This is actually my first one-shot in over two months, thanks to two certain epics.
It was hardly a shock that Elsa had a nightmare on her first night back in the castle. It was hardly a shock that it revolved around a certain frozen body. Regardless of how it thawed just hours ago and barely left her side until she went to bed.
That part was new.
So was the part where Elsa could thaw the icicles around her bed. But that was nothing compared to the next sudden realization.
She didn't have to go back to sleep. Not that sleep was appealing right now.
Despite how…..another kind of sleep looked very appealing hours ago.
Yet not only was Elsa alive - it would be okay for her to leave her room.
She very carefully opened her door, as if she was a little kid trying not to get caught by wandering, sleepless grownups. Or by wandering, barely grown, hyperactive princesses who couldn't sleep.
Elsa couldn't help but feel disappointed that she wouldn't go to Anna's room. Not even to make sure she was still in the flesh. Perhaps that was too brave a task for this first night.
She hadn't explored the castle at night – or for many other time periods – in over 13 years. That seemed like a good, safe first milestone to cross off.
Now that she had her justification – whether it was valid or not – Elsa tiptoed past Anna's room without waking her. She then went down the remainder of the hall, surrounded by the dark, silence and quiet. Despite the new surroundings, Elsa felt right at home anyway.
This was probably the last time she could consider the dark, silence and quiet as home. It was relieving and thoroughly terrifying.
As those emotions dueled within Elsa – and only a few snowflakes came out as a result – she finally snapped out of it when she realized where she was now.
In front of the doors.
The doors to the location of….the second and third worst moments of her life.
And the second worst had been No. 1 for 13 straight years, until this afternoon.
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The Great Hall was dark and empty now. Unlike days ago, when a wall of icicles was shot out in front of everyone. But it was like 13 years ago, when deadly magic was shot out in front of a five-year-old girl.
Elsa hadn't been in this room, by herself at night, since that night. Now right out of the gate, on her first night as a truly free woman – she supposed – she was back here.
She'd heard echoes of that night in dark rooms almost every night since. Just not in this one. The fact that no one would be there with her, and she probably wouldn't let them near if they were….that was still a constant. Even now.
"Do the magic!"
"Catch me!"
"Mama! Papa!"
"You're okay Anna. I got you."
"I'm sorry, Anna."
"I'm sorry, Anna…."
"Hi! Sorry for what?"
Okay, that second voice in the present wasn't Anna.
This was the first thought to gave Elsa some relief. But only after she jumped up and shot her magic off. After the damage was done.
For a second, Elsa held her breath, saw an unconscious body in her head, and started planning the fastest route to the North Mountain before another winter could start.
Then she saw the actual body she shot. And how it was running around the hall. All while its head – a head with a flurry cloud over it - was lying 10 feet away, turned around from everyone.
"Okay, I want to say you're close, but I don't know if that's false hope!" Olaf's head said. "That's not what you need right now! If you can hear me, knock on the floor and we'll narrow the grid down, okay? I'll take your silence as a yes!"
"Olaf!" Elsa yelled in relief, fear and anger. "What are you even…."
"Elsa?" Olaf asked, still unable to see anyone. "If you magically put a new mouth on my body and made it talk like you, you'd tell me, right?"
"No, I….hold on," Elsa said, going over and picking up his head before anything else happened. She then caught up with his body, after a little run, and placed his head back where it was supposed to be.
"Ah, that's better. We can always go back to that second mouth idea, okay?" Olaf offered.
"We can go….what are you even doing here?" Elsa asked. "I hit you with my…..oh, it hasn't even been 12 hours and I'm hurting people again! This is why…."
As she got lost in her dark memories of nearly killing Anna twice, she realized there was a slight difference this time. "Why….why are you….you're okay, aren't you?"
"Yeah, why?" Olaf wondered.
"All I did was take your head off. But it was still breathing. Even though you don't have….wait, do you have anything close to lungs?" Elsa got sidetracked. "You certainly don't have a skull or bones, so how….I will never understand so much of this…."
