Author's Notes: This chapter was becoming way too long, so I had to cut it into three parts, so as to not leave you waiting for an update any longer.
Classes just started so updates might take a little longer to appear (unless I prioritize correctly and put my fanfics before my studies, as always *note the sarcasm* XD) but I will update and the story will be finished.
So thank you for your patience.
I hope you enjoy it enough to leave me a review!
Chapter six: Shenanigans of a Christmas Eve Morning
For all the mess it appeared to be when she had awoken her sister that morning, Anna's hair felt like silk between Elsa's fingers. She brushed the auburn locks by inserting her digits within the tangles .The last knot coming loose easily before the queen proceeded to stroke the red mane from the tip of the princess's head down to her nape, her fingernails scratching softly at her tender flesh.
Anna became a giggling ball. "That tickles!" She snickered.
"Oh? Where? Here?" Elsa asked innocently, scratching lightly on the same spot of her sister's neck she had tickled seconds ago.
"Elsa!" Anna whined between her sniggers, yet she made no move to get out of her sister's grasp aside from trying to hide her neck between her shoulder blades. "Stop!"
A smirking Elsa relented on her attack. She moved to sit beside the princess on the mid-size divan Anna had before her bedroom mirror and took the left section of her sister's hair to braid it in her trademark plait.
"You are evil." Anna said, wiping a mirth tear out of her right eye as she recovered her breath.
"I thought I was evilsome" Elsa replied with a teasing smile. Anna beamed, surprised and delighted that her sister had remembered such a flimsy memory from their childhood. "Hey, look ahead, or you'll have lopsided braids."
Anna did as told, biting her lip to keep herself from continuing to smile like a fool. It did not work very well, and her embarrassed blush only intensified as she felt her sister's stare on the side of her head. Quickly, she rummaged her brain for something to talk about, not because the silence was uncomfortable, it was far from that, but because she was an anxious being by nature; she always needed to do something and often that something was to talk.
"You know, I had the strangest dream last night, or nightmare, or hallucination. I'm not very sure which…" Anna trailed off thoughtfully, her index finger tapping at her chin and her eyes searching the ceiling for answers.
Elsa quirked an eyebrow, the right side of her mouth lifting slightly at how adorable her sister looked while seeming so pensive. She tilted her head to the side trying to stare more directly into the princess's visage as her unfished sentence stirred her curiosity.
"What was it about?" The queen asked while tying a thin green band around the tip of the plait she had just completed. She moved to the other side of the bench to repeat the process on the remaining section of her sister's hair.
"Well, I was sleeping." Anna started, her head turning automatically to look at her sister, but just in the same manner Elsa pushed her chin with a delicate finger to get her to stare ahead once again. Anna was not deterred, she continued with her story as if nothing. "But not really because I was thinking about you…you know... stuff!"
The princess's shifty eyes and suddenly reddened cheeks made the queen wonder if she had missed something. She probably had, but she lacked the time to ponder on it as Anna hurried to get to the point.
"And then suddenly, a pair of eyes and a mouth floated up to me!" Anna exclaimed. She moved her hands to cup them before her midriff where Elsa guessed the levitating features had placed themselves.
"The mouth was smiling." Anna faced her sister again and placed two index fingers on the edges of her mouth, stretching it to form a smile. "But it was missing two front teeth." Anna pointed to her two frontal incisors, her reproduction of the smile intact.
"Was it this creepy?" Elsa asked somewhat disturbed by her crazy looking sister.
"Yes." Anna nodded, finally dropping the grin. She returned her gaze to the mirror, recalling her sisters warning of lopsided braids.
"And? What else?" The queen asked, intrigued as her fingers continued to intertwine crimson hair on their own.
"Well, I sat up, bravely you know because it takes so much more than that to scare me." Anna said offhandedly; Elsa kept her doubt to herself. "And I waited and watched as the eyes and smile got closer, and closer and closer…" The redhead's voice had become almost like a whisper, her body bending on itself as each 'closer' brought her nearer to her sister's face, who for her part had completely forgotten about her task, her hands idly holding the unfinished braid while her broad motionless eyes stared deeply into her sister's orbs.
"And when the moonlight shone on them…" She was but a breath away from the queen's mouth and Anna's mind sidetracked for a second when her senses were invaded by the chill that emanated from her sister's pink lips. Absentmindedly, she wondered how it would feel, such cold on her warm mouth.
Elsa's eagerness took her out of her reverie when she repeated, "And when the moonlight shone on them…?"
The redhead's gaze returned to the blue of her sister's orbs picking up where she had left, her voice retaking that mysterious tone.
