This isn't exactly a vignette, but that may not be a bad thing.

Laughter

Even when they were children, Elsa was always more reserved, and proper, and kept together. She was never one for fits of laughter…a chuckle or two, but never a full blown case of giggles. Or almost never, to more precise.

One of those rare instances was just a few days after the Great Thaw. Anna had convinced the Queen to take a break from her mountain of paper work (not that Elsa needed much convincing to put down the first, of what she expected to be many apology letters from Weselton). Elsa, assisted by Olaf, was helping the Princess to ice skate.

"Don't keep your legs so close together," Elsa instructed gently.
"But what if they get to far apart and slide apart,"
"Remember what I told you about using the blades to grip the ice, you'll be fine,"
"Okay, okay," Anna took a deep breath.
"Ready?"
"I think so," Anna smiled. Elsa took Anna by the hands and pulled her gently. She wobbled a little bit but Olaf braced her from behind.
"Is okay," The snowman said encouragingly, "You're doing great,"
"We only just started Olaf," Anna said, her tone saying she didn't want to be coddled.
"And you haven't fallen yet, so that's a plus," Olaf smiled. The Queen and Princess giggled lightly at their companion's optimistic attitude. Olaf always looked at the bright side. Both girls were convinced he didn't have the ability to pessimistic.
"Just like before, push your feet apart and let them slid together,"
"Push them apart," Anna looked down at she did this, "And let them slid back together," She smiled as she did it, and managed to stay upright.

"I'm going to let go now,"
"No," Anna tightened her hold on Elsa.
"You'll be fine,"
"But what if I'm not. The only reason I haven't fallen yet is because of you and Olaf,"
"And the reason we're out here is so you can learn to skate without your big sister and snowman best friend,"
"Do I really need to learn to skate without you? I mean when would I ever possibly need to skate without you two?"
"What if Kristoff wants to take you ice skating? You won't want me or Olaf around then,"
"Ahh…" Anna pondered for a moment then shook her head. "Nope, not worth it,"
"I'm right here and remember what papa used to say about failure."
"If we never fail then we won't understand just how good success can be," Anna took a long breath in through her nose. "You can let go,"

Elsa moved her hands away, but still skated just out of arms reach so she'd be there to prevent any miss step or stumble. Anna held her hands out for stability, pitching forward slightly. She corrected herself, remaining upright.
"Good," Elsa smiled.
"Try skating for a long distance by yourself," Olaf suggested moving to the other end of the ice. Elsa got out of Anna's way, allowing the girl to skate ahead. The Princess, slowly, and bit wobbly made progress towards Olaf. She let out a whoop of joy when she did finally reach the snowman. "I didn't fall once."
"The day's still young," Elsa teased. Anna frowned at her and stuck out her tongue. Elsa chuckled lightly.

"Try to push off one foot at a time now," Olaf suggested. He demonstrated, skating around in a circle.
"I think I got it," Anna tried mimicking Olaf's motions, and for the first few steps she was good, until one foot got too far ahead of the other and she couldn't bring them back together. She hit the ice with an anticlimactic bump. Anticlimactic or not Elsa was already by her side helping the younger girl to her feet.
"Thanks," Anna murmured, her cheeks red.
"That was really good, until the last part. You won't doing anything wrong as far as I could see, just don't make your strides too wide,"
"Kay," Anna took a moment to resecure her footing before moving again. Olaf skated with her giving out helpful tips as she wobbled along. When her wobbled was almost gone she started to gain more confidence and tried to skate faster. And she was doing well, for the most part. Her turns were still a bit sloppy and her stop wasn't so much a 'stop' as it was she slowing down until she ceased moving. Her movements were stable enough that Elsa feel didn't need to skate behind her. The Queen instead watched from the sidelines.

Anna's self-assurance grew to point where she felt good enough to challenge Olaf to a race.
"Do you think you're ready for that?" Elsa asked.
"I bet I've got a good shot," Anna said.
"Where are we going to race from?" Olaf asked looking at the frozen courtyard.
"How about three times laps around the courtyard?"
"Sounds good," Olaf made a line in the ice and he and Anna got ready. Even though she knew Anna had no chance of winning Elsa still agreed to start them off.
"Are you ready?"
"Yep," Olaf gave a little hop that made his head detach in the air for a second before landing lightly on his body.
"I was born ready,"
Elsa smiled a bit at Anna's words, "Okay, get set…go!"

