A/N: please feel free to destroy me in the reviews section, I always want to get better :)
During her long years of solitude during childhood, Anna interacted mostly with her parents and remaining staff. Not that she didn't want to; they were warm and doting, and she still remembered her mother's hugs for good night and good morning. At night, she'd wait until her mother would get far enough from the door to plunge into the moonlit hallways to examine Elsa's door.
At first, she was very suspicious that Elsa had become a ghost. To confirm, Anna once asked if ghosts could talk through closed doors and if they ate pancakes. Her parents chuckled and seemed interested in what the 'ghost' was saying. She scrunched her nose cutely and noted that even though she offered rolled up pancakes with chocolate and ground nuts (her favorite), the 'ghost' still repeated 'go away, Anna'. What she made of that, she couldn't remember, as she caught a glimpse of Elsa later that week and promptly forgot about the ordeal. Though she did remember Agdar and Idunna exchanging glances and shooing her off to a teacher for lessons; something that clicked for her only recently, when she was finally in a position to make Elsa experience the sweet delight.
She faintly remembered humming near the stove in the kitchens, which she reserved for herself for the afternoon. The cooks were worried that she would make a mess, but she smugly waved them away with an 'off you go, mister, my pancakes will fill the hole in the menu for dinner'. And thus, they had no choice but to take the rest of the day off and hope for the best. Anna enjoyed every bit of this as payback for being denied for helping to make those pancakes. So what if she was small; she could have at least arranged the chocolate cream. This was as much payback as wanting to please Elsa.
Another distant part of her mind was yelling at her to slow down. She paid it no attention. She faintly registered a servant carrying a tray, glistening in the sunlight streaming through the hall window. Murkily, she decided that the woman wasn't in her way. Anna wasn't sure what she would have done if she were. Spurred by the pain, she thundered forward like a thoroughbred horse, faintly aware of the frightened voice of the woman.
The recipe seemed very promising. She scoured the library the day before and settled on a cookbook with yellowed pages and crooked corners. This signified regular use, and she wanted something tried and tested. Finding the flour proved to be harder than Anna initially envisioned. Soon, she emerged with a few bags from the spacious pantry and plopped them all on a nearby table with a grunt. One of those would have to be the proper flour. Her hair was marred with innocent wisps of white and she sneezed, daintly bringing her hand up and knocking her doll-like nose in the process.
The hallway she was now in was more than ingrained in her memory. She spent hours and days in front of that door, which was becoming bigger and bigger on her left as she skid to a stop in front of it. A few hot, heavy tears were already sliding down her cheeks.
When Elsa later asked, Anna just couldn't recall the specifics. That was a curious case of selective amnesia, and seemed to occur only in her sister's presence. Remarks akin to 'are you aware that you don't boil water to make pancakes, Anna', spoken in a disappointed voice of what she once considered a ghost, hurt more than the once angry and swollen arm ever could.
Anna opened her mouth and found herself panting. "Elsa?" she managed to utter in a voice reminiscent of a dying cat. Her left arm throbbed again and she hissed. Acting on instinct, she slammed her good hand, now clenched into a fist, onto the door a few times with enough force to wake herself up in the morning.
"Elsa, I need you, quickly!" she managed to yell.
For what she felt was a long minute, Anna waited for a response. None came. She slowly pulled away from the now hazy door in staggered steps, scoffed and set off running again.
Anna would have rather gathered ice for the rest of her life than revealed that the pages of the old book were somewhat out of order, and that the recipe itself continued onto the next page. Which was, apparently, a recipe for something else, and instructed to boil some water before gathering the ingredients. Which she kinda already did with the flour, so she busied herself with the pot and set it on the stove. The cooks were nice enough and lit a fire for her beforehand.
Humming - she could clearly remember the bloody humming! - she climbed on a creaky chair she found nearby. Being taught etiquette and decency all her life, she stood on it barefoot and rummaged through the cupboard overhead. That was where ground walnut apparently was. Indeed, the cook wasn't lying, and she found herself a big, round bowl with a battered ceramic cover.
