YuukiAsuna-Chan - because I make mistakes. Still new to writing Frozen fics and never had to use the royalty thing before. I fixed it in Ch11. Feel free to ignore it in future, cus it will probably happen again.
Look, I've never written 'royalty' fics before Frozen. I'm still figuring this out. I make mistakes. I will continue to make mistakes. If that bothers people, they shouldn't continue reading.
-IEA-
Yawning in to her hand, Elsa shook off the tiredness - she'd had longer nights, many times, and no cause was more worthy of lost sleep than Anna - and looked around the courtyard. The little ice statue on the cake of she and Anna holding hands made her smile.
"You sure you're ok to watch everything?"
"Of course!"
"I don't want anything to go wrong!"
Kristoff rolled his eyes, and Sven copied.
"It's fine. We got this."
"Really? Because Olaf is eating the cake."
"Oh!"
Kristoff quickly headed over to stop Olaf going to town on Anna's birthday cake, pulling the protesting snowman away.
"But it's an ice cream cake!"
"And it's for Anna!"
Pouting, Olaf acquiesced, and Kristoff reassured Elsa she could go. If it were any other reason, she'd probably stay there and fuss, still learning to let go of some of that rigid control she'd had to maintain for all those years, hiding her powers. But Anna was waiting, and that was reason enough to relax a little on the control thing.
Just a little though.
After a quick check in with the staff that everything else was all good, Elsa grabbed the pot of sunflowers and took them up with her, placing them on Anna's dressing table so she'd see them right away. The dress was perfect, so very Anna and Elsa had angsted over every detail for a week straight. As of that moment, the only detail Elsa couldn't be certain of was whether or not their mother would turn up.
Anna, who slept so deeply she didn't even seem to have noticed Elsa gone most of the night, was snoring lightly, hair its usual explosive mess that made Elsa smile fondly. Satisfied everything was as ready as it could be, Elsa leant over her slumbering sister.
"Anna?"
Her sister let out a rather unladylike, but absolutely hilarious snorting noise.
"Anna? Happy birthday."
"To you..."
Elsa giggled at Anna's half asleep answer.
"It's your birthday."
"To me..." Elsa waited, pretty sure she knew what would happen, and sure enough Anna bolted upright seconds later "it's my birthday!"
Adoring the sight of her huge, chaotic hair and sleep-soft features, Elsa nodded.
"Yep. And it's going to be the best birthday you ever had!"
"Hold that thought."
Anna leapt from the bed and ran to the bathroom, stark naked as Elsa had left her the night before so she got a pleasant surprise view of Anna's bare backside. As she opened the curtains up to let the daylight in, there was a knock at the door, timed quite well.
"Breakfast!"
"Just a minute! The princess isn't ready to be seen yet. You can just leave it there."
"Of course, Your Majesty."
Elsa heard the footsteps retreat, poking her head out and finding the tray of Anna's favourites waiting there. Her sister finally exited the bathroom, trying in vain to pat down her hair, bare skin glowing in the light of her window.
"Come sit, I'll fix your hair and then you can have breakfast."
Anna perched agreeably, dreamy smile on her face as Elsa began to work at taming the wild locks, thankfully something she had a fair bit of practice in now. She worked it in to a braid, wrapping the braid up out of the way so it wouldn't get in her food before indicating Anna could get back in to bed.
"I love the flowers. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now come on, eat up. You need your energy!"
"Oh really?"
Anna's eyes sparkled with mischief, and Elsa was almost convinced by that (and Anna's nudity) alone to delay the day a little. But she'd roped a fair few others in, so those celebrations would have to wait until later.
"Yes, I planned the whole day! I have a lot to make up for, after all the birthdays you spent staring at my locked door."
"Hey, that rhymed! Oooh, are those berries?"
Anna didn't miss a beat, pulling Elsa from regretful thoughts of the past to the absolute joy of the present, licking playfully at Elsa's fingers when she hand fed her little sweet things, leaving Anna to eat the honey and yoghurt herself while Elsa washed her hands. She came out to find Anna gleefully dipping her krumkakes in to chocolate, beckoning Elsa over to share. Careful not to get any of the still-liquid chocolate on herself, Elsa took a few small bites before pulling back, not as much a fan of chocolate first thing as Anna. With no such issue, Anna crammed the rest in to her mouth before pushing the covers away and getting up from the bed.
"Done?"
She swallowed thickly, reaching for water and taking a long swallow.
"Yeah. That was awesome, thanks!"
"Just the beginning. But first, you have to get dressed, because while I highly approve of your current outfit, it might not be appropriate for outside."
"Spoilsport."
Elsa chuckled, reaching for the clothing bag hanging up.
"Besides, I had a new dress made for you!"
"Aww, that's so sweet!"
After washing her face, cleaning her teeth and being convinced in to putting her underlayers on, Anna finally got in to her dress. Elsa closed her eyes and focused, having been practicing for a while at what she tried next - using her magic to transform her dress in to a different colour - if it wasn't white or some shade of blue, it didn't tend to happen, but after much practice and focus, Elsa had managed to perfect a dress in green to match Anna's. She could have had one made, but testing the limits of her powers and seeing if they were flexible was a good way to keep a check on them.
"Now what?"
"Shoes?"
"Oh, good idea!"
Anna scrambled to put her little ankle boots on, straightening up with a beaming smile. Elsa plucked a small flower from the table, slipping it in to Anna's hair.
"Your dress and hair match" Elsa led Anna along, and as soon as they left the bedroom, she held up the starting strands "now just follow the string!"
"Follow the... what?"
Giggling to herself at Anna's adorably confused face, Elsa began leading her along their tour of Arendelle castle, strings tied under tables and around the helmets of suits of armour, Trying to convince her staff to get her so much string had been a little awkward, but a few had seen her crawling around the castle tying it last night and probably had a good (but respectfully hidden) laugh at her expense.
