is on the ground. She has an idea, but there’s no way Elsa would ever do it. Yeah, she thought the same thing about kissing, but this is much much different.

“Okay…. I’ll agree to forget all about it if you do a few things for me.”

“What kinds of things?” Elsa greatly hesitates this decision when Anna starts lifting her closer by the still sturdy collar around her neck.

“Maybe I’ll take you to my bedroom and you can find out.” Anna has no idea how she could say that so calmly and slyly, but it does wonders to put things in Elsa’s head. All it takes to get her sister trembling again is to just so lightly tug her into a light kiss on the lips. It isn’t hard to gauge Elsa’s reaction to such things given the grimace and scrunched face when Anna pulls away, but Anna couldn’t help how hot doing that made her feel.

“Y- you c- can’t be s- s- serious.” Elsa stutters in a hushed tone, dread in her pleading gaze. “Anna, you’ve taken this flirting and kissing thing too far! We are sisters, not lovers.” Not even friends with the way Anna has technically been making Elsa hang out with her, but even though that was starting to change, this may as well have ruined that possibility.

“I’m not asking to do anything to you, but I… I… Ugh, just tell me your stupid secrets then.” Anna, finally more flustered than Elsa, glares down at her sister, who now props herself up from the floor on her elbows.

“I can’t..” Anna’s heart beats fast as she reaches into one of the long sewn pockets of her dress. Unwilling to let Elsa see through her bluff, she pulls out the leash and reaches the end of it to Elsa’s collar, only for her sister’s hand to nervously try batting away the attempt. “Anna, don’t! Why can’t you just let some things go?”

“Because I’m tired of no one trusting me! I’m just a joke! To you, to our parents! Even Kai doesn’t take me seriously most of the time! I don’t want to be alone! I feel like I’m going insane... This is all I can do to get any form of physical touch or real conversation.” While Elsa is frozen in some sort of fearful trance, Anna clips the end of the leash to her collar. “I don’t care that you’re different, you’re my entire world now! I’m not going to let you go and I’m not going to let -this- go. After spending 13 patient years without you in it, I think I deserve some of your trust now, least of all a damn reciprocated relationship with you.”

“Anna…” Anna doesn’t realize she’s crying at first, but when it becomes apparent how hard it is to breathe without sniffling, she starts to desperately wipe away the tears. “Let’s go to your bedroom.” Elsa’s shaking hands stops one of Anna’s, holding it away from her eyes so Anna could look at her sister’s sincere face.

“Why can’t you just tell me...?” Cautiously, Elsa moves out from under Anna before helping her up off the floor. Like Anna could be swayed by Elsa’s heart-wrenching fear of things, Elsa couldn’t shield her sympathy from Anna when she cries, which hasn’t happened until now. Anna kept a very confident and happy mask until now.

Without another word, Elsa hesitantly pulls Anna into a hug, her arms still shaking when wrapped unsurely around Anna. Though Anna takes this opportunity to let out her pain and frustration into tears that lands on the very covering chest piece of Elsa’s dress. They stand like this while Anna lets it all out, Elsa’s nervous hand trying to be comforting by lightly rubbing Anna’s back. To think, she never thought she would be able to do something like this again.

Finally, Anna pulls herself together and departs from Elsa to once again take the leash. Her eyes still burn from the tears, but she gives a small smile to Elsa, who gladly takes as much suffering as it takes so Anna can feel better.

“See? Hugs aren’t so bad..”

“No, and yours are… very warm, in fact.” Just like that, Anna’s heart melts again. She gives one last sniffle before lightly tugging on the leash. “To your bedroom?”

“Yeah, you can continue reading to me or something.” Nervous to go through with what she was originally implying, she attempts to brush it off as something entirely different.

“Oh? Well, the book is in my bedroom, so maybe we should go there instead.”

“R- right.”

Anna gently leads Elsa away down the corridors until they get to the floor of their bedrooms. Then it’s Elsa who leads the way into the room and locks the bedroom door once Anna steps in and closes it behind herself.

“Wha... Elsa?”

“Just to be clear, this is a one-time thing, and I refuse to do anything with my hands.” Elsa looks away from Anna, the pink quickly returning to her serious expression. Anna, meanwhile, is panicking that this is actually happening. She had only read a few erotic novellas, but they did not in the least describe what two women might do with each other. It’s only her creeping dreams that give her any clue as to what might be the right way to do this.

“Really? That sounds so ungraceful for a Queen.”

“Don’t push it, Anna.”

“No, I think I’ll pull it instead.” Attempting to be confident again, Anna pulls Elsa impossibly close by the leash alone, leaving Elsa to instinctively press her hands to the wall on either side of her sister. “Kiss me like there’s a key in my mouth.” She orders.

Slowly, Elsa obeys, her lips pulling at Anna’s while her tongue explores within. This is when Anna’s sure she must be dead. Holding her older sister so closely, she attempts to lightly grind against one of her thighs, which Elsa then presses more firmly to Anna’s hot center. She has to stifle an involuntary moan. Hot… so hot… If it weren’t for Elsa’s lips being so cold, Anna would be sweating bullets. While her hand holds the leash tight as it keeps Elsa close, her other strays up the back of Elsa’s neck to start undoing her hair. When Elsa pulls her lips away, it's to catch her breath, as Anna does as well before capturing them again for another shorter sweet kiss. This time, she leans her head back when trying again to catch a breath, exposing her neck to Elsa’s mouth.

This is everything and nothing like Anna expected it to be. Despite being so shy, Elsa seems to be so hungry to obey Anna’s wants right now. Just another of her strange quirks probably. A small moan escapes Anna’s throat, filling the room with an embarrassed silence as she now tries harder to contain the sounds. Elsa isn’t making that easy though.

“Els- sa, wait.. a sec.” Anna pants out, her hold on the leash loosening so Elsa could pull back, though she doesn’t. The assault on her neck continues until Anna gives a sharp breathless tug on Elsa’s leash that yanks her back.

“Gck!” Taking a step back, Elsa’s hand raises to her throat.

“Sorry, I’m sorry!” Anna leans forward to press an apology kiss just above the collar before crumbling into Elsa’s arms.

“Are you okay?” Afraid she did something wrong or hurt Anna, Elsa tightly holds onto her so she wouldn’t slip down onto the floor.

“Y- yeah, I’m fine. I just… mmnnnhhh... I feel really hot.” Anna in turn clings onto Elsa, more than aware of the buzzing needs between her legs. Are they really going through with this? As Elsa starts gently guiding Anna back to the bed, signs point to maybe.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get this over with quickly.” Determined to now pleasure her little sister if it’s the last thing she manages to do right, Elsa pushes Anna onto the bed, only to once again fall on top of her because of the leash. “Anna, can you uhm…?” Ohfuck. Ohfuck. This is really happening. Too nervous to say anything, Anna just drops the leash and reaches down with both hands to pull up her dress and remove her underwear, all the while Elsa moves to sit semi-awkwardly beside Anna on the bed.

Elsa stares down at the wet center with some sense of awe, her nerves finally getting the better of her until Anna gives a small tug on her leash once more. The tug was actually an accident while trying to readjust her arms on the bed, but Elsa doesn’t take it that way. She obediently gets down between Anna’s thighs and draws a reluctant lick through Anna’s drenched folds. From the gasp and shiver she gets in return, Elsa does it again, and again, and again until the taste becomes a strange addiction to her tongue. Her mouth latches firmly to the young girl’s clit, sucking and flicking it with her tongue while Anna squirms.

“Elsa! Oh! Wow!”

Anna gasps, searching for something her hands could do while experiencing this. Inevitably, one is found grasping and pulling at Elsa’s hair while her older sister explores her center. Despite what Elsa said about not using her hands for anything, her perfectly gloved fingers press Anna’s thighs away from their intent to squish Elsa’s head.

Having her sister’s tongue slide inside her is an almost different kind of exhilaration altogether. More so that she still couldn’t believe any of this is happening. So many dreams… And this was supposed to be a bluff!!! Anna can no longer stop the sounds of her immense feelings from slipping out of her mouth, successfully turning the silence into a chorus of Elsa’s name.

Slowly, her back arches up off the bed as the hot electric feelings zipping through her nerves get to a very overwhelming place. A long high pitched whine escapes her, her body stiffening under Elsa’s passionate and thorough work on Anna’s heat. The silence that follows is radio static to Anna while she lives in the blinding white light of her climax for several moments longer.

When Anna drops back to reality, she finds herself panting hard and limp on the bed, while Elsa curiously stares at her from between her legs. Elsa continues licking the savory juice of her sister from her thighs before sitting herself up and wiping her mouth with a hand. Anna’s heart beats harder in her chest the longer Elsa keeps eye contact with her until she just can’t take the embarrassment anymore and slowly pulls her knees in.

“So..?” Elsa’s expectant tone makes Anna’s face even hotter. What was she supposed to say? It felt like this whole thing just came and went so fast, literally. All that sexual tension, it’s no wonder… but now what?

“S- so?”

“How was it? Do you feel better?” Anna’s eyes go wide.

“How- It was f- fine! Great, actually! Uhm-” Flustered by the unexpected question, she lets her gaze drift all around before once again settling on Elsa’s face. Her sister starts to giggle. Though her face was red, too, she seemed utterly bemused by the sight of Anna like this. “You seemed to be enjoying yourself, too.” That successfully wipes away the smirk off of Elsa’s face, replacing it with the same flustered look Anna has.

“Okay, you can get out now, Anna.”

Shaking her head, Elsa pushes Anna’s shoulder and stands up off the bed so she could turn away from the ginger. Ignoring that, Anna dreamily watches Elsa run her fingers through her platinum blonde hair until it comes undone into a loose wavy waterfall of hair rolling down her back. Once again, her heart catches and her breath dies, especially when Elsa looks over her shoulder.

“Anna?”

All she can think about now is how this elegant Queen was just between her legs, pleasuring her instead of the other way around. How could that even be? How did she get here? Elsa unclips the leash and tosses it at Anna, which finally tears Anna’s gaze away. Oh right, that’s how.

“Earth to Anna.” Elsa waves a hand in front of Anna’s face, which she inevitably nabs, making Elsa greatly regret this decision.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going, but first…” Anna starts to quickly pull off Elsa's glove before it can be yanked away. As soon as it’s off, Anna shoves it down her boobs and falls off the bed to avoid Elsa trying to take it back.

“Anna, give it back!!!!” It’s too late. Anna is already out the door with a surprising amount of energy pushing her forward, completely leaving her underwear behind… That’s probably a fair trade.

Notes:

So, this is definitely just a oneshot, but if you guys want to see what happens next, tell me in the comments and maybe I'll put up another 8,000-word chapter lol. Or, you can bother me at the discord: https://discord.gg/zqfWjaBEyx . If not, then I'm just gonna leave this here :) Thanks for reading.

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.

_____________________________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________________

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.

__________________________________________________

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.

Chapter 3: Despair

Summary:

Is this the start of a Frozen rewrite? Maybe. Don't quote me on that.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Anna stands watch outside the wine cellar doors, keeping an ear out for anyone that might walk by in case they might happen to be wanting wine at 7 in the morning. Yeah, no, she’s not happy. For several reasons, actually.

The first one is obvious. Elsa is down in the wine cellar trying to melt away the snow, and Olaf especially. So… that’s fun to guard. What happened to not wanting to be a part of this? Her sister woke her up herself and drug Anna from her warm comfortable bed despite her very loud protests.

The second reason would be being awake this early. She had started trying to wake up early again by will, but it’s a process, and a painful one at that. Even worse, Elsa promised to be the one to wake her up from now on, so Anna would have to wake up this early every day. Elsa wants to say it isn’t that early, but Anna believes if she’s still tired after being deemed “awake”, then she should go back to sleep.

The third, and possibly most furious reason she’s upset this morning, is remembering how many weeks she would have to wait until she could have any social contact outside of this castle. Yup, Elsa promised a Ball, but spitefully pushed the date to the end of the month. On top of that, Elsa scolded her for not being grateful about it, which… maybe she’s right, but it’s still upsetting.

Speaking of her sister, the door cracks open a little so Elsa could peer out, her face clouded with something. Regret maybe? Elsa stands there behind the door with darkness surrounding her visible features.

“Elsa?” Anna looks from Elsa to the hall once more before quickly getting closer to the door. “What’s wrong? Did you do it?”

“I couldn’t,” Elsa admits, her gaze dropping to the floor. “He just… would not stop talking.” Anna, biting back a breath of relief mixed with laughter, pushes the door open a little more so she could pull Elsa out of the cellar.

“Yeah, he loves talking. What was it this time? Birds? Cake? We’ve been learning things together.” Despite Anna’s almost breakdown the other day, she has chosen to continue hanging out with Olaf until she can’t anymore. As long as she doesn’t try stopping or talking Elsa out of this, there’s no harm in doing so. Elsa looks up from the floor, her icy eyes examining Anna’s face before choosing to make real eye contact.

“You… have to come down there with me. I- I need you to make him stop talking. I can’t focus!” Huh, why did she wish so badly that the first word was an actual answer?

“Elsa, I told you, I’m not helping with snowman murder. If you’re going to do it, you’re doing it without my help.” Anna crosses her arms and looks back towards the hallway. “Okay, not helping you directly. I helped you figure out thawing, and I’m your look-out man, so… go do the dirty work yourself.”

“Anna, please…” Elsa grazes her hand over Anna’s arm, the gloveless fingers rousing goosebumps along her freckled skin. A shiver threatens to ripple through Anna’s nerves.

Resist…

Afraid she might give in if she opens her mouth again, Anna purses her lips and stares away. Doing so somehow encourages Elsa to get closer and gently rub her fingertips over both of Anna’s arms now, making it impossible for Anna not to shiver then.

“Please…” The quiet gentle begs don’t help. The way Elsa’s soft lips whisper their pleas so close to Anna’s ear before lightly pressing kisses over her neck, her braids pushed off of her shoulders.

“Why do you encourage my feelings for you without ever intending to reciprocate them?” Anna’s absent-minded question seems to catch Elsa off guard, as if she finally realizes what she’s doing. Elsa takes a step away, leaving Anna feeling mildly dizzy, but strong enough to hold her ground against being manipulated.

“A- Anna, I didn’t mean-” She quickly stutters out, searching for an excuse. After what Anna has put her through, she shouldn’t have to try hard, but whatever she said would make her sound far more irresponsible than her actions. “I’m so sorry. Please, f- forgive my actions.”

Of course Anna would forgive her! Why does she have to be so damn cute all the time, and when she isn’t just cute, but way too sexy to handle sometimes? It drives Anna crazy! Then Elsa pulls moves like this that under very different circumstances Anna would give into without thought or hesitation. While that's probably bad and unhealthy for them, Anna trusts Elsa with everything she has and believes she would never do anything to hurt her.

Elsa has just unfortunately been under the awful influence of her own younger sister, who’s not as good at resisting temptation as she is, but still manages to put Elsa back in her place. And… that’s why she’s the one with the collar.

“Alright, I forgive you.” Anna clears her throat, her head finally clearing enough to think rationally. Not that most of her thoughts are rational anyways. “But I believe I should get some compensation for your mistake.”

“What kind of compensation…?” Elsa is right to be a little confused, especially when Anna doesn’t make any attempt to explain. Instead, the princess turns away from Elsa once more to look down the hall.

“Are you giving up now, or are you going to get back down there and finish the job?”

“I can’t right now. I’ll be back to trying again tomorrow.” Pulling on her gloves, Elsa stands beside Anna again. “Do you… Is there anything you want to do with me, today?”

Anna has a hard time trying to stop the smirk from growing over her face, and she casts a side-eye to her sister. It’s rare to see Elsa propose they do something together that’s her idea, but it has happened at least once, and now it seems the Queen is even more timid to suggest anything on her own accord.

“Oh, I don’t know. What else is there to do in this castle?”

“Well, we could do something kind of outside the castle. You haven’t once asked me about riding horseback, and I know for a fact you have a horse.”

Ah, there it is. Elsa, realizing she has fallen into a trap, turns red in her embarrassment.

“I mean, you probably had a good reason for that! We could just do something we’ve already done before. M- maybe ride our bikes inside? That was an… experience.”

“Oh, I just thought you didn’t know how to ride. You should show me sometime~” Anna winks to Elsa, whose blush only gets worse. “To the stables!” She takes Elsa’s hand and starts them down the hallway, completely forgetting about food in her excitement to do this.

_______________________________________

“So, which one is yours?”

“All of them, technically speaking, but,” Elsa strolls down the stables to a lean-built horse. Like Kjekk, Snø’s fur is white as snow, but unlike him, she carries no other shade or color. A very peculiar trait in contrast to the rest of their horses. Not only that, but the white fjord horse is far from a fan of Anna. “Snø appeals to me the most.”

