So here's my contribution for Elsanna week on tumblr, day 1, prompt "Mistletoe" :) Probably won't be able to wrap up anything coherent for the rest of the week but I'm glad about this because I have a growing pile of unfinished Elsanna fics and ficlets on my computer and it's nice to actually finish something for once.
Hope you like this!
It was December 21st, and Elsa was hardly in Christmas mood. To be completely honest, she had never really liked Christmas that much. Anna, on the other hand, was a die-hard Christmas enthusiastic. Every year, she would decorate the castle more and more and more festive, dashing about setting up lights and angels and socks and candies. Every year she would basically beg Elsa to join her in the fun and every year Elsa would say no in every possible way.
She didn't hate Christmas, however. She wasn't a Grinch and she wasn't a party poison on purpose. She wanted to like it and she wanted to be as happy as her little sister, but… she just couldn't. Elsa couldn't get herself into the joyful mood of the merriest time of the year, and that was what made her so upset. She wanted to celebrate with her little sister but wasn't much sort of a concrete floor when it came to actually doing something fun.
That morning was one of the worse mornings in other ways as well. Her joints were aching from the cold and the windows were frozen from the inside out, drawing a sigh from her. Even though the cold didn't really bother her most of the time, her joints still ached from time to time. And the window… she didn't want Anna to worry if she came in. Anna always worried about her.
Elsa got up very, very tenderly, moving her fingers slowly to get blood running better. And despite just getting up, she walked to the window in her nightgown. The whole kingdom opened up to her from that huge window, a responsibility that made her feel weak from time to time. She was the Queen, the one they put their faith on. It was a weight heavy to carry, especially since she was still slightly struggling to control her powers sometimes.
She leaned against the window for a while before deciding that she was warm enough to function like a normal human being; then she started to comb her hair into her usual loose braid. She had just gotten dressed in an ice-dress of her own making, one she was rather pleased with, when she heard ominous scratching and shuffling from behind her door.
"Yes?" she murmured almost automatically, "You may come in."
"What?" a voice that was clearly Anna's yelled back, "Oh! Oh, yeah, in a… in a minute!"
Elsa didn't know whether she should laugh or not, so she merely nodded despite Anna not seeing her. While waiting, she took the liberty of worrying about the next few days; Christmas Eve was only three days away but it was three days of mostly just the two of them. Most of their staff had left to spend Christmas with their families the day before. Anna and Elsa didn't really have anyo…
"Is Kristoff visiting us on Christmas?"
"What? Sorry can't hear you, hang on I'm coming down…!"
More shuffling, some scraping, and Anna opened the door, setting aside a ladder she had apparently been using before.
"What was it you said? Oh, that dress is really pretty, is it a new one? Why don't you ever make me dresses?" she said, her tone ranging from appreciative to happy to accusing in a whiny little sister –kind of way.
"The dresses are too cold for you," Elsa explained for what may have as well been the 50th time. It was a beautiful dress though, a slightly darker turquoise than the first dress she made with her powers. "And I asked you whether Kristoff would be visiting during Christmas. It's the first Christmas for you two, after all." Her sister and the slightly goofy but kind-hearted man had gotten together sometime during the autumn. It didn't make Elsa jealous, even though every suitor and their dog seemed to believe that. She was happy for them. "What were you even doing outside-?"
"It's so cold here!" Anna suddenly cried out, taking a nervous look around the room, "What were you even doing? It must be below ten degrees here..!"
"I wasn't doing anything, what were you doing outside my door?" Elsa returned, slightly defensive.
"I," Anna started in a convivial tone, "was decorating, of course!" She opened the door she had previously closed, taking in the warmer air and pointing to a spot above the doorway, "I set up a mistletoe just for you!"
"A mistletoe?" Elsa repeated, dumbfounded. "But Anna… why? You know I'm none too happy with the fact that Loki killed Baldr, since it—"
"—eventually lead to Ragnarök, I know, I know!" Anna finished the sentence for her, in a lower tone as if attempting to mimic Elsa's. "I'm obviously not hanging it up here for religious reasons, let alone some 16th century—"
"12th century," Elsa corrected.
"Some 12th century religious reasons," Anna finished with a sigh, "but for the part where you need to kiss the person standing underneath one!"
Elsa sighed; her sister was truly a hopeless romantic and a lost cause sometimes. "You had better stay far from it, then."
