Chapter 1

Anna rolled over in her bed, the sunrise lighting her room. A knock came at the door and she stirred, moaning softly. Another knock and she lifted her head.

"Mm…what?" she mumbled, sitting up.

"Queen Elsa, you asked to be woken at sunrise," Kai's voice called through the door.

Queen Elsa? She wondered, rubbing her eyes. I must be dreaming…, she thought, moving her hands to flatten her hair. Her eyes went wide when she found her hair to be tightly braided.

"Your majesty?"

"Oh, yes…thank you, Kai," she answered, glancing around the room. She almost commented on the empty dress stand, but decided not to.

"Well, let us know when you're ready to have the gates opened," he noted before she heard him leave. Anna swung her legs off the bed and looked herself over. Pale…her sister's skin. She touched her hair, pulling the braid over her shoulder. White blonde, her sister's hair.

"What on earth is going on…?" she muttered, pinching herself. Nothing happened. She stood and started pacing. "Okay, figure out what's going on, Anna…you can do this…"

She didn't remember going to bed the night before, heck, after she drank that cup of cocoa the night before, she didn't remember anything.

Okay…what did I do before the cocoa? She wondered, folding her arms. I went to the market to get Elsa a last minute gift for her coronation…and then the…

"Gypsies!" She hissed. "They must have had something to do with this!" She remembered they'd given her a warning before she bought that potion from them, but she couldn't remember what they'd said…but she knew she wrote it down for reference.

And the note was in her bedside table drawer with the empty bottle. She noticed something out of the corner of her eye and she investigated. She'd never been in her sister's room before.

"A book…?" she whispered, picking the thick tome up. She opened it up and blinked. All of her old drawings were in there. A tear came to her eye and she put the book down on the bed. There was frost on the cover where she'd been holding it. "What the…what is that?" She touched the frost and it spread. She pulled her hand back in surprise.

A knock came at the door and she jolted, turning to grab Elsa's dressing gown from a nearby chair. She put her hand out to grab the garment as a second knock came at the door.

"Elsa, dear? Are you still asleep?" Gerda's voice carried through the door.

"No, I'm awake," she answered. "Come in, Gerda." She grabbed the garment and it began to form frost from her fingers. Her eyes went wide, but she slipped it on and tied the sash. Gerda came in with a dress in hand. She noticed a pair of gloves on the bedside table and she pulled them on.

"Your dress," Gerda noted, shutting the door. Anna nodded a little, she didn't want to get dressed and pretend to be her sister, but she had to. Until she could get away from Gerda and find her sister.

"Thanks…," she gave a small smile and removed the dressing gown. Gerda fetched Elsa's stays and helped her into them.

Meanwhile…

Elsa yawned as she woke with the sunrise. She sat up and stretched a little. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, wondering why Kai hadn't come knocking yet. Something was off. She blinked, seeing a brightly coloured dress on a stand.

She looked around, seeing that everything in the room was bright and colourful. She glanced at the drapery over the bed and gasped sharply. She was in her sister's room. But Anna wasn't there.

"This is a dream…a terrible fantasy…," she bit, climbing out of the bed.

She crossed to the dressing screen and went behind it, looking for her sister. Anna was nowhere to be seen in the room. She spotted a flash of red in the corner of her eye and she turned her head. The red moved with her and she realized with a jolt of horror that it was on her head.

She touched her hair, tangled, and terrible. She knew she'd braided her hair the night before, she never went to bed with her hair down. She went to Anna's vanity and stared blankly at the reflection of her sister in the mirror.

"This is impossible…," she whispered, touching the strand of white. She tried to think back, wondering if she'd done something to cause this. She didn't remember anything after writing her diary entry the night before.

Elsa shook her head a little. Anna might have the answers, if she could find her. She sighed and brushed the tangled mass that was her sister's hair. While she fixed her hair, she glanced at the dress her sister was going to wear.

There was a special set of undergarments tossed over the dressing screen. It looked simple enough to get into. She finished with her hair and stripped out of her night clothes. Not seeing a problem with it, she tossed the garment over the vanity seat.

With a tired sigh, she got dressed. Once she finished that, she left the bedroom and hurried to her own room, knocking on the door, using the all too familiar pattern that had kept her sane the past three years. The door swung open, something that had never come of that rhythm.

"Elsa…?" her body asked and she recognized her own worry in the voice.

