A/N- Speedwrite written for elsanna week over on tumblr. Day one: wedding day.
Not the Marrying Sort
by Nina Windia
SCANDALOUS LIASON BETWEEN PRINCESS ANNA AND LORD FERRY
Late One Thursday Evening, HRS Princess Anna Caught Cinched In a Passionate Embrace With Lord Ferry. More Proof Of Secret Royal Romance?
Elsa reads no further than the subtitle. Pinching the cartilage of her nose, she lets her copy of the Arendelle Gazette flop down onto the desk.
There's a knock at the door.
"Come in, Kai," Elsa sighs.
The study door opens, and Kai brings in the clattering tea tray, setting it on the desk. Elsa folds the broadsheet in half and holds it up.
"Have you seen this?" she says.
Kai finishes pouring her tea (with two sugars, a dash of milk, just as she likes it). He glances up, amusement in the curl of his mouth. "Yes, Ma'am. I believe that's Princess Anna's third secret romance?"
"Four, I counted," says Elsa, folding the paper away.
"The people are very eager for the prospect of a royal wedding," Kai hedges.
"So I've gathered." A pained look steals over Elsa's face, and she takes a sip of her tea. "Thank you Kai."
He inclines his head, tucking the tray beneath his arm. "Your Highness."
"Found out about my new secret lover, have you?" Anna stands with her hip against the doorway, and a roguish grin. She sashays over towards Elsa and slips up onto the desk. "I don't know where I keep them all."
A noise of amusement from Kai. "I'll give you some privacy, Highnesses."
Anna motions him away playfully with her hand. "Begone. My sister and I must discuss further liaisons."
When the door clicks closed, and Kai's footsteps pad away, Anna leans forward to kiss Elsa on the mouth.
"And what am I, lover number five?" Elsa teases.
"Mnn. No, I want you all to myself." Anna tugs Elsa's reading spectacles off from where they rest on the bridge of her nose. "Have I told you how cute you look in spectacles?"
"Multiple times."
"Let me tell you again: you look cute." Anna pushes her hair back, and slides on the spectacles herself. "Not as cute as me, though."
Elsa rolls her eyes. "Was there something you wanted, or did you just interrupt my work to steal my glasses?"
"Oh, I apologise, your Majesty. Didn't realise I should have joined the waiting list. I should leave her Queenship to her gossip magazines..."
The problem with sisters, Elsa considers, is that even grown up, they never stop teasing.
Add being lovers into the mix, and there's never a moment's peace.
"Wait." Her fingers hook around Anna's wrist as she moves to slide down from the desk. "Keep me company. I'm bored stiff."
"I thought you just were a stiff."
"Hah-hah, Anna."
Anna slips off the glasses and puts them back on Elsa's nose, examining her face carefully. "What's up?"
"What do you mean, what's up?"
"You look kinda tense," Anna says. Her tone turns sly. "You're not really concerned I'm ditching you for Lord Somebody of Somewhere, are you? Always knew you were the jealous type, Els."
"Of course not." Adding: "You've got better taste than that."
"Hah!"
Elsa prods at the broadsheet. "What on earth are they on about, anyway? 'Cinched in passionate embrace.'"
"Well, I don't know about it being passionate. He tried to steal a kiss and I kicked him in the goolies."
Passionate, indeed. "More top-notch journalism from our favourite national newspaper." She takes a drink of her tea.
Anna hesitates. "Does it bother you?"
"Does what bother me?"
"Elsa, you know what I mean." Anna breathes out. "You're so obvious when you're being obtuse. I'm talking about all the stuff they write about me."
Elsa's fingers trace the rosemaling on her teacup. "I'd much rather the people think you've a crush on Ferry than hit on the truth."
Anna chuckles. "Oh, geez. I wonder what they'd write if they knew who my lover really was. They'd have a field day. Or a field year."
"Hm." Elsa doesn't smile.
The press, generally, leave her alone. Whether because of the marker of her ice powers, or her aloofness with suitors, the people speak of Elsa as Not the Marrying Sort. Anna, however, single-handedly crushed the population when she called her engagement with Kristoff off. Elsa considers: her poor sister can't say a single word to a man without tongues wagging. The constant question: when is the royal wedding?
Does it bother Elsa? Yes. But maybe not for the reason Anna is thinking of.
"Elsa." Gentle hands cup her face and pull her from her stupor. "Tell me what's wrong. You know I can't stand it when you don't tell me what you're thinking."
She shoots her sister a weak glare. "Damn it, Anna. You got me. I hate how you can read me like a book."
"From cover to spine," Anna says, in a sing-song voice. "Now spill it."
She stares at her fingers, notices they're tangled themselves up. Pulls them apart. "It's just... I've always known how much you've wanted a big white wedding. And I feel like..."
"Go on."
She breathes: "Like I've taken that opportunity away from you."
Anna kisses her, hard. "Just like you to worry about something like that. You dork, Elsa. I don't need a white wedding, or any of that stuff. I just need you. I love you."
Anna shifts from the desk into her lap, and Elsa succumbs under her sister's touch. "I love you too," she murmurs.
Anna cups her cheeks with her hands. "So you're going to stop worrying about this?"
"Maybe... if someone was to help me forget..." Elsa trails off, pointedly.
Anna's eyebrows rise. "You vixen."