"And when the moonlight shone on them I almost screamed when I saw…"She waited, and waited a little more until she was sure Elsa could not escape her enthrallment. And then she shouted. "A LITTLE GIRL!"
Elsa accompanied Anna's scream with a high pitched shriek and a loud thud. Anna burst into laughter, her guffaws echoing bouncing off the walls of the spacious room, until she saw that her sister had fallen of the side of the divan. Trying her best to control her chuckles, but failing miserably, she leaned over the edge to peer at the disheveled form of the queen.
"Elsa, are you alright?" The princess snickered. She did not even attempted to cover the humongous grin that covered her face when she saw the intense glare her sister was sending her.
"Anna!" Elsa shouted indignantly. How dare her sister scare her like that!...And how stupid of her to fall for it!
That was all it took for Anna to lose the little control she had. The princess fell to floor with a horselaugh, holding onto her belly that was starting to hurt, yet the pain seemed to only titillate her more. Queen Elsa rolled her eyes, annoyed, but not enough to be immune to her sister's infectious laughter. She bit her lip to keep from following suit, but when it seemed like Anna was never going to stop laughing at her expense, a chuckle escaped her. She covered it quickly by pulling lightly on one of Anna's scarlet braids.
"Stop laughing moron." She demanded throwing the plait towards Anna's face. It did not hit because Anna rolled onto her side in that precise moment.
"The queen said moron." She laughed even more heartily, tears gathering on the corners of her eyes as she looked up into the less irritated face of the queen.
Elsa rolled her eyes again. "What are you, five?" She asked trying to project her anger through her voice, which was very ridiculous she knew, considering she was already smiling.
"No, I'm nine." Anna countered. Well she was nineteen, obviously that meant that in child years she was nine.
"I see." Elsa played along. "Well, then no more cake before bedtime for you; especially if it's going to give you silly dreams."
"What? No!" Now that was just not fair, Anna thought. She hoped her sister was just kidding, but just in case she wasn't, the princess got on her hands and knees and crawled over to the queen ready to beg for misericord. "You can't do that!"
"Of course I can, I'm the queen!" Elsa stated as she eyed her sister wearily. The girl kept crawling in her direction with no indicative of stopping; it made her suspicious of her intentions.
"You are my sister. Sisters don't do that to each other!" Anna bemoaned, beginning to creep over her sister's bent knees.
Elsa tried to shove her off with surprising difficulty. "They don't push each other over couches either!"
"I'm younger but I'm also stronger than you Elsa. It's all the outside exercise." Anna commented lightly, easily grasping the queen's wrist and pinning them besides her blond locks. "And it was an accident!" She defended herself through a lie, at last managing to straddle Elsa's thighs after much scuffle; she was stronger but her sister was persistent.
"No it wasn't." Elsa grunted. She moved her hands up and down, from side to side and she attempted to turn them, but nothing worked in freeing her wrists from Anna's clutches.
"Alright fine, not so much an accident." Anna relented, tightening her thighs around her sister's to keep her from moving around so much. "But it was a harmless joke!"
"And this is the consequence of your harmless joke." Elsa shrugged as best she could in her human chains.
"You are abusing your power you know?" Anna leaned down, closer to the pale face below her, and glared. The queen lowered the edges of her mouth in an expression that clearly stated she couldn't care less. Anna gasped, aghast, then whined some more. "Come on Elsa! If you tell the servants they won't get the joke and they will never let me have more cake until you say so!"
Anna moved forward and backwards, shaking the queen's wrists, and with it the rest of her body. Through her thin gown, Elsa could feel the skin of Anna's inner thighs brushing against her own as the princess continued to jump on her as part of her rant.
"Anna!" She called, her lap was becoming awfully warm for reasons beyond her comprehension.
"Anna!" She said urgently, alarmed as the heat ascended through her hips.
"ANNA!" She shouted when she felt the ardor reach her cheeks as it intensified below her navel.
Anna halted at once; worry filling her chest at her sister's tone. She looked down to find Elsa breathless, her cheeks flushed and her pupils dilated. She gulped, her sister looked…and she felt….
"Um, who said it was joke?" Elsa asked in a breath, and just like that whatever conclusion Anna was beginning to reach vanished with the continuity of their previous banter and the reappearance of Elsa's composure.
The princess squinted her eyes as she leaned down to peer into her sister's face. "…I will tickle you."
Elsa chuckled, odd moment completely forgotten as a result of her sister's goofiness. " Ha! I'm not ticklish." She bragged.
"Damn." Anna spat to the side. When would she remember that tickling was her weakness, not Elsa's?
