The Reinrose
A/N: I live. The next chapter of Where Everybody Knows Your Name should be up within the next few days (just needs some editing, I already wrote it)(that is if I don't decide to rewrite it again. I'll try not to, I promise) and I'll have an explanation for that very trippy last chapter. Long story short, I was very sick and in the hospital, and during my recovery I decided to write the second chapter. . . which was inspired by a fever(?) dream I had (I can't remember. I really can't). I'm better now, but now I need to go fix that last chapter at some point in time lol. In the mean time, I wrote this in celebration of the fact that I'm out of school. Yay.
This story will be composed of ~2-3 parts, and should update every week on either Tuesday or Wednesday. It's pretty much done, I just didn't feel like I should put that many words in a oneshot. Too many words, too little plot. Blah, blah, blah.
Warning: Purple prose and weirdness. Mentions of Kristanna. Anna is messy, Elsa has a thing about dirt, Kristoff is brutally honest, and Hans is creepy. AKA my usual.
Based off of "Meshes of the Afternoon".
A pair of bare, delicate fingers danced across the white petals, absentmindedly tracing the rim with a line of ice as she admired the pops of color that bled across the center. Reinrose: her favorite. It mixed the gentle white hues of a snowfall with the brilliant, yellow rays of the sun. It was a flower that reminded her of the special relationship she held with her sister, as if their love was immortalized by nature itself. She smiled to herself softly and brushed a lock of bleach-blonde hair out of her face, soaking up the warmth of the sun's rays upon her back as she bent over the flowers. She could see across the grassy field for miles, patches of mogop dotting the landscape in the distance. Large evergreens began to fill in where the mountains started to rise up from the field, harsh spots of dark green against an otherwise bright and cheerful canvas. It was a lovely summer day.
"Elsa!"
The Queen jerked back, the grouping of flowers freezing into ice statues with a subtle twitch of her hand. She gasped, clutching her chest in fright as she commanded the ice to subside. A moment of silence passed, and the snow melted away, leaving wilted brown stems and barren buds in its absence. The bright, cheerful grass around the dead flowers shriveled into a fine coating of dust, the disaster zone spreading several feet around the plant. She stared blankly at her latest accident for a moment, then turned to glare at her sister, who was skipping across the field towards her.
"Anna, I told you not to scare me like that."
Her little sister halted, just inches away from the crime scene, and sighed dramatically as she tugged at her floral patterned skirts- ironic, in Elsa's opinion. "Sorry. I keep forgetting." Anna paused, placing a finger on her cheek as she observed their surroundings with what she thought to be a knowing eye. Her soft lips tugged up into a mischievous grin as she giggled in delight. "Ignoring the royal duties again, huh? I can't blame you- it's beeeeautiful out!" She twisted around with a flourish, the bustle of rose and daisy embroideries scattered across her dress spinning into an enchantingly colorful display. She stopped abruptly and stumbled, woozy, before plopping down next to the patch of dead Reinroses. She paused and raised a brow at the traces of looming moisture from the ice, pointing at it as though Elsa couldn't see the problem. "You killed those flowers."
Elsa rolled her eyes. "Really? I had no idea. Maybe that had to do with you scaring me." She ignored the pang of guilt that resonated through her chest, and tugged her silken gloves back over her hands. She regretted taking them off to begin with.
Anna actually looked guilty now. She plucked a withered plant from the ground, spinning it in between her fingers. "I'm really sorry. I was just so excited to come tell you about Kristoff's and mine's day. I haven't seen you in fooooreeeeever." She leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest as she tossed the dead flower behind her.
Elsa sighed. "Anna, you're going to get your dress dirty. Aunt Arianna made that for you."
Anna ignored her, as per usual. "Have you been out here this entire time?"
Elsa thought about sitting next to her, but then remembered that dirt and white dresses don't mix. Anna didn't seem to realize that. "No, I had some errands to run and I decided to take a break. I've been cooped up inside meetings for most of the day." She frowned. "Those were the only Reinroses I could find."