“Of course she does.” Biting back her salt, Anna inhales a deep sigh and fixates the horse with a glare.

“What do you mean?” The resentment evaporates as soon as Elsa looks over at her again, to which she replaces it with a friendly smile.

“Oh, nothing! Snø is a peach, she loves me.”

In an attempt to demonstrate, Anna reaches towards the horse to pat her snout, but before she can reach Snø turns her body away completely with a disinterested snort. While Anna represses the urge to be frustrated, she can hear her sister snickering beside her.

“Yeah, whatever. I don’t need her validation. Kjekk loves me.” Raising her chin with dignity, Anna walks back over to her own horse. Kjekk, curious as to what Anna is up to, has his head sticking over the side and does not turn away as Anna pets his face.

“Yes, of course.” When Anna looks back over at Elsa, the Queen is standing beside the horse in its stable and is softly stroking her back without any complaints.

Once they saddle their horses properly (Anna has to help Elsa with it a little, no biggie), they guide their horses out of the stables by their reins, and then Anna immediately mounts hers. Elsa hesitates to do so as if worried she doesn’t remember how to.

“Do you want me to grab a step stool?” That’s partially a joke and curiously a concern. The fjord horses aren’t very tall, but stout and strong in build, so it should be no problem to mount, but Elsa still hesitates.

“No.” Elsa rolls her eyes and steps up onto the stirrup to pull herself up and over. It takes her a moment to get comfortable, but Anna waits patiently and so does Kjekk. “Alright, we can-”

“Race you to the back of the castle!” Immediate with the challenge, Anna is already off not two seconds after shouting it over to her sister, leaving Elsa hurrying to follow after rather than actually registering what was said. Kjekk has been racing circles around the huge castle whenever Anna takes him out, so he’s at a huge advantage for the path to come rather than Snø, who doesn't let Anna ride her willingly. This does nothing to daunt their determination. There’s no shame for a Queen to accept a reasonable challenge.

Over bushes and through a grove of wild pine trees, Kjekk flies through with Anna keeping low to his body. Elsa’s given mere seconds to examine the greenery ahead and makes the split decision to duck as Anna does before her head is taken clean off by a branch. That means Snø goes much slower through this passage, but at least they come out the other end unscathed.

At this point, Anna has made it much farther ahead, taking all advantage of Elsa’s disadvantage. Since she already knows what’s coming up next, she dangerously spins around on Kjekk’s saddle to wave back at Elsa. Elsa, unsure of this, only waves back out of confusion.

“Anna, watch out!!” Afraid something new might have popped out of nowhere, Anna spins back around, only to find a landmine of mud puddles, leaving the earth before them slick and nerve-wracking to traverse on. Kjekk is ready for this though and slows to a gentle trot to make it around the puddles like skill work. This gives Elsa the opportunity to catch up, but she’s more careful to have Snø tread slowly over the mud. Giggling, Anna leans down over Kjekk’s side and scoops up a dirty handful of the mud.

“Hey, Elsa, heads up!” She flings the mud back at her opponent, who is unable to deflect it with ice and can only duck behind Snø’s head. When mud catches over the horse’s shoulder and splatters over her dress, Elsa gives what could have been a growl, or just a deep angry groan. Enraged with fury on the horse’s behalf, she pushes Snø into a much faster trot, where she miraculously manages to pass Anna on the mud without them sliding.

Anna doesn’t bother risking it though and instead leans back to catch the perfect glimpse of her sister both determined and just barely lifting off the saddle so she wouldn’t be hindered by the way it bounces. If the race wasn’t on before, it certainly is now.

Once out of the mud, Kjekk speeds back up, his lengthy strides catching up real close to Snø and Elsa. Anna, still riding precariously, leans into the small saddle bag she always has strapped to his saddle on rides like these, and pulls out a carrot. Then she leans over to Elsa’s horse with it.

“Psst, Snø!! I have good treats for you~” While the horse’s gaze flicks over for a second, Snø concentrates completely on the path ahead. Elsa, however, slaps Anna’s hand away with a disbelieving scoff.

“You cheater!”

“It’s not cheating if it doesn't work!” She points out with the carrot, a huge grin on her face. “Besides, I was trying to distract you, not her.” Quickly putting the carrot in the side bag, Anna grabs onto Kjekk’s reins and gives them a soft tug. A short chasm of rainwater separates them from their goal several yards away. While Elsa pulls back quickly on Snø’s reins, Kjekk makes the jump like a champion and almost completes it, too. His hind feet land in the water, cascading it around them and getting Anna wet, but not enough to soil her victory when she sees Elsa’s scowling face on the other side.

She raises her arms in victory and has Kjekk trot to the end at a leisurely pace. By the time Elsa catches up to them again, Snø is doing the same. Elsa refuses to look at Anna, and Anna can’t be sure if she’s just a bad sport or if something is actually bothering her.

“Hey Elsa, check it out. I’m fucking soaked.” Instead of asking her sister what’s the matter, Anna takes it upon herself to switch horses, once again being horrible with riding safety as she steps from Kjekk's stirrup and onto Snø's saddle. Then she wraps Elsa into a tight wet hug.

“Jeezus fuck, Anna! Get off!” Elsa has to resist the urge to shove Anna off the horse and instead stops Snø so Anna could slide off on her own accord.

“Aw, don’t be so sour! We’re just having fun. We can add a little wager to racing back if that makes it more interesting for you.” While that's mostly a joke, Elsa does cast an intrigued glance down to Anna.

“Oh?” When Anna beckons her down to wager things at eye-level, Elsa gracefully drops down off of Snø and crosses her arms expectantly. “Well, what do you have in mind?”

“I think I’ve gotten my revenge from your behavior earlier, but I’m sure I can think of something.” Anna eyes Elsa’s body mischievously, making Elsa very nervous, but not as uncomfortable as she used to be. “What about you though, what would you wager?”

Elsa stares at Anna for a long moment and Anna can see the thought process behind her eyes. Until she almost ashamedly looks away. The silence lasts for a minute more and then Elsa clears her throat.

“I want the collar off. Permanently.”

A thick glob of something terrible weighs on Anna’s heart, maybe fear, or dismay. The fear of being alone again significantly hinders Anna from agreeing to this, and to even speak. While Elsa’s face holds a determined poker face, Anna couldn’t hide the way her mind races as to what this means in terms of their relationship.

“What do you say?” Elsa holds out her hand to Anna, who stares down at it like it’s everything she’s ever dreaded. Then a wash of chilling anger brings determination to her thoughts. She would just have to not lose. Her hand takes Elsa’s and firmly shakes it.

“Fine.” Without a second glance at her sister, Anna turns to her horse and mounts his saddle with ease.

“Fine.” Elsa does the same without question about what Anna’s side to the deal is. She has her assumptions already.

They line their horses up beside each other, facing the direction they had just come from to make odds all fair. Before Anna can rush forward again, a sudden cold drop of water on her neck catches her attention, and she looks up. The clouds are darkening very quickly… This gives her an idea.

Elsa charges forward at Anna’s distraction, not at all worried about the rain. Kjekk becomes aware of this betrayal before his rider does, and runs after Snø without Anna needing to tell him. Of course, Anna then needs to quickly tighten her hold on the reins as she wasn’t at all ready for this, but she has no complaints about it either. Kjekk is a reliable and trustworthy horse, after all, Anna thinks to herself while this reliable horse decides to run through the water pit rather than jumping over it like Snø tries to do. That decision does put them back beside their opponents, but now Anna’s legs are twice drenched with dirty water. Oh well, could’ve been worse. It’s about to get worse, actually.

Anna’s gaze periodically glances at Elsa and then back in front of her, just waiting for her sister to slip up so she wouldn’t have to resort to her idea. Unfortunately, Elsa is very focused on prevailing, with her eyes concentrated solely in front of her. That focus would quickly be her undoing as soon as they have to slow their pace on the mud.

This is going to hurt…

Heart beating hard against her chest, Anna slowly brings Kjekk closer to Snø. This is when Elsa finally catches on that Anna might be up to something, but it’s too late when Anna completely lets go of her reins and slides herself over the other side of Kjekk’s saddle. When she falls off of him, he bumps into Snø and makes them both start sliding in the mud. This is more dangerous for the rider though, as Elsa is forced to retract her leg from over the side so it doesn’t get crushed, and then as the saddle slides with her unbalanced weight. Snø swiveling is the last thing that gets Elsa sliding off into the mud just a ways away from where Anna lays on her back in the cold wet dirt.

Rain washes over her face, making the earth that much goopier and stickier. It’s disgusting, and yet, here she lies with a smile on her face.

“What is your problem?” Elsa, struggling to stand on the slippery mud, shuffles over to Anna to the best of her ability. Their horses are still running, leaving them behind like they haven’t realized their riders are missing yet, but Anna isn’t worried about that either. When Elsa stands over her, Anna sits up to pull her sister down to the mud with her.

_________________________________________________

Anna grins at Elsa from the other side of the steamy tub once again. While most of the mud has already been wiped off with a towel, her hair is matted with it, and even with soap in her hair, it's still sticky. Elsa, on the other hand, glares back at Anna with her arms crossed tightly over her dirt-covered chest.

They were forced to walk back through the quickly hardening rain together once they made sure each other weren’t hurt, then pushing each other back and forth all the way to the stables, where Kjekk and Snø were already getting cleaned. Once they came back into the castle, Kai rushed over to them with a gasp of horror. He must’ve immediately known it was Anna’s influence, because he set a furious glare on her. All the while, she couldn’t stop smiling.

To see her graceful Queen reduced to an improper muddy mess was well worth any punishment. Not just that, but neither won and therefore nothing changed. Sure, Elsa is pretty mad at her for the stunt, but what is she gonna do about it?

“You can’t be mad at me forever. Eventually, you’ll see that it was for the greater good.”

“Anna, you didn’t have to do that! You could have just said you didn’t like the wager and we could have just raced back without getting muddy.” Elsa’s voice is cold, equally as disappointed as she is mad.

“But then you would’ve had a sour attitude about the whole thing. I just wanted to make it more fun for you.”

“Oh yeah, I had a great time falling off my horse and into a huge pile of mud.”

“I see your point, but-”

“Enough with the ‘buts’!” She gives an exasperated groan. “Why can’t you just apologize?”

“Uh, because I’m not sorry?” Anna scoffs, disbelief written over her gaze despite the smile. “You were going to completely ditch me if you'd won, when I only wanted the Ball date to be moved closer. Now we have neither of those things, so yeah, I’m not going to apologize.”

Elsa’s frown turns into surprise, a light blush on her face when she quickly looks away. Anna pokes her leg with her foot.

“What? What did you think I was asking for?” Her sister’s mouth opens to reply, but quickly closes in reconsideration until she somewhat nervously lifts her gaze.

“I thought… I thought you wanted to touch me.” Anna almost chokes in her surprised laughter, practically cackling as Elsa pulls her knees up to her chest so she could bury her face in embarrassment. She doesn’t mean to laugh at Elsa’s expense, but for someone who actually wanted to do something like that and didn’t even think about it at the time, it’s pretty funny.

“That’s what you thought? What gave you that idea? I had no idea that it was even on the table!”

“It isn’t! Y- you just gave me a weird look, and I can only imagine what goes on in your perverted mind!” Elsa’s voice is strangely echoed being directed at the water. With a whole new grin on her face, Anna slides around the edge of the tub until she can sit beside Elsa.

“Listen, Elsa, I make really really bad decisions sometimes, but… I would never do something like that to you without your full consent. I do have morals sometimes. And even when it’s you doing me, I never make you do it.” That revelation makes Elsa groan. Anna pats her shoulder.

“Anna, I…” Elsa slowly lifts her head again, her face beet red. “I wasn’t planning on ditching you once the collar was off. Okay, I was sort of planning on avoiding you again, but I’m just worried.” Anna has to push back the pain on this one to be a good little sister, but damn if it isn’t against her heart to give this chick a piece of her mind.

“Worried about what?” It takes Elsa a long time to answer, and by the time she does, Anna’s patience has almost corroded away like the dirt on their bodies.

“What you’re doing to me. I can’t tell if you’re making me better or worse as a person. I tried to manipulate you… but my heart has never felt so light than when I’m around you. I know it must not look like it, but I’ve been enjoying myself the most when we’re doing something together. Olaf wouldn’t stop talking about you and what a wonderful person you are… It should have been easy to thaw him… and yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much it would hurt you if I did.”

Anna feels herself getting overwhelmed with emotions as Elsa goes on, amazed at how she’s finally spilling her thoughts. Thoughts about Anna nonetheless, too! She doesn’t know what to say but based on the thoughtful expression on Elsa’s face, she has a feeling there’s no need to say anything. Not yet.

“You make me feel everything I was told to keep concealed, but you are also… helping me control what those emotions do to me? I’m still worried about hurting you because of that… The more you’re around me, the bigger chance I can accidentally hurt you. And still, the more I’m around you, the more I’m learning how not to hurt anybody. You terrify and make me feel safe at the same time. Does any of this make sense to you?”

“All of it.” Anna giggles, her dirty cheeks cleaned with thin rivers of tears. “I want to help you just as much as I can make you miserable. It’s what sisters do.” She wipes her eyes with a hand. “I’m sorry for pulling you into the mud and being the reason you fell off your horse. I’m sorry for making things weird, too. I will never be sorry for changing you as a person. Everyone has flaws, and even if some of mine rub off on you, you are a better person. No one deserves to live in constant fear and loneliness.”

They both share a look of distressed joy, that of Elsa being understood, and Anna finally getting through to her sister. Elsa gives a hoarse chuckle and shakes her head, one of her arms wrapping around Anna’s.

“If you promise not to run away, I’ll take the collar off.” She takes a deep breath, her teeth digging into her bottom lip.

“Mmm, I don’t know. Now that there’s no fighting you about it, it feels like a sad victory.” Anna giggles again and nudges Elsa’s shoulder with her own.

“Well-”

“I’ll move the Ball date up if you promise not to accept any proposals.” Elsa almost regrets saying that when she wonders if Anna would be significantly happier out of the castle with some simp on her arm, but the way her sister’s eyes gleam with excitement makes it clear she’s just fine with this idea.

“I hope you’re not expecting me to decline this offer just because you happened to decline mine.”

“Of course not, I just want the best for my little sister.”

“Well, in that case~” Smirking, Anna leans into Elsa, her hand just barely finding her sister’s lap before Elsa nervously laughs and pulls away.

“Don’t be greedy, Anna.” She flicks the younger girl’s forehead.

_______________________________________________________________________

Anna smiles down at Olaf, who rambles on about who knows what. Elsa stands beside her with an unsure expression about this. She leans over to whisper into Anna’s ear.

“Are you sure about this? Can’t we just melt him and bring him back the morning after?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Anna has to resist the urge not to elbow or so much as glare at her sister. As long as she’s on her best behavior tonight, things should go fine. There’ll be no reason for Elsa to worry, and she’ll make sure not to stray too far. Olaf is the only present problem to deal with. The plan is to turn him into something less… snowman-like. Elsa suggested a pile of ice, and Anna suggested a dog. We can all assume how that argument went. Short story even shorter, Elsa is going to try and turn Olaf into a terrier.

“Alright.”

“Hey, Olaf, do you want to play a game with us?” The snowman claps his hands.

“Oh yes, that sounds fun!!!”

“Great! We haven’t figured out a name for it yet, but Elsa is going to turn you into something and you have to act like that thing for the entire day. If you win, we will spend the entire next day with you.” Elsa shoots her a look that clearly states she isn’t okay with this, but Anna ignores it in favor of Olaf squealing with excitement.

“We can call it Charades!!!”

“That’s perfect! So, are you in?”

“Definitely! Hit me with it, Elsa!” Elsa, still looking uncertain in her abilities, pulls her hand back and then takes a breath before gently extending it forward. Blue magic flows from her fingertips and wraps around Olaf, changing his shape and size into a small dog while also rearranging his outer accessories. The texture definitely doesn’t look furry, but they could work on Elsa’s ability with details later. Right now, it’s the best they have.

“Oh, Olaf, you look good! Great job, Elsa.” Anna nudges Elsa a little bit, making the Queen chuckle in mild disbelief before she clears her throat and stands up a little straighter. So cute.

“Right. How does it feel, Olaf?” Instead of speaking, Olaf does his best impression of a bark, which is decent enough. “Glad to hear it. Alright, come on, Anna. I’m sure people are wondering where we are.”

