"Anna is dead."
The frozen harbor outside the castle. Raging winds spitting a blinding flurry over everything in sight. The sole shape visible through the hailstorm was the dark form of Hans looming over a cowering Elsa, sword held aloft.
And right before her, a corpse. The familiar shape of Elsa's baby sister, a look of terror frozen on her face. Elsa cradled the stiff body in her arms
"Elsa." The person standing before her had changed. Now the man wielding the sword was the king. "What have you done?"
"No, Papa, please-"
The blade fell. And Elsa's eyes shot open.
Just a nightmare. It was always obvious in hindsight, and yet these dreams had a way of fooling her in the moment. Elsa shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, accidentally freezing someone to death had been a regular feature of her nightmares for the last, oh, thirteen years or so. That rude ice-cutter from the yesterday was to blame, no doubt. Plus the fact that Elsa's tongue felt all weird and fuzzy from the hot chocolate scalding.
Elsa waited for her heartbeat to slow, then sat up halfway out of her covers. Daylight was pouring in through the window. The sky's awake, Anna would've said. Elsa wasn't too accustomed to having a giant window in her room, but she'd abandoned the old bedroom on account of the memories it held, and this was the nicest replacement available.
It was going to take a great effort for Elsa to drag herself out of bed – The visit with Marshmallow had left her exhausted. She forced herself to remove the covers and plant her feet on the floor. And then she immediately slipped and planted her bottom on the floor, too. This was likely because everything within a two-foot radius of the bed was now covered in a thin layer of ice.
Oh, right, she'd nearly forgotten. Elsa was one of those people who tossed and turned and generated ice whenever she had nightmares. She groaned and rubbed her rear. Apparently, her anti-slipping power didn't apply unless she was consciously thinking about it. This was far from the first time it had happened to her, but it was the first time Elsa could actually make the ice go away.
She felt a lightness in her chest like she was six years old again and it was Christmas morning. Elsa had had control of her powers for days now, and that elation hadn't died down yet. She was hoping it never would. Close eyes. Think about love for sister (Yep, turns out the answer was love all along). Open eyes. Every last drop of ice was gone as suddenly as it'd come. The bed sheets weren't even damp. A grin spread across Elsa's face.
Next up, she ran to the adjacent washroom. Brushing your teeth can be fun when the toothbrush doesn't get covered in frozen spit and the pipes don't freeze and clog up even when you touch the sink handle with your bare hands.
The next few minutes were spent examining herself in the mirror. The change from Elsa's coronation gown to the ice-dress had been sudden and drastic, but Elsa couldn't deny she was pleased with the result – though the dress was currently morphed into an ice-nightgown. Now that Elsa no longer had anything to hide, it was a huge relief to dress in a way that made it clear to everyone that she was the Snow Queen. The sky blue dress of fabric-like frost coupled with her pale skin and silvery hair meant there was really no mistaking it.
The Snow Queen. That's what people were calling her now. Elsa kind of liked the sound of it.
This mental flood of optimism was interrupted by a knock at the bedroom door. "Your Majesty, I thought I heard you up," said a level voice with a hint of an English accent. "Given recent, err, lifestyle changes, I came to ask about the special arrangements we had for your morning routine."
Elsa swung the door open to find Anders waiting for her. "No more special arrangements," she told him, grinning like a loon. "Today I'm bathing like a normal person."
From a young age, Elsa had developed the habit of bathing constantly – Princesses DO NOT have body odor. Of course, this had made a funny predicament when coupled with her tendency to freeze everything she touched. But honestly, in the recent excitement, Elsa had neglected the habit. When you're convinced you're going to spend the rest of your life in an ice palace atop an uninhabited mountain, your priorities tend to change.
Anders led Elsa to the bathing chambers, where he'd already filled the tub with water. Just before Elsa entered, he suddenly said, "Out of idle curiosity, Your Majesty, what ever happened to your coronation dress?"
"My coronation dress?" Elsa repeated blankly.
"Yes. Your coronation dress that the royal tailor spent months designing and cost more than the net worth of a small country."
"Oh, that coronation dress. I, err..." Elsa gave an apologetic shrug. "I made my ice-dress over it, and it sort of evaporated."
"'Sort of evaporated?'" Anders's eyebrows quivered.
"I didn't mean for it to happen. I just wanted a new dress, and my magic, err..." Elsa's voice trailed off.
"Can your magic bring it back?" Anders sounded almost heartbroken.
"I, um, I don't know." Elsa slowly backed towards the washroom door. "I haven't tried. I doubt it, though."
"Did you at least keep the tiara studded with priceless jewels?"
"I'm very overdue for a bath please excuse me."
Really, a costly dress was a small price to pay for the day Elsa could finally take a proper bath. Anders still remembered the time Elsa's mother had stormed out of the bathing chambers covered in icicles and declared that from that day forth, Elsa would be handed a bucket of soap and a scrub brush.
