Standing in front of the bay window of her apartment, Elsa had a great view of Arendelle City. Her flat wasn't very big, but at least it had this benefit. From the fourteenth floor, she could spot the cars driving through the dark streets of the gigantic city. She couldn't see anyone walking though, except for a few scantily clad women waiting for some client to drive by, and she could easily understand why people didn't want to walk outside at this hour. Arendelle City was definitely not safe by day, and even less by night. The crime rate was exceedingly high and it was widely known that the police was corrupted to the core. Politicians weren't better and did nothing to ease the daily life of the people. Whenever someone did try to change things, he would mysteriously disappear only to show up a few days later, stabbed to death in a narrow street or floating in the bay.

And yet people stayed. As she herself did. Where could she go, anyway? She had always lived in this wretched city, and she had never thought about leaving it. Besides, the only important person to her was here, and she wasn't planning on abandoning her. This thought made her search for her sister's flat in the distance, and she easily found it. It was in another tall building, opposite hers. Anna was the only person she cared about, and she hoped her sister could find happiness here, even if life hadn't started easily for them.

Their parents had been killed when they were just eight and six, Elsa being a little older than Anna. They had been at the wrong place at the wrong time, like so many other people. Slaughtered by machine guns while they were enjoying dinner at the restaurant, as two rival gangs settled their differences with guns, blood and violence, not caring at all for the innocent lives caught in the crossfire.

At least the two girls had been lucky enough to end up in an orphanage ruled by the Westergaard foundation. Many young boys and girls were living in the street, having to beg for food, steal for money or even worse. The orphanage had allowed them to go to school and they had even taken care of their postgraduate studies. Now, Elsa was twenty-seven and her work allowed her to live comfortably enough. Anna was still struggling to find a steady position as a journalist, but Elsa was confident her sister would break through some day. In the meantime, she was living with her fiance, and even though Elsa didn't really like that, she had to admit it was a good thing for her.

Of course, Elsa would have loved for Anna to come and live with her. But all her life, Elsa had made sure to keep her beloved sister at bay, for she feared she might hurt her. Because, if her life wasn't already hard enough, she had also been cursed with weird magical powers, and she had to be careful around everyone. As if she wanted to convince herself she wasn't crazy, Elsa closed her eyes and focused. She soon found the shiny pool of energy in her mind, and lightly tapped into it to mentally weave an ice shard in her hand.

When she opened her eyes, the shard was there, levitating above her palm, and Elsa quickly dissipated it. Even if no one could see her here, she didn't want to take any risks. This curse had appeared almost fifteen years ago, and she had kept it a secret from everyone, ever since. She could still recall clearly the first day she had discovered it. She was twelve at the time, and she had just hit puberty. As if discovering hormones and menstruation wasn't stressful enough, she had also discovered that she could materialize ice and bend it to her will. Her first instinct had been to tell her sister about it. But then, she had thought about it and realized she couldn't ask her to keep that big of a secret. If anyone figured it out, she believed she would be taken away to be studied or who knows what. And that would have meant leaving Anna here alone, without anyone to love her and look after her.

It had been hard from there to hide it from everyone. More than once, she had wanted to use her powers to scare off bullies at school or to look cool in Anna's eyes. But what had been the hardest was slowly distancing herself from her sister. She had quickly noticed she wasn't completely in control of her powers, and she didn't want to accidentally hurt her. So she had become colder with time and she had distanced herself from everyone.

I guess even my looks reflect that now. Still looking at the window, she focused on her reflection. She was the perfect image of the shy, socially awkward girl who keeps to herself. Her blonde hair was heavily braided, thick glasses were hiding her face, and she always wore boring clothes. Not that she didn't have any taste, or didn't want to look beautiful, but she had figured out it was easier. In her teenage years, Elsa had had quite a success with boys. Her long platinum hair and deep blue eyes, combined with her gracious silhouette, attracted the eyes. But she couldn't get close to anyone, so she always had to turn people off. So she had learned to be careful and appear dull. I guess it's working… it's been ages since somebody asked me out.

Anna, on the other hand, had grown into quite a beautiful young woman and Elsa couldn't help but feel jealous sometimes. She loved her, and she was happy for her, but it seemed the younger sister had everything. She was pretty, smart, funny, people loved her, and Elsa knew she had a great career ahead of her. And she was engaged. Kristoff was a nice guy, even if Elsa had always thought he wasn't good enough for her sister. He worked as a cop, and she was sure he was one of the few officers who weren't corrupted, which she didn't know if it really was a good thing in this city. She couldn't imagine how devastated her sister would be if his sense of justice and righteousness ever cost him his life.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ding of the microwave, and she left her favorite spot to grab her ready-prepared meal. She took a fork on her way to the couch and sat there, turning the TV on. The first bite she took burned her palate and she cursed as she put it down on the coffee table. Then she focused and weaved a layer of ice on her hands to cool the plate and her food. She had discovered she could do that a few years back. Hey, maybe it isn't that bad. It fucked up my life and prevented me from knowing love, having friends and everything else like a normal person, but at least I can cool off my cheap noodles as I eat alone.

She weaved off the ice and started eating again as she watched the news. Journalists didn't even bother reporting thefts and felonies anymore. People only had to open their eyes to witness them anyway, so what was the point of learning about it on the TV as well? But, they had been completely crazy about something new in the last weeks, and she turned the volume up when she realized they were speaking about it again.

"Another criminal got caught by the Red Mane last night. Several witnesses saw her on the rooftops, wearing her red cape and with a bow in her hands. From what we understood today, the criminal was going to assault a woman in her thirties when an arrow took him in the shoulder. Another one hit him in the leg, and he is currently at the hospital. His life isn't in danger, but this event adds another name to the list of people attacked by the mysterious red vigilante."

