Oh shit, is this a new chapter? *rubs eyes* Holy shit it is a new chapter. Like, damn.
Sorry for the delay on this one. It was half-written weeks ago, and then life and holidays got in the way.
So, more plot is rearing it's ugly head here. Unless you smut seekers care about plot..., then hey look, plot!
Also Elsanna. Cause cuteness.
If there are any spelling errors I'll fix later. It's late, I wanted to post, and no one betas for me. ;-;
Until next time,
Dex
Mending An Icy Break
- Chapter 15 -
It was a pleasantly warm day in the kingdom of Corona.
Rapunzel, beloved princess of the Sun Kingdom, had busied herself throughout the morning by accompanying her mother on her daily routine.
Thus far, at half past noon, the Queen and Princess had sat through one brief conference, attended a cursory reading of a possible new trade route, and were on their way to a perfunctory meeting with the overseer of Corona's letter couriers.
All in all, it was a remarkably slow day.
Or so the brunette thought, until they arrived at the congregation hall.
As they entered the room, Rapunzel's wide emerald eyes flickered around, falling on the overseer himself.
Archibald, an older gentleman of wealthy lineage, had been Corona's head of couriers for longer than the princess had been returned to her kingdom – three years ago, give or take – and had been trusted and admired for him outstanding work.
The usually stoic man, clad in his regular attire – a Coronan uniform, prominently featuring the kingdom's colours of purple and gold – was currently looking rather anxious. If the way his lips were sealed in a tight line and his brow knit his bushy eyebrows, was any indication.
But what worried Rapunzel more was the presence of the man beside Archibald. Corona's lead naval commander, Attila. A massive, burly man; he wore his uniform, much like Archibald, with glowing pride. And although his forearm was thicker than her entire torso, Rapunzel knew that man to be a kind-hearted, ironically gentle spirit.
Though now, he seemed rather on edge, as he strummed his fingers against forearm. "Your Majesty, Your Highness," He took a deep bow, which was immediately followed by Archibald, who took the officer's lead.
"Attila, Archibald," The Queen gave a courteous nod to each man respectively, "what seems to be the matter?" Both men exchanged glances and Attila cleared his throat.
"With all due respect, Your Majesty, this is a matter which should be discussed with you and His Majesty, the King."
And then Rapunzel felt impossibly small.
"Please, Attila," The Queen admonished with a wave of her hand, "You know as well as I do that I can always relay any important information to my husband."
Seeming conflicted, but unwilling to press the matter further, the muscular man squared his jaw and bowed his head. "My apologies, Your Majesty,"
"It's quite alright," The Queen smiled, "now, what seems to be the problem?"
"It's not necessarily an immediate problem," Archibald intervened, snaking his way past Attila to approach the Queen and Princess. "Just something that was reported by both my curriers and Attila's scouts men."
"What was that?" Corona's matriarch inquired evenly.
"Lüztunel's flags, Your Majesty," The smaller man clarified. "Some of their vessels, mostly smaller ships, were off course for their regular routes."
The Queen took pause. "Do we know which direction they were bound?" Archibald shook his head, but Attila stepped forward.
"They were heading northward, perhaps to the Northern Isles or Arendelle." The brunette Queen seemed unfazed outwardly, though her brow did knit the slightest bit at the mention of the Nordic kingdom.
"Should we notify our allied kingdoms, Your Majesty?" Archibald asked nervously, his hands wringing unsurely.
"No," The monarch shook her head, though her eyes seemed narrowed in deep thought, "there's no reason to start unnecessary panic. And I don't want to be responsible for a misunderstanding between nations." Both men nodded. "For the time being, we'll keep a ship anchored along the route…we'll watch Lüztunel's activity." Her emerald eyes rose and she flicked it between the men. "Discretely; until further notice, we continue business as per usual."
Taking that as final word, both men excused themselves and left the Queen and Princess alone.
"Mother," Rapunzel spoke softly, having waited until it was just the two of them, "you seem…worried." The Queen raised her eyes from the ground, where they had been trained, to look to her only daughter.
"I hope that it's nothing," She murmured, seemingly caught between their conversation, and her unsettling thoughts. "The Northern Isles I know could easily handle a confrontation with Lüztunel, especially with the aide of its Southern ally…but Arendelle has seen quite a bit of turmoil over the last few years, and I'm not sure if it's in any state to handle conflicts."
The younger brunette eyes her mother thoughtfully. "Oh, Arendelle is that kingdom that Eugene and I went to when we attended Queen Elsa's coronation last summer?"
"That's right," Her mother smiled sweetly, threading her hands together as she began to walk towards the exit, "our kingdoms have always been allied, and on excellent terms."
Rapunzel smiled. "It did seem like a very nice place," She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself, "aside from all that snow in the summer. What a weird thing to see!" The Queen laughed with mirth.
