About a year after having her memory wiped by the trolls, a small Anna roamed the halls, hoping to find her sister before she disappeared back into her room for the next month. As she rounded the corner towards Elsa's bedroom, she discovered Elsa already entering, and shutting the door behind her. Anna leaned against the wall, thinking hard of how to get her sister out of her room, before a foolproof plan popped into her head. Anna walked over semi-casually, tripping over the corner of the rug before stumbling and catching herself. After catching herself, Anna tip-toed the last few steps to her sister's door, before tapping what used to be their secret code knock onto her sister's door.
Knock, knock knock, knock knock, knock. "Do you wanna go ice skating?" Anna sung. "Come on you always stay." Which was partially true. Elsa never went outside with Anna, she only left her room when she was with their father. "I never see you anymore, come out the door, it's like you've gone away." Anna slid her back down the door and looked out the window. Once, she and Elsa had been really close, but then Elsa stopped talking to her, and now she never left her room. "We used to be best buddies, and now we aren't, I wish I could just know why." Anna stood up again, looking through the keyhole of her sister's room. "Do you wanna go ice skating?" She moved her head so that she was singing through it into Elsa's room. "It doesn't have to be ice skating."
"Go away, Anna." Elsa called from somewhere in her room.
"Okay, bye."
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Almost ten years later, a now much older Elsa stood at her window, looking out over the kingdom she'd hopefully one day inherit from her parents. She brushed a few stray strands of curly black hair out of her eyes, reaching her other hand for the necklace that the old rock troll had given her years ago. With a sigh, she turned around, gazing about her room. She heard footsteps walking towards her, and perked up, hoping it was her father, returning from a business voyage to some far-away kingdom. Instead, her mother opened the door.
"Come." She said simply, gesturing out of the room. Reluctantly, Elsa followed her mother into the parlor, where an Anna who seemed just as curious as Elsa did sat in an armchair. Elsa carefully placed herself in an armchair far away from Anna. For a few minutes they waited in silence as their mother looked like she was trying to say something, but couldn't get it out.
"Your father's dead." The queen said sadly, choking a little on her tears. Anna gasped sharply, and Elsa's expression dropped drastically, tears forming in her teal eyes. She put a hand to her mouth in an attempt to keep the immediate sobs in. He can't be dead, she thought desperately.
"How do you know?" Elsa asked, her breathing unstable.
"His ship was found smashed to bits on the Danish shore, no one else survived." The queen sobbed, covering her mouth with her hand. Though Elsa was well aware that her mother had been avoiding her father for years, it pained her to see her mother so sad. They all sat there, tears falling from their eyes and their minds everywhere but where they were right now. The queen was the first to break the heavy silence.
"Come on Elsa." For the first time in a long time, Elsa's mother smiled at her.
"Wai-" Anna began standing up suddenly, but the doors to the parlor had closed, leaving her separated from her big sister once again. For the longest time, Anna had asked both of her parents to see Elsa once again. She was always answered with "She's ill" Or "She can't right now". I'll talk to Mother about it later, Anna told herself, because for right now, she still had her father's death hanging over her head like a dark cloud. At the thought of her father, Anna collapsed back into the armchair, covering her face. This has to be a dream, he'll be back later and this will all be a big joke. But the king did not return later, nor the day after that, or the week after that, or the months that followed that. As the time passed, Elsa was finding it harder to concentrate and control her powers. The king had taken her outside twice monthly, while her mother had always avoided an answer when Elsa asked her if she could go outside. Though it had been years, Elsa was still very confused why her mother had had such a drastic personality change towards her. She never wanted to see or talk about her magic, and she almost regularly acted coldly towards her. Elsa sighed deeply as she lay down on her back on her bed, swirling her hands in front of her, creating tiny little glowing fish that swam in the air in front of her face. Elsa giggled, making them chase one another and form little patterns. Elsa stopped when a sudden knock came at her door.
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Anna had confronted her mother almost every other day for a month about Elsa, and every day the queen didn't answer her, changing the subject or simply ignoring her. On the days she wasn't asking for her mother's permission for Elsa to come out of her room, Anna would knock on her elder sister's door.