Anna waves at Olaf as she follows Elsa up the stairs. Olaf sits back on his snowy haunches and waves back with a cute little paw. Yeah, he’ll be fine.

________________________________________________

Halfway through the night and things are going fine. Anna has done a while of mingling with people from other kingdoms and countries, learning of their stories and daydreaming about maybe being able to live one of them. Eventually, she settles beside the fondue fountain with her sister to chat about the people she met and how great it is to be surrounded by people again.

“So, how’s tonight going for you? Are you okay?” Elsa keeps rubbing at her hands, worrying wrinkles into the gloves, and worrying Anna. Though, when asked, she keeps them still and tries to catch Anna’s gaze away from them.

“Yeah, I’m okay. People have been okay. Friendly, to say the least. Uh, some are a little too friendly.” Elsa can’t help but glance over to the crowd, but Anna can’t catch sight of who she might be talking about.

“Are you getting harassed? You don’t have to say yes. Just point them out and I will… give them a very stern talking to.” Anna's heart jitters when Elsa laughs, giving her a small rush of dopamine.

“No, that’s okay. If things get out of hand, I’m sure I can handle it, but thank you.”

“Of course, big sis. Speaking of hands, are you worried?” The princess reaches forward to take one of Elsa’s hands. She can feel the chill over the fabric, but it quickly eases to the simple warm fabric after a few seconds in her grasp.

“Maybe a little bit, but I’m feeling better now.” Because Anna is beside her? Her hopeless romantic mind wants to believe so. Although, it could also be the chocolate… Is this her life now? Competing with chocolate?

“Good. I was hoping maybe you would dance with me?”

“Oh, Anna, you know I don’t dance.” A little dismayed, Anna moves her hand up Elsa’s sleeve until she could lightly grasp the collar hidden by her cape, then she leans in so close that Elsa turns her head away in a hot blush.

“Promise me a dance alone in your bedroom instead?” She whispers, her own cheeks glowing a little from the heat.

“Significantly preferred than to humiliate myself,” Elsa whispers back, one hand on Anna’s arm and her other gently pushing her back by her waist.

“Good. I’m looking forward to it. Now, I’ve put this off for most of the night, because I didn’t want to freak you out, but Hans is here again.”

“Mhmm,” Elsa frowns in visible confusion. “What about him?”

“I would like to hang be with him for a while, out of the ballroom.”

Elsa can barely stifle a laugh as she picks up one of the small glasses of wine on the table. As she brings it to her lips, Anna puts her finger on the rim and lowers it.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Excuse you, I am the Queen and will drink wine whenever and wherever I please.”

“Excuse you, you’re a lightweight. Just two of these and you’ll be flaunting your powers around like they’re nothing.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted.” Once again, Elsa brings the glass to her lips and takes a slow sip while leveling a half-lidded stare on Anna. “Go be with your prince, I’ll be fine.” She sounds a little cold, but when Anna’s face softens to a concerned grimace, she sighs and lowers the glass. “I’ll only have one. Now, go.”

Grinning again, Anna hugs Elsa’s arm before running off towards the crowd. Elsa watches it with fervor until her sister and Hans depart from the crowd and disappear through an open door. Biting back her nerves, Elsa downs the rest of the drink with a slight cough and then sets the glass down so she could return to any open conversations.

_____________________

When Elsa sees Anna in the ballroom again, it’s much later in the night. She’s clinging tightly to Hans’ arm, the sight putting a dreadful feeling in the pit of Elsa’s stomach. Though she wants to believe it’s nothing, and even if it isn’t, it shouldn’t be her problem. Hans seems like a nice guy. He would probably be everything Anna is looking for. No wonder she wanted to marry him on the spot…

Buried in these thoughts, Elsa almost doesn’t notice them approaching her, but their bright red hair makes it a little difficult to see anything else when she does. Hans wears a sweet innocent smile, clearly holding nothing against her since their last encounter. Elsa doesn’t trust Hans as far as she could throw him regardless of how nice he may be, but Anna looks so happy beside him.

“Hey, Elsa, just checking in to see how you’re doing. Sorry I’ve been away so long. Hans and I have been having a blast!” Elsa gives her sister a smile and settles a less genuine one on the prince.

“Mm good. I’m fine. What have you two been up to? You’re not about to ask for my blessing again, are you?” It was a joke, but the way both of their gazes falter and glance at each other for a moment freaks Elsa out. “Anna?!”

“Kidding! We’re kidding!!” She and Hans share a laugh and Anna finally lets go of the man’s arm. Not at all amused, Elsa fixes them both with a stern look that quickly makes Hans look away.

“Very funny.” As the Queen starts to walk away, Anna reaches out to latch onto her older sister’s arm instead.

“Don’t be so sour. Come hang out with us. We’re going to the garden.” Elsa has to repress the urge to shove Anna away. If she does, she'll never hear the end of it.

“No. Thank you for the invitation, but as the responsible one, I will foresee that the party continues without issue. Specifically, the party you wanted so badly. If I had known you were only interested in hanging out with a boy… You could have just said that.”

Anna’s grip loosens as she figures out what has her sister in such an attitude. How is she supposed to reply the way she wants to when Hans is standing right there? Leaving the party for however long was a mistake, and now she has to make it up to Elsa.

“The party will be over soon, so I suggest you make your time with him worthwhile,” Elsa mutters, retracting her arm and continuing to walk away.

“D- don’t be like that, Elsa. I’m just trying to have a little fun.” Anna trails close beside Elsa, not attempting to pull her away from the crowd, but determined to stay close. “Hans isn’t like that for me anymore. I told him that, and we’re just friends.”

“I didn’t say you were anything more.” They leave the crowd to stand at the very end of the ballroom where two thrones remain empty, gleaming from their recent polish. Elsa gives Anna a stoic look and then seats herself on the Queen’s designated throne.

“So, stop behaving with such childish jealousy.” The words are harsh, but Anna says them with a grin. “We can go to the garden alone if you would prefer it that way,” Almost mocking her sister, she bows low, “your majesty.”

“Watch yourself, Anna. It wouldn’t behoove us to be the spectacle of something…” Eyes narrowed to Anna, Elsa waves her hand in search of a better word than what she wanted to say. “Suspicious.” She settles on the word, however underwhelming it represents in terms of Elsa’s fear of their incestuous relationship.

While Elsa has yet to accept or acknowledge any feelings from her side, she does nothing to stop Anna from feeling or acting the way she does towards her. However, at a social event like this, it would be wise for them both if it goes unspoken and ignored. Elsa thought Anna would see it that way, but she’s sure testing it.

Biting her lip, Anna reaches out a hand to her sister, eyes mischievous despite the warning.

“Is that a yes?”

Elsa has to weigh her options. On the one hand, she doesn’t exactly know what a nightly trail through the garden with Anna would lead to and that’s exciting. On the other, she does want to be responsible and stay here should something go wrong. But… on the third hand, what could go wrong? As far as she can tell, she’s the only danger at this ball.

Sure, Hans is starting to appear a very suspicious individual in her mind, but that could potentially just be jealousy. Staring past Anna towards the group of dancing wealthy folk and the chattering townsfolk, she searches the crowd to find Hans. The man is already in another heated conversation with a small group of people since departing from the two sisters.

“Very well. Only for a short while. I do plan to bring the party to a close soon.” Finally, Elsa takes Anna’s hand and allows the girl to pull her from the seat. After a short word with a guard, the two take their exit from the ball and through an open corridor that leads out into a large garden.

Swaths of purple heather sway to and fro around statues of reindeer and moose. Fringed pink decorate the stone pathway to a lamp-lit wooden bench, some budding sneezewort pushing its way untamely through the wooden slats behind. Behind the bench is a bigger grove; a lesser maze of the garden with bushes and flowers ranging from blue anemone to the tall and proud sunflower. More statues of animals, very few being any of actual legends, such as various huldra trolls, stand scattered around a path devoid of flowers.

Elsa, one hand holding tight to Anna’s, lets her other softly grace over the ceramic hoof of the closest sculpture. Anna gazes at it with her, always amazed at the artisan's work of what she viewed to be the most majestic creature of the north; the woodland reindeer. Its antlers are thick and massive on its skull. She reaches up to touch them and Elsa watches her fingers carefully to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally break a piece of it. Not that she doesn’t trust Anna, but the princess has admitted her fault as being clumsy very often.

Then as the hand falls away, Anna looks over to Elsa with a sweet smile that makes her heart suddenly quicken in pace. She does her best not to look so awkward when smiling back but quickly leads them forward again through the sweet pollen-ridden scent of native and non-indigenous flowers. The calming quiet of this peaceful walk with her sister is very relieving to Elsa’s earlier stresses.

They choose to sit on a stone bench much farther into the garden, more near the center of it all. A tall white lamp flickers light on their surroundings, but it’s all just calm greenery. Nothing disturbed. The air is warm, too. Summer gifts Anna with the lack of goosebumps tonight, even as she leans into Elsa’s cold shoulder.

“Why haven’t we thought of doing this before now? The garden is so much prettier at night.” Anna’s voice is soft, quiet enough only Elsa would be able to hear it so close. Elsa nods, her gaze glued on the night sky, the dark blue of it painted with the white of the moon and the translucent colors of the stars. It’s gorgeous. For a moment, she wonders if she’s seen this somewhere before.

Then, slowly, her eyes lower to the face resting on her shoulder. The stars reflect in Anna’s eyes, giving them the illusion of sparkling. When Anna notices Elsa looking at her, she stares back until the two are enraptured in the stare.

“You look beautiful,” Elsa whispers, wishing she could blink away her feelings. Anna giggles, the sound making Elsa’s heart flutter. Maybe just one drink was already too much. Right now, she finds it hard to repress anything, especially the one thing she’s been hiding from the most.

“Only one drink in you and you’re already hitting on me again.”

“Again?” Her resolve crashes to the ground, suddenly aware of how little she remembers about the night Anna supervised her drinking. Catching on to Elsa’s revived panic, Anna holds Elsa’s hand in both of her own and gives it a tight reassuring squeeze.

“That’s right, I never told you, did I?”

“Tell me what?”

“Well, while you were getting all loosey goosy with your powers, you started getting really close and clingy. Then when I was trying to get you back to your bedroom, you uhm… refused to budge until I promised to -go to bed with you-.” While Anna has to desperately hold back her laughter, Elsa’s face twists into that of horrid disgust in herself. She scoots away from Anna on the bench and turns her tomato-red face away to the darkness. “Hey, it isn’t that bad! I didn’t actually do anything with you, I just said I would and left you in your bedroom like a good sister.”

“I might vomit.” Elsa groans, slouching over onto her legs.

“That’s just hurtful.” Anna doesn’t sound mad or offended when she says that, so Elsa doesn’t take it to heart.

“I’m sorry, Anna. I think we should go back to the party now.” Before any other regrets can be created.

“What? Why? I thought we were getting somewhere.”

Elsa stands from the bench, her hand pulling out of Anna’s grasp with sacrifice to her glove. Anna stands with her, her hands gripping on tightly to the glove as if it still has Elsa’s hand inside.

“No, we can’t just leave this open-ended like this! Elsa, please! I love you and I-”

“Anna, you’re living in a fantasy world. We can’t be. That’s the end of it.” It hurts to be so blunt about it, but sometimes getting a reality check is just what needs to be done. And here Elsa was so close to kissing her sister. What on earth was she thinking?

Looking back at Anna’s crestfallen face, she knows what she was thinking. But those thoughts mean nothing to society and the real world. Anna is a broken fool not to be afraid of her feelings.

“I can’t be with Hans, I can’t be with you. Why do you hurt me like this, Elsa?”

Without the heart to answer, Elsa turns away again, her arms holding tight over her chest. She starts back down the path they had come from, only the sound of her heels on the stone following the heartbreaking silence.

When she makes her way back to the ballroom unaccompanied, the ballroom is still buzzing with life. The sound of serene music is numb to her consciousness and the rich smell of chocolate does nothing but make the weight on her chest harder to bear. There’s only one thing she wants to do now, and that’s sulk in her bedroom until Anna feels like talking to her again, but that shouldn’t be for at least a week if that.

She walks through the crowd, determined to get to the guards at the castle doors. While trying to do so, she trips forward into someone’s back. When the man turns around, he makes sure to catch her in his arms and lift her back into balance. Elsa would have been grateful, if not for Hans’ smile being what she looks up to thank.

“Queen Elsa, are you alright?”

“F- fine.” Shaking her head, she pulls her arms away from him like the fabric of his jacket is made of hot metal.

“Glad I could catch you. Where’s Anna? Did you two go to the garden together?” Instead of dwelling on Elsa’s cold exterior, Hans takes it upon himself to brush heather seeds from the Queen’s shoulder. She decides to ignore that for his sake.

“Yes, and she should still be in the garden, but the party is over, so the gates will be closing momentarily.” The man’s face falls a little but softens to a strange look of understanding and he holds out his hand to her.

“I’m sad to see it over, but I’m happy to have been here. Thank you so much for inviting me again, especially after what happened the last time.” Only because she doesn’t want to be rude, Elsa accepts Hans’ handshake, not at all thinking about how she takes his with her gloveless hand.

“Thank you for coming. Princess Anna was very enthused to see you come all this way for her.” Regardless of being polite, she can’t rid her tone of its bitterness when thinking of Anna once again attached so snugly to this man's arm. Hans’ smile is gone in a second, his green gaze dropping to their hands. When Elsa attempts to pull her hand away, she finds the action not as easy as predicted. Ice covers Hans’ hand, keeping it firmly attached to Elsa’s until she successfully breaks it away.

“What-? What is this?!” Obviously panicking, Hans looks from his hand to Elsa, and then to the crowd starting to become interested in the commotion.

“Oh no.. No, no, no…” Elsa backs away, drawing a blank on what to do. She has feared this situation for so long, and having it actually happen now of all times... All she can imagine is that this must be some sort of nightmare that she’ll wake from at any second. Unfortunately, the crowd starts to gasp and murmur and point at Elsa, accusing her of witchcraft while she freezes in fear.

“Elsa?” Anna’s voice breaks the commotion, and they all turn to look at the princess entering the ballroom. With this distraction, Elsa makes her getaway towards the castle doors and into the courtyard. Oblivious to what has just happened inside, people turn from the outdoor crowd to look at her. She makes haste to move through them, towards a door she thinks would be a perfect escape from any chasing after her, which… by the sound of metal and Anna continuing to call after her, happens to be many.

On the other side of the door, stairs and a grassy path lead down to the fjord’s water that she follows until she’s left staring blankly at the shiny moonlit surface. She has an idea, but it isn’t certain to work, so she tests one step onto the water. A blue ripple of magic courses onto it, solidifying her step rather than letting her foot plunge through. The door behind her slams open, giving her the motivation she needs to trust fall into her magic and start sprinting as fast as she can over the water. No turning back.

__________________________

“Elsa, no!!!” Anna calls desperately after her sister, pushing past the guards until she’s left helplessly standing at the water's edge.

Bright blue patterns race across the fjord waters, chilling the water to solid ice as Elsa continues running. The ice continues growing fast like a dangerous weed until the fjord is completely frozen within minutes, with only the faint silhouette of Elsa in the distance. The only thing that stops Anna from running over the ice after her is one of the guards holding her back, but the reason she stops struggling against it is realizing she’s now the only royal in the castle. She has to keep her head for her people’s sake.

So, taking a deep breath of the painful cold air, she starts leading the guards back into the courtyard. Hans and several others from inside are waiting for her among the worried murmurs of the townsfolk already outside. Snow gently starts to fall over them. Repressing a shiver, she quickly runs over to Hans, two of the guards at her shoulders.

“I’m going after her. Is your hand okay?” Hans has broken most of the ice from his hand and is flexing his fingers as he tries to pluck the rest of it from his glove.

“I’m fine, but I can’t let you do that.”

“You can’t stop me.” Anna turns away from him and to the guard at her right. “Bring me my horse.” Then to the one on her left. “My cloak, please.” The two quickly rush away, one to the sables, and the other into the castle.

“Anna, I know she’s your sister, but she is dangerous. Look at the fjord!”

“My sister is not dangerous. She’s just… afraid. You would be too if a huge secret of yours was just exposed to your people as well as your allies.” Hans still looks worried, but he doesn’t make any attempt to argue. Anna pats his chest. “Trust me, I’ll bring her back and she’ll fix all of this.”

“I hope you're right,” He murmurs. As soon as the guards come back, Anna clasps the cloak around her shoulders and mounts onto Kjekk’s saddle before turning to address her people.

“I’m leaving to bring back the Queen. Prince Hans is in charge until I return.” Then she drops her gaze onto the man. “Please, keep them safe.” He gives her a nod and she takes a nervous breath before pulling on Kjekk’s reins and starting him forward into a sprint out through the castle gates.

