This was supposed to be short but it ended up longer than I expected. Ah well. This is the first Frozen fic I've written, so if there are any character discrepancies or i could do something better, please tell me! I want to improve and writing someone else's characters is kind of like getting to know new people.

Oh yeah, disclaimer: I don't own anything, Frozen is property of Disney, etc etc you get my drift (har har).

Hope you enjoy 3

Elsa had locked Anna out again.

This time, it wasn't quite so obvious. The door was still open, and if she knocked, she usually received a reply. No, this was a change in attitude. Instead of seeking her younger sister out, Elsa had begun to wait for Anna to come to her. There were no fast-paced conversations or excited gossip about Arendelle. Now when Anna went to see her elder sister, she found the queen thoroughly engrossed in stacks upon stacks of paper, and could hardly pull a full sentence from her.

If it had simply been royal business, she might have left it alone, but it wasn't just that. When she wasn't in meetings, signing papers, or handling royal business, she had either slept or sought Anna out. Now, she was rarely asleep –Anna had checked on multiple occasions— and absent entirely when she had nothing to attend to. On the rare occasions that Anna ran into her, Elsa exchanged a few brief, polite words before excusing herself to run off somewhere else.

Anna had been shut out before, and she'd be damned if she let Elsa do it again.

So, on a particularly boring day where she knew that her elder sister would have a preposterous amount of paperwork to do, she ambushed her.

"Elsa?" she asked, nudging her way into the room. Blue eyes glanced briefly at her before returning to the paper.

"Hello, Anna," the queen replied, serene and polite as ever. "What can I do for you?"

There it was. That cold, aloof persona that Anna despised so much, not because it was a royal one, but because it was not how Elsa treated her usually. "Can you – could you take a break from those for a minute?"

A deep sigh left the elder woman, and she cast a slightly irritated look at her ginger-haired sibling. "As much as I'd love to, I have far too much to attend to at the moment—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence before Anna snatched the paper she was signing out from under her. "Elsa, we need to talk!" she snapped, frowning and holding the papers hostage.

Another sigh. "I have a lot to do; can we talk later?"

Assuming that her sister was regarding this as simply a ploy for attention, the redhead's jaw tightened and she stared at the blonde one. "No." At the queen's arched brow, she frowned further. "We need to talk, Elsa. And no, we can't talk later."

Seconds ticked by before Elsa finally exhaled in defeat, neatly scooping up her stack of papers and plucking the ones from Anna's hands to place them on the table. "Fine," she retorted, tone clipped and annoyed. "Let's talk, then."

"Don't pull that older sister-queen crap on me," Anna replied in an equally clipped and irritated voice. "Why have you been avoiding me?"

The snow queen blinked before chuckling and shaking her head. "I told you, Anna, I've been busy—"

"No. You've been avoiding me." When Elsa remained mute, she frowned. "Dammit, Elsa! I thought you weren't going to shut me out anymore! You promised!"

If nothing else, Anna was clearly still the younger sister. And although her tantrums worked occasionally, this time she would not let Anna get to her. "I haven't been avoiding you. I've been here or in meetings every waking moment for the past month, and that is why you never see me anymore. If I am outside either of those, it's because I haven't slept properly in ages and I need some time to think." As she spoke, her voice had risen slightly in volume, clipped and sharp, almost scolding.

"Elsa..."

The soft plea cut her nearly to the core. "It's nothing, Anna. Just work. While you have all the time in the world, I have to stay in and meet deadlines, sign papers, and sit through boring meetings. You'll have to excuse me if I can't spend as much time frolicking as you would like."

This time, the only reply she received was absolute silence. It wasn't until the chair screeched as her younger sister bolted from it that she knew something was wrong.

"Fine," the redhead snapped. "Shut me out again. God knows I lived with that for thirteen years."

"Anna—!"

The door slammed shut behind her younger sister, and Elsa sank further into her seat, a deep sigh escaping as she massaged the bridge of her nose. It's better this than my... perversion.

Anna was nothing if not determined. She had not climbed a nearly vertical mountain, fought a deadly blizzard, and frozen solid to lose her sister now. The next day, she was back in the queen's study.

"Yes?" Elsa asked the moment she sat down.

The redhead hesitated. Was this even a good idea? Perhaps Elsa just wanted to be left alone.

"Anna, if you're going to invite yourself in here, the least you can do is tell me why," the queen continued in irritation.

That was the last straw.

"Why are you being so damn cold lately?!" she snapped. "You promised, you promised, no more closed gates! Was that only meant for the castle and not us? I spent thirteen years trying to reach you, Elsa, and I'll be damned if I let you shut me out again! I don't care if you are the ice queen, you are my sister first and foremost! Now what the hell is wrong?"

