Summary: what if Elsa agreed to go back to Arendelle with Anna when she went to get her? Could she still unfreeze Arendelle?

Three figures, a man, woman, and a snowman were gathered at the top of a glamorous icy staircase at the foot of a huge and majestic castle solidly made of ice. The snowman and the woman seemed to be in dialogue while the man admired the ice miracle in front of him.

"Just give me a minute, okay?" Anna asked the babbling snowman. Kristoff sat down on the front steps, and Olaf joined him, counting.

"This is all ice! Ice is my life!" Kristoff whooped.

Princess Anna cast a concerned glance over her shoulder at her two companions. She hoped Elsa wouldn't accidentally hurt them too. Combing down her slightly ruffled braids and smoothing out her winter dress and cloak, she slowly walked into the ice palace. "Elsa?" She called. She couldn't help but be wowed by her sister's creation. Sheets of clear ice in soft shades of blue and white sprung up from every side of her, fitting together to make glossy floors, glowing walls, glided stairs and balconies, and a fountain made solidly with ice. Anna walked over for a closer look. Instead of water, the fountain was filled with ice droplets frozen in time. The air smelled fresh, cold and, well, icy. Anna stumbled on the icy floor and nearly fell over, and when she regained her balance at the foot of a second flight of stairs leading to a second floor, a soft voice called out to her. "Anna?"

Her head jerked up, teal eyes open with suprise. "Elsa!"

The ice queen smiled gracefully as she appeared from behind a curtain of sheer glittering ice. Anna gaped as she beheld her sister in her free form. Queen Elsa's hair was released from it's tight royal bun, cascading down her left shoulder in a loose but elegant braid studded with sparkles, her long bangs smoothly flipped over her head. Her high necked and fully covering coronation gown had been reduced to a skintight and revealing bright blue off-the-shoulder dress, the hued blue shimmering fabric perfectly fitting her. A light, soft train of woven ice trailed behind the queen in a substitute for the heavy, dark cape she had worn for her coronation. Anna had to admire Elsa's boldness when she noticed her uncovered shoulders and the high cut in her dress that showed off a leg. Elsa didn't look just different. She actually looked like herself- beautiful, confident, free. Elsa's makeup was darker and more prominent, her cheeks flushed and large cerulean eyes sparkling.

"Wow!" Anna gasped. "You look different, well- a good different, not that you looked bad before. And this place! It's amazing!"

"Thank you." Elsa replied, casting a look around the masterpiece of glowing ice. "I never knew what I was capable of."

Anna swung a carefree foot up the stairs. "I'm so sorry for what happened," she continued as she bounced up the steps. "About what happened. If I would have known!"

Elsa stepped back, shaking her head hugging her arms to her waist. "No, it's okay. You don't have to apologize. But you should probably go."

"But I just got here!" Anna protested.

"No, Anna. I belong here. You belong in Arendelle." Elsa sighed sadly.

"But Arendelle's frozen over completely. No one can get in or out! You put the kingdom in eternal winter, Elsa! Only you have the power to thaw the kingdom." Anna broke the news.

"Look outside! Arendelle is covered in snow."

Elsa stared at Anna in horror, still backing away behind the sheen of ice again. "What?"

Anna nodded. "We'll all die if you don't help us! Please Elsa. I'm not mad anymore at all! We'll all support you."

"B-but Wesleton and the guests hate me!" Elsa protested, her hands anxiously running through her hair. "They called me a-"

"DON'T say that word." Anna yelled, stamping both feet on the staircase. It echoed through the palace loudly. "You're not a monster. You're a beautiful queen the kingdom will learn to accept and love. Come back to Arendelle and prove them wrong, Elsa! Please!"

Elsa contemplated that as she stopped trying to escape into the confines of her ice walls. She almost felt hopeful before a flashback flew through her head.

Anna flying over a snowbank laughing, Elsa accidentally hitting her in the head with her powers, the unconscious Anna thumping to the ground.

"I can't." Elsa said finally. "Goodbye, Anna." Hunching over her body and folding her arms around her waist, she turned to leave.

