Prompt 5: Elsa + Colors

The color of the ice in Elsa's ice palace reflects her mood. Anna picks up on this using a ship's spyglass. She deals with her sister accordingly.

Anna had never been more glad that her bedroom window faced the north mountain. It had disappointed her somewhat as a child, because it made it hard to watch sunrises and sunsets during the summer. But now, there was something much more lovely to observe, and it didn't disappear like the evening and morning light. No, now she had a supremely beautiful sight to gaze upon: her sister's ice castle, clinging to the austere mountainside like a droplet of dew on a leaf. She'd begged a spyglass from the admiral, and it rested on her windowsill now. She had developed a habit of observing it for a few minutes at night, amazed at how it seemed to emit its own light – like some sort of enormous cold star fallen to earth. The light blue gleamed through the night, and Anna settled into her window seat to watch it shine. Though she'd already admired it for weeks, the girl never tired of examining the architecture and shimmering facets in the ice through her glass.

Tonight, however, something different caught her eye. A flash of red spiked at the corner of her field of view. She moved her spyglass to find it, but it was gone. Intrigued, she scanned slowly over the castle to see if it would reappear. Anna resumed admiring the spires after several minutes passed with no sign of the red flare, chalking the anomaly up to her imagination. She retired that night completely unconcerned.

Her ambivalence did not last, however, for she saw two flashes of red the next night. Curious about the change in color, Anna began to check on the ice palace even throughout the day. She thought it could just be the sunshine playing with the hue, but there were flashes of red, yellow, and even purple now and then. They did not overtake the normal light blue, though. At least, not until a night roughly two weeks after Elsa's return to Arendelle.

Anna sat on the window seat in her room late at night, watching the ice castle intently. The red came most often at night, after all. It was beautiful, but something about it didn't seem quite right. Tonight more than anything it felt like something was wrong. Instead of transient flashes as before, the red spiked up in the castle and stayed, and darkened the walls as if with splashes of blood. It pulsed as if it were a massive heart, yet trembled like firelight in the darkness. Anna could see the redness even without her spyglass. It worried her – this transition from the normal blue to something so ominous. Elsa would know what's going on; it's her castle.

Anna treaded quietly down the silent hallway, approaching her sister's door. The ice castle was bright enough to cast a red glow through the windows in the hallway and it was decidedly creepy. Anna picked her pace up, not understanding her unease yet knowing Elsa would make it better. Elsa always makes it better, she thought as she arrived at the white door. Not bothering to knock, she quietly turned the handle and let herself in.

Anna gasped in shock at the state of Elsa's room. Purple and red ice spikes littered the area like a tangled mess of brambles. She looked quickly to Elsa's bed but found it empty. Her eyes had barely narrowed in confusion when she heard it: a small sound from the farthest corner of the room. Anna leaned up on her tiptoes to see better and there, looking very small huddled in the corner like that, was Elsa. The young queen was in her nightgown as well, but her hair was a ragged mess as if she had dragged her fingers through it and clenched it in her fists. Anna couldn't see the state of her face as she was wedged in the corner with her face to the wall. Her hands too were out of sight, probably curled up against her chest in that desperately frightened position that hurt Anna's heart so badly whenever she saw it. She wasn't sure, but Elsa looked to be trembling.

The sight of her sister's suffering lent strength to Anna's limbs as she climbed carefully over the tangle of ice. Snow swirled in a cold wind around her, muffling her footsteps. She was almost within reach of Elsa when she spoke her name quietly. The reaction was instantaneous. Elsa's head snapped to face Anna and terrified, tear-filled eyes met hers.

"Anna?" Elsa choked, cowering even closer to the wall. "Anna… how did you… No! I… you can't… I'll hurt you! P-please… please don't… you need to go!" It seemed to hurt Elsa even just to speak. As expected, her arms with white-knuckled fists were folded protectively across her body. Frozen tears glimmered on the fair skin of her chin and neck. She was indeed shaking badly, straining to get farther away from Anna. The princess frowned, compassion and concern lighting her eyes.

"Oh Elsa, what's wrong?" she whispered gently, barely restraining herself from moving forward – she knew it would only terrify her fragile sister even more.