Anna dragged herself to her feet, mud caked onto her backside, and placed a gentle, dirt-covered hand onto her sister's shoulder. Elsa tried not to scream. "I'm sure there's more out here somewhere. We'll go find some later. I promise. Until then, why don't you come to the market with Kristoff and I?" She smiled encouragingly. Elsa was just trying to ignore the fact that she had gotten them both filthy.
The Queen shrugged her sister's hand off and glanced back to the patch of dead flowers, chewing on her lip as she fidgeted with her gloves. "I don't know, Anna, I've been pretty busy."
Anna raised a red brow, her face nearly blank as she tried to hide her agitation. She never could keep her emotions locked up like Elsa could. "Busy enough to go play with flowers?" She stated, attempting to brush the dirt off of the front of her dress- in reality, it just smeared it all over the place. The Queen grimaced, both at the brown smudges across her Aunt's pristine needlework and the fact that she was fully aware of what Anna was alluding to.
"I'm sorry, Anna, I promise I'll catch up with you two in a bit. I really shouldn't have stayed out here so late."
Anna nodded grimly, but couldn't keep down her sunny demeanor for more than a moment. She allowed her face to stretch into a perky grin. "You better." She pulled her older sister into an awkward, one-sided bear-hug. Silence stretched out as Anna rocked them from side to side in what she perceived as a comforting gesture. Elsa frowned.
"Go put on a different dress."
Elsa sprinted towards the castle, her pocket watch displaying the horrid number of 2:58- 2 minutes before 3:00, 2 minutes before her meeting with the Duke of Schleswig and the Duke of Holstein. She did not want to keep them waiting- they had enough problems at the moment. She pulled up her stained skirt (thanks, Anna) and leaped up the stairs, skipping steps as she tried to sort out how she could make an ice dress on the fly- without scaring anyone- as she ran to the meeting.
As she began to conjure up her winter powers, the glowing ice swirling in between her fingers, her pocket watch slipped out of her sweaty palm and plummeted down the stairs. She halted, horrified, as the sound of metal bouncing off marble hit her ears and echoed throughout the empty courtyard- the sound of her beloved watch falling to its doom. She gasped and wheeled backwards, haphazardly throwing off her heels as she ran back down the steps to retrieve the watch, painfully aware of the fact that she was going to be late to the "very important meeting" no matter what. She dived towards the last step, managing to scoop the clock up as it rolled across the stone pavement, ticking cheerfully the entire time.
Elsa groaned and rolled the device in her hands, inspecting it for scratches or dings as she power-walked back towards the steps. As she neared the staircase she found herself grinning in relief, as she couldn't spot even a single mark on the surface. She would have to find the maker later and congratulate him on a job well done. This pocket watch was more faithful to her than many of her own subjects, after all. As she ascended the steps, snatching up her heels on the way, something motionless and white caught the corner of her eye.
At the foot of the castle steps laid a single, pristine Reinrose that had been broken at the stem. Elsa glanced around, noticing nothing else out of the ordinary. The gates had been locked behind her, and the guards stood dutifully at their posts. She smiled to herself and snatched up the flower, appreciating its seemingly unmarred beauty as she made a mental note to thank Anna for the present later. Her watch ticked, and she glanced down to see the minute hand land on 2:59. The Snow Queen gasped and ran off, her ice dress forming around her white skirts as she ran.
Hopefully the Dukes could appreciate her being fashionably late.
"Hey, you made it!"
Elsa smiled as she entered the dining room, Kristoff and Anna already digging into their meals. She held the Reinrose in her bare hands, twirling it between her fingers.
"I did! The meeting went great. I was right on time." She stated proudly, plopping down into the chair across from the lovesick couple with all the incivility she could muster. She didn't have to be graceful and queenly all the time, and most certainly not when her little sister and her not-yet-brother-in-law had probably been making out before she walked in. Yuck.
Anna gave a thumbs up as she wiped some crumbs from her mouth. "We'll go to the market after we eat, then." She said in between a shovelful of food. She rubbed her hands together in delight, glad to finally spend some time with her sister, and glanced down at the flower in Elsa's hand. Her face fell, a look of disappointment flitting across her features as her lips protruded into a pout. "Elsa, I thought you went to the meeting. As in, not lie to me and go and search for Reinroses."