Anna picked out her tongue and then muttered, "You need to get out of this room more or you'll literally freeze to death here."
"Anna, you know it doesn't—"
"Bother you, yes. But what does it hurt to get out, every once in a while at the very least? Come on, let's go build a snowman together!"
"Anna…" Elsa pleaded slowly; she didn't really wish to go but she couldn't really deny Anna the chance to spend time with her only living relative. "Can't you go with Kristoff and Olaf? Speaking of Kristoff, why would you hang a mistletoe above my door?"
"Why not?" Anna replied with a slight laughter, "And no, I can't go with Kristoff and Olaf, because it's not the same thing. I want to spend time with Y-O-U."
Elsa sighed, "Well, let's go before it gets dark then."
And rarely in her life had she seen Anna so utterly happy.
Within five minutes, Anna was dressed in layers upon layers of warmth and comfort, and clearly judging Elsa's choice of clothing before she ever opened her mouth.
"Are you sure you're going to be fine in just that?" Anna asked her, eyes narrowing slightly in doubt.
"You liked it just fine a few minutes ago," Elsa pointed out with a raised eyebrow.
Anna scoffed, "Your room is freezing, but it's still like, twenty-five decrees colder out there!"
Elsa smiled a bit, "I'll be fine, Anna. Just fine."
"At least," Anna murmured, throwing an unidentified article of clothing in her face, "wear a scarf, please?"
And because saying no to Anna had never been one of her talents, Elsa wrapped the scarf around her neck loosely, smiling to her little sister as they made her way outside and to the courtyard.
"It's not snowing," Anna pointed out before looking over at Elsa, "Isn't that a bit wrong on y—the most festive time of the year?"
Elsa sighed, "Are you really trying to guilt-trip me into making it snow for you?"
"N-no, of course not!" Anna denied, "…I'm trying to guilt-trip you into making it snow for all the people of Arendelle!"
It was almost impossible for Elsa not to laugh at that, so she let a chiming laughter out as she made it snow, a little flurry of big snowflakes over the whole kingdom. When Anna gasped in wonder, Elsa asked her if it was snowing too hard or if the snowflakes were too big or if it was too cold now.
"No," Anna sighed happily, looking up at the sky, "It's absolutely perfect."
They proceeded to roll two big snowballs to make a snowman with. Anna's ended up being slightly smaller so they made it the head. The princess had even taken a carrot along, so the snowman got a bright orange nose.
"What's his name?" Elsa asked her sister with a smile, giving the snowman a pat on the head.
"He's…" Anna started, thinking about it, "He's Henrik!"
"Henrik?" Elsa repeated, giggling, "Well, I am most delighted to meet you then, Sir Henrik."
"Enchanted," Anna murmured in echo.
"Imagine," Anna told her after they had made their way inside and were drinking hot chocolate together, "A year ago it was nothing like this, I mean we barely even celebrated Christmas..!"
"Yes…" Elsa acknowledged with a sigh, staring into the cup in her hands. It was warm even though she was anything but. "I'm sorry about that, Anna."
"N-no, that's not what I meant..!" Anna panicked, almost dropping her mug suddenly. "I didn't mean to guilt-trip you or anything..!"
"I know."
Anna leaned against her shoulder as they watched the day grow dark. It was the shortest day of the year, after all.
Evening came, and with it came friends. Elsa was watching Anna flail about decorating the Christmas tree when Olaf, Kristoff and even Sven got inside, in that order.
"Who likes warm hugs?" Olaf cried out happily as the two of them went to greet their visitors, "Ooh, it's the birthday girl! Happy birthday, Elsa! This is the first birthday I've celebrated oooh I'm so excited..!"
"I… what?" Elsa asked, blinking slowly. She never forgot these kinds of things.
"I have a present!" Olaf announced, completely and happily ignoring her confusion. He then proceeded to give Elsa a crayon drawing with the five of them, Elsa in the middle with Anna and Olaf hugging her and Kristoff and Sven looking kind of silly, as it usually was.
"It's… It's beautiful, Olaf. Thank you so much." With the drawing in one hand, she hugged Olaf tenderly. The snowman was a memory from their childhood, but he was also a friend.
"Didn't know what to bring you," Kristoff started awkwardly, "But we brought you some chocolate. Anna said you might like it dark."
