Wow, a very positive amount of interest in the intro! Let's see where we end up.
-IEA-
As though she hadn't found her daughters in an incredibly compromising (and frankly unbelievable) position, Anna leapt up from the bed and hugged Iduna - still completely nude, while Elsa was at least making a token effort to hide herself.
"Uh, Anna?"
"What? It's mom!"
"Yeah, yeah I know, but don't you think you should put something on first?"
As though only just realising she'd thrown herself at her mother while naked, Anna backed away with a nervous smile and flushed cheeks as she turned back and forth, looking for clothes before rather oddly turning to Elsa.
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
Confused - by everything - Iduna watched on in shock as Elsa merely waved her fingers in Anna's direction before a glittering blue and green nightdress covered her body, fitting perfectly and looking not to leave her chilled at all. The darker blue nightdress that Elsa bore seemingly by thought at least meant Iduna had somewhere to look at last, though she was still thrown by the ... situation she had found them in.
Now dressed, Anna turned back to Iduna with wide eyes and wider smile.
"Is it really you?"
"Yes, Anna, it's me."
"We heard... your ship" Anna's face darkened quickly to one that was hope and fear in equal measure "what happened to father?"
Iduna bit her lip, feeling a pang of grief and guilt still lingering. Why had she survived to escape the icy depths when Agnarr hadn't?
"He didn't make it. I'm still very surprised that I did... Elsa, how did you do that?"
"Do what?"
Trying not to remember what she'd been doing just before... Iduna gestured to their clothes, still shimmering in the nearby candlelight.
"Oh. I uh... I can control my powers now. Mostly. Sometimes there's still a little random snow, and it's a little colder in Arendelle all year round now. But it's better than the eternal winter, so..."
"The what?"
Elsa sighed, finally climbing up from the bed. Anna's bed. Anna's bed where Elsa had been...
"We have a lot to catch up on."
Her eldest daughter seemed wary of approaching Iduna at all, and Iduna found herself relieved when she realised why Elsa's face was damp, what the shine on her mouth was. Of all the ways she'd imagined their reunion, from perfect to terrible and every way in between, that was in absolutely none of her thoughts.
"Hey Anna? Go uh... take mother to the lounging room. I'll be along in a minute."
Another flick of Elsa's fingers and Anna had a matching dressing gown and slippers around her, and the lack of surprise in her face told Iduna that whatever it was she'd just done, Elsa did it regularly. Anna led her along, several of the staff members who'd tried to catch Iduna now hovering anxiously in the hallway while Elsa vanished to what Iduna could only hope was the bathroom to clean herself up in.
Well, at least Iduna knew what everyone was trying to keep her from finding.
"Anna."
"Yeah mom?"
"About what I walked in on..."
"Oh. Uh. How about we talk about that when we're alone?"
Realising people could very easily hear them, Iduna nodded and fell silent for a minute. Well, until...
"Hi! Who's this?"
"Ahhh! What on earth is that?"
"Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"
There was a snowman. The snowman from the portrait. Except it couldn't be a snowman, because they weren't alive. They couldn't talk. They didn't run along hallways on snow legs, holding out stick arms with a smile on their snow-face. With a snow cloud dropping snowflakes on to its snow head. It even blinked.
"Uh, Olaf, back up a little. Remember, we talked about meeting new people?"
Of course, Anna was talking to it. It was just that sort of night.
"Oh, right, sorry! Where are my manners?"
Now the snowm- no, not a snowman, because it couldn't be - held out just one stick arm, as though reaching for a handshake while also giving a small bow.
"This is Olaf. Elsa made him, and... yeah, he's Olaf. He won't hurt you. Olaf, this is our mother, Iduna."
"Oh wow! Hi Anna and Elsa's mom! It's so good to finally meet you, I've only seen pictures!"
Turning to her, Anna gave Iduna a slightly pained smile.
"Why don't you go on ahead, just to that room there? I won't be long."
Iduna went, just to get away from the weird snow thing. As she walked away, she heard Anna telling 'Olaf' to give them some time, so Iduna could catch up on the last three years.
