A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, you guys. The insane obsession you have for this story sustains me when I can't drag myself away from the keyboard long enough to get food. I especially enjoy the enthusiastic all-caps reviews from (Ex)Happy Anon. I wish I knew who you were.
Kristoff was sitting in his favourite armchair, feet propped up on a stool, strumming his new lute quietly, when he heard a hysterical pounding at his door. He tried to ignore it.
The hammering continued.
Figuring that whoever was attempting to break down his door wouldn't leave until answered, he scrambled out of the seat and lunged for the doorhandle. "What?!" he yelled, yanking it open. When he saw the figure opposite him, his voice softened with surprise. "Anna?"
The redhead stood on his doorstep, tears tracks on her cheeks, lip bleeding and a bruise on her face, looking unsure as to whether she should come inside or not. "Oh god, Anna! What- who did this to you?" White hot anger coursed through his veins. "Tell me who it was! I'll kill him!" he yelled, slamming a fist against the door. Anna was backing away anxiously, looking like she might bolt at any moment. Kristoff reached out to stop her. Gently grabbing her wrist, he was stunned when the girl's hand came flying at his face, her nails leaving four shallow yet stinging scratches on his cheek.
"Let go of me!" She shrieked. He dropped her arm like it was a hot coal, trying to think of something, anything that would calm her down. "Anna, it's okay. Whatever's going on…just tell me what's wrong. Is it Elsa? Did someone hurt you two?" Kristoff got a response in the affirmative when the redhead began to cry. "Is she okay? What can I do?" Getting nothing from the girl except an agonised look, he stepped aside, giving her plenty of space to enter his home whilst keeping his distance.
The redhead accepted his wordless invitation and crept inside, keeping her eyes trained on him the whole time. "Anna," he said, trying to convey a promise that he wouldn't hurt her through his tone. "It's okay. You're okay. You're safe here." He cracked a small smile. "It's me, Kristoff. Your stinky friend, remember? I won't hurt you."
He was wholly unprepared when the girl threw herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck and sobbing into his chest. Stunned, the ice harvester gently embraced her. "Please, Anna…talk to me. I want to help." Getting nothing from the girl except the tightening of her fists around his tunic, he sighed, picking her up and sitting down in the armchair, cradling the redhead against him, opting to wait out the storm of emotions within her.
Minutes passed, and the girl's fervent crying subsided to small sniffles. She turned her face up to look at the man, eyes red and looking lost and unsure of anything. Kristoff's heart broke at the sight. "Tell me what happened," he coaxed, gently.
The dam broke, and Anna's words flooded his ears. Through hiccups, she recounted everything, from the flag to the five ships, to running back through the gardens and bumping into the prince. Squeezing her eyes shut, she told her friend in excruciating detail how the man had violated her, and it was all Kristoff could do to keep from sprinting to the castle to kill the worthless animal with his bare hands. A sweet, harmless girl like Anna was the last person in Arendelle to deserve what she'd been through, and the blonde man cursed whatever higher power had decided that his friend should have to experience it.
"You need to tell your sister, Anna," he insisted. "Where is she? She needs to know what's going on."
The girl wrung her hands together. "She's been in meetings all day. I haven't seen her since this morning. Besides, I can't tell her," she jabbed a finger into his chest, "and neither can you!" She looked at him with pleading eyes that begged him to understand. "You know what Elsa's like. What happens when she's scared or angry. She doesn't think rationally! If I tell her what he said to me," she paused, "what he did to me," a shuddering breath, and then a tenacious exhale, "she'll confront him, and he'll start his crusade against our people."
"Not if she incapacitates him first," the man argued.
"Weren't you listening to me?" the redhead cried, irritated. "There are at least three-hundred men on warships headed for this kingdom! If they find out the prince has been captured, they'll still attack, or worse, they'll send word back to the Southern Isles and we'll have their entire armada bearing down on us in days!"
