Just a little drabble to expose the possible consequences of the moment Anna was trapped in that dark cavern in Frozen 2 and she thought that Elsa was dead. Prepare your tissues, maybe? Oops.

Elsa parted from the hug with Kristoff.

"Welcome back", he smiled.

"I'm glad to be here", smiled back Elsa.

She looked at both spouses. "Now, let's hurry inside before you two freeze to death standing like that."

She chuckled at how they were rubbing their arms and trembling in front of her, and dismissed the Nokk by patting their neck. They nodded, and leaped around, then dove and disappeared in one of the fountains of the courtyard.

Some hair strands flew in front of Elsa's eyes with the storm, and she passed a hand in them to fix them with ice above her left ear. She followed them inside, and despite not feeling more or less comfortable in a warm place and sheltered from the wind, she sighed with content. Elsa had missed the specific smell of the great hall, and the feeling of the carpet under her feet.

After climbing up the stairs, Elsa gave a quick glance at Anna, then back at Kristoff, and suddenly back at Anna a second time, because she noticed how glistening her eyes were.

"Are you alright?"

Anna blinked fast and cleared her throat.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're tearing up."

"No I'm not. It's just the wind."

"We're indoors." Smirked Elsa.

Anna groaned and briskly made annoyed moves of the arms. "Yeah, well, whatever! Wind in the air! I don't know! Just… Just keep walking, you dummy. We need to prepare the meeting."

Elsa simply smiled and followed her indications, giving a side look at Kristoff, who warned her with a simple head shake to not further tease Anna about it. Elsa had taken experience in non-verbal language after frequenting Nokk, Bruni and the Giants so much, and gulped at his advice.

She walked closer to Anna.

"I'm sorry, did I do something that upset you?"

Anna kept looking in front of them as they walked down the castle's corridor. "Keep walking." She mumbled.

Elsa was taken aback. She felt sad to see Anna like this, and passed her hands along her arms as she glanced at Kristoff. "Is something wrong?" She asked her little sister with worry.

"You think this is funny?!" Suddenly jolted Anna, her voice powerful and muscles tensing.

Both shocked Elsa, and she stepped back with wide eyes. She frowned at her state.

"What?"

"Joking about that."

There was a blank, and they had stopped walking in the corridor when Anna exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, Anna, but you'll have to be more specific." Said Elsa. "I don't understand what you're referring to…"

Anna suddenly slapped her arm in anger. She was furious, and her teal blue eyes pierced Elsa's face. The blonde yelped in surprise, and massaged her arm with a sad face.

"How can you NOT?" Yelled Anna, and now the guards present in the corridor gave glances at each other.

"What are you even–"

"That JOKE you did! Outside! About freezing to death!"

"It was just an expression, Anna, nothing–" Started to say Kristoff, defending his sister-in-law. But his voice vanished in his throat when he saw the enraged look Anna gave him, and gulped.

When Anna turned to Elsa, the latter's expression had totally changed. She was confused and pouting before, and now all color had left her face and some tears appeared in her eyes as she blinked.

"Oh, gods, Anna, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize…"

Anna bit her lip to not tear up too, and they stared at each other, then she suddenly kept walking fast in the corridor. Elsa jogged behind her to catch her.

"I really didn't think of it, please forgive me. I was just joking about the fact that I don't mind cold, but that you two didn't have to stand–"

"That didn't prevent you from freezing to death, did it?"

That left a big silence in the corridor. So silent that one could hear the wind blowing outside as a distant whistle. Elsa looked down as they had stopped walking again, then gulped and cleared her throat. She looked at her little sister again, and now she could see how glistening Anna's eyes were, despite - she could tell - how strong she tried to be in the argument, and how much will she put into her soul to not weep right then in front of her staff, and act like a Queen. Elsa could almost hear her jaw clench, and saw the way she had balled her fists. With delicateness and prudence, she reached for one of them, and passed soft fingers along her phalanges.

"Anna, I swear I didn't do it on purpose. You know I didn't. I'm sorry if that put you in such a state, and triggered something in you."

Another silence fell on them, and Kristoff passed a big caring hand on Anna's shoulder. She seemed to relax at both contacts, but was still tense.

She cleared her throat after a while. "I'll… I'll prepare the meeting room. I'll see you guys there."

The Queen left them and kept walking the corridor, and turned at the corner.

"Anna!" Gasped Elsa, but she was stopped by Kristoff who gently grabbed her arm.

"Don't. She need some time."

"I know, but… She won't get better by isolating herself. I'm in a good position to know that."

"Yes", admitted Kristoff. "But leave her for a moment, please. She needs time to process."

Elsa looked one last time at where Anna turned, and looked up at Kristoff, understanding there were things they were not telling her.

"What's going on?"

The blond closed his eyes, breathed in and out calmly, though with an emotional sigh. "It's since the winter storms started… She's been having many nightmares recently. Actually, every night."

Elsa missed a heartbeat, and felt like her knees were dropping to the floor. "What?"

Anna didn't mention anything about that in her letters.

"She hadn't slept much this week. You have to forgive her, she's very tired and can get nervous easily."

"What are her nightmares about?" Asked Elsa, in panic, ignoring his attempt to say that Anna was tensed because of tiredness.

He winced.

"You. Every time. You… Dying."

Elsa's eyes widened. Her breathing sped up, and she lost her balance. Kristoff barely had time to blink that she was running down the corridor in a white blur.

"WAIT!" He called, but it was useless.

He felt the temperature slightly dropping, but maybe it just was the chill of Winter outside.

