Chapter three

Payback

Elsa shoved the door open, just barely catching it before it slammed into the wall. She gently swung it shut as she walked, zombie-like, to her bed, falling face-first into the soothingly plush blankets.

As she crawled under the sheets, the door came to a stop, still open a crack. She debated whether or not she should get back up and close it, but decided against it. She was in bed now, and that was a position she didn't want to give up.

The day had been absolutely exhausting. Event after event, meeting after meeting – all day long, barely a moment to rest. If it had just been a bunch of boring conferences in the same room, that might have been okay, but instead she'd been walking all over the town. Down to the docks to christen a new ship; into the grand hall to knight an honorable guardsman; even up to her ice palace with a few important guests for a tour. She'd been on her feet the whole day, and now she was both exhausted and sore all over.

She had been forced to cancel tonight's session with Anna. Anna had looked crestfallen when she told her, but she had understood. Anna hadn't been quite as busy, but she had still looked quite tired by the end of the day. This would give them some much needed rest – and it would give Elsa a chance to seriously think about their next move.

She adjusted her position slightly, and her body screamed in protest. She tried turning onto one side, and her aches grew even sharper. Defeated, she flopped onto her back again.

There's no way I'm getting to sleep like this.

Elsa sighed, laying perfectly still and hoping that sleep would eventually come to her.

A bath. I should have drawn a bath.

A pang of regret shot through her. A nice warm bath would be heavenly right now. But if even her door was out of reach to her right now, the bath house might as well have been a mile away.

Oh well. Nothing to do for it now. She had stopped moving, and starting again would only redouble the pain.

Amid all the hustle and bustle of the day, she hadn't gotten a chance to have a serious discussion with Anna. It didn't bother her too much, though. Tomorrow, they'd have plenty of time. In any case, Anna hadn't said anything about it during the day, even in those brief moments when they had been alone. Maybe she had recognized the need to slow down.

The door creaked open. "Elsa?" a familiar voice called out.

Maybe not.

Anna tiptoed into the room. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Good," Elsa said. She sat up in the bed, groaning as huge chunks of her body protested the sudden movement. "Okay, not that good," she corrected.

"Sore back?"

"Sore everything," she said, chuckling and groaning at the same time.

"Yeah, you looked like you were in pain at dinner." Anna climbed onto the bed, scooting up next to her. "I think I might be able to help you out," she said.

Elsa would have backed away, if not for the pain that would have followed. "What do you mean?" she asked quickly.

Anna smiled goofily. "I mean a massage, silly."

Hey, look at that, now my heart's beating quickly again.

Apparently Anna noticed her concern. "Come on, Elsa, haven't you ever had a massage before?"

"Not from you," she replied.

"Relax, I'm really good at it," Anna insisted.

Elsa looked at her. "That's not what I'm worried about."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, Elsa. You said you didn't want to have a session tonight, and I'm okay with that. I can understand if you don't have the energy for it today. This'll just be a regular massage, nothing special about it. Deal?"

Elsa moved to protest, but another flash of pain coursed through her body. She let out a sharp groan, then conceded defeat. "Okay, you win," she said, looking at Anna.

Anna crawled closer to her. "Alrighty then, let's sit you up, okay?"

Elsa nodded. Slowly, she leaned herself forward into a sitting position. Anna positioned herself behind her, getting up on her knees.

"Uh, Elsa?" she said. "The dress?"

Elsa's pulse quickened again. "Right, right," she said. She closed her eyes, dissolving the dress from her back.

She had, in fact, decided against wearing any regular underclothes, and now she felt like she might regret it.

Calm down, she told herself. It's just going to be my back. I'm in full control of this.

Anna delicately placed her hands on Elsa's back. Elsa jumped a little at the touch. "Ready?" she asked.

Elsa nodded.

Anna moved for the top of her back, pressing her thumbs into the skin around Elsa's neck. Elsa instinctively leaned forward, but Anna held her in place, her hands gripping Elsa's shoulders. Once she was steady, Anna started kneading her shoulders with her hands.

In seconds, the feeling changed from excruciating to heavenly. Elsa sighed deeply as Anna's fingers soothed her weary muscles. Elsa breathed deeply, relishing the feeling of her contorted muscles being massaged back into place.