"Come on Elsa, Mother doesn't have to know!" Anna said trying to coax her sister out.
"Anna, I'm sorry, but I can't." Elsa sighed from somewhere in the room.
"She'll never know that you left!"
"Anna, please, trust me when I say I would, but I can't."
"Why not?" Anna asked, her voice softening.
"Because I can't." Elsa seemed to be on the mirror side of where Anna stood, and getting more frustrated with her little sister's pestering.
"Why?"
"Because I can't, Anna." She heard Elsa walk deeper into her room, away from the door.
Anna sighed angrily, but as she was about to call her sister back to the door, she heard heavy, heeled footsteps walking towards where she stood in front of Elsa's door. Anna spun and began walking away at a quick pace, determined not to get Elsa or herself in trouble. When Anna turned her head, it was to see her mother gently turning the knob of the door, and walking inside.
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When her mother entered so unexpectedly, Elsa jumped up from where she had she had been sitting on her bed.
"You'll be leaving next week." Her mother walked towards the window on Elsa's left, turning to look at her daughter.
"For where?" Elsa asked.
"France. You have been courted by a royal prince there." The queen sounded neutral, but when Elsa looked closely at her mother she saw what looked like, remorse.
"What?" Elsa shouted, confusion quickly turning into anger despite the emotion she had just watched her mother display. "You really expect me to marry a man I've never met?" Close to Elsa, a water pitcher exploded, sending pieces of ceramics flying in all directions. Elsa jumped, and she saw her mother flinch violently, like she expected something to hit her.
"You will do as I say, and also learn to get a hold on yourself." The queen said angrily, though she still looked afraid.
"I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask for you to ignore me because I didn't ask for this to happen! You've never trusted me! And now you think I'm going to just do as you say? As if I'm some kind of d-" Elsa was cut short as she felt something sharply connect with her face. She reached a hand up to her cheek as the sound of the slap rung through the room. Her mother put her hand down, though the scowl she kept on her face did not soften.
"Don't you ever speak to me like that." The queen's lip quivered as she turned and walked back out of the room. Elsa sunk to her knees, tears falling freely from her eyes as she watched the door close quietly behind her mother, catching a quick glimpse of Anna standing right in front of the door. She knew she had burst out at her mother, and now she felt bad. Elsa clutched the stone around her neck tightly, trying to stifle the sobs threatening to erupt.
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Anna jumped out from behind the door, meeting her mother's eyes as the queen quickly shut the door behind her.
"Anna, I never want to see you eavesdropping again, do you understand me?" The queen asked her youngest coldly.
"Y-Yes Mother." Anna stuttered, before the queen signaled to follow her, and she trailed after her mother.
"Anna?" The queen asked after moments of silence.
"Yes Mother?"
"I think a ball is in place for Elsa's departure."
"That- That would be wonderful, Mother."
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Almost a full week had passed, for the ball was to be held a day before Elsa's departure for the French kingdom. The queen had supervised every one of Elsa's French lessons to ensure that her eldest daughter was becoming fluent in the language she would be speaking for the remainder of her life. Much to Elsa's further dismay, the wedding had already been fully arranged, and to make matters worse, her mother had picked the dress. Her mother also picked the gown Elsa would wear to the ball.
On the day of the ball, Elsa woke up reluctantly to a knocking on her door.
"Anna, I've already told you-"
"I'm not Anna, your highness." Her mother's handmaiden, Gerda, called from the other side of the door.
"Oh, you can come in." Elsa sighed, stretching as the servant hurried into the room, carrying a large pink mess. "What's that?" Elsa asked curiously.
"This is your dress, your highness." The servant bowed.
"Please just call me Elsa." She said, before registering the servant's entire sentence. "My dress?" She said weakly, looking over to the pink mound, which she now saw had some shape.
"Yes, your- Elsa." Gerda said. "And I have orders directly from the Queen to style your hair." Gerda held up a bottle, and Elsa instantly knew it was a bottle of something that would straighten her excessively curly hair. Elsa grunted, she stood and walked over to where the handmaiden was, smiling towards her.
