Hello! :) Thanks so much for all your fave's and follows and reviews :D You guys are too kind.
Whelp, here's the second part...yeah.
Hope you enjoy :)
Anna said no. Anna had said no to marrying the love of her love? Elsa shook her head at the absurd thought as she climbed the stairs. But it's not absurd. She really had said no, at least that's what Kristoff said.
"But why?" The blonde hurried her pace, determined to come to terms of this…mess.
She needed to fix it. Something must've happened. There's no other reason. Did Kristoff do something wrong? Elsa shook her head while she climbed the stairs two at a time. That wouldn't stop Anna from spending the rest of her life with him. He speaks for his reindeer. He licked Flemmy the fungus troll's forehead their first Christmas together, for Freya's sake! And he always eats a carrot right after his reindeer does, no matter how many times they've asked him to stop. He's a…weird person, that's for sure. But what he's done had never put Anna off before. Elsa knew her sister loved Kristoff as much as she loved chocolate. Actually, she loved him more than even that. Elsa picked up her skirt when she crested the stairs and ran the rest of the way to her sister's room.
She came face to face with a closed door.
"Anna?" she called before reaching to turn the nob, not bothering to knock.
The door didn't budge. Elsa came up short, her eyes widened with worry. Anna's never locked the door before…
"Anna?" her ear met the door, straining to hear something, anything. Muffled sobs wormed their way to Elsa's hearing. "Anna?" she stood back, willing the door to open, for her sister to open it. "Anna, open the door. Please." three quick raps against the door followed her plea. "Let me in, I can help. What happened?"
Her little sister either chose to ignore her, or couldn't hear her. Elsa bit her lip hoping the latter was true, and glanced to the side to her own bedroom door. She ran towards it, praying to any and all gods she knew that Anna hadn't locked the door that lead to their shared dressing room.
Elsa burst through her door, making a beeline through her room to the dressing room. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she saw into Anna's room. Her crying was more audible now. Without stopping to think or breathe, Elsa jogged past colourful cloth and entered Anna's room. The redhead lay on her bed on her stomach, clutching a pillow that she was crying into. Her shoulders shook with unbridled sorrow and her breath came in short broken sobs. Elsa took this all in as she hastened to her sister's side.
"Anna?"
This time she got a response. Anna looked up from her pillow, eyes red and puffy and it seemed like her tears started to flood out with renewed gusto when she met her sister's concerned gaze.
"Elsa –" she sucked in a quick breath, her chest constricting with her sorrow. "h-he…w-we…" she sobbed, clutching her pillow. Her eyes widened in sudden fear when all she could manage when trying to breathe were shallow gasps. "I-I can't – bre-athe!"
The eldest wiped her mind of the alarm and magic she felt building inside of her. "Okay…" she stepped towards her panicking sister. "Okay. You need to listen to me, alright?"
Anna nodded through a heaving chest. Her dress suddenly felt too tight around her chest. Her lungs burned worse than that one time she had accidentally inhaled fine pepper powder. Like then, they struggled to cooperate with the simplest command: just breathe.
"Sit up." Elsa instructed as soon as she stood before Anna, holding her hands out for her sister to take. She then kneeled before her when Anna's shaking hands clasped onto her cool palms. With a shuddering breath that was shortening by the second, she sat up on her bed, feet dangling off the side. The distraught young woman clung to supportive hands like a life line, eyes wild with mounting panic. Chest heaving frantically, trying to suck in enough air.
"El-Elsa," she gasped, "I-I c-can't –"
"Now, take a deep breath in." Elsa breathed in slowly, encouraging her now hyperventilating sister to follow her lead. Anna's breath was increasingly ragged and much too short, but after she received a comforting smile she forced herself to relax. She was in capable hands now. She wasn't alone. Anna managed to fill her lungs after a while of sucking it in. The air quivered inside her, barely making it through her tight throat.
"Hold it for a while. Release."
Anna exhaled with her sister's guidance. Her eyes where screwed closed as she focussed on what she could hear and feel. Her sister's cool hands and soothing voice.