A faint smell of walnuts filled her nostrils. She smiled to herself and started pulling it out. Her eyes widened; she didn't anticipate the weight. That didn't stop her and she continued, slowly leaning it on her bosom. The bowl was hefty and Anna had to pull away to free it from the cupboard.
"Woooaah-" she yelled out to no one in particular as she slightly went off balance. The chair creaked beneath and she realized one very important thing - that she wasn't ready to die. At least not while covered in fine walnut powder. Elsa would strangle her, ice or no ice, were she that reckless.
Those thoughts made so much more sense at the time.
She managed to lean the bowl against the cupboard and stilled, letting out a long sigh. Something popped and crackled somewhere beneath her. Her eyes widened.
"The water!" she whimpered to herself.
She assessed her situation, hopelessly entangled with the heavy bowl. Her hands were starting to tremor from exhaustion; she was a princess, not a dock worker. Taking a shallow breath through her nose, Anna slowly moved both hands underneath it and started minutely bending her knees, moving down.
Victory was near. She acutely heard the water sizzle. Anna crouched as far as she could go. Sensing a standstill, she slowly lifted up her left leg and started going backwards, inching towards the floor.
Abruptly, her right knee buckled under pressure. With a yelp, she fell forward, but the bowl weighted her down. Bits of flour marred the cupboard from where her head hit. Her left leg flailed uselessly in the air and the sudden motion pulled her to the left, only serving to her detriment. The cover jingled and clacked against the pot when it made forceful contact with the kitchen working area, trapping Anna's left arm underneath. Which wouldn't be as painful, were it not for an overturned pot of steaming hot water, whose contents were swirling and trickling over her flesh.
As usual, Elsa arrived at the spacious council meeting room early, her icy heels faintly reverberating throughout the dimly lit room. She settled into her seat and glanced at the clock; she had more than enough time to rearrange the papers and still her mind.
Today's meeting, at least from a formal side of view, did not seem like it would be gruesome. The topics were clear: it was September, so firewood preparations for the winter were in full force. According to the Minister's reports, there was no need to import it; if true, that would free up a significant amount of time that would go to bickering over the tariff. Merchant ships were docking and undocking every day, something that she liked to remind herself of when memories of her recklessness from just a few months ago would try to overtake.
The rest of the topics were similarly unalarming, which was good. In her line of work, she liked boring. Boring was good, yet she knew better than to be lulled.
She turned her attention to the clock, and by extent the rest of the room. It still felt unusual to be sitting in his place. She remembered visiting Papa here long ago, when she was small, and how he would always kiss her and tell her to go run and find Anna. She remembered the faint smiles of the councilmen then, and Papa's voice when she was near the door, proclaiming another meeting in session. The in between was morphing into a blur.
She shifted in her seat, feeling the hardwood. She was the ruler, now. The Queen.
Tumbling in her mind, the term fell flat once again. This was the job she was assigned with. She no longer felt the fluttering in her stomach that Anna once let out that she certainly would still have. This was her purpose, living to serve. She didn't know how to do anything else. That thought unnerved her just a little bit.
Opening and closing her palm, she repeatedly created and destroyed a snowflake. She found that the simple action helped her ground herself, and by extent, her magic. Though not completely - it was always pulsing inside her, but she reminded it who was in charge every once in a while. Like an another, human kind of urge, it too needed release from time to time.
Perhaps, she could be a circus artist. And perhaps, in an another life, she already was. Would 'the snow queen' still be her nickname?
Elsa realized she mouthed it. The snowflake started pulsing with intensity.
She was putting it off for too long. It was to happen after this meeting, in a secluded area of the castle courtyard that she surveyed some time ago. She let the snowflake linger, relishing in the thought of the release that awaited.
