Preface

This is my first attempt at a Frozen chapter fanfic, and when I started working on it, it was also my first attempt at any sort of creative writing. (I started it in Nov 2014, almost 4 months after seeing the movie the first time, but nearly a whole year since its release.) Since creative writing was new to me, this fic started out fairly dialogue-heavy, focusing on character interactions; as I have improved at description, it has slowly gotten better. Its biggest problem, though, is the lack of any well-thought-out or cohesive plot; I'm basically just making it up as I go.

Which brings me to my next point. While I have read a great number of Frozen fanfics, I am determined to not let any of them influence my ideas for this story in any significant way. (Similarities are unavoidable, especially this late entering the fandom, but I assure you that most of my ideas came from my own imagination, and are not an attempt to steal anyone else's.) The only resources I use are Frozen itself (and Tangled, where appropriate), and the Frozen screenplay (which can be found elsewhere). Maybe also a thesaurus, once or twice, various bits of online research (including the Disney Wikia and Wikipedia), and The Art of Frozen.

The story itself was born from an idea of mine for a one-shot where Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff have dinner that first night back in the castle, and Elsa winds up revealing the story of the accident 13 years ago that drove them apart. But I decided to go above and beyond, and tell a whole story, of how they started picking up the pieces after the Great Thaw. Joining them for part of the story is a certain royal couple from Corona. ;)

A good portion of the story takes place between the Thaw and the end of the movie, which because of my headcanon takes place over several days. (My reasoning is that because all of those ships couldn't have been fixed right away, it has to be a day or two before the Duke and Prince Hans can depart.) Thus I have a bit of time to fit in the dinner, a meeting, some fluff, and some silliness. And the story will go beyond the end of the movie, for there are still other issues for the characters to deal with, and of course I may invent some in time.

Writing the in-movie part of the story forced me to come up with an appropriate timeline of the movie's events. From a careful study of the movie and screenplay, I determined that the main events of the movie take place over no less than the better part of four days, not two or three as I initially assumed. In my notes I have the coronation listed as 1 July (for lack of a better date), the Thaw as 4 July, and the end of the movie as 6 July. The general time period is known to be in the 1840s (according to The Art of Frozen), so the year Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" was published (1845) will do nicely.

The couple from Corona were included because I made the mistake of starting this story not long after seeing Tangled, and knew I had to try writing them. The rationale for their inclusion, of course, is their seconds-long cameo in Frozen. Other fan canons (the cousins thing, and the wedding invitation), I freely admit to borrowing for this story, but as with everything else, I tell them in my own way. The original intention was for the Coronans to leave sooner, but I enjoyed writing them so much I decided to let them stick around for all of Part One.

Part One is 12 chapters long, with 1 through 8 taking place within the timeline of the movie. I do not have a plot outlined past chapter 12, just some scattered ideas and one-shots (like "Moonlight"), but I imagine I'll think of something someday.

The title of this fanfic, of course, is a play on the phrase "the calm before the storm"; the storm, in this case, being the Great Freeze.

All right, enough jabber. Onward!

Chapter 1

Open Gates

It was a beautiful July summer's day in the Norwegian kingdom of Arendelle. The kingdom itself was not very large, merely consisting of scattered village houses and cottages that dotted the hills; a small town near the water, containing shops, merchant stands, and the docks, as well as a public square; and a large stone bridge, connecting the town to Arendelle Castle, which sat on a small island in the fjord. Arendelle was essentially like every other port in the region, if one in an ideal location for trade with the southern kingdoms. But this kingdom had one thing that the others did not: a queen with magical powers of ice and snow.

Indeed, if you were to ask around on this particular day, you would learn that the kingdom had just suffered a winter storm in the middle of summer! The people would undoubtedly tell you that they were grateful for the warmth of the summer sun, and to the woman who had returned it to them barely an hour before. Even after nearly three days of unnatural, seemingly endless winter weather, the majority of Arendelle's citizens were still proud of their Queen, and glad that she was able to right her wrong, accidental though it may have been.

No one had paid much mind when a rather waterlogged prince, suffering what appeared to be a broken nose, was fished out of the fjord and dragged off to the dungeon in chains by the castle guards. The people had eyes only for Queen Elsa, the young platinum-blonde ruler of Arendelle, walking hand in hand with her younger sister, Princess Anna. Few had been in a position to witness the events on the frozen fjord that afternoon, having been huddled inside their homes, or in the castle, sheltered from the bitter cold brought on by a sudden blizzard. There, on the fjord, the strawberry-blonde princess had frozen solid, and had nearly given her life, to protect her sister from the murderous Prince Hans of the Southern Isles.