"Breathe in." she instructed with a calm she was far from feeling, before she inhaled audibly. Worried eyes never left her sister's face flitting through so many emotions, Elsa had lost count. "And out…"
Anna's breathing evened out after a few more repetitions, becoming less and less uneven and shallow. With every passing moment, Elsa could read the signs of Calm starting to take Panic's place. Her magic stilled, like a cat lounging in the sun with its tails twitching, alert but subdued. Soon Annawas breathing normally, but sniffing all the while. Puffy teal eyes opened and saw a blurry Elsa watching her with open concern.
"Better?" her big sister asked with a wan smile.
The youngest nodded. Satisfied that she had calmed down enough, Elsa sat down next to her and opened her arms for a much needed hug. Without hesitating Anna latched onto her, scrunching cloth in her white-knuckled fists. The blonde held her as close as possible, stroking smoothing circles on her back. Silent tears streamed down Anna's red cheeks having taken the place of her earlier loud wailing. She trembled in the aftermath.
"What happened, Solskinn…?" Elsa asked after a few minutes of hugging had passed.
The redhead sniffed and moved out of loving arms. She stayednext to her sister, shoulders and head drooped low, hands clasped on her lap loosely. The eldest placed her hand on her sister's shoulder, trying to lend her some strength.
A sharp gusty sigh escaped Anna's lips. "He asked me to marry him." Her voice was raw from crying, a mixture of immense sadness and emotionlessness in her tone.
Elsa waited. She sensed it would be best to let her speak at the pace she chose to reveal what had happened.
"He asked me to marry him, and I…" Anna closed her eyes and what was left of her heart crumbled, "I…"
"You said no." Elsa surmised. Worry tugged her brow downward when Anna flinched as if struck.
"Well…" she wiped her nose with the back of her hand, "I didn't…" she sighed again, "I didn't say no exactly…" Anna dared to look up when Elsa didn't respond. She was met with cerulean eyes conveying such profound confusion is swirled behind her eyes like snowflakes. Anna could literally see the gears working in Elsa's mind as she tried to digest what she heard.
"You..didn't say no?"
Anna shook her head, looking at her wringing hands in her lap.
"But –"
"I said…I said that I can't."
Confusion paramount, Elsa dared a simple question that would hopefully give her more clarity. "Why?"
A Hans sized boot stomped on the pieces of Anna's heart that lay scattered around her. Tiny pinpricks of pain shot from her core with her every breath.
"I…I'm scared…" at the confession, teal eyes snapped up fro her hands and stared at her sister with a desperate need for Elsa to understand. Another type of floodgate had burst with her words. "Elsa, all I could see – all I could hear was the time – the time H-Hans had asked me to marry him. I was so caught up in the moment, back then, having dreamt of finding "the One" my whole life that I didn't hesitate when he asked me to marry him two years ago. But…But he turned out to be a fake – and broke my heart when I needed him the most – I – I…Why would Kristoff even want to spend the rest of his life with me?"
The eldest sister's frown deepened at her absurd evasive question. "Why wouldn't he want to?"
"Elsa," Anna stood up, exasperated. "Have you met me?" she started pacing before her sister still seated on the bed, hands folded in her lap. "I'm clumsy and forgetful and messy and…" she gestured as she spoke, arms flailing as she searched for an excuse. "and the complete opposite of graceful and elegant and everything a Princess should be."
"That's not the reason and you know it." Elsa countered softly.
Anna stopped her pacing, clasping her elbow in her hand.
"What are you thinking about?" Elsa asked, her frown softening into empathy. She stood up and walked to her sister's window when Anna didn't answer. "Are you thinking about the time Hans had left you when you needed him the most? Are you remembering the hurt you went through when everyone who you thought loved you left you alone? Are you worried that Kristoff might turn out to be Hans in disguise?"
Elsa turned around and saw that Anna had started hugging her middle somewhere along her line of questions. Her eyes were screwed shut but that didn't stop the silent tears from leaking out.
"I…I'm afraid," Anna whispered, deafeated. "that-that I don't know what love truly is. What if I'm wrong again? What if I make another mistake? Like I made with him. What if I've never really known what love is?"
"Anna, Solskinn." She waited for her sister to look at her before she continued. "Who kept knocking on my door for thirteen years? Who hiked up a mountain in a ball gown to find me? Who risked their life to save me? Hmm?"
