Chapter 23: Anna's new life.

Anna stirred in her sleep when sunlight pierced her eyelids. She didn't want to wake up yet; she was so comfy and warm under the covers! Of course, she knew she'd eventually have to get up and go have breakfast, but for now, she decided she wanted to spend a few more minutes in bed.

"I know you're already awake, Anna." Anna heard Elsa's voice saying, and felt a finger playfully poking her nose. She frowned and turned around, not wanting to get out of bed yet.

"Come on, don't pretend you're still asleep or I'll pour some snow under your shirt." She laughed with malice and, at the threat, Anna instantly turned around again and opened her eyes, not wanting to be the victim of her sister's powers. "Good." She smiled, and Anna noticed she was lying on bed with her, and remembered they'd slept together last night after their little chat. Before she could process anything else though, she felt a pair of lips on her own. It was an innocent kiss, much like those they shared when they were children, but it still surprised her and scared her. She thought for a moment that Elsa may want something more intimate, but as soon as it started, the kiss ended.

"Good morning, sis." Elsa said as she caressed Anna's cheek. Her hand was cold, but not unpleasantly so, so she didn't protest.

"Morning." She mumbled, still in the process of fully waking up.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah… and you?" She added the question as an afterthought, trying to be polite.

"Very." She answered with a tone of voice Anna couldn't quite identify (suggestive, maybe?) and a predatory look in her eyes.

"Oh. Great." She said awkwardly. She knew about her sister's feelings for her, of course. She'd tried to deny it multiple times, but they were quite obvious, and Elsa didn't have a problem expressing them freely. Still, they made her uncomfortable, more so because she saw Elsa purely as her sister, but now she had to comply with whatever she wanted. And… well, kissing was fine; weird, maybe, but she didn't have a problem with it. She was worried Elsa would ask more of her though.

"Come on, get up and dress yourself. I have plans for today." Elsa said before kissing her again, in the same manner as before, and getting out of bed herself. Then, she waved her hand and the nightgown she had been sleeping in turned into her usual ice dress. With that, she walked out of the room, leaving Anna alone.

The princess sighed in relief. For a moment she thought Elsa would stay and watch her undress. Maybe her sister still respected her, after all.

"So… what exactly have you got planned for today?" Anna asked once they had finished breakfast.

"Well, I was thinking about showing you the whole palace, if you're interested. We could also go for a walk around the mountains, but you probably wouldn't be able to withstand the cold for too long… so maybe we should stay inside." Elsa answered.

"Cold? I thought you had thawed Arendelle?" Anna said, disconcerted and worried Elsa wasn't going to keep her word.

"That's not how this works." Her sister sighed. "Yes, I'm thawing Arendelle, but it takes time. Besides, we're in the North Mountain! It's always snowing here, even without my help. Plus, if I were to dissipate the storm that surrounds my palace, Arendelle's army would be here in a matter of hours."

"Oh." Anna blinked. "Yeah, that makes sense." She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about it. "But… I would like to see Arendelle in summer again. Maybe we could use Jairah to watch it from above once it's completely thawed?"

"You don't think I'll keep my word?" Elsa narrowed her eyes, obviously upset, and the princess rushed to reassure her before she caused a storm in there.

"No, no, no! That's not it! I just…" She bit her lip, not wanting to make her mad, but also wishing she agreed to her request. At the end, she decided to take her chances. "I miss the sun, and the flowers, and the sight of the clear waters of the fjord." She shook her head and smiled with nostalgia. "I want to see them, at least once more."

At this, Elsa frowned and looked down, apparently deep in thought. Anna couldn't quite decipher her expression, but she guessed her sister was probably scared she'd want to leave once she saw Arendelle in full form, and… yeah, that was a possibility. Her previous life wouldn't sound so bad if she could at least enjoy summer and all that came with it. But she'd never just break her word! She was a Queen, and as such, she had honor. Plus, if she escaped, her sister would hunt her down anyways, so…

But before she could reassure Elsa, she spoke.

"Alright." Elsa sighed. "As soon as everything is thawed, I'll take you on a trip to Arendelle."

"Yay!" Anna exclaimed exited, jumped up and began her happy dance… until she realized her sister was staring at her like she was crazy, and she stopped and sat down again, smiling sheepishly. Elsa just shook her head and chuckled, probably not minding how childish her sister could still be sometimes.

"So, now that we've clarified that… are you ready to explore my palace?" Elsa asked, unable to hide the proud smirk that suddenly appeared on her face.

