Disclaimer: Frozen and all recognizable characters are owned by Disney. (Though I'm pretty sure you all knew that, already. ^_^ )

Summary: Rather than talking to paintings, after Elsa shut her out, Anna took to playing with her invisible friend, Mara. Only, as she grew up, Mara didn't go away.

The funeral was a quiet, grim affair.

It was held shortly after dawn, traces of the morning fog still lingering in the air. Anna stood, alone, between the two large, carved stones meant to serve as a monument to her parents. (Their bodies, obviously, had not been recovered.) She couldn't focus enough to understand a single word the priest was saying, but it didn't matter. She had no speaking part in all of this, only needed to be there to be put on display for the crowd of mourners.

Never mind that she was still mourning herself. She was only the Spare; she wasn't allowed the luxury of having emotions.

That was the worst part - Elsa hadn't come. Her sister should have been standing next to her, not leaving her there by herself. Anna hadn't missed the whispered comments when she'd been the only one to stand between the two stones; even the priest was far off to the side, making room for a princess who had never shown up.

Anna just kept her head down, gaze locked on the ground as she willed the horrible day to just end, already. It had only gotten started, though; there was still a Council meeting later on, to discuss Arendelle's future. Officially, her presence wasn't required there... but she had a sneaking suspicion that Elsa wouldn't show up for that, either.

Not the best introduction to their future Queen that Arendelle could have, Mara observed.

Anna allowed a humorless, nearly silent laugh. "I'll say," she muttered under her breath. The priest didn't pause in the Bible verse he was reading, but she was pretty sure he noticed. She didn't care. Maybe she would later, but for today, she just did not care. Let them catch her talking to herself. Let them think her grief had driven her (if only temporarily) insane. They could start calling her 'the Mad Princess of Arendelle', for all she cared!

More than ever before, she needed Mara today.

You've still got me, Mara assured her. But don't burn your bridges behind you. Arendelle needs at least one princess who isn't useless when it comes to public events.

Anna didn't even have the energy to argue about that less than flattering view of her sister.

To her utter lack of surprise, Elsa did not attend the Council meeting.

She'd been forced to field a few inquiries as to her sister's location as the funeral procession had broken up. The Council had been far more blatant about it.

The only answer she'd had to give was, "Grieving." It hadn't gone over well. Mister Nordberg (she completely blanked on his first name), the Minister of Finances, had scowled at her and demanded, "Then why are you here, Your Highness?"

"Would you like me to leave?" she countered, anger igniting and finally giving her some energy to reply to the muttered accusations she'd been overhearing all morning. "Because I could. But I don't think you'd be able to get much of anything done without at least one of us here, now, would you?"

Henrik Lunde, the Trade Minister, hastened to assure her, "Not at all, Princess. I'm sure Anders will be able to take care of the day-to-day matters until Princess Elsa feels up to joining us." He cast an inquisitive look at the Prime Minister, who nodded.

"Of course."

"In the meantime, if you would care to be caught up on current events, Highness...?" Because no one could really even pretend that she'd been kept in the loop on Matters of State, foreign or domestic. She was just the silly, clumsy, goofy, useless Spare, after all.

Or generally useless, anyway, because now they needed her.

Her heart sank, though she tried hard not to let it show. She really had no real desire to sit there and be bored to tears, or strain to process and remember the mountain of information they were about to hit her with. She had to, though. The entire point of having a Spare was to have someone in charge when the Queen-To-Be wasn't around.

"Let's get started."

It was every bit as bad as she'd feared it would be, and then some.

It was late afternoon by the time she walked out of the Council chambers with every last shred of dignity and grace that she could muster. Had this been any other day, she would no doubt have drawn a number of surprised looks from the few servants she passed on the walk back to the Royal living quarters, who were unaccustomed to seeing the youngest princess displaying either of those things.

Today, though, they likely assumed that, in her grief, she simply didn't have the energy to dash about with her usual reckless enthusiasm.

They weren't entirely wrong.

She slowed when she drew near to Elsa's door, all the whispered comments she'd overheard and accusations she'd fielded and information she'd been beaten over the head with all vying for attention in her brain, until finally allowed herself to vent her frustration, angrily slamming her fist against the wood. She thought she heard, ever-so-faintly, a startled motion against the door. The realization that Elsa might well be right there, that close to her and still offering no comfort, no reasons for her growing absence, infuriated her all the more. "Elsa! Open this door!"

"...wh-? Anna...?"

"Yes, Anna! Your sister! You DO remember that you have one, right?!"

"...Anna, that isn't fair."

It was about the worst possible thing Elsa could have said to her.

"Fair? Fair?! You want to talk to me about-!" She broke off, taking a deep breath. Then, in a frighteningly calm and cool voice, continued, "Do you have any idea what my day has been like, thus far? First, there was the funeral, which you did not attend with me. And everyone noticed that you weren't there. They've been asking me about that all morning."

"Anna, I'm-"

"After that," Anna interrupted, "came the Council meeting. They wanted to know where you were, too. But don't worry, I was the good little Spare and took care of all that for you. You're the only one who needs to do any grieving, I guess."

Silence.

Somehow, despite thinking that there really wasn't anything Elsa could say to that, it only made her angrier. Despite her best efforts, some of that began seeping into her voice. "So I now know more than anyone likely ever felt I needed to about how this Kingdom is run. But don't worry, Mara made sure I was paying attention." Whether she'd wanted to be or not.

"...Mara?" A puzzled silence. Before Anna could explode at the thought that Elsa had been paying that little attention to what she'd said to the door over the years, her sister continued, "Wait, are you-? I thought you outgrew that years ago."

Some part of Anna knew that Elsa was only latching onto that part of what she'd said because she wasn't ready to handle the rest of it, yet. Anna's invisible friend was something she could understand, could deal with. The rest of her, however, clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white. "Mara's the only one who's never left me," she ground out, teeth clenched.

Anna, I beg you, calm down, Mara quietly pleaded. You know you'll never be alone as long as I'm here. You don't need to do this.

"Yes, I do!" Anna shot back, ignoring whatever pained sounds her sister might have made at her earlier observation. "This has gone on long enough!" She pounded on the door again. "Open up, Elsa! You don't get to hide from me, anymore! So help me, God, I will break this door down if you don't open it!"

There was a long moment of silence.

Then, quietly, almost unbelievably, the 'click' of the door being unlocked.