Anna nuzzled her face into her warm pillow and rolled onto her side, her arm propped up on her elbow with her other hand awkwardly dangling behind her back. Her fingers twitched and clawed to find a certain itchy spot which, once she found it and dug her fingernails at it, had her drooling in sleepy contentment. Her mouth hung open as she snored away, the sound not bothering her one bit as she fully intended to slip back into another sweet dream.
"Anna?"
Her sister's voice jostled her peaceful descent into slumberland, but Anna tried to ignore it.
"Anna?!" This time, her name was accompanied by a knock on the door.
"Huh? Yeah?" she called. Sometimes if she answered, her sister would leave her alone just long enough until Elsa realized that Anna was not actually up.
"Are you awake in there?"
Anna groaned as she sat up in bed, rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes even as she had to fight her tired body not to collapse back against the mattress.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm up—ahhhhh..." She interrupted her own response with a yawn.
"You better be! You can't be late for my coronation!"
"Well, of course not!" Anna yelled out in drowsy, solemn agreement, smacking her lips together and clucking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Then she popped one eye open. "Coro...nation? Your coronation?!"
She heard her sister's chuckle outside her bedroom door.
"Well, unless someone else is being crowned... erm..."
A hundred thoughts fought out for Anna's concentration as she leaped from bed and tripped with her sheets wrapped around her ankle on her way to the door. She rolled along with the momentum and jumped up directly in front of the door, which she quickly threw open, making Elsa cry out in alarm.
"Yikes! I didn't think you were really awake!" Elsa said, crossing her arms even with the smile on her face.
"It's your coronation day?!" Anna asked. Truth be told, she couldn't quite pinpoint why that fact bewildered her.
Well, that wasn't true. But it made no sense! She had the faint, nagging sensation of having lived out coronation day already.
Of course, that would be crazy.
Finally, Anna looked at Elsa and noticed her uncertain gaze toward the floor.
"You okay?" Anna asked, reaching for her sister's shoulder.
She recognized the strain in Elsa's face as her sister tried to smile for her.
"Don't hide it," Anna warned her. Elsa could fake smile all she wanted; her eyes couldn't fool Anna.
"I just... don't know if I'm cut out for this," Elsa admitted with a sigh.
The redhead frowned and suddenly grabbed her sister in for a tight hug. Elsa let out a little yelp at her little sister's fierce embrace. After a second, the surprise melted into laughter and she hugged Anna in return.
"You're ready for this, Elsa. Mama and Papa would be so proud."
The sisters backed away to look at each other, though they remained hand-in-hand.
"Besides, look at the alternative. Me? Let's not even think about how awful that would be!" Anna chuckled, though she sensed a quizzical stare from her sister.
"Don't be so hard on yourself. You'd make a fine queen. Though then you'd have less time for your archives."
Anna's head tilted. "Archives?"
Elsa raised her eyebrow. "Did you hit your head or something last night?"
Anna's mouth opened and shut wordlessly as she tried to make sense of both Elsa's comment and her own confusion.
Her archives! Of course!
"Shouldn't you be getting ready?" she suddenly asked Elsa.
At that, her sister gave the most un-Elsa-like squawk Anna had ever heard. The queen-to-be gave her sister an apologetic wave before she nodded and ran off to her own wing.
Anna smiled after Elsa for a moment before she kicked herself in gear and went back into her room to get dressed. Her hair was as unruly as ever that morning. But after a thorough brushing, she was able to pull it back into an elegant updo with a braided crown across the top of her head.
Satisfied with the young woman who stared back at her in the mirror, Anna nearly bolted for the door to race throughout the castle to see all the preparations underway for the castle guests. But something about the mirror made her pause.
"Mirrors..." she mumbled, staring intently at her own face. She was excited to see Elsa be crowned, but... there was something off about the day. "Archives..." It was slowly coming back to her, the interest she'd taken in Arendelle's history. She'd become something of a historian in her teens. Her parents encouraged this and had urged her to use the library as much as possible for her research. But perhaps most useful to her had been one item in particular.
Anna's gaze fell upon a leather-bound book on her dresser. She recognized it as she picked it up; it was her Great-Great Grandmother's journal.
It was no normal journal, of course. The book had guided her parents in rearing Elsa... and her powers. Anna remembered it as the "fun book" from their childhood. Not only had Queen Kirsten recorded just about every technique for using her magic. She had also recorded a number of ways to control it.
