#for in this river lots of feels happennnnn

[justlookatthosesausages]

:: “Memoirs” :: a post-Frozen 2 Time Travel AU

======= CHAPTER 7 Safe and sound =======

As Elsa opened her eyes - even though, she thought, she didn’t really opened them, because Ahtohallan was projecting the memories of the future into her mind - she was welcome by a melodious and soft music. 

The notes turned into a song as a gentle male voice accompanied them, and Elsa looked around trying to understand where she was standing. 

This was Anna’s and Kristoff’s bedroom. It had been only Anna’s, a long time ago, then they had redesigned it from the moment Kristoff lived in the castle, and Elsa had seen its design change once again in the future memory of Anna giving birth to her daughter. But here, it had a different structure, though half-familiar, and the Snow Queen easily guessed that what she was about to witness was happening before the memory that was submitted to her in the Forest.

She finally laid eyes on the source of the music, and found a moving ice statue representing Kristoff playing the lute, seated on the bed, as Anna was on the sheets next to him, her face adorned with a dreamy smile. She had a hand against the pillow next to her, and the other was absentmindedly rubbing her belly. 

Elsa loudly gasped with emotion when she saw that Anna was pregnant, and visibly in the last months. She immediately covered her mouth, fearing for a second that she ruined the soft lullaby Kristoff was playing. Thankfully, she wasn’t really there, them neither, and they were all just sharing a moment lost in time. 

Lost in time, but real. The blonde felt her eyes sting at the thought, and her stomach leaped a bit. This would become true. This was the future. Kristoff was singing to his wife one of the most tender songs she had ever heard from him, and Anna was looking at him singing like she was in the best place in the entire world. 

Once he was finished, it took all of Elsa’s will to not clap right then in awe or sigh with delight as Kristoff placed his hand above Anna’s on her belly. She had to focus on what they were saying. She couldn’t help but think, despite the beauty of the scene: was she already dead in that moment?  

Kristoff bent to his wife to kiss her in the hair, then he shifted to kiss her belly. He smiled after he did. 

“Oh, I’m very lucky tonight.” He said, his voice a bit crystalline and reverberated in ice statue form. “No kick in the face. I won’t lose a teeth this time.”

Anna giggled, but also eye-rolled. “Come on. Don’t exaggerate. It had just been a tiny kick.”

“Still. She’s as strong as you, and I’m sure that one centimeter to the right would have knocked me down.” 

They both laughed, then kissed, and Elsa shed a tear at Anna’s voice. It was the first time she heard her talking as a grown adult, and a future mother. Last time she saw her around that age was when she was giving birth, and well, it wasn’t the most representative sample... She had mostly heard her scream. Here, she was calm, bathing in love and happiness, and it filled Elsa’s heart. 

“Hey, you’re still persuaded that it’s a girl?” Frowned Anna, lifting her face, her long untied hair sliding along the pillow.

“What, this conversation again?” Groaned Kristoff, but he was amused. “Come on, feisty. I told you. Bulda said it would be a girl. The northern lights are never wrong.”

“The northern lights...” Repeated Anna with a long sigh, exasperated, and Elsa couldn’t help but laugh, especially at the face she made as she put her head back down. 

Kristoff chuckled. “Don’t mock it. It’s been proven.”

Anna smirked. “Alright. Then we need to think of baby names. I only thought about boys ones.” 

“Oh yeah? What were your choices?” Asked Kristoff, picking up his lute and idly plucking the chords.

Elsa stepped forward. This conversation was lovely, and she leaned on the edge of the bed made out of ice, her arms crossed, smiling at their soft interaction. 

“I was thinking about ‘Hans’.”

Kristoff missed a heartbeat and his hand slipped on the chords, and Elsa almost fell to the floor at the sentence. 

Anna cackled loudly with laughter. “I’m just kidding! Oh my goodness, you should have seen your face!!”

“This is not funny.” Mumbled Kristoff. 

