Hi everyone. Look, I've got some explaining to do, but it's very complicated and long winded and detailed, so I will try to sum it up in way that is concise, but, hopefully, not boring. I've been gone too long to clog up this HUGE chapter with nonessential jibber-jabber. Essentially, I had a thing, which became a bigger thing, then I lost the big thing and I found another thing which replaced the smaller thing but also ate up my entire summer…thing. But now that thing has become the small thing and the school thing is the bigger thing, once again. But these things shouldn't keep me from doing my thing, I just need to make sure the school thing remains the bigger thing. That enough things? Good. So, shout out to my new friends on fanfiction dot net, FrozenFairyTales, LazyPanties, Vesfarloc, Intheverse, Trickmaster42, Jabberwock'sBane and Mystery84! You folks are fun, creative and nuanced! I love that I've had the chance to meet all of you! The notes, the praise, the little details you notice…it touches me deeply! Thank you so much!

This one…is a kick. No joke. Lengthwise, too. Get Comfy. My beta can't be out done and my friends on this site are awesome! Yuri-murasaki, many, many thanks to you, as always. My absence was unforeseen and hopefully a very, very large exception to the rule! I've missed you guys! Also, I wish I could claim credit for some of the humor in this one, but some of these jokes have been used by others, I'm sure…maybe not HERE, but still.

Start start start!

"I'm beginning to get the feeling that confession is what we need in order to forgive ourselves."

― Shane Kuhn, The Intern's Handbook

Anna stormed off into the castle through a side entrance. Though the primary bridge and gateway were the more traditional methods of entering the castle, years of solitary exploring had given the princess a keen sense of direction in her home. She knew every crack, every path, every tiny wiggle-way that led into or out of her castle, be it huge and obvious or small and secretive. This time, she chose a porters' entrance, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture toward her guard detail as soon as she rounded the corner on the near-north courtyard. The guards, still uneasy at the hasty retreat of the princess from the square, seemed to hold back, until Anna spun on her heal and discharged them verbally.

"I said, YOU ARE RELIEVED. Need I make myself any clearer?!"

The men stiffened and bowed and retreated in a way that was almost slapstick, if only because they were doing their best not to appear baffled. They skittered away and made themselves scarce, before Anna leaned left and pulled open a squeaky, stubborn door, ducking inside.

'The NERVE of that woman!' the princess fumed, her dress bunched in her fists to aid in her angry clip-clop-clip across the stone floor. 'Can't even admit when she's in the wrong. No, it can't be her! She has to…to…PARADE herself along the dance floor, trying to show ME a thing or two! Of all the self-serving, sneaky, snob-nosed…!'

The diatribe continued in her head as she made her way past the servants' quarters and the kitchen. The smell of salt, wine, yeast and broth was everywhere, and the scent, combined with her own indignant state-of-mind, made the princess suddenly famished. Her dinner had only been a handful of hours ago, but now she was starved, desperate to fill a sudden hole which had appeared beneath her heart.

She leaned into the kitchen doors and burst them open. The light of twenty-five candles and two roaring fires greeted her, along with about seven perplexed cooking staff, including her head chef, Klaussen. The man was surprisingly thin for someone who specialized in food, with a receding hairline and fairly large forearms. He dropped his kitchen knife and pushed aside the carrots he had been slicing to stand and bow to his princess.

"Your Highness!" he exclaimed. "This is-is an unexpected pleasure. How was your dinner? I heard that the festivities were quite exhilarating. Did you enjoy—?"

"Yes, yes, the food was divine," Anna interrupted, waving her hand impatiently and smiling in a placating fashion. "But I have decided to retire for the evening and find myself unexpectedly hungry. Have you anything prepared that I might appropriate from you?"

The chef seemed a little taken aback at being tasked with describing EVERY possible combination of food available to the princess. "W-well your grace, we…I mean, there is a multitude of…but perhaps, well…I suppose I could summon…"

Anna sighed in frustration and rolled her eyes. "Oh never mind. Have you any salted cod or Gravlax? Rød pølse, perhaps? Or some leftover tykklefse?"

"All of the above, Princess," the chef commented, noticing Anna's officious tone and doing his best to mask his own. The rest of the kitchen staff had taken notice of the princess and her demeanor, and were now doing their best to appear busy and disinterested, so as to not draw attention to themselves. "Shall I prepare you a tray?"

"Yes, to be sent to my room. Immediately," Anna commanded, gathering her gown again. "Have it delivered with hot tea and chocolates as well."

"As you command, Highness," Klaussen said, bowing slightly and nodding to the rest of his staff, who began their feverish preparations for the princess. "May I offer you anything else this evening?"

"No, thank you. Goodnight Mesterkokk," said the woman, before turning quickly and marching out of the kitchen.

The princess was halfway down the hall before she allowed her thoughts to well back up again. 'It wasn't even subtle! I mean, not that I was, either, but at least I was the injured party here! I decide to have a little fun and all she can think of is showing me up! Can't have anything upset the Queen, oh no, that would be catastrophic, wouldn't it?!'

Even the various suits of armor lining the hallways seemed to shrink away from the princess as she continued her angry stomp towards her room. Outside, the sounds of people continuing to drink and eat and dance, while softer, still reverberated around the kingdom and the castle. Anna was suddenly thankful that the royal apartments were on the other side of the building, as far away from the Promenade as possible without setting foot beyond the northern parapets. But even as she plodded further and further away, the sounds of merriment seemed to follow her, clinging to her like water droplets in a fog, refusing to leave no matter how much distance she put between herself and the city center.

'Good grief what a mess!' she thought, her own mind now despairing and forlorn for some reason. 'It was just supposed to be a dance but now I…I…I don't even know what happened! It felt like I was riding a horse backwards through a dark cave! What in Heavens' name happened out there?!'

The princess finally found the door to her apartment and lugged it open with great difficulty, as if it were four times too heavy for her to handle. The wood creaked open and in went the young woman, slipping inside to escape, if it were possible, her poisonous thoughts. The door slammed shut and sealed her within, alone with her forever rotating mind.

'Gods…I need water, air, something…I feel like I'm suffocating!' she screamed inwardly.

The princess went to her fireplace and threw a log on the smoldering coals, but was unaware of why she did so. It seemed like her internal temperature was out of sync, and though a warm fire was desirable to her at the moment, the sudden heat upon her skin was almost claustrophobic. The princess stumbled back from her hearth and made her way to her bed, pulling at her sleeves. Normally she would have summoned someone to help her disrobe when she was ensconced in something so formal and tightly-tailored, but now, she simply wished to be rid of her garments, as fast as humanly possible.

She clawed at her bodice, the hem of her skirt. Being delicate was far from her mind at the moment, so even when she heard the material stretch and in some cases rip beneath her finger tips, she paid it no mind. The articles fell away from her in small slices at first, until she was disposing of whole clumps of clothing, pulling them over her head or down over her legs, regardless of their proper method of removal. A small pile was formed at the foot of her bed, growing in size at the same rate as the redness of her cheeks. She was burning up from the inside out – she needed to be rid of every piece of cloth, now!

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, the princess stood practically naked upon the carpet of her room. A sudden flash of indecency rattled her already temperamental mind, causing the woman to lurch towards her closet. She removed her undergarments to her closet and hastily snatched up a nightgown, as thin and airy as she could find, slipping it over her head and finally collapsing just inside the door of her wardrobe.

The room felt stifling. The log had barely caught fire, but still she felt as though she was being dipped in melted wax that was thick and suffocating on her skin.

"I can't take this heat!" she whispered fearfully to herself, wiping the sweat from her face and panting. "It feels like the lip of a volcano in here! I can't stand it!"

The princess wasn't sure what to do. She wanted to stand, to run, to do SOMETHING that might remove her from the oppressive heat that seemed to lay upon her skin like layers of wool. But what could she do? Where would she go? Every direction she could think of would take her back to (or at least within earshot of) the fiasco she had just escaped. She felt she suddenly understood her sister's desire to make a break for the north mountain. That place was probably shod in ice right now, cold and still and refreshingly bereft of any heat that might clog her skin and stifle her breath.

An idea came to her. She stood, steadied herself and turned. The princess came out of the closet and marched towards her windows. Without much hesitation at all, the princess unlatched all three windowpanes and pushed outwards. There was some resistance at first, but eventually the young woman managed to shove and wrench her windows open, pushing snow from their ledges and swinging them wide into the frosty night.

Clouds and snow and wind greeted the princess. She felt the cloying, binding flames of heat leave her skin as a massive draft of cold air came whirling into her room, much as her dress has been whirled across the dance floor not ten minutes earlier. The candles upon her nightstand snuffed themselves out in a hasty retreat, and the fire, once so bright with heat, shrunk away from the intruding wintry gale.

The princess closed her eyes and fell to her knees, resting sidelong upon her aching hips and thighs. She felt the gooseflesh raise upon her shoulders, arms and chest, tiny signals of approval from her body that the temperature change was not only welcome, but definitely more pleasurable. She sighed and let the tiny snowflakes rest upon her vibrating skin, melting away under the pervasive heat of her body, before trickling away along her cheeks and neck and shoulders. The sensation wasn't numbing, but gentle and soothing, much like a glass of iced-tea upon a sore throat.

The princess felt present, awake, alert. Nature in all its complexity had brought about a simple solution to her problem, one that surrounded and penetrated her, even as deep as the tumultuous fracas that was her mind. The drifts of freezing wind did nothing to harm the princess. They only freed her as totally from her worried, overheated body as the act of ripping her clothes away had done.

'Strange that the cold would bring such relief…' she pondered to herself, lifting her chin so as to expose more of her neck to the draft. 'People shy away from the cold so readily, but it feels so wonderful when my body betrays me like this. It's practically winter, and I was just dancing in the snow, for goodness sake! Why is this happening to me?'

The knock at her door and whine of its hinges startled her. The princess recoiled slightly as it opened, feeling suddenly exposed.

"Your meal, Highness," came the timid voice of a handmaiden, "shall I set up a plate for you or—?"

"No! Just…leave it…by the door. Please," Anna curtly responded, refusing to look towards the maid. "You may leave once that is done."

Out of Anna's sight, the woman hurriedly pushed a cart inside the princess's room and steadied it flush against the wall. She left in such a rush that she forgot to close the door all the way behind her, letting it clatter against the bolt as she scurried away.

Anna didn't even have the heart to stand and fetch herself a bite of food. The salty scent of the sausage, the heady aroma of the tea, even the spicy mixture inside the kjøttkaker which had been included amongst the array of bread and sweets…none of it was enough to stir the princess. It may as well have been as distant as the shore of the Southern Isles and just as desirable a destination for her. She felt almost repulsed by the food…how could she have had an appetite so insatiable a moment ago, only to have it leave her in its entirety now?