She flipped open the cover and traced her finger over the inscription on the inside corner.
She'd asked her parents again and again about her namesake, but Kirsten had written nothing else about the woman except that she'd had a hand in bringing peace between Arendelle and the trolls of the forest. Other than that, the book was entirely devoted to Kirsten's magic. Anna could not imagine how her family would have navigated having such power in the family without the journal. Once their parents had shared the book with them, Elsa had started up her own diary. It just seemed like the sensible thing to do, she said. As far as Anna knew, Elsa still wrote in it.
Again, Anna looked at the note on the inside cover. "Anna, per your last request. Thank you for everything, wherever you are."
Anna alternated between waving and weaving through the incoming crowds on her way out of the castle. She even had to duck out of the way of the Ernstsen Bros.'s cake, which was probably the height of a small child and covered in cool blue glaze with white snowflake decorations. Anna gawked all around her. From smiling faces on the bridge to the rows of ships in the fjord, it was a lot to take in. There wasn't much time before the chapel bells would announce the final call for the coronation ceremony. But she felt compelled to explore the town. She'd spent so little time outside the castle during mourning.
Once she entered the town proper, she gazed in awe at the empty shop stalls, turning in circles in amazement at how peaceful the market seemed with everyone away at the castle. Chuckling to herself about how she'd have to come back when it was bustling, Anna made her way for the steps to the docks.
"How curious," she sang softly to herself. "How familiar... like I've been here before."
She froze on the bottom step, thinking.
"But for the first time in forever, life seems like an open door."
She looked to the fjord on her left and charged ahead, brimming with energy.
"And this will all end tomorrow, but for now I'll seize the day... 'cause for the first time in forever, everything's okaaaaa—"
Anna wasn't sure which came first: the man's cry accompanied by his whinnying horse or the horse's body crashing right into her, which sent her tripping foot-first into a bucket, then fly back into a boat resting on the dock. Her weight pushed the small fishing boat toward the edge of the dock and Anna yelped in a panic as she was sure the boat would go flying into the water. In fact, the tip of the boat did splash a bit. But suddenly, the boat was halted as the horse gallantly stomped his hoof in it. A piece of seaweed came flying up and landed on Anna's forehead, making her grimace.
"Hey!" she snapped, lifting the slick algae from her face.
"I'm so sorry! A-are you hurt?!"
Anna looked up at the man on his horse and felt the world go very, very still when he met her eyes.
Memories pooled into her all at once—her lonely childhood, her aloof sister, having to deal with their parents' deaths on her own, coronation day … and every moment after.
Anna gulped. The mirror had sent them back this far?
More importantly, was this Hans her Hans? Would he remember any of it?
"Hey! ...ahh, yeah, no, no, I'm okay!"
"Are you sure?"
The prince hopped down to assist her out of the boat as she carefully scooted back so she could sit up.
"I, yeah, I just wasn't looking where I was going. But I'm fine. I'm great...actually." She watched him step into the boat and felt her heart melt at the concern on his face.
"Well," he flashed her a smile that was possibly more charming than the first time, "Thank goodness."
Hans reached out a hand to help her rise. She allowed him to help her to her feet and watched with some amusement as he realized he had not introduced himself. "Oh! Um... Prince Hans of the Southern Isles." He politely bowed his head.
She gave a curtsy that felt a moment too short, but she couldn't help her nervousness.
"Princess Anna of Arendelle."
Then she panicked as she recalled what happened the first time she introduced herself to Hans. Only, this time he remained composed as he offered her his arm.
"My lady, I'd like to formally apologize for hitting you with my horse."
Well, Anna thought, that went differently. She linked her arm in his and gingerly stepped out of the boat. Hans waited until she was safely on the dock before he himself stepped out.
"No, it's fine!" She smiled. "I'm not that princess... I mean, if you'd hit my sister Elsa, it would be... yeesh! 'cause, you know." Was this Hans here to woo her sister? Had he heard that Elsa turned away all suitors?
Anna turned toward Sitron and rubbed affectionately under the steed's chin before she turned back to Hans. "But, lucky you! It's just me."
He smiled just the way he had on the day they met. Then, he said, "Just the woman who traveled through time?"
Hans chuckled as Anna's mouth dropped open. But she said not a word as she lunged to hug him. Behind them, Sitron snorted at their inexplicable familiarity out in the open, but the couple ignored that.
