Anna was looking forward to attending breakfast the next morning, eager to see her sister and study her behavior, to gauge her reaction towards her. She was almost ninety nine percent convinced that Elsa shared the same feelings for her and this time she was ready to pinpoint the signs. After last night she was certain there would be some definite signs supporting her theory. Elsa wasn't very good at hiding her emotions, and for once Anna was happy for that.
She brushed her uproarious hair extensively to ensure it was tangle free and shiny. Then she contemplated on what to do with her hair. Would Elsa like her hair down? Did she prefer Anna's signature twin braids or was that overdone and too boring? She never tried doing it in one braid, should she try that? Elsa pulled the single braid style off amazingly, but then again she was no Elsa. Maybe she would try doing it that way another time, after some practice. Anna settled on keeping it down to avoid any fuss and so she could head down to the dining room.
When she arrived at the dining room she was informed by a servant that Elsa would not be accompanying her, apparently catching up on her queenly duties she'd been neglecting the past few days. The news deflated Anna and she dejectedly took her seat and glowered at the food served to her, hardly touching it, having no appetite. She tried not to take Elsa's absence personal, knowing that what the servant said was true. Elsa had been slacking with her duties after the ball and the days immediately after, but she suspected Elsa skipping out on breakfast had a lot to do with her as well. She didn't know what to think of that.
Well, she wasn't going to let it ruin her day. Besides, she had a letter to work on.
Anna went to her room to fetch the letter, which she had moved to a more secure place after waking up, at the bottom of her underwear drawer, knowing the maids would be coming around to wash the bedding. She stuffed the letter between the pages of the misplaced book her sister had left by the library door the night before, deciding to return it back to its rightful place. It would be useful as a protective case for her letter on her way there in the meantime.
With her letter now in her possession, Anna ran full speed around the halls to get to the library as fast as she could, wanting to finish her letter once and for all. She rounded a corner and spotted Elsa ahead with a large stack of important documents in her arms, talking-no, laughing- with a young, petite woman. Anna hit the brakes, trying to reduce her speed but the smooth, freshly cleaned floor gave her no traction and she slipped as if on ice, and the momentum of her forward motion kept her hurtling straight for her sister. She exclaimed loudly to alert Elsa that she was coming, hoping her sister would react in time to avoid her. Elsa turned her head slightly to see what was going on and her eyes widened at the missile coming her way, her lips parting in surprise.
But it was too late.
There was an explosion of papers as they were sent flying in every direction, thrown free from Elsa's arms with great force as Anna bowled right into her legs from behind, causing her to ungracefully fall flat on her butt with a grunt.
"Oh, god. Oh, geez! Elsa!" Mortified, Anna apologized abundantly and climbed to her hands and knees as paper showered upon them, "Sorry! Elsa, I'm soo sorry! I didn't mean it. Please don't hate me!"
The other woman, a servant of the castle, saw the collision take place and narrowly avoided getting knocked down herself, looking equally horrified and expelling a gasp of shock. "Your Majesty, are you alright? Your Highness?"
Anna nodded in response, assuring the maid she was uninjured, but she kept her attention on Elsa. "Elsa?" Her sister had not uttered a sound or made any indication that she was fine and Anna's concern for her grew rapidly.
Elsa sat where she fell, her hands covering her face, her shoulders heaving up and down. Anna's heart broke. She had hurt her sister. She had been reckless and stupid and made her sister cry. She felt absolutely dreadful at that moment.
But when Elsa moved her hands away from her face she didn't look upset or like she was in pain. In fact, she was glowing, laughter shining in her eyes, mirroring the smile that reached her lips.
"Elsa!" Anna breathed with relief.
"My Queen, are you hurt?" the maid asked again.
"No. I'm fine, Laina," Elsa answered as the maid put her arm around her and helped her stand on her two feet. "Thank you."
Anna rose with them, narrowing her eyes at the arm dangerously wrapped around her sister's waist, holding on a little too tightly and for longer than necessary. She scowled as the hands busily dusted the Queen off, though since the floor had obviously been recently cleaned there would have been no dirt to wipe off.
"Your face, Anna, when you were sliding towards me was too much," Elsa said with a chuckle. "What were you doing? You shouldn't be running around like a maniac. You could have hurt someone," she scolded mildly.