Elsa had taken a step towards her sister after each rhetorical question she had asked. She now stood before Anna who looked like she was folding in on herself. The weight she had placed on her own shoulders was becoming too much to bare.
"You did." The blonde answered, lifting Anna's downturned face up. "You know more about love than I ever could."
"But you said I didn't know anything about true love." She argued brokenly.
"That was a long time ago," Elsa cupped her cheeks, sorrow lacerating her heart. "I was foolish. You taught me what love is. I've seen it. I've felt it before and after the isolation. I'm sorry for what I said to you in the past. I'm sorry I hurt you."
"It doesn't matter." Anna sighed, turning away from Elsa in an attempt to shrug her off.
"Yes it does." She caught her sister's wrist and pulled her into a tight hug. "It matters because you need to believe me when I say that you, of all people, know exactly what love is."
Anna returned the embrace, burying her face in Elsa's neck.
"Okay…" the youngest whispered, deciding to trust in what she had been told.
The sisters held onto each other for a while. Elsa willing Anna to believe her and Anna recalling what Olaf had told her all those years ago. "Love is putting someone else's needs before your own…"
"Exactly." Elsa let go of her after a quick squeeze, and held her face in her hands again. "And you do that time and time again."
"So do you." Watery eyes smiled.
"This isn't about me, this is about you and how we're going to fix this." She released her sister's face and placed her hands on her hips. "So, how are we going to fix this?"
"I don't know if this can be fixed…" Anna scrubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm.
"Come on Anna, where is your annoyingly stubborn – but equally endearing – optimism when you need it most?"
The redhead sighed, turning away from her big sister. "I've ruined everything. I've hurt him. I've hurt him so badly…and I don't know what to do."
Elsa cocked an eyebrow. "Do you love him?"
"Of course I do." Anna faced her, certainty shining with her tears. "With all my heart."
"Do you want to marry him?"
"…yes." Came the whispered answer that made her heart cramp, "But he'll never –"
"Anna." Elsa interrupted with a smile "How do you know what he'll do if you don't find out?"
"Okay…" a deep breath was all sound she made as she mulled over what her sister suggested. "W-where is he?"
"He said he was going to the trolls."
"Kristoff's home!"
"Yay!"
"He's home!"
"Where's Anna?"
"Hey Kristoff, where –?"
"Hey everyone!" He cut through their bulbous bodies, plastering a fake smile on his face. "I'm reeeeal tired, so I'm just gonna hit the hay, 'kay?"
Without waiting for their consent, he walked through them and headed for the cave-room he used when he visited.
Bulda, his adoptive mother, eyed her husband and a concerned Sven before she followed after her obviously distraught son.
"Elsa, we can't really slide uphill…can we?" she jogged to keep up with her sister's long strides, clutching her small two-man sled under her arm awkwardly.
"Oh, really?" cerulean eyes turned to ice as she summoned her powers, "Well, we'll just have to defy gravity then, won't we?"
"Okaaay," Anna watched her twirl her magic between her slender fingers, "You said he went to the trolls, right?"
"Mhmm."
"So shouldn't we, ya know, leave town instead of heading for the library?"
"I made a slide earlier and didn't dismiss it." She informed her as they entered the library. "We need some momentum to start this journey and I think this will do the trick."
The sisters entered the library and Anna immediately saw that a part of the balcony was shining with ice in the moonlight. "So that's why I had to bring my sled with."
"Yes," she stepped out onto the balcony, followed closely by the redhead. "I thought it would be better than giving your bum frost bite."
"Good idea." Anna placed the sled on the platform Elsa had conjured up earlier. "My bum is kinda allergic to frostbite."
"Alright, here's the plan." Elsa helped her sister up into the sled and followed to sit behind her. "You need to steer while I propel us forward. Just shout out directions and I'll make the slide appear before you, got it?"
"Yeah."
"Ready?"
"Yes." Anna looked towards the valley of living rock with renewed determination. "Yes I am."
Elsa summoned a breeze to push them over the edge. They shot down to the courtyard so fast, both of their stomachs ended up being lodged in their throats. When they reached the courtyard, Elsa banished the slide behind them and created the track before them as they raced through town. Luckily it was evening, so most of the town's people were already inside their homes or closing hteir shops. That left relatively deserted streets for them to glide through. The full moon cresting the mountains coupled by Elsa's magical glow gave them enough light to see by when they entered the darker wooded area.
