Using a a gentle touch, the young woman blended a deep magenta purple into the sockets of her bright blue eyes, making sure to smoothly blend the dark out into a smokey shadow. She looked for a dark liner, clumsily pulling random, neatly organized boxes apart. She made a mental note not to forget to clean this mess, but doubting that she could duplicate the previously pristine order. After sprawling an assortment of makeup pencils, brushes and other dainty accessories around the cool surface of the countertop, she spotted a black creamy eyeliner. With a quick flick of the wrist, she outlined the top and bottom of her eyes, blending the darkness into her dark lashes. She stepped back from the large mirror to admire her work. Oh god, she thought in a panic. Something had gone terribly wrong. Instead of seeing the elegant, regal beauty her sister pulled off so easily, Anna saw a panda eyed red mess staring back at her in the mirror.
She didn't hear footsteps approaching the door before it opened, and before she had time to cover what she had been up to, the door opened and all was revealed. Anna hastily tried to cover the mess she had made with her body, but her efforts were unsuccessful. "What happened here?" Elsa asked, raising one eyebrow skeptically.
"There was this... um... well ok don't get mad but.. " Anna stammered on, trying to clean the mess but in her effort, only further scattering the things.
"Come here." Elsa gently tugged Anna towards her and looked at the nightmare on her little sister's face, unable to suppress a smile. She cupped Anna's cheek in one hand and pressed a towel to her eye, gingerly removing the dark circles. "You don't need all this." She wiped away the last dark stain on Anna's face. "You're beautiful how you are." She said matter of factly. Anna smiled bashfully and looked down at her bare feet.
"Sorry" She sighed. Elsa smiled sweetly and grabbed her shoulder playfully.
"Oh you know I don't care" she giggled. Anna smiled. She was still getting used to seeing her sister so much. It had been almost two months since Arendelle had frozen over, and Elsa was still pretty shaken up about it, but there was such a big difference in their lives, now that they were together. It had definitely been hard for both of them. Although they agreed that Elsa would not hide away anymore, she would not touch her for the first month after the storm. After constantly reassuring her older sister that she was safe and fine, Anna had eventually managed to slip back into the life she thought she had lost years ago, sort of. A couple things were different. Anna had developed a lot of anger towards her parents once she realized everything that happened before her memory was wiped. She thought back to one of the first nights she spent with Elsa after the storm.
They were lying in Elsa's bed, wrapped in plush, purple blankets. They were both swaddled in huge cotton nightgowns. Elsa had her back to her, and Anna playing with her soft, fluffy waterfall of white hair, running the cool strands through her fingers. She was glad that she had her sister back, but hurt. She knew Elsa wanted to protect her, but she didn't understand why she shut her out all the time, for all those years. She had finally plucked up the courage to blurt out. "What happened?" Elsa turned around with a puzzled expression. She took a deep breathe and continued. "What happened to us? We were so close! Did I do something to make you not trust me? Why did you just shut me out one day?" Elsa sat up.
"Anna, no it wasn't your fault, it was mine. I'm sorry. Please" she begged. She noticed a tear slide down her older sister's face and suddenly regretted asking. "It was me. I hurt you." Her voice cracked.
"When? I don't remember." Anna said, trying to make sense of it. Elsa had never hurt her. The only time she could remember being struck by Elsa's powers was on the mountain. Frost started to creep up the walls of the room and small snowflakes began to drift through the air. Anna grabbed her sister's hands. "It's ok. Just tell me what happened." Elsa started to explain.
"You can't remember because your memory was erased but-"
"What!?" Anna snapped. "Wait wait wait what are you saying? Why wasn't I informed of this? When did I- but- who?" She was unable to form sentences. Anger burned hot in her veins. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Mama and Papa took you to the trolls one night because I-" but Elsa could not finish because Anna had jumped from the bed and stormed down the stairs. "Anna!" She heard Elsa call out behind her right before she heard the large front door of the palace close. She looked back just in time to see the window of Elsa's room frost over.
She flew towards the home of the trolls on the back of her fastest horse, whipping past trees and branches. Her hair flew messily behind her like an angry fire, streaming in wind. She came charging into the clearing and jumped down from her horse. The boulders rolled out into small trolls and gathered around to see what was wrong. "Why can't I remember anything?" Anna tried to sound confident, but her voice was shaking. " I want..." She trailed off. "I want.."
