Winter, it seemed, was none too happy with autumn for allowing summer to hold the stage so long, and in revenge was muscling in on its turf. Those cooler breezes had hardly had time to settle in before being chased out by an abrupt cold snap after only a few weeks. Frost curled over windows in the morning, painted the tips of the grass, and laid down a slick trap for careless walkers.

Elsa loved it. Summer swelter was never her style, and fall dabbled about in half-hearted noncommitment. Only winter really brought the deep cold that she enjoyed most. She was most in her element right about the time that others started complaining most loudly about the turn in the weather. Maybe she just had excellent circulation; in any case, the cold had never once bothered her, and she never slept better or felt more comfortable than when she could savor it while cocooned in a big blanket. Waking to the sight of ice, even if it was bound to be gone by noon, put a smile on her lips.

Even better, that reason brought friends. There was something hopeful about this holiday season. Maybe it was Olaf's deep, joyful delve into all things spooky, which was slowly constructing a Halloween panorama on the front of their house. Maybe it was that she felt, for once, like she was welcome to go share in that.

Not to mention, there was the tenacious, enduring memory of dancing herself to exhaustion at the show. It felt like she'd left behind a weight that night, her feud with her neighbor trampled to death somewhere in that jumbled-up crush of people. And good riddance to it! In hindsight she couldn't understand why she'd held onto that so long. Anna wasn't that bad.

Really, Anna was a lot of things other than that. Talented, energetic, stubborn, dedicated, passionate, whimsical, gorgeous, confrontational, easily flustered, unpredictable, beautifully fit, indecipherable, and stuck on her mind. Her thoughts since the show loved nothing more than to drift back and just wonder. They'd exchanged pleasant small talk each morning when waiting for the bus to arrive. They'd ridden that bus without incident, and Elsa could have sworn she caught Anna looking her way a couple of times. It had been nice.

Utterly devoid of any mention of where things stood between them, but nice. And that was where the wondering came in.

It was not clear to her whether she had too many options, or too few. "Hey, would you like to hang out sometime?" shouldn't have been a hard question to ask. Nor would "Are we cool now?" have been. It wouldn't be out of line to tell Anna, "You know, I had a really fun time with you at the show." She'd even said that last one, mostly, leaving out "with you".

"I was wondering if it would be ok if I kissed you to see what happens" would be too much. Probably. And other directions that her thoughts took her certainly were. But all of those options were consistent with the now-undeniable fact that she wanted at least something more than passive non-conflict.

That dilemma was what filled her head on one particularly cold Saturday night as she went to bed, less than a week from Halloween. It didn't keep her from sleep, but it did persist through the wispy beginnings of her dreams.

BOMF!

Those dreams tripped over themselves and evaporated on contact with wakefulness. Elsa flailed her limbs in every direction, rushing to throw off sleep and determine just what was happening. A second thud against the window gave her another start, but also a direction. When she looked she saw splotches of white stuck to the screen.

Elsa blinked, a mishmash of dreams and waking bouncing around her head like a dice tumblr. Her heart rate was, though still pounding, slowing from the spike that woke her as she sat blearily up from her pillow, and her limbs were protesting each time she moved them. Her body wanted her to sleep again now that she had ruled out the possibility of imminent danger. It wanted her eyes closed right now.

Her curiosity had other intentions.

A third snowball announced its arrival with a proud 'fwumph!', which neatly explained what was on the screen. The source was still a mystery, but not, Elsa, thought, a very good one. It was - Elsa glanced at her clock - 1:45 in the morning. Who else had been responsible for late-night surprises in her life lately?

Red hair and red cheeks in the dark proved her guess. Vastly more surprising was the blanket of white covering the whole yard. Snow already? Well, obviously, if there were snowballs. She'd been awoken too abruptly to to make the obvious connection, but she did now with a little stir of excitement in her chest. There was enough that it was starting little mounds on the branches, piles that were deepening with the big, fluffy flakes filling the air. It was beautiful and thrilling, even through the dispersing remnants of sleep demanding an explanation as to why she was standing up instead of laying back down. And despite the cause gathering more snow below for another projectile. Or maybe because of that. She was too tired to bother trying to figure out.

Hoping to forestall any further assaults on her window, Elsa slid her the glass to the side so that she could call down, "Anna, you do realize what time it is, right?" She won a startled glance up, one braid flipping back over Anna's shoulder.

Anna was undeterred. "Oh, don't give me any of that! It is hella snowing and you are going to get your blonde butt down here to enjoy it!" The finished snowball rested in her upturned right hand, while her left was sternly planted on her hip. "Come on, it's snowing! How could you possibly sleep right now? It's time to play! Everyone else is already up!" She was so earnest. Elsa felt the corners of her mouth tug unwittingly upwards despite the fatigue grumpily insisting that she oughtn't be enjoying anything right now.

Sleep was going to lose this round. While her opinion on the bother below was about as clear as mud, Elsa loved the snow. Usually because of the sense of peace and comfort it brought her, true, but she wouldn't dream of missing the season's first snowfall. Even if the atmosphere this time was hinting at something significantly less calming. A huge, bleary-eyed yawn distracted her for a moment, but no longer.