Notes:

And another one bites the dust. You're welcome B)

Chapter 4: Life's Too Short

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

How am I going to find her?

Since leaving her kingdom, Anna holds herself close to the sparse warmth radiating from Kjekk as the horse trudges through the snow.

“Could this be my fault? Sure. Maybe I pushed her a little too hard, but she just needs to accept her feelings! They really aren’t so bad to have!” Talking to herself is nothing new, and often something she would resort to when needing to figure things out. Her brain would just get a little too… cramped sometimes. “Okay, so that sounds kind of selfish, but I just want her to be happy! You know what I’m talking about, right, Kjekk?”

The horse snorts and shakes his head of the light dusting snow landing on his snout from the trees above. It hadn’t taken very long for Elsa to freeze over the entire fjord. Anna doesn’t blame her for that though. She’s afraid and has every right to be. Once Anna finds her, she knows she can calm her down. Then, once they bring back summer, the Arendellians will be happy and Elsa won’t ever need to feel afraid again!

“I knew you were on my side, bud.”

A few seconds later, a pile of snow drops in front of them without warning, likely a too heavy pile for one of the above branches to carry. It startles Kjekk into rearing back and while Anna tries to regain control of him again, she’s knocked off his back.

“No! Come back!!” From her chilly seat in the snow, she reaches for the horse, only for that to do no good when Kjekk is already sprinting away. “Noooooo…”

Alright. Minor setback. I can still do this.

Determined not to give up her search and go back just because of this inconvenience, Anna reaches for what she thinks is a poorly snow-covered bush. What she does grab onto is a young pine, weighed down by snow, and the moment she pulls on it, it flies upright. Snow cascades from its short branches onto her.

Great…

With a disheveled sigh, Anna uses her hands to brush away the snow and heave herself out of the pile. Her fingers now feel numb and goosebumps cover her poor exposed arms, making her shiver. What are the chances there’s someone else in these woods who can help her?

_______________________________________

“Snow… It just had to be snow,” Anna grumbles. Making her way through the snow in a dress and heels is far from ideal and the aggravation is slowly getting to her. “It couldn’t have been tropical powers with hot sand and warm…” She trails off when noticing something not too far from where she stands atop a riverbank.

A large shack sits there, almost ominously, surrounded by the trees. While she would have been at least semi-cautious of just walking up to what could be someone’s abandoned house or worse, utter relief fills every crevice in her body at the sight of gentle smoke wafting from the shack’s chimney.

“Fire!” She gleefully exclaims. Just as she does, the snow beneath her heels gives way. The tree behind her snags her cloak and she slips down into the freezing river. “Cold. Cold, cold, cold, cold.”

Continuing to repeat that as if doing so would change anything, Anna quickly gets to her feet and out of the river before she can catch hypothermia. Her skirt freezes solid by the time she gets to the stairs, making for a very inconvenient way to get to the front door. When she does, two signs greet her, both covered in snow. Once tapping the first, the snow falls away.

“Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post,” Anna recites in wonder before the snow on the second sign falls as well. “Ooh, and sauna!” Rushing inside with peak excitement, Anna stops short in the doorway when she spots the burly man behind the counter.

“Yoohoo!” The man gives a wave with his fingers, appearing very kind despite his large appearance. Reassured by that and her want to not seem rude, Anna steps further inside and closer to the counter.

“Hello!”

“Big summer blowout!” His thick German accent becomes quickly apparent. “Half off swimsuits, clogs, and some of my own invention.” He pulls up a jar with a label on it that says “sun lotion”.

“Oh!” Unsure how to respond when she isn’t positive she even heard him correctly with his accent a little in the way, Anna looks around and then back at the man, who she assumes must be Oaken. “Uh, okay. Well, for now, do you have winter dresses? And boots?”

“That would be in our winter department.” Oaken gestures over to the side of the building where a couple shelves are sturdily mounted, only to have not many items on them. It seems there’s just enough in supply for her.

“Oh, great!” Feeling her luck must have just turned around, Anna hurries over to the winter department and grabs the neatly folded clothes from the shelf, as well as the boots sitting on a stool near a couple of fallen snowshoes. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen uh… oh, I don’t know… a Queen around here, would you?”

“The only one crazy enough to be out in this storm, is you, dearie.”

That’s fine. No reason to be discouraged. Maintaining her optimism, Anna brings the items to the counter with a half-hearted smile. Just as she does, the door swings open and a man, completely covered from blonde head to weird leather shoes in snow, stomps his feet on the wooden floorboards to the doorway.

“You, and this fellow.” Oaken corrects himself. “Yoohoo, big summer blowout!”

The man says nothing, and instead stomps over to the winter section with a purpose.

“A real hounder in July, huh? Where are we coming from?”

“The North Mountain.” He retrieves rope and a climbing hook from beside the stool and stomps his way over to the counter. Feeling awkward to be in the way, Anna leans back against it the closer he gets.

“Carrots,” he says, his voice muffled from the snowy bandana covering his face.

“What?”

“Behind you.”

“Oh!” Anna shuffles away from the counter, revealing the food assortment under the counter shelves. Awkward… The man tosses the supplies onto the counter and glares down at the trader.

“Alright. This will be 40.”

“40!? No, ten.” He taps the counter with a mitted hand, clearly irritated. Oaken, looking a little concerned about this predicament, taps his fingertips together.

“Ah, well, with the winter stock there is a slight problem with supply and demand…”

“You want to talk about a supply and demand problem? I sell ice for a living.” His head tips over to the window, where a sled full of harvested ice blocks sits on the back.

“Oh, yikes! That is a rough business to be in right now.” Anna can’t help but chime in as the thought comes to mind. Though, as the man shoots her a glare, she clears her throat. “That is- that’s unfortunate…”

“Still 40.”

“10’s all I got. Help me out…”

Oaken thoughtfully pushes the carrots forward and pulls the climbing supplies to himself. “I can get you this and no more.”

“Hey, did it uh, seem magical on the North Mountain?”

“Yes!” Truly aggravated now, the man pulls down his frost-covered bandana and shoots her with a scowl. “Now back up and let me deal with this crook.”

They both look over to Oaken as the large man stands up from behind the counter, towering over them both. Still, his face holds more confusion and hurt than malicious intent.

“What did you call me?”

Then it’s all Anna can do to watch as Oaken manhandles the ice harvester and straight-up tosses him out the door and into the snow. She stares wide-eyed as he walks back behind the counter with a smile back in place.

“So, just the dress and the boots, hm?”

“Uh…” Anna looks down at the clothes beside the man’s supplies. Potentially, like a trade, if she got these things for him, he could take her up to the North Mountain. It could be a win for them both! “Actually, I think I’ll take the rope, the hook, and the carrots, too. I don’t really have a lot of change on me, but I’ll be able to pay the rest off after getting back to the castle with my sister.”

“And what are you willing to trade?”

“Well, I have no use for these clothes once I change out of them. I’m sure you could make quite a few kroner off of a princess’ gown.” She grins at him and he claps his hands.

“Wonderful! There’s a changing room beside the sauna. My family is there now. Yoohoo family!” He waves to the door to the left where a fogged window suddenly fills with people’s faces as they wave back.

“Yoohoo!”

Anna giggles, amused by this kind, strange man.

___________________________

Once dressed in the winter wear, which is far more comfortable than a sleeveless ball gown in this kind of weather, Anna heads for the door with the supplies in leather bags tucked under her arm. Alright, how to deal with this man. He seems assertive and grumpy, so chances are she’ll likely get somewhere with him if she pretends to be the same way.

Hyping herself up for this confrontation, Anna slams open the door to the trading post and shrugs back her shoulders before confidently striding forward. The door quickly closes behind her, once again leaving the darkening snowy expanse creepy to be alone in. It doesn’t stay quiet for long though.

The sound of singing beckons her from the trading post and over to another shack. This one is more barn-like and outside of it is a large shed she figures must be his. Not wanting to disturb just yet, Anna listens to the song. The man must have a silent companion, for he makes the song into a duet by singing in a different deeper voice, and by the lyrics, his companion’s name must be Sven. What a nice name.

“Nice duet.” Anna finally shoves open the barn door a little bit to step inside the homie space. Hay litters over the floor up to where the man and his reindeer lay quite comfortably on a large pile of it. At her presence, they both jolt up from their doze.

“What do you want?” Clearly disinterested in whatever she is doing here to bother them, the man leans back against Sven, his hat in his hand to contemplate putting back over his face.

“I want you to take me to the North Mountain.”

“I don’t take people places.” Already expecting this reaction, Anna tosses a bag onto his lap, where he pulls out the hook and rope before looking up at her again now with a curious raised brow.

“I need to get to the North Mountain to find my sister. I need your help.” With a grimace, the man settles back down and drops the hat over his face.

“We leave at dawn. And you forgot the carrots for Sven.”

She tosses the next bag, not at all aiming for his face, but fate lands it there anyways. He sits up again with an oof and stares down at the carrots falling into his lap.

“Sorry! Sorry, I didn’t mean-” Immediate regret for her decisions, she tries to apologize, but catches herself and reasserts dominance. “We leave now. Right now.” Already feeling awkward, she quickly rushes out of the barn and lets out a low breath of relief that this is actually happening. Progress!

It feels exhilarating to be out of the castle and on an adventure now that she sits safe and warm on a stranger’s sled. Since he obviously isn’t in a great mood right now, having been disrupted from sleep, Anna figures just to be quiet until he’s sitting beside her with Sven tied to the sled. Only once they’ve started forward and have gotten far from the trading post does she curiously turn to him.

“So… who are you?”

“My name is Kristoff.” Not one for words just yet, his statement draws silence between them both again.

It takes a bit to get to a patch of earth where Sven can speed up, but when he does, Kristoff appears to be in a much better mood. Anna is pretty excited about it, too.

“Just letting you know: we like to go fast!” He warns her. She scoffs and leans back to prop her boots on the sled.

“Are you kidding? I love fast!” Her boots are quickly pushed off and Kristoff leans forward to try rubbing off whatever dirt she might’ve gotten on it.

“Woah, woah, woah. This is fresh lacker! What, were you raised in a barn?” He spits on the spot, but most of it whips back with the wind and hits Anna in the face. Grimacing with how gross that just was, she wipes away the spit with her mitts.

“No, I was raised in a castle…”

“Huh.” Kristoff leans back again, a relaxed grin on his face. “So, what made the Queen go all ice crazy?”

“Oh, I’m actually not entirely sure. I think it might have been kind of my fault, but I think it’s bad to start blaming myself when I’m already trying to fix it regardless.”

“Okay, but what happened?”

“Well, that’s what I’m saying! I wasn’t in the room when it happened. We had met in the garden prior and I… Well, it’s kind of personal. I said some things she didn’t agree with and left me there to end the party.” Unsure what should be left unsaid, Anna taps her hand against her chin in thought. “It could be anything that happened today. I kind of promised not to leave her side, but couldn’t help myself to hang out with this really cute prince I had met at the last ball. I still can’t believe I almost got engaged to him the same day I met him.”

“What?!”

“I know right?! My sister was just as baffled! Now that it’s been a while since then, I completely see the absurdity in doing that.”

“You did what?!!!”

“I knowwwww!! Pay attention, please. So, as she kind of froze Hans’ arm, it could’ve been jealousy, of all things, right? I- I mean- not romantic jealousy, of course, but like… like jealousy that I wanted to spend hours outside of the castle with him again. Maybe she was afraid we were going to try and get married again, but-”

“What kind of person thinks that’s okay?!” Kristoff, still hung up on how she planned to get engaged to Hans the first day she met him, stares with wide eyes to the open forest. Anna huffs that this is the one thing he pays attention to.

“The kind of person who has gone crazy for 13 years without anyone to talk to or even dream of. Look, I know it wasn’t my best moment, so can we just-”

“Stop talking.” Suddenly, the sled slows to a stop and Kristoff stands up.

“What? What’s going-” Cut off by a black mitten covering her mouth, Anna grunts and pushes away the hand. She takes a breath to say something more, but Kristoff shushes her again before she can. He takes the lantern and uses it to see behind the sled, where glowing green eyes shine from the light's reflection.

“Wolves.” Kristoff quickly puts the lantern back and jerks on the reins to get Sven running again. Wolves?! Well, this is a turn she probably should have expected. After tying the reins down, Kristoff turns back to their pursuers, apparently already aware they wouldn’t be able to outrun the pack. Then, reaching down into the back, he pulls out a long stick that he lights the top of with the lantern.

“What are you doing?!”

“Stay back!” As a wolf lunges at the sled, Kristoff bats it away with the stick.

“I can help!” When Anna reaches for something to help fight with, Kristoff pushes her away. Just as he does, another wolf lunges forward and grabs ahold of his other arm. As it pulls him off the sled, he drops the stick, leaving Anna to retrieve it before it could set everything on fire. “Kristopher!”

“It’s Kristoff! OW!!!” Thankfully, Kristoff manages to grab onto a rope on the end of the sled, of which he would tie the ice blocks to, and he hangs on while praying the wolves wouldn’t tear him apart.

“Duck!” Thinking fast, Anna lights a bedroll on fire and tosses it over Kristoff’s head to the wolves attacking him. The creatures fall a ways away and give him enough time to pull himself back into the sled.

“You almost set me on fire!”

“But I didn’t!”

They both turn to see what’s ahead of them, having had good luck in not going over any cliffs while being distracted. Though, unfortunately, that luck appears to end very quickly. Ahead of them is a wide snowy chasm that they definitely won’t be able to make with as much weight as the sled has. Maybe if it’s just them and Sven… So crazy, it might just work.

“Get ready to jump, Sven!” Anna calls, preparing to untie the sled from him until Kristoff lifts her and tosses her onto Sven’s back.

“You don’t tell Sven when to jump, I do!” He declares when cutting the tie. “Jump Sven!”

As the reindeer leaps, Kristoff follows after them on the sled until the last moment, where he jumps from the edge. He just barely makes it to the light snowbank at the other end of the cliff, where he has the perfect view to watch his livelihood burst into flames at the bottom.

“Awe… but I just paid it off…” That is soon to be the least of his worries when he starts to slide off the cliff. “No… No, no, no!” Reaching for anything to grab onto, a hook tied to rope lands in front of him.

“Grab on!” Doing just that, Sven and Anna quickly pull him to safety. Once he's safe, Anna leans over to look at the cliff below. Kristoff could’ve just died and it would have been entirely her fault… Mans just wanted to sleep. “Woah…”

When Kristoff slumps back in the snow with a groan, overwhelming guilt crashes over her.

“I’ll replace your sled and… everything in it, and I understand if you don’t want to help me anymore.” However dismaying it is to do this on her own again, Anna respectfully bows her head and turns to walk up the snowscape, completely unsure of where she’s going. The North Mountain implies it would be North, but where exactly is that. Trying to figure it out, she talks aloud to herself while pointing various ways, hoping one would feel right.

“Wait up!” Kristoff finally shouts from where he has yet to move from. “I’m coming.”

“Really? You are?!” Realizing how desperate that sounds, Anna quickly tries to backtrack. “Errr, sure, I’ll let you tag along.”

He chuckles and slowly joins her at the edge of the trees.

“So, this way to the North Mountain?” She points to the direction that feels most correct, only for his hand to lift her elbow and point to the highest mountain in the distance.

“More like, this way.”

“Woah…”

___________________

So, onward they trek a cold peaceful journey, thankfully where Anna doesn’t create any more havoc. When dawn finally breaks, the forest is painted in beautiful blue contrast to the blinding white. Trees dangle with icy crystals, adding a very mystical element to the soft surroundings. No wonder this is her sister’s element. It’s so elegant, so beautiful, so… cold and distant.

“Winter is so beautiful.” She can’t even say she didn’t know that. While Anna may never have gotten to leave the palace walls and see winter beyond the castle, Elsa has already made the season far more meaningful for her.

“It is, isn’t it?” A new strange voice chimes in from somewhere around them. Anna stops and looks to Kristoff and then Sven, wondering if it’s them, but they too are looking for the voice’s source. “Although, it’s a little colorless. Maybe add some bright reds or some yellow. Wait- no. Yellow and snow? No go.”

Then a small snow-colored terrier trots over to them, its little tail wagging until it seats itself between Anna and Kristoff.

“Am I right?”

“Olaf?!?!”

“Anna!!!” The small dog stands again, its little butt now wagging side to side with its glee.

“Olaf???” Kristoff queries. “Anna?”

“Kristoff, I-”

“Kristoff???” Olaf gives the suspicious-looking man a doggish glare.