The report was followed by several interviews. As always, people cheered for her and thanked her in the name of all the people she had saved these last weeks. On the other hand, officials and police officers argued nobody but them had the right to bring justice to criminals, and that the vigilante was dangerous and shouldn't be encouraged to continue.

"Well, at least someone is trying to make things better here. Although, she will most likely get killed soon." said Elsa to herself.

Anna turned around in her bed again, struggling to find sleep. Kristoff was snoring loudly next to her, and she would have nudged him awake if she didn't know he was exhausted and really needed some rest. How can he make so much noise? She tried to push him lightly on the back, and she could have yelled in happiness when he stopped snoring. Great. Now, hurry up before he starts again. She closed her eyes and tried hard to fall asleep. Except it wasn't easy because the only thing she could think about was that she had to hurry.

Kristoff turned around a few minutes later, and the heavy snoring started again. Fuck! She glanced at the alarm-clock next to the bed and noticed it was already three in the morning. Better go sleep on the couch. She quietly left her bed, making sure not to wake up her fiance, and walked out of the room. She made a stop by the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, drinking directly from it, and sat on the couch. She really wasn't sleepy.

As always, when she ended up wide awake in the middle of the night, she let herself think about her life and how things were going. She still hadn't found a job. She was currently a freelance journalist, but it couldn't really count as a steady, reliable job. And things with Kristoff were… complicated. They had met in high-school, and had been dating ever since. Kristoff had proposed to her when they had graduated and Anna had said yes, mostly to avoid hurting him. She had loved him, at the time. And maybe she still did, but she wasn't sure anymore. He was a sweet guy, and she knew he loved her wholeheartedly. She had always admired how much he believed in good and in people, especially because it was rare in this town. And he had always been true to her. But, things had grown boring since then.

Maybe Elsa is right to stay single. This way she isn't locked up in a routine. But she must feel so lonely sometimes… Ever since her teenage years, her sister had always been closed off from people, but Anna loved her dearly and she knew it was mutual, even if Elsa wasn't big on showing her emotions. Thinking about her, Anna moved to the window and searched for her flat. She was surprised to see the light was still on at this hour. What could she be doing right now?

Curious, and feeling a bit down, Anna decided to call her. She went back to the bedroom to fetch her phone, walking on her tiptoes to avoid waking up the bear in the bed, and went back to the living room before dialing her sister's number. She answered almost immediately.

"What is it? Something wrong?" asked Elsa, sounding a bit alarmed.

"What? No. Everything's fine. I just saw your lights were on."

"Oh. I was worried you were sick or something. It's pretty late." Anna smiled. Her sister had always been concerned with her well-being.

"Yeah, so why are you still up?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Couldn't sleep. I'm thinking too much, and Kris is snoring like a grizzly bear."

Elsa actually chuckled at that, which was pretty rare.

"What about you?"

"I couldn't sleep either. So I decided to work for a while."

Anna sighed. "How many hours a week do you work?"

"I don't know. A lot."

"You shouldn't work that hard."

"Keeps me busy."

"Well, we should go out instead some day. And I have to introduce you to a friend of mine. He's been single for quite some time, but he's nice. A bit shy, but I think he would be a good match."

"Sorry, not interested."

The younger sister sighed again. From what she knew, Elsa had never dated anyone in her life. But she still tried to match her with people she knew from time to time. Without success, of course.

"Why not? I'm sure it could do you some good."

"Anna, please… can we talk about something else?"

"Sure..." said Anna in a small voice, defeated.

"What about you? Everything's right with Kris?"

"Yeah…" she looked at the door to make sure it was closed, and lowered her voice. "I don't know…" She had been thinking about it for quite some time now, but acknowledging it and saying it loud was a different thing.

"What's wrong?"

"Me, I guess? I don't know, I'm over thinking. I should be happy with what I have. He's just..." What? Too kind? Too considerate? "Too predictable..."

"Hum..."

"Let's not speak about that either. Have you heard about the Red Mane? She's been saving people again!" Anna was amazed to see people could still believe in justice and try to help others. And she really believed it could give hope to everyone.

"Yeah, I've heard."

"Kris says they're asked to catch her, instead of fighting crime. This town is so fucked up."

"Indeed..."

They continued speaking together for a while, and the sun was slowly rising when Kristoff woke up and joined her in the living room. She rarely saw her sister, usually once a week, but they often spent hours on the phone to catch up. It always seemed Elsa was more at ease on the phone than when she was close to people.

"Hey darling." said Kristoff as he kissed her on the top of her head.

"Hi Kris."

"Wanna have breakfast? I'm driving back to work in half-an-hour."

"Sure. I gotta go, sis. I'll phone you back later. Thanks for the chat." She always felt better after their conversations.

"It's ok, I'm glad you called. I'm exhausted though. I think I'll go catch a few hours of sleep. See you."

"Goodnight, Elsa!" she hung up and stood up, a smile on her face, before joining Kristoff in the kitchen.

Notes: Here we go, first chapter of my new story! It will be rated M later on.

It's a lot different from my first story, but I got this idea while writing the first chapters of OOY, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

For those who don't know me, I'm a rather new author and I'm French, so English isn't my native language (which can explain some weird phrasing here and there :p). Although, Strigga agreed to proofread my chapter as he did in OOYA, so it will be a great help!

I'm not a fan of angst, and my first fic was mostly cute/fluffy with just a bit of drama, but I plan to add some action in this one.

I used to upload a chapter a day, or once every other day, but it was really tiring sometimes, so for this fic, I think I'll only upload once a week (or twice…)

Also, I love getting feedback (as everyone does, I guess :p), so please don't hesitate to leave a review/comment, it's what keeps me going! :p