It was the middle of the night, a week after the "Great Thaw". Elsa and Anna were sleeping in Elsa's bedroom, as they had been all week, neither willing to leave the other for long periods after such a lengthy separation. Also Anna was still worried about her sister, she had been frightened and isolated for so long, that Anna simply could not believe there was no lasting effect and so far their nights together had proved her right. Each night Elsa had been plagued by nightmares and Anna had discovered the only sound in the kingdom that could reliably wake her, Elsa's small whimpers during her sleep.
Sometimes they both awoke at the same time and Anna would be faced with a frightened and teary Elsa, who would collapse into her and cry herself back to sleep as Anna rocked her gently and stroked her hair. In the morning however Elsa would already be up and at least dressed, if not already gone, when Anna woke up and when Anna was able to get her alone to question her, Elsa simply brushed off her concerns as a natural by-product of recent events and nothing for Anna to be concerned with. This did not settle Anna however and after a few nights Elsa was persuaded to share the content of her nightmares which were, as Anna expected, about losing control of her powers and hurting Anna again. So Anna resolved to be patient, keep reassuring her sister and help her recover from her long ordeal.
Tonight when Anna awoke in the moonlight and reached for her sister, she paused just before shaking Elsa awake. Her sleepy mind registered the noise she had just heard coming from her sister was not exactly distressed. Anna was completely unsure of what to do, if Elsa was having a nightmare she had to help her, however the noise sounded very different to the previous nights. It was more of a moan than a whimper, and Anna suspected the cause may not be a nightmare this time. The last thing she wanted was to make Elsa embarrassed and risk the already closed off woman isolating herself when she was just beginning to learn to open up.
Anna was blushing furiously as Elsa let out another breathy moan and her hips rolled a little. Anna decided the best thing she could do right now was to pretend to be asleep and ignore whatever was happening next to her, unless it sounded as if Elsa was distressed. So she lay back down and closed her eyes as her sister moaned and moved erotically next to her, Anna could not help but listen and reasoned with herself she had to listen to make sure Elsa was ok. As Elsa's moaning picked up and her hips moved more Anna was disturbed to find herself becoming aroused, this was her sister and Queen, but her body was responding without her consent and she found herself flushed as her core grew wetter by the second.
Anna was extremely relieved when Elsa's body tensed and she let out a last breathy sound, before she relaxed and slumped back in bed. The relief was short lived however, a second later she heard and felt Elsa sit up in bed with a shocked gasp before Anna heard the worst sound in the world to her, Elsa's soft sob muffled against her hand. Immediately Anna sat up and drew her sister into her, she had no idea why Elsa was upset, and there was still the possibility of Elsa freaking out, so she remained quiet and simply comforted her sister once again.
Anna had decided not to discuss what she had witnessed, to spare Elsa the embarrassment of knowing Anna had seen her having an erotic dream. They were making good progress, growing more comfortable with each other but Anna worried that such personal discussions, at such an early stage, could cause Elsa to withdraw again. She told herself this would just be a one off occurrence and although Elsa was upset when she woke, it would be a minor glitch in Elsa's recovery that would resolve itself as Elsa generally improved.
When she woke up for the third night in a row to find her sister moaning softly next to her, Anna realised this could not be ignored. Elsa was no longer having nightmares, which could be seen as an improvement, but each night she was just as upset as she had been after the bad dreams. Anna was baffled as to how something that seemed so enjoyable in Elsa's subconscious, could cause her so much heartache when she awoke and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
The next day Anna's every waking moment was consumed with figuring out what to do to help Elsa. Maybe she had been having nightmares after all, but it certainly did not seem that way. How was Anna supposed to broach this subject with her sister? And was Anna even sure she should talk to Elsa about it? Maybe allowing Elsa to work through it on her own was for the best after all, maybe Elsa would be more comfortable with that.
"No." Thought Anna, Elsa had not wanted to deal with everything alone and Anna would be brave enough to show her she could confide in her about anything and everything without any fear. She would deal with her own embarrassment, be open with Elsa and hopefully this would encourage her to share whatever had upset her. Anna was satisfied with her plans but now she just had to get Elsa to talk to her, a feat in itself at the best of times.
Anna waited until they were tucked up in Elsa's bed that night, she was cuddling into Elsa's side as she read, and took a deep breath before she addressed her sister. "Elsa?"
"Hmm." Elsa replied.
"What were you dreaming about the last few nights?" Anna asked, apparently all her planning and thinking through the day made no difference anyway, she just blurted it out like she always did. She felt Elsa stiffen and looked up to find her sisters cheeks blazing and her eyes furtively travelling over anything in the room except Anna, "It's just they don't seem like a nightmares, but you wake up and start crying and I just wondered, well, why?"
"I thought you woke up when I did." Elsa said quietly, as she turned to face Anna with a look of horror on her pale face, one hand coming up to her chest.
Anna looked down sheepishly as she replied, "I kinda woke up a bit earlier but it didn't exactly seem like a bad dream, so I didn't want to wake you."