'Perhaps Kristoff knocked something loose while spinning me around…' she wondered. 'Up and down seem to be interchangeable right now. I'm famished one second, absolutely disgusted by food the next, the heat feels deathly, the cold feels life-giving. I don't remember hitting my head, but what else would explain how everything is so backwards right now?'

A snowflake landed upon Anna's knuckle and sat, perfect and undisturbed, refusing to submit to her body heat. The shine and splendor of that one snowflake brought a new flash of color before the princess, this time conceived from her memory. The glint of skin, pale and flawless, along the elegant neck of the queen, screeched before her eyes like some errant cart rolling downhill without breaks. Much like an accident happening in front of her eyes, Anna found it hard to look away. She didn't fare any better when the image changed to that of a toned, curvaceous leg—wrapped forcefully around the arm of a man who was suspending said leg above his shoulder—assaulted her inner vision. It was followed by flashes of teeth, smiles so blatant and alluring that they couldn't even be called coy, spinning dresses, thrusting hips, come-hither eyes, the forceful grasping of lapels and the intimate crush of an abdomen against a sharply-dressed chest. On and on these thoughts whirled, until Anna was almost clawing at her head, begging such images to leave her be.

'Damn it all, why is this happening?!' she screamed at herself. 'It was just dancing! Just DANCING! But I still feel like the inside of my head is being scratched up by some thorny cannon ball.'

Perhaps it was her heightened sensitivity to noise at that moment, but when next her door began to open, Anna couldn't stop her sudden, harsh outburst. "I asked not to be disturbed, did none of you hear me?!"

"I can hear you just fine," came a soft but resilient voice, "as can half of the castle, I'd wager."

Anna almost cranked her neck with how fast she spun it in the direction of her door. The dwindling firelight was enough to outline the small but beautiful form of her cousin as she entered the doorframe, closing it behind her. She walked very slowly toward the princess and stopped at the edge of the rug, crossing one leg behind the other and clasping her hands behind her back. The green and gold of her winter gown was in stark contrast to the deeper, primary colors of Anna's chambers, making it look as if Rapunzel were growing out of the floor like some lithe potted plant.

"Ah, uhm…Princess…I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you…" Anna said, slightly embarrassed at her words. The condition her cousin had caught her in—laying upon the floor, barely clothed and panting like a sprinter—certainly didn't help matters much.

"Since when am I 'Princess'?" Rapunzel asked. "Or are you just formal when trying to make up for brackish behavior?"

"Excuse me?!" Anna said, her eyes wider.

"No, excuse ME," Rapunzel said, inching closer, keeping her chin up and her voice even. "I wasn't aware of just how unusual the customs were in Arendelle, especially amongst the royalty. Perhaps I should have done a bit of research before visiting."

"What're you talking about?" Anna asked, though it sounded more like a demand, especially with her head tilted at a sharp angle and her chest suddenly pushed outward, as if in defiance. Even from her position upon the floor, the princess looked more than a little prickly.

"Well, your grand exit, of course," Rapunzel said, gesturing behind her to the closed bedroom door, "in which you left the Promenade, your guests and your family in a state of befuddlement. Besides the spectacle and the gossip which followed—and there was a great deal of both—your retreat was rather…abrupt. Although I suppose that shouldn't surprise me. How else does one leave such a large gala as that one in anything other than a royal huff?"

Anna turned and knelt on her knees, correcting her back and looking her cousin dead in the eye. Her voice was irritable but measured, as if she were pouring out controlled doses of caustic, liquid steel. "I wasn't in a huff, Rapunzel. I was tired and I decided to leave. It was as simple as that."

"Is that so?" her cousin asked, folding her arms and tilting her head. "Just like the collection of dances you performed this evening. Simple, easy. No complications at all. I can't imagine why such a display would leave you, or the kingdom, out of sorts. It's not like it was the most gossip-worthy event of the season."

"The most gossip worthy…?! What are you implying?!" Anna demanded, coming to her feet.

"You'd like me to describe it to you?" Rapunzel said, smiling with the faintest sign of calumny as she extended her fingers one by one. "Getting angry at your sister for some inane reason, pulling that sweet boy Kristoff out onto the floor like some door-prize to twirl about as you saw fit, forcing him to try not one, not two, but three dances which were uncomfortable at best and lewd at worst, and then having a very public, very obvious fight-but-not-a-fight with your sister the queen out on that platform. Have I left anything out?"

Anna was flummoxed. "How-How di-did…but…what makes you think I was angry at her? Just because I was a little aggressive on the dance floor—"

"AGGRESSIVE? Please!" Rapunzel laughed. "You made Joan of Arc look cloistered and subtle. That wasn't dancing, Anna, that was a parade! I like a good show as much as the next woman, but even I know flagrancy when I see it. You did everything but MOUNT the man in the middle of the square!"

Anna looked and sounded appalled. "Th-That's ridiculous! I was dancing with a handsome young man, not taking him around the world in sixty seconds! And besides, even if I was being a little forward, it would hardly be appropriate to take advice from someone as publicly adventurous as YOU are, wouldn't you say, dear cousin?"

Anna took satisfaction in the bright pink which assailed Rapunzel's cheeks, but the older princess lost no momentum. "THAT has nothing to do with THIS, Anna! I took my husband into the woods for a private rendezvous, something I only made mention of to you because there were no other witnesses and because I rarely have anyone to talk to about such things. I certainly didn't prostrate myself in front of almost a thousand people!"

The princess of Corona witnessed something strange in her cousin. Anna's eyes, usually bright and cheerful, began to darken and recede. The younger royal looked almost specter-like, her body pulling back slightly into the cold of the open window. The auburn-haired woman was now smaller, angrier, somehow week and hurt while also dangerous and bracing, especially when she spoke next.

"How DARE you imply such a thing?" Anna asked, her voice deep and husky with unshed anger. "You forget yourself, Princess Rapunzel. You…you cannot simply ACCUSE me of such things! I am a young princess, but I am the princess of this land. To suggest such things is unsightly at best and slanderous at worst! As a princess yourself, you should know better! And as my COUSIN…how could you speak these words to me?"

Rapunzel had crossed a line, but her loss of speed was hampered only slightly. She pulled back, just a hair, and folded her hands at her navel, raising her chin with dignity, rather than boastful pride.

"I meant no effrontery, Princess Anna," she said, her tone formal and cutting, but still polite. "And I certainly intended no slander, upon your name, crown or family in any way."

Anna allowed a small, victorious smirk, before her cousin continued.

"…but I have come from a place of honesty, for as long as I can remember," the foreign princess clarified. "I see the truth in things to the best of my ability, going so far as to never break my word once it has been given. To me, the truth is utterly precious and irreplaceable. I can no more easily betray my words than I could betray my family. It simply isn't in me."

She folded her arms again, a clear gesture of authority and steadfast resolve. "Which also applies to what I see and witness. As such, I meant no harm, but I am also not blind. I know what happened out there, I saw the whole thing. And you are as well-aware of the outcome as I am."

Anna was shivering and it had nothing to do with the cold. She couldn't understand it. How could she be so undone in front of her cousin? It wasn't nakedness so much as forceful stripping with words. The younger princess had no idea how to proceed when such a pressing, unflinching scrutinizing look was leveled against her.

So she thought up a bluff. "You saw something that made you jealous, did you?"

Rapunzel faltered slightly. "Something that WHAT?"

"MADE YOU JEALOUS," Anna clarified, enunciating every word, crossing her own arms now. "After all, if you were paying such close attention, you must have seen something that kept your interest, right?"

"What on earth are you getting at?" Rapunzel asked, edging towards annoyance again.

"Well, KRISTOFF, of course," Anna said, a hint of poison in her tone. "I mean, Eugene is a handsome one, no doubt. But Kristoff is so much more…EARTHY, so much more…rough-hewn, wouldn't you say?"

"I honestly hadn't noticed…" Rapunzel admitted, still unsure of where this was going.

"Oh come off it, Princess. All the sidelong looks? The laughing at his stupid jokes? The little comments about how 'sweet' and 'cute' he is?" Anna said, sniping little bites out of her cousin with each example. "I didn't think much of them, but NOW, with all the fuss you're making—"

"I'm not making a fuss about anything!" Rapunzel bit back, almost huffing.

"No? One of the FIRST comments you made upon arriving here were about Kristoff. 'He's a cute one' you said, 'that guy back there in the mountaineering gear'. We even called you on it, and you proceeded to chastise US, claiming you were 'married…not blind'. I suppose that should have been a subtle hint right from the start."

"Why you little…that is NOT what I was talking about, or who, whom…whatever!" Rapunzel fumed, slapping her hands to her sides. "I'm not attracted to Kristoff, I'm a happily married woman!"

"Yeah, sure, I believe you. After all, Eugene has rugged 'attributes', of course," Anna spat, turning in place as the cold wind whipped around her bare shoulders. "He was a thief at one point and I'm sure he brought a great deal of that super-masculinity with him to the throne…"

"What're you implying?!"

"Well, he's not exactly fetching, is he?" Anna said, giving the princess a look that seemed to say 'Oh, sorry, did I say that out-loud?'. "More housebroken now, wouldn't you say? But KRISTOFF, well… he exudes manliness like a rag drips water! Living in the mountains, cutting ice from frozen lakes, living off the land, rugged, strong, impressively capable, I can see why you would be curious about such a man."

"THAT IS ABSURD!" Rapunzel fumed. "I was doing nothing of the sort! Kristoff is a lovely man, certainly, but my husband is the love of my life! I would never engage in such lewd gawking, regardless of the show you put on!"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Anna said. Even her coy attitude was two parts obnoxious and one part acidic. "I have always recognized these attributes within Kristoff. Though I need not do it from afar…so of course, I danced with him."

"HA! You call that DANCING? I'd expect more restraint in a tavern filled with drunken barmaids!" Rapunzel let loose, her voice clearly angry and accusatory regardless of the faux innocence in Anna's tone. "With all the gyrating and weightless wantonness, I'd swear you'd gone blind and deaf to everyone except Kristoff. How else would you explain such a flagrant, public display of voluntary debauchery?"

"THIS coming from the woman who claims to have christened every spare room within her own castle?" Anna asked, again, in a manner most insufferable. "By comparison to your escapades, I'd say my little dance with Kristoff was positively innocent."

"If by innocent you mean JUVENILE, then we are in agreement," Rapunzel retorted. "To manipulate someone in such an obvious and VICIOUS manner, it is quite childish, indeed."

Anna genuinely recoiled, bringing her hands up to her shoulders. Of all the phrases he'd anticipated during this brackish conversation, she hadn't foreseen this set of comments. "Muh-Manipulated? I did nothing of the sort!"

