Chapter 5

Elsa followed as her sister led her through the castle. They stopped off at the kitchen first to pick up some lunch, nothing fancy, just a variety of small sandwiches. There was turkey, tuna, ham, and chicken salad, each prepared quickly but expertly. The chef was ready to carry the platter of food to wherever the queen wanted, but Anna picked up the platter herself, thanked the man, and was off before he could voice any protest.

“When are you going to tell me where it is we’re going?” Elsa asked after they walked through several corridors.

“And spoil the surprise?” Anna replied, grinning.

Elsa smiled back. She really did enjoy it when her sister acted playful like this. “Fine, keep your secrets. For now.”

They eventually made their way to a door on the outer wall of the castle that Elsa didn’t recognize. “Is this new?” she asked.

“Uh-huh. You had no idea how tricky it was for me to keep this little project a secret whenever you visited. But it’s finished now and I can’t wait to see what you think of it.” Anna looked at the door and then down at the large platter of food in her hands. “Would you mind getting the door? But, um, close your eyes first, then close the door behind you once we’re inside. And keep your eyes closed, if you would.”

Elsa grinned. “Any other orders, my queen?” she teased.

“No, that’s all.”

Elsa put her hand on the door handle, closed her eyes, then opened the door.

“Quickly now, inside,” Anna said. Elsa took a tentative step forward and closed the door behind her. “Now don’t move. I’m just going to put the food down and I’ll be right back.”

As Elsa waited for Anna to return she tried to figure out where they were. The first thing she noticed was the heat. She could feel the sun on her skin, but the air itself was warmer and damper than she was expecting if they were actually outside. “A greenhouse?” she thought to herself.

Anna was back before she could give it any further consideration. She took Elsa’s hands and guided her another dozen feet or so before stopping and letting go. “Okay. Open your eyes.”

Elsa had to blink a few times as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. As she thought, they were indeed in a greenhouse and the noonday sun was overhead and shining down brightly on them though walls and a ceiling made of glass. Then she noticed them. Butterflies! Dozens of butterflies of all sizes and colours just ... everywhere! Flying around in the air, sitting on all manner of surfaces, or drinking nectar from a variety of flowers that nearly rivalled the colourful display of the butterflies themselves. “Anna, it’s beautiful!” she said as her eyes took in the splendour all around her.

“It’s a butterfly conservatory,” Anna said. “I had it made so that whenever I’m missing you, I have somewhere I can go to help remember.”

“Me? I’m afraid I don’t see the connection. What do I have to do with butterflies?”

“Don’t you see? You are one.” Anna stood right in front of Elsa and held her hands in hers. She smiled as she began to explain. “You were once a caterpillar, young and full of energy and hungry for what life had to give.” The smile then turned to a frown, and the sparkle in Anna’s eyes faded. “Then the incident happened, and the gloves came on, and you withdrew, going into your cocoon.” Elsa gave Anna’s hands a loving squeeze of support, and Anna blinked and shook away the melancholy. She looked Elsa in the eye and smiled again. “And then at your coronation you burst forth from your chrysalis as a beautiful and magnificent butterfly! Sure the whole ‘my sister has mystical ice powers’ was kind of a shock, but when I saw you in that ice palace you made, I was stunned at how beautiful you looked. N-not that you didn’t look beautiful before, but that new look was ... wow.”

Elsa managed to not blush under the praise, but gave a shy smile of appreciation for Anna’s words. They stood in silence for a moment, neither knowing what to say or do next, but just before things became awkward a large blue butterfly landed on Elsa’s head. She giggled as the butterfly’s feet tickled her skin.

“Ah, there you are!” Anna said, talking to the butterfly. “I was hoping you’d grace us with your presence. This big blue beauty is my favourite. He’s a Giant Blue Morpho. Had to have him and his food source imported as neither can be found locally.”

“Why’s he your favourite?” Elsa asked, trying not to squirm as the butterfly fluttered its wings and moved around her head.

“He’s supposed to represent healing. You. Me. Our relationship. A lot of healing has taken place. But more than that, it’s because he reminds me of you. His wings are pretty much the same shade of blue as your eyes.”

