Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen.
--X--
Chapter one: It's Burning!
Sunlight entered through a giant window on the far wall of an equally spacious bedroom. Advancing slowly, the light crawled its way toward the centerpiece of the room. A queen sized bed.
The warm touch of the morning sun finally reached the bed, tickling its occupant with gentle rays.
"hnn!" A figure ducked under the covers, escaping the rays and very well planning to continue its slumber.
"Princess Anna?"
The figure sank even deeper into the bed, forming a sizeable lump on its surface.
"Princess Anna," said a voice behind the doors, "are you not awake yet?"
"I'm awake," came the muffled answer, "go away!"
"Princess, you need to be presentable to attend the queen's coronation!" argued the person behind the doors.
That did the trick. Covers ripped away, the figure came into view. It was a girl in her teenage years, fair skin decorated with freckles here and there. Her most remarquable feature was her flaming red hair, currently ressembling a lion's mane rather than a princess'.
"How can I be sleeping in on a day like this?" she asked herself while rapidly going through her morning routine—which is not worth narrating—before shooting off the doors and into the halls. She noted briefly that the one who had woken her up was nowhere to be seen, they probably heard her going on her little rickus and left.
'The coronation!' she could barely believe it. After so many years of her monotone daily life, something finally shifted. A change in her never ending scenery. She was so moved she could sing! Sing about the doors opening for the first time in forever, about meeting people other than the castle staff, about seeing her sister after so many years apart!
"I—" just when she was about to express her extreme bout of joy in a musical number, her stomach warned her of a frequent occurence in her case: she was hungry.
Deciding to ignore it—for once—she went out the rarelly opened doors to enjoy her first sortie out of the castle for more than a decade.
People, so many of them. Having grown up with none but a handfull of persons—and even then she knew them since she was able to wander the hallways—she found herself awfully happy to be surrounded by so many persons. Of course, a part of her was afraid but that was just an infinitely small part of her that she immediately discarded.
She passed by dignitaries, dukes, wealthy and poor people coming into the castle and interacting with each other in a rare display of camaraderie between different social classes and standings. All because they each wanted one thing. To see the new queen, to see who's going to rule and guide them. They wanted to see her sister.
She chuckled, "If I knew all it'd have taken was a fourth of the kingdom coming, dressed in fancy suits to draw her out of that room… "
She was near the western docks. Where those from the Southern Isles and its neighbouring kingdoms were acosting. She went to go forward—to go inspect some ships since she's never seen one up close before. But her stomach called out to her again, loudly this time. She reminded herself she had not taken her breakfast that morning. She bit her lips, looking to the fjord and to the direction of the castle. After a few moments, she made up her mind.
She turned to the castle. She would be out a lot more now. No need to see everything in one go, and she was already late anyway.
So, off she went to the castle. Just when a young lad appeared near the docks, ambitions and cunning mind hidden behind perfect smiles and excessive politeness.
--X--
Elsa walked the hallways, trying her best to remain calm and regal while knowing she would be put under the closest scrutiny during that dreaded coronation. For many, it was a joyful day. A day where their kingdom would finally be under the lead of its rightful dirigeant.
For her, it was only the culminating point of years of hard work—not only in the control of her ice magic but also the endless nights she spent studying, practicing. And of course, her ultimate sacrifice—she stopped, shook her head slightly, then continued. She couldn't afford to immerse herself in those thoughts for the time being.
"Gah!" came a shout down the hallway. Just about the corner she was rounding.
Then, when she went to investigate the matter, a girl in a green dress barreled right into her. Thankfully, she didn't quite lose her footing but it was a close call.
The girl's arms were around her neck, while her head was buried in the crook of her shoulder. Her own arms snaked around the girl's waist, steadying her.
She was so shocked she didn't even notice she was touching another human being for the first time since a decade. She didn't know if it was her situation or something else entirely but being in that girl's arms, at that single moment in time, felt like she retrieved something she never knew she lost. It felt as if a void in her soul had been filled, like her whole existence—all her suffering, all her sacrifices—had a meaning. And that meaning was this moment, this girl.
The second that thought passed through her mind, she pushed the girl back. Only to widden her eyes as she looked into those of the girl's.
"A-Anna?" she stuttered, mystified. She couldn't seem to find her words, still under her sister's bewitching stare.
Finally, after an eternity of only a few blinks. She spoke, "Elsa… it's burning."
--X--
Earlier…
Anna arrived at the castle, using her years of practice, she blinked in and out into the castle without arousing much attention.
Once inside, she went to go the kitchen. The walls were especially lovely that day. She supposed they brought out those old dusty paintings in an effort to impress some foreign dignitaries—since the immense castle full of priceless antiquities apparently wasn't enough.
She spotted several plates of food on stylized silver trays ahead of her. Not a soul within hearshot. In fact, the hallway seemed pretty deserted.
'Who would notice if one lonely plate disapeared?' creeping closer, she lifted the lid of one random plate. Soup.
She took a spoon and tasted it, "Gah!"
Her eyes watered, her face reddened. She dropped the spoon and looked around for some quantity of water. Seeing none, she bolted down the hallways. Rounding a corner, she collided with an unsurrending object. Which is actually a person. Who is quite soft. And comfy. And who smelled like nothing she's ever smelled.
'Paradise,' she decided. It smelt like paradise.
Feeling the taller woman holding her like the most precious thing in the world made her feel strange. A combination happiness and sadness. Especially happiness. It was so weird, she felt tears coming out but the only thing she could feel was overwelming happiness.
The feeling was so potent, and she was so lost in them that she didn't register the woman pulling away untill she looked into impossibly blue eyes.
"A-Anna?"
Hearing that voice, saying her name for the first time in years, her brain stopped working and her heart stalled.
"Elsa…" she heard herself talk, "It's burning."