After much deliberation, and confirmation from another, I've decided that my chapter's were lacking in length. To combat this oversight, I've combined Chapter's One and Two and together they form THE NEW AND IMPROVED CHAPTER ONE! Yay! I apologize if the revision confuses anyone, but my perfectionist is a stickler for getting things right. And let's not mention my inner editor...she's evil to me.
They were sisters.
The words seared themselves like a brand inside her head. Completely flummoxed, she sank heavily into the nearest chair; her hands trembling with emotion, as she tried to wrap her head around the notion.
Sunlight peered through the miniscule crack in the navy blue curtains, alighting the surreptitious parchment like a spotlight as she sat - transfixed at those seemingly innocent words glaring at her.
How could they?! She fought back bitter tears, her hands still betraying her as they contemplated ripping the whole thing up. Instead, she meticulously set about rearranging the paperwork on her mahogany desk – sorting them into neat little piles. The task gave her something to focus on - lest she let her emotions get the better of her. It took less than a minute to do, and it wasn't long before her hands starting itching again, the need to keep busy suddenly gripping them without warning.
Conceal, don't feel. The old mantra crept back into her head in times of distress, angering her even further at being reduced to this state; all from a stupid parchment delivered to her this morning anonymously.
Elsa pushed back her chair abruptly, and strode over to the arched windows overlooking the gates to the castle. With a sweeping motion, the navy blue curtains were parted giving the Queen a full view of the courtyard.
She didn't even know what she was looking for until she saw her.
With a heavy sigh, the Queen of Arendelle watched as the spunky princess vaulted over Olaf, the living snowman Elsa unwittingly created during what the town dubbed as the "Eternal Winter," giggling like mad as she ran from a burly blonde man. Olaf had a huge grin on his easily excitable face, waving his little stick arms in his enthusiasm, appearing to be cheering her on.
Elsa followed the pair with a bemused eye, trying to deduce the cause for the scene.
The ginger haired princess tossed a taunting gaze over her shoulder, her plaited hair swinging like whips, while sticking her tongue out at the man, who the Queen now recognized as the Royal Ice Deliverer, Kristoff. He chased her relentlessly, hot on her heels; the ginger prancing just right out of reach.
Everyone around them gave the pair a wide berth, clearly amused at the young man's plight, settling back into their errands and duties once the danger had passed. The preparations for the anniversary of the Great Thaw, was under full swing, a greatly anticipated event, for it would be the first time the "Snow Queen," as Elsa was sometimes called, would be performing with her magick without fear.
At that thought, she turned her attention back to her study/office, where she conducted a lot of her business, her eyes straying towards her checklist of said event laying neatly at the edge of the desk. Elsa bit her lower lip thoughtfully as she mentally went over the things still left to do.
Sighing once again, she ran a hand through her platinum blonde hair, smoothing the stray strands back. As much as she wants to deny it, the thought of using her ice powers in front of everyone still made her wary. The fact that it was even suggested, by her citizens no less, still came as a shock to her.
She leaned against the window frame, glancing back down at the courtyard to find the chase still going. Only this time, it seems the wily princess managed to tie Kristoff's boot laces together without his acknowledgement, while he scanned the surrounding area searching for her; unbeknownst to him, that she was literally right in front of him hiding under a wagon cart.
Elsa smirked as the young woman finally revealed herself and childishly blew a raspberry at him, causing the blonde to grin and take chase again. He didn't get very far, as the princess laughed as he promptly tripped over his own boots. She stopped just a few feet away, still giggling as they exchanged words, more than likely asking if he was ok.
The blonde man only held out his hand in expectation, and when it wasn't forthcoming, gestured with his hand - causing the girl to roll her eyes good-naturedly with a slight tilt of her head; but finally relented, handing him a small bag of what looked like to be carrots.
Olaf shuffled over to the braided girl's side and looked back and forth between the two, seemingly put off about the game being over, but smiling nonetheless.
And out of nowhere, a reindeer galloped onto the scene and snatched the bag in its mouth; running off triumphantly, leaving the blonde man with a stupefied face, as the other two desperately tried to hold in their laughter (and completely failing) as he took off after it; hobbling along trying to sort out his boots, shouting something about spoiling dinner, which only caused the two to laugh even harder.
The girl wiped her teal eyes and happened to look up towards the window Elsa was peering out of. Even from this distance, the smile she received radiated warmth that managed to cause the Queen's heart to flutter nervously, as the princess waved eagerly up at her.
Elsa smiled softly despite herself, and gave a little half wave back, wondering once again for what feels like the umpteenth time, how Princess Anna could affect her so much. With a start, she realized with a heavy heart she needed to quelch these feelings, before she even had a chance to act upon them. She quickly shut the curtains again in a vain attempt to block out that wonderful smile.
The day left Elsa behind.
What between all the meetings with trading companies, setting up appointments with the royal council, and looking over the preparations for the event of the century with the royal planner, she had barely noticed the time slipping away.