She howled with laughter, and suddenly slammed her hand on her belly when her moves became too big. “Ow, ow, ow...”

“See? Stop saying nonsense, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

He helped her change her posture on the bed, using his own pillow to put it under her back. 

“Thank you. Ugh, I shouldn’t have laughed that hard. At least she’ll have the sense of humor.”

Kristoff and Elsa shook their head at the same time, puffing. 

“Do you have ideas for a girl name?” Asked Anna, her voice soft and calm again. 

“I’ve been thinking about Olwen.”

“What? What even is that kind of name?” Snorted the Queen. 

“It means ‘White footprint’ in Welsh. And I got the idea inspired from old mythology. Olwen was a goddess who would make flowers spring up as she walked in snow.” Smiled Kristoff, waving her hands with pretty illustrative gestures. “For a baby who will be born between Winter and Spring, it will be great, don’t you think? Your sister would approve it.”  

Elsa’s entire body stiffened as she heard the sentence. Did that mean... What that meant? Was she gone already?

“Okay, ice nerd.” Puffed Anna. “Well, don’t try to convince me with emotion. That’s not gonna make me change my mind. It’s a no-no.”

Kristoff pouted, and Elsa’s heart split in half. ‘With emotion’ echoed in her mind. So she was dead before this scene happened. She was dead before Anna even finished her pregnancy. 

If present Anna was there by her side, she would convince her that she had to wait for more clues, and was taking things out of context. But she wasn’t there. And Elsa knew that it was too many coincidences for it to not be the truth. 

As Kristoff kept defending his choice of name, Elsa winced. She sighed and forced herself to smile. At least she could enjoy this moment of them. 

“How about Alexandria?” Suggested Anna with a big smile. 

Kristoff groaned. “That’s sounds a bit like a disease.” 

“What?? Come onnnn, be supportive!” 

“I would if that didn’t sound like a disease.”

She nudged him on the shoulder, and he chuckled, continuing his soft plucking of the chords. The scene was so sweet that it actually made Elsa grin, and she forgot her sadness.

“Okay, I’m gonna think about another one.” Accepted Anna.

She then turned to him with a warning finger. “But we’re never ever going to pick your name.”

=======

“Hi, Olwen.” Smiled Anna with a soft voice. 

Elsa blinked when the memory suddenly changed. The room was the same, still filled with moving ice statues, but there were more people, and the furniture had changed. It was back to the design Elsa had seen in the memory when Anna had given birth. 

And then it hit her. This was what happened right afterwards. 

With an emotional gasp, Elsa ran to the tiny baby Anna was holding in the crook of her arms with a smile, and that Kristoff and her couldn’t detach their eyes from. Anna was gently rubbing her cheek with her thumb, her eyes filled with maternal love, and the elder felt her heart leap at the beautiful scene.  

The baby was adorable, and the blonde started crying along the new parents as they all stared at it. 

“Olwen of Arendelle. You’ve got all the world to discover.” Whispered Kristoff, like he feared that talking too loud would shatter the fragile skin of his daughter. 

Elsa rubbed her tears so she would stop seeing blur, and smiled to the blond as he caressed the head of the sleeping baby. It looked infinitely cute, and Elsa wished she could say the same of Anna, but she had messy hair, and some locks were stuck to her face because of her sweat. 

With a chuckle, Elsa looked at her, and lifted her hand as she wanted to put some of her hair behind her ear and tell her how amazing she had been in her labor. 

However, this only was a memory, even if it was from the future, and she only contented herself with a supportive smile as she saw Anna hold Olwen closer to her chest. 

The Fifth Spirit looked around, looking one last time with one last hope that she was indeed present in the room, but hadn’t noticed. Nevertheless, she definitely wasn’t. With a pinch to the heart, she looked at Kristoff and Anna kissing each other, then the redhead giggled with happiness. Seeing them both admire their daughter, who brought such touching smiles on their faces, and would become the future of Arendelle, was enough to make her lips stretch in a content smile, and she enjoyed the moment as it was.

