Chapter One : And I Don't
Kristoff admired Elsa's ice-work so well...er, much, that Anna was getting uncomfortable.
"It's so...icy!" Kristoff cried once more, running out of compliments.
He's really laying it on thick, now isn't he? thought Anna, nodding along, bored. He paid more attention to Elsa's ice sculptures than he did to her, even kissed it more. Beside her, Elsa shivered. Anna knew it wasn't because she was cold. Anna said aloud, "Yeah, it really is unnerving. I bet twenty Arents he'll make out with it, what'cha say?"
"No, you can have my money, he's so gonna do it." Elsa replied, causing Anna to snort.
"What do you think he's going to do from now until-" Kristoff kissed the sculpture another time, but it looked more like making out with it this time. "-forget it, he already did it. I'll warn ya sis, just don't look on the other side of the ice, his lips are probably stuck to it by now."
Anna and Elsa decided to leave before Kristoff started asking for the sculpture's hand in marriage.
"At least it's a sculpture of you, Anna." said Elsa, gracing the gardens teasingly. Anna cringed.
"Gross." said Anna. "You know, I think you should really give your powers a break."
Elsa blinked at her; she had really come to love her powers. She glanced at the archway they had just left, as if to check what Kristoff was doing now-she just hadn't come to love them as much as Kristoff.
"Um...why?" she asked.
Anna turned pale, not as white as snow, but almost all color had drained from her rosy cheeks as she looked away from Elsa and advanced further through the gardens.
"I just thought...we could have a sister day, you know, like mortal girls, and maybe without powers." Anna said.
Elsa was starting to panic, because last time she tried to hold her powers in she froze Anna's heart. Anna avoided Elsa's eyes. "Anna, remember what happened last time-"
"Yeah, I know!" Anna sounded on the verge of yelling, crying, screaming-or all at once. "It's just-Kristoff loved the ice sculpture of me more than he loves actual me, and Elsa, surprised as you may be, I'M JEALOUS of the sculpture! Of you!"
Elsa blinked at her. Because she hated her powers for thirteen and a half years, she never thought someone else liked them, or wanted them.
"I'm sorry." Anna said at last, guilty for her break-out. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that...maybe it's just best I stay away from Kristoff anyway."
"No, no, no." Elsa said, hoping she wasn't in the way of Anna's happiness. "I've been a show-off, knowing that Kristoff likes ice so much, I probably shouldn't have...made ice. I'm sorry. And I promise I'll do what ever I can to help you find your ice inside of you. I mean, we're sisters. You're bound to have some power, even immunity to cold!"
_
So as promised, Elsa and Anna spent days and days trying to find Anna's ice powers. Anna asked Elsa to try transferring ice into Anna's hands, but that just gave Anna a cut, they tried getting her cursed with the powers by witches and wizards, and Anna even tried eating Elsa's magical snow, but that, that was just funny.
It seemed hopeless, and then one night, Anna was getting ready for bed, and Elsa was placing the curlers that always fell out in her sleep, and Anna was attempting to use her unfound powers, concentrating, resting, pushing, and everything Elsa said she needed to do. But nothing was happening.
"Anna, maybe you have to be patient." Elsa said.
"I've been patient! For two weeks! This is hopeless..." Anna said.
"Well, Anna, not everyone can have ice powers." said Elsa. "Any idea how cold it would be?"
"Ugh! That's just your way of telling me I don't have them and that's that!"
"No it's not!" It is.
"Yes, it is!"
"No, it is not, Anna. Hold still." It really is.
"Hmph..." Anna says. Then she makes one more attempt and this time, ice and snow flow out of her hand, as if Elsa was doing it.
"Um..." Elsa said. "Anna? I think we've found your ice."
Anna made a sound like a mouse.
_
The next day they kept Anna indoors, despite having made the same mistake with Elsa. "What am I going to do, Elsa? I don't know how to use these powers!"
"Alright, it may come as a shock to you, but neither do I! Plus, you've been telling me that for the past half hour." said Elsa. Anna blushed, knowing it was true.
"Elsa, please, please. I don't want to hurt the citizens of Arendelle with my powers!" Anna begs.