"Reeeeaally?" Rapunzel drawled with a smile, rubbing her hand over her chin in a manner very reminiscent of her father.

"Of course!" Anna insisted, seeing now just how annoying fake ignorance of subject could be. "I didn't force Kristoff to do anything! The very idea…and VICIOUS? He was all smiles out on that dance floor. You should know, given how closely you were monitoring us."

"A BLIND GOPHER could see exactly what was happening out there tonight, even if he was buried in the snow," Rapunzel replied, momentarily dropping her cheeky demeanor. "And I guarantee he wasn't the only one."

Anna actually hummed with what sounded like glee for a moment. "Mmmmmm, he's so gentle, you know that? And GREAT at anticipating my movements! It was almost as if he KNEW what I had in store for him and he certainly wasn't complaining."

"You planned ALL of that…didn't you?" Rapunzel realized. "Right from the beginning, you'd intended for that dance to happen."

Anna snapped her fingers. "Aww, darn, you caught me! But then, it was meant to be a surprise, anyway. And what a surprise, eh? I don't think sh—he expected it all! But I'm so glad he caught on as quickly as he did. I can still feel his hands on my waist."

Rapunzel looked uncomfortable, but strangely undaunted. "Yes, Mr. Kristoff was…vigorous, to be sure. I'm sure he enjoyed the experience at least twice as much as the audience. After all, they may have had box seats, but Kristoff was front and center. And behind. And underneath…and on top, every so often."

"Got an eyeful, did ya?" Anna said, enjoying her jibe with a small wink.

"It was hard to miss," Rapunzel grimaced.

"But SOOO much fun! Mmmm, it didn't last nearly long enough…" Anna said, almost pirouetting again. "I haven't had that much fun in many a moon. It may have been a little much, but it must have been fun to watch. People were cheering their heads off!"

"Oh yes, it was quite entertaining," Rapunzel said, changing tactics. "I'm sure we would've all taken much closer note of your devious footwork, if Elgar hadn't stolen the show, of course."

Anna felt a flash of what might have been superheated steam shoot through her body. The mention of the man was enough to cause a restructuring of Anna's bones. She could feel them fill with lead shot, weighty and pulling her down, while simultaneously poisoning any gaiety she may have once possessed.

"Excuse me?" the girl hissed, unable to hide her encroaching anxiety.

"Elgar…your guest for the winter. Have you forgotten?" Rapunzel chided, enjoying Anna look of unbridled annoyance. "The man made quite an impression out there. And good LORD, what a striking figure he cuts! I haven't seen such a thoroughbred in years."

"I had noticed, yes…" Anna said. The little wisps of hair near her ears looked strangely like puffs of steam, at least from where Rapunzel stood.

"True, he is a bit larger-than-life," Rapunzel said, running her hand through her hair as if flustered, "but I swear, if I wasn't already taken, I'd be sizing him up like a set of oil paints. His smile, his eyes, the sheer size of him, not to mention the way he inhabits that cloak. Like mist within a cloud of smoke. A little formidable, sure, but he's not the talk of every woman in your village for nothing, ya know."

Anna turned up her nose, as if she had caught a whiff of something disgusting. "…if you're in to all of that, I suppose."

"Oh HO, so the princess has a type, does she?" Rapunzel added, a little more playful but still grating. "You don't like them tall, dark and handsome, huh?"

"He's HARDLY handsome," Anna shot back, looking over her shoulder in a manner that was almost bored. "Passable, perhaps. But too narrow at the hip and quick with a retort. Thinks too highly of himself, and I'm not the only one who thinks so, you can be sure of that."

"So, no taste for a man of such impressive build and more impressive breeding?" Rapunzel asked, slinking closer.

"Barely keeps my attention, unless he sneaks up on you," Anna said, almost chewing her words with the disdain they carried.

"No interest in the educated, dapper, powerful type, eh?"

"None at all," Anna confirmed.

Rapunzel took a deep breath.

"Oh well. I suppose it's for the best, really," she mused, turning to one side and marching slowly towards Anna's large, empty bed. "Probably wouldn't have been a fair contest, anyway."

The Coronan princess could feel Anna's ears perk up from across the room. "Contest of what?"

"Of courtship, naturally," Rapunzel answered. "After all, he is only one man. While I'm sure he enjoys a challenge as much as the next man, I'm certain it makes things easier on him if you aren't interested…"

"As if THAT would ever happen," Anna said, snidely and beneath her breath.

"…especially if Elsa already has his attention."

There was a shrill, quiet sound that Rapunzel could barely pick up on. Even though she stood some distance away, she could still make out the faintest of creaking and scraping. At first, it reminded the young woman of glass beneath the teeth of an iron key, the old metal biting into the smooth surface with a stomach-turning sound effects to follow. But it was, in fact, the sound of teeth grinding into teeth, an ear-tweaking noise so grating that it actually made Rapunzel squint an eye in discomfort. The room, for the most part, was as still as the harbor-ice surrounding the castle, save for the flint-like clicking of Anna's jaw.

"Be careful where you tread, cousin," Anna warned, refusing to turn around.

"Oh my word, this is a surprise," Rapunzel said, feigning shock as she strode into the lion's den. "Don't tell me you feel JEALOUSY at the idea that Elsa may curry his favor more than you have?"

Anna seemed to hesitate. She was rigid all of sudden, unable to run and unable to fight. Something gnawed at the back of her neck, something with breath as hot as an oven and teeth like carving knives. No matter how much she tried to shoo this creature away, it remained, breathing down her shoulders as if hungry and hunting.

"Oh Anna, don't worry, really. It's perfectly natural for sisters to feel jealously when competing for the same man," Rapunzel continued, reverting to an almost sugary personification of herself. "Or so I'm told. I've never had a sister to compare such a thing to. But according to my parents, siblings are oftentimes at odds when they want the same thing. Well, I guess, in this case, when that SOMETHING wants them, as well. I mean, did you see how Elgar swept her off her feet? Over and OVER again? It was incredible. And yes, your dance with Kristoff was something else, sure, but Elsa and Elgar just crackled out there! The movements, the way he handled her, the way she used him and guided his hands, the effortless spinning and twirling and... Oh! Did you see the way Elsa snapped-out a new dress in mid-dance?! Now THAT was impressive, especially for her. It was like she knew he needed more freedom, you know, while moving, to hold her and move her around. The audience appreciated it too, I'm sure. I wish I could pull off a dress like that. HA! I bet Elgar was thinking the exact same thing when she slammed his hand back on her hip, wouldn't you say?"

"Don't be ludicrous!" Anna snapped, still refusing to turn around. "He's a gentlemen, AND he knows better! Especially around Elsa!"

Rapunzel moved closer, as if stalking her cousin. She was still at least ten feet off, but just the approach of her person, along with the approach of her body, was clearly causing Anna unease.

"Anna, come on now, this isn't that surprising, is it?" the woman baited. "Elgar is a handsome, sophisticated lord, with accolades and achievements from here to Agrabah. Elsa is a GORGEOUS young Queen with power, influence and a totally naked ring finger. You, yourself, have said that they've gotten on very well as of late, even going so far as to say that they might be friends. They are both well-read, duty-minded, strong willed and meticulously observant of their responsibilities. It would make sense—especially after everything that brought the two of them…that is, the three of you…together—that they might find each-other just a little bit attractive. If nothing else, I'm sure Elsa has done the math already and has been looking forward, as any good queen should, to her future, and how that future will bind her kingdom, too."

"The…math?!" Anna said, her anger seeping away momentarily to reveal a very controlled, but very real, inner dread.

"Yes. 'The Perogative of the Throne', I believe, is what my father calls it," Rapunzel said, looking to the ceiling as if sifting through the library of her memory. "I think it goes something like, 'A King to Every Queen and a Queen to Every King'. Elsa is very aware of her responsibilities, right?"

"I suppose…" Anna whispered.

"And since she was young, she has made it her duty to protect the kingdom—and you—from uncertainty, trouble or harm, correct?"

"Well…yeah, I mean, she has…"

"So what's the big deal?" Rapunzel added, her logic as cutting and precise as any surgeon. "She's of proper age, her kingdom can only expand at this point, her dowry is secured and she's just as charming and lovely as I'd ever imagined. And Elgar, well, perhaps he wasn't born a prince, but he has the makings of a fine king. Minus the treasonous intent, at least, thus far."

Anna was feeling dizzy. Her mindset was anything but stable and it was manifesting as a loss of equilibrium, demonstrated by how she leaned against the mantle of her fireplace. The cumulative effect of her cousin's appraisal was beginning to rob the younger woman of her own common sense.

'No…no, no, NO,' reeled her mind, 'they…they were just dancing! That's all it was! A v-very formal and intimate dance, yes, fine…but…but…'

"And why not?" Rapunzel pressed, her smile almost genuine. "She's a queen, after all. Ludenor would miss their strapping young lord, perhaps, but think of the political implications! Arendelle, the tiny jewel of the North, bound in marriage to Ludenor, a growing scientific and mineral-rich powerhouse. It would be the union of the decade! Perhaps even the Russland Empire would give their blessing, as the continent continues to intermingle and grow and flourish! Elsa understands this, I'm sure. And I'd bet my crown that Elgar does, too."

Anna staggered, if only slightly. Some unseen phantasm had reached into her lungs and procured her breath, leaving her windless and collapsed. She remained unturned, even as Rapunzel traipsed across the room, seemingly aloft with anticipation at the prospect of a marriage that hadn't even been proposed yet.

'Po…Political implications…Elsa as a…a…bride of duty…a kingmaker…' The concept was tumbling through her head like water down a mill-wheel, relentlessly turning the gears in her head. 'She'd…take a husband…take ELGAR…to be her…her companion, her partner, her love-…lover…'

"I can see it now," Rapunzel said, eyes wide with anticipation. "White silk, blue accents, icy and crystalline… She'd probably wear your mothers dress with the tiniest of alterations. A late winter ceremony, perhaps, with crimson and onyx in the rafters, as well as for the groomsmen, you know, to represent the Ludenorian cavalry and diplomatic corps. The men sharply dressed, militant but celebratory, oh, how HANDSOME they would be. Your sister, lily-white and blushing, marching slowly towards the head of the chapel, while you smile and encourage her from the end of the aisle. And there, in his dress-robes, her husband and king to be, a silent look of approval and restrained nerves. The kingdom would be out in force, ready to greet the happy couple, after a solemn ceremony and their first, chaste kiss as husband and wife. Mmmmmmm…if it's anything like my wedding, the whole thing will be lovely. I can't wait!"

