A/N: Thanks to everyone who's followed/favorited and/or is reading but not reviewing!:)
Thank you for all the reviews, too. It's been so long since I've updated this one-shot series I'm not sure which ones I should be replying to. So if you haven't been replied to, consider this thank-you to be for you.:)
On to the story! {Summary: Elsa and Anna decide they really, really want to go trick-or-treating for Halloween. Prompt from Mandy, who requested a Halloween story. Elsa is 8; Anna hasn't turned 5 yet.}
"Papa, please? Pretty please with whipped cream and a cherry on top?" eight-year-old Elsa asked. "Wait, I don't like cherries on sundaes…anyways…please? May Anna and I go trick-or-treating around Arendelle? We'll be good. I promise." Little Elsa hadn't even known that there was such a thing as trick-or-treating until the day before when she had heard some children in the marketplace talking about it and then subsequently asked her mother about it.
"No daughter of mine is going to go around her future kingdom and play tricks on the citizens," Agdar said firmly. "Elsa, I will not have you going door-to-door playing tricks on people if they don't give you candy. You are the crown princess, for goodness sakes!"
"I could wear a mask so nobody would know it was me," Elsa offered. Wait…I don't want to do that. I want to be a fairy! A sparkly blue fairy. Or I could be Ska∂i! That would be awesome! Although I don't think Papa would let me do that…
"No, Elsa."
"I promise I won't play tricks on anyone even if they won't give Anna and me any candy," Elsa promised. "We just want to dress up and everything. Please, Papa?"
Agdar thought for a moment and then just gave Elsa a stern look. "What were you two planning to dress up as?"
"A big fat kraken!" Anna exclaimed excitedly.
Elsa scowled. "Ew, Anna! Why would you want to be an icky sea monster?" And ideas like that are not going to get us permission. Although…if Anna's already said something like that, then… "I want to be Ska∂i," Elsa said quietly.
Agdar's eyes widened a bit as he stared at the two little girls. "Anna, get out of here immediately." Little Anna ran out of the room, hesitating in the doorway hoping her big sister would follow. "Go on, Anna. I need to talk to Elsa by herself." Agdar turned his attention to Elsa once Anna had left. "Elsa, you can go dress up and whatever else, but you are not to ask Gerda to make you a Ska∂i costume. What on earth are you thinking?! If you make even one tiny mistake…Elsa, you already have that physical defect of yours. I will not have people target you as a…a…"
Elsa's big blue eyes began filling with tears as she looked down at her hands. "A curse, Papa?" she whispered. A sudden thought struck her, and she balled her hands into fists at her sides as she stared up at her father. "If you think I'm defective, why didn't you throw me away when I was born?" she asked, her blue eyes flashing in both hurt and anger. "Or make Anna the heir apparent instead of me? I'm not defective, Papa! I'm not!" A sheen of ice spread under Elsa's feet, and she quickly managed to make it disappear.
"That's enough, Elsa. Run along now. You just remember you are not to be Ska∂i," Agdar told her firmly. "If I hear even one thing about you using those…special abilities of yours in public, you are in trouble. Understand?"
Elsa nodded but didn't say anything. I wasn't going to anyway. I wasn't going to even if Papa did let me be Ska∂i.
"Answer me, Elsa Grieg."
"I understand, but it isn't fair," Elsa replied carefully as she drew herself up to her full height, sounding much older than her eight years.
Elsa watched Gerda work on her sister's Halloween costume excitedly a few minutes later. She didn't hop about like Anna was doing, but she made a small snowflake and tossed it from one hand to the other. "Gerda, will you make me a fairy costume? Please?" she asked hopefully. "Papa said I couldn't be Ska∂i, but he didn't say anything about a fairy. I want to be a sparkly blue fairy!"
Gerda gave the young princess a sideways look. "Princess Elsa, how about a sparkly pink fairy?" she offered. "I know that's your second-favorite color after blue. I don't think a blue fairy is a good idea, princess, and I know you know why."
The same reason I can't be Ska∂i…because a sparkly blue fairy would be an ice fairy or a water fairy, at least in my mind. And prob'ly lots of other people's minds, too. Elsa's disappointed face suddenly lit up as a new idea popped into her head. "What about orange? Like a fiery orange? An orange and red fire fairy!" Elsa clapped her hands in excitement as the picture in her mind of the costume she wanted became perfectly clear. "Yellow, orange, and red wings. They'd look like flames! I could put shiny black hair clips in my hair, too. Gerda, is that okay? Do you think Papa would be mad at me for that?"
"I don't know, princess, but he wouldn't have any reason to. If a fire fairy costume is what you want, then a fire fairy costume is what you shall have." Gerda gave Elsa a hug when the little girl climbed right up on her lap.
