Disclaimer: Uhm, i still don't own.
AN: So i updated. haha. D: i didnt edit this, and i kind of gave up at the end. if anyone can get me to be creative and think of creative things after this, be my guest. my head hurts. enjoy!
Anna, of all the weird and frankly awkward meetings between her regal sister and the touchy trolls that she had imagined in her head , had never expected Elsa to curtsy respectfully low with baffling calm when the trolls trembled and rumbled into existence from their rocky hiding places. Nor had she expected the trolls to take a moment of silence to stare at her sister before exclaiming with fond recognition, Ah, little Elsa! My, how big you've grown! She had expected, with her sister's irrational paranoia and the trolls' tendency to get all up in one's face, a whole lot more screaming, cursing, and most likely very hilarious spoiled-princess scenes or a highly uncomfortable Elsa who would just stand there and look like she had no idea what to do. Instead, she was disappointed when it appeared as though the trolls and Elsa had an understanding between each other. Though they still touched her teeth, much to Anna's satisfied amusement. However, Elsa seemed to have expected it and stood stooped over patiently as the trolls cooed over strong, frosty teeth, just like Winter! and waited for them to finish with their assessment (Elsa's knowledge of troll behaviour amused Anna less so).
"Elsa, dear Elsa!" Grand Pabbie greeted her warmly when he rolled over and she curtsied. "King of the trolls", Elsa bent her head low, eyes down in respect. He chuckled, smiling with familiarity and reaching over to pat her arm. "No need for any of that, child, we're both royalty here anyway." A look of doubt flashed over Elsa's face before it smoothed out and she nodded. "What brings you here today of fine days?" Pabbie questioned, motioning for her to follow deeper into the glen. The young queen fidgeted, biting her lip. She was silent for a moment, eyebrows creased and eye refusing to meet the old troll's face. Pabbie smiled sadly before motioning for her to sit down on a log. Clasping his hands over hers, he had to look up to catch her gaze. "You're afraid again, aren't you, young one?" Pabbie asked her gently, patting her hand and catching her attention. Elsa turned her face towards him, eyes slightly wider than normal and jaw clenched almost unnoticeably in the afternoon light. "Afraid that you'll lose control and hurt someone again. Elsa, dear, listen to me." Pabbie lifted a wide palm arcing it carelessly across the sky. "Your powers are ruled by emotion. Don't keep them locked up and don't try to make them disappear. There are other ways to use them, make your power something beautiful and amazing." "But sir," Elsa interrupted, speaking up with force for the first time. "I don't need it to be something amazing or pretty. I just want my people to be safe. I just want to live without the fear of hurting anybody."
Her eyes were pleading, desperate, and emotions the old troll hadn't seen in a long time ran behind her blue gaze. He looked at her face, at her posture, and read her body language. He turned his head and picked out the worry in her sister's lines. He looked past her and analyzed the way his adopted grandson stood, listened even to Sven's silence and watched as Olaf's normally cheerful expression turned into something darker, more fearful for his creator. Finally, he ran his wise eyes once more over the young queen who stood before him, the vulnerable, unsure queen.
Another beat of heavy silence passed, and he let go of Elsa's hands, turning around and walking down an untread path. "I will only be a moment, your highness" he spoke to her formally before disappearing down his trail. Elsa sat, bewildered and feeling a little stunted before Bulda rolled in to replace Pabbie, her mouth stretched long in a toothy grin. "It's so nice to see you again, your highness," Bulda greeted her, warms hands shaking Elsa's. "How have you been doing? I hear Arendelle's been getting some personal ice rinks in the outer courts…"
"I'm assuming you heard that entire conversation." Pabbie regarded the tall tree with little formality. Jack Frost leaned against the other side of the tree, arms crossed and hood up, back towards the old troll king. The bark had the beginnings of beautiful frost patterns spreading out from an area where his hand could have reached. Jack nodded, still refusing to look at the troll. "If I wanted to, I could probably carry a conversation from Arab into the glen clearly by Northern winds." Jack replied, stretching his arms above his head. "Then I shall also assume that your decision on training the young queen has been made." Pabbie carried the question into a cadence befitting of a statement. "Not quite yet, troll king," Jack corrected. He bent down to straighten the jagged ends of his frosted jeans before standing up tall, spinning around to face the troll, his signature smirk already on his face. Only this time, there was something wry about it. His eyes were a little tight around the corners, skin a bit too taught around his mouth. "She has to pass one more test before I teach anyone." Spinning his staff in quick, controlled circles, using his whole arm to move it, he moved past the troll, to the direction of his maybe-student.