"Anna!" The queen chastised. What was it with her mouth lately? Could this be Kristoff's fault? She wondered, already considering having a long conversation with the mountain boy.
"I said darn!" The ginger tried to cover up, but it was too late. Her gaze fleeted to the side, more than necessary confirmation of her untruthfulness.
"…Right." The queen rose an unbelieving eyebrow. "Could you release me now?"
Her cold breath clashed with Anna's cheek. "No. Not until you give me back my cake."
"Anna…no". Elsa said resolutely.
"No?" Seriously, was her sister being this stubborn?
"No." She was. Elsa shook her head, amusement swirling within her. She could say yes, after all she was not serious about not letting her have any more cake just because she scared her off the divan, but she liked to be able to say no to her once in a while for things that weren't really that important; if only to feel like she'd won, and to see her adorably petulant expressions.
"Then a change of tactics must be made." Anna stated, nodding once.
"What are you planning now? I already told you I'm not ticklish."
"Oh I know, I know." She smirked, making Elsa frown suspiciously. "I cannot tickle you, but I can kiss you!"
"Kiss me?" The queen's voice rose into a falsetto that made Anna laugh.
"Yes! Melt away your cold heart with my kisses my dear Ice Queen!" She declared and dove right into her attack.
Elsa couldn't help the fit of giggles that rumbled her stomach as Anna pecked her cheek over and over again. "Anna stop being so silly!"
"Give up the cake!" The princess kissed Elsa's cheekbone, releasing it with a loud popping sound.
"No!" Elsa denied her, giggling still.
"Fine!" The redhead acquiesced, kissing along her sister's jaw. Maybe her sister was not tickled by her fingers, but her mouth seemed to be accomplishing what her hands had failed at.
Anna trailed her lips over the fine line of the queen's jawbone, listening for a rising in mirth, until she reached just below her ear. It had been playful, but the combination of the scent of her skin and her recently washed hair fogged the princess's mind for a second, before she carried on with her assault and descended over an alabaster neck. In her journey, she failed to notice how the queen was barely laughing anymore, - her chuckle's appearing sporadically – and how the temperature of her flesh was not nearly as cold as it usually was.
"Are you melting yet?" Anna whispered as she lifted to nuzzle her sister's cheek. Her murmur sounded alien to her ears, her tone deeper than what she had meant it to be. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open and her gaze fell on the profile of the queen.
'Yes.' Elsa wanted to say, to scream, to whimper vehemently. She had melted. Something had begun to dissolve minutes that felt like ages ago, beginning from the moment their thighs brushed together. She knew not what it was, or how it had happened, but she was incapable of stopping it, of controlling it. Her body, normally cold to the bone, was aflame.
As Elsa turned her head she felt Anna's lips slide all the way to the edge of her mouth, drawing a path of warmth along her skin. She just knew that her sister had to be able to see her face, her physical state, the flaming of her cheeks magnified by her mortification. Mortified because of what? She could not fathom a reason at the time. Yet, surely her sister could hear it, the deafening pounding of her heart.
But Anna could hear nothing but her own palpitations, her own stammering breath. She could perceive only the sensations of cool fabric on her burning skin, of the softness of velvet flesh against her palms and the pressure that converged in a profound section of her body.
In the infinite silence that surrounded them, they stared, cloudy azure into bright blue, until the awkwardness began to make itself known and the sisters hurried to find words with which to fill the stillness. Anna opened her mouth which was no longer attached to her sister's skin at the same time that Elsa made to speak.
But what the sisters were going to say, (something related to their situation or a surrendering of cake) got stuck in their throats when a knock resounded into the room like the loudest of Kongs.
"Princess?" A feminine voice was heard; a servant who apparently had not been informed that the queen would wake her sister herself that morning.
The girls who had yet to stand from the floor looked to the door, then back to each other, then again to the door as it was pounded for a second time. "Princess, are you alright?"
The question was soon followed by the shaking of the doorknob. Hastily, the sisters scampered off the carpeted floor. They made it to their feet just in time for a middle aged woman to insert her head around the door.
The woman was initially surprised at finding the princess and queen in the same room. She entered and bowed to them both, "My queen, I did not know you would be here." She commented apologetically as she straightened her back; her hazel eyes rising with her bodily ascension over the figures of her superiors. She examined them, mostly because of the perplexity that invaded her at their behavior.
From the princess she could expect, the unbecoming skittishness, the shifting eyes, the hiding of a lock of ginger hair behind an ear, even the scratching of her left arm. But from the queen, the nervous demeanor, the playing of her right hand's fingers with her left's and her overall tense posture not at all the poised woman she always showed, was indeed baffling. Moreover, the rather ferocious flush they were sporting would certainly call for perplexed suspicion out of the most trustworthy of persons.