There was something else, too. From the moment she'd guessed at the source of this disturbance Elsa had been hit by a dogged feeling that she'd end up playing along with whatever was happening, someway, somehow. Particularly now that sleep had fully admitted defeat and, complaining all the way, crept back for now. "I hope," she retorted through her short grin, "that you realize just what a pain in the ass you are. Let me get my coat."

"Don't worry, I do!" Elsa was only half turned from the window when Anna shot back that response, simultaneous with her other: the snowball. The screen was a smidgen less than impervious to this assault than it had been to pine cones, snow spraying through and powdering across Elsa's back. This also included the bare skin on the back of her neck, shocking a hastily-quashed squeal out of her.

She stalked back to the window and, immediately before sliding it closed, glowered, "Oh, you are in for it now!" The latch clicked home with satisfying authority, a bulwark against both snow and commentary while Elsa dug her winter coat and boots from the back corner of her closet. The nip of ice on her bare neck had guaranteed that she would remain plentifully awake. More importantly, it had sealed Anna's fate tonight. Challenging Elsa to a snowball fight was a very poor idea. Would-be playground tormentors had learned back in elementary school that when Elsa had a snowball, she didn't miss. "Throwing like a girl" during winter at her school was not an insult. It was a whispered invocation of fear.

She might have put behind her that simmering desire to smack the irritation out of the girl, but she certainly remembered what it had felt like. Maybe a midnight snowball pummelling would be a little cathartic.

In any case she was, now properly outfitted with boots, coat, and gloves, looking forward to going outside at nearly two in the morning, which was a noteworthy first for her. And hadn't Anna said everyone else was already outside? It would be like a bizarre little party.

Creaking stairs and soft tromping announced her way, despite her efforts to stay silent. Hopefully her roommates wouldn't wake up, though honestly they likely wouldn't mind overly much if they did. Soon enough it was a moot point, freezing air flowing past her when she stepped out her front door.

It had barely closed when another snowball came knocking. It whisked by her shoulder, thudded off the wood, and most importantly gave up Anna's element of surprise. A quick look around found a certain pest of a singer hurriedly gathering more snow for another attempt, but it was too late. Elsa hustled to the porch railing and scooped her own ammo up, announcing calmly, "If you come at the Queen, you best not miss!" She ducked Anna's follow-up, then hurled hers squarely into the side of her as she scampered for cover.

"I won't!" This promise was followed by the third shot straight going wide, and a hasty follow-up to add, "...much!" Anna went for the nearest tree, putting something solid in between them.

Elsa gathered two snowballs this time and started circling wide. When she was in position she threw the first right-handed, skimming past Anna's cover. The poor thing bit at the bait, jumping out to counter attack right as Elsa's dominant hand delivered the real, loosely-packed shot to Anna's face.

With a startled sputter Anna lost her footing, her butt squashing the snow beneath her in an inglorious tumble backwards. Elsa couldn't help but giggle. It was a good thing that she'd made sure that was a soft one, or else that complete failure to dodge might have actually done some damage to more than Anna's dignity. Elsa started closer to offer a hand up, forgetting for a moment who she was dealing with. Before she was halfway there the punk scooped two handfuls of snow at her and scrambled back to her feet, her whole face one gigantic smile.

"You'll never take me alive, copper!" Despite having already been beaned once in the face, Anna sounded like she was having a blast. Her next throw was even on target, connecting with Elsa's leg while she scampered around, looking for another opening.

Elsa circled, taking that as tacit permission to pummel Anna into submission. Her smile was a mirror of Anna's even as she hunted her down, both hands hefting precision ammunition ready to knock her back onto her butt if the opportunity presented itself. After only a few seconds it did. A lucky dodge got Anna out of a direct hit from the first throw, but didn't get her out of the second, both of them giggling after as they gathered yet more snow. They certainly weren't going to run out anytime soon; the storm seemed determined to bury them all.

Elsa got Anna with a glancing throw, while Anna's charging toss nailed Elsa in the chest. All the running around was leaving them both a little out of breath, which showed in big white puffs from both their mouths. "You should try doing this more often," Elsa remarked, feeling an urge to be bold and tease her a bit.

Anna paused, looking back quizzically before asking, "What, waking you up in the middle of the night?" She snapped out of it the moment she saw Elsa shaping the snow in her hands and fled for cover.

"No, you turnip," Elsa answered, shaking her head, "Being fun about it! It's a lot harder to be mad at you when you're offering yourself up to get annihilated by snowballs!" A solid hit to Anna's fleeing butt punctuated her reply and earned a surprised shriek.

Anna hid behind a car on the street, not-so-subtly starting to stockpile snowballs. "Umm, well, that's good then! Mad isn't what I'm aiming for!" The lob over the top of the car was a cheap, and poorly directed, counterpoint from her. Elsa didn't have an answer of her own yet, so she instead started creeping around the side a few cars down with her own snowballs at the ready. She really hoped that none of these had car alarms...