“Sven!” Svens chips in with excitement. (Okay, so he didn’t, but it would be really funny if he did)

“Olaf, what are you doing here? How are you here? You were in the castle!”

“Oh, well,” The dog starts with an explanation before being interrupted by Kristoff.

“I’m sorry, are we just going to… Are we just accepting that this is a talking dog? No, am I going to accept that you already know this dog?”

“Well, actually, he isn’t a dog at all. He’s actually a talking snowman that Elsa made.” Anna isn’t sure that explanation reaches at all with Kristoff because of the blank look he gives her, but his paralyzed confusion allows for Olaf to continue with his explanation.

“My disguise worked perfectly! No one was afraid of me! They just laughed and talked while drinking whatever is in those old bottles until the ice started. It was like an icebox in that room, so everyone quickly left and I followed to see what was going on.” Barely following along, Anna gives the snowman a serious expression and nods her head. “Everything was getting covered in snow and you were riding off on a horse, so… I never actually figured out what’s going on, but I followed you.”

“Ah, well, that would make sense then. And why would anyone be concerned about you escaping? You’re… a dog. Yeah, okay maybe it was a dumb question.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt more confused in my life,” murmurs Kristoff.

Anna, ignoring him, turns back to Olaf. “We’re looking for Elsa so she can thaw the fjord. I wouldn’t suppose you would know where she might be, would you?”

“Why would I know something like that? I just got here.”

“That is a great point, but I was just thinking because she made you and all, that you might have some sort of connection with her location…”

“Oooooohhhh! Now that you mention it, I do have a sense that she must be innnnn,” Olaf turns and points with his nose in a direction to the side, “this direction.” Then he trots forward on his little legs. As Anna goes to follow, Kristoff stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

“What?”

“We’re going to follow a… a talking dog snowman?”

“Do you have a better idea? He knows where Elsa is!” Brushing Kristoff’s hand off, Anna continues forward.

“Let’s go bring back summer!” The snowdog hollars, concerning Kristoff even more. He gives a side look to Sven, but the reindeer just shrugs and follows after the two loons.

“Why am I the one who’s looked at like I’m crazy? Does he not know what will happen to him once it’s summer again?” Begrudgingly, he trails after Sven.

It’s a while of walking before they make it to the mountain, but it feels like centuries of Anna attempting to keep the conversation PG when Kristoff attempts to explain to Olaf all the things she has been trying to protect him from. Sure, the snowman will probably have to learn these things eventually, but why lower his spirits while he’s helping them? Honestly, Kristoff seems pretty dense sometimes.

They walk through an open cavern where short slopes have been blasted with a powerful storm. That’s only evident from the horizontal stalactites attached to the other side of the slopes. If they don’t pay enough attention to where they’re walking, it could easily stab out an eye or cut them. However, there’s no other way to continue ascending the mountain. At least it hasn’t gotten significantly colder, yet.

“So,” Kristoff starts, “what’s your plan exactly?”

“Oh, I am going to talk to my sister,” Anna announces, confidently.

“My ice business is riding on you talking to your sister?”

“Okay, it sounds underwhelming, but trust me, Elsa is so kind. I can convince her to thaw everything! We have a very tight bond with each other. She’ll listen to me.”

“Yeah, Elsa is the kindest, most warm-hearted person next to Anna herself. I mean, I’m pretty sure she tried to kill me once or twice, but I don’t hold it against her.”

Kristoff gulps and Anna cringes away from that memory.

“Hey, look! A rock face! What… do we do?” She turns to Kristoff, who gazes with disappointment at his singular rope.

“We’re going to have to find another way up. I’ve only got one rope and you don’t know how to climb.”

“Says who?” Adamant to prove him wrong, Anna throws herself onto the rock wall, now trying to climb up on her own.

“...What are you doing?”

“I,” With a grunt, Anna pauses to reach for a ledge, which feels miles away, “am going to see my sister.” She successfully pulls herself up and looks for a foothold so she can reach for another.

“You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I’m just going to block you out now, ‘cause I need to focus.”

“I wouldn’t put your foot there. Or there.” Twice, her foot slips from trying to put it on a secure spot. While that may have proved he knows what he’s talking about, she’s far from ready to give up. “How do you even know your sister wants to see you? Most people who disappear into the mountains want to be alone.”

“Nobody wants to be alone!” Finally, Anna manages to get her leg up on a high ledge. “Except for you maybe,” she mutters.

“I am not alone.” He laughs, almost sounding mocking from where she struggles.

“Of course you’re not. You just live in the woods with a reindeer. Totally not lonely.”

“Hey, I have other friends! They happen to know a lot more than you about love, too, so already more trustworthy company.”

“OoH~ LoVe ExPerTS!” Anna rolls her eyes and goes to pull herself up, only for her hand to break away rock and leave her without any other handholds. “Guh… Please tell me I’m almost there.” She must have made it quite a way up, right? It feels like half an hour has passed since she started. “Is the air a bit thin to you up here?”

“Hang on,” Kristoff chuckles.

“Hey, guys?” Olaf’s voice catches both of their attention. The snowdog stands at the opening to what looks like a dead-end tunnel. “I don’t know if this solves our problem, but I found a staircase leading exactly where we need to go.”

“Haha, perfect!” Anna looks over her shoulder. “Catch me!” Then, without knowing if Kristoff is ready at all to catch her, she pushes off the wall and onto his arms. Wow, surprisingly strong… No wonder he's an ice harvester. “Thanks! That was like some crazy trust exercise.” She pats his chest and slides out from his arms to run after Olaf, who disappears into the tunnel again.

When they emerge from the other side, sure enough, a staircase awaits them to bridge across a chasm. It’s completely made of ice from what Anna could see, and it pulses ever so slightly with blue magic. Her sister’s magic. Careful not to slip as she does so, Anna ascends the icy steps around to a much wider snowy clearing. Before her stands a castle, also made of ice. Tall in structure, Anna’s breath catches at the sight. For someone who wants to be alone, this stands out like a cold thumb from the face of the mountain. A gorgeous protrusion either way.

Kristoff stands beside her in a deeper sense of awe, his eyes shining with repressed tears. Of course, Anna thinks, the ice harvester. With a knowing smile, she pats his arm and continues forward to the second set of stairs that lead to the castle doors.

“I might cry,” he murmurs.

“Go ahead. I won’t judge.”

She makes it to the top first, eager to see her sister, but she stops all so suddenly at the closed door. Years of knocking on Elsa’s door without answer all come crashing back into her mind. It… No, it isn’t like that anymore. Elsa will let her in, won’t she? Still hesitant, she raises a fist and knocks on the door. The sound is a dull thud that seems to vibrate across the entire surface.

Then it opens. Just a crack, but it opens. Anna’s breath catches again. Only when Olaf rushes forward to squeeze through the opening does she jump back to the present. She scoops the snowdog into her arms and away from the door.

“Hold on, Olaf.” As Kristoff starts to push open the door, she stops him as well. “Kristoff, maybe it’s better if you don’t. My sister isn’t really good around new people, especially boys I introduce to her.”

“What?! But! But ice! This is a castle made of ice! Ice is my life!”

“Just give us a minute, okay?”

“Bye Kristoff!” Olaf tries to wiggle out of Anna’s arms, but she places him down on the stairs.

“You stay out here, too, Olaf. I need you to keep an eye on Kristoff and… where’s Sven?” Looking over the stairs, she finds the reindeer sitting obediently at the bottom. “Oh.”

“Keep an eye on us? What do you think we’re going to do?” At Kristoff’s offense, Anna gives him a silent grimace in hopes he could understand that she just wants to be alone with Elsa while sorting things out. ”Fine! Fine, we’ll stay here.” Then the man seats himself on the step closest to Olaf.

“Thank you.” Anna winks at the snowdog and then steps through the door.

Inside is just as stunning as she imagined. Double staircases display in front of her, each embroidered with the same intricate icy fractals as the floor she walks on and the cold walls surrounding the room. She thinks about calling for Elsa, but before she can, a familiar figure stands at the top of the stairs.

“Anna?”

While familiar, Elsa looks completely different than the woman who had run in a panic. Wearing a sparkling dress of ice, her hair is down in a braid that drapes casually over her left shoulder. It isn’t her attire that’s different either. She looks so much happier, not just to see Anna, but to be away from everyone. While that sounds like it’s impossible to see on a person, Anna can tell. Stress has all but left her posture and has gifted her face without worry lines or tired eyebags.

Elsa has never looked better than this moment right here, and Anna feels left without words. The woman is like a totally new rejuvenated goddess. Slowly, her sister descends the stairs towards her, transparent cape dragging over each step.

“Elsa…? Is that really you?”

“It is.” Examining from the heels that click on the ice up to the tall slit in Elsa’s dress, where her gaze can’t continue up for some reason, Anna is absolutely astounded by what Elsa has transformed herself into.

“You look different, Elsa.” A cold hand lifts her chin so her eyes can meet Elsa’s again, a smirk playing on the older woman’s face. “It’s a good different!” Anna reiterates with a blush before awkwardly looking around the room again. “And this place! I had no idea you could do something like this!”

“I’m capable of so much out here, Anna. My powers can’t hurt anyone this far away.” Elsa moves away, her hands swaying with a blue glow that sprinkles snow over the floor. At first, Anna is so mesmerized that she doesn’t catch the peculiarity of Elsa’s words.

“Wait what? Elsa, what are you talking about?”

“I know why you’re here, Anna, but I’m not going back. I’m not meant to rule Arendelle, and I’m okay with that. You should be, too.” Finally, she turns back to Anna with a relaxed smile. Perplexed and unable to register that Elsa doesn’t want to come back, Anna gives her a blank look and tries to find the words to explain the problem in Arendelle.

“Elsa, I don’t think you understand-” Before she can, Olaf sprints into the room, his paws sliding on the ice.

“Fifty-nine! Sixty! Elsa!!!”

“Olaf?!” Before the snowdog can crash into something, Elsa stops him with her foot and then picks him up. “Hold on, little guy.” With a swirl of her hand, she transforms the dog into the snowman the two sisters know and love. Not a tremble or uncertainty when she does either. Elsa really has changed since her departure from the kingdom.

“Ah, much better.” Olaf hugs his lumpy snow body as he’s put back down.

“Elsa, please, listen to me.”

“Anna, no amount of your optimism is going to convince me to come back with you. I deserve to be here, alone.” Starting to look a little irritated, Elsa turns on her heel and starts back up the stairs. “Thanks for coming by, but I think you should be leaving now.”

“You aren’t protecting anyone by staying here alone! Arendelle needs you!” Anna follows her. “I need you!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Anna.” While that would have been hurtful, the pained tone of Elsa’s voice gives away how weak she feels in this position. Not even five minutes of Anna pestering her again and the confidence she had built up is unraveling.

“I’m serious, Elsa. Do you even know the state you left Arendelle in?” Standing between the first floor and the second, Elsa stops on the stairs.

“What are you talking about?” Though she doesn’t turn around, tension digs into her shoulders. Anna can see how distraught her sister is becoming by that alone as Elsa’s new dress is quite exposing to those features coincidentally.

“Arendelle has completely frozen over since you left. People are scared, Elsa.” She tries to be gentle with her words, but she’s starting to worry that no matter what she says, Elsa won’t want to comply. Not only is the Queen’s crown nowhere in view, but her collar has vanished, too. Anna holds no authority over this woman anymore. All she can do is hope that their healing bond with each other will help Elsa see what needs to be done.

“I can’t help them, Anna,” Elsa whispers, now quickly making her way up the stairs onto the next floor.

“Yes, you can! We’ve been working on your control over your powers for weeks, and look at this! Look at what you’ve built!”

“I know! I know! But I-” When Anna joins her on the next floor, she finds Elsa pacing back and forth across the room, her head in her hands. “It’s different when you have to thaw everything, especially a whole kingdom! I’m just not ready for that! I’m too afraid!”

“You aren’t alone, Elsa. I’m not going anywhere, okay? We can do this together!”

“No! I can’t have you keep getting involved with this!! I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“Please, just take a breath.” Anna makes the mistake of stepping towards her. In some sort of defensive attack, Elsa whirls around towards her with an outstretched hand. Blue light flies around the room and before she can understand what’s going on, Anna falls to her knees.

Have I been impaled?

She looks down to check, but nothing protrudes from her body. Then why does everything suddenly feel so cold? Her heart beats slowly despite the panic rising in her chest. Elsa’s gasp catches her attention once more and she watches her sister back away, a terrified look on her face. Then their gazes flick over to footsteps coming from the stairs.

“Anna!” Kristoff bursts from behind the door and rushes over to help her off the floor. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine.” She glares at her sister, who looks too panicked to respond to it.

“You have to leave!”

“I said, I’m not leaving without you!”

“Yes, you are!” With a trembling sweep of her hand, Elsa conjures a monstrous snow beast from thin air. It looms over them and quickly scoops the intruders into its arms before marching down the stairs.

“Hey! Let go! Elsa!!!”

When they reach the large castle doors again, they’re thrown from the palace while the monster mutters, “go away”. Olaf laughs as he’s sent flying into a snow-covered boulder, the snow making his collision less fatal.

“Heads up! Watch out for my butt! Anna ducks before his midsection could knock her back down. Then she scoops up a handful of snow and starts to press it into a snowball.

“It is not nice to throw people!” She furiously scolds it, before Kristoff tries to grab the snowball.

“Woah, okay, how about you don’t do that?” When he can't push it out of her hand, he settles with wrapping his arms around hers to constrict any further movement.

“Okay! Okay!” Anna tries to let herself relax, though she doesn't let go of the snowball.

"Just let the snowman be!"

"Alright, I'm calm." Once Kristoff believes her and lets go, she throws the snowball right into the snow monster’s shoulder. The beast gives an angry bellow, icy claws and spikes erupting from its body like a demonic porcupine. “Ohno.”

“Oh great, now you made him mad!”

“You guys go, I’ll hold him off!” The two make a break for it, as does Olaf’s body and feet. “No, no, not you guys!!!” His head drops into the snow below. “This just got a whole lot harder…”

Running from this giant is easier than they would have thought with all the trees in its way, but it still gains on them. Using quick thinking, Anna stops beside a tree weighed down from snow. She waits for the beast to get closer before pulling back on the tree and letting it go. The tree sticks upright and drops a huge pile of snow onto the unsuspecting monster, giving her and Kristoff more space between it.

“I got him!!!”

“Nice! Woah!” Before they can stumble over a cliff, Kristoff pulls to a halt and holds an arm out so Anna doesn’t topple forward.

“What are we going to do?!”

Without answering, Kristoff pulls out the rope and starts to tie it around his waist as quickly as he can. Then he ties it around Anna’s waist just as snug before getting to his knees and starting to make a deep round crevice in the snow.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m making a snow anchor. We’re going to have to jump.”

“And if we fall?”

“There should be 20 feet of fresh snow down there. If we fall, it’ll be like landing on a pillow. Are you ready?”

“I was born ready!” Hyping herself up for the jump of what looks like a 100-foot drop, but is probably more like 200, Anna stares over the edge. Her arms swing at her sides.

“Alright, calm down. On the count of three. One,”

“Yeah! Let’s do this!”

“Two!”

A tree suddenly drops in front of them, landing hard enough to cover Kristoff in a bit of snow that flies off as he’s pulled towards the edge.

“Three!” Anna yells, enthusiastically making the jump before she loses her courage to do so. Better than being killed by a snow monster.

“Wow, okay, that happened.” Grunting when they snap back against the anchor, Kristoff doesn’t hesitate. Swinging himself closer to the wall, he places his feet on the surface and quickly starts their descent down the mountain. Above, they can hear Olaf’s voice.

“Anna? Kristoff? Where’d you guys go?” The sound echoes down to them, but Kristoff doesn’t halt his pace in getting them safely to the ground. “We totally lost Marshmallow back there! Haha! Oh, we were just talking about you?”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound good.” Just as suspected, the next thing she hears is Olaf’s scream as he’s hurled over the edge of the cliff. “Olaf!”

“You guys hang on! I’ll meet you down at the bottom!” She stares down as his body pieces disappear into the mountain’s snowy mist.

“Kristoff, go faster!”

Instead of going faster, their rope is suddenly being pulled up the cliff. When Anna looks up to see what’s going on, she sees the beast’s claws gradually pulling them closer. While it does, Kristoff is left dangling when his head hits an edge on the cliff.

“Kristoff!!!” In the next moment, they’re face to face with the monster. Anna reaches up and grabs the knife from a sheath attached to Kristoff’s pants to cut the rope. Before she can, the monster gives another roar that covers them in snow.

“Don’t come baaaaack!”

