Elsa was actually looking forward to her hike with Anna today. She resolved to not let her guilt about Kristoff ruin a nice day with her sister. She was smiling and humming a tune while checking her outfit over in the mirror when she caught a faint whiff of whatever Callan and Hilde fixed for breakfast. "Mmm," she said, sashaying out of her room and down the hall.
She stopped in front of the closed door to Anna's room, and knocked a few times. "Anna? " No answer. "Anna, breakfast is ready. I'm heading downstairs. See you down there. Oh, don't forget to dress for our hike!"
Elsa trotted down the stairs, following her nose. But she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Anna and Kristoff standing in the dining room. She wasn't sure whether to turn around and bolt, or go see what was going on.
"Elsa! There you are," Anna said, when she noticed her older sister standing on the steps. "What kept you?
"Um," she started, finishing her descent down the stairs. "I figured you were still asleep, so I took my time this morning."
"Well I woke up extra early so I could have Sigvard send Kristoff an invitation to breakfast this morning," Anna said, placing one hand on Kristoff's shoulder, and the other on his chest. "Is that okay?"
Not really. She thought. "Of course," she said. "Good morning, Kristoff."
"Morning, Elsa," he smiled. She tried her hardest not to smile back.
"I'm just, uh, going to go see what's taking Callan and Hilde so long," said Elsa. But just as she started to walk away, the two maids came walking through the batwing doors, each carrying a plate stacked high with pancakes. They placed the plates on the table, then walked over to the trio.
"Good morning, everyone. I hope you all like blueberry pancakes," Hilde said.
"Do I ever!" Anna said. "Oh, by the way. Callan, this is Kristoff."
"Yeah, we've met," Callan said, with a smile and a nod. Anna furrowed her brow. "He was here the other day," Callan explained. Elsa's eyes widened.
"You were?" Anna asked him. "When? I didn't see you."
"I, uh, well…" he stammered.
"He stopped by when you were out for cocoa," Elsa interrupted. "I told him you weren't around, so then he left. You guys just missed each other," she added with a nervous laugh.
"Aww! Sorry I missed you," Anna said, kissing Kristoff on the cheek. "Come on, let's eat!" She grabbed Kristoff's arm and yanked him towards the table, where Hilde, Sigvard and Callan were already sitting. He flashed Elsa a quick look of respite.
"So what would you two like me to fix you for lunch?" Callan asked Elsa and Anna, once everyone had started their breakfast.
"Surprise us," Anna replied on both of their behalves. Elsa shrugged in agreement, then took another bite of pancake.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Callan smiled. Kristoff reached across the table and took his third pancake off of the stack after quickly shoveling his first two down.
"Boy, you're hungry this morning," Anna commented. "Don't eat so fast, though. You'll make yourself sick."
"I'll be fine. I just want to make sure I'm out of here before you and Elsa head off on your hike."
"Why? You don't have to rush," said Anna. "Hey! Want to come with us?" she gasped.
"No!" Kristoff and Elsa yelled simultaneously. Anna furrowed her brow. Elsa and Kristoff shot each other a glance, waiting for the other to explain.
"Today's supposed to be our day, Anna. We were going to do some sisterly bonding. Just the two of us," Elsa said.
"Yeah, and I wouldn't want to intrude," Kristoff added.
"Oh, you wouldn't be intruding," Anna said, waving off Kristoff's excuse. "But Elsa's right. Today's our day." She looked over at Elsa and smiled. "Maybe next time."
"Yeah, maybe next time," Kristoff said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Uh, I'll take this one to go," he said, after a few moments of painfully awkward silence. He wrapped up his uneaten third pancake like a burrito. "See everyone later." He stood up, waved a quick goodbye to everyone, took a bite of his pancake burrito, and practically ran out the door.
Anna sighed and dropped her fork onto her plate. A few seconds later she picked it up and started poking what was left of her pancake.
"Your Highness, don't play with your food," Hilde said. Elsa gave her a disapproving look.
"Anna, is everything okay?" she asked, turning her attention back to her younger sister.
