Hi everyone! This is a short scene based on a longer headcanon/story prompt submitted to Emirael on Tumblr. This particular bit got into my head and wouldn't leave, so I decided it was something I needed to write...and here we are. Enjoy!

"In any case...I hope you have a good trip! I've never been to Westerlund, so you'd better bring me back a souvenir."

Elsa laughed, though she could feel an odd tightness in her stomach. "Let me guess. Chocolate?"

Anna snorted. "You know me so well." She threaded her fingers through her sister's hands, smiling at her. Though, Elsa was surprised to note, the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. She wondered if Anna was feeling the same sensation of being oddly lost that had slowly overtaken the queen in the last week, as the start of her goodwill tour of the surrounding kingdoms approached.

If she'd wondered, it was confirmed a moment later, when Anna said, "But...and I feel really, really selfish saying this...come home as soon as you can, okay? I'm going to miss you. I feel like I've already started missing you, and you're still right here!"

Elsa rubbed her thumb along the back of her sister's hand, making small circles just below the knuckles. "I promise I will." She hesitated a moment, and then said, "I'm going to miss you too."

Anna beamed at her, though her eyes still radiated sadness, and Elsa felt mournful all over again. How could Anna—Anna, who was smart, and beautiful, and funny, and the most caring and warmhearted person Elsa had ever known—how could she, of all people, think so little of herself that just hearing that someone would miss her could light her up like that?

And Elsa would miss her sister. Terribly. The tick of the clock suddenly sounded impossibly loud to her, like it was mocking them as it lifted away second after second from their precious time left together. Don't let it bother you so much, she told herself. You'll be back in two weeks, and you'll both be so busy during that time that you won't have a moment to miss each other.

She'd make time to miss Anna.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Holgar, the head footman, stuck his head inside and announced that it was time for the Queen to go. She thanked him, and stood as he ducked back out of the room, his message delivered. Anna stood with her, and their eyes met. Elsa smiled sadly and held her sister's hands in her own, drawing them close to her.

"I do need to go..." she said wistfully.

"I'll walk down with you," Anna said in a quiet voice.

Elsa released Anna's hands and brought her left hand up to cup her sister's face. Putting on as bright a smile as she could manage, she leaned in to plant a kiss on Anna's lips, as they'd grown accustomed to doing in the mornings and evenings upon meeting and parting. She knew that they might not have time to do it later, and this was one small bit of human contact that she was so accustomed to now that she knew she simply couldn't go without it, especially when they wouldn't see each other for two whole weeks. Anna leaned forward to meet her.

Their kisses were short things. Pecks on the lips, sweet, warm, sisterly, and never lasting more than a second at the most. They had been ever since the practice had started. And yet now, as Elsa felt the soft pressure of Anna's warm lips against her own, she felt oddly unwilling to pull away. Like something in her needed to communicate to Anna how much she would miss her, how much this separation would hurt and how she would do anything she could to get back to her as soon as possible. And so she let her lips linger, the pressure growing as another second passed. And then another, and another. Her hand went to rest behind Anna's elbow, pulling them closer together, and she felt Anna's hand reach up to tangle in her hair.

Elsa's head tilted slightly to the side, and somehow she felt her mouth fall slightly open. Anna let out a small breath as the kiss deepened and she had the odd sensation of her sister breathing into her.

She smelled like the orange marmalade they'd had with their toast for breakfast.

She couldn't say how long the moment lasted, but when they pulled back she felt oddly dazed. Blinking at Anna, she saw that her sister's face was bright red, a realization which caused her to be suddenly conscious of her own burning cheeks.

"Hurry back," Anna said.

"I will," Elsa replied, her voice shaking.

The next two weeks were going to be very, very long.