Once the reaping is finished we are takeninto custody. They don’t drag us away or put us in handcuffs, instead theysimply surround and lead us into the justice building. It all seems ratherunnecessary as neither of us is in any state to try anything, but it’s possible tributes have tried to escape before, I never seen it though.
When we get inside they separate us, putting me in one room and Revel in another. I can still see the fear and panic in his eyes as they close the door, it’s as if he’s pleading for me to tell him it’s not real, that its just a dream.
Why did it have to be him? The boy who’d saved my family from starvation all those years ago. Not only were the odds not in my favour, but it seemed they were actively trying to break me.
This is the part where they give the tributes an hour to say goodbye to their family and loved ones before being whisked away to the Capitol. The Peacekeepers have left me in a room that has to have cost more money than all my possessions put together. There are deep plush carpets and velvet cushions on all the seats. I can’t help but run my hands along the soft fabric as I sit on one of the couches. When I take my fingers away a small coating of frost is left behind.
The door bursts open and suddenly Anna’s in my arms again. She crying and clutching tightly at my dress, burying her face into the space between my neck and shoulders. I do my best to sooth her, rubbing her back and rocking back and forth humming a soft lullaby our mother used to sing to us when we were small.
“Elsa,” she whimpers. “Elsa, please you can’t leave. If you go… I’ll truly be alone.”
The words tear at me, the room grows colder and I begin to feel the prickle of tears behind my eyes again. But I push them down, I can’t afford to leave here with puffy eyes and a red nose. There will be more camera’s waiting at the train station.
I look up to find the widow that lives just down the road from us standing nearby stone faced and quiet. After the accident she took it upon herself to help Anna and I as best she could; buying my squirrels, providing us with medicine from her small apothecary business, and she even gave Anna one of her goats so that we could sell milk and cheese. Gerda is the sole reason we were able to stay out of the community home.
“I’ll keep her with me. Make sure she is eating,” she says gravely.
An enormous weight lifts off my chest at her words and my breath hitches in my throat. People in our district have never really paid me much attention but many of them seem to truly care for my sweet little Anna. It gives me hope - Anna will be cared for when I’m gone.
“I’ll leave you two alone now,” the older woman says walking to the door. Just as she makes to close the door we lock eyes, hers are sad and tired, but there is comfort there too. She nods and closes the door.
Anna I sit together for a time simply holding each other. She is curled up in my lap while I stroke her hair like I do when she’s had a nightmare. I wish I could just put her to bed and tell her it wasn’t real, that the fear will be forgotten by the morning. But I can’t.
“Anna I need you to listen to me, there are things you are going to have to do when I am gone.”
She leans back and nods but I can see the tears pooling in her eyes.
“You are going to stay with Gerda, and Kristoff will bring you game.” We’d made a pact a while ago for if either one of us was called. “You are never to trade for tesserae no matter what, understand. You can get by with selling the milk and cheese from your goat and Kristoff will get both of you herbs from the forest. Help Gerda with her work and keep doing well in school.” I take her small face in my hands, using my thumbs to wipe away the tears that start to fall. “You won’t be alone, snowflake… I will always be watching over you.”
Anna lets out a small choking sound and clings to me again. “You’ll try though won’t you, Elsa? You are so smart, and brave, and fast… maybe you can win and then you can come home.”
I can’t help look down at one of my gloved hands. I may not be like the children from the richer districts who have trained their whole lives to compete in the games, who know fifteen different ways to murder you with a knife, but I am not completely defenseless. Or at least, that’s the lie I am telling myself.
“Yes snowflake, I will try,” I promise, maybe my death will be easier for her if she knows that I didn't go down easily.
“I brought you this,” Anna’s says with a sniff, pulling something small out of her pocket. “I traded for it yesterday.”
I’m surprised when she hands me a little circular pin. It’s a little gold bird in flight, Anna must have traded well for something this pretty.
“They let you wear one thing from your district in the arena, will you wear this? It’s a mockingjay, Gerda told me they’re good luck.” I can hear the desperation in her voice.
“Of course, snowflake,” I say softly.
Then the Peacekeepers are back and telling us that our time is up and Anna has to leave. I hug her small body to me and she holds on so tight that it hurts.
I take her face in mine for what I know will be the last time and pepper kisses all over it, trying to memorize every inch. “I love you. I love you so much, Anna. It will be okay. I love you. I love you.”
She is trying to say it back but her sobs prevent her from doing it properly.