Faint shuffling before the door caught her attention and she snapped her palm closed, turning over to the source of the sound. She glanced at the clock - five minutes till four. Someone was eager.
The lock clicked and in came barging a red lock of hair, frantically looking over the room. The rest of the body followed with a bang, probably against the door.
"Elsa!" came a frantic yell.
The blonde raised an eyebrow at the sight, eyes wide. Anna - she recognised her sister - was crying and heaving, grasping her chest with her left hand. Though the hair was not entirely red... Elsa squinted, slightly leaning forward. Is that-
Her train of thought was broken by Anna, who confirmed the unthinkable. "Elsa…! ICE!" she let out, her voice trembling with urgency.
In a flash, the ruler's chair frosted over. Elsa couldn't move, couldn't breathe; she faintly felt her back colliding with the chair. Her heart skipped a beat as a surge of fear ravaged through her veins. Frost started seeping over the table, the chairs, and over the floor. A small wind seemed to pick up.
This couldn't be happening. This can't be happening, not again. She loved Anna. How was this possible?
She saw Anna running towards her, still clutching her heart, and she knew what she had to do. She leaped out of her chair and outstretched her hands, channeling all love she could muster for her sister. The ice began to slowly recede.
Like a sunflower, Elsa's head slowly turned, following Anna who ducked under her arms and pressed herself to the remaining ice on the chair. Chucking it up to her clumsiness, Elsa didn't waste a moment and swiftly engrossed Anna in a bear hug, intent on pouring all lo-
Anna screeched with the force of a thousand courtyard ducks, disarming Elsa from the last bits of her sanity. And pushed her away.
Her hand was trembling. No, Anna was trembling. More ice sprouted around her. Bewildered, Elsa watched as Anna jumped towards it, sprawling on the floor like a rabid animal.
She found her voice. "What on Earth is happening?!" The ice grew a little stronger and a few icicles propped up.
"I-" came a breathless response. "I- arm, ICE!" She wiggled onto her back, pressing her forearm onto the cold floor. Elsa couldn't decipher the unnatural sound that left her sister's lips and promptly dropped down on her knees next to her.
"What arm, what ice?!" Her eyes darted over Anna, whose eyes were battered shut in a grimace. She sensed none of her magic in her, an ability she gained after extended solitary training in the recent months.
Thudding from the hallway. "Your Majesty!"
Her gaze snapped up over her shoulder, and she saw an outline of a man near the doors.
"Your Majesty, are you alright?"
Elsa scoffed and turned her attention back to Anna. "Your arm? Which one?" she urgently asked, regretting not questioning Anna on her earlier predicament. Maybe arms were the first to freeze? She didn't know.
Anna's head slowly moved towards her. Nodding, she grabbed her left arm and lifted it away from the floor, limp; her sister gave no resistance. She turned it over and gasped.
Anna's arm, from the elbow up to her hand, was enlarged and pink as pig's skin. Elsa shivered at the sight, but did not let go. 'Arm' and 'ice', the only legible words Anna had uttered, started making sense. It wasn't a constatation, but a plea for help.
"Your Majesty, is everything-" she heard the guard yelling from behind, blending with his hurried footsteps.
"Immediately get the physician." she calmly ordered without turning around. The man uttered something she didn't care to hear and stormed away.
Elsa sighed through her nose, trying to remain sane. She distantly felt her knees starting to ache due to a wrinkle on her dress. Blood was thumping in her ears and forehead. Anna was laying beneath her, gulping ragged breaths. Elsa deduced that she had probably fainted, since no reaction came from the lack of cold.
She hoped she was doing the right thing. She brought her right hand above the damaged skin and willed ice to cover it. Semi-conscious, Anna drew a breath and stiffed, her back hovering slightly above the ground. Thankfully, she didn't jerk away. Elsa continued, moving her hand back and forth until the whole area was covered in a thin layer of glistening, blue ice.
