Nearly two weeks had passed since Arendelle had been freed from an almost eternal winter and Anna had saved Elsa from dying at the hands of Hans. During the first days since the kingdom had been freed Elsa had noticed that Anna had been as energetic and happy as a newborn animal. But after more time passed it seemed that Anna's hopeful nature had dissipated slightly. Elsa didn't know what could have caused the sudden change in her sister's mood and for a brief time she feared that even though Anna seemed fine she was experiencing some sort of side effect of having been frozen. But before she could truly become fearful over the state of her sister's health and wellbeing Elsa witnessed another change in her sister's mood. All of a sudden Anna was once again her cheerful optimistic self, and the younger girl quickly began spending all of her free time with Elsa, even if the older girl was busy with official royal business. Elsa was confused at first by the strange and quick changes in her sister's mood and behaviour but after she thought about it for a while she simply assumed that it was just Anna being Anna. After all it wasn't as if Elsa was an expert when it came to the nuances and minute details of her younger sister's personality.
But as the days continued to pass Elsa quickly became aware that whenever Anna was with her it was if Anna was studying her. For whenever she looked up from whatever document she was going over she would instantly make eye contact with Anna, as if the younger girl had just spent the last few minutes staring at her. For a while Elsa did nothing and simply let her sister go about whatever strange thing it was she was doing. But finally realization struck Elsa during a dinner one even during the first days of the second week since she had thawed Arendelle. She and Anna were having a meal of pickled herring, a dish that was not only the chef's specialty but also one of Elsa's favourites. Elsa was happily eating away at the fish in front of her when she realized that Anna had only taken a single bite of her dinner. To Elsa's surprise it turned out that unlike herself Anna didn't like pickled herring. But finding out that Anna didn't like pickled herring wasn't the only thing Elsa figured out that evening. She also learned that she really knew very little about her sister, and that all that time she had thought Anna had been studying her, she truly had been. She had been paying close attention to Elsa so she could get to know more about her, and it was then that Elsa decided that she was going to do the same. She was going to pay as much attention to Anna as possible so she could learn everything about her that she possible could.
So as the days of the second week since the thaw of Arendelle continued to move along Elsa made sure to pay as close attention to Anna as possible, whenever she wasn't busy with royal duties, she even found herself going into the village with Anna. At first Elsa didn't feel as if her efforts were being payed off but after a while she began to notice things about Anna that she hadn't before. The first thing she noticed was that Anna had a habit of biting her lower lip and brushing one of her twin braids behind her ear whenever she was nervous. The second thing she noticed was that Anna seemed to have a fondness for taking off her shoes and sliding about the rooms and halls of the castle in her socks. But the most interesting thing Elsa learned about Anna came as a surprise to her. She had spent most of a morning alone in her study going over documents Kai had brought to her and so she had decided to take a break and go for a walk around the castle. She had no true destination in mind so she simply let her feet take her where they wanted to go, and before she knew it she found herself outside the doors of the portrait hall.
At first Elsa was simply going to walk right into the room full of paintings, but before she could fully push one of the large doors open she began to hear a voice. She instantly recognized the voice as Anna's but as she listened to what Anna was saying it sounded like she was talking to someone. Elsa waited to hear if the person Anna was talking to would respond, but after a whole minute passed without anyone but Anna saying anything Elsa decided to peek her head into the room and find out who it was exactly that her younger sister was talking to. To her surprise when Elsa looked into the room she found that there was no one but Anna in the room. At first Elsa was confused by this discovery, she had thought for certain that Anna was talking to someone. But after a moment had passed and Anna began talking again Elsa realized that Anna hadn't been talking to someone at all instead she had actually been talking at one of the paintings in ther room.
As Elsa watched Anna speak to the painting of Joan of Arc she remembered that she had once heard her sister mention she had started talking to the pictures on the walls. Elsa had thought that it had simply been something Anna had done as a child, but the more she thought about it the more it began to make sense that Anna would have continued to speak to the paintings into her adulthood. After all once their parents had died the only company Anna had would have been the members of the castle staff, and more often than not they would have been too busy to truly talk to her. So talking to the paintings was the next best thing. For a few minutes Elsa simply stood in the doorway and quietly watched as Anna continued to talk to the large portrait of Joan of Arc, and as she listened she realized that Anna was telling the portrait the story of the subject it was a painting of. As Anna continued to tell the painting her story Elsa couldn't help but smile, seeing her sister happily chatting away at the painting was a wonderful thing to see, but once Anna had finished Elsa decided to make her presence known.
"Anna?" She asked as she finally stepped over the threshold of the door and into the portrait hall.
"Oh! Elsa" Anna replied slightly startled by her older sister's sudden appearance.
"What are you doing?"
"I was talking to the picture of Joan." Anna answered as she blushed due to her embarrassment at being caught telling the portrait a story.
"Do you talk to any of the other pictures?" Elsa asked her younger sister as she walked closer to her.
"Yeah, I've come up with stories for some of them actually." Anna replied as she played with both of her braids.
"You have?" Elsa asked, she had thought maybe she simply told the paintings stories about the people in them. But as she thought about it she realized that there was no possible way for Anna to know who every single person in every single painting was.
"Yeah, I know it's kind of silly but I've done it since I was little." Replied Anna shyly, as if she didn't want to admit this fact.
"I don't think it is silly at all Anna." Elsa said with a smile.
"You don't?" Anna asked.
"Not at all, in fact, would you tell me one of the stories you came up with?"
"Sure!" Anna exclaimed joyful and the next thing Elsa knew Anna was dragging her over to one of the largest paintings in the room. "This one is my favourite next to Joan." Anna told Elsa, and soon Elsa found herself listening intently as Anna told her the story she had come up with for all the people in the picture. As the hours ticked by Anna told Elsa story after story and after a while Elsa realized that she had happily spent her day learning all the different stories Anna had come up with over the years for all the different pictures. Her sister truly was an amazing storyteller, and Elsa was happier than ever to have learned this fact.