But it was Anna's act of self-sacrifice—an act of true love—that broke the icy curse on her, revealed to Elsa the key to controlling her powers, and allowed her to finally thaw the winter. Those who had witnessed the disastrous events of the coronation ball three nights earlier, when Anna had pushed her sister too far and caused her to reveal her powers, observed that perhaps the issues that had driven the sisters apart had been resolved, for they were the very picture of happiness now.

As the Queen and Princess walked from the docks towards the castle, waving to the villagers who had come out to greet them, some bystanders wondered about the reindeer and the tall, blond-haired mountain man that trailed them; more still goggled at the sight of a little snowman, complete with what appeared to be a cloud floating over its head, trotting after them, practically bouncing with each step. But after the events of the previous four days, a walking, talking snowman wasn't too difficult to believe. Many people (a good number of them men) gawked at the Queen's bare-shouldered, sky-blue dress, with the slit up one side of the skirt and long, wispy cape—the dress itself seemed to be made of ice!

All seemed well in Arendelle, for the moment. But, given the recent events, Queen Elsa would soon have to start picking up the pieces from her disastrous coronation. Pride in and loyalty to the Queen aside, many were unnerved by her powers and the winter that they caused; indeed, some feared her, not understanding that until today she had little to no control over her magic. She would have to talk to the people and affirm her reputation as a kind and just queen, and not the monster that some saw.

Elsa and her small party weren't more than halfway across the stone bridge before they were spotted by a guard on the perimeter wall. "It's the Queen! Open the gates!" he called out.

The gates opened wide, and the group walked through them into the castle's main courtyard. Before the emerald-coated guards on duty could close the gates, however, the Queen held up a hand to stop them. "Just a moment," she said. "Has the captain returned from his errand?"

"I have, Your Majesty," said a deep, booming voice. Elsa turned to see Rolf, the tall, muscular Captain of the Royal Guards, striding towards her. The only difference in his emerald-green uniform from that of the other Guards was the gold insignia indicating his rank. "The Southern Isles prince has been placed in the dungeons, as you requested," he informed her.

"Good," Anna spoke up before her sister could, the cold tone in her voice and crossed arms a sharp contrast to her usual cheerfulness. "I hope he stays there and rots."

"Anna!" Elsa scolded, shocked at her sister's attitude. "I can assure you, Prince Hans will most certainly not be staying here any longer than necessary." She paused, then added, "Besides, haven't you already done enough?"

Anna rubbed the knuckles on her right hand furtively, as if they still stung from connecting with Hans's face. "I suppose," she admitted, hands dropping to her sides. "But he'd better have a cold cell, wherever he's going."

"I assure you, he will," the Queen replied. Anna seemed satisfied with this answer, and wandered off. Turning to the captain, Elsa said, "Keep him well-guarded and quiet, Captain Rolf. We do not want any incidents before we send him home."

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Rolf replied.

"One more thing," Elsa said, with a nod toward the gates. "Except in dire situations, I would like the gates to remain open from now on."

The captain frowned. "Is this wise, Your Majesty?"

"Yes," the Queen replied. "It is high time that Arendelle's rulers be open with their people again. You may increase the number of men guarding the gates and walls as you see fit, of course. Especially at night."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Captain Rolf said. "It will be done."

"Besides, this will make my sister happy," Elsa added, glancing over her shoulder to where Anna stood chatting with her mountain man friend. Sometime in the last few minutes, her sister had decided to take her deep pink cloak off, obviously unneeded in the warmth of summer. "Being allowed outside the castle means a lot to her." The Queen cleared her throat. "That will be all, Captain."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the captain replied, saluting. He turned to relay his orders to the other guards.

Elsa strode over to one of the courtyard's two fountains, where her sister and her friends were sitting waiting for her. The little snowman, Olaf, was investigating the water in the fountain, which he seemed to find fascinating, while dodging the reindeer's attempts to eat his carrot nose. Anna sat next to the mountain man, her magenta cloak draped over one arm. Glancing at the blond man, who wore the traditional garb of a Sami ice harvester, the Queen said, "I don't think we have been properly introduced yet."

The man stood and attempted a courtly bow, rather clumsily, but managed it. "Kristoff Bjorgman, ice harvester, Your Majesty." He gestured to the reindeer. "And this is my best friend Sven." Sven also attempted to bow, but fell over face-first in the attempt, making Anna giggle.