"Can we talk about it on our hike later?" she responded. She looked at Elsa without raising her head.
"Of course," Elsa answered hesitantly, knowing that it had something to do with Kristoff. Things were quiet for the rest of breakfast, except for the sounds of silverware clinking against plates as Hilde, Sigvard and Callan continued eating. Elsa and Anna seemed to have lost their appetites.
"Well, I better go get your lunches packed," Callan said.
"Everyone give your dishes to Sigvard, he's washing today!" Hilde joked, a huge smile on her face. He rolled his eyes, but didn't object.
"I'm going to go get ready," Anna said softly, pushing her chair out and standing up. "I'll be down in a few minutes," she said to Elsa without looking at her.
Elsa felt a lump in her throat. She swallowed, and took her dishes to the kitchen herself.
"Looks like there's trouble in Paradise, huh?" Callan commented. Elsa didn't say anything. "Look, I'm sure they're fine. He seems like a really good guy. You shouldn't worry about him hurting Princess Anna."
I'm not worried about him hurting Anna. She thought. "Yeah," she mumbled. Callan looked over at her, sensing something was wrong, but not wanting to prod.
"I'll have your picnic ready in a few minutes. Why don't you go sit and relax for a few minutes until your sister is ready?" she said. Elsa nodded and exited the kitchen, just as Sigvard and Hilde were entering.
A little while later, Anna came sauntering down the stairs in her full snow gear. she smiled unconvincingly at Elsa. "Ready."
Elsa tried to muster up a genuine smile in an attempt to cheer Anna up. "Great! I'll grab our stuff from Callan and we can get going."
A couple minutes later, the girls were on their way. Elsa froze a path across the fjord, and they were headed for the North Mountain. Elsa led the way, and Anna elected to carry the picnic basket.
"Which way did you make it up?" Elsa asked.
"Not this way. I stopped at Oaken's on my way. Is this the way you came up?" Anna asked, hoping that they weren't already lost.
"I think so," Elsa said. "I wasn't exactly paying much attention at the time," she laughed. She looked over at Anna, hoping she would laugh too, but her face was sullen. "Hey, Anna," she started calmly. They both stopped walking. Anna looked at her with eyes that looked more tired than upset. All of a sudden, Elsa didn't know how to finish that sentence. Instead she placed a hand on her little sister's shoulder and smiled.
Anna smiled back, a fraction of a twinkle returning to her eyes. Encouraged by the fact that her effort to comfort Anna had worked, Elsa crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out. Anna threw her head back and laughed.
"You're a weirdo," she said, shaking her head.
"Runs in the family," Elsa smirked, resuming the hike.
"Hey now!" Anna said. She put down the picnic basket and crafted a snowball, then threw it at Elsa, hitting her right between the shoulder blades. Elsa turned around slowly, trying to wear an angry expression, but giggling.
"Don't you start with me, little girl," she said.
Anna picked the basket back up and took off. She passed Elsa, trudging through the now ankle-deep snow as fast as she could, laughing as if she were five years old again. Elsa ran after her much more gracefully, quickly catching up. Anna squealed in an odd mixture of surprise and delight when she felt Elsa's icy hand grab her shoulder and push down. She fell, but was cushioned by all the snow.
"El-saaa!" she bellowed. "I could have squished our lunch!" she said, holding the basket up so it wouldn't get snowy. Elsa just smiled and looked down at her sister. Anna caught her off guard, swinging the basket into the backs of her knees.
"Oof," Elsa grunted as she hit the ground, waves of snow and cold air dramatically rippling in every direction.
"Oh, goodness Elsa are you okay?" Anna jumped up, alarmed by the unexpected display of Elsa's powers. Elsa responded by throwing a small snowball and hitting Anna square in the face. "Okay. I deserved that one. Truce?" she said, smiling and holding her hand out.
"Truce," Elsa agreed, taking Anna's hand and hoisting herself up.
Anna replayed the scenario that had just happened in her head. She grinned ear to ear when she thought of how her and her older sister could always have a good time together, and how when she needed to smile the most, Elsa made it happen.