"You want to know what happened to you dear." Pabbie interjected.
"I want to know why you took my..." Anna took a long deep breath like her sister had shown her. "Yes, I want to know what happened."
Grand pabbie took her hand gently. With a wave, he created a small clouded picture before her. Her heart sunk as she watched her sister and her sneaking out of the palace to play. She watched with bewilderment as she saw herself start to play in the great hall instead of outside. She was even more taken aback when she saw Elsa creating beautiful swirls of ice and snow. Before the storm, she had no idea that Elsa had powers. She looked at her sister, so young and innocent. She had a beautiful smile. Anna had never seen her smile like that. Elsa did smile, rarely, but that happy little girl was gone. She saw herself leaping and jumping from one snow pile to another, giggling and smiling. Then she saw herself falling and Elsa reaching out to her sending a streak of ice, trying to save her. The ice hit her head and she fell to the ground. "Elsa" she whispered, and extended her hand to the surface of the image. "What did I do..." Anna felt grief rip through her heart and she sat down, using all of her strength to stop herself from crying. Her parents voices awakened her from her grief. She looked back at the image.
"Elsa what have you done? This is getting out of hand!" Anna watched as her sister's ice crawled up the ballroom walls, consuming the room.
"That night took a toll on your sister" Grand pabbie's gruff voice snapped her back to reality. "One that can never be fixed unfortunately" he continued sorrowfully. "She was never the same you know. Of course it was devastating to you as well. You lost your sister that day, and you almost died because of her." He shook his head mournfully. "But everyday after that, Elsa died a little more inside for you. She gave up the person she loved more than anything to keep you safe from the thing she feared and hated the most," he looked regretfully at the picture, now showing Elsa curled up, alone in her room, surrounded by shards of ice, "herself." Anna couldn't see her sister like that. She waved her hand through the image, and it disappeared in a wave of smoke.
"If you had just told me..." Anna turned away, mourning her sister's lonely life. "It didn't have to be like that."
"I'm sorry Anna. If there was any other way..." He trailed off. He studied her face, quickly realizing what he had done.
"This was all my fault." She whispered. "Elsa... They kept her locked up for years for what? They didn't want reckless Anna to cause another accident!"
"This was not your fault, and you know it." He promptly cut her off. Hatred flashed in her eyes.
"Then who's was it?" Her voice cracking with anger. "Elsa? She was a child. She tried to save me. You saw it!" She brushed away a tear, cursing herself for breaking down at a time like this. "Why didn't you try to help her!?" She realized she was yelling, but she didn't care anymore. "You could have saved her!"
After that night, everything changed for Anna. She couldn't think about her parents the same way after what they had done to Elsa. Elsa hadn't shut her out because she didn't trust her, she shut her out because their parents had taught her not to trust herself. All these years, Anna just assumed that Elsa was cold and just didn't want to be with her, but in reality she wanted to keep her safe, even if that meant ruining her own life. All that time, little Elsa was taught that she was dangerous when it wasn't true. After being shown for so long that she hurt everything she touched, Elsa started to believe it whole heartily and made sure that she would never hurt anyone by staying hidden away. The worst part was that she didn't need to. The key to controlling Elsa's powers was love, and Elsa was constantly deprived of that.
Snapping back to the present, Anna realized that a tear had rolled down her cheek. Embarrassed, she hastily tried to wipe it away, but she wasn't quick enough. Elsa saw and immediately pulled away from her with a frightened look. "Anna!" she gasped. "Did I hurt you? I'm sorry!" Anna smiled at her and shook her head.
"No no you're fine, sorry." She rubbed her arm, pausing awkwardly. "Just sometimes I get so angry and Mama and Papa for what they did to you." Anna explained.
"Anna" Elsa said, gently. "You know that wasn't their fault. It was mine. They didn't hurt you. I did. They were just..." Elsa trailed off and looked down at her hands regretfully. "They were just keeping everyone safe."
Anna growled. "From what? Despite everything in your life that's told you otherwise Elsa, you're not dangerous! They shouldn't have locked you up! They shouldn't have kept it a secret from me. I deserved to know! We deserved to be together!" Elsa stepped backward, and clasped her hands together. Suddenly, she smiled and looked up.
"We're together now. That's all that matters."