"I was… in a rush to get to the library," Anna said lightly. Did Elsa perk up at that? She tried to meet her eyes but Elsa diverted hers away before they crossed paths. Anna caught the change in color of her cheeks as they turned bright pink ever so slightly and she grinned widely.
"The library's not going anywhere, Anna." Elsa said gently, adjusting her rumpled clothes. "You need to be more careful." She took in the sight of her papers strewn in messy patches around her with dismay. She would need to put them back in order and that would take some time considering how thick the stack was, almost two hundred pages worth of documents she'd need to read over and sign. She sighed, slightly annoyed at the extra unnecessary work that was thrown at her, but her annoyance was not directed at Anna, even though it was technically her fault.
"But I thought you liked my clumsy side," Anna reminded Elsa, raising her eyebrow. "I distinctly recall you saying-"
Elsa matched her raised eyebrow, though she pulled it off ten times better than Anna ever could, and lifted one side of her mouth, displaying a crooked smile that was simultaneously adorable and incredibly sexy. The look drove Anna nuts and she flushed as a pleasant chill crawled up her back. "So you did it on purpose, then?" Elsa asked slowly.
Anna spluttered. "No! I swear, it wasn't intentional at all! I would never risk injuring you. I'll make sure to be more careful in the future to prevent another disaster such as the one that just took place from ever happening again," she promised in a rush.
"We'll see about that."
The three women huddled together and got to work gathering the papers, sweeping them into an unorganized cluster. Laina, Anna couldn't help but notice, was way too close to Elsa for comfort. After seeing Elsa laughing openly with the woman- not that Elsa laughing was a bad thing, but Anna was the only one who ever made her laugh so freely- and witnessing the maid's arm lingering around her waist after helping her up and how she blatantly touched her under the guise of cleaning her off when that was clearly unnecessary, she became acutely aware and suspicious of any further interactions between them. So when the maid's shoulder brushed against Elsa's arm Anna bristled and hissed like a cat, baring her teeth and catching the attention of the other two women, alarm on their faces. The sound even shocked herself. Where had that come from?
Anna covered up her slip. "Paper cut," she lied, lifting a finger as if to show proof. Luckily no one paid too much attention to her nonexistent cut. She went back to collecting the papers blindly as her eyes remained fixed on the maid, unwavering. She watched as the maid's hands fluttered with ease and stacked the papers she picked up into a tidy pile and didn't miss the moment when they bumped into Elsa's hand briefly. It was a very faint, hardly noticeable touch. Jaw clenched, Anna decided to let that slight contact slide and trained her eyes elsewhere, telling herself it was an accidental touch and that there was nothing at all going on between her sister and the maid and that everything before that was innocent and she was making a big deal over nothing.
It didn't take long before her eyes were drawn back to Laina's hands once more. And when contact happened again, fingers against fingers, this time Anna deemed the action as intentional and she reacted instantly, needless jealousy consuming her. What she wanted to do was grab the maid by her loose, blond ponytail and fling her across the hallway. Instead, she shouldered herself roughly between Laina and her sister, snatched the papers out of the girl's clutches and, more calmly than she felt, said, "I'll help with this. You can go.""
Laina was taken aback by the Princess's seemingly aggressive demeanor but didn't budge. "Oh, no, Your Highness, I can't leave such a mess-"
"You are dismissed," Anna said harshly, her anger rising. "Laina," she added haughtily, practically spitting the name out.
Flustered, the maid obliged and excused herself, scurrying off.
Elsa was bewildered by Anna's uncharacteristic behavior. Her sister was always so sweet and gentle to everyone around her. She couldn't recall her ever losing her cool to this extent. Not even Hans faced the fury of this Anna and he more than deserved it. The maid hadn't done anything to warrant such an outburst. What set her off? "You didn't have to be so rude to her, Anna," she admonished. She couldn't fathom any reason for Anna to act the way she did, unless... Sympathetically she asked, "You're menstruating, aren't you?"
The Princess ignored the question and harrumphed as she folded her arms defensively. Part of her felt terrible for being so mean to the maid, and she realized she might have seriously overreacted just a little teensy tiny bit. Or maybe she acted accordingly. She still wasn't quite sure what to make of what happened… Were the touches innocent or were they something more? Perhaps Elsa could enlighten her. "What were you laughing about with Laina?" Anna asked coolly, but she spoke so low that the rustling sound of the papers drowned her words out.
