Secrets

Anna lay awake in her bed one cold, winter's night, her body restless and the embrace of sleep refusing to come to her. Anna hated nights like this, knowing that she would lose sleep just by trying to get to sleep.

When she was younger she could have stayed up for hours and hours, but those days were far behind her now. She was older, taller, and much less energetic, but such things came with growth to adulthood.

She sat up in bed and took a glance at the small picture on the side of her bed, of herself and her older sister together when they were much younger, when they went to Paris on vacation for Anna's birthday.

Elsa had always been there for Anna and had been caring for her for the past few years ever since their parents passed away after being caught in a terrible snowstorm. Anna knew Elsa was the loving and caring kind, but for several years, Elsa had started to shut Anna out, slowly being distant. All that had changed when she had to step up and take care of her younger sister, and Anna was thankful.

Yet, Anna was unsure why Elsa had begun to shut her out when they were younger. Anna had always tried to bring up the subject, but Elsa often refused, stating that it was very personal.

Anna respected Elsa's privacy, but curiosity would always get the better of the young redhead.

Anna realised she wouldn't be sleeping that night and figured she should make the most of her time there. Maybe she could catch up on her Youtube subscriptions or watch some new show on Netflix. It was much of a life for Anna, but with Elsa being the one who was working in their family, Anna had to keep herself busy.

The young girl slinked out of the bed and strode to the bathroom, taking a moment to look herself over the mirror. Her eyes had bags and her skin was pale from lack of sleep. Anna took out a comb and started to straighten her hair.

Her hair was a natural strawberry-blonde, yet there was one discrepancy. Just above her right eye, there was streak of white in her gingery fringe. This wasn't dye or anything like that. It was a completely natural growth.

Anna knew not where this came from, often thinking that she was kissed by a troll or some magic creature when she was a child, but as she grew older and stopped believing in such things, Anna started to really wonder where such a strange part of herself came from.

After washing her face to wake herself some more, Anna decided to head downstairs to the kitchen, to hopefully scavenge some chocolate for herself. She loved chocolate, what girl didn't? But Anna took that love to a whole new level, having an entire cupboard just to store her confectionery.

She then slumped down the steps in her furry slippers stylised to look like penguins, seeing that the kitchen light was on. It seemed like herself or Elsa must've forgotten to switch everything off before they went to bed, most likely Elsa. She did like to work late after all.

Anna headed to the kitchen, found her special cupboard and took out a chocolate bar, unwrapping and quickly devouring her brown treat. "Mmmm… delicious," She commented, licking the melted chocolate off her face.

As she cleaned herself up, she then looked out of the kitchen window, her eyebrow raised. Out of the window was the garden of hers and Elsa's home. For a suburban yard, it was fairy big, with a set of large bushes at the other end. What caught Anna's eye was a bright blue light coming from behind those bushes.

"The fuck?" Anna wondered, pressing her hands against the glass of the window.

This was something that requires further investigation.

Anna went and quickly grabbed her pink, furry coat and headed out the back door. It was pretty chilly out that night, so Anna wore her pink knit cap as well, one Elsa had bought for her the previous christmas.

As she made her way down to the bottom end of the garden, torch in hand and firm look on her face, her brain started to wrack with ideas what the strange light might be?

Aliens? No, too stupid.

Fairies? Even more ridiculous.

A burglar? Possibly, but Anna could deal with a thief, thanks to her judo skills.

Whoever or whatever it was, Anna would need to deal with it or at least figure out what it was.

Anna eventually arrived at the bushes, gently creeping up to the plants on her toes, not wanting to disturb what was making the light, if it was even a living creature.

A sense of anxiety built up in Anna's chest, partially fear and partially excitement, but overall very uncomfortable.

As she peeked her head around the side of the bush, Anna's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh…"

Behind the bush and making the strange blue light was a woman, wearing a silver-grey hoodie and jeans. Her hair was platinum blonde and flowing freely, and her hands were glowing with unnatural blue light. Out of that light, Anna could make out strange shapes and patterns that seemed to resemble… snowflakes. The face of this figure was all too familiar to Anna.

It was none other than her sister, Elsa.

"Elsa?" Anna asked, wondering if Elsa could hear her.

Elsa looked directly into Anna's eyes, shivering and panicking. "Anna!" Elsa cried out. "What are you doing here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing," the younger sister remarked, walking out from behind the bush. "Seriously, what is going on?"

