Softly humming a happy tune Anna walked through the castle halls towards her room, it had been several days since the great thaw. And the idea of Elsa now being back in her life had been keeping her spirits up for exactly 24 hours per day since that whirlwind of an experience.
The redhead traversed several halls and shortcuts through the servants' passages, having walked this very route often before.
A soft cry could be heard in the direction of Elsa's room, but in Anna's excitement she didn't hear any of it.
As she passed by Elsa's rooms she did notice the soft sobbing, it sounded like it was being muffled by a pillow, or maybe a fluffy towel. Whilst walking closer to the door that she had spent so much time talking to the air got noticeably colder, and the redhead realized that the cries must be Elsa's.
Now minding herself to be as silent as possible she crept to her blonde sister's door. The large white slab of wood felt cold and soulless, even with blue and purple designs on the panels and frame.
The reason she could hear her sister at all turned out to be a little slit between the door and the frame. Cold air seeped through the opening just like her sister's sobs did. Her green eyes peeked through the split. She found a horrible sight inside, the room was white with ice, snow was falling inside, and numerous strikes through the ice and snow seemed to point towards the bed where her sister laid. Curled up and sobbing in a nightgown that looked like it had seen better days, with presumably less ice and snow.
The large door opened with a groan as Anna pushed it against the layers of snow and ice that had built up against the walls and on the floor. Her blonde sister didn't seem to notice or care for the movement nor the sounds.
"Elsa, hey" The redhead whispered. No response. She took a step inside and closed the door, several layers of ice slippery under her shoes. Now completely inside she could see the carnage a lot clearer, her blue-eyed sister must have be feeling horrible, or maybe this was just normal. Anna didn't really know.
She crept to the snowy bed, the beautiful purple sheets just barely visible through the white layers. On the bed laid her sister. She looked cold, but Anna had learned that she shouldn't be worried. As her ice magic not only did this to her, but also took care of her.
"Hey Elsie." She started talking softly. "What's up Els? Are you okay?" It seemed like a dumb question, Anna knew her sister was not okay, but what do you ask your magical queen sister in such a scenario?
The blonde did notice her sister this time. She almost told the redhead to leave, but remembered how Anna had helped her during the testing times on the North mountain and choose to turn towards her. Taking care to keep her sister, who had moved frighteningly close, from being sprayed with even more snow and ice.
"Anna. Oh god Anna be careful!" The girl sobbed.
"I trust you won't hurt me." Anna started. "Here, move a little." She continued softly as she sat down on the cold sheets. She could now much more clearly see how bad her normally so regal sister had cried. The beautifully soft skin under and around her eyes and nose had suffered badly, and the blonde bun on top of her head seemed like it had lost all volume it previously had had.
Nevertheless the redhead knew she had to help her weeping sister with her problems. So she rubbed her ams to warm up a little and grabbed one of the blondes cold soft hands.
"What is wrong Elsie? Why, euhm, what happened Els?" She stammered. The redheads heart hammered along like a train going downhill whilst trying to process the idea of holding one of Elsa's powerful hands. Meanwhile said queen's situation was improving a bit, the sobbing had mostly stopped, and there was no new snow appearing.
Still Anna quickly saw that there was no chance of having a good talk tonight. She debated what to do. Leaving Elsa alone would probably not improve her situation, but staying here would be a wild jump into an abyss of ice and feelings. She decided to take the leap.
"Elsa I'm going to undress a little so we can sleep okay?" The hand in her lap tensed up quite alarmingly. But Anna pulled through, put the soft hand beside her on the sheets and took off her shoes. She continued with pulling her dress down a little to take of her light blue shirt, after which she dragged her dress back up to normal height. She didn't have her nightgown with her, and she didn't want to grab it, but sleeping in her undergarments didn't seem like the best idea in her sisters still very cold room.
The redhead turned around to face the blonde lying behind her and moved in to take off her shoes. She felt Elsa tense up as she grabbed the ankle closest to her, the blonde had gone silent and seemed to have calmed down to a reasonable level before, but this seemed to be close to the limit what the curled up girl could handle, because she made several distraught sounds as Anna took off both her shoes.