"Please, call me Elsa," she replied. "It's obvious to me that you and Anna are friends, so there's no need for formalities outside of court."

"I'll do my best, Your Ma—Elsa," Kristoff stumbled. Anna giggled again, earning a glare from him.

"Do you have a place to stay for the night, Kristoff?" the Queen asked.

"I'm afraid not," the mountain man replied. "Sven and I could find an inn, I suppose..."

"Don't be silly!" Anna exclaimed. "You can stay here, in the castle!"

"Anna," Elsa said patiently, "that seems a little improper."

"Oh, proper, schmoper!" the strawberry-blonde said, smirking at her sister's stuffy attitude. "C'mon, Elsa... at least until he finds his own place to stay."

The Queen considered this for a moment. Finally, she said, "All right, Anna. Just until he finds a place to stay." She paused again, turning to Kristoff. "Perhaps you could join us for dinner tonight, Kristoff? As you're my sister's friend, I ought to get to know you, if you're to stay here for a while." She glanced at Anna. "Besides, I think we all have some catching up to do, after recent events."

"I-I'd be delighted, Yo—Elsa," Kristoff stammered, scratching the back of his head nervously. "That is, if you don't think I'll be a bother staying here...?"

"Of course not, Kristoff," Elsa replied. "There's plenty of room. There have been very few guests to stay in the castle in the last thirteen years."

"Hey, loosen up, Kristoff," Anna chided, tugging at his coat playfully. "It's just my sister."

"Yeah, b-but she's the Queen... and I'm just an ice harvester." Kristoff reminded, brushing her hand off him.

Their conversation was interrupted by several shouts of "Your Majesty!" and "Queen Elsa!" from the far end of the courtyard. Elsa turned at the voices, and had to keep from balling her hands into fists at the sight of the diminutive Duke of Weselton. Behind the Duke was the small group of foreign dignitaries, from France, Germany, Spain, and Ireland, who had also witnessed the events on the fjord.

"Your Majesty, we saw what happened out on the ice. Are you all right?" the French dignitary asked.

"I am unharmed," Elsa replied, "and I now have my powers under control, thanks to my sister."

"As wonderful as that is, Your Majesty," the Duke of Weselton spoke up, impatience evident in his voice, "can we be assured that there will be no more unnatural sorcery, so that we can get down to business?" He said the two words like a curse.

The Queen turned sharply to face him. "You have no right to take that tone with me," she snapped. "In fact, you are lucky that I do not simply throw you in the dungeon with your guards!" The duke flinched at her tone.

"Queen Elsa, I can assure you that I had no idea my men would—" the duke began, straightening his spectacles absently.

"—Would try to kill me?" Elsa interrupted. "I find that very difficult to believe, Duke, after hearing you denounce me as a monster in front of a courtyard full of people three nights ago!" The temperature in the courtyard dropped several degrees as she spoke, and ice started to form at her feet.

She jumped a little when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but relaxed immediately when she realized it was her sister. "Do you want me to punch him?" Anna asked quietly.

"As much as I would enjoy it, Anna, no," the Queen whispered back, managing to calm herself somewhat. Turning back to the duke, she said aloud, "I do not care if you think I am a monster, Duke, even though I thought the same of myself for many years. My sister has shown me differently, and because of her, I now have control. But your rash actions will not go unpunished.

"A guest room will be found for you, and you will stay there, under guard, until your ship is ready to depart. You and your men will then return to Weselton without delay. As for business," the Queen paused, putting as much ice in her tone as possible, "it is as of this moment finished. Permanently."

"P-permanently?!" the duke stammered, wringing his hands, eyes wide with dismay. "Queen Elsa, you cannot be serious!"

"I am," the Queen said coldly. "I will have a formal declaration delivered to you before your departure. Guards!" Two emerald-coated guards appeared, and saluted. "Find the Duke a guest room in the visitors wing, and keep him there until his ship is ready to depart."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the leader of the two replied, and said to the Duke, "Let's go, Your Grace." After the guards and their charge were out of sight (the duke protesting all the way), Elsa let out a sigh of relief.

"What was that all about?" Anna wondered aloud. When Elsa didn't answer right away, she frowned. "Elsa?"

"I'm sorry, Anna," Elsa said, trying to compose herself. "Like I said, we have things to catch up on." Turning to the other dignitaries, who wore similar expressions of shock from the Queen's confrontation with the duke, she said, "My apologies, gentlemen, for doing that," she said kindly, "but it had to be done. Now, I understand that a good number of ships suffered damage in the storm this afternoon; therefore, guest rooms can be found for those who need them."

