Chapter 10 – Putting it all back Together

Welcome to the final chapter of Things Go Awry, because I've honestly run out of story. Unless someone gives me a fantastic idea to continue this, it will be finished. I hope you've enjoyed it. Carry on then.

Elsa regretted letting Anna drag her out of the castle almost immediately. She could handle her own emotions; she was getting that right, at least. She could handle the fact that Anna was growing up. She could handle the fact that Kristoff was still hanging around the castle, because even she was able to acknowledge that her reaction towards him might have been a bit over zealous.

She could not handle what Anna wanted her to see.

And that was a very lonely-looking reindeer lying on the floor in the stables, with his chin resting on a carrot and a little twig under his cheek, and refusing to move.

"He's been there since we got back," Anna said quietly, keeping a death grip on Elsa's wrist in case she bolted. "He's waiting for Olaf to come back."

Elsa didn't say anything; she found her eyes glued to the slightly discoloured spot on the floor, evidence of water soaking in, and the dull eyes of a grieving reindeer.

"Kristoff says he won't get up, and he won't eat." Anna continued softly. "He just lies there."

"Anna . . ."

"He got up for you, you know. He ran as fast as he could to the trolls. He carried me back from the mountain until he couldn't run anymore."

Elsa hoped Anna would get the point soon, because she could feel her heart cracking.

"He tried his hardest because he thought you would bring Olaf back."

"Whats the point, Anna?" Elsa asked hoarsely.

"My point is . . . don't hold onto things with the wrong feelings."

That didn't help at all; Elsa had no idea what Anna was on about.

"Let me explain it better. You're still . . . you're upset that I slept with Kristoff because you feel like our childhood is over and it's the best memories you have of us together. But instead of loving those memories, you're bitter towards them. And towards me. And Kristoff."

Elsa couldn't deny that.

"But . . . what you feel doesn't only affect you. Sure, your powers aren't working and that's just affecting you, but whatever you feel affects everyone around you."

Elsa was going to need a translator. She sent Anna a quizzical look, struggling to connect the dots in Anna's mangled psychobabble.

Anna sighed. "You're unhappy. Which means that I'm unhappy too, because if you're not happy then I'm not happy. If I'm not happy, Kristoff isn't happy. If he's not happy, Sven isn't happy. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Not at all. All I see is a depressed reindeer."

"Your life, and your feelings, aren't just for you. They're-"

"Everyone is connected," Elsa finally figured it out, and explained out loud in much clearer description than Anna ever could. "Our lives are not singular, and do not run alone. We are a web, and we are all connected and dependant on one another. The fact that I'm . . . struggling with accepting you as an adult, means that my string on our web of emotions is broken. And everything I was supporting, Olaf, Arendelle, my powers . . . they are all broken as well."

"That's what I said."

"It's not about me. It's about everything I support."

"Great. Good character development. Now, how about fixing it?"

"How?" Elsa was still staring at Sven, and she could feel the weight of his despair on her own shoulders. "Am I supposed to just forgive you and pretend everything is fine? I'm angry with you, Anna, for so many reasons, and I don't know how to deal with that."

"Let the bad memories go," Anna suggested. "Don't hang on to the things you're feeling."

"It's not that easy."

"I know how to help."

"Last time you said that you showed me a dejected reindeer, I'm not sure how much more 'help' I can handle."

"Trust me. Please?" Anna looked so sincere, and beseeching, that Elsa heard herself sigh.

"Fine. I trust you."

Anna's smile did not falter, even when Elsa added under breath, "I just don't like you much right now."

Anna's next location on her world tour of make-Elsa-feel-bad was the ruins of the Ice Palace, and once Elsa realised that's where they were going she had fallen silent, no doubt flummoxed as to why Anna would bring her back here as part of a feel good mission.

Because looking at the broken down chunks of ice, misshapen and unrecognizable from the gorgeous palace it had once been did not cheer Elsa up in the least. In fact, she thought this might be a step backwards from their end goal.

"How is this helping?" she eventually asked, unable to stand the silence anymore. Her heart was already racing, her eyes locked onto the bleak sight in front of her. "Anna, how is this supposed to change how I feel about . . . everything?"