“No promises.” She mutters, now quickly cutting both her and Kristoff from the rope.

They both scream until hitting the bottom, which thankfully cushions them in the powdery light snow. Anna, tensed to the nines as she lands sitting up, lets out a short laugh that they came out of the fall alive.

“Would you look at that? You were right, just like a pillow!” She pats the snow.

“I can’t feel my legs! I can’t feel my legs!”

“Olaf!”

“Those are my legs.” Blowing snow away from his face, Kristoff sits up and brushes off his shoulders. Olaf’s head and torso sit on his legs, his twig arms tugging on Kristoff’s boots.

“Oh! Hey, do me a favor and grab my butt!” Just as the posterior runs by, Kristoff snatches it and puts Olaf back together. “Ah, that’s much better.”

While Kristoff heaves himself out of the snow with no problem, Anna struggles to dislodge herself. In her landing, she must have packed quite a bit of snow around herself. Thankfully, her strong man companion pulls her up.

“Thank you!” Brushing the snow from her dress, she smiles up at him and then reaches a mitt to his head. “How’s your head?” He winces at the touch and then laughs it off.

“It’s good! I have a thick skull.”

“I don’t have a skull. Or bones.” They both look at Olaf with a slightly disturbed stare. Sven gives a low groaning reindeer noise as he trots up to them, completely unharmed and unperturbed. “Oh, look, Sven found us!” A wave of relief washes over Kristoff’s face as he goes with Olaf to praise the animal. Anna, however, is drawn by a mortifying sight in the distance.

Standing on the top of a tall hill, she can overlook the forest all the way down to Arendelle. The kingdom really has completely frozen over. Buildings gleam with the ice coating their roofs. Hugging her arms to her chest, Anna tries to think her way through this predicament. Elsa refuses to thaw it herself, but maybe there’s another way? A hand on her shoulder interrupts her thoughts.

“What do we do now?” Kristoff doesn’t sound very worried despite everything.

“I… I’m not sure. I can’t believe she threw me out! Now the kingdom is going to suffer, and you’ll be out of your ice business. Oh my god, Kristoff, I’m so sorry I dragged you into all of this! I just really thought that if I-”

“Hey, hey, don’t worry about my ice business.” His kind genuine tone eases a little of Anna’s worries, but the way his face suddenly turns to concern catches her off guard. “Worry about your hair.”

“My hair? I just fell off a cliff, you should look at your hair!”

“No, look! It’s turning white!”

“It’s…” Confused, Anna picks up the braid she knows for sure is intertwined with the white stripe in her hair. The white has grown like an infection, covering more ginger strands than before. “What?”

“It’s because she struck you, isn’t it?”

Anna doesn’t know what to say. If what just happened is making her hair turn white, then what happened before that put the first streak in her hair. Could that be the answer as to why she and her sister stopped being close? Is that… why Elsa has always been so afraid to be around everyone?

“Listen, I really don’t know what’s going on anymore, but I think I know someone who can help you.”

“Your friends?” She questions, a little confused while still trying to piece things together.

“Yeah. They’ve dealt with something like this before. I remember seeing it when I was a kid.”

________________________________________________________________

Walking in silence for a while makes things move fast for Anna. After all that, she can’t help but stay in her head. By the time they reach a much warmer part of the forest, she doesn’t even realize how hard she’s shivering until Kristoff pulls her over to a geyser.

It blows warm air up at them that Anna tries to warm her hands with, and while it does warm her palms, the heat does nothing to warm her freezing insides. It’s like all of her collective organs have been covered in frost and now struggle to function. With every breath she takes, her throat is dryer.

“I don’t want to alarm you, but my friends can be a bit much.” Kristoff is the one who looks tense now. “Well, I say friends, but they’re more like family. It was just me and Sven when we were kids, and they took us in.”

He guides her over to another geyser and another when they slowly start fading, and she keeps her gaze on his face to show she’s still listening when he hesitates to continue.

“I just want you to know they can be kind of rude… and loud. They’re a little judgmental. And heavy! Really heavy! Y- you’ll get it when you see them.”

“Kristoff, they sound lovely,” Anna reassures him with a smile. Relieved, he takes a step forward into a small dugout clearing where various sizes of mossy boulders lay about.

“Okay, meet my family!” He gestures to the boulders fondly and then he and Sven turn to praise some more directly. Both Anna and Olaf stare with stunned bewilderment.

“They’re… rocks,” she mutters to herself.

“He’s craaaazy,” Olaf whispers to her. A little inclined to believe that, she wonders if maybe this is just the earlier bash on the head finally getting to him. “I’ll distract him and you run, okay?” Then Olaf steps over to the nearest boulder and gently taps the top of it. “Hi, Kristoff’s family! It’s nice to meet you! Anna, because I love you, I suggest you run.”

“Okay… Well, I’m going to go.” Anna turns to leave this crazy scene, but just as she does, a boulder rolls past her foot. And then another that she has a harder time dodging with the size of it. “Woah!” She watches it roll into the clearing while the rest of the boulders shake and wiggle to life. They all gather around an ecstatic Kristoff.

“Kristoff’s home!” A voice from the front shouts. Then a few others start to smother him with greetings and try to pull his clothes off???

“I’m gonna keep my clothes on.” He laughs, now on one knee as to be closer to the trolls. “Have any of you seen Grand Pabbie?”

“He’s sleeping right now.”

“Trolls! They’re trolls!!!” Amazed, Anna grins as she looks out to the clearing full of rock trolls. Though when she shouts, they all turn to her and blink in unison. Ooh, that’s not creepy…

“And he’s brought a girl!!!” The troll who greeted Kristoff first waves her arms in excitement and the rest of the trolls chorus her excitement. Not realizing what’s going on, Anna has no say in being rolled over the trolls and tossed into Kristoff’s arms, who looks more embarrassed by what’s going on than confused.

“Uh, what’s going on?”

“I’ve learned to just roll with it.” He shrugs and puts her down. Very helpful. Again, before she can do anything about it, Anna’s being pulled down to an inanimate boulder by the most enthused rock troll, who now examines the features of her face far closer than she’s comfortable with.

“Bright eyes, good nose, strong teeth! Yes, she will do nicely for our Kristoff!”

“Wait what?”

“No, no, no, no, you misunderstand.”

“Yeah, we’re not- He’s not-!” A little hysterical at even the thought of being with this dirty mountain man, Anna gives a nervous laugh. The troll doesn’t seem to find it very funny.

“What’s the matter, dear? Why do you hold back from such a man?”

“Please, please, don’t do this right now,” Kristoff begs. “She needs our help!”

“Yeah, anyways, my heart has kind of been stolen by someone else.” Anna brushes a strand of loose hair behind her ear to try and cover up the blush warming the surface of her face.

“Quite literally, I’m afraid.” Another voice chimes in, much wiser sounding and deep. Anna doesn’t have the energy to turn and face whoever said that. When she tries, she falls against Kristoff in a chilly shudder. What was first a nuisance is now making Anna’s limbs feel numb and weak, like a hypothermic cold slowly but surely claiming her life.

“Grand Pabbie.” Kristoff lowers Anna to the ground with himself so they could both look at the old troll. For a rock troll, he still looks wrinkly in the face, every bit the look of wisdom and magic. He takes Anna’s hand in his own and gives her a very concerning sympathetic gaze.

“Anna, you are in grave danger. There is ice in your heart, put there by your sister.” And just like that, Anna wants to shrivel into a little ball. Elsa didn’t mean to do that, did she?

“Can’t you do something?” Kristoff asks, worry written all over his face.

“I cannot. If it were the head, it would be easy, but the heart is… not so easily manipulated. Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.”

“An act of true love…?” Does she even know what that is at this point? What if Elsa hates her? Then who left in the world could possibly love her? Anna can feel hot tears dripping down her cheeks, threatening to give way into a sob. Kristoff’s mitt is gentle in trying to wipe away the tears.

“Woah, woah, don’t cry. There has to be someone, right? You said someone stole your heart. Who is it? Is it Hans?”

“Kristoff, it’s complicated. Just because someone steals your heart, it doesn’t mean you’ve stolen theirs.”

“Well, you’ll never really know unless you try, right?” One of the trolls chimes in. “Maybe they’ve been waiting for the right chance to give you their confession, or are too shy to admit their feelings.”

“In some cases, they show their love in unusual ways.” Another troll goes on before getting clocked in the shoulder by whom she can only assume is his wife. Or maybe his sister. Who is she to judge?

That does make her wonder though. Elsa is so distant with her, even after Anna helped her with her powers and expressed her love. Is it possible that she’s just so afraid of the possibility that she keeps her distance for fear of having the same feelings? A love like theirs isn’t common or legal in the slightest.

“You’re right,” Anna nods, now wiping away her tears herself before struggling to get to her feet. “Kristoff, we have to get back to the North Mountain. In a romanticized true love world, I don’t see why there can be no such thing as sisters truly loving each other enough to save each other's life.”

Yes, that’s her cover, and of course, Kristoff buys it. Who is going to immediately assume incest?

“Alright, I’ll make sure you get there,” he says, helping her stay standing until Sven trots over to them with Olaf on his back. Kristoff helps her up onto the reindeer and then gets on himself before directing Sven out of the clearing.

“Hurry.” Grand Pabbie murmurs after them.

Notes:

Low and behold, I was not able to fit everything I wanted to in this chapter even though it's almost 9k words, sooooooooooo I will finish it in the next! :)

Chapter 5

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The time it takes to get back to the castle on the North Mountain crawls by when Anna can feel every part of her body becoming more numb by the second. Her fingers can barely hold onto Kristoff regardless of her mittens warmth. Thankfully, Olaf makes sure she doesn’t slip off the back of Sven.

When they do reach the palace, it becomes obvious that something had happened after they left. The staircase leading up into the palace is partially broken on one side and the palace doors are wide open. There’s no sign of Marshmallow at all… or Elsa.

“Elsa!?” Despite her current condition, the panic and fear surging through Anna gives her the energy to drop from Sven’s back and sprint up the stairs with Kristoff chasing close behind her. “Elsa!!!” She calls her sister’s name while rushing through the room and to the ascending staircases, but she doesn’t wait for a response before running up to the second floor.

“Anna, she isn’t here!”

“You don’t know that!”

Anna stops short once on the second floor. It’s a broken disaster. The chandelier from above has crashed to the middle of the floor, broken glass shattered all around. Arrows dot the walls and the balcony has been destroyed, a spiky wall of ice hanging on the edge. What on earth happened here? Just as Anna starts to sway to the floor, Kristoff wraps his arms around her.

“What do we do?” She whispers. “If Elsa isn’t here, where is she? And, what happened?”

“My guess is that a mob came to… erm… bring back summer.” Her shoulders sag in distraught. “But as it’s still a wonderland outside, I would also assume that she’s still alive. Either way, our only other option is to get you back to Arendelle. We can’t just search the woods for her not knowing if she’s even still in the area.”

“We have to find her!”

“Anna, you’re dying! You physically can’t be in the cold longer than you already have been!” Kristoff turns Anna’s head to face him so she would have to look at his serious worried face. “Please, just cooperate for once. I’m taking you to Arendelle.”

Slowly, Anna nods. There’s just no other option anymore. With Kristoff’s help, they both quickly get back to Sven. Olaf doesn’t say anything, but his pained grimace gives away he already knows exactly what they must’ve seen by what’s written on their faces. This time, Kristoff has Anna in front of him on Sven so he can be the one to make sure she stays safe and warm enough. Just as they start down the mountain, he takes off his hat and wraps it over her head in every attempt to shield her from the winter air whipping over them from going so fast.

Scaling down the mountain, Kristoff catches sight of a snowstorm forming over Arendelle, quickly getting stronger. Anna notices too but barely has enough energy to even murmur a distressed whisper of her sister’s name.

“Hold on, Anna… Hold on…”

Hold on to what? The helpless hope she has that they could even reach Elsa in this storm, or that if they did, that Elsa would be able to save her from the ice in her heart? Anna decides she would hold on to consciousness for now, as the numbing sensation coursing through the nerves in her body tries to coax her into sleep.

Once they make contact with the ice, it becomes even less clear as to where they should be going. The storm has wrapped around the air, surrounding them in blinding white that blows into their eyes.

“Ohno!” Olaf is taken by the wind before any of them can save him.

“Olaf!” Anna cries, reaching past Kristoff. The burly man holds tight to her so she won’t fall off the reindeer.

“He’ll be fine! He’s made of snow, remember?” Slowly, she nods, though still searches within the wind to find the poor snowman. Through the thick of it, Anna can barely catch the slightest glimpse of another person. Elsa?!

“Kristoff… Kristoff, stop, I think I see her!” Squirming from his grasp, she again reaches out to the snow as if she might be able to touch hands with the storm’s creator.

“Where?”

Kristoff barely has a chance to turn in the direction of Anna’s reaching before the powerful wind pushes a frozen ship over in the ice. The surface of it starts to give way and break, forcing them to run through the wave of ship cargo and chipping ice. Anna doesn’t know if she’s ever been held tighter in her life. Kristoff seems to be holding to her and Sven for dear life.

When they reach the other side back into the light, a huge gap of water lies between them and solid surface. Then, without warning, both Kristoff and Anna are flying off of Sven’s back, hurling onto the other side.

“Sven!!!” While Kristoff stares out over the side in search of his best friend, Anna shakily gets to her feet to once again search the ever-turning wind. She’s running out of time. As she tries to shield her eyes from the snow, she notices very worrying patterns on her mittens. Afraid to see what's beneath, she tears away the cloth. Swirls and fractals of pure white cover her hands as her fingertips start becoming a crisp icy blue. She’s… She’s becoming ice!

Then, as if on cue, the storm drops like heavy mist onto the ice. The air goes extremely still, revealing the frozen fjord and the person she’s been looking for. Another figure looms behind her, a sword held tightly in their hand.

“Elsa!” Anna calls out. Elsa doesn’t hear her warning. So, she looks back at Kristoff, whose shoulders drop in relief to see Sven crawling up onto a smaller piece of ice a ways away, and then she makes a weak sprint for her sister. “Elsa!!!”

Kristoff runs after her. She can hear him trying to yell for Elsa, too.

The Queen only shrinks to the ice, her face cast to the ground in fear, disbelief. Hans raises his sword, a disgusted wicked look on his face. He’s going to kill her… He’s going to kill her and she isn’t even fighting back! What is she doing?!

There’s only one thing Anna is most sure of. Something she has to do because Elsa has only ever meant everything to her. Her sister, her idol, the one person she would scale a mountain for and endure all of the pain weighed on her. She would sacrifice everything for her sister to live. And that’s all she’s thinking when the sword’s blade flashes over her eyes. It cracks over her frozen solid fingers, shattering to the ice and sending a wave of force that knocks Hans away.

A breath of relief is the last thing that leaves her lips.

_____________________________________________________________

Elsa was ready for it. Ready for death and everything she deserves. Anna is surely dead if she has yet to return from the mountain. Hans' accusations pierce her heart harder than threats of pain could ever. Hurting the one person left in this world that cares about her already tears her heart, but thinking about everything he said… from the questions about Anna’s whereabouts to the accusations of her killing her sister in cold blood…

She can’t help but feel like they’re real. It must’ve been her fault. None of this was what she meant to do. Anna only ever wanted to help, and all she has ever done is push her away over and over. If she had just never existed in the first place, her poor wonderful sister would have had the life she has always wanted. Open gates, a kingdom full of friends and family, and the chance to find someone worth loving. Elsa could never be that person for her.

But oh, how Anna made the idea so appealing.

The air-shattering clatter of sword on more than solid ice jerks Elsa from her pitiful thoughts. She lifts her head to see what has happened and gasps at the horrific sight.

Anna's lifeless body stands before her, encased in ice. No, more than encase. The ice has become her.

“Anna!” Elsa quickly rises from the ice to assess the damage. “No, no, no, no…” Involuntary tears stream down her face, the truth literally staring her in the face. Anna’s final act was to sacrifice her life for Elsa’s safety. Of course it was… And of course, Elsa far from deserves it.

Her sob is loud and full of her grief. As her legs give out, she falls into Anna’s statue, her arms holding tight over the girl’s cold arms like they might hold her back if she holds herself close enough. This can’t be the end. This can’t be true.

Oh, Anna, why you? Why me?

All of her love she could never be brave enough to reciprocate, but every bit of it is all Anna has ever deserved. She shouldn’t have been shut out if this is how it ends. How could Elsa let this happen when it was everything she and their parents were trying to prevent? Why does she always have to hurt the ones she loves?

“Anna, I’m so sorry,” Elsa whispers between suffocating sobs, her chest heaving. “I need you, too… I’ve always needed you.”

