The dream was the same as it had been for a year, the same as it had been since the winter had ended.
She was running.
She ran through the blizzard, tears and sweat clinging to her skin, hair streaming out behind her as the wind snapped at her clothes, at her face, at everything and she couldn't outrun it because the wind was a part of her, inside of her and oh god she couldn't control it she would never stop running because she was running from herself and the cold rolled off of her in waves as the wind howled and the snow whistled past her like deadly arrows, like the sliver of ice that had pierced-
She stopped running.
She had reached the town square outside of the palace. It was completely deserted, snow assaulting the homes and shops on the fringe of the plaza. The center of the square itself was unscathed, and she was suddenly exempt from her own destruction. It looked completely normal. Then she turned around. In place of the fountain was a statue, except it wasn't a statue at all. Anna stood defiantly in the center of the square, one hand reaching out to save her sister. The color had been leached out of her, replaced with the crystalline blue of ice.
She collapsed onto the hard cobblestones, pain radiating through her chest. Outside of her tiny bubble of agony, the winds increased and the snow turned to ice. Why hadn't she saved her? Why hadn't she saved her sister?
"Elsa." the winds whispered in a familiar voice, causing her head to snap up. "ELSA?"
ELSA!
Elsa's eyes snapped open, pupils dilated. She was shaking and sweaty from the nightmare. And the redhead straddling her was-
"Anna? Why are you..."
"I heard you yelling. Are you alright? It looked like you were having a bad dream."
She was alive. Without thinking, Elsa sat up, grabbed her sister's shoulders, and kissed her hard on the mouth. Anna was alive, she was real, she was warm and safe and everything would be alright. Her mouth moved against Anna's, marveling at the softness. She parted her lips, and Anna happily complied. She tasted like chocolate, underscored with peppermint. She tasted like home. Elsa was snapped out of her joyful reverie by Anna's low whimper into her mouth.
She was kissing her sister. As fast as she had risen, Elsa attempted to scramble back to the headboard of her bed. But Anna, freakishly strong as ever, held Elsa's shoulders in place. She was still in shock, but couldn't help tracing the lines of Elsa's jaw and her lips with her eyes, the same as she had been doing since her sister's fateful coronation. Said sister looked nervously up at Anna, eyes wracked with guilt and the remnants of fear.
"Anna, I'm so sorry, I... in my dream you were still frozen, and I hadn't saved you and it felt like my life was over. I just... and then you woke me up and you were here and so alive and I- I understand if you want me to stay away from you for the rest of my life, I will, I just want you to be-"
Anna silenced her with a swift kiss on the lips. She pulled away gently and looked at Elsa, tears threatening to spill over.
"Elsa, I love you. I love you as a sister, but since your coronation, it's been more than just that. I've wanted to do what you just did for months now. And we are never going to shut each other out again."
Elsa grinned slightly, not sure of what she was hearing. Had she woken up in another dream?
"Anna, could you... could you stay here with me? You make me feel better."
Anna's smile matched her own. "Always."