=======

A new flash appeared as the memory changed. Now, a lot of years had passed, easy to notice for the blonde in a simple stare: the furniture was different, and maybe even the wallpaper, but she couldn’t tell which color it was, for everything was cyan and white in ice statues. 

Elsa squinted as she walked to the bed, and tried to recognized the ones present there. She gasped in joy when she saw how adorable Olwen had grown up to be. She now was around 10 years old, and reminded her of Anna was she was her age. She wanted to step further to see how cute she was, but the little girl shifted in her sheets as Anna, now an older adult, kissed her on the forehead. 

They both giggled, and the Snow Queen masked a giggle behind her hand as well. She couldn’t help but hide her sounds. She felt like the moment was intimate, private even, and was so touched by the love filling the room that she didn’t want to ruin it, even if they couldn’t hear her. It was a shame that the ice memories couldn’t show much colors, because she would have loved to know if her niece’s hair was blonde, red, or maybe a mix of both. Elsa chose to use her imagination, like she usually did, and it wasn’t hard because of much she looked like her mother.

“Sleep well, love.” Smiled Anna, and her bun swayed in her move as she stood up from the bed.  

“Mama, can you tell me a story about Auntie?”

Anna stopped right in her tracks just before reaching the door. Elsa stopped breathing.

The blonde’s hand, who had lowered from her mouth to her chest in emotion at Anna’s love as she put her daughter to bed, clenched there. 

‘Here we go.’ Thought Elsa. ‘She’ll want to know what happened.’

Anna didn’t look back, and from where the elder stood, she couldn’t know what her expression was. Her heart squeezed even harder. The redhead probably was feeling sad about it. She had stopped walking, and wasn’t looking back as she answered her daughter. 

“Not tonight, sweetheart. Sorry.”

“Mamaaaa!” Insisted Olwen, using adorable bounces in the sheets to persuade her. 

Elsa would have found it adorable if she wasn’t devastated. 

“Please tell me the story about that time she saved Ahtohallan!” Begged the little girl. 

Anna didn’t reply right away, and Elsa accepted with sadness that she didn’t want to talk about how she had lost her... Wait, when she saved Ahtohallan? The elder frowned in confusion. 

“Why wouldn’t she tell you herself?” Finally turned around Anna, and to Elsa’s greatest surprise, she was wearing a big smile and looking right at her. 

The elder gasped with wide eyes, panicking. Was she able to see her? Did she know she was here? How long did she know? 

She inspected the expression on the ice statue of her grown adult sister, and then realized that she wasn’t looking at her, but behind her. 

Slowly, Elsa turned around, and was seized by the biggest emotion when she saw who had just came in by the window.

A gust of wind finished twirling as an older adult Elsa stepped in the room, and as she turned around to close the window behind her, present Elsa got struck by the vision of her own front and back. With a dropped jaw, she saw how in the move, her shoulder pieces sparkled, even in the dimmed light of the candles in Olwen’s bedroom. Her white outfit was the same after all these years, but was more sophisticated, more ergonomic, and, Elsa couldn’t help but admit, ten times more gorgeous than the one she was currently wearing. She - her older self, as insane as the situation was - had added light armor pieces made of dense ice that brightened with the purest white, and they covered her shoulders, her chest, but also her arms and her thighs. 

Elsa forgot to breath and gulp for the eternal seconds when her older self stepped in the room and to the bed. As she did, she stared at her with wide eyes. Her future self had shorter hair, way shorter hair than present time, but also undeniably more muscles, from bigger biceps to broader shoulders, and Elsa wondered if it was due to intense riding or to simply living in the woods for several tens of years. Her brain was unable to come with an answer, for how stunned she was by that mere entrance. As her older self came to sit on the bed, the skin-like ice fabric below her chest armor piece shone. It attracted Elsa’s gaze, who detached her eyes from the impressively confident expression her future self had, to make them land on a set of sharp abs. 

