Anna hardly noticed it when Kristoff left them alone. She hadn't seen him turn back and pause, hadn't noticed him watching her before he walked off, shoulders slightly slumped and disappointed. But she had noticed Elsa. She'd noticed the subtle hum in her voice when she spoke, the brightness in her eyes, shimmering like the early morning light, and the slight spring in her step as she entered large walk-in closet.

"You were with Augustus just now?" Anna asked stiffly, a nervous smile strained on her lips.

"We met for breakfast just after he landed," Elsa replied earnestly. "I tried to talk his captain into joining us, but she had business to attend to in Corona. It's too bad, she seems so interesting."

"So…they left him behind?" She heard her voice crack, and she self-consciously cleared her throat.

"Only for a few days, maybe a week."

Anna frowned. She would be heading off to her uncle's estate on the day after tomorrow. A few days was possibly already too long, and she couldn't imagine the ship going and returning from Corona before she was due to leave with Elsie and Kristoff.

"He's going to be staying here?"

"Where else would he stay?"

"I don't know. He might really enjoy the cabins at the foot of the North Mountain. The waterfalls are nearby. And they have fishing spots, and all those mountain trails."

And with any luck, he'll get lost in them.

"That could be a nice change of pace," Elsa answered thoughtfully. "I haven't been there in ages."

Anna swallowed hard.

"You would be going too?" She squeaked.

"And Rapunzel. And Eugene," Elsa replied, and without skipping a beat she added, "Shouldn't you be getting ready?"

There was more she wanted to ask; about Augustus, about that letter, and what Elsa's reply would be to that mysterious question he'd asked the month before. But when Anna opened her mouth to speak, she didn't have the words.

"Y-you came to see me about something?"

"Gerda told me you weren't ready yet," Elsa admitted as she bent over and picked up a sleeveless dark green gown from the remaining dresses in the discarded pile on the floor. She held it up for a good look and nodded approvingly to herself. "I knew you'd be desperate for my help, and I needed to tell Kristoff about Augustus."

Elsa pressed the dress over Anna's scantily covered form and instructed her to hold it while she dug through one of the dressers.

"You don't have to do that, Elsa. I've tried this one on already, and I can't find any gloves that match," Anna told her, but if Elsa heard her she didn't show it. She was about to repeat herself when her sister turned toward her, holding up a dark green silk chiffon shawl.

"This will do so much better than gloves," Elsa said with a self-satisfied smile as she draped the fabric over her sister's shoulders.

Anna trembled, not immune to Elsa's nearness. The warmth of Elsa's hands on her shoulders left a tingling even after she had pulled her hands away.

Then she pointed to the full length mirror and gave Anna a slight push in that direction. Anna held the dress tightly against her chest, admiring the complementary fabrics. Elsa had been right, of course. The coloring was perfect and the material elegant, far more sophisticated and ideal for a young woman who had mostly outgrown the immature girl inside.

"I think you found it," the princess expressed in surprise. "I've been losing my mind for ages trying to find the right outfit, and you come in here and manage it on your first try."

Elsa beamed girlishly, certainly much softer that she normally was. Anna cast her eyes away feeling unnerved by the bashful glow that seemed to surround the queen.

Is she like this because of him?

Emboldened, Anna took a step forward and reached for Elsa's braid, running her fingers along its length and grabbing hold of the soft feathery tip.

She should have let things go a month ago, maybe even long before that. Before, when there was still the means to go back to how it used to be between them. Her sister had been right, going back would be much harder, if not impossible.

"We don't always get to choose what we want," Anna uttered softly and quite somberly as she stared unflinchingly into Elsa's baffled eyes. "I know I haven't always chosen wisely, and I know…I know that things may be very different for you," she inhaled sharply. "—but this is something that I need to say."

Elsa stiffened. Anna knew exactly what she should and shouldn't do, but that didn't stop her from saying what she shouldn't ever say.

"I wanted it to be you."

It was as if the air was sucked right out of the room. In the silence that followed, Anna could hear nothing but the rapid beating of her heart, each beat louder than the one that came before it.

There was nothing remotely right about this. But it was already unraveling, with no subtleties or pretexts for either sister to hide behind.

Elsa grit her jaw and held the breath in her lungs until it burned. One look at Anna's face and she saw nothing but dread and regret. It was in the tautness of her mouth, the slight nervous pucker that came just before biting her lip. Within the curl in the crease of her brow, flickering with each involuntary tremor. And in the teeming look in her eyes threatening to come undone.

Anna's lips parted again, and Elsa trembled, overcome by fear for whatever words might come next.

"I wanted…you."