Elsa avoids Anna's eyes for a minute, pacing. She stared at Anna for a minute, or was it two?, dreading her answer.
Anna and Elsa gulp simultaneously.
"Do what you wish." says Elsa to Anna, despite the lump in her throat.
Anna felt guilty for what she did. She closed the gates, and shut herself in her room, Elsa being the only other occupant. They fired the maids and butlers who did not know about Anna's powers. They kept Kai and Gerda, of course. Anna strictly ate hot food, as if a new diet, wore warm clothes no matter how agonizing they were, and was supposed to stay in bed for days, the whole town convinced Anna had a terrible disease, called dengue. Bitten by an infected mosquito, very famous in water-surrounded countries.
It was not contagious, but they were forced into believing that she had also the flu, and that was contagious. She was therefore named: "The Ill Princess", because for the longest time, but not as long as Elsa, she was was concealed, as if non-existant.
_
"Why must I hide?" Anna asked Elsa with a scratchy voice, having not spoken in weeks, and having cried continiously night to morning, sleepless, scared of herself.
"You wanted to." Elsa deadpanned, thinking of it being her own fault.
Anna looked away from Elsa, gathering her knees to her body, hugging herself, no matter how unbelievably hot she already felt.
"Go away, Elsa." Anna said, turning Elsa again away from herself.
Elsa was about to speak, but instead nodded, and did as her sister wished.
She left, she went away. She left Anna for the last time.
The next time she went to Anna's bedroom door, it was locked. And Elsa screamed in agony and pain. She cried, cried tears that froze, being in Anna's place for the first time in forever. Being the one locked out. The one who didn't know why.
_
Anna was just as upset. She forcefully locked the door, feeling like she was murdering Elsa, but keeping her safe at the same time.
She hid behind her bed, as if trying to hide from the girl who locked the door... No, not Elsa, who knocked day after day, asking her to come out, and day after day left a meal outside her door for three times a day, and sometimes extra, the one who had begun to speak to the portrait of Anna in her room, and the one who told her everything that had happened. The one who never left her alone. Got rejected everytime, and sometimes doubted someone was listening on the other side.
The only sign that she was alive was that everytime Elsa checked back at the door, the plate she had left there was out again, and with no food left on it. Sometimes a terrifying moment rehappened, when the plate stayed untouched. The food was still there, no one had left the room, and Anna was possibly starving.
The only way Elsa kept control of her own powers was knowing Anna was alive inside her room. She let Anna know that during her frequent visits to the door. Occasionally Anna would answer Elsa. But only very rarely.
"Anna?" said Elsa. She heard someone pick up and scurry to the door and the door thumped slightly. Elsa sighed, knowing Anna was listening. "Please come out. It's my birthday."
It's her birthday? How did I forget? Anna thought, covering her mouth to muffle her gasp.
"Well...I'm opening the gates today." Even though that was what Anna wanted before, she gasped in terror. It was barely audible, because her voice was raspy. "And it would be great if you would come out, and celebrate with me...I know I never did it for you, and I probably am just bothering you. But I won't be returning until tomorrow, so...it's your chance, and your choice. Goodbye Anna."
"No, wait!" A raspy voice exited the door. Elsa hurried to press her ear against the door, listening closely.
"Yes, Anna? Anna, what is it?" Elsa was about to rejoice, about to cry tears of joy, glad to hear her sister's voice, even for a moment.
"Elsa, I will come out. Please, just get your old gloves, I want to wear them in case I go out of control." said Anna.
Elsa's heart dropped into her stomach, but was happy she would be seeing her sister for the first time in a year.
"Yes, yes, of course." Elsa was quiet for a moment. Anna doubted she was still there, until Elsa whispered with a tearful voice, "Any...anything else, A-Anna?"
"No. That is all." Anna said sharply.
Elsa was now determined to make the day the best birthday ever for herself, and make it Anna perfect day, so she would not go back in her room.
"Verna!" called Elsa, calling a maid.
"Yes, your majesty?" asked Verna, stopping in her tracks. "What is it?"
"Princess Anna is coming out of her room today, she told me." said Elsa. Verna looked unsure, as if she didn't believe her, but she will see. "I need you to make sure she doesn't go back. Lock her room as soon as she leaves it. So as she does not lock away again."
