I don't own Frozen.
"El-saaaa! Don't you have something that'll take my tummy ache away?"
"There's no need to whine, Anna. What are you? Four?"
"Only when my stomach's this sore."
"Well, you shouldn't've eaten so much chocolate, then you wouldn't be in this mess."
"Just get me the medication, woman. I am close to perishing to death here!"
Elsa huffed and stood up from the couch she had been sharing with her sister. "Fine." She flung a pillow at Anna's face. The redhead caught it and curled her arms around it with a smug grin. "We wouldn't want you 'perishing to death' now would we?"
"It's quite the messy business, believe me."
Glacial eyes shot to the heavens in a silent plea, but her lips curled into a fond smile nonetheless. Elsa disappeared into the kitchen. Anna heard her open a drawer and rummage around in it.
"On a scale form one to –"
"Ten!" the redhead called out, slipping to lie on her side. "just gimme the strongest thing you got!"
"I'll give you something alright…" came the mumbled reply.
"I heard that."
"You were supposed to!"
Anna closed her eyes and clenched her teeth when a particularly strong cramp fisted her stomach. The drawer was closed in the kitchen; a wooden creak made Elsa sigh.
"I should really get that fixed…"
"Fix me first!"
"I'm coming! Just give me a second, would ya?" she poured water in a glass and popped two effervescent tablets in. The water fizzed, turning yellow as she made her way back to her sister who was lying on her side with her eyes firmly closed.
"Anna?"
Teal revealed itself and immediately squinted in disgust at the glass her sister held out to her.
"It's the only thing I have that works well for indigestion."
"Yeeeah…but –" she sat up, clutching the pillow to her stomach, "– it tastes like lemons. Who was the sicko who thought that lemon would be a good flavour to use?"
"Just drink it, you'll feel better before you know it." Elsa sat down next to her sister and rubbed her back after she had handed the glass over to her.
Anna inhaled mightily –"To prepare myself" – and tipped the glass back to gulp the medicine down. "Ugh, yuck!" gooseflesh erupted on her arms; she pinched her face in disgust. "That's revolting. You just had to make it extra strength, didn't you?"
"You asked for it, you moron." Elsa took the glass away and placed it on the coffee table; then she wrapped her arms around her sister's shoulders and pulled her close.
Anna melted into the embrace without a word, cuddling closer to her with a smile. She tucked her head underneath Elsa's chin and flung her legs over her big sister's lap none too gently.
"You really are four when you don't feel well, are you?"
"A lil bit." She murmured, snuggling closer still.
Elsa giggled and shook her head, wrapping her arms around the redhead's back. "How'd the date with Hans go?"
Anna was quiet for a beat before she sighed and sat up with her legs still draped over her sister's lap. The blonde frowned in concern when Anna moved away from her, felt the warmth leave her and saw the tension settle in Anna's shoulders.
The youngest studied the threads in the pillow before she said, "He stood me up."
The silence that settled in after Anna spoke made her look up. Elsa looked at her sister with the fiercest frown marring her forehead.
"He, what?" her voice was calm, but her eyes blazed like a blizzard.
Anna shrugged and looked down again. "It's alright, Els. I'm used to it."
She's used to it?! "That son of a fishmonger. I knew he 'd –" Elsa sighed through her nose sharply and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry." She opened them and looked at her sister with sympathy. "This isn't the time for –"
"No, you're right. He is a complete – what did you say? Son of a fishmonger?" Anna finally looked up and pulled her lips upwards at the corners.
"That's a very bad thing to be called, I can assure you."
"I'm sure it is." She smirked, before it dropped away. "It just took me a while to figure it out, y'know? Actually, no. I knew he was an ass. What took me a while was doing something about it."
Elsa nodded and placed her hands on Anna's knees. "You broke it off, then?"
"You don't have to sound so happy about it."
"I'm not! It's just – okay fine, I am. But you knew I never liked him. He was too…"
"Perfect." Anna finished her thought for her and let out a low laugh. "Yeah, well, that's changed now. I wanna talk to him tomorrow. Break it off officially, but I don't want to do it over the phone –"
"Why not?" Elsa challenged with a raised eyebrow, "He never showed you as much courtesy as you show him."
"Whatever happened to the whole eye for an eye…" Anna trailed off uncertainly, "takes the world's…sight away?"
"Makes the whole world blind." She deadpanned.
"Hey! Don't take that toneless tone with me! You know I suck at metaphors."