They stood in silence, Hans with his nose in Anna's hair, Anna tugging his blazer as if to make sure he was real. They held on to each other just so until the bells rang for the coronation.
Hours later, all of Arendelle and its guests were celebrating. The coronation went smoothly, the kingdom had a queen once again—a powerful one, at that!—and there was music, good food and dancing late into the night.
Grand Pabbie had to admit that humans knew how to throw a party, even if they looked funny in their frilly gowns and suits. He kept his eye on one dancing couple in particular, waiting for the right moment to approach them. Beside him, his adopted grandson bristled at all the activity. Kristoff had learned how to socialize with other humans ever since he started harvesting ice. But he still seemed to prefer the company of trolls. Of course, no one topped his reindeer friend, Sven.
"Lighten up, Kristoff," Grand Pabbie said with a nudge. "Why don't you ask someone to dance?"
Kristoff scowled. His family had been trying to get him to bring a girl home ever since his sixteenth birthday. It was a bit difficult to court when he disliked most people.
"Very funny. Who's going to dance with me?" Kristoff bristled in his formal suit, a cross between a traditional gakti and the trolls' mossy attire. While his adopted parents, Bulda and Cliff, insisted that Kristoff learn as much as possible about the troll customs, it was Grand Pabbie who was equally adamant that Kristoff spend time with the Sami to the north, since those were Kristoff's people by birth. But with Kristoff spending much of his time in Arendelle as an ice harvester, even though he was akin to a prince among the trolls, he didn't quite fit in with the humans he interacted with. Grand Pabbie would say that this made him special. Kristoff was not so sure.
The disgruntled young man felt Grand Pabbie nudge his knee and point toward the head of the hall. Kristoff's gaze followed until his eyes settled over the newly crowned queen. Some lovingly referred to her as the snow queen. Kristoff thought a winter angel would have been more appropriate.
Suddenly, Queen Elsa's head turned and she stared straight back at him, her eyes growing wide as she noticed him looking at her. Kristoff quickly looked down to glare at his smiling grandfather.
"Are you kidding?!" Kristoff whispered, fuming.
"Kristoff. You're a prince among our people. You have the right to ask her for a dance. Now, go."
The ice harvester groaned but tried to work up some courage as he left his grandfather chuckling after him.
Anna gulped as she approached Elsa on the dais. Now that she had all her memories back, it was difficult not to rush up to her sister and squeeze the life out of her. She'd not been sure she would ever see her again, and yet here they were. The best part of it was that Elsa seemed at ease about her powers in this new present. Anna just wished that enough of the past had been changed for her parents to still be with them.
But, well... at least they had each other.
"Hey...!" Anna smiled as she stopped before her sister, beaming.
Elsa turned toward her with a loving smile and wrapped an arm around her. The gesture was surprisingly warm for what Anna was used to. How strange... to go from one extreme of Elsa to another. Before she'd run off to look for Hans, their relationship was still a little strained. Here it seemed like Elsa was at ease.
"You look beautiful!" Elsa told her.
"Thank you! You look beautiful...too!" She quickly stopped herself from saying 'beautifull-er' and chuckled awkwardly instead.
"You feeling okay?" Elsa asked, suddenly looking bewildered.
Anna swallowed and quickly nodded her head. "It's just... I wasn't sure how today was going to go, you know? There's a lot on your shoulders now. And I want to be here to support you as much as possible. You know I'm here for you, right? Right?"
Elsa considered that for a moment as she pat Anna's shoulder.
"Relax. I know I was nervous before the coronation. But it really felt... feels like mother and father are with me, guiding me." She paused to look Anna in the eyes. "I know that sounds weird."
"No!" Anna objected, shaking her head. "I mean, I know what you mean..."
They smiled at one another and clasped hands.
"Anyway," Elsa added. "I'm here for you too. And I have a feeling that everything's going to be okay. I mean... just, look." She turned her blue gaze toward the crowd of dancing guests, each one looking happy.
Anna nodded. The night looked full of promise. She glanced from dancer to dancer, pausing at one handsome pair. The woman had hair as black as night and skin as white as snow. Her lips were painted a deep red that matched the ruffling trim of her golden dress. Her partner's red sash over his black suit matched the young woman's dress. They twirled and dipped, gracefully gliding across the ballroom floor, drawing more than just Anna's awed gaze.
"Who are they?" Anna whispered.