Present Elsa let out a gasp that was a mix of a scoff and a sigh as she looked over and over at herself. She was alive. And not only alive; actually looking really great.

“AUNTIEEE!!” Exclaimed the little girl, jumping in joy and completely going off the sheets to join her and crush her in a hug. 

Elsa gasped in emotion, tears now rolling down her cheeks. She couldn’t tell if it was due to happiness, relief, or because her older self now was hugging Olwen tight.

“Hi sweetie.” She chuckled. 

It was odd to hear one’s own voice, and even weirder to hear it from one’s future self. Elsa felt taken aback by the situation, but the memory went on, and she barely caught on the sensation. 

“Seriously, Elsa?” Grumbled Anna. 

Present Elsa thought she was going to scold her from suddenly appearing at the window, reproach her from not using the door, or tell her to have warned about her visit. But it was none of those. 

“It took me ages to put her to bed. I’m gonna kill you.” Sighed Anna. 

Older Elsa chuckled, and Olwen giggled with a guilty tone. “I doubt that you will kill me”, smiled the blonde. “Also, we can make a deal.” She added to her niece, looking down. “I tell you the story of that time I saved Ahtohallan, and then off to bed, alright?” 

“I promise!” Jolted the girl, beaming in joy and not disappointed at all. 

“Alright. Now go back in your sheets.” Asked Elsa as she ruffled her hair. 

Anna had stepped to her, and while the child was lying back down, the blonde added: “The meeting has ended. I took care of the maps. Kristoff is walking the dignitaries to their coaches. You don’t need to go back.”

“Okay, thanks.” Smiled Anna with a relieved but also tired sigh. She wasn’t a fan of interrupting her evening meetings, going upstairs, putting her daughter to bed, to then switch her mood back and go to regal tone again.

“I think contracts are on the right way with eastern diplomats.” Analyzed Elsa. “With the new politics, we made an equal deal.”

Present Elsa was speechless at the scene. The blonde’s lips stretched slightly at how her older self sounded. By those simple sentences, she was showing a lot of assurance, relaxation, and she was touched to see that she got Anna’s back in Queen duties despite clearly only passing by. However, she was surprised to see that her voice hadn’t changed at all in all those years. She was way more confident, but still had a light voice. 

“Yeah, I think so too.” Nodded Anna with a smile and some professional wisdom.

“Hey, enough boring adult talk!” Grumbled Olwen from the sheets she had buried herself in to the cheeks. 

The sisters giggled, and even present Elsa shook her head. Yep, she was Anna’s spitting image. Even if, proof being there, older Anna would become a very serious and dedicated Queen. 

Older Elsa tapped her chin. “Okay, the story of that time I saved Ahtohallan... Hummm...”

Anna eye-rolled. “She heard it a hundred times already, no need to put that much suspense.”

The Snow Queen laughed, and gave an amused look to her sister as she sat on the bed too. “Did you tell the story more times than me, or is it the reverse?”

“I think I did.” Snorted Anna. 

“I prefer when it’s Auntie who tells it.” Pouted Olwen. 

Anna dropped her jaw as Elsa cackled with laughter. 

“Ouch?” Gasped the redhead. 

“You put too much details when you tell it. I want to go to the action part.” Explained the child, and Elsa laughed again.

“There’s no need to rush to the fight part!” Frowned Anna, defending her own version of the story. 

“But you always spend soooo much time praising Auntie, it gets so long!” 

Elsa looked away to openly laugh without embarrassing her sister, and present Elsa smiled with delight at the scene. Anna was blushing deeply - even if she couldn’t really tell in ice statue form, she just knew it -, her older self was laughing out loud without hiding behind her hand, and her niece was adorably pouting after proving that truth comes out of the mouth of children. 

“Okay, okay, no useless intro, then.” Coughed Elsa, retrieving her breath. 

She patted Anna’s shoulder. “The positive part in this, is that she’ll go to sleep earlier.”

The redhead pouted a bit, still not recovering from being criticized on the way she told stories. 