"Kristoff," Elsa replied, smiling as she accepted the present, "You shouldn't have. I am thankful, though." She turned to her sister and murmured shyly, "And you were right as well. Thank you."
Anna smiled brightly. "Come now, you all! We have cake to eat and wishes to make!"
And to Elsa's surprise, there really was a big cake, white as snow with what looked like chocolate on top, waiting for them.
"I couldn't find any candles," Anna explained meekly as they sat down, "But you still need to make a wish…!"
Elsa thought about that. What did she even want from her life? It was clear that things were pretty good right now; she was surrounded by friends and loved ones on her birthday, and… She was able to be Anna's sister now, which was something she had longed to be for all those years.
She didn't want to wish for love, because it was something that came when it was time. And amidst all the suitors, never had there been one that would've made her heart race and her knees weak, like what she thought Anna probably felt with Kristoff, as well as Hans for the few days that lasted. Elsa did wish to feel like that as well, but there was no point in hurrying it.
"Are you ready?" Anna asked, looking at her with her head slightly tilted.
And suddenly, there was no doubt in Elsa's mind about what she wanted the most.
The night was perfect in ways Elsa couldn't really have wished for something to be perfect. It was warm and comfortable and her powers didn't spiral out of control suddenly, they didn't need to argue and they didn't need to do anything special to be very happy together. And everyone really did seem happy.
When their visitors eventually left, it was near midnight. Hugs were exchanged and Kristoff whispered something to Anna and Olaf was enthusiastic about the whole world again. Sven got some carrots from Anna and Elsa just watched them all, because this was her family and they were happy and that was what mattered.
When the castle was quite once more, Anna spoke up shyly. "Happy birthday, Elsa." She produced from her pocked a small box that she had probably carried with her for the whole day, just waiting for the perfect moment to give it to her.
Elsa sighed in a half-mothering, half-happy sort of way. "Anna… you shouldn't have done all this for me. I just, all those years…" She felt frost creeping up on the box just thinking about all that.
Anna hurried to grab her hands, "It doesn't matter. I'm sorry as well, I really wasn't there for you like I should've been. But… open it, please."
After a calming moment of just standing there, Elsa slowly opened the box. Inside, there was a small medallion-like clock with an intricate snowflake pattern on top of it. The clock opened with a soothing click, and on the other side of the snowflake there was a sun pattern.
"Oh, Anna…" Elsa murmured, putting it around her neck carefully, "It is perfect, like everything about today."
Anna smiled shyly, "I'm glad you like it. Really, really, really glad."
They walked towards her room, Anna clearly trying to say something important but rambling too much to actually manage it.
"I um, I wanted to tell you but it's been really difficult and you know I'm really bad at all this and I just, gosh I um…"
They reached her room at that time, and Anna's eyes widened slightly as Elsa slid the door open.
"I, um, Elsa, the… the mistletoe?"
Elsa froze in her mind as her head slowly turned to look up. "You don't need to do this," she assured her sister quickly.
"I know." Anna took two steps to close the distance between them and pressed a short, warm kiss on Elsa's lips, tiptoeing to make up for their height difference.
Elsa couldn't really think enough to do anything for those endless two seconds. She was the Queen of Arendelle and it was her first kiss and it was her sister, the Princess, and she—
"I… I love you, you know?" she blurted out. "I mean, wait! We broke up with Kristoff, literally months ago! I've been trying to tell you but uh… I didn't mean any of this to come out like this…" Anna seemed to reprimand herself under her breath, but Elsa was too surprised to produce words of comfort at this time.
"I really like you, Elsa," Anna murmured more slowly, "And I really want you to be happy and I've been talking about this with Kristoff and even Olaf and Sven and and they too think I may, like, like you and I know it's really weird but I… I want you to know because you deserve that much and I actually think you deserve all the happiness there is in the world and I… I love you, Elsa."
Elsa opened her mouth slightly, taking in all the words of her sister's. "Anna, I…" she started without knowing how to finish.
"You don't need to tell me anything," Anna said affectionately, "It can wait. I just want the best for you."
Elsa drew her in for a hug, but it turned into a kiss. She opened her mouth for a thank you but it turned into an I love you.
For the first time that night, Elsa wouldn't feel the cold. She wouldn't wake up with her joints sore and she wouldn't wake up alone. She would even let Anna keep that mistletoe on top of her doorway.