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“Stop moving so much!”, Gerda said, trying to tie the last knots, “It's harder to adjust your dress like this.”
“Sorry Gerda!”, Anna replied.
Gerda wasn't very pleased by the apology, but she didn't mind, Anna had all the reasons to be excited for today, after all it's Elsa's coronation day, the first party the sisters plan and make themselves, the first time in years that Arendelle will receive visitors from other kingdoms and… last but not least, the day they're gonna announce their relationship.
“It's gonna be perfect. Wait and see”, Anna said, right before Elsa entered the room.
“Elsa!” Anna ran in her direction and gave her a big, warm hug. Elsa pushed her back to give her a kiss in the cheek.
“So, what do you think of my new dress?”, Elsa asked before doing a spin on the blue snow dress she made, with ice crystals hanging from the sleeves.
“It’s beautiful”, Anna replied, before holding Elsa's chin and pulling her for a long kiss.
“Aren’t- you- forgetting- something?”, Elsa said in between kisses.
“Oh yeah, the coronation!”, Anna said, kissed her one more time, and then got back to Gerda to finish prepping up for the ball.
“Are you two sure you're ready to reveal that today?”, Gerda asked.
“I’m sure, we even wrote lines and rehearsed them to ensure nothing goes wrong.”
“But what about Queen Elsa? Isn't she nervous about that after… you know, what happened with your parents…”
Anna went silent for a bit, “This was years ago.”
“You know, someone once told me that memories’ roses aren't easily removed… and so does their thorns.”
Anna stopped to think, “…I’ll ask her later.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anna only got to see Elsa again when they got to the church.
“Elsa.”
“Hm?”
“Are you okay? With y’know, telling them about us?”
“We’ve been rehearsing for weeks, it’s gonna be okay.”
“No, I mean… Are you okay with it?”
Elsa seemed anxious at the question, “Yeah, I wanted this for a long time.”
She walks to the altar to receive the crown. Anna sat down, with a worried look in her face. When Elsa held the orb and the scepter, both froze up in her hands, though no one batted an eye.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the ceremony had no problems, and the sisters got back to the castle for the ball that they carefully planned for their guests.
Though their family rarely left the castle before Agnarr and Iduna’s passing, and Elsa still was quite reserved and didn’t went walking around Arendelle like Anna, the town knew and were already acquainted with Elsa’s powers for a long while now. Because of that, the sisters decided to make a lot of winter-themed decorations for the coronation gala, from frozen fountains to making the dance hall an ice rink.
This feels nostalgic, Anna thought as she put on her ice skates, something she hasn’t done in years.
“This is strange, isn’t it?”, Elsa said, appearing beside her sister seemingly outta nowhere.
“What’s strange?”
“You know, having the castle so full, people walking through halls that felt so empty a few weeks ago. Doesn’t it make you feel s-scared?”
“Oh… yeah, I guess so”
“Anna… do we really need to-”
Elsa was quickly interrupted when Anna look at the clock on the other side of the room, “Sorry to interrupt, but it’s already time for your speech.”
Elsa looked at the clock too, “Oh! Yeah I’m almost late!”
As she was going away, Anna said: “Wait, I have a thing for you!”
She picked an old cracked yellow leaf and put it on Elsa’s hands. Her big sister looked surprised at the sight of this, “Anna, is that-”
“The first leaf of autumn, the one you picked for me at the day of our first kiss.”
“Awww, Anna, you kept it all these years?”
“Yeah…” Anna blushed after saying this, a little embarrassed by how silly it seems to preserve a single leaf for 14 years.
Elsa hugged her, “This is the best crowning present I’ve got”, she said before kissing Anna in the cheek and going to the speech.
Anna stood there for a second before following her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Ladies, gentlemen and others, may I have your attention?” Everyone in the hall slowly stopped as Elsa started her speech.
“Thank you. It’s a great pleasure of mine receiving all of you here in the castle today…” Her speech was pretty formal, generic stuff. She was lucky to find her mother’s own coronation speech in a storage of the castle, half the work was done for her, she just needed the final lines, the lines that Anna was most expecting.
“T-to finish this s-speech, there’s o-one last thing I wanted to say”, Elsa was shaking, thoughts racing through her mind as she reconsidered if making that reveal was worth it. What if they react badly like dad did? Do they really need to know? What about the kingdom’s reputation? Shouldn’t this come first since I’m now the queen?, these thoughts tormented her, forcing her to decide if she would take these risks or just throw her and Anna’s plans away.
She took a long pause and said just “Thanks to all of you for the presence and good night.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anna went to talk to Elsa shortly after her speech ended, confused by the sudden change of plans.
“So… wanna talk about what happened there?”, she asked.
“…I’d rather not. I j-just got too anxious, that’s all.”
“Well, don’t answer if you don’t want to, but what got you so anxious?”, her calm and gentle voice slowly helped Elsa open up.
“I was… scared of what people’s reactions would be”, Anna was about to comfort her when she said, “And after overhearing some of the visitors judging and laughing at my stuttering, maybe I’ve made the b-”
“No, you didn’t!”, Anna interrupted her, “Sorry, that sounded a little aggressive. I won’t say that I know what you just went through, but I know that you’ve been wanting to open up about this, and I won’t let you give up our plans because of the outsiders’ reactions.”
“What about the people of Arendelle? What would they think? I-I’m their queen now, I should be their voice, if they think…”
“Look, most Arendellians know us since we were kids, I doubt anyone would be opposed to it”, Anna took a deep breath and slowed down a bit, “Hey, if you don’t want to do the reveal anymore that’s okay, but just stop it because you want to, not because of what the others might think.”
Elsa thought for a minute, “I want to do it.”
Anna popped up a smile, “Then well, would you give me the pleasure of a dance with you?”
“By all means”, Elsa replied before they both sprint to the ice rink ballroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone in the dance hall stopped and got to the corners as the sisters entered the rink.
Elsa whispers, “Do you still remember the steps?”
Anna replies, “Of course, we do the same steps since we were kids.”
So yet again they follow the same path: meet at the middle and do a death spiral, before Elsa lifts Anna and circle the rink while holding her. Usually this is the point where Anna starts to fall asleep, but not today. So they go back to the center of the rink, and Elsa lowers Anna down, finishing the dance with the two holding each other’s hands. People start cheering right before Anna pulls Elsa for a deep kiss in the middle of the rink.
A collective gasp is heard, before it morphs into even bigger and louder cheering. For her relief, Elsa’s worries weren’t concretized. A few people shaming and mocking could be heard if you listened close enough, but it was just muffled noise compared to the acclaim of nearly all Arendellians in the ballroom.