Here Comes The Sun
Chapter 11
By: The Duchess of Arendelle
AN: UPDATED finally, right?! But really guys, I suggest you read the Author's Note at the end of the story, it further expands upon this chapter.
1 Week until the Ball
Anna was currently snuggled up against Elsa in the queen's large bed. Both knowing that the ball was rapidly approaching, they made the decision to spend as much time together as humanly possible. This meant their sleeping arrangements had immensely changed, for the better in Anna's opinion. After the first few nights, where Anna would "accidentally" fall asleep in Elsa's bed while the two talked, she had eventually given up all pretense's and began to bring sleep wear and an extra outfit for the next day. Gerda made sure none of the maids ever walked in on or disturbed their alone time. From the outside it just looked like two sister making up for old time. But Elsa and Anna knew better. They spent their nights talking about any and everything, in between passionate and impromptu make out sessions. There was one thing however, that they never discussed and it was eating Anna up on the inside. Tonight, she would finally dredge up enough courage to broach the subject.
"Elsa? If- if I ask you about something, do you promised not to get angry?" Anna meekly asked as she snuggled closer to Elsa. Elsa was sitting up against her beautifully crafted headboard, reading over some mundane documents. She lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow and slowly sat the papers down on one of the bedside tables. She straightened herself up a bit and gave her full attention to the nervous looking redhead snuggled against her side.
"Of course I won't get angry, what is it Anna?" Elsa responded assuredly, arm snaking around Anna's waist as she placed a gentle kiss on top of her sister's head. Anna, never one to beat around the bush, took a deep breath and blurted out,
"It's about our parents."
Anna felt Elsa instantly stiffen in her arms. She winced as she felt her sister begin to pull away.
"What?" Elsa asked in a shaky voice as she stared wide eye at Anna. Anna for her credit stood firm and repeated herself.
"I said, it's about our parents. When they- when they passed, why didn't you come to their funereal? Come to me? I mean- I know you had your powers and all, but I really, really, needed you." Anna was beginning to tear up and she wiped at her eyes before the tears could fall. Elsa stared at her, mouth agape, silent. She finally cleared her throat and looked down at her gloveless hands, now neatly folded in her lap.
"Why- why are you bringing this up now?" she asked, voice heavy with emotion. This was the last thing she had expected Anna to bring up, but she knew they were going to have to have this conversation someday. 'Just not today.' she thought to herself. The two were now sitting, legs folded underneath themselves, across from each other.
"It's always something I wanted to talk to you about. Even before 'The Incident', I wanted to bring it up. I thought the best time would be Coronation Day, the only time I could actually talk to you face to face, but things spun out of control and I could never build up the courage to bring it up again. Until now." She finished, looking up at Elsa, trying to catch her eye. Elsa, turned her head away from Anna's imploring eyes as she responded.
"I don't want to talk about this right now." There was finality in her voice. I dismissive tone that made Anna unbelievably and irrationally angry. She scoffed loudly.
"You don't want to talk about it right now? Oh, okay. Then when, oh great Queen Elsa, when would her majesty like to talk about it?" Anna knew she was somewhat over reacting, but the stress of the upcoming ball, and the possibility of losing Elsa, her sister and true love, to some stupid stranger, was beginning to bubble up in her and explode forth in the form of anger toward whoever was closest. Which happened to be Elsa. The blonde ice queen's face instantly turned cold and blank at her sister's comment. A part of Anna knew that she was only making things worst as she saw Elsa begin to shut down right in front of her, but she couldn't help it. Elsa's feigned indifference wasn't helping much either.
"Enough Anna, I said not now." Elsa tried to climb off the bed but Anna lunged forward and dragged her back down.
"Oh no. You are not doing that. You are not running away from this, from me. From us. Just tell me. Why wouldn't you come out, just that once?"
"Anna stop it." Elsa tried to pull away again but Anna was holding on tight.
"No Elsa, tell me. Tell me why!" Anna was growing desperate.
"Anna I don't want to talk about it!"
"Didn't you care that our parents were gone? That I was begging outside your door for just a small amount of comfort?"
"Enough Anna, please!"
"Just this once, open up to me! Tell me why!"
"BECAUSE I WAS TERRIFIED OF HURTING YOU!" Elsa finally screamed at Anna and the room went completely silent. Elsa broke free from Anna's hold and walked to the opposite side of the room, arms wrapped around her tiny frame.