"Let's get this over with." Elsa sighed, picking up the dress to examine it. The skirt and corset where hideous shades of hot pink, and the main shirt and puffy sleeves where a softer but still brighter pink. Underneath the dress, Elsa found a cage of wood, to go under the dress to make sure that it stayed in its preferred style. Overall the dress was something out of Elsa's nightmares, but she still looked to Gerda with kindness.
"And how would mother like my hair to be done?" Elsa asked. Gerda pulled out a magenta hair net and ribbon, and set them alongside the bottle of mystery liquid on Elsa's bed. "This is going to be a long afternoon."
As Elsa struggled into a corset, Anna yawned in her room close to the other side of the castle. Her hair, not having changed, stuck out in all directions. A brief but ringing knock echoed through the room, wakening Anna just the slightest bit to speak understandable English.
"Who is it?" She asked, wiping hair and spit from her mouth.
"It's only me, your highness. It's almost time to get ready." A servant called from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, yeah." Anna's head lolled, and she briefly fell asleep again before sitting straight up again. "Ready for what?"
"Your sister's departure ball, your highness." The servant said.
"My sister's departure ball?" Anna repeated, her eyes opening slightly, before widening. "My sister's departure ball!" She jumped up, before realization dawned on her. "Elsa's departure ball." She looked over towards the mirror, cringing slightly at the state of her hair. Anna sat back down on the bed, now fully awake. Elsa would be leaving, forever. Anna wiped away the small tears in her eyes, and averted her gaze to the dress she had picked out for that night. It had a black corset, with sewn golden motifs and orange off-the-shoulder sleeves, with a red skirt that was similarly patterned orange and yellow. As Anna went to stand up, her mother walked through her door, her expression softer than the when Anna had last seen her yesterday.
"Would you like me to do your hair, darling?" The queen asked her youngest sweetly, sitting down next to her.
"Yes please." Anna said subconsciously, getting up and sitting on the stool at her vanity. As the Queen braided across the top of Anna's head, Anna lost herself in thought of how she was going to spend her last day with her sister.
"M-Mother?" Anna said after several minutes.
"Yes dear?" The queen responded.
"W-Would it be okay if I-I spent the day with E-Elsa?" She sputtered, looking reluctantly into the mirror to see her mother's reaction, but to Anna's surprise, the queen's emotions seemed to not have been changed.
"Of course, it is your last day to see her after all." The queen smiled towards her daughter as she pinned the end if the braid to the side of Anna's head to keep it in place. The queen moved to the back of Anna's head and began to braid the hair there, too. Anna sat still while her mother twisted to braid into a bun, giddy with excitement about her mother finally letting her spend the day with Elsa.
"Thank you so much!" Anna jumped up, crushing her mother in a hug, before running over to her dress, beginning to put it on.
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Elsa stood in front of her vanity mirror, her mind far from admiring the reflection. The maid had used the mystery oil to straighten Elsa's hair to the point where it looked greasy, before putting it in an extremely uncomfortable bun at the base of her skull and covering it in the hideous magenta hair net that she had brought with her. After Elsa's hair had been tamed, Gerda had taken to applying heavy amounts of red blush and eye shadow and lipstick, giving Elsa a doll-like look. Her hair and face matched with the dress that had taken hours to put on, Elsa felt a little bile rise up in her throat, before swallowing it and turning toward her mother, who had walked in moments before.
"You look wonderful." The queen said, her hands clasped in front of her. Elsa smiled, though resisted the urge to shout at her mother. "I have a surprise for you." The queen spoke again, and Elsa whirled around to face her mother.
"What kind of surprise?" Elsa asked suspiciously.
"At Anna's request, you two will spend the day together." Her mother smiled at her again, though her eyes warned her to not do anything dangerous.
"Thank you, Mother." Elsa said, averting her eyes from her mother's gaze. She was ecstatic though that she would finally be able to speak to Anna.
"You are to meet with Anna in ten minutes in the parlor." The queen walked over so that she was face-to-face with her daughter. She raised her hand slightly, as if she was going to touch Elsa's cheek, but she quickly froze, bringing her hand down to her side and turning to walk out the door.
"I won't hurt her." Elsa told her mother clearly. The queen nodded, quietly opening and closing the door, leaving behind an over-excited daughter.