'Hundreds of people…Elsa in her dress…walking towards Elgar while he…he-he smirks and laughs to himself!' Anna thought, her frame of mind suddenly angry and frightened. 'As if he'd won! As if he'd…he'd got what he came for, right from the beginning…that's what all of this could be! The whole thing, ri-right from the start! One huge, socially beneficial ambition…to take Elsa as his Bri-…BRIDE and QUEEN and…to take her away from me…hide her away as his personally property! I'd…I'd ne-never see her! After all those years, that damn d-door and the waiting and the wondering…GODS…it would start all over again!'

"Oh and the CHILDREN…" Rapunzel said wistfully, carrying on like a five-year-old mercilessly plucking the petals from a daisy. "Can't you see it, Anna? You and I…we'd be aunties! I'm sure you and Kristoff would have a couple of ankle-biters at some point, but oohhhh, I would love to see the little angels that Gott gives your big sister. I'm sure Elgar would want sons, but something tells me that daughters would be the best candidates for Elsa and him. I realize I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but wouldn't it be marvelous? Three or four little girls, climbing your dress, pulling at my hair, begging for shoulder-rides and dress-up parties and long walks in the snow. Perhaps Eugene and I would have a child or two by then, and we would all explore and have fun together, as one giant, happy family."

"Children?!" Anna gasped, her voice so raspy and laden with fear it was almost as if a goblin had cartwheeled into the room, bugging its eyes out at her.

"Of course, children!" Rapunzel said, playfully slapping a tassel that hung from Anna's bed-curtains. "I mean, aside from the fact that I think motherliness is BUILT IN to the two of you—you're so good at taking care of people…and each other — why wouldn't children be an eventual aspiration of the future queen and bridegroom? It's certainly an aspiration of mine. At least, once Eugene and I have had a few more years of fun. Elsa and Elgar would probably plan it very carefully. If not for the sake of their marriage, then for the sake of this kingdom, as well."

Here, her voice turned cerise and thick, just as she physically turned to face her cousin. The tone was not threatening or coercive. In fact, it was far worse; it was matter-of-fact, filled with the certainty that comes with knowing exactly how the chessboard lies. Predictability was an annoying attribute of living and working within the royal courts of a kingdom, but there are few things as damning or damaging as knowledge of the inevitable.

"Besides, it would be a forgone conclusion, once the two of them were married," Rapunzel said, keeping her tone clear and inescapable. "Just as Arendelle needs a king, it will one day require an heir."

If there had been a snapping sound, it was lost as Anna rounded on her cousin, eyes blazing like scarlet coals and her voice choked with hellfire.

"ELSA WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" she shrieked. "She would never take up with Elgar! He's elitist and proud and insufferably perfect! Always in the right place at the right time, smiling with those-those teeth and letting that smoothed-out voice talk him out of EVERYTHING. He's a man who KNOWS how much of a 'man' he is and Elsa and I detest that quality in him! How…how DARE you imply that anything could manifest between the two of them?! The idea is laughable, preposterous! She'd sooner wed a marble reliquary than that…that…peacocking giant!"

"But Anna, I don't understand…" Rapunzel said, recoiling strategically from the heat of her cousin. "Kristoff is your man, is he not? Have you not laid claim to him this very evening, in front of a crowd of witnesses, no less?"

The younger princess didn't seem to have a leg to stand on. Her head was scraping against the ground even though she stood erect. "Well I-I-I…that's beside the point! And what of it?! We danced! It was fun! We let off some steam!"

"Oh it was far more than that," Rapunzel said, leaning her head closer. "You said it yourself: I, we, ALL of us, got an eyeful. The way you clung to the man, much in the same way that Elsa clung to our dear lord Elgar. It was almost ravenous. And why wouldn't it be? Elsa has clearly found herself a suitable 'partner', not only on the dance floor, but potentially in many, MANY other arenas as well. It seems only fair that your furnace should be stoked by a handsome young suitor as well, yes?"

Anna was furious, not only at Rapunzel, but now at herself as well. How could she have lost control of this conversation so completely and so quickly? "You're overstepping, princess! Even if my dance was designed to inflame, that doesn't mean conclusions can be drawn so readily. I enjoyed myself, so did Kristoff. There doesn't need to be any further digging."

Rapunzel shrugged, curling her lips. "Fine, if you say so, but Elsa wasn't part of your little choreographing endeavor, was she?"

Anna hesitated. She opened her mouth, stopped, opened it again and then finally admitted, "No."

"So, clearly, she wasn't just trying to get a 'rise' out of her audience," Rapunzel continued, arms clasped behind her back. "Besides, it's hard to fake that kind of… heat. Especially when measured against a man of such skill. She knew EXACTLY what she was doing, even if you didn't."

Anna felt new fire build in her throat. "Who said I didn't know what I was doing?!"

"Why, YOU did, cousin," Rapunzel said, feigning innocent-as-a-newborn-baby. "Blowing off steam is all well and good, but clearly your sister was happily fogging up the dance floor, too. I'm sure you noticed…it was hard for the rest of us NOT to see what she was doing."

"That's…not what I meant…!" the younger girl stammered.

"It isn't? What did you mean then?" Rapunzel asked, staring the younger girl down. "There's no way you could have set that up on the spot. In fact, I believe you made mention of how you threw this together a few days prior, didn't you? We all heard it, more or less. So did you plan all this or didn't you?"

"YES! No…it's…it's complicated…"

"How complicated can it be, Anna?" Rapunzel blitzed, refusing to let up. "The truth is kind of important to me, and to my family, too. I don't take kindly to lies or being lied to. So either you planned this evening's fracas, from the beginning, or you didn't. Which is it?"

The princess of Arendelle was nearly in shambles. Not only had she no defense, but her near-naked appearance was beginning to make her self-conscious. She was being stripped of all battlements and shielding while standing in her night-slip, unable to run or hide or throw herself upon the mercy of whatever court was eviscerating her at that moment. All the while, even as she attempted to will a stronger breeze to waft into her bedchamber, none would come. The heat seemed to only increase. The open window-ledge was no longer just inviting, it was becoming a serious temptation.

Rapunzel was undaunted at Anna's scared silence. She had positioned herself between Anna and the door, keeping her stance unthreatening but also unflinching. Rapunzel's physicality made her nimble and swift, despite her restrictive clothing. She wouldn't provide an easy exit for Anna unless the younger woman was willing to go to extreme measures to acquire one.

"Well? Which one is it, Anna?" Rapunzel said, narrowing her eyes. "Did you plan all of this? Your dance? Your 'display'? Was this your idea or wasn't it? Speak up, please."

'I can't stand this!' Anna thought, back-flipping through her own mind as she tried to keep her balance. 'I'm burning up and I can't even speak my mind! I need to end this…'

"WHICH IS IT, Anna?" Rapunzel pushed.

"Fine! You want the truth, dear cousin?" Anna growled, her voice a snide, contemptuous snarl. "I planned the whole thing! The dance, the music, the setting…all of it! It was down to the letter. I made sure the music was easy enough to follow for the band. I went the extra mile transcribing the notes myself! I even practiced, in secret, for days with a dressmaker's mannequin, just so I could feel more confident with my steps! EVERY DETAIL, I planned! There it is, right there!"

Before Rapunzel could utter a word, Anna was practically in her face, causing the girl to almost yelp in shock. The older princess was seemingly accosted by her younger cousin, being pushed back towards the door with a voice and demeanor that was frighteningly similar to that of a wolf.

"But WHY did I do it, you ask?" Anna barked, not even attempting to rein herself in. "Very simple: little Anna is not so little anymore! I have become so TIRED of being looked at as some small, simple child playing princess. I am MORE than my parent's second child. I can do MORE than plan events, observe at court and make myself available to the public! I strive for MORE than to be a simple, obedient heir, willing and able to take up a throne should one become…vacant. I have desires, urges, prerogatives of my own, ya know? I'm intelligent, creative, sure…but I'm nuanced, too! I have secrets, ideas, wishes, things that don't necessarily include a pretty little tiara and a pat on the head for doing a good job. What you saw out there, on that dance floor? That provocative, take-charge…oh, to hell with it…sexually driven 'display', as you called it? THAT is part of what I am, too! It's not just you and Eugene, do you get it? It's not just the married and the courting and the curious who have interests like these. I HAVE THEM TOO! And tonight, despite decorum, despite privilege and despite common sense, YES, I let that part of me shine out, just a little bit!"

Rapunzel raised a finger as if to make a point, but she was quickly cut off again. The rant was not quite over.

"And so WHAT if I did?!" Anna demanded, spinning around again, arms wide, voice higher and mightier than ever. "I had some fun, something I have every right to indulge in! It doesn't necessarily mean anything! I happen to enjoy pushing the envelope. Ever since I was a kid, I liked bending the rules a bit, getting away with murder, as it were. Is it a crime to display a little confidence? To-To blatantly take center stage with someone you care about and let the rest of the world know it?! There is absolutely nothing wrong with a young woman exploring her…her…physical capabilities! So I mixed things up a bit, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I found the music, I arranged the dancing. Maybe that was even the point, to be in CHARGE for a change! Perhaps I was so desperate to show what I was made of that I took control for a bit. Every move, every gesture, every moment when I felt myself getting lightheaded and spinning out of control, I needed ALL of it. AND with the proper partner! I couldn't have achieved such thing with just anyone. I needed an absolutely perfect accompaniment to my touch, my body, my intention. So I orchestrated it around that person, that one individual who could bring all of this out of me, even if I didn't think I could bring it out in myself. And despite everything that could have gone wrong, the rumors, the backlash, I MADE IT HAPPEN. No one was going to stop me from enjoying a dance with Elsa, not YOU, not your family, not the law, not anyone in this blessed kingdom, not if I had anything to say about it—!"

"Kristoff."

Anna balked at the sudden interruption, panting deeply, her chest heaving beneath her nightie. "Pa-Pardon me?!"

Rapunzel was no longer smiling.

She was barely moving.

Instead, she was leaning back against a bedpost, hands clasped behind her hips, her head tilted ever so slightly to one side. Her eyes were open, hopeful and clear, but laced with a sadness so lingering and saturating that it looked as if she were on the verge of weeping. Even as Anna breathed and huffed, spilling her anger and frustration into the room like so much burning garbage, the princess of Corona looked at her cousin as if she were the most piteous thing in creation.

"Kristoff, Anna," she said softly, letting out a deep breath.

"Yes? Wh-What about him?!" Anna asked, her frustration as red as her cheeks.

Rapunzel inhaled, collecting words with her breath. "You said Elsa, but you danced with Kristoff tonight."

The flash of embarrassment came and went with surprising speed across Anna's quivering, angry eyes, but not nearly fast enough to evade the watchful gaze of her cousin. Had Rapunzel blinked, she would have missed it. But it was there, subtle and obvious at the same time.

"Of…of COURSE I danced with Kristoff! That's who we were talking about!" Anna insisted, backing up a step. Her voice held firm, though her body retreated.