"No!" Anna called, scrambling up the stairs, her strawberry blonde braids thumping on her shoulders as she hurried after her sister, sliding and slipping. "Please! Don't let them suffer the way I did. I was shut in that castle for thirteen years, Elsa! My whole childhood wasted in those walls when we could have been doing so much more." Her voice broke in the end and tears filled the redhead's teal eyes as she reached the top floor, a wide pavilion of ice. "Don't let the children of Arendelle suffer the way I did." She managed before she let go of the banister, crashing onto the frosted floor, tears forming in her eyes. "They'll all be shut in forever like we were."

Elsa wanted to run back and embrace her sister. The sound of Anna's crying nearly broke her heart. Yet she was afraid if she touched Anna, her dear sister would turn to a solid block of ice. "B-but Anna, I-I c-can't." Elsa sank down to the stairs and cried, her dress pooling around her. The ice in the castle turned from a warm blue to a dangerous deep midnight blue as it sensed Elsa's emotions.

"We were so close." Anna tried one last time. "We could be like that again. Just try one more time."

"We could be like that again."

A strange hope filled Elsa. She recalled all the times she and Anna had played with Elsa's powers when they were young, how she willed the ice and snow to go away when they were done, how the powers responded to her commands as she made the ice castle. She looked up, filled with hope now. They were her powers. She wasn't the little scared girl anymore. She was a powerful queen now- twenty one years old, the rightful ruler of her kingdom. Elsa stood up, determined. "Anna, I'll try."

Anna stopped crying immediately before running up the stairs to hug Elsa. "Oh yes-"

Elsa yelped as Anna approached. "Stop Anna!" She cried, jerking backwards instinctively as Anna approached. Her ice train caught on the banister and almost tore.

The redhead stopped immediately. "Oh yeah, you don't like physical contact. You'll get used to it." She stood up shakily, but she was smiling now. "Just gotta slide all the way down these stairs!" She looked at the flight of ice that curled from where she was standing.

Elsa laughed. "How about an alternate route?" She held out her hands in front of her, facing the door, and a long, flat slide of ice shot out the double French doors, bursting them open.

Laughing, Anna climbed on the slide and pushed herself down, her braids streaming behind her as she shot through the door. Elsa followed, and the slide deposited them right on the foot of the last staircase. Kristoff, who had been dully rubbing two sticks together while Olaf watched yelped when the two royals crashed down on the snow bank besides him.

"Whoa there!" Anna bounced up to her feet. "Anyways," she addressed Kristoff. "Elsa's coming back to Arendelle to unfreeze the winter. You know the way back, right?"

"No clue." Kristoff replied dully.

"What?!"

"Just kidding, Anna! I've been living in North Mountain for my whole life! I've seen this place inside and out! Duh!" Kristoff rolled his eyes and tossed the sticks into the snow.

"Lead the way!" Anna said grandly as they started to walk back. "And by the way-" she noticed Elsa eyeing Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf cautiously. "That's Kristoff the mountain man, Sven his moose-"

"Reindeer." Kristoff corrected.

"-and Olaf the snowman."

"H-hello!" Elsa said shyly.

"Hi!" The small snowman called. "I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" He ran up to Elsa on his stubby legs and hugged her.

"Olaf!" Anna pulled the snowman away from the ice queen. "Go and talk to Sven." She was worried Elsa would freak out, but Elsa looked fine.

Kristoff walked silently and gruffly, but Anna tried to keep the conversation for the whole walk. She even insisted Elsa to wear something over her shoulders so the Arendellians wouldn't freak out over uncovered skin in this weather.

"A cape? Maybe a jacket." She suggested.

Elsa waved her hands around her shoulders tensely. A furry light blue cloak formed around her shoulders and pinned together in front of her chest with a large blue jewel.

"Make your dress more winter like. Thicker and furrier, maybe." Anna advised, looking her sister up and down carefully.

Elsa touched her cloak and her skirt filled with material and lengthened to a typical Arendelle dress. A fluffy hood slid over the queen's head.

Kristoff groaned when he saw the two. "At this rate, Elsa can make all of us doll clothes." He joked.

"I have a joke!" Olaf called from where he and Sven had been trotting along. "Why was I so light colored when I got stabbed with the icicle?"