It takes a moment to register when the soft thud of a heartbeat slowly thumps against the chest beneath Elsa’s head. Only once the feeling of soft fingertips slip under her braid and rub at her neck does the realization lift her head. She must be dreaming. She must have passed out.

The ice has thawed from Anna’s body. When Elsa looks at her, Anna smiles with the most sincere sweetness that another quieter sob shakes Elsa’s body. With trembling hands, she holds Anna’s face, trying to figure out if she’s finally gone insane or if her sister is alive again.

“A- Anna?”

“Did you miss me?” That sweetness catches a small hint of playful mischievousness and Elsa no longer cares if this is just her mind playing tricks on her. Anna, sweet Anna. She can feel her sister’s smooth freckled skin beneath her fingertips, can see every excited emotion in her blue eyes, and she never wants to let go of this.

“You sacrificed yourself for me.”

“I love you.”

The words make Elsa’s heart heave and race. “I love you, too.” When she says that, Anna doesn’t bother hiding her surprise or the way she gushes at the mere implications of what admitting that means. If it weren’t for Anna’s male companion standing so near to them, Elsa would have shown Anna every bit how much she loves her.

“An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart,” he murmurs, looking completely astounded while also absolutely relieved. A soaking wet reindeer trots over to the man’s side.

“Love will thaw…” Elsa whispers to herself, taking one hand away from Anna’s face to wipe away the blurry tears hurting her eyes.

“Elsa?”

“Everyone off the ice.” She reaches down and takes Anna’s hand in her own, now a little more sure that she hasn’t lost her mind if at least another person could see Anna. Then she leads the group onto Arendelle’s frosty docks before turning back to the fjord.

With her heart and mind filled with admiration and love for her sister, warmth like spring leaves her palms and threads through the ice on the water. It thaws at first touch until the fjord is rejuvenated in seconds. That new warmth spreads to the rest of the kingdom, ridding the building of snow and ice, and clearing the wood of soaked frost. When she turns back to Anna and Kristoff, Anna gives her a knowing smirk and Kristoff stares in amazement.

“I knew you could do it.” Her sister crosses her arms and leans into her shoulder, but Elsa makes the move to pull the girl into a tight hug. In an instant, those arms wrap around Elsa just as tightly.

“Hands down, this is the best day of my life.” Olaf’s voice brings them back to the setting. The snowman melts with every hop he takes over to them across the docks until he could wave his arms excitedly beside them all. “Also quite possibly my last.”

“Oh, Olaf.” Biting her lip in concentration, Elsa swirls her hand to refreeze Olaf back into his lovable form and to create a small snowy cloud above his head. He gawks up at it and then squeals with even more excitement.

“My own personal flurry! Aaawwweeee!”

“Uh, Queen Elsa.” Kristoff’s awkward voice breaks the short reunion. Both royals turn to face him, but before Elsa could say anything, Anna tries to save the awkwardness.

“Elsa, this is Kristoff. He’s the reason I was able to find you in the North Mountain, the reason I had any idea how to survive the accident, and the reason why I was able to get here at all. If it weren’t for him, neither of us would be here right now.” Yeah… Totally not awkward anymore. Elsa, trying not to grimace, adorns a shameful expression

“I owe you a huge apology.” She starts, only for him to look a little taken aback.

“Wait, what?” Anna, too, looks a little confused.

“I owe the entire kingdom an apology. Who knows what might have happened without you both?”

“Elsa, it was an accident. They’ll understand. They’ll forgive you.”

“How do you know…?” Worry starts to corrode the relief of finally fixing this whole disaster.

“Well, I, for one, don’t hold it against you.” Kristoff shrugs, draping an arm over his cold, wet companion.

“Thank you, Kristoff.” She offers him a small smile and he gives her a friendly thumbs up. Goofy man. No wonder he and Anna get along.

“Just trust me, Elsa.” Anna takes her hand, taking her attention as well. The princess’ face is serious.

“I do.”

“Good. Now let’s go address the-”

The sound of someone emerging from the water interrupts Anna and they all cautiously take a step back when Prince Hans pulls himself onto the dock. Anna protectively stands in front of Elsa and Sven and Kristoff stand beside her.

Hans spits water to the side and drags himself to his feet, anger quickly diminished with astonishment. He takes a quick step forward, but when Kristoff starts to advance towards him, he stops.

“Anna, what’s going on?”

“I could ask you the same thing, -Hans-,” Anna replies in an icy tone.

“I thought you were dead! I was only trying to do what I thought was right for Arendelle. You have to understand that, right?” All it takes is her hesitation for him to step forward again. When Kristoff again goes to ward him away, Anna stops him. Elsa, meanwhile, stays behind her sister like the distressed coward she is. “It was nothing personal to the Queen.”

“Just this once, Hans. If you so much as look at my sister with a sour glance, I’ll have you beheaded for attempted murder. So, I suggest you leave before I change my mind.”

“Anna…” Hans’ face reads like he’s desperately grasping for a better excuse or something that would dig him out of this grave.

“I said, get out of our kingdom before I make you, Prince Hans of the Southern Isles!” At the aggressive repeat, the ginger prince runs past them, almost slipping as his wet boots meet the stone. When he goes, Anna’s face falls for a long regretful moment. Hans meant well, but she can’t have whatever it is about him bothering Elsa. Trying to kill her definitely didn’t help, no matter what his intentions were.

Elsa puts a hand on Anna’s shoulder, gently squeezing it as she leads the small group towards the castle. It’s where most of the kingdom emerges from to gaze around at the returning summer and where Elsa is to make a grand apology to them all.

___________________________________________________________

It takes at least a week for the order to come in, but the second Elsa is notified of its arrival, she goes in search of Anna. Finding the girl has been much harder since the gates have been opened. Her sister has been spending most of her time out of the castle now, trying to befriend everyone she can in the kingdom while also spending time with… Kristoff.

Elsa, however, has chosen to stay in the castle most of the day until Anna makes her take a break and be in the sunlight. It’s just new for her. She still doesn’t believe she has the best grasp over her abilities and she doesn’t want to see fear or panic on anyone else’s face. Still, she would help Anna keep her promises to those that had helped her. Repaying Oaken was easy, but it had taken some doing to get the fashioned sled that Kristoff deserved.

In hopes that the wait would be forgiven, Elsa has also added a new title, allowing him much more ease and money in his business. Not that an ice harvester doesn’t get paid nicely in the summer months.

She finds Anna chattering away to some maids near the castle gate and rushes over to join her. Like her presence sets off some sort of fireworks, all attention turns to Elsa. It gives her an uneasy feeling even if their gazes are just curious.

“Anna, the sled should be waiting for Kristoff at the docks. You should still have time to show him yourself if you’re quick.”

“You’re not coming with?”

“Uh, no… I have paperwork to get back to. Also, make sure he knows that we can’t refund it, so what he’s given is what he gets.” With a sheepish wave, Elsa retreats back into the castle before Anna can demand she follows. The metal clip to her new-fashioned collar clicks against the ring to tighten it when she walks so briskly. Though the click of her icy heels on the polished floor cover up such quiet noise for anyone else.

It had taken less than a day for Anna to get her another after the first had been discarded. This one has less of a metaphorical meaning and more of a literal attempt to drag Elsa out of the castle. If her sister doesn’t make her, she would never leave for sake of not being the center of attention or scorn for her mistakes.

Anna says that it won’t always be like this, but she has to make the effort in changing their view of her. Is it worth trying? What if she makes it worse? Ruling a kingdom is hard enough without trying to fix the repercussions from her past.

With a disheveled sigh, Elsa slides down into her desk chair, now surrounded by the calm peaceful familiarity of her study. Various books on shelves surround the room, large enough to knock someone out if used as a weapon. Besides that, only her desk decorates the room. There aren’t even papers on the desk. It was just a lie to save herself from leaving with Anna and having another short awkward conversation with Kristoff.

Kristoff… He seems nice. Nicer than Hans, only because of the lacking suspicion she has for him. Any stranger willing to help her demanding little sister deserves a little empathy. The fact that he’s stuck around so long without making any major moves on her says a lot, too, doesn’t it? What would Elsa do if he does?

What should she do…?

If it’s anything like the Hans situation where she tries to marry him after only a week, that’ll be an easy no, but what if they decide to do it the right way? A pang of worry builds in the pit of Elsa’s stomach. She can’t just stop Anna from being with someone who makes her happy, especially if that person is anyone but her.

Why must this bother her so much?

It isn’t like her sister is about to rush into anything so soon anyways. Everything feels like it’s happening so fast, there’s no way Anna doesn’t feel it too. But then… this is Anna we’re talking about. Who knows how that girl’s mind works…

“Elsa! Elsa! Elsa!” Shouting and thunderous knocks on the door almost make Elsa fall out of her chair with how bad it startles her. She doesn’t have any time to recuperate before Anna opens the study door, looking far more ecstatic than she had been earlier. That was fast.

“I take it he liked the sled?” A hand over her heart, Elsa stays seated so she can calm down. Her feet have frozen to the floor anyways.

“So much! He was so happy that he wanted to kiss me! Can you believe that?!” Elsa’s heart skips several beats, her face of surprise becoming a little more blank.

“N.. No, actually. No, I can’t believe that. Uh, what?”

“I know! It was so sweet!! He’s so,” Anna explains in the way a keyboard smash could explain flusteredness. Basically an unintelligible scream.

This can’t be happening. Really? So soon? Why is she even surprised? This is Anna! When Elsa can’t manage to say anything, Anna falls back to reality with a crash.

“That was it though, I swear! It was just… It was barely anything.” Anna shakes her head, a grin still very prominent on her face. “Don’t worry, if this is going anywhere, it’s going to go the right way. Marriage will be a much later question, I promise.”

“Of course. Well… that’s… that’s really great for you, Anna.” Elsa tries her best to be supportive and even manages a convincing smile for once. “At least you’ve known this one for a week.”

Rolling her eyes, Anna steps closer to Elsa’s desk, where she pokes the vacant surface. “So, uh, what are you working on, your majesty?”

“Ah, I was working on- I was just… Before you came in, I was just about to-” The smirk playing on Anna’s lips makes it hard for Elsa to focus. She already knows she’s been busted, so why is she even trying to cover it up?

“Some important paperwork, huh, Elsa?”

“Y- Yes!”

“Oh, lying to me again just to escape the outside world? Bad girl, Elsa.”

“Don’t even start with that.”

“Are you going to come with me on your own, or am I going to have to get the leash?”

“Anna, please, the leash is… you can’t just do that in public! It’s inappropriate!”

“That sounds like resistance to me.” Giggling, Anna reaches into her dress and pulls out a thin leather leash as violet as twilight. With a growl, Elsa pries her feet from the ground with two loud cracks and stands up from her desk. She stares her devious little sister in the eyes as she does, before sprinting for the door. “Get your majestic royal ass back here!!!”

Running for her life down the corridors, Elsa already knows she probably won’t be able to get very far before Anna catches her, but it’s worth the attempt. They round a corner and suddenly Elsa has the upper hand when the hallway is full of people. Sliding past them is easy for her, and less so for Anna when they all have something to say to her.

When Elsa makes it out of the hallway, she feels she might just make it out of this one without getting humiliated. If she’s quick, she can sprint down another hall and disappear into a room before Anna can see her.

“Sunlight and socializing is good for you!” Anna snarls from a long way behind Elsa.

“Speak for yourself!” She retorts before ducking into another hall. Unfortunately, she made the wrong choice and is now surrounded by doorless walls. It’s the perfect runway for Anna to catch up and tackle poor Elsa to the floor. “ACK!!!”

“Gotcha!” Anna wastes no time clipping the leash securely to Elsa’s collar, panting from the run but grinning all the same. Elsa sits up with a groan, already feeling the bruises she’s going to get. Good thing the floors are so well kept or that fall could have been much messier. “Seriously, Elsa, why do you have to make this so hard?”

“I could say the same thing to you, sister who has countlessly pulled me around like a dog.”

“Well, maybe if you didn’t fight it, I wouldn’t. Either you’re bad at understanding that, or you like it when I pull you around.”

“You wish.”

After standing, Anna helps Elsa off the ground. “Admit it. You would hate it if I stopped paying you this much attention.” Elsa doesn’t respond, though she very much knows the answer. This results in Anna pulling her closer with the leash. “Admit it, Elsa.”

“Why bother me so much when you have this new boy to play with? You’re just looking for a fight when you drag me outside every day.”

“Awe, so you were jealous of Hans.”

“What?!”

“Don’t worry, sis. I could never forget about you.” To emphasize her point, Anna pulls Elsa closer into a soft kiss. It feels like it’s been ages since they had last done this, and the thought that anyone could turn the corner and see them like this makes Elsa’s heart race faster than before. She has to resist every urge to give in. How she would love to hold Anna’s face and kiss her back with every bit of passion she feels.

Anna only pulls her lips away for a moment so she can tilt her head and push down on Elsa’s chin to part her breathless lips. Then she goes back in to deeply capture her sister’s mouth. Such atrocity… Elsa struggles not to be swayed. Her sister’s tongue explores so curiously despite having tasted every inch of Elsa’s mouth many times before. Why, then, does this feel so different for Elsa?

Her hand holds onto the arm holding her leash, gripping Anna’s arm tightly without making any move to dislodge the long piece of leather. The other shakes on its perch of Anna’s shoulder, threatening to shove her away. She may have fallen into the younger woman’s trap, too, if it weren’t for the footsteps startling Elsa back to reality. Desperate not to be seen with her sister like this, Elsa commits to push her sister away and gasps for air.

All Anna can do is smile. The smug face gives everything away, but no words accuse Elsa of anything. They don’t have to for her to panic inside, but she’s just going to pretend that this never happened and she didn’t just actually want to be making out with her sister.

“Are you ready to go outside now?”

A little afraid of what might happen if she refuses, Elsa gives a small pathetic nod and shamefully stares away. Anna unclips the leash and takes Elsa’s hand.

“I knew you’d come around.”

__________________________________________________________________

Elsa can’t take Anna talking about Kristoff as much as she does. Half of her is sure the girl only does it to get a reaction out of Elsa, but the most she’s ever gotten is completely ignored or an exasperated sigh. There must be something so twisted that goes on in Anna’s mind that makes her get off on making Elsa uncomfortable. Whatever it is, Elsa is ready to snap.

Nothing against Kristoff of course, but YES! FUCKING YES, SHE’S JEALOUS! Does she have to scream that at Anna to make her stop torturing her with this? She really doesn’t want to. What if admitting her feelings would just give Anna more ammo to tease her with? What if Anna ends up breaking up with Kristoff because she only wants to be with Elsa? Elsa doesn’t want to risk wounding the one non-fucked-up relationship in Anna’s life.

But she’s straight-up going to have a mental breakdown if Anna doesn’t tone it down.

Hiding in her locked study, Elsa picks up her head from the desk before letting it drop back down with a loud thud. She repeats this several times until a chipper knock sounds on the door. Slowly, she lifts her gaze to the door, wondering if it would even be worth asking who might be there.

“Elsa, it’s me, Kristoff. Can I come in?”

“Anna isn’t there with you, is she?”

“No?”

With that reassurance, Elsa goes over to the door and opens it a crack. Sure enough, Kristoff stands behind it looking very confused.

“Are you hiding from Anna?”

“...no.”

“Okay… May I come in?”

Opening the door wide enough to let Kristoff through, she closes it behind him and locks the door.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why lock it?”

“I just figured you wouldn’t want to be interrupted.”

“Right, but why was it locked before I got here?”

“You didn’t try the doorknob.” Elsa has already been through that trap before. Kristoff will have to try harder than that to corner her. He rubs the back of his head, clearly already feeling awkward.

“Are you okay? You seem a little stressed out.”

“I’m fine. What is it you wanted?” Rubbing her forehead, Elsa walks back over to her desk, only to stand behind it instead of taking a seat. She has been sitting there for hours. Normally, she would be used to that, but every nerve in her body feels tighter than the screws in her desk.

“Anna asked me to come get you.” You’ve got to be kidding. “She wants to talk to you in the garden.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not? And don’t say paperwork.”

“...paperwork.”

“So, you are avoiding her.”

“Yes! I’m avoiding her!” Elsa deflates back to her chair with a groan.

“Has she been bothering you too much or something? You know she saved your life right? Not only that, but she helped you with your powers and is attempting to fix your social life with the kingdom.”

“I don’t need a social life with my kingdom.” Kristoff gives her an uncertain grimace. “Look, you just don’t understand our relationship with each other. It’s complicated.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured with the whole isolation thing, but that’s exactly why you can’t avoid her like this. She wants to see you! You’re all she ever talks about, and it’s driving me insane!”