"Hm? Ah..." Elsa grinned a little. "That's the Duke of Weselton dancing with the princess of Alemagne. Her people call her Snow White."
Anna gasped. "Snow White? Like the...?"
Elsa nodded. "Like the fairytale. The story goes that her evil stepmother placed a curse on her as a girl never to age. The woman was insanely jealous of the princess's beauty and didn't want it to surpass her own."
"Someone broke the spell though?" Anna asked, pointing out the obvious. Snow White had grown into the perfect example of a fair princess.
"Mmhm! She enlisted the aid of the trolls. Something about a tainted mirror in the stepmother's possession being behind it all."
"Well, wait a minute, shouldn't she be queen now then? I mean, she looks old enough."
Elsa sighed a little. "Well, that's just the thing. Apparently, she was trapped at the age of twelve for centuries in hiding from her evil stepmother. Then, when the common folk overcame the evil queen, a new royal family took power. It wasn't until the trolls' peace pact with Arendelle that they came to light... and they did not reveal themselves internationally until our parents' passing. But by then, several generations of the new royal family had already ruled over Alemagne. By the time Snow White returned, she had to prove she was who she said she was. In the end, they gave her the honorary title and some land, but I'm afraid her original legacy and inheritance are lost to her."
Anna was amazed. She wouldn't have been able to guess such a sad and complicated story as she watched the happy princess dance with the...
"The Duke of Weselton?!" she almost screeched in shock. "Wasn't he... wasn't he um... older?"
Elsa clapped Anna's shoulder and covered her mouth to hold back a fit of giggles. "You're thinking of his uncle! Anna, the former duke passed away years ago. Syphilis, remember?" She'd whispered the cause of death. "What a nasty man he was. I guess you wouldn't remember, we were fairly young at the time. Mother always said it was just as well. Liam is much more pleasant to deal with."
Stunned, Anna's mouth opened and closed in silence. A lot had changed. A lot.
But some things hadn't. Smiling to herself, Anna glanced toward an approaching figure as he emerged from the crowd. Taking a deep breath, she stepped down from the dais to take her place at his side. It was now or never.
"Elsa, may I present Prince Hans of the Southern Isles."
The queen raised her eyebrow as Hans bowed before her and said, "Your Majesty."
Anna smiled with a glance toward Hans as she said, "We would like... uhhh..."
Hans took her hand in his and squeezed as they said together, "...your blessing..."
The queen looked bewildered, her eyes darting back and forth between them as they giggled at one another.
"...of our courtship!"
They beamed at each other, hoping this request would go far more smoothly than the time they announced their engagement. But Elsa blinked rapidly, looking from Hans to Anna and back at Hans.
"Courtship?" she repeated, her brow furrowed. "Is this a joke?"
Uh-oh.
Anna looked to Hans with worry. Then she frowned and stood her ground.
"Why would we be joking? It's not like I asked to marry him!"
Elsa grew somehow paler as she took a step away from the two of them. "But you're already engaged...! You have been since you were children! I mean, I realize it was so many years ago, but I thought you both knew?"
Anna stared at Elsa. Then she stared at Hans. Then she looked around and around the great hall, her head feeling suddenly light at this new revelation. So much had changed.
"I... suppose it makes sense that you want to get to know each other better first. You aren't to marry until I... myself... um..." Elsa trailed off, her cheeks flushed as she avoided discussing her own lack of an engagement. Then she brushed at her dress skirt and stood up tall to address the two of them.
Hans had laid his hand on Anna's shoulder. With his lent strength, the room stopped spinning and Anna was able to look her sister in the eye.
"You have my blessing. But if for some reason you decide not to marry, err... I'm really not sure how his parents will take it... you understand, Anna? The engagement goes back to a time that we gave the Southern Isles supplies after a brutal winter. We would be rejecting their thanks all this time later—"
"You don't have to worry about that, Elsa," Anna said. And as she glanced at Hans, she saw his green eyes flicker with a confidence that made her knees grow weak.
"All right... ah..."
Anna looked up upon hearing the distracted tone in Elsa's voice. She saw her sister staring past the two of them into the crowd. When Anna turned her head, she felt her stomach drop. Kristoff strode toward the three of them, looking strangely serious. His outfit was a little off too, Anna thought. His gakti was lined by plant life that reminded her of his troll family. Truth be told, Anna could not recall the last time she thought of him. Did he remember...?
