Without looking up from the breakfast roll that she was spreading with cheese, Anna asked, "So, Elsa. 'Sleep' well last night?" She turned her head so that Nils and Helga couldn't see her raised eyebrow.

"Why yes. Very well." Elsa was the picture of sophisticated grace as she buttered her rye bread. Nothing except a glitter in her eye and the trace of a smile gave anything away. "I can't remember a more pleasant night's sleep. In fact, I'd say I was very thoroughly…rested."

"Really? You weren't tossing and turning?"

"I must admit I may have thrashed around a bit. But in the end there's nothing like having a soft cushion next to me, to help me relax."

Anna shoved the roll in her mouth to plug the giggles.

"Are you all right, Anna? Do you need a glass of water?" asked Elsa, her expression politely concerned.

Anna waved away Helga and the water pitcher. Around the mouthful of bun she mumbled, "Mmo fank you, I'm fine." She swallowed. "I just really liked that roll." She wiped her mouth with a napkin and turned to her sister. "Pleasant dreams, then?"

Smiling but not playful, Elsa said, "Yes. I was dreaming of you."

Anna's urge to giggle abruptly vanished. Seeing her expression, Elsa dipped her head and focused on her plate. They ate in silence.

"So. Elsa." Anna sipped her juice, moistening her suddenly-dry mouth. "Any plans for this morning?"

"Reports to read, petitions to consider. And speaking of reports, you might want to get started on those briefing notes I left for you. You'll be Princess Regent in a month, you know." Elsa smiled proudly and confidently at her sister.

Anna looked down at the table thoughtfully, then up at Elsa. "So just paperwork today? That's it? For both of us?"

"If you have any questions you know you can come to me anytime."

Anna paused, then brightened. "Sure. I'll look at those notes, then pop in on you. In your private study, right?"

"Of course."

"Of course," Anna echoed, and set to work on her breakfast.


Elsa was reading through a budget request from the Councillor for Schools and Orphanages while doodling frost patterns with her pinky on her desk blotter, when she heard a rapid knocking at her door.

"It's me," said Anna in a slightly-too-loud voice. "I'm just here to discuss those notes with you."

Just the distraction she needed. "Come in, Anna."

Anna opened the door a crack, slipped through it, and quickly closed it behind her. She was carrying her papers, and had a cloth bag slung over her shoulder. She glanced furtively from side to side.

Elsa smiled indulgently. "Anna, there's no one in here but me. Or in my outer office. Who are you hiding from?"

"I think you mean, 'From whom are you hiding?'," said Anna, and slid dramatically to the chair across from Elsa's desk.

Elsa's smile deepened. I knew it'd sink in eventually. "But what are you doing?"

"I'm here to 'review my notes'. Like you suggested this morning?"

"Then why are you skulking around like…" she chuckled, "…Finn Rejdersen?"

Anna turned to face her directly. "Didn't you want me to help you?"

"With what?"

Anna held up a couple of bonnets and cloaks from her bag. "With sneaking you out so you could see Ingrid off, incognito. Her ship leaves in just over an hour." Anna saw the blank look on Elsa's face, and dropped the disguises back in the bag. "That…wasn't a hint this morning?"

"No, I really did plan to do paperwork this morning." With a little more emphasis she added, "And I really did think it'd be a good idea for you to review those notes."

Anna looked at her, wide-eyed. "You're not seeing her off?"

"I hadn't planned to."

"But she'll be gone for a month."

"I didn't think it'd be necessary." Elsa smiled a little naughtily. "I think she had a pretty good send-off last night."

Anna huffed. "Even so. She's going off to infiltrate the Southern Isles. For a month. Don't you care?"

"Of course I do. But she reassured me last night that she'd be fine. I don't think she'd take offense if I didn't make a fuss."

Anna couldn't understand how Elsa could be so calm. "Of course she wouldn't take offense. She's…she's so Ingrid! I don't think she knows how to take offense. But don't you feel, you know…"

"Go on."

"Don't you like her?"

Elsa straightened in her chair. "Of course I like her. Very much. She's a very good friend. Next to you she's my best friend. I'm…very fond of her."

"But don't you feel at all…" Anna's hands flailed as she groped for words. "…sentimental?"

Elsa looked away. "I can't afford to be sentimental. Not with her."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?" Elsa's irritation flared for a moment, then faded to reveal the sadness beneath it. "She's already attached to me. I don't want her falling in love." Her voice tapered off. "Not while I'm still in love with you."

"Y'know, I've been meaning to talk to you about that."

Elsa's eyes were kind, but tired. "We've talked so much, what more can we say?"

"I think, maybe, you might not be as in love with me that way. Anymore. Maybe."

She blinked. "Anna, I know what I feel."

"Well, maybe not so much." Anna leaned across the desk towards her. "Sometimes I think maybe you're in love with the idea of me. Or even the idea of being in love with me."

"You think I made this up?"