Kristoff was growing frustrated now. "Elsa will stop all of them, too. She'll stop anyone who tries to come for you, her or Arendelle!"
Anna pushed herself off of the man's lap, looking at him with disbelief. "How? Not even Elsa can hold back a fleet of five-hundred ships forever."
The ice harvester threw his hands up. "She doesn't have to hold them back. She can just destroy them! Once this king sees she's that dangerous, he'll leave us alone! Everyone will leave us alone!"
The redhead squeezed her eyes shut, hearing the words Kristoff wasn't saying. The only way to stop that large of fleet was to utterly annihilate it and put the fear of god into the kingdom it sailed under. And fear of that magnitude only came from taking away that which man valued above anything else on earth – his life.
Physically, the queen was more than capable. But emotionally? Anna ground her teeth as she pushed aside that damn nagging feeling in her gut that Karl may have been telling her the truth about her sister's temperament.
The girl's eyes snapped open. No. To deliberately use her powers for destruction on that kind of scale, killing men outright or leaving them to drown, trapped under icy wreckage in the waters of the fjord…Elsa was not capable of that.
She glared at Kristoff. "So you see her exactly like Karl does. Just some weapon you can point at anything you want to obliterate!"
"No that's not-" the man stopped himself short. That's exactly what he'd meant. His shoulders slumped. "Anna, I'm sorry. I didn't think. Elsa- your sister…she's not a killer. You know that and I know that. So I'm sorry."
The redhead's face softened and she moved to squeeze the man's hand. "I know. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't- you're nothing like him. It wasn't fair of me to say that."
Kristoff squeezed back and smiled at her. "We'll work this out, okay? I promise." His face darkened a little. "In the meantime, you stay the hell away from that creep, alright?" He took her other hand. "Do you want me to walk you back to the castle?" he asked, tenderly.
The redhead nodded, and so he led her out the door.
Night time found a weary Elsa finally returning to her castle, hours upon hours of conversation swirling in her head. She yearned for her sister terribly, not for carnal reasons, but just simply to hold her. To remind her that someone believed in her abilities as queen when even she herself doubted them. Pushing open the door to Anna's chambers, she found it dark, candles extinguished hours ago and the girl in question already dead to the world. Not having the heart to wake her, the blonde backed out of the room, hearing the latch click softly as she pulled the door shut.
She padded down the hallway to her own chambers, ready to collapse but forcing herself to at least attempt to put proper bedclothes on. Unfastening her cloak and draping it over a chair, she turned to move to the dresser, but was stopped mid-stride by a scream from Anna's room. She panicked, almost tripping over the cloak she'd just removed, not bothering to open the door wider than was necessary for her to slip out and sprint the short distance to her sister.
Throwing herself against the wood, she burst through the doorway, finding her sister in a fitful sleep, arms thrashing, obviously having a nightmare. She was whimpering now, and Elsa rushed to her side, kneeling on the bed, trying to hold her arms steady so the readhead wouldn't hurt herself.
"Anna! Anna! Wake up!" The blonde called, desperately, gripping Anna's wrists.
The queen found she'd only made things worse. Her sister's eyes snapped open, unfocused and fearful. "Get off me!" the younger girl cried, trying to wriggle out of the blonde's grip. In the ensuing struggle, Elsa caught a glimpse of her swollen lip and bruised cheek, the gash she'd left herself merely days ago hardly visible when compared to the brutality of the new injury.
She inhaled sharply, head swimming with confusion, rage, fear…too many emotions to keep track of as they roiled in her mind, crashing over each other in waves, until suddenly she felt something collide with her middle and she keeled over, winded. Anna had kicked her square in the chest, but had finally made sense of her surroundings. Whatever demon had been terrorising her was now trapped in her subconscious.
"Elsa, oh, god, I'm sorry. Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" The younger girl asked, fretfully. The blonde waved her concerns away, still winded and unable to talk. "What happened?"
