I’ll let this speak for itself at the moment. More author’s notes below.

Elsa fretted silently as she walked around the bazaar, wishing she was better at this gift-getting thing. She was easy enough to buy for - a box of gourmet chocolates and she was happy as a clam for as long as they lasted (which wasn’t long). But her husband was tricky, and walking around a flea market hoping that she’d spot something he’d like was turning out to be a fruitless endeavor.

She looked up, blowing her platinum bangs out of her face with poorly concealed exasperation, only to meet an intense blue gaze. Blinking, she saw that a young woman, a redhead with a few white-blonde streaks dyed into her mane, was staring at her.

Narrowing her eyes, Elsa nibbled on her lip, trying to place the face. There was a feeling in her chest that seemed like recognition, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember if she’d seen the girl before. She gave a small smile and a tentative wave, hoping she was actually looking at her and this wasn’t about to be a waving at a stranger and making a fool of herself type of situation. The near-redhead blinked, seemingly surprised, gave a wistful sigh and waved back, the smile she gave unsettlingly morose. Elsa felt the urge to wrap the poor girl up in a hug, which surprised her. She wasn’t a very touchy-feely person, but she seemed like she needed it.

They neared each other, Elsa trying to look around at the stalls, but her gaze kept drawing over toward the girl. As she came closer, Elsa realized that she was more woman than girl, although the mistake wasn’t hard to explain given the youthfulness of her features aside from her eyes. And, Elsa saw, the closer she came, the more evident the sadness on her face was. When they finally stood in front of each other, Elsa had to resist the urge to reach out and touch her.

“Hi,” Elsa said softly, a sense of relief pulling her lips into a smile when the woman grinned and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

“Hi.” She sounded almost breathless, and infinitely excited to be talking to Elsa. It was refreshing, and Elsa felt her cheeks heat up from the pleasure of it. “Hi,” she repeated, her eyes taking in Elsa’s form in a way that was soothing rather than invasive, even as they swept up and down her body. “I’m Anna.”

Elsa’s eyes crinkled with warmth at the sound of the name. It was cute and suited the woman well. “Hello, Anna. I’m Elsa.”

Anna’s eyes widened and filled with disbelief, and then tears. Elsa took a step forward, concern building up in her chest, her hands fluttering at her sides, unsure of what to do. “Oh,” Anna gasped. “Oh, it’s…” She blinked and seemed to suddenly calm herself, leaving Elsa very confused. “It’s, um, very n-nice to meet you. Elsa.” Her name from Anna’s lips was exhaled like a prayer, and suddenly the heat of the day was nothing compared to the molten pulse emanating from Elsa’s stomach.

Their hands pressed together in greeting and a shock shuddered through Elsa’s body, the warmth in her belly flaring. The touch lingered and Anna bit her lip, Elsa’s eyes falling to catch the motion as Anna teased it with her teeth. “Are you alright, Anna?” The query came out as a whisper, and Elsa seemed to have gotten inordinately close to the redhead.

“I am now,” came the murmured reply, so quiet Elsa was sure it had only reached her ears by happenstance. Their eyes met again and the feelings raging inside Elsa grew so powerful that they were almost painful, and she had to let go of Anna’s hand.

The howling storm settled a bit, but Elsa felt an immediate urge to clasp Anna’s hand again. “Have I seen you around before…?” Elsa asked, perplexed when Anna shook her head, smiled shyly up at the blonde, and offered the crook of her arm. Elsa accepted the silent invitation and slipped her hand into the nook, letting Anna lead her down the aisles of stalls. She was too busy staring at this mysteriously familiar woman to notice the merchandise, now.

“Kinda. Sorta. Not really.” The redhead didn’t seem like she would elaborate on that, at least not just yet. “So, what brings you here?”

“Huh?” Elsa blinked and realized that Anna had looked back at her, and was grinning. She flushed and gave her a bashful smile before loosening her grip, realizing what she’d asked. “Oh. Um, I’m here to buy a present. It’s my husband’s birthday soon and I kind of procrastinated-” A sharp pain in Anna’s eyes was there and gone almost too quickly for Elsa to notice it, but notice she did.