The paperwork is long forgotten. Elsa stops worrying. But an idea grows inside her like a bud: perhaps, there is a way Anna can have her white wedding...
Months later, the conversation about marriage long forgotten and waiting for Elsa to come to bed in their room, Anna finds a note shoved underneath the door.
How old are we now, Elsa? she thinks.
But she unfolds the note out of curiosity and reads:
Anna,
Meet me in the chapel at midnight.
-E
P.S- look in the closet.
How mysterious.
She moves to the closet and opens the doors.
And Anna's mouth drops.
Elsa's nervous. So much planning and preparation, and still she worries: What if something goes wrong? What if it's not perfect?
For Anna, she wants very much for this to be perfect.
Hours have been spent decorating the chapel. Trails of icy flowers trickle from the pews. A table is set with a feast for two, prepared by Marie, their bemused chef. "Let me confirm, your Highness. You want sandwiches, ice cream rolls, and bundt cake?", "Uh. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate."
The cake, Elsa baked herself. In the kitchens, at two in the morning. In the yellow light of of a lamp almost out of oil.
Elsa tugs at her dress, it too spun from ice. She can't decide whether to put the veil up or down. Should she even have worn a dress? Maybe she should have worn a suit. What would Anna have preferred?
Looking out over the empty pews, she can't help but wonder: is it enough? Anna must have imagined her wedding surrounded by friends and family and laughter. Not just her and her sister, alone in the dark.
They never meant to fall in love.
Just when Elsa's hands start to shake, and she starts to think that this is all stupid, a mistake, that she should take the note before Anna sees it-
She hears the creak of the chapel doors.
"Elsa."
Elsa can hear the blood pounding at her temple. Anna stands shyly in the doorway, in the gown she had tailored for her, secretly, begging her sister's measurements out of the royal tailor.
She swallows dryly. "You look beautiful."
Anna's eyes roam around the chapel, taking in Elsa's handiwork in amazement. "Suddenly I understand why you've behaving so sneakily the last few days."
Elsa's voice seems to have vanished. "I- I wanted it to be a surprise," she manages out.
Tap. Tap. Tap. The click of Anna's shoes as she traverses the long dark space between them. "You know, Elsa. Most people propose first," she says, with a twist of amusement.
"...Oh. Right. Sorry. I guess I should have thought-"
Anna clasps her hands. Tightly. Eliminates the space between them. "Yes."
"-this through properly- huh?"
"Yes. You didn't really think I was going to say no, did you?"
Elsa smiles, so tightly that it hurts.
Managing to tear their eyes away from one another, Anna gazes around. "I've never seen the chapel look this gorgeous. You've gone to so much trouble."
"I know you said you didn't care about getting married. But, I remember how much you used to talk about it when we were little. And how excited you were, when you got en-" Elsa stops herself, just in time. "Of course, this won't be anything official, but..."
"It's perfect, Elsa."
Elsa pushes back the tears. "Really?"
"I'll be honest." Anna blows a strand of hair out of her face, grinning crookedly. "It's true. I have always wanted to get married. When I was a kid that's what I dreamt of: the big white wedding, cliché and all. But... after what happened with- with that guy we don't speak of- I realised I was wrong. I don't care about official bits of paper, or even about cakes and veils and confetti. When it comes down to it, what I've really always wanted... is just to say I do. To say I'm ready to spend the rest of my life with someone. With you, Elsa."
Elsa can hardly speak. She clasps her sister, tightly. In the murmur of candlelight, they hold one another.
She keeps her tone light, but there's a nervous tightness in Anna's voice as she asks: "So...how are we doing this?"
Elsa fumbles the crumpled bits of paper she's gone over a hundred times. "I, uh, wrote us some vows."
"You don't do things by half, huh Elsa?"
"I thought you could amend yours, if... if you wanted."
Anna scans through her vows. She smiles. "I might change a few things here and there." She clears her throat.
"I, Anna Arendelle, take you, Elsa Arendelle, to be my-" she glanced up at Elsa from the paper, smiling- "not-so lawfully wedded wife, my constant friend, faithful partner and my love from this day forward. I offer you my- solemn vow-" she pulls a deep, morose voice.
"Anna!" Elsa hisses.
"Sorry. I mean my, very solemn vow, to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as sorrow. In times of chocolate, and when there is no chocolate..."
"You can't ever be serious, can you?" Elsa hisses, rolling her eyes.
"And that's why you love me. Ahem. I promise to love you unconditionally, and cherish you for as long as we both shall live." Finishing, she squeezes Elsa's hands. "Forever."
The tears are in full flow now, and Anna prods her. "Your go, silly."
"R-right." She fumbles with her vows, struggling to read with blurry vision. "I, Elsa Arendelle, take you, Anna Arendelle, to be my lawfully wedded wife, my constant friend-" The lines blur together, and become indistinct. Elsa takes a deep breath, and throws the vows away.
She has never really needed them.
"I promise you that I will always love you, Anna. That I will never shut you out. Never close the gates. You are my sister, my best friend, and my one true love. No one understands me better than you do. I... I remember seeing your face for the first time, just minutes after you were born. And I hope it'll be the last thing I ever see, too. You are my everything."
Now they're both crying.
"So..." Anna wipes away the tears from her puffy eyes. "Who says, we may now kiss the bride...?"
"Oh, who cares?" says Elsa, kissing her tenderly.
Yes, she decides. It's enough. More than enough.