Of course, there were gifts hidden along the way, like the bracelet Elsa had had made for Anna. As there hadn't been a great deal of events hosted before Elsa's coronation and the subsequent Freeze and Thaw, Anna didn't have a great deal of sparkly things to liven up a formal outfit. While Elsa wanted to give Anna things just to make her smile, she wanted them to be meaningful in some way, and at least some to be practical rather than just extravagant.
The bracelet was Elsa's way of saying she wanted Anna at her side for important events, even the super formal ones. A couple of the gifts were not so practical, like the giant sandwich (which Anna was thrilled about!) and the fresh bouquet of flowers.
There were scandalised staff and some pointed tutting when Elsa took Anna cycling around the halls of the castle (having had to learn to ride the bike in preparation), because she remembered hearing Anna ask her if she wanted to go cause trouble like that as kids. She was making up for it all, as best she could.
"The next one is the best!"
Cheeks bulging with sandwich, Anna's eyes widened as she frantically tried to chew and swallow faster, following Elsa up the stairs to where it waited. There was a future one booked, waiting for Iduna to be less sickly-looking before they memorialised her return (at Iduna's own behest), but this particular family portrait Elsa had had done already was one she couldn't wait to show Anna.
"Oh, wow!"
"Do you like it?"
The painting of them ringing the Yule Bell together stood before her, Elsa hovering anxiously as she awaited the verdict.
"I love it! Thank you so much!"
Anna barely managed to put her other gifts down before she threw herself at Elsa, arms wrapping tightly around her before Anna kissed her soundly. Elsa responded happily, hands resting low on Anna's back to hold her close.
"Happy birthday Anna."
After dropping off most of her gifts back in her room (apart from the portrait which obviously needed more people to help move it), Anna happily walked down to the courtyard hand in hand with Elsa, which was kind of emptier than she expected - there was only Kristoff and Sven and Olaf, really.
And a huge cake.
Feeling a bit dejected at the absence of their mother, Anna pushed it aside and smiled when Olaf came tottering over, arms thrown in the air excitedly.
"Happy birthday!"
"Thanks Olaf!"
He wrapped himself around her leg for a hug before ambling off again, Kristoff and Sven both greeting her happily and congratulating her on the day too.
"Oh, hang on one minute!"
Bemused, Anna watched as Kristoff rushed over to the gates she'd only just noticed were closed again. As soon as they opened, what seemed like the entirely of Arendelle poured in, shouting various sentiments of celebration for Anna's birthday, depositing a large stack of gifts on any empty surface they could find as Anna swelled with joy, beaming so widely her cheeks hurt.
"I... thank you, everyone! Oh Elsa, this is amazing! You really planned all this?"
"Of course."
"But I told you not to go overboard!"
Elsa gave Anna her best innocent smile, shrugging lightly.
"I didn't. Nothing is too much for you."
In serious danger of melting there on the spot, Anna buried her face in Elsa's neck, thankful for her sisters cool skin as a flush rose on her face. Elsa patted her back gently, making soft, soothing sounds as though knowing Anna was on the edge of overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by joy, though, which was not really a bad thing.
"Ok, I'm good. Let's party!"
People cheered, and Elsa smiled, kissing her forehead before letting Anna go and take the congratulations in person.
"Are you gonna open our gifts?"
Several small children asked as Anna shook each of their little hands, a tradition of sorts from when they saw her out and about in the town square.
"Later, there's a lot and I don't wanna waste the party just opening stuff now, do I? I mean, then there might not be time for cake!"
That seemed to remind her own stomach that there was in fact, a cake, and she spotted the cute little ice statues on top of she and Elsa holding hands. Turning to look for her sister, wanting to ask Elsa to make sure to keep that frozen so Anna could keep it, Anna scoured the courtyard, eyes catching sight of someone just coming out of the castle doors.
Anna's breath caught in her throat at the sight of her. Sunlight highlighted pale skin, a well tailored dress fitting to her form, and the slightly shy, awkward posture she had wasn't enough to distract from the little healthy flush in her cheeks at last.
She was used to getting breathless when she looked at her sister.
Anna wasn't used to it happening when she was looking at their mother.
"Anna, are you alright?"
Elsa's voice broke Anna from her daze, and she nodded a little dumbly. Elsa hadn't seemed to notice, as she was looking at what Anna had been looking at.
"Oh. Mother's here."
"Yeah. I better uh. Go say hi?"
"Do you want me to come with you?"
"No, it's fine. Might be easier on her if I go alone. But then we can do cake?"
Elsa nodded, squeezing her hand before Anna headed over to their mother, hoping she wouldn't forget how to breathe again. They hadn't seen much of her lately, what with the whole unresolved issues between them, and even that short time had her cheeks filling out more, the unsteadiness of her gait almost completely gone even without something to brace upon.
"Mother."
"Anna. Happy birthday."
"Thank you. And... thank you for coming."
Looking a little reticent still, Iduna moved to hug Anna, and it was even more clear that she'd started to gain weight again as Anna couldn't feel the sharp ends of her bones any longer. As she tried to catch her breath again, she realised her mother was wearing perfume again.
It was just a little too similar to Elsa's for Anna to cope at all, pulling away from Iduna a little too sharply, confusing her mother.
"Everything alright?"
"Mhmm. Yep! Just... cake! Let's do cake!"
Well, she'd obviously styled that out well. Nodding to herself, she marched over to the cake, Elsa giving her a curious look. Not about to explain she was having a weird fluttery moment over their mother, Anna cleared her throat and smiled at her sister.
"Time for cake!"
-IEA-
Very subtle, Anna. 10/10
