Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen nor its characters, nor do I own any characters from other Disney works. Disney owns everything - including my heart, soul, and wallet.

Chapter 3 - Duckling and Fawn

"You have to hold still, little duck," Jules said as she wiped tears away gently and lifted a five-year old Anna up to set her on the kitchen island. She took Anna's hand again and looked carefully at the index finger where a long splinter had lodged itself deeply. "I don't want to hurt you."

"But it stings, Mama Jules," Anna whined, more tears falling from her eyes. "And that's a very long needle. Can't we just wait till my mama gets here?"

"You know your mama is running an event at the auction house right now. She won't be back to pick you up for a while, but we need to get this out before it becomes infected," Elsa's mom replied.

"Hey, Anna," Elsa said from her spot atop a bar stool. "Do you remember that time Billy Larkin shoved you in the sandbox?"

Anna looked at her best friend in confusion. "Yeeesss…"

"Well, you ended up scraping your elbow on the purple elephant slide. And do you remember what happened after that?"

Anna smiled at the memory. "You dropped ice cubes down his pants. He freaked out and took his pants off on the playground and everyone saw his 'Blues Clues' underwear." Both girls started laughing heartily at the reminder.

"Girls, it's not very nice to laugh at someone's embarrassment," Jules said, though the girls noticed that she was having a hard time keeping the smile from her face.

"And then," Elsa continued the story, "I took you to the nurse and held your hand. I told you a story about a Moose named…"

"Bear!" Anna said with a giggle. "Yeah, I remember. I didn't even realize that the nurse had cleaned all the sand from my scrape because your story was so funny."

"And you're all done," Jules said gently. Anna turned to her with wide eyes before checking on her finger which was already sporting a Mickey Mouse band-aid. Jules smiled at both girls. "Now, how about some chocolate ice cream?"

"Yes, please!" Anna said excitedly. She turned to Elsa with a grin. "You did it again! I didn't feel a thing."

"I don't like it when you hurt. I'll always try to take the pain away."

"I'm thinking about dying my hair purple."

"Mmhm," Anna said as she pushed the peas around her plate.

"And I'm going to get a tattoo that says 'Proud Mama of Anna' right across my forehead."

"Sounds cool."

Iduna frowned at her daughter's despondent disposition. Sure, she was a teenager and, sure, it had been the first day of high school, but generally speaking, her daughter was always a jovial sort. "Well since you aren't actually listening to anything I say, I guess now is a good time to tell you that things are getting very serious with my boyfriend."

"That's nice…" Anna blinked and shook her head. "Wait. What?"

"There you are," her mother said. "You were a million miles away. Where did you go?"

"Nowhere."

"Did something happen at cheerleading tryouts?"

"No, tryouts went just fine. I'm pretty confident I'll make varsity this year as a flyer. Coach says I'm perfect because I'm so petite," Anna said with far less excitement than would be expected.

"So what's bothering you?"

"I just… I had a bit of a thing with Elsa after school, but that's not important right now," Anna said so quickly it came out as one long word. Her mother always seemed sad at the mention of Elsa or Mama Jules and she tried to gloss over things as nonchalantly as possible. "What is this about your boyfriend?"

Anna knew her mother had been seeing someone for quite some time, she didn't keep it a secret. She did, however, keep Anna from him and vice versa. After her mother's last serious boyfriend and she parted ways, Anna had been crushed. They'd been dating for nearly three years and Anna had become attached. It was while comforting her daughter over her own breakup that Iduna decided she would keep her dating life mostly separate from her life with Anna until she was sure it was the relationship to last.

"No, no. Let's start with you. What is this about you and Elsa?" Iduna asked. Although it pained Iduna that her goddaughter had pushed her away after her mother's death, it broke her heart more to know that Anna and Elsa were no longer friends. Knowing Elsa as she did, Iduna had a suspicion as to why she had put that distance between herself and those closest to her. "Are you okay? Is she okay? Did you have another fight?"

"Everyone is fine, at least physically, and you can't really fight if the other person won't say anything to you. Well, not not anything, but basically nothing. If nothing means something but that holds squat behind it. Nothing even though that nothing cuts like icy knives to the heart. Am I even making any sense?… 'Enough, Anna,'" she said in her best impression of Elsa's calm, cold voice before letting out a pitiable sigh. "It's the most she's said to me in years. Why is it that the people who are supposed to take away your pain can hurt you the most?"

Iduna gave her daughter a sad look. "I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt you. Have you ever known Elsa to be malicious?"

"Yes," Anna said, bitterness and unresolved ache straining her voice, but she caved at her mother's raised eyebrow. "No… but to be fair, I don't think I even know her anymore. I don't think I've known her since Mama Jules…"

Silence took over when Anna couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. Her godmother was always a hard subject for her to talk about. She had been as close to her as she was to her own mom, and losing her was the worst thing that has ever happened to Anna. Her dad had been a soldier that was killed in action in Iraq mere months before she was born. She'd never even met him, and though the thought makes her sad, she never needed to mourn him. Her Mama Jules, however, had been in her life from the beginning. Her earliest memories involved her mom, her godmother, and her best friend. When she passed, Anna was devastated, especially after Elsa started pushing her away. However, like she and Elsa, her mother and Mama Jules had been best friends their whole lives. Even Anna's pain couldn't compare to what she imagined her mother felt when Jules was gone.

"I miss her too, baby," her mother said with tears in her eyes.