~X~

Nearly Two Years Ago

Days after the Grand Ball

"September shouldn't be this hot," Anna whined, more than a little tempted to fling off her dress and run about freely in her skivvies. She stood leaning against the shaded side of a pillar, sliding down ever so slowly as the heat drained all energy from her body.

A lethargic Kristoff lay on the nearby steps with a hand rested over his eyes, shielding them from the sun. Apart from the subtle rise and fall of his chest, he had hardly moved since Rapunzel and Eugene disappeared into the castle to help Gerda procure them some drinks.

But that was some time ago, and Kristoff was just minutes away from dying of dehydration.

"I may not survive the day," he groaned.

"Weakling," Augustus cheekily remarked beside him. For all his whining, Kristoff was the one most suitably dressed in light and airy garments.

Augustus pried at his collar and unfastened his tie, stuffing it in his jacket pocket before he undid the top buttons of his shirt. Kristoff watched him from the corners of his eyes and chuckled softly to himself.

"Do all nobles from Montressor dress in ten pounds of clothing year round?" the ice harvester asked with as straight a face as he could, but Augustus could still hear the amusement in his voice.

"Do all icemen faint under the slightest ray of sunshine?"

Kristoff laughed. "Maybe."

"I'm just used to it," Augustus explained. "I spent several summers at my uncle's family estate, just an hour north of here. And the last few at Crestmark with the Malachis. There was never any shortage of sun."

Kristoff sat up and stared out into the garden. Stooped over, just feet from the duck pond, he could see Felicity admiring the juvenile ducklings. A retainer stood beside her, holding up a large umbrella to shield her from the heat. She was smiling for once, her eyes soft and expressive.

"What's the story with her?" He asked.

"Felicity?"

Kristoff nodded.

"There's not a whole lot to tell. Why do you ask?"

Kristoff glanced in Anna's direction, and in a lowered voice replied, "She drives a certain someone all stark raving loony."

Augustus looked over to Anna who now sat facing away from them with her legs flat out in front of her and her back rested against the pillar. She didn't appear to be listening in on their conversation.

"She's just a little shy," he answered in an equally hushed voice. "Tends to happen when you're the daughter of a very powerful woman who doesn't think you measure up."

"Measure up? What does she expect? Some kind of wizard?"

"Something like that. Her mother has some crazy expectations."

"Oh?"

"She wants a daughter who instills fear in others; who is mean-spirited and commands a room with her mere presence. But Felicity is too sweet and gentle by nature to ever please that woman." Then with a grumble in his voice he added, "Mahlia Malachi is so spiteful a human being that 'Malevolence' would have been a more fitting name."

That last bit had been mostly Augustus talking to himself. He and his mother had never liked Mahlia, and it always burned him to see how cruel she was to her own daughter.

"Sounds like a real witch."

"You have no idea."

Anna shifted her legs, pulling them in closer, and tilted her head against the pillar. Kristoff and Augustus continued talking in hushed voices, completely unaware that even in her languid state she had listened in on every word. Not that she was trying. Even in lowered tones, their voices easily traveled. However, none of it peaked her interest; despite her earlier reservations about Felicity, she was just a noble from some distant kingdom. And the way she saw it, their lives would likely never intersect again.

All she could think about was that kiss.

It had been days since it happened, but the memory of it continued fresh in her thoughts. A set of warm lips had pressed against her own, soft and feathery at first, then like sheer velvet upon her skin. In her drunken mind, Anna had not registered the tangible connection. Lips, heat, breath; they were disengaged from language and meaning in her dreamlike and tunneled framed of thought. But as she emerged from her intoxication, she remembered that those lips were her own, engaged instinctively, and temperately, and wetly with Elsa's soft, near-crushing mouth.

She had barely slept that night, lying awake and gazing out into the darkness, moonlight casting half of the room in a soft muted glow. Anna still had been too drunk to know how to react. So she stared. Tried identifying the shadowed objects in the darken-side of Elsa's room. Closed her eyes and vacated all her thoughts. But the feelings persisted, denying her any form of peace even as her drowsy eyes begged for sleep.

It had occurred to her that maybe none of it had been real. Nothing more than imagined sensations, or perhaps a cruel and vivid dream spun by a subconscious with a dark sense of humor. But no vivid dream could mimic the tingling hum around her mouth from the hot breathy gasps in between kisses, or the taste of Elsa's mouth, sweetened and bitter with wine.

Just months before, she had stood between Elsa and a sword, and now it felt like a sword was being wedged into her chest, twisting and tearing into her heart.

"Lemonade?" Rapunzel held out a drink. The ice clinked inside the glass and condensation dribbled down the side and dripped down onto Anna's clammy legs.

