"Confront her, don't confront her/Confront her, don't confront her," Elsa mutters to herself repeatedly, sighing at her office table littered with torn lily petals. Ever the determined decision-maker, the nagging doubts over her dilemma take their toll on the Queen, and she slumps in the chair clutching at her forehead. The sight of a cheery and relaxed Anna in the library had done nothing to ease her worries of earlier, and she doesn't notice when Gerda rushes into the royal office without bowing.

"She's having dinner," Gerda whispers in Elsa's ears, and she bolts upright in her chair.

"Anna? Now?" she asks, grasping the edges of her chair.

"She's walking there. I've instructed the kitchen to wait until you arrive."

In her urgency to leave, Elsa ignores the stack of documents she's tipped over the table – and runs to the dining hall without stopping. A dim orange glow has settled upon the room by the time she arrives, and the servants have begun lighting the night lamps – but Anna is nowhere to be seen. She leans against the table and catches her breath, drumming her fingers against the wood.

What am I going to do when she gets here? Eat a hearty dinner and pretend everything will be fine?

Anna's chirpy singing voice reaches Elsa before the scent of her lavender perfume does, and she scurries behind a pillar. She bites on her lip and avoids touching anything as Anna skips into the dining hall alone. Conceal, don't feel it, she whispers to herself. But snowflakes have begun peeling from the tip of her blonde braid.

With a sigh, Elsa reveals herself and marches over to Anna. The princess recoils from the sight of her sister and the blood drains from her face.

"E-elsa?" Anna gasps, taking a step backwards and stumbling into a chair, "y-you're, um..here?"

"Of course!" Elsa replies, pulling out a chair for her sister, "I thought I'd have dinner with you today."

"That's lovely!" Anna says, and she attempts to sit before standing again when she notices Elsa still standing, "um, can I..? I mean – may I?"

"Please, Anna, we're sisters," Elsa insists, petting her on the shoulder, "you don't have to stand on ceremony with me."

Anna looks at her sister's hand on her shoulder, and into her eyes. A butler arrives and lays out a dinner before them in its entirety: the starter, main course and dessert. Despite being born into a life of plenty, Anna remains mesmerized by the sight of food – and Elsa takes advantage of the distraction to wave away the entire service staff, motioning for them to shut the doors.

"It's been awhile hasn't it?" Elsa says, pulling her chair from the other side of the table and setting it next to her sister. Anna looks at the floor, and shifts her own chair an inch away before seating herself for dinner.

"I didn't think you'd…eat with me. Not that I mind of course, but I assumed you'd be busy."

Elsa looks at the singular blonde lock of hair twined amidst a braid of red, and tries not to wince when Anna drags her hair against a plate of potato salad. She extends a gloved hand towards her shoulders and tucks the braid behind her ear. A tinge of red spreads across Anna's face; she manages a weak smile and looks down at the dozen articles of silverware before her. With a wary glance towards her sister, she seats herself straight in the chair and fumbles with the cutlery. Elsa pretends not to notice Anna scooping the salad into her mouth with a soup spoon, and pours herself a glass of wine.

The food on Elsa's plate goes untouched, and it has nothing to do with her wanting to maintain a figure. The sight of a primly dressed Anna seated barely inches away from her, and the memory of her limp body in a drunken haze just the night prior weigh upon her mind like a stack of bricks. Her appetite pays the price, and she spends most of her meal chasing her baby carrots around a fillet of salmon. Every clink of cutlery and sip of wine echoes throughout the hollow enormity of the royal dining room. The servants gather outside the room and press their ears to the doors, whispering to each other with hushed speculation about exactly why the royal sisters are eating together in silence.

Somewhere in the middle of dessert, Elsa's mind frays from the tension hanging between them, and she gestures at her sister's unfinished food.

"If you don't like your peas, I can always ask the chef to cook other vegetables," she says, keeping her gaze directed at Anna's face.

The princess stares at her plate of dessert. She runs a salad fork through the strawberry pudding in circles until it turns into mush. Her eyes close, and she whispers over the sound of Elsa's heavy breathing,

"Normally you'd just tell me to be a big girl and finish them."

"I know you're a big girl, Anna. I just-" she starts, before noticing Anna shaking her head.

"Oh really?" Anna asks with trembling lips. By the tone in her voice, Elsa knows it wasn't a question, and she stumbles upon her next words.

"Look," Elsa says, shifting in the chair to face her, "you need to tell me if there's anything wrong. Or, um, not going well. I'm always here for you, and I want you know that you can tell me anything."

Anna tips her head at her sister and Elsa's chest tightens at the sight of her sister's reddened eyes.

"You don't understand," she whispers, brushing her fingers against Elsa's cheek, "I doubt you ever will, and it's not like I want you to either."

"What?" Elsa frowns at the intensity of Anna's words. From the eloquence of her sentence, she knows her sister had been putting together the words for a long time coming.

"Listen, Anna. We need to talk," she says, grasping her sister's wrist, and exhaling a long sigh, "I saw you in the Barnmeadow Tavern last night."

Anna looks away, and scratches her nails against the tablecloth.

"Would you like to explain to me, exactly why you were out in town so late at night, and um, hanging out with – those people?"

"You wouldn't understand," Anna says, and her voice begins to break, "I needed to escape."

Elsa sighs, "Anna, you're old enough - I'm not stopping you from venturing outside the palace. It's just that, why don't you ask Kristoff to go with you? It's dangerous for a young lady to-"

"I knew you wouldn't understand," she answers, and shakes her head at Elsa, "don't you get it? This has nothing to do with the palace!"

"What-" Elsa gasps, and tendrils of cold fog slither from her breath. She feels Anna's hands trembling, and the princess presses her face into the sleeve of her dress.

"I think I'm done with my meal," Anna mutters, pulling her hand away from Elsa's, "see you whenever you're free enough to see me."

The princess rises from her chair, and Elsa grabs her arm.

"Wait! We're not done!" she gasps, and ice erupts on the floor beneath her.

"Aren't we?" Anna scowls, casting a look of contempt at the sight of Elsa's frozen gloves before pushing them away and leaving.

"Please Anna, please don't go! I need to-"

Grating pain slices through Elsa's heart at the sight of Anna wiping her eyes and running away from her. Tears appear on Elsa's cheeks when the memories return - it had always been herself doing this to Anna. In the room, at the ball, at the Ice Palace – it was always Elsa turning her back on Anna and pretending not to hear her disappointed sighs of abandonment. Guilt slams into Elsa's head as her tear-fogged gaze falls upon Anna disappearing behind a slamming door - and it crushes her, sending her crumbling to her knees as she weeps. The door creaks open again, and Elsa tilts her tear-stained face at her sister's shaking voice calling from the door.

"Has it even occurred to you that I wasn't drunk last night?" she yells, before slamming the door again.