"What? I didn't catch that." Elsa stilled her hands to lessen the noise level. "Speak up, Anna."
"You skipped breakfast," Anna said accusingly, changing the subject, her cheeks puffed out with irritation.
Elsa gaped at her. "Really? Is that what's upsetting you? Anna, didn't you get my message? I have work to do, as you can clearly see," she said, gesturing to the papers around them.
"So? You still need to eat, you know."
"You know, Anna-" Elsa removed a few sheaves, uncovering the book which had been blanketed by the papers. She did a double-take and stared mutely at it as her brain tried to make sense of its existence. She recognized it as the same book she had last night, the one she had planned to return to the library. But she lost track of it after…
"Oh, that's mine." Anna took it and waved it around as she explained, "I mean, it's not mine mine but I have it currently in my possession at this moment in time… I found it abandoned by the library, literally outside the door." Pretending to be stumped by her discovery of it, she said, "An odd place, really. I don't know how on earth it could have got there!"
Elsa swallowed the knot that formed in her throat, feeling as if she ingested a rock, and forced a laugh. "How… strange." How absolutely careless she had been to forget about the book. Given the circumstances she had been faced with at the time, it was unsurprising that a book was the very last thing she would have thought of… but it was no excuse. If Anna suspected even a little that she had been the one to leave the book, she'd put two and two together… Elsa couldn't force herself to meet Anna's eyes even for a second, knowing they and her unavoidable blushing would give her away or cause Anna to ask questions. So she hurriedly scooped up the remainder of her papers, shuffling them into a disorderly pile. "Thank you for your help, Anna. I need to get back to work and straighten this mess out," she said, nodding to the papers in her arms.
"No problem." Anna let her go, smiling goofily as she watched Elsa walk to her study. Remembering she had something to do herself, Anna went to the library. She placed the book containing her letter on the table and sat in the same chair she occupied previously last night. Only a few more touch ups and soon she'd be able to release it into Elsa's hands. How she was going to do that she hadn't quite figured out yet, but she thought Olaf could help her there.
Opening the book, Anna flipped through the pages to locate her letter. She reached the end without coming across it and frowned. She must have missed it. She went through the book again, turning each page, this time at a much slower pace, but again her letter didn't pop out at her. Where was it? Anna was positive she had put it inside the book. It had to be there! Anna repeated the checking process numerous times as anxiety overtook her, heaviness weighing down her stomach. "No, no, no, no, no…." she chanted as her page flipping became more erratic to the point that the pages started to tear.
And still she came across nothing. The book was empty.
"Shit!" Where was it? Anna patted herself down frantically, thinking she might have hid it somewhere on her body and maybe blocked that detail out of her head. She peered into her top and stuck her hand inside, feeling around for the paper.
It wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere. The only other place she could think of was… Anna's eyes widened in realization and she whispered, "Holy flying cheese monkeys on toast…"
Elsa's desk.
The collision had caused such chaos that Anna would never have noticed her letter falling out of the book, and with Elsa's papers in the mix she had no chance of finding it unless she was actively looking for it, which she hadn't been because she didn't know it was missing.
"Shit." Anna swore again, putting her hand to her forehead as she paced, now having to deal with this terribly unexpected dilemma.
She breathed in and out to calm herself. "Okay, this isn't that big of a deal."
Oh, but it was a huge big deal! Though the letter was meant to go to Elsa eventually, Anna hadn't been able to revise or proofread it and it was in quite a messy state, and she didn't want her sister to receive it in that condition. Not to mention Anna had a plan, damn it, and this was not how it was supposed to go!
She had to get her letter back.
AN: I just want to assure everyone that I fully intend to complete this story. I've had a few people ask me about that and I don't remember if I left an AN, though I think I did... But I won't drop this, even if I start a few new projects. It's ridiculous how ideas just spring to my head all at once and just want to be let out. xD I try to update at least every two weeks. Truthfully, I have quite a few chapters finished but I don't want to rush them out in case there are things I want to change and whatnot...
I want to thank those awesome people who have commented, especially those who left one for each chapter I put out. Seriously, you guys are amazing! And thanks for being patient with me. xD