For a moment the sisters just gazed into each other’s eyes, caught up in the love each had for the other. Elsa wanted so much to kiss Anna in a very un-sisterly way, but knew that would be a horrible mistake so she managed to bury that desire deep down. While almost certainly unintentional, literally everything Anna did or said made Elsa fall in love with her more and more. How she was going to endure an entire week of this, she didn’t know. Instead of giving in and destroying her relationship with her sister, she tore her gaze away from those bright, expressive, gorgeous eyes and spotted their lunch on a small round table in the middle of the room. “How about we eat?”

“Right.”

As they moved to the table, the Blue Morpho took to the air once more, either to seek out its own food or simply because it didn’t want to stay on a moving object. Several butterflies had landed on the table and were investigating the tray of food but fluttered away when the women sat down. They ate together, taking in the beauty and colour of all the flowers and creatures around them, and conversed between mouthfuls. Butterflies periodically visited the table and sometimes the girls themselves throughout the meal, causing them to smile or giggle whenever one landed on them.

“You know,” Anna said at one point, her mouth half full of food, “Normally I’m not a fan of incest...”

Elsa was just about to swallow her own bite and nearly choked when she heard what her sister said. She gagged and coughed for a bit, causing her sister to worry, but she held up a hand and grabbed a drink of water to wash things down. Once the crisis was over she had to ask, “What did you just say?”

“Oh, um, I said that I’m normally not a fan of insects. Beetles, flies, cockroaches. You know, bugs. But I love butterflies. They’re an exception.”

“Okay, that makes much more sense. I thought you said ... never mind.” Elsa really needed more time to get the contents of Rapunzel’s letter out of her head. She was starting to hear things.

They continued eating until there were only two sandwiches left: one of turkey, the other of tuna. Each sister liked both kinds of sandwiches, but they loved turkey. They both made the realisation at the same time, looked at each other, then darted out a hand to try and snatch the remaining one for themselves. Anna got there first.

“Ha-ha! You snooze, you lose!” she said in triumph, taking a big bite.

Elsa pretended to be a sore loser, slowly taking the remaining sandwich with a humph. She purposefully ate loudly, avoiding looking at her sister as if she were sulking.

About half way through, Anna smiled and held out the uneaten half of her sandwich. “Hey, wanna trade?”

Elsa couldn’t keep the facade up any longer and grinned. She took the offered food and gave Anna the remaining half of her tuna sandwich.

The afternoon went mostly well, though in writing a response letter to Rapunzel, accepting the invitation as well as stating that Eugene and Cassandra’s “unconventional relationship” did not harm their friendship in any way, did cause both Anna and Elsa to be somewhat distracted. While they did accomplish everything that needed to be done, thus freeing them from any official duties for the remainder of Elsa’s visit, it took them well into the evening before they were able to call it quits.

Anna stretched her arms up in the air and let out a sigh as she and Elsa entered the bathing room. “Ahhh, what a day!”

Elsa rolled her own shoulders and arched her back. Sitting at a table and reading over pages and pages of documents for hours on end was both mind-numbing and exhausting. “No kidding. But that’s what we get for trying to cram a week’s worth of work into only three days. You know, when you asked me to stay with you while Kristoff was away, I wasn’t expecting to be doing so much work.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. This hasn’t been much of a vacation so far. I’m sure Kristoff has been enjoying himself much more than us with whatever it is he and his family are up to.”

Elsa nodded in agreement. “It certainly can’t be any harder than what we’ve been doing. What do trolls do for fun, anyway?”

(Meanwhile, Kristoff was stripped down to his pants, struggling to lift three female trolls at the same time. His entire body was drenched in sweat and his muscles were straining under the weight of the small but incredibly dense beings. On either side of him were his competition: two other male trolls who were effortlessly lifting their own identical burdens. The watching crowd all knew he wouldn’t be able to go on much longer, but they cheered him on anyway.)

“I honestly have no idea,” Anna admitted. She went over to the prepared bath and found the water nice and hot. “Perfect.” She reached behind her to undo the lace keeping her dress tight, but the dress she had chosen for today had the string in a hard to reach spot. “Mind helping me unlace?” she asked after struggling for a moment.

