Tree-Topping Mishap

A/N: ...I lied. Here's one more short Christmas story. Hope you guys had a good one this year.

Elsa knows she shouldn't be working this much so close to Christmas, but she believes that she has good reason to. The more she gets done now, the more time off she can take from her queenly duties when Christmas finally does come. With only a week to go until the big day, though, she was cutting it very close.

One more stack of paperwork, she told herself. One more meeting with her advisors, she reasoned. One more trade negotiation, she would say. There was always something she needed to do, which kept her from doing the one thing she wanted to do: spend time with Anna.

Her sister had to pick up the slack on the festivities with Elsa constantly in her office, and it was clear that it was getting to the poor girl. She would try and lasso her off her desk with tinsel, play with bells outside her door, and would constantly dangle a mistletoe between the both of them while she tried to work. The last one, admittedly, almost worked a lot of the time.

All Anna wanted was to spend Christmas with her, and after today Elsa vowed to spend every moment with her. All she had to do was write one more letter to a diplomat in Corona. But as quill hit paper, she heard some worrying noises coming from the adjacent room.

"Ah!"

Thud!

Thud!

"...ow…"

Elsa was out of her chair and racing to the next room in a second, beckoned by the familiar cries of her sister. She burst through the door of their shared bedroom and gasped at the sight waiting for her.

There was a large ladder on the floor, scattered ornaments, a dented golden tree-topper near her bed, and an embarrassed redhead hanging upside down in their massive Christmas tree. "Heeeeey Elsa…", her sister said.

"Anna!" She gasped, "What happened?!"

"Bah, it's nothing," Anna replied with a wave of her hand that moved the tree more than she wanted it to. "Just some silly stuff."

Elsa moved towards the tree, side-stepping one of their larger ornaments and moved the ladder back up, "What kind of silly stuff?"

"Well you see...I was busy setting up the Christmas tree- oh hey, that rhymed- and the last thing I needed to do was put the star up." Anna's hair was stuck around the pine and there were a few strands across her face that she tried to blow off her face. When she couldn't succeed, Elsa got them for her. "Thanks! Anyway, I guess I set up the ladder because the next thing I know, it starts leaning a little bit, and then a lot, and then it fell, and now I'm here!"

Elsa frowned, "Anna, why were you setting the tree up by yourself?"

She shrugged, causing a couple of tiny leaves to fall to the ground, "I got tired of waiting for you."

"I told you that today was my last day of work."

"That's what you said yesterday, Elsa."

Elsa raised an eyebrow, "...I did?"

"And the day before that," Anna shimmied one of her arms out from behind her and reached towards the ladder, "Now could you help me down? I'm getting kinda dizzy."

Guiltiness aside from apparently lying to her sister, Elsa had to figure out a way to get her down without having the whole tree falling on top of them. And undoing all of Anna's hard work.

She surveyed the situation. The tree was so tall, that despite their opposite orientations, Elsa and Anna were still technically face-to-face. Even upside down and covered in pine needles, Elsa still thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Her sister had one free hand, another trapped behind her lower back, one foot was buried somewhere inside the tree, and the other foot was technically free but she knew better than to move it.

Long story short, this was going to be a challenge.

At least, it would be for someone without magical ice powers.

Elsa sighed as she conjured up a flurry in both her hands to wrap around her sister, "Anna, I'm so sorry that you had to do this by yourself. But I really was almost finished, and I was really looking forward to decorating the tree with you."

"Well how about I just take all the decorations down and we can do it together?" Before continuing, Anna let the magical flurry do its job and get her down. When she was right-side up again, she shook her head and blinked a couple of times, "Whoa, hey there blood rushing down my head."

The guilty snow queen placed both her hands on Anna's shoulders to steady her. "I couldn't ask you to do that, you've already done so much work for the both of us."

She was given one of Anna's signature pouts as a response.

"And I know you shouldn't have had to do all the work, and I should have taken off more time from my queenly duties a while ago. And blah blah blah, more and more excuses." Elsa sighed, and stroked her sister's hair, "Is there any way I can make this up to you?"

No response, just more pouting. And more looking at the festive mess underneath them.

"I cooooould bake you cookies? Or let you and Olaf pelt me with snowballs?"

Anna crossed her arms, and mumbles something that sounds like "That could be fun."

"Or what if I gave you your Christmas gift early?"

"Don't you dare!" Anna said wide-eyed.

Elsa giggled, it may have been a risky move to press her sister's buttons, but at least it got her to stop pouting. "I wouldn't do that. After all, I gotta keep at least one Christmas tradition, right?"

The redhead sighed, causing another pine needle to fly off of her, "I'm not mad that you missed out on all the Christmasy stuff that we could have done. I'm not mad at you at all. I just missed you, a lot."

"I know," Elsa replied as she brushed off the remaining bits of pine from her sister, "But I'm here now. And I'm not going anywhere."

"Don't you have more work to do?"

Elsa waved the question away, the Corona diplomat could wait. She moved the hands from Anna's shoulders to her waist, and pulled her closer. Now they were face-to-face, and they both were right-side up. "I'm all yours, from here until Christmas. And the rest of the days after."

"...promise?"

With a smirk, Elsa flicked her wrist and tiny snowflakes appeared. Along with a gorgeous, icy mistletoe above them both. "I promise," she replied.