I don't even remember writing this. I found it on my laptop and was just like, "... what?"
Inspired by a post floating around Tumblr somewhere (I think it was from an ask on elsannaheadcanon's account but idk)
Fluff, incest, lesbian sisters; don't like, don't read.
The first few nights that Anna slept in Elsa's room with her, things were fine. Elsa was usually on the other side of the bed from her when she woke up in the morning, but she chalked it up to the older girl being so unused to human contact that she shied away subconsciously.
Occasionally, she would wake during the night to find their fingers intertwined, and smiled before tightening her grip a bit and falling back asleep. It made her happy that after so many years of being apart, Elsa could still reach out to her in some way.
Most mornings, the queen was facing away from her. She had refrained from asking to sleep in the same room until Elsa invited her, but it was still no surprise that she wasn't very cuddly.
She just didn't expect to find out why Elsa was always facing the opposite way.
Something outside had woken her in the middle of the night – some sort of crash, perhaps from the stables. Anna was barely awake, but instead of falling straight back to sleep, she caught a different noise. The shivers that vibrated the bed every so often confirmed where the noises came from, and she glanced over at her sister. She could hear the quiet, choked-back sobs, muffled, but still present.
"Elsa?" the princess asked softly, and her heart nearly broke when a shocked gasp let a louder sob escape.
"Anna – I-I didn't know you were awake," the blonde murmured, trying hard to keep herself in check. Damn it, why did these night terrors keep coming? Nothing was helpful. But it wasn't as if they were new. An old, old enemy to her sleep patterns.
"Something outside woke me up." The redhead watched the back of her sister's head for a moment, then reached over to touch her shoulder. Elsa jerked in surprise, tendrils of frost creeping down the blanket, and curled in on herself a bit more. "What's wrong?"
The queen closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip, drawing a shaky breath in and swallowing. "It's nothing," she murmured. "Go back to sleep."
A heavy sigh replied to her. "It is something, or you wouldn't be curled in a ball, crying." She paused, and when Elsa said nothing, scooted a little closer. "I just want to help."
The blonde exhaled slowly and swallowed again, and before she could think better of it, turned and flung one arm over her younger sister's waist, pulling her closer to bury her face in the redhead's neck. "Night… night terrors," she whimpered, trying hard not to let the tears flow again. She was a queen; weakness was just unacceptable.
Warm around wrapped around her, and she felt Anna press a kiss to the top of her head before resting her chin on it. Fingers found her hair and stroked gently through it. "It's okay," she murmured softly, softer than Elsa had ever heard her speak. "It's okay. I've got you."
She had said those exact words to Anna before… when she had hit her with the ice when they were children. A sob broke through her careful defenses, and suddenly she was crying into Anna's skin, arms tightening around her as if they were the only thing keeping her alive. In some ways, they were.
"Oh, Elsa…" How long had she been hiding this? Months? Years? How long had it been since someone had comforted her, told her it was okay? "It's okay," she whispered into the blonde locks. "I'm here."
"I never– I couldn't– I didn't want to tell you– worry you– I..."
"It's okay," Anna murmured, interrupting the fragmented words. "I know. How… how long…?"
"Years," Elsa whimpered. It sounded like the sobs were starting to die down. "After… after the accident… and then worse after the Thaw… you… I couldn't save you, and – I became a monster, more so than I already am–"
"You are not a monster," Anna argued fiercely. "A monster wouldn't lock herself away for thirteen years to keep her sister safe. And a monster wouldn't be capable of such absolute goodness like Olaf."
There it was. That unwavering faith that Anna had in her. She had never once doubted Elsa as a good person, a good sister, even when she was so distraught over Elsa locking herself away that she cried herself to sleep. "Thank you," Elsa whispered.
"You are perfect," Anna murmured in return. "I have flaws, you have flaws, everyone has flaws. But they're perfect flaws that make us human." She drew back from the tight embrace to cup her sister's face in her hands and tilt it upward. "And I love you so, so much for being you." She pressed a kiss to the older girl's lips, silencing any protests on the tip of her tongue, and when they parted, the queen smiled gratefully.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I… I love you, too."
She still had trouble saying it, but hearing the words from Elsa's lips was so special, so rare, that Anna treasured each time she said them. "Let's try to get some sleep, okay?" she murmured, pulling the queen closer to her. A nod against her shoulder was her answer, and she assumed Elsa was already well on her way to falling asleep.
From now on, she would sleep lighter. Nobody deserved to bear that kind of pain alone, and she refused to let her sister suffer when she was right there to comfort the older one. A soft smile curved her lips, and she pressed a kiss to the top of Elsa's hair before slipping into dreamland.