My sister, myself

Chapter one

Upon a star

Anna stepped delicately onto the roof, holding the lift platform steady as it naturally swung against her weight. She grabbed the same spot she had grabbed a hundred times before, and soon she was on steady footing.

Climbing cautiously, she made her way up the roof, stepping only on stones she knew were solid. Soon, the steep slope flattened out, and she was on all but level ground. She laid down on her familiar spot and stared up at the stars, breathing in the night air.

You wouldn't expect the roof of a castle to be a good place to relax, but something about it just put her at ease. With the obvious exception of her sister's little palace, this was the tallest building in the kingdom. Up here, you could see every star in the sky. One time, Anna had tried to count them all, but she had quickly lost count and fallen asleep. It didn't really matter, anyway. It wasn't about how many there were, what mattered was that they were there.

Sometimes the stars felt so close she could almost touch them, and tonight was one of those nights. The sky was totally clear, and absolutely nothing stood between her and the sky. She was alone up here. Totally alone.

"So this is where you always sneak off to."

Mostly alone.

Anna sat up, turning towards the soft voice of her sister. Elsa stood there on the roof, the elevation accentuating her imposing height. A set of icy stairs, newly formed, melted away by her feet.

Anna chuckled, lying back down. "How'd you find me here, Elsa?"

Elsa smiled. "Come on, Anna. You aren't exactly the hardest person to follow."

She sat down next to Anna. She looked at her. "Is that comfortable, lying down on stone?"

Anna shrugged. "You get used to it."

Elsa leaned back, forming a tiny snowbank to serve as a pillow. She looked up to the stars as well.

Anna looked over at her. "So, how's the view?" she asked.

Elsa looked out at the town below them. "Not bad," she said.

Anna smirked. "Not that view, silly!" she said, tilting her sister's head upward. "This one."

Elsa stared straight up, eyes wide. "Wow," she said, not a trace of sarcasm in her voice. "That's magical."

Anna smiled. The sight of her sister in such awe was incredibly beautiful. "I would think the view from your palace is even better," she said.

Elsa laughed. "I've never stopped to look at it," she confessed.

"Maybe you should," Anna said. "This is where I come when I get too stressed and need to relax."

Elsa looked at her, a smile on her face. "You? Stressed?"

Anna elbowed her good-naturedly. "It happens," she said.

"When?"

She turned to Elsa. "From time to time."

Elsa chuckled again. "What do you have to be stressed about?"

Anna didn't reply.

Elsa stood up again. "You're Anna, the most beautiful princess in the world. You live in the prettiest kingdom in the world, and you hang out with the nicest guy in the world. You've got a perfect life."

Anna smiled. She stuck a hand out straight in front of her, and Elsa grabbed it, helping lift her to her feet.

"What about you, huh?" Anna returned, trying to pretend to get huffy even though she was grinning from ear to ear. "You're even better off than me. You're the most beautiful QUEEN in the world. You've got all that stuff I have, and, oh, I don't know, you can control ice! That sounds pretty cool to me."

For the first time, Elsa's grin faltered. "The ice isn't always a good thing, you know," she said, turning away.

Anna, realizing she had touched a nerve, immediately dialed back. "I know, I didn't mean to…Sorry, Elsa," she said, reaching for Elsa's arm.

Elsa turned back towards her, smiling again. "Don't worry about it," she said warmly. "Usually, it is a good thing, but…you know."

Anna nodded, although she wasn't totally sure she understood. Of course, she remembered when Elsa had almost frozen the kingdom, but she sensed there was more to it than that. Something that had happened in the past – maybe the same thing that had made Elsa turn away from her all those years ago. But Elsa never talked about it, and Anna wasn't going to pressure her.

Anna sighed, looking up into the sky. "You know, sis, sometimes I wish I could stand in your shoes – even for just a day. See what it's like being you."

It was kind of a weird thing to say, but Elsa nodded understandingly.

"I know what you mean," she said, gazing up at the sky as well. "I've wondered what it would be like to be you – to not have these powers, to have someone like Kristoff. To be…normal."

There was silence. Anna knew that what Elsa said had been very private. She felt sorry for her sister, but she could not fully say why.

Elsa looked at her. "I think it's past our bedtimes."

"Right," Anna said, heading towards the spot she had climbed up. "See you in the morning, Elsa," she said.

"See you," said Elsa, moving towards her stairs.

"Oh, and Elsa?" Anna called. "There is something else you have that I don't."

"What's that?"

"A perfect sister."

A snowball hit her in the back.

xxxxxxx

The clock chimed eight. Outside the window, a family of bluebirds chirped.

Elsa opened her eyes. The sunlight streaming through the window made her shut them immediately, and she opened them a crack, waiting for them to adjust to the light of the day.

Already, memories of her previous night's dreams were rapidly fleeing her. There had been something about her and Anna in a field of flowers, maybe?

She smiled at the half-memories she still had. Olaf had been there, and he had been playing a cello, which had looked pretty funny, since the bow was longer than his…

Something stopped her train of thought immediately. As her eyes opened wider, she realized that she was not in her bedroom. The bedsheets, the walls – pretty much everything in the room was pink.

This is Anna's room.

Now she was wide awake and nervous. She could have sworn she had gone to bed in her own room, and now here she was in Anna's. That night they had was supposed to be a one-time thing, and they were never even going to speak of-

Wait a minute.

Something else was off. Anna wasn't anywhere in here, and she never woke up before Elsa. Plus, she felt…different. It took her a moment to figure out the change she was feeling.

Warm. I feel warm.

Fearfully, she held her hand up in front of her face and tried to fire some ice from it. Nothing.

This was definitely not good. Waking up in a different room entirely, without her powers? What was going on?

Then she looked at the hand she was holding up. It looked very, very different. Her skin was pink, not pale.

And it was covered with freckles.

A mental picture was starting to form in Elsa's mind, and it wasn't good.

No. That's impossible. There is no way-

And then she saw something that unnerved her even more.

There was a lock of hair hanging down right in front of her eyes. Red hair.

Oh my god.

Quickly, Elsa scrambled to her feet, hurrying across the room to the desk with a mirror in the corner. She looked into the mirror.

Anna's face looked back at her.

Elsa recoiled from the mirror, bringing her hands to her mouth.

Oh my god.

She grabbed her own arm and pinched it. This had to be some sort of dream. A hallucination, anything.

She felt the pain of her grip, and yet the face in the mirror remained Anna's.

Elsa felt the world around her start spinning. She gripped the back of a chair for support, her knuckles turning white as she struggled to stay upright.

What's happening to me?