"We've established that you're upset about Olaf and losing your childhood." Anna said, then muttered, "Even though I'm an adult and I can do what I like, so tough luck." She continued in a more normal voice, "And you're hanging onto all that angsty emotion. You know what you need to do?"

Elsa could see where this was going.

"You need to let it go."

She was going to slap her sister. Luckily no one would see it. "Anna-"

"No, no, no!" Anna interrupted, and a part of Elsa was pleased that their conversations were back to normal, with Elsa being unable to finish a sentence. "Don't tell me I'm wrong! This will work. And you'll feel better."

She gestured extravagantly at the ruins of the palace. "Okay, fix it!"

Elsa stared at her blankly. "I can't fix it."

"Of course you can."

"My powers aren't working properly-"

"They work fine. You don't want to try it, because if you fail you'll feel bad and if you do fix it and put everything back to normal you'll have to admit that you've accepted that things have changed between us. But change isn't bad, it's just different."

Since when did Anna become a psychologist? Elsa thought absently, but there was a warmth in her heart that knew Anna was right. She needed to trust herself, and try this. She needed to forgive Anna, for certain things anyway, because holding onto that animosity was damaging her. And that bled over into the relationships she had with others, because everything, everyone, was connected.

The Ice Palace had been a symbol of her new found self-worth, her confidence, it was who she was. It represented what she felt, and even though Elsa knew it was largely symbolic, having something tangible to represent herself was helpful. The palace was real, she could touch it and feel it, and it meant that everything she felt was real as well.

Her emotions had a face, and having them concrete made them easier to understand and acknowledge.

Anna watched Elsa's internal realisation in silence, until she couldn't keep quiet anymore. "So you'll put it back together? The whole palace?"

Elsa was still looking at the wreckage, but rather than pure sadness there was something else shining in her eyes. Hope, perhaps. A sliver of faith that everything could be alright again. "I'll put our lives back together."

Sven sighed, his breath washing over the damp spot on the floor beneath his chin. The thoughts of a reindeer are not particularly eloquent, and his mind was fragmented into primal bits of knowledge and understanding. To an animal, if something disappears there exists the logic that it will reappear in the same place.

Anything out of sight could not be comprehended, and abstract thought did not exist.

So Sven stayed where he was, because that's where Olaf had been last, and thus that was the place he would be again. Time is irrelevant, and Sven was going to wait. If he waited long enough, the snowman would return. That was how it had always been in his life; if Kristoff vanished inside a door, he would reappear from the same door. If Olaf went around the corner, he would reappear from the same corner. Sven didn't know where Olaf had gone, but waiting, he was certain, would bring him back.

Kristoff joined the reindeer on the floor again, patting him affectionately, but staying quiet. He didn't know what to do about Sven, so he had done the thing he was best at: just being there. Sven's eyes were closed, and his deep, even breathing told Kristoff that he was sound asleep.

That was how they were when Anna and Elsa returned, sitting quietly together. Kristoff offered Anna a tentative smile, still uncertain of where they stood as a couple, because Elsa looked frigid and hunched next to her sister.

But Anna was perfectly relaxed, returning Kristoff's smile warmly. "Hi!"

He nodded at her. "Hey."

Elsa let out a pent up breath when she saw Sven again, and Kristoff noticed her bite her thumb for a second, eyes on the sleeping reindeer, before she seemed to realize what she was doing and straightened her posture.

"Elsa's going to bring Olaf back," Anna said softly.

Kristoff thought it best to stay quiet.

Elsa didn't look like she was going to do anything, hovering nervously at Anna's shoulder and chewing on her bottom lip.

"Remember all the good things," Anna said. "They aren't gone. I'm still here."

Elsa went to Sven, and to Kristoff's surprise she actually knelt down on the floor on front of him, with the carrot and the two twigs still between them. When Elsa just sat there doing absolutely nothing, Anna came to her side as well, and sat down.

Elsa was staring at the spot on the floor, each breath she took clearly visible.

"Hey," Anna whispered, leaning gently against Elsa's side. "It's all right."

Elsa's hands were shaking; she was trying to stop them. She closed her eyes, trying to focus, because she knew from experience that using her powers without being calm often ended badly. She felt Anna breathing next to her, as though preparing to speak again, and Elsa wanted to tell her not to. Because so far a lot of what Anna said had not been helpful, but Anna's next whispered sentence made everything seem better.

