Many Beauty and the Many Beast

by Felicity Collins

  I was wrong about Anna, though, she makes it look like she has full trust in me but she doesn't, maybe she did learn something after Hans' little showdown and considering I'm his sister… I noticed how much Anna's opinion counts for Elsa and how much she is influenced by her little sister. If I get Anna to trust me completely, maybe I could get Elsa to trust me as well. I was knocked out of my thoughts when I heard a knock on the door.

  "Who is it?" I asked sitting up with my back on the headrest

  "It's Anna" said a voice from out the door.

  "Come in" I said finishing a few details of the drawing. As I heard the door open and close, I looked up from the sketch and smiled at her. "Hey, Anna" I greeted.

  "Hi, Sky" she said smiling back "I hope I'm not disturbing you"

  "Oh, you can disturb me whenever you want"

  "Hu?"

  "Anything for my number one fan" I said with a friendly wink. Anna smiled widely.

  "Thank you, Sky"

  "Please, take a seat" I said patting the spot next to me on the bed. Anna seemed uncertain.

  "Shouldn't I seat on the armchair?" she asked.

  "I don't bite, Anna… only my psycho half-brothers" I said. Anna cracked a smile.

  "It's just that you're the Queen of Drakora and… the heroine of the Revolution…so…" I smiled at her unexpected shyness.

  "I thought I made it clear I didn't want such formalities when I told you to call me Sky or Skylynn. You don't need to be so formal around me, relax. As I said I don't bite" I smiled and patted the spot next to me again "Come take a seat" I repeated. Anna smiled again and walked to me sitting on the edge of the bed. "Much better" I said "Plus, it's weird having you treat me like I'm an elderly queen when I'm your age" I said. Anna laughed.

  "It is weird, I'm not usually that formal even with Elsa. About that, who do you think is older between the two of us?" she asked with a challenging smirk.

  "I think I am"

  "No, I think I am"

  "Month?"

  "July" I raised an eyebrow.

  "So am I" Anna eyed me with a playful suspicious face, holding back a laugh.

  "Hmm…I think you're older then" she said.

  "I hardly believe that. Day?" I asked.

  "25th" she answered

  "Told you" I said with a smile "28th"

  "Ha! I'm older!" Anna said raising her arms in victory

  "For 3 days" I added

  "It also makes me 3 years and 20 days younger than Elsa"

  "Yup…" Silence "Why are we discussing birth dates, again?" I asked

  "I don't know" Anna said as we laughed.

  "Now" I said with a clap of the hands "Back to business. I suppose you didn't come here just to see who was older between us, right?"

  "Right, I didn't- wait- what are you drawing? Oh, you're left-handed! I didn't notice" she said scooting closed to me as I showed her my drawing. "Wow, nice swan" she complimented.

  "Thank you" I said closing the sketchbook "So, you were saying?"

  "Oh, yes! Uhm… okay, this is actually kind of important" she said as her joyful expression became more serious. I looked at her with a small nod to let her understand I was listening. "I've been doing some thinking since we last saw Hans and well… I'm sorry, but I don't think he is going play nice and not try anything. So I talked to Elsa and she agreed to let you off the hook, meaning that Hans will still receive his punishment but if he tries anything funny he will pay for the consequences, not you. As the Queen of Arendelle, Elsa has the power to do so. But she also wanted this to remain a secret because, she… how should I put this?... she wants you to open your eyes, she can't understand how someone like you could be so attached to someone like him. Basically, she wants you to see Hans' true face, the one he showed us"

  "That is not his true face" I said sternly "And, Anna, if this had to be a secret, why are you telling me?"