It became a struggle now to keep her attention focused on the man prattling on and on about the safety measures needing to be put into place. He wasn't a very tall fellow, barely coming up to the Queen's shoulder, and it seemed like his voice tried desperately to compensate for it, yet not quite succeeding, with its monotone-like quality.
They had come to discuss the preparations for the anniversary event, hauled up in one of the many courtrooms in the palace, pouring over all the things that could go wrong and how to combat each one. Some of which involved the Queen's own power, which didn't exactly illicit much trust, and she had to carefully disguise her face from betraying her. Even though it came from well intentions, the unheard accusation(s) still hit her smartly. Then again, she shouldn't be all that surprised since she had been the cause of the massive winter font in the middle of summer.
You can't expect a leopard to change its stripes. She heard the coin phrased more often than she cared to admit, and did her best to all but annihilate any trace of suspicion. In fact, she rarely if ever used her powers out in public, and when the proposition for the event, as well as the use of her ice magick came about, no one was more surprised than the Ice Queen herself.
The young man launched into a speech on where the guards would be stationed and their scheduled watch times, oblivious to the fact that the pale skinned Queen was only half-listening.
In all honesty, it made for a very boring conversation, well, with that voice of his anyways. He could have talked about sex or something equally as exciting and somehow suck the life out of it.
She stifled a yawn with some minor difficulty, always well aware of keeping up appearances; she didn't want to offend the poor guy, but he definitely got the short end of the stick (in more ways than one) as she hid her small smile behind her hand at the thought.
He looked at her expectantly then, shifting his weight slightly, and it took her a second to register he was awaiting her response.
Elsa really wanted to rub her temples to alleviate some of the tension building up in her; instead, she gave a slight nod towards Sir Middlefart, once again holding back her amused smile. "I trust that you've already sent the necessary paperwork regarding protocol to the captain of the royal guard." She meant it like a question, only it came off more as a matter-of-fact, but nevertheless, the short fellow nodded.
"Yes your Highness, we just needed to go over everything with you, dot the I's and cross the T's so to speak."
"I can find nothing wrong with the safety measures and precautions we have discussed," She said, and with a slight inclination of her head, "I have nothing further to add, unless there's something else?"
"N-no your Majesty," he replied a little put off at being dismissed so quickly.
"Very well, we shall reconvene in a week's time to go over everything once more with the royal council and planner."
It took her remaining effort not to usher him out herself, finding him to be dawdling for no apparent reason other than to annoy the shit out of her.
I must be more tired than I thought.
He bowed before exiting and it was all she could do not to immediately slump. Thank the heavens.
Her icy cool fingers massaged her temples without a second thought, the day's events weighing on her. She bit her lip, enough to draw blood. With nothing left to distract her – her thoughts strayed over to that damn anonymous parchment.
Fate was cruel in her design. The minute she had gathered her courage to finally maybe try her hand at flirting or hell, maybe even finding some way of spending some amount of time with the princess….
They were sisters. Her mind – so kindly reminded her.
The parchment in question had been checked and rechecked for authenticity and Elsa could find no faults with it. Not for lack of trying of course.
Gleaming in gold calligraphy, the royal family tree clearly depicted Princess Anna as her sister and if that weren't enough, a handwritten note at the bottom of the page warned her that the princess was off limits, reiterating the fact they were sisters.
She bit back a wail of frustration with extreme difficulty. How on Earth did this person know of her feelings towards the very-much-single and available princess? Although that had surprised the Queen, thinking Kristoff or someone else would have whisked her off her feet by now. It embarrassed her just a tad bit, the amount of snooping she did to discover this little gem while holding onto foolish hope – all for naught.
Elsa had never been one for wearing her emotions on her sleeves, for fear of her powers going hay-wire and now it was such an inveterate part of her character, it was hard to fathom someone seeing through her – especially since she never told anybody. Not even the girl in question knew.
She had been careful – oh so very careful in hiding her true feelings, and the thought of someone knowing, without her even coming out, scared her in more ways than one.
The whole ordeal made her wary, she kept looking over her shoulder expecting to find – well she didn't know what. It kept her on edge, if the tension in her shoulders were any indication.
Would it be un-queenly of her to cry? She wondered in self-pity.
Princess Anna had always been close to her family, it never struck Elsa to think it odd for a kingdom to have two different royal families, but only one of them to be reigning monarch. But now….
Now she wasn't sure what to do about it. Who could she talk to about all this?
No one. There wasn't a single soul she could confide in. Through no fault but her own, and well, maybe her upbringing if honesty permits.
Tears sprung to her blue eyes, startling her in their intensity, she had been so foolish to think she could ever be truly happy.
Three resounding knocks caused her to almost yelp, her hand fluttering to her heart in an effort to calm it. The door opened before she could muster words past her heart thudding throat. She swiftly turned before the intruder had even made it inside, in an effort to regain some of her composure.
"Elsa?"
Heart be still. It didn't listen to her. It never did; the owner of the voice already having an effect on her. She took a deep calming breath, as this was as close to being composed she'd hope to get, turning to greet Princess Anna of Arendelle.