Hopefully her light could keep other dangers at bay.
"Ma, I really don't want to talk about it."
"And that's exactly why we have to talk about it." Bulda stood unmoving like the boulder she was, eyeing him with equal parts stubbornness and concern. "You can either talk willingly in your room, or I can drag you out for a group family discussion. Your choice."
He flinched and looked up to see that she wasn't kidding in the least. Group family anything's usually ended up with more misunderstandings and drama or musical numbers than he could deal with. Especially now, with his heart having been torn in two.
Sven appeared from behind the troll standing at the cave's entrance. He sat down and brayed his support. With a heavy and deep sigh, Kristoff let his defences weaken. He sunk into sitting on his bed, shoulders drooping along with his head, hands clasped loosely between his knees. The weight he was holding threatened to crush him if he didn't find a way to put it down without it falling on top of him.
"Anna…" he croaked.
"Is she alright?" the troll asked with mounting concern, taking a step closer. "Did something happen?"
"Something did happen, but it's not what you think it is." He closed his burning eyes. "I took her to the picnic spot, ma. Everything was perfect…I confessed my love, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry me."
The silence stretched between the three of them. Bulda cast her glance at Sven when the silence outlasted her nerves. Sven shook his head in answer of her unvoiced question.
"She said no..." Bulda breathed in understanding.
"She did." Kristoff's voice was hoarse with barely constrained emotion. "She said…no."
His fragile state morphed into molten anger. He shot up from his seat, glaring down at his mother. "I don't understand! Everything was great! I could see, I could literally see how much she loved me when I was talking to her. She should've said yes. Even Elsa thought she'd say yes! I've done everything, everything I could think of to adapt for her!"
"Now Kristoff." Bulda straightened her stance which didn't make much of a difference in height, but it got her warning across. "Anna has done just as much to adapt to your way of living. How many times has she visited us and ate with us? I know you love our food, but you were raised with it." Bulda shook her head, smiling fondly, "Anna really must have a strong stomach to endure everything she's eaten here..."
His anger was quenched with guilt and confusion, leaving a hollow pit where his heart should be. "I just – I just don't understand what I did wrong..."
"Kristoff," the troll waddled towards his bed, "my Pebble, take a seat would you?"
He sat, that heavy weight still crushing his shoulders while he stared at his hands. Bulda took them in her own coarse fingers, rubbing soothing circles on the back of his hands.
"Have you considered that there might be more to this situation than meets the eye?"
"Wait, wait, wait," Anna leaned the sled left, following the ice trail she had directed her sister to make through the forest, "you mean he was actually okay with becoming a lord?"
"Yeah, even Gjude –"
"Soft right and even out." Anna interrupted.
" – was helping him." Elsa willed her magic to create the slide at her sister's instructions. "Preparing him, he said."
The redhead smiled at Kristoff's determination and willingness to adapt to their royal life. Doubt slammed into her subconscious, making her smile drop away.
"What if he won't accept my explanation…?"
"Anna, he took dancing lessons for you."
"Go right to avoid that rock."
Elsa thickened the ice over the rock so that they could keep their straight path instead of swerving out of every obstacle in their way.
"He went to a formal dinner and survived." Elsa continued, scrunching her brow in concentration as she continually created and destroyed the slide they were using to zip through the forest. She pushed more power into the breeze moving them forward.
"He would've given up long ago if he didn't think you were worth it. He loves you. Both of you just – need to talk through this."
"I honestly thought I was over the whole Idiot of the Southern Isles thing – go left at that big boulder– and it's not like I didn't talk with Kristoff about him. I did…" Anna sighed and shook her head.
"Don't be so hard on yourself." Elsa evened their trail again after going left, blasting extra magic behind her to get them over the small hill. "It's – it's like when I still needed to remind myself that I wouldn't – hurt you with my magic. It took a while for me to – relax completely."
"But two years? I mean really, melodramatic much?"
"It just shows you – that you did learn form – your mistakes."
Anna nodded, pensive. "You still okay?" she asked when they crested the hill.
