Frozen Together Chapter 7

Days became weeks, and the weeks ran into months. Anna and Elsa slowly, hesitantly began to rebuild their relationship. Not only was it different from the way it used to be; it was probably different from any other sisterly relationship anywhere.

Elsa's fear of hurting her sister was still a prime factor in her every thought and action. There were still days when she would refuse to answer Anna's knock at her door. They almost never spent a morning together without at least one indoor snowstorm, and the cause was always the same – Elsa's fear that she might do something to hurt Anna.

Yet, at the same time, Anna also became Elsa's lifeline for dealing with those very fears. All her life, Elsa had had to deal with her terrors on her own. Their parents had never figured out a way to help. Anna's uncanny ability to help her focus herself away from those fears and settle herself down was something she had never known before. It was a wonderful feeling; she began to rely on it. While the snowstorms still came with distressing regularity, they tended to be less wild and threatening than before, as Elsa learned to relax and enjoy her younger sister's company.

Neither of them realized how true this was, until the time Anna caught a cold and had to spend two days in bed. When she finally felt healthy enough to visit Elsa again, she had barely knocked and called, "Do you w–" before her sister's voice screamed, "Yes! Come in! Please!"

Anna had to force the door open. The floor in Elsa's room was over a foot deep in snow; ice covered the walls and windows; icicles hung from the ceiling; the wind was blowing at gale force; and Elsa herself looked like she hadn't brushed her hair or washed her face in days. She flung herself at Anna and clung to her desperately.

"Elsa, are you –"

"Don't talk," her older sister begged. So Anna just held her for long minutes, until the wind began to die down and the whirling snowflakes stopped stinging her eyes.

"Where were you?" Elsa whispered in her ear.

"I was sick with a cold," she answered. "I had to stay in bed. I didn't want you to catch it, too."

"Next time... please, let me catch it," her sister said quietly. "Don't leave me alone that long again."

"You'd rather get sick than be without me?"

"I'll chance it," Elsa said softly. "Besides, colds never bothered me anyway."

When Elsa finally let her go, Anna kicked at a snowdrift. "What did Gerda say when she saw all this?"

"She didn't," Elsa said with a trace of embarrassment. "I didn't dare open the door for her."

"You've gone two days without eating?!" Anna was shocked. "Why didn't you just... make the snow go away?"

"I can't," Elsa said, always reluctant to talk about her ability. "I can move small amounts of snow around, but once there's a lot of it... I don't know how to do it."

Their visit was a bit shorter than usual, because Elsa was exhausted from the strain of fighting her fears all by herself for days. Anna marked time until lunch, then made her way down to the dining room, and got there just as Gerda was getting Elsa's lunch tray organized.

"Morr with lingonberry sauce and potatoes! Gerda, that looks delicious!"

"I suppose you'd like to have this tray for yourself?" Gerda gave her a knowing look, and Anna decided to try a totally different approach this time.

"No, Gerda... I'd like to take it up to Elsa's room. For her. I know she's hungry."

"A fine idea, Princess," Kai said from the doorway, "but I have a better one. Gerda can make two trays, and each of you can carry one up to Elsa's room, so you can have lunch with your sister."

Anna was dumbstruck, which was something that almost never happened. The servants chuckled at her. "Princess Anna, you still have many lessons to learn about being royal," Gerda said lightly. "One of those lessons is that nothing happens in the palace without the servants finding out about it."

"We're both thrilled that you're spending time together again," Kai added. "Maybe this long winter is finally coming to an end."

"How much... how much do you know about Elsa?" Anna finally stammered.

"We remember her from when she was a baby," Kai said slowly. "We know all about... the special things she did. Your parents didn't say much about her after they closed the gates, but we know she's been very lonely."

"You don't have to say anything about that, if you don't want to," Gerda added. "We won't pry. It's not our place." She loaded a second tray with Anna's lunch, and the two of them carried the trays upstairs. Gerda knocked four times, the door opened partially, and the servant slid her tray in. If the sight of a foot of snow on the floor surprised her, she said nothing.

Before Elsa could shut the door, Anna gave her special knock and slid her own tray into the room right behind the other one. "Anna?" her sister called, puzzled. "You're back already?"

