A/N

I do not own Frozen, or any of its characters.

First of many drabbles focusing on Anna and Elsa~
Bonus points if you can figure out the symbolism surrounding the clock.

Inspired by "Hand of Time" by Reflection Theory.

Hand of Time

Tick

Anna gazed up at the mighty clock towering above her in the hall. Without the company of Elsa, she had grown accustomed to spending hours at a time lying beside it, watching the seconds pass her by, the ticking sound echoing through her mind. She wanted to tell the hands to turn around and go the other way, and bring back the old Elsa she knew and loved. Life used to be so much fun when she and her sister spent all their time together.

The strawberry blonde closed her eyes, carefully listening to the clock's rhythmic tempo. It haunted her, always there, and always moving further and further away from the days when she and Elsa were together. And yet, it reassured her. She didn't know what the future held, but Anna figured that it couldn't be worse than this. Things would change. Elsa would come out of her room soon enough, and then, things would be just like they used to be.

Tock

Elsa paced back and forth in her room, snowflakes slowly whirling around her. Every now and then, she would glance out her window and see that the sun had moved further across the sky. She sighed.

In the past, there had been days that she thought she could summon the courage to leave her room to play with Anna. Each time, though, she would dismissively convince herself to wait until the day she was able to control her powers. But that day never came. They only grew stronger. More uncontrollable.

Defeated, she sat down against her bedroom door. Down the hall, she could hear Anna clicking her tongue in sync with the sound of the grandfather clock. It was soothing, almost hypnotic. Tired and frustrated, Elsa slowly drifted off to sleep.

Tick

Anna's eyes narrowed at the clock. She kept telling herself that if she just gave Elsa more time, everything would be okay. The little girl huffed. It had been five years now. Five years of wishing for the clock to tick a bit faster. Five years of waiting around for her big sister.

Today was the day she would stop waiting, Anna decided.

She hopped to her feet, and dashed downstairs and out into the snow, in such a hurry that she neglected to put on warmer clothes. Saving time was more important.

Tock

Elsa was shaken awake by a rhythmic knock on her door. Please no. She didn't want to deal with the emotional strain of ignoring Anna. At least not right now.

The knocking stopped, and, except for the clock in the hall, everything was silent. Elsa didn't say anything. She didn't have to. Anna would chime in at any moment. It wouldn't matter what her sister would say. The very sound of her voice was enough to break Elsa's heart.

"Elsa!" Her sister's voice rang from the other side of the door, "Look outside!" Elsa took note that there was an exhausted edge to Anna's cheery tone, but she sent the thought to the back of her mind as she stood up to look out her window. Her eyes widened. There were a dozen snowmen outside, all of them looking up at her, their stick arms extended high in the air, as if to wave to her.

Tick

For a long time she stayed silent, unsure if she should say anything back to Anna. Elsa wanted more than anything to tell her how much she loved each and every one of the snowmen her little sister had built her.

"Anna…" the elder sister began, "thank you. They're lovely." Elsa smiled, still gazing down at the crowd of snowmen.

Tock

Elsa waited. Wasn't Anna going to say anything else? She hadn't heard her younger sister stray away from her door, so she knew Anna was still out there.

Tick

"Anna?" Elsa asked, almost inaudibly. She walked back to the door and sat down. "Anna, are you there?"

Tock

Down the hall, the clock chimed.

Tick

Pressing her ear to the door, Elsa could hear her sister's breathing. It was shaky, and out of sync with the ticking that echoed through the hall. The elder sister's pulse raced. Was Anna okay? What if something's wrong? Everyone else in the castle was asleep by now.

Tock

She reached for the doorknob, and, before she could second guess herself, Elsa creaked the door open, peering down at Anna. Her eyes widened as she saw her sister was curled up on the floor, shivering violently. Elsa wanted to kneel down and wrap her arms around her sister and tell her that everything would be okay.

Tick

Shutting her eyes tight, the older sister took a deep breath. She would just quickly carry Anna back to her room, throw some blankets on her, and everything would be okay. Looking down at her hands, she felt her fingertips quiver with cold under her gloves. Calm down. It'll be okay.

Tock

Elsa reached down, and carefully picked up her sister, and carried Anna down the hall towards her own room. A few snowflakes whirled around Elsa as she walked, and she felt ice prickle her palms. She began to panic. More snowflakes, along with a few small shards of ice spun around her, ready to strike at any moment. She took another deep breath, then, while supporting Anna with her right arm, with one swift movement of her left arm, she sent the snow and ice flying away from her and her sister, accidentally striking the grandfather clock instead. Better it than Anna, she figured.

After entering Anna's room and gently placing the younger princess in her own bed, the platinum blonde scoured every corner of her sister's room for any blankets she could find, in an attempt to keep Anna from freezing.

Laying the last of the bedsheets over her sister, Elsa smiled. Anna had stopped shivering, and her breathing returned to its regular rhythm.

Elsa turned to walk back to her room, but she stopped cold in her tracks when she heard Anna begin to stir.

"Elsa?"

It took the older sister a moment to respond. "…Y-yes, Anna?"

"Please don't leave…" Her voice trailed off.

Elsa walked over and sat on the edge of the bed next to Anna. "I won't."

The next morning, when Anna woke up, the castle was silent. She found Elsa asleep on the floor next to her bed. There she was. The sister who's always locked away in her own room. For a while, Anna simply watched her. That is, until something else caught her attention. The ticking. Where was the ticking?

Careful not to wake her big sister, Anna snuck out into the hall. The grandfather clock loomed over her, completely frozen, both in time, and in ice.