“Once upon a time, raiders plundered Ahtohallan. I fought them back. The end.”

“AUNTIEEEE!!”

“I’m just kidding.” Giggled Elsa, and Anna joined the laugh. 

“Okay, once upon a time, and that was when you were very little--”

“I wasn’t born yet, actually.” 

“Yes, you weren’t born yet.” Smiled Elsa. “She knows the story better than me.” She added to Anna on side note, and the Queen nodded. It was the third time in the month that she asked for that story. 

“Ahtohallan got attacked by very evil and very numerous raiders.” Continued Elsa with a lower mysterious voice, pocking her niece’s belly above the sheets at each ‘very’, and the latter giggled. 

“They had carefully planned their coup. I was there in Arendelle, along your mother, because she was about to give birth.”

“Ew.”

“To you.” Specified Anna.

“Still ew.”

The sisters chuckled, and Elsa kept going. “They had strategically chosen that period because they knew that the Queen was in no condition to send an army, and I’d be too far to come prevent them from raiding the glacier.”

Olwen was listening carefully, her eyes opened wide, even if she knew the story into every detail. 

“Little did they know that Ahtohallan could warn me.” Said Elsa, now switching to a soft and deep tone, almost hypnotic to the young girl’s ears. 

She then moved her fingers, and some tiny figures made of ice and snow appeared in the air just above her niece’s eyes, and showed what happened. “I waited for them to enter the glacier to create an ambush...” 

“Hey, no wonder you’re her favorite to tell the story!” Suddenly exclaimed Anna with a bit of anger. “You cheater! You’re making images as well!”

Elsa and Olwen laughed as the snow characters continued to move. 

“Shhhh, we’re getting to her favorite part.” Teased Elsa, and the Queen grumbled as she looked away and muttered a ‘It’s unfair.’

Elsa put as much suspense she could, and suddenly burst a mini explosion of snow, making Olwen gasp, as she showed the raiders falling into a pit in the reproduction of the glacier. The little girl giggled as some of them comically tried to hang to the sides with their picks, but then fell backwards. 

“Some were clever enough to have anticipated it, and had escaped the trap. So I started fighting them...”

The mini ice figure representing Elsa started to craft herself an ice staff, and fought the angry men in Northuldra style. 

“Awesome!” Beamed Olwen.

“This is a bit too graphic for a girl of her age.” Mumbled Anna, and she waved her hand through a snow figure particularly violent that depicted Elsa knocking down a guy with her staff. 

“You can’t erase them.” Smirked Elsa.

It dispersed but reformed after Anna took her hand away. No way her elder was going to let down her golden ticket to the girl’s heart. Anna shook her head with a smile, and let her continue the illustrations. She however gave her sister a look that meant ‘less violence in the figures, please’, which Elsa understood with a nod, and the snow figures became a bit more vague. 

“Olaf had come along to help me.” Smiled Elsa, adding some humor in her illustrations to mask the brutality of the action. “He wasn’t really good at fighting, but scared some of the raiders, and got very useful.” 

Anna and her daughter observed the funny moves of the figures, seeing a bunch of grown men running away in fear as Olaf led an army of snowgies to chase them. They all laughed when one of them managed to go out of the glacier, and screamed of panic when he noticed that a snowgie had made its way into his pants. 

“Olaf named himself ‘Guardian of Ahtohallan’ afterwards.” Smiled Anna. “Not sure if it stuck.”

“Ahtohallan doesn’t dare to tell him that it’s already technically me”, laughed Elsa. “But it’s fine. He can keep the title.” 

“Olaf is so funny.” Giggled Olwen. 

The sisters nodded, and Elsa flicked her wrist, continuing the story. Present Elsa was just as attentive as the little girl now, for she was as curious to know what happened next. 

“The fight continued for long hours. The raiders were ready for a possible danger so they were numerous, though they didn’t expect to face me.” Smirked older Elsa.

