Disclaimer: I don't own "Frozen" or any of its characters…it's probably for the best.
Author's Notes: I'm aiming for a roller-coaster of emotions. Please, read, enjoy, review!
Chapter One: More time
The snow had been relentless in its assault over Arendelle. Yet, in this occasion, the nation was overjoyed. Christmas had arrived. Hence, the cold and snowflakes were not the consequences of a frightened and out of control Queen, but the customary results of the season. Moreover, high spirits were about because of the annual ball which had been determined would take place during winter from now on, in honor of the Queen. It had been her little sister's idea, something the Queen had initially objected to; her efforts were clearly in vain.
That evening, Princess Anna of Arendelle had done nothing but skip from the arms of one gentleman to another's. It had begun to get tiring, to not say annoying. She had been looking for the means to escape for the last half hour. Actually, she had been looking for her dearest sister for the last half hour, in hopes of returning the favor of dropping one of these guys unto her, preferably the fat old man that was holding her waist a bit too hard. She laughed and twirled in all the right places, wondering why Kristoff was not here at least. She had invited him personally, and he had said that he would try. Of course, she knew that by his use of the word "try", he actually meant that he was really not going to make it.
The song was finally over. She curtsied, and made a hurried exit to the left. A master at evasion tactics (they had been learned as a late-night-candy-craving-child) she managed to shuffle through the dance hall swiftly, having little problems that she quickly directed to the hors d'oeuvre table. At last, she exited the hall through the doors behind the orchestra. The closing of said doors brought forth a profound silence that she welcomed greatly. She sat on a beautifully crafted wooden bench to her left and rested her head against the back wall. The wind was soft and mostly freezing, reminding her that she wouldn't be able to enjoy her reprieve for too long, yet she closed her eyes and relished it for the moment.
It was not until she heard soft murmurs, that she opened her eyes in curiosity. Quietly, she stood from the bench and leaned over the balcony's rail in search of the source. The princess was slightly surprised when she recognized her sister, the Queen, softly conversing with a young fellow on the lower floor. 'So there's where she has been', she thought. Anna continued to watch them in secret, chuckling softly at her sister's posture. Over the last year, she had not only gotten closer to her older sister, but she had also begun to understand her better, or perhaps she should say, for the first time; she could hardly compare the Elsa she knew through a keyhole as a child to the liberated Elsa that stood before her in the present. And because she had allowed herself to know her sister again, she could now pick on the meaning of certain mannerisms: like the constant shifting of her blue eyes, the polite yet forced smile she bestowed on her companions, the petulant crossing of her arms and the slight slant of her right hip; all telltale' signs of her immense boredom, and all present at the moment. She would think them quite evident to anyone, but it was conceivable that they were only visible to her who paid notable attention to her sister.
The princess kept on watching as the young man said something that urged the queen to laugh. She chuckled as well, knowing how much her sister hated having to act like a hypocrite, yet being forced to do so as a necessity for the sake of international relations. Seeing the gentleman try so hard reminded her of when she too tried arduously to get her sister's considerations:
For the first week in which her sister had become distant, sealing herself away in her room and barely coming out for bathroom breaks and dinners, little Anna had taken to only tapping on her door and calling out her name. Her father shooed her away whenever he saw her, but she would not be deterred. Relentlessly, she would tap on her door: Tap, tap, tap. Three of them, as it was the polite number her mother had thought her. Yet, she never received any taps back. She would stand on her tiptoes and look through the keyhole, wondering if her sister was even there. She was, sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at the floor sadly. So she would tap again: tap, tap, tap. Until she became bored with the constant number of taps and decided to change it up a bit: Tap, tap, tap, tap-tap, or, tap, taptap tap-tap, tap-tap. Often she invented rhythms she knew not where they came from, but that sounded good enough for her inexperienced ears. She never got a response, but at least she had fun.
Of course, when Christmas arrived, the only thing she ever wanted to do was build a snowman. And she did, sometimes alone, other times with the help of the servants, occasionally with the aid of her father. But it was not good enough, she realized early in the holidays, because what she truly wanted to do was build a snowman with her sister. So she knocked and asked her a few times, even sang her a song about it, but her sister did not seem to have the same desires. Or perhaps, her young mind thought, she had forgotten how to build one, or worst! How a snowman even looked! So she set on fixing her sisters problem. She went to her room and took out all the color pencils her father had brought her from his trip to the land with lots of Chinese people, and set on drawing a detailed example of what she wanted them to create. She drew three circles, the lowest one bigger than the middle one and the third, which would work as the face, big as the first one but elongated, with three branches on its top for the hair. Then added two big eyes, gave it two arms made of the same branches of his hair and three black buttons, with small snowballs as feet; and of course, what could not go amiss, a huge smile with only one tooth for adorableness. As soon as it was done, she ran to her sister's door and shoved it halfway under it. The room swallowed it a short while after, and she became excited with the possibilities. But her sister never came out; she didn't return the drawing either. Disappointed, Anna went in search of someone else who would like to make a substitute snowman, in place of the one her sister did not want to make with her.