Anna's silent peeking over the car, trying to find where Elsa had gone, ended with a squeal and flop sideways into her ammunition stock when the sneak attack landed. That was followed by a thorough fit of face-down laughter. "Ok, ok, I surrender! You should play baseball or something, some of those stung. Wanna go ambush Kristoff?" Elsa's offer of a hand up was accepted this time without complaint.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," Elsa worried, frowning despite Anna's apparent lack of giving a hoot. She had put some pep on a few of those.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it! I just meant that you're really good at that, I'm totally fine! I've been hit by way worse than that." Anna stood, both hands brushing the snow from her front. When that was done she looked up at Elsa, and both of them promptly ran out of things to say. Silence stretched out in a hurry, extra heavy with the snow falling around them.

Both tried to break it with a simultaneous, "So…" Elsa giggled behind her glove, and after a moment of verbal starts and stops from both sides Elsa yielded the floor to Anna, who said simply, "This is nice, isn't it?"

"It is." Elsa looked past Anna to the snow flitting through the streetlight glow, unsure where her eyes should be right now. She noticed a little bit of tension drop out of Anna's shoulders when she answered.

Anna also looked up at the snow drifting onto them. "Whew. I'm glad, I was kinda worried after I threw that first one at you that you were gonna get pis...errr, get mad at me again. So, what next?" When Anna looked back to her the question was in her eyes as much as her voice. She was so earnest; it was cute. Particularly with the flush across her cheeks from the cold creeping through her freckles. There were so many of them, too, she'd never really had the chance to see them up close like this...

Elsa looked away before she started staring, her own cheeks reddening. "I don't know, I'm not usually up this late. What do people usually do in the middle of the night?" Only once she was done asking did the obvious answer occur to her, spreading a much deeper blush.

"Ummm…" Anna trailed away, thinking. "Well...we were gonna go sledding! Wanna join us? Gerda must have been watching the weather for us, she brought this big old sled over for us a few days ago. And I swiped a few garbage can lids after that."

"Eww…"

"I washed them out!" Anna clearly didn't share Elsa's sensibilities about what constituted a proper thing to sit on.

It was only now that Elsa caught up to the knowledge that she was already intending to go along with whatever Anna had planned, sight unseen. Being that open to whatever came next was...nice. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or maybe she was really changing, but whatever the case tonight she was simply comfortable. Awaiting the unexpected, following someone else's lead, whatever. She just wasn't feeling her nerves, and she wasn't going to second guess a blessing like that.

That feeling did nothing to stop her from breaking into laughter when Sven and Kristoff ran past them, towing Olaf in a sled behind them while he yelled, "Mush, mush!" Anna was reaching for a snowball by the time Elsa looked over, and through her giggles she insisted, "No, don't interrupt, I want to see how long this goes."

"To the end of the street, that's where the good sledding is. Come on, let's get the lids!" She scampered off without waiting for Elsa, who went after her at a less hectic pace. It was a good decision, avoiding the skid that Anna stumbled through when she tried to round the corner towards the garage. Not that almost falling again slowed her down, of course.

Elsa was rounding that same corner when Anna came slipping back out, arms wrapped around three black plastic garbage can lids and a big metal tray that Elsa was fairly certain was one of the cookie sheets they had used with Olaf. Elsa raised a skeptical eyebrow and asked, "Are you sure those are going to work?"

"Of course they will! Now take these two and come on, the others will be there soon." Each passing minute seemed to only be adding to Anna's excitement, and it was infectious. Elsa might have felt a little silly carrying a garbage lid and a cookie sheet down the middle of the street in Anna's wake, but watching those pigtails bouncing along made silly sound like a fine plan in the moment.

This was fun. This was really, truly fun. And Elsa knew full well that she wouldn't have been out here if not for the girl leading the way down the sled tracks in the street. Without a grudge sitting in the way it was a lot easier to admit that.

Anna skidded to a graceless stop in the middle of the road their own street emptied out onto, right at the top of the long, steep incline that made walking home such a pain. She tossed one lid onto the snow and looked like she was ready to shove off in her own before stopping herself. Looking back at Elsa, who was glancing up the street for signs of traffic, she urged, "Come on! No one's dumb enough to drive in this weather at this time of the night. Race me!"

Elsa was more than ready to accept the challenge. She opted for the cookie tray herself, preferring not to hop into a random garbage can lid despite any assurances of its cleanliness, and with rare abandon flopped onto it face first. Her momentum carried her to the point of no return on the slope, Anna scooting out right behind her.

Gravity took over for them both. She could see the boys all already at the bottom, just beginning the trek up to the top along the side of the road. And it was a good thing that they were out of the way, because she very quickly found out that a cookie sheet afforded her very little control over her direction other than a general insistence towards down. Snowflakes and spray glanced off her face faster and faster, accumulating wherever it could find purchase on her. Hat, eyelashes, and coat collar were all gaining a rapid frosting.

The night probably should have felt cold as they hurtled down the hill, but there was a warmth from the pure joy in Anna's laughter that sunk into Elsa far deeper than the bite of the wind could reach.