“Ah,” Anna hummed noncommittally, her eyes wandering over the merchants. Elsa didn’t know how, but she could plainly see the sadness and tension return to the redhead’s body, despite not knowing the woman at all. She felt the urge to squeeze her arm in comfort, but it really wasn’t her place to do so.

She knew, though, that she had done something wrong. “S-sorry,” Elsa whispered, wincing when a sharp turn of Anna’s head had deep, dark eyes boring into her.

Then Anna blinked, and the brief cloud of darkness banished from her expression entirely, confusion replacing it. “Wait, what? What are you sorry for?”

“W-well –,” honestly, Elsa had no idea. A yawning pit of guilt had opened up beneath her at the slightest downturn of Anna’s sparkling smile, and intrinsically she’d known she was at fault, although her words had been innocuous enough. “I, I don’t know. I just, I felt as though I should apologize; I mean, that is, you seemed to be. Um. In need of one? An apology? One that I needed to give you, and-” The way Anna’s eyes squinted with laughter, and the curl of her pink lips, had Elsa blushing, and her hand dropped to her side. Once again she felt the distinct absence of something, and that lack made her want to touch Anna’s arm again; the strangeness of it halted her steps even as Anna kept moving forward. “I’m so sorry, I’m being weird. I’m not usually like this, I promise. Maybe I should go –”

“No, you’re fine, it’s fine,” Anna reassured her, retracing her steps and looking up at Elsa with a fond cant of her head and a quiet laugh. The stark contrast of Anna’s sudden grief and the airy happiness in that chuckle had Elsa’s head spinning. “Please. Walk with me.”

There was no hint of desperation in Anna’s tone, but Elsa felt an urgency in the words anyway. “Alright,” she said, the warmth in her belly bubbling up into her chest at Anna’s pleased look. The redhead didn’t offer her arm again when they started walking, instead pointing ahead towards a group of stalls Elsa had yet to visit.

“Maybe we can work together to find something for,” Anna trailed off, and Elsa realized she was waiting for a name.

“Daren,” she supplied, sliding her gaze to the side at the thought of him, biting her lip to keep from smiling too hard. “His name is Daren Luck.”

Anna barked out a laugh, throwing a grin at Elsa when she turned her gaze back to the redhead, confused. “Well, let’s see if we can find something for Mr. Luck.” A pause, and Anna brought her gaze forward, looking like she’d heard the funniest joke in the world. “What do you get a man who has everything?” Again, the soft comment didn’t quite seem meant for Elsa’s ears.

It seemed as though it would be a long time until Elsa heard the punchline.

They moved along, Anna enthusiastically leading the way like an adventurer looking for treasure. Unfortunately, their combined efforts yielded about as many results as Elsa’s solitary search had. There were little distractions that hindered them, and Elsa put as much focus talking about her life with her husband as she did searching. And then there were moments of blank-minded stomach-fluttering when their hands brushed reaching for the same thing, or when Anna’s shoulders shook with ill-concealed laughter, or when their eyes met glittering with a shared sense of wonder.

Now, Elsa picked through a pile of dusty old books while the vendor touting them snoozed on his stool. She tried not to sneeze as her eyes flicked over their spines, hyper aware that Anna had wandered off to the stall next door. With a sigh, she stopped running her fingers over the pages and nodded her thanks at the salesman, who muttered a sleepy ‘have a nice day’ at her. As much as her husband liked to read, she didn’t think he’d be interested in books on Scandinavian history, which was all this man seemed to be selling.

There was a tingling feeling at the base of Elsa’s spine and she turned just as Anna appeared at her side. “Hey,” she said, hands behind her back and eyebrows raised playfully. “Find anything fun?”

“That depends,” Elsa drawled, nodding towards the sad shelf she’d been perusing, “Does ‘Crown Whims and Farmers’ Endurance: Militarization, Over-Taxation and Farmers’ Resistance in Denmark-Norway, 1500 to 1800’ sound interesting to you?”

Anna pursed her lips in an attempt at a serious expression. “Delightful.” When Elsa giggled, Anna grinned and took a step closer, the air between them warm and playful. “I’m impressed you could recite the title after just glancing at it.”

Elsa was embarrassed at how pleased the compliment made her, and gave her own solemn nod in attempt to distract from her flushed cheeks. “I’ve had practice at memorizing completely useless things - it’s how I made it through university.” The way Anna’s shoulders rolled brought Elsa’s attention to the fact that her hands were fidgeting with something behind her back. “Did you find something?”