"You mean the impenetrable fortress no one but you and Percival have ever seen? You bet!"

"As you probably know already, this is the main hall." Elsa explained as they entered. They'd already explored the gardens (if you can call a very impressive collection of icicles that), the stable (which contained only Jairah and a snow horse), the armory and the library, but still weren't even close to having seen all of the palace. "The majority of the statues you see are made purely out of ice, but with others I used plants or parts of animals to decorate them." She stopped next to a statue representing a reindeer. "As you can see, the antlers are natural."

"So this is what the Ice Queen does with her free time: decorating." Anna chuckled. "Arendelle's councilmen wouldn't be so worried about you if they knew."

"Maybe… but what if I told you some of these statues contain human parts?" Elsa said with a sinister smile. Anna turned to look at the statues, and gulped when she noticed some of them (especially those resembling humans) had real hair or even eyes, and wondered if those were from real people... that is, until Elsa started laughing.

"You should have seen your face!" She mocked her. "Rest assured, I'm not a barbarian. I'd never do something so macabre."

"Oh. Good." Anna smiled awkwardly. Truth to be told, it wouldn't have surprised her so much.

"Come on, let's keep going." Elsa signaled her to follow her and led her upstairs. There, she showed her Percival's room and some kind of vault where they kept food, money, jewels and just about anything they either found on the mountains or stole from people. Then, they went up another set of stairs, where they entered through a pair of large doors and saw… a big, empty room.

Well, it wasn't exactly empty. It had some columns around its perimeter, kind of resembling those in Arendelle's palace's ballroom, and a massive chandelier on the roof, whose form reminded Anna of a snowflake, if a little distorted to look intimidating. At the floor, there were icicles and frost covering what was probably once a smooth icy surface, but had decayed with disuse. She wondered what the hell was this place.

"This is the… uh… ice rink? Ballroom? I wasn't so sure when I built it, to be honest." Elsa explained. "I never even used it anyways, so if you want, this can become your personal study, or chocolate storage, or whatever."

"Uhm… can you turn it into an ice rink again?" Anna asked excitedly. "It's been ages since I last skated."

"I don't know. Let me try." Her sister answered, something Anna found very odd. After all, how difficult could it really be to turn the floor smooth again? Specially for someone who had made the entire palace in less than a day!

Well, apparently it was harder than Anna imagined, because Elsa closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, yet all she managed to do was make some of the icicles crumble into snow. This surprised Anna quite a bit; she remembered her sister having way better control of her powers when they were kids.

"Elsa? Are you okay?" Anna asked, placing her hand over Elsa's shoulder. Instantly, all the frost and icicles disappeared and the ice became smoother than that of any frozen lake Anna had ever seen. Her sister opened her eyes and stumbled backwards a bit, looking very confused when she noticed what she had just done. This confusion only lasted for a second though, and then she turned to Anna wearing an arrogant expression.

"Of course I'm fine! I was just having a hard time concentrating, that's all." Anna looked at her with a doubtful expression, wondering what the hell was going on with her magic, but she had no time to question it because suddenly, a pair of skates made of ice appeared on her feet. "Well, didn't you say you wanted to skate?"

"Of course!" She answered immediately, sounding as excited as ever… and then paused, realizing there was something that would make her even happier than simply skating. "But… only of you skate with me."

"No, thank you." Elsa answered, crossing her arms and going to recline on one column. "I don't do that sort of thing anymore. You go have fun."

"But Elsa…"

"Really Anna, I'm the Ice Queen. I have a reputation to maintain." She stayed firm, even though Anna was almost sure she would agree eventually. After all, her sister always loved playing with ice.

"There's no one here! Only me, and I saw you pee your bed multiple times when we were kids. Your reputation is pretty much ruined already." Anna answered, deciding to tease her a bit, as she started skating around.

"I-I was like… f-four!" Elsa said, blushing furiously and deviating her gaze. "And I only did that when there was a storm outside."

"Oh, so the Ice Queen is scared of storms?" Anna smirked, enjoying the teasing a little too much.

"I'm not!" Her sister pouted, obviously starting to get a little angry.

"I think you are." She chuckled. "And besides, the last time you peed your bed, you weren't four, but like… ten? Or twelve? I don't quite remember."

"Y-you're lying!" Elsa blushed even more.

"Really? Then why was there a puddle on your bed?" She said, stopping in front of her sister and poking her ribs before skating away.