The road levelled off right before it ended in a crooked T intersection, and Elsa didn't possess the level of mobility necessary to turn either direction. She dug her boots in as a brake instead, dragging to a more or less controlled stop. Anna, on the other hand, didn't seem much concerned with the fact that the street was shortly going to turn into a front yard. Part of that was probably due to the fact that somewhere on the way down she had ended up going backwards, still whooping with the same unrestricted excitement and wholly unconcerned with not being able to see where she was going. The inefficiency of her vehicle ended up saving her, skidding slow enough the the minor snow drift over the curb stopped her entirely.

"I win!" The words were out of her mouth the moment she arrived, hopping right to her feet and smirking down at Elsa.

"How? I was clearly the first down!" Elsa's indignance was mostly, though not entirely, feigned.

"The curb was the goal, you didn't even make it all the way! Gonna have to try again if you wanna beat me." Elsa took the offered hand, Anna tugging her to her feet. "Come on, let's go catch up with the others." Again she was off, a bottomless font of enthusiasm.

Elsa trudged after her, unable to match the level of energy but insistent on not being left behind. "Changing the rules at the end," she complained in Anna's direction, "is cheating."

"You're just saying that cause you lost!" Elsa could hear the smirk from Anna.

"I take it all back, you're a pain in the ass again."

"What was I before that, then?" That question caught Elsa without a ready answer. What happened to flustered Anna?

A few options offered themselves, from conciliatory - "A nice surprise" - to contrary- "A poor shot!" Other ones she shoved right back out of mind. None were something she was willing to say. She was saved from answering by Kristoff's familiar, and in this case loud, voice echoing down from above.

"This is awesome!" Perhaps an obvious observation, but he wasn't wrong.

"Are you enjoying being a carthorse?" She wished that she'd thought to get a video of that in hindsight. Maybe she could get them to repeat it later.

"No, no, not a horse! We're following our own advice and trying out this reindeer thing." He looked over to Olaf and asked, "What'd you think? Was it an improvement?"

Olaf giggled in his unique way. "I'm not sure yet! Maybe if you hadn't forgotten your antlers." Kristoff reached up to rub his head at the reminder.

Sven scooted up beside them both in a garbage can lid barely large enough to fit him, clearly ready while Elsa and Anna reached the top within a few seconds of one another. Kristoff noticed, answering, "Well, let's line up then! Last one down is gym socks!" He fit himself into the other lid between Sven and Olaf, who was already set up in the big sled despite being the smallest one there.

Glancing up and down the street Elsa hesitated. "There's not a lot of room for all of us here. We can't really steer these…"

"Don't crash then!" Anna's lackadaisy about it wasn't reassuring exactly, but it did encourage her to get her butt onto her cookie sheet. It was all that Olaf had been waiting for.

"Three!" He shouted with a puff of foggy breath. "Two!" Anna wriggled her butt into her lid better. "One!" Elsa braced herself, arms braced to push off.

"Go!" Five sets of hands scrabbled in the snow to get each of them going. Olaf had a clear advantage being on the only actual sled, leading him to an early lead that only grew as gravity took over for him. The other four were better matched, though an intent Sven was eking out a slim gap.

That was as far as Elsa was able to see things clearly. Everything was a blur the moment they all started down the hill proper, accelerating while doing their best to go relatively straight. Elsa found herself trending a little to the right, which she was able to just barely counter via frantic leaning.

A hurried glance saw Anna's pigtails bouncing behind her in the wind. She also seemed to be having trouble staying forward, already spun halfway round and still going. That gave her a clear view of Kristoff's great big smirk as he started angling towards their side of the road.

Having not signed up for bumper sleds, Elsa hunched down and hoped that she could eke out enough of a lead to get ahead of the impending collision. They were all racing down the hill now, Olaf cheering from well in front. Each bump rattled through Elsa as she passed over it, though none shook her thoroughly enough to loosen her grip.

Anna shrieked to her left as Kristoff found a target. Another glance saw both of them tumbling through the snow, each sled skittering away ahead of them. Elsa had successfully cleared the wipeout. A cry of, "Kristoff, you ass!" followed her down the hill as she again sped towards the curb at the end.

A hint of petulance encouraged her coming to a stop a little later than before, just far enough to plant a hand over the top of the drift mounting the curb. Only then did she clamber to her feet, adrenaline running through her. Sven was already part way back up, but Olaf was waiting. He echoed Kristoff when he enthused, "That was awesome! Come on, let's go again!"

Elsa nodded and turned, ready to start the climb. "I'm guessing I have you to thank for thinking to get me?" She somehow felt lighter on her feet now than she had when tonight started, and she hardly missed a beat when she leaned to scoop up the lid-sled that had managed to skim down to the bottom after them. Might as well save whichever of the two it belonged to the extra walking.

"No, actually," Olaf answered from behind her. "Anna was the one who decided to go wake you up. I'm glad you came though!"

"Do you guys often go out in the middle of the night?" It was...interesting, Anna being the one who made that choice. "I don't know many people who are up this late. Any, really. I love the snow, and even I had to be convinced to get out of bed for this."

"She's persuasive, isn't she?" Olaf ignored her first question, his reply sounding almost sly. That was probably the right tone given that Elsa's first thought in response was Anna's hips swaying in those jeans up on stage. Lucky that the night hid her blush. Persuasive, sure...