In between finding freedom, hurting Anna, almost getting killed twice, seeing Anna die and then thawing Arendelle, the whole….bringing a snowman to life aspect of this whole thing had gotten lost in Elsa's mind. Leaving aside how she made him, why she made him, how she was inspired to make him, and having the powers of a God to make him.
And one other thing. "I made you, you're made of snow, my powers are based on snow….so I didn't hurt you," Elsa realized. "I can strike you with my magic….but you're still okay. You wouldn't die or freeze or anything…."
"I'm good when I melt too! At least around people who make flurries! Let's not forget that part!" Olaf chipped in.
"I didn't," Elsa agreed. "I can get near you and lose control….but I can't kill you. Or freeze you." She began to smile as she reflected, "I could never say that about anyone before. Not anyone human…."
"So you warm up with the snowmen and work your way up? Is that what we're doing?" Olaf inquired. "Wait, would you cold down or warm up with them?"
"I have no idea," Elsa admitted, the tiniest amusement in her voice. She then got serious again and asked, "Just like I have no idea what you're doing here. Why aren't you….in Anna's room? Or the mountain man's room? Or wherever Kai put you guys up for the night?"
"I couldn't sleep. The sky was awake," Olaf explained. As nonsensical as it might sound to anyone else, it made perfect sense to Elsa. Perfect, haunting, suspicious sense.
The last time she heard that term with such youthful innocence – at least up close from another person – it led her here. With….
"I was here with you that night," Elsa reflected. "Not you, exactly. Like….a prototype of you." She paused and asked, "What kind of memories do you have? I passed on….certain phrases to you. But do you remember being here before? Is that why you're here tonight? Do you have….my memories too? Anna still doesn't even have hers, I think. That's going to be a problem later, especially when -"
"Wow, you really are Anna's sister," Olaf observed. Once she realized she was rambling, Elsa had to silently agree.
Or she'd had to take Olaf's word on it. After all, he just spent more time with her than Elsa did in 13 years. Even after today, he probably knew Anna better than she did.
Before that brought her down further, Olaf interrupted, "I mean, there's no fireplace here, and you're already cold, but not a dying kind of cold! But here I am, picking a lock with my nose again, and I found one of you guys again!" He gasped and asked, "Hans didn't lock you up here too, did he?"
"No, he's the one being locked up. He's lucky it's in a cell and not in….hold on," Elsa caught up. "He locked up Anna? And you…."
Realizing there were still parts about today she hadn't caught up on yet, Elsa wondered, "What exactly happened with Anna before she….found me on the fjord? She forgot to fill me in on all of it."
"Oh, you should have been there!" Olaf started.
"I know that already. Tell me what I don't know," Elsa tried to stay calm.
"But I don't know if you know that Hans locked her up instead of kissing her. Or that I picked the lock, opened the door for her, made her warmer, and told her about love," Olaf recapped. "About how it means putting other people's needs before your own, like Kristoff did! Then we broke out to find him and she saved you instead! Didn't see that twist coming!"
"Neither did I," Elsa said. "I ran away from her again, while you were saving her. You opened a door for her. That's….that's the only reason she was there to save me. That's the only reason we're alive."
"Well, your act of true love helped too, didn't it?" Olaf checked.
"Her act of true love did. And yours," Elsa sighed. "Not mine…."
"But you made me," Olaf said. "I couldn't have freed Anna if I wasn't alive, right? So that one's on you. So….then you unlocked the door, saved Anna and taught her about love as much as I did! How would I know how to do that if you didn't make me that way? Gotcha there!"
Olaf cheered, but Elsa was a slower burn. "You did everything I always wanted to do. You opened doors for her. You saved her….actually saved her. And you showed her she was loved. I couldn't do it, but I made you and you did…."
"Is that why you made me?" Olaf asked. "Then since I did it already….does that mean I'm not needed anymore?"
