Princess Etiquette
Just as expected: Anna needed to learn a thing or two about manners.
"Ooh, wha' that?" Anna said through a mouthful of ham and egg. Both she and Elsa were having afternoon tea in the royal parlor.
Elsa, who daintily sipped tea while sifting through a pile of mail on the desk, held up one embellished scroll with a foreign seal.
"Hey, stop it, sissy," Elsa clucked when Anna leaned across the table to peer over at the scroll.
When Elsa thoroughly looked over the scroll well enough, she rolled it back up with a satisfactory smile. "It's official," she announced. "Princess Rapunzel of Corona and her husband Eugene have officially considered my request to peacefully with their country. They're visiting in two weeks."
Anna spluttered her tea, spraying it over the table and Elsa. "THAT IS SOOO COOL! I've always wanted to meet Rapunzel in person." Anna sighed happily, putting her elbow on the table and accidentally spilling a pitcher of cream in the process. "I wonder if she'll want to be besties with me?"
Elsa daintily dabbed at her wet face and glared at Anna.
"I don't know about this – what do you call it? – 'besties' business," she sniffed. "But before you're seeing any guests, you've got to learn some manners. And," Elsa added, "I will teach you how to be a proper princess, too."
"Oh, come on, Els-"
"You have my final word! I'd send you to Princess Charm School, but all the princesses are way younger than you. I think I will do as your teacher."
Anna groaned and splayed her arms across the tabletop, knocking over the saltshaker this time and earning an exasperated groan from Elsa.
Anna slid through the slippery hallways with only her socks on while singing, "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" Anna turned a corner.
BAM! Anna veered a little too quickly into a vase stand and slammed her hip against it.
"Owww...darn it," she gasped while clutching at her hip.
The nearest servants dropped whatever was in their hands, swung their heads in her direction, and gasped as though Anna had said the foulest word in existence. Elsa was passing in Anna's opposite direction and also overheard.
"What did you just say, Anna?" Elsa said sternly.
Anna blushed under Elsa's severe glare. "I- I just-"
A princess does not swear. Ever, ever, ever." Elsa cast one last disapproving look at Anna before continuing her way.
"Seriously? 'Darn' isn't even that-"
"E-ver."
Anna's gaze trailed after Elsa as she went the opposite direction without another word.
"Aw, darn it!"
"KRISTOFF!"
Anna ran to her beloved, arms outstretched, as though to embrace him. However, behind her she heard a "Hem-hem."
Elsa approached Anna with her arms clasped around Kristoff's neck.
"A princess should never embrace a man she isn't married to," Elsa said coldly. To Kristoff, she only said politely, "You'll have to forgive her for this inconvenience. Anna and I are honored you can come for dinner tonight. This way to the dining hall." She waved her hand to the right.
"Coming, sis!" Anna called back. To Kristoff she muttered, blushing, "S-sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Oh no, it's me you must forgive for not greeting you properly, Your Majesty!" Kristoff said, kneeling down, though it was obvious that Kristoff was joking.
Anna laughed it off. "That's ok, Kristoff, no need for theatrics. Really."
"Hey, you didn't tell me your sister was that overprotective," said Kristoff.
"No, Elsa just wants to knock some manners into me, you know?" she laughed weakly.
"Well, okay," Kristoff said with a smile. "We must look for a better way to greet each other, don't you think?" He took her glove-laden hand and kissed it.
"Well then," said Anna decidedly, "I think Elsa won't object to this-" here she alighted on her toes and gave Kristoff a traditional greetings kiss on both cheeks.
"Ack! Help! Police! Someone's stealing my dresses!" Anna shouted when she spotted someone half-concealed in Anna's dresses closet.
"It's me." Elsa pulled out of the closet with some dresses hanging over her arm. Many more were in a pile on the floor. "A princess must not shout."
"Listen, what are you doing in my-"
"Exactly what I'm supposed to have done all that time." Elsa nodded grimly. "These dresses are so commonplace! Look at them!"
"But they're so comfy!" Anna pleaded.
"That doesn't matter. A princess doesn't wear outdated things, or anything this commonplace." On her way out, Elsa added, "And I hired the fashion maids to make you something new. Oh, and I bought you some extra Victorian dresses from England. You might want to try them on."
Great. Anything glamorous + anything from England = unbelievably tight corsets.
"A princess doesn't slouch," Elsa hissed when she and Anna stood atop the castle deck to wave at the villagers cheering them down below.
Anna straightened out her back.
"Now wave – but daintily, not like you're a fangirl!"
At the table:
"Elbows off! No reaching – ask politely, is it really that hard? No eating with your hands; what are you, a slob? When using utensils, you should eat with the outer fork first, then work your way inward. No playing with your food!" For Anna had just taken one pancake and ate through its inners to form them into a smiley face.
"Okay, okay," Anna said, pouting. She slapped the pancake down onto her plate and ate it from there on, even though the way she held her utensils was still incorrect.
Even worse, when Anna tried to cut the cold veal with her dull knife, it sent the piece of meat flying onto the floor.
"Whoops, sorry!" Anna backed her chair out of the table(banging her knee under the table as she did so). She stooped over and while in this position, an unsuspecting servant with a platter of roast goose tripped over Anna, sending the goose flying out the window. The other servant behind the first one slipped backwards, and since a whole line of servants with a platters were lined up behind, down they all fell like a set of dominoes, with the delicacies flying hither across the dining hall.