"Anna, I was completely terrified of what I might do to you. You know my powers. You know they are controlled by emotion." As if to confirm this a thin layer of frost began to cover the large triangular bay window. Elsa continued, "I didn't want to accidentally hurt you. I was so utterly crushed, my powers were so out of control that day that I actually froze my gloves to my hands. My room looked like the Northern Mountains. There was no way I would have been able to keep my powers in check. And I was not going to let our parent's funeral turn into a freak show spectacle because of me. I wouldn't do that to their memory." Elsa went over to the frosted window and gazed at the lights of the still busy city below. Anna's eyes were watering again.
"But- but why didn't you open the door for me afterward? When I came to you, I could hear your sobs through the door. It broke my heart." Anna's voice was shaking. Elsa sighed.
"Anna, would you really have been able to bury your parents and find out your sister was a freak who could create ice and snow out of thin air, all in one day? Could you truthfully say that you could have handled that?" Elsa inquired as she continued staring out the window. Anna could still see the blonde's reflection though, and she saw that Elsa was too fighting a losing battle with tears.
"You're not a freak! And I wouldn't have thought you were one. But… No, I- probably not. It would have been too much for me. A sensory overload I guess." Anna finally admitted quietly. Elsa still refused to turn around and Anna rose from the bed to walk over to the stoic queen.
"Exactly." Elsa whispered. "I wouldn't have done that to you, I cared way too much to put you through that. So I put my own sadness and pain and desperate need for comfort on the back burner in order for you to properly grieve the loss of our parents." Anna could now hear the hitch in Elsa's voice and as she got even closer she saw Elsa raise a hand for her to stop her advance. Anna did stop but she spoke none the less.
"I understand now Elsa, and I'm sorry for bringing it up." was Anna's simple response. She was exhausted from the conversation and wished she hadn't brought it up at the present moment, but she didn't know how much time she and Elsa had left together in which they could intimately and passionately talk like this. Elsa gave a nod of her head, letting Anna know she understood and accepted her apology. Anna sighed. If this week was the last week they would spend together like this, she wanted to get as many of her big questions answered while she could. No matter the fall out.
"There is one more thing that I've been awfully curious about." She didn't wait for Elsa to respond. "At the Coronation, I was so surprised to see you. You know, the adult you. I hadn't laid eyes on you since you were eight and I was five. I had basically forgotten what you looked like. I would draw pictures of what little I did remember of you. Beautiful light blonde hair. Bight ice blue eyes. The blue dress you used to always wear. I would try to recreate you from foggy memories and half-forgotten dreams. But still, I could never truly remember what you looked like, hence my surprise. But, when you saw me again, standing next to me on the stage, you didn't seem shocked to see how I looked now in the slightest. Why is that?" Anna finished and waited for an answer. Elsa squeezed her eyes shut. She stood corrected. That was the last thing she would have suspected Anna to bring up. She had forgotten just how observant the young princess could be. Elsa took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.
"No more secretes?" She asked, finally turning around, staring at her sister. "No more secretes." Anna confirmed.
"I didn't seem surprise to see what you looked like all grown up, because I wasn't surprised." Elsa told her and Anna furrowed her brow.
"Could you expand on that please?" Anna asked, confused. Elsa sighed and gestured over to the two white and blue chairs sitting in front of the lit fire place.
"Let me explain."
TBC
AN: I wrote this chapter to show that the stress of Anna and Elsa's current situation is in fact impacting them. And Anna is desperate to get all the things left unsaid between the two out in the open before the ball. She's scared that they won't be able to find a way to stay together and she knows if Elsa gets married they will have virtually no time to spend together and they'll be constantly watched. They're both angry and terrified and even though they've been spending so much time together, it's just been them trying to ignore and forget their problems. They've been talking, but about trivial things, nothing heavy and nothing that could bring them closer and clear some of the lingering tension they have between each other. Elsa being weighed down with secretes and Anna being weighed down with small amounts of lingering resentment towards Elsa and curiosity about her sister's actions. So next chapter is going to pick up from here and I think you'll be in for a twist. Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites. Peace kittens! :)
QUESTION: Do you think Anna was wrong for bringing up their parents death? Do you think she should have just let it be?
OR
Do you feel Elsa should have opened the door during the last scene of "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman" or at least attended her parent's funeral no matter the consequence's.
Tell me in the comments or PM me. I'd love to hear your opinions.
P.S. By the way you guys, it's not coming up anytime soon, but I want you to know that I plan on adding a supernatural, like dark magic element to this story. Not Elsa I promise, but you'll be surprised to see who. Anyway, I just wanted to get you guy's okay on that.