"Never mind," Elsa argued at her. "Just go back to bed and pretend you saw nothing."

"Elsa, you were making snowflakes from your hands for crying out loud," Anna responded, refusing to go back to their house. "How the heck were you doing that?"

Elsa sighed and looked down. "It's best you don't know," she said, guilt in her voice. "Please, go back to bed."

Anna shook her head and walked over to Elsa, but the older sister turned away. "Please, Anna… go."

"No," Anna stood defiantly. "I need to know Elsa… I need to know that you're safe. Whatever you're doing… it could be dangerous for you and I don't wanna see you get hurt."

"It's not me you should be worrying about, Anna," Elsa told her. "Please, go back in the house and leave me be. It's for your own safety. If you still want answers, I'll tell you in the morning but right now, just go back to bed."

"No, I need to know now!" Anna was getting impatient. Elsa was shutting her out again, for no reason. The same Elsa who was a kind and caring soul, now showing a side of herself Anna hated seeing.

Elsa looked down, knowing in her own heart that it was finally time, finally time for Anna to know the truth about her secret. "Alright… I suppose you've been in the dark for too long." Elsa turned around and looked at Anna. "Anna, I have… well I guess you could call them superpowers."

"Wait what?" Anna raised an eyebrow, anger changing back to curiosity. Her sister had powers? Superpowers? Like the characters from the cartoons she watched when she was younger? How was that even possible? "How… did you get them?" Anna asked.

"No one really knows," Elsa explained. "The day I was born, I sneezed ice all over Mama and Papa and from then on, these powers have been growing inside of me, growing with me."

"Then… how come you never told me about them?" If Elsa had really had these powers since she was born, how come Anna had never seen them until now.

"Because I hurt you with them," Elsa then stated, coldly.

"You…" Anna's face turned to a frown. "You hurt me."

"No, not on purpose, Anna," Elsa calmed her down, not wanting Anna to get antagonistic. "I love you Anna, I would never hurt you… it was an accident really. See, when you were little, you knew of my powers and we'd often play with them together, but one night, while building snowmen I…" Elsa nearly shed a tear. "I accidentally fired a blast at you, and it hit you straight in the face."

Anna felt her hair, the white streak. It made sense now. Elsa's powers had frozen that part of her hair when she was a child and had stayed that way ever since. "So… that's where I got this."

Elsa nodded. "You weren't badly hurt, of course. The doctors said you only had a mild concussion, and Mama and Papa never scolded me because of it. After all, it was an accident… but it hurt me so much and hurts me to this day."

Anna looked down. "Elsa… is that why when I got older you started to push me away? Because you were scared of hurting me again?"

"Yes," She confirmed, starting to cry. "I'm sorry, Anna… I've tried to be a good big sister to you, ever since Mama and Papa died, but I've been such a failure… I'm weak and scared… You deserve someone better to care for you. I can't look after you while being scared of hurt you at the same time. It can't work. I'm so sorry…" She shed tears. "You probably hate me don't you."

"No, Elsa," Anna shook her head. "I understand it all now now and I don't hate you."

"You should…" Elsa stated. "Everyone hates monsters."

Anna then ran forward to Elsa, embracing her with love and warmth. "I'm not scared of monsters, and I'm pretty sure you don't count as one."

Elsa blushed, her eyes widened. "A-Anna."

Anna held Elsa closer, nestling her head on her sister's shoulder. "I should be scared of you, yes, but I'm not. I love you Elsa. We'll figure these powers out together. I promise you. You won't ever hurt me again."

Elsa sighed and hugged Anna back, gently crying into her sister. "Thank you…" her deep voice whispered, her arms clutching Anna's back tightly.

Anna pulled away and gently kissed Elsa's forehead. "Come on. You need some sleep."

Elsa held Anna's hand. "Okay, I guess it is a bit late… and Anna?"

"Yes?"

Elsa smiled, tears in her eyes. "Thank you… for loving me."

Anna grinned. "You're welcome, my big sister."

xXx

Author's note: SUCH FLUFF! Yeah, this idea's probably been done to death, but fuck it, it's Elsanna and that's good in my book. I knew this was probably obvious, but my second choice was Elsa coming out to Anna and that's also... kinda obvious, but I wanted to keep the tone of the movie for this and the ice powers fit best.

See you tomorrow for the next prompt!