Title: Regret
Author: darkling59
Rating: K+
Date: 1/26/2014
Disclaimer: Frozen and all related characters, plots, etc. do not belong to me.
Summary: In the frozen pause between incident and reaction during a coronation that should have been cause for celebration, two sisters realize their world is crumbling and come to very different conclusions as to who is responsible.

Anna

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...

Anna hadn't meant to do it, hadn't meant anything by it. She'd only been (justifiably!) upset over her sister's most recent attempt to make her miserable (And what did Elsa know, anyway? Hans was Anna's true love!) and just wanted to understand WHY Elsa was so reticent and cold.

(And, oh, she would come to regret that thought before the night was out.)

The younger princess barely noticed when the glove came away in her hand.

And then those WORDS. After all they'd been through together, telling Anna to leave with barely a tremble in her voice...

It HURT. It hurt more than she'd thought it could after so many years of neglect.

And so she externalized the pain that had built up over time, finally given a target for her confusion and anguish. She poured all her emotions into her words and lashed out.

She pushed.

And pushed.

And pushed too far.

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so, so sorry...

When the spikes of ice flew from her sister's hands, Anna felt like she'd been drenched in cold water. Not because of the potentially aggressive movement, but because she suddenly understood.

The whispers began immediately.

Magic.

Sorcery.

Witch.

Creature.

Abomination.

MONSTER.

And a million tiny things suddenly made sense.

How mother and father had hustled her away from Elsa's door, chiding her for disturbing her older sister even though they'd always encouraged their play in the past.

How Kai and Gerta were the only servants who ever braved Elsa's hallway, and even they were formal and cautious.

How the snow-flake patterned door always seemed colder than everything around it, even in the dead of winter.

How many times Anna had approached Elsa's room and found a patch of frost or pool of water seeping under the door.

How everything had changed without warning. It wasn't just Elsa, Anna now realized...between one day and the next, the adults stopped treating her sister like a child and started treating her like a time-bomb.

How the castle tutor had made particularly sure to address the witch-hunts of Arendelle's past in Anna's lessons, cautioning her to the perils of sorcery and the traditional response...

Mother and Father never tried to bring them together, only kept them apart...

The servants spent the bare minimum of time necessary in her sister's presence, and always left trying to rub warmth back into their fingers...

Every memory, every understanding, every sudden, damning realization swirled around Anna's head in a chaotic maelstrom she could barely understand.

All she could truly comprehend in that suddenly quiet moment, broken only by the whispers and stirring paranoia of partygoers was the absolute horror on her older sister's features and the way she pressed herself back against the door, ready to be hunted, ready to be ATTACKED.

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...

She tried to reach out, tried to make things right even though she had no idea how, but the second Elsa heard her voice, she flinched away and fled through the door.

By the time Anna got around the frozen barrier and into the courtyard, people were exclaiming in confusion and fear and the aura of merriment had transformed into a volatile, dangerous thing just this side of a riot.

Anna barely noticed Hans at her side. He was her one true love and she'd be very grateful for his understanding later, but at the moment Elsa was more important.

Now...

All she had to do was make her sister listen, make ALL of them listen and convince them this didn't matter, that the past ten minutes weren't an indication of anything fell or evil.

She had to tell them that Elsa had reacted negatively because she'd spent the last ten years locked up, stewing in her own terror. That it could be overcome by...by...

By Anna.

She suddenly felt small and lost, young and SO foolish.

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...

It turned out not to matter.

Elsa was just as afraid of Anna as she was of everyone else, perhaps more so, and she fled across the water on a bridge of ice and snow before her sister could get close enough to talk.

Anna could only stand on the shore and watch, heart leaden and scared in her chest, as the new queen's royal purple cape vanished into the darkness.

The next thing she knew, Hans had gently steered her away and the Duke of Weselton was talking about witch hunts, sorcery, punishments, and every horrible artifact of the past that Anna had thought only existed in history books.

Then again, she'd thought the same thing about magic.

Her protests fell on deaf ears at first, but with Hans' help she managed to mollify the crowd from fearful and willing to riot to uneasy and willing to wait and see.

I'm sorry I'm sorry…

This was her fault. If she'd only understood what was going on...if she'd pushed a little harder, observed a little better, taken her lessons to heart, SOMETHING, maybe she would have realized how much of a prisoner Elsa was. Maybe she would have understood the continuous sheer terror that must be Elsa's life.

Maybe she wouldn't have snatched that stupid glove like a moron!

(And, she realized now, why Elsa wanted to talk in private and why she acted so emotionless, like an ice queen. As soon as the phrase registered, Anna flinched.)

Elsa had been her life ever since their parents closed the gates, even if they had existed on opposite sides of a door, Anna was NOT going to abandon her now.

(Not even if Elsa had done so, a traitorous, begrudging little voice whispered in her mind. She silenced it immediately. Everything made sense now, that wasn't...she shouldn't feel like that anymore.)

It didn't take long to make her decision, to grab a horse and leave Hans in charge.

I'm sorry

...but I promise I'm going to make this right.

Author's Note:

And so begins my first foray into the Frozen fandom! This is going to be a short little two-shot (Elsa's chapter will be up within the hour) Unfortunately, it's not all that unique or original but when the muse strikes…

To be honest, I've had a lot of trouble with writing Frozen fanfiction. I loved the movie and have an abundance of ideas…but all of the outlines I've written seem to have already been done in some form (superhero/villain AU? Done. Dragons? Same. Avengers crossover? Yep. Canon divergence where Elsa has an 'accident' courtesy of Hans?...Sort of. Metahuman AU? See superhero answer. Shapeshifter crossover? That one's…complicated.) It's awesome to read everyone's contributions, but it makes me shy about posting.

If you'd like to see any more Frozen works from me, please review!