The now relatively cold Anna grabbed the icy sheets that her sister had sprayed with ice and snow and pulled them from under Elsa, she threw them aside and grabbed two pairs of new sheets from a dresser. She put one pair aside as she started spreading the other out over the bed, taking care to lovingly roll Elsa onto the newly added, dry sheets. She then grabbed the second pair again, throwing it over her blonde sister who made a thankful sound. That sound quickly turned stressful as Anna made space under the sheets for herself.
The queen tensed up completely whilst Anna went to lay besides her. Still scared to damage her precious sister the blonde didn't dare move. Her younger sister didn't seem to share those qualms and quickly moved in to lay an arm over her scared sister.
"Come here Els, just calm down and go to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."
But the blonde queen didn't hear a word Anna had said. Because even though she didn't feel entirely safe with her sister so close behind her she did fall asleep in her embrace.
Elsa woke up calm and well rested. The sun was already high up in the blue sky. Which meant that it was quite a lot later compared to when she normally woke up, but she didn't mind. The ice and snow had gone from her room and even the temperature was up to normal levels again. She hadn't slept this well in years, and the reason for that became clear as she felt a warm body behind her. Night-Elsa did not seem to have been that fuzzed about her proximity to Anna, but the newly woken up Elsa did feel a little nervous about her little sisters proximity.
In order to save the still very much sleeping redhead from an icy morning Elsa decided to separate herself from her sister and put on some fresh clothes, hoping her sister would wake up soon. She browsed her drawers for a while before selecting a nice purple and green dress that the blonde was quite sure Anna would like. It seemed like that was all the basis she needed for decisions nowadays.
"Elsa?" Anna's voice sounded from the other side of her dressing screen. "Are your here?" Said older sister stepped away from behind the screen and was greeted by an incredible view of the largest collection of hairs in the castle. Whilst the owner of the explosion of hair tried to get it into shape a little the older sister giggled. "You look very cute like that Anna."
"Hmpf" The smaller girl replied. "Do you have a brush somewhere near?" The blonde walked to the dresser and grabbed her brush. But didn't hand it to her sister.
"Come, sit up." The older said, brush in her hand, whilst walking to the bed again. She climbed on the bed and went to sit behind her sister. "I'll try and see what I can do." She teased. "How do you have so much hair?" She continued, Anna wanted to reply but choked back her words as soon as she felt her sisters hands in her hair. "Ahh that feels nice Els." She managed to say after some moments of silence. "Thanks for helping."
A comfortable silence came over them. Anna sometimes letting out a little cry if her older sister pulled her hair too much, and Elsa immediately trying to smooth it over.
Anna broke the comfortable silence. "Elsa?" She started. "Why were you so upset yesterday?" She started to reply. "Anna I just felt so…" She stopped brushing to think. "So inadequate. How do I know I'm strong enough to do this Anna?" When Anna realised what her sister meant she leaned back into her big sisters embrace and sighed. "Oh Elsie." She turned her head back to look at her elder's face. "You have studied your whole life for this. "The redhead recalled. "Of course you're good enough. You're such an amazing sister, there is no doubt in my mind that you'll be an amazing queen too."
"But Anna." The blonde sighed. "I turned the whole kingdom to ice just last week! How can the people ever trust me again?"
"I can help you now Els. With your gift. I can help you make it beautiful! To learn to control it." She said as she moved to face her sister completely. When she had turned around she came to face a dejected frown. "That just what father said." The blonde replied sadly.
"But I'm not scared of you Elsa." Anna lovingly said. "Father was scared. I'm not, I love you! I'll help you, with your powers, with being a good, no great queen, and with anything else you need help with." She embraced her older sister. Hands folded over a heavily breathing Elsa. "I will help you start over, with the kingdom, and with your powers.
A sigh of relief. "That would be lovely Anna."