"You're gonna have to work on that one, lil sis, if our future generation of kids would stand a chance at being proper adults one day."
"Who even uses metaphors in their daily lives? Except you." Anna cut her off with a finger in her side, "You're just weird like that."
"You're the one who decided that you'd want to become a language teacher," Elsa retorted good-naturedly, rubbing her tender ribs. "I'm just sayin' you should know your metaphors."
"I'll cross that bridge when I get there. See! I do know metaphors.
"So," Elsa said, trying to steer them back on track. "if you weren't with Hans this whole time, where have you been?"
"I met someone – calm down! I can see your big sister hackles rising."
"I don't have hackles." She refuted, "Did you go to a club?"
"No, Elsa I didn't." Anna frowned, "I'm not stupid."
"Then where –?"
"Would you just Hakuna your tata's and let me explain?"
Elsa pursed her lips and sat back against the couch with a huff.
"Thank you." Anna grinned; Elsa stuck her tongue out. "Real mature. Anyway, I was at Granny's Diner – the whole time, yes. I was supposed to meet Hans there after work but he didn't pitch. Someone must've seen me be all pathetic and decided to sit with me. Actually, he pretended to be my boyfriend; acting as if he had just been super late to get to me."
"And you spent all evening with a complete stranger?" A single perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched in response.
"Well, he's not a complete stranger."
Elsa cant her head to the side, a silent command for Anna to explain herself in more detail.
"His name is Kristoff."
"Anna," the blonde rolled her eyes heavily, "Just because you know his name, doesn't make him – wait…Kristoff?"
"Ah-huh." Anna bit her lip to keep the grin from splitting her face as she watched Elsa try to figure it out.
"Kristof Bjorgman?"
"Uhhhh...Maybe?" Anna shrugged, her grin turned sheepish.
"What do you mean 'maybe'?" Elsa raised both eyebrows. "He either is or he isn't. Wait, wait. You didn't ask him what his last name was, did you."
"I didn't think it was necessary!"
"That's usually what you do when you introduce yourself the first time." Elsa commented with sarcasm evident in her whole body. "Really, Anna. That can be anyone. You should find out more about someone before you befriend them."
"Well, this wasn't a normal first meeting now, was it? I was alone, drinking my hot chocolate and then suddenly this blond dude plants himself in the seat across from me, says 'Sorry I'm late babe, I'm Kristoff, just go with it.' And ordered a chocolate."
Elsa looked sceptical. "It might be another Kristoff. It's a pretty common name."
Anna huffed, "Look, he said he knows you – used your last name and everything – and freaked out when I told him who I was. He called me 'Elsa's little sister', and said that you two studied together – History 101 – and that you called him from the hospital when I had my allergic reaction. Oh, and he's a vet. Sound like him now?"
"Okay, fine. That does sound like Kristoff. But – " she held up her hand to stave off Anna's celebratory jiggle. "it didn't sound like something he'd do. That's why I hesitated. He's this introverted mountain of a man who sticks to himself most of the time. Never goes out or does spontaneous things. He has one other friend besides me and a massive dog. That's the scope of his inner circle, besides his extended family."
"Well, he was pretty friendly with me."
"So, you guys got along?" Elsa shifted on the couch, resting her elbow on the back rest while she turned her body to face her sister.
"Yeah, pretty much." Anna scooted backwards, leaning against the armrest with the pillow clutched to her stomach, she crossed her legs. "We shared some casual information – favourite colour, animal, what our day job was – ate the special." She grinned wickedly, "He dared me to take the biggest bit out of the burger – "
"And of course you didn't refuse, even after what had happened with the last dare."
" – and I won because I'm actually Supergirl in disguise." Anna continued over her sister who scoffed good-naturedly. "Then we stuffed ourselves with chocolate. And now I'm here with you." She finished with a happy grin.
Elsa smiled warmly. "You've had quite the evening." Anna nodded, and slipped down lower, getting more comfortable. "And that explains the stomach ache. Speaking of, how're you feeling?"
"Better, thanks." She yawned. "That stuff's gross, but it really does work."
"I'm glad. And I'm happy you met Kristoff. I wanted to introduce you guys since forever."
"Well, to be fair we've only really started talking again for two weeks now. So I don't blame you for not introducing us yet."
Elsa hummed non-committedly and turned her head away for a brief moment. "I think it's time for bed, wouldn't you say?"
The redhead made a noise in the back of her throat and closed her eyes, sinking deeper into comfort.