"I froze it on accident! The ice melted!" She tried to defend herself, but there was no use; her little sister was laughing like crazy. "Stop laughing! I-I'm gonna…"

"What are you going to do, oh mighty Ice-Queen-who-is-afraid-of-storms?" She continued her unrelenting teasing.

"You'll see!" Elsa smirked sinisterly before making skates appear under her feet and starting to chase Anna, who let out a tiny shriek when she saw this before trying to go faster.

Of course, you can't just run away from the Ice Queen while skating on ice and expect to outrun her. Sure, at first she managed to avoid being captured by her sister, but after she made some sharp turns and managed to evade her in the last second, Elsa started making obstacles appear in front of her, making her almost collide with a solid block of ice more than a couple of times. Then, when it was apparent this wouldn't make Anna slow down, Elsa decided to propel herself using her powers and capture her this way.

Seeing her sister pretty much jump over her, Anna squealed and was barely able to brace herself for the impact she'd feel once she made contact with the hard icy floor… except she didn't. Instead, she landed on a soft pillow of freshly made snow. She had little time to breathe, however, because immediately after, she was assaulted by a merciless attack of tickles on her stomach.

She laughed and trashed around, trying to throw her sister off her, but Elsa was strong and relentless. And, more importantly, she was up for revenge. After a little while, Anna was getting out of breath, and her ribs hurt quite a bit. She didn't want to keep laughing, and she wanted to end the tickling torture, but she couldn't just fight Elsa, so she decided to beg.

"Elsa!" She said between laughs. "P-please, stop!"

"Not until you admit you were lying about me peeing on my bed!" She answered, obviously enjoying tickling her sister.

"I was lying! You win!" She said, trying to hold back the tears that appeared on her eyes from laughing so much.

"And you have to promise not to tell anyone such things." She added, profiting on the fact she had her sister at her mercy.

"I promise! Just, please…" As soon as those words left her mouth, the unrelenting torture stopped, and she was able to breathe, slowly regaining composure, her heartrate slowing down.

Once she had finally calmed down, she smiled and looked up at her sister, realizing she was still straddling her. She chuckled. She hadn't felt so happy in a long time! Ever since Elsa left her childhood behind and stopped playing with her. She had missed her sister so much! And now she had her back. Sure, maybe she was her prisoner-slave, but it really didn't feel like she was captive. More like she was spending some quality time with the only family she had left.

"Do you mind?" Anna said on a playful tone. "I'd like to get up before I get frostbite from lying on the snow."

"Did you learn your lesson? It's never a good idea to tease the Ice Queen." Elsa answered arrogantly.

"Oh, but it was." Anna answered with a gleeful tone, looking at her sister with a gentle gaze. When Elsa tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, confused, she explained herself. "It got you to skate with me." Anna raised her hand and brushed Elsa's bangs off her face, in order to see better her beautiful sky-blue eyes, so similar to their mother's. And she saw love in them; deep affection that could not possibly be faked or corrupted by hatred or anger. And she felt hope. Hope that maybe, one day, her sister would turn good again, and they would be happy together.

That is, until she felt a pair on lips on her own. It was very different from their kisses as children, or even those they'd shared that very morning. It wasn't tender, brief and innocent; it was passionate, strong and persistent. Elsa's lips moved against her own with certain ferocity that made her feel uncomfortable. More so, after a while she tried to pry her lips open using her tongue, and though she tried to resist, Elsa's tenacity made her open up against her will.

She didn't like it one bit. The way her sister's saliva mixed with her own grossed her out. How she pressed their bodies together in a pretty suggestive way made her want to push her away. And her moans and happy expression while doing all of this only made everything worse.

But worst of all was, if she closed her eyes, she could easily compare this to all the times she'd laid with Hans. The first time she had been anxious and unexperienced, but then she was afraid, and dreaded the night. He never hurt her, not really, but she didn't want to be with him… and yet knew it was her duty, and it was futile to resist, and she didn't want him to get mad at her.

In that moment, she felt the exact same thing. Disgust, impotence, fear and, deep down, a spark of anger. She wanted to cry, but didn't. She wanted to cry because, though at first she'd thought she'd finally escaped her former life and had found a better one here with her sister, now she realized some things never change.

A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long to update! I was busy with the Elsanna week, and I got sick this month. Twice. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please review or favorite/follow if you haven't. Well, that's all for today, thanks for reading :)

Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.