"Y-you have to go…" Elsa gritted out miserably. "I can't keep you safe right now. I'm so… so sorry Anna. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Elsa let her head sink in despair.

"It's okay," she murmured as gently as she could. She edged a single step closer but stopped when Elsa reacted violently.

"NO!" Elsa slammed her hands and her head into the corner of the wall, wincing at the pain but desperate to keep herself away from Anna. Ice spread up the wall from where her hands struck it and Anna's eyes widened at the sight of it. The ice was glowing a bright red. She glanced behind herself to find that the majority of the spikes had adopted the color as well. Anna gasped in sudden understanding.

"P-please," Elsa stuttered out. "I j-just want to keep you safe. I'm so sorry, Anna. I-" but she was cut off the instant warm arms plucked her from the corner and she found herself captured in an unexpected embrace. She cried out in fright and tried to get away, but her hands were trapped against her body. She felt herself hauled away from the wall and pressed to the ground instead. For a moment the cold around her body increased, but it couldn't last with that much warmth against her. Anna had unceremoniously grabbed and shoved her sister to the floor and all but fell on top of her, holding her tightly.

"Shh, it's all right," Anna breathed into Elsa's ear before the older girl could do more than whimper. "I've got you, Elsa. It's okay. You're okay. I'm okay. I love you, Elsa." And with that, Elsa broke. The stiffness drained from her body like water from a shattered jug. She let Anna shift to lie beside her and continue to hold her. It was not like she could have resisted; the heaving sobs racking Elsa's body were so deep and violent that she choked and gagged a bit. She could barely breathe. Anna rubbed Elsa's back until her misery was reduced to small whimpers. Then Anna sat up and gathered the slim, chilly body into her arms and began to rock Elsa back and forth, stroking her matted hair with one hand to calm her. Anna continued to hold her sister close and watched in wonder as the ice that had changed back to purple began fading into blue.

"It's blue when you're okay," she whispered in understanding. "And it's purple when you're sad. And it's red when…"

"When I'm afraid," Elsa replied quietly. "Red's supposed to be for anger… but for me it's for fear."

"What happened?" Anna asked once more, much more hopeful for an answer this time.

"I… I'm not sure. I guess I was just… thinking. About how much I've hurt you. I was convinced that you… you couldn't love me after all I did. After I hurt you when we were kids and became the reason you were locked in the castle and then I hurt you again and I'm still not-"

"Stop!" Anna interrupted, tears threatening her own eyes. Why do you carry so much guilt? The ice spikes that had been diminishing and becoming blue were purple again. "Stop, Elsa," she repeated more gently. "I forgive you. I really do. For everything. It's over now. I don't want you to feel guilty anymore. You mean the world to me, Elsa. I love you so so much. I don't want you to end up like this ever again, so please tell me when you start to feel like this. Because you can't hide it from me. I'll know."

"H-how?" Elsa murmured in confusion. "How did you know I was… like this?"

"Your ice palace," Anna replied sheepishly. "It turned red and I just felt like something was wrong. And I'm so glad I decided to check it out."

"Me too," Elsa replied quietly. Her eyes were closed as she let the guilt and shame melt away in Anna's embrace. She wasn't crying anymore, though the frozen tears were still slowly thawing and dripping from her face. The ice in her room was disappearing, and what remained of it had turned a light blue once more. This brought a soft smile to Anna's face.

"Come on," she urged, standing and helping Elsa to her feet. The queen swayed with exhaustion; the panic attack had clearly taken a lot out of her. Anna led her to her bed and helped her get settled in. She gently wiped the last of Elsa's tears away with warm hands before crawling in beside her.

"I'm not leaving you alone tonight," Anna informed her sister non-negotiably. Elsa simply nodded and closed her eyes, but a little smile showed how glad she was to not be on her own. The younger girl smiled as well and took Elsa's hand, rendering it surprisingly warm. Elsa turned to her side and reached hopefully into the darkness, wordlessly asking for Anna to come close. She was not disappointed and soon found herself enveloped in her sister's warm arms again.

If Anna had been in any position to look at the ice castle late that night, she would have found it to be devoid of any red or purple. Instead, it was such a light blue that it almost looked white, and until Elsa was fully asleep it shone brightly enough to cast shadows in Arendelle.