"Come on, Anna." Elsa stood up and nudged her sister's toes, "To bed with you."
Anna mumbled incoherently, curling around the pillow onto her side while she slipped her head off of the armrest.
"It'll be way more comfortable in a bed, Solskinn."
"Hmm...but'so faaar…"
The blonde tilted her head wondering if her impulsive idea would work. She fidgeted with her hands, cleaned her nails, felt the hem of her shirt.
"You…you could sleep in my bed tonight," Anna cracked an eye open to look at her sister who was hugging her middle, "If you'd like."
A slow, sleepy smile spread over Anna's face. "M'kay." She sat up, "If you insist."
Elsa gaped at Anna, who jumped up from the couch and started strutting towards Elsa's room. All earlier trace of sleepiness had all but vanished.
"You played me!" Elsa called as soon as her sister reached her door.
"No take backsies!" Anna called from inside the room.
"Definitely a four year old trapped in a 24 year old body." She mumbled, going through the motions of putting the house to sleep.
When Elsa came to her room, after ensuring the front door was locked and every light switched off, she found Anna curled up on her side, back facing the door, already fast asleep while the bedside lamp on Elsa's side cast the room in a soft glow. As quietly as she could, the blonde got changed and climbed into bed. She switched off the lamp and sunk down underneath the covers.
"Glad you could join me."
"Thought you were asleep already." Elsa turned over to face her sister whose eyes were still closed.
She smiled, "Almost did fall asleep when you took forever."
"I needed to make sure everything was closed and switched off."
"Hmm. Still took you long enough"
"Good night, Anna."
"Night."
Almost as if they had the same thought, the sisters moved closer together. Elsa wrapped her arms around Anna, who snuggled into the crook of the blonde's shoulder and draped her arm over Elsa's stomach.
"Are you still dressed in you day clothes?" Elsa asked, with a raised eyebrow in the darkness.
Anna hummed a sleepy affirmative.
"Don't you think –?"
"Sleep, now. Dress, tomorrow." Elsa giggled at her sister's mumble while the redhead sighed contentedly, "Love you, Els."
A soft smile touched the eldest; she listened to Anna's breathing start to even out.
"I love you, too."
The smell of bacon was the first thing Anna's sleepy mind registered. The second was a beep-beep from her phone on the nightstand.
The aroma took immediate priority. It filled her with its warm and tasty smell, cracked in her ears, and made her stomach cramp with longing. Her eyes fluttered open to see that Elsa's side of the bed was already empty. She ran her hand along where her sister had slept. Cold to the touch.
Must've been up for a while. Anna thought with a mighty yawn.
The redhead sat up from lying on her stomach, kneeled on the bed and smacked her lips together, blinking slowly. She took stock of her surroundings in an effort to wake her mind as gradually as she could. Elsa's room was immaculate, minimalistic and a mixture of cool colours - blue being the prominent one by far. What's up with that anyway? The wall that the bed was pushed up against was a dark almost black blue while the rest was just a little darker than a soft baby blue.
A metallic clang and a soft curse came from the kitchen, making Anna giggle. She said a bad word.
The redhead stretched her arms up, up, as high as she could and promptly fell backwards to splay herself out amongst the sheets on the queen sized bed like a starfish. She lay there listening to the rush of water from the kitchen tap turn on and off not ten seconds later; heard the sizzling of what she now could smell were eggs push her to wakefulness. The tell-tale clink of porcelain on porcelain let Anna know that Elsa had taken out two plates from her cupboard.
"That's ma cue." Anna said before she rolled herself off of the bed.
She caught herself before she fell flat on her face and stood up to go and open the door. She stopped, hand hovering over the handle and turned to see a green light pulsing from her phone on the nightstand.
Should probably check…
Anna let the thought fade, but decided to see who had messaged her anyway. It was Hans. It always was. Why did she ever think it would be anyone else?
Hey babe, it read. I'm sorry about last night. I'm going to make it up to you. Meet me at Bon Appetit at 7 tonight.
That's it. He said it like he expected her to just jump – no, he expected her to ask how high she'd have to jump and then jump until he told her to stop. He expected her to pitch up at the most expensive restaurant in the city, dressed to kill but not to show too much skin, so that no other guys would look at her. And yet he didn't want her to cover up either. What did he even want from her?
He always does this, Anna thought with a frown, screw up royally and then swoop in on his stupid white horse and knock me off my feet again. Well, she locked her phone and placed it back on the table, he's not gonna get away with it this time.