"Yes, desperately," she replied, although slightly caught off guard by how easily she had lost herself in her thoughts. She glanced over toward the steps where Augustus and Kristoff had sat chattering not long before, but they had already gone.

"They're with Eugene and Felicity, over by the gondola in the garden," Rapunzel explained when she noticed Anna look over toward the steps. "I accosted one of the messengers leaving your sister's council chamber," she added with a self-satisfied glow as she held out her hand to Anna. "The meeting should be over any minute now."

Anna took her hand, and Rapunzel helped her up to her feet, handing her the drink as soon as her cousin finished dusting off the bottom of her dress.

"Come on," her older cousin brightly urged, sticking her in the ribs with her elbow. "I'll race you over."

And with that, Rapunzel took off in sprint, grinning and determined as she cut across the closely shorn grass. But Anna didn't bother. In one long steady gulp, she emptied her glass of lemonade and set it down near the steps before she lazily made her way in her cousin's direction. A smirk hooked in the corner of her mouth when she noticed Rapunzel's bare feet.

"We should hurry after her," a voice incited behind her. Before she could respond or turn around, Elsa appeared beside her taking her hand and pulling Anna along as she ran after their cousin. Her silvery blonde hair swayed up and down in the hot breeze with each step as her feet trounced on the grass. Anna couldn't be sure if it was the onset of a heat stroke, or just bad sight, but her vision burred, and Elsa appeared like a dream in diffused sunlight.

At first, Anna let her drag her along; shuffling her feet to keep up, and holding onto the small and slender hand that clasped around hers. It was warm and soft, yet decidedly firm, reminding her of how comforted she felt every time her older sister held onto her when they were children. But then the memory of that kiss came hurling back at her, and a sickly ache settled in the pit of her stomach.

As if singed, Anna jerked her hand away and slowed down to a walk, offering no explanation. Elsa paused only briefly before her attention was drawn away by Rapunzel's sing-song declaration of triumph. If Elsa had noticed Anna's sudden apprehension, she didn't show it.

She stilled in her tracks and watched them. Elsa and Rapunzel stood laughing together, Augustus and Eugene playfully socking each other while a wide-eyed Felicity looked on. They looked so picturesque and carefree, a contrast to the heaviness that weighed inside her chest.

Kristoff appeared from around the gondola and smiled warmly in her direction, waving her over to them. Anna smiled back and took a moment to swallow back the chaos that fluttered in her thoughts, fully aware that the same could not be done for the turmoil in her heart, and hurried over to join them.

~X~

"Snow!" Eugene shouted as he thrust a fist up into the air.

The others laughed and cheered and looked toward Elsa with expectant eyes. She smirked, then turned her attention to the grassy hill around them, raising a closed hand up high and opening it slowly. And just like that, snow began to fall over the vacant hill behind the castle.

Within minutes, a thick blanket of snow had covered the ground, tapering off at the bottom of the slope against the castle walls. It was enough snow for Kristoff to scoop it with ungloved hands and pack it into a tight ball. Anna eyed him suspiciously and slowly leaned down, taking a small pile of soft snow in both hands and quickly molding into a ball. Her hands ached.

Kristoff looked at her with a grin and a wink, then hurled the snowball past Anna, just inches from her head and toward his intended target. It smacked Eugene right on the back of his neck and sent him jumping. Anna stared wide-eyed at Kristoff and he responded by mischievously wiggling his eyebrows at her before sprinting off in the opposite direction from Eugene, who was now barreling toward him with an armful of snow artillery.

"Come back here and take your punishment like a man!" Eugene shouted after him, throwing snowballs with haphazard aim, near-missing a startled Felicity in the process. Anna did her best not to laugh when Felicity slipped and landed ass first in the snow. But her suppressed laugh quickly turned into a sharp gasp when cold hands shoved handfuls of snow into the back of her dress.

Arching her back and hopelessly trying to scoop out the snow that was now melting and chilling her spine, Anna only succeeded in pushing it further down the back of her dress. She shuttered violently and turned to Rapunzel with eyes that promised a slow and painful death. But it didn't last. Within moments a loosely packed snowball slapped her on the side of her face, followed by throaty chuckled from Elsa.

"Tag," she declared. "And you're It."

There was a stunned paused before Anna dared to move. The mixed feelings came rushing back to her and she was more than a little surprised by the sudden anger that came with them. Elsa's laughter was so easygoing and serene, its lyrical quality was like the soft resonating hum of a triangle instrument. And that filled Anna with an unexpected annoyance. As much as she hated thinking it, she couldn't help but resent her sister for looking so happy when Anna was feeling utterly miserable.

She fixed her eyes on Elsa and dug her bare hands into the snow, barely registering how pained and numb they were as she crushed handfuls between her fingers. Elsa watched her, bemusement glittering in her eyes, and waited for Anna to make her move.