Hazel eyes squinted.
But…wait…she knew what had happened here. A knowing glint settled in her orbs and a smirk appeared on her lips, unsettling the siblings even more.
Elsa hurried to speak, to deter the woman from…misunderstanding? "Yes, I came to… um – " The words jumbled within her brain. Why was that? She was going to say the truth! "Help Anna prepare for today's festivities, since we all know how much of an early riser she is."
Anna nodded her head in affirmative, the words taking longer to register in her flustered mind. "…wait, what? Hey!" She shouted when the offense finally hit her. She glared at her sister, such falsehood! She was always awake early; they just thought she was sleeping because she never left her room before noon.
Elsa gave a quick glance and a shrug towards her indignant sister as the maid chuckled lightly at the girls banter.
"Of course, your Highness. And I thank you for lessening my work." She bowed with the light rib.
The queen's mirth escaped her with decorum. Anna was not amused.
"I'm glad to have been of service to you both." Anna quipped sarcastically. "Now that you see I'm awake Clarisse, was there anything else you wanted?"
Smiling at the princess's sensitivity the servant woman said. "As a matter of fact, yes princess. My other task was to remind the queen that the Royal Coordinator is waiting in the conference room to discuss the last details of today's Christmas Eve Festival."
"Of course, how could I forget about him?" The queen berated herself. "Tell him I'll be down in a minute."
"We'll be down in a minute." The princess corrected insistently.
"You'll be coming with me?" Elsa asked, incredulous. When had Anna ever wanted to be part of any type of royal meeting?
"Yes! You promised!" Anna countered. "Or did you also forget that you said that if I got up early we could spend the whole day together?...Not that I got up late anyway…or…less early…I'm always awake on time, you know."
"Right." Elsa teased.
Anna rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm not allowing you to escape through a silly meeting." Obviously, how foolish did her sister think she was? If she let her go for a reunion she might as well considered her lost for the rest of the day.
Elsa spared her, a tight smile helping her hold onto the tickle Anna's poor excuses produced in her belly, She turned to address the maid, "Well, you heard the princess."
"Of course. I'll tell him you'll be down as soon as you finish your wrestling match." The woman bowed. "But do fix your dresses first your majesties." She quipped, tightening her lips to conceal a smile while pulling on the doorknob and retreating from the room.
…the click of the door was as harsh on the royal eardrums as the returning blush on their cheeks. Elsa sighed, daring a glance down at her dress. The side of it had somehow caught on a snowflake widening the slit and exposing the majority of her right leg. How embarrassing, she thought, her eyes closing at having been found in such an unkempt state.
"I won!" In the deafening silence, Anna's shrilling call startled the ashamed queen, who ignoring the mirror mess that was her sister waited less than a breath to chastise her.
"Anna, don't encourage her!" She said, but the chide only conjured more mirth from the already giggling princess. Sighing at her sister's irremediable behavior, the queen strolled towards the exit of the room, "This is why you get no cake."
That certainly killed the jollity of the princess. "Wait, what?"
Her laughter abruptly dropped, her pale blue eyes raised to confirm the veracity of such horrible statement. At seeing that the regal figure of her sister had suddenly left her bedchambers, she hurried after her.
"Elsa you can't be serious!" Her laments trailed through the hallways. "Oh don't be that way…I swear I'll make the little girl haunt you at night!"
If only the morning could have been so fun and relaxing for Kristoff.
The Royal Ice Deliverer of Arendelle wished with all of his kindhearted being that he too could be at the palace entertaining himself with the princess's shenanigans, or at the very least back at his cottage nursing a cup of burning coffee or munching on a carrot, but neither he nor Sven had that convenience at the moment.
No, because having a royal title did not mean he was rich. He still had to work, hence why his dear friend kept pulling on a carriage full of ice blocks as he guided him to their next destination.
It was freezing, and once again he asked himself why he was even trying. Talk about a supply and demand type of problem, it always happened to him on winter. Luckily he had learned early in life to save some of his summer earnings for when the cows turned dry. Still, just because sometimes he did get to sell some ice preventing him from emptying his savings, he prevailed and made the effort every morning.
With long steps he made it to yet another house. Hopefully, the owner of this one would not look at him as if he was crazy for trying to sell ice on winter; like he had any other choice.
He knocked and uncovered his masked mouth when the door began to open.
"Good morning ma'am, are you in need of some ice?" He thumbed towards his cart, where a sitting Sven was waiting.