"Do the magic . . ."

Sven opened his eyes, because he could feel snow falling on his nose.

Anna would have been happy to spend the night exactly where she was. The heat of the sunny summer day was fading, and Elsa was deliciously cool and comforting. Anna sighed contentedly, lying against Elsa's side on the couch in the study, one arm draped across her stomach, eyes closed and her cheek against the cool skin of Elsa's arm.

Elsa had been reading for the past few hours, and every now and then Anna's sleepy haze would be interrupted by the sound of a page turning. They had been like that, with Elsa half propped on an armrest, for most of the afternoon.

Kristoff had gone 'somewhere' to do 'something', which meant that Anna had tentatively asked Elsa if they could talk, just the two of them. Elsa had agreed just as hesitantly, because neither of them was entirely sure what the other was thinking at the moment.

But everything had gone better than Anna had expected. They had ended up talking about times before the closed gates. Elsa had told Anna about her memories that had been changed. Anna had told Elsa about what she used to do just after the gates were closed. They had taken the time to finally catch up with each other, filling in the gaps from thirteen years, and Anna had felt Elsa slowly relaxing as the time passed.

Things between them were still slightly tense, but Anna thought they were making progress. Elsa had stopped glaring at Kristoff every time she saw him. The temperature in the room didn't drop to below freezing whenever Anna and Kristoff were near each other. And while Elsa had decided that Kristoff did not need to be banished and Anna was still allowed to be in a relationship with him, she had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to know anything about their physical relationship. At all.

Anna had agreed to that readily, because she didn't want Elsa to know what they doing just as much as Elsa didn't want to know.

When conversation had started to dwindle, Anna had curled into Elsa's side and dozed off, while Elsa continued reading, and nightfall was finding them in a peaceful tangle of limbs. They were uninterrupted for hours, until there was a soft knock at the door, and Elsa glanced up. "Come in."

The door opened slowly, and Kristoff peered around. "Um. Hi."

"Hi." Elsa closed her book.

Kristoff shuffled further inside. "Am I interrupting?"

"No." Elsa glanced at Anna, who appeared to be asleep.

"I have something. To thank you for not freezing me to death, and for letting me be a part of Anna's life."

"She deserves it."

"I know you're not happy about the whole . . . sleeping thing." Kristoff turned slightly red. "But I promise, I'll never hurt her."

"I know you won't. This is who Anna is, and I'm not about to tell someone who they can and cannot be."

"Thanks." Kristoff dug into his pocket, and drew out a fine silver chain, with a familiar blue stone hanging from it. "It's your stone. The one that saved you."

A soft, glowing smile settled on Elsa's face as she took the stone, turning it around and studying it from every angle. "Thank you."

Anna shifted against Elsa's side, and Elsa nudged her. "Anna. Wake up."

"Don't wanna." Despite her words, Anna blinked and yawned, and finally noticed Kristoff. "Hi."

"I got you one too," Kristoff said, his hand searching in his pocket again. "This one really is a fire stone. I checked. Like, six times." He handed the little red stone to Anna, who dangled it delightedly in front of Elsa's face.

Elsa drew back slightly. "Very pretty. Keep it away."

"It's perfectly safe." Anna sat up properly, and fastened the chain around her neck.

Kristoff looked pleased. "Thought you might like it. I've just got to find out where Sven is spending the night, then I'll go to bed. My bed. Alone."

"Good choice," Elsa said dryly.

Anna hopped to her feet to give him a hug. "We can talk more tomorrow. Where is Sven, anyway?"

"Outside, somewhere, playing." Kristoff backed away, nodding respectfully towards Elsa. "Good night."

"Good night," she replied softly.

Kristoff closed the door to the study again, and Anna bounced to the window. "Sven's out there."

Elsa joined her, looking down at the reindeer. He was bounding around quite happily.

"Look at him," Anna giggled. "Both of them."

Elsa twisted the silver chain around her fingers.

"We don't spend enough time playing, you know that?" Anna mused, then asked, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Elsa looked at Sven, cavorting and playing with his friend, and smiled. "I already did."

The End.

Excuse my inability to write conclusions.

SpicedGold