Rapunzel looked on in silence, unable to suppress the giant smirk on her face. She noticed the swirling magical snowflakes in Elsa's back-turned hand, ready and waiting to strike. But the seconds beat by and neither sister was budging to make that first move.

Slowly, doing her best not to be noticed by either of her cousins, Rapunzel began to gather snow in her hands. If neither girl was going to take the first shot, then Rapunzel was determined to beat them to it. But her plan was quickly interrupted when Augustus snuck up behind her and splatted an armful of snow over her head. She squealed as she plopped forward face-first into the snow.

Elsa turned to glance over in Rapunzel's direction. It was just the distraction that Anna had been waiting for. Without a moment's hesitation, Anna grit her teeth and flung the ice-hard snowball toward her sister's chest, a slight growl reverberating in her throat as she compressed all her anger into that swift and calculated motion.

One, two beats passed. Another beat and it would have struck, but Elsa was faster, casting a shield just in time for the ball to spatter over it.

Anna was already balling up another one in her hand when she was bombarded by a fleet of snowballs, and Elsa's musical laughter leading the attack. Using her arm to protect her face, Anna trudged through the snow, plowing her way through the forceful barrage. She had the snowball clutched tightly in her hand and was ready to attack when a fast flying snowball came hurling from out of nowhere, slapping her sister hard on her forehead and knocking her back into the snow.

Elsa plopped back, and Anna fell forward, barreling down onto her now that she didn't have a storm of snowballs to hold her back. The snow was high now. Soft and powdery, the girls sank through it and were semi-buried as Anna clung to her sister.

The first thing Anna noticed was how warm Elsa felt beneath her. No matter how often they touched, this always came as a surprise to her. But she was also quite cognizant of the evocative way her face was buried in the hollow of Elsa's neck, and how her leg rested between her thighs; the heat radiating between Elsa's legs and warming Anna's knee and upper leg. A heat that slowly spread over her and settle into a hot flush on her cheeks.

Pressing her numb hands into the snow, Anna propped herself up to her hands and knees. Powdery snow, cascaded down her hair and onto Elsa, who remained beneath her, tented by Anna's warm body.

Flakes of snow were already melting and dripping down Anna's blushed skin; down her cheeks, along her hair-line, and trailing down her neck. Yet Elsa, who was mostly submerged in it, and whose fringe was powdered with it, remained dry. Even her complexion had seen little change. There was a blot of redness on her forehead where the stray snow ball had made impact, and a slight coloring in her cheeks, maybe a bit brighter than usual. But she was mostly unaffected.

Looking down at Elsa, Anna forgot to be angry. Instead she was struck by a sense of déjà vu as she slowly reached her hand to Elsa's face, grazing her frosty fingers over her sister's reddened forehead. It amazed her at how quickly their skin to skin contact warmed her hand, and she surprised herself by leaning in closer, their faces just inches apart.

"Are you alright?" Anna asked as she settled her hand down to Elsa's cheek, gently cupping her palm and fingers over the delicate curve of her jawline.

"I think…I think I'm fine." For all her composure, Elsa suddenly seemed quite out of breath. Her lips slightly parted and the swell of chest rising and falling in rhythm with the seconds.

Flecks of white reflected off of Elsa's wide eyes, and Anna imagined that she was glimpsing into the windows of winter. The part of herself that still clung to her earlier resentment enjoyed watching Elsa squirm; a fitting revenge for the stolen kiss just nights before. But another part of herself, a part she didn't recognize, wanted to draw in closer to those wintery eyes, to her blushing cheeks, longing for things she couldn't put into words.

"You two need a hand?" Kristoff's voice practically boomed and Anna was jarred out of the inexplicable moment of tenderness she and Elsa had shared.

Anna took his arm and he pulled her up to her feet, the snow sliding off her clothes. She looked back and Elsa was rising to her feet as well, holding onto Augustus' arm as she straightened up.

Kristoff laughed and said something, but Anna had heard nothing more than the rumblings of his voice as she dusted off the remaining snow from her dress and struggled to will away the hot blush that had consumed her. Looking past Kristoff she saw Felicity, not a speck of snow on her, but her hands red and trembling. Her eyes were torn between resentment and guilt as she watched Elsa rest her hand in the crook of the Marquis' arm.

For some reason, Anna couldn't bring herself to blame Felicity for the feelings she wore plain on her face. Something about them seemed to hit Anna a little too close to home. Something like a mirror, or like things that were yet to come.

…to be continued…

Author's Notes: The chapter is a bit on the short side, but that's only because I've decided to split it in two. Love it? Hate it? Meh? Until next time.