  "Because as soon as Elsa agreed to letting you off the hook, I made some more thinking and it made me realize how familiar the situation you and Hans are in looks. It seems like it's me and Elsa again with other dynamics. You knew Hans before he came here, you claim to know him better than anyone else and you don't want him to shut you out. I know how it feels like" Anna paused "I know what it feels like to look up to someone whom you've lost track of, to look up to someone who shuts you out all of a sudden, I know how it feels like to look up to someone that somehow seems unreachable and although this person seems to want to have nothing to do with you, you believe in them and want to bring the real them back. It has been like this for me and Elsa and I believe it is the same for you and Hans. Our situations are so alike but at the same time so different. When Elsa thawed everything, for a moment I was afraid that she'd still be the 'Snow Queen' as in the 'frigid person' sense, but she wasn't. She's still the same Elsa that she was when we were kids, of course more mature, but-you know what I mean" I laughed a bit at the end.

  "Yeah… our situations are kind of alike. Difference is, Hans doesn't have ice-powers, he wants to shut me out because he wants to be left alone, he wants me to hate him. Elsa didn't want to, she shut you out to protect you, I'm sure it pained her to not be able to be there for you when you needed her. Your sister loves you very much, anyone can see that and your opinion matters to her. She an independent woman, building up to be a great leader, but whenever you open your mouth she listens and keeps your words in mind. Hans… he's just like- well-… I'm just like him. He's got a mind of his own, he is as stubborn as a donkey and our problem is that when we have an idea we don't listen to anyone. But we're very good people analyzers… which is confusing since to analyze people you need to listen to them even if you already have an idea about their personality"

  "Elsa sure didn't seem too keen on listening when I went to her ice palace" Anna commented

  "She was scared, Anna"

  "I know. If there's one thing I've learned is that people make bad choices if they're mad or scared or stressed, but once you give them a little love, you get to bring out their best" as soon as she said that something in my mind clicked. People make bad choices when they're mad or scared or stressed. Maybe Hans did what he did because… what if… hmm… "Sky?" Anna called.

  "Hu?" I said knocking myself out of my trance.

  "You zoned out"

  "Sorry, I just… what you just said got me to think" I said "Anyway, don't worry, I won't tell Elsa you told me and Hans won't know a thing"

  "Thank you" Anna said.

  "Little Sister Power, right?" I said holding my hand up for a high-five.

  "Right" Anna said giving me a high five with a smile. "So, today's the Autumn Festival, have you ever been to it?" Anna asked me.

  "No, I never got the pleasure. I've never been to Arendelle before and I've been too caught up with the 'Hans Situation' to go out"

  "You must come then" Anna said excitedly.

  "Well… I thought I'd stay here and go check on Hans, hopefully with Elsa's permission" I said.

  "Come on! It's going to be so much fun! You can dance, sing, play games- oh! You've got to come see Arendelle's traditional dances! Plus, Elsa wanted to ask you to join us anyway, you can't refuse an invitation from the Queen of Arendelle" I rolled my eyes with a small smile.

  "Alright" I agreed "But I'm not going to dance"

  "Don't tell me you can't dance!" Anna said.

  "No, I don't dance, it's different. Plus, I'll come in my uniform, it's not like men usually invite soldiers to dance"

  "But you're not a soldier, you're a queen"

  "Anna, you surprise me, I thought you knew everything about the Revolution"

  "I do!"

  "Then you know why I always wear a uniform" Anna thought for a moment.

  "No" she answered. I gave her a look and she seemed to get it "Oh, right! Landon, first promoted you to General, and then you became queen"

  "Bingo" I said with a smile "I may be a queen but I'm still the General of Drakora's army" Anna smiled.

  "We
ll, today I've also learnt something new, other than that I'm older than you"

  "Which is?" I asked.

  "Generals wear button-down shirts under the uniform jacket. I thought they'd wear plain shirts" I took a look down at myself and noticed that I wasn't wearing the jacket or the belt with the sword for that matter.

  "You know, with the ceremonial uniform I'm actually supposed to wear a cravat as well" I said. Anna wrinkled her nose.

  "Is it comfortable?" she asked not convinced.

  "I don't know. The only time I put on the ceremonial uniform I didn't wear it" Anna laughed.

  "And you didn't get in trouble for it? Rumor says you're very strict with your soldiers"

  "Landon closed an eye for his fiancé" I said smiling. Anna laughed, but then my smile faded at the thought of Landon… God, how I miss him… it's been a year, but… I miss him so much… Why him? It's not fair! He was just twenty!