A sly look accompanied a swing of Anna’s hips that Elsa’s eyes followed with accidental ease. “Maybe,” she teased, and Elsa swallowed and brought her gaze back up to meet Anna’s. Amusement still shined in her eyes, and her lips were quirked, but a hint of the woman’s earlier melancholy was back. It frustrated Elsa to not be able to do anything about it, but she didn’t want to make Anna uncomfortable by pointing it out, either. “I don’t know if your husband will like it, but it’s pretty cool, so I figured I’d show it to you and you could decide for yourself, since, y’know, he’s your husband and all. So you’d be aware of what he likes.”

Was Anna… nervous? This sudden rambling, when earlier Elsa had been the one to stumble over her words and make a fool out of herself, was a bit jarring. Anna had seemed the type to be cool-headed, and have a natural ease with words. Still, it wasn’t bad to see her this way; in fact, it was a bit endearing. Elsa liked Anna’s pink cheeks, found her dropped gaze and murmured chatter adorable. “If you think it’s cool, I’d love to see it,” she reassured, and she had to clasp her hands together to keep them from trembling as Anna beamed at her.

When Anna brought her hands around to her front, Elsa’s heart jumped to her throat. She blinked away the sudden glaze over her eyes and realized the black velvet box was the size of Anna’s palm, a bit too big to be what she’d mistaken it for initially. Shaking off her surprise, she reached out and took it, carefully hefting it in her hand. It was heavier than she’d expected, even though she’d casted off her first, silly reaction that it had been a ring. “What’s this?”

“You might find out if you open it,” Anna advised. Elsa looked up to stick her tongue out at the woman and saw that she was watching her closely, an unreadable expression on her face. Realizing she was caught, Anna grinned and gently held onto Elsa’s forearms. “Go on.”

Ignoring the spark in her belly when Anna’s hands brushed her skin, Elsa slowly lifted the lid, gasping when a glint of silver sparkled in the sunlight. “Oh,” Elsa breathed, lifting the box closer to her face too peer at the contents inside. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”

It was a pocket watch, polished and shining, intricately engraved with swirling, naturalistic designs on the field of a coat of arms, a stag rearing in the foreground. The heraldry was brushed with gold inlay, manifesting most notably in the stag’s antlers, eyes, and hooves. Elsa was almost reluctant to touch it, in case she smudged it’s glossy face, but still she lifted it from its bed. Attached at the top was a long chain that pooled underneath it, and she cooed when she turned the watch and saw the silver, gold, and copper inner workings through the transparent glass backing. Thumbing the button at the top to open the clasp, Elsa let out another “Oh,” marveling at the ornate black hands that lay stark against the pearly sheen of the face of the watch, sweeping over glittering gold roman numerals indented slightly into it.

“It’s perfect,” Elsa looked up, practically glowing, any further words of admiration trapped in her throat. The wattage of her smile seemed to shock Anna, but Elsa couldn’t help it – the watch really was an ideal present for Daren, and exquisite otherwise. When Anna visibly swallowed Elsa tried to temper her grin, but then the redhead returned it - albeit with a more subdued smile, but a genuinely happy one all the same.

“I’m glad you like it,” she rasped, her voice low and quiet. Elsa took a step closer and pulled Anna into a hug, trying not to think about the fact that she was hugging a near stranger – or the fact that the embrace felt so familiar, and so, so right. Anna returned it with a marked hesitation that made Elsa pull back far earlier than she wanted to, but nothing in Anna’s expression revealed any discomfort, or even the sadness that had lingered throughout the time they’d walked together. In fact, Anna’s satisfied smile had grown deeper and more pronounced, her eyes narrowed and smoldering with joy.

“Where did you find it?” Elsa asked, dropping her gaze to the watch again, stroking over the bumps and valleys with the tip of her finger. It almost hurt to see how soft Anna looked in that moment.

“Got it from a stall down the way. It was just lying in a pile of stuff.”

“Oh!” Elsa fumbled and reached for her wallet, pausing when Anna’s feet came into her vision as she stepped closer and placed a warm hand on Elsa’s wrist. “How much do I–?”