"No! Of course not. Not to begin with, anyway. But maybe this big, dramatic doomed love of yours is so big that it's not really attached to me anymore. I mean," she held up one hand in a grand gesture, "a tragic passion that will echo through the ages, and," she held up her other hand just above the table, "…me. Just me. I love that you love me, and you know that I love you, but I'm not Guinevere. I'm not Isolde, or Juliet, or whatever. I'm not 'the sun that blots out the stars and illuminates your soul.' I'm not the best or smartest or prettiest or nicest…anything." She shrugged. "I'm just me."

"Anna, don't say that. You're very special. You're—"

"Elsa, there's nothing wrong with me being me. I like being me. But I'm not as dramatic as you."

Elsa sat back. "You think I dramatize things?"

"No, I mean you are dramatic, just by being you. You're someone to be dramatic about. You're so…I don't know. I mean me, I'm not like you. I'm not…" She sat up with a stern expression and a scolding finger, in a parody of regal command. "And I'm certainly not…foosh!" She pantomimed firing ice magic from her hands. "You're bigger than life. I'm lifesize. And like I said, that's okay."

"But you're my hero, Anna. You're brave, and heroic, and determined, and loyal… You were ready to sacrifice your life to save mine. You were ready to sacrifice…other things, too."

Anna shook her head. "I was just doing things I had to do. But you look at this bigger-than-life love thing between us, and I don't know if you can see me behind it."

Elsa brought her hands together, prayer-wise, and touched her fingertips to her lips. She has a point. I've thought about this for so long, for so often, maybe I've given it a life of its own. She looked up at her sister. "Anna, come here please," she asked gently.

Anna walked around the desk and stood in front of her. "What is it?"

"You may be right. I'd like to test that. May I have your hand, please?"

"Wait, what?"

"Just your hand. Just you, just me. With your permission, I'm going to see if those feelings are really there, and not simply in my head." She took a quick, shuddering breath. "Just your hand. Nothing else. If that's okay. If you trust me."

Anna read the calm in Elsa's face and knew there was tension behind it. "Okay, I suppose." She offered the back of her hand to Elsa as if she was approaching a nervous cat.

Elsa cradled Anna's hand in both of hers. Softly, she kissed the hand, brushing and caressing the soft skin with her lips. She stroked her cheek against it, and against the fingers. She gently wrapped the fingers around her hand and kissed each finger in turn. She turned it over and cupped the palm against her cheek, stroking her own face as if Anna was tenderly stroking it, one cheek and then the other. She nuzzled the moister, softer skin of Anna's palm, then inhaled and caught a tantalizing trace of sweat evaporating there. She cupped Anna's hand to her mouth, feeling the fingers warm and soft against her face. She kissed the palm, then each finger, her lips lovingly embracing each one in turn. No teeth, no tongue, no pressure, only the gentlest caress her lips could manage. She put Anna's fingers over her nose and mouth and inhaled, air filtering between the digits. As Elsa moaned, Anna felt Elsa's lips vibrating against her hand. Elsa's lips slid down to the tips of the fingers. She was about to take one in her mouth and suckle it when Anna pulled her hand away.

Elsa snapped out of her reverie and looked up at Anna, startled and guilty, her eyes pleading for forgiveness. She saw the shock and discomfort in Anna's face before they both turned away in embarrassment.

"I, um, okay then," said Anna. She held her hand awkwardly at her side, furiously fighting the urge to break Elsa's heart by wiping it vigorously against her skirt. "I'm, you know, sorry for doubting you. You were right." She stumbled quickly back to her chair, putting the desk between her and Elsa.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. It…we…it was a thing we did, and we did it, and now we know. It's okay."

"Anna. Please be honest with me."

She had never seen Elsa look so vulnerable. "Of course."

"When you… When you fixed me up with Ingrid. And just now, when you wanted me to go see her off. Were you…"

Anna leaned forward and spoke softly. "Elsa. You can tell me. Go ahead."

"Were you…trying to get rid of me?"

"I don't follow."

Elsa took a deep breath, then spoke in a rush. "Were you trying to fob me off on someone else so I wouldn't be in love with you anymore? Were you trying to get me to leave you alone? And not bother you anymore?"

Anna leaned over the desk and took Elsa's hands. "No, Elsa, no. It's not like that."

"It disturbs you. I could see it in your face."

"I was never trying to get rid of you. I just wanted to help you. You were doing okay back then, but I could see you were still sad and I thought it'd be nice for you to have someone to do…that stuff with. And with you and Ingrid getting on so well, I wanted it to, you know, keep going on well. But I'd never ever want to get rid of you." Elsa smiled at her, relieved. "I'm just glad there's someone else who can help you with your affliction."

The expression on Elsa's face slammed shut. "My what."

Uh oh. "Your…" oh god oh god oh god oh god "…little problem. Inconvenience. Thing."

"Affliction. You think my love for you is an affliction."