A quick look around saw that Anna was already at the top in the other lid, seemingly making another snowball stash. She'd need to keep an eye out, but for the moment it meant she was distracted enough for Elsa to ask Olaf quietly, "I...I'm not sure how to react to her anymore. I don't think she still hates me, but there's a long way between that and...well, anything else."

"Why not ask her? I don't think she knows any better than you do, but talking usually helps."

Elsa's sudden stop was a little too quick for Olaf, who walked into her with a surprised yelp. She started walking again just as abruptly, only now she was blushing more since she didn't have a good reason why the idea of asking Anna had startled her so much.

"I'll say this," Olaf offered, "Anna does whatever's on her mind whether or not she's thought about why. I'll bet she doesn't have an answer herself why she went to get you the moment she had her boots on."

Well, that helps, Elsa thought. And they were out of time, having reached the top of the hill again.

"Catch!" Anna chirped cheerily as she tossed a snowball over to Elsa. "This ass over here," she said, pointing to Kristoff, "Has decided he wants to get pummeled with snowballs tonight." Kristoff tried to protest, but Anna kept talking right over him. "Since you are the temporary champion, I am enlisting you to help. Get him!"

"Wait, hold on a sec-" he started, but Anna did not, in fact, hold on a second. His answer was cut off by a snowball to the shoulder, then solidly to his chest, and thirdly to his back with a surprise assist from Sven, who was wearing an expression that clearly said Kristoff deserved this.

Beset on all sides Kristoff covered his head and gestured frantically for Olaf to hand him the sled. He got it, but not without Olaf chirping, "You're doomed now!" Diving forward the big blond took off down the hill face-first.

"After him!" Anna followed hastily, scooting to a start with a snowball stash in her lap. Elsa shrugged, handed Olaf the other lid, and flopped butt-first onto her sheet, her momentum carrying her onto the slope.

Anna's aim was, understandably this time, mostly way off as she tried to bombard the fleeing Kristoff. Elsa took a bit to gather enough snow without falling off, but managed to tag his left leg with her own shot. She grinned when Anna gave her a gloved thumbs up between throws, which were growing increasingly difficult as she started rotating again.

There was only time for one more before they ran out of hill, which went both wide right and almost made her fall backwards off the cookie tray. He had gained distance on the way down, which bought him enough time to prepare a snowball of his own after rolling into a kneeling position. Anna was first in line and, now completely backwards, got it in the back.

Elsa flopped off the cookie sheet before he could throw one at her, skidding in the snow for a few feet before stopping. It served her immediately as a makeshift shield, an incoming snowball gonging off it. She had to drop it to make her response, but once she did it landed true, nearly knocking off Kristoff's hat.

It was then that Olaf skidded through the middle of them, also backwards and yelling "Free for all!" He tipped over backwards at the curb, then sat back up and threw a snowball at the incoming Sven, though it fell short.

From there things devolved into a whizzing cacophony of snowballs, attempted dodges, and laughter. Elsa made her mark on each of them quickly, giving much better than she got. Sven seemed unfazed every time he got hit, shrugging each snowball off like he hadn't even noticed. Olaf fell over a lot, but got back up quicker each time. Kristoff and Anna somehow forged a hasty alliance when they ended up in the middle of everyone, though that crumbled just as fast when Anna, turning to try for a quick throw at Sven, instead hit Kristoff in the butt.

It wasn't until after one particularly undignified shriek that Elsa realized, had this happened outside her house a few months ago, she probably would have yelled out her window for everyone to quiet down. It was well after 2AM and they were raising a ruckus, but if anyone heard they seemed content to ignore it. Good. Elsa wouldn't want this to end so soon.

After one particularly good toss that managed to get into her coat she did, however, decide that a temporary retreat might be in order. She dodged through the melee to grab the big sled and, carrying it so as to block throws as she retreated uphill, set off. She wanted to see how well an actual sled would compare on this hill to her makeshift one.

"That's a good plan, I've got snow in places that I never thought it could get to." Elsa jumped; she had totally missed her following.

"Such as?" Where had her breath gone so suddenly?

"Um, well...my butt's cold, and that's definitely not all." Elsa giggled, looking back over her shoulder. Anna's whole face was red with cold, and there was snow stuck all over her hair. She wasn't kidding, that looked freezing, particularly compared to Elsa. Trudging up the hill was almost too warm.

Before long they were back at the top, looking down at the aftermath of the snowball war. All three seemed to have given up. Olaf was now making snow angels, while Kristoff and Sven were either starting a snowman or competing to see who could roll the biggest ball of snow.

"What're you waiting for?" Anna was insistent, catching Elsa's eyes and looking significantly towards the sled. "Let's go!"

For a moment Elsa didn't quite follow. "We've only got one sled, though," she answered, confusion in her voice. Anna just rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but we can both fit. Here, set it down," she insisted, tugging it onto the ground. She climbed in at the front, and was certainly not wrong that there was plenty of room left even with her legs set inside. "Well? Aren't you going to join me?"