  "Sky?" Anna asked placing her hand over mine "Are you okay?" she asked concerned. I nodded giving her a small smile.

  "Yeah, I'm okay"

  "ELSAAA! ELSA! I need to talk to you!" We heard someone yell from outside the room.

  "Why is your boyfriend calling your sister like a madman?" I asked, torn in between amused and perplexed.

  "I have no idea. This has been going on for a week. Kristoff comes back from the mountains and goes look for Elsa and it usually ends with her threatening to freeze him" Anna said "If I didn't know and trust them, I'd say they have an affair"

  "I'd say so too" Anna looked at me narrowing her eyes.

  "Elsa would never do that to me, and neither would Kristoff" I smiled at her.

  "I know. I'm sorry, it came out wrong, there was no mean subtext, I assure you" I clarified "Don't worry, he probably wants to surprise you and needs her help"

  "No, we don't have anything to celebrate, he probably needs her for the paperwork part of his job" she looked at me and I shrugged in response "Either way, I better go check. I don't want Elsa to freeze him like an icicle" I laughed

  "No problem. I'll see you this evening" I said as she skipped out of my room.

  "You bet. Later, Sky!" she said and got out of the door.

  Elsa's POV:

  It was almost time for the festival. This has been the longest day ever because of my queen work and Kristoff... Kristoff… argh! He was going to propose today and didn't leave me alone for a minute for a reason or another, mostly because of his nerves. Luckily for me, I finally earned myself a few hours of rest. I entered my room as slow as a sloth. There was just one thought on my mind: NAP TIME. As I got inside, I saw Anna sitting on her bed reading a book with her back against the headrest. As I walked towards her like a zombie, she looked up at me and saw my face… I don't know what it was like, but I know it must have been amusing to her.

  "You look gorgeous" she said stifling a laugh.

  "Thank you" I said tiredly, sitting on the edge of the bed next to her.

  "Rough day?" As an answer I closed my eyes and gradually leaned down until I was laying down resting my head on her lap. Anna laughed softly.

  "Exhausting" I answered placing a hand on her waist.

  "I noticed" she said closing her book and running her fingers through my hair, making sure not to mess up my braid. "Ask me for help next time?" she suggested.

  "Thank you" I said "Today has been awful…"

  "You wanna take a nap?" Anna asked me as she stroked my head. I nodded in response, making myself comfortable using her lap as a pillow.

  "Elsa!" I heard someone call from out of the room.

  "Oh, no! Please…" I complained, covering my face with a hand. There was a knock on the door and then Kristoff entered the room without waiting for an answer.

  "Oh, hi Anna!" he said as he saw her.

  "Hi Kristoff" she greeted back.

  "Well, since you're both here I'd like to talk to both of you, BUT about different things" he said "Anna, may I steal your sister for a minute?"

  "I don't know if she agrees" she said. I didn't give any life signs.

  "Elsa" he called. I didn't answer "Elsa?" Nothing "El-"

  "WHAT KRISTOFF?! WHAT?!" I shouted exasperated, abruptly satting up straight like a crazy lady, which I was at the moment. Kristoff looked at me intimidated.

  "Uhm… I need to talk to you for a moment?"

  "Listen, Bjorman" I said standing up "I had to wake up 5a.m. to finish some boring paperwork, I've held two important meetings, you've been calling me non-stop since you opened your eyes this morning, I didn't have a proper lunch because Olaf and Sven almost burnt down the festival grounds, I didn't get my afternoon nap because of you and your 'Elsa! Elsa! Elsa!' out of my door, I did NOT finish my last paperwork stuff because you kept calling for me to come help you, now what do you want?" Kristoff remained silent at my outburst. I looked back at Anna who was covering her mouth with her hands to stop herself from laughing, as I sat back next to her. Everything was calm until Kristoff spoke up, or tried to because I didn't let him speak "Kristoff, I have the responsibility of running a kingdom and yet, today you haven't done anything but bothering your queen while she was working" I took a deep breath and sighed to steam off "Wow…I envy you so much Kristoff, your mind is so… placid, straight-forward, barely used… Jeez, it must be nice not being me, it must be so relaxing…" I turned my attention back to a mute Ice Master "So Kristoff, after bothering your 24/7-on-duty queen for the whole day, what do you have to say to yourself?" I warned, but Kristoff either didn't get it or couldn't help himself.