Anders had been one of a select few people privy to Elsa's secret from the beginning, so seeing Elsa go about her life without worrying about spontaneous ice-generation was no small matter for him. Had he been the more sentimental type, Anders would've gotten downright teary-eyed.
This whole week had been an emotional roller-coaster. In the span of minutes, the coronation had dissolved into screaming and magic bolts of ice flying every which way like a horrible hailstorm of melodramatic teenage girls. Well, okay, so technically Elsa wasn't a teenager anymore, but in Anders' mind all young people fell into that category until they hit their late thirties.
And the castle was severely understaffed, which meant it'd been up to Anders to scrape ice off the ballroom floor whilst simultaneously calming the masses and praying the new queen didn't freeze her whole kingdom to death.
"Agh!" Anders was shaken from his thoughts by a shriek from the bathtub.
He raced into the chamber to find Queen Elsa standing at the foot of the gigantic royal bathtub, wrapped in a hastily-forged ice-towel. She was staring at the bathwater like a cat with its hair on end.
"Your Majesty, are you hurt?"
"The- The water is too hot," Elsa said lamely. She looked as confused as he did.
Anders resisted the urge to roll his eyes and went to dip a finger in the bathwater. Or at least tried to – His finger failed to break the surface. As it turned out, the water wasn't hot at all. It was solid ice. "With all due respect, Your Majesty, I thought you said accidental freezing would no longer be an issue?"
"It wasn't an accident," Elsa said tightly. "The water temperature just took me by surprise, that's all. Here, I can fix it." With another flourish of her hands, she sent a wave of magic into the tub, returning the water to liquid.
"I take it I should refrain from making it that warm in the future?"
"Why was it so hot in the first place?" Elsa said under her breath.
"A couple degrees above room temperature." Anders' voice was a note sharper than it should've been. "Generally, Your Majesty, people find bathing in warm water more pleasant than cold."
Genuine confusion crossed Elsa's face. "Why?"
"I truly couldn't tell you." Anders turned to leave. "But you are perfectly welcome to bathe at whatever temperature you see fit. You are, after all, the queen."
There were no more incidents for the remained of the bath, though Elsa still seemed to be stewing internally when she finally exited the tub and returned to the hallway.
Anders couldn't help but notice Elsa had chosen to keep using her ice-towel rather than the regular cloth one he'd laid out for her. This was odd, but it didn't bother him as much as the fact that the ice-towel seemed to have successfully gotten Elsa dry. If that made even a little bit of sense, it was a strange foreign kind of sense Anders wanted nothing to do with.
"Your clothes, Your Majesty." Anders held up a new, elegant dress the maids had picked out for her.
"Oh, that's alright, I'll just wear my ice-dress." With a flourish of her hands, Elsa sent a wave of sparkles over her body, transforming the ice-towel back into dress-shape.
"Your. Ice. Dress." Anders gave the more provocative regions of Elsa's dress the kind of look one normally reserves for their mortal enemy. "Of course. And are you planning on wearing…" He chose his words carefully. "…nothing but the ice-dress?"
Elsa looked pleased with herself. "I'm not hiding who I am anymore. I want everyone to know I'm the Snow Queen."
"Yes," murmured Anders, "I'm sure not a single boy in Arendelle will have any trouble noticing…"
"Sorry, I must have some water in my ear." Elsa smirked and tapped the side of her head. "Could you repeat that louder, please?"
"Perish the thought, ma'am. Now might I suggest you go join your sister at the breakfast table? Or do you only eat 'ice-food' now?"
Elsa let the remark slide. When you'd worked at the palace as long as Anders, you were allowed to get away with a little snark.
Actually, Anders couldn't help but wonder about that. Elsa had climbed a mountain on foot and lived in isolation for days, and from what Anders had heard, she'd been planning on spending the rest of her life in that Ice Palace. It didn't sound like she'd been worried about starvation or anything, so... if Elsa's magic could make sentient life from snow, could it make a nutritious breakfast, too? If she could make a snow-pig, could she make snow-bacon, or...?
Ugh, Anders needed to go lie down again.
The castle's dining hall could only be described as gigantic. And empty. If she really thought back, Elsa could remember a time when the hall was packed at every mealtime, but even now that the gates were open, the employment of new staff had been a slow trickle. Elsa had every intention of changing that, but for now the dining hall only seated about a handful of off-duty workers, plus Anna over at the royals-only end of the table.
Elsa tried not to make a show of seating herself, but all eyes naturally fell on her anyways. She'd hardly ever been in this room since she was a little girl. Ever since the night Anna's head froze, meals had been brought directly to Elsa's bedroom. There was a surprisingly tense silence as she pulled up a chair next to Anna. Elsa had a feeling she was being scrutinized for accidental ice-creation.