Elsa stared at her in absolute shock for a long moment. Of all the things she knew Anna to be, a swearer was not one of them. She could hardly use "damn" without blushing, so where had this come from? She must have been very angry to use such crude language.

When no reply came from the elder sister, Anna's face fell. "What did I do?" she asked softly, and the brokenness in her voice sliced clear to the queen's heart.

"Anna, don't— you didn't do anything," she sighed. "It's not you. I promise."

"Then what? What is it? If it's not me, then why haven't you spoken more than ten words at a time to me for the past month? I-I know I'm annoying and immature and clumsy and—"

It was breaking her heart to see her little sister so lost. From the other side of her door all those years, she had heard the pleading in Anna's voice, how she seemed just a bit more fractured every time she came to the older girl's door. But actually seeing the girl break down in front of her was just too much to bear.

Standing, she went to pull the redhead into an embrace. Touching anyone after thirteen years had been awkward and terrifying for Elsa at first, and still could be, but sometimes her own comfort was a sacrifice for her sister's happiness.

And if she were honest with herself, she enjoyed this kind of embrace.

"Please, just tell me what's wrong..." the words were whispered into her shoulder, and the action sent a slight shiver down the naturally cooler woman's spine.

"I can't. I'm sorry."

Blasphemy. Absolute blasphemy. If Anna knew she would disown me. For all the independence and grace she appeared, Elsa was nothing without her baby sister. She could not function in a kingdom that feared her without the redhead beside her to help her through it.

The younger woman pulled away and crossed her arms, brows pulled down in determination and a bit of frustration at her older sister. "Yes you can, and you will." The stubbornness she had grown so used to since the Great Freeze happened certainly hadn't left her sister.

The ambient temperature of the room dropped a few degrees as Elsa let out a peeved sigh and glared at the younger one. Why couldn't Anna just drop it? Just this once.

Though, in all fairness, they hadn't discussed much of anything since the gates were opened. Every time something about Elsa's powers or the past came up, the queen was quick to change the subject. She was certain that her baby sister had noticed, but she hadn't said anything about it.

"It's... private," she settled for, though it was clearly a struggle to come up with any words at all. "Something you wouldn't understand."

Blue eyes similar to her own settled into an annoyed expression. "Try me," Anna smirked. "You'd be surprised."

For the briefest of moments, Elsa felt her heart lift a little with hope. Quickly, she squashed that feeling and turned to go back to her paperwork. "I highly doubt that."

The warm fingers that wrapped around her wrist halted any forward movement and spun her to face her fiery-haired sister. One look at Anna's face told her that this could end very, very badly if she didn't open up.

And when that face was suddenly inches from her own, she had to fight the urge to either flee or grab the younger girl and kiss her senseless. The thought caused a blush of shame and embarrassment to rise in her cheeks and bit the inside of her cheek –hard— to bring herself back to reality.

"I'm not leaving this room until you tell me what's wrong," Anna muttered. "I will camp out here as long as it takes, but you are not shutting me out again. I've had enough of that and I will not stand for it any longer."

One delicate brow arched challengingly at her. "Is that so?" Elsa smirked. Frost began to creep up her fingertips and into her palms, and it was all she could do to fight it back. If Anna thought she was upset, the girl would never leave. "Perhaps some things are best left shut out." Conceal, don't feel.

"And perhaps some of them are going to drive another wedge between us that doesn't need to be there!" The queen was mildly surprised to find herself off-balance when her sister's index finger jabbed her squarely in the chest.

"Maybe the wedge is for your own good, did you ever think of that?" she snapped in return.

For all of a second, her sister's face fell, and she appeared nearly broken. Then she steeled herself, scowled (rather unladylike in Elsa's opinion, but since when was her sister ever "ladylike"?) and took a menacing step toward the other woman. "My own good?" she asked mockingly. "My own good? I am nineteen years old, I spent thirteen years talking to paintings and statues because I had nobody, I managed to lose my parents and my sister without going stark-raving mad, trudged through a blizzard to find your ice castle, and froze to death and came back to life to save you! I think I'm capable of determining good or bad for myself!"

Of all the— "You're also a reckless child half the time!" Elsa shouted, hands balling into fists. "You don't think before you act, you could care less about others' opinions, and Arendelle be damned so long as your comfort isn't compromised! You'll go into a blizzard with absolutely no forethought, nearly die to save someone who didn't even really deserve saving, and the few times you do think before you act, you make the wrong decision!"

"Would you have preferred I let you die, then?" All composure and regal grace –if Anna ever had any— had been lost. Her voice had raised at least a few notches in volume, enough to be considered a shout now.

"I would have preferred that you think!" The room plummetted in temperature, and spikes of ice jutted out from various crevices in the walls. "I would have preferred you to work out when enough is enough and not push the issue! I would have preferred a little less reckless abandon for your own damn safety!"