But he couldn't possibly, not when Elsa didn't. And yet Anna felt pangs of guilt latch onto her heart as he drew close enough to speak to her. But then, something odd happened.
Kristoff stepped around her and Hans and bowed his head before Elsa.
"Your Majesty," Kristoff said, looking up toward her a little nervously. "Would you honor me with the next dance?"
A foolish grin swept over Anna's face as she watched her sister blush and accept.
The celebrations went on late into the night. Anna waited longer than she wanted to approach the troll leader. He gestured for her to follow him out onto one of the balconies so they could have some privacy. Once outside, Grand Pabbie tilted his head and looked up at her. It was almost a shock to her how much older he looked now.
"So, this is where I sent you all that time ago."
Anna nodded.
"I recognized you when you were a child, of course. But I wasn't sure when the right time to speak to you would be... till tonight, when I saw you with him."
"With Hans?"
Grand Pabbie nodded. "How much did you change?"
The princess blushed a little as if he'd already chastised her. "I... We never meant to change a thing, I swear. It seems like little things though. My parents are still dead. Krsitoff's too, I presume. Elsa is still cursed with magic. I just don't understand why we kept our memories."
Grand Pabbie grunted in contemplation.
"Perhaps the mirror's gift to you?"
Anna gasped. "The mirror! What... happened to it?"
Grand Pabbie smiled to reassure her. "I hid it away, as I said I would. And I've been hunting down the remaining pieces ever since. As I'm able to."
"Ahh... I heard about Snow White."
The troll nodded. "I haven't encountered a tale that sad since, luckily. But don't worry. The mirror is safe."
Anna frowned a little, troubled about the past she had changed.
"Do you think I'm... really supposed to be here? Like... what happened to the past I came from? What all happened while I was gone?"
Pabbie raised one mossy eyebrow at her question.
"Nothing, now. You changed everything."
"But Elsa... she doesn't remember what she went through as a child. What I went through. My history... is it really... gone?"
Grand Pabbie shook his head. "Do you have memories of this version of the present, Anna?"
She paused and then nodded. It was true. This new present felt as real to her as the old one.
"Think of it this way. The mirror ought never have been created. It ought never have gone out into the world. So the old life you knew, in a sense, ought to never have been either. Just think of it as another life now frozen in time."
Anna nodded, remembering all the visions the mirror had shared with her about the damage its shards had caused when they were misused by those with darkness in their hearts.
"Good. Now... don't forget your history, either. You'll never be the same, there's no doubt about that. But think of all the good you've done. Hold onto that, and you'll be all right."
She'd stopped looking at him, though she hung onto each word as she looked back through the balcony doors and spotted Hans waiting for her in the crowd.
"Thank you, Pabbie. Although, truly, I never could have done it on my own."
She thought back to Kirsten, Judet, Hans and young Pabbie. Then, seeing Kristoff sweep her sister into a beautiful circle across the room, Anna giggled.
"Go on, young lady. The night isn't over yet."
Anna nodded and gave the little troll a wave before she left the balcony. Then, she rushed through the open doors toward Hans. It was a night of second chances and new beginnings. Together, they danced the rest of the evening away.
A/N: Good lord, it's finally finished! The mirror sent them back to the day they met. I didn't send them back to the moment where Anna had punched him into the fjord because too much had changed. In this new version of the present, Elsa's parents had Kirsten's journal to sort of guide them through their daughter's upbringing/magic. They didn't feel the need to hide Elsa's gift, and so she didn't have that whole 'conceal, don't feel' complex. Instead, her insecurities were solely based on becoming the new queen. But because she and Anna have a much closer relationship, it's not nearly as big of a deal as having to hide her powers would have been.
Speaking of the journal, that was Anna's last request from Kirsten. I wanted the connection to be made in this last chapter, but I'm not sure if anyone picked up on that.
Liam's not such a lousy guy without the influence of his uncle. Kristoff still thinks reindeer are better than people. Anna and Hans had an arranged engagement. I didn't include Olaf in any of these scenes just because I felt there was already so much in here, but I have it in my head that Elsa would have brought him to life when they were kids and he would be their living, singing playmate.
Anyway, I really really appreciate everyone who stayed along for this long ride of a story. It's been really fun! I am still considering doing some oneshots as sequels or side-pieces to the story, but I have some other things I want to work on, so we'll see. Thank you for the sweet reviews and for your patience during these last few chapters! You guys have been great!
Take care!