"Anna?" she asked hopefully. Her answer was a brisk nod and a show of hands.

"What is going on with this?" she asked frantically and Elsa sighed. So her powers were still intact.

"Do you know what's going on?" Elsa asked instead of answering, pushing her sister into the room and shutting the door.

"I think so…but what the heck is going on? Everything I touch freezes over!"

"Anna, calm down. Panicking makes things worse," she sighed.

"Is this why you shut me out?" the venom in her tone struck Elsa painfully.

"Yes…it is…," she answered softly. She wanted to tell her the full truth, but she didn't want to harm her sister's memory of their parents. Better to turn the girl against her than their deceased parents. "Anyways, Anna, what's going on? Do you realize what day this is? We can't go to my coronation like this."

"Okay…I got this potion from some gypsies yesterday and they said it would help us be close again and I put some in your drink at dinner while no one was looking and then I woke up in your bed like this!" Anna rambled off, indicating herself as she finished.

"And you didn't find out exactly what it would do to us?" she asked incredulously.

"I didn't get the chance!" she defended herself, folding her arms.

"Okay, how do we fix this?" she asked, hoping to anything she might have ever prayed to growing up that 'true love's kiss' wasn't the answer.

"I don't know…," Anna admitted, lowering her gaze.

"Okay then…in the meantime, we can't reschedule the coronation. You'll have to take the vows in my stead. I already signed the written documentation yesterday, so this is just a formality. And you absolutely have to be able to keep it together while he recites."

"Right…but how do I do that? I can't wear these gloves during that part of the ceremony…"

"Just try…we can practice in my study," Elsa sighed in response. "Just…try not to be so emotional. My powers are triggered by emotion, and there's no telling what could happen if people found out about them…"

"All right then…," Anna looked at her palms and Elsa winced a little. This was likely one of the worst things that could happen. "And after that?"

"For now…let's just get through the coronation…we can talk between greeting dignitaries at the ball."

"O-Okay…Elsa…I—"

"It can wait, Anna. We don't have much time for you to practice. Just remember….cool and collected…calm, poised…"

"Right, I know. I can't be my usual self with these powers," Anna answered with a nod. The two girls headed to the study and Elsa locked the door behind herself when they arrived. "So I just pick them up and don't freeze them over, right?"

"Yes," came the soft answer. Elsa hadn't spent this much time with her sister since they were kids, at least…this much time actively speaking to her. Her heart was racing in her chest and she was hit with the usual onslaught of emotion as she watched her sister remove the ornate leather gloves and pick up the baubles on the table below the painting of their father.

A soft smile came to her face as not even a layer of ice formed on the objects. Even trapped in the wrong body, Anna could manage poise and grace. Not that she wasn't surprisingly graceful even when tripping over her own feet. Every movement hung in Elsa's mind, the deep feeling akin to Gerda's description of romantic love spread through her. But she was sure her sister had no such feelings for her.

It was yet another thing she had to conceal and not feel. Sibling marriages were unheard of in Arendelle, for the simple fact that they very rarely had boys. They were also considered a Catholic kingdom after the inquest during her grandmother's reign. So a love between siblings was considered taboo.

She wouldn't have been able to marry her sister anyways, as the only law regulating her possibility of being a bride was that she had to marry someone that could give her an heir.

"Elsa? Are you okay?" Anna asked suddenly, jolting Elsa from her morose thoughts.

"I'm fine…you're doing great," she answered, hiding with seasoned expertise the pain brought on by her mounting emotions and the inevitable failure of the idea. Anna put the baubles down and put the gloves back on.

"Elsa…why did you hide this from me? Was it Mama? Or Papa?" Anna fired off the questions in rapid succession, not giving her a chance to stop them.

"You wouldn't understand," she said, unintentionally harsh. She froze, cursing herself. "Anna…it's complicated," she tried to sound soft, but the damage was done.

"Go," she hissed.

"But—"

"Just go!" Anna practically shouted at her, a light snow beginning to form.

"Anna, please…just calm down. It's starting to snow," Elsa cautiously approached, knowing at least a little better than her sister how to deal with this.

"Just leave me alone!" the words cut and Elsa sighed, leaving quietly.

Later…

Anna paced the study, trying to calm down. The snow had at least stopped, but she wasn't going to pretend to be her sister when she was this upset. No matter what she had thought would happen when they finally spoke again…this wasn't what she'd expected or even wanted.