"Just –" Elsa released a deep breath, "just getting tired. But I can still – go for a while longer. How much further?"
"Straight on from here. Maybe fifteen minutes or so if we keep this pace…more or less. That hill was the last big obstacle."
"Okay…"
"Thank you Elsa."
The blond smiled warmly. "You're welcome, Solskinn."
"Have you considered that there might be more to this situation than meets the eye?" Bulda asked Kristoff.
"What else could there be?"
The troll raised her eyebrow at him, "What do I always tell you?"
"Uh…don't leave your underwear where the baby trolls can use them as masks?"
"Yes." She scrunched her nose, "But no, that's not what I'm thinking of. Try again."
"Don't…" Kristoff scratched his head, "uh, don't forget to scrub when I take a bath?"
"Kristoff, I love you dearly but sometimes you can be as thick as a boulder, you might as well have been a troll."
"Ma, you say many things." Kristoff refuted with an eye roll, "How am I supposed to know what you're referring to?"
"Why are we having this conversation in the first place," she placed her hands on her hips, "hmm?"
The mountain man's slight smile fell from his face, "You know why…"
"Yes," a consoling hand went to his knee, "So this is a love problem, is it not?"
"Yeah…"
"So…what do I al-ways say? About love?" she urged him with a wave-like hand motion. His brow furrowed in thought for a few moments and then he looked at her with uncertainty.
"To throw it at people?"
A smile pulled at her lips. "Why?"
" 'Cause people make bad choices when they're mad or scared or stressed'?" he recited automatically and then frowned, contemplative.
"Yes." She huffed with a fond smile, "So, now that we're on the same page. Do you think Anna might've felt one or more of those emotions?"
"But why though?" Kristoff stood up to pace, suddenly worried that he had done something wrong. "Did I move too fast? Have I been misreading the signs? Did I push her into the next step in our relationship too quickly? I though two years would be long enough to wait… I knew I had to keep things slow 'cause, you know, that pile of reindeer dung had hurt –"
Kristoff stopped pacing, pivoted on his heal, and looked down at his mother whose smile had turned exasperated.
"Yes, my dear. That may be exactly why she reacted the way she did."
"Anna, c-can we rest a bit?" Elsa asked breathlessly, "I-I've never had to use – my powers for that long – before."
"Yes, of course!" Anna turned her head, concerned for her sister's wellbeing, "Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"We –we're in a – hurry."
"It doesn't matter if you get hurt or something during the process, you Stinker."
The sled came to slow stop as Elsa cut her magic off. The trees stood around them like soldiers, casting them in their tall shadows. Her magical glow dissipated leaving only the faint shine of the blue ice beneath the sled form the dappled moonlight streaming through the leaves. It looked like tiny spotlights shining upon them, creating rainbows in the ice.
Elsa slumped forwards, exhausted.
"Are you alright?' Anna turned and caught her sister's shoulders, biting her lip.
"I'm fine…jus-just gimme a sec." Elsa's breathing was fast, like she had been running a marathon.
"I'm sorry…I didn't think –"
"It-it's not your fault." The blonde straightened, feeling lightheaded as she did so. "I should've said – something earlier…"
"Yes, you should have." Anna agreed, keeping an arm on her sister to stabilise her. She was rewarded with a faint smile.
A twig snapped in the distance.
Anna whipped her head towards the sound, tightening her grip on her sister's shoulder. Elsa frowned and looked towards the right where the sound was heard. Her movements were slow and sluggish at best.
"Els…" the redhead whispered, teal eyes scanning the forest. All the wilderness survival lessons Krostoff had drilled into her, came to mind waving its red flags. Taking in her surroundings, she realised that the forest had gone completely still.
"Elsa, I need you to get us out of here." A rustling of leaves to their left had Anna's head spin in that direction.
"I'm not rested enough yet…" Elsa turned to look left; her movements returning back to normal but taking its sweet time to do so. At least her breathing was even again. "What's wrong?"
Squinting, Anna peered into the darkness to see shapes moving between the trees. Moving towards them. The moonlight caught the yellow gleam of eyes and Anna felt her heart jolt into her throat.
"Elsa, you need to make a dome or something around us." Anna searched around their sled frantically. "Now. Right now."