"No! No, wait, I don't mean no because I don't need you!" Elsa corrected, trying to at least sound under control.
Finally she mustered, "I don't know what I was thinking when I made you. Except I must have been thinking about Anna. Even then. About everything I never did for her, or with her. But you did it. But I made you capable of doing it, so I…."
"So you saved her too," Olaf repeated.
"I saved her in the worst ways. Until you…." Elsa went on her knees, in spite of how no Queen – even an abnormal one – was supposed to bow to anyone. But she had to get on Olaf's level to convey this. "Thank you, Olaf. Thank you, just….thank you."
Elsa was overcome with emotion again, which was supposed to be too dangerous. But not for him. Every time she'd ever been emotional, until recently, it was always out of sadness, fear and misery, without fail. But this time, she was overcome with something….warmer.
Warm enough to make her do something she'd done twice today. And twice in the last 13 years.
Reach out and hug someone.
She only realized what she was doing two seconds later. By then, Olaf was hugging her back, so she couldn't pull him off. But she had to do something, before this close contact with someone hurt him….
Oh right, she just established it wouldn't.
She could hug Olaf all she wanted, and it wouldn't hurt either of them. After 13 years, Elsa could finally say that about something as simple as a hug.
"Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"
Hugs Elsa loved all the time as a child. At least from her family. From Anna. Hugs she couldn't afford to love anymore.
Yet she passed it on anyway. And now it came back to her. In the form of Anna's snowman. Their snowman.
It wasn't a laughing matter, although it was kind of funny. It was better to laugh over it than cry uncontrollably, though. So Elsa chose laughing over crying, for once. She didn't even bother to cover her mouth up, either.
"Why are you laughing? Are you ticklish?" Olaf misinterpreted. As if Elsa had been touched enough to remember being ticklish at all. It got harder to laugh at that one.
"Oh, I get it. So you're ticklish right here, then," Olaf got wrong, now trying to tickle her back. Elsa stopped laughing then, yet when Olaf got down to her ribs, she let out an involuntary giggle.
"Oh, okay, it's there!" Olaf figured out, tickling her harder and getting more involuntary laughs from it.
"Olaf….that's enough," Elsa said between laughs, getting more self-conscious from her improper laughter. And from the snowflakes coming out of her hands.
"Wait, if you're ticklish there, then I must be too!" Olaf realized, finally letting go. "Go on, try it out!"
"I don't know…." Elsa's natural reluctance came back.
"Come on, what are you so afraid of?" Olaf asked.
That wasn't the first time Elsa heard those words in this room. The disaster it caused – and the pain and suffering she and the person who asked her went through beforehand – became all too clear for Elsa again.
It also made her distracted enough for Olaf to grab Elsa's hands, put them on his equivalent of ribs, and try to tickle himself. "Ha, I knew it!" Olaf declared as he laughed, snapping Elsa from memory lane.
"Olaf, stop!" Elsa tried to demand, but she was undermined when he reached out and tickled her again.
"You'll have to fight tickles with tickles! Or find some other way to laugh like that!" Olaf offered.
Elsa had to turn it down. This was too risky, even if she couldn't hurt Olaf like she could hurt Anna. Even if she was laughing. Even if…
….even if someone wanted to touch her and make her laugh. Make her smile.
Someone Elsa could actually let touch her and make her smile.
At a time where it was actually possible for someone to touch her, hug her and bond with her now.
Before Elsa knew it, her hands were willingly on Olaf's body, willingly trying to tickle him. Although Olaf was laughing, he kept his hands on Elsa's to tickle back. Briefly overwhelmed, Elsa fell on her back, giving Olaf the advantage.
Suddenly, Elsa had another memory come through. One where she was actually happy. And one where she knew how to stop four-year-old Anna's tickle attacks.
As she did 14 years ago, Elsa waited for her tiny, young assailant to get carried away. Then when he wasn't expecting it, she reached out and hugged him. The surprise of the hug, and her opponent's natural love of warm hugs, made him forget all about tickling.