"You're snow?" Anna guessed lamely.

"I've been imPALEd!" Olaf whooped. Anna rolled her eyes playfully.

"Lame joke." Kristoff muttered.

Elsa was quiet the whole time until they reached Oaken's.

"We're gonna borrow a sled." Kristoff murmured. He dug around in his pockets. "Shoot, I don't have money. Who volunteers to cook for Oaken for the next month?"

"I have an idea." Elsa spoke up. Anna looked at her, surprised. Elsa waved her hands around and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. The air between her slender fingers lit up and shone with a rainbow of colors before setting down into her cupped hands. A crystal clear model of her ice castle appeared.

"It's so cute!" Anna gushed. "Look, it even has little doors-"

"WOW!" Kristoff yelled, shoving Anna aside for a better look. "WOOOOOWWWWWWWW!"

Elsa and Anna both looked at him. Clearly this had been the most enthusiasm Kristoff had showed in his whole life. "WOOOOOOOOWWWW THATSSS SOOOO COOOOLLLLLLL!" He gushed.

"Chill!" Anna elbowed the fanboying Kris. "Give this to Oaken for a sled."

"I want it!"

"I'll make you another one."

"Deal!"

Soon they were gliding down the snow covered mountain in the rented sled, Olaf hanging on to Sven's antlers as they shot down the slopes and ravines. Elsa perched in the driver's seat next to Kristoff and Anna plunked around in the luggage trunk. Anna and Olaf tried to keep the conversation flowing as usual, but as time passed they felt the air get colder and colder. The little cute snowfall they had experienced while starting off had increased to a galloping ice filled wind.

"Hurry..." Anna mumbled as Arendelle came into view. Elsa looked shocked as she saw the frozen wasteland of a kingdom. Anna had not been lying.

"Go Sven, go on!" Kristoff urged.

Sven sailed past a block of ice and swerved through the last hill before they shot out into the open frozen fjord. The sky was pure white with clouds and the usual bright blue fjord was frozen to a dark charcoal.

Kristoff yanked at the reins and Sven finally skidded to a stop, panting.

Anna was the first to jump out. "Cmon Elsa, unfreeze it!" She yelled over the wind.

Elsa was frozen to the seat, unable to move. "I-I can't." She said again.

"C'mon Elsa!" Kristoff pleaded.

"Please!" Olaf looked serious for once.

Even Sven looked at her seriously and longingly. Elsa stared at them, torn.

Finally, Elsa took a deep breath of the cold air and stepped out onto the ice. It held, and under her heels she felt how thick it really was. She nervously waved her hands around, willing the snow to disappear. It only moved around a bit. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried again, concentrating harder. It still didn't work.

"Love!" Anna suddenly yelled, as if struck by an idea. "Love will thaw."

"What?" Asked the frustrated Elsa, staring at her hands.

Anna walked over to her, holding onto the sled for balance. "Think of the children of Arendelle. Think of summer. Think of me. Think of mama and papa. Think of yourself." Anna held out her arms. "Hug?"

"The only way, Elsa." Kristoff offered. "Trust her."

Elsa squeezed her eyes shut again and leaned in to hug her sister for the first time in thirteen years. At first it was horrible and awkward, but Elsa soon melted into Anna's embrace, softening to Anna's comforting touch.

"Think." Anna encouraged.

Elsa relaxed and thought of summer, her parents, Arendelle, and most of all, Anna. For the first time, she wasn't afraid. She was happy and relieved. She realized how much she loved Anna and how much her younger sister meant to her. Oblivious to the increasing storm, they stayed like that for several moments.

"I-I can do it." Elsa said shakily, finally. Anna released her and Elsa stepped aside, raising her hands.

"Love."

The ice and snow melted, ridding of winter altogether. Elsa focused on Anna, every thought laced of her. The winter diminished to nothingness.

"YOU DID IT ELSA!" Anna screamed joyfully. She grabbed Kristoff into a hug and Olaf joined, and finally Elsa. "True love!" Anna said.

"True love."

Ehh... Kinda cheesy. This was a longer chapter too, 2K words. I hoped you enjoyed and please suggest a prompt. Thanks and you guys are great!