"Thank you, Gerda," Elsa said happily. She stuck out her tongue at Anna a second later. "And I think a fire fairy is way better than a nasty old kraken!"
"A kraken could eat a fairy," Anna countered. "Prob'ly. But 'sides, Elsa, maybe it's a nice kraken! How d'you know it isn't?"
"Because-" Elsa started to say, but then Anna interrupted her.
"Doesn't matter anyhow, 'cause it's a big mean kraken and it's gonna eat anything that bothers it. Or bothers its fairy friend," Anna announced with certainty. "I love you, Elsa." She hugged her big sister tightly and then began attacking her with tickles.
A FEW DAYS LATER…
"Gerda, whatever happens, do not leave the princesses alone," Idun said for the fourth time. "I know they don't mean to get in trouble, but they always do. Good grief, Elsa!" she exclaimed as her older daughter came walking toward her with Anna by her side.
Elsa smiled. "What do you think, Mama?" she asked, twirling around in a circle. Wherever her costume caught the light, orange and red shimmered. Black rhinestones sparkled along her neckline and hem and in her hair. Her fairy wings behind her flapped a bit as she spun around. Elsa looked like an ember about to catch fire, and she knew it. Fire is the opposite of regular me. This is awesome!
Anna grinned happily behind her kraken hood. "The Anna-kraken is gonna eat the fire fairy!" she teased, chasing her sister around the room.
"You said it was a nice kraken!" Elsa shot back.
"It's sometimes nice," Anna corrected importantly. She hugged Elsa tightly and looked up and her mother and Gerda. "Can we go now? The Anna-kraken stole a fairy with her ten-cles."
"Tentacles," Elsa corrected. "Anna, quit squishing my wings with all those silly things on your costume, please." Elsa still thought her little sister's costume choice was awful. She liked her fire fairy persona much better.
Idun gave Anna a hug, and Elsa just went over to Gerda, knowing her mother probably wouldn't give her a hug too, just Anna. Elsa wasn't jealous, exactly, but it still hurt. She knew which girl her parents liked better. The normal one.
Anna.
Anna with the bad manners and tendency to cause messes and trouble.
Anna who didn't have 'special abilities' that labeled her defective.
Elsa decided she hated that term. 'Special abilities' indeed! It just sounds like a nice way to say I'm messed up. And I'm not! I'm just me. Just plain me has ice powers. There isn't anything wrong with that.
Elsa felt deep in her heart that no matter how perfect she tried to be, there would always be a part of her parents that would think, 'Oh, that's great, Elsa, but, well, you're still different. Therefore you aren't good enough.' Well, I can at least try. Maybe they'll be happy with me someday. She looked up when she heard her father's voice.
"What are you supposed to be, Elsa?" Agdar asked. At least she isn't being anything that has to do with ice or cold. Whatever it is is fine.
"I'm a fire fairy," she replied simply. Elsa smiled a tiny bit as she looked back at her father. "That's okay?"
"Yes," Agdar replied shortly. He knelt down to Elsa's eye level and looked her straight in the eyes. "A future queen is always mature about things, even if she doesn't want to be. You followed instructions, Elsa, just as I told you to."
Elsa's smile grew bigger. Papa's actually somewhat happy with me! Well, not mad anyways. That's enough for me.
Two hours later, Elsa's bag she was using for her candy was full, as was Anna's. I can't wait to get home and eat all that chocolate! Elsa peeked in her bag for the umpteenth time, happily taking in the wonderful smell of all that chocolate. There were some other kinds of candy too, but mostly chocolate. At every place they stopped, Elsa would say, "May I please have chocolate?" and nine times out of ten, she would get even more chocolate than she would have gotten anyway.
Sometimes it was a good thing to be the crown princess. That meant you got spoiled when you asked for something from someone. If that something was chocolate, then little Elsa was doubly happy. One person had given her a doll dressed in a white sparkly dress with light blue trim, which Anna was very disappointed about. Elsa had resisted the urge to say the doll looked like a snowflake angel and just said thank-you instead.
Elsa frowned as she gazed into an alley. What's going on over there? Is… A second later, Elsa had shoved her candy and the doll into Gerda's arms and ran into the alley, not caring that she was probably putting herself in danger.
In the far corner of the alley sat a young girl who Elsa guessed was around her own age or younger. An older boy was trying to block the girl from three older kids-Elsa decided they were teenagers-that were throwing small rocks and shouting insults. Elsa marched right up to the group and announced in her best authoritative voice, "Stop this right now, by order of Crown Princess Elsa of Arendelle!"
Elsa's heart pounded in her chest as the three older kids turned toward her, but she didn't back down. Before they could say a word, Elsa bent and grabbed a two-foot plank of wood lying on the ground and clutched it in her fist, just in case. Please listen to me. Please. I'll fight if I have to, but I don't want to hurt them or get hurt myself.