"I've been away for two days. We need to make up for lost time." Anna stepped inside and closed the door. Elsa took both her hands, looking very grateful. Anna couldn't return the expression; her fingers suddenly felt frozen. She glanced down, and saw that her hands had been encased in a thin layer of ice.

Snow appeared from nowhere; Elsa let go and retreated into the corner with a cry, looking stunned. "It's okay! It's okay!" Anna exclaimed. "See?" She flexed her fingers, and the ice crackled and fell away. A few pieces clung to her, but quickly melted against her skin. "No problem. Nothing to be afraid of."

"Anna, what's going to happen when it isn't just a little thing I do to you?" Elsa asked from the corner of the room.

"What happened before was an accident," Anna said earnestly. "You know and I know that it will never happen again. I'm not going to live in fear." The falling snow began to dissipate. "I wish I could help you to not live in fear, too." When Elsa didn't answer, she added, "Anyway, you can't tell me you're not hungry, because I know you haven't had a meal in two days. Let's eat!"

Elsa nodded after a moment. They cleared the snow off a patch of floor, and sat and ate their lunch together. They didn't say much. That was okay; every princess knows it's rude to talk with your mouth full.

o

Anna kept encouraging her sister to get out of her room and walk the halls with her. Sometimes Elsa was willing, and sometimes she wasn't. She slowly grew braver as time passed; she still had fear attacks, with attendant snowfall, but she spent more and more time walking before she felt like she had to retreat to the safety of her familiar four walls, for fear of hurting someone.

One morning, as they were quietly walking back and forth, they passed the main stairway as Gerda was polishing the banister, one floor below. The servant's eyes went wide as she saw Elsa; her polishing rag fell to the floor, forgotten. Elsa, for her part, kept her expression neutral, but Anna knew an indoor blizzard was just seconds away.

She quickly took the place Elsa found most comforting – just behind her, with one hand on Elsa's right shoulder and the other on her arm. Close, but not confining. "Happy thoughts," she whispered. "Think happy thoughts. Think of white, fluffy clouds."

"Princess Elsa," Gerda called up the stairs. "It's... good to see you again." She had to have noticed the light dusting of snow upstairs, but she said nothing about it.

"It's good to see you, too, Gerda," Elsa replied tightly.

"Is there something I can do for you?" the servant said. "Perhaps there's something special you'd like for lunch?"

"No, thank you, Gerda, but... I think I will take lunch in the dining room with my sister today."

"Y-y-yes, of course." No one had seen that one coming! Gerda bustled off to change her lunchtime arrangements.

"Elsa, are you sure you're ready for that?" Anna wondered.

"I'm sure that I'm ready to try," Elsa replied. She tapped Anna's hand, which was still on her shoulder. "Thank you for being there for me."

"I made you a promise," Anna replied.

As first in line for the throne, Elsa sat at the head of the table, with Anna in the first seat on the right side. When Gerda set their plates down, Anna gasped. "Stekt fisk! My favorite!"

"You think everything is your favorite!" Gerda chuckled. "If I ate like you did, I'd be as big as a whale. Enjoy your meal, Your Excellencies."

Anna tore into her meal with gusto; Elsa went a lot more slowly. When Anna paused to watch her sister, she noticed that Elsa's fork was covered in frost crystals, and as soon as she picked up a bite of fish, the fish became frost-covered as well.

"This always happens," Elsa said ruefully. "I knew I should have brought my gloves."

Anna didn't answer. She just cut up another piece of fish, picked it up with her fork... and held it out toward Elsa.

"Oh, please don't do that!" Elsa said, embarrassed. "I'd feel so silly!"

"Please take it," Anna urged her. After a few seconds, she did.

"Mmm! You're right – this is good!"

Anna shared several bites of her lunch with her sister, who always protested, and always took them anyway. At one point, Elsa returned the favor and offered Anna a frozen bite of her own lunch. Anna accepted it, more out of curiosity than anything else.

"Crunchy," she decided.

"Usually, 'crunchy' is bad with fish," Elsa noted.

"I suppose I could get used to it," Anna said.

Elsa rested her hand on the back of Anna's hand. "Warm is much better," she smiled.