Greetings everyone! Layman here, with another one of those bits of catharsis I've been doing occasionally in the last year and a half.
So who here likes Frozen? Well so do I, but it's not flawless; if you really pay attention, you could nitpick the heck out of it! It's by no means unwatchable, but let's just say I hope you have a strong suspension of disbelief.
Anyway, I actually got this idea from a piece of fan art, which doesn't really happen. It pretty much amounted to a side-by-side of Elsa and Rukia in her Bankai form.
And the story pretty much wrote itself 2.74009 seconds after that.
So without further adieu, I present to you; Winter Queen! (For the record, the location this story takes place in is fictional; no real world countries.)
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Once upon a time, in a land far to the north, was the Kingdom of Snow. Despite its name it was not always covered in a blanket of winter. Spring, Summer, and Autumn came around just like anywhere else, but nothing was as breathtaking as the sight of the countryside after the first snow of the season, when the fresh blanket of white lay untouched and pristine.
The king and queen weren't best best rulers all things considered, but they still were able to deal with the everyday problems of running a kingdom without inciting a revolt. However, where they lacked in management, they made up for in the love for their child in spades. They loved young Orihime most than life itself, and did all they could to protect her from harm.
One summer night, a fierce thunderstorm raged outside the palace. The royal family was sitting together in the great hall, comforting their daughter against the booming thunder, when a booming of a different kind echoed through the hall; not a thunderclap, but the sound of someone pounding on the castle doors.
A moment later one of the servants rushed in, "Your Majesties, there is a young woman collapsed on the steps of the entrance. Shall we bring her inside?"
"Yes, do so at once!" the kind demanded, not so heartless as to ignore someone in need. The woman was brought inside and set before the fire, so as to counteract the cold, "Go and fetch some dry clothes as well! No sense in-"
He stopped when he felt the woman tug on his robes.
"Forget about me," she said weakly, "but please...take care of my sister." With her free hand she undid the clasp on the cloak she wore, tugging it aside to reveal a child (who looked to be around Orihime's age) clutching to her waist. The girl was almost an exact copy of her sister save for her hair, which was almost pure white.
Suddenly, the woman started coughing violently, blood and spit staining the king's robes she still held. Then she lapsed into unconsciousness.
"Take her to a healer," the king commanded, "if there's a chance she can saved…. As for the child, my wife and I will raise her; besides, Orihime could use a playmate."
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A year passed, and Orihime and the new girl (Orihime learned the girl's name was Rukia) became fast friends, often playing together whenever they could. The king and queen adopted her as their own and she and Orihime were thick as thieves. Eventually Rukia even broke out of her dour and timid state she'd been in when she'd arrived.
One evening, Orihime sneaked through the halls of the palace, searching for the room the Rukia was staying in. She'd snuggled some sweets into bed with her, devouring them after her parents had tucked her in, and now she was awake and restless.
"Rukia!..." she called softly, peeking in another door. This one, just like the last twenty or so, turned out to be empty; there were so many unused or empty rooms in the praise, at least in the areas she often roamed (she'd never been in the servant's quarters), that she wondered how any of the adults found their way around. Well, onto door number Twenty-something and One.
Success greeted her on the next door, sticking her head inside to find Rukia sound asleep inside, her bleached white hair seeming to for glow the moonlight.
"Rukia…!" she whispered again, slightly louder now in hopes of waking her.
"Go away Hime-chan!" the older girl mumbled, shuffling in her bed so she faced away from her adopted sister. "It's the middle of the night, go back to sleep…."
"But I can't!" the young girl said, climbing into Rukia's bed and flopping on top of her. "The Sky's awake, so I'm awake," she stated melodramatically, "Please play something with me, pleeeeeaaaase?"
"No, just let me sleep," Rukia moaned, shoving Orihime onto the floor. "Play by yourself."
Orihime pouted, annoyed the her sister would come do something fun with her. Then, she got a brilliant idea, a surefire way to get Rukia to play with her. She scampered back onto the bed, then leaned in close to Rukia's ear, "...We can build a snowman!"
In no time at all the two of them were racing towards the ballroom, each excited for their own reasons. Upon entering the grand hall, Orihime began bouncing in place and prompting "Make it snow!" With a little bit of pizzaz Rukia gathered up a ball of magic energy in her hands, then threw it up to the ceiling, where it exploded on contact and rained down as snow. Orihime giggled, rushing around as she tried to catch snowflakes in her mouth.
They frolicked for hours, having the time of their lives in the artificial winter wonderland in every way possible; Rukia constructed a misshapen snow effigy of her sister ("I think I'm gonna call him Olaf." "...Why?" "He looks like an Olaf."), she stomped her foot and covered the floor in ice (which they slipped and slid around on), they slid down a bumpy snow mound, and tons more.
"Rukia, try and catch me!" Orihime yelled, leaping off a snowbank. Rukia smirked knowingly and shot a blast of magic where Orihime would land, making a tower of snow to cushion her landing. Orihime leapt again, higher this time, and Rukia adjusted the snow tower accordingly. Again and again the young princess jumped, becoming so engrossed in the delight that she didn't realize that Rukia was starting to have a hard time keeping up. In fact, Rukia was concentrating so hard on keeping up with her sister that she accidentally lost her footing on the ice and fell over. Orihime didn't notice this and kept on leaping, unaware of the mortal peril she was now in. Reacting more on instinct than on reason, Rukia shot a magic blast as she reached out, which struck the younger girl right in the temple.
"Hime-chan!" Rukia shrieked, rushing over the snowbank where Orihime had landed. (The blast had thankfully directed her to a soft landing, though Rukia was too distraught to realize it.) "Hime-chan, please wake up!"