Anna scoffed in disbelief. "My safety was never at stake! Well, I mean, aside from almost dying – but that was different! Besides that it wasn't! Yours was! All I ever cared about was that you're okay! And all I want now is the truth! What is so bad about that?!"

The blonde's arms flew up in frustration. "Oh, perhaps the fact that it's just the slightest bit morally perverse to think of your sister romantically!"

The instant the words left her, blue eyes widened and her hands flew to cover her mouth, as if that would somehow undo what she had already said. But the damage had been done. A deathly silence fell over the room as Anna stared at her in blatant shock.

"I–I–" The words came out in a stutter, and the queen clamped her mouth shut before trying again. "W...what I meant was... I mean..." Sighing, she brushed past her younger sibling with the full intention of locking herself in her ice palace for a few weeks... perhaps a few decades. "Forget it. Forget I said anything."

"Wait."

Elsa stopped, hand inches from her door handle, head hung in shame. She nearly jumped out of her own skin when a warm hand rested on her shoulder, but refused to meet the younger girl's eyes. Anna moved to catch a glimpse of them, and the elder shied away.

"Is that why you've been avoiding me?"

The soft inquiry was laced with distress and sadness, and all to familiar with the tone of voice, the queen said nothing, opting for silence since she wasn't sure she could speak without sobbing. The ice, previously spiking out in anger, began to recede as she closed in on herself. Anna noticed.

"Oh, no you don't," she mumbled, taking her sister by the arm and forcing Elsa to look at her. "Don't you dare shut down now. You can't say something like that and just – not explain it!"

"It wasn't meant to come out in the first place, so I can and I will."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Oh for the love of—here we go with the ice queen act again." Grumbling, she dragged the older one to her bed, sat her down, and then proceeded to plop down next to her in her usual unladylike fashion. "Talk to me. When did this start? How long? Why me?"

"Anna, I'm not—"

"Stop concealing. I asked and I expect an answer."

This demanding side of Anna was different, unusual and... kind of attractive. Stop it! Don't you dare think like that!

Too drained to fight it, she ran her fingers through her hair. "A few years ago, it's been worse since the Great Freeze, and... I'm not entirely sure," she murmured. "You've been the only one who was always there for me. Even after I stopped coming out to play, you were always at my door, talking about what you had done that day even though I never replied."

"You listened?"

"Of course!" A small laugh escaped her before she managed to compose herself. "I never replied because I was too afraid to hurt you, not because I didn't care." Falling silent, Elsa bit her lip in contemplation. "You... were the only one who never thought I was evil. Never thought I was cruel or terrible. And you were certainly the only one to risk her life to save me despite how cold I had been."

When there was only silence to respond to her, she swallowed and shook her head, turning toward the girl to apologize. "I never meant for this—"

"Stop it."

The blonde blinked in shock when Anna refused to let her finish, and all her fears came tumbling forward. Oh god. Oh, god, she hates me. She thinks I'm evil, sick, twisted. Fuck. Fuck. I should never have said anything. This is why I didn't say anything. Oh, this is just great. Wonderful. Fantastic.

The onslaught of self-loathing brought on an equally fierce temperature drop, and icicles began to grow from the walls and ceiling again. Snowdrifts formed at her feet and where her hands touched the blankets began to shimmer with ice.

"Oh, god, Elsa, I didn't—I wasn't trying to—just calm down for a second please?"

Her plea didn't even phase the woman. The floor sparkled with fresh ice, a private skating rink forming over it.

"Elsa, would you please just—" More icicles. "Can you listen—" The windows fogged and then froze over. "If you'd just—" An icy draft sent a chill down the redhead's spine. A frustrated huff escaped her. "That's it."

Too trapped in her own mind to pay attention, her elder sister didn't notice her moving until a sudden warmth covered her cool lips. It put a halt to everything else in her mind, and her eyes widened as gentle fingertips –warm fingertips— turned her head just slightly toward her sister's.

It was a chaste kiss; nothing risque or overly passionate about it. But it was enough to snap the queen out of her reverie to wonder exactly what was going on, and then to give up trying to figure it out and sink into the kiss. One shaky hand rested gently on the younger girl's cheek, and her eyes slipped closed to enjoy the moment.

When they pulled apart, neither moved more than a few inches from the other. Foreheads touching, Anna smirked knowingly. "If you would have just told me, this might have been a bit easier."

Finding enough sense to be irritated, Elsa gave her sister an annoyed glare that was significantly compromised by the elated smile on her lips. "You're a brat," she muttered.

"And a reckless child who doesn't know when enough is enough," Anna murmured in return, mocking her sister lightly.

The temperature in the room rose to a nearly-normal level, and the ice and snow began to recede slowly. Before she could say anything else, the queen had pushed her onto the bed to smirk down at her. "Don't push your luck," she chuckled, before leaning down to continue the kiss.