Elsa smiled and shook her head before doing as asked. “Honestly, why do you pick clothes that you need help getting out of?”

“Because I look good in them, of course. And because not all of us can simply wear an outfit made entirely out of magic ice and snow that simply vanishes at the snap of a finger.”

“Hey now! Even when I’m in my, um, snow dress, I still wear regular underwear, usually, and I pretty much never wear it anyway. This is just regular clothes,” she said, gesturing at herself.

With the lace loosened, Anna slipped off the dress and draped it over a chair. She then started removing her underclothes. “Speaking of, do you need any help?”

“I’m sure I could manage on my own, but since you’re offering...” Elsa turned and presented her back to her sister, who quickly untied the lace that kept her blouse tight and in place. “Thanks.”

The two women were undressed in short order and Anna slipped into the hot water first. In a reverse of their first day together, Elsa sat down and lay back against her sister. The tub was large enough to accommodate two adults, but their legs still rubbed against each other as they lay back in the water.

“So what are the chances we get an uninvited guest again?” Elsa asked after a minute.

“Pretty good, I’d say,” Anna replied, looking at the door. “Hey, why don’t you do something about that?”

Elsa smiled, understanding what Anna was suggesting. She raised a hand towards the door and a beam of blue energy shot from her hand, striking the floor. Ice quickly spread to encase the door as well as the frame, freezing everything in place. “There. No chance of interruption this time,” she said, settling back into the water. As she lay back she could distinctly feel her sister’s breasts pressing against her back and a thrill ran through her. To try and distract herself from the wonderful feeling of bare skin on skin she said, “Speaking of Olaf and interruptions ... wrestling?”

Anna wrapped her arms around her sister, the same as Elsa did the other day, and blushed at the reminder. “What else was I going to tell him? I mean, he’s a snowman. He doesn’t even have ... you know. How do you explain making love to someone who literally has no capability for or need for sex?”

“So sex is a need now?” Elsa asked, teasing her sister.

“You do know what’s required if you ever want to have kids, right? And if you were married, you’d understand.”

“Hey, just because I haven’t done it yet doesn’t mean I don’t understand.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply ... It’s just different when you’ve got experience. Knowing what it’s like is different from imagining what it’s like. Wait...” Anna paused for a moment as she picked up on something Elsa had said, then grinned. It was time to turn the teasing around. “Haven’t done it YET? So you are planning to have sex at some point, huh? Got someone in mind?”

Elsa stiffened. “No! I mean, of course I want to. In general. It’d be pretty strange not to. But there’s no one in particular.” She hoped Anna didn’t press her on this as she didn’t know how long she could maintain the lie.

“That’s a shame,” Anna replied. “Well, when you do find that special someone, you’ll know.”

“Oh I will, will I? Just like how you knew Hans was the one for you?”

“Ouch. Low blow there, Elsa. Low blow.” The fact that Anna was smiling took most of the sting out of her words.

“Sorry.”

Anna gave Elsa a loving squeeze. “It’s okay. I’ve said it a hundred times since then, but you were right. I shouldn’t have tried to marry a man I just met. Though you do have to give me some credit. I learned from my mistake and I did pretty okay on my second try.”

“Yeah. I’m happy for you and Kristoff. You’re a lovely couple.”

“Good thing I snagged him before you could,” Anna teased.

“What? Me?”

“Come on. You can’t honestly tell me you never thought about it. The guy obsessed with ice ... the girl with magic ice powers ... you are two sides of the same coin. You’d be perfect together.”

Elsa hesitated for a moment. “Okay, yes,” she admitted. “I did make that connection and had a few what-if thoughts early on. But the two of you were already a couple and there’s no way I’d try to steal him from you, even if I developed feelings for him, which I didn’t.”

Anna was starting to get mischievous again and wanted to push her sister’s buttons to see what kind of reaction she’d get. She leaned in and whispered in Elsa’s ear. “What if we shared?”

Elsa’s eyes went wide in shock. “Anna!” she yelled and pulled away from her, turning in the tub to face her. “You did NOT just suggest what I think you did!”

Anna couldn’t help but laugh out loud at Elsa’s reaction. “Of course not,” she said once her laughter subsided. “But the look on your face was totally worth it!”