At least until Elsa got up, pinned him to the ground and attacked without mercy.
Olaf was laughing too hard to say anything, and Elsa was getting too into it to talk too. She just watched Olaf roll on the floor, kept finding his ticklish spots – which were really hers as well – and kept getting carried away.
She didn't even mind when flurries came from her hands. In fact, she put one hand over Olaf's head, making it rain snow on him – like she would for little Anna once upon a time.
Until she lost control enough that a full on snowball fell on him.
Elsa stopped right there, before anything larger came out. Yet Olaf wasn't deterred. "So, you salvage a draw with me in tickling, and now you wanna break the tie in a snowball fight? With a snowman?" he mocked. "You must be truly desperate."
A snowball fight with a snowman. It wouldn't even be the 10'th craziest thing Elsa had experienced this week.
It might be the only purely fun thing, though.
"I think I can afford to be," Elsa said as she got up on her feet. Which helped her balance the giant snowball she formed over her head. "Don't you?"
"Uh….that reminds me, I left my money….somewhere other than here!" Olaf declared before running.
Elsa gave him the benefit of trying to outrun her for a minute, before dropping her payload down on him. Once his body was back together, she decided to at least make it a fair fight.
She made him a snow fort and gave him an equal amount of snowballs, and even refrained from making her fort too imposing. This would give him fewer excuses when he lost.
So Elsa figured.
It turned out being a snowman didn't make Olaf squeamish about throwing snow around. It turned out not being in a snowball fight in 13 years did make Elsa kind of rusty. And it turned out Olaf had a real arm on him, despite how it was just a giant twig.
The sheer principle of the thing was all that stopped Elsa from dropping more giant snowballs and winning that way. She would not lose fair and square to a two day old snowman, and not winning fair or square would be like losing.
No matter how tempting it was to forget about it.
Yet Elsa and Olaf kept throwing normal sized snowballs at each other, connecting on nearly every one, and still refused to go down. They threw more like machines than snow people and ice queens, and yet none of them slipped, no matter how hard they were struck.
Just when Elsa was ready to suspend her no cheating policy, however, Olaf got dirty first. Namely, by taking his own head off and throwing it right at her.
His head only got Elsa in the chest. But the shock and panic it caused made Elsa go down as much as the impact did.
"I win!" Olaf's head chanted on Elsa's chest. The cloud was still flurrying over him, even now, right in front of her. The sight was so creepy, ridiculous and hilarious all at once - to say nothing of what Elsa let herself do to get to this point.
Finally, the hilariousness won out and she started laughing again.
"Wow, I didn't even tickle you. Not with my body. My mind must be really super powerful!" Olaf wrongly assumed. "It wasn't even thinking to tickle you! Or thinking anything at all!"
"That's not it," Elsa informed, getting up and getting Olaf's head back on his body. "I'm having fun. I haven't had fun in so long. Not since…."
Not since the last time she – and Olaf - were in this room at night. And here they were again.
But by themselves this time.
And all of a sudden, a happy moment turned into something worse. Only Elsa could do that so quickly. Yet it really was warranted now.
"It should have been with Anna."
That one realization was all it took to crush Elsa.
"The first time I had fun in forever….it should have been with her," Elsa rephrased. "All of it should have been with her."
Elsa knelt down, but not because she needed Olaf to look at her. She didn't want to be seen by anyone – that old familiar feeling.
"Why didn't I trust her?" she asked more to herself. "She only acted out….she only wanted Hans….because I shut her out. And she thought it was because of something she did. She thought it was all her fault and she didn't know anything about love, because of, of…."
She caught herself while she still could, but still sniffled out, "I couldn't even give her my first snowball fight. Or tell her I…."
The tears started to fall, but she still had a handle on her sobbing. Barely. There was only one sure fire way to control it, though. Before it became too much for her to live with.
