"Anna ? Anna, where are you ?" the little snowman half yelled as he walked through the empty halls of the castle.
He was always the one who lost when they played hide and seek. And always the one who actually sought. He often wondered what Sven and Anna might be doing together while he was looking for them in the whole castle. It was far too vast for him to find anyone. His small feet carried him way too slowly and albeit it was fully made out of snow, it ached too soon. Besides, he knew they moved. They never kept the same hiding place during the game.
That's definitely unfair.
He caught a glimpse of Elsa as he started running and passed by her study. He spun around and hurried back there. He waited a few seconds before speaking. Her gaze didn't leave the letter she was writing, and his fell upon the pile that had been sleeping on her desk for days. She didn't seem to notice him, her mind mainly occupied with the words she would choose to draft a answer to whatever request she'd received.
"Elsa ?" he cautiously called, standing still in the middle of the doorway.
He hadn't seen her since long ago. It had been about two weeks she had locked herself up in her study and it was all like she never got out of here. There was "a lot of paperwork to take care of" she had said to justify herself, knowing that none of them would believe her. After that, neither him nor Anna or Sven had heard of her. To forget that her sister was tearing herself apart from her once again, she had begged on him to play games she used to play with Elsa when they were children, except their winter wonderland they couldn't build without her power.
The Queen's eyes lifted to meet his, and in a second, her pale face seemed to brighten.
"Oh, Olaf !" she exclaimed as her lips curled into an ear-to-ear smile that showed off her immaculate teeth.
He could tell she was happy to see him, at least he hoped so.
"How have you been lately ?" she inquired, dropping her quill in the ink pot that laid on the right side of the wooden desk.
"Fine. A mere snow creature lost without her creator and devoid of any siblings to play with without ending up alone." he hastily replied, his voice devoid of any emotion.
She was surprised at the bitterness of his tone. Her hands mechanically put the fully written letters into an envelope she closed with the wax seal wearing the royals symbols of Arendelle. You could tell she had done that her whole life.
"Is everything alright ?"
Her question remained unanswered. She had never seen him upset. She felt quite guilty for she had played a role in this. It was her fault again.
"Listen, I really mean it when I say I am sorry. I didn't want to hurt you, it was true when I said I had many things to do. Paperwork, dignitaries to welcome and discuss trade with, meetings with the council..." she apologize, putting down the letter on the heap of those which were bound to be send soon.
A few seconds passed by without any of them daring to utter a word. When it became to heavy, she spoke again.
"So, what brings you here ?"
Her brows furrowed at the sight of the sad look that spread across his face.
Lost without his creator.
Devoid of any siblings to play with...
"I'm searching Anna and Sven—" he began, his face softening, but Elsa gently cut him off.
"Wait, Sven ? What is Sven doing in the castle ?" she asked, instantly imagining the reindeer running and neighing all around the halls. "You're talking about Kristoff, aren't you ?"
"The funky looking donkey." Olaf stated, his eyes locked on her bright sapphire ones.
They told so much... An open book desperately trying to hide the secrets its pages had written for years. He had never been able to understand - to even notice - the pain that slept inside of her and that waited the night to come to haunt her pool soul again. Other people could've reacted much worse than she did. Locking her own self away was no harm to anyone else, except the psychological pain caused to her loved ones, and it was all she had ever known. It was like a shelter in the mountain for an ice harvester during the hardest days of winter. It was her shelter.
The sigh of relief the platinum blonde Queen let out put an end to his reflection.
"Yes, his name's Kristoff, do you know that ?"
"I do. But that name's doesn't fit. I don't like it." he frowned, breaking the eye contact between them for a second before glancing back. "I can't find them."
She remembered the initial topic of their conversation and straightened herself in her armchair, uncomfortable.
"Playing hide and seek ?" she innocently inquired, twiddling her fingers.
"Anna begged. She felt lonely without you, even around Sven—Kristoff, I mean." he corrected himself, still staring right into Elsa's eyes, who wasn't looking at him anymore."Have you seen her ?"
The blonde bit her lower lip and glanced sideways under her desk, unsure of what to reply. The silent beg her pleading eyes gave to her made her hesitant. What was the best thing to do in this situation ? Her deep blue eyes glimmering in the light filtering through the window.
"I'm sorry Olaf. I've remained stuck in here for most of the day. I had a lot of papers to fill or letters to answer to and I haven't even got some time to have lunch." she explained, her cerulean eyes locked on his black ones again.
A look of disappointment spread on his features as he quickly looked at his feet before lifting his eyes again to meet hers.
"But... if it can help you, I've seen her and Kristoff running through this hall earlier. I don't clearly recall when, but they headed to the stairs at the far end of the hallway." she lied, not without feeling guilty, while she opened up another envelope.
She mentally cursed herself, and Anna, for saying such things to the one she could almost call her child. Almost.
"They always move." he sighed deeply, his head hung low like a toddler would do. "They hide together and they're harder to find. I've been looking for them for hours now. I can never hide."
Olaf was much like a child. The kind of child that over thinks things that seem meaningless to others. And the kind of child who overreacts sometimes. That's what loneliness does. She's left him alone by locking herself to escape from her once again tough personal life, believing he would have Anna with her. But after one whole year of living together, Anna was much more interested in spending her time with Kristoff, which made no sense in this because she actually begged to play with the snowman whose loneliness pushed to the edges of tears. Both the ones he considered as his sister and his mother weren't there for him. He could only count on his buddy Sven - he could finally understand the difference between Sven and Sven and wouldn't make that mistake again - who had always stayed by his side and faithful to him.