Regaining her breath, Elsa began to explain. "I heard you screaming, so I raced in here, only to find you about to give yourself a broken cheekbone." She eyed the angry bruise on her sister's face, adding quietly, "Imagine my surprise when I realised someone already had."
The redhead looked away. Elsa touched her arm gently, finally noticing the bruises on her wrist. "Anna, who did this to you?" The younger girl just looked back at her sadly, avoiding the question and responding with one of her own.
"You've never killed anyone, have you?" she asked. The blonde was completely unprepared for the sudden change in topic, and looked at her sister, eyes full of hurt.
"What? No! Of course not. Why would you- Did someone tell you I did?" The redhead didn't answer her. "Is that why you were so terrified of me just now?"
"No, no," her younger sister replied, quickly, but not elaborating any further. Instead she looked disgusted with herself. "God, how could I even ask you that? You'd never hurt anyone." She turned away. "I'm sorry, Elsa. I just- I had no right to-"
The queen's voice stopped her short. "No, actually, if…well, if anyone had the right to ask, it would probably be you."
Anna turned back, puzzled. The blonde tried to explain herself. "You're the only person in this kingdom who believed from the very beginning that I never meant to hurt anyone. And that trust…it means everything to me, Anna. So I guess…I mean, if you need to ask me that question to keep trusting me, I'll answer it every time, even if it hurts like hell to be reminded that there are people out there who think I'm some kind of monster."
Sighing, the queen realised she'd probably made Anna feel guilty with all this talk of hurt, when what she really needed was to feel secure. The blonde reached out to the younger girl slowly, trying to make her intentions clear. "Can I hold you?" she asked.
The girl nodded, and so Elsa moved fully onto bed, resting her back against the headboard as her sister buried herself into the blonde's arms. The queen felt the redhead's warm breath on her neck as she watched her fiddle with the embroidery on the front of Elsa's dress. The older girl's heart ached for her sister as she kissed the top of her head.
Her eyebrows crept up in pleasant surprise as she felt the redhead's hand drift higher, her palm ghosting over the fabric covering the queen's breast. A soft kiss was placed on her neck and Elsa's eyes fluttered closed. Suddenly Anna grew rough, groping her through the dress. She sat up to straddle the blonde, kissing her urgently. The older girl moved to run a hand up the back of her sister's thigh, but before she could even get close, the girl grabbed her arm and forced it behind Elsa's back at a slightly unnatural angle. The queen yelped – sound muffled by the younger girl's tongue in her mouth – not so much from the pain as she did from the surprise at her sister being so violent. She felt a warm wetness on her cheek, and her eyes shot open to see tears rolling down Anna's face.
Using her free hand, the blonde tried to push Anna away by the shoulder, but she wouldn't budge. Elsa broke the kiss with some difficulty, ducking her head to the side when the younger girl tried to come at her again.
"Hey, hey, slow down," she said gently, holding a hand to Anna's chest to keep her at bay.
The redhead looked distressed. "You don't want me," she said, quietly, more of a statement than a question.
"No, it's not that," The queen assured her. "I want you. So much. But not like this. Something's really bothering you. You won't let me touch you, and, uh, you almost broke my arm."
Her sister was shaking as she let go of Elsa's wrist. Moving her hands to cup the younger girl's face, she was alarmed when Anna pulled her head back once again. Searching her eyes for any hint of what was going on in the redhead's mind, she was interrupted by the girl's voice.
"I don't want to be touched," she confessed. And everything fell into place for the queen.
"Whatever beast of a man did this to you," she gestured to the redhead's injured face, "didn't stop there, huh?" Anna's silence was enough to know she was right. Steeling herself, she continued. "Did he…" she ground her teeth together, about to try again, but she was spared from having to force the words out by the sight of the younger girl shaking her head. The queen exhaled, unsure if she could have handled a nod to the affirmative.