"Don't feel," Elsa went back to her default mode. "Don't feel….con-"
That thought was finished off by Olaf's warmest hug to date.
Elsa's breath, and every other part of her, caught in her throat. She'd been hugged today, but never while she was like this.
Never in so many years. Because of her fear. Her fear that kept her from Anna, more than her powers did. Kept her from her parents, well before they died. Kept her from….
From being hugged and held when she really needed it. No matter how much she hugged herself in her lonelier moments, it wasn't the same. No wonder Olaf….loved warm hugs so, so much.
Just look at his creator.
"It's okay," Olaf said. "You're okay. I got you."
Someone finally had her.
There was no holding back after that.
Elsa cried her heart out over Anna's frozen body, to the point where she could have cried herself out. But she clearly hadn't. In fact, she felt like she was crying even harder now.
She wasn't just crying over Anna and their lost time together this time. She was crying for everything else, too. Including how this was the first time she….could actually cry and let her out pain in someone else's arms.
And once again, the first time she did this should have been with Anna. That just made Elsa cry harder.
It should have been with family.
Except….Olaf was family now.
Technically….Elsa wasn't just his creator. She was his mother.
She kept herself from family for so long – and now, not only did she have one family member back, she gained a new one. A new, scatterbrained, happy-go-lucky one. Who she was bringing down with all her repressed, stupid crying.
"I'm sorry…." Elsa instinctively apologized for her own feelings and pain. But Olaf just kept holding her.
She couldn't even tell if she was freezing him, the room or anything else. Not through her tears. She should have tried, but she couldn't. The room was getting cold and icy, but that wasn't her priority now.
For once, just once….all she wanted was to be comforted and held. By someone other than herself. By family.
Even if Olaf wasn't the family member she should do this with right now.
"I love her, Olaf…." Elsa said in between sobs. "I hurt her so much….with my powers 13 years ago, with them yesterday….and every day in between. But she loves me. Someone actually loves me…."
As pathetic as she sounded, by Queen standards and human standards, Olaf's twig arms didn't let go of her. They still wanted to hold her anyway.
"I don't know anything about love anymore. Except that I love her," Elsa admitted. "And I don't know how to show it to her….other than shutting her out to save her. Now I have to learn and I don't know how….I might not even have time! Now that I'm Queen and I have to fix the whole kingdom, from my freeze, I might be locked from her all over again! I don't want to, but I…"
"Then don't," Olaf said, like it was that simple. "You're the Queen! Who's gonna tell you you can't see Anna? I haven't tried yet, so that's a win right there!"
"It's not…" Elsa refrained from saying 'that simple.' She replaced it with, "just that."
"I need to do so much….tell her so much," Elsa started over. "I don't know if I can. I mean….I can tell you I hurt her in this room when she was five! That I let her lose her memory to trolls and let her lose me too! That I hated shutting her out and I wanted to open the door every day, and I never want her to feel unloved again!"
"I can tell you because you're not Anna! I can't hurt you!" Elsa reasoned. "So I'm being a coward instead of….risking that she'll hurt me. Reject me like she should have in the first place…."
"She wouldn't do that," Olaf assured. "She's the second nicest, gentlest, warmest person ever! Next to you!"
"You don't know me…." Elsa quietly sobbed. "You wouldn't say that if you did…."
"Well, you made me," Olaf recounted. "You made me love warmth and people, and even reindeers too! You saved my life, you're the first person who ever hugged me and played with me, you don't use your powers for cheating in snowball fights, and you're letting me stay in a palace! And you love my best buddy Anna so much! What else do I gotta know?"
There was so much. But it sounded like he didn't care either way.
"Elsa, you're amazing!" Olaf declared. "I didn't have to freeze to know that! We both know Anna feels the same way. She just wants to know you do too."
"With all my heart. What little I still have," Elsa admitted. "And I'm still telling you that instead of her!"