Pabbie raised a questioning eyebrow, waiting silently for an answer to his unspoken inquiry.
Jack looked back, hoodie falling into place at his neck, and flashed him a giant grin, the grin that promised children exciting days of ice forts and snowball wars. "The test of belief."
If Jack were to describe the situation in front of him right now, it would most likely fit the single word of chaos. A brunette was waving and blabbering at him like a toddler—he caught his name in the gibberish every now and then; the trolls had decided on a round 2 in the game of "Attack Jack Frost in Hugs Disguised as Assassination Attempts"; some reindeer had decided that his hair looked very delicious (then quickly decided it wasn't); and a—wait…was that a talking, moving snowman?! Jack did a double take, eyes wide and pride a little damaged that he hadn't tried to make one before. Who knew the little ice queen was powerful enough to create a living snowman? Maybe she wouldn't be that boring to teach.
Speaking of, he ran his gaze over the strangers again, ignoring the brunette this time (and trying to pick trolls off his back at the same time) while searching for his prospective student. Finally, his gaze landed on a young queen, platinum blonde hair paler yet more golden in the afternoon half-glow half-shade of the troll's glen. Her braid was done in a loose, not-quite-mess, styled and held in place by little designs of frost and snowflakes. Ice –like blue eyes peered up at him from under sooty eyelashes and daring yet conservative purple eye shadow. To top off her look, she was garbed in an aqua blue dress complete with a sheer cape that looked like they were made of ice. No accessories could be seen on her person besides the ice and frost, but in Jack's opinion, the lack of the excess jewels was what made her look truly regal. She carried herself with a quiet dignity and grace, chin tipped just the right way to avoid looking condescending but at the same time, high enough to inform others that they were standing in the presence of purebred royalty. Ah…so this was the one they called the Snow Queen.
"Your highness," Jack Frost spoke up with a mischievous grin. "Jack Frost, at your service." He swept into a crooked bow, more mocking and playful than formal, staff waving to and fro. The trolls immediately took that chance to attempt a dogpile on the unfortunate Winter Spirit, snickering and giggling at his white white teeth. He watched as the queen's brows furrowed, followed with a little frown that pulled at the corners of her mouth. Jack took it as one of disappointment or disapproval, and his previous assessment of her personality lessened somewhat. I see she might be as prissy and prim as they come, Jack thought sardonically to himself, smothering a farce smile on. He was brought out of his insulted thoughts by one, loud, and cautious mountain man. "Uhm… Anna? Whaaat….are you doing?" Jack turned slightly towards the man, rising up (or trying to under the weight of the trolls) from his bent-over position. He scoffed a little, shaking his head at the man. It looked like he was one of the non-believers. To be honest, he was a tiny bit surprised the young adult of a brunette could still see him at her age. Normally, children lost the ability once adults convinced them that all the Guardians were were imaginary friends. From her reaction, she had either never been persuaded otherwise, or she had just never stopped believing.
"What do you mean, 'Uhh…Anna, what's going on?'"—Jack snickered at her rather terrible impression of the mountain man, er, Kristoff—"It's Jack Frost! He's right in front of you! The Winter Spirit?" At Kristoff's blank stare, the girl named Anna took a moment to really look at him. With brown eyes as wide as saucers, she gaped at him and squawked, "Really?! One of the most Winter-iest people in…in…all of Arendelle doesn't believe in Jack Frost?!" Her expression turned to one of pity, and Jack found himself nodding sagely along to what she said next. "That is just sad." He believed he might just get along with this Anna person.
The blonde man shrugged, gloved hands up in a 'mercy' gesture. "Hey, I'm a cynic." He looked a little suspicious for a minute. "Don't expect me to start believing in your"—he waved his hands in the air and pasted on a plastic smile—"imaginary winter Jackie Snow friends."
Please, Jack thought, glaring wryly at the man. Your tone is just dripping with jealousy. Man up.
Anna looked offended, but just as they were about to start arguing, a blast of chilly arctic-level wind shot into the sky, accompanied by snowflakes and frost. Kind of like those gunshots burglars use to get people's attention, Jack thought absentmindedly when the queen's expression finally caught his eye. "Can someone please tell me what is going on? What's happening? I don't—Pabbie, please, can you just explain to me…ugh." It was only then, taking in her bewildered expression, furrowed brows, and confusion-laced posture, that Jack Frost realized that the Snow Queen might not be student material for him after all. He exchanged a side glance with Pabbie, who had stood by his side quietly the entire time.