Elsa hesitated silently for a moment, at once decidedly eager to climb into position with her legs split either side of Anna and uncertain if, for reasons she couldn't articulate, that was a good idea. The decision was only made when her feeling silly at standing around overwhelmed the other considerations. She sat right behind Anna, legs around her and hands gripping the sides of the sled.

Anna wasn't joking about feeling cold, she practically radiated it wherever Elsa touched her. "Hold on," Elsa started, concern creeping in, "Is this sweater cotton? You're soaking wet!"

Anna ignored her. Instead she urged, "Help me push off!" By herself she got a decent start, but it was only when Elsa gave in and pushed too that they started gaining a little speed. Anna added a last warning as they went, cautioning Elsa, "Hold on. There are literally no brakes."

It was when they hit the slope proper that they started gaining a lot of speed. This was definitely quicker than the cookie sheet, and not being in front left Elsa feeling exceptionally not in control. Subconsciously she grabbed for the most solid thing she could reach, which in this case was Anna. She gripped a lot harder around her middle then she was really aware of as they hurtled downwards, heavy snowflakes zipping by.

The bottom approached in a hurry, with Anna calling out a heads up so that Kristoff wouldn't wander into the way. Once they reached the flat at the end their momentum held up surprisingly well, far better than the cookie tray had. It gave Elsa just enough time to realize that they probably ought to try to slow down, but not enough to do anything about it. Anna let out a whoop, then they hit the snowdrift ramp on the curb still full speed ahead.

Elsa didn't stop holding when they went airborn.

That moment lingered a lot longer than it had any right to. She was aware that they were rotating sideways, and that as they went right the sled was going left. Anna was shouting with excitement, which seemed a little odd to Elsa as she contemplated the incoming impact. Snow would be soft, right?

Elsa didn't find out, since Anna ended up being her cushion. There was probably going to be a forehead-sized bruise on her back in the morning, but that was a detail for later since they were both immediately sent tumbling through the fresh snow on the yard. Elsa came to rest on her back, head up against Anna's leg, and considered her good fortune that all of her felt like it was still working.

"I think they're alive." That was Kristoff, with a big dumb grin walking towards them. Elsa sat up and glowered.

"Can it." She turned to Anna, who was extracting her face from the ground, and who practically left an imprint of her smile behind in the snow she was grinning so broadly. The thrill from earlier was nothing compared to the adrenaline buzzing through her right now, and it was only with great effort that she stopped herself from grabbing Anna by the shoulders and shaking the snow lose from every bit of her.

"Are. You. Insane?" The giggles she got in response suggested that the answer just might be yes. "Why didn't you slow us down?"

"That was awesome!" Good gods, they were all like that, weren't they? Anna didn't seem the least bit unsettled by the fact that they had left a terrifyingly long stretch of unbroken snow underneath them after that attempted flight. Elsa was nearly impressed, but mostly she was aghast.

"How have you even survived, pulling stunts like that…" Sure, a corner of her knew that they weren't all that likely to get hurt badly when landing on snow like that, even if it was only a handspan deep, but it sure as heck felt otherwise right now.

Anna was still grinning, but this time Elsa noticed her teeth chattering, which in turn reminded her of what she'd noticed at the top. She tugged her own glove off to feel Anna's arm, then her side. The hoodie she had on was cotton.

"You are soaked through. You absolute moron, you are going to freeze to death that way." With a glare around at the other three she added, louder, "So, are any of the rest of you courting frostbite?"

A hasty set of head shakes met her, but she only let them go after an additional glower each. "That better bet the truth, since I will get revenge if any of you get hypothermia."

Anna tried to protest, though her clattering teeth did her no favors. "Oh, come on, I'm fine, I've been through way worse than this."

"I don't care if you've hiked the length and breadth of Antarctica, I am hauling your ass home to get into some dry clothes. You don't get to argue."

"Seriously, I'm-" Elsa stuck a stern finger to Anna's lips to shush her.

"I said no. Now, come with me."

Anna wasn't done yet, trying to avoid that finger long enough to say, defiant, "You know you aren't actually in charge of me, right?" She was back to her old self, challenging Elsa for control. Elsa was having none of it now. This was actually important.

"Anna, I will tie your butt to this sled and drag you back myself if I have to. I am not going to allow you to take your health lightly. Now obey, before I make you." Whew. That was...stronger than Elsa had planned on, but it took the fight out of Anna's expression, alongside her shivering again.

"Well, umm...I'm definitely not feeling cold now…" Elsa didn't follow the tone that Anna said that in, but wasn't given a reason to chastise her further when the girl got to her feet obediently. "It looks like I've got doctor's orders, guys," Anna said to the others as she began walking, Elsa close behind. "Make sure not to lose the tray, ok?"

Kristoff was rubbing the back of his neck, still looking a little surprised. "We definitely won't forget. I'm a little worried that I'd get bludgeoned with it if I did, after what she just said…" He looked past Anna to Elsa, giving her a little smile to make sure she knew he was kidding.

"Good. Then I may consider granting clemency from not bringing this nimrod to my attention sooner." She gave each of them one last proper glare for good measure, then continued marching her captive home.