By the time Anna scrambled back into her seat, veal in teeth, the felled servants were picking themselves up from the floor and swearing something nasty. Something worse than "darn", anyhow. And Elsa could only pinch her nose in embarrassment.
While walking down the carpet into a carriage:
"A princess must throw her shoulders back, tilt her chin up and stride in poise and confidence," Elsa whispered in Anna's ear.
"Seriously?" Anna whispered back. She folded an arm behind her back to adjust her scratchy dress from there – but subtly, so that the flocks of observing villagers behind the guards wouldn't notice.
Elsa swatted Anna's arm forward. "Yes. And stop fidgeting!"
"And princesses do not casually swing their arms at their sides either," was the last thing Elsa said before she and Anna stepped into the carriage.
And queens like you don't simply strut while sitting down, Anna thought sarcastically.
After dance class:
"So how did lessons go?" Elsa asked hopefully when she met Anna outside of the ballroom.
"Fun!" Ann replied. "Waltzing is more fun than I thought! You should try it too!"
Sounds like good news. Elsa relaxed...
...till the dance class instructor appeared. He gave Anna a dirty look and hobbled out of the ballroom, his wig askew and face red with anger.
No comment here, Elsa thought, mentally sighing. It's obvious that Anna broke that poor guy's toes with her big feet.
I could go on about all the princess do's and dont's that poor Anna had to endure for two weeks, but that would be a little overkill. But the day came when the two sisters finally met Rapunzel and Eugene in the Great Hall, both of whom received a most royal welcome.
"Welcome to Arendelle," Elsa said, curtsying gracefully. Anna copied her.
"Sjarmet, Deres Majestet!" replied Rapunzel in a cheery voice while Eugene kissed the hands of both girls. She took a look around at the Hall and laughed a joyful, silvery laugh. "Forgive my imperfect Norweigan. Eugene and I are still learning the language..."
Elsa gently laughed. "It's all right, I understand what you're saying. Anna, would you like to say something?" For Anna was impatiently shuffling her feet.
"I heard you had golden hair," she said without thinking, then clapped her hand over her mouth and blushed, while Rapunzel and Eugene laughed jovially.
"True! I did!" Rapunzel replied, stroking her tresses. "You would not believe the story behind my hair..."
Thank God...she isn't offended that I said that informal, Anna thought with comfort. She smiled and nodded politely while Elsa abruptly changed the subject. "I hope you don't mind tea before discussing foreign trading affairs?" she said.
Everything went well. Anna held her knife and fork correctly, sipped her tea instead of gulping it(and raised her pinky as a bonus), did not bang the table with her knee, suppressed her burps, did not play with her food, and did not idly chatter (thus honoring the rule that princesses should be seen and not heard at the table), only nodding politely when her guests asked her simple questions. But Anna wasn't happy. Sure, she knew better than to act like a slob, but trying too hard to be the "perfect" princess – someone she was not – did not fit her personality type. And those silly corsets really were squeezing the life out of her.
"Anna? What's wrong?" Rapunzel asked a gloomy Anna, who excused herself from the tea table and made to leave for the royal garden. Elsa and Eugene were deep in conversation about trading negotiations.
"Oh!" Anna cried, blushing again, "I- I- don't worry about me, I..."
"It's ok, you can tell me! I won't judge!" Rapunzel said, holding Anna's hand reassuringly. Anna had just met Rapunzel, but she already wanted to confide to her as though to an old friend.
So, casting aside all suppressed excitement, she gripped Rapnuzel's hand tighter and smiled widely. "All right. But how about I show you my garden first?"
"Sounds amazing! Eugene, hon, I'll be right back!" Rapunzel called out to her husband before the both of them ran off.
"Anna, where are you going! A princess must not run- ok, you know what? Fine. Never mind. Just let your guests judge you on your behavior." Elsa sighed. I really, really, really hope that Anna doesn't give our guests a bad impression with her unprincessy-like behavior.
"Is there anything the matter, Your Majesty?" Eugene asked concernedly.
Elsa shook her head no and smiled ironically. "I really must apologize. Anna has not had much experience with real guests before, so I tried to shape some manners into her. But I know I pressured her too much with too many unnecessary rules, and I'm sorry. I just- I just don't want to give people a bad impression by letting them know that I have a bad-mannered sister-"
"Oh, please! Don't worry about it!" Eugene put his palms up. "Your sister? She's the politest girl I've seen yet!"
Elsa sighed in relief. Looks like Anna is kind of like my insecure spot.
"You should've seen Rapunzel and me when we first adapted into the castle," he continued. "If you don't know our past history together, you might think we know everything about a good first impression, but actually, no..."
Soon enough, while Elsa and Eugene were making extra small talk to get to know other better, Anna and Rapunzel came back into the room, laughing like old friends and their arms wrapped around each others' shoulders.
I forgot the golden rule of princess etiquette, Elsa thought afterwards upon seeing Anna, now all cheered up, chat with her new friend. A princess...must always have a good heart. And I'm proud to say that Anna always lived and breathed that rule.
-Here you go y'all, another Frozen fic by Yours Truly(aka the writer who takes forever to update and writes overused oneshots that have probably already been covered by some of the thousands of writers on the site but it's still so much fun, so comment fav and follow if you like and see you around byyeee!)
-Thanks for reading!