"I love us," she said, gently bumping shoulders with Elsa as the two started walking again.
"I love us, too," Elsa smiled.
The girls had been hiking for some time, and were getting close to the ice castle, so they decided to take a couple detours to draw out their hike. They eventually reached a spot on a slight slope where there wasn't so much snow, and Anna suggested they stop for lunch. Elsa opened the basket and took out two blankets that Callan had packed, and spread them on the ground. Anna sat down, her back facing the rest of the incline, and practically dumped the contents of the basket onto the blankets.
"Hungry?" Elsa asked as she sat down across from Anna, observing the bread, cheese, apples and bananas that were spilled all around them.
"Yeah," Anna answered. "I didn't eat much breakfast."
"Your loss. Those pancakes were amazing," Elsa said, stopping an apple from rolling down the hill.
"Weren't they, though?" said Anna. She started fixing herself a sandwich. "I'm glad I ended up taking at least a few bites."
A twinge of guilt weaseled it's way into Elsa's conscious when she remembered why Anna hadn't eaten much in the first place. She tried to dismiss it by taking a comically large bite of the apple.
"So what was it that you wanted to talk about?" she asked, wanting to get the inevitable conversation about Kristoff over with.
Anna sighed, and didn't say anything for a few seconds. "It's just," she started, then looked at Elsa to make sure she still had her attention. "It's Kristoff. He's been acting so weird and distant lately." She paused. "Did I do something wrong?" She took a bite of her sandwich.
"No, Anna, you didn't do anything wrong," Elsa said in as much of a comforting tone as she could.
"Then what's going on with him?" she yelled without realizing. A few bits of partially chewed sandwich flew out of her mouth, which she quickly covered. "Sorry," she mumbled. She removed her hand from her mouth. "It's just really upsetting me. It feels like when he's with me, he's not with me, you know?"
Elsa nodded, then looked down, reaching the point in the conversation when she could no longer look Anna in the eye.
"What if…" Anna started, her voice breaking. She cleared her throat, then continued. "What if he turns out like Hans? What if he doesn't love me? What if he never did? What if he's just using me for some sort of sick game?"
"He's not using you, Anna," Elsa said.
"Why do you keep saying stuff like that? Do you know something?" Elsa furrowed her brow and shook her head slightly. She opened her mouth to day something, but no words came out. "If you knew something, you'd tell me, right?" Anna asked.
Elsa swallowed hard, and scratched her head. All of a sudden she felt strangely and uncomfortably warm. Am I sweating? Is it even possible for me to sweat? She thought. I can't shake the feeling that something's… melting.
"Elsa?" Anna asked sharply, interrupting her train of thought.
"Anna…" she said softly, looking up at Anna with remorse in her eyes. "There's something…"
But she stopped her explanation when she glanced behind Anna and saw a huge wave of snow careening right towards them. "Behind you!" she yelled, jumping up. Anna stood also, and whipped around, gasping when she saw the snow quickly approaching.
Elsa wrapped her arm around Anna's waist, and flung her little sister behind her. She held her hands out, commanding the snow to stop. And just like that, the huge heap of snow halted, as if it had run into a glass wall.
Elsa was panting, adrenaline shooting through seemingly every part of her, when she looked behind her to check on Anna. She was fine outside of being startled. Elsa moved her hands apart a couple inches, and the snow parted, continuing it's voyage down the mountain on either side of the girls.
"I didn't know you could do that," Anna said.
"Me neither," said Elsa. She looked at her hands, which were now trembling. "I mean, creating snow, yeah. But controlling snow that already exists?"
Anna let out a breath that was half relief, and half laughter. "That's too cool."
Elsa relaxed and turned her attention back to their picnic. "Are you going to finish that sandwich?"
Anna smiled, sat back down on the blankets, and split what was left of her sandwich in half.
"I love us," Elsa said, sitting down and taking her half of the sandwich, whatever trace of tension there was between the girls now gone.
"I love us, too." Anna and her older sister raised their sandwich halves in a toast, then simultaneously took a bite.