"But that's not what you said…" Rapunzel reminded her, twisting the blade just a bit.

Anna huffed. "It was a slip of the tongue! We were talking about all three people. Don't be nit-picky, Rapunzel."

"So you admit it," Rapunzel countered. "You said Elsa, correct?"

Anna tried to wave it off. "I already said, it was a slip up."

"I believe you," Rapunzel said, scrunching up her lips unhappily. "A significant one, too."

Anna felt fresh venom in her mouth. "Are you calling me clumsy?!"

"I'm calling you on your words," Rapunzel snapped back. "You said Elsa when you should have said Kristoff. Admit it."

Anna balled her fists. "Why are you belaboring this!? It was a mistake! I know what I said but I didn't say what I meant to!"

"Don't LIE to me, Anna! You said EXACTLY what you meant!"

Rapunzel almost never raised her voice. The fact that she yelled this last accusation at her cousin seemed to surprise her just as much as Anna. It pushed the Coronan Princess back on her heal, as if she were stepping back from the swing of a sword, just as Anna pressed her hand to her throat and retreated another few steps. The words rang out in the cavernous bedroom, ringing off the rafters and mantle and headboard, until the silence resumed, save for the patient whistling of winter wind beyond the windows.

It was a wonder that the palace guard didn't swarm the room, given the thunderclap which had just detonated inside it.

Anna clutched at her chest as if she were unable to find her heartbeat. In fact, her heart was beating so feverishly that it belied any detectable rhythm. Even as she fell backwards towards the windowsill, barely catching herself on the lip, she couldn't slow the piston between her lungs. A cold breeze mercifully played over her sweat-soaked shoulders and damp brow, but it was too little and far too late.

Over the sound of her pumping breath, Anna heard her cousin say something, but couldn't make it out. "Wh…what?"

Rapunzel had crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself, looking down at the rug in an attempt to hide the shine of unhappy tears in her eyes. "I saw it. I tried…NOT to see. But I did. I watched. I saw. I knew…"

Anna was near breaking at this point. Her own voice felt fractured and disorganized like so many shards of glass wrapped in a damp bedsheet. Even the unhappy heat in her cheeks had a cutting, scathing feeling to it, raking like metal nails across her blurry eyes and chapped lips. "Knew…what?"

Rapunzel shrugged, raising her fingers from her elbows, only to settle them back in place, gripping tighter, as if to keep herself from doubling over.

"I... was just curious, at first," she managed, sniffling a bit. "How you spoke, how you moved, how you…reacted. I thought that maybe it was just because of the circumstances, you know? I can understand that. Look at what happened to ME for heavens' sake. I suppose if I had been raised in such a way, maybe…maybe I would have a few oddities, too. Or, at least, different from the ones I already have. That must be it, I reasoned. And for a while…a little while…that was enough."

Anna was fighting the urge to blink. All her senses were trained on her cousin, even as she subconsciously backed into the window frame.

"But the longer I… the longer anyone looked," Rapunzel continued, frowning at her own realization, "the more I began to see. The more I began to understand. Kind of like looking at a fire for the first time. You don't understand EVERYTHING, just by looking at it…the mechanics, the chemistry of it all. But eventually, you understand the basics. The obvious. The… blatant, I guess."

Anna tried to deflect, even if she didn't know why she was trying to. "What are you talking about—?"

"The whispers…!" Rapunzel yelled, both at Anna and the floor in unison. "The tiny, secret words between you two. The smiles, the little ones, the big ones, the ones that lasted FAR too long, the ones that seemingly had no purpose. The walking, GOTT, syncing up your legs and brushing closer and-and-and the lingering…lingering, on EVERYTHING, every grasp or slide or casual bump. The touches, the hugs, the way your hands would slip together and so…bloody reluctantly pull apart! Gaps were suddenly unacceptable, weren't they? Could be two meters but it may as well have been two leagues, right?! I'm sure at one point, it was nothing, especially if you were in different rooms, but when you SEE each other, am I right? That's when it gets more difficult. Must close that distance, must keep them within arm's reach, ja? Because if you don't, the space is unbearable, isn't it? When all you want is them close and comforting and REALLY THERE, there's no substitute…none…!"

She exhaled roughly, struggling in her own way to control her words. "I know that feeling…heaven help me, Anna, I know that feeling so well…"

Anna was gripping the sill with both hands now. Though she hardly moved, her nails bit into the stained hardwood, as if her fingers were gaining traction for a sudden sprint. A realization, angry and pervasive and sickening, dawned very slowly on the younger woman, to the point where her eyes become so wide that they actually hurt her face.

"YOU! You, you…did this one purpose, didn't you?!" Anna demanded, pointing one accusatory finger towards the older princess. "From the moment you wal…walked into this room?! Did you…PLAN this? ALL OF IT?!"

Rapunzel steadied her voice, looking her cousin in the eye. "No. Not really. I came here looking for answers, trying to figure out just what in Hades happened out there tonight. You deflected, I pushed. You tried to change the subject, I refused. I suppose I ad-libbed some of this…but if that was what it was going to take…"

"You claim to value honesty!" Anna shot back. "Yet you mislead me form the word Go…!"

"I gave you a length of rope, Anna," Rapunzel clarified, standing her ground. "You were the one who tied it into a noose. THAT was not my doing."

"You lead me on!" Anna barked, tears doing nothing to wet her drying pupils.

"I sought out the truth!" Rapunzel retorted, pointing at the ground and stomping her foot for good measure. "And you know what the funny thing is? Even if we hadn't gone about this in such a round-about way, I STILL would have found out what all this was! Not because I'm good at finding the truth…but because YOU, dear cousin, can't hide from it anymore!"

For a while, the only sound exchanged between the two was Rapunzel's angry panting and Anna's enraged huffing. They stared each other down while Rapunzel attempted to reclaim herself, as if she knew that anger and indignation would only get her so far. Collecting her hands beneath her bust, the Coronan princess gathered her calmest, most unthreatening mannerisms and let them reshape her body. She did her best to reassert herself, not as a tyrant demanding obedience, but as a stateswoman, clear-headed and ready to get down to business.

Compared to Anna's flickering, inconsistent and wavering state of mind, Rapunzel was as resplendent and warm as the magic which lay within her.

It would have to be enough for the gauntlet she was about to drop.

"Anna. Sweetheart," She said, trying to remain loving and mindful, despite the explosive she carried, "are you…do you…?"

Anna's fatigue manifested as a frustrated bark. "Do I what? WHAT? SPIT IT OUT!"

Rapunzel reared back, puffing out her chest with resolve.

"Do you love Elsa, Anna?"

CRACKLERACKLEracklerackle…

HIIIIIISSSSSsssssss…

The log in the fire spit in half, tumbling into the embers below. It wasn't quite the same as a falling pin, but it was equally loud in the vacuous bedroom.

The pause was long and poisonous. The girls refused to look at one another. The floor, the ceiling, the hearth, the annoying little fringes on the edges of the frayed curtains, ANYTHING but looking one-another in the eye. The fire, barely clinging to life, made tinny noises beneath the flue, while the twin doors to the corridor bent and swayed slightly from the suction created by the draft wafting through the window.

More cheer could be found in a tomb.

"She's my sister…"

"What?" Rapunzel said.

"Why wouldn't I? Is that so unusual?" Anna said, soft and angry and dismissive, her eyes hidden by her hair. It was a poor defense against looking Rapunzel in the face, but it was all she had, even as hot denial spilled from her lips. "Getting all flustered over nothing…"

Rapunzel looked like she wanted to scream, but held herself in check. It vibrated within her, her incredulity, her prickling frustration. But she held it in check.

"You'll not dodge my question, cousin," Rapunzel said. "Not now. Not here."

Anna's voice was filled with splinters. "Maybe if the question wasn't so ridiculous…"

Rapunzel swelled slightly, the vomit-like acid of contempt burning slightly in the back of her throat. "Ridiculous? Ridiculous? You stand there, nearly naked in body and in word, and you have the gall to accuse me of asking something ridiculous?!"

Anna backed away, almost sitting on the window sill. "That's not…I…"

"You want to know where this comes from?" Rapunzel jabbed, cutting Anna off. "Your eyes, 'dear' cousin. They cannot lie nearly as convincingly as you can."

Anna looked up subconsciously, her strained gaze blurred by her mussed-up hair. "I'm…I don't lie! With my eyes or words or-or ANYTHING else!"

"Oh no?" Rapunzel said. "So the vision I created for you, the one of that strapping Lord Elgar bearing your sister away to his bedchamber, the idea of him using her to mold his 'king head' with her personal forge, this affects you so little?"

Rapunzel's finger was jutting in Anna's direction before she could even utter a syllable. "AH! There! That look! Identical to what I saw not ten minutes ago. You could eat stone with the acid in those pretty blue eyes. Admit it!"

Anna spun on her heal, re-grasping the window ledge as she looked shamefully out over the darkened, snow-covered garden below. "You're blowing this out of proportion! You see nothing!"

"Oh, Anna…" Rapunzel said, deflated and sad, dropping her hands as she straightened her back. "It isn't just me! For goodness sake, the kingdom, the castle staff…my FAMILY…they aren't blind! They see, they infer, they make up their own minds. Gossip, hearsay, you can challenge these things. But when they see these…these incidents…again and again, what are they supposed to do? Ignore them?!"

She turned her back to her cousin, gripping the bridge of her nose as she fought to wrangle her train of thought. "But it's your eyes, Anna. It may have only been a half-dozen times, but I recognized each and every one of them. I know that look! I have MASTERED that look! The look that…that…ERASES everyone else in the room! The one that clears away fog, stops the planet from spinning, the one that…totally exposes your heart! Rips it out of your chest and leaves it vulnerable, if only to allow that one other person to see it. Because they've earned it! Whatever it is, whatever happened, whatever happy, blessed coincidence allows for such naked, welcome exposure, it makes us all too willing to share that look, as often as possible, with someone we adore."

Anna remained silent.

The brunette had walked slowly to the bedroom door without realizing it. She rested her hands on the dense wood, leaning her weight upon it, lowering her voice after a few staggered breaths. "I share that look with Eugene. At least once a day, sometimes right before bed or just when we wake up. I…I recognize it, from across a room, crowded or empty, garishly bright or barely lit. I can't NOT know it. It's a wonderful part of my marriage, my friendship, my…connection with that funny, skinny thief. It…barely took any time to cultivate. A few weeks at most, but soon, we were sharing it all the time. I just noticed it one day and then, I was noticing it all the time."

A deep sigh. "…and I notice it now, too…when you and Elsa exchange the same look."

Anna was breathing, at least. She was quiet and probably weeping silently, but from her position near the door, Rapunzel was only sure that her cousin was breathing.

That would have to suffice for now.