Elsa went down the stairs so fast that she was risking a sprained ankle anytime, but she absolutely didn't care. It was a good thing that ice never made her fall, because sprinting with ice sandals was the worse idea in the world - if you weren't a magical spirit.

"Anna!"

The door of the meeting room was closed. This was even sadder than Elsa predicted. Usually, she was the kind to close doors behind her when she had a breakdown. But Anna…

Elsa calmed her trembling hand with a long breathing, and knocked on the wood.

No answer.

This was even even sadder than she thought.

"Your Highness?"

Elsa turned around at the butler's familiar voice.

"Kai! Oh, please, please tell her that I'm sorry, I didn't thought- I didn't mean-"

"Are you okay?" Worried the servant with wide eyes.

The Snow Queen's breathing was uneven, and he knew that pale face very well. Only a few years before, her head would have been surrounded with floating snowflakes.

"Calm down. Why are you knocking to this door?"

"Anna is preparing the meeting. I didn't mean to-"

He ignored the last part of her sentence, which was a repetition of her nervousness anyway, and frowned.

"This is not the meeting room. This is the living room."

"I… What?"

Kai couldn't help but smile at her expression.

"Queen Anna switched the two rooms purposes a month ago. She noticed that one was more bathed with the afternoon sunlight that the other, and that the big stained-glass window would be more profitable when we have diplomats coming over. Especially with all the new trades meetings."

Elsa stared at him, speechless. That's not something she'd have thought about, even for the three years she had been on the throne. She blinked, amazed by the decision, and finally shook her head.

"Where is she then?"

"I believe you just said that she was preparing the meeting." Smiled politely Kai.

"Right. So, the living room."

"Correct."

She yelled a thank you as she ran up the stairs again and went to another wing of the castle.

Finally, she arrived to the current meeting room, and her heart leaped in her chest when she saw that the door was wide open. She entered so fast that it felt like a tornado had just came in, almost literally given her stress, and Anna and the servant helping her jumped of surprise.

"Ma'am." Blabbered the maid, bowing.

Anna frowned, and went back to what she was doing. She was placing the chairs around the long table, and setting goblets in case the dignitaries were thirsty. Elsa couldn't tell if her serious face was due to her focus to make sure that the council would go perfectly, or because she didn't want to talk to her sister.

"Anna…" Murmured Elsa, stepping closer. "I'm truly sorry. Please don't sulk-"

"I'm not sulking", grumbled Anna.

That answer actually amused Elsa, and she smiled. "Really? Because you sound like you're sulking."

A twitch appeared at the corner of Anna's lips.

"I am not sulking."

The blonde remembered that the word actually made Anna laughed when she way younger. They often had fun in the library reading odd words from books out loud and then cackle about it.

Anna still was keeping her distance with Elsa, however, and cleverly kept going around the table and putting down goblets in front of each chair. The servant was holding the tray on which they were disposed, and when the Queen was done, she was glad to be able to ask to leave the room to help in the kitchens, and leave the two sisters alone.

The redhead dismissed her with a nod, and the maid hastily passed the threshold.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Asked Elsa.

"I don't want to talk to you."

"Then don't talk to me. Talk about your nightmares."

Anna had been looking at the table to avoid crossing her gaze, and suddenly stopped in her moves. Her eyes became sad. She closed them, and breathed in a long time before opening them again.

She nudged with the closest chair, passing her finger along the crocuses engravings.

"I'm not sure now is a good time." She finally said, on a low voice. "I prefer not to be distracted before the meeting."

Elsa got struck by her maturity for the second time of the day. "Of course. I… I understand. We can-"

"Stay tonight."

The blonde blinked at her interruption. Anna had lifted her head, and her teal blue eyes, filled with emotion, were staring so deeply at her that she could just as much be staring into her soul.

"Don't return to the forest once we're done with the meeting. Please stay tonight."

The elder shared her emotion, and gulped as she nodded. A silence passed.

"Do you mean, stay tonight as in… You want me to stay so you can tell me, or because you'll sleep better if I sleep with you?"

Touché.

Anna smiled sadly, and let out a light snort. "Both. I suppose."

She was sad, even depressed, Elsa could tell, but didn't know what to do to reassure her that wouldn't make her cry right here and right then, and so maybe ruin her mental state she had put herself in for the meeting.

The Snow Queen lifted a hand to gently put it on Anna's which was still resting on the chair. She expected her to do anything but to react the way she then did: her fingers grabbed hers, and Anna tugged Elsa with all her strength to tackle her into a hug.

"Agh!" Was all Elsa could say when the air suddenly got expelled out of her lungs at the powerful embrace, but she gave her little sister all her love back.

They stayed for a while on each other's shoulder like that, her eyes closed. Elsa clenched her hands against Anna's dress.

"It's because of what happened when I was gone, isn't it?"

She could feel Anna nod against her shoulder. "The cavern was so cold… And there was this…"

She stopped to gulp.

"…this distant wind, whistling… It had a very special sound, and sometimes I hear it too in Winter now when the castle is silent at night and the sky is dark and the fire is put out and-"

"Shhhh…" Soothed Elsa, and she parted from the hug to put a kiss on Anna's forehead. "It's okay. I'm here."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm the one who's sorry."

The blonde looked at Anna and was surprised to see that she wasn't crying. Her strength would forever astonish her.

"We have all the time in the world to talk about it. Now, let's prepare the meeting, okay?" Smiled Elsa.

She gestured at the table. "The council will soon start, Your Majesty."

She squeezed Anna's hand. "And you're the sun about to bring them light."

The redhead finally smiled, and giggled. She squeezed her hand back.