Author's Note: I was given a three-word prompt over on my tumblr ( .com), and decided to post the resulting story here!
Prompt: gloves, flower, rain.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Frozen. I just love them dearly =]
Anna would much rather have been outside soaking in the sun, exploring around the town square (there were still so many people to meet!), or watching the ships sail in and out of the fjord, but as the rain pummeling the castle windows indicated, there was not much sunshine to be had.
All the spring rain was starting to drive her up a wall. Elsa was trapped in meetings day in and day out (it was a busy time, planting season and all that), and barely had enough time to slip away for their shared dinners, so she wasn't an option for distraction. With an entire childhood of reading and exploring behind her, the library had been exhausted and every nook and corner memorized. Anna heaved a sigh and rolled over on her stomach, head resting against her pillow. A plume of dust billowed around her as she flopped forward, eyes flicking in and out of focus on the tiny mites. There was peace in dust, a kind of calming affect on Anna's brain, which was almost always buzzing a mile a minute, but watching the dust settle was soothing. Although it did make her sneeze quite a bit. Her comforter really could use a good cleaning now that she thought of it…
She sat straight up. That was it! Spring cleaning!
Anna bolted from her bedroom and raced through the hallways toward the North wing of the castle, where the old records and childhood things had come to rest. Kai might cringe at the thought of a princess rooting around through boxes of old clothes and things in possibly very dirty storage closets, but this could be fun! Reminiscing, sorting through all the old junk to give away, deciding what children's toys and clothes to keep for the, um… future? (She pushed away the thought of Kristoff, but couldn't help a smile).
Reaching her destination, Anna threw open the doors of a room she hadn't been to in possibly years and years and was greeted with… actually a bit of a daunting sight. Trunks, wardrobes, wooden boxes teetering on top of one another, hampers stuffed with old petticoats from fashions long-since dead… The room was haphazardly organized; books of travel logs mixed with military boots, hideous gowns printed with a single, ugly repeated flower… Anna didn't know where to start.
But never fear! Where there's a will, there's a way, and honestly Anna was so bored, this was a welcome challenge.
She decided to tackle the hulking wardrobe in the front corner first. Upon wrenching the ancient oak doors open, she found that the racks were stacked with old military uniforms. Some toward the back were faded and out of style, but right in the front was a jacket she knew well. It was the uniform her father wore in the painting that hung in Elsa's study. Her heart skipped a beat. Maybe she'd tackle that part of the room later…
Anna worked diligently all through the early afternoon, pouring out all the unwanted clothes and things into the hallway. A few times, Gerda poked her head in to ask if she needed any help, but Anna assured her she was fine! She'd call for her later if she wanted anything. She was just making her way back around to the front of the room when she tripped over a trunk that had rudely poked its way out, and all the boxes resting on top came crashing down upon her. Groaning and rubbing her knees where they'd hit the ground, Anna began to pick up the items strewn across the floor, shoving them back into their box, when she felt a smooth satin in her hand…
It was a glove.
They were all gloves. But she'd never seen any of them before, certainly not on her mother…
Oh God, they were Elsa's.
Anna's chest constricted at the realization. Upon further examination, she noticed how small some pairs were. Tiny forest green velvet, slightly bigger midnight blue in a practical cotton, a couple pairs in various sizes of the embroidered turquoise she'd worn for her coronation. Here in Anna's hands lay Elsa's growing up, the parts of her sister's life she had missed.
Suddenly there was a rustling noise at the door. "Anna? There you are, Gerda said I might find you here. Kai and I were just discuss-" Elsa's voice cut out just as Anna whirled around, still holding the box of gloves. Anna's heart sank as she saw what little color had crept into her sister's complexion since last summer drain completely from her face. The room cooled a few degrees. She had a strange urge to hide the box from her sister's sight, but either shock or the sudden cold kept her hands glued to the sides. There was a pause, both sisters at a loss for words, before Anna spluttered to fill the silence.
"I'm so sorry, I was just so bored and I decided to do some spring cleaning and I didn't know this was back here, I just found it and I didn't mean to open it, they just spilled everywhere and I tried-" She cut herself off before she word-vomited more inane and useless apologies. She chanced a glance at Elsa, whose face had regained some color, but there was a hardness in her eyes that was new to Anna. Was it hurt? Was Elsa angry with for touching her things? She'd stopped wearing the gloves, true, but they had come to represent arguably the most important thing in her life and… Damn, why was this so hard?
"I'll put this back where I found it," Anna whispered.
Elsa suddenly came back to herself. "No! No, don't…"
"Okay…" Anna finally set the box down and tucked her hair behind her ear. "So what should we do with it?"
Elsa smiled to herself as she looked down at the gloves. "I'll have Gerda take them with the rest of the donations. Perhaps some of the girls in town could do with a new pair of gloves for spring." For the first time since Elsa arrived, their eyes met, and what Anna saw made her heart sing. It wasn't hurt or anger in her sister's eyes. It was relief.
Anna had a sudden image of Elsa, alone on the North Mountain, this same relief burning through her veins as she built her castle of ice: relief of her secret being out, knowing that her power could create something beautiful and that she had every right to use it. Anna wished with every fiber of her being that she had been there to see it, her sister so free and uninhibited. But all the doors were open between them now. She had her whole life to witness the incredible things Elsa was bound to do.
Her sister crossed the threshold and carefully took the box of gloves, the glint in her deep blue eyes mirrored in Anna's clear ones. "Now, you look like you could use some help with all this."