Wait. Olaf... that was the name Anna always used to give to the snowman she and Elsa made. Before the accident that changed their lives. Clearly Anna knew of Elsa's magic again, but she was fine. Aside from the...
Shaking those disturbing images from her mind, Iduna perched awkwardly on the sofa. She felt out of place in her own castle. Snow had begun to fall outside the window. Was Elsa doing that?
"Yes, I know Anna, but I still don't think it's appropriate."
"Are you saying we should-"
Did they know she could hear them? Iduna wasn't sure, tried not to eavesdrop but couldn't resist.
"I'm not saying anything right now, except that there's a lot to tell mother about. Let's prioritise for now."
There was a silence Iduna didn't want to think about the cause of, and then the two of them walked in together, fingers still touching as they obviously released each others hands just before Iduna saw them holding them in the first place.
Anna knelt down and fiddled with the fireplace until heat filled the chilled room, crackling light washing over the three of them.
"Someone's bringing us hot drinks, but what do you want to know?"
Oh hell, where did Iduna even start?
"Elsa's powers."
Perhaps her daughters in bed together was more pressing, but Iduna wasn't sure she wanted the answers to those questions.
"Ok. Well... after you guys- well, after we thought you and dad went down and we had the funeral and everything, Elsa still didn't really come out or see me or anything for the next three years."
Elsa's face was tight, pained by Anna's words and the two seemed to reach to comfort each other on instinct, before withdrawing and eyeing Iduna in a way that said they were behaving for her benefit.
"I have a whole trunk just full of the same gloves, over and over again, but I still couldn't control them. Everything I touched became cold. I took them off for about ten seconds for my coronation, and I still froze the things I had to hold."
"I was just really excited to have the gates open and for there to be people and life in the castle again. It was a quiet few years. And then I got engaged to this guy I just met who turned out to be a huge jerk" Elsa snorted and Anna gave her a sheepish smile "but anyway, Elsa said she wouldn't bless our marriage. I got kinda mad when she decided to stop the party cus I knew I couldn't go back to all the silence and loneliness. I kinda pulled off one of her gloves and she got mad at me for bugging her and then there was ice everywhere!"
Anna was a much more dramatic storyteller than Elsa, wild gestures and bouncing in her seat, seeming to be reliving it as she spoke. Elsa was more sedate, and sad about what she said.
"Then the secret was out and I just ran. It works better through skin, but it's also tied to how I feel so when I stepped on the water, it froze under my boots and I ran and ran and ran. I went to the North Mountain, and figured I could stay there and be myself, be free. I didn't know it at the time, but I think because I'd restrained it for so long, my powers were over powered and the winter spread across the fjord."
They picked up each others sentences flawlessly, and Anna continued where Elsa could not.
"It was really cold! The ships all froze in the water, and there was snow everywhere and blizzards! Anyway, I went after Elsa. Hans - thats the jerk guy - tried to stop me, and because I was distracted and a bit stupid I left Hans in charge. Although apparently he didn't do anything wrong while I was gone other than plan to kill Elsa a couple of times and also basically waited for me to be killed too. I should have punched him harder."
"Yes, yes you should."
"Girls!"
"What? He literally almost killed us both mom!"
Anna was unrepentant, crossing her arms and pouting a little bit, just like she had when she was five and couldn't have more sweets.
"Anna's telling the truth, he did."
"Anyway, as I was saying" Anna drawled, then turned to the door and reached for the steaming mugs being wheeled in on a tray "thanks! Anyway, yeah, so I headed off to the North Mountain. I was not dressed for it. My dress got frozen so I went to this trading store that I didn't even know existed, and got some winter clothes. And that's where I met Kristoff. He was very grumpy that day but then I guess he didn't expect a blizzard, and then Mr Oaken wanted to charge him more for his carrots and rope. I bought them for him and got him to take me up the mountain and he yelled at me about Hans for a bit. Then there were wolves" Iduna was going to have gone grey by the end of this story, she was certain "and the sled fell off a cliff and exploded. Kristoff was maaaaad."
Anna barely stopped for breath, but she did stop to sip her hot chocolate. Iduna's had sat in her hands, a little too hot but she lifted it to her mouth just for something to do other than gawk at the madness her daughters had gotten up to while she was far, far away.