Anna turned away, determined to forget about him for the rest of the day until tonight. She opened the door and a wave of breakfast aromas slammed into her. Joining the eggs and bacon, she detected toasting bread and heard the kettle boil as well. With a smile and a spring in her step at the prospect of food, she made her way down the hall towards the kitchen.
Light streamed in from the sitting room's glass sliding doors into the open kitchen. Elsa was still dressed in her white and pink summer pyjamas and stood halfway inside of her corner pantry.
Probably rummaging around for some spices or waffle mix.
Anna seriously hoped for the latter while she bent forwards to lean her elbows against the island table separating the sitting room from the kitchen. Elsa stood no her toes to reach something high up, as soon as her fingers curled around a familiar waffle box – yasss! – Anna decided to make her presence known.
"Hey, there."
The blonde's entire body jerked at the sudden noise. The content inside the box shook violently when Elsa twirled around to face the source of the noise with wide eyes and her freehand raised in a fist.
"Whoa," Anna stood straight, both hands held up in a placating gesture. She fought to hold back a grin. "No need to result to violence."
Elsa's fist flattened out against her heart. "Anna!" she squeaked, having found her voice, she cleared her throat. "You scared the living daylights out of me."
"Sorry." This time she couldn't hide her grin.
"No you're not." She blew her breath out slowly to calm her thundering heart and placed the box on the counter next to the pantry. "You waited for the opportune moment to strike."
"Is there any other way for me to greet you in the morning?"
"Like a civilised person." Elsa bent down and retrieved a bowl from another cupboard.
"I'm the epitome of civilisation, thank you very much." Anna puffed her chest out when Elsa stood up with a mixing bowl in her hands.
"Which civilisation?" she asked with a smirk as she placed the bowl on the counter and opened the waffle mix box. "Prehistoric man?"
"Wait, what?"
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror yet, Simba?"
"Simba?" she frowned, confused. "I woke up because I smelled food." She watched Elsa pour the dry mix into the bowl and set about adding the wet ingredients. "of course I'll detour to the bathroom just to look at myself in the mirror on the way here. I'm that vain, y'know."
The blonde's smirk grew as she worked, focussing all her attention on what her hands were doing while pointedly glancing up at Anna's hair every so often and then her clothes.
"What?" the redhead lifted her hands to her hair, "Why do you keep – oh." She felt the tuffs of hair sticking into the air like red candyfloss. "Oh, ha! Simba! I get it!" She looked down at her clothes next. The very same jean and dark green t-shirt she had worn yesterday were creased and wrinkled form sleeping in them. "Right." She giggled realising the state she was in. "Right. I'll be right back. Don't eat before I come back! I know exactly how many slices of bacon there are!" she called while she jogged down the hall.
"No, you d–"
"Six!" Anna shouted from the guest bedroom she used when visiting. "And four eggs!"
Elsa shook her head in amusement; she glanced at the eggs and bacon she had stacked on a plate earlier. Six and four, exactly. The toast popped. She took a slice out, buttered it, placed it on the other empty plate, and started to butter the second one, taking her time as she did so.
"I hope you pay as much attention to your classes as you do to your food!"
"No need to yell." Anna suddenly said form right behind Elsa who jumped about two feet in the air.
"Anna!" she swatted at her freshly dressed – shorts and her favourite oversized batman shirt – sister who ducked away with athletic grace and speed, cackling like the mischievous four-year old she actually was. Her loose fiery red hair trailed behind her like a banner instead of sticking into the air like a troll.
Elsa gave her a playful warning glare before she returned to finish buttering the other piece of toast.
"Heh, I pay enough attention to my classes." She giggled as she made her way to the fridge and opened it up. "Got this golden key award invitation thing, so I must be doing something right."
When she closed the door with a 1 litre grape juice box in her hand she saw that Elsa was staring at her over her shoulder. "What?"
"You received an invite to become a member of the Golden Key?" Elsa asked and turned to face her sister, who nodded before took a swig from the carton. "When?"
Anna swallowed and closed the box. "Sometime this week? I dunno." she opened the fridge, made to put the carton back but decided against it. She closed the fridge. "I thought it was a hoax at first." She explained as she opened the squeaky cupboard where Elsa kept the glasses and took one out, "Like, they must've entered the wrong email address or whatever, but then Punzie said she got one, too –" the glass was filled to the brim with dark red grape juice. "–so then I knew it wasn't a joke. I actually got it."