"Your majesty, how will I know she is not there?" Understandable, but Elsa knew just what to say.
"Gerda can help you." said Elsa. "She knows when there is someone in a room, or if the room is empty. I just want my baby sister again."
Verna nodded. Elsa planned away, found her gloves, but she had no intention of giving them to Anna. She would have a scavenger hunt for her gloves-just never finding them.
_
Anna reached out and grabbed the metal doorknob. Scared of ice coming out of her hand she froze in her spot for a moment-not literally-debating whether or not to turn it.
Her yearn for freedom got the best of her. She opened the door and looked up and down the hallway. Her ratted dress was torn, and smelled of rotten cabbage. She looked like she hadn't slept in weeks-which she hadn't-and her hair was messy.
She looked like a packrat, with stains all over her dress, tears all over the skirt and no one would be surprised to see this shuddering image; she was, after all, The Ill Princess. Anna did not want to go to the birthday party. But Elsa sounded so broken, so lonely and sad, that she could not deny. She had, after all, been in Elsa's place-for thirteen years.
"Ohhh no...here I go." said Anna. She took a step and no ice appeared. She dared to think that her powers were gone. She smiled for the first time in ages, and actually let out a small chuckle of rejoice. He feet were covered in shoes too small, but she didn't care. If you looked at her eyes, you'd think she didn't notice. Those eyes had seen so much sadness, that even her smile that was so true and honest, it looked like a lie, so fake.
She looked up, outside the window, and it was winter. No one would notice if she set off an eternal winter, right? Maybe... But she went to Elsa's door, knocked three times and said, "Elsa? Do you have the gloves?"
"Huh? Anna? Is that you?" Elsa said inside. Here she was again, where she was so used to being. She wouldn't be surprised if the door did not open.
"Uh-huh." Anna said.
"Give me a second." said Elsa. "I'm just putting the tie on my dress! Don't leave, please."
Anna's heart sank. Did Elsa really think Anna was scared enough to leave?
Elsa opened the door almost immediately, and as soon as she saw Anna she threw her arms around her.
"Anna! You need to bathe, come here." she said. Elsa wore an elegant blue gown made of ice. Anna hated the color blue, and white. Most of all, she hated ice.
Anna did not speak to Elsa most of the time, even after her bath. Because when she was in her room, practicing her singing, ice flew out of her mouth. She was like an icy dragon, dangerous, cold.
Anna dressed in a beautiful, free dress, despite her protests. It was green, like she always loved, with flowers on the black corset. Similar to her coronation dress, but with longer, velvet green sleeves. There were no streaks down the skirt, but instead like her winter dress, it had fountain-like flower patterns: the crest of Arendelle.
Her hair flowed down her back, with a beautiful flowered tie to keep it up, a one-on-top, they always called it. She wore her mother's old necklace, and a sash the slowly flows down her front, lining her body elegantly like a waterfall. The only kind of water that likely would not freeze.
Elsa told her she looked gorgeous, and Elsa never left Anna alone, scared she would lock herself away again.
Anna remembered the gloves. "The gloves?"
"Oh, yes, I think I left them in the Astronomy tower, you'll see Joe up there, ask him, I was examining the skies one more time, to see what time it is, you see." said Elsa. "So I would know how long till the party, I was so in a hurry. Go ahead! I'll be in the gardens."
Anna curiously left the room, and didn't look back, longing for the gloves.
Besides, love will thaw. But after all these years, Anna was unsure if she still loved Elsa anymore...
...
...
...
...
Did she?
_
A/N: I hope you liked chapter one, it was kinda short, but no biggy right? Heh, oh well. Enjoy. Read on, because that's why you're readers. P.S. I know it's kinda weird, and I know most of you would expect Anna to have fire powers or something, but I'm working on that. I am RomioInny on WattPad, and I have written Heat and Warmth, which involves Anna with fire powers instead. If it's not your style, please comment and suggest, and should I find it interesting and inspiring, I shall take it into account and try writing about it. But this is my first Frozen story on FanFiction dot net, so be patient. More to come! :-)