White Queen

Dearest Sister of Mine

She didn't feel as miserable.

The feeling of an empty spot still lingered when she came to her own bedchamber, to see the untouched bed that must have gone cold from the lack of people actually sleeping on it, of every meal time where her left side had not been occupied for so long, of when she spent her time in the library where there was no head resting on her lap as the man listened closely to what happened within her belly. But she found ways to keep it to the bare minimum.

She slept with Anna in the Princess' bedchamber each night –it had been the eleventh day now as she kept on counting, to have her sister's comforting hand either holding hers or even resting on her round belly to soothe her darling niece or nephew, she conversed and joked around with the Princess during meal time, gossiped about the things that the younger always seemed to discover, she indulged in small sweets as she read in the library, speaking each word out loud for her child to hear, and it was... nice. She realized that her life did not have to cling to Hans forever, that they could be separated and not have either of them spiraling into nothingness.

Anna was always there with her too.

She would know when the Queen's fingers curled around the edge of her pillow, nails digging into it as brows started to furrow and jaws clenched, it happened every time a band of muscles tightened at the lower part of her abdomen. It had been happening one or twice and was deemed normal by the doctor, as it was merely her body's own way of preparing for the birth of her child, and as long as they did not come into a pattern, it did not mean that she was in early labor. Sometimes it was merely a discomfort for her, a cramp, but there were times where it caused her to groan ever so quietly, those times were the ones where the strawberry blonde haired Princess would sit or lay down by her sister's side, hand caressing her cheek and brushing her bangs out of her eyes.

Her touches were warm and comforting, and that alone already made her feel much better, as she knew she didn't have to be feeling uncomfortable alone.

"-he found and rescued Sven when they were both still young." The sun had set long ago, darkening the sky outside of the Princess' window, and yet the two sisters were still up, sitting on the plush bed as the older ran her fingers through the younger's hair to undo her braid. Usually her own handmaidens would do the job, but the Queen had politely dismissed of them, as she wish to tend to her sister's hair herself for the night, for old time's sake. "He was orphaned since he was a child."

She couldn't quite understand how tonight their discussion had been of Kristoff, though she did felt rather saddened by the reveal of the hardships of life that the man had to face. It was also quite curious that Anna would even know about all this in the first place. "So... he didn't have any sort of family at all?"

"He... kind of does?" the strawberry blonde haired Princess sounded a little uncertain as she handed the hairbrush for her sister to take. "It's complicated, he doesn't really explain it, but he did once mentioned that he has those he referred as his family. Maybe the other ice harvesters?"

Running the brush through her sister's hair, she slightly felt like it was unnecessary, knowing that each morning the Princess would wake up with such wild bed hair anyway no matter how many tangles she had dismissed the night before. "I need you to be honest with me, Anna. Do you like him?" The question had plagued her mind for quite some time now, seeing that the two once opposing people had grown rather close, from what she could see and hear.

"Wait, what?" The younger sister's head had whipped so quickly that the Queen was thankful she was not brushing any hair at that moment, as the sudden motion would surely hurt her sister's scalp. "What makes you think of that?" She genuinely sounded so surprised, but it was the blush that started to color her cheeks that made the older rose her eyebrow.