As most children, little Anna loved nothing more than getting presents. Christmas was her favorite holiday because of this, although her birthday was quite a rival to it. So it was only logical that Elsa loved presents as well; Anna was sure that her reasoning was dead on. Therefore, she set on a task of bringing Elsa things she thought her elder sister would enjoy; after all, Anna enjoyed them. Since she did not know what her parents had given her for her birthday, and she clearly had no money, she opted for giving her sister things she could afford; this meaning things she could find in the surroundings of the castle. The first thing was a flower, a while lily that she had found close to the castle's fountain. She shoved it carefully under the door, but just as quickly it was shoved back with a strength that broke some of its petals. Anna concluded that Elsa did not like flowers much. Well that was alright, because she had her color pencils and everyone liked those. Still, those rolled back to her as well. Baffled, Anna remembered once, long ago, that her sister's room was light blue; it reminded her of winter. So she shoved some snow under the door. It goes without saying that she got scolded for that one. An admonishment that was definitely not worth it, considering her sister pushed the snow out of her room too. Her last effort was done with resignation. She was sure it would not work. She would be rejected and her present forced out of the room like many others. Yet she tried anyway. She had been eating a few candies as she made her way to her own room and had one small piece of chocolate left. Oh! How she loved chocolate! But maybe giving it to her sister would merit it. She kneeled down and pushed it hard and fast. She stood, and waited. The chocolate never came back, and faintly she could hear the rustling of its paper been taken off. Anna smiled triumphantly; she should have known that the way to her sister's heart was through their genetically-shared-sugar-obsessed stomach! She skipped to her room, vowing to bring her more chocolate tomorrow.
Anna couldn't help but giggle at the memories. She should have done so more quietly however, because her sister noticed her standing there on the balcony. Anna covered her mouth quickly, but uncovered it as soon as she noticed that her sister was far from angry.
"Anna! I have finally found you!" The queen shouted to be heard over the distance and Anna quirked her head, wondering when her sister had been looking for her. "I am terribly sorry sir, but my sister had not been feeling well at the beginning of the ball and I must make sure she is better at the moment." Elsa said as she made her way to the entrance of the building, leaving the young fellow all alone on the terrace.
"What?" Anna whispered. "Oh!" She exclaimed, laughing as comprehension of her sister's actions dawned on her.
She waited for the queen precisely where she was standing, to make her sickness believable, not that she thought the fellow could see her very well from there. So she opted to simply sit on the bench, out of sight.
"Anna?" The doors opened and the queen entered.
"I'm here." She replied softly.
Her sister smiled a big grin full of innocent guilt. Anna couldn't help but smile back in admiration of it. Sharing in her sister's delight, she laughed and took the offered hand to follow the queen out of the balcony. Avoiding any and all eyes, they made their way to a higher floor, occupying one of the many empty rooms of the castle.
"So what is this sickness that has taken a hold of me?" Anna asked closing the door behind them.
"The kind of illness that clutches the heart when someone is missed." The queen replied, twirling to face her sister.
"And who exactly is it that I miss?" The princess played along.
"Why, me of course! It is clearly not Kristoff, considering you had to ask!" Elsa countered with a teasing smile on her lips. She turned to open the doors to the room's balcony and stepped outside, gesturing for her sister to follow her.
Biting her tongue at her lack of retort, Anna sat beside the queen on a large bench. The sisters stared at the glistening stars for a while in utter silence.
Silence was not something Anna had knowledge of, or so the townsfolk (including Kristoff) would say, but the princess had recently learned to appreciate it; basically through her sister's example, albeit unknown to the queen. Her sister had taught her that in silence there was truth. The veracity of thoughts, of actions, and moreover of feelings floated in the stillness of the air when its occupants restrained themselves. It allowed Anna to esteem the beauty of her environ more profoundly, of the ever blinking stars above them, of the pale smoothness of her sister's cheek, of those barely darker blue eyes that were currently staring into her soul.
"What is it Anna?" A slight inward movement of blond eyebrows alerted Anna of her sister's worry.
She shook her head, resting her eyes on her lap. "Nothing. It's just…"
"What?" The queen insisted.
"You have a lot of suitors down there." The princess commented nonchalantly.
But what Anna didn't know was that in the same manner she had been watching the queen for the past year, the queen had been observing her as well. And she too had learned to pick on her sister's reserved truths. At the moment, the princess's downfall expression confirmed the queen of her dislike of the circumstances at hand; 'How childish of her, but still, how very adorable, she thought.
She brushed small reddish trends out of her the princess's eyes to capture her attention. When Anna's visage lifted to hers, the queen planted her lips atop the expanse of her forehead. Anna closed her eyes, relishing in the distinct from winter kind of cold her sister's lips held. It spread, it relaxed her, it appeased an unperceived longing heart.
"I know this past year hasn't been nearly enough to make up for all those years of separation." The queen said, and Anna nodded. "But do not fret, we still have much time. I have no interest in any of those suitors."
Anna's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "With so many, you expect me to believe that none of them called your fancy?"
"Precisely." The queen replied, smiling.
Anna scrutinized her sister's face for a second. Then, believing her words to be true and with a heart full of elation, she stood abruptly from the bench.
"Alright! How about we build a snowman, and then I'll believe you!" Anna smirked.
The queen laughed, delighted in the lack of fear her powers had always imparted in her sister. She opened her palms and small snowflakes began to sprout from her palms. Elsa watched as her overly eager younger sister began to gather all the snow that fell to the floor. She was just like a puppy, and Elsa could not imagine herself loving someone more.