She straightened. "If there is any other business to discuss, I will be scheduling a meeting for ten o'clock tomorrow morning, at which time I will explain to you and the Council the reasons behind the recent events, and hear your questions."

Getting a "Of course, Your Majesty," from the Spanish dignitary and a chorus of "Thank you, Your Majesty" from the others, Elsa said, "If you'll excuse me..." and walked back to where Kristoff was waiting, Anna following.

Addressing the mountain man, she said, "I'll have someone help you find a place for Sven to stay. In the meantime, I'm sure we can find you a suitable guest room in the castle. In the family wing, perhaps, so you don't attract attention from all those nobles."

"Thanks... Elsa," Kristoff said, with less hesitation than before.

"You're getting there," Anna said, smiling and patting him on the shoulder.

"Dinner will be at 5 o'clock," the Queen continued. "If you need something suitable to wear, Kai can help you find it." She gestured toward the portly, red-haired man conversing with a guard near the doors. "That's him, there. Do you think you can manage?"

"Yeah," Kristoff murmured. "Thanks."

Elsa called a guard over, and said to him, "Guardsman, could you show Mr. Bjorgman to the stables, please? He needs a place for his reindeer."

"Of course, Your Majesty," the guard replied, leading Kristoff and Sven off toward the stables. Elsa and Anna were now alone... mostly.

"Olaf," Elsa said to the remaining member of their party, who was looking at his reflection in the water, "why don't you go explore the castle? As long as you stay out of trouble, there's plenty to see both inside and out."

"Okay!" the little snowman said happily, and bounded off, his personal flurry following his every move. From the direction of the castle gardens they heard a voice say cheerfully, "Hello!" followed immediately by a scream of "IT'S ALIVE!"

"Does everybody have to do that?" Anna said, wincing.

"They'll get used to him, I hope," Elsa replied. "Anna..." She paused, suddenly feeling awkward. "It's been less than an hour since you were... well, you know... ice-cold. So I was thinking we could get some hot chocolate, despite the nice weather."

Anna nodded in understanding. "That sounds wonderful," she said, smiling. With a sudden burst of energy, the strawberry-blonde squealed, "C'mon!" and started dragging Elsa toward the castle, where the kitchens awaited them. "We can find some of those marshmallows you like, and maybe some extra chocolate to go with it, and..."

"Anna," the blonde said tiredly, pulling Anna to a stop outside the doors. "Please calm down. And besides, isn't one kind of chocolate enough?"

Anna gaped at her in mock horror, and put her hands on her hips. "Elsa, I'm surprised at you! One kind of chocolate is never enough!"

They stood there staring at each other for a long moment. Anna's jaw twitched, trying to keep a straight face. Elsa felt herself fighting a grin, and eventually they both burst into giggles.

Elsa coughed, composing herself, and said, "I haven't laughed that much since that horrible little man tried to dance with you." Anna glared at her.

"I'm going to get you back for that, you know," Anna said, smirking.

"I know," Elsa replied. "For now, though, let's go find that hot chocolate." Anna happily dashed into the castle, nearly knocking over a bemused Kai. Elsa stopped to apologize, and told him to keep an eye out for Kristoff and help him when he showed up, then dashed after her sister toward the kitchens.

Hans couldn't understand what had gone wrong.

I thought I had it all worked out, the red-haired prince thought bitterly. Thirteenth in line in my own kingdom and this close to claiming one of my own. And yet here I sit, in a cold cell, a prisoner of the very royals I tried to eliminate.

What happened?

He fingered his now-broken nose, wincing at the pain. The princess couldn't have gotten out on her own, could she? Someone must have helped her, but I thought I had everyone accounted for. He glanced out the small, barred window of the cell, looking out onto the fjord. And yet, somehow she managed to get out to the fjord in time to stop me.

He still didn't completely understand that. All he could remember seeing before he was knocked out was Anna leaping in the way of the sword strike meant to kill Queen Elsa. Her body froze solid, and his sword shattered, a mysterious force throwing him backward.

Hans was neither a chemist nor a blacksmith, but he was an intelligent man, and knew that at extremely low temperatures, metal would become brittle. He had seen the results of this firsthand when he found the shackles in the dungeon that had, until moments earlier, held the young queen prisoner, in a cell unlike all the others, apparently unused since the day it was designed.

