"Elsa?"
"Yes, Anna?"
"Weren't we gonna have breakfast?"
"It would be lunch now, Anna."
"I guess that means moving, huh?"
Elsa gently tapped her sister's nose. "Yes, Anna."
"Why do you keep saying my name like that, anyway?"
Elsa's voice turned a bit softer, sadder. "It's been a long time since I could think of you and not be sad, Anna." Then a smile. "I'm enjoying it."
Anna blushed a bit, shifting as if to pull away from Elsa but not quite risking it just yet. She still wasn't very steady on ice, and even the momentary snow shower had made the floor very slippery. It was almost as if Elsa had planned it that way to get more snuggling out of her, but Anna was almost sure Elsa wasn't that devious. Almost. "The sky's awake, Elsa! The gates are open, everyone's waiting to see the beautiful queen, and I just know Olaf's getting into trouble somewhere out there!" She giggled.
Oh, Anna... You say it as if I was the one who closed those doors. Elsa was beginning to feel like two different people in one, yanked back and forth between a strange kind of ecstasy and countless memories of sadness that she could barely tell how she truly felt. Anna, irrepressible energetic restless Anna, was the only constant. Did she realize how her words affected Elsa? Anna had been no less lonely on the other side of that door, Elsa knew that, but she wondered if Anna really understood how powerless she had felt. "Anna, I want to stay here with you. The rest of the world can wait." She tried another smile. "I'm sure Olaf will be alright."
Her sister's answer took Anna completely by surprise. Stay here? With me? "But there's so much out there you've missed! Last night, when we skated, and the fjord, and we were having so much fun! How could you want to stay hidden away in here again?" Despite herself, a little fear crept into her tone. She'd rather turn to ice again than find Elsa behind another closed door. "Stay here with me, what does that even mean? We're sitting around in pajamas, there's so much we could be doing!"
Elsa couldn't help but smile wryly. What she was wearing was barely more than nothing, and Anna's 'pajamas' were going to fall off her if she moved around much more. But that was incidental. What mattered was Anna's fear, probably more audible than she thought it was. And Elsa knew no way to explain without the whole truth. "What happened yesterday wasn't the first time you got hurt because of me, Anna. I know you don't remember." She really hadn't wanted to bring this up, but Anna deserved to understand. "When we were very little, you knew all about my power. What you remember as games in the snow were me using my magic." She took a deep breath. "One night you were so excited, running around so fast, I tried to catch you as you were falling, and I missed, and..." Her voice broke. "It froze your head, on the inside..." It took her a moment to go on, and she was faintly relieved that Anna didn't try to interrupt. "Mother and Father came and took us to the rock trolls. Their elder took the ice out and erased your memory, and that was when they closed the gates and told me I had to hide away so it wouldn't happen again."
Anna was absolutely speechless. It explained so much! Why everything had suddenly changed, why Elsa was so afraid, why she'd turned Anna away up on the mountain, even why those "love experts" of Kristoff's had seemed faintly familiar somehow. The implications raced through Anna's mind at the speed of light. For Elsa to have found that Anna's companionship had been the answer all along, after all that- "E-Elsa? Do you think you'll lose control again if I'm not right here?"
Nodding slowly, Elsa hugged her sister harder, practically clinging. "When I'm afraid, I lose control. But with you here, it's like this whole missing piece of myself I didn't even know was gone is back. I missed you so much I couldn't bear it, Anna, and I thought I had to stay away, even when you came after me." Even with Anna right here in her arms, a stab of pain went through Elsa at the memory of her sister's pleading face. The whole time, all she'd wanted was to be with Anna again. "You came anyway, and all that fear was for nothing. It happened again, and worse, and it didn't matter because you were with me again." She laughed a little. "Everything I was afraid of didn't matter because you were there."
"Well then, I'm never going away ever!" Anna declared, rather proudly. "I am your Majesty's faithful love puppet!" She slowly crossed her eyes, not letting her haughty expression shift one bit.
Elsa burst out giggling in thoroughly undignified fashion. Only Anna could look so absolutely ridiculous. "Really?" she asked, her tone teasing again. "I thought that Kristoff boy would get at least of your attention. Didn't I see you kissing him just before we went skating?" Though, come to think of it, she wasn't sure she liked that image so much. If she didn't know better, she'd think she was jealous. Over Anna? Even that thought was worth a giggle of its own.
"Hey! That was just to be nice, he helped me out a lot! He's more like kind've a brother, I guess. It's like I kissed you!" Anna blinked, doing a double-take. That hadn't come out quite how she'd meant. "I-I mean, you know, like on the cheek or something!" Darn it, now she was blushing all over again. What a crazy mental image! It was a relief when Elsa just shook her head as she always did at Anna's nonsense, but Anna's blood almost froze in her veins all over again at her sister's next words.
"Why Anna, do you want to kiss me?" It was impossible for Elsa to take this seriously. Maybe it was just a little bit mean to get so much enjoyment out of teasing her, but she couldn't quite help herself. Anna looked so flustered!
Anna couldn't quite figure out if Elsa was kidding or just crazy. In the end she just stared blankly, clueless.
As much fun as keeping a straight face was, it was starting to get weird with Anna staring like that. "I'm teasing, Anna." I really hope she already knew that. Anna could be be awfully slow on the uptake at times. "Lunch actually does sound pretty good."
Relieved to be free of the weirdness, Anna poked Elsa's arm. "Oh no you don't! Now you're stuck with me!"
"Is that right?" A mound of snow abruptly sprouted under Anna's feet, lifting her right off the floor with a gasp and into the air. A moment passed before Anna slid right back down the snowbank and landed neatly back in Elsa's arms. "As Queen of Arendelle, I decree that I shall be as stuck with you as it pleases me to be."
Anna made a mock curtsey. "Yes, your Majesty! And how stuck with me does it please you to be?"
"You will join me for lunch. That is not a request." She paused a moment. "But let's get dressed first." A slight blush colored her cheeks.
"Wha-?" Looking at herself, Anna saw that her momentary adventure with the snow and the over exaggerated curtsey had completely unseated her undershirt, leaving most of her chest exposed. Oops. "Aaah!" She clapped her arms around her chest. "Elsa! Why would you not tell me!?"
"Sorry."
"That's what you said when you told that Weaseltown guy I wanted to dance!" Anna ran to hide behind the bed.
"Weselton, Anna."