Two of them ran off without another word when they realized who it was and also that the little girl was ready to fight if she needed to; but the third just smirked at her. "A little fire fairy thinks she's going to fight with a piece of wood?" he taunted. "Why don't you just incinerate it while you're at it? You prob'ly don't even know what that means, do you?"
"Leave them alone," Elsa ordered. "And I'll not in-ciner-ate it because I don't want to burn the place up," she couldn't help adding, just to prove that she did too know what 'incinerate' meant. Elsa couldn't help shaking as the boy came toward her, but she said, "If you hurt me, the king has the right to punish you for assaulting the princess!"
Elsa found herself clapping one hand to her lip a second later, but she had the presence of mind to swing her makeshift weapon at the boy and send him sprawling. "Go away, you horrid old bully!" she demanded. "Get out of here! I'll have you incar-incarcerated for this!" Where's Gerda and Anna? Are they looking for me? I shouldn't have come over here, but I just wanted to help…
"You win this time, princess," the boy told her. "Good fight for a little squirt like you." Then he ran off. "It was just a Halloween prank, after all," he called over his shoulder.
Elsa frowned in confusion, but then she just shrugged, happy he was gone; and went over to the boy and the little girl in the corner. "Could Princess Elsa be of service to you in any way?" Elsa asked. I think that's how a grown-up would word it. I hope so, anyways.
"You sound older than you look," the boy said, trying not to grin and chuckle at Elsa's I'm-trying-to-be-grown-up words. "Thank you, Princess Elsa. My sister and I are most grateful."
"I'm eight. What's your sister's name?" Elsa asked hopefully. Will she be my friend? That would be nice. I've never had a friend besides Anna before.
"Emily," the girl sitting in the corner replied. "I'm seven."
Elsa happily held her hand out to the girl to help her to her feet, but the girl didn't make any move to accept Elsa's offer. "Will you be my friend?" Elsa asked.
"Aw, princesses like you don't want to bother with us," the boy told her. "Emily can't walk anyways. We've got neither money nor a way to help her. We heard there's a place that might be able to help us that's far away from here. We'll be gone in the morning, Princess Elsa."
"I don't care if Emily can walk or not. That's silly!" Elsa plopped herself down right next to Emily and gave the other girl a hug. "I hope your legs get better, Emily, but I'd be friends with you whether they did or didn't. I'm glad I met you."
Emily hesitantly hugged the princess back. "Why'd you help me and my brother?" she whispered.
"Why wouldn't I?" was Elsa's instant reply. "Wait a minute. I'll be right back. I have something for you." Elsa hopped up and ran out of the alley in search of Gerda and her sister. She found them half a block away where they had evidently been looking for her. "Gerda, may I please have my doll and my candy?"
A few minutes later, Elsa handed Emily the doll without hesitation. "She's for you, Emily. You can take her with you wherever it is you're going. Maybe she can be a pretend friend until you find a real one," Elsa told her. I really wanted to keep that doll, but Emily needs her more than I do. Elsa gave Emily her bag of candy next. "There's lots and lots of chocolate in here. Some of 'em are the really yummy caramel kind."
Emily hugged Elsa as tightly as she could. "I think I found a real friend already," she whispered in Elsa's ear. "Thank you so much, Princess Elsa."
"Just plain Elsa," Elsa corrected.
"Just plain Elsa."
When Elsa and Anna arrived home later that night, Anna gave her big sister half her candy. "'Cause you gave yours away, Elsa," Anna said, pushing the candy over to her sister.
"Thank you, Anna." Elsa hopped up and ran over to the window and just looked up at the night sky. Wherever Emily and her brother are going, I hope they're going to be happy, whether they figure out how to help Emily get better or not. Maybe I'll meet Emily again someday. "I think Emily will like the caramel chocolates," Elsa said finally.
"Like us?"
"Like us. Happy Halloween, Anna."
"Happy Halloween, Elsa."
The end.
A/N: Please let me know what you thought of Elsa's and Anna's costume choices.:)
TIMELINE SO FAR:
1)Off! Off! (Olaf) (November; Elsa 5, Anna not quite 2)
2)Rainy Day Games (February; Elsa 7, Anna 4)
3)Ice Cream Escapade (February; Elsa 7, Anna 4)
4)It's Not MY Fault! (July; Elsa 7 [she turns 8 at the end], Anna 4)
5)A Fairy and a Kraken (October; Elsa 8, Anna not yet 5)
6)To the North Mountain (March; Elsa 8, Anna 5)
7)Let's Go Tree Climbing (early April; Elsa 8, Anna 5)
This is MantaI-305Apollo'sChariot signing off for now, over and out!