A/N - I handed in my dissertation yesterday, so am back to updating! I still have a few more uni commitments so they won't be as frequent, but I haven't vanished off the face of the earth!

I really would love to hear your thoughts on this story :)

"Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love.

Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time.

and Everything Ends." - Sarah Jane Smith

Anna. The girl who waited. There was an undeniable feeling of not knowing that unsteadied her. Not understanding why Elsa would just leave her, why their relationship had turned into conversations outside a door. There was nobody to hold hands with who was just her height. There was nobody to sit with at dinner. Not her best friend, anyway.

The not knowing, was also a small comfort too. Just slightly. Anna was intuitive, feelings were something she understood, and Elsa - well Elsa was her whole world. If something terrible had happened, she would surely know. Elsa was amazing, in every sense of the word. she was almost, magical. And so, Anna concluded, that if something devastating had happened to Elsa that caused her to stay in her room for what felt like eternity, then the universe would shiver in response. She would feel it. The world would suffer. So she didn't mind waiting. because Elsa would be out soon and they would be together. Things would be the way they were always supposed to be.

Anna hopped, skipped and jumped down the corridor, her mother following close behind. A surprise. That was what was waiting for her. Anna loved surprises, and a small part of her hoped today would be the day she could give Elsa a hug. She itched with excitement, revelling in the happiness that was filling her heart with glee.

Waiting anxiously beside the shut wooden doors, Anna watched as her mother's hands hovered over the doorknob.

"Open it! Please!" Anna squealed, jumping up and down trying to release some of the excess energy that was burning inside of her.

"You need to close your eyes" Iduna warmly replied, a sparkle shining in her eyes as she said it. Abruptedly, Anna shut her eyes as tightly as they could go, her nose scrunching too.

Slowly, Anna felt herself being led into the study. Ever so carefully, she took steps forward as her mother guided her further into the room. She listened intently for the okay to open her eyes.

"Okay, open them" Iduna said enthusiastically, grinning as she watched Anna in awe.

Well, her curiosity is well and truly peaked. She needed to wait for the blue and purple splotches to dissipate from her view, so she shut her eyes too tight. Her heart sank, just a little. This wasn't Elsa. Nor would it help her in getting Elsa back. It was.. well, she didn't actually know. "What is it?" she asked, plodding around the device in confusion. In all she knew of the world, Anna concluded that this was a circle stick balancing (awkwardly she might add, it looked as though it could topple at any moment.) on top of three other sticks that were kind of shaped like a triangle. The first thing that came to mind was a really tall see saw, but there were no seats, and she had no means of getting up there.

"It's a telescope." Iduna explained, teetering the tube.

"A tele-wha?" Dropping her shoulders, Anna's face only grew more confused.

"It's to see the stars, just like in your books." Iduna laughed. "Come here" gesturing to a chair for Anna to stand on, the small girl shrugged, The stars were much too far away to see, even squinting didn't do the job. Balancing carefully on the chair, she was awkwardly face to face with a small circle of glass. A sound of uncertainty came out Anna. "Look into it." Iduna guided.

And it was magnificent. All at once the world came alive. There were sparkles in the sky and now she could see them up close. Some of the little white dots flickered, glowing brightly in a blanket of dark blue. "Whoa." Anna commented, "How does it all fit up there?"

Iduna turned the telescope slowly, and Anna was on the moon. A whole other planet. A world which she wished she could know more of. So out of reach. "Do you think anyone is up there?" Anna asked, her head buried in the glass. For a moment, the younger sister pondered over the probability of that being true.

"Perhaps. We don't know." Iduna smiled. For such a hyper child, everything came to a standstill whenever Anna found something beautiful. She would awe in wonder of the universe, she had so many questions. So many that couldn't be answered. But it was a question she was okay with not knowing the answer to, it made everything new, and mysterious.

"I think there might be" Anna said quietly, a hint of sadness resonating in her voice. She had decided, that yes. There most likely was a man on the moon. And that man would be feeling the exact same way she was now. Lonely, worlds away from the people that mattered to him. The distance from where she stood, to the moon measured to be exactly the same as Anna to Elsa.

"Can we show Elsa?" Anna asked, straightening back up from practically putting all he weight onto the telescope. She could feel her heart deflate with just one simple look. One of pain. This was the look Anna had questions about, questions she needed answering. "Please? She would love this."

Iduna only sighed in response, graciously taking the girl into her arms. "You're right, she would love this." Anna almost rolled her eyes, if anything that was just more reason to go and get her.

"I miss her." She grumbled, folding her arms. "I don't see her anymore."

