A/N - Inspired by Jt2300 (though not exact, I will see if i can do your exact prompt in later chapters, I've just used the 4 words "Elsa is really dead" haha)

This takes place during Frozen (first movie, they haven't rekindled a relationship)

They had been treading so lightly around her, worried this news would break her. But Anna was anything but fragile. She was resilient, sturdy and had overcome everything thrown away. This would be no different.

"Elsa's dead"

The only words she heard, before everything became white noise. Kai and Gerda rambled about what the next steps would involve, their hands in hers as the soon to be Queen was recovered from her bedroom. Other staff members were coming and going from the bedroom, attending to the Queen.

And she couldn't breathe, it had happened right under her nose. But of course, she never knew what happened behind that door. Nobody ever told her anything.

It was the first time she had seen her door open.

It was the last time she would see Elsa for more than a few seconds.

The door, well and truly shut. No more chances, no more opportunities.

"Princess Anna?"

Her tearful eyes flickered back the pair. Concern swept across their faces. Grief, she was meant to be feeling grief. Staying silent, Anna's eyes fell to the table. Momentarily taking stock of her feelings. She was sad, but not nearly as much as she should be. Truthfully, Anna couldn't help but wonder if these feelings were solely because there had been a death, it needn't matter who. Anna had been inconsolable when their parents passed. She had stayed outside that damn door for hours waiting for Elsa to come out. This was hardly the same. She just felt empty.

"Yes, Kai? Sorry." She turned her attention back to them, Gerda was setting aside some papers. Both eyes intently digging into her. She shifted uncomfortably, briefly turning back towards what had been Elsa's bedroom door.

"We're so sorry." Gerda said sympathetically, squeezing Anna's hands tightly. Comfort. Because you're upset. The sadness in their eyes in any other circumstance would have Anna crying too, she sobbed at everything, for everyone. On many occasions she had shared tears with the townspeople as they talked to her about their struggles. But now? Anna couldn't find it anywhere in her heart to feel anything. She was just confused.

How do you mourn someone you don't know?

"We'll be telling Arendelle tomorrow, an announcement will be posted on the gates." Kai informed. Furrowing her brows, Anna looked at the draft Kai had slid across the table. It was on paper. She wasn't imagining it.

"Nobody comes to the gates anymore" Anna mumbled nonchalantly, her eyes scanning across the document. She shook her head; "They've been shut for years."

The air grew still, the room felt on edge. The gates, was she supposed to open them now? Could she? Did she even want to? She wasn't sure she wanted people parading around now, walking through the grounds. Things would move on without Elsa. Because they could, there was nothing to stop her. She could start life anew, if she tried hard enough she could forget the last three quarters of her life. To start again. To rise from the ashes.

But the castle wasn't a happy place to walk into, at best the townspeople would simply be trampling on her grief. She would be reminded once again of what could have been. For the first time, she allowed the grief to pull her away. There was no use running towards a door that was never going to open, so instead she allowed the distance to fill her.

She just felt... numb.

Time moved slower.

Everything felt heavy, and weightless at the same time.

The loss of Elsa was a wildfire. Stopping for nothing, until every neural pathway in Anna's brain was disconnected and eroded. She couldn't think. Her brain used to be so loud. But the hallways were silent. The house grieved too, the creaky floorboards groaning with this new found loss. Blanketed in darkness, the curtains to every window remained closed. That bedroom, Elsa's. The door of which kept begging for Anna's attention. She had explored every corner of the castle, but that bedroom. She had not. A vessel for pain that Anna was told she wasn't allowed to enter. She wished she had opened the door. To alleviate some of the flooding, she had allowed it to drown Elsa.

The day the announcement was posted felt no different than the day before. Only now it was confirmed with a piece of paper hanging off the gates. She didn't want to see their faces, she didn't want to hear them cry. It just would have felt, strange.

She was sitting at her desk, doing nothing in particular, when Gerda and Kai encouraged her outside. So she dragged her feet to the gates, for them.

Flower spilled across the pavements, lining the castle with an array of colours. The first light she had seen in days. Literally surrounded and embraced in condolences, the surviving family felt her heart clench. Delicately, she began to read each and every note that accompanied the petals. They had come to the gates. Her family hadn't been forgotten. Amongst it all, some people had even left flowers for her parents, Agnarr and Iduna. Commenting that they were in fact together now.

She was left behind again.

All those secret meeting Iduna and Agnarr had with Elsa behind that bedroom door, each time looking sadder than when they entered.

Others wrote how wonderful Elsa was, how she will be dearly missed.

As much as she wanted to bury the feeling, it made her feel angry. How could anyone pretend they knew her when Anna didn't really know Elsa herself? Her own sister. She wished she could have known half the person that people described her as. Elsa had barely seen Arendelle in recent years. It was borderline insulting, picking out kind words randomly and throwing it onto a pile of flowers, when it held no real meaning.

She put down the card she was holding hastily. Not feeling any better.

"Princess Anna?" Gerda, who had been watching from afar joined Anna by her side, holding a card of her own. "I thought you might like this one"

"I don't really want to read any more Gerda -" Waving her hands, Anna turned back, intending to go back to the castle.

"Trust me."

I will always remember the smiles you both shared as you rang in the season.

She loved you, it was clear as day. We are so sorry.

A/N - I struggled to write this, idk why. Hence why it's quite short - which i guess for this book is appropriate.