“She talks about me?” Nonstop apparently. Huh. A small grin starts to work its way onto her lips however she tries to repress it.

“Yes! Now, please go talk to her.”

Elsa quickly nods and stands from the desk. She doesn’t even bother making Kristoff leave her study first before speed walking away. This is probably a mistake. Alone in the gardens this late with her sister? Nothing family-friendly could come of such things. Well, actually, it may be a little too family-friendly. Regardless, Kristoff is probably right. She can’t just keep trying to hide from Anna. It’ll only make things worse anyways…

So, with her heart beating rapidly in her chest, Elsa adjusts her icy gown and her braid before walking into the garden. Dusk is just on the verge of going dark, meaning the lamplights have been recently lit and yet she doesn’t have to worry about tripping when walking down the cobblestone path.

There’s no sign of Anna, even when she gets to the other end of the garden. Did she walk past her hiding somewhere or was this a trick? When she looks around the small circular clearing, surrounded by trimmed bushes, she hears a gentle sniffling coming from the side.

“Anna?” Elsa works her way around the bushes and into the flowery foliage behind them until she finds her sister sitting against an old thin birch tree with her knees pulled up to her chest. Anna looks up as she approaches, teary eyes glowing with excitement and relief.

“You came!” In an instant, Anna is stumbling to her feet and racing over to Elsa to pull her into a tight hug. Elsa gives no complaint about this and holds her sister tightly with her own arms.

“Anna, what’s the matter?”

“I was afraid I did something wrong. I thought maybe I… said something I wasn’t supposed to or did something that was too much for you. I thought you were avoiding me on purpose.” Here comes the train of guilt crashing into her mind.

“I’m sorry, Anna. I’m so sorry. I really don’t mean to hurt you like this…”

“I know.” Her face buried in Elsa’s neck, Anna takes a deep breath in order to get control over the crying. “I’m sorry, too. I haven’t exactly been the greatest sister recently, have I?”

“Anna, I wouldn’t even be here without you. Little sisters irritate their older sisters sometimes. That’s just a fact.”

“It’s more than that… I keep dragging you into things without keeping your emotions or insecurities in mind. I was so excited to be around people again, but that isn’t what you’re comfortable with.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t get used to it eventually. I’m just trying to get adjusted to it right now. I know you aren’t very patient.”

“Yeah… I’m sorry for rushing you into it.”

“I forgive you.” Elsa kisses what she can of Anna’s cheek. The girl finally relaxes, her arms still tight around Elsa, but she leans loosely against her. “I’m sorry for just disappearing like that without saying anything.”

“I forgive you,” Anna whispers.

Her sister’s breath tickles her neck, sending short invisible shivers down her spine. One of Elsa’s hands lightly rubs fingers up and down Anna’s back, aiding in getting the girl to calm down. Eventually, the tears stop falling down Elsa’s chest and the sky bathes the world in darkness. They, too, are left without much light. The nearest lamp is hidden behind a couple more trees and the statue of a wolf.

Hoping she may be able to distract Anna a little bit, Elsa rubs her fingers more firmly up Anna’s back, lingering most on the lower. It successfully gets a heavy sigh from the young woman and her own hands lowering on Elsa’s torso.

“Would you like to take a short stroll with me into town? If I’m not mistaken, this late, there shouldn’t be a bustle of people in the street.”

“Do you mean it?” Anna leans back just a bit so she could catch Elsa’s gaze.

“I wouldn’t just say that to tease you.”

“Ha… No, I guess that’s my job, isn’t it?” Her eyes dart away. “I’m really sorry, Elsa…”

This close to biting the bullet, Elsa has to use every ounce of willpower in her body not to kiss Anna’s face. How weak and sad she’s made her. It isn’t right. Anna just deserves so much better! Why did it have to be her?

Instead of doing such a scandalous thing when Anna is clearly struggling to get through her feelings, she cradles Anna’s face in both of her hands and gently squishes her cheeks. That successfully returns the girl’s attention back to her eyes, but at this angle, she just looks so silly that a giggle escapes Elsa. Doing so brings a soft pink to Anna’s cheeks.

“It’s okay, Anna. I love you so much.” There’s no faking the genuinity in her gaze and is even enough that Anna practically melts underneath it.

“You kill me, Elsa.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Finally, Elsa drops her hands down to capture Anna’s hands. “I can’t just stop. No amount of sexual harassment could change that.”

“Then it would make sense that I can’t help it either.” Anna’s gaze is pleading, searching for any give to Elsa’s stance. Unfortunately, all she’s met with is a mask of disappointment.

“Anna... “

“It’s not different! I still love you. I just happen to love you in several ways.”

“It can’t be that simple.”

“But it is! It doesn’t have to be complex or have a distinct reason!”

Elsa bites her lip, wishing she could believe her sister. Then, with a deep breath, she raises one of Anna’s hands to place a kiss on the back of it.

“I’m sorry. You aren’t comfortable talking about this, are you?”

“Not particularly, but I feel like I’m slowly getting a better understanding. I would like it if we went into town now. Wouldn’t want to wander too long.”

Anna quickly nods, her hold on Elsa’s hand tightening. “Of course. May I lead the way?”

“Please, do~”

__________________________________

The short stroll turns into a couple hour-long jaunt where they make several stops at still open merchant stands to eat something and then continue walking. Anna introduces Elsa to some lingering individuals she will do her best to remember and Elsa practices being social. All in all, not as horrible a time as she kept imagining it would be. Always with her head; giving her the worst-case scenarios that cause her to panic and dread more than she should.

Of course, this walk is just with Anna. There’s no Kristoff, her sister’s official boyfriend, and no Olaf, a reminder that they’re just sisters and no more. Just an evening to not be focused on those things, it’s almost like they’ve both fallen into a new universe. A universe where they can hold hands and talk very close to each other, and everyone around them would smile as if it were nothing more than siblings being close.

There haven’t been many moments exactly like this, but these are the ones Elsa can accept how happy she is that Anna holds the leash. Of course, she can’t admit that aloud. She can’t even act in a way that would even suggest such a wrong adoration, but she can accept it. If Anna knew… If Anna knew, there would be no more running from this. Elsa just wants Anna to have the person she deserves and to stay out of jeopardizing trouble, also known as her. No princess should have to beg for another’s love.

“Well, that’s something I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see so soon,” Anna muses, a cheeky grin on her face.

“See what?”

“So much for not wanting to go out and see people. You’re practically glowing, Elsa.”

“Am I?” A little sheepish to be stared at, Elsa turns her gaze away.

“It’s a good look for you. Kind of magical, yet still human all the same.” Suddenly, Anna has stopped near a pathway, her hand holding Elsa back. Buildings prop walls on either side of the path that curves around town and back towards the castle. The close lamplight glows over the bricks and wood, casting them in a gorgeous lava light that disappears further down the path.

“Don’t be so gay, Anna.” Struggling to swallow back the flutter of feelings rising in her chest, Elsa follows the young princess into the alley. “...You know… In the sunlight, your hair actually glows. You look like the humanization of fire.”

As they get under the lamplight once more, Anna’s ginger hair brightens under the glow. Wisps and loose strands of it look like a moving flame. If it weren’t for her eyes rooting her to anything less, Elsa could have believed she might be the human equivalent to the element.

“Stunning, all the same,” She accidentally murmurs aloud.

“Pftt~ Now who’s being gay?”

Elsa chokes on her response, a pink wave of embarrassment washing over her face and burning her ears. Instead of trying to say anything else, she stares awkwardly off to the side until Anna stops again, forcing Elsa to stop with her. They're just on the cusp of leaving the light now.

“Elsa.”

“Anna?” When Elsa risks a look over to her sister, she finds Anna standing to face her with an unusual look on her face. Is she trying to act serious? Not wanting to make her upset, Elsa muses her by turning herself and allowing Anna to take her hands.

“If I ask you something, will you promise to answer truthfully?”

“Of course.”

“Would you be opposed if I kissed you right now?”

Elsa gives her a blank stare- not quite surprised, but not confused either. She just wouldn’t expect to be asked permission for such a thing after Anna shows she would much rather just take what she wants when she wants. Though, these are quite different circumstances than they previously were in… Still, is this a question question, or is she actually asking for permission?

“We’re alone. No one to see it, no way to get in trouble. I’m not saying I will and I’m not saying I won’t. Just a question.” She must have seen the cogs turning in Elsa’s head. Well, how is she supposed to answer that question? Elsa already told her she would answer truthfully, and right now, Anna kissing her would be the highlight of this evening. But she can’t tell Anna that.

“I… uh… Particularly opposed? No, I suppose I’m used to it by now.” Brilliant save. Her posture relaxes once she decides she’s in the clear, but such an assumption must be in vain, for Anna’s grin turns into a smirk. Just like that, Elsa’s heart races. “Why are you making that face?”

“You’re so cute, Elsa.” Anna giggles and takes a step closer. Elsa swallows back her impending anxiety and does her best to meet her sister’s half-lidded gaze as it inches closer. Don’t step back. Please, don’t step back. She isn’t at all sure who she’s directing those thoughts to, but neither she nor her sister is stepping away from this. Why is Anna taking her sweet time though?

“Just kiss me already,” she whispers. Met without disappointment, Elsa sighs into the kiss, her arms somehow finding their way around Anna and pulling her closer, bringing them both into the dark of the alley. And still, it’s she who ends up getting pressed up against the bricks.

Something in her must have slipped away, her reality check probably, but it swiftly comes back when Anna’s lips leave hers. Both breathless, the wash of shame is even slower to crash over her, and can't quite make it once Anna kisses her again. Her sister’s lips trail wet fire over her jaw and onto her neck, hungry with desire.

Why? Why does this have to feel so good? The passion fills up her pores and spills in boatloads between the both of them. Is this it? The end of all she has tried so hard to conceal for her sister’s sake? And here Anna is, unraveling all those straws like they’re nothing more than loose thread.

“Elsa.” Finally, Anna lifts her head to meet Elsa’s eyes again. “Shall we take this to your bedroom or mine?”

“Anna, I’m-! I can’t-!” Elsa’s protests are half-hearted, but weakly desperate nonetheless. The younger woman gives a disappointed sigh and nods.

“You’re not ready yet. That’s okay, Els. Let’s just get back to the castle.” Slowly, Elsa takes Anna’s hand to hold very tightly. Overwhelming emotion and heat, so much heat, still rushes through her body and flashes vividly before her eyes. How does Anna do these things to her?

__________________________________________________

“Uh, okay, well… I know you’re probably thinking real hard about things, but… I can’t just- I would really like my hand back now.” Anna had never seen her sister act like this: like a robot struggling to function. Yeah, she’s made Elsa flustered before, but it always subsided pretty quickly. In this case, Elsa hasn’t spoken a word since they started walking back to the castle and refuses to let go of Anna’s hand.

Not that she has any complaints about her sister wanting to have her close, she’s just a little confused as to what Elsa wants right now. They’re standing in front of the blue diamond pattern door that separates them from Elsa’s bedroom. Anna expected to walk Elsa to her room and then go to her own, but the ice Queen clings ever tightly to her hand still.

“Elsa?” Finally, Elsa acknowledges Anna’s existence. Searching her eyes for an answer, Anna comes up with uncertainty. Though that may just be reflecting herself. Then Elsa shakes her head and lets go of Anna’s hand.

“Anna, I…”

“Were you thinking about it?”

She hesitates to answer but inevitably nods. “Yes, I was.”

“Any clear verdict?”

“Clear? Never.”

“Then what is it you want?” Again, Elsa hesitates. Her hand takes Anna’s again, but she lifts it to the collar.

“...Ask me again.”

Anna wraps her fingers around the leather and pulls it closer, bringing her sister with it. Doing so brings a much familiar hot rush through her veins. “Tell me what you want, Elsa.”

“You.” The word comes out in a guttural moan. Both taken by surprise, Elsa slaps a hand over her mouth and tries to jerk back. Unfortunately, Anna's grip on the collar is tight.

"Woah. What?"

"I- I didn't- I- I-" As Elsa's face darkens in color, she stutters horribly in any attempt to rephrase and explain herself.

"Wow, Elsa." Anna giggles and pulls the poor Queen close enough to kiss. "Tell me how you really feel~"

Elsa's gaze holds utter defeat. Is this it? Has she finally won over her sister?

"I said, tell me how you really feel." She demands softly, holding Elsa's gaze so she can watch it change. Though, instead of saying something, Elsa erases the space between them. Her hands tug at Anna's dress and her lips pull desperately at Anna's own.

Completely unexpecting this, Anna freezes for a moment before she melds into the embrace. Every other time they had been intimate, it was always Elsa on top. Not this time. This time is very special, and therefore it should be Anna who finally brings Elsa to that point of bliss.

She reaches for the door handle past Elsa's hip and slowly guides them into the room until she can close the door. Then she ditches her shoes and takes dominance in the kiss. While her tongue slips between her sister's lips, her hands hold tight to her so if they end up falling before getting to the bed, they'd fall together. Thankfully, Elsa trips onto the bed, her icy heels falling to the floor when she lands.

Anna, comfortably on top of her, lets the kiss last a few hot seconds longer before reluctantly making herself sit up. Her heart skips a beat to look down at Elsa unraveled and lusting beneath her.

"If this becomes too much for you, say something, okay?"

"Okay."

With a relaxed smirk on her face, Anna leans back down to peck Elsa's lips. "Good. Thaw your dress, please."

Elsa bites her lip, one of her hands prying itself from Anna's clothes to sweep over her attire. The dress dissipates without any more than a few blue slivers fading into the air, leaving Elsa nude besides the pair of blue silk panties clinging tight to her waist.

Taking a moment to admire the fine woman beneath her, Anna shuffles to the end of the bed, her hands lightly dragging over Elsa's skin. Elsa gives a short shudder beneath her fingertips, highly nervous or greatly anticipating what's to come. Probably both.

Then, after sliding off the bed, Anna quickly rids herself of her dress and her frivolous gold undergarments. As she does, she watches Elsa's eyes watch her. Her face is so flustered and cute, it's hard to focus on anything besides the want to kiss it for hours. But there are matters to attend to.

Anna hooks her fingers into Elsa's underwear and slowly tugs it down, giving herself a full show of the neatly shaved flower beneath. Of just the moonlight shining in through the windows, she can see how it glistens from Elsa's repressed desires. Who knew something like this could look so delicious?

However, when she goes down to appease those desires, a hand tugs on her braided hair. With a wince, she lifts her head to grab hold of Elsa's arm.

"Hey! What-"

"What are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing?"

"Don't… do -that-. N- not like that."

Anna almost scoffs with how she laughs. "What's wrong with it? Is that way only reserved for dirty Queens such as yourself?"

"Gghhh Anna… I just don't want to taste it when you kiss me."

"No? Have you tried it before?"

"No!" Giggling at her sister's expense, Anna climbs back onto the bed and Elsa.

"Fine, scoot up a bit." Elsa does as she asks, scooting up into the pillows. Anna stays between her legs so her fingers could give light teasing strokes through the wet folds, but leans enough forward so she can be face to face with Elsa. Just as her majesty wants~ Her arm props itself under Elsa’s left shoulder, keeping them close while giving Anna an easier position to pleasure her sister by without getting a wrist cramp.

Elsa’s own hands now hold tight to the bedsheets. Part of Anna is disappointed not to feel the cool gentleness of those fingers on her bare skin, but Elsa now knows best of her powers. The last thing she would want is to be covered in ice again.

Ever so tenderly, Anna presses a kiss to her sister’s parted lips as a finger curiously slides inside. She can feel Elsa’s body squirm and tense underneath her, and the older woman’s legs trying to close. Instead, the limbs drape over Anna and become a minor inconvenience. With no indications that Elsa wants her to stop, Anna slides the finger back out and adds another before creating a pace. Slow enough to make this last and yet still quick enough that Elsa is moaning for her within minutes.

This has to be a dream. A sweet sweet dream. Elsa’s voice, so close and hot on her ears, makes her heart thunder wildly. Their chests press so firmly against each other with every one of Elsa’s bucks that she’s sure their heartbeats must be entwined by now. She doesn’t care how inexperienced this must look from any outside view, because to her, this must be the most magical thing she’s ever experienced.

“Anna!” Her sister cries, her head leaning back into the pillows. Anna takes immediate claim over the throat exposed to her, giving as many hot kisses as feels right. The collar gets in her way, but if anything it’s more a boost to her wanting to make Elsa’s high so sweet. Tonight, her majesty finally belongs to her.

Notes:

There we go uwu Now everyone is definitely happy probably. Rip Kristoff maybe