If her and Olaf didn't have their backs turned from the left door of the Great Hall – the left, barely open door that had been slightly open since Anna first peeked into it minutes ago, after hearing the sounds of snowball fighting – Elsa wouldn't have been able to say that.
But Anna barely stopped herself from rushing inside when she saw Elsa play. And look so happy. And then sound so sad. And then admit so many sad, revealing, confusing, long dreamed of things. Yet there she still hid, so she wouldn't make her stop. So anything was possible.
With her hand covered over her mouth, and her eyes still watering, Anna saw her sister and snowman finally let go of each other.
"Olaf, will you do something for me?" Elsa requested.
"Sure! I'll even do anything while I'm at it!" Olaf assured.
"I just need one thing. Just be there for Anna," Elsa hoped. "Even if I can't be. If I don't have time, or I still can't open up, or remember how to be a sister again. No matter what I can or can't do.…I want her to have one friend who would never, ever let her down, leave her alone or let her feel lonely. Can you keep doing that for her? Please?"
"Sure! I'll even make sure Sven and Sven-Kristoff do too while I'm at it!" Olaf promised.
"That reminds me. Whichever one of them is the mountain man, keep an eye on him too," Elsa added. "We need to be extra careful about men who hang around Anna. For a while, anyway."
"As long as he doesn't use swords or grow sideburns, I think he's good," Olaf shared.
"Well, just in case," Elsa settled on. "Hans is the last person who will ever let Anna down again. I don't care how much I have to feel to make that happen."
She reshuffled her priorities and finished, "But you focus more on having fun with Anna. All the fun and protection and love and warmth….I still need to learn how to do. Just promise me you'll always cheer her up after I screw up. Okay?"
"Okay. I promise. Cross my heart," Olaf vowed, taking his carrot nose out to literally cross his chest. Elsa let that go without a word, then the next minute went by without one too.
Now that Elsa's tears were used up and she started feeling normal again, she figured she should take advantage before she was completely normal. "Is there anything you want to do now? Anything you want to play?" Elsa offered.
"Once you have a tickle draw, a snowball head war and acts of love, you can't really top it. Not in one room, anyway," Olaf said. "Maybe I'll have a tickle head war and an act of love draw in the next room!"
"Oh. Okay. Well, we can try and aim for that," Elsa said.
"We?" Olaf looked surprised.
"Sure. I wasn't going to go back to sleep anyway," Elsa recounted. "And I barely know my way around this place myself. Maybe we can barely know our way around it together."
"Yeah! Barely knowing something works!" Olaf interpreted.
Elsa refrained from rolling her eyes and got herself straightened out. Anna almost made a break for it then and there, but fortunately, Elsa took Olaf to the right door instead.
"Wow. Staying up late for me….not letting me wander around in a dark, creepy place alone at night. You really are a mom!" Olaf declared.
Elsa froze up even more than Arendelle had. All from one word.
After not being a sister for 13 years, she already moved up to being a mom? Yet again, she was jumping the gun. Yet again, she was one thing for a snowman when she should have been more to Anna again first.
Yet again, one look at Olaf – and one reminder of what he was, what he'd done and what he represented – softened the blow.
"Olaf…." Elsa breathed out, kneeling down one more time. Meanwhile, Anna tried to stay out of sight and cover her gasps one more time.
"Listen….I don't know how much fun I'm gonna be in the future. How much time I'm gonna have, or how well I can use that time," Elsa warned. "But even if I'm….not like I was tonight….I don't ever want you to think it's because I hate you. I don't want you to think I don't care."
This was everything she should have said to Anna on the first day of the isolation. What she should have said a few hours ago. But at least Elsa could do it right with one person from the start. One family member.
"Anna owes you her life. I think I do too," Elsa said. "So you're always going to be accepted and cared for here. I'll make sure of it, even if I can't be around much. I'll make sure of it because I…."
In this very room, she dismissed Anna being in love with someone she just met, and with good reason. Elsa technically just met Olaf – really met him – in this room too. But this was different, and not because this concerned a different kind of love. An even rarer kind of love for Elsa.