Stepping forward with worry, giant hands wringing together, he regarded the young queen with a soft voice. "Your highness…you…you can't see him?" She stared at him for a moment, then back to Jack Frost, or what was most likely empty air to her, and then turned her attention to Pabbie, her brows crinkling even more. "No…I…I don't see anyone besides the trolls…" She trailed off, hands clasped together, head tilted to the side. Silence reigned in the little glen, all eyes on both the queen and Jack (except for Kristoff, who was glancing between her and Pabbie).
Pabbie held out a hand to the queen, and she placed her pale, slim fingers in his open palm. He motioned for Jack to follow, but for the trolls to stay put, taking Anna's hand as he passed by and dragging both her and the queen along with him, Jack trailing behind. "You highness, Queen Elsa of Arendelle," Pabbie began, leading them towards another little glen, away from their previous entourage. "It has come to my attention that my previous advice had not been enough, back when you were a child. Fear has been, and still will be your enemy. As I had mentioned before, your powers are controlled by emotions, and there is not controlling what your emotions may be. Therefore I have sought a teacher to aid you in learning the ways of Winter, of overcoming the barrier that is emotions that is blocking you from having complete control over your powers. Some say that he is Winter itself. He is Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun."
Elsa looked at him, a little stunned, before turning almost full circle, cape twining around her legs. "Uhm…is he…invisible?" she asked, cautious in tone and voice softened in respect. Pabbie glanced back at her from behind his shoulder. "Not quite, your highness," Pabbie smiled somewhat sadly. "Only those who believe in him can see him. Your sister, for example, is one of those who believe. The trolls also believe in him as well. Your highness, Queen Elsa…it seems that you will first need to believe in order to learn from the Guardian."
Elsa liked to think she was relatively open-minded. Heck, she was a queen who had been born into the world wielding powers of ice and snow; she had created not one, but two living snowmen and maintained them even in the summer; she had conjured up sweeping regal outfits completely out of ice, and managed to snow up a giant ice palace big enough to rival her own stone one in Arendelle entirely by herself out of nothing but her own powers. She was speaking to an ancient race of trolls, and took their advice every time she talked to them in stride without batting an eye. So, yes, Queen Elsa of Arendelle liked to think she was relatively open minded. So when Grand Pabbie asked her to believe in something she was very sure wasn't there, she was a little put off. And she knew her sister meant well, but Anna was seriously not helping.
"It's easy to believe, sis! Just…just think of the Winters! Who do you think brought them into existence? And the random snowball fights? Jack Frost has to exist, if you think about it." Anna beamed at her, waving her arms in what Elsa assumed was the direction of the elusive Jack Frost. Rubbing her temples, Elsa sighed and sat down on a nearby log. "Anna, I've lived for about two decades thinking that Winter was always my fault. I made it snow inside the castle. I've made snowmen breathe and come alive. So forgive me if I can't think of Winter being anyone else's fault but my own."
Anna didn't seem to be listening, her attention robbed by the invisible man. To Elsa's wariness, her sister suddenly laughed, giggling like a little girl. "Haha, sorry, sis, but he's right!" Ice blue eyes narrowed, lips pursed in frustration. Rolling her eyes and heaving a huge sigh, she decided to humour her younger sibling. "Alright, then. What did this 'Jack Frost' person say to make you laugh?"
Anna distractedly replied, "Uhmm, something along the lines of giving yourself too much credit. And something about being the one with the ice powers here first." (Jack had actually said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You seem to be giving a little too much credit to yourself, don't you think? Hey, I start all Winter storms around here. I should sue you for copyrights. I was here first!")
Elsa smiled sarcastically, amused. Raising an eyebrow, she joked, "Bring it on." And out of no where, a giant gust of wind slammed into her, a cold that wasn't hers laced through it. The force was enough to knock her back a few steps, and she stumbled, nearly tripping over the train of her ice dress. When she had regained her balance, she snapped her head up to exchange a wide-eyed stare with her sister, who was whipping her head back and forth between her and the source of the blast. "What was that?!" Elsa blurted out, a little shocked and extra wary. "I think he…just took you seriously." Anna replied, still a little dazed. Her attention seemed to have settled in the direction of the wind, brown eyes boring into some figure that only she could see. "He says it was a joke." Anna said softly. "He's looking kind of sheepish, sis." Elsa's eyes were still too wide to narrow, still a bit on the stunned side to be offended. "I-…it's…ok…" Elsa stuttered, staring at the spot her sister was looking at.
