Elsa pushed the last hair pin into place and released the knot of hair she held against her head. It immediately drooped. A growl of frustration and she, once again, regretted letting her lady's maid join the festivities early before she finished dressing. Just as she reached up to pull out the useless pins, warm fingers brushed her hands aside.
"Let me." Anna's voice shook with amusement.
"Thank you." All confidence from fifteen minutes ago that Elsa could pin her own hair, withered and died.
"Who knew the great and powerful Queen of Arendelle would be unable to style her own hair?" Nimble fingers efficiently pulled out the pins. Anna picked up the silver hairbrush from the vanity and brushed out the tangled mess.
"Hmmm." Tension leaked out and Elsa closed her eyes, lost in the sensations of her sister's fingers running through her hair. "It didn't seem like a skill I ever needed to learn."
"Oh the difficulty of those who wake up each morning with perfect hair." Gentle tugs twisted locks of hair into place. "How do you live with such a curse?"
"Thankfully, you never have to deal with such a hardship." Laughter laced Elsa's words.
"Ha ha." Anna flicked her ear. One last tug then she stepped back. "All done."
Elsa opened her eyes and turned her head side to side, taking in Anna's work in the mirror. An intricate maze of twists, loops, and small braids were pinned snugly into place to the back of her head.
"What do you think? I can do something different if you want. The back of your dress is beautiful so I thought you could keep it up but if you want it down I can change it." Anna rubbed her hands together. "I know we agreed that you shouldn't use your magic tonight but maybe no one would notice if you used it just a little bit in your hair. You know what, I should redo this. I can do better just give me a-"
"Darling," Elsa interrupted Anna's nervous babbling, something she hadn't had to do in a long while. "It's beautiful. How did you learn to do this?"
"The rest of us mere mortals aren't born with powers we can use to style our hair. Gerda taught me after she had to fix my hair five times in one day. I can change it if you want something different." She leaned forward and plucked a necklace laying on the vanity.
Before Anna pulled back, Elsa cupped her cheek and turned towards her sister. "It's perfect, thank you." Lips, wonderfully familiar and soft, responded to her kiss and a tingle shot down Elsa's spine.
"You're welcome."
The goofy grin on Anna's face tempted her to offer up another kiss but Elsa refrained or they'd end being late because 'one more kiss' never ended with just one kiss.
She held back for all of half a second before leaning in again. Addicting. These kisses were far more addicting than she ever imagined they'd be. Little whimpers spurred Elsa to deepen the kiss, greedily exploring Anna's mouth and wishing they were both back home in their own room. They parted far too soon for her tastes.
"Y-your makeup." Unsteady fingers wiped around Elsa's lips in a futile attempt in cleaning up the horribly smudged lipstick. "You'll need to… reapply…" Pupils blown wide with desire, Anna stared hungrily, every lustful thought written plainly on her face.
"I should." The strangled whisper was barely audible. If this party wasn't vitally important to the peace talks, if she didn't have her duties as queen drilled into her very bones, if they weren't expected to be introduced to the nobility by the queen and king in twenty minutes, if, if, if. Too many ifs to ignore. Elsa mentally shook herself. "You need to fix yours too."
"I should." Anna leaned forward.
With great regret, Elsa placed a restraining hand on Anna's shoulder despite her body screaming to pull her closer. "We are expected soon."
"Expected. Right." Neither moved away. "Are you sure?"
Words failed to materialize, caught in the intense stare directed at her.
"Okay." Half step back put a tiny bit of distance between them and Anna guided her back to facing the vanity mirror. "Here, let me put this on you before I end up distracted again." She held up the necklace she picked up earlier.
"Are you complaining?" The comforting weight of the diamond necklace Anna had given her as a coronation present settled around her neck and calmed her nerves. No matter how many times she attended these political parties, being the center of attention continued to unsettle her.
"I would never complain about one of your kisses." Lips pressed a kiss behind her right ear. "Never."
Tingles returned, stronger than before and tested her will power. "We need to fix our makeup then leave." Not necessarily that quickly but Elsa did not trust her wavering self control.
Anna leaned past Elsa to grab a folded handkerchief from the vanity.
Nails dug into her palms as Elsa reminded herself of the importance of that night.
"Sorry about that." Anna used the cloth to wipe away the lipstick left behind by her kiss.
It took mere seconds to fix her appearance which left Elsa a chance to finally taken in Anna's outfit. The dress was a deep emerald green with accents of amber colored stripes down the skirt and arms, the bodice was a swirl of ornate embroidery in deep golden thread, long sleeves ended in scalloped edging where a piece of faded blue cloth peaked out from her left wrist.
"Are you that nervous about tonight?"
"What?" After closing the lid to the small pot of makeup, Anna turned to fully face her.
Elsa simply pointed to the bit of worn bit of ribbon.
"Oh." Unconsciously, Anna stroked the cloth. "Yes, I am. It's the first time I'm not going as just the Princess of Arendelle, since," she deepened her voice, imitating Kristoff, "'you two are the world's worst kept secret.'"
"You won't be alone." She knew how important this night was but her sister came first and she would not ask her to remove the bit of silk. On Anna's fifth birthday, the last one before Elsa isolated herself for thirteen years, she had given her a dozen pieces of ribbons in a rainbow of colors. Each passing year they had become more and more precious until they turned into a talisman of comfort and no longer just decorative pieces. Elsa made a mistake two years ago of offering to replace them with new ones, less ragged pieces and it took her nearly fifteen minutes to calm Anna down.
"I know." Fidgeting betrayed her nervousness. "I don't want to embarrass you… or make your work here harder."
"I guarantee that by the end of the night you will have everyone in that ballroom completely charmed." Elsa reached out and one of held Anna's hands. "Are you worried about them knowing about us?" Insecurities fought for dominance over the calm she tried to project; there was nothing to be done right away if the answer was yes but maybe they could figure something out later to mitigate the rumors. Why the question only came to her now, Elsa didn't know, and hated she hadn't thought to ask earlier.
"Oh yeah," Anna snorted. "How horrible it is to have everyone know the most beautiful woman in the world chose me. What a hardship."
"Thank you for your sacrifice." Relief washed over Elsa and the knot in her chest loosened.
"Anytime, sis. Besides, we have a perfectly good dungeon I can toss people into."
"Anna! You cannot imprison people just for that." With her best serious expression, Elsa admonished her.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Not that she wouldn't be sorely tempted but she wasn't going to tell Anna that.
"Damn. Now," Anna stepped up beside Elsa and held out her elbow, faded blue silk peeking out even further, "we have a party to get to."