"Please, don't act like you don't know what I'm getting at. Don't try to dissuade this. It might sound easier, but it's not, do you understand?"

Still no response.

"I'll ask again…just, hear me? Please? " Rapunzel said, straightening and turning as she spoke. "Tell me the truth: are you in love with your sister—ANNA!"

The princess was no longer leaning over the threshold of the window. Instead, she stood inside the frame, her back to her bedroom as she faced the dark, empty night. The wind and snow billowed about her slight negligee and bare skin, making it appear as if she were soaring through the air like some scantily clad fairy. Thick snowflakes were falling in earnest now, landing upon her chest and hair, melting away with any hesitation the princess may have retained. Her stance seemed tenuous, wavering. Her head was back, hair fluttering like shredded ribbons, her left hand latched to the head-jamb. It was the only thing keeping the young girl from tumbling like a leaf into the ever-darkening night.

Her leg twitched…

"Anna! NO, Anna, NOO!"

Snapping across the carpet as if lightning had snatched her heels, Rapunzel almost leapt the length of the bedchamber, her toes barely touching the ground. Before either young woman was aware of it, Rapunzel had Anna by the torso, wrapping her up tightly. She threw her slight bodyweight for all it was worth in the opposite direction of the winter night, yanking Anna from her perch and ripping her away from the window edge. Anna made a very strained 'OOOOFFF!' sound as she collapsed atop her cousin, the two girls rolling to the foot of Anna's bed before finally coming to a mangled halt.

"Oooohh…my head…" Anna winced, holding the sides of her skull with both hands.

She had no time to recover, however. The princess of Arendelle found herself hoisted, almost to her feet, by her shoulders. The woman had a strange sense of vertigo for half a second, before a bright, angry voice stabilized her equilibrium.

"What were you THINKING!?" Rapunzel demanded, shaking and squeezing the younger royal for all she was worth. "Are you INSANE? You-You-You would rather…JUMP out a window than speak with me? Than tell me the TRUTH?!"

The green fire in Rapunzel's eyes was fearsome, rolling and surging as a springtime inferno. Anna was suddenly frightened; her cousin looked fit to strip her bones of all her flesh with such a gaze.

"But I…I…wasn't…!"

"It's NEVER that bad! Do you understand me?!" Rapunzel yelled, her normally friendly voice choked with anguish this time, rather than anger. "I don't care what happens or how desperate things get. YOU NEVER USE THAT AS A WAY OUT! It's not acceptable! Ever…!"

The Coronan princess fell to her knees. Whether from exhaustion or sheer terror at what she believed she had just prevented, the older princess couldn't stand on her own. Her fear – yes, that's what it looked like to Anna – had sucked away a great deal of her strength. It was the kind of fear that manifests in times of great peril or loss. The kind that arrives far too often for some, yet almost never for others.

Anna was aware of two times, for Rapunzel, at least. The image of Eugene's spasmodic arm-fluctuations came to her mind, as did the image of him buried alive in raw coal ore.

Anna crawled closer to her cousin, lifting her head. "Oh, Gods, sweetheart…you thought I was going to JUMP?! Honestly?"

Rapunzel looked up, cheeks wet with tears. "You were standing IN the window! Facing outward! What the hell was I supposed to think?!"

Anna slumped. In the same motion, she pulled Rapunzel into a tight hug, holding her sopping-wet face against her shoulder. As she stared out into the dying flames of her hearth, any rational thought seemed to leave with those tiny wisps of smoke up the chimney. The pain in her head, her body, indeed even the pain in her heart, it swamped across her small frame like so many layers of mud and sand, threatening to drown her. Even the steady return of Rapunzel's composure did little to quell Anna's sudden fever.

The heat had returned again, and now, there was no real way to escape it.

But perhaps she could explain herself to the woman who believed wholeheartedly that she had just saved Anna's life.

"Stupid, stupid girl!" Rapunzel was moaning, clawing feebly at Anna's arms, half striking, half reaching out. "What were you doing…?! So STUPID…!"

Anna sighed, trying hard to leech away her anxiety in the same breath. It was difficult, given how much of it had built up that evening. She wasn't sure if all of this was some sort of bizarre inevitability or a cruel plot device, but she knew she had to do SOMETHING to put this right. But what?

"I would…NEVER do that," she stammered, her eyes unblinking as she realized that she was, in fact, speaking the truth. "I would never just SURRENDER like that. Not because of a fight, not because of anything you ask of me, I swear."

She raised Rapunzel's head and reached behind her with her other hand, grabbing a hanging bedsheet to wipe her face, as well as her own. Rapunzel let herself be assisted for a moment or two, before pushing Anna's hands away and looking the teenager dead in the eye, refusing to take 'no' for an answer.

"Tell me the truth, then," she said, sweet as sugar while still demanding and forceful. "If you're going to scare the living daylights out of me, you owe me that much."

Anna looked away, but even she knew that tactic wouldn't work for long. What she would have given to be a dust bunny, to roll away and never be assaulted by the real world again.

"Anna…?"

"It's comforting!"

Rapunzel pulled back a few inches. "What? What is?"

Anna sagged, her legs splayed out in front of her as if she had just run a marathon. She looked and sounded completely limp, running on reserve, just trying to stay upright enough to speak. Had the foot of the bedframe not been behind her, she may have been on her back, confessing to the ceiling, unable to right her posture or maintain her balance.

"Rapunzel, I…I don't think I have an answer to your question, not one that will satisfy you," she began, eyes huge and puffy and tired. "As Odin is my witness, I've…I can't…this has never happened to me! I don't know if I can reason it out or-or-or make sense of it! I...I can't…!"

"TRY," Rapunzel said, firm and quiet. "Just…please…try."

Anna watched her cousin pull back slightly, giving her space, giving her all the air she needed, to breathe, to speak, to do whatever she needed to do. In the same instance, Anna felt her red, raw eyes begin to close, the sensation calming and, at the same time, frightening to experience. Behind her eyelids, there was darkness, yes, but also a place where she revisited every moment of that night, that day, the whole previous month in stark clarity. Behind her eyes, she could shut out the light, but escape nothing else.

To her great surprise, her voice acted as a translator for every uncomfortable truth witnessed in that private dark.

"The dance was supposed to be for Elsa and I," Anna said, speaking as if reading from a journal. "I was so excited by the idea. Just the two of us, a silly little dance, nothing huge or really extravagant or flashy. But the more I thought about it the more I realized how perfect I wanted it to be. Just the right music, just the right gown, just the right amount of flare to make it FUN. Interesting. Memorable. So I found the music, I read it, I transposed a bit myself. Andor, he….such a sweet man, he knew I was planning something, but as to what? He didn't know and he didn't care; he helped me regardless. I practiced, with a mannequin, sometimes late at night, sometimes while bathing, sometimes just in my head, but I never lost sight of what I wanted. I wanted a dance. Just for her, just for me…"

Anna was vaguely aware of Rapunzel crossing her legs on the carpet as she continued.

"Then…then I'm finally ready! I'd practiced and rehearsed and made so many plans, and the night was here!" she said, smiling sadly to herself. "And what did I do? What did WE do?"

A pause, punctuated by the sound of Anna dropping her forehead into her palm.

"We have a fight!" she hissed. "Not even a HUGE fight, just a…a…she was keeping a secret! Of all the silly things to get us to disagree, it was a secret that she wouldn't share wi-…with me! And suddenly all I feel is ANGER. Anger at her trying to be in control, not just of herself, but of me… AGAIN! It almost made me sick to think about it. Sick and tired and so ANGRY…all over again…"

Rapunzel's voice was a whisper. "So, when Kristoff came to you…?"

Anna dropped her head, hanging her chin. "I saw red. Or maybe black. I don't know, what color do you see when you decide you're going to teach someone a lesson? Whatever it is, that's what I saw. When I dismissed Elsa, when I walked away from her, when I let Kristoff take me in his arms, all I saw was what I THOUGHT would ease my heart when I knew, I KNEW, Elsa was watching me. It carried me off that platform and away from Elsa. Away from my anger…"

A deep sigh, mixed with gurgling and sniffled nose. "You were watching? You saw everything, right?"

Rapunzel remained silent for a moment. Her own eyes were lidded from exhaustion and heavy emotional stress, but eventually she managed a "Yes."

"Did you notice how often I had my eyes closed?" Anna asked, pulling one knee up and under her body.

Her cousin tilted her head. "Now that you mention it…"

"He's a handsome man," Anna said, raising her unhappy head and leaning it against the footboard. "Not storybook handsome, perhaps, but not bad to look at. Soft eyes, a great smile, such a nice laugh. That didn't matter, though, as much as I tried to fake it, tried to control every detail, I couldn't steal a glance at him and easily pre-…pretend…"

She gulped; she would have to force the words out. "…pretend he was someone else."

Rapunzel could only wince her eyes closed. She dared not speak what she knew was coming.

"No idea if this makes any difference, but I hate myself for not one, but TWO important reasons," Anna said, her chuckle as dry as sandpaper. "Firstly, because I used that young man, my instructor, my confidant, my FRIEND, for such a petty acquisition of self-aggrandizement. And secondly, because that aggrandizing was designed to hurt my big sister."

She wiped her eyes, smiling ruefully. "When Elsa struck back, oh, it was a perfect, blatant challenge. And when I saw her, with that-that…MAN…I couldn't help it. She couldn't just take her medicine, no, she just had to prolong this, had to remind me who I was dealing with. Not only did I not get the dance I'd worked so hard to arrange, not only did I make the situation worse by being stubborn and short sighted, but now I had to continue the charade all over again! THREE dances, each one turning the two of us into snapping hyenas. And yet every time Kristoff twirled me into the air or dipped me or pressed me into him, all I could do was close my eyes and act as I if it didn't bother me. That the whole thing didn't stink to high heaven, that this was NORMAL and right and expected when it just made me miserable…"

Anna expelled all the air in her lungs, opening her eyes lazily and shutting them again. "The cold… helped. The snow, the clear skies, the wind and the chill. As heated as that dance was, as often as I felt my temperature rise, the weather kept me from spinning off into some contemptuous hell. In fact, that may have been the one thing that pushed me forward through all of that – being surrounded by the cold."

"Why?" Rapunzel asked. "Have you always felt this way about winter?"

Anna stopped, closing her mouth. She was thinking, deeply, about the question, as casual as it had seemed. There may have been very little to it; merely a passing curiosity on Rapunzel's part. But for some reason, it gave Anna much to consider. Given everything she had just shared, a simple Yes or No answer felt ferociously insufficient.

"Did you know," she began, "that when Elsa and I were kids, we used to sneak out of our rooms, late at night, to turn the castle into our personal playground? That we would transform the dining hall, or throne room, into a wonderland of slides and ice rinks and snowball battlegrounds?"