Anna moved downward, engaging the heels of her hands on the tighter muscles around Elsa's spine.

"Oh, god," Elsa moaned, too contented to stop herself. "Thank you so much, Anna."

Anna giggled. "My pleasure," she said. "Anything to make you feel better, Elsa."

A warning light went off in Elsa's head, but she ignored it.

I'm still in control here. I'll stop this if it goes too far.

And not a moment before, because Jesus Christ, this feels so good!

All of the stress from her stressful day was just melting away. And, she noted with a bit of pride, it's the only thing that's melting away.

Her dress was staying in exactly the same place, not retreating an inch. It seemed she had more control over it than she had feared.

She turned her head and looked at Anna. Immediately, Anna turned her head back around, but not before Elsa saw the broad grin on her face.

"Stay still," she said playfully. "I'm almost done with your back."

No, please, Elsa thought. Go over my whole back again – I don't want you to stop.

But already, she felt far better than before. Everywhere that Anna's hands had touched felt wonderful. While she was still sore in other places, the lion's share of her pain had dissipated.

I have the best little sister in the world.

Anna finished the last of her hand motions, lifting her hands from the base of her sister's back. "Feeling all right?" she asked.

Elsa nodded. "Thanks so much," she said. "I really needed this."

Anna smiled. "Okay, now lie down."

Elsa turned to look at her. "What? Why?"

"So I can get the rest of your body, of course."

She said it so innocently.

"You said it'd just be a back massage," Elsa said.

"Well, you said everything was sore," Anna replied.

She seemed confused by her protestations. Did she really not understand why this was such a big deal?

Elsa took a deep breath, trying to phrase what she had to say very carefully. "Thank you for the offer, Anna," she said, "but I'm fine with just the back massage."

"Don't you want me to make you feel better?" she asked.

"You've already done plenty," Elsa insisted, reforming the dress on her back. "I appreciate it, but I really just want to go to bed right now."

See? She thought to herself. I can control myself. Stopped this before it went too far. She couldn't help but feel at least a small amount of pride at her achievement.

That is, until she turned around and saw the look on Anna's face.

She didn't look angry, or even upset. Those, Elsa would have understood. She just looked crestfallen, even resigned. To see such a look on Anna's normally very upbeat face was almost heartbreaking.

"You can understand that, right, Anna?" she asked worriedly.

Anna sighed. "Yes, Elsa, I understand," she said. "You're tired, you just want to get to sleep. The last thing you need is me touching you all over, keeping you awake." She sighed again, getting up from the bed. "I won't bother you any longer. See you tomorrow."

Elsa felt terrible. Anna had just wanted to help her out, and she had turned her away just because she herself was feeling a little confused about everything. She had to say something to make this right.

"Wait, Anna," she called. Anna, who had made it to the door, stopped and turned around. "I'm really sorry," she said. "I'll make it up to you somehow."

Anna smiled. "You don't have anything to be sorry about," she said. "You shouldn't feel forced to let me do something you don't like. You don't owe me anything." And with that, she opened the door and walked out.

Elsa felt tears welling up in her eyes. She grabbed a pillow, covering her face with it.

Yes I do, she thought, starting to sob. I owe you so much.

xxxxxxx

Anna's door opened with a soft creak. Elsa slipped inside, leaving it slightly open. She might need a quick escape route.

Anna lay in bed, her hair fanned out in all directions. Elsa felt a soft chill sweep through her as she approached. She had been in here before, but this time was different. The last time she had come here, it had been early in the morning, and she had woken Anna up as soon as she could. Now, in the middle of the night, she had the opposite objective.

As Elsa had expected, she had fallen completely asleep, and experience told her that practically nothing could wake her now. Still, she was incredibly nervous. She had never before tried what she was about to try.

It was a hot night, so Anna had already thrown off the covers. By some miracle, she was also lying on her back. Only one thing stood between her and what she had come to do.

Elsa gently grabbed the hem of her sister's nightgown. Hands shaking, she started to pull it up over Anna's thighs.

For the love of god, Anna, please be wearing something under this.