Anna's breathing slowly returned to normal. Elsa let out a deep breath and stopped the flow of magic.
Without the blinding pain, Anna seemed to become aware of her surroundings. She let out something that sounded like a groan after a few deep and painful breaths. Her head moved in Elsa's direction and her eyes fluttered open. Elsa smiled, though there was no warmth in the gesture. "Feeling better?"
Anna brought her head up, dizzily blinking. First, she looked at her arm. Following the blissful trail of ice providing solace from the pain, she looked up to find Elsa, who was smiling. She saw her sister's lips move… and slipped into nothingness as darkness took over. Her eyes slid shut.
Elsa reached over and inspected her right arm, but found it in order. She gently let it lay and finally took a good look at Anna's face and neck. Innocent trails of curious white powder, mixed with sweat and red hair clinged to her hand as she gently wiped them off.
Rubbing her fingers, she let out another deep breath as her shoulders slumped. Flour. It was just flour. Not ice.
A few long moments passed. Her calves started to tingle.
Examining Anna's face and freckles now didn't provide the burst of love she just felt. The reality of the situation slowly trickled in, morphing into a dangerous understanding. Anna was laying down in the council room, where a session was just about to begin, unconscious for all intents and purposes. A shiver ran down her spine, and she clutched her hands together, fingers interlaced as if to anchor herself against the rising tide of anxiety.
Her mind raced. Dangerous movements started with lesser motives, and everyone was always probing for any signs of vulnerability. Papa made sure she learned that. The ice on Anna's arm began to glisten with an inner light.
"How did I not see this before?" Elsa whispered to herself, her voice barely audible.
The chime of the old clock whisked away any pretenses of having Anna carried away before the meeting.
Hurried footsteps from the hallway followed the fifth ding. Determination flickered in her eyes, replacing the initial fear. With a neutral expression, she looked over her shoulder and saw the physician and two guards running over.
"Your Majesty!" said someone of the three from above. "What happened here?"
She motioned towards her sister. "Apparently, Princess Anna suffered a second-degree burn." She watched as the physician kneeled down and hurriedly took stock of her state. He didn't bother correcting her, so she was probably right. "I administered some ice, but it won't last forever." With a snap of her fingers, wisps of snow flew together with the clumps of sweat and flour. "I suggest that you also check the kitchens."
She wordlessly watched the physician nod to the guards and pulled herself up to her feet. One of them sagged down and gently took up her sister in his burly arms. He was taller than her by a head and very bulky, yet his eyes carried the notion that he was tasked with handling the finest china.
Elsa absentmindedly nodded to the other two men, who turned around and walked away. She stayed unmoved with a distant gaze, grappling with the realization. All it would ever take to destabilize her would be to pluck a hair off Anna's head. And she would never be able to let her sister's wellbeing go.
A probing 'ahem' and a few silent whispers made her aware that she was again in someone else's presence. Muffled thumps of polished boots sounded after. With a careless movement of her hand, she willed an icy tiara into existence, which gently nestled itself into her hair. A deep breath, and Elsa steadied herself, turning around to face the councilmen.
She looked over their faces. Some were curious, some were frightened, and some were gorgeously neutral and arrogant, not even looking in her direction. There was no small talk now, just hands resting on or near their chairs. Some were clutching binders. They all knew that she knew that they have seen Anna being carried away. Her eyes flitted over the faces once again, probing and unyielding.
Is this how it must be? The ruler presiding, and the heir being ordered away from the room? Only I'm not as gentle as our father.
Elsa realised it was misguided to dream of an alternate life of being in a circus, for she was in one all along. And the ice queen just introduced herself as the next performer for the night.
A few choice words for Anna and ideas for letters addressed to important people around the country were already lining up. For now, she put on a pleasant smile and motioned to the chairs.
"Thank you all for coming. Shall we begin?"
A/N: Appreciate reviews, good or bad :) Should have at least one more chapter.