“And that is why she couldn’t attend the day I was giving birth to you.” Smiled Anna. “And several days afterwards, because Ahtohallan needed to be rebuilt and reshaped, and justice to be done about those mean raiders with Elsa as a witness.”

Olwen nodded slowly, her jaw still dropped. Present Elsa smiled tenderly at how, once again, she reminded her so much of Anna when she was a child, and listened to stories told by her own mother. 

“She was busing up North, but it was so epic and I’m so proud of her, that I never got upset that she wasn’t there.” Smiled Anna, putting a hand on Elsa’s shoulder, who smiled. “Also, she came three days afterwards with so many gifts that we couldn’t even step in your bedroom for how much they filled it.”

Elsa chuckled. “Guilty.” 

Olwen laughed at Elsa’s love for her, that they all knew very well, then her laugh extended to a long yawn. 

“Alright, that signal means that it’s time for bed!” Jolted Anna. 

“N’ther story, b’lease?” Muttered her daughter. 

“Oh no, young princess, it’s getting late now. Come on, close your eyes.” 

Elsa stood up as Anna put the sheets back on her, and the girl soon went off to sleep. Present Elsa, who rubbed an emotional tear off her cheek once again, noticed that the girl didn’t snore, and thought that she inherited from her father’s side on it. 

She felt filled with love, due to the scene, the situation, how Anna and herself had grown up to be, and the fact she now knew why she hadn’t been at Anna’s side that day, and now understood why Ahtohallan had planned to show her this bed time story moment.

Anna kissed Olwen’s forehead again, and the two sisters silently left the room. 

“We should catch up with Kristoff to join our feedbacks about the meeting.” Whispered Anna to her elder as they passed the threshold. 

“Sure. Just give me a minute. I’ll meet you guys downstairs.” Whispered back Elsa.

“Okay.” 

Anna left and went in the corridor, her ice statue disappearing as she did, because she stepped out of the memory. 

Present Elsa suddenly got struck by the fact that she had been wrong; this future memory wasn’t Anna’s. Or Olwen’s. It was hers. 

Her older self stood still, and then she smiled and turned around. Her gaze roamed over the whole room, like she was searching for something hidden in the walls. 

“I know you’re here.”

Present Elsa gasped in surprise, stepping back as a reflex. Her older self smiled softly, like she knew she had just reacted that way. 

“I’ll always remember seeing this memory of the future.”

There was a silence, and both Elsas looked at each other with respect and calm smiles. 

“Take care of yourself. Well, of ourself.” Said older Elsa. “The future is sunny.” 

Present Elsa took a shaking inhale, her throat tightened with emotion. 

Her older version winked, and turned around to pass the door. 

The whole room dissolved into snowflakes, ending the memory in a wind of snow. 

Elsa watched it elevate, sparkly and beautiful, and smiled deeply. She closed her eyes, the remaining drops on her eyelashes rolling on her cheeks, and when she opened her eyes again, she came back to present time. 

=======

Anna hadn’t detached her eyes from her sister’s face, and jumped of surprise when she started to blink. 

“Elsa?” 

“I’m here.” Assured the blonde, smiling to the face above hers. 

Anna sighed with relief, even if she wasn’t really scared that her elder would never wake up. Tears of joy filled Elsa’s eyes, and she suddenly sat up to hug her sister deeply. 

“Oh- okay.” Blabbered Anna, tackled by the hug. She was confused, but gave it back with closed eyes. 

When they finished hugging, they stared at each other, seated on the ice floor of Ahtohallan, and Elsa found it odd to see Anna in her twenties in front of her. 

“What?” Worried the redhead, seeing the way she stared. 

“Nothing.” Smiled Elsa. 

She turned her head to the dome, nodding calmly and wisely. “Thank you.”

The magic source brightened in a ‘You’re welcome’ gesture, and when the blonde turned to Anna again, the younger had a questioning face. 

“So? What happened?? What was the event of the future? Why won’t you be there at my delivery? Why are you happy crying??”

Elsa sniffed and laughed. 

“There’s a lot I want to tell you.” She grinned.