Elsa blinked, looking down at the flower lying in her hand. "I found this on the stairs while I was going to the meeting. I thought this was from you." She felt oddly unsettled.
Anna visibly relaxed and shook her head, red pigtails nearly slapping her boyfriend across the face. Kristoff moved a chair over. "Nope. Ooh, a secret admirer, maybe?" Anna leaned across the table in excitement, nearly faceplanting in Elsa's untouched food. The Queen, in response, leaned back, clutching the flower in between her pale hands. Anna didn't seem to notice and continued to babble on. "Who could it be? One of the Dukes maybe?" She made a face of disgust. "Hopefully not. Have you been seeing anyone? C'mon, I have to know!"
Kristoff grabbed the back of Anna's paisley shirt (she had, in fact followed her sister's advice and had given the destroyed dress to the servants to clean) and tugged her back into her chair. "Hey, it's hard for her to answer when you're three inches away from her face. She could probably smell your garlic breath."
Anna gasped and slapped him on the shoulder. "I barely had any!"
"Yeah right, you were stuffing your face."
Elsa stared at the flower, ignoring the bickering as she studied it carefully. Ideas flitted through her head. Perhaps a young man had picked one for his wife and lost it. But why would it be at the castle steps? The gates were open, but they were still guarded from unwanted business, and today they were closed while the Dukes were visiting. The wind wasn't blowing either, so it couldn't have been whisked away from a daughter picking flowers for her mother. Maybe one of the guards?
". . . at least it wasn't onion this time. . ."
"Says the guy who shares his food with a reindeer!"
She'd have to ask the guards later. For now, she promised her sister that she'd go to the market with her and Kristoff.
She'd ignore the mystery. She'd ignore the odd, reddish-brown stain on the center of the flower where the yellow sunburst would usually be.
Elsa sat in a lavender armchair in the library, mindlessly flipping through the pages of an unread romance novel. She was fairly sure the author was making words up at this point in time. After she reread the same sentence for the fiftieth time, she set the novel down on the side table next to the Reinrose. She sighed- it wasn't as though she was interested in the book to begin with. She glanced out the window, her mind replaying the conversation that she'd had with the guards that had stood post earlier.
"Do either of you know where this flower came from?"
The men looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously. "No.", one said, "There wasn't any flower on the steps. No one came in or out of the courtyard, not with the Dukes here." He elbowed his companion, who flinched at the action. "Did you see someone place a flower?"
The other man shook his head. "No, no people, no flowers. I stared at the courtyard all day. Maybe I zoned out?" He blushed, nervous about the open admittance of failure in front of the Snow Queen.
Elsa' frowned as she stared down at the flower in her hands, and shook her head. "No, it's no big deal. It's just a flower. Probably came with the wind." There wasn't any wind, they all knew that. "Resume your duties." She said, willing the ice down. The guards straightened, shouting a "Yes, Your Majesty" as they marched back to the guard's barracks.
Elsa's grip tightened on the flower as she set off across the grand hall, her thoughts racing as she pulled the ornate doors of the library closed behind her and locked them. So many questions, and absolutely no answers.
How did the flower get there? If it was indeed a person, who would leave a flower on the castle steps? Why would someone do that? How did they get through the locked castle gates and past the guards? And how did they know she had been picking Reinroses earlier that day?
And why was the center red?
Why did this all bother her so much?
Elsa shook herself out of her thoughts, glancing at the discarded flower next to the armrest. It sat there innocently, motionlessly, soft white petals glimmering in the moonlight as though it had done nothing wrong.
The Ice Queen sighed, fiddling with the seams of her trusty gloves. This was ridiculous. It was a perfectly innocent flower. She needed to go to bed. Yes, that was definitely her priority.