It wasn't far before the tumbling snow left her feeling like her and Anna were the only ones here again.

In that sudden silence her irritation drained in a hurry, and the extent of it felt rather overdone. "I probably shouldn't do that..." Without the others around introspection came easier, and so did the words for it. "The last time I tried to tell you what to do it didn't go very well." Her words vanished into the storm around them, audible only to Anna.

Both of them kept trudging steadily, the crunch of snow underfoot uninterrupted for a few moments. But it was a comfortable wait. There was no sense of impending conflict, wholly unlike that first encounter. Anna seemed to be just thinking.

Her answer was quiet, too, only enough for Elsa to hear her assure, "No, no, it's alright. I get it, this time. I know I don't always listen, but you're not wrong this time so it's ok."

Elsa's eyebrow arched, unseen. "This time?" It wasn't a challenge, though, there was no irritation in her saying that. Just a little push to elaborate, if Anna wanted.

"No, I, it's not that...I don't mind you being a stick in the mud if I can see your reason for it. I can listen when you explain it." She sighed, shrugged, and looked up into the fluttering snow. "It really is getting cold out."

"I would be surprised if you weren't soaked through by now. That is the sort of outfit that will turn you into a popsicle by the end of the night." Elsa shook her head again at Anna's recklessness.

Anna's reply sounded like she was smirking again, answering back, "Well, that's fine, I can work on my Jack Nicholson impression." Elsa waited for more to help make sense of it, but that was it.

"I'm sorry, your what?" She could play along.

"You know, at the end of The Shining?"

Topic whiplash kept Elsa puzzled for a few moments longer before it made sense again. She shivered, not from the cold, admonishing, "That movie scared me stiff, and it's the middle of the night. Could we not?"

Anna took a deep breath, like a wind up toy ready to go, and started with gusto, "Oh, man, if that scared you then I've got like a million movies that'll keep you up for a week, each. I gotta show you It Follo…" The sentence stopped so quickly that Elsa felt a little like she tripped over listening to it, then Anna let out all the rest of the breath she had taken.

"I would like to note that I could have been really mean to you here and wasn't." The hint of sullen resignation made Elsa smile. It seemed Anna had changed her mind.

Elsa had been slowly catching up, and finally now was walking side by side with Anna instead of following behind her. Looking across she could see Anna, who after a glance at Elsa stayed looking straight ahead, in profile only when passing a streetlight. Her cheeks were still reddened, but her ears were gone a bit white. It was a good thing she had stopped her from staying out any longer.

Insisting on saying so wasn't go to be any help, though, so Elsa bit down any urge for an 'I told you so' and went in a different direction. "Note taken, thank you. I think that might be a first, actually."

Anna looked back towards Elsa, curious and with a very red nose. "A first what?" she asked, confused.

"The first time where you had a chance to be an ass and weren't, doofus." Elsa decided that she liked that word. She might keep it for Anna. There were, she suspected, going to be a lot of chances to use it.

"Ok, I am definitely making you watch It Follows now. You're gonna piss yourself." Her verbal prodding had stirred the fight in Anna, but this time it was mostly on purpose.

"Gross!" Elsa wrinkled her nose. "Why would that be a goal to aim for? Plus, wouldn't that be your problem too, then?"

"How would it be my problem?" Anna laughed a little, proving that she could still be an ass when given the chance.

"Because there is no way in heck I am watching that at my place, so it'd be your floor that I...eww, why are we talking about this again? I blame you entirely." She was laughing too, though, at the sheer absurdity despite the turn that the conversation had taken.

"It was just a saying, you're the one that took it that way! Shoulda been more careful if you couldn't handle it!" Anna was clearly not so bothered by the turn, and more than willing to enjoy Elsa's revulsion.

"I take it all back, you are an ass. Butt." Petty, without a doubt, but it was as accurate a description as Elsa could think of in a moment already entirely too juvenile. This was Anna's turf, not her own.

Only an infuriating smirk answered her as the snow-silence fell again. They were well on the way back now, with just the final bit of the street left. Their footsteps were deep, now, more snow having accumulated than Elsa could have dreamed of when she first looked out her window. This was actually going to stick past the morning. The meteorologists were going to be giddy on the news tomorrow.

The quiet came to an end in innocuous tone when Anna asked, "I wonder what flavor I would be?"

Elsa stumbled and choked on the start of her response, starting an unavoidable coughing fit. She didn't get her voice back for a few seconds, and all she was able to force out through her shock was a strangled, "Anna!"

She tilted her head, asking, "What?" Realization hit her like a truck. "OH. No, no, not, I didn't mean...not that sort of popsicle!"

Only slightly recovered, Elsa bit back. "What do you mean popsicle?!"

"It's, earlier, when you were, because of my clothes you said I'd turn into a popsicle!" At least Anna was flustered too, but she was creeping back towards amusement much too quickly.

Elsa paused, took a deep breath, then let it go and took another one for good measure. Only they did she ask, tersely, "Why, oh why, did you think of that again now?" Not, she realized, that she could think of any answers right now that she would want to hear.