The questioned earned a small, happy-to-be-momentarily-distracted smile from the older princess. "No, I wasn't aware."

"Well we did. Caught all manner of grief for it, too," Anna said, musing quietly. "I never could fall asleep quickly when the aurora was out and about. Night-time is…special, for me, in that way. The calm, the chill, the stillness, the fact that everyone else is asleep and you're awake, the lights in the sky…I don't know why, but it's not starlight that makes me feel that way. The waking sky, the light that only comes at certain times of the year and only at night, it's an amazing thing. Does that make any sense?"

Rapunzel nodded, almost happily, at her cousin, smiling even as she looked at the carpet. "Yeah, it…really does. I know what you mean."

"But it was the cold," Anna said, "and the ice, and the snow, and the FUN, all of it, wrapped up together in one perfect swell of happiness. For me, at least. That's what I remember best. Not the lecturing, not the massive cleanup that needed to happen the following day, not the trouble we caused. And there was TROUBLE. I mean, good grief, we were playing in the snow in our BED CLOTHES. I should have been sick with a cold every other week from all the horsing around we did, building snow castles, ramps, snow men, skating from door to door, sliding on our butts into huge drifts of powder. No matter what we did, though, the fun always remained. THAT could never be erased, even after Pabbie…did what he thought he had to do, what my mother and father asked him to do."

The princess brought her knees up to her chin, breathing deeply as she subconsciously tried to shield herself from what she was admitting, thinking, speaking.

"But it was Elsa," she said, "that united…EVERYTHING, for me. I didn't even realize it until a few years later, after we had been separated for so, so long, how integral she had been. SHE had been the source of it: my fun, my thrills, my trepidation, my worry, at times my TOTAL disregard for common sense. I began to associate everything wintry, everything cold, with my sister. Every snowflake on my tongue…Elsa had created it. Every snowman, she'd be the one to bring him to life, just for me. Every slide of ice or spin across a frozen pond or whirl of wind, it was all her! And the joy that came with it, the sense of safety, of being watched and wanted and cared for, it was all her. I couldn't fathom a comforting childhood memory without her in it, which is why I tried, for so many years, to pry her out of that bedroom of hers. I wanted it back! I wanted HER back, along with everything she had done to make me feel so…so…"

"Happy? Complete?" Rapunzel offered.

"Cherished," Anna said, almost gasping. "That's the best word I can use to describe it. We were the center of the universe when we were together; no beginning or end, just Elsa and Anna, career mischief makers and rulers of all things amazing, wrapped up in a strangely ever-present fog of calming flurries, whispering wind, sturdy glaciers and fields of diamonds. All for us! No one else!"

She banged her head violently against the footboard, startling Rapunzel. Anna's eyes winced closed as she struggled to regain control of something that seemed to be writhing just behind her mangled bangs and sweaty cheeks.

"I'm rambling, I know, but this is what happens when I try to make sense of what feels right but has no logical precedent," she said, huffing and puffing to control another emotional outburst. "And I know what you're probably thinking: how can I find such affection for the snow when it was my sister's ice that almost killed me all those years ago, and then again just last summer?"

"Well…it…yes, there is that…" Rapunzel said, holding her chin in puzzlement.

"That wasn't my sister's ice," Anna said, anger flaring again. "Not the one I grew to admire, not the one I longed for when I was kid. I mean, yes, it was ice projected from her body in fear, but it was my fear, my selfishness, my anger at everything that had happened between us, which made that ice grow. I could feel it spread, spinning like a web inside me, choking my breath and slowing my muscles and-and…and I couldn't stop it! I didn't know HOW. Elsa gave herself so much grief for not knowing how to undo her ice-storm, but I couldn't even stop the corruption of my own body. Gods…it was like drowning in a fjord in the middle of a blizzard…"

There was a sudden, ironic bark of laughter from the red-head. Rapunzel found Anna's sudden tonal shift jarring, watching as a sardonic smile split her face lengthwise like some sickly-pleased jester.

"…and I had the ability to undo it, at any time! It was mine to reverse, right from the start! Just…reach inside myself and remember everything that made Elsa so important to me, remember why we had been so close, what made us so good together! When I think of it now, it was like someone smacked me across the cheek. So damned simple. It influenced me in all the little things I did after that-that cluster-bomb during Elsa's coronation! It pushed me out of the castle, made me seek her out. It justified, maybe even encouraged, every conceivable rationale I had to look for her, find her, bring her home, keep her safe, tell her it was OK, that no matter what she'd done or what she THOUGHT she was, it would never keep me from being there for her, it would never stop me from lo-…loving her…"

Rapunzel remained where she was, doing nothing to dam the river which was spilling freely in front of her. The last few words seemed to sting the younger princess as they left her lips, an acidic admission peeling her skin and drying her lips even as sweat trailed down her face. Rapunzel could see the constrictive, binding effect it had on Anna's body, causing the woman to pull inward, dragging her curled toes across the floor, her abdomen almost vibrating from the rapid pace of her breath.

Anna, for her part, was silently grateful that Rapunzel had been so accommodating, so respectful, so patient with everything that was tumbling out of her mouth as they sat on that cold, stiff rug. They were an exhausted approximation of penitent and priest, devoid of any further resistance and doing all they could to patiently let this performance run its course.

She looked to her left. A small layer of snow had formed on the floor just inside her window, carried in by a much stronger gale than before. The snow was soft, dry and cool, creating a strange, white semicircle in the shape of the window frame upon the ancient rug.

She was on all fours before she realized it, dragging her knees and the palms of her hands through the small layer of frost and powder. It may have only been eight feet or so, but Anna relished the contact with the snow, prolonged it, nearly sliding her calves through the small trail created by her body as she crawled. Soon, she was curled up in the small shadow beneath the windowsill, head back, eyes lidded, her face calm and smiling as each snowflake landed upon her forehead.

"The cold…HER cold, I mean," She whispered, "I find it so comforting, Rapunzel. I can't help myself. Whenever I feel this way, I'm reminded of her. Not just her words, but her smile, the way she walks, the way she looks at me, how she fights so hard to keep me safe and happy and so indulged. I'm a spoiled brat sometimes, I know it…she probably does, too. But that's what it is, I guess. Another indulgence, my comfort in the cold, especially the cold she creates just for me…"

She opened her eyes and looked directly at her cousin, a hint of realization in her eyes. "Maybe that's an answer. Or part of one, anyway. I don't know. I…I can't say what has become of my relationship with my Queen, what my heart wants, where it's going. Not with certainty or clarity, not yet."

Anna reached down with both hands and grasped two fistfuls of snow. Without hesitation, she spread the material across her shoulders, her neck and her collarbone. It began to bead into droplets of water, trickling down her radiant skin and dripping from her elbows and fingertips. It may have been a trick of the firelight, but Anna could have sworn she saw steam radiating out from her forearms and hands, faint but prevalent in the steadily cooling bedchamber.

"…but this, I love," she said, breathing in a deep relief for the first time in what felt like eons. "Heaven help me, I love this with everything I've got. For every sensation I feel, every memory it conjures, I love the cold. My Sister's Cold. It brings me ease and relief and peace when she's not around, and I adore it, Rapunzel. I've been separated from her love and friendship and companionship for so long I guess I, well…found a small sample of it. In the cold. I need it, I cherish it just as I cherish her. I can't go without it, without her, ever again. Not now that I've finally found it again. I can't, Rapunzel…I can't…"

The princess of Corona watched the slow, terrible truth spread across her cousin, and herself, just like that blanket of snow. From her spot on the rug, not so far away, she felt a gulf spread between her and her dear Anna of Arendelle. Not an impassable expanse, but still, one fraught with alien dangers and unsure pitfalls. Even as Anna seemingly surrendered herself, both to her friend and to the ever-darkening night, Rapunzel seemed at a loss of what was to happen next.

The truth was spread out before her and her cousin like a boiling, treacherous ocean. How now did they keep from drowning in it?

"Marglóð!"

BUHROOOOOMMMMMMM…!

The darkness of Elsa's father's study was momentarily alight with yellow energy. A glow arched its way from the small stone between her fingers, an electrical trickle which ballooned into a powerful beam of transmogrifying potential. She braced her back, her body absorbing some of the kinetic recoil of pouring so much magic into a single word. The shadows grew, glass flexed and bowed, and then – finally – a deathly silence, outmatched only by the constant howl of wind beyond the boundary of her walls and windows.

The Queen brought a candle closer to observe her work. The glow within her Heavenly Haldorðr stone was fading swiftly, from a royal purple to a faint violet, the magic spent. She placed it upon her father's desk, before relighting two of the candles which had blown themselves out in the fray. The growing light allowed her to assess her work.

A massive block of limestone had disappeared in the fifteen seconds it had taken for the incantation to complete itself. Now, a shimmering cornerstone of solid gold stood in its place, two meters wide and three meters long. The metallic surface seemed to hum and tremble beneath the delicate touch of the queen, as if the newly fashioned precious metal could not, itself, believe that it had just now come into being. Even the candlelight danced provocatively across the rough surface, casting odd reflections and golden hues to all corners of the Queen's inherited study.

"Alight," Elsa exhaled, speaking aloud so as to clear her thoughts. "That's one more block of gold. I wonder what that places the total at."

She rounded her father's desk. Three large folders had vomited out a mess of individual records, receipts and invoices. They lay haphazardly across the wooden table, organized much like a collection of artwork by a three-year-old. It made sense to the Queen, which was enough for the time being. She procured a rather sizable pad of notes, with check-marks next to hastily scribbled handwriting, appraising the first few pages down the bridge of her nose in the minimal light.

"Let's see," she continued to muse, "That's one more cubic meter of gold, ready for smelting. If I remember correctly, the LMS Borvell lost its compliment of twenty-three cannon, twelve navigational charts, ten brass spy-glasses and approximately six-hundred kilos of food-stuffs when the vessel capsized. Sail and textiles were recovered without incident, along with three-hundred kilos of coal—at least someone knew to store it in containers that float—plus sixty or so books and almanacs. Subtract the cost of goods lost to the sea, plus the agreed-upon restitution price for the vessel itself, brings us to…twenty-thousand gold rounds."

She produced an abacus from beneath her pile and began calculating. "Now, if I remember correctly, a cubic meter of gold weighs a little over nineteen tonnes, which converts to approximately, ehm…nine-hundred and seven thousand grams, give or take. Gracious that's a lot of coin… NO, wait! OUR gold rounds are struck at about twenty-eight grams each. So, nine-hundred and seven thousand divided by twenty-eight, average out twenty or so ounces for slag, gives us uhhhh…a little over thirty-thousand gold rounds! Yes! That should cover the cost of the Borvell, its un-salvaged goods AND part of the scrapping costs."

