"No! Don't touch me!" She shouted it like she was a monster, "I don't want to hurt you…" Barely a teen, still a child and she was cowering into the corner away from her parents. Her baby was scared and hurting and there was nothing she could do. To Queen Synnøve it felt like a punch in the stomach, her arms ached to wrap around her little girl, her baby. To chase away the hurt and warm her in an embrace while she sang little songs and pecked little kisses until Elsa drifted to smiles again. She has to be content with wrapping her arms around herself, trying to communicate all her love and desire for contact to the tearful girl in her iced over corner.
She leaves before she crumbles; Elsa is so sensitive and if she knew how much her mother was hurting she would feel even worse.
Later, much later, in the depths of the night Synnøve returns to the little blue room. Elsa so rarely sleeps, her husband tells her. The girl is tormented by her powers, the otherworldly energy and the roiling storm of emotions within. Tonight, tomorrow even, it is so late, Elsa is blessedly sleeping. Her face is calm and finally relaxed; the ice in the room has thawed and pooled but left the bed dry at least.
She sits on next to Elsa's sleeping form and finally can have the contact her heart yearned for. Synnøve runs her fingers through the fine platinum hair and along the already sharpening cheekbones, Elsa will look like her father, the Queen smiles, both her daughters will be rare beauties. She lays a hand over a shoulder, defined against the sheets and for a brief daring moment leans over the girl and embraces her. Elsa's sleepy mumble pushes her away quickly, she would be hurled into fear to know how close her mother was.
Finally, Synnoøve presses a kiss to her daughter's cheek, the cold tingles her lips like fresh ice, then she sings, the lullaby that Elsa always loved.
The Queen is crying when she slips back into bed but her husband understands and embraces his wife even if it won't chase away the hurt.
What they would both give to just touch their eldest and for her not to flinch away.
King and Queen repeat the actions over the years; though Elsa is closer to her father she still only allows the barest brush of cloth on cloth when awake. She does not know that on her hardest nights, when they hear her sobs and whispers finally give way to fitful sleep, her mother slips in and soothes and sings. Stroking her arm through the sheets, kissing her cheek and singing the old songs until Elsa reaches a more restful sleep.
Elsa never knows it happens but her heart feels hollow and notices the missing contact when the sea claims her parents.
As they move through the ice palace Elsa has to keep on her toes, Anna is a very touchy-feely young woman and Elsa doesn't want her to be close enough to risk harm.
Theirs is a tragic dance, Anna makes it but a step or reach away and Elsa draws back in worry and fear, her eyes filled with the emotions. Anna follows and the dance repeats.
Elsa wishes and wishes she could lay a hand on her sister, to let Anna near but the fear is too great and the single pale lock of hair is a stark warning of her past misdeeds and the danger she poses.
It has been long years since she has had any human contact, any living contact. (And Elsa doesn't count her crowning, the tiara only touched her hair and the bishop did not come close as he held the delicate metal.) Her parents died three years past and it had been years prior that she forbid them to come near.
Now Anna chases, racing to get close and her message becomes more fear inspiring and the storm escapes Elsa once more.
The first touch the sisters have in years is the shard of Elsa's ice magic landing in Anna's heart.
Everything was black and cold; biting, clawing, consuming cold. Anna knew she had given up her chance to thaw, she had diverted away from Kristoff to save Elsa. Elsa who had been sobbing in a heap on the frozen fjord as Hans swung his sword at her. 'Elsa!' Her mind begins to race; she must have failed if this blackness is any indication, so her sister was still at risk. Her heart beats in time with the dark thoughts.
Her heart beats… She was sure in those last moments it had seized up. Unconsciously she draws a breath and Anna begins to feel, to feel something that isn't devouring cold.
Someone is clasping against her, their arms wrapped around her, their head pressed to her breast. Their breaths are punctuated with staccato sobs but the tone is familiar, theirs was fleeting conversation for far too long but Anna could never forget that voice.
Elsa. Elsa is hugging her, holding her. Ana may have just frozen to death but right now she feels so warm and happy. For the first time in forever she is embracing her sister.
One hug becomes more when Elsa realises her sister is alive and Anna gives as good as she gets.
Over the years, after marriage and births and many other little milestones they still always always always make sure to have at least one long embrace a day.
Thirteen years was far too long to go without.
So I had an idea and wrote it out.
I hope you like it.