Brave
Elsa is, and always will be, a reserved person. This quality can be a double-edged sword for a monarch, especially a woman, who finds her competence and legitimacy is questioned by traditional men. Times are changing, but they change slowly.
Council meetings are conducted with more than a hint of frost; the queen doesn't want to get to know these people, she needs something from them, and they need something from her. She will not delude the other party into thinking there is any ulterior motive, nor the promise of friendship. She will not beg, she will not flatter, and she certainly won't settle for a raw deal.
'Your Majesty, I urge you to reconsider. What would your people think if you passed such a tempting offer by?'
'My duty is to my people, ambassador,' Elsa snarled the last word out with a frigid poise she wasn't she she had. She sat up straight, her icy eyes burning holes through the man's pitiful attempts to undermine her. 'Your insistence will not sway me otherwise. Furthermore, you will not tell me how to conduct business in my home. You need this arrangement more than I do, I can assure you. Have I made myself clear?'
Elsa took some smug pleasure in watching him squirm beneath her scrutiny. She didn't even have to show her ice this time.
'C–crystal, Your Majesty,' the man shrank beneath the Ice Queen's cold gaze. 'M—my sincerest apologies.'
'Good. Now let's get back to it.'
After the meeting adjourned, Elsa spent the next hour and a half barricaded in her study, pent up fear and aggression swirled around the room as a violent snowstorm.
As shrewd as she is, Elsa despises the world of politics. Often, she wonders how her mother and father dealt with such nonsense, yet still made time for their little ones. Most meetings go without incident, though she is perceptive enough to pick up tiny hints of misplaced superiority. These micro annoyances do build up over time, but Elsa finds her ice is an excellent outlet.
Spending any time with her little sister doubles the cathartic effect. Anna finds the more frustrated Elsa is, the more intricate her creations become. She's sad to see negative emotions bring out her most beautiful work.
'Oh, Elsa, it's gorgeous,' Anna ran her finger along the leg of the icy horse. The mane was wild, individual hairs rendered in thin ice. 'I don't think I've seen so much detail in your work before.'
'Well, it's been a long week,' Elsa shrugged. 'A long, difficult week.'
'I'm sorry,' the princess hooked her arm in Elsa's, taking one cold palm in her warm one. 'I wasn't getting in the way at all, was I?'
'Of course not!' the queen refuted. She pulled Anna's hand into her chest, encapsulating it with both of hers. 'Anna, you're the reason I haven't had any episodes in weeks. Thank you.'
Elsa pulled her sister into a hug with an affectionate hum.
'It's so hard, sometimes. But when I'm with you, all of that goes away.'
Anna will also sit in on some council meetings and trade negotiations. Nothing is green-lighted without the approval of both the queen and the princess. It would be easy to hand the crown over to the redhead. She has a way with people, a natural charm that wears down one's guard. Her patience does wear thin when she can see her sister is being baited, but she has learned to let the queen fight these battles herself.
After a particularly rough meeting, Anna will automatically take Elsa by the hand and head for their shared bedroom. She sits her big sister down on the bed, tucks her in Anna's own favorite fuzzy blanket, then begins to recount the events of the day before the hellish meeting. They even have their own impromptu 'practice' rounds of charades.
'Elsa, you've gotta give me something else here, you're just flailing,' Anna huffed.
'That's it!' Elsa did a little leap not unlike one of Anna's. 'You got it!'
'Wait, 'flailing' was the word?! Who wrote these?' the princess thumbed through the unused prompts.
'Hey, knock it off! No peeking!' Elsa giggled, swatting Anna's hand from the basket.
'Pft, make me, sis.'
A devilish grin from the queen told Anna she'd said just the wrong thing.With inhuman speed, Elsa had already made her way to the bed, relentlessly tickling Anna's sides while the princess shrieked and giggled.
'Ahh, no fair! You know I'm super ticklish!'
'All's fair in love and war, dear sister.'
For a fraction of a second, Elsa let down her guard to admire her success, only for Anna to seize the opportunity to reciprocate.
'Anna, don't you dare-'
The queen never finished, her weak reprimand betrayed by her own laughter.
Elsa always says that Anna is the bravest person she knows. She means it with every drop of blood in her veins. After all, Anna was the one to go after Elsa, even if the elder sister had no intentions of ever returning to Arendelle. The princess endured the elements, fear, and the cruelty of mankind.
'Elsa, being brave doesn't mean you're not afraid,' Anna gripped her sister's frigid, trembling hands. 'Do you know how proud I am of you every time you walk through those doors to another meeting? I know it's hard for you, but you knock 'em dead each and every time.'
'Bad analogy,' Elsa cringed.
'Sorry, but my point still stands. Doing what you do every day, even if you think you're not ready for it, that makes you brave, Elsa. You are the bravest person I know.'
Elsa shut her eyes and lowered her head, inviting her sister to do the same.
"Thank you," the queen's voice was little more than a hoarse whisper, a sure sign she was irrevocably touched.
At the end of the day, Elsa agrees to disagree, but she's smart enough not to let Anna know. There's no changing Anna's determined mind.
And Elsa is okay with that.
Closing notes: Mufasa's line about bravery in the Lion King always resonated with me. "Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble." Neither sister really tries to find trouble, it just sort of finds them. But they deal with it in the only way they know how; for the betterment of the other sister, and by extension, the world around them.