  "You really didn't have your lunch today, have you?" I looked back at him with pure disbelief.

  "I'll have you for lunch!" I said as I created a snow ball and threw it at him as Anna busted out laughing in the background.

  "Well, no wonder why you're such an unaffectionate frigid icicle most of the time!" he said avoiding the second snowball "Oh yes! I can see you've got all the makings of a great queen" and Kristoff and his sarcasm ran out of the room to avoid the third big snowball. As he got out I readjusted my dress and hair and looked at Anna who was still snickering at me. She was about to say something but I preceded her

  "Don't say anything" I said "And don't laugh, you get it? I'm not in the mood" she raised her hands in surrender.

  "You need to rest, you work too much" she said and patted the spot next to her on the bed "We have at least three more hours of wait for the festival to start, take a nap" I immediately got back to my earlier position, as Anna got her book back and I slowly drifted into sleep with my little sister running her finger through my hair.

  When Anna woke me up after my nap, we spent some time getting ready for the festival. Anna put on a blue dress similar to the one she had at my coronation (it was my dress, though), while I put on a dress similar to my favorite ice one, it was dark green with no slit on the knee and put my hair in a bun like the one Anna had at my coronation. Then, as Anna put her hair up in a bun, I took a look at her… I was not convinced. Whether she knew it or not, this was a special night for her. I walked behind her while she was seated at her vanity doing her hair and placed my hands on her shoulders to make her look up. As she did I looked at her inquisitively, then I had an idea.

  "May I?" I asked motioning to her hair. Anna smiled.

  "Yeah, sure" she said letting me do her bun, only that I had other plans, I undid her bun and let her long red hair fall down her back. Anna was about to complain but I shushed her "Let the master do her work" I said, she grunted but let me continue. I grabbed the comb from the vanity and gently combed her hair, when I was done I asked her to turn towards me, so that I could fix her bangs. Then I took a lock of her hair on one side of her head and braided it, then I made the same with a lock on the other side, then I brought them to the middle of the back of her head and tied the braids together in a crown like way. When I was done with fixing up her hair, to give it a final touch, I dusted her head with my powers and created a few small ice pins on her small braids and randomly on her loo
se hair. When I was done, Anna looked at herself in the mirror.

  "There. That's much better" I said proudly.

  "Wow, thank you, Elsa" she said admiring her hair style. "Soo…" she said standing up "How do I look?" she asked twirling once.

  "You look beautiful" I told her as she smiled at me.

  "Do you think Kristoff is going to like it?"

  "He'll be head over heels for you, like he isn't already, anyway" Anna's eyes lit up as I said that, then she walked to me and gave me a hug which I gladly accepted.

  "What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

  "Aren't you waiting for Kristoff?" I said hiding a smile.

  "Oops, right" she said sheepishly, as if on cue someone knocked on the door. Anna looked at me grinning from ear to ear as her blue eyes lit up with excitement and she ran to the door as I followed her. As she opened the door I was surprised to see both Kristoff and Storm standing there. Kristoff had cleaned up well, though. It wasn't anything official, but as queen and princess of Arendelle it was our duty to show up at least once during these events; plus, Anna and I enjoy it. Usually I would have dreaded these events, but now that I've got my little sister back and I know how to control my powers, I can finally enjoy them. Anyway, Kristoff was wearing a blue shirt and dark blue leather vest, with matching pants and black boots, his blonde hair was swept to the side as usual, but you could see he tried to comb it. As soon as he saw Anna his jaw dropped, but he soon recovered. I felt some sort of pride in that moment. Anna smiled at him and walked to her soon-to-be-fiancé, which she didn't know yet, got to her tip of her toes and gave him a small kiss taking his arm.