Elsa unlocked the doors and marched through the halls, shadows and silhouettes throwing themselves across the blue-tinted walls like a midnight puppet show. She gasped, stumbling backwards as her head snapped to the side. . .only to reveal darkness. The apparitions had disappeared, replacing themselves with the shadows of an ordinary vase and candlestick instead of a person sneaking through the castle. She blinked harshly, paler than her usual Winter Queen self, and halted at an iron-barred window as she tried to regain her breath. She leaned up against the cold bars and made a mental reminder to tell the blacksmiths to remove them from the window tomorrow; the crew must have missed it when they were eradicating her parent's fear-fueled barricades earlier that year. She sighed, her icy breath fogging up the glass as she gazed upwards at the stunning full moon that glittered in the night sky. Her tired eyes, weak and heavy with stress, began to close as her gaze trailed back down to the courtyard.
A shadow danced in her vision. Elsa shot up, suddenly feeling much more awake as her eyes widened in fear.
There was someone down there.
A figure bathed in moonlight stood in the center of the quad, a single Reinrose situated in their outstretched palm. They were covered in a dark cloak, shielding their face from the moon's brilliant rays.
Elsa stared.
The figure seemed to look back.
The Queen, unsure of even why, fled down the stairs towards the main entrance. She didn't even stop to think about it; she should have contacted the guards (where were they?) or froze the perpetrator on site. Why was she chasing them?
She sprinted through the halls and flew down the steps, past Anna's room and past the portraits hanging from the walls, praying that the figure was a figment of her sleep-deprived imagination.
Elsa bashed against one of the gargantuan doors with her shoulder, her bones screaming as she struggled to slip through the slim opening. She shimmied through, the door threatening to close on her as she heaved herself outside, her bloodshot eyes blinded against the harsh light of the full moon. She blinked rapidly as the colors of the courtyard slowly, painfully, bled back into her vision. Her eyes adjusted to the pink pops of the revebjelle in the garden, the grey of the stone fountain, and the darkness of the silhouette that stood silently next to it.
There the Figure remained, not having moved an inch from their original spot. Neither muscle nor clothing moved in response to the door opening. Their head, shrouded in a dark hood, was lowered towards the ground. Overall, they seemed unaware of the Queen's presence.
Strangely, the thing that Elsa found most disturbing wasn't the fact that there was a suspicious figure standing in her heavily-guarded yard, nor the fact that she hadn't seen a single guard all night. No, it was that her Reinrose, complete with its red stain, laid waiting in the stranger's open palm as though they wanted her to take it. Hadn't she left it in the library?
The all-encompassing silence seemed to echo throughout the gardens as the Queen and the Figure stood still as statues, not more than two meters away from each other. Elsa felt her heart thudding wildly in her chest, her breath stuck in her closed throat and her mind screaming for her to do something.
The Figure remained still, the flower extended towards Elsa as they slowly raised their head towards her. The moonlight hit the Figure just right, revealing a flat, jagged mirror where their face should have been. It glinted in the moonlight, reflecting the night sky and the peaks of the maple trees to Elsa. Her mouth fell agape, her breath stuck tight in her throat. She tried to summon her ice powers, to call upon the snow, yet nothing came. It was as though she was a normal human being, just like she'd always wanted to be.
Bad timing. Very bad timing.
As it turned its head upon her, she could see the darkness swirling in the pane of glass- distorting the image, reflecting to her a. . .
Elsa awoke in her lavender armchair with a start, grasping at her chest for a breath of blessed air. The entire library was frozen solid, snowflakes fluttering down from the ceiling as though she were twelve years old, sitting in her room alone and terrified and so far away from her family. She grimaced, heaving a bitter sigh as she clenched the armrests of her chair and leaned back into it. She shut her eyes as she attempted to will the winter away, just like she did a year ago. She pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed- in, out, in, out, wispy, frost-imbued air swirling up from her lips as she calmed herself. Slowly, the ice began to retreat, the moisture in the room pulling back into her palms and leaving only freezing air and small water droplets behind.
Elsa snatched her gloves off of the table, fumbling with the fabric as she attempted to pull them over her shaking hands. She muttered soft encouragements to herself as her eyes darted rapidly around the library- it was impossible to focus on just one of the hundreds of bookshelves scattered about the room, and her candles had already gone out. There was so many places for a person to hide in this pure darkness. She shuttered, her frantic gaze settling upon where the flower laid on the side table.
Where it should have been.
Where a kitchen knife now laid, pristine and sharp and deadly in the waning moonlight.
The entire castle froze.