The woman's right eyebrow rose. Nope, he was not going to get a different response with this one. He was sure that when she parted her lips she was going to lecture him on how useless his business was at that moment. However, a scream in the distance halted her from speaking any further as well as stopped him from paying her any attention.
His eyes shifted briskly in search of the source. Down the road, Kristoff could see a woman running as fast as her pudgy legs could carry her. She chased after a boy, who for being so short and holding onto a heavy looking log had already managed to extend the distance between him and his tracker.
"Stop! Give that back you little thief!" The plump woman shouted, although Kristoff needed not to hear her to know what was transpiring before him.
In a swift motion, he unhinged the ice-full cart from Sven's neck and mounted him to follow after the boy; it was worthless cargo anyway. Kicking on the reindeers sides, Sven sprinted in the direction of the commotion. Riding by the woman, the blond man shouted that he would get her belongings back before focusing on the trail of the speedy youngster who had just noticed he was being pursued by a more challenging opponent.
The boy raced through the streets, sidestepping Kristoff's hands behind barrels, carriages and other random obstacles. They made it to the plaza, where the conglomeration of people made it all the more harder for Kristoff to keep a lock on him. The Ice Deliverer stopped in the middle of the square to pinpoint the location of the boy who had gotten lost in the multitude. He spotted him quickly enough, running at the other end of the plaza and almost reaching the river.
"Hiya!" Kristoff yelled and Sven surged forward immediately.
The human sea parted for him, and soon Kristoff found himself a hair away from the boy's shirt. He tightened his legs around Sven's midriff and leaned to the right, with the added length, he extended his arm as far as it would go to finally catch the little runt. But when he was about to close his grasp the, boy flew. Eyes widened in surprise, Kristoff pulled on the reins of his friend to prevent a promising cold fall into the freezing waters of the lake. Meanwhile, the boy who had jumped into the river, body first and mind later, had somehow managed to land on the stolen log and was now using it as a raft to sail to the other side.
"Ingenious brat". Kristoff huffed, his gaze skipping from the boy to his surroundings. He couldn't just let him go. He was a righteous man and therefore felt the need to teach this boy the wrong of his ways; now, when he was still young and impressionable.
"Jackpot." He murmured when he recognized the repaired bridge. Its condition left much to be desired, what with all the snow from the previous days that had made a home on its planks, but it would have to do.
He led Sven up and across it. "Okay now, easy boy."
By the time they traversed the bridge, the kid was docking on the edge as well. The boy stared, his eyes shifting from the log to the blond in clear inner debacle on whether he could take the time to retrieve the wood without getting caught, or not.
At the sound of Sven's hooves, he concluded that he could not.
He dashed towards the forest with Kristoff hot on his barefooted heels. Fortunately for him, the woods were thick, which meant his small frame was actually an advantage. It took little more than a few premeditated turns to confuse the reindeer and his rider as he succeeded in getting lost within the boscage.
"Where did he go?" An inquiring frown took residence on Kristoff's brow. His head moved from side to side at the smallest sound: a rustling of leaves to his left, a snapping of branches to his right, and then upfront, the top of a head with brown curls.
"After him Sven!" He pointed up front and the reindeer's hooves struck the ground with the strength of security. They had him now; they were both certain of it.
Self-confident enough that neither one saw the clearly visible rope on the soil, which, at the first touch of a furry leg, leaped off the ground taking the reindeer with it; gravity fulfilled its job with the blond rider, who fell on the dirt with a rather painful sounding thump.
"Oooww." Kristoff moaned, unsure of which part of his body he should doss first. The head? Or the rump? The ache was equal on each.
When the pain subsided and he was finally able to sit up, he arrived to the conclusion that he should have not gotten out of bed that morning. The blankets had been so soft and welcoming, but no, he had to go to work, and even worst, he had to be a law abiding citizen who worried for the future of its society.
Kristoff could not comprehend how this had happened. He was a grown up man, and his best friend a grown up reindeer, yet a child had bested them both. To think he had been dropped on his arse while his dear friend Sven hanged from a tree, what a bruise to his pride.
Laughter subtracted him from his sulking and he looked up to glower at the balancing form of the aggravating boy. He was sitting on the same broad branch Sven was dangling from, peeking down on them with the biggest grin that Kristoff had ever seen on a child, or on anyone for that matter.
He looked like the damned Cheshire cat. He would know, because Anna had made him read the book.
A/N: Oh my God, I feel like I just gave birth to that chapter. I hope you enjoyed my newborn, XD.
Feel free to leave a review if you desire.