None came. You could practically hear the tension deflate like a balloon.
Despite the monumental occasion for the staff, who'd spent long years guarding Elsa's secret, not a word was spoken. In fact, the only sound was the gentle sobs of joy coming from Gerda. Elsa turned to share a big, dumb smile with Anna. It was a picturesque moment – the day Elsa could finally control her powers, and now nothing could take that away from her.
She absently raised a bite of food to her mouth. A bite of steaming hot egg, specifically.
"You have to come out from under there eventually!" Anna said from the foot of Elsa's bed. "You're acting like a little kid!"
Elsa's reply was muffled by her bed sheets to the point of incoherence, but it definitely sounded grumpy.
"C'mon, you can't go back to hiding in your room just because your breakfast was too hot!"
"You don't understand." Elsa shifted herself under the covers so that she lay on her belly facing Anna. With her striking blue eyes draped in the blankets' shadows, she looked like some sort of vicious cave creature. "I have to come across as a capable leader, and I just humiliated myself in front of the whole castle. You heard the people in the tavern. They'll jump at the first sign I can't control my powers."
To be fair, freezing her plate to the ceiling while screaming hysterically wasn't the greatest display of control ever, but Anna refrained from saying this aloud. "Then get up and go prove them wrong!"
Elsa bowed her head. "That's… easier said than done."
It was at this moment that the door swung open and a tiny lump of snow entered the bedroom whilst making a bizarre hissing sound. Olaf was actually trying to whistle and discovering that snowmen absolutely cannot do that.
"Hey, guys!" The drama in the room flew right above his deformed head. "Ooh, ooh, are we playing hide-and-seek? I found Elsa – She's under the covers!"
"Elsa's upset because her breakfast was too hot and she had a complete meltdown about it and embarrassed herself," Anna said impatiently.
Olaf's eyes widened – or rather, the shiny orbs of snow around his coal-pupils widened. "But heat is great! It makes me feel all warm and toasty and gooey and moist- "
"Olaf, heat makes you melt." Elsa climbed out of her blankets to face him. "We've been over this. I gave you your personal flurry, but it makes everything around you colder."
"Okay fine, so it can kill me, but heat is still the best," said Olaf. "Besides, you're not made of snow, so- Wait." A horrible thought struck him. "You're not going to melt, are you?" He grabbed Elsa by the waist as if she might turn into a puddle any second now.
"I wouldn't lose sleep over it," chuckled Elsa, returning the hug.
"Well, you must really like warmth, even if you don't realize it," said Olaf. "Why else would you make me like it so much?" And on that note, Olaf wandered out the room.
"Why did you make him like warm hugs?" asked Anna.
Elsa glanced away, shrinking back. It had apparently been one of those silly things you did as a child and were embarrassed to admit to as an adult. "I guess because… I'd never really had one."
The words were hardly out of her mouth before Anna had her locked in a bear-hug. "First time for everything." Anna grinned at her. "Hope it's not too hot for you."
"Alright," Elsa grinned back, "just a little warmth isn't so bad."
Satisfied, Anna ended the hug. "So you've really never felt warm before?"
Elsa shook her head. "Not even before my powers went out of control. Not even before I knew I had powers, I think, but I can barely remember that."
Anna was holding on to her every word. The two had hardly begun discussing that period of their lives. The past few days had been hectic to say the least, so they hadn't gotten around to it.
"I couldn't make more than a couple snowflakes until I was around four," Elsa said solemnly, "but even before then, I was always cold. Our parents used to think I was sick. At first, I could only make it cold when I was feeling especially happy or sad, but it got to the point where it happened all the time. You could see the thermometer drop as it neared me."
"But you must've felt something warm." Anna strained her forehead. "Didn't you ever, I don't know, touch an oven or get a sunburn or something?"
Elsa shook her head. "I was too sheltered. And then, after we were separated, you could've thrown boiling water in my face and it'd be cool by the time it reached my skin. And, well, now that I can control my powers, that 'radius of cold' seems to have weakened. I can definitely feel heat now." Elsa rubbed her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "How much longer will my tongue stay burnt, by the way?"
"Ooh, yeah, that'll last a couple days…"
After their talk, the sisters returned to the dining hall to give breakfast another try. Most of the staff had finished their meals by now, but there were still enough left to make an audience as Elsa once again seated herself at the royal end of the table.
Anna found herself smiling. If anything, this little incident just made her even prouder of her sister. After all, getting past the stigma of using her ice in front of other people was a pretty big step forward for Elsa, and Arendelle hadn't gotten trapped in eternal winter this time, so that was a plus.
Though it didn't escape Anna's notice that Elsa blew hard on her breakfast before putting any of it in her mouth, which left the food covered in a thin layer of frost. Anna rolled her eyes. Baby steps, she told herself.