“Nothing. You don’t owe me anything.” Furrowing her brow, Elsa chanced a peek at Anna’s face. She was still smiling. “Please, just take it. I insist.”

“I-” Elsa straightened, but realized it would be useless to argue when Anna affected a mock-stern expression and tweaked her nose. “Alright!” Elsa acquiesced, laughing and covering her nose to ‘save’ it from the threat of Anna’s pinching figures. “Thank you, so much.” She gave a content sigh and went to clap the watch shut and put it away. A glance told her the hour and minute hands were on the five and eight, respectively. Elsa’s eyes widened. “Oh no!” She groaned, shoving the velvet box into her bag. “I forgot I have to go pick up Krissy!” At Anna’s confused look, Elsa elaborated, “She’s my dog. My shaggy, stinky dog, who finally got herself a haircut.”

Anna stared at Elsa for a long second before she snorted, covering her face and giggling uncontrollably into her hands. Elsa ducked her head and smiled. Anna’s laughter was high-pitched and uninhibited and cute and threatened to be infectious. “Go, go. Rescue your poor dog!”

Even if she wanted to, Elsa couldn’t keep herself from smiling. “I’m really sorry to cut this short–”

“Really, it’s no problem.”

Elsa groaned again, biting her lip, but she knew that the whining she would have to deal with if she was late would be even worse on top of forcing her puppy into her summer coat. “Okay, okay,” she said, giving in and pulling out her phone, shooting a text to the groomer and quickly checking the messages that had piled up when she put it on silent and left it in her pocket for this venture. “I’ll see you later, alright?” She shot Anna another smile and squeezed her shoulder with the hand that wasn’t flicking through her email.

Anna’s returning grin looked strange somehow, but Elsa couldn’t tell why, and now she was flustered and distracted, the feeling only worsening when Anna hugged her, their foreheads pressing together for a moment before they pulled apart. “Bye, Elsa.”

“Goodbye.”

After Anna walked away, Elsa, despite the urgency that had come over her at the thought of being late, stood in place, lingering in front of the stalls. Some of the vendors seemed to be packing up, and patrons plodded by, those meandering towards the exit mixing with those taking a peek around. Elsa suddenly found that it was hard to breathe, that the sun beat down too hot, that beads of sweat seemed to be pooling in the corners of her eyes. Her hands fell to her sides, her hold on her phone slackening until she nearly dropped it. She peered into the crowd of people that seemed to swell in full force out of nowhere, but couldn’t catch a glimpse of red hair.

An unfathomable sharpness pulsed in her chest that, spiking up into her throat, made it impossible to swallow. She realized, with the agonizing slowness of a muddled brain, that she knew nothing about Anna apart from her name, had no way to contact or find her.

She had already said her first and last goodbye, and the lingering taste in her mouth was bitter loss.

And so begins the story of Anna and Elsa’s re-connection. Despite what Elsa believes here, this isn’t the last time she gets to see Anna. And yes, this is ultimately elsanna “endgame” - if this game has an end. I’m doing something a little different with this au, in that I’ll be revisiting it as often as I get ideas of my own for it, or headcanons/prompts from you lovely people. Some spoilers below the cut, including a synopsis of this series:

Queen Elsa of Arendelle ruled well, prospered, and lived a long, happy life. Her sister Anna lived an even longer one. She still lives - and sometimes, she wishes she didn’t.

This is technically a “canon” story, or at least canon compliant. I’ll leave the specific details out for further drabbles, but Anna is immortal and has survived to modern times. Elsa has reincarnated several times, and due to the nature of Anna’s immortality, she is drawn to Elsa’s ‘selves’. This is the first time that “Elsa’s” name has been the same (thus Anna’s surprise when she introduces herself). Yes, Elsa has a husband in modern times - I felt it prudent to have some differences in this Elsa and the one that ruled Arendelle, aside from the century they lived in. I do headcanon Queen Elsa as lesbian, and she will be in this fic when we visit that timeline in drabbles. In modern times she identifies as pansexual, and in her other lives she’s been ace, lesbian, and yes, even straight. There will be times when I write about these lives, and about Queen Elsa’s time, but the focus will be on this iteration of Elsa and her interactions with Anna.