"I don't know! I was just thinking, and it wasn't that long ago!" She muttered for a moment, then came back with, "You're the one who took it that way!"

"We we're just...actually, no. There isn't any reason why we need to keep talking about this. I am going to move on, starting right now." If, she thought to herself, Anna was willing to oblige.

She wasn't. "Oh, my god, that's amazing. I can't wait to tell Olaf about that, he's going to die laughing."

Elsa sputtered audibly this time. Her voice was dangerous when she hissed, "You wouldn't."

"Why wouldn't I?" It was like the two of them were having an entirely different conversation. "It's funny!" They had reached the front door, and Anna fumbled with her keys until she managed to get it open.

Elsa was extra done now and pushed Anna inside. "Oh, just, never mind. Go get those close off, you doofus."

"Oh, my…"

"And put dry ones back on! Oh my god, you are incorrigible. Go on, get moving!" She shooed Anna towards the stairs, who finally listened to her again, tossing her coat over the railing right after kicking out of her shoes. The wooden railing. Laughter echoed back down after she was out of sight. Elsa moved the coat to one of the hooks near the door, hung hers beside it along with her sodden snow pants, then flopped face first onto the couch.

She would go home in a bit, once Anna being infuriating wore off. Maybe in a few bits, there was a lot to work through. Anna was more than a little impossible.

Why is she so weird? Elsa hoped for a moment that the blanket her face was in was a clean one, but her preference for looking at nothing for a little while right now was stronger than that concern. They had been having a perfectly nice conversation, and then it had turned into...whatever the heck all that had been. And through almost all of it Anna had been smiling, and laughing.

Her sigh left the fleece a bit damp from her breath. The thing was, and she was willing to admit it for once, despite all the weirdness tonight...she didn't really mind it, so much as she was glad to have been with Anna when she was smiling and laughing like that. Weird didn't mean that it hadn't still been fun.

The yawn blindsided her. One moment she was face down in her neighbors' blanket contemplating the night, the next she was still face down but exhausted, lungs sucking in all the air they could to stave off sleep. What time even was it?

The pillows leaning against the arm of the couch were remarkably comfortable. She turned, rolling the blanket halfway onto her, then wriggled up to a half-sitting position and tugged the whole thing over her. There was no heat on in the house for some unholy reason but between the layers she still had and the blanket she felt properly snug, other than her head. She burrowed down further into the blanket to try to fix that.

"You're still here? I guess I didn't hear you leave. Comfy?"

Anna was back. Elsa's sense of time must have been off, since it seemed to her that she could not possibly have changed so quickly. Cracking her eyes open, however, she found Anna in a giantly baggy tshirt, fleece pants, and some of the ugliest wool socks that she had ever seen. She'd barely finished looking when Anna impacted the couch beside her.

"Budge up, you don't get the good blanket to yourself." She wrangled the tangle at the other end until she was able to tease it loose and wrap it over herself as well. Looking over at Elsa, who was caught in the midsts of another yawn, she asked dryly, "Planning to stay there tonight?"

Elsa was finding words a little tricky, swimming slowly to mind. "I should...go home, probablEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

She was a little more awake now. Anna's hand was freezing, and she'd put it right under the side of her shirt.

For the second time tonight all she was able to manage was to hiss, "Anna!" Predictably, she got a mischievous grin back.

"Damn, you are warm, how do you do that?" Anna was, even now, undeterrable. And even with that jolt Elsa didn't have a lot of energy to spar with her.

"Don't do that! Gods below, if your hands are this cold now you must have been near death out there." She fussed, mostly as cover, but not without some sincerity too. The girl's limbs felt like they were made of ice, and she was honestly a little worried that they were still so cold.

Elsa cut off Anna when she started saying something, instead insisting, "You should go take a hot shower. I mean it…" she couldn't stop her yawn despite her worry, only finishing after, "Being this cold is dangerous. Your teeth are still chattering!" She could even hear them, not to mention feel the shivers where their bodies were close.

Anna had to be the single most stubborn person that Elsa had ever met. Her words were rattling as she argued, insisting, "I am fine, honestly! I don't want to shower now, I'm under a blanket already and I don't wanna have to get back up. Can't make me."

We're close...a stray thought, and one she was too tired to unravel. Elsa didn't even bother trying. Instead, she sighed, feigning defeat to cover for being out of ideas. "Fine, then. I suppose it would be-" another yawn caught her "- hard for you to freeze to death under a blanket with someone else, anyway." With me…

Anna yawned back this time, and fished for a pillow. "You stop it, those are…" she didn't make it through the sentence without another, and drooping eyes. She trailed into finishing, "...contagious…" She shuffled the pillow between them, leaning towards Elsa once it was in place. It wasn't a complete barrier; the top of Anna's head was against Elsa's arm.

Only total exhaustion saved Elsa from worrying about where she was supposed to put her hands right now. She was granted only a few more waking moments while Anna drifted off beside her. One, to look through the window at the snow showing no intention of slowing. Two, to turn to the sight of the redhead fallen fast asleep against her side. And, lastly, three, to consider one thought before sleep swarmed up to take her away.

Fuck, she's cute…