Anna turned to put the almost empty juice box away and looked over to see that Elsa hadn't moved an inch while she had talked. She made quite the amusing image with her Minny Mouse ear pyjamas, messed braid draped over her shoulder, mouth slightly agape, holding the butter knife loosely clasped with a good sized piece of butter still on it, just looking at Anna.
"You okay, there?" the redhead asked while she made her way to her glass to slurp up some juice before she could pick it up without spilling anything.
Elsa shook herself. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just – I'm happy for you, Anna." She smiled, grinned, proudly. "That's quite the achievement. Congratulations."
"Ah, thank you," she left her glass on the counter and bowed with a flourish, her hand fluttered in a queenly wave. "Thank you." Kisses were blown to the imaginary crowd around her, "You're much too kind. Stop, please, just stop. No wait, don't stop."
"You're such a goof."
The sister's giggled, grinning at each other like maniacs, before Elsa returned to buttering the now cooled down bread. "Would you get the waffle iron out please?"
"Quite the feast you're preparing here." Anna retrieved the iron and plugged it in. "What's the occasion?"
"Oh, you know." Elsa shrugged, reaching for the bowl with the batter in it she spooned a good sized dollop onto the warm iron. "After a loooong, busy week, you just need to celebrate that it's over." She threw a glance over her shoulder at Anna who had perched herself up on the counter. "And you're here. What more reason could I need?"
Anna smiled at her sister's back as she worked on making the waffles.
She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this at peace with, well, life in general. The past five years without her sister had been horrible. After the big fight between Elsa and their father, the eldest Aren sibling had decided to just leave. Anna hadn't blamed her in the least – still didn't – in fact she would've left as well, but she had decided to stay instead. For their mother's sake. Their father had been a difficult man, one that rarely changed his mind. He had been set on Elsa inheriting the family business, but the blonde would have none of it. She wanted to be an architect.
And so she became one.
Worked herself to the bone her first year to pay for her course and got a bursary for the rest because of her exemplary marks. The sister's had kept touch, but just barely. It had been difficult for Elsa to keep herself afloat so she poured herself into her part time job and full-time studies while Anna had stayed home to keep the peace between father and estranged eldest daughter that first year. Communication lessened and lessened until it all but stopped, only to pick up five years later at their parent's unforeseen funeral.
So much has changed…
"Hey," Elsa's voice pulled the redhead up from her studying her bright pink painted toenails.
"Hmm?" she looked up into concerned glacial eyes.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Anna sighed, stretched her hunched shoulders, "Just thinking."
Elsa bit her lip. She wanted to ask what she had been thinking about, but thought better of it. They would eventually return to where they had been before everything when to the dogs. For now she'd have to content herself with getting to know her sister again.
"Alright," the blonde forced a smile, "breakfast's almost ready. Just waiting for the waffles."
"Great." Anna hopped off the counter. "Shall I set the table?"
"I thought we'd eat in the kitchen. Closer to the food, y'know."
"Brilliant thinking, sis." She hopped back onto the counter top. "This feels like a pyjama day to me."
"I thought your clothes looked too much like pyjamas." She smirked, eyeing her oversized black batman shirt that looked more like a dress, hiding her shorts perfectly.
"Jip." She popped the 'p'. "Hope you didn't have plans, 'cause I'm not doing anything today…until tonight at least."
"Oh?" Elsa leaned back against the counter across from Anna, "Got plans?"
"Sorta. Hans told me to meet him at Bon Appetite tonight at 7 and –"
"He told you?" her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Yeh, he does that – but don't worry!" Anna sat up and gave her sister her most determined facial expression. "I'm gonna end it tonight."
Elsa was quiet. She watched her little sister closely; saw the set of her jaw and frown on her brow. Hans had hurt her once too much, she thought feeling pride and guilt clash between her ribs to form a painful ice ball. And where was I to help her in the beginning of all this?
"Okay." Elsa sighed, fidgeted with her thumbs, and forced her lips to pull upwards. "I thought we could have a Harry Potter marathon and –"
"If you say 'stuff ourselves with chocolate' I swear I might die." Anna relaxed, glad that her sister decided to change the subject.
"Because you ate enough chocolate last night to last a life time?" Elsa cant her head to the side.
The redhead grinned. "No. Because I wouldn't mind it if we did stuff ourselves. Just keep that gross lemon stuff close by."
"You never learn do you?" the blonde shook her head and giggled before she turned to the waffle iron that was starting to emit the best fragrance known to man.