As it turned out, she was – barely. As Elsa delicately raised the nightgown over Anna's hips, she revealed what had to be the smallest underwear she had ever seen. They didn't cover an inch of skin more than they absolutely needed to.

They also had a snowflake pattern emblazoned on them.

Trying to ignore the implications of this, she continued to roll the gown over Anna's slender body.

She briefly wondered what might happen if somebody were to walk by Anna's door right now.

Hey there, Kai, how's it going? Nice night, isn't it? Oh, don't mind me, I'm just undressing my sister to give her a massage.

She told herself to ignore this line of thought. Robbed of context, of course it sounded bad. Anna had done this for her, now she was just repaying her.

That sounds even worse.

Elsa forced herself to stop thinking in this vein, instead focusing totally on the task at hand. She lifted the dress over Anna's impossibly slim waist.

Then, about two-thirds of the way up her body, Elsa met resistance.

She blushed, knowing full well she couldn't lift the dress any further without touching some very…private…locations on her sister's body. Furthermore, it seemed Anna had even less underclothing on the upper half of her body than her lower half – which was to say, none at all.

She would have to make do with what she had. She could reach Anna's shoulders under the gown. She applied a little pressure, waiting for Anna's reaction. Only a slightly sharpened exhalation indicated that she had felt anything at all.

This is the worst idea I've had in a long time.

Ignoring all of her common sense, Elsa started her massage, squeezing Anna's shoulders in a similar way that Anna had done earlier that night, only softer.

Anna started breathing deeper, but not any faster. Taking this as a positive sign, Elsa continued, feeling Anna's taut muscles loosen and relax underneath her fingers.

As she moved down her sister's back, Anna began to sigh in contentment. Soon enough, the sighs turned into moans. Elsa, who had never been more nervous, forced herself to continue.

Don't worry about it. She's still asleep. Right now, all I'm doing is giving her a good dream. Probably something about Kristoff.

As if she could read her thoughts, at that precise moment, Anna let out another sigh, with one word in the middle of it.

"Elsa," she moaned, voice thick with affection.

Elsa felt like her face might catch fire.

Okay, she said to herself, trying to calm down, so she dreams about me. That doesn't have to mean anything.

She wondered why she bothered lying to herself – especially when she was this bad at it.

She sighed. When she had asked Anna to do this, she had just wanted to know more about how these things worked – or at least, she had told herself that. Now, however, she found herself doubting more and more that it could be that simple.

Anna dreams about me, she thought. And here I am, giving her a massage and hoping my clothes don't fly off whenever she touches me. If we do start doing something wrong, which one of us is supposed to tell the other to stop?

Elsa finished her massage, hands at the base of Anna's freckle-covered back. Anna's breathing hadn't sped up a tick. Elsa, on the other hand, was hyperventilating like crazy. She risked a glance at Anna's face and saw a contented smile.

You've got a choice to make, Elsa. You can't put it off forever. Either you put a stop to this now, or you just go with it and see what happens.

Well, I don't want to stop.

When you put it like that, it sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?

Elsa chuckled bitterly, then slapped a hand to her mouth. Ironically, the slap was probably louder than the chuckle, although neither seemed to wake Anna up.

This close call sucked out all the shaky courage Elsa had mustered.

I did what I came for. Time to go.

Walking a delicate tightrope between cautious delicacy and nervous haste, Elsa pulled Anna's gown back down over her body. When she reached her hips, Elsa decided not to risk disturbing her any further by lifting her body up.

Nightgown around the waist. That's believable, right?

Fairly certain that it wasn't, Elsa tiptoed back to the door, pushing it to just a slit but not fully closing it. With her paranoia, the sound of the latch closing would be like a cymbal's clash.

As she crept back to her own room and crawled into bed, the answer to one question still eluded her.

What am I supposed to do about this? Do I try to control it, or just throw away my doubts and go with it?

By the time sleep found her, she still didn't have an answer.

xxxxxxx

About ten minutes later, Anna woke up. She groggily looked around the room, registering the subtle differences.

The door was open a crack. Her gown was pulled up to her waist. And her back felt wonderful.

She smiled.

I have the best big sister in the world.