It was such a precarious topic to dance around, because so often he conversation would in some way or another lead back to Elsa. It was grating at Iduna, the universe constantly testing her choice by having her child question the reasoning behind it. Agnarr, by no means received this treatment.

"I learnt recently that if you're missing somebody, you can look up at the night sky." Iduna explained. "Chances are, they're looking up at the sky, just as you are." Anna listened carefully, wondering if Elsa would look at the sky too. They shared the same stars, perhaps one night they would be staring at the exact same one. "For all it's size, the universe isn't such a big place after all." Iduna assured, placing Anna back on the floor.

The telescope was pointed toward adventure, one that most definitely could not be experienced alone. She decided then and there, that she would show Elsa the telescope, they would watch the stars together.

The Next Morning

The stars vanished from the sky, as did the wonder of it all. That night, Anna had dreamed that Elsa was on the moon. And it haunted her that she felt no different to how she did then. Screw not knowing. Today would be the day she would reclaim her sister. She wouldn't take to the sky, however. Anna instead kept to earth, literally. With a shovel in her hand, and a whole lot of upper body strength - or so she thought - acquired. Anna was ready to take on the world once and for all. The universe, would listen to her. She would get her way.

She stomped down to the castle grounds, in her pyjamas and a pair of wellingtons. See, Elsa's departure had led to Anna becoming quite the bookworm, and she was pretty much done with biology and sciencey books at this point. And had moved to fiction, fairy-tale and myths. In her mind, Anna could in fact be titled as an escapologist.

Pounding the dirt beneath her boots, Anna dug up as much as she could, swinging spades of mud, and the occasional flower, behind her.

Yes, Anna was going to tunnel into Elsa's room. If doors were out of bounds, then she simply had to try another means. She had well and truly ruined her dress, but she continued digging, the sound of earth scattering behind her spurring her on. Progress.

"Anna?" Iduna poked her head out of Elsa's window. In digging, she had unintentionally been sprinkling the window with small rocks and dirt too, flicking them across the window panes. "What are you doing?"

Anna shot up from the ground, dropping the shovel beside her. This would have been easier to explain had Iduna not have actually been at the destination she was attempting to reach. "I.. erm." She was stumped. Her feet fixed to the ground just as the flowers were before she had dug all their roots up.

"Well?"

The quietest of mumbles travelling through the air. A guilty look flushed across Anna's now red face.

"What did you say?" Iduna leaned further out the window, her stern look growing friecer by the second. She couldn't see the end goal. All she saw was her daughter covered in dirt surrounded by what was, beautiful flowers. Trampled, ripped and thrown on the pavement behind her.

"I was tunnelling to Elsa's room." Anna sighed, her head dropping. She began to count each and every speckle and grain of grass on her shoes.

"You were tunnelling, into Elsa's room?" Iduna repeated, perplexed. A smaller, higher pitched voice echoed behind Iduna. Anna's ears perked up.

"Elsa? Are you there?" She called, completely ignoring her mothers face of annoyance. "Come out and play!"

"You dug up my garden? Anna." Iduna stated, snapping attention back to her. "Did you think you were gonna just come up from the floor or.." She didn't have an alternative, none of it made sense, It was barbaric, it was wild. It was so.. so.. Anna. Running headfirst into a plan without spending much time pondering the logistics.

"That was kind of the idea, yeah." Anna glumly replied, had it not been established yet? Anger was bubbling inside her. She just wanted to talk to Elsa.

"Sweetheart that's impossible!" Iduna breathed out. "You can't do that!" She gestured to the scene below her.

"I can't do anything anymore! I can't see Elsa! I can't sit at her door! We can't go into town together! It's not fair!" Anna screamed, every word scratching harshly at her throat. The pain of it would not match the pain that ached in her heart, not by a long shot. Anna-volume. How such a small human being had the voice of ten men. It echoed throughout the grounds. "When will it be my turn to go and see her? You always do! Dad too! It's never me!"

Kicking the shovel as far as she could - not far - Anna pounded the stones beneath her feet and headed towards her bedroom. Where she would be alone, once more. She hoped Elsa heard every word of what she said. That whatever all of this was would just stop.

It was a day that would be a landmark as one of the more difficult days in the early years. When the grief was really starting to show. When Iduna had just a taste of what was yet to come. She had to wrangle with which child to help first, Elsa who had been hurt upon hearing Anna's plan, particularly her last comments about her. Or Anna, the child who had so much grief she wasn't sure what to do with it. She settled on dealing with Anna later, giving her space to calm.