The Secret Game, Part 1
Elsa's sleep was troubled.
In the weeks since her return to Arendelle and taking her rightful place as queen, the young woman had found herself struggling with the burden of ruler-ship. True, her younger sister Anna had been a great help, but the fact of the matter was that neither of them were exactly suited to run a country. They had only been children when their parents had died, too young to really understand the concepts of governing a nation, and having such responsibility thrust upon them had been a startling shock. More times than Elsa could count, she'd tried to return full authority to the royal council members who'd ruled Arendelle in the years between her parents' death and her coronation, but the law was quite clear:
The council would only rule in the absence of a member of the royal family, or in the place of a royal who had not yet come of age.
Dreams of her parents plagued her sleep, or, rather, what little sleep she could find. In them, the former king and queen of Arendelle tried to pass on their knowledge and experience, but Elsa couldn't understand their words, for they were soft and distant, as if being spoken over a great distance. She cried and begged them to speak up, to come back and help her, but her emotional pleas apparently fell on deaf ears, and her parents simply continued on with their repetitive, incomprehensible message, night after night after night.
A soft sound stirred Elsa from her restless slumber, and she sat up slowly, squinting her eyes to try and see better in the darkness. The door to her room was open, but only for a moment, as the dim light from the hallway was soon swallowed up by darkness again as the door was quietly closed. Barely perceivable in the shadowy gloom, a familiar figure made its way quietly toward the queen's bed, and as it neared, Elsa could make out the slender form of her sister more clearly.
"Anna, what are you doing here? Is everything alright?"
The auburn-haired princess sat lightly on the edge of her sister's bed, her troubled expression evident even in the darkness. She held her hands in her lap, wringing them nervously, and her blue eyes were clouded with uncertainty. Elsa reached out and took Anna's hands in her own, still marveling at how she could perform such a simple act now without having to worry about harming anyone. Anna's love and trust had taught her so much in such a short amount of time, and she shivered at the thought of how close she'd come to living alone high up in the mountains, in her tower of ice.
When Anna finally spoke, her voice trembled slightly, and Elsa felt her heart twist at the thought that her sister was in some sort of trouble.
"I… It's Kristoff." Before Elsa could interrupt, Anna shook her head and quickly went on. "He's fine, it's not that. It's just… Have you ever thought you were in love with someone, then after the initial excitement wears you realized that maybe you weren't?"
Elsa's brow furrowed. "You don't love him anymore?" she asked slowly.
"I don't know… I don't think so. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever did." Anna sighed and gently pulled her hands away from Elsa and stood up, pacing absently back and forth at the bedside. "Don't get me wrong, he is so great. I mean he's nice, and polite, and everything. But I don't love him. He's a good friend, and I hope he always will be, but that's all."
Elsa just nodded silently. She wasn't really sure what to say, or what Anna expected her to say. In fact, she wasn't entirely certain that the younger woman was expecting her to say anything; rather, Elsa thought that maybe her sister just needed to get all of this off her chest, and was just hoping for someone to vent to. So instead of saying something that might just make things worse, Elsa was content to listen.
Suddenly Anna was back, sitting on the bed beside her, her own brow furrowed in an expression that was probably the mirror image of Elsa's own.
"We kissed, you know," Anna said, chewing her lip. "But I didn't really feel anything, you know? I mean, shouldn't I have felt something? Anything?" Heaving a sigh, the princess fell backward to sprawl across the bed perpendicular to Elsa. She lay there that way for a few moments while the queen tried to think up something to say, but before she could respond to her sister's words at all, Anna sat back up. "It's not like I've never felt something from a kiss before, you know."
Elsa blinked at that, her mouth opening and closing silently, unable to come up with anything to say. Anna's clear, blue eyes were locked on the queen's own, the younger woman's expression unreadable. Reaching up, Elsa started to play absently with a lock of her snow-white hair, fidgeting a little. She knew exactly what Anna was talking about, but she was surprised to hear her sister bring it up after all this time.
"Elsa," Anna said softly, reaching out to take her sister's hands in her own. "Can we play the Secret Game again?"
The queen gasped, her eyes widening as her mind drifted back across the years like a snowflake on the wind…
To be continued…