Archive of Our Own ^beta

Catherine noticed that Anna was acting weird one day, and grew worried as the latter started keeping to herself without any reason at all. At first, Anna was just being vague whenever Catherine asked what she was doing. It eventually snowballed into the fourth queen locking herself in her room doing god knows what, with her skipping her meals with the other queens unless someone leaves it at her door.

Catherine asked the others about it, with the rest being unconcerned with Anna's shift in behaviour. She was less than pleased to receive such responses from the rest, especially from Katherine, who was the closest to Anna. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she knocked on Anna's door daily, asking about her well-being as well as what she was doing in there.

Anna always replied back, a sign that she was still alive. Catherine didn't know why was she so relieved to hear that Anna was alive, if anything, the thought of suicide would've never crossed any of their minds given all of their desires to make the best of their second lives. Catherine had read in a self-help book somewhere that friends should actively seek out what was troubling their friends, but were Catherine and Anna really considered friends? Colleagues yes, since they were both performing in the musical together. Roommates? Also yes, since the queens decided that it would be better if they lived together for varying reasons.

The main question is whether or not Catherine was friends with Anna, something that she couldn't just ask her. Catherine may not be the most well-versed when it came to social situations, but even she knew that bluntly asking someone if she considered Catherine a friend was not the best way to go about forging friendships. Either way, she was concerned about Anna's reclusive behaviour and was irritated that the rest didn't seem to care about it.

Catherine was shocked when she saw Anna exiting her room a few weeks later, her eyes sunken from sleep deprivation and her clothes smelling musty. She grimaced, having half the mind to shepherd Anna into the bathroom and force her to take a shower. She decided against it, and distanced herself from the fourth queen while donning a polite expression as Anna glanced in her direction.

"Do you have any unwanted socks?" Anna suddenly asked, confusing Catherine. She nodded in response, and Anna slunk back into her room. Catherine was left puzzled by Anna's question, and decided to seek out Katherine, who most likely had some insight to Anna's questionable behaviour.

"How should I know what she's thinking? I'm not her, and if you're so curious, shouldn't you ask Anna yourself?" Katherine snapped, something which Catherine didn't really blame her for. Katherine had a point in saying that Catherine should've just asked Anna herself and not rely on others, then again Catherine barely interacted with Anna, of course it was natural to seek out others with regards to socialising.

Catherine realised a few hours later that some of her unwanted socks were missing from their usual place, quickly deducing that the culprit was Anna given the question earlier. She decided to not pursue Anna over her missing socks, she did say that they were unwanted after all. How Anna knew which socks were unwanted was beyond her, but at least she managed to get rid of said socks.

Two days after her socks went 'missing', Anna had approached her, all cleaned up and smelling faintly of mint. Catherine frowned at her, since when did she give Anna permission to use her scented body gel anyways? She sighed in defeat, at least the fourth queen smelt better than she did previously. Anna had a hesitant smile as she asked Catherine if she was free to attend a show later at night, with Catherine agreeing out of curiosity.

The scheduled time approached, and Catherine entered Anna's dimly lit room. She gulped, she was hoping that Anna wasn't about to put on an exhibitionist show like what Anne did for Catalina which she accidentally walked on. Catherine shuddered, she hoped that Anna wouldn't put on such a show especially since they clearly weren't lovers. Her attention was drawn to an elaborate puppet stage, complete with red curtains and an impressively tasteful amount of glitter.

"Welcome to the show! Tonight, you'll join Princess Haha as she sets off on a journey to save Princess Smoochy from the mean dragon!" Anna announced, holding up a grey sock puppet with googly eyes and a red party hat attached to it. Catherine was bewildered, but stayed nonetheless. She was intrigued to see how Anna would perform her puppet show, even though the nature was too childish for her liking.

Catherine followed Princess Haha's journey to save Princess Smoochy from the dragon, which was riddled with the first princess helping a lost child, cheering up a sad village with her terrible puns, as well as Princess Smoochy attempting to woo the dragon with the power of friendship and kisses, much to the dragon's horror. The show ended with Catherine howling with laughter as the two princess reenacted the one scene from Titanic on the dragon's head after both princesses successfully convince the dragon to let Princess Smoochy go.

"How was it?" Anna asked hopefully, setting aside her sock puppets. Catherine struggled to contain her laughter, wheezing as her laughs died down. The sixth queen was delightfully surprised at the quality of the puppet show, it was easy to understand even for a child, yet certain themes such as normalising of same-sex relationships, solving problems through non-violent means as well as giving others a second chance made the puppet show much more than mindless entertainment for kindergarteners.

"Absolutely brilliant Anna, the show's amazing."

"Really?! Oh thank god... I hope the group tomorrow will like it..." Anna trailed off, sparking Catherine's attention. What group was Anna referring to? Was she actually going to show this to the public? "You know kids, they're pretty perceptive despite their age."

"You're going to perform this to a group of kids?"

"Yeah, I signed up to be a library volunteer a few weeks ago, and they told me to put on an engaging puppet show that teaches them something of my choice. I wanted to make the kids leave the puppet show with smiles on their faces, so I went all out with the props and all."

"Puppet show...?" Catherine thought about it, her eyes lighting up with recognition. As she was also a library volunteer, the library had informed her a few weeks ago that a new volunteer would be putting on a puppet show and Catherine was tasked to control the children who had signed up for said show. "Wait, how come I didn't know that you signed up to be a volunteer at the library I volunteer at?!"

"I'm not sure, but I knew you were working with me... that's why I wanted to get your opinion and uh... maybe try to get you to be my friend?" Anna admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. Catherine nodded along, so in a way, Anna was also worried about the exact nature of their relationship. The thought reassured her, that she wasn't the only one worrying about it. "So um... you think it's good for kids?"

"It is, did you come up with the story by yourself?"

"Yup, I got Kitty and Jane to help me borrow some picture books while I worked on the props. They were pretty reluctant to enter the children's area, but they brought back some really awesome books. Catalina and Anne also helped me to get the craft materials, now that I think about it, I really should pay them back soon..."

"So that's why the rest weren't concerned about your sudden reclusiveness!" It would explain why the rest of the queens were strangely unbothered by Anna's weeks of uncharacteristic behaviour, normally Anna would be in the living room watching the television or attempting to blend food together to save time consuming in the future. "Why did they even keep it from me anyways?!"

"I've no clue, I didn't actually tell them to keep it a secret from you since I assumed that you knew about us working together tomorrow."

"Remind me to slap those four after we come back from the puppet show tomorrow."