"Eventually, they found me. And I tried to send Anna away."
"Yeah. That was rude. Never do that again."
Elsa's face tightened in pain before it smoothed out again, eyes practically bleeding love as she looked at Anna.
"Never. I promised, didn't I?"
"Yes, and you better keep it missy! Anyway, where were we?"
"Elsa sending you away."
"Right! She was still struggling to get her powers under control back then, which will alllllll become clear later! But anyway, I was trying to get her to come home so we could figure things out, but Elsa said she didn't know how to unfreeze the winter. I'm stubborn, so I kept trying, and then there were all these snowflakes... and then Elsa tried to push me away and accidentally hit me with some ice. Then she made Marshmallow."
"Mar-Marshmallow?"
"Yeah. He's like a huge Olaf, but meaner. He did not like me throwing a snowball at him. Kristoff dragged me away and I was sort of stuck cus if I couldn't get Elsa to unfreeze the winter then what was I gonna do about Arendelle? It was totally frozen! Then after that I sort of collapsed cus Elsa froze my heart. Kristoff took me to these rocks that he called his family."
Elsa picked up then.
"They were the trolls you took us to when we were children, when I... hurt Anna."
The snow outside the window was falling thicker.
"But they couldn't fix my frozen heart. Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart. So... I thought that was Hans, cus I was stupid. Then Hans told me he didn't love me and left me to die while he went to kill Elsa. He managed to capture her and bring her back to Arendelle, I think. Olaf came to help me cus I couldn't really move much. Elsa busted out of jail with her super ice powers, and Hans went after her. And he told her I was dead because of the heart thing, and used that to try and hurt her. Did I mention he was a jerk?"
"Several times love."
There was a hint of a smile on Elsa's face for a minute, before it faded again.
"Anna threw herself in front of me, just in time to freeze solid and stop Hans from killing me. I thought... I thought I'd lost her for good."
"But you didn't! Because I loved you, and saving her was an act of true love and it thawed me. And that's how Elsa learned to control her powers! She thought about how much she loved me, and the eternal winter went away! And now Arendelle gets a bit chillier and there's a giant snow dude living in a giant ice castle on the North Mountain, but... everything is good now."
"What happened to this Hans?"
"Hans? He got punched in the face by yours truly!"
"And then he was sent home to his twelve older brothers. Last I heard from the Southern Isles, he was a stable boy. As far as I'm concerned, he's getting off far too lightly for hurting Anna."
Elsa's fists balled in her lap, and the room grew cold enough that Iduna could see her own breath come out in vapour. Anna laid her hand on Elsa's arm, and the chill went away as though it were never there to begin with.
"I'm out of hot chocolate, damnit."
"Here, take mine."
"You sure?"
Elsa nodded, nudged her mug over to her sister.
"I never drink it but the staff feel obliged to make me something if they're making it for Anna."
"Why not?"
Iduna wasn't sure why she asked, other than to delay the inevitable next topic of conversation. Elsa shrugged.
"I like things cold, mostly. But hey, I don't need gloves anymore."
"And she almost never accidentally freezes things!"
Anna said, bright and smiley again as she finished off Elsa's hot drink. Iduna sort of wanted to forget she'd seen anything, but her mind wouldn't quite let her, seeing the tenderness with which the two looked at each other, and the sense of intruding on something intimate and private whenever they touched each other.
"Girls."
"Yeah?"
"About... I don't think..."
Elsa didn't need her to elaborate; she knew what their mother was getting at.
"We know."
"We already went through all that before. But... I love Elsa, and nobody can change that. Not even you, mom. Much as I'm so happy you're alive! How did that happen?"
Bemused, Iduna could only stare at her daughters in shock. Surely Anna didn't think she could just sweep what she'd seen under the rug so swiftly? By the look on Elsa's face, she thought much the same. Staring down at the mug in her hands, Iduna suddenly wished for something stronger than cocoa. It was going to be a long night, she felt.
-IEA-
I could clearly picture Anna the whole way through, telling the story dramatically (not that I think Olaf is a bad story teller. I just think Iduna is gonna need some time to get used to the idea of sentient snow).