But, as always, details tended to nag. They plagued the queen as she looked at her papers, twisting her unkempt hair between worried fingers as she tried to finish her thoughts. "Though, limestone is less dense than gold. By a wide margin, actually. I mean, it is pure gold – the treasurer confirmed it – but, the stones don't seem to increase in weight after the conversion from stone to metal. Does that mean this gold is less valuable? The chair we smelted didn't seem to behave any differently when it was melted down, so why would this? Would the Lieutenant Mineral Appraiser of Ludenor take umbrage with gold that was less dense? Would this even equal HALF the cost of the ship...?!"

The queen found herself panting. The stress from her task, combined with the stress of the evening, was taking an exhaustive toll on her body. Already she knew that a lack of sleep and frayed nerves would decrease her concentration and exacerbate her emotional negativity. Even as she stood back from her desk, laying the pad upon it and sucking in a deep breath, she knew that there were many more questions which she simply did not have the answers to.

"I suppose we'll need to quadruple the amount of stone needed for the gold conversion," she admitted to herself. "When melted into rounds, the density may even itself out, but that means compensating for fewer minted coins. The masonry foreman is going to have a field day – dragging stone boulders into the castle all week long…"

She looked over the huge block of precious metal and was then consciously aware of how heavy and saggy her eyes must have looked. They certainly felt like they weighed as much as the gold at her fingertips.

"This is exhausting," Elsa sighed aloud, placing her hands behind her hips and stretching her shoulders back over her posterior. Small pops indicated that the corresponding lumbar had been pushed back into place, but the relief was short lived. Even in her most casual of dresses, the queen still felt stiff and hindered in certain movements.

"Elgar should have been a pretzel maker," she muttered, rolling her eyes as she remembered the fray from three hours past. Every dip and sway and flip seemed to seize her body over and over again, as if she were still twirling about the dance floor. "I've got more knots than a frigate."

The small play on words made her giggle to herself. "Heh…'more knots than a frigate'. That's not half bad. Anna would've found…that one…funny…"

The next breath left her lungs in one heart-clutching lurch. Her elbows instinctively curled upwards, allowing the queen to wrap herself up in a defensive hug. The sensation of her fingers on the underside of her small arms did little to relax her body. Even the nubs in her muscles couldn't out-compete the lumps in her chest.

"Anna…" she whispered, looking toward the window. The blackened winter sky held great depth and a fierce cold, but it was paltry compared to the deepening rift of regret that clustered in the forefront of the queen's mind.

'Foolish girl,' the queen thought, suddenly angry. 'Couldn't leave well enough alone…had to push the envelope, had to dig in your heels…couldn't just leave it be…and now I'm standing here as if you physically cut me…as if all your stunts tonight injured me EXACTLY as you intended. Such a spoiled…BRAT…'

The queen felt the bite of her nails in her skin, which caused her to pull her arms away. A deep breath allowed her to regain her composure, but the indignity, the frustration, it lasted like the small indentations which her nails had left upon her flesh. They may fade in the same way, or they could last indefinitely. It was hard to tell.

She let her gaze drift to the sparkling magical stone that sat at the edge of the desk. An idea crossed her mind, as she looked at the swirling energy within the Blossom. An idea that made her reproachful and hopeful at the same time.

'I could always…I mean, they allow me to SEE as well as create,' Elsa pondered, tenting her fingers. 'I could always look in on her…see how she's doing, or what she's—"

"NO," she gasped out loud, turning away from the stone. "I've done that once already; I'm not doing it anymore. Gods, what am I thinking?!"

The temptation was gone, but her pang of regret and longing remained punctured in her chest.

'She's not allowed to make me feel this way…' she thought, bitter and cold and accusatory. 'She can't just look at me the way she does and-and force her way into my head whenever I feel mad or scared or stressed. It isn't right. It isn't FAIR…'

That last thought caught her off guard, allowing the faintest sprinkle of snow to materialize in the beams above her head. She forcibly shook her head and closed her eyes, counting backwards from ten before opening them again. The Queen then turned and absentmindedly added a log to her dying fire in the hearth, the pine catching and flaring up quickly. The new light within the room provided some level of atmosphere, an air of balance that allowed her to reconfigure her thought process.

'To business, now,' she commanded herself, 'I'll deal with this, with Anna, later…deal with it later…'

The Queen slapped at her cheeks to wake herself and looked at the clock. It was just past midnight. Deciding it was time to secure her newly acquired lot of gold, she reached for the large silver bell on her desk and rang it, loudly, filling the room with its chimes. After a minute of noisy signaling, she silenced her bell, waiting for the door to her study to open.

A guard, probably thirty-years-old with a large nose and reddish hair, came stumbling into the room, his eyes wide and his face surprisingly sweaty beneath his tall cap. He saluted his Queen and bowed, righting himself as he caught his breath. "Yes, Ma'am! I mean, Majesty… what can I do for you?"

The Queen, a little perturbed at how flustered the man looked, hesitated before remembering why she had summoned the man. "Uhhh…yes, Mr.…Thade, correct?"

"Yes, my Queen."

"Yes, ehm…I have a task for you," Elsa said, clearing her throat and gesturing to her right. "I have finished inspecting this bullion and need it returned to the coffers, immediately. Summon a detail of six men and tell them to bring several lengths of anchor rope. I shall weave a sled of ice for transporting the block. Bring it to the vault and place it with the other five already inside it. Mark the gold for smelting, and make sure the order calls for EACH of the blocks to be cast into ingots, in increments of thirty kilograms. I'll determine which of those ingots shall be set aside for striking-rounds some time tomorrow evening. The goldsmith may begin tomorrow at first light."

"Y-Yes, ma'am. Straight away…as soon as we contain our little…problem," the guard said, nervously pulling at his collar.

Elsa had turned from the man, conjuring a large, frosty sled beneath the massive hunk of gold. The sled took final shape just as Elsa looked over her shoulder at the guard, confusion crumpling up her brow.

"What problem are you speaking of, sir?"

"ELLLLLSAAAA?"

The sound was low and deep. A man's voice echoed through the halls from some distance away, filtering into the Queen's study. Elsa's face jumped just as the guard stood at attention, trying to smile through his nervousness.

"Is that…?"

"Please, your Majesty, I do apologize, we've been trying to deter him for the last ten minutes, but he seems intent on seeing you," the guard said, putting his hands up as if in defense, even as Elsa marched past him and into the hall. "We were trying to keep you from being disturbed, as per your orders, but he simply won't be dissuaded!"

Elsa barely caught the last bit of his sentence as she entered the corridor, turning towards the source of the noise, which was standing several yards away.

"Kr…KRISTOFF?"

The mountaineer was besought by four other guards as he lumbered down the hall, doing his best to keep himself righted. His gait was awkward and unevenly paced, taking large strides and then very small ones. His shirt was open, revealing a patch of hair beneath his chin, and his vestments were considerably less orderly than earlier. In one hand was a large bottle of what could only be spirits, and in the other, a glass for pouring them. The smile on his face was so sloppy and silly it made the Queen wonder just what on Earth the man had gotten himself into before making it to this part of the castle.

"Hey, leggo! I'm lookin' for…ELSA! THERE you are!" the man said, spotting the queen down the hall. "I mean, QUEEEEEN, beg-your pardon. Ben' looking all over for you! Hey, di...did'ya know this castle is really, really huge? But hard to fffffigure out where the all the, where the bathrooms are…ya know? You'd think th-the smaller, that the smaller rooms would be bathrooms, but I'd say nine times out of ten, theyyyyyyy aren't!"

Elsa watched as the guards tried to turn the man firmly but gently in the opposite direction of the Queen, but he kept spinning off and away from their grasp, making strange gestures and laughing to himself. The queen raised her hands to her mouth and tried to hide her shocked, amused smile as the guard named Thade stepped to her side.

"We're not sure how he managed to bypass the security so efficiently," the man said, wiping his brow in embarrassment, "especially since he's clearly…well…"

"…three sheets to the wind and headed for the North Pole?" Elsa offered, smiling at herself and then shrugging at the confused look on the guards' face. "I'm sorry, nautical one-liners have been a regular occurrence for me tonight. How much has he had?"

"We only know of the one bottle, but his breath would suggest a few lonely cousins sitting empty somewhere on the castle grounds," the man said, smiling sheepishly at Kristoff as he was batted between the four other guards. "At least the one in his hand is empty. But regardless, I assure you, we shall gently escort Master Kristoff from the premises with all due speed."

"ELSA!" Kristoff commanded again, smiling in her general direction as she leaned against a wall. "Whaaaat's the deal with all these suitssssss of armor? Arendellllllle doesn't have any one body in the army that's this big…or…what if the army got smaller, but the suits stayed the same sizezzzzz…betcha they couldn't drink as much THEN, huh?"

The man slumped against a wall, falling to one knee as he leaned against the wooden paneling. "I don't…feel so good…whooooa…"

She wondered if she should do it. For spinning her sister around like some sexually-hexed rag-doll, the Queen was very tempted to let this man stumble his way home, through the snow and wind, to collapse in a river or ditch somewhere. It would serve him right, wouldn't it? Carrying on with the princess like he had, indulging her and making a scene so public it may as well have been a communal bicycle.

'Yes…because you've never indulged her before, have you?' whispered her mind. 'I guess it's OK when YOU do it…but no one else.'

"HAK-UP!" Kristoff gasped, burping and hiccupping at the same time. "Oooffff…don't remember eatin' THAT…"

Elsa felt a sudden twinge of pity. The man was clearly on his last legs and seemed fit to pass out at any moment. The idea of him doing so out in the snow, possibly freezing to death, was abhorrent to the Queen, even if he was partially responsible for her earlier agitation.

"Oh…no, no, don't send him out into the cold," Elsa said, dropping her hands with a sigh as she looked at the heap of human flesh that was the ice-master. "Just… Bring him into the study before he hurts himself."

The guards, ever mindful of the safety of their Queen, looked hesitantly at one another before snapping to attention and helping Kristoff to his feet. The man hummed with silly inebriation but allowed himself to be brought inside the room, with Elsa leading the way.

The Queen sighed as she stood near her father's desk, watching as the guards brought Kristoff over to the love-seat and gently lay him on his side. The large man kicked off his boots and smiled as he rubbed his face into the crushed velvet, hugging the bottle of booze to his chest.

"Wow, this…this is WAYYYY softer than hay, Itellyouwhat…" he said, licking his lips and closing his eyes.

Elsa smiled softly, before addressing the guards again. "Just leave him there. If he passes out, at least he'll be safe and warm when he wakes up. Better here than in a pile of snow."

The guards tipped their caps. "Her Majesty is very kind. Shall we remove this block then?"

The Queen looked to the massive chunk of gold and tilted her head. "Can the five of you manage?" she asked. "It loo