The snowman easily took the lead, and it wasn't long before he lapped her. Anna wasn't going to give up so easily though. She put all her new found skill (from two hours worth of skating) to use and picked up her pace. It was still very obvious that Olaf was going to win…or so it would seem until the snowman stopped completely. His eyes went wide and his head turned so fast the rest of his body took a second to catch up.
"Look, Elsa a butterfly," He pointed to light blue creature fluttering in the air a few feet about his head, "It's so pretty. It's the colour of your dress,"
Elsa giggled. The snowman was absolutely smitten. He was absorbed by the butterfly he'd forgotten entirely about the race. Elsa was absorbed by Olaf looking wholly adorable jumping up and down to talk to with the butterfly. And Anna was absorbed in trying to catch up, so absorbed she didn't realise Olaf had stopped until she was only a few feet away…heading right for him. She let out a cry and tried to stop, only to lose her balance falling back, her momentum still hurtling her forward. She crashed right into Olaf, knocking him to pieces…literally. His butt went one way, his torso another and his head went right up, screaming all the way.

Anna didn't stop until she hit a snow drift, sideways so she partly buried. Olaf's head landed on the ice and slid towards her.
"…Hi," he said brightly. Twenty feet away his right hand waved in time with the greeting, but went unnoticed.
"Sorry Olaf, I don't know what happened,"
"Did you see if we hit the butterfly?"
"Butterfly?"
"Yeah, I stopped to tell it hello before we crashed,"
"A butterfly? I crashed because of a butterfly!" With impeccable timing the blue butterfly flew down and landed (of all places) on Anna's forehead. She went cross-eyed trying to see. She was about to shake it off. But that was when she registered the laughter.

The laughter. Not just any laughter. Hysterical, gasping for breath, can't see because of tears, and in so much pain it hurts but you can't stop, laughter. The laughter coming from her sister.

If Anna wasn't in compete shock she would have probably been embarrassed. She couldn't remember the last time Elsa had laughed like that. Emotion swelled in Anna's chest. And it was probably the oddest emotion to be felling after her spectacular failure. But she was happy. She was happy to learn Elsa could still laugh like that. That thirteen years spent in isolation and fear hadn't made it impossible for her feel the other side of emotive spectrum to this extent. Any other person in Anna's situation would have been experiencing pain and utter mortification. But she felt neither. She could only stare in wonder.

"I'm sorry," Elsa gasped when she realised Anna was watching, "I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't laugh, but that was," She broke down into another fit, her face flushed and ribs aching from laughing so much. Anna still hadn't moved. She didn't want to miss a moment. Who knew when her sister would laugh like this again? Olaf hadn't moved either…but that was more because he couldn't move (unless you count his butt wandering aimlessly around in the background). When the queen did, finally, retrain her giggles she went over to help Anna.
"Are you hurt?" She asked, the joy slowly starting to be replaced by worry, realising Anna hadn't moved the entire time. It subsided a bit when the Princess shook her head. Elsa pulled her to her feet, unfreezing the ice below them and their skates, guessing that Anna was probably down with ice skating for today.

"You laughed," Anna stated, still staring at Elsa.
"I'm sorry," Elsa apologized again, "I really shouldn't have,"
"No," Anna shook her head, a grin breaking out on her face. She surprised Elsa with a tight hug. "You laughed," She said again. Elsa's eyebrows knitted in confusion.
"And you're happy I laughed at you?"
"Yes, I am." Anna giggled, "You can laugh,"
"Of course I can laugh. I'm not mute,"
Anna shook her head, "That's not what I meant. I mean," Her voice cracked with emotion, "You can laugh,"
"You're doing a horrible job of explaining yourself,"
"I know," Anna laughed. Elsa chuckled, shaking her head in confusing.
"We have to get you checked. I think you may have hit your head,"
Anna's response was to tighten the hug and whisper "You laughed,"

I'm going to die writing Frozen fluff. That's what my autopsy is going to say 'asphyxiation by fan fic'. And I shall die happy.

Nardragon~until the next page.