Disclaimer: Frozen and all recognizable characters are owned by Disney. (Though I'm pretty sure you all knew that, already. ^_^ )

Summary: Rather than talking to paintings, after Elsa shut her out, Anna took to playing with her invisible friend, Mara. Only, as she grew up, Mara didn't go away.

It was so... quiet.

5-year-old Anna was quickly finding that she couldn't stand the silence. It was only the first night after Elsa had moved out, and it was already too much for her to bear. How long was she going to be expected to endure this? When she'd asked how long Elsa would be gone, Mama and Papa had uncomfortably danced around answering, to the point where even Anna had realized that she wasn't going to BE coming back.

There had been one or two half-hearted efforts to make this seem like a good thing. She didn't care that she'd be getting her own room, now, like a big girl. She didn't care that she now had twice as much room to store her toys and games. What good were those, when you had to play them alone?

Papa had finally declared the matter closed by proclaiming that, seeing as how Elsa would be Queen one day, she needed her own room to be able to study and practice. (Practice what, he hadn't said.)

Anna, for her part, had heard, "Your sister doesn't need you, anymore. She has an important future to prepare for, and you'd do nothing but get in her way."

She'd barely been able to eat her lunch that afternoon, knowing it was true. That Elsa hadn't shown up didn't help matters any. She'd spent most of the rest of the day wandering around in a daze. Elsa had come to dinner, but she'd sat as far away from Anna as she could get away with, and had refused to speak to her or even look at her, if she could possibly avoid it.

She must have done something wrong, but she had no idea what. What could she possibly have done to cause her loving, sweet, perfect sister to shut her out like that?

Well... Maybe she was just out of sorts from being made to move into her own room? Yes, that made sense, Anna decided. She'd give Elsa a little time to adjust - maybe even a whole day! - and then try again.

After all, it was Elsa. Of course she'd want to play!

"Go away, Anna!"

"Okay, bye..."

She'd been making excuses for Elsa's behavior for almost three weeks, now, and she was running out. The only thing she kept coming back to was the (misheard) declaration that she was nothing but a bother to her queen-to-be sister, now. She trudged back to her room, wondering what to do. She was too young to have lessons, and there were only so many games she could play by herself. She didn't know how to read, yet, and there wasn't anyone around who could read to her.

She hadn't noticed it at first, being too preoccupied with all matters Elsa-related, but she'd slowly begun realizing that the castle was becoming much more empty than it used to be. The most explanation she'd been able to get was that the missing staff had been "let go", but no one would tell her why. As a result, there were precious few servants around, and those that remained were far too busy taking up the slack from their missing colleagues to have time to play with the young princess... though playing with adults wasn't really what she wanted, either.

The gates were closed, now, too.

That, she knew was wrong. Aside from at night, maybe - she didn't get to stay up late enough to know for sure - the gates were always open. Or they had been, anyway. No one would tell her why that had changed, either, yelling at her if she pushed the subject.

Heading into the village to play with the children there, then, was entirely out of the question.

"I don't get it," she said with a pout as she shut the door to her room, dropping to the floor in the middle of the room and drawing her knees up under her chin. "What did I do wrong?"

Oh, Anna... a girl's voice sighed from nowhere. You didn't do anything wrong.

Anna nearly fell over backward in shock. "Wh-?"

Can you finally hear me? the voice asked, becoming excited. I've been trying to get your attention for weeks, now.

Anna shot to her feet, looking around her room, eyes wide with fright. Where was that voice coming from?

"Please don't be afraid," the voice - now more easily identifiable as coming from a young girl - said from near the foot of her bed. There hadn't been anyone standing there when she'd looked a second ago... but there was now. "I promise, I won't hurt you."

Anna stared.

The girl looked to be about her age, though a bit taller than she was, with curly, inky black hair, and eyes so dark they almost seemed to match. Her dress resembled Anna's own, only colored a dark gold rather than vibrant green. "Who...? Where...?"

"My name's Mara," she said shyly. "I'm here because you were wishing for a friend."

Anna clapped her hands, fear quickly changing to delight. She had been wishing that, but not out loud. "Why couldn't I see you?"

Mara smiled at her. "I'm invisible. Only special little girls can see me." That elicited a squeal of joy from Anna, who charged over to give her a hug. Mara's hug was stiff, but Anna was used to that from people who'd never been hug-attacked by a princess before, and she knew her new friend would get over that soon enough. The other girl felt warm, much warmer than Elsa... though, admittedly, a lot of people did.

Thinking about Elsa brought back the sting of her most recent rejection, but at least now she had something else to focus on. "You're magic?"

Mara's smile turned secretive. "Oh, Anna... The world is full of magic, if you know where to look for it."

Anna gasped in excitement. "Can we? Can we look?"

"Well... Maybe. First, though, perhaps a tour of the castle?"

That sounded just as good to her. "Okay!" she exclaimed, happy to share what she knew with her new friend.

The staff quickly became accustomed to the sight of the youngest princess happily wandering down the halls, carrying on a running conversation with absolutely no one.

The King and Queen, while initially troubled, played along with their daughter's games. Imaginary friends were hardly an uncommon thing for children her age, after all - Elsa had never had one because she'd already been spending most of her time with Anna when she was five - and given that they'd cut off all other options for friends, and Elsa refused to get anywhere near her sister until she'd managed to control her magic, they had no desire to return her to a state of boredom, loneliness, and misery.

Mara, as relayed by Anna, seemed to be a cheerful girl, generally willing to go along with whatever games Anna proposed... with some exceptions. She didn't like sneaking into the stables, objected when Anna tried to get into a swordfight with a wooden dummy in the guards' practice area (even though, as Anna was quick to point out, she was only armed with a stick), and put her foot down when Anna wanted to try climbing up onto the roof.

When they were alone, the King sometimes joked to his wife that Mara was Anna's long-dormant sense of self-preservation, finally given voice.

Despite offers by servants happy to play along if it meant seeing their princess smile, Anna never insisted a place be set for Mara at meals. Indeed, she initially had refused to speak of her then at all, as she hadn't wanted Elsa to feel she was being replaced. Even after everything, she hated the thought of hurting her sister's feelings.

As Elsa continued shutting herself away, though, her snubbing of her sister's attentions seemed to begin wearing Mara's patience - and temper - thin.

Neither of her parents were all that surprised. Dismayed, yes, but not surprised. Elsa, as far as Anna was concerned, was perfect. As such, Anna couldn't be angry with her. Having the feelings come from Mara instead made for a convenient method of venting. Exactly how healthy that was... Well, that was open for debate. Still, Anna was only a little girl.

She was bound to grow out of this phase eventually.