Orihime didn't wake up.
Rukia began sobbing, "Orihime, please…." She scooped Orihime up in a hug, but all that did was alert her to the fact that sister's heart was barely beating.
Close to hysterical now, Rukia called out for the only people she knew who could possibly fix this. Gathering up her sister, she ran as fast as she could to her mother's and father's bedchambers.
"Otou-sama! Okaa-sama! Help!"
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Two horses raced through the woods, constantly urged forward by their distraught riders. It was a battle against time, and any delay at all could prove disastrous.
Neither the king or queen had wanted any of their servants to accompany them as they made this trip, so they'd dismissed all the commotion as merely an unfortunate accident, and explained that they would tend to their daughters themselves. (This was mostly the king's doing, as the queen was busy comforting Rukia.) After the stablehand and had saddled their horses they'd made all haste to seek aid for their youngest daughter.
Eventually they reached a clearing hidden deep in the forest where an expert healer was reported to live. The king dismounted his horse, helping his wife and daughters down as well. He then pounded on the door of the small hut that stood there, "Please open up, my daughter needs help immediately!"
A moment later the door opened, revealing a woman with hair that reached down to the floor. She was older than the king and queen, though by no means wizened, and had a face that reminded one of their kindly grandmother.
"Bring her inside," she said, gesturing to the mother and daughters, "I'll see what I can do." They followed the healer inside the hut, laying Orihime down on the bed. "How did this happen?" she asked as she tended to the comatose child.
"I-it was an accident," Rukia stammered, clinging to her mother's dress, "We were playing…, and then she jumped, and I- I…" Tears began to well up in Rukia's eyes. d
"There, there," the queen shushed, embracing her daughter in a gentle hug, "It was an accident; Orihime will be fine."
The healer, who was called Unohana, rested her hand on Orihime's forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating. A faint glow appeared where the two skins met, "It's lucky it was her head that the magic struck, otherwise the damage would be more severe." She drew her hand back, "I dread to think what would happen if it had been her heart instead…"
"But how could you know that just by touching her?" the king asked, now his turn to stammer.
"I have some affinity to Magic as well, though not like your daughter," Unohana explained, "my skills lie mostly in the healing arts, though I can do a few other tricks as well. Besides-" she picked up a tuft of Orihime's hair that had turned almost pure white. "-I could read the scar."
"Can our daughter be healed?" the queen asked.
"It's doable...though there may be some permanent damage," the healer warned. "I'll do my best to save what I can." She gathered magic energy in her hands and placed them both on Orihime's head, the magic sinking beneath her skin effortlessly. After a moment Unohana announced "She will be fine now."
"Ano…," Rukia piped up, having just found the courage to speak again, "will she remember anything?"
"Yes and no," Unohana told the girl, "She'll remember that you two had many fun adventures together, though if she'll be able to recall any specifics I can't say."
"We'll just have to deal with that as it comes," the king said, kneeling next to Unohana's bed and stroking his daughter's hair.
"And what about Rukia's powers," the queen asked, "is there anything you can do to help with them?"
"I'm afraid not," Unohana sighed, "and before you ask I can't take them away, not unless she was cursed with them." She kneeled down to Rukia's level, "Have you always had these powers, dear?"
"Mmhmm," Rukia nodded, "since I was born."
"Do you want to keep them?" she asked gently.
"I...yes, I do, but I don't want to hurt Hime-chan again either."
Unohana stood up again and addressed the parents, "Then my advice to you is to help her learn to control her powers better so this won't happen again in the future. I have a friend who has similar magic to Rukia here, but she lives far to the west and it is difficult to correspond with her; the last time I received a letter from her was almost two years ago."
"You've done more than enough already," the king said, "I'm sure we can handle it from here."
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"Move over Doofus, I can't see!"
"You can see fine, now shut up before someone hears you!"
Ichigo scoffed, continuing to shove against his friend to get a better view at what was happening inside the hut. He and Uryu had been on their way back from helping the older men with the ice harvest when they'd very nearly been trampled by the King and Queen of the Kingdom of Snow riding at breakneck speed. While strange in and of itself, especially in the middle of the night, what was stranger was the trail of heavy frost they left in their wake. Uryu had been against following them at first, but had been pressured by Ichigo until he finally relented.
Which was why they were here now, peering through the window of a small hut in a clearing they never knew existed, spying on the royal family.
"Seriously, I can hardly see anything!"
"What are you complaining about? You're not the one who needs glass in front of his eyes to see!"
"Yeah, but that glass helps you see better, right?" Ichigo reasoned (albeit flawed reasoning), "So you should let the poor soul with normal eyes have more room to see!"
"Or I could tell you what is happening."
The two boys nearly jumped out of their skins as the turned around to find the healer lady standing right behind them.
"It's not nice to eavesdrop where you're not invited," Unohana lectured. "What are you even doing here anyway?"
"We were just coming back from ice farming," Uryu explained, hurriedly adjusting his glasses (which had become askew in his fright), "but 'mud-for-brains' here-"
"You wanted to see where the ice lead to!" Ichigo protested.
"Frost," Uryu corrected, "and that was only after you'd pressured me into going!"
"Boys," Unohana interrupted, sounding gentle and serene. Despite this, and without any apparent reason behind it, she seemed to radiate pure dread so intense that it felt like they were going to see what if there was an afterlife or not.
"Y-y-you're not going to… *gulp*, eat us," Ichigo wondered, "are you?"
Unohana continued smiling, the dread beginning to manifest visually as a dark cloud.
The two boys were quite close to soiling their pants now.
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To be continued...