"I'm such an idiot!" Kristoff exclaimed, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. "It makes so much more sense…she's scared." He looked up into Bulda's understanding earthen eyes, "I don't know about what exactly…not yet, but I know we need to talk about it. I need to go back."
He stood up and Sven bolted to his feet outside his room, bounding in excitement.
"Or you can wait for her here, Pebble." Bulda suggested, waddling out of his cave-room after him. "She's probably on her way here right now. You know how Anna can be."
"Yeah," he chuckled, "Gods I love that woman…and to think…" he shook his head, turning to look down at her. "I'm no good at this, ma. What if I do something stupid and lose her for good next time." He threw his hands in the air, "All of this could've been avoided if I'd just stayed at Arendelle instead of running away like a –"
A lone wolf howl cut him off. His blond hair made waves as he swivelled his head in the direction it came from.
"That's close." Bulda commented next to him, curious. "They've never been this close to us before. Hmm. Must've followed prey from their valley..."
"Or followed a certain Princess on her way to ours." He said, worried. "Sven, let's go check it out."
"Bring her back here if it turns out to be her, okay?" she told his back while he rummaged through a chest in his room.
"Yes ma." Kristoff said attaching a knife to his belt. In one quick lunge he was atop his friend and speeding towards the direction he had heard the wolf's howl.
"Be safe!" Bulda called at Sven and Kristoff's rapidly shrinking forms.
"Always am!"
"Oh, this is bad. This is really, really bad."
"Jee, really? W-what gave you – that idea?"
"Sarcasm isn't going to help, Elsa. Just focus on holding the ice dome."
"Pointing out – the obvious – won't help either – Anna."
Elsa grimaced as her crude, lopsided dome was bombarded with claws from every side. The five wolves surrounding them were relentless, searching for weaknesses in the thin ice separating them from their meal. Anna clutched a thick branch, brandishing it like a sword when a wolf decided to charge the dome. With every strike form the outside, the dome would crack. The spider web fractures would be filled with more ice before it could weaken further. But, it was slow going. Elsa was not yet fully recovered from using her magic for such a long time.
"We should've taken the horses…" Anna muttered, eyeing the wolves with determination that mingled with wariness like two paint tones in a can.
Elsa sat on the sled, arms held aloft to keep the dome in place. She grit her teeth when the alpha, the biggest male, rammed himself against the ice, scratching with wild desperation and a snarling maw.
"You okay, sis?" Anna glanced down and saw her sister's whole face scrunched in concentration and pain.
"I – I won't be a-able to keep this up for l-long." She said closing her eyes, to focus her concentration.
After having been forced to keep her magic in for so long, Elsa had vowed to use her magic as often as possible. Having had nothing to do with it so long had stretched her magic reserve and made it porous, like a sponge. If left alone it would fill up to full capacity, but when she used it she would have to squeeze the magic out of her 'sponge'. The long, fast trek up the mountain had depleted her reserves somewhat, making her squeeze every ounce of magic into her dome. It wavered, quivering like a leaf in a breeze making Anna's eyes flit around at the weakening structure. She realised that the dome and their time was running out. Water trickled down is slopes like beads of sweat.
"Can you stand?" Anna asked, knowing they'd have a better chance at defending themselves if they faced the threat standing.
Elsa shook her head, eyes closed firmly, focusing solely on keeping their shield up. She could feel her magic pulse through her body like a somnambulist stumbling through a narrow street. Her heartbeat was increasing, sweat running down her temples.
A sudden unexpected breeze wafted into the dome.
"Wait what?" Dread spiked through Anna's system when she saw the dome start to dissolve above them.
A glance at her sister and she knew that they'd be wolf chow in a matter of minutes if something doesn't happen to equal their odds very, very soon.
Alrighty then...Some people might not like this, the part about Elsa becoming tired?
My reasoning is that she's unfit in the use of her powers for long periods of time. Don't get me wrong, Elsa is Winter incarnate, but after suppressing her powers for so long, my guess she had a type of magical build up that aided in the 'eternal winter' thing in the movie. Now though, she needs to exercise it, much like a muscle to strengthen it. If yo don't agree, no problem, but for this story I'm afraid it is so.
Ah, the wonders of fan fiction.
Ok :) see ya in the next and last chapter