A bell tolled the hour and she stopped pacing. She was honestly crushed. Her sister's harshness had cut deep. All they had was each other, especially with this situation, and Elsa was pushing her away all over again. Anna took a deep breath and opened the doors to the study.

"Tell the guards to open the gates." She told the nearest servant in her most calm and regal tone. After the coronation ended, she needed to find a way to get back into her own body.

She folded her hands over her skirt and walked slowly to the foyer, standing at the base of the stairs to greet people as they filed towards the chapel. Her heart was racing, but she tried to keep her nerves from showing. And it wasn't even entirely nerves. It was the idea of having to stand up there beside her sister and pretend to be her.

All those years of knocking on the door with no answer, barely catching glimpses of her faraway sister, sitting across the table from her at dinner in forced silence…everything had led to something inexplicable festering in her chest. The foyer emptied with her absently nodding politely. The bells tolled the half-hour and she was knocked from her thoughts. She loved her sister, but what she was feeling…was it heartbreak? She shook her head and waited for her sister to come back.

Meanwhile…

Elsa left the castle the moment the gates opened. It was her first time outside since she was a kid, so she decided to walk around a bit. She lost track of time as she roamed, eventually making her way to the empty docks to think.

She'd messed up again. She almost had her powers under control, she was planning on opening the gates permanently if she made it through the coronation without using her powers…but with this body switch, she had no idea what Anna was going to do. She knew they couldn't keep the gates open with them switched like this.

The worst of it was she recognized what the pain in her chest was caused by. She loved her sister. Not as a sister should love her sibling, but as a suitor would love her intended. She stopped at the edge of a dock beside a small dinghy that was tied up, staring out at the horizon.

What could she do to fix this? Without acting like a suitor to her sister?

Just be a sister to her. That's what you've both wanted. Ignore your feelings and be there for her,she told herself silently, the reminder that she would continue living her life concealing her emotions…trying not to feel anything, the thought hurt. But it was the only way she knew.

Something big bumped into her from behind and she tumbled forward, shouting in surprise. She landed painfully in the dinghy, feeling the wood of the seat scrape her hands and her legs saved from the same by her skirts and underwear. She turned over and stood.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" she snapped at the culprit, a man sitting high on a horse.

"I'm so sorry! Are you hurt?" he dismounted and stepped to the edge, crouching and extending a hand. Their eyes met and Elsa blinked in surprise, something strange flooding through her. It wasn't her body reacting, it was just her. She looked at her hands, seeing that they were a little bloody. She'd have to wash up before going to the ceremony.

"I scraped my hands," she said flatly, prompting him to remove his gloves before offering help again. She took his hands and he helped her back onto the wharf. When she was safely on the slats of wood, he bowed a little.

"I'm prince Hans of the Southern Isles," he said lightly. The Southern Isles?

"Princess E—Anna, of Arendelle," she replied, giving a small curtsy. He was too old to be Melody's brother, so he must have been one of Prince Eric's younger uncles. His eyes went wide.

"Princess?" he asked blankly before deepening his bow. "Your majesty!" She couldn't help but smile a little as she straightened up. "I'd like to apologize for hitting the princess of Arendelle with my horse…and everything else that's transpired…"

"It's fine," she noted quickly, waving a hand a little. "If you'd hit my sister Elsa, that would be different…but it's just me." She smiled a little, already feeling a bit at ease about pretending to be her sister. She'd spent so many years watching her from afar that she knew how Anna would act in this sort of situation.

"Just you…?" his words were slow as he looked her over with something strange in his expression. Probably similar to Elsa's current state of emotion. There was a spark when their eyes met, and his voice made her heart flutter almost as much as Anna's, but there had been nothing when they made skin contact.

She sighed softly, smiling a bit. She was looking into his grass green eyes, lost in them. He was just staring back at her. A bell tolled the half-hour, jolting her from her thoughts.

"The bells…the coronation! I have—" she gasped, turning. She paused to properly dismiss herself. "I have to go. Bye!" was all she managed before running to the castle. She hurried past her sister, who was waiting on the stairs for her, and to the nearest powder room to wash the blood from her hands and get rid of the dirt on her skirts.

She finished quickly and went to the ceremony with her sister. While she was standing in her position to the side, she glanced out at the people in the chapel. One of the first faces she spotted was Hans. She waved a little before turning her attention back to her sister.

The coronation finished smoothly.