The shackles had been torn apart, weakened by her magic. Whoever designed them hadn't counted on her power becoming this strong. The prince shook his head, trying to focus his thoughts. But no weakened metal could have caused that blast that threw me back. It had to have been magic of some kind.

The prince honestly didn't know, as he sat in the cold dungeon cell pondering his failure, what his fate was to be. The Queen, in all likelihood, could have me tried and executed for treason, just as I had intended for her. A cruel twist of fate, indeed. He couldn't think of any worse fate than execution, but he didn't know if the young queen had it in her to give the order for his head.

Actually, Hans could think of one punishment worse than death: being sent home and left to the "mercy" of his father and brothers. That possibility made this cold cell look like a lavish palace suite. Only a monster like her would be capable of giving such a merciful sentence, he thought bitterly. He sat back against the cell wall, waiting for the inevitable.

After Kristoff was shown the way to the stables, he asked the stableman if there was room for Sven. The man showed him and Sven to an empty stall next to one that had a tall, white stallion in it. For some reason, the horse was giving the mountain man an odd look.

Well, hopefully he and Sven get along, Kristoff thought as he handed Sven some carrots, and walked over to take a better look at Sven's new neighbor. The stallion had an almost human expression of wariness on his face when Kristoff approached, studying him intently. Judging by the fine quality harnesses set aside for the horse, he supposed the beast belonged to visiting nobility of some sort. Noting the seven-pointed sun emblem on one, he guessed that they were from Corona.

Making sure that Sven was settled (and had plenty of carrots), Kristoff left the stables and walked toward the castle in search of the person Queen Elsa had pointed out to him. Finding the man not far from where he'd last seen him, Kristoff cleared his throat and said, "Excuse me? Mr. Kai? I was told by the Queen that you could help me."

The portly, red-haired man blinked once, then replied, "Ah, you must be Mr. Bjorgman. Yes, she said I was to expect you, and find you a guest room."

"Yes, please," Kristoff said. I'd probably get lost in there, anyway, he thought.

"Very well, then," Kai said, gesturing for him to follow. "Right this way, please." Kristoff followed the man into the castle, wondering what he'd gotten himself into.

Anna honestly couldn't have appreciated hot chocolate much more than she did right now, sitting next to Elsa on a couch in one of the castle's sitting rooms. Sitting with Elsa, together! she thought. It's like a dream come true...

Though it was warm and sunny outside (usually incompatible with the hot beverage in her hands), there was still a slight chill in the castle, and in her body (as Elsa had pointed out), from being frozen over. Or maybe the chill she was feeling was from sitting in close proximity to her sister; Anna wasn't really sure. At the moment, though, Elsa seemed to be enjoying the drink as much as Anna was.

I wonder what heat even feels like, to her? Obviously the cold doesn't bother her, or she'd be shivering in that ice dress. Anna thought the dress in question was very beautiful, but was a little bit... what's the word? Showy? Indecent? Scandalous? Yeah, that one sounds right.

Whatever the word was, Anna was sure that she was going to have to talk Elsa into wearing something else to dinner that evening. She wanted to make a good impression on Kristoff, and didn't fancy the idea of him staring at Elsa's ice dress like nearly every man they passed on the way to the castle that afternoon.

Maybe she could talk to Elsa after she changed into a nicer dress herself. The winter clothes she'd bought at Oaken's two nights earlier were very nice, but were a little warm by now, and she had already taken off the cloak. Finishing her cup, she said, "Hey, Elsa? I'm gonna go get changed for dinner. Where can I find you after?"

"My room, I guess," Elsa said, sounding nervous. "Don't worry, I'll leave it unlocked, if you want some company."

"Thanks, Elsa," Anna said, smiling, and dashed off for the family wing of the castle.

A/N: Each chapter will have notes like these, and explanations for some things (nothing quite so verbose as the preface!).

–I don't know why I gave Hans a broken nose; spite, perhaps? (I'm sure Anna appreciates it. :P)

–Kristoff could just as well have been introduced to Elsa on the walk between the docks and the castle, but I wanted it to be 'on-screen'.

–The Captain of the Guards did not have a name in the first draft, but in the second revision I gave him one: Rolf. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) I'll be using 'Guardsman' for his subordinates, because I'm unsure what sort of ranks (if any) the Royal Guards would have.

–The scenes with Hans, Kristoff, and Anna were added with the first revisions, when I decided to expand each chapter a little. I hope they fit in okay.

Next chapter: some familiar faces! (From Kristoff's scene here, you should be able to guess who they are.)