With that, she said the words she hadn't even said to Anna in 13 years. To anyone for a long time. To anyone other than the human part of her family since….forever. "Because I love you."
"Oh…" Olaf gasped the same surprised, heartfelt gasp he did when Anna said she loved Elsa. He did keep his head on, though. "I love you too, Elsa-Mom," he added.
Well, Anna had Elsie as her once and future pet name for her. Maybe Elsa-Mom could work for Olaf. At least in private at first.
Of course, it wasn't private here. In fact, Elsa and Olaf only found privacy once they left the Great Hall hand-in-hand, through the right door. This allowed Anna to finally close the left door.
None of them paid attention to how the room was frozen before, but was completely and utterly thawed now.
Anna had paid attention to other people talking, for once. All the words she had longed to hear from Elsa for so long – although they were directed at Olaf tonight.
But the fact she even felt them….a fact Anna knew was a fact for so long, even when she made herself believe it wasn't on the worst days….
And that stuff she said….about their past. The things she wasn't brave enough to say in front of Anna yet.
Well, she didn't have to be.
"She can tell me when she's ready," Anna vowed to herself, and to Elsa even though she was gone.
Anna made her do, say and feel things she wasn't ready for the last time they were in this room. Just like she did at the ice palace. Like she probably did every time she knocked on the door too.
"Love is putting someone else's needs before your own."
Olaf made Anna see that about Kristoff earlier today. But there was someone else it applied to even more. More than Anna could have ever imagined. But she should have.
It was just starting to kill her that she never did. All because she cared more about her needs and loneliness. All while Elsa was bottling….all that up.
No wonder she felt safer admitting it in front of Olaf. Her snow son. Her fresh start.
Well, if there was any hope of a fresh start as sisters, then Elsa wouldn't be the only one who avoided past mistakes. Or fought like heck to.
At that moment, Anna swore she would never put her needs above Elsa's ever again.
Besides, she could always bug the trolls first for answers on….a few new details, apparently. She certainly had an in with them now – albeit a very slow, nowhere near getting married yet in.
But she could sort that out on her way back to bed.
Naturally, she got sidetracked wandering around, and catching Joan and the paintings up, before she got close to her bedroom door. However, someone else was closer.
"Anna?" Elsa startled her.
"Elsa!" Anna answered, her feet barely on the ground. "What are you…." She didn't finish once she saw Elsa was all alone. "Where's…." She didn't finish once she realized what she'd give away if she did. "What are you doing up?" she split the difference.
"Olaf needed a palace tour. I just finished up," Elsa answered, brushing aside the first reason why she was out of bed. At least for now.
"Oh. Okay. I'll ask him about it tomorrow," Anna decided. "I'll let you go back to sleep now," she restrained herself and let Elsa be for once.
But Elsa was less inclined to accept that than she would have been 24 hours ago. "I'm really glad you're here," she said. "Really, really glad."
Wanting to save the more specific, tragic, teary reasons until at least sunrise, Elsa instead proposed, "I could use a bit of a castle tour myself. Through all the places you played in, scraped your knees on and crashed into. Would….would you mind filling me in?"
Elsa couldn't feel brave enough to tell Anna her most painful truths, so she warmed up on Olaf. She couldn't tell Anna all the worst parts of her 13 years away either – so she'd warm up by hearing Anna's fun parts first.
Anna could do that much for her. She even caught herself from jumping up and spinning her in her arms, right on time.
"I can do that," she said with more reserve by comparison. Elsa merely nodded and followed her down the halls – then got a little braver.
She could hold Olaf's stick hand without freezing it. As it turned out, she could hold Anna's human hand and get the same result.
And she could let Anna provide the same unconditional, surprisingly wise comfort and goofy humor as her….snow son too.
And Anna could hold back from calling her Elsa-Mom too.
For at least two days.
THE END