Anna always knew she was adopted. She knew that when she was very young something terrible happened to her mommy and daddy, though she was never told exactly what that terrible thing was. But she would often crawl into the lap of her new momma and ask her to tell the story of how they met. How her new momma laid eyes on Anna for the first time and fell in love with the tiny red head. Apparently there had been some fuss about taking the child into the palace, but her momma wouldn't hear any form of reason. She told Anna and that and she and her father fought for weeks, but she was determined to adopt her. Anna would always snuggled in close and ask what happened next, and her momma would always tell her that the little red headed girl charmed the king until he was wrapped around her finger and wanted nothing more than to spoil her rotten. The story would usually end with papa sneaking up on the two and whisking the little girl away, yelling about how rottenly spoiled she was and tickling her until she shrieked.
Yes, Anna always knew she was adopted, but that never seemed to matter, until the day that it did. Until the day she was faced with that closed door.
The best part about having a new family was having a sister, but Anna didn't get just any sister, she got to be sisters with the kindest most beautiful girl she'd ever met. Her momma was worried she would be shy around the princess, but Anna fell in love with her at first sight. The two hit it off wonderfully, with Anna always racing ahead and tearing down the halls, leaving Elsa in the dust. While Elsa took to Anna like a proper older sister, always protecting her and keeping her out of trouble as often as she could. This generally meant getting herself into unnecessary trouble, but she loved Anna more than anything and always took the fall for their mischiefs.
At least, that's how Anna remembered it.
Her life was paradise until she was met with that first closed door. Then she was met with the same door everyday for the next ten years. For the most part it didn't affect her sunny disposition. She was still the life of the castle; the staff and servants all adored the feisty little princess. Her father would chastise the staff at times, mostly Gerda and Tai, for spoiling her so much that there wasn't anything left for him to do. But banter like that also ended when the door shut. Papa was quieter and less rambunctious in his affections for his youngest when the door shut. He tried so hard show Anna that everything was ok, but she knew that the stress and worry lines came from the closed door. Her mother and father's worry wrinkles only made the girl that much more cheerful, she felt she had to carry the weight of their smiles, or no one would.
But even her fierce personality and determination to bring light to the ever darker castle couldn't keep away the darkness she faced at the closed door. Her cries of laughter would quiet and her running feet (yes, she informed her mother, she did have to run everywhere she went) would slow when she passed the door in the hall. Once a day, she would go to the door. Sometimes it was early in the morning, when the sky finally woke up. Sometimes it was late at night, when her own anxieties got to be too much for her. She would go to the door and knock quietly, "Elsa? Do you want to build a snowman?"
She was very young when this ritual started, the ritual of the closed door and the pleading request. But she was old enough to know she was adopted. And she was old enough to worry that this fact was why her sister didn't love her anymore.
The older she got, the less often she would knock, and the more often she would sit and stare at the door for hours into the night. Hoping, praying, that by some miracle the door would open, and her sister would come out and say it was all just a big mistake. That Elsa loved her and wanted her. But inevitably, Anna would lose the staring match with the door; she would sigh and wander back to her own room, holding conversations with the paintings on the way. These sessions with her and the door became almost a meditative ritual, it was the only time her mind and mouth were silent, the only time when the ever-bounding energy was sapped from her limbs.
She wasn't worried when her parents went to visit a neighboring kingdom; it was a normal trip, something that they did fairly regularly. She was supposed to go with them originally, she loved getting out of the palace and meeting new people, but she had woken up that morning with a sore throat and a head that felt like it was the size of a watermelon. A week later she got the news.
She was in the middle of trying to sweet talk her way out of an assignment with one of her tutors. Her version of sweet talking being: talking so fast they can't understand you, therefore not giving them time to assign anything, and tripping on your way out the door. This worked especially well with the etiquette teachers, who were not used to dealing with full-grown princesses that had the restraint and filter of a five year old.
She took in the news like it was a slap in the face; she was frozen for a second, and then ran straight to her spot in the hallway, to be alone with the door. She assumed someone had already been to see the door, seeing as behind it lived the actual heir to the throne. They left her alone with her staring contest for hours, she hadn't even figured out how to cry yet. She heard Gerda in the hallway talking to Tai, "I've never seen her so quiet, poor lass," she said through her own tear stained face. Anna felt a warm hand on her shoulder and motherly arms surrounding her; she then remembered how to cry.
The night after the funeral, for the first time in forever, she knocked on the door. Desperate to interact with what was left of her family. But just like every other time, she was met with cold silence. She slid to the floor with her back against the unforgiving door. She began a new tradition of sobbing against the closed door, one she continued every night for the next several months before she reverted back to her old staring contest.
Anna always knew she was adopted, but it never really mattered until she lost her family all over again.
A/N: This is super short, but I'm looking to maybe use it a set up for an Elsanna fic. It's a one shot for now, but I have some ideas for making it into a proper story. Let me know what you think!