"You should mark out the area in which you'd hide. Like only the gardens, or the first floor, a specific place in town, I don't know !" she offered, intertwining her fingers on the letter she had not read yet. "It'd be easier for you. And, you know what, I promise you, and cross my heart, when I'll be done with all of this fucking Queenly duty, I'll show you some hiding places I or Anna hid in. It could seem strange but I know this palace like the back of my hand, and I'll show you every place I remember of." she smiled widely at him, a sincere smile, a smile that hid the full understanding of his emotions for having felt the exact same way.
"Cross your heart and hope to die ?"
"Yes. I cross my heart and I hope to die, Olaf." she repeated steadily. "As soon as I have a moment for myself, I'll show you around, and we'll talk." she spared a glare at her younger sister stiffling her giggles under her wooden desk. "Then we'll all meet to clear the rules of this games, okay ?"
It was so relieving to see his face brighten with a grin full of joy and happiness suddenly recovered. His expression was filled with thankfulness, and all the blame on her disapeared. It was magical, how the power of love could heal somebody's wounds. It had already proven itself right.
"I love you Elsa !" Olaf squealed, running full speed to her, his arms wide opened.
The young Queen knelt down beside her chair and welcomed him in a tight embrace, enjoying the slow fall of the snowflakes from his flurry on her bare shoulders.
"I love you too Olaf." she whispered, kissing lightly the top of his head before he pulled away.
"Have a good day, I hope to see you for dinner !" he said, and it lit up his day to see a smile on Elsa's lips.
She deserved it as well.
"I wish the same for you, little guy, and I'll be there." she replied, her grin revealing her immaculate teeth.
He stood there watching as he didn't often got the chance to see a grin on her perfect mouth. Because she was all perfect, and he wondered why she always thought otherwise.
Without saying another word, still staring at her as she was at last reading her letter, he headed to the door and disappeared from the room, walking slowly where she had indicated him to go.
Elsa waited a few seconds to make sure he was gone, and then she spoke, in a rather dry voice.
"Shame on you." she reprimanded. "Seriously," she continued when Anna started to chuckle lightly, "he looked abandoned, and I know it's partly my fault, but... you asked to play with him, and you've let him down. He seemed to feel as lonely as I always felt, and I'm weighting my words."
Anna's giggles stopped.
"I didn't mean to hurt him, you know..." she apologized, playing with her fingers nervously.
"I do. I can understand what being in love with someone is, but I think friends and eventually family are way more important for one simple reason : love will make you cry, Anna. That's not what I'm wishing for you, perhaps you'll be lucky enough not to have to know this, but it'll make you cry, I'm pretty sure of this. And guess who will be here for you in these moments ? Friends, and family. I've always been told that friendship is the one who wipes away the tears love has caused to somebody, albeit I have never got any friends but you. Family's another type of relationship, it never ends, you can never be sure of this with love, or friends."
The younger sister couldn't utter a single word. Elsa's words clung to her throat, literally. She hardly swallowed the lump in it. She knew how Elsa had suffered, and how she suffered as well. They suffered together their whole life on each side of the door that had kept her apart. She couldn't handle inflict that to Olaf. She was not a person who made people suffer.
"I... don't know what to say..." she mumbled, and she didn't understand how her sister heard it.
"Then don't say anything, I am sorry, for giving up on you when you never gave up on me, and for locking myself away again with no better explanation than my duty as regnant Queen of Arendelle. But please don't do to him what I imposed to you, what I threw in your face all those years. Please." Elsa said as she rose from her chair to let Anna go away from the place she had been hiding in for half an hour already.
As soon as she was free, the strawberry blonde threw herself into her older sister's arms and hugged her tight.
"Promise me you won't leave me again, I want you to talk to me when something's wrong... The burden you carried on your shoulders every day, I want to share it with you, I wanna share everything with if it can ease the pain that sleeps inside of your heart that's too big for you to handle." she begged in a trembling voice that betrayed her tears and that split Elsa's heart in two pieces.
"Cross my heart."
He was walking along the docks, nearing the Fjord, the summer breeze blowing into the few twigs that could be referred as his hair. Although the discussion he had had with Elsa had comforted him, he was sick of searching all around the palace and its gardens. He sat down on the ground, absent-mindedly listening to the babbling of the peasants,the song of the nightingale, the dulcet lapping of the water, everything that could take his mind away from the umpteenth game of hide and seek he lost without even finishing it. He closed his eyes, leaning on his twig arms to support himself and let his spirit wander. He was glad that, for once, nobody came to disturb him. They had become used to his presence in town and he could at last get the peace he had secretly longed for during his walks in the village.
"Excuse me ?" a smooth disembodied voice rang to his ears, and contrary to what he had imagined, it was a rather pleasant sound.
Still, it was disagreeable to be interrupted in his thoughts like this when he had just said people could actually leave him alone. He instantly stood up and spun around, only to end up face to face with someone he had believed he would never meet. Someone like him.
"I have lost my way, and... my family." the small creature stated shyly. "Would you mind showing me around, please ?"
Not at all...