"Well…" Anna smiled uncomfortably.

"You think I'm sick."

Anna stood, and started pacing. "It's not like you can help it. I mean, you're not a bad person. You're a good person. But it is kind of unnatural. And, sort of, not entirely…sensible."

"You think I'm insane."

"No!"

"I could see it. In your expression, just now, when you pulled your hand away."

"I was scared. And overwhelmed. But not like that. When I saw how you were reacting… Do you know what it's like to have that kind of power over someone you love, but a power that you can't really control? And you want to help but you're afraid of hurting her? Do you know how scary that is?" She shook her head. "Oh perkele, of course you do. Forget I said anything." And to herself, "Shut up, Anna."

"You think it's unnatural. You think it's madness."

"Well, yeah, but so do you! I mean, that's what you said."

Elsa stood up. "That's different!"

"Why?"

"I don't know!" She stepped back, turned away. "I don't know. I'm sorry." Still looking at the floor, she asked, "Anna, what time is it?"

They had made a rule never to go more than twenty-four hours without speaking to each other.

Anna looked at the wall clock. "Just after ten thirty."

"I'll see you by ten thirty tomorrow. Tell Kai to have my lunch brought here, please."

Anna took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. "I'll do that. I'm sorry, Elsa."

"Tomorrow."

Elsa sat down again. Anna reached the door and turned. She paused. She opened her mouth to say something, stopped herself, and sighed. "Tomorrow." She closed the door behind her.


That afternoon Anna was curled up in an armchair in the castle's library, reading a biography of Jeanne d'Arc and sipping tea, when she heard the door open. Without looking up she said, "I'm not done my tea, Nils, come back later."

"It isn't Nils."

"Elsa!" She jumped up, ran to her sister, and hugged her. "It's great to see you. And so soon. You do know I'm sorry, right? I didn't mean any of those things I said, and I'm so sorry about—"

"It's not that." Elsa detached herself and took a step back. "But thank you. Those things you said were true. It just hurt hearing them out loud. Hearing them from you." She looked down and away, then up at Anna. "Would you mind sitting down? There's something I'd like you to look at."

"Sure." Anna returned to her armchair. The other armchair was on the far side of the room, so Elsa conjured a straight-backed chair of ice for herself. She handed a small slab of ice to Anna, and sat down.

Déjà vu. The rectangular slab was about half the size of the book she was reading. It was plain, except for angular letters inside which read:

If you were not queen

nor I a servant,

I'd be your servant

and you my queen.

"Huh." Anna thought it over, holding the piece of ice away from her so it wouldn't drip in her lap. She looked up at Elsa and smiled awkwardly. This again. "This is very sweet, of course, but I think I'm missing something. Maybe my head's still stuck in French," she said, waving the ice at the book she was reading, then stopping before she dripped water on it, "but I don't see what you're getting at. I mean, I'm not a queen. I'm not even Princess Regent yet."

"What? Oh. I see. No, it wasn't for you. It was for me."

"Oh. Good." Anna sighed. "I didn't want to say it, but it's not your best work. Ice-wise."

Elsa chuckled ruefully. "No, it's not mine. It's from…" She tilted her head, shrugged.

"Ingrid? Yeah. Um, would you mind?" She passed the dripping ice back to Elsa, who took it back and refroze it.

"She left it with Olaf for me." Elsa tapped the ice message against her thigh. "So."

Anna nodded. "Yeah. That whole 'don't let Ingrid fall in love with me' thing? I kind of think that ship has sailed. So to speak." Elsa nodded and looked down, her thick white braid falling forward. Anna looked at the ice message again. "Say, do you think she was copying the ice sculpture you sent to me that one time? Because, you know, that was sweet even if it did mess things up for a while. Or was she thinking, 'Hey, Elsa likes ice,' so…ice?"

Elsa shook her head, trying to clear it. "I don't know. Does it matter?"

"I guess not. But it does make sense. I mean, she is your Elsa."

"My…what?"

"Your Elsa. She's your Elsa."

"No, I heard you, I just don't follow."

"She's your Elsa, and you're her Anna." Elsa continued to look blankly at her. "Not exactly, because you two do things that you and I never did, quite. And I love you while you just like her a lot, but you do care about her. Anyway, you're in the same position with her that I am with you, and vice versa. She loves you in a way you can't love her back, and you care about her and want her to loosen up and have fun, but you don't want to hurt her by giving too much. That's about it, right?"

Elsa's eyes lit up. "You're saying that you know what I'm going through."

"Yeah."

"And you can tell me what to do."

Anna bit her lip. "Well, that's where the wheels fall off the wagon. I wish I could but I'm still making this up as I go along." She smiled gently and patted Elsa's knee. "But I can listen, and understand."

Elsa put her hand on Anna's hand as relief lit up her face. "Thank you, Anna. That would help. A lot."

Oh god, I hope it does, thought Anna behind her comforting smile.