"Anna…I'm not him," she said, tenderly. "And I won't do anything if you don't want me to. But I want to show you how you deserve to be touched. If you'll let me."
A beat, and the redhead leaned forward to kiss her once again. The action was all the incentive Elsa needed.
The blonde looped her right arm around her sister's waist, gently rolling them over so that Anna was on her back, red hair splayed on the pillow underneath her head. Elsa smiled down at her sister affectionately, bringing her left hand up to caress the younger girl's white streak. "You're beautiful, you know?" she gushed, kissing her nose. The redhead blushed, not looking convinced, but the queen didn't push it, deciding to show the younger girl instead of simply tell her. Freeing her arm from underneath her sister, Elsa placed her hand on the girl's chest, feeling it rise and fall with each breath, heart fluttering under her palm.
She kissed the redhead slowly and deeply before sitting up, swiftly pulling the dress she was wearing over her head, tossing it to the floor. Clad in only a slip, she moved her lips to Anna's collarbone, trailing butterfly kisses across it, up her neck and across her jawline, feeling one of the younger girl's hands move up to tangle in her hair, the other splayed out over her back.
Elsa slid a hand up the redhead's thigh, bringing the hem of her nightgown along with it. She pulled back to look her sister in the eyes, searching for any sign of reluctance. Anna's half-smile let her know she younger girl consented, and so the queen moved her hand to the spot between redhead's thighs, fingers softly gliding over the wetness she found.
Her sister's breath hitched, and she let out a tiny mewling sound. Elsa pressed a little harder, eliciting a moan from the redhead, and when she found the sensitive nub between the younger girl's folds, she circled it once, twice, before pulling her finger away and simply tracing light patterns over her centre. Anna's hips bucked, and she whined, but the blonde didn't give in.
Using her free hand to undo the buttons on the redhead's nightgown, Elsa trailed her lips down the skin she was slowly revealing, admiring the girl's freckles like they were stars in a night sky only she could see. Pushing fabric aside, she continued down the valley between Anna's breasts, over her stomach and down to her hip, until she found her sister's delicate skin marred by the subtle yellow of another bruise. Hesitating only for a second, she kissed it softly, feeling her sister tremble underneath her.
Looking up, she realised Anna was crying again, and she faltered, taking her hand away from between the younger girl's legs and attempting to move back up towards the top of the bed.
A shaky hand on her wrist stopped her. The redhead was looking at her with an intensity Elsa had never seen before. "Please, don't stop. I need this." She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, lashes wet. "I need you," she breathed.
The queen's chest tightened, and she nodded silently. Still, Anna's tears worried her enough that she wanted to be sure the younger girl wouldn't have any delusions about who was touching her, and so she shifted up anyway, lips hovering over her sister's, moving a hand to cup her face and gently run her thumb over the girl's uninjured cheek.
"Just…keep your eyes open, alright? Remember it's me. You're safe." And she kissed her deeply, resuming her gentle strokes in the redhead's wetness, feeling her sister's arms wrap around her shoulders, clinging to her like she was a life raft in a storm. The blonde slipped a finger inside the younger girl, the rumble of a groan starting in Anna's chest, until their lips parted and it escaped her mouth, the redhead panting with the lack of air and the pleasure she felt from her sister's actions.
Anna's cries steadily became more intense, and the queen increased the speed of her movements until suddenly, the redhead arched her back, eyes slamming shut as her head fell back and a long moan bearing Elsa's name was ripped from her throat. The blonde pushed her nose into the younger girl's hair, softly whispering gentle assurances into her ear.
The redhead came back to earth, quivering, barely able to hold herself together. The queen pushed a lock of hair back from her sticky forehead, Anna looking at her with pleading eyes, before burying her face in the blonde's neck.
The older girl held her tightly. "You're okay, I've got you," she whispered. "You can let go."
And Anna did, falling apart in her sister's arms, Elsa desperately trying to hold the pieces together.