"Mama Jules or Elsa?" Anna waited for an answer but her mother only offered a sad smile. That was answer enough. Anna shook her head and took a deep breath before changing the subject. The atmosphere was getting far too heavy and Anna did not like heavy. She smiled back at her mom. "So who's the guy?"

Iduna had nearly forgotten what she'd admitted to Anna. Well, it's too late to backtrack now, she thought to herself. "He works in the BioTech industry. His company is currently working on some gene therapy options for a few rare diseases."

"Oh so he's a nerd?"

"Anna!"

"That's a nice change of pace. The last guy was such a…"

"Jock?"

"Moron."

"Anna!"

"What? I mean, who speaks in the third person like that?" Anna said and continued mockingly. "'No one lifts like Gaston. No one grills like Gaston.' You know what else? No one's as dumb as Gaston."

Mother and daughter stared at each other a moment before they both bursted at the seams with laughter, the mood instantly lifted. Iduna was just glad that Anna seemed to be in better spirits now, even if it was at her expense.

"Anyway," Iduna said, "we've decided it's time now. So don't make any plans for dinner on Friday."

Anna watched her mom for a moment as she returned her attention back to her plate. "So it's very serious then?"

"It is," her mother answered gently. "We were friends before, long before. We'd lost touch for a little while, but when we met again it was like no time had passed. Then our friendship grew into something more, and now we think it's time that everyone meets."

"Okay. I'll give him a chance, but if I don't think he's good enough for you, I won't hesitate to say so," Anna said firmly. Her mother only chuckled and nodded her head in reply. Then something clicked. "Wait, you said everyone?"

"He has a daughter. She's your age."

"Oh." Anna wasn't sure how she felt about that. Sharing her mother with a man was one thing. The idea of sharing her mother with another daughter gave Anna a feeling of anxiety of which she wasn't even aware she was capable. Like there were bees buzzing around her head and an elephant sitting on her chest.

"You'll always be my number one, Anna," Iduna said, sensing her daughter's apprehension. "Nothing will ever change that."

Anna looked at her mother and smiled. It was silly because she always knew that, but the tightness in her chest loosened once it was said out loud. "I know."

"Good. And, Anna?" Iduna said in a voice reserved only for her. "You and Elsa will be fine. It will all work out eventually."

"How do you know?" Anna asked sadly. It was a sentiment that she would have believed vehemently two, maybe three, years before. Now it had been far too long to continue being so optimistic; even if optimism was the nature of sunshine.

"Sisters always find their way back to each other."

"Vague much?"

Iduna only chuckled as she picked up both plates and headed to the sink. "I'll wash, you dry?"

Anna finished the rest of her chocolate milk and added it to the sink before picking up the dish towel. She wasn't sure why her mother preferred to do the dishes by hand though their Hayes Valley apartment had a state of the art dishwasher. "It's just you and me. That's not enough dishes to warrant using a machine," she would always say, but Anna thought that was a poor argument for a thinly veiled excuse to spend a little more time with her rapidly maturing daughter.

"Hey, Mom?"

"Yes, little duck?"

Anna melted at her most treasured term of endearment from childhood; even if it was simultaneously the one nickname she would be mortified for her friends to hear her be called. "Did you and Mama Jules ever have a falling out like this?"

"No," Iduna said as she took the dishrag from Anna and dried the last cup. "But Jules and I never went through something so life changing until we were already adults."

"You mean Dad?" Anna asked and her mother nodded.

"I actually tried to push her away after it happened, but she clawed and scraped at the walls I had tried to erect around myself until she eventually tore them down. She was always the feisty one, much like someone else I know," Iduna said as she tapped Anna playfully on the nose. "We used to joke that we gave birth to mini-versions of our best friend. Like the fates were rewarding us for cultivating a friendship as strong as ours."

Anna frowned at this. "And we went and ruined it all. Spit in the face of the gift that fate bestowed upon you."

"A sisterhood like yours never truly fades away. You just have to have some patience."

"You sound like Gerda," Anna said, rolling her eyes before looking to the floor. She thought she'd put the pain of Elsa's abandonment behind her a long time ago, but this conversation was dredging up old wounds.

"Makes sense. The woman practically raised me," her mother said. She felt her mother's soft hand under her chin as she lifted it to meet her gaze. "Do you remember what your Mama Jules and I would call Elsa, little duck?"

"Little fawn?"

"Mmhm. You were always so adventurous. You knew when to stick close, but you never let fear of the unknown stop you from diving right into a new pond. Sometimes to the detriment of my sanity, mind you," Iduna teased and she placed a kiss on Anna's hairline. "Also, you were pigeon toed and it made you waddle around when you first learned to walk. Couple that with your inability to keep your shirt tail tucked in and the comparison is apt.

"Elsa, on the other hand, was always so cautious. Such a skittish little thing, always hiding behind our skirts in unfamiliar situations; the smallest changes to her environment completely disarming her usual calm approach to things," Iduna explained tenderly. "You cannot force your presence upon a fawn. You have to approach her with a quiet patience and wait for her to come to you."

"And what if I end up waiting forever?"

Her mother gave her another kiss to the forehead. "I think you'll find that forever isn't actually that long."

A/N: My apologies for the delay. This chapter really got away from me. It was originally twice as long so I had to find a way to split it into two, which just basically ended up being an Anna half and an Elsa half. However, that does mean that the Elsa half should come out pretty quickly as it's already written. It just needs like… 100 more re-reads/edits. Ugh, and it will probably still be riddled with typos like this one. Yeesh.

Thank you for reading!