In the end I have to pull her off because I can feel my control slipping and my gloves are stiff with frost. When the door closes something in me breaks and I slam my fists against the wood in anguish. When I pull away the door is covered in ice, and snow is slowly falling from the ceiling.
I close my eyes and breath in slow and deep willing myself not to feel anything, to go numb. When I open my eyes the snow and ice are gone and Kristoff is standing in front of me. I didn’t even hear the door open.
Before I register that I’m moving I find myself in his strong arms. There has never been anything romantic between us, he is like the older brother I’d never had, but I cling to him regardless. Everything about him is soothing, the feeling of his warm body against mine, his scent of pine and earth, even the sound of his heart under my ear.
He takes me firmly by the shoulders and holds me still so that I am forced to look at him.
“You have to use them.”
I stare at him as if I have only just realized he was there. He can’t be talking about what I think he is, he can’t know.
“Use your powers, Elsa. I know what you can do.”
The floor suddenly seems to be tilting to one side.
“H-how do you-?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he cuts me off abruptly. “If you use them, you might have a chance.”
I shake my head, he thinks he knows but he doesn’t. “Kristoff I can’t control it and it only gets worse when I’m afraid.”
He face is hard and his lips are a pulled tight like he’s fighting to not start yelling at me. “Well you are going to have to learn quickly then. Practice whenever you are alone. Kai will tell you how use this to your advantage and if he doesn’t then force him, Elsa!” He flexes his jaw. “C’mon, Elsa it’s just hunting, you’re one of the best hunters I know.”
“This is different, Kristoff they’re people not rabbits.” I swallow hard. “I’ve spent my whole life trying not to hurt people with my powers… what if- what if I can’t do it?” My voice is small now as the reality of what I might be – what I will be – forced to do sinks in.
His face softens a bit but there his voice is still stern. “I know, Elsa but you have to forget all that, you must. For Anna.”
I look up at Kristoff. “You’ll watch over her won’t you… if I don’t come back? Make sure she stays in school and has enough to eat?”
He nods.
“Don’t let her watch,” I say with pleading eyes. “Kristoff please make sure she doesn’t see when I – if I - ” I can’t finish, the thought of my beautiful, innocent baby sister watching her last remaining family member being murdered makes me want to gag. Worse than that, I know what the Games does to people, seen what it turns them into. I don’t want her to see what I know I will become in that arena… the monster I will become.
He takes me into his arms again and it takes all my strength not to come undone right then, I’m so close to breaking.
The Peacekeeper is back and ordering Kristoff to leave. I start to panic and cling to his hand. “Take care of her! Don’t let her starve, keep her safe!” I cry.
“I will, you know I will! Elsa you can do this, let them see! Do it for Anna!” And he’s gone.
That’s it that’s all it takes to pull me down from my fear. Resolve sets in as I stare down at my hands, and I stand a little straighter. I will do my best to come back to you Anna. I swear it.
When they take me away the only evidence that shows I’d been there is a wrinkled cushion and two worn leather gloves.
Notes
So do you like who I chose for our Peeta? Revel is not-so-secret-nerd‘s OC and one of the few people I ship Elsa with (him and Alarik). In my AU there are zero romantic feelings between Elsa and Kristoff, he becomes very close to Anna while they wait for Elsa to come home ifyouknowwhatimean. Anyways thank for reading, I have more of these I want to do but right now I am going to get back to writing S&L :D Please reblog and let me know what you think!
I thought that the sister dynamic between Katniss and Prim was exactly what I imagine Elsa and Anna's relationship would be after the Great Thaw; both are damaged but Elsa was almost damaged beyond repair and so Anna does her best to put her sister back together again.
And now I have a Hunger Games AU bouncing around in my head. Where Anna was chosen for the 74th Hunger Games and Elsa volunteered instead. Elsa still has winter magic but she has hid it from everyone (including Anna) because she and her parents had no idea what the capitol would do if they ever found out.
Kai (Haymitch) convinces Elsa to reveal what she is during the individual evaluations because she needs her score to be high - people are not interested in the closed off, angry persona she exudes. Once everyone sees her magic she instantly becomes the favourite and the capitol dubs her The Snow Queen.
During the Games Elsa doesn't prove to be the unstoppable killer they all expected her to be when she - to everyone's surprise - simply runs and hides. No one realized that Elsa has very little control of her magic and it only gets worse when she is frightened. Besides that Elsa has spent her entire life trying not to hurt people with her magic.
It isn't until the tribute from District 1 kills little Olaf that she becomes the monster she always feared lurked within her.