"Oh" Was Elsa's only response as she went back to looking around her bedroom again and avoided Anna's attempt to catch her eye by sitting up a little more. When Anna realised Elsa wasn't going to say anymore, or look at her, she started talking again.
"You can tell me you know, we agreed no more secrets and there isn't anything you could say that would make me think less of you. I mean you're so clever and magic and beautiful and I think you're amazing, so, you know, you can tell me and it will be okay, I just want to help you and I mean with everything, you're my sister and I really missed you and I really want to know everything about you, like really, really, and I'm going to stop talking now." Anna kept her sister held tightly around her waist as she spoke and looked up with pleading eyes, even though Elsa still wasn't looking at her. She was worried that given even the slightest opportunity, Elsa wouldn't be able to resist the urge to run as she had before.
Elsa couldn't help but smile slightly at her sisters rambled insistence, it was really very sweet of her and just another example to Elsa of how wonderful her sister truly was. Here she was a week after shutting her out, for literally years, before fleeing completely and leaving her with an entire kingdom to worry about. All that and she still followed Elsa and managed to rescue her from herself, Anna was the amazing one in Elsa's eyes. She wanted to be open with Anna but how could she possibly talk to her younger sister about sexual matters, Elsa could barely admit to the contents of her nightmares, when it was obvious what they would be about. Now her sister was asking about something she had never considered discussing with another person, let alone her dear, sweet, little sister.
Anna waited patiently but her sister seemed to be getting lost in her head more and more, rather than preparing to share. After a few more minutes' silence she felt compelled to try again and, as always, let whatever entered her head, leave again quickly by way of her mouth. "Elsa, please talk to me. I know I'm not a love expert or anything, oh, but we do know love experts, do you want to talk to them? Because I can talk to Kristoff and Sven, ask them to take us, or you, or whatever. But you can talk to me too, I'll try and help, I really want to. Elsa?" Anna had lowered her eyes while speaking but looked up as she finished and finally met her sister's eyes. Elsa was even paler than usual behind the remaining blush on her cheeks but she had a small smile on her face, which Anna couldn't help but return.
Elsa held Anna's gaze for a long moment before sighing and looking at her fingers which were twisting in her lap. "Anna, it's not that I don't trust you to help but I don't think there is anything anyone can do about this, I'm afraid. I understand if you want to sleep separately," Elsa felt her voice go shaky at the idea of returning to spending her nights alone and swallowed thickly, before quietly adding, "I'm sorry Anna, there are some things that can't be fixed."
Anna felt Elsa try to pull away but wrapped both her legs around Elsa's closest leg and squeezed her waist even tighter. Elsa struggled for only a moment before she relaxed again, knowing from previous experience trying to leave would just involve physically dragging Anna around the castle, her little sister certainly had an impressive grip.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who said anything about sleeping separately? We can work this out, I'm sure of it. You just need to tell me what the problem actually is and we will fix it, there must be some way, there's always a solution. Now what is it that upsets you?" Said Anna, sitting up and fixing her sister with as authoritative a glare as she could muster, with her hair sticking up at odd angles and a little drool crusted on her collar.
Despite her worry Elsa couldn't help but giggle at her sister's appearance and when she went to bring a hand up to cover her mouth, Anna caught it and brought it down to Elsa's lap where she squeezed it and kept it held tightly in her own. Elsa's eyes followed her hand until it settled, then she finally looked her sister in the eye and held her gaze.
Anna beamed at Elsa and squeezed her hand again as she softly said, "You don't need to hide Elsa, you have a beautiful smile, I want to see it a lot more." Anna was desperately trying to convey her feelings to Elsa, to make her view Anna as unshakeable, able to support her. Anna knew Elsa was listening, but she wasn't sure her sister could properly understand what Anna was saying to her and it made Anna very sad for Elsa.
Elsa looked at their joined hands in her lap and held Anna's a little tighter as she tried to gather the courage to speak about something so personal. Rationally she knew she had no reason to fear sharing anything with Anna, no matter how intimate, but she had never had a confidant before and found herself unable to vocalise what was troubling her. Eventually she looked back up and into her sister's eyes, which were solemn and kind. This gave Elsa the reassurance she needed to draw one last deep breath and start to explain another of the limitations her powers caused.
"Well…you see…the thing is…I can't…well…umm…" Even with her new resolve to share actually doing it was still proving difficult and Elsa huffed in frustration at her inability to articulate herself.
She reflexly tried to pull her hand away from her sister again but was caught by surprise when it was instead suddenly tugged and she found herself off tipped balance and falling for a moment before her face was pressed into the soft warmth of her sister's chest.
"Sorry" Anna stated sheepishly "But you should be coming closer, not pulling away" Her voice was soft and as she spoke she released Elsa's hands only to surround her sister with her arms, providing a cocoon of warmth and protection to the troubled Queen. Anna felt as Elsa released a relieved sigh and nuzzled into her a little more, her arms moving instinctively to return the embrace as she allowed herself to relax. Anna smiled at this and squeezed her sister a little, silently urging her to continue and after another long moment of Elsa simply enjoying the hug, she did.