A moment of silence had wrapped over them—us? It includes some Winter Spirit now! Elsa mused, unable to form a coherent sentence—and each took the their time mulling over what had just happened.
So she can feel my Winter powers, Jack Frost mumbled quietly to himself, leaning on his staff. I wonder…what else of mine can she see? He looked up, directly at the young queen, ignoring the other princess. He held a hand out, fingers curved, and touched it to the ground. Almost immediately, tendrils of frost snaked out from his fingertips, racing towards the snow queen at near light speed. Two delighted gasps from both girls had him grinning. My frost she can see. Now for the magic. And he drew two snow bunnies into the frost, bringing them to temporary life. They bounded over to the two girls, running, bumping nudging them, and inviting them to play.
He grinned as Anna laughed, tickled from the soft, snow-fur of the frost rabbit. Elsa only stood there, stunned to silence as the rabbit hopped in front of her, body weaving back and forth, trying to get her to interact with it. Tentatively, she reached out a hand, eyes wide with wonder, and she let her palm run over the snow rabbit. An incredulous laugh snaked out of her, and Jack had the delight of watching the Snow Queen's eyes light up and crinkle with laughter.
"This is wonderful, Jack!" Anna giggled, attempting to tackle the snow bunny into a hug, but it bounded away immediately. "It's almost like Olaf!" Jack tilted his head to the side, leaning once again on his staff. "Olaf?" he questioned, expression amused. Elsa chose that moment to look up, smile almost broad and eyes alight. "In case he's wondering, Anna, tell him that Olaf is the snowman we built. The talking one he—uhm, might've come across back then, at the glen." Jack nodded. "That makes sense" he grinned, captured by the way the queen's eyes sparkled like icicles in the arctic.
The sudden clapping of Anna's hands caught their attention, and he did a double take of wary concern when the younger princess's expression twisted into something he could only describe as "struck by an epiphany". "Sis! Sis! I know! I've got it! Yes, this is excellent!" Anna cried, smile stretching into something maniac. Elsa and Jack did an awkward, almost-meeting-eyes but not quite exchange of cautious glances. Anna rolled her eyes at them. "Don't you see?!"—Jack assumed she was trying to talk to the both of them, though Elsa still only had a vague sense of where he stood—"Ugh, okay. Sis, you don't have to go through the entire process of building up a belief in Jack Frost because you don't need to. What if, instead, I act as a mediator between you two?! Then, without wasting any time, you can learn how to control your powers, and the kingdom council will be happy!" The two of them did the awkward meet-eyes thing as Anna blabbered on excitedly. Elsa looked at her wryly before she replied, "Okay, first of all, Anna, the council will never be happy,"—to which Anna nodded sagely and Jack felt a little left out—"Secondly, I don't think that you could act as a mediator. No offense."
Anna had the gall to look insulted before she huffed and demanded, "Why not?!" It was Jack's turn to roll his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, Princess, you can't exactly summon Winter like we do." At the exact same time, Elsa had responded shortly, with no explanation, "You just can't."
Anna looked between them, back and forth, before her expression turned something a little sour. "Can't even notice the other exists and they can still manage to side with each other. Stupid magical beings" she muttered to herself before sighing loudly. "Okay, so maybe I'm a bit too normal to be able to really help"—Elsa furrowed her brows at that, having missed out Jack's contribution to the conversation—"but hey, it's worth a try."
Elsa looked dubious, but Jack shrugged his shoulders after a moment. Cursing himself and his humanity inside and out, he caught the brunette's eyes and said, "I dunno if this will work, Princess, but hey, I'm willing to be an optimist just this once." He grinned in Elsa's direction. "Plus, don't tell your sister, but I think it'll be worth my efforts if I get to see your sister squawk up." Anna giggled, giving him an indiscreet nod, and waved a closed fist at her sister, pretending to throw a snowball. Elsa raised her brow and Anna composed herself. "He says he's willing to cooperate." She informed her sister primly before breaking down into a chortling mess. Elsa took her time to deadpan at her before she grudgingly agreed.
"Alright, fine. Let's try it."
AN: one of the things i find most intereseting is how parallel the two winter characters are, yet at the same time they're so fudgecaking different. i guess this story is mostly about me exploring those similarites and differences. there are a lot of mistakes in here but i'm too tired to fix them. nighties