They were in front of Elsa and Anna was stumbling over her words, trying to explain everything, even though it sounded ridiculous to her. "We're asking for your blessing," she finished.

Elsa's eyes narrowed. "Can I speak with you privately?"

Once when Anna had been six and misbehaving at a party, her mother had pulled her into the bushes under the pretext of fixing her hair. Then, she had spanked her twice.

Anna had indignantly wailed, "You should have warned me, so I would stop. You are sneaky, mama."

Her mother had stood up straight. "What is between us is nobody's business, Anna. You know what I expect but I will never correct you in public. We are a family. To others, we are one whole."

Anna had nodded tearfully. From then on, she understood. Many things were all right in private but in public, almost nothing was.

She saw now that Elsa was like their mother in that way.

But their mother had spent plenty of time alone with Anna. Anna was punished in private but she was also loved, caressed and comforted in private. The last time Elsa had spoken to Anna seriously about something (through the door), they had been ten and twelve. Why had it taken her engagement for Elsa to suggest another real conversation? So many years of knocking on Elsa's door and getting either a curt note or silence in return...She ought to have gotten engaged long before this.

She looked at Elsa again and saw uncertainty in her eyes. She was worried. At what I might do? Am I, for just a moment, the one in control?

She wanted to stretch out the moment, to make it last.

"Anything you can say before me, you can say before Hans," she retorted.

Elsa's face paled. "Then I don't bless the marriage. Party's over. Close the gates." She turned away. Just like that she took all the control back again. Anna felt white hot rage fizzing inside of her, rage that Elsa hadn't even tried being kind about it, hadn't even thought about how Hans might feel. That she could be so blunt and imperious and get away with it.

"No, no, wait..." She grabbed Elsa's hand and Elsa jerked it away as if she had touched a hot stove.

"Give me back my glove," Elsa said sharply.

She is afraid of touching me, Anna thought, staring. A young man she had just met held her hand all evening but her own sister wouldn't touch her.

And then, it was like a wave swept over her and she was shouting things, angry things, things that she had wanted to say for years. "What did I ever do to you?" and "Why do you keep shutting me out?" and "What are you so afraid of?"

In the next few moments, she realized that Elsa was not at all who she thought she was.

Elsa ran up the mountain.

She could still see their terrified faces. Nobody would want her for a queen now. They would want Anna, awkward, charming Anna, charming because she was so awkward. Anna did not realize how many of her weaknesses were really strengths when it came to making people like her. She was relatable and approachable and sweet. Anna had not lost anything in that verbal spar they'd had because everyone else had seen her pain. They would sigh at her lack of self control but would secretly feel sorry for her.

Meanwhile, I have lost everything.

Her breaths were coming too fast. Her chest was beginning to hurt and her eyes burned. Elsa stopped. She took the deep breaths her mother had taught her. She tried to reflect.

The best thing to do would be to go back to the castle, resign and hand the scepter and crown over to Anna. Officially. It would be more...organized.

I cannot go back. I cannot face those faces again. Her ice creation was probably still by the ballroom door for everyone to see.

I just can't! Tears rushed to her eyes. She blinked them away and her feet kept carrying her up the mountain a little slower but, still, persistently up.

Father and mother. She saw their faces now too, sad and weary. Heard their constant stream of soft-spoken advice...Don't let them in, don't let them see...conceal...put on a show... Her parents had been naïve to think she was that strong. Perhaps, the three of them could have figured out this balance between her public persona as an intelligent, levelheaded queen and her lifelong struggle as Elsa. Dangerous, distant, terrified Elsa. Alone, she could not do it. Even without Anna's little tempest, the charade could not have lasted very long.

I'm sorry. Mother. Father. I couldn't do it.

Glistening snow. It wasn't just behind her in a trail but all around her in a growing circle. And more snow up ahead. How could there be snow in places she hadn't even reached yet? Was the snow welcoming her when nobody else would? She liked that thought. Snow as her friend.

And what was the point of the silly green glove when the snow kept coming anyway?

She yanked it off and let it soar away in the wind.

She wanted to make something. Something beautiful.