"I'm glad you could overlook something like that, especially from a family member."
The brunette Princess blinked, and then blinked again. "Family?"
The Queen hummed as she continued her stride and spoke. "I suppose you should know that Queen Elsa, and Princess Anna, are your cousins. Their father, the late King Agdar, was my older brother."
Rapunzel froze in place, utterly stunned.
She had attended the coronation of her cousin. Her cousin. And she had no idea!
She had always assumed it was for diplomatic reasons that she and her fiancé – at the time – had attended the ceremony as a sign of good faith from Corona. Not that Eugene was too keen on the trip, and he has continued to point out how accurate his gut feeling was after the Eternal Winter fiasco to this day. Mind you, he simply enjoyed lording things over his wife, regardless.
"Wait, wait," She shook herself from her stupor and quickly caught up with her mother, who was trying her damndest to conceal the smile that was tugging at the corners of her lips. "They're my cousins? I have cousins!" Rapunzel gasped, then squealed giddily, and bounced on her feet. "Mother, oh mother, we should plan a trip to visit them! I–I had no idea I had more family!"
Queen Primrose turned her head slightly and smiled to her daughter. "Perhaps we could," She mused aloud, amused by the way the brunette's wide green eyes lit up excitedly, "I may need to send you, and Eugene–"
"And Pascal!" Rapunzel chirped. The Queen paused, and then laughed lightly.
"And yes, Pascal," The two rounded the door and walked into the massive hallway, "and if the time comes that I need to send you two, will you be ready to make the trip? It's almost three days' time…"
"I'll be ready to go mother, I promise!" Rapunzel assured before giddily prancing down the hall, no doubt to find her husband and relay the good news.
"So what are we doing now?" Olaf asked merrily, handing yet another book to the ginger princess.
"Cleaning up," Anna grunted as she hefted several large tomes onto the nearest shelf – which she had freshly dusted, with the help of one magical snowman – and took a moment to wipe the sweat from her brow. "The sooner we get this room organized again, the sooner Elsa can spend time with us."
"Oh, okay," Olaf smiled goofily and toddled off to who knows where, while Anna got to work collecting the second stack Elsa had left – a whopping fifteen books, to be exact – piled to the right of her desk.
"Why does she let it get so cluttered," The redhead groaned as she scooped a third of the sizeable pile into her arms, turning and carefully navigating her way back to the shelves. With a heavy thud, she placed the books onto the case, mindful of their designated places.
Dutifully, Anna kept herself on track, not allowing her mind to wander. This was an important task, and she was not about to allow herself to shirk these duties. "Too many books," Another groan escaped the Princess, and she whined to herself as she lifted another three – much larger than should be allowed – books onto the shelf.
After getting through the fifteen map book pile, the princess was left with the final and albeit largest pile, which stood forebodingly to the left side of the Queen's desk. Sizing it up, Anna placed her hands on her hips and pouted petulantly.
"Remember Anna," The redhead chewed at her lower lip as she eyed the books, and then the mostly filled shelves in front of her, "you finish this and technically Elsa's evening will be free." Flexing her arms, the girl grinned unabashedly. "Besides that," She reasoned while turning and walking to the remaining pile of books, "you're getting a decent workout!"
Lifting with her legs and not her back – a trick Kristoff taught her – she heaved an armful of books and awkwardly hobbled her way to the shelf. "You got this, you got this," She chanted softly to herself, Anna managed to get the remainder of the books shelved snugly and in their correct places too!
Taking a step back to admire her handiwork, the redhead grinned, wiping her forehead again. "Woo," She chirruped softly, "that didn't take as long as we thought, right Olaf?" Turning her head, Anna blinked, her teal eyes scanning the room for her snowman companion, not finding him anywhere. "Olaf?"
Shrugging her shoulders, the redhead skipped over to the nearest window and drew the curtains back enough to reveal the frosted glass. "Right, can't open the windows," She grumbled. "Well, whatever, they're nice and cold…so!" The ginger scooted around the drawn curtain, pressing her body against the chilled glass, immediately feeling relief against her heated skin. "Ahh," She hummed happily, "that's nice. Guess I'll just hug the window instead of Olaf."
Pressing her ear to the window, Anna felt the slight pinch of the chill against her warm cheek, but it quickly faded and became quite pleasant. Sighing contently, the redhead allowed the pleasant tingle of the verglas to course through her body, cooling her down, which was very welcomed after building up quite the sweat.
She closed her eyes in contentment.
At this moment, Anna, Princess of Arendelle, was completely and utterly relaxed.
Entirely too relaxed, actually.
To the point where the door opening went entirely unnoticed by the young woman.
"Anna, why are you hugging the window?" The redhead's eyes shot open, and her entire body twitched. She then quickly stiffened upright, and whirled around, seeing Elsa looking at her with an expression somewhere between concern and confusion. "Anna?"
"Huh? Oh!" The redhead hurriedly scurried to her sister and smiled widely. "Sorry was just…cooling down…, yeah! Cooling down! It was hot, and I got really warm while putting books away–"
And Elsa started to giggle, then laugh. The redhead snapped her mouth shut and watched as her sister's shoulders shook, and the corners of her eyes crinkled. Elsa kept a hand over her mouth, but Anna knew that her lips were pulled up into a smile, and she couldn't help but admire how beautiful Elsa was when she laughed.
"Oh Anna," The blonde gasped softly, stifling the remaining giggles she had left in her. "You're so sweet," Elsa turned her head and looked back over her shoulder at the tidied study…the study she'd left hours prior in quite disarray. "Thank you for cleaning my mess, but you really didn't have to."
"Well," The younger sister shifted on the spot, "now that it's clean you have the rest of the evening free."
"Hmm," Elsa hummed, turning back to face Anna, "that is true. Though I am quite tired from my last meeting–it ran for three hours."
The redhead's shoulders visibly sank. "Oh," Her voice was low, "Okay. Well, I won't keep you up!" Plastering the biggest smile she could muster across her face, the redhead straightened up and clapped her hands on her sister's shoulders. "If you're tired you should get some rest! I mean, it's important for the Queen to be well rested, so you can make all the right decisions and be available at–"
"You can join me tonight, if you'd like Anna," Elsa smiled sweetly, "I hadn't meant that I didn't want to spend my evening with you, just that I'd like to lay down in bed."
"Oh," Anna quickly withdrew her arms, and then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "O-oh! Yes, I mean, please…!"
And Elsa giggled again, though this time she didn't cover it up. "Come on Anna, let's go," She offered her hand out to the redhead, who quickly took hold of it and laced their fingers.
Together they exited the room, silently walking hand in hand through the massive corridors, down towards their respective bedrooms. It was rather late, had been half past ten o'clock when Anna had last checked the time, and now it was well past eleven at night. Most of the staff had long since finished their nightly rounds, and were already in their quarters.
Not that Anna minded. She liked the privacy the late night provided.
Scooting closer, the redhead pressed her hip to her sisters and she gave Elsa's hand a gentle squeeze. "How'd you know I was in your study, anyway?"
Elsa was silent for a moment, enjoy their closeness. "Olaf," She answered softly. "He came running, told me you were cleaning up, and then apologised for ruining the surprise."
Anna smiled fondly. "I owe him one, I guess, because I thought I was going to have to chase you down."
"Chase me down? I'm not hard to find," Elsa quipped, turning to her door and opening it.
"Hard to catch though," Anna teased, following the blonde's lead into the room, "if I thought putting all those books away was a workout, I must have forgotten the trip up North Mountain to get you." Elsa turned to look at her sister and gave a small apologetic smile, as she released her sister's hand and stepped behind her changing screen.
"I'll try to make sure I'm less difficult to track down in the future," The blonde replied, while dissolving her ice dress and reaching for one of her lace fabric nightgowns.
"You do that," Anna called to her, sifting through some of the nightgowns that the blonde kept in her dresser, "and I'm going to barrow some nightclothes, I don't want to go all the way to my room to change." The redhead could hear her sister scoff, but no protests followed, so she helped herself.
Dressing quickly, both girls were soon in full length nightgowns, Elsa's being a pale blue and Anna's somewhere between white and pale green – she assumed it was not one of her sister's regular choices. Together, under Elsa's massive duvet, Anna pillowed her head on Elsa's shoulder, while the blonde raked her fingers through the ginger's loose red strands.
"You're better to cuddle with than the window, in case you were wondering," Anna practically purred, thoroughly enjoying her sister's slender fingers combing through her hair.
Elsa laughed softly. "I hadn't been, but that is good to know." Leaning over, the Queen pressed a chaste kiss to the top of Anna's head, and the redhead smiled, snuggling closer and looping an arm across her sister's stomach.
With her arm draped over Elsa, Anna's fingers found the stand of lace that ran across the midsection of the dress, and she began to toy with it. Elsa paid it no mind, and continued to gently run her nails against Anna's scalp, between loving little kisses to fiery red locks.
"Hey Elsa," Anna was the first to break the comfortable silence.
"Hmm,"
"Do you ever…uhm," Gnawing at her lower lip, the Princess contemplated how to best to ask something she had been thinking about for a while now, "think about doing more…than just kissing?" Elsa's fingers twitched in her hair.
"You mean between us?"
Anna bobbed her head lightly.
"I do really like kissing you, like, really," She assured quickly, "I just wonder…if sometimes maybe you think about more."
Then there was silence again. For a